Chilli and Garlic Caramel Crab

 Lime, chilli and garlic caramel swimmer crab with sage butter potato medallions and a radish salad with ginger vinegar

I really enjoy food that heightens the senses with acute tastes, sharp on the palette contrasted against texture. I decided to experiment today and shift my focus to seafood and Asian fusion. I wanted to use beautiful soft crab meat to pair against bitter and sweet flavours, as well as adding soft and crisp elements with salad and vegetable. The meal has three elements and is a lot easier to finish quickly if you do all of your preparation first. Start with crab element, then potato than radish – quick fast execution gives you a beautiful meal that looks and tastes equally amazing.

Ingredients

Serves two

For the Crab

1 medium swimmer crab

2 tbsp butter

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine

½ tsp fish sauce

½ lime

1 clove garlic

1 small bullet chilli

For the Potatoes

2 medium washed potatoes

3 tbsp butter

3 – 4 sage leaves

Salt and pepper to taste

For the Radish and Ginger Vinegar

3 medium radishes

¼ cup vinegar

¼ cup caster sugar

¼ water

1 tsp finely chopped ginger

Sprouts for plating.

Directions

Start by preparing the crab; boil in a pot for 5 - 7 minutes. While boiling, dice chilli and garlic. When done, open the torso, clean and carefully remove the meat – this can be timely, but have patience. In a pan, heat butter and add remaining ingredients. Softly stir through the crab and remove from heat shortly after to avoid over cooking the crab meat. Set aside.

Slice two potatoes length ways, and using a scalloping instrument, make medallions and set aside. I was savvy and used a metal medicine measuring cup. In a pan, heat butter and add potato. Fry evenly on each side for 3 -5 minutes until brown, adding sage and salt. Set aside.

In a pan, combine ginger, vinegar, water and sugar and bring to the boil. Cook and reduce for 7 – 10 minutes. Slice radish and when vinegar has cooled, toss radish and plate.

Plating is your creative freedom, I used snowpea sprouts to lay under the delicate crab meat, and the heads to colour the dish. You can also serve crab legs in a bowl on the side, a chance to get sticky and messy after the delicate dish; it’s all about contrast, right.

My Inspiration and a Great Google Search Result

 Cooking for me has always been such a huge part of my childhood, I have so many beautiful memories of family and sharing meals. In later years, I found two extended members of my partially imaginary family – the Two Fat Ladies. The late Jennifer Paterson and Clarissa Dickson are two of the most inspirational cooks to date. Although they received a lot of criticism within the media for their weight, political correctness and culinary indulgence, I think a lot of people were missing the point and can agree that it is most definitely not for the light hearted.

No one can deny the value behind rich, over the top, artery clogging, decadent food, these ladies just took it to the next level. Behind every recipe was a story, an origin, a comic value and behind every meal was a table of unsuspected  niche group sort out by the women to cook for. I am a big boy at heart I think  - everything that they cook screams heart attack and there’s nothing better than having what you know you shouldn’t, at least in moderation.

‘Never trust a skinny cook’

‘Most vegetarians relapse on bacon, you know’

A lot of my recipe ideas come from this idea of decadence and the ‘no shame’ attitude Jennifer and Clarissa both had. Rarer, richer and robust. A lot of the recipes they cooked are niche and bordering on extinction so recreating an inspiration for the blog has really helped with the value it holds within the ‘blog world’.  After just short of 10 months of blogging, 39% of my recipes now hold top places within Google’s organic search. Admittedly  some of my recipes aren't very suspecting or common, but they still take the top of the board for what they are worth. I always grappled with the idea of ‘blogging’ but more than anything, it’s been really rewarding to actually achieve something that was inspired so much by my past. 

Carbonara and Orange Wineries

Carbonara takes its origins from Latium, Italy. Traditionally this recipe uses eggs alone to make a creamy sauce, it also uses bacon or pancetta. Like most of my recipes, my carbonara will also be bastardised, using speck, butter, cream and less cheese, it’s balanced really well and reminds me less of greasy pasta in pseudo Italian restaurants. I went away to Orange for the week, a country city located in the Central West region of NSW. Orange is everything you want in a getaway; good weather, food, wine and people. Orange holds a lot of history, amidst modern development and  still retains its architectural beauty.  I cooked my pasta for lunch, doubling as a thick-carbed lining for my stomach, before I spent the afternoon visiting wineries. 

While I was in Orange, I had the pleasure of meeting one of the owners of Word of Mouth Wines, a beautiful clean practice winery from Orange, located 1000m above sea level, growing beautiful grapes along the mountainside of Mt Canobolas. The winery currently stocks to some of Sydney’s finest restaurants like Long Grain. I am going to be working closer with Word of Mouth Wines, in months to come, in time for Orange Food Week (hopefully!) and as spring rolls along, to see a great yield of wine produced this year, which promises good things for the palette.

Ingredients

Serves four

500g  spaghetti

250g Speck

1 brown onion

2 cloves garlic

2 large field mushrooms

1 cup thickened cream

2 egg yolks

Pecorino cheese to taste

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Cut the speck into bite sized pieces, it will be beautifully marbled with fat and cured meat. Finely dice onions and garlic. The larger field mushrooms can be sliced thinly too, longways. In a pan, brown garlic, onion and mushrooms in butter. Once cooked and browned, set aside and cook speck, browning evenly on all sides. Add mushrooms, garlic and onions and set pan aside. Boil water, adding salt and olive oil and cook spaghetti as directed. Separately mix egg yolks with cream and add to the pan once it has cooled completely. This will stop the egg yolks from curdling. The egg yolks enhance the creaminess of the sauce, acting almost as a thickening agent.  Lastly combine pasta into pant and mix through, adding cheese, salt and pepper to taste.  

Paul Smith SS14 Zigzagging Between the 60’s and 70’s.

A first look at Paul Smith SS14 – With US Menswear Buyer for Paul Smith

Paul Smith has done it again, delivering another optimistic collection to the fashion world, carrying the power of cuts through from seasons past and moving ahead with optimism, colour and nostalgic prints. The collection contemporises flash colours proudly, paired with a classic Paul Smith English rock feel. The colour on colour blocking seen in previous seasons has evolved to geometric subtlety, with small, loud accents contrasted against black and unique hues. Paul creates a heightened proportion by elongating jackets and coats with leather extensions to the sleeve.

Although parallels can be drawn to the previous spring summer collection, which offered a nostalgic, kodachromatic excellence, Smith’s current master piece adds and extends, with greater lengths to exude English spring cheerfulness. This cheerfulness ties in a whimsical mushroom motif, with beautiful miniature pop colours, with each piece taking you on a trip through the 60’s.

True to inspiration, Smith also delivered key trends with models sporting the subtle ‘murse’ (man purse), geometric prints and an almost ‘teddy boy’ feel to the collection. Smith married sharp tailoring with a move to a more sports aesthetic.  

Paul Smith Menswear Buyer for the USA, Tyler Ruzicka gives exclusive key notes on the collection. 

The collection for SS14 was a story of rock and roll, the Rolling Stones, bordering on a psychedelic throwback, with an emphasis on contemporary sportswear meets vintage tailoring and new shapes for a modern Paul Smith man.

The themes followed an emphasis on dusty pastels with pops of damson and turquoise as well as electric pink, alluding to the psychedelic reference. Mushroom prints and prismatic colours further aided to the retro feel established.

I personally believe the contemporary sportswear will carry this collection. Key pieces are the vibrant mushroom, hand painted shirt as well as the mushroom print sweat top, eluding to a youthful, playful market. New formal-meets-playful trousers are also a strong feature. Mixed leather and engineered fabrics are classic in shape but modern in execution. Appealing to a the fresh, hip client.

A subtle colour pallet with pops of vibrant hues makes this collection eye catching and exciting. Texture is key in continuing to carry on this excitement. 

Images taken from style.com

Speck and Porcini Bow Pasta

This is an easy eat, with plenty of flavour. I like salt, a lot. So this recipe uses speck, a beautifully cured pork leg that comes from the Italian region of Alto Adige. It has a beautiful flavour, smoked with juniper and pine wood, cured in salt and herbs. If you are using capers, always buy capers kept in sea salt, they have a nicer after taste. Porcini mushrooms too, are a poor man’s answer to the truffle, a middle ground between common field mushrooms and the almighty truffle.  Because it is quite hard to cultivate and production is localised within Europe and Asia mostly, the porcini mushroom is often dried for year round sale.

Ingredients

Serves two

2 cups bow pasta

150g Speck

1 small red onion

2 tbsp porcini mushrooms

½ cup frozen green peas

2 tbsp salted capers

¼ cup olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Start by cooking the bow pasta, adding salt and olive oil. Dice the speck and fry on medium to high heat, tossing regularly, browning evenly. Separately, soak the diced porcini mushrooms. Dice red onions and set aside. When the pasta is half cooked, add the peas and allow cooking until both al dente. When the speak is near complete, add porcini mushrooms with a little of the remaining juices and stir through speck.

Combine all ingredients and add olive oil, salt and pepper to taste

Winter Fritters with Tuna, Corn and Courgette

Winter is definitely starting to set in, it’s harder to wake up, leave the house, in fact, the only thing that isn’t hard to do is eat. My winter alias is Juanita Solis. Today I served up beautiful winter fritters, with the base herbs warming the dish to bring the taste buds into season. The fritters are powered with chilli, cumin and smoked paprika and served with sweet chilli sauce and fresh mint leaves.

Ingredients

Yields 6 - 7

1 cup fresh corn

½ courgette/zucchini

1 small can tuna

1 regular potato

1 egg

½ cup flour

1 tsp chilli flakes

½ tbsp cumin

1 tsp powdered mustard

½ tsp smoked paprika

Mint leaves

Sweet chilli sauce  

Directions

In a bowl, combine grated courgette/zucchini, boiled potato, corn, tuna and herbs. Mix through to combine ingredients. Soon after add beaten egg and flour. The mixture should start to stick. On a medium heat, in olive oil, cook the fritters in a non stick pan, cooking 3 -5 minutes on each side. Press down once on each side, checking for excess liquid, a sign of a non cooked centre.

Serve with sweet chilli sauce and fresh mint leaves, for freshness. 

Love the Pavlova

I want to start by saying baking is NOT my strong point. I made a ruby inspired pavlova, mostly with the intention of playing around with meringue and egg whites. There are as many recipes and secrets to the perfect pavlova as there are pavlovas made daily, so it is purely a matter of trial and error until you find the right mix. Pavlova has been a big part of my dessert life up until now; Christmas, birthdays, Easter, and mostly just because.

I concentrated on the stiffening of the egg whites with sugar; there were so many methods to this sugary madness so I’m going to play until I find the perfect method and ingredient ratio. My pav started beautifully rising in the oven, cooked in a spring tin (my mixture was a little too fluid), then fell a little. What I learnt from my first attempt was the following;

1.       Egg whites need to be relatively stiff before adding the sugar incrementally. You can possibly over beat them if you beat the sugar into the mixture too late or early.

2.       The meringue mixture should not be grainy when you rub between your fingers, to test

3.       Eggs should be at room temperature, with NO traces of yolk; the slightest trace of fat will throw off the stiffening process.

4.       Make sure you clean all utensils (bowl and beater) with hot water, removing all residual grease, cleaning with a paper cloth or towel.

5.       You need to find a supreme ratio between egg whites, vinegar, sugar and cornflour, so many variations!  

6.       Cook for 1.5 to 2 hours at 120 degrees Celsius and leave to sit in oven with the door open for at least 30 minutes before removing or decorating.

7.       Caster sugar is NOT the same as labelled white sugar – I had a very, very stupid moment.

Ingredients

Serves 6 – 8

6 egg whites

1.5 cups caster sugar

3 tbsp cornflour

1 tsp white vinegar

½ tsp vanilla extract

Marty’s Topping

1 cup thickened cream, whipped

1 punnet strawberries

½ small pomegranate

1 passionfruit

3 tsp good quality honey

Directions

Start preheating the oven at 120 degrees C/ 248 degrees F. Separate egg whites into a clean mixing bowl. Start by beating on a medium speed, until soft peaks have formed. Once you have done so, start adding sugar incrementally, continually blending until stiff peaks form, changing the speed from medium to medium high. You should be able to tip the blow above you r head without the mixture falling. Be careful not to over beat the mixture; the meringue will collapse. Fold in cornflour, vinegar and vanilla extract with a plastic folding cake spatula.

Place on a baking tray, lined with baking paper, at a diameter of 20 cm. I had used a baking tray with sprayed sides. The fat from the oil had obviously affected the meringue as it fell slightly. Concentrate on forming a stiff meringue mixture to avoid having to use a spring tin.

While the pavlova is baking, whip cream and set aside. After the pavlova has cooked and hardened nicely all over, let it sit in the oven to dry out with the door open.  Dress the pavlova by spreading the whipped cream, placing strawberries within the centre. With a wooden spoon, hit the back of the pomegranate to remove seeds without breaking them. Do so into a bowl and spoon nicely all over. Finish with passionfruit and make thin circles around the cake with honey, creating a nest effect.

Pan Asian Brussel Sprout Pastries with Cucumber vinegar

A beautiful pastry filled with chilli brussel sprouts and almonds, served with chilled cucumber vinegar.

I have been obsessing over the beautiful Thai cucumber vinegar dipping sauce served with many appetizers. I did a fusion recipe, combining brussels, a little more western with all Thai ingredients to create a pastry to be served with the beautiful dipping sauce.

The end result was a warm pillow of puff pastry centred with a savory brussel sprout and almond filling, dipped into sweet vinegar: a marriage of sweet and savory and of pastry and vinegar

Ingredients

Serves two - three

For the pastries

400g brussel sprouts, chopped

1 clove garlic

1 tsp ginger

1 shallot/scallion

½ cup almonds, chopped

1 small bullet chilli

2 tbsp fish sauce

2 tbsp Chinese cooking wine

1 tsp soy sauce

½ tsp satay oil from sauce

½ tsp corn flour

1 tbsp brown sugar

Salt and white pepper

Cucumber Vinegar

¼ cup water

¼ cup white vinegar

¼ cup white sugar

½ cup cucumber, chopped

½ tsp ginger, crushed

½ tsp garlic, chopped

Directions

 Combine vinegar, water and sugar and boil until sugar has dissolved, then remove from heat and add cucumber, garlic and ginger once cooled and rest.

In a pan add minced garlic, ginger and chilli to some olive oil, fry and add brussels. Add all wet ingredients and coat brussels, cooking for 2 minutes before adding sugar and corn flour. Cook until brussels are soft, add chopped almonds and shallots and set aside to cool.

Take each sheet of puff pastry and divide into four squares. Spoon the brussels into the middle, fold over pastry to create triangles. Raise edges with your hands and pull the two bottom ends of the triangle inwards and link tips of pastry, creating a floral shape. With a fork, spike the edges of the pastry to create air and help raise edges. Coat each pastry with milk to help browning.

Place in a preheated oven of 200 degrees Celsius/392 degrees Fahrenheit and cook for 25 minutes.