Rabbit liver and mushroom open ravioli courtesy of Josh Emmett

I had my eye on the Josh Emmett book "Cut".  It appealed to me because Mr Emmett has a cooking style that is simple yet sophisticated and his flavours are very much in my wheel house of preferences.  Not available here, I let those down under know I was after it.

I had bought a little rabbit the day before and had just spent the morning boning it out so I was left with two boned out legs (with shin bone), a boned out saddle and belly and two little Frenched shoulders (front legs).  I didn't know what to do with it!  I'd spent the evening googling the night before and still had no idea what to do with the rabbit when viola there was a ring on the bell and DHL delivering Cut courtesy of my lovely sister in law!

OK I know it sounds a bit like I'm making this up but I'm not.  Anyway there are some seriously serious recipes in Cut.  Simple to follow with whooping amounts of flavour and using the whole of each animal which really appeals to me.

Anyway I proceeded to make a stock with the bones and head.  Rabbit stock is particularly sweet.  I had the rabbit's liver but no kidneys.  So the open ravioli dish was made with liver only for entree sans kidneys using my rabbit stock.

Andy made the pasta, he's a pasta king, rolling it out to the thinest setting.  It is merely dunked into boiling water and taken out again when it's rolled this thin.  I then put it in with the sauce (which I do with pasta anyway but open ravioli can be a bit tricky and the decision on whether to put the pasta with the sauce or not depends on my decision at the time as to what will hold up (it can be very delicate at this point).

I don't think I have tried rabbit liver before other than in pates and terrines.  They are so sweet.  There is absolutely no hint of livery offal flavour just pure sweet tenderness.  They take a mere few seconds to cook and need to be pink to be at their best.

Honestly this dish was a knockout.  I will make it again without a shadow of a doubt when I next have some rabbit liver at hand.  It's simple too.

I included tarragon which was a superb addition.

Hamour in a saffron Pernod broth, broad beans, tomatoes

Hamour is a very dense sweet fish available here in the UAE.  It cooks into large flakes and needs to be cooked to absolute perfection to get the best out of it (not under, definitely not over so the big translucent lobes of fish part with a knife but are still succulent).  

Saffron broth made with chicken and shellfish stocks (I had left over shellfish jus but just chicken stock would be fine too), shallots cooked with pernod and white wine then passed through a fine sieve before reducing it to taste/viscosity preference and balanced at the end with lemon juice, a touch of sugar and salt.

Andy's come up with this stunning idea of a drizzle (I'm talking a teaspoon) of fresh Pernod on top of fish and or shellfish dishes with saffron at the end of cooking and it really REALLY works.  Just gives a fresh hit of anise flavour and in this case transformed a good dish into something really stunning.

I peeled and diced the tomatoes finely and dry cooked the tomato skin which is what I always do when peeling tomatoes.  The skin tastes good and give a crunch.

Memories of a trip to Marseille came back when eating this one.  

Hamour with saffron, anise, tomatoes and broad beans.

Andy's pasta with seafood and saffron

Well I've said it before and I'll say it again.  Andy rarely cooks.  Very rarely indeed because it's my hobby and my kitchen!  But when he does it's utterly staggering how things just come together in taste and seasoning, balance and technique using no recipe.

This dish is a fine example.  We bought a selection of the freshest local seafood.  Omani prawns, UAE clams, UAE squid.

The sauce was knocked up with a prawn head stock, saffron and white wine, fennel and a dash of pernod then reduced.  The squid only need a tiny kiss of heat, the prawns were sweet perfection and the clams here are the most superb and in fact the closest is the Spanish bivalve jobs that are horrendously expensive but as exquisitely sweet an succulent.

This was a serious pasta dish.  The finishing touch?  A spoon or two of uncooked pernod over the top.

Wholy moly the best seafood pasta dish I've ever had the joy of eating anywhere and I've had a few around and about.  He fascinates me!  How can he come up with something so superb and technical perfection when he really never cooks.  The pasta melted, very finely rolled and in and out of the boiling water as thin fresh pasta should be cooked.

A serious dish.  Yum!!!!

Andy's seafood pasta stunner.

Oh and by the way what's up NZ?? Fish is horrible. There is something wrong with this picture.

I am a Kiwi.  An Aucklander.  Proud to be a Kiwi and proud to be an Aucklander.  My home is in the inner city.  It's a cool place.  Great coffee (seriously and it's simply not on a par with any other city.  Melbourne had a nod in but we've been drinking great coffee since 1989 in Millars so Melbourne is a late comer in my opinion for serious down under coffee - i.e. flat whites).

OK I'm getting off track.  Fish.  We are bombarded with TV masterchef or whatever about fish.  Skin on.  Fresh.  Is it available in NZ ( and inner city Auckland?? ) NO.  

What is going on NZ?  The piles and piles of skinned and filleted schnapper, terakihi, gurnard.  The king fish always in "steaks"...  bloody ghastly (try filleting these beauties, and the Hapuka too, same fish type, they are beautiful dense fish and flake like petals that melt when cooked correctly in a thick fillet.  These are completely lost in a "steak"cut.  Salmon is very rich in NZ.  A seriously high fat level and whilst I do enjoy the flavour that comes from fat I find Kiwi salmon a bit too much.  This is personal.  But why don't you fillet the salmon in a decent cut guys?  Why is it all badly filleted and tailed ends galore?  Why so tapering so you can't cut it into a decent piece at home?  Hmmmmm......it quite frankly pisses me off.  I come from a place (NZ)  prized for it's fish and I relish living here in Dubai partly because the seafood so so SO fresh.  I love travelling to Spain because it's so so SO fresh.  And all parts of the fish are used.  I am almost embarrassed.  Seriously.  This is not good.  

And I hate to say it but even at the fish market in Auckland, the fish are not really fresh fresh.   The eyes are slightly cloudy, the skin not super glistening and the gills a bit dim.  Maybe it's a handling issue.  Maybe these gorgeous fish go to a central handling station and then take time to process.  I wish I  could be as proud of NZ fish as I am a Kiwi!

And I haven't even started on this subject ....
it's just a big fat piss off to me.  

Daniel Boulud's Fish in a Coriander Tapioca Pistou with Lemon Crouquettes

I have this rather impressive book (courtesy of Andy) showcasing the best of Daniel Boulud, a highly regarded NY based French chef.

I've done a few things, they are complex to say the least but worth the effort.  This dish was based on Striped Bass.  It's not a fish I can get here although the UAE waters seem to deliver the most exquisite of fish.... but nope striped bass isn't one of them.

My favourite fish of the moment here is red mullet or Sultan Ibrahim as it's locally known.  A firm favourite of mine when I'm travelling to Europe but very very expensive and I had no idea it was in these waters until very recently.  A gorgeous fish.  It's cheap here and seriously tastes like a prawn, scallop lobster fish combination (therefore a sweet fish crustation combination).  I fillet them myself as they require a careful hand with tweezers to get all those fine pin bones.

OK so getting to the point here, I substituted the striped bass for red mullet in Boulud's recipe and honestly I didn't even go near the artichoke part.....more hassle than taste in my opinion.

Very interesting dish.  The texture of the tapioca, the lemony mustardy yumminess enhanced the shellfish flavours of the fish and the croquettes (which are not as simple to do as Daniel makes out, they do disintegrate on recooking so it's necessary to just stick with it and not worry about a precise cube outcome as per the picture in his book) are utterly glorious and a risotto recipe in it's own right worth doing again.

Viola!  Only took a few hours but it really was a serious dish. Only for those with time on their hands that day though!!

Our pad in Dubai (with some cool artwork courtesy of Andy)