The Perfect Hollandaise

It's no coincidence that the word "hollandaise" bears a remarkable aural resemblance to "holidays".  And don't we all tend to associate a good hollandaise accompaniment to a lazy long late breakfast of perhaps eggs and some perfect pairings: smoked salmon, baby spinach, grilled tomatoes, avocado, good sourdough, or anything else which takes your fancy at that time of day.

I think I need holidays, I mean, hollandaise.  Here's my almost foolproof version:

Simmer some water in a small saucepan, and put a heatproof bowl over the top (I use a small ceramic pudding dish).  Add 4 room temperature egg yolks and add 2 dessert spoons of freshly squeezed lemon juice, whisk with a fork until combined.  Dice up an entire stick (250g) of unsalted (also room temp) butter, and add in one piece at a time to the yolks.  Keep whisking, adding a few pieces of butter at a time, until melted and the sauce is thick.  If it starts getting too thick just remove from the heat immediately and add in a small splash of hot water if necessary (keep the kettle boiled in case you need this contingency).  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Let cool slightly to thicken more, then spoon over your favourite breakfast.  Try not to eat it by the spoonful - remember how much butter went into it!

Taste Melbourne wrap-up

I've just arrived home from a day out in Carlton, exhausted and full to bursting, but satisfied and happy.  The wonderful people at Hothouse Media & Events were kind enough to not only provide three double passes for me to give away to some lucky readers for Friday's long lunch; but also gave me a double pass for me to enjoy.  At $30 a pop on the door - and considering you need to purchase all food and classes (excluding free tastings) in addition - it's pricy, so I really appreciated not having to pay the entry fee. 

Okay, so let's be honest about the negatives:  it's a heavily commercialised event where you essentially have to pay to have a bunch of companies market their stuff to you at every turn.  It's packed with people, in-your-face and noisy.  Events like this tend to turn us into animals; the chocolate stands in particular attracted hoardes of jostling piglets, hogging spaces in front of the free samples, grabbing multiple handfuls as soon as the plates of 70% cocoa were replenished.  I'd like to say I wasn't one of them but I'd be lying. 

That aside, I still think the festival is well worth a visit.  Especially if - like me - you're a passionate foodie with a list a mile long of fabulous restaurants you want to visit, but the budget won't allow it more than once every couple of months.  Where else can you sample some of Melbourne's best signature dishes from our top restaurants, for around ten bucks a plate, all on the same day?  The highlight for me was the King Island Dairy and James Squire's cheese and beer tasting session.  $12 bucks got us generous chunks of several different cheeses, matches with various accompanyments and different kinds of beer, plus a comprehensive commentary from two very bubbly hosts.

Other highlights included dishes from Embrasse (crispy pork belly with purple potato, hazelnuts and chocolate parfait & meringue in the shape of a mushroom on a 'forest floor' of chocolate 'soil'), The European (duck tortelloni with truffle oil), The Palace (wagyu burger), and Stokehouse (bombe - strawberry sorbet, white chocolate parfait and toasted meringue).  The exhibitor stalls were ok (some better than others) and the marketing people at Smeg would be pleased to know their new range of bright, pretty, retro fridges took my breath away - although for a 270 litre at over $3200, I think I can get something that holds more food.

A simple vanilla Creme Brulee

I'm going through a stage of searching for good old fashioned and simple comfort food recipes.  The classic winter staples - student pasta, slow cooked casseroles, apple pie.

It happens to be a perfect time for me to reflect on this because I've succumbed to one of those nasty colds every other person seems to be walking around with at the moment.  And while I'm hardly in the mood to get up from the couch - let alone cook - I did feel motivated on the weekend to try making one of my all time favourite desserts:  creme brulee.

Creme brulee is one of those things I tend to order at any given opportunity simply because I'd never made it myself and because it seemed like a difficult thing to do.  There are literally dozens of variations on making the custard, on flavouring, and on how to achieve the perfect "crack" texture on top, further adding to my creme-brulee-reluctance.

After some experimentation, I managed to work out a super simple way of making the perfect, classic, vanilla creme brulee. 

Basic vanilla creme brulee.

Pre-heat oven to 120c.  Put 600ml cream and a split vanilla pod (or 1/2 tsp vanilla essence) into a saucepan and heat to scalding point - take it off the heat just before it boils.  In a bowl, beat together (with electric hand mixer) 6 egg yolks and 1/2 cup caster sugar until pale and creamy.  Pour over the hot cream mixture (take out the pod first) and keep beating for a minute.  With a large metal spoon, skim off the froth from the top of the mixture and discard, then pour mix into four small/medium size ramekins.  Put the ramekins into a deep sided baking dish, and pour in boiling water until it comes halfway up the sides of the ramekins.  Place into oven for 40 minutes until just set - a slight wobble in the middle of the custards is good.  Cool before chilling them in the fridge for a few hours.  When ready to serve, evenly sprinkle 1/2 tsp caster sugar over each custard.  Place under a hot grill, or use a domestic blowtorch to heat the tops until browned.  It should "crack" with the back of a teaspoon when you hit it, and the custard underneath should be semi-set.

Taste of Melbourne 2010 - Long lunch tickets giveaway

Calling all foodies - it's so ridiculously easy to WIN a FREE DOUBLE PASS to Friday's long lunch at this year's Taste of Melbourne festival, you'd be mad not to enter!

The festival runs over four days, providing a golden opportunity to catch up with chefs, see live cooking demonstrations, and enjoy gourmet produce.  The best thing about the festival is the "choose your own adventure" style of eating.  You purchase your ticket depending on a preferred session time (lunch or dinner), and use the festival currency, - known as 'crowns' - to peruse and buy whatever takes your fancy from some of Melbourne's best restaurants.

Some of this year's fabulous food establishments include big names like Longrain, maze, Stokehouse, and Embrasse, plus many others sure to tempt the tastebuds.  In addition, there's a produce market with dozens of stalls, and speciality areas where you can check out demonstrations, wine tasting, Yarra Valley farmer's market and cocktail making.  This has surely got to be foodie heaven.

The festival runs over four days from August 26-29.  Tickets for standard entry come with a free Gourmet Traveller magazine and cost $27.50 if pre-purchased online.  However, I'm running a little competition for blog readers to win one of THREE, free double passes.  All you have to do is write me a quick comment below on your favourite restaurant or producer featuring in this year's festival along with your email address, (and join my blog, if you aren't already a faithful member) by midday this Friday 13th August. 

The three winners will be drawn randomly and will be notified via email.  Good luck!

A weekend of family and baking

I had one of those weekends where I just couldn't stop baking.  Maybe it's because I'd been away from home all week and needed to re-connect with my kitchen.  Or perhaps it's because we had people coming to stay and I just love looking after houseguests.

Pear and cinnamon cake - courtesy of a Weight Watchers recipe.  Trust me - it tasted every bit as delicious as it looks!

My sister has a cupcake fetish and I just love making them too - seeing as she was one of the guests staying over I figured it was a nice excuse to bake some.  My latest creation: mocha "bunny" cakes.  I used a cheap packet mix (buttercake) and added espresso, also adding coffee to the buttercream.  The ears are simply marshmallows cut in half.  The flavours worked really well; the cake wasn't sweet at all - almost bitter with the espresso - the buttercream is super sweet but also balanced out by the coffee.  Sis took most of them home; my brother and his girlfriend (who also stayed) took the remaining two. 

The morning after the night before.  With two guests left (my brother and his girlfriend), I thought it was a perfect occasion to cook up some fluffy pancakes from my "Cookery the Australian Way" book - still my favourite, and first ever, cookbook. 

I had some smoked salmon in the fridge (not unusual!) and felt like someting savoury, so topped my pancake with salmon, light sour cream, dill and lots of cracked pepper.  So simple but delicious.

My brother's girlfriend, A, made the suggestion to have chocolate pancakes.  I happened to have some dark chocolate in the cupboard - which was roughly chopped and mixed into some of the batter - the chocolate melted as the pancakes cooked and oozed out when they were cut into.  I didn't try any myself but everyone assured me they were tasty.  How could you go wrong with melted chocolate, really?

Billy Kwong

I had wanted to dine at Kylie Kwong's restaurant in Surry Hills ever since I chanced across an episode of her Simply Magic series some years ago.  I was blown away by her passion and love of Chinese food and culture, and shortly afterwards I ate my first Shanghai dumpling - beginning a love affair of my own with Chinese cooking.  And I've since had the pleasure to meet several friends who have lived in China, all of them only too happy to educate my palate.

The guiding philosophy behind Billy Kwong restaurant is:  "to leave as small and light an environmental footprint as possible, to give back to the community whenever and wherever we can, and to think globally and act locally".  Ahhh - be still my beating heart.

Under the red moody glow of a huge Chinese silk lantern in the small dining area, we ordered Sung Choi Bao, Kylie's signature Crispy Skin duck, fried rice, steamed Chinese greens - and the night's special, yabbies with thinly sliced vegetables and a chilli sauce.

The Sung Choi Bao was earthy and delicious, and served with a magnificent chilli sambal - which I put aside to have with the main course - it was also fantastic drizzled over the rice.  The yabbies came served in half shells, the meat pulled out first by our forks, until we got more confident and lost our manners - poking indexes in and pulling the meat free, shoving it in our mouths and licking the juice from our fingers.  But the highlight for me was the duck.  The portions were very generous - it may have been almost the whole bird - the skin not only crispy but also disintegrated  and gave way upon biting into it, and the meat so succulent and juicy it was hard not to race back to the plate for more.  The sauce it was swimming in was perfect - robust and sweet, with orange segments and cinnamon quills scattered about.  And the fragrance, incredible. 

Billy Kwong's does not accept bookings so we were left to chance getting a table - as it turned out we had to share a large table with another couple, who were enjoying a vegetarian degustation.  I did feel a little sorry for them, sharing with us ravenous duck-loving Melburnians- who made a disgraceful mess of our side of the table, adding to the general ambiance with our meat aromas, slurping and vocalising our delight at each mouthful.  We felt so comfortable there and were surrounded by many fellow food lovers who also didn't bother too much about table manners.  It was very refreshing - not only in terms of the food, but also the overall atmosphere - it felt good to be eating there on so many levels.

The evening was topped off by a simple dessert of poached pears with an almond praline and yogurt sauce.  It cleaned the palate well and was a perfect full stop behind succinct sentences of spice, sweet, crunch, salt, sour and succulence.  I couldn't resist purchasing a signed copy of Kylie's book "It Tastes Better" -  my husband joked that maybe their signature duck dish recipe would be in there and we shared a laugh.  Until I opened the book to discover that, yes - the duck dish was indeed included in the book.  Generous as her servings, Kylie Kwong is also willing to share recipes which some other high profile chefs would - justifiably - rather keep to themselves.

Bavarian Bier, B and B's, and Blasts from the past

This week hubby T and I took a trip to Sydney, "just because".  Both of us had flagged things we wanted to do well in advance.  He had spent many happy childhood summers on the sunny northern beaches with his family at his grandmother's home and wanted to take a trip down memory lane - we also caught up with his father one evening, who was in town on business.  I on the other hand wanted to - you guessed it - go restauranting. 

I used to work in a job that required me to travel frequently to Sydney for up to a week at a time, and got to be very familiar - thanks to an enthusiastic foodie colleague - with some of the good food in and around the CBD.  This being my first trip there in over a year (and the first trip that wasn't work-related for 10 years or more), I was keen to do the tourist thing and actually relax and enjoy the sights.  No taxis.  No rushing between offices or hotels.  No stress.

We flew in around dinnertime on Monday evening, with the option to head up to my husband's family flat on the north shore, but instead decided to grab some cheap accommodation in town, dump our luggage, and enjoy a meal at Lowenbrau in The Rocks.  I have a thing for saurkraut and sausage - and strangely, lederhosen - so this really hit the spot.  Similarly, T is a pork belly lover and I refuse to cook it as it stinks out the house, so he got his fix too.  All mopped up with warm pretzels and washed down with crisp bavarian beer by the 1/2 litre, we also enjoyed a naughty dessert of beer battered fried apple fritters dusted with cinnamon and sugar, which was so mouthwateringly good.

As luck would have it, I stumbled across the Australian Heritage Hotel in the Rocks while surfing the net earlier.  $69 per night "B and B", queen sized beds and clean and comfortable rooms (shared bathrooms).  I was dubious, but curious, and I'm so glad we gave it a go because it was fantastic.  The pub downstairs closed around 11pm so we weren't bothered by noise, no lining up to use one of the bathrooms/loos, there was even a shared living room area with games, tv and ... a tray with a carafe of port.  The next morning a nice lady buzzed around the living room as we munched on toast, cereal, juice and tea - making sure we had everything we needed and even offering to hold our luggage for the day.  Considering hotel accommodation in The Rocks generally starts at $250+ (for a basic room) - this was incredible value.

The next day we made our way via ferry and bus to T's family flat, where we again left our luggage and went exploring.  Lunch at the "Collaroy pie shop" - chicken avocado and brie pie! - before a walk around the beaches and then a bus trip up to "Summer Bay" (Palm Beach).  Beautiful beaches and scenery but we deemed it would be better to go back in the summertime, when the place really comes alive.  We enjoyed dinner back at Manly at the Bavarian Bier restaurant near the ferry terminal - again, T ordered pork belly, and I, sausage and saurkraut - pricier than Lowenbrau but the food was a step up.  Although the atmosphere at Lowenbrau is what makes it fun - where else can you be serenaded by a trio of brass instrument playing, german singing, lederhosen wearing gents as you enjoy your 'wurst (except maybe the Cuckoo)?

Speaking of which, I'll be at the Cuckoo this Saturday, enjoying a quirky Christmas in July with my sister, brother, and assorted friends and partners.  Three bavarian restaurants in less than a week (not including a breakfast on the run at the Vic Market last week) - I think I'll need to detox this week to give my liver - not to mention my lower intestine - a break.