wa sardines: a great casual lunch

Having missed them for San Xoán day, the 24th of June, when you can find "sardiñadas" anywhere in Galicia, we were finally going to try sardines from Western Australia. They looked very fresh at the fish market, so we couldn't miss this enchanting opportunity.

Although smaller and not as fatty as the ones I'm used to, they were still worth a try. We chose a not complicated recipe: they were simply fried in olive oil with a pinch of salt and a few lemon drops on top.

My delightful visit to the Farr vineyards a few weeks ago was rewarded by a bottle of their brilliant chardonnay, which Nick gave to me before driving back to Melbourne, in addition to their magnificent pinot noir trilogy. Also a release from 2008, we were nicely surprised by the fine result.

One more time we ended this nutritious episode with the newest flavour from the Kakawa temple of chocolate, which was officially released last Wednesday:  "Piña Colada", made out of white chocolate coconut ganache with pineapple jelly dipped in dark; quite a satisfactory Caribbean splash.

mad crab paella

Another sunny Saturday felt like the ideal time for a Lyn's style paella, which in this case was going to be more of an "arroz con buey". I had brought a mud crab from Claudio's, which was still alive. 

I like this crab choice because it always provides an amazing sweetness and seafood flavour to the dish. Red capsicum, tomatoes, garlic, onion, saffron, paprika, crab stock , crab meat, green king prawns, "calasparra" rice, plus extra virgin olive oil and sea salt.

Around ninety minutes later our paella was ready to come to the table. It was dark by the time we were seating down, but the balcony didn't feel cold at all, so we had dinner watching the always fascinating night city lights of the CBD and the harbour, plus a few confused bats in their way from the botanical gardens.

Once it was served on the plate we added a slice of lemon. Its juice over the warm and sweet rice brings a really mouth watering sense of freshness; definitely much more exciting.

Another chardonnay from the Yarra Valley (Lilydale, VIC) was the choice of the evening to help us digesting this new display of Lyn's paella powers. A 2006 Mount Mary almost made it a miraculous meal. A perfectly structured wine with a quite unique flavour; wonderful experience from the beginning to the end, but I am afraid it is not my number one.

"hot" tasmanian mussels

Thursday was the day to visit the fish market (Pyrmont). It was time to get back to our incurable seafood habits. Lyn had lately been craving for mussels, so that was a priority on my list. 

A very simple sauce made with leeks, garlic, continental parsley and extra virgin olive oil was the only addition to the mussels and their generous juices, which came out from them during a fast steaming process. Where I come from we either have them "en escabeche" or just boiled with lemon juice squeezed on top, right before they are thrown into the mastication room.

I've never been very interested in biology, but last evening I was particularly mesmerized by the singular anatomy of these bivalve molluscs from Tasmania. Maybe the famous ones growing in the Ría de Sada (Galicia) are like that, but it was yesterday when it came to my attention. Probably it's the right time for a little research on the now intriguing subject.

Our introduction to the "hot" Tasmanian mussels was brilliantly balanced with a 2009 Ten Minutes by Tractor McCutcheon chardonnay, which we brought from   our recent road trip to the vineyard on my dearly revered Mornington Peninsula.

mangosteen & salted caramel

It was last month the first time I heard about mangosteens, which made me think of mangos with a langoustine flavour or shape, but it happens to be something else...

This beautiful fruit apparently grows well in Thailand. We tried it at Golden Fields (St. Kilda) during our last trip to Melbourne.

Yesterday I saw them at Harris Farm, right after a quite intriguing zabaione moment at Fratelli Paradiso (Potts Point). We had them as an option for our dinner dessert. But there also was a sea salted caramel bonbon from Kakawa at home (bitter caramel with hint of salt encased in dark chocolate), so a new dilema was served on my plate. I made a very salomonic decision, and I went for both: what a winner combination!

free range winter days

Wind and rain have been dominating the skies of Syd City for a few days. It's been a cold week for the local standards, so I felt like taking the old winter cooking route. It's been a very long time since I last had lentil soup. 

Years ago I found this meal a rather boring one, but I guess the right frequency makes it much more desirable. Fresh continental parsley made it a little more spirited, together with a perfectly deep purple beetroot and virgin olive oil. Onions, carrots, garlic, and a kind of sweet chicken stock made the rest of our starter come to reality. 

A roasted free range Bannockburn chicken, on top of providing the previously mentioned stock, became our main dish with almost the same ingredients. In this case the carrots, garlic, onion and potatoes were crunchier and nicely caramelized; quite a different dimension.

All of it was lighter than I could have imagined, and maybe for that reason Darrin's (Principia man) 2008 Altior, was a great pinot noir match for this new winterish dining exercise.

grey fridays medicine

A seriously grey and wet Friday morning in Syd City invited to stay in bed; a very appealing, but kind of unproductive, option. Breakfast was the first opportunity to fight that uninviting sky, and without much time to be creative I decided to rely on the available stocks: four complementary spreads, a baguette from Bourke St, Mariage Freres' "Tropical" blend, and the newest hit from holy Kakawa's temple of chocolate.

Cherry marmelade on butter, strawberry and balsamic vinegar spread from B&P (Burch & Purchese, Melbourne), hazelnut and chocolate spread also from B&P, plus genuine Canadian maple syrup conformed the first part of this wining formula.

Queensland provided the most colourful, and perhaps healthiest, element of this unforgettable morning ritual. This time I decided not to add the usual honey, which happens to be a brilliant counterpoint to such fresh strawberries. The final element of this igniting moment was supposed to provide the required balance, and it did: fresh ginger and cardamom ganache with São Tome chocolate, all assembled right on William St.

fishfaced with albariño

Another busy day and not much energy left. We love fish, yes we do. So, being less than five minutes away, FishFace seems to be the place to go. Their kingfish carpaccio was a perfect starter. Unfortunately not a very generous dish, but full of tremendously stimulating flavour. 

We had a bottle left of my number one albariño, which I brought from Galicia last month: Pedralonga (2009), from Caldas de Reis. The perfect conductor for this ocean-based dinner.

Ocean trout in filo pastry was Lyn's main, while I went for the blue eye trevalla, a clear winner for me. The rae on top of was a brilliant idea, not only to underline a moderate  variation of  textures, but especially from an elemental visual perspective

Since we first landed in Syd City sometime in 2007 I think that's the dish I've had in multiple occasions, and after four years I keep loving the way they cook it, even through a number of variations. The horseradish and the potato scales provide a clever textural dimension, which I can say for me is kind of addictive.

Dessert was a happy ending, even without much of an innovation. I find quite inspiring  their focus on the essence of those ingredients they choose to work with. Their fresh explosion of marine flavour is always there.

le quatorze juillet

Bastille Day is the perfect excuse to have a diversified taste of duck, even living down under. It was not an improvised move, so we had a plan in place to execute over the last three days. Recent explorations have made it really easy to find certain essentials like "les rillettes de pur canard", "bloc de foie gras de canard" or "terrine de canard".

A few "rustique" baguettes from Victoire, plus a wine selection from our neighbour Rommuald (the French wine man) provided a proper vibe. The mandatory kir opened this "petit événement", for which we engaged with Rommie's suggestion: a 2008 Guillemot-Michel, Pierrette et Marc, (100% chardonnay) from Quintaine, part of the Viré-Clessé region in the Mâconnais. It was actually saucisson what first got us started in the early stage of this celebratory gathering, to spend together with Stephen, Cheryl and her  Grégoire, who made us all cry with his irrepressible sense of humour. 

We moved onto a 2006 Chateau du Champ des Treilles (Sainte-Foy, Bordeaux) which was going to be followed, in no literal order, by a very nice Larmandier-Bernier -Premier Cru- champagne, an organic and biodynamic 2008 Clos du Rouge Gorge (100% grenache) from the Languedoc Roussillon area, plus a 2006 Jacqueson Cuvée 734 (54% chardonnay, 26% pinot meunier and 20% pinot noir) from Dizy. Litres of Badoit also joined us "à la table".

Another fancy ratatouille and a new selection of cheeses helped our nutritious "entente cordiale" .The sweet part of the day came again through the mastered techniques of Victoire's team. Kakawa also contributed with their divine cherry rocky road, as an encore for this tremendous effort of "frenchaussieness".  

a great trilogy by farr

I ignore why some of the Australian pinot noir makers I most enjoy decided to make three different types at a time. William Downie provided a real meaning to the holy trinity mystery, and a few days ago I learnt Gary Farr can also make such a complex notion come true, right from a different corner of Victoria.

Last Friday I had the chance to meet Nick, Gary's son, at their impeccable vineyard in Bannockburn (Moorabool Valley), part of the Geelong region. We tried all three types, including their most recent vintage, still in the making and very different at this stage. It's incredible how a different year, which happened to have a quite unusual weather pattern, changes the outcome.

Three single vineyards make this miracle possible: Farrside (black soils planted to 114, 115, 113, 667, 777 and MV6 clones), Sangreal (red soils planted to 114 and 115 clones) and Tout Près (above the other two, with clones that will acclimatise and mutate over time; currently 113, 114, 115, 667, 777 and MV6 to become the Tout Près clone).

A truly simple and elegant design identifies their bottles, accurately matching the liquid content, only to be enjoyed in fine company, I would suggest.

magic in collingwood

The recent trip to Melbourne was full of little fascinating moments. Saturday was a sunny winter day, ideal to visit again the Mornington Peninsula, so we started by energizing our systems with a combo of caffeine, juice and a couple of baked items on Oxford street. As usual at Proud Mary we first ordered their magic of the day.

We got to seat by the front window, which faces one of those amazing industrial buildings, former home of Foy & Gibson Pty. Ltd., now renovated as a residential space. Simple brick with generous windows make it look like the ideal urban place to live in.

It was time for the second decision of the day: which juice, freshly squeezed, to complete our morning stimulation process. I chose a Molina made out of lemon, beetroot, carrot, orange and ginger (right glass), while San appropriately opted for a Miss Molly, which contains apple, watermelon, fresh mint, strawberry and cucumber (left glass).

One strawberry and chocolate muffin for her and a cheesecake brownie for me became our only solid companion for the rest of the morning. We were then ready to navigate the M1, which was going to take us to our destination in Main Ridge: 10MXT.

pacific ocean power

Although down under we are in the middle of the winter, yesterday was a beautiful day and I decided to go swimming in the afternoon. It was windy, but I didn't really notice the implications of such circumstance until I came out of the water. There was nobody but myself in the pool, what made it even more enjoyable. Besides the refreshing immersion that fully stimulated my exhausted neurones, for me the other remarkable virtue of swimming in ocean water, or sometimes just floating, is how hungry it makes me feel. 

After a rejuvenating session in such a gorgeous rock pool, I needed to feed my stomach, but it wasn't late enough to consider dinner. So, why not having another little "merienda" on the balcony while watching the early sunset? There was a piece of bread from Bourke street, and some other leftovers from the weekend: rotolo di capra (goat) cheese, a portion of cacciatorini (small rustic salami, made out of pork, sea salt, peppercorns, red wine, garlic, and the always delicious dextrose, sodium nitrate (251) and something else known as "starter culture") 100% Australian, produced in the Northern Rivers, in addition to another cheese which was new for me...

Since last week we got William Downie's jewels, it was more than appropriate to calm those after-swimming basic instincts of mine with a generous glass of his 2010 Yarra Valley pinot noir. At this point, I'm still not sure if this one or his Mornington Peninsula pinot is my favourite...

Nothing better to finish this much needed interlude than a Kakawa chocolate from William street: this time it was the turn for one of their hazelnut boulders, all by itslef.

ratatouille for ever

When it comes to French favourites "ratatouille" is definitely one of them, especially when the garlic exceeds the original formula. All by itself plus  parmigiano reggiano on top was all what it took to share another inspiring moment on planet Earth.

Spanish extra virgin olive oil, roasted red capsicum, roaster zucchini, roasted eggplant, tomatoes, garlic, onion, a pinch of salt, and a few secret herbs is all what it is. A generous amount is our preference, so the sencond day it tastes even better.

Good bread is always welcome to our table, but in this case it even made more sense. To match the French approach, we chose a classic baguette with mild kalamata olives from our recent discovery Victoire, magnifique!

It was a fast, clean and easy meal. Full of intense and resuscitating flavours. Ideal when there is not much time ahead, of course I'm talking about the second day. The first one is not quite fast. So, we decided to also go for a fast, clean and easy dessert, which one more time came from William street: passion fruit rocky road.

breakfast & "merienda"

It is Saturday, finally. A little extra time to focus on the crucial energetic segments of the day. I wanted a simple breakfast, but a bit more colourful than usual. Strawberries, greek style yogurt, cereal (with no raisins, please!) and delicious Maya Sunny 100% raw stringy bark honey from Illford (NSW); we don't like the iron bark one as much.

A quite easy start followed by nothing else than exquisite passion fruit, and my machinery was ready to deal with another sunny morning in Syd City. Pure and simple.

Later on we decided to explore another bakery in town: Victoire, a suggestion from David Kakawa. There is a shop in Rozelle and another one in Cammaray. We bought a couple of different baguettes, an olive-rustic one and a levain (sourdough -no yeast-) one. I also couldn't resist trying their meringue-lemon tart, why not?

Well, the adventure was totally worth it. Once we got back home a warm cup of tea, Mariage Freres' Tropical blend, and a tonka-vanilla chocolate from Kakawa became the right "merienda". I guess this is the Spanish equivalent to the English afternoon tea with biscuits, but a bit less formal.