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Tuesday, November 13, 2007
The Berry Farm…review by Winsome Stavrianou
We spent two weeks in the Margaret River region of WA in November. The scenery was breathtaking, all the vines were covered with green leaves, the grass was green and the rivers were full. Pleasantly the weather was warming up. We were on the mission for a perfect lunch. We tried quite a few of the wineries and similar throughout the two weeks. The standout lunch was at the Berry Farm.
The Berry Farm is located about half an hour away from Margaret River Township. The drive takes you through lovely rural country, littered with animals and vineyards. My first impression of the Berry Farm was not fantastic. It was not well signposted, and there was construction work happening near the car park. However, as we approached the little cottage that is now the restaurant we forgot all about these little glitches. We chose to sit outside, with the cute little blue wrens and other birds.
We ordered the two pies, one each, as recommended by the owner/chef. He couldn’t chose a favourite, and between us neither could we. We ordered a beef pie with red wine sauce and a venison pie with port sauce. The pies were delicious, golden flaky pastry encrusting beautifully tender meat and sauce. The meat was real, and great big chunks of it. The pies also came with a simple salad, which was refreshing and all that was necessary. Having said that, the garlic bread we ordered complimented the pies perfectly. We could have done without the garlic bread, as we actually struggled to finish the pies after eating so much delicious garlicky bread. However our puppy, Honey, managed to help us out with that one.
Also on the menu were delicious looking scones served with jam and cream, and other lighter lunches.
Another pro of this restaurant is the friendly staff. We had puppy in tow for the duration of our trip down south. We found it difficult in some places to take us with her. Despite finding outside tables, many restaurants didn’t like her being there. In contrast the people at the Berry Farm welcomed her, and even asked where they could get one like her.
I would recommend the Berry Farm to anyone travelling to the Margaret River region as we thoroughly enjoyed it. We can’t wait to try the jams and sauces next time we get there, as after eating such a fantastic lunch we were too full to try anything more.
Winsome Stavrianou
Thursday, November 8, 2007
Moist Pear Cake…recipe by Dana Kelly
In the base of 8 inch tin, 3 large pears, ripe, quarterd and cored.
Pour over 2 oz of melted butter.
4 eggs
1/4 cup fine sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2/3 cup flour 1/3 cup SR flour
1 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon mixed spice
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
50 gram melted butter, cooled
1/4 cup syrup
1/2 cup milk, or less as required
Melt butter and syrup, leave to cool (add some milk)
Sift flour, bicarb, spices, pinch of salt, leave.
Combine eggs sugar, vanilla in heat proof bowl, place over saucepan gentle simmer water (make sure does water does not touch bowl).
Beat 6-7 mins elec beater, or til pale & thick, until double in bulk approx.
Remove from heat, continue to beat for 3 mins.
Use large metal spoon, gently fold into flour mix.
Then mix in butter mix gently.
Pour over pears in tin. Bake for 180C (350F) for 25-30 mins (but can take longer).
Leave to cool in tin for 15 mins before turing out onto rack.
Dana Kelly
5 tips every serious home cook must know…Gordon Ramsay
We can’t all afford foie gras, caviar and truffles, but that shouldn’t stop us thinking like a three Michelin star chef. To introduce his new book, Gordon Ramsay discloses the recipes that made his reputation – and reveals the five tips that every serious home cook should know.
1 Timing
So many people misunderstand timing. They think it’s about everything coming together at the same moment. They’ll think, the chicken will be ready at 1pm, so I’ll put the potatoes on at 20 to, the carrots at 10 to and the peas at 5 to. Then, disaster – they’re trying to carve the chicken, mash the potatoes and drain the veg all at the same time. I wouldn’t even try that with a brigade of 15 chefs. No, what a professional chef means by timing is getting everything prepared as far ahead as possible, so that two thirds of the work has already been done and you’re just bringing together the elements for the grand finale. That means having the meat ready up to half an hour before and parboiling your vegetables and refreshing them in cold water, ready to be warmed through in a pan with a splash of olive oil. It means frying your mushrooms in olive oil and reheating them in butter. And it means turning the final stages of cooking into an assembly line, which is much easier to control than starting everything from scratch and cooking it right through. Less stress, better results.
2 Seasoning
Salt and pepper are the building blocks of any kitchen. It’s the first thing I teach my new chefs – to season with confidence and, where necessary, subtlety. Too many people wait until the end to season their dishes. That way your taste buds just get clobbered with uncooked salt or pepper. Better to add it at the beginning of cooking so the raw taste can be cooked out and it has time to enhance the flavour of your ingredients. And keep tasting, all the way through cooking, to see how the flavours evolve. Finally, don’t limit yourself: salt and pepper are only the beginning of the story. We always season fish or seafood with a squeeze of lemon or lime at the end and, increasingly, we’ll use whole bunches of herbs to infuse a soup or cream sauce, or add cloves, vanilla or cinnamon to a fish stock. Be bold. Be adventurous.
3 Cooking fish
Given how popular sushi has become, I’m amazed at how squeamish people are about eating their fish anything other than nuked. Believe me, if the inside is a bright white, the outside will be dried out and woolly. No, you want the inside of your fish slightly translucent, like the inside of an oyster shell. Start with a medium-hot pan, add two parts olive oil and put in your seasoned fillet of fish, skin-side down. Don’t worry about it sticking – once it has caramelised, the fillet will release itself. Prodding and poking will just make it fall apart. Once it is 80 per cent cooked, gently turn it over, add one part butter and keep basting it. Add the butter too early and you’ll end up with a blackened pan – and burnt-tasting fish. Finally, allow the fish to relax, during which time it will continue to cook. Like vegetables, it can be held for five minutes, and then flashed in a 200C/Gas 6 oven with a little stock to warm it through.
4 Cooking meat
The secret of cooking meat is in the resting. I find it so dispiriting when I cut into a steak and watch all the juices leak out on to the plate because it hasn’t had time to relax and reabsorb all that goodness. Start with your meat at room temperature – if you take it straight from the fridge, the outside will be burnt before the centre has had time to heat up. And remember, 85 per cent of the cooking is done in the pan, the remaining 15 per cent as it rests. For a rare fillet steak, for example, give it two and a half minutes on each side and let it rest in its own juices for three. Then, just before serving, roll it in its juices again before flashing it through a hot oven. A final word about duck: of all meats, it goes cold the quickest because it is so lean, so don’t slice a breast into more than three or four slices or it will discolour and turn an unappetising brown colour.
5 Perfect custard
It’s worth perfecting your egg-custard recipe as it is the base for so many things, from ice-cream to crème patisserie. Follow these three golden rules and you won’t go wrong. First, always use fresh vanilla pods – the difference between those tiny seeds and vanilla extract is like night and day. Second, when you bring your milk and cream to the boil, take it off the heat the moment it starts to boil; even another 30 seconds will completely change the consistency. And finally, don’t add the sugar to the egg yolks until the last second and you are ready to whisk it, otherwise the sugar will dissolve into the egg and lose the strength to make the custard thicken as you need it to.
1 Timing
So many people misunderstand timing. They think it’s about everything coming together at the same moment. They’ll think, the chicken will be ready at 1pm, so I’ll put the potatoes on at 20 to, the carrots at 10 to and the peas at 5 to. Then, disaster – they’re trying to carve the chicken, mash the potatoes and drain the veg all at the same time. I wouldn’t even try that with a brigade of 15 chefs. No, what a professional chef means by timing is getting everything prepared as far ahead as possible, so that two thirds of the work has already been done and you’re just bringing together the elements for the grand finale. That means having the meat ready up to half an hour before and parboiling your vegetables and refreshing them in cold water, ready to be warmed through in a pan with a splash of olive oil. It means frying your mushrooms in olive oil and reheating them in butter. And it means turning the final stages of cooking into an assembly line, which is much easier to control than starting everything from scratch and cooking it right through. Less stress, better results.
2 Seasoning
Salt and pepper are the building blocks of any kitchen. It’s the first thing I teach my new chefs – to season with confidence and, where necessary, subtlety. Too many people wait until the end to season their dishes. That way your taste buds just get clobbered with uncooked salt or pepper. Better to add it at the beginning of cooking so the raw taste can be cooked out and it has time to enhance the flavour of your ingredients. And keep tasting, all the way through cooking, to see how the flavours evolve. Finally, don’t limit yourself: salt and pepper are only the beginning of the story. We always season fish or seafood with a squeeze of lemon or lime at the end and, increasingly, we’ll use whole bunches of herbs to infuse a soup or cream sauce, or add cloves, vanilla or cinnamon to a fish stock. Be bold. Be adventurous.
3 Cooking fish
Given how popular sushi has become, I’m amazed at how squeamish people are about eating their fish anything other than nuked. Believe me, if the inside is a bright white, the outside will be dried out and woolly. No, you want the inside of your fish slightly translucent, like the inside of an oyster shell. Start with a medium-hot pan, add two parts olive oil and put in your seasoned fillet of fish, skin-side down. Don’t worry about it sticking – once it has caramelised, the fillet will release itself. Prodding and poking will just make it fall apart. Once it is 80 per cent cooked, gently turn it over, add one part butter and keep basting it. Add the butter too early and you’ll end up with a blackened pan – and burnt-tasting fish. Finally, allow the fish to relax, during which time it will continue to cook. Like vegetables, it can be held for five minutes, and then flashed in a 200C/Gas 6 oven with a little stock to warm it through.
4 Cooking meat
The secret of cooking meat is in the resting. I find it so dispiriting when I cut into a steak and watch all the juices leak out on to the plate because it hasn’t had time to relax and reabsorb all that goodness. Start with your meat at room temperature – if you take it straight from the fridge, the outside will be burnt before the centre has had time to heat up. And remember, 85 per cent of the cooking is done in the pan, the remaining 15 per cent as it rests. For a rare fillet steak, for example, give it two and a half minutes on each side and let it rest in its own juices for three. Then, just before serving, roll it in its juices again before flashing it through a hot oven. A final word about duck: of all meats, it goes cold the quickest because it is so lean, so don’t slice a breast into more than three or four slices or it will discolour and turn an unappetising brown colour.
5 Perfect custard
It’s worth perfecting your egg-custard recipe as it is the base for so many things, from ice-cream to crème patisserie. Follow these three golden rules and you won’t go wrong. First, always use fresh vanilla pods – the difference between those tiny seeds and vanilla extract is like night and day. Second, when you bring your milk and cream to the boil, take it off the heat the moment it starts to boil; even another 30 seconds will completely change the consistency. And finally, don’t add the sugar to the egg yolks until the last second and you are ready to whisk it, otherwise the sugar will dissolve into the egg and lose the strength to make the custard thicken as you need it to.
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