Tag Archives: famous cooks

belly 6 September 2010 – springing into asparagus, TV chefs and happy pets

From today I will try taking the radio show posts straight from the show running sheet, so you can see something closer to what went to air.

It’s the first belly of spring, also the first belly of the month when we usually have a look at what’s in season around Oz,then today’s guest tells us all about allergies and elimination diets you can try in order to diagnose allergy – no not for you, for your cat,dog,cow,canary,chook,ferret – Matt the Vet will discuss the food allergies that your beloved companion animals may have, + food news, and a great recipe from Luke Nguyen’s new cookbook

[the belly cat has decided to sit on the laptop to supervise this one, and the belly dog on my feet-screen getting very hairy]

Cheeseburger in Paradise by Jimmy Buffett

DRAW for our lovely subscribers – Lentilicious 2 packs of lentil mixes(thanks Sharna and Anthea)

Right now there are so many TV food shows, so many, old ones dug up, and from all over the world – well mostly the UK but I saw one from New Zealand last week,had a very pretty lake view in it. And Kids Masterchef is starting next Sunday – Anyone with kids knows it should be really fun to watch, they are so passionate about food. One of the best is ‘cheese slices’ which reflects the cheesy obsession of Will Studd, cheese providore to many of Australia’s best restaurants and Qantas business and first class. One of my cheese spies – we’ll call him “deep cheddar” – tells me Will gave the program to the ABC very very cheap, just to improve our cheese knowledge presumably. A true cheese evangelist. And more importantly, Will has bought into our North Coast paradise, so hopefully there will soon be even more wonderful cheese all around us. Cheese slices is on ABC1 on Wednesdays. And Luke Nguyen’s Vietnamese food show has come back very quickly to SBS, so have a look if you missed it first time round. I’ve got Luke’s recipe – caramelised mackerel with pineapple to share with you.

CARAMELISED MACKEREL WITH PINEAPPLE – KA THU KO KHOM

This recipe is a marriage of many different elements, balanced together
perfectly. It is a lighter version of the popular traditional dish of caramelised fish,
ca kho. I have balanced the salt with the pineapple, the fish sauce with sugar and added
dark soy sauce for colour. If you don’t often use pineapple in cooking, give this a try; you’ll
be pleasantly surprised.
When using a clay pot for the first time, make sure you immerse it in cold water for a few
hours. This will ensure that it does not crack over intense heat. Clay pots release earthy,
smoky flavours into your food and they maintain their heat well.

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
4 spring onions (scallions), white
part only, bruised
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1/4 teaspoon dark soy sauce
1 teaspoon oyster sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
3 mackerel cutlets (600 g/1 lb
5 oz in total)
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
300 g (101/2 oz) pineapple, cut into
bite-sized pieces
200 ml (7 fl oz) chicken stock
(page 328)
1 tablespoon fried garlic
(page 329)
1 tablespoon garlic oil (page 329)
2 spring onions (scallions), green
part only, sliced
1 small handful coriander (cilantro)
leaves
1 bird’s eye chilli, finely chopped
1 Lebanese (short) cucumber,
sliced

In a bowl, combine half the garlic, the white spring onion, the fish sauce,
dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, sugar and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Coat the fish with
the mixture, then cover and place in the fridge to marinate for 15 minutes,
reserving any leftover marinade.
Place a frying pan over medium heat with 1 tablespoon of the vegetable
oil. Add the pineapple and stir-fry for 1 minute, then remove from the pan
and set aside. Add the remaining oil and heat over medium heat, then
brown the fish cutlets on both sides.
Remove the pan from the heat and transfer the fish to a chopping board.
Chop each fish cutlet into four pieces with a heavy cleaver. Transfer the fish
and pineapple to a clay pot and pour in the reserved marinade. Place the
clay pot on the stovetop, turn the heat to high and bring to the boil. Add
the chicken stock and bring back to the boil, skimming any impurities off
the surface. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes, or until the
liquid has reduced by half.
Add the remaining chopped garlic to the pot along with the fried garlic,
garlic oil and 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, and stir to combine.
Spoon the sauce over the fish. Remove the clay pot from the heat, garnish
with the spring onion, coriander and chilli, and serve with a side bowl of
cucumber and jasmine rice.

serves 4–6 as part of a shared meal

Caramelised Mackerel with Pineapple

Recipe and image from The Songs of Sapa by Luke Nguyen, published by
Murdoch Books, photography by Alan Benson.

I played the belly interview with Luke last week, and the last few minutes this week, where he suggests using any firm fish as substitute for the mackerel. If you don’t have a clay pot, I think you can try using any deep heavy bottomed pot. Also maybe just add more fresh garlic to the recipe if you don’t have a big bottle of garlic oil handy. The crispy (but not burned) fried garlic would definitely add lovely texture to the dish. And make sure you use beautiful ripe fresh local pineapple.
Luke and his partner/photographer Susanna Boyd also mentioned the Little Lantern foundation they are setting up to help kids in Vietnam.

And straight on to the watermelon man and what’s in season in Oz in September.

Asparagus – in season from now to December, some Australian growers go til march. The season a bit slow this year. It has been cold,wet where most asparagus is grown, a lot comes all the way from Peru right now. According to the Australian Asparagus Council, 93% comes from around a small town called Koo Wee Rup, S-E of Melbourne. Yes there is an Australian Asparagus Council, the website is asparagus.com.au, lots of facts and recipes, though a lot of their recipes look a bit dodgy. Asparagus is very easy and quick to prepare, it is the shoot of a feathery plant in the lily family. The Roman Emperor Augustus had a saying “faster than cooking asparagus ” for doing something very very fast. The worst thing you can do is boil the hell out of it, but you can bbq it or put it with rich flavours like eggs and cheese, baked in the oven, or use in cold or hot soups, usually reserving the tips to add whole at the end. Or stir fry or very quickly steam. The ancients thought it is so good for you that it deserves ‘officinalis’ in its name, meaning medicinal. It does have a lot of folate, vitamins b and c and anti-oxidants. Unfortunately it doesn’t grow easily around here. I’ve tried in the veggie patch and mine gave a few spears then went to asparagus heaven. I’ve now found out that you shouldn’t pick every spear that pokes up, just the first few from now to November, maybe December, then let the plant form leaves and grow strong, especially the first couple of years.
– some other veg and fruit : artichokes, choose heavy and not wilted looking, they are the flower bud of a big thistle, you don’t want to eat wilted buds.
avocados – one more recipe, from farmer Chris Casagrande in the Byron Shire Echo : a chocolate dip for bananas, to freeze or use as cake icing. Mash avocados with cocoa and a little lemon – he swears it’s great. Also broad beans, young garlic, spring cabbages,lots of greens, pinapple,lots of citruses including blood oranges and cumquats. locally I’ve seen good rhubarb, papayas,lots of strawberries, new season pecans and rice.

Grapefruit,juicy fruit by Jimmy Buffett

The Meat Lovers song from Dr Siggy, aka Greetings from Switzerland

– Matt Allworth aka Matt the Vet gave us some great information about food allergies in pets and elimination diets we can try at home if our favourite animals start to have symptoms like itchy feet, intestinal disturbances or rashes. Some of the most common allergens are beef for dogs and fish for cats. Vegetarian animals can also develop allergies. Oh and we discovered that it’s a bad idea to try to turn your ferret into a vegetarian. For lots more info see http://communityvet.net/2010/03/diy-elimination-diet-for-the-dog-an-cat/

And Matt was a great barrel girl

Lena Horne – I want a little doggie

The BELLY BULLETIN

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery – enterprising Chinese have been making fake Australian wine, from small Boutique labels to Penfolds. Investigators have found wine labelled Benfolds, or Penfolds bin 888, which is a lucky number in China. The copies have very similar bottles and labels to the originals. China is Australia’s fastest growing export wine market.
And global champagne sales have risen by about 40% in the first half of this year, so you can stop worrying about those poor champagne makers who were doing it tough in the GFC. And the bonuses that are again flowing into the pockets of investment bankers are obviously being put to good use.
In local news, Tweed tourism have just launched a seafood discovery tour, that you can download or pick up at a tourism office, and follow your fishy way from Cabarita to Corrumbin. Restaurants, fish shops, picnic spots,oyster farms and even crab catching tours.
seafooddiscoverytrail.com
Or go to sustainfood.com.au for lots of local food stories and links, including right now an initiative you can join called the Grow your own food challenge, which over 12 weeks encourages as many people as possible to register the amount of garden space they are devoting to food production. At the same time gardening expert Phil Dudman will give a week by week guide to establishing your own food garden. The challenge has already started, but you can join at any time, and there are already gardening videos online.
And congratulations to The Byron Beach Cafe which has won “Best Tourism Restaurant & Catering Service” at the inaugural North
Coast Tourism Awards

EDIBLE QUOTE – As for butter versus margarine, I trust cows more than chemists. Joan Gussow

Seaman Dan – Follow the sun

Love and chocolate cake, sister T

belly 8.3.10 – glitter’s glorious grains and cooking with pisces

TOPICS : food labelling laws, tuna, website launch, quinoa, millet and buckwheat, autumn foods, cooking with the stars for pisces

GUESTS: Glitter Girl, bayfm presenter, poet and grain lover
Lilith, astrogourmet and hula dancer

PRESENTERS : Sister B and sister T

GUEST RECIPES:

MILLET AND MUSHROOM BAKE adapted by sister Glitter from: Food for the Seasons : Eat well and stay healthy the traditional Chinese way, by Professor Lun Wong and Kath Knapsey

Serves 4

Like all the grains, millet is fine for any season. But it is particularly good for autumn as it gets rid of heat (that maybe a summer leftover), moistens dryness(the most common autumn problem) and supports yin and kidneys for the upcoming winter. Mushrooms ease coughs and get rid of phlegm as well as strengthening the lungs. If you have a great deal of phlegm, swap the millet for rice.

3 cups millet
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon of olive oil/ or avocado oil
1/2 cup of flour (unrefined) can be millet, rice, buckwheat
1/2 onion, chopped
200 gm mushrooms, sliced
3 tablespoons tamari
bunch parsley

Soak millet in water overnight. Drain. Add millet, fresh water (8 cups) and salt to a pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 35 minutes.

While you prepare other ingredients, preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Place millet in an oiled casserole dish. In a frying pan, saute onions and mushrooms
until soft. Then add flour, and stir in with the mushrooms and onions, before adding 1 1/2 cups of water. Stirring continuously. Bring almost to the boil, then
cover, reduce heat and simmer for five minutes. Add tamari and simmer for a further ten minutes. Pour contents of frying pan into the casserole dish and stir very lightly
with millet. Bake for 20 minutes. Cut into four slices, garnish with parsley and serve with lightly steamed spinach.

This could also be accompanied with steamed carrots, pumpkin, and asparagus

BUCKWHEAT NUT LOAF – a sister Glitter favourite from : The Australian and New Zealand Book of Wholemeals, by Marcea Weber

Serves 4-6

1 1/2 cups of buckwheat (roasted)
3 cups water
1/2 teaspoon of himalayan pink salt
2 cups sliced mushrooms
1 tbs minced ginger
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 cup diced red onion
1/2 cup grated carrot
4 tablespoons of coconut oil/ avocado oil/ ricebran or olive oil (cold
pressed)
6 large cabbage leaves
1 cup roasted, ground almonds or walnuts
3 organic eggs, beaten
2 tbs miso (young)
1/2 teaspoon each thyme, basil, oregano (dried)
1/2 cup chopped parsley
3/4 cup of LSA (linseed sunflower and almond) or millet meal

Firstly bake buckwheat kernels in 200 degree C preheated oven until lightly
browned.
Then bring 3 cups of water to the boil. Add buckwheat, salt, cover and lower
heat, simmer 15 minutes. Meanwhile, cut the rest of the vegetables. Heat the 2
tablespoons of chosen oil and saute mushrooms for 5 minutes. Remove from skillet or wok, set aside and add the 2 remaining tablespoons of oil to wok. Saute the rest of the vegetables in order listed above. Cover and simmer for 5 minutes.

Now, bring a pot of salted water to the boil. Add cabbage and blanch 1-2
minutes. Drain and rinse under cold water.
Preheat oven to 190 degrees
Roast and grind nuts.
Oil bread tin. Line tin with cabbage leaves, covering the bottom and sides. Leave enough overhang to fold over and cover the top.

Combine half the buckwheat with the cooked vegetables and the roasted nuts.
Beat eggs and miso, combine with buckwheat mixture and add the rest of the ingredients.
Spoon into cabbage-lined loaf tin (9 1/2 cm x 23 cm) ( 4 x 9 inch), press down firmly and fold overhanging leaves over the mixture. Cover the pan with a double layer of oiled paper.
Reserve other half of buckwheat for another recipe ( e.g. stewed fruit and buckwheat )

Place the loaf pan in a baking dish and pour enough water into the
baking dish, so that it reaches halfway up the sides of the loaf pan. Bake for 45-60 minutes or until firm to the touch.
Cool before slicing.

Serve with steamed spinach, bokchoy or kale and steamed squash and sliced
avocado..

LILITH’S COOKING WITH THE STARS – PISCES

Fish live in water and water sign PISCES more than any other sign need
to keep their fluids up, they’re notoriously fond of liquid refreshments
they drink like fish, and are usually partial to liquid rituals around food:
dipping chilled grapes in dessert wine in a pool strewn with rose petals,
sipping exotic liqueurs beside a moonlit sea or eating mangoes in the bath:
undeniably the most appropriate setting.

As you’d imagine they favour sensuous slithery food: oysters, rice noodles, the sexy texture of melting brie, the perfume of lusciously succulent, juicy fruits. Mood is as important as food to a Pisces. They need a feel-good ambience because romantic Pisces likes to feel the luuurve in the cooking,to eat with loved ones and yes, you can open that wine now.

Famous fish foodies include the exuberant “Dances with Saucepans” Ainsley
Harriott of the BBC cooking show More Nosh, Less Dosh among many others –
posh Swiss chef Anton Mossimann who runs his own exclusive private dining
club in London – and the photogenic Hell’s Kitchen gourmet spunk
Jean-Christophe Novelli who became personal chef to the Rothschilds at the
age of 20.

Other well known Fish are Mrs. Beeton, the most famous
cookery writer in British history, and the notorious and formidable Fanny
Craddock. Even though her only claim to culinary fame appears to be the creation of the prawn cocktail she was billed as the Queen Of The Kitchen, probably because she presented her TV shows in ballgowns, big jewels and mega-make up when nineteen-fifties housewifes all wore aprons. One of the pitfalls of being a fabulous Piscean is a constitutional vulnerability to substance abuse,and Fanny had a major amphetamine habit which made her so explosive and rude to her guests the BBC had to sack her.

And another Pisces foodie was Adelle Davis, the American health author who
pioneered the fledgling field of nutrition during the mid-20th century,
advocated whole unprocessed foods , recommended dietary supplements to prevent disease and was an outspoken critic of food additives, but also published in 1961,
under the pen name Jane Dunlap, a classic of psychedelic literature
called Exploring Inner Space: Personal Experiences Under LSD.

Being the sea creatures they are, Pisces are ruled by Neptune and I’ve
chosen one of my personal favorite recipes for the healthy protein of their
totems

GRAVLAX SALMON A Scandinavian recipe for raw salmon cold-cured with salt,
sugar, pepper, dill and alcohol. No cooking is required, but it does take
2-3 days to cure.

Ingredients:
1 fresh salmon, and it must be fresh
3 tablespoons salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 good-size bunch dill, roughly chopped, stems and all
1 tablespoon spirits: aquavit, lemon vodka, your choice..

Method:
Fillet the salmon, or have the fishmonger do it for you; it needn’t be
scaled, but leave skin on.

Lay both halves, skin side down, on a plate. Sprinkle with the salt, sugar
and pepper, spread with all of the dill, splash over all of the spirits.
Sandwich the fillets together, tail to tail, then wrap tightly in plastic
wrap. Cover with another plate and weigh down with something heavy on top.
Refrigerate.

Open the package every 6-12 hours and baste, inside and out, with the
accumulated juices. On the second or third day, when the flesh has lost its
translucence, remove skin and slice thinly on the bias, and serve as you
would smoked salmon – with rye bread or pumpernickel, potatoes and home made
mayo, anything really.

BY Lilith

EDIBLE QUOTE

we ran out of time to tell you our Pisces icon Mrs Beeton quote – we would have had to interrupt Lilith’s hula dance, unthinkable!

but just so good for international women’s day, so here it is:

“The rank which a people occupy in the grand scale may be measured by their way of taking their meals, as well as by their way of treating their women. The nation which knows how to dine has learnt the leading lesson of progress.”

CONTACTS:

http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/issues/overfishing/our-work/save-our-tuna
to find out more about the best brands of tinned tuna and sign the Greenpeace petition

http://www.foodlabellingreview.gov.au/internet/foodlabelling/publishing.nsf/Content/pubconsult
to contribute to the government review of all food labelling issues – submissions due by May 14 – or go to the food label review page of this site

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