It’s far from winter at the moment, but it is raining cats and dogs outside. Perfect soup weather, and a satisfying soup to make and eat is minestrone. For me it really consists of whatever vegetables I have at hand, plus pulses and pasta. For an indulgence you can add sausages, but the one below are simply the basics, brought together by beef stock and tomatoes. Yum.
It’s a wonder that I haven’t posted a Japanese dish yet because Japanese is one of my favourite cuisines. And it’s not all about raw fish or zany chefs throwing food at you. Remember that Japanese food is one of the most refined cuisines in the world. That said, Teriyaki Salmon isn’t refined. More… homely to me. Forget about the store-bought sauces. They’re not the real deal. You’ll get a more fresher, authentic sauce if you make it yourself. Strangely enough, this dish has a shorter ingredients list than a stir-fry. It consists of:
– soy sauce
– sugar
– rice wine vinegar
– mirin (a Japanese sweet rice wine available at most supermarkets)
Here’s a good recipe to follow.
Served with steamed rice and a few greens, you’ve got a super quick mid-week meal.
Let’s go Moroccan today. I might have very little experience with Moroccan cuisine restaurant-wise, but whenever I come across a recipe I tend to get very excited. Perhaps it’s the unique ingredient and flavour combinations – having dried fruit in savoury dishes, the heady but well-balanced mix of spices. It has a lot in common with Chinese cuisine in the way they both strive to balance all elements of taste – salty, sweet, sour, hot. The most successful Moroccan-style dish I’ve cooked so far is chicken tagine. I don’t have an actual tagine dish, so I cooked it in a casserole pot. This version uses prunes, almonds and honey as the sweetener. I like to serve it with curried apple couscous. Awesome!
Portuguese custard tarts have been available in Sydney for years now, but they are often soggy, cold, and not very appetising. It’s a far cry from the little bakery in Belem, Portugal, where the sweets were originally invented. I’d tasted these while in Portugal many moons ago, and hadn’t found an equivalent until I went to Sweet Belem in Petersham. They are baked fresh on-site, so the tart is warm, the pastry flakey, and the custard is nicely burnt and lightly sprinkled with cinnamon. With a coffee, it’s fantastic.
Hainan Chicken Rice is a dish popular around Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. I’ve been eating it for donkeys, and unlike a lot of dishes from SE Asia, this one is homely and (comparatively) subtle in taste.
When you order it you will get:
– a portion of rice cooked in chicken stock and garlic
– a portion of chicken poached in chicken stock and dressed with a little soy, sesame oil and fried shallots
– some salad vegetables, most commonly cucumber
– a little bowl of clear chicken soup, sometimes containing Chinese veges
– a little (mild) chilli sauce
– a little ginger/garlic condiment
That’s some bang for your buck, don’t you reckon? If you’re not getting all of these things then you’re getting ripped off! The best version I’ve tasted is at my local Malaysian, Satay Inn.
I’m not a big fan of a big fry-up breakfast in general, but on lazy weekends I do like to indulge in a plate of scrambled eggs and toast. If I’m really, really lucky, sometimes I even have some one who makes it for me.
There’s nothing better after a visit to the beach than fish and chips. Whether served in a wad of butcher’s paper or more posh on a big plate with salad, I love it when the batter is thin, the fish fresh, and chips are crispy.
Ah, I think this will be a rather long series since you’d know by now my fondness of food (and food photography). Let’s start off with baked goods, and the wonders of scones.
Nothing better than a freshly baked batch of scones lashed with lightly whipped cream and jam. Fortunately it’s also one of the easiest and quickest baking you can ever do. Perhaps I will bake a batch this weekend?
We walked along the beach and back again. By then the sun was very low on the horizon, casting a golden glow over everything it touched. The end of another lovely day, and the end of this theme.
There was a little breeze that afternoon, and the parasailers took advantage of it. However with the low tide, the sailer was reduced to walking on the sand bars.
Static and Silence 