This one was inspired by another recent trip to Herdsman Fresh, a great place for fresh fruit and veges, and with it’s own built in butchers, baker, and fishmonger, you can always find inspiration for a tasty meal. So after spending a bit of time and a lot more money than I should have… I arrived back home with some deliciously marbled porterhouse steaks (too ugly to put in the window apparently, but perfect for eating), a bag of jerusalem artichokes (which are neither Jewish, nor artichokes, more like yams really)

The rest was simple. A delightful Jerusalem Artichoke mash (I was going to roast them ala Jules, but I was clean out of duck fat… and being a purist, I didn’t want to sully the recipe with my cheap imitation duck fat). Served with a simple salt and pepper seasoned porterhouse steak cooked with a little (lot of) butter. To finish, some super snap peas that have been hanging around my fridge waiting for a stir fry that never eventuated, and my now almost boring because I make it so often red wine jus.

The only thing that I’m really going to be bothered going into is the jerusalem artichoke mash… to cook the artichokes, I simply sliced them really thinly and threw them into a saute pan with a little olive oil and some butter, and cooked away on a medium heat until they were nice and soft. Then into a bowl with a few dollops of double cream, and some salt and pepper, and mash away to your hearts content. If you want really smooth mash, feel free to pass it through a seive a couple of times, or else learn to live with a bit of chunk.

The steaks were cooked to a lovely medium rare, and the jus made by adding red wine, a sliced shallot, a clove of garlic, and some beef stock to the pan juices, before reducing down to a savoury concoction that just coated the back of a spoon.

The sugar snap peas were blanched quickly to keep the lovely texture and crunch, and then it was all arrange rather sloppily onto a plate. Served with a 2004 West Cape Howe Shiraz.

Beautiful.

Just a quick post. I recently entered one of my photos into the Foodography group on Flickr, which is run by Sam of Becks & Posh, and Andrew of Spittoon, and Andrew was kind enough to link to my photo on Slashfood. The theme this month was Wine and Bottle. So basically take a photo of a glass/vessel/mouthful(?) of wine, along with the bottle it came in. I played around for a little while and was super happy when this one came out so nicely.

Oh yeh…and the wine was great. It’s a 2003 Dolcetto D’Alba, by Prunotto. Lovely drinking, and went sublimely well with my humble spaghetti and meatballs… which I shall post up soon.

Ok, thats all…carry on :)

Saturday night in the big city of Perth. What to do, what to do…

Sharon and I had decided it was time to head out and do something for once, rather than sitting at home in the safe little bubble that is my world of supposedly gourmet cooking. The interesting thing about running a food blog, is that when you want to look for a place to go and eat, you invariablely get sent back to your own website for more information. At which point you also get a chance to go over just how funny you were the first time you wrote whatever you happened to write (or possibly cringe at how lame you sounded).

So after a little checking and a few phone calls, it was decided. Must Wine Bar. Home of one of Perth’s best wine lists, some of the trendiest waiters in town, and some very tasty food to go with it.

I’ve been to Must many times before, although mainly to drink. It was the scene of a rather boistrous birthday party a couple of years ago where I think I over stayed my welcome after shattering 3 wine glasses. Good times.

Must is a funky place. It’s in Mt Lawley, which makes it funky by default…but it doesn’t rest on its funky laurels… It steps its game up big time. The place is always full of young sexy people (and old sexy people, and a few people who are neither young nor sexy, but who dress well enough to get past the bouncer).

We rolled in at around 9pm, only to be told by the funky host waiter that the place was fully booked, and they wouldn’t be able to seat us. Having a quick look into the restaurant part, I could tell that was blatantly false, and I was also quite happy to have a wine or two at the bar while waiting for a table, so I says to him… i says (in a cockney accent) “Can you go and check if there are any tables coming free soon…”. So he wanders off down the back and has a look around, has a quiet word in the ear of a few of the other funky waiters, and then comes back and tells me… “Well, maybe we can fit you in if you can be out by 10:15pm”. Now some people would be terribly put off by such time limits… Not me… I like a challenge. Firstly it means I’m going to get fast service, and it also means I can test my speed eating skills out… in case the world of competitive eating ever comes knocking on my door.

So we are seated, get some menus, and quickly get down to choosing the wine and mains we’re going to have. Making sure that we are ready in time so as not to cause them any strife due to double booking. 15 minutes later however, with all of our decisions made… no sign of any waiters. No-one hovering over us tentatively, waiting to rush off to the kitchen post haste with our express post delivery. What’s more strange is that now the restaurant is half empty, and looks extremely unlikely to fill back up to capacity. So why the waiter felt the need to tell us there was no room in the first place is a mystery to me… but whatever… we were in.

I ordered the Beef Cheek Ravioli in a Wild Mushroom Jus, and Sharon ordered the Steak and Chips (it wasn’t called steak and chips on the menu, but I forget it’s fancy name… and it was basically steak and chips anyway). I also ordered some minted beans as a side, and a bottle of Prunotto 2003 Barbera D’Alba (which was a delicious big fruity well rounded red wine).

The meals came out soon enough and I have to say mine was delicious. The beef cheek ravioli was melt in your mouth texture, and the wild mushroom sauce over it was a great earthy compliment. The Barbera went really well with this too. Sharon’s steak dish was less exciting. It came with the option of either bernaise or poivrade sauce, she chose poivrade, which was tangy, but not particularly nice. The steak itself was well cooked, but really, it was just a steak, some frites, and a small bowl of the sauce. Not exactly worth the $30+ dollars.

Then on to dessert and I chose a sticky fig pudding with vanilla bean ice cream, while Sharon had a chocolate tart with orange ice cream (?) I think. mine was really nice, and Sharon’s not so nice. The orange infusion ice cream didn’t really work for me, and the rest of the dessert was kind of mediocre. Perhaps we’re just more easily pleased with the traditional sweet styles of dessert.

By this time we were done. The bottle of wine was fully polished off and the offer of Vittoria coffee (shudder) politely turned down.

There are a lot of things to like about Must, but it’s not for everyone. It’s reasonably expensive. Most mains are in the $25 – $35 range, and with side dishes, dessert, and wine, it adds up to quite a substantial bill, which is perhaps belied by the fact that it’s essentially attached to a bar. It’s also quite loud due to the bar section right next to the restaurant section, and if you aren’t into being surrounded by lots of trendy people dressed up for a night out, then it might not be your kind of place.

I personally love the atmosphere and the food, and the wine list makes me salivate every time I look over it. The waiters (when they aren’t turning people away from a half full dining room), are very knowledgeable about the wines and will provide you with a sommelier service if you ask for suggestions. The food in most cases is excellent, but I’d choose your meal carefully so as not to be disappointed by something that sounds fancier than it actually is.

It was great for us though… a chance to get out and do some people watching, and also add a couple of new dishes to my “I think i could make this better at home” list… which is growing just as fast as my ego is :)

All in all though a great night, and we will no doubt be back many times in the future.

Must Winebar
519 Beaufort Street
Highgate
Tel: (08) 9328 8255
Fax: (08) 9328 8355
Email: must@iinet.net.au

So for now here is the next episode in the egotistical world of my video blogging adventure.

Feel free to skip watching the video, as it’s basically 5 minutes or so of me cutting up vegetables and then throwing them in a pan. For those less inclined to listen to direct requests, or who have a particular love of 90′s French house music… then play on !

Here’s some photos in the meantime.

Roast dinners were my staple when I was growing up. Every Sunday without fail, that magical smell would waft out of the kitchen, lamb, parsnip, pumpkin, potato, peas, carrots, mint sauce, and lots of gravy. We looked forward to it every week, perhaps the one meal we never got tired of (God knows tuna mornay and macaroni cheese had their day).

So this meal was a bit of change to Mum’s original method for cooking a roast. I found a nice leg of lamb at the butchers, and feeling industrious, decided to bone it out and butterfly it myself. A relatively simple procedure, although it’s just as easy to ask the butcher to do it for you.

Once I’d got the bone out, and scored the outside and butterflied the inside… It was all systems go with herbs and spices. A good slosh of nice olive oil and a solid covering of maldon sea salt and cracked pepper, then push as much rosemary as will fit into every little gap you can find. I also made up a spice mix in my funky new mortar and pestle, it was coriander seeds, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, and black peppercorns.

So a coating of the spice mixture went over the seasoned lamb, which was then thrown into a roasting dish and plied with libations of a spicy shiraz I happened to have somehow forgotten to finish.

The flavours were already building, and so into the oven it went to cook on a medium low heat (about 150 C) for around 3 hours or so. A covering of aluminium foil (or aluminum of you’re North American, or tin if you’re from NZ), to keep the heat in and stop it from drying out too quickly, and off to get the veges ready.

Dan and Mabes turned up soon enough, with more lovely Shiraz procured the day before from Sandalford in the Swan Valley, and so we cracked the bottle while we waited for the rest of the vegetables to cook.

I had some really nice Kestrel potatoes that are perfect for roasting. I also had some japanese pumpkin and a nice bulb of fennel.
(I’ve just realised I’m using perhaps the worst adjectives in history here. Why do I keep refering to everything as ‘nice’ ? Hrmm, like you need justification that I haven’t been using rancid vegetables or something… anyway)

So sliced it all up into roastable chunks, onto a roasting dish, did the usual mantra of adding olive oil, salt, pepper, spices, and then into the oven for as long as it takes to get them nice and crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside (Actually I cheated and preboiled the potatoes a bit).

The rest was simply waiting and watching and smelling. A glass or two of Shiraz all round and an account of how much effort was involved in getting it, and it was time to dish up.

The lamb was amazing. Lamb is perhaps one of the most luscious comestibles I can think of, when prepared just right. Encrusted with herbs and spices, wallowing in a rich red wine marinade… waiting to soak up every precious little bit of flavour…
The meat was done to a perfect medium… soft delicate and moist. I took the lamb out of the pan and sliced it up, then putting the roasting dish back on the stove top, adding a little cornflour and thickened up the red wine and pan juices to make a delicious gravy.

I’ll let the photos do the rest of the talking, but in a word… delicious. A lovely relaxing night with close friends, great wine, and great food.

Now say that title five times really fast…

Actually, I just realised that although i posted these photos and descriptions to my Flickr page, I didn’t end up writing a post about it here… So a belated Valentines day to all the food lovers out there, because that was when I made this meal.

This meal was… Parsnip Puree, Seared Witlof, Peppered Porterhouse Steak, topped with a red wine, cherry tomato confit.

A quiet night in called for a low key dinner solution. I’m very much into dough at the moment. I’m not sure why, I just seem to be going through a dough phase. I get a very calming sensation from just kneading dough until its nice and soft, and the yeast makes it seem alive (which technically, it is).

So this was another home made pizza base consisting of:

500 grams flour
2 or so cups of warm water
1 tablespoon of fresh yeast
1 pinch of salt
2 drizzles of olive oil
1 dollop of honey

Combine dry ingredients, and then gradually add the wet ones and mix it all around until its a big ball of doughy goodness.

Leave it to rise in a covered bowl and then punch the air out it a couple of times, til its really malleable.

Then roll it flat, and you’re good to go.

The topping for this pizza was tomato paste, a nice fat slice of eggplant, some sliced “vine ripened” tomatoes, basil, and buffalo mozzarella.

The mozzarella is great… I’d been looking it for a while since having a Mozzarella di Bufala pizza at Pronto’s a while back, but for ages I couldn’t find it, and was told by the nice ladies in Restore that there was a shortage of it… Fortunately for me the buffalo must have been lactating more recently, and I happened to find some at Herdsman Fresh on my last trip.

Apart from being made from buffalo milk, I’m not sure how its different to boccocini… but I like it nonetheless.

The pizza was paired with a wine from my current favourite winemakers. It’s a 2002 Sangiovese/Merlot from Innocent Bystander. Spicey but delicate, with a fruity aftertaste… something different to try.

All in all a great meal to pass the time on a night where all you’re really doing is waiting to go to bed :)

My new mate and all round nice guy extraordinairre, Beau, of Basic Juice has graciously linked up my first meagre attempt at a wine review.

Beau is by all accounts a very well versed wine lover, and I’m continually impressed as I dig through his site and find reviews for wines I’d never have imagined anyone else outside of Australia would have heard of. He mixes just the right amount of “actual knowledge” with plenty of raw enthusiasm for the drink that brings so much pleasure to so many.

As Molly Meldrum would say… “Do yourself a favour”, and check him out… Anyone who quotes Dr Seuss poems has got to be onto something :)

I think perhaps I’m getting closer to finding the impetus to do the wine appreciation course I’ve been planning on doing for a while now. But then I’ve been planning on getting my scuba diving licence for a while now too…

Maybe i’ll just keep drinking it for now :)

Well after being graciously linked up by Beau on his great wine blog, I thought it was about time I put some effort into writing about some of the wine I drink.

So here is the first effort… A lovely looking bottle of South Australian Cabernet Sauvignon that jumped off the shelf at me while on a mission to retrieve cumin seeds, buffalo mozzarella, and limonata from “Re-store” in Leederville.

It’s from a region of South Australia called Fleurieu, which i’d never heard of, and i really liked the label. Plus I’ve been drinking mainly Shiraz/Grenache/Mouverdre blends recently, so I thought it was time to get back to some of the more robust/in your face/full bodied wines that Australia has become famous for.

According to the wine maker, it should be something like this:

Vintage Note:
Dry conditions throughout the year lowered crop yields and produced concentrated and small berry fruit. Perfect ripening conditions from verasion to harvest resulted in wines of incredible flavor and color.

Tasting Note:
Deep Red. Cassis aromas complex with hints of mint and truffle and enhanced with roasted coffee bean and vanilla American and French oak. A full bodied wine with ripe blackberry fruit and a firm tannin structure. Toasty oak enhances the sweet fruit and lingers enticingly.

Source:
Davey Family Vineyard, McLaren Vale
Hindmarsh Valley, Southern Fleurieu

Blend:
100% Cabernet Sauvignon

Bottling:
pH: 3.49
TA: 6.60
ALC: 13.80%

My take on the wine would be definitely a full fruit flavour. Lots of cherry/blackberry flavours hit you in face as soon as you take that first sip, and linger until you’re ready for the next. It’s definitely full bodied. Not the kind of wine that you can drink nonchalantly… It’s big flavoured and makes you sit up and take notice. The subtle nuances and flavours of the wine are lost on me I must admit, and being an avid coffee drinker/roaster, I didn’t pick up on the roasted coffee flavour as desribed in the wine makers notes. I would agree that the sweetness of the wine lingers though… theres not the oaky aftertaste that much of the heavily wooded wines seems to carry with them.

All in all I’d say it’s a great wine, not too complex, but a very enjoyable drink.

I’m also loving my new Reidel ‘O’ series, stemless glassware. I’ve broken many a wine glass stem in my time (I think my record is three in one night), and so these are a breath of fresh air. They also look great, and feel great in the hand, and are just the right shape for swirling and bringing out all those luscious red wine aromas… Now if my uncultured nose could only work out what some of them are, i’d be laughing :)

I made this meal tonight. It’s the first heavily savoury risotto i’ve made, and a bloody ripper, even if i do say so myself.

Ingredients:
- Good quality fillet steak (i used rib eye, something nice and juicy preferably)
- Carnaroli rice – higher starch content than arborio rice means creamier risotto.
- Red wine (mine was the 2002 Riverbank Estate Cabernets, my nana bought it for my birthday… what a great nana :) )
- Tomatos (both real and pureed)
- Quality beef stock
- Bok Choy (this is for a change in texture from the rest of the risotto to add some bite)
- Rosemary
- Risotto stuff ( ive made a lot of risotto lately, so i seem to be repeating the same ingredients and steps, basically this means, chopped onion, garlic, and leek, combined in either butter or olive oil, used to coat the rice before adding stock)

So basically you cook it like you’d cook any risotto, except that before you cook the rice, you cut the beef into strips (or chunks should you so desire) and braise it in a combination of red wine, rosemary, garlic and a little beef stock. Then set it aside just as its medium rare.

Continue with the rest of the risotto, creating the base stock out of beef stock, red wine, and rosemary.

When your rice is ready to go, begin adding the stock, stirring when you need to, and towards the end add in the chopped and pureed tomatoes (as many as you like depending on how ‘tomatoey’ you want it). Then when the rice is almost done, add your beef back in, stir it through, and then add the bok choy and let it soften slighty before serving.

What you get is big juicy pieces of steak combined beautifully with succulent and crisp bok choy and tender carnaroli rice.

And yes, my photography skills are not improving… but fortunately my cooking skills are… so whilst it looks kinda ugly, it tasted really good …