FoodieChat

It is SO cold lately, that all I want to eat every night coming home from work is a hot bowl of noodle soup.  Usually that’s noodles (udon, egg noodles, rice noodles), with veges of some sort, meat of some sort and some fish balls.  Tonight, I had some leftovers from a steamboat meal so my trick was to poach all the ingredients for just long enough to cook them without turning them into a soggy mess.  Two bowls of water going at once.  One for the fish ball squares – they need to be boiled for 10minutes.  And whilst that is going, poach the other ingredients in order of delicateness - golden mushrooms, shitaki mushrooms, then the tripe and finally the seafood ever so slightly.  Rinse the rice noodles under hot water (if you boil them they will be too soggy). And make the soup base: boil 2 cups of chicken stock, and add a slurp of soy sauce, a sprinkle of white pepper, a few drops of sesame oil and some chopped spring onions.  Place refreshed noodles in a bowl, and arrange all the ingredients nicely on top.  Pour on the hot soup and serve steaming hot.  No need for heaters and woolly socks, you will be warmed to the core In 15 minutes flat too

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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