Blackened Kingfish

It is just over a year since my last post!  If anyone still reads this blog, here’s a fresh and tasty fish dish to warm your taste buds as the New Year begins.

Blackened Kingfish

The minute our friend Tony dropped by with a big bag of fresh kingfish yesterday, I knew exactly how I wanted to prepare it.  I have a twenty year old copy of Cajun Cooking by Marjie Lambert and it has a great recipe for Blackened Redfish which I haven’t used for a while.  It works really well with any robust and muscular fish and the fillets of sea-fresh kingfish were no exception – or for a variation, try it with thin chicken escalopes.

NOTE: You’ll need a raging hot barbecue plate or cast iron pan to cook this dish and, if you cook it indoors, make sure the kitchen is very well ventilated.  The first time I cooked this in our tiny apartment kitchen in London, the smoke hit me like riot gas and left me with streaming eyes and nose!

Kingfish fillets – medium cut
6oz butter

Seasoning
2 tbsp paprika
1 1/2 tsp sea salt to taste
2 tsp onion granules
2 tsp garlic granules
2 tsp ground cayenne pepper
1 1/2 tsp ground pepper
2 tsp dried oregano leaves
2 tsp dried thyme leaves

Butter Sauce
4oz butter
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 spring onion, finely chopped
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp salt

Preparation Instructions:

Pre-heat your barbecue plate or cast iron pan to the highest temperature.  Combine and grind seasoning ingredients in a mortar & pestle. Combine the butter sauce ingredients and put to one side.  Dip cold fish fillets or medallions in melted butter and coat with the seasoning – the cooling butter should hold the seasoning in place.  Once all are done, cook the fillets on one side until the coating is blackened, around 2-3 minutes.  Gently turn over and repeat for the other side (and edges if necessary).  Reheat the butter sauce gently and serve blackened kingfish with new potatoes, corn and peas/green beans.

Smoked salmon and prawn farfalle

Barbecued Pork Chops

After a long ‘post-Christmas but pre-New Year’ day of doing very little, I scoped a simple marinade recipe for the pork chops SWMBO had lined up for dinner.  Two minutes work was all the effort required to prepare the chops, which left more time for loafing around and drinking a cool beer.

6 pork chops.
¼ cup of soy sauce.
¼ cup of water.
2 tablespoons of brown sugar.
2 tablespoons of lemon juice.
1 tablespoon of minced onion.
1 teaspoon of garlic.

Preparation Instructions:

Combine ingredients in a screw top jar and shake like mad for a minute.  Pour over chops arranged in a shallow dish and marinate, preferably overnight but 4 hours is OK too.  Grill the pork chops over a preheated barbecue for around 6 minutes each side (depending on thickness), basting a little with leftover marinade until done.  Serve with potatoes, green beans and sweetcorn.

© Antonio Carluccio

Just turned to the Food Channel on the TV and caught an episode of ‘Southern Italian Feast’ presented by my all-time favourite foodie Antonio Carluccio. It’s hard to believe that I first watched this show on the BBC ten years ago back in England.

After picking up some marvelous ingredients in Palermo’s Vucceri Market, Carluccio cooks a simple Tonno al Forno con Salmoriglio (Baked Pasta with Herbs) which he served with Zucchini al Pomodoro e Basilico (Courgettes with Tomato and Basil). While samoriglio (a mortar-and-pestled mxture of herbs, garlic and oil) is usually used to dress steamed or grilled fish, Carluccio dressed the tuna steaks before baking, adding a few pine nuts and breadcrumbs for added texture.

We have friends coming over at the weekend and, for once, I know exactly what I’m going to cook ahead of time!

I made a great lunch box discovery today when I popped in to the Noodle Canteen franchise in Royal Oak, Auckland for a quick take-out lunch.

Having never been into a Noodle Canteen before, I was immediately impressed by the fresh ingredients laid out in the chiller cabinet for customers to see.  Vivid green broccoli, plump prawns, crisp carrots and the many more prepped ingredients presented in a clean and tidy environment all pointed towards a franchise that took care and maintained standards.

Although I was craving noodles, the curry laksa caught my eye and I ordered that from the friendly young woman behind the counter before settling on a stool and chatting to a colleague while watching my lunch being prepared.

Back at the office, I was pleasantly surprised at the quality, freshness and variety of the ingredients in my laksa which included two types of noodle, at least three types of seafood and various julienned veggies.

The soup base was a rich orange liquor with a well-balanced flavour and warmth and the size of the portion was big enough to leave me still feeling satisfied and well fed some 5 hours later – no mean feat where my appetite is concerned.  Although I have only tried one dish so far, that meal was certainly more than enough to encourage me to return to try others.

I was also amused to note that the Noodle Canteen web site, like Big Boy’s Brunch, is managed on WordPress.

Over the last couple of days, I have been chatting with a great guy called Drew who runs a data recovery and computer forensics business on the East Coast of the US in an area where I used to work.  Our chats brought back memories of good times I have spent and great meals I have eaten in that area.  I can recall fun nights eating bar snacks in a Fairfax sports bar after long weeks in the office, weekend drives for exquisite seafood at a harbour-side table in Annapolis and meat and potatoes on St Patrick’s Day in an Irish bar in Baltimore.

While I like to eat healthy and try to watch my waistline, I must confess I am a complete sucker for ‘Americana’ food – those heart attack meals and snacks that are tightly woven into a Walter Mosley novel, a Scorsese film or your favourite US comedy show.  Meals like a gooey cheese Philly steak sandwich, spicy buffalo wings with a pitcher of beer, crayfish and lobster tails piled high, Caesar salads with crispy croutons and spaghetti & meatballs with a shirt-staining sauce.

All this got me to thinking about a snack that would transport me back to those times without the expense and hassle of the 12 hour flight and the intimate attentions of Homeland Security and here’s one I found in my recipe file.

Crab and Avocado Melts

Healthy this recipe ain’t but a little of what you fancy (or all things in moderation as my Gran used to say) is nice now and again, so I have scaled back on the full-fat original where possible to lower the impact on your insides.

2 cups grated Cheddar cheese, mature for preference
1 can (6 ounces) crab meant, rinsed, drained and flaked
1/3 cup finely chopped green bell pepper
6 slices streaky bacon, cooked and snapped into chunks
1/4 cup light sour cream
1/4 cup light mayonnaise
Salt and pepper to taste
2 avocados, seeded, peeled and sliced
5 muffins or bagels, split and lightly pre-toasted

Combine 1 cup cheese, crab meat, green pepper, bacon, sour cream, mayonnaise and salt and pepper in a large bowl.  Spoon crab mixture onto muffin halves.  Top each with avocado slices and remaining cheese.
Grill until the cheese melts and your mouth waters.

New Stove

Originally uploaded by bignoseduglyguy

For a whole host of reasons too boring to mention, it’s been a very long while since I posted here. However, prime amongst those reasons was the fact that our electric cooker had become absolutely horrid to cook on and sucked all the joy out of preparing meals and baking bread. With a thermostat more temperamental than a Hollywood starlet and a ceramic hob that had more cold spots than a polar bear’s bum, it was impossible to bake bread with predictable results. Likewise, saucepans were either stone cold or hotter than a solar flare.

So you can imagine how much pleasure I derived from dragging that old cooker out of the kitchen earlier this week in anticipation of the arrival of our new stove. Our house, like many in New Zealand, is predominantly powered by electricity but, like many rural properties, had an on-demand water heater that ran on bottled LPG, requiring a contractor to swap out the bottles on a regular basis. Our desire to be able to cook on gas meant we were happy to discover that the gas company’s mains supply actually reaches our street, a fact we gleaned when our neighbour got connected. We ordered our own connection (which also requires basic planning permission) and waited a few weeks for the supply to be run from the street to the house. Once it permission was confirmed, we went out and looked for the gas hob/fan assisted convector oven combination we have always wanted – and today it was installed and hooked up!

After the requisite clean-down and test, I decided that the very best way to christen the stove was to whip up a classic omelette with a little grated blue cheese. After three years of cooking on electric (not including fires at camp and camping stoves during power cuts), it was bliss to dash off an omelette in under three minutes and eat it in under half that! As British Gas used to say in their ’70s TV ads, ‘Cookability – that’s the beauty of gas’.

After a pasta and wine supper at the bach on Friday, we decided to go out to dinner on Saturday night and headed to the restaurant at the Bridge House Lodge in Warkworth, where we had a great meal with The Out-Laws last year.

We were early enough to get a table for seven without booking with the added bonus that we were by the window overlooking the river and I had a great view of the large screen TV showing the Sevens tournament down in Wellington. While restaurants with sports bars can often be noisy and less than pleasant to eat in, the volume of the TV and the good natured cheers were fine and we enjoyed mixing our dinner chat with rooting for the boys in black.

The waiting staff were friendly, helpful and efficient, bringing drinks and garlic bread to settle the sprogs while the three grown ups decided what to have. Being the sole hungry chap among the ladies, I alone ordered a starter – the salt and pepper squid to start – and ended up sharing it with everyone not having an entrée.  Cooked and seasoned well, it was a very nice way to kick off the meal, even if the portion was on the small side even before the vultures descended.

SWMBO liked the look of the spinach salad entrée with feta, olives and roasted peppers and the staff were happy to ‘upgrade’ the dish to a main.  Her friend, the District Nurse, went for the pan-fried chicken with cream cheese farce while I was unable to resist the lure of the venison sausages and chorizo with garlic mashed potato and gravy. The sprogs enjoyed their choices from the children’s menu which included freshly made pizza and fish or chicken & chips.

Each dish was well-presented, served without fuss and in a timely fashion. While I only have the contented murmurs and empty plates of my companions to go on, the spinach salad and the stuffed breast of chicken both got a hearty thumbs-up. The chorizo were packed with spicy paprika and the venison sausages were gamey with a discernible bite lacking in many Kiwi bangers. The garlic mash was lovely and smooth which, with the gravy, made each mouthful slip down that little bit easier.

Desserts were a split with two adults choosing the lemon tart with citrus sorbet and two sprogs voting for the mudcake with chocolate sauce, which they fell on like jackals on a carcass.  I liked the sorbet more than the tart but as I’m not big on desserts and the District Nurse finished hers with much delight, who am I to judge?

More through laziness than anything else, we drank a 2007 Hunter’s Sauvignon Blanc, a long-time award winner from Marlborough, throughout the meal. Light, bright, full of elderflowers and gooseberries, we liked it so much we’ve bought more since.

It’s hard say if this was all value for money as the District Nurse picked up the tab, a very kind and wonderful gesture and much appreciated by all. That said, I’m sure we’ll go back on our own dollar again in the not too distant future.

Iced tea is among my favourite drinks on a hot summer’s day. I’ve often tried to make it by cooling hot brewed tea but only with limited success. I recently came across a cold infused iced tea recipe at The Simple Leaf. As we have no loose leaf tea in the house, I tweaked the recipe a little and found the resulting tea very drinkable and refreshing.

Cold Infused Iced Tea

With cold infused iced tea, you may find granulated or caster sugar doesn’t dissolve very well, so use powdered icing sugar instead.

4 good quality tea bags
1 litre cold water
juice of a lemon
2 tbsps icing sugar, or to taste

Place 4 good quality tea bags in a jug. Add a splash of hot water from a kettle to just wet the tea bags for a minute, pour in a litre of cold water and then remove two of the tea bags. Put the jug in the fridge and leave to infuse for at least 6 hours or overnight if preferred. Remove the tea bags, squeeze the juice of one lemon into the jug and add the sugar if desired. Stir and pour over ice in tall glasses.

Hummus

Our detox handbook mentions ‘a small amount of hummus’ being allowed, so I adapted my usual hummus recipe by roasting the garlic cloves beforehand to soften the flavour and adding a little yoghurt to thin it down. This recipe also lacks the tahini found in most hummus.

300g can chickpeas, well drained
2 cloves garlic, roasted then peeled
½ tsp cayenne pepper
½ tsp salt
2 tbsp olive oil
1 lemon, juiced
2 tbsp light raw yoghurt

Place the chickpeas and all other ingredients, except for the yoghurt, in the food processor and process until smooth, adding a little more olive oil if needed to get the preferred consistency. Decant into a bowl and gently mix in the yogurt.