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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
