Why hello 2017, and yes, I certainly do! It’s mainly one pot wonders since my time demands more compression than ever before.
So since I have a bit of time to travel for ingredients, here’s some Christmas and New Year fare.
Several weeks I signed up to a local farmer’s duck mailing list – they had plenty of chickens, but were waiting for the ducks to grow up and had limited supply, so they said I could put my email address down to express interest for a duck. I really had no plans to fork out $$$ for a lovingly hand raised duck, but it turns out their ducks were cheaper than their lovingly hand raised chickens! So I said yes to one when I found that my inbox contained this wonderful news, and picked one up – an added bonus being that this one still had its head attached, how cute! I just wish it also had its feet… oh well.
I was a little disappointed that it came frozen instead of fresh, however, that turned out to be a good thing since I didn’t plan to cook it till the week after. I had spent the next 5 days agonising on how to prepare this delicious being – halved, and cooked two ways? Lightly seasoned and just roasted? But then I remembered one of my favourite restaurant brands had a gorgeous roast duck dish – and I decided to take a chance and make my own version.
So I’ve got a tiny bit of downtime. Finally! That’s what happens when I decide I should take up an active hobby while still cooking, writing, drawing (ok the second two not so much), eating, coffeeing.
It seems there’s a whole range of interesting things lately, some of which I’ve not seen before or just didn’t have the marginal propensity to spend on. Plus it’s not good when I think that Tasmanian winter truffles are so affordable that I’ve ended up buying more truffle this year than any other time.
I promised myself last year that I wouldn’t buy truffles again – they are so fragrant, but so expensive! And I can’t afford to be poor right now. But trufflemania is on, and having watched Chef’s Table, I couldn’t resist buying some again. I had my eye on some Tasmanian winter truffles, but when I went and asked, they were all sold out! So I asked about the WA truffles they had and how they were different. The shop owner mentioned that this was the first time they stocked WA truffles because they were of a good quality for their price this year. He explained that previously, he didn’t buy them because the supplier mixed all different regions into their stock, so it was impossible to tell where the truffles were from, and therefore the quality.
He also mentioned that I had to use more than I would for a Tasmanian truffle, but it was also $1000/kg cheaper than a Tasmanian truffle. I love how truffles are described in thousands of dollars per kilo, it’s hilarious! So, I was satisfied and more educated as a result of his explanation, and could comfortably buy these knowing they weren’t as good as other truffles I bought, but that they were good for their value. And he got me (almost) whole ones from a jar full of truffles, and I could smell the aroma from the other side of the counter! It was so lovely!
Very happy with my truffles and planning to add them to pasta, I figured it was also time to once again test my knife skills and make some steak tartare.
The markets yielded a very rare opportunity: Port Lincoln sashimi grade blue fin tuna. It was placed right next to the standard tuna I buy – a yellowfin tuna, and the blue fin was paler, indicating it was fattier. I decided I’d fork out the $80/kg and give it a go, since I had a knife that was keen to cut. There happened to be Port Lincoln sashimi grade kingfish too, so I had an idea forming. There wasn’t any black caviar, so instead of choosing red, I went for the Huon Reserve hand milked salmon caviar, just because I could. It resulted in a four course meal!
Curvature: blue fin tuna, kingfish, salmon caviar Continue reading
