Afternoon delights matched with NSW wines at The Bayside Lounge

As well as those stunning duck confit pies I wrote about last year, The Bayside Lounge at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre is also serving up a fantastic selection of New South Wales wines – many by the glass – until the end of July. As a fierce proponent of NSW wines being offered in NSW venues, this makes me really happy.

The list was compiled by Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre’s Certified Sommelier, William Wilson. William is one of only a handful of Australasian sommeliers to attain the Court of Master Sommeliers’ title of Certified Sommelier; a title that recognises high standards of wine service, commitment to quality customer care and extensive knowledge of international wine, beer and spirits.

Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre's William Wilson at work tasting wines

William Wilson with me

Scottish-born William (who incidentally looks fabulous in a kilt!) has remarkable wine knowledge that is as vast as it is impressive. He has handpicked some outstanding wines from New South Wales regions including Cowra, the Southern Highlands as well as the Hunter Valley, Mudgee and Orange. The newer alpine region of Tumbarumba is also well represented on Williams’s list (and I love the way he says Tumbarumba too, with his Scottish accent!). If you are not familiar with wines from Tumbarumba or the Snowy Mountains, the relatively high altitude and cool climate make for ideal pinot noir, chardonnay and sauvignon blanc styles.

William’s two stand-out wines are both from New England: 2009 Toppers Gewurztraminer and 2009 Zappa Reserve Release Barbera. With its rose and citrus nose and mild spicy plate, think cinnamon and nutmeg, the Gewurztraminer would complement many of Uwe’s sweet and savoury afternoon delights, especially the Crystal Bay prawn and cucumber bruschetta and the Orange and vanilla crème brûlée. Barbera is an Italian red grape variety with low tannins and high acid. Why not enjoy the Zappa Reserve Release Barbera with those duck confit pies?

Pop in for an afternoon delight at The Bayside Lounge. It is served from 1pm to 4pm on Wednesday through to Sunday. The menu is presided over by Executive Chef Uwe Habermehl and highlights include duck confit pies, Crystal Bay prawn and cucumber bruschetta and white chocolate pistachio eclair. Click here for more details. 

Executive Chef Uwe Habermehl with me in The Bayside Lounge enjoying afternoon delights

Click here to view venue details including the full wine list and menu.

Celebrating Sydney Royal Trophy winners and Champions on Kerri-Anne

Last week in my regular segment on Kerri-Anne (Thursdays at 9:40am) on the Nine Network I presented a selection of the newly crowned champion and trophy winners from the 2010/2011 Sydney Royal Wine, Fine Food and Cheese & Dairy Produce Shows. I combined a few of these products into a mouth-watering:

Striploin steak sourdough sandwich with walnut chilli dip and eggplant

 and

Crab, Potato & Leek Ravioli with truffle infused extra virgin olive oil

Click on the links below for the recipes on my main site:
Stockyard Striploin steak on Brasserie Bread Boulot with Hasham’s Walnut Chilli Dip and eggplant
Pasta Di Porto Crab, Potato & Leek Ravioli with Pukara Estate Truffle Infused Extra Virgin Olive Oil

I have a long history with the Royal Agricultural Society of NSW. I am a long time councillor and board member. This is my first year as Chair of the Sydney Royal Wine Show; formerly I was founding Chair of the Sydney Royal Fine Food Show. Australian producers enter thousands of products into the three Sydney Royal Shows each year. To maintain credibility and integrity, the products are judged by panels made up of industry experts, producers such as winemakers and educators and specialist media.

Here is a full list of the champion and trophy winning products featured on Kerri-Anne:

Sydney Royal Wine Show
Three time trophy winner (Macquarie Group Perpetual Trophy, Royal Agricultural Society of NSW Annual Prize for Best Semillon and Albert Chan Memorial Prize for Best White Wine of Show): 2005 Margaret Semillon, Peter Lehmann Wines. This true Barossa Semillon is named in honour of Peter Lehmann’s wife, Margaret. Released as a five year old wine, Margaret is a fruit driven, deliciously dry, white wine.

Sydney Royal Fine Food Show
Champion Oyster: Pristine Angasi, Pristine Oyster Farm. Brothers Brendan, Tony and Guidera have been farming oysters in Coffin Bay, South Australia for twenty years. The award-winning native angasi oyster is plump, sweet and strong tasting.

Champion Prawn: Crystal Bay Farm prawns 21/30. Grown by Seafarm, one of the largest prawn farming operations in Australia, sustainable Crystal Bay prawns are available all year as fresh-chilled, cooked and uncooked.

Champion Beef: Stockyard Gold Beef. Established in 1948, family owned and operated, Stockyard is one of Australia’s most reputable producers with an internationally recognised brand. The award winning, consistently tender and flavoursome Gold range is derived from Angus genetics, fed and cared for over 200 days and MSA graded to ensure superior eating quality.

Champion Deli Meat Gourmet Product: Barossa Fine Foods Duck Terrine. All Barossa Fine Foods’ products are 100% gluten-free and made from traditional recipes handed down through four generations.

Champion Flavour Infused Extra Virgin Olive Oil: Pukara Estate Truffle Infused Extra Virgin Olive Oil. Hunter Valley based multi-award winning Pukara Estate produces distinctive, sophisticated and flavoursome extra virgin olive oils and vinegars. The Truffle Infused oil is rich, earthy and decadent.

Champion Regional Food: Nicholson Fine Foods Euro Style Spiced Beetroot Finishing Vinegar. Nicholson Fine Foods is an artisan food company that creates and develops an eclectic range of products for professional chefs and home cooks alike. With spiced earthiness, the multi-purpose Euro style Spiced Beetroot Finishing Vinegar can be used to dress salads, barbecued meat, fish or chicken.

Champion Fancy Pasta: Pasta Di Porto’s Champion Crab, Potato & Leek Ravioli. Pasta Di Porto’s range is free of artificial colours, preservatives and flavour enhancers. Most ingredients are grown by local farmers and/or sourced nearby. Some are also certified organic. To maintain high quality and freshness, only small quantities are made.

Champion Sourdough or Artisan Bread: Brasserie Bread Boulot. As well as supplying numerous cafes, restaurants and delis, Brasserie Bread runs their own café, baking school and retail shop in Sydney’s Botany. Taking two days to make, the Boulot is a traditional round sourdough with ingredients that include 16 year old sourdough starter, organic flour and river salt.

Champion Bottled Beer: Matilda Bay Brewing Company Alpha Pale Ale. In 1984 a group of guys got together in Fremantle, Western Australia to make beer under the Matilda Bay Brewing Company brand. Alpha Pale Ale mirrors traditional English India Pale Ale yet with assertive bitterness and distinctive fruit and citrus aromas from local hops.

Champion Traditional Sausage: Avoca Beach Butchery's Australian Breakfast Sausage. Robbie Hunt from NSW Central Coast based Avoca Beach Butchery has a passion for quality meat. He produces a range of sausages with an emphasis on quality and versatility – suitable for the oven or barbecue.

Sydney Royal Cheese & Dairy Produce Show
Champion Butter: Fonterra Spreyton Duck River Premium Butter. Fonterra Spreyton, near Devonport is supplied with high quality cow’s milk from some of the best dairying land in Australia. The Duck River Brand is named after the Duck River near Smithton, where the factory was originally established in 1904.

Gold Medal Dip: Hasham’s Dips Walnut Chilli Dip. Established in 1998 Hasham’s Dips is a Cairns based family owned and operated business. Their variety of dips, tapenades, pesto and marinated vegetables are made from local produce, using traditional recipes. Turkish style Walnut Chilli Dip is made from fresh walnuts and hot chilli.

Greenhouse by Joost: where sustainable practice and living meets the urban environment

Designer, horticulturalist and eco-friendly pop-up restaurateur extraordinaire, Joost Bakker has chosen Campbells Cove on glorious Sydney Harbour as the Sydney location for his ground-breaking venue.

Joost Bakker speaking at the Greenhouse launch

This eco-friendly restaurant is built using 100% recycled and recyclable materials. Think shipping containers and packing crates with straw bales for insulation. All furniture, light fittings, crockery, glasses and staff uniforms are also made from recycled and recyclable materials. It gets better … water is collected, waste is recycled and the generator runs on cooking oil.

First impressions are intriguing – shipping crates, strawberries growing up the exterior walls, herbs growing on the roof and a white walled interior covered with menu written in graffiti style, apparently by Joost, and completed in one night. Is there no end to this man’s talent?

I was delighted to officiate as MC at the launch and finally I got back there last week to see the venue completed and try the whole experience.

Greenhouse by Joost’s exterior during construction.

Now the outside is covered with strawberry plants.

The staff are lovely, from the gorgeous multi-talented maître’d (industrial designer by day and member of Joost’s hospitality team by night) and the cornucopia of friendly young’uns working the floor to the über chef-of-the-moment, Matt Stone, formerly of the Greenhouse in Perth.

Matt’s menu is short but well-crafted with a workable assortment of snacks, salads and bigger offerings. Many of the components – bread, pastries, pizza, yoghurt and butter – are made on site. The drinks list is also short with one red, one white, one beer and one cider for those who fancy the hard staff. All are served in glass jars.

The food presentation was as much fun as the venue, served either on pieces of recycled plywood or in wide-necked glass jars.

I loved the Wagyu on romesco, especially as it was a little used cut, girello – perfectly cooked beef (grass-fed of course) served sliced on a well-textured romesco sauce heady with smoked paprika. Mint added a lovely freshness to the quinoa and avocado salad. Oysters sang with freshness, the spiced cauliflower in a paper cone left me wanting more, the deep-fried school prawns were hot and crisp and you can’t go past the pizza of the day from the wood-fired oven.

Greenhouse by Joost’s interior.

The tables are made from old signs.

If you are a Sydneysider, my advice is get down there! This is a totally new concept which works because the food is so good. It’s an alternate view of the world and how we can co-exist sustainably. The bonus is the million dollar view and the soundtrack of water ebbing and flowing against the harbour wall. Go knowing you are learning vicariously how to make better food choices while, if you are like me, being equally thrilled by Joost’s flair and vision.

Greenhouse by Joost is open until the end of March 2011.

Celebrity dish … Michael Moore, owner of The Summit Restaurant and author of Moore to Food

Michael and I go way back to when he was a young pony-tailed chef and I was just moving from catering into the media. I have always been a big fan his food.  He is also one great guy. We cooked together after he joined Fresh on the Nine Network where I was co-host and until he stopped this year, we both present weekly cooking segments on Kerri-Anne on the same network.

Sydneysiders will know Michael’s restaurant – The Summit, on top of Australia Square.  This iconic restaurant recently opened a very special private dining room, Salon Privé by Champagne Taittinger. Michael has created bespoke menus for this beautifully designed

room with its 360 degree views of the city and Sydney Harbour.

Michael is also one the new resident chefs at Westfield in Pitt Street Mall, Sydney.  His venture EAT Deli Kitchen purports it to be the Australian home of the Reuben sandwich – that classic New York combo of salt beef, pickles and mustard on rye.  Michael’s version features Wagyu Salt Beef and is served hot.  I haven’t tried one yet but it’s on my food wish list for my next visit to Westfield.

As well as launching a new restaurant, late last year Michael launched his new book, Moore to Food (New Holland) where he shares his culinary secrets and presents recipes and tips for entertaining at home in a stylish, yet comprehensive manual format.  Definitely a book for anyone who loves to entertain.

With a 25 year plus career owning and running top restaurants in his native London and adopted Sydney, where he has been awarded a number of chefs’ hats from the Sydney Morning Herald’s Good Food Guide, Michael is certainly well qualified to be a celebrity dish.

Over to Michael: 

What is your earliest food memory: Making blackcurrant jam and rock cakes with my Nan back home in the U.K!

What is the strangest meal you’ve ever been served: Chickens feet and pigs bum (Andouillette sausage)

What is your signature dish: Twice cooked pork belly with roasted apple marmalade and glass crackling

What is your favourite cookbook: Marcella Hazan ‘Italian Cooking’

What do you never eat: Andouillette sausage

What are the five ingredients you would take to a desert island: Buffalo mozzarella, tomatoes, olive oil, bread, chocolate

What are you having for dinner tonight: Wagyu salt beef ‘Reuben’ sandwich on rye, swiss cheese, pickles, mustard mayonnaise

Thanks Michael. 

The details:

The Summit Restaurant

Level 47, Australia Square, 264 George Street, Sydney

Telephone 02 9247 9777

Email reservations@summitrestaurant.com.au

EAT Deli Kitchen

Level 5, Westfield Sydney

Pitt Street Mall, Sydney

Telephone 0423 441 220

It is love … a three course romantic dinner in 30 minutes

I prepared this simple, yet impressive three course romantic dinner on the Kerri Anne show on the 9 Network last Thursday. To quote a cliché: minimum effort for maximum effect. 

Easy is a word that best sums up this menu. The ingredients are easy to source, the recipes are easy to follow, all three courses are easy to eat and, last but not least (another cliché) the food is easy on the stomach. Oh, and easy on the eye too.

Oysters natural, served on the shell, is the first course. They should be freshly shucked. If you are unsure about shucking oysters, ask your fishmonger to release the hinge, but keep the top of the oyster attached. Why would anyone forgo the delicious liquor inside? The oysters are served simply with a squeeze of lemon and freshly ground black pepper. 

For mains, beautiful fillets of Regal King Salmon are wrapped in prosciutto and simply baked with asparagus spears.  Eight minutes in the oven and you are ready to serve.  

Dessert takes minutes too. Top seasonal fruit – I love a mixture of blueberries and raspberries – with light sour cream or crème fraîche, sprinkle with dark brown sugar and grill or blowtorch until golden and bubbling. Serve with a crisp biscuit or wafer.

Dinner is served.

Click on the links below for the recipes.
Oysters Natural
Regal Salmon with proscuitto and asparagus
Cheat's berry brulee


Happy Valentine’s Day.

Australian Pork masterclass

Back in October I blogged about how you could win with Australian Pork.

Even though everyone wins when eating or cooking with Australian Pork, one lucky taste.com.au reader, Fotini Starvridis, was a triple winner. She won a pork masterclass, a Brilliant Cut Knife and my three latest books: Just Add Spice, Lyndey Milan’s Best Collection and Balance. Matching Food and Wine, What Works and Why.

The pork masterclass was held a couple of weeks ago. Fotini and I had a lovely time getting to know each other while delighting in lots of porky goodness.

Prior to the masterclass, Fotini nominated roast pork (with crackling) and pork larb as two recipes she would like to cook with me. I added char siew and pork belly to bring the number of pork recipes to four and to demonstrate different cuts and cooking methods.

First up, we cooked Glass Crackling Pork Belly, adapted from a recipe by chef Michael Moore.

Glass Crackling Pork Belly

Click here for the Glass Crackling Pork Belly recipe. When you make this recipe, plan ahead as the rind (crackle) really benefits from two hours pre-salting to reduce moisture and ensure the resultant crackle is ‘glass-like’. I know the method is fairly lengthy (salting and then marinating), but I recommend you follow all the steps to achieve excellent crackle and tender meat, ever so lightly scented with Chinese five spice.

Next up we cooked the perennial Chinese favourite, Char Siew Pork which we later served with noodles and vegetables.

Char Siew Pork just out of the oven

I have been cooking this recipe for many years. The taste, texture and flavour belie the effortless method and store cupboard ingredients. Char Siew Pork is so versatile – we served it warm with noodles and baby bok choy but it is equally delicious the next day served cold, sliced with salad greens and a dash of chilli soy dressing. Cook it now to celebrate Chinese New Year!

Char Siew Pork with noodles and bok choy

Click here for the recipe on my main site.
The celebratory pork rack was next. We cooked Gingered Pork Rack, a recipe from Just Add Spice. This is a great dinner party recipe that can be prepared and cooked in under an hour. The 1kg rack (perfect for four serves) is roasted and while it rests, the sauce comes together in the pan juices with the addition of ginger, cinnamon, marmalade, orange segments and my favourite Indonesian soy sauce, Kecap Manis.

We served the Gingered Pork Rack with roasted potatoes and broccolini in a pool of the gingery orange sauce.

Gingered Rack of Pork

Click here for the recipe on my main site.

The last recipe of the day was one I cooked on my Brilliant Cut Knife dvd, Pork Larb, the ten minute wonder!

There are quite a few ingredients, but all are pretty easy to find at your local fruit and vegetable shop or Asian grocery store. The sweetness of the pork mince is the perfect carrier for these strong Asian flavours. For a more substantial dish, you can add reconstituted rice stick noodles, but don’t substitute the lettuce cups – they are the perfect serving vessel.

Click here for the recipe on my main site.

Day trip to Cabramatta

My long time friend Carol Selva Rajah has been hosting tours to Cabramatta for 20 years. I attended one of her first tours with my daughter Lucy – she was 5 years old and I recall she loved the Vietnamese duck soup. So it was fitting that I went along to celebrate Carol’s milestone late last year. Sadly Lucy lives in London now and couldn’t make it.

The group with Carol (in white) in the middle

We headed off bright and early on a Saturday morning and while some things at Cabramatta have changed since my first visit, many have stayed the same.  The bright towering displays of fresh produce are certainly the same.  Back then, of course, many of the herbs, fruit and vegetables sold in Cabramatta were alien to most of us, nowadays coriander is about as common as iceberg lettuce!

Carol at one of the vibrant fruit & vegetable stores

It was fabulous to have insider knowledge of where to go for the best of everything at Cabramatta and Carol didn’t disappoint.  I was especially enamoured with the produce.

Banana flowers – commonly used to made a salad with coconut cream and prawns

And the pork!

Behind the scenes at the pork roasting house

Then it was time for lunch at Lina Lam’s modern Vietnamese restaurant, Ban Truong (42 John Street, Cabramatta 2166 – telephone 02 9727 4492), where we met Dai Le, the former ABC journalist wife of Markus Lambert, PR Manager at Fairfield Council.

Margaret Fulton with Dai Lee

As you would expect lunch featured many new and innovative examples of Vietnamese cuisine.