Keto Friendly Creamy Seafood Chowder

Bonjour! Combining seafood and soup, I bring you seafood soup...............................Righto. So onto the ingredients and method.

For 4 serves: 250 grams of oysters, 250 grams of seafood marinara mix (from woolworths etc), 1 piece of smoked cod. Aromatics: 1/2 a brown onion sliced, 2 stalks of celery cubed and 3 cloves of garlic minced. Liquids and seasoning: 1 x packet of stock, 1 x carton of double cream, cayenne pepper for extra kick.

 Add some unsalted butter to a pan and heat till it melts. Add some olive oil to prevent butter from burning. Add the piece of cod and fry both sides till tender and flaky. Flake up the fish using a spatula an move it to the edge of the pan.

 Toss in aromatics (Celery, onion and garlic) and fry till fragrant whilst mixing in the smoked cod

 Toss in Oysters first (especially if they're frozen like mine). As they are heated up, they will release moisture which will help deglaze the pan. Sprinkle generously with cayenne pepper and freshly cracked black pepper.

 After heating through the oysters for about 5 minutes, add the seafood mix and continue to stir fry the whole lot for another 5~8 minutes. Then add just enough stock to cover ingredients

 Add your desired amount of cream. For this instance I used 1 standard container of double cream.

 Bring to a gentle simmer for a further 5 minutes and take care not to boil soup so as to prevent cream from separating. Spoon into your favourite soup bowl, garnish with some smoked paprika and chow down! (P.S: Keto-friendly croutons anyone????? :P)

To be first amongst equals, one burger to rule them all....

Hi all, so I was having a burger craving and decided to give a crack at writing a personal review on three of the top favourites within the vicinity.

They are:
1) Bare Grill on Bourke Street, Surry Hills
2) Grill'd
3) Big Daddy's Burger Grill

 First up we have The Mac Daddy at Big Daddy's Burger Bar

Triple beef patties, triple cheese, big daddy sauce - $13

Deep fried onion rings - $5

Review: The burger was VERY juicy, and dripping with melted cheese. Bun was similar to semi-sweet French brioche bread and gave a great contrast to the savouriness of the meat and cheese. The onion rings were very normal, nothing to go ga ga about.

Verdict: Big thumbs up to the Mac Daddy. Won't purchase onion rings again.

 Next up is Bare Grill along Bourke Street, Surry Hills.

I  ordered the Big Bare which had two beef patties, bacon, American cheese, lettuce and onions plus their special sauce - $17

Melted raclette cheese over burger - $7

Onion rings - $12

Review: Quality and service comes at a premium. Being the most costly of the three restaurants, this offered prompt service by wait-staff, water and a heated interior which is pretty welcomed for the winter. No corners were cut in the preparation of the burger. The patties were tasty, not too salty, succulent and real beefy. The variety of melted cheeses gave it an added oomph. Finally the bacon was definitely the cherry on top of the cake. The onion rings were freshly fried, crispy and contained rings sliced out from an actual onion, not reconstituted onion mash fashioned into UFOs.

Verdict: Very excellent, at $7 for topping of melted cheese, I reckon its a bit on the pricey side.

 Last but not least, your everyday burger from the Grill'd Chain of restaurants.

Bacon and cheese burger - $11.50

Low carb burger bun - +$1.50

Deep fried avocado chips - $5.90

Review: In summary, crispy bacon, melted cheese on a juicy beef patty, garnished with onions and lettuce nestled in a low carbohydrate bun along with a side of battered and deep fried avocado slices. Burger was pretty normal but avocado chips were very unique.

Verdict: Burgers are so-so however I would recommend trying the avocado chips at least once just to satisfy your curiosity.

Roasted Scotch Fillet with mushrooms, garlic and onions

Craving some beef, I decided to roast some Scotch Fillet for tonight's dinner. Scotch fillet which is also Rib Eye cut without the bone in has a great meat to fat ratio, tenderness and flavour.

Rub scotch fillet with olive oil then marinate with ample salt, pepper and minced garlic

Prepare some extra smashed garlic and onions to cook with the mushrooms

 Slice up a carton of your favourite mushrooms.

 Toss some olive oil with butter into a heavy base pan, turn flame on to medium high

 Sweat onions till translucent then throw in garlic and fry till fragrant. Take care not to burn garlic if not it will impart a bitterness.

 Toss in your sliced mushrooms and fry, tossing regularly

 The mushroom/onion/garlic mixture should look like this at the end of the frying

 Place meat into your baking dish and spread the mushrooms around it as shown in picture below.

 If you are using a table top convection oven like I am, cover with aluminium foil and cook at 175C for 1 hour. Flip meat and pop it back in for another hour at 150C. Finally flip it back to its original side up, remove foil and bake for another 30 minutes on 125C.

The dish should look like this at the end. Remember to let the meat sit for around 10~15 minutes before slicing. 

 Bon Appetit my friends!

 Remember, may the Om Nom Nom be with you :D

Not so classic cream of mushroom soup

We all agree that the only thing better than bacon is more bacon. In order to confidently eliminate all trace of vegetal-ness from this all time favourite, I had to include some diced bacon. :D

Instructions

Brown a cup of diced up bacon with some butter

Chop up 4 cups of mushrooms (If you're feeling extravagant, use Swiss brown)

Optional: Soak a cup of dried porcini mushrooms and strain it to remove unwanted sediments. Keep mushroom liquor to add into the broth.

Feeling lazy like me? Use a carton of your favourite comercial chicken stock! (Vegetable stock is fine too)

600ml of pure pouring cream

 Mince 1 bulb of garlic, chop up 2 large brown onions, slice up a bunch of shallots (not shown here)

Add dry ingredients to the browned bacon and stir fry till fragrant, splash porcini mushroom liquor to deglaze pan if need be or to prevent your ingredients from sticking to the base of the pot and burning.

Add stock and porcini mushrooms

Check fluid levels and top up with more stock/water if needed. Take care not to add to much as you have to take into account the 600ml of pouring cream that you need to include. Bring to a rolling boil and let it do so for 30~45 minutes.

The final product should look like this before you put your stick blender in.

 Blend away!!!!!!!!!~~~~

Ladle into your favourite heated bowl and serve with warm buttered French loaf... Nah just kidding, to keep it non-diabetogenic, just have it on its own, with herman brot or with fried chicken.

Garnished with some freshly grounded black pepper. :D Enjoy!