I made this onion jam to eat with an English specialty… toad-in-the-hole. Now that I have discovered that it is so easy to make, I will keep some of this yummy concoction in my fridge at all times. This would be just as delicious with a cheese plate or on sandwiches of roast meat. Yum yum, making myself hungry!
Ingredients
2 Tablespoons of olive oil
1 Tablespoon of butter
2 large red onions, halved and thinly sliced
1/4 cup of caster sugar
1 cup of red wine
1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar
Method
Heat olive oil and butter in a large pan over medium heat. Add onions and sugar to oil and cook for about 15 minutes, stirring often.
Stir in red wine and balsamic vinegar and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until liquid is evaporated (about 15 to 20 minutes).
To serve
Place in a serving bowl and serve with sandwiches, flans, cheese plates or my yummy toad-in-the-hole (recipe coming soon).
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This is only my second time making risotto. The first was several years ago when I made a crayfish risotto. This may not look pretty, but it is delicious! You could easily make this for two people using one duck breast… there almost seemed to be more duck than rice… but Dwayne wasn’t complaining. I was just happy it turned out as lovely as it did!
Ingredients
2 1/4 tsp five spice
2 duck breast
1 large onion, finely diced
2-3 garlic cloves, finely diced
2 large oyster mushrooms, thinly sliced
4 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in boiling water for 5 minutes, squeeze out the water and slice
1 cup of arborio rice
1/2 cup red wine
500ml – 700ml hot chicken stock
1/2 tsp cracked pepper
1 tsp light soy sauce
2 green spring onions, thinly sliced
small bunch of greens, thinly sliced i.e. kale, spinach, bok choy
chives, finely sliced for garnish
Finely sliced leafy greens, spring onions and duck tossed through the rice at the end of cooking.
Method
Lightly score the duck skin a few times and rub the duck breast all over with 1 tsp of the five spice.
Place skin side down in a cold non-stick pan on medium heat without oil for 7-10 minutes or until golden brown, flip and seal the other side for 30 seconds. Remove from pan but keep the oil from the duck fat.
Place the duck breast skin side up on a rack in a roasting tin and put on the middle rack of a 220°C preheated the oven. Cook for 15 minutes. Then take the duck from the oven and let it cool before slicing.
While the duck is cooking….
Heat fat from the duck in a large pan and add the onion and garlic, and cook on medium heat for several minutes. Add the mushroom and continue to cook, stirring occasionally for a few minutes.
Add the rice and continue to cook on medium heat, toasting the rice for 4 minutes. (This is an important part of making risotto).
Then add the red wine, the remaining 1 1/4 tsp of five spice, and light soy sauce. Allow the red wine to be absorbed before you begin to add the stock. Add 1/4 of a cup of stock at a time… allowing each 1/4 cup of stock to be absorbed before adding more. Keep stirring the rice and testing the consistency.
When the rice is almost done (you have tasted it and are happy with the consistency) add the spring onions, leafy greens and the sliced duck. Lightly toss the ingredients through as you finish cooking for a couple of minutes. Bon appetite!
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We caught a couple of mackerel just out from Undine Cay. The first, which I used for this recipe, was a spotted mackerel which Dwayne filleted. We arrived at Hope Island in time for lunch so I cooked up a couple of fillets and served the with a salsa style salad. This was simple and very delicious.
To make the salad I mixed diced pineapple, tomato, red onion, red chilli with corn kernels and the juice of one lime.
I coated the mackerel fillets with Cajun spices and fried them in canola oil.
The Cajun spice and the fruity flavour of the salad were amazing together. Yummo!
Restocking the boat with fresh fruit and veg is always a challenge. What fruit and veg will stay the freshest the longest?… that sort of thing. While at Mooloolaba we went to the supermarket and, surrounded by fresh fruit and vegetables, I went a little crazy. Forgetting I only have a small fridge on the boat I bought lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, red onions, fennel bulbs, chillies, zuchinni, capsicum, carrots, swede, and more. Of course when I got it all back to the boat there was no way I was going to fit it all in my fridge. Some of it was able to go into the bilge with the potatoes and onions, (i.e. swede and carrots), but others such as the lettuce and cucumbers needed to go into the fridge.
Anyway that dilemma led to me deciding to have a salad for lunch. My next dilemma was how to serve a salad to Dwayne for lunch without him thinking I am trying to starve him to death! After a search through the fridge I discovered we still had some pickled octopus left. (The occy we caught in Fame Cove).
Pickled Octopus
So this is what I did…
I made a simple salad of lettuce leaves, sliced cucumber, chopped tomato, sliced red onion, thinly sliced fennel bulb and sliced green chilli. I arranged the salad on a platter and topped it with sliced pickled octopus. I wasn’t sure how to dress this salad. What would go with the pickle flavour of the octopus? I decided to do a simple aioli of whole egg mayo and lime juice. I used bottled lime which I always have on hand on the boat. I mixed quite a lot of lime with the mayo to make a thin dressing, which I drizzled over the salad.
Pickled Octopus Salad with Lime Aioli
It worked really well. We thought the flavours complemented each other. Dwayne loved it and because it had something other than just veggies i.e. the occy, he didn’t accuse me of feeding him diet food!
Gourmet from the galley! 