Sugar Hit: Guylian Café, 22 Oct & Number One Wine Bar, 23 Oct 2010

Sugar Hits are coming to an end for another year and this year has been my most prolific effort in sampling what’s on offer. With the previous record being eight Sugar Hits, this year has seen that tally rise to ten which I doubt that Monsieur Poisson and I are ever likely to achieve again.

That is, unless some unplanned outing occurs this weekend…

Guylian Café

An impromptu visit to Guylian Café, post-birthday dinner for Idol, leads us to Sugar Hit #9. Their ‘Grand Forest’ is described as a “chocolate cake layered with Grand Marnier strawberries, kirsch dark cherries and crème patisserie”.

The cake is perched on its side and balanced on a salted gingery piece of shortbread via a small amount of chocolate ganache. Surrounded by cocoa-dusted walnut ‘rocks’, there is also a square of strawberry chocolate and a chocolate ‘twig’. We don’t notice any cherries within the cake but do come across quite a few strawberry pieces which are thankfully only soft but not squishy from being flavoured with Grand Marnier. The accompanying glass of Brown Brothers Cienna & Cabernet helps to enhance the berry flavours.

Monsieur Poisson also orders a dark hot chocolate for $7, which provides roughly two cups’ worth in a stainless steel jug and a Guylian seashell to pour over and melt into the drink.

Number One Wine Bar

Sugar Hit #10 was enjoyed at Tony Bilson’s Number One Wine Bar. Surrounded by French touches to the interior and songs sung and performed live by a piano player provided a most relaxing touch to a Saturday night.

The crème caramel is quite sweet with its golden caramel sauce but it works surprisingly well with the strawberry champagne jelly alongside. Caramel, tart berries and light jelly are not what spring to mind when I think of complementary flavours but it most definitely works. The crème caramel is beautifully silken without being overly rich and puts to shame the oddly textured panna cottas of other Sugar Hits to shame.

There are two nights remaining to enjoy some Sugar Hit fun. It’s either now or you’ll have to wait until October next year!

Guylian Café

91 George St (cnr Argyle St), The Rocks, Sydney NSW

Tel: (02) 8274 7500

Number One Wine Bar

Goldfield’s House, 1 Alfred St, Sydney NSW

Tel: (02) 8252 9296

*EDIT*: As at October 2011, Number One Wine Bar has gone into voluntary administration and is no longer open for business.

happy eating!

Party Food

With Christmas only just out of our systems and the new year creeping up on us, we are most definitely in the midst of party season. Monsieur Poisson and I had the fortune of being invited to Ms Macau and Mr Holden’s place for a small pre-Christmas get-together. I offered to bring along some food – I don’t know why, but I like to have an excuse to cook – and decided to go the dessert option. I also went against better cooking judgement and wanted to try a new recipe with ingredients that I had never dealt with before, when I am a person who normally never lives life dangerously.

A couple of weeks prior, I had spotted some wonderfully celebratory-looking jellies on The Way It Crumbles and filed the recipe aside thinking it would be a great way to make use of the bottle of moscato that I had in the fridge. When the call for a house party came, this is the first thing I thought of. The recipe looked pretty easy and all I needed to get was powdered gelatine…

Perhaps because it was close to Christmas, I had trouble finding gelatine – even after searching at two supermarkets. When I finally got my hands on some gelatine, I re-read the recipe and started to fret – what is meant by allowing gelatine ‘to bloom’? I had only ever played with packet jelly crystals before, never gelatine in any form itself. Google thankfully provided some answers but then I started to worry about whether the jellies would set as I was going to vary a few things in the recipe right from the word go.

There was delicious food on offer at the house party, including plenty of barbecued meats provided by the hosts and other foods brought along by guests. More importantly, there was relaxed conversation and general lazing about.

And the jellies had thankfully set and turned out quite well in the end. The bubbles were much smaller than what I’d expected, probably due to using a not very bubbly wine, but still they provided a pleasant tingle when the jelly slid across the tongue. My only complaint lay with the ‘froth’ that had set on the top – not visually displeasing, but a little funny in texture to eat.

So, what are your end of year celebration plans? And do you have any tried-and-tested staple party food tricks?

Red Moscato Jellies (makes 6-8 serves)

(adapted from The Way It Crumbles)

Ingredients:

·         150mL cold water

·         2 tbs powdered gelatine

·         750mL moscato or other sparkling wine

·         100mL Ribena (or other cordial)

·         ½ cup caster sugar

·         frozen raspberries, thawed

Method:

1. Place 6 or 8 glasses (I used plastic cups) in the freezer for 15 minutes. In the meantime, place water in a small bowl and sprinkle gelatine over the top whilst whisking continuously with a fork to avoid any bits clumping together. Set aside for a few minutes and it will start to ‘bloom’ – the bowl of water will begin to set and look yellowy and slightly lumpy like a sea sponge.
2. Pour 150mL of the wine into a small saucepan and reseal the bottle for the time being. Add the cordial and sugar to the saucepan and place over a low heat. Stir until the sugar has dissolved, taking care NEVER to let the mixture boil. Remove from heat and let cool until warm.
3. Add the gelatine mixture to the pan, whisking continuously until all dissolved and no clumps of gelatine are present.
4. Divide liquid evenly between chilled glasses and throw a few raspberries in each. Slowly pour remaining wine equally into the glasses to minimise frothing. Place in the freezer for 20 minutes, before transferring to the fridge to set overnight. 

happy new year & happy eating!