Meals at our place and other culinary adventures

Spain

2006-06-21T07:13:00.000+10:00

There will be fewer posts to this blog and those that happen will be mainly references to web albums. Food from Spain can be viewed at http://picasaweb.google.com/cscoxk/AndaluciaFood
While we enjoyed our trip and had some interesting meals it was good to be back. Australian food and restaurants, to our biased eye, are excellent and we can travel the culinary world without leaving our shores.

Easter Meals

2006-04-02T13:58:00.001+10:00

These are not traditional Easter Meals - just meals at Easter.
Justine Cooked a Moroccan style soup and barbecued skewered prawns, lamb and veges. Ah Fong saw an Indian recipe - much like a stew with lamb chump chops, blended onions and tomatoes cooked then then spices thrown in later. No frying, no complicated adding of spices. Very simple and very delicious.

2006-04-02T13:58:00.000+10:00

Although we have had some interesting meals they tend to be similar to the ones already on the website. I will return to putting up meals when we go on our forthcoming holiday to Southern Spain.

More Low GI Meals from February/March

2006-03-12T18:01:00.000+11:00

A selection of meals.

More Low GI Meals

2006-03-12T16:55:00.000+11:00

I have been a bit "lazy" in putting up dishes. Perhaps it is the lack of sugar. It certainly isn't because the dishes are uninteresting - but they are different. Lots of vegies and fruit and virtually no rice and no potatoes and few sauces.

Low GI Meals

2006-02-16T03:30:00.000+11:00

We have started on a low GI regime. The main differences are no refined sugar including stopping eating prepared foods containing sugar, no potatoes, no regular bread or rice. Regular meals are pretty much the same. The objective is to get back to our weight when we were thirty.

Pork mince prepared with soy vermicilli, long beans and garden herbs. This is wrapped in lettuce leaves with a little fresh chilli sauce and eaten like a sandwich. Similar dishes are popular in Vietnamese Restaurants.

Roasted fresh tomatoes with roasted fresh chillis

Mixture of fresh vegetables from the garden with dried prawns and soy vermicilli. Served with a chilli sauce.

Daikon, Pork and red date soup. This is an incredibly sweet soup and quite delicious.

Zuccini chicken long beans and chilli stir fried.

Dry red wine with green salad and rissoles with home made tomato sauce served outside on the balcony.

Ling steamed with ginger

Low calories - low fat

2006-02-09T05:39:00.000+11:00

We decided to have a few days where we would cut down on our food intake. These were the meals.

Chicken beets and fresh beans.

Canned tuna, beets, cantelope and cauliflower.

Frankfurters, broccoli and carrots.

Tomatoes

2006-02-03T03:13:00.000+11:00

When you are faced with the production of half a dozen tomato plants it is not difficult to understand why we have so many ways of preserving food and it is no wonder that grain and animals became popular as foods. You keep your animals alive to preserve your food source and with grain it comes with its own packaging.

A cold tomato soup with cucumber pieces.

Tomatoes accompanied by garden greens and flat rice noodles

The only preserving we have done with our tomatoes is to recycle vegemite jars and fill them with a simple tomato sauce. Most of the rest of the crop have been eaten as fruit or in various salads and sauces.

Chinese New Year

2006-01-31T21:21:00.000+11:00

The dishes for Chinese New Year were wontons shaped as a nuns hat, salads, fried prawns, mussels, spring rolls, white cut chicken, lap chong sausage, steamed snapper and mushrooms.

From the Garden

2006-01-26T11:32:00.000+11:00

Several meals over the past few days have featured greens, tomatoes and cucumber from the garden. There is a difference between freshly picked tomatoes ripened on the vine and still warm and thick skinned supermarket tomatoes transported hundreds of miles and ripened in a gas filled room.

Pickled cucumber are a family favourite. This is a simple dish created by peeling and slicing cucumbers into thick sticks. The cucumbers are blanched in a heated mixture of water and vinegar. Blachan, tumeric, garlic, and candle nut are pounded into a paste. The mixture is fried in a small amount of oil. The blanched cucumber is added to the cooked mixture. Fresh chillis both red and green from the garden are added. The mixture is stored in the fridge and may be served as an accompanyment to many dishes. This one was sprinkled with grated fresh peanuts.

Minced pork is marinated with light soy sauce and a small amount of corn starch is mixed with the meat. This is fried with a small amount of oil and garlic. Fresh sprouts from snow peas before they are formed along with chinese chives are added. Finally fresh tofu is added along with soy sauce and it all broken up in large chunks. Quick simple and delicious.

This is another family favourite. Chicken pieces are coated with corn starch and fried in a small amount of oil until the skin is crispy. The tomato sauce is made by heating together fresh tomatoes, chillis, garlic, oil, and salt. The chicken pieces are added to the sauce and cooked some more. Add vinegar if the tomatoes are too sweet.

This fish soup dish gets a distinctive flavour from the lemon grass. A fish stock is made with the bones from cheap fish and prawn heads. The pasta is cooked separately and served separately. The prawns and greens are added to the strained soup. A few chillis give it a tang. This turns even the cheapest fish into an excellent dish.

Gundaroo Grazing

2006-01-22T19:22:00.000+11:00

Tomatoes are fruiting at the moment and we have an over abundance. Some of them appeared in the sauce on this dish of lamb cooked as a stew.

Because of a trip to Sydney most meals over the past few days have been in restaurants. I tried portugese salted cod in Petersham's Costa Del Sol, Beef and Jelly Fish in Marrickville, Tasmanian Mussels at Carlos in Watson and the following Smoked lamb with humus and tabouli, bread with oil, pepper and salt and Duck Confit at Gundaroo Grazing.

We have a large number of flowering plants in the garden and by accident many flower at different times. At the moment the bees are feasting on the pink Callistemon.

January 06

2006-01-18T05:58:00.000+11:00

Another family favourite - shrimp filled wontons in soup.

Mullet cooked on the barbecue in foil. It was stuffed with preserved lemon peel and wrapped in vine leaves. Served with kifler potatoes fresh from the garden.

Two meal duck. The first meal was duck soup made from the bony bits. Soup included fermented (cheesy) bean curd and fungus. The second meal was duck confit from the meaty bits. It was served with a drizzled reduced balsamic dressing.

Pork Chops, Vietnames Rolls, Greek Salad

2006-01-08T20:24:00.000+11:00

Today was a typical summer's dinner with some standards and some experiments. First the standard was a Greek Salad with Australian fetta, chilli olives, fresh cucumber, fresh garden tomatoes a little garlic oil and vinegar.

Vietnames wrappers were packed with sliced cucumber and almost dried fried in contrast to deep frying featured elsewhere on this blog. The experiment also tried double wrapping and less liquid - but the end result was not as good as the original which was much more "chewy". The rolls are wrapped in lettuce and other herbs and for those who like it some fresh chilli sauce. The chilli sauce was another experiment being done in the blender rather than pounded in the mortar a pestle. Again this was not as good as the original - probably because the seeds tend to stay whole.

The other dishes were barbecued pork chops without any marinade or coating and unadorned pieces of water melon.

Hokkien Noodles

2006-01-07T18:33:00.000+11:00

Today we feature another 'generic' soul food dish - fried noodles. This one used soft packet Hokkien Noodles from Woolies chilled food area. The noodles are not dried but are soft, wet and sealed in a packet. They are as good as fresh noodles.

To get to this state we combine noodles, cucumber, shallots, chinese spring onions, prawns, fish sauce, soy sauce, chicken stock, previously prepared blachan sambal. The dish is served with fresh from garden small tomatoes and a freshly ground chilli sauce.

The sequence of operations is - first cut up and prepare the ingredients.

Fry the shallots in a lot of oil until they are crispy brown then drain.

Clean the noodles by pouring boiling water over them. Continue to remove the surface starch by washing in cold water.

Stir fry the prawns and add in the Chinese chives and season with a little fish sauce.

Finally add in the noodles add some soy sauce, stir together and add the cucumber strips and finally top with the fried shallots. Serve with garden fresh tomatoes and chilli sauce.

Family Favourite

2006-01-05T08:03:00.000+11:00

There are some meals that appear regularly in every household. Braised pork in soy sauce with boiled eggs is one at our place. This one was served with rice, freshly ground chilli sauce, brocolli and eggplant.

Malaysian/Indonesian Curry Recipe

2006-01-03T07:15:00.000+11:00

This is one of those recipes that gives a different result each time you use it. It can also be the basis of a whole range of dishes by changing some of the ingredients, by missing out some of the steps or by changing the order of doing things.

The Dry Ingredients

This time we used coriander, cummin and dried chillis. More than required was ground in a coffee grinder used only for grinding dry spices. For this dish one teaspoon each was used. The extras were saved in jars in the fridge.

Wet Ingredients - chopped

There are two sorts of wet ingredients. Some are blended and some are not. A critical component is blachan. A generous lump was wrapped in foil then heated on the gas - but it could be heated on a barbecue or grilled. The other ingredients used this time were onions, garlic, tumeric, fresh chillis and ginger. These were all placed in a blender and chopped to a paste.

Meat

Often this curry is made from beef. In this case a leg of lamb was cut into large chunks. There is no reason not to try anything and I expect that venison and kangaroo would work well. The wet ingredients are lightly fried with oil until it "sticks" together. The dried ingredients are added and then the meat is added and covered with the mixture. A tin of coconut cream is added.

Wet Ingredients - unchopped

Other ingredients are placed into the dish after all the above. These could include lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, pandanus leaf and galang.

The dish was cooked until the meat became tender. It can be served hot or cold and is often better on the second day.

One variation is to lightly fry fresh grated coconut until it becomes dark. This is then pounded into a paste and added to the dish. This thickens the mixture and gives a very distinctive texture and flavour.

Another variation is to use the wet chopped ingredients and coconut and to cook for awhile then add in deveined prawns or some other sea food like calamari.

Serve with?

White rice is preferred. This time we had stir fried thinly sliced cabbage cooked with chillis and a little fish sauce plus some sliced bananas in plain yoghurt.

Summer Meals on the Balcony

2005-12-31T19:34:00.000+11:00

Summer time in Canberra can be hot. Cooking outdoors on the barbecue and eating outdoors on the balcony is one way of overcoming the heat. We have taken to simple eating with minimum of preparation and maximum of enjoyment. First English Pork Sausages with various garden salads. The Kipler potatoes come from the vege patch.

The second meal was fried rice with barbecued prawns, some chilli and blachan from an earlier meal prepared a few weeks ago.

Days around Christmas

2005-12-30T08:52:00.000+11:00

Over Christmas we house sat in Stephen and Donna's new house. We spent a day travelling on Sydney ferries.

The only culinary experiences were cakes at the Four Seasons on the rocks and a cake at Gilberts in Mittagong.

After coming home we came back to regular fare. Last night was a barbecue and salad. This time we "threw a prawn" on the barby and served with Vietnamese spring rolls and fish sauce with chillis.

Barbecue Chicken

2005-12-22T02:36:00.000+11:00

Our outdoor barbecue has had some work this week. It keeps the strong smells out of the kitchen and the taste of the open fire is different from regular grills. The chicken was a surprise because the main marinade was Keens Curry. Some oil, chillis, garlic, pepper and curry powder were rubbed over the chicken before grilling.

Before eating the chicken and salad we had one of Ah Fong's regular soups. This is Daikon radish with pork spare ribs. There are often a few chinese dates and other soupy bits and pieces.

Tonight we opened a bottle of JB's Rose. It was good - which is just as well as we have a case.

Another disrupted week of eating

2005-12-18T17:05:00.000+11:00

Eating has been disrupted with trips to Sydney and Christmas Parties. Sydney was notable for the venue which was "The Town and Country" of Slim Dusty fame. This is Stephen and Donna's local and has a reasonable Thai restaurant. Donna of course won a plate of meat which is a waste as she does not eat red meat. The Epicorp Christmas party was most notable for the company and a good time was had - and I forgot the camera.

Some dishes this week have been salads, beetroot from the garden, and fish wrapped in bacon and tarragon then steamed.

Week after illness

2005-12-10T19:44:00.000+11:00

Last weekend and the few days around it were miserable for both Ah Fong and myself as we battled with the stomach bug. Frank Campbell came to visit and unfortunately we had to leave him to his own devices as we were hardly capable of looking after ourselves.

Things have improved over the past few days and even though I had another trip to Sydney and we have had a couple of interesting dishes.

One of our recovery dishes was soup made with a cheap cut of beef and plenty of veges.

In Sydney Donna, Stephen and I went to a Halal Pakistani restaurant in King Street Newtown which had good inexpensive food. The Tandoori chicken is shown in the picture.

During the week I cooked again with considerable help from the baker with an Italian crusty bread stick, and char grilled anti pasto from woolies.

This was served with a stew of carrots, beef, tomatoes onions and garlic.

A few other dishes during the week were pork mince with bitter cucumber, brocolli and chicken pieces with red capsicum and chillis.

A wasted few days

2005-12-05T06:27:00.000+11:00

Excuse the pun but this last few days has been a culinary desert. I was in Sydney for two days and had a very ordinary Chinese meal with friends then over the past few days I have suffered from some form of stomach flu with difficulty in keeping anything in the stomach.
Saturday was my birthday and Justine and family came with a blueberry and nut tart from Flute of Fyschwick. Jade and Jonty helped me with the candles and with the eating.

Roast Lamb and Vegies

2005-11-28T07:28:00.000+11:00

Sunday Jade and Jonty had their combined birthday party at the minature train park in Kingston. Ah Fong made some curry puffs that were genuine curry puffs and not just "puffs".

The evening meal was a family meal with all the grandparents Barbara and Tony Deakin, Ah Fong and Kevin Cox and of course the children and grandchildren - the four j's.

This was a traditional Australian meal with roast lamb and vegies even thought the veges were probably different from normal and it was served with curried rice.

Monday night was a "rest" from large meals and we had chook or chinese porridge. This was rice cooked in lots of water then fish fillets (bream) an egg, some parsley, ginger slices, sesame oil, pepper and a little soy sauces. Very tasty.

Restaurants and Leftovers

2005-11-27T07:22:00.000+11:00

Thursday night was Edentiti first staff Christmas dinner at the Sage Restaurant. The meal was excellent and was enjoyed by all.

Friday night was leftovers cooked as fried rice and Saturday Tony and Barbara Deakin took us out to Courgette which was also excellent. I had the venison which was extraordinarily tender and tasty.

Chicken and Cashews

2005-11-24T07:43:00.000+11:00

Monday night we had barbecued sausages, potatoes and salad. Tuesday was dinner at the Deakins with Justine Donna James, Jade, Jonty, AhFong and Kevin. Wednesday was chicken and cashews along with pan fried scallops.

Jervis Bay

2005-11-20T18:38:00.000+11:00

This last week we went for a couple of days holiday to Jervis Bay. We ate lunch at the Huschissons RSL club which is a typical "pub or club" meal. One of the things we have noticed over the past couple of years is the enormous sized portions that restaurants like this now serve. We had small portions but they were still too large. We will start ordering one meal for two people and then I expect the meals are too large. It is no wonder that Australians are becoming obese.

The RSL club had a tremendous view and it was worth the price of the meal.

In the evening we ate at the much more upmarket SeaGrass restaurant. We had a good meal. One entree was Nashi Pears, blue cheese, walnets, rocket, prosciutto and vinagerette. The other was belly pork on mashed potatoes and smoked cod. One main wase steamed Dory with rice and soy zuccini. The other was glazed ham, layered pototoes and salad. As is often the case with restaurants how they handle a problem tells you a lot about the restaurant. The Dory was not cooked. The chef came out, saw it, whisked it away and replaced the dish with apologies. A little different from some other places we have been where the waiter might argue about whether it is cooked or not!

Saturday evening I cooked a stew for Justine and the children. Nothing fancy - just gravy beef, fresh tomatoes, herbs from the garden, chat potatoes, a few chillies, onions, garlic and carrots all cooked for several hours on a low heat.

Spaghetti Bolognese

2005-11-17T06:20:00.000+11:00

Spaghetti Bolognese is one of those dishes that is a good standby. It is also a dish that can be different every time you serve it because you can change the ingredients. Have a look at this recipe and you will get something different by adding to, deleting or changing the ingredients and it is almost certainly going to work.

This was Wednesday's dinner (with enough left overs for another meal).

There is little difference between this dish and hokkien noodles (except for the ingredients and the name)

The jjjj's

2005-11-16T05:01:00.000+11:00

A couple of kilometers down the road we have the grandchildren and the other two j's. It is a good place to go for a meal and highly recommended.

Skate with spices

2005-11-16T04:40:00.000+11:00

Last Friday I 'cooked' white rice. This was served with asparagus, leftovers and takeaway barbecued duck and pork. Saturday was noodle day. The noodles were fresh Hokkien noodles from the supermarket chiller section. They were cooked with buk choi and fresh peeled prawns. There was an accompanying side dish of soy sauce and sliced chillis.

Sunday was steak from the barbecue with potatoes and salad and Monday was a trip to Sydney with fast food.

Tuesday was a sweet and sour piece of skate. The sour came from fresh limes. The spices were candle nut, fresh chilli, garlic, tumeric, and fish sauce. The skate was simmered with onions and the other ingredients plus a little water.

Salmon and Salad

2005-11-09T17:43:00.000+11:00

A very simple meal this evening of Salad and Grilled Salmon. The salad were fresh iceberg lettuce, rocket, tomatoes, potatoes, olives stuffed with anchovies served with a mayonnaise of dijon mustard, olive oil, vinegar and garlic.

The salmon was simply grilled under the oven griller.

Pigs Trotters and Red Bean Curd

2005-11-08T18:17:00.000+11:00

I could not find the recipe for pig's trotters and fermented red bean curd. Essentially the trotters are boiled. The fermented red bean curd which is a bit like a soft smelly cheese is fried with a small piece of star anise and some wood fungus. The trotters are added to the mixture and a small amount of the water in which the trotters were cooked are added to the mixture and the whole lot simmered. Later shallots and fresh cloves of soft garlic sliced are added to the dish.

The other dishes were finely sliced cucumber in vinegar and sugar with seaweed and a fresh soft bean curd with a kim chi made from radish from the local Korean grocery.

Diakon Radish and Beef Soup

2005-11-07T18:29:00.000+11:00

The centre piece of tonight's meal was the Daikon Radish and Beef Soup. Daikon radish was peeled and cut into large pieces. It together with skirt steak and a couple of pork bones were combined with water and red dates and boiled for 3 hours. This radish smells when cooking so it is best to cook outside if at all possible. Garnish of green coriander leaves were added.

The next dish was pumpkin. Pumpkin is rarely anyone's favourite but add a little ginger and it improves. The pumpkin was boiled with a little ginger until it was al dente and then some ginger strips and shallot strips added as a final touch.

We had some of Jonte's favourite meat balls. This version had ground mutton, mixed with cornstarch and a little soy sauce. This was fried and then glazed with a small amount of sugar and soy sauce. The dish was garnished with shallots.

The final dish was a lightly stir fried mixture of fresh vegies - cabbage, green capiscum, red chillis, a little garlic. This is pretty hard to beat.

Salmon, Nonya Achar, Vegies

2005-11-06T18:10:00.000+11:00

The meal this evening was made special with fresh Nonya Achar. The recipe found in cook books etc was varied in the following ways. First instead of 100% vinegar a 50/50 mixture of water and vinegar was used. Second only fresh vegies in season were used. More cucumbers than usual were used because they were on special. Third the pounded ingredients included blachan, candle nuts and garlic and the garlic was not used elsewhere. Fourth the vegies were salted dry and left for a while then the salt washed off. Fifth at the time of adding sugar more vinegar and a small amount of fish sauce was added. Other than that the recipe was much the same as the standards.

With this dish you may as well make a lot because it goes quickly and it seems to "condense" when you put it into bottles for later.

The main dish this evening was fresh grilled salmon, potatoes, mushrooms, asparagus and an spinach omelette. The achar was added to the potatoes and mushrooms.

Fish grilled and Fish Fried

2005-11-05T17:33:00.000+11:00

Home again. While away I had a good meal at what appears to be Newtown's largest restaurant - the Patong Thai. Three of us went and we had a fish and mango dish, a chicken with tamarind sauce and another dish which I will incorporate after finding out from the others its name.

While on other meals last Saturday we had a "bring a dish" party for the Dickies at Colin's place. The food was good and company is shown here.

Back home Thursday we had one of our "standards" - deep fried fish. Slices of a large fish (often king fish but in this case a large mackeral) are lightly salted then deep fried until cooked. There is no batter and no other preparation. The oil does not cover the whole fish and the fish is turned half way through cooking.

The accompanying picture is not good quality but you will get the idea of the final result. Along with the fish was a tub of soft been curd with a light drizzle of sesame oil and crispy seaweed pieces. The other dish was a stir fried asparagus and mince.

Friday was another fish night. This time the fish were small stripy mackeral. Again the fish was lightly salted and then grilled on a regular outdoors barbecue. Normally the fish are stuffed with a blachan, chilli, garlic, onion, tamarind mix that is blended together. Sometimes - as in this case - it is lightly cooked. The mixture was served separately because the fish heads had been removed at the fish market. In the unlikely event that all the mixture is not eaten it is good on bread or toast. Many people in Indonesia simply have a mixture such as this with white rice.

The salad was tomatoes, cucumber, and rocket. For dessert we had some banana muffins cooked from some overripe bananas.

The garden is growing well and while we have a few edible plants (like the rocket) most of the space is taken up with decorative plants. At this time of the year we are particularly pleased with the ground cover in the central courtyard.

Korean Flower Restaurant

2005-11-01T06:41:00.000+11:00

I am away from home cooking for a few days while at a conference in Sydney. Most of the meals are not worth recording but last night I went to Mu Kung Hwa in Glebe Point Road and it was most enjoyable. As I was on my own I had a Hoi Dop Bahb. There does not seem to be Google entry for this but it was a form of Hot Pot. The ingredients were put on a bed of rice and I was instructed to mix in the chilli bean sauce and mix them up. I had chosen the raw salmon as the main feature but there were mushrooms, veggies and other odds and ends.

Chops

2005-10-29T05:06:00.000+10:00

I was the cook this evening and so the meal was simple without much cutting and few spices. The spring clean of the freezer had turned up some lamb chops that had long past their use by date. Things left too long in the freezer dry out and these chops were a little desicatted - but still tasty. They were cooked on the new barbecue along with some onions.

They were served with baked potatoes (pontiacs baked for about 40 minutes), broad beans from Justine's garden and a salad of cucumber, tomatoes, and boiled egg. The dressing was Japanese vinegar, oil and garlic.

A selection of chutneys and mustards were available for the baked potatoes.

Chicken with ginkgo

2005-10-28T06:43:00.000+10:00

Chicken with gingko nuts, dried fungus, dried mushrooms, shallots, ginger and fresh chilies has almost become one of our soul food dishes.

The half of a chicken consisting of the legs wings and back were cut into bite sized pieces. The back bones were boiled in water to make a stock. This was strained and cooked further with Chinese spinach. At the end a piece of fresh tofu was added. This was served as a side soup.

Broccoli with some of the stock was stir fried as another dish.

The main dish was prepared by steaming the chicken, gingko nuts, fungus and mushrooms. Once this was cooked then shallots, finely sliced ginger, finely sliced fresh chilies were added and steamed a little longer.

The dishes were served with white rice.

Indian Stew - alias Rogan Josh

2005-10-25T19:37:00.000+10:00

The freezer is having a spring clean and specials purchased a few months ago are seeing the light of day. Today was the turn of mutton. This was turned into a Rogan Josh although the result was not the same Rogan Josh as you would get in your regular Indian Restaurant. This one had little oil, relatively little gravy and only those spices we had in the pantry at the time.

The other reason for cooking Rogan Josh was to use up the garden coriander which was reaching its use by date and needed to be eaten before it turned to seed.

Our Rogan Josh started with a little oil into which coriander, garlic, onions, fresh chillis, tumeric and ginger were blended then fried until the onions were translucent. A dessert spoonful of yoghurt was added to the mixture stirred and fried until the yoghurt reduces. Continue with more spoonfuls of yoghurt until it looks OK. Add garam masala and curry leaves. Finally add the meat. Add some more yoghurt. Stir and cover and cook on low. Before serving stir in chopped coriander leaves.

The meat dish was served with white rice, dahl, popadums and a cucumber, mint and yoghurt mix.

Mustard seeds were cooked in oil until they popped then add dried chillis and garam masala. The dahl was cooked in a little water and the aromatic mixture added towards the end of cooking.

The poppadums were lightly brushed with oil then cooked one by one in the microwave. The puriests would miss the oil from deep frying but I preferred the crispy dry effect.

Duck Confit

2005-10-24T18:20:00.000+10:00

Duck Confit is one of the dishes we use to test restaurants. If they can produce a good one we will likely return as we have often to the Sante restaurant in Thredbo who have reliably produced a good Duck Confit.

Confit means to preserve and Duck Confit was a way for people before refrigeration to conserve their surplus ducks. Our duck had been purchased a few weeks ago when it was on special and it had been preserved and stored in its own fat (but we took no precautions and kept it in the fridge). It was served with creamy mashed potatoes. Salad dishes of rocket, mango, cucumbers, and tomatoes were served separately. The cook declared the duck too salty and is going to prepare duck confit again but with a Chinese style recipe.

The duck and potoatoes were served with a small amount of sticky balsamic vinegar on top. We had purchased our sticky balsamic vinegar in South Australia from Vine Valley but I can find no reference to it on their website nor is there any reference on the web on how it is made. Sticky balsamic vinegar is to balsamic vinegar as ketchap manis is to soy sauce.

Tuna Steak and Vegies

2005-10-23T18:46:00.000+10:00

The tuna steaks from the Farmer's market found their way to the barbecue Sunday evening. They had been marinated with a little salt and a few springs of rosemary then cooked. We cooked them until there was still a tinge of red in the middle. The dipping sauce was sugar vinager and red sliced chillis.

The garden salad contained tomatoes, lebanese cucumbers, and rocket. The dressing was a regular vinagarette. Broad beans had been boiled until just tender and served with a dob of butter. Some left over grilled red capsiscum was reheated with a little oil and garlic. Potatoes were boiled until almost cooked, divided into bite sized chunks, then pan fried in olive oil until brown until completely cooked.

Farmer's Market

2005-10-22T10:37:00.000+10:00

Saturday's Farmer's Market at the Exhibition Grounds in Canberra is a thriving relatively new market. I read recently that there are 300+ such markets around Australia. There is an online market place with a few of them - but not the one we go to.

This morning there were the favourites where I purchase apples and mandarins for the office. The goodies today were fresh tuna from Bateman's Bay, bean curd made locally, a local white sour dough, some broad beans, and a coffee grown on the Atherton Tablelands but roasted locally. It is interesting but we seem to prefer the vegies and fruit not to appear too perfect. I think we associate perfection with chemicals and we like to see a few blemishes in the Markets whereas in the supermarket we reject the spotted broad beans or the misshapen mandarins. The other attraction of the markets is that we often deal with the people who make or produce the goods and many of them are passionate about their wares.

This afternoon we had a late lunch at Babar's next to Electric Shadows. As usual there was too much food for one and we should have ordered one dish and shared it. The Beef and Guiness Pie with mashed potatoes was excellent but the club sandwich was nothing like a traditional American Club Sandwich which is served with thin bread, not a super abundance of filling and with smaller triangular sandwiches.

Quick Japanese Nabe or Chinese Steam Boat

2005-10-21T19:02:00.000+10:00

Tonight was a one pot meal that is similar to a Japanese Nabe or a Chinese Steam Boat but with less effort.

We look for specials like chicken bones and previously we had made chicken stock frozen it and removed the fat. The chicken stock formed the base of the dish which was prepared in a large earthenware pot. Some ground pepper was added and brought to the boil. The hard white stems of a Chinese cabbage were added and the mixture brought back to the boil. Some left over frozen mussels, peeled but uncooked prawns and a couple of pieces of filleted white fish were included. This was brought back to the boil. The final ingredients were the tender green leaves of the cabbage and some bean curd white cake before the whole brought to a final boil.

The dish was served as a single "soup" dish with a dipping sauce of sesame oil, finely sliced hot chillies and soy sauce.

Makan Padang in Swanston Street

2005-10-20T13:30:00.000+10:00

Today I am visiting Melbourne and as is my habit I visit the Minang restaurant in Swanston Street. I wrote about it previously at Restaurant Reviews back in 2003. The restaurant is much the same as in 2003. The difference today were the extra vegetarian dishes in the selection of about 16 dishes. Today I had stir fried mixed vegetables, fried fish with chillis, finely sliced liver and bean sprouts.

I was asked if I really wanted the finely sliced liver. As offal is one of my favourites I of course said yes. I expect it might come as a shock to many who might mistake it for finely sliced beef so it was kind of them to ask me.

One thing that has remained the same is the price which was very reasonable and probably cheaper than you could do at home.

Kedgeree for Dinner

2005-10-19T18:22:00.000+10:00

I know Kedgeree is supposed to be a breakfast dish but with a few variations it becomes a one pot evening meal. The rice is cooked in a rice cooker. We had some smoked cod from the local supermarket. This was gently poached in milk until cooked. Onions garlic and a few fresh chillies were gently fried and at the end some Keens Curry powder was mixed in. The green vegetables lying around were blanched and then included. We had aspargus, coriander and chinese spinach. All parts are now mixed together.

A couple of boiled eggs halved or quartered are the final touch.

The accompanying salad was tomatoes and mignon lettuce lightly sprinkled with a mix of olive oil and lemon juice.

Vegetarian Dinner

2005-10-18T18:57:00.000+10:00

Cauliflower in white sauce baked with cheese topping, leeks cooked until tender with fresh tomatoes, and grilled red capsicum peeled was tonights dinner. It was followed with fresh cantaloupe, kiwi fruit, banana and a couple of spoonfuls of creamy vanilla yoghurt.

Steamed Fish, egg custard and young pea pods

2005-10-17T18:33:00.000+10:00

This evening we had a more traditional Chinese meal with white rice, steamed fish, salted duck egg custard and young pea pods.

The steamed fish was a large piece of ling. It is probably just as well ling comes as large pieces of white fleshed filleted fish because it looks something like a conger eel. The fish is very sweet (in the Chinese sense of the word) and has a texture much like crab and could even pass for the white flesh of scallops if appropriately cut. The ling was steamed with plenty of wood fungus and spring onions. Towards the end of cooking thin slices of ginger and leaves of coriander were added. Before serving it had a liberal sprinkling of sesame oil.

Young peas in the pod - not sugar peas - were fried in fresh garlic and oil. This is an uncomplicated dish and would work just as well with snow peas or with fresh young soy beans. We will try it with any young fresh beans.

The third dish was an egg custard made from regular eggs for the custard and salted duck eggs. I have been unable to find a recipe for this dish. The closest is at ChowHounds Home recipes but that is too complicated. For this dish cut up some salted duck eggs, mix up some regular hens eggs like an omellette, add pepper and salt then pour over the cut up duck egges and steam. Spring onions and other herbs can be added.

A sauce of red hot chillis finely sliced and covered in light soy sauce accompanied the dishes.

Poached Pears

2005-10-16T18:22:00.000+10:00

Dessert this evening was poached pears. These were prepared by boiling in water with a quill of cinammon, a few cloves, sugar and some lemon peel. A little bit of a shiraz wine was added to the mixture to give a bit more colour.

When the pears were soft they were removed as were the other ingredients and the liquid reduced to make it more of a syrup. Everything was left to cool.

The pears were served cold with a creamy yoghurt and the cooled syrup from cooking.

Lamb Shanks and chick peas

2005-10-16T18:02:00.000+10:00

It is still chilly in Canberra and this evening's meal of lamb shanks was welcome after a hard afternoon at the golf course. The lamb shanks had echoes of a French Cassoulet but was a unique dish. The lamb shanks were cooked in the oven with water, fresh thyme and rosemary for a couple of hours. The herbs were removed. The juice was poured off and cooled so that the fat could be removed then the juice returned to the lamb shanks.

The dish was then cooked with a can of chick peas (which were washed and drained). A few minutes before serving coriander leaves, raw garlic, spring onions and a few fresh chillies were added to the dish. I am told a lemon zest would improve the outcome but we had no lemons.

Leftover cooked potatoes were added in long enough for them to be warmed through.

Lamb shanks is one of those meat cuts that has gone from being one of the cheapest cuts to one of the more expensive. People are realising that meat that is closest to the bone is often the sweetest.

Trip to the South Coast

2005-10-16T10:57:00.000+10:00

13th and 14th of October we travelled to the NSW South Coast and stayed at the Ulladulla Guest House. On the way we stopped at Braidwood and had home made pasties at a cafe on Wallace Street. The pasties were good with the potatoes cooked but el dente, with plenty of filling and thin pastry.

As Ulladulla is a fishing port we decided we should have fish. On a previous visit we had seen someone eating a fish platter and it looked good. Unfortunately the restaurant where we had seen the dish had closed so we went to the second oldest restaurant in town on the assumption that something that has survived should be OK. Unfortunately we discovered that it was being closed and the owners were packing up after 25 years. When we had our meals we found out why they were closing. The fish was cooked in a microwave even though they promised they would be grilled. The wines we selected were unavailable and we had the alternate but at a higher price. The chips were soggy and the seafood - such as the oysters - were overcooked to the extent that they were only vaguely recognisable.

Next mornings breakfast at the Boardwalk was good. One of us had ham and the other salmon with hollandaise sauce and english muffins. The hollandaise was very "runny" but it tasted good and the breakfast was fresh and tasty. The fresh orange and ginger and apple and ginger drinks were excellent as was the coffee.

For lunch we visited Mogo and had an excellent lunch of haloumi salad with grilled pieces of haloumi, chick peas, butter lettuce, french beans, tomatoes with a lemon dressing. This was washed down with a fresh berry Lassi.

What this is about

2005-10-16T10:04:00.000+10:00

This blog is mainly for myself and my family. I have been married since 1968 to an excellent cook and we have enjoyed numerous meals together. Unfortunately my memory fades and many of the excellent meals we have had together have been forgotten. This will be chronicle of food we eat particularly at home.