When it’s ready, put the whole parcel on the plate and very carefully, using scissors, snip open the bag and take in the aromas, and the most AMAZING melt in your mouth fish ever.

You can serve it at the table for dramatic effect, or lift it out of the bag carefully and preserve every last drop of that precious yummy sauce! Chuck on some more freshly chopped parsley to serve.

I seriously can’t emphasise just how easy it was to make this dish. And the best bit is that if you’re careful, the only thing you’ll need to wash is your plate!  It’s certainly something you can incorporate into your weeknight dinner repertoire – or dare I say – a weeknight dinner PARTY repertoire?

First up, I bought this lovely fella – it was $15 a kg and this guy was 3kgs.  He was really gross to touch though

I thought it was great value, as the salmon is already gutted, so you’re really eating pretty much all of it except the head and the spine!  First, wash him and then pat dry with a paper towel.  Next, stuff his belly with fronds of dill and parsley, and some lemon slices.  Then, rub him all over with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Wrap tightly in foil – double layers – and oops, I was lazy and didn’t grease the top layer of foil, thinking the oil on the fish was enough to make it non stick. So, the skin came off, oops  Nevermind.  Put the whole wrapped parcel on your barbeque on medium heat.  And cook it for 30 –  40 minutes.  It’s cooked if you stab through it and your skewer or knife goes through easily  This is what he looked like when we unwrapped it.

And after we ate the top layer, between 14 of us, we only ate 3/4 of the fish!  It was totally cooked to perfection.  One second more and it wouldn’t have been so perfect. Thumbs up guys! It was soo silky and delicate.  Highly recommend this for your Christmas table!

As if that wasn’t enough, Cecilia also cooked a pork roast.   Salt the skin and leave it overnight in the fridge to dehydrate and you’ll have the most perfect crackling.

Some vegetable is required – and the grilled capsicum and green zucchinis definitely suited the occasion with their very Christmassy colours!

My plate – a bit piggy? We also had chargrilled prawns and a rocket salad with pear, walnuts and pancetta.

After a couple of hours rolling around the floor in pain from over indulging, our bellies made some room for dessert which came in the form of chocolate tart . The recipe is the Matt Moran one from masterchef.  I added some of the extra roasted walnuts on top, but really I was lazy, I should have made them into praline, but I was in my food induced coma

And the slightly lighter option was creme caramel.  It’s just eggs, sugar and milk – how healthy is that?  I was very pleased with this one, using full cream milk absolutely makes a difference as it makes a more substantial custard.   Loved it!

And to wash it all down – sangria!  I had a few glasses of this, sooo easy to drink!!

Thanks for reading me guys, have a wonderful Christmas! And let me know what’s on your Christmas table this year

Foodiechat xoxo

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.  

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!

Ingredients (Serves 1)

• 1 piece of salmon
• Half a bulb of fennel, finely sliced
• 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
• 1.5 cups of chicken stock
• 1 teaspoon chopped parsley or thyme

Method

1. In a saucepan, heat a tablespoon of olive oil and saute garlic until fragrant.
2. Add fennel, then stock (or half stock, half white wine – sorry to gourmets but I can’t open a whole bottle of wine for one meal hehehe). Cover and bring to the boil
3. Simmer until fennel is tender and the sauce is reduced.  Add salt and pepper to taste.
4. Stir through half a teaspoon of red wine vinegar and the chopped parsley.
5. Season the salmon.  Heat a small frypan with olive oil, and cook salmon, turning only once.
6. Dish up the fennel, and serve with salmon on top.  Spoon over the sauce, serve with steamed greens.

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

Method

1. In a large (I meant large!) deep frypan or paella pan, saute the sliced chorizo until cooked.  Set aside. Do the same for the chicken.
2. Add a tablespoon of olive oil to the pan, and saute the onion until translucent.  Add the rice and saute slightly to form a crust on the outside so it doesn’t go all gluggy when you cook it.
3. Add the paprika, saffron (and water) and the stock, and bring to the boil.
4. Arrange the seafood and capsicum in a nice pattern in the pan, add back the chorizo and the chicken, and place lid on the pan. Simmer on low-medium heat for 20-25mins or until the seafood and rice is cooked.
5. Scatter chopped parsley, and bring to the table to serve.

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*. I didn’t feel like dad pulled his weight on the platter… especially since he has one thing I lack – self control to stop eating when I’m hungry!!The wok steamed mussels ($29.5) – “spicy thai style black mussels tossed with fresh cooked ditali pasta” are presented in a full size wok filled with black mussels in a spicy thai broth, brimming with garlic, chillis, coriander and ginger.  It’s great to dunk bread into the remaining liquid, or to even sneak in some lobster from the seafood platter to soak up the juices . The grilled barramundi fillet ($35.5) with sauteed potato, roasted garlic and almond sauce was just cooked,  on a bed of spinach and potatoes, and was a generous serve – and no complaints of fishiness. 

My only gripe was when we ordered a serve of garlic bread ($4 for 2 slices) the waiter took the liberty of bringing it for the table.  And watch out for the weekend surcharge though! But do come whilst the weather is good and the evenings late and sit back and enjoy seafood and sunset.