Shanghai'd

My final excuse (shame I only made it to 9)

We are off to China! To keep up with our adventures join us at
Shanghai'd

10 excuses cont.

7. I've got the band back together man! This has been quite fun and (mostly) productive. We have one good song and heaven knows we should, I've known most of these guys since high school so we've had 10 odd years to practice it. We get together rarely, as our rhythm guitarist and song writer lives in Canberra, consequently the sharing of musical ideas has led to excuse #8.
8. I've become addicted to the making of mixed CDs of my own compilation. Yeah, I know iTunes etc has been around for ages but I've only just discovered it. And what a world of wonders it is. It started as research; a way of sharing our musical ideas, so and so would include a CD of songs they really liked with the CD of our rehearsal et voila a unique excuse for time wasting was born. Everyone was inspired to create their own and subject others to all their favourite songs.

Cocktail of the Minute...

Gastrobitch thinks I'm mad but I do like my martini's with twist of lime pickle. Try it, it's sensational...

10 (poor) excuses as to why I have not updated my blog in 6 weeks or more

1. I was a bit scared off by Pim (but I'm over that now)
2. I broke the computer at home. This happened a while ago and was the result of an incident involving a Siamese cat, a glass of red wine and a keyboard. The outcome was not good for any of the aforementioned. Try as we might we could not fix the keyboard, so that was that. Big Al has since invested in a schmitzy new iMac, so I can't use that excuse anymore. I posted a few things at work then excuse #3 happened.
3. I've been really busy at work. I know that is the lamest excuse in the universe, but it is true. Except for the last two weeks where I've done bugger all and been really bored.
4. I've been in a really bad mood.
5. We've had two Taiwanese exchange students staying with us. Referred to prior to their arrival as "the Taiwanese invasion" Peter and Ariel (she christened herself that after the little mermaid cartoon character so you can imagine the inherent cuteness of these two) turned out to be super fun. Big Al and I spend the whole of their 6 week stay with us feeding them Australian cheeses and teaching them about wine. We all had a ball!
6. I'm kind of over cooking. This one came at me a bit out of the blue, but part of the deal with hosting the students involved feeding them dinner and breakfast. Breakfast wasn't really an issue but providing meals for four every night for 6 weeks is tiring. I did something bizarre that was very unme (ignoring the broken glass and prawns incident of course) I burned the crap out of my good saucepan. I might just point out here that it wasn't just a little bit burned, it pretty much caught on fire. It was very dramatic and set off all the newly installed smoke alarms. All that was left of my orange and spice syrup was the charred remains of several star anise and a cinnamon stick set solid in a centimetre of what I imagine lava looks like when it cools. An orange and spice lava at any rate. Serve me right for falling asleep while it was on the stove. Anyway, because it was my favourite pot (it was a nice Robinox one and all, that I may have flogged from a former employer) I couldn't bring myself to chuck it, so it sat in this sorry state next to the sink with water in it for about a week and a half. This was a vain attempt to dissolve the black set-like-concrete stuff at the bottom. Eventually, Big Al could stand it no longer and attacked the thing with a screwdriver. The pot is now back in use but I'm sad to say it will never be the same. More cracking and legit. excuses coming soon to IWF...

I'm Baack

I've been somewhat depressed by the blogging scene of late. That and it's winter here and no one has much energy for anything. I did jump on to Chez Pim last week just long enough to become generally irritated by the whole thing. What's the deal? Has food blogging just become an excuse to show your superiority and generally belittle all the ordinary stuff we mere mortals may enjoy?

What is going on? There is a fine line between educating your palate and enjoying the finer things (all of which I heartily endorse in principle) and just whinging for the sake of it about how you can't get a decent coffee in Paris.

Get a life!

I know I'm about a week behind the times on this but that's because I've been brewing and stewing like a cup of robusta.

You may call it sour grapes, but let me just say if I had the good fortune to be slutting about in Paris, instead of sitting at my desk on a miserable winter's day in Sydney, consoling myself that at least I'm in the Parisienne end of Redfern, I could think of plenty of stuff to do to take my mind off the coffee.

Wine Blogging Wednesday 8

Well, it's Tuesday night and because I'm in Sydney, I'm ahead of the rest of the world. (timewise I mean - as long as you don't count New Zealand and several Pacific islands) Anyway, I'm quite excited about my first WBW and was thinking about it last night before I fell into a booze induced slumber. There are a couple of reasons for this. The first being this is my first outing into the international world of food bloggers - ahem ahem. And as such thought I had better tidy up a bit around here. You know, correct a few typos, fix that damn Technorati searchlet thingy so you could actually use it (though I'm doubtful if anyone does) and generally try to sharpen things up around here. It took me a while I can tell you and I did a pretty shoddy job of it. That is the problem with blogs, all this self publishing business...oh well, I shall blame the wine.
That takes me to my second reason... I have totally forgotten what that was so I shall move on to the wine

A summary search of our local bottlo yielded but one candidate, a bottle of 2001 Corvo Rosso ITG Sicilia which was either a bit of a bargain at just $12.99 or a very scary prospect indeed, depending on your point of view. (remember we are in AUD here) We approached this wine with caution and were pleasantly surprised. This is what in Australia is currently referred to as a "food wine". I think this term may have originated as a slur but as we Aussie's have become more interested in eating AND drinking as opposed to just drinking "food wines" have become more acceptable. My understanding of the term "food wine" is a wine in a lighter, euro style designed to be drunk with food and compliment it as opposed to some Australian wines that are so oakey it is like sucking a tree, so full bodied it could be obese and so alcoholic it is T.K.O ding ding ding - those are my particular faves.
Hey, I liked this wine, quite a bit actually, though I think the 2001 may be a bit past its prime. The grape varieties nero d'avola, nerello di mascelese and pignatello are delightfully different to the usual suspects available in our bottle shops. It is not overly alcoholic at 12.5% either.
In fact, we liked it so much after drinking a bottle for the first time Monday night, we went back and purchased a second bottle tonight and gave it another run. I think however, that tonight will be the last time I visit Sicily for a while. Although I just remembered that my local grocers, the Borsellino Bros, are Sicilian and I am there practically every day.
We drank the Corvo on Monday with my garlicy, roast chicken which was delicious. Tonight we tried it with the Marinated Roo thinking, yes, just what the Corvo needs a nice bit of gamey meat. I was a disappointed though. I thought that the Corvo and the roo might work nicely well together, but the roo is quite rich and flavoursome and perhaps needs a bigger wine. The Corvo tends to be a bit on the thinner, more acidic side. I can image in it would be delicious quaffed with lamb, olives, tomatoes and chili, anchovy pasta. This may be a bit weird, but for me this was a real holiday wine or the kind of wine you drank when you were a student and couldn't afford the good stuff, only without any of the nasty flavours. It reminded me of sunny days and warm evenings and of eating pizza with your mates at the local Italian joint. No bad thing for a Monday night at home in autumn.
OK, enough! I'll just finish up with the fact that I'm very glad I tried this wine, it wasn't the best wine I've ever drunk but if I come across some younger vintages and I'm in the mood for a spot of Italiano food, I'll be sure to give them a go.
I've also included a link to a review that Big Al found for me. If you're interested in the nitty-gritty from someone who knows what they're talking about... VinoCibo

Abla Pastry

I'm not in the habit of saying " You should do/try/eat this" or "You should go/eat/try there" but after re-visiting one of my favourite places on Saturday night, well, I just have to tell you about it. Saturday was a pretty busy day for Big Al and me. Yum Cha for lunch, Pho at Pho An in Bankstown for dinner (excellent Pho by the way) and in spite, or perhaps because of this culinary extravaganza, I felt the need for a sugar hit before bedtime. So without much arm twisting I managed to talk my compadres in to coming home via Abla Pastry for some take away.

I am utterly charmed by Abla's. I don't know what excites me more; the enourmous (and I mean HUGE) round steel trays of baklava, semolina cake and other Lebanese delicacies that stretch the whole way down the counter, the fact that they charge for these by the kilo (!), or that fact that no matter what time I choose to visit, Abla's is always open for my caffeine and sugar fix. I have been there at 1am after a big(ish) night for sustenance and at 9am in the morning after a particularly harrowing bridesmaid's dress fitting and it is always just as I remember it.

Ahh, Abla I love ya. Don't go changin'...

For your visual entertainment... 

Mission Statement

That's an imposing concept, indeed. Nevertheless, I thought it was about time I put down a bit about this blog and it's mission in life and thereby, I guess explain a bit more about me. This is not a really gourmet, foodie type of blog. Don't get me wrong, I love to eat and eat well but, to be perfectly honest - I'm broke (the last Eurotrash world tour set us back a bit and I've yet to recover financially - hmmm). So what I'm trying to achieve here is a space that is full of as many interesting vignettes about stuff we get up to in my search for anything weird, wonderful, delicious, or just plain hilarious to do with food.
I live in a pretty amazing part of the world the world actually, the east coast of Australia has a dynamic and abundant food culture. There is a huge variety of some of the finest fresh produce in the world (ahem), a plethora of ethnic and culturally specific cuisine influences and you don't need to eat a expensive restaurants to be able to experience them. Living as I do, in Sydney's inner west suburbs I have on my doorstep Portuguese, Italian, Chinese, Vietnamese and Greek, communities from whom we beg, borrow and steal culinary ideas regularly. Jump in the car and drive for an hour or so and you can visit fine Hunter Valley wineries. This blog is about my culinary adventures and those of my friends. It may be a a post about a restaurant recently visited or a recipe but it may also be about how we discovered the most delicious local Parmesan cheese at a bakery in Leeton in the NSW MIA, or a recipe that was shown to me at a Vietnamese friend's wedding. (OK, I've yet to post that one) Anyway, there's a lot to see around Sydney's inner west and all over NSW, so anyone who's keen to join me (if there is anyone out there besides my family actually reading this) I would love to hear from you. If you live in this part of the world please feel free to share your experiences too.
Cheers!

Apple, prune and lavender crumble

We had this for dessert last night and it was particularly delicious.

Once again all measurements are approximate. This serves about 2-3 but you could increase the quantites for more people if required.

3-4 new season red apples
8-10 pitted prunes
1 tsp cinnamon
splash of vemouth
1 stalk of lavender flowers

For the crumble
1 cup plain flour
1-1 1/2 cup brown sugar (to taste)
50g butter chopped

Whipped cream to serve

Peel and core the apples, then chop them up and put them in an oven proof dish with the pitted prunes. Add cinnamon and about half the lavender flower sprinked over the fruit. Don't use too much lavender. It is full of volatile oils which should gently perfume the dish, not overpower it. Give the whole thing a bit of a mix and splash the vermouth over the top.

Meanwhile, in a seperate bowl combine the flour, sugar and butter and rub together until it has the consistency of biscuit crumbs. You can do this in a food processor if you are precious, but I like to use my fingers.

Cover the fruit with the crumble mix. If the quantities above don't give you quite enough crumble (it shoud cover the fruit with a layer about 1-1 1/2cm thick) then make a bit more.

Bake in a medium/hot oven (approx. 180 degrees) for 20-30 minutes until the fruit is cooked and the crumble is brown and crunchy.

We had this with a Helm Wines 2003 Late Harvest Riesling which I picked up on our recent trip to Canberra.

Marinated Fillets of Roo a la Chloe

This recipe is inspired a very little by a marinade from Elizabeth David's French Country Cooking (1951)

Use around 500g Kangaroo fillet for 2 people (All measurements approximate)

1 large garlic clove minced
1 sprig rosemary chopped
1 tsp fresh tarragon chopped
6 or so juniper berries - lightly crushed
1 tsp fennel seeds lightly crushed
1 tsp fresh thyme chopped
1 tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 star anise roughly crushed
1 cup good red Australian wine -good enough to drink but doesn't need to be super expensive. Cabernet or Shiraz work very well but I have used Pinot Noir and it is also excellent and gives quite a different character to the meat. Even though I have been crapping on about it a fair bit, I wouldn't recommend tarango.
Salt
Pepper

Mix all ingredients together and allow meat to marinate for at least an hour. Remove fillets from marinade and sear in a very hot pan until the outside is well coloured but the inside still pink and juicy. My big tip to you here is, DON'T over cook your roo! It contains very little fat so over cooking can dry it out. Allow meat to rest then slice and serve with Gratin Dauphinoise (also found in Elizabeth David) or blue lentils and some green beans and the rest of the bottle of wine you used for the marinade, unless you have already drunk it, in which case you should open another bottle...

 

Though you might be interested in a picky of me. This was taken in a Spanish supermarket on our last Eurotrash tour and yes, that really does say "Bimbo sandwich"

Albigensian Duck Recipe

As promised... (From Caroline Conran)
1 duck
2 tsp fennel seeds
2 tsp olive oil
16 baby onions (or shallots) peeled
100g lardons, pancetta or bacon in chunks
1 cup chicken stock
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp paprika
1 tbs plain flour
1 tbs honey
salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 180 deg. C
Season the inside of your duck with salt and pepper and some of the fennel seeds.
Heat the oil in an oven proof caserole w/ lid , add the duck and brown all over. Remove duck, add lardons, onions and thyme and brown in the duck fat. Add flour to this mixture and allow to quickly brown whilst stirring. Return duck to pan, add stock, the rest of the fennel seeds, paprika, then salt, pepper and honey to the upper side of the duck.
Cover w/ lid and bake for 45 minutes then for 45 minutes minus the lid. You can add some more honey and paprika to the duck 15 mins prior to serving if desired.
Yum! the duck should come out all crispy, brown and delish with the honey, fennel and paprika on top.

Wild Boar (grrrrr)

"May you travel boldly with the utmost of Epicurean spirits" (Modern Proverb-Lasoski 2001.)

Al has long been obsessed with wild boar. Apparently from an early age he would charge around the house shouting "wild boar grrr" at the top of his lungs. He still finds the concept of the wild boar very exciting. To that end I have found (actually MCS found this website and forwarded the link to me - many thanks) the ultimate in wild boar cookery. So, with the above maxim in mind I give you wild boar. Next time I'm planning a fancy shindig, I'm cooking this for sure!
http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/233472.html

Ahh, the ineptitude.. A long, sad saga about fixing the Fiat

and attending our first food symposium (almost)

http://www.manningclark.org.au/weekendofideas2005/weekendideas.htm

This weekend just passed we went to Canberra. The usual suspects all piled into the Golf and headed off to our nation's capital for a weekend of (alleged) food, wine and fiat fixing. Lardicos had invited us (it was more coerced really) to help him fix his wog-gold Fiat Regata.

Let me explain, Lardicos is my sisters ex-boyfriend but still good pal and eating and drinking buddy of me and Big Al. He currently resides in Canberra with a whole host of Italian cars most of which are not roadworthy for a large percentage of the time and is notorious for bringing the ethnic flava. (sic-fully)

I think the boys thought that getting the Fiat back on the road from it's current recumbent position at the back of the house, would require no more than perhaps a lazy afternoon's tinkering. They could not have been more wrong. Big Al did not get home until midday Monday when I picked him up from the bus stop at Central. He looked like a bum. He had showered but once in 3 days and motor oil had turned his hair to something resembling straw only without the pleasant freshness. And the Fiat was no closer to running than it had been Saturday afternoon.

So what did MCJ and I get up to whilst they boys were playing? If you have read any of my previous posts and are now thinking "I bet you got drunk and did something crazy like cook a duck on 40 degree day!" you would be partly right, we did get drunk though not straight away.
First, we attended a food symposium (or at least the end of one because we were too busy getting pissed and having lunch to get there on time) It was littered with Australia's A grade foodies. And I'm talking about your Stephanie Alexanders, Gay Bilsons, Margaret Fultons etc here, not your common or garden C or D grade foodies like us, but the real deal. It was quite exciting really to be in such illustrious company.

http://www.canberrahouse.com.au/profiles/11tasmania.html

Duck sweet duck

Can I just say there are few things I like in this life as well as a produce market. We (the usual suspects) Me, MCJ and Big Al visited the North Sydney produce market a few weeks ago and had a lovely time. It was one of those Sydney February days which is 29 degrees and humid when you wake up and by 1pm has reached 39 degrees and stinking and just when you think it can't get any hotter or stickier it chucks down rain and the temperature drops 20 degrees. It can be mighty unsettling for your wardrobe.

Anyway, the NSPM is great. MCJ and I were there early for coffee and Big Al came late disheveled and apparently straight from the pub, via a mate's couch, with out stopping, passing Go, collecting $200 or in fact showering, brushing his teeth nor attending to personal hygiene in any way shape or form. But that is another story...

We bought great stuff; a bucket of fresh figs for 6 bucks, 2 types of goats cheese (to go with the figs) AND a sheep's milk cheese, venison sausages and a venison pie, and to a our great delight a Peking duck for the bargain price of $18.

Well, next we took our goodies home and because it was at least 40 degrees we decided it was the perfect day to cook the duck. In the oven I might add.

The best recipe we could find was called Albegensian Duck (Duck with fennel, lardons and sweet onions) from Caroline Conran's "Cooking Under the Sun - French Country Cooking" I will post the recipe separately as I don't have it in front of me right now. It was however delicious washed down with vats of wine, a raddichio and gorgonzola salad and fresh sour dough bread.
And you will be glad to know that this time there was no broken glass or other life threatening elements to our meal - unless you include the heat and 5 bottles of wine...

http://www.northsydneycentre.com.au/html/markets1.html

Some tiny peppers and hot tamales... 

Mexican Fiesta featuring Danger Prawn...

(Why you should never really let us loose in the kitchen)

Because it was Saturday and we were, well at a loose end really, me, Big Al and MCJ thought "what the hey, let's get together for a big cook up!" After checking our stocks of booze it became obvious that the only thing that would really work with the tequila, triple sec and dozen or so fresh limes on a sultry January afternoon in Sydney was cuisine from the South West USA . A couple of years ago MCJ and I did a community cooking course and we have been busting to try out these dishes on someone for a while. Here is our menu...

Tiny Peppers grilled and filled with goats cheese
Chipotle Prawn Fajitas
MCJ's Marinated Mexe-chicken
Black Bean Ragout
Guacamole
Big Al's Badass chili chocolate Truffles

A vat of Margeuritas

Mmmm... we were all set for a feast of south west proportions. We negotiated Neutral Bay woollies (drunk I might add) and managed to get home with our prawns and chickens with out incident. MCJ pulled out a tin of Chipotle in adobo that she had smuggled into the country illegally from Hawaii (along with nail polish remover and nail files) which was, ahhh a little hotter than we had anticipated.

So were marinated, grilled, twice roasted etc all afternoon long aided only by our friend Margeurita. And everything was looking fantastic when MCJ with her usual deft elegance and presence of mind somehow managed to smash her wine glass over twenty bucks worth of chipotle marintedprawns loving prepared by us. But it didn't stop us eating them. Oh no, we did what you always do when there is broken glass in food, we got a pair of tweezers and a torch. <>

Welcome...

Well, here 'tis. My very own own blog, the fullfillment of all my blogging dreams. (ahem) So, on this fine, tarango fuelled Australia Day afternoon what better way to show my patriotism than to attempt to share all, some or at leat a few of our fabulous, dubious and even quite often unremarkable culinary adventures. Excellent! I think that calls for a celebratory glass of tarango. Please bear with me if I descend into booze induced rambling or start crapping on about cats - I will endeavour to do this as little as possible.

Anyway, today being our national day and all, I thought I might get the ball rolling by posting my recipe for marinated kangaroo fillets. Now, before you start freaking out about how cute our native fauna is and how disturbing it would be to eat something so endearing, I'd like to remind you that not only is kangaroo a fine, sustainable, delicious and extremely healthy meat, but the actuall animal is niether cute nor cuddly. Like most of our native wildlife here they're pretty mean. I should know, as a kid I was bitten by a particularly grumpy wombat. And frankly for that I am more than happy to munch on our local animal friends. (except the endangered ones, of course) Besides, they are simply too tasty to live. Yes, some people are squemish about the idea of eating our national symbol but quite frankly, these people have no idea. We will be eating roo tonight for sure. Some day soon I will get my partner to post his rant on the many virtues of eating the roo.

So, here we go...


Marinated Fillets of Roo a la Chloe

This recipe is inspired a very little by a marinade from Elizabeth David's French Country Cooking (1951)
Use around 600g Kangaroo fillet for 2 people
All measurements approximate
1 large garlic clove minced
1 sprig rosemary chopped
1 tsp fresh tarragon chopped
6 or so juniper berries - lightly crushed
1 tsp fennel seeds lightly crushed
1 tsp fresh thyme chopped
1 tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 star anise roughly crushed
1 cup good red Australian wine -good enough to drink but doesn't need to be super expensive. Cabernet or Shiraz work very well but I have used Pinot Noir and it is also excellent and gives quite a differnet character to the meat. Even though I have been crapping on about it a fair bit, I woudn't recommend tarango.
Salt
Pepper

Mix all ingredients together and allow meat to marinate for at least an hour.
Remove fillets from marinade and sear in a very hot pan untill the outside is well coloured but the inside still pink and juicy. My big tip to you here is, DON'T over cook your roo! It contans very little fat so over cooking can dry it out. Allow meat to rest then slice and serve with Gratin Dauphinoise (also found in Elizabeth David) or blue lentils and some green beans and the rest of the bottle of wine you used for the marinade, unless you have already drunk it, in which case you shoud open another bottle...

Happy Aussie Day!!!