Reine's Xmas 2017 cooking
Because I realised I still haven't posted this. So here is the cooking I did during Christmas in 2017. Played a lot with my live marron, whose names were Tiffany and Jake, and Jake was the feistier one.Mainly just a photodump now since it's too late to actually write about it lol
This is Tiffany the marron with scrambled eggs. I had Saint Peter's marron scrambled eggs on my mind when I made this one!
I was gonna make just roast quail, but got bored, so these ended up with tea bags stuffed inside them!
Kombu!
Drink time!
Tea "smoked" quail!
It's Jake!!!
Oyster mushrooms with saltbush and duck egg.
Coconut yoghurt with summer fruits!
Cooked Jake :D
Jake's tail!
Cheese and meat plate!
Made my own beef patties with onion, garlic, herbs.
Jake in seafood broth!
Making tomato soup!
CAPRESE
Salads! I tried making a dish similar to "oysters and lettuce" from Dier Makr. It didn't even come close :D
Spice haul!
Yeeah comon
Originally I was gonna just make rice and eggs, but since my visit to Kisume, I changed it to mushroom rice and eggs! This was my test sample, which I gave to my flatmate and she approved!
Mushroom rice and eggs - with trout roe, salmon roe, sturgeon caviar, and gold foil for overkill.
And a cheap nebb, cause Perth has no nebbs.
Pretending to be a chef: Reserve banquet
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
Out came the knife, and ahead of me was 2.5 days worth of prep and "cooking" because I am disorganised and untrained. For all my dishes, I made the following elements:
Soy, ginger, garlic, mirin sauceSushi rice seasoning: rice vinegar, mirin, salt, sugarDashi: kombu, timeTamagoyaki: egg, mirin, salt, dashiPandan infusion: pandan, water, timePandan coconut rice pudding: milk, cream, coconut milk, pandan infusionMatcha panna cotta: matcha, gelatin, milk, cream, sugarHoujicha panna cotta: houjicha tea, gelatin, milk, cream, sugarAzuki smash: azuki beans, time, dark agave syrup, saltGreen tea jelly: Iron goddess of mercy/tie guan yin tea, gelatin, time
Coffin Bay oysters
Ok. So. First things first. Eating. I made this as my pre-cooking meal! Six all up, three for the photoshoot. I used some of the caviar, cut up some chives. Easy. 
Look at the marbling on this tuna! A gorgeous glistening piece of fish waiting to be made into something beautiful.
My first attempt at tamagoyaki! It was rather difficult because even though I had high heat, my egg was still sticking and breaking up between layers, even though I was oiling the pan between each layer as well. Yes, I did taste the mixture when it was raw, and even though it was okay at the time, I found it a tad sweet once I was done making it. But I like it sweet, so it wasn't an issue. Plus it offset the saltiness of the caviar very nicely!
Here are the rest of my ingredients patiently waiting to be arranged.
And here's the plate up! Originally I envisioned this to be a gradient of dark to light fish as a line of cubes, on a rectangular plate. But I was sick of my rectangular plate, so I went for a round plate instead. As I was prepping looking top-down, the curve was about right, but horizontally, it was a disaster! So next time I'll have to keep in mind what it looks like at plate-level too.
The leftovers then went into a chirashi! I had originally wanted to plate this up so that it was standing, so that the rice would also be visible, however I couldn't get it to look good, so in a bowl it went! It was also my first time cooking rice to be rice (rather than rice pudding, which I've only cooked twice before) - it was a little undercooked (chalky!) but edible.
And now for dessert. I had no idea how to put the flavour of pandan leaf into rice pudding. Considering how disastrous my "horseradish creme fraiche" was, I wasn't sure doing a similar thing was a good idea. But I went for it anyway. Finely chopped pandan, soaked overnight in water, then boiled for a while the next day. The aroma was amazing! And yes, the infusion did work. I could add the pandan water to anything I wanted after getting rid of the solids.
The azuki beans went for an overnight soak, before being boiled off. Salt and agave syrup was added to taste, then coarsely mashed.
I had no idea how much matcha powder to add, so I was doing it to taste and colour. I don't actually like matcha but I knew that this dish needed the green colour. I batch made some panna cotta as this was a "dessert for breakfast" that had to last me five days and I didn't have that much matcha, so I whipped up a massive batch of houjicha panna cotta instead. I had to let half the matcha panna cotta set before scooping in some azuki smash, before covering it all with more matcha mix. As you can see, this set a bit too far, but it still melded well enough that it came out in one piece.
I wanted an aromatic jelly, so I chose tie guan yin because it would stay relatively clear, yet smell wonderful. I actually wanted to make this with agar agar, but I really couldn't be bothered as I would have to weigh that out and then boil it up. It was too much effort, so I stuck with gelatin. And this is the closest I'll get to making a water mochi cake!
Zen Garden
And this was the end result. A super wobbly panna cotta lined with a cloud of pandan rice pudding. I underestimated the size of the glass I put the panna cotta in; I wanted it to me smaller so that it looked like it belonged on the wooden board. It was too large and hadn't actually set properly, so cutting it resulted in a fantastic explosion.
And this is what it looked like on the inside:
Had it set more I would have gotten a clean cut for a photoshoot, but that's essentially how it was all layered up and how I wanted it to look. That pandan coconut rice was unbelievably tasty and was my favourite component, followed by the azuki smash. I also liked my houjicha panna cotta much more than matcha panna cotta.
Overall I was so tired by the end of this that I felt like I hadn't had a weekend. But I'm so glad I made it because I love proving to myself I can cook! I just take a long time doing it!
Why is the squid blue?!?
But first, my "not anmitsu." It's a dessert that I've been thinking about making for a while now, but I could never bother obtaining every ingredient for every element. I knew I wanted to make my own interpretation of it, in fact, I wanted to hipsterise it. But keeping the mochi, red bean and green tea elements there was so difficult. Plus I wanted shiso leaves, but I didn't want them to go to waste if I had no other plans for them.What ended up happening was this:
Which was a pretty good effort!My original idea was to include strawberries plus other fruit, shiso leaf garnish, cubes of almond milk jelly, cubes of green tea jelly, azuki beans, mochi (or chia seed and coconut milk fake mochi, or a panna cotta), and dark agave syrup.What actually ended up happening was strawberries, plums, feijoa, mint leaf garnish, cubes of very soft almond milk jelly, cubes of green tea jelly, azuki beans. The agar agar was tough to work with, as I've never used it before and didn't bother researching. I didn't realised it needed consistently higher temperatures than gelatine to dissolve completely, so I did have to redo both the green tea and almond jellies through re-heating and adding a bit more agar agar powder. The consistency of the green tea jelly cubes were pretty much spot on in terms of how well they held together, but I could have used a bit more to make them just a tad harder.It feels so good to cook again, and I managed to make a massive soup with beef bones, chicken bones, dashi broth, and a whole lot of vegetables. I also wanted to try my hand at making squid ribbons, but I was put off by the high cost of squid. Luckily, a fishery opened up a stall at the local farmer's markets and sold some squid at a good price, so I bought some!
I prepped my squid from memory, and now feel I can do it quite easily. It still takes me a long time, but I know exactly what to do.
And lo and behold, BLUE SQUID INNARDS!! I didn't even know they could look like that since I've only taken apart squid twice before, and they've always been white on the inside. It was so pretty!
And from the tubes, I managed to slice them fairly thinly to become ribbons, that would then go into my soup.
The soup itself is rather ugly and murky so there's no picture of that.Cooking is so fun!
Black Winter Luxury
Welcome to truffle!Tasmanian, black, winter, fragrant, beautiful goodness!
Reine's winter wonderfuls
So first time living alone, I am left utterly to my own devices for everything! And considering I don't like the word budget, instead preferring terms like "marginal propensity to spend" and "I allocate and redirect resources," I have done a fair few bits of experimental cooking.Hence, my Adelaidean winter wonderfuls. Winter here has actually been nice so far - I hated Sydney winters and everyone told me Adelaide was cold, super cold. But I've been loving it - apart from having a fit with the sporadic rain - the chill is so pleasant!
Mushrooms, goat curd on rosemary and potato sourdough, egg
Central Markets is absolutely amazing and I love the fresh and seasonal produce. All of a sudden I'm creating things at a cheaper cost than going to cafes and twice as pretty and tasty! After making this masterpiece, I have no desire to have breakfast at any cafe ever again! (Single Origin Roasters, this may include you too :( ) The mushrooms used were button, swiss and pine - pine mushrooms are in season and orange and amazing! I love mushrooms, so I had a blast with this. Buttered up and chive-y, the best kind! I failed at boiling eggs so I watched it closely this time; I wanted a runny yolk but again I overshot by a fraction, however it looked amazing the way it is.
Mushroom and chicken pappardelle
Sounds simple, right? Except this is some amazing wholegrain pasta with no preservatives. Expensive, but great - the texture is slightly grainy with the way I cooked it, but I love it because it's eating with health! It's the same trio of mushrooms as above, with chicken, garlic and sauce made with creme fraiche, topped off with parmigianio reggiano, and a dash of truffle oil. Wow, this was nice when I made it, and then it was mindblowing the day after! Letting the flavours sink in overnight made a huge impact! I am continually disappointed with pasta dishes at restaurants; the best pasta I had was at my local restaurant back in Sydney once, which was very simple - chicken pesto pappardelle. Ever since then, I've stuck with pappardelle (I love how wide the ribbons are) and only love the pasta that I make.
Rabbit stew with bacon, haloumi, lentils, beans, carrot, eggplant
I found farmed rabbit at central markets too - they were selling pieces of it so I decided to try it out, since I never wanted to buy a whole rabbit the first time round. I'd had rabbit once before at Jamie's Italian and loved it, and from what I heard rabbit was best in stew. Because this was farmed, the shop assistant said it'd be tender regardless, but I stuck with stew since I just happened to have a bean and lentil soup mix. I went for a slow cook and decided to safeguard myself in case I destroyed it, to put bacon in the dish. Turns out it works well like that! I also wanted haloumi for that extra bit of fun, and let it sit. I've been told I cooked it near perfect because it tasted just like chicken! It was 100% tasty, and mission accomplished! Never have to cook rabbit ever again since the texture and flavour is just like chicken, but chicken is way cheaper.
House creamed corn, bacon, avocado, tomato on toast
Hello Single Origin Roasters, thank you for your amazing house creamed corn, bacon, avocado, tomato chutney. I have now made my own version thanks to you! Your wonderful memory will live on! I finally decided I had to make creamed corn, and then decided that I needed it as a breakfast with sourdough, bacon, avocado and tomato. Wow, it was great! I just wish I was able to make a tomato salsa, and I forgot to add goat curd. However it was still amazingly tasty and again, why would I ever need to go to a cafe for breakfast ever again? My ego is talking and I am amazing.
French toast, bacon, maple, fig
When my flatmate has stale bread, or when I inadvertently acquire excess bread (and onions) from work after a BBQ, I make french toast! It actually works without sugar; I've been using coconut nectar and agave syrup for most of my cooking, resorting to sugar only for lemon polenta pancakes and poached pears. The slices of bread were too thin, hence it looks kind of funny - I would have preferred thick cut brioche, but hey, I take leftovers to save money anyday! I may be posh with my food preferences, but really I only have one rule: I eat what I like. It just so happens the majority of it is either expensive and/or healthy. I also found some cheap figs so why not!
Okay, super crazy I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I'M DOING time! I found some patagonian toothfish at the markets, so I HAD to buy some as the only time I've had it before was at Jugemu Shimbashi, where the owner said it was a very tasty fish and worth the money - and he was right. I had forgotten what it was called, but immediately knew I had stumbled upon the same fish as soon as I saw the name. I also bought some duck, and made them the same way - honey soy ginger garlic (plus cinnamon and star anise for the duck). I coined the term "Pseudo confit, semi sous-vide" because I way overcomplicated the process of cooking with flavours - that's how I cook! It was so tasty, that I decided to make the same for some duck legs.
Essentially, I bought oven bags (since I didn't know where to acquire vacuum bags and the machine, plus that'd cost lots of money), and placed the duck and sauce in it. I let it marinate overnight, then slow cooked it (like no heat as I was attempting confit - the water never boiled) for 2-3 hours. The duck legs I left for 2, and they were cooked just right! And smelled amazing.
I then fried these off in a pan just to colour the skin, and then pulled all the meat off so I could nibble at it, make bread rolls or whatever with it!
As I mentioned above, I had too many onions without even wanting them, so I decided to make french onion soup. I wasn't sure exactly how it worked, so I also prepared some leek and fennel to add to it. Good thing I did, as 45 minutes after cooking the onions, and they finally went brown, it shrank from half a pot full of raw onions to a puny amount of caramelised onions! I reckon it would have only been enough for 1.5 servings. I added leek and fennel to bulk it up. All the recipes I saw said to use stock, but I didn't want to (and didn't have) so I used red wine and parmesan rind. Then pancetta and grana padano. I was stupid and added salt so that I almost had a heart attack though! I always remembered that adding bacon to a dish meant I didn't have to add salt, but totally forgot about the pancetta having the same effect.
The end result was the following:
Honey soy ginger duck with onion, leek and fennel soup, crispy pancetta
And last of all for this post, my leftover duck was then used for an amazing salad:
Honey soy ginger duck salad with blue cheese and honeycomb
This was actually really tasty, since the honeycomb was perfect with the blue cheese, and paired well with the honey soy duck. I would so do this again since I love all the ingredients, however, I tried making "chicken, bacon, blue cheese and honeycomb" and that didn't work! So now I know!
And last of all, I spent way too much today on fungi. I couldn't resist and bought the following:
$33 for 11g Tasmanian winter black truffle
$7.50 for 50g fresh French chanterelles
$7.50 for 50g fresh French mousserons
I will be using these for an ultimate decadent pasta dish like the one above.
HERE IS TRUFFLE OF GORGEOUS DARLING BABY OF A FRAGRANT SMELLY THING
Yes, I have started collecting Riedels now too. I REGRET NOTHING.