bri eats.

Taste of Tasmania, 2011/2012

2012-01-17T20:52:00.000+11:00

As I've mentioned before, I really enjoy the Taste of Tasmania. I can understand why some people don't like it but I love having a whole bunch of food and wine to choose from in the one place, as well as the music and social side of it. This year it changed a lot with the changes to the PW1 shed - the logistics of it are great - there's heaps more places to sit. I was a bit disappointed to find that there was a reduced choice of food this year due to the smaller amount of space available for stalls, however there were still lots of treats to be found!

J and I (and others!) shared a meaty platter from Tas Game & Gourmet. It was about $35 but great value for money, with plenty of scallops, abalone, venison, buffalo, goat, wallaby, cheese kransky squeezed onto the plate with salad, wedges and chutney.

Mum and I shared a few dishes on another night. First up was a premium platter from Meadowbank ($16). This was excellent, with a chicken and pistachio sausage, pork rillette, duck liver pate, air-dried beef, duck terrine, brie, bread, gherkins and pickled onions.

We also had a plate of Nepalese lamb curry from the Vanidols stall, along with one of each of their spring rolls and curry puffs. All delicious!

I enjoyed discovering the new Small Players cider range, which is made by Holm Oak Vineyards. They have ciders in sweet, dry and perry varieties; sweet was my favourite.

I introduced mum to the Tasmanian Chilli Beer Co's excellent raspberry sparkling drink.

On the last day I enjoyed some of the old favourite Taste dishes on the second-last day, when the crowds had died down. Waji's calamari:

And tempura mushrooms.

Nom!

Jam Jar Lounge, Battery Point

2012-01-10T17:47:00.001+11:00

Happy new year!

Jam Jar Lounge is another Hampden Road cafe in a great building with lots of different rooms and a fantastic courtyard out the back, which is where we chose to sit on a recent sunny day.

I had the spatchcock with bread salad and labne. The spatchcock was perfectly cooked and delicious, but the salad didn't excite me too much.

One friend had the French toast with salted caramel and a lemon curd cream. The caramel was insanely good!

Another friend had a roast beef sandwich which looked and tasted spectacularly good, but sadly I forgot to photograph it.

Between Jam Jar, Environs and Jackman & McRoss, Hampden Road has a lot going for it in the cafe department!

Environs Cafe, Battery Point

2011-12-16T19:42:00.000+11:00

Environs Cafe is a newcomer to Battery Point but I have a feeling that it will be around for a while - it's just that good. The food is fantastic, the menu is really interesting and it's very reasonably priced.

From the breakfast menu, the Cottage Green: almond-coated sardines, poached egg and rocket on a hash brown ($12.50). The hash brown is on the left and the sardines on the right - this is a pretty tasty light meal.

The savoury breakfast ($14.50) is enormous, and one of the best full breakfast-type plates I've ever tasted. It comes with scrambled eggs on a corn cake, and bacon, hash brown and tomato, topped with hollandaise sauce. The corn cake and scrambled eggs are the highlights! The picture below shows the dish ordered with their home-made sausage ($3.50 extra), which was nicely spicy.

The French toast with poached fruit, labne and pistachios ($12) is a winner for the days when something sweet is wanted.

The risotto ($13) is on the lunch menu and comes with roast vegetables, mushrooms, garlic and parmesan cheese. It was lovely and hearty.

I didn't try the chicken pasta ($15) but it looked fantastic - I plan to try it soon! It's pappardelle pasta with roast chicken, pumpkin and cashews and a garlic cream sauce.

Both the breakfast and lunch menus are an option all day, and there are also some antipasto dishes that I've yet to try. Definitely a new favourite place to eat!

Deliciousness.

2011-12-13T19:28:00.001+11:00

Some recent cooking highlights!

Ottolenghi's Plenty is an amazing cookbook - one of my favourites. The recipes are generally not particularly simple but the amazing flavour combinations are worth the extra time/effort/ingredients that are called for. A dish I've cooked a few times now is the soba noodle salad with eggplant and mango. It's amazing, and great for dinner parties. The recipe can be found all over the internet, e.g. 101 Cookbooks.

A swiss cheese and tomato tart from taste.com.au. A simple and tasty recipe. As suggested in the comments I doubled some of the filling ingredients, although didn't quite cook it as long as I should have because of this. Next time!

Madhur Jaffrey's Ultimate Curry Bible is my number one favourite cookbook. Almost every recipe that I've tried (more than 10 now) has been spectacular, and I've used it so much since I bought it a few months ago that it's almost permanently stationed on my cookbook stand. The royal chicken korma below is one of my favourites.

Not much in the way of cooking was involved here, but this was a very delicious cheese! (from the Wursthaus).

What tasty things have you been cooking recently?

Christmas baking

2011-11-27T20:00:00.001+11:00

This year I've been pretty organised and have done a fair bit of Christmas baking already - hurrah!

I've made two tropical Christmas puddings based on this recipe, one for my work Christmas barbecue and one for family. I'm not a massive pudding fan but these smell amazing and I can't wait to try them. Making puddings requires a lot of dedication: this recipe involved 6 hours of boiling time per pudding.

I've also made a spiced whisky fruitcake based on this recipe. I varied the dried fruits a bit (using up leftovers from the pudding recipe). I'm pretty sure my dad, who loves both fruitcake and whiskey, is going to appreciate this one!

Bring on Christmas!

Mo Mo Bubble Tea and Coffee House, Sandy Bay

2011-11-17T20:17:00.000+11:00

I've written about the city Mo Mo store before and am a big fan of the place, but until last week I hadn't had a meal at their Sandy Bay store. Everything at this outlet is vegetarian and the menu is mostly made up of mock meat goodies.

To start with I tried one of my dining friend's green dumplings. These are relatively pricey compared to other dumplings on the menu, but very tasty.

I had the San Bei 'chicken', which has a sauce of soy sauce, rice wine and sesame oil. The sauce was quite tasty, although I was hoping for a more pronounced sesame flavour (I love sesame oil!). It was really filling, and the fake meat had a great texture.

A friend had the 'beef' ribs which came skewered on sugarcane. I tried one and it was very nice - the marinade had a lovely flavour and I enjoyed chewing on the sugarcane.

Another friend had the crispy 'chicken', and it was my favourite of the dishes. Crispy goodness!

Mo Mo Sandy Bay is a great place for dinner - the food is interesting and very reasonably priced. If you go there make sure you get bubble tea too!

Mai Ake Thai, North Hobart

2011-11-10T19:35:00.001+11:00

Mai Ake Thai is on Elizabeth Street in North Hobart. It's a popular Thai restaurant that has been around for quite a while.

We started with the roti bread with peanut sauce. It was good value and a great start to the meal.

The chicken pad thai was fantastic, a great example of the dish.

The duck curry was a bit disappointing - the pieces of duck were chewy and gristly, and I'm pretty sure the menu said that there was lychee in the curry but we couldn't find any. Royal Thai definitely does a better red duck curry.

Still, overall it was a tasty dinner and we left feeling quite satisfied.

Pilgrim Coffee, Hobart CBD

2011-11-05T17:25:00.000+11:00

Pilgrim Coffee is a new-ish addition to Argyle Street, opposite the hospital. The fitout has a very Melbourne vibe. I've been here twice, and on the first visit I grabbed a couple of macarons:

The one on the left was pistachio - it didn't have a strong pistachio flavour but the ganache was nice and rich and there was also a dollop of tasty jam (strawberry or raspberry?). The left-hand macaron was lemon or lime and wonderfully zesty, with two different ganaches in the middle.

On another visit we sampled a couple of rolls from the delicious-looking selection. I was a bit disappointed that they didn't have either the duck or pork belly rolls that I'd heard good things about, but found some tasty alternatives.

Lamb and lentil:

Chicken, avocado and cashew:

J and I shared these, and they were lovely. A little pricey but worth it - the quality of ingredients was clear.

We're not coffee drinkers but I've heard good things about their coffee!

Random Melbourne eats

2011-10-25T19:00:00.000+11:00

To wrap up my recent trip, here are some bits and pieces from Melbourne.

Naked for Satan in Brunswick Street. I love their pintxos, and they're a steal at 80 cents each during lunchtime.

Drinks in the Ikea cafe: pink lemonade with rosella and sparkling pear juice. The lemonade was super nice, and we were disappointed that it wasn't for sale in the Ikea food shop.

But we did find the following in the shop: moose pasta and a packet mix of the Swedish meatball sauce, yum.

We went to see the Tutakahmen exhibition at the museum, and had lunch at the Tcheft Marquee restaurant there. The lamb burger and vege burger sounded good on the menu, but weren't terribly exciting.

Cheeky Rascal strawberry and apple cider - I was intrigued to try this after I received some comments about it on my Rekorderlig post, especially because it's not available in Hobart. It was pretty good.

Finally, some desserts from a self-serve Chinese bakery that I forgot to note the name of. A tasty pistachio layer cake:

And a really, really yummy mango sponge cake.

I love Melbourne!

Shanghai Village Dumpling, Melbourne

2011-10-22T19:00:00.000+11:00

Shanghai Village Dumpling is in Little Bourke Street, very close to where I was staying on my recent Melbourne holiday. We walked past one evening and there was a line out the door - a good sign! We headed there for dinner the next night. It's a funny little place, with seating on several levels. It's noisy, a bit dirty and very chaotic, but I loved it! The food was fantastic, and dirt cheap. I wish we had places like this in Hobart.

Fried spring onion pancakes ($3.50). This was a great start to the meal, although I do think the pancakes at Written on Tea are better.

Crispy pumpkin pastry ($3.20). These were unusual, but I loved them! They were sweet and almost custardy with a nice pumpkin flavour.

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Steamed chicken and prawn dumplings ($7). Tasty with a nice wrapper. I saw bamboo steamers of dumplings being delivered to other tables that looked even better, but I couldn't figure out which dish they were on the menu.

Shanghai fried rice with diced chicken ($7.80). It looks like standard fried rice but was very tasty - a perfect filler dish.

Great food which fed the two of us for under $30 - bargain! I'll definitely head back next time I'm in Melbourne.

Chocolate Buddha, Melbourne

2011-10-20T17:11:00.000+11:00

Chocolate Buddha has long been one of my favourite Melbourne restaurants. It's right in the middle of Federation Square and serves fantastic Japanese food that's always tasty and fresh, good value and great for sharing.

Sunomono salad: shredded seaweed, cabbage, cucumber, carrot and daikon with a sweet vinegar dressing. I love this salad and it's something I always order here. My favourite part is the seaweed - I wish I could get just dish of it on its own!

Yakitori skewers: teriyaki sauce glazed chicken pieces with a spinach and cucumber salad, pickles and rice. These were great - perfectly cooked and juicy.

Green gyoza: vegetarian dumplings that have been steamed then seared. Great with the accompanying dipping sauce.

Tempura pumpkin roll: an inside-out sushi roll filled with tempura pumpkin, beetroot, seaweed salad and avocado. Usually I get a soft-shelled crab sushi but decided to try something this time. It was great... I did regret not getting the crab when I saw it being served to someone else sitting nearby, though!

We enjoyed a couple of glasses of Te Whare Ra "Toru" GRP wine with dinner - I wish I could find this wine back in Hobart!

Website.

Tasmanian Farm Gate market haul

2011-10-02T12:34:00.003+11:00

It's been a while since I shared a market haul, so here's what I got at the farmer's market today. Lots of deliciousness!

Clockwise from top left: cumquats, rocket, an amazing yoghurt with berry topping, chocolate caramel and macadamia nut slice, wallaby burgers, lemons, with ciabatta in the middle.

The bread, burgers and rocket will be our lunch for today.
I haven't had cumquats before - any suggestions on how to use them?

Update: a pic of today's lunch! It was a beautiful day in Hobart today, and this was the first time we've got the BBQ going since last summer. The burgers were fantastic, topped with provolone cheese, bbqed mushrooms, capsicum, tomato, avocado, rocket and chutney. Delicious, but huge - I only ate half of mine. Saving the rest for lunch tomorrow!

Burch & Purchese Sweet Studio, Melbourne

2011-09-23T22:23:00.000+10:00

Burch & Purchese is an amazing shop tucked away discreetly in Chapel Street, not far from the Toorak Road intersection. They sell cakes, individual dessert concoctions and a range of other products like chocolate, jams, and much more. They also have a pretty incredible wall full of jars of all sorts of ingredients that they use in their dishes, and an open kitchen where you can see creations in progress.

We shared three stunning desserts. First was the 'Rhubarb, apple, crumble, cheesecake'. The desserts are packed into boxes, and they thoughtfully include a piece of paper that lists the components of each dessert. This one has caramelised apple, custard cheesecake, malted walnut crumble, rhubarb compote jelly. I don't recall finding any apple, but it was a rather nice cheesecake.

Next up is 'Raspberry, white choc, honey, lychee', with components of white chocolate and raspberry mousse, raspberry and lychee jelly, muesli and honey nut sponge, raspberry and hibiscus jam, honey, lychee syrup, exaggerated raspberry cream, white chocolate velvet spray.

This one had heaps of components, and they all added up to a pretty tasty dish! Here's a shot of the innards. The mousse was rather lovely but I found myself wishing that there was a bit less mousse and a bit more of the rest. The best part were the lychee pieces - one of my favourite fruits.

Finally, we had the 'Passionfruit, chocolate, caramel'. Components are chocolate shortbread, passionfruit curd, passionfruit salted caramel, dark chocolate dome, dark chocolate jelly, toasted macadamia, passionfruit marshmallow, milk chocolate velvet spray.

And here's the innards shot. Damn, this was good - absolutely my favourite of the three. The caramel, curd and jelly within the dome were AMAZING.

Here's a glimpse at some of the other desserts on offer. It was really hard choosing just three!

I definitely want to go back to try more (and maybe get another of the passionfruit, chocolate, caramel!).

We got a few goodies to take home with us. I got the raspberry and pistachio chocolate fudge and a jar containing half chocolate hazelnut spread and half spicy pineapple jam.

Burch and Purchese website. They also have a blog!

Cumulus Inc., Melbourne

2011-09-20T13:08:00.000+10:00

It's been a little while since my last post - oops! Life has been pretty busy, but I enjoyed a brief getaway to Melbourne recently. Lots of delicious food was eaten - posts to come - and I knocked another restaurant off my wishlist: Cumulus Inc.

We were seated at the bar which overlooks the kitchen - it was a great spot to watch all the action! We were very impressed with how calm and organised the kitchen is. The staff conversations were entertaining at times!

We enjoyed a bottle of white wine with dinner, with is unfortunately not listed on the restaurant's website... drat! All I recall is that it was from a Coal Valley vineyard.

We were served complimentary bread which was fantastic - it seemed like the crust had been lightly fried. Very moreish!

We started with the kitchen charcuterie selection ($26). It was brilliant, and very good value. Clockwise from top is a fennel-laced salami, wagyu bresaola topped with beetroot and horseradish, jamon, bread, duck terrine and a rabbit rillette in the center. EVERYTHING was tasty, but my favourite was definitely the rillette.

The mustard crumbed pig's tail, celeriac remoulade and caperberries ($28) turned up next. This is the first time I'd tried pigs tails, and they were pretty good! The meat was incredibly juicy and cooked to perfection. I wasn't so keen on the remoulade though - it was tangy and rich. It would have been nicer to have something light and fresh to offset the richness of the crumbed tails.

We also ordered the cracked wheat and freekeh salad with preserved lemon, barberries and almonds ($12). It doesn't look like a big bowl in this picture but it was a very generous serving, and tasted great - I did avoid the dollop of somewhat-tangy dressing though (because of the previous dish!).

We were hoping to order another dish on the menu that was out of stock that night, so instead we were offered a duck and leek special (I think it was $39). Duck is a favourite meat so getting it was a no-brainer! It was again cooked perfectly.

I'd hoped to have enough room to try the infamous lemon curd madeleines for dessert, but we were stuffed! Next time...

Website.

Momofuku adventures: pork buns and crack pie

2011-08-23T20:38:00.001+10:00

I purchased David Chang's book Momofuku a year ago after reading all sorts of fabulous things about his recipes across a whole heap of food blogs. So far I've only made two dishes (they tend to be fairly involved!), but definitely plan to do more soon.

Pork buns
The recipe for these delicious morsels can also be seen online here. In the book, Chang recommends buying pre-made steamed buns but I thought they were a lot of fun to make and definitely worth the effort. I followed the recipes for the buns and pickled cucumber to the letter (although I found that just folding the rolled-out bun dough in half was easier than using a chopstick). Instead of pork belly I slow-cooked a pork shoulder and sliced that up.

Here's the bun dough after the second rise, ready for steaming:

Post-steaming and splitting:

Assembled, with hoisin sauce, pork, pickled cucumber and spring onions:

Delicious!

I did re-steam the leftover buns after keeping them in the fridge overnight, and wasn't as happy about how they turned out - they were a bit sticky rather than soft and pillowy. Chang recommends freezing them (and steaming from frozen) - perhaps I should have frozen them instead of refrigerating?

Crack pie:
This has got to be the unhealthiest dessert EVER! Check out the recipe - it's basically just a whole lot of sugar, butter and egg yolks, with some heavy cream thrown in for good measure. You make a giant cookie, crumble it up to make two pie bases, and then fill them with a crazy mixture. This recipe was actually the main reason that I bought the book - but it's not in it! Instead Momofuku Milk Bar will have the sweets recipes, including crack pie and all sorts of other goodies. I'll definitely be adding this to my cookbook collection when it's released later this year.

Here's one pie prior to baking:

And the result - it doesn't look like much but it has to be tasted to be believed. Dust the top with some icing sugar and serve it up to sweet-toothed friends!

A pretty amazing dal

2011-08-17T17:25:00.003+10:00

I love dal and have been experimenting with a few different recipes lately. This particular one is my favourite so far, and is adapted from a recipe in Madhur Jaffrey's Ultimate Curry Bible. It's a South Indian style, and the finishing touch of adding the curry leaves and mustard seeds in ghee is what sets it apart - it wouldn't be the same without this step!

Fresh curry leaves can be hard to find in Hobart, but Spice World in the Bank Arcade usually have them. They have an amazing, nutty aroma that I can't get enough of. They can be frozen, and this is nearly as good as fresh. I don't think that dried curry leaves are worth using though, as the flavour is just not there.

This recipe is great with rice, or creamy polenta.

Ingredients:
90g mung dal (red lentils)
90g toovar dal (split pigeon peas)
pinch asafetida (optional)
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
2 tsp fresh ginger, minced
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 shallot, very finely diced
1 green chilli, finely diced
1 tsp salt
Silverbeet or spinach (optional)
2 tbs ghee (or olive oil)
1/2 tsp brown mustard seeds
2 tsp dried red chilli flakes
10 fresh or frozen curry leaves
3 tbs coriander leaves, chopped

Wash the dal well, then drain.
Add the dal plus 1 litre of water to a large saucepan and bring to the boil without boiling over.
Skim off any scum that rises.
Add the asafetida, cayenne pepper, turmeric, ginger, garlic, shallots, green chilli and salt.
Stir well then reduce the heat so that it's lightly simmering.
Cover partially with a lid and stir occasionally until the dal is tender (up to an hour), then turn off the heat.
If you include silverbeet, roughly chop it and mix it in after 45 minutes. If using spinach, add it when you turn off the heat.
Add the ghee to a frypan and heat.
Add the mustard seeds and chilli flakes and stir quickly.
Crush the curry leaves in your hand and add to the frypan.
Stir very briefly then quickly tip the contents of the frypan into the dal.
Mix together, then immediately cover with a lid and let it sit for several minutes.
Add the coriander and then stir briefly before serving.

Sapa Rose, Hobart CBD

2011-08-08T18:05:00.000+10:00

Sapa Rose is a relatively new Vietnamese restaurant in the city. We don't have much in the way of Vietnamese here, so it's a great addition to the Hobart dining scene.

J and I shared two entrees and two mains. We started with the crispy duck skin with prawn. Fried duck skin - things don't get much tastier than that! The dipping sauce was lovely, too.

We also had the beef la lop - beef wrapped in betel leaves and grilled. Again, this was brilliant. The beef mix had a lovely and strong flavour of kaffir lime leaves.

For mains, we had the traditional curry chicken. It was wonderfully comforting on a cold, rainy night.

We also had the claypot rice which was topped with various meats, vegetables and a gooey fried egg.

I really enjoyed this meal - beautiful flavours and it was great value (the above plus steamed rice came to around $50). The service was a bit patchy, and mains took quite a long time to come, but it was worth it. I'll be back to try more of their dishes, including the phở which is only available at lunchtime.

Annapurna, Salamanca

2011-08-05T19:00:00.001+10:00

Annapurna Indian Cuisine has two restaurants in Hobart, one in North Hobart and the other at Salamanca. I *love* Indian food and seem to end up at Indian restaurants pretty often (though this seems to be the first time that I've blogged about one!).

One of my favourite things to order that a couple of Hobart's Indian restaurants offer is the Thali plate. Annapurna's menu describes this as "An Indian style combination plate served on a big tray with an assortment of individual dishes with steamed rice and Indian bread."

There are three type of thali available here - I chose the special thali ($22.90) which came with a piece of tandoori chicken, butter chicken, lamb rogan josh, a vegetable curry, raita, naan bread, a papadum and rice. There is also a vegetarian thali and another that has seafood.

It was great, as usual. It's a huge amount of food - only order it if you are hungry! I once made the mistake of ordering a thali and mango lassi - all that food topped off with the thick, yoghurty drink left me in a bit of a food coma.

Annapurna's website.

Fish 349, North Hobart

2011-07-29T19:00:00.001+10:00

Another visit to Fish 359, this time with my parents for a weekend lunch.

I had the fish and chips, and chose flathead with spicy dukkah from the fish options:

Mum had the basil & macadamia crusted salmon with spiced potatoes and tomato salsa, a lovely combination.

Dad also had flathead, grilled with olive mash, baby spinach and a capsicum pesto.

In the kitchen

2011-07-20T19:00:00.000+10:00

A few bits and pieces that I have cooked in recent weeks.

Polenta with mushrooms, based on this recipe, but without the fennel and cheese. It was nice, but it definitely needed a sauce or chutney to offset the dryness of the polenta.

Cauliflower, potato and bacon soup, based on this recipe (but I used a whole small cauliflower). J's biggest food hate is cauliflower but he enjoyed this soup!

Cheesey homemade pizza using my new favourite dough recipe from here:

And from warmer days when things like tomatoes were still in season: homemade green tomato mustard pickles. I used my dad's recipe that I adore and made a couple of batches, this is one of them:

Spiced apple, pear and plum chutney. All the fruit came from our backyard!

Summer blackberries picked from the side of the road on the way to Binalong Bay. They were beautifully plump and sweet as-is, no alterations or recipe needed!

Sausage, lentil and silverbeet casserole with polenta

2011-07-14T19:00:00.003+10:00

Adapted from this Taste.com.au recipe, I added silverbeet, used tinned lentils instead of dried, and tinned tomatoes instead of fresh. The polenta is simple: boil 2 cups of water with 2 cups of milk, remove from the heat, add 1 cup of polenta, whisk lots, season to taste (usually 1 tsp of salt is about right), then let it sit for at least 10 minutes.

It was a comforting and very winter-appropriate dish.

p.s. can anyone else see the smiley face in the sausage at the bottom??

Raincheck Lounge, North Hobart

2011-07-11T19:45:00.000+10:00

A recent brunch at Raincheck Lounge. I've had breakfast there quite a lot, but haven't really tried many of their non-breakfast items.
Despite that, I still ordered a breakfast-y dish! I had an omelette that came with sourdough and relish, and was incredibly filling.

My friend had the calamari salad, which looked wonderfully fresh.

Heart Foundation Gala Ball

2011-07-04T19:47:00.001+10:00

J and I were lucky enough to score tickets ($200/head!) through his work for the Heart Foundation's annual gala ball at Wrest Point Casino in the last weekend on June. The theme of the night was 'Dreaming under the Southern Stars' so everything had a very Aussie feel to it, from the food to the decorations to the entertainment (James Blundell!). We dressed up in our finest clothes, and had a great time!

Before we were seated, canapés were served, though we didn't get to try any. The menu listed chermoula-spiced prawn skewers with soy dipping sauce, tempura vegetables with mint yoghurt, and sweet potato tartlets with wilted spinach and pecans.

The appetiser was a "Bushman's Platter", consisting of cured wallaby with Tasmanian berry chutney, gumleaf smoked atlantic salmon tartare, and sweet potato panna cotta with micro herb salad. The wallaby (hiding at the back-right of the pic below) was fantastic, a lovely flavour with a nicely chewy texture. The sweet potato panna cotta was a bit strange at first, but I ended up enjoying it.

Our entrée was consommé of roasted tomatoes with smoked chicken, fresh basil and savoury snow eggs. The soup itself was nice but the snow egg was very strange indeed! Reading the menu I'd had visions of a fantastical Peter Gilmore-style snow egg, but it was basically just a sweet, soft meringue. On its own it was far too sweet but I found that having a tiny bit in a spoonful of soup was not so bad tasting... but still odd!
We were also served a damper-like bread with butter.

Main courses were alternate service. I had the seared lemon myrtle ocean trout with pickled cucumber, steamed wild rice, light tomato and curry leaf sauce. The trout was sublime - I was impressed at how perfectly it was cooked considering how many people they were catering for. The other elements of the dish were fine.

J had the plum glazed pork ribs with herb crushed potato, red cabbage and port jus.

The table set up was quite nice.

Dessert was also alternate service. J had the wild rosella flower and coconut cream mousse, with wattle seed shortbread and orange pepper berry sauce.

I had a very lovely chocolate and wattle seed pudding with vanilla ice cream and rosella compote. A delicious end to the night!

After dessert we were offered tea and coffee, which came with casino-branded plain chocolates that were quite awful - they tasted like compound chocolate.

During the dinner we thoroughly enjoyed the wines from northern Tassie's Holm Oak Vineyard. I tried the sparkling rose, 2009 riesling, 2010 sauvignon blanc, 2009 pinot noir and the 2010 botrytis riesling, all of which were very drinkable indeed! I'll be looking out for their wines in future.

MONA Museum Cafe

2011-06-27T18:36:00.000+10:00

J and I recently checked out the Museum of Old and New Art - a pretty incredible place. While we were there we had lunch at the museum cafe. It was busy the whole time we were there - they must have a pretty high turnover!
,
I had the pie, which was tasty with lovely pastry (a pie isn't good without nice pastry!)J had the eggs benedict muffin. The sauce looked a bit strange (not quite as strange as the photo makes it look) but it all tasted good. He was feeling hungry so also enjoyed a chicken wrap. Next time I'm there I'd like to check out the Wine Bar - the menu looked really interesting. And I'd also love to go to the Source restaurant sometime, perhaps for a special occasion.

Fish Frenzy, Elizabeth Street Pier

2011-06-20T19:00:00.001+10:00

A recent Saturday lunch. I had the prawns with Caesar salad... I made a bad menu choice. The salad was drowning in dressing and the prawns were what you'd expect from a corner fish and chippery. Seafood chowder - this was J's much better menu choice. Thick and hearty and perfect for a cold day.

Scary food

2011-06-08T19:00:00.000+10:00

This is the 'Saffron rice' that we received from an unnamed Indian restaurant in Launceston recently. I haven't altered the colours in the picture at all! The curries that we got with the rice didn't fare much better in terms of authenticity...

Maldini, Salamanca

2011-06-05T19:00:00.001+10:00

J and I enjoyed at Saturday lunch at Maldini. I've been there for breakfast a couple of times and really like it, and have meaning to try their non-breakfast food for ages... finally got around to it! They have heaps of amazing sounding things on the menu which you can see online - I particularly wanted to try the pork loin dish but it seemed a bit much for a lunch time.

I ended up going for a dish from the Specials menu, which was a creamy salmon and asparagus fettuccine. It was delicious but deceptively rich - I couldn't finish it all, and went home and lay about in a food coma for the afternoon!

J had a beautiful dish of crispy skinned Atlantic salmon on smashed créme fraîche pinkeyes with a tomato, green olive & lemon salsa. Everything about this was perfect.

Cider tasting night at the New Sydney Hotel

2011-06-02T19:00:00.004+10:00

Last Wednesday the New Sydney Hotel held a cider tasting night. Ticket cost was $40 and that covered ciders and food. It was brilliant - some interesting and uncommon ciders matched with some fabulous food. They were very generous with the cider too - it just kept on coming!

We started off with a glass of Napoleon Perry - I've had their apple cider before but not the pear, and it was really nice. This was matched with 'Two flavours of cider: tea of cider hot and cold', which you can see in the smaller, right-hand glass in the picture below. It was made up of two layers of a cider jelly - the top 'hot' layer had chilli, ginger and juniper berries, and the bottom cold layer had lemongrass and something that I have forgotten - perhaps elderflower? It was really interesting to drink - I noticed a few people around us didn't finish theirs but I loved it. The chef told us what the jelly was made with - not gelatine or agar agar, but another combination of fancy ingredients/chemicals that escapes me...

Most of the food involved heading up to the chef's table at the front to grab a plate - this is the preparation of the next course:

...which was rolled chicken, silverbeet, purple potato, chicken glaze. Very tasty and it matched nicely with the True South Miss Muffet apple cider. This cider was new to me and my favourite from the night. I'm happy to see that the New Sydney now has this on tap.

Next up was apple and mustard cured salmon with lemon myrtle cream and an apple wafer. The salmon was melt-in-your-mouth delicious.

It was matched with the Green Goblin cider - the match was really good, although it's not a favourite cider of mine.

Next we had 'crisp pork fingers with apple' which were presented like pork lollipops. Another excellent match here, paired with Aspall cider from the UK.

Elderflower sorbet with crisp chilli, served with Inn Cider. The sorbet was nicely refreshing and I've been a fan of Inn Cider for a while, but it was probably the least successful pairing of the night.

With many drinks comes fuzzy photos taken after food has been nibbled on... these cheeses were served with crackers, bread and two jellies including a very nice raspberry jelly. Loved the soft cheese. It was served with Kelly Brothers cider.

We finished up with crispy, sweet beetroot biscuits served with a hot apple cider topped with foam. The menu had 'cider macaroon' as the final course, and I was a bit sad not to get this - perhaps something went wrong...

Our pile of drinks by the end of the night!

During the tasting we had talks from a new cider producer, a cider judge and one of the New Sydney's chefs, both very informative and it was clear that lots of people there were very interested in what they had to say.

It was a great night with HEAPS of cider and tasty food. I hope they do another one soon! (this was the first cider tasting night but they've held beer and whiskey tastings before).

A few cider drinkers read this blog - what's your favourite? :)

Thai pumpkin soup

2011-05-20T19:00:00.000+10:00

This recipe was adapted from My Table by Pete Evans, which is another great cookbook with a wide variety of great recipes. This soup is full of flavour and contains lots of good things to help fight off winter colds.

Ingredients:
1 tbs oil
3/4 cup diced leek
3 tbs finely diced lemongrass
1 red chilli, finely diced
1 tbs ginger, finely diced
1 kaffir lime leaf, julienned
1 bunch of coriander, stems and roots chopped, leaves reserved
4 garlic cloves, finely diced
1kg pumpkin, peeled and cubed
1 tin (400ml) coconut milk
500ml vegetable stock
zest of one orange

Heat the oil in a large saucepan over medium heat.
Add the leek, lemongrass, chilli, ginger, lime leaf, coriander stems and roots and garlic.
Fry until fragrant, but don't allow it to brown.
Add the pumpkin, coconut milk, stock and orange zest plus 150ml water and bring to the boil.
Reduce heat slightly and cook for about 30 minutes or until the pumpkin has softened.
Blend the soup with a stick mixer (or blender or food processor).
Season with salt and pepper and serve with a sprinkle of coriander and chilli flakes, and a dollop of cream, sour cream or even yoghurt (whatever you have handy!)

Green pancakes

2011-05-18T19:08:00.004+10:00

My new favourite cookbook is Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty. I've been reading lots about this vegetarian book on blogs such as Where's the Beef? and Cook Almost Anything, and read his posts on The Guardian website and knew that I had to get my hands on a copy. It's an amazing book that I'm sure even the most dedicated meateater would find it hard to resist. It's not full of lentil/chickpea/bean recipes, rather it puts all sorts of vegetables to amazing and delicious-sounding uses. Once a Waitress has a great post about it.

This is the first recipe that I've cooked from the book, and it definitely won't be the last! I adapted it slightly by using silverbeet instead of spinach, halving the recipe, leaving out the whisked egg white at the end, and I didn't serve it witht the suggested lime butter. The pancakes were very fast and easy to prepare and tasted simply fantastic. The recipe is completely adaptable to any leafy vegetables that you have handy.

Ingredients:
125g silverbeet, washed
55g self-raising flour
1/2 tbs baking powder
1 egg
25g butter, melted
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cumin
75ml milk
50g spring onions, finely sliced
1 green chilli, finely diced
olive oil for frying

Wilt the silverbeet in a frypan with a splash of water.
Remove to drain in a sieve, and when cool, squeeze out as much water as you can with your hands then finely chop.
Put the flour, baking powder, egg, butter, salt, cumin and milk into a bowl and whisk until smooth.
Add the spring onions, chillies and silverbeet and mix in.
Add a dash of olive oil to a non-stick frypan and turn on to medium-high.
Spoon ~2 tablespoons of batter into the frypan and shape into a circle around 1cm thick.
Cook for about 2 mins each side, until golden.
Continue making and cooking pancakes until the batter is all used (I made 3 pancakes, more than enough for one person for dinner)

Random eats

2011-05-05T18:28:00.001+10:00

A few recent (and not-so recent!) eats from around Hobart.

The Fat Boy roti at Machine Laundry Cafe in Salamanca. Delicious! Covered in satay sauce and stuffed with chicken and bacon.

Machine's soup of the day, I think it was pumpkin and lentil:

Red Velvet Lounge's baked eggs. Nice flavours and fantastic bread, I would have been really happy if the yolk had still been a bit runny though.

Sawak Cafe's nasi goreng. A gooey fried egg with lots of tasty prawns hidden underneath:

Little India: not the prettiest of lunches but it filled a hole! I find most of their curries are too sweet and generic but some are alright. This was a goat curry and a chicken curry.

J had lamb korma and mango chicken.

A couple of treats that my mumma got from Sweet Envy: peanut biscuits sandwiching a torte cream-style choc/coffee icing, and what I would guess is their interpretation of the classic Iced Vovo. Both were delicious!

Dumpling World's seafood fried rice:

And their chicken stirfry noodles:

Onba's mixed grill, from back in November last year. This is a terrible picture and doesn't do the dish justice. It had sausages, quail and a lamb cutlet with ratatouille, mint pesto and polenta. It was great... I especially loved the polenta.

My dining buddy's oven-roasted chicken breast filled with Tasmanian scallops and spinach on potato mash with red capsicum essence.

Red wine and mushroom risotto

2011-04-28T18:08:00.001+10:00

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.

New Sydney Hotel, Bathurst St.

2011-04-21T19:00:00.000+10:00

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:

Mushroom risotto:

Confit chicken with speck chorizo, beetroot and polenta cake:

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

Chicken burger with sweet potato chips:

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!

Dede Indonesian and Thai Cuisine, North Hobart

2011-04-18T19:00:00.000+10:00

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.

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.

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

Ayam bumbu rujak: J's spicy chicken dish.

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

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.

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.

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!

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

Crispy pork: not bad.

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

Website.

Moonah Taste of the World Festival 2011

2011-04-11T19:00:00.001+10:00

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

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.

For my mum: the Moonah Primary kitchen garden stall

Website

Estia Street Festival 2011

2011-04-10T18:07:00.000+10:00

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:

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!

Loukoumathes: so unhealthy, so delicious

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

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

Basil, garlic and chilli bread

2011-03-26T15:30:00.001+11:00

Adapted from this recipe. Texturally it's the best loaf of bread I've ever baked, thanks to my Kitchenaid doing the kneading work and my new proper bread tin. Yay! The flavour is pretty good too, though maybe needs a little bit more salt.

Taste of the Huon, 2011

2011-03-24T18:00:00.000+11:00

I love the Taste of the Huon - it's a lovely day out when the weather's nice - which it definitely was this year! As a result, thousands of people flocked down to Ranelagh and the lunchtime queues were huge. As a result, I mostly went to stalls that had shorter queues; this had a bit of a hit-and-miss outcome.

I tried a smoked salmon rosti from the Rosti Chalet - despite these guys appearing at pretty much every festival, I haven't tried a rosti from them for years. It was tasty.

I also tried a Bes Mudi seafood salad, which I didn't really enjoy. I was hoping for a lively, fresh salad but it didn't happen.

The Tasmanian Chilli Beer Co.'s raspberry with chilli sparking was fantastic - I went back for more later but they were all sold out.

Dessert was a berry crepe from Strawberry Avenue. After a long wait to get to the front of the line it hit the spot nicely.

A friend had their pavlova. It looked pretty great but the meringue was kind of overcooked.

Brunswick Hotel, Hobart CBD

2011-03-21T08:00:00.001+11:00

The Brunswick Hotel on Liverpool Street has been revamped (I'd never been there before the recent renovations), and it's a rather nice space. We had the fun of sitting on their famous Chesterfield lounge - I think we had about 7 people along the lounge from our table, then there was a gap, then even more people were on it at the next table!

The menu is pretty interesting - lots of gastropub-type food and reasonably priced. Based on the strength of the menu I was surprised at the how few dining seats there were. We had a very long wait for our mains, but we were a large group of 14. Once the food came it was pretty well received.

Apologies in advance for the shoddy photos - it seems my phone camera wasn't interested in focussing properly that night!

J and I shared one of the dishes from the 'Bigger' side of the menu, and 2 from the 'Smaller' side. First up from the smaller dishes was the grilled Storm Bay calamari and chorizo with eggplant ($15.50). Rather nice.

We also had the Cygnet rabbit, pork and ham hock terrine with pear pickle ($15.50). Not bad, but nothing amazing.

Our bigger dish, the hand-rolled herb pasta, mushroom, baby leeks, hazelnuts and gruyere ($22). This was amazing - beautiful flavours, not too rich, lovely textures. I want to go back for this dish alone.

Finally, a plate that another friend had - I had to take a picture as it looked rather spectacular, although I am still trying to decide if I actually like the styling or not. The dish was free range duck breasts, beets, cherries, parsnip and orange.

Strathlynn, Rosevears.

2011-03-18T19:00:00.002+11:00

Last month saw us at Strathlynn, a beautiful restaurant just north of Launceston that is part of Piper's Brook Vineyard. The setting is amazing, surrounded by grape plantations and overlooking the Tamar River, and the restaurant space itself is beautiful. It's a good choice for a special occasion.

We started by sharing one of the daily specials - I can't quite remember the finer details, but it included ling, trout and pickled vegetables. The combination of all three parts was brilliant.

I had the twice-cooked pork belly with almond couscous and pecorino ($25). The pork belly was perfect, but I struggled to eat this dish as the sauce was way too tangy.

J had the pan-fried Nichols chicken with red onion, beetroot and parmesan ($35). He scoffed this down in no time, so it must have been good!

My dad had the Springfield venison with carrots, feta and onion jam ($35), and couldn't stop raving about how good the sauce was.

Mum had the Spring Bay scallops with beetroot butter and hazelnut gratin ($25). They looked pretty, but didn't seem to be very good value - there were only four small scallops (it was a dish from the entrée menu - but so was my pork belly).

The organic salad ($8.50) was great, pepped up by the inclusion of pickles.

The herb potatoes ($8.50) were fantastic, perfectly cooked and drenched in oil, sage and other herbs.

We then moved on to dessert, having seen how good they looked when they were delivered to surrounding tables. I had the vanilla bean panna cotta ($15). Everything about this was superb, especially the perfect blueberries which were coated in an orange syrup.

Others had the lavender and rosewater semi-freddo ($15). I was a bit unsure about this when I read it on the menu, as flower-infused food can sometimes be a bit too ...floral, but this was really quite nice.

Finally, the amazing view from the front of the restaurant.

Written on Tea, Sandy Bay

2011-03-06T17:55:00.001+11:00

I've been meaning to make it to Written on Tea for ages, and finally got there. I loved it - will definitely be heading back again soon! The service was a bit patchy, but the food more than made up for it.

Spring onion pancake. Utterly delicious - I'm planning to try and make these soon (there's a great guide here).

Stir-fried roast duck with basil leaves. Pretty tasty but it was pieces of a whole duck still on the bone - J wasn't so keen on fussing around with the bones.

Fried rice with Chinese sausages and vegetables. Lovely.

Xiaolong bun-steam juicy bun. Otherwise known as xiao long bao/soup dumplings, these were fantastic! They were soupier than the ones we had in Sydney, but the skins weren't quite as good.

I sampled a bit of a friend's tofu dish (I've forgotten the name, sorry). It was fantastic, with a good amount of chilli heat.

Eggplant filled with minced pork. This was ok, but the sauce was very very salty.

Löwenbräu Keller, Sydney

2011-02-21T21:18:00.001+11:00

Löwenbräu Keller is a popular German restaurant in The Rocks, Sydney. We loved it - great service by the costumed staff and fantastic hearty food.

Bayerischer Rettichsalat: Bavarian Radish Salad with Yoghurt-Dill Dressing and Smoked Norwegian Salmon ($22). Delicious salmon, nice dill dressing.

But the salad paled in comparison to the main event: Schlachtplatte: Löwenbräu’s Selection of Bavarian Specialties - Sausages, Chicken Schnitzel, Meat Loaf and Roast Pork Belly, Served with Mashed Potatoes, Sauerkraut, Braised Red Cabbage, Bread Dumpling and Bier Gravy ($38). So much meat, and everything was delicious! Highlights were the pork belly, meatloaf and braised red cabbage. Yum!

You can order a double-size Schlachtplatte which comes with a bonus roasted pork knuckle, but we chickened out of ordering so much meat at the last second!

Burger Got Soul, Sandy Bay

2011-02-17T19:00:00.000+11:00

Burger Got Soul recently opened its second Tasmanian branch in Sandy Bay. Friends have been going on about how good it is, so we decided to see for ourselves.

We ordered some 'Thick cut seasoned chips' to share ($4.50) plus lime mayo ($1). The chips were cooked perfectly, although a tad too salty.

I ordered the 'Birds of a feather': chicken breast, satay coriander sauce, shredded carrot, salad and soul mayo ($12.90) on a Turkish bread bun. Tasty!

J devoured the 'Funkey chicken': grilled chicken breast, avocado, crispy trim bacon, salad, relish and soul mayo ($13.50) on a wholemeal bun.

It reminded us a lot of a place we went to in Brisbane last year called Grill'd, and looking up the menu online it seems to be the same!

Orizuru Sushi Bar, Victoria Dock, Hobart

2011-02-15T19:00:00.005+11:00

Dinner with friends at Orizuru earlier this month. It was alright, but not amazing - mainly it just made me pine for the quality of sushi that I am used to in Melbourne or Sydney. The restaurant itself has had a bit of a makeover since the last time I was there (which was ages ago), and the servings seem smaller.

Soft-shell crab sushi. It felt like there wasn't enough batter on the crab. I wish more places in Hobart had SSC on their menu.

Vegetable tempura. This was great, nicely crisp.

Seaweed salad. I adore seaweed salad, and this was up to scratch, but it was a teeny tiny serving in a small bowl - more seaweed would have been preferable to the unnecessary lettuce/carrot garnish.

Chirashizushi. The seafood was fantastic, the eggs and rice underneath were uninteresting.

The dinner box that a friend had, which again seems smaller than it used to be.

Despite my comments above, I did enjoy the meal although that's likely to be partially (if not wholly) due to the company we were with. I came away from it feeling a bit poorer and still a bit hungry (J and I shared the first four dishes pictured).

Adriano Zumbo, Manly

2011-02-10T18:30:00.004+11:00

Adriano Zumbo's new TV show starts on SBS tonight, everyone should watch it! Update: if you missed it you can watch the episode online here.

In honour of this, here are pictures of some treats that I tried at his new Manly outlet. The shop was a bit hard to spot (it has a very small sign), but it was worth the hunt.

Gary's Mangoes: mango themed, the jelly was my favourite part!

A closer look at all those layers: mousse, jelly, biscuit and meringue

It tastes sweeter: pineapple themed, delicous choux balls with amazing fillings.

Macarons: Blueberry mudcake, Raspberry and aniseed, Eggs and bacon, Lucky dip (which tasted a bit like banana). They got a bit sweaty on the 30ºC day!

Din Tai Fung, Sydney

2011-02-09T20:00:00.010+11:00

One of the things I really wanted to try in Sydney were xiao long bao, otherwise known as soup dumplings, and where better than Din Tai Fung who claim to have the world's tastiest dumpling (and get great reviews on urbanspoon to back it up). I haven't found anywhere in Tassie that makes XLB - if you know of anywhere, let me know. (Update: apparently Written on Tea in Sandy Bay have them - will go there asap!)

Din Tai Fung is pretty popular, and we were told when we arrived that there'd be a half hour wait before we could get a table. There is an outside area that's entirely designated for people waiting for a seat - it's huge! There were more people to either side of this shot.

While you wait you can watch dumplings being made in the kitchen. You are also given a copy of the menu and an order form that can be handed in before you are seated, meaning speedy service once you finally make it inside.

45 minutes later, we were seated! First up was the Vegetarian Delight: a salad with seaweed, dried tofu and glass noodles, tossed with a light sesame dressing ($3.80). I'm a big fan of Japanese seaweed salads and this dish has a lot in common with those - delicious.

We also ordered green beans with minced pork and dried prawn mincce ($12.80). Pretty tasty, but probably not really worth the price in comparison to the salad.

Crumbed chicken fillet served with fried rice ($12.80). Oh. My. This was the tastiest fried chicken that I've ever had. It was beautifully juicy and the crumb was out of this world, with a flavour reminiscent of Chinese five spice.

Prawn and pork jiao zi (6 for $9.80 - J stole one before I took the photo!). Pretty tasty, but they were eclipsed by the dumplings that come next...

Xiao long bao/pork soup dumplings (8 for $10.80). They were fantastic! A beautifully rich flavoured filling, and I know I haven't had dumpling skins of this quality before. Yum!

Definitely worth the wait. At $50 to feed two it was also terrific value.

Machine Laundry Cafe, Salamanca

2011-02-08T19:00:00.001+11:00

Machine Laundry Cafe is a Salamanca institution - it's been there for years and is very popular. It had been a long time since I'd eaten there so J and I went down to Salamanca for a Saturday morning brunch.

We ordered drinks - a fantastic mixed fruit frappe for me, and fresh orange juice for J.

Thom's Thing: garlic sourdough with avocado salsa, chickpeas, fresh tomato, basil, baby spinach, grilled haloumi and lemon ($13). I also added crispy pancetta to the order ($3.50). Delicious, especially the haloumi and pancetta.

J had poached eggs on multigrain toast ($9.50) with a selection of extra sides - mushrooms ($3), bacon ($3.50) and pork and sundried tomato chipolatas ($3.50).

Very tasty and good value. There's heaps more on the menu that I'd like to try, so we'll be back soon. I love places that offer more than just the standard eggs+sides for breakfast.

Tetsuya's, Sydney

2011-02-06T17:19:00.002+11:00

Tetsuya's: one of Australia's top restaurants, and one that I have wanted to go to for a really long time. A combined 30th birthday for me and another friend provided the excuse to head to Sydney with a handful of friends and treat ourselves to an amazing night. The dinner costs $210 for an 11 course degustation, and many of us also chose the matched wine option for an extra $95. I've included the wine names with the dish descriptions below. I'm not at all experienced enough to comment about the wines, except that the combination of the food and wine was superb and enhanced the dishes. I don't think I am really knowledgeable enough to talk about the food adequately either, but I'll give it my best shot...

Sourdough with ricotta, parmesan and truffle butter.
The bread was delicious, the butter amazing, and even better with a pinch of salt on top. Bread was offered regularly throughout the first half of the meal, and the butter topped up.

Chilled cucumber soup with sheep yoghurt ice cream.
Amazing from the first sip: creamy with the ice cream yet completely refreshing.
In the background you can also see the cocktail I ordered - I forget what it was called, but I chose it because lychees were a component. Although I couldn't taste any lychees the cocktail still hit the spot nicely.

Sashimi of kingfish with blackbean and orange.
Tengumai Bunseirokunen sake for Tetsuya's, Junmai, Ishikawa.
I can't even begin to try and describe this dish. There was so much more to it than the three ingredients listed in the menu description - the flavours were very complex but completely balanced. The fish pretty much melted in your mouth, and I savoured every mouthful!

Marinated NZ scampi with avocado soup and avruga.
2010 Henschke Julius Riesling, Eden Valley, S.A.
I'd have to say that this was my favourite dish. I hadn't had scampi before, and it was so sweet and delicious. Underneath was a lovely bread salad. I hadn't had avruga before (herring that has been coloured with squid ink to resemble caviar) but it was great too. Each component on this dish was fantastic, and the combination was brilliant.

Confit Petuna ocean trout with konbu, celery and apple.
2010 Skillogalee Gewurtztraminer, Clare Valley, SA.
Tetsuya's signature dish! I loved the konbu crust, and the texture of the confit trout - it was very soft and had an interesting note from the oil.

Fillet of mulloway with asparagus and pil pil.
2007 Pierro chardonnay for Tetsuya's, Margaret River, W.A.
This was my least favourite course of the night, which is not to say that it was bad, just my least favourite. Mulloway (jewfish) is quite a strong tasting fish and it was definitely the dominant flavour of the dish.

Braised ox tail with sea cucumber and yuzu.
2008 Mencia petalos, descendientes de J.Palacios, Bierzo, Spain.
Another first: sea cucumber! Lots of umami in this course, and the sea cucumber added an interesting texture. The ox tail flaked apart with just a slight nudge of the fork.

Pancetta-wrapped quail breast with fresh sprouts and onion.
2010 Foster e rocco nuovo sangiovese, Heathcote, Victoria.
The quail was perfectly cooked and nicely tender, but the star of the dish was without a doubt the crunchy salad.

De-boned rack of lamb with heirloom carrots.
2008 Fraser gallop cabernet sauvignon, Margaret River, W.A.
This dish didn't make a huge impression on me. It was sprinkled with almonds which added some nice texture, and the purees were tasty, but despite lamb being my favourite meat this didn't stand out.

Riesling sorbet with pomelo and summer pudding
2007 Heggies botrytis riesling, eden valley, S.A.
We were told to eat the sorbet first, followed by the pudding. The pomelo in the sorbet was great - little bursts of flavour. Summer pudding is one of my favourite desserts, and so of course I enjoyed this.

White peach with peach granita.
Very refreshing!

Chocolate pavé with cream cheese ice cream and cinnamon twigs.
Seppeltsfield Cellar No. 6 tokay, Rutherglen, Victoria.
This was the final dessert that most of the table had. The cake was mousse-like and very rich!

As the birthday girl, I was given a different dessert - a perfectly-cooked chocolate fondant with cocoa-dusted hazelnuts and a quenelle of cream.

Chai mochi.
We finished on tea or coffee and these petit fours. I love mochi and these were great examples, with a rich chocolate centre (I don't recall noticing any chai flavour).

The service was top-notch - 100% professional without being stuffy - every detail was taken care of. They happily accommodated for vegetarians at our table, as well as gluten and egg allergies.

So, all in all it was a completely amazing meal! I was a bit worried that after wanting to go here for eight or so years that it might not meet my expectations, but it still blew me away. Completely and utterly worth it.

Matar paneer (Indian paneer and peas)

2011-02-02T20:14:00.002+11:00

I used my paneer in a curry loosely based on this Taste.com.au recipe. This is a perfect weeknight dinner recipe - it's fast, easy, healthy and other than the paneer, uses ingredients that are always in my pantry.

Ingredients:
200g paneer
60g ghee
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tsp fresh ginger, grated or finely chopped
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp sweet paprika
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tin crushed tomatoes
1 tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 cup frozen peas
1 cup fresh or frozen beans (I used a combination of both)
1/2 tsp garam masala

Dice the paneer into cubes.
Heat half of the ghee in a non-stick frying pan over medium heat and fry the paneer until golden.
Add the remaining ghee in same pan over medium heat and cook garlic and ginger for one minute.
Stir in all spices except garam masala and cook one minute.
Add the tomatoes, fill the tin with water and add this as well, then cook for 5 minutes.
Stir in the chickpeas, peas, beans and paneer, and cook, partially covered, for a further 15 minutes or until vegetables are tender.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Stir in the garam masala and serve with either rice or Indian bread such as naan.

Paneer (cookbook challenge #2)

2011-02-01T21:29:00.003+11:00

The theme for week two of the cookbook challenge is citrus. I decided to put a spin on this and make paneer, where lemon is a crucial ingredient when making the cheese (although other acidic ingredients such as vinegar can also be used).

It's a pretty simple process but results in a delicious fresh cheese that is tastier than what you can buy at the supermarket (and probably cheaper too, depending on the milk price).

Ingredients:
2L of good quality, full cream milk, unhomogenised is ideal. I used Ashgrove's Green milk.
1/8 cup lemon juice

Heat the milk in a heavy-based saucepan until it is almost boiling.
Remove from the heat and add the lemon juice.
Place back on the heat briefly while gently stirring the milk.
Remove from the heat as soon as curds start forming, cover the saucepan, and set it aside for 5 to 10 minutes.
Line a colander with cheesecloth (and place a bowl underneath if you wish to collect the whey - it's great for watering roses and rhododendrons)
Use a slotted spoon to gently transfer most of the curds from the saucepan into the cheesecloth.
Pour the remaining curds and liquid through the cheesecloth.
Gather the edges of the cheesecloth and twist it tightly to squeeze out more liquid.
Place a saucer on top of the twisted parcel and weigh it down with heavy cans or jars.
Leave to drain for at least 30 minutes.
Remove the cheese from the cloth, wrap with damp paper towel then place in the fridge in an airtight container.
Leave overnight before using.

After adding the lemon juice to the milk:

The finished paneer after resting overnight - I got 290g cheese out of 2L milk:

I used the cheese in a really tasty curry, the recipe is posted here

Icecream at home, Cold Rock style

2011-01-20T18:51:00.003+11:00

What do you do when you move house and are no longer 4 minutes walk from Cold Rock, and you've also come to the conclusion that it's really expensive, despite being delicious? Make it yourself!
A friend told me that Kmart were selling marble blocks plus scoops for $12 - bargain.

Step 1: get the marble slab out of the freezer, add a scoop of a favourite icecream (Cadbury flake) then top with mix-ins of choice (Twirl, Mars Bar and Toblerone).

Step 2: mix

Step 3: nom!

Pickled cherries and cherry jam (cookbook challenge #1)

2011-01-17T20:00:00.001+11:00

The Cookbook Challenge is back! This year we are only doing recipes fortnightly, so I hope that I'll do a better job of keeping up with the challenge. There's a forum for all the posts and themes.

The theme for the first challenge is stonefruit. I was lucky enough to get a 5kg box of cherries for $10, and so decided to preserve them.

I found a recipe in Stephanie Alexander's The Cook's Companion called pickled cherries. I added a couple of extra spices to the mix (star anise and cinnamon), and in hindsight I would have liked to have used red wine vinegar (or perhaps spike it with some pinot) so that it would be a nice rich red colour. Next time!

Ingredients:
700g sugar
850ml white wine vinegar
24 black peppercorns
12 cloves
6 bay leaves
6 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
1 unpeeled clove of garlic
1kg cherries, rinsed and stems trimmed to 1cm long.

Dissolve sugar in vinegar in a large saucepan over gentle heat.
Add all other ingredients except cherries and simmer for 10 minutes.
Allow syrup to cool.
Pack fruit into hot, sterilised jars.
Pour syrup over fruit and seal.

The mix smelled great but it will be a while before I know how it went, as the cherries should be left for a few weeks before opening.

I also made my first-ever batch of jam using the rest of the cherries. I had a bit of trouble getting this jam to set, and overcooked it a little. It has a bit of a smoky smell - but still tastes great!

Tasmanian Farm Gate market

2011-01-17T18:00:00.000+11:00

I finally made it to this market nice and early! We must have just missed the ringing of the bell when the market opens at 9am, but it was great to wander around and see all the goods on offer before anything had sold out. As a result, we ended up with a lovely selection of goodies.

1kg baby potatoes, $3
A bowl of apricots (babycots!)
Basil, $4

Half a kilo of oyster mushrooms for $5 (so cheap!)
Spring greens, $1.50
Blackcurrants, 2kg for $10, which I turned into jam.

Deliciousness!

Christmas eats, 2010

2011-01-06T19:00:00.001+11:00

My parents spent Christmas with J and I, and a feast was had!

I cooked this Night before Christmas cake for my dad, leaving off the icing and adding some raisins to the mix. It was tasty, especially after a couple of days, but I had two problems: one was that all the fruit sank to the bottom (not enough flour in the recipe to hold the raisins that I added?), and the other was that all the nuts on top made it particularly hard to slice (despite looking pretty spectacular).

The centrepiece of Christmas lunch was a roast duck (which I forgot to photograph!). It was served with the port and cherry sauce from a cookbook challenge entry.

Thit heo kho tieu (five-spice caramel pork) was delicious, and made the house smell wonderful all morning while it was cooking.

On the side we had my old favourite pumpkin, spinach and pine nut salad.

And roast carrots, potatoes and beetroot.

Lightly steamed beans tossed in lemon olive oil.

Mum made a glazed ham.

Which was served with a simply brilliant raspberry and apple sauce.

My plate of lunch shows the duck:

For dessert I made a pavlova, which was topped with berries from my parent's garden.

Mum bought a Christmas pudding from the Trevallyn Gourmet Bakery in Launceston, which was wonderful with some brandy double cream.

Later in the afternoon we got stuck into some simply amazing cheese that J bought. The two soft cheeses on the left were some of the best I have ever tasted.

Taste of Tasmania 2010/2011

2011-01-04T19:00:00.000+11:00

Happy new year! I managed to get to the Taste festival a couple of times this year, and was impressed with the revamped shed.

Huon Aquaculture taste plate:

Waji's Cajun calamari:

Tempura mushrooms with chilli plum sauce and wasabi mayo:

Summer berry pudding from Island Berries: (my all time favourite Taste of Tas dish)

And their raspberry pannacotta:

Plus their blueberry cheesecake tart:

Inn cider: (potent!)

Taste Cafe and Catering's paella:

Blue Nile's Ethiopian taste plate:

Crayfish pizza:

Chocolate fondue:

Last year's post is here. A bit of overlap... I guess I do have my favourites!

Sawak Cafe, Collins Street

2010-12-23T18:00:00.002+11:00

Sawak Cafe has recently opened in the spot previously occupied by Pasta Resistance, next to the Collins Street entrance to Chickenfeed. They sell a range of Malaysian dishes, and I've been working my way through the delicious menu.

Nasi lemak ($11). Lovely coconut rice served with the traditional accompaniments: fried chicken, peanuts, egg, cucumber, sambal sauce and the addictive dried anchovies.

Char kway teow ($10.80). These fried rice noodles are simply fantastic - they even beat my previous favourite version from Chatterbox in North Hobart. I think the magic ingredient is the lap cheong (Chinese sausage), which you can't see in the photo.

Kari ayam with roti jala ($12.80). A chicken curry with pieces of potato, bean curd and beans, served with net bread. This was enjoyable, although I prefer curries with a bit more of a kick to them. The roti tasted like it was fried in butter (delicious!) but had more of a pancake texture than I was expecting, although that probably wasn't helped by my carrying it back to the office in a sealed plastic container - the bread probably ended up soggier as a result.

Other things on the menu that I plan to try in the future include laksa, nasi goreng, mee goreng and the beef salad... after the Christmas holidays!

From a trip to Melbourne the weekend before last...

2010-12-16T18:20:00.002+11:00

An unexpectedly huge serving of saganaki at Blue Train Cafe, Southbank:

The big breakfast at Kush Bar Restaurant, Chapel Street:

And the eggs royal from Kush:

Delicious giant strawberries from the Prahran Market:

Amazing pintxos from Naked for Satan, Brunswick Street:

Vietnamese sauce-topped Lord of the Fries:

I love Melbourne.

Weekend market haul

2010-12-12T22:06:00.001+11:00

From Salamanca market:

Bok choy
Two new Dickens cider varieties: Old English and a pear cider
Red currant vinegar from Hillwood Berry Farm
Strawberries ($4 for a large punnet)
Peas ($6 for a large bag)
Peaches ($2/kg)
Coriander
Mushrooms
Jalapeño and cheese bread

And from the farmers market we got some broad bean hummus, strawberry jelly and broccoli. We got there kind of late at 12pm, but it was great to see so many stalls and plenty of people still there.

I love this time of year - there's so much wonderful fresh produce.

Noodlebox, North Hobart

2010-12-04T09:00:00.005+11:00

Various noodles from Noodlebox in North Hobart. Their noodles are consistently enjoyable. Unfortunately I took these photos a while ago and have forgotten which ones we ordered...

Sauce-splattered noodleboxes don't look all that great in photos, but they tasted mighty fine.

Mo Mo Bubble Tea and Coffee House, Hobart CBD

2010-12-01T16:55:00.000+11:00

More deliciousness from Mo Mo - it's really close to my workplace so I am a regular patron.

Half tom yum, half special fried rice with a white chocolate bubble tea:

Cajun chicken wrap with a peach iced tea. The wraps are fantastic - great value ($7.50) with a generous amount of filling, especially chicken. They are often sold out in the display cabinet but they will make up fresh ones too.

Me Wah, Sandy Bay

2010-11-24T21:02:00.001+11:00

Back in September J and I treated ourselves to a dinner at Me Wah. They have a couple of set menu options and we chose the Peony menu at $65. We enjoyed a bottle of Lalla Gully Pinot Gris with the meal.

The first course was 'Two kinds of hand made seafood dumplings steamed in bamboo basket'. One was prawn and the other a scallop sui mai. They were lovely, as was the accompanying special soy sauce.

Tasmanian squid, pan tossed with spicy salt and five spices, and crispy fried crab claw with sweet and sour sauce. The squid was a tad saltier than I prefer, but the crab was amazing and we did our best at getting all of the meat out of the shell!

Finely diced Rannock quail breast in sang choy bao. J wasn't very impressed with this, but I really enjoyed it. The flavouring on the meat was spicy and rich.

Crystal Bay jumbo prawns sautéed with velvet eggs, diced shiitake, string beans, white truffle oil and stir fried hor fun rice noodles. Deceptively rich but very moreish.

Braised S.A. King George whiting fillet in oyster sauce with fresh enoki mushrooms and steam baby bok choy. Steamed jasmine rice was also provided (in the bowl in the background). This was probably out least favourite of all the courses, I think because the fish was a bit dry. I got a kick out of the enoki mushrooms, though.

Wok seared eye fillets of beef with garlic wasabi sauce and steamed sugar snaps, served with special fried rice (in the bowl in the background). This beef was AMAZING. Melt-in-the-mouth tender.

Dessert of the day. We had a coconut crème brulee, which was the most delicious crème brulee that I have ever tasted! It was silky smooth with a perfect flavour. With it came a fried pumpkin cake in custard, which was also amazing. I had a glass of the Craigow dessert gewurztraminer with this course and it matched very nicely.

Tea with almond cookie. A nice way to finish the meal. The tea was lovely, and a little heated teapot was provided with more tea to top up with, but we found that a second serving was a little too bitter.

A pretty amazing meal, I can see why Me Wah is so popular. I've been meaning to go there for ages - I hope it's not so long until I go there again. I'd really like to try the weekend yum cha lunch.

One year!

2010-11-16T19:00:00.000+11:00

Today marks the one year anniversary of starting this blog... how exciting!

Posts have been a bit slow lately, unfortunately. A myriad of things have kept me from posting as regularly as I would like but once I find the time again I have plenty of things to blog about.

The Cookbook Challenge has also finished. I think I kept up with it pretty well to start with, but drifted off a bit, especially in the last couple of months. I'll post a summary of what I cooked soon, and a list of the weeks that I missed but still plan to catch up on.

Anyway, thanks for reading :)

Smith Street Store Cafe, North Hobart

2010-11-08T19:00:00.000+11:00

J & I recently had brunch at the Smith Street Store Cafe. The food was tasty and service was prompt. It's a five minute walk from my house and I regret not going here sooner, especially as we are now moving house!

The "Gluten free breakfast", with smoked salmon, asparagus, poached egg, hollandaise sauce and potato rosti was pretty much my ultimate breakfast - I love all those things. I had I would have liked the rosti to be a bit crispier though. The egg slid off the stack before I could take the picture!
I also had a delicious berry and mint frappe.

J had the big breakfast, and it definitely lived up to its name. He particularly liked the smoky baked beans.

Sustainable Living Expo, November 6-7

2010-10-26T18:00:00.000+11:00

I spotted a flyer for this in the Smith Street Store Cafe on the weekend - it was the first I had heard of it. It sounds fantastic, I'll definitely be checking it out.

Links to the program for each day can be found on their website. I'm especially keen to check out:

Sourdough breadmaking (Sunday 10:15am)
The 'Preserving your garden harvest' session by Sally Wise (Sunday 12pm)
The 'Inspired cooking with sustainable produce' session by Phillip Vakos (of Masterchef fame) (Sunday 1pm)
Thermomix demonstration - will be nice to see one in action!

Plus lots more!

Facebook link.

World Party Tasmania 2010

2010-10-23T09:00:00.000+11:00

World Party Tasmania was held in the Hobart City Hall last Saturday.

It was a fantastic event with an amazingly friendly vibe and I hope to see it back again soon. Here's the food I tried...

Chicken satay sticks and salmon and rice balls. Both very tasty! The rice balls were quite soft.

Inari from Masaaki's sushi in Geeveston. Probably the nicest inari I've ever had, with lots of interesting tidbits incorporated into the rice.

A pandan pancake:

The coconut filling:

And to finish off with, a delicious lemon curd bombolone.

Cookbook challenge, week 48: Brioche

2010-10-22T10:51:00.000+11:00

I am so far behind in the cookbook challenge that it's not funny! Things have been a bit too busy to do a lot of new cooking lately, and so I've been sticking to old and familiar recipes. Never mind, I will catch up on the challenges eventually.

The theme for week 48 was bread. I've tried cooking various breads semi-regularly, but without much success in yeast breads (flatbreads, Indian breads are easier!). My plan is to do an Adult Education breadmaking class sometime to try and figure out where I am going wrong - maybe not letting it rise for long enough or not kneading well enough - the new Kitchenaid helps with the kneading part, at least!

I decided to make a fruit brioche for the challenge, and used a recipe from Stephanie Alexander's The Cook's Companion.

Ingredients:
250g plain flour
pinch of salt
1 tsp instant dried yeast
1/2 cup milk
1 tbs sugar
3 egg yolks, slightly beaten
75g softened butter
75g dried fruit (I used raisins and cranberries)
1 tbs brandy

Warm milk and sugar slightly, stirring, until sugar has dissolved, then allow to cool a little.
Mix brandy and fruit and set aside.
Mix flour, salt and yeast in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook.
Combine egg yolks and warm milk.
Make a well in the flour, then pour in liquid and mix to a dough.
Work until dough forms a smooth ball, about 10 minutes.
Continue beating while adding butter in two lots, until the dough is smooth and shiny (add a little more flour or milk if not right).
Cover bowl with a clean cloth and leave dough to double in size for about 2 hours.
Knock back dough and briefly knead in the fruit mixture.
Shape into a loaf and allow to rise for another hour.
Bake at 180ºC for 30 minutes, then tip out of the tin onto a baking tray and bake for a further ten minutes.
Cool before eating.

It's nice. Not amazing, but nice.

Hello, beautiful!

2010-10-20T09:04:00.000+11:00

I'm in love.

Garagistes, Hobart CBD

2010-10-16T11:12:00.002+11:00

I went to Garagistes last Friday night with a couple of friends, and tried many of their amazing dishes.

Saltcod fritters, meyer lemon mayonnaise ($14). A tasty little morsel to start with. The mayonnaise was fantastic.

House-made salami ($15). These were both amazing. The larger slices had a slight aniseed flavour and the smaller ones had a hint of chilli.

Chicken liver parfait, puffed buckwheat, radishes and apple vinegar ($17). This was probably my favourite of all of the dishes, and we loved it so much that we got a second serving. We also ordered some bread to go with it. It was beautifully velvety with an amazing flavour.

Preserved trevally roe, tongola billy, soft onions and fried malt bread ($22). The preserved roe are the brown disc - intensely fishy in flavour, I guess the roe has been processed then dehydrated? Although it looks like there was a lot of cheese, the slices were very thin. An interesting dish.

Grilled octopus, braised cauliflower, mustard leaves and almond picada ($26). The menu listed oxtail instead of cauliflower but they didn't have it on this night. This dish worked really well, with the beautifully caramelised cauliflower hiding underneath. The addition of soft raisins added a lovely sweetness.

The octopus was another dish that was so good that we ordered it twice. The second time it came with little yellow mustard flowers instead of raisins, which were pretty but I found myself missing the sweetness.

Raw jack mackerel, pickles, young elderberries, rhubarb and miners lettuce ($22). Fresh and sharp flavours, but it wasn't my favourite dish.

Dessert time! Lardy cake, malt chiffon, dulce de leche ($15). Rich and comforting. By the way, doesn't the pattern in in the plate look amazing? Apparently all the servingware is made by the head chef Luke's father.

Silk oolong cream, quince jelly, gingerbread and salted walnuts ($15). It doesn't look like much but it was completely amazing. I'm not even going to try and describe it, just get in there and try it yourself!

Rhubarb and spiced custard, hazelnut meringue, dried blueberries ($14). A lovely way to finish the meal, it was light and refreshing.

Fantastic dishes, very inspired. It's definitely worth checking out!

Ingleside Bakery, Evandale

2010-10-13T09:00:00.001+11:00

Ingleside Bakery is one of several cafe options in the pretty town of Evandale. We decided to sit outside at Ingleside Bakery as it was a beautiful day.

J had the baked potato with cheese, bacon and sour cream. The bacon was great - fantastically crispy. The potato was sublime, it tasted like there would have been as much butter as potato inside the jacket.

I had the salmon, asparagus and brie melt. It had a very generous amount of salmon and cheese, and was really tasty.

The bill came to about $44 including two hot chocolates - good value.

Onba, North Hobart

2010-10-05T09:00:00.001+11:00

Duck liver pate with Pedro Ximinez jelly and toasted cornbread ($12.50). Tasty and great value, although the bread didn't seem like corn bread to me.

Single cheese platter ($12). I love that all the extras come with the cheese.

Koh Samui

2010-10-02T09:00:00.001+10:00

After bussing from Phuket, J and I caught a ferry to Koh Samui and spent two nights exploring the island. This was the first (and only) place we hired a scooter to look around and it was so much fun, and a great way to really get a feel for the place.

A surprisingly tasty stirfry on the ferry, with a lovely gooey egg:

Dinner at the restaurant in front of our hotel. We chose a 2-person set menu that cost 450 baht total (about $13). It came with fried pork with garlic and black pepper, green chicken curry, Panang chicken curry, tom yam prawns, stir-fried seafood, rice, and finished with banana with coconut milk (which I must have forgotten to photograph).

My plate with the assorted curries. They were delicious and *very* spicy. We discovered that neither of us are fans of the miniature Thai eggplants though.

More snacks! The Shark brand of energy drinks are nice and almost as common as Red Bull.

Some grilled meat from a roadside stall, fish balls on the left and chicken on the right.

A blurry photo of a gorgeous dragonfruit, also purchased from a roadside stall.

The innards. Very refreshing!

A beautifully-prepared pineapple - so sweet and juicy.

Cute penguin icypole:

The incredible range of Pringles in a supermarket:

Some Chinese (I think) buns from the same supermarket:

One had a savoury filling:

And this one was sweet, pandan-flavoured

J's Massaman curry at the hotel restaurant - delicious

I wasn't feeling very hungry and so ordered a chicken salad - but ended up with a huge plate of food!

I developed an addition for seaweed snacks on our holiday, these are some of the types I tried. I've found a limited selection of the same brand at a few places back home, but sadly for about 8 times the price!

Liveat, Elizabeth St Mall

2010-09-29T09:00:00.000+10:00

Liveat has a large range of salads and sandwiches, and you can build your own or choose from the pre-prepared selection.

Tandoori chicken roll. It didn't really taste of Tandoori flavours but was nice and fresh and I like that style of bread.

Half chicken and pesto pasta and half pesto gnocchi. The gnocchi was great but the chicken pesto pasta wasn't very exciting.

Smily Kitchen, Liverpool Street

2010-09-26T09:00:00.001+10:00

I've blogged about Smily Kitchen twice before, but this dish deserves a post of its own. It's the 'hand-pulled noodles' from the new items menu (which is on the whiteboard on the left hand side of the picture menu). For $13 you get a huge bowl of delicious noodle soup with pieces of pork, prawns, squid, fish cake slices, cabbage and mushrooms hidden within... I could only manage half of it, but took the rest home to enjoy later!

Cookbook challenge, week 44 : San choy bau

2010-09-24T18:21:00.000+10:00

Week 44's theme was Chinese, and I found that I have an unfortunate lack of Chinese recipes and cookbooks. Thankfully I found this dish in a Delicious. magazine; the original recipe is on the Taste website.

Ingredients:
1/3 cup dried shiitake mushrooms
1 tbs peanut oil
1/2 tbs grated fresh ginger
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 small red chilli, finely diced
300g chicken mince
2 tbs oyster sauce, plus extra to drizzle
2 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup chopped coriander leaves
8-12 large lettuce leaves, to serve (iceberg is preferable, but I only had baby cos)

Place the dried mushrooms in a bowl and cover with boiling water.
Set aside for 15 minutes to soak, then drain.
Dice into small pieces.
Heat oil in a wok over medium-high heat.
Add the mushrooms, ginger, garlic and chilli and cook for a minute.
Add the chicken mince and continue tossing in the wok until the chicken is cooked through.
Add the oyster sauce, soy sauce and lemon juice, and cook for a further 2 minutes until the sauces are combined.
Remove from heat and stir in the coriander leaves, before serving in the lettuce leaves.
Drizzle with a little more oyster sauce and serve immediately.

These turned out really well. Cos lettuce isn't ideal for serving these in but did the job! The original recipe didn't specify any chilli but adding it gave the mince a real buzz. I really enjoyed these but J wasn't so keen, saying that they were "spicy but bland"... men!

Cookbook challenge, week 43: Kale chips

2010-09-24T18:17:00.000+10:00

The theme for week 43 was crunchy. I decided to try making kale chips, seeing as my kale plants have plenty of leaves just waiting to be eaten. The concept really interested me - crunchy green chips! - and I was curious to see how they turned out.

Ingredients:
1 bunch of kale leaves, washed
1 tbs olive oil
1 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 180ºC.
Cut out the thick middle vein of the older kale leaves, then cut/rip into pieces
Toss with olive oil and salt until evenly coated.
Bake on a baking-paper lined cookie sheet for 10-15 minutes, or until crisp.

The thing that bugs me with this sort of recipe is: how much kale is a bunch of kale? Because the amount that I used (a big bowl full, 66g) was clearly not enough, as my chips ended up way too salty and oily. They definitely were crunchy though, and I will give them another shot with far less oil and salt. I think I'll play around with other seasonings too, such as garlic salt, cumin or chilli powder. Despite the results of this attempt not being great, I can definitely see how kale chips are appealing!

I used both curly and flat-leaf kale, the curly ones were definitely better in the end

Dressed and ready to bake - you can see there is far too much oil

Post-baking crispiness!

Taste of Asia, North Hobart

2010-09-22T09:00:00.000+10:00

Taste of Asia is a favourite for J and I when we don't feel like cooking; their curries are delicious.

Lamb and potato curry and Massaman chicken, regular size (as you can see, the servings are very generous!)

Massaman chicken and beef curry (either Penang or Rendang), large size

I really miss the fish curry that they used to have, the curry sauce was fantastic. Apparently the fish became too expensive, but I wish they could have bulked it out with potato and used less fish instead - it's the sauce that made that curry so wonderful!

Phuket Town

2010-09-19T15:40:00.001+10:00

After Tenta Nakara, J and I spent a night in Phuket Town, the capital of Phuket Island.

The city was really hot when we were there, but drinks such as these from the 7/11 are very refreshing:

A noodle dish at a very Western-aimed Thai eatery near our hotel:

Some cereal and juice for breakfast, plus some Pringles snacks:

Opening up one of the cereal bowls:

Mixed together:

We didn't try these, but they looked cute! Doughnuts decorated to look like sushi:

Some strange-looking crustaceans in the window of a seafood restaurant:

Some 'alcopops', none were amazing but they were refreshing enough:

And to finish up, some snacks for our bus trip from Phuket to Surat Thani, where we would be catching a ferry to Koh Samui:

Rekorderlig Strawberry and Lime cider

2010-09-16T18:00:00.001+10:00

This stuff is my absolute favourite drink at the moment. It actually tastes so much like real strawberries (and not that horrible artificial strawberry flavour) that I expect to find strawberry seeds at the bottom.

The same brand also has Apple and Pear ciders available in Australia, which are also pretty enjoyable. But through the power of google I have just discovered that there are a heap of other flavours overseas: Passionfruit! Forest berries! Apple & Elderberry, Raspberry & Starfruit, Pomegranate, Gooseberry, Melon, Elderberry... I want to try them all!

Sweet Envy, North Hobart

2010-09-13T09:00:00.001+10:00

Visit number two! We tried the pecan pie, lemon curd tart and caramelised apple tart.
The pecan pie didn't excite us too much, it was a little bland, but the other two tarts were utterly delicious.

Smily Kitchen, Liverpool St

2010-09-10T09:00:00.000+10:00

I've posted about Smily Kitchen before, and I still love the place. They cook up some seriously delicious dishes. Recently I didn't have time to get a cooked-to-order dish, so tried the serve-yourself bain marie offerings.

Pictured below is what I had - some fried rice and noodles, with satay chicken, beef, and honey chicken. It was all very tasty (although both the rice and noodles had dried out a bit), and the satay sauce was fantastic. At $7.50 for a medium container plus a can of soft drinks, this lunch is great value.

Garagistes, Hobart CBD

2010-09-08T18:00:00.004+10:00

Garagistes is a new wine bar and restaurant in Murray Street, next to the Cupping Room, and is opening tonight. This is Luke Burgess's new place - he who has trained under Tetsuya Wakada and spent time at Noma, and locally, has taught at the Agrarian Kitchen and ran Pecora... what a resume!

Check out the website at www.garagistes.com.au - the sample menu sounds fantastic, and the (42 page!) drinks list is impressive and informative. Maybe one day I will treat myself to one of the $50 or $80 ciders..!

Update: see this post for a look at some of their current menu!

Cookbook challenge, week 42: Duck, two ways

2010-09-07T19:00:00.000+10:00

Week 42's theme was bird, and there was no question that I wanted to cook duck! It's something I don't cook very often - it's very expensive - but I absolutely adore the flavour of the meat. Just like the chocolate-themed week, this was a good time to try two different recipes!

Duck breasts with port and cherry sauce
Gordon Ramsey - Cooking for Friends

Ingredients:
4 200-225g duck breasts with skin on
3 shallots, finely chopped
200ml port
250g pitted cherries (fresh or preserved, I used preserved)
2 tbs black cherry jam (I used blueberry)
300ml chicken stock

Season the duck breast then place skin side down on a dry frying pan.
Place the pan over gentle heat for 8-10 minutes until most of the fat has been rendered.
Increase the heat slightly and fry until the skins are golden brown.
Flip and cook for another 3-4 minutes until the meat feels slightly springy and the duck is cooked to medium rare.
Remove to a warm plate and leave to rest.
Pour off most of the fat from the pan (save for roasting potatoes).
Add the shallots and stir over medium-to-low heat until soft.
Increase the heat and add the port to deglaze.
Boil until reduced and the pan is quite dry.
Add the cherries, jam and stock, return to the boil and cook until reduced by more than half and the sauce is syrupy.

I served this with braised bok choi, as suggested in the cookbook. The sauce was amazing, beautifully rich and perfectly matched to the meat, and this was backed up by J licking his plate clean!

Sweet duck with plums and star anise
Jamie Oliver - Jamie's Dinners

Ingredients:
4 duck legs (I used breasts)
4 tbs soy sauce
3 tsp five spice
10 star anise
1/2 a cinnamon stick
1 tbs olive oil
1-2 fresh chillies, sliced
16 plums, halved and de-stoned
2 tbs Demerara sugar (I used brown sugar)

Place the duck in a sandwich bag with the soy sauce, spices and olive oil and marinate for a minimum of 2 hours, up to 2 days.
Preheat the oven to 170ºC.
Place the plums in a casserole dish, add the chillies and sugar and mix all together.
Put the duck on top, skin side up if using breasts.
Bake for 2-2.5 hours.

I served this with duck-fat sautéed potatoes and steamed green beans. It was a fantastic meal, again the sauce was plate lick-able! It was possibly a tad too sweet which might be due to the type of plums I used, so if I cook this again I won't add the sugar. I added double the chilli (and didn't remove the seeds as the original recipe instructs) and the sauce was beautifully spicy.

Which is my favourite of the two? I honestly couldn't decide! They were both delicious, the only difference is how long they take to prepare and cook, with the cherry sauce recipe being very quick and easy.

Cookbook challenge, week 40: Cider and honey roast leg of lamb

2010-09-06T19:20:00.000+10:00

This is a week late, but better late than never! Week 40's Cookbook Challenge theme was apples, and I made a roast lamb that incorporated both apples and cider into the gravy. The recipe came from Gordon Ramsey's Cooking for Friends.

Ingredients:
1 leg of lamb around 2kg, trimmed and skin scored
olive oil
3-4 garlic cloves, skins on and halved
several sprigs of thyme
juice from half a lemon
4 apples
500ml cider
runny honey
300ml lamb or chicken stock

Preheat the oven to 220ºC.
Weight the lamb and calculate the final cooking time at 12 minutes per 450g for medium rare (or 15 minutes for medium).
Drizzle the lamb with a little olive oil then rub with salt and pepper.
Place in a deep roasting pan and scatter with garlic and thyme.
Pour over the lemon juice and drizzle again with olive oil.
Sprinkle with a little more seasoning then roast in the hot oven for 20 minutes.
Slice the apples into quarters and cut off the cores.
Remove the lamb from the oven and reduce the heat to 180ºC.
Scatter the apples around the pan and baste the lamb with the cider.
Turn the lamb over and drizzle with 2 tbs of honey.
Return to the oven for 30 minutes.
Turn the lamb around, baste with pan juices, and drizzle another tablespoon of honey.
Continue to roast for the calculated time.
Remove the lamb from the pan and set aside to rest in a warm place.
Sieve the contents of the pan into a saucepan, pressing the apples and garlic to extract all the juices and flavour.
Discard the pulp.
Place the saucepan over medium heat and add the stock.
Bring to the boil and let it bubble vigorously until the sauce has thickened.
Taste and adjust seasoning, then pour into a warm serving jug.
Carve the lamb and serve drizzled with the apple and cider gravy.

This gravy was delicious - rich and fruity and very moreish. The lamb itself was ok, but I really prefer cooking roasts in the slow cooker - I plan to make this gravy again next time I cook a lamb roast, but will try it with the slow cooker instead.

Hippo Creek African Grill, Perth, W.A.

2010-09-05T09:00:00.004+10:00

Visiting friends in Perth recently, we ate at Hippo Creek African Grill at Hillarys Boat Harbour.

Char-grilled Haloumi cheese layered with sundried tomatoes, roast capsicum and rokette dressed with peri peri ($13). Mmm, squeaky cheese! I loved how generous they were with the cheese, but wasn't so keen on how much dressing was on the rocket.

Grilled prawns. I ordered these as a side dish, and they were nicely smoky in flavour.

Stir-fried beef - unfortunately the online menu isn't up to date and I have forgotten the full name of this dish. I tried some of the beef which was beautifully tender, and it was a very generous serving.

Meat on a stick! This was one of the steak options, and I love how it was served. The juices dripped down onto the chips - yum.

New in North Hobart: Sweet Envy and Crust Gourmet Pizza Bar

2010-09-02T12:00:00.006+10:00

Sweet Envy is now open, and is a beautiful shop. It's at 341 Elizabeth Street, where the organic grocer used to be. They have a delicious-looking range of cakes, slices, cupcakes, pastries and savouries - I want to try one of everything!

J & I sampled the macarons, raspberry and lemon. At $2 each, they are a tasty little morsel, especially the raspberry, which has a surprise dollop of raspberry jam in the middle.

Sweet Envy website

Crust Gourmet Pizza Bar has opened in the position previously occupied by Praties. Their menu looks fantastic with many interesting varieties. I remembered reading about this chain on Where's The Beef, a fantastic Melbourne-based vegetarian food blog.

Crust website

Zum, Salamanca

2010-08-26T09:00:00.000+10:00

Potato rosti with smoked salmon, spinach and hollandaise sauce. This was more like a potato cake than the sort of rosti than I am used to, but a very good potato cake nonetheless! The serving size was perfect for this rather rich dish.

Zum big breakfast. J enjoyed this.

Salamanca market haul

2010-08-21T13:50:00.001+10:00

After a windy, rainy and snowy week it was wonderful to wake up to blue skies this morning - perfect for wandering through Salamanca Market.

Our haul, clockwise from top left:
- 3 more herbs for the garden: curly kale ($1.50), chervil ($1.50), mint ($3.50)
- Hartzview raspberry fortified wine ($18)
- South Country Cyder ($12)
- snow peas ($2)
- mushrooms ($8 for a kilogram)
- organic apples ($2.50/kg)
- Bruny Island Cheese Co's organic white sourdough with a dukkah topping
- coriander ($3)

Cookbook challenge, week 39: Curried cauliflower and cheddar soup

2010-08-16T20:20:00.000+10:00

The theme for week 39 was TV Chefs. I have a few celebrity chef cookbooks, and decided to use Gordon Ramsey's Cooking for Friends as as his recipes haven't featured here as regularly as Nigella, Jamie and Stephanie. The recipe is for a curried cauliflower and cheddar soup, perfect for this time of year when the weather is cold and cauliflowers are plentiful.

4 tbs olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 medium cauliflower, cut into florets
1 tsp mild curry powder
300ml hot chicken or vegetable stock
300ml milk
100g grated cheese

Heat half the oil in a saucepan, and add onion and celery.
Stir over medium heat for 3-4 minutes.
Add the remaining oil, cauliflower, curry powder, and season.
Stir well and cook for a couple of minutes.
Cover the pan and cook for another 4-5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the stock and bring to a simmer.
Add the milk and splash of water if the liquid does not cover the vegetables.
Return to a gentle simmer and cook for 10 minutes, until the cauliflower is soft.
Use a hand blender to liquidize the soup.
Stir in the cheese.
Adjust the seasoning and add a little water if the soup is too thick.

This turned out alright - it wasn't amazing but it was enjoyable enough! I've got a better recipe for cauliflower soup buried somewhere, though.

The theme for week 40 is apple, and I know exactly what I am going to make. It's another recipe from this cookbook that I also had my eye on as it sounds amazing... stay tuned!

Khaow Thai, Harrington Street

2010-08-15T09:00:00.000+10:00

Prawn pad thai ($12.70). Nice enough with six large prawns and some big cubes of tofu. The addition of some crunchy peanuts would have been good.

Blue Eye, Salamanca

2010-08-13T21:00:00.012+10:00

Blue Eye is a newcomer to Salamanca in the space previously occupied by the Mexican restaurant, Tacos, at the bottom of the silos. It's a sister restaurant to the very popular Flathead in South Hobart.

I perhaps made the mistake of ordering a vegetarian dish in a seafood restaurant, but it sounded so good on the menu that I couldn't resist: Roasted beetroot gnocchi, honey brown mushrooms, parsnip and parmesan cream ($22.90). What I got was tasty enough but a tad disappointing: a single square gnocchi that was crispy on the outside. It also seemed somewhat small, more of an entrée-sized serving. The mushrooms were delicious, however.

Other people at our table seemed to enjoy their meals, though; the chilli salt squid looked fantastic.

The drinks list is full of great value options, and I love their blue water glasses. Service was great and the place looks really nice. They should do well.

(apologies for the poor image - I have a new phone and am trying to figure out the best settings to use in low light)

Cookbook challenge, week 38: Gingerbread

2010-08-10T18:15:00.000+10:00

The theme for week 38 was spice, and although cooking a curry or marinated meat was very tempting I decided to cook something sweet as it's quite some time since my last sweet recipe for the cookbook challenge (in fact, the last time was week 24!).
I chose a recipe from a new book, Cook's Bible by Lorraine Turner, which I found on special at Habitat recently. The recipe is a cake version of gingerbread.

Ingredients:
150g butter
175g soft brown sugar
2 tbs black treacle (I used golden syrup)
225g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp bicarb soda
2 tsp ground ginger
150mL milk
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp finely chopped fresh ginger
2 apples, peeled, chopped and coated with 1 tbs lemon juice (I used 1/3 cup of date puree that I needed to use up)

Melt the butter, sugar and treacle/syrup in a saucepan over low heat and leave to cool.
Preheat the oven to 160ºC and grease and line a 23cm square or 22cm round cake tin.
Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarb and ground ginger into a bowl.
Stir in the milk, egg, fresh ginger and cooled butter mixture, followed by the apples/date puree.
Mix everything together gently, then pour the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth the surface.
Bake for 30-35 minutes (my cake took 45 minutes).
Remove from the oven and cool in the tin.

It's a lovely, moist cake with a wonderfully zingy ginger flavour. It's great as is, but for a special occasion it would be fantastic with a thin layer of orange or lemon icing.

New Sydney Hotel, Bathurst St.

2010-08-09T21:00:00.000+10:00

Some snaps of dishes from the New Sydney Hotel that my friends and I have enjoyed recently. I'm a big fan of this place, and we head here regularly.

Herb and garlic pub loaf ($8).

Quail scotch eggs with piccalilly relish ($10). This egg seemed to be way too big to be quail, but the yolk was nice and runny. The piccalilly was fantastic.

Pie of the week ($18), which was lamb and caramelised fennel this time. The pastry on their pies is wonderfully puffy and delicious.

Grilled chicken Caesar salad ($15).

Tasmanian salmon platter served 3 ways: tempura, house made gravlax and crispy skinned ($30).

Steak and Guinness Pie ($20).

A special - half crayfish with garlic butter (I think this was $30 or $32).

A pork belly special.

A semifreddo dessert - I think it was honey and pistachio flavoured, with biscotti.

Website.

First mushroom harvest

2010-07-27T21:52:00.001+10:00

Tonight I harvested my first of my mushrooms that I planted a month ago - 9 gorgeous looking specimens! They are ready when the veil over the gills begins to tear, and you can leave them to fully open or pick them with closed caps as I did. The veil can be seen in the picture below:

The other 'ripe' mushrooms in the box (with my curious kitty Nutmeg in the background!):

All 9 mushrooms, which weighed in at 341g in total:

The next flush should be ready in about 10 days or so. Bring them on!

Cookbook challenge, week 37: Steak, Guinness and cheese pie with puff pastry lid

2010-07-27T09:00:00.002+10:00

The theme for week 37 is hearty, and I found a recipe in Jamie Oliver's Jamie at Home that sounded delicious and that I thought J would enjoy: a steak, Guinness and cheese pie.

Ingredients:
olive oil
3 medium red onions, peeled and chopped (I used 3 small white onions)
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped
30g butter, plus extra for greasing
2 carrots, chopped
2 sticks of celery, trimmed and chopped
4 field mushrooms, sliced (I used 7 white mushrooms)
1kg beef, cut into 2cm cubes
a few sprigs of fresh rosemary, leaves picked and chopped
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
440ml can of Guinness
2 heaped tbs plain flour
200g grated cheese (I used less)
puff pastry
1 egg

In a large ovenproof pan (I used an electric frypan) heat a glug of olive oil on a low heat.
Add the onions and fry gently for about 10 minutes.
Increase the heat and add the garlic, butter, carrots, celery and mushrooms, and mix everything together well.
Stir in the beef, rosemary, a pinch of salt and a level teaspoon of pepper.
Fry for 3-4 minutes then add Guinness, stir in the flour and add just enough water to cover. Bring to a simmer, cover and place in an oven at 190ºC for 2.5 hours (I used a slow cooker on high for 4 hours), stirring occasionally.
If it is too liquidy after cooking, reduce the liquid over heat or add some more flour.
Remove from the heat and stir in half of the cheese, then season.
Leave to cool slightly (you can do up until this step a day ahead).
Grease an appropriately sized pie dish, then line with a sheet of puff pastry, leaving the edges dangling over the side.
Tip pie mixture into the dish, then scatter with the rest of the cheese.
Brush the edge of the pastry with egg.
Cut out a lid-sized shape of puff pastry and place it over the top of the pie, folding the overhanging bottom pastry over it.
Brush the top with egg then bake in a preheated 190ºC oven for 45 minutes, until puffed and golden.

I used a smaller pie dish, around 7 inches in diameter, and this only used half the pie mixture. I've saved the rest to use another time - I think I will make individual mini pies with it (as it was still a little sloppy when serving as you can see below). The pie was great, with a beautiful and rich (and hearty!) filling. Served with some steamed broccoli and beans, it made a great meal.

Criterion Street Cafe

2010-07-26T18:00:00.003+10:00

Criterion Street Cafe is a popular little spot. Their menu is quite short but the food has been wonderful every time I've eaten there.

Hot chocolate in the foreground and chai latte in the background (complete with gorgeous little honey bottle!)

Smoked salmon foccacia with red onion, cucumber, tomato and aioli ($12). The smoked salmon in this was really good.

A special: Warm salad of field mushrooms, crisp green beans, roast beetroot, rocket and fetta ($14). Delicious and filling, but I was imagining how divine this would be with the Meredith's marinated fetta that we had at Piccalilly...

Criterion Street Cafe website.

Mushrooms and greenhouse

2010-07-21T09:00:00.001+10:00

They are getting bigger!

I bought a greenhouse for my herbs (less than $40 and it's huge, much bigger than I was expecting!). It will hopefully keep them nice and warm and happy in our north-facing sunroom, and also protect them from our cats, which are far too inquisitive. I've got the Italian parsley (which is doing well) and coriander (which is struggling) in there, and I've added some mint, thyme, marjoram and oregano, plus another house plant that has been a bit unwell. I've left my baby bay tree outside as it seems to be coping with the cold.

Cookbook challenge, week 36: Sausages and mash with red wine, cumin and onion gravy

2010-07-19T21:12:00.001+10:00

The theme for week 36: comfort. The other half requested curried sausages and although I couldn't find a recipe for this in my cookbooks, I did find an interesting recipe in Nigella's How To Eat (this cookbook is getting a lot of use lately!). It's in the Weekend Lunch section of the book, and the recipe for the gravy is provided with suggestions to cook it with the sausages and mash.

Ingredients:
30g oil (or beef dripping)
225g onions, very finely diced
1 tsp ground cumin
1 scant tbs of sugar
2 scant tbs of flour
500mL beef stock
150mL red wine

Heat the oil in a thick-bottomed large saucepan and add the onions.
Cook on a low heat for 10 minutes until soft, stirring occasionally.
Stir in the ground cumin and cook another 5 minutes or so.
Turn up the heat and add the sugar, and let the onions caramelise slightly for 3-4 minutes, then add the flour, stirring constantly.
Cook for another 2 minutes then add the stock and wine.
Mix well then simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

I cooked the sausages in the gravy, adding them when it had about 20 minutes to go - this works for devilled and curried sausages so I figured it would be ok with this recipe too. Served with mashed potatoes and some peas, it was very much comfort food. I think the gravy could do with another element, perhaps some fresh thyme to give it a boost, but it was still delicious as is.

Was it worth the 50+ minutes of cooking time? I'm undecided.

As you can see, I like my mashed potatoes lumpy, with skins still on!

Cookbook challenge, week 35: Spanish stew

2010-07-18T11:25:00.001+10:00

The theme for week 35 (last week! I am a bit behind) was Spanish, and although I don't have any Spanish cookbooks (I plan to change this soon), I found a tasty-sounding recipe in Nigella Lawson's How To Eat.

Ingredients:
1 tbs olive oil
1 small onion, finely diced
400g chorizo sausages, sliced into fat coins
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 bay leaf
100mL dry sherry (I substituted some dry white wine)
1kg waxy potatoes, cut into halves or quarters
fresh coriander

Preheat the oven to 200ºC.
Put the oil into a wide oven-proof pan or dish (I used an electric frypan then transferred to an oven dish) on medium-low heat.
Add onion and cook for 5 minutes.
Add garlic and cook for another couple of minutes.
Add the chorizo, bay leaf, sherry and stir.
Add the potatoes, stir, and then add boiled water to only just cover the potatoes.
Simmer for 10 minutes then check for seasoning.
Put the dish into the oven for 35-40 minutes.
Remove and serve with chopped coriander and bread.

It was rather tasty - my worry was that the liquid would seem too fatty from the chorizo juices but it was instead very moorish. It would make a lovely component for a tapas-type meal or as a side dish to a roast, served with some fresh green beans.

A few of the Melbourne-based bloggers in this challenge met up for a Spanish potluck - check out Agnes's post here. Yum!

Baby mushrooms

2010-07-16T10:45:00.001+10:00

I have little baby mushrooms starting to appear!

About 3 weeks ago I planted some mushrooms and they are now just starting to poke their caps through the casing:

Exciting!

Piccalilly, Battery Point

2010-07-15T09:00:00.000+10:00

J & I recently celebrated our anniversary with an 8-course degustation at Piccalilly in Battery Point. They are offering a winter deal for this menu: only $86 on Tuesday and Wednesday nights (instead of the usual $122) - fantastic value.

Coconut and wasabi salad: this amuse dish was very mild, with slices of coconut meat plus a coconut jelly and wasabi sprinkles, I couldn't taste the wasabi in mine. I've read online of other wonderful amuse dishes at Piccalilly and I think we might have been a bit unlucky with the offering on the night we were there.

Bread: we were offered a choice of sourdough or linseed, and a choice of salted butter, olive oil or French butter. The sourdough was lovely and soft, with a deliciously salty crust and subtly sour interior.

Yellowtail kingfish ceviche with miso and pickled white radish: the radish and fish were draped with the miso jelly, and the end of a pipette peeks out. The pipette contained yuzu, chardonnay vinegar and olive oil and you squeeze it out to cure the fish. The presentation of the dish was just gorgeous, but it wasn't one of my favourites, as I think it was a little bit overwhelmed by the astringency of either the pickled radish or the vinegar in the pipette.
You can see a picture of this dish on the Piccalilly blog here.

Vegetable salad with Meredith's marinated fetta: this was completely and utterly amazing. The fetta was slightly warm and soft and melted on your tongue. The vegetables were mostly baby, and were cooked to perfection. From memory, there were carrots, beetroot, brussel sprouts, snow peas, and a couple of others that I have forgotten, all set on a bed of sliced fennel. Beautiful, and one of my favourite courses.

Fish with various onions and roasted onion essence: this dish can also be seen on the Piccalilly blog. We had latchet, and it was cooked perfectly with an terrifically crunchy batter considering how thin it was. I tend to avoid onions, but all components of this were lovely, particularly the caramelised and pureed brown onions - so sweet. The other onion preparations included crispy shallots, pickled white onions, confit garlic and glazed spring onions.

Mount Gnomon Farm Wessex Saddleback pork shoulder mornay with egg yolk pasta, crackling and sweet corn puree: this can be seen here. The pork was wonderfully tender. The bechamel sauce had me tempted to lick the plate, and the cracking was expectedly delicious with an unexpected (yet nice!) hint of a marzipan-like flavour.

Fizzy raspberry palate cleanser: a little shot glass of raspberry cordial was presented with two little white rocks that we were instructed to drop into the glass to dissolve for a minute. I tasted the cordial before and after adding the fizz, and interestingly although it added a tingle to the cordial, it also mellowed the pure and tart flavour of the raspberries.

Slow cooked goat shoulder with grains, chickpea puree and cucumber foam, which can be seen here. My other favourite course - the textures and flavours in this dish were divine. The combination of ingredients worked beautifully, and I loved the mixture of the grains, which included black rice, pearl barley, burghul, faro and quinoa. Stunning.

Dry-aged Longford eye fillet with piccalilly and cured red cabbage: this dish can be seen here. The beef cheek was beautifully rare and full of flavour, and I loved the crispiness of the edges (although J was less keen on this). The pastry on the miniature beef Wellington was melt-in-the-mouth.

Goat's cheese, bread and quince: definitely my least favourite course - I just can't handle the flavour of goat cheese no matter how much I try! The cheese was a soft style with a white mould rind, and had been warmed so that the insides were wonderfully gooey. It was served with a very thinly sliced fruit and nut bread and segments of poached quince.

Dark chocolate ice-cream with honey and 30 second hazelnut sponge: this is pictured here. It was fantastic - each component was very tasty on their own and when combined together... delicious! The ice-cream was deceptively rich and chocolatey despite the pale colour. The fizzy honey jelly balanced the richness perfectly.

What a meal!

We also decided to indulge in some wine for the occasion, and started with a bottle of 2008 Tiberio Pecorino ($55/bottle), and this sat very nicely against the first half of our meal. We then had some red wine for the red meat dishes, and the Storm Bay Merlot ($7.50/glass) and Turner's Crossing Shiraz Viognier ($8.50/glass) were both fantastic, I particularly enjoyed the shiraz. Finally, the Pirie Clark's Botrytis Riesling ($8.50/glass) was completely delicious with the chocolate dessert.