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.
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
Spiced Lamb Pistachio and Beetroot Salad with Orange Dressing
Spiced Lamb with Pistachio and
Beetroot Salad with Orange Dressing
The lamb itself was tender and cooked to just pink with a brilliant
sumac based spice rub and the orange and honey in the dressing
balanced out the beetroot. A bit of cumin in the dressing tied it
in with the lamb and a bit of honey did the same for the
yoghurt.
Spiced Lamb
Pistachio - Serves 2
2 lamb back-straps
2 garlic cloves
2 tablespoons of olive oil
½ tablespoon of coriander seeds
1½ tabelspoon of cumin seeds
1½ tabelspoon of allspice
2 tabelspoon of sumac
¼ cup of shelled pistachios, crushed
Mint Yoghurt
½ cup of yoghurt
1 tabelspoon of finely sliced mint leaves
½ tabelspoon of honey
Beetroot Salad with Orange Dressing
1 beetroot, diced
1 potato, diced
½ cup of grated carrot
½ tabelspoon of fresh ground cumin seeds
1 teaspoon of orange zest
juice of 1 orange
½ tabelspoon of honey
2 handfuls of salad leaves
Starting with the beetroot salad; steam the beetroot for about an
30-45 minutes or until it’s fairly tender but still has a bit of
resistance. Add the potato and carrot and continue to steam until
all is tender and the tip of a knife has no resistance left to it.
Toss through the salad leaves and put aside until serving. Mix the
remaining salad ingredients into a bowl for the dressing.
For the mint yoghurt, mix it all together. Put aside until
serving.
Lamb. Toss the lamb, garlic and oil together and stand to marinade
for two hours. Grind and mix the spices together. Once the lamb has
marinaded for the set time, rub the spice mix all over the meat and
fry or bbq on medium-high for 5 minutes each side. Take the lamb
off the heat and wrap in foil for 8-10 minutes to rest.
Dress and plate the salad. Slice the lamb back-strap on the
diagonal and plate. Sprinkle with the pistachios and drizzle around
the mint yoghurt.
An Adventure on the Korean Peninsula
Dak Busut Jim (Braised Chicken and
Mushrooms) and Oyi Namul (Cucumber Salad)
Every meal is served with rice and one
or more small side dishes that can be used to add variety to the
taste and texture of the main course, especially the ubiquitous
kimchi which is style of
pickling vegetables that includes a fermentation process and
usually starts with a base of cabbage. As you’d expect for a
national dish, every region and every grandmother has their own
recipe. If you can’t wait the several weeks it takes to make, good
asian supermarkets sell fresh kimchi in the chilled foods section.
If you can only find the commercial version in a jar, you might
want to skip it unless someone can recommend one to me?
Unlike Japanese food that tends to take 1 teaspoon of a dozen
ingredients that you’ll never use again and are only sold by the
kilo, the only thing I was missing from my cupboard for tonight’s
meal were bamboo shoots that you can pick fresh at good asian
supermarkets or either canned and vacuum packed, all for around
$1.
The braised chicken and mushroom was great with the black pepper
being the surprise front runner and the chinese mushrooms giving a
good mix in texture. The cucumber salad had a nice refreshing but
not overpowering sourness that was needed against the strong
flavours of the chicken, but with some cayenne pepper, keeping a
spicy note.
Dak Busut Jim - Serves 4-6
(Braised chicken and mushrooms)
10 dried mushrooms
1 x 1kg chicken
3 Tablespoon light soy
1 Tablespoon sesame oil
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper of chili powder
½ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
1 white onion, in 8th and layers separated
125g bamboo shoots, sliced thinly
4 spring onions, sliced, including greens
2 Tablespoon toasted sesame seeds
Cooked white rice to serve
Soak mushrooms in boiling water for 30 minutes then remove stalks,
slice and return to soaking water.
Cut chicken into joints then into small bite sized pieces,
including the bones, place in a bowl. Add in the soy, sesame oil,
garlic, cayenne and black pepper. Mix together and marinade for 30
minutes.
In a wok, add the drained chicken (keep the marinade) and fry until
brown. Add the mushrooms, the soaking liquid and the reserved
chicken marinade. Simmer for 15-20 minutes. Add the remaining
ingredients and simmer for 2-3 minutes. Garnish with toasted sesame
seeds.
Oyi Namul - Serves 6
(Cucumber Salad)
2 large green cucumbers
3 teaspoons coarse salt
1 Cup of water
2 Tablespoons mild vinegar (eg: rice)
1 teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
1 spring onion, sliced
3 teaspoons toasted sesame seeds
Peel (if desired) and as thinly as possible, slice the cucumber and
put into a bowl with the salt and water. Let stand for 15 minutes.
Drain off all of the water then add all of the remaining
ingredients, combine well and serve chilled.
Mills Reef Winery
Mills Reef is hardly a stable but if the attitude of the staff on the restaurant is anything to go by then jebus himself was born here and it was our privilege to be on sacred ground but more on that in a minute. Going along Moffat Road and seeing the grounds appear before you is impressive with manicured lawns and rows of trees all leading up to the main building and it's own formal gardens but this is a working site. All of the processing, bottling and distribution happen here even though all of the grapes are bought and shipped from the not so far away Hawks Bay.
As you walk up from the car park the first door on the left is the tasting room so we went there first. As a tip for those visiting a winery with it's own restaurant, here's a good place to try a sip of a few things before you try and match them to your lunch and give you a chance to mull over which bottles you pick up.
Mills Reef Winery, 143 Moffat Road,
Bethlahem New Zealand
In the tasting room we met Ken, the cellar manager who ever so
patiently walked my family through not only their range but the
tasting process (lightest and brightest to heaviest and darkest).
From what I could tell all of the prices for the wine were quite
reasonable where as the souvenirs had souvenir prices.
After a few uhms and ahs we took a price list and headed for the
empty restaurant. There was a choice of the outdoor terrace or
inside a dining/function room. The enormous main dining room was
having the air-conditioning replaced before summer. Not to worry
because ir was spring after all and we chose a table on the terrace
in the shade. Just like everyone else did but being outside the
noise wasn't an issue and the tables were well spaced anyway. After
the stop-off in the tasting room I picked my entrée and main based
on their recommended wines and everyone else chose the recommended
glass. I wanted to see how they stood up to good quality food and
thankfully what came out of the kitchen was great. Luckily I was
really only interest in their red wine because the restaurants fish
order hadn't arrived to meet the demand of their predominantly fish
based menu.
Going around the table my mother had their seafood trio and the
Pinot Gris, a slight alteration due to the lack of fish she had a
king prawn, scallops and a piece of salmon; my brother had the
oysters and my aunt had the bread and dukka which surprised me. For
such a simple sounding entrée the chef added a bit of flair
throwing in a couple of different types of cibatta and more than
just a simple dukka, there was some great avocado oil, tapenade and
homemade pesto too. I had the chicken liver paté with truffles
crostini and the Cab Melot, or at least that's what I ordered.
Instead I got garlic crostini that worked very well and I wouldn't
have had any complaints if only I hadn't ordered truffles. That and
if I didn't have to wait 10 minutes and actually need to get up
from by seat, walk through a construction site and find the wait
staff and ask them for our wine. Even though there were a few
people in the restaurant by that stage I find it hard to believe a
winery restaurant forgot to bring the wine.
Seafood Trio - Prawn, Salmon and
Scallop
Cibatta with Dukka, Avocado Oil, Tapenade and Pesto
Chicken Liver and Cognac Paté and Fig Jam with Garlic
Crostini
Main course ran smoother, Mum had the strawberry and asparagus
salad with Kaimai Brie and a glass of
the Sav Blanc which was tasty and exploration in vegetarian texture
more than flavour, my brother had two giant lamb shanks that were
cut above the knee and were so tender the meat would have literally
fallen off the bone if he'd picked it up washed down with the Cab
Sav. The meat was good quality lamb but seemed a little bland on
it's own and relied in the jus to carry it. Mind you I only picked
at his leftovers, so the most of the meat could have been fine. My
Aunts Cajun chicken Caesar salad was generous, well seasoned. I had
the lamb fillet that was cooked to a perfect pink with a blue
cheese and pear salad with a walderberry jus, much like my
favourite duck salad. The lamb itself seemed under seasoned but
balanced out with some cracked pepper and the jus. The Merlot
Malbec was a perfect match.
Asparagus, Strawberry, Avocado and
Kaimai Brie
Warm Lamb Fillet, Watercress and Baby Spinach Salad with Pear,
Cashew, Kikorangi Blue and Walderberry Syrup
Lamb Shanks Braised with Wholegrain Mustard on Green Pea and Potato
Mash
Dessert. Only mother and I had dessert, her with the mandarin and
cinnamon spring rolls which looked delicious and I had the 'ode to
the lemon' which was a set of three lemon desserts starting with a
lemon curd in a bitter chocolate case the size of a patty-pan, a
lemon cremé brûlée in an espresso cup and a scoop of lemon ice
cream in a parfait glass. All of which matched brilliantly in their
own way to the riesling ice wine. If only it was delivered with the
course. As the waitress walked off I called out "um, and our wine?"
She flicked her nose up and walked off in acknowledgement. I
waited. I waited. Again I got up and asked for my wine yet again.
The excuse was they were waiting for the others coffee to be made
before they bought out all of the drinks. Pity my ice cream had
melted and my crem brule was cold by the time it arrived.
The location, food and wine at Mills Reef are nothing to complain
about but the attitude and service of the restaurant wait staff
really left more a lot to be desired.
Nectarine and Honey Spring Rolls
rolled in Cinnamon Sugar served with Blueberry Syrup and Vanilla
Ice Cream
Burnt Lemon Curd, Lemon Crem Brule and Lemon Ice
Cream
Whisk & Pin Dried Fruit Salad
The quality of dried fruit tends to be more about what you don't get than what you do. No moisture, no preservatives, no sulfur and nothing and I mean nothing but fruit. This is top quality produce. On top of that, these are all Australian and you can mail order them too! Also in the Whisk and Pin lineup is a range of organic pre-mixes for breads and pancakes as well as muesli and single varieties of dried fruit. If this fruit salad is anything to go by the rest will be fantastic.
BBQ Corn and Bean Salad
Roasted Corn and Edamame Salad - Serves
2 as a main, 4 as a side
2 ears fresh corn, unhusked, or
1¼ cups cooked corn kernels
½ cup shelled edamame
¼ cup chopped red onion
¼ cup small-diced red bell pepper (capsicum)
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh cilantro (coriander)
1 tablespoon light mayonnaise
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1½ teaspoons finely chopped or grated ginger
⅛
teaspoon salt
⅛
teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Soak fresh corn in cold water about 30 minutes.
Heat grill on high. Grill corn in husk, 10 to 15 minutes, turning
once.
Let cool. Remove husks. Cut corn from cob into a bowl; combine with
remaining ingredients.
Cover and chill in refrigerator until ready to serve.
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.
Duck Confit Salad with Walnuts, Pear and Gorgonzola
I’ve since made a few duck dishes at home, including a pepper crusted duck breast with a fresh blueberry sauce with kipfler potatoes wich was wonderful, however the last attempt was duck confit. I’d never had it before, let alone made it. Wow. Sure it takes two days from start to finish but the results are amazing. Besides, it’s only an hour of actual work.
The walnut, pear and Gorgonzola salad I made with the confit was even better, possibly even a contender for the best duck dish in Sydney, if I do say so myself.