FoodieChat

Ever since watching Masterchef, I’ve had bad bad food cravings! By bad I mean naughty foods, but also unrelenting cravings! One was for seafood bisque - due to the masterclass (lobster bisque with linguine); and the celebrity chef challenge from that singaporean chef (scampi bisque sauce).  Since I didn’t want to bother with the billions of ingredients that Gary used which included tarragon, mint, lobster, thyme, I opted to use the singaporean chef’s one - but using prawn shells and heads instead.  So for 2 serves, it involved: 14 prawns, half a bulb of fennel, half a leek, and half an onion, 3 loaves of garlic - saute in olive oil until cooked; then add half a chopped tomato, and cover it with water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 45 minutes.  In another pot, I boiled up the linguine; and then when the bisque was almost done, I deveined and butterflied the prawns, and sauteed those in olive oil, garlic and chilli.  Then I strained the bisque, added a dash of cream and seasoning, poured over the prawns, and thickened with a little flour, and tossed throug hthe linguine. Garnish with chopped parsley. Very nice! Inspired by recipes from www.masterchef.com.au.  

Do you love fresh crab meat but can’t be bothered picking it yourself from the shells? Well, hope you’ve got more than spare change because at the fish markets, pre-picked crab meat is $20 for 200g! That’s very expensive compared to DIY-ing. The best crab to get is blue swimmer because it’s the cheapest, easiest to handle and I find that its flesh comes out the easiest.  At $18 a kg, one crab is about 1/3 of a kg, and has enough meat for a generous portion for one - 100g on the one I bought. That’s significantly cheaper!  Here’s how you do it.

Buy the numbers of crab you need (1 per person) - this recipe will be for one.  Then place in a steamer - improvised by using a metal dish on a rack in a wok filled with 5cm deep hot water.  Steam crab for 20 mins.  When cool, peel the bottom shell off, and peel off all the gills and guts. It’s not that bad actually! Then break off the hard top shell, and break the crab in half.  Using a crab picker, a bread knife or your clean fingers, pluck out the meat and into a bowl.

Boil your spaghetti according to the packet instructions. Finely chop 1 clove of garlic, half a small birds eye chilli and some parsley.  Heat up a frypan with a lug of olive oil, and heat up the garlic until softened, but not burnt.  Then add the chilli, and finally, toss through the crab meat and the spaghetti with a bit of the spaghetti water to loosen.  Scatter with parsley and serve.  Crab linguine with chilli garlic and parsley for $6!

Watching Gordon Ramsay shows has inspired me to make simple meals with special ingredients, and present them in a clean way.  This dish took only 5 ingredients (6 if you count the beans!). And so easy to make. Who said cooking for one is fussy?

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One pot cooking for 15 friends? Go for a paella. I must admit I’ve always been scared off because a) it uses saffron - so expensive and how do you use it b) seafood - and lots of it - how do you time it correctly and c) well it’s kinda exotic.  Well thanks to a SunRice recipe and also Donna Hay, I’ve come up with a hybrid of the two recipes that seemed to please the crowd I had over.  I served it with sangria too - as long as there’s red wine, vodka, chopped fruit - the variations are up to you!

Ingredients (for 15)

• 2 cups arborio rice
• a pinch of saffron, soaked in 2 tblspoons hot water
• 1 chopped onion
• 2 chorizo sausages
• 1 squid tube
• 1 sliced red capsicum
• half kg of uncooked prawns
• 500g chicken meat
• 5 cups chicken stock
• 300g piece of fish fillet (I used barramundi)
• 1 tablespoon smokey paprika
• 2 tablespoons chopped parsley

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Undoubtedly the most impressive seafood platter in Sydney, with great views to go with it.  For $132, you can feast on seafood whilst watching the sunset over the city skyline and over Cockle Bay.  And I’m not the only person snapping away on my camera, as the seafood platter makes its way to every table - often more than one of them!  Easily feeding two with no room for dessert, every oceanic creature man has a taste for is in front of you on two levels, leaving you wondering how you will attack it and whether your stomach can indeed fit so much in.  Well my strategy was firstly to eat some of the ten oysters (which for an extra $8 were prepared kilpatrick - sorry can’t eat raw guts ) before they got cold, then some of the whole lobster tail - so that I can still enjoy the tender meat before I’m too full to appreciate it.  Next, one of the two tandoori prawns while it was still hot. Same for the bbq octopus.

The two beer battered fish fillets were crispy on the outside, with fresh silky flesh inside, only needed a squeeze of lemon juice and a sprinkle of salt.  Well the half dozen prawns on skewers didn’t tempt me much, so left it to dad… same with the bowl of cooked mussels.  Loosening my belt, I attacked one of the two blue swimmer crabs - the flesh easily coming out of the shell without needing a pick, tasting of the sea as it should.  And finishing it off with one or two thick cut chips.  *Groan*. (more…)