The deconstructed sandwich

Intrigued a little by deconstructed sandwich? What if I say lettuce soup? Uh-oh, now you've lost interest.  Apologies.

It was a couple of weeks ago when we realised that we didn't own a single Italian cookbook.  Maybe this is because we are self proclaimed pasta experts (not really).  This sudden actualisation then spurred on the purchase of The River Cafe Cookbook -I know, ban right?
When doing the obligatory look through our recipe list to figure out what to eat I always kept going back to Lettuce Soup au Gratin The Silver Spoon (re-released last year).  It first caught my eye in the initial recipe selection because of the belief that when something sounds so unappealing, it's got to be good.  Or at least if there is a recipe for it, how bad can it really be?
Thursday night was the night.  When picking up The Silver Spoon, it turns out its purely an Italian cookbook, over 1000 recipes -who knew? It's just too bad that The River Cafe Cookbook had already been ordered.

Lettuce ... lots of lettuce. I thought that I would try to mix up the flavour a little bit by using 3 different types.  I guess its comparable to mixing glacier water, purified still water and tap water - you can tell the difference.

It shows here who is the messiest in the kitchen.

The recipe reads like French Onion soup, but substituting the more flavoursome ingredient onion for lettuce. The lettuce was simmered for a while, then in slow stages the beef stock was added.

After the soup simmered away for 30 minutes it was put in ramekins with some toasted baguette and gruyere cheese then grilled.










Verdict: The soup alone, pre bread and cheese was not the best, but once combined with the other staple sandwich ingredients it all gelled together rather nicely.
Would we make it again?: Let's just say it's not going to be a soup that I crave, but the more I think back on it, we'd talked it down so much that don't think we gave it a fair chance.  If it was served up to me again I would be really happy.

Eccles Cakes

St John's Eccles Cake from Nose to Tail Eating: A Kind of British Eating by Fergus Henderson.

Troy tried these last year at St. John Restaurant in London. We were a little apprehensive about a strange looking pastry to be served with cheese, but there was no need. They were really incredible! It is always nice when you get caught by surprise. We did have a photo of these wonder's, but this was before our camera got 'stolen' / fell out of my bicycle basket while joy riding in Paris.

Puff pastry filled currants mixed with sugar, spice, and all things nice (..butter).

Unfortunately we didn't have any Lancashire cheese to accompany them, but we did have some aged goats cheese.  Perfect with our nightly glass of vino.





Verdict: Next time I will roll the pastry thinner than this book recommends.  8 mm was a little too thick for the pastry to cook through properly.  A little background research into Fergus' recipe showed that he'd modified the execution from book to book.  We brushed cakes with egg whites then coated them in sugar, where a new recipe calls for egg yolks, no sugar and thinner pastry.  I must say, the newer models look a lot more delicious.
Would we make this again?: Yes, Great Britain night is coming up and these are certainly on the menu. This will be our chance to perfect them to the St. John standard.  Watch this space!

Christmas take THAT

In preparation for last Christmas Troy tested his boning skills and made a monstrosity of a roast to take to a family dinner over the ditch in New Zealand. The beast was ten birds, each one painstakingly de-boned then stuffed into the larger one.  You may have heard of the Turducken (turkey, duck, chicken), this was more of a whatthefacken (turkey, goose, duck, chicken, pheasant, guinea fowl, partridge, poussin, squab and quail). After the disappointing news from New Zealand customs that any aerial birds are not allowed in to NZ our whatthefacken spent 10 days in the MAF freezer at Christchurch. We argued that this was probably the longest flight the turkey had ever been on (why deny 10 birds their final flight), next we tried to pass it off as a rabbit.  All in vain.  New Zealand customs was however able to leave it in their freezer at the airport for us to pick up on our return to Melbourne.

A few months later we defrost the birds for Christmas take two. A quick pop into the local Asian store on Chapel Street and we are sorted with tinsel, Christmas crackers and a Santa sack full of presents (including a boob for Uncle Gary).
Because it was a bit of a mish mash of families everyone provided there own little Christmas traditions and games along the way.  Every ones favourite Christmas songs were included in the play list, even some of our favourite non-Christmas songs surfaced.  A high point was when Brittney sang an inspiring Whitney Houston song at the top of her lungs -just like Christmas all over again!

We had to add a challenge dish to our Christmas so a Celeriac Salad from Turquoise by Greg Malouf was chosen. This was one of the books we got from Greg when we had a dining experience at Momo for Troy's birthday, and he signed this book to Lowrider (this was before we got him, but already owned a cookbook, does that mean that Lowrider was meant to help on this one?). Also on the menu was Claire and Nuffy's beetroot and feta salad, twice cooked potatoes, Jill's broccoli salad, Caroline's stuffing balls, and roasted carrots and pumpkin.

We really did overestimate how much food we could actually eat.  The recipe in question -Celeriac salad that Mum made is in the top right corner.

The BEAST. Complete with layers of honey roasted pumpkin, bacon and caramelised onion, bird, and more bird and a little dodo bird.







Everyone had a lot of amusement with the presents given out.

The finale - Bombe Alaska, dessert fireworks. Like we hadn't already eaten enough, but there is a bit of theatre to the dish so everyone seemed to regain a little more room.
Bailey's soaked sponge, 2 layer of ice attack, Salted caramel semifreddo with praline and chocolate and hokey pokey semifreddo, with the Italian meringue and a fiery flame of Grand Marnier.










Verdict: I'm going to say the overload of salads made it a bit of a blur, but so tasting notes on the Celeriac salad was lost in the moment, but the extravagance of it all was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone.
Would we make this again?: We would recommend second Christmas. It was really relaxed -great fun to belt out Christmas carols, it was also great to bring a few families Christmas traditions together. Oh, but back to the salad, it was hard to decipher with all those other ones on offer, but it was yum. Celeriac is a favourite with us all.

Asian afternoon

Steamed Pork Buns from Asian Dumplings by Andrew Nguyen and Beef and Prawn Laksa from Thai Street Food by David Thompson.

It's been a while since we've had a weekend at home, and a chance to spend a chunk of the day in the kitchen. Thanks to daylight savings we had an extra hour up our sleeves - we had cooked baked eggs for breakfast, dug up and planted our winter garden, checked out the Richmond Weekender market and bought a new Texas barbeque while still allowing enough time for a afternoon cooking session.

Hot and steamy - our steamed pork buns

The bun dough wasn't quite a success.  It's always hard with a new recipe knowing how much the dough should rise.  Caroline singing to the dough in bread puns doesn't help either, the likes of 'I want you, I knead you..' doesn't help when you're trying to concentrate.  Making the filling was a bit more of a success.  Doing our own char sui sauce and barbeque pork was definitely worth it.

For the Laksa the paste was made from scratch, cooked off with coconut cream and meat which simmered for about an hour. 

Verdict: Pork Buns have always been Troy's weakness, so we were pretty excited to try mastering these at home. Which we didn't quite do, but the filling was more to my taste than the standard of the ones bought down Victoria Street.
Would we make this again?: We need to master the dough, but next time we would use the sweet dough from the Momufuko book (which is always a success) but with this filling. And would make the Laksa again.

Am I a fat duck? No I'm a cook at home!

Heston is that creepy scientist dude. Often I get scared of his thought process, other times I am in complete awe.  It really amazes me how he can look at an one thing or process and turn it completely on its side, this is what Heston is known for.  The recipe chosen is quinoa sushi from Heston Blumenthal at Home.  In this book Heston Blumenthal is not so sideways, but still a good step ahead of the general norm.

How to make 'sushi rice' from quinoa you say? By blending half of the cooked quinoa, that's how. It turns in to this gluggy mass, and when mixed back through, a sticky 'sushi quinoa' is created.






Quinoa is also mixed with some toasted sesame seeds (black in this case) and ponzu sauce.

The flavours we created were rare beef with shitake mushroom and spring onion, then house smoked salmon (Troy's first attempt at smoking salmon) and spring onion. Served with a ponzu sauce and some wasabi mustard.

Verdict: It was a really nice change from the usual sushi.  The smoked salmon was really good, actually.. it was all good.
Would we make this again?: We don't make enough sushi at home, considering how easy it is. So this would be a healthier and more interesting alternative to rice. The ponzu sauce was delicious too.

Happy Easter

Yay for Easter and the Easter Bunny.

We can't really complain about our lead-up to Easter.  We had Hot Cross Buns on tap from the moment the bakers commenced production and a stream of chocolate bunnies starting to filter through the door a week (or two) up to Easter.

I have always wanted to attempt making eggs so I made mad dash to some cake shops the day before Good Friday to find some chocolate molds and my Easter challenge was set.

Adding a little excitement to the mix - 3 salted caramel filled eggs were
sealed in the larger egg.  On the bottom left a lolly cake molded egg too.

Pierre Herme Pastries was pulled out again for the salt caramel filling and adapted lightly with some additional salt for a salted caramel.

Caroline's eggs were left with a little note on her bed.  Troy received his on Easter Sunday when we were away for the weekend at the Royal Mail Hotel.






Verdict: We'll it turns out I can temper chocolate, but my finishing skills need a bit of work. Not quite ready to switch careers to be a chocolatier.
Would we make this again?: It was nice being able to mix up the norm and customise my own eggs.  I am currently taking pre-orders for next year

Getting serious - dog party.

Our latest dinner party was a for a group of friends and their dogs. 
 
Apertif: White Wine and Mint Granita from Easy Growing. There are also great recipes in here flowerpot cornbread which I would like to try, cooking something in a flowerpot - genius! The people drank these and struggled through severe brainfreeze while the dogs (Archie Oneman the Wonderman, Janet and Lowrider) played at sniffing each others crotches.

Entree: Broccoli and Egg from Your Place or Mine? by Gary and George.  I don't like to think too much about what the title of this book is insinuating.  But it's nice to see that the lovely couple are able to reep in more rewards post Masterchef.

Main: Lamb Farcie from Jacques Reymond Cuisine de Temps.  Troy's masterpiece.  Double lamb cutlets with a chicken and sweetbread farce (mousse) wrapped in creppinette. Lamb cutlets were baked on rock salt. Served on silverbeet, with a tamarind and ginger dressing.

Dessert: Ginger Brulée Tarts and Rhubarb and Almond Tarts from Bourke Street Bakery

Verdict: Apertif was good.  Someone (they shall remain nameless) didn't read the recipe properly and the mix turned out brown instead of a mint green.  Still delicious, but really it's just watered down sugary wine.
Entree - OK quite simple, but about as exciting as a night out (or in) with George and Gary.
Main - A show stopper.  Every mouthful was delicious.  Definitely worth all of Troy's hard work the night prior.  Big thanks for working tirelessly. Sorry you had to clock up an epic 20 hours on your feet that day!
Dessert - We were all very full by this stage but managed to push through. Ginger brulee tarts were the favourite.  The rhubarb and almond tarts were a little dry.  This will be because we opted not to make a pastry cream to fold into the frangipane.  The pastry used for these tarts was very good.  A light, flaky and sweet pastry which really worked with the brulee tarts. 

Would we make this again?: Would we - No, No, Yes (if Troy's happy to scarifice another a whole night of prep), Yes - these tarts are too good not too.