Real Men Make Their Own Quiche
Originally I was going to make this for lunch but when I realised it was already midday it turned into a dinner instead and I’m sorry it’s another zucchini recipe but they’re in season.
Pasta Salad with Broad Beans, Pancetta and Fetta
I ended up with a pasta salad, a quick trip to The Deli for some pancetta and everything was go. Straight forward and only taking 15 minutes I had dinner. Coming into summer it’s great the next day for a picnic once the flavours have mingled even more.
Bacon and Egg Slice
My mum used to make this with puff pastry and no spinach. Puff pastry would have been nice for the flaky top but the short-crust I used still worked.
Duck Confit with Crisp Beetroot Salad
The salad to go along side this is easy too and involves no more than whisking a dressing together and grating the beetroot on a mandolin.
Duck Confit with Crisp Beetroot
Salad
The fish has volume, and vents?
Once I got home though, I couldn’t really be bothered doing anything except drink the champagne. Sunday night I still wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do with the snapper so I decided to tea smoke it and make a large single serve vol au vent. It was surprisingly easy and tasted pretty damn good. Much better than those vol au vents your mum used to make at dinner parties in the 80’s and early 90’s!
Smoked snapper vol au
vent
Smoked Snapper Vol Au Vents - Serves
2
1 whole fresh snapper
1 tablespoon of black peppercorns
1 tablespoon of cardamom pods (crushed)
1 fresh bay leaf
1 cup sugar
1 cup of salt
1 cup of white rice
1 cup of black tea
1 sheet of short crust pastry
1 cup of stock (I used rabbit, but vegetable, chicken or fish would
be ok)
1 tablespoon of corn flour
1 tablespoon of fresh cut parsley
Place the snapper, pepper, cardamom, bay leaf and half of the salt
and sugar in a plastic container and cover with water. Leave for
two hours (6 in the fridge). Take the fish out and let it air dry
for a while or pat it dry with some paper towel.
Line a roasting tin that you have a rack and a lid with foil. Mix
the rest of the salt and sugar with the rice and tea and pour
evenly into the foil. Place the tin over a low heat (preferably
with a simmer mat) and heat until it starts to smoke. Place the
fish on the rack, the rack on the rice and the lid on the tin (get
all that? Good). Leave for an hour and turn the heat off but do not
remove the lid.
Once the whole lot has cooled, take the lid off and start to flake
the flesh off the snapper trying to keep the bones out of the
mix.
Heat your oven to 180ºC and cut two circles out of the short crust
pastry and rings out of the puff pastry, the same diameter as the
short crust circles. Place the two pastry stacks on a baking tray
and bake for 20 minutes or until the pastry rings have risen.
Boil the stock and add the corn flour, whisking constantly until it
has thickened. Add the fish and re-heat gently so to not break the
fish up further. Stir through the parsley then taste for seasoning
and then spoon into the vol au vent cases.
The Illegitimate Dumpling King
So after meeting some wonderful company at the station we began walking up the eastern side of King Street until we started to realise that we were almost of restaurants. Just at that point we were standing next to The Dumpling King (194 King Street, Newtown). Declaring my love for dumplings we headed in, sat down and went over the menu looking for some rare and tasty dumplings I'd never heard of before. Bitterly disappointed given the name of the place there were only four dumplings! Northern Meat Style, steamed or pan fried, and Vegetable Dumpling, steamed or pan fried. How can you call yourself the Dumpling King if you only have two types of dumplings?! We decided to order the shallot pancake and the meat bun and of course, both types of dumplings - steamed.
You
won’t find many dumplings at The Dumpling King (194 King Street,
Newtown)
Twenty
minutes later the pancake (that I don't think had even met a
shallot) arrived along with the pan fried flavourless northern meat
buns. Chewing through those and washing them down with some weak
green tea (from a bag) we sat and chatted. Pleasant and engaging
conversation, thankfully, which made the next forty-five minutes
waiting for our dumplings bearable.
Eventually, after physically getting up and asking the wait-staff
that had ignored us since we ordered where the rest of our meal
was, two steamer baskets turned up with an excuse that the Dumpling
King had run out of dumplings and he had to make them fresh! Two
things are wrong with that, one - the DUMPLING KING ran out of
dumplings; and two - if he did have some on hand they wouldn't have
been fresh! I know I'm probably arguing for two different sides
here, do I want fresh dumplings or do I want quick service but
that's not the point. We weren't the only table that didn't get
their meals, I noticed two or three other tables having to stop the
wait-staff and ask where their food was.
At the end of the night, I have to admit the dumplings were
actually quite nice, but the experience was terrible with poor
service and a promise of a plethora of dumplings that just don't
exist. The rest of the menu looked quite uninspired and with the
variety available on King Street I'm not going to be in any hurry
to visit the illegitimate Dumpling King again. I'd rather go to
Happy Chef.
Fried Wild Rice with Crispy Duck
0900 Breakfast with Puppet
1100 Orthopantograph (full mouth dental x-ray)
1200 Optometrists Appointment
1400 Meeting with new employer
1530 Pick up remaining belongings from existing employer
1600 Pick up washing from laundromat
1700 Hardware store - new light bulbs
1730 Clean kitchen
1900 Cook dinner
2000 Clean kitchen again
2030 Blog about dinner
So with that schedule, I wanted something quick and easy for dinner and with left over crispy skinned duck in the fridge and a packet of wild rice in the cupboard a jazzed up fried rice was great choice. Simple and easy and best of all, using those little bits of stuff you’ve got laying around.
Fried Wild Rice with Crispy
Duck
Fried
Wild Rice with Crispy Duck -
Serves 2 as a main, 4 as a side
2 eggs
2 cups of wild rice
2 cups of cooked duck, shredded
4 rashers of bacon, diced
½ cup frozen stir-fry veg (or peas, carrots, corn etc diced)
1 cinnamon stick (optional)
1 star anise (optional)
Whisk the eggs together and fry in a wok, swirling around to create
a thin omelette. Turn the omelette out and dice.
Cook the rice and leave to cool.
Fry the spices, duck and bacon until the bacon is crispy, add the
vegetables and fry until almost cooked and add the rice. Fry until
the rice is loose and not clumping any more, add the egg and heat
through. Serve.
Crispy Skinned Orange Duck al la Kylie Kwong
It was a bit of a nightmare getting to make this, I went to eight different places to find a whole duck and twice as many to find either blood plums or blood oranges. I ended up settling for standard oranges and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening wondering if the dish would still retain it’s quintessential tastiness. Luck won with a not as sweet, but with a nice piquancy the original blood plums didn’t have.
Orange Crispy Skinned Duck
Crispy Skinned Orange Duck - Serves 2
1 whole duck, approx. 1.5kg
1 tablespoons of sichuan pepper
3 tablespoons of sea salt
¼ cup plain flour
vegetable oil for frying
1 cup of water
1 cup of white sugar
250 grams of oranges, juiced (or blood plums)
⅔
cups of fish sauce
6 whole star anise
2 cinnamon quills
⅓ cups of lime juice
Trim away the excess fat from the cavity of the duck. Grind the
sichuan pepper and salt together and then rub all over the duck.
Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Boil some water in a wok or large saucepan and place a steamer
basket over, the duck inside, cover and leave for an hour and a
half. Take the now cooked duck out and leave it to cool.
Once the duck is cold enough to handle, slice it in half
lengthwise, from neck to tail. Gently pry the carcass out, leaving
the drumstick and wings intact. Cut each half into half again so
you have a wing and a leg piece.
To make the sauce, mix the water, sugar, oranges together and bring
to the boil in a saucepan, reduce the heat to a simmer and add the
fish sauce, star anise, cinnamon and lime juice. Simmer while you
fry the duck.
Heat the vegetable oil a wok or deep saucepan, cover the duck
pieces with flour and deep fry each piece separately until the skin
has gone a crisp golden colour. Drain the pieces after they’ve
cooked on paper towel. When their all cooked, cut the duck down
into bite-sized pieces, except for the bones.
Pile the duck on a serving platter and pour over enough sauce to
coat the duck.
Eat it with your hands and have a bowl of rice on the
side.
His Name Was Robert Paulson
Jack (Ed Norton) and Bob (Meat Loaf) at support group in Fight
Club
I was considering calling this post “My Meatloaf has Bitch Tits”
but that doesn’t really portray the damn fine tasty meatloaf that I
made tonight. I know it’s a bit of a tenuous link but Meat Loaf
played the character Robert Paulson, the guy with bitch tits that
Jack meets at his testicular cancer support group... With torn off
pieces of fresh buffalo mozzarella and sun-dried tomato this
meatloaf really is a notch above what you’ve probably ever
considered a meatloaf could be.
The original recipe for this meatloaf comes from Mario
Batali’s father (via Epicurious), which might explain Mario’s
own bitch tits. The entire loaf, if made as directed weighs in at
2-3 kg! I intended to make half of this but I wasn’t paying
attention when I went to buy the ingredients and bought enough to
make the full recipe, luckily meatloaf can be frozen well. Sort of
like Meat Loaf’s assets. I
cheated a little in this recipe, David Jones had some great looking
beef rissoles that had onion, carrot, parsley and a few other bits
already mixed through in what looked about the right proportion so
I bought that instead of just plain minced beef. For a little more
vegetable matter in a meal that will be almost entirely meat I made
some balsamic roast vegetables to go along side - just baby
carrots, red onion, parsnip etc tossed with some olive oil and a
splash of balsamic and roasted along side the meatloaf for the last
half hour.
Beef and Italian Sausage Meatloaf
with Sundried Tomatoes and Mozarella
Beef and Sausage Meatloaf - Serves 8 or
more
1kg of lean beef mince
500g of buffalo mozzarella, torn into pieces
500g of italian sausage, cases removed
2 cups of chopped fresh basil
2 cups of fresh breadcrumbs
1 medium onion, chopped
1 cup of sliced sun-dried tomatoes
5 garlic cloves
1½ tablespoons of dried oregano
2 teaspoons of salt
2 × ½ cup of tomato sauce
3 eggs
½ cup of dry red wine
Pre-heat your oven to 190ºC. Thoroughly mix all of the ingredients
together in a bowl except one of the half cups of tomato sauce.
Mould into a loaf shape and place in a loaf tin and even out the
surface. Brush on the remaining tomato sauce. Bake in the oven for
about an hour and fifteen minutes or until a meat thermometer
reaches 70-75ºC at the centre of the loaf.
The Duke was Shot in the Back
Affie, as he was known by his family was so called because he was affable, easy to talk to and that sense really has been instilled at The Duke. Given it’s prime location meters away from the Enmore Theatre everyone comes here for a beer and a meal before a show ( The Presets drew me here Monday night). If you’re planning on eating get here early because the place fills up fast. On freezing cold nights like last night, the roaring open fire helps too!
I’ve been here a few times, and the place isn’t cheap but the food is good and usually pretty high quality with some very generous servings. I had the mixed grill this time around, sausages, minute steak, bacon and lamb cutlets on chips with sauce of your choice, pepper, mushroom etc, all for the princley sum (get it?) of $17.50. It is just pub food here, steaks, burgers and the good old chicken parma that a friend had, looking equally as delicious and priced.
Mixed Grill @ The Duke, Enmore
Food, 7/10 - Better
than most pubs and everything you’d expect on a classic pub menu
board
Service, 8/10 - For a pub, you can’t complain -
they were happy and friendly
Coffee, 10/10 - Because it was made with hopps and
barley and served by the pint
Value, 7/10 - Tough one, but for the location and
the generous servings it gets a couple extra points
Location, 9/10 - If you’re going to the Enmore
it’s ideal
The Duke of Edinburgh
148 Enmore Road, Enmore NSW 2042
P: 02 9519 1935
F: 02 9557 1381
W:
http://www.duke-hotel.com/
Duck with Roast Fennel and Berry Sauce
Duck with Roast Fennel and Berry
Sauce
Duck with Roast Fennel and Berry Sauce -
Serves 2
2 duck marylands
2 sprigs of rosemary
1 tablespoon of salt
1 fennel bulb
1 zucchini
1 tablespoon of olive oil
Salt and Pepper
¼ cup of frozen berries
In a mortar and pestle grind the salt and rosemary until they’re
mixed well. Coat the duck marylands well and leave to sit lightly
covered with plastic wrap until it’s ready to cook.
Pre-heat the oven to 160ºC. Slice the zucchini in half and the
fennel into 5mm slices. Drizzel with olive oil and season with salt
and pepper and spread out on a roasting tray and roast in the oven
until the fennel is soft.
After the fennel has been in the oven for about 30 minutes, add a
little olive oil to a frying pan at medium heat. Add the duck skin
side down and fry until golden, turn over and fry until the other
side is golden. Finish the duck in the frying pan in the oven for
15 minutes.
Take the duck out of the oven and rest. While the duck is resting,
add the berries to the frying pan and simmer until reduced. Strain
out any pips. Put the veggies on the plate, then the duck and spoon
over the berry sauce.
Roast Pork Loin with Dried Fruit
Roast Pork Loin with Dried
Fruit
Roast Pork Loin with Dried Fruit - Serves
4-6
1kg pork loin
2 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 large shallots, chopped
¾ cup diced dried apples
½ cup dried cranberries
½ cup dried mixed berries
¼ cup dried wild figs
1½ cups low-salt chicken stock
½ cup dry white wine
Preheat oven to 220°C. Sprinkle pork with rosemary, salt, and
pepper.
Place pork in the oven and roast for 20 minutes. Lower the
temprature to 170ºC and continue to roast until thermometer
inserted into center registers 65°C to 75°C, about another 35-45
minutes. Transfer pork to platter; let stand 10 minutes.
Add apples, figs, cranberries and berries to the pan with the wine
and stock.; stir until fruit mixture is heated through, boil 1
minute, lower the heat, cover and simmer. If thicker sauce is
desired, boil until reduced enough to coat spoon. Season sauce to
taste with salt and pepper. Slice pork and spoon sauce over.
Corelli Sure Liked His Waffles
Corelli's Café - 352 King Street,
Newtown
Being
the heart of Newtown it manages to still have that feel of
Bohemia
about
it, which is odd because Arcangelo
Corelli was
Italian not Slavic; nor was he gypsy. In fact he was long dead
before the French even coined the phrase. The point though, is that
Corelli’s has that aire of real Newtown about it with it’s cramped
tables, mismatched paintwork and staff that will get around to
taking your order when they’ve stopped day-dreaming as they watch
the foot traffic.
As for the food, the menu seemed skewed towards breakfast, proven
by dinner there tonight with my pick of the menu being the bangers
and mash (not too bad but simple as it should be). For that
breakfast though John had the generously portioned eggs benedict
with an obviously not
store-bought hollandaise sauce.
You could tell it was made with fresh egg and
lemon.
Eggs Benedict @ Corelli's
Newtown
To
satisfy the need for sugar and fat though I couldn’t turn up the
made-to-order Belgian waffles with strawberry and rhubarb compote,
maple syrup and fresh cream. Good lord it hit the spot — then
stomped around on it for a while. The waffles themselves were light
and fluffy with just enough sugary-caramelised crispiness, balanced
with the sweet and tart compote and the lusciousness of the cream.
I think John’s arse clenched when he tasted some! Are you reading
this John? :P
Waffles with Rhubarb and Strawberry
Compote @ Corelli's Newtown
Pearl Barley and Mushroom Ham Soup
UPDATE: This soup freezes very well, after two months frozen solid it was brilliant and the barley still had a great texture, as good as when it was first made.
Pearl
Barley and Mushroom Ham Soup
Pearl
Barley and Mushroom Ham Soup
Serves 4-8 depending on how much stock you add
250g pearl barley
40g butter or 2T of olive oil
200g onion, diced
3 cloves garlic
2 sprigs rosemary
3 springs thyme
3 dried porcini mushrooms (or dried chinese mushrooms)
100g shiitake mushrooms
200g swiss brown mushrooms
2 large ham bones (optional)
Boil the barley and ham bones in 1½L of water for an hour. While
that's on the go, chop everything else and fry the onion and garlic
until it's translucent then add the rest. When the barley is soft
take out the ham bones and chop off any left over meat. Add that
and the mushrooms into the pot with the stock and bring it all back
to the boil.
Season if needed and serve with some toasted sourdough.
Olivada Roast Chicken with Thyme Roasted Vegetables
Olivada Roast
Chicken
Olivada Roast Chicken with
Thyme Roast Vegetables - Serves 4-6
Olivada (can be made a day ahead)
1½ cups of kalamata olives
4 teaspoons of fresh chopped rosemary
2 garlic cloves
1 teaspoon of red pepper flakes
½ teaspoon sea salt
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
Chicken
1½-2kg whole organic chicken
¼ cup of melted butter or olive oil
⅓
cup dry white wine
⅔
cup chicken stock
Vegetables
1kg of mixed roasting vegetables
2 tablespoons of olive oil
Salt and pepper
Fresh thyme
To make the olivada, pit the olives if they aren't already (press
down on them with the back of a kitchen knife is easiest), toss
them all in a blender and wizz until you've made a paste. Stir it
halfway through if the bits are clinging to the side. If you're
making this a day or two before, put in in an air-tight bowl and
and keep in the fridge until ready. Let it come back to room
temperature before cooking otherwise it will slow the chicken
getting to a safe temperature making it dry out.
For the chicken, pre-heat your oven 200ºC. While the oven is
heating rinse the chook under cool running water and dry it out
with either paper towel, or a hairdryer (no, really). Once that's
done place the chicken on your work surface with the neck facing
you and gently slip your fingers under the skin on the breast side.
Continue rummaging around the gap between the skin and flesh like
you're looking for your keys under the couch until the skin is
separated across the breasts, legs and most of the drumsticks. Take
a small handful of the olivada and insert it in the gap made
looking for your keys. Keep doing that until you've filled the gap
or run out of olivada. Massage the chicken to spread the olives
evenly.
If by the time your oven is up to temp and your chicken is room
temperature, place it on the roasting rack in your roasting tin,
brush it with the melted butter and roast until the chicken has
reached a safe temp 85ºC which should take about an hour and a
half. Otherwise let it warm up before roasting. Add the vegetables
to the bottom of the tin about half way through.
When your chook is looking like a retiree from Miami, take it out
and place the roasting rack and the vegetables on a chopping board
or somewhere else to rest, cover with foil to keep them warm. Put
the roasting tin on the stove across two burners on medium to low
and add the wine and enough chicken stock to make 1, swirl it
around and scrape off all the sticky bits on the bottom of the pan,
simmer and reduce to about ⅔
of a cup.
Fast Tortellini Soup with Chared Sourdough
Fast Tortellini Soup with Chared
Sourdough
Fast Tortellini Soup with Chared Sourdough
- Serves 2
500g Packet of Fresh Tortellini (I used veal)
1L Box of Ready Made Beef Consommé
1 Bunch of Broccolini
2 Slices of Sourdough
1 Garlic Clove
Put the consommé into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Meanwhile,
heat a grill pan.
When the consommé is boiling, add the tortellini and return to the
boil. Drizzle the grill pan with some olive oil and place the
slices of sourdough on the grill pan. Leave until thick black lines
are formed on the bread. Turnover and repeat for the opposite side.
When you turn the bread over, rub the hot side of the bread with
half of the garlic clove.
By the time this is done the pasta should be about ready. Break up
the broccolini into bite sized pieces and toss in the
consommé.
The other side of the bread should be ready by now so take it off,
slice in half and serve two pieces per person. Divide the soup,
tortellini and broccolini between each person and serve.
Optional: If you've got larger soup bowls and want to add an extra
bit of style to this dish, place the slices of bread under a
griller/broiler topped with cheese until it's golden and bubbly.
Float in the bowl when serving.
Baked Chicken Sausage and Roast Potato
Baked Chicken Sausage and Roast
Potato
Baked Chicken Sausage and Roast
Potato
500g Chicken sausages
250g Baby (chat) potato, cut in half
250g Sweet potato, cut to the same size as the potato
Rosemary
Salt & pepper
Olive oil
Pre-heat your oven to 200ºC, place everything in a roasting pan,
toss to coat.
Bake for 30 minutes.
Moving into Red Wine Season with Chorizo, Lentils and Donna Hay
Chorizo and Green
Lentils
Chorizo and Lentils
1 Onion, diced
2 Chorizo, diced
4 Sticks of celery, diced
6 Sprigs of thyme
2 Cups of green lentils
1L of chicken stock
Salt and Pepper
2T of red wine vinegar (I subbed balsamic)
Fry the onion and chorizo together until the sausage is crispy on
medium heat, around 8 minutes.
Add the celery, thyme, fry for another 5 minutes.
Add the lentils and stock and simmer for 25 minutes until the
lentils are soft (mine took almost an hour).
Stir through the vinegar and serve. I had some toast with mine to
soak up the juices.
Saying all that though, it was really quite tasty, even given my
blocked nose from my cold. Perhaps the surprisingly good cheap
bottle of wine helped? I picked up a bottle of Cono Sur
Organic Cabernet Sauvignon direct from the Colchagua
Valley in Chile. It was the smoothest Cab Sav I've had in
years. Aged in French Oak it has fantastic cherry, strawberry
raspberry and vanilla flavours and for $12 a bottle, how can you
complain? I'm going to pick up another dozen bottles when I
can.
Cono Sur Organic Cab Sav
Veal Tortellini and Meatballs
I really am sorry to say but I couldn't taste much of it at all. The meatballs were strong, the pasta wasn't and the sauce had a nice chili kick that I think has made my nose start running again. I'll have to try those meatballs again when I can smell them.
Veal Tortellini and
Meatballs
Sticky Hoisin Pork with Steamed Beans, Peas and Rice
This thing was a little messy to make due mostly due to my clumsiness, but I am glad I used a non-stick frying pan. I haven't washed it yet but Im not looking forward to it. Other than that, it was quick, easy and bloody delicious. The pork in the picture in Donna Hay looked a little dry and overdone so I dropped the cooking time back a few minutes and it was extremely tender and the lightest of pink.
Sticky Hoisin Pork with Steamed
Beans, Peas and Rice
Sticky Hoisin Pork with Steamed Beans, Peas and
Rice
1T of Hoisin sauce
1T of Honey
1T of Soy sauce
450g Pork Loin
250g of Sugar snap peas
250g of Green beans
Rice to serve
Sesame seeds to garnish
Pre-heat your oven to 180℃
Mix the hoisin, soy and honey in a ziplock bag and place the pork
loin inside and leave for 15 minutes.
Remove the pork and in a non-stick pan, fry the pork each side for
1-2 minutes. Pour the remaining marinade over the pork and turn to
coat. Place the pan in the oven and bake for 15 minutes (the recipe
said 15, I cooked mine for 12).
Once the pork is ready, remove and place on a chopping board and
rest for 15 minutes.
Steam the beans and peas together.
Slice the pork diagonaly into disks and serve over on a bed of rice
with the greens to the side. Drizzle the pan juices over the pork
and sprinkle with the sesame seeds.
Kylie Kwong and her Garfish
Having said that, I made the whole garfish recipe last night and the dressing was delicious but could have used a little less oil (modified recipe below). It was tasty sure, but next time I'm going to try the dressing with less oil and another fish like sea bream or mahi-mahi that are suggested alternatives in the book. The garfish was a pain the arse to eat with lots of sharp little pin-bones.
Whole garfish with ginger, chili and
soy dressing
Deep Fried Whole Garfish with Chili, Ginger
and Soy Dressing
4 Whole garfish, cleaned and gutted
Flour for dusting
Peanut oil for deep frying
1 Long red chili, sliced thinly
2 Spring onions, sliced thinly
¼C Coriander leaves
1 knob of ginger, grated finely
2T Dark soy
2T Light soy
Heat the peanut oil in a wok until the surface is shimmering
Dust the garfish in the flour and shake off the excess
Place the chili, spring onion, coriander and ginger in a heat proof
bowl and pour over a spoonful of the hot oil and stir. Add the soy
sauces and stir to combine.
Slip the garfish into the hot oil, two at a time and cook until the
flesh is firm and white, about 3 minutes. Place the first two
garfish on a plate with paper towel and cook the remaining two.
Don't be tempted to cook all four at the same time because the oil
will cool down too much and the flour coating won't go
crispy.
Serve with the garfish draped over a mound of rice and the dressing
spooned over.
Prawn Curry
Steaming Hot Prawn
Curry
Prawn Curry -
Serves 4
1 teaspoon of Celery Seeds
1 teaspoon of whole Allspice
1 teaspoon of Cumin Seeds
1 teaspoon of dry Curry Powder
1 Red Chilli, finely diced
2 Garlic Cloves, finely diced
1 Onion, sliced
2 Tablespoons of Tomato Paste
2 Tomatoes, diced
Assorted Vegetables (I used carrot, golden squash and
broccoli)
300mL of Sour Cream
500g of Green Prawns
Basmati Rice
Lime Wedge (optional)
Dry roast the spices in a large frying pan or wok until fragrant
then grind in a mortar and pestle.
In the same frying pan, add a dash of oil and fry off the chili,
garlic and onion until the onion is translucent. Add the spices and
fry for a few minutes until you can smell them clearly. Add the
tomato paste, vegetables and sour cream and simmer until the
vegetables are soft.
Add the prawns and cook until pink but still tender.
Serve over basmati rice with a lime wedge on the side.
Slumming It
Tonight, I'm not going to have one of those healthy alternatives. I'm really slumming it. About as bad as you can get. Dominos. From a technical point of view I really have to appreciate their online ordering system, pick, build or customize your pizzas, sides add a voucher code and the system goes and checks your local store to see if they have the capacity to take your order. When they do the order is placed and a pretty accurate timer starts to count down from when the order is placed, to it being made, baked and delivered. The only time it gets a bit whackey is when you ask for the pizza to be delivered at a specific time. Sure it gets delivered pretty much ton time but it doesn't show you when they've started to make it onwards.
It obviously doesn't check the store's stock levels, a few minutes after I placed my order I got a phone call from the store telling me they'd run out of the thin and crispy bases and asked if I'd like classic instead. I didn't really, but what choice did I have? I'd decided to try the new "7 meats" and "chicken feast". No doubt I could have made these taste a thousand times better and with a thousand times less fat but when you're tired and don't want to get off the couch can you blame me?
Thei chicken feast was quite bland, just the slightest hint of flavour from the capsicum and so was the 7 meats for that matter, just the saltiness from cheap bacon. I got what I expected. Nothing but that sick full feeling and the thought I should have just had a sandwich.
Dominos Seven Meats
Pizza
Curry Dusted Sea Scallops with Roasted Beetroot Salad and Baby Pea Puree
I'll admit, tonight I cheated and bought the roast beetroot salad from David Jones, but it seems fairly simple to make. It just looks like carrots, beetroot and new potato all diced to bite sized chunks and roasted together in a foil jacket with a splash of either chicken stock, white wine or verjuice until tender (I guess 180°C for 20 minutes and check for tenderness). I really just got it for colour and texture contrast from the rest of the dish. Having served this with them I really think it needs the balance, it would have missed something with out it.
Curry Dusted Scallops with Baby Pea Puree -
Serves 2
300g frozen baby peas
2 spring onions, sliced finely
Knob of butter
Squeeze of fresh lime juice
8 Sea Scallops without roe
2 teaspoons of curry powder
Salt & pepper to taste
Boil the peas in some lightly salted water until done and drain of
almost all of the water. Add the spring onions, butter, salt and
pepper and whiz in a blender or with a stick mixer until a rough
puree is formed, taste and add lime juice enough to give the mix a
slight sharp and fresh taste.
Mix the curry powder and salt together on a plate and roll all of
the scallops in the mix until they're evenly coated and fry off in
a hot pan with butter for 1 minute on each side.
Plate with a few spoonfuls of the pea puree on a plate, topped with
the beetroot salad and finally the scallops.
Serve with a dry white wine such as the
2007 Vasse Felix Classic Dry White from
the Margaret River I
had. It's a very nice light white wine with a subtle passionfruit
flavour.
Manly Grill - One of the best cheeseburgers in Sydney
The thing that, as always, makes it for me is the
demeanor of the staff, if it's not service with a smile, it's
not service. Sure, may be it had more to do with the beautiful day
or the incredible shirtless scenery walking past every 3 seconds
(which in all honesty is why I went to Manly instead of Newtown)
than it did with me but who cares, it makes a difference. These
people smiled and they genuinely seemed happy to take my order.
Which brings us to the menu. Manly grill prides it self on the two
things that any restaurant in this sort of location should, it's
seafood and it's beef. While it was the perfect day for seafood
such as their enormous $120 seafood platter which is well worth the
money from what I could see around me. It would serve 2 Americans,
or 4 normal people. I opted for a plain and simple cheeseburger,
served with shoestring fries and homemade coleslaw.
What I got though was far from a standard cheeseburger, it was
simple, just the basics, but that's what you want from a
cheeseburger. The beef on this thing was fantastic. 200 day grain
fed Black Angus from the
Southern
Highlands. No wonder it tasted good. There was a little surpise
with the buns too, they were char grilled like the burger, the
underside had thick and dark scorched lines which gave a much
appreciated smokey flavour that, I'm guessing, came from a charcoal
grill given the unique taste. As for the sides, the fries were
expertly cooked, pale yet hot and crispy. No sign of McCain, and
the coleslaw was very high quality if a little limp from being
under a heat lamp a fraction too long (or the 30°C sunshine).
This is a good quality restaurant, in a top location, so do expect
to pay for what you get, unlike some other restaurants on this
strip. For my burger, two pepsi max and a bottle of perrier, the
bill came to a fraction over $35.00
Food, 8/10 - I'd have liked a small salad in place
of the large quantity of fries, otherwise, it was
extraordinary
Service, 8.5/10 - Always a smile, always attentive
and efficient
Value, 8/10 - Perhaps a touch over priced for a
cheeseburger
Location, 8.5/10 - Hard to beat in Manly
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Coffee, Steak, Garden Salad and Beer some how work well in one meal
The general gist of the recipes went along the lines of grinding coffee with any combination of chili, coriander seeds, mustard seeds. fennel, salt, pepper, oregano and anything else you've got in your spice draw.
I used a broken up Illy
coffee pod, maldon sea salt, cinnamon, black pepper, mustard
seeds, coriander seeds and dried oregano. After I ground the spices
I drizzled the steak in olive oil and coated it with the spices and
grilled until medium rare. I tossed together a quick garden salad
with an olive oil and whole grain mustard.
On the side I had a Monteith's
Summer Ale, from New Zealand, which is a quite nice summer ale
that's got a lovely ginger kick to it which in turn leaves a nice
warmth on the palate. The bottle suggests a wedge of lime that
gives it a little bit heavier than a Corona mouthfeel and taste, but it also
suggests an orange segment. Damn I wish I had an orange to try this
with. All round, a great beer that's something different from the
rest and well worth a try.
Thyme² & the Cuvee Bar @ the Sofitel Brisbane
Let’s start with the Cuvee Bar. Every bar everywhere has an unwritten etiquette to follow and it’s always different but not unreasonable and usually boils down to how the manager of the establishment likes his or her staff to act, and that’s it – it’s a guide for the staff, not the patrons. May be it was me, I made the place look untidy or something, but if a customer wants to order a drink from the bar here, they’re promptly dismissed and told to take a seat before an order will be taken. Even if I try making an order I’m still told to take a seat for the waiter to come and take my order. It’s down right rude and even worse; the wait-staff aren’t very knowledgeable with their drinks unlike the bartender I had questions for who told me to go and sit down. Is your apple martini sour or sweet? Could I get a twist of lime instead of lemon? Would you mind not straining the ice from my cocktail? Every question the wait-staff gets that look puppies do when you poke your tongue out at them. Once they scamper off to ask the bartender, they come back and you have a follow-up question. The routine continues until you give up and say “I’ll just have a gin and tonic then” or your presented with a drink you didn’t want and it takes you a few sips to realise that the inept wait-staff have bought you the another table’s drinks; and their bill!
When you finally get your order, the way you want it, it’ll be easier to pay cash than try and charge the drinks to your room. I know it wasn’t this guys first time charging drinks to a room, he’d served me before, but from my seat you could tell he was struggling.
Thyme² is mainly setup for a buffet or as the Sofitelians like to call it, an ‘interactive experience'. I’ve mentioned before that the breakfasts there are great, for $30, serving you everything you’d want in a breakfast. The dinners seem to be the same. Miles and I didn’t have the buffet dinner when we were there, we did see it though. Couples with children, like seagulls taking turns ferrying overflowing plates of oysters, prawns and everything else they could scavenge back to their offspring. For $80 a head (wine not included) if you’ve got the mentality to eat your monies worth its probably good value but we felt like something smaller, so we went for the ala carte menu.
You can tell head chef Marshall Orton has planned for 90% of his clientelé to take the buffet option; it sure looked like they did. I only saw two other tables out of the full restaurant ordering off the menu and a queue for the seafood. The menu is short and has fairly simple dishes from and nothing you wouldn’t expect to see at a pub with the obligatory pad thai, t-bone with chips, fish (roast snapper) and a tandori chicken. It all seemed fairly pedestrian with only Miles’s meal served with any restaurant flare and by that I mean everything was stacked on top of each other. The current menu can be found on the website.
One nice touch was the appetizer that was served to us, a small ball of duck confit and orange marmalade served on a bed of lettuce. It tasted quite bland an uninteresting, but as it turns out they forgot the orange marmalade on ours. This wasn’t the only thing that was missing from the dishes we were served either. I ended up ordering the t-bone with “a roast tomato ragu and a creamy pepper sauce served with shoestring french fries”. The roast tomato ragu at least had tomato in it but it was just roughly diced fresh tomato in a warmed up pasta sauce – there was no way these tomatoes could have ever seen the inside of an oven; there wasn’t even the slightest hint of caramlisation any good roasted tomato has. The fries seemed to be of the McCain variety, either deep fried at too low a temperature or were left to defrost and get laden with water leaving them soggy. The pepper jus that was served was honestly very nice, rich thick and concentrated with steak, balsamic vinegar and rosemary flavours and would have gone very well with the roasted tomato ragu, if it had had roast tomato in it. Note that I said it was a pepper jus and not a creamy pepper sauce? Guess what was missing. I find it difficult to believe that a restaurant of this size and supposed calibre can deliver very basic dishes so far removed from the menu.
Miles also had the beef. A 120 day grain fed Darling Downs beef filet served with Parisian style butter on green beans and a potato cake. It was well presented, stacked a good six inches high with the same jus that accompanied my steak, minus the pepper, drizzled around the side. The report on it was generally positive, although the potato was a little under done.
To counter balance the average food were some excellent wines, chosen by the Sommelier, Toby Graham, to fill out the wine list. For the main I chose an ‘04 Wantirna Estate Cabernet Sauvignon Merlot (List Price $112, Store Price $60-$70). The wine itself is quite nice and is more complex than you’d expect from just a Cab Sav Merlot, and that’s probably because there’s actually some Cab Franc and Petit Verdot in the bottle too. Overall, the wine has a nice blackcurrant to mulberry flavour with the classic merlot dusty finish. If you’re looking for it in a store, Wantirna Estate is the one with the Michael Leunig cartoons on the labels.
When it came to dessert, I wanted a bottle of something else to go with our Lenôtre Frambrosier’s so I asked Toby for a recommendation. There was the obligatory Noble One, but I thought that the overpowering honey in it would kill the delicate raspberries and cream in the dessert, Toby agreed and recommended the 2005 Grande Maison Semillon Sauvignon Blanc Muscadelle from Monbazillac in France (List Price, $51/375mL, Store price $30/375mL). I found that it had soft hay-like flavour, not grassy at all, it was drier and warm but with a definite floral sweetness that worked well with the dessert.
The Sofitel, being owned by the French Accor group have enlisted, under license, Lenôtre to provide desserts and cakes for its hotels, they look stunning, particularly the signature Frambrosier, which looks like a giant pink lamington topped with fresh raspberries and a raspberry sugar swirl. Within the gayest dessert of all time are layers of sponge cake with a raspberry centre, covered in cream and then a pink coconut (I think it’s pink coconut anyway). Given that it’s a sponge cake with cream and a raspberry centre I was expecting something more like a molleaux which is an individual cake that has a liquid sauce centre that spills out across the plate when you cut into it. The frambrosier certainly had the potential for it. I’m still not sure if what we got was meant to be a molleaux because they were half frozen. The bottom and centre were practically solid with the top had just started to soften. I don’t know if you’ve ever frozen cream but it doesn’t work – large ice crystals form and when you cut into it, it splinters apart. At the very least, these desserts should be served only slightly chilled to show their true potential, and meet their hype.
The highlight of Thyme² has got to be Toby Graham’s wine list and the quite knowledgeable service he provides. Toby has been studying and working with wines for over 15 years and answered all of our questions quickly and with confidence, not only suggesting wines but explaining why he’d suggested them which for mark-ups like these is great because he can help narrow down the choices for you – sure all sommeliers should do this, it’s their job, but Toby does it well.
Sorry Rick, I'm not impressed with Steak Tartar
I used $36 worth of the best quality beef I could find, the freshest eggs, the most expensive cornishons and salted capers and I tell ya what, the best part was the fries. Alright, it wasn't bad, but at the same time my taste buds weren't leaping off my tongue to lick the plate clean. If I ever get the chance to eat steak tartar prepared by Rick Stein I'd give it a go again but I won't be tracking him down.
Nothing against Rick by any means, I've made a number of his dishes previously and they are quite nice but I guess, would you trust a hairdresser having a bad hair day, or a seafood chef not even cooking steak? If anyone can tell me what I did wrong, please let me know...
Steak Tartar - Serves 2
300g beef sirloin, chilled
1 tablespoons of capers, rinsed and drained
2 shallots, finely chopped
2 tablespoons of flat leaf parsley, chopped
1 tablespoons of olive oil
3 cornishons, diced
3 dashes of tabasco sauce
½ teaspoon of sea salt
1 teaspoon of ground black pepper
2 egg yolks
Pommes frites (french fries) on the side
Trim the meat of all fat and sinew and chop finely, don't use a
processor. Put all of the ingredients except the eggs into a bowl
and mix together. Shape the meat on the plate and make an indent in
the middle for the egg yolk