Taste of the Tropics!

If you have read my profile, you will know I am a cook, and a bloody good one,if I do say so myself. I trained in Italy, and then went to college back in Australia and was immersed in the confining and restrictive techniques of French Cuisine.
Having been such a gypsy for the last twenty years; while everyone was marrying and having children, I was travelling. Everywhere I went, I found myself in a kitchen asking questions and either cooking with locals, or taking recipe ideas home with me and turning things into easy and impressive dishes.
When I first started training I was a zealot and the more complicated and difficult, and the more time it took, I was there- all the way. These days I prefer talking to friends rather than being stuck in a kitchen, so I come up with dishes that can be cooked and served quickly so I can sit at the table with a glass of wine and enjoy everyone's company.
I have put together a few menus lately, and thought I might share one or two of them.

Taste of the tropics - luncheon
Salt and pepper squid on a rocket and orange salad
Prawn curry - so easy you won't believe it
Tropical fruit tart with mascarpone


Salt and Pepper squid

For 4 people
I do it a little differently to the Asians.
2 large squid tubes or 4 small squid tubes frozen
salt and pepper
flour

Variation - paprika, chilli powder, onion powder, garlic powder
Lime wedges
Oli for frying
Deep fryer or heavy based small pot

Rocket and Orange salad

Mixed rocket and spinach leaves- washed
8-10 snow peas- finely sliced
1-2 oranges,peeled and cut into small segments
Snow pea sprouts - a handful

Dressing-

Lemon or lime juice with oil and 2 tsp sugar

I usually make individual salads and hold the dressing until the squid is cooked.

Slice the squid into really thin rings,wafer thin as possible. Pile them up.
On a plate or in a tray, put 1 cup plain flour, 6 tsp of salt, as much fresh pepper as you can grind.
Heat up a pot of oil, and quickly coat the squid in the mixture. It sounds like a lot of salt and it is, but each piece only gets a little bit.
Dip into hot oil, it will cook in seconds. Scoop the squid out onto a plate lined with paper towel and keep going. Pile squid ontop of salad and then drizzle dressing.
Serve at once.

Prawn curry

1 kg cooked large cooked or better yet uncooked prawns
1 bottle of Mrs Pataks Jalfreezi

400 gr rice
1 lime zest and juice

You can cook the rice in the microwave or a pot. A trick I learnt from a friend in the UK is to put the rice in a pot, cover with boiling water at least 2 cm above. I just guess. Cover with a lid and cook for 12 minutes. Take off the lid, remove from heat, cover with a teatowel and leave for 10 minutes before serving. I squeeze lime juice and sprinkle lime zest on top. EASY!

The prawn curry is too simple. Put garlic and oil into a skillet or frypan. Saute prawns and then throw in the sauce. Simmer until sauce thickens and serve.

Accompaniment -

steamed chinese broccoli with oyster sauce.
Steam the broccoli and drizzle oyster sauce - a cinch.

Dessert is more of an effort but not much.

Tropical fruit tart

1 packet of granita biscuits
125 gr butter melted

500 gr of mascarpone
zest of 1 orange
2 tblsp icing sugar
300 ml of whipped cream
tropical fruit of your choice- sliced and scattered on top - pineapple, mango, kiwi, star fruit,
1 tin of passionfruit pulp

To make the biscuit base- In a food processor blitz the biscuits to crumb. Mix with melted butter in a bowl and press into a lined springform tin. Chill in freezer for 10 minutes.

To make the orange mascarpone cream - In a food processor or a kitchen aid (I have wanted one for years...) whip the cream, mascarpone, icing sugar and orange zest together. Cover with orange mascarpone cream and decorate with fruit.

Finishing touch- in a small pan heat up the passionfruit pulp and add 1-2 tblsp caster sugar to thicken it. Sauce must coat the back of a spoon. Chill. Pour over the top of the fruit tart and serve chilled.
Watch it disappear in less than ten minutes as everyone initially asks for a small piece, and then ends up asking for more.

So cooking is my passion but I don't have a kitchen. Its ironical really, as I know heaps of people who have put in great kitchens in their homes but keep them sparkling and never cook. Why buy a smeg oven if you are only going to reheat??? I don't get it.
Here I am the happy wanderer who has cooked in kitchens, and in fact anywhere - even a portable barbecue plate on an outdoor fire in Fiji. I will hopefully one day have a home with a kitchen, and cook for friends as well as paying customers...
I believe in serving fresh food, and not doing too much with it...
Hope you enjoy my dishes.... they are too easy...
Vinaka na kana!

My birthday wish!

Its been a while since I wrote mainly because being in Australia means working hard, continuously and feeling knackered at the end of the day. It was my birthday yesterday and my only wish is for Chita to get here. I am over living apart. Its been a struggle mentally and emotionally for me. I had a massage on Saturday afternoon and the masseur said to me that I had a struggle going on between my left side and my right. Its true. I am torn between being me, and being the working me, efficient, capable and exhausted.
Chita, the man who did not know how to use a mobile three years a go, shocked me on the weekend by ringing me, using free Vodaphone minutes. The fact that he even knew about free minutes, threw me, and then the fact that he actually picked up the phone to ring, blew me away.
His English is so formal on the phone. Well Amanda, I think we need to create an equal situation.
Yes we do.
I have been reluctant to ring the migration agent to find out where we stand in case I get another serve. I think he thinks I am going to go behind his back and put in all the information I have amassed on three and a half years with a Fijian, in business. I am sticking to his list...
However I got an email today saying that the visa has been submitted. I have bits missing which Chita is ready and a waiting to hand in.
What has been really interesting for me, as far as a long distance relationship goes, is knowing I am committed, and being a big picture person, anticipating the wait and not wanting to go through it, and now I am in it, its not too bad. The end for me is in sight. I have friends who recently married in Fiji and after four months she has brought her new husband to Australia.
Meanwhile Chita and I wait for me to pass as a responsible sponsor and he goes under the microscope to make sure he has no police record and no undesirable traits...
Interesting time...
I have never had to wait so long for something in my life. Its longer than Christmas...
Chita has been really vocal in stating how much he misses me.
He told me last Thursday when I rang him that he has been wandering around feeling empty and not wanting to do anything much.
So you love me, was my response.
Is that so was his reply. I have never felt like this before...
Special.
My birthday wish is for him to come to Oz, for us to live together, for him to get some knowledge about running a small business and for us to travel a bit, before committing to go back. I would like to build a beach shack up on the hill, and then attempt to run a business where keri keri- please please help me.... happens every other minute.
Chita has had enough. He is barely making $20-$50 a week and everyone thinks he is loaded...