that recipe...

the not so secret seafood cocktail sauce...

that recipe folks is akin to the holy quail (the quail you can taste at the vietnam restaurant and is on my last supper list)...unbelievable to think that after all these years i have finally been granted access! and yes thanks to my bestie in port lincoln i can finally reveal and share with you the secret of the prawn dip. and what makes this now even more outrageous is that all these years (which amount to over twenty, i know scary) i have found out this...the said witholder of this culinary secret (i will not mention names coz she is croatian and well take it from me, you dont want to be messing with the croatian gospodjas!!!) isn't even the original creator of this dip i came to know as a young woman living in port lincoln. how very dare she!!! indeed not even the creator of this dip and she had the audacity to keep this a secret from us all this time. but culinary karma has now come to bite her on her bum to set this recipe free...go prawn dip and make yourself at home on all the dining tables of australia!!! go global if you have to!!!
     seriously viewers i know how it is sometimes. you go to someones house and your tastebuds come alive. you think OMG this is sensational. you think OMG i need to have this recipe. you think OMG she said a big fat NO! what do you mean NO? i have to confess i am not one for giving away all my recipes either but i think a few basic rules can be applied here. if it is a secret family recipe that has been handed down for centuries and you are a single woman in need of a husband well then yes, no handing down of the recipe until you are married, hee,hee. (you know what they say? the way to a mans heart is through his stomach, believe it or not) but if someone has been kind enough to share their winning formula by all means take it but do not, i repeat DO NOT claim it as your own. culinary integrity must remain intact and culinary credit must be given where it is due; otherwise you are nothing but a culinary fraud. and take it from me viewers i have experienced it personally. someone who takes credit for your recipe and even worse wins a prize for it is nothing more than a stinking rotten egg in my books!
     so back to the prawn dip. originating from port lincoln (which is no surprise considering that some call it the seafood capital of australia) my bestie and i yearned for this recipe upon our first taste. we wanted it and we wanted it badly but...(insert name here) wasn't going to give it up. she was too busy receiving accolades for her marvellous prawn pate. OH (insert name here) that is amazing!holy prawns (insert name here) you should enter your pate in the royal show! cleverly disguised sneer (insert name here)you will never have this recipe while i walk the earth, just call me queen prawn pate if you don't mind. we had many a tactic, forensic testing, nope that didn't work coz the lady in question certainly made sure there were no scrapes left. and if there were they never saw our tupperware containers. we tried asking politely, you know, kind of casually, that kind of casual where you are trying to be cool but really you are soooooo desperate. we attempted to ply her with alcohol and then hypnotise her with my watch. but alas she was speaking in hrvatski and when i gave the recording to my mum for translation she told us it said, good try losers (insert evil laugh here) so then we just gave up and over time we forgot about it. and now we have it, in our red hot little hands.
     so to put it to the test my bestie made it for our dinner party in lincoln. i looked at the recipe list and thought really? mm, something tells me that perhaps it may have been tweaked by ( insert name here) after all. damn you! none the less it is still delicious but it does require seasoning to taste. so here it goes and while i am at it i will also reveal my secret seafood cocktail sauce which i have to confess isn't such a secret since it is not my own. boy do i feel better now!
ps this is the full recipe it was halved which was still plenty enough for starters and some left over because there were also other things on offer.
the infamous prawn dip ( the full quota)
1 kg of green prawns
2 tubs of phildaelphia cream cheese
1 small jar of praise free mayonaise
1 tbspn of flora margarine
1 large clove of garlic crushed
4 drops of tabasco but more may be required depending on taste
juice 1 lemon
nutmeg to taste
method
cook prawns and chop into chunks, squeeze the juice of one lemon over top when finished
soften cream cheeese and beat with butter until smooth
add mayonaise and garlic and mix thoroughly, then add prawns, tabasco drops and nutmeg to taste, (perhaps 1/4 tspn first), add extra lemon juice if required and adjust seasoning accordingly to your preferred taste.
and that's it viewers try and it and see if you like it, serve with wafer thin crackers. and so to finish off the seafood cocktail sauce is all yours too! bon appetit.
the not so secret seafood cocktail sauce
1 cup of norganic soy mayonaise
juice of 1 lemon
2 tbspns of berenberg takatala sauce
mix through and enjoy

sashimi saturday folks...

welcome to sashimi saturday...yes raw fish but before you recoil in horror at the thought of ingesting raw fish just hear me out. mm...sashimi tuna, apart from being barbequed with garlic, olive oil, lemon and parsley i would say eating tuna raw is a favourite when it comes to this particular fish of the sea. yes i do eat it out of a can...did you hear that food police? the food choice of dieters it seems but no diets here viewers, not after all that chocolate today,thankyou jesus, hee,hee.

     i have to confess i am rather new at the whole sashimi thing. once upon a time if someone had mentioned eating raw fish or had offered it to me i would have thought i don't think so. but when you have eaten quality tuna make that bluefin and have sampled it in its natural state really i gotta admit it is the best way of eating it. sashimi? tartare? are they the same thing? i think so but correct me if i am wrong tuna patrol. sliced finely it can be eaten with a splash of soy and wasabi. i have had friends coat it in sesame seeds before sealing the outside and then slicing it finely for consumption. ( thankyou buddies in port lincoln) and yes that was yum. i have even been aboard a real tuna fishing boat ( thanks tuna man) and have witnessed the tuna harvest myself but surprisingly no tuna was on offer there. interesting experience to see what is actually involved. i did write about that some time ago and will search my archives for those who might like a closer insight into the manly business of fishing.

     so today for those of you who are keen to try some tuna in the raw, i have the perfect recipe that first came to my attention when dining at cumulus in melbourne. it can be found in their signature recipe book or if you google tuna tartare or right here in this blog. i have made this countless times now. i must admit whern i first perused the ingredient list i was curious to see how the flavour combination would pan out. when one thinks of tuna one wouldn't normally associate it with goats curd or minted smashed peas but it works. it really works and if you would like something that is still relatively light, flavoursome and still showcases the quality of fresh tuna then this is a recipe for you to try. it is also rather simple and can be made relatively quickly. it is best prepared just before serving time. we had this today for sashimi/seafood saturday.not a scrape of it was left.

tuna tartare with minted peas and goats curd... from the cumulus cookbook

250gms sashimi grade tuna

2tbspns olive oil

1 ortiz anchovy fillet ( you can substitute with another brand)

1/2 clove of garlic finely crushed

1 tspn balsamic vinegar

1 tbspn light soy sauce ( use tamari if you are allergic to wheat)

1/4 lemon zested finely

1/2 tspn of castor sugar

crush garlic and anchovy fillet, add soy, vinegar, lemon zest and sugar, mix and set aside...

slice tuna and cube into 1 cm squares, add marinade, mix thoroughly and refrigerate for 15 mins

minted pea salad

1 cup of blanched baby peas

20 mint leaves chopped very finely

3 tbspns of extra virgin olive oil

2 spring onions ( white part) sliced very finely

crush peas, add mint, oil, spring onions and mix through, season with sea salt

spread a couple of tablespoons ( i did use more) of goats curd on a medium sized platter, add pea salad on top and then the tuna tartare on top of the peas

serve with thin watercrackers ( i use the rice thins, delicate and do not compete with the flavours)

and there you have it folks, not word by worrd but a pretty good account of the recipe and as you can see below that is what you will finish up with. so for you raw tuna enthusiasts go ahead and enjoy yourselves with this one. you will be sure to impress.

oh fish in the sea...tales of fishing and cooking

snapper soup...hvala gospodja lutza

hello viewers today is fish friday! 

if someone told me that i was only allowed to eat fish for the rest of my life i for one could probably handle that imposition although some of you might consider that torture. (personally i believe that eating marzipan is torture in itself...a big yucko from me but lovie she can inhale that stuff, she must have tastebuds of steel!!). nothing better than freshly caught fish i say and a spot of fishing for fun. being of croatian descent (although not many would select that as their first choice, just call me the chameleon of the multicultural world, sometimes it pays to be venezuelan...tee hee)  it seems as though some of us were born with a filleting knife in our hands. it is not surprising to find that a high proportion of croatian immigrants who found their way to australian shores headed straight for the coastline and into a boat. my dad was not one of those but probably would have been happier if he had. dreamer of the sea he certainly was never without a boat of his own. from the very first wooden boat that he and my uncles went out in, to the eighteen foot fibreglass one he designed and outfitted himself. and lastly the one he fantasises about when he wins x-lotto,...mm, i know that tale well but good luck with that one anyway. still i have fond memories and maybe not so fond memories of family fishing expeditions plus a few personal ones; my favourite being catching baracuda on the cocos keeling islands. (apparently not good eating but certainly exciting to catch). if game fishing is your style then cocos just might be the place for you.

     so to fish friday viewers. do you like eating fish? is that a big yes? a big no? or perhaps you don't mind? do you have a favourite? and if so, what is it? i have a few personal favourites which remind me of my childhood as well as some favourite ways in which i like to eat particular ones. number one on my list is flathead. this once humble fish has now sky rocketed to the realm of expensive. why i can't tell you, unless there is some fishing expert who can enlighten me. flathead in my books is not only delicious but versatile when it comes to cooking. simply pan fried, fish cakes, fish curry, you name it and you can do it. flounder reminds me of when i was a girl as well as the humble leather jacket. can't say i have eaten flounder in some time but leather jackets, lovie often cooks these for us for our customary tuesday night dinner at her place. barbequed or pan fried with olive oil, parsley and lemon...simple folks. sometimes simple is best as you want to taste the flavour not mask it. besides leather jackets are rather inexpensive on the fish scale of price. so why not buy some and give them a go. 
     whiting of course who does not like it? whiting seemed to be the jewel of the sea when it came to eating fish during our childhood days. haven't had it for a while unless someone is being generous and offering it fresh off the boat and that folks hasn't happened for  quite some time. next fish to surface is the very versatile snapper. mm, snapper conjures up many tasty memories, from teta wiesa's snapper salad to my favourite soup which incidentally we enjoyed today. the soup has been a long standing favourite in our family and compliments of gospodja lutza, a big thanks to her for teaching lovie how to make it. this soup is exquisite in flavour and as simple as it gets. however, you will have to rely on your culinary senses to get the flavour just right. i asked lovie for the recipe today. i will personally road test this for you viewers and report back with a standard recipe for you to try. (btw my dad's mate brought around a 4kg snapper yesterday caught fresh). once filleted, the head and carcass will be kept to form the body of this deliciously tasty soup. so no need to waste a thing readers. and yes the fillets are going to be used for a madras snapper curry for sunday. i have made this several times. so if you fancy some fish with a bit of spice this recipe from rick steins india is also easy to make and surprisingly quick for a curry.
     and lastly another favourite from childhood days which has become a bit of a staple in our household is of course prawns. cooked and eaten as is with a zesty cocktail sauce (which is another one of my culinary secrets), hee, hee...seriously you won't believe what goes into it, three ingredients and you will have someone asking you for the recipe i guarantee you that. i can't claim this to be one of my own but discovered this from someone who wrote the encyclopedia called catering shortcuts!!! lovie can lay claim to her infamous prawn curry which is a big winner. i have tweaked the recipe for prawn busara which is a croatian recipe that personally lends itself to sexy. so viewers that is my spiel for fish friday. i shall leave you with a few snaps and will continue the seafood theme tomorrow where i will introduce you to raw tuna and a recipe from cumulus for tuna tartare, followed by a personal favourite...paella. ole!!!

       so i will finish with a childhood recollection...oh fish in the sea come listen to me, my wife begs a wish from the magic fish. ever heard of that story viewers? the magic fish? as much as fishing has painted certain pictures of my childhood, this story left an idelible impression upon my young mind. not wanting to admit to my age but hey there were no smartboards or computers in my school days. we had to listen and we had to imagine. in some respects our brains had to exercise their way through making meaning and sense of the world. but i loved this story because the moral of the story just seemed to resonate with me.  and really it is still a lesson for today and always...

fish friday...salmon asian style, calamari and leather jackets cooked by lovie of course!