Bundaberg sarsaparilla is really nice tasting sarsaparilla. Some people assume sarsaparilla is the same as American root beer. Apparently it’s not exactly the same. I usually giggle when I hear someone say root beer. I’m just a big kid and Australians all know why but for non-Australian readers, the word root is a vulgar slang word here. I find it hilarious when I hear North Americans saying their rooting for their team.
Dedicated to Lorraine Elliott, also known as Not Quite Nigella who shared a beef short ribs recipe this week and she used sarsaparilla.
Yummy Lummy hot and spicy cauliflower and sweet potato soup
Hot and spicy cauliflower and sweet potato soup is a thing. I know cauliflower soup isn’t to everyone’s liking, but the addition of some curry powder, chilli flakes and roasted sweet potato can make a big difference.
Chicken wings and duck fat roast sweet potato made quickly and easily. Just check out the video.
If you’re interested in something different, check out my podcast at my other blog, if you listen to podcasts via iTunes you can get Medical Fun Facts there.
Sunday dinner. Baked salmon with kale salad yoghurt instant noodles.
Given a need to keep everything in good shape I reexamined my eating habits and thought rather than the low carbohydrate high fat diet, given my age, I should look at reducing my saturated fat intake and try to keep sugar to moderate levels. That meant a reassessment of how much red meat I ate. I’ve basically reduced the amount of beef, lamb and pork to occasional ingestion and I treat those occasions as special. The mainstay protein of my diet at the moment has been skinless chicken and fresh Atlantic salmon (from the clean waters around Tasmania).
I used to cook my salmon in a frying pan with a lid on for five minutes and it would give me perfect results albeit a little smoky. I used to use grape seed oil to stop the skin from sticking to the bottom of the frying pan. It also meant I would have lovely crisp skin. In an effort to further reduce the amount of oil, I’ve turned to baking my salmon. I have a small bench top toaster/oven which is perfect for cooking small sized fillets of fresh salmon.
To achieve perfectly baked salmon I heat the oven to 200 °C (392 °F) and then on baking paper I place the salmon and add a little salt and pepper and anything else I may want to season the salmon with, e.g., chilli flakes or dried mixed herbs. If you like you could rub in a small amount of olive oil but it really isn’t necessary. I then place the salmon in the oven for 12 minutes (I use a timer so I don’t get it wrong).
After 12 minutes I turn off the oven and open the door. I then let the salmon rest for 5 minutes and don’t do anything with it. After 5 minutes it’s cool enough to pick up with your fingers and to be placed/arranged on a plate. At this stage it can also be flaked apart if you wish to add it to pasta or rice.
I’ve added some photographs of my baked salmon meals including a few time-lapse videos of me consuming these perfectly baked salmon dishes.
If you click on a photograph it will open up a short YouTube video.
Monday dinner. Baked salmon, sweet corn and wasabi aioli avocado.
Tuesday dinner. Salmon and noodles.
Monday dinner. Watch me eat baked salmon with quinoa kale coleslaw with walnuts, coconut and sesame seeds.
Baked salmon with sweet potato chips, quinoa rice and kale coleslaw
Last night I wrote about Erica von Trapp’s recipe for perfect sweet potato chips. I liked them so much I’m doing them again tonight except tonight rather than baked salmon I’m letting loose and making a slow roasted roll of lamb shoulder. It’s been a few months since I’ve roasted a piece of red meat. I’ve eaten so much salmon and skinless chicken meat in an effort to keep my blood chemistry healthful I felt it was time for a treat.
I thought I would combine some sweet potato chips, some leftover quinoa rice and kale plus a cob of sweet corn with my roast lamb. I knew I would only eat a little meat and keep the rest for lunches this week at work.
Amazing golden sweet potato chips with lamb loin roll
Recipe Type: Dinner
Cuisine: Australian
Author: Gary Lum
Sunday roast dinner. What could be better?
Ingredients
1 large sweet potato washed and dried
2–3 tablespoons of olive oil
½ teaspoon sea salt
Erica suggests cinnamon but I went with chilli flakes and cracked black pepper
Lamb loin roast (sorry I wanted shoulder but couldn’t find any)
Leftover quinoa rice (½ cup)
Quinoa (½ cup)
Kale (½ bunch)
Red wine (½ cup)
Chicken stock (½ cup)
Sweet corn (1 cob)
Instructions
Cut the sweet potato in half, then cut 1 cm thick batons.
Cut again perpendicular to make 10 cm long chips.
Repeat with other half.
In large bowl, soak cut potatoes in room temperature water for at least 2 hours, can leave overnight.
Strain and rinse potatoes, and leave them in the strainer to dry off while you pre-heat your oven to about 200 °C.
In large bowl, toss with olive oil and sea salt, and lay on large baking sheet with no overlap.
Bake for about 25 minutes, turning a few times if you want them really evenly colored.
You’ll know they’re done when you can poke a fork through them easily and the outside is crispy.
Remove from oven, salt a bit more if you’d like, and serve.
Wet the cob of sweet corn under some running water, wrap in aluminium foil and put into the oven for 1 hour.
Let the lamb get to room temperature
Place the lamb on a trivet in a baking tray
In the tray add the leftover quinoa rice, extra quinoa and kale plus some red wine and stock
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Sunday dinner. Roast lamb, sweet potato chips, sweet corn and quinoa rice and kale.
Breakfast cereal with mango
Sweet potato chips
Sweet potato chips
Sweet potato chips
Sweet potato chips
Sweet potato chips
Pickled onions
Pickled onions
Pickled onions
Pickled onions
Pickled onions
Pickled onions
Pickled onions
Lamb loin roll
Lamb loin roll on a trivet
Sweet potato chips
Bacon candy
Bacon candy
Bacon candy
Sunday dinner. Roast lamb, sweet potato chips, sweet corn and quinoa rice and kale.
Tonight I’m also trying some pickled onions using a recipe from a new friend. I met Barry while visiting Winnipeg. He’s a scientist and a food lover. One of the great things about my work is the connection I can make with like minded people from around the world.
I’m going to call this recipe Bazza’s pickled onions because if he was Australian he’d be called Baz or Bazza just like I get Gaz or Gazza.
Lime juice. My guess is lemon juice would also work.
Red wine vinegar. I’m not a connoisseur so I assume the more expensive the better. I bought a bottle for a few dollars from Coles.
Salt. I used some sea salt.
Instructions
Slice the onion very thinly into rings (or half rings).
Put into a container with a tight lid. The container should not be much larger than the cut onions (you could use a ziploc bag).
Add the juice of one or two limes (for 1 onion), they don’t need to me immersed. I used lemons because I didn’t have any limes.
A tablespoon of red wine vinegar
A pinch of salt.
Let the onions pickle in the refrigerator for 3–4 hours minimum, with occasional turnovers to mix the juice over all the onions.
The pickled onions will keep for at least a week.
You can use the leftover juice for salad dressing.
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As it turns out I forgot to add some pickled onions to the meal until after I shot the photographs. How stupid of me.
I reckon sweet potato and the pickled onions go really nicely with lamb. This was a delicious meal. I’m grateful to Erica and Barry for their contribution to the concept of this meal.
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.
Here is a slideshow of the sweet potato chip making
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