Seafood paella plus plus ....

It's been a bit of a seafood week which started with paella overflowing with mixed seafood (recipe this blog 3 April 2020). Normally I include chicken but this time it was all seafood - mussels, calamari, prawns, chunks of white fish and salmon - oh and half a chorizo. Delicious! fortunately we made enough for 2 meals so we had it again a couple of  night later with steamed green beans.

And later we lapped up Prawns and vongoli followed by Turmeric fish one of our favourite curries. And we've had other delish curries. We normally make our own curry bases but when we're on the road it's great to have fall backs. I can recommend Five Tastes curry shots they come in meal size pots. We had the Thai Red curry made with a little chicken but lots of veggies. We've also tried their stir fry shots - the Vietnamese lemongrass and kaffir lime was zingy and more-ish!

Seafood heaven - O Sole Mio with Vongole

It really isn't a sunny day but it's lovely for all that! What’s on the menu tonight? Turmeric fish - well it was to be tonight but it's been bumped to tomorrow night as we just picked up some prawns which need to be eaten sooner rather than later. So tomorrow we'll be cooking Turmeric fish (see recipe this blog 3 Feb 2020) after a long period curing in lemon juice, grated ginger, fish sauce and lots of turmeric (powder not fresh). This time I’m using Ling fish - a solid white flesh perfect for curries. I love flake but at current prices Ling will be absolutely fine and we'll save the flake for pan frying in butter - yum. Turmeric fish is our favourite fish curry so we’re looking forward to having a good nosh-up - tomorrow!  

But tonight? we’re having vongoli, prawns and spaghetti. This will be an adaptation from the recipe below - you work with what you have and what leaps out at you from the fridge. 

Vongole with onion and pancetta

Ingredients
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 large red onion finely diced
200g pancetta finely diced or bacon
2 cloves garlic crushed
1 cup white wine
2kg vongole
½ cup flat leaf parsley finely chopped
Pepper
Optional
1 Tbsp smoked paprika
Serves 4

Method
Heat wok or frying pan over mod heat and add oil. Add the onion and pancetta and cook 3-4 mins or until onion has softened.
Stir in paprika (if using) and simmer for about 1 min.
Add the white wine and simmer for ~2 mins
Add the vongole, cover and cook over high heat 3-4 mins or until vongole have opened.
Stir in the parsley, season with pepper and serve with lots of crusty bread or over spaghetti.

Chook’s note: try mild paprika if you don’t have smoked. Purge vongole (pippies, clams, cockles - what’s in a name) by placing in cool water for 30-45 mins. Incidentally these were pippies which come from ‘Coorong Cockles’.

For a quite different taste substitute lemongrass, chili and coriander or ginger for the pancetta and paprika. We made it this way over a camp fire when we were bush-camping at Cockle Creek, Tassie in 2017. We had collected the cockles ourselves along with mussels and huge oysters. Sigh!!! we will definitely go back it was so wonderful - tranquil and the solitude perfect for us hermits (see hwheat8.blogspot.com 10 April 2017)

Lindsay gathering cockles in the old way that the birds and aborigines do find them by doing the cockle shuffle in the sand. 

Of course they had to be cleaned . Lucky Lindsay 

Huge oyster shells

The oysters were way to big to simply give a couple of chews then swallow. They would have been awesome battered and fried. 

This was where we did most of our cooking - prawns  this time. Tranquility. Sheer heaven. 

Returning to you with Pork larb with mint & coriander

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything to this blog. Where did those months go?! We’re in iso in Warragul having left Melbourne 7 weeks ago bound for the outback via a fossil dig this week in Lightning Ridge. Sadly we’ll have to wait till next year. In the meantime ....... I’m back with some tried and true yummys for you. The first with an Asian flavour. 

Pork larb with mint & coriander

Ingredients

150g dried rice noodles

2 tsp olive oil

1 stem lemon grass, pale section only, finely chopped

4 cm fresh ginger cut into matchsticks
1 fresh long red chili, finely chopped
500g pork mince
250ml chicken stock
1 red onion, halved, thinly sliced
60ml (1/4 cup) fresh lime juice
2 tsp fish sauce
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves
3/4 cup fresh coriander sprigs

In this batch I used half red and half white onions - you work with what you have. The lime juice was frozen which I’d brought with us. And in place of fresh herbs I used semi dried. 

Method
Place the rice noodles in a large bowl. Cover with boiling water and set aside for 10 mins or until tender. Drain. Return to the bowl.
Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large frying pan or wok over medium-high heat. Add the lemon grass, ginger and chilli and cook, stirring, for 1 minute or until aromatic. Add the mince and cook, stirring to break up any lumps, for 3-4 mins or until the mince changes colour.
Add the stock and simmer for 5 mins or until the liquid is absorbed. Remove from heat. Stir in the onion, lime juice and fish sauce.
Add half the mint and coriander to the noodles and toss until well combined. Divide the noodle mixture among serving bowls and top with the mince mixture. Sprinkle with the remaining mint and coriander to serve.

Chook's note: I have substituted chicken mince for pork this time but I prefer the taste of pork. I added ginger to this dish but it doesn't need it. Ultimately the final taste should be what you like.

I added too much stock last time. If you find it is too wet add a little roasted rice powder*.  

I was preparing this  dish to eat later so I added most of the herbs to the meat and when I reheat and cook the noodles I'll add more then and squeeze over more lime juice. 

The original recipe called for vermicelli rice noodles but I prefer the wider flat ones. In the end you should always adapt recipes to your own taste.

 *Roasted rice powder is used in Thai dishes for its delicious nutty flavour and also to help runny dressings stick to salad ingredients. To make roasted rice powder, heat ¼ cup of uncooked glutinous rice (or whatever you have) in a fry pan on medium heat (not hot or rice will be uncooked on inside and burnt on outside). Keep stirring or tossing to prevent burning, until golden. Allow to cool completely before grinding in an electric spice grinder or mortar and pestle. If pounding with mortar & pestle, pound 2 Tbsp at a time or you will trouble reaching each grain. The grains should be like the size of course cooking salt. Store unused powder in an airtight glass jar in fridge.