Cooking Across 4 Generations

There is a long standing and still unsolved mystery in our family. It involves winter, strawberries and sponge cake.

We of the younger generation never really experienced it, but Nan, her sisters, and their children did. Nanna would always bake a sponge as a birthday cake. Always with fresh cream and strawberries. Now most people would say that is traditional and to be expected. But, in the middle of winter, back in the period 1930 to 1960, when there were no supermarkets with a year round supply of strawberries, it started a mystery.  

Sure Nanna and Poppa lived on a farm with their family, but Nan, Sheila, Pam, Audrey and Betty do not recall seeing any sign of a strawberry being ripe in the colder months. Even after Nanna and Poppa moved in to town and had a good vegie patch in the backyard, there was still no sign of a fruiting strawberry in winter.

Nanna’s sponge recipe of choice was the Fielder’s Cornflour Sponge, usually found on the side of the box of cornflour. Nanna never had a failed sponge with that recipe. Of course Nanna also had fresh eggs readily available, even after the move to town.

To this day no one knows the answer. When Nanna passed away in 2001 the answer went with her.

FIELDER’S SPONGE SANDWICH
3 eggs
4 tablespoons caster sugar
2 heaped tablespoons cornflour
1 dessertspoon plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder

Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth and add the egg yolks. Add the sugar gradually and beat until stiff and the sugar has dissolved. Add the sifted cornflour, flour and baking powder. Place the mixture into 20cm sandwich tins.
Bake in a moderately hot oven, 180C gas, 215C  for 15 minutes

Cool 5 minutes in the tin and then turn out onto wire rack. Fill with fresh whipped cream, strawberry jam and fresh strawberries. Top with more cream and strawberries.

Thanks for indulging a memory.

V

September 9th saw us getting ready for another of our gourmet wine nights. The wine chosen for this event came from iconic Australian winery Penfold’s.
Several months ago we came up with a menu and then matched 5 Wines from the Penfold’s stable with each course at a tasting in July. As Penfold’s does not produce a sparkling wine to go with the canapes, Johnathon from Treasury Wine Estates suggested the Seppelt Salinger Pinot Noir Chardoonay 2006.

Our menu for the evening was(photos are from our tasting):
Velvety Duck liver parfait, blood orange and pink peppercorn marmalade, woodfire bread Melba toast
Matched with Koonunga Hill Autumn Riesling 2008

Spiced butternut pumpkin soup with Queensland spanner crab
Matched with Bin 23 Adelaide Hills Pinot Noir 2009

Fillet of salmon slow cooked in olive oil, soft herb crust, pommes Anna, fennel crisp
Matched with Bin 311 Tumbarumba Chardonnay 2009

Mille feuille of kangaroo loin with a native pepper sauce and sauteed warrigul greens
Matched with Kalimna Bin 28 Shiraz 2007

Maple and pecan bread(brioche) and butter pudding with mascarpone ice cream
Matched with Cellar Reserve Viognier 2009

All the courses were a hit but I have to say the dessert got the biggest applause. This was due to the fact that we made the brioche, made the mascarpone and then the ice cream. It was great to see how excited our guests are when we detail what we have actually made in house rather than bought in. We also made our own puff pastry for the mille feuille and included some of the native pepper in it. Having the native pepper through the pastry gave it a lovely speckled look.

In all a great night. Looking forward to our next one which we will be doing in November with wines from Tasmania.

Thanks for having a look!

Having “foraged” quite a few passionfruit over the past 2 weeks, I thought I might make a souffle. Usually I make a strawberry one but any fruit that makes a puree is suitable. Also it has been too long since I last made one.

The recipe I use comes from a book called The Essential Dessert Cookbook from Murdoch Publishing. As it is just the two of us I generally divide the recipe in half, which is easy to do with this recipe.  I decided to keep some of the seeds(okay quite a few) in the mix and strained the rest through a sieve. Not quite enough so had to bulk it up with some milk. It really is the simplest souffle recipe to use, being a roux with fruit puree, sugar and egg whites. I tend not to use the full quantity of sugar but taste the puree first to see how sweet it is and then add the sugar. Sometimes it will be just a little sugar added and sometimes a bit more is required.

These are my ‘foraged’ passionfruit. There is a vine that comes out across the footpath when I go to Woolworths and there are often several just lying in the gutter and many squashed on the road….

Not quite enough for the recipe, time to add extra liquid….

Basic roux….

Gorgeous colour highlighted with the black flecks….

Time to get it in the bowl before adding the egg whites….

Egg whites added and into the souffle dishes….

And 25 minutes later, think I should have used the smaller souffle dishes….

To finish them I just sprinkle a little icing sugar on them and serve with whipped cream. (Sometimes I splash out and get a tub of King Island cream). The souffles were quite delicious and would have gone nicely with a glass of sticky wine.

Until next time.

V

We got our invites from MLA Grazing Club for another Masterpieces lunch, this time to be held at Pony in the Rocks. The day turned out to be sunny but a little cool but just right for sitting out on the verandah at Pony. I haven’t been to Pony for a couple of years so it was good to head back to see what has been happening there.

To my surprise one of the apprentices I used to work with at Star City was attending and also one of our former chefs from the Club. Good to catch up with them. Also attending were some guests from the US.  Chefs Anthony Jacquet of Whispers Lounge in Los Angeles and  Kristina Vanni of Terraces Winery, had won a burger competition run by MLA in the US. Also along with them were 2 of the judges chef Rick Gresh from David Burke’s Primehouse at the James Hotel, Chicago and Chandra Ram from Plate Magazine. There were in Sydney for three day experiencing several of our great restaurants and then there were headed to Adelaide for a cook off against Aussie chefs. They also got to see several farms and wineries on the trip.

On to the food.

I love getting the new Chef’s special when it comes out….

The Menu….

Two of our entrees….

Twice cooked short rib of beef, bone marrow, eschallots, parsley and capers…. 

Marinated flank grilled on the wood fire, grilled pears, mesclun, fetta and walnuts

Diners on the table, Rick Gresh and Chandra Ram in the front….

The other end of the table….

There was dessert but something happened to it before I could take a photo….

So another great lunch organised by the MLA team show casing what chefs are doing with the masterpiece cuts. It was also great to meet chefs from another part of the world and talk about what is happening in the culinary scene in America. Should I get to the US I know a couple of restaurants I will be heading to.

Thanks for having a look! Catch you next time.

L

Yesterday we went to our non local, local for lunch. Bistro Moncur is the kind of restaurant that you feel is your local even if you have to go 5 or 6 suburbs to get there. We wish we had a restaurant like this with in walking distance, but alas we don’t. Generally we will bus in to the city and then walk out to Woolahra from there.
You may remember from a previous post that R and I went to Moncur Terrace a few weeks ago. That visit Bistro Moncur (downstairs) was quite busy and decibel level was a bit high, so we ate upstairs in the Terrace. Yesterday however it was a bit quieter so we decided to eat in the Bistro(great having a choice of two dining areas). First thing to sort out was what to drink. We decided to splurge a little yesterday and ordered a bottle of Perrier Jouet Blason Rose. Gorgeous colour and very tasty. I decided to have a dish of Ballotine of Barossa chicken spiked with basil pistou, crisp skinned pork belly, house pickled turnips, brocolini, baby potatoes and creamed parsnip. R had Panfried Spanish Turbot with green beans, King Edward potato, pickled cumquat and a broccoli heart puree. We decided to skip a dessert and instead had the cheese selection with Holy Goat Skyla, Rouzaire Camembert, and Strzelcecki blue served with house made quince paste and great tasting lavosh.

R’s Turbot with a bit of mine in the background….

As usual a great meal. We have never been dissapointed with any of our dining experiences at Bistro Moncur or Moncur Terrace. Always great service and food.

Dinner was a quick and easy Tandoori chicken and selection of naan from another of our favourites, Faheem’s Fast Food in Enmore.

We were lucky to find one of our favourite champagnes, Heidseick and Co’s Monopole, back in stock at  Vintage Cellars in Newtown. It went down quite well and hopefully Vintage Cellars can restock it again soon, as we got the last bottle on the shelf.

That wraps up another Sunday of dining out.

Tomorrow I am off to Pony with the MLA for another Grazing Club luncheon, really looking forward to that.

Catch you soon!

Well winter is almost over for another year. This means the opportunity to indulge in heavy foods is coming to an end. So last night we had fondue. Along with Raclette it is one of two Swiss meals that I can do.

As Woolworths was out of the Le Superbe Brand of fondue mix and I didn’t get to place an order for fondue mix, Gruyere or emmentaller cheese with Christian at Fromart, I had to make my own up. As it was only for two people there was no need to make a huge amount. I bought some Swiss style cheese and lo and behold Woolies actually had some Swiss Gruyere, so all was not lost by using the slightly blander Aussie product.

Here is my version.

For two People…

200-230 Gr Gruyere cheese

200-230Gr Emmentaler(or Swiss style cheese)

1 garlic clove

Kirsch

300ml Riesling

pinch Paprika

pinch white pepper

Pinch nutmeg or mace

Cut the garlic clove in half and rub all over the inside of the pan. Cut one or 2 slices of the garlic and place in the saucpan with the wine. Place on stove and bring to a simmer. Add the cheese and turn heat to medium. Cheese will need to be stirred until completely melted. Once the cheese and wine have combined add Kirsch to taste( I like about a tablespoon for the quantity of cheese given), season with the spices and check the flavour. If the fondue looks grainy or runny I mix a little bit of cornflour with water and stir it in until the mixture looks smooth and “creamy” just remember to cook the cornflour out for a minute or two.

Put fondue pot on to the stand above the burner and dip cubes of baguette in to it.

Most of the time I use plain white baguette or I get a 1/2 sour dough baguette and a 1/2 plain baguette. As Rene likes his bread cubes a bit bigger I cut each baguette in half down the length  and then each half gets cut again down the length. This gives 4 long pieces of baguette. I then cut each piece across the length (about 1.5cm – 2cm).  We also drink the rest of the reisling as we find reisling goes best with the richness of cheese.

Hope you enjoy my version of fondue!

Well all quiet in this direction. However in the past four weeks we have  eaten out five times.

We went to Wildfire for lunch one Sunday and went for dinner at Tabou on another Sunday.
Wildfire. Always good for the churrasco. This was the first time we had been to Wildfire for Sunday lunch. We had churrasco again which was great as usual. A  bottle of Chandon Rose, nice drop and then we spotted Dom Perignon(our favourite) sold by the glass!! So no dessert for us  just 2 glasses of Dom. Apparently they have some capsule that will keep Champagne fresh for up to 3 weeks. An open bottle of champers would never last that long in our house.

The Chandon Rose..

 Can you tell I love Dom Perignon?

Then a week later we went for dinner at Tabou in Surry Hills. Slightly disappointed this time round. Food was good service was a bit lack lustre. We always BYO to Tabou and it seemed that people who ordered wine were topped up quicker than we were. Maybe they didn’t like our bottle of Moet. Hopefully service will pick up again and the food return to it’s previopus best. But we did enjoy what we ordered.

This past weekend we went to ECQ bar for drinks and then on to Sailors Thai in The Rocks on the weekend. My first visit there but R has been there several times for business lunches. Really enjoyed it. But I love Thai food. Great service and great food. Our wine order was put through wrong and we ended up with a bottle of Paul Bara Champagne instead of a Loire sparkling.  The three dishes we had were: spicy southern curry of suzuki mulloway; twice marinated red curry of grilled spatchcock with pickled ginger; braised tasmanian grass fed beef ribs dressed with lime, green chilli and shallots(hungry just thinking about them). Will definitely be going back.

Then Sunday we headed up to Katoomba for an over night stay at Lilianfels. As we had a late check in we had lunch at Echoes Boutique Hotel and Restaurant which is next door to Lilianfels. We both had a very nice Confit Duck Risotto with mushrooms, a fabulous 1/2 bottle of Henschke 2006 Euphonium, followed by a selection of Australian cheese(we ordered a one person size and there was enough for two, so great value). Then we checked in to Lilianfels at 3. Wandered around, played pool and relaxed until dinner. Dinner was noisy with screaming children and unfortunately the menu seems to have been dumbed down from it’s usual high standard. Read very much like an RSL bistro menu. But it tasted good , but plain fare. Unfortunately the fine dining is closed on Sundays so we missed out on dining there. We did notice that Swiss Cottage is now open on Sundays so we will probably dine there in future, or go in to Echoes. Breakfast was also a bit disappointing with a 10 minute wait for a seat and then no scrambled eggs until we had been there 20 minutes, and no strawberry jam for my croissant. Cappucinos and Lattes are now extra. Such a change(and not a good one) from when we first went there 5 years ago. Back then there was the buffet and you got to choose one a la carte item cooked freshly for you.  I remember last year when we went that there was such a line up to get in for breakfast that we ended up just checking out and having McDonalds.

One good thing was we saw a few snow flakes falling, and at 1130 when we were leaving it was only 3 degrees celcius.

So this weekend will be a stay at home one. Hopefully no rain so I can light the BBQ for a change.

Catch you soon!

V

This is a cake we are currently doing at work which I had a recipe for. I can’t remember where I got the recipe from as I forgot to write it down. It is really rich and dense and of course VERY tasty. The recipe didn’t have any icing or topping so I added a nice layer of chocolate ganache just to push it over the edge or extravagance.

If you don’t know what ganache is we use a mix of equal parts cream and couverture chocolate. Bring cream to a simmer and then pour it over the broken up chocolate until it all melts together. You can use it runny as a great sauce for desserts or ice cream, or when it cools but is still runny pour it over a cake. Once it sets you can also roll it in to balls and then roll in cocoa.

We serve it with some berry compote that we make and customers choice of cream or ice cream(I prefer cream). As we get a few coeliacs in this is great for them to have.

Thanks for having a look !

V