With last nights left over risotto I didn’t want to make the usual risotto cakes or arancini so I decided to mix it in to some soup made with the half dozen over-ripe tomatoes I had sitting in the fruit bowl. Usually, fairly light flavours are used here with a chicken soup base but with the saffron in the risotto I figured it could stand up against a stronger soup so I made my roast tomato recipe and went from there.

Roast Tomato and Saffron Risotto Soup

Roast Tomato and Risotto Soup - Serves 2
6 ripe tomatoes
1 onion
1 capsicum
2 bay leaves
6 sprigs of thyme
6 cloves of garlic
1 Tablespoon of olive oil
1 Liter of stock (I used rabbit)
2 cups of leftover risotto

Pre-heat your oven to 170ºC. Into a roasting pan, slice the tomatoes and capsicum in half and the onion in quarters. Add the herbs and spices and a dash of olive oil and toss them all together to coat. Roast in the oven for about an hour or until the tomatoes have dried and started to caramelize.

In a saucepan, heat the stock to boiling and add in the roasted vegetables (remove the bay leaves). Heat the roasting tin over the stove and when it’s started to simmer, splash in some of the stock and deglaze the pan. Scrape up all of the juicy bits and add them into the pot with the stock. Simmer for 10 minutes then whizz up with a stick mixer or a blender until it’s a little your preferred texture (I like mine thick, thin out with more stock if you want.

EIther, re-heat the risotto in a frying pan and spoon into your soup bowl and pour around the risotto, or add the risotto to the soup and mix through to re-heat before serving.

Tags:Risotto, Soup, Tomato, Leftover, Recipe

I had to go back to Sydney early from my New Zealand trip so I can sit an exam and since I hadn’t had any luck finding the quite space I needed to read the text books I’d lugged around with me thus far I booked myself two days in Harbour View room at the Hilton Auckland (I got a good deal at wotif). The hotel itself is smaller than I thought and felt cramped every time I walked through the lobby but the rest of the hotel is quite spacious. The room I was in had a very large marble bathroom with separate bath and shower, the rest of the room contained a king size bed, 32” LCD TV and DVD player and a desk. Then there was the balcony - the same size as the room itself! The only complaint with it is that even though there are double sliding doors opening on to it, there was a concrete pillar in the middle of them making getting outside a little awkward and blocked the view from inside.

I hadn’t had breakfast that morning so once I settled into the room, opened all the draws and flicked all the light switches I had a look at the room service menu. There was all of the standard fare you get at the Hilton plus the specialised items from the hotels restaurant. I ordered the Nasi Goreng, just a light meal. Presented well, the rice moulded in a bowl and turned out into the plate with a fried egg across the top, tomato and cucumber slices fanned around the edge and individual bowls of chili paste, soy and dried fish so they could all be added to taste, a single large prawn cracker and three small chicken satay skewers to the side. Flavour wise it was more subtle than I’m used to, all of the flavours were balanced so it was a clearly deliberate choice and it certainly wasn’t bland per se but I could see a lot of people thinking it was.

The second night I stayed I went to White, the hotel’s restaurant with Italian chef Cristiano De Martin running the show. You can see his European training and years of dedicated practice in the way every dish was executed, starting with the produce then preparation and cooking then finally the presentation. De Martin’s dedication to his food extends to joint venture called Homegrown with NZ primary producers to source the best ingredients. I can’t see any losers here, especially as I get presented with my first course.

Starting off with Heart of the Desert saffron infused carrot soup with parsley foam it’s not surprising De Martin highlights one of his Homegrown partners in Heart of the Desert saffron. Who knew that NZ can grow it given 90% of the world production is from Iran? The soup itself was good blending the more complex earthier kiwi saffron standing up against fresh sweet carrots. The parsley foam was wispy and delicate adding a level of texture and evening out the parsley flavour so that no mouthful could ever be overpowed with a herb than can taste like grass if you get a mouthful of it unexpectedly.

Contrasting the soup’s delicate flavour profile is the Northland kingfish carpaccio, spiced shallots with citrus and sesame dressing and mini coriander leaves hitting you with an incredible burst starting out with the lime that is made palatable with the shallots, coriander and sesame on the finish. Without any one of these the dish wouldn’t balance but here all of the flavours are inline leaving you with the amazingly fresh kingfish carpaccio. The mouthfeel of the slightly oily kingfish sliced paper thin and served raw as it melds itself with the rest of the flavours creating one of those moments you sit up and pay attention to what you’re eating.

I love duck and I eat it quite often but until now I hadn’t actually had the chance to make or try tea smoked duck. I made tea smoked snapper a few weeks ago as a trial before I give it ago on duck. Now I’ve got a gold standard to aim for. A salad of tea smoked duck resting on crisp filo pastry, pistachio, celery and grapes with a blueberry and riesling verjus dressing was a familiar yet different taste. Smoking the duck adds a soft undertone to each bite that while you can tell it is there, at no point does it distract you from the duck itself or any other ingredient. Pistachio as a nut has an odd flavour that wouldn’t have worked if the duck wasn’t smoked. A lesser chef would have either used hazelnut that I think would have enhanced the smoke and overpowered the rest of the salad or blanched almods simply for texture. The filo pastry was disappointing, it seemed more like a layer of cardboard where I was expecting the salad to be perched on top of individual layers of delicate filo. Did you notice something missing in the picture? When I was served the dish I thought it was odd but there isn’t a black/purple drizzle across the top. I’m not sure how they did it, but blueberry skin wasn’t in the ingredient list for the dressing so it’s is perfectly clear. The two black half circles are grapes.

Scallops are tender pillows of shellfish that have a sweeter meat than crayfish. Their intense flavour, despite that they’re physically delicate, means they can carry other strong flavours and De Martin picked almost a surf and turf with Spirits Bay scallops seared with crispy pancetta, apple pureé and a snow pea salad with cabernet sauvignon vinegar glaze. Even before the plate lands you can smell the pancetta and the bacon instinct kicks in and your nose is in the air trying to breathe it all in. The pancetta releases so much of it’s flavour as it’s friend in the pan next to the scallops that they seem to soak it up like a sponge. The drizzle of glaze on the plate was incredibly intense and perfect for cutting through the pancetta’s fat so you can reclaim the scallop’s individuality.

The Assistant Manager (who did an amazing job all night) disagreed with the chef on his choice of wine for a number of dishes and I either saw her point or agreed completely. This time I only saw her point. She gave me some of the listed wine, a Cloudy Bay ‘08 Sauvignon Blanc, and the wine she thought was best, a Brancott ‘07 Sauvignon Blanc, both from the Malborough. I’m sorry to say I wouldn’t have said either were a perfect match but then I can’t say what would have been either. The Cloudy Bay was good at balancing the glaze and pancetta but destroyed the apple and scallop where as the Brancott was obliterated by the fat. Given the focus of this dish was scallops, not pancetta I’d have erred on the side of caution and taken the Bancott as the manager suggested.

A Kaffir Lime sorbet broke the meal. It tasted like the only possible way you could have that much lime flavour in a that glass was if someone froze and blended the lime itself. It had such a fresh taste to it, probably enhanced by the fact it was frozen, but it could have easily been the smell of a fresh picked lime. My guess is it was probably oil from the skin being sprayed in to and incorporated with the mix.






The headline of the show for an international hotel in NZ was of course the Hawke’s Bay lamb loin roasted with garden herbs, parsnip créme and crisps, manuka smoked olives, lemon and Te Arai Extra Virgin emulsion. The lamb was cooked a touch longer than I’d have liked but within tolerances for medium-rare so it did benefit from the olive oil and parsnip mash for moistness. That’s not to say it wasn’t full of flavour; I’d say the kiwi’s have made a good go at it. Infact given the better farming and grazing weather in NZ for the past few years, their lambs might just be better than the Australians. For now. Picking up some of the smoked olives with the lamb made for a nice way to extend the otherwise limited range of flavours on the plate, the parsnips and olive oil seemed to take on a new life. Half way through I’d ran out and wished there were more, olives, not parsnip.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get the names of the two cheeses served on this course but they seemed along the lines of a mature cheddar and a firmer white mould cheese along the lines of a costello perhaps? As I was dining alone, I think I received a hastily cut down portion. There was just simply not enough cheese to try all of the condiments with at least one cheese, there weren’t even enough wafers. Still, it was nice for a course designed to transition your palette from red meat to dessert.




Of course, at the end of any meal you can’t go past dessert and what a dessert. The menu called for a chef’s selection and I don’t think there was anything left he hadn’t selected. When this course came up I was offered an extra glass of wine because there had been ‘an issue’ in the kitchen and I would have to wait an extra 10 minutes or so. What I think it was is that they couldn’t figure out how to present a dessert platter that’s designed for two people to a single person when most of the items are either slivers anyway or single units. Half a scoop of ice-cream anyone? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that if there were two people that I would have been disappointed with the portion size, there are four separate desserts for heavens sake but to cut them down further would have been unsightly. Which is why I got a dessert platter for two! It goes without saying that every single one of these desserts were delicious and flavour packed. No surprises in the taste, they were almost concentrated in their own flavour. So clockwise from the back we’ve got an apple galette topped with vanilla ice cream, vanilla panna-cotta with raspberry compote, lemon cheesecake, dark chocolate hazelnut torte with a scoop of hazelnut ice-cream.


I ordered an espresso to go with the petit four which was basically a sphere of pear and cream that finished the meal as I sat and waited for it to move itself below my centre of gravity and chatted to an Australian couple that also had the degustation whom asked me how I enjoyed it and gave them my Red Whisk business card so they can come and look at the pictures. My sincerest apologies have to go to them for the delay in posting this article.

All in all, I really quite enjoyed visiting (and not as their guest, this was fully funded by The Red Whisk). Next time I visit Auckland I’m going to have to stay at the Hilton again. As far as international standards go the Hilton here is above the average. Sure there are some things that could be done better but they’re probably not going to be picked up or worried over by your average consumer. As for the restaurant, the service of the assistant manager scored herself a very generous tip for her friendly yet professional service keeping the person dining alone who didn’t bring a book to read company, her generosity in pouring wine and offering not only and alternative to the listed wines, but both!



Hilton Auckland and White Restaurant
Princess Wharf. 147 Quay Street
Auckland. 1010
NEW ZEALAND

Tags:Degustation, Hilton, Auckland, New Zealand, Review, Restaurant, Wine, Fish, Soup, Scallops, Duck, Dessert

A little while a go my neighbours recomended a chinese take-away down King Street called Good Wok (587 King Street, Newtown). I’ve always seen a couple of people in it but dismissed it as a cheap dodgey little store that I would end up with the squirts. As it turns out, it’s clean, very clean. Sure it’s got wood panneling, vinyl covered chairs and laminate tables but it’s tasty stuff. A few times this past week I’ve been running much later than I’d have liked to get home so I’ve stopped in and picked up something on the way or had something there.

Good Wok - 587 King Street Newtown

I haven’t spotted anything out of the ordinary or a speciality on the menu, it’s all the usual stuff you’d expect, mongolian beef, cashew chicken and all that but it was the bbq wonton noodle soup that I’ve gone back for. It definitley isn’t the best I’ve ever had but Good Wok’s version is the type of soup you go to when you’re stomach is compleltey empty and you need to fill it with carbs, hot broth, meat and vegetables.

The soup has a good chicken and vegetable stock, fresh bbq pork and some very fresh vegetables including perfectly cooked brocolli. Even I struggle to get mine tender-crisp but this was pretty much perfect not to mention generously served.

Good Wok - BBQ Pork Wonton Noodle Soup

Good Wok Chinese Food
Ph: 02 9565 2175
587 King Street
Newtown

They don’t do delivery but do take phone orders, it’s cash only too.

Tags:Noodles, Wonton, Soup, Asian, BBQ, Newtown, Restaurant, Review

Luckily, days before I had a diabetic friend over the fag and the hag the cook and the chef had an episode dedicated to diabetic recipes. They did make a really good point in that a diabetic diet is really the way everyone should be eating, low fat, low cal and low in sugar. I decided to make their Pearl Barley and Mushroom Soup. I added a couple of ham bones to give it a great meaty quality and removed any reason to add any salt. I've never had a barley soup before but damn it was nice. Even the ass that I call a best friend said it was good.

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.

Tags:Barley, Mushroom, Ham

Wrapping up a day of good food I made a fast healthy meal from Dinner Tonight that I saw a while back, with my own addition of course. I had some great wholemeal sourdough in the cupboard left from breakfast so I thought some garlic toast would go well.

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.

Tags:Soup, Pasta, Tortellini, Quick, Bread, Recipe

Wonton Noodle Soup has to be one of those meals that really picks up my spirits, hearty and warming to the core. Just a pity it's so hard to find a good one. Last night I tried to make it with the Light Chinese Stock suggested in Kylie Kwong's Simple Chinese Cooking but for what ever reason the stock ended up quite disappointing. I've never made a good stock so I can't pin the problem on Kylie. I guess I'm just going to have to keep trying. At least the wontons had a descent amount of prawn in them that you could really taste; most commercial wontons put in more of the cheaper minced pork than anything else.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to make a good wonton soup??

Wonton Noodle Soup - The Enternal Struggle

Tags:Wonton, Stock, Chicken, Seafood, Pork

This past weekend I flew over to Perth and stayed at the Intercontinental at Burswood. I went for a standard river view room from Wotif, running around $250 a night which might seem a little steep but compared to my recent visit Sofitel Brisbane I can’t complain. It was a big room, well laid out with an enormous bathroom, with a bath that had a view of the TV. The only thing that could have made that bath any better was a few water jets and a larger TV to look at.

I had a room-service dinner with my brother and sister-in-law and all of us were blown away with the quality and value. We had two soups, two fillet steaks with prawns and a sirloin with roast veg, all for around $135 and that really is great value.

My sister-in-law had a tom yum soup ($15) that was perfectly balanced hot-sour, not too much oil and with giant prawns resting as a surprise on the bottom of the bowl while I had the wonton noodle soup ($13) that was amazing; the broth was clear, golden and delicately flavoured and the wontons were the best I’ve ever had. The wonton skins were perfectly white, delicately thin and a perfect mouthful of prawn and I think scallop meat. When I saw it presented I was a little disappointed that there weren’t any egg noodles in the bottom and no seafood free-floating on top but once I tasted it all of that was forgiven. I can tell that I’ll be trying all winter to re-create this soup.

Wonton Noodle Soup, Intercontinental Burswood

As for the main courses my sister-in-law and I both chose the fillet steak with prawns and wedges and my brother had the sirloin with roasted vegetables (all around $35). All of us, as with the soups were extremely impressed. The steaks were generous, all over 500g and the sirloin I’d suggest was pushing 750g and even with the ride up from the kitchen to our room they were perfectly cooked just how we’d ordered them and all butter soft.

Sirloin and Roast Vegetables, Intercontinental Burswood

The only thing I missed from the meal, not that we’d ordered it, was a bottle of water on the table; for an order this size it would have been a nice touch but I won’t fault them for not providing one. The one litre bottle of Evian in the mini-bar was $8.

The next morning I ordered the “Burswood Breakfast” from room service as the buffet breakfast wasn’t included in my rate. It was $35 and again I couldn’t find fault with it. My family had breakfast at the buffet and the report was they would have been more than happy with just what I’d received. A choice of eggs with a mountain of bacon, sausages and tomato, fruit platter, toast, several spreads a croissant and a Danish with juice and tea or coffee. Each morning I had it I could only get through half. If you’re a light eater, you could possibly split this with someone else if you ordered an extra pastry and juice. Some how, the poached eggs on my first morning were delivered perfectly cooked with soft runny yolks and the scrambled eggs on the second day were tender, rich and creamy while the bacon was a good mix of soft and crispy.

Burswood Breakfast, Intercontinental, Burswood

Next tim I head to Perth I’m going to have to stay again, hopefully with a little more forward planning I’ll be able to book a club room and check out their lounge.

Tags:Intercontinental, Burswood, Travel, Hotel, Room Service, Beef, Steak, Soup, Breakfast

Tuesday in my week of Nigella Express-ivness I decided on her Noodle Soup for Needy People listed in the chapter Instant Calmer where she's collected some nice quick comfort food like the Cheddar Cheese Risotto and a Berry Crumble for dessert.

This is probably one of her lazier recipes, and IMHO they don't belong in a serious cookbook, just those that are for table decoration and the quick flick through the pictures for inspiration type books. Mind, what did I expect for a TV Chef cookbook anyway? I guess she tries to absolve herself by saying when she makes it she throws in anything that's handy and the only key ingredients are stock, noodles and vegetables. For those that haven't made a noodle soup before, I guess following her additions of some brown sugar, soy, ginger and star-anise do make a difference in tilting the soup to an asian flavour as opposed to anything else. I took her advice and made some additions and substitutions.

Noodle Soup for Needy People - Serves 2
(note, this is what I made, not quite Nigella's)

175g of Soba Noodles (she used udon)
750mL of Chicken Stock (I used the stock I made from the roast chicken over the weekend)
1t Soft Brown Sugar
1 Star Anise
1t Crushed Ginger
2T Soy
75g Bean Sprouts
750g Sugar Snap Peas
75g Sliced Shiitake Mushrooms
Sliced Spring Onions to Garnish (she used coriander)

Add any other vegetables or ingredients you like, I added some carrot and some store bought fish cakes I found next to the noodles at the supermarket.

Cook the noodles to packet instructions, set aside in serving bowls. Bring the stock, sugar, anise, ginger and soy to a boil then add the remaining ingredients except the garnish. Spoon the vegetables over the noodles and top up with liquid.

Tags:Nigella, Nigella Express, Nigella Lawson, Soup, Noodles, Asian

I’ve never been that keen on Thai food, mind you I’ve had limited exposure to it and what I have was probably not particularly authentic, however last night I had a craving for something spicy and with fish. After flicking through some recipes I came across a nice picture of what was titled a fish curry, although it looked much more like a soup so I made some changes to the recipe and came up with this.

On the whole it was nice, but lacked something. Monkey put his finger on it. More seafood. Prawns would have been ideal and some coriander for garnish. Next time…

Thai Fish Soup **

500mls Vegetable Stock
1 Cup of assorted chopped Asian themed vegetables (baby corn, bean sprouts, water chestnuts) – I used frozen packet vegetables
2tsp Dried Chilli Flakes
1tsp lemon grass, minced
1tsp ginger, minced
1tsp garlic, minced
Fish sauce, to taste
Palm sugar, to taste
300grams of salmon filet, cubed
300grams of green prawns, shelled and de-veined
Picked coriander leaves for garnish


Bring the vegetable stock to the boil, add the remainder of the ingredients except for the salmon and bring to the boil and simmer until the vegetables are almost ready.

Add the salmon and prawns and simmer for 5 minutes until both are pink. Serve in small bowls with coriander as garnish.


PS** Is it poor food-blog etiquette to post a recipe with alterations to the one you’ve actually cooked and posted a picture of? In this case, the addition of prawns and coriander.

Tags:Fish, Soup, Salmon, Prawns