Tuesday 23 March 2010

Nindigully Road Train Burger

Everyone gets them.
The emails that circulate around the office, whether they be the funny, the spam or the interesting ones, everyone receives them.
This is one of those emails.
Read on if you dare........

ONE GREAT AUSSIE THING TO DO BEFORE YOU DIE?
STOP FOR A BITE TO EAT AT THE NINDIGULLY PUB IN WESTERN QLD?

The tiny township of Nindigully is located on the edge of the Queensland outback - 160km west of Goondiwindi, about 530km west of Brisbane, and approximately 70 km north of the Queensland/New South Wales border.
Nindigully Pub is Queensland’s oldest hotel, located in its original condition and position on the banks of the Moonie River. The licence was issued in 1864 after operating as shearers accommodation for the Nindigully Station.
The "boom" town has now been reduced to just two houses, the pub, the old general store and the town hall, with a population of six!
Nevertheless, it was voted the Best Country Pub in Australia in 2006 by 44 Australia magazine, and you can see why - it has become famous for its truckies feed of the Nindigully Road Train Burger this giant hamburger is served with French fries, onion rings and a selection of sauces, says it will feed 1- 4 people, and costs $36 - the meat patty alone is 1.2kg!



Makes those "super" burgers from McDonalds & Burger King look small...

Saturday 13 March 2010

Swordfish

Do you ever find yourself flipping through a cookbook just because you're bored? Sometimes nothing catches your eye, other times a recipe will jump out at you screaming "COOK ME!".
This is what happened yesterday. Flipping through one of Paul's cook books, Regional Foods of Southern Italy by Marlena De Blasi, I came across a simple dish - Pesce Spada di Bagnara (swordfish in the style of Bagnara).
It sounded interesting, marinating the steaks in red wine, bathing it in a chili & Bay oil, & cooking it over charcoal. I thought I'd give it a try. Living in an apartment I don't have access to a charcoal fire so the pan had to do.
The portions here are one third of what was in the cookbook, with the method changed to allow for the lack of a charcoal fire.


Ingredients
1x 400g or 2x 200g swordfish steaks
2/3 cup red wine (I used Pinot Noir)
1/3 cup olive oil
3 bay leaves crushed
1/4 tsp dried chili
Salt
Black Pepper
Rosemary sprigs

Method
Place the fish into a non-corrosive bowl & add the wine.
Cover the bowl & let the fish marinate for an hour or so, turning it occasionally.
Meanwhile, in a small saucepan heat the oil till its almost simmering, then remove from the heat & add the bay leaves & chili.
Cover and let it cool & infuse.
Remove the fish from the wine & discard the wine.
Pat dry the fish with paper towel.
Pour half the cooled oil over the fish & massage the oil into the flesh.
Season well on both sides with salt & pepper.
Heat a heavy based fry pan.
Bruise the rosemary sprigs to release the oils.
place the fish into the fry pan and lay the rosemary sprigs on top.
Cook the steaks for no more than a minute, then remove the rosemary, turn the fish & replace the rosemary on top.
On a plate pour the remaining oil.
Remove the fish from the pan & place onto the plate, allowing it to absorb the oil.
Can be served immediately or allowed to cool.

Monday 8 March 2010

Paper Chef: 50th

Sometimes things just work. I like it when that happens. Sometimes there are hiccups.. as was the case with this month's Paper Chef.

Kathy of
Prospect: The Pantry had selected the ingredients of: Honey, Ricotta, Dill & Eggs.
Very early on I had decided to do Ricotta Fritters with a honey mayonnaise, wasn't sure where I was going to incorporate the Dill, but a quick surf of the web lead me to believe that the Dill would work in the honey mayonnaise.

Being a Saturday we headed off to the Markets on the trusty route 79 tram.
Then all hell broke loose. Melbourne was hit with a hundred year storm. Our trusty tram became an island on what was a busy street.


An hour later we were able to get off the tram with dry feet & do our shopping, only to find that both the trams & trains weren't running & we were left with a walk home. Needless to say my creative mood wasn't there by the time we got home...

Take 2 on Monday. The Fritters were nice light & fluffy (they sank a bit in the pics), & the mayonnaise very tasty!.
Paul suggested that it would have worked well with some smoked salmon on top, which I'll try next time!


Ricotta Fritters
2 egg yolks
2 egg whites
1 cups Ricotta
1/2 cup Plain Flour
1/4 tablespoon Baking powder
1/3 cup Milk
Salt
Directions
Sift dry ingredients into a bowl
In a separate bowl mix yolks and milk
Slowly add this to dry ingredients
Break up ricotta and add to the mix
Whisk the egg whites in a separate bowl until stiff peaks and fold through the final mix.
Heat a frying pan over a low heat and spoon in a large table spoonfuls of the mix.
When the top starts to firm up, flip over and finish until golden on both sides then place into an oven while you prepare the remainder.

Honey & Dill Mayonnaise
Ingredients
1 egg yolk
100ml peanut oil
25ml olive oil
salt
pepper
1 tbl lemon juice
1/4 cup honey
1 teaspoon dill
Directions
whisk the egg yolk until light & fluffy then slowly add the oil a teaspoon at a time whisking until its all emulsified.
add the lemon juice.
whisk in the honey & season to taste.
just before serving finely chop the dill & add to the mayonnaise.