Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Sweet Potato and Chick Pea Patties with Beetroot/Carrot Salad and Minted Yogurt


Serves 2

Ingredients:

Patties
-          Sweet Potato 2 (about 400gm)
-          400 gm  canned chickpeas, drained
-          1 tbsp Baharat Lebanese Spice blend (garam marsala could also work)
-          2 tbsp finely chopped coriander leaves
-          1 tbsp Olive oil
-          10 small stems (with leaves) of coriander – or the equivalent
-          Plain flour

Mint yoghurt sauce
-          1/2  cucumber, seeds removed and finely chopped
-          100g plain yoghurt
-          2 tbsp, finely chopped, mint leaves

To serve with
-          1 carrot, peeled and coarsely grated
-          Equivalent amount of beetroot (to the carrot), peeled and coarsely grated (Note: I just put the carrot and the beetroot into the food processor instead of grating to save time)
*Option to serve this as a hamburger, just fry and egg and pop it all into a bun

 Method:
1.       Roughly chop sweet potato and add to a saucepan of cold salted water, bring to the boil over high heat and boil for 15 minutes or until tender. Drain.
2.       Add sweet potato to food processor, sprinkle over Baharat, and add oil, salt and pepper and mix till it’s almost smooth
3.       Stir in the chick peas
4.       Using wet hands, form mixture into ½ cup patties and (if you have time) refrigerate for 30 minutes
5.        Heat oil in a large frying pan over high heat. Dust patties in flour, add to frying pan and cook, in batches, for 2 minutes each side or until golden, then transfer to
6.        An absorbent paper-lined plate.
7.       For mint yoghurt sauce, combine all ingredients and season to taste.
8.        Toast cut side of burger buns, top bun halves with carrot, beetroot, patties, fried egg and mint yoghurt sauce, sandwich and serve immediately.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Review For Fish on Parkyn - Mooloolaba

The photos speak for themselves! We ordered the seafood platter for 2 to share between 3 and it would have to be the best selection of seafood I've seen on a platter in a long time. Some may say it looks like more of a tasting plate than seafood platter and that's fair enough but really ... why worry about semantics when it's this good!

There were hand made fresh prawn/crab spring rolls, salt and pepper calamari, salmon bruschetta, oysters two ways, tempura battered fish, muscles & prawns in a Thai style broth, bugs in a burnt butter sauce, hand cut fries ... the list goes on and for nearly everything there was an accompanying sauce.
Dessert was spectacular. They called it a tartino. Neither google or I have heard of a tartino and when I asked the waiter about the name he smiled awkwardly and went ... somewhere. I'd call it more a self saucing pudding but again, semantics, it was amazingly delicious!!!

Would highly recommend.

Friday, February 24, 2012

Review For Pendolino - Sydney




I've been very lucky to have been to both Bambini Trust and Pendolino in the one week and I really can't say which I prefer? I LOVE the New York style feel to Pendolino - everything about the vibe absolutely does it for me. Only issue we had with surroundings was that it was like a sweat box - bikram dining!

It’s rare for me to eat the bread on arrival (usually bread for me serves only a 'savour every last drop of the sauce' purpose) but there’s no way to resist sampling the bread selection at Pendolino, especially as you're given a sample selection of their olive oils to accompany.

For my entree I had the Spaghetti Chitarra Con Pesce D’acquadolce - Freshly-made Chitarra Spaghetti with Barramundi, Wild Prawns, Chilli, Capers, Garlic and Pinot Grigio White Wine. For my main, the duck leg (pictured) which was served with polenta and lentils. Last, the honeycomb dessert (pictured) which was so fantastic it was ridiculous. Thanks to our sommelier we had the perfect wine to match all our courses and for 3 people, 3 courses the bill came to $310 which included the $75 bottle of wine.
Definitely must cook back and definitely must purchase their pasta cook book when it’s released.http://www.pendolino.com.au/

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Review For Abdul's Restaurant - Surry Hills


Why anyone would go past the banquet, I do not know. The team we extremely flexible to tweaking the banquet for one full vegetarian and one chicken only meat eater. The food kept coming and was great, authentic Lebanese food. Yes it is a tad on the oilier side for some dishes (aka ‘flavour’ in middle eastern speak) but it does taste darn good so that’s only the tiniest of critiques. The environment is canteen style and if you feel like being feed well, bringing along a your own favourite wine (with no byo penalty) and paying next to nothing, you can’t go wrong with Abdul's Restaurant in Surry Hills

Monday, February 20, 2012

Chicken Chilli Con Carne


This recipe was inspired by Justine Schofield’s Chicken version http://www.lifestylefood.com.au/recipes/16510/chilli-con-carne-with-skirt-steak

I would happily serve this for a casual dinner. It really was delicious. I sprinkled cheese over mine and loved that addition - but that's just me and I do love cheese at any opportunity to add it!

Note: this recipe can be done without a slow cooker. Just use a casserole dish and after the ingredients start to boil, transfer the dish into the oven and cook on 170C for 2 – 3 hours

Ingredients
-          800g chicken breast
-          2 tbsp olive oil
-          1 onion, finely chopped
-          4 cloves garlic, crushed
-          1 red capsicum, seeds removed and diced
-          1 tsp smoked paprika
-          1 tsp cumin
-          ½ tsp cayenne pepper
-          2 small teaspoons cornflour
-          400g kidney beans, drained and rinsed
-          400g can of diced tomatoes
-          2 chillies, finely chopped (optional)
-          Salt and pepper
-          Zest and juice of a lime
-          1 tbsp tomato paste
-          1 cup chicken stock (or water)
-          Half a bunch fresh coriander, roughly chopped (garnish)


Method:
1.       Start up the slow cooker
2.       Season the chicken with salt & pepper.
3.       In a fry pan, add oil and seal the meat on each side until golden brown.
4.       Transfer the meat into the slow cooker
5.       In the same fry pan, add the remaining olive oil, onion, garlic, chillies, chopped tomatoes and capsicum and cook until they begin to soften. Add the paprika, cumin and cayenne and cook for a further 2 minutes. Mix the tomato paste in.
6.       Add to the fry pan the zest and lime juice, beans, cornflour and stock.
7.       Bring to the boil, and allow to boil for two mins or so
8.       Transfer into the slow cooker
9.       Cook for 5hrs or until the meat is easy to tear apart.
10.   Remove the chicken from the sauce and using two forks, shred the meat in opposite directions. Place the meat back into the sauce and combine well. Garnish with freshly chopped coriander and serve with rice and/or guacamole

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Review for Delicado - McMahons Point

What a great find. The parking is easy, the food is divine and the whole package does make you feel like you just might be in Spain. Delicado can be found at 134 Blues Point Road, McMahons Point NSW 2060.

We had for starters: Seared Scallops, cauliflower cream, crispy jamon, olive tapenade & Pimiento, chickpea, mushroom, sumac/coriander. We shared the Chargrilled chicken salad for a main and finished with the Pear Tartin. Everything was amazing and the glass of Rose we each had was sensational and the total bill was less than $60. Highly recommend.

http://www.delicadofoods.com.au/

Saturday, February 18, 2012

Review For Bambini Trust - Sydney

Wow what a great meal! 5 of us went for dinner starting in the wine bar at 6 and migrating into the restaurant at 7. We all decided to do main and dessert (and needless to say, wine). I had the duck pappardelle (pictured) which was to die for and I can't wait to make a version of my own soon. One of the gang had the spatchcock (pictured) which I tasted and it was also incredible. I can't say the dessert menu overly exited me but that's just personal preference as I'm fussy with desserts. I had a chocolate and salted caramel dish (pictured) and it was nice. I just felt a base of crumbled biscotti or something to add a variety to the texture would have made sense. The bill was $400 for 5 people and for the quality I think it was worth every scent. Especially as we were treated to a complimentary starter of tuna tartar. Last, even though the staff are in an almost pretentious setting this hasn't got the better of them. They were all down to earth, knowledgable, polite and just thoroughly delightful.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Pasta Al Forno

-        1 medium onion
-        3 garlic cloves
-        500g chicken mince
-        1 cup white wine or chicken stock
-        Add a jar of pasta sauce with herbs
-        Season with pepper and salt
-        Cook till fragrant (approx 15 mins)
-        Cook penne until it’s al dente
-        Stir a little oil through
-        Mix everything together
-        Add fresh basil
-    Sprinkle cheese on top

Sunday, February 5, 2012

Review For Jamie's Italian - Sydney


Heaven. This is heaven. I tried out this restaurant with my oldest friend (in friendship tenure vs. age) and love love loved it. The vibe reminded me of Fratelli Fresh  – it’s all about loving fresh food and loving life. I believe you can’t book but this wasn’t an issue as we went at 6:00pm on a rainy, cold, miserable summers (?) Thursday. Really can’t faulty anything as the service was great – the waitress we had was clearly a career waiter she was that efficient. The food was fresh, tasty and presented beautifully. One word of advice I have is this: I’m a chilli wimp (one taste and I’m downing litres of water). I asked for my fish with no chilli. I was asked if I was allergic to which I said no. There would have been at least 4 whole small chillis in my dish. I showed the waitress but she was totally unfazed and wasn’t compelled to offer a dessert or wine or anything else as an apology. In some ways fair enough as I had eaten every last bite so I guess she thought my mouth said ‘no’ but my stomach has said ‘yes’. So that’s the only thing – your password to getting what you asked for in terms of removed ingredients is ALLERGIC. Don’t be afraid to use it - otherwise the kitchen will just do as they please.

We had the following along with a really nice bottle of Pinot Noir and the bill was $140 with tip.
Starters: SWEET MINI CHILLI PEPPERS - Stuffed with whipped ricotta, mint & lemon + FAT GREEN OLIVES ON ICE - Large green olives, black olive tapenade & crispy "music bread". Mains: FISH BAKED IN A BAG- Local fish of the day with clams, mussels, fennel, chilli, anchovies & Sicilian cracked wheat + VEAL SALTIMBOCCA - Wafer-thin veal with sage & prosciutto flash-grilled with a spicy tomato, basil & chilli salsa. Dessert: THE ULTIMATE BROWNIE - Chocolate, raspberry & amaretto brownie with vanilla ice cream (shared it)



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