nickrey

Aaargh, a PhD in science doesn't stop fat fingers on calculators from making errors. Calculators says... must be true... $5.50 per kilo equals $2.50 per pound (thanks C. Sapidus for spotting this).

So off to Bentley Restaurant and Bar for dinner tonight. I deliberately chose this restaurant because Brent Savage's cooking embodies my tagline of "Classical, Modernist: It's all Jazz in the City." Brent uses techniques because they are appropriate, not because they are the latest greatest thing. I hope my cooking echoes this in some small way. All of the pictures below were taken without flash. Let's start off with some champagne while we peruse the menu: I decided to have the degustation menu with matching wines. My wife had the ocean trout followed by the roast spatchcock. Prior to dinner, we received some house based bread: wafer bread, mini grissini, and sourdough As I was having the degustation, they brought my wife a smoked eel parfait with white soy dressing and seaweed. They served her this with an organic sake, which was absolutely lovely. I had the octopus with black olive and cucumber with a clear gazpacho soup poured over. The gazpacho was made by juicing the components, freezing them, and straining the residue. Next on the degustation menu was Ocean trout with ocean trout mousse and fennel pollen. We both had this, me as part of my degustation menu and my wife as her entree (appetiser, not main). The ocean trout mousse seemed subtly flavoured with curry powder, which added a unique taste to the whole. Next up for me was the beetroot with horseradish and soy beans. At first I thought the beetroot may have been infused with beetroot juice by way of a vacuum seal. The chef told be that he actually processed it all and then recombined it with something like Gellan. He then wrapped it in Glad Wrap and cooked it to give it the distinctive shape. Brent said that this is not his normal modus operandi but that it worked in this instance and so it made sense to use it. Next on to the pork belly with wattle, garlic milk and rhubarb. This was followed by the cured venison and consomme with salsify, chestnut, and scallop. My wife had the spatchcock at this stage. This was served with sweetcorn polenta, pistachio and asparagus. For her, it was the dish of the night (and she did taste mine so it was not on a small sample). The texture and flavour mixes in this dish were incredible so I can see where she got his idea from. Then roasted duck breast with cuttlefish and mushroom. Then on to dessert. I had the optional creamed stilton with spice bread and cumquat. This tasted a bit like a creamed cheese served in fruit meusli. Very interesting and texturally pleasing. I was then given a caramelised pineapple and beer sorbet with barley and malt crumbs. This was a very interesting dessert which had a strong flavour profile rather than being a palate cleanser. This was followed by what is obviously a signature dessert of Milk Cake with Magnolia Ice Cream and White Chocolate. I'm not really a dessert eater but there was nothing left of this. As one would expect of a restaurant that is co-owned by the somellier, the quality of wine matches was exceptional and some obscure but delicious wines were showcased. I have pictures of them if anyone is interested. The physical setup of the place with smooth floorboards indicated that the place could be noisy but the strategic use of baffles in the roof and soft furnishings in places such as the lights cut down the noise subsantially. The service was attentive but not obtrusive and the staff knew their wines and how the dishes were prepared, despite there being complex processes involved. The flavour combinations were spot on and the textural elements provided a level of interest that made the dishes complex but did not detract from the central them. To my mind, Brent Savage has used modern techniques in a sensitive manner but has also been true to his classical roots. One informs the other, which is something we shouldn't forget. I'm looking forward with interest as to how he progresses this approach over the years. We were mightily impressed with the whole experience and would not hesitate to go back.

Hi there, thanks very much. To the right of the oven is a cupboard and then the fridge. It's not quite the perfect triangle that people aspire to in kitchen design but with a small kitchen it is all pretty close nonetheless.

Thanks for clearing up the issue on prices. It wasn't until I was chatting with one of the waiters at Bentley Restaurant tonight who has an American wife that I realised that many people would be looking at the prices and thinking they were per pound rather then per kilo. Hope the blog is bringing pleasant memories as well as angst.

Great question on the quantities and thank you. The Aussie dollar is around parity with the US dollar so that removes one source of potential confusion. Most people from the US would be going shudder at the prices thinking that they are prices per pound. The prices are per kilo, which is 2.2 pounds. If you divide those prices by 2.2, you will get something you can compare with your every day experiences. In this reckoning asparagus at $5.50 per kilo works out at $1.14 per pound. I hope this clears up some of the thoughts that may have led to sharp intakes of breath in the US. I'm sure Ollie would love to meet Rosie and Lulu as well.

In a kitchen this small, you need to save space. The granite is very dark green with gold flecks. Looks black to me as well but I checked.

Hi Pam, I'm a bit fussy and prefer to go to places that can match what I can cook, do better, or serve cuisine that I don't normally make at home. We do go out for meals for special occasions like tonight to Bentley Restaurant and Bar, or to somewhere like Quay, or Tetsuya's. Last year we went to Vue de Monde and had their full degustation with matching wines. Horribly expensive but worth every cent (I get more annoyed by mediocre meals you can get in town where they charge $40 for a main course). Just down the end of our road (we often joke that everything is at the bottom of our road), we have a lovely Thai restaurant called Papaya. We'll often get takeaway from there or sometimes dine in. Click on this link for a copy of their menu and some photographs of their food. Another local restaurant, amongst a number, that we enjoy include Neutral Bay Bar and Dining (menu here). We're also regulars at a local providore/restaurant called Fourth Village. It won the Champion Retailer award in the Sydney Morning Herald's 2011 Good Food Shopping Guide. I'll take you for a walk through it and show you why. We shop here all the time and eat a weekend lunch here more than once a fortnight. This is the dining room. I took the picture after 2pm so there would have been a number of covers through before then. The kitchen and restaurant are staffed by Italians. These are two of my favourites: First Porchetta e carta di musica. Second, pizza. Fourth Village pizzas were rated by the Sydney Morning Herald food critics as amongst the Sydney top ten. That is due to this man: I did tell you the cooks were from Italy. This is one of his products: They also have an exceptional cheese room, which I must admit spending a lot of time in: I took some of this cheese home with me. They also have a wonderful fruit and veg room: and a vast array of cold meats and other foodie essentials. Although not at the end of the road, it is close enough to duck out to when I need something for my cooking.

Thanks, my wife put the splashback in around ten years ago when they were not as commonplace as they are today. She's something of an early adopter. And the granite is fantastic for making pastry on.

As you say, the controller and rice cooker makes much more sense in a small kitchen, especially with other gadgets competing for cupboard space. Take off the controller and you also have a rice cooker! Some people use the controllers to turn it into a slow cooker as well. I use the Sous Vide Magic. Once it's calibrated to your cooker, it holds steady as a rock on the target temperature. My practice is to fill it with water a few degrees above the target temperature. When you add the cold (or frozen) food, the temperature drops to around the target. The PID then just maintains the temperature rather than having to push it up. On Blackp's suggestion I bought an Eheim aquarium air pump 100, which circulates the water to keep the temperature stable throughout the cooker. This is so silent if the rice cooker is closed, you need to put your hand on it to feel the vibration to check that it is working. Frank Hsu, who owns the company that produces the SVM, is based in Toronto but used to live, study, and cook in Sydney. He is sure to look after you. Make sure that the rice cooker you have is not one of those fancy electronically controlled one that does your rice, your washing, etc. The controller in those does funny things when it is turned on and off as happens with a PID controller.

Wow, a kitchen smaller than mine. I tip my hat to you. I use the pressure cooker for making stocks (as seen in an earlier post), cooking beans, lamb shanks, making stews and any dish that could be made in a slow cooker. I like to think of it as a slow cooker on steroids. Although I know curries can be made in it, I prefer doing them the old fashioned way to give a greater control over the properties of the gravy. I use the rice cooker from my sous vide rig for its primary purpose when it's not hooked up to the PID controller.

Agreed, Australian Riesling would go well with it.

And this is where it all happens. I've been looking at the size of the other kitchens in the food blogs with some degree of envy.

Thanks, it tasted very nice. Even over a few hours, the marinade flavoured the chicken well.

The flooding is affecting an area that is being quoted in the media as being larger than France and Germany combined. It is hitting some of our growers and also has flooded a number of mines that produce coking coal for steel production. It's going to have a major economic as well as social impact. We're a long way from it here. Brisbane to Sydney is about equivalent in distance to New York to Detroit. The floods are coming into the north of our state but will not reach here as the river system pulls away from the coast. As an aside, the area of Australia is slightly smaller than the contiguous 48 states of the USA. Our population is crowded into a few main centres around the coast with huge tracts of desert in other parts. Far from all being the stereotypical rugged outback dwellers (although there are definitely some of those), we are the most highly urbanised country on the planet.

I've always used Claudia Roden's recipe that calls for all the crust to be removed. None went into the taramasalata.

It's quite simple. You multiply the size by 100 and it tells you how heavy the bird is in grams (5 = 500g, 11 = 1.1kg, etc). And you're right, spatchcocking is what you do to it. Not sure why it crept into the bird's name. Conventionally here it would be called a "poussin."

I'd like to briefly interrupt the blog to express my condolences to those who have lost property and loved ones in the flood tragedy that is unfolding in South-East Queensland. Our thoughts and prayers are with you in this time of trials.

But even with all these nice specialty shops, we're actually blessed with a high-quality independently owned market at the end of our street. Let me take you for a pictorial tour. Part of the fruit and veg section. Seafood that comes from Da Costi Seafoods, who have a big presence at the Sydney Fish Markets. The cheese section Smallgoods Part of the meat section The gourmet section, which is ideal for those last minute purchases of Ortiz anchovies and the like. Australians also love their Asian food, so there is an Asian section. We also have Asian specialist grocers nearby where you can buy things like fresh turmeric and coriander with the roots attached.

And here are some pictures of a few specialist local greengrocers.

A number of people have asked about non-supermarket type shopping here, such as in specialist butchers and greengrocers. Today I went to the butcher to get the spatchock for dinner. Again, this is a fairly expensive local one, but you'll get the idea. This store is owned by the Penny family, who also have one in Dee Why on the Northern Beaches. I'll let the next pictures speak for themselves. The meat is of excellent quality and they will take special orders (I get my veal bones from here to make veal demi-glace). I won't make it across to one of my other favourite butcheries, AC Butchery in Surry Hills, this week but that is where I get my special orders of brisket and pig belly for my bacon. I should note that there are three dedicated butcher's shops within 2-3 kilometers (less than a mile) from my house.

Ok, on to dinner and then I'll resume my tour of food suppliers that I frequent. For dinner tonight, I decided to do something a bit more traditional than much of what you've seen so far. Because I'm working, I'll quite often want to throw something together. In this case, it was a marinated spatchcock with a Greek salad. First the spatchcock (poussin). I bought this from the local butcher, more on that in the next post. Next, remove from plastic and use poultry shears to snip down on side of the backbone (see Shelby, you're not the only one who has graphic pictures). Then cut down the other side and remove the backbone/neck. Ollie got this. Flip the bird over and push down on the breastbone to flatten the bird. Next put in your favourite marinade for a few hours. I used lemon, olive oil, salt, finely chopped garlic, and Greek oregano. The push skewers through the bird to make it rigid for cooking. Normally I grill outside on our baby Weber charcoal grill but it was raining this evening so I did it on a Le Creuset grill pan. It works but I missed the smoky flavour. It was served with a Greek Salad of cucumber, onion, olives, feta cheese, and tomatoes.

Yes the book is the one by Pushpesh Pant. You'll note it is away from my other Indian books because it is a very recent purchase that I have not as yet put it in its proper place. As a consequence, I haven't cooked anything out of it yet but have full intentions of doing so. The olive oil is one that I bought in a large container on a trip home to South Australia last year. With it's Mediterranean climate, it's perfect for growing olives and is one place where the Australian olive oil industry started many years ago. Because olive oil spoils, I decanted the oil into cleaned wine bottles and sealed them with a vacu-vin vacuum wine sealer. The label is hand written by me, the brand is Lucilla. I bought it at the Willunga markets, which are a foodies paradise in a small country town next to the McLaren Vale wine district.

In a cunning piece of cross promotion, I've used stale white bread to make taramasalata on my eGullet food blog

Tonight's theme is Greek so I decided to make up some taramasalata with the tarama that I bought at the fish market on Sunday. The ingredients are pretty simple. Old white bread soaked in milk, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, tarama. I started off pounding it all in a mortar and pestle but gave up when it filled the mortar. So into the food processor it went. Adjusted lemon juice and olive oil to taste and that's it.

Thanks a lot, I value your opinion.