Lunch in Mansfield

Saturday dinner

Mexican Night

Olives, olives, olives.

Last night's dinner featured black olives in each course.

A cold platter to start with green and black olives in there.

The last course, with candied black olives as a garnish.

(Yes, that is beetroot under the chocolate mousse.)

I forgot to photograph the main course - a chicken, red & yellow peppers and black olives dish.

Easter Saturday Dinner

Twice baked (risen?) cheese soufflé.

Really light and yummy.  Gruyere cheese.

Roast Lamb.

Sliced in rings to the bone, stuffed the cuts and tied.

Plus bread & butter puddings, made with Hot X Buns.

Just because I'm an atheist, it doesn't mean I shouldn't eat nice things at Easter.

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No Gorgons died...

Pumpkin & Gorgonzola Tart.

St Valentine's Day Dinner

Coincidentally, our half anniversary.

(Sesame crusted pork cutlets with mango salsa)

Margaret's xty-xth Birthday Dinner

Hot night, cold salad.

Spinach, strawberry, chicken, avocado, celery, red onion, flaked almonds, pomegranate seeds, dressing.

Election Night II

The planks of the platforms, starter selection.

(Note: the money was pretend.)

Election Night Menu

(Click to enlarge)

Non-Virgin Chocolate Cake

From our 'Mayan Apocalypse' dinner - the non virgin (de-floured) chocolate cake.

The tubing was to a small bladder under the heart that made it 'beat'.  Bu-bump, bu-bump...

Bastille Day Dinner

Margaret's table setting for the meal.

Fleur de Lis serviettes

The centre piece: a small statuette Martin brought back for me from Paris,  a bottle of brandy, a few red, white & blue things and a small replica gargoyle from Notre Dame.

Initially dinner was going to be for three.

Then five.

Then six.

Then eight.

All that changed was the main: had been planning a French Café style steak and triple cooked chips.  Not too happy doing steaks properly for eight people at once so went to Plan B.

And so, the meal:

Pink fizzy drink (The Arrogant Frog brand, I couldn't resist.)
Musette de Paris CD on as mood music. (Stereotypical French piano accordion music)

Starter: 
French Onion Soup.
◊ cooked 2kg of sliced, sauteed onions in the slow cooker for 6hrs.  Will definitely do that again.

Main 
Boeuf Bourguignon
◊ Made at lunch time and put in the hay-box for the afternoon and then into the oven when the potatoes went in.

Potato Dauphinoise
◊ Nothing different here, potatoes, onion, garlic, cream & milk baked until crisp on top and soft in the middle.

Green Salad
◊ With French Dressing, of course.  Proper vinaigrette, home made.

Dessert
Tarte Tatin and cream.
◊ Used Golden Delicious apples and had enough for a double layer of apple crescents (cut into eighths).

Cheese platter was abandoned due to lack of interest.

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Blooms Day Dinner

June 16th, Bloom's Day.  

The day on which the story in James Joyce's novel 'Ulysses' takes place.

A good enough reason for a themed dinner.

Starter: Pumpkin & Gorgonzola Tart; served with a dressed rocket salad.

At one point, Leopold Bloom stops for a Gorgonzola sandwich and a glass of burgundy.  That's the Gorgonzola connection.  I found a potato and Gorgonzola tart recipe which enhanced the Irish connection but, as I want potato in the main course, have opted for pumpkin.

Main: Pork Loin Chops with Colcannon and Guinness Gravy.

Colcannon is like an up-market bubble and squeak: potato, cabbage, bacon medley.

Dessert: Banbury Cakes.

Flaky pastry with a currant and ginger filling.

Again, Leopold eats some, feeds some to the ducks.

Coffee, vanilla fudge & Irish Cream.

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A Long Weekend Menu

Okay, here’s the plan:

Saturday

Slice and marinate meat for beef jerky.

Make Lemon Tart for Sunday dinner.

Starter: Black Pepper Prawns

Main: Tandoori Lamb Loin Chops with salad and pappadums

Wine: Traminer Riesling

Dessert: Poached Quinces with ginger and yoghurt.

Sunday

 Put beef jerky in dehydrator.

Starter: No, better not.

Main: Home-made spinach & ricotta cannelloni.

Wine: a sparkling Shiraz.

Dessert: Lemon* Tart & Cream.

Monday (Queen’s Birthday Holiday)

Try not to eat all the beef jerky.

A ‘Jubilee’ Dinner

(requested by the UK elements.)

Starter: Almond Soup

Wine: Chardonnay.

Main: Roast Beef, roast potatoes, various vegetables.

Wine: Shiraz.

Dessert: Queen of Puddings (of course!).

Tuesday to Friday

Heart Starter: Short black.

Lunch: Something light.

Main: Something poached.

Dessert: Ahhh…I don’t think so.

Stay tuned for a post-weekend update:

as Robbie Burns was known to say, the best laid plans

of mice and men and, indeed possums, ‘gang aft agley’.
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* First post had lime instead of lemon.
Error picked up by external quality auditor.
Corrective Action Report initiated.

The (F)easter Holidays

I'm an atheist, so Easter wasn't that much of a religious experience although I am looking forward to tonight's debate between Richard Dawkins and Archbishop George Pell on the ABC.

No, Easter was a Feaster for the Burwood crew.

Friday Breakfast - Hot Cross Buns.  Of course, I had waited a year for them.

Friday Dinner:
Mushrooms Kilpatrick as a starter.
Roast Lamb, baked potatoes and salad for main
Individual Bread & Butter Puddings, made with hot cross buns, for dessert.

The lamb is unusual - it is cut to the bone in a series of slices that makes the leg look like a pile of chops held together by the bone.  A stuffing made of parsley, garlic, capers, anchovies, breadcrumbs and olive oil is smeared between the slices and then the whole lot tied up with string and roasted.  To carve you just slice down the bone and there you have it.  Yummy chunks of aromatic roast lamb.

Made some microwave marmalade while all this was going on.

Saturday Breakfast was toast and marmalade.

Saturday lunch was wraps made with leftover lamb, stuffing and garlic yoghurt.

Saturday dinner was sous vide lamb backstraps (58degC, 2hrs), browned on the BBQ,  sliced and served on a bed of home-made hommus, garnished with garlic yoghurt, thinly sliced red onions and roasted walnuts.  Tomato side salad.

Sunday breakfast was boiled eggs.  Tried Heston Blumenthal's method (bring to boil, cover, take off heat, wait 6 min and serve) but slightly overcooked them - yolks just past runny.  Need to practice.  Plus toast, croissants, chocolate...

No Sunday lunch needed.

Sunday dinner:
Pumpkin and Fetta 'tarts'; experimented with taco shells.  Tasted great but hard to manage with a knife and fork.
Lamb with cauliflower mash and chickpea pancakes.
Almond cakes with pureed quince and Greek Yoghurt.

Monday lunch - toasted sandwiches with a medley filling from the leftovers.

Monday Dinner: Bung-Ho Pork.  Named after Margaret's Dad who liked the dish and also had the habit of walking into room with a general greeting "Bung-ho!".  The meat is belly pork, usually slow cooked in a soy/sherry/ginger/star spice/cinnamon mix.  Today I am trying a variation in a pressure cooker I got for my birthday.  Served with rice and sliced spring onions.

The diet starts tomorrow.
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Saturday night meal - Feb 25th

Another flavour experimenting meal:

Pre dinner nibbles:

1. Potato crisps with Brie gel, vanilla infused olive oil and ground coffee.
This was good.  I did it last week but used Pringles then.  They allowed a more uniform presentation.  Chips are a bit hit or miss at far as size and shape goes.

2. Beetroot chips with Brie gel, mashed walnuts and fresh fig.
Really nice but hindered a bit but the beet root chips - they were all very small.

Starter

Had eight for dinner so opted not to do the poached eggs but still wanted to do the asparagus and liquorice.  So did asparagus, smoked salmon, cream cheese and liquorice, based on the fact that dill is often paired with salmon and has aniseed flavours.  Worked well.

Main:

Chicken and strawberry salad.  Successively layered on the plate: baby spinach, sliced avocado, sliced bbq-ed chicken (still warm), sliced strawberries, finely sliced celery, finely diced red onion.  Dressed with a strawberry vinagrette.

Dessert:

Homemade gingerbread, fresh yellow nectarines, rum sauce, vanilla ice-cream.
One of the guests brought a very pleasant muscat that went very well with the dessert.

With coffee:

Dark chocolate and cumin truffles.  (What sort of fool picks a 38deg day to make truffles?  Oh.)

Having a lot of fun playing with the flavour matching thing at the moment.
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An Adventure in Flavour Pairing

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An interesting meal tonight:

Appetiser: A brie gel piped onto Pringles, topped with a few drops of vanilla infused olive oil and sprinkled with ground coffee.  Had with beer.

The coffee added interesting graininess and went very well with the brie; both have a similar after taste.

Starter (above): Asparagus, sautéed in a little butter with a star anise, served with a poached egg, some diced liquorice, and a  sprig of Tarragon.

Everything fitted together very well - especially the asparagus and the liquorice.

Main: Chicken tenders fried and wrapped in bacon, served with broccoli, brie and croutons.

Nothing very adventurous here but the flavours all matched brilliantly.

Dessert: Banana poached in a vanilla/citrus syrup, served on a bed of chocolate 'gravel', with a wedge of tomato sauce ice-cream and garnished with crushed Amaretti biscuits.

This was the one I had the most fears about.  Not the chocolate (a 50/50 mix of milk and dark, chopped in a food processor until a coarse 'crumb') but the ice-cream.  On its own it tasted a bit like cold Thousand Island dressing but, eaten with the banana and chocolate, it fitted in beautifully.

Most of these courses owe their inspiration to the Food Pairing site but the only one that was a direct copy was the Pringles and Brie Gel; the rest were modified.  For example, rather than make the Tomato Sauce Ice-cream from scratch, I took a good vanilla ice-cream and stirred tomato sauce through it and then refroze it.  The asparagus starter owes its inspiration to a comment in Heston Blumenthal's book (Heston Blumenthal at Home) where he said asparagus and liquorice are a good combination.  He was right.
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Green Rhubarb

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A few folk queried the safety of green rhubarb in an earlier post.  See Here.
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It does it no justice...

(Click to enlarge)

Last weekend was Margaret's xxth birthday.

We went to No 35, a restaurant on the 35th floor of the Sofitel Hotel in Melbourne.

Ten course tasting menu, with matched wines.  Four and a half hours of foody heaven!

The above list is a reminder but in no way shows the care and thought that went into the food.

A brilliant night.

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