by Steve Lunavich | Oct 7, 2019 | Recipes
I’ve been quite fortunate to grow up near some of the best beaches in the world. Heading down to the sand as a kid and digging in my feet in the hope to find pipis is a past time that conjures up some really great memories. It’s not something that I’ve really had a chance to do as much of over the last decade. But since a recent holiday to Byron Bay uncovered, I’d realised I hadn’t properly passed on this beautiful seashore foraging skill to my daughter.
I remember early on in my childhood being at Port Stephens with friends and family, making sandcastles, getting in the water for hours or having a dig with my brothers when we had the chance. Our incentive in finding pipis meant that were we successful in striking a payload we knew we were made me proud.
It was a blast getting her out there to find a few handfuls. We collected enough for a feed, and I gotta say, they were pretty fuckin delish-usss! So, with our 30-40 pipi haul, we made our way home to start prepping the little buggers. First things first though: You need to purge them of all the shit and grit inside them.
NB: For the following recipe, put aside a 2/3 Cup of the seawater to cook the Pipis in
PURGING the PIPI’S
Unless you’re Bear Grylls and enjoy eating shit sand, mud, and roadkill, you need to purge (cleanse) the pipis of all the crap inside them. It’s like giving them gastro, without it being contagious to you. I probably should have just said ‘detox them’.
- Make sure the container you are transporting home the pipi’s in, is big enough to hold twice as much seawater to pipis
- quickly clean pipi’s under cold tap water, cleaning any noticeable crap off if necessary
- sieve the saltwater to eliminate any grit and shit
- Place the pipi’s back into the saltwater and leave overnight
- the best place to get the saltwater is right near where you found your pipis
Pipis In Ocean Stock
This is a simple dish that takes advantage of using the ocean water the lived in
You’ll need:
Your Pipis
2/3 Cup of the seawater filtered through a napkin
100g butter
Dash of white wine vinegar
1 Lemon
Tarragon
White Pepper
1 tsp sugar (optional)
1. In a small to medium pot, bring the seawater to the boil
2. Gently place the pipis into the water and cook them for a few minutes,
3. Take out each pipi when their shells open and set them aside. When all pipis are out of pot turn heat
to medium-low and reduce liquid by half
4. You can choose to stop right here and devour the pipis as is on toast…no? ok continue
5. Start off by adding 60g of the butter, 1/2 tsp of the pepper, the dash of vinegar and lemon juice. Make sure
you taste your lemon first to judge its flavour. It may be too sour or bitter, so taste and go easy
6. Have a taste, liquid should be lightly lemony with a hint of vinegar. Should still be able to have the body
of the ocean in the flavour. A little tangy
7. Add sugar if desired
8. Place pipis back in warm broth and gently stir
9. Gently plate up and pour liquor over pipis and finely chopped tarragon
10. Serve with a wedge of lemon and warm crusty bread
ENJOY
by Steve Lunavich | Sep 22, 2019 | Recipes
No matter what time of the day it is or what meal you’re at, some form of egg on toast dish is welcome to dance on my taste buds. This here is tangy-sweet sauteed silverbeet on sourdough toast topped with a butter-poached egg, some beautiful soft goats cheese and a drizzle of truffle oil. That should be enough to get your mouth wetter than ya Granny’s panties at a Tom Jones concert.
There’s something so satisfying breaking into that glistening orange blob on top and watch it ooze like lava over the chard and toast below.
Make sure the eggs are fresh, the bread just been baked and the silverbeet’s just been picked. If not… fuck it, it’ll still taste wicked!
Grab yourself:
good slice of sourdough
large handful of silverbeet
2 cloves of garlic finely diced
soft goats cheese
150g grass fed butter for poaching
Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp brown sugar
Extra 80g butter
truffle oil
Olive oil
salt & pepper
1. On medium to high heat, melt butter in small frying pan or pot
2. In a separate frying pan melt extra butter and a small splash of olive oil
3. When it gets hot, saute garlic, Dont let it burn!
4. Add Silverbeet with brown sugar, a dash of worcestershire sauce and dash of water.
Place on a lid and let cook for 3 minutes
5. Take off lid and season with salt and pepper. Whilst off the heat add the rest of the butter.
Toss to coat. Keep warm, set aside
6..Poach egg/s in butter
7. Toast the Sourdough. When done, place on serving board
8. Top with the silverbeet and the egg/s
9. Drizzle with truffle oil and crumble over goats cheese
10. Season and dig in
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by Steve Lunavich | Sep 21, 2019 | Recipes
Cooking Time: 10mins Prep: 5mins
Serves: Family of 8 Asians / Family of 3 Aussies / 2 Maori infants
The Mongolians May have been smart enough to cease the food supplies of the Chinese. But they weren’t smart enough to stop them from taking off with their you beaut namesake sauce.
Truth be known the term Mongolian is more to do with style of cooking rather than origins.
But let me say, if this was actually a Mongolian dish, Genghis Khan may have not been such an uptight prick and smiled a lot more.
My tastebuds love this sauce. Dark, rich, sweet & thick. Good for eggs, and toast as a midnight snacky
Anyway… It’s time!
Get your work area clean, and get ready to prep your food. Like all Asian dishes.. preparation is 🔑
400g Firm Tofu diced into 3cm pieces
200g Zucchini cut into thick strips
2 tsp (heaped) minced Ginger
1 tbsp minced Garlic
1.5 tbsp Hoisin Sauce
1 tsp Ground Black Pepper
1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
1/2 Cup Soy Sauce
1/2 Cup Water
1 tbsp (heaped and halved) Corn Flour
Sesame Oil for flavouring
Peanut Oil for frying
30ml Shaoxing wine (optional)
Dash Sechuan Sauce (optional)
1. Prep your ingredients
2. Heat the wok and get that thing
hot
3. In a bowl toss the chopped tofu in
half the corn flour to coat
4. Good glug of peanut oil about 1/2
Cup. Get it hot hot hot!
5. Shake off excess flour and fry the
tofu. Don’t overcrowd the wok, cook in batches if you need to. Cook till
golden brown. Set all tofu aside
6. Dump off most of the oil leaving a
couple of teaspoons of oil
7. Working quickly add the garlic &
ginger keep it moving don’t burn
8. Add Hoisin & Soy and keep it moving.
If using the wine and sechuan sauce,
put in now. Keep it moving
9. Add the water, pepper and sugar. As soon as Sauce starts to boil, reduce
heat, give a stir and heat until sauce
starts to thicken
10. After a few minut
by Steve Lunavich | Sep 20, 2019 | Recipes
When you serve this up at your next shin-dig, and you will, should anyone pipe up and say “ew caramel and peppermint? Together? WTF!” That’s your cue to fuck that person off and get another friend… or parent. It’s not up to you to prove that it works.
Fact of the matter is, it just does.
Silky caramel cream. Peppery hit of peppermint with a smack of chocolate that was conveniently stuck to the outside of the peppermint bar. Add that to some Tennis biscuits and more cream and you my friend will have a great excuse to ditch those close minded, sausages and mash dead weight acquaintances you’ve been carrying around for far too long… Advantage, you
Go to the shops now and get yourself
2 Packets of Tennis Biscuits or Italian sponge biscuits
1 Can Of Caramel like Top n Fill
600ml Cream
350g Peppermint Crisps
1. Get a deep dish about 30cm x 20cm x 6cm
2. Whip cream in a glass bowl and set aside
3. In another bowl whip the caramel
4. Crush up the Peppermint Crisps
Not too fine. Set aside 150g larger
shard pieces for the top
5. Fold in the other 200g of Crisps
into caramel and give a whip
6. Fold in 2/3 whipped cream
7. Line base of tray with biscuits
8. Spoon in some of mix
9. Repeat steps 7 & 8 until none left
10. Top with cream and remaining shards of Peppermint Crisps
11. Set in fridge for 2hrs or overnight
This slice is a smash. Serve this up
and it’ll be game set match...
I thought I’d put that in there becauseof the tennis biscuits... I LOVE it
