Recipe - CousCous Salad

Serves eight as a side dish (if it’s the only side dish).

Ingredients

Vegetables

You really can choose 4 vegetables that complement each other. Today I used

·         Mushrooms

·         Green Capsicum

·         Pumpkin

·         Eggplant

o   You could also use chickpeas and/or Spanish onion but I’d still keep it to 4 so there’s not too much going on

·         4 cloves garlic

·         1 tbsp. fresh ginger

·         1 tbsp. cumin seeds

·         Salt and pepper

·         5 tbsp. olive oil

·         1 cup quick-cooking couscous

·         1¼ cups boiling stock

·         70g Pinenuts

·         ¼ cup raisins

·         1¼ cups boiling chicken or vegetable stock

·         Juice of 1 lime and half a lemon

·         ½ a bunch flat-leaf parsley , chopped

·         ½ a bunch flat-leaf coriander, chopped

Method

1.     Preheat oven to 200 degrees

2.     Dice all the vegetables into small pieces

3.     Place the garlic, fresh ginger, cumin seeds, Salt and pepper; and olive oil into a food processor and blend

4.     Mix the marinade through the vegetables, spread them across a baking tray then bake for approx. 30 mins – longer if needed

5.     Meanwhile, mix the couscous with the raisins in a bowl and pour over the boiling stock. COVER with a dish towel, plate or plastic wrap to seal in the steam and let sit for 5 minutes.

6.     FLUFF the couscous with a fork to separate the grains.

7.     Dry roast the pinenuts and stir them through the cous cous

8.     When vegetables are cooked, stir them through the cooked vegetables

9.     Just before serving (or can do 2-3 hours before) stir through the herbs and lime/lemon juice

This recipe can be prepared the day before

Recipe - Mushroom Quiche

 

You'll need

 

Pastry

·         2½ cups

·         plain flour

·         ½ tsp

·         sugar

·         1 tsp

·         salt

·         170 g

·         unsalted butter, diced

 

Filling

·         4 tbsp

·         unsalted butter

·         1 tbsp

·         olive oil plus extra for drizzling

·         1 red onion, finely sliced

·         2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

·         500 g mixed mushrooms (or use one variety if desired), sliced

·         1 tbsp fresh thyme

·         2 tbsp finely chopped flat-leaf parsley

·         4 egg yolks

·         300 ml cream or crème fraîche

·         140 g parmesan cheese, grated

·         1 tsp grated nutmeg

 

To serve:

·         100g girolle mushrooms sautéed in a little butter until tender and a green salad

 

Method

1.       Preheat oven to 200°C.

2.       To make pastry, combine flour, sugar and salt in a food processor.

3.       Add half the butter and process for 30 seconds. Add remaining butter and process for 1 minute. Add about cup cold water and mix until large lumps form. Transfer to a lightly floured surface. Using your hands, bring mixture together to form a rough dough. Gently knead with heel of your hand for about 30 seconds or until dough has just combined. Flatten to a disc, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or overnight.

4.       Allow pastry to come to room temperature. Roll pastry out on a lightly floured surface and gently press into a 22cm flan tin with a removable base. Prick pastry with a fork then cover the base with a layer of baking paper and an even layer of dried beans. Blind bake pastry for 10-12 minutes or until lightly coloured. Remove from oven, cool and remove beans and paper. Turn down oven to 180°C.

Ø  Or if you don’t have time – cheat and buy premade short crust pastry and follow the instructions on the packet

5.       Meanwhile, to prepare the filling, heat butter and oil in a large frying pan over medium heat and sauté the onion, garlic, mushrooms, thyme and parsley for 10 minutes or until tender. Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper then transfer to a bowl. Whisk egg yolks, cream, parmesan and nutmeg together in another bowl.

6.       Spread mushroom mixture evenly over the pastry case then pour the egg yolk and cream mixture over the mushrooms.

7.       Bake for 30 to 40 minutes or until filling is tender and the top is golden. Remove from oven and serve warm or cold. Just before serving, sprinkle girolle mushrooms on top and drizzle with a little olive oil. Serve with a simple green salad.

 

This recipe is from the April/May 2012 issue of Gourmet Traveller WINE.

 

Review - Pino's Dolce Vita Fine Foods, Kogarah

What a find! A charcuterie in the St George area! Whether you need gourmet meat, gourmet sausages, small goods, gourmet grocery or a bite for lunch ... it is a one stop wonderland.

For lunch we chose the 3 sausages with salad option and the pasta with fresh tomatoes and cheese. It was simply produce at its best - the simplicity of the pasta showed off the fresh and fine ingredients, with the fresh pasta cooked to al dente perfection. The sausages were also amazing combining herbs with succulent mince.

Can't wait to go back and venture back here for my small goods purchases.

www.pinosdolcevita.com.au

Review - The Duck Republic, Cronulla

We were party of  2 for a Sunday lunch. Despite the website forewarning that you’re only likely to get a booking if you book 2 weeks ahead, we got a booking easily and while there we were there only 3 other tables were occupied

 

 

Entrees
 

I had Roast duck betel leaves, aromatic herbs, peanut praline, chilli & cucumber, char grilled pineapple jam- Italian buffalo mozzarella, pumpkin puree, pumpkin seed granola & mustard fruit. It was a nice entrée … a lot going on … the duck was overpowered by the very sweet caramelized onions.

 

 

Mum had Sashimi of Tasmanian salmon, shaved Port Lincoln cuttlefish, togaroshi, rock oyster, wakame & nashi pear. Again quite a nice dish – I had a taste and got an oyster. It definitely wasn’t freshly shucked so the texture wasn’t overly pleasant. But, that aside it was quite nice.

 

 

Mains
 

Mum had Char grilled Kilcoy eye fillet of beef, Paris mash, wilted spinach, thyme & garlic roast field mushrooms & red wine jus
 

I had Pan fried salmon fillet with sake braised vongole clams, pearl cous cous, black & white fungi.
 

Both mains were quite good – mum and I both wanted medium to rare in its truest form but got thoroughly cooked through steak and salmon so if you like medium to rare maybe request rare if you do want to see pink.
 

We didn’t need sides at all as the dishes came with sides and were good serves.

 

 

So, on www.eatability.com.au overall I’d say a 7 or 7.5 captures our meal
 

I do want to make a special point of saying how excellent the service was though – outstanding, attentive and extremely genuine. Service was a 10.
 

Critiques

We went on a rainy day so all windows were closed. There were only 3 other tables on the other side of the restaurant yet it was hard-to-hear noisy.
 

Only Rose on the menu was a Curious Nature Rose – If you like sweeter and fruitier Rose’s you like it, we don’t and made the mistake of not asking.

 

 

Bill for 2 entrees, 2 mains and a bottle of wine was $141.00.
 

 

http://www.theduckrepublic.com.au

Idea - Fresh Herbs In Olive Oil

What a terrific idea!!!

See http://paleodietlifestyle.com/fresh-herbs-olive-oil/ for the concept

Recipe - BBQ Chicken Stuffed with Rice and Mushrooms

Ingredients

-          1 chicken, cavity removed

-          6 Cloves Garlic

-          ¼ cup dry white wine

-          1 cup chicken stock

-          Approx 1 cup mushrooms

-          6 shallot stems

-          100g pancetta finely chopped

-          1 tbsp. butter

-          1 tbsp. oil

-          ¼ cup port

-          ¾ cup raw medium rice, boiled in salted water until barely tender

-          ¼ tsp. thyme or oregano, plus extra

-          1 egg, lightly beaten

-          Salt and pepper to taste

Method

1.       Drop the garlic gloves into a pan of boiling water, boil 1 minute, drain, and slip off the peel. Then simmer the garlic cloves very slowly for 30 minutes with the white wine and stock. Meanwhile continue with the rest of the stuffing.

2.       Lightly chop the mushrooms and shallots then (because I hate fiddly tasks) pop into food processor to finely chop

3.       Finely chop the pancetta

4.       Sautee the mushrooms and shallots in better and oil over moderately high heat for about 2 minutes, then add pancetta and sauté a minute more. Then, pour in the port and boil rapidly until liquid is almost entirely evaporated. Scrape into a mixing bowl

5.       Bring water to the boil for the rice. N.b we’re doing rapid boil method vs. absorption so use plenty of water. Also, if you have any leftover chicken stock (e.g. you took the 1 cup of chicken stock from a 500ml packet, so it doesn’t go to wastes throw this in with the water too). Add rice when water is boiling and you’re aiming to boil it till it’s barely tender which should take about 8 minutes.

6.       Mix the rice, herbs and egg into the mixing bowl

7.       Drain cooked garlic and mash into the mixing bowl along with 2 tsp. of the cooking liquid

8.       Taste stuffing, and carefully correct seasoning

9.       Stuff chicken then seal it

10.   Coat the chicken on both sides with salt, pepper and the extra thyme or oregano.

11.   Cook on BBQ in a tray for an hour and a quarter

This recipe was inspired by Mastering the Art of French Cooking By Julia Child and Simone Beck, Volume Two, Page 275

Review - The Italian, Willoughby

What's great?
The staff are friendly, cool and genuinly trying to get it right. Our pasta dish (daily special - a $33 truffle pasta) was a huge let down and this was rectified nicely. The 4 seasons pizza however was awesome and the best in the area at this point in time.

What's not?
See picture of how they're currently cooking pasta. The teething issues also include forgetting orders (one hour in between the pizza and pasta that was meant to come one after the other) and giving us someone else's bill. The dessert menu (or lack thereof) is also an opportunity for them.

In saying all this I do genuinely look forward to going back and seeing how they fine tune what they're setting out to achieve. What they do well, they've nailed. What they're not doing well, all the signs are there that they've got the right intentions to get it on track.

Recipe - Lime Syrup Coconut Cake

This recipe is from http://www.sydneymarkets.com.au/recipes/Lime%20syrup%20coconut%20cake.pdf

Recipe - Yakn’t – Lebanese Lamb Shank and Potato Casserole

This is a Nouha Taouk recipe taken from her recipe book Whispers From a Lebanese Kitchen

On this occasion I did chicken instead of lamb.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

·         Vegetable oil for cooking

·         4 lamb shanks or kilo of chicken casserole pieces

·         40 g butter

·         2 onions, chopped

·         ½ garlic bulb, cloves separated and peeled

·         1 tsp baharat spice mix

·         1 teaspoon salt

·         6 potatoes, washed, peeled and diced

·         125g tomato paste

Method

1.       Heat a large saucepan over high heat, add a little oil and sear the lamb shanks (or chicken) until brown. Remove from the pan.

2.       Reduce the heat to low, melt the butter and cook the onion until soft.

3.       Add the garlic, baharat and salt and mix well.

4.       Pour 3 litres of water into the pan and bring to the boil

5.       Simmer, covered, for 1 hour or until the lamb is tender

6.       Add the potato and tomato paste and cook for a further 30 minutes

7.       Season to taste

8.       This is ideal served with boiled rice with egg noodles.

Recipe - Ras El Hanout Chicken

Ingredients:

• 1kg chicken (I used lovely legs and things)
• 3 tbs Ras El Hanout
• Olive Oil
• 1 small onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 6 baby potatoes, halved or qtred 
• cornflour
• 1 cup frozen peas
• handful mushrooms
• 2 cups chicken stock

Method

• Prehear oven to 180
• Prepare the chicken by removing any fat, place it in a bowl and sprinkle over the Ras El Hanout. Leave it for 10 minutes
• Heat a little Olive Oil, cook the onion and garlic. REmove to small bowl
• Sprinkle 1 or 2 tbs of cornflour over the chicken, brown the pieces on either side. When brown, add the onion and garlic back in
• Add baby potatoes 
• Add frozen peas
• Add mushrooms
• Add chicken stock
• Bring to the boil then take off and put straight into oven uncovered
• Check after 40 mins and book longer only if necessary

To buy Ras El Hanout visit www.herbies.com.au

Review - Gowings Bar and Grill Sydney

 

We were a party of six for 2 friends birthdays and Gowings Bar and Grill http://www.qtsydney.com.au/food-drink/gowings-bar-grill/. In true Merivale style the decor is funky, a little eclectic and full of vibe and you're always noticing something different when you scan the room.

I must say I received the best service in anywhere Ive been in the world, right from the start. The waitress was outstanding and other staff we interacted with were the same. I had a problem with my order (asked for the cream to not be added to the muscles broth and the kitchen didn't see this and added the cream) and the issue was resolved in a manner that surpassed expectations exponentially. The staff even overheard there were birthdays at our table and without prompting the desserts came with candles. Twenty out of Ten for service.

The menu has so much selection and big big big - whole fish, whole pigeon, half a duck so bring your appetite when you go - there's no such thing as morsels here! Here's what we had ...

Entrees (most we shared as the menu indicated the meals would be ginormous):

 

The mains:

 

And, The desserts...

 

Review - Signorelli Gastronomia

In a word – wow. Don’t go once because between the a la carte menu, grazing on anti pasto and pizzas; and going back for whatever you didn’t eat on the previous occasions –  Signorelli Gastronomia http://signorelli.com.au/ will give you reason to keep coming back and trying the different offerings will see a different experience each time. Hands down it’s now on my top 5.

On this occasion we went before going to the lyric theatre – the staff were more than accommodating having us arrive at 12:15, were out the door by 1:45 and never felt like we were going to miss the show. Nor did we feel rushed.

We had (photos of all below...)

Entrée

Zucchini Flowers / Taleggio / Polenta / Apple Puree

Home Made Gnocchi / Crab / Tomato / Lemon / Basil

Mains

Mixed Green Salad / White Balsamic

Grilled Moreton Bay Bugs / Scallop / Cherry Tomato Salad 39

Grilled Scampi / Salmoriglio

Dessert

Flourless chocolate cake to share

The bill, which included their best bottle of rose, was $180 – couldn’t get over the value!

Just go there – you’ll thank me J

Prawn Stuffed Eggplant

I saw this originally as a paleo recipe which I'm completely into, but I live with a hungry man who needs a little bit more depth  to his meal so I free-styled the original recipe to get some rice and other density involved (and played with the flavours… as I always do)

Serves 2

Ingredients

·         1 eggplant;

·         350g peeled raw prawns, chopped

·         1 red capsicum, diced

·         1 tbsp. fresh ginger

·         2 cloves garlic

·         3 shallots chopped (including some of the green)

·         ¼ cup chopped parsley

·         2 tbsp. curry paste of your choice;

·         1 tbsp. fish sauce

·         1 tbsp. palm sugar

·         2 tbsp. olive oil;

·         Butter

·         ¼ cup risotto rice

·         ¼ cup breadcrumbs

·         ¼ cup parmesan

Preparation

1.       Preheat your oven to 200C.

2.       Take the eggplant and cut it into 2 pieces lengthwise. Make a series of parallel cuts, taking care not to cut through the skin. Brush the eggplant (cut sides) with 1/2tbsp. of olive oil on each side. 3. Place the eggplants cut side down on a roasting pan and brush the skin with ½ tbsp. olive oil and bake for 15 minutes. Turn over after the initial 15 minutes and cook again 15 to 20 minutes or until the flesh is tender. When you take the eggplant out, switch oven to grill mode. Scoop out the pulp leaving the skin intact and chop the eggplant pulp. Mash it ready to later stir back through into the risotto mix

3.       Scoop out eggplant and mush, put to the side to add to the risotto mix later

4.       In the meantime ….

5.       In a saucepan, heat the remaining olive oil and butter over medium heat

6.       Add the ginger, the garlic, and capsicum, and cook for two minutes.

7.       Add the shallots and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes.

8.       Add the curry paste and cook until fragrant (1-2 mins)

9.       Add fish sauce

10.   1 palm sugar

11.   Add rice and stir for 2 minutes

12.   Add parsley

13.   The add boiled water ½ a cup at a time until risotto is 90% cooked

14.   Stir through prawns and eggplant

15.   Pour the mixture into the eggplant shells (you will probably have a bit of left over mix)

16.   Coat with breadcrumbs and parmesan

17.   Grill for 10 minutes

Review - La Grande Bouffe

We were a party of eleven, half of which were visiting from Paris. Everything was sensational with resulting comments saying it was like being in Paris in Australia. I was lucky enough to try a few things across our shared entrees and cheeky tastings of others dishes but the main dishes I had (and pictured) were:

Smoked Salmon and Dill Baguette

Salmon and Potato Cake with Rocket, Capers and Aioli

Chocolate Marquise with Frangelico Ice Cream

The Parisians did made some comments here and there that ingredients had been added to the traditional dishes that they didn’t expect (e.g. cassoulet) but not in a negative way. It could just be a different region thing. Also, we were a little surprised that, as the chefs appeared (towards the end), none that we saw were actually French but all in all a terrific restaurant and absolutely we’ll be back.

www.lagrandebouffe.com.au/