Smoked salmon

Taco Saturday

Posted 2016-05-21 by Gary

Have you ever had a Taco Saturday and eaten tacos for breakfast, lunch and dinner? Today I had tortillas filled with goodness three times. This extravaganza was inspired by a blogger friend Julie who is currently on a camping holiday. We started a discussion in the comments of a recent post and the notion of breakfast tacos was raised. It cascaded from there.

This morning started well with a panorama of the sunrise.

I went for a walk to build an appetite.

My breakfast taco was made with a line of cheesy potato gems (tater tots for my US friends), streaky Pialligo Estate Artisanal bacon and creamy buttery scrambled eggs.

Breakfast tortillas with scrambled eggs, bacon, potato gems, salsa, cheese and spring onions

After some grocery shopping I needed my lunch taco which contained smoked salmon with a guacamole laden with chilli.

Smoked salmon and avocado salsa tortilla with chilli, dill, cream cheese, lemon zest and black pepper

After lunch I needed to make some purchases and walked by the lake. I had noticed an abandoned car on my morning walk.

I also spent some time sitting on a bench day dreaming.

For dinner I had some Coles pulled pork and made some macaroni cheese from scratch.

Pulled pork and macaroni cheese tortillas

Have you ever had a Taco Saturday?

If you want to know more about tacos I suggest another Texan, viz., Hilah Johnson. Hilah has a fantastic YouTube channel.

What I ate today

Posted 2015-11-15 by Gary

After yesterday’s amazing morning with Owen Saddler at Dream Cuisine Patisserie and Café, I was on a sugar high for hours. I knew I probably should not have eaten dinner and I certainly didn’t feel like it, but I didn’t want to wake up in the middle of the night feeling hungry.

I ended up with something light. A toasted bread roll with cream cheese and sweet chilli sauce.

Cream cheese and sweet chilli sauce on toast

I woke up this morning after a sleepless night and after a couple of coffees made myself a hot breakfast.

Cheesy kale omelet with a cup of coffee

After breakfast I went for a walk around Lake Ginninderra and shot a few photographs. On the way out I noticed a notice stuck to a wall of the apartment complex I live in.

We’ve been having trouble with some of the residents shopping at the local Westfield shopping mall and bringing their groceries back with shopping trolleys and then abandoning the trolleys on the pathways around the apartment complex. The trolleys weren’t just on the footpath but also in the internal courtyard and walkways.

My neighbours in the place I rent are a mixture of people with a lot of Chinese students who attend the University of Canberra.

At the end of my walk I stopped at the Everbean Espresso Bar in the Westfield shopping mall. While I was there I met one of the owners, Andrew. He’s seen my Instagram feed and wanted to say hello. The coffee at Everbean Espresso Bar is also very good.

While I was there I enjoyed a nice caramel milk shake.

Caramel milk shake from Everbean Espresso Bar

When I got home I made a simple lunch.

A smoked salmon bagel with cream cheese, raw red onion, capers, wasabi sesame seeds and sweet chilli sauce.

Smoked salmon bagel with cream cheese, capers, raw onion and wasabi sesame seeds

After ironing and watching some Star Trek I went back out to the Westfield shopping mall to get some more groceries.

For dinner I made prawns and udon noodles.

Wasabi prawns and udon noodles from Gary Lum on Vimeo.

Wasabi prawns and udon noodles with kale and quinoa

What did you eat today?

Double salmon burger

Posted 2015-10-07 by Gary

So what is a double salmon burger? I had some smoked salmon in the refrigerator which I was meant to eat for breakfast but forgot. It was at its use by date and I’m not keen on testing the dates given food safety is something I feel strongly about. I also had a fillet of Atlantic salmon ready to cook. If a little bit of salmon is good, more must be better.

I made a salmon mousse with the smoked salmon by combining it with avocado, fennel, red capsicum, red onion, salt and olive oil.

I then put it together to make a quick and easy meal for one burger.

Double salmon burger

Recipe Type: Dinner

Cuisine: Australian

Author: [url href=”https://about.me/garydlum” target=”_blank”]Gary Lum[/url]

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: 12 mins

Total time: 17 mins

Serves: 1

Ingredients

Smoked salmon (3 slices from a 4 slice packets from [url href=”http://coles.com.au” target=”_blank”]Coles[/url])
Avocado (1 whole avocado)
Fennel (peel off a layer and cut roughly)
Red onion (I used about 1 quarter of a small onion)
Red capsicum (I used about 1 quarter of a medium sized capsicum)
Olive oil (about 2 tablespoons)
Salt (a generous pinch)
Atlantic salmon fillet (1 fillet from the middle of the fish from the deli section at Coles)
Bread roll
Basil (a few leaves)
Dill (a stem or two)
Aioli (about 2 tablespoons)
Wasabi (about 3 cm out of a tube)

Instructions

In a food processor add the Smoked salmon, Avocado, Fennel, Red onion, Red capsicum, Olive oil,
and Salt
Whizz for a few minutes and scoop the mousse out into a bowl
Bake the salmon at 220 °C for 12 minutes
Plate up with wasabi aioli and garnish with basil and dill

For breakfast today I had melted cheese on a bread roll with a Chinese gooseberry drink.

For lunch I had a gluten free steak sandwich at The Tradies Woden.

I’m grateful I’m do not have coeliac disease. Gluten free bread is okay but not as nice as bread with gluten.

If you want to see the photographs as a gallery click here. 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.

Avocado pea smash smoked salmon wrap

Posted 2015-04-07 by Gary

This morning I was reading blogs and one that caught my eye was “Keeping up with the Holsbys” by Danielle Colley. Danielle had posted a recipe using avocado pea smash for breakfast. I wasn’t sure what I would prepare for dinner and this recipe spoke to me.

I think it was just the notion of adding some more vegetable matter to my meal and this seemed so easy. The line of potato gems for crunch is my homage to Mavi and its special breakfast wrap which contains an hashed brown. I also thought my Essential Ingredient lemon agrumato was a nice touch. You can see it dripping from the leading lower edge of the top half of the wrap in the photograph below. Lemon and avocado goes so well together.

Avocado pea smash smoked salmon wrap

Recipe Type: Dinner

Cuisine: Australian

Author: Gary Lum

Prep time: 10 mins

Cook time: 25 mins

Total time: 35 mins

Serves: 1

Ingredients

Helga’s flatbread wrap
Essential lemon agrumato
Shepard avocado
Frozen peas, carrot and corn
Chili flakes
Cracked black pepper
Smoked salmon
Mayonnaise
Potato gems

Instructions

Start cooking the potato gems at 220 °C for 25 minutes
Microwave the frozen peas, carrot and corn
Smash a ripe avocado along with the peas, corn and carrot
Lay out the flatbread and add a splash of the lemon agrumato (I got mine from the Essential Ingredient in Kingston)
Spread on the avocado pea smash
Add some chili flakes and cracked black pepper
Break up some smoked salmon and add that to the wrap
Spoon on some mayonnaise
Add a line of potato gems
Roll the wrap as tightly as you can
Cut diagonally like a fancy man
Plate up and shoot a photograph
Eat the wrap for dinner
Wash the dishes
Write the recipe
Blog (verb)

Helga's flatbread wrap with Essential Lemon Agrumato — Helga’s flatbread wrap with Essential Lemon Agrumato

Helga's flatbread wrap with Essential Lemon Agrumato plus avocado pea smash (plus carrot and corn) — Helga’s flatbread wrap with Essential Lemon Agrumato plus avocado pea smash (plus carrot and corn)

Helga's flatbread wrap with Essential Lemon Agrumato plus avocado pea smash (plus carrot and corn) seasoned with black cracked pepper and chili flakes — Helga’s flatbread wrap with Essential Lemon Agrumato plus avocado pea smash (plus carrot and corn) seasoned with black cracked pepper and chili flakes

Have you ever made avocado pea smash? What were you inspired to cook for dinner tonight?

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My food photography lighting setup

Posted 2015-03-07 by Gary

My brother in food, viz., John (or is it Fred or Stan) asked about my food photography lighting setup

Over the years of this blog and my social media adventure I’ve moved from smartphone to point and shoot to DSLR and mirrorless cameras to shoot photographs of food at home and in restaurants.

At home I moved from shooting the photographs on the table I eat at, to a buffet with some office lamps for lighting and now to a dedicated setup as you can see in the image below. I have an old wooden table that is at coffee table height, a softbox and a diffuser. From time to time I’ll also use a speedlight (flash) and bounce the light against a wall to get light from two different directions. A tripod is essential. The one I use is a Manfrotto with a central stalk that can be brought up and turned horizontal so that I can shoot overhead over the low table.

With this set up I get reasonable lighting. It also helps that I shoot in RAW and post process with Adobe Lightroom.

One of the things I need to get better at is props. I need to think more about how I set things up on the table as well as choose better angles to shoot from.

This photograph of today’s lunch was shot on my food photography ‘studio’

What is your food photography set up?

Smoked salmon

Taco Saturday

Have you ever had a Taco Saturday?

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What I ate today

What did you eat today?

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Double salmon burger

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Avocado pea smash smoked salmon wrap

Have you ever made avocado pea smash? What were you inspired to cook for dinner tonight?

Like this:

My food photography lighting setup

My brother in food, viz., John (or is it Fred or Stan) asked about my food photography lighting setup

What is your food photography set up?

Like this:

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Have you ever had a Taco Saturday?

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What did you eat today?

I'd love it if you shared

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I'd love it if you shared

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Have you ever made avocado pea smash? What were you inspired to cook for dinner tonight?

I'd love it if you shared

Like this:

My brother in food, viz., John (or is it Fred or Stan) asked about my food photography lighting setup

What is your food photography set up?

I'd love it if you shared

Like this:

Recent posts

Post archive