Mitch's Fish Part 2

I cooked Mitch's fish Asian style. I stuffed it with lemongrass, ginger, garlic, lemon slices, lime slices, chili and coriander. I topped it with lemon slices, lime slices, chili, coriander leaves, garlic, salt flakes, fresh ground pepper. Drizzled it with sesame oil and light soy.

Then I wrapped it in a double layer of foil and baked it for an hour on 180 degrees.

When it was unveiled in all it's marvelous glory the smell roamed through the house. It was amazing.

I served it with bokchoy that I lightly stir fried with ecshallots, sesame oil, soy sauce and oyster sauce. Heaven.


I served it on a bed of fragrant jasmine rice that I cooked in the rice cooker with a cup of shredded coconut. I topped the sweetlip with chopped chili, eschallots sliced fine and a little light soy. It was so moist and so delicious and just so refreshing. Not heavy but very satisfying. You will just have to wait and see what I do with the long nose fish.

This post is dedicated to Mitch and his beautiful fish :)

Mitch's Fish

Our friend Mitch went on a charter boat fishing for the last two days. Look what he brought home for us!!!!! One is a long nose snapper or sweetlip and the other one is a regular sweet lip........I think, I have a memory like a sieve sometimes. They were caught yesterday. How awesome is that. I would say they weigh about 4 kilos each. So what to do.......what to do with these amazing fresh fish. Well I am going to cook one of them whole and the other I am going to fillet. The sweetlip is going to be baked with some excellent Asian flavours. Mitch mentioned to me yesterday that I should cook them in an Asian style, so I will do justice to his amazing catch and do that for him. I am going to be honest I have never cooked a whole fish this big before, ohhh so scary, not as scary as making puff pastry from scratch but still scary. I will keep you posted on how the fish goes and what I do with them. Thank you very much Mr Mitch, you have a heart as big as Pharlap for thinking of us :)

Also I have not really been blogging for the last few months it's been so hectic and full on that I just honestly have not had the time. I have been meaning to I just have been extremely tired. So hopefully I can get back in the swing of things again. I hope everyone is safe and well.

Cheers

Squishy

Townsville is an Island

Today our trip to the supermarket was the worst we have seen in the past five days of the flooding. It is amazing how reliant you become on what they provide. Due to the constant rain and the horrific flooding Townsville is once more an Island. Today was quite frightening and we are not out of the woods yet. There is a low that just does not want to dissipate and these monsoon rains are now fully taking their toll. With king tides and more rain predicted this weekend, people have been warned to prepare for more flooding. In Charters Towers, locals asked for emergency supplies of food but ended up receiving 7 pallets of beer. Mind you alot of people probably enjoyed that LOL. You have to laugh otherwise you would cry. We have had 763 mm of rain.

It been has two weeks of one extreme to the other for me. Last week I was in Melbourne for training and the overwhelming heat wave was stifling. Looking at the drought ravaged land as I flew over Victoria nearly had me in tears. Then I come home last Friday to more rain than you can imagine and I wish I could push alot of it down to the thirsty Victorians and South Australians. Now with the Souths devastating bush fires, I ask the question??? What the Hell is going on????

Go and have a look at what is happening in my neighborhood click on the link Townsville Bulletin

My heart goes out to all of us during this time here in North Queensland and to the people in Victoria and South Australia. All of us are dealing with the most extreme weather and here's hoping this will subside soon.

CampoS Coffee

CampoS Coffee

Cafe Roastery Distribution

11 Wandoo Street, Fortitude Valley, Brisbane

Ph 07 3252 3612

I cannot tell you how excited I was to find this little gem of coffee heaven in my recent trip to Brisbane. Seriously the best coffee ever. They know exactly what they are doing. The perfect temperature, the perfect taste. A bell ringer every time. These guys are just awesome. Chopper and I downed two lattes each in a row. My goodness we even stopped there on the way to the airport Saturday morning to get a fix and nearly missed our plane. The lady at Virgin rushed us through security. LOL We are naughty. We brought home bags of beans, different varieties and are happily in CampoS heaven here in Townsville. We have nearly finished the 400gram bag of beans we bought of their superior blend and that was only opened 5 days ago. We just this evening had a cup of the lovely Dark City blend they have. Seriously I am now thoroughly addicted and I am freaking out thinking about when we are going to finish the beans we bought and what are we going to do then. No other coffee compares. Thank goodness they do mail order otherwise I think I would have to go into some type of detox coffee centre. I saw them on the lifestyle channel and I thought to myself, next time I am in Sydney I have to go. Who knew they were in Brisvegas? I only found out by flipping through some Brisbane lifestyle mag at the hotel. I am so out of touch. I am living in food and coffee hell up here in the tropics. :( Now, I know I tell you guys to try this and do that, but this is some seriously fantastic coffee and I urge you with every ounce of my being to go to CampoS either in Brisbane or Sydney. If you don't the only person you are punishing is yourself.

Seriously CampoS............. I love you!!!!!! Follow the link to Heaven!

Love from a very insanely serious caffeine addict!

The Mouses House

Well we have just come back from a well earned 6 days of freedom. In other words no kids. We spent our first two nights in South East Queensland on the Gold Coast Hinterland. Oh I love the Mouses House Chalets in Springbrook. I have never found anywhere quite like it that will even compare. This was Choppers first stay there and he loved it. Snow White is my favourite Chalet, as it has its own little boardwalk, down to your own little stream, with your own little waterfall. It is so beautiful. We lit a fire in our fireplace and yes it is definitely cold enough to do that in Springbrook even in Summer. You can't park your car near your Chalet, you load your luggage and food onto a little trolley and wheel it down the boardwalk paths through the rainforest to your Chalet. Each Chalet is named after a Walt Disney character. Doc, Sleepy, The Wicked Witch, Prince Charming and so forth. Very appropriate. If you come into the woods today, your in for a big surprise :) and yes you are. There is a beautiful wooden hot tub, a sauna and a cold plunge tub, which shocked Choppers body back into reality after our sauna. The chalet is self contained so you can cook up a storm and each chalet has it's own BBQ. Fluffy white robes and our chalet had it's own spa bath. Luxury in the Rain Forest. A big flat screen TV and DVD player to enjoy, but we really didn't use it. We had our own gorgeous view and other things on our mind, wink wink. We had little visitors every night, possums which came onto our deck for a visit. One of the nights we counted seven different possums. We encountered two very determined bush turkeys and the birds are beautiful with their cheerful singing in the background. It's just heaven and you never want to leave. If you are looking for that perfect romantic getaway this is it. The pictures really don't do this place justice as the feeling of being immersed in this little patch of paradise is in no way portrayed to the fullest. My personal recommendation is a minimum three night stay. A day to settle in and two days to relax. So if you get an opportunity, visit their website, book and enjoy the Mouses House yourself.