Random Plates at Chez Nous

A Cold Night In

One friend drove from Launceston, one had driven to Launceston and back. One had been to a meeting at Port Arthur and another had been painting a mural in a cold concrete building under construction. Roads were closed, there was snow in the suburbs and everyone was freezing cold on the outside. Enter a good log fire, a few exceptional bottles, a world class free range ham from Guy and Eliza at Mt Gnomon Farm and some collaborative effort in the kitchen.

First a French onion soup topped with Gruyere gougeres and a Normandy sparkling cider with a Calvados chaser. Now we are warming up. Then poach off some figs in star anise, coriander and mustard seeds and cardamon pods.

Soak, simmer, glaze and bake the ham and serve with the spiced figs and potato and fennel galette. Wash down with heroic amounts of 2005 Puligny Montrachet. Getting warmer.

Then a cheese course, Roquefort, Roy de Vallees and Edel de Cleron with an 2001 Big 'd Big Barolo and back in to the kitchen to assemble dessert.

The piece de resistance! Tiny hazelnut and chocolate pastry cases made from local hazelnuts, filled with King Island cinnamon and honey yoghurt and topped with pieces of preserved Franklin cherries. With? A 2002 Chateau d'Yquem of course.

It's a bit warm in here don't you think?

Eating South Africa

While teaching advocacy to young South African advocates (read barristers), with an international team in January this year Mary and I put out a Twitter call to find a place to eat in Cape Town. Sydney Twitter pal and food critic Simon Thomsen came to the rescue with Bistro Bizerca, an award winning restaurant run by Cyrillia and Laurent Deslandes, who not long before had run a very popular eatery just outside Sydney. Their friends told them they were mad going back to South Africa - hence the name. The highlights ? The trio of tomato, the beetroot tart, the Kudu carpaccio and the Karoo lamb stew.

The Very Talented Mr Bester

One of the guests at our Web 2 lunch this Easter just gone was Marc Bester. The last photograph on that blog post is of Marc' stunning house made chocolates. Well, he is not just a great cook, he is also a very talented photographer as the picture above and the ones that follow demonstrate.

Now I know next to nothing about photography and any good pics I get for our blog are the result of my taking many shots and having had the good fortune to purchase last year a Panasonic Lumix DMC ZR 1. But I am looking to improve. So it was, that when I saw an amazing nature still taken by Marc last weekend I asked him about his camera.

Marc very kindly sent me this link to the site for the camera he has now taken 15,000 pictures with. It's also a Panasonic Lumix but it's an LX3. The Leica lens on the Lumix cameras is outstanding and the LX3 is able to focus closer than a standard digital SLR and so is probably the best compact camera some one with my penchant for food could own.

As can be seen from the pictures above the camera is also, (if you'll pardon the pun), brilliant for taking sharp food shots in low light. All this Marc explained to me. And he lent me all these images to prove it.

These luscious strawberries also bear witness to the camera's ability to take wonderfully sharp images in good light. I just love taking photographs of fruit and desserts and the selection of Marc's pics below are evocative and mouth watering.

Now the Panasonic Lumix LX3 is about to be superseded by the LX5 due out later this month. So check it out here. At a rrp of probably $650 - $700 AUD it represents good value for some one who only wants to own a compact but wants to take professional quality shots. And make no mistake it's not just a camera for food - the photographs Marc takes on his regular bushwalking expeditions and shares with his Web 2 friends are some of the best I have ever seen. Have a look at Marc's collection on Flickr

Seafood to Die For

Until recently I held the view that one of the great ironies of living in Hobart was that world class fish, including our own, was unobtainable here. I was wrong. This weekend Iki- jime Southern Blue Fin Tuna Toro sashimi with Momofuku pickles and Tataki style with Togarashi, salt and spice green Kuruma prawns with grits, bacon and slow poached egg and duck egg tagliatelle with green spanner crab meat.

Fresher Than Fish

If you dig deep among Tasmanian fishermen and suppliers it is perfectly possible to find here in Hobart the same live Rock Lobster and live Stripey Trumpeter that grace the Tokyo Fish Market and the tables of Australia's handful of world class restaurants. But dig a little deeper and you can find sashimi fresh fish that would not normally be considered as available in Tasmania. This plate of Coral Trout, Moreton Bay Bug Tails, King Prawns and Spanner Crab came to my table recently at about 6.30pm on the same day as it was landed in Queensland. And it can be done every week, along with the likes of line caught Rock Cod, Pike and Bluefin Tuna.

With fish so fresh there is little you need to do to prepare a banquet. The prawns were eaten with brown bread and a Spanish Chardonnay vinegar. The crab was picked and served with a Chinese dipping sauce made up of finely chopped ginger and spring onion mixed with sugar and brown vinegar and soy sauce, all stirred together and simmered then allowed to cool.

The Coral trout was treated to equally simple treatment, stuffed with handfuls of coriander and spring onions and partly squeezed lime, topped with diced chilli rubbed with oil and salt and pepper and then roasted for an hour at 180C. It was served with steamed snow peas and plain rice.

The Bugs, so fresh and green, cook beautifully in minutes, pan fried in butter mashed with lashings of crushed garlic and flamed off with a good slug of Pernod. This is food anyone can cook with no fuss. The Bug tails mix beautifully with lightly sautéed Oyster mushrooms from the Huon Valley.

Washed down with ? Well for lunch try a bottle of Freixenet Cordon Negro the world's largest selling sparkling white at $14 a bottle. It works a treat.

World Cup Rabbit

Not being able to put my hands immediately on the Octopus, I settled on rabbit for a dish to accompany the World Cup final. Rooting for Spain I decided to cook a Catalan dish where the rabbit is braised in a tomato based sauce thickened with a "picada" made from chocolate, nuts, saffron and parsley. Here is the method.

In the blender whiz up a tablespoon of parsley, 2 cloves of garlic, a dozen each of blanched almonds and hazelnuts, a pinch of saffron strands and 15g of good chocolate (xocolata or la pedra if you can get it).

Cut the rabbit into serving size pieces and brown in olive oil and set aside. In the same large frying pan saute an onion until golden and then add a bay leaf, a 400g tin of tomatoes, 300ml of chicken stock, a tablespoon of parsley, 2 sprigs of rosemary and salt and pepper and simmer gently for 5 minutes.

After simmering, return the rabbit to the pan and cover and simmer for another 20 mins. Turn the rabbit pieces 2 or 3 times and add more stock or water if needed. It shouldn't be.

While it simmers, first soak 40g of raisins in water or sherry and second work about 6 tablespoons of the liquid from the rabbit pan into the dry picada mix. Then spoon the picada over the rabbit and add the raisins and simmer again, covered, for a final 10 minutes to thicken.

Believe me it works a treat and the recipe is probably the quickest I have used for rabbit. The result is well worth while assembling the ingredients, the rabbit is tender and moist and the sauce a perfect consistency and a flavor sensation. I serve it with saffron or biryani rice. Try it with a Spanish sherry - a dry Amontillado or a Palo Cortado