Sashimi and Ginger Beer

Kris: Our friend Tom New, a winemaker at Ballendean in the Granite Belt, Queensland, sent us some bottles of his wines and ginger beer recently to sample. I thought I would match a dish with his Ginger Beer, Mille Plateux.

It is brewed with a champagne yeast, organic ginger and honey. It is dry, with a zippy, ginger spice and really refreshing. A great match for sashimi.

Kris: Sashimi is a simple and easy dish to make, as long as you have access to really fresh seafood. We got some beautiful Tasmanian salmon to match with the ginger beer.

 Caroline: as a side note, don’t you love those chopsticks??
they made eating the sashimi so much more fun for me.
Ok, sorry, girl moment done. Continue Kris…

Kris : I thinly sliced the salmon, added some lime zest, a few coriander sprouts and a few drops of sesame oil. Just dip a piece of salmon in a little bit of soy sauce and take a sip of the ginger beer. A simple and tasty combination.

Caroline: One of the things I love most about living in Tasmania is the awesome fresh seafood you can get. I never have to think twice about eating it raw. My only change would be not to have included wasabi in the soy sauce. The ginger beer  had enough spice that the wasabi was a bit overkill. Other wise, a perfect match! I must say I was skeptical, how could a ginger beer match and not overpower the subtlety of raw fish?  This ginger beer wasn’t too sweet and actually tasted like GINGER. YUM!!

Seafood Dinner with Spring Vale Gewurtztraminer

For Caroline’s birthday a few months ago I gave her 2 presents.

1. She could pick a theme dinner to be made by me.

2. She was allowed to say “it’s my birthday” for a whole week, which meant lots of cooking, washing up etc…

She picked Tasmania, and more specifically, Tasmanian Seafood as the theme. And as for pulling the birthday card for a week, well…, let’s just say well played Caroline, well played.

Here’s some of the dishes I made:

Tempura Oysters

Spicy Tempura Oysters

Spicy Tempura Oysters

1/2 dozen freshTasmanian oysters

finely sliced chilli and coriander leaves to garnish

Tempura batter:

1 egg

1 cup icy cold water

3/4 cup plain flour

pinch bicarb soda

pinch of salt

beat the egg and water together until fluffy

Add flour, salt, and bicarb soda, beat together quickly so it stays cold

The batter SHOULD be very thin, if need be, add more water. Coat oysters in batter and dip into VERY hot oil (peanut or any oil with high burning point) Remove oysters after about 1 minute, when golden brown. Place on paper towel to drain off excess oil.

Top with ponzu-style sauce. 
(2 tbs soy, 1tsp rice vinegar, juice of half lime, splash of sesame oil, finely grated ginger) 

Garnish with sliced chilli and coriander leaves.

Caroline approved

Tuna Sashimi

Scallops with Fingerlime, Chilli, and Ginger


Scallops and Fingerlime

The scallops were great with the Spring Vale Gewurtz, one of our favorite wines.

Tassie Scallops with fingerlime

Have you ever had a finger lime? If not, you are missing out. They are an amazing Australian native lime. They look like elongated, pinkish-brown limes. But when you cut them open, tiny caviar like balls of citrus juice tumble out! They make amazing garnishes on dishes and match particularly well with seafood.

mm mmmm

Yum