CALAMARI rings with Tahini Sauce

First make this sauce:

Buy Mayver’s tahini (hulled stone ground sesame seeds) – comes in a jar and is cholesterol free.

In a small mortar, smash together 1 or 2 cloves of garlic with half a teaspoon of salt.

Use another small bowl and add about a third of a cup of the above tahini, mix in the garlic/salt and add a squeeze of lemon juice.  Mix together and gradually add cold water – it will at first turn thick but keep mixing and adding water until it becomes creamier and a lighter colour.  Taste test.  Most recipes suggest a lot more lemon but I think it is better with just a small amount.

The Squid bit

Buy your squid – if you can get a whole one and know how to clean and prepare it please do so.  Otherwise the frozen squid tubes are quite okay.  Once you have thawed the frozen ones (one per person), check that the inside is free of any gunk and then do your best to mop up excess moisture.   Slice into rings about ¾ of a centimetre thick.  Place about three tablespoons of plain wholemeal flour into a plastic bag and add calamari rings, shake to cover with flour.    Heat peanut oil in deep saucepan and cook in batches for a minute or two.  (same method as with the scallops)

Serve with sauce as a dip.

—ooo—

MUSSELS with a white wine/garlic/tomato sauce

Buy your mussels on the day you want to eat them if you can, otherwise keep in the fridge for no more than 24hrs.  Buy them loose by the kilo or in the prepacked  kilo bags from Tasmania (i.e. this recipe is not for those NZ mussels as only Australian ones will do) and do not buy those in a sealed tray as I don’t trust that method.

Discard any mussels which are open and won’t close with a few taps as well as those which are broken.  Pull out the beards as best you can.  Once cooked do not discard unopened mussels (there is nothing wrong with them) but see if you can pry them open or put under the grill and see if that works.  If they just will not open you will have to discard them unfortunately.

First, prepare the sauce – this should be sufficient for 2 kilos of mussels.

Hard boil one egg.

Heat a little olive oil in a large frying pan, add one finely chopped onion, at least 3 cloves of garlic (crushed) and sauté until soft (do not brown), add a tin of chopped or crushed tomatoes and at least a cup of white wine (for this I recommend a white lambrusco – cask style), add salt and pepper to taste.   Mix well and leave to bloop bloop for 15 minutes, taste test.  You will probably need to add more wine and then leave to slowly bloop for as long as it takes to start reducing in volume when the flavour will become more intense and yummy.  Add a little water to bring back the volume.  Finally, add the chopped up boiled egg.

In a big pot cook your mussels in just a little water with the lid on.  Cooking is quick so don’t leave the kitchen.  You will probably only manage half to one kilo at a time, so you will have to time manage this yourself.  One kilo is about right for two people but this depends on how fond you are of mussels.

Serve mussels with the sauce dolloped over them or with the sauce in a small bowl in the centre.  Sour dough bread goes well with this and is useful for mopping up the sauce.

MUSSELS the really easy way

Just prepare and cook them and place in big bowl on table, pluck the mussels out, dip in vinegar and eat.   Don’t forget the appropriate beer.  This is ideal after a morning of hard work in the garden in the springtime.

—ooo—

TEMPURA FLATHEAD

The batter for this can be used for any tempura dishes, not just flathead.  I think flathead fillets are the finest of fish and highly recommend that you use them. The size and shape of flathead is perfect for this style of cooking.  You will need about 250g per person and each fillet should be cut into about three pieces.

The batter:  mix together half a cup of plain flour, half a cup of cornflour, 1 ½ teaspoons of baking powder and salt to taste.  Break one egg into a cup and lightly beat and fill with water to the one cup measurement.   Add this to the flours and only lightly beat till roughly blended.   (For gluten free, you can use all cornflour but do make sure you buy real cornflour because some cornflour is made out of flour, believe it or not.)

Heat peanut oil in deep saucepan, dip each piece of flathead in the tempura batter and cook much the same as for the scallops etc – it does not take long as once turning light gold the fish is cooked.

You might like to have chips with this – I recommend you do yourself a favour and buy the frozen straight or crinkle cut ones and pop in the oven.

Serve fish with lemon wedges and/or a quick dip made of 50/50 soy sauce and rice wine.