Birthday Treats

In honour of my birthday, which is today (Happy birthday me!) I present to you, the menu of foods that I WISH I was eating today. Most of these foods are things I can’t eat due to being pregnant, but some of them are simply too expensive for our budgets.

Sushi. As in, sushi made by a sushi chef, so that I (Or Mum) haven’t had to go to the trouble of making it. Sushi with raw fish, or smoked fish or cooked fish. Really, any kind of sushi. Mmmm, sushi…

Soft cheeses. Completely against the rules when you are pregnant, but OH so good. Brie is probably my favourite, but at this point in time I would kill for some nice blue cheese as well, with all it’s bacteria and blue sharpness. Mmmm, cheese…

Smoked ham, sliced off the bone and served cold. Preferably with ripe cherry tomatoes, bread and butter pickles (Which I desperately want to make, but never have gotten around to it), pickled onions, a nice sharp matured cheddar and fresh crusty bread. Oh, so good.

Cold smoked salmon. By itself. Maybe with some crusty bread and butter, but mostly by itself.

Marinated octopus. Now this isn’t really something I’m not allowed, nor is it something too expensive. It’s simply something that I CANNOT get, due to not being able to convince Dad that I need him to catch me some fresh octopus. Okay, it might be because he doesn’t actually have anywhere he can go to catch fresh octopus, but come on! I would LOVE some octopus that Mum has marinated.

The same with squid, only I prefer my fresh squid quickly barbecued (preferably by someone else). Again, Dad has been decidedly slack in catching me any squid.

What’s that? I could buy some squid? No, not really. Most of all the squid available for sale (that I could afford) has been farmed in either Vietnam or Thailand. My grandfather has seen these farms with his very own eyes and told us not to buy anything farmed outside of Australia. Considering he used to be a Fisherman himself, I am inclined to trust him and not buy seafood from foreign waters.

Crab. Real crab is expensive. ‘Nuff said.

Aioli. Mmmmm, I adore aioli. However, real aioli is made from a raw egg yolk, crushed garlic, Dijon mustard, lemon juice and olive oil. The raw egg yolk makes it unsuitable for pregnant women.

Oh and yes, I can (and have) made aioli from scratch by hand. I can also make caesar salad dressing and mayonnaise. If anyone is interested, I will post the recipes here for you? I am pretty sure I can convert the recipes I learned by heart into something a little smaller. (The recipes I was using consisted of 30+ egg yolks at a time. Luckily I had a Kitchen Aid mixer to make them. Professional kitchen and all that jazz).

Crayfish. Although, I hear we are meant to be calling it Southern Rock Lobster now. Heh. I love crayfish cooked and then cooled, portioned out and then served on biscuits with cheese and aioli. Yum. Doing too much to crayfish ruins it in my opinion.

And last, but in no way least cheesecake.

Chilled cheesecake though, not baked. I find baked cheesecake much too heavy.

Nan has an amazing recipe for Lemon cheesecake and Mum makes the best version of it. Although, Nan’s Turkish Delight Cheesecake is probably about the best cheesecake I have ever eaten. Mmmmm. Considering I didn’t sort out actually doing anything for my birthday, I doubt I will be getting cheesecake this year.

So there, that is what I wish I was eating today.

In reality, Nathan is working, it’s off pay week and I haven’t really been near a butcher or a supermarket properly, so I doubt we will be doing anything special at all. And as yet, we don’t have any great plans for Saturday either. Ah well.