Reine's Xmas 2018 cooking
So I just looked back at my 2017 post, and it was so detailed! My 2018 post will have considerably less content, but I think that's because a lot of it is really the same food, just slightly different.I spent heavily on non-food activities in 2018 and I've got some very extravagant travel plans for 2019, so I tried to stick to a small, sensible budget of $200 on top of my normal weekly food spend. Me being me though, I ended up spending about $400... whooops!So where did all that money go?
I only bought one marron this time, and named her Henrietta. I'd learned from my previous year that the pan grilled version tasted better than the soup version, so this time I went for the grilled method again! However, instead of the pan, I tried using the oven in an attempt to make the entire shell red, but it still didn't work - I had a half red, half black shell by the time the meat was cooked. I guess I really do need just a firepit in my dream kitchen!
I actually got the idea of the witlof salad when I randomly stumbled across a site (maybe BBC Food? I can't remember) that had crab, roe and witlof canapes, so I decided to try my own!The garnish here was micro ice plant that I'd found at the shops. Pretty cute! I liked the presentation of this better than my previous year's attempt. The marron kind of reminded me a bit of Attica's marron presentation.
Throughout 2018, I've had a fascination with insanely sharp knives that can slide across a tomato effortlessly. I really wanted to get my flatmate's Wusthof knife sharpened, but she's really not that great at taking care of kitchen stuff whereas I worship every tool, so instead, I decided to get my already sharp Global, sharpened a bit more. I think even the knife sharpener was a bit puzzled as to why I wanted it sharpened, but he did so regardless.This was an experiment from the night before my actual dish, to see how thin I could get the slices. These were squishy, overripe tomatoes, so I guess it was a good effort?
YAY plates of sliced tomatoes! While it was easier to work with not overripe tomatoes, it was still a challenge because the waterier the tomato, the harder it was to keep the "insides" intact. But I love the colours and how they all overlap! It's like jewels!
And the finished result, my perennial caprese salad! This time though, there wasn't any moneybag burrata at the shops, so I settled for fiore di burrata instead. I kinda miss the big ones because these little ones didn't ooze as much cream. I loved the presentation though, I feel that this one was a fun exercise considering the last two years have all been "normal" looking!
There was no quail this year. Instead, there were some duck ballotines for sale, but when I asked how much they were, a 2kg duck-chicken-cranberry stuffing portion cost $110! That was a bit much for me, so I opted for just duck pieces instead. This was a fennel and garlic grilled duck breast with charred witlof and roast carrots. Yeah!! The duck was delicious, I actually surprised myself! I really loved my duck dishes this year!
This was a fun one to make! I'd seen pictures of this being served at The Dolphin Hotel in Sydney, and I always wondered how much it would cost, because it looks simple. Avocados are now a running hipster joke about not being able to afford a house, so this dish was also humorous in that regard - pairing an "expensive" avocado with expensive Yarra Valley Caviar salmon roe! What you can't see here is that there's creme fraiche underneath the roe. I'd never read the restaurant's official description of their version, but I'd happened to see some Meander Valley creme fraiche at the shops, and bought it on impulse, and decided it'd go well in this dish.I wasn't wrong! This tasted way better than I thought it would! After adding some salt, olive oil, and a dash of lemon juice (I forgot to add pepper, whoops!), this dish became more than the parts. I think the creme fraiche has to be there, because it made it more than just roe and avocado. The tanginess that came from the cream was perfect for the roe!! It works WAY better than sour cream. It just... made the roe pop while the avocado flavour and texture were there and surprisingly, didn't add any heaviness to the dish! It was as if it made the avocado itself taste better too!What was just a "for fun" dish actually ended up being really impressive!
I actually made a few more roe and avocado dishes, since I'd bought 100g of salmon roe and 100g of golden trout roe. I didn't realise how tedious it was to try and stay awake till midnight for New Year's, since I hadn't done that the last few years (or if I did, it didn't feel like that much of a struggle). Because I was feeling peckish, I sliced up some potato and made chips. I'd run out of creme fraiche, so I bought some cheap Woolworths sour cream (don't do this - it doesnt even come close to creme fraiche!), and added some golden trout roe, then overkilled it with gold foil! Always gotta send off the old year with excess :)
Yay for knife skills!
Isn't it so pretty?
I also made some more sea salt and fennel crackers. These ones actually didn't turn out half as good as the last attempt at all! For some reason the fennel flavour wasn't as prominent. I'd also changed the recipe and the texture just wasn't right and it was too buttery. But that's learning for you; it makes me want to experiment more to find out how to consistently make these tasty!
Garlic, honey and mustard duck maryland with porcini rice. The rice here is a couple of days old which is why it didn't stick together, but hey, it's not all just for photos - this is the reality of cooking for one. I plan out photogenic dishes when I can, but what people usually don't see is the "normal" stuff where leftovers are used. A good tip for this is saving the duck fat, because it makes the rice so tasty when it's all mixed in!!
And final picture is how I usually prepare meals. Work meals are generally one pot wonders now (being time poor made me super efficient in 2018 and I bet it saved me money! I just can't see those savings cause I used them elsewhere!) and look like one big heap of stuff.I wonder what I'll do this year since I don't expect to have a lot of money left at the end...YAY EXCITING 2019 AHEAD
Kensington Street Social
First was Commune Social. Then, City Social. And the tidbit of gossip I got from there was that there was going to be a Jason Atherton establishment in Australia. And here it is, Kensington Street Social.
A very hip place with a pun-filled cocktail menu and tapas style dining - the same concept as Commune Social (and probably his other Social restaurants). I went here for both dinner and breakfast on separate occasions, and quite liked it!First off, dinner. As always, we ordered everything that we wanted. The waitstaff recommended six to seven dishes between three people, and we ordered accordingly.
Squid ink crackers, trout roe, cucumber
You can't ever go wrong with prawn crackers, they're so airy and addictive! I found that we ended up with too much sauce - the trout roe went well with the crackers but I found I didn't need too much of the actual sauce.
Hipster breakfast - Banana bread infused Pampero rum, cold drip coffee, salt butter, Fernet Branca
Yes I'm hipster (perhaps just on the inside), so I had to forego every other item on the drinks menu (including non alcoholic... I'm not great at consuming more than a single beverage when dining, unless it's a beverage pairing) just to get this. Isn't it cute! It looked and tasted quite coffee-like! I loved the tag that came with it, too!
English breakfast tea and toast - wild mushroom tea , gentleman’s relish, bone marrow toast
What a cute display! I'm a fan of theatric/hands on/unusual interpretations of food, it makes the dining experience so much fun and much more memorable. Presented as the toast/jam/cream/tea combination, this was a pot of wild mushroom tea that could be poured into teacups of parmesan foam. Creamy white bone marrow and a tangy, jammy relish topped some toast which, with some effort, could be dipped into the tea. The toast was so-so for me mainly because I like chunks of actual marrow (which I need to try at Salaryman!) rather than a tiny dollop. The tea on the other hand, was absolutely amazing, fragrant and hearty! I could drink that all winter!
Vine tomato, Vannella burrata, 25 year aged balsamic vinegar, tomato seasoning
There's always an interpretation of caprese salad on the menu. This one is also featured at Marina Social in Dubai. The outside picture is all you get, I didn't bother taking an inside picture because I figured it wouldn't look very nice. Basically, it's tomato on the outside, and burrata on the inside! Not the creamiest burrata as it looks like they scoop only some of it in, so the gooeyness was a little lacking, but the flavours overall were great.
Grass fed veal tartar, egg yolk jam, radish salad, sourdough
I always have to taste the tartare if I can. The veal was roughly chopped which was a nice change from oggling at the knifework from Fix St James, and the egg yolk jam was pretty trippy! The bread was a little on the holey side so it couldn't scoop up the tartare all that well. Tasty, but not one of my favourites.
Queensland Spanner crab, frozen cucumber gazpacho, rhubarb
A nicely presented spanner crab salad where the gazpacho granita was sprinkled at the table. The flavours were alright, however nothing particularly stood out. Possibly because the granita was super cold and there was a mound of it, and as it melted kind of watered down the rest of the dish.
Roast marron tail, curry butter, burnt lime, leaf salad
Now this is a dish that shows off a super fine crustacean! Marron is seriously my favourite crustacen, plus it's adorable. The curry butter was delicious and a great change from plain butter. In my excitement, I didn't realise just how much this dish cost (though to be honest, I generally don't look at price...). It was worth it, though!
Sea urchin rice, Moreton Bay bug tail, sea blight, bisque
I didn't like this dish. It sounded great on the menu, but it's not really all that shareable, especially since there was only a very small tongue of sea urchin there. The bug tail was nice and I liked the flavour of the bisque, but the rice curse continues! I pretty much always avoid risotto, not only because it's very hit and miss, but also because I don't like rice in general (except in well made sushi). Ours was undercooked, with a hardness and slight chalkiness. I kind of which we received the marron dish last (everything else was pretty much served in menu order).
Then it was onto desserts.
Yoghurt mousse, lemon curd, malt meringue, basil
I chose this unassuming looking dish for the reason that basil was featured. Ever since Commune Social's basil sorbet, I have been chasing basil desserts. However the style of the dessert meant that basil wasn't the prominent flavour. This was all about the yoghurt mousse and lemon curd and offset nicely by a delicate basil aroma. It ended up being my brother's favourite dessert out of the ones we ordered.
Buffalo ricotta, lemon thyme peaches, honeycomb
The second dessert that I ordered (we had four desserts between three people) wasn't that spectacular. The ricotta was nice, though I generally don't like ricotta in desserts. The honeycomb tuile was so thin and light! The peach sorbet was delicious too.
East Rydge Grove arbequina olive oil cake, coconut sorbet, spiced mango, passion fruit ice
This was the dish my brother ordered, and the one I loved the most. I've always thought butter was unbeatable, but that olive oil was so fragrant! And the texture of the cake was great too. I was seriously impressed with this as everything went so well together and the coconut sorbet was delicious. I now need to learn how to make olive oil cake myself!
Baked caramelised apple puff pastry, cider vinegar ice cream and pickled apple
I believe this was a picture my brother took because I had a hard time making it look nice. I had a small sample of this and the puff pastry was very good. This was a dish my friend ordered and she loved it!
So all up, we shared seven savoury plates and three dessert plates. Usually the food is adequate, however, in this case my brother and I were both still a tad hungry. The bill was also less than what I was used to (but that's because I have a tendency to spend extravagantly), so it would have been nice to order a couple more savoury plates.
Perhaps it was due to dining on a Friday night, perhaps it's just their policy - it was the two hour dining limit that was the real restriction. We'd arrived fifteen minutes early (for a 6:30PM booking) and finished at 8:15. However, it was a little alarming that during the dessert ordering, we were advised we only had our seats until 8PM, so I had to ask for clarification that we were allocated two hours.
Mindful of this time limit, we asked for the bill as soon as we were done... and then waited until after 8:30, and still no bill. So we had to ask again. This was possibly a teething issue since the restaurant was only about a month old on this visit, and no one actually came to kick us off our barside bench, so I wasn't even sure if our seats were really booked for 8:30. Minor issue though, I wouldn't think much of it unless it became consistent.
Since I also managed a breakfast visit, I'll tack on a short summary of that here as well.
This was the "wrong island iced tea" - earl grey, apple, lemon, lapsang souchonog. This was a great tasting tea, not overly sweet and with a good dose of tea. I also loved this shot for all the lights in the background.
While this wasn't much of a looker, it's a classic that was very, very tasty. House cured bacon? Guess what, it's similar to the Tommy Prosser style house cured bacon! Only slightly pink, this was delicious! I was very happy to have the house stuff since it's so much tastier than any packet stuff. The black pudding was also very flavourful (especially in contrast to some disappointing stuff I bought from a butcher recently) so I loved that too! The toast crust was slightly on the hard side, but nothing my well practised knife and fork skills couldn't handle, though it would be tricky for most (my friend struggled to cut her toast).
The marinated watermelon salad with mint, raspberries, creme fraiche. While it's a very pretty looking dish, it wasn't too spectular. The creme fraiche was provided as a foam in a separate bowl, but since we were still eating our toast, the foam started collapsing before we had a chance to move onto the salad!
Perhaps it's the newness, perhaps it's the high volume of high calibre restaurants in Sydney. It didn't stand out too much (but I had a superstar list of restaurants lined up this time as well) but very solid nonetheless. If I ever needed a casual spot, this would be a place I'd be happy to come back to.
Now I just have to visit all his other restaurants!