Beef Vindaloo with Dry Potato and Pea Curry

Feasting on Indian food tonight!

Whilst tidying up in my kitchen, Jo came across a recipe for Roti Bread, I had downloaded from the net.  My intention was to have roti with some left over bolognese sauce  when I downloaded it, however that night, by the time I reached home, I had become more adventurous and I made a quick lasagne instead.  On reading the roti recipe, Jo exclaimed "YUM", then said "when you make this can you do a brown gravy curry to go with it", how could I resist to give her what she wanted?

Given I had a day off, I decide it as time to deliver, so out came my favourite little curry cookbook to look for a brown gravy curry, I did not have to go far before coming across a Beef Vindaloo, as Jo loves anything beef it was an easy choice and one I knew she would love.

Beef Vindaloo

When I have Indian food I like a little bit of variety, so to compliment the beef I made my favourite potato and pea curry, it is so full of flavour and the brown mustard seeds with the peas give the dish both an interesting look and great texture.

Dry Potato and Pea Curry

Great combination of flavours

I was so pleased with the way the roti turned out, I made the flat bread version, the recipe is very simple, the hardest part of making the bread is the 10 minutes of kneading to get the dough to the right consistency before rolling out, once it is rolled it is a minute each side on a hot pan and it is ready to eat.

Bon appetite 

I added a cucumber yoghurt sauce as an accompaniment as I love to have the coolness and the crunch of it with my curry, this along with beautifully steamed rice, completed the Indian feast I prepared for my beautiful wife, on a cold winters night, it proved to be just what she needed after a hard day at the office!

Yoshiya Japanese Restaurant

107 Pier Street Perth

Yoshiya Japanese Restaurant first opened their doors to Perth diners in 1987, since that time thousands of people have darkened the doorstep of the little premises at 107 Pier Street, the majority of them, like me, being return customers.

 

I first dined here on the occasion of my younger brothers 30^th birthday, he celebrated his 50^th birthday last year and I have since lost count of the number of times I have dined at this wonderful restaurant, nor can I remember that number of times I wished to myself that I had been there, rather than somewhere somewhat inferior, it is that kind of place.

When owner operators Francis and Sherry Lim first opened their restaurant it was known as the Hayashi Japanese Restaurant, the business was very good to them and in 1995 they opened a second restaurant by the same name in Applecross.  I was privileged to have been present for the opening night and the memories are still vivid of beautiful food and meeting some great people.  Sometime after however, the couple sold off the Applecross store and when they did the new owners kept the name of Hayashi, hence the name change at Pier Street.

As they say “Call a rose by any other name and it will still smell like a rose” and never a truer word could be said of Yoshiya Japanese Restaurant, the food I enjoyed there on Saturday night with my wife was just as exciting and just as delicious as that first meal I enjoyed here in 1991.

Niku Tataki - Tender marinated beef fillet so succulent and tender it melts in your mouth.

It has become a standard order for our entrée to include a serve of Niku-Tataki ($15.00), the thin slices of very rare beef are so succulent and tender, once marinated at the table in a soy vinegar sauce which you have added minced ginger, garlic, spring onion and daikon radish is unbelievable.  In more cases than not this is accompanied by a large Mixed Sashimi ($35.00), David the Sashimi Chef, is a master at his craft and the food he prepares always looks fantastic, tastes even better! 

Mixed Sashimi, my favourite.

I love the Mixed Sashimi, slices of Tuna, Kingfish, Salmon and Snapper with a little wasabi for spice and daikon for texture, and I believe my wife when she says she could live on nothing else but this food!  As Yoshiya is a BYO restaurant, I was able to enjoy a Windy Creek Chardonnay with my meal, it went so well with the sashimi, I was wishing we had taken a taxi so I could have opened a second bottle.

Main course, so much food!

There are so many choices on the Yoshiya menu, but when it comes to the main course my wife, always orders the same thing, it has become her all time favourite of any meal she has had and I cannot now get her to go without her Yaki-Niku ($27.00).  

Yaki Niku, Jo's fave meal of all time!

Yaki-Niku is another beef dish, this time marinated beef tenderloin fillet which is char grilled to perfection and comes with a spicy flavoured dipping sauce and sprinkled with sesame seeds, the first time she experienced this meal, I experienced what Billy Crystal did sitting opposite Meg Ryan in “When Harry met Sally”, it was one of those blissful moments for her, as when you feel you have died and gone to heaven!

The Char Grilled Salmon was divine.

I ordered Sakana Shioyaki ($27.00), char grilled snapper, only to be told they were out of snapper, so Sherry offered to do the dish with Salmon instead, I was not disappointed, it was wonderful and cooked to perfection.  Both main meals are served with steamed rice and fresh salad.

Entrees at Yoshiya range from $6.00 a single serve to $35.00 for large share plates, with main meals ranging from $18.00 to $35.00, there are a couple of desserts on offer @ $7.00, you also have a choice of 2 set menus which can be ordered for a table or for a single person the first menu includes BBQ Prawns, BBQ Salmon, BBQ Scallop, Teriyaki chicken, and a marinated cubed beef dish, this comes with Miso Soup, Rice, Salad, Dessert and Japanese Tea or coffee, great value at $60.00 per person.  The second menu includes Sashimi, Tempura Seafood and Vegetables, Teriyaki Chicken and Yaki Niku and this also comes with Miso Soup, Rice, Salad, Dessert and Japanese Tea or coffee for $50.00 per person also great value and the food is awesome. 

I introduced a few friends to this restaurant last year, they enjoyed their entrees and mains so much, when asked what they would like for dessert they ordered what they had just had over again, knowing how good the food is at Yoshiya, I can understand why!

I really shouldn't because it is hard enough to get a table already, but I do highly recommend Yoshiya Japenese Restaurant, the food is the most exciting and delicious you will get anywhere and Francis and Sherry Lim, are the most wonderful hosts, they can never do enough for you to ensure you have a wonderful meal and evening.

Chicken Dinner

Sometimes it is the food, other times the friends or love ones that you share the food with, today it came shopping for food....

I enjoyed a wonderful lunch with my mate Wes today at our favourite Vietnamese restaurant Vinh Hong in Northbridge.  As we were leaving I looked across the road at the Wing Hong butcher shop, turned to Wes and asked if we had time to do a bit of shopping.  Wing Hong supply several of Perth’s restaurants with fantastic meat and their shop front is always packed with customers, today was no exception.  We walked in and standing at the back of the mob, near to the beef fridge when the woman serving started calling out “number fourteen”, “number fourteen”, it was then that I realised that I had to take a number.

I walked over grabbed the next number walked back to where I had been standing and the woman again called out “number fourteen”, “number fourteen”, I looked at my number and sure enough it was 14, smiling I waved the ticket around frantically calling out “WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER”, the woman looked at me and said “No! No! That beef, chicken liver up the other end”!!!! Well to say we were in hysterics would be an understatement, she looked at me with a funny look on her face and she said “what you say?” so I repeated “WINNER WINNER CHICKEN DINNER” and showed her my number, with that she turned to her colleagues and said something in Vietnamese, next thing the whole shop was laughing, clients and all, a very funny moment.

After the laughter subsided I ordered two beautiful big T Bone steaks, as she stuffed them into a bag and looking at Wes and myself, she asked “is this for your lunch” which started a conversation about eating lunch across the road at Vinh Hong, I think that was enough to satisfy her that weren’t that silly after all as she had a beaming smile as we departed the shop!

Bloody good steak too! Princess was well pleased!

Summer BBQ's

One of the things we love most about summer is it is BBQ weather, there is something about cooking outside that brings added flavour to the table, a steak cooked on the stove top may be fantastic, but there is always a nagging question in the back of my mind about as to how good it may have been if cooked on the barbie.  And it doesn't matter if it is a gas, electric or wood fire, though I don’t think you can beat wood fired BBQ meat.

We have become very fond of Beef Fillet steak and I like it cut thick, however whilst out shopping the other day, I found a couple of thick cut Sirloins, that looked so good I had to take them and give them a go, they had that nice little square shaped bit of fat right in the middle and were nicely marbled right through the meat.

I like the BBQ really hot when I cook my steak, so everything else I am cooking gets done first, things like boned shoulder of lamb marinated in Moroccan spices, beef or pork sausages, tandoori chicken, the use of baking paper for the marinated stuff helps keep the plate clean and once it is all cooked and taken off, I ramp the heat up to high and get the plate red hot.

Whilst the plate is heating season the meat with salt, pepper and coat with a little olive oil, set a timer for 8 – 9 minutes and you are ready to cook that beautiful piece of meat, place it on the hottest part of the plate and then do not touch for at least 4 minutes for thick cuts, if it is sizzling and smoking, you have got it right! Keep an eye on the timer and once that 4 minute interval is up turn the steaks and again do not touch for a least four minutes, if you like to ruin steak and take it past pink, you can leave on a little longer. 

I reset the timer as soon as the steak comes off for 5 – 10 minutes depending on how much there is to do to get the table ready, I find the longer you rest the meat the greater the flavour anyway.

The next best thing about a BBQ is the awesome flavours different salads make to the meal, and there are so many to choose from, I love a fresh garden salad and you got to have some form of potatoes, whether baked, au gratin or as a cold salad.

Love curried eggs!

Pickled Tomato, Onion and Cucmber

Another thing I love on my plate for a barbie is boiled egg, my sister in law Pieta makes the best, I have tried her recipe and they were great, but I think she deliberately leaves one or two ingredients out as mine are not as good!

Now you’ve got your salads ready, meat is cooked, table set all you need now is a crusty loaf of bread, an ice cold beer or glass of red and few mates to enjoy it all with.

Roasted Beetroot with Feta and Greens

Garden Salad

Potato with Egg and Bacon

Great spread!

YUM YUM

BTW those sirloins were sooo tender and sooo full of flavour YUM YUM!

bon appétit!

Gary Renwick is FIFTY!!!

50 year old man looks like this!

Jo and I were fortunate enough to be invited to my friend Gary’s 50^th Birthday celebrations on the weekend.  Gary and his lovely wife Cathy, live on a 2.5 acre property about twenty minutes drive from our place, and it was the venue for the party, and what a great venue it was.

Myself, Gary and my brother Kevin

Gary went all out to ensure he and his guest enjoyed the night, providing beautiful food, more liquid refreshments than you could poke a stick at and a live band, which played our sort of music, a fantastic night, one which we will remember for a long time.

There were around 70 guests in all, a big mob to feed, so how do you go about that? Well if you’re from a wee island in the South Pacific, as Gary is, then there is only one way, a Hangi of course.

This was my first Hangi experience and I can only hope that it is not too long before I get to enjoy such food again, it was awesome, to say the very least.  And how interesting to watch the Maoris do their stuff, first wheeling in the purpose built, portable, steaming Hangi oven and then disrobing it of sheet after sheet of damp hessian, then banana leaves, stones and finally a couple of trays of foil wrapped full of beautiful vegetables, finally to reveal 8 chickens, 4 legs of lamb, a slab of beef and a slab of pork.  

The chickens where stuffed, the slabs of meat were peppered with cloves of garlic, my mouth was watering watching them carve the meat up and it was music to my ears when the chap called out “come on you lot dig in”.

It really is hard to describe just how good the food was, the meat was so so tender and the vegies so full of flavour, when they revealed just how much food was in the Hangi, I said to Jo there is no way this lot will get through all that, but they did and now knowing how good Hangi food is I have realised what a silly statement that was!

Easy Company belting out "They say it's your Birthday"

"Hope you have had a good time"

Happy 50^th Birthday Gary and thanks to you and the lovely Cathy for a great night.

Moussaka

I have been reading my friends blog this afternoon, which is largely about her little boy Noah, her husband Richard and her family and friends, life in general.

Whilst reading through and looking at some of her amazing photo's, I felt a pang of guilt on two counts, one the camera has been locked away in its bag for about a two weeks now, and secondly it is about that long since I have blogged myself.

The fact we are staying home tonight (hopefully so that we are well rested for a day out with the grandkids tomorrow on a whale watching cruise), gave me the chance to cook something new, something I know Jo is going to love, because of the fact it has eggplant as one of the main ingredients, it has been an interesting afternoon cooking this dish.

Browning the meat.

Ready to simmer for forty minutes

What has made it interesting has been the developing flavours, which for a while there, I was thinking this isn’t right surely, having a stick of cinnamon in a meat sauce and then adding caster sugar?, but as the sauce cooked the flavours developed and it was a task not to eat it by the spoonful when tasting the final result.

Peeling strips out of the skin helps when eating the dish, makes it easier to cut through.

Salted eggplant.

Pan fried to a golden brown.

As a healthy means of browning the eggplant, the recipe suggests brushing with oil and grilling until brown 3-4 minutes, well I grilled 3-4 minutes, then I gave it another four minutes, and yet another five minutes, just didn’t work. 

Finally I pulled out my frying pan and had it beautifully cooked in half the time, and to keep with the theme of being a little healthier, I just used a small squirt of EVO.

Layering the eggplant and meat sauce

Now everything is cooked and ready to go, just need to layer with eggplant, then the meat sauce, more eggplant followed by a final layer of meat sauce, another layer of eggplant and then finishing of with the béchamel sauce and a good sprinkling of parmesan cheese.

Looking good already

Pour the Bechamel sauce all over the top!

The béchamel sauce was a breeze to make, basically the same recipe as I used for my lasagne last week, only difference being that you add an egg once the sauce is cooked and cooled.  I almost did the blokey thing and put the eggs in straight away as the pot come off the stove, then thought better of it and let it cool, good thing too as I realised later I would have had an omelette instead of a sauce.

Add the cheese and it is oven ready.

So chuffed with this result!

The recipe also suggests a simple salad of cos lettuce, dill and spring onions tossed in lemon juice and EVO, I wasn’t real sure of the idea of cos and dill together, but dill is pone of Jo’s favourite herbs, so I went with it and was so happy I did, the flavours went well with the moussaka and the lemon dressing cut through the oiliness from the eggplant.

Great simple salad, but so yummy!

YUM YUM

and YUM

I cannot remember having had moussaka before, maybe I have I’m not sure, whatever tonight’s meal will not be the last time I try this recipe, the flavours are very good and in some way intriguing, mainly due to the cinnamon in the meat sauce I think, it was very very Moorish and went down so well with a slab of crusty bread and a glass of red, delightful! 

My kinda food!