This meal was in honour of my mate Tyson and his GF Philipa. She is a vego, yet a lovely girl….its quite rare the two of those go hand-in-hand. The dumpling idea came from a dish at Tets we did for the vego dietry in place of the crab ravioli, except I’ve replaced the potato with celeriac and finished it with a sweet lemon barley dressing. The rice salad may seem outta place with the dumplings and panzanella, but the crisp light taste of the fresh peas and shoots combined with fluffy jasmine rice, dressed in olive oil combated the strong flavours of the other dishes. Also, steamed rice with plenty of maldon and extra virgin is damn tasty….the addition of fresh mint, peas and shoots is just a bonus.
Celeriac and Goats Cheese Dumpling, Lemon Barley Vinaigrette
Pea, Mint and Snow Pea Shoot Rice Salad
Heirloom Tomato Panzanella (more…)
Raw fish is the bomb. The texture and flavour of fresh raw salmon has to be one of my favourites. This salmon dish is finished with hot ginger oil which really heightens the flavour of the salmon, also a great way to start a meal in the winter. The dumplings……were awesome, and so simple to make. A light prawn mousse, with chopped prawn folded through, incased in gow gee pastry which is available at all good chinese grocers. I love cooking prawns this way, split them down the middle, season and a lick of oil, then under a hot grill for a few minutes. Dead simple and deadly tasty.
Salmon Sashimi w Hot Ginger Oil
Prawn Dumplings, Spicy Prawn Soup
Stir Fried Asian Greens and Shoots
Jasmine Tea Salted Prawns
Din Tai Fung in Sydney do a great dish of Silken Tofu with Pork Floss and Century Egg. This is my variation on that with prawn floss and herbal soy eggs replacing the former duo, the tofu itself was poached in the oolong broth for just under an hour. The flavours were amazing. Szechuan salt always reminds me of crispy skin chicken which I devoured a rittle kid. It works equally as nice with pork, and in this case the belly. The japanese eggplants were intially stir fried with black bean paste and red chillis, then braised in a chicken stock seasoned with soy……god damn it was good. The chicken wings were deboned, brined for 2 hours, dipped in salted egg yolks then fried.
Silken Tofu, Prawn Floss, Herbal Soy Eggs and Oolong Broth
Roast Pork Belly w Szechuan Salt
Braised Black Bean Japanese Eggpant
Salted Egg Yolk Chicken Wings
