Potato gems

Food for footy finals

Posted by Gary

Last night I went out with some friends from the hospital. We went to Chong Co Thai in Kingston. I enjoyed a lamb shank massaman curry and some coconut rice. I woke up feeling a little nauseated, tired and experiencing blurred vision. Not a good way to begin a weekend of footy finals.

Tonight my two favourite teams in the National Rugby League are playing in the first round of the footy finals series. The Brisbane Broncos are playing the North Queensland Cowboys. I’m hoping the Broncos defeat the Cowboys. Both teams get another chance and ultimately I’d love if they both met again in the grand final. Can you imagine a Broncos Cowboys grand final at Lang Park? Of course the NRL wouldn’t allow it. It’s as likely as letting the football star rather than the crappy entertainment Channel Nine insists on torturing us with. Why do we need Jimmy Barnes and Cold Chisel screaming at us? I’d prefer a school choir to sing the national anthem and then kick off of the game. Worse still Channel Nine will insist on having Phil Gould in the commentary box. The focus should be the footy not the entertainment all in the name of television ratings. So much time is wasted when all the fans and viewers want is to watch the footy.

So let’s get back to some food and photography.

Saturday breakfast. Vegemite and marmalade on an English muffin.
Saturday breakfast. Vegemite and marmalade on an English muffin.
Beautiful spring day while walking around Lake Ginninderra
Beautiful spring day while walking around Lake Ginninderra. My hay fever will ramp up soon with so many flowers being out.
Something I found while walking around Lake Ginninderra
Something I found while walking around Lake Ginninderra
Lake Ginninderra playground
Lake Ginninderra playground. It looks phallic but it’s part of a dug out canoe.
Flower blossoms on Lake Ginninderra
Flower blossoms on Lake Ginninderra. I love my 55 mm f1.8 lens for my Sony.
Saturday morning tea. Chocolate popcorn cupcake from Heather's House of Cake on Lake Ginninderra.
Saturday morning tea. Chocolate popcorn cupcake from Heather’s House of Cake on Lake Ginninderra. This was delectable.
Saturday lunch. Beef burger with tomato and lettuce.
Saturday lunch. Beef burger with tomato and lettuce. A friend on Facebook thought the mustard looked like a McDonald’s sign.
Saturday footy finals food for dinner. Beef burger with potato gems, wasabi aioli, barbecue sauce and tomato sauce.
Saturday footy finals food for dinner. Beef burger with potato gems, wasabi aioli, barbecue sauce and tomato sauce. The wasabi aioli was inspired by a YouTube cook from the Gold Coast I follow. His name is Greg and his YouTube channel is called Greg’s Kitchen. He’s quite quirky.
Saturday footy finals food for dinner. Beef burger with potato gems, wasabi aioli, barbecue sauce and tomato sauce.
Saturday footy finals food for dinner. Beef burger with potato gems, wasabi aioli, barbecue sauce and tomato sauce. I love potato gems (also known as tater tots in North America)
Saturday footy finals food for dinner. Beef burger with potato gems, wasabi aioli, barbecue sauce and tomato sauce.
Saturday footy finals food for dinner. Beef burger with potato gems, wasabi aioli, barbecue sauce and tomato sauce.

I’m thrilled that Jolene Blalock favourited and retweeted a tweet of mine. Jolene played T’Pol on Star Trek Enterprise. T’Pol was one of my favourite characters on Enterprise. She really developed as a character throughout the four short seasons. I wish there had been another season of Enterprise.

Jolene Blalock Twitter
Jolene Blalock Twitter

As I left the hospital yesterday I saw this sign on a window. I shared it on Instagram and Facebook and pondered whether this could be a new ice cream store. I’m expecting it will be used to store semen, embryos and for tissue banking.

Cryogenic storage The Canberra Hospital
Cryogenic storage The Canberra Hospital

I never thought of kangaroo being a Thai protein.

Chong Co Thai Restaurant menu Kingston, Canberra
Chong Co Thai Restaurant menu Kingston, Canberra
TGIF dinner. Lamb shank massaman curry from Chong Co Thai Restaurant.
TGIF dinner. Lamb shank massaman curry from Chong Co Thai Restaurant. It was really good. I hope it’s not responsible for why I’m feeling nauseated.

So it was a great game tonight. The best team won. The Broncos defeated the Cowboys.

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.

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Delicious panko chicken thigh with avocado rice and potato gems

Posted by Gary

So tonight I’m doing another version of the panko chicken thigh which I highlighted last night. Tonight I added avocado rice which I prepared earlier in the week. This time though I had rice and quinoa rather than rice and chia.

I cooked the panko chicken thigh in the same way as well as the avocado rice. The only difference tonight was serving potato gems and some mayonnaise.

Panko chicken thigh with avocado rice and potato gems
Panko chicken thigh with avocado rice and potato gems
Delicious panko chicken thigh with avocado rice and potato gems
Recipe Type: Dinner
Cuisine: Australian
Author: Gary Lum
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 1
Ingredients
  • Chicken thigh
  • Panko crumbs
  • Golden syrup
  • Chicken salt
  • Avocado
  • Grape seed oil
  • Lime juice
  • Rice
  • Quinoa
  • Potato gems
Instructions
  1. In a plastic bag add the chicken thigh, oil, chicken salt and panko crumbs. Make sure the chicken is well coated and massage it all in
  2. Put the chicken in the oven at 150 °C for 1 hour
  3. At the 40 minute mark put the potato gems in the oven
  4. Smash the avocado with lime juice and oil
  5. Add the cooked rice and quinoa to make the avocado rice
  6. Remove the chicken and let it rest for 20 minutes while the potato gems continue cooking
  7. Plate everything up
  8. Shoot a photograph
  9. Eat the meal
  10. Wash the dishes
  11. Write the recipe
  12. Blog (verb)

 

Panko chicken thigh with avocado rice and potato gems
Panko chicken thigh with avocado rice and potato gems
Panko chicken thigh with avocado rice and potato gems
Panko chicken thigh with avocado rice and potato gems

So here’s another panko chicken thigh. What do you reckon?

Cheesy chicken nuggets and potato gems

Posted by Gary

Last night on Twitter Kate (Star Trek podcaster and aficionado extraordinaire) and I were having a bit of a KFC conversation. She suggested that KFC should consider cheesy chicken nuggets plus several other suggestions. 

 

Kate also mentioned using Bega cheese to keep it Australian.
 
 

It got me thinking that I could enjoy a Hump Day meal involving cheese, chicken nuggets and also some potato gems. It’s a bit of a carbohydrate load I know and yes I’ve been complaining of recent weight gain, but I still have this lurgy and the persistent cough had me leaving work early again today.  Lurgy begone. I’m getting sick of being sick.  2015-04-01_18.18.23_009_GARY_LUM_FB The day started with a pretty big carbohydrate load so I figured what the hell, let’s go the whole hog. At lunch I had a couple of sausage rolls with sweet chili sauce. 2015-04-01_13.10.41_001_GARY_LUM_FB 2015-04-01_13.42.22_003_GARY_LUM_FB So for dinner I had chicken nuggets, cheese and potato gems to make my cheesy chicken nuggets and potato gems. If you click on an image in the gallery a light box will pop up and you can see a larger version. If you’re viewing this on a mobile device I hope the gallery works. On a tablet it should render as it would on a desktop or laptop. If you’re viewing this on a smartphone I hope you can see all the images. 

 

So would you make and eat cheesy chicken nuggets and potato gems? Do you reckon KFC should add this to its menu?

 

Hot and spicy spam wrapped in streaky bacon

Posted by Gary

This hot and spicy spam wrapped in streaky bacon really wasn’t worth a post of its own however I really liked the photograph.

Hot and spicy spam wrapped with streaky bacon and served with a fennel and pomegranate salad and a side of potato gems
Hot and spicy spam wrapped with streaky bacon and served with a fennel and pomegranate salad and a side of potato gems NIKON D7100 with 40.0 mm f/2.8 at 40mm and f/7.1, 1/200sec, ISO 400

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the flavour of the hot and spicy spam. I mean it’s spam so I’d like it anyway but this had a nice ‘kick’ to it.

I had a brick of spam that was about 2 cm (just under an inch) thick and I wrapped it in two rashers of streaky (read fatty) bacon. I baked that in my bench top oven at 220 °C (428 °F) for 20 minutes.

I also added some potato gems (tater tots) to the oven and cooked them with the bacon and spam.

While the oven was cooking my meat and potatoes nicely, I started on the salad. It was a simple case of slicing some fennel, red onion, and parsley. To that I added some capers from a jar and some pomegranate arils that I had beat (thrashed with the back of a meat cleaver) out of a pomegranate. I also added a little lime juice to keep it all fresh and tangy.

I took some care with the plating of this dish. I placed my bacon and spam in the middle as the centrepiece also as a friend pointed out the potato gems are really the star of this dish.

On one side I placed the salad around the bacon and spam with small kitchen tongs. On the other side I placed the gems, one gem at a time.

On top of the bacon I used a pair of forceps and added some fried flowers which I had received as a gift from Canberra’s Essential Ingredient.

 

Have you tried hot and spicy spam? What do you think of this photograph?

 

 

Olivekitchen Cafe

Posted by Gary

I really enjoyed my Sunday breakfast at Olivekitchen Cafe on Market Street at Breakfast Point in Sydney.

The current menu is pretty good. It’s the usual fare but with some lovely looking extras like baked eggs. I was feeling inclined to a mix and match type breakfast so I asked for a couple of poached eggs with sourdough bread, butter and a side of avocado. I also asked for a side of deep fried potato gems with aioli. I knew in my head that I shouldn’t eat the gems but I couldn’t stop myself. I wasn’t sorry when they came out. Gee they looked good. 

The service was pretty good and it was friendly. We didn’t have to really wait long for coffee or food. The wait staff were smiling and cheerful and helpful. The other good thing about Olivekitchen Cafe is the proximity to clean toilets. A must have if you have irritable bowel syndrome and like to enjoy a coffee or two.

 

This is how the poached eggs and sourdough are served. The eggs had a drizzle of oil and some chives which is a nice touch. 

Poached eggs with sourdough bread, butter and avocado Apple iPhone 6 Plus with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/340sec, ISO 32
Poached eggs with sourdough bread, butter and avocado Apple iPhone 6 Plus with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/340sec, ISO 32

 

I spread the butter and avocado and then laid on the eggs. This was delicious. 

Poached eggs with sourdough bread, butter and avocado Apple iPhone 6 Plus with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/140sec, ISO 32
Poached eggs with sourdough bread, butter and avocado Apple iPhone 6 Plus with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/140sec, ISO 32

 

What more could you want for breakfast? A lovely basket of deep fried potato gems with aioli 

Potato gems and aioli Apple iPhone 6 Plus with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/120sec, ISO 50
Potato gems and aioli Apple iPhone 6 Plus with iPhone 6 Plus back camera 4.15mm f/2.2 at 4mm and f/2.2, 1/120sec, ISO 50
Olivekitchen cafe
Olivekitchen cafe

I’d highly recommend Olivekitchen cafe. A great place for breakfast or lunch.  My only complaint was there was no pepper on the table. The pepper shaker had salt in it.