Thursday, April 28, 2011

Red wine and mushroom risotto

Using this recipe as inspiration, I made my first ever red wine risotto (I do white wine ones quite regularly). It was fantastic - will definitely cook it again.

Ingredients:
1.25 litres chicken or vegetable stock
2 tablespoons olive oil
80g butter
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 cups risotto rice
200ml red wine
75g finely grated parmesan, plus extra, to serve
200g mushrooms, thickly sliced. I used a mixture of brown and oyster.
2 teaspoons thyme leaves (fresh is best)
5 large leaves of silverbeet, center stems discarded (could substitute spinach, kale, beetroot greens or any other leafy greens you need to use up)

Place the stock in a saucepan and bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and keep at a gentle simmer.
Heat oil and half of the butter in a heavy-based pan over medium heat
Add rice and cook for 2 minutes until well coated in onion mixture.
Add wine and simmer until almost evaporated.
Add the stock to the pan, a ladleful at a time while stirring continuously, allowing the stock to be absorbed before adding the next.
When you have about 1 cup of stock left, stir in the parmesan and season with salt and pepper.
Remove pan from heat, stir in remaining stock, cover pan and set aside while you cook the mushrooms.
Heat remaining butter in a large non-stick frying pan over high heat until foaming.
Add garlic and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes.
Add mushrooms and thyme cook until the mushrooms are soft and golden.
Add silverbeet and cook until wilted.
Serve the risotto topped with the mushroom mixture and cheese.


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Thursday, April 21, 2011

New Sydney Hotel, Bathurst St.

I've previously posted about my love for this place. Here are some more dishes that we've enjoyed there. A lot of these are from the specials menu, which tends to have fantastic creations.

Beetroot gnocchi:

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Mushroom risotto:

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Confit chicken with speck chorizo, beetroot and polenta cake:

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Perhaps the most deliciously salty pizza ever - anchovies, olives, prosciutto:

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Chicken burger with sweet potato chips:

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Finally, the *best* dish that I have ever had at NSH - a special way back in December. Chicken with pearl couscous, potatoes and a bunch of other goodies - it was amazing. My blurry pic does it no justice!

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Monday, April 18, 2011

Dede Indonesian and Thai Cuisine, North Hobart

Dede has been been around for what seems like forever. I loved the place years ago, but it had been a long time since my last visit. It's pretty similar to what I remember - cheap and cheerful! There's also some great Engrish on the menu to keep you entertained while deciding what to eat.

Stuffed whole king prawns with bacon, peanuts, deep fried with beer batter, served with sweet chilli sauce (it comes with 3 prawns). Pretty darn tasty after a few glasses of wine.

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Sticky rice rolls stuffed with chicken, herbs and served with peanut sauce. Not so interesting (too much rice, not enough flavour in the filling), but the peanut sauce was as good as I remembered it.

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Pad Thai. A generous serving with lots of goodies - it hit the spot nicely.

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Ayam bumbu rujak: J's spicy chicken dish.

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Bali duck: sounded good on the menu, but came out looking a bit dry.

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We went back for another visit about a week later. It didn't seem quite as good this time - perhaps because we hadn't had as much to drink beforehand...

Dumplings stuffed with minced pork, prawns, herbs, served with sweet chilli sauce. Considerably better than the sticky rice rolls.

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Stir fried chicken with mushrooms, basil, chillies, coconut and peanut sauce. I had high hopes for this as it has lots of my favourite ingredients, but it wasn't all that great - the sauce was pretty flavourless.

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Boneless roasted duck cooked in coconut milk, red curry paste, pineapple and rambutan. This was J's dish and had a beautiful flavour, but unfortunately much of the duck was gristly. First time I've seen alfalfa sprouts and lettuce garnishing a curry!

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Nasi goreng - I didn't try this but it looked good.

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Crispy pork: not bad.

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Will I keep going back? Probably - Dede has a certain retro charm and is great value.

Website.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Moonah Taste of the World Festival 2011

Another day, another food festival! This is a new one that was held in Moonah at the end of March.

I had Ethiopian food, which was fantastic. I love injera bread

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I was really impressed with the layout and set up, and the general size of the festival. It was much better than I was expecting! This is part of the food section, and there was also a craft section, a large stage and heaps of seating.

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For my mum: the Moonah Primary kitchen garden stall

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Website

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Estia Street Festival 2011

The food they offer is pretty similar every year, but it's fantastic. I think they had a greater variety of sweets this year though.

Delicious pastitsio:

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We shared the two-person plate, and I was a bit sad to find that the saganaki serving wasn't as generous as last year's!

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Loukoumathes: so unhealthy, so delicious

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Phil Vakos of Masterchef fame, who did a cooking demo with his grandmother.

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We took home some lovely spanikopita and a container of tasty honeyed biscuits.... and another serving of the loukoumathes!