King Fish Provençal with Asparagus

It sounds quite exotic and posh with the word ‘Provençal’, doesn’t it? Although what ended up on the plate was far from the recipe I was following since I added extra bits, I insist on calling it provençal sauce. I don’t like wasting food, and having seen half bunch of asparagus standing-always keep them standing in a plastic bag with a little water- in the fridge door, I decided to throw them in because I wouldn’t be cooking dinner for the next couple of days. In went the capers, too, since they are nice with fish.

I ran into a photo I took of these fabulous books I read a year ago, which take you on a journey of interesting historical events relating these two humble ingredients-but they had once been a central commodity to Europe that changed the world. Cod was in the centre of international conflicts between the British Empire and other European countries, slavery and technical developments in fishing industry including the steam engine and food processing. But above all is the discovery of North America. The effect that salt had in the history is even more complicated and significant. The resentment over the salt tax resulted in French and American revolution and the wars of independence including the one in India led by Ghandi. It was so interesting to learn how salt, which is essential to human, was associated with inhumanity. The effort to find salt brines led to the invention of drilling and hydraulic engineering in China, and salt is the reason behind the world famous hot sauce ‘Tabasco’ being enjoyed by people all around the world.

If you are looking for books to read over the Christmas holiday and you are into food and history, these two highly entertaining books, especially ‘Cod’, can be an option. I found ‘Salt’ a bit too much to digest since it is longer than ‘Cod’ and is packed with vast information, although every piece of information in the book is very intriguing.

But this is King fish, not Cod. It is quite firm, yet, very moist. If you want the original Provençal sauce, just skip the asparagus and caper parts, although I think they add vibrant looks and flavours. Well, in the end, it’s all up to you. You are the boss!

For king fish:
2 medium sized king fish steak
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp lemon juice
Salt and pepper

Marinate the fish for half an hour before cooking.
For the sauce:
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 brown onion diced
2 fresh tomatoes, chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
1/3 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 Tbsp butter, softened (optional)
asparagus(optional)
capers(optional)

The Sauce

1. Sauté onions in oil with a generous pinch of salt on med-low heat until soft and golden (8-10 minutes).
2. Add tomatoes, garlic, rosemary, and white wine. Stir. Cover and simmer until the sauce thickens slightly, 5 minutes, and add asparagus (only if you want), otherwise keeping simmering for further 5-10 minutes.
3. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir in the parsley.

Mango Ginger Lime Coconut Bread

Mango Ginger Lime coconut Bread

Any baked goodness couldn’t sound more tropical than this! This bread was an absolute hit among those few who was lucky enough to sample some of it, and by far the most delicious bread in every way. This put the previous pear honey bread whose picture had been due to be published some time in the near future to shame, although there is still a chance that it will be seen on this blog. But it won’t make as glamorous an entry as this mango bread.

I’m pleased that I finally got to use special paper sheets and extra props I bought a couple of months ago, though, they are not from a speciality store. One of the things that make me different to people enslaved by consumerism is that I’m not a follower of mainstream culture. I don’t just buy things because other people have them, and likewise I don’t just go to any restaurants on the top lists of restaurant guides because they are always crowded. Making something different with what I have and finding something from somewhere people wouldn’t normally look seems to give far greater satisfaction.

But there’s one thing for which I don’t mind being a copycat is producing mouth-watering pictures of food. Sometimes I get the feeling that I’m becoming so obsessive with photographs that I would wonder whether I cook to eat or cook to take pictures. *confused*

A lot of my inspiration on photography comes from this site, ‘What’s For Lunch Honey’, which is run by a professional food writer&photographer. I wish my blog could look like hers. Ha Ha :-O

Recipe:

Adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours By Dorie Greenspan, pg. 45

Fresh Mango Ginger Lime Coconut Bread:

• 3 large eggs
• 3/4 cup flavourless oil, such as canola or safflower oil (I used Canola)
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cup light brown – (1 cup seems fine unless you have a sweet tooth! )
  
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 cups fresh mango, cubed
  
• 3/4 cup golden raisins – (I only put 1/2 cup because I didn’t want them overpowering mango)
  
• grated zest of 1/2 a lime
• 1/2 cup, more or less, fine dessicated coconut – (no flakes!) – optional
  

Getting Ready:

Centre a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350° .

Butter an 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch loaf pan, dust the inside with flour and tap out the excess.

Put the pan on an insulated baking sheet or on two regular baking sheets stacked one on top of the other.

Whisk the eggs and oil together.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, spices and salt.

Rub the brown sugar between your palms into the bowl, breaking up any lumps, then stir it in.

Pour the wet ingredients over the dry, switch to sturdy rubber spatula or wooden spoon and mix until blended. The batter will be very thick (really more like a dough than a batter (She’s not kidding!)) and not easily mixed, but persevere, it will soon come together.

Stir in the mango, raisins and zest.

Scrape the batter into the pan and smooth the top with a rubber spatula.

Bake the bread for 1 ½ hours, or until it is golden brown and a thin knife inserted into the centre comes out clean. (If the bread looks as if it’s getting too brown as it bakes, cover it loosely with a foil tent.) Transfer the pan to a rack and cool 5 minutes before running a knife around the sides of the pan and unmold. Invert and cool to room temperature right side up on the rack.

Sieve some of the icing sugar on top and serve!

• This bread tastes even better the next day. A night to allow the flavors of the fruit and spices to infuse gives the bread more aroma and body.

Storing: Wrapped in plastic wrap or stored in a air-tight container the bread will keep for 4-5 days at room temperature (and taste better each day!).

Pepitas Chilli Chocolate Cookies

Another recipe using Lint chocolate… would I get a special reward from the Lint company for its promotion if they saw my blog? Last week I took a packet of this Lint chilli to school for my students to try. Adventurous ones didn’t hesitate to try, but some were quite wary of its taste and reluctant to try at first. Convinced by my persistent persuasion, they took a small piece with mixed feelings of curiosity and precaution, and then I saw their face breaking into a smile that told how surprised there were by its unusual, interesting flavour. “Wow, it’s nice!” “Where can I get it?” They started to respond with excitement. It’s nice to feel that I can be the first to give some new cultural experience to people from different parts of the world.

Some healthy cookies for the week- Pepitas, full of essential minerals such as iron and zinc, and omega-3. they have well-known health benefits including lowering cholesterol level, preventing kidney stones, prostate cancer and mental disorders such as anxiety and depression. They are a great choice for a snack. Dump popcorns and chips! *BTW, I’ve just emptied a whole packet of Smith chips myself*

This recipe is taken from the Cuisine magazine and I gave it a few changes to make it sound ‘Nancy’s’. Sugar is cut down by half and dark chilli Lint chocolate replaces normal chocolate to give the tingling sensation. My idea comes from the fact that these seeds are popular in Mexico and Mexicans love chilli. So why not?

I also ground 1/2 cup of pepitas and added it to the flour mixture to give it nuttier flavour and smother texture – I’ve learnt that some people don’t like chewing whole nuts.

Ingredients

go to the original recipe

• 125g unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup soft brown sugar – less if you are looking for an extra healthy treat
• 1 1/2 cup self-raising flour
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 80g dark chocolate, roughly chopped - Lint chilli for my cookies!
• 1/2 cup pepitas – lightly roasted
• 1/2 cup ground pepitas
• 1-2 Tbs milk – I didn’t measure it exactly. I just added some at the last minute because I increased the amount of flour. So don’t be afraid to improvise.

My recipe yields about 24 cookies instead of 12 -15. I had more people to feed.

Method

Preheat oven to 170C.

Line a baking tray with baking paper.

Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Stir in flour, oats, chocolate and seeds.

Place spoonfuls on the baking tray and flatten slightly with the back of a spoon. Leave room for the biscuits to spread. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden-brown.

Cool completely on a rack. Store in an airtight container.

All about Spanish

I can’t believe I’ve written only one post on tapas while it is the sort of food that I cook very often and enjoy most – I’ll be cooking more of it as summer comes. That might be the reason why I don’t feel any significance of it, I guess? Scarcity drives up value?

The annual Latin Fiesta was on about a month ago at Darling Harbour. I feel luck to live so close to all kinds of events, and I did even more over the festival period because I could had Spanish tapas bar set up at home and walked down to the water front for a dance and came back home and went dancing again. Eat n Drink n Dance, then Drink n Eat n Dance… *What a way to live!*

Garlic Prawns & Salmon Croquette

I’ve been to all of the Spanish restaurants on Liverpool st, which is known as Spanish Quarter. I haven’t ventured out far enough to know good Spanish places outside the city, but I’ve been told that a Spanish restaurant in Surry Hills has been voted for the best. Well, that’s something I look forward to trying. Many people associate a Spanish restaurant with high price and small serving, which I agree. Obviously, it’s not a place for romantic dinner for couples, rather somewhere for social gatherings – somewhere to have fun. Most of the restaurants of the sort are pretty noisy and tables are so close to each other.

But there IS a Spanish place you could go to even for a nice dinner for two. It’s called ‘Miro Tapas Bar&Restaurant’ on Liverpool st, and it’s an underground place that can be easily missed if you don’t know where you are going. It’s a quite low key place with simple interior, not much to look at, but I think that also makes the place so welcoming and lovable. I first stumbled across this place a few months ago, and I’ve been back there many times with friends, but I haven’t heard anything bad said about the place yet. They seem rather surprised by the quality of food and such personal and attentive service, which can be missed out in busy, posh places.

I’m not sure where my obsession with Latin culture, but I suspect that my love for Latin dance plays a big part when it comes to my Latino fever. It’s social, romantic, fun and passionate AND it can be quite sensual and addictive! Talking about this reminds me to take a Latin dance class, which I’ve been putting off for so long that I don’t think I will have time for it before Christmas.

My favourite menu at the restaurant include BBQ Chorizo with caramelised apple, calamari strips with pesto , BBQ portobella mushrooms with capsicum salsa, spinach sautéed with pine nuts& sweet cream sauce, tuna croquettes and plenty more. Of all, spinach and calamari dishes are those I order over and over again. But this post is my new recipe – smoked salmon croquettes with pumpkin and capers. How does that sound? As soon as I had it, I instantly picked up the plate and was about to head down to Spanish Quarter to showcase my creation to the restaurants there, but looking back, I’m glad I decided against it in the end, otherwise I would have been pestered by reporters interviewing me for magazines and papers. I’m not quite ready for such fame yet. I want to enjoy my life of ordinariness as much as I can before I eventually ride on fame. *20 seconds of self-indulgence*

For my delicious salmon pumpkin croquettes
(I don’t remember the exact measurement, and I don’t think it really matters. Just follow your hidden culinary instinct, then you’ll be fine!)

pumpkin (butter nut preferred), grated
smoked salmon
onion
garlic
capers
lots of herbs – dill, parsley
lemon juice
salt&pepper to season
breadcrumb

Mix the ingredients together and crack one egg into the mixture
Roll and shape it into balls (for deepfrying) or any shape you’d like – a flattened oval shape is easy to panfry
Coat each balls with breadcrumb and fry in a pan

Enjoy with squeezed lemon juice!

Spinach Rice Rolls with Feta & Sunflower seeds

Bonus tapas that I made on a whim…. Confused by its look? I played with the recipe in my head and replaced filo pastry with rice paper, and pine nuts with sunflower seeds. Still, they tasted great. It’s sweetened with raisins and flavoured with nutmeg. All it’s missing is ‘Bechamel sauce’-onion flavoured white sauce- to go with it. Yummy :-9 (looks like I’m licking my lip?)

Because It’s Pretty…

One of my favourite ways to enjoy a Friday night is to drink wine with cheese and olives while listening to music. I’m starting to notice that the number of glasses of wine I get through in one night grows the way the number of candles on my birthday cake does.

Last Thursday I came across a cosy wine bar called ‘Taste on Sussex st‘ with elegant interior design. Live jazz playing, it was very charming and a feel-good place ‘Old meets New’ kind of design, which I like- high glass ceiling and glass walls giving the views of modern office towers, dark wood furniture, tiled carpet and French style wooden door separating the candle-lit sitting area from the bar. It is a shame that I don’t have any picture of either the place or the cheese platter I had that night. It was served, on a VERY thick heavy marble board, with finest French cheese, , unusual thin crisps, grapes and raisin-caraway rye bread, which teased my palate so much that I searched for the recipe to make some for myself.

While searching for some photos of the newly discovered wine bar, since I didn’t have any, I was surprised to learn that it was short-listed for 2008 Interior Design Awards. It seemed like a nice coincidence that I had left this post in draft unfinished and that led to finding unexpected information about the bar, which I was going to show off to the world at some point. Oh, well, before I even got the chance to do it, its unique design had been proven by experts whose opinions would possibly be more creditable than mine. It’s shame, though, that it didn’t win the first prize!

After seeing the winner of the award, I thought this place should have won. I’ll leave it for you to judge. You can compare it with the following place.

Winner of 2008 Hospitality Interior Design Awards (VIC)

Below is another place on the short list, Paddington Inn Hotel. There are more on the list, but none that I recognise, probably because they are not in Sydney.

Paddington Inn Hotel

I can’t end my post without mentioning a single word related to food. So here goes my story.

I ordered a case of wine from Hunter Valley a few days ago, and I’m getting impatient waiting for it to arrive at my door. I’ve become an expert at whipping up instant little snacks for spontaneous opening of wine or surprise visitors. Each time I get amazed by how many dishes you can create with very few ingredients, and it is almost like a magician’s conjuring trick. They often taste better than any other dishes that would take more than an hour to make.

Mushroom&Bacon Baguette w/ White Truffle cheese

The charm of the little angel food is, first, its artful look, so eye pleasing. Another charm is that you can drag your eating time to as long as you have a drink in your hand and don’t have to feel guilty to have dinner or naughty dessert later on. *my secret to the 6 hour non-stop eating*

Call me greedy, pig or whatever you would please. I don’t feel ashamed to claim that I love eating and food is my reason for living, whereas others eat to survive. My hope is to eat as many varieties of food as possible before my taste buds finally give way.

Looking at the photo makes me feel like whipping up some olive tapenade with anchovies I bought yesterday. Whoa, lucky I’ve got some lovely brie too. Hope you have a good weekend and eat yummy food.

I’m going to the Festival of Winds at Bondi this Sunday. I can feel summer poking its head around the corner by the announcement of the event.

This post might have sounded odd to some people who know me. *:-P* I was surprised to find this post sitting in drafts myself.

Night Noodle Market

October, the Good Food Month, is over. Sydney in October vibrates with excitement as the calendar is filled with a series of joyful events boosting a feast of flavours for foodies. Restaurants and bars across the city provide fantastic culinary experiences every night of the week, and people keep their gastronomic senses entertained throughout the month. One of the popular outdoor events includes ‘Night Noodle Market’ at Hyde Park where you can also enjoy the photograph exhibition ‘Art&About’.

You think the girl in the photo is me, don’t you? *he he*

The mum and girl posing in front of the photograph seem to have blended into the photograph.

I don’t know what to make of this one, but I liked it.

At the end of these photos were lines of stalls serving a variety of Asian noodles and some other dishes such as dim sum, dumplings and all sorts of fried snacks. The atmosphere was really something, full of delicious smell, colourful lights and happy laughters. I didn’t get to try as many varieties of food as I thought because of a long wait, so I planned to go back there the following week, but that didn’t happen.

The patterns of the leaves on the red lantern look quite pretty, don’t they?

Waiting for summer to settle in is like watching dough rise. One day it’s all warm giving the impression that summer’s finally arrived, and the next day the chill comes back with disappointment. I wonder if I can speed up the arrival of summer by introducing one of my signature noodle dishes, ‘Tuna Apple Noodle Salad’. It is a dish I would often make on hot sweaty summer days to get freshen up and get my energy back. It’s so quick and simple to make, yet the taste is amazingly satisfying and refreshing. You could use real tuna steak to turn this dish into something special, or even tuna slices in a tin would do a job to make it look better. But this was made as an instant dinner fix so I used whatever I had at that time – typical of my cooking

Tuna Apple Noodle Salad

It has lots of fresh vegetables as you can see, so it is a perfect dish when you feel a bit under the weather. One ingredient you may not be familiar with would be the seaweed. You can get it in a Korean or Japanese store and you have to soak it in cold water for about 10 minutes before using it. Another option is to use toasted and seasoned seaweed that is also very popular in Korean&Japanese cuisine, and especially tuna sashimi is often served with toasted seaweed in those countries. But if you are not a fan of seaweed, you can always leave it out anyway. What is the most important part of this dish is apparently the sauce, which has four flavours well balanced together- salty, sour, sweet, spicy. It’s a very versatile dish whose flavour can be adjusted to everyone’s liking. Throw in some fresh coriander and mint if you want, although I didn’t put any herbs in this since I aimed for the Korean taste.

To make this you need:

green apple, cabbage, carrot, red onion – finely sliced
dried seaweed – soaked in cold water and chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
fresh chilli, chopped
fresh coriander or mint – optional for exotic flavour
spring onion, finely chopped for garnish
sesame seeds for garnish

Sauce:

1 Tbsp light soy sauce
1 tsp fish sauce
1 Tbsp apple vinegar or white vinegar or rice vinegar
1 Tbsp lemon juice
3 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp sea salt

Adjust the amount of each ingredient as you go. There’s no exact measurement in Asian cooking, you know.

Blueberry Dark Chocolate Muffins

“Adult Only” What a great name to emphasise 100% pure taste of natural ingredients! You got the joke? If not, your mind is not impure as mine, I guess. “wink”

I was introduced to this dark chocolate sorbet one day, and let me tell you, it was absolutely mind blowing. The taste was so rich that it took me some time to be convinced that it was sorbet not ice cream. I also loved the name ‘Serendipity’. Have you seen the film? This ice cream company is an Australian family owned business and is dedicated to making the best quality ice cream with unique flavours all made with super natural ingredients. There is supposed to be over 100 flavours in stock including Durian, Halva or Licorice ice creams, and Blood Orange, Gin & Tonic, or Passionfruit & Chilli sorbets. . Wow!

I’m a big fan of dark chocolate and now I can’t stand the funny tingling sensation on my tongue I get from milk chocolate. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea. I often get my students to try this 85% chocolate and some would just get put off by this bitter taste and never touch it again. 70% is as far as they can go. My favourite flavours are chilli, mint and cherry almond.

I often use this dark chocolate in my baking. I like the contrasting taste of the dark chocolate and sweet fruit. I’ve so far tried dark chocolate with apple, pear, strawberry and blueberry. I really the blueberry dark chocolate combo.

I hear fireworks, which seem to be coming from China Town, I wonder what they were for. Anyway, I tried to get rid of the shadows to disguise the fact that I’m an owl cook who cooks under the moon light. Almost 90% of my blog photos have shadows and I’m not very happy about that.

Luckily, I had a chance to take some decent photos with natural lighting. I’m sure you can see the huge difference that natural sun light makes.

These muffins are butter free, not that I deliberately tried to avoid using butter, but it was quite intriguing to find that healthy muffins could taste so good, I mean really good, not just acceptable for the excuse of being healthy.

This recipe is named Volcanic Blueberry Chocolate Muffins from ‘The Sugar Bar’, but I made some changes to my preferences and what I had at the time. Although my muffins didn’t pop and look different to the ones on that blog, they were good as far as the texture and taste goes.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups plain flour
3/4 white sugar (don’t be too generous with this) - I put only 1/2 cup
a pinch of salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup canola oil
1 large egg
cinnamon sugar (you can prepare this yourself with your own measurements. I used storebought cinnamon sugar)- I skipped this.
1/3 cup full-cream milk
a punnet blueberries – frozen blueberries are ok too!
dark chocolate morsels – substituted for Lint 85%

Preheat oven to 200dCelsius. Grease your muffin cups.
Combine your flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Make a well in the centre.
Place the oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg (already whipped) and enough milk to fill the cup to the brim.
Pour into the well and mix with flour mixture. Do not overmix or the batter will become overly stiff.
Fold in the blueberries. Add a few shakes of cinnamon sugar (approx 1 tsp) and as much dark chocolate as you like. The more the merrier i’d say but not too much that you can’t taste the blueberries any more.
Fill the muffin cups all the way, do not be afraid that the muffins would end up too heavy and rise in an ugly fashion. These turned out just fine like perfect volcanoes.

Sculpture by the Sea 2008

An annual event held along the coastal walk from Bondi to Tamarama,
featuring sculptures by artists around the world.