La Diva's Favorite Dinner in Sydney!

View of the beautifully secluded Mackerel Beach jetty from high up on Champagne Rock! (Go on and click for a closer look!)

Darlings, when I got back from downunder mid-March, fellow foodie blogger Shamu of the Karmic Kitchen immediately asked me: "Alrighty, tell me, without pondering, what was the best thing you ate on your trip?"

Now, anyone that reads this blog knows I loves me some Asian food and La Diva certainly did indulge in an Asian feeding frenzy while in Sydney, but....the best thing I ate on THIS TRIP just so happened to be what I made for dinner myself! My inspiration for this divine dinner all started for La Diva by using what was right in front of me!

Allow me to 'splain.

During my last trip to Sydney in March 2009, La Diva was presented with a different kind of sovenir to bring home: a new friendship. Mary Jane is Irish by birth, Aussie by residence and a total Yankee by voice and soul. We hit it off instantly. She's a beautiful song writer and soul singer that was dating my ex-husband and when we met, we clicked on many levels. Excited about our reunion, she invited me and bestie gal pal Fiona to a lush retreat on Mackerel Beach for a little girlie get away.

La Diva and Mary Jane singing "Hit the Road, Jack" at the pub on a Sunday afternoon.

Mackerel Beach is a small, secluded hideaway without roads or cars and is on the edge of a Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. It is located about an hour or so north of Sydney and across the water from toney beach suburb of Palm Beach. It can only be accessed by ferry and boasts about two dozen or so upscale weekender "cottages" for Sydney's well-to-do set. MJ has been coming here for years and scored the Kookaburra Cottage for a few days complete with two pianos, loads of local flora and fauna, two laden macadamia trees and utter peace and quiet!

La Diva was in heaven!

La Diva on a bush walk up to Champagne Rock look out and to see ancient aboriginal rock carvings. It was SOO PRETTY HERE that I'm thinking I might just do a post on Mackerel Beach itself!

In between bush walks up sandstone cliffs with gorgeous vistas and aboriginal carvings, singing with Mary Jane at the piano and dancing our girly asses off, La Diva picked macadamia nuts. An entire grocery bag of them, actually. I knew I would find some thing to make with the buttery delicacies!

I got as close as I could to this grazing wallaby but had to use the zoom lens as he was very skittish.

After two peaceful and fun days of hiking, swimming, cooking, laughing, dancing and singing, we bade Kookaburra Cottage and Mackerel Beach adieu. On the way to the last ferry off the beach, I nabbed a huge banana leaf, the gears already spinning for a dinner in my Diva head! When I got back to Fifi's, I put the banana leaf in a bucket of water to keep and the macadamia nuts in the pantry.

Come Saturday morning, Fifi and I headed off to the Sydney Fish Market to buy food for a feast! Fiona and I would buy and prepare the food if our friends would supply the grog. Seeing as our Kentuckian pal Randy (aka The Re-filler, for obvious reasons!) was in town and coming for dinner, we knew bottles of local Aussie sparkling would be flowing in abundance.

Here's what we prepared:

First course: No necesario! La Diva didn't even need lemon, crackers or mignonette sauce to serve and devour these divine AAA grade oysters!

Second course: Fresh green tiger prawns were coated with a pre-made spice rub from Herbies consisting of ground kaffir lime, lemon myrtle, ginger, turmeric, galangal and other exotic herbs and spices! Fiona grilled them like a master and we all enjoyed how they popped in our mouth with spicy, lemony bursts!

The third course took some hard work and was quite the process! Much to the entertainment and curiosity of the little girls next door, La Diva sat in the gutter and smashed the macadamias with a hammer, naturally while imbibing in a refreshing vodka, soda and home-made blackberry cordial. (Fifi wisely keeps the chef lubed for chores like this!) The macadamia has a thick skin and a very tough shell. No wonder they are so expensive, it was very labor intensive to get to their creamy insides!

Now, off to churn the butter.....heheh....(just kidding!)

Into the blender went the raw macadamia with cilantro, garden fresh basil, garlic and olive oil to create a lovely pesto with a bit of a kick!

Scallops on the half shell are perfect for the grill or broiler. La Diva topped each with a healthy dollop of the rich macadamia pesto.

Third course: Grilled scallops with macadamia cilantro pesto on the half shell. Cooked until only "just" done, the scallops retained their juices and the zesty cilantro pesto complimented the sweet scallop perfectly. Wish I would have bought more of these........two each was just not enough! But it was a nice little teaser for what was yet to come.

Main course: Wild caught barrumundi fish marinated in coconut cream and spices and grilled in banana leaves.

I didn't tell you about the wild caught barramundi I bought at the fish market, did I? I've eaten it plenty of times while living in Australia and always found it to be a sweet, light tasting fish with a thick yet not heavy texture, perhaps similar to mahi-mahi.

La Diva bought three huge fillets at $60 AUD and it was worth EVERY PENNY. Sure, I could have bought ling at a much cheaper price but I wanted to make and eat something special, something that I don't get to eat often and is certainly not available in my part of the world. And finally, I wanted to make something I knew would be delicious. I was not disappointed.

I made a simple but flavorful paste using coconut cream (no, darlings, NOT the milk but that fatty, solidified part of coconut milk!) fresh garlic, ginger, salt and kaffir lime. The paste smelled heavenly. I smeared it all generously on the fish that I had cut into portions and let marinate for a few hours until dinnertime.

Remember that big ol' banana leaf I carted all the way back from Mackerel Beach? I cut it into sections and then blanched them quickly in boiling water to make them pliable without splitting.

I then took each barramundi fillet and wrapped the banana leaf around it and secured with toothpicks. They were ready for grillin'!

Fiona deftly handles the barbeque like the true blue Aussie Sheila she is and cooked the fish to perfection!

Darlings. DARLINGS!!! The photo just does NOT do justice to the divinely, decadence that was our fish dinner on this night. The coconut cream was so subtle but added to the moist succulence of this super fresh fish. The seasonings were gentle in flavor and the addition of finely shredded kaffir lime added after serving put just the right zest and brightness into the dish without overpowering the mellow fish flavor.

Everyone "ooohed" and "aaahhhed" upon being presented with the banana leaf encased fish. Opening the steaming little parcel was like opening up a savory surprise with all the aromatics rushing into your nose! Even though I'd been to some of the finest restaurants in Sydney on this trip, this was easily the best meal La Diva had taken. In fact, our guests said that it was THE BEST meal they had and a meal like this would have easily cost a minimum of $150 a head.

The dinner was completed with yet more Aussie sparkling and a lovely compote of home made stewed rhubarb slathered over vanilla ice cream finished with a lovely little dab of marscapone.

While I thought the dinner a triumph, it simply attests to La Diva's philosophy of using very fresh, high quality ingredients prepared simply and using seasonings based on a variety of ethnic styles. Good friends and fun conversation completed a wonderful, and La Diva's favorite, dinner in Sydney.

And to think this lovely meal all started with a macadamia tree, a banana leaf and a bit of inspiration!

Ciao, darlings!

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