Keith_W

mm84321, is your recipe for "Beets and Leeks" from French Laundry at Home by any chance?

dcarch amazing looking Valentine's dinner there. I showed my wife your lamb cutlets arranged to look like a heart. Who would have thought to do that! It never occurred to me! mm84321 stunning looking dinner as usual. Is that a Pommes Anna? Do you have a Pommes Anna maker? It looks perfect!

He's Australian. I spy a Yalumba bottle cap. nickrey?

Here are a couple more: - French Laundry at home: http://carolcookskeller.blogspot.com.au/ - one of the better ones out there. Hilarious and cute. - Alinea at home: http://alineaathome.typepad.com/ (by the same author)

I read that article. I don't think he is saying that modernist techniques have gone too far. It looks to me that he is opposed to mindless copying of modernist techniques - which seems to be a fair point. He is drawing a line between chefs who copy the work of others without anything original to say, and chefs who create something new.

Thanks Chris. The heart shapes were cut with a heart shaped cutter Bought from Cake Deco in Port Philip Arcade (in town) in case you wanted to know. Michaela, yes I used the same cutter. Or rather, I made my wife do it! I only have one, and it took her the good part of the afternoon to cut out all the shapes.

If I have that many people over for lunch or dinner, I avoid serving anything which requires cutlery. It's finger food all the way.

Happy birthday Mrs. Sheepish!!!!!!

Here are some action pics from tonight. Everyone whom I invited have day jobs, making a mid-week dinner difficult. Valentine's Borscht Consomme. A normal Borscht has all the veggies boiled in the soup. I boiled the soup, removed the veggies, clarified the broth, and added fresh veggies, all cooked to highlight a different range of textures. Here we have baked beetroot (1 hour), steamed carrots (4 minutes), steamed beans (2 minutes), and raw radish and capsicum. All have been cut into heart shapes. The beans were tied together with steamed chives. This is what it looked like after the beetroot consomme broth was added. Main was confit duck with saffron rice. A friend took a picture of me prepping the dish. Confit duck leg, deep fried, with saffron rice, raspberry, and baby vegetables. Dessert was Heston Blumenthal's "Exploding Chocolate Cake" with passionfruit. Instead of his chocolate floccage, I made a white chocolate ganache and decorated it with white chocolate hearts stained pink with food colouring

Here are some action pics from tonight. Everyone whom I invited have day jobs, making a mid-week dinner difficult. Valentine's Borscht Consomme. A normal Borscht has all the veggies boiled in the soup. I boiled the soup, removed the veggies, clarified the broth, and added fresh veggies, all cooked to highlight a different range of textures. Here we have baked beetroot (1 hour), steamed carrots (4 minutes), steamed beans (2 minutes), and raw radish and capsicum. All have been cut into heart shapes. The beans were tied together with steamed chives. This is what it looked like after the beetroot consomme broth was added. Main was confit duck with saffron rice. A friend took a picture of me prepping the dish. Confit duck leg, deep fried, with saffron rice, raspberry, and baby vegetables. Dessert was Heston Blumenthal's "Exploding Chocolate Cake" with passionfruit. Instead of his chocolate floccage, I made a white chocolate ganache and decorated it with white chocolate hearts stained pink with food colouring

Sorry Anna, I forgot about this thread. I would not bother going to Peter Bouchier in David Jones in the city. Unlike their branch in Toorak, they do not sell dry aged beef. In your part of town, you are much better off going to Donato's on Lygon St. The meat is excellent quality and is dry aged on the premises. The butchers are all friendly and will give you good advice. Right opposite Donato's is King and Godfree, one of the best Italian provedores you will find around Melbourne. And nearby is Reading's Carlton - a chain of independent bookstores. The Carlton branch is the best of them. Further down the road on Lygon St (heading north) are a whole bunch of Italian provedores. There is also Melbourne Food Depot - where you can find "molecular" ingredients. Don't get me started on the restaurants ... but that is off topic I would suggest you make a day of exploring your area - you live in a really exciting part of town and it is all within cycling distance.

Kim your menu sounds amazing! I had to google some of your dishes because I have never heard of them. I have changed my menu. It is now this: - Borscht consomme - Duck confit with saffron rice and baby vegetables - Rose sorbet - Heston's exploding chocolate cake Maybe i'll make a different sorbet with essence of violet and call it a "love potion sorbet" Violet essence is purple, it will make it look weird enough to pull it off.

Australian comfort foods - witchetty grubs, goanna tail, and honey ants. Or throw a whole kangaroo (fur, snout, entrails and all) into a pit, cover with charcoal embers, and heap more dirt on top. After a few hours, pull it out and eat. Or throw a whole turtle onto a fire. When liquid starts coming out the holes, pull it off and eat. Those are the weirder sounding foods. Of course there are bush fruits like Quandong, Bunya nuts, and all sorts of tubers whose names I have forgotten now. Or damper (Australian bread) - mix flour with water, put it in a tin can, and hang it over a fire. I spent 18 months of my life working with indigenous Australians. I have eaten all the above. Somehow I don't think foods like that would feature in a fancy NYC restaurant

Thanks for bumping the thread. I have enjoyed "cukeeng with dogge" ... but have somehow forgotten about them. Hope she gets better soon.

Hi Anna, all your questions will be answered if you buy this book. Mine is from 2010. From p.47 (Farmers Markets): - Booroondara Farmers Market, Hawthorn (3rd Sat of each month) - Caulfield Farmers Market, Caulfield (2nd Sat of each month) - Cardinia Ranges Farmers Market, Pakenham (2nd Sat of each month) - Collingwood Children's Farmers Market, Abbotsford (2nd Sat of each month) - Gasworks Farmers Market, Albert Park (3rd Sat of each month) - Kingston Farmers Market, Highett (1st Sat of each month) - Slow Food Melbourne Farmers Market, Abbotsford (4th Sat of each month) - Veg Out St Kilda's Farmers Market, St Kilda (1st Sat of each month) All the above markets only open from 8am - 12 or 12:30. Get in early. As for meat and poultry from farmers, I am not sure. Maybe do a search for some halal places. Halal meat is meant to be fresher than most meat - but bear in mind that some meats benefit from aging. BTW, the meat and poultry we get from some of the better butchers is of excellent quality. What is it you find lacking? I find that fresh fruit and veggies makes more of a difference when bought from a farmer than from a shop.

Time to bump this thread. I came searching here for ideas. I have to cook for a Valentine's dinner party on Sunday. Can't be the 14th because everyone has to work. One of the guests doesn't eat beef, so I can't serve that. So far, this is on my mind: - Borscht consomme, with a heart shaped pierogi and vegetables cut into pretty shapes. - Confit ocean trout with home made pickles - Rosewater salad - Chocolate tart with candied rose petals and cherries What are the rest of you making?

This should be interesting! Looking forward to the next update.

My attempt at salt baked fish after drawing inspiration from mm84321's post a page back. As you can see, mine is nowhere near as pretty. The salt crust is 60:40 salt and flour, wet with enough water to bind. I used baby Snapper. I deboned the fish by making a cut from the neck to the tail on both sides of the fish, and pulling the spine out intact. The cavity of the fish was stuffed with lemon and thyme. 10 mins in a 180C oven, and the thermometer registered 50C internally ... pulled it out and ate it. Delicious!

Modernist Cuisine deep fried brussel sprouts. Incredibly tasty! The quantity of sauce specified in the recipe is probably 3x what you actually need.

Welcome to Melbourne, where you can get a dozen different potato varieties if you know where to look! The Desiree is a waxy variety and is a good all-round potato. However - I tend not to deep fry them as I have never had good results, and mash desiree can be a bit gummy if you are not careful. I have had most success with roasting, panfrying, and stewing. The skin is quite thin and not very flavoursome, so it would not be the best choice for any dish which has the skin on.

mm84321 I am intrigued. How did you make that fish? What was the bechamel for? I assume it is bechamel? Did you poach the potatoes in the bechamel, then use it to wrap the fish, and then encase it in the salt crust? Did you debone the fish before cooking? The finished result looks amazing ... I can almost feel the moistness in my mouth from looking at your picture!

Great work showing off our city, Chris. I am proud of you Here are a few more suggestions. No. 1 - the laneways! Melbourne city is packed full of interesting little discoveries. A graffiti laden laneway with garbage bins might lead you to the most exquisite restaurants (Movida as shown, but also Supper Inn, Gingerboy, Hutong, Coda, Degraves Lane, and a few jazz clubs and bars), a nondescript unmarked door might lead to places like Cookie, countless rooftop bars, micro cocktail bars, wood panelled establishments, or interesting shops). Show them a pic of Ponyfish Island, basically a little pontoon bar floating in the middle of the river. And maybe a few of our high end eateries in beautiful surroundings - Donovan's in St Kilda, the Botanical, the Point, Vue de Monde at the Rialto, and so on. Still plenty of work to do

I love eating it It is tasty, healthy, and a great summer dish.

A Modernist Chinese New Year dinner. As usual, held at my place. Since it is the year of the dragon, I carved a dragon's head from a carrot for use as a garnish. Raw fish salad ("yee sang"). The salmon made up the body of the dragon. The salad base is made of - turnip, radish, yam, carrot, pickled ginger, pomelo, mandarin, sesame seeds, chopped peanut, and coriander. The salad dressing is a simple 1:1 of plum sauce and lime juice with some five spice powder. I was going to make a salt foam to represent clouds, but I ran out of time. Abalone. The flavours are Chinese but the technique and presentation is Western. The sauce is made from the abalone soaking liquid, dried scallops, dried shiitake mushroom, 1/2 a chicken, 500gm of lean pork, dried mandarin peel, star anise, goji berries, and garlic. After it was heavily reduced, it was thickened with Xanthan gum. The lettuce is normally blanched and arranged around the plate, but I pressed it and cut it into a neat mille-feuille. Buddha's Delight. I prepared this the traditional way, with no modernist methods at all. Dongpo Pork. The last time I made this, it took 6 hours to fry, then steam, then braise, then reduce the sauce, then braise again. This time, I modified the recipe for the pressure cooker. Result - dish was ready in an hour. Herbed tofu. I did not prepare this dish. "Dragon and phoenix". A traditional dish. The dragon is represented by prawn, and the phoenix by chicken. I did not prepare this dish. Normally, both chicken and prawn are braised and the dish is presented in perfect harmony. My friend did not like my plating suggestion that both the dragon and phoenix should be on the same plate, so he served them seperately.

Wow, that is a pretty long list! I have been to a handful of restaurants on the list, so i'll post up a few quick impressions. Blue Fire Churrascuria - Brazilian style grilled meats. Unfortunately - it's one of those "all you can eat" joints, meaning that the meat isn't of very high quality. Most of what we had was overcooked and dry. Popular with family groups and those on a budget. Chillipadi - an Asian restaurant with an identity problem. It serves Malaysian, Thai, and Southern Chinese dishes and is distinctly not authentic. Don't bother. Church St Enoteca - a good modern Italian restaurant. Recommended. Fenix - Gary Mehigan's place. It's OK but a little pricey for what it is. Flower Drum - I wasn't impressed the last time I went. There was nothing wrong with the food, it's just that you can eat as well for much less - the problem being you would be in a normal noisy Chinese restaurant. This isn't - this is a silver service restaurant serving good quality Chinese food, which is no better than many Chinese restaurants in town. Grossi Grill - a much better eating experience than the restaurant. Food was great, prices reasonable. Grossi Restaurant - something about this place just clashes. The food is amazing and imaginative, but the staid looking restaurant looks more like a classical establishment from the 1930's. Also very expensive for what it is. Jacques Reymond - one of the best restaurants in Melbourne and definitely worth a visit. Where Vue and Attica are bold with flavours (much stronger tasting dishes and more adventurous flavour combinations) and avantgarde techniques, Reymond is more conservative. His cooking is simply more refined than any of his rivals and the flavours more subtle. MoMo - we have been here a couple of times and we love it. I had no idea middle eastern food could be this good. Even a simple dish like crudites with za'atar and rose water is a thrill to eat. Red Emperor - I may be a bit biased because the owner is a friend of mine, but I don't think I would be far wrong in saying that Red Emperor is one of the better Chinese restaurants in Melbourne. You are not paying Flower Drum prices, and the place looks like a typical Chinese restaurant (albeit one with a view) - but the cooking is refined and sensational and the service is "good enough" (by Chinese restaurant standards). I really rate it. Takumi - good little Japanese restaurant. Despite the quality and the prices, it is surprisingly easy to get a table. This probably means that others don't rate this place as highly as I do ... I wonder why. Worth a visit. The Botanical - I haven't been but I want to. Chef Cheong Liew is a Melbourne icon. The Hotel Windsor - if you have ever been to a traditional English fine dining restaurant, where the vegetables are served seperate to the meat in a cloche by a waiter who puts the food on your plate ... this is it. The food is not great but is worth going for the experience. ... and a few not on the list: Best restaurants in Melbourne: Attica, Vue de Monde, Jacques Reymond, Cutler & Co. Must go restaurant: any of the Movida's. Good fun food: Chin Chin, Coda, Mamasita, Gingerboy Chinese restaurants: Tao Tao (Hawthorn, for dimsum), Red Emperor, Crystal Jade (the best Chinese restaurant in Chinatown).