Posts by tammi

What I Ate: Twice Cooked Pork Belly Braise

what i ate July 22, 2013 5 Comments

Tender, slow roasted pork belly is braised in a soy based sauce, and served on rice, garnished with coriander.

Here’s the thing with two-person households. You read a recipe that you like, often written for four or six, and then you make it, only to find that even though the both of you are stuffed, there’s still plenty of leftover to go around. Sure, you can halve the recipe, but sometimes that really affects cooking times, and I find it easier just to try and do something interesting with the leftovers!

So if you’ve tried my Slow Roasted Pork Belly recipe and you have leftovers – like I did – here’s something that you can try with them!

Slow Roasted Pork Belly

Recipe July 20, 2013 4 Comments

Crackling. I haven’t met anyone who doesn’t like good, crispy crackling. And it’s actually easier to achieve than you would expect. Impressive, because it tastes great and because you have to do a ridiculously small amount of work.

Slow Roasted Pork Belly

600g slab of pork belly
Oil
Salt
Pepper

Preheat your oven to 160C (not fan forced. If you’re can’t turn off the fan, I would suggest 140-150C).

Score the pork belly to what your portions would be. I would suggest using a very small paring knife if you have one – you want to score just into the fat but not cut the meat. Rub a little bit of oil – I used just enough for a light coating – onto the pork belly, followed by a generous rub of salt and pepper, making sure you get into the creases. I scattered stripes of flavoured salt from Smoke and Roast that I got from The Good Food and Wine Show, and it gave me interesting bursts of flavour in every piece!

Simply roast it over a rack for a couple of hours till the rind is nice, puffed and crispy. I tend not to worry too much about the pork cooking through – at those sort of temperatures the pork is always done by the time the crackling is. If you have a much larger slab of pork, I would suggest cutting it into smaller slabs before you put it into the oven.

It’s the most foolproof recipe for pork and pork crackling I’ve ever used. Simple and effective, I like to serve portions of the pork just with some roasted veggies, no gravy required!

What’s your favourite tips to making great pork belly with amazing crackling?

Jazz City Milk Bar, Darlinghurst

Review July 16, 2013 4 Comments

Sometimes, dinner is such a mission.

After hearing so much about the Jazz City Diner and its decadent Southern goodness, I was chomping at the bit (literally, I was that hungry!) to get to this hole-in-the-wall delight that everyone’s been raving about.
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Zenya Ramen Bar, Eastwood

Review July 14, 2013

I’m not usually a soup person. As a child, I used to order noodle soups and then fish the noodle out, so that I get all of the flavour, but have the noodle cool much faster because it wasn’t sitting in soup getting soggy.

But experiencing winter – Singapore has no winter, only rain – in Australia actually inspires me to have soups. Noodle soups, rice soups (ochazuke anyone?), creamy soups, vegetable soups, bone soups…it’s all good to me. There’s something comforting about wrapping your hands around a warm boil of steaming food when your fingers are nearly numb from the cold.

Or you could have a cup of tea. Or coffee. But I like noodles.

And so I went to Zenya Ramen Bar in Eastwood, hoping that it would be a good local ramen bar that I can visit regularly. It being my first time, I decided to go with the Mini Set Menu, where you get a mini version of a couple of things, which allows you to try dishes across the menu! I specifically chose the Mini Ramen and Mini Donburi set, and from that I chose to have the Pork Ramen and the Karaage Don, with dessert and drink. ($16.80)

The ramen came first, and to be honest, it was pretty average. The egg – and you know that the ni-tamago can make or break a bowl of ramen for me – was slightly overdone and under-seasoned for me, the broth was average, and the noodles had a nice bite, but were also average. I did like the serving size though – it was actually the serving size of the meals I would have at home – and the price was not bad for the food, considering the amount of food you get for it.

Interestingly though, for a ramen bar, I much preferred the Karaage Don.

The fried chicken was crispy, not too greasy, and didn’t have a strong chickeny smell that you can get sometimes. Biting into it, it was juicy, fresh, crisp on the outside. My favourite bit though, was the mayo. Sweet, tangy, and just slightly spicy, the mayo completely made the dish for me. This set was actually ordered to share between two people – and there was more than enough to share – but I think I stole the lion’s share of this chicken.

Not knowing that the mini set was actually not entirely too mini, I also ordered a medium plate of mixed sashimi.

The seafood was fresh, and cut so that it was a pleasant mouthful – not so much that I can’t fit in my mouth, but not so small that I miss it completely and am left wanting more. Not the most unique dish, but great quality, and better than I expected.

In all, the food was only slightly better than average, and a good value for money. The service is truly special though, and though the staff might not speak perfect English, I really appreciated the way they interacted with us. For example, when they had to interrupt our conversation to ask if we had any last orders (it was a late dinner for us), they actually hung back till there was a break in the conversation, and then apologised for the interruption in a very gracious way.

I would (and have been) keep going back to Zenya, not so much for the ramen, but for the Donburi and the excellent service.

We ate at:

Zenya Noodle Bar
+61 2 9874 2122
217 Rowe St, Eastwood NSW 2122, Australia

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Good Food and Wine Show, 2013

Review July 2, 2013 4 Comments

My stash: (Clockwise from left) Scarmoza Blanca from La Latteria, Colgate tea flavoured mouthwash, Kumquat spread from St Dalfour, Truffle Tapenade from Wine and Truffle Co., Flavoured salts from Smoke and Roast, Smoked garlic from Smoke and Roast, Porcini salt from Salt Meats Cheese.

FREE FOOD. Need I say more?

The Good Food and Wine Show is one of the bigger food expos that I attend every year. Beyond the aforementioned free food, I love the opportunity that I get to have a chat with small producers whom I might not otherwise get a chance to talk to, or might have to travel far to meet.

For example, meet Larry.

Larry is, in his own words, “the truck driver, the harvester, the everything” at the Handorf Hill Winery. Not having that much experience with wine – and not being very good with alcohol – I had many questions, and Larry patiently and eloquently explained to me the intricacies of the flavours and aromas of wine, and especially how the weather and microclimates affect them. The most interesting thing I learnt from Larry was the effect of the cool weather on tannins.

Tannins are compounds that are present in things like tea and wine, and contributes a certain kind of astringency that gives you that slightly dry feeling in your mouth. Because tannins are found in the grapes, the rate the grapes ripen will affect the amount of astringency that you get in your wine. From what I understand from Larry, the cooler Adelaide climates allow the grapes to ripen slowly, allowing the tannins to mellow out, resulting in a gentler wine. How cool is that?

There were also plenty of other producers:

ChocoMe had the most beautifully presented bars of chocolate I’d ever seen.

Robinvale estate, with their adorable graphics adorning their myriad of flavoured oils and vinegars.

Salumi Australia had a MASSIVE and impressive display of cured meats in every shape and form. And had these little cones at $5 a pop, besides the samples that they had on display.

Smoke and Roast had a very energetic spokesperson, and had the most beautiful-smelling smoked garlic and flavoured salts. He was sharing recipes left, right and centre and inspired me to try out his salts on a slow roasted pork belly. He said to different salts on different sections, to create a sort of rainbow of flavours, depending on which piece you eat.

The Wine and Truffle Co. had a great array of truffle products, and an impressive piece of truffle protected by a glass cloche. I was impressed that they could tell me off hand when the truffle was harvested – it’s very important to ask when buying truffles because truffles tend to go stale after about 10 days – and I loved the truffle tapenade so much that I bought one home for myself.

Kikkoman had a genius way of getting people to try their soy sauce – rather than getting people to dip crackers in (I’ve seen this happen, who gets people to try soy sauce with crackers?), they actually had little pieces of salmon and cucumber sushi for people to try with their sauce! I know it sounds simple, but I don’t think that I would’ve thought of that.

This is the most exciting bit of the day for me. Bohemian Delights had wild mushrooms out for sale, and there were samples of Slippery Jack mushrooms (right) which were simply sauteed with salt, pepper and some caraway seeds. SO DELICIOUS! There was also a man at the stall – the owner’s father – who told us that his wife uses Pine Nut mushrooms (left) in her goulash, instead of meat, before saying (with a wink in his eye) that Czech women make the best cooks.

And that was my Good Food and Wine experience. Did you go? Which were your favourite stands?

What I ate: Berry and yoghurt parfait

what i ate July 1, 2013 1 Comment

The lazy, rainy weekend is over, and Monday morning rolls around. I begrudgingly get out of bed and make all the appropriate noises and mumbles about wanting to get back in. Then my tummy rumbles and tells me that I might as well get up because it’s hungry. And when it’s hungry, it’s turns me into the hulk.

So what to do for breakfast?

Well I made ricotta pancakes over the weekend, and as always, I made more compote than I needed. Well together with just a few more ingredients from my fridge and pantry. I’ve got a light breakfast that gets me through the morning and quells my hungry tummy.

I used:

Greek yoghurt
Blueberry compote
Honey nut crunch

I love how a sweet cereal, but I know that it’s full of sugar. So I try to use it just as a topping, to keep my sweet tooth satisfied, while keeping

Ricotta Pancakes with Blueberry Compote and Vanilla Cream

Recipe June 29, 2013 2 Comments

Recipe for fluffy ricotta pancakes, fresh blueberry compote, and decadent chantilly cream

Lazy Sunday mornings. Rain pattering softly against the glass of the window. You know what you need for breakfast? Pancakes.

Pancakes are actually very simple things to make. It can be as involved or as easy as you want. Now, I like a certain texture to my pancakes (fluffy) and there are a couple more steps than just mix wet and dry. But let me assure you, the results are completely worth it.
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What I ate: Shredded lamb pasta

what i ate June 23, 2013 4 Comments

So I had a satisfying roasted lamb over the weekend, but seeing as how I roasted a whole 2+kg lamb shoulder, I was bound to have leftovers. Well, waste not want not, and I think this is a fantastic way to use up those bits of lamb left in your fridge.

For space, I shredded the lamb after the roast had cooled and store it away in an airtight container in the fridge. So for a quick lunch (or weeknight dinner) I just took that pasta and added it to:

Cooked pasta (just boil it to just under al dente)
Sliced black olives
Semi dried tomatoes, roughly chopped
Feta
Lemon juice

It was just a matter of warming the lamb in a pat of butter, adding the hot, freshly cooked pasta over the top, then throwing in the tomatoes and olives to warm through, and then top with feta. A squeeze of lemon juice over the top, and off you go.

Feel free to add any other bits and pieces you have in your fridge – I just needed some acidity to cut through the lamb, so I think that other types of antipasto will do: roasted capsicum, charred eggplant, marinated feta…the list goes on.

What are your favourite ways to use up meat leftover from a roast?

Roasted.

Recipe June 21, 2013 2 Comments

Sometimes I look at winter dishes – slow roasts, stews, braises etc – and wonder: is this people’s way of keeping a heat source going as long as possible so the house is warm too? I know that I relish a slow roast during winter because my oven ends up heating the entire apartment, eliminating my need for an extra heater.

This slow roasted lamb shoulder is a pretty easy and versatile recipe, and the roasted vegetables that accompany it are some of my favourite roast vegetable recipes ever, and I would eat them all on their own, without the meat. It’s a surprisingly rich meal, great when it’s freezing outside, and nothing says Sunday family lunch like a roast.

Slow roasted lamb shoulder
1 lamb shoulder ( this feeds about 6 people, by my estimation)
Lemon
Spice of choice (fennel, cumin, rosemary…I used fennel in this case)
Garlic

Lightly rub the lamb with oil and squeeze some lemon juice over. Add your spice of choice, and the moisture will help it stick. Marinate in the fridge overnight.

Preheat your oven to 160C. Put the shoulder in a roasting pan with unpeeled cloves of garlic, and rub with salt and pepper. Cover with foil and roast for 3 hrs. Then uncover and roast at 180C for another 20min.

Roasted Cauliflower

This recipe I adapted from Darya Rose, and it’s actually really darn good. My favourite way to eating cauliflower to date.

1 head of cauliflower
Olive oil
Salt
1/2 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp sweet paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Simply break up the cauliflower into florets, place in a pan with the rest of the ingredients – I added some lamb fat from trimming the lamb to add some extra flavour – and cover. Place in the oven, preferably 180C, but if you’re putting it in with the lamb, just leave it in for a little longer, it’ll get there. Once the cauliflower gets slightly translucent (about 20min), take the foil off, and let it brown and crisp up slightly.

Roasted Pumpkin

Pumpkin
Garlic
Olive oil

Cut the pumpkin into 1 cm dice. Toss with olive oil, salt and pepper. Add some crushed garlic cloves to the pan and roast till tender and slightly browned.

Roasted Brussel Sprouts

You can find my easy recipe for roasted brussel sprouts here.

And that’s it, really. I had four pans going in the oven at once, and then just made a quick gravy to serve with some butter, flour, worchestershire, beef stock, and cream. Or just use your favourite gravy recipe.

It may seem a little involved, but I think that it’s fantastic for a family lunch because it just takes a tiny bit of preparation, and then you’re simply enjoying the company of your family and friends while the oven does all the work for you. A hearty roast over the weekend, what more could I ask for?

Kitchen Hand: When life gives you bones

Food For Thought June 16, 2013 2 Comments

And by ‘life’, I mean your butcher.

When I buy cut meat from my butcher – diced chuck steak, gravy beef, beef mince – I think it’s fair to say that I don’t expect any bones in it. So imagine my surprise when I opened up the bag of diced lamb shoulder from my butcher, only to find that he’s diced everything (presumably with a band saw) with the bones in. The vertebras and everything! I can see where it happened: he was only selling the entire shoulder of lamb, and I had requested diced shoulder. When he said that he could do that for me, he just went out the back, took a band saw to it and gave it to me in a bag.

Now while there’s absolutely nothing wrong with stewing meat on the bone (in fact, it can be tastier), I chose to buy diced meat because I wanted to make a stew that I could pack to work the next day and eat with ease. I’m not about to try and figure out how to politely and delicately pick meat off the bone and then try and neatly get rid of the bones. Most of the time, there’s a scant half an hour for lunch and I don’t have the time to eat an extremely involved one.

So what do you do when you want boneless meat but you’ve been given bone? Well, trying to bone out each piece is going to take you forever and there can be quite a lot of waste involved. You can just put the meat in the stew as is, but like I mentioned, it’s not exactly ideal, especially if you’re trying to pack lunch for the next day. Well, thank goodness this particular type of meat – lamb shoulder in my case – can take a lot of cooking, nay, it needs a lot of cooking.

Rather than stew the meat in the actual stew for 3-4 hours, I put the meat in the pot and covered it with hot stock. I had some ends of onions from the onions that I was chopping, and some ends of carrots that I wouldn’t eat. So I plopped those in with a bay leaf or two, and simmered for about 2.5 hours. It also works if you have a slow cooker. Then I took the meat out and let it cool a little, and simply picked off all the meat off the bone. It all just fell off! I then started the stew, threw the cooked meat in, and finished it off for an hour or so.

Yes, it is a slightly more involved process, but what can you do? I’m not about complain to my butcher, and I don’t want to waste the meat.

And the stock that you’ve simmered the meat in? Just pour it into the stew, and taste all that added flavour! No dramas, and easy packed lunches are here to stay.