Before I received a copy of The Fat Duck cookbook by Heston Blumenthal, I (somewhat foolishly) envisaged doing the usual treatment, a review accompanied by a recipe. A little part of me, a devil on my shoulder did whisper “What do you have to do with molecular gastronomy exactly? You barely know your way around a bunsen burner!” and soon after I received it, I realised that making a recipe for Fat Duck wasn’t quite on the cards.
Sounds of the Sea
Although it does provide plenty of recipes, the pleasure I got out of it was getting a glimpse into Blumenthal’s mind. He shows us recipes such as Snail Porridge, Apple Pie Caramels with an edible wrapper and his famous “Sounds of the Sea” where he provides diners with Ipods to listen to the sound of the sea while eating a dish with oysters, sea urchin, seaweed and faux sand. The book is full of illustrations by Dave McKean which lend it an almost whimsical children’s book quality and is broken up into three parts. Part one is the history of the restaurant, part two is all about his signature recipes and part three is devoted to the scientific aspect of the food that he makes.
Snail porridge
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February 7, 2010
by Not Quite Nigella
There are some things that I never really thought to include on my site. Poaching eggs was one of those things that I presumed everyone knew how to do although it was something that I hadn’t done very much until recently. All of this anticlockwise or clockwise water swirling action put me off and the idea of wasting several eggs in the pursuit of doing one perfectly poached egg was something I thought was best left to the professionals.
Then on my story about Whisk & Pin a reader commented about the difficulty in poaching eggs so I realised that there may be more out there that have wasted countless eggs, swirled vinegared water, prayed and crossed fingers. This method is a foolproof one and one that has been successful for me ever since I came across it in the new Masterchef cookbook and they have noted that this is how the professionals do it.
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February 6, 2010
by Not Quite Nigella
Christmas got in the way of a few things. A visit to the Berkelouw Wine Bar was one of them. It’s a wine bar with a twist though. Every season they source wines from a different area throughout Australia to promote them and to bring them to the attention of wine loving Sydney siders. This Summer it’s wines from Orange and in Autumn they will feature wines from the Murray region and in Winter, the Hilltops region.
The room is a good sized rectangular space lined with bookshelves. At one end is the bar area and dotted throughout are various types of comfortable chairs. We like the look of the elegant Louis XIVth style chaises and Christie and I park ourselves there. There are tasting plates as well as wines to try as a good range of wines. The tables have custom built thermals sleeves to help keep bottles of wine at an optimum temperature.
Small Acres Norfolk Still Cyder
We take their recommendation for wines and they show us the Small Acres Still Cyder which I recall driving past on our trip to Orange. Now I haven’t had much cider in my life but Christie is a fan so I take a sip. It’s delicious and ideal for those that don’t really like a strong bitter tasting alcoholic drinks. I down the whole glass in no time (and I rarely finish glasses of wine).
2008. Gewürztraminer: ‘Wine Maker’s Daughter’ $11.00 by the glass in front of one of the table’s thermal metal sleeves
Our next wine is the Gewürztraminer from Borrodel Winery. I’ll admit now I’m not one to be able to smell obscure things in wine and I’m really bad at that whole “I can smell tobacco and a left handed man in this wine” but I can say that I really enjoyed it and it is said to have a baked apple aroma which I could see as I found it quite similar to the cyder which is apple flavoured.
Two cheese platter $16.00
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February 5, 2010
by Not Quite Nigella
When I was a child, there were a few foods that I wanted to try just for the novelty of the name. They were invariably English because the English love an eccentric name (Spotted Dick anyone? 
). One of them was Toad In The Hole which of course my mother never made as my father was rather strictly patriotic growing up and were only allowed Chinese food and which probably explains my now insatiable appetite and love for food from all over the world.
I loved the book The Wind in the Willows and I had always imagined that this dish was somehow linked to Mr Toad from Toad Hall and I thought that eating this dish would transport me to Toad Hall to hang out with Mr Toad. This is also the thinking I held onto when I climbed into the cupboard looking for the secret passageway into Narnia where I would hopefully feast on Turkish Delight. I spent hours in there pressing against the panels just so in the hopes of revealing the entry way, my mouth watering at the idea of consuming Turkish Delight which sounded so unlike anything I had ever tried before.
But back to Toad in the Hole. The Toads of course are the sausages and they poke out from the pastry which is like a Yorkshire Pudding. I don’t ever claim to be an expert on this especially as this was my first time making it but having made pastry I made some amendments to some recipes that I found. The oven of course needs to be hot and I thought that using soda water to lighten up the batter would help as of course the more puffed up it is, the better it is. I decided to make it a bit Italian by using Italian sausages and using vine ripened tomatoes and fresh basil although traditionally it would be made using pork sausages and rosemary.
This was a quick to make dish with hardly any preparation necessary. In fact 20 minutes of light work in the kitchen will do it as far as preparations go as the oven takes care of the rest leaving you to lie back at your leisure (or stand in front of the oven with your fingers crossed). After 40 minutes I turned on the light and peered inside. By George! It had risen and puffed up proudly, some little “toads” had poked through the Yorkshire pudding batter and the tomatoes were soft and luscious. After the obligatory photos we dug in hungrily as the smell was too tempting. It was pure comfort food with the spicy, flavoursome sausages going well with the eggy pastry-like batter. Mr NQN ate it hungrily and then swallowed patting his stomach and stole another portion before I knew it. I had my own lovable rogue, my own Mr Toad.
So tell me Dear Reader, what’s the dish you always wanted to try when you were little?
Mr Toad In The Hole
An Original Recipe by Not Quite Nigella
- 1 tablespoon oil
- 500g Italian sausages, pricked lightly with 1 hole
- 250g vine ripened cherry tomatoes on the vine
- fresh basil leaves
For Batter
- 120grams flour
- 285ml cold milk
- 3 eggs
- pinch of salt
- 50ml icy cold soda water
1. Preheat oven to 200C/400F. I used a 31×18cm oval dish but a similar sized dish would do you well as it looks great when it’s abundantly fluffy. Pour 1 tablespoon of oil in the baking dish and leave in oven while it is preheating so that it gets hot. When it has reached the correct temperature, place sausages in the baking dish and bake for 5 minutes on each side to brown.
2. While the sausages are browning, make the quick batter. Sift the flour into a bowl and add salt. In a jug whisk the milk and eggs until combined. Then add the liquid gradually to the flour whisking until the lumps are gone (doing this gradually will help prevent lumps). Just when the sausages are ready, add the soda water and whisk lightly but not too much – just combine it into the batter. Pour the batter over the sausages and then place vine ripened tomatoes on top. Bake for 35-40 minutes until risen and puffy (don’t open the oven while it is cooking). Once finished, garnish with fresh basil leaves and serve.
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February 4, 2010
by Not Quite Nigella
Plated Prawn entrees
Lobster tail dish
Once upon a time there was a girl (ok it was me), that attended an event called Taste of Sydney. It was an event sponsored by Emirates airline and this girl was obsessed with airline food. She had often wondered if there were little elves that put the little portions of food together and she had a fascination with small, compartmentalised meals. During the evening, her husband Mr NQN came up to her and said “Honey, talk to that man, tell him about the story you’ve wanted to do for ages about airline food”. Unfortunately the man in question was always busy being shuttled from group to group and she was too shy to blurt out “I’d love to do a story on airline food” in front of a group of strangers so a year passed where she occasionally thought about contacting Emirates but never did.
And then the opportunity came when she was chatting to the amazing Myriam from the Emirates airline’s PR company. She told her that she had always wanted to do a story on how airline food is made in a behind the scenes kind of way and Myriam offered her the chance to do so – in Dubai! So that is how this very happy girl ended up one afternoon being given the lowdown on how your airline food gets from the chefs to your plate and any challenges in between!
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February 3, 2010
by Not Quite Nigella
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