Lady Lunchalot

Sometimes, when I really don’t feel like going out, I’ll bribe everyone with a meal.

When everyone else wants to go out for drinks, I might just make subtle mention of the lasagne sauce that’s been bubbling away on the stove all day, or the chocolate cake cooling on the kitchen bench that I still need to ice.

Sometimes it works, and other times people just want to go out drinking. But to be honest, now that we’re thirty-something rather than twenty-something, it only takes a mention of a roast chicken and the video store before we’re all sitting around the living room in our tracky dacks with full bellies on a Saturday night.

That’s kind of what happened tonight. La Clarkabrese is off swanning around Malaysia so Signor Valvasori was all on his own. O mentioned that we might all go and see a movie or something. I really didn’t feel like leaving the house, so I dropped a mention of a roast chicken with lemons and hey presto, the three of us had a night in.

I’ve written about my favourite style of roast chicken many times on this blog. Slice up a lemon and stick it under the skin, pop a whole lemon in the cavity, throw in a few herbs and baste with olive oil and lemon juice. Mmmmm…

Tonight I teamed it with rosemary potatoes, sweet potato, pumpkin, parsnip and baked onion and garlic. O looooves roast parsnip, so that part was for him.

I also have an infatuation with a box of medjool dates at my supermarket. The affair has been lasting for weeks now. Every time I am in the fruit and veg section I throw a few dates in a bag and scoff half of them in the car. I can’t help myself. The gooey chocolatey goodness is straight from heaven.

So, perhaps a little out of guilt from all the great dates I’ve been having without my husband (pardon the pun) I thought I’d cook his all time favourite dessert tonight. Sticky date pudding.

I drew some inspiration from Stephanie Alexander’s recipe for Sticky Toffee Pudding and put my own twist on it.

Preheat the oven and grease a medium-sized cake tin. Chop up 200g of medjool dates (remove the stones of course). Place in a bowl with a teaspoon of bicarb and 300ml boiling water. Let it sit for a bit while you do the other stuff.

Cream 60g butter with 170g castor sugar. Mix in 2 eggs and a few drops of vanilla essence. Gently fold in 170g SR flour and mix in the date/bicarb/water mixture. Bake for about 30-40 minutes.

For the sauce, place about 300g of brown sugar in a saucepan with 100g butter and 250ml cream. Stir and bring to the boil. Let it cool for a few minutes and pour it on top of the pudding. Let the sauce seep through a bit, (you can put it in the still-warm oven) and then serve.

I gotta tell you, this is one of the best dates you’ll ever have! And it’s a sure fire method of guaranteeing a Saturday night at home.

Wonderful Ken gave O and I the hugest bag of the cutest, tiniest apples imaginable from his tree. There were so many apples I could barely lift the bag! Some of them were little bigger than a pingpong ball, but each weensy little apple was chock full of fresh autumn apple flavour.

I took half the load into the office, but there was still an overflowing fruit bowl on my kitchen bench. I spent a few days just enjoying the apple-icious scent in my kitchen, and then came to the conclusion that they weren’t getting any younger and I’d better cook something.

One of my colleagues got married recently, and brought in some of his leftover wedding cake to the office. It was the lightest, fluffiest cake I have ever eaten. Apple and rhubarb from (I think) Patersons Cakes in Windsor, one of my favourite cake shops who almost supplied my own wedding cake, except they were on the other side of town. One bite of that cake and I reluctantly announced to the whole office that they REALLY needed to have a slice. I should have kept my trap shut and kept it all to myself!

So with a rainy afternoon to myself and a kitchen full of apples, what else was a girl to do but bake a couple of apple cakes?

After researching a few recipes, I ended up settling on one from The Silver Spoon, with a few tweaks of course. It seemed like a nice, plain straightforward cake, which was perfect, because I wanted the apples to be the star of the show.

This is a very simple cake. It’s not overly sweet, and the plainish flavour of the cake is the perfect vehicle for enjoying the gooeyness of the apples. A great cake to enjoy with an afternoon coffee.

Ingredients

• 3 eggs
• 80g butter
• 300g self raising flour
• 150g caster sugar
• 3 diced apples (I used about 6 because mine were so teensy)

Method

Whip the eggs with the sugar until fluffy and pale. Beat in the butter. (Though next time I try this I will cream the butter and sugar first, then add the eggs. The butter didn’t incorporate well enough for my liking). Sift in the flour, then gently mix the apples. I also added in a few sprinkles of cinnamon and nutmeg with the flour.

Pour into a prepared tin and bake at 180 for 40 mins.

On Sunday night I was lucky enough to be invited to a martini tasting at the Gin Palace. Zoeball’s boss, Vernon Chalker, (proprietor of some of my favourite bars in Melbourne including the Gin Palace and the rather fancy Madame Brussels) treated us to a showcase of martinis that made my tongue boggle and my balance wobble.

Vernon is one of those people that is soooo passionate about one subject it makes you realise how little you know about… well, anything! I can’t believe I ever thought a martini was just something you drank. Vernon explained the whole history of the martini, including how gin impacted the British economy, the origins of the vodka martini, and whether 007 was just being pedantic in his preference for shaken rather than stirred.

Thanks to Vernon I am stocked up with cocktail party trivia for years to come.

Altogether we tasted a whopping NINE martinis (I stress, “tasted”, otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to manage my way out the door), from the classic In & Out martini (gin, vermouth and two green olives) to the more adventurous Warsaw (vodka, creme de cacao and a chocolate bullet).

It was incredible how a slightly different garnish could tweak the martini in a whole new direction. My favourite was the Bison: Zubrowka vodka stirred over ice, strained into a chilled martini glass and garnished with a marinated garlic clove.

Yes, you heard me, a garlic clove. Oh, stop screwing up your nose! I was actually terrified to take a sip of this one, but the sweet flavour of the garlic clove proved to be the perfect bite against the vodka.

Just don’t try that one on a first date ; )

Many thanks to Zoeball for inviting me, and to Vernon for hosting such an entertaining Sunday night!

You’re never going to believe what O did last week.

He called me before lunch last Wednesday to tell me that our Brisbane friends, Jo and Dave, were in town for the night and that as it was Jo’s birthday the four of us were going to celebrate at one of my favourite restaurants, Da Noi. Jo and Dave often fly into town for a quick visit, and I was ecstatic about an out-of-the-blue dinner at Da Noi, so I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

But things weren’t quite as they seemed. O managed to explain away the “missed turn” that took us into the city instead of towards South Yarra, and as we turned into Spencer St he told me that he’d lied to me.

Jo and Dave were actually still in Brisbane and we weren’t going to Da Noi at all.

Instead he’d booked the two of us a table at Vue de Monde!

For those of you who haven’t heard of Vue de Monde, it’s a restaurant on Little Collins St that is ranked among the top 100 restaurants in the world, and has culinary virtuoso Shannon Bennett conducting the orchestra from the kitchen.

There was so much going on in this place (service, decor, wine - everything) and all of it amazing. Even the cutlery felt good in my mouth! But for the sake of simplicity I’ve decided just to focus on the food.

Vue de Monde offers a couple of different degustation menus. O and I decided to throw ourselves in the deep end and indulge in the full 10 course gastronome’s menu, complete with wine matching for each course.

Omigod.

We started with an amuse bouche (translates literally as “fun mouth”?) of a couple of escargots with champagne.

I have to say, when you start any evening with escargots and champagne, it’s already been a fantastic evening.

Next we moved on to dehydrated smoked salmon (they called it salmon jerky) with a fish emulsion and caviar, before picking up speed with poached pigeon served with an apple and parsnip remoulade and beetroot foam. Neither of us had tasted pigeon before and O cooed through the entire dish. I was surprised by how unpoultry-like it was. It tasted like a very rare, soft red meat.

Next up was one of my favourites - a five minute bouillabaisse, served over a tartare of crayfish and buffalo milk skin, finished with aromatic herbs and caviar. The dish came in an elaborate glass percolator complete with a small gas burner. The broth bubbled up from a glass decanter into a funnel which contained herbs and aromatics. When the burner was turned off, the broth cooled back down into the decanter, taking with it the essence of the herbs in the funnel. The stock was then poured over the crayfish, magically dissolving the mozzarella di buffala before your eyes.

Pure drama. I loved it.

As you can see, I didn’t take any photos. This was pretty deliberate. There’s no way my fuzzy amateur photography could do justice to such incredible food!

Vue de Monde was kind enough to send me the menu that we ate on the night, which I’ve listed below. I have to say, the meal cost an absolute bomb, but every mouthful was worth it. Each dish was truly a work of art, and I did feel a little as though I was in the Louvre for food.

I am so fortunate to have been able to have had such an amazing experience, and of course, such a thoughtful husband to surprise me with it. Thanks O, I love you!

If you ever get the opportunity, just hang the expense and go! It’s an experience you will never forget.

Our 10-Course Menu Gourmand from Vue de Monde

SAUMON AUX EPICES
Salmon jerky with salted fish emulsion and Sterling caviar
NV Larmandier Bernier Terre de Vertus Blanc de Blanc Champagne, France

SALADE DE PIGEON
Pigeon, poached, with an apple and parsnip remoulade, beetroot foam
NV Romate Sanchez NPU Amontillado Jerez, Spain

BOUILLABAISSE
5 minute bouillabaisse, tartare of crayfish and buffalo milk skin, finished with aromatic herbs and caviar
2004 Domaine Marc Bredif, Vouvray Loire Valley, France

PAIN PERDU ACCOMPAGNE DE SON FOIE GRAS
French toast and foie gras flavoured with eight spice
2004 Vinoptima Gewurztraminer Reserve Gisborne, New Zealand

MORUE DE MURRAY
Murray cod gently cooked ‘en sous-vide’ with a ginger and spring onion sauce, flavoured with spring onion and crispy chicken skin
2004 Domaine Fontaine Gagnard Clos St Jean 1er Cru Chassagne Montrachet Burgundy, France

CONSOMME FROID A LA TOMATE
Delicate tomato consommé with gazpacho jelly

AGNEAU BRAISE
Slow cooked lamb belly with confit loin, lamb bacon and fresh split garden peas
2004 Domaine Pierre Amadieu La Paillousse, Grenache Blend, Châteauneuf du Pape Burgundy, France

SALADE DE COCHONAILLE
Salad of Kurobuta pork and black pudding with cider-marinated carrot ribbons, finished with emulsified pan juices
2002 Château de Chambert La Causse Malbec Cahors, France

FROMAGE
Roy de Vallées with marinated beetroot Pyrénées, France
2005 Vue de monde by T’Gallant Pinot Gris Mornington Peninsula, VIC

GATEAU DE RIZ A LA MANDARINE
Mandarin served with mandarin flavoured rice pudding and encased in sugar
1999 Freiherr Heyl Herrnsheim Nierstein Riesling Ausliese Rheinhessen, Germany

GELEE DE COINGS ET SON SABLE
Quince gel with a frozen quince air and sand flavoured with Great Barrier Reef salt
NV Chambers Old Vine Muscadelle Grand Tokay Rutherglen, VIC.

NOTRE SELECTION DE CAFES, THES, INFUSIONS ET PETITS-FOURS
A selection of coffee, teas, infusions and miniature teacakes

Years ago, I used to skip breakfast every morning. I don’t know why I did - not organised enough I guess. I stopped as soon as I realised that I was doing myself out of 30 per cent of the meals I was entitled to eat in my lifetime. There’s no way I’m going to pass on a legitimate excuse for a meal!

I guess that’s the problem with breakfast. Most people think it’s impossible to whip up something nutritious and tasty while also juggling a hairdryer, a pack of screaming children and a hot iron. I mean, I didn’t even have the screaming kids, and the only type of iron I ever encounter is the kind found in a spinach pie or a good slab of wagyu beef, and I still found it a challenge.

That was, until I discovered porridge.

Well, I guess I re-discovered it. My first foray into the wonderful world of porridge was led by my culinarily-challenged dad, who had an uncanny knack of making porridge closely resemble a bowl of two-week old wallpaper paste.

But I redicovered porridge through O, who loves a steaming hot bowl of porridge first thing in the morning.

Like all the best things in life, porridge is a dish best cooked slowly with lots of the bad things in life. Like full cream milk. And lashings of cream, like in an Enid Blyton story. However in the interests of my waistline, and to save on a few precious moments in the morning, I usually make mine with low fat milk and nuke it in the microwave for a few minutes.

Sacrilegious, I know.

The most important thing about cooking porridge is to get the oat/milk ratio right. Too much milk and the porridge is too runny and thin (like the porridge in the photo - I overdid it with the milk). Too little and it gets gluggy and, well, gross - like the way my dad used to make it. The best porridge consistency is enough milk to make it soft and creamy, with lots of comforting porridgey curds.

As for flavouring the porridge, nothing beats a sprinkle of cinnamon, a hint of nutmeg, a dusting of brown sugar and a banana. Unless of course it’s real Canadian maple syrup, as supplied by the lovely K & T.

I can understand why Goldilocks was willing to take on three bears to get a bowl of the good stuff.

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Vaguely relevant aside:

Even though I am largely politically ambivalent, for some reason I have always thought there was a striking resemblance between Alexander Downer (Australia’s Foreigh Minister) and a bowl of porridge with two raisins floating on top. What do you think?