Melbourne!!!!!

Following the British & Irish Lions has been a tough few days what with jet lag, pre-match nerves, etc but we've done our best to try the best food in Melbourne and succeeded pretty well I'd say. We've also tried to taste as much booze Melbourne has to offer so will be providing a more detailed review of the restaurants when my head recovers but here's a taster....

More by luck than judgement we're staying in an apartment on Flinders Lane that seems to have more than its fair share of restaurants.

Chin Chin - what can we say? This place is awesome if you like thai, pan-asian fodder. You can't book so luckily we went in for a very late lunch/early dinner. By the time we left there was a queue down the street. A mixed selection for 5 of us partly recommended by the brilliant staff was spot on. Crying Tiger beef had grown men weeping with chilli induced exquisite pain and  the phad thai described as the best ever. Like the rest of Melbourne seemingly, you have to go here basically!

http://www.chinchinrestaurant.com.au/

Coda - we'd booked ahead for our match day lunch and having been a bit slow first thing in the morning we literally went from breakfast to lunch 5 doors down the street. It's a shabby chic basement kinda place with very enthusiastic staff. The asian fusion menu is brilliantly confusing allowing the waitress to make our minds up for us. The 'smaller' courses are priced for one portion so you end up ordering 5 of them, for 5 of us, and they're not cheap, and you need several smaller courses. Pretty tasty but perhaps not as good as the staff think it is. The local wine was great and the extra enthusiastic waiter gave us brilliant recommendations for pubs in Fitzroy that proved to be a much needed post-match booze up. Highly recommended but you perhaps need to go once to get know how to order the second time.

http://www.codarestaurant.com.au/

Terra Rossa - 5 doors up or so from Coda, this is where we had breakfast 
(literally as a starter before Coda). 

Good breakfast of slow baked beans with a side order of smoked trout 
with the boys having more conventional breakfasts. 

Post-match day lunch, having woken up at 2pm (a combination of jet lag 
and hangover), was a tricky shout but a couple of pizzas, ham hock and leek 
croquettes and a salami plate 
washed down with local Pinot Noir was a good stomach liner before going to the 
Aussie Rules Footy. 

The waitress had a rather noticeable English accent and went to the same 
school as me!! You can take the girl out of Newport Pagnell.......

http://www.terrarossarb.com.au/

European - a recommendation of a mate of a mate is as it says on the tin actually quite European despite us trying to eat and drink local. No Aussie wine, mostly French, but we can live with that when the food's so good.  Anjum Anand, the Indian tv cook was in there so we assume she knows what she's doing!

A few oysters each as a pre-starter starter because we're greedy followed by some good lamb ragu, duck 7 ways, and a good homage to St John in London's marrow bone with parsley were all excellent and some really imaginative desserts.

http://www.theeuropean.com.au/

We haven't reached Sydney yet and that's got some work to do to beat Melbs!

Pheasant Croquettes

Not very seasonal in June, the pheasant season is beginning of October to end of January, but on the basis I've still got several birds in the freezer from last season a slightly different way of using them up is always good and this is quite summery.

The basics are largely plagiarised from a Hugh F-W recipe for chicken or ham but the deeper flavour of pheasant is even better as the taste comes through. I tend use the thighs or the meat picked off the drumsticks that have more flavour than the breast and can be tougher. Take care if using drumstick meat as pheasant drumsticks have short needle like sinews that would be very unpleasant if swallowed! So pick over it very well.

The tarragon mayonnaise goes with it really well and sometimes I add a small handful of tarragon in to the bechamel too. These are along way from the potato croquettes you find in the supermarket freezer section. When fried the bechamel goes all gooey again.

2 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, finely chopped
2 tbsp plain flour
375ml full fat milk
200g cooked pheasant finely chopped. The meat can be poached or baked and left to cool. 
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
A good grating of nutmeg
2 eggs
100g fine white breadcrumbs or panko breadcrumbs
Olive oil (not extra-virgin) or rapeseed oil, for frying, although sunflower seems to work ok

Small handful of tarragon
Mayonnaise

Fry the onion in the olive oil in a frying pan until soft but not coloured.  

Add the flour and stir for a couple of minutes. Warm the milk in a separate pan and gradually add into the onion, stirring constantly until all the milk is stirred in and the sauce thickens, then add the pheasant. Continue to cook, stirring, until the béchamel is quite thick and pulls away from the sides of the pan as you stir, about eight minutes. Season and add the nutmeg. 

Pour the béchamel into a shallow dish. When cold, cover with clingfilm and refrigerate overnight preferably but 4 hours at least. 

Use two teaspoons to shape the mixture into ovals about the size of a large egg. Arrange a bowl of lightly beaten egg and another of breadcrumbs, and dip a croqueta first into the egg and then roll it in the breadcrumbs, covering the whole surface. If you want them extra crisp, dip and roll them twice.

Transfer to a plate and continue with the rest of them. Chill for a couple of hours, or up to 24 hours.

Pour the oil into a heavy saucepan to a depth of 5cm or so and heat until it is hot enough to sizzle as soon as something is placed in it.  Fry the croquetas three or four at a time until golden on all sides. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to a plate lined with kitchen paper to drain and keep warm in a low oven. Continue until all the croquetas are cooked. Serve hot, maybe with a sprinkling of Spanish smoked paprika and the mayo on the side. 

Great with some other tapas style nibbles like fried chorizo or padron peppers fried in olive oil and sprinkled with flaky sea salt. The hot, green, pickled Spanish chilli peppers, 'guindillas', are also great as they cut through the richness

Curry House Dhansak, or a good attempt

Lentils get bad press from being hippy food and the staple diet of Neil in The Young Ones but when laced with garlic, onion and spices in daal or a citrus, chilli, spicy combo in a Dhansak they are hard to beat. I'll probably have Dhansak 8 times out of 10 when ordering in an Indian and the other 2 times will then allow daal as a side dish.

This probably isn't anything like how your curry house would make their Dhansak but it tastes pretty close. We used to live a 2 minute walk from the Bombay Bicycle Club in Clapham and I had a chat with the owner about Dhansak and he recommended using lime instead of lemon so I usually do except when it's spur of the moment and there are only lemons in the fruit bowl. Quite a few dhansak recipes use pineapple but I've never fancied it but may give it a whirl one day.

Serves 4

1 large onion finely sliced
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
1 inch piece of ginger grated or finely chopped
1 or 2 dried red chillies - Dhansak tends to be pretty punchy chilli wise in restaurants but up to you
2-3 desertspoons of curry powder as previous recipe on the blog
1 inch or so of cinnamon and 3 or 4 cardamom pods
400-500g split red lentils (yellow spit peas can be used but need soaking overnight and red ones don't). If there looks like too much lentil once cooked just set some aside.
Half tin of tomatoes
Desertspoon tomato purée
Juice of half to 1 lemon or 2 limes
Sugar - preferably jaggery or a darker variety that gives a nice caramely taste like soft brown or muscavado
Salt
Fresh coriander
Tablespoon of sunflower oil, maybe half and half mustard oil and sunflower if you have it.

The recipe is the same whether you want chicken or prawn. The quantities aren't exact as I tend to make it up but whatever feels and looks right.

Chicken: 8 thigh fillets or joint a whole chicken, much more economical and a carcass to make stock after
King prawns: how ever many you feel like but 8 or 10 each sounds right.

Soak the lentils for 10 or 15 mins giving them a good rub in the water to get some of the cloudiness off that creates the scum that surfaces when they are simmering. Rinse in fresh water until it runs clear. Cover with twice as much water and bring to the boil. Start them off gently skimming the frothy scum off and increase the heat once they start to tenderise. Add the dried chilli either whole or crumbled, the cinnamon and cardamom. Add more water if it looks too dry but once they are really mushy start to drive off the water so that it is thick and the lentils broken down and more like porridge. Mash up a bit if required.

Fry the onion in the oil until soft and coloured adding in the garlic midway through, adding some of the sugar towards the end of frying helps caramelise the mixture. If using chicken or lamb add this in to seal and colour a little. Add in the curry powder and fry for a few minutes to take away the rawness of the spices. Add in the tomatoes and tomato purée and simmer for 20 minutes or so adding a little water if too thick and sticking.

Combine the tomato sauce in to the lentils with the ginger and simmer further to combine. Add in the lemon or lime juice and taste to see if more sugar is needed. It should be sweet and sour in balance. Add salt to taste. The final dish should be quite thick, rich and the lentils having no firm texture.

If using prawns add them in and cook for a further 5 minutes until they are cooked through. Stir in some chopped coriander and reserve some to sprinkle on top when in a serving bowl.

Dhansak is quite often served in restaurants with rice as a standard side dish but I prefer chapatis or naan bread.

Top Sarnies

Chorizo & Rocket

This is so simple but if you ever had Brindisa's chorizo rolls at Borough Market in Southwark cooked on a barbecue then you'll know how moreish these are.

The picante chorizo are raw sausages rather than the firmer salami style chorizo so need cooking. They are very fatty so slicing them in half length wise releases some of the oil and makes cooking it quicker, all the better for getting it in your gob quicker!

Maybe put a couple of knife scores crossways on the skin side as it makes them curl up less when the skins shrink while cooking. Grill or barbie on both sides and put in a crusty roll that's been lightly toasted and dribbled with some olive oil. Squeeze in a good handful of peppery rocket and enjoy the spicy hit cooled by the rocket.

Steak in the style of The Guinea in Mayfair

The Guinea bangs out plenty of these to the suited punters that stand out on Bruton Place just off Berkeley Square. Trying to eat this, hold your plate and balance your pint of Youngs is a skill in itself due to the lack of tables.

Theirs is a wooden skewered triple decker called 'The Mirabeau' with some good relatively thin steak in ciabatta but the secret ingredient is mayonnaise with anchovy to give a salty, fishy whack that makes it sublime.

I chop up some anchovies, either the sort in oil or salted, and mix it in to some mayonnaise. The amount of anchovy is personal preference but I like a lot. I've also recently mixed in some Geo. Watkins Anchovy Sauce which is delicious but turns the mayonnaise a grey colour like Elephants Breath Farrow & Ball paint, apparently. Fish breath, cats breath?

Simply cook your steak, I like rump or ribeye, to your desired bloodiness, and slap it in a lightly toasted ciabatta with a healthy dollop of the mayonnaise and bit of rocket or lettuce. Pitta bread is good but hasn't got the crunch that scratches flesh off the roof of your mouth.

Bacon, cheese, marmite and lettuce

This is the antithesis of the low salt trend and would throw doctors or the nanny state in to convulsions but the combo of molten cheese, umami hit and crispy cold lettuce is a great weekend hangover treat.

Basically cheese on toast, smear of marmite, pop in some cooked bacon (good quality is good but those short streaky rashers that perfectly fit 4 abreast on to a a piece of sliced white seem perfect) and put in some little gem leaves and a buttered bit of toast on top. Any other sauces is overkill. Wash down with 2 pints of water to rehydrate. Go for a run or sit in a sauna for an hour to sweat out the salt and rehydrate again with 4 pints of water.

Toasted Cornflake & Golden Syrup!!

This is proper trashy. Drag the old Breville toasted sandwich maker out of the back of the cupboard and chip off the fossilised remains of baked beans and cheese from the last time it was used.

Lightly butter 2 slices of white sliced. You'll remember from your O-level toasted sandwich making that this is the OUTSIDE of the sandwich so put butter side down on the sandwich maker and put a good handful of cornflakes on the bread given a light crush as you do it. Pour over an unhealthy drizzle of Tate & Lyle's finest, pop on the other slice, butter side up of course, and close the contraption. Leave to cook until the outside is golden brown and lava hot syrup is being ejected from the side. Wait for a few minutes to cool as trying to eat too quick will result in hospitalisation.

I think this was a recipe that came with the machine in c.1978 and was a big favourite of my sister and I.

The in-laws Breville has been dragged out of retirement at 2 in the morning in the not too distant past after a farmers ball and baked beans and cheddar nuked as a pre-bedtime snack to soak up the Thatchers Gold.

Risotto & hare

Before I forget, this is what happened to the hare loin. Serves 2. 

Half red onion finely chopped

Knob butter

Glug of olive oil

1.5 inch chorizo or so in 1cm cubes (I know that's mixing metric and imperial but keeps all parties happy)

Garlic clove very finely chopped

1 smallish leek finely sliced, white part only

160g risotto rice

Glass white wine

Pint hot stock – hare, chicken, marigold, whatever's to hand

Parmesan, a nice big handful

More butter, cold dice

Splash of port or Marsala 

Hare loin, oil to fry

Typical risotto protocol!

Fry onion, leek and garlic in the oil and first butter knob until softened and then stir in the rice until coated then add the wine until that has been absorbed. Add the stock bit by bit until absorbed. In the past I think I've been to tame and had the heat too low and it seems to take 40 mins to cook rather than the 20 mins the packet says so crank up the heat a bit. Keep stirring and after a sensible while have a taste to see if the rice is to your liking. Parmesan and chorizo should season it but maybe some salt and perhaps some pepper unless the stock is already seasoned. 

Fry off the chorizo in a separate pan and add to the rice. Add some of the Parmesan and then the cold butter that will enrich and gloss the risotto.

Get a frying pan pretty hot and put in the hare loin, should be 2 from either side of the hare. Fry to get some good colour but it should be medium rare and the loins are quite thin so doesn't take long. Add in the Marsala or port which will deglaze the pan and thicken up to coat the hare in a sweet sticky glaze, hare can be quite ironey, metallic tasting so a bit of sweetness cuts through that. Rest for a few minutes and then slice at angle all cheffy like.

Add the rest of the Parmesan and serve out the risotto with the hare slices laid on top with any left over sauce drizzled on top. Tidy!

Clams with white beans

This is one of the specials in a great little restaurant called La Torre in the hill town of Benahavis 5 or so miles inland between Puerto Banus and Estapona. I've never actually eaten it there as you have to order a day ahead and I'm not that organised but it did inspire me to create something I assume is like it while we were last in Spain.

Decent amount of clams, washed, dodgy ones discarded, etc
Dried or tin of white beans, some small broad beans are good but cannellini or haricot would work
Small onion finely chopped
Garlic clove finely chopped
A good glug of dry sherry or dry white wine, or a bit of both
Good handful of chopped parsley
Olive oil

Fry the onion and garlic in the oil until softened but not coloured. Add in the beans (soaked and pre-cooked if using dried) and heat through, this can be set aside a while so the flavours mingle.

In a separate pan add in the booze of your choosing and bring to the boil driving off the alcohol and reduce by say half. Add in the clams and pop a lid on. Cook for just a couple of minutes until the clams open, giving it a bit of a shake.

Combine the contents of the 2 pans and the parsley, mix together and serve nice and hot. Good main course if enough or a great starter or tapas dish. To give it more depth perhaps add in some chopped chorizo in to the onion and garlic stage. Depending on how salty the juice is that the clams release you might not need any salt so down to taste. Grind of pepper though.

As always eat with the left over wine (albarino was the what I had at the time) but a glass of dry, salty sherry like manzanilla would be mucho Spanish.

Last week we particularly liked....

Albariño (even if the sun ain't out, again!), clams, Bury Lane Farm Shop, Coop own brand Tillington Hills cider, El Pirata in Mayfair.