Day 74 - Kevin's See-You-After-Cairns Dinner - Oregano Restaurant, Sydney - Duck & Cherry Pie

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Done with one adventure, onto another. On short notice from my daytime Sydney employer, I've been asked to move from Sydney to Cairns. It's a smaller town located on the north-east corner of Australia, and is well-known for its close proximity to the Great Barrier Reaf. For a number of reasons, I've decided to accept the offer to move to Cairns for the next three'ish months. There are several pros to the move:

Cheaper living - Sydney is proving more expensive than originally antncipated ... I will definitely be able to stretch my dollar further in Cairns.

Weather: The weather in Sydney, relatively speaking, hasn't been the greatest. I was getting a little tired of cold, cloudy and wet days, which has become the norm as of late.

Seasonal advantages / timing: October through March is a tough time to enjoy much swimming in the ocean around north-east Australia. These are the months when the increased jellyfish population tends to make a nuissance of itself. If I go now, I will beat jellyfish season by a few months.

Outdoor activities / adventures: Cairns is one of Australia's best areas for kitesurfing this time of year! And there, my friends, was the deciding factor.

So, to see everyone I've come to know in Sydneya one last time before my departure, I invited 15 or so friends (new and old) together for a See-You-After-Cairns dinner at Oregano, a restaurant I walk by twice every day (on my way to, and from, my gym). It seemed to be a popular spot with the locals, whose lead I was happy to follow.

I was really, really happy to be able to get as many people together for dinner as I did . For such a short period of time that I've been in Sydney, I've met some really great people with whom I've become quite close. These people, and several others who joined us for after-dinner drinks, have really added to my Australian experience thusfar. To bring them all together over dinner was a lot of fun, and it was great to see everyone get along as well as they did. * Minus, of course, for the food fight that broke out after dinner ...

Oregano is a Meditarranean restaurant located in Little Italy (go figure) which I suspected would cater to most everyone's tastes. Feeling adventurous, as usual, the duck and cherry pie spoke to my inner foodie. (Can those really go together in a pie filling? Why yes, yes they can ...)

Great dishes were enjoyed by all, and dinner was followed with drinks, clubbing, and some early-morning World Cup support of Team Germany. And, at 12:01 a.m., myself and the other Canadians at the table were able to wish everyone a "Happy Canada Day!" More on that in tomorrow's post ...

Recipe for duck and cherry pie below c/o Food24.com, with some of my own additions. Do yourselves and favor and buy readymade puff pastry, unless you really want to bother with scratch.

Opa!

* You didn't really believe we started a food fight in a restaurant, did you?! Come on ...

Ingredients

2 roasted ducks, (roughly 1 pound duck meat, removed)

1 onion, sliced

185 g bacon, chopped

15 ml fresh thyme

440 ml chicken stock

125 ml port

1/2 cup pine nuts

1 x 410 g can black cherries with juice

Salt and pepper, to taste

a little cornflour mixed into a paste with water

200 g readymade puff pastry

1 egg, lightly beaten

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Remove the meat from the carcass.Heat 30 ml of the duck fat in a pan. Fry the onion and bacon until lightly golden. Add the thyme, stock, port, cherries, pine nuts, juice and duck meat. Season. Bring to the boil, reduce and thicken with cornflour. Spoon the mixture into a pie dish. Cover with the pastry and decorate with leaves and patterns. Make a steam hole in the top or use a pie funnel. Glaze with egg and bake for 30 minutes or until the pastry is all puffed up, golden and crispy.

Day 69 - Sydney Good Food & Wine Show, Sydney - The Perfect Grilled Steak

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Yet another food-celebrity-sighting experience for Kevin!

As I've explained on a previous blog posting, I brought 3 cookbooks with me to Australia. One of these was "Surfing the Menu", written by a couple of aussie celeb chefs ("Bender and Curtis") who have their own cooking show of the same name. "Surfing the Menu" ... "Kitesurfing the Menu" ... any linkage between the two?? Perhaps.

I went with an aussie mate of mine to the Sydney Food & Wine Show. Not unlike other food & wine shows, lots of food suppliers are there to sell / promote their products: food vendors, wine purveyors, the obligatory Ginsu Knife Guy who attends EVERY home show possible ... you get the picture.

One of the differences about this show was its Celebrity Stage, where various australian celebrity chefs put on half-hour shows for live audiences over the course of the three-day event. Bill Grainger was there, as was Kylie Kwong and (as you guessed it) so were Bender & Curtis.

Fourth row, aisle seats, Kevin's taller than all the coo-ing 60-year-old ladies in front of him .... perfect.

Because it was the last live show of the day (I'm sure they were pretty tired after 3-days of shows, promotions, attending events, etc ...), things got a little silly near the end of it. Think food fight, only they're professional chefs ... so you can imagine that they REALLY know how to have a good go at it!

Before the show started, we were wandering the showroom aisles, when we walked by a booth for an australian breast cancer foundation hosted by (you guessed it) Bender & Curtis. The deal was anyone could donate $10 and get an autograph + picture with them while they laid there in their pink-sheeted bed.

Naturally, I paid $20.

Naturally, I "happened to have" my copy of Surfing The Menu with me for signing. (There have been larger coincidences in the world ...)

Naturally, I got into bed with them for a picture. (Come on, I named my blog after them! What else was I supposed to do??!! lol)

Oh look, there I am in bed with them! (I'm sure this has several of you thoroughly confused ... well, maybe not all of you ... I dunno.)

After watching their live show, my mate (who is a pretty capable guy in the kitchen himself) and I were in a do-it-yourself dining mood. There are a number of steak houses throughout Sydney where you can pick out a raw cut of meat, then cook it yourself on the restaurants' huge, industrial-grade, communal on-site barbecues .

We ended up in The Rocks, an area just off Sydney Harbour, full of old pubs and trendy restaurants. We found a grill-it-yourself steak house, loaded our plates with side orders at the buffets and gorged down on barbecued goodness.

For tips on the "Perfect Grilled Steak", something tells me that Moreton's Steakhouse is probably an organization in-the-know. Here's some advice from the boys at Moreton's:

** Go directly to the butcher. Don't Skimp On the Beef: size matters. Steaks are 1-inch to 1 1/2-inch are best for grilling. A thin cut is likely to get dried out.

** Before grilling, all meat should be brought to room temperature.

** If you're working with good meat (prime quality), there should be no reason to over-season or marinate.

** A good cut of meat will always have some marbling (fat) for flavor, so don't go too lean when shopping.

** Marbling is also key, says Fritsch, because the fat throughout the steak gives it great flavor. It should be USDA Prime Aged Beef. If your butcher does not have this, the next best grade is Choice.

** Bring Steaks Out of the Cold: Have steaks at room temperature before grilling.

** Check the Oil: Lightly oil the grilling rack before putting steaks on (it keeps meat from sticking and cracking while keeping the natural juices in).

** Get the Grill Hot: Preheat grill to 600 to 800 degrees F and keep it at this temperature for 30 to 45 minutes before putting steaks on.

** Avoid the Flip-Flop: Only flip once after five minutes of grilling.

** Ditch the Fork: Use tongs or a spatula (A fork allows juices to spill out).

** Don't Perform Surgery with a Serrated Knife: To see if steak is finished, press on it with the palm of your hand. It will feel spongy when rare, have some resistance when cooked to medium and be firm when well done.

Rare: Squeeze the pad at the base of your thumb. It should feel spongy and feel very little resistance.
Medium: Press on the middle of the palm of your outstretched hand. It should feel firm.
Well Done: Squeeze the base of your small finger. It should feel firm with no give.

Day 62 - Swissotel Hotel, Sydney - Sydney Foodbloggers' High Tea - Lemon Meringue Pie

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Here's where my food obsession begins to get a little creepy ... although, apparently "I am not alone".

Once I signed up for my blog account, and gave it a name, welcome messages from other Sydney-area food bloggers started pouring in. It didn't take too long before one of them proposed a meeting place for our little on-line community to get together and talk food. Before meeting in-person, naturally I had several pre-conceived notions of what "my people" would be like; perhaps a combination of (pocket-protector computer geeks + anal culinarians with zero social life)? I wasn't sure to be honest.

Glad to say I was WAY off. The group was very diverse - an even balance of women and men, both young and older, several of them had moved to Sydney from other countries, most authored their blogs based on their personal food passion (vegetarian, vegan, dessert-lovers, ...) and all, in one way or another, admitted it was perhaps a little odd to spend as much time as we do blogging about food ... "but who cares".

The meeting place was the Swissotel, a swank hotel in Sydney's CBD ("Central Business District"). Once initial intros were out of the way, we all turned our attention to the high tea buffet which was waiting for our arrival.

Aged cheeses, fresh fruit, dainty sandwiches, frilly puddings, little cakes, coffees and teas ... all the usual suspects were there. And who doesn't love a chocolate fondue? Nooobody.

Three plates later and I was done-like-dinner, ready to get on with the rest of my day (I had a cake baking contest / auction to get to ... more on that in the next blog post).

My fave treat was probably the mini lemon meringue tart (I had many). So good. No mystery behind making the lemon filling for these pies, as all you have to do is follow the directions on any brand-name cake filling. The magic, however, is in the the pastry. Here's my Grammy's (on my Dad's side) recipe:

*** Soon to come - awaiting recipe to be emailed from Mom ...

Day 62 - The Book Kitchen, Sydney - Pumpkin Pancakes w/ Duck Confit and Tomato Reduction

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Big day ahead, with mostly food-related activities on my to-do list. So, what else to do for breakfast but have something truly over-the-top.

The night before, I didn't go to sleep (at all). Late shift working at the bar where I was bartending, off at 7 a.m., and I had a cake to finish off for an annual charity cake auction. (More on that in a blog post to follow) Once I dropped off my cake at 11 a.m.'ish, I headed to The Book Kitchen for brunch. Its location was slightly hidden in my neighbourhood, and took a bit of effort to find, but once I arrived there was no doubting its popularity with the locals.

As indicated by its name, The Book Kitchen also has for sale a pretty sizeable collection of high-end cookbooks (which the Kitchen's cooking team use for ideas / food inspiration). As I have a bit of a cookbook problem, in that I have too many and continue to purchase more and more, and enjoy a creative meal, I had a feeling this was going to be my kind of place.

Yup, I was right.





For those of you who aren't familiar with "duck confit", it's basically duck meat cooked slowly in (lots of) duck fat at a low temperature. The idea is that the long cooking time tenderizes the meat, with the extra fat providing lots of flavour.

I won't get into duck confit on this blog (I won't do it justice, and it's a bit laborious), but will instead gladly suggest a recipe for pumpkin pancakes. Definitely a more interesting option that the traditional, North American white pancake.

Recipe courtesy of SouthernFood.About.Com.

INGREDIENTS:

2 cups all purpose flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground allspice
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups solid pack pumpkin
3 eggs
1 cup milk
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp. vanilla extract
4 oz. chopped pecans (optional)

PREPARATION:

Sift dry ingredients and set aside. Using a large bowl, combine pumpkin, eggs, milk, oil, and vanilla. Add dry ingredients and stir until blended; stir in pecans just before ready to cook.

A hot greased griddle is best for cooking pancakes. Pour 1/4 cup batter onto griddle and cook until bubbles form and bottom is brown. Turn and brown the other side. Serve with warm pure Maple syrup. If preferred, omit the pecans from the batter and add to the syrup. Heat and pour over pumpkin pancakes.

Day 62 - Charity Cake Auction - The Midnight Shift, Sydney - Kate Moss's Burberry Blueberry Apology Cheesecake

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I'm hoping you all get a good laugh out of the following blog entry. If not, I'm clearly not doing my job entertaining you all properly, and I should just quit while I'm ahead (if only by a bit) ...

For a month or so in Sydney, I worked weekends as a bartender in a busy after-hours dance club in my neighbourhood. Good cash, nice co-workers ... lots of stories to share. lol One Friday night I was starting a shift when one of the other bartenders asked me if I was entering a cake into the annual charity cake auction the bar hosts every year, which was being held two days later. (As IF nobody told me about this before??!!) I had zero time to make anything myself, and the truth is that I was short on an inspiring theme for my cake. Note: THIS is one of the many situation when it's key to have creative friends in your entourrage. Knowing that last some of last year's cake entries auctioned for more than $3000 (no joke) made me want to make sure I was entering something worthy.

My aussie friend Drew (all credit for my cake entry goes to Drew) had a great idea, sure to get everyone's auction-hands in the air. Background: Kate Moss (european supermodel, represents several big-name fashion labels, including Burberry) got caught doing drugs last year and pictures were published in some of the gossip magazines in the U. K. Big scandal. Lost contracts / money. Apologies went out through her publicist. The whole thing. Big story (apparently). Although I was only vaguely aware (interested?) of the story, Drew (whose makes his career as a very successful publicist) assured me a cake with this theme would be a big hit.

And so began "Kate Moss's Burberry Blueberry Apology Cheesecake", complete with cigarettes and Tic Tacs (what else to supermodels eat?), fake euros, fake drugs ... and a copy of her statement of apology to her fans. So tragic. *grin*

I entered my cake into the Best Decorated category. When I got the bar following judging, I'm sad to say my cake didn't even get an honourable mention. No ribbons for yours truly. :(

Here were my competitors, first place on the left, second in the middle ... the third place didn't deserve it. I was irrate.

The Professionally Decorated category really was amazing. Truly works of art which made you wonder whether or not they really were cakes at all.

(This is where I bring in the humour) The auction naturally had an "auctioneer" working the microphone, trying to get everyone to open their pocketbooks for charity. Cakes were brought out one-by-one. Before the auction began, a friend of mine remarked that they saw my cake second-in-line. (?? Which seemed quite odd given the huge number of entries, and that mine hadn't placed) Someone told the "auctioneer" I worked at the bar, I was asked to go up with my cake ... and then somehow (I'm still not sure how this happened) I was standing in front of a few hundred people, shirtless, trying to sell my cake. (Why does it seem I have a hard time keeping my shirt on??) Result: Kevin's cake sold for $250 for charity, lots of laughs (I think), and there may have been a picture in one of the local newspapers. *sigh* "It was all in the name in charity", though ... right?

Confession: I didn't make the cheesecake - I BOUGHT it. (I didn't have time, or the means, to bake it ... honest)

Truth is, I've make many a cheesecake in my day. I made so many cheesecake for girlfriends in university the nickname "Cheesecake Bitch" was beginning to stick (thankfully I lost it post-graduation). Cheesecakes are WAY easier to make than most people realize. The one thing you need? Time. You need to bake your cake slowly at a low temperature to avoid 'browning" your cake and to promote less "cracking".

** Note: Basic cheesecake recipe soon to come ...

Day 54 - Wallabies Rugby Union Match - Telstra Stadium, Olympic Park, Sydney - Spaghetti Bolognese

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Time to experience a true, Aussie sporting event: a Wallabies rugby union game!

The Wallabies are Australia's national rugby union team. The best players are chosen from rugby union teams across Australia, and take part in a number of well-attended matches throughout the year. B-i-g d-e-a-l. The equivalent of Canada's national hockey team ... if they were to play in tournaments throughout the year.

On an unusually cold Saturday night, canuck friends Lauren, Alex and I headed off to Telstra Stadium in Olympic Park (roughly 30 minutes west of Sydney) for the Wallabies' match against England. Impressive stadium, big crowd. Hard to imagine what the excitement level would have been like during the 200 Olympic Opening Ceremonies held in the same building.

The last time the two teams met in 2003, England was victorious, ensuring there were lots of english fans in attendance for our game, no doubt hoping for a repeat victory in their favor.

After joining the crowd in a rendition of "Advance, Australia, Advance" and "Waltzing Matilda", the game quickly got underway. Green and gold (Wallabies' colours) everywhere!

Two hours later, the result was Australia (34) / England (3).

As per ESPN, "Australia recorded an emphatic victory over under-strength England at Telstra Stadium, beating the world champions 34-3 without seriously breaking sweat. Although they led only 9-0 at half-time, Australia turned the screw in the second half and three tries in 20 minutes demonstrated the gulf in quality. England revisited the scene of their 2003 World Cup final triumph knowing they faced a potential damage-limitation exercise." And that's exactly what it was ...

Great game, great night. Hmm, maybe I should take up the sport while I'm here in Oz. (foreshadowing)

Given that we were all hungry and (surprisingly) chilled-to-the-bone from our rugby game (that's the last time I ever by "nose bleed" seats in an open-air stadium), we headed off to a local pub upon returning to Sydney in search of grub.

Has anyone else noticed that pub food is getting a lot less ... well ... "pubby"? Once upon a time, nobody would expect to see curries or Italian dishes on the menu ... yet, there they are.

It was no time to mess around with new culinary "explorations" - something tried, tested and true was in order: spaghetti bolgnese.

Classic Bolognese Sauce - Recipe:

2 tablespoons olive oil (you can use all olive oil or all butter, here)
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons onion, finely chopped
2 tablespoons celery, finely chopped
2 tablespoons carrot, finely chopped
3/4 pound minced or coarsely ground lean beef, veal or pork
Salt
1/2 cup milk
1 cup dry white wine
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
14 oz tinned Italian tomatoes (you can go up to 28 oz or 36 oz for more 'tomato' in the sauce), roughly chopped, with their juice

In a deep pot, heat the oil/butter. Add the chopped onion and saute briefly over medium heat until just translucent. Add the celery and carrot and cook gently for 2 minutes.

Add the minced beef, breaking it up with a fork. Add salt to taste, stir, and cook only until the meat has lost its raw, red color. Add the wine, turn the heat up to medium high, and cook, stirring occasionally, until all the wine has evaporated.

Turn the heat down to medium, add the milk and the nutmeg, and cook until the milk has evaporated. Stir frequently.

When the milk has evaporated, add the tomatoes and stir thoroughly. When the tomatoes have started to bubble, turn the heat down until the sauce cooks at the gentlest simmer, just an occasional bubble. Cook, uncovered, for a minimum of 3 to 4 hours, stirring occasionally. Taste and check for salt.

Serve over hot pasta.

Day 54 - First Surf Lesson - Bondi Beach, Sydney - Pancakes w/ Hot Raspberry Compote

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There are several outdoor sporting experiences not to be missed while in Australia: diving the Great Barrier Reaf, watching a Wallabies rugby union match, and (definitely) taking a surf lesson!

My aussie life-saver mate Drew and I were fortunate enough to win a free, two-person surf lesson at a recent costume party for the northern beaches life saving clubs. (as detailed in one of my previous posts) Free Bondi Beach surf lesson? AMAZING!

Because June is the winter season for Australians, the weather was perhaps a little on the cooler side (note: this is, of course, relative). Fortunately, this meant that the beach was relatively empty for our 10 am surf lesson. There were still, of course, lots of fitness-minded Bondi Beach residents who beat us to the beach, even at such an early hour on a Saturday morning.

Admitedly it was kind of a gloomy, grey day, but it was great weather for beginner surfers such as myself and Drew to "get our feet wet" (pun intended) and get some surfing how-to. All those surfers make it look sooo easy ...

Unfortunately, no pictures of either Drew or I in action. In summary: we got slammed around by the waves pretty much all morning (having a b-l-a-s-t in the process), Drew stood up on a wave before I did ... and nobody got eaten by sharks. (<- you had to know there was a shark coming somewhere, right?) lol

Before getting the day started, Drew and I found a local cafe to down some "brekky" and coffee. Compote is another great (and easy) topping for pancakes if you're trying to get away from the usual maple syrup treatment (NOT that there's anything wrong with a little Aunt Jamima in everyone's life). If you're not a morning person or don't feel like making compote the morning of, make it ahead of time and heat it back up over a low heat while frying your pancakes / flapjacks / hotcakes / ...

Recipe

Ingredients:

3/4 lb. raspberries, thawed if frozen

1/2 cup sugar

2 tsp. lemon juice

Instructions:

Combine all ingredients in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Cover and simmer 5-7 minutes or until sauce is formed. Serve warm, or cool if desired. Makes 3-4 servings.

** Add a vanilla pod (or 1 tsp of pure vanilla essence) during simmering time to zip this up a bit, if desired.

Day 47 - Growers Market - Star City Casino, Sydney - Egg and Bacon Rolls w/ Sweet Chili Jam

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Once a month in Sydney, foodie-heaven descends upon Earth in the form of Sydney's Growers Market, a culinary market of serious proportions.

My american foodie buddy Jamie and I headed out to the Star City Casino, just off Darling Harbour in Sydney, meeting just minutes after my 7:00 a.m.-ending bartending shift. (Was there enough coffee in Sydney to wake me up? Tough to say ... )

The scene: over a hundred food vendors selling everything from specialty oils, organic nuts, meats, cheeses, fresh-brewed coffees, sweets, produce, , homemade beef jerkies, gourmet dog bones ... You name it, it was there. If there was going to be anywhere in all of Australia where I would get to the heart of aussie gastronomic paradise, this was it.

Since this particular market only takes place once a month, it's mobbed by locals, foodies and tourists alike.

Jamie came away with some quality stuff: a massive beef tenderloin, a rabbit, stinky cheeses ("stinky" in the good sense), olive oils, top-shelf fruits and veggies ... lots of goodies.

Kevin? Well, the only thing he came away with was a full stomach.

We quickly found the most popular breakfast booth at the market (litmus test: huge line-up, fast-and-friend service). With robotic efficiency, they were pumping out organic eggs fried on their grill almost as fast as they could sell them.

I'm a real sucker for McDonald's Sausage & Egg McMuffins (probably one of my true guilty pleasures). If there was a Rolls Royce version of the McMuffin, for sure it would look (and taste) something like this: fresh-baked buns (still warm), a healthy smearing of the vendor's homemade sweet chilli jam, fried organic eggs sizzling-hot off the grill, topped with big strips of bacon.

I might have had two ... or was it three?

The sweet chilli jam was very, very similar to "sweet chilli sauce", whose recipe I've allready given on Day 1 of this blog. Refer back for ingredients / method details - now you have 2 reasons to make it!