Tapas Off

The most recent in a line-up of offs, (See Pie off, and Curry off) The Tapas Off was a roaring success, I think we have mastered the little bites of food and often for offs rather than large meals.

With 7 of us taking part there were many tasty morsels to be had, Starting with a Mezze plate (or is that more Turkish?) Slivers of melt in your mouth prosciutto, a crumbly mature Cheddar, olives, crusty bread, and Andrew had pickled Sardines which came out fantastic and octopus with not so much success!


L&T made stuffed mushrooms, My mum says "Life is too short to stuff mushrooms" Even if it takes a while theses were delish!


Andrew deep fried white bait, white bait are tasty but the tiny bones were a bit disconcerting, best when straight out of the hot oil.

The Boy made Empanadas, he even made the dough (pastry?) they actually turned out a little like Cornish pasties. very tasty.

Oh dear these were Bad. Andrew bought a Tapas book and this looked so strange we said he had to make them, Not sure what they were called but I believe the combination of dates, brandy, chili, and blue cheese wrapped in prosciutto, should never be touched again. disgusting.

Prawns wrapped in prosciutto a much better plan!

The Boy made Spicy meatballs cooked in a sofrito sauce. The meatballs had a hidden cheesy gooey centre. The boy did a practice run with these and did half with cheese and half without. once cooked you couldn't tell which were which and after my 4 for tea I had all non-cheese filled. For lunch and other 4 non-cheese filled. finally for lunch on day 2 I found a cheese filled one! delish. on the night they were all stuffed with cheese to avoid disappointment.

L&T cooked spicy chicken wings with a yogurt and turmeric oil dip (please correct me if I got that wrong) we all made a mess as we ate them. Really good.

L&T had slow roasted the Pork Belly on a bed of fennel at home and just warmed it up on the night, this was melt in the mouth succulent and juicy. I'm not usually a fan of pork belly because of how fatty it is, but the slow roasting had broken down the fat and just left beautiful meat.

Chris cooked up whole spicy paprika prawns, I believe there was a lot of butter involved in the cooking, really tasty prawn meat just waiting to pop out of their shells, I'm sure when I was up in Darwin someone showed me a trick to getting prawns out of the shell it was so easy and fast and simple and then i had a few more beers and now I can't remember it at all. Another messy dish!

Ah! my dish was a combination of 2 recipes. I was aiming for a frozen vodka gazpacho! I combined a frozen vodka tomato soup recipe and a gazpacho recipe and ended up with a savoury slushy that was really weird. A complete flop and not the palate cleanser I was aiming for!

Finally Karen russeled up a HUGE Paella, the special paella pan creates a crunch crust on the bottom as it cooks, I'd never seen paella made before, the main ingredients are sauted off in the pan and then the rice and stock are simmered together in the pan until the rice has absorbed all the stock. There are many rules about stiring to create the perfect cruncy bottom. Karens version was great but it was small portions all round as we had eaten quite a lot already!

Thanks guys for a fantastic evening, what shall the next off be?

The Stag, Rundle Street

Friday Late night shopping can really wear you out. We went looking for food on Rundle Street and decided to try The Stag I've had the cone of chips here before and loved the cone holder they bring to the table, It advertises itself as Adelaide's worst vegetarian restaurant, due to the quantity of meat on it's menu.

The boy went the Jucy Lucy ($20) at the recommendation of the girl behind the bar. The Jucy Lucy is a cheeseburger with the cheese inside the beef pattie.

I went the Chili Lime Chicken($26), Half a chicken marinated in Chili and Lime served with chips.

Unfortunately neither of us thought our food was great. The Jucy Lucy was really greasy, which I guess it to be expected but there was no salad or anything to cut the grease just bun-burger-bun. I was a little worried when I ordered the Chicken that it would be too big or too spicy, I asked the girl behind the bar if it was very spicy, her response of "I dunno" showed she couldn't care less. It arrived and was quite small and not spicy at all, it was a really sweet coating, and the flavour was only on the skin it hadn't made it into the meat at all, more like a glaze than a marinade.

I have to admit that the chicken was cooked well, nice, juicy and tender with a crispy skin. But very disappointing meal, afraid we won't be heading back.


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Kedgeree

When I first came to Adelaide I lived with the Boy and his parents., To say thank you for putting me up I decided to cook a Traditional Scottish tea, Kedgeree.

I love the Flavours, Colours and textures of Kedgeree, It’s a dish that when set on the table back home, you could promise we were wiping out the bowl at the end of the meal!

I headed up to the Fishmonger up in Blackwood and asked for Smoked Haddock, The Fishmonger looked at me as if I was insane and said “Ha-D-ock?” yes “Haddock!” “Ha-D-ock? No, Not heard of that one” I was flummoxed, I hadn’t been long in Australia and I hadn’t figured out, different hemisphere, different Fish! I bought some smoked cod that day and made not too bad a Kedgeree (nowhere near as good as Mum’s obviously) The boys Parents were delighted.


Could hardly believe my eyes when earlier last week I was passing Fish out of Water on King William Rd and saw Smoked Haddock, from the Harris Smokehouse, How could I resist?

The best Recipe I have seen for Kedgeree is in a Jamie Oliver book, but I don’t have that book and can’t remember the name. This time I used a Recipe from “The Breakfast Book” by Dianna Troy as a guideline.

240g cooked flaked smoked Haddock
240g cooked Rice
2 small onion (I used half an onion)
2tsp Turmeric (I used a small shake)
1 tsp Curry Powder
Juice of one Lemon (Skipped it, had none)
120g butter, (used a little bit to fry onion, not much and probably should have used less)
2 hard boiled Eggs (I used 3)


First I cooked my Fish, The only way I know how, Simmer it gently in milk.


Put the Eggs on to boil, and cook the rice.
Fry of the onion, gently over a low heat until translucent stir through the curry powder and Turmeric


Flake fish and stir through onion, stir through the same amount of Rice, Peal Egg Roughly chop and Add,


I add a good handful of Parsley and Coriander, The Coriander goes very well.


Finally serve with Lashings of Tomato Sauce on the side! The ultimate accompaniment.
This tastes of home and childhood, happy memories and family, what could be better.