tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69482976937100668872024-03-12T19:24:06.380-07:00Cooking with JohnCooking adventures of a (very) part time cook...John Hemptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03766274392122783128noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6948297693710066887.post-36676913892295375392017-06-04T04:08:00.001-07:002017-06-04T04:08:56.772-07:00Smoked roe - an experimentLast week I tweeted pictures of a chicken curry. And people asked for the recipe.<br />
<br />So I thought I would write out experimental stuff.<br />
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My neighbours (who know I have a smoker) offered me some fish roe. I have never smoked it so I did a little in small quantity - just to work it out.<br />
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First I mixed a couple of tablespoons of salt and sugar and covered it for about an hour. (I should in retrospect have done longer.) The brining works...<br />
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I was told in some recipes to blanch the roe - so I did so. It was a mistake - some of the roe surface broke...<br />
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Then prepare the smoker - coals in a chimney...<br />
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And set coals with a little cherry wood for smoke...<br />
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Smoke at about 90c for 90 minutes. I think I will do cooler next time.<br />
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And here is how it looked. Delicious...<br />
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<br />John Hemptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03766274392122783128noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6948297693710066887.post-51939126006925597572011-05-06T01:19:00.000-07:002011-05-21T06:30:59.843-07:00Note to self: an unpretentious parsley soup...Curley parsley. Lots. Chopped with stalks.<br />
Leek.<br />
Sweat in 30grams of butter.<br />
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A few potatoes peeled - mostly to thicken<br />
Light chicken stock.<br />
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Simmer.<br />
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Mix chopped chives into whisked cream.<br />
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Add a handful chopped fresh parsley to the soup.<br />
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Blend. Not for long. MODIFICATION - BLEND LONGER<br />
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Put back into saucepan.<br />
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Cream. Salt. Black pepper.<br />
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Serve with a bit of pepper and the chive cream.<br />
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This is a really good looking starter - and completely unpretentious.<br />
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JJohn Hemptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03766274392122783128noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6948297693710066887.post-4150501084160592082011-02-13T03:41:00.000-08:002011-02-21T01:57:52.619-08:00Note to self - duck with ginger braised in orange juiceMy wife has given me permission to cook curries again. My tendency is to spicy - and she stopped eating them when she got pregnant. That was a decade ago.<br />
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So - you will probably be treated to some Asian food recipes here. <br />
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Meanwhile I am watching Rick Stein's Asian adventures - and this recipe makes me salivate. I am going to cook it later and will report back.<br />
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Fry some (8?) duck pieces in a little oil for six or so minutes to get out the fat. Pour the fat out. <br />
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10 or so cloves of garlic - crushed - and put in -<br />
Lots of sliced ginger<br />
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Fresh orange juice - not enough to cover the duck - but a long way up.<br />
couple of tablespoons of fish sauce (guess that is where the salt comes from)<br />
Half a dozen star anise (only - you know my addiction) and<br />
3-4 chiles. Ah - now I have permission!!!<br />
Bruised stick of lemongrass. He says "gently bruised" before he bashes it senseless. The guy has humor.<br />
Spoonful of palm sugar<br />
Good grind of black pepper<br />
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Gentle stir and let it simmer for a while. I guess he wonders how free-range the ducks are. (Vietnamese ducks he figures simmer longer).<br />
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Pieces of spring onion for the last 10 minutes<br />
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He pulls duck and spring onion out.<br />
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Reduces sauce a little and thickens with corn-flour and water. <br />
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Decorates with a few more spring onion. <br />
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Gonna cook that I am.<br />
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John<br />
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POST SCRIPT: Cooked with a thai beef salad and rice. It is every bit as good as it should be. WONDERFUL.John Hemptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03766274392122783128noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6948297693710066887.post-7619046083528328632011-01-27T04:15:00.001-08:002011-01-27T04:15:34.928-08:00Salt fish and - well - custardHad a fabulous dinner Sunday - for an Asian family who had (literally) never had a really good Western meal.<br />
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--<br />
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Easy enough. Ocean Trout cooked in salt. Desert is custard. <br />
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Separate 10 eggs. Use the yolks to make a really good custard (say 450ml cream, 300ml milk, vanilla pod. Make the custard - and then bake ... Serve with sweetened stewed rubarb - in which you have conentrated the sauce. (Don't want to water that custard.) <br />
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But first the main:<br />
<div><br />
</div>Beat whites till stiff. Mix with 150g corn flour and 2kg salt. Lay 1cm on bottom of baking dish. lay out ocean trout - cover the whole thing in salt mix. Bake 200 c for 25 minutes. Let sit for 25 min. Serve with potato salad and salads.<br />
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You get the idea. Will write this up properly one day.<br />
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JJohn Hemptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03766274392122783128noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6948297693710066887.post-28273593605675756582009-07-04T02:21:00.001-07:002009-07-04T02:23:39.553-07:00Slow cooking with too hot an oven, bad Burgundy and other disastersOk - I am a good cook - but not always.<div><br /></div><div>It was slow roasted chicken with grapefruit - but it cooked way too fast. Served normally with polenta except the kid is not so keen on that - so it would have been dutch cream potatos mashed.</div><div><br /></div><div>Two salads - one blanched beans and dijon mustard and one with rocket parmasan, olive oil and balsamic. Nothing complex.<br /><br />Roman artichokes like you get in a good provincal restaurant out of Rome or in the Jewish quarter in Rome. I like but the wife does not.</div><div><br /></div><div>Good meal - but not fantastic. Cooked way too fast.</div><div><br /></div><div>J</div>John Hemptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03766274392122783128noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6948297693710066887.post-54925259413679234612009-06-15T02:23:00.001-07:002009-06-15T02:30:02.363-07:00Fish and Fennel againI had guests for dinner last night - and apart from a little too much of the Vino (Howard Park Reisling 2001, Mitchell Watervale Reisling 2002) - it went well.<div><br /></div><div>Quite a lot too it - but it presented simply.</div><div><br /></div><div>Started with the desert (at least I started cooking there). It was quince - six of them - peeled and cored and sliced into segments. Put in bottom of Le Cruset pot. Place a muslin cloth over it - and all the peel and core and two star anise and two cinnimin sticks above. About a cup and a half of dilute sugar syrup. Put on lid. Oven for four hours at 120c. </div><div><br /></div><div>Yum - and served with store bought ice cream.</div><div><br /></div><div>--</div><div><br /></div><div>Mains was a potato and caremelized onion gratin, fennel in vegetable stock, french beans with mustard and mayonaise. </div><div><br /></div><div>Prepare the vegies first - and take the scraps and boil them up for a vege stock.</div><div><br /></div><div>Then caremelize two spanish onions - low low heat and some butter for 45 minutes stiring every 5-10 minutes. They should go brown and not burn.</div><div><br /></div><div>The beans you top and tail, blanche in boiling water then an ice bath. At the end reheat in some butter serve with mustard and mayonaise. Simple really.</div><div><br /></div><div>The potatos are peeled and sliced (mandolin time). They are layered with potato and caremelized onion, salt, pepper, more potato, more onion, more potato. Stock in the bottom. Little butter on the top. Browns nicely in oven.</div><div><br /></div><div>The fennel is prepared and then grilled. It is then baked with the rest of the stock.</div><div><br /></div><div>The fish done as per the previous recipe - except this fish did not fit in the oven - so the barbeque was used as an oven. Then you can say you are serving barbeque fish - which hardly seems so pretentious.</div><div><br /></div><div>Good food was had by all.</div><div><br /></div><div>J</div>John Hemptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03766274392122783128noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6948297693710066887.post-55208394587064430682009-05-25T06:53:00.000-07:002009-05-25T06:57:12.500-07:00Barramundi and fennel<div><br /></div><div><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barramundi">Barramundi</a> is an estuary fish from Northern Australia. Fabulous fish. I guess you could use any high quality white flesh estuary fish. Maybe a big perch. </div><div><br /></div><div>I do this for 6-8 people. </div><div><br /></div><div>I am a fennel addict. Here is a simple one which I kind of like…</div><div><br /></div><div>Get yourself a big grill – something like <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Creuset-Enameled-Cast-Iron-9-Inch-Reversible/dp/B00004SBI9/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=kitchen&qid=1243259771&sr=1-2">this Le Cruset one</a>. Grill some fine slices of Fennel. Take them off. Let them cool.</div><div><br /></div><div>Take your whole barra, cleaned but with head on. Cut 3cm wide slices in the side. Stuff the centre with butter, fennel and parsley. Rub parsley and butter into the cuts.</div><div><br /></div><div>Grill both sides for 6 minutes.</div><div><br /></div><div>Put in oven on a low temperature (say 145c) till it is cooked.</div><div><br /></div><div>Serve with a green bean salad (blanche beans in boiling water then ice water – reheat in butter and mint). </div><div><br /></div><div>Also some potatos. Potato salad is fine.</div><div><br /></div><div>Just fabulous.</div><div><br /></div>John Hemptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03766274392122783128noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6948297693710066887.post-23785441689964515922009-04-27T00:37:00.000-07:002009-04-27T00:38:37.587-07:00The potato salad is a triumph<div><br /></div><div>We were invited to a barbeque a few weeks ago at the house of a professional chef. Simple barbeque – two salads and sausages – and indecent amounts of fine red wine.</div><div><br /></div><div>The most memorable thing though was a potato salad which contained caramelized onion.</div><div><br /></div><div>The chef would not give me the recipe. She never does.</div><div><br /></div><div>So I found a recipe on the web. Here it is.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://amanda.dd.com.au/cgi-bin/recipe/view.cgi?1077">http://amanda.dd.com.au/cgi-bin/recipe/view.cgi?1077</a><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Simple – but modestly time consuming as you need to fry the onion very gently for 45 minutes. Also it is kind of important to have everything warm – so do the sauce immediately, then put on the onion and the potatoes only towards the end.</div><div><br /></div><div>Highly recommended. </div><div><br /></div><div>Better to do simple things really well.</div><div><br /></div>John Hemptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03766274392122783128noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6948297693710066887.post-35289671142257610472009-02-18T17:18:00.000-08:002009-02-18T17:20:20.072-08:00My wife's present to meIts a rotisserie for the BBQ. First tried a lamb leg - had it on a little high and the fat fires burnt the outside of the leg (blackened it). But the meat was fabulous.<br /><br />Now need to control. Chicken.John Hemptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03766274392122783128noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6948297693710066887.post-2346886239519043962009-02-12T15:41:00.000-08:002009-02-12T15:47:28.940-08:00Mum is coming to dinnerTrick here - something that is impressive - but requires that I can disappear to the kitchen whenever the family stresses arise. <div><br /></div><div>But I don't want to be stuck in the kitchen because if mum is in good form I don't want to miss out.</div><div><br /></div><div>We didn't have Chrissy with my parents (the Goddess's parents got the guernsey). So this is make up. Impressive is required.</div><div><br /></div><div>------</div><div><br /></div><div>Take one neck cut of <a href="http://brontecapital.blogspot.com/2009/02/tapes-and-films-data-point-from-hell.html">bangalow pork</a>, some fat still on, no skin, cut 2.5cm thick. Brown. Boil up some shallots (1 minute). Cool under cold water. Peel. Pink Eye potatos cut into rounds 1cm thick. Raisins, sage. Cover stock. Star anise (I know I am addicted). Cover wet paper and foil. Low temperature 2.5 hours.</div><div><br /></div><div>Take out the stock about 10 minutes before serving. Cool suddenly and skim fat. Then reduce, reduce, reduce, touch of Balsamic V. </div><div><br /></div><div>Serve with steamed greens. </div><div><br /></div><div>--</div><div><br /></div><div>Easy enough.</div><div><br /></div><div>Then I got to do another Soufflee and custard. Trying to get these perfect. Working well now.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>J</div>John Hemptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03766274392122783128noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6948297693710066887.post-67115843796096402102009-01-20T22:08:00.000-08:002009-01-20T22:21:59.551-08:00Well the guest came to dinnerAnd I went off in the morning to my favourite butcher to buy two ducks. He wasn't there. So it was a fish barbeque. (Trusty Sydney fish market).<div><br /></div><div>The entree was not a salmon/salt/honey cure but a kingfish orange juice cure - a duplicate of Stefano. Quite nice too it was.</div><div><br /></div><div>I was also going to do a second course - the Carpacio. Went the way of the butcher.</div><div><br /></div><div>So in all braveness I decided to do mango soufle for desert. What is more - I made it up as I went along. Admittedly said Michelin chef gave me a few hints at the final stage - but everything was more or less done by the chef got there.</div><div><br /></div><div>Here goes.</div><div><br /></div><div>1). Clean copper whisking bowl with lemon juice and salt. Wash off salt, reclean with lemon juice. Chef said it has to be sterile. I am not to disagree. NO FAT is the critical thing. Should also clean the whisk but I did not.</div><div><br /></div><div>2). Separate out six eggs. Leave the whites in mixing bowl. Should be left for a few hours.</div><div><br /></div><div>3). Blend yolks with sugar. Heat 300 mls of milk and 200 mls of cream to about 85c (trusty thermometer). Mix about a quarter (slowly) with the yolks whisking as you go - part cooks the eggs. Mix the lot back together and put on stove stirring with wooden spoon. Something about coating - but all I wanted to do was get back to the trusty 85 centigrade. Mix in vanilla as you go. Let custard cool.</div><div><br /></div><div>4). Cut up about 1.5 mangos. Put in small pot with sugar and slowly cook. Do not let candy a much - just a touch will do. Put in juice from a quarter of a lemon. (The rest went with fish barbeque). Blend. As it cools at 50mls of cream. </div><div><br /></div><div>--</div><div><br /></div><div>Have guests to dinner. Preheat the oven to 180 C. No fan and USE AN OVEN THERMOMETER. </div><div><br /></div><div>5). Whisk egg whites till fairly stiff. The chef wanted me to do that by NOT beating but rather moving the whisk around in a very smooth manner.</div><div><br /></div><div>6). Fold in a third mango mix, then the rest, gently.</div><div><br /></div><div>7). Buttered ramkins (smally times 6) and the residual in a half litre ramkin. Put the stuff in GENTLY. No bubbles but no shaking. Ramkins on tray.</div><div><br /></div><div>25 minutes in the oven. Let it brown on top (clear oven door) and then 5 minutes more.</div><div><br /></div><div>Serve quickly with vanilla custard in jug.</div><div><br /></div><div>Fabulous.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>J</div>John Hemptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03766274392122783128noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6948297693710066887.post-82640350498125274622009-01-06T22:34:00.000-08:002009-01-06T22:47:09.592-08:00Guests for dinnerI am having a guest for dinner. Won't say which restaurant the chef is from - but Michelin hat material.<div><br /></div><div>Sort of puts the wood on me to cook well.</div><div><br /></div><div>Now to be inventive.</div><div><br />Having loved Stefanos so much I thought I might try Italian. But I want it to be 'first-time-I-have-cooked-this-warts-and-all". Just pressure myself really - but last two times I have cooked for said-chef I cooked set pieces - and that is just not trying.</div><div><br /></div><div>Course 1: honey cured ocean trout. A cup of honey, and about 50grams of salt. Handful of ground coriander seeds and fresh coriander. Mix the honey, salt and spices together. Lather over a side of pin-boned ocean trout. Leave in fridge for 24 hours. Wash, slice finely.</div><div><br /></div><div>Course2: beef carparcio and caper mayonaise. Ok - I am cheating - pure Stefano. Now the trick is usually to freeze the beef and use an industrial slicer. Try to work out how to do this at home. Will report back. I think I sear the outside of the beef - or alternatively get the friendly butcher to do it for me. Stefano suggest serving with witlof - which seems inventive for me (especially as it is not my idea...)</div><div><br /></div><div>Course3: its summer here - duck breast with cherries. Need to work out how to do the potatos. Thinly sliced with lots of butter I guess... but still a need for perfection here. Will buy two ducks and confit 4 legs for later. And bones for stock... </div><div><br /></div><div>Course4: here I am getting ambitious - strawberry icecream and meringue- as per Seans Panaroma. Fortunately the recipe is in Sean's book. But I have never tried it - and nothing in that book is easy.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>That looks like Saturday spoken for!</div><div><br /></div><div>Now - suggestion - masterchef is doing an Australian show. Should I try out?</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>J</div>John Hemptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03766274392122783128noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6948297693710066887.post-1677332361898334012008-12-24T21:51:00.000-08:002008-12-24T21:59:12.254-08:00Well the Turkey was a big old bird12 months old to be precise - and purchased at my father in law's country golf club. (This is no country club though - a real golf club where the pressing management issue is how much irrigation water they are allocated and how much it costs. It costs $3000 to water the course!!!)<br /><br />The guy killed the bird and turned up with it in his esky. It weighed in at 8.3kg or say 18lb in the old language. It fit in the oven at the old-folks home (just).<br /><br />We never got anywhere near the stuffing - that presumed you could actually carve that far in and on Christmas day there was no need.<br /><br />That said - brined turkey worked well. The bird was surprisingly two-tone - with very dark meat in the legs and white meat in the breasts.<br /><br />-------<br /><br />I tried curing some of the Murray River perch grandad caught using Stefano's orange juice and salt cure. It worked surprisingly well given you probably should cure oil fish and perch is not oily. Stefano swears by butter and sage (and perhaps a little of his salted lard).<br /><br />Speaking of salted lard I had some and wrapped part of the bird in it. Worked well.<br /><br />-------<br /><br />Salad was a simple success - very finely chopped fennel dressed with orange juice, some orange segments, olive oil and salt.<br /><br />Pudding finished a massive meal.<br /><br /><br /><br />And a typical family christmas - with all those domestic dramas was had by all.<br /><br /><br />JJohn Hemptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03766274392122783128noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6948297693710066887.post-12615435297938728532008-12-23T04:10:00.000-08:002008-12-23T04:17:48.866-08:00Turkey out of brineI have <a href="http://cookingwithj.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2008-11-25T20%3A05%3A00-08%3A00&max-results=7">brined chickens</a> for years - but I have never brined a turkey despite all the American books saying that is how you should do it. The New York Times gives a brined turkey recipe every Thanksgiving. <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/17/dining/171TREX.html">Here</a> is one...<br /><br />Anyway I have now taken the bird out of the brine. Its large - and free range - from some paddock around Mildura...<br /><br />And I am expecting all sorts of problems stopping it browning too much. Stefano (bless him) has given me some cured lard (belly fat from some female pig) and I will slice it and run it over the bird. I might wrap the legs with foil...<br /><br />Potatos, sweet potato, pumpkin. A few salads.<br /><br />Funnily enough in a breadbasket the local shops are awful. Need to work out how I hook into the Italian growers next time I do Chrissy here.<br /><br />Will let you know how it goes.<br /><br />JJohn Hemptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03766274392122783128noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6948297693710066887.post-39034593651080965392008-12-23T03:23:00.000-08:002008-12-23T03:45:22.781-08:00When you have been cooking all wrong...There is a trend in cooking - I think driven by the extreme scientific types - about concentrating flavours.<br /><br />When Thomas Keller makes a little soup (just a mouthful) from brocolli - the flavour of a whole bunch of brocoli is concentrated in that soup.<br /><br />When Hestor Blumenthal makes his (fantastic) spagetti bolognaise he has a dozen tricks to make the meat taste meatier - and its all about trace ingredients such a a touch of thai fish sauce and star anise. <br /><br />And I admit that I used the star anise pretty liberally for exactly that purpose.<br /><br />So then I go to another style of restaurant. I am staying with my inlaws in Western Victoria so the wife and I went to <a href="http://www.stefano.com.au/docs/restaurant.asp">Stefanos</a>. This is one of the best restaurants I know anywhere in the world. It is better than any in Sydney (including Tets and my favourite Seans Panaroma). Its certainly better than any in Melbourne - and hey it stands up against St Johns in London too.<br /><br />But Thomas Keller it is not. <br /><br />The meal was one of delicate balance after delicate balance. The first dish was a cured kingfish.<br /><br />But I was struggling to work out how it was cured. Everything I cure tastes pretty salty. This did not. But if it was citrus cured you could barely taste the lemon.<br /><br />It turns out it was cured in the juice of five oranges and 30g of salt. Relatively little salt given the task - and oranges are so much gentler than lemons (though I am determined to try grapefruit).<br /><br />It was served with capers - but very few. Sort of like the melodrama of putting saltanas in your saltana bran. You want a few - but no so much that there is no surprise when you get the sweetness of one. This was perfect.<br /><br />There were a few cubes (2mm cubes that is) of beetroot - which struck me as very Australian - but I can't work out why they were there.<br /><br />My wife - and this was a compliment - described this as so delicate it was almost flavourless. It set the tone for noting subtlety - and that was what was really special about Stefanos.<br /><br />The next course was the most delicate beef carpacio I have ever had. Not rich - and with some home made mayonaise and a few other odds - truly scrumptious - but without being anything like as overwhelming as the Bourdain Steak tartar. <br /><br />Then followed zuchini flowers stuffed with a light goats(?) cheese and fried. Nothing complicated - with some shaved ham of the most amazing but delicate flavour. The cheese and ham platter from heaven.<br /><br />Then followed a hand made ravioli stuffed with quail and served in sage butter. Simple stuff - well executed (but I guess it is a pain to make). My wife who is allergic to wheat had one of the most original pastas I have ever tasted - a buffalo mozarella and caramelized onion sauce on a gluten free pasta. I think it was a one-off but if so Stefano is a genius.<br /><br />Mains however were a disappointment. The lamb was good - the potatos were excellent - but it did not sing. I can cook better lamb - and so can Stefano. Last time we were here the mains were an italian style roast chicken. Good -but not as good as Seans. <br /><br />Desert was simple - vanilla and orange panacotta (but he called it something other than panacotta). He must have used some very bitter oranges and they offset the sweetness of a very sugary sauce. Fabulous and delicate again. <br /><br />What this taught me though is that there is a sterility in the modern flavour concentration methods of cooking - and that some things can be obtained through balance rather than brute force.<br /><br />This is not a restaurant of the modern fashion. The Hestor Blumenthals of the world dominate the debate because they are so darn clever. But it is real food done with a flair you will find few places in the world.<br /><br />I know the readership of my main blog (and hence this) is London and New York - but if anyone has influence this deserves a place in the top 50 restaurants in the world... and it should be so rated.<br /><br /><br /><br />John HemptonJohn Hemptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03766274392122783128noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6948297693710066887.post-86007031566705884312008-12-07T14:16:00.000-08:002008-12-07T14:24:49.850-08:00Sausages, salad and wineIt was a busy weekend with multiple trips to the beach, a visit to Alice (more on that later) and my son revealing that he has always thought of me as a "fat mutant zombie bloodsucking freak". So dinner on Sunday (often elaborate) was really simple. <div><br /></div><div>Just sausages from the organic butcher in Randwick, fine fresh white bread from a run-of-the-mill (non chain) bakery, a french salad of beans, tomato and fresh basil, some home made tomato chutneys and a very fine bottle of wine.</div><div><br /></div><div>Here was the wine.</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.75cl.com/v15155.connetable-de-talbot-1994.htm">http://www.75cl.com/v15155.connetable-de-talbot-1994.htm</a><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Or in Euro because I gather you can still buy it for a suitably modest amount:</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://www.wineandco.com/connetable-talbot-rouge-1994--second-vin-du-chateau-talbot-484-fr-eur-fr.html">http://www.wineandco.com/connetable-talbot-rouge-1994--second-vin-du-chateau-talbot-484-fr-eur-fr.html</a><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>And yes it did come from the cellar and I have stored it since original issue.</div><div><br /></div><div>And the pleasure of it all showed nothing needs be too complicated to be delicious if the family is loving and your son will forgive you for being a mutant zombie.</div><div><br /></div><div>And the good wine helped.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>John Hempton</div>John Hemptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03766274392122783128noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6948297693710066887.post-42288886393751068592008-11-29T19:15:00.000-08:002008-11-29T19:22:32.729-08:00Well that was a disaster...So I have been experimenting with pigs trotters. Its the Fergus Henderson fan in me. <div><br /></div><div>But I have learnt a few lessons.</div><div><br /></div><div>1). When you boil up pigs trotters you need to strip the meat out whilst the pig trotter is warm. Otherwise they become really difficult to handle.</div><div><br /></div><div>2). When you strip the meat and mix wiht the onion you better roll it into a sausage or put it in the terrine pretty quickly because as the fat congeals the meat will sort of stick together - and probably in an uncomfortable pattern. </div><div><br /></div><div>But even then I got to deal with a few issues. Is there a difference between front-pigs feet (hands?) and rear feet with respect to the amount of meat? Almost every trotter had nothing on it. Just fat and gristle. Yummy fat and gristle - but fat and gristle. Is there any reader amongst my few who can answer that? <br /><br />And when I have finished with that I might explain the rest of the extent of the disaster.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>John H</div>John Hemptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03766274392122783128noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6948297693710066887.post-61969640978783138852008-11-29T01:44:00.000-08:002008-11-29T01:50:04.626-08:00The joys of smoked baconSitting on the stove at the moment is a pot with 450grams (say 1lb) of smoked bacon, twenty pigs trotters, a couple of onions, carrots, bay leaves, parsley, water. Simmer for three hours.<div><br /></div><div>I am going to pick apart the meat, stir in some caremalized onion, make a sausage and serve with more caremalized onion and some chives if I can find them...</div><div><br /></div><div>What to do with the liquor... mix with stock, make ox tail risotto...</div><div><br /></div><div>Unctious I guess...</div><div><br /></div><div>I promise to let you know how it goes.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>J</div>John Hemptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03766274392122783128noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6948297693710066887.post-77098993604264864542008-11-28T02:14:00.001-08:002008-11-28T02:17:09.590-08:00The joys of unsmoked baconThe bacon recipe I gave was unsmoked. You can smoke it at an intermediate stage - but my experiments have been mixed. (You need someone to chop down a fruit tree for you because the wood is good for smoking. Where is George Washington when you need him!)<div><br /></div><div>Anyway unsmoked bacon is not fashionable - but it makes the best baked beans. There is a wonderful baked beans recipe in Fergus Henderson's first cook book. Works even better when you have made the bacon. He insists on unsmoked bacon - and having done his recipe with both smoked and unsmoked varieties he is right.</div><div><br /></div><div>John</div>John Hemptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03766274392122783128noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6948297693710066887.post-27495954548694794042008-11-28T00:54:00.000-08:002008-11-28T01:01:41.838-08:00Don't bring home the bacon - make it<div>This blog doesn’t have many readers – but one of them managed to ask a bacon recipe.</div><div><br /></div><div>Easy enough. Two thirds a cup of salt, one third sugar, small teaspoon of pink salt (sodium nitrite). Mix it lots of spices including star anise. If you want it to be sweet mix in extra sugar or honey or maple syrup. I have never used maple syrup but the US recipes include it. It just costs an absolute bomb in Australia.</div><div><br /></div><div>I tend to go for spicy not sweet – but the I am not American. The Americans are into sweet pork which they cook to a crispy candy cinder…</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway rub it all into a big slap of pork belly – skin on - and put in a zip lock back. Cure for a week turning the bag over regularly and making sure that the cure covers all the pork.</div><div> </div><div>It will get awful wet in that bag as the cure sucks the liquid out of the pork. Thick pork bellies take longer to cure – but I have always been a little sloppy about the seven days.</div><div><br /></div><div>Preheat oven to 80-90 centigrade. Some American recipes are at 200F – but just below boiling is the idea. </div><div><br /></div><div>Measure the temperature at 1.5 hours and then every 15 mins. Stop about 65C. It should smell great.</div><div><br /></div><div>The books say remove the skin now whilst it is very warm. </div><div><br /></div><div>Let it cool. Freezes well. Keeps OK in the fridge - but a big pork belly is more bacon than you can handle in a week...</div><div><br /></div><div>The liquid at the end of the brining process is probably carcinogenic. </div><div><br /></div><div>Eat some yourself before you give it to your family. If you have botulism you want to kill yourself not your loved ones. Even better - give it to the scraggy cat that hangs around asking for food. Actually don't. It will just encourage it.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>John</div><div><br /></div>John Hemptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03766274392122783128noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6948297693710066887.post-69614629693185375072008-11-25T20:05:00.000-08:002008-11-25T20:10:27.999-08:00Charcuterie in the age of terrorism<div><br /></div><div>I went through a brief period of trying to cure my own pancetta. Mostly super-spicy – mix say one gram of sodium nitrite with 300 grams of salt and an enormous number of spices (including my trusty star anise) and put it with a pork belly in the fridge in a zip lock plastic bag.</div><div> </div><div>Turn the bag over every day for about 10 days and then wash and dry. Roll it up and tie up very tightly with butchers twine and hang it under the house. Hope the mould that grows is only white. (All the white moulds are edible…)</div><div><br /></div><div>The stuff is salty, very strong flavoured and delicious.</div><div> </div><div>You can try making traditional bacon too – easy enough as long as you have an oven you can keep at 80 degrees centigrade for a couple of hours.</div><div><br /></div><div>This is exciting stuff – real cookery – making exotic stuff from the cheap pork bellies you buy in Chinatown. It also leads to hours of conversation with some Italian bloke you meet in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haberfield,_New_South_Wales">Haberfield</a> who suddenly thinks you are worthy of his time.</div><div><br /></div><div>The problem of course is you need the sodium nitrite. It’s the stuff that makes bacon pink, makes preserved meats carcinogenic and stops you getting botulism.</div><div> </div><div>But sodium nitrite is hard to obtain because you can also make explosives out of it. At least it is hard to obtain in Australia though it might not be in the US because the gun lobby has ensured its availability for the sort of nutcases that like to make their own gun powder and pack their own traditional rifles (or muskets). </div><div><br /></div><div>So here I am stuck in Australia in the age of terrorism, unable to find critical ingredients to make my bacon and wishing (just for once) that Australia had the National Rifle Association ensuring that I can obtain my core ingredients.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>John Hempton</div><div><br /></div>John Hemptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03766274392122783128noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6948297693710066887.post-49638931344320073082008-11-23T14:35:00.000-08:002008-11-23T14:39:52.681-08:00On roasting a chook<div>There is a sort of Italian way to roast chickens (chooks). At least I think it Italian because I see it in lots of Italian books and in Jamie Oliver who is essentially an Italian cook.</div><div><br /></div><div>The way you do it is to roast the chook sitting in about half a cup of chicken stock. The problem of course is that this makes the oven very wet – and nothing roasts very well. The chicken will not brown.</div><div><br /></div><div>So to fix this you chop herbs finely and mix with butter (or duck fat), lift the skin of the chicken – and (delicately) poke the fat between the skin and the flesh. It should brown nicely then.</div><div><br /></div><div>A very wet oven has an advantage – it is temperature buffered – and that means you can be a little imprecise when cook the bird. It is probably OK plus or minus 10-15 minutes in the oven.</div><div> </div><div>That makes it good for restaurants – whose customer ordering times are imprecise – or for home cooks distracted by work, children and all the other things that make you imprecise with an oven. Indeed it seems that if there is an imprecise way of doing something that works well the Italians have perfected it.</div><div><br /></div><div>Then there is an extreme French way of roasting a bird. The best variant I know on the recipe is in the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/French-Laundry-Cookbook-Thomas-Keller/dp/1579651267">French Laundry cookbook</a> – but I have seen variants on it in lots of French books. The method is to brine the bird.</div><div><br /></div><div>Let me explain. Take a gallon of water (sorry to be non-metric – but enough water to cover the birds), a cup of salt, a cup of sugar, a lemon, half a hand of garlic very crushed and every odd herb in your fridge. Boil it all up. (I like adding star anise – a spice I over-use badly). Let the water go stone cold.</div><div><br /></div><div>Take the bird(s) and soak in the brine for eight hours (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Keller">Thomas Keller</a> says never to go too long – but I have no problem with up to 15 hours provided you wash the birds thoroughly after – but then Thomas Keller knows far more than me). </div><div><br /></div><div>The brine sucks out the water from the bird. You need the salt and sugar concentration in the brine to be higher than in the bird otherwise you will get the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osmosis">osmotic process</a> working the wrong way. But you are left with a VERY dry bird.</div><div><br /></div><div>Wash it thoroughly, and dry it. Truss it (learn to do this or some pretentious French cook will throw a knife at you).</div><div> </div><div>Let it dry a little further in the fridge. </div><div><br /></div><div>You want it to be DRY. Got that.</div><div><br /></div><div>Then put it in an oven with nothing else in it (so you release no moisture). </div><div><br /></div><div>As it is bone dry the skin will – if you are not careful – burn to a cinder.</div><div><br /></div><div>So place some foil over the bird. DO NOT SEAL IT. Just place the foil over the top loosely – a sort of heat reflector.</div><div><br /></div><div>This will produce a bird that is wonderfully moist. The “moist” flavour of a chicken comes from fat, not water – and sucking all the water out with osmotic pressure leaves a bird where the fat has nothing much to dilute it. Great moist flavour.</div><div><br /></div><div>But there is a problem here. No moisture means no temperature buffering. No temperature buffering means that the cooking time has to be really precise – plus or minus say three minutes. This is NOT for the sloppy cook. It is darn difficult to do in a restaurant setting either which is – I guess why it is Thomas Keller and not Jamie Oliver.</div><div><br /></div><div>And I got another problem – which is that I want to get the bird out of the oven based on the internal temperature (150F – sorry – no metric but my digital read meat thermometer is imperial). But when I stick my meat thermometer in I puncture the skin and out flows those lovely juices I am trying to maximize – so I got to work some other way out. (Help anyone). </div><div><br /></div><div>Now the French method of doing the chook is wonderful – by far the better bird – but it is not for the sloppy or faint-hearted. Try it.</div><div><br /></div><div>And if you have a solution for getting the measurement right without puncturing the skin let me know.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>John Hempton</div><div><br /></div>John Hemptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03766274392122783128noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6948297693710066887.post-55368587448597388992008-11-23T06:47:00.000-08:002008-11-23T06:48:23.436-08:00Welcome<p class="MsoNormal">I write a finance blog which is well read (see the profile).<span style="mso-spacerun:yes"> </span>As a finance type I cook to reduce stress.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">I am going to <st1:personname>j</st1:personname>ot a very irregular cooking blog down – also to reduce stress.</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Await my piece on roasting chickens (chooks if you are an Australian).</p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">John</p>John Hemptonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03766274392122783128noreply@blogger.com0