pita bread snacky things

I whipped these up as a snack, and they took maybe 1 minute to prepare (seriously) and then 10 minutes to cook in the oven. These are so simple i'm sure everyone has had a go at them, but for the time and effort they are well worth it (and, if you're like me and have a "crab gut" from traveling in malaysia and singapore, these are superior to potato chips). i always keep a pack of pita in the freezer, specifically for this purpose.


pita chip things
pita bread, lemon juice, some good olive oil, salt, pepper, and whatever herbs you like.

preheat oven (i crank mine to 200, but i like browned, crispy ones).

tear the pita apart on a nonstick tray, ideally rubbed with olive oil to stop them sticking, but this is optional - i'm generally too lazy.

sprinkle over some good olive oil, lemon juice (i use 1/2 a lemon per pita, can use more or less if you want), salt, pepper and whatever you like. i love garlic, coriander, and maybe some chilli or tabasco. i've been known to make 2 batches at once, and have one bunch with a savage whack of tabasco, so it ends up being a surprise, that's for sure!

the thing is that this is always evolving - you can chuck whatever you want or have handy on them. shaved parmesan is good. basically, just play around with it and do what feels right.

this week

ok, so i still have nobu to post about (i was there saturday, thanks to a very special girl), but i might wait for a bit before doing that - i still have to unpack my suitcase!

so here's my list of upcoming events:

finally getting back to the gym this week - i'm aiming for 3 nights, but might stretch it out to 4. this includes all the extras: protein, creatine, etc etc. i have a "crab gut" from malaysia and need to ge trid of it...

movida dos hopefully this week. i haven't seen any reviews of it yet, but i'm still excited to go there!

that's really it for now - work is starting this week in earnest (which is good).

pea and ham soup

This is based on an old recipe that my mother has - she makes it several times a year and each time keeps making small changes to it. as you can see, most of it is fluid; you decide how the adventure ends.

Recipe:

1 Pork hock (add another if want more meat. Cut off skin before cooking; this can be added as well for more flavour, and then removed from pot prior to serving).
1 Cheese kransky.
200g speck (not needed if using 2 pork hocks). Also optional: Smoked spare ribs.
2 ½ cups as a mixture of pearl barley and split peas (green and/or yellow).
1 brown onion, diced.
1 leek, diced, white part only
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 turnip, peeled and chopped.
2 – 3 Potatoes
Several sticks Celery
Chicken stock.
Curry powder.
Salt and pepper to taste.

1. Rinse split peas and barley under cold water.
2. Cook onion and leek in butter, until translucent. Can use garlic butter, or add garlic at this stage.
3. Add 1 teaspoon curry powder.
4. Add stock, split peas, barley, and pork hocks (removing the skin off the hocks first). Bring to the boil. Add whatever veggies you like. Place kransky whole on top.
5. Simmer for two hours, stirring occasionally so the split peas and barley don't stick. If soup is too thick, add a little more water (although, it's not a proper pea and ham soup if the spoon doesn't stand up in it).
6. Remove kransky from pot. Take meat from hock, chop up and put back into soup. Cut kransky into large chunks and chuck back in. Remove the skin from the pot at this point – this is just used for flavour.

and the outcome of an afternoon spent in the kitchen?

replete providore

We found ourselves freezing our tits off on a ridiculous saturday morning. Having just purchased a few goodies from the collingwood farmer's market, we found ourselves starving, freezing and needing some good coffee. Luckily i had the answer: replete. I'm sure that almost all of you have heard of it and most have eaten there. it's something special in hawthorn. 'nuff said.



We ordered some coffees and then decided what to have for the main event. there was a nice omelette with chorizo, sundried tomatoes and other goodies that caught our eye. after looking through the lunch menu, we also got the pizzetta with artichoke, sopressa and other assorted bits and pieces.

The omelette was very good, but the pizzetta was not as good as expected. Next time, i think i'll just give up and get the hotcakes!

Oh, and if you're wondering, at the market i got some wild olives, and also some buffalo mozzarella for a salad with basil and tomatoes. end of story.

quan jude restaurant

To be honest, I didn't even know that there was a Quan Jude in Melbourne. I had heard the rumours, but it wasn't until a friend went that I knew of it's existence. Last time I was in Beijing I hit up the Wangfujing Quan Jude a couple of times and I was very impressed with it; it was the first time that I had had Peking Duck, and I instantly fell in love, not dissimilar to a high school crush. Would it meet the quality that old kingdom has given us (minus the insane head chef)?
So it was on a freezing friday night that we found ourselves there. I had just returned from Malaysia, so I was certainly not prepared for the weather that Melbourne was enduring. We sat down, and ordered the duck, and braced ourselves for what we hoped was going to be an inspiration.

When our duck came, the chef cut it next to our table, his blade a blur as he cut off the prized skin from the stomach area and then presented it to us. It was glorious; with just a small dip into the plum sauce, the fatty, crispy skin came alive in our mouths.
Next up, the meat. Now, this is nothing like Old Kingdom. There, we are used to massive chunks of flesh, with fat and a little bit of skin. It's said that a good chef can cut up to 200 pieces of a duck. The skill is in making sure that there is enough fat, skin and meat in each piece. As you can see, the meat is very nice, tender and flavourful, the skin is amazing, but the fat, where is the fat? I remembered reading in the menu that the Quan Jude duck has only 7.5% fat. No fun :(
All in all, the duck was very nice, and the presentation amazing. The decor kinda reminds me of an 80's b grade chinatown movie. regardless, i will be going back, but this time getting more people to come, or ordering half a duck. it was just too much meat, without the glorious, glistening fat that i have come to know and love.

My plans (from now on)

Now that I am back from Malaysia (pics to come), it seems that some much-needed rest is out of the question.

Coming up: me finally blogging on a semi-constant basis. i'm aiming for 1 blog a week, but in reality, if i can be arsed, it will be much, much more than that.

This weekend is going to be good for the soul, cleansing, and enjoyable. restful? well, maybe if i can sneak in a couple hours here and there.

Tonight I'll be going to Quan Jude for peking duck. I've been to one of their restaurants in Beijing (the wangfujing branch) and it lived up to the expectation. Can this give old kingdom a run for it's money? I guess i'll find out tonight.
Afterwards, i'm heading to a house-cooling party of a friend's in brunswick. He's finally taken the plunge and bought a house. coming soon: suburbia, and no late-night souvlaki places... (him, not me).

Saturday I'll return to the collingwood farmer's market like a moth to a flame. instead of scorching heat and searing pain, i'm attracted to buffalo mozzarella and wild olives in the biggest jar i can mitts on; it seems i have a craving, an addiction if you will. hey, at least it's not the allure of an aged single malt here folks.

Afterwards, I'm tossing up the idea of a late breakfast at replete - yes, yes i know i have to try the ricotta hotcakes, however, this time they no longer have the siren's call. the bagna cauda i had there last time was something special, but i'm tossing up between the satisfying bircher muesli with it's pure clean tastes, and the replete breakfast with their special baked beans. yum!

To top it all off, I'm being taken to "a" restaurant for my birthday by my girlfriend. I'm still getting used to the upgrade from "someone i'm seeing" to "something more serious", but it feels right. Not sure where or what the restuarant is - all i know is that it's japanese, and that it's a surprise. sounds ok to me!

so that's all from me for now, but since i have come back from my holiday, i'll have more time to blog, and let you all see the world through my eyes.

hotpot time!

Due to something beyond my control, i love hotpot. i figure it's somewhere between the truly social nature of the meal, and that you can pick and eat your way through a night. add in the make-your-own-dipping sauce, and it can be fun. to be honest, i think we drank a lot more than we ate.

This is most of the food that i prepped for the meal. included (clockwise from the bottom) is: noodles, winter melon (dong gua), mushrooms (enoki, shiitake, oyster), potatoes, fried tofu, a menagerie of balls (fish balls, beef balls, cuttlefish, and a lot of other crazy things - i just grabbed things that looked good), sliced beef, silken tofu, pakchoy (i think).


I ended up cheating, and making the soup from a tom yum base, and then adding lemon juice and fish sauce to get the flavours balanced. it had the chilli at the right level, but really needed the zing of the lemon to make it nice. everyone loved it (thank god - i always have a nightmare about cooking for people and they hate it. i think it's almost as scary as the dream where you walk around naked)

the sauces i had for everyone to play with were a ground chilli sauce, bull's head barbecue sauce (i cannot begin to describe how "barbecue sauce" is false advertising, but it was nice), sesame paste (tasted like peanut butter), sesame oil, and garlic. and so it began!

Sixin and Ying enjoying the hotpot.

I think that between the 4 of us, we only ate half the ingredients, so i'll throw it together for a stir fry later today, with garlic, chilli, and some good oyster sauce.

Victims of the subsequent drinking were:

• Korean raspberry wine
• Limoncello
• Japanese plum wine
• Bress winery apple cider http://www.bress.com.au
  
• Glenlivet 15 year old single malt
• frozen margarita bucket
• chang beers, and i think some other things (can't find the bodies)
  

Of course, most of this was consumed playing dice games...


Over all, a good time i think ;)