Rants of a Rebecca

Cooking With Bec. Vol.5

Hi Hook Turns, and other non-Melbournian road laws. Well after a long break, it is back to the Cooking With Bec series. Now I am sure you all know what a "slap up" is. Well it is also a for of cooking where you get a quick meal happening. The version goes back to 1889, when a young Scandanavian opened his first "Cured Fish" store in Australia. He sold all the usual Red Herrings, and other salted fishy things, but the premium dish was his 'Slap'. Now the Slap is an unusal dish. It is made from the finest of scrapings from the bottom of a ships hull, and cured in the sweat rung out of the ships crews' underwear. The dish is then put into a barrel and forgotten about for the next 7 years. After this time, it has rotted through the hull of the ship, from where it floats to the nearest shoreline. From here it is collected and sold as 'Slap'. Now it takes a desperate person to eat Slap, or one who has no will to live. Quite often when it is consumed, it comes back qucikly. At this point, everyone else gets a wiff of the stench, and calls out "Slap Up!" Thankfully tonights dish is a little better, but just as much fun to cook. The dish is in three parts. Part one: Chicken pieces flame grilled in Cajan spice and lemon juice. Part Two: Fresh garden salad. Don't worry if you don't have a garden, you can get one at the supermarket these days. Part Three: We have all heard of a Mediterranian pasta dish before, but I am not sure I will put this dish in that subsection of pasta. There for I am going to name it after a fine Victoria waterway, and call it a Maribrynong Pasta. This pasta is fairly simple, and was the base for me doing the slap up. All you need is some pasta, I chose spiral tubes, but anything will do. Just cook this through, then leave to the side. In a deep dish frypan, cook up some Bacon, Onion, Garlic, Mixed herbs. Once this is nice and browned off, add in some semi sundried tomatos, tomato paste and cottage cheese. Mix it all together and there you have it. For serving, simply put the chicken on a bed of the pasta, and have the salad on the side. Nothing to it. So there you have it, enjoy your slap up and happy cooking. Blog Out. HooRoo, Bec

posted by Rebecca @ 6/29/2005 07:23:00 pm