Breakfast of champions

[cobblerdave]

G'day



Its a perfect Sunday morning here a balmy 22C no wind. 8AM and Easter Sunday its as quite as you could get. I've made a cup of coffee and barefoot it down to the oven with a couple of pizza slices I've carefully hidden behind the broccoli. Reheating them there's only one way to go and that's back into the oven which is still at 325C this morning. They come out warm with nice crisp bread bases. Its not that they taste the same as last night, its next morning and they taste pretty bloody good.
Ill go up soon and tray up some chicken and veg and incase it in aluminum foil and chuck it in the oven. Its off to church so you have to trust the oven to look after things, the foil will keep the moisture in.
God bless all at Easter .....he has blessed me with a beautiful morning to be sure.
Regards Dave

[wotavidone]

Re: Breakfast of champions

Good onya Dave.
The missus is working, so no church for her. Number three son worked late last night, so no church for him either.
I'm a little sad about it all. We aren't much in the way of church goers, but we've never regarded Easter as just another long weekend. We always made it a time to gather the clan, enjoy a meal, and reflect on what life is all about. I prefer it over Christmas.

Unfortunately, the realities of modern work practice is messing that up.
We did manage an excellent seafood banquet on Friday night - snapper, oysters, squid, etc, with my mother and a couple of my sons around for dinner, so it's not a total loss.

3 generations is cool, I don't think my boys are going to present us with a fourth generation anytime soon.

Think I'll put some dough together and light the oven. Some fresh bread and a glass of wine should restore the wife when she gets home.

The only way to eat snapper:
fillet a 5 or 10 kg fish. Cut off the rib cages (the wings, they are called here), salt these for 24 hours uncovered in the fridge then hot smoke for 10-15 minutes. Serve hot from the smoker.
Skin the fillets, remove the line of lateral bones, cut the fillets into one inch by one inch chunks. Toss in a bag of seasoned flour, shallow fry in a little butter until the flour is just browned. The chunks will melt in the mouth.

This technique yields very tender snapper, and is the best way I've found to utilise the big ones. You prep them as soon as you catch them and store in 0.5 or 1 kg lots in the freezer. No waste at all.
I imagine it works well with any big fish that is a little coarse. Certainly works well with kingfish.

[cobblerdave]

Re: Breakfast of champions

G'day mick
Yes Easter Friday and seafood. I made beer battered bream fillets for the child bride and the boys(men now). Did the home made chips. Boil the old potatoes cut to big chunkie chips. Cook off a first time in oil. Then cool. When you cook them off the secound time you get the best chips on the planet . Crisp on the outside creamy and nutty on the inside. Unlike pizza dough it doesn't get any better in the fridge and must be done that day otherwise its no different than frozen fries.
Did my usually tomatoe salsa. Freshly stolen cherry tomatoes from the neighbors garden( there away). Whilst there still sun warm and taste there best cut them in 1/2 and chuck them in a glass bowl and bit of salt. The salt draws the juice out and you add a glug of olive oil and some torn up basil. Cover for half and hour. The eldest guards the empty bowl and claims the juice left on the bottom.
Prawns ( shrimp ) for evening and of course you can't buy fresh local at this time of the year. Next best thing is frozen raw, defrost them and cook them up. You'd be hard pressed to pick them from fresh. Made up a handmade mayonnaise add some capers. Can't beat it.
Anyway got to finish lunch for today pics to follow
regards Dave

[Greenman]

Re: Breakfast of champions

Most of this has nothing to do with the WFO but it is my Easter plan. I did cook a sultana cake and a shin casserole in there today though.

It is about catching mud crabs and decent fish. I ended up with 2 crabs and a Bream and a decent Barred Javelin (grunter) for my 3 hours on the river.

Crab and avocado, crab omelette and crab and fresh bread are all good. Crab linguine with a mornay sauce is great as well. Hook in while the season lasts and winter is on the way.

For prawns, the river yielded some up a few weeks ago and some were frozen green for a quick thaw and boil.

Easter is usually a time of plenty in my river but I am going back to South Aus to enjoy the plentiful blue crabs and the King George Whiting. Might try to get out to snapper territory while I am there. I still use the big squid I caught when I was there as my facebook cover.

Happy Easter to all of the WFO community.

[GrahamG]

Re: Breakfast of champions

Hope everyone had a peaceful Easter, we did the no meat thing on Friday and a big family meal yesterday (Easter Sunday). My wife found her mum's lost brother of 63 year last year so it was a big deal! There were separated at a very early age.

One thing I have learnt in life, you don't have to go to church to give thanks...I once gave thanks for everything we had, at a set of traffic lights! Having been a Sunday school teacher with my then girlfriend (now wife), from the age of 18 to 24.

It's always nice to say "thank you", no matter who too and remember there is always someone worse off than you - even when everything in your own world seems to be falling apart.

[GrahamG]

Re: Breakfast of champions

Steve,

The crab looks awesome! Wish we could get them like that, ours are just tiddlers.

Graham

Most of this has nothing to do with the WFO but it is my Easter plan. I did cook a sultana cake and a shin casserole in there today though.

It is about catching mud crabs and decent fish. I ended up with 2 crabs and a Bream and a decent Barred Javelin (grunter) for my 3 hours on the river.

Crab and avocado, crab omelette and crab and fresh bread are all good. Crab linguine with a mornay sauce is great as well. Hook in while the season lasts and winter is on the way.

For prawns, the river yielded some up a few weeks ago and some were frozen green for a quick thaw and boil.

Easter is usually a time of plenty in my river but I am going back to South Aus to enjoy the plentiful blue crabs and the King George Whiting. Might try to get out to snapper territory while I am there. I still use the big squid I caught when I was there as my facebook cover.

Happy Easter to all of the WFO community.

[UtahBeehiver]

Re: Breakfast of champions

I always tell everyone I am on the good "seefood" diet, see it you eat it. That is some nice looking crab claws. Like Graham, here is land lock Utah we are not as fortunate. BTW, I brought home some individual Vegamite serving packs from Aussie land and placed out on the table for people to try, no takers yet, I am miffed............

[Greenman]

Re: Breakfast of champions

It is a blessing to have good seafood on the doorstep and those of us who have the time make good use of it. One short fishing excursion each week is enough. Nothing like the 'just caught' seafood.

Some people catch very little and my old friend in his 80's reckons that 5% of the fishermen catch 90% of the fish. He is probably right and he is definitely in the 5% and fishes alone twice a week. I catch no more than I need and depart.

My secret is the vegemite sandwich that I take to stave off the hunger if the fishing is slow!

[UtahBeehiver]

Re: Breakfast of champions

I know what you mean about 5% of the fishermen catch 90% of the fish, unfortunately I am in the 95% bracket and do my best fishing at the fish monger market.

[cobblerdave]

Re: Breakfast of champions

I know what you mean about 5% of the fishermen catch 90% of the fish, unfortunately I and in the 95% bracket and do my best fishing at the fish monger market.

G'day
Isn't that right.... I tend to call myself a "dangler" rather than an angler. I still enjoy a chance to fish
Regards dave

[Greenman]

Re: Breakfast of champions

It is a very worthy way to waste some time away from the critical gaze of those who maintain the long 'to do' list of chores.

"Three-fourths of the Earth's surface is water, and one-fourth is land. It is quite clear that the good Lord intended us to spend triple the amount of time fishing as taking care of the lawn." - Chuck Clark