Sydney Observations

Loving this place more every time I go...

• Duke Bistrot: hipster place with mismatched furniture; some real interesting stuff like braised red radish in dashi butter, octopus with pickled pumpkin and black beans, and a lovely pinot noir. Waitress loves Saison in San Francisco.
• Porteno: classic Argentine parilla with spit-roasted suckling pig and a fabulous theme of North America meets central and south America.
• Selah: good standby in the CBA, cozy and dark, a bit like London's Great Queen Street
• Momofuku: a very good Lord Nelson beer, pork buns, chicken wings, crab roll and celery salt chips....just as good as NYC!
• Bentley: I didn't eat here, but I know it's been around a long time because of its cookbooks. Two nice items on the menu: roasted potato and jerusalem artichoke, glazed carrots with smoked yoghurt

Fernet Branca & Coke

Maybe finally a good excuse to have a coke. A combo I discovered in Sydney but hailing from Argentina. No need to mix.

1. put a few ice cubes in a glass
2. pour 1 part Fernet Branca and 2-3 parts coke depending on taste

Carrots & Salsa Verde

Any salsa verde leftovers go well with steamed carrots. The salty and tangy salsa is a nice complement to sweet carrots.

1. cut carrots into batons & steam
2. spoon salsa verde on top & serve

Hix's Risotto Nero

Need to make this soon, or the Spanish equivalent which I think might be even better.

1 tbsp EVOO

200 gr Carnaroli rice

25 gr squid ink

knob of butter

100 gr squid, roughly diced into 1 cm pieces

1 tblsp chopped parsley

stock

1-1.2 liters fish stock

25 gr squid ink

half glass white wine

1. make the stock by mixing together the ingredients, bring to a boil
2. heat EVOO, add rice and stir on low heat for a minute without allowing to color
3. add remaining squid ink
4. stir slowly, slowly add hot stock ensuring all the liquid is absorbed before adding more
5. when the rice is cooked, add the butter and a little more stock if the risotto seems dry
6. meanwhile, fry the squid in the butter and scatter it over the risotto with the chopped parsley to serve

Phuket Omelette

A recipe from Khun Bin in Phuket.

3 eggs

2-3 tblsp milk

1 tblsp melted butter

maldon sea salt

pepper

1. best eggs well
2. mix in rest of ingredients
3. heat pan with butter, pour egg mixture into pan
4. scramble eggs immediately, then allow to set
5. when ceases to be runny, roll up omelette and serve

Green Mango & Condiments

A bit like the pomelo with salt-sugar-dried red chili. From David Thompson's restaurant in Bangkok (Nahm at the Metropolitan).

green mango

green chili (long rather than short ones)

sugar

salt

lime juice

1. slice green mango thinly
2. chop the green chili finely
3. depending on how spicy you like it, add to a mixture of salt, sugar and a squeeze of lime

Burrata, Lentils & Mint

Another Granger recipe that caught my eye. I have another burrata and lentils recipe somewhere on this blog, but does not include mint.

burrata
lentils
chicken broth
garlic
carrot-onion-celery
tomato paste
bay leaf
thyme
mint
EVOO
ground pepper
maldon sea salt

1. make lentils using ingredients listed
2. let lentils cool, add burrata and mint
3. drizzle with extra EVOO, seasoning