All posts tagged: seafood

Snapper are my first world problem

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Someone wise once told me, if everyone in the world put their problems into a hat, you would be glad to pull out your own. It’s true. I was pining for flounder, but at the Chinese market, flounder are held in high regard and the price reflects this. Snapper is cheap at the Chinese supermarket. At the regular supermarket, the pricing is the other way around. Snapper is expensive whereas flounder is cheap. Isn’t it funny? I had to settle for snapper. A little bit of coconut cream, chopped garlic, spring onion, green curry paste and plenty of salt and pepper. Wrapped these fish in paper and baked for 30 minutes. It wasn’t so bad. Tip: Buy flounder at the regular supermarket and snapper at the Chinese supermarket.

Oysters Hong Kong

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  Since we’re messing around with oysters this week, I figured I could mess around with Oysters Kilpatrick. My asian-inspired version uses ingredients like lap cheong, spring onions and black vinegar which you can find in any Cantonese kitchen. I’ve named it Oysters Hong Kong. From a previous post:  “Chinese dried sausages or Lap Cheong are dry cured sausages normally made of pork and fat. These are smoked, sweetened, seasoned and taste like awesome. The sausages I buy from my local are vacuum packed and hail from Canada. You might like these if you like streaky bacon cooked in maple syrup.”   Oysters Hong Kong Ingredients 12 fresh Pacific oysters (opened) 2 Chinese sausages (Lap Cheong) 3 tablespoons black vinegar 3 tablespoons spring onion, chopped Preparation Turn on grill to 200°C. Slice the Chinese sausages into thin rounds and fry until brown. Set the oysters on an oven tray lined with foil. Bunch up the foil so they oysters have a nice bed to lay upon. Top with the cooked sausage and black vinegar. Grill for 2-5 minutes. …

Make Oysters Kilpatrick

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I usually prefer my oysters fresh and unmolested, but things have changed since trying Oysters Kilpatrick for the first time at Mikano in April. They were Bluff and they were divine, but at $5 each, they are a special occasion treat. Oysters Kilpatrick is a dish from Australia and this 70’s retro-to-the-gills recipe isn’t for the faint hearted. Can you taste the oysters at their full potential? Maybe not. Are they delicious? Yes sir! I’ve always said Worcestershire rather awkwardly and today I noticed this month’s edition of Taste Magazine sorts me right out: How do I say…Worcestershire? The famous secret-recipe sauce named for its English home county has lost a syllable over time: ‘Wuss-tuh-shuh’ or just ‘Wuss-tuh’ for short. I’ve been ordering my oysters from New Zealand Seafoods (www.nzseafoods.co.nz) for years. They own oyster farms in Mahurangi Harbour and offer fresh, shucked Pacific oysters for $50NZ (about $40US) for 5 dozen. It’s about $6 to deliver which I consider money well spent. The oysters are always well packaged (export quality) and ready to eat. Oysters Kilpatrick …

Whitianga Scallops

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The seafood people came bearing scallops that had been plucked fresh from Whitianga. I can’t resist a fresh scallop so I bought a bag of them for $26. I was hungry and fresh seafood is a weakness. When they are fresh, the are sweet, tender and not at all fishy. They have this this flavour that reminds me of oysters and lobster. I wish there were more words in our vocabulary to define the difference. Scallops are one of those seafoods that I have yet to overindulge in. Even when we’ve travelled to destinations where scallops are plentiful, we haven’t eaten to our limit. In New Zealand, we eat both the white adductor muscle and the orange/white coral. They are sold as one. Both the orange and the white part are equally delicious. I would feel cheated if I were served scallops with only the adductor muscle. I might eye the server suspiciously and impore, “Where is the rest of my scallop?!”. Scallops in the morning? I woke up thinking about scallops. The Koala asked, …

Eating at the Night Bazaar, Chiang Mai

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Back to sharing our epic SE Asia adventure…It’s already June and I’ve only chronicled about half of our time away… Sila-aat two times Our first night in Chiang Mai was our last night together with our tour group. For dinner, we visited the Night Bazaar which is also a shoppers paradise. Over the next 2 weeks, The Koala and I would come back many times to shop and to eat. Our last meal as a group was at seafood restaurant Sila-aat. They have a few live fish and the rest is displayed on ice at the counter. They have some a good selection of seafood platters that we wanted to try but the timing  was never quite right. I felt like something light so picked some light Chinese dishes. The Koala picked a heavy Chinese dish. Snow peas. I adore snow peas, but they are freakin expensive back home. My local supermarket sells snow peas for $26NZ per kilo. Does anyone know why snow peas are so damn expensive? Straw mushrooms and shrimp. I love …

Eating Borneo #8 – New Years at Mañana

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New Year celebrations have always been epic for us. Many businesses are closed during this time in New Zealand so we holiday like there’s no tomorrow. It’s a time when we leave the city and flock to beaches all over the country to get absolutely trashed with their friends. There’s good food and good times to be had and the celebrations often last a week. I saw in last New Years with The Koala, my friend A, my sister Joey, her boyfriend D and the guests and staff at Mañana Borneo. Mañana is a small resort on a private beach about an hour north of Kota Kinabalu in the Sabah north of Borneo Island. It’s not on a separate island but this beach is only accessable by boat. No cars. No shops. No power during the day. Just a private, sheltered beach, snorkeling, swimming, books, hammocks, monsoon every afternoon (mandatory downtime). It was heaven. We stayed in 3 private villas with our own outdoor bathrooms. The menu here was limited but that was fine, it meant …

Eating Borneo #2 – Seafood Feasts, Kota Kinabalu

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No visit to Kota Kinabalu is complete without visiting it’s famous seafood foodcourt Seri Selera Kampung Air. The touts working outside are fierce and getting your business is their number one priority. Maybe you want to have a look around first. Maybe you are happy with eating at whoever grabs you first. Here in the north of Borneo, sea creatures of many shapes and sizes wait in glass tanks. Maybe they cross their fins and claws as you walk past, hoping to get picked last. Most creatures have a price on their tank. The ones you should be wary of are the creatures without price tags. Most places advertise by the 100gm. 20RM might sound cheap, but a small 500gm lobster is going to set you back 100RM / $45NZ / $33US. Our mantis prawns. One orange/black and the other white/black. Tiger and zebra! The mantis prawn are kept separate in plastic bottles so they cannot fight each other. The tiger and the zebra came to about 1 kg. Slipper lobster or Moreton Bay Bug. …

Fake it ’til you make it

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Is it possible to crave something you’ve never had before? I think so. I often read about foods on the internet and then I want them. I want them bad. Lobster rolls are associated with the lobster state of Maine in the U.S. and in New England and the Canadian Maritimes, some McDonald’s offer lobster rolls as a seasonal menu item. They call it the McLobster! We don’t get loster rolls here in New Zealand. I guess it’s because we don’t have lobster here, but we have plenty of things that could substitute. Crayfish would be the most obvious choice. Crab could also work if we were a nation that gobbled up crab. I was craving a lobster roll, but being on a budget – crayfish can be $100kg – I considered making it with surimi instead. At $8kg, surimi is not going to break the bank. Surimi is pretty forgiving too so you can make the mix ahead of time, refrigerate it and eat it over a few days. I’d never do that with fresh seafood though. …

Deadliest catch right here in New Zealand

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Alaskan King Crab is expensive and pretty hard to get in New Zealand but I got to try some in November last year. However, since October 2010, fishermen have been given the go ahead for an exploratory permit to catch king crab in New Zealand waters. Sadly, it seems that the market for this crab is not destined for New Zealanders. “…could be marketed as high-value products in Europe, Asia and the US, as the practice of catching them in pots allowed for live exporting. King crabs, which grow up to 1.2m long, are a valuable commodity in the Northern Hemisphere.” I’m still baffled as to why people don’t eat crab here in NZ. Perhaps a thriving crab industry in NZ will change this? I hope so. If not, let’s hope a king crab industry right here in NZ will mean reasonably priced king crab for the handful of us that like to grapple with these pincy critters. I hope it doesn’t all go to the overseas market! That would be sad indeed. Read the full article here …

First fava harvest!

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Our fava beans or broadbeans are finally ready for a small harvest. I knew that the first thing I wanted to cook with these would be something simple and delicately flavoured to compliment beans. A creamy prawn and rice concoction was just the ticket. I wrote this recipe down first, then cooked it and made a couple of adjustments. With the price of frozen prawns these days, I consider this dish to be suitable for a gourmet pauper. Fava pods bursting with potential. Shelled and waiting to be blanched. Not much meat from those pods. A sexy close up… Creamy Rice with Fava and Prawn Serves 2 Ingredients 1 cup shelled fresh fava (broadbeans) 1 cup whole shelled prawns or prawn meat, defrosted 4 garlic cloves 1/2 cup cream 1 and 1/2 cups long grain rice 1/3 cup white wine 1 cup chicken stock Butter Salt Black pepper 1 lemon Handful of fresh herbs, chopped Preparation Quickly fry the prawns in a little butter until just done. Remove from heat and set aside. Cook the …

Friday Favourites: The best seafood buffet

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SBF Brasserie has the very best seafood buffet in Auckland and reserved for special occasions in my family. Fresh oysters, salmon sashimi, crab and hot smoked salmon are my personal highlights and I’ll happily have 2 helpings of seafood. Crab isn’t popular in New Zealand for some reason – perhaps the high grapple factor puts people off – so it’s nice to see it offered here. The hot food selection is good too but I didn’t need more than 1 plate of it. Service is great, water top ups a plenty and plates are cleared regularly. The golden kiwi and pavlova flavoured icecream was interesting and yummy. The chocolate fountain is a fun (though messy) for adults and kids. My only complaint are the booths. I’m not a large person and found it hard to get in and out of the booth seats. Not much space between seat and table. The cushions while pretty only get in the way and with people on on either me, it was a hassle to get out as I had …

Rarotonga Food Review!

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Rarotonga is part of the Cook Islands which a group of islands in the Pacific Ocean. The island is small – you can drive around the entire island in under an hour. We came here at the end of autum last year for our honeymoon. What is a honeymoon on a tropical island, without amazing seafood and fruity cocktails? Maybe I’m weird, but after a full day of snorkelling, I just want to eat seafood. “Oh look hun! Pretty fish! Can we eat that?” We had been pre-warned that the food in Rarotonga was good. We were even given a few recommendations on places to eat. These were Kaena – a tiny nondescript dinner restaurant by the diveshop and of course, Trader Jacks in the town centre for their amazing seafood platter. Both of these places we visited twice during week we were in Rarotonga. We also visited Flame Tree Grill which with a massive pet moray and a very kiwi feel about the place (kiwi owned perhaps?) promised much but didn’t quite deliver. The …

Seafood roundup

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I would love to live in a tiny fishing village for a while and buy fresh seafood from the fishermen as they come in from sea. Here is a collection of seafood plates I’ve whipped so far this year: What do you do when you haven’t been shopping in a while and only have cheese, potatoes, peas…and then find half a bag of prawns in the freezer? You make cheesy potato gratin with pea puree and sweet chili prawn skewers of course! Mussels in coconut cream and sweet chili sauce. Feeds 2 hungry adults for less than $5! Add a $10 bottle of red and you’ve got yourself a date 🙂 One day I’ll figure a way to avoid photographing the steam coming off hot food…without having to wait for dinner to grow cold. Creamy prawns with rice and green salad and beetroot. Easy and decadent. Saute half a diced onion and a couple of cloves of chopped garlic in some butter. When those are cooked, add enough prawns for 2 and cook until just done. …

Scallops and Bacon

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Scallops and bacon are a match made in heaven. The seafood couple came into work again. They had fresh scallops from Whitianga this morning and seeing as it is the Whitianga Scallop Festival this weekend, what could be more appropriate than eating a whole lot of scallops? 2 course dinner with Scallops and Bacon Starter: 5 Pan fried scallops wrapped in bacon with tartar sauce. Wrap each scallop with a strip of bacon and secure with a toothpick. Pan fry with a bit of butter. Season lightly with herbs, salt and pepper. Serve with tartar sauce. Tartar Sauce: mayo, sour cream, chopped gherkins, finely chopped red onion. Main Course: Scallops and Bacon pasta Cook pasta according to instructions. Saute vegies in a little oil: sliced courgette, sliced red onion, sliced garlic. Remove from heat and set aside. Finely chop 4 slices of bacon (I tried Danish eye bacon) and fry in oil. Add scallops to the pan. Once scallops are done, add 2 tablespoons of sour cream, 2 table spoons of tomato paste. Drain pasta and …

Unagi at home

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Unagi: freshwater eel. Often served as unadon or unagidon (on rice). From what I’ve read, in this country at least, restaurants buy their unagi pre-cooked and pre-sauced. I love unagi, but why pay someone else to microwave pre-cooked, pre-sauced unagi when you can do it yourself? You can find unagi packs with sauce in the frozen section of your local Asian market at about $9NZ each. I’ve bought these before from a Japan shop and also a Chinese grocer. All you have to do is remove the eel from the packaging, zap for a few minutes then pour on the sauce. Serve with rice, maybe a salad or greens and some edamame and presto! 2 bags of unagi can feed 2 or 3 people for dinner.