River delights

Time to pull up the old reminiscing couch, turn on the ‘‘warm, low ember fire’’ app on the iPad along with some old-school music, something to help this mood ... I know, Low by David Bowie.

Bowie really sums up the 70s for me, the whole Ziggy Stardust era, Hunky Dory, Diamond Dogs, etc. However, his painful and solemn Low was one of my favourites to put on the old Dual turntable. I’m wondering if you can get some sort of app that can make digitally remastered music sound real. Just some scratches, the odd skip, you know, signs of life.

It’s not that I’m particularly morose, the other choice was Meatloaf’s Bat Out of Hell, just trying to think through a thought that came today, catalysed by food of course but it took me right back.

Around this time of year we have a whole lot of staff and contractors from all corners of the world: New Zealand, Israel, Yass and south-east Asia just to name a few. I’m always sniffing around for ideas and one came, a cracker, in the form of a plate, well not a plate, a piece of cardboard, piled high with desiccated, charred fish. Almost mummified, on tasting – I should ask before tasting but always love the surprise. ‘‘So, that was a lamb’s testicle!’’ – it was really spicy, quite tough but hugely enjoyable, a fishy biltong of sorts.

Asking ‘‘So what was that?’’ I was surprised, but then on reflection, not, it was carp. Caught from the Murrumbidgee a couple of days ago, salted and seasoned with chilli, air dried in the hot sun for a day and then char grilled. Wow, I hear you say, where can I get me some carp?

Maybe not, but processed this way there was no sign of the threatened muddy character and the small bones were dried enough to mostly power on through with your chops. I’d say this would go down really well as a hipster, micro-brewed beer snack; I can picture them sitting on milk crates, jam jars full of expensive hops, clattering away on their typewriters, moustaches gleaming with wax ...
It’s that image of carp that took me to my early teens, before we discovered girls, guitars and cigarettes. A time when, after the walk home from school, the shoes would come off and we’d all head down to the creek. We lived just across the road from Ginninderra Creek, before it was dammed. All we had to entertain ourselves were two television stations – The Goodies, Dr Who, Monty Python’s Flying Circus – an unused swing and the creek. So that’s where we spent every spare moment searching for wildlife.

Anything would do: Cunningham lizards, frogs, turtles, snakes and fish. After a flood, the gentle little creek would change in the blink of an eye, now a great, almost biblical, torrent would fill the valley between Latham and Charnwood. And there we’d be, a few 12-year-olds, shirtless, no shoes, no safety lessons, just a plan and staring at a whole lot of potential. We knew that once the river would die down, and it happened just as quickly as it flooded, there would be hundreds of rock pools filled with all manner of fish.

Back to the present, seeing these Laotian folk go about their day-to-day job of preparing food, you can see their traditional diets fit quite snuggly into an Australian country landscape. We’ve had their amazing air-dried lamb, beef and deer as a staple for a few years now. This process of preserving foods by dehydration is very much a part of their heritage and negates the need for refrigeration. The process really intensifies the flavours, giving the meat a firmer texture much like hot smoking fish does before using it in salads, soups and curries.

If you have a carp supplier, then you are set, if not you can use any fish but it works well with freshwater fish. If using ocean fish you can probably leave out the fish sauce salting, seeing as they are already salted.

Golden perch and Murray cod are both suitable. Have the fishmonger fillet and skin the fish for you unless you are adept at the art of filleting.

Cut the flesh into thickish strips, season with fish sauce and rub with dried chilli flakes. Set up a wire rack where it will capture the sun all day, lay them out and essentially bake them for a few hours till they get a leathery look, turning every so often.

To cook, set up a grill over good embers, brush with oil and when the grill is super hot, cook them quickly on all sides. This will give you a seared and blistered look. You can serve them in a salad or as a curry but this sauce is pretty interesting. Based on some simple flavour with lots of acid and an intriguing, burnt character from the pineapple.

Air-dried golden perch with pineapple sauce

2 perch or 600g Murray cod (dried)
½ bunch Thai basil, leaves only
4 kaffir lime leaves, shredded
3-4 small chillies, julienned
1 lime, quartered
steamed rice to serve

Char-grill the dried fish and serve with sauce, garnished with basil, lime leaf and chilli plus a wedge of lime and steamed rice.

Caramelised pineapple sauce

3 thin slices of fresh pineapple
oil
2 coriander roots, cleaned and chopped
2 small dried red chillies, chopped
2 red shallots or eschalots, peeled and chopped
1 tbsp galangal, chopped
1 tsp shrimp paste, roasted in foil until fragrant
100g palm sugar, grated
40g tamarind, soaked in hot water and squeezed out
1 tbsp fish sauce

Brush the pineapple with oil and char-grill until well caramelised, chop. In a mortar and pestle, grind the roots, chilli, shallot, galangal and shrimp paste to a fine paste. Heat a little oil in a wok and fry paste until it releases its lovely aroma, stir in sugar with a little water and cook until it starts to thicken and colour, add tamarind, pineapple and fish sauce, cook for another 5-10 minutes.

>> Bryan Martin is winemaker at Ravensworth and Clonakilla, bryanmartin.com.au