I had been received messages reminding me of my blog, so here I am again.
I have been quite busy since February doing
a few things like experimenting with Western dishes, producing sauces, organizing
a few parties and a very special catering job in Stradbroke Island for the
Australian Institute of Architects.
Brit, my architect friend asked me to cater
for the architects two years ago and since they really enjoyed my after conference
dinner, this May she again asked me to cater for their after conference retreat
at Stradbroke Island, but instead of just dinner I had to provide 5
meals: lunch, cocktail nibbles, dinner, breakfast and morning tea.
It was lucky that Marshall, the owner of
“Headlands Chalet (tel. +61 7 3409 8252) managed to accommodate most of the
guests and he allowed me to stay at “the cottage” and to use his commercial
kitchen to prepare all the meals, while my two close friends Barbara and Pauli
offered to help me with the catering as long as we had time for a few games of
Shanghai in between services. and we did manage that.
The architects came from different countries (Australia, India, Japan, England, South Africa and Spain so our menus offered were eclectic to suit all tastes.
For lunch we made laksa noodle soup and spicy pinot noir poached pears, which I like to thank Anthony Bourdain for his guidance. For cocktail nibbles we made crispy roast kumara with guacamole, grilled beef wrapped in wild pepper leaves and a selected Tasmanian cheese platter. We made angel hair with exotic mushrooms, duck in spicy orange sauce, green papaya salad with roasted sesame, black rice pudding with strawberry and ice cream for dinner. We offered fresh tropical fruit, Spanish omelet, toasts, jam, juice, tea and coffee for breakfast and cucumber sandwiches and orange and almond cake for morning tea.
Pauli is an expert in Spanish fares so he was in charge of the omelet and Barbara, a master baker made the cakes.
The young architects also helped with setting and cleaning up after.
We were happy that the guests fully appreciated our work.
 |
| Barbara the master baker |
 |
| Pauli peeling potatoes for Spanish omelet |
 |
| Laksa ready to go |
 |
| Spanish omelet |
 |
| The Chalet's dining room |
I am not sure if many of you knows about
Marshall's Headland Chalet, let me tell you it is the closest to paradise on
earth, if one does not expect the run of the mill 5 star hotel services and
facilities. The Chalet consists of 11 rooms, some with double bed, some with 2
single beds each room has its own drink fridge and hand basin, most rooms have ocean view, a 2 bedrooms
cottage with a double bed, two single beds, a kitchenette and bathroom, it has full view of Main beach. The daily room rates are very reasonable: $70.00 (Monday- Thursday), $75.00 (Friday-Sunday), while the cottage
rate is $150.00 (Monday-Thurday); $200.00 (Friday-Sunday) . The share bathrooms have showers and
toilet facilities. Guests can either swim
at the Chalet painted in ground swimming pool and relax in the tropical cabana
or walk a short distance to various secluded beaches. There is also basic cooking facility for guests.
 |
| The Chalet |
 |
| Main beach from the Chalet's Cottage |
 |
| The Chalet's terrace |
 |
| Chalet's room no.6 |
 |
| Sea gull on Main Beach |
A lot of requests for the recipes of
poached pears , and here it is
Spicy
pinot noir poached pears
Ingredients:
8 small perfect shaped pears with stems
intact (Packhams, Williams, Bosc, Corella)
1bottle of good pinot noir
250g palm sugar
16 black peppercorns
8 star anises
2 cinnamon quills.
16 whole cloves
Method:
Empty the wine into a wide shallow saucepan
(to fit 8 pears in one layer standing up side by side). Add sugar and all
apices. Stir to mix then bring to boil , lower the heat to simmering. Peel the
pears leave stem intact, level the bottom so pears can stay upright. Make sure
the pears are slightly submerged in the wine solution.
Simmer gently until the pears are soft and
coloured.
Careful remove the pears with a slotted
spoon and arrange each pear standing up in a deep dessert plate.
Continue simmering the wine until it is
thick enough to coat the spoon.
Strain the sauce evenly on each pear.
Discard the spices.
Add a scoop of vanilla ice cream to each
pear and serve immediately
This year is my 50th years living
in Australia, so I decided to learn how to make pies, which was my stable food
during my student days in Sydney.
I started with a beef and burgundy pie and went
on with fish pies and seafood pies. Now I think I know how to make a good tasty
pie of any kind.
I read Angela Lawson recipes for fish pie
as a guidance and I made mine with a few
personal touches. I did not like too
much pastry so all my pies ended up as potpies.
Recipes:
Seafood
potpies:
To make 6 pie-pots
Notes : there are 4 components in this recipes :
1.
Poaching stock:
Ingredients:
1 bouquet garni (2 bay leaves, 3 sprigs of flat leaves
parsley, 3 sprigs of thyme)
300ml white wine
300ml water
1 carrot (Peel and cut into small rounds )
2 peeled whole golden shallots
Method:
Mix wine and water in a pot, add salt,
bouquet garni, carrots and shallots . Bring to boiling then simmer gently for 5
minutes, remove from heat and let it cool down.
2.
poached seafood:
Ingredients:
400g white fish fillet(Ling, snapper,
blue eye cod….)
400g Skinned Tasmanian Salmon fillet
400g king prawn meat
½ lemon
300ml fresh cream
Method;
Cut the fish into 2cmX1cm pieces. Keep the
seafood in separate plate, squeeze lemon over them.
Bring the poaching stock just to boiling,
first poach the white fish for 2 minutes, remove fish with slotted spoon. Then
poach the salmon for 1 minute, remove with slotted spoon then poach the prawn
for 2minutes, remove with slotted spoon.
Reduce stock to half
Strain the stock into a measuring cup keep the bouquet garni with the stock. Add
cream to make 600ml.
3.
White sauce with leek
Ingredients:
50mls olive oil
1tbspn butter
1 leek, discarded green part. Cut into thin
rounds, washed well and drain.
4 tbspns plain flour
600ml. stock with cream, discard bouquet
garni
Salt & pepper to taste.
Method
Heat
oil and butter in a heavy saucepan, add leek, fry until soft and translucent. Add flour, stir
to mix and to cook the flour. Add stock, gently stir and cook until sauce
thicken, season with salt and pepper. Remove from heat and set aside.
4.
Assemblage of potpies:
Ingredients:
6 small potatoes, peeled, boiled and mashed
with 60g butter
Poached seafood
White sauce with leek
2tbspn finely chopped dill
3 sheets of short crust pastry or puff
pastry (I used commercial made pastry), but if you like to make your own with flour, lard & iced water it could be
better)
6 medium oven proof ceramic bowls.
1 beaten egg
Method.
Cut 6 circles of pastry to cover the bowls,
with ½ cm overlap
Arrange poached seafood equally among the 6
bowls
Sprinkle over with dill.
Pour 100ml
white sauce over
Cover with mash potato evenly then seal the
bowl with pastry with a small rosette flu, glaze with beaten egg.
Bake in 180C pre heat oven until golden.
(about 20mns)
I tested this pies 3 times with 2 groups of
diners and they all like it. But be
careful, it is extremely hot.
 |
| Salmon being poached |
 |
| Poached snapper |
 |
| Prepared Leek |
 |
| Poached prawns |
 |
| Seafood potpies dinner party |
 |
| Seafood potpie |
Besides making food and organized farewell parties to friends
going North to avoid the Brisbane unusual cold winter I also dig out the
vegetable patch filled it with new organic garden soil and plant in new
lettuces, beats, mizuna, coriander, dill, thyme, basil and chili. It looked so beautiful. Unfortunately the
possums discovered the new food supply, so I have been busy trying various
strategies to protect the seedlings, but then the poor possums need to eat as
well.
 |
| The vegetable patch for... the possums |
As for me, while I was wondering how to
celebrate my 50th year in Australia, my friend Athol asked me to go
to New York with him to see the Sydney Theatre production of Chekov’s Uncle Vanya, so we are going there next
Sunday. After 10 days in New York I will
be visiting my family in Virginia, Florida, Minnesota and Montreal and will be back by mid August.
May be I will have some interesting to
post.
