bagel

Asparagus soup and my pee #aussiespears are awesome

I looked back at my Instagram feed since receiving my Australian Asparagus Council asparagus package and noticed I haven’t done anything more than roast or pan-fry my #aussiespears Tonight I made soup. I saw an image on Instagram as I was searching the #aussiespears feed and came across https://instagram.com/p/7M-YMKDvev/ from my friend Lisa.

It also made me think that if I’m going to be cooking two bundles of asparagus I’m going to have wickedly smelling urine tonight.

I looked up a few websites to find an explanation and despite knowing about the phenomenon for centuries, there are no clear cut answers. Some people produce the sulphuric breakdown products and some people can smell them. Some people don’t produce malodorous urine and some people cannot smell the breakdown products.

While some people complain the smell is awful, I’ve never found it objectionable. That’s not to say I find it pleasant. To me it’s like when I smell petroleum products. It’s not a pleasant smell but it’s a compelling smell. The same with glue.

The good thing is sniffing asparagus urine is not dangerous like petrol and glue sniffing. Even better with all the silverbeet I’ve eaten my stools will be tarry black tomorrow. 

You can also see #aussiespears on Facebook!

I don’t know what recipe Lisa used so I made one up.

Asparagus soup and my pee #aussiespears are awesome
Recipe Type: Dinner
Cuisine: Australian
Author: [url href=”https://about.me/garydlum” target=”_blank”]Gary Lum[/url]
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 1
Ingredients
  • Olive oil
  • Asparagus 2 bundles
  • [cap align=”alignnone” width=”1200″][url href=”undefined”][img src=”https://yummylummy.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/2015-09-05_17.20.32_002_GARY_LUM_FB.jpg” width=”1200″ height=”801″ class=” size-full” title=”Asparagus” alt=”Asparagus”][/url]Asparagus[/cap]
  • Silverbeet 1 bunch
  • [cap align=”alignnone” width=”1200″][url href=”undefined”][img src=”https://yummylummy.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/2015-09-05_16.06.44_001_GARY_LUM_FB.jpg” width=”1200″ height=”801″ class=” size-full” title=”Silverbeet” alt=”Silverbeet”][/url]Silverbeet[/cap]
  • Balsamic vinegar
  • French onion soup sachet
  • Water
  • Greek yoghurt
Instructions
  1. Cut the asparagus spears into 2 cm segments and sautée in some olive oil in a large saucepan
  2. Shred the leaves and slice the stems of a large bunch of silverbeet and cook off with the asparagus
  3. Add a dash of balsamic vinegar
  4. Cook until everything has softened
  5. Add 1 litre of water
  6. Add one sachet of French onion soup
  7. Bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes
  8. Serve in a large bowl
  9. Add a dollop of Greek yoghurt
  10. Garnish with the tips of some asparagus
  11. Shoot a photograph
  12. Drink the soup
  13. Wash the dishes
  14. Write the recipe
  15. Enjoy the rich thiol rich aroma of sulphur every time I empty my bladder
  16. Blog (verb)
Saturday dinner. Asparagus and silverbeet soup.
Saturday dinner. Asparagus and silverbeet soup.

Now it’s time for me to share how I spent my Saturday.

Saturday breakfast. Fried egg, smoked salmon and asparagus.
Saturday breakfast. Fried egg, smoked salmon and asparagus.
Saturday breakfast. Fried egg, smoked salmon and asparagus.
Saturday breakfast. Fried egg, smoked salmon and asparagus.
Blossoms on Lake Ginninderra
Blossoms on Lake Ginninderra
Pelican on Lake Ginninderra
Pelican on Lake Ginninderra
Injectable confetti vanilla cupcake from Heather's House of Cake.
Injectable confetti vanilla cupcake from Heather’s House of Cake. [This was really nice].
Saturday lunch. Salmon and vegetable rissole on a poppyseed bagel.
Saturday lunch. Salmon and vegetable rissole on a poppyseed bagel.

Click on the photograph below to bring up a gallery. If you click on the information (i) icon you can also see a map of where the photograph was shot if the photograph was geotagged.

Saturday breakfast. Fried egg, smoked salmon and asparagus.


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Crispy crackling pork belly

On Wednesday night I attended a 3 Seeds Cooking School class and learnt how to get the pork belly crackling really crispy. I thought for tonight’s dinner I would try to replicate the dish. I spent most of the day thinking about how I was going to cook dinner. All I could think of was crispy crackling.

To start the day though I enjoyed an egg on an English muffin along with some Buderim Ginger Factory ginger marmalade. After the grocery shopping I went for a walk around Lake Ginninderra and enjoyed some coffee and cake as well as seeing a pelican.

Saturday breakfast. Fried egg on English muffin with Buderim Ginger Factory ginger marmalade.
Saturday breakfast. Fried egg on English muffin with Buderim Ginger Factory ginger marmalade.
Coffee and cake at Heather's House of Cake.
Coffee and cake at Heather’s House of Cake.

The caramel popcorn cupcake was really nice. The mocha also hit the spot nicely.

Saturday morning on Lake Ginninderra
Saturday morning on Lake Ginninderra

This is an high dynamic range photograph of Lake Ginninderra this morning.

Pelican on Lake Ginninderra
Pelican on Lake Ginninderra

 

It’s been awhile since I’ve seen a pelican on Lake Ginninderra.


 

For lunch I tried to be simple and had some smoked salmon on a plain bagel.

Saturday lunch. Smoked salmon on a bagel.
Saturday lunch. Smoked salmon on a bagel.

I dedicated the afternoon to cooking my pork belly dinner.

Crispy crackling pork belly
Recipe Type: Dinner
Cuisine: Australian
Author: [url href=”https://about.me/garydlum” target=”_blank”]Gary Lum[/url]
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 1
Ingredients
  • Pork belly
  • [cap align=”alignnone” width=”800″][url href=”undefined”][img src=”https://yummylummy.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/2015-08-29_15.24.59_001_GARY_LUM_FB.jpg” width=”800″ height=”594″ class=” size-full” title=”Pork belly” alt=”Pork belly from Coles”][/url]Pork belly from Coles[/cap]
  • Onion
  • Sweet potato
  • Potato
  • Carrot
  • Jalapeño pepper
  • Granny smith apple
  • Red capsicum
  • Balsamic vinegar
  • Olive oil
  • [cap align=”alignnone” width=”800″][url href=”undefined”][img src=”https://yummylummy.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/2015-08-29_15.21.45_001_GARY_LUM_FB.jpg” width=”800″ height=”744″ class=” size-full” title=”Vegetables for dinner” alt=”Vegetables for dinner”][/url]Vegetables for dinner[/cap]
  • Sweet corn
Instructions
  1. Wrap the sweet corn in foil after wetting it under running water
  2. Roughly chop or slice all the vegetables and fruit and lay in the bottom of a baking tray
  3. Dry the skin of the pork belly
  4. Score the rind with a sharp knife penetrating the skin and fat
  5. Rub in oil and salt flakes until it feels soapy and then rub some more
  6. Lay the pork belly on the mirepoix
  7. Surround the pork meat with scrunched up baking paper to protect it while cooking
  8. Place the corn and baking tray in a hot oven 220 °C (fan forced) for 30 minutes
  9. Turn the oven down to 150 °C for 30 minutes
  10. Remove everything out of the oven and allow everything to rest
  11. Cut the pork belly into rectangular prisms
  12. Plate up
  13. Shoot a photograph
  14. Eat the meal
  15. Wash the dishes
  16. Write the recipe
  17. Blog (verb)

 

To see a gallery of the dinner images click here.

Vegetables for dinner
Vegetables for dinner
Pork belly from Coles
Pork belly from Coles
RSPCA Pork belly from Coles product information
RSPCA Pork belly from Coles product information
Mirepoix
Mirepoix
Mirepoix with balsamic vinegar
Mirepoix with balsamic vinegar
Pork belly with oil and salt rubbed in
Oil and salt rubbed in
Pork belly and Mirepoix
Belly of happiness laid over the Mirepoix
Wrapped Pork belly and Mirepoix
Wrapped happiness and Mirepoix
Pork belly crackling
Crispy crackling
Saturday dinner. Pork belly with vegetables and sweet corn. Close up of crackling.
Saturday dinner. Pork belly with vegetables and sweet corn. Close up of crackling.
Saturday dinner. Pork belly with vegetables and sweet corn.
Saturday dinner. Crispy crackling close up.
Saturday dinner. Pork belly with vegetables and sweet corn.
Saturday dinner. Pork belly with vegetables and sweet corn.

Click on the photograph below to open a SmugMug gallery. Click on the information icon (i) to see EXIF information including maps where the photograph is geotagged.

Saturday breakfast. Fried egg on English muffin with Buderim Ginger Factory ginger marmalade.
Click on the photograph to open a gallery of photographs

If you want to see the photographs as a gallery check out Google Photos. Click on one image to see it full size. To see the EXIF data (including a map if the photograph was geotagged) click on the information (i) icon in the top right corner. You can navigate through the gallery using the arrow keys or by swiping if you’re using a tablet or smartphone.

 

What I ate today

I didn’t post yesterday because I went to Melbourne for a meeting. It was a really good meeting and the trip was eventful. As I left canberra it was –5 °C and my flight landed in Melbourne shortly after 7 am when it was –1 °C. All the aerobridges were connected and the deicing machine had broken down at Melbourne airport so my flight was stuck on the tarmac for more than an hour. We spent less time in the air than we did on the tarmac at MEL.

After I participated in a panel discussion in the afternoon the chair of the session kindly mentioned that amongst other things, I’m a food blogger. That was nice.

So what did I eat today? For breakfast I had some smoked salmon on a poppyseed bagel. On reaching work I enjoyed a coffee from Urban Bean Espresso Bar. At morning tea I had to say goodbye to my best mate at work. I’ve had a connection with him since the Bali bombings. I will really miss him. We enjoyed a vanilla slice from the Erindale Cakery and Bakery. Then to my surprise a very sweet friend gave me my favourite vanilla slice from the Bowral Gumnut Patisserie. At lunch I inhaled some leftover chicken congee and then for dinner I had some baked salmon with rice and quinoa. It was a pretty awesome day in food.

You can check out a gallery at Google Photos.

Tuesday morning. Smoked salmon on poppy seed bagel.
Tuesday morning. Smoked salmon on poppy seed bagel.
The sweet nectar that is coffee from Urban Bean Espresso Bar
The sweet nectar that is coffee from Urban Bean Espresso Bar
Vanilla slice from Erindale bakery
Vanilla slice from Erindale bakery
Vanilla slice from Gumnut patisserie Bowral
Vanilla slice from Gumnut patisserie Bowral
Tuesday lunch. Leftover chicken congee.
Tuesday lunch. Leftover chicken congee.
Tuesday dinner. Baked salmon with rice and quinoa.
Tuesday dinner. Baked salmon with rice and quinoa.
Tuesday dinner. Baked salmon with rice and quinoa.
Tuesday dinner. Baked salmon with rice and quinoa.

So what did you eat today?

Super Saturday salmon sandwiches

Today I ended up have salmon sandwiches for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Who would have thought I’d ever do that?

I basically repeated breakfast and lunch but changed the carbohydrate from a quinoa pane di casa to a poppy seed bagel. For dinner I had the last quinoa pane di casa and cooked some salmon. All three salmon sandwiches were essentially the same with minor variations. 

Tomorrow is Sunday. Will there be salmon on Sunday?

Smoked salmon, capers, and cream cheese on quinoa and whole grain pane di casa | salmon sandwiches
Breakfast | Smoked salmon, capers, and cream cheese on quinoa and whole grain pane di casa

This was a nice light breakfast and it had quinoa 

Smoked salmon, dill, capers, and cream cheese on a bagel | salmon sandwiches
Lunch | Smoked salmon, dill, capers, and cream cheese on a bagel

I went and bought some dill especially today after breakfast because salmon needs dill.

Atlantic salmon, dill, capers, and cream cheese on quinoa and whole grain pane di casa with potato gems | salmon sandwiches
Dinner | Atlantic salmon, dill, capers, and cream cheese on quinoa and whole grain pane di casa with potato gems

The big difference for dinner was adding the potato gems. I love potato gems.


 

This afternoon I went for a walk around Lake Ginninderra and shot some photographs.

Cloud porn over Lake Ginninderra
Cloud porn over Lake Ginninderra
Big yellow tree on Lake Ginninderra
Big yellow tree on Lake Ginninderra
Lake Ginninderra
Lake Ginninderra

Do you like salmon sandwiches? What do you put on them?