Sydney Food Diary

Filo-wrapped Mars Bar

I'm not sure I should I should be owning up to this one publicly but as it was incredibly delicious I thought I'd share.

Created in a sort of homage to the infamous Scottish deep-fried Mars Bars the below is a filo-wrapped Mars bar which I then baked.

To do it you need four layers of filo, some honey, some cinnamon and melted butter (optional are vanilla dusting sugar and a coupla sesame seeds).

First lay down one layer of filo and brush it with melted butter. Layer another sheet of filo and drizzle honey lightly and then dust with cinnamon. Layer another sheet and brush with butter before laying the final sheet on top. Place the Mars bar at one end of the sheet and roll the filo into a parcel. Brush the entire outside of the parcel with butter trimming the ends. Sprinkle sesame seeds on the outside of the parcel. as desired. Whilst drooling with anticipation, bake on 200 until golden and crispy.

Dust with vanilla dusting sugar and as touch of cinnamon.
Devour voraciously.

Works In Progress

There are many stops on the way to a great dish especially for us non-professional-part-time cooks. These are two of mine that are really close but either need more or less of something to tweak them nearer to perfection.

Strawberry and white pepper tarts, marjoram, buffalo mozerella and balsamic reduction
Notes: These are really good but maybe too small. Poached the strawberries in sake this time around but might try something like dry riesling next time. I think goat cheese might add something more than the buffalo mozerella did but I also worry that that'd be too many disharmonious ingredients.

Parmigiano Reggiano Crisp with roast squash and prosciutto
Notes: Another one I'm still perfecting though it was delicious (this photo doesn't really do it justice). Next time I might mix the roasted squash with ricotta and pipe it on top of the crisp as the squash lump here isn't very attractive.

Fondue on you

We were in New York for awhile since last we regularly blogged and one of our favorites new things there was a stop at Artisinal Fromagerie and Bistro, Chef Terrance Brennan's all cheese restaurant - where we had a cheese plate and an ample fondue. (after all cheese as they say is the new wine).

Such was Michelle's enthusiasm for the fondue (ok mine too) that when Bastille Day rolled around, we decided that a fondue of our own was more than in order.

We used the basic 1966 Gourmet Magazine recipe (below) but substituted the Emmenthal and Gruyere for Fontina and Livarot - we also used Valdeón a beautiful Spanish Blue (which comes wrapped in and lightly flavoured by Chestnut leaves) for punctuation(!!?!).

For dipping we went with some Fuel Bakery sourdough, sour green apples, raw cauliflower and carrot.

Cheese Fondue from Gourmet February 1966

1 garlic clove, halved crosswise
1 1/2 cups dry white wine (preferably Swiss, such as Fendant)
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 teaspoons kirsch
1/2 lb Emmental cheese, coarsely grated (2 cups)
1/2 lb Gruyère , coarsely grated (2 cups)
Accompaniment: cubes of French bread on fondue forks or long wooden skewers
Special equipment: a fondue pot

Rub inside of a 4-quart heavy pot with cut sides of garlic, then discard garlic. Add wine to pot and bring just to a simmer over moderate heat.
Stir together cornstarch and kirsch in a cup.
Gradually add cheese to pot and cook, stirring constantly in a zigzag pattern (not a circular motion) to prevent cheese from balling up, until cheese is just melted and creamy (do not let boil). Stir cornstarch mixture again and stir into fondue. Bring fondue to a simmer and cook, stirring, until thickened, 5 to 8 minutes.

Transfer to fondue pot set over a flame and serve with bread for dipping.

Bistrode

Just before our Christmas trip, on what seemed like the hottest day of the year (though we now know better), we made our way to the burgeoning food ghetto that is Surry Hills.

Now we'd heard the hype and the bar was set quite high but we rocked up to the former Dragonfly site, subtle and subdued on the east side of Bourke St. and settled in to what would be easily one of the most simple and satisfying meals of the year.

If it hadn't been quite so hot, we might've ordered differently because the svelte menu provided plenty of difficult decisions. But here is what we sampled:

Bistrode is at 478 Bourke Street Surry Hills NSW Ph (02) 9380 7333

Some stuff I Made

Michelle is off for a few days so I wanted to whip up something nice for our last dinner together. I also thought it might be fun to push my creative culinary skills a bit more than usual.

So here are a few of the things I whipped up (I did 6 courses all up). I'll give you the breakdown or recipes (as much as I can remember) if you are interested.

Deconstructed BLT - Tomoto and fire roasted red-chilli soup, fried feta crouton, crisp pancetta chips, cos lettuce

Char Siew, champagne jelly served on truffled multigrain toast

Prawn, raisin and bacon dumplings in a toasted curry and spiced-dried apricot creme emulsion

Custard, fried sage and rosemary, Canadian maple syrup and Sam Mason's raisin paper

The other two course: #3 tuna sashimi salad and #5 dates wrapped in sesame oil seared peppered beef with a balsamic galzed shitake I forgot to take pictures of as I was too absorbed in eating.

Baby fennel and Sicilian olive Pork

This recipe works equally well on top of fish (especially of the crispy skin variety) but for this version we used Bangalow pork. We actually borrowed (read: bastardized) this recipe from Peter Kuravita who taught us it with beautiful Murray Cod (farmed in Orange, NSW).

All you need:
Some pork, chops work a treat
1 Baby Fennel
1 Brown Onion
Some Sicilian olives
Lotsa good quality olive oil

What you gotta do:
Cut the faces off of the olives. Dice the fennel and onion.
Heat a frypan to medium-low. Chuck in the fennel, onion and about 1/2 cup of tasty, tasty oil. Slowly raise the heat to soften the ingredients. Lower to a simmer and add olives a good healthy pinch or three of salt (to taste) and another 1/2 cup to cup of oil (the oil makes the sauce and carries all the flavour so don't skimp). In the meantime grill (or pan sear) your pork.

Serve pork with a healthy pile of the good stuff on top. Enjoy. Smile because it is good and so damn easy.

Hangover Helper

Despite a hefty Food Network addiction when we were in Canada, we never really got into the Toastermobile antics of the Surreal Gourmet.

This hangover recipe however is nothing short of a great idea. Especially at this end of the holiday season.

Hanoi Fish - the home version

Ok, so we'll be the first to admit that we've been a bit obsessed with this dish.

In fact we probably stop in to Than Binh for their version (also pictured) at least once a fortnight.

But after an excellent cooking class with Mark Jensen (from Red Lantern) at the Sydney Seafood School we think we've been able to sort out a pretty reasonable home version. The recipe is mostly his, but adjusted to our taste and with a few Than Binh flourishes.

What you need:

Big hunk of ling fillet (1kg)
1 bunch of green onion (ok shallots if you insist on calling them that)
4 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp turmeric
2 tbsp curry powder*
6 tbsp fish sauce
3 tbsp sugar
200ml canola oil
300g bean sprouts
1/2 bunch of dill
A fistful of mint
A mittful of coriander
A wack of Asian mint
1 package of vermicelli noodles
500ml fish stock
1-2 Red chillis
About half of a red onion
Some unsalted peanuts
1 lemon

What to do:

Cut the ling into strips about two finger widths apart.
Put white ends of green onion and garlic in a mortar and pestle and smash it up until anger subsides. Add turmeric, curry powder, fish sauce, sugar, some oil and about a third of the dill. Mix the fish pieces in cover and refrigerate for about an hour.

Cook vermicelli. Dice the chilli then place in a small condiment dish. Slice the red onion thinly and set aside.

Slice up half of the green ends of the green onion into 5cm lengths. Chop the remaining green onion finely.

Heat a wok to medium-high heat. Fry the fish fillet for 30 seconds. Turn the fish and add half of the fish stock, raising the heat until the stock boils. Continue to cook until the fish is firm.

Serve fish, with a side plate of all the remaining herbs, sliced red onion and the bean sprouts, and of course a big bowl of vermicelli.

How to eat it:

Put some vermicelli for each person in a small bowl.
Take a mixture of the herbs and onion.
Scoop some fish and sauce over the top.
Top with a few peanuts and some chilli.
Finish with a squeeze of lemon.
Make noises such as mmmm and ooooh.

*we recommend the curry powder at Island Foods which is packed with fresh curry leaves to maintain flavour

Sean Choi Bau

In the comments of a long forgotten post Geraldine Trivett wrote:

Do you have a recipe for san choi bow?

and we replied:

Hi Geraldine,

This is the recipe I generally use for homemade san choi bau.

SeAN CHOI BAu

6 shiitake mushrooms
1 head of iceberg lettuce
150g canned water chestnuts
250g fresh bean sprouts
4 shallots (that's green onion in no Aussie)
2 tbsp canola oil
500g minced pork
2 tbsp Chinese rice wine or dry sherry
3 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp dried red chilli (crushed)

Dice up the mushrooms and shallots Drain and dice the water chestnuts.

Heat the oil in a wok or frying pan until hot. Add the pork and most of the shallots and stir-fry until browned. Add the mushrooms, water chestnuts, bean sprouts and chilli (to taste) and toss well. Stir in the rice wine, soy and oyster sauces and toss with vigour.

Serve lovingly in lettuce leaf.

We make no claims that this recipe is authentic, but it is tasty.
That is all.

Chimichurri cha cha

I love chimichurri, that famous Argentinian condimento caliente. Making it is theraputic and it tastes great on nearly everything from cardboard to crow - but especially on a nice slab of grilled cow flesh.

I searched high and low (ie. google) and the internet machine could hand me no definative recipe - leading me to conclude that the tried and true recipe that I use must be the definative one just waiting to be posted.

So grab yourself about 5 cloves of garlic and a half a bunch of flat leaf parsley, some chopped fresh chilli (like one small red one) and some red wine vinegar.

Whack the garlic, parsley and chilli, in your mortar and pestle with a bit of salt and pepper to create some grip and pound to a pulp. Add red wine vinegar to make it saucy. (I generally don't use any but some olive oil helps sauce it up sometimes, just a drizzle mind you, this is not salad dressing but a salsa) Chill for a few minutes.

Serve it over something.