First pics of the spirit house renovations

The builders have left and we’re left with a brand new restaurant. Basically the Spirit House spent two weeks at the plastic surgeon and has come out looking years younger and enhanced in all the right places. New bar, kitchen and a spiffy new paint job plus the last of our courtyards have been concreted and landscaped.

Here’s a picture I took the other day of the veranda area of the restaurant (actually it’s 7 photos made into an HDR image – which is why it has this perculiar look). Click on it to see the larger size:

Can I put this in the microwave?

If the kids are begging you to put some crayons in the microwave ‘ to see what happens’ or you are wondering what would soap do if you set it on high for a few minutes – then I’ve got the site for you. Heaps of videos of every day items put in a microwave and ‘nuked’. The videos are sped up which helps if you’re impatient like me and need to see results fast.

Onion ring volcano

I love an open kitchen, but it gets more exciting when danger is involved. A Japanese chef creates a volcano from onion rings, and oil plus some neat lava:

What! – they don’t even eat this.

Cool effect: Phonographantasmascope

What happens when you have an old record player, some cardboard, pins and a pair of scissors? You create these amazing effects:

Surviving the credit crisis

Certainly not food related but one of the most overheard conversations at the restaurant is this whole credit crisis thing. One of my favourite business authors Douglas Rushkoff has an amazing explanation about the credit crisis, and how it effects you over at boingboing.

Interestingly, the reason I bring this to your attention is because of his solution. It’s something that we at the Spirit House unwittingly have started to do ourselves inspired by the slow food movement and local harvest. By trying to source and buy from as many local suppliers as possible we stimulate the local economy which helps minimise the effects of the global market – here’s a quote from Rushkoff that says it all:

Whatever the case, the best thing you can do to protect yourself and your interests is to make friends. The more we are willing to do for each other on our own terms and for compensation that doesn’t necessarily involve the until-recently-almighty dollar, the less vulnerable we are to the movements of markets that, quite frankly, have nothing to do with us.

If you’re sourcing your garlic from your neighbor over the hill instead of the Big Ag conglomerate over the ocean, then shifts in the exchange rate won’t matter much. If you’re using a local currency to pay your mechanic to adjust your brakes, or your chiropractor to adjust your back, then a global liquidity crisis won’t affect your ability to pay for either. If you move to a place because you’re looking for smart people instead of a smart real estate investment, you’re less likely to be suckered by high costs of a “hot” city or neighborhood, and more likely to find the kinds of people willing to serve as a social network, if for no other reason than they’re less busy servicing their mortgages.

The more connected you are to the real world, and the more consciously you reject the lure of the speculative ladder, the less of a willing dupe you’ll be in the pyramid scheme that’s in the process of collapsing all around us at this moment.

Think small. Buy local. Make friends. Print money. Grow food. Teach children. Learn nutrition. And if you do have money to invest, put it into whatever lets you and your friends do those things.

I like that – get back to community. From Banana blossoms to scallops we try to use local suppliers wherever we can (which has inspired the theme for our next cook book). We use our local hardware store for all our garden and maintenance supplies and we bank here in Yandina. Building, maintenance and repair work is given to friends or friends of friends rather than the lowest quote.

I’m not saying we’re changing the world, but there’s something neat about being able to speak to the person who grows your food.

Spirit House Awards

Last night at the Restaurant and Caterers Awards, Spirit House won the Best Themed Restaurant award as well as the Best Tourism Restaurant Award. I think there will be a few sore heads this morning as our staff love to celebrate.

Spirit House ‘Business Sense’

From the Business Sense program on Channel 9 on Sunday mornings is this segment interviewing Helen Brierty – owner with her husband, Peter, of the Spirit House. Here’s a great insight into the beginnings and business lessons behind the Spirit House

Whole Crispy Fish Recipe

This Spirit House signature dish is one of the easiest to make – as long as you’re not scared of a wok of boiling oil or you have a large deep fryer.

The Tamarind Chilli Sauce

The easy way …
You can take the easy way out and head to an IGA and buy a bottle of Spirit House Tamarind Chilli Sauce. Here’s the method: open bottle, pour 100ml or so into a saucepan and heat. For a strong flavour, boil sauce for a few minutes to reduce the sauce down a tad.

… If that was too easy, you can do it the hard way and make your own sauce …
Make your own tamarind chilli sauce
4 tablespoons chopped garlic
4 red chillies, finely chopped, deseeded
2 golden or red shallots, sliced
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh or
pickled galangal
1 tablespoon finely chopped coriander root or stem
10 white peppercorns
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons palm sugar
half cup tamarind water
coriander or Thai sweet basil to garnish

method:
in mortar, pound white peppercorns, add garlic, shallots, galangal, coriander root – pound to coarse paste.
Heat 2 tablespoons oil in wok and stir fry the paste and chillies until fragrant – about 2 minutes. Add fish sauce, palm sugar, tamarind water. The sauce should be sweet, tangy and salty and should be quite thick. If too dry, moisten with a few tablespoons water. Simmer this sauce for a few minutes for the flavours to come together. Remove sauce from wok, keep warm.

Cooking The Fish

1 whole fish, weighing about 500 gms -cleaned, scaled, gutted & gilled
plain flour to coat fish
4 cups vegetable oil for deep frying

Method
Score both sides of the fish diagonally with a sharp knife. This opens the flesh making it quicker to cook and easier to eat.

In a Wok, make sure oil is sizzling hot by testing with a piece of garlic. Slide fish gently into oil, head first. Using wok flipper, spoon oil over the top of the fish while cooking. This will take about
10 minutes. Carefully turn the fish over, fry on the second side for about 5 minutes. Carefully lift out, drain on paper towel.

Transfer to serving platter, spread apart the gill area just behind the head, this will make it easy for the fish to stand upright on the plate spoon over sauce and garnish with coriander leaves or basil.

National tourism award winner

We can’t begin to tell you how excited we are to win the Australian Tourism Award for ‘Best Tourism Restaurant’. This has been a major achievement for us and finally we hope the local council will realise that we’re more than just a restaurant… we’re actually a reason to visit the Sunshine Coast. The real test will be if this is enough for us to get a SIGN for people to be able to find us.

Our very own superwoman

Katrina, our cooking school chef, was recently interviewed by Superwoman.com.au to talk about Seachange lifestyles. Few people know that Katrina and her Husband, Mark, were successful restrateurs themselves back in Sydney. Katrina has been personal chef to Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman and worked with Neil Perry at Rockpool… to find out how and why she gave all this up, read her interview:No going back – Superwoman