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.
The Daily Grind @ The Peppermill Cafe
Peppermill Café, Milsons
Point
At a recent contract I went out myself and failed miserably picking
the Kirribilli Village Café and Restaurant. I tried their steak
sandwich and it was just awful, chewy, tasteless and very
overpriced. $25 off for the sandwich and a coffee. That’s when I
asked. The team I was working with and I went around the corner to
The Peppermill Café in Milsons
Point, their coffee is a little to be desired considering it’s
Campos Coffee, but it
almost always seemed burnt but the service and food was always
pretty good.
The first day I went I was recommended their regular special, a
chicken and leek pie. Not what I expected in the presentation
department but it was tasty. An individual baking dish with mashed
potato on the bottom, a regular chicken and leek filling and a
square of golden puff pastry balanced across the top. Almost every
day since then I went to Peppermill for either lunch or breakfast,
often for both. When I had breakfast, brunch, or afternoon tea, I’d
pick up a smoked salmon, ricotta and avocado croissant, the
combination of the soft buttery pastry and the oily smokiness of
the salmon was a winner.
Smoked Salmon Croissant @ Peppermill
Café, Milsons Point
They serve an all day breakfast here,
and the majority of the menu was based around breakfast but almost
as often as I’d see someone have a burger I saw someone else have
either the pancakes or french toast, both served with either bacon
and maple syrup or a mixed berry compote. Delicious stuff and well
worth a try if you want a bit of extra energy before hitting either
the Kirribilli or North Sydney Markets one weekend (I worked
weekends too). The beef burger is nice, standard fare, but the
chicken burger was the winner, chicken, bacon, avocado. Damn
tasty.
It’s also licensed and they won’t pass judgement if you have a
Bloody Mary on a Monday!
Chicken & Bacon Burger @
Peppermill Café, Milsons Point
The Peppermill Café
30 Glenn Street, Milsons Point (map)
Monday to Friday 7am to 6pm
Saturday and Sunday 8am - 4pm
T: (02) 9954 1444
F: (02) 9954 1444
www.thepeppermillcafe.com.au
Bills Chicken Club Sammich
Bills - 359 Crown Street, Surry
Hills
Bills second restaurant in Surry Hills
opened 12 years ago and has been going strong ever since, full to
the brim from opening till the end of brunch, easing off through
the day and picking up again for dinner. It’s a great place to come
despite it’s incredibly short menu, one of the shortest in Sydney
with usually ony a dozen items to choose from, most of which are
staples that are always there such as the sweetcorn fritters with
guacamole and the chicken club sandwich, which is what I had today.
Now this isn’t your typical three tier sandwich, it’s a chibata
roll with roast tomato, baked chicken thigh, roquett and a light
spread of dijonaise. It is delicious, but for $17.50 you’d want it
to be. Don’t count on the coffee, it’s always just a little
burnt.
Club Sandwich and Herbed Fries -
Bills, 359 Crown Street, Surry HIlls
If you’re after better coffee and cheaper sweet corn fritters (also
$17.50) try Lemon Twist a little further south on Crown
Street.
Batteling Turks seemed an easier way to get my croissant
Macro Café, King Street,
Newtown
Unsurprising for the neighborhood, the
post-hippie generation feminist matriarchal vegan families seem to
be flocking to this place in numbers as large as the uni-students
taking advantage of the free wireless internet. If you can at all
avoid it while queuing to place your order (no table service),
don't stand behind one of the aforementioned feminist vegan
matriarchs placing her order especially if they're heavily
pregnant. Instead of picking something off the menu board that
meets their stringent dietary requirements they seem to instead
rattle off all of their dietary restrictions and the reasons why to
the poor waitress trying to find something they can eat. 10 minutes
later she settled a garden salad with a hard boiled egg. Obviously
she's not a real vegan. I bet she doesn't even pocket-mulch. If I
wasn't afraid of loosing my seat I'd have tried to sneak into the
kitchen and slip some bacon into her food.
As far as what I ate, I settled a simple ham and cheese croissant
and a pot of byron chai. $4.50 for the chai I could understand, but
I was a little concerned at the $9.50 for the croissant! If it
wasn't for the fact that I'd already queued and there weren't many
more options for breakfast in the direction my travels were taking
me I'd have probably left and found something else. WIth a bit of a
surprise I ended up being presented with a substantial croissant
with either emmental or jarlsberg cheese, good quality ham. tomato
and baby spinach. It really was a meal in itself. I did think it
odd that the menu board didn't mention it. Now I understand why it
cost so much.
Croissant from Macro
Café
I tried to make croissants from scratch many moons ago and even
though they tasted okay, they were a right pain in the arse and I
vowed never to make one again. I might give it another go some time
but no. Real hand made croissants can easily take a professional
days to make, mine took four days and another two days to
clean the kitchen! There are plenty of rumors as to the origin of
croissants, including Polish bakers hearing the early morning
tunneling of Turkish soldiers whom alerted the local authorities
and ambushed the Turks. To honor the victory in the battle, the
bakers supposedly made croissants in the shape of the crescent moon
on the Turkish flag. All this in the 700's, nearly a thousand years
before the earliest reference to puff pastry! They are more likely
a French variation of a Viennese pastry. I'd still rather cross an
armed Turkish soldier than cross the feminist vegan to ask her to
hurry up and order.
Balls, Meat and Tarts
Hot Guy and the Dykes on
Bikes
Marching Boys - Mardi Gras
'08
For the balls, who else could I turn to
except Jamie Oliver? I took
his spiced doughnut recipe and to simplify things I made doughnut
balls instead of the traditional shape. I was pretty happy the way
they turned out, very light and puffed into almost perfect spheres
when they fried. It took a little bit of time and effort but they
were great. The dough was so soft and silky it was a pleasure to
work with, particularly because I was worried that it'd even turn
out. I don't usually have any milk in my house and I forgot to get
some at the store so I took a gamble and watered down some plain
yoghurt. It seemed to do the trick.
Doughnut Balls
As for the meat I stopped at Hudson Meats and picked up some
moroccan lamb burgers, american bbq ribs and some honey soy chicken
drummetts. I hope I didn't smoke out my neighbors too much. There
were a few other people having bbq's so I don't think it really
mattered.
Moroccan Lamb Burger
Then there was the tart, a very simple
tomato and cheese tart using ready made puff pastry. It took all of
5 minutes prep time and 12 minutes to cook. Using two sheets of
puff pastry, I used one as a base and cut thumb width strips from a
second one and used those as an edge, two layers worked just about
right. Once the sides were built up I grated in some mozzarella and
parmesan, layered with sliced tomato and seasoned with salt, pepper
and a bit of dried oregano. Popped in the oven for 12 minutes and
it was done. I think it tasted better when it was cold and looked
like it'd have held up well for a picnic.
Tomato and Mozarella Tart
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.
Buttermilk Roast Chicken
I didn't measure anything tonight
because I really couldn't be bothered but to be I think I'd need to
add more cumin next time. Looking back, I think I played it safe
with the cumin and added 1tsp instead of 2. It needs 2. I think a
whole butterflied chicken in this marinade would be sensational,
but as Nigella said, to make everything faster for her 'Express'
book. As far as roasting the drumsticks go, I think I piled them
too closely on the oven tray so they didn't get evenly browned, I
should have turned them or out them on a rack to keep them out of
the juice collecting in the tray.
Nigella meant for this to be eaten cold at a bbq, picnic or
something like that and having them for lunch cold the next day was
great, but hot for dinner, they were good too.
Buttermilk Roast Chicken - Serves 6
12 chicken drumsticks
500mL Buttermilk
60mL vegetable oil
2 cloves of garlic, bruised
1 tablespoon of Peppercorns, crushed
1 tablespoon of Maldon Sea Salt
1 teaspoons fresh ground cumin (her recipe says 1, I think it needs 2)
1 tablespoon of maple syrup
Pre-heat oven to 220°C. Put everything except the chicken into a large freezer bag and mix well. Add the chicken and roll around until it's all coated. Leave for at least 30 minutes or up to 2 hours (no more, or the acid in the buttermilk will deteriorate the meat too far).
Roast for at least 30 minutes until everything is cooked and the chicken skin is scorched and burnt in places.
Crunchy Salad with Hot and Sour Dressing
I think I'll be adding this as a staple salad, it's super fast since you're really only just tossing things into a bowl and really nice, not too hot or sour. Heck, if you were pressed for time and wanted extra crunch, you probably don't even need to cook the veggies.
Crunchy Salad with Hot and Sour Dressing - Serves 4-6
Dressing:
2tsp Tom Yum Paste
1tsp Sesame Oil
2Tbs Rice Vinegar
1tsp Honey
2Tbs of Canola or Peanut Oil
Sea Salt to taste
Salad:
125g Broccoli (I used broccolini)
125g Fine Beans (I used sugar snap peas)
125g Baby Corn
25g Button Mushrooms (I forgot them)
100g Chinese Lettuce (I used regular mixed lettuce)
150g Bean Sprouts
Whisk all of the dressing ingredients together
Cook the broccoli, beans and corn in salted boiling water for two minutes then plunge in ice cold water to stop the cooking
Drain them and add the remaining salad ingredients and dressing. Serve.