Showing posts with label augusta. Show all posts
Showing posts with label augusta. Show all posts

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Fusion Flavours - Carrot and Nori Fritters with Wasabi Coconut Cream


I am a huge fan of Japanese cuisine – but it’s not something I’ve really had a great deal of experience cooking. Apart from the odd okonomiyaki and teriyaki here and there, most of my Japanese eating has been out at restaurants. But I had a craving for Japanese, a few sheets of nori left over from a failed cauliflower rice sushi experiment  and a couple of sachets of wasabi floating around from my last takeaway. I didn’t have a great deal of veges left in the fridge, which is where the rest of the main ingredient inspiration came from – carrots. I always buy carrots…but I very rarely actually cook with them. They usually only ever get chopped up into salads or munched on raw (with almond butter and dukkah). So given they’re not my go-to vege, I often end up having lots in the fridge. It was time to try carrot fritters/okonomiyaki.

To serve, I made a wasabi coconut cream. Mainly because I wanted to temper the heat of the wasabi, as my husband isn’t the hugest fan, and I didn’t have any greek yoghurt – which is what I normally would’ve turned to first. Not shopping can provide so much inspiration! We had just come home from a trip fishing on the Blackwood River on Molloy, so I also had fresh bream fillets to serve with it which you will see in the photos – but they are flavoursome enough to be a vegetarian meal on their own. Slightly sweet, delicious, crispy little things that they are!



Carrot and Nori Fritters
5-6 baby carrots
1 tbsp cornflour
1 sheet of Japanese nori/seaweed
2/3 cup plain flour
1 tbsp of corn flour
1/4 tsp of salt
2 egg whites
1 cup cold water
oil for frying

Wasabi Coconut Cream
1 tin coconut milk, refrigerated overnight
2 sprigs coriander, leaves removed and shredded
Pinch salt
1-2 sachets wasabi (or a 2-4 cm squeeze from a tube)

Preheat the oven to 150C for keeping cooked fritters warm whilst you cook the remainder.

Grate the carrots using a coarse grate. (I do this in my food processor). Use a pair of kitchen scissors to chop the nori up into thin strips. Mix the carrot and nori together and toss through 1 tbsp cornflour.

In a separate bowl, whisk together plain flour, the second tablespoon of cornflour and salt. Whisk the eggs gently and add the cup of water to the eggs, mix together. Pour this batter over the carrot mix and gently fold together until it comes together. Don’t overmix it.

Heat a frypan to a medium-high heat. Add a layer of oil to the pan and allow to heat as well. Ladle the mixture into the pan to form fritters to the size of their choosing. I like pikelet size ones – around 10cm diameter. Cook for 2-3 minutes until crisp and golden. Flip over and cook for a further 2-3 minutes. Remove to a plate and keep warm in the oven.

Meanwhile, pour the thin watery layer of the coconut milk off and reserve for another use. Beat the wasabi and salt to taste into the remaining cream with a hand beater. Stir through the coriander.
 
Serve alongside the carrot and nori fritters


Thursday, February 27, 2014

Party Inspiration - Camp Molloy


 
In Perth, we’re coming up for a long weekend, and I know hundreds of us WAliens flock Down South for a lovely and relaxing break. What a perfect time to reminisce over my 30th birthday – an American Summer Camp Themed week-long adventure in the Augusta/Margaret River region we dubbed Camp Molloy. Maybe inspire a few of you on day trips and activities in the area. Opportune timing also as I haven’t gotten around to processing any food photos lately (don’t blame me, blame the new Donkey Kong)

Molloy Island is a small residential island in the Blackwood River, accessible via a 4-car barge. I’ve been going to Molloy Island ever since I was born and I love it. My husband has grown to love it, too. I learnt to ride a bike there, got proposed to there and spent a month there on my honeymoon. I absolutely love this area of my state. It only made sense that my 30th should be there, too.

Given that it was a week holiday, Lance and I designed and made the invitations early to give guests ample opportunity to take time off work and things like that. The invitation I am still particularly proud of. It consisted of 4 parts. A postcard written from Lance and I, telling people we had discovered this camp. A ‘brochure’ outlining the details of the camp, including activities planned, rules of the camp and a few joke paragraphs. A permission slip and an invitation for my actual birthday “dinner” on the Saturday night, for people who could only make it down for the weekend.
 
 

Despite the fact that it was a group ‘holiday’, we treated it like it was a camp in terms of organisation. It’s really hard to get a bunch of adults to make decisions, so we planned all activities and running schedule so that the time away was used to maximum enjoyment! And everyone going had expectations of what they’d be doing. It worked really well. A few weeks before my birthday, we sent a detailed itinerary.

For the activities, we went to the beach, played archery, had a limousine brewery tour day, a limousine winery tour day, Halloween happened to fall during the holiday so we had a dress-up mini-golf and maze day. Lance planned a quiz night one night, we played tennis and we had lots and lots of good food and wine.



Some of my favourite places and businesses we visited on Camp Molloy are:

Cape Naturaliste Winery – my favourite winery ever. Ever.
Margaret River Venison Farm - Venison Chorizo, need I say more?
Vasse Virgin Olives
Eagle Bay Brewery
Cheeky Monkey Brewery
Cruising the Cape Limos
Amazen
Woody Nook WInery - definitely worth hitting for a good lunch spot on a winery trek
Vasse Felix Winery
 
 
And a whole bunch more I can't currently remember. Shoot me an email if you are interested in anything in particular. Or check out MargaretRiver.com 
 
Have you ever planned a road trip party? What did you find that worked really well? What were the struggles? Would you do it again? I'm hoping to plan a foodie weekend down south soon!