Radish

Yesterday was a lovely day.  We had breakfast here (a place I highly recommend, and I am not the only one who is a fan - there was a queue out the door when we left) whilst the sun shined.  We went to the food market at my daughter's school, whilst the wind was cold and icy.  I came home and cooked lunch and watched a hailstorm begin outside.   The hailstorm then cleared and the the sky was blue.   Later on daughter went to a Halloween themed birthday party and it rained a bit.  And then a bit later the sky cleared up again.  Just a typical Spring day in Melbourne.

I bought these radishes at the market. Something new for me, I have never bought them before.  Ever.  I think I am scarred by memories of the crudites plus dips my mother served at her glamourous parties in the 1970s. Or something.  But they have a wonderful crispness.  

I have been dipping into the new Sophie Dahl cookbook and she has a very simple recipe for radishes.  I had no truffle salt so I improvised with truffle oil.

You take the radishes and slice them very thinly (I used a mandoline).   Layer them in a dish, allowing their ruby rims to show through.    In a little bowl mix up a tablespoon or so of truffle oil, some sea salt and some very finely chopped mint.  Pour over the radishes and let them sit a bit.  Completely divine.  I had eaten most of them by the time lunch was ready!

I know I have been in some weird places this year, medically, but these radishes reminded me of a brain MRI.



I highly recommend the Sophie Dahl book.   If not just for the chipped Granny's bowl and lace tablecloth photography, and lots of shots of Sophie in flowery tea dresses.  Seriously though, she likes my kind of food - soups, salads, hardly any sugar, chicken and lovely picky things to eat.   I feel that she would be a great laugh to have a drink with.    

Here's to another cancer free week.

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Salad Days at the Bouzy Rouge

What do you get when the interior designer whose very own dining room looks like this:

And whose hallway entrance looks like this:

And who designed my favourite bathroom ever in the history of the world:

turns his hand to restaurant decoration?

You get the Bouzy Rouge, in Richmond, a refurbished pub, owned by Jose and Sandra De Oleivera and decorated by Jean Pierre Heurteau, responsible for the above interiors.  You also get an interior which is over the top to say the least.

So, perhaps as expected there is a bit of road kill on the walls with chandeliers thrown in for good measure:

lots of animal print:

and these bejewelled crowns, which act as  bread baskets and make one feel rather Maid Marianesque:

I had a wonderful long lunch for a friend's birthday on a recent Sunday. It was a feast to break the famine I hadn't really had but I could pretend.

We were a table of 10, which was fun for us but not so fun for the waitstaff.  However we had charming, patient, non eye rolling service in a crowded environment.

To begin with we had lots of plates to share (including scallop ceviche with pistachio and blood orange and chilli salted calamari) and then I had roast suckling pig with cabbage and crackling and a beautiful sticky jus.   Also on offer and tasted by me were a baked wild rabbit casserole which retained lots of moistness.

A place with an ever present, hovering owner, poking around behind the bar, offering up freshly cooked cake to annoying people like me who were hanging around asking to split the bill because we had to leave first, is always a good sign.  I know restaurants hate splitting the bill but sometimes it has to be done and I really think, like duck, it is a good test of restaurant management and attitude. 

I would love to return for the salads, as part of my never ending quest for interesting salads.   I think I could live on salads with a bit of beef thrown in every few days.   And well balanced ones with the correct dressing and a bit of originality are hard to come by.

Here are three on offer:

• baby endive salad with figs, sugar peas, cranberries, walnuts, proscuitto and gorgonzola with balsamic and truffle oil dressing.
• beetroot, roast pumpkin and chick pea salad with cous cous, preserved lemon, Persian fetta and chard.
• salad of grilled asparagus, dehydrated olives, and green beans with a seared tuna steak and sauce gribiche.

A great place for a long lunch.   And probably dinner.  And also a drink. 



(Images: (1) and (2) House and Garden (3) Vogue Living Australia March\April 2006  (4) and (7)  Kit Haselden on Flickr (5) and (6) Bouzy Rouge)

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Restaurant Inspiration - Confit at Circa the Prince

Does the environment you eat in affect your experience?   I would like to think that I only care about the food and so am not unduly influenced by such things as my surroundings, so that I can enjoy good food on a grimy Bangkok street just as much as in an unadorned, cheaply decorated Fitzroy cafe. 

Last week at Circa the Prince,  I had one of the best meals of the last year in a setting which almost but not quite overwhelmed the food. 

Imagine this room:

To my right, a table of property developers in pressed jeans and blue striped shirts, their silver hair brushed back in in the style of a lion's mane.  To my left, a well known intellectual property lawyer dining with his wife.  Immediately next to us, a completely rotund couple from Holland who talk of food and recipes all night and proceed to order each item on the menu and share all the dishes (just in case you are in any doubt, that is quite a lot of food).   Over past the black tiled central column, a table of beautiful women including a Kim Raver clone sit with their large labelled leather handbags piled up next to them.   Past them, a table of mohawked and bepierced young men with a 6 foot tall boxum women in a Talitha Getty style silk turban with body image issues (I overheard her in the bathroom).   Further behind me sits Luke-who-used-to-work-in-our-local-wine-shop-and-is-now-a-sommelier, dining with two 23 year olds wearing short shorts on this cold Autumn evening.

The people are not the problem in this restaurant.  The acoustics are.   So full of people, sitting in a hard concrete room, eating to a background of loud house music, it is nigh on impossible to hear the person opposite.  I probably seem middle aged saying this, but restauranteurs - please - enough with the loud bass music.  It's not a nightclub.   

And it is a shame, that this newly renovated room, on which I am certain a large amount of money has been spent (it is essentially the old courtyard covered over), feels so temporary, so last minute, so cramped, so unsuited to the delicate, great value food which is being cooked by Matt Wilkinson.    The old restaurant, which faces the bump and grind of Fitzroy Street, is now used for functions. What a waste.  

The very best element of the room, visible above, is the vertical garden, housed in a square frame of boxes.   Oh, and those black lights.   And the upholstered chairs.  And the little tables work really well for closeness but not if you have long legs. 

I ate:

• kromeskies
• warm salad of partridge (confit breast and terrine) with rhubarb and heirloom vegetables.
• 150g Sher wagyu beef 
• gingerbread parfait with warm apple rice pudding. 

The kromeskies (pork shoulder shredded and deep fried based on a Russion recipe) were salty and moreish.  

The partridge salad was unpeakably divine.  Dotted with tiny peeled carrots, dressed with something piquant, the partridge (not easy to find in Australia) was full of flavour.  The whole dish sang. 

The beef deserves special mention.  It came with the following:  mustard, tomato relish, a lentil and green bean saute, a little copper pot of glistening smooth mashed potato and a perfectly dressed green salad.  All for $45.   Not cheap but good value when you need to order sides to make up a properl meal in so many restaurants. 

The wine service was slow but the sommelier did a great job of plying us with Barolo.  The wine list allows you to order different 'serving sizes' from 30 ml through to a normal 120 ml glass.   Just to be clear, 30 ml is two tablespoons, barely a gulp, and for some of the more expensive wines this size costs more than $15!   However, it is a chance to taste some amazing wine. 

In summary: go for the food, trust the sommelier, and pray that the owners re-think the renovation.  

The partridge salad inspired me to do a different kind of confit to my usual duck (great standby dinner party dish because it needs no attention. Also good for killing off unwanted dinner party guests with a nice overdose of cholesterol with the duck fat). 

I couldn't find partridge but I did find jumbo quail, which I jointed. 

Warning: photo of meat below.

Put the quail, one sliced garlic clove, a bay leaf and a sprig of rosemary into a small ovenproof dish which just fits the quail. Put enough duck fat to cover into the dish and bring to the boil on the stove top. Then cook in the oven for about an hour at 160 degrees. I find this works much better with leg joints than the breast which tends to dry out.  (I used both, and didn't end up eating the breast).

I served this with cubes of roasted beetroot, some greens and a vinaigrette.

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My favourite things of the Year Part 2 - Food

Favourite restaurant - Mo Vida, the quintessential Melbourne restaurant and bar, in all its incarnations, including the one (Aqui and Terrazza) which opened opposite work in early November. To understand the significance of this, bear this in mind: when we moved offices 5 years ago, we moved from what is called the Paris End of Collins Street to what is known as the Beirut End of Bourke Street (apologies to all Lebanese people). An area largely bereft of good coffee and anywhere much to eat lunch with a few notable exceptions.

So, to now have Mo Vida so close is excitement itself.

I wrote here about a dinner I had with Mo Vida food and Spanish wine. The new Mo Vida Aqui, an industrial space behind a bank, with views to the Supreme Court, is up to Mo Vida standards.

Having had a many coursed meal there last week, it satisfied all my requirements, including one I barely knew I had, namely for an octopus terrine with smoked paprika and potato salad. Here it is:

Favourite wine - is wine a food? Yeah, sure. The heatwaves last February which led to devastating bushfires in South East Australia had one good outcome - in combination with heavy rain in mid December 2008, an outstanding 2009 riesling vintage.

This is really mostly what I have drunk this year.

Favourite packaged food: Pineapple and vanilla bean jam.

Generally speaking I do not like pineapple. To paraphrase Dr Seuss:

I do not like it in a tin

I do not like it on a pizza

I do not like it in a burger

I do not like it with ham

Not in fruit salad

Not in a muffin

Not on pavlova

Not under upside down cake

Not in a salsa

Not in a pie

I do not like it

One little bit

But this jam, which manages to smooth the sharp spikiness of pineapple with pungent vanilla-eyness, is quite something else. Perfect on toast.

This jam comes from Phllippa's Bakery, a place of such temptations we were compelled this year to buy a coffee machine to avoid our weekend trips there for takeaway coffee, as these visits always involved us also returning home laden with unnecessities like French butter, gingerbread stars, peanut butter biscuits, tomato kasoundi, creme fraiche, costly spiced nuts, raspberry cupcakes, little hand shaped dinner rolls and so on.

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Restaurant Inspiration - Da Noi and Sardinia

My parents travelled a lot during the 1970s when I was little. They would return with stories of magical places and (most importantly to me I have to confess) little gifts - a knitted poncho from Peru, a cotton Chinese doll from Hong Kong, a little English shop from London.
They even travelled to Libya once (on business but that's another story).

But to me the most exciting place they ever travelled to was to Sardinia to stay at the Cala Di Volpe (translates as Vixen Cove).

My geography lessons had taught me all about the Mediterranean Sea and its islands, and this hotel, sitting squat on the glittering harbour with its adobe style structures and jewell colours evoked pure 1970s disco fun to me and my fertile imagination.






To this day I still want to visit, and stay here in this room:



And eat at this little restaurant:


In Melbourne there is a Sardinian restaurant in South Yarra called Da Noi. My exhaustive 30 second Google search tells me that there are no other Sardinian restaurants in Australia.



There are many things to love about this restaurant:

1. The owner\chef's name (Pietro Porcu)

2. The lack of a menu (well there is a menu but rarely used. You largely just eat what is brought to you)

3. The lack of a website (anyone who sensibly flies in the face of technology should be applauded).

4. This business card (a tawny misty morning shot of three fabulous Italian boar shooters)




On a recent visit we ate pork cheek terrine, eggplant and tomato salad, marinated octopus, oysters, a salty caper, saffron, olive and white fish risotto and lamp shank with smoked potato mash.

Dessert was a tasting plate of mandarin pannacotta, a tiny square of tiramisu, honey and yougurt cake, some kind of fennelly icecream and little pink square of watermelon.

And I especially loved the cannellini mush we had as part of our appetisers.

This is very easy, and healthy (beans are healthy aren't they?).

Method

Drain and rinse a can of Italian cannellini beans.
PIck over and finely chop a sprig of rosemary
Finely chop a large clove of garlic.

Warm a good slosh of olive oil in a saucepan, add the garlic and once its scent rises add the beans and rosemary. Cook slowly for 10 - 20 minutes. Add more oil if needs be. Some of the beans will break down. They are ready when they become a bit creamy. Add lots of sea salt and freshly ground pepper.

Perfect on toasted sourdough or just in greedy spoonfuls.
PS a less overtly lazy search has now revealed at least two other Sardinian restaurants - Cose in Brisbane and Pilu in Sydney. There may be many more, indeed.




(Images (1)-(4) Caladivolpe.com)

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Restaurant Inspiration - Mr Wolf and Tree Wallpaper

Today - Mr Wolf, a pizza restaurant in Inkerman Street St Kilda.

But so much more than just a pizza joint.

It welcomes children and casts no frowny looks towards crumbs on the ground. And believe me, with little children, that attitude is worth its weight. They (generally) play wonderful jazz. Their pizzas are interesting and yet sufficiently authentic that I can imagine picking up a square in the Piazza Navona. Their grissini is divine. As are the marinated olives. The windows look out onto the street where we can see a blur of grimy, stylish pedestrians (take your pick).

And look at this wallpaper. I know I know, tree wallpaper is ubiquitous. But Mr Wolf did it 8 years ago.



I love the feeling of sitting in a forest. And I have a thing for birch trees. Perhaps to Swedes they are not particularly interesting, but to me, they evoke Peter and the Wolf and goblins, and elves, and picnics and hiking in the gentle sunshine.


And how I would love to own this LP - narrated by Boris Karloff himself. I can feel the wolf sniffing behind me as I type.

Anyway, perhaps the birch tree wallpaper thing is no longer a trend but becoming a permanent classic. To demonstrate, a quick purview threw up these examples which are readily available:









And if these are not realistic enough for you, what about a photographic wall mural complete with dappled light and patches of tufted emerald grass?


I suppose the real question about this type of wallpaper is where would you use it? A bathroom? I have seen it in kitchens in the backsplash \ splashback. Or maybe in a dining room?
On to today's recipes:

Pizza Dough (this recipe is from one of Karen Martini's cookbooks. I know it is pretty much what they use as she owns the restaurant)

400 g plain flour
110 g fine semolina
2 tsp table salt
1.5 cups warm water (375 ml)
3 table spoons olive oil
2 teaspoons (ie 7 grams) dried yeast

Combine flour, salt and semolina in the bowl of an electric mixer with dough hook. Mix water oil an dyeast in small bowl and stir to dissolve. Pour water mixture into flour and mix at low speed untl combined then on high speed for10 minutes until dough is smooth and elsatic but wet and sticky. Place dough in oiled bowl cover with plastic wrap and rest in warm place for 20 minutes. (Makes 4 pizza bases). Make sure you roll roll very thin.




Toppings

(1) Eggplant

I just list the toppings here - you can combine in anyway but remember, do as the Romans do: not too much topping.
Roasted cubes of eggplant
Roasted garlic, mashed.
Basil, torn
Ricotta, in small chunks
Fior di latte, sliced thinly

(2) Cauliflower

I can't recall all the ingredients but it is incredible. There is roasted caulflower, parsley, sliced green chilli and slices of Italian pork sausage of some sort. This is on a cheesy base only (not tomato). Fantastic.



(Images (1) Mr Wolf (3) Cole & Son (4) Flockedwallpaper.co.uk(5) Graham & Brown (6) Wallpapermurals.co.uk (7) maraquita.com)

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Restaurant Inspiration - Gill's Diner and Beetroot Carpaccio

Today I am beginning the first of series (which will no doubt be intermittent and unreliable) where I cook a dish I have eaten in one of Melbourne's stellar restaurants and set out the results here.

I have a few reasons for wanting to do this. The first is that I am bored with my cookbooks. As I have mentioned before, I have quite a lot, and there is really no excuse, but there you have it. The second is that I want to see if my tastebuds are on the ball. This means I have to properly taste and consider my food (no wolfing down). And third, it may provide a technical challenge. For that reason I may start small and build up to twice cooked essence of foam and fluff with a jus of par boiled philosophy.

Today, Gill's Diner, which has been around forever, well at least 2 years, in a little laneway off Little Collins Street in the city. Owned by the wonderfully named and talented Con Christopoulos who also has the European, the Supper Club, Journal Canteen and (formerly) Benitos and Syracuse. And quite brilliantly, in today's day and age, it has no website. At all.

Here is are two images of its post industrial chic:

My main complaint about this restaurant is the chairs, which are identical to those I sat in for my maths class in 1979. Apart from that, lovely interesting simple food and extremely good service.

My dish was beetroot carpaccio with bits and bobs over the top.

You have probably noticed the carpaccio trend which has taken over the world, rather like confit. Anything that can be thinly sliced can be called a carpaccio. And wouldn't the painter himself be turning in his grave if he could see the use his name is put to.

Vittore Carpaccio 'Martrydom of the Pilgrims and the Death of St Ursula' (1493)

Recipe (for 2)

Ingredients

2 medium beetroot

About 6 celery leaves, picked over and cut into smaller pieces

Zest of one orange

About a tablespoon of walnuts

Goats cheese (about 1/4 cup) Note: this needs to be the crumbly goats cheese not the creamy one

Walnut oil

Balsamic vinegar

Salt and pepper

Rubber gloves

Method

Put on your gloves, and peel the beetroot. Then slice very very thinly (realistically the only way to do this is with a mandolin). Get two very large crisp white porcelain plates and place the beetroot slices on each plate. You can overlap them slightly. Whether you use up all your beetroot will depend on how big they were to begin with. And how big your plates are.

In a small glass, whisk together the walnut oil and balsamic vinegar, in proportions of 3 parts oil to one part vinegar (I have not given measurements as you may wish to make more). Season with salt and pepper. Get a spoon and drizzle the dressing over the beetroot. What you want is a very light drop here and there. If there is too much dressing the beetroot will bleed and your plate will look like a massacre has taken place. Let the beetroot rest quietly for a little while on the kitchen bench.

Just before serving, scatter the walnuts, celery leaves and orange zest over each plate of beetroot. Then break the goasts cheese into little crumbly bits and scatter evenly over the beetroot.

This is a very nice refreshing entree to have with a glass of chablis or reisling.

(Images (1) Marie Lou at Flickr (2) Swellkh at Flickr (3) Mute Monkey at Flickr (4) Lib-art.com)

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Delicate Chinese Dumplings

Last week as I was still on holidays I had a girly day with my daughter. We went to see Up, the new Pixar film (and for those of you who have seen I wonder if your reaction to the first 10 minutes was the same as mine? (it made me cry)). We then went to have a manicure (my daughter wanted blue nails - we compromised with deep purple) and then we went to Ay Oriental Tea House in Prahran for a dumpling lunch.

I don't know what it is about Chinese food but I feel so pure and healthy when I eat it. Of course this is one of those generalisations, as I am sure there are many (maybe millions) of unhealthy Chinese people, but Chinese food seems very 'health giving' to me. And in terms of complex cuisine and technique I think they rank up there with the French.

I had prawn and baby pea leaf dumplings. Look at their quivering pearlescent beauty.

My daughter had 1.5 BBQ pork buns.

Eating my little dumplings I vowed to go on a bit of a health kick, as one does. To start I thought I would need some help detoxing. So on departure I bought some of their beautiful tea, including one which is basically dried up little rose buds, like the image below on the left:

I also bought a clear glass tea pot and little cup which is a double layer so you can hold it without your fingers burning.

Being quite into cooking, one of the things I look for in a restaurant is food I can't cook better at home. And quite a lot of Chinese dishes fall into that category. Like terrine, filo pastry, Chinese roast duck, bouillabaisse, prawn crackers, croquembouche and fruitcake I know that I am never going to even attempt most kinds of Chinese dumplings. But I am a bit partial to a very simple pork won ton. This is based on a Neil Perry recipe.

Ingredients

100g minced belly pork (note if you mince this yourself make sure your processor is strong. You could also probably use pork fillet).

1 finely chopped garlic clove

3/4 teaspoon of salt

freshly ground pepper

10 wonton wrappers. I use these:

Method

Mix the pork, garlic, salt and pepper in a bowl using a circular motion with your hand (this is to preserve the texture and not beat up the meat too much). Separate out wrappers. Put one teaspoon in the centre of a wrapper. Brush water around each edge. Fold the wrapper over into a triangle (which will have round edges if you are using round wrappers) and then fold the right side over to the left and gently pinch together. Continue until all are done. Drop into a pot of boiling water and simmer for two minutes.

Great with pre dinner drinks and you can also make a dipping sauce, simple soy will do or you can mix chilli oil (1 tbsp), minced garlic and shallot, Chinese red vinegar (1 tsp) and 2 tsp of kecap manis or normal soy.

Images: (1) Demand Studios (3)-(5) AY Oriental Tea House

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Greek Style - My dinner table tonight

Well although it has been raining in Melbourne for hours, I don't mind because tonight I will be dining at this lovely table:

This is the Hellenic Republic in East Brunswick, one of the restaurants run by wonderful chef George Calombaris who also owns the Press Club. The Hellenic Republic is a simpler, more canteen style take on George's modern Greek food. Think whole panfried fish with lemon, roasted yellow capsicums and proper Greek salad.

I love the way they have kept this look rustic but with an edge, given by the blue and white tiles and the lobster pot light shades. And I especially love the Chinese apothocary style glass fronted drawers. Divine. I can't wait.

And after my dinner, I will pretend that I can walk out the door to this:

Image

Image

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