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By clare, February 12, 2012

I felt like a butter sauce, and I felt like rice paddy herb.  Two different culinary traditions (Europe and South East Asia), but that’s what recipe testing is for – to test out recipes.  So, I did, and it was very good.

Jobfish is also called Ironjaw or Rusty Jobfish (Aphareus rutilans) and I bought it as a cutlet about 2cm thick.  Not a regular fish to find in the fishmongers as apparently it is generally a bycatch, not being deliberately sought because it doesn’t fetch such a high price.  But like many things I reckon it is a lesser known gem, and cooks up beautifully in the pan as a cutlet, matching well with the strong herbaceous flavours of the rice paddy herb and long leaf (sawtooth, Mexican or Thai) coriander.

Jobfish with rice paddy herb & butter sauce

Steve from Cairns Ocean Products, where I bought the fish, suggested that goldband snapper fillet with skin on, or Spanish mackerel cutlet would be a good substitute for the jobfish.

I have included the photo from the previous night, where I cooked the jobfish with 1 clove of garlic, fried to golden prior to adding fish to the pan, and brown rice with another 1/4 cup of finely chopped mixed rice paddy herb and long leaf coriander.  The herbed rice was a great mix, and the garlic was good but I prefer the version below with the slightly sweeter red shallots, and the inclusion of pineapple.

These proportions are for one serve, so expand accordingly for the number of people you are serving.  I use freshly cut pineapple pieces but you could replace with unsweetened canned pineapple pieces if you don’t have access to good quality fresh pineapples.  Here it is:

Jobfish with rice paddy herb & butter sauce

1 jobfish cutlet

40g butter

1 – 2 teaspoons peanut oil

1 red shallot bulb, peeled and finely sliced

2/3 cup pineapple pieces

1 teaspoon fish sauce

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice, plus more to taste if needed (equal to around 1-3 limes depending on juiciness)

1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup finely chopped rice paddy herb

1/4 cup finely chopped long leaf coriander

Serve with: wide rice noodles, or well cooked brown rice with some extra herbs mixed through

Method

Warm a cast iron or other heavy based frypan over a gentle to medium heat then add the butter and enough peanut oil to prevent the butter burning (between 1-2 teaspoons).

When the butter is melted add the shallots and fry gently until just softened, then push away to the edges of the pan, swirl the butter so that the middle of the pan is well covered, and add the fish cutlet.  Adjust the heat if needed so that the fish is cooking at a gentle sizzle, and add the pineapple pieces around the edge of the fish.

Cook the cutlet on one side for about 3-6 minutes or so, long enough to develop a golden brown glaze as in the image above.  Flip the cutlet over, and cook for a few minutes longer – the second side won’t need as long as the first.  Add the fish sauce, lime juice and pepper.  Just before you plate up, taste the sauce to check for flavour and if needed add a tiny bit more fish sauce or a squeeze of extra lime juice.  Scatter the herbs over the fish, and/or through the rice noodles if you are serving the fish on rice noodles.

The cutlet can be served next to rice noodles or rice, on on top.  As the cutlet is so easy to debone, when plating up served on the noodles, I just peeled the skin away, and pulled each quarter of the cutlet away from the central bone and outward bone-spikes, and served the boneless chunks mixed with the noodles in a noodle bowl.

Rice noodles absorb the sauce and balance the strong herb flavours, as does well cooked brown rice with some extra herbs tossed through.  It would also go well with a crispy salad such as a green papaya salad or a banana bud salad.  More on those two in the next few weeks.

(C) Clare Richards 2012

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By clare, February 8, 2012

This is a flavoursome, fresh pasta sauce which goes well with the taro gnocchi mentioned in the adjacent post.  It is gluten free and dairy free but thanks to the pumpkin seed meal and olive oil has a creamy texture.

It can also be used as a salsa or dip, or added to tacos, tortillas or salad rolls.

The celery seed salt is a recipe I’ve posted here.

If you want to deepen the red colour of the sauce, add a teaspoon of annatto/achiote powder.

The ripe mamey sapote adds a sweet intense back-note to the flavour, similar to tomato paste.  Mamey sapote pulp freezes well, so if you have a very ripe fruit, consider freezing it in small batches to use when needed as a tomato paste substitute.  My tropical reference cookbook, tropical cuisine: cooking in clare’s kitchen, has a section in the encyclopaedia which goes into detail about the selection, ripening, preparation, storage and culinary uses of mamey sapote.

fresh tomato and pumpkin seed pasta sauce

Fresh tomato and pumpkin seed pasta sauce

1/4 cup pumpkin seeds, ground finely

1 1/2 teaspoons celery seed salt

1/2 teaspoon finely chopped rosemary (about 2 tips)

1/4 cup finely sliced sweet basil (about 3 sprigs)

12 garlic chive leaves, finely chopped (substitute with onion chives if needed)

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup very ripe mamey sapote pulp (substitute quality tomato paste if you don’t have mamey sapote)

2 medium tomatoes, briefly blanched, peeled and finely diced

2 teaspoons lime juice (about 1/2 a lime)

Mix all ingredients together, cover, and leave to stand at room temperature for an hour or so for flavours to develop prior to serving.  Makes about 2 1/2 – 3 cups of sauce, enough for 2 – 3 people when used as a pasta sauce.

(C) Clare Richards 2012

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By clare, February 8, 2012

If you need to avoid gluten, eggs or dairy, or if you simply have taro available, then this is such a simple recipe and produces soft pillows of gnocchi-ness, the perfect canvas for your favourite pasta sauce.

cooked taro 'gnocchi'

This recipe works best with a large taro corm as that allows for a greater number of similarly shaped ‘gnocchi’ pieces.

taro gnocchi boiling

Cut slices about 2cm thick per person across the taro corm and peel the rough outer skin off thoroughly.

Cut into batons about 2cm across, then cut each baton into sections about 3cm long each (the segments on the outer edges will obviously have a slight curve on one side).

Allow about 8-10 ‘gnocchi’ pieces per person.  If you are using a very large taro corm, one slice will produce about this many pieces.

Bring a very generous amount of water to the boil and season well with salt (about 2-3 teaspoons worth).

Add the taro and keep the water on a rolling boil (as per image above) for between 15 – 20 minutes, depending on the size of your pieces and the dryness of the taro.  The ‘gnocchi’ are done when a fine skewer easily penetrates through one of the largest pieces.

Drain immediately and serve with your favourite pasta sauce.

My recipe for fresh tomato and pumpkin seed pasta sauce follows.

(C) Clare Richards 2012.

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By clare, February 5, 2012

This is a very easy recipe which produces a rich but slightly tart (thanks to the citric acid) cream dessert of an enticing light caramel colour.

I use our local 100% heavy Jersey cream from Misty Mountain Farms dairy – the same cream I use in my butter post.

It is based on a recipe from Modernist Cuisine which is supposed to create panna cotta, but there is nothing panna cotta about this dessert – the richness and density of the cream means that it is closer to a full-cream ice cream in texture, thicker even than a creme brulee.

It’s wicked.  Best made when you have a dinner party, so that you’re not tempted to eat more than one serve.  Serves 8-12 people, depending on whether served on its own or with an accompaniment.

Spiced Jersey cream

4 cups heavy (100%) cream

2/3 cup kitul palm, or coconut palm, syrup (available from Asian grocery stores).

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1/2 teaspoon citric acid

1/4 teaspoon ground star anise

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom seeds

Place all ingredients in a saucepan, mix together, then place over a medium heat, stirring regularly.  The mixture will thicken initially, then thin out.

Once thinned out pour into dariole moulds, small glasses or similar small serving containers and refrigerate, covered, once room temperature.

Chill for a minimum of 1 hour prior to serving.

Creams may need a stir before serving if a layer of syrup separates out at the base – check about 1/2 hour prior to serving to see if this is happening, a good stir will recombine the layers.  Great to serve with fresh fruit, brandy snaps or tuille wafers.

(C) Clare Richards 2012

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By clare, February 5, 2012

Celery seed is well known for its beneficial effects on gout and arthritis, both of which are tendencies in our family.

I love the intense celery flavour of celery seed – the seed not of the common garden celery but of a wild cousin, Apium graveolens.  So it is both a culinary pleasure and a preventative measure to make regular use of home made celery seed salt.

I make an intensely flavoured version of celery salt, by simply combining one quantity of celery seed with one quantity of quality salt (I use Murray River flaky salt).

Because celery seeds can be bitter they need to be lightly roasted, but only briefly and in a mildly heated cast iron pan as they are so tiny they will burn quickly.  Just put them in the pan until they begin to be fragrant, then immediately tip out onto a clean plate and shake around to cool them down.  Grind them, either in a mortar and pestle or in a spice grinder, then add the salt and grind both together to a fine consistency.

Use wherever you would use ordinary salt.  Celery seed salt is great to dip crudites and hard boiled eggs into, and fills out the flavour of stocks, stews and sauces.

(C) Clare Richards 2012