Green tea and fish = delish!

I dabbled a little in the kitchen tonight. Ben wanted something seafood-y. I obliged. It's quick and easy to cook and generally quite tasty. The only downside is the price of seafood in Australia; but that is a completely different story. Anyway, I thought that I might as well share the little recipe tweak I came up with so that other fish-om-nom lovers can enjoy too.

Green tea-infused honey-soy salmon

You will need:

2x 160g salmon (I like skin-on for the crispness)

1/4cup soy sauce

2Tbs sake

3Tbs honey

1tsp sesame oil

1tsp green tea powder

What you need to do:

First off, you are going to want to consider the proximity of your smoke detector to your stove-top. If you think that this may be too close, I hope you have the fire department and police on speed-dial so you can continuously inform them about your "faulty" detector. OR!! You can get some rice-bran oil for cooking because is creates less smoke while cooking at high temperatures... I'd choose the latter. I speak from experience... Our smoke detector enjoys telling my neighbourhood that I am, indeed, cooking with oil.

1. So, add some rice-bran oil into a pan and turn on the heat. Get the oil to cover the base of the pan nicely before you place anything in there. When you tilt the pan to coat the surface, the oil will "run a little like water" - that's when you know its hot enough, that and the ssssSSSSSSSSsssssssssss noise you may start hearing. Add the salmon, skin-side down. Cook on high-medium heat for 1 minute. Turn the heat to medium.

 

2. In the meantime, combine the other ingredients into a small pouring jug. Mix well to combine and keep nearby. Turn the salmon over and cook on medium-low heat. I prefer my salmon to be really pink to near-raw when I cook. If you prefer it well and truly dead, cook for longer than 2 minutes. This will all depend on the thickness of the salmon you have but if you get the 160g cutlets then 2 minutes is plenty.

Green tea powder

Nothing to look at, but it'll taste really good!

3. Take salmon off the pan, onto a plate and cover to keep warm. Pour or wipe (carefully) some of the oil out of the pan then add the green tea mixture. It'll bubble and sizzle for a little, keep stirring it and it should thicken just a little. Add your salmon to the pan and coat it in the sauce. Plate up the salmon and pour the remaining green tea sauce over the salmon and any accompaniments you're having with it (I have some cooked ramen noodles and steamed greens).

It's messy. I don't care. I'm hungry!

Itadakimasu!

Enjoy!

Would make for an awkward family reunion

Acanthodes bronni. The species name has "bro" in it, and according to a study undertaken by Davis, Finarelli and Coates, the shark-like A. bronni is a member of the family.

Wikipedia: Acanthodes bronni; your relative, a "few times" removed.

For an understanding of the position human beings find themselves in comparison to A. bronni, have a read of this blogger post: Common ancestor for humans and sharks: Acanthodes bronni. This post provides a brief history of the lineage and traits of Gnathostomes (everything with a spine and jaws).

Love your Brother shark.

Goldfish - a little cooler than your average fish

I think I want to turn the swimming pool into a piece of art work. But I won't choose just any old piece of artistry... I want realistic goldfish painted by Riusuke Fukahori. This guy is amazing. I watched all the available footage with his techniques - jaw-dropping. 

Painting each layer on resin to make gorgeous 3D sculptures. You can peruse Fukahori's masterpieces of fishiness in the ICN Gallery through Dominic Alves' flickr gallery. They are all beautiful. Wish I had them all...

(image from Alchemist & Co)

...hmmm 

I have NO idea where to put them all...

Museum in a Jar

I draw your undivided attention onto this SPECTACULAR piece of art by Japanese, Akinobu. He makes the most amazing scenery and objects and literally bottles them... in TINY JARS! I found him [Tiny World in a Bottle] on Etsy by accident (as all great discoveries are made) and have fallen in the deepest of affections for his miniature masterpieces.

Bony fish

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Fossilised Pteranodon

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Fossil Stegosaurus

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Fossil Stegosaurus, Tyrannosaurus and Apatosaurus

Please, check his work out.

There's a number of them for sale; ranging from $23 to $70 USD. All beautifully crafted by an artist with wonderful talent.

Could be a cute dogfish??

How could you not love this face?!?

This ADORABLE little face belongs to the African lungfish. It is one of the more advanced species of lungfish, with the Queensland or Australian lungfish being the most primitive (QLD species has only a single "lung", has lobe-fins similar to the coelacanth, and is the only lungfish species which can breathe through its gills - others gulp air as the gills are no longer efficient - therefore it is the only lungfish that cannot live out of water but must instead remain moist [other species may live for several months out of water in burrows etc]).

Another interesting thing to note, this African lungfish looks like Rosie, a King Charles spaniel...

*note the resemblance*

Top 5 Fossil Discoveries (IMO)

-1- Materpiscis "Mother fish"
Ancient fish from Australia's Kimberley region, c.380 million years ago. Oldest known fossil displaying viviparous characteristics (live birthing) in the fossil record.

-2- Gogonasus
Ancient fish from the primitive tropical Australian reef 380 million years ago. Its breathing structure on its head, and forearm lobe-fin joints were precursors to the middle ear and limbs (radius and ulna). Gogonasus now replaces Quebec's Eusthenopteron (the original "missing link" in terms of early tetrapod development) in the tetrapod relationship. Since it's so ancient, this pushes the first appearance of these features further back in the fossil record.

-3- Darwinius masillae "Ida"

The most complete skeleton of the earliest stage of human - the key "missing link". Small, lemur-like fossil believed to be the earliest stage of human evolution. Not related to lemurs due to the lack of dew claw on the forelimbs and there is not a fused tooth comb (both characteristics are primary features of lemur).

-4- Homo floresiensis "Flores Man" aka: Hobbit
Potential to rewrite human history. Believed to be a separate species of homonid from humans, but appeared to exist around the same time as early H. sapiens (hobbits were founds on the Idon Flores while humans inhabited the rest of the world). Possible disease and/or rare genetic disorder caused their shorter stature.

-5- Megalosaurus bucklandii "Giant lizard"
The first dinosaur (besides birds) to be scientifically described and subsequently named. It came upon the unfortunate name "Scrotum humanum" by Richard Brookes in 1763 due to its identification by Reverend Plot as the femur of a giant human (as described in the Bible). Its appearance was believed to be a long limbed, quadrupedal dog-like crocodile before coming to its more correct form.