Archive for the ‘seafood’ Category

(…or how I made peace with a fish.)

I get nervous about fish.

They don’t seem to like me.

Perhaps someone told them about the time I managed to kill ten goldfish in a single year. I didn’t mean to – they’d be swimming around happily one day, and then two weeks later…

(Interestingly, when I handed over the fish-rearing-reigns to my father, the pair we had at the time lived for ten years. Until I was left to watch them for two weeks.)

And perhaps, just maybe, my fish-rearing-skills have left me slightly damaged. Unable to cook much more than a fillet of salmon (sear skin side down, wait… wait… flip, sear, serve) or instant fish fingers (roll onto oven tray, bake, eat soggy fish fingers because-I-suck-at-instant-food).

Until now.

…continue reading C4T: oven baked bonito

Ever wonder why this crazy Malaysian girl’s food blog has hardly any Malaysian food recipes on it?

It’s because I’m a terrible Malaysian cook.

Actually, let’s rephrase that. It’s because my mother is an absolutely amazing Malaysian cook – and I’m often far too terrified to cook anything that is familiar to her, because I’ll inevitably sit there at the end of it all, poking at my food and wishing I’d let her cook instead.

…continue reading baked malaysian spicy tamarind snapper

“I’m cooking lunch for five” I said to M & Zo over a food court lunch “and I don’t know what to make.” The boys looked at me quizzically. “Surely it isn’t that hard,” said M. “just go with something you’re comfortable with.” “Yes,” said Zo “but if you’ve invited them over, it has to be something a little bit special.” And so I variously groaned, threw my hands in the air and wrinkled my nose distastefully at their suggestions. Until, that is, M suggested pasta. “Pasta,” he said, with the gesture of an 80 year old Italian papa “is so simple, but the fresh stuff? Ah! You can make a person very very happy with that”.

…continue reading mussel & leek fettucine

It has been far too long between drinks, dear friends. Or, perhaps, the time it has taken for this post to appear is due to the distance between drinks being far too short. And when the distance between drinks (both of the physical and metaphorical straint) is being punctuated with dinners out, dinners in, weddings, celebrations, commiserations, sickness, health and rain, all I really want to do is sit. Big, fat bowl of pasta in one hand, fork in the other. Pepper and a squeeze of freshly cut lemon at the ready, where possible. Even better if said pasta involves a certain honey smoked friend we have come to know as Mister Fish.

lemon zest pasta

This pasta is wonderfully light in flavour, despite the richness of the smoked trout, the cream and the cheese. The family? They loved it. Over ate and then sat on the sofa watching that dancing show whilst clutching their stomachs. It does taste better when straight from the pot, as fresh pasta has a tendency to soak up all its surrounding goodness when fridge’d post-intermingling. Which is not necessarily a bad thing – I had this for lunch the next day and it was fan-tastic. A squeeze of lemon to freshen it up and a bit of salad on the side to counteract the cream’s impact on my hips.

the inimitable mister fish

smoked trout linguine

ingredients:

one recipe fresh lemon rind pasta
one honey smoked trout (250g)
knob of butter (thumb sized)
300ml fresh cream
50g fresco pecorino (cubed)
50g fromage blanc (crumbled)
half a bunch of chives
one lemon (for squeezing)
salt & pepper

method:

1. Make your pasta first. The rest can be done while it’s hanging out to dry. Not making pasta? Well, I guess you could take it out of the packet at this stage. That would be a good start. It will not make you feel as accomplished, but it will do for now. Also, chop your chives. And your cheese. This will save you time (and ensuing panic later).

prep at the beginning: a lifesaver!

2. Have you dealt with a whole smoked fish before? Delightful isn’t it? Well, sort of. Once you’ve wrangled the little mister (or is it a miss?) out of its vaccuum sealed pack, you’ll have to rip the skin off and start removing the flesh. Easiest way to do it? Slide your fingers down the middle and then slowly ease the flesh off the bones, watching for any that may come off with the meat. You’ll be able to remove these later when pulling the fish apart.

separating the flesh from the bones

3. So go on! Get all oily and fishy smelling. Pull that sucker apart! Do not (as I may have done) absentmindedly answer your phone during this task. It will smell like fish for a while. And by a while, I mean a week.

mister trout loses his backbone

4. So here is the part where you get saucy. Put your butter and cream in a pot that is big enough to hold all your fish plus the pasta. Let the butter melt into the cream. Mmmmm, yellow specked fatty dairy produce.

mister fish gets saucy with the cream

5. Now toss your fish into the cream and heat gently. The idea here is to allow the smoky, fishy flavours to infuse into the cream. Altogether now, “Ahhhhhh!“

pasta boiling away happily

6. Is your pasta cooking? Well the time is now! Lotsa boiling salted water. I use a deep frying basket, because it’s just easier that way. Pasta in basket, basket in water, a swirl with the chopsticks and voila! 30 seconds later, it can be drained and tipped into a lightly olive oiled dish in one quick movement. Do this in batches.

cheesy goodness being added

7. While you’re cooking the pasta (or immediately after if this is too tricky) toss the cubes of pecorino into the creamy mix and stir til they melt in. This will thicken the creamy sauce, without making it too cheesy and stringy.

8. Melted goodness? Check! Cooked pasta? Check! All that needs to be done now is a quick season (salt and pepper shakers ahoy!) and a swift handful of chives into the cream mixture.

pasta’s done. now where’s that fish…

9. Toss the (now cooked) pasta into the creamy sauce mix and stir it around happily. There will only be enough “sauce” to just coat the pasta. So keep tossing til each strand is well coated.

10. All you need to do now is serve it. Crumble your fromage blanc over the top. A good squeeze of lemon over the top of each serve (just before eating) really lifts the flavour from “yeah quite good” to “wahoo! party in my mouth!” Loveit.

lick your lips, help your hips!

recipe notes:

Cheese varieties too confusing? A mozzerella will do nicely in place of the pecorino. It won’t have as much bite, but will build the sauce in a similar fashion. Add some parmesan to it for flavour if you’re going down this route. A crumbly fetta will do nicely in place of the fromage blanc.

There will be more recipes up here soon, but today is a Friday. And around work, when all is quiet and the markets aren’t, well, marketing, Friday is lunch day. Different lunch options have been thrown around, helter-skelter since the St Mary’s Cathedral Markets got “postponed“. Yum-cha is out. As is anything involving copious (and mandatory) amounts of meat. Some need to be back by a certain time and others won’t walk in the heat. Not. Easy. So the Lord Roberts was chosen. And I got sunburnt. Over lunch. On my left side only. But that’s a different story…

“We have a table for 10 booked” I said. The brusque waiter (for he can only be described as such, though the others were lovely) gestured towards the door. “Outside” he said, before stalking off, as only a waiter-who-is-really-an-actor/model can do. We didn’t mind so much then, having completed a brisk walk through the park, then down, down, down the hill past the school and into the Lord Roberts, then up, up, up the stairs to where we were now. (We did mind later when he went all passive aggressive on us).

The rooftop courtyard at the Lord Roberts is a beautiful thing on a bright, sunny day. Trees, umbrellas, silver topped cafe style tables. We found our spot and took it in turns to queue up at the bar to order, collect our number and retreat to the relative shade. (I say relative because half way through the meal, I found my left side had been roasted. Owwww!)

fresh chicken parmigiana & chips w mozzarella & napoli $17

Nic ordered the chicken parmigiana. It was impressively sized (she only got through half of it) and topped with a rich red sauce and a solid layer of cheesy goodness. It is also on special on Thursdays, where, at $10, it’s a steal!

lamb burger & chips w hummus & roquette $15

The boys got lamb burgers. They came with hommus on them. And, apparently a “special sauce” that “really made the burger”. Theese were eagerly wolfed down, chips and all. The blackboard noted that these and all the other burgers were on special at $10 on Tuesdays. There weren’t any specials listed for Fridays – probably because it’s so popular. We saw a couple of tables come and go in the time we were there… not because we were taking our time, or anything…

mexican corn nachos w chilli beans, guacamole & sour cream $12

The girls had been to the Lord Roberts for a farewell lunch only two days prior, and had heard gushings about the nachos, so promptly ordered a serve each. “Ok.” was the general consensus, and they remained unfinished. Perhaps because of the size of the serving and the heat, perhaps because they were “ok”.

Zo’ ordered the Fresh Tiger Prawn Salad with Avocado & Tomato $16 (pictured top) and was quite happy with it. I believe I saw chunks (chunks!) of avocado.

beer battered fish & chips w tartae sauce & lemon $8

I, ever the adventurous traveller, got fish & chips. And for $8, ($6 on Mondays & Saturdays) I was so SO happy with my choice. You see, the sauce / cutlery bench inside also stocks a variety of salts and peppers. So my fish & chips were happily adorned with pink sea salt flakes, crushed black peppercorns & crushed dried chilli flakes. Happy days indeed! I did start to feel a little greasy in the stomach towards the end of the meal though. And perhaps it was because I’d eaten more than I should have, and perhaps it was because it was so hot, and perhaps it was because snarky waiter (who was previously merely brusque waiter) had grumbled at us for shifting our tables so we weren’t in direct sunlight “and what am I supposed to do here?” he said, pointing at a not-quite-gap between our tables and the next, then, later “you’ll have to pass this down, it’s too hard” when serving us our meals, with a flick of his overgrown fringe. It wasn’t too hard. Or wouldn’t have been if he’d stepped twice to his left. But anyway. (*huff!*)

The rest of the waitstaff were lovely. Cheerful even. And when we departed to go down, down, down the stairs then up, up, UP the hill past the school and through the park, we were sad that lunch was over. So sad, in fact, that I had to buy & eat a Monaco Bar later that afternoon just to cheer me up.

Lord Roberts Hotel
Cnr Riley & Stanley Street
East Sydney NSW 2010
ph 02 9331 1326

note: to get to the restaurant, head up the stairs til you get to the very very top.