Results - Roast Wild Barramundi with King Prawn and Fennel Salad

My first EPIC fail! Woo hoo! I can get it behind me and move on! For a while, every time I attempted a new restaurant recipe I though, "Is this the one that's going to end my wining streak?" There were a couple there where I though the degree of difficulty was a little higher than what I was used to, surely I'll fail there, but in the end it was the easiest recipe of all that made me come undone. I even had a video to watch and I still managed a royal muck up of it!

Lets look at the positives first. It tasted delicious! Fennel and prawn are such a great combination, The salad so impressed me that I will never eat them apart again! Except maybe in tempura prawns, garlic prawns oh cant forget prawn dumplings!...hmmm maybe every prawn dish imaginable, just take my word for it....it tasted good. The tomato and basil salad was pretty tasty too. Who could beat the awesome power of tomato coupled with the sexy aroma of basil? It was such a spring dish, and considering the extremely warm weather we've been having around Melbourne, it was a great way to say goodbye to spring and hello to summer, a whole month early!

Basil and Tomato Salad

Fennel and Prawn Salad

I hear you say what went wrong?, how did you stuff it up? Well thanks very much for totally over seeing the ugliness of the dish, you're so kind. I vividly remember Michael Lambie saying in the video to be extremely careful about skin sticking to the pan and ruining the crispy skin texture. I've never really had this problem before, and I LOVE crispy fish skin so I do my best to get the money shot. But this time, I don't know what happened, I sprayed my pan with non stick oil, waited for the pan to get really hot, I even dried the barramundi skin to make sure it would turn out extra crispy. But I guess the skin gods were not on my side this day, and I suffered from bad skin even after I'd gone through puberty!

Getting the fish out of the pan was disaster number 2. I planned on presenting it the wrong way up, but some how I managed to put a big great gaping hole in the nice fish flesh. I did make two portions of this dish, and the other fish faired even worse! Poor Daz, he always gets the rejects.

Everything chopped up ready to go!

The last issue with the dish was more of an oversight than an error. When making the tomato basil salad I cut my tomatoes up and put them in the bowl without removing any seeds. The Dressing ended up being quite watered down by the tomato juice. So I would suggest only using the tomato flesh and try to scoop out as much of the seeds and innards as possible. I always try to make the best of a bad situation, so turned the tomato juice/left over salad into a delicious dipping sauce. I added a little extra olive oil and Daz and I dunked out bread like bread had never been dunked before! It was like a deconstructed brucchetta.

Sliced fennel

Despite the few mishaps, the dish was actually very tasty. Its extremely difficult to get Daz to eat something that isn't capable of mooing, fish being one of the worst! But he really enjoyed this dish. The Barramundi has a pleasant un-fishy smell and that seemed to appeal to him. I was really shifty and didn't explain any of the components of the dish to him before he started eating, he didn't realize he had eaten fennel (his arch nemesis of the vegetable world) until he was taking his last bite. *insert evil laugh here* I have some left over fennel in the fridge, I might try my luck again and see if I can get the same results.

Roast Wild Barramundi with King Prawn and Fennel Salad

Restaurant: Taxi Dining Room (VIC)
Recipe from Chef Michael Lambie (Appeared on 9am with David and Kim)
2010 Rating: 100th, 1 Star

I've been going a little crazy with the seafood lately. The last 3 restaurant recipes I've tried have all been seafood inspired. After dining at Taxi dining Room earlier this year I was inspired to find a recipe by Head Chef Michael Lambie. The Internet is my friend and I found an awesome video of Michale appearing on the 9am show with David and Kim. I cant say that I'm a avid watcher of Daivd and Kim's, mainly because I'm at work by the time their show comes on, or if I happen to be at home I'm usually still in bed....what? its my day off I can sleep until 1pm if I choose!

So I'll give it a whirl! Here's the recipe....results to come soon!

Roast Wild Barramundi with King Prawn and Fennel Salad

INGREDIENTS
Serves 4

4 x 160 g portions wild barramundi
I fennel bulb shaved
¼ bunch flat leaf parsley picked and washed
8 King Prawns cooked and shelled
4 tomatoes chopped
4 shallots diced
1 garlic clove crushed
4 basil leaves shredded
8 coriander leaves shredded
Olive oil / lemon juice
Salt and pepper

METHOD

Lightly season the barramundi portions with salt and pepper, Fry in hot oil for about 4 minutes until just cooked but caramelised on the skin.

Make the dressing by frying the shallot and garlic in olive oil. Add the diced tomatoes and warm through. Add the basil, coriander and lemon juice.

Mix the shaved fennel, parsley and king prawn together.
Season with lemon juice and olive oil and arrange attractively on a plate.

Spoon the tomato dressing onto the plate and top with the barramundi.

Cupcakes on Location: Sophisticakes of Melbourne

If you've ever read any of my posts, you'll know that I LOVE cupcakes. I'm sure that if after my death I need an autopsy performed on me, the coroner will find a fully intact cupcake in my stomach, frosting and all! For the longest time I've wanted to eat the cupcakes at the Sunday Arts Center Market. But every time we're gone past them, Daz has ushered my away very quickly. He loves me enough that he knows that I cant control myself, and if I see cupcakes I NEED to eat them. For my health and well being its safer ton keep me away from them. But now that I have a blog, I MUST eat them, I'm not only consuming cupcakes for my own satisfaction, but its now become a vital community input, thats my story and I'm sticking to it!

So we headed down to the Arts Center Sunday Market and discovered that the gorgeous cupcakes are made by Sophisticakes of Melbourne. The display was beautiful, dozens upon dozens of cupcakes all tucked away in their little cake stands, all yelling "pick me! pick me!". I noticed a little sign on the table stating no photography, a food bloggers worse nightmare. So Daz and I made our selection and went somewhere a little more peaceful for the photo shoot.

Since we were so close to the river, we headed down to devour our cupcakes. I chose a vanilla sponge with strawberry frosting. It was light and fluffy and surprisingly not too sweet. I noticed the massive mound of frosting and my teeth started to hurt instantaneously, I was very surprised when I bite into it and discovered my fears were unwarranted. The frosting was exactly as it had promised.....strawberry flavored. It was really good, but I couldnt help compared it to Little Cupcakes. The actual cake was much better than Little Cupcakes, but the frosting fell a little short.

Daz chose cookies and cream. He is very unimaginative when it comes to choosing cupcake flavours. Its a little frustrating. Cookies and cream cupcakes all taste the same, like cookies and cream! I guess he always chooses that flavour because he knows what hes going to get. I'm always the one who loses out though. Partners of food bloggers are always long suffering, we share almost everything we eat, so he gets half of my strawberry delight and I get half of his cookies and cream....groan! Nothing against Sophisticakes, but I'm a little over cookies and cream.

From half the cupcake I had I was pretty happy though. The cake was quiet moist, and as a topping we got a FULL Oreo. Some places only put half an Oreo, or even a mini, and then there are the places that have substitutes! Shock horror!!

It was a beautiful day so we deiced to go for a stroll. We walked past the National Gallery of Victoria and contemplated going in. While walking past we noticed glimpses of colour emanating from the moat surrounding the building. Curiously Daz and I stared into the water. After quite a bit of squinting we noticed the bottom was scattered with colourful plastic knives. Not quite Excalibur, but interesting non the less. Was it a large scale art piece? or hundreds of litters getting rid of their cutlery after dinner? I thought about it for a minute, took a quick photo and continued on our walk. But even today, I still wonder what happened to all the forks?

Fifteen - Melbourne

Fifteen MelbourneBasement, 115 – 117 Collins Street, Melbourne(Enter through George Parade)

I know I'm a little late with this review, but I've never been one to be trendy. Fifteen's 15 minutes of fame has come and gone, but until recently I had never dined in the underground establishment. When the dynamic V duo suggested Fifteen for a mid week dinner, Daz and I were there in a flash!

I like the idea of Fifteen and to be honest, I wish I could be as productive to the community. They take young adults, who have little other options and transform them in to trained and talented chefs. Some are homeless, drug addicted or even just unemployed. Its good to see that a foundation such as fifteen is offering an opportunity to people and really helping out the community. But ultimately we're here for the food right??

I'm always a little nervous when taking my camera out at fancy restaurants to take pictures. And I make a habit of asking if it is ok to take a couple of happy snaps during the meal. AtFifteen when I asked the question I got the most interesting answer so far. The waiter said it was no problem, as long as I don't go up to the chefs and blind them with my flash. Instantly I had images of paparazzi giving chefs seizures by taking multiple photos, did that happen regularly around this place? I had no intention of photographing the chefs, so it was all good!

We ordered quite quickly because we were all a little hungry. We could only get an 8.00pm reservation, which is kinda late for a weekday. Surprising, the restaurant wasn't as full as I had expected. There was a pretty loud table of Americans, so they provided the atmosphere. WE had a little bread and dipped it in Oliveria’s new season Fifteen olive oil. It was actually quite nice, fruity and definitely fresh!

V1 : "I've run out of bread! But look at my perfectly manicured fingernails!"

So what did we order? We decided to go for entree and mains, with an option of dessert if we weren't too full. The dynamic V duo had an House smoked Tasmanian salmon with grilled asparagus, lemon and Oliveria’s new season Fifteen olive oil. They both reported that it tasted like smoked salmon, hence nothing overwhelming.

Daz had the 'Tagliatelle with a rich beef shin ragout, rosemary and orange gremolate and parmigiano reggiano'. After taking 3-4 bites of his dish be was a little freaked out. He said that half of the tagliatelle were overdone and half were underdone! Weird. The texture sensation was a little off putting, but he reported that the flavours were quite good, its a real shame that the pasta wasn't up to scratch.

I had 'The lightest Toolangipotato gnocchi with hot smoked ocean trout, creme fraiche, grilled fennel and pangrattato'. I had a very similar problem to Daz, although all my pasta was over cooked. Not to the point where it was unpleasant, the dish was actually quite nice, but I wish that the gnocchi were a little firmer. I especially enjoyed that creaminess of the cream fraiche and the chunky pieces of trout.

For Mains the V1 and V2 decided to be different and order something they usually would. V2 is a avid meat eater. So much so that I think he could tackle and eat and entire cow in one week! But tonight....he's decided to forgo the moo and have 'Pan seared fillet of Blue-eye cod with cavalo nero and lemon'. As far as I could tell the dish was quite nice, no complaints from V2, other than the lack of red meat!

Up until our visit to Fifteen V1 had never eaten polenta! Shock huh??!!?? So she decided to order 'slow roasted, crispy berkshire pork bely with oozy parmesan polenta, jus and salsa verdi'. I was actually going to order this dish for myself, but something else caught my attention. I felt for V1, while the polenta was piping hot it was creamy and delicious, but as soon as it started to lose temperature it resembled wall paper glue, polenta will do that to you though. She also isn't a huge fan of Parmesan, and the polenta had a pretty decent whack of it. It just wasn't here dish. We did a plate swap after a while and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The crackling was crispy and dry...yum! And the pork was tender. The salsa verdi was a little strange, it tasted exactly like pesto which wasn't a bad thing, but polenta and pesto together is something I've never even thought about before!

The only other man at the table, Daz, decided to go for meat. 'Grilled Gippsland porterhouse (served MR) with roasted new potatoes in a rosemary and anchovy dressing'. I'm sure 90% of the attraction to ordering meat is getting a big fat juicy steak in front of you that you can hack into with and over sized razor sharp knife. I felt so sorry for poor little Daz. His steak can sliced! You should have seen his face, I swear I almost saw a tear roll out of his eye. Once he got over the fact that he couldn't butcher his own steak, he thoroughly enjoyed it, I even got a bite! It was tender and pretty tasty!

I ordered the 'Pan roasted free range and organic chicken 'con pepperonchini' with dressed rocket and lemon'. There was a flavour party in my mouth and everyone was invited! The chicken marinade was a real fire cracker! It was spicy, witch I love, and flavoursome! I really wasn't expecting something that hot, but it was delicious. V1 LOVE's chilli and anything hot, so I gave her some of my dish and even she loved it. The generous amount of lemon on the salad was great to cut through the spiciness. I would go back just for this chicken!

As a side we got Roasted new potatoes and Fried polenta with aioli. They weren't anything special, but they were enough to fill us and miss out of dessert.....NOOOOO!!! I tried convincing the Dynamic V's to reconsider, but I went to bed with no dessert that night, and I wasn't even bad!

This...PLUS...

This...EQUALS...

THIS!!

Other than the few mishaps with undercooked/overcooked pasta, Fifteen was a pretty enjoyable meal. Before I go, I have to say one thing, fifteen had my most favourite thing of all......HOT PLATES!! As a food blogger we all know that taking that perfect shot takes time and sometimes the dish doesn't end up being as hot as you'd like. No such problems here, every dish was piping hot, even AFTER I took my photos. Great work!

School Girl Giggling Within...

V1 from the dynamic V duo has been attending a few hens nights lately. At the first hen night she was in charge of the entertainment, so asked me to help with the catering. After a few hilarious phone calls we decided to make a cake fashioned in the shape of a love tool. We settled on red velvet with cream cheese frosting, the red velvet is perfect for that dramatic effect after cutting into it. After the success of the first cake, she was asked to make another for an upcoming hen night. So we got busy again making the love trungeon cake.

The first cake was for Arlene. On this particular night my hand held mixer finally died during the frosting making. I was both a little sad and overjoyed. I finally had an excuse to get myself a brand new kitchenaid....woot!

So here are a couple of happy snaps of the first love wand.

V1 sculpted the love stick from a picture we found on the net. Before this whole novelty cake thing I had no idea there were so many pictures of that nature on the Internet........did you buy that lie? For the hair we used chocolate flavored Persian fairy floss. It did an awesome job, and really looked authentic. Unfortunately overnight the fairy floss collapsed quite alot from the moister in the air. But I was told that it had the desired effect despite the flaccidness.

The second love tickler was for Thuy. On this occasion we decided to buy a cake tin and hopefully make our lives a little easier. By now we were total sculpting pros and had the easiest time putting it together, well it was easier, but with more skill comes more ambition right? So we decided to add a hand and some arty but descriptive bodily fluid.....eeewwww! We actually made the hand first, and didn't realise until later that it was a tad too small for the love muscle. V1 was on the ball and just said that the hand belonged to a petite Asian lady. hehehehehe.

So here are some happy snaps of the second love organ

I had so much fun making these two cakes. I don't think I've giggled so much in such a short period of time. So many obvious jokes, oh so many...uncountable. My absolute favourite was from V2 who suggested we should go on Masterchef as contestants and present every dish we cook in the shape of a trouser snake. I'd love to see Matt Preston dig into that while wearing his cravats!

Congratulations to Arlene & Anh, and Thuy & Cuong, may you're wedded life be long and joyful....a bit like a love flute...sorry I had to do it! And as a visual parting gift, I give you Romeo and a paper cutout.....I hope you can put two and two together.

Results - Oysters in Tempura with Ponzu Sauce

At this very moment I'm sitting at home feeling a little sorry for myself. My head is a walking, talking case of pus. I have sinusitis, a throat infection, the biggest coldsores you have ever seen, yes more than one coldsore! and swollen infected neck glands to boot. My head literally feels like a truck parked on top of it. I usually post results to restaurant recipes pretty quickly, I do like to keep my audience in suspense but I like to think I'm not cruel, but the acute elephantiasis that I've been experiencing in the right side of my face has kinda gotten in the way. I'm feeling a little better today, I can actually feel confident enough to venture outside without having small children run in fear from the sight of me, so I thought I would post this while the going is good.



Just a note to start with, the recipe called for St Helen oysters, I couldn't get my hands on any so instead went for Coffin bay oysters. I bought them already shucked, I know not the best, but I'm not confident enough to shuck my own oysters yet. I have visions of knives going through my hand and bright red blood spurting everywhere!




I'll start with the bad, I felt that the tempura batter was a little thick for the oysters. I'm used to very light crunchy batter and this was a fair bit thicker and more chewy. I didn't use a thermometer on my oil, so if I had it at the perfect temperature it may have resulted in a much fluffier and lighter texture.



I really enjoyed the oysters in the batter. It was a novelty for me. I've never had deep fried oysters before. I enjoy them au natural or lightly grilled with a nice sauce, so having the little ones encased in a skin made out of batter was totally new.



The oysters on the inside were perfectly cooked. Really juicy and smooth, not even a hint of rubberiness, frankly - a fear that I had. The ponzu sauce was interesting. It was tangy and went perfectly with the fishiness of the oysters. I didn't have any konbu, so I substituted with nori. It worked quite well.



I really liked this recipe, and I'll definitely make it again however I would use a different recipe for the tempura batter or at least get a proper thermometer to keep the oil at the right temperature.

Oysters in Tempura with Ponzu Sauce

Restaurant: Esposito (VIC)
Recipe from Chef Maurice Esposito (The Esposito Recipe cards, from the Esposito newsletter)
2010 Rating: Not rated, 1 Star

The hot weather is coming, which means I'm craving cold beers and bar snack food. When those warm days come I love nothing more than sitting in the warm sun with a cold one and some food to snack on. By the end of the day I'm slightly boozed up, possibly a little red from sun burn and a satisfied belly. A couple of weeks ago I got a newsletter from Esposito Seafood dining which showcased St Helen Oysters prepared tempura style....perfect beer food! So here is the recipe, and you know what comes next....the results!

St Helen’s Oysters in Tempura with Ponzu Sauce

serves 4 - 3 oysters each

12 St Helen’s Oysters, freshly shucked and removed from their shell

Tempura Batter

2 egg yolks
2 cups iced water
2 cups sifted plain flour
oil for deep-frying - canola, rice bran or grapeseed

Make the batter in 2 batches. It’s very important to prepare the tempura batter as close to cooking time as possible - this ensures it doesn’t get heavy or become too combined. Prepare the first batch just before you are ready to begin deep-frying. As you are waiting for the oil to heat, in a mixing bowl, lightly beat 1 egg yolk, then pour in 1 cup of ice water and give this a few stirs (chopsticks or a fork are good to use here as a mixing tool). Add 1 cup of the sifted flour all at once. Stir through a few times, just until the ingredients are loosely combined. The batter should be very lumpy.

Have a plate lined with a paper towel and a slotted spoon at the ready and once the oil is hot lightly coat each oyster in the tempura batter and gently place in the hot oil with a slotted spoon. Don’t walk away from the oil at any time while you’re cooking these.
As soon as the batter becomes golden, take the oyster out with the spoon and put on the paper towel. Continue to do this until all the oysters are cooked and serve immediately next to Ponzu sauce (recipe follows).

Once the first batch of batter is used up, take the oil off the heat and make the second batch of batter and continue to cook the oysters.

Ponzu dressing

makes about 1 cup

2 tbsp lemon juice
8 tbsps rice vinegar
4 tbsps soy sauce
2cm square konbu (kelp)

Mix together the juice, vinegar and soy sauce, wipe the konbu gently with a cloth and then add to the combined liquid. Leave in the fridge overnight or longer if possible.