Home-Cured Kingfish 'Bacon'

Most of us know pancetta, the famous Italian version of bacon, which is essentially pork belly that has been salted and spiced, and left to dry for around 3 months. But which of us would have thought of making pancetta with fish?

Well, thanks to the the ingenuity of Melbourne chef, Matt McConnell, the brains behind Bar Lourinha, I've had the joy of making this myself. The recipe for this dish appeared in the September 2006 issue of the Australian Gourmet Traveller, and I've been wanting to make it for the longest time, except that I couldn't find any decent kingfish around Brisbane. Or maybe I just wasn't looking in the right places.

Anyway, John West, the household name known best for tinned salmon, has recently released a range of packaged fresh seafood for Coles supermarket shelves. Within the range I found yellowtail kingfish, one of those wonderful foods that I've been hunting down for ages. In a snap, I bought a pack, and raced straight home to finally make this dish that I've been dreaming about for months.



Kingfish Pancetta

400 gm piece of yellowtail kingfish, skinned and boned

'Pancetta' spice mix:
165 gm sea salt
3/4 tsp sweet paprika
1/4 tsp each of ground allspice, ground cloves and ground cinnamon
1 tsp finely chopped thyme
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp sugar

Mix all ingredients for spice mix in a large bowl. Roll fish in spice mix and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 4 hours, then unwrap and pat dry with absorbent paper. Wrap fish in muslin cloth (you can use kitchen towels or paper towels) and continue to refrigerate overnight or for up to 4 days. The flavour will develop and intensify over time.

Before I sliced my fish, I rinsed it with water to remove the excess salt. This was not specified in the original recipe, but I found it too salty initially when I didn't rinse it first. Using a sharp knife, slice kingfish very thinly on an angle. Arrange slices on a plate and drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice. Scatter with any kinds of herbs or greens as you wish. Here, I have used thyme and sliced red onion, which works very well with the saltiness of the fish.

If you can't get you hands on kingfish, I reckon salmon would be a decent alternative. Just make sure its really fresh, and not looking like those sad one that seem to have been stepped on (quite a common scene at supermarket seafood counters).



This dish makes entertaining a breeze- just slice up the fish in advance, lay it on a large platter, and scatter over the greens. When your guests arrive, simply drizzle over the olive oil and fresh lemon juice. Crack some pepper over the top and pass around with toothpicks. Everyone will be grinning, I guarantee you that!

Technorati tags: food and drink, food, brisbane, food blogs, slow food, kitchen expeditions, seafood, hamachi, hiramasa, yellowtail kingfish, curing, pancetta, carpaccio, thyme, red onion

Pasta with rocket pesto and ricotta fritta

A pesto is a fabulous sauce to have on hand at any time. It can be tossed through pasta, potatoes, salads, mixed into a cream sauce for meat and seafood, or literally drizzled over anything at all. Making pesto is so simple, and the ingredients required are few. Just be sure to follow the general guidelines below. Once you have tasted your own fresh pesto, you'd never go back to buying it off the shelves.

PESTO 101

- Use a good handful of greens per batch of pesto. Basil, rocket, coriander and parsley are all widely used to make pesto, basil being the most traditional.

- Use a handful of freshly grated parmesan-type cheese (parmigianno reggiano, pecorino, grana padano, romano, etc). Never be tempted to use those longlife shelf versions, they just don't match up. Someone once compared their aroma to baby vommit.. I second that.

- Use half a clove of raw garlic (not half an entire head!). Just a little raw garlic goes a pretty long way.

- Throw in a couple of teaspoons of toasted pinenuts, macadamia nuts, almonds or hazlenuts. Pinenuts are the most commonly used. Add more if you prefer a chunkier pesto.

- Add one cup of good extra virgin olive oil. Make sure it is extra virgin, because you want that fruity flavour. Add more later, if necessary, to thin down the pesto.

- Whiz everything together in a blender, or you can opt for the more traditional method, via mortar and pestle. Do not overblend as the excess heat generated by the blades can 'kill' the wonderful aromas of the herbs. Season liberally with salt and black pepper.

-I like to add a little lemon juice to balance the oiliness of pesto. This citric acidity also adds a touch of 'zinginess'.

For dinner, I made up a batch of rocket pesto and tossed it through some hot pasta. Then I topped it off with some ricotta fritters that I picked up from Jamie Oliver's book, Jamie's Italy. For this recipe you need to use fresh, crumbly ricotta from the counter section of the supermart, or a deli. Creamy ricotta from plastic tubs will not work here.

Jamie Oliver's Ricotta Fritti

455 gm crumbly ricotta cheese
2 tbsp finely grated parmesan cheese
1.5 tbsp flour
1 large egg
salt and pepper

Mix ingredients in a bowl. Season well. Cook spoonfuls of batter in a hot, oiled pan on both sides till crispy, but moist on the inside. Eat immediately.

Technorati tags: food and drink, food, brisbane, food blogs, slow food, kitchen expeditions, italian food, pasta, pesto, ricotta, fritta, fritti, spaghetti, parmesan, fritter

Stir Fried Snake Beans, Tofu and Scallion

We stumbled upon some lovely looking snake beans (a.k.a. yardlong beans) today. Snake beans are, as you can probably tell, a member of the legume family, a close cousin to the more familiar green or haricot bean. These beans are wrinkly and pretty long, measuring up to over 30 centimetres. They can often be found on Chinese restaurant menus, stir fried with a fiery and garlicky pork mince. You can easily source them from most Asian grocery stores and some green grocers.



Tonight I took a much simpler approach to cooking these. This stir fried dish literally takes minutes to prepare from the wok to the plate, or in my case, Chinese soup spoons. Lately, I've also been experimenting with the 'under 5' formula, something that I have come about to believe in. Basically, this idea holds that the number of key ingrediens used in a particular dish should be no more than 5. Hence, with such great simplicity, the beauty of the individual ingredients can truly shine through. These 5 ingredients include all solids, but exclude liquid seasonings such as oils and vinegars, and salt and pepper.

Here the fabulous 5 ingredients were:
snake beans, diced
firm tofu, diced
scallion (spring onion), diced
chilli, sliced
garlic, sliced

paired with the following seasonings:
sesame oil
fish sauce
salt
white pepper powder

Method:
Saute diced firm tofu in a wok or pan with a decent amount of oil to coat. Once cubes start to brown on all sides, add in the garlic, snake beans and a pinch of salt. Continue to fry for 5 minutes till beans soften slightly. Season with a moderate amount of fish sauce, sesame oil and white pepper. Throw in scallion pieces and chilli slices. Stir fry for a further 30 seconds and serve.

These go great with steamed rice as part of a large family style meal. Or you could even be a little more adventerous and use it as a vegetarian taco filling; there's nothing more liberating than letting your imagination run wild!

Nonya Style Glutinous Rice Parcels Wrapped in Bamboo Leaves

A mouthful of a title, isn't it. Well, that's pretty much what a Nonya 'Chang' is - Nonya styled stewed meat, stuffed in a bamboo-leave wrapped glutinous rice parcel. It is an East Asian delicacy that fervent households would churn out annually to mark the month of the Dragon Boat Festival. It is tradition that Chang or Zongzi is made during the month when the festival is held. There are many variations of this delicacy, but this Nonya one happened to be the 'easier' version that I was willing to attempt as a first timer. What I also mean to say is that, as much as I welcome a challenge, I'd rather not shoot for the sky and risk setting myself up for failure afterwards (and not to mention, making a terrible mess of the kitchen and wasting good ingredients).



I got this particular recipe from Miss Lily's lovely site. Apparently, she in turn took her recipe from the book, The Best of Singapore Cooking by Mrs Leong Yee Soo. The recipe was titled Kueh Chang Babi, and a great recipe it is indeed! Most of the ingredients listed can be purchased at any large Asian grocers' here. Try Yuen's at Suunybank or Fortitude Valley and Burlington's at Fortitude Valley as well. There are also more Asian supermarkets around Sunnybank, but we usually stick to the above mentioned places.

Now, to the part where we actually make the chang.

T'was a rather daunting task for us, attempting to make chang. Not only are there several different components to prepare beforehand (soaking bamboo leaves, rendering pork fat, preparing blue dye, etc), but the long cooking process to acheive the perfect al dente yet soft, delicious glutinous rice (bursting with rich, meaty stuffing) makes the whole cooking experience an ardous but rewarding one.

May I also add that folding these little parcels of goodness is an entricate artform in itself! Right now, we're still greenhorns with a long way to go before we master the art of folding chang, or at least getting the hang of making proper symetrical pyramid shapes. Oh, and having Bjorn around didn't help much either, for he made an equal mess of them.

Fruitful as it was, the whole exercise took the most part of the day, and cleaning up wasn't funny either. But they tasted and looked nice, and we hope you enjoy the pictures nonetheless!

Technorati tags: food and drink, food, brisbane, food blogs, slow food, kitchen expeditions, chinese cuisine, chinese, chinese cooking, nonya, bak chang, glutinous rice, bamboo