Mushrooms on Toast

Lately Michael & I have been going for nice long walks each weekend & going out for brekky with Miss Chloe which is something we all seem to like & behave for. This weekend however we went out for a quick dinner while giving the grandparents a trial run at babysitting. It didn’t go quite to plan with Chloe deciding she would not drink one drop of her expressed milk from grandma so I fear we will be needing lots more practice before we are able to leave her for more than a couple of hours, which we need to do in December for a wedding and various Christmas functions. Anyway the point of this is that as we went out for dinner we skipped our breakfast ritual & instead I cooked up a delicious breakfast at home. Of course I turned straight to Bill Granger for inspiration as I looovvee his breakfast recipes. This one was from Bills food & was no exception, I used some Hope Farm Rye & Caraway Sourdough that I picked up from the inaugural Carlton Gardens Primary Farmers Market which was delicious. The caraway seeds gave the bread a flavour that I have missed for years, my grandparents used to buy a particular rye bread all the time & have it out for sandwiches whenever we would visit & this is exactly what it tasted like. Thanks Haalo for your market listings which I regularly check & discovered this new market in. The mushrooms were simple & tasty, put the whole lot together with some ricotta & a beautiful dish is created once again.

Mushrooms on Toast

40g unsalted butter
1 tablespoon olive oil, plus extra, for brushing
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
500g mixed small mushrooms
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
1 teaspoon chopped fresh tarragon
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
4 slices sourdough bread
1garlic clove, extra, for rubbing on bread
250g (1 cup) ricotta cheese

Put half the butter with the oil & chopped garlic in a saucepan over medium to high heat. Add the mushrooms, 60ml water & sat & pepper to taste. Cover & cook, stirring occasionally for about 15 minutes or until the mushrooms are cooked & the liquid is syrupy. Stir in the balsamic vinegar, parsley, tarragon and lemon zest. Taste for seasoning & adjust if necessary. Whisk the remaining cold butter through to thicken the mushroom sauce.

Towards the end of the cooking time, brush the bread on both sides with the extra oil. Grill until golden on both sides, then rub both sides with a cur garlic clove & place on serving plates. Top with ricotta & then mushrooms & serve immediately. Serves 4.

Gingerlee, East Brunsiwck

Sunday morning Michael & I took Chloe for an early morning walk to check out Gingerlee, a new café on Lygon street in East Brunswick. The breakfast menu had a few items on it with quite a Middle Eastern feel, it was quite interesting offering dishes from toasted apricot & walnut bread, poached eggs with slow braised field mushrooms, Persian feta, avocado & lemon to the home made baked bean tagine that Michael had & the Syrian style French toast, orange blossom syrup, honey labne, stewed rhubarb & pistachios that I ordered. Mine was sensational, I could have eaten 2 plates full, the toast on first impressions could have been too sweet but as soon as you team it with the yoghurt it was perfect, as I said, absolutely luscious & nice to have something different to the usual suspects that appear on most breakfast menus. Michael enjoyed his beans though not as much as I did my dish, he said there was a flavour in there (couldn’t name it) that didn’t quite sit right with him, it did look good though especially when they brought it out in the tagine, lid & all before uncovering at the table. All in all another great addition to this strip. Also I would like to note that on the way home I stopped at Sugardough for some bread & noticed they now sell bomboloni too, custard, jam, apricot jam & chocolate flavoured & I’ pleased to say that after tasting the custard filled variety it is even better than Dench’s – in my opinion only of course – I love this bakery.

Gingerlee
Ph: +613 9380 4430
Fax: +613 9380 4436
117 Lygon Street
East Brunswick
Email: rebeccadietrich@gingerlee.com.au
www.gingerlee.com.au

Mushroom Pizzetta

Friday nights used to be take away night in our house until I turned into a stay at home mum, now I usually cook for 2 reasons, a) as you know I love it and b) – a bad pizza a couple of months ago put me off take away. As Michael used to love take away night & the most common food was pizza I decided to make my own using this unusual recipe from Delicious provided by Jamie Oliver. The pancetta is actually chopped up & forms part of the base which I haven’t seen before. You couldn’t really taste pancetta itself though I do think the dough definitely was improved by this, it was salty (not too much) and the overall flavour was enhanced, of course you could just put it in top! One tip, make sure the oven is really, really hot before you put the pizza in or the base will not crisp up, mine was a bit on the soft side but I know for next time to just pump the oven right up. In the end I would much rather eat this than a take away & it really wasn’t all that difficult or time consuming either.

Mushroom Pizzetta

1 garlic clove
A sprig of fresh thyme, leaves picked
Extra virgin olive oil
2 handfuls (200g) mixed mushrooms, wiped & sliced thinly
250g Taleggio cheese, thinly sliced
A few handfuls of rocket

Pizza Dough
100g sliced pancetta
500g plain flour
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp (10g) dried yeast

For the dough, pulse the pancetta in a food processor until finely chopped. Add the flour & pulse to combine. Add 350ml lukewarm water, sugar & yeast in that order & stand for 10-15 minutes until the yeast starts to foam. Pulse once again to mix, then cover the feed tube of the processor & leave the dough to prove for 20-30 minutes until doubled in size.

Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 220c. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.

Bash the garlic, thyme and a pinch of salt in a pestle & mortar. Stir in 3 tablespoons of olive oil.

Pulse the dough gently in the food processor to break up a little. On a floured surface, knead the dough briefly until smooth. Cut the dough into 6 or 8 small lumps or 2 big ones, using a rolling pin, roll out into circles & place on the baking trays. Brush with the garlic & thyme oil, scatter with the sliced mushrooms & top with the cheese. Drizzle with more garlic oil, sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper & bake for 15-20 minutes until the bases are puffed & cooked through. Toss the rocket in a little olive oil & the lemon juice & scatter over the top of the pizza before serving.

Lamb Cutlets with Special Basil Sauce

Another quick & easy mid week meal from Jamie's dinners, it doesnt look all that pretty but I guarantee the taste was much better than the looks, the rub complimented the lamb & the basil sauce was yum, I also served it with sweet pototo mash which I think worked very well too.

Best Lamb Cutlets with Special Basil Sauce

12 lamb cutlets
a small handful of fresh thyme leaves, picked
extra virgin olive oil
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
400g mushrooms, brushed clean & torn
a small handful of fresh flat leaf parsley
1 lemon
2 handfuls of pine nuts
2 large handfuls of fresh basil
3-5 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Slap the cutlets with the heel of your hand to flatten them slightly. Bash up the thyme in a mortar & pestle and add a little olive oil. Mix together, then rub the oil over the cutlets & season both sides with salt & pepper, put aside.

Cook the mushrooms dry on the bars of a hot griddle pan, then put in a large bowl. Once the mushies are done, put the lamb on (either the same pan or on the bbq), cook for about 3-4 minutes each side or done to your liking. When cooked put in the bowl with the mushies & drizzle with a little olive oil. tear over the parsley & add a good squuze of lemon juice. Season lightly & toss around. Place to one side to rest.

Meanwhile make the sauce. In a mortar & pestle poud up the pine nuts until you have a mushy pulp. Remove to a bowl then use the mortar & pestle to bash up the basil. Add to the nuts & loosen with olive oil so that the sauce easily drips off the end of a spoon. Add the vinegar to give it a bit of a zing. Serve with the lamb & either a salad or the sweet potoato mash worked well for me too.

Spaghetti Tetrazzini (Chicken & Mushroom Pasta Bake)

I made this dish from Jamie Oliver’s Italy a couple of weeks back & have hesitated in posting it. Frankly it was quite average, a bit on the oily side & not up to the standard that I expect from his recipes. It was still ok but nothing special. I don’t know if I did something wrong or not so would love to hear of anyone else out there who has also tried this one out & what they thought of it. Pretty much the only real difference between mine & the recipe below was that I omitted the porcini having none handy.

Spaghetti Tetrazzini (Chicken & Mushroom Pasta Bake)

20g/a small handful of dried porcini mushrooms
Olive Oil
4 Chicken Thighs, boned, skinned & cut into bite sized pieces (I bought thigh fillets)
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
2 cloves garlic, peeled & finely sliced
350g handfuls mixed mushrooms, cleaned & torn
200ml white wine
455g Spaghetti
500ml double cream
200g parmesan cheese grated
a sprig of fresh basil, leaves picked

Preheat oven to 200c. Put your porcini in a bowl & pur over just enough boiling water to cover them. Put to one side to soak for a few minutes. Heat a saucepan big enough to hold all ingredients, and pour in a splash of olive oil. Season the chicken with salt & pepper & brown gently in the oil. Strain the porcini, reserving the soaking water, and add them to the pan with the garlic & fresh mushrooms. Add the wine, with the strained porcini water & turn the heat down. Simmer gently until the chicken pieces are cooked through and the wine has reduced a little.

Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti in plenty of boiling salted water according to packet instructions & drain well. Add the cream to the chicken, then bring to the boil & turn the heat off. Season well with salt & freshly ground black pepper. Add the drained spaghetti to the creamy chicken sauce & toss well. Add ¾ of the parmesan and the basil & stir well. Transfer to an ovenproof baking dish, sprinkle with half the remaining cheese & bake in the oven until golden brown, bubbling & crisp. Divide between your plates & sprinkle with the rest of the cheese before serving.

Poached, East Brunswick

This morning Michael & I went out for a leisurely walk down Lygon Street in East Brunswick in search of somewhere new to try out for Brekky. We settled on a new place called Poached. It’s right near sugardough. At 10am we easily got a table, unlike down the road at Small block where you usually have to wait 15 minutes or so. I’m sure once more people try this place out it will soon become packed too. The interior was quite spacious with maybe 10 or so tables spread out with plenty of room to move. The main tables being set against the wall where the wall is a couch, very comfy, I am a big fan of the couch chair, lots of room to dump bag & whatever else you may be carrying around too. There are also tables out on the sidewalk & we spotted some out the back too which I’m sure will be put to use when the sun is out & more people about. It has quite a modern feel with black couches, tables & seats & the floor was some sort of colored stone work that had a sort of Flinstone effect on me, I liked it. To eat I settled on Eggs Florentine with a side of bacon, this was served on sautéed baby spinach, mushrooms, English muffin & topped with hollandaise. It was cooked to perfection, really good, the bacon was also a very tasty cut & cooked just to my liking, not too crispy but not like some places where it appears they’ve only flicked it in the pan for a second or so. I also had a café latte which was a really good coffee & a chocolate milkshake, hey don’t laugh I need all of the calcium I can get & I am eating for 2 so have to use whatever excuses available to me at the moment & make the most of the situation! My eggs came in at 10.00 which is pretty cheap around these parts so was happy with that too. The menu also had lots of other interesting choices for another day, omelette’s, pancakes, French toast & the like & all with some interesting ingredients thrown in, sorry cant remember what I didn’t try! Another great place in this strip which is slowly building up, lots for me to try & blog about yet.

They are open for brekky & lunch & closed on Sundays.

Poached
169 Lygon St
Brunswick East VIC 3057
(03) 9387 2396

Cook Islands Trip

We have just returned from our week of Paradise in The Cook Islands, as you can see from the photo, it is gorgeous over there & the pic doesn’t even do the place justice. We even got to spend a day & night in Tahiti as on the way there some very strong winds – apparently 120kms/hour, prevented us from landing so we had to divert, thanks to Air New Zealand for providing all we needed it was actually really enjoyed rather than being the disaster it could have been. They put us up in The Intercontinental which was beautiful, we spent the day swimming in their gorgeous & mammoth pool, walking around & chilling out. As for the food, well I know resorts aren’t usually the best but I have to say the buffet lunch was pretty awful so the eating extravaganza I had planned was not off to a good start.

All in all our food experience did not end up being that great apart from a couple of good feeds, for the most part I thought it was pretty awful, so as you can imagine I was very disappointed. Most of the food is imported from New Zealand which brings the prices up for a start, they are more or loss on a par with Australian restaurant prices which I wouldn’t mind paying if the quality was the same. The fact that it wasn’t & there really weren’t any cheap & easy options available for dinner didn’t make me any happier paying these prices. Lunch was a bit better with more available & at more reasonable prices. We had a tropical breakfast included daily which was fine, not much can go wrong with cereal, fruit, toast & pastries after all! I hate to write about bad experiences but really wasn’t left with much option. So anyway that being said now I will tell you about the good bits.

When we finally made it The Cooks, our first port of call was the stunning Island of Aitutaki, the photo is actually One Foot Island which is one of the surrounding motu’s (Islands). We did an Island cruise taking in a few surrounding Islands & some snorkelling – fantastic, and we had a local lunch on Honeymoon Island put together by the cruise people. This was great as they laid out a platter of traditional fruits & vegetables including Sea Grapes, these were very weird looking, a small branch with lots of very small ‘green grapes’ attached, squeezed with lime juice very tasty & apparently very good for you too, paw-paw, guava, lady bird bananas (as you can imagine I made the most of readily available bananas & stuffed myself with them for the whole week), some baked tapioca pudding – yum, steamed tapioca, purple kumara, fresh coconut & some fresh tuna sandwiches. Most of it was delicious though I was a bit iffy on the kumara & steamed tapioca. It was all served in a tiny little open hut on woven plates lined with freshly picked leaves of some sort, really enjoyed this experience.

That night was Sunday & not much is open on Sunday nights in Aitutaki so we opted for Te Vaka Bar & Grill, we caught a taxi there & the lovely driver gave us a piece of sponge cake for the ride that she had freshly baked that afternoon, it was delicious & moist & as you can probably tell the people here are very friendly, a very nice experience & cheap too! The restaurant was in a lovely open air building with the usual wicker furniture & Island feel, the food here was quite nice too, not fantastic but pretty good. Michael tried the Cook Islands speciality ‘Ika Mata’ which is fresh tuna marinated in lemon juice then tossed in coconut cream with onions, garlic, tomato & cucumber, he gave it the thumbs up, being pregnant I had to take his word for it as raw fish off the menu for me for now. I had Garlic chilli prawns, these were good too, with the marinade all making a lovely thick jammy sauce for the prawns. Michael then had some coconut topped Mahi Mahi (very nice fish if done the right way – we had a lot of it over the week) with calamari & I had an Island chicken curry, absolutely huge servings, don’t think I even ate half of mine. I then had some ice cream with freshly grated coconut & chocolate fudge sauce, their desserts were not overly creative! All in all it was a pleasant experience.

As you can probably tell by now they are very big on coconut on EVERYTHING in The Cook Islands, I was ok with it at first but by the end of the week hated it as most of the time thought it was way overdone & think it will be a while before I eat anything with coconut again which is a shame as I really like the stuff.

Anyway back on the mainland, Rarotonga a couple of places worth mentioning. FBI fish and chips , near the main bus stop in town. As we were getting off the bus we could smell it and you know what that smell does to you, we had no choice but to then find the place & order up. The fish was Parrott fish & the batter was light & crispy & all seemed to be cooked in nice fresh oil & at NZD11.50 for the 2 of us very good value for a change.

We went to Trader Jacks for dinner one night which is apparently the place to go, unfortunately I thought the food was crap here, our char grilled octopus was very tough & chewy & the coconut braised lentils it was served on well, yuk! For the mains Michael had some Wahoo fish, pan fried with garlic, lemon, fresh herbs & fries, this was nice & simple & really good, I ended up eating half of it as my Mai Mai wrapped in banana leaf & served on a bed of ginger, coriander, chilli & COCONUT cream was disgusting, I had one bite & didn’t go any further. So I was pretty hungry after this & ordered dessert, Chocolate & apricot cake with chocolate fudge & ice cream – bad mistake again, cake was dry & I don’t know what the fascination is with bloody vanilla ice cream & hot chocolate fudge on anything either! The place had a good feel & was fun but I would definitely order plain if going again, the bar pizzas looked & smelt terrific too – maybe that’s the way to go?

For our last night we went to Tamarind House, recommended as the best spot on the Island I had high hopes & it didn’t disappoint, the setting is a majestic restored colonial era building & the piano player perched in the corner all night also added to the ambience. Michael started with the seafood chowder, another Island specialty which he enjoyed & I chose the chicken & mushroom won tons which were delicious, I finally learnt not to order Cook Islands food which I have developed an intense dislike for! For mains I had some smoked salmon spaghetti & Michael some Island style swordfish, we both left very happy customers for once.

All in all it’s a gorgeous & relaxed place for a holiday, Aitutaki was the highlight & highly recommended but if you go don’t have too high expectations for the food, hope I am not being too critical here, who knows maybe its just my pregnant taste buds after all.

Chicken breast Baked in a bag with Mushrooms, Butter, White wine & thyme.

This is a great winter dish that takes no time at all. Seriously it takes 5 minutes to gather & prepare the ingredients & then you just pop it into the oven to cook for a while. I like to serve with Mash potato so you can soak up all of the deliciously wicked juices formed from the butter, wine, garlic & thyme. Also I skipped the porcini as didn’t have any handy. Lovely comfort food. The recipe comes form Jamie Oliver’s Happy Days with the Naked Chef

Chicken breast Baked in a bag with Mushrooms, Butter, White wine & thyme.

2 x 200g skinless chicken breasts
1 handful of dried porcini
250g mixed mushrooms, torn up
1 large wineglass of white wine
3 large knobs of butter
1 handful of fresh thyme
2 cloves of garlic, peeled & sliced

Preheat oven to 220c. Using foil, places 2 pieces n top of each other, about the size of a shoe box, fold 3 sides over leaving one open. Mix everything together in a bowl & place it all, liquid included in the bag, taking care not to pierce the foil. Seal the remaining edge, place on a baking tray & bake for 25 minutes. When opening the bag after cooking, be careful as a lot of hot steam will escape & you don’t want to burn yourself.

Mushroom Soup

This recipe is by Gordon Ramsay as it appeared in last months Delicious magazine. It is supposed to be made with Madeira which I didn’t have handy so substituted sherry as suggested as well as a couple of other little tweaks. I like the fact that as well as the mushies it contains lots of other veggies so nice & healthy. It turned out to be quite thick & tasty, another great winter warmer even though its not very pretty to look at.

Wild Mushroom Soup

1 litre chicken stock
½ cup medium dry sherry
50g unsalted butter
3 leeks (white part only), finely chopped
1 onion, finely chopped
2 celery stalks, thinly sliced
1 carrot, peeled & chopped
1 tspn crushed coriander seeds
Leaves of 4 thyme sprigs
1 bay leaf
500g mixed wild mushrooms, roughly chopped
100ml crème fraiche
Truffle oil, to drizzle

Combine the stock & sherry in a saucepan and boil until mixture is reduced by one quarter or until you have 800ml. Set aside until needed.

Melt the butter in a heavy-based saucepan over low heat. Cook the leek, onion, celery & carrot for 6-8 minutes until the onion is translucent & vegetables are soft. Add the reduced stock, coriander, thyme & bay leaf & simmer for 10 minutes. Add mushrooms & cook for 3-4 minutes until just soft.

Remove the pan from the heat, discard the bay leaf, then puree with a hand held blender. Top with crème fraiche & drizzle with truffle oil to serve.

Pappardelle with Dried Porcini and Thyme, Tomato and Mascarpone Sauce

Saturday night Michael was kind enough to take over the cooking duties for a change & cooked up this lovely simple pasta for our dinner. The recipe comes from Jamie Oliver’s The Naked Chef, a book as you can see has been used greatly in my kitchen. Very nice & simple pasta esp as we didn’t bother making the pasta from scratch as suggested – no energy to go that far this weekend, and managed to use up the porcini I have had sitting in my pantry for a while now.

Pappardelle with Dried Porcini and Thyme, Tomato and Mascarpone Sauce

55g Dried Porcini
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 good handful of thyme, picked
¾ tomato sauce recipe (see below)
2 tablespoons mascarpone
salt & freshly ground black pepper
455g Pappardelle
fresh parmesan cheese, grated

Place the dried mushrooms in a small bowl & add about 285ml boiling water. Make sure all the mushrooms are submerged, and leave them for 10-15 minutes.

Put the olive oil & garlic in a thick-bottomed, semi hot pan & allow to cook without colouring. Pick out the soaked porcini (reserving the liquid), shake off any excess moisture & ass to the pan with the thyme. Stir & fry. As the garlic begins to colour, gently pour in some of the reserved liquid, don’t use the dregs as they may contain dirt, just gently pur in ¾ & discard the rest. Allow the mushrooms to cook down gently to nearly nothing & then ad the tomato sauce. Add the mascarpone & taste for seasoning. Meanwhile cook the Pappardelle until al dente. Add to the sauce & toss. Serve with grated parmesan

Basic Tomato Sauce
1 large clove of garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small dried red chilli, crumbled
2 teaspoons dried oregano
3 x 400g tins of Italian plum tomatoes
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
1 handful of basil or marjoram (or both), roughly chopped
salt & freshly ground black pepper
2-3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

In a thick-bottomed pan gently fry the garlic with the olive oil, then add the chilli, oregano & tomatoes. Mix gently, but do not break up the tomatoes as this will release the pips, which will make the sauce slightly bitter – by leaving the tomatoes whole & letting the mixture cook slowly you’ll get a nice sweet sauce. Bring to the boil & simmer gently for 1 hour. Add the vinegar, then stir & chop up the tomatoes in the sauce. Now add the vinegar, then stir & chop the tomatoes in the sauce. Now add your fresh herbs, season well to taste, and add 2-3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil.

Movida

Last night I caught up with Megan & Rach for dinner at Movida, which is a fantastic little tapas bar tucked away in a laneway in the city. They do dinner in 2 sittings, either 6 or 8.30, so if you do the 6 you have to get out fast & if you do the later session you can settle in & relax. As we were all going straight from work we did the 6.00 session as last time I went for the later one we were all very drunk by the time we got there, not very good at restraining myself from the bubbly whilst waiting! The menu is divided between tapas (small dishes) & racions (slightly bigger dishes) that are designed to share. You can also have a banquet. I love eating this way as it means you get to try so much more of whats on offer. Last night was no exception with 3 hungry girls not afraid to eat! The huge selection we tried last night was as follows:

Bread with Olive oil
Ensalada Valencia – Valencian Salad, endive, orange, palm hearts, & Manzanillo olives
Croqueta - Fried croquette flavoured with chicken & garlic chives
Tortilla de Patatas – confit potato & onion omelette
Setas Asado Con Jerez – Oven roasted portabello Mushrooms finished with sherry vinegar
Gambas A La sidra – whole prawns cooked in terracotta with Asturian cider
Chicken Speical – cant remember the exact flavours, was braised with an almond meal breading
Costilla Con Sobrasada - Roasted lamb cutlet encased in a Catalan pork & paprika pate
Vierna, Jamon Y Espuma – Half shell scallop oven baked with jamon & potato foam

Churros – Rich hot drinking chocolate & Spanish doughnuts & Ganache Caliente Con Turron, Hot chocolate ganache pudding with vanilla bean ice cream & nougat

Everything was absolutely yummy as you can see form the photos, the salad which the waiter suggested was really good & a bit different, the croquettes absolutely melted in your mouth, the mushrooms didn’t look much but were very tasty, the chicken special was delicious, in fact it was all lip smacking good. I had also heard that the churros for dessert were to die for so of course I had to try them along with the ganache which we shared between the 3 of us, of my God, as Rach put it, you could come here for dessert alone. The dipping chocolate was so thick & rich & good, it was a shame we ran out of dippin doughnuts & had to leave some & the ganache was exceptionally good too.

All in all it was really, really good & lots more to try in future visits, the menu changes regulary too so always something new to try. Very highly recommended, just remember it is very popular so book at least a week in advance

Movida
1 Hosier Lane, Melbourne
Ph: (03) 9663 3038
www.movida.com.au
Open 7 days 12pm to Late

Ladro

Last night I went along to the Melbourne Affordable Art show with some girlfriends & had a magnificent time admiring most of the work, laughing in disbelief at others & not understanding the rest! Managed to pick up a piece I am very happy with too so as soon as that decision was made we started on some champagne while wandering around, lucky I had no money left by then as it all looks like the perfect piece for the lounge room wall after 2 glasses of bubbly!

So after working up quite an appetite wandering around & spending all my pennies we headed down to Yeltza for a glass of wine while waiting for our 9.30 table at Ladro which I managed to get them to squeeze us in for. Yeltza was a hive of activity & even the main bar area was becoming packed by the time we left, Thursday night was up & running. I hear they have a great beer garden hidden out the back where you can get some great food, will have to remember to check it out next summer. Great place for a drink anytime of night though.

Next was Ladro, this was the 3rd time I’ve been & finally I managed to bring my camera along. To start with we had some marinated mushrooms which are divine. We couldn’t have the stuffed olives which are to die for as they have been taken off the menu, when I demanded to know why it was explained that they were so good that they couldn’t get people to order any of their other appetisers so they had to go, can you believe it, hopefully they will come back one day? Next I ordered the same thing I have had each time I’ve been as I cant go past it, Duck Ravioli with a lentil sauce (sorry about the blurry photo again!), I love duck, love ravioli, love lentils so have can I not order this, next time I promise to try very hard so I can sample some of their other dishes which I’m sure are all fantastic too. The ravioli is superb, very simple flavours & not rich at all yet in all works wonderfully together. The girls shared the puttanesca pizza which was topped with tomato sauce, cherry tomatoes, anchovies, capers & olives, very good. The pizza are huge, the base is ultra thin & crispy & cooked to perfection in a wood fired oven. The girls were kind enough to share some with me (as I did mine with them) & tasted very yum. On the side we had a mixed leaf salad as there were some specimens included that I was yet to try, chicory, radicchio, rocket, fennel & witlof, think that was all, very nice & simple with a light dressing. I had never seen chicory before & we couldn’t identify it so our lovely friendly very knowledgeable waiter pointed it out for us & even bought us out a whole leaf which you can see I took a photo of for all those others out there as ignorant as me. Was nice, a bit on the bitter side along with the radicchio but mixed with the rest was not too much for me. This was all washed down with some nice Italian Chianti that was recommended.

Anyway after all this food you would think that we would be stuffed right? Wrong, we did a lot of walking around that exhibition floor so dessert to share was called for, a small piece of pistachio nougat & crepes filled with vanilla custard & peaches finished off the night perfectly.

The place is nice & cozy with a modern look & very warm on a cold blustery night like it was & I will say it again our waiter was perfect, attentive, funny & had an answer for us on anything we needed to know & we were an inquisitive bunch last night let me tell you. If you haven’t been seriously give it a go, just remember to book ahead as its very small & always packed

Ladro
224 Gertrude Street
Fitzroy VIC 3065
Ph: 9415 7575

Chicken Tagine with Wild Mushrooms, Chorizo & Sherry

Tonight Michael was off playing soccer so I thought I would do a slow cook as had plenty of time to get dinner on the table. Tried this recipe from Allan Campion & Michelle Curtis’ 2006 Fresh produce diary, everything I have cooked of theirs so far has had great results so was sure it would be great. Served with some Mashed potatoes this was truly sensational, the long cooking time reduced the liquid to a thick tasty fantastic intensity of flavours, really, really yum

Chicken Tagine with Wild Mushrooms, Chorizo & Sherry

Olive Oil for cooking
1 chorizo sausage, approx 250g, diced
1.5kg skinless, boneless chicken thigh fillet, diced
1 onion, sliced
300g wild mushrooms, sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 teaspoon harissa
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
½ teaspoon allspice
1 tablespoon flour
¼ cup dry sherry
250-500ml (1-2 cups) tomato sugo
500ml chicken stock
fresh parsley & coriander leaves, to serve

Heat a small frying pan, add a splash of olive oil & diced chorizo & cook until fat renders out. Drain on absorbent paper.

Heat a heavy based saucepan over medium heat, add a generous splash of olive oil & cook chicken pieces until golden brown. Remove pieces & set aside. Return the pot to the heat & add more oil if necessary.

Add onion to saucepan, cook for 5 minutes or until softened. Add mushrooms, more oil if necessary, & cool until they soften. Add garlic & spices & cook for 1-2 minutes until fragrant. Add flour, lower heat & cook for 1-2 minutes, stirring well. Raise heat, add sherry, bring to the boil * allow to evaporate by half. Add half the tomato sugi & the stock & bring to the boil.

Return chicken & chorizo to the pan, add more sugo if necessary to just cover the chicken. Cover the saucepan with lid & cook over a low heat for 1 ½ hours, stirring occasionally. Check seasoning & add fresh parsley & coriander to serve.

Mushroom Risotto with Garlic, Thyme & Parsley

As mentioned in my olive bread post last night I cooked dinner for Michaels mum & sister Julie before we headed out to see The Lion King. Needed to do something quick, no elaborate dinner for tonight so I cooked up one of my favourite Jamie Oliver Risottos from The Naked Chef. I also added some chicken which is not called for in this recipe. It’s really tasty & filling & quite easy, just a bit tedious when you have to keep stirring while it’s cooking so keep that in mind.

Mushroom Risotto with Garlic, Thyme & Parsley

2 chicken breast fillets (if desired), chopped into bite size pieces
255g Mixed mushrooms (the choice is yours)
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small handful of thyme, picked & chopped
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
salt & freshly ground pepper
1 handful of parsley, roughly chopped
1 pinch of chilli powder
a squeeze of lemon juice
Risotto
1 litre chicken, fish or vegetable stock
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 finely chopped shallots or 2 medium onions
½ a head of celery, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
400g risotto rice
100ml dry vermouth or dry white wine
70g butter
100g freshly grated parmesan cheese

Brown your chicken pieces in olive oil over high heat then remove from pan.

Slice or tear the mushrooms. In a very hot pan heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil and add the mushrooms and thyme. Cook for about 1 minute, toss, then add the garlic & a pinch of salt. Cook for another couple of minutes then add parsley, chilli powder & lemon juice, toss again & taste, adjust seasoning if desired.

Heat the stock. Then in a separate pan, heat the olive oil, add the onions, celery & a pinch of salt, sweat the vegetables for about 3 minutes. Add the garlic & after another 2 minutes after the vegetables have softened, add the rice. Turn up the heat & don’t leave the pan! While slowly stirring continuously you are beginning to fry the rice. You don’t ant any colour s if the temperature seems a bit high, turn down a bit, you must keep the rice moving. After 2-3 minutes it will start to look translucent as it absorbs the flavours. Add the vermouth or wine, keep stirring & once absorbed, add your first ladle of stock & a pinch of salt (keep seasoning to taste as you go). Once absorbed add the chicken & mushrooms. Turn down the heat to a highish simmer – it is very important not to cook to fast or the liquid will evaporate before the rice is cooked. Keep adding stock, ladleful at a time, after each is absorbed. This will take about 15 minutes. Taste the rice & keep stirring until soft but with a slight bite, if extra stock required keep adding.

Remove from heat & add the butter & ¾ of cheese, stir gently until melted through. Serve immediately with extra parmesan on top.

Sort of pasta carbonara

For dinner the other night (wasnt able to upload photos yesterday so my weekend posts are a bit late sorry) I whipped up this dish which is amazingly quick, probably about 10 minutes all up if you are lucky. It is something I grew up cooking at home which we called carbonara, now I know that it’s not traditional but to me this is how it will always be & as well as being extremely quick its really yummy. For the pasta last night I used ‘Passion Pasta, hand made beetroot fettuccine’, we picked this up in Lorne the other weekend, cooks in 4 minutes & almost tastes like fresh pasta, highly recommended. The mushies I bought from Ceres yesterday, they were huge & so fresh the taste was amazing.

Pasta Carbonara (my family style)

Any long pasta, eg spaghetti, fettuccine, tagliatelle, etc
4 rashers bacon, chopped
Approx 4-6 large mushrooms, sliced
1 egg
cream
parmesan for serving

Firstly put your pasta pot of water on, when boiling cook the pasta as per instructions.
Meantime, fry the bacon in a little olive oil, then add the mushrooms & a little butter to the pan, salt the mushrooms while cooking. Drain the pasta when done & put back in the pot (off the heat), crack in an egg & stir while still hot, add the bacon & mushroom mix, a dash of cream & stir. Serve with parmesan

Grilled T-bone steak with garlic & anchovy butter Thursday 9th Feb 2006

Lat night we had what I would call real 'man' food, a great big t-bone, baked spud, beans & mushies. Michael was so happy he even assisted in the cooking, basically I made the butter & threw the spuds in the oven & he did the rest, was nice to be able to take a break & get some other things done while Michael finished off. The recipe which was for the steak, butter & mushrooms came from 'Surfing the menu' by Ben O'Donoghue & Curtis Stone, this is the original book, I love watching their show on abc so much that I had to have at least one of the books, has some great recipes.

Now even though this was simple steak, potato & veg, the addition of the garlic & anchovy butter plus the mushrooms gave it that little something extra to lift it up a notch from a boring meal into something really tatsy & I have lots of leftover butter for the next couple of weeks, yum! The recipe as you will see is to serve 4 & uses 250g butter, I quartered this & we still didnt use even half of the butter, I guess it depends on how far you are willing to go, trust me, the flavour is very intense & you really did not need to add that much butter to you steak.

Grilled T-bone with garlic & anchovy butter

Curtis Stone 'I have always loved cooking meat on the bone. The meat keeps a certain sweetness, and lends itself to a relaxed stlye of eating - or perhaps it's just me who loves gnawing on the bone. I also find that anchovies work particilarly well with hearty meats, such as beef or lamb.'

250g unsalted butter, softened
2 garlic cloves, crushed
3 lightly salted anchovy fillets, finely chopped
1 large shallot (eschalot), finely chopped
2 tblspns finely chopped flat leaf parsley
salt & freshly ground pepper
1 tblspn olive oil
4 x 450g T Bone steaks
5 large field mushrooms, thickly sliced
2 1/2 tblspns worcestershire sauce
4 anchovy fillets, halved lengthways to garnish

Place the butter, garlic, anchovies, shallot & parsley in a bowl & season with salt & pepper. Beat together until smooth. Take a large sheet of glad wrap & spoon the butter in a rough log shape towards one end. Roll up the butter, pressing it into a firm, thick sausage as you go. Roll the sausage on the bench to give a smooth surface, then transfer to the fridge to harden.

Brush the steaks with the oil. Fry in a hot pan over a moderately high heat for 2-3 minutes on each side or to your liking. Cut off 4 disks of butter & place on top of each steak. Remove the pan & rest the steak for 3-4 minutes in a warm place before serving.

Meanwhile, heat another pan & get it very hot. Add the mushrooms & worcestershire sauce. Stir to deglaze for 1-2 minutes. Stack the mushrooms in the centre of 4 serving plates & place a t-bone on top of each pile. Place 2 trips of anchovy in a cross on the steaks & serve.

Note - any leftover butter will keep in fridge for 10 days & in freezer for 3 months.

Sui Sha Ya - Random Travel Notes no 4

Having had a fantastic tepinyaki meal in Brisbane on the weekend brought back fond memories of my favourite restaurant in The Hague. Michael & I lived there for abt 18 mnths from abt Nov 01 - Apr 03 & during that we time we were lucky to be able to do a lot of travel throughout Europe.




Our favourite restaurant by far was Sui Sha Ya in Scheveningen, we went there abt once a month & every time we had visitors in town this is the place we took them out. The tepinyaki was fantastic & heaps of food at a pretty good price too, there are several menus to choose from with all staring with miso soup, then a 'Japanese Hors D'oeuvre' usually some sushi rolls or rare thin sliced beef & salad, followed by zuchini, onion & mushroom on the grill. Next is a selection of seafood & or meat depending on your choice of menu, I almost always had the combo which included prawns, duck, Seawolf (fish), Rib Eye & some more bee all cooked to perfection!

With this also came a salad which no one was much bothered with, had to save room for the best bits. And of course accompanying this was the fried rice cooked on the grill with the egg that was flicked at us all with amazing speed to see who could catch it in their mouth the best. Many cheers for all were heard at this stage, the chefs here were very friendly & great entertainers, have a look at some of the phots of us there on various visits.

The prawn heads you can see in the photo were always cooked to a crisp & presented to each of us at the end, despite being told how delicious they were I never could bring myself to try them - what a wus you say!

Tolarno's Mums Bday 24 Dec 05

Christmas Eve is my mums birthday so we always take her out somewhere nice for dinner. Being a big fan of Heweys she requested Tolarnos this year.

The food here is very different to most menus in that it is very old fashioned. To start with we all had the polenta chips with mayonaise & crumbed mushrooms with tartare sauce, strange combination but it worked well, very nice to start with though lots of crumbed & fried food which not really used to.


Next I had the shephards pie pictured, not normally what I would try but thought that I should try & house specialty & steer away from my usual type of choice. It was delicious, the meat has a lovely tomatoey flavour & the mash was very creamy with loads of melted cheese on top, very heavy & def could not eat this all the time, & of course I did not finish it at all. It came with a side of buttered cabbage which sadly was hardly touched.

We noticed Huey cooking in the kitchen which of course thrilled my mum & the waitress who was lovely said it would not be a problem to go up to the kitchen window & say hello. So I dragged my very excited mum up there & intoduced her letting him know it was her bday too. He said a quick hello, didnt listen to what my mum was trying to say & then turned his back, my mum was very disappointed in him, expecting that as on his cooking shows when he tell everyone to come down to his restaurant that he would be more than happy to chat to a devoted fan for a minute or so. My mum has now decided she wont be watching him anymore! Sad as the food & staff were great!

Pork Dumplings in Chicken Broth Thursday 15th Dec 05

Well tonight I thought I would try something different & make some dumplings. I used a recipe from a table magazine that promised prep time to be only 20 minutes. This was my first attempt though I am sure that for those of you who have ever made wontons of any kind before you will know this is a lie. Also the recipe called for 30 square wonton wrappers, I only used about 2/3rds of the ingredients yet made about 45 wontons so some adjustments may be neccessary. As you can see from the picture I had to move from wonton wrappers to gyoza wrappers when I ran out! I also used noral mushies as couldnt get my hands on any shitake. Having said all that the recipe was very easy to follow even though time consuming & the end result was delicious. As I was only cooking for 2 I also froze the leftovers for another day or 2 (after steaming) which will be nice for a low fuss dinner some night.



Here is the recipe as it was printed to serve 6



Pork Dumplings in Chicken Broth

400g lean pork mince
2 green onions finely chopped
80g drained water chestnuts, finely chopped
2cm piece fresh giner, finely grated
2 garlic cloves, , crushed
3 tspn soy sauce
2 tspn sweet sherry
1 tspn sesame oil
30 squar wonton wrappers
1.25 ltr (5 cups) chicken stock
1/4 chinese cabbage (wong bok), finely shredded
100g shitake mushrooms, thinly sliced

Place pork, onions, water chestnuts, ginger, garlic, soy, sherry & sesame oil in a bowl & mix together well

Line a tray with non stick baking paper. Spoon 1 tspn of mixture into the center of a wrapper, brush edges with water & bring edges together so corners meet, now pinch in the edges. Place on preapred tray until done with all the mixture. Cover with a damp tea towell & place in fridge until ready to use.

Place 1Ltr stock & 1 cup water in a large wok on high & bring to the boil. Line 2 bamboo steamers with non stick baking paper & arrange wontons in single layer. Stack baskets, cover with lid & place over stock in wok. Reduce heat to medium & steam for 5 minutes.

Carefully lift baskets out, add cabbage & mushrooms to stock, swap baskets so top is now on bottom, cover with lid & return to wok. Steam for 5-7 minutes or until wontons cooked.

Remove baskets, add remaining stock & 1 cup water to wok, bring to boil. Divide wontons between bowls & ladle over broth & vegetables

Yummy & will definietly be trying out some variations!

Home Cooking (Sort of) Sunday 27th Nov 05

Last night I was a bit stuffed from the weekends activities so I got my hubbie to cook dinner following a very simple Jamie Oliver (The Naked Chef book) recipe & it was yum! I have to stress here that Michael is not normally a cook though does help me out on the odd occasion, here is the simple recipe

We halved the recipe which is for 4 & cheated a bit in that I bought some delicious home made garlic & parsley pappardelle from the Vic Market

Pappardelle with Mushrooms

250g Mushies (the recipe calls for wild - we used plain old ordinary button)
3 tbl Olive oil
1 clove of garlic
1-2 small dried red chillies (we used fresh)
salt & freshly ground black pepper
juice of half a lemon
455g pappardelle (There is a recipe in the book if you want to do it from scratch)
small handful grated parmesan cheese
handful fresh parsley
55g unsalted butter

Clean mushrooms & slice or tear. Put the olive oil in very hot frying pan & add the mushies. Let them fry fast, tossing once or twice, then add the garlic & chilli with a pinch of salt. Continue to fry fast for 4-5 minutes tossing regulary. Then turn the heat off & squeeze in the lemon juice. Toss & season to taste.
Meantime cook the pasta in boiling salted water (abt 4 minutes for fresh). Add to the mushrooms with the parmesan, parsley & butter. Toss gently & serve with extra parsley & parmesan

How easy it that & believe me sounds simple but really has a lot of flavour!