Barque, East Fremantle

It was a last minute decision to go out to lunch the day before I was to fly to Bali and my sister and family were heading off to India. We hadn't been to Fremantle for a very long time but realised it would be packed as the world sailing championships were starting that Saturday. 

We headed to east Fremantle to avoid the crowds and decided to find somewhere in George street. Years ago there had been a favorite restaurant of ours cafe Amadeus and we went to see what the new restaurant in its place was like. It was called Barque and the menu described plates of food with an Asian influence all designed to be shared. Decisions decisions what to choose. In the end we ordered two lots of the duck and shiitake mushroom spring rolls, spiced lamb sausage with mint riata, Chilli salt squid,   Mekong fried chicken with whiskey caramel and fried potatoes one with and one without the schezuan pepper.

All the dishes were more than we expected. The combination of the flavours in the dishes along with the drizzles of sauce and garnishing of the salts had us all mmmmmming with every bite. We really wanted to lick the platters clean it all tasted so good. We got the impression that the place was new but we found the staff were well informed and attentive. 

Our waiter made recommendations for us and was very happy to ask the kitchen to leave the schezuan pepper off the potato fries . Even the cocktail I tried had a delicious freshness that went well with the Asian theme of the menu. My only regret in our rushing to leave the house I had forgotten to grab the camera as these dishes were very worthy of putting on my blog. Never mind I do intend to return with camera to try some of their other dishes.

The decor and furniture were also very relaxed and the tables did work well with the idea of many plates to share with friends and family. Check out Barque on Facebook and their website: http://barquerestaurant.com.au/

Tapas in Mandurah on a sunny winters day

The Tap Bar.....8 Old Coast Road Shopping Plaza , Halls Head

The opportunity to go to lunch with my husband in the middle of the week does not come often. So this Wednesday we found both of us with a day off and the kids at school or work. The sun was out in the very uncharacteristic winter we have been experiencing here in Perth. The choice was to stay home and do housework or worse on-line training for my job or take a 20 minute south to Mandurah and try out a tapas bar and restaurant we had recently discovered in a local paper.

The further temptation of a lunch time special always gets the man of the house salivating especially if it includes a drink as well. The special for winter is a tasting plate for two with a selection of tapas delights and a wine or middy of tap beer. Good value we thought at $39.95. The selection included Moroccan lamb parcels with a minted yoghurt dip, I could have devoured a whole plate of those, Costillas which is marinated baby ribs with a tangy tomato based sauce, coriander chilli chicken wings, pork belly (super crunchy crackle- forget the cholesterol this week) with a really sticky thick caramel jus and sundried tomato aracini balls. We had checked out the extensive menu and added a serve of salt & pepper squid . All the dishes were yummy and kept us licking our fingers to get the sauce off them. Thank god they provided finger bowls. 
We were served a nice Deepwood SSB from the Margaret River region and NN had a middy of Stella.
Both of us have decided to return to try some of the other dishes on the menu especially the sticky chicken and the tempura oysters drizzled in a black pepper honey dressing. mmmm maybe for my birthday which is only 49 days away

Fish Curry for dinner anyone?

Spiced Fish Curry

Serves 4

60ml lemon juice                              60ml rice wine vinegar ( you could use any white vinegar)

2 Tablespoons cumin seeds or 2 teaspoons powder

1 teaspoon chilli powder or less if you don’t want heat

1 teaspoon turmeric                       ¼ teaspoon salt

750g fish any will do you just have to watch the cooking time will depend on the thickness of the fillets. Soft fish leave in whole fillets firmer fish can be cut into smaller pieces to make sure it all cooks evenly

4 Tablespoons canola or similar oil            1 onion chopped finely

3 cloves garlic crushed                   2 Tablespoons ginger (I didn’t have any)

2 teaspoons mustard seeds        2 cans chopped tomatoes

1 teaspoon sugar (I used palm sugar grated)       I also added 3 cubed potatoes and 2 Asian eggplants

Mix lemon, vinegar, cumin, chilli, turmeric, and salt to make a marinade place in a shallow glass dish with the fish and chill for 30 mins. I kept turning the fish fillets every 10 minutes to make sure all the surfaces marinated.

In a pan or wok (I used a saucepan as I was adding potato which needed the sauce to cook for longer add the oil and cook the onion ,garlic ,ginger and mustard seeds. Be careful not to burn this so cook gently for about 10 minutes.  Add canned tomatoes, any vegetables and sugar plus I added a bit of chicken stock to give more sauce as the potatoes needed it.  Cook for 20 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

Add the fish and marinade simmer until cooked; the fish will flake apart when tested with a fork. I used baby snapper so it barely took 7 minutes. At the last minute I turned off the heat moved it away from the hotplate and added some fresh tomato and green bok choy as I didn’t have any coriander growing.

Serve with steam basmati rice and yoghurt.  Garnish with fresh chilli and coriander if you have any.