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It’s funny to see the spiral fountain at Darling Harbour without kids in it. Why do kids love it so much, I wonder. Why do they take the long way around it to get to the core when they can just walk straight across to it?
In the end, it’s all about the walk and pleasure itself rather than GETTING THERE; You might see or feel something interesting or even meet someone special along the way to enrich your life, though it might take longer than others to get to where they might want or need to be. But how long it takes doesn’t really matter, does it? We are heading in the same direction after all. No hurrying or rushing. It is so true when it comes to cooking.
I’ve been watching French shows lately to prepare myself with the knowledge of European cooking and learned the art of rolling, which end up on restaurant menus with the French word roulade. As I watched the chef elaborate with chicken fillets by stuffing them and then rolling them with spinach leaves and then again with pastry, I thought to myself if a dish involved that much of effort before landing on a plate I would eat very slowly appreciating every bite of it with ‘Umm’s and ‘Wow’s.
<Pepitas Pesto>
I had some extra time one weekend and, inspired by the cooking show, thought I might put my rustic cooking aside and make something more intricate and artful. Sole Roulade! To start off, I made pesto with pepitas instead of usual pine nuts, which I really liked, and I made a cheese and tomato sandwich with it to take to work for the next few days. It makes great sauce for pasta dishes as well.
The choice for fish was ling fillet, which wasn’t the right sort that I had in mind for the recipe because it wasn’t wide enough to roll, but I didn’t see any other suitable fish that day at the market. Then after some brainstorming for the stuffing, I settled for zucchini and carrot, so I shredded them and pan fried them slightly. Then came the rolling part and it wasn’t a complicated job for me at all; I have years of experience in rolling sushi and kimbab. The one thing that went wrong in making this was that I forgot to cook the rolled fish before rolling in filo pastry, so the juice oozed out during baking and made a bit of a mess.
<Sole Roulade>
This dish was surprisingly satisfying, bursting with flavours, and the texture of the fish was so meaty that one could mistake it for chicken. I’m not sure if i would have liked it as much, if I had used more delicate fish. The prominent flavour here was basil from the pesto and I think that rather gave away more Italian feel than French, so I might use thyme next time and see how differently it works with fish. Although the outer filo layers add crispiness and crunchiness, therefore extra character, to the dish, you can skip it if you think it is a bit of hassle.
Pepitas Pesto
a bunch of basil
1/2 c slightly toasted pepitas
1/3 c extra virgin olive oil
1 glove garlic
1/4 c parmesan cheese, grated
salt&pepper to taste
Put seeds and basil in a food processor and pulse until finely chopped , and add the rest and process it.
Sole Roulade
3-4 fillets of white fish
filo pastry (one sheet for each fillet)
spinach leaves(optional)
For the filling
1 zucchini, shredded
1 carrot, shredded
1/2 onion, finely sliced
Pan fried all until it just turns soft and set aside to cool
For the lemon butter sauce
3 Tbs butter
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 c white wine
chives chopped
Spread the pesto over each fillet sprinkled with a bit of salt and place filling, then roll it.
Continue the same process with the remaining fillets and bake them for 5 mins at 180 ‘c.
Cover each fillet with spinach leaves before wraping it in filo pastry.
Bake it at 180′c for 12-15 mins until gold.
Serve the whole fillet as a main dish with the lemon butter sauce or serve it sliced as an entree or capanes.
…. and the art of DSLR photography are basically the two things that have been occupying my mind for the last couple of weeks. Before that was smoked paprika, though I haven’t shared any recipes with it yet. I’d been baking up a storm of cookies and biscottis during the absence of a camera. Not having a camera, I should admit, had somehow taken away my enthusiasm for cooking, to be more precise, the creative and artistic cooking, because I didn’t have to worry about how the food looked, without a camera to record it. The only person who had benefited from my hibernation period was “K” since he didn’t have to sit at the table watching dinner getting cold while it being photographed. 
Now that I’ve got a new camera which does more amazing tricks, there will be more nights of cold dinner in the days, months or years to come. *sorry*
Last week I cooked “Polenta” at home for the first time and I was very satisfied with how it turned out. I had initially planed to make ‘Polenta pancake with grilled fruit’ for breakfast before I was offered fruit salad by my generous flatmate. So I passed on breakfast and moved on to the option of savoury cheese and basil polenta. It was the best polenta dish I had ever tasted, and will probably be until I try one in the real land of polenta, Italy.
To accompany the fabulous polenta was grilled salt pepper prawn with watercress salad, which turned out to be a great combo all together. Bitterness of the radish and watercress is well-rounded in the sweetness of the pear and honey dressing.
<Cheese Basil Polenta with Grilled Prawns and Watercress Salad>
I think ‘K’ and I got through the amount of prawns that one would over a month. Behind the scene, we had a big plate full of grilled prawns both shelled and unshelled for the hope of getting well-needed calcium for my injured foot. We ended up overeating everything and couldn’t move afterwards. That’s one of the problems of my cooking; it’s so addictive that the moment you lay a finger on any of my food, you will have a lifetime spell cast upon your tongue and be enslaved to my cooking.
Grilled Cheese Basil Polenta, delizioso!
The polenta was fairly easy to cook as you will soon find out, yet, the taste was so comforting and satisfying. I don’t see why I shouldn’t be cooking it every night, at least once a week. It would make a healthy and exotic alternative to bread or chips, served with any main dish of meat or seafood.
<Grilled Cheese Basil Polenta>
Ingredients: serves 2
3 cups (750ml) water
1 cup (170g) instant polenta
60g butter, chopped
½ cup (40g) finely grated parmesan
sea salt and cracked black pepper
½ cup basil leaves
2 cups (200g) grated mozzarella – can be reduced by half or substitute for extra 1/2 cup of parmesan
olive oil, for brushing
Method
Place the water in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to the boil. Gradually whisk in the polenta and cook, stirring, for 2–3 minutes or until thickened. Remove from the heat and stir through the butter, parmesan, salt and pepper. Pour half of the polenta into a 20cm-square tin lined with non-stick baking paper and spread to smooth. Top with the basil, mozzarella and remaining polenta. Refrigerate for 45 minutes or until set. Cut into squares and brush with oil. Heat a char-grill pan or barbecue over high heat. Cook until golden and the cheese has melted.
<Watercress Salad>
Ingredients: serves 2
a bunch of watercress, sprigs picked
two red radishes, sliced
1 pear, sliced
avocado (optional)
walnuts (optional)
Dressing
1 glove of garlic (just give a couple stabs and put in the whole glove to infuse the flavour into the dressing )
2 tsp Dijon mustard
3 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbs lemon juice
1 Tbs white wine vinegar
2 tsp honey
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
- Sauté onions in oil with a generous pinch of salt on med-low heat until soft and golden (8-10 minutes).
- 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.
- Season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir in the parsley.
Stepping out onto the balcony has never been this exciting! Now I’ve got gorgeous little green babies to look after and I’m so pleased about how healthy they all look at the moment. I waited patiently through the winter to set up my little herb garden, which is so far made up of my 10 favourites of herbs – basil, thyme, rosemary, oregano, mint, coriander, parsley plus lavender. I still need to add a few more herbs. This year I invited tomato and chilli plants to my garden, and I really hope they grow well.
Anyone with interests in cooking would understand the excitement of using home grown fresh herbs in cooking. An ordinary meal can be turned into a exciting gourmet meal. I’m often amazed by how just a little fresh herb can bring such deep and delicate flavour to a dish and it seems almost magical.
Apart from culinary benefits, I think having a herb garden can also boost our mental health as it delights our senses by its sights and scents. Resting on a balcony surrounded by the abundance and greenness sometimes helps me to revitalise my stressed soul and make it easier to let go of unnecessary things that I hold on to. :-p
How should I celebrate my new herb garden?
I think the salmon, trout and sword fish I cooked for my guest the other night turned out to be the most beautiful fish dish I had ever tasted. I can be partly because I kept the cooking so simple that you could fully taste the delicate flavour of the fish and the fresh herb. I splashed a bit of white wine halfway through the cooking and added some lemon juice, too.
The flesh was succulent, not dry, and it just melted in the mouth. The combination of fish juice, white wine and lemon made wonderful sauce and I soaked it up with bread til the last drop. I could feel omega-3 pumping in my body and felt smarter. 
I also cooked sword fish with lime and coriander, which was my absolute favourite and ironically could make it to this blog, because I loved it so much I just tucked into it as soon as it landed on the plate. When I remembered I forgot to taking pictures it was too late – it was all gone!
However, don’t give up your hope yet because I’m going to make it again. I hadn’t had sward fish for ages and I enjoyed every mouthful of the juicy fish. It was really nice with my Mango Avocado Salsa.
Mango Avocado Salsa
I love this salsa with most fish, and this time I certainly felt that the salsa was made for sword fish. I just loved it and felt completely lost for words. When you are full of feelings and emotions, it becomes hard to put them into words. Sorry if it’s not the case for you. But for me, It’s like when you are with someone you love and you enjoy every second, then you are very careful about what you say and you feel afraid that any speech you make would spoil the moment. Sometime i feel that silence speaks more than words.
It’s normally either mango salsa or avocado salsa. But mixing the two was quite good.
So here’s how I do it.
Mango Avocado Salsa
- serves 4
some mango (whole mango if you prefer fruity sweet taste, otherwise half)
two medium avocados
1 Lebanese cucumber (or any cucumber)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 fresh chilli – leave it out if you don’t want the zing
salt&pepper
parsley
chop all the ingredients and mix them all. How simple is that????????
I hope you really enjoy it as much as I do.
Sunday roast? Nah… Sunday Fish!!!
Everyone has their way to end the week and get ready for another week. One of my Sunday routines is a trip to the fish market. Now with the weather getting warmer, the fish market is always packed with people going about their weekly or monthly omega3 business, and seagulls fighting each other over scraps. So it is impossible for late birds like me to get a table by the water. Why would you want to eat in such a chaotic place rather than in a quieter and more comfortable place, you ask? The smell of the sea makes me feel like I’m on a holiday, and eating outdoors makes food taste better sometimes, maybe most of the time.
Sydney Fish Market at sunset
I’ve had snapper and perch so many times that I felt like trying different species, especially ones that are often undervalued and rejected by many people. They are sometimes more nutritious than popular fishes. Lucky salmon tents to get all the prizes in spite of its oiliness and others like flathead, basa and trevally are often ignored. Is it because it’s cheap since we are living in a world where high price drives consumption? Would it sell better if So I decided to give those poor little fish the opportunity to be pampered with attention. Does this reflect my empathy for the less fortunate? The lucky fish which caught my attention is ‘trevally’. It is known as Australian fish and If I cook with salmon, I don’t bother much with marinade or sauce, because it has the unique fatty flavour. But white fish may need some extra work to either disguise the stinkiness or add more interesting flavours to the bland taste of white fish.
The coating of almond and parsley was quite a blessing to the humble trevally, I reckon? Look at that juicy look of the flaky flesh! I think the coating helped to keep the moisture in. I used to have an aversion to anything fried, not so much for buying it, but for cooking it at home. As long as I don’t see myself how much oil battered or crumbed fish soaks up. *:-P* Having said that, I would probably take more fat from all that cheese I nibble as snacks than from fish n chips.
What a feast I had! To follow the almond crumbed fish is ‘Battered Asparagus’ and ‘Cheesy Cauliflower’. Ha Ha I know what you are thinking right now. If you want to get naughty, you might as well be naughty all the way to the end, not halfway. I have had sushi rolls with deep fried asparagus before and liked it, but honestly I didn’t like it with the fish. *sorry*
Almond Herb Crumbed Trevally
with Battered n Fried Asparagus and Cheesy Cauliflower
I guess you can easily imagine what happened to me after this saturated meal. *It wasn’t THAT bad.* I’m just exaggerating a little. Next time I will try this recipe with another type of fish and see how the almond flavour works with it. What I had last Sunday is ‘Salmon with White Wine Capers Sauce’, which was nice, but I didn’t take any photos- I was too hungry to think about them- so it won’t be on the blog.
Steamed Ocean Perch with Leek Miso Sauce
I’ve been cooking with fish a lot since I moved close to the fish market. It’s so much fun to try all different type of fish and experiment matching them with different methods.
This time I took a big step by buying one of the most ugly looking fish. I don’t judge people by their appearance, but some fishes have a really unusual shape that puts you off straight away, like Ocean perch with a big bumpy head.
It also had some black lining inside the guts that I had to take off.
I’m getting to like the steaming method because it leaves no mess unlike frying. The head of this fish was so big it would fit in the steamer I had, so I put it in a baking tin and placed the tin in a pan filled with water. This way turned out to have some benefit, which I got to reserve all the juice from the fish, and, believing that good fish oil is in that juice that would get thrown out otherwise, I added it to the garlic leek miso sauce.
It is very simple sauce that goes well with any thick white fish.
I had this dish with sautéed silver beet with garlic, soy and white wine.
It’s again a ‘The East meets the West’ type of dish, and the fish juice mixed with the soy miso sauce tasted so good that there was a mental fight between ‘K’ and me to eat more of the liquid.
Such a tastebud stimulator… so healthy… eating nice dinner is the biggest pleasure in my life. What’s yours?
To make the sauce
3 garlic cloves
half stalk of leek
1 miso soup sachet – I like using this in my cooking because it has extra tastes like bonito and mirin.
2 Tbs soy sauce
1 Tbs rice wine
1 Tbs rice vinegar
1 tsp wasabi powder
2 tsp grain mustard
2 chillies, seeded and cut to strips to garnish
Sauté the leek and garlic in vegetable oil until soft
Add rice wine, rice vinegar, soy sauce and miso, and simmer for 1 minute before adding wasabi and mustard
Pour this sauce over the cooked fish, then it will blend into the fish juice.
Garnish with chillies, shallot and red capsicum for colour if necessary.
One of the benefits of living down under is that you get to celebrate Christmas twice a year. It’s been really cold lately- not cold cold, but for Aussie spoilt with sunshine and warmth it’s been unbearably wet and chilly.
Christmas seemed to have arrived very early this year in many ways.
I got my first Xmas present from my friend, Alice, who knows my fashion taste better than myself. She’s so good at picking the right present for people. I’m still wearing the slippers she got me for my birthday 2 years ago. I called them bumper cars. They are always parked by the bed and I drive around the house in them.
Thanks again, Alice, for the lovely fancy shoes. I’ve been enjoying wearing them.
I also got a job that I had tried to get for a long time, so my spirits have been very high this winter.
To keep the Xmas spirit going, I called for an instant midwinter Christmas party with some friends and students of mine to give them a cultural experience about Christmas in July – more honestly as an excuse for more food and booze :-O.
Capsicum Cashew Pesto, Olive Cashew Tapenade and Salsa Vede
I was going to get a Xmas tree and tinsels, but shops didn’t have them on sale yet, not til December. But I still made an effort to give a bit of a Christmas feel, at least a party feel, to my place for the guests by hanging around balloons and party.
Initially, I wasn’t going to do much cooking up since people were bringing some food, then I thought, ‘The party wouldn’t be the same without one big dish for people to share like big roasted turkey.’ So I went down to the fish market – god, I love living so close to all that fresh seafood! – and got a HUGE salmon, about 3kg. The weight of the fish in my hand made me so excited and, at the same time, worried about cooking it right so that it wouldn’t all go to waste.
Realising the fish was too big to fit in my oven, I chopped off around the head and kept it for dinner later. Cooking whole big salmon turned out to be less hassle than I imagined. All you need is a bunch of fresh dill and a whole packet of coarse sea salt. Now with the big Christmas feed in the oven, it is time to make the special green sauce to go with it - Salsa Verde.
I combined two recipes found on the net and made my own green salsa. To make 2 cups of salsa verde
A whole bunch of parsley, mint and basil – finely chopped – I didn’t use a food processor to make it look more rustic
A whole small jar of capers in white wine vinegar, two garlic cloves and 6 anchovies – I processed these for smoother texture to contrast with herbs.
2 Tbs Dijon mustard
2 Tbs red wine vinegar
1 Tbs lemon jice
3 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
I had a lot of comments on this sauce from my guests. They got absolutely blown away by it and started floating around the house with balloons.
The whole fish business was the highlight of the evening, leaving so little praise for my unfortunate Christmas cake yet to be served.
Christmas cake is meant to be made long before the special day so that the fruit flavor can be brought out. Since it wasn’t going to be a traditional cake, I created my own recipe, less fruity and nuttier – modern Christmas cake, that is, in an effort to watch out my bulging waistline. *:-P*
My students brought some desserts as well, and the Thai coconut banana was really delicious, yet not as good as my cake 
Thank you to all the guests who came around that night despite the rain. I really appreciate your effort you had to make to drag your cold and wet body outside, and all the lovely food you brought. I hope you all had lots of laughter and enjoyed the strange experience of having a Christmas party in the middle of winter with bunch of strangers.
Merry Christmas, everyone, once again.
Let’s hope for the best Christmas to come this year.
Just a small collection of dishes I made in the remote past. My initial plan was to publish them one by one whenever I get a chance. But as time goes and more new dishes come along, I find it hard to go back to old folders. Because, firstly, my new work looks better as I’ve been trying to learn photographing skills to present my dishes better, and secondly, I have moved on to simpler cooking style from the one that three meals are stuffed into one dish. Still, I adore my old babies and some of them cry out to see the world whenever I see them squashed in disorderly old folders. So here they are. I might find some time to write about each dish in the future, but for the time being please enjoy their looks.
Western
Chicken Mushroom Penne Salmon Spinach Spaghetti
Pumpkin Spinach Feta Bread Turkish Gozleme
Seafood Paella Pumpkin Sun-dried tomato Risotto
Spicy Bean Nachos Spinach Hot Mousse
Eastern
Oriental Fish Soup Tofu Stir-fry
Seafood Korean Pancake Kimchi Roll
Tofu Green Curry Fish Masala / Tofu&Veggie Korma
Move your mouse over the photos, and a link will appear if there is a recipe for them. Or if you are interested in any dished in the picture, give me a yell, then I will post the recipe immediately. Thanks.
I hope you all had a Happy Valentine’s Day, whether you are single or have lovers. Rumour has it that thesedays Valentine’s Day is the best night to go out and have fun for singledoms. Why? You guess!
In Korea, we have White Day as well as Valentine’s Day. On Valentine’s Day women give chocolates and gifts to men, and in return they get candies (very unfair because chocolate is much yummier!) and gifts from men on White Day, which is a month later, 14th of March. I have no idea how that traditon started, but I always wonder if it was candy companies’ marketing to sell their candies.
Since Korea is a very fair society, we have a day for singledoms as well, so called Black Day! Those who didn’t get anything on Valentine’s or White Day get together and eat Jjajangmyun (Korean noodles with black sauce made of black bean, onion and pork meat) , and sympathise with each other or curse happy couples or whatever.
An Aussie guy who tried this dish in Korea compared it to Italian spaghetti bolonais. If you are really hungry and have not much time, this is what you should go for. It’s the quickest delivery menu, so cheap and massive.
You can also get the sauce in a pre-made packet that can be microwaved for 3 minutes and mixed with rice. It’s very convenient. I remember having a lot of it growing up. When my mum wasn’t home or there weren’t many sides dishes to eat, my siblings and I would just get a few packets from a corner shop and throw into a pot filled with boiling water. We didn’t have a microwave then, I think? If you want the recipe, check out this site and you can replace seafood with meat or anything you like.
Today, after the big romantic night which involved lots of naughty food and booze, I felt a little hung over and needed something to boost up my energy. Apparently, chilli is good for a hangover, full of vitamin C, more than an orange. And I found some crab sticks in the freezer and some fresh basil, AND roasted capsicum in the fridge. It was lucky that I got some capsicum for cheap price at Paddy’s market the other day and roasted the whole lot and kept it in the fridge after peeling the skin off. 
I threw chillies, onion, garlic and fresh chopped tomato in a pan and a gourmet Spicy Crab Penne was made in 5 minutes. How quick was that? The taste was fantastic! Then I wondered why it had more crab flavour than the pasta I once made with REAL crab meat. Humm….*thinking*
Ingredients are easy to get anywhere and it’s so quick to make. I suppose my Korean friends can try it and enjoy the taste of Italy!
Coming to spring, it has been drizzling almost every day. We have many rainy days in the beginning of spring in Korea, too, then flowers of all sorts of colors blossom everywhere, including the cherry blossom. It is quite a sight to see everything come back to life breaking the bareness of winter.
Our house looks so empty after selling all the big furniture. We are back to the stage of eating while sitting on the carpet again. We need something to lift up our spirits and bring warmth. Seafood Chowder, my choice of comfort food, made with a sweet potato or kumara as called in New Zealand.
We have never seen seafood chowder on menu at cafes or restaurants in Sydney. It always seemed a very New Zealand thing, but apparently, the first English settlement in America created the word ‘chowder’, which was similar to Latin or French word for ‘a hot pot’, and one of the most popular was clam chowder cooked with cream. But’ seafood chowder was a traditional dish in Ireland’, says Google, Manhattan seafood chowder, though, is cooked in tomato, not cream. It is interesting how different parts of world adopt the same recipes in different ways.
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