galician summer (IV)

Monday turned out to be another great sunny day, perhaps even better than the previous 48 hours. We unilaterally decided to extend our weekend mind frame, and one more time we ended up hanging around the pool and the marble table under the centenary oak tree.

I guess this was our quintessential summer diet: pimientos de Padron, jamon and chorizo iberico de bellota, anchoas del Cantabrico, tomato and lettuce salad, Arzua and Cebreiro cheeses, Cea bread, plus a great albarino. 

Also coming from Meano, this wine is becoming our summer greatest hit, together with all the Pedralongas and their Vendetta in particular. The 2008 Leirana, together with the barrica one have been majestically maximizing our fantastic summer mood.

Generally speaking I adore anchovies, especially the ones coming from the Cantabric sea, like the heavenly ones we had the privilege to digest on Monday.

galician summer (III)

The weekend finished in a quite similar tune, so we revisited the easy going formula of cooking at home, after a nice morning in the pool.

The local mub crab has a beige and red tone, and it doesn't really come with any mud around it. The best way to enjoy it for me ends with the unique flavour and texture of the corals, together with all the elements around them. So far, Lyn seems not to be the biggest fan of this specific part of the crab.

This time we had an albarino I brought last May from Meano. A 2009 Cepas Vellas (old vines) from the Do Ferreiro winery.

"Merluza a la gallega" was our fish of the day: Galician style hake. Probably the fish I could eat every day. I've never seen in back in Syd City, but somehow it could compare to jewfish.

galician summer (II)

Last Saturday was a gorgeous day, so we decided to lay low. 

We cooked at home a crab, here know as "centolla", and some small "necoras". Very different flavours and textures, but certainly compatible ones.

Another albarino would have been a perfect choice, but Lyn felt like bubbles, so we added an interesting bottle of cava: a 2006 Raventos i Blanc gran reserva de La Finca.

We continued with a semi vegetarian home grown cabbage with home grown leaks, red capsicum, onion and fresh shrimp.

Dessert was a cross over between a local home baked apples with honey from the property, plus some Canadian influenced chocolate (90%) cake. The outcome was brilliant.

galician summer (I)

While in Galicia we always visit Sada, just like Franco used to do every summer, but definitely not because of this reason.

We do love "camarones", a perfect starter.

Albarinos are ideal for seafood, so it had to be one of them: in this ocassion it was a 2007 Veigadares, from Salvaterra.

The fish I chose was "lubina a la espalda", although the sardines in this little town are usually over the top.

And we concluded the ceremonies with a flan "de la casa": pure and simple.

mex mix

Our last trip to Texas has developed a renovated admiration towards Mexican and Tex Mex gastronomy. We are not fully into it, but we can certainly enjoy a few characteristic elements, which this weekend was going to bring back to the table. 

Earlier this month we tried a riesling beyond our previous encounters with this type of wine, which never made it for me. However this was a total surprise, and we decided to repeat. The result of drinking this second bottle of 2010 Crawford River riesling was a confirmation of the initial positive impression. Again, this new discovery is made in Victoria, coming from a place called Condah, not too far from the border with SA.

Considering this was supposed to be nothing else than an easy lunch, we added one of our adored fruits, which while displaying a full on intense flavour it is very light. I bet we could have kilos of passion fruit without a single complain.

At this point we deserved something special to conclude our midday meal, and we kept the fruity approach, even if not as full of fruit. As announced last Friday,  Kakawa's banana caramel striked back, so we decided it was fair to support this noble re-release gravitating around a magical combination of banana, caramel, roasted coconut and milk chocolate.

heads up

Craving for seafood is not an ideal situation when there is no such thing around. That's why the art of keeping some interesting leftovers in the refrigerator, can turn things around in unimaginable rewarding ways. 

My refrigerator incursion started with a portion of mud crab head, which made a tremendous tapa. It came from that edgy front part of the shell, not far from the eyes, which basically is the soft shell right before it becomes the real new shell. 


Dinner was unintentionally meant to be a heads promenade, so the following move took me to a juicy mulloway head. I simply boiled it for no more than five minutes, together with onion, peas and a fresh tomato to be decorated with extra virgin olive oil. In order to execute this kind of operation I always need plenty of time, and I literally mean it, to go through every single bone and cavity. I can't afford to do it if I happen to be starving, but otherwise it is a highly inspiring process. 

The menu was ideal for an albariño. There was one only bottle left, a 2010 Leirana, which I picked up in the small town of Meaño last May. That day I was going to meet Rodri, the young brain behind the winery. He had suddenly left somewhere else two hours away, so he called his father, who I ended up meeting together with his gracious mother. They showed me all around, and I even got a free bag of lemons, as well as lettuce they grow right close to one of their vineyards.

My weekly pilgrimage to the temple of chocolate in Syd City had its reward: the  cardamom ginger bon bon, which Jin Sun offered last Friday. I don't think it was anything new, but apparently it had been out of the menu for a while. The flavour was genuinely exciting. I could easily eat a full box of them.

light lunch by ear(s)

Having a perfect flat white at Single Origin Roasters last June I got to discover a work by Dan O'Toole (aka EARS), which covers one of the walls on the Reservoir cafe. Danish cook mega star Rene Dedzepi was there last month, twitting about  their exceptional espresso. I usually go for their flat white.

A few days later I was able to track him down, and last week we met at his studio in Leichhardt. His work on canvas seems to have developed quite a bit from his wall painting, which as he described is more of an opportunity to have a really good time. The "Bee Keeper", above, was probably the painting I liked the most.

We met quite early in the afternoon, so I didn't have much time to even consider a good lunch. It was more of a thought about how to fuel my system with potentially light but tasty food. Fruit, salad and bread was kind of an instant solution, which I actually very much enjoy, as long as it is all really fresh.

revisiting april in winter (II)

Gembrook was our destiantion in the Yarra Valley, where we arrived in a sunny Saturday afternoon. We met Adrew, who was working on his coming 2011 shiraz, as his hands were showing.

Initially we discovered The Wanderer shiraz, while celebrating my birthday at Tetsuya's a couple of years ago. During this visit we were able to try all his new wines, including a nice pinot noir and a carinyena he makes in Girona, the Catalan province where elBulli or Celler Can Roca also happen to be located. For this Spanish adventure he very appropriately renamed his brand el Wanderer.

A very experimental mix for my standards produced my last meal of the day highlighted by shitake mushrooms, which have been one of my favourites for years, after trying them in Vancouver about ten years ago. Cauliflower, garlic, farfalle pasta, coriander, extra virgin olive oil, blood limes and parmigiano reggiano

The combination of flavours and quite distant textures provided a quite exciting ingestion. I will certainly try this recipe again. Last week, on Wednesday,  Kakawa's flavour du jour was orange and rhubarb, so I brought a few of their majestic bon bons. As always, it was a privileged gift of the gods. 

revisiting april in winter (I)

Last April we had one more memorable trip to Victoria. We were able to manage a quick escape to the Yarra Valley as well as another one to the Mornington Peninsula. In this second one we ended up at Main Ridge Estate's cellar door, in Red Hill.

There we met Nat, a civil engineer who happens to know what a great pinot noir is about. In particular we love his 2009 Half Acre, which we fully enjoyed yesterday, after letting it rest for almost four months.

I cooked salmon in the oven following Lyn's famous recipe with dill, asparagus and a stellar tzatziki we made for the first time with sheep yogurt.

Passion fruit and mango for dessert sounded like the right combination to finish our day. The only problem was we didn't have passion fruit or mango at home, so we replaced it with an "alter ego" created by the Kakawa chocolate masters.

beating the root

Beta vulgaris may suggest some useless pharmaceutical product, or even a  vulgar beta software update. It actually reminds me of the last album by QOTSA: "Era Vulgaris". Anyway, the truth is that it happens to be something much healthier, with an amazing deep colour, best known as beetroot. In addition to its very unique and moderately sweet flavour, I find it is always an extremely inspiring element to play with. Yesterday Lyn and myself were talking about having a day of "greens", so in that case I thought it should be a colourful one.

Only a few minutes of peeling and chopping before it all got together in the oven for about forty minutes. Easy and clean. Our colour palette was pretty impressive: deep purple, gold, orange and diverse tones of brown.

Dessert was totally unthinkable just a few days ago. It certainly kept the evening's main theme alive until the very last second. I am talking about an exclusive creation coming from the divine masters of chocolate in Syd City. 

Yes, it was their brand new beetroot rocky road marshmallow. Unfortunately at this stage it is not available in their creative temple, also know as the shop, on William. But there is an interesting restaurant in Pyrmont where fish seems to fly -not necessarily in a literal sense- and, if lucky, you may be able to taste it.

my jewfish baptism

I first tried jewfish (aka mulloway) at Sean's Panaroma in North Bondi last month, and I loved it. I had seen it in the fish market plenty of times, but I had no idea what to do with it. So, at this point it was time to give it a try; clearly a quite beautiful branchial creature.

The first question was how to cook it, and therefore how to cut it. I ended up going for the cutlets, which for some reason in the kitchen seem to be more manageable.

It looked like a good a occasion to explore new territories, so I chose a few unsual ingredients in our diet: Australian blood limes (a hybrid between Citrus australasica sanguinea -the red finger lime- and the Rangpur lime -Citrus x limonia-), and kaffir limes (a lime native to Indochinese and Malesian ecoregions in Laos, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and adjacent countries).

Korean enoki mushrooms, broccoli, garlic, and continental parsley also were part of this suddenly experimental and multicultural equation. As always, this quasi sacramental exercise was going to be lubricated with nothing but a generous dose of Spanish extra virgin olive oil.

tortilla española brunch

Although you may be thinking about a Mexican gastronomic incident, this new  episode of our culinary highlights has nothing to do with it. In Spain the word tortilla only refers to this other concept. It took me along time, as well as leaving the once -roughly eighty years ago- Spanish republic, to realize there was something else also called tortilla, which had nothing to do with the ones I had been eating at home all my life.

It's hard to believe how a mere "tortilla de patata or "tortilla española" can become some sort of addictive meal, but it does when dealing with good ones. While in Spain it is a very common meal, ideally with a green salad, I think this was only the second or third time Lyn proposed to enjoy it down under. Potatoes, onions, eggs, extra virgin olive oil and a pinch of salt is all what it takes. 

Such a common Spanish feature has multiple forms and formulas depending on which corner of the Iberian Peninsula you happen to be in. My favourite is the "Betanzos style" one, named after the little Galician town where they make it this way. Its main characteristic are the runny eggs and fried potatoes, which make it juicy and ideal to maneuver with a fresh and crunchy piece of bread, and a fork; no knives are meant to be on the plate.

This sunny Saturday was probably the best day of the week to make it. We were able to keep all the windows open, so we didn't stink afterwards. Serving it on the balcony was with no doubt the best plan; for some reason outdoors it always tastes better, especially during the summer months.

A basic plate of sliced tomatoes under a moderate drop of virgin olive oil and white wine vinegar usually becomes a great counterpoint. "Pimientos de Padrón" (or Padrón peppers, also named after another small town in Galicia where they are grown) would have been the perfect addition, but spring/summer is more their season. The whole experience was matched by a cool 2008 Dalwhinnie Moonambel chardonnay, plus a crucially crunchy small baguette from Bourke St.

big brother is here

Finally the magnums from William Downie arrived last week. After placing our order in January, the 2010 Mornington Peninsula 1'5 litre pinot noir bottles made it all the way from Yarragon to Darlinghurst.

The grapes (MV6 clones) grown on the red volcanic clay loam soils of Merricks Grove (VIC) have proven to make one of the top pinot hits we have been lucky enough to discover while in Australian shores. It's very precise and detailed, but built for the long haul, according to Bill.

I wonder if we will be able to keep full any of these memorable urns of joy until, at least, 2025...

ox on the balcony

This morning I was dreaming about green thick juicy asparagus, but what I found later on at the grocery was kind of uninspiring. I saw spinach, which always works for me, and pak choy. I thought both could provide a little bit of a green variety on the plate and the palate. A few sliced tomatoes with extra virgin oil and balsamic vinegar would add a little bit of colour to the whole dinner ensemble on the balcony.

It felt like a good day for red meat, so we revisited the tender eye fillet of a grass fed ox from Hudson Meats on Crown. I like it rare, so the cooking was going to be minimal: a simple "vuelta y vuelta" technique.

A pinch of salt and the mandatory garlic were the only addition to start the cooking, which didn't even take twenty minutes. We were both exhausted after a  late night following another long dinner at Tetsuya's the previous day. Unfortunately I didn't have any energy to simply decorate the plate; too bad.

The ending cleanser was a colourful and incredibly tasteful passion fruit, which for some mysterious reason always reaches platinum status in our private ranking of amazing tastes.