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Taste of Sydney 2010

Brazilian Fields, Centennial Park
March 11-14 - tomorrow’s the last day so get down there!
Book online or buy a ticket at the door

You know the feeling you get when you’ve eaten so much that it pains to walk? I’ve only ever felt this twice in my life - once after eating at the Crown Casino buffet in Melbourne and once again tonight at the highly anticipated food festival, Taste of Sydney.

This was my first Taste experience (the festival is now in its second year) and I was so blown away that not even rain getting on my silk skirt fazed me. Just as live music is made doubly as enjoyable by a crowd sharing the same taste as you (I’m still friends with the guys I met at a Bjork concert years ago), the atmosphere tonight was fantastic being surrounded by top quality food and drink and people who really appreciate their food.

Here are my favourite picks of the night…

The Gourmet Traveller Taste Kitchen

Matt Kemp (Restaurant Balzac), Warren Turnbull (Assiette) and Colin Fassnidge (Four In Hand) doing a live demonstration on cured beef. It’s always great fun to watch how professional chefs prepare their food and then plate it up ever so effortlessly.

The dishes

Everything I tried was heavenly! I got a mix of my favourite foods as well as things I don’t eat very often (especially wagyu beef and panna cotta, yumm). I really wish I could’ve kept going into the night (the yellow curry from Longrain Restaurant smelt so good I was drawn to it from a stall away) but my stomach would only allow me to ingest so much in four hours. Guess I have to save up to visit each of the restaurants then!

Saddle of sucking pig with garden peas and smoked bacon jus, Restaurant Balzac, $12

Crispy wagyu beef with wild mushroom and truffle foam, Restaurant Balzac, $10

Sydney rock oysters with Vietnamese dressing, crispy shallot and baby coriander, Assiette, $10

Fig and Heilala vanilla ricotta tart with honey ice cream, Assiette, $8

Beef ribs smoked in watermelon with a watermelon and avocado salad, Danks St Depot, $12

Yellow fin tuna with sweet pork crackling and ruby grape fruit, Flying Fish, $10

Vanilla panna cotta with lavender honey and fresh pomegranate, Jonah’s at Whale Beach, $12

Longrain Cocktail Bar

Fantastic cocktail to wash it all down with: Ping Pong (lychees and passion fruit shaked with 42 Below Vodka and fresh lime juice), $12. The fresh lychee flesh and passion fruit pulp is DE-LISH.

The VIC Tourism wine, beer and cheese stall

For 2 Crowns ($2), you can try all the wines, beers and cheeses in this stall. The wine that really caught my attention was the Rutherglen Topaque. Topaque (formerly Tokay) is an intensely sweet and syrupy fortified wine. Some people would classify it as a dessert wine, but it is so indulgently honey-like (due to its slow maturisation process) that I would drink this as dessert!

I also bought some pistachio macaroons from the Guillaume at Bennelong stall ($8) and a pistachio and cardamom cupcake from the Sparkle Cupcakery stall ($4.50). Will eat them tomorrow as soon as my stomach makes room for them!

Electrolux Cooking Class @ Fratelli Fresh, Waterloo

7 Danks St
A free class on Italian cooking
Call 02 9699 3161 on the third Tuesday of the month to book

Located on the trendy Danks St in Waterloo, this Fratelli Fresh fresh market is set up in a naturally lit warehouse space, exuding a rustic, minimalist and modern vibe. The focus is the food: fresh produce that’s in season. Here you’ll find your basic fruit, veg and meat staples, as well as luxuries such as pomegranates, figs (fresh and as a jam!), Italian oils, olives and cheeses (the gorgonzola is amazing!). Supplying to some of the finest restaurants in Sydney (Tetsuya’s, Buon Ricordo, Marque) and to Cafe Sopra upstairs, Fratelli Fresh is the Mimco of grocery shopping.

The cooking class is geared towards beginners, but it’s great fun for people of all levels. The class I took today was full of regulars and for good reason too. Just taking a glance at the menu for today got me excited. Stuffed field mushrooms with Roman beans (which had an unbelievable effort to yummyness ratio) and poached peaches with amaretto and mascarpone (poached fruit + moscato + mascarpone = yuuumm).

The class was very hands-on. We were shown quickly how to make each dish and then off to our stations to cook it ourselves. This is my best friend Justine stuffing the mushroom (yay, I knew you could cook!). I love learning by doing - you pick up so much more like how to tell when the peaches have been poached to perfection.

Stuffed field mushroom with Roman beans

Poached peach with amaretto biscuit and mascarpone

What can I say, the food was as delicious as it looks, and then some. The mushroom was buttery which went well with the intense flavour of the gorgonzola and the salad (dressed with a garlic-and-onion-infused mayonnaise). Somehow the peach was just the right sweetness to work perfectly with the mascarpone (if it was too sweet it could have brought out the sour in the mascarpone) and the amaretto gave it that crunch.

Electrolux classes are held every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Classes are taken in small groups so places are limited. Call on the third Tuesday of each month to secure a place a month in advance.

tangerine eats…

…is getting better.

I’ve been sick at home the last few days and I’ve used my time wisely by writing out the recipes for some of my previous posts. Have a look around the blog and check out the newly added NOMs.

Don’t worry, it’s just a cold and bronchitis. I was bedridden delirious for a few days and for a while I lost my sense of smell (it ran away with my sense of taste), but you know what they say about absence making the heart grow fonder… I’VE MISSED BEING ABLE TO TASTE FOOD! I’ll be better in a few days, which is great timing..

March for tangerine eats is going to be so much fun. Just to name a few things that I’m doing this month: a cooking class at Fratelli Fresh, Taste of Sydney, Manly World Food Markets, Duckfest and more African food (popping into Herbie’s first thing next week)! So stayed tuned, stay very tuned.

Olive bread

Who doesn’t love a beautiful, warm piece of fresh bread? If you’ve ever made your own bread, or have bought bread from Brasserie Bread, you’d know that store-bought sliced bread does not come close at all to a fresh loaf made with love. This olive bread with potato slices and fresh rosemary on top is a taste sensation. A crispy potato crust, melt-in-your-mouth soft and fluffy bread on the inside, pieces of olive and the aroma of roasted rosemary… DELICIOUS!

Adapted from the olive bread recipe on Taste.com.au

2¼ cups plain flour
2 teaspoons dried yeast
2 teaspoons castor sugar
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup warm water
1 cup pitted kalamata olives, dried and roughly chopped
2 teaspoons milk
1 small potato
Fresh rosemary leaves, roughly chopped
Melted butter for brushing

Sift flour into a large bowl. Combine with yeast, sugar and salt. Make a well in the centre and add water. Mix well until dough forms and knead on a floured surface for 10 minutes. Kneading not only helps the bread rise, it’s my favourite part of the process. Show it a bit of love, get to know your food.

Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with a damp cloth and place in a warm place for one hour.

Preheat oven to 170°C.

Punch the dough with your fist to get rid of excess air.

Place on a flat and floured surface. Knead olives in. The juices from the olives may come out and separate the dough slightly, that’s okay. This is what makes the lovely pull-apart bits inside the bread.

Roll into a flat oval and place on a greased baking tray.

Brush lightly with milk to create a crust.

Wash and peel the potato. Slice the potato thinly with a vegetable peeler. Place the ribbons of potato on top of the dough. Brush with butter and sprinkle with rosemary.

Bake for 40 minutes.

Rest for 5 minutes before serving.

I love how rustic this feels with my homemade bread on a chopping board my boyfriend made himself.

Fantastic with butter (butter, not margarine!), dipped in olive oil and freshly-cracked pepper or toasted with grilled gorgonzola and prosciutto. Enjoy!

Beer & Beef Masterclass, MUMU Grill

70-76 Alexander St, Crows Nest
Classes are run bi-monthly, check here for dates
Call 02 9460 6877 to book

They say good things come in threes. Well MUMU Grill has pared it down to two in a neat little package: for $85, chef and owner of MUMU Grill, Craig Macindoe, teaches you everything you need to know about beef and Dan the (self-proclaimed) Beer Snob gives you the low-down on boutique beers.

The beef

Craig starts off by telling us in the kitchen why he’s so passionate about organic grass-fed beef: it tastes better, it contains fats that the human body needs (with its healthy omega 6-omega 3 ratio), it is better for the environment and it is chemical/preservative-free. Ageing (air-drying) beef for 6 weeks is all it needs for its flavour to intensify and become tender. For premium organic beef, Craig recommends Hudson Meats (Cammeray, Surry Hills and Lane Cove).

We’re then run through the ‘sweet cuts’ of beef that make up the 20% of the cow we eat. These include the eye fillet, sirloin, scotch fillet, rump and t-bone. The thing that surprised me the most is they’re so simple to cook! To season, sprinkle with rock salt (to bring out the flavour in the mouth) and pepper, and lightly coat with olive oil (less is more as too much oil builds a layer of char on the beef). To sear, cook the beef on one side for 2½ minutes, rotate 90° (so that you create a criss-cross pattern on the steak) and cook for another 2½ minutes, flip and repeat. Cook until desired doneness.

One recipe I was especially intrigued by was Craig’s Tagliata t-bone: sear, slice into strips, drizzle with garlic and rosemary in olive oil and place in a woodfire oven for 10-15 minutes. The result is a juicy and garlicky, melt-in-your-mouth piece of beef. I’m definitely trying this at home in my conventional oven (set at a low heat, roughly 120°).

The beer

Before Saturday I was never big on drinking beer. I’ve tried very hard to like it (my friends call it an acquired taste, so if you can learn to like wine, why not beer?) - I’ve even gone to Lowenbrau and the Belgian Beer Cafe hoping that it’d change my life and I would have an in in the world of beer. But Dan the Beer Snob has enlightened me. Turns out, mainstream beer is different to boutique beer.

Dan tells us the three tell tale signs of a good beer: colour, clarity and carbonation (the three C’s). We tried five different beers, starting with the palest (Murray’s Pilsner) to the darkest (Moo Brew Dark Ale). I’ve got to say, I am convinced. Beer snobbery is the way to go.

All in all this was a fantastic class, geared towards cooks and drinkers of all levels. I’ve always loved MUMU Grill, Dan’s family and I have been a few times now and the love only keeps growing. Next up is Duckfest!

Roasted lamb rack

This roasted lamb rack is cooked with Jamie Oliver’s homemade barbecue sauce (from his Jamie At Home series) slowly in the oven and served with potato chips and guacamole.

I bought this beautiful rack of lamb from the butcher this morning (smaller racks, around 4 cutlets, are usually readily available at butchers). I love this cut for its tenderness and its outer layer of fat that seals in all the juices during cooking. Best served rare to medium rare, lamb cutlets are deliciously pink and juicy on the inside. With the barbecue sauce, the lamb is smoky and fragrant with a hint of sweet and hot. Homemade potato chips and a tangy guacamole dip make this a fantastic meal to share between 4 (or an epic meal between 2!).

Jamie Oliver’s Homemade Barbecue Sauce

1 heaped teaspoon cumin seeds
2 teaspoons fennel seeds
5 cloves
Salt and pepper
1 bunch fresh thyme, leaves picked
1 bunch rosemary, leaves picked
1 orange, zested and juiced
1 bulb garlic, peeled
4 heaped teaspoons sweet smoked paprika
6 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
½ cup organic tomato ketchup
8 tablespoons olive oil
10 bay leaves

Grind cumin seeds, fennel seeds, cloves, salt and pepper in a mortar and pestle.

Chop thyme and rosemary leaves, orange zest and garlic together finely.

Combine with herbs in a large bowl and add all other ingredients.

Roasting the lamb rack

Using a large zip-lock bag, place in the lamb rack and half of the barbecue sauce. Rub the sauce into the meat.

Add jalapeño peppers for some heat.

Seal and marinate in fridge for at least 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 200˚C.

Roast for 40 - 60 minutes, depending on how rare you want your lamb. Baste the rack with the remaining barbecue sauce halfway through.

Rest for at least 15 minutes so that the meat relaxes and retains maximum juiciness.

Carve and serve!

Homemade potato chips

1 potato
1 sweet potato (optional)
Oil for deep-frying
Salt to season

Heat the oil in a wok over medium high heat.

Cut the potatoes into thin slices (about 2-3mm).

To find the perfect temperature for deep-frying, place a thick piece of potato in the oil. When it turns golden brown, the temperature of the oil is just right.

Drop potato slices carefully down the side of the wok. Cook the potato in batches to keep the oil at the right temperature.

When golden brown, remove from oil and dry on paper towels.

Salt lightly.

Guacamole

1 avocado
½ brown onion
6 - 8 yellow grape tomatoes
Juice of half a lemon
Salt and pepper
1 teaspoon chopped chives to serve

Blitz the avocado, onion, tomato, lemon juice, salt and pepper in a food processor to your desired consistency.

If you can’t find yellow grape tomatoes, finely dice 1 red tomato and mix in by hand.

Garnish with chives.

Enjoy!

Pastabella, Glebe

89 Glebe Point Rd
Italian restaurant
Call 02 9566 4488 for bookings

Known to locals for the best homemade pasta and a passion for fresh ingredients, Pastabella is an intimate corner of Glebe with a lovely candlelit courtyard out back. My friend Nini and I had a girl-date here tonight and I was very taken with the place. Simplicity and freshness are key to its menu, with all pasta made on the premises and a different risotto and ravioli each day depending on what’s in season. I generally don’t order lasagne when I eat out - what is it about lasagne and bolognese that make them so easy to stuff up? bad wine? bad tomatoes? - but the lasagne was so fresh you could taste the sweetness of the full-bodied tomatoes.

Lasgna di casa ($18)

Prawn ravioli, served with asparagus and tiger prawns, $26

The prawn and asparagus were fantastic with the sweet and smoky sauce. Naturally, the texture of the pasta was smooth and perfectly al dente.

Unfortunately, Pastabella is BYO but there is a bottle shop just down the road.