Here it is, my first dish in my new kitchen! It wasn’t as bad as I thought, luckily I chose to make something that I had all the ingredients for. Whew! So a basquaise dish is traditionally a peppers and onions red wine reduction with lots of peppers, the key ingredient is piment d’Espelette – paprika, along with garlic and thyme. Usually the traditional French dish requires some ham or bacon for that rich salty flavor but I did a version that was vegetarian friendly and oh SO delicious. I served a vegetarian dish with roasted asparagus and a meatier fishy version with halibut.
You can make a basquaise out of other things as well… that’s just the chunky peppers and onion sauce. You can put chicken or fish on top of it and it will go perfectly. I opted for roasted asparagus for a vegetarian dish but grilled eggplant or zucchini would go nicely as well. I added grape tomatoes to my version for that added burst of flavor when you bite into one. A basquaise sounds difficult but it really is easy and it tastes amazing! Hope you enjoy it!
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Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: food, mmmm, recipes
Tags: cooking, food, french, recipe, recipes, seafood, vegetarian
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I’ve been meaning to make a Japanese dish for a while. After my visit to Japan last year, I feel like I wouldn’t do the cuisine justice… food in Japan was simply amazing! How could I even try to imitate? I keep thinking, what would Blake like? Blake is a good friend of mine who lives in Japan… he has some of the best eateries at his doorstep so I have to make sure if I’m gonna do something Japanese, it better be good and he better like it!
I’m no sushi chef, so slicing raw fish a certain way with specific knives for different types of fish and cuts wasn’t exactly going to be my first attempt. I wanted to stay far away from ramen because if I’m going to do it right, I’d have to cook the pork broth for days. I don’t quite have the tools needed for takoyaki. I was starting to think it was a lost cause, but I’ve finally got a Japanese dish worthy of a post! Miso orange glaze cod with shiitake pea brown rice.
Ok so technically, it’s Japanese inspired. I’m a little iffy about the rice being anything Japanese but oh well! It looks pretty and taste great! The glaze itself is delicious with any protein that doesn’t require long cooking… fish is perfect, soy patties are great too. We had this served with some Japanese pickled vegetables and cucumber and of course miso soup. I mean, I tried to make it authentic! Hope you like it!
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Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: food, mmmm, recipes
Tags: asian, baking, cooking, food, Japanese, recipe, recipes, seafood, vegetables
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We’re pretty far from Southern food in Sydney but this po’ boy recipe is pretty darn close to something you can find in New Oreleans… or maybe just a Cajun restaurant in LA. I even made hush puppies to go with it! (recipe coming soon!) A po’ boy can come in all forms, most traditionally it’s a French bread sandwich, with lettuce, tomatoes, and a fried meat or seafood… usually shrimps or oysters. But the most important topping is the remoulade!
It’s all about the SAUCE! The remoulade really makes this sandwich. I could use it on everything, in fact I used it as a dipping sauce for my hush puppies 
YUM! This remoulade recipe is a teeny tiny bit spicy but pretty mild by cajun standards. Be sure to add more heat if you want a bigger kick! Hope you like it!
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Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: food, mmmm, recipes
Tags: american, Cajun, cooking, food, recipe, recipes, sandwich, seafood
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Okay so “amazing” may be a little biased but it sure is OOEY GOOEY delicious! I have to be completely honest, this dish isn’t exactly good for you. In fact, it might cause a mild heart attack. WARNING: all of you on diets, stay away from this post! I even added more spinach, used low fat cheeses, used low fat sour cream and mayo but at the end of the day, you really can’t call this healthy food. Even if you eat it with just vegetables !
Now for all of you who are willing to be a little dangerous, this dip will knock your socks off and have you coming back for more. I’ve altered the ratio of ingredients to attempt to make it a little healthier less bad for you. But feel free to play around with it and see if you come up with something better. I don’t have pepper jack cheese which is what I would normally use instead of mozzarella so mine was a little lacking in that pepper jack punch. I would definitely advise using pepper jack if you have some! Mozzarella is my favorite alternative because it’s stringy not so much cause it’s similar in taste at all. You can add more cheddar if you want to skip the pepper jack or mozzarella too.
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Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: baking, food, mmmm, recipes
Tags: baking, cheese, cooking, food, recipe, recipes, seafood, snacks, spinach
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New England style clam chowder… I mean CHOWDA! Vini loooooooves clam chowder. We spent $8 on an imported can of Progresso Clam Chowder once… he was ecstatic, apparently well worth the $8. We have yet to see another can of Progresso at the fancy imported foods place so I figured it was time I tried to make this fabulous old favorite soup. Especially since it’s officially Winter now! Turns out, mine was better than Progresso, so I’m told.
This is the New England style clam chowder, which is the white kind with clams, bacon or salted pork and potatoes. Manhattan style has tomatoes in it so it’s red and has no cream or milk. Generally the Manhattan style is more of a brothy soup too. I’ve added carrots and celery to the traditional New England chowda because I like to sneak in veggies wherever I can . It’s a little less creamy than some versions I’ve seen at restaurants but again, no complaints from the taste tester so I think taste wise it was a success!
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Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: food, mmmm, recipes, soups
Tags: cooking, food, recipe, recipes, seafood, soup
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Singapore was exactly the type of trip I wanted: SHOPPING & FOOD! We only had 2 days in the city but boy did we take advantage of it! And we sure did eat a lot!
I love that in Singapore, it’s perfectly okay to have about 8 meals. Unfortunately you can’t chew gum, spit or be gay. Not gay as in happy, gay as in homosexual. Apparently it’s illegal?! Well, we still happened to stumble upon 3 lesbian bars on our last night so I guess it can’t be that bad.
We landed in Singapore around 1pm, got to the fabulous Scarlet Hotel and ventured off to do some shopping. We went a little shopping crazy on Orchard Road – I missed Zara so much – and after about 5 hours of shopping we decided, it’s time for food. We made our way back to Chinatown and found the hawker center in the Chinatown Complex. Vini had chicken rice and roast pork with rice for about $5. I had some vegetarian plate for about the same price. SO CHEAP and SO GOOD!
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Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: Other, random, Reviews, travel
Tags: adventure, asia, asian, holiday, seafood, Singapore, travel, trip, vacation
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Hmmm, photo isn’t exactly quite descriptive of how absolutely delicious this dish turned out. I even tried some!!! Mostly the brothy sauce but I did try some mussels. Yes, that’s right. Me, vegetarian of something over 15 years, tried mussels. Great, moving on, now that the news is out, let’s cook this!
oh PS definitely not going to be eating meat so don’t get your hopes up.
Ingredients:
1 kg of fresh mussels (we got a Tasmanian kind)
2 shallots, finely chopped
1/2 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
1 can of peeled tomatoes (the Italian ones are better)
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 stalk of green onion, sliced (you can use parsley but I hate parsley)
1 red chili, finely chopped – the smaller the hotter, pick at your own risk
1/2 cup of white wine
1/2 cup of water
extra virgin olive oil
sea salt
fresh ground pepper
Step 1: Clean the mussels
Make sure you scrub and take off the beards of all the mussels. There’s some crazy shit stuck to those guys so make sure you scrub em off. That’s all!
Step 2: The Sauce
In a large pot on medium heat, drizzle in some extra virgin olive oil. Toss in the finely chopped garlic, shallots, onion and chilies. Let all that sweat and fuse together for about 5 minutes. Sprinkle in a couple generous pinches of sea salt and sprinkle in a bit of fresh ground pepper. The onions should be translucent now. SLOWLY pour in the white wine and turn that down to medium low. Let that simmer for a few minutes and then add in the water. Now, in a bowl, squeeze the tomatoes from the can with your hands and make sure you squish em really well so it’s not too chunky. Pour that in the pot and let that simmer for about 15 minutes for all the wine to cook off. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Once it’s reduced a bit, we’re ready to cook the mussels.
Step 3: Mussel time!
Now that the sauce is ready, slowly drop in the mussels in the sauce. Mix it around to get them all in there, cover and let that simmer on medium high heat for about 8 minutes. Now cooking time for the mussels will depend on the size of them and how many are in there. You’ll know they’re ready when they’ve opened up. You might want to take some of the ones out from the bottom while the others keep simmering away. BUT usually, they’re all done at the same time, some are just not willing to open up.
Garnish with some green onion or parsley. Slurp away!
Well, I hope you enjoy this dish. I’ve seen several variations at resturants and I’ve always wanted to try to make it. Looks good and tastes great too.
Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: food, mmmm, recipes
Tags: cooking, food, recipe, recipes, seafood
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Happy Chinese New Year! Today is not only Australia Day but also Chinese New Year. Luckily we got the day off so I can experiment with some Chinese cooking. Usually we do Chinese New Year dinner with family at some big seafood restaurant but this year we’re kind of on our own. So to keep in the usual seafood theme, I made a Cantonese style clam & shrimp dish on top of fried vermicelli rice noodles. This is my ode to Chinese cooking, which I normally say I don’t do that well since my mother is so much better at it. This dish takes a bit of prep and a quite a few steps but it’s totally worth it!
And since it’s a bit long, you’ll have to read the details after the jump!
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Posted by: Maggie Ha
Category: food, mmmm, recipes
Tags: asian, chinese, cooking, food, recipe, recipes, seafood
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