Monthly Archives: August 2012

Eat: Aviary Dessert Kitchen

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I haven’t been back to Aviary Dessert Kitchen for a while, despite the fact it’s been on my list (Although when my list contains most of the restaurants and cafes in Adelaide it’s no wonder I don’t keep up with it). But we were planning the second meet-up for our dessert club, The After Dinner Mints, and we settled on a trip up the parade.

There are two rooms at Aviary, I didn’t even realise the downstairs room existed because I’ve always sat upstairs. We were upstairs again, in the small dimly lit room. There are small (fake) birds peeping out from corners, and vines draped across the ceiling. There’s a little bit of magic about the Aviary, and I find it’s best enjoyed with a little bit of childlike wonder.

You have to wander back down the stairs to place an order, but at least it means you get to eye off all the goodies in the cabinet. I knew I’d be having the Graceland before the place even opened, so I was first to order – adding on a mille crepe cake for the niece and a peanut butter hot chocolate. There was a $15 Eftpos minimum, which was a little bit annoying. It didn’t affect me because I was buying for two, but Tempting Tyson had to add a macaron onto his order because he was short. Surely a $5 or $10 would suffice?

Two on the table ordered the mille crepe cake, and it was the first to arrive. Gee whiz it looked good. It is layer upon layer of thin crepes, with patisserie cream, lemon curd, and a delicious brulée top. Benefit of bringing my niece along is that not only did she make a great choice, but that I got to eat some too. This was a really beautiful dessert, simple but delicious. Many sweets work well in layers, and this is just one more to add to the list. We were all expecting a round stack of small crepes to come to the table, but the slice was very cool.

I wish I could be half as enthusiastic about the Graceland. It wasn’t disappointing as such – more just underwhelming. I should have probably expected it, as both Tyson & Sam have given it similar feedback, but I just had to try it for myself. Here’s the description from the Aviary menu:

legend has it this combo was the King’s favourite. a toasted banana
and peanut butter sandwich served with maple syrup, banana and bacon
crumble and peanut butter ice cream

The sandwich itself didn’t have enough of the elements. The bread was too overpowering – and so you barely got any flavour of the peanut butter or the fresh banana inside. I felt like these should have been slathered on a bit more. While the bacon crumble was there, it was pretty much impossible to distinguish any taste of bacon. A rasher of candied bacon might have been a nice touch. I did like the peanut butter ice cream though. General consensus was that this was a dish with so much potential – that doesn’t quite hit the mark.

Tyson had the B&B – a bread and butter pudding made with chocolate croissants and filled with raspberries. Feedback was that it was good, but maybe not quite as good as the description made it sounds.

Chloe went for the macaron flower pot. A gorgeous little dish of a rich chocolate mud-cake with popping candy and a macaron. This was another winner, which you could tell from Chloe’s face every time she had another mouthful of popping candy. She kept the macaron for later, but Tyson still had his salted caramel macaron as a result of the EFTPOS limit. After a few bites he was pretty convinced that they’d got the flavour wrong, so we passed it round the table, and there was barely a hint of caramel.

You could taste the salt, and you could taste chocolate, but there was only the faintest taste of caramel. We ended up deciding that it probably was the right flavour, just not a very good salted caramel.

All in all Aviary was a real mixed bag, which is what I’ve felt from other trips. The love and effort is all there, but not everything comes off how it should. The mille crepe cake and the macaron flower pot are the two signature dishes, and these were definitely the table’s favourites. It would just be good if every item on the menu could be as good.

Week 5: Patisserie at TAFE SA (Desserts)

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Week 5? What? I thought you’d just written about Week 6?

Okay, yes, I’m a bit behind and I’m posting all over the place. But I’ve been meaning to pop a post up about our first week of desserts, and it just seemed to sit on the to-do-list for a bit longer than expected.

Before actually getting into Patisserie we got our first taste of it through the Hot & Cold desserts module of the Commercial Cookery course. I missed one day because I was busy doing the shoot for the Advertiser, this was definitely the favourite week.

It’s funny to see a real divide between the Commercial Cookery kids (yes I’m still calling them that) when it comes to desserts. Half of them seem to hate desserts, and were glad to see the end of them, but the other half are always coming up and saying how much they wish they were doing Patisserie.

The first dish was a passionfruit bavarois (or Bavarian Cream) with sugar work, tuille biscuits, and passionfruit coulis. The picture on the left is the one plated by Chef Paul B. in the demo, and the one on the right is mine. We didn’t have too much difficulty with the actual bavarois, it’s an anglais based dessert that is set with gelatine. But as you can see my sugar work didn’t go quite as hoped.

We obviously didn’t cook our caramel for long enough, which is why we’ve got a pale yellow colour instead of the rich caramel colour. It had also started to crystallise a little bit. Sadly it meant we couldn’t make angel’s hair from it to be able to make the sugar ball. Both are probably a bit over decorated, but it was fun to play around with it. It was a very light and creamy dessert, and the passionfruit flavour wasn’t too strong.

One of my favourites was the praline parfait, although we made a bit of a mistake and left our praline in the fridge (whoops!). Praline is hydroscopic because of the caramel, and so if you put it in the fridge (an environment with high humidity) it’s going to soak up a lot of moisture and become quite sticky. Because of this when we mixed in our praline there was a large clump that wouldn’t mix through, so we took it out, and once our parfait came out it was a delicious creamy vanilla with only a few speckles of praline. But when combined with the praline on the plate & some raspberry coulis it was quite delicious.

In the demo Chef Paul B. made a bombe alaska, unfortunately we didn’t get a chance to try one of our parfaits like this. My first introduction to a bombe alaska was actually in about 2000, when it was one of the desserts your people could whip up on the Sims. But it’s also something that is pretty popular at restaurants and dessert bars at the moment. I’ve had one recently at Devour & Press to name a few.

Then came the saga of the brandy snaps. I feel a little bit incompetent typing this out, it seems every dish there’s been some kind of mistake, but everything is a bit of a learning curve. In the kitchen we have baking paper, and silicon paper. But baking paper isn’t exactly like the baking paper you get at home, and if you use it many things have a tendency to stick. So I accidentally used baking paper for our brandy snaps, and low and behold they didn’t work and we’d run out of mixture.

It was a pretty horrible feeling, so I had to rush over to the food store to get some more ingredients, and hope for the best (running into Tempting Tyson on the way back). Chris, our lecturer for the day, said I didn’t need to plate them up but there was no way I was getting through the lesson without having something to show him. By the time I was pulling my brandy snaps out of the oven most of the class had already left, including a few others who had made the same mistake. Thankfully they worked, and I had two dishes to plate up.

The crème brulée was a dish without too much trouble, and the vanilla rhubarb that went with it was so sweet and delicious without any of the usual bitterness that I associate with rhubarb. It was definitely fun playing around with the caramel on top of the crème brulée and getting that lovely crack.

Finally the soufflés. Something that we all wanted to master. We were making chocolate soufflés, and once they went into the oven we hung around nervously to see if they would rise. I’ve never flicked on the light in the oven so many times. As we pulled them out they looked gorgeous, and my heart did a little bit of a jump. I believe that the flaky bits around the rim of some of them are from adding too much sugar on the moulds.

I’ve only eaten a soufflé once before, and I can honestly say that I enjoyed mine a lot more than that one. It was a really light and fluffy chocolate flavour, that was very moreish with the sweet crème anglaise.

All in all it was a fun week, with a few stressful moments, but it was so much fun finally getting stuck into desserts. There are so many things that I want to practice at home once I get myself a bit more settled in this kitchen, and I can’t wait for the next dinner party where I’ll be able to whip one of these up.

Finally, here are two dishes from Jessica, just because she always manages to have the most adorable plating.

Adelaide Magazine Reader Dinner: Press* Food & Wine

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Why does no one want to eat with me at Press?

Last Tuesday night was my second Adelaide Magazine Reader Dinner. As soon as I saw the invite I knew I was going. After all, the last dinner (a collaboration between the Adelaide Magazine, the Happy Motel, & McLaren Vale Wineries) still goes down as one of the best nights out I’ve ever had. Then there is Press, one of my favourite restaurants in Adelaide. So I watched my bank balance like a hawk until about a week before the dinner when I knew I could spare the $90 to splurge on a ticket.

But that was it. I bought one ticket. Usually I can convince my sister to come along to things like this, but she was going to be off in Cambodia, and after a chorus of “Oh, I’d love to but I don’t really have the money” I knew I’d be flying solo. It wasn’t until I got the phone call confirming my booking that I started getting a little nervous.

“Hi Natasha, just calling to confirm your booking tonight at Press for … just yourself.”

Suddenly I was imagining myself cooped up in the corner on a lonesome little table. Thankfully this was well and truly a long table event. I ended up on a great table of people, and I can always have a good night surrounded by strangers who love food and drink.

I think it’s pretty safe to say that I’m a fan of anything with the words ‘pork’ and ‘bun’ in the title. From the Asian steamed pork buns I’ve eaten my whole life, to Pearl’s Diner’s sloppy pulled pork bun deliciousness, and now these well known pork buns at Press. They were first on the menu, handed round on trays while people drank and mingled. The sliders seemed like a strange way to start the meal, but no one was really complaining, because the mix of fresh salad, sweet bun, and crispy pork was pretty yum.

Gravlax of salmon, crème fraiche, dill & mustard dressing. Morcilla, apple remoulade. Fennel, witlof, orange, radish, red onion, sumac. Bef carpaccio, fresh horseradish, capers. 

local squid, chipotle mayonaise. 

The actual meal kicked off with a range of brightly coloured dishes. I’m a very visual eater, if something looks incredible I just can’t wait to actually get it in my mouth. Dinner was set out just like the regular Press menu, with their categories like Raw, Small, Meat, Offal, etc. all getting their chance to jump on your plate.

Our first dishes (the gravlax, carpaccio, & the salad) were all really light and fresh, while the squid and morcilla had a bit more spice. I’d never eaten carpaccio before, but I always love me some raw meat, and I liked the saltiness of the capers. Morcilla was also new to me, and most of the table. We had to do a quick google to double check that it actually was a blood sausage. It usually also comes as part of the offal mixed grill at Press, which I think I might have to choose next time I pop in.

Roast suckling pig with all the trimmings. 

As soon as the pig came out people jumped up to get a picture of it. It’s interesting to think that something that makes so many people salivate with hunger, would also put a lot of people off of their food. I was pretty happy with the shot on the left, which was right before the pig was carved up and served to the tables.

This is the dish I first went along to Press for, but after not enough people showed up we had to pass up on the suckling pig and order from the menu instead. It’s pretty clear to see why it’s such a popular dish. The crackling was crisp and the meat was so juicy. This course also came with my favourite wine of the evening, The Alpha Box and Dice ‘blood of jupiter’ sangiovese cabernet.

Beef pie, pea puree. 

We also had the beef pies as our main course, I think these were the ones featured on the Adelaide Mag cover a month or so back. I wasn’t bowled over by them, but I did love the presentation. There are just so many other things to eat at Press, so while I enjoyed them I might not order them again.

Rum & Raisin bombe alaska, cinnamon anglaise. 

Finally dessert. Which funnily was the course I was least looking forward to. Maybe it’s because for me Press is about meat (and some pretty awesome salads). There were two possibilities for dessert, but you got what you were given. The lemon curd tart is always a nice option, and I’ve had a few bad experiences with rum & raisin desserts in the past that I can’t say I was really looking forward to either.

Then my rum & raisin bombe alaska came out. It was this beautiful meringue beehive sitting in a pool of anglaise sauce. While unfortunately not on fire, it looked lovely. I had a spoonful and kind of fell in love. It wasn’t overpowering like almost every other rum & raisin experience I’ve had, and the meringue was still warm while the inner parfait was so creamy. It almost managed to be one of my favourite dishes of the night.

While I’ve focussed on the food, it was really the people that made this night great. It’s one of the reasons why I love the Adelaide Mag Reader dinners, and while I’ll definitely be buying a ticket to the next one even if I am all alone again at the start. Katie & Jim from the Adelaide Mag are great, and it was great meeting so many other fun and interesting people throughout the night.

If you get an invite to dine at Press, or an Adelaide Mag Reader dinner, jump at the chance.

Week 6: Patisserie at TAFE SA (Honey Doughnut Recipe)

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I haven’t really done a proper TAFE update since my first week. That was after we came in on the first day to find out our first 6 weeks would be all about Commercial Cookery (not Patisserie). In week 1 we were making stocks, soups, and sauces. Thinking back now I can’t even imagine what I would have done if we’d gone straight into Patisserie.

Having a go at the basics of Commercial Cookery helped me out with seasoning (and tasting your food), learning my way around the kitchen, plating, cutting, and more. It was also a great opportunity to meet some more people outside of the Patisserie course.

But today marked the first day of Patisserie. It’s going to be weird not sharing the demo room with the Commercial Cookery Kids (can I even call them that when some of them are at least double my age?), it’s also going to be strange that we’ll no longer have the majority of lecturers we’ve had for these first 6 weeks. But enough reminiscing - and back to today.

Our demo today was by Herman, I once saw someone describe him as a mad scientist of Patisserie, and that really seems like the best way to describe him. He’s hilarious, but also pretty serious about patisserie and desserts. Once while we were working through some cream cheese in our tiramisu he came and threw my spatula in the bin, to replace it with his favourite utensil – the whisk (although he much prefers a Kitchen-Aid).

The dish: Honey Doughnuts with dates & vanilla cream.


We were also making a vanilla ice cream and chocolate fondant ready for Monday’s lesson.

It turns out there was a bit of skill to making nice round doughnuts, and we realised this after we noticed all of these long (almost twinkie-like) doughnuts coming out of the deep fryer. We piped the batter almost onto our finger before looping it round to make a ball, and then dropping it in the hot oil. They certainly weren’t perfect, but we were thrilled with them.

This has been my favourite dish to plate. Rather than just one item with some sauce and a garnish, we could have a bit more fun playing with all the different elements.

I was quite intrigued by the micro herbs, as I’ve definitely never used them – and it was quite a novelty adding ‘celery’ to a dessert. Apparently micro herbs aren’t too common in Adelaide, and most of the ones we use come over from Victoria.

If you’ve got a deep fryer handy, these are incredibly easy to make at home.

Ingredients

Syrup:
375g Honey
190ml Water
375g Sugar

Doughnuts:
400ml Milk
1 tsp Instant Yeast
600g Plain Flour
70 g Sugar
2 Eggs
70g Softened Unsalted Butter

Bring all ingredients for honey syrup to boil, allow to boil rapidly for 5 mins. Cool, and put aside (Don’t store in fridge). 

1. Add milk to stand mixer. Then add yeast to flour, and mix using paddle.
2. Add sugar and eggs to mixture & mix till combined. Then add softened butter. Mix on a low speed until batter is thick, and ingredients are well combined.
3. Put mixture in sealed piping bag – using round nozzle approx 1cm in diameter.
4. Heat deep fryer to 170º.
5. Cut piping bag, and pipe batter – experiment to get desired shape and size.
6. Once doughnuts are a rich golden colour allow to drain on paper towel.
7. Place doughnuts in honey syrup while warm. Cover doughnuts and then move to another plate.
8. Serve with chopped pistachio, dates (or fresh figs if in season), vanilla cream, and micro herbs.

Apologies that I’m terrible at recipe writing. I’m much better at eating than I am at writing out recipes, so I hope it’s easy to follow. It’s a simple, but pretty dish. I also have some more posts coming soon – Including our last week of Commercial Cookery (desserts), and the Adelaide Mag Reader dinner at Press.

Also, I’ve just gotten a Facebook page for the blog. So head over and like it if you’d like to be kept up to date on Facebook.

Eat: The Loose Caboose Cafe

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It’s not often that I hop on the train to take me somewhere. Usually it an intermediary between one form of transport and another, a necessary hassle. But today I was hopping one stop out of the city to visit to newly opened the Loose Caboose Cafe. They opened up in early August and they’re not just near the Bowden Train Station, they are it.

The last time I was charmed by a train station was back at my first Breakfast Rave, which seems fitting considering the Loose Caboose stocks Scullery Made Tea (A Barossa & Breakfast Rave local).

The first thing you notice is how gorgeous the space is. The’ve completely transformed the old station building, managing to keep the charm of the old building with plenty of fun modern touches. If you’re a fan of renovations it’s pretty fascinating stuff flicking through their albums on Facebook.

I decided on a chicken sandwich and the banana bread (which came recommended after I bumped into Chloe from Yelp as I was placing my order). I picked a spot outside, which surprisingly wasn’t too chilly. The outdoor decking is huge, and easily bigger than some entire cafes. In Summer this will be the spot to sit. It would also be a great place to have some live music (I’m still thinking Breakfast Rave-esque) during the warmer months.

When my order came out there was a bit of a mix up, instead of my sandwich they brought out the baked chicken goujons with salsa verde dipping sauce, & salad. They would have happily swapped them for my order, but I decided I’d try them instead. I’m planning a trip back soon, so the sandwich will wait till then. To be fair I probably ordred the “crumbed chicken thingy” anyway.

It was a generous serve, and while I was neither here nor there with the salad I really liked the salsa verde. This may have been a sign that I should have gone with my original order, I managed to get a drop of salsa verde on my white t-shirt. Safe to say I went home with my cardigan buttoned all the way up.

Don’t baulk at paying $10.90 for banana bread, this is nothing like the stuff you get from Gloria Jean’s. Two incredibly thick cuts of crispy banana bread topped with marscapone, banana, pistachios, cherries, and a tasty sauce. It was delicious, and I’m pretty glad it came recommended otherwise I probably would have just glanced over it on the menu.

While being tempted by something hot, I ended up going for a juice, and the Ginger Tinge (carrot, apple, ginger, and cinnamon) was perfect. The juices come out in these little, almost medicinal, bottles. They’re a pretty decent size too. I drink pretty quickly, and my juice still lasted quite a while. I was also pretty ecstatic to have free sparkling water. There is a serve yourself drink station where you grab a glass and choose from sparkling or still. I felt a little out of control, and was surprised I didn’t manage to flood the place, but it’s a great addition.

I’m definitely planning a trip back soon, because their breakfast menu all just sounds too delicious. I’m currently torn between the hazelnut dukah eggs and the smashed avocado with thyme buttered mushrooms.

Seriously. Go There. Do Not Pass Go. Do Not Collect $200. Just head to the Loose Caboose at Bowden Railway Station. (p.s. if you’re the tramming type of guy or gal you can also catch the tram to the Entertainment Centre and it’s just across the road).

Eat Drink Blog ’12 & Other Foodie Things

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I’ve got a few food related things on my mind so I thought I’d break them down in one post.

1. Eat Drink Blog ’12
I’m pretty excited to share that registrations have opened up for the third Eat Drink Blog food blogging conference. It’s being held in Adelaide, and I’m so excited to be part of the committee organising it. We have so many exciting things planned, like Dianne Jacobs flying down from San Francisco and a host of fantastic speakers sharing all they know. Of course there will also be a chance to enjoy some great food and show of Adelaide & SA to all the interstate guests.

If you’re an Australian food blogger you can find out more information & register online on the Eat Drink Blog website.

2. Blogger & Yelp Meetups
Last Sunday I got to meet up with two different, but both utterly fabulous groups of people. The first was at Steven Ter Horst with a bunch of local food blogging ladies from The Apprentice Foodie, She Cooks, She Gardens, Octavia & Vicky, & The Market Basket. I also brought my niece Chloe along for the afternoon. Chloe had the Lemon Lust (she’s not really a chocolate fan) and I had the Salted Caramel Truffle Tart. I’ve been wanting to get here for so long, but every time something would pop up, so it was great to kill two birds with one stone and meet up with some great bloggers & enjoy the treats.

Later that night I had another dessert date (HELP I think I have an addiction). This time was at Eggless where Yelp‘s new community manager Chloe was hosting her first UYE (Unofficial Yelp Event). I was already heading along for their pyjama night, and so Chloe helped wrangle up a few other Yelpers to enjoy some desserts. We had two Chloe’s on the table (Yelp + my niece) and the other two along for the ride were fellow bloggers Op Shop Diva (and her two boys) & Tempting Tyson. I’d met Kamini from Op Shop Diva before at another blogger meet-up and it was greet to see her again. I also got a chance to pick Tyson’s brain, he’s finishing up Commercial Cookery at TAFE while also working in the industry. While I’m heading down Patisserie which follows a different pat, it great chatting about it – and finding out about this delicious dessert.

3. TAFE – Week 4
I’ve started Week 4 at TAFE, with a few theory tests this week and our next practical coming up soon. It’s also pretty exciting that in about two weeks we’ll have our first component of Patisserie. Today we popped past the cafe to check out the Cert IV Patisserie students who had a special afternoon tea event selling their gateaux.

The other day we made a delicious beer batter fish & chips, it was so good I’m tempted to bring my deep fryer up to my new place in the CBD so I can try and recreate it. Today we cooked lamb cutlets with with tzatziki & zucchini. They’ve been two of my favourite meals so far. I’ve also got a good group of friends at TAFE which makes the whole process a lot more fun. One of the girls also has her own cake business, so go check out Sweet As… Cakes by Kathy. It’s fun having someone to talk to about cake orders, and troubleshooting any cake related problems.

4. The Adelaide Magazine Reader Dinner
Next Tuesday I’m heading along to Press* Food and Wine for my second Adelaide Mag Reader Dinner. It may sound like some exclusive party, but really they’re for everyone. The last one I went to was Someone in New Mexico Loves me ‘a dinner of heart & hand’ with The Happy Motel. It goes down in history as being one of my best nights out, ever. So I can’t wait for this one at Press, a favourite of mine when it comes to food in Adelaide.

Press noms

The only downside is that I’m going all alone, thankfully there will be plenty of food & wine, so I’m sure I’ll settle in to mingling fairly quickly. But if anyone wants to come along and be my friend there are still some tickets online. DO IT.

5. New Digs
I’ve moved into a new place in the CBD so I’m not quite so far away from TAFE. Major benefit? I have the world of CBD dining on my doorstep. So I’m counting down the days till my dinner buddy Sam gets back from overseas so we can have some awesome eats without him driving me all the way home to Moana. It’ll also be fun now that he’s started up his own food blog The Smiling Foodie.

Well I hope you’ve enjoyed my linkerific post. Expect some more next week after we start on hot and cold desserts at TAFE and also after the Adelaide Mag Reader Dinner.

Medieval Feast @ Rigoni’s Bistro

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When someone offers me meat on a spit, there’s no way I can refuse. Enter the Medieval Dress Up Dinner at Rigoni’s Bistro on Leigh Street, helping to celebrate Coopers 150th Anniversary and raising money for Variety. I found out about it on Facebook, and thankfully mum and dad were both in. We got dressed at my new place, before walking over to join the festivities.

The lamb and pork were already set up on the street. It was great having the spits out in full view rather than hidden away out the back, plus they made something warm to congregate around while we stood outside. Inside one long table was set up, each place with our own tankard to fill with beer throughout the night. Most people dressed up, which was great, and it was fun watching people’s heads turn as they walked down Leigh Street.

I wasn’t just hanging out with mum and dad for the night (although I was lucky enough to have a song dedicated to me about my mum courtesy of Elbow Skin). Caitlin from the Good Food Society was there with her friend Leigh, which helped the night get extra merry. There was free flowing wine and beer throughout the night, with everything provided by Coopers & Aramis Wines.

As well as all the food and drink the night was also about raising money for Variety. Rigoni’s have/sponsor a car in the Variety Bash and seem to put a lot into supporting the charity. So there was a silent auction on the night, we bid on a few of the bottles of alcohol, but didn’t come away with anything at the end of it. I forget the exact numbers, but there was over $1000 extra raised from the auction.

There was meat, meat, and more meat. We started with something a bit lighter, prawns and oysters, before moving onto a plate of meat pasties, terrine, pork pies, and other meats. We popped outside to check on the meat on the spits (i.e. stare at it longingly) and by this stage they’d begun roasting the quail. Boy did they look delicious.

The plates of meat were brought to the table – there was quail, pheasant, pork, and lamb. There were supposedly steaks on the menu as well but I didn’t see any. The lamb was hands down my absolute favourite. The plate was piled high, and the meat was just so succulent. I would have loved to eat a lot more than I did, but I just couldn’t fit it all in.

We were entertained throughout the night by the two funny and hilariously rude guys from Elbow Skin, but it was also great just chatting away with everyone. Everyone was in good spirits, and how could you not be? The fun and festive Medieval theme was definitely embraced. The girls behind the bar were lovely, and always seemed to be there at the perfect moment to refill my glass.

I’m just adding it to the growing list of great experiences at Rigoni’s. Now I just need to have a day off so that I can head there for breakfast again.