Smoked Salmon Sushi Plus Fried Goodies

If any of you have been reading this blog or my other one for any length of time, then you know I'm a big fan of sushi. In all it's wonderful forms!

Ahhhhhh.

This post really isn't about how to make sushi as there are plenty of sites out there to show you how. This is more about what you can do with the sushi and what you can serve on the side.

Firstly, let's have a look at the first plate:




Very simple, no frills. Oh, each avocado slice is actually slightly pressed into the smoked salmon so it stays put. I had a bit of leftover rice so I made a small rice patty in the middle and tried to arrange the last few smoked salmon slices around it in a decorative fashion. Yeah, it doesn't show too well.



Next up is the second plate:




Again, simple. The rolls are just smoked salmon and avocado, whilst for the nigiri sushi I put the avocado UNDER the smoked salmon. Tricky, eh?

For the sushi fixin's I did the following (please note this pic was taken halfway through after I'd consolidated all the sushi onto one plate after our first grazing):




Serving the pickled Japanese veggies along with the wasabi paste in scallop shells made a nice presentation. Soy sauce was in a bowl, not a scallop shell.

But I didn't stop there. I also made two (2) fried dishes. One was some deep-fried rice puffs and the second was battered, fried, lingcod pieces. Instead of typing in what I did for the rice puffs, how's about you watch a video?




And if you want to see me make them really fast...




They didn't puff up as much as I'd hoped, but they were still darned tasty!




After I fried the rice puffs, I put them in a warm oven while I battered and fried the fish. I don't really need to tell you how to batter and fry fish, do I? No, didn't think so.

Just enjoy a pic of the finished pieces:




Everything was served on platters on the table and folks just dug in to what they wanted. Sorry, no pics of the whole thing put together as we were too busy stuffing our faces.

Hope you enjoyed the pics today.

Cheesy Baked Croquettes with Smoked Trout & Prawn Sauce

Yeah, that's quite the title isn't it? The prawn sauce is optional, BTW. One night I served them as a main course without the prawn sauce but with a side salad, and the next night as a side dish with the prawn sauce.

Personally, I like them better with the prawn sauce.

The amounts of each ingredient aren't listed --with one or two exceptions-- you'll see why, no worries.


Cheesy Baked Croquettes with Smoked Trout & Prawn Sauce


What you need:

For the croquettes:

4 to 6 cups of leftover mashed potato --do I REALLY need to explain how to make mashed spuds?
handful of fresh basil leaves
diced cheddar cheese --somewhere around 1.5 cm but please don't be exact
salt
pepper
couple of handfuls of bread crumbs
cumin powder
turmeric powder
thin-sliced smoked trout (or smoked salmon)

For the prawn sauce:

Handful of prawn shells (I ALWAYS keep prawn shells after shelling the prawns, they freeze well and you just break off a hunk whenever you want to make a sauce or stock)
1 crushed garlic clove
1 or 2 tsp dijon mustard
1 tbsp lambrusco wine
1 tbsp cream fraiche OR sour cream OR double cream
dash of sea salt
dash of ground white pepper
4 cups H2O (water)


Whut U Due:


Cube some cheddar cheese to around 1.5 cm (3/5 of an inch) --or somewhere thereabouts. Mince up some fresh basil leaves (rinse them first, could be caterpillars hiding).

Your cutting board should now look thusly:




Mix the basil into the mashed spuds. Place some of the spuds into your hand --each croquette should be between golfball and tennis ball size.



Flatten the mashed potato in your palm and place a piece of cheese in the middle.



Carefully mold the potato around the cheese



Ta-da!




Make up as many or as few as you'd like, no worries. I used three per person as a main and one per person as a side dish. Put them on a plate and then refridgerate for an hour. This way they'll be easier to crumb.

So, like, what to do for an hour while the croquettes chill in the fridge? How about make some prawn sauce!

Add your empty prawn shells and the garlic and 4 cups of water into a saucepan. Crank the heat up and simmer for an hour. If the water gets too low, then just add some more water. You want to end up with around 2 cups of liquid.

Turn off the heat. Take a potato masher and mash the shells flat to extract every last bit of prawny goodness. Strain and return the strained liquid to the pan. Cover the saucepan and set aside. Let's return to the croquettes.

Spread your plain bread crumbs on a tray or plate. The sprinkle on a bit of salt and two of my favourite spices; cumin powder and turmeric powder.



Mix the breadcrumbs around so the crumbs are full of the spices.

After the potato balls have chilled, take them out of the fridge and make up an egg wash: one egg plus equal amount water. And put a bit of flour in a bowl too.



Roll each bowl in the flour (lightly shake off excess), roll it in the egg wash, and then roll in the breadcrumbs.

This is what they look like before baking:



Bake them at around 375 F. Long enough to brown the breading, but not so long that the cheese leaks out. 15 mins should do it --I wasn't timing these but I'd check every few minutes to make sure the cheese wasn't running out.

While they bake, shall we finish the sauce?

Turn the heat on the liquid as low as possible and add the mustard, wine, salt and pepper. Whisk it well, let the sauce come up to a simmer (don't boil it) and taste for seasonings. You might want to add a bit more salt or pepper, but don't make it spicy as this isn't a spicy sauce.

Turn the heat off and cover to keep warm. Just before serving whisk in the cream fraiche (or sour cream or double cream). If you need to heat it back up do so, but it'll only take a minute at most --don't let it boil after you've added the cream.

Spoon it over the baked croquettes BEFORE you top with the smoked trout and basil sprig.

This is what the croquettes look like after baking:




The first night they were a main course without sauce. 3 per plate and a thin slice of smoked trout curled on top. This was my plate:

No, that's not gunky, fatty dressing. It's my own homemade tzatziki


The next night they were a side dish to baked basa and I made the prawn sauce to drizzle over the top. After the sauce is drizzled over the croquettes, then artfully arrange a slice of smoked trout on top and fresh basil to top it. This plate was MIL's just before I added the side salad.




This plate was mine:




I've been told that I can make these ANY time I want, everyone loved them. Enjoy!

Fish cured in lemon juice

I'm assuming you all know that meat can be "cooked" by using acetic acid instead of heat? Am I right? Or am I wrong? Either way, no matter.

Two obvious choices for sourcing your acetic acid are either vinegar (please use fermented, not distilled) or citrus (lemon juice is commonly used). The longer you marinate the meat, the more "cooked" it becomes.

For this recipe I chose fish, specifically basa, and a very short "cooking" time. If you like sushi, then this is for YOU! As far as the salad fixings... well, I used what I happened to have on hand at the time. Feel free to substitute.

Sorry, no pictures as I was also making dinner for the other 3 folk who live here. They all wanted their basa baked in my special tarragon sauce with chips, so I was a bit busy getting it all together.

Next time though, I WILL take pictures!

Hmmmmm, this turned into a fish salad which was my main (and only) dish that evening. What shall we call it...?


Dingo Dave's Fish Salad!

What you need:

1 small whitefish fillet --I used basa cus that's what I had.
juice from one lemon
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp dried tarragon

1 cup (approximate) shredded cabbage
1 tbsp finely minced yellow onion
1 tsp (approximate) sesame oil
1/4 tsp mild curry powder
pinch of sea salt

1 sheet rice paper

1 sheet nori seaweed, torn into small pieces --very healthy!
1 small handful of fresh bean sprouts
1 tbsp finely minced red onion
1 small anchovy, finely minced


What you do:

Put the first 5 ingredients into a ziplock plastic baggie. Evacuate all the air and zip that puppy shut. Very gently massage the bag to mix everything together. Then toss it in the fridge. I left mine in for 30 mins. This left the middle raw with a couple of mm of "cooked" fish on the outside. If you want it "cooked" through, then leave it in the fridge a longer time.

With about ten minutes left of your fish "cooking" time, put the next 5 ingredients in a wok and stir fry on high heat for 45 seconds to a minute --tossing/stirring frequently. Set aside to cool.

Put your sheet of rice paper into lukewarm water to soften. It'll take a couple of minutes so now's the time to thin slice the fish.

Take the cured fish out of the bag and thin slice it. I try to get my slices around 2 to 4 millimetres thick. A sharp knife is a MUST for this step. Also, the cooler the fish is the easier it is to thin slice.

Spread the semi-cooled cabbage from the wok on a plate. Then arrange the fish and the last 4 ingredients however you'd like. Oh, I sprinkled a small pinch of dried chilli flakes on mine, nice kicker!

Next time I'll take pictures, especially of the slicing part so you can see how to thin slice the fish.

Feel free to liberally substitute any of the salad fixings, no worries. This is just what I happened to have handy and would also be quick 'n' easy as I was making dinner for everyone else too.

Seafood Chowder

This may seem to be a fairly simple menu item, but no matter how you make your chowder and whatever you put into it (clams, prawns (shrimp), crab, fish chunks, mussels, etc) there are a couple of very important techniques to getting it right.

For those of you in the US who make your own New England Clam Chowder, you'll feel right at home with this.

There are also many many different ingredients you can use. I'm going to give you the recipe as I made it two nights ago, and then give you a bunch of different things you can use/substitute. That way no matter where in the world you are and no matter what local ingredients you can lay your hands on, you'll always be able to make Dingo Dave's Seafood Chowder!

Oh, I tend to make it slightly different each time, depending on what I have in the pantry and the freezer that day or what was fresh at the fish shop that morning. So there's no real hard and fast rule, except for a couple of techniques.

On with the show!

Dingo Dave's Seafood Chowder

What you need:
2 or 3 rashers of bacon cut into small pieces
bacon fat from the above bacon (this is IMPORTANT)
1 can (400 mls or about 14 oz) coconut cream
200 gms small whole prawns (1/2 pound small shrimp) with the shells on
1 litre seafood stock (made from the above prawn shells)
1 whitefish fillet cut into small chunks (I used hoki)
small can of crab meat (or fresh if you've got it)
1/2 to 1 litre milk (2 to 4 cups)
a small minced (or diced) onion
2 cloves crushed garlic
2 tsp minced ginger
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp sesame oil
3 or 4 small diced potatoes
sea salt
ground black pepper
ground white pepper
1 tbsp dried basil
1/4 cup flour
a couple of litres of H-TWO-OH(water)

What you due:

Firstly, make the seafood stock (start this a few hours before you want to make the chowder). To make it you'll need to peel and devein the prawns. Toss the veins (alimentary tract, ahem...) but keep the heads, shells, legs etc and throw them in a big ole saucepan. Add a litre (4 cups) of water and boil the heck out of it. Once it's almost boiled down, add another litre of water and boil for a short time. Let cool. Take a potato masher and mash down the shells --this is to extract every bit of flavourful prawny goodness from the shells. Strain the stock (this is IMPORTANT). Save the stock, dump the shells.

Ok, your seafood stock is made, no worries.

Now for the nuts and bolts.

Cook the bacon pieces in the pot you plan to make the chowder in (use a low flame). Once the bacon is done to your liking (crispy or not, your call), remove the bacon but LEAVE THE BACON FAT IN THE POT. Add the diced potatoes to the pot, and cook in the bacon fat for a few mins; stir regularly. After a couple of mins, add the minced onion, some salt, some ground black (or white) pepper and a bit of dried basil. Stir it around. You should have some very nice aromas by now; just keep the heat low so nothing burns. Add the flour and mix well.

Yes, you'll have some browned on gunky looking stuff in the pot along with the spuds and onions. Don't worry, you're about to take care of that.

Now add the seafood stock you made earlier in the day. Give everything a good stir and use your wooden spoon to scrap the bottom and sides of the pot. Ain't deglazing pots great? Very flavourful. Oh, and, ummmmm, it's a FRENCH cooking technique!

Now add the coconut cream and about 1/2 litre of milk (2 cups). Let it simmer for a few mins.

While that's simmering, you get to sear the spices and seafood.

I use a wok, but feel free to use a saucepan if you'd like.

To the wok add the olive oil, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, fish chunks, crab meat, prawn (shrimp) meat. Crank the heat to HIGH and sear that stuff while tossing/stirring regularly. It'll only take 2 to 3 mins.

Dump the entire contents of the wok into the chowder pot. Also add the bacon pieces. This is the point where you can add more milk if you think the chowder is too thick. I, however, feel that chowder can never be too thick --but that's just me.

Let it simmer for a couple of mins, then serve it up! Have a fresh made loaf of bread or a fresh cobb or a fresh baguette around for dunkers.

This is seriously good!

And now for the substitutions and garnishes!

Well, most of you may not want to make your own fish stock. I can respect that, really! So get a bottle of clam juice instead. Oi! Can't find clam juice, use white wine! Don't drink? Don't worry, the alcohol will cook off.

Fake crab can be subbed for crab meat, no worries.

If you sub clams for the prawns, then DON'T sear them and only add them to the chowder in the last couple of minutes --otherwise they'll be really tough and chewy.

Don't like coconut (heathen scum)? No worries, just use milk cream instead.

Allergic to lactose? Well... this really isn't the recipe for you, sorry.

Garnish with any herbs you want, just make sure they are fresh; chives, basil, parsley, coriander (cilantro if you are in N.A.) etc.

Want it spicy? Add a tbsp or two of vindaloo paste to the wok when you sear the seafood and spices. Oh YEAH! That'll get them capillaries dilated!

Bacon Wrapped Fish Fillets with Pineapple, Peanut, and Coconut Curry

Oi, don't that sound like a mouthful? That's cus it is, and a darned tasty one at that! If you like fish and pork, then this is the dish for YOU. Mmmmmmmmmm... I drool on the keyboard as I type this and remember the flavours... ahhhhhhh...

Ok dave, take a deep breath and calm down; your stuffed pumpkin will be out of the oven soon so you can eat. Mmmmmmm...

Oops, back to the topic. So, like, what kinda fish? I used basa. Basa is a freshwater white fleshy fish found in the Mekong Delta (that'd be Vietnam). I do believe it's a type of catfish. I wouldn't want to use US catfish for this as they are darned flavourful on their own (deep fried with a cajun chili dipping sauce). Basically, any small whitefish fillets will do. Hake, Whiting, Hoki, Basa, Cod, Halibut, whatever.

One of the nice things about this is that it only takes 20 mins and it'll feed four hungry adults (provided they like bacon and fish, of course).

A note about Bacon... American bacon is from pork bellies, whereas Canadian bacon, UK, Aus, Kiwi, etc is from the pork back. The difference: The belly pork is fattier than the back pork. Thin-sliced American bacon probably won't work too well for this as it would crispy up before the fish was done; I'd suggest for you US'ns to use either Canadian bacon, or thick sliced US bacon.

Alrighy, here we go with Dingo Dave's Bacon Wrapped Fish Fillets with Pineapple, Peanut, and Coconut Curry.

What you need:

4 whitefish fillets (I used basa, but hoki, hake, cod, or halibut would be fine)
8 LONG slices of THICK bacon

rice

For the curry sauce:
one can (400 ml or 16 oz) coconut cream
1/3 to 1/2 cup finely chopped pineapple
one good sized handful of coarsely chopped roasted peanuts
2 to 3 tbsp of minced onion
a couple of tbsp olive oil and a 1/2 tsp sesame oil
2 tbsp tamarind paste
1 tsp prepared lemon grass
1 or 2 cloves crushed garlic
1 tbsp minced ginger
pinch or two of chilli powder
1 or 2 tsp turmeric powder

Optional garnish stuff:
thin sliced red capsicum (red bell pepper)
fresh coriander leaves (cilantro)
parsley sprigs
fresh basil leaves
etc (use your imagination)

What to do:

First, put your rice on to cook. 1 cup of uncooked should be enough, but don't short yourself as leftover rice is a very good thing to have in the kitchen. Short, long, medium, jasmine, basmati, whatever you prefer. You should have some rice cooking technique where you can go away and leave it for 20 mins, and then POOF perfect rice. A microwave oven makes a great rice cooker.

Once the rice is on, wrap each fish fillet with two slices of bacon. You don't need to pin the bacon on with toothpicks. Start cooking the bacony-fish either on your big grill hotplate, or a large frypan. Low heat. You can also bake it in a hot oven, but if you do that you'll want to get them in the oven before the rice as they'll take 20 or so mins to cook in the oven. I prefer the hotplate on the outdoor grill thankyouverymuch.

Once the bacony-fish starts cooking, you'll start the curry. Put the olive oil and sesame oil in a wok, add the pineapple, onion, and peanut. Crank the heat medium-high. Just when the wok starts to sizzle, add the rest of the curry stuff. Toss it every ten or 15 secs so it doesn't burn, then after 2 mins (you'll smell WONDERFUL spicy aromas) add the coconut cream, stir, and turn the heat down low.

By now, it should be time to turn the bacony-fish. They really only need 7 or 8 mins a side. It should smell really really really good by now.

While the fish finishes cooking, give the curry a stir every minute or so. Give it a taste, adjust seasonings: if it's not spicy enough for you then add some more chili powder, if it's too hot then add some cream, if it's too tart, then add a bit of sugar.

It should all come together 20 mins after you started the rice. Each plate gets a bed of rice, then the bacon wrapped fish, and the curry sauce poured over the top. It'll look something like this:



I know, my parrot pics are a heckuva lot better than my food pics, but I was rushed a bit.

Oh, I didn't have any fresh red bell peppers, so I added some dried ones to the curry --as I'm sure you can tell from the pic, eh? Garnish with whatever herb you'd like. Or not, your choice.

Mild Malaysian

I do have to apologise for offending anyone who's reading this from SouthEast Asia... Please keep in mind I cook for a family that (until recently) thinks a pinch of ground black pepper in 2 gallons of soup is spicy and hot!

Fortunately, I've (slowly) gotten them to see the good side of spices and their uses in food. The key I've found is not to overdo it, and have plenty of cream and sour cream around to "dampen" the spices if I've miscalculated for their sensitive taste buds.

Can you tell I like to experiment in the kitchen? Huh, CAN YOU? Yes, I do like to experiment in the kitchen. 18 out of 20 times it comes out fine, 1 out of 20 is crap, and 1 out of 20 is DAMNED GOOD TUCKA!

Just a note, this will serve 4 adults with normal appetites. So, like, vary the amounts depending on how many you're serving, eh?

This recipe is one of those "Damned Good Tucka" ones... Hmmmmm, what shall we call it? Think, think, think... Ah! Got it!

Dingo Dave's Spicy Coconut Fish Over Rice

Yeah, that's a good name for a recipe, cool! Normally I like to use fresh stuff in my cooking (no preservatives or "flavour enhancers") but there I times when I have to dip into a jar of something. Fortunately, most everything in jars and cans down here (in Oz) don'ts gots no preservatives and other crap in it.

Here we go, kiddies:

What you knead:

2 or 3 tbsp olive oil (or peanut oil if you have it)

1/4 cup of minced onion
1/2 tsp to 3 tsp chilli powder (your palate, not mine)
1 tsp prepared garlic (or one crushed garlic clove)
1/2 tsp turmeric powder (keeps cancer away)
1/2 tsp dried mint leaves
1 tsp prepared ginger (or 1/2 inch grated ginger root)
1 1/2 tsp jarred lemon grass
2 tbsp tamarind paste

1 or 2 tbsp raw sugar

small can of bamboo shoots
a pound of white fish, cut into bite sized chunks (I usually use hake or hoki)
one can of coconut cream (400 mls down here, I think that's 12 oz in the US)
sour cream for garnish (optional, this is in case you have someone who doesn't like spices)
fresh coriander leaves (cilantro for you US'ns) for garnish

cooked long grain rice --hey, you gotta serve it over something!

What you due:

Put the oil in a wok and turn the gas to medium-low. At this point you'll want to start your rice cooking. For the rice I use Basmati or Jasmine, but any long grain will do. Start it cooking as you would normally (18 mins in microwave, eh).

To the hot oil add the next 8 ingredients. You'll notice I separated them so you can easily count to eight. Give the spices a quick stir and after 45 secs to a min add the water from the can of bamboo shoots. Stir it quickly and you'll find you have yourself an AWESOME smelling reddish sauce. Then add the sugar and give it one more quick stir.

The fish pieces (chunks or whatever you'd call them) go in now. Toss them around in the wok to thoroughly coat them in the sauce. Turn the heat down to low.

Pour in the coconut cream and the bamboo shoots. Give it a good stir and then let it simmer gently for 10 mins.

Well, ten min later it's done! And your rice should be done to (did you remember to put the rice in the rice cooker 18 minutes ago?).

Serve it up over a bed of rice, yummy! If you've added extra chilli and someone in the household doesn't like spicy food, then just put a dollop of sour cream over the top of theirs, no worries. Garnish with sprigs of fresh coriander and there ya go.

This is really, really, really tasty and I've been told by the clan (from the Scottish border country) that I can make it any time I'd like to. Keep in mind that these are people that used to break out in a sweat just by looking at a mild chilli pepper.

BONUS: Got some prawns? Add them in the same time you'd add the fish. Got some water chestnuts? Add them in the same time as the bamboo shoots; same goes with any veggies you want to put in, no worries.

SUSHI

Yep, I think the title of this post deserved to be in caps! I LOVE sushi, and I've gotten quite good at making it. Alas, this post is not concerning how to make various kinds of sushi, but it's some pics of various sushi platters I've made.

If anyone if interested in how to make various types of sushi, then post a comment and I'll do a post on sushi making, no worries.

Sooooo, on with the pics:


There are 3 different kinds of fish in this: salmon, hoki, and smoked cod. It does require a much different technique than a regular roll to get the interior seaweed layout.



This platter has lots and lots of different goodies.  The empty bowl is for the soy sauce which I poured after the platter was moved to the table.



The green beans were steamed and then sliced lengthwise, I think it adds a nice texture to the whole plate. The rolls had basa and avocado, and the others were tuna, salmon, and smoked cod.



I included this one to show you something different: the green glop on the top of the rolls is my special guacamole sauce --yes, sushi chefs would cringe...

As I said, lemme know if'n any of y'all are interested in making your own; it's really quite simple once you get the hang of it.

Something's Fishy

I've got a lot of links to put up here, there's a lot of cooking blogs I check out along with my usual ones from my "normal" blog of Alaskan Dave Down Under.


Before I get the page all gussied up with cool banner pics and links to all my favourite cookin' blogs and pages, I figured I should get some sorta recipe up so that y'all know I'm not just blowin' smoke when I says I can cook.

We'll start easy...

Basted Fish Fillets

This sauce is best with some kind of white fish fillet --as opposed to an oily one.  Hoki, Hake, Whiting, Perch, or anything like them is perfect.

What you need:

4 fish fillets (one per person)
1/2 cup of olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 cup lime juice
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tbsp dried tarragon

What you do:

Note: If the fish has the skin still on, then you won't need to turn them.

Crank up your grill hotplate or a large fry pan to a high temp. Put the fish on, skin side down (if the fillets have skin). Mix all the other stuff in a bowl and whisk for about 20 secs (or until an emulsion forms, shouldn't take more than 20 secs with a whisk --don't use a fork or you'll never get the emulsion to form).

Spoon a tbsp or so over each fillet, then turn* each fillet once they've been on the grill for only 30 to 40 secs (if your fillets have skin, don't turn them, just turn the heat down some).

*Make sure you turn each fillet BEFORE it's flaky, otherwise it could end up in little bitty fish flakes all over your hot plate.

Drench each turned (or unturned if skin on) fillet with the rest of the sauce. In about two to three minutes the fish is done.

Plate 'em and serve while hot.

Note: The cooking times are for a 1 cm thick fillet, obviously thicker ones will take longer with a lower heat. Fish is done when the flesh goes from transparent to opaque and becomes flaky --Don't overcook! Also, DON'T use a basting brush for the sauce otherwise you'll break the fish apart as it cooks.

There'll be more coming as time progresses (if time starts going backwards then I'll start deleting posts, no worries).