TOPICS : the mighty mullet, smokin’, eating your rampant pumpkin vine, healthy traditions – Sri Lanka (gotu kola), dr Siggi’s bad chef recipes – souffle’, Sister Rasela’s Morsels – odd uses for cucumbers
GUESTS/INTERVIEWS : Paul Van Reik, Sri Lankan born wonderful cook and food writer, and youthful father of many children
Dr Siggi Fried, bad cook freedom fighter
Sister Rasela – nutritionist and bellysister
PRESENTER : Sister T
FRESH REPORT
This week sr T is loving pineapples, sea mullet (extra fab to July as it goes North to spawn) and taming the pumpkin vines by shallow frying the flowers and marble size baby pumpkins (in a light flour and water batter).
The mighty Mullet
bake, pickle, smoke, bbq, make fish pastes and pate’, goes with tomatoes, oranges, fennel, mushrooms, onion, garlic, eggplant, all kinds of herbs, substitute for mackerel in Spanish and English recipes (much cheaper)
SMOKED MULLET OPEN SANDWICH – by Sr T
First, smoke yer mullet
1 wok, a metal cake rack, maybe foil, mullet fillets, skin on
Smoke mix :
1/2 cup each brown sugar, rice and tea leaves (I just used tea that was getting a bit old), a few leaves/sprigs of woody herbs, maybe a few fennel seeds, lemon myrtle – experiment
To smoke you need a wok, either an old one, or lined with foil, if you haven’t got a wok lid the foil has to be long enough to cover the fish.
Put the smoke mix in the wok, heaped in the middle. Then the metal rack, high enough to not touch the mix, the fish skin down on the rack. Cover with lid or crimp foil over so it seals the top but doesn’t touch the fish.
Cook on high until it starts to smoke, then 10 to 20 minutes on medium heat depending on size/your preference. If the mix goes out and you need to cook the fish a bit more, finish in a dry frypan, skin down.
Then you can use the mullet in many ways (lovely for pate’)
or make a herby garlicky green sauce – I whizzed olive oil, lemon juice, salt , pepper, garlic, parsley, mint, chives and fennel tops in a food processor
Made sourdough toast, thinly sliced tomatoes on top, then flaked mullet, then drizzled bright green sauce….mmm
And pretty too.
GUEST RECIPES:
HEALTHY TRADITIONS :
* is there a dish in your tradition that is supposed to be extra good for you? Please share it with the bellysisters, either on air or on the website.
In the Sri Lankan tradition, it is said that gotu kola keeps you youthful, and is good for your blood and rheumatism.
GOTU KOLA KANDA – from Paul
1 cup cooked rice (see below)
2 -3 tamped down cups of gotu kola leaves (1 bunch)
Boil rice in a lot of water until grains whole but mushy – a thick starchy soup/porridge consistency.
Pound leaves in a mortar, sieve out solids and keep juice or puree
with a little water in a blender and sieve out solids. Makes 2-4 tbs of bright green juice, add to cooked rice with a pinch of salt. It will have a minty/sharp/peppery flavour. Add jaggery to taste (or honey/plain sugar).
Have a bowl each morning, you can re-cook any leftover dry rice until it is mushy to make this.
The following recipe is from Paul’s website, where you will find many more delicious Sri Lankan recipes
LEAFY VEGETABLE MALLUNG
This is a standard preparation you can make with any leafy green – spinach, silver beet, kankun, amaranth, chrysanthemum, radish and turnip leaves, chickweed and so on. If you can get them, there are two Sri Lankan greens in particular that do well with this treatment – gotukola, also called pennywort, and often available in the growing season from good South East Asian suppliers; mukunawena, a quite specific Sri Lankan herb which you may find at Sri Lankan grocers.
Ingredients:
1 bunch leafy green vegetables
1 tsp black mustard seed
1 tsp turmeric
pinch of salt
1 tbsp grated coconut (fresh is best, frozen is also fine, desiccated is a no-no)
1 tbsp Maldive fish ground fine (you can substitute dried prawns)
vegetable oil
Method:
Wash the leaves and shred them fine.
Heat the oil in a wok or frying pan big enough to hold all the shredded leaves.
Put in the mustard seeds and fry till your hear them pop. Immediately add the leafy vegetables and stir rapidly. You want to try and coat all the leaves with oil and seed.
Add the turmeric, salt and Maldive fish, stirring all the time to prevent the leaves burning, like in a Chinese stir fry.
When the leaves have darkened and gone limp, add the coconut and mix it through for a minute or two at the most. You just want it to take on the colour of the turmeric and be thoroughly integrated with the leaves.
Taste, and adjust the seasoning. If you like, squeeze some lime juice over it. Take it off the stove. You don’t usually serve mallungs hot, so let it cool down a bit before eating.
(C) 2007 Paul van Reyk
DOKTOR SIGGI FRIED’S COOKBOOK FOR BAD COOKS
LEYTON’S SOUFFLE’
Look up any good cookbook for a souffle’ recipe. Prepare as suggested but don’t worry about using precise amounts as all souffles will collapse in the end. However, ther is a trick that Leyton Hewitt, the famous tennis player, uses to create perfect souffles (almost) every time…when the souffle is cooking, stare at it intensely and shout : ” Come On” at least 3 times.
(C) Dr Siggi Fried
EDIBLE QUOTES:
So much said about the poor cucumber (great for cleaning metal according to Sr Rasela – not sure if this is a compliment)
“A cucumber should be well sliced, and dressed with pepper and vinegar, and then thrown out, as good for nothing.”
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer
“Raw cucumber makes the churchyards prosperous” – English Proverb
“He had been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers, which were to be put into vials hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the air in raw, inclement summer.” Jonathan Swift (Irish writer)
“Cucumbers are like virgins, they do not keep long” – Dutch Proverb
CONTACTS/LINKS:
good mullet info :
http://www.sea-ex.com/fishphotos/seamullet.htm
http://www.australianseafood.com.au/species.php?f=78&v=f
wok smoking :
http://www.foodista.com/technique/CYZGZ2ZV/wok-smoking
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/pohskitchen/cooking_tips/
http://www.buthkuddeh.com.au/ – Paul Van Reyk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centella_asiatica – lots of good gotu kola info and pictures
www.kopping.com – dr Siggi