smoked trout linguine

It has been far too long between drinks, dear friends. Or, perhaps, the time it has taken for this post to appear is due to the distance between drinks being far too short. And when the distance between drinks (both of the physical and metaphorical straint) is being punctuated with dinners out, dinners in, weddings, celebrations, commiserations, sickness, health and rain, all I really want to do is sit. Big, fat bowl of pasta in one hand, fork in the other. Pepper and a squeeze of freshly cut lemon at the ready, where possible. Even better if said pasta involves a certain honey smoked friend we have come to know as Mister Fish.

lemon zest pasta

This pasta is wonderfully light in flavour, despite the richness of the smoked trout, the cream and the cheese. The family? They loved it. Over ate and then sat on the sofa watching that dancing show whilst clutching their stomachs. It does taste better when straight from the pot, as fresh pasta has a tendency to soak up all its surrounding goodness when fridge'd post-intermingling. Which is not necessarily a bad thing - I had this for lunch the next day and it was fan-tastic. A squeeze of lemon to freshen it up and a bit of salad on the side to counteract the cream's impact on my hips.

the inimitable mister fish

smoked trout linguine

ingredients:

one recipe fresh lemon rind pasta
one honey smoked trout (250g)
knob of butter (thumb sized)
300ml fresh cream
50g fresco pecorino (cubed)
50g fromage blanc (crumbled)
half a bunch of chives
one lemon (for squeezing)
salt & pepper

method:

1. Make your pasta first. The rest can be done while it's hanging out to dry. Not making pasta? Well, I guess you could take it out of the packet at this stage. That would be a good start. It will not make you feel as accomplished, but it will do for now. Also, chop your chives. And your cheese. This will save you time (and ensuing panic later).

prep at the beginning: a lifesaver!

2. Have you dealt with a whole smoked fish before? Delightful isn't it? Well, sort of. Once you've wrangled the little mister (or is it a miss?) out of its vaccuum sealed pack, you'll have to rip the skin off and start removing the flesh. Easiest way to do it? Slide your fingers down the middle and then slowly ease the flesh off the bones, watching for any that may come off with the meat. You'll be able to remove these later when pulling the fish apart.

separating the flesh from the bones

3. So go on! Get all oily and fishy smelling. Pull that sucker apart! Do not (as I may have done) absentmindedly answer your phone during this task. It will smell like fish for a while. And by a while, I mean a week.

mister trout loses his backbone

4. So here is the part where you get saucy. Put your butter and cream in a pot that is big enough to hold all your fish plus the pasta. Let the butter melt into the cream. Mmmmm, yellow specked fatty dairy produce.

mister fish gets saucy with the cream

5. Now toss your fish into the cream and heat gently. The idea here is to allow the smoky, fishy flavours to infuse into the cream. Altogether now, "Ahhhhhh!"

pasta boiling away happily

6. Is your pasta cooking? Well the time is now! Lotsa boiling salted water. I use a deep frying basket, because it's just easier that way. Pasta in basket, basket in water, a swirl with the chopsticks and voila! 30 seconds later, it can be drained and tipped into a lightly olive oiled dish in one quick movement. Do this in batches.

cheesy goodness being added

7. While you're cooking the pasta (or immediately after if this is too tricky) toss the cubes of pecorino into the creamy mix and stir til they melt in. This will thicken the creamy sauce, without making it too cheesy and stringy.

8. Melted goodness? Check! Cooked pasta? Check! All that needs to be done now is a quick season (salt and pepper shakers ahoy!) and a swift handful of chives into the cream mixture.

pasta's done. now where's that fish...

9. Toss the (now cooked) pasta into the creamy sauce mix and stir it around happily. There will only be enough "sauce" to just coat the pasta. So keep tossing til each strand is well coated.

10. All you need to do now is serve it. Crumble your fromage blanc over the top. A good squeeze of lemon over the top of each serve (just before eating) really lifts the flavour from "yeah quite good" to "wahoo! party in my mouth!" Loveit.

lick your lips, help your hips!

recipe notes:

Use a regular, store bought fresh or dried pasta if you wish. You won't get that wonderful multi-levelled "lemon juice freshness and then lemon zest undertone" flavour, but it will still be lovely and tasty.

Use any smoked pink fish with this dish. I happened to have a honey smoked trout on had, but have had equal amounts of success with a small smoked salmon (whole fish, not the funny supermarket packets).

Cheese varieties too confusing? A mozzerella will do nicely in place of the pecorino. It won't have as much bite, but will build the sauce in a similar fashion. Add some parmesan to it for flavour if you're going down this route. A crumbly fetta will do nicely in place of the fromage blanc.

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lord roberts

There will be more recipes up here soon, but today is a Friday. And around work, when all is quiet and the markets aren't, well, marketing, Friday is lunch day. Different lunch options have been thrown around, helter-skelter since the St Mary's Cathedral Markets got "postponed". Yum-cha is out. As is anything involving copious (and mandatory) amounts of meat. Some need to be back by a certain time and others won't walk in the heat. Not. Easy. So the Lord Roberts was chosen. And I got sunburnt. Over lunch. On my left side only. But that's a different story...

"We have a table for 10 booked" I said. The brusque waiter (for he can only be described as such, though the others were lovely) gestured towards the door. "Outside" he said, before stalking off, as only a waiter-who-is-really-an-actor/model can do. We didn't mind so much then, having completed a brisk walk through the park, then down, down, down the hill past the school and into the Lord Roberts, then up, up, up the stairs to where we were now. (We did mind later when he went all passive aggressive on us).

The rooftop courtyard at the Lord Roberts is a beautiful thing on a bright, sunny day. Trees, umbrellas, silver topped cafe style tables. We found our spot and took it in turns to queue up at the bar to order, collect our number and retreat to the relative shade. (I say relative because half way through the meal, I found my left side had been roasted. Owwww!)

fresh chicken parmigiana & chips w mozzarella & napoli $17

Nic ordered the chicken parmigiana. It was impressively sized (she only got through half of it) and topped with a rich red sauce and a solid layer of cheesy goodness. It is also on special on Thursdays, where, at $10, it's a steal!

lamb burger & chips w hummus & roquette $15

The boys got lamb burgers. They came with hommus on them. And, apparently a "special sauce" that "really made the burger". Theese were eagerly wolfed down, chips and all. The blackboard noted that these and all the other burgers were on special at $10 on Tuesdays. There weren't any specials listed for Fridays - probably because it's so popular. We saw a couple of tables come and go in the time we were there... not because we were taking our time, or anything...

mexican corn nachos w chilli beans, guacamole & sour cream $12

The girls had been to the Lord Roberts for a farewell lunch only two days prior, and had heard gushings about the nachos, so promptly ordered a serve each. "Ok." was the general consensus, and they remained unfinished. Perhaps because of the size of the serving and the heat, perhaps because they were "ok".

Zo' ordered the Fresh Tiger Prawn Salad with Avocado & Tomato $16 (pictured top) and was quite happy with it. I believe I saw chunks (chunks!) of avocado.

beer battered fish & chips w tartae sauce & lemon $8

I, ever the adventurous traveller, got fish & chips. And for $8, ($6 on Mondays & Saturdays) I was so SO happy with my choice. You see, the sauce / cutlery bench inside also stocks a variety of salts and peppers. So my fish & chips were happily adorned with pink sea salt flakes, crushed black peppercorns & crushed dried chilli flakes. Happy days indeed! I did start to feel a little greasy in the stomach towards the end of the meal though. And perhaps it was because I'd eaten more than I should have, and perhaps it was because it was so hot, and perhaps it was because snarky waiter (who was previously merely brusque waiter) had grumbled at us for shifting our tables so we weren't in direct sunlight "and what am I supposed to do here?" he said, pointing at a not-quite-gap between our tables and the next, then, later "you'll have to pass this down, it's too hard" when serving us our meals, with a flick of his overgrown fringe. It wasn't too hard. Or wouldn't have been if he'd stepped twice to his left. But anyway. (*huff!*)

The rest of the waitstaff were lovely. Cheerful even. And when we departed to go down, down, down the stairs then up, up, UP the hill past the school and through the park, we were sad that lunch was over. So sad, in fact, that I had to buy & eat a Monaco Bar later that afternoon just to cheer me up.

Lord Roberts Hotel
Cnr Riley & Stanley Street
East Sydney NSW 2010
ph 02 9331 1326

note: to get to the restaurant, head up the stairs til you get to the very very top.

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how to hot-pot

When the weather is hot, and the humidity is high, the thought of slaving over a hot stove is somewhat less than appealing. Unless, of course, everyone else is too. And unless that hot stove is sitting in the middle of the table and contains a pot full of boiling stock in which you can dunk whatever you wish. Then it's just tummy filling fun :)


For those of you wanting to hot-pot (or "steamboat" as my family calls it) at home, you'll need a couple of basics.

1. A portable stove top (preferably gas) on which to cook.

2. A pot, in which to cook. (Ours has a special vent in the middle to keep everything as hot as possible but with minimum energy!)

3. Stock, which goes into the pot. (Or water. We normally use a watered down stock from a previous day's soup).

4. Stuff to eat! Ours (below) come from a combination of asian grocers, an afternoon's wonton making and assorted cans (whilst tinned nushrooms aren't so good straight from the tin, they are once hot-potted).

wontons, beef & noodles

lettuce, prawns & seafood balls

5. When the water's boiling, dump the frozen items in and wait for them to float (which signals their cooked-ness). Swish thinly sliced bits of raw meat around in the boiling stock to cook them - these only need a couple of seconds. And... VOILA!

And just to beef it up a little, because this how-to is fairly lacking in how-to, some photos from the Chinese New Year festival that was held at Chatswood some weeks ago.

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an octopussy lunch

We were lounging around, Bean and I, on a lazy Saturday afternoon when she looked up at me over the top of marie claire and said "I want to cook octopus." "Ok", said I. And then proceeded to forget all about it until, one afternoon, the parents greeted me with a "Is 400grams enough?" on my return home from work. Apparently Bean had told one and all about her octopus plans, and that I had been enlisted as number one kitchen hand/advisor.


So we made a full meal of it, Bean and I. Kicked things off with some freshly sliced bread, olives, sun-dried tomatoes and hommus. Added some lemons to the tray, a bowl of couscous, some salad and brought it home with chargrilled octopus - swimming in fresh parsley, lemon and chilli. Perfect.

chargrilled octopus
serves 4

Ingredients for the marinade:

400g baby octopus
2 chillis (finely sliced)
4 cloves of garlic (finely diced)
2 tbs olive oil
juice and rind of 1/2 lemon
salt & pepper

Ingredients for the dressing:

1/2 bunch parsley (roughly chopped)
1/2 spanish onion (finely diced)
3 tbs olive oil
1 chilli (finely sliced)

Method:

1. Grab a big mixing bowl. Dump the ingredients for the marinade in it. Massage briefly with your fingers so all of the lovely fresh flavours permeate through the octopus.

2. Glad wrap the bowl and stick it in the fridge for at least and hour, but preferably overnight.

octopus - ready for the fridge

3. Grab a different mixing bowl. Dump the ingredients for the dressing in it. Swirl them around with a spoon.

4. If you have a barbecue, hot it up for extra flavour else, do what we did and use a cast iron griddle pan on the stovetop. Toss about 1/4 of the octopus around the hot pan in until it's tentacles are a yummy, caramelised brown colour and the head is opaque.

octopus - sizzling in the pan

5. As soon as the octopus is done, transfer into the bowl of dressing and swirl around to coat. Repeat with remaining octopus (in two batches so it doesn't stew in the pan). If you're using a barbecue, you can do all the octopus at once.

6. Pull the contents of the dressing bowl (now also full of octopus) into a serving plate and go-go-go!

cous cous salad
serves 4

couscous salad

Ingredients:

1/2 cup couscous
2/3 cup boiling water
1 tsp lemon rind
a handful of grape tomatoes (halved)
1/2 bunch parsley (finely chopped)
salt & pepper

Method:

1. Have you seen the new season grape tomatoes? If not, jump to it! They're oh-so tiny - the size of a grape (surprising no?) and have just the right balance of tart gooey centre to crisp sweet flesh.

grape tomatoes - and Bean, engaged in some chopping action

2. Tip the couscous and boiling water into a bowl, season with salt and pepper. Cover with an upturned plate. Leave it there while you do your chopping.

3. Chop the ingredients that need chopping, and when you're done, flip the plate off the top of the couscous. Magic!

4. Fluff the couscous with a fork, and toss the rest of the ingredients through. Try not to eat too many grape tomatoes in the process. And you're done!

grap tomato & bocconcini salad
serves 4

Ingredients:
4 pieces fresh bocconcini (about 150g)
grape tomatoes
mixed salad leaves
lemon juice (about 1/4 lemon)
olive oil & balsamic vinegar
salt & pepper

Method:

1. Lay some salad leaves onto a big platter.

2. Halve some tomatoes and scatter, artistically, on top of the leaves.

3. Tear up the bocconcini with your hands into mouth-sized pieces. Scatter artistically.

4. Squeeze lemon juice over the top. Drizzle with balsamic and olive oil. Not too much - the key to this salad is lightlightlight!

5. Salt and pepper it and you're done!

hommus, olives, sun-dried tomatoes, lemon wedges & bread

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