Sunnybrae Restaurant and Cooking School

Follow the Gumboots and Cane Baskets

2009-07-16T22:53:00.003+10:00

Busy week unable to post, but thought you might like to see the original photos from a story I wrote recently for the Age. Published a week ago.

The concierge at the hotel said in his best Chairman Kaga (flamboyant “Iron Chef” host) voice, “Follow the coloured gumboots and cane baskets”........

For the full story click the link below

http://www.theage.com.au/text/articles/2009/07/06/1246732281240.html

For the full photos click this ....http://picasaweb.google.com/sunnybraerestaurant/MarketTsukiji#

Menu Markers Notes from the Kitchen

2009-07-09T21:50:00.007+10:00

These wonderful sea urchin were at Footscray market last week, thin shells, fine spikes very flavoursome.

The taramasalata was enriched with their heady aroma and provided a quiet introduction of these extraordinary creatures to the menu.

I wonder if I have the courage to put them on just as pictured with an accompaniment of a good pastis?

Or would I get too many shy and frightened guests?

We had a very special celebration for a dear chap in the private room who was turning 100. his daughter requested truffles and we began the lunch with scrambled eggs and onions en cocotte laced with far too much truffle. Perfect start to a long lunch. We were too busy to capture the dish on camera but we did get a shot of the special cassoulet that we are serving again this Sunday as Mademoiselle has been very clever with over 1.3kg just from one tree.

Before you think this is a viral marketing attack I have to remind you that I have no pecuniary interest in her smelly treasures other than trying to help them onto tables as soon as possible after she finds them. The dining room on Sunday was full of industry and it was a joy to surprise a few fellow cooks with a secret ingredient in the oxtail pictured in the previous post. This week we feature smoked fresh ricotta with young carrots and cauliflower. Celeriac is back again with horseradish and tongue.

A new Jamon from Preston.

The rhubarb has come good in the garden after the rain and this new tart with a bitter almond paste, poached quince and quince ice cream has hit the menu. We are slow cooking as many quinces with the residual heat of the wood oven as we can while they last.

Jackfruit are at their peak we are serving them with a saffron flavoured rice pudding and a ginger and lime ice cream. Needless to say ginger and limes are also peaking in quality right now.

I love winter frost and all. Without these winter frosts the fruit, the nut trees the truffles and the soil would be lost.

Its the un seasonal weather that really hurts.

We need a gentle flood here to feel safe for summer.

A Winter's Tail, Tongue and Cheek

2009-06-23T18:21:00.009+10:00

For a cook the produce of one’s own region is the most important resource that we have . What I love most about our local Victorian produce markets are the changes that can be found each week.
As the winter solstice is upon us, quinces are still around, chestnuts may still have a couple of weeks left. Perfect weather for a cheeky ox tail.
This is a dish for a cold winter’s lunch with the rain pounding on the roof and the fire raging.
You can do all the prep the day before while listening to the footy safe in the knowledge that you can celebrate/commiserate in peace with your guests the next day as all the hard work has already been done.
Oxtail is a dish that stirs the appetite when the temperature outside starts to drop. This dish takes away all the free flowing excess fat that oxtail has and allows you to enjoy the deep satisfying flavour without having to be polite while sucking on the bones. The celeriac and tongue starter and ox cheek completes the nose to tail experience.
This is just a sketch of a recipe, not as fine a sketch as the chestnuts above which is by Kijoshi Hasegawa from the 1930’s.
A Crepinette of Ox tail and Cheek with Parsnips, Chestnuts and Quinces
You will need the following, I trust you with the quantities...
Oxtail and Ox cheek Pig’s Caul [Crepinette]
Quinces, Parsnips Chestnuts [peeled or dried and soaked in water]
Carrots Onions Leeks Celery all cut into small dice about 1cm square, there is no need to be obsessive about the shape but they need to be roughly the same size.
Bay leaves, Orange zest, garlic, salt, pepper, chili, juniper berries.
Red Wine, Stock or water.
Day One The Prep.
In a heavy braising dish brown the oxtail, and ox cheeks, remove and discard the excess fat. Sauté the mirepoix with all the aromatics, deglaze the dish with the red wine add the meats and cover with stock so that there is 2 cm of liquid above the meats. Seal very tightly with foil and cook at about 150 C for about 3 hours. The kitchen will start to smell wonderful at about the end of the first quarter
Check to see how the liquid is holding up at three quarter time
When ready cool and remove the meat from the oxtail bones gently and set aside. Cut off all the excess fat and loose trim from the ox cheek and cut into 4cm squares and set aside.
Strain the liquid from the vegetables.
Cool slightly and make up a parcel about the size of a billiard ball by placing a piece of caul over a small cup or bowl and add some tail meat, then some seasoned cooked vegetables and finally make a base layer from the cooked ox cheek. Neatly complete the parcel with the caul and set aside in the fridge till the next day.
To serve
After chilling overnight the stock will have a layer of hard fat on the top
You can discard this or use it to cook some potatoes to go with the dish.
Cook the chestnuts, parsnips and a small dice of the quinces in the now de-greased stock, taste and season. The quinces will have added some lovely tart notes to the sauce and the chestnuts will have balanced this with some sweetness.
Heat the oxtail parcels in a hot 180 C oven and serve with the sauce and some roasted or mashed potatoes.

Celeriac is also in season, at Sunnybrae we are serving this light dish as a starter to the oxtail.
Its a celeriac remoulade with ox tongue wrapped in a slice of air dried ham with a garnish of mustard greens that give a wasabi like kick that perfectly balances the savoury flavours of the tongue.

Tasmanian Winter Cherries?

2009-06-18T20:33:00.007+10:00

My morning hunting and gathering foray at Footscray market [that's Melbourne Jeremy] today revealed a very curious un/seasonal treat.

These very fine looking? cherries at a quite reasonable price? packed in cute dinky boxes labeled

Fresh Tasmanian Cherries Class 1 Grown and Packed by Tas Valley Orchards?The very helpful sales people reassured me that they were from "America" and so are very good indeed.

Now I'm used to fake Prada and fake Nike but Californian cherries masquerading as Tasmanian?

Does anybody know if Tas Valley Orchards is real and someone has just got the boxes and re packaged them or if the boxes are fakes? Or has Tas Valley worked out a way of storing cherries till winter?

Steve are you involved in this Cygnet conspiracy?

Tas Valley seems to originate at Cygnet?

....

Mademoiselle from Wongara Manger vous?

2009-06-13T09:55:00.015+10:00

Mademoiselle would like to invite any lovers of the stinking tuber [Melanosporum] to ring her human agents Heather and Bruce Ride if they would like to taste any of the this years crop of black Perigord truffle on zerothree52370232 no time wasters please.

For the back story of Mademoiselle's adventures click this link http://www.scribd.com/doc/4227182/Otway-Truffle

On the matter of this so called swine flu mademoiselle would like to quote John Elliot ... pigs arse its all human!

merci

Through a Glass Lightly

2009-06-11T20:02:00.016+10:00

The Japanese eye has a very different perspective.

I wont bore you with the travelogue, the people, the food, the gardens, the markets, the bookshops, the hospitality and the rest.

Just wondering why it had taken us so long to get there?

The coffee set is from Jutta Sika from 1901, the plate is from Bernard Leach and the vase is from Jean Dunand it is made of bronze. From an exhibition of how the West took to Japanese design at the turn of the 20th century.

Kappabashi street gives a cutting edge and new meaning to a vertical tea tasting.

Tokyo nightspots ooze charm.

Local transmition will resume as soon as possible.

Thank you Japan our eyes have been re-calibrated.

翻訳で失われる

2009-06-01T20:51:00.023+10:00

When travelling by train a
Geisha always takes the Nozomi

When choosing a 78 player, always choose a timber horn over a metal or even paper mache one.

At a multiplex you can have a tofu wasabi and rice cream made in a Japanese Pacojet

The best coffee in Kyoto is served in fine porcelain Noritake.

By Australian standards Japanese food importation laws are irresponsible.

The pink salt in watermelon and salt Kit Kats is from the Himalayas

In the land of many many pickles onions are exotic.

To relocate the Tsukiji Fish market to polluted ground over the river may be a drastic mistake.

Double click the photos for the big picture.

Thank you Wilma for holding the bookings line all is operational from the weekend.... no there won't be any sashimi of fugu this week.

A Sense of Place

2009-05-14T21:58:00.011+10:00

We are going on a short break.

Normal transmission will resume at the beginning of June....

Something for while we are off the air. I wrote it in 2006 not knowing that we would be re-opening the restaurant two years later. It encapsulates much of what I believe tourism should be about... clearly a sense of place.

Why do Fish and chips taste better by the beach?

Some dream of a long drive with the kids in the bush.
To stop at the an unexplored country pub, stumble on a counter lunch menu offering a piece of rump grilled over real coals a bottle of local red [perhaps with a bit of age as the publican owns a piece of the vineyard] and some smelly cheese.
Fresh garden veggies for the children with those chips?

Others may long for a country breakfast in that lodge overlooking the lake with oven fresh bread and real eggs. Perhaps some tree-changed renegade foodie has even supplied a Seville marmalade.

For the traveller who loves to taste, the whole day begins to hold a new promise.

This project is about the annual conference retreat.

You know the one where as catering organiser last year you rang the local Chinese take-away to smuggle in sustenance as the pesto prawns were well past it.
The email arrives, tells you that the catering company has changed and would like to know your food preferences.
You reply, they reply. They have the pinot, yes the lamb is local, and yes the key-note speaker can have Kosher.
You wake up.

This is about a coffee lounge. The Gaggia gleams, the barista delivers in spades as she tells you about the new roaster she’s just invested in.
You blink; turn off the highway its still 24 hrs from Tulla.

This project is also for the cook. He is writing his menu overlooking the ocean watching the ships in the distance; it is 6.30pm the fish has still not arrived. The first booking is for 7.15pm

He is beginning to channel the great Vatel.

For the complete document click here

http://www.scribd.com/doc/929252/A-Sense-of-Place

Paul Levy's Escoffiergate Top 100 and our First Re- Anniversary....

2009-05-04T17:03:00.010+10:00

Paul Levy wrote a piece in his Guardian Word of Mouth blog a short while ago about August Escoffier [he and Ritz’ feet of clay]

LINK HERE. http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2009/mar/07/gordon-ramsay-egon-ronay-ritz-escoffier.

I remember reading about this in the eighties when Paul broke the news that the then most famous chef in history, along with his co-conspirator, the then greatest hotelier in history, had been busted for ripping off the Savoy Hotel and were both sacked in disgrace. As a young chef at the time I was shocked and it has given me a very skeptical view of celebrity ever since.

I found a first edition of his Guide Culinaire in an antique shop in Hamilton about the same time that the scandal broke and have treasured it especially his long and glorious essay on stock.

The Guardian article now prompted a question that you may be able to help me with?

I have been asked to write on the following.
Who do you think could be included in the 100 most important cooks that have “changed the world”?
Careme, Soyer, Bocuse, Beeton, David .......the westerners are possibly easy.
Any help with Asia or ones that may not seem so upfront? Does Ramsay etc qualify if/so/or not why? If it was a list of food writers Paul Levy would definitely be near the top of the moderns of my list.

PS
We have been re-opened for a year this weekend.
Big thanks to all for making it happen again.... as they say you know who you are.

Class Action

2009-04-28T12:26:00.009+10:00

Some are still confused about what happens at a cooking class here at Sunnybrae.
It’s a well known principle that what happens in class stays in class. So I can’t tell you the best bits like the the request for a blow [torch] job for the rice pudding or Daniel’s Monkey Mia joke and such but here’s a few clues. Don’t worry we also cook with some focus.
We have fun, learn a few things, muck up a bit and always sit down to a memorable lunch that has brought out some wonderful stories from our guests. I always learn some great tips, culinary trivia and special techniques from our visitors. And hopefully they receive the same.
Over the yearsI have given and been to many classes. With this new format I wanted to create an atmosphere of camaraderie, a discovery of some unusual special seasonal ingredients, use some less familiar meats and seafood, but most importantly breakdown the barriers that can hold back learning. We do this by treating the class exactly how it is; that is, cooking a special seasonal multicourse lunch to be ready by 1.30. I teach the principles that lead to an understanding of why a dish works rather than looking at a strict recipe and show practical ways of co-ordinating the timing to keep stress levels at a minimum. Home cooks and professionals for that matter are often at a loss to work out how to time the preparation and plating.
We begin with a coffee and short discussion that starts to build a group dynamic and by the end of the class many new friends are made. Cooking together does that. A skilled surgeon working with a grandmother, while her granddaughter works with a retired policeman. There are no barriers in the kitchen you need a good sense of humor, and take a bit of guidance. The ability to tell a good yarn is as good as a perfect brioche. We try to get to the finer details of bread, stocks, where to get stuff all the while keeping the time in perspective while double peeling the chestnuts and shaping the bread.
The when, how much, what to bring and so on can be found on the right sidebar. Its every Monday but we are going for a short break so the next available classes are from June 8 which is the Queen’s Birthday weekend.

And then there’s the Sex Kitten Salon but that’s another story.

Dolcetti a Sicillian Sweetheart

2009-04-16T18:06:00.010+10:00

There is a new star on Victoria Street!

Dolcetti the new pasticeria by Marianna Di Bartolo.
Many will know of Marianna’s delicious Sicilian pastries from her previous bakery in Brunswick but this is the realisation of a dream. Located in a shopfront at 223 Victoria Street West Melbourne, 2 doors down from Don Camillo [best original intact 50’s cafe in Melbourne] is must-do pilgrimage for pastry lovers. Superb hand made delicacies, to die for bombolini, exquisite panna cotta pastries with vanilla wicks,

nougat to dream about, tiny jewels of pastry in a reincarnation of the site of a 1960’s original cake shop. While doing the renovations she found the original terrazzo floor made up of samples of left over tiles indicating a frugal but stylish original owner. The tiles extend all the way into the kitchen. But its not the tiles but the sweets that cast a very bright light... wow!

Market to Market

2009-04-09T20:46:00.009+10:00

Markets are a joy to cooks; they are a shortcut to the soul of a city. No glossy brochure or guidebook can bring a visitor so close to the heartbeat of a new destination. There is an innate simplicity to traders selling their wares side by side or on the street without the paraphernalia of corporate image to hype up a sale. Caveat Emptor-- at a market what you see is really what you get.
I have to confess that when travelling the first cab off the rank is usually taking me to a wet market at midnight or the fish market under the Brooklyn Bridge at dawn. Is it still there?
We are off to Japan in late May and I can hardly wait to see the way that the Japanese markets work.

I visit Victoria market and Footscray each week to supplement all the local seasonal specialities. I need the accents and counterpoints to complement the local and seasonal as well as what our dry garden is providing. Not only is it a joy to go shopping but a market breakfast and lunch are a highlight of the week.
The new regime of Sat and Sunday lunches and a class on Monday makes this possible.
Diane and often take our weekends in Melbourne on Tues and Wed with a market crawl on the way back early on Thursday.
This morning the markets were full the glories of autumn. Pomegranates and persimmons radicchio Treviso kohlrabi. The first of the really good chestnuts. I also scored some good sweetbreads, big turkey livers, ripe fecund figs, soft bones of pork, goat shanks.
I can’t seem to write a menu without seeing the produce first.
Some windfall local grapefruit arrived earlier in the week as well as some samples of pure Wagyu that was finished on grass from a local grower, but I still can’t finalise the menu till Saturday morning when we know exactly what’s going to be here.
I honestly think this is what keeps me going, the challenge of balancing what the garden, the markets and the back door provide.
I can’t think of another city in Australia that provides so much choice.

Whats your favourite Market?

I’m not sure if it’s wise to let this out but we are on Skype [late adopter] at george.biron
Call me old fashioned but I won’t twitt.

Is it Aussie Ozzie? Oil! Oil! Oil!

2009-03-31T13:34:00.013+11:00

You may have already seen the first fresh olives in the market. It looks like an early season this year. One of the few crops to survive in our garden apart from the garlic and tomatoes have been the olives. Rather than a bumper crop, due to a spring hail storm it will be a modest olive yield but there is plenty of new growth that holds a promise for next year.
Philipe E Muskett in his 1893 volume The Art of Living in Australia talks about how the [then] newish colony had neglected to embrace the Mediterranean climate in all our early food choices and in that thesis reinforces how important olives are to a healthy and enjoyable food culture. He also gives us very good advice on fish, wine and use of indigenous game meats in his extraordinarily clear early vision of the future of food in this country. I was given this copy by Dr. John and Margaret Cone on the day Sunnybrae went into recess in 2000 it remains one of my favourite volumes.
I had been using Catalonian Arbequina oil for many years and developed a “cellar palate” for Arbequina. When the time came to select a variety to plant here, by sheer arse we picked a winner. We planted our tiny [100 trees] Arbequina Olive grove about 7 years ago. The trees are small so no ladders are needed, it crops annually [many other varieties are biennial] and the yield is high. But best of all the flavour is superb. The most common myth that many olive oil producers fall prey to: is to pick the olives when they are fully ripe. We pick when they are just turning from green through red to some black.
But how is olive oil made? It was quite a revelation when we had our first crop processed three years ago.
I thought that all oil was pressed. Indeed some still is, but pressing in the old traditional way has a few drawbacks. Olive oil is free oil in the juice of the olive but it has also some bitter water components that need to be separated as anyone who has tried to eat a fresh olive will never fail to remember.
The early methods were to crush the olives, make a paste, then knead the paste, to bring together the small oil droplets till they “pool.” This is called malaxing, and then to spread the paste onto mats in thin layers inside a press and apply light pressure. As the layers are pressed the fresh oil and bitter water needs to settle for quite a while to let the oil separate from the residues and bitter water.
The problem with this method is that the mats are very difficult to clean between batches and between seasons so some taint can creep in. Also it can take quite some time to load and reload the press resulting in some oxidation of the paste also giving less than perfect results. Also while the oil is settling that extra-ordinary out-of-body mind-blowing flavours that olive oil growers like to bang on about are lost.

We take our small crop to Camillo Olives in Teesdale link here http://www.camilo.com.au/ about a half an hour from Sunnybrae where they have a state of the art processing facility suited to very small crops. They grow the traditional Ligurian varieties for their own very fine oil.

The first two stages are the same as the old traditional methods in that the olives are washed, the leaves and stalks are separated and then they are crushed in a small hammermill that is cooled
The paste is then passed into another chamber where it is kneaded by a helix shaped paddle until the oil has pooled. The operator needs to understand when optimum malaxing has occurred. This is a fine call as over-malaxing can ruin the batch. With true extra virgin olive oil it’s not about getting the largest yield but the finest.
After malaxing comes the most visually exciting stage, the pooled paste is pumped gently into the next chamber and is spun at high speed. The first thing to escape is the crushed pips that fly out almost instantly as they are the lightest. Then the skilled operator using a small dial waits till the oil starts to emerge, then cranks it up slowly till a little of the bitter water begins to come through with the oil. He then lowers the speed back to when just glorious iridescent green oil starts to flow.
At this point a little bread is dipped and the flavour of this year’s oil is revealed. As with wine we have found each year to be quite different.
The whole process takes less than 2 hours and the oil never tastes better than on that day.
Over the next month the oil settles again and becomes clear but some of the life will have already gone from the oil. It will stay fresh for about 8 months if kept cool in the dark.
Too many producers are afraid to release really fresh oil, some even freeze it from year to year.

From Budapest To Birregurra

2009-03-16T19:01:00.022+11:00

Budapest to Birregurra

Each year we do an event for the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.
This year I have been particularly nostalgic for my Hungarian heritage and decided to present this seldom seen cuisine for our special event. For the first seven years of my life I only ate traditional Hungarian food and I believe it has influenced the way I cook everything. How we cook onions? How we balance sweet with sour? respect for the seasons, a love of offal:
I have proud heritage.
If you go to Hungary, try to get invited to a Hungarian home it is where the real cooking survives.
I can still remember when we first arrived rushing home to my parents in dismay telling them Australians eat Birds’ Eyes and Fishes’ Fingers. But it was OK as it looked just like schnitzel.
Most people when they think of Hungarian food believe that paprika and goulash is all there is, but behind this myth there is a rich culinary tradition with many regional specialities and many historical influences. For the menu over the weekend I tried to incorporate the seminal ingredients that make up the Magyar Konyha.

First the Bread

Light Rye and potato Bread
Hungary is well known for the quality of its wheat. This bread is made with about 15% rye, 15% potato and 70% wheat flour

A wet biga is made from a sourdough starter the night before.
I over-proved it on Saturday but really nailed it on the Sunday.

We Began with
Paprika Cured trout
Sorrel and sour cream and martas [sauce]
Sorrel is an often used and much loved ingredient in the Hungarian kitchen and is growing well in our dry garden. A Magyar would have smoked the trout a lot more. We used smoked paprika for the cure but merely seared the surface.

Next came
Smoked Farmhouse cheese with Cucumber Pickles
For the pickles you need small gherkins which are in season now. They are cut into the core and left in a brine with dill garlic and spices in the sun to naturally ferment for 5 days. A piece of rye bread is placed on top of the open jar to help begin the fermentation. The cucumber pickle water is also often served as a refreshing summer drink mixed with soda water. We did remember to offer it on the Sunday. These pickles are mandatory for a good Hungarian larder.
The Cheese is like a farmhouse stracchino in style and we simply smoked it in the wood oven for a couple of minutes with the door shut. Also in this course was...
Grilled spicy kolbasz [sausage], white pudding, chicken liver pate and air dried ham
Garlic and tomato salad

Smallgoods are a must-have addition to many Hungarian meals and for breakfast today we feasted on the leftovers of the white pudding. This feher hurka as its known is made from white offal and rice it proved to be one of the highlights of the day. The pate comes from the strong Jewish influence in Hungarian food. The tomato and garlic salad both fresh from the garden provided the sweet and acidic relief to the rich meats. I sourced a lot of the meats for this menu from Peter Gruner in Barkly Street St.Kilda. A shop I have been going to for over 5 decades!. Peter's father and my father were mates and sadly Gruner's is the last link to a time when there were at least 8 continental butchers in the Belle as we called it.

We concluded the entrees with
Kohlrabi, leek and parsnip retes [strudel] with letcho
Kohlrabi is my favourite brassica, with leeks and parsnips they make they an extraordinary trilogy for this savoury strudel. Letcho is like a Hungarian ratatouille, a given for any self-respecting Magyar cook.
The big question [ world peace and global warning are mere distractions from real Hungarian issues which all revolve around the kitchen ] was whether to serve it with egg or not. We opted for the egg lightly fried in the fat from the grilled sausage.
At this point most tables went for a stroll to discuss issues like whether their mother would have added the caraway to the bread? or if the trout was really just sashimi?
For the main course
Porkolt of Glenloth Chicken
Nokedli
Cabbage with beetroot with golden raisins
Cucumber and lettuce salad with dill
The Hungarian kitchen has numerous well defined ways of making stews or ragout.

A Porkolt, a Tokany a Gulyas, a Paprikas; it would require a treatise to describe them and then I would get a barrage of contradictory comments from this particular diaspora telling me what’s what.
But basically a Gulyas is a soup cooked in a special kettle, a paprikas has sour cream, a Tokany makes it own juice and a Porkolt is seared and also makes it own gravy. But I am sure you can tell me more.
The nokedli is like spatzle but better and is made with or without eggs depending on the stock market.
The vegetable or fozelek had fresh red and pickled white cabbage with grated beetroot all cooked at the last minute with a horseradish seasoning and golden sultanas.
The cucumber and lettuce salad is about as far from a French salad as you can get.
The dressing of sugar, water, vinegar, dill and garlic is heated and the cucumber and lettuce is placed into the hot dressing and then chilled. Perfect to cut the richness of the porkolt.

The specials were a beef Tokany, an oven roasted pork dish, a cured and smoked turkey dish, stuffed cabbages, hare with wild mushrooms, breaded veal liver and fish with dill and mustard.

With the desserts we had seven chances to show the diversity of this cuisine

Veronica’ s Chocolate Walnut cake with Mocha ice cream
Poopyseed and apple palacinta [pancake] with an apple and lemon sorbet
Rosehip “panna cotta” with chestnut and vanilla cream and Ice cream
Morello cherry retes with brandied morelos and a tokai borsodo
Desert noodles with cream cheese and fragrant grapes [variety not known]
Prune gomboc with poached apricots and plums
Black pudding with quince paste
Tokaji Aszu 5 Puttonyos 2002
Coffee with Hazelnut and Morello Palinka truffles

The cake is my mother’s standard always in the cupboard for visitors and family. The chocolate filling is special as it uses whole eggs,
Pancakes are another must have in a Hungarian cooks repertoire. The poppy seeds must be freshly ground as they go rancid very quickly [Gruners again]
I could not leave out Rosehips or chestnuts and the vanilla ice cream was made with bay leaves that created a bit of a hum amongst the true believers.
Morello cherries again are just a must along with strudel. My mother had a strudel shop [Retesbolt] in the old market in Acland Street in 1957. It was where the supermarket is now, a tiny market with a trading floor and a group of shops around the sides and a gallery with more shops on the first floor. With 2 Early Kooka ovens and a big wooden table she stretched her special dough and filled some with apple, or nuts, or cabbages but the cherry strudel was my favourite. Borsodo is a zabaione? Or sabayon it can be made with sweet or dry wine.
Dessert noodles are a unique feature of Hungarian cooking and I can remember a great article by Sui Ling Hui in the weekend supplements a few years ago. Sui Ling is Malaysian and to her this was as exotic as you could get given her own noodle culture. So we added 2 from this category.
A simple egg noodle with sour cream cottage cheese and fresh grapes and the most popular dessert ordered during the weekend, the Gombc or dumplings.
These are like a sweet gnocchi made with 2/3 potato and 1/3 flour some eggs. They were filled with prunes that themselves were filled with a melon and bitter almond marzipan. Poached and rolled in fried breadcrumbs, hazelnuts and sugar.
And for the true believers a very soft Black Pudding with quince paste
All perfect with the Tokaji Aszu 5 Puttonyos
Some had Megy Palinka with the chocolate truffle and some saw the Unicum in the bar and had a Proustian moment with which to depart..
To top it off it rained
Koszonom sepen
I apologise for omitting all the umlauts and other accents.

Dear Mr Blumenthal

2009-03-05T21:53:00.011+11:00

.................................................................................................................................................................

Dear Mr. Blumenthal

Thought that you might be interested in this extraordinary development in food science.
A post graduate student at the Faculty of Information Technology at the Pazmany Peter Catholic University in Budapest Click below if you dare.....

http://www.en.itk.ppke.hu/education/curriculum_of_the_molecular_bionics_program/

Says he has worked out a way of transmitting flavour in a digital form. He is enrolled in the research dept working with a synthetic polymer membrane that is both a receptor and a transmitter of flavours that have been digitised. It uses nano technology replicating the 5 basic flavour receptors in the tongue. The membrane is placed on the palate and a cord is connected to a black box about the size of an iPod that can be connected to a computer or a 3G type mobile phone.
They say...... [translated]
“What makes this development possible in these emerging new fields?

On the one hand it happened first in the history of technology that molecules can be observed, and molecular-sized machines can be built, on the other hand computer technology also opened innovative frontiers. With Micro-technology, the development of Micro-electronics, then the appearance of Nano-technology electromagnetic interactions that determine molecular dynamism became understandable and can be influenced. Special machines can be built that track and visualize on a molecular level physical changes that accompany the processes of living organisms, and can implant pre-programmed machines, capable of establishing interaction, into those organisms. "

The transmitter is placed in a liquid [It has to be an electrolyte] and the computer at the transmission site digitises the flavour analogues and sends it via the web or phone line to the receptor that has a similar set up. So in theory you could be in your kitchen laboratory in Bray and your diners, or at this early stage tasters, could be anywhere at all.
I guess the only thing to worry about would be a virus getting into the system.

Raw Royal Privileges

2009-03-04T08:40:00.008+11:00

Richard Thomas sent this wonderful piece of Royalist memorabillia he saw during a recent trip to the Caseus Awards in France link here http://www.smellycheese.com.au/index.cfm?objectid=43EEE98D-E7F2-2F96-3EAB80A11A0B3AF9 http

Richard and Nick Haddow from Bruny Island Cheese represented OZ at the event and although they did not win managed to gain a very respectable place [sorry Richard respectable is probably not an adjective that you would approve of]

Richard writes

Got this shot when visiting a guy who bought the old equipment after a re-furb of the Windsor Dairy of Queen EII. Hope you enjoy it.
The Royal Family only drink Raw Milk, Cream & eat Raw Butter.

Seems only fair that they should risk their health for the good of the Commonwealth.

Nick at Bruny Island Cheese is as you may already know about to release the first "legal" unpasteurised cheese in Australia.

Now for the butter Richard?

Its Good to be Green

2009-02-27T21:22:00.004+11:00

Let me introduce my new best friend his name is Malabar or Indian spinach genus Bassela. Some times called Ceylon spinach its only a distant relative to European spinach. He looks innocent enough but its the most useful, flavoursome ingredient that I have discovered in ages. It has all the best qualities of English spinach without the grit.
This heatwave has made most common green leafy vegetables very scarce. But Malabar seems to love the heat. Raw it has a refreshing cool flavour and a fleshy moist texture. Gentle heat gives it a silken texture that makes a very useful companion to soft cheeses or strong gutsy dressings. Its a vine that grows to glorious heights. You can find it in most Asian markets. Vietnamese call it Mong Toi, its not expensive easy to clean and keeps for ages without withering. It can take hard heat and results in a velvet smooth puree.
A very welcome new member to the repertoire. Grow it from seeds or cuttings.
How do you use it?

Donlevy Fitzpatrick Remembered

2009-02-20T16:08:00.008+11:00

It will be a year tomorow since Don passed away.
.

But if for a while
I think of you, dear friend,
all losses are restored
and sorrows end.

.
The day begins much like any other day,
The time is in the year before Don got sick.
It’s a Wednesday
The day he would often stop in on his way down to the coast.
I always looked forward to Wednesdays knowing the day would only get better for his visit.
I’m in the garden when he arrives picking the last tomatoes of the season,
A good wet season.
There is abundance and ripeness.
He scrunches a bunch of tomato leaves in his hand inhales the aroma takes a big bite from a ripe tomato and all is well with the world.
In the car he has something special to show me.
From amongst the ordered clutter in the old black bus he hands me a survey map and asks if I have any gum boots,
We’re going to see Wye River the site of his latest and most ambitious project.

On the way down through the winding roads of the Otways there is little conversation.
The bleating phone is switched off and each passing minute sees the weight of the city lifted from his brow.
How’s the rain been? What’s in the garden?
We speak of Di, of Uschi, of mates seen that week, snippets of news and goss Punctuated by knowing looks at the sight of the forest, the first glimpse of the ocean.
We silently glide through Lorne and head west.
We walk over a small stream at Separation Creek to his first special spot.
Imaginary theodolites take sightings,
There is talk of a house possibly his and Uschi’s for the kids?
He is at his best near the ocean.
We head on up the hill slipping and sliding and begin to walk over the main site.
There are stones marking out the ground and his dream is slowly revealed.
Many of you are there with him doing what you do as part of this grand design. The builders, the architects, the artists, the cooks.
The makers,the growers, the dreamers and the shakers, we are all there breaking the ground.
We look at the lichen on the trees the fungi amongst the forest floor, the mess of weeds on this long abandoned farm.
All the while his inner eye is adding layers to the landscape.
Inevitably talk of lunch begins to take hold.
We head back to the pub where favourite wines are offered
Beers, fish and chips a crisp riesling
Looking at waves that convince us there is time for a short dip.

On the stretch of road between Separation and Lorne he sees something out of the corner of his eye and points to two whales frolicking
We stop and gaze on their play for a few minutes before heading back to Birre.

Back at home I show him where the ripe tomatoes are,
Where the basil and rocket is at its best, the garlic in the shed
He will be back on friday picking lunch for his beloved for the weekend to come.

He was my friend
a kind man
a Mensch.

VALE ALAN SCOTT

2009-02-05T19:11:00.013+11:00

Very Sad to have to report that Alan Scott, master oven crafter and man of bread passed away on January 28 in Tasmania. His funeral was today in Oatlands.

We would like to extend our deep sympathy to his family and friends.

When I light the oven for the weekend there will be a few gargles and many memories revived.

I last heard from Alan about a month ago, he rang out of the blue from hospital and we spoke for over an hour about his new plans for a mill at Oatlands and that he would drop in on his way to Warnambool where he had an oven building workshop planned in the near future.
Anyone who has an interest in artisan baking would acknowledge that Alan was one of the most influential people instrumental in the renaissance of the real bread movement worldwide.
His special and revolutionary expertise lay in masonry oven design. He was also an exceptional craftsman and motivator of so many bakers and oven builders.
Dozens of his ovens will be baking tonight and for a very long time to come, they are built to last. I don't think its an exaggeration to say that at any time there will be an Alan Scott oven fired up somewhere over the world. The fires will keep burning.

I first met Alan at an oven building workshop at Iain Banfield and Lyndall Francis’ Fruition Bakery in the Yarra Valley.
I had always had a great desire to cook and bake in a traditional masonry oven and when the opportunity to participate in one of his workshops was possible I jumped at the chance.
I had no idea what a warm and passionate community would open to me up during and after that first workshop. Fruition already had a small Alan Scott oven but Iain and Lyndall were upgrading to the largest of Alan designs to be built Australia. During that workshop many strong friendships were made and many great meals enjoyed in true fellowship.

As soon as I could, I organised a workshop here at Sunnybrae and now five years later, not only do we bake the bread but we cook as much as possible in the gentle but penetrating heat of our oven which is one of the smallest of Alan’s designs.
Alan had a pacemaker fitted about 3 days before our workshop was scheduled and instead of putting it off for a while he came with a renewed vigour, he loved technology. The thermodynamics of Alan’s ovens combined a respect for ancient proportions with a completely original way of keeping the heat inside.

Alan was the real deal, not just with bread or ovens but a whole philosophy of self sufficient baking that provided a full family and social lifestyle to bakers. Fruition Bakery in the Yarra Valley is a perfect expression of Alan’s ideals.
Farewell Alan we are reminded of you every time we stoke the fire.

Links his website http://www.ovencrafters.net/ a great interview at http://sourdough.com/interview-alan-scott

STICKYFINGERS HAS ALERTED ME IN COMMENTS TO THE NEW YORK TIMES OBITUARY FOR ALAN AT http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/06/dining/06scott.html?_r=1

Gut Instinct or Seven Seconds Again

2009-01-26T10:43:00.009+11:00

On Jan 17 the Age ran the following story on what was probably a quiet news day during the hot and steamy holiday period.

"Irish food critic Trevor White applies his seven-seconds rule to five of Melbourne's best restaurants. He says...
I BELIEVE it is possible to review a restaurant within seven seconds. This is not, I admit, a scientific theory, and it is true that some chefs manage to outshine the dumps where they work. Still, the seven-seconds rule has served me well in 17 years as a professional restaurant critic....

Full article here:http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2009/01/16/1231608986736.html

I found the story a little disturbing as despite calling himself a "professional restaurant critic" of some 17 years standing, he has chosen to use what most of us would call gut-instinct to make up his mind about something that he is supposedly reviewing professionally .

But the more I read the story the more it seemed to ring true. I found myself agreeing with him..

Yes my vast experience of dining out combined with my " 30 years of professional expertise in the business" can indeed give me a quick instinctive accurate analysis of any restaurant that I visit.

Looking back over recent and not so recent dining experiences just confirmed it, yes that's quite true after a while of course we can pick the duds and the gems in possibly 12 if not seven seconds.

I started to congratulate myself on how clever I was and that yes we should just trust our highly experienced instinct and just go with it.....

A couple of days later I found myself in one of the places that Trevor White gave his 7 seconds away to and within the given short time frame I realised that his 7 seconds combined with the column inches he devoted to his seven second rule had given the place a sense of hubris that was lamentable. My seven seconds antennae told me to leave but I stayed and while the overpriced food was delicious my own seven seconds analysis was indeed correct I should have left after 5 seconds. So to my mind the question is this: civilians like you and me often apply what is really just a gut reaction, and usually, yes, its correct. But a "professional" restaurant critic cannot be so presumptuous that he can make an instant judgement. And this is the difference, tell a very wide readership of his instant Epiphany. The staff at the place I went to had such swollen heads and thought themselves so cool that they even mentioned that they had just been reviewed and that I should read it while I was waiting for my meal. Really?

Would a respected theatre critic leave after the first act? a film critic after the intro?

Yes you and I can and be quite content in knowing that we have good gut [intended again] instincts but professional reviewers have a deeper responsibility. Or am I just dreaming?

I prefer the soundtrack here..

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Bh88go-sOd4

New Cooking Classes 2009

2009-01-19T14:59:00.006+11:00

Cooking Classes 2009

New Cooking Classes for 2009 will commence on Monday March 2
Classes begin at 9.30 for 10 am with a good coffee and a snack before we sit down informally to discuss the days cooking. Bread baking in one form or other is always covered in every class and the wood oven is often also used if the occasion calls for it.
The new format will be to prepare a four course seasonal lunch utilising the freshest and most interesting ingredients we can source from as close to Sunnybrae as possible.
The maximum class size is 12 which allows time to cover any specific questions or techniques that each participant may wish to explore.
Often a class takes a completely different direction to the one we have planned from input by the group . While we take our work seriously and try to provide as much accurate information as possible we also like to enjoy our kitchen adventures while cooking as well as tasting some fine wines around the dining table. Convivialityand conversation is a big part of the experience of cooking and dining together at Sunnybrae.
All cases are hands on, but not like a formal class room, we divide all the tasks between the group and I demonstrate all techniques as required. We pick whatever is suitable from the garden and also from the gardens of our neighbours.
You can also request certain techniques or use of ingredients with which you may not have much confidence or things that you may enjoy, but do not often get the chance to cook.
We sit down to lunch around 1.30pm and partners or friends can join us for lunch for $55 per person.
Please bring an apron or you can purchase one of Diane’s design.
Good sensible shoes, a sharp knife as well as a good sense of humour/adventure are also welcome.
Costs $110 person including wines and GST or $100 per person for groups of 4 or moreStandby: Call one day before on the Sunday and if there is room the same discount applies. Telephone bookings only 03 52362276

The Performance Enhanced Kitchen

2009-01-15T19:20:00.005+11:00

Talking to the new barman pictured, he starts officially when I can get 2, 1950's vintage batteries that will fire him up to [as described on the box] mix a martini, drink it, then glow red and blow smoke out of his ears.. cant wait! Until then he is sitting behind the bar doing what all good bartenders are known for...listening .

I was telling him the other night that Big Tony Bourdain is to hit our shores soon and as part of the summer light reading recycling campaign I thought you might like to read this review un-edited of his first book Kitchen Confidential it was printed in The Age in 2001.

The Performance Enhanced Kitchen

Excerpts in the New Yorker, critical acclaim from the major reviewers, Anthony Bourdain's book Kitchen Confidential has even been touted as the new ‘Down and Out in London and Paris’ by Newsweek.
The title is from the 1958 Jack Arnold directed cult movie classic High School Confidential. You remember the one with Mamie Van Doren in that sweater, Russ Tamblyn as the cool nark posing as a hepcat, Jackie Coogan [uncle Fester] as the evil pusher and Jerry Lee Lewis as himself. Occasionally featuring as a late night double with Reefer Madness for the stoned lounge lizard set. A film so ridiculous that nobody took it seriously. Well, here we go again. This one is bound to be optioned.

Bourdain’s book hit the stands in Australia during the Sydney Olympics, a time when we all got an education in performance enhancing substance abuse.
Not a bad briefing for this entertaining but equally ridiculous, purportedly true biography.

The wild card in this very neat and well-written tale is heroin.
Bourdain’s book takes us into the “culinary underbelly” of the New York restaurant scene, through the stoned eyes of the author. A Vassar dropout turned line cook. A self-made bad boy, desperately trying to be a working class hero amongst the hard men of the kitchen.
It’s all very ‘cool’ but for the assumption that this is how it is, and its OK.

The full article is here http://www.scribd.com/doc/10413030/The-Performance-Enhanced-Kit chen

Squid Row!

2009-01-05T11:56:00.008+11:00

One from the archives, I wrote this in 1994? it appeared in The Weekend Australian Review.

SQUID ROW!

The first taste of a new ingredient often determines our long-term affinity to it.

If your first encounter with Parmesan cheese was one of those dry yellow powders masquerading for the real thing, you could be forgiven for dismissing a lot of Italian cooking as very scary. If after spending a good part of your pocket money on what tastes like a black golf ball from Perigord, you may think that black truffles are also a bit of a mystery.

Sweet and Sour Pork has had a rough ride, properly made it is one of the true classics of Cantonese cooking.

Also you could easily be put off good olive oil by tasting an ordinary example that’s past its [usually not displayed] use by date.

Calamari is an ingredient that many cooks and diners reject as difficult to prepare and tough.
Surprisingly few food writers differentiate between the main members of this family.

Ask a fishmonger what the difference is between calamari and squid and he will probably reply “about $8 a Kilo”. They are different fish, or more accurately different cephalopods. The “wings” on calamari extend along the full length of the body or “tube”, in squid the “wings” only come up about 1/3 of the way. Surprisingly, few recipes differentiate between them. Calamari is simple to cook always tender [including the tentacles and quite forgiving. Squid, well? You get what you pay for.

If the calamari is already cleaned in a tube or ring form, it is probably squid.

Seriously fresh calamari straight out of the water is more translucent than an old iMac, each hour out of the water it gets more opaque. The skin does not have to be removed and results in a fine crisp coating, not unlike tempura batter, when dusted with spiced flour and fried.

Cuttlefish, another cephalopod, is even more delicious and tender and sometimes as reasonably priced as squid. If you order calamari and it’s tough and rubbery, odds on you have been squiddled.

This dish is based on an early Mediterranean style of balancing sweet and sour. Rhubarb, verjuice and lemon for the acid, currants and honey for sweetness.

SWEET AND SOUR CALAMARI

Calamari including tentacles, cleaned and cut into strips

Rhubarb cut into fine strips

Currants soaked in 5Oml of Retsina [yes retsina, but vermouth or Riesling will also work]

Sliced onions, garlic a little honey.

Olive oil, verjuice and lemon juice.

Saute the onions and garlic in a little olive oil. Add currants and the honey and cover.

Add the rhubarb and simmer for a minute and taste. Balance the sweet and sour with the verjuice and lemon. Season and set aside.

Drain a little of this sauce and use it to poach the calamari when tender add the rest of the sauce taste again and season. The rhubarb can be a bit crisp it adds a surprising texture.

Mud Crabs Cassis and Morellos

2008-12-29T10:39:00.014+11:00

The most influential event that shaped the way the restaurant here has developed was the sixth Symposium of Australian Gastronomy that was held in Geelong in 1991 just a couple of months after we opened Sunnybrae the first time.

After a big weekend service I quietly sneaked away to attend this event where Margaret Visser was to give the keynote address "Much Depends on Dinner" taken from the title of her then just released book on the analysis of a simple meal.

On arrival I slumped onto a couch where a rather portly white haired gentleman greeted me with a warm shake and cheeky smile. Max Lake, I have not seen you at one of these before? where are you from?

Max's books on taste and wine had graced our shelves for years, it looked like it was going to be a great symposium.

During the keynote address Margaret Visser drew our attention [amongst many other insights] to the eternal contradiction of our need for the new [neophilia] and our fear of the new [neophobia] in all our choices, not just in food. When this gets out of balance we find our menus/lives also get out of kilter. It was a simple concept but all important ideas are simple when you finally understand them.

The symposium introduced me to many of my mentors. Now 17 years later, many are still good friends and one of the Symposiasts' recent visit has prompted this reflection.

For information on the next symposium click the following link. http://www.hss.adelaide.edu.au/centrefooddrink/symposium/

Margaret Vissers' next book was "The Rituals of Dinner" and indeed the rituals of our Food Life [Its a food Blog] has prompted a reflection of which rituals we follow.

For us here at Sunnybrae our rituals are quite regular and despite climate changes revolve around the garden. The garlic is usually cleaned in the shed after Christmas lunch .

This year lunch was Mud Crab and noodles, a salad of green papaya, perilla, Nashi, plus the usual suspects of the chilli/palm sugar/fish sauce trilogy. The neophillic member of this dish was a new cucumber pickle that I found at Footscray. There is a new section in one of the stalls that has Chinese/Vietnamese pickles: no not the imported ones, but made in Melbourne, and the chopped cucumber pickle

added a surprising flavour/texture to this now traditional salad.

Desert was white peaches from a friends' garden, hers are ripe a couple of weeks before ours are ready.

The question of Mud Crab? or Crayfish? surfaced only to be sent packing with "get into the moment will you, and pass the crab"

With a pot of crab on the table the question is obviously ridiculous.

The next Christmas ritual is making the Creme de Cassis. Last year's black currants have been macerated in Hardy's Black Bottle Brandy for a year in cryovac bags. They are passed through a very fine moulli and carefully blended with a good sugar syrup.

We make 2 types one unfiltered. With the filtered one, we make sorbet from the fine dregs. The blackcurrant ritual continues by picking the ripe crop for next year. Its a fine Christmas ritual especially the tastings.

The call came from Ken and Joy Campbell from Mount Duneeed this morning that the Morello cherries are ready. If you check the post under More Morellos Maestro you will see that this ritual is exactly a year since that post. Get amongst it as its a short season. Tel 52641281 for details

The next garden ritual is picking the white peaches on New Years' day and making the Bellini mix.... and so it goes

TRUFFLE U

Now class! You will get nowhere with a clean nose.

The Silly Season

2008-12-24T20:32:00.027+11:00

Christmas eve

Now that office parties are over.

All the shopping done [except for the nephews-in- law that you had forgotten were born in the last 10 years] , the fridges all sorted and stacked,

The pre-prep complete? menus in draft?

Mud Crab and a salad?

Time to open this years New Yorker food edition

The great thing about this magazine is that its not all food. We can drool over what's probably at half-tix On and Off Broadway, check the latest pithy barbs and bows featured in the Tables for Two column, where Nick Paumgarten [No relation to Stiengarten] in less than 300 words amuses you to audible chuckles and gets you thinking that it really might be worth a visit?

But then you remember that the company jet has been grounded due to lack of carbon credits.

You pour another glass and keep reading.

Check out the book reviews in Briefly Noted, where the first sighting of the Elephant in the Spanish Restaurant has been glimpsed in a "respectable" journal.

We all have a pattern in reading papers or mags, but the New Yorker is tough, you want to read it all in one session.
So pick a feature and settle back. Most of the main stories are good for a whole bottle and should keep us going for January.

I do the cartoons first.

Santa could you please remind the food editors all over the planet that cartoons and food stories go really well together. Some of them have forgotten it>