One of the best things about Sydney is the abundance of fresh seafood, all so readily available. The trick is to do your fish shopping on a Saturday at the fish markets (they close at 5pm, so it’s hard to shop after work). I often ask my fishmonger to scale and gutt the fish I select.
Once you get home, wash all your fish thoroughly under cold tap water, making sure all blood is rinsed out, and pat dry with paper towels. Wrap them in new clean plastic bags (the bags from the fish markets are often dirty) and they are ready for freezing.

When you’re ready to cook your fish, move it from the freezer to the fridge the night before to defrost.

This is a very simple recipe based on Jamie Oliver’s – it’s healthy and takes under 30 minutes. Just a different alternative to fish en papilotte to mix things up a little. Lemon and thyme shouldn’t be restricted to roast chicken, in fact it works quite well with an oily fish like rainbow trout.

INGREDIENTS:

1 whole rainbow trout, scaled and gutted
few sprigs of thyme
sea salt & black pepper
3 tbsps lemon infused olive oil
1 lemon
4 bay leaves
1 clove garlic, crushed

METHOD:
Preheat oven to 200 degrees celcius. Give the trout a good rinse and pat dry with paper towels. Using a mortar and pestle, grind the thyme leaves with 1 tsp sea salt, crushed garlic, black pepper and the olive oil until it becomes a fragrant paste. Rub this mixture all over the trout, covering the skin and inside the belly. Cut lemons in half and remove the ends so they have a flat edge. With the point of a knife, make an incision into the flesh of each lemon half and stick a bay leaf into it. Place trout and lemons on a roasting tray and bake, approximately 10 minutes. The trout is cooked properly when the meat is easily pulled away from the bone at the thickest part of the fish. The skin should be crispy and the roasted lemons should take on a marmalade characteristic.

Serve the trout with the lemon, which you can squeeze on to the fish. The flesh should flake away easily but remain pink and moist. I served my fish with some roasted potatoes and a fresh watercress salad, but it’s really up to personal tastes. You can fillet it restaurant style at the table, or go rustic and combine the flesh with the salad.

With sage and garlic herb butter, lemon and dutch cream potato

Fresh egg linguini, lobster, johnny love bite tomatoes, basil (in 20 minutes!)

Boil a large pot of salted water.
In a separate pan, brown sliced garlic, diced eshallots, and add cubed tomatoes. Add a splash of dry white wine and reduce.
Add some tomato paste and some dried chilli flakes to give it some color.
Stir in lobster meat and add butter and heat for a minute.
Cook pasta to slightly before al dente, drain, and add into sauce.
Serve immediately with finely chopped basil.

There’s always that dilemma where you have all these lobster shells leftover – and what better way to use them than a classic lobster bisque?

Lobster Bisque

Place lobster shells on an oven tray and roast until shells begin to brown, about 8 minutes. With olive oil in saucepan brown chopped onions and 2 cloves garlic. I like to stuff the lobster head with 2 inch pieces of peeled carrots, and add in a few stalks of celery. Add 2 cups of fish stock and 1 cup chicken stock. Bring to the boil, and then simmer under low heat for 3-4 hours, covered.

Strain soup through sieve set over large saucepan, pressing firmly on solids. Whisk tomato paste into soup. Simmer until soup is reduced to 3 cups, about 15 minutes. I normally prepare this the night before. The rangehood in my apartment isn’t exactly powerful, so the entire floor of the building smelled like lobster bisque. Sorry neighbours!

When you are ready, add half a cup of cream (or more, if you prefer) to soup and simmer 5 minutes. Dissolve cornstarch in 1 tablespoon water. Add to soup and boil until slightly thickened, about 2 minutes. Mix lobster meat into soup and stir to heat through. Season with black pepper and salt and ladle soup into bowls.

Lobster bisque really reminds me of the small Hong Kong styled diners I used to go to with my family, served next to those super soft brioche buns with a yolk and butter glaze… so while on my trip down memory lane, it brought me to the next dish:

Tacky Hong Kong Style Lobster salad
(so bad that it’s GOOD)
This one is easy. Chop up lobster meat, and drain a can of ‘fruit salad’. Add chopped celery and chopped green apple for a bit of crunch.
Mix with a lot of egg mayonaise. Mmm.

That’s how I used four of those lobsters. I think I just ate the fifth one on the couch with some cocktail sauce, and I’m not ashamed to admit it!

I was very fortunate to attend this year’s Iron Chef dinner, after missing out the previous two events (the last one I went to was in 2005?). The evening was beautifully organised, as per usual, with live screens that cross over to the action in the kitchen, with Tomo, the presenter who translated and spoke with the Chefs throughout the night, so that we were all ‘part of the action’. Two lucky diners got to enter the kitchen and learn how to prepare dishes from Chef Sakai and Chef Chen. To be honest, since it was the last night of a three night affair, I’m quite sure all the chefs were drunk and really just enjoying themselves!

The highlight of the night for me would’ve been the shark’s fin, which Chef Kenichi brought with him from Japan to serve on our plates along with a boneless braised chicken wing. It was a different style to the chinese soup that I am used to, and it was one full piece of baby fin, rather than slivers of “noodles”. The flavours were robust against the delicate textures. His tan-tan noodles however, was a little disappointing if you had ever eaten a proper one in China – still very very good, but probably not something I would serve at the end of an eight course degustation.

I also quite liked the Madiera paired with Chef Sakai’s dumplings (apparently the lamb takes two days to prepare) - it’s a little different but it works well. His steamed snapper wrapped in cabbage was very pleasant but lacked the complexity from the amount of different flavours he used.

Galileo’s new executive chef Yomada did a beautifully presented crab meat with avocado, very similar to a dish I once loved at the now closed restaurant Ampersand. The tarte tatin as the dessert had a great combination of textures (the crispness of the pastry, the caramelized mint ’shell’, pached fruits, ice cream), but again – nothing mindblowing.

Perhaps I’m being too critical, but at $595 a head, I would rather dine at Per Se again. However, the quality of all the ingredients used, and the professionalism(especially back of house) was commendable.

Welcome Cocktail
Guavatini

Canapes



(the egg is sliced off with a very sharp knife!)
1996 Duval-Leroy Brut, Vertus, Champagne, France

Seasonal Crab Meat With Avocado, Tomato Coulis
By Galileo’s Chef Yomoda

2007 Franz Kunstler ‘Estate’ Riesling, Rheingau, Germany

Consomme Of Lamb & Chinese Dumplings
By French Iron Chef Sakai

10 Year Old Madeira, Henriques & Henriques, Madeira, Portugal

Steamed Snapper And Lentil Puree, Shellfish Butter Sauce
By French Iron Chef Sakai

2006 Howard Park Chardonnay, Great Southern, Western Australia

Mouka Shark’s Fin With Soya Sauce Gravy
By Chinese Iron Chef Chen

2007 Kiltynane Estate ‘Prellminaire’ Blanc De Noir, Yarra Valley, Victoria

Roasted Tajima Wagyu Beef Ala Blancharu
By Chef Haru (sorry I started eating it before I took a photo! Marble score 9+)

2006 Aimsfield Pinot Noir, Central Otago, South Island, New Zealand

Szechwan Tan Tan Noodles
By Chinese Iron Chef Chen

‘Mystery Wine’

Apple Tarte Tatin With Mango Sauce
By Galileo’s Chef Yomoda

2006 Nigl Gruner Veltliner Eiswein, Kamptal, Austria

The tables next to us: Tony Bilson, Tetsuya Wakuda

Kenichi and I
Photo source: Visual Eyes

the(sydney)magazine
Food Hall of Fame Dinner
Tonight’s menu incorporates seafood from Christie’s Seafoods, vegetables from Fratelli Fresh and cheese from Jannei Goat Dairy.

Canapes
Freshly shucked oysters with shallot vinegar
Pistachio and goat’s cheese pesto tartlet
G.H. Mumm Cordon Rouge NV champagne, France

Menu

Duo of Hiramasa kingfish and ocean trout
with Victorian white asparagus and wasabi emulsion
2007 Bloodwood riesling, Orange, Australia

West Australian marron
with braised fennel, tapenade, figs, tomato and balsamic vinaigrette
2005 Jean Manciat Macon Charnay “franclieu” chardonnay, Burgundy, France

White River veal rack roasted on the bone
with speck, broad beans, spring garlic puree, pomme parisienne, truffle and jus gras
2006 Rusden “Driftsand” shiraz cabernet, Barossa Valley, Australia

Raspberry soufflé
with pistachio ice-cream and raspberry compote
2005 Grande Maison “cuvee des anges”, Monbazillac, France

A quick, 15 min (cheater’s) Beef Pho. It’s common breakfast in Vietnam – and great for quick brunches on weekends, when you’re just that little bit hungover from the night before. It’s so quick and simple to prepare:

Ingredients (serves 2)
* 3-4 cups beef consomme or beef stock
* 1 cinnamon stick
* 1 star anise
* squeeze lime juice
* 2 tbs fish sauce
* 375g pkt rice noodles
* 350g sukiyaki beef (paper thin)
* 2-4 small fresh red chillies (or to taste), thinly sliced
* 1 cup Thai basil leaves

1. Combine beef consomme or stock, cinnamon stick and star anise in a medium saucepan over high heat. Bring to the boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 5 minutes or until aromatic. Stir in lime juice and fish sauce.
2. While the stock is cooking, soak rice noodles in boiling water, cover and leave for 5 minutes.
3. Divide noodles among serving bowls. You can dip the sukiyaki beef in the remaining hot water to cook it for 15 seconds or so, and place on top of the noodles.
4. Pour over boiling hot stock so the beef remaings cooking, chilli, basil and green onion (if you wish).

I’m still waiting for some photos to come through, so I will update on the food I had in China at a later date!

mmm… full sized cheese – bigger than your head!

Vegetable centre pieces

Live human “paintings”

Gizmodo says “Their new Izona Cooksurface looks more like a ceramic electric hob than a gas one, and dumps the four-burner pattern that nearly every other range uses. Though this gives you fewer cooking stations, it at least means you won’t set your sleeves on fire reaching for the back ones anymore. Most cleverly, it’s got retracting pot supports, burners and controls, so when it’s off its glass surface is easy to clean —handy for splash-it-all-around cooks like me. Add in extra-precise temperature control and LED displays, and you really do have a 21st Century gas cooking range…”

I wish I had a large kitchen… and enough money to remodel!

New Style Salmon
Serves 4-5

8 – 12 ounces sashimi (Atlantic Salmon)
2 Tablespoons minced garlic
Fresh gingerroot, julienned
Chilli, thinly sliced
Shallots, very thinly sliced
12 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 Tablespoons sesame oil
4 Tablespoons soy sauce
4 Tablespoons yuzu juice (may substitute with lemon juice)
2 Tablespoons white sesame seeds

Cut the fish fillet into paper-thin slices. Arrange on platter. Scatter some of the minced garlic and some of the ginger and scallion julienne over the fish; sprinkle with the sesame seeds. Sprinkle on the soy sauce and yuzu juice.

Combine the olive oil and sesame oil in a nonreactive small saucepan. Set over moderately high heat and bring almost to a boil (about 200°); the surface will shimmer. Remove from the heat and immediately pour one-fourth of the sauce over each serving of fish. The hot oil will sear the fish as you pour it on. Serve at once.

It was a beautiful start to the evening with a bottle of 1996 s de salon ‘blanc de blancs’ le mesnil, France

One of the most anticipated 1996 vintage Champagnes, finally arrived! It is made only in great vintages (the decade of the eighties only produced ‘82,’83,’85 and ‘88)  and only from grapes from one village, the grand cru of Mesnil. This village grows the most sought after Chardonnay in Champagne. Graphite, tobacco and coconut aromas and flavors wrap around the firm spine of this elegant, powerful Champagne. Lulls you midpalate, then comes back in a wave of vanilla on the finish. Salon’s production hovers around 8,000 six-bottle cases, so the wine is always hard to come by – and worth every penny. Thank you Peggy, Charlie, Rob C and Rob Y!

And for our est. tasting menu for the night, with matching wines:

tartare of blue fin tuna, cucumber, pink grapefruit, ponzu and white sesame oil
2000 dom perignon, epemay – france

tranche of duck foie gras, shaved pear, cresses, sauternes jelly, toasted brioche
2005 domaine marcel deiss gewOrtztraminer, alsace – france

raviolo of prawns on snow peas, lemongrass and shellfish vinaigrettes
2006 bodega castro martin rias baixas albarino, galicia – spain

steamed snapper fillet, grilled scallop, leek and asparagus, shaved manjimup truffle butter sauce
2005 kumeu river (mate’s vineyard’ chardonnay, auckland – new zealand

roasted, boned squab pigeon, broad beans and morels, pan juices

2004 domaine saint prefert chateauneuf du pape ‘reserve auguste favier’, theme valley – france

pan roasted lamb rib eye, jerusalem artichokes, green peas, potato galette, salad of herbs
2005 luce della vite `lucente’ – tuscany, italy

shaved pineapple, pine nut sorbet, lime and cardamon sauce

passion fruit soufflé

2006 jaboulet muscat de beaumes de venise, rhOne valley – france

vanilla latte cotto, queensland strawberries, spice wafer
2006 wellington iced riesling, south eastern coast – tasmania

Simply divine. I’m spoilt rotten!

…and tonight – Dom Perignon tasting!

Rissoto Al Porcino e Zucchine Bianche Di Trieste
(Porcini and Trieste white zucchini risotto with Truffled butter) $19

Spaghetti Chitarra Allo Zaffrando Con Pesce Di Acquadolce
Saffron Chitarra spaghetti with Barramundi, prawns, chilli, capers, garlic and Pinot Grigio White Wine ($22)

Trota Salmonata Al Dragoncello Con Mostrarda
(Steamed ocean trout with Escarole, raddicchio and mustard fruit salad, Tarragon salsa and salmon caviar) $34

Zuppa Di Crostacei e Molluschi Veraci
(Crustacean and mollusc fish stew with half shell scallop, black mussels, clams, prawns, saffron potatos and Fregola) $36

Semifreddo Di Torrone Alle Mandorle
(Nougat, Ligurian Honey and almond milk semifreddo with candied Almond) $14

Affogato Tradizionale (expresso Coffee with Vanilla Ice Cream and Chocolate Liqueuer) $14