Desserted

I've been flicking through the small number of Asian cookbooks that I have and there don't seem to be many desserts whether traditional or otherwise. Being brought up with Western culture it seems incredibly strange! It's understandable though. When my mother was growing up in China, meat was considered such a delicacy that people who were sick from malnourishment would resort to eating human placentas. Peasants would cook up a stray dog found wandering the streets. Eggs could only be bought once a year if lucky and plain rice was what millions of people depended upon to keep their families alive during the famine that ravaged the country.

I have distant cousins, aunts and uncles living in Northern China, their lives still irreparably damaged by the destruction caused by the cultural revolution. Although we've never met, and despite my complete ineptitude with the language, I feel as though food could be a point by which we could all connect. Or perhaps not. The lack of desserts really irks me. I think that my appreciation of food really lies in the sweets department which is a little wanting in my current situation. I found myself making jar after jar of marmalade on my day off last week which really is quite a bizarre occurrence.

I think that from tomorrow, I'll start and I mean really start trying to teach myself all about cakes, pastries and whatnot. I'm not really too sure exactly how much I'll learn about desserts where I'm at now professionally. Anyway, for the moment, here is a recipe for steamed snapper - an adaptation from 'Kylie Kwong: recipes and stories'

Steamed Snapper

"essence: The naturally sweet. delicate, moist flesh of the snapper combines with the aromatic ingredients to create a beautifully balanced, subtle, clean and salty flavour. This dish is an excellent example of the way steaming preserves purity of flavour and texture."

750 g whole snapper
2 leaves wong bok (Chinese cabbage)
1/2 recipe fish sauce
2 knobs ginger, peeled & julienne
1/4 C. shao xing wine
pinch castor sugar
pinch ground white pepper
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
3 Tbsp tamari (gluten-free soy)
1/4 C. shallot julienne
1/4 C. peanut oil
1/2 C. coriander leaves

Hold snapper firmly by the tail and with a knife, scrape towards the head to remove any scales.

Make 5 or 6 diagonal cuts parallel to the head approx. 1 1/2 cm apart, through to the bone. Repeat on the other side.

Bring a large steamer pot of water to the boil.

Place snapper on a plate, cover the body with ginger and slosh over the shao xing.

Place inside the steamer and replace the lid.

Steam for approximately 10-12 minutes or until cooked (flesh will be exposed and white through to the bone).

Quickly blanch cabbage leaves, drain and chop into rough squares.

Arrange cabbage squares on a large flat plate or bowl.

Carefully lift up the snapper and place over the cabbage.

Sprinkle over the sugar, pepper, sesame oil and tamari.

Bring fish sauce to the boil and pour over.

Place shallot julienne over the body.

Bring peanut oil to smoking point and pour over the fish to soften shallots.

Garnish with coriander leaves and serve immediately.

Trading behind the scenes

'In the kitchen, the Chinese chef cooks consciously or unconsciously according to the culinary laws of Yin and Yang - where harmony and balance between flavour, texture and ingredient is the essence.' - K. Kwong

It's an interesting experience working in a restaurant that prides itself on its philosophy 'to leave as small and light an environmental footprint as possible, to give back to the community, whenever and wherever we can, and to think globally, act locally.' I've just put down a copy of Sarah Murray's 'Moveable Feasts : From Ancient Rome to the 21st Century, the Incredible Journeys of the Things We Eat' and I'm taking a little time to reflect.

Here, organic and even biodynamic produce are sourced from locally certified farmers wherever feasible despite the daily pressure from current and incredibly unreliable suppliers. The use of biodynamic eggs, lamb and beef, free range Barossa hens, fairtrade chocolate, sustainable seafood, organic fruits and vegetables and so forth, are all a reflection on the huge commitment not only towards a heightened quality of produce, but also to the soil, the animals, the people and the environment.

I take my hat off to the woman who has successfully established an iconic Sydney restaurant geared towards the betterment of society and, unlike most other chefs, she has used her media status to promote sustainable farming and fairtrade produce at events like the Organic Expo and the upcoming Live Green.

Although Billy Kwong customers have the opportunity to offset the carbon emissions produced by dining through the purchase of renewable energy credits from a wind farm in Hebei, China, Murray warns that methane (gas from animals not the customers) unfortunately "warms the planet more than twenty times as much as the same amount of carbon dioxide". According to the 2006 UN publication 'Livestock's Long Shadow: Environmental Issues and Options', livestock which take up approximately 30% of the Earths surface now produce more greenhouse emissions than all the transport in the world!

Picking up a bar of 'Cocolo - Premium Organic Fairtrade Chocolate' I decided that I too would investigate the distance needed to bring this product together. The ingredients include: organic fairtrade cocoa mass (Bolivia and Peru), organic fairtrade evaporated cane juice (Philippines) and organic fairtrade cocoa butter (Bolivia and Dominican Republic). The chocolate is made in Switzerland before being shipped to Australia, so I calculated the shortest and most direct route for each ingredient via air passage first to the international airport in Bern and then to Sydney.

Assuming that both the organic fairtrade cocoa butter and cocoa mass from Sucre, Bolivia travel in the same shipment, the distance to Bern, Switzerland is 10,318km.

Organic fairtrade cocoa mass from Lima, Peru to Bern, Switzerland is 10,588km.

Organic fairtrade evaporated cane juice from Manila, Philippines to Bern, Switzerland is 10,533km.

Organic fairtrade cocoa butter from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic to Bern, Switzerland is 7,591km.

Made in Switzerland. 100% Australian owned company.

Cocolo dark 70% cocoa premium organic fairtrade chocolate from Bern, Switzerland to Sydney, Australia is 16,677km.

Total distance my bar of chocolate has travelled is 55,707km. To cover this distance by foot (and to put this in a much more shocking perspective), I would have to walk an average of 5km/hr, 24 hours a day nonstop for a year and 2 weeks!

I don't really have a moral to this post. I love my chocolate too much to give it up and well admit it, the Earth is doomed to implode anyway. The probability of cocoa being farmed in Australia is virtually nil and if it did miraculously happen, any benefits of buying locally would most certainly be dwarfed by the incredibly high costs of artificially produced greenhouse climates needed. For the moment or until the pending apocalypse anyway, I'm glad to be sending my money off to help farmers in less developed countries through smarter fairtrade product choice.

I've Adopted!

On the 29th of April, I become the proud parent of an adopted truffle tree beginning its life in the south of France. The Truffle Tree adoption scheme is run by a man who goes by the name of 'Dick Pyle' and his slightly unconventional and terribly risky business venture has so far been a resounding success.

A large envelope arrived in the mail yesterday evening and to my great surprise, it contained an official certificate of adoption and a big glossy photo of the small Holm oak tree whose life I am now financing. Dick says that the tree "..was planted in November 2006 and has been mycorrhized with spores of the Périgord Truffle (Tuber melanosporum) by Robin Pépinières of Saint-Laurent-du-Cros". Very interesting stuff.