Fresh egg linguini, lobster, johnny love bite tomatoes, basil (in 20 minutes!)

Boil a large pot of salted water.
In a separate pan, brown sliced garlic, diced eshallots, and add cubed tomatoes. Add a splash of dry white wine and reduce.
Add some tomato paste and some dried chilli flakes to give it some color.
Stir in lobster meat and add butter and heat for a minute.
Cook pasta to slightly before al dente, drain, and add into sauce.
Serve immediately with finely chopped basil.

There’s always that dilemma where you have all these lobster shells leftover – and what better way to use them than a classic lobster bisque?

Lobster Bisque

Place lobster shells on an oven tray and roast until shells begin to brown, about 8 minutes. With olive oil in saucepan brown chopped onions and 2 cloves garlic. I like to stuff the lobster head with 2 inch pieces of peeled carrots, and add in a few stalks of celery. Add 2 cups of fish stock and 1 cup chicken stock. Bring to the boil, and then simmer under low heat for 3-4 hours, covered.

Strain soup through sieve set over large saucepan, pressing firmly on solids. Whisk tomato paste into soup. Simmer until soup is reduced to 3 cups, about 15 minutes. I normally prepare this the night before. The rangehood in my apartment isn’t exactly powerful, so the entire floor of the building smelled like lobster bisque. Sorry neighbours!

When you are ready, add half a cup of cream (or more, if you prefer) to soup and simmer 5 minutes. Dissolve cornstarch in 1 tablespoon water. Add to soup and boil until slightly thickened, about 2 minutes. Mix lobster meat into soup and stir to heat through. Season with black pepper and salt and ladle soup into bowls.

Lobster bisque really reminds me of the small Hong Kong styled diners I used to go to with my family, served next to those super soft brioche buns with a yolk and butter glaze… so while on my trip down memory lane, it brought me to the next dish:

Tacky Hong Kong Style Lobster salad
(so bad that it’s GOOD)
This one is easy. Chop up lobster meat, and drain a can of ‘fruit salad’. Add chopped celery and chopped green apple for a bit of crunch.
Mix with a lot of egg mayonaise. Mmm.

That’s how I used four of those lobsters. I think I just ate the fifth one on the couch with some cocktail sauce, and I’m not ashamed to admit it!

Boquerones are Spanish styled marinated white anchovy fillets which are a lot less pungent than regular anchovy with a citrus, vinegared taste. Serve on a fresh red endive leaf, with half a grape tomato, baby basil, and a paper thin slice of garlic and drizzled with extra virgin olive oil. Season with sea salt and black pepper.

Fresh prociutto san daniele with figs – my absolute favorite

I recently got foxtel (cable tv), and even with 200 extra channels, I am still only totalling about 2 hours of TV a week, and that’s me forcing myself to watch tv… because I’m paying for it! I do however, really like the background music in the digital TV guide channel. I know, I’m insane.

I had just been testing out a new digital camera I got for Christmas – and obviously I didn’t really know how to use it at the time, so I apologise for the quality of the below photos.
The atmosphere at Bannister’s was romantic, with sweeping ocean views during sunset. With exceptional service from staff that love being in hospitality, this is considered one of the best restaurants in Mollymook

Cured ocean trout

carpaccio of angus beef with fig, beets and chive creme

Special of the day: Roast duck with shaved black truffles

Pan fried barramundi fillet with pea puree, zucchinni flower and “lemon air”

Side of tomato bocconcini and basil salad

Dessert – sorry but I honestly cannot remember what this was – but you cannot go wrong with chocolate!

Petit fours

And the view we wake up to from the spa retreat balcony – absolute bliss!

Lasagne (Chef Massimo’s mother’s recipe)

They had debated for weeks whether to put this on the menu as it might be “too simple” of a dish. But alas, the simple things are always the best, and what better than his mama’s recipe. His exact words were “If they don’t like it, they can f*ck themselves”. And that’s why I love him!

My other highly recommended dish (I always order on the corporate card) is the Bistecchina – Seared fillet of beef medallions with wild rocket leaves, shaved Reggiano and lemon dressing.

And who can forget our favorite part of the meal? Dolce!

Chocolate fondant with banana ice cream and dried coconut.

Need I say more?

With the opening of the members only pool club, it makes people watching more entertaining than ever!

Of course I’m a member, darling.

A quick, 15 min (cheater’s) Beef Pho. It’s common breakfast in Vietnam – and great for quick brunches on weekends, when you’re just that little bit hungover from the night before. It’s so quick and simple to prepare:

Ingredients (serves 2)
* 3-4 cups beef consomme or beef stock
* 1 cinnamon stick
* 1 star anise
* squeeze lime juice
* 2 tbs fish sauce
* 375g pkt rice noodles
* 350g sukiyaki beef (paper thin)
* 2-4 small fresh red chillies (or to taste), thinly sliced
* 1 cup Thai basil leaves

1. Combine beef consomme or stock, cinnamon stick and star anise in a medium saucepan over high heat. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 5 minutes or until aromatic. Stir in lime juice and fish sauce.
2. While the stock is cooking, soak rice noodles in boiling water, cover and leave for 5 minutes.
3. Divide noodles among serving bowls. You can dip the sukiyaki beef in the remaining hot water to cook it for 15 seconds or so, and place on top of the noodles.
4. Pour over boiling hot stock so the beef remaings cooking, chilli, basil and green onion (if you wish).

I’m still waiting for some photos to come through, so I will update on the food I had in China at a later date!

A low fat, low carb meal that tastes so good, for only around 500 calories! Great for serving guests as a sharing plate, because prep time is under 10 minutes.

2/5 pack of Haloumi cheese, sliced in .5cm thickness
100ml organic tomato puree (the chunky kind)
dried oregano
1 clove garlic, grated
1 piece of pancetta

Ronny’s haloumi (garlic reduced to please your loverrrr)

In a small saucepan, add extra virgin olive oil, half of the grated garlic, pancetta and cook til brown. Add tomato puree and dried oregano, simmer until reduced. Season with salt, pepper and a hint of chilli oil. Set aside.
Pan fry haloumi until both sides are golden brown with EVO and the rest of the garlic.
Top with tomato sauce, garnish with basil leaf, serve immediately. ( I removed the pancetta after cooking to reduce calorie count, but you are most welcomed to eat it!)

Mountain bread chips with hommus dip

Cut Mountain bread rice wraps into small triangles, place under grill in oven for 2 minutes. They become crispy chips, which you can serve with hommus dressed with paprika powder and EVO.

Drinks to compliment? Bloody Marys!

Ingredients:
Silken Tofu (ready to eat out of the pack)
Wakame (soaked)
Corn Kernels
Edamame beans (boiled and shelled)
1 tbsp Soy or Tamari
1 tsp Mirin
1 tsp Rice vinegar
Yuzu and Japanese sesame dressing (Drizzle to taste)

For some reason I totally forgot to add my edamame beans into the salad before I left the house yesterday morning. You should also add bonito flakes and toasted sesame seeds for added texture. This is very quick to prepare before running out of the house in the morning.

Oh… by the way, my diet’s going quite well! I can fit into my pants again!

The Corn and Basil soup from Plan B by Becasse today, was AMAZING, and only $5 for a large bowl!

I also bought the Coronation Chicken Sandwich, and the BLT for my colleagues. They both said it tasted amazing, but I wasn’t quick enough with the camera before it was both wolfed down. (so it’s got to be good!) Sandwiches are $8 each. (photo link here)

Plan B are best known for their Wagyu Burgers – but alas, not part of the current diet plan, girlfriend!

So my partner ended up contracting an awful stomach virus, and in order to hydrate and re-nourish the body with nutrients I made a simple soup. If we were really adhering with rules from Chinese medicine, chicken probably should be replaced with pork bones, but Chicken cooked a lot faster (I got home at 7:30pm and the soup was ready in an hour) – probably because I only used the leg.

Ingredients:
4 grain-fed chicken drumsticks, skin removed
1 carrot
1 leek
2 small potatoes
1 small onion
1 bulb of ginger
1/4 celery
1/2 can of organic peeled tomatoes
handful basil
season with salt, pepper, paprika and dried oregano

Pre boil chicken to remove impurities, re-add water into pot, and combine all ingredients (which are all diced). Bring to boil, and then simmer in medium heat for 40 minutes. Debone and shred meat from chicken before serving.

And fortunately, it became a great low-cal, low-carb office lunch!

Perhaps I will do a variation on the raw food diet along with a low carb intake. Now the challenge is for this to taste good!

today’s lunch: Baby cos lettuce, tuna, raw mushrooms, cucumber, tomato, handful of corn kernels, olives with balsamic vinegrette

Other ideas I’m currently thinking of:

Seared peppered tuna on a bed of wakame salad, ponzu dressing
Sashimi, sashimi, sashimi ($$$$$)
Vegetable sticks with organic hummus, paprika
Soft poached egg, asparagus, truffle oil, black pepper
Salmon carparccio, lemon oil, baby capers
Crab meat, mango and julienned cucumber salad
Edamame with sea salt and shichimi (Japanese 7 spice)
Shaved Turkey breast with… ???
Baby rucola, nashi and walnut salad with EVO and balsamic
Lightly grilled Shrimp with fresh tomato and basil salsa
Cold Tofu with paperthin daikon radish, soy and miso dressing
Sydney Rock Oysters with champagne vinegar

Borrrrring… but totally doable! What else tastes great with hardly any calories? It’s time to really discover the world of spices.

currently questionable foods:
Haloumi

One of Australia’s most celebrated chefs – most known for her amazing desserts and Asian inspired cooking, held a class at the Sydney Seafood School last week which I was very excited about. After an hour long demonstration on how to prepare each dish, we separated into groups of 5 to try and recreate everything she had taught us. She created 4 dishes which are designed to be paired with champagne. Perfect for summertime and the holiday season.

The Menu included:

And finishing everything off with a bottle of Heidsieck Champagne – Gold.

The whole process took well over 4 hours. I really miss my giant kitchen back in Darlinghurst! I have all the recipes, but I won’t type them out here. Click here if you want to download a PDF of my recipe sheet! (it even has notes on it)