Milinciana alla Parmigiana

Following my last post about tomatoes, here’s a pic of what the tomatoes (yes they’re still going) went into tonight: Milinciani alla Parmigiana. Unlike Parmigiana di Melanzane where the mozzarella tends to induce a cheese coma (not a bad thing in this case), milinciani focuses on the aubergine.

Fried in EV olive oil  after a slight flour-egg coating, the slices are layered with a sugo (made with the cherry toms from the garden of course), basil and Parmigiana, and then baked.

Perfect for a Sunday night. Below is another beautiful pic, taken of the Yarra last Sunday evening…

The Yarra, facing away from the city

Twins?

It’s the first time I’ve ever had my own veggie patch. Also the first time I’ve ever grown tomatoes, which have thus far delivered the most fruitful crop from the patch. Not like those deserters the sweetcorn, or the beetroot. The Christmasday hail nearly obliterated the plants, breaking the stems and stripping the leaves, but the (bruised) little cherry tomatoes soldiered on, and by now 4 plants have given me nearly 3kg of small toms.

Waiting to colour

My favourite way of eating tomatoes is raw, but after weeks of this, and exploring countless salad variations, there were simply too many tomatoes and I made a passata to freeze, one of the few things I’d freeze.

Sliced with bronze fennel, basil, extra virgin olive oil and sea salt flakes

I’m keen to try out fried green tomatoes as I actually quite like their tart taste, and I haven’t even gone near the semi-dried (remember the 90′s?) treatment yet. One crop in the back garden is nearly done now, and the fruit on the plants in the front garden are just starting to turn colour… Time for more innovative tomato recipe research!

Ready for round two

The roast snapper

After receiving Philippa Sibley’s new Desserts book for Christmas, a visit to the restaurant/food store has been long overdue, and perfect for a girls lunch today! Housed in what was previously a bank, it’s all dark tones inside and out, with beautiful design touches everywhere. It’s a beautiful restaurant, and obviously ticks all the right boxes, but really delivers on the food side of things – although initially everybody is probably visiting with the aim to leave enough space for dessert!

Saffron gnocchi

We had roast snapper with kipflers and a herb salad, and saffron gnocchi with braised veal and peas, and both shone in their simplicity. Loads of late-saturday-afternoon customers were having pizza’s, which made me feel like there was a secret I didn’t know… and one to discover on my definite next visit.

For dessert (inevitably), we had Meyer lemon tart and Coeur a la Creme with apricots and raspberries. I know its boring to have a rave about lemon tart, but hell, if you only ever have one in your life/your last lemon tart ever, you should probably be trying this version. It’s perfect, that’s really all.

The Meyer lemon tart

I ordered the Coeur because it took me right back to chefschool days when we had to prepare this definitive dessert for a picnic, and the many disasters involving dry muslin cloths not fitting into the heart-shaped ceramic dishes, and other dumb things. Come quite a long way since then. This version was classic, down to the rose geranium leaf placed at the bottom of the dish to flavour the creme. The fruit accompaniment was just enough. It was such a blast from the past, I can’t stop thinking about it. And that’s what the perfect restaurant visit is all about, non?

Coeur a la creme

Middle Fish

Middle Fish (named after a middle daughter) has just opened in Berkeley street, Carlton, in an area devoid of anything good to lunch on if Seven Seeds hadn’t saved it (they’re in the warehouse next door).

We went on a stinking hot day, and the place was quiet, probably since not many people could face more (chilli) heat in what became a serious heat wave to usher in the new year. I don’t foresee it remaining empty for long though, you can only keep this sort of  secret for a limited time here, and the uni hasn’t even started yet (the prices are uni friendly too).

We had quite a selection of dishes, starting with spring rolls, pork belly, spinach and rice topped with a fried egg, beef salad, then a coconut chicken curry and sour orange fish curry, and banana roti. There’s no attempt to reinvent the wheel here, thank heavens, everything is cooked textbook Thai, and seriously skilled so. I particularly liked the sour orange curry, with prawns, green papaya slices and chilli spiked broth, served with rice on the side. The (ground) beef salad (more chilli) will have me back too.

I particularly liked the spaciousness of the venue ( a converted warehouse), and the really friendly staff (admittedly they take their time, but who cares when you’re on holiday). An added bonus are well made coffees, a good move with the rammed-up-to-the-wall-most-days Seven Seeds next door.

Always gotta try the spring rolls

Stir-fried pork belly and rice

Sour orange fish soup

Cool layout!

Nearby the valley I grew up in, in South Africa, is a small town called Ceres. I suppose it was probably named after the goddess, but absolutely lived up to its name. All kinds of deciduous fruit are grown there, but my fondest memories are of picking cherries, and eating as much as you can whilst at it (a surprising amount).

Jerusalem artichoke plantCardamom and Fenugreek (methi) plants

Here in Melbourne we have Ceres Farm, an initiative thats all about the environment, sustainability, education and research. They do loads more including cool fruit & veg boxes delivered to your door weekly and have a market, but I’m particularly interested in the seedling nursery they keep.  It’s very comprehensive and has everything from your everyday beetroot seedlings, loads of different tomato varieties and even wild cards like cardamom and Jerusalem artichoke plants (when you see the plant its easy to see that they’re related to sunflowers). I spent so much time just browsing and deliberating on what to take home, and below is a picture of what I eventually bought for my veggie patch. Wish there were loads more initiatives like this around the city!

The day's selection

Gingerbread stars

A bit of a belated post, more of a catalogue for myself on the Christmas biscuits I got done this year. The aim was to bake the 7 traditional Norwegian yuletide biscuits, but I do not have the special mold that is essential to create Goro, and was mystfied as to what the raising agent hartshorn salt in another biscuit was, so in the end I just baked a selection, and I think I’ll mix it up a bit more next year – adding Pepperkaker, Sirupssnipper and Bordstabler.

My interpretation of Sandnotter

This year I baked Sandnotter, Peppernotter, Berlinerkranser and Speculaas to celebrate my Dutch heritage. Gingerbread stars completed my biscuit gift-jars. I’m not posting recipes as I think some fine-tuning still needs to be done, especially with the Sandnotter and spice biscuits.

Berlinerkranser

Christmas lunch started on a very Australian note with Coffin Bay oysters and BBQ prawns, then roast goose with stuffing and goosefat roast potatoes. There was a salad in there somewhere to lighten the guilt! The goose was awesome, I’ll do it again, although its a pretty expensive option. To finish, German Stollen, English Christmas cake and loads of cheese. Thank heavens this is only an annual affair…

Curly carrots!

Due to all the early summer rain, the tomatoes got powdery mildew and look atrocious, but are bearing loads of fruit, which apparently will carry on ripening unscathed. Here’s a pic of the very first berry that has started turning colour.

The first tomato

A summery dish I created recently used loads of leaves from my garden, and I used parsley flowers for the first time, which added a good herby kick to the dish.

Courgette, asparagus and parsley flower salad

Sautéed white courgette, asparagus and caper salad

Serves 2

6 white courgettes

1tsp tiny capers (non pareils)

extra virgin olive oil

1 lemon

assorted garden salad green – I used red cos, mustard leaves, rocket and bull’s blood leaves

1 bunch asparagus

parsley flowers

Slice the courgettes lengthways, season with sea salt and saute in the oil until browned and cooked, add the capers just before you’re done – they will fry slightly and flavour the oil. Zest the lemon over the courgette, and squeeze a little juice over, let this cool and marinate whilst you blanch the asparagus, and wash the leaves. Compose everything on a plate or just toss together. Sprinkle parsley flowers over. A hard cheese  such as Parmesan would be great shaved over this dish, or even a big scoop of goat’s curd…

Tonka beans

They both seem to be illegal. Many question why the one or the other (and if you agree with Alice B. Toklas – both! ) is outlawed in the first place. The fine folks at the FDA should be able to explain… Anyhow, about this rice pudding and these Tonka Beans. What are they? Everyone I excitedly spoke to on the subject had the same question.

Well I trawled the internet for everyone’s benefit, and came up with the following stats: The beans are from a South American tree, and contain the chemical compound coumarin. This is responsible for their fantastic sweet caramelly-vanilla-almond essence smell. (It’s also responsible for that sweet ’freshly mown lawn’ smell. Hmm. If you eat about a cup of them, your liver is going have a very hard time, and you can apparently die! If you eat that much nutmeg, the same will probably happen. Thats if you can actually bring yourself to eat so much of the aphrodisiacal spice, before becoming, erm…distracted. Moving on.  They work well everywhere you’d probably use vanilla, and I especially appreciate them for the extra almondy-caramel depth they lend to creamy desserts. The Atlantic has an excellent article about them, and an interview with Grant Achatz, who got hit up by the FDA (or, Spice Police) for using them.

Pudding just out of the oven

The method for the rice pudding is one I learnt from Pete Goffe-Wood, who does a masterful rendition involving mandarin and cardamom, and has customers swooning in droves. 

Whats good about this rice pudding is that you get credit for doing very little, and it works without fail. Start on the hob, and dissolve 1/2 cup castor sugar with a knob of butter – cooking this until a light butterscotchy caramel develops – any further and the caramel will overshadow the scent and caramel taste of the Tonka beans. Now, pour in a cup of pudding (arborio/carnaroli) rice. It will soon look like the biggest disaster you’ve ever created in a pot. But it’s cool. This is going to work out. Add a cup  of cream and 5 (yes) cups of milk. Grate in 1/4 – 1/2 Tonka bean and stir a little until you can at least wedge the caramel rice clump off the spoon. Add lemon zest or a pinch of cinnamon according to what rocks your boat. Then, put the entire saucepan in a low oven (about 150C).

Have/prepare dinner, drink wine and so forth for 2 1/2 hours, whilst the rice slowly soaks up the milky goodness and forms this lava-like skin over the top of the pudding which is TO DIE FOR. When fully set, remove from oven carefully and portion out equally, with an extra spoon for the chef. A pudding for days when vanilla just won’t cut it.

The finished pudding

Marinating pork chops

Pork chops were on the menu tonight I’d thought I’d try a marinade of lemon myrtle, lemon thyme, fresh lemon juice & zest and olive oil. The chops were then barbecued and served with an awesome salad with loads of veggie patch ingredients. The triple lemon combination worked well I think, being fragrant (myrtle), tangy (juice) and herby (thyme) at the same time.

With the fabulous botanical name of Backhousia citriodora,  the lemon myrtle tree prefers subtropical regions and is found all over Brisbane. I would imagine the fresh leaves, with an even stronger lemon scent, would be really good to cook with white fish maybe? That’s what I’ll try it with next, possibly a chicken roast as well.

The side salad echoed the season and was a beautiful mix of radicchio, cherry tomatoes, spring onions, radish and carrots and herbs from the garden. Not bad for a weeknight eh?

November salad

Pinot in Gertrude street at WLG

No, I don’t work for tourism New Zealand, but this post is about what a great idea I think the WLG pop-up restaurant concept is. As a tourism initiative. I initially went because when the news broke, I happened to be on Twitter as it went berserk. At $35/head I didn’t think I could lose out too much if this turned out to be a heavily PR’ed event with annoying branding everywhere.

There is, obviously, but its done right, so that whilst I knew I was on the bandwagon, the ride was enjoyable instead of irritating. The buzz on this normally nondescript Gertrude Street corner was quite something last night, with both staff and punters clearly allowing themselves to get caught up in the excitement and going along with the vibe. I found myself wishing this corner was always this way, maybe it will become now?

We stuck to Sauvignon Blanc (Dog Point), and Pinot (Escarpment) for the meal, and had several of the $7 glasses! The shared entrees is a good idea, to showcase input from all the chefs involved – on the platter the pork ‘schnitzel’ was our favourite. We however scarfed the entire plate in like 12.5 sec flat, as did everyone around us, haha! That’s what anticipation can do for you.

Lamb cutlets and timbale

For mains we had lamb cutlets, the Tall Guy (being a bit of a self-declared  expert)pronounced them very fine indeed! I liked the simplicity of the (beautifully cooked) Bass Groper dish, however there was order envy going on when I saw other dishes coming out. Tables are communal, so order envy is rife, I think.

Chocolate and raspberries

Then there was a choice between a chocolate or licoricello panna cotta dessert, BUT the best espresso that we have tasted in a long time actually interrupted our conversation, and had me thinking about it all day. Like seriously, a damn good espresso.

The panna cotta

We left having spent a really happy Wednesday night, and I’ve been musing on how cool it would be if more cities did this. Just think of the cool exposure the city, the chefs and  (some of the styles of) food done there would receive! A bit of an armchair (or restaurant seat) travelling if you wish. Thomas Keller recently took his flagship to Harrods in London, which must have been mind-blowing for the select few would could secure a ticket. I think this sort of chef’s collective thing is more approachable and is a tiny peek at a city, and obviously highlights a country. I reckon after initiatives such as this, Wellington (and anyone else who tries it) won’t have to try very hard at all to reel those tourists in!  Talking to you, Cape Town!

Nice one.