*Drool*

It’s strange; when we moved into our new place I figured I’d be living in the kitchen, cooking up huge interesting meals.  What with the great high-powered gas cook-top [with wok burner wahey], plenty of useable bench space for prep work and actual room to move – even enough room for two people to move without gaining intimate carnal knowledge of one another whether wanted to or not – I was sure I’d be all over it.

Then during April–May I had that weird phase of total lack of interest in food, and lack of appetite.  This is actually quite rare for me, as even when I’m so ill and drugged up I can’t see straight let alone not be a hazard around aforementioned high-powered gas cook top, I still have an interest in food and will read my favourite cookbooks like novels, drooling away and writing up endless lists of must-try recipes and menus.

Fried Rice II

Whilst I have previously posted a generalised recipe for Combination Fried Rice, I am forced to admit that I have never, ever been one hundred percent – or even eighty five percent – satisfied with my fried rice.  Oh it tasted yummy enough but it was inclined to be sort of mooshy, and didn’t have the interesting balance of flavours that I’ve found in really great restaurant fried rice.

Some of my lack in the fried rice department was put down to my zero MSG tolerance policy; but I was pretty sure I was missing something, all the same.  Then the clouds opened, and heavenly golden light poured into my grey mooshy fried rice world, because lo! I discovered Jaden of Steamy Kitchen.  Quite how and why I hadn’t found her before is beyond me; all the food blogs I read and I missed this truly amazing one?

Gluten-free days

No matter how picky I try to be, my bookmarks list in IE frequently gets a bit out of control and I have to go through and do a bit of a cull of sites and blogs I no longer visit, for whatever reason.  If I get fed up with a blog or site, no matter how famous, my response is to – get this – stop reading.  Given the amount of hate mail famous bloggers receive along the lines of “I used to like you but since you [insert life-changing event] your site SUCKS”, my response is quite unusual, even if I tend to agree. [I’m naming no names … ]

The links I give on my blog are my ultimate preciousesssss and while I may not stop by one or two as frequently as I used to I always return to their safe and beloved pages [I mean, url’s].   One site I hadn’t visited for a while is Gluten Free Girl, who I’ve enjoyed since her beginnings [who could forget her red wedding cowboy boots?]; it was so good to check back and see what she was up to – a book out, and a baby on the way, no less.

Not to mention G-Free Girl’s food is downright yummy [there’s a recipe there for G-Free Irish Soda Bread which I have to make for my own gorgeous Irishman].  It got me thinking though, that I rarely post about being gluten free and Coeliac Disease.  EDS and my sundry aches, pains and grizzles get the air-time, which isn’t fair; not to mention there’s way more people who can relate to Coeliac and it’s distressing consequences than can to my other, more rare, auto-immune whatsit.

I’m going to put up an “About Coeliac Disease” page but I hope to post a bit more than I have been, about going gluten-free and the life changes, gluten-free food and recipes.

Mmmmmm … something

I read cookbooks like novels, not always first page to last but flipping through them as though revisiting old friends.  There are many I turn to when requiring distraction and inspiration, especially when I’m sick and feeling unquestionably anti-food.   With luck my salivary glands and stomach get moving – in a good way – and even if I don’t have the wherewithal to make a grand meal then I will want something good, all the same.  [Yes, medically approved marijuana does have a similar effect as an appetite-invigorator but a pile of cookbooks is better for the lungs … I really don’t like smoking the stuff, so experiments are in order for funky butter].

Turkey in June

About the only thing I really, really love about Christmas is Christmas dinner and/or lunch, complete with turkey (many Aussies have abandoned the full-on trad British Christmas dinner in favour of seafood/barbeques, but I have to have my turkey fix).   Mum usually has the butcher prepare a turkey buffe (or however that’s spelled – the boned turkey roll thingy) with my homemade apricot-walnut-apple stuffing. 

Aside from Christmas though, one rarely sees turkey on the supermarket shelves or butcher shops; it is very much a seasonal thing.  I don’t know why, given it is low in cholesterol and fat and high in bliss-making tryptophan (the chemical that many tranquilisers are based on).  I think the low supply (due to low demand, I’m sure) is because so many people have bad Christmas turkey experiences.  A whole turkey is a tricky beast to manage; properly cooked legs and thighs usually means dried out breast meat. 

Back in Belfast (where Tuxedo’s dad cooked Christmas dinner and oh my heavens, that turkey was the best thing ever … I drool still, just thinking about it) turkey pieces, breast and legs and wings, were readily available throughout the year at the local Tesco.  I’m not a fan of the breast meat, finding it just too dry no matter how it’s cooked, but the dark meat mmm mmmmm … in fact it was a turkey experience that converted me from white-meat-only lover to chowing down on every bit of thigh and leg I could snaffle.

Soups

As may be apparent from many previous food-related posts, I LOVE soup, cream soups, vegetable soups, fancy soups, simple soups – see my post and associated recipes on Mesocosm Soups for soups-as-a-meal.

As I sit here sipping my Esmeralda (vodka, Bickfords lime cordial, lemonade) it occurs to me that the only food-related item that tempts me when my appetite is on an illness-induced low (as now), or when I am uninspired or bored, is a soup. Recently, the only meals that have excited me at all are soups (we have eaten many other meals but as far as I’m concerned they’ve fallen into the “fuel” category – plain baked pork chops with vegetables, straight-forward bbq’s, simple pasta dishes).

Following please find my recipes for my Leek and Potato Soup, and my Chinese Chicken and Corn Soup.

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Note:  I have NO fucking idea why my font sizes are all phucked up; I’m using exactly the same template/format I always use … GAH.  Probably has something to do with introducing the concept of TABLES or somesuch.  Harrumph.

Top 5 gadgets for the cookgeek

 

I am a total gadget whore; particularly when it comes to kitchen-related items – my term is cookgeek.  I love all cook’s tools with a passion, gadgets that slice, dice, sliver and mush; gizmos for charring, caramelising, grilling, grinding and grating; wine and bar tools; all specialty knives; groovy electrical appliances …  I adore kitchen-related gadgets, love browsing stores such as Cut It Out and WA Hospital Supplies (and Williams-Sonoma and Cooking.com online), and am always deeply excited when I find a new gadget or appliance that will make life in the kitchen easier and more interesting.

To make it onto this list, items have to not only be a cool design but something I actually use, not one of those items that languishes at the very back of your kitchen cupboard for ten/fifteen/twenty years.  Getting this list down to five was difficult; I may have to post a revised version sometime.

Flavours

Last Wednesday (10 May) we went out to dinner at one of our favourite restaurants, the excuse being to celebrate our engagement anniversary although that fell, in fact, the following day.  What the hell.

Our favourite restaurant has the added bonus of being a short walk from our apartment, so we don’t need to worry about transportation to/from and level of intoxication.  So long as we can manage a stagger in a more-or-less forwardly direction homewards, we’re good.

It’s a gorgeous Italian restaurant, classy and totally focussed on simple but stunning flavours.  The antipasto starter, for instance, is a selection of little items prepared that day by the chef (mine was specially put together just for me so no bread-y or crumbed items but there were still a dozen or so tastes); artichokes grilled with olive oil and a touch of lemon, artichokes stewed with herbs, the most amazing peperonata I’ve ever experienced and I’m not a peperonata fan, a mini caprese salad (bocconicini, tomato, basil leaves, fresh sliced prosciutto), char grilled baby octopus, cabbage rolls filled with a sensational meatball and parmesan filling, melanzane (eggplant) rolled around herbs dressed with olive oil … the entire plate dotted with little explosions of an amazingly fresh tomato sauce ie, made from fresh pressed tomatoes, and dabs of greeny-gold olive oil … it was heaven. I was making uninhibited orgasmic moans by the third bite.

Tuxedo had a plate of Vitello Tonnato for his starter; a dish I’ve always avoided, never enjoyed, never seen done well. Oh JAYSIS.  He gave me a couple of curls of veal in exchange for an meatball or eggplant roll or two; I’ve never tasted such amazingly, beautifully cooked meat, such a luscious subtle sauce (vitello tonnato is veal with tuna mayonnaise; sounds weird ja?).

I was wishing I’d chosen that, or any of the other starters, if that was anything to go by – although I was totally in lust with my antipasto misto.  Rough cooking this was not; simple yes in the lack of complexity and number of ingredients, but unbelievable attention to detail, the best ingredients, care and fucking tenderness, man. 

For mains Tux had the salmon tortolloni in a saffron cream sauce; out for me obviously, couldn’t even have a teensy taste but I could tell, just by looking, that the pasta was silky and sweet, the sauce creamy and rich but not overwhelming.  Tuxedo’s eyes were rolling back in his head, I swear.

I’d gone for the char-grilled salmon fillet with paprika and it was the best piece of fish I’d ever had. The skin side was just this side of burnt; crispy and almost caramelised, the flavouring again subtle but bringing out the best.  Simplistic, very very simplistic, the only garnish a few cubes of sauté potatoes (divine) and some salad leaves but it needed nothing else. We did share a rocket and parmesan salad which was incredible; just rocket, translucent slices of red onion, shaved parmesan, more of that green extra virgin olive oil and a little balsamic, roughly cracked black peppercorns … ummmmmmm.

Well how could we say no to dessert? We were already very very happy with the food and very very drunk (having started with champagne – proper champagne too; Moet et Chandon, no less, and a Kooyong Estate Pinot Noir – bliss – we’d brought these along ourselves but the restaurant has an excellent wine list with some sensational Italian wines).  We both went for the vanilla panna cotta with honey – how fucking simple can you get? How fucking ballsy does the chef have to be to serve that up and have customers moaning with delight? The texture and tingle on my tongue … ah me.

(I’m wondering if I should try my hand at writing porno novels?  I am usually very practical/pragmatic about my food; I analyse it, appreciate the hell out of it, yes, but to get all sexed up over it? And it wasn’t just the booze, either, shut up you.)

What a meal.  Simplicity as an art form.  And incredibly good value; not much more per starter/main than the casual brasserie-ish place next door.  And the experience; well, my taste-buds were saying “oh god oh god yes yes YES fuck me YES” all night.  What more can one ask from a dining experience?

Osteria dei Sapori
151 Broadway
Nedlands, Western Australia 6009
+61 8 9386 4243

 

The great Australian BBQ

We bought a BBQ!!!! We are now true blue Australians!!! And the very Irish Tuxedo has passed the Ultimate Australian Citizenship Test; piecing together all components of a 7-burner BBQ (including wok burner) and its trolley into full working order, installing gas cylinder and preparing aforementioned BBQ for it’s inaugural dead-animal-flesh-charring … with the aid of a manual for a completely different brand and style of barbecue.

Our Rinnai Gourmet Grand Monaco/Crossfire had it’s first outing tonight. It is one sensational machine; something Cape Canaveral could be proud of (and with all burners set to High, quite likely to send the above apartments into orbit … hate the upstairs neighbour anyway, she moves furniture and sweeps the skirting boards very loudly at 3 am twice a week). Item; one reversible griddle plate (sooth one side, slightly ridged the other), one grid for char-grilling and immediate contact with flame, one cooking pan for roasts etc, and one intensely powerful side wok burner. (insert orgasmic moan here.)

I had had my eye on Rinnai BBQs for years, I wasn’t going to settle for less. We couldn’t afford one in the height of summer, but the grand thing about buying BBQs off-season is that they are cheaper. In this case, approximately $1,500.00 cheaper. Not baaaaad, matey. Rinnai aren’t cheap, being beautifully crafted stainless steel objets d’art that make most gourmet kitchens look pathetic and sad in comparison (certainly puts our miniscule 1.5 metre square excuse to shame).

The First Meal comprised meltingly tender sweet baby lamb chops, perfectly cooked courtesy of Tuxedo (another round of applause, please – Tuxedo has minimal culinary aptitude; he can cook scrambled eggs … and now holds the title for best burner of meat in an outdoor setting), served with cold beers and a very very small token salad. Future plans include 5 cm thick scotch fillet steaks, my super duper 500 g burgers, spicy red curry chicken kebabs, and a garlic and rosemary lamb roast. Not to mention a side of stir fried garlic prawns with mange tout peas, grilled tuna steaks with wanker-esque criss-cross char pattern, buttered corn in foil, maybe the very American hobo packs. Hell, I might even make soup on the thing. Not that I’ve been putting any thought into this, or anything.

The great thing about Perth is that you can BBQ throughout the year, it’s not by necessity a summer thing. Our verandah/balcony is under cover but with excellent ventilation, and keeping warm will not be a problem given the heat the thing gives off. So c’mon over.

 

The joy of S-S-Santoku

T’other week I finally bought something I’ve been lusting after for months and months – a 7 inch Santoku knife with a hollow ground edge (by Wusthof Trident). It’s a Japanese-style knife, kind of like a cross between a cleaver and a chef’s knife. Very very sharp, cuts beautifully and makes every job so easy, and is sensationally balanced. Lust has flowered into true love.

My first – and one true – test when I got my baby home was to finely slice a tomato. Fine as in, the width of a 5 cent piece. Tomatoes are my bète noir, I have to admit, shameful as it is. I simply cannot cut tomatoes without a serrated or Victorinox knife without squishing the damn thing to bits. Which is okay if that’s the effect I’m after; I’m basically fucked if I want to make a pretty pretty caprese salad (slices of perfectly-ripe, preferably home-grown tomatoes, layered in a spiral pattern on a plate interspersed with slices of drippy mozzarella and fresh basil leaves, dressed with the most virginal of olive oils – you can add slices of a really excellent salami or coppa too if you like).

So, the Santoku sliced through that roma tomato so sweetly I could have cried. Bliss. Next up was prep for the night’s dinner; slicesliceslice that sirloin steak paper-thin, almost transparent, ditto a bunch of garlic, ginger and chilli, plus some red capsicum and spring onions. First step, heated the wok until smoking, added about a teaspoon of oil and flash fried the sirloin strips a handful at a time, so they were charred at the edges but meltingly tender right through. Then I did a quick veggie stir-fry with the chilli, garlic, ginger, red pepper, spring onions and a few handfuls of bean sprouts, all very quick and crisp, about 2 minutes total. Meanwhile I cooked a slab of fine rice noodles, drained and rinsed under iced water and tossed until they were as dry as possible. Tuxedo got the tricky task of tearing off lettuce leaves and placing them on a plate.

I plated the steak strips, veggie stir fry, rice noodles and lettuce all separately and we dug in. Assembly: take one lettuce leaf, place a small amount of rice noodles slightly below-centre, top with vegetables and sauce, then a few steak strips. Roll up and eat. The first few attempts were pretty messy (exceedingly, in my case) but we soon got the hang of it. Very much inspired by Vietnamese street-food (see also recipes like Sang Choy Bao) and oh-so-damn-good. One of those “recipes” where the quality of ingredients, and speed of cooking is key.

Anyways, the Santoku performed like a dream. So happy! While shopping for it (at Perth chef-y store Cut It Out – great shop, fantastically helpful knowledgeable staff) I also bought a new bib apron (in heavy denim, ankle length on me), a black chef’s cap – think fez, a few knife guards, and a book on knife sharpening so I can hone (argh! incoming unintentional pun!) my technique. I have a beauty of a Global waterstone, so my other knives are going to get a shock. Wheeee! Sharp shiny objects! My next purchase is going to be one of those groovy magnetic knife rails, that you screw into the kitchen wall and place your knives on. Much more hygienic, and kinder to tres expensif knives than blocks.

However before the knife rail, we’re off to buy a BBQ – I know, horrors, we don’t have one! – I’ve got my eye on a Rinnai Gourmet 6-burner mmmmm mmmmmmm. Anyone for steaks, kebabs, tandoori roast chicken and booze this weekend? (okay so it’s currently pissing down and the weather has gone all to shit due to Cyclone Monica but it’s not going to keep me from red meat and shiraz)