BABY PAUA

The other day I had the opportunity to cook for a friend and his family, he got baby Paua, there is a company in Napier who grows Pauas in big pools, I didn’t feel guilty (for the size) using them because they were farm raised and not from the ocean.
Cooked in sous vide, 65 C x 90 min after very thin sliced served with tomato water infused cucumber (40C x 20 min) wakame gel and alioli. It was a complete challenge for me; I was concerned about the texture … hard.. soft.. chewy… but not, was so delicate in flavor, it went very well with cucumber and tomato.

CRAYFISH.. AMARANTH.. WHEATGRASS.. RED ONION.. GREEN TEA

Cooked in sousvide 52 C x 40 min, amaranth beurre noisette sheep cheese, warm salad of crayfish meat snow peas spring onions and wild fennel, wheatgrass salt sugar olive oil, red onions, garlic olive oil, green tea foam, pineapple sage flowers.

The cost for these two: 60 NZD. good price or not?

New equipment

Now to be part of the Lab, we have an Induction stove 2000w and a FoodSaver (vacuum packer), this time good luck with the price very affordable on sale, so now is possible to have a longer time cooking sous vide and better and proper storage.

Goodness in the planet

This is Dandelion, one of my favourites, helps me a lot for my stomache pains (gastritis), it is consider like a weed so is very easy to find every where, and here in NZ it is all over. By the vines in the restaurant every afternoon I am going to dig to get some of the root (Christy prepares a dandelion vinegar, chopped roots and cider vinegar), and now I have started to dry it out. Dandelion has inulin (approx. 10% sweetness of sugar/sucrose) and it has a little bitter flavour at the end. I am searching for more weeds, plants, fruits, etc with very special benefits for us to work with those, and find the best pairing in a dish.