Happy New Year and yet another basil recipe!

Where has 2008 gone? December went with a flutter of the eyelids, which is quite obvious looking at the number of posts I've submitted this month. I blame that on the seasons. When it's cold and dreary, you stay inside and cook and blog. When it's warm and sunny, and vegetables need to be planted, tended, watered, beds weeded - who has time to be indoors? Obviously not moi!

The first edition of Weekend Herb Blogging for 2009 will be duly hosted by Haalo, of Cook (Almost) Anything at least once, who is the new Hoodoo Guru of herbs and cooking (and especially photography), and Haalo will be opening up a fantastic New Year of wonderful entries, recipes and a wealth of information provided by herb groupies. I think I can qualify to be one of them by now!

However, I'm starting to sound like a broken record with my first entry for 2009. Yep.....basil. Once again. But...wait....I'm talking about LEMON basil. Citrusy, tangy and "I just can't walk past it without picking a leaf or two and inhaling the scent" type of basil. Eat basil. It's good for arthritis, psoriasis, acne, constipation, stress, build up of gas from over-indulging over the Christmas break...you name it, you've got it....eat basil!!

Lemon basil was born to be married to seafood. Prawns and lemon basil ....salsa agresto with a twang!! Throw in a fillet of Murry River Cod, and you have the perfect close to 2008.

Lemon Salso Agresto

1 cup (160 g) almonds

1 cup (100 g) walnuts

2 cloves garlic

2¾ cups flat-leaf parsley leaves

½ cup firmly packed lemon basil leaves

1½ teaspoons sea salt flakes

freshly ground black pepper

¾ cup (180 ml) extra virgin olive oil

¾ cup (180 ml) verjuice*

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Roast the almonds and walnuts on separate baking trays for about 5 minutes, shaking to prevent burning. Rub walnuts in a tea towel to removebitter skins, then leave to cool.

Blend the nuts, garlic, herbs, salt and 6 grinds of black pepper in a food processor with a little of the olive oil.

With the motor running, slowly add the remaining oil and verjuice. The consistency should be like pesto. (If required, thin with more verjuice*.)

*If Verjuice is unavailable, you could try mixing white wine vinegar, lemon juice and a bit of sugar as a substitute.

It's the last day of 2008, so I take this opportunity to wish each and everyone a Happy New Year, and may 2009 bring you everything you wish for, plus more.

I'm off to the beach for a couple of days (taking my beanie, winter woollies and Ugh boots...thats Summer in Australia for ya)! Catchya next week, when I'll be the Hostess with the Mostest!!

Atlantic Salmon atop with a herb salad

I just love having a keen fisherman as a neighbour. Fresh water fish, caught in local streams and lakes are a favourite of mine. Trout are in abundance, along with the occasional Murray Cod, when in season. But this weekend I was given a real treat. Atlantic salmon, which I've never tasted before. It's very similar to a brown trout, but I think the flavour is unmatchable. Of course the fisherman told me to cook it simply, so as not to bugger it up, but of course I never listened. Salt, pepper and butter, wrapped in foil was all he asked me to do. Ho hum, that's a bit boring, but I'm sure quite tasty.

I stumbled across this recipe at one of my favourite food sites, Food Safari. This dish was created by Greg Malouf, a favourite Aussie chef, who specialises in Lebanese and Middle East cooking. As soon as I saw this, I knew the simple method was going to have to wait. Sorry Simon!

The use of corriander and mint, with a touch of sumac, served as a salad on top is very impressive....a real dinner party dish if ever I saw one. The tahini yoghurt acts as a base for the salad to "stick" to, and imparts a beautiful creamy flavour and texture.

Susan, from The Well Seasoned Cook is hosting Kalyn's Weekend Herb Blogging this time around, the third time she has had the pleasure to host this great event. Susan has a beautiful blog, fantastic recipes and stunning photos. Stop by and visit if you can.

Baked salmon

Ingredients

1 whole Atlantic salmon
Sea salt and milled white pepper
50ml extra virgin olive oil
150g walnuts
120ml extra virgin olive oil, extra
Juice of 1 or 2 lemons
1 medium red onion, finely chopped
3 long mild red chillies, seeded and finely diced
2 cups coriander leaves, chopped
½ cup mint leaves, shredded
20g sumac

Dressing
400g natural yoghurt
100ml tahini
1 clove garlic, crushed with 1 tsp sea salt
2 lemons, juiced

Preparation

Preheat oven to 150°C. Whip yoghurt, tahini and garlic together until it becomes a thick paste. Thin slightly with lemon juice, season with salt and refrigerate (it should be the consistency of pure cream).

Season salmon with salt and pepper and drizzle with oil. Wrap in silicon or baking paper. Bake in the centre of the oven for 20 minutes. Gently turn salmon over and cook for a further 20 minutes. The salmon should be medium rare after 50 minutes.

Remove from oven, opening the paper to stop further cooking. With a sharp knife, pierce the skin along the back from head to tail and peel away the skin. Scrape away the grey blood line. Carefully transfer to a large serving plate.

Brush some of the yoghurt mixture (about ½ cup) onto the flesh of the salmon to coat the top side. Reserve the remaining sauce to serve with the finished dish.

Roast walnuts in a preheated oven (200°C) for 5 minutes. Remove from oven and rub briskly in a clean tea towel to remove as much of the skin as possible. Chop finely. Whisk the extra oil with lemon juice, salt and pepper. Add onion and chilli and whisk lightly. Add coriander, mint, sumac and walnuts.

Spoon the salad onto the salmon and carefully cover the entire fish as neatly as possible. Serve at room temperature with reserved sauce. Salmon can be cooked up to 4 hours in advance and the salad can be composed just prior to spooning onto the salmon.

Note: To serve, 'cut' fish along the length with a spoon. Scoop flesh off onto serving plates.

Baby snapper, fennel and herbs

It seems like eons since I posted for Weekend Herb Blogging, and whilst life has been busy, catching up after a relaxing holiday, dishes are still being created with herbs from my garden. Wanting a healthier dinner, after overindulging in restaurant food, these baby snapper were beckoning me. I swear one was positively staring at me, and I couldn't walk past it, without feeling slightly unnerved.

Getting back into the swing of things has been rather difficult, to say the least. This tasty dish utilises the final bulbs of fennel I have growing, a vegetable that I rate way up there as one of my favourite flavours. The host for Kalyn's Weekend Herb Blogging is Ulrike from Kuchenlatein and these baby snapper are heralding in the first tastes of Spring, a much awaited season after a bitterly cold winter.

Whole baby snapper, sweet fennel and herbs

INGREDIENTS

2 whole baby snapper (200g each),1 fennel bulb, 2 lemons freshly, ground black pepper, 1 bunch chives, chopped, ½ bunch basil, chopped 2 tablespoons olive oil, 200g butter, softened, 200ml orange juice, salt, 30g sumac

METHOD

Place fresh snapper on chopping board and cut 2cm deep slits along both sides of each fish. Combine shaved fennel, zest and juice of one lemon, black pepper, chives, basil and olive oil together and mix well. Pack fennel mix into the slits of the snapper tightly. Beat butter in a medium bowl and fold in the orange juice, salt, the juice of the remaining lemon and the sumac through softened butter. Rub soft butter mix all over the fish and wrap in tinfoil so no liquid can escape. Place on BBQ plate over medium heat for about 8-12 minutes or until cooked through. This will depend on snapper size.

I served this with a tossed salad of greens and roasted roma tomatoes, and a creamy potato gratin. Just lovely.

Fish and Fresh Fennel Tagine

You can't get any fresher than this. The dirt from my garden is still clumped to the fennel roots. The aniseed perfume is so much stronger than any supermarket bulb, left wilting on the shelves for who knows how long. The crunch as the knife slices through the crisp layers is almost deafening. The pleasure of eating something grown from scratch, and with a little love, is immeasurable.

Fish was on the menu last night and fennel and fish are a marriage made in heaven. This is yet another Moroccan inspired recipe which I adapted from my latest cookbook purchase, Moroccan Modern by Hassan M'Souli, a restaurateur from Sydney. I know I'm going to get my money's worth from this book, the recipes are just fabulous.

This dish is abundant with coriander and parsley. The tomato chermoula is so versatile in it's uses, as a marinade, or even as a sauce for pasta marinara, I think I will always make double the recipe from now on.


Pam, who cooks, sews and knits in her "spare time" from Sidewalk Shoes is kindly hosting Kalyn's Weekend Herb Blogging this week.

Fish tagine

Ingredients

• 4 x 2 inch thick firm fish fillets (try swordfish, dhufish, Ling or cod fillets)
• 2 cups of tomato chermoula (see recipe below)
• 1 large fennel bulb (the original recipe used celery sliced lengthways)
  
• 1 carrot
• 2 potatoes
• 1 small red capsicum
• 1 small green capsicum
• 2 tbsp of tomato paste
• 2 cups of fish stock
• A handful of kalamata olives
• 1 preserved lemon cut into wedges
• 4 roma tomatoes halved and roasted
• 2 tbsp chopped coriander

Method

Marinate your fish fillets in the tomato chermoula for at least two hours.

Slice the fennel (or celery) and place slices parallel across the tagine base. This stops food from sticking and burning to the bottom.

Next place the fish fillets over the fennel. Next slice the carrot diagonally in 1cm slices. Peel and slice the potatoes in the same fashion. Deseed and remove membranes from capsicums and slice the flesh to be double the thickness of the potatoes. The slices need to be varied accordingly so that they all cook in time.

Alternate the carrot & potato slices around the outer edge of the tagine and on top of the fish. Place the capsicums in alternating colours on top of the whole dish.

Mix the tomato chermoula with the tomato paste and fish stock and whisk until well combined. Pour over the vegetables and the fish, and top with olives and preserved lemon wedges.

Cover with tagine lid and simmer over a low heat for 45 minutes.

Serve the fish tagine directly to the table, garnished with tomatoes and sprinkle with fresh coriander.
Tomato Chermoula

Tomato Chermoula is a great accompaniment for seafood dishes.

Ingredients

• 1 tblsp olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves chopped
• 2 brown onions diced
• 4 x 400g cans of crushed tomatoes
• Juice of ½ lemon
• 2 tbsp chopped flat leaf parsley
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• 2 tbsp chopped coriander
• Salt & pepper

Method

Gently heat the oil in a saucepan and sauté the garlic and onion until soft. Add the tomatoes, cumin, and lemon juice. Simmer gently for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Stir in the fresh herbs and remove from heat. Season to taste. This can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a week.

Simply spaghetti

Kalyn's Weekend Herb Blogging travels to Germany this week, to be hosted by Claudia from Fool for Food. I only wish my grasp of the German language extended beyond "dunkeshein" , "guten tag" and "gesundheit", so I could enjoy some of her wonderful looking recipes.

Spaghetti marinara is my chosen dish this week, and apart from the obvious parsley sprinkled throughout, you're probably wondering what seafood and pasta have to do with blogging about herbs and vegetables. Well...the recipe called for a jar of roasted tomato, garlic and onion pasta sauce. I didn't have any, but I had lots of homegrown tomatoes, several garlic bulbs and of course onions. Roasting the tomatoes brings out their rich, sweet flavour, and of course roasted garlic is just the most delicious tastes I can ever imagine. Once roasted and caramelised, I blitzed them all together in the food processor. This made a thick, almost puree-like sauce, just perfect for adhering to the pasta and seafood mix. You could add some olive oil to make this paste more like the consistency of sauce, or even some tomato paste for extra colour and flavour.

Spaghetti Marinara

375 g dried spaghetti
2 tblsp Chilli oil
450 g fresh seafood marinara (or frozen but fresh is best)
737 g bottle of oven-roasted garlic, onion and tomato pasta sauce
1/2 cup of flat leaf parsley
Lemon wedges to serve
Garden salad to serve

Method

Cook pasta in plenty of salted boiling water until tender but still firm to the bite. Drain well and return to pan.
Meanwhile pre-heat a large non-stick frying pan over moderate heat, add chilli oil (you could use plain EVOO if chilli's don't agree with you). Add marinara mix, cook stirring for one minute. Remove from pan.
Add sauce to pan, bring to boil, add marinara mix and simmer, stirring for 3 minutes or until seafood is tender. Remove from heat, stir in parsley and season with salt and pepper.
Add marinara mixture to hot pasta. Toss lightly to combine. Serve with lemon wedges and a garden salad.

Garlic Prawns with Lemon Pilaf WHB #101

The proven health benefits of garlic, or the herbal "wonder drug", certainly outweigh the after effects of indulging in a meal, heavily laced with garlic, although the people around you the next day may not agree. The dreaded "garlic breath" is the downside, and although you may not smell it yourself, a sure sign that you have this affliction is your co-workers are pinching their nostrils whilst talking to you, or worse still, sending you messages via email rather than coming within 10 feet of you. But hey! Garlic is one of the best anti-oxidants you could eat. It is known to help fight off the common cold, treat severe acne, reduce cholesterol levels and even repel mosquitoes. Although after eating this dish, I think it repels much more than the annoying mozzie, friends and family included. If you do find somebody nice enough to engage in a face to face conversation with you, then it's a sure bet that they obviously had a "garlic fest" the night before as well. Adding parsley towards the end of cooking is known to help, but not disguise the problem.

Sometimes it's a good thing to be left alone, I say!

Ingredients

Garlic Prawns
12 green prawns
6 cloves garlic
50g butter
60ml Brandy
Salt & pepper
150ml Cream thick
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tablespoon Parsley chopped

Rice Pilaf
1 cup Basmati rice
30g Butter
2 Shallots fine cut
1 cm Cinnamon
1 cardamom green pod bruised
1 Bay leaf
2 cups White chicken stock
3 strands Saffron
Lemon zest

Method

Rice Pilaf
Saute shallots in butter. Add rice and saute on low heat until glassy.
Add cinnamon, bay leaf and cardamom. Pour in hot chicken stock and put heat to lowest setting on your stove top, add saffron and whack a lid on. Leave 15 mins.
Serve rice pilaf with a little lemon zest.

Garlic Prawns
Melt butter gently in a fry pan on a slow heat till foaming and just nut brown. Add chopped garlic, stir for 20 seconds, then add whole prawns (de shelled) and when they have just turned red, bump up heat and pour in the brandy. Fold in the cream, lemon juice and parsley and take off heat. Place prawns on a plate. Return pan with sauce to heat and reduce, checking for seasoning and serve poured over the prawns, rice pilaf to the side, the whole lot garnished with chopped parsley.

This week's host for Kalyn's Weekend Herb Blogging is Myriam from Once Upon a Tart. Only a few short weeks until the 2 year anniversary of this event, and I can't wait to hear what the theme for this auspicious occasion will be.

Seafood and cheese? Don't tell Mario Batali

Apparently it is a cardinal sin to serve seafood with cheese. It's just not Italian. A big Italian no-no. Well, it's a good thing that this starter dish is inspired from Greece. No set rules for this one. The saltiness of the Greek Feta cheese enhances, rather than overpowers, the delicate flavour of the prawns. This dish can be cooked in individual gratin dishes, or as a whole, in a large shallow dish. The flavour was...WOW. The sauce mopped up with fresh crusty bread is so good, it should be bottled.

This is my entry for Weekend Herb Blogging, a wonderful event foundered by Kalyn and hosted this week by Anna from Anna's Cool Finds.

BAKED PRAWNS WITH GREEK FETA

500 gm shelled prawns, tails intact
50 ml extra virgin olive oil
2 tblsp lemon juice
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp finely chopped thyme
4-5 roma tomatoes, finely chopped
200 gm greek feta, crumbled
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Method:
Combine olive oil, garlic, lemon juice and thyme and pour over prawns to marinate
Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes
Pre-heat oven to as hot as it goes
Mix the remaining ingredients, sprinkle over prawns then divide into individual gratin dishes, or in one large shallow flat heatproof dish
Bake in the oven until sizzling
Serve immediately with lots of crusty bread.

Oraya!

I'm livin' in the 70's

Skyhooks, Village People, Abba, flares, bad hair styles and smoked trout pate...welcome to the 1970's Mr. Power.

When my next door neighbour offered me two trout from his freezer, I jumped at the chance and accepted willingly. I knew he would expect me to make trout pate out of them, hoping that I would repay his kindness with a tub of pate placed in his fridge for him to find after yet another weekend of trout fishing.

This specimen thawing on the bench is a brown trout. Don't you just dig his polka dot jacket? The smaller version was a rainbow trout, not as snappy a dresser as the spotty brown, I must say.

Out with the smoker (that's my BH's job) and he chose some Australian Redgum sawdust for the smoke "flavour".

Thirty minutes later and they're all done.

All up, I flaked approximately 700 gms of pink, juicy flesh from these guys.

I sorta followed this recipe from here but adjusted the ratio of ingredients to match my 700 gms of trout. I didn't add all of the butter as stated, only 250 gms, because I was going to use gelatine to set the pate into my mould, which has been sitting in the cupboard since the '80s at least (the mould that is, not the gelatine). I used dried dill rather than fresh (because I didn't have any), and used a combo of horseradish cream and a horseradish dip, which had quite a variety of different mustards incorporated. I also used a whole tub of creme fraiche...naughty.

And after great difficulty getting this fish onto the plate (I'm sure every fisherman can relate to that statement), here is the final, albeit scraggy around the edges, result.

Well crazy cats, I'm blowin' this scene and chowin' out. Time to eat.