Serves 4

Published in last weekend’s Sydney Morning Herald and The AGE Good Weekend Magazine, this is seriously the simplest dish ever – perfect for a dinner party entree, fast fast fast! Any good-quality fish, prawns or lobster would be fabulous in this ceviche, or cook and shell 500g of mussels and use all the ingredients as a salad. It also makes a cracking salad with cooked crab meat or cooked king prawns. Enjoy.

500g scallop meat

1 tablespoon very finely chopped ginger

1/2 red onion, finely chopped

Juice of 4 limes

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 wild green chillies, finely chopped

1 bunch coriander, leaves only

1 small sweet potato, peeled, cut into 5mm dice and boiled until tender

1 corn cob, kernels only

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Place the scallops, ginger, onion and half the lime juice in a bowl and set aside for 5 minutes. Drain off the juices. Add all the remaining ingredients, seasoning to tatse.

Spoon the ceviche into beautiful glasses and serve.

There is a resurgence of sorts in the Rocks…the wonderful old MCA has had a major facelift, Autumn is shedding her wonderful light around the tree lined streets, those great old bridges and stones and churches and paved alleyways that are the essence of this fantastic Sydney suburb just seem to get more gorgeous with time.

Down at Rockpool, the original, the “old girl”, the jewel in the crown, we are shifting into our cooler weather menus, truffles are about to hit (stand by for upcoming special events), diners are enjoying our lunches and chef Phil Wood is creating some fantastic new menus and concepts for our Chef’s Table.

The Rockpool Chef’s Table is situated window-side to George Street on the restaurant’s ground floor, semi-private and exclusive. Chef’s Table diners get an up close and personal look into all the action. It’s intimate, it’s a little bit crazy and it’s all yours if you’d like it – seating up to 10 guests, choose from our 4 course menu or have a chat to Phil and our sommelier, Emma Plumridge about tailoring an event individually to your needs and preferences.

Indeed – why not take advantage of Australia’s truffle season, gather some mates and spoil yourselves silly? Perfect for any particularly special events. 

Looking forward to seeing you around our Chef’s Table very soon! 

 For bookings, please contact Carly on reservations@rockpool.com or +61 2 9252 1888

Cheers for now,

The Rockpool Team

Roasted blue eye trevalla with leeks, green olives, garlic and breadcrumbs

A punchy combination of capers, olives and leeks is the perfect match to white fish. For perfect extras on the side, serve with boiled and seasoned beans or brocolli, and roast potatoes.

Serves 4

 Extra virgin olive oil

2 leeks, washed and cut into 5mm rounds

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

4 cloves garlic, crushed

8 large green olives, pitted

1 Tablespoon baby capers, rinsed

1 Tablespoon finely chopped flat leaf parsely

1 lemon

4 x 200g fillets blue eye trevalla

1/2 cup coarse fresh breadcrumbs, toasted

Preheat the oven to 200C.

Place a little olive oil in a non-stick pan over a medium heat. Add the leeks, season with salt and cook gently for 20 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 5 minutes, then add the olives, capers and parsley and toss through.

Drizzle with a little more olive oil and the juice of 1/2 lemon and season with pepper. Set aside and keep warm (it can also be reheated when the fish is ready to be served).

Place the fish in a roasting tray, drizzle with olive oil and srinkle with salt. Roast in the oven for about 12 minutes or until the fish is just cooked through.

Place a spoonful of the leek mixture in the middle of each plate, and top with a fish fillet and a squeeze of lemon. Finish with a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of breadcrumbs. Season with salt and pepper.

Key lime pie

Serves 6-8

250g plain flour

75g unsalted butter, cubed

Pinch sea salt

90g icing sugar, sifted

55ml milk

2 egg yolks

300ml cream

Filling 

125ml lime juice

2 x 4g leaves gold-strength gelatine

3 egg yolks

400g can sweetened condensed milk

3 teaspoons lime zest

Preheat the oven to 180C.

To make the pastry, place the flour, butter, salt and icing sugar in a food processor and process for 20 seconds. Add the milk and egg yolks and process for a further 30 seconds until the dough comes together. Turn out onto a lightly floured bench and knead gently for a few moments. Flatten on the bench and form into a ball. Wrap in plastic and place in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Lightly grease a 21cm tart or pie pan with a removeable base.

Roll out the pastry on a  lightly floured surface to 5mm thick. Line the pie pan with pastry and trim the edges. Cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes. It is important to rest the shell or it will shrink. Cover the pastry case with baking paper and fill with baking beans. Blind bake for 12 minutes, then remove the paper and bake for a further 5 minutes to dry and colour.

To make the filling,  warm the lime juice in a small saucepan. Soak the gelatine in water to soften, add to the lime juice and stir until dissolved. Beat the egg yolks and condensed milk together in a medium bowl with an electric mixer on high speed, until pale and thick. Add the lime juice mixture and 1 teaspoon lime zest to the egg yolks, beating to combine. Pour the filling into the prepared pie shell. Refrigerate for about 3 hours or until set.

Whip the cream in a small bowl until soft peaks form. To serve, spoon cream over the pie and sprinkle with the remaining lime zest.

As the Melbourne restaurant has developed its own identity, so has its cocktail list. This seasonally inspired list is all about clean, light flavours, beautiful balance, and Autumnal spirits.  A few highlights…

The Tiger- a twist on the classic Old Fashioned Cocktail, although not nearly as polarising as the original recipe of bourbon, bitters and sugar: this one is rich, gently sweet, with winter spices adding delicate acidity and balance (spiced rum, quince reduction & bitters)

The Snake  - another drink using Winter spices, this time combined with pineapple, Cachaça, white pepper & cloves- so, so tasty!

And last but not least, you’ve got to grab yourself a date, and share the new season’s Pig cocktail: a combination of nashi pear juice, Bison grass vodka & green tea, served in a carafe- so cleansing, cooling and light- perfect before, during or after your Autumn/Winter Spice Temple over indulgence!

 We’ve still got the big hitters on there too – the Rooster, the Horse and the Monkey will all still be just as you left them, and just as crazily flavoursome as ever!

 Cocktail Menu

Spice Temple’s cocktail program has been pieced together to provide our guests with a holistic modern Chinese experience. As we move through to cooler months, we look to warm your palate by using dark fragrant spices, aromatic herbs and sweetened teas. Each drink has been conceptualised to reflect a rich harmony between food and drink, balance and taste

Our cocktails are named after the 12 Zodiac signs of the Chinese calendar.

鼠 Rat                                                                                                                                    
Cuban rum, rhubarb and star anise syrup, lime and basil

牛 Ox                                                                                                                                     
Australian gin, red capsicum, salted cucumber and lemon juice

虎 Tiger                                                                                                                                 
Spiced rum, quince reduction and bitters

兔 Rabbit                                                                                                                              
London dry gin, green apple, jasmine tea soda and salted cucumber

龍 Dragon                                                                                                                            
London dry gin, lemongrass soda, citrus with rose water

蛇 Snake                                                                                                                               
Cachaca, white pepper, cloves and pineapple

馬 Horse                                                                                                                               
Golden rum, pomegranate, molasses and lime juice

羊 Sheep                                                                                                                               
Blanco tequila, sesame, ginger, agave syrup and lime

猴 Monkey                                                                                                                           
Dutch vodka, house made spicy ginger beer and citrus

雞 Rooster                                                                                                                           
Aperol, limoncello and fresh passionfruit

狗 Dog                                                                                                                                   
Rye whiskey, fortified wine, five spice and orange bitters

豬 Pig                                                                                                                                     
Bison vodka, sake, nashi juice and green tea (carafe only) 

Congratulations on such an amazing selection to Imogen, Ethan, Kash, Drew & Trudy!

See you across the bar!

Alrighty – home stretch people…

In today’s sourdough lesson, folding, shaping, scoring and baking (and eating?). We trust the images are helping along the way.

Start your 1st turn by folding the dough gently on top of itself in the bowl, cover and rest for 30 mins.  (A “turn” or a ‘fold” can be described as follows…dip one hand in water to prevent dough from sticking then grab underside of the dough, stretch it up and fold it over the rest of the dough. Repeat this action 2 or 3 times so that all of the dough gets developed evenly. This is considered “1 turn”).

Repeat as above for the 2nd turn, cover and rest for 30 mins. Complete the 3rd turn, cover and rest 30 mins.

Complete the 4th turn, cover and rest 30 mins.

Remove the dough from the bowl onto a lightly floured bench and round it up. Leave it to rest on the bench for 15-20 mins.

Complete the final shaping by turning the dough underside up, fold the end closest to you up and over the middle third of the dough, stretch the dough horizontally then fold the right third over the centre and then the left third over the previous fold. Take the piece of dough farthest from you and stretch it towards you over the previous folds then take the side closest to you and wrap it up and over whilst rolling the entire dough away from you so that the smooth side is now on top and all of the seams are on the bottom. Cup the entire dough and round it up to create tension on the surface of the dough.

Take a clean bowl slightly larger than the size of the dough and cover with a clean cloth then dust the cloth with rice flour. Place the dough upside down in the bowl and cover then place in the refrigerator overnight (the last shot above is where you should be at right now)…

(Editor’s note – ok so at this point, whilst the dough is in the fridge overnight, you need to go away, have dinner, a glass of wine and we’ll see you back here tomorrow. I told you it wasn’t QUICK!)

The next day, remove your dough from the fridge and bring it up to room temperature (this will take about 2-3 hours).

Place dough in prover for 45-50 mins. For those of us that don’t have provers (me!), leave your dough in a warm place to rise for 1-2 hours or until doubled in size.

Preheat your oven to 220°C. Dust a baking tray with semolina and set aside.

 Remove the dough from the bowl, place it on the baking tray, score the top of the loaf with a sharp knife placed at a 45 degree angle and make a square pattern, then dust with semolina or rice flour. Bake in the oven for 20 mins.

Reduce heat to 200°C and bake for a further 20-25 minutes.

Check that your bread is fully baked by tapping on the base and listening for a hollow sound.

And so by this point you will be thinking about making sourdough. We hope we have inspired you to have a go. There is nothing more feel good than creating something that was once the right of artisan bakers alone, and though it takes time, effort, concentration and commitment, we feel sure that once you have tackled this once, you’ll be making your own sourdough breads for years to come.

Thanks for reading, thanks for having a go and a massive thanks to Karoline for her fantastic document.

1 Tablespoon sour starter (see previous blog post)

50g unbleached organic white flour

50ml still mineral water

300ml + 25ml water @ 26.6°C (you will require a water thermometer for this)

500g high protein flour

10g salt

Semolina or rice flour, for dusting

Variations (these are of course optional):

Olive & Herb
100g pitted and sliced Kalamata olives (dust with flour before adding to dough)
3g dried oregano
2g dried thyme
Zest of half a lemon

Caraway & Sesame
5g toasted caraway seeds
25g toasted sesame seeds

Take the 1 tablespoon of sour and feed it with the 50g of white flour and the 50ml of mineral water. Leave for a couple of hours.

In a large bowl, place 300ml of water, the sour and high protein flour and mix gently by hand till the flour has been incorporated. Cover and set aside for 30 mins.

Take your salt and add it to the 25ml of water, then add to your dough. Squeeze the dough with your hands to incorporate the salt until the dough comes back together. Cover and leave for 30 mins.  

Add the extra ingredients to your dough as per your preferred flavour variation, or you can of course leave it plain.

That’s about enough info for today – when we return with Part 3, Karoline teaches us how to fold, shape, score and bake. Woohoo!

Stir fried pork with kimchi

Serves 4

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

450g deboned pork belly, skin on and sliced into 5mm thick slices

Sea salt and freshly ground white pepper

100g kimchi, cut into 4cm pieces (available from Asian supermarkets)

4 spring onions, cut into batons

1 clove garlic, fnely chopped

1/2 teaspoon chilli powder

1/2 teaspoon Asian sesame sauce (available from Asian supermarkets)

1/2 teaspoon roasted sesame seeds

1/4 cup coriander leaves

 Seamed rice, to serve

 Heat the oil in a wok until just smoking.

Add the pork, season with salt and pepepr and cook over a high heat for 10 minutes or until browned, being careful not to overcook it.

Add the kimchi, onions, garlic, chilli powder, sesame sauce and 1 tablespoon water and cook briefly to incorporate.

Divide the pork among serving bowls and sprinkle with sesame seeds and coriander.

Serve with steamed rice.

How simple is that?

2012 started sensationally for the Rockpool Group in Sydney, with approval for us to start training our commercial cookery and pastry apprentices in house. With an incredibly supportive hand from the teachers at TAFE NSW, plenty of training for our chefs and some committed “time at desk” put in by the apprentices (yes, we chain them to a table in the bar every week – no food, no water, without fail), it has so far proved to be a winning formula and we look forward to continuing along this line well into the future.

One of our pastry apprentices, Karoline, recently worked on a sourdough module and as part of the process, put together an incredibly impressive document. It kind of takes all the scare factor out of baking not just bread, but real, live….sourdough, for those of us that find the thought terrifying that is! I’m ready to bake!!! Needless to say, we are all pretty impressed with Karoline’s work here…we hope you enjoy it too…

The document has been “domesticised” a little (a lot) for those of us that don’t have the “steam” button on our ovens, commercial provers or walk in cool rooms at home and wouldn’t know the oven vent if it jumped up and slapped us in the face. Oh, and you’ll need to get your sour starter made now to get baking in 4 to 5 weeks time. On top of that – don’t be fooled….this recipe DOES take time, and 2 days to get there. So the scare factor has gone but the time factor remains. I wouldn’t go making other plans! We’ll be doing this in a few posts.

First things first – you’ll need your “starter”…

Sour Starter

Unbleached organic white flour
Still mineral water

In a small glass bowl or jar, mix ½ cup of each of the above and leave at room temperature for 2-3 days, or until you notice small bubbles appearing.

Discard all but ½ cup of the above and ‘feed’ the starter by adding  ½ cup flour and ¼ cup water – mix together. This will be quite a dry dough.

Repeat the ‘feeding’ process daily for at least 4 weeks to develop the sour flavour.

Stay tuned for part 2 where we get cracking on the dough.

Neil’s recipe for Barbecued spicy chicken from Good Weekend Magazine last Saturday….just so perfect in this up and down weather…roastable too, if the rain doesnt let you get to the barby. This dish is also perfect as part of a shared banquet – I’ll flick you the recipe for Stir fried pork with kim chee later in the week that sits just nicely with this, and perhaps some simple steamed green and jasmine rice.

Stand by for a really interesting blog coming up on just HOW to make sourdough bread – we take away the scare factor and baby step you through it.

Enjoy! 

  Barbecued spicy chicken

Serves 4

1.4kg whole free range or organic chicken

2 cloves garlic

1 knob ginger

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

1 tablespoon lime juice

2 limes, cut into quarters

Spice paste

2 birds-eye chillies

8 long red chillies

4 red escahlots

2 cloves garlic

1 tomato

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1 tablespoon lime juice

1 tablespoon caster sugar

Sea salt and freshly ground white pepper

Remove the back bone from the chicken and press the bird out flat on a board. Using a mortar and pestle, pound the garlic and ginger with the salt. Mix in the lime juice and rub the mix into the chicken. Set aside.

To make the spice paste, place the chillies, eschalots, garlic and tomato in a  steamer and cook for 5 minutes. Cut the chillies and tomato in half and remove the seeds, then place the steamed items in a blender and process coarsely. Add the oil, lime juice, sugar and seasoning and blend to combine. Check the seasoning and balance.

Heat a barbecue to hot and cook the chicken for 5 minutes, turning halfway through. Remove the chicken from the grill and rub it thoroughly on both sides with the cooked spice paste. Leave for 5 minutes to allow the flavours to penetrate.

Return the chicken to the barbecue and cook for about 15 minutes or until tender and golden brown on both sides.

To serve, remove the legs from the chicken, chop each into 3 and place on a serving plate. Separate the breasts, cut each breast into 3 pieces and pace on top of the legs. Scatter the limes around.