Welcome to our blog. Enjoy our recipes, news and random stories on all that we do and love. Don’t forget that you can also connect with us via twitter and our facebook page…Happy reading all and we look forward to hearing from you in the comments!
Neil

YUM CHA BEGINS

 Neil Perry and the team from Spice Temple Melbourne will launch a brand new yum cha menu on Wednesday 8 February 2012.
 
Regarded by Perry to be one of the city’s best quality and freshest yum cha offerings, the menu will feature a selection of over 40 dishes and the who’s who of high quality suppliers.
 
“Everything on the menu will be sourced from our line up of reputable suppliers and made in our kitchens – from the delicious ‘sriracha’ style chilli sauce and the paper thin cheong fun (rice noodle rolls) to the variety of classic dumplings such as har gow and wu gok. 
 
“We will also be using the wood fire grill upstairs at Rockpool Bar & Grill to make our delicious BBQ pork buns and the char siu pork for our cold cut plate,” says Perry.
 
Spice Temple Melbourne will also offer a selection of other larger style dishes using outstanding produce such as Spencer Gulf prawns, tripe from Greenhams in Tasmania, export quality chickens’ feet, mussels from Kinkawooka in SA and octopus hands from Fremantle in WA.
 
Some of Perry’s signature yum cha dishes on the menu will include:
Har gow
King prawn and bamboo fresh rice noodle
White jade rolls with crab meat sauce
Lamb and salted chilli pot stickers
Pork curry puffs
Crispy pork, pickles and salted chilli sliders
‘World’s best’ egg tart
 
“We consider Spice Temple to be one of the best examples of modern regional Chinese cooking in Australia and we’re excited to be presenting this new yum cha menu, which will demonstrate the skill and diversity of our chefs and give our customers more reasons to return,” he says.
 
Yum cha will be served daily from 12 noon – 3pm Monday to Sunday.
 
For bookings or further details contact Spice Temple Melbourne on (03) 8679 1888. 

January invariably sees Neil in New York for Qantas cooking duties – Gday USA, a few VIP events and so forth. This year, he took along group Executive Pastry Chef Catherine Adams and Rockpool Bar & Grill Executive Chef Khan Danis (you know them from such popular blogs as “Italy”…one of last year’s best and most stomach rumbling reads that had us all running for the pasta machine, gelato shop and nonna’s slow braises! Here…Catherine shares with us the morning 4 of them decided it was a good idea to eat cake for breakfast! 7 slices between 4 of them no less!!! A warning comes attached to this blog. You WILL need sugar on reading…

Breakfast at Lady M, by Catherine Adams

Cake and cream happen to be probably my all-time fav, haven’t quite determined whether it is the cake or the cream I like best, so I was pretty happy with Lady M, loved the austerity of it, loved that nothing was sugary sweet, especially loved that they know how to bake pastry properly, the puff in the banana cream pie was delicious and cooked! If this was within 100 km of where I lived  it would probably be my second home

 Staring at the brekky spread above, on the left front we have banana cream pie. Behind that is crepe cake,vanilla. The table on the right, across the back starting at the left is strawberry shortcake, then chestnut crepe cake, then an éclair. In the front is an apple and vanilla mousse tart and next to that a caramel mirroir. Oh…And 3 cups of mint tea.

Banana Cream Pie - a puff pastry tart case filled with cream , banana, and a layer of sponge, topped with pieces of puff pastry. The pastry was amazing, flakey and delicious…

Crepe Cake – 20 crepes layered with their special cream filling, keep at just the right temperature so they crepes don’t go cold and hard. perfect balance between filling and crepe…

Strawberry Shortcake – three layers of tender light sponge layered with fresh strawberries and cream, simple and delicious.

 Chestnut Crepe Cake – 20 crepes layered with chestnut filling, again yum yum. 

Éclair – dipped in tempered chocolate this éclair had a nice crisp crunch and with my favourite filling of plain cream keeps it from being too rich and heavy. 

Apple and Vanilla Tart – roasted apple topped with a light vanilla mousse and finished with a caramelised glaze. 

Caramel Mirroir - a cakey, fudgy chocolate base with a deeply flavoured caramel mousse on top and finished with a caramel glaze, great balance between the chocolate and the caramel without one dominating the other.

Lady M, 41 East 78th Street

 Catherine

Lei Garden

Lei Garden is another restaurant that has been around for many years, serving classic Cantonese food. From humble beginnings they have now expanded to more than 20 restaurants across Asia, with several here in Hong Kong. Besides the delicious food, Lei Garden’s biggest claim to fame is that it was the birthplace of XO sauce back in 1981. We stopped in for some yum cha.

Menu – thankfully with English!

Fresh bamboo shoots with soy sauce – simple, sweet and tasty.

These were really good – flakey pie pastry filled with barbecue pork (I know, pork again..!)

Turnip cakes.

Gelatinous chicken feet with black beans – very succulent. If you’ve never tried chicken feet, I would urge you to give these a go next time you are at yum cha.

Beancurd skins with pork, prawn and some vegetables.

Rice noodle rolls with sesame paste and soy. Great texture.

The perfect lunch.

Manor Seafood Restaurant

Last stop on our gastronomic tour was to Manor Seafood Restaurant – but here it’s not all about seafood.

And now you see why! How good does the crispy skin look on that suckling pig? They cut the crackling into squares for you, and then..

They serve you these great little steamed bread circles, which you then..

Top with the crackling, add some shallots, a pinch of sugar and some hoisin sauce. But it gets better – the remaining pig gets whisked away back to the kitchen where the chefs chop it up, then it returns so you can eat all the remaining meat off the bones.

A really great crab and vermicelli noodle dish cooked in the clay pot – it had a nice pepper hit to it.

Crab close-up.

Chicken stir-fried with dark soy and pepper.

This was really good – baby abalone cooked with celery, shallots and spices. I loved the textures.

Pork hock braised with Chinese five spice until the meat falls off the bone and the skin turns soft and gelatinous.

And some deluxe fried rice to finish off our meal.

The end of another great meal, and the last one for our HK trip.

Chong Fat Chiu Chow Restaurant

After venturing out of the great Four Seasons Hong Kong, first place on my wish list was Chong Fat. Fuchsia Dunlop, who has more knowledge about Chinese cuisine than anyone else I know gave Sam and I this tip, so we had high hopes. And they weren’t let down. Chong Fat is a very, very local-type restaurant – there’s not much English on the menu, so for us there was a lot of pointing! But the food was really delicious.

Succulent fried prawns – eaten shell and all.

Really nice sole with ginger and shallot – a classic.

Stir fried garlic chives – really tasty, but not too sure what the carrot was doing in there!

Steamed local crabs.

Tiny little kitchen. They did some vegetable curries take away as well, but we’d definitely had our fill by then.

On our way out they had just taken delivery of some bay bugs, which they took out onto the street and washed off before putting them in their tanks. You don’t see this back in Aus!

Dynasty

Next stop was Dynasty, the Michelin Starred restaurant in the Renaissance Hotel.

I know I said that the char siu in the Four Seasons was the best, but upon reflection I think they may be tied with Dynasty. Soo delicious.

Black fungi and gluten – sounds weird, but a textural masterpiece.

Salt and pepper silken tofu - so good forgot to take a photo of it before we tucked in.

Stir fried razor clams with XO sauce and sugar snaps – tasted as good as it sounds.

Crispy skin chicken – how perfectly golden is it?!

Quite the spread, and it was all delicious.

Yung Kee

Next stop, the one Michelin starred Yung Kee. Yung Kee has been trading for 60 years (albeit in three different locations), and has built up a reputation for its roast goose.

And here it is, mixed with a bit of char siu pork (starting to think that I have a thing for char siu). A very tasty bird indeed.

Steamed pork bun and dumpling.

These were really yummy. Rice noodles with chilli and sesame, I just love the texture of the noodles and the chilli kick was great. Making me drool as I write this.

This was a kind of dan dan noodles, also really tasty. Love the chilli oil floating on top.

In the next post, more yum cha and some amazing suckling pig… stay tuned.

Grilled Snapper Fillets with Spiced Sweet Potato Salad and Yoghurt

Serves 4

2 lemons
1 cup Greek-style yoghurt
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
4 x 200g snapper fillets
Olive oil

Sweet Potato Salad
500g sweet potato, peeled and cut into 2cm dice
Sea salt
6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 large brown onion, coarsely chopped
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground cumin
½ tsp ground paprika
½ tsp chilli powder
Juice of ½ lemon
12 green olives, pitted and roughly chopped
2 tsp finely sliced flat-leaf parsley

To make the salad, place the sweet potato in a large pot and cover well with water. Bring to the boil, season with salt and cook until tender. Drain and carefully place on a plate lined with paper towel.

Heat 3 tbsp olive oil in a pan. Sauté the onion until tender, then add the sweet potato, spices and a little salt, and toss to incorporate. Add the remaining oil, lemon juice, olives and parsley and toss again until evenly mixed. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

Squeeze the juice from 1 lemon and cut the other lemon into quarters.

Place the yoghurt in a small bowl with salt, pepper and a little lemon juice, to taste.

Preheat a grill or pan to hot. Season the fish fillets with sea salt and drizzle with a little olive oil. Cook the fillets, skin side down, for 3 minutes, then turn over and cook for a further 2 minutes or until done to your liking.

Place the sweet potato salad on a serving platter, top with the fish and season with salt and pepper. Serve with yoghurt on the side and lemon quarters for squeezing.

This recipe appeared in the Good Weekend Magazine, Saturday January 14th

A word or 2 we’d like to share with you, from a couple of our favourites – OzHarvest and Qantas. We look forward to seeing you on the night. 

CEO INVITATION: 

CEO CookOff – MONDAY 6 FEBRUARY 2012 

We would like to invite you to engage in a bold and exciting new initiative that will bring together 200 of Australia’s leading CEOs and 30 celebrity chefs from Australia’s top kitchens. Together, significant funds will be raised while sharing a unique cooking experience.

 On the evening of Monday 6 February 2012, OzHarvest, Australia’s favourite food rescue organisation, together with Qantas will host the CEO CookOff and feed 1000 people in need at Cathedral Square, in front of the beautiful St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney. The event will create awareness about food security and homelessness and raise funds for OzHarvest and Mission Australia.

 Small groups of 10 CEOs will prepare a meal for Sydney’s disadvantaged mentored by a celebrity chef. We are pleased to announce that Neil Perry, Bill Granger, Guillaume and Poh Ling Yeow are some of the impressive chefs participating on the night. 

We are also extremely excited to have secured one of Australia’s most successful rock legends to perform on the night – a real “working class man”! 

Registrations are closing soon and we hope you can join us. The registration fee of $1500 is tax deductible. All donations made by your family, friends and colleagues in support of your cooking efforts are also tax deductible. To register, please visit the CEO CookOff website and click on the CEO REGISTER button.

Following on the success of the first and second Cafe 1989, the bookings for third and final instalment of Rockpool’s Cafe 1989 for the year were looking very solid indeed. After a nice build up from 40 covers on the first lunch to 75 covers on the second, things were looking good with 90 already in the book a week in advance. It was going to be an “all hands on deck” kind of lunch.

So, when a couple of floor staff called in sick (very soft), your’s truly was asked to step in to assist the floor team. Having spent many a service in the Rockpool kitchen, but never on ‘the dark side’ of the pass before, I was sure this was going to be a wild ride for all involved… The result is that this blog is light on photos – it was pretty hard to get photos of anything at all really… 

The good news (besides lunch going without incident) was that I did manage to get a shot of all of the dishes (luckily caught the mussels with the iPhone).

Neil checking the Garlic sauce for the chicken, Phil washing a spoon. Exciting…

Roasted Beetroot with Goat’s Cheese and Saba

Phil plating up the mussels

Spring Bay Mussels and Salt Striped Trumpeter, Charred Bread and Rouille

Roasted Thirlmere Chicken with Blue Mountains Vegetables, Garlic Sauce and Potato Puree

South Australian Strawberry Shortcake

I did manage to capture most of the day’s service on video though. Here’s about a minute and a half compressed down to 30 seconds, with the best  cheesiest free music I could find.. enjoy!  Look out for the next cafe 1989 pop-up, sometime in February…

Just when you though New Year celebrations were over… On Monday 23rd January we’re heralding in the “Year of the Dragon” at Spice Temple Sydney and Melbourne with special banquet menus. Spice Melbourne is featuring a $79 banquet menu by Head Chef Ben Pollard that is perfect for people wanting to try Spice Temple’s diverse range of regional Chinese dishes and flavours. Spice Sydney is going all out with a $110 deluxe menu by Head Chef Andy Evans, designed to promote health, wealth and fertility during New Year festivities.

 ~~~

SPICE TEMPLE SYDNEY

CHINESE NEW YEAR BANQUET MENU $110 pp

Fortune Cocktail: Aperol, Cointreau, Peach & Cava

Cabbage and radish 

Sichuan pickled cucumber, shiitake and bamboo shoots (wealth)

White cut chicken with ginger and spring onion oil (happiness)

Shanghai sesame noodles (longevity)

Northern style lamb and fennel dumplings (family unity)

Tea eggs with salted olive and black bean (fertility)

“The most delicious dish under heaven” (money)

Hot, sweet, sour and numbing pork (wishing for a large family)
Chilli, sugar, black vinegar and Sichuan peppercorn 

Crispy lucky duck with steamed bread, shallots and hoisin (fidelity)

Steamed king abalone mushroom,
garlic stems, chives and ginger (prosperity)

‘Beggar’s Purse’

~~~

SPICE TEMPLE MELBOURNE

CHINESE NEW YEAR BANQUET MENU $79 pp

Cucumbers with spicy sauce

Egg and jalapeño salad (fertility)

Chive and scallop dumplings (eternity)

Noodles with black vinegar sauce (long life)

Whole baby chicken baked in lotus leaf with “Chilli Tea” (family reunion)

Whole baby snapper with ginger and shallot (prosperity)

Stir fried lettuce with ham and XO sauce

Jasmine rice custard

So, what better way to fill a Monday evening?!

To book Spice Temple Sydney click here or call (02) 8078 1888

To book Spice Temple Melbourne click here or call (03) 8679 1888

Crispy Buttermilk Fried Chicken

Serves 4

Vegetable oil, for frying
500ml buttermilk
Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
8 chicken thighs, bone in and skin on
Lemon wedges, to serve

Coating
4 cups flour
2 tbsp garlic powder
3 tbsp onion powder
1 tsp paprika
½ tsp chilli powder
1 tsp sea salt
Freshly ground pepper, to taste

Fill a deep pot with about 10cm oil (or fill a deep fryer to the fill line) and heat it to 180°C; use a kitchen thermometer.

Combine all the coating ingredients in a large bowl, then split it between 2 bowls. Pour the buttermilk into a third bowl and season with salt and pepper. Now place the bowls in a line with the milk in the middle and a tray or plate at the end of the line for the coated chicken.

Dip each chicken thigh in the first bowl of coating, patting off any excess, and then dip into the buttermilk, allowing the excess milk to run off back into the bowl, then dip into the second bowl of coating. Place on the plate and repeat with the remaining chicken.
Carefully lower the thighs into the oil. Make sure you adjust the temperature so it returns to 180°C as soon as possible. Fry the chicken pieces for 2-3 minutes, then carefully move them around in the oil and fry for a further 12-14 minutes. The chicken should be golden brown and very crisp.

Remove from the oil and drain chicken on paper towels.

To serve, place 2 thighs on each plate with a wedge of lemon and potato salad and coleslaw on the side.

This recipe appeared in the Good Weekend, January 7 2012

Neil Perry

It’s a tough job, but someone had to do it. Neil Perry nominates the 10 best dishes of 2011.

Meat Fruit at Dinner By Heston Blumenthal
Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park,
66 Knightsbridge, London, UK.
+44 2 07201 3833.
dinnerbyheston.com
Heston likes to have a bit of fun. So the parfait is encased in mandarin jelly in the shape of a mandarin, and we were asked not to eat the real stem and leaves – they wouldn’t have been as tasty as the rest. A magical, delicious starter.

Maccaronara with Ragu alla Napoletana at A16
2355 Chestnut Street, San Francisco, USA.
+1 415 771 2216.
a16sf.com
Simple, with a perfect balance of taste and texture. The springy, handmade pasta has a wonderful bite, the tomato sauce is enlivened by the complexity of pancetta and pork. Salty cheese provides the perfect finish. Heaven.

Oysters and Pearls at Per Se
Level 4, 10 Columbus Circle, New York, USA.
+1 212 823 9335.
perseny.com
Everything is incredible, from the service and wine list to the view over Central Park. And, the supreme cooking. Oysters are poached in a butter vermouth sauce and textured with tapioca before a great big dollop of caviar is spooned on top. An all-time favourite.

Wagyu Beef Sukiyaki at Azuma
Level 1 Chifley Plaza, 2 Chifley Square, Sydney, NSW.
+61 2 9222 9960.
azuma.com.au
The wagyu beef is so melt-in-the-mouth it could be eaten raw, but it’s lightly cooked in a broth seasoned with soy and mirin, then dipped in a beaten raw egg. Vegetables and noodles are added and the last of the stock can be drunk like soup.

Fillet of Sole Daumont at Next
953 West Fulton Market, Chicago, USA.
+1 312 226 0858.
nextrestaurant.com 
The menu of historically accurate cuisine changes every three months. I was there for its Escoffier-inspired Paris 1906 period and it was a knockout. The fish, rolled in a crayfish mousse, is served with various stuffed crayfish garnishes and a gratinated crayfish sauce.

Veal Sweetbreads at Noma
93 Strandgade, Copenhagen, Denmark.
+45 3296 3297.
noma.dk
Cooked to perfection and served with peas and gathered herbs. The sweetbread texture is nothing short of melting; perfect balance to the dressing’s deep herbaceous flavour.

Tranche of Turbot at The River Café
Thames Wharf, Rainville Road, London, UK.
+44 20 7386 4200.
rivercafe.co.uk
I order this every time I visit. Wood-fire roasted to perfection, the fish is succulent and gelatinous on the bone.

Pork Jowl with Liquorice Root at The Ledbury
127 Ledbury Road, London, UK.
+44 20 7792 9090.
www.theledbury.com
A fabulous tasting menu, and then the pork jowl came out stabbed with liquorice root and cooked until the flesh was melting and the skin crisp and shattering.

Mud Crab with Ginger and Egg Noodles at Flower Drum
17 Market Lane, Melbourne, Victoria.
+61 3 9662 3655.
flower-drum.com
One of the great Cantonese restaurants and it’s in Melbourne – how lucky are we? The breast meat is mixed in with the noodles while one of the claws is left whole to perch in all its glory on the side of the plate. The sauce is simple – ginger, spring onion, master stock – and the noodles freshly made.

Vacherin of Pandan Custard, Coconut Parfait, Jasmine Sorbet and Lime Granita at Rockpool
107 George Street, The Rocks, Sydney, NSW.
+61 2 9252 1888.
rockpool.com
My favourite dessert of last year, offering a complexity of flavours and textures. It also looks good – all those clean lines and light shades. It tastes like a very grown-up and wickedly delicious Pine Lime Splice.

Source Qantas The Australian Way January 2012