Abercrombie & Feast

We’re home in Sydney.  It seems like no matter where we go on holiday, I’m always so happy to come home to our little apartment in Sydney. 

We had such a great vacation.  Lots of swimming, sunning and relaxing.  Lots of memories made.

Probably my overwhelming culinary memory of New Caledonia will be the bread.  An island-sized slice of France in the South Pacific, New Caledonia is a place of burnished skies, blue water… and bread.  Every food shop, no matter how small and dusty, had large stack of fresh, golden bread.  Baguettes, mostly.

Food is very expensive in New Calendonia.  For example, a lunch of lettuce wraps and spring rolls at a local Vietnamese place cost us about AU$60.  Ouch.  So, we brought a lot of our own food to make in our petite apartment on the beach.  But, we did splash out and buy bread- daily. 

I ate the bread for brekkie almost every day.  Topped with a cold slick of slightly salted French butter, or with a sweet, rich smear of peanut butter (brought over in our suitcase from AU) and eaten on our balcony overlooking the sparkling Pacific ocean each morning, the bread was a brilliant start to my days.

The view from our hotel on Anse Vata

The bread was also our snack during the days.  After a day in the sun, on the beach or by the pool, a cold bottle of Orangina and a hunk of crusty baguette, torn right from the loaf, would revive me for the afternoon (or my afternoon nap!)

Walking the streets of Noumea, the capital of New Caledonia, I would see dozens of people eating sandwiches made on fresh loaves of bread.  I would see dozens and dozens more with their newly purchased loaves peeking out of their shopping bags, backpacks and beach bags.  It seems I wasn’t the only one filling up on the ubiquitous loaves. 

With a crust as golden as the sunsets over the ocean, and an interior as white as the coral beaches, eating the bread in New Caledonia was like having a bite of the island itself.  Delicious.

We’re off on holiday tomorrow!  So excited!  We’ll be spending Christmas on the beach, sipping fruity drinks and reading good books. 

Every year we escape Sydney for the week of Christmas.  I hate the idea of sitting in our apartment alone on Christmas day, so we hit the road instead.  It’s really odd, and kind of hard, to not see our families at this time of year.  So, last night, we did the next best thing.  We invited our “Sydney family” over for a night of festive food, funny movies and holiday cheer. 

I want to keep this post short- I still have bathing suits to pack!  Here are two recipes that we enjoyed last night with our lovely mates.  Both are tasty, pretty and seasonal.  I hope you feel like celebrating, too!

Mulled wine

Serves 6
1 bottle dry red wine (I used a cab merlot)
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brandy
1/2 cup water 
1 large orange, thinly sliced into rounds 
1 lemon, thinly sliced into rounds
2 cinnamon sticks, slightly crushed
6 whole cloves

Place the wine, sugar, brandy, water, orange, lemon, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg in a large saucepan over low heat. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 5-10 minutes or until sugar dissolves and mixture is aromatic. Do not boil- you’ll burn off the alcohol and then, what’s the point??  Remove from the heat and let stand for several hours.  I made my mixture in the morning before work and let it sit all day to infuse.

Before serving, drain the wine so you’ve removed all the solids.  You can keep a few slices of orange and lemon for decoration, but you don’t want shards of cinnamon sticks floating in your glass. 

Return the drained wine to the pan and heat gently.  Serve warm. 

Chicken salad with cranberries and walnuts

Serves 6 as part of a meal or 2 for a big lunch
2 chicken breasts
2tbs mayo
3-4 tbs plain yogurt
1/3 cup dried, sweetened cranberries
1/4 cup walnuts
1/4 tsp ground sage
salt and pepper to taste

Begin by poaching the chicken breasts.  I have made this chicken salad so many times, with all manner of leftover chicken.  But, if you don’t have leftover chicken, poaching is a fast and easy way to get the chicken you need for this salad.  Put the chicken breasts in a pot.  Cover with water and bring to a simmer.  Allow to simmer for about 15-20 mins, or until cooked through.  Remove the chicken from the water and let cool.  Once it’s cool enough to handle, shred the chicken with two forks.  Easy!

While the chicken is poaching, put the walnuts in a dry frying pan.  Place the pan over medium high heat and toast the nuts until they are a deeper brown and they smell great.

Mix the cooled, poached chicken with the mayo and plain yogurt.  I should point out that I loathe mayo, so don’t worry if you don’t like it.  You won’t even taste it in this recipe!  The plain yogurt provides the needed moisture without overwhelming the taste of the other ingredients.

Add the cranberries and walnuts and mix well.  Add the sage and stir.  Add salt and pepper to taste (I like plenty of both in this recipe.) 

Serve in sandwiches for lunch, or on slices of toasted baguette for a party. 

It’s time to move on.  Because, honestly, not every meal can be eaten at Tetsuya’s (though… imagine if it could!)  Some meals must be basic, Earthy, simply the stuff of life.  And I cannot think of a more down to Earth vegetable than the beet. 

Australians eat a lot of beets (or beetroot as they call it here.)  Until we moved here my entire life’s interaction with beets could be summed up in one word- canned.  I am embarrassed to admit this, but I don’t think I had ever seen a fresh, whole beet until I was at least 23 years old.  Americans just don’t eat beets as much as Australians do!

But over here, beets are everywhere.  On sandwiches, on salads, on burgers, roasted, boiled… the parade of beets continues all year long in Australia. 

And I will admit that I still don’t eat a lot of beets.  I hate the idea of a slice of beet colouring my burger bun pink and I don’t like the strong flavour of beets on sandwiches.  I do, however, love beets on their own.  So, many moons ago, when our friends Jason and Jody had us over for a barbie and they served this salad, I fell in love (with the salad… although Jason and Jody are nice, too!)  I have made this salad a few times since then and it is always a very popular addition to a barbie or a light dinner. 

 

Raw beets are the star of this beautiful salad.  I know, I know.  Sounds odd.  But beets in their natural state are crunchy and sweet.  The gorgeous dark pink colour makes this a festive dish… one that would be fun on any table at this time of year.  The beets are teamed with apples and jazzed up with a tart dressing, creamy feta cheese and fresh mint.  This salad is simple, oh so healthy and tastier than you can imagine.  Just be careful when preparing the beets… my fingers were pink for 2 days!

 

Beetroot and apple salad

Serves 4-6 as part of a meal

3-4 medium size whole beets
2 large Granny Smith apples
juice of 1/2 a lemon
3 tbs red wine vinegar
5 tbs good olive oil
1/3 cup feta, crumbled
1-2 large handfuls fresh mint, chopped
salt to taste

Start by peeling the tough outside skin off the beets.  I like to cut off the round ends first, then use either a veggie peeler or my knife to remove the skin. 

Use the grater setting on a food processor, a box grater or a mandolin, to grate the beets.  You don’t want a very fine grate or you lose the texture- medium is best.  Once all the beets are grated, but them in a colander over the sink for 20 mins to drain off the excess liquid. 

Peel and core the apples and grate them on the same setting as the beets.

Once the beets are drained, toss them with the apples. 

Mix the lemon juice, vinegar and olive oil with a little salt in a bowl.  Pour over the beet and apple mixture and toss together.  Taste to make sure you’ve got enough of everything.  You want a tart dressing that doesn’t overwhelm the sweetness of the beets. 

Put this mix into the fridge for about 30 mins to let the flavours meld.  Before serving, taste for seasoning and add salt as needed. 

Just before serving, sprinkle the top with the feta and mint.  Don’t toss the feta and mint through, or they will turn pink.  The contrast of the white and green on the dark pink is what makes this salad so beautiful. 

I wish there was some way I could prepare you all for the story I am about to tell you, but I didn’t even get any preparation time myself!  Instead, on Friday night, I was unexpectedly presented with a culinary dream come true.  Here’s how it happened.

About 3 months ago I got an email from Andy.  It seems that he and Jason and Steve had planned a surprise night out for Jody, Maja and myself.  We had no idea what the surprise was, but we were told to dress up.  We guessed that we might be going to a play or to the Opera House… but none of our guesses were even close.

We went to Tetsuya’s!!!  For those of you who don’t follow food news, Tetsuya’s was named the #5 restaurant in the world by the UK magazine Restaurant.  I have wanted to go there since we moved to Sydney, so this was an evening more than 3 years in the making for me.

I don’t want to spend this whole post telling you how excited I was… after all, we have 13 courses to discuss.  But I would like to say that the evening was everything I hoped for and I am so lucky to have a husband who would plan a surprise like this and wonderful friends to enjoy it with. 

So, let’s dive right in, shall we??

Tetsuya Wakuda is the chef and owner of Tetsuya’s.  He grew up in Japan and has lived in Australia for more than 20 years.  His food is an exciting mixture of the best of Australian produce, Japanese simplicity and austerity and French technique and sensuality.  We had the 13 course degustation menu with matching wines.  It was thrilling. 

I should apologise here for the quality of these pictures.  I didn’t have the good camera with me and I was so anxious to try the dishes in front of me that I didn’t spend much time photographing them.  The food at Tetsuya’s is stunning and these pictures do not do the dishes justice. 

First course: Chilled pea soup with minted creme fraiche and dark chocolate shavings

I found it funny that this was our first course, because I had literally written a post the night before saying that I don’t like chilled soups.  Well, I would like to amend that statement.  I don’t like chilled soups that aren’t prepared at Tetsuya’s.  I really liked this chilled soup.  Each ingredient tasted perfectly of what it was, but the whole was greater than the individual parts.  Peas and mint are a natural pairing, but the bitter chocolate was an unexpected and very successful addition.

Second course: Smoked ocean trout with Avruga caviar

We couldn’t figure out what the yellow centre was here, so I asked the lovely waitress.  Turns out, it’s the yolk of an egg that has been frozen.  It wasn’t cold, but the texture had totally changed.  It was more like the texture of butter.  I liked it, but some of my fellow dinners found the texture off-putting. 

Third course: Custard of caramelised leek and Queensland spanner crab

This was amazing.  The custard was smooth and studded with chunks of sweet crab meat.  The flavour of the leeks was strong, but didn’t overwhelm the delicate flavour of the crab.  Gorgeous. 

Fourth course: Trio of scampi

This dish was interesting to me because each component had the same main ingredient- scampi.  But each tasted so different.  They recommended that we start with the one in the shot glass.  It was full of sea water flavoured with lemon and olive oil.  The scampi had a texture that was both silky and firm… perhaps from its time in the liquid?  The first flavour you got was of the olive oil, then the lemon came through.  Really cool.

The preparation on the left was scampi wrapped in pancetta.  This was delicious… as are all things wrapped in what is basically high-end bacon. 

The third preparation, the one on the right, was my favourite of the three.  It was scampi marinated in white miso and passionfruit.  It was sweet and sour with a smooth texture.  I loved it.

Fifth course: Confit of ocean trout with a salad of fennel and daikon

God, I wish this picture had come out better.  This was a beautiful dish.  This is actually Tetsuya’s signature dish and I can see why.  You could easily build an empire based around this dish.  The fish, which looks raw here, is actually slowly cooked in fat (peanut oil and something else I think).  It is creamy and rich.  We were told that the salad was fennel and daikon, but I didn’t taste any fennel.  I think it was daikon and green apple instead.  Either way, it was a delightful, light and crunchy foil to the rich fish.  This was one of our favourite dishes of the evening. 

Sixth course: Terrine of spanner crab with Nori and avocado sauce

Are you getting tired yet?  By this stage, we all were… which may explain our reaction to this dish.  This was the one we liked the least all evening.  Which is a pity because it was made of 2 of my all time favourite foods… crab and avocado.  But the general consensus was that this was too rich.  Perhaps it was the additional creamy topping?  I’m not saying this was bad.  If I had been served this at any other restaurant I probably would have swooned.  It was just not our favourite.

Seventh course: Grilled barramundi with braised fennel

Oh, I will dream about this dish.  It was a perfect plate of food.  The fennel was sweet from a slow braising, but still had a bit of crunch and bite.  The fish was perfectly cooked and seasoned.  This was one of the highlights for me.

Eighth course: Roasted breast of duck with braised witlof and walnuts

I love duck, so I was sure I would like this.  And… I was right!  The duck was cooked perfectly, still rosy on the inside and juicy.  The sauce was rich and a little sweet.  The witlof was the perfect match.  The bitterness that witlof typically has had been cooked out of it, leaving us with a slightly crisp offset to the soft duck. 

Ninth course: Grass fed angus with chestnut mushrooms

I actually don’t like mushrooms much.  I don’t cook with them and I avoid them on menus.  However, as you can tell from the photo above, this dish looked and smelled so good that I forgot to take a picture until after I got started on it.  It was distractingly good.  Even the mushrooms.  They were earthy and soft and not at all spongy (which is usually my issue with mushrooms).  The beef was cooked just like I like it.  I asked how they cooked it, and was told it was done on the grill, but on a hotplate over the grill.  We all loved this one.

Tenth course: Comte with lentils

This served as a transition between the savoury and the sweet portions of the evening.  Each of us got a Chinese spoon full of sweetened lentils topped with salty, grated French cheese.  It was a strange combination.  I always love a combination of sweet and salty, but I had to really get my head around these lentils.

Eleventh course: Beetroot and blood orange sorbet and summer pudding

Isn’t that pretty??  You could really taste the beetroot in the sorbet, which I loved.  It was sweet and sour and not too frozen… the perfect consistency.  And the summer pudding was…  wow.  Honestly, summer pudding is easy to make and a crowd pleaser, but this was on a whole other level.  Sweet and tart and juicy and creamy.  Love!

Twelfth course: Lemon scented “floating island” with vanilla anglaise

I am swooning just thinking about this dessert.  I love lemon desserts, so I was thrilled when this course arrived.  A floating island is a traditional French dessert.  An “island” of meringue “floats” in a sea of creme anglaise.  As delicious as that sounds, this was even better.  The island was light and fluffy and smooth.  The lemon was really tart and cut through the sweetness of the vanilla creme.  Basically, this is my ideal dessert and I will dream of this for years to come. 

Thirteenth course: Chocolate ganache with green tea and red beans

This dessert was really cool.  The red beans, which are common in Asian sweets, formed the base.  The chocolate cookie disk on top held the ganache away from the base.  When cut or moved, the velvety ganache mixed with the beans.  Fun and delicious!

We had matched wines with each course, which added another dimension to the meal, but I forgot to make note of what we were drinking. 

So, there you have it.  It was the coolest evening ever.  We were at the restaurant for about 5 hours.  The staff were friendly and funny and knowledgeable.  Best of all, I had a once-in-a-lifetime experience with some of my favourite people.  Which means that, for me, Tetsuya’s is #1.

I know I have said this before on this blog… but I love soup.  I also love summer time.  In fact, the only thing better than soup or summer time is finding a soup you can eat in the summer time without melting into your bowl and broth. 

My options are limited.  I think the idea of cold soups is unnatural, so I have to rule out all chilled soups.  So, either I eat hot soups in hot weather in an un-airconditioned apartment (bad idea) or I forgo soups for 75% of the year (it’s hot in Australia).  Since neither of these options sounded good to me, I set out to try to find that elusive third option… a hot soup that I want to eat in the summer months.   

It was actually Andy who suggested that I make a Mexican chicken soup.  When we lived in Georgia he would eat chicken soup from the Mexican place near our apartment at least twice a week.  On my recent trip home to Georgia, I ordered a small cup of chicken soup at my brother’s favourite Mexican restaurant.  I just wanted to see what all the fuss was about.

Oh, my.  This is a soup that would be good all year round, but is especially good in the summer, when all the ingredients are in season and at their freshest.  The heat of the broth and the jalapeno is offset by the cool crunch of coriander, the slick creaminess of the avocado and the tangy bite of the lime juice.  The shattering crunch of the fried tortilla strips provides a pleasant contrast to the softness of the rice and the chicken.  This soup has something for everyone… and every climate.

Mexican chicken soup
(Sopa de pollo)

 

Serves 4

1/2 white onion, very finely chopped
1 carrot, very finely chopped
1 stalk of celery, very finely chopped
1 jalapeno chilli, very finely chopped (seeds removed if you want a more mild broth)
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1/2 chicken, roasted or poached, shredded
2 chicken stock cubes
2 cups water
1/3 cup medium grain rice
1 tomato, very finely chopped
1 lime
1/2 avocado, chopped
2 corn tortillas
3 tbs vegetable oil
1 handful coriander (cilantro) chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Mexican Chicken SoupI should start by saying that I used a roasted chicken from our grocery store for this soup.  I had planned to poach 2 chicken breasts, but we were busy this evening and by the time I got to the store, I knew I wouldn’t have time to cook the chicken myself.  So, I picked up a whole roasted chicken and it was delicious in this soup.   

 Heat 1 tbs of the oil in a large, heavy bottomed pan over medium heat.  Add the onion, carrot, jalapeno and celery and let cook until soft and the onion is translucent, about 5 minutes.  Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute.  Add a pinch of salt. 

Add 2 cups shredded, cooked chicken meat.  Stir and let cook for about 2 minutes. 

Add stock cubes and water and stir together.  Bring to a boil, then let simmer for about 20 minutes. 

Add the rice to the soup.  Stir.  Allow to cook for about 10 – 15 minutes, until the rice is cooked.  The rice will absorb some of the broth, so you may need to add more water depending on the texture you prefer.

When the rice is cooked, turn off the heat.  Stir in the tomatoes and the juice of 1/2 of the lime and let sit for about 2 minutes. 

Taste and add more salt and pepper to taste. 

Serve the soup topped with chopped avocado, sprinkles of coriander and some fried tortillas with lime slices on the side.

Fried tortillas

Roll tortillas up into a cylinder and slice into thin ribbons.

Heat 2 tbs of oil in a small frying pan.  Don’t add the tortilla strips until the oil is hot… otherwise you’ll get soggy, greasy strips.  To test whether the oil is ready you can drop one tortilla strip into the oil.  If it immediately begins to bubble, it’s ready. 

Fry the strips in batches until golden brown.  Remove and drain on paper towels.  Sprinkle with fine salt and serve on top of soups, salads, casseroles, etc. 

It’s been really hot here for the last two days… just in time for the holidays.  No matter the temperature, something about the holidays always makes me want to bake.  Despite the fact that it’s really hot outside, we have no air conditioning and the heat from the oven makes my curls frizz up… I can’t help it! 

Today we set up our tree and decorated the apartment.  It looks so nice, all sparkly and twinkly.  The only thing missing was the homey smell of Christmas cookies wafting through the air.  So, I did the next best thing and I baked this bread.

This was supposed to be cranberry and orange bread, which would have been more fitting for the seasonal theme.  But, for the second Christmas in a row, I couldn’t find any frozen cranberries at my local store.  I swear, they stock frozen cranberries all year… but remove them from the shelves just in time for the holiday baking rush.  In the words of Stephanie Tanner, “That’s just rude!”  So I used cherries, a lovely summer time fruit, instead. 

Missing cranberries aside, this bread turned out beautifully.  Which I guess is actually kind of perfect.  This bread fits right in with our version of summer time Christmas Down Under.

Cherry and orange bread

Makes one loaf
Juice and grated rind of one orange
2 tbs vegetable oil
water
1 egg
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups frozen cherries
1/2 cup chopped almonds
2 cups plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 180C (350F).  Grease and flour one loaf pan. 

Put the rind and the juice of the orange into a measuring cup.  Add the oil.  Add enough water to the measuring cup to bring the level up to 3/4 cup.

Beat the egg and sugar together with an electric mixer.  Add the cherries, almonds and orange mixture.  Stir to blend well.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a small bowl.  Add the flour mixture to the cherry mixture and stir well to combine completely.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan.  Bake in the preheated oven for about 1 hour, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. 

Turkey, sweet potatoes, spinach, chicken salad, enchiladas, sausage balls, Chex mix, ham, mashed potatoes, Brussels sprouts, queso, jalapeno cheese, carrot sticks, stuffed celery, pizza, apple cider, macaroons… these are literally just a FEW of the things I ate on my recent trip home to Georgia for Thanksgiving.  God, I really love Thanksgiving.  It is a whole DAY devoted to just eating.  And, since I rarely go home, I decided to make this a whole VACATION devoted to eating.  Forget overweight luggage (I did my fair share of shopping!), I was afraid I was going to have to pay a fee to get myself on the plane… overweight passenger! 

I had such a nice time.  Airline travel really is a little miracle.  You wake up in Sydney, catch a cab to the airport, sit next to a stranger for hours on end, eat a snack at another airport, sit next to another stranger for a few more hours… then suddenly you’re in Georgia.  It’s amazing.

Here are a few pictures from the trip:

 

My brother Noah and me (he just got engaged!!)

One of the best parts of the trip was the chance to spend a lot of time cooking with my mom.  We made all the food for a big party (congrats Noah and Dana!) and for Thanksgiving day together.  It was a treat to spend time together in the kitchen, stirring and chatting and singing along to Billy Joel.  For me, that is what going home is all about. 

On my last night in Georgia, mom and I decided to make a few different kinds of Christmas cookies.  We ran up to the grocery store, stocked up on the essentials like marshmallows, vanilla and coconut, and then baked up a storm.  Here’s the recipe for the amaretto macaroons that we made.  We told ourselves that we liked the idea of the amaretto in the cookies… but who were we kidding?  We just liked the idea of the amaretto.  I didn’t get a picture- my camera was already packed away.  But trust me, these are delicious, festive and easy. 

Amaretto Macaroons
Makes about 20 macaroons

3 cups sweetened shredded coconut
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup egg whites (this will probably be about 5-6 eggs)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 tsp amaretto
1/4 tsp almond extract

Place the coconut, sugar and egg whites in a saucepan, and stir to combine well.

Cook over medium-low heat, stirring frequently for about 10-12 minutes,

The mixture will be a bit grainy for a while, then it will get more creamy and liquid as it heats.  The mixture will slowly get drier as you continue to stir. Stop cooking when the mixture is still a bit creamy- not too dry.  Remove from heat.

Mix in vanilla, amaretto and almond extract. Spread this mixture onto a large baking sheet. Refrigerate until cold, about 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 150C or 300F. Line another baking sheet with baking paper. 

Using your hands, roll the coconut mixture into balls.  I have been struggling to think of a way to tell you what size balls to roll.  Basically, you’re going for the size of a large marble.  Place these on the baking sheet.

Bake the macaroons until golden, approx 30 minutes. Remove from the baking sheet and cool.

And, finally, here’s a picture of the sunrise as I flew back into Sydney.  I have so much to be thankful for.