Hello lovelies! We’ve come to our final competition for the Twelve Days of Christmas Giveaways (which ended up being thirteen giveaways) and it’s a doozy! Our last competition features a huge thirteen products from the Bitton Gourmet range plus their new cookbook!

I first encountered Bitton Gourmet when we looking for places to brunch with my friend Gina. We had lunch there and fell in love with the poached eggs served with Black Forest ham, spinach, potato roesti and Hollandaise sauce. So much so that we scheduled another brunch there shortly afterwards to enlighten third friend Teena as to this deliciousness.

What do you think this is? Two cappuccinos? No, it’s mushroom and vanilla cappuccino soup!

To celebrate the release of the new cookbook and their range, Bitton Gourmet are giving away a copy of the cookbook (and yes there’s a version of the above dish with smoked salmon in the cookbook) and thirteen products to one lucky Not Quite Nigella reader! The products are:

David Bitton Cafe Cookbook

Asian dressing

Rosemary, thyme and vanilla oil (how fabulous does this sound?)

Lemon dressing

Chilli Oil

Bitton Dressing

Moroccan Spice

Chilli garlic masala

Strawberry and vanilla jam

Orange jelly

Monkey nut chutney

Coriander pesto

Mango and ginger nut jam

Black Olive Tapenade

All worth $170!

My favourite products (hehe how fun is it taste testing these?) were the Bitton thick and creamy dressing flavoured with garlic, the spicy hot chilli garlic masala, the monkey nut chutney (who could resist that name too?) and the jams!

Read More

“I don’t think I’m used to this…friendliness” I tell Miss K when the man that greets us at Cumulus Inc. is nothing short of friendly and courteous. It is not that we have terrible service in Sydney but usually men with expensive hair cuts, thick black rimmed designer glasses wearing all black tend to be the kind to give you an att-it-ude. So I’m a bit taken aback when they are courteous you do understand.

When I recently dined at Cutler and Co. , everyone asked if I had been to their other eatery Cumulus Inc.. Sadly, there is only so much stomach space in one day and Cumulus Inc. was relegated to the “perhaps one day” list. So when Miss K my publisher picks me up and asks if I’ve been there I practically shriek with delight. Thankfully she doesn’t have a nervous disposition. It’s best not to be around me and food if you do.

We walk the block and a half to Cumulus Inc. although I am unable to tell you in which direction. By now I’ve come to realise that my sense of direction is even worse in Melbourne than it is in Sydney. We take a seat and it’s quite busy for a week day morning at 10 o’clock. I take a quick look at the menu and ask for Miss K’s recommendations as this is one of her favorite three places to eat in Melbourne. I know I have the right publisher because she says “We’ve got to order different things of course”.

Harcourt apple juice $5

I take a sip of apple juice and it’s not bad but not particularly different from other apple juices that I have tried.

Smoked Salmon 65 /65, sorrel, apple and dill$17

Holy heck the smoked salmon in this dish is good. Thinner and appearing more “stretched” (is that a weird thing to say?), it comes with pieces of sorrel, a terrific but underused vegetable, thin matchsticks of apple and dill which I adore with the smoked salmon. And the egg? It is an egg that has been poached for 65 minutes at 65 degrees Celsius and it is runnily gorgeous yet still slightly thicker in texture than a regular poached egg.

Turkish baked eggs, spiced tomato, dukkah and labne $16

Read More

Myriam: the pied piper of chocolate

“It’s a Provence tradition where for Christmas Eve dinner, you eat thirteen desserts” my friend Myriam said and I have to confess that I scarcely heard anything after that. You know that I love dessert – this blog is pretty much a testament to my utter love of them, and the idea of eating thirteen desserts for a Christmas lunch seemed like the best excuse to move to France. Ever.

Pastis aperitif

Held at Tastevin bistro, a place that I had visited for my birthday last year and had a to-die-for gnocchi, dessert lovers assembled on sunny December afternoon. It wasn’t all dessert, we were to have an entree and main before our dessert extravaganza. While we’re mingling, and I chat to twitter stars @frombecca @hollingsworth @champagnejayne and @helencrozier and we sip a Pastis aperitif from the South of France. It is a deceptively aniseedy drink that looks like a lemon drink but is pure rich aniseed (too much for me I’m afraid!). Myriam tells us that  there is a saying from a French actor Fernandel that says “Pastis is like boobs, one glass is not enough but three is too many”!

Personalised menu

The 13 desserts of Provence tradition starts as a recreation of a religious scene of the Last Supper with Jesus Christ and the twelve apostles with each course representing each attendee.  Today’s meal would feature traditional Provence cuisine with an Australian twist. Despite the timing being so close to Christmas the event was a sold out success and we took our assigned seats at the table. We’re sitting next to Myriam and her husband Jean who will present a talk about Cognac.

Tastevin chef Martin Webster

We start off with a mixed Provençal antipasto plate to share. Chef Martin Webster comes out and explains them to us and says that the  triangular slices of country style pork terrine are made from the pork shoulder and back fat with some liver and duck liver and Armagnac. It is hand chopped in order to get the pieces of pork fat in larger pieces. There is also an absolutely divine duck liver pate which is flavoured with Grand Marnier, pork and Armagnac. He makes this by pan frying it instead of baking the liver and it has an incredibly gorgeous texture-light but buttery and easily spread. Because it isn’t baked it also doesn’t oxidise and keeps its pink cheeked exterior.

Mixed Provençal antipasto

The last item, apart from the cornichons is the pork rillette which is gorgeously smooth. Usually rillette is pulled apart by forks and retains the texture of the meat but this is blended and smooth and easily spread still with that telltale rillette flavour. Also on the plate is a saucisson sausage which is brought in from a sausage maker Jean Marc who sells at Fox Studios markets. The house baked bread is excellent.

Easy Rose from St Tropez

We have a little break where they pour us a glass of “Easy Rose” Rose from St Tropez. This is to go with the traditional bouillabaisse which is paired with a sauce rouille and croutons. Myriam explains that the origins of Bouillabaisse go back as far as 6000BC where it originated at the sea port of Marseilles. The best fish was sold at the markets and any leftovers or cheaper fish were made into Bouillabaisse so whilst it’s features in good restaurants now it had rather humble beginnings.

Traditional Bouillabaisse

Sauce rouille and croutons

The word Bouillabaisse is broken up into bouil which is “to boil” and baisse refers to the cooking method. Every time a new fish was added to the soup, it slowed down the boiling process and abaisse means to “lower” which presumably means the fish into the pot. The word for rouille means “rust” and it is a mayonnnaise based garlic and tomato mixture.  The Bouillabaisse here is lovely, a rich broth fragrant in rich prawn head stock and the fish is tender. There is also an enormous prawn and two mussels and the garlic crouton spread with the rouille provides a crunchy, creamy contrast.

Quiz time!

There’s a  little break as Myriam gives us a little five question quiz about Provence where the winners will receive prizes. And then it’s dessert time! Actually no scratch that, it’s thirteen dessert time! I suspected that since it was a French tradition and they have some enviable self control, it wouldn’t be a dessertapalooza where we would be groaning and clutching our stomachs. I pictured civilised, dainty, chic morsels.

The 13 desserts have landed!

Read More