Our little blog is growing up – two years old today!

We are still really enjoying blogging even if some ‘teething problems’ have meant that we are posting a little less frequently than we would like. Rest assured, we continue to eat out, cook and bake a lot, and just need to find some time to share a bit more of it here. If you want to see what we’re up to, follow us on Twitter (Emily and Saskia) or on Instagram (username, itpleasesus – if you don’t have instagram you can check out our public profile here.) 

As per our post last year, we thought we’d make a little list of our favourite post from the past 12 months.

Thanks for reading!

Em & Sas

 Our favourite recipes

• Chocolate cupcakes with salted peanut butter frosting: Seriously, need I say more?
• Orange cardamom flan: lush custard with musty cardamom flavour and citrus.
• Eggplant, buckwheat and chickpea salad: we do love a salad that combines protein and grains. This one was knocked up with what was around the house and it travelled perfectly to our lovely picnic spot.
• Hearty and delicious baked beans: a cheap and filling meal that is cooked with love.
• Ottolenghi’s lentils with tomato and gorgonzola: This summer salad is satisfying and gorgeous to boot. I can’t wait to make it again once the tomatoes are at their peak.
• Roasted tomato sauce: Another mouthwatering tomato recipe perfect for fish.

Our favourite places

• For a hot date – The Commoner its quirky, cosy, they’ll design a menu for you and you share all your food.
• For a macaron – the big newcomer this year was La Belle Miette, their olive oil macaron is pretty spectacular. Further afield (ahem, London) Pierre Hermé and Ladurée lived up to expectations, though if I had to choose a favourite, Pierre Hermé was my front runner.
• You can’t book but it’s totally worth the angst – Chin Chin. 
• Out of town – while Saskia proclaimed that ‘life begins now’ after her meal at nahm, Emily will never forget the magic of the Fat Duck.

Our favourite foodie experiences

• Learning the secrets to perfect bolognese and ravioli from a master.
• Celebrating the end of PhD hell with a road trip to Provenance in Beechworth.
• Saskia’s street food experiments in Thailand.
• Emily’s spectacular eating adventures in London.

Mr M and I are back from a fantastic break. The highlight of our eating while based in London was our lunch at the Fat Duck, but that epic post is still being finished. I thought that in the meantime I would run through some of the other gastronomic high points of our time in London.

Top photo – great view from the bar at the top of the Tate Modern

St. John

First full day in London and we lunched at the iconic St John Bar and Restaurant in Smithfield. Chef Fergus Henderson is one of the original proponents of nose to tail eating (immortalised in his book – The Whole Beast – Nose to Tail Eating) and this really is the place to get your offal on. It’s also definitely not the place to go if you are a vegetarian (as our friend M found out on a previous visit). Mr M was rendered almost speechless by the bone marrow, served simply with parsley, capers and shallots (£7.10). My pork and dandelion entree was pretty special too – the fatty pork was lovely with the zingy mustardy vinaigrette. We shared some peas in the pod too (£4.20).

Mr M’s main didn’t quite reach the same heights – the pigeon was served rare (as the waiter had told us) and to me almost had a slight metallic finish (£17). More successful was my rabbit with peas and bacon (£17.80). We finished the meal on a high by splitting a chocolate terrine (£6.80) that was ridiculous in its richness – it was dark, velvety and intense, I loved the crunch from the cocoa nibs too.

Vinoteca

Friends M & J took us to Vinoteca, a gorgeous little wine bar that is located just across the road from St John. The cozy space comprises a wine shop, wine bar and some lovely private rooms downstairs – wherein friends M & J held their engagement party. Wine is definitely the focus here, with an enormous wine list and a great selection of wines by the glass. On the food front, there is a fairly short list of snacks and a few mains to choose from. Try the char-grilled bavette with cafe de paris butter (£14.50) - I was pretty pleased with it.

The Ledbury

While planning the trip to London I was very keen to see what ex-pat Aussie chef Brett Graham was doing at his two Michelin star restaurant The Ledbury. However, the visit appeared to be in jeopardy when I started to have concerns regarding the cost of all this eating out. I was subsequently thrilled to find out that The Ledbury does a three course Sunday lunch for just £40…  I highly highly recommend a visit, you will not be disappointed.

My entree of morels, crisp chicken wings, summer truffle and a delicate potato risotto was one of the best plates I’ve had in a long time. I continued the ‘crisp’ theme through to main course, with the crisp suckling pig, pork cheek in Pedro Ximénez – the richness of the pork was offset by the smokiness of dried chicory and the earthiness of the almond and quinoa.

Clockwise below is a selection of our entrees and mains – C’s stunning heritage tomatoes with fresh curd and green tomato juice, loin and shoulder of lamb, my morel entree and porky main:

Desserts similarly wowed – I had three kinds of crème brûlée, A tucked into the gorgeous whipped ewes milk with berries, meringue, shards of mint and beignet on the side. C had the pave of chocolate with milk puree and lovage:

Ottolenghi

I am a huge fan of Yotam Ottolenghi’s cookbooks – I have The Cookbook and Saskia has Plenty (check out the tomatoes with lentils & gorgonzola I made from that one). I really wanted to try Ottolenghi’s food while in London and my initial plan was to visit their new Soho eatery NOPI. Time got the better of us on that front, but we did visit Ottolenghi in Belgravia to pick up some lunch. We grabbed quinoa with radicchio, spiced rice with lentils and barberries and the seriously fabulous roasted eggplant with mint yoghurt, pine nuts, za’tar and fresh mint – perfect fare for a picnic in Hyde park.

Andrew Edmunds

My brother and I caught up with cousin F at cosy Soho eatery Andrew Edmunds. The tiny, dimly lit space is perfect for a date but there were a few groups gathered around enjoying themselves too. The menu is small and changes daily and prices were very modest - F’s whimsical dressed crab was just £8.75. My brother L tucked into the Dorset crab spaghetti (£16), but the winner of the day was my unassuming main of pearl barley pilaf with zucchini, pinenuts and chèvre (£10.5). The pilaf was simultaneously hearty and evocative of spring with the fresh broad beans, spinach and zucchini.

For pudding L had an impressive sticky date pudding (£6.75) while F and I split a perfect bowl of Eton mess (£5.50) which showcased lovely summer strawberries. We left very happy.

Macaron fix – Ladurée and Pierre Hermé

My love of macarons is well documented. While I had been warned that the Ladurée macarons in London “just aren’t the same as the ones in Paris” I was still supremely excited to get my hands on some of these babies. We visited Ladurée at Harrods and I lost my tiny mind to see all the macarons on offer. After some deliberation I opted to buy a dozen of them – memorable flavours were the salted butter caramel (yes!), liquorice, apple, blackcurrant and violet,  mint and strawberry and almond morello cherry.

After picking up the Ladurée macarons we popped around the corner to Pierre Hermé. Their ‘flagship’ store in Belgravia was absolutely stunning. I was quite interested to see that in addition to the more standard macaron flavours, Pierre Hermé had some weird and wacky flavours – I picked up some pea and mint, asparagus and hazelnut and jasmine tea macarons. I was surprised at the freshness of both the pea and asparagus macarons – the flavours were quite clean. In contrast, the jasmine tea was delicate and perfumed. But my favourite was their signature olive oil and vanilla, a seemingly odd pairing that just works (and which I had previously tried at La Belle Miette – who interestingly use the Pierre Hermé recipe).

Both the Ladurée and Pierre Hermé macarons were remarkable for their consistency – texturally, all the macarons I tried had the perfect combination of a little bite to them (but not crunch) and then a smooth softness. There wasn’t an air pocket amongst them either – something that is still unfortunately common in the macarons I eat around Melbourne.

Coffee break – St. Ali and Allpress

I have a little coffee habit (Mr M would say addiction) and so I was keen to locate some quality coffee in London. We ended up trying out a couple of Australasian outposts – St Ali’s new shop in Farringdon and New Zealand roaster’s Allpress’ coffee house in Shoreditch. Both St Ali and Allpress roast on site and both produced a lovely brew. Both spaces reminded me strongly of cafes at home, particularly Allpress’ ubiquitous La Marzocco machine.

While I enjoyed my familiar coffee exploits it remains a disappointment that I passed but failed to sample a coffee from Shoreditch Grind – which has a motto of sex, coffee and rock and roll. Awesome.

High end preserves – Fortnum and Mason

Last stop in what has become an epic post, the place in London that a jam aficionado can go wild. I was shocked and overwhelmed to view the wall to wall display of jams on offer at Fortnum and Mason.

As a bonus, I was also highly amused at some of the explanations on the labels.. does anyone care for Kir Royale jam from “aristocratic fruit”(!) or woodland strawberry jam made from “reclusive Scottish strawberries”(!!). After much debate we picked up the woodland strawberry jam (£11.95), which is studded with tiny wild strawberries and also a jar of tayberry jam (£6.50), which is a cross between a black raspberry and a logan berry.

Details

St. John Bar and Restaurant
26 St. John Street, Smithfield
London, EC1M4AY
Ph: +44 (0)20 3301 8069

Vinoteca
7 St. John Street, Smithfield
London, EC1M4AY
Ph: +44 (0)20 7253 8786

The Ledbury
127 Ledbury Road, Notting Hill
London, W11 2AQ
Ph: +44 (0)20 7792 9090

Ottolenghi
Belgravia store- 13 Motcomb Street, Belgravia
London, W11 2AD
Ph: +44 (0)20 7727 1121

Andrew Edmunds
46 Lexington Street, Soho
London SW1X 8LB
Ph: +44 (0)20 7823 2707

Ladurée at Harrods
87 Brompton Road, Knightsbridge
London, SW1X 7XL
Ph: +44 (0)20 3155 0111

Pierre Hermé
13 Lowndes Street, Belgravia
London SW1X 9EX
Ph: +44 (0)20 7245 0317

St Ali
27 Clerkenwell Rd, Farringdon
London, EC1M 5RN
Ph: +44 (0)20 7253 5754

Allpress Espresso Roastery
58 Redchurch St, Shoreditch
Greater London, E2 7DP
PH: +44 (0)20 7749 1780

Fortnum and Mason
181 Piccadilly
London W1A 1ER
Ph: +44 (0)845 602 5694

There’s a new food truck in town – Taco Truck Melbourne. Beatbox Kitchen have been around for a while, serving burgers and fries from their mobile food van. Tonight, Beatbox kitchen launched their new truck – Taco Truck!

I was sitting on the tram, reading about this all unfolding on Twitter when I realised that said truck was pulled up in my street. Spontaneous taco anyone?

(this girl was excited as I was!)

Taco truck offers 3 tacos – fish (with slaw, lime and poppy mayo), beef (tomato salsa, salsa verde, radish and chipolte mayo) and veg (jalapeno ricotta, slaw, mushroom, spring onion and salsa verde). All tacos are just $6. I went for the beef taco:

Lovely charred beef strips, fresh crunch of radish and tomato salsa. The chipolte mayo and salsa verde had a little heat but didn’t pack much of a punch – which makes sense given the taco should be crowd pleasing. It certainly pleased this crowd – I really enjoyed my taco!

I should also mention that the tortilla is 100% corn so this is also suitable for all the GF people out there… win!

Details

Taco Truck Melbourne
At various locations around Melbourne – check their Facebook and Twitter for locations.

This post has been brewing for a while. I thought it would be good to list a whole heap of gluten-free (GF) resources in the one place.

Set out below are some starting points on cooking gluten-free (including some tables that identify gluten-free ingredients) and baking gluten-free. I’ve also included some links to gluten-free recipes on the blog. Hopefully this will be a helpful resource.

Gluten-free, wheat-free and spelt

My first comment (which most of you will know) is that I am not a coeliac and I do not follow a GF diet. Rather, I am wheat intolerant. Thankfully, I am able to eat spelt, which is an ancient form of wheat. Most of my baking recipes include spelt conversions.

Spelt is not suitable for the gluten intolerant and some people who are wheat intolerant. For example, I have a few friends that are wheat-free and some can tolerate spelt and some cannot. If you are cooking for someone wheat-free, it is best to check with them if spelt is okay or not. In any event, all the recipes listed below are gluten-free.

Tips for gluten-free cooking

I think my biggest tip on cooking gluten-free is to rely on as few pre-prepared foods as possible. If you cook your food from scratch, without relying on packaged ingredients, you will find cooking gluten-free pretty easy.

The most important thing is to know which foods are gluten-free and which are not. Some of these are pretty obvious – anything made from regular wheat flour is a no-no. But then some other ingredients are a little trickier, for example, I didn’t realise initially that soy sauce and couscous both contain gluten.

The tables below aim to make things a little simpler by identifying which common ingredients contain gluten (and get a red cross) and which are happily gluten-free (and get a green tick). There is also a third category – the yellow triangle, which denotes foods that can be gluten-free but need to be carefully checked.

Clearly, the tables I have put together are not anywhere near exhaustive, but they should be a useful starting point for cooking gluten-free.

Sauces

Noodles

Grains

Tips for gluten-free baking

I wouldn’t say I’m any kind of expert on gluten-free baking – the majority of my gluten-free recipes are your traditional flourless affairs. This is because my go to grain is spelt, which I find easy to use as a substitute for ordinary flour. Unfortunately, as noted above, spelt is not acceptable for people who are gluten-free.

If you do need to bake gluten-free:

1. Make your own GF flour mix - this gives you far more control than buying a commercial blend. The issue is that there is no one recipe for GF flour – each brand of GF flour will have its own ratio of different ingredients. This means that for a consistent approach in your baking, making your own blend is best. A suggested ratio is below.
2. Do not expect GF flour to behave like ordinary flour – it will be sticky, it could be more liquid and it will generally be difficult to deal with. If you need to roll out GF flour, I find that placing it between two sheets of baking paper is best.
3. You probably need to add more fat – gluten holds the air pockets in food. Consequently, gluten-free baked goods are generally dense and can be prone to being dry. Extra fat or liquid will help make your GF baked goods more palatable.
4. Triple check your ingredients are gluten-free – this is obvious, but some baking powders contain gluten and most corn flours are actually made of wheat. Also, ‘icing sugar mixture’ often contains wheat starch, always buy pure icing sugar instead. Read the label and have a look at my handy tables above.
5. Start out by baking something that isn’t too flour dependent – this sounds like cheating, but it is easiest to start small. Perhaps try a cookie recipe before you commit to baking a full GF cake.

A gluten-free flour mix

The below mix will make the equivalent of 3 cups of ordinary flour. Adjust the ratios as required:

1 cup superfine sweet rice flour
1 cup millet flour
1/2 cup sorghum flour
1/2 cup cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon xanthan gum

Some great gluten-free blogs

There are heaps of great GF blogs out there -

• Gluten Free Girl – wonderful US based blogger, as a starting point have a look at her guide to working with gluten-free flour.
• My Tartelette – ex-pastry chef who is now gluten-free, her photos are beautiful. Have a look at her puff pastry recipe and lemon vanilla cupcakes.
• Canelle et Vanille – another beautifully photographed blog from an ex-pat living in the US. Every recipe is gluten free and these maple glazed donuts look amazing!
• Green Gourmet Giraffe – Melbourne blogger who isn’t gluten-free, but has lots of GF tips as she has GF family members. Her gluten-free advice for beginners is a great resource.
• Alinea at home – I started reading Carol’s first blog when she decided to cook every recipe from Thomas Keller’s French Laundry cookbook. Carol is now getting her molecular gastronomy on by cooking her way through the Alinea cookbook and has recently become gluten-free. While most posts involve some pretty involved processes, she does include some simple gluten-free recipes, such as this sponge cake.

Gluten-free recipes

Check out the gluten-free friendly page in the recipes section for lots of yummy ideas. This page lists all the GF friendly sweet recipes on the site – although most of the savoury recipes will be GF friendly too (just avoid the couscous, pasta and pie recipes!).

To whet your appetite – there are lots of cupcake recipes (chocolate-hazelnut, orange with white chocolate cream cheese frosting and tropical lime with coconut cream cheese frosting) cakes (chocolate mousse, chestnut torte, chocolate meringue cake, regular cheesecake, cherry cheesecake and the somewhat labour intensive cheesecake pops) and sweet treats (tahini balls, Anzac biscuits, Nanaimo bars and the chocolate peanut butter squares that are pictured above). There are also lots of lovely GF desserts - custard, lemon and ginger creme brulee, orange cardamom flan, white peaches in rosewater, crema catalana and the quintessentially Australian pavlova.

On the savoury front – all of the recipes in the salad section are gluten-free, except for the couscous salad. Some salads I keep making again and again are the quinoa tabouleh with cauliflower and the spiced eggplant, buckwheat & chickpeas (pictured above). All the rice based recipes are gluten-free, the paella always wows a crowd and you can read Saskia’s risotto opus or just make my simple mushroom & sage risotto. Saskia’s gobi dhal has to be one of our most loved recipes. On the meat front, Nonna Val’s bolognese is pretty impressive (just serve with GF pasta) and the leg of lamb with preserved lemon & herbs is a winner.

***

So there you have it! A lot of gluten-free talk. Let me know if you have any comments and I’d be happy to answer any questions you have on the whole GF shebang.

I’m also planning on writing another post on tips and tricks for eating out gluten-free, but will save that one for another day! In the meantime, you can check out the places I’ve been to that are gluten free friendly.

I’ve been travelling around Thailand for the last ten days and have become an absolute street food glutton. Last night I managed to fit in three desserts. Three! It seemed like a good idea at the time.

I thought I’d share a few of my favourites with you.

Green mango (or pomelo, or any sour fruit) with chilli/sugar/salt has caught my eye quite a few times. I had a version of it at nahm in Bangkok and was intrigued by the intensity and layers of flavour. The street food versions do not seem to include citric acid, as far as I can tell, so they are not quite as intense. Nonetheless, a great combination of flavours.

I love how simple and powerful this little snack is. It also seems like something that could (and should) be easily recreated in Australia.

I have also had some difficulty walking past food grilling on sticks. On the occasion in the photo above, I went for the squid (certainly not the dubious meaty balls – that is outside the boundaries of my otherwise adventurous tastebuds).

Again, this is so simple and yet so tasty. It is served with a fairly standard Thai dipping sauce (I guess fish sauce, chillies, lime juice and sugar – looks like some garlic chives in there too).

In Chinatown in Bangkok I found some squirmy gelatinous green vegetable. This is deep fried and served with a soy-based chilli sauce. I’ve seen this a few times in Chiang Mai as well. I did not LOVE this but it was very interesting.

Now, I am in Chiang Mai. Last night I ate a black sticky rice pancake, which was served on a banana leaf with sugar and black sesame seeds. It was very interesting – I love the flavour of black sticky rice. The sign also said it was healthy, which was another bonus considering it was not the first dessert of the evening!

So far, however, my all-time-favourite street food award goes to green mango salad. The version I ate last night had shredded green mango and carrot, thinly sliced shallots, chilli, dried shrimps, peanuts, sugar, and (I’m guessing) deep fried anchovies. It was served with a sour lime juice sauce.

This salad is where it’s at. I have seen green mangoes and papaya in Melbourne at Asian groceries so this one should be able to be recreated at home also.

I made a green papaya version of this salad with a salty pickled crab last week at a cooking course. We made that version in the Thai-style wooden mortar and pestle to help bring out the flavour and juices. I saw a few vendors using this method of mixing. I’ll share the version I made in an upcoming post. For now, I will leave you with my favourite street food dessert:

Banana roti. I have been eating these most nights. I thought that plain and original banana roti was the one to get until a few nights ago when I spied a rasin banana roti. This was gone in about three seconds.

And there you have it – the highlights of my Thai street food adventures..so far. I’m sure there’ll be many more late-night rotis to come!

I’m a bit of a Thai food novice – though I love it – so if anyone can shed some more light on the dishes above or offer any recommendations, please do.

A while ago I wrote about my search for the perfect bolognese recipe, which I admitted was still a work in progress. The bolognese recipe I put together was based on tips from chefs and cookbooks, I didn’t actually ask the person who had served me perfect bolognese for years – our friends’ grandmother, Nonna Val.

I have very fond memories of massive feasts at Nonna Val’s house. We would be jammed around the table, the wood panelled walls decorated with photographs of the Italian soccer team. Val always served a steaming plate of bolognese with fresh pasta, a meal in itself. It was always best to hold a little hunger in reserve though, because to follow would be schnitzel, potatoes, frittata, breaded eggplant and her perfect plain green salad of iceberg lettuce doused in plenty of salt, olive oil and homemade vinegar. Then some crostoli for dessert. Understandably, we always left stuffed to the gills.

I hadn’t eaten at Nonna Val’s for several years due to my wheat intolerance. However, Val had cause to start experimenting in gluten free pasta making when her grandson P started dating S, another friend of mine and someone else who is wheat free. Val started making gluten free gnocchi and occasionally, ravioli, although she found it difficult.

There had been some talk for years about a cooking day with Val to learn some of her secrets of pasta making and of course, bolognese. What followed was a long day of pasta making where Val did most of the work, while we took notes, occasionally helped and drank red wine. I also brought along some spelt flour to do some experiments with making spelt ravioli. Val was delighted when she tried her hand at the spelt flour as it was something that could easily be worked with.

As you can imagine, Val makes her ravioli by feel rather than weights and measures. We took down some very general guidelines and have since spent some time measuring the exact quantities. I have tested the recipe several times and can confidently say that the recipe to follow will produce some pretty impressive spelt ravioli and authentic bolognese. What I won’t say is that it is as good as Val’s… I’m not sure it ever will be! 

Spinach and ricotta spelt ravioli with bolognese

With thanks to Nonna Val.
Makes about 140 ravioli.
Note: A great alternative for non-meat eaters is to serve this ravioli with a burnt butter and sage sauce.

For the bolognese
50g butter
2 tbs olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
small handful of chopped parsley
250g pork mince
250g beef mince
1 can tomatoes
700ml passata
600ml water
salt and pepper to taste
10g butter

For the ravioli

150g spinach (uncooked)
500g ricotta
handful of chopped parsley
140g powdered parmesan or 225 grated parmesan
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 eggs
1 tsp dried nutmeg or small amount of freshly grated nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste

500g spelt flour
2 eggs
2 tbs olive oil
200ml water

• Start by making the bolognese, combine the oil and butter together in a saucepan. Add the onion, garlic and parsley and cook until soft.

• Add the pork and beef and cook until brown. Add in the canned tomatoes, passata and water.
• Simmer for an hour or so, until the sauce has reduced slightly (it will still be quite thin). Season to taste and add the extra 10g butter before serving.

• Next make the ravioli filling.
• Cook the spinach in boiling water until soft. Drain, rinse in cold water and then squeeze out the excess water. Allow to cool and chop finely.
• Mix the spinach, ricotta, parmesan, parsley, garlic, eggs, nutmeg and salt and pepper together. The mixture should be quite dry.

• To make the ravioli, place the flour on the bench. Make a well in the centre and crack the eggs in.
• Pour in the olive oil and water and combine with your hands.

• Once the mixture has come together, knead it until it is elastic.

• Take a small amount of the pasta and pass through a pasta machine, finishing on the lowest setting. If you don’t have a pasta machine, just roll the pasta out using a rolling pin, until it is a uniform thickness. You want the pasta to be thin, but it also needs to be thick enough not to break when it is stretched over the filling. Some trial and error is needed.

• Once you have your dough, place small knobs of filling about 1.5 cm apart. Fold and stretch the pasta over the filling.

• Lightly press down between each mound of filling. Use a pastry cutter to cut across the top of each ravioli and to separate the parcels.

• Place the finished ravioli on a table covered in cloth.

• Continue re-rolling the dough and making more ravioli until you run out of dough or filling.
• To serve, quickly cook in salted boiling water until al dente – it won’t take long. Spoon a small amount of bolognese over and serve immediately with extra parmesan cheese. Enjoy!

What a year it has been!

Just over a year ago, Emily sent our technical expert Mr M an email, which in its entirety read as follows:

Sas and I want to start a blog called “it pleases us”. Provide.

And he did.

We’ve had lots of fun over the last year sharing all kinds of foodie finds that make us happy (and a couple that haven’t)! As a little tribute to our first year of writing on the interweb,  in this post we have listed a few of our favourite things from the blog this year. Interestingly enough, this is post number 201.

Our favourite recipes

Chickpea salad - in all its glory!

One recipe that has struck a chord – and has received some fan mail – is Gobi dhal. This simple dish has been appearing on our dinner tables for years!

Here are a few other perennial favourites:

• Hummus – Saskia called herself the ‘Queen of dips’ and this one is certainly a crowd-pleaser. Consider serving the hummus with our new (and delicious) discovery, Labne balls.
• Chickpea salad – this is another one that we keep making again and again. This simple, healthy and filling salad can be enjoyed on its own or as an accompaniment.
• Saskia heavily researched her opus on risotto and it is well worth a read. A few simple techniques, plus the secret weapon of Carnaroli rice, can elevate your risotto from blah to woah. Seriously.
• Lamb stuffed with preserved lemon, bread, pinenuts and herbs – Emily discovered this recipe in May and has made it four times since then. Don’t have any preserved lemons? Make them yourself!
• Chocolate-banana muffins – we always seem to have all the ingredients on hand and these are delicious and dead easy.
• Choc-chip cookies (36 hours) – this is the cookie that has its own following. Try them out – we won’t judge you if you can’t bear to wait 36 hours!
• We’ve baked a lot of cupcakes in the last year. A winning gluten-free recipe that is Emily’s mother’s standby is the flourless orange (scroll to the bottom of the post). This little delight is extra special when paired with white chocolate cream cheese icing.

Our favourite places

Mixed Business

This is a very tough list to compile, but we will do our best:

• For breakfast – Birdman Eating is an old favourite and Mixed Business is a new contender. For breakfast in the CBD,  we still haven’t found anything better than The European.
• For a macaron – it has to be Duncan’s macarons at Liaison, followed closely by La Tropezienne’s at Famish’d. Check out the full macaron round up.
• For a hot date – Coda. The space is dark and sexy, the menu combines Asian and French influences, and you share all your food.
• You can’t book but it’s totally worth the angst – Gigibaba (also a good contender for ‘hot date’).
• Mid-priced and fabulous – Bar Idda hasn’t disappointed us yet. Next Door Diner is a new discovery and we’ll definitely be back.
• Fine dining – We had a lovely meal at Embrasse, but best meal of the year has to go to the Royal Mail (and yes, we realise that it is technically ‘out of town’).
• A lovely local – the Gem has cracking food and great live music, what’s not to love?
• Out of town – Sunnybrae, Birregurra. Get on the train, enjoy an extended lunch and pick some asparagus between courses. Loam is pretty special too. If you are in Queensland, Wasabi is the bomb.

Our favourite foodie experiences

• Emily will probably never get over the joy that was macaron making with Adriano Zumbo.
• Saskia learnt a lot about wine (minus the wanker factor) at  Wine tasting at the Prince Wine Store.
• Saskia also loved foraging for ingredients and cooking up a storm at her cooking class at Sunnybrae.
• The pair of us also enjoyed meeting producers and restaurateurs at Taste of Melbourne.

And there you have it: a few of our favourites. Thanks to all of you out there in cyberland for reading and occasionally contributing! Your feedback is always appreciated and we still feel a buzz when someone responds to one of our posts. Keep the comments coming please!

My greedy lunch

Last week, I attended Guy Mirabella’s cooking class at The Essential Ingredient. I trawled through the long list of classes for weeks before deciding this was the one for me. The main factor that won me over was that the class was ‘meat-free’, which meant I could eat everything. It also promised to be ‘garden-driven’. This appealed to me, because even though my vegetable garden consists of a few straggly sticks of sage, I like to think that one day in the future I’ll have a quarter-acre block abundant with edible delights.

Watermelon and bread salad

[Watermelon]

Broad bean soup

Guy Mirabella runs the cafe ‘Shop Ate’ in Mount Eliza. Interestingly, he began his culinary career designing cookbooks and has helped produce books for Stephanie Alexander, Christine Manfield and Charmaine Solomon. At the class, Guy insisted that he was not really a chef or even a cook; he said that he is simply a designer who enjoys cooking. I think he sells himself a little short. The man is multitalented!

We made several delectable dishes including cauliflower bread and butter pudding, eggplant chutney and a watermelon and bread salad. These are going to feature in Guy’s upcoming cookbook, which I can’t wait to get my hands on…

Cauliflower bread and butter pudding

[Watermelon]

Sauteeing leek and mushrooms

Guy declared that the word of the day was ‘rustic’. This was license to tear food rather than chop it, and to artfully pile everything on the dish rather than preciously ‘plate up’.  Guy taught us that looks are important – but not in terms of perfection. As usual, food lessons can be applied to life.

Guy’s food is the kind of food that you can imagine eating on a fantasy Sunday picnic with a raucous group of family and friends who all bring a plate of lovingly prepared home grown goods. A bit like in a little Italian film on SBS!

Guy breaking eggs in the mushrooms

[Watermelon]

Endive (?) salad

I couldn’t leave without snapping up Guy’s last book, Eat Ate. As expected, it’s beautiful and I look forward to preparing some more of his ‘rustic’ recipes!

Fig, pomegranate, blood orange and passionfruit meringue

]]> http://itpleasesus.com/2010/09/20/guy-mirabella/feed/ 6 http://itpleasesus.com/2010/08/29/macaron-making-with-adriano-zumbo/ http://itpleasesus.com/2010/08/29/macaron-making-with-adriano-zumbo/#comments Sun, 29 Aug 2010 12:10:57 +0000 Emily http://itpleasesus.com/?p=3012

For Christmas last year I received a voucher from my in-laws for the Essential Ingredient Cooking School. It’s fair to say that I absolutely lost it when I was looking through the course guide and found a class hosted by Adriano Zumbo entitled ‘Pastry: Meringue to Macaron’. I immediately booked in and have been eagerly awaiting the class since March.

The class covered quite a bit of ground, with demonstrations on making Italian, Swiss and French Meringues as well as the aforementioned macarons (plain and chocolate) and five different fillings.

We started the class with a demonstration of Adriano’s basic macaron recipe (a version of which is available here), before we tackled making the macarons ourselves.

Adriano recommends using an Italian meringue to make the macarons. A French meringue can be used, but it is a drier style meringue which will produce drier macarons. French meringue is also more difficult to work with and is best suited to making stand alone meringues which are baked or dehydrated. Swiss meringue is similar to the Italian meringue but is used for topping tarts (such as lemon meringue pie) and for aerating mousses and buttercreams. Here are some of Adriano’s creations:

The top picture are little animals made from French meringues and under that, lemon tartlettes topped with Swiss meringue.

The basic way to make macarons is to make an Italian meringue by heating a sugar syrup (sugar and water), then combining with egg whites in an electric mixer and beating until thick and cooled. Make a mixture of almond meal and icing sugar (called tant pour tant, literally ‘half and half’), pour some eggwhite on the tant pour tant, then pour the meringue on top. Gently fold together, then pipe the mixture in circles onto trays and bake.

Easy right?

Regular readers will know I have somewhat of a macaron obsession, despite my inability to make decent ones myself. In fact, my macaron failure was one topic of our very first blog post (which also contains a picture of an incredibly sad macaron). I have since had some other (unblogged) failures and definitely need some help.

Adriano was a great teacher and had lots of tips and tricks for macaron success. Nonetheless, he emphasised that macarons are largely based on feel and practice makes perfect. Looks like I have several more dud batches in my future then!

This perfect macaron was made by Adriano, not me!

Tips for macaron success

1. Ingredients

• Egg whites – old egg whites are more watery than new egg whites and therefore aerate better. Egg whites are used in the macaron recipe firstly to make the meringue and secondly, as an addition to the tant pour tant (almond meal and icing mixture). It is best to use old egg whites for the meringue and fresh for the tant pour tant. Age your egg whites by leaving them on the bench for a couple of days. Egg whites should be used at room temperature.
• Use egg white powder as well as egg whites to help achieve a more stable mixture.
• Use pure icing sugar, not icing sugar mixture.
• It’s okay to use almond meal but you can get better results if you process blanched almonds in a food processor yourself, as the powder will be finer.
• When making the tant pour tant (almond meal and icing sugar) you can process the mixture in a food processor to make it finer. It is very important to sift the tant pour tant (ie. both the almond meal and the icing sugar together) prior to using it. Don’t sift each ingredient separately and then combine them.

2. Technique

• It is best to add any food colourings to the sugar syrup, rather than later on to the meringue. This is because colourings ordinarily contain liquid and adding liquid can change the structure of the meringue.
• When making the sugar syrup, the sugar and water should reach between 118C and 121C. It is easier to get an accurate measurement using an electronic thermometer as the mixture is not very deep. If you overheat your mixture, you can add some extra cold water to reduce the heat.
• If you overheat the sugar syrup and still use it, this is what happens:

Yes, I managed to overcook the sugar syrup and ruin the meringue. Basically, if the sugar syrup is too hot, it hardens when it hits the bowl, rather than being incorporated in the meringue. If this happens it is best to start again as your mixture is ruined. We actually baked up this mixture and you can see the results below (if I could describe them in one word, it would be FAIL).

• Use two trays stacked on top of each other – this prevents the bottoms of the macarons from drying out due to direct heat (though I note that Duncan believes that whether you need to double tray depends on your oven).
• Stop whisking the meringue while it is still a little warm, if the mixture is too cold it will hold too much air.
• Gently fold the meringue together with the tant pour tant and the extra eggwhite.

• The mixture should be fairly loose (some have described it as molten lava). If the mixture is too thick, knock the air out of it by slapping the mixture with a spatula.

• When piping, evenly space the macarons. For beginners it is easiest to draw a template of the circles, this will also help make the macaron shells even in size.

Note that the mixture in the picture above is awful and lumpy due to my overcooking of the sugar syrup. In comparison, below are Adriano’s macarons:

• Once you have finished piping, tap underneath the tray a few times to knock out extra air.
• To create ‘feet’ on the macarons, it is important to dry the shell. You can do this in the oven by heating the oven to 200C, then immediately switching it off when you put the macarons in. Wait 10 minutes, then turn the oven back on at 150C and cook for 5-6 minutes. Alternatively, leave the shells on the bench until they have formed a skin and are touch-dry (ie. you can touch them with your finger and the mixture will not stick). Then cook the macarons for 15-18 minutes at 135C.
• Knowing when the macarons are cooked is a matter of feel. To check if your macarons are cooked, pick one up. It should easily come away from the tray and appear to be set when you gently jiggle it.
• If your mixture wasn’t perfect it will be pretty obvious once the macarons are baked:

The top batch was made by another group in the class. The bottom batch was made with the overcooked sugar syrup.

• Cool the macaron shells on their trays before filling.

Thankfully, one batch we made worked perfectly.

Cool and then sandwich with the filling of your choice. This one is raspberry with a shortbread centre:

Here, the back macarons are filled with salted caramel buttercream, the front with chestnut buttercream and passionfruit ganache

We also made choc-mint aero and chocolate with fig and foie gras.

Finally, we got to taste a batch made by Adriano (something I was very excited about given what happened last time I had Adriano’s macarons):

All in all, it was a wonderful day and I cannot recommend it highly enough. The Essential Ingredient Cooking School organises its schedule in the early part of the year so it is unclear whether this class will be available in 2011. However, I note that Adriano offers classes at his Rozelle premises.

We took our creations home to enjoy. Apparently macarons are best served the day after they are made… though I’m not sure they will last that long!

Details

Essential Ingredient Cooking School
Prahran Market, Elizabeth Street, South Yarra VIC 3141
Ph: (03) 9827 9047
Email: cookingschool@essentialingredientvic.com.au

]]> http://itpleasesus.com/2010/08/29/macaron-making-with-adriano-zumbo/feed/ 14 http://itpleasesus.com/2010/08/28/a-smorgasbord-of-foodie-fun-at-taste-of-melbourne/ http://itpleasesus.com/2010/08/28/a-smorgasbord-of-foodie-fun-at-taste-of-melbourne/#comments Sat, 28 Aug 2010 10:23:58 +0000 Emily http://itpleasesus.com/?p=2990

Saskia and I were very chuffed to be invited to attend a blogger’s session on the opening night of Taste of Melbourne. April has already posted a blow by blow account, so here are some of our highlights of the evening.

We arrived to total chaos as the building had been evacuated after the fire alarm went off. Several hundred people (mostly stallholders) were left congregated at the entrance, waiting for the all-clear. Now for the gratuitous man in uniform shot:

Love the axe!

All was fine and shortly thereafter we were ushered in to the building.

Our first stop was to Regal Salmon where we tried a salmon mousse (which was very cute in its little cone):

We also had a mouthful of some limoncello-cured salmon that Saskia and I both adored:

Regal assured us that the recipe will be put on the Regal website in the recipe section shortly and Saskia and I plan on having a go at making this ourselves. The limoncello worked so well to cut through the richness of the salmon. Yum.

Another highlight was the Sensology ‘Art of cocktail making’ hands on session (presented by Bacardi), which was new to Taste of Melbourne this year. First, we watched the ‘mixologist’ make the cocktail, then we were instructed how to make it ourselves. Look at him go!

In our session we made a Grand Margarita, but other sessions include Tom Collins, Mojito (my favourite!), Martini and Daiquiri.

To make a Grand Margarita, rim the lip of the glass with lime then dip in sea salt flakes. Juice 2 limes, then mix 30ml lime juice, 30ml tequila (we used Cazadores), 30ml Grand Marnier and a bar teaspoon or two of sugar (to taste). Add a lot of ice, pop it into a shaker and give it a vigorous shake. Strain and serve immediately.

It was a miracle that I did not end up with Grand Margarita all over me as I kept holding the shaker upside down and being gently corrected by the instructor. Some important (and somewhat obvious) tips that I learnt in the session are to carefully measure your ingredients, add the cheapest ingredient first (in case you need to start over), add plenty of ice, hold the shaker by the metal base (not by the glass as I did) and shake above your shoulder.

Behold my beautiful (and really tasty) Grand Margarita:

This packs a bit of a punch, so my recommendation is to enjoy it in the accompanying lounge, rather than drinking it in a single gulp (as a couple of other patrons did!).

The next highlight (for embarrassment factor alone) was the Smeg lounge, where there was a cooking demonstration by Daniel Vaughan from The Pantry in Brighton. Somehow or other both Saskia and I ended up assisting Daniel to make a wagyu beef tataki and were mercilessly mocked for our cooking prowess (or lack thereof, although I think it was mostly the ‘blogger’ moniker which was at issue). Saskia made the dressing and my role was to separate an egg (the pressure!!). Here is the final dish:

Next, we popped by some of the restaurant stalls. Another new feature of Taste of Melbourne this year is the pop up restaurant, which hosts a different restaurant each day of the festival. On Thursday when we visited, Koots Salle a Manger was in residence, and subsequent restaurants include Comida Bebe, Izakaya Den (which is such fun and you can read about here) and Embrasse (which I love and will post about shortly). Koots’ seven hour braised leg of lamb looked to die for:

We also popped by the Charcoal Lane stall and met head chef, Damien Styles. Charcoal Lane is a restaurant with a difference as it is run by Mission Australia and provides work experience and training to Aboriginal and disadvantaged young people. The restaurant is a fine dining establishment with a focus on native Australian ingredients. On the menu at Taste, there was wallaby tataki,  seared kingfish with red curry (that Saskia and I tried) and a raspberry and rosella flower cannelloni (shown in the foreground):

We also met with a number of other producers, including Alberto’s Delicacies (a family owned and run pesto, antipasto and pasta operation). I was very excited to hear that Alberto’s is also introducing a gluten-free range of fresh pastas, including a range of filled pastas (which I have barely eaten since going wheat-free 5 years ago). These will be available from their East Brunswick site in the coming weeks.

I also really enjoyed meeting the team at Bultarra Saltbush Lamb and having a taste of their seriously delicious product. Saltbush lamb is a favourite of Maggie Beer and while I have never cooked it before I am keen to give it a try. Here is my artful shot of the saltbush on which the Bultarra lambs are fed:

We then cracked on with some tasting of the dishes that the restaurants had on offer. Saskia and I headed to Mezzo where Saskia tried the Cavatelli di Messina with prawns, peas and lemon oil and I tried the braised pork cheek with polenta:

The pasta was intensly lemony (in a good way) with a nice pop of freshness from the baby peas. The pork cheek was meltingly tender and I loved the crunch from the pistachio.

Time for dessert, Saskia and I shared a bombe from the Stokehouse:

I’ve said this several times – it was the bomb! I loved this dessert, with the white chocolate parfait, fresh and not too sweet strawberry sorbet and soft almost oozy meringue. I had promised to give Claire a taste of this dessert too, but she was momentarily distracted by chatting to a friend and so I seized the opportunity to eat it all (not a particularly nice move, but Claire ended up getting her own portion and was happy with that).

Last taste of the night was Longrain’s dessert of tapioca pudding with poached pears and jackfruit:

I like tapioca but this was a shade bland and a bit too liquid. Saskia reported that the wheaty element (the toile) was a bit powdery and was flavourless.

We then hot footed it to the VIP lounge to indulge in some much-needed sparkling wine and to toast a great night at Taste of Melbourne.

Note: Saskia and I were guests of HotHouse Media and received a number of freebies, including entry, cocktail making, tastes, produce, goody bags and all that sparkling wine above.

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