Cooking: Real Italian Bolognaise by Matthew Evans

I was a little bit addicted to the Gourmet Farmer when it was on SBS earlier in the year, so was very happy to receive a copy of Matthew Evan's book The Real Food Companion from my lovely friend Penne. It's a wholesome, old style cookbook with very few photographs and lots of lovely recipes that have obviously been inspired by the seasonal produce from his small holding. It's a book so far that I'm really enjoying.

I'm trying to eat a lot of pasta at the moment for my marathon running, so this recipe for a 'Real Italian Bolognaise' immediately grabbed me. Not having an Italian grandmother, I'm not quite sure what a 'real' bolognaise is supposed to be.  However, this has a few interesting ingredients with milk and white wine in the recipe. It certainly created a tasty dish, that was a lot lighter than almost every other Italian bolognaise I've eaten.

Makes 2kg - unless you are marathon training or having twenty people round for dinner you might want to halve the recipe.

Ingredients:
100g butter
2 onions, finely chopped
2 tbsp flat leaf parsley, chopped
5 celery sticks, finely diced
2 carrots, finely diced
2 bay leaves
750g minced veal (I used beef as my butcher didn't have any veal on the day)
500g minced pork
1 tsp salt
500ml of whole milk
½ tsp ground nutmeg
500ml dry white wine
880g tinned chopped tomatoes

Method:
Heat the butter in a pan and fry the onion and parsley until translucent. Add the celery, carrot and bay leaves and cook for 2mins. Increase the heat and add the mince, salt and pepper. Cook until all the liquid has evaporated, this could take ages depending on how wide the pan is.

Stir in the milk , reduce the heat to a simmer. Stir occasionally until all the milk has evaporated. Add the nutmeg and wine, stirring until evaporated too. Add the tomatoes and 500ml (2 cups) of water. Reduce the heat to barely a simmer and cook for 2-3hrs, stirring from time to time. Add more water if needed.

Add just the seasoning to taste and serve with pasta. Mix sauce through the pasta, don’t just plonk it on top!

Jamming and preserving

It's the end of summer here in the UK and what can't be eaten fresh, mum is preserving for the winter. First things get frozen, then comes either bottling or jamming. Two days ago mum bottled some blackberries picked fresh from the garden in the iconic kilner jars, which have screw lids, and not the hinged tops most people think of.

Yesterday we made some plum and ginger jam. My mum, sister and I picked from the tree in the garden and then sat round the kitchen table stoning the fruit and checking for any plums that had gone bad. I know that jam has a lot of a sugar in it, but it was still shocking to put in equal amounts of sugar to fruit!

Restaurant Review: L'enclume, Cartmel

Just before I headed back to the UK I got a text from my mum saying "Bring something smart for when we go out to lunch". The message took me a little by surprise as I wasn't aware that any flash restaurants were planned while I was at home.

When I landed back in the UK I discovered we had a table book at L'enclume in the Lake District village of Cartmel. Not an easy restaurant to find out about as there aren't any menus on their website and seem to be very few reviews online. All I did know was that the Good Food Guide 2010 had recently awarded L'enclume fourth best restaurant in the UK and analogies with Heston Blumenthal were being made. Sounds good.

The restaurant is situated in an old stone building in the heart of the picturesque village. The inside is simply decorated with the stone walls painted white and dark wooden furniture. I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't as big nor had the wow factor that I was anticipating.

The restaurant has three different tasting menus, plus there was a lunchtime special. There were two twelve course menus, each priced at £80. An eight course menu at £60 and a three course lunchtime special at £25. The menus had a local focus, with one being exclusively Cumbrian. There was also some crossover of dishes between the menus, with three or four dishes making regular appearances. We opted for the eight course menu and I'm pleased that we did as I don't think my stomach could have coped with any more food!

1. Canapes of popcorn, prawn crackers and pistachio brittle.

2. Croquettes

While we were deciding upon the menu we were brought an appetiser of popcorn, prawn crackers and a pistachio brittle. With the Heston Blumenthal analogy fresh in my mind I was expecting to taste liquorice popcorn, apple crackers and coffee brittles, but they were just literally popcorn, prawn crackers and caramel. All very nice, but it did seem a little out of touch with the local Cumbrian menus and what was to come.

Once at the table we are served a amuse-bouche of croquettes with caper dipping sauce. Subtly flavoured they were crisp on the outside, light in the middle. A bit over salted for my taste.

1. Cumberland creamed chicken livers, purple shoots and rye toast.

2. Vegetable broth, azur star, vegetable dumplings, hogweed and fennel.

3. Muncaster crab with tiger tomatoes, mallow and pickled lemon crystal

Next we were into the menu proper with the Cumberland creamed chicken livers with purple shoots and rye toast. The paté was innovatively served in little pouches that were nestled into a piece of carved natural stone. It was one of several dishes that came served on interesting crockery and not just the usual big white plates (although there were several of those too). The paté was smooth and well complimented by the Cumberland sauce.

The second course was a vegetable broth with beetroot dumplings. The beetroot dumplings looked beautiful and the whole broth had a very light feel to it. This was the second and thankfully final dish that was too salty for my tastes.

The Muncaster crab with tiger tomatoes, mallow and pickled lemon crystal was next. I had to look up that mallow was an edible plant, where the flower and leaves can both be eaten. It was the first time several lesser known plants appeared on the menu. I particularly enjoyed the flavoursome tiger tomato that was sitting underneath the crab.

1. Loch Tay Arctic Char, finale fennel, buckwheat and bay cockles.

2. Randolph lop suckling pig, sweet white onion, mugwort and parsley

3. Partenon courgettes, 'gold rush', poached little eggs and marjoram butter

Partenon corgettes with quails eggs followed the crab. Soft poached quails eggs sat underneath thin slices of yellow and green courgette, all topped with a deep fried courgette flower and marjoram butter. This wasn't one of my favourite dishes as I found the marjoram butter a bit rich and the slithers of courgette a little bland.

All of the courses were quite similar in size, but I'd characterise the next two courses as the 'main' dishes of the day. Loch Tay Char with fennel, buckwheat and cockles was the first 'main' course. I don't think I've had char or cockles before. It was a nicely balanced dish with all of the elements working well to compliment each other.

The final savoury dish of the day was suckling pig, with sweet onion, mugwort and parsley. I had a couple of cubes of suckling pig that were a real hit, very tender, succulent and flavoursome; the other two didn't quite have the same star quality.

 Gooseberry cream, blackcurrants, yoghurt, pineapple weed

The first dessert was the gooseberry cream and blackcurrant that was unanimously voted the dish of the day. A nightmare to take a photo of, but heaven to eat! It was served in gorgeous little pots with the gooseberry cream hiding underneath a layer of set blackcurrants. The gooseberry cream was rich and smooth and went perfectly with the blackcurrants.

1. Buttermilk with strawberry, apricot and sweet cicely

2. Douglas fir milkshake and apple cakes

3. Petit four including Kendal mint ice cream

The last official dish from the menu was the buttermilk with stawberry, apricot and sweet cicely. The appricot purée was the real star of this dish for me, a wonderful intense apricot flavour. I wasn't quite as sure about the flavour of the cicely (another plant I had to look up).

Once the desserts were cleared we served douglas fir milkshakes and apple cakes. The douglas fir milkshakes tasted just as the tree smells. A really interesting touch.

Coffee was accompanied by petit four, as I hadn't ordered coffee I had to sneak a taste of my dad's chocolates.

1. Hierloom tomato salad.

2. Breakfast raddish

3. Tarragon dumplings

My sister is a vegetarian so she had a number of different courses to us, which all came from the other two tasting menus. I didn't taste any of these dishes, but they all looked as stunning as the rest of the food.

Overall a very enjoyable lunch. My mum declared that she preferred L'enclume to Le Manoir, which we visited several years ago and came third in this year's Good Food Guide. A more relaxed and welcoming atmosphere where her key differentiators. I really enjoyed the food and service. It was great to see a showcase of Cumbrian produce and also some less well known plants being used.

Cooking: Coconut and Lime Slice

Flicking through a recent copy of Delicious magazine I spotted a Bill Granger recipe for a coconut and lime slice. My friends and I have a theory that you never get a bad Bill Granger cake recipe so I decided to give this a go.

As long as you have an electric whisk and a couple of clean bowls this cake is very easy to make and I had it all put together inside fifteen minutes. The method also seems pretty foolproof to follow, a good recipe to try if you're not confident making cakes.

It's a tasty cake recipe and the top is very moist and light. A couple of thoughts / tips from me:
1. This makes a lot of cake! Unless you have twenty people coming round for afternoon tea or want to freeze some for later I'd consider halving the recipe.

2. Although my excellent photography has made the cake look wonderful (!), it is a very one dimensional in terms of colour. If I make the recipe again I'd try and tweak it for presentation. What about adding some cocoa to the base to make it chocolatey? Or going down the retro cheesecake route and setting some berries / jelly on the top?

Ingredients:

4 eggs

1 cup / 220g sugar

1 cup / 70g shredded coconut

1/3 cup / 50g plain flour

1 ½ cups / 375ml of single cream

2/3 cup / 165ml coconut milk

Grated zest and juice of 2 limes

Icing sugar to dust

Base:

125g butter

½ cup / 110g sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 ½ cups / 225g plain flour

½ tsp baking powder

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, line the base and sides of a 20cm x 30cm slice pan.

Make the base. Beat butter and sugar until thick and pale. Add the egg and vanilla. Sift in flour, baking powder and a pinch of salt and stir until you have a sticky dough. Using floured hands press into the tin and bake for 15mins until golden and firm.

Make the filling. Whisk eggs and sugar in a bowl until pale. Add shredded coconut, flour, cream, coconut milk, lime zest & juice and stir to combine. Pour over the base and bake for 35-40mins.

Cool in the pan. Dust with icing sugar and cut into bars.

Cooking: Why didn't I think of that?

Do you ever see things and say to yourself "why didn't I think of that?". I do, especially with words. One of those moments came when I discovered the blog Almost Bourdain, a great blog name that works on many levels. Although if you've never heard of Anthony Bourdain it probably means nothing to you!

Being on holiday has given me the chance to catch up on a backlog of recipes that I've wanted to cook. Two of which have come via Almost Bourdain's blog.

The first is a Jamie Oliver recipe for Sher Ping pancakes. This recipe lept out at me from Jamie's America cookbook which I gave to my friend Penne last Christmas. Reading the recipe (and seeing them made on the TV show) I thought there was quite a bit of technique involved, but they are surprisingly easy to make.

I work with a Chinese guy who is also an excellent cook and someone I use as an arbiter for all Chinese recipes that I cook. He often gets an email from me saying "does this look authentic?". Apparently this is an authentic recipe, but he'd bake the pancakes instead of frying them. I tried both methods and both are delicious.

The pancakes are a great snack food rather than a meal. A lot easier to make than I thought they'd be.

Another recipe that appealed to me was Moroccan Kefta Mkaouara, meatballs in tomato sauce with baked eggs. It's an interesting concept and I liked the baked eggs, but for me the dish lacked a bit of flavour / oomph. If I were to make it again I'd be tempted to zing it up with some more spices. Perhaps a bit of chilli? Upping the cumin and paprika? Ground coriander?

Picking Blackberries

I've got this dream. One day I want to own my own house with a small garden. Nothing too fancy, but in the garden there will be some fruit canes (raspberries definitely), fresh herbs, a big table for entertaining, a BBQ and a wood fired oven. It will be a wonderful place to relax with a book, glass of wine, great food and be a great venue to have friends round on a summer's evening.

Yesterday on the first night of my holiday I helped my dad pick some blackberries from the garden. It was a little part of the dream....

Thailand: Experiments in Pixelmator #3

It's difficult to explain my love affair with Thailand.

I first visited for a stop over back in 2005. I still remember the intense heat that hit me when I stepped off the plane, then the strange sights and sounds that met me. It was my first time in a developing or Eastern nation and the culture shock is something that I remember very well.

I've visited Thailand on three further occasions since that first day and always had an amazing time. A lot has to do with my good friend John who has a wonderful way of pushing me outside of my comfort zone and getting me to try new things. Then there are also the genuinely warm, fun living, smiling and open Thai people. Such a friendly bunch.

Looking through my photos I realised that I don't have any decent pictures from one of my favourite places!

From left to right we have the Elephant Building. A symbol of the Thai's favourite animal and also a major landmark in northern Bangkok near to where I stay. Don't you think it's a amazing that it does look like an elephant?

Me, a police man and a water pistol, it could only be Songkran! Officially Songkran is the Thai New Year, unofficially it is an excuse for a four day water fight. Just after this photo was taken I entered a water fight with about 1,000 other people. I think I was soaked to the skin within 10 seconds!

The amazing Wat Pho temple in central Bangkok is the middle photo. Home to the amazing reclining Buddha and a completely different style of architecture to anything we get in the West.

The final two photos are a little of Thailand's food. The first is of a cafe in the iconic MBK centre and final picture is of crispy pork rice from my favourite street stall on Phahonyothin road in northern Bangkok.

City2Surf

On Sunday I took part in the iconic City2Surf, the world's largest fun run, from the centre of Sydney to Bondi beach.

I spent an hour freezing on the start line before the race began and the whole time dodging round the crowds, but it was still a fantastic day. I had a swim at the end (absolutely freezing!) and then lunch with some friends.

The official results clocked my time at 64 minutes and 20 seconds, coming 3,325 out of the 69,000 people that completed the course. That's in the top 5%!!!

It was invaluable experience to complete a race before the marathon. Key lessons learnt:
- Need to take something warm for hanging about on the start line that I can then throw away
- Trim my toe nails before race day
- Don't wear your race number too high, it rubs on your nipples (sorry)
- Wear some sun screen
- I need to learn how to drink while running

It is a shame I'm not going to be able to take part in a half marathon before the big day.

If you'd like to sponsor me for the marathon, click one of the links below. Thanks!
Oz: Cancer Council
UK: Marie Curie Nurses

UPDATE:
Official City2Surf results are here.
Photos and videos of me crossing the line are here, although I'm not easy to spot!

Food Photography Workshop

On Saturday I went to a Food Photography Workshop hosted by Billy at the MuMu grill in Crows Nest.

I was looking forward to learning more on how to use my camera and also to try the food at Mumu which has had a lot of excellent reviews. The course was divided into two main sections, with lunch in between.

In the first half of the course was talked about the different settings on your camera and how to control them. We also covered some of the basics of composition, and tips & tricks on the best way to take photos of food. After lunch we went through some of the fundamentals of editing photos in Lightroom and Photoshop. The session was well run with a good balance between practicals and demonstrations.

It was really useful to learn more about how to set up my camera and compose photos. However, there is only so much you can learn in a four hour workshop and it re-inforces the thoughts I've been having for a while of taking a photography class. I'm not sure if I'll ever be one for spending hours editing my photos (beyond croping), but it was interesting to see what was possible.

I had a five minute go at 'touching up' the below photo before I uploaded onto the blog; cropping it, rotating the image to create a horizon, reducing the shadows to bring out the olives and raising the exposure to whiten the table cloth.

I had a little chuckle at the rock star status food bloggers are achieving. One of the participants had come up from Canberra for the day and another wanted photos with all of the food bloggers present. Perhaps I should put in some more effort if you get that sort of adoration!

The food was really good too. The serano ham, deep fried prawns, chorizo and beef were particular favourites. I'll be putting Mumu Grill on my list of places to visit for a full perusal of the menu sometime soon.

Gwen in Purgatory @ Belvoir Theatre

On Wednesday night I went to see Gwen in Purgatory at the Belvoir Theatre in Surry Hills.

The play bills itself as a comedy, and there are definitely laugh out load moments, but has a more serious side too; depicting tensions within the family around the care of an elderly grandmother who is beginning to get confused by life.

The play is very predictable on some levels. The humour is obvious; the phone stops ringing just as you go to pick it up. And all the characters are stereotypes. You have a tear-away grandson, slightly sleazy know-it-all uncle, an aunt the rest of the family take for granted and a sweet old grandmother. Thrown into the mix is a Nigerian priest who you wouldn't normally expect to find in suburbian Australia, however, even this character plays up to type.

What makes the play work (very well) is the remarkably good acting, led by Melissa Jaffer who plays the grandmother of the family. Also the fact that the audience will be able to relate to one or more of the characters in the show. It was amazing to overhear conversations of people at the end saying "My uncle Tony is just like that" or "that character was just like my sister". I definitely saw some elements of my family in the play and even if you don't, the obvious stereotypes mean you can connect.

I was surprised to find out that the play was written especially for the Belvoir Theatre. It was so polished that I assumed they had adapted an established script. Overall a great night out and I'd recommend you go along.


The Belvoir Theatre has created a couple of videos about the performance:
A interview with the cast, director and writer, which you have to watch even if it is just for the first five seconds. And a time lapse video of the creation of the set.

Sydney Marathon: Sponsor! Sponsor! Sponsor!

I've decided to run the Sydney Marathon in September, gulp!

Buying a GPS watch and some new trainers was the easy bit. Black toenails, 6am starts, dehydration, physio sessions and thirty kilometre runs have definitely been the less glamorous side!

For some extra motivation I decided to run for charity. In the UK I'm running for Marie Curie Cancer Care who provide fantastic, totally free, support for terminally ill cancer patients. Marie Curie nurses helped to look after my aunt when she was ill and if you could spare a few pounds to help with their good work I'd be really grateful:
http://www.justgiving.com/RichardMElliot

For my Aussie supporters I've set up a fundraising page for the Cancer Council NSW who fund research, and support cancer patients and their families: 
http://www.gofundraise.com.au/richardelliot

Your support and encouragement means a lot to me.

Just to prove I'm doing the training here's a 20km run from before breakfast on Wednesday:

Newtown: A foodie adventure

After the success of our trip to Cabramatta a few foodies met up to explore Newtown on the weekend.

We started at Eveleigh markets, they are located in an old train shed which I found very cool. It was a wonderful foodie market with a great range of stalls and producers. Kylie Kwong was there. It's good to see that at least one celebrity chef is still grounded enough to work on a market stall. To help with my carb loading I purchase was some pasta from Pasta Gallery (which has been excellent so far).

I also had a lovely chat with one of the ladies from the Gumnut chocolate stall. She was as excited to meet a group of food bloggers (the eminent ones I was with, not me) as we were to eat her chocolates.

After the market we headed into Newtown proper. Our first stop was Black Star Pastry which was a wonderful patisserie. I was a little surprised to find such a classy joint in "down at heel" Newtown. It was nice to discover an antidote to all Zumbo hype currently gripping Sydney.

Next up was the Maltese Pastizzi Cafe. We had a selection of savoury and sweet pastizzi which had beautiful flaky pastry and gorgeous fillings. During our snacks we were being heckled by the lady at the next table, who was sadly a few marbles short of a full set.

It was then onto the Fiji Market. This was my second visit to the awesome shop. You can smell the heady array of spices wafting out of the front door well before you enter the store. I stocked up on a few spices that I need for recipes to try from The Real Food Companion I was given last weekend.

After leaving Fiji Market we stopped at a little place opposite for some Indian sweets before heading to the Sri Lankan Kammadhenu for lunch.

The service was a bit suspect, but the dosai, goat curry and egg hoppers definitely hit the mark.

Our final stop was Gelatomassi, a place I've wanted to visit ever since Phuoc tipped me off about the shop a few months ago. Pistachio gelati has never tasted so goooooooooood.

A BIG thank you to John for organising the day.

Melbourne food round up

"How very Melbourne" was the comment made by my friend David as we were slipping out of the Panama dining room. I'd have to agree.

Melbourne has a different vibe to Sydney. In the city centre you have the laneways decorated with artistic graffiti, shoes hanging from telephone wires and cool independent cafes. Out in the suburbs there are grungy pubs and converted warehouses with peeling paint. Managing to be effortlessly cool and home to hip-young-things out for the evening.

Long may it continue. I fear that as the city develops, big business might muscle in and push out all of the independent places which are the life blood of Melbourne's chic scene.

Last week I spent three days down in Melbourne. Here's a quick recap of some of the places that I ate.

Maze by Gordon Ramsay

The latest outpost of Gordon Ramsay's Maze empire is located at the Crown casino. It was my first visit to the Melbourne restaurant, but my second time at the Maze empire having visited the NY restaurant back in 2008.

We went for the seven course chef's menu. As you'd expect the food was all very good, but I don't think it attained the heights you'd expect from a Gordon Ramsay meal. There wasn't a innovative or wow factor dish, just seven solid performers. The food wasn't served on warm plates and the service could have been better. Must try harder.

The Panama Dining Room, Collingwood
"How very Melbourne", indeed.

Part of being effortless and cool means you don't have a sign above the door, so we initially got lost. When we finally found the anonymous grey door and ventured inside, graffiti scrawled on the wall pointed us up  to the third floor. Amazing floor to ceiling widows, a snooker table, sofas and a dining area created a welcoming and laid back atmosphere.

They had a massive, imported and local, beer selection and decent wine list. The service was a little hap-hazard, but the rabbit and leek cottage pie I had was very tasty.

Somewhere to take friends when in Melbourne. You can look like one of the cool kids and nonchalantly say, "I've heard of this place in Collingwood I thought we could try".

A couple on the floor below is Queen Rice, which looked like a similar venu serving Asian food at slightly lower prices.

Proud Mary
I visited Proud Mary back in March and decided to head back there for breakfast one morning. The food lived up to the same high standards and was a great way to start the morning.

Pacific House
My training course was in Richmond, aka little Vietnam. One lunchtime a few of us headed to Pacific House for duck and BBQ pork belly. Worth a visit if you are in the area, but don't trek half way across town.