Feb 252013
 

barra

we caught some nice barra a few days ago and I came up with a new way to present them, this recipe would work fine with most white fish fillets. its a very quick dish to prepare and scrumptious to boot!

in a frying pan, add one can of coconut cream, a couple of tablespoons of palm sugar, a couple of finely chopped birds eye chillies, a couple of kaffir lime leaves finely chopped, a sploosh of fish sauce and a sploosh of mirin.

in a saucepan or bowl soak a pack of vermicelli rice noodles for 15 minutes in room temp water.

poach fillets gently in sauce, serve on bed of noodles in a bowl

wallah!

barra (2)

Jul 202012
 

the season for mud crabs is here and we have been getting some crackers, although these ones were not the result of a few hours slogging thru the mangroves fighting off crocs, mozzies and sandflies – we actually bought a box of crabs from a local professional as VJ wanted to cook some to take to relatives.

I have been tempting him for some time with stories of my chilli mud crabs and he had cast doubt on my ability to prepare a  suitably impressive version of the classic dish – challenge ON!

i think i can safely say “achievement unlocked” on that score!

i had only cooked the claws in the chilli sauce so today I boiled up all the bodies and picked out all the meat, i decided to make a mudcrab and prawn ravioli, so i mixed up the crab, prawns, dill, parsley and sheeps cheese with an egg and then filled ravioli with the mix and cooked them.

as a sauce i just did a simple wine reduction with a few fresh herbs & shallots and then made it up with cream. crab ravioli a la ricky

there is just no bad way to have mud crab in my opinion, its hard to beat when its freshly caught and poked in the coals of the fire at the beach, it gets that lovely smokey flavour through it and seems the sweeter for being so fresh.

but there is nothing wrong with it boiled and slapped on hot white bread rolls with lashings of lime and chilli mayo – and not forgetting chilli mud crab, one of the all time classics and the specialty of ‘rick’s bar & grill’ – eggs arnhem land. (muffin, poached egg, mudcrab meat and hollandaise sauce.)

anyway, here are all the images from the two meals in a slideshow,

 

Jan 162012
 

 

i guess this is a form of comfort food for me, my old favourite, papaya and mango salsa. its so easy to make, it has a lovely freshness to it, a bit of zing, a bit of a sweet finish.

in fact it encompasses one of the traditions of food, the balance between sour, hot, sweet and salty – that balance is at the heart of most if not all cuisines, different countries use different ingredients but those are the essential flavours.

the quick and dirty recipe is diced mango & papaya, mint, coriander, kaffir lime leaves, ginger/galangal, chillies, lime zest, chopped red onion and a dressing made of palm sugar, lime juice, fish sauce, mirin and vinegar – and anything else I think to add on the day!

its great with smoked fish, (thats tonites menu), steak, pork or just on its own!