I am still on cloud nine to be honest. The party hosted by WhiteonRice is still in my darn head, and I cannot get it out. Dani and I finally met the awesome couple, and can now call them friends. I am honored. The only bugger is they are in California, and we are in Seattle, so I cannot invite them over for dinner every weekend!! They managed to assemble such a fabulous range of bloggers, that are truly inspirational – it is no wonder I cannot stop thinking about that wonderful sunny afternoon in California.

But, think of other things I must. And this dish is a rather bloody good place to start. I actually knocked this one together before we left for the few days in CA, but just didn’t find time to develop the images before the plane took off.

I had been thinking about runner beans for a while. When I was a wee lad, back in England – many moons ago, my parents would grow runner beans (scarlet runner beans to you Yanks) every year. And every year I would be out picking them with Dearie, hardly being able to wait for her to cook them up. My favorite bean by a country mile (and we all know that is a long way..), I never grew sick of them. Not even when we were getting bucket loads in the height of season.

So off I went to the local farmers markets in search for some. No luck. Bastards. The bet I could do was Romano beans. They looked pretty similar, so I figured I would give em a shot. Turns out, they are bloody fantastic. Especially when mixed with some finely chopped bacon! (lardons).

What is the whole “French cut” thing you ask.. Sounds a bit poncy doesn’t it. All it really means is that the bean gets it string edges taken off, then cut into slices about 3mm wide, down the length of the bean. This is completely possible to do with a pairing knife. It would take bloody ages, absolutely ages if you were completely anal about prep as I am – if you are going to do something, you might as well do it right!

Step in the Krisk bean slicer. The Australians know a few things. They know how to drink beer. They know how to beat the English at just about every game we introduced to them. They also know how to make a super handy tool that French cuts a bean in seconds. That means they are OK by me!

So what is the big deal about French cutting beans you ask?

Well.. it is a number of things. Firstly, since every slice is an even thickness, they cook much more uniformly. They way they are sliced also means that they hold less water when boiled (my preferred method of cooking beans), which yields a better “bean” taste, and a far superior texture. Oh, and it looks pretty. This works great for the more fibrous runner and romano beans.

And lardons. OK, no one is going to argue with me here. Not much cannot be improved by a decent piece of fatty bacon, cut into pieces and fried. This just gives a little richness to the dish, especially the beans.

Salsa Verdi, with fish?? EWWWWW.

Actually, salsa verdi works amazingly well with mild flavored fish – just like halibut. It works especially well with grilled fish – but I prefer to pan sear/roast a decent piece of halibut – the flesh side sears so wonderfully in a pan. Salsa Verdi still works great with it.

Salsa Verdi is such a lively, fresh, herby taste that I just love it in summer with simple seafood. Having quite a bit of mint in this one really goes great with beans too.

To make this a little more accepting with fish, I added a couple of chopped anchovies to the verde, as the salt component. This just gives a really delicate fish edge, that is hard to detect, but helps all the flavors work together better.

I made this salsa pretty loose – lots of really good quality olive oil. Nothing is nicer than pushing your next mouthful of fish through the herby oil that is just running out onto your plate.

You will also notice my complete inaccuracy in the ingredients for the salsa verde. This is really is about taste, not measuring. If you like mint, add more mint. Likewise with basil or anchovies. Learn to make this one using taste and smell – it isn’t a dish of precision, more bursting fresh flavor.

Pan Roasted Halibut, French cut Romano Beans with Lardons, Salsa Verde

(serves 2)

1lb of really thick halibut fillet, cut into two pieces

2 good handfuls of fresh romano or scarlet runner beans

2 pieces of fatty bacon, cut into small cubes (lardons)

1 small handful of fresh flat leaf parsley

1 small handful of fresh basil

10 mint leaves

2 anchovy fillets

1 clove of garlic

1 dill pickle

1 small handful of capers

really good olive oil

splash of red wine vinegar

Start by making the salsa verdi. Finely chop, by hand, the parsley basil and mint. Put in a medium sized bowl. Finely chop the pickle and capers, and add to the bowl. Do the same for the anchovy fillets. Mash the garlic clove, and add. Add a splash of red wine vinegar, and now a good few glugs of the really good olive oil. Mix. If it is looking too dry, add more olive oil. Keep adding until everything looks moist, and there is a little oil in the bottom of the bowl. I like to chop this by hand, so that you see some great texture. If you are feeling lazy, the food processor is an option, but it will come out looking like mush.. with the texture of mush. In my mind, salsa verde is a sauce best left to a day when you have patience!

Let the verde stand at room temperature whilst you prepare everything else.

French cut the beans. If you are using a pairing knife – good luck to ya. This might take a while. But then, most people have better knife skills than I!! top and tail the bean, and cut it into thin sections, lengthwise. If you have a bean slicer then use it to top and tail the bean, and push/pull it through the slicer.

Preheat oven to 400F. Get a large pot of boiling water on the go for the beans.

Heat enough olive oil to cover the bottom of a medium sized frying pan (big enough for both pieces of halibut). When the oil is hot, put the fish in, flesh side down. Regulate the heat carefully. We don’t want this to burn – a golden yellow color is perfect. Cook the fish like this for about 4 minutes – until the flesh is nicely golden.

Put the beans into the boiling water, and boil for 6 minutes. Do not overdo, overcooked beans are quite a let down. Strain when done.

Heat up a thick pan – preferably a well seasoned cast iron one. When hot, fry the bacon in this for about 4 minutes, until just cooked through.

Flip the fish over, and put it in the oven, for about 6 more minutes – but this really depends on the thickness of your halibut. This one was really pretty thick for me (hats off to Mutual Fish for that!). The fish is done when it is opaque throughout, and flakes easily with a fork.

In a large bowl toss the beans and the bacon together.

To plate – put a pile of salsa verde in the center of a plate. Push it into a circle using the back of a spoon. Top this with a generous helping of beans. Very carefully place the halibut fillet on top.

Serve immediately.

Nutty, nutty stuff. I was swearing like squadie last night I can tell you. I haven’t had a huge amount of scary things happen in my life. A really nasty bike accident in my teenage years, and that is about it.. Oh, Danika going into labor was pretty bloody scary (but exciting) too.

I type up a blog post last night, and submit it. 500 Internal Server Error. Bastards. I try again. Fuckers.

I am pretty computer savy, but the whole blog code/files/database thing is way beyond my price range. I scour the web looking for answers. A ton of people have had this. Solutions range from hacking some code on your blog, to just deleting your blog and starting again.

The first thing that went through my mind was when did I last back up my blog? Errrr… I cannot remember when. That is bad, really bad. To be honest, I am not completely sure how. And even if I did back it up, I would have no idea how to restore my blog from the backup.

The second thing that went through my mind was not all the blog posts I would loose. I have the photos, and some of the copy. It was loosing all the comments. People take time out of their day to leave me amazing comments, and then they are just gone. Poof. No more. I would only have myself to blame - not backing up and all. It seems so selfish on my part.

So, I check my email. No email.. Hmm, I send myself a test email. That doesn’t come through. Double hmmm. I try and check my email through webmail - webmail is screwed up. Ohhh, this could be a host problem… So many thoughts now go through my head. “If it is a host problem, then they will know how to fix it!!” “Eeeek, I wonder how good their tech guys are, and if they really can be bothered?”. I have had some really terrible experiences with hosting companies in the past - tech-wise, so I didn’t cross my fingers.

Turns out, LunarPages are awesome. Nothing like the half bit, piece of crap host I used to have. By the time I woke up in the morning, all was right as a rain. Thank fuck for that.

And to top it off, I tried to upgrade my laptop to XP service pack 3 last night. I of course should have realised this would be a bad idea… Microsoft and all… After nearly 30 minutes of updating, I can no longer access my wireless internet. Well, that was a waste of time, so I had to revert back to SP2. Wonderful.

So.. what I am really asking here is - how do people deal with this stuff? How do people backup their blogs, and restore it? Is there an easy way of doing it, without code and so forth?

OK - link first: http://whiteonricecouple.com/blog/?p=337

So, what is this post all about? No picture straight off??… Wait, no pictures at all!!! Has Matt lost his fingers? Wait, he is still able to type, so that cannot be so.

Danika and I had to go down to Southern California for some business, and we managed to wangle it (thanks work!) so that it would be around the time of a food bloggers party, hosted by the completely brilliant Diane and Todd - or as most know them White on Rice Couple

I have “known” these too for while. The speech marks because I had never met them. The email trail goes back a year though. So I got an email from them a little while ago about a party. But not just any party. They were cooking. That was enough to make me want to buy a couple of tickets down to CA. To make it even cooler (if it could be even cooler), they were inviting some of their other blogging friends over, for an evening of great food, and great people.

It looked for a while like we weren’t going to be able to make it. Work got crazy, and taking any time away from the office was a big no no. But, things lightened up, and thankfully we managed to package the trip down to California with some work stuff that we had to do.

Let me get this out - Tod and Diane are two of the nicest, most genuine, welcoming people that you could ever wish to meet. They also cook some of the best food I have eaten in a very, very long time. It gets better. They have spent 6 years working on a simply incredible garden too. A garden that not only looks amazing, but is almost 100% edible. And heck, I would even try and eat the few percent that apprently isn’t edible - because that looked soo friggin good too. Can these guys get any cooler? Why, actually YES. They introduced Danika and I to Mangosteen’s. Our new favorite fruit.

So why the change in perspective? It was meeting them, along with the great bloggers that they invited that really set things in perspective. I work too hard. I sweat the small things, when I shouldn’t. Life is about spending quality time with friends that you really care about and seriously enjoy spending time with. Good food (and good drinks!) completely goes hand in hand with this. I need to make more time for friends (and family), serious quality time. The people that you surround yourself with is what makes life great. Fuck the expensive cameras, computers, and all the other stuff that we fill our lives with. Err, OK, I’ll keep the cameras - that was a little hasty

Normally when ever I go down to Southern California, I am counting down the days till the plane takes us back to Seattle. I don’t have fond memories of the LA area, and the heat and desert thing ain’t may bag either, baby. This is the only trip I have ever had down there where I was actually really bummed to leave.

But this wasn’t it. The gathering wasn’t huge, but included some amazing people from the food blogging world in California. The party was a huge success, I met some of the nicest and most interesting people I have ever met. Everyone had a great time, talking about food, their lives, and eating. Eating lots of amazing food.

So - no photos this time. I didn’t take a camera with me on the trip. And for once, I am really glad I didn’t. I got to spend time with people, without my face pressed up against a piece of electronics, viewing the world through a lens, and thus not connecting with people.

More food and photos in a couple of days! In the meantime, go check out the White on Rice blog for photos of the fabulous food they cooked.

Any what was my favorite food there? Their grilled Tillapia for sure. OUT OF THIS WORLD. I have obviously eaten (and cooked) a crap load of fish. This was some of the best I have ever eaten. I would move to California if these guys opened a restaurant. Seriously.

It takes a certain kind of bloody idiot to want to roast a chicken in 90F weather. It takes an even bigger idiot to think “wouldn’t it be great to roast three of them!!”

That’s me folks. Some of Danika’s family were coming over to dinner. One I would describe as a picky eater. The last time I cooked for them it seemed like almost everything that was on their plate was something they didn’t like. That was my bad – I didn’t ask before cooking (but in my defense, it wasn’t any freaky ingredients).

So originally I wanted to get my own back, and do a pig’s head. This is a recipe from the French Laundry cookbook that ends up as an amazing little roulade of pork – completely not identifiable as a pigs head at all. The thought of a picky eater eating pigs head amused me (yes, I have a sick sense of humor).

Alas it was not to be. The pigs head takes 3 days, and I didn’t have that long to prepare (let alone source a good quality pigs head). So I fell back. I fell back to something I was pretty sure everyone liked – something safe. Roast Chicken.

I am sure we have all eaten hundreds of these growing up – I know I did. It is still my favorite way to eat chicken. A simply seasoned, perfectly roasted chicken – all served with some amazing chicken au jus.

This really is a perfect thing to cook for a dinner party (a small one..) too – you just bung em in the oven and forget about them for an hour (well, almost). That way you aren’t tied to the kitchen so you can enjoy company.

Since it was so ridiculously sodding hot out I decided to serve this just with a simple fennel and onion confit, and an amazing butter lettuce salad – both actually courtesy of the Bouchon cookbook. The recipes for both of these I am afraid I am not going to post here. Why? Because I am being an arse – this is quite simply a cookbook everyone should own. It will honestly make you a better cook – it has me.

I wanted to focus this blog post on my way of roasting chicken. Everyone has their own special way, and this is mine. It also turns out to be so ridiculously simple it is crazy. That helps, that really helps on such hot days and with company coming over.

So I am doing this post in two parts – The first part is via video!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Something I never thought I would do on my blog, but I figured this was the best way to show the technique of trussing a chicken.

The second part is the recipe, and how I go about roasting a chicken.

 OK – DRUM ROLL.. THE VIDEO!!!!!

It is crap. There, that should get people watching it. This video shows three things – firstly how to truss a chicken for roasting, and secondly how bad I am on camera, and how even more shocking I am at editing.

I should have watched the thing straight after recording it, and retaken some of it. So yes – I ramble a bit. My hands get in the way in parts. I talk about finding a proper cage free, local chicken way too much (something I am really passionate about). But, that is me. I am a little akward. So break out the popcorn and a beer, and have a good old laugh. That’s what I did watching this (without the popcorn, I hate the stuff).

All I can say is that things will improve the more of these I do!!! I honestly want to hear all feedback about these videos – good and bad (I can take it..) – They are kind fun, but as anyone that has tried doing video blog entries knows – they are time consuming. So, let me know if they should continue!

I also promised a chicken impression. It isn’t on here. It was just really odd on the video!!! Danika and I thought it would be dead funny.. and it was, but I think it was just our rather idiotic sense of humor.

We have been singing Old McDonald to Drake quite a lot recently. Danika sings, and I do the farmyard impressions. It turns out I can do a great chicken, and an even better sheep impression. Those I will save for another post!!! Perhaps I need a few more drinks first.

Roasemary Roast Chicken with chicken au jus

(serves 2)

1 pasture raised local chicken – between 3 to 4lb

3 stalks of fresh rosemary – rosemary leaves removed and chopped

3 tablespoons of coarse sea salt

3 tablespoons of freshly ground black pepper

4ft of string

au jus:

4 cups of chicken stock

1/2 onion, chopped

1 stalk of celery, chopped

1 small carrot, chopped

1 leek (white part only), chopped

1 clove of garlic

1 glass of dry white wine

3 springs of parsley

1 bay leaf

3 sprigs of thyme

5 black peppercorns

1 tablespoon of butter (optional)

Preheat oven to 450F

Truss and season the chicken as per directions in the video above that I am sure is going to make Spielberg want to just give up and retire. If it isn’t clear exactly what to do in the video – feel free to email me (contact is on the about page) – I know my arms and the chicken gets in the way of things.

Put a small, heavy saute pan (cast iron is awesome here) in the oven to preheat.

When the pan has been in there at least 10 minutes, take the pan out of the oven, and put the chicken in it, breast side up. Put this straight back in the oven, and shut the door – fast. I don’t add any fat or liquid to the chicken at all – this will generate steam, which in turn will stop the skin going really crispy.

Once it is in the oven, we are just going to leave it alone for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes take a look at it. If the breast is looking really brown, then cover just the breast area with some aluminum foil, and put it back in the oven. If the whole thing is looking brown, cover it all in foil, and bung it back in.

Whilst the chicken is roasting, lets make the au jus. This is really just a reduced and fortified chicken stock that uses some vegetables, wine, and pan juices to add extra flavor. The Bouchon cookbook has a great recipe for chicken au jus, but this does require you to have chicken bones on hand, that have been roasted – something I don’t have lying around that much.

In a large saucepan heat 1 tablespoon of oil. When hot, add the chopped onion, celery, carrot and leek. Stir this until soft – about 8 minutes. Add in the chopped garlic, and cook for another minute. Crank up the heat and add the wine. Let this bubble and reduce by about half – a few minutes. Pour in the chicken stock. Add the parsley, thyme, bay and peppercorns. Gently stir. Let this bubble away, with a lid slightly on for 40 minutes. Remove the lid, and cook for another 10 minutes. Strain the resulting liquid through a fine mesh sieve a few times to get rid of all solids.

After 45 minutes, take the bird out, and check to see if it is done. Put a meat thermometer into the flesh in the joint between the leg and the breast. If it reads 165F, then the bird is done. Take a few readings to make sure. If it isn’t hot enough yet, then back in the oven she goes. Check it again after 15 minutes.

When the chicken is done, take it out of the pan and place it on a cutting board. Cover the whole chicken with foil. Let it rest for at least 10 minutes. This will let the juices settle throughout the chicken, and result in a more flavorful, more tender bird.

Pour any juices from the chicken pan into a measuring jug. Let this settle into two layers. The top layer is fat, the bottom layer is some great chicken juice.

Put the saute pan that you cooked the chicken in over a high heat. Add a little of the stock. Suck up the chicken juice from the measuring jug using a baster. Add this to the pan. Scrape the bottom of the pan the lift up any stuck bits of chicken. Add in a few ladles more of the chicken stock. Stir, and let this reduce by at least half, until thicker. Strain through a sieve again to remove any more solids that have come up from the pan. Put this juice into a clean small saucepan, and keep warm over a very low heat.

When the chicken has rested for at least 10 minutes, it is time to cut it up. I like to cut it into 4 pieces – two breasts with wings attached, and two legs. Start by cutting off the legs. Cut into the joint between the breast and leg – feeling for the joint between the body and the leg – cut through the joint and the leg will come off. Do the same for the other leg. Cut the breast from the breastbone, taking care to leave the wing attached.

I could give detailed descriptions on how to do this – but it would be useless – it is really just a practice thing. So, get a sharp knife and get stuck in!

Arrange a breast and leg on a plate, perhaps on top of a simple ragu of wild mushrooms, or the fennel/onion confit mentioned above. Spoon over the warm chicken au jus, and serve with a simple salad.

When a great quality chicken is used, this is just the most perfect light evening meal – even in 90degree heat.

I have been having seafood withdrawals recently. It has actually been quite a while now since I have really cooked up a decent amount of ocean fair.

This post, you see, is actually out of order. I have a great roast chicken post to do, which actually got “made” before this one. The problem is that there is a video associated with that, which is taking me a sodding age to edit, because I have realized that I am remarkably crap on camera.

Continue Reading »

Talk about a taste of summer. This is a really fantastic little recipe from Ruth Rogers and Rose Gray owners/chefs of the amazing London River Cafe. I have one of their cookbooks - “Italian Two Easy”, and it is brilliant. Effortlessly simple, but just striking food that you will honestly remember for years. Much like their restaurant!

So this was a quick lunch today. I am working from home, to spend a little more time with the family, and decided I would do this recipe again. For the last couple of summers we would have this at least once every two weeks – when tomatoes and zucchini’s are great.

Continue Reading »

This is the Frittata that nearly didn’t make it. At the weekends I have recently been tormenting myself with what to cook for lunch. We normally get Drake (our son) down for a nap, which can last from 30mins to 3 hours depending on… er, depending on god knows to be honest.

Continue Reading »

Nope, that isn’t my noggin. I don’t have any nasty tumors (I don’t think so anyhow).. but I thought some people might actually find this entertaining/interesting though.

I got an email this week from a researcher at a University (that shall remain nameless..), asking me about my photography. I get emails from time to time from people asking if they can use my food shots for certain things, but never this..

The researchers I guess are doing some studies into how we react to apparently appetizing food. They want to use a photograph or two of mine, and show them to people that are in an MRI machine.. They then go ahead and measure brain responses to the images presented.

Sounds like pretty interesting stuff! The cool thing is that they are going to send me the results of the tests.

As a complete science geek, this made my week.

I had been wanting to do something like this dish for a while now. Danika’s Dad has always liked those crappy cans or pork and beans in tomato sauce, to the point where it is a bit of a family joke. I mentioned to Danika a while back now that I wanted to do a bit of a play on the whole pork and beans thing.

Originally I wanted to do something with a lot of the neck and face meat (including tongue) – maybe roll it together, braise and then roast it (French Laundry style). However, I know that if Danika’s parents asked what it was I was I cooking for them, there would be no way in hell they would eat it. A big shame really, because tongue, jowl and so forth is really bloody tasty.

Continue Reading »

It seems like Brittany over at The Pie Lady has awarded me with another Meme. I should say that she runs one of my favorite food blogs out there. She is pastry chef at one of my favorite Seattle restaurants - Crow, and pastry chef at Crow’s sister, Betty. If that wasn’t enough to seal her blog into my hall of fame, he writing style is brilliant - witty and down to earth. Oh, and she has as bad a potty mouth as myself. And finally, her baking is awesome. To me, she is one of Seattle’s top pastry chefs, and very humble about it too.

So, this Meme is a little different. It has nothing to do with food. I apparently have to list 7 songs I am listening to at the moment. That is pretty interesting I thought, and it got me thinking. I have a really wide range in music tastes - I listen to a lot of old blues and jazz, modern trance (dance) music, and have a real passion for obscure lyrical indie too.

Continue Reading »

OK, I am crazy busy right now with my day job, but just wanted to say how much I am completely in love with summer in Seattle this year. The fresh local produce available at the markets right now is outstanding… outstanding!!!!

Take this for example. It has been done a million times. Tomatoes, fresh mozzarella and basil – and not forgetting lashings, yes lashings of the most awesome French sea salt you can find. Oh, and topping it off with the equally most awesome olive oil.

It doesn’t get better than this. It can’t. Oh, wait, yes it can. The perfect summer pork belly post I have to write (that I cooked this weekend) when I get a free second. I love pork belly. Mmmmmm. I have always struggled to make pork belly light enough for summer though.. This little concoction that I speak of however well and truly kept the pork belly light and crisp. Yay! perfect for pork belly every week!!!

But until then, cheers to the awesome farmers and producers that make farmers markets as great as they are. And of course also to everyone that has decided they want the best produce and want to support local farmers. It’s inspirational, it really is.

For some reason I had been thinking about seaweed a bit of late. I have absolutely no idea why to be honest. I haven’t eaten any in ages, however one day sitting at work I decided I wanted to make a nice tasty and fast seaweed salad.

And that really got me thinking about flavors with seaweed. I have had some really awesome seaweed dishes at some great local Japanese restaurants, but I couldn’t remember for the life of me what also went in the salad. Which, leads me on to my next point. To me, seaweed doesn’t have a ton of flavor. It tastes of the sea, and I love that, but it is far more a textural thing than a taste – in my books anyhow. So, the really memorable flavors in a seaweed salad have to come from elsewhere.

Continue Reading »

Blimey, scallops again you say. Well, yes. I am on a bit of a scallop fix lately. When the weather is hot, they just seem like the perfect seafood bite. They also cook in a snap, and are bloody tasty. That could be closer to the truth actually….

Continue Reading »

What the hell you say… Matt has done more baking?? Don’t worry, I haven’t suddenly found a love for cooking up all things sweet. A love of eating baked stuff, certainly, but certainly not making it!

The only hand I had in this one was in the photography, and I am happy to say, the eating. Dearie did the rest.

Continue Reading »

OK – after the last post, I am going to get through this one without a single exclamation mark. Lets see how I do…..

So this dish very nearly didn’t make it. I was meant to be cooking for my parents, Danika’s parents and us, at our house. Somehow it then got all screwed up, and I was then cooking at Danika’s parents house. Bastards. I am going to seem like a real high-maintenance bloke here, but I am not. Just don’t ask Danika that though!

So, I hate Danika’s parents kitchen. Their stove is rubbish. A match gives out more heat. They also don’t cook much, so the layout of the thing is pretty rubbish too, along with lots of stuff covering the counters, which makes it hard to work. The only work space is really on the bar, which is full of people, and snacks for said people.

Continue Reading »

I swear the blogging world is messed up. I entered my post on the Halibut, saffron-mussel liquor velouté, fava beans, watercress and fresh peas into this month’s “Does my blog look good in this” competition, hosted by the brilliant Tartelette.

There was some completely amazing food, and food photography, and I honestly thought I was going to get no where with it.

Turns out I was awarded Overall winner for the month!!! And I didn’t even try bribing anyone, which I am sure wouldn’t have worked anyhow, but hey.

I just wanted to say how completely stoked I am. I know everyone says this, but I honestly thought I didn’t stand a chance. I think over 100 people entered, and in my mind there was some far better food, and food photography in the competition. I am glad the judges picked me though

So what did I do to celebrate? Bought some scales (I have never owned any..), and went out to dinner at Harvest Vine in Seattle, which was sodding spectacular – more on that later…… OK, both of those things we had planned for today anyhow, but I took them over as a celebration for me I am nothing if not high maintenance! haha

Everyone should go check out the other entries – some really fantastic food, and food photography:

DMBLGIT June 2008 – hosted by Tartelette

Thanks again to everyone that entered, and the great judges this month. You have made my month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! wait that isn’t enough exclamation marks, I am far happier than that.. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! that’s better

So I have decided that every now and again, when something springs to mind, I would share some of the stuff I have learnt about seafood – whether it is purchasing, cooking or presenting. I have received quite a few emails about cooking fish, so why not share some of my responses with everyone, rather than just a single person!

Anyone that reads this blog knows that I am pretty nutty about fish. Lets face it, it’s fantastic. I can think of no other protein that has so many different flavors and textures, and can be presented in so many different ways.

Continue Reading »

Something crazy happened when I walked into Mutual Fish at the weekend. I went there with Copper River Salmon money. Yep, that stuff ain’t the cheapest fish in the store. But, and this is a big but, I walked straight past it. It looked amazing, but at this point no where near as good as some of the most beautiful white fish I have ever seen. Striped Bass.

Continue Reading »

“oohhh, I am so looking forward to your Fathers Day dinner” said Danika, with a rather cheeky smile on her face. Yep, that is right folks, I cooked my own Fathers Day dinner, and was bloody happy about it. Not that Danika isn’t a good cook – far from it, she is awesome, but it is just me and cooking. I obviously love it (who the heck would have a food blog if they didn’t!!!). Cooking, above anything else relaxes me. If I have had a tough day at work, I am, it has been said, not that fun to be around until I get into the kitchen.

Continue Reading »

OK.. so it isn’t like I don’t have a thousand other bloody things to do, but… I really wanted to put together a website that just had some of my better food photography on it – no odd stories or anything. Without further ado

Behold… drum roll…..

http://www.mattikaarts.com/photography

NOTE: I cannot code HTML to save my life.. Apparently this looked like junk in Firefox.. Who uses firefox anyhow?? Oh, turns out lots of people. A good friend of mine took pity on me, and recoded the thing in CSS, so it should look fine for everyone now. Even you Mac users.. LOL.

Bastards. Complete bastards. I have had to do some baking. Sounds odd I know - a cook that doesn’t much like to bake. Well, that is me! Baking always seems like a black art, sometimes it goes great, other times I am left swearing at a rock cake that was never meant to be a rock cake.

So. PEPs was at our house this weekend, on Fathers Day none the less. I had to bake on Fathers Day. Evil Bastards. We had managed to not host the meetings for a while, mainly due to the kitchen renovation, but it was now our turn - well and truly our turn.

Continue Reading »

Nuff said really! This blog is now one year old.

The last year has been awesome. Lots of changes, lots of developments. I reckon the food on here as got a lot better, along with the photography. Thanks to everyone that leaves comments (both good and bad), this wouldn’t be the same without all of you.

"Dearie? Who the heck is Dearie?" you ask….. The answer, my Mum. Yep, we call her Dearie. That isn’t her name, it isn’t even remotely close. Somehow, somewhere in my childhood we got to calling her Dearie. It just stuck. It now seems really odd in fact to call her Mum. Dearie she is. It rather suits her actually, as anyone that knows her would say.

Continue Reading »

Maybe I should be happy with this, because it must mean I get more visits to my blog, but just of late I have been getting a ton of spam posts. A couple of hundred a day.  This is all pretty new to me to be honest, and I really don’t have much of an idea about how to handle it.

I know there are some spam blockers out there for Wordpress based sites, but it looks like a lot give false negatives. I don’t want someone’s hard written comment to get labeled as spam, and I miss it.. nor do I want to have to troll through a spam folder to make sure there isn’t anything that it might have screwed up..

It looks like most spam I get is on older posts.. I was wondering if there was just a way to turn off commenting on older posts - no one seems to comment on stuff more than two weeks old anyhow.

I would love to hear from people about how they deal with the rediculous amount of blog based spam, yet still manage to process the genuine comments effectively. Either comment to this post, or email me at matt(at)mattikaarts(dot)com

Thanks everyone for making this blog a complete giggle to write!

I was wondering this weekend what to cook for a blog post. We normally trot off to a farmers market, get something special, and I work a decent(ish) dish out of it for a nice, lovely blog post. This weekend I was stumped. I normally muse over things a bit through the week, so that I have an idea of what I want to do at the weekend. I didn’t this week. Work has been crazy, and I haven’t thought about much else.

Continue Reading »