What's for Dinner, Curtis?

As a chef stalker, I was so excited to meet Curtis Stone and have his new book, What's for Dinner? signed earlier this year. He's managing to muscle in between me and my thing with Jamie, and I've been cooking through a few of his recipes so far.

What I love about his book is the diversity - quick things, healthy things, not-so-healthy-but-very-yummy things, seasonal dishes, classics and new interpretations of old favourites so I wanted to show a few of his collection.

Chicken Cassoulet with Fennel and Bacon, with Endive and Shaved Fennel Salad

I have been trying to hide pulses in our dishes trying to trick my hubbie who claims to be not a big fan. This was an amazing dish for that and he even asked for seconds even after discovering that they were beans). I Apart from the chicken pieces being juicy and moist, the veg and bean concoction underneath was so flavourful. This was a great and cost effective low carb choice on a cool night.

Spiced Lamb Chops with Grilled Zucchini, Feta, and Olive Gremolata (served with Curtis' pickled onions)

I loved the simplicity of this dish, and it is great for preparing earlier and putting on the barbie when everyone is having a drink out on the balcony to admire the aroma - or in our case rushing to try to stop the smoke alarm beeping (think we need to clean the BBQ) The grilled zucchini is a good trick to make veg taste amazing; and with the onions and feta, this dish goes from a traditional meat and veg to a delicious, different but very healthy dinner.

Slow-Cooked Pulled Pork Sandwiches with 'Fireworks' Coleslaw (and Apple Bourbon Sauce)

This recipe, and in particular the sauce, are the reason to buy this book! I amended the slow cooked pork recipe for my slow cooker (I didn't basically the same but cooked it in the slow cooker for 8 hours instead of 2 1/2 which Curtis recommended. The pork falls apart, and it's the amazing sauce/chutney that puts it back together and makes an amazing sweet, tart, spicy sauce. Served with the coleslaw (where I substituted yoghurt for the mayo to make it healthier) this was a great dish for a posh night or casual night in!

Hope you can grab a copy of the book and try out a few. If you're anything like me, you'll love it! 

Tastes on my Travels

As I travel it has started to become clearer what type of restaurants I am drawn to. Of course, I love going to the classics and trying out the acclaimed chefs' places when in their home city, but what I've noticed as I browse through the restaurant recommendations I receive is that I'm drawn to a couple of things: I like quirky buildings or locations - restaurants in buildings converted from another purpose; I love the underdog - not the top restaurant in town, but the best new restaurants, off the beaten track ones; and I love interesting produce that's a bit different to the norm, but where the preparation isn't too out there with gels and soils etc. 

Recently, I've just come back from a few weeks work and play in North America - San Jose and Vancouver to be specific - where I found some restaurants I really enjoyed which fit some or all of the criteria!

Naglee Park Garage, San Jose

This recommendation came from a colleague who thought I'd love it! Of course I did. I watched a YouTube clip of the feature on Diners, Drive In's and Dives and was really excited to try it. Classic American burger and fries but with a twist! Perfect. Even better was the courtyard out to back of the converted garage in San Jose. We sat on long shared tables and relaxed on the summers evening enjoying the food, wine and music from a jazz band playing at the back. It was a great place to kick back and chill!

Wildebeest, Vancouver

I was really excited to go to Wildebeest in Vancouver. The menu looked so interesting when I was scouring websites for where to eat in Vancouver and wow! It delivered. I really enjoy the idea of share plates which are a little bigger than starter size but not as big as a main, so you can try quite a few things. These dishes were delicious with every bite packing a punch. We had a bunch of  things including bison tartare, so interesting and flavoursome; delectable quail with the hay still smoking; tender and melt-in-your-mouth beef shortrib. The restaurant had a great vibe contrasting to the quiet Gastown street outside when we left!

Fable Restaurant, Vancouver

Fable is another Vancouver favourite established a few years ago inspired by Top Chef Canada "restaurant wars." For a Monday night I didn't think we'd have trouble getting a table but this is a popular haunt and we just squeezed in for an early sitting! This was another colleague's recommendation (they really know me!) and it was fabulous. The highlight for me was the "canned tuna" - confit (I think) tuna with preserved lemons served in a "can" but the other dishes were delicious - perfectly cooked duck and lamb; clever potato crusted chicken and good old Steak Frites! 

 Ah, great food really makes a great holiday for me. And really makes me want to return to try some of the other menu items that I didn't pick - makes my travel wishlist that bit longer though!

If you could choose only one meat, what would it be?

We were having a dinner party conversation last week "if you could only eat one meat from now on, what would you choose?" It's a toughie for most meat lovers but my answer is most definitely a PIG! Whilst Pork wouldn't be the highlight of a last meal (I'd be choosing Roast Beef with Yorkshire puddings and horseradish sauce for that!) pork is an all rounder. Let's play it out over a weekly meal plan - for which I am famous!

Rick Stein's Pea and Ham Soup

Monday - on Monday at our place we like to have fish so maybe for "porker" week I would choose Jamie Oliver's bacon wrapped fish on a bed of asparagus. (Roasted white fish wrapped in smokie bacon, with lemon mayonnaise and asparagus)

Tuesday - often I am out on Tuesday nights so I leave something for my hubbie to prepare for himself - how about bangers and mash - a Dude food speciality!

Wednesday - whilst trying to lose weight, I am always looking for fast and lean. One of my favourite ingredients these days is pork loin.  Marinated in hoisin sauce and quickly seared in the pan is a quick, delicious mid week dinner. (Hoisin Pork Fillet with Stir Fried Chinese Greens)

Thursday - typically by Thursday I am starting to get lazy so a delicious  pea soup with ham hock that I've
prepared earlier in the week will be just the ticket. 

Friday - Friday night is pizza night in our place, a prosciutto and rocket pizza takes us right back to our Italian Honeymoon. 

Crackling with Roast Pork

Saturday - Saturday I like to spend a bit more time in the kitchen. Maybe some homemade pasta with a bacony carbonara sauce, or a classic slow cooked pulled pork, falling apart in some yummy BBQ sauce? (Curtis Stone's Pulled Pork Sandwich)

Sunday - Sunday kicks off with a big breakfast with poached eggs, garlic mushrooms and of course bacon. And of course, it finishes with a roast - juicy Roast Pork with mouthwateringly crispy crackling! 

Now do you see what I mean? So, which meat would you choose? 

*this post was not sponsored in any way by any Pork authority, but if any of them felt like giving me a lifetimes supply of pork, I could happily find ways to use it! Oink oink! 

Wham Bam Thank you Nahm!

Nahm..... the 32nd best restaurant in the world and we were THERE! And it was fabulous - a great culmination of a week of fabulous Thai feasting. Nahm's menu was inspired by David Thompson's studies into old Thai cookbooks. He also produced a cookbook called "Thai Street Food" and we definitely tasted some refined versions of the tasty street vendor fare. How could you choose from a 6 page menu, so we went for the set menu - a selection of canapes for entree, followed by one of each of the soup, salad, stir fry, curry and relish, and then dessert. Our eyes were a bit bigger than our stomachs, but it was delicious. 

Canapes

Our Menu

The canapes arrived at the table to kick the meal off. They were fresh little bites. The smoked fish, peanut and tapioca dumpling reminded us of a dish we'd not been so fond of earlier in the week - this was obviously the right way to cook tapioca! The salted threadfin perch with ginger, chilli and green mango on betel leaves was a flavour combo to be enjoyed in one bite. 

This was so spicy it nearly blew our mouths away, and had us giggling for a while, whilst sipping on our Thai cocktails and beer. We cooled down our mouths with some watermelon and mango dipped in toasted coconut before tackling the prawn and coconut wafers with pickled ginger.

Main

For main, we had the one of all the different sections of the menu:

Salad - Salad of fresh water crayfish with pork and Asian pennywort

Soup - Clear soup of roast duck with Thai basil and young coconut

Relish - Minced prawn and pork simmered in coconut cream with young chillies, red shallots and coriander with fresh vegetables and deep fried cured carp

Curry - Aromatic curry of wagyu beef and sweet potatoes with cucumber relish

Stir Fry - Scallops stir-fried with spring onions and chilli

The wagyu beef curry was definitely the highlight. Melt in your mouth slow cooked falling apart meat infused with delicious spice flavours. The scallops was a close second. Perfectly cooked and tasty!

Dessert

We really didn't need dessert! Sooooo full! But this is what we had 

Lychee in scented syrup with Thai Cup cakes

Sweet Thai wafers with poached persimmons and golden duck egg noodles.

The sweet Thai wafers were definitely an adaption of the street food that we had tried earlier in the week. These wafers though were crispy and creamy and juicy! 

The lychee was cool on our tongues and refreshing. The cup cakes were also a reminder of the markets throughout the week with the surprising (but not as surprising this time) salty, savoury spring onion mixture in the middle of the sweet batter.

32 in the world..... Amazing (but we rekon some Sydney restaurants are better!)