Via Napoli Pizzeria

Via Napoli has but a small amount of indoor seating, with the majority being on the slanted footpath situated undercover and equipped with gas heaters when needed. The tables are arranged quite close together and the ambient chatter is punctuated with Italian being exchanged between the waitstaff. I may not be in Naples but the pizza is quite likely to be the best I’ve had in Sydney.

An unplanned trip to Munich

Food bloggers are planners. When food bloggers go on holidays, they pride themselves in researching places to eat and formulating strategies in order to best cover the gustatory highlights of the area of visit. Reservations are made where permitted, forming the rigid pillars of an eating schedule, with less formal dining slotted in at remaining times.

All that forethought is thrown out the window when you find yourself booking tickets to Munich only a week ahead of departure (and getting suitably excited as you’ve never been to Europe before – yay!), and there are more pressing issues as taking an extended work lunch break to get to a bank to make sure you have some Euros up your sleeve before you go.

Monsieur Poisson recently started a new job with a German firm which requires its employees to visit head office to get a better feel of main operations as well as to meet members of their overseas team. As accommodation and his flights are provided, coupled with a normally tough manager being sympathetic and granting me leave, I jumped at the opportunity to tag along.

The husband’s company flies all of its employees business class (not just upper management, ha!) which meant I sat separately in economy on both legs of the journey here. With business tickets costing 3.5 times the price of economy, the choice of potentially having more spending, and eating, money was definitely more attractive. So what does the luxury of a business class ticket buy you?

Terrazza and Ben & Jerry's, Chatswood

Where once a brown rundown local town hall stood attached to council offices and a library, now stands a shiny revamped council complex housing a concert theatre, library and new dining precinct. Amongst the various eateries to recently open up shop is Terrazza, an Italian joint offering woodfired pizza. The owner has trialled offering breakfast, lunch and dinner, 7 days a week, during their opening period but will soon be revising this down to lunch and dinner only on weekdays, with breakfast as well as lunch and dinner being served on weekends. It appears us Sydney folk do take the time to enjoy breakfast out when we have the time, but are otherwise too rushed on workdays.

Bar Angolo

Diagonally opposite Kazbah at Top Ryde is an unassuming pizzeria with some of the best pizza I've ever had in Sydney. A big call, I know.

The evening starts off with a 'Rossini' of strawberry purée and prosecco as well as a tangy housemade lemonade blended with ice which, when consumed too quickly, offers an instant brain-freeze. An antipasto platter laden with salame, mozarella balls, prosciutto, bresaola, white anchovies, semi-dried tomato and Sicilian olives is shared between three – the only thing lacking being some bread to go with it.

Firefly Lodge Lane Cove (again!)

The lure of good pizza, share plates of snack foods and ever-changing seasonal menus (not to mention easy parking) keep Monsieur Poisson and I coming back to Firefly for easy, casual meals. Combined with reasonable prices and the provision of Campos coffee has meant that we’ve also managed to convert a few friends to being frequenters as well.

Charcoal barbecuing with friends

What is with this weather of late in some of Australia's eastern areas? It's hot then it's cold, then it's hot again. Whilst spring/summer is having trouble knocking winter off its perch, winter seems more than happy to keep a grip on the weather patterns in the meantime. Not to worry, as it is inevitable that the seasons will change and soon we will all be basking in glorious sunshine, enjoying the outdoors once again, and partaking in activities such as barbecues.

Birthdays Part 2: Olio

In recent years I’ve eschewed the big birthday gatherings of yore for more low-key affairs. Perhaps it’s part of getting a little older, or perhaps it’s age combined with laziness. Last year Monsieur Poisson planned ahead in advance and indulged me with a meal at Tetsuya’s, while I returned the favour through what was a bit more last minute planning.

This year we both decided to dine locally for our birthdays, and mine was spent at Olio where we’d previously only popped in to sample their kopi luwak or for a light meal. (No longer on the menu, I don’t think, but Olio had a really mushroomy risotto and a value-for-money antipasti plate.)

Drinks are in order for the occasion and I order the ‘Polish Spring Punch’ due to its inclusion of all things berry – raspberry vodka, berry compote and Chambord. The drink is both larger and stronger than it seems as well as being a beautiful shade of blushing pink.

‘Salt & pepper squid’ is ordered due to having tried it on an earlier visit. And although there is much less rocket this time around, the small tendrils of squid are light, low on oiliness and well-seasoned as we remember. There is a lot more aioli on the side than is needed, but that doesn’t stop us from trying to finish it.

To share, we have a ‘Prawn, prosciutto, tomato & rocket pizza’ plus a ‘Grilled black Angus scotch fillet’ between us. The pizza base is thin but a bit soft on the underside, unlike the crisp wood-fired ones to which we are accustomed. The steak is much more pleasing, however, being tender and juicy, served with meaty roasted portabella mushrooms, eshallots and a rich jus. The menu mentioned it being served with Café de Paris butter, but there was no sign of this when presented to us.

It would have been nice to have had some potato mash to have with the steak and jus but we were mindful of over-ordering. I was too full for dessert as it was, especially after birthday eats from earlier that day, but Monsieur Poisson just couldn’t go past the ‘Apple & raspberry crumble’. It was tart and sweet all at once, but what I loved was the nubbly topping as opposed to the floury, powdery topping of some.

Olio isn’t open on weekends, but it makes for a great relaxing dinner on a Friday night... or on a lazy night during the week.

Olio

Shop 1, The Forum, St Leonards train station, 201-205 Pacific Hwy, St Leonards NSW

Tel: (02) 9439 8988

Opening Hours:  Mon  7am-4pm

                        Tues-Fri  7am-9pm

                        Sat & Sun  CLOSED

happy eating!

Hunter Escape: Firestick Café

When Monsieur Poisson and I have holidayed at the Hunter Valley, we don’t go out at night. Partly because we tend to visit early- to mid-week when there’s nothing open at night time, and partly because it’s incredibly dark at night and driving on both sealed and unsealed roads can be rather hazardous. Hence us never having visited Rock Restaurant, the region’s only hatted restaurant and a 2-hat status for three years running at that.

So discovering that Rock Restaurant morphed into the more relaxed Firestick Café during the day meant that we were still able to sample the kitchen’s food. Unfortunately both Rock and Firestick have since closed at the end of May 2011, although the Pooles Rock winery continues to operate, so we will not be able to drop in again on subsequent visits. The quality of the food was great and, seriously, how many cafés serve you an amuse bouche?

The little appetite-teaser of ‘Beetroot Lyonnaise with labne on sourdough’ was definitely an unexpected touch. As we were saving room for scones later in the afternoon, Monsieur Poisson and I ordered a small (most dishes were offered in two sizes) portion of ‘Grilled sirloin with wilted spinach, red wine jus, café de Paris butter and hand cut chips’ to share along with a ‘Pizza of confit pork belly, braised red cabbage and pear relish’.

The steak was cooked well and the red wine jus glossy and rich which we mopped up with the chips. The pizza had a light, crisp base with thin pork belly slices whose fat was perfectly cut by the red cabbage. Monsieur Poisson couldn’t resist ordering the ‘Apple and blueberry crumble’ when he spotted it on the menu (big apple crumble fan here), whilst I defaulted to my usual coffee/dessert combination of an affogato.

Firestick Café had decent prices although I’ve heard Rock was much more upmarket. Regardless of the reasons for which they closed, it will be interesting to see if there is a new venture down the line.

Firestick Café – CLOSED

Pooles Rock Winery, 576 Debeyers Rd (near corner McDonalds Rd), Pokolbin NSW

happy eating!

Big John’s Sans Souci

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve eaten at Big John’s, either dining in or getting takeaway, over the years. Having previously lived in the Shire, Big John’s at Sans Souci is an easy location to get to and offers big, value-for-money serves. Service can be a bit brusque when busy and the seating is cosy, but the food is tasty and always generous.

Funnily, however, I’ve never tried their pasta possibly because I get sidetracked by other things. Their Caesar Salad, at only $13.90 and large enough to feed 2 people as a main meal, has a creamy, garlicky and not-too-tangy dressing, hard-boiled egg segments and a smattering of bacon bits. Pizzas are generally thicker-based than I’d like but that’s so they can stand up to the all the toppings which make the pizzas a little difficult to eat without the aid of cutlery. A lighter option is their garlic pizza crust (not pictured) but be warned that this is not for the garlic-phobic. Or vampires.

Monsieur Poisson gave their American-style ribs a try on a recent visit. There are pork, lamb or half-half combination varieties and ribs are smothered in a smoky, tangy sauce on a bed of steak-cut chips for “relief”. The pork ribs are fall-apart tender and receive my mother’s stamp of approval. The sauce gets thicker and stickier on the surface of the ribs as they cool, but this makes for a wonderful caramel-y surface when they’re reheated.

And reheat you will, because you are bound to have a container or two of leftovers to take away with you.

Big John’s Sans Souci

502 Rocky Point Rd (between Sandringham St & Russell Ave), Sans Souci NSW

Tel: 9529 8094

happy eating!

Food memories: the first time

The first time trying any food is usually the most memorable and especially so if it is something polarising like blue cheese or durian, or confronting like balut or snake.

Personally, growing up Chinese (or any ethnicity for that matter) there are and aren’t a lot of foods that will shock me. Various parts including the innards of an animal are commonplace – less so in modern times – due to agriculture being laborious, traditionally the lifeline of so many, and a bid to minimise wastage. So for me, perhaps strangely to everyone else, my “first time” food memories relate to things which are inherently non-Chinese and quite possibly unexotic to everyone else.

Banana chips did not and do not exist in our household. They only made an appearance at my grandparents’ place when my grandfather lived for a few brief years in Sydney before deciding to return to China. He munched on them regularly. I remember sitting on the knee of one of his lanky legs and holding a golden disc between my stubby four-year-old fingers. Popping it in my mouth, I remember crunchy banana-ness – no surprises there – and being somewhat disappointed as I wasn’t, and still am not, a big fan of bananas.

Cheesecake memories are much more exciting, however. I distinctly remember trying cheesecake for the first time whilst I was a young teen living in Hong Kong. A city not associated with cheesecake – yes, I know – but a city with expats from many countries, particularly English-speaking ones, which makes for a market for Western products and foods. During her younger years, one of my aunts was a live-in cook and maid for an American family posted to Hong Kong for business. It was during that time that she discovered the delights of cheesecake which she, in turn, introduced to my cousins and I from that frozen supermarket foods institute known as Sara-Lee. I can only imagine how funny a sight it would have been for passers-by to witness one grown woman accompanied by five pre-pubescent kids digging into a frozen cheesecake with plastic spoons just outside a supermarket!

Avocado I didn’t try until I was around 16 at a friend’s family barbeque. It was in a salad and, although underwhelmed at first, I later came to appreciate its pairing with and enhancement of other things such as chicken, salmon, toast, nachos… My mother has since explained the absence of avocado from our household, apart from it being not a part of her Cantonese cooking – she had never had it herself and had no idea how it tasted!

“Gourmet pizza” is a term which became popular when I was… (Actually, I won’t tell you when because that would be disclosing my age. Which is never polite for a lady to do, ahem.) It’s always been a term which I’ve found confusing as I can’t determine to whom it is considered gourmet. I grew up with Cantonese cooking almost seven nights a week and pizza usually meant my mother coming home from the supermarket with those frozen subs topped with ham and pineapple. So it was a definite revelation when Gourmet Pizza Kitchen opened and was one of only a few who offered wood-fired pizzas. It soon became a regular choice for gatherings with friends and years later they still have several outlets with pretty much an unchanged menu.

These days, first-time food experiences are usually experienced camera in-hand and are documented with a blog post. More nerve-wracking than trying an unusual food is meeting a food-blogger for the first time, although I am always comforted by the ease at which conversation flows when it comes to the topic of food.

Bar Biaggio proved to be a lovely setting to brunch with Starloz for the first time, overlooking the water at Pyrmont with boats moored alongside. Food servings were generous and they use sourdough bread (yay!). I especially like how neither the mushrooms nor spinach were overly oily; always an ironic issue when they’re oiler than the bacon or sausages on the same plate! Their coffee is well made but lacking in latte art when we were there (I know, I know, it doesn’t affect the taste!), although I definitely was none the wiser when trying espresso coffee for the first time at the age of 21 – it was a takeaway caffe mocha from a university coffee cart.

So, what is your earliest or most memorable food experience?

happy eating!

Firefly Lodge Lane Cove

Monsieur Poisson and I stumbled upon Firefly Lodge at Lane Cove quite by accident. If I don’t remember wrong, we were at the nearby Thomas Dux one afternoon when Ben & Jerry’s were having a free scoop day. We were wandering back to our car when we noticed that familiar, green Campos logo and Monsieur Poisson was drawn inside on the promise of good coffee. Whilst we were waiting for his takeaway coffee order I noticed the magical words of “$10 pizzas” scribbled on a specials blackboard. Various tables appeared to be taking advantage of this special and we were encouraged by the sizeable rectangular offerings served on wooden chopping boards. So we made note of the day and time restrictions and swore we’d be back to try them – and we did.

Firefly Lodge at Lane Cove is attached to the recently revamped Lane Cove Market Place with its entrance via the paved street mall adjacent. The $10 pizza deal is no longer available from when we first tried, and has been replaced by a half-price pizza deal which is still excellent value. (Check their website for which days and times it is available.) The thin-based rectangular pizzas are cut into 8 slices and pack plenty of flavour without being overladen with weighty toppings. We’ve tried their ‘Prosciutto, rocket, parmesan’ and ‘Moroccan Lamb’ pizzas to date (pictured above) but their menu changes regularly with new varieties. The ‘Battered potato fries’ (below) are a mainstay and I highly recommend them for their crunchy exterior and fluffy innards only to be enhanced by the aioli which is served alongside. Dip the fries into the tomato sauce if you must, but you’ll be missing out on the cooling, garlicky creaminess which only the aioli provides.

Unfortunately the ‘Zucchini fries with za’atar’ (above) on a subsequent visit with Ms Japan are limp, greasy, somewhat soggy and the complete antithesis of their potato counterpart. The coating on the zucchini is also intriguingly powdery on the palate. We also order a couple of items from the share plates section of the menu – ‘Scallops with pork belly’ and ‘Meatballs in Romanesco sauce’ (above).

Firefly Lodge also offers more substantial meals in the form of pastas, meat and seafood. We’ve tried a pepper linguine with prawns and deep-fried parsley (unpictured) which was simple but done well. Then there are a selection of desserts, from which Monsieur Poisson sampled their apple tarte tatin.

There are three Firefly locations – Lane Cove, Neutral Bay and Walsh Bay – with each serving slight variations of the menu from the others. With extensive wine lists, simple pizzas, share plates and good coffee, we’re keen to try out the other venues after having had positive experiences at Lane Cove.

Firefly Lodge Lane Cove

Lane Cove Market Place (entrance on paved street mall connecting Burns Bay Rd & Longueville Rd), 24 Burns Bay Rd, Lane Cove NSW

Tel: (02) 9420 1629

happy eating!

The simple pleasure of bread and your chance to win some!

Life has the most inconvenient way, sometimes, of getting in the way of enjoying life itself.

I say, dear Responsibilities, wouldn’t you like to take a holiday from giving me guilt when I neglect you? This co-dependent relationship can’t be doing either of us any good here. And Obligations, surely you’d like to take a day off and just take it easy in a hammock whilst sipping a colourful drink adorned with a paper umbrella?

Unfortunately life doesn’t wait nor necessarily slow down when we want it to, unlike the recent approach I’ve taken with this blog. The blog has taken a backseat whilst other areas of life have been demanding my attention and keeping me busy, inciting frustration and annoyance along with way. Hopefully the cobwebs have yet to set in as this blog will be on the quiet side for a little longer still.

When life zaps most of the energy and sunbeams out of me, I lose the inspiration and motivation to cook. We’re not talking about attempting some magnificent feast here – oh, no – just the usual simple stir-fry with a bit of rice, and even then it seems to take exponential amounts of effort compared to usual. Comfort eating can only occur when you have the resources to do so.

And so I have been thankful for quick staples such as dried pasta, canned soup, frozen dumplings, dried Chinese noodles and bread. Yes, bread – one of the simple pleasures of life which is a meal in itself with some butter, olive oil or any manner of spreads or toppings. Take soft Turkish bread which can effortlessly be sliced into fingers and eaten with some dip and olives…

…ciabatta which can be hollowed out as a vessel for (a failed) cheese fondue with nubbins of corn. Or for a cob of comforting soup with the “lid” cut into fingers for dipping.

And a sexy French baguette which I attempted to fashion into two types of picnic-style stuffed rolls which didn’t quite turn out the way I had envisaged. Well, much like life itself.

Luckily there was this somewhat redeeming rendition of “pizza”, where the leftover Turkish bread was split into top and bottom halves to act as bases for basil pesto, sausage pieces, marinated artichoke hearts, pine nuts and, on one of them, sundried tomato pesto and egg.

Seasoned, topped with cheese and shoved in a 220°C oven for the sausage pieces to cook and for the cheese to bubble and brown, these made for a perfectly easy lunch to remind me that life indeed can have its simple, peaceful, pleasurable moments.

Now, for your chance to win some bread, Bakers Delight are kindly giving away vouchers worth $5 each to five readers of Spoon, Fork & Chopsticks. All you have to do is leave a comment below telling me what simple pleasure you enjoy in life and why. Entries close Friday 26 November 2010 at 11pm Australian Eastern Standard time and are open to Australian residents only. Winning entrants will be chosen by Monsieur Poisson (AKA the Husband, AKA the one who doesn’t cook) based on originality and will be published here in a future post, so make sure you stay tuned! Any rude/profane/offensive entries will be deleted and excluded from the competition.

Mademoiselle Délicieuse received the above selection of bread courtesy of Rebecca Stalker from Keep Left Public Relations and Baker’s Delight.

happy cooking!

Encasa, Feb & April 2010

I don’t know enough about Spanish food to gauge how authentic it is at Encasa. What I do know is that we’ve been coming here with groups of friends for close to 5 years now. The garlicky aromas which envelope you as soon as you enter the doorway next to their pizza prep area are heady and inviting. The food quality is consistent plus Mr Awesome knows the owner so we often get a tailored deal or complimentary dishes. Oh, for the love of free food.

Encasa holds fond memories for me because it almost always involves large groups of friends, and usually for the occasion of birthdays. Lots of chatter and laughter (and one particular incident of the red, toilet-seat cover) and sharing of food, which is what is always so great about having dishes that are made to share. Regardless of what selection of friends we’re with, there is always a selection of tapas that appear time and time again: ‘Chorizo a la plancha’ (grilled chorizo), ‘Gambas al ajillo’ (prawns in garlic oil), ‘Champiñones al ajillo’ (garlic mushrooms) and, occasionally, some balls – ‘Albondigas’ (meatballs in almond sauce).

I always want bread to go with these – bread to sandwich the chorizo and soak up the spicy, red oil which oozes out, bread to dip into the garlic oil of the prawns, bread to top with the garlic mushrooms and bread to mop up that sweet, nutty yet tangy almond sauce. But stomach space has to be conserved for things to come.

For there are other wonderful things such as ‘Patatas bravas’ (fried potato with garlic mayonnaise and tomato salsa), ‘Vieiras en azafrán’ (scallops with saffron sauce), ‘Mejillones a la marinera‘ (black mussels in fresh tomato sauce) and ‘Pinchos morunos’ (lamb fillet skewers). Seriously, who says no to fried potato? Especially when there are oodles of creamy mayonnaise blanketing their tops and, although the scallops are a little small, the sauce is fragrant without being too rich and would be great over some plain rice. The mussels are plump in the refreshing sauce and the lamb skewers are well-spiced which is welcome by friends who are worried about their ‘lamb-iness’.

For carb-fix you simply cannot go past Encasa’s pizzas. Below are the ‘Meat Lovers’ pizza (ham, cabanossi, pepperoni and bacon), ‘Mar de Asia’ pizza (seafood and sweet chilli sauce) and ‘Campesina’ pizza (artichoke, roasted capsicum, roasted eggplant but we asked for mozzarella to replace the usual goat’s cheese as Ms Sourdough’s not a fan).

And what’s a Spanish meal without paella? Although this ‘Arroz Nero’ was without the requisite crusty bottom, I did enjoy the striking dark colour from the use of squid ink. Not having any particular taste, it is fun to watch people acquire streaks of black across their lips and teeth as we make our way through this. What is better than the rice dish itself, is the aioli which comes alongsige – rich, creamy, garlicky and very addictive.

To wash all this down, we have a jug (or several) of sangria to share. Whilst chatting at the end of the meal I always notice us girls trying to pick out the fruit to nibble on – perhaps it’s to neutralise some of the residual garlic flavours, or perhaps it’s just to add some extra sweetness to the drink’s flavour, but whatever it is there’s no elegant way to do it!

Encasa

423 Pitt St (between Campbell & Goulburn Sts), Sydney NSW

Tel: (02) 9211 4257

Opening Hours:  Mon  5:30pm-late (dinner only)

Tue-Sat  12pm-2:30pm (lunch)

                                     5:30pm-late (dinner)

Sun  CLOSED

happy eating!

Twelve, 15 Jan 2010

Monsieur Poisson and I have been eating at Twelve for years. The first year we were dating we spent my birthday here. When I left my last job, knowing that I like the place, it was here that colleagues chose to hold my farewell. That same year I gathered a large group of friends together to help me celebrate a significant birthday. We first ate at Twelve when the restaurant frontage was brown and now it’s red, although the blackboard wall featuring the specials is still here as well as their reasonable prices. The funny thing about us having eaten here so many times is that we have not actually sampled much of their menu. We are far more often than not attracted (or distracted) by the description of something on their specials board which changes on a regular basis.

Today we’re here to catch up with Ms Japan and we expect it to be a long dinner – when you get Ms Japan and I together the conversation can last absolute hours upon hours. Ms Japan settles back with a glass of red wine (unpictured) while I order a lemon, lime and bitters which arrives in a tall glass and is the colour of a beautiful, golden sunset – a reassuring sign that the bitters have not been skimped upon.

I am lucky that I know so many friends who are happy to share their food rather than digging into their individually ordered dishes. (Just as an aside, I’m always surprised and intrigued when I spot couples dining who both order the exact same thing. Most funny when I once saw a couple eating a pizza each, both with the same toppings!) This practice, of course, allows for a much more varied dining experience and a greater ability to taste-test different things. And thus we start our dinner with the ‘Risotto with prawns & porcini cream’ from the specials board.

Prawns and porcini is not a coupling that springs to mind when I think of risottos. The mushroom brown dish arrives with a slightly wet and sticky appearance punctuated by orange curls of shelled prawns. But then it somehow seems to work – the sweetness of the slippery prawns, the earthiness of the porcini and the mushroom-fragranced al dente rice. I’m surprised!

This is followed by another offering from the specials board: the ‘Spaghettini with crab, napolitana, basil & chilli’. This is a real summery pasta for me with the strands of sweet crabmeat, which is light in texture, tossed through the thinnish pasta and bound together by a sweet tomato sauce given a bit of a kick with the addition of chilli. The pasta is perfectly cooked and I keep digging in for more.

And then finally for something from Twelve’s standard menu! It’s their ‘Pumpkin & fetta pizza’ and pizzas are something that are done consistently well here, especially if you like your bases thin and crisp. Unfortunately you’re out of luck if you prefer a doughier or fluffier base but no complaints can be made about the toppings which usually revolve around a couple of starring ingredients which are always evenly spread with care.

Sadly it is much more difficult when it comes to sharing the desserts. We order two and the first to arrive is the board special of ‘Trio chocolate - mousse, sorbet & tart’. We have been given individual plates to aid our sharing but they’re warm, so the mousse and sorbet melt almost instantaneously upon contact. We all like the mousse which is light and airy but the sorbet is a little heavy on the cocoa which gives a slight bitter and powdery aftertaste. The tart is rich and dense with a firm texture and is encased by a crunchy biscuity base.

The other dessert falls under my husband’s category of favourites – it’s a dessert pizza and features banana. A crêpe-like base is the vessel for banana sliced thinly on the diagonal and dotted with chocolate chips. A dusting of icing sugar and scoop of vanilla ice-cream following the pizza’s stint in the oven and the dessert is complete.

Along with some coffees (unpictured) we are thoroughly stuffed full of food. We linger on with our conversation and have our water glasses diligently and continually refilled by the waitstaff.

Twelve

222 King St (btwn Brown & Whateley St), Newtown NSW

Tel: (02) 9519 9412

Opening Hours:  Sun & Mon  CLOSED

Tues-Sat  dinner only from 5:30pm

happy eating!

Epicure Recipe Card #6: Mozzarella with Fresh Tomato Pesto

I usually have a few of these recipe cards cooked and photographed so that I have some material up my sleeve for those weeks where I either get waylaid by life or am seriously lacking in motivation. Last week I didn’t post a recipe card (due to pre-wedding madness) and this week I had nothing. So over the weekend I asked Monsieur Poisson to choose a recipe card which he’d like to eat and I would make that. He chose this one but followed it up by saying he didn’t feel like anything cool and salad-y. And thus the great mangling of a perfectly fine recipe card began! Out the other end came a margherita-esque pizza.

That classic Italian tricolour combination of basil, mozzarella and tomato works so well on pizza, tossed with pasta or simply as insalata Calabrese. I unfortunately left my grocery shopping a little late and couldn’t get my mits on any fresh mozzarella balls. I had to use packaged cherry bocconcini instead and somehow didn’t put enough of it on the pizza as well! Of course this flavour combination is better in spring when the tomatoes and milk are sweet and the basil is extra green and fragrant, but it’s pretty good otherwise as well – the Italians really know their stuff.

Pizza Margherita (makes 4 medium-sized pizzas)

(adapted from The Age – Epicure 50 Best Recipe Cards, recipe by Jill Dupleix)

Ingredients:

·         1 quantity of Pizza Dough

·         pizza sauce – made from 1 tbs tomato paste, 1 tbs tomato passata, salt & pepper to taste

·         1 medium tomato, thinly sliced

·         mozzarella/bocconcini, sliced (don’t put too much on or the pizza will be weighed down and soggy)

·         2 tbs shredded basil

·         small basil leaves for serving

Method:

1. Divide the dough into four balls and roll each out on a floured surface to desired thickness. Prick all over with a fork before spreading on a thin layer of pizza sauce.
2. Arrange tomato slices on top of pizzas evenly and sparingly before scattering over shredded basil and topping with cheese slices. Season.
3. Bake for around 5-7 minutes at the hottest setting on your oven (around 270°C on mine) until toppings are cooked and cheese is bubbling. Remove from oven, scatter with small basil leaves and let sit for a couple of minutes before slicing to serve.

happy cooking!

Boxing Day, 2009

Food portions on Christmas Day were pretty good this year and I didn’t actually have any cooked leftovers apart from a couple of small, crusty bread rolls. What I did have left over, rather, were excess raw ingredients that I had purchased thinking I needed to prepare larger portions of food. So these bits and pieces became a pizza dinner on Boxing Day; pizza being a great way to use up miscellaneous foods.

Having purchased a pizza stone for cheap earlier in the year, I now no longer use store-bought pizza bases or flatbreads as base substitutes. It is a slightly more time-consuming process having to roll out the dough, but it is definitely not laborious, especially when I have a dough hook attachment on my stand mixer to do the ‘kneading’ for me.

The bread rolls were made into garlic bread by cutting them into segments, but not quite all the way through to the base. Then it was just a matter of wodging in thin slices of butter (real butter here, please) and crushed garlic mixed with some dried herbs and black pepper in between the sections of bread. Wrapped up in foil, I threw them in the bottom of the oven whilst one of the pizzas was being blasted above.

Pizza toppings and the amount of cheese used are entirely open to choice. I use whatever grated cheese I happen to have at the time and my ‘pizza sauce’ is equal parts tomato paste and tomato passata seasoned with salt, pepper and a sprinkling of dried mixed herbs. On Boxing Day, I had a potato to hand so that became a potato and mixed herb pizza – this one doesn’t require pizza sauce, but merely a thin brushing of olive oil which makes for a crisper base. Some cherry tomatoes which didn’t make it into one of the Christmas Day salads were paired with frozen corn and leftover Christmas ham on another. Mistress joined us again for dinner and kindly brought over a tub of tabouleh, albeit proffered from a friend’s barbecue earlier in the day!

I threw a few prawns tossed with chopped chilli and some haloumi I had kicking about in the fridge on a third pizza, whilst the final one was a half-half of excess toppings from the other pizzas. There is, of course, no reason why you can’t make four pizzas all topped with the same ingredients but, for me, variety really is the spice of life.

Pizza Dough (makes 4 medium-sized bases)

(adapted from Taste.com.au)

Ingredients:

• 185mL warm water
• 7g sachet dried yeast
• 1 tsp sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• 1½ - 2 cups plain flour, plus extra for dusting
• 2 tbs oil 

Method:

1. Mix water, yeast, sugar and salt together in a small cup with a fork. Cover with plastic wrap and leave in a warm place to bubble for 5 minutes. (Don’t turn your back on the yeast for too long or you may end up with an overflowing volcano of bubbling yeast! If it doesn’t bubble at all then you’ll need to try again with another sachet of yeast.) 

2. Sift 1½ cups of flour into a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer. Add yeast mixture and oil. Mix the dough by hand or dough hook attachment until it comes together in a soft ball. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead by hand, or using the dough hook on a stand mixer, until elastic, adding more flour if the dough feels too sticky.
3. Divide the dough into four balls and roll each out on a floured surface to desired thickness. Prick all over with a fork before adding pizza toppings. Bake for around 5-7 minutes at the hottest setting on your oven (around 270°C on mine) until toppings are cooked and cheese, if using, is bubbling. Remove from oven and let sit for a couple of minutes before slicing to serve. 

happy cooking!

Five days in Brisbane: Il Centro, 22 Oct 2009

I actually can’t remember how we ended up choosing Il Centro for dinner. Wifey, having lived in Brisbane five years previous, had suggested we try Cha Cha Char also at Eagle Street Pier but for some reason we went with Il Centro instead. We are seated at a table outdoors, taking advantage of the pleasant evening weather, and the menu had sounded quite promising until I studied it again after getting there.

I start the evening with a glass of prosecco. I actually did not intend to drink but I find it very hard to go past a glass of bubbles these days – it just so appeals to the girly girl in me! Monsieur Poisson, as usual, does not join me and misses out on this light drink with a dry note at the end. We order a ‘Pizza ai porcini, pancetta e basilico’ to start and the aromas of porcini are overwhelmingly inviting. The pancetta is finely chopped and not too salty, and we notice the distinct absence of garlic from this pizza which is scattered with a few leaves of rocket.

Our other primi is the ‘Capesante con riso carnaroli di timo e fave’ ordered partly out of wanting to try risottos on Dr King’s behalf and also to indulge Monsieur Poisson’s love of scallops. The scallops with roe attached are unfortunately just that tiny bit overcooked, but their sweet flavours are complemented nicely by the creamy, light lemon sauce and crunchy sweet broad beans. Interestingly, the scallops sitting atop are dressed with a tomato salsa before being topped with a herb salad.

For mains Monsieur Poisson orders the ‘Fruitti di mare con gnocchi di patate, salvia, castagne e piselli’ but I can’t remember if it’s the seafood or gnocchi that has attracted him. I’m encouraged by the mention of chestnuts but then am confused by the flavours when the dish arrives – I associate seafood with summer, chestnuts and gnocchi with winter, and peas with spring. The nutmeg-scented gnocchi (confirmed by my questioning of a waitress who had to check with the kitchen) are a flattened elongated shaped and are smooth and light in texture without risk of falling apart. However, the flavours don’t really gel for me in this dish which is topped by more of that tomato salsa.

I’ve chosen the meaty ‘Bistecca di manzo alla griglia’ that comes with duck fat roasted King Edward potatoes, broccoli and beans as well as either Béarnaise or pepper sauce. The menu says the steak is a certified 300 gram, 150-day, black Angus sirloin and is most definitely well-charred but juicy. The steak arrives unseasoned and for some reason I have chosen the Béarnaise to accompany this otherwise Italian steak. The sauce is served in a gravy boat and is devoid of herbs, which is normally Béarnaise’s distinguishing feature from Hollandaise. I am disappointed by the duck fat potatoes, only because I was expecting them to be like those served at L’étoile, and am further confounded by more of that mysterious tomato salsa adorning the steak.

Although we are quite full by this point, we make room for dessert mainly because we notice that petits fours are offered on the menu. Monsieur Poisson relaxes with a caffe latte which comes with biscotti. The biscotti are light and crumbly and not chewy like the usual, but the coffee is slightly grey in colour.

I settle back with a pot of T2 Earl Grey which is wonderfully fragrant. Our ‘Assortimento di cioccolatini e dolcetti’ is placed on the table without any introduction so we are left to guess what the eight individual components are. We assume them to be: a thin and crisp poppyseed tuille; a chocolate, cherry coconut slice; a frangipane tartlet with strawberry jam centre; a mildly bitter chocolate truffle with gooey centre; an apricot tartlet; a chocolate tartlet which is neither bitter nor sweet; an almond slice; and a chocolate stick perhaps with candied orange peel. It definitely brings a forensics component to the end of our meal!

Overall the food at Il Centro is not bad and the service is both friendly and personable. We just found the menu to be a bit confused, or perhaps it was just us that were confused by it. Nonetheless, the restaurant enjoyed an almost full crowd that night which should attest to its popularity.

Il Centro

Eagle Street Pier, 1 Eagle Street, Brisbane QLD

Tel: (07) 3221 6090

Opening Hours:  Sun-Fri  lunch from 12pm

                                    dinner from 5:30pm

                        Sat  dinner only from 5:30pm

happy eating!