kina roe

I went to the fish shop today and there was so much choice I ended up buying way too much.  I got

Clevedon Oysters

Kina (sea urchin)

Groper (Hapuka) heads and

greek style marinated octopus

The guy who owns the fish shop is greek.  The octopus were in a container with olive oil, bay leaves and lots of other herbal flavours.  I felt a bit guilty as I recently saw a documentary about how intelligent octopus are – they really can unscrew the lid from a jar!

The oysters and kina were eaten raw and unadulterated, as they were meant to be.  The Kina were nice and fat – check out the size of those roes.  yumyumyum

I found an awesome recipe for genuine Singapore style fishhead soup.  When I lived in Otahuhu there used to a hole in the wall place called the Singapore Noodle Restaurant.  Its long gone now but the woman there made the most amazing, flavourful fish head soup.

I like groper because its got hardly any scales, it is also pretty meaty and works well with this dish.

]]> http://abtoklas.wordpress.com/2012/05/25/cheese-masterclass/ Fri, 25 May 2012 22:39:22 +0000 abtoklas http://abtoklas.wordpress.com/2012/05/25/cheese-masterclass/ I went to cheese school today.  A Christmas pressie from my darling though I am not sure I want to add cheese making to the considerable culinary burden I already carry.  We learned how to make Halloumi and Feta and used the Whey to make ricotta.   We also filled in some time making mascopone and greek yoghurt using different cultures and UHT milk. It was all surprisingly easy and I feel reasonably confident that I can make them at home.

Luckily the venue was right near some good cafes so we trekked off to get coffee and cakes.   My cheeses are sitting in my fridge right now.  I have to remember to turn the Feta every hour, it wont be ready til Friday and the Halloumi on Tuesday, though I’ll leave it a bit longer because I can!  We had a couple of interesting characters in class.  A chef home on holiday from the Middle East where his employer has imported a herd of Jersey cows.  He is here to learn some basic cheese skills  that might come in handy for using the excess milk.  He told us that he currently prepares 5o kilos of yoghurt per week from milk powder and it absolutely impossible to tell the difference between it and yoghurt prepared from fresh milk. A couple of ladies from the Valley whom I’ll call Heidi and Gretchen were also in the Class.  They live on neighbouring “lifestyle” blocks.  They grow all their own vegetables and one of them raises poultry, pigs, a couple of cows and a goat.  As you’d imagine, they were evangelical in their praise of all things organic. Heidi was was slightly concerned at the idea of using an iodine bath to sterilise equipment and ourselves .  Then a tedious discussion was pursued by Heidi about why her yoghurt starter or “bug” sometimes doesn’t work.  Cheese teacher person was explaining the way different bacterias react and can cancel out each others effect, in short Heidi your bug might be dead.  at this point I crashed in a heap on the floor, bored senseless.  But I was revived (unlike her yoghurt bug) with a speedily administered short-black coffee

My dad was a butcher and we regularly went home to the whanau farm so dead animals swaying on hooks in the breeze, pig head in the pot, huhu bug sizzling on the stovetop – nothing to me.   A few weeks ago a work colleague asked me where he could get casings for his home made sausages. Over Christmas I caught up with some one who is experimenting with making  his own baccalau, that whiffy dried fish, whose original existence was probably like all salted foods, to do with preservation for travel.  This newish phenomena of  the middle classes wanting to produce the raw product as well as cook it is very interesting.  Interesting because they don’t actually need to, these are their chosen hobbies. In New Zealand , there have been four hunting accidents – blokes killing each other instead of the animal they’re stalking.  Duck shooting season starts today.  Wahey! since the ducks are supposed to be flying when they’re shot, you would expect your hunting companions to be safe wouldn’t you?  Well I thought I’d check, and there’s one dead already

http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/hunter-killed-first-day-duck…L

I did sense some regret on his part that he had left it so long.  I have been trying to get him down here for years but he is stubborn, proud and grumpy in equal parts.  At the end, I just bought return tickets and dropped them off to him, telling him I’d be there to pick him up.

He went to Te Papa 2 days running and still hasn’t seen everything.  Yesterday we went to the recntly renovated Roxy Theatre in Miramar to see Hugo in 3-D then we went to Mr Ji’s in Petone for dinner.  Dad ordered the pork intestines stir-fried Szechuan style, which sounds pretty disgusting but was actually not bad.  I also took him to my up-til-then secret offal supplier.  I usually drop off some delicacies to him every 3 months or so.  Yesterday he stocked up on beef tongue, lamb tongue, lamb hearts, sweetbreads and beef cheeks – I kid you not.  It must be a post-WW11 waste not, want not thing. He was a very happy pensioner when I took him to the airport this morning

We put a transistor radio next to his bed so he could listen to his peers bleating about the world on talk-back, catch the horse scratching at the races and keep tabs on the rugby score. No Dad now so we’re having vegetarian, not that we ate offal but my carnivorous self needs some balancing now.

I’m making moong dahl with spinach; Puri and stuffed silken tofu, the latter from a recipe I nicked off Luke Nyugen.  I’m pretty sure that’s not going to be enough so I’ll think of something to supplement it as I go.Here is a link to the recipe for the silken tofu:

http://www.sbs.com.au/shows/lukenguyen/recipes/detail/recipe/8152

The recipe says to coat the tofu in the mixture, but on the episode I saw, he made a slit in each piece and pushed a little of the mix into it, which I have done here.

Puri is deep fried Indian bread, its pretty easy to make and the oil I need for the tofu can be used for the puri.  Do them last as they taste best when they’re really fresh.  Use Chapati flour maybe 100 grams per person, salt to taste and a tablespoon of ghee, rub that in then add lukewarm water to make a stiff dough and leave for ½ hour.   Roll into golf balls, or maybe a bit smaller, then roll out to an even shaped disc, 1cm thick. Heat the oil so that a leaf browns instantly.  Do one at a time, ensuring the oil remains at a constant temperature, flick with oil and turn over to brown the other side, they should puff up into balls.  Once done put into a kichen paper lined bowl and cover to keep warm.  Serve immediately you finish all of them.

Puri with stuffed tofu in the background

Anyway I got the young man to sell me a tail piece intact, enough for three people.  We’re fairly regular seafood eaters and are not afraid of a few bones.  I have a friend, European origin, his home country is surrounded by water who grabbed his wife’s arm for support when I attempted to share some of a whole fish dish with him.  Huh!

The bone ensures that the fish remains moist.  I use my thinnest sharp knife to pierce it in each of the four corners around the bone then I shove a variety of flavourings into the holes.  Tonight I have some lemongrass, their spears are excellent drilling material, some tarragon, a few thin slices of lemon, oregano .  I have ready a baking dish into which I’ve got generous sheet of baking paper.  Spread whatever left over herbs you have on the bottom, in the tail print of your fish, add some lemon slices, making sure its all reasonably flat.  Put the fish on top, sprinkle with white wine (you might need to juggle a bit with the baking paper to make sure the wine doesn’t seep out the sides and add a good amount of salt rubbed into the skin and the end, just because its fish doesn’t mean you don’t need to season it.  Wrap it up in a nice tidy, non-leaking  parcel.  You can either secure it with kitchen string or as I do, use some of those cooking bands that look like rubber.  I find I can secure it length-ways too.  Bake in a hot (200C) oven for about 35 -40 mins

I am going to serve it with a pretty plain risotto, maybe with broad beans in it.
I know its not just Catholics that eat fish on Friday, I do however, enjoy referencing such traditions even though Catholicism’s hold over me ended when I was 10 and saw Father B smoking a cigarette after delivering a sermon on the evils of tobacco.

School is back, its wonderful to see all the kids back in their uniforms and togas, of the latter, Dunedin’s Otago University continues to milk its reputation as both the oldest University in New Zealand and the most  charmingly adolescent.  Each newsworthy toga outing is referenced to the positive economic benefits brought to this otherwise frigid wasteland by the progeny of Auckland’s finest lawyers and bankers  not to mention Southlands landed gentry.  From Dipton to Granity they’re drawn.  Hope the kids are alright.  Samuel Johnson had them sussed:

Proceed illustrious youth,

And Virtue guard thee to the throne of Truth!

Yet should thy soul indulge the generous heat,

Till captive Science yields her last retreat:

Should Reason guide thee with her brightest ray,

And pour on misty Doubt restless day;

Should no false Kindness lure to loose delight,

Nor Praise relax, nor Difficulty fright;

Should tempting Novelty thy cell refrain,

And Sloth effuse her opiate fumes in vain;

Should Beauty blunt on fops her fatal dart,

Nor claim the triumph of a lettered heart;

Should no Disease thy torpid veins invade,

Nor Melancholy’s phantoms haunt thy shade

Hmmmm, I think Sam would’ve flipped his whig.

Anyway I bought some whitebait, $40.00 per pound so no laughing matter.  I served half as light fritters for some friends and the rest, I  turned into inni mini souffle, pictured below. I wont bother to put the recipes up, I got the souffle from Annabel Langbein’s book The Free Range Cook, which you can GOOGLE if you’re keen. If you can’t make a decent whitebait fritter before paying the extortionist price being charged for them then you’re an idiot and don’t deserve my help.

The whitebait I’ve been getting has lost flavour over the years, not sure if this an environmental or human factor but … I think that 2012 is the last year I partake of this fine tradition. Flavour needs to be pretty damned distinguished to justify all the work, not to mention having hundreds of tiny fishies gaping at you as you churn them with egg.