Yummy chewy muesli bites

Every now and then I buy a so called ‘muesli cookie’ from an outlet temptingly close to where I work, just to fill those 3pm gaps. Neither cookie nor muesli in reality, they’re more of a oaty, flapjacky cake with dates in them. I thought I’d have a go at making them at home. They may be terribly naughty, with all that sugar and fat, but what the hell – everyone needs a little naughty in their life! They’re are super more-ish and, like the flapjacks they’re based upon, unbelievably easy to make.

Ingredients

• 6oz quick cook rolled oats
• 3oz oatmeal
• 4oz butter
• 4oz golden syrup
• 3oz raw sugar
• 1 teaspoon ginger powder, more if you like it gingery
• handful raisins
• handful dates, chopped
• handful slivered almonds (or other nuts, depending on your likes)

Line a 1lb loaf tin or square cake tin with baking paper and spray with oil. Preheat oven to 160 Celsius.

Melt the butter, syrup and sugar together in a pan, stirring, then remove from heat and add the dry ingredients, mixing until combined. Spoon into the prepared tin. You’re aiming for these to be quite thick; at least 3cm.

Sprinkle more slivered almonds on top and bake for 40 minutes until nicely browned, checking carefully to ensure it does not over brown.

Use the paper to remove from the tin whilst still hot and soft, and place on a flat surface. Allow to cool slightly but don’t let it go cold – just cool enough not to burn yourself! Cut into small squares; they are rich so don’t need to be large. Transfer to a rack to cool completely. Enjoy the sugar rush!

Cast Off! Sustainability Festival

And so we find ourselves back in the Woy, NSW, and I’m starting think this is becoming quite the groovy place to be. Two organisations seem to be contributing mightily to Woy Woy’s foodie ascendancy – the Gnostic ’empire’ and The Fisherman’s Wharf.

It’s the latter spearheading Cast Off!, on its second outing for highlighting sustainability in the region. Especially, naturally enough, of fish. But also, importantly from my point of view, obviously, as it’s an Australian do – beer, wine and cider.

Spread out all along the wharf at Woy Woy, and across into Fisherman’s Wharf itself, on a bright and sunny Autumn day, the rows of cheerful stalls ran, mostly representing local produce and enterprises, as well as one or two from further afield.

I was surprised to see that New Zealand had a showing from Cloudy Bay Clams, selling what looked like a seafood curry in a giant paella tray:

The ‘Malaysian sauce’ didn’t taste that authentic to me, but I can’t argue that the seafood – mussels, prawns and two distinctly different types of clam – wasn’t pretty damn tasty. They insisted this was still sustainable seafood, despite being flown across to Oz, vacuum packed. Well, if they say so.

Other seafood offerings from further afield included some lovely, tender octopus all the way from Fremantle, served up by Avoca locals bombini:

Contented customers wallowed nearby in gaily striped deck chairs, soaking up the sun and possibly the cocktails from this chap, of Bar Toto, Ettalong, fame:

Though we noticed another bar from Ettalong mixing up the drinks nearby, from Gusto. No wonder everyone looked so relaxed.

Whilst on the subject of drinking for relaxment (do believe that’s a new word, there; you’re welcome) we are lucky enough to have not one, but two, artisan breweries on this bit of the Central Coast. The rather fabulous six strings, of Erina, who’ve gone down the canning route (flying in the face of fashion there) and relative newcomers Block’n’Tackle, who prefer to encourage reusable mini kegs and bottles.

No surprise then perhaps that after all that booze, and watching of bands, we were feeling a tad fuzzy…

Happily there was more food; the fish tacos were good, though very wee, which probably explains why there were orders coming through of half a dozen at a time. Bit steep at $5 a pop I thought but hey ho, I’m notoriously stingy.

Plenty of other options available mind; loads of fish including albacore tuna, swordfish, paella, fish & chips, pippies and pasta, fish burgers, and many more. Coffee boost from the lovely rustic looking All Ears: 

There were take home options too, with Six String Lemonade and Coastie Ale, jars and spice mixes, and gluten free from the No Bull Food Co:

In the desserts corner were ice creams, churros, margarita slushies (that counts as dessert, surely?) and the rather splendid Fat Meringue, which I obviously made a beeline for. Miso ginger meringues!

So excited was I, I almost forgot to pay. I l loved the caramel syringe – as if there was ever any chance of not eating every last sugary drop – it was still fun to inject through the crunchy outer shell.

For those bored with eating and drinking sustainably, there were cooking demonstrations lined up all afternoon long from a variety of chaps; Matt Kemp while we were wandering past, plus an information section with advice about sustainable local (Hawkesbury) fishing, just for the look of it, you know.

Finally, sated by the all afternoon nibbling, we headed round the craft and goodies stalls, checking out the lovely plants and homewares:

This sort of do is a real plus for the area, well organised and well ‘stocked’ with quality vendors. Go The Woy!

Aria: More fishy takeovers in the Woy

After my last post in late 2015, we thought we’d give the ‘Takeover’ series at Fisherman’s Wharf in Woy Woy another go.  This month, current head chef of Aria & fellow Brit, Ben Turner, takes centre stage in the restaurant kitchens.

Judging by the full house, these monthly sessions have been something of a hit. And what’s not to love; the rustic charm of bare floorboards, windows swung wide to the water views on a warm autumn evening, the quiet lapping of the water and the ducks and pelicans drifting hopefully past your table.

Quiet before the storm

The seafood based menu was short and sweet; 4 courses starting with yellowtail scad; our waiter informing us that this is normally used as a bait fish, but here sustainably re-purposed as sashimi with a Japanese inspired dressing. It seemed a pleasant enough fish; I’ve never understood the public resistance to trying new types of seafood, taking pressure away from the Big Four. Pretty as a picture, accompanied by beetroot stained pickled onions and salty cucumber slices:

This vanished pretty quickly, leaving us to tuck into chunks of crisp, white baguette. Slathering the wonderfully rich butter on my bread was something of a highlight – I suspect properly cultured butter courtesy of Pepe Saya, though I wasn’t moved sufficiently to double check this. It was delicious, anyway. The pat of ‘seaweed butter’  alongside it was also delicious but not because of a particularly iodine, sea-veg flavour – to me it was more of a pleasantly cheesey overtone.

Second from the menu was ocean trout, one of my favourite types of fish. The Petuna trout has featured in previous takeovers here, and comes with an impressive list of Australian famous chef fans.

Initially this looked to be another raw fish dish, but transpired to be sous-vide cooked (sous-vided? Someone help me with my French please??) and then served chilled; I have to confess I was hard pressed to tell the difference between that and sashimi in texture but we enjoyed it a lot anyway. Turns out apple goes terribly well with dill – who knew?

The powdery white stuff there (above) was allegedly horseradish, treated in some exciting modern way to become entirely tasteless. Pretty though, no?

I guess in a foreign kitchen with a full house to serve, it’s easier to have a batch of dishes you can make up in advance, hence the two cold courses perhaps. And indeed, the dishes did come out without that irritating wait between courses, as you often get in these set dinners.

The main, seared sea mullet, had a deliciously crunchy skin, just the right side of too browned, with a hint of gelatinous that I quite like. Adorned with blobs of spritzzy citrus, it brightened up the dish no end. My fairly dull photo, below (the light was going and by gosh if I still haven’t gotten round to reading the instruction manual for the camera) doesn’t bring out the vibrancy of the green powdered wasabi – again, modernity rendering it tasteless – but the fish was  perfectly correctly cooked even if lacking a teeny bit in presentation. ‘Mussel butter’ leant it a nice saltiness – and by the way, joy of joys, a whole meal that wasn’t oversalted! – though possibly made the mussels a little less tender than they could have been. 

I loathe reading reviews of meals where the main complaint runs along the lines of “the dishes were so tiny we had to eat somewhere else afterwards”, where value for money is determined by how easy it is for the diner to do up their buttons post repast. Having said that: whilst they were being generous with the protein, there was a distinct lack of carbohydrates. Though a paleo diet pleaser, if it weren’t for the second round of bread we ordered, we would genuinely have been a bit peckish. Not to mention a bit more tiddly, seeing as the matched wines were a terribly reasonable $30 extra per head…

Finally, with apologies for more shocking photography, the dessert was an awesome rich, blob of dulce de leche, with a scattering of crunchy candied pecans and a smear (what modern meal would be complete without a smear, after all) of sweetened pumpkin that even Mr C, a notorious shier awayer from squash of all sorts, enjoyed.

Personally, I wasn’t convinced that the coconut sorbet went that well with the rest of the dish, but it did go ever so well with the accompanying dessert wine, a Muscat de Beaumes-de-Venise from La Pigeade.

Another successful Takeover, and who wouldn’t love top city chefs rocking up on your doorstep, after all?

Hopeful diner

Contact the restaurant for details of upcoming Takeovers:

Woy Woy Fishermen’s Wharf

The Boulevard, Woy Woy NSW 2256

(02) 4341 1171

Fishy Take Overs

Well, been a quiet year here on LeftHandedChopsticks, because conversely, it’s been a hectic one for me personally. But there’s still been food adventures, here and abroad. Part of what I’ve been working on is a series of experiments with kimchi, of which hopefully more later in the year.

More recently, I’ve been delighted to see those excellent chaps (and chapesses) at Woy Woy Fisherman’s Wharf (WWFW) have been inviting guest chefs to a short residency at their place, allowing us Coasties to eat out big city style and still be able to walk home. Well, nearly walk home.

Previously they’ve been graced by chefs from such leading lights as Momofuko Seibo, Longrain, and Pilu at Freshwater. This weekend was the turn of Troy Rhodes Brown of Muse fame, all the way from the Hunter Valley.

Muse, currently boasting 2 SMH Good Food Guide Hats, consistently gets good reviews from punters, and we could certainly see glimmers of that on Saturday. The ambience was there (they’d rolled out the actual linen napkins rather than paper towels!), the candles were twinkling, the view over the water as good as ever & our waiter was knowledgeable, attentive and generally awesome. All of which is, of course, WWFW rather than Troy/Muse themselves, though when I mentioned my food intolerance, they were more than happy to accommodate it, despite it being a major part of the dish in question. All the more disappointing therefore that the food itself, though excellently cooked, largely came out on the bland side. Our expectations were fairly high here and, whilst it wasn’t actually bad in any sense (and it must be tough working in someone else’s kitchen) it’s just that my socks were not really much moved, let alone knocked off.

Yes, I know this is a matter of taste; purely subjective & so on, but there we have it. With the exception of the dessert and the more gutsy Squid and King Brown Mushroom Noodles dish; easily the best of the evening for our table (as well as at least the one next to us, judging by their reactions), I came away wanting a bit more pizzazz. That squid though; local, Hawkesbury Squid shredded alongside the mushrooms to form thin, perfectly cooked noodles, dressed with a custard of miso and sake and topped by a (faintly sinister looking) black tapioca crisp, coloured by squid ink. Blobs of yuzu and ginger gels along with pretty pink garlic flowers zazzed up the flavour further.

sans disturbing looking wafer

Other dishes of the set menu included a week-long marinated tuna – with a seaweed & ginger/garlic crust that neither of us could actually detect – which tasted…mildly of tuna. Medium rare and with an oddly crumbly surface texture, presumably from whatever it was marinated in for all that time. Much was made of the 9 hours roasted truss tomato which in my case was very salty, not very tender and off-puttingly refrigerator cold alongside the otherwise warm dish. Mr C ate it for me, which had the benefit of his being able to compare and contrast – mine was both colder and saltier than his so I guess that was just one of those plating up errors. Along with the rather tough piece of fennel.

The other appetizers fared slightly better, with the ocean trout rillettes coming out in cutesey little pots, differing on each table and paired with the only carbohydrate of the evening, some rather nice warm sourdough. The rillette itself was nice enough – apparently teamed with New Zealand wasabi, though again, neither of us were aware of it. I couldn’t help thinking it would have been stronger if the trout had been smoked perhaps; as it was I was having a hard job working out what kind of fish it was. Ditto the kingfish tartare – could’ve been any white fish. Looked a picture though. I wanted it to be more zingy, and from the looks of the write up, it should have been – pickled choko, shaved eschallots, shao hsing reduction, coriander, lime and spinach – absolutely none of which we could identify.  By the time it was wrapped in the baby cos leaves, it basically disappeared flavour wise. It’s a rum do when your dish is overpowered by lettuce.

I did like those little crunchy bits of what I’m sure were porky crackling, though it wasn’t mentioned in the summary.

Let me not give you the impression it was all dull, heavens no.

The share plate dessert, Coconut Cloud, was a perfection of frozen coconut cream offset beautifully by the tart mulberries, with tiny crunches from the black coconut sugar crystals and a bit of body from the coconut water sago pearls. Liberally sprinkled with flowers, it looked gorgeous – and huge, but strangely disappeared everso very quickly. Mr C displaying his more Labrador qualities whilst I was distracted by trying to get my camera to operate in the low light, I suspect.

We didn’t have the matched wines, though these were a very reasonable additional $30 (did say it wasn’t quite a walk); instead I had the rather splendid Victorian (but French style) La Sirene’s Saison, which I’ll be having again just as soon as I return. Which of course I shall. It may not sound like it from our grouches here (oh & did I mention the wait between the courses really was a touch on the lengthy side?) but we’re actually pretty keen to support any small business in the region keen to try out something new; and I do believe these guys are worth supporting.

So vive la guest chefs! Next up is the turn of Merivale’s Mr Wong – 4th & 5th December. Get in quick, Coasties….

Woy Woy Take Over, Woy Woy Fisherman’s Wharf, The Boulevard, Woy Woy

$80 per head plus drinks

Smoky Gluten Free Salt & Pepper Squid

Last time, we looked at cleaning squid – or calamari – and this time I’m sharing my easy Smoky Salt & Pepper Squid, which serves 4 as a starter.

I’ve served this with a nam jim dipping sauce.

Ingredients

• 2 medium squid, cleaned
• 4 heaped tablespoons tapioca flour (you could use ordinary wheat flour, but it won’t be as light)
• 1 heaped teaspoon salt (I have used smoked salt),
• 2 tablespoons freshly cracked black pepper,
• 1 teaspoon smoked chilli/paprika
• Plain Oil for deep frying, I used basic vegetable oil

Dipping sauce

• 2 tablespoons nam jim (or you could use sweet chilli sauce)
• 1 tablespoon Fish Sauce
• 2 tablespoons Lime juice

Start by cleaning the squid, see this post for more details.

Hawkesbury River Squid – the full colour guide to cleaning squid and calamari

Here I’m going to show you how to clean squid / calamari, and follow up next time with a simple recipe for Salt & Pepper Squid.

2 medium squid usually does well for 4 people for a starter sized dish. I personally think a main course size of this would be overdoing a good thing!

These chaps are local, Hawkesbury River squiddies, beautifully fresh – see the bright clear eyes – and the fishmonger assured me that you don’t need to de-skin them, but the same instructions would apply to any squid.

Rye, Millet & Sunflower seed bread

As I was enjoying my wonderful carrot soup recently I realised it’d been a while since I’d made any rye bread. It was a cold winters day and so, with nothing better to do, I dug around in the cupboard for some rye flour, and came across a bag of millet flour and some sunflower seeds as well. So I’ve combined them all in this adaptation. It does take a few hours but it’s not as if you have to stand around watching it, and the full, rich flavour of the bread is worth it.

Ingredients

• 3 2/3 cups rye flour
• 1/3 cup of millet flour (or just use all rye)
• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• couple of pinches caraway seeds
• 3 tablespoons barley malt syrup
• 1 sachet dried yeast
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 100ml milk
• warm water

Start by warming the milk to lukewarm, add the sugar and stir in the yeast. Leave for 15 minutes for the yeast to start. It should develop a foamy head.

Pachamama, Hardy’s Bay & Central Coast Cafes

Edit June 2015: I’m sad to say Pachamama is closing on 14th June 2015. Just not enough passing trade visiting Hardy’s Bay during the week. But happily Pachamama continues in the form of her catering business; a rare thing is a specialist vegan/vegetarian caterer. Contact them at www.pachamama2257.com .

Read more….

Mr C’s Pork, Butternut and Turmeric Coconut Curry

I think I was in danger of listing all the ingredients in that there title. But no, for actually there are quite a few; worth it though as this is a stonker of a curry, rich and unctuous. Mr C likes to call this “his” pork curry, in the annoying manner of celebrity chefs.

Don’t worry if you’re not crazy about the texture of squashes; neither are we, really. They are so terribly easy to grow though, you almost have to fend them off with a stick. The beauty of this is that the squash melts away and just gently thickens and sweetens slightly, balancing the saltiness of the kimchi and fish sauce.

Ingredients

• 1kg pork belly or spare ribs, cubed
• 1/2 butternut squash, peeled and cubed
• 1 can/400ml coconut cream
• 500ml beef stock
• 1 tablespoon yellow mustard seeds
• 2 stalks curry leaves (about 30 leaves)
• 1 cup kimchi (if you can’t find kimchi, don’t fret. Use more chilli, perhaps add some shredded cabbage and a touch more fish sauce to taste).

Spice paste**: blend together:

• 2 large onions
• 2 large cloves garlic
• 2 tablespoons peanut oil
• 6 cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger or a good ‘thumb’* of fresh
• 1 tablespoon cumin seeds
• 2 black cardamom pods
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 4 ‘thumbs’ fresh turmeric
• 2 chillies, of reasonable heat, but it’s up to you, really
• 1/3 cup of cashews, unsalted
• oil for frying

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

Heat some oil in a large, ovenproof pan and add the mustard seeds. When they start to pop, add the curry leaves which should also sizzle for a couple of seconds. Add the blended spice paste mixture. Fry until fragrant and the oil starts to separate slightly.

Remove the paste and set aside. Fry the cubed pork in the pan until browned (you may need to add a touch more oil, but remember fat will release from the belly pork fairly quickly). Add the beef stock, a good shake of fish sauce, and return the spice paste to the pan. Stir and add the cubed squash, bring to a simmer and cover, cook in the oven for an hour & a half.

Stir in the can of coconut cream and the kimchi, recover and cook for a further hour in the oven.

Serve with a lovely fresh green vegetable such as this home grown broccoli and some fluffy white rice.

* A House of Chopsticks measure equating to a piece about the length of your little finger. But a ‘finger’ of something just doesn’t sound right, somehow…

**There’s no reason why you shouldn’t make up twice the quantity of paste and then freeze half, to save all that faffing around the next time you want to make this. You will want to make this again….

Creamy carrot and spinach soup

Now that the southern winter has truly kicked in, it’s time for some lovely warming soup. I’ve also discovered a batch of carrots lurking away in the back of the veggie bed in a variety of weird shapes and sizes, so what better than to combine the two?

Serves 2 as a hearty lunch or 4 as a starter.

Ingredients

• 500g carrots, peeled or scrubbed
• 100g baby spinach leaves or chopped spinach
• 250ml beef or chicken stock (I used beef, you could use veg if you wanted this to be meat free)
• 200ml milk
• 50ml cream
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled, sliced
• pecorino to serve (optional)
• nutmeg

Roughly chop the carrots and place in a pan with the garlic. Add enough water to just cover and bring to a simmer. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until the water evaporates and the carrots are tender.

Add the stock and puree with a stick blender (or shove through a processor). Return to the pan and bring to a simmer.In a new pan, heat the milk and wilt the spinach to your liking; a couple of minutes at most.

Add the 2 pan contents together, simmer for a couple more minutes and stir in the cream just before serving.Grate on some nutmeg and a little pecorino – enjoy with some hot buttered bread of your choice – perhaps the rye bread in this post!Note 1 : this is a fairly thick soup; thin down with extra stock during the puree stage if that’s not your thing.

Note 2 : if you wanted to jazz this up a bit you could scoop the spinach out of its milk bath just after the wilting stage with a slotted spoon & puree it in a little of the milk, and set aside. Add the rest of the milk to the stock and carrot mix as above, then swirl in the spinach prettily as you’re serving. Personally I like a bite of chew in my soups rather than a fully blended style.