Seafood soup. With marmite again!

This marmite is like a miracle ingredient. First the beef stew, now this fish stew.

This fish stew also goes very well with toasted bread with cheese on top.

1. Saute onions, celery, fennel until soft. Then add garlic slices and saute a few minutes more.

2. Take out vegetables. Turn heat to high. Then dump in prawn and bug shells (they call em bugs here. At home I call them crayfish. In Oz, the crayfish looks like a mini lobster), and cook over high heat until fragrant.

3. Put in about half a small can of tomato paste plus a tablespoon of marmite. Saute to caramelise the paste.

4. Pour in a healthy dollop of white wine (used a sauv blanc). Wait a min, then pour in chicken stock.

5. Simmer vigorously for about 30 minutes. Then strain out the solids.

6. Assemble seafood. One type of seafood at a time, lower seafood into vigorously boiling soup. Take out when just done. Then bring the stew to a boil again and just before serving, pour it over the cooked seafood.

7. For the bread, rub with garlic, then spread a bit of butter and top with cheese (I used brie). Then broil in the oven till toasted and cheese has melted. To eat the toaste, ladle the soup over the bread and let it soak.

 

Beef stew redux

I think I like this way of doing beef stew. It is aromatic and beefy, with a rich, but not cloying sauce. So I'm documenting here.

The critical success factors are:
A. Use a tablespoon of Marmite for the umami factor. The stew will not obviously taste of the marmite - it just enhances the savoriness. Kudos to seriouseats.com.

B. Top up with only just slightly covering the meat with stock. Then bake in 100C oven for the 3 hours, topping up with water as necessary. This will reduce the stock and make it rich.

Rough Steps:
1. About 1kg of beef stew meat. Cut into cubes and brown as usual. Preheat oven to 100C.

2. Take the meat out and saute the mirepoix (celery, onions, carrots) until fragrant. Scrape the fond off the sides of the pot.

3. Add sliced garlic and one entire small can of tomato paste and one heaping tablespoon of marmite. Stir and saute for a few minutes more.

4. Add the meat back in. Pour chicken stock and wine mix (2/3 wine, 1/3 stock) until it just covers the meat plus a bit more. Add thyme/bay leaf and one or two more bulbs of whole garlic. Bring to a vigorous boil

5. In my case, I poured the mix into a tray and then put it into the oven, instead of just putting the pot into the oven. This may or may not be necessary - in any case, we want to reduce the stock.

6. Wait 3 hours.

Red emperor

This fish is called a "Red Emperor" and is apparently a highly prized fish in Australia.

Bought an approximately 1.5kg specimen at a fish market in Perth. Then stuffed it with garlic, dill, coriander. Salted it, and poured olive oil and white wine over it with some water on the pan itself. I baked it in an oven for about 20 mins at 200C, took it out, tugged at a fin and decided to put it back for another 5-6). It came out just nice in doneness. Turns out I over stuffed the fish. When I ate the cheek meat (which did not touch the stuffing), it tasted better than the main body. Goes to show, the fresher the fish, the less you need to do.

Overall, quite nice, but I'd do less stuffing next time if it is really fresh.

George Street Quarter

Nice bistro-like place on George Street in Perth. Advertised as "Modern Australian". Limited menu, but of the 3 dishes we tried, 2 were great.

The starter was pretty darn amazing with a a wide variety of texture and taste. "Falafel, ash goats cheese, pickled turnip, beetroot hummus, parsnip lonzino, lavosh". The beetroot hummus was especially interesting and nice.

The beef was ok, not great after the revelation that was the starter. Basically a beef brisket braise. But it does have a unusual undertone - I'm betting it is marmite or one of its relatives.

Lastly, the dessert was very nice too. A sweet savory sponge-like cake with chocolate and vanilla sauce and ice cream. It even went well with the one or two basil leafs that went on top.

The front staff were Aussie, but the 3 kitchen staff in the smallish kitchen looked Chinese. The menu has hints of Singapore/Malaysia.

Photos pretty poor, but never mind...

Easy Peasy Baby Backed Ribs

I like mind not too moist on top (a bit dry and sticky) and not too sweet. The marinade is mostly Lee Kum Kee cha siew sauce with some djion mustard (must try hotter mustard next time) and a touch of maple syrup and balsamic vinegar.

I like the taste and texture but MW says a bit too salty (I had sprinkled salt before the marinade) so perhaps next time I will go easy on that.

Ribs were accompanied by rice, scallops and cabbage stir fry, and sake.

Method:
1. The night before: sprinkle salt on meat and then spread on the marinade. Insert into packaging and seal. Set aside some marinade in the fridge - add a bit of oil to make it more fluid.
2. On the morning, set temp on SV to 74C. 11-12 hours seems a nice time to get the ribs just barely falling off the bone with still a bit of bite. Put the sealed packages in.
3. Coming home for dinner, unpack the meat. Dry the surface of the meat, including any remnant sauce. The oven grill should be preheated well before hand - mine was 260C.
4. Put the meat in close to the broiler element and broil till the meat is charred in places (poss 5-10 mins- not sure, was busy with other prep).
5. Take the meat out and spread the remaining marinade on the top surface in a complete but fairly thin layer.
6. Put it back into the broiler and cook for a 3-5 mins more until the sauce looks sticky.

Modifications for next time:
A. use less or no salt.
B. try using hot mustard in place of the djion. Or just add chili flakes.

Mushroom soup redux

Redid this old favourite. Pretty nice this time. Used 5 pkts of mushrooms and will serve 4 moderate appetites (with bread).

1. I had 5 pkts assorted mushrooms: portobello, shitake, oyster, swiss browns.
2. Set aside some shitake mushrooms. For the rest, slice them up and mix with melted butter/olive oil, pepper, oregano and thyme in the oven pan. Set aside the stems as well.
3. Put the sliced mushrooms into a 200C oven and roast about 20+ mins until mushrooms are shrunken and browned.
4. In the mean time, on stove top, saute 1 onion + half a leek until translucent. Add generous amount of sliced garlic and continue saute'ing a few minutes more. Add about 4 tablespoons of flour and stir into veg until it disappears.
5. In a cloth bag or similar, add the reserved stems and chicken stock (about 4 cups). Also added some dried chinese mushrooms.
6. simmer for about 30 mins. Then remove the mushroom stems and dried mushrooms.
7. In a blender, add the roasted mushrooms and just enough stock to cover. Blend in batches till all done and pour back into another pot.
8. Add salt, pepper and creme fraiche to taste.
9. Add a bit more water or stock if too thick.
10. Slice the set aside mushrooms and put into soup and cook for a few mins.

Bread glorious bread

My baguette is improving though still not there. My goal is to make good baguettes but without the insane amount of work and care that some people put into their baguettes.

Also trying a new bread. Flaxseed powder, sunflower seeds in a bread flour/wholemeal mix with pumpkin seeds on top.

Current baguette method.
1.water 70% by weight of flour, 1% yeast, 2% salt and bread flour.
2. In a mixer, put in water and yeast and then spoon in flour/salt with the motor running.
3. Mix for 2-3 mins until the flour just forms a (sticky) ball.
4. Put the dough into a container. Spray water all over dough and container and then cover it.
5. Wait for 4-5 days.
6. Take out dough, cut into suitable pieces.
7. Do a stretch and fold.
8. rest for 20-30 mins or so (dough is cold).
9. time permitting, do another gentle stretch and fold and rest again.
10. At the last time, stretch and fold the very wet dough into a rough shape.
11. wait for about an hour or so until dough gets a slightly puffed up look. Dough should be somewhat elastic.
12. 20 mins before bake, heat oven to 250C with steam injection.
13. Just before putting into oven, slash bread. Give it one last spray of water.
14. Bake in oven till well browned.
15. Open oven door for for about 5 mins but leave bread inside.

Flaxseed/sunflower/pumpkin.
1. Bread flour about 1/2 by weight. Whole wheat another 1/4 or so. Rest is flaxseed meal and sunflower seeds.
2. 2% salt, 10-12% maple syrup, 2% yeast, 15-17% butter, 65% milk.
3. Pour milk, syrup and yeast into mixer. Mix for a while till well mixed.
4. Spoon in dry ingredients.
5. Put in the butter (cold).
6. Mix for about 15-17 mins.
7. Put the dough into a covered container and keep in fridge overnight.
8. Punch down dough and do a stretch and fold.
9. wait for 20-30 mins.
10. Form into shapes. Bake in 190C oven till browned or internal temp is 195F or so.
11. Open oven door and leave bread in oven for a few mins.