Simple eats

A tasty weekend brunch made for me by J. Bacon, eggs, toast, snow peas, potato omelette, rocket and tomato, cooked on his George Foreman grill, a Christmas present.



A dinner that took 5 minutes to prepare - oven fish and steamed vegetables. There's nothing to it, but it's nutritious and enjoyable after a long day at work.

Marinated chicken with cabbage and sesame salad

A recent concoction that turned out to be rather tasty. Fast and easy to make, and quite healthy! I would have added some fresh snow peas to the salad if I'd had them handy, for a bit of colour.
The chicken marinade would also be nice with firm tofu, for the vegetarians out there!


Cabbage and sesame salad ingredients:

1 smallish Chinese cabbage (wombok), finely shredded
1 carrot, grated
2 tbs sesame seeds, toasted
100g raw unsalted peanuts, crushed
1 small red chilli, very finely diced
1 tbs rice wine vinegar
1 tsp sesame oil
1/2 tsp crushed ginger
1/2 tsp sugar

Combine the cabbage, carrot, sesame seeds and chilli in a large bowl.
In a small bowl, combine the remaining ingredients and mix together.
Pour the second bowl into the first and mix well.




Marinated chicken tenderloins ingredients:

1/4 C kecap manis
1/4 C rice wine vinegar
2 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp sugar
dash of fish sauce
500g chicken tenderloins

Combine all marinade ingredients except the chicken.
Pour over the chicken and leave in the fridge to marinate for at least 15 minutes.
Cook chicken on grill or bbq until just done.

Creative tea bags

A clever list of creative tea bags on toxel.com.

My favourite would have to be the origami one: it's so pretty!

Cookbook challenge, week 11: Crispy risotto of marinated prawns with parmesan cheese and black olive tartare

The theme for week 11 was mixed, and here's my recipe, 5 or so days late! Things have been a bit hectic lately.

This week I decided to attempt a 'fancy-pants' dish from Emmanuel Stroobant's Vine Dining: White. I purchased this book recently, and it's fascinating. Each recipe has a picture, but it's of all the individual components in a very artistic style, not of the completed dish. Many recipes use luxury ingredients, but there are plenty more with ingredients that are within easy reach.

I chose a risotto-based dish, as plenty of mixing/stirring is required to make risotto! Also, it has quite an interesting mix of ingredients.

I found the dish a little challenging. The basic risotto was easy, but frying into cakes wasn't - unfortunately, as the crispy bits of risotto that I did taste were delicious! I think it's easily overcome, but more about that later.

Ingredients:
Risotto:
2 tbs butter
2 peeled and chopped shallots
250g risotto rice, washed and drained
700mL chicken stock
1 tbs grated parmesan cheese
Ground black pepper, to taste
2 tbs olive oil

Prawns:
8 peeled and de-veined large prawns
1 tbs white miso (I forgot to buy this! So substituted with kecap manis to give a bit of colour and depth of flavour. It's not the same, I know, but was the best I could come up with!)
1 tbs mirin
1 tsp sugar

Black Olive Tartare
4 tbs pitted and diced black olives
1 tbs balsamic vinegar
1 tbs chopped italian parsley
1 tsp chopped red chilli

Garnish
2 tbs shaved parmesan
Rock salt

To cook risotto, heat butter and fry shallots in a pot.
Add rice and stir for 3-4 minutes until translucent.
Bring chicken stock to the boil and add slowly to the rice, ladle by ladle.
Stir constantly for 15 minutes until rice is cooked and al dente.
Finish with cheese and pepper.
Lay 30x60cm of aluminium foil on a bench, brush with butter and pour risotto on.
Roll up and leave on bench for 1.5 to 2 hours.
Use a sharp knife to slice through foil, resulting in risotto cakes (beware little shards of foil!).
Remove foil.
Heat oil in a non-stick pan and fry each side of the cake for 3 mins (this was really hard - mostly because I don't have anything non-stick - most of my cakes fell apart so I didn't cook them for as long as I should have! Non-stick seems to be crucial, also beware spitting oil).
Set aside.
Marinate prawns with combined miso/kecap manis, mirin and sugar.
Place prawns on a tray and cook at 220ºC for 2-5mins.
Combine black olive tartare ingredients.
Serve cakes with tartare and prawns.
Garnish with parmesan and salt and serve.


The end result was pretty good! A great range of textures with the crunchy risotto edges, firm prawns and soft risotto. The components were all subtly salty which worked together well. I don't know if I'll cook this exact dish again, but I've learned while cooking it, and will certainly use this as inspiration.

Mt Elephant Pancakes, St Mary's

Mt Elephant Pancakes is in between Bicheno and St. Mary's on Tasmania's east coast.

Coke spider - one of my weaknesses. It came with the remainder of the can for topping up.



Spiked coffees served in a cute cup



Chicken, Camembert and blueberry savoury pancake ($18.90). Fantastic! A great flavour combination seasoned well with black pepper to give it a nice kick.



Up close and personal. They are very generous with the blueberries!



Chilli con carne ($17.90). This was enjoyed by a couple of my lunchmates, though all ordered a medium spiciness but barely noticed any chilli-ness at all.



And the amusing sign in the carpark:

Beachfront Resort, Bicheno

Still in Bicheno, we went to the pub at the Beachfront Resort. I forgot to note down prices, sorry, but they are quite good value.

Some meals come with a chips and salad bar option. On this evening the salad bar offered coleslaw, a garden salad, potato salad, pasta salad, beetroot and a rather unusual green bean, carrot and coconut salad. Here's my selection:



Flathead fillets:



Beef schnitzel: apparently a bit dry around the edges, but the chips are fantastic.



Steak:



Caesar salad:



Chicken parmigiana:



Curried scallops:



Chicken schnitzel with green peppercorn sauce:

Sealife Center, Bicheno

I've been going to Bicheno since I was a child, and I love the town. It's just the right size with everything you need.

It used to have the best fish and chips I have ever had, at the caravan park takeaway store, but they changed from thick cut chips to thinner ones the summer before last. They're still great chips, but just not quite as good.

We stopped at the Sealife Center for lunch on Monday.

Rhu Bru ($4.50). I love this drink and order it wherever I manage to find it (which isn't as often as I'd like!)



Seafood chowder, garnished with smoked salmon ($14.50). A nice soup, with salmon, dill, potatoes and leek in the mix. The roll was nothing special but I appreciated that it had been warmed. I would have liked some butter, though.



Garlic prawns ($24.50). These looked and smelled great!



Rock lobster ($80/kg, this one was $48) to takeaway. A nice looking cray. They are sold raw or cooked, and they offered to cut and clean it for us.



Spread with garlic butter before being warmed on the barbecue. Luxury camping food!