Other Stuff
No Fish Today
No fish today – mainly due to the guy in the top photo. He must have been pretty full by the time we pulled stumps. Sausages for tea it is then.
Fishing the Other Day
The other day we went for a fish out off Eaglehawk Neck and this fella showed up. He is a Blue Shark. Not exactly a prize catch, but we had fun hand feeding him and taking a few snaps. We did however manage to get a good feed of Stripey Trumpeter, but more on that later.
MONA Market – MoMa
As some of you may or may not know last week Hobart was lucky enough to experience the Mona Foma festival which included on Saturday the grand opening of the Mona Market, MoMa! Described as a produce-based market where junky souvenirs are banned, one of the very lovely food curators Michelle Crawford contacted Sam and I a month or so ago to see if we would be interested in having an Island Menu stall. We thought about it but realised we didn’t actually have any products to sell…however we were most curious to visit and went along for the ribbon cutting (which was the most amazingly lovely ribbon – complete with carrots, dried pasta and tomatoes).
I gather some of the stalls will change over the course of the market (going every Saturday arvo until Easter) and I will definitely be going back. I missed out on the basil and lemon ice cream and I’m certain the pimms and strawberry jam I got from Michelle will have run out by next weekend! Michelle and co. did a great job in bringing it all together. It’s really good to have something a little different to visit.
Kingston Sunrise
Over Christmas I did a lot of cooking but not a lot of taking photos (kinda nice to have a break). However, just before Christmas I shot this for a friends’ wife for his present.
Christmas Party
On Saturday afternoon we held a little Christmas gathering at Sam and Lotties with our friends and thought it would be nice to share it here with you on Island Menu. It is such a great time of year in Tasmania the food and produce available is unbeatable and while the weather can still be a little dubious we were fortunate enough to have a warm sunny day.
After a discussion over drinks at the pub earlier in the week we decided that the menu would be simple with lots of little dishes and seasonal bits and pieces for people to try out. I think this worked beautifully and at the end of the night everything had gone so I think it was a success!
For the day we served as a starter some cheeses, smoked salmon, biscuits and bread, then we all sat at the table for the meal. I think there is nothing better than sitting down for a big dinner with all your friends, especially at Christmas.
On the table we had to eat:
Gravlax with dill and horseradish sauce
Home-made bread
Mini abalone and chicken burgers
Bloody mary mussels
Seared beef
Smoked lamb
Crumbed calamari with home-made tartare
Smoked striped trumpeter with egg sauce
Whiskey sauce
Fresh rocket salad and sliced cucumbers
Crayfish
Smashed pink eye potatoes
To drink we had a selection of Tasmanian drinks including some:
Ninth Island Sparkling, Captain Bligh’s apple cider, the boys drank Cascade Blue (they don’t like to stray away from their favourite) followed by some Nant whiskey later in the evening and a lot later Captain Morgan’s Spicy with Cascade Sparkling Apple juice – sounds dirty I know – but is damn fine.
Then later for sweets:
Vanilla shortbread
Cherries
Some great homemade chocolates – thanks Phil
And a raspberry and logan berry cream pie
To make the pie is so simple, use our sweet short crust pastry recipe (the one from lemon meringue and strawberry pie) bake and allow to cool. Then in a bowl mix a tub of Mersey Valley crème fraiche and a tub of Mersey valley double cream, a teaspoon of vanilla bean paste, a small lug of Cointreau, a few handfuls of fresh raspberries and logan berries and some icing sugar to taste. Put the mix into the pastry shell, and refrigerate (we actually used the freezer) for an hour or so. Remove it before you want to eat, decorate with more berries and a dusting of icing sugar.
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