The first question on everyone’s lips when they heard that I was moving from Byron Bay to Adelaide was inevitably “why?” Well, it’s a long story and not one that I’ll go into here, but suffice it to say that, with taunts about great white sharks and serial killers still ringing in my ears, I chucked the dog in the car, strapped the surfboard to the roof and headed inland and South towards a strange land where people annunciate properly and the sun sets into the ocean.
And I must say that after a full year I’ve yet to find cause to regret my decision. Why? As someone for whom the last fifteen years have revolved around the discovery, production and appreciation of food and drink, moving to Adelaide has been like a spiritual homecoming for me. I mean, you make Cooper’s here; need I say more?
My lovely wife and I, with a surfboard, two fishing rods and a tent, set off on our honeymoon about two weeks before Christmas, just before the onset of the school holidays. We followed the coast from Adelaide all the way round to the North Coast of NSW then cut straight back through the middle, a journey of over 6000km all told, that took us just under a month to complete.
We only broke down once, fought properly once and caught one lonely legal fish the whole time we were away; not a bad record really (except for the lack of fish; that was disappointing). As well as that, we managed to skirt around the edges of a startling variety of natural disasters including; bushfires then snow on Christmas day in Gippsland, king tides on the south coast of SA, gale force winds that blew us north out of Victoria then floods in Broken Hill just days after we’d passed through. Either it’s climate change in action or I’ve done something that really pissed the weather gods off.
Anyway, summer holiday food… hmmm. Well, I did catch one fish, so I’ll tell you how I cooked and ate that. For a start, it was a bream…
Pan-fried Bream on Saffron Rice – feeds 2
Ingredients
Fish Stuffing
- 1 brown Onion
- 3 cloves Garlic
- 1 bunch Coriander
- 1 small knob Ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon each of…
* Paprika
* ground Coriander
* ground Cumin seed
Saffron Rice
- 1 cup Basmati rice
- 1 small pinch Saffron strands
- 1 generous pinch of salt
Flour Mix
- 1 cup Plain Flour
- 3 teaspoons Paprika
- 2 teaspoons ground Coriander
- Salt & Pepper
After gutting and scaling the fish, finely chop the onion, garlic, ginger, coriander stems and chilli, then sautée (‘fry in a pan’ in French) all that with the paprika, ground coriander and cumin seeds. Once this softens and the aromatic spices had blended together nicely take it off the heat and stuff it into the fish’s cavity (where the guts had been until five minutes before).
At this point put the fish to one side and put the rice on to boil. That done, make up the flour blend. Dip the fish into this mix, being careful to not spill any of the stuffing, so that it is evenly coated all over; this helps to stop the fish from sticking to the pan when you cook it and creates a delicious crispy layer on its skin. Once this is all done, heat olive oil over a medium flame in the same pan you used before and, once it‘s hot, place the whole fish in the pan, cooking it on each side for about 7-8 minutes.
When the rice is about 30 seconds away from ready, drop in the pinch of saffron and stir it in gently. Strain it off without mixing it around too much, so the saffron strands only bleed a little into the rice. This is a bit of chefly showing off and totally unnecessary to the final meal but sometimes I can’t help myself. It means that as you’re eating it you come upon patches of brilliant yellow in the rice and get a hit of the distinctive saffron flavour that goes quite well, incidentally, with freshly caught bream.
We ate the fish plonked on top of a pile of the saffron rice, stripping it back to bare bones in a matter of minutes. It wasn’t a huge fish but it was easily enough for two, in combination with the rice.
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