Spring Time in Picton

These are photos from the weekend that just passed. Picton is greener than ever and as you can see, the plum blossoms are quite the sight. Come Christmas, the trees will be bearing sweet, heady fruit, ready to be mixed with vodka and sugar for the winter months to come.

Wysteria in bloom

Rosemary flowers and picket fence

Rosemary flowers

Plum blossoms

The Mortal Coil

Oblivious and care free, Rosemary took a wrong turn down the dark alley, only to be faced by two men of Middle-Eastern appearance.

The Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide Awards 2011 Results

Another year, and another great set of results for the 2011 SMH Good Food Guide Awards. But first, I have to apologise on the shoddiness of my photo. I didn’t want to lug around an SLR, so my phone had to do the trick. This year, the awards were held at Water Bar, Woolloomooloo, a much smaller and more intimate venue than last year’s at Carriageworks, Eveleigh. I don’t know whether it was Dutch courage or the fact that I hadn’t just arrived from a 24 hour flight, but this year’s awards night was more of a relaxed affair for myself, and I got to speak to some awesome chefs and restaurateurs. The GFG Editors Joanna Savill and Terry Durack highlighted that this year, Sydney restaurants saw a shift towards produce driven menus and sharing plates (among other trends). The big shock for the night was the demotion of Bilson’s and Tetsuya’s to two hats. Mark Best, last year’s Chef of the Year, took away the Vittoria Coffee Restaurant of the Year award with Martin Benn claiming the Chef of the Year award. Everyone who received an award came up to stage and had a brief speech while we munched on some tasty treats (and some not too tasty)  and drank way more wine than we ought to have drunk.It’s worth mentioning that the 2011 GFG is available online at goodguides.com.au. There will also be an iPhone app, which is awesome. Last year I bought the 2010 iPhone app and I think it’s super useful, but apparently this year, we should also be able to do our restaurant bookings through the website and possibly the app as well, which is even better!

But without further ado, here is the full list of awards winners and hatted restaurants for the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide 2011. Congratulations to all the winners!

The Awards

Vittoria Coffee Restaurant of the Year
Marque, Surry Hills

Emirates Chef of the Year
Martin Benn of Sepia, Sydney

Plumm Wine Glasses Best New Restaurant
Manly Pavillion, Manly

Navman Best Regional Restaurant
Lochiel House, Kurrajong Heights

Star City Award for Professional Excellence
Peter Doyle of est., Sydney

The Sydney Morning Herald Silver Service Award
Alon Sharman of Arras, Walsh Bay

Louis Roederer Sommelier of the Year
Matthew Dunne of Aria, Sydney

Brown Brothers Wine List of the Year
Rockpool Bar & Grill, Sydney

Small Wine List of the Year
Spice Temple, Sydney

Regional Wine List of the Year
Margan, Broke

The Josephine Pignolet Best Young Chef
Jason Saxby of Quay, Sydney

Vittoria Legend Award
Michael McMahon of Catalina, Rose Bay

Sydney Fish Market Best Seafood Restaurant
Fish Face, Darlinghurst

Dan Murphy’s Best BYO Restaurant
Il Perugino, Mosman

Coopers Sustainability Award
Margan, Broke

iPhone App People’s Choice Award
Tetsuya’s, Sydney

Favourites:

Favourite bar – LL Wine & Dine, Potts Point
Favourite bar with food – Bloodwood, Newtown
Favourite breakfast – Cafe Giulia, Chippendale
Favourite burger – Rockpool Bar & Grill, Sydney
Favourite cafe – Le Monde, Surry Hills
Favourite gelato – Pompei’s, Bondi Beach
Favourite pizza – Lucio Pizzeria, Darlinghurst
Favourite pub – Four in Hand, Paddington
Favourite sushi – Sake Restaurant & Bar, The Rocks
Favourite vegetarian menu – Bentley Restaurant & Bar, Surry Hills

The Hats – City

Three Hats
est., Marque, Quay

Two Hats
Aria, Assiette, Becasse, Bentley Restaurant & Bar, Berowra Waters Inn, Bilson’s, Bistro Ortolan, Buon Ricordo, Claude’s, Four in Hand Dining Room, Guillaume at Bennelong, Icebergs Dining Room and Bar, Lucio’s, Pilu at Freshwater, Rockpool, Rockpool Bar & Grill, Sepia, Tetsuya’s, Universal

One Hat
Ad Lib Bistro, Altitude, Arras, Astral, Billy Kwong, Bird Cow Fish, Bistro Moncur, Bistrode, The Boathouse on Blackwattle Bay, Bodega, buzo trattoria, Cafe Sopra, Catalina, Etch, Fish Face, Flying Fish, Golden Century, Jonah’s Whale Beach, Koi, Longrain, Mad Cow, Manly Pavilion, Omerta, Ormeggio at The Spit, Oscillate Wildly, Otto Ristorante, Pendolino, Pier, Restaurant Balzac, sailors thai restaurant, Sake Restaurant & Bar, Sean’s Panaroma, Spice Temple, Yoshii

The Hats – Regional

Two Hats
Lochiel House (Kurrajong Heights), Rock (Pokolbin)

One Hat
ashcrofts (Blackheath), Bacchus (Newcastle), Bamboo Restaurant & Bar (Casuarina Beach), bells at killcare (Killcare), Bistro Molines (Mount View), Caveau (Woollongong), dish (Byron Bay), Darley’s (Katoomba), Eschalot (Berrima), fins (Kingscliff), Italian and Sons (Canberra), Lolli Redini (Orange), Muse (Pokolbin), Neila (Cowra), No. 2 Oak Street (Bellingen), Ottoman Cuisine (Canberra), Restaurant Como (Blaxland), Satiate (Bangalow), sourcedining (Albury), Waters Edge (Canberra), Zest (Nelson Bay)

Sara Isabelle – A Recipe for Happiness

Very few moments in life are impossible to describe. As emotions that are never before experienced start permeating our being, we stretch and reach for words to explain those torrential feelings, but the vocabulary fails, its limits falling too short, and we are left with a sweeping joy that is only ours to enjoy, only ours to understand. On Sunday the 18th of July, I was granted one of those moments and my heart, full of bliss, grew to unfathomable proportions; my daughter Sara Isabelle was born and went straight into her mother’s arms. All the love I had ability to hold within me multiplied ten-fold, repeatedly. In the fortnight that has passed, my euphoria has changed like burning coals, starting off fiery and unruly then moving on to becoming more focused and concentrated, burning with greater intensity to never extinguish. I’m not sure if there is any greater recipe for happiness than that of becoming a father to this blue-eyed girl.

Apple

Dine with Me and Three of Sydney’s Food Bloggers @ Bistro CBD

Join me and three of Sydney’s coolest food bloggers in a scary and thrilling experiment to see if we can stand the heat of a commercial kitchen. As part of the Merivale’s ‘A Feast for the Senses’ events, Linda, Karen, Billy and I will be putting our skills to the test and getting behind the burners to cook up a storm for anyone who dares risk their lives. So, on Wednesday the 28th of July, Bistro CBD’s kitchen will be invaded by some of Australia’s top amateur chefs (wink wink  Masterchef) trying to feed seventy discerning diners a five course meal. We will each be cooking one of the courses, with a fifth course prepared by Simun Dragicevich, Bistro CBD’s head chef. All this and a glass of sparkling are for a measly $60pp. Call now to see if there is any availability. We believe the event has already booked out, but regardless, you might be able to go on a waiting list, so book now or forever hold your peas.

My fellow friends and food bloggers who will be cooking with me are:

Karen from Citrus and Candy – www.citrusandcandy.com
Linda from Eat Show and Tell – www.eatshowandtell.com
Billy from A Table for Two – www.atablefortwo.com.au

See our event and other Merivale winter events by clicking here.

Event Details

Wednesday 28th July, 6.30pm
5 courses including a glass of sparkling, $60pp
Bistro CBD, level 1, 52 King Street, Sydney
Call 9240 3000 to book

Muhammara Recipe

The past couple of weeks have been a bit of a trial for me. Lainy is due to have our first baby in under ten days now, and I have stupidly over committed on many a demanding project. Plus, there’s the world cup. Sydney is in an unlucky situation yet again where the matches are held at midnight or after, which means I am partially sleep deprived. I guess that’s good because I will become fully sleep deprived when the baby comes, so maybe I should consider this as practice.

One of the projects I am working on is on a vein similar to my harebrained secret dinner, which means I have been brainstorming concepts for a Lebanese influenced dish that is simultaneously easy to cook for 70 people, tastes phenomenal, and manages not to look like a piece of shish tawook with garlic sauce and tabbouli. In the process, I’ve probably sketched around 10 dishes, imagined 20 more and attempted to cook half of those. It is only when you go through this process that you gain an appreciation for what chefs go through to come up with something original and exciting. One of the dishes I dreamt up is a slow cooked beef shin with green wheat (called freek) and muhammara. Delicious, but ugly as sin. Maybe one day I will figure out how to make that dish look good and The Food Blog will showcase it, but for now, I just want to share the recipe for the muhammara.

I don’t recall eating muhammara as a child. Maybe because my parents are from the South or maybe it’s because I grew up in Jbeil, but muhammara was never on the menu. According to Wikipedia, it’s a Syrian dip, and Wikipedia never lies, right? On my last trip however, Syrian troops had left Lebanon, and maybe Lebanon was again free to celebrate the food traditions of its neighbours, or maybe I was at the right place at the right time… but I ended up in this restaurant up North with friends, and friends of friends, sitting opposite to this very Lebanese guy with a thin moustache who all of a sudden started lecturing me on chicken livers, and saying something about how before chicken liver reaches The Gate (pointing to his mouth) it needs to pass by The Two Customs Officers (pointing to his nostrils). I’d love to tell you the story in person as I can never express the hilarity of the situation in writing. But to move on, the restaurant was serving muhammara with grilled meat skewers and I got a taste for this delicious dip. Capsicums are roasted on an open flame and then blended with walnuts, toasted bread, pomegranate molasses, garlic, sugar and lemon juice. The lot is spiked with chilli and then emulsified with olive oil. In a way, it’s a sort of Middle Eastern pesto, only hotter and more complex in flavour. It’s all together charred, sweet, rich, spicy and sharp, and goes well on its own with bread or with any form of grilled meat or firm fish. I’m sharing Greg Malouf’s recipe from his awesome book Saha. Try it and it will become a staple, but make sure it passes by the customs officers.

Muhammara Recipe – Adapted from Greg Malouf’s Saha

Ingredients

• 3 large red capsicums
• 1 red bullet chilli, chopped
• 1 clove of garlic, crushed with 1 teaspoon of salt
• 125 shelled walnuts
• 1/3 cup lightly toasted fresh breadcrumbs
• 1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses
• juice of ½ lemon-1 lemon (depends on size and taste)
• 1 tablespoon hot water
• ½ teaspoon sugar
• ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil

Method

1- Char the capsicums on an open flame, turning until blackened thoroughly
2- Put the capsicums in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. This steams the capsicums and helps them continue cooking and softening
3- When cool enough to handle, remove the charred exterior with your hand. Don’t rinse because that removes the nice smoky flavour. Take the seeds out and put the flesh in a blender or food processor
4- Add all other ingredients except the olive oil
5- Blend into a paste and then add the oil in a thin stream until the paste is thick and creamy
6- Taste and adjust ingredients if you have to
7- Allow to cool before serving

Lebanese Bread – Recipe

Hot bread. Rarely does a food so simple entice us so intensely. For thousands of years, the art and craft of Lebanese flat bread making was shrouded in mystery. But when scientists discovered the Middle-East late in the 18th century, they were dumbfounded to see the locals filling a flat round disc with spreads and meats and using it to hold and consume their food. After close inspection, it was found that the disc was indeed, bread. This bread, however, was quite different to European bread in that it would not fit into a toaster. In fact, if this bread were to be sliced, it would loose all food holding ability and become totally useless. So, for years, science lost all interest in flat bread, and its practice remained restricted to the ritualistic baking sessions of the local tribes. But slowly, as with all things good, the potential of flat bread became apparent, and the western world took to it like ducks to water. This was a natural progression, as there is only so much filling you can put between two slices of toast.

In Australia, flat bread is called Lebanese bread (which is how I will refer to it from here on). Of course, in Lebanon, we simply call it “bread”, much the same as how the Chinese refer to Chinese food as “food”. To disambiguate, we sometimes refer to Lebanese bread as kumaj bread. Kumaj apparently, is a Turkish word for bread that is cooked on charcoal. This sets it apart from out other two popular breads: marquq or saj bread (large, circular and paper thin bread cooked on a convex grill), or tannour bread (cooked in a tandour-like oven). My generation’s encounter with Lebanese bread came after the industrialisation of the bread making process and as such, we’ve never had anything but mass produced Lebanese bread. It is not clear to me which came first. Whether the machines we bought encouraged the creation of this type of bread or whether we lost the traditional bread making process to the machines. The latter seems more probable. In any case, replicating the Lebanese bread making process at home is quite simple and extremely satisfying, as the result is bread with more substance and integrity than that of store bought bread. Seeing the disc puffing up and separating is a visual treat and I urge you to experience it, if only for that.

Lebanese Bread Recipe

adapted from http://www.elook.org/recipes/entree/39624.html

Makes around 8 loaves/discs

Ingredients

• 1 packet dried baker’s yeast
• 1/3 cup water to mix with the yeast, warm but not hot
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 3 cups plain, white flour
• 1 cup water, warm but not hot
• 1 teaspoon salt

Method

1. Activate the yeast by mixing it with the 1/3rd cup of water and the 2 tablespoons of sugar
2. Wait for 10 minutes until the mixture becomes frothy. If it doesn’t become frothy, your yeast has died/expired and you need to buy a fresh packet
3. Meanwhile, sift the 3 cups of flour along with the teaspoon of salt into a bowl
4. Create a well in the middle and add the cup of water and the yeast mixture
5. Mix well and then knead with oomph for 10 minutes
6. Make a ball and with a knife, slice a cross on the surface to loosen the surface tension
7. Cover with a damp, clean cloth and place it in a warm, draft free area. Wait until it doubles in size (depending on the temperature this could be anywhere from 1 to 3 hours)
8. Knock back the dough and divide into 8 balls
9. Place on a lightly floured surface and flatten with a rolling pin until it is around 0.4 to 0.5 cm thick and put aside for 10 to 15 minutes to rise a bit more. The shape should be circular
10. Heat the oven to maximum
11. (Optional) Brush the top of the discs with a bit of milk if you want it to colour deeply.
12. Bake each individual disc one at a time for 5 to 8 minutes until the top has nicely coloured (cooking time depends on the heat of the oven and thickness of the bread)
13. Remove and eat immediately, or when cool store in a plastic bag in order for it to soften