Blood Clot and Brain Cupcakes. Bookmarking for Halloween… even though nobody ever eats cupcakes at parties, and I always forget that.
Tag: food
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Vanilla Creamed Rice with Rhubarb
We got another bunch of rhubarb in this week’s veggie box, and I was at a loss what to do with it. Rodd’s already made a batch of (extremely good) rhubarb and apple jam. We have a big bag of chopped rhubarb in the freezer. What’s next? Then I found this recipe, which is basically rice pudding with rhubarb on top.
SO. GOOD. I think that’s going to be my go-to recipe for rice pudding from now on. We usually have all those ingredients on hand, so it’s easy and quick to make up. It’s not disgustingly sweet either. The rhubarb was really simple. You just chop it all up and throw it in a saucepan with a little water and sugar. I was skeptical at first. Like, here’s this pan of very crispy stalky bits, almost like celery. How’s that going to turn to mush? I turned it on low and left to watch Time Team for 10 minutes. When I got back… beautiful pink mush! (I wonder how/why it breaks down so quickly?) Anyway, we had some for dessert last night and then finished it off for breakfast this morning. That’s a big dollop of Greek yoghurt on top. Highly, highly recommended.
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Restaurant Atelier
The Snook and I have been talking about visiting Restaurant Atelier for years, since way back when it was still on King Street in Newtown. Now that they’re in Glebe, I’ve been intrigued by the idea of there being a one-hatted restaurant within walking distance of our house. So this year, the Snook finally booked us in for my birthday dinner.
My first impression was one of extreme coziness. We had a cushy corner booth with a view of most of the dining room, which was rapidly filling up. We ordered a G&T and a martini to start, and Snookums was pleased that the waiter confirmed his choice of gin. (That always gets you five points with the Snook.) We perused the menu. I was drawn to the seven-course degustation, but then I heard one of the servers telling another table about the night’s special: slow roasted pork loin. It sounded goooood. When she came to take our order, I asked whether there was any chance that we could get the pork as one of the degustation courses. “That might be able to be arranged,” she winked. “I have an inside line with the kitchen.” (Later I realized that this was the famous Bernadette, partner of Darren the chef.) We decided to splurge and go with the matching wines as well. What the hell.
People, it was brilliant. I was hooked from the very start, when they brought out their in-house sourdough with French butter and homemade olive tapanade. (My eyes rolled back in my head every time I tasted that butter. It was THAT GOOD.) The first course was a steamed seafood gow gee (aka gyoza), and it was very nice. Dumplings are all about the texture for me, the gluey-ness of the inside contrasted with the wrapper. (That’s why I like my dumplings steamed, then fried.) The second course was the Snook’s favorite for the night: “Confit of Tasmanian Ocean Trout & Foie Gras Terrine, Creamed Avocado, Octopus Carpaccio & Wasabi & Dashi Jelly.” The terrine consisted of two layers of trout with a slab of foie gras in the middle, wrapped in grilled eggplant. The octopus and “jelly” were really just two little bites, but they were really zingy and fantastic. Snookums thought he tasted a hint of something smoked in the mix, which Bernadette confirmed was smoked salt(!).
Next came the “Wagyu Beef Tartare w Parsnip Ice Cream, Quail Egg & Pickled Mushrooms.” I honestly didn’t realize there were mushrooms in this until now. I knew that the beef had a strong taste of pickle, but I figured it was just minced up gherkins or something like that. Huh. The parsnip ice cream was a bit of a gimmick, but I’m never one to turn down a novelty. We both enjoyed this dish, but both of us felt that the pickle somewhat drowned out the savoriness of the beef.
Next was my favorite: “Seared Yellow-Fin Tuna w Pomme Mousseline, Kangaroo Island Marron Tail & Samphire.” (On the menu this comes with Moreton Bay Bug, but I think they switched it up since they were using the Bugs with the pork special.) I absolutely loved this tuna. It had a lovely peppery, slightly charred flavour, like meat that has been cooked on a grill to perfection. I’m drooling a little bit just thinking about it. Seriously, I’m a recovering pesca-phobe and I’d eat this tuna every day of the week.
Our last savoury course was the promised pork loin. It had Moreton Bay Bug on top, and there were some sort of lentils around the plate as part of the sauce. It was more heavily spiced than I’d expected, and I was worried that the Snook wouldn’t like the strong scent of capsicum. (He’s not a fan.) But we both happily cleaned our plates. On to dessert!
(I should mention that each of the first five courses came with a matching wine. I’d balked a little bit at first at the additional $50 for the wine, but in retrospect, it was a great deal. They were all excellent choices, and they definitely weren’t stingy with the pours. The Snook also points out that the wine seems more expensive just because the food is such great value. They could easily charge a hundred bucks for the degustation, and then the fifty wouldn’t seem so big in comparison.)
Anyway, the “pre-dessert” consisted of a miniature “Tonka Bean Creme Brulee” with a balsamic strawberry and a polenta biscuit. I’ve got no idea what “tonka beans” are, but the creme brulee was divine. Crunchy, blistered sugar on top gave way to smooth custard below. It was lovely. The real dessert blew it out of the water though: “Caramel Souffle w Salted Caramel Ice Cream, Whisky Creme Anglaise.” OH. MY. GOD. Bernadette had poked a small hole in the top of the souffle and showed us how to pour the whisky creme down inside. It was soft and squidgy and wonderful, like the inside of the best French Toast you’ve had in your life. The salty caramel ice cream made a nice contrast (though the Snook said overall he thought it was a little too salty). But that souffle was definitely one of the sexiest desserts I’ve ever had in my life. Highly recommended.
And that was the meal! Oh, wait. Bernadette brought me a birthday candle with our truffles and chocolate at the end. That was nice. Excellent food, great service, and a lovely cozy atmosphere. I really recommend it. (I’m also intrigued by their mid-week dinner special of three-courses for $60. This would be easily as good a value as Oscillate Wildly, and probably easier to get a booking.) We paid the bill and then stumbled out the door. Needless to say, after six glasses of wine and a cocktail each, we pretty much collapsed as soon as we got home. As far as I’m concerned, a food coma and a bit of a hangover is a small price to pay for such a magnificent meal…
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Starship Kimchi
“Starship Kimchi: A Bold Taste Goes Where It Has Never Gone Before.” The first Korean astronaut is getting ready to go up to the ISS, and he’ll be taking specially designed space kimchi with him.
“Ordinary kimchi is teeming with microbes, like lactic acid bacteria, which help fermentation. On Earth they are harmless, but scientists feared they could turn dangerous in space if cosmic rays and other radiation cause them to mutate.”
I, for one, welcome our new mutant space kimchi overlords.
(Link courtesy of the Snook, who got it from Toast.)
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Bacon Curls
Bacon curls – the perfect garnish for your Meat Cake!
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“Hot and Smoky” Baked Beans
I was chatting to the Snook over IM this afternoon about what we were going to have for supper when I suddenly got a massive craving for baked beans. And I don’t mean crappy beans out of a can — REAL baked beans. So I went looking for recipes. I settled for these Hot and Smoky Baked Beans, which seemed like a good compromise between my desire for mostly-homemade and my lack of thirteen hours to soak dried beans. I used Toohey’s Old for the “dark beer,” and I substituted treacle for the molasses (since we already had some in the cupboard). I don’t see Great Northern Beans here very often, so I went with the much more common cannellini beans instead. Other than that, my only substitution was in using dried chipotle powder instead of canned chilis. (Since Australia doesn’t have a big Hispanic population, stuff like that isn’t easy to find. We get our chipotle powder from Herbie’s.) The Snook was dismissive of my plan at first, as he’s not a huge fan of American-style baked beans. (He says they’re too sweet.) The smell of these won him over though, and he heartily approved of the nice smoky flavour from the chipotle. My only complaint was that I wanted the dish overall to be a bit thicker and stickier. Part of that might be because I only used five cans of beans instead of six (on the recommendation of some of the reviews). The next time I make them, I might use more beans and let ’em cook a lot longer. I think these would be great at your next big family dinner though! -
Allez cuisine!
This week was our highly-anticipated dinner with Iron Chefs Sakai and Chen at the Observatory Hotel here in Sydney. I was kicking myself the whole time that I’d forgotten to print out the photo of me and Snook dressed as Sakai and Kaga. (And of course, I couldn’t print it out at work because the site was down. *grumble*) But that niggling annoyance aside, I was excited and rarin’ to go. We met up with Toast and Shan and headed in. We had a small table for four in the back corner of the Globe Bar with a big TV screen right beside us (for watching all the kitchen action). Shan and I took photos of every course, but I’m not going to bother posting them because Not Quite Nigella has written it all up way better than I ever could. Seriously, if you want to see and read about what we ate, go over there. I will say that my favorites were definitely Chen’s mud crab soup and his signature mapo tofu, but that my least favorite was the soup that went with the mapo tofu. Afterwards, we all rushed out into the lobby for a chance to get autographs and photos.
Neither of them spoke English very well, so I chose my words carefully. “Chef Sakai, do you know ‘Halloween’?” I asked as I approached. “Halloween, yes!” he said cheerfully. “I WAS YOU!” I blurted out. “And him,” pointing at the Snook, “he was CHAIRMAN KAGA!” They laughed and laughed.
Final tally of weird/unfamiliar stuff that I ate that I never would’ve eaten five years ago: salmon mousse, braised carp, caviar, jellyfish, calamari, sea urchin roe, foie gras, kinugasa mushrooms, mud crab (with roe), lobster tail, and shark fin (we guessed there was some in the soup I didn’t care for). And while all that sounds really exotic, the dishes weren’t really “out there.” It’s not like I had a pile of any of those things; they were mostly used in tiny amounts as interesting flavours or textures. I had the definite impression that the Chefs were toning down the weirdness factor for Western palates. (Case in point: Sadly, no fish ice cream.)
Here’s an extremely blurry shot of the Snook and I enjoying our champagne cocktails at the start of the evening.
Halfway through the night, we played a game where everyone tried to guess where a mystery wine was from. The Snook made it the furthest out of the four of us. Here he is contemplating his next answer. (He didn’t win.)
The desserts really were something out of this world. Here’s the Snook checking out the pannacotta on top of the upturned martini glass. We were all a little unsure how to approach this. It was nummy though.
Everyone wants to know whether we got enough food for the money, and whether we were stuffed at the end of the night. Well, there was plenty of food. The portions were a good size (given that we had seven courses) and I’m not sure I could’ve eaten any more at the end of it. It just took so long! We were there a good five hours. Five hours of eating and drinking wine is actually pretty tiring. Here’s me and the Snook at the end of the night, just wanting to get our photo and go home to bed.
Here are our other two tablemates, Toast and Shan. Thumbs up all around!
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Sausage and Bean Stew
A couple years ago, my old Epson buddy Kiri invited me over to her place for a birthday party. One of dishes she had was a sort of gourmet beanie-weenies. “Mmm, what’s the magic ingredient in this?” I asked. “Fennel,” she replied. My jaw dropped. Fennel, you see, is also called “aniseed,” and it’s basically the stuff that gives licorice its taste. I hate licorice. But evidently cooking fennel reduces that strong medicinal taste. It was yummy! I asked for and was granted the recipe, which I’ve made a few times since… most notably last night.Sausage and Bean Stew
4 thick Italian style sausages (I used 6 thin ones)
2 T olive oil
1 onion finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 large bulb of fennel, trimmed and finely chopped (I whizzed mine in the food processor)
1/2 t. dried chili flakes
1 T tomato paste
400g tin chopped tomatoes
440g tin canellini beans, drained and rinsed (which I am incapable of referring to as anything but “cannelloni” beans)
1/2 c. chicken stock
1 small sprig rosemary
2 T. chopped flat leaf parsley
shaved parmesanPlace sausages in a saucepan of cold water and bring to the boil, reduce heat to medium and simmer for two minutes, then drain well. When cool, cut on the diagonal into 2cm pieces.
Heat olive oil in a heavy-based flameproof casserole. Add sausage pieces and cook over medium-high heat until browned, then drain on absorbent paper. Reduce heat to low-medium, then add onion, garlic, fennel and chili to pan and cook, stirring occasionally for 15 minutes or until soft. Then stir in tomato paste and cook for another five minutes. Add tomato, beans, stock, and rosemary, then cover and cook over low heat for 20 minutes. Stir in sausage pieces and parsley and season to taste. (Pull out the rosemary.) Serve topped with parmesan with a crusty bread on the side.
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Me and Bill!
We’re at the launch of Bill Granger’s new cookbook. He’s so nice, and the food is wonderful! More when we get home…
Later: What a lovely evening! We were at the Hickson Road Bistro at the Sydney Theatre for this gleebooks event. Bill gave a great talk about his non-standard culinary career, and we enjoyed three courses from the cookbook. The highlight for me was the entree: a pea, mint, and feta salad. Divine! He also had a question-and-answer session, and most of the (old) people were asking boring things about the slow food movement and why we should all buy organic, blah blah blah. I turned to the Snook: “I’m about to embarrass you.” I put my hand up. “This is a bit frivolous, but it’s a hypothetical we like to discuss at nice restaurants. If SBS ever wanted to do an Australian version of Iron Chef, would you be on it and who would you want to face?” HE LOVED MY QUESTION. Apparently he’s a big fan of the show, and he started talking about how the most recent episode was on “whale tongue.” He said he’d probably be too intimidated to go on, because he doesn’t see himself as being as “cheffy” as some of the other professionals. He’d want to go up against “someone he could beat.” Later he came around to autograph our cookbook and have a chat. The Snook asked him about the “artisanal beer movement” while I requested this photo. I think it’s about time for our long-awaited pilgrimage to bills in Surry Hills…
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I Made This
I was at last able to pick up the Snook’s super-secret birthday surprise tonight – two beer mugs that I made him in my Ceramics class! (He didn’t mind that they were late; I couldn’t get them out of the kiln any sooner.) I had a lot of help from my tutor Peter. They have extruded handles and I finished them with a hand-painted pewter glaze. They turned out pretty much exactly as I’d hoped. They’re pleasantly heavy without being too chunky; they’re slightly wonky and obviously handmade; they look rather medieval and masculine. The photo makes the one on the left look chipped, but that’s actually water from where I’d just rinsed them out. Snookums only had them out of the wrapper for about two seconds before he’d filled the big one with beer!
And yes, that is a football-sized ball of Silk Garden. I pulled my cardigan apart. It’s a long story.
That last picture is my dinner creation for tonight – Chicken Pot Pie. Yes, I decorated it with a bird made from puff pastry. It was delicious!
Recipe:
Okay, this is just a slightly-modified version of the Chicken Pot Pie recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens New American Cookbook, which is my all-time number-one go-to cookbook for just about everything.
First, you’re gonna need some cooked chicken. (The recipe calls for three cups.) You can either pull it off a roast chicken, or you can poach your own. Poaching’s pretty easy so I go with that. Just whack a couple breasts in a skillet and fill it with water. Cover and simmer until they’re cooked through. Sometimes if they’re really thick I cut them in half so they cook faster in the middle. Once they’re done, fish out the chicken and set it aside to cool.
Now get out a pot and fry up a chopped onion in a quarter-cup of butter. (Mmmm.) When the onion is soft, you’re going to dump in one-third of a cup of all-purpose flour, half a teaspoon of salt, half a teaspoon of dried thyme, and a good grind of pepper. Stir it around a bit so the flour soaks up the butter and cooks a little. (This is what makes the sauce thick.) Now you’re going to dump in two cups of chicken stock and three-quarters of a cup of milk. Stir it around and cook until thickened and bubbly. Now throw in your vegetables. Tonight I felt like using a lot so I put in carrots, potatoes, peas, broccoli, and green beans. While that’s cooking, go back to your now-cool chicken and tear it up into chunks. Add that to the pot. You’re nearly done!
All you have to do now is pour your mixture (basically a thick chicken stew) into a big Pyrex baking dish (or you can be fancy and put it in little individual dishes). Cover it up with some puff pastry (buy it frozen but let it thaw first) and cut a few slits to let the steam escape. If you’ve got some left over, you can go nuts with the decoration (a la my bird). Pop the whole thing in the oven on a fairly high heat (at least 180C if not more) and let it bake for 15 minutes or so, basically until the pastry goes flaky and golden. Pull out and eat!
