Heaven Gastro Lounge, Melbourne

Today in Melbourne is one of those desert-like, dry, hot summer days where to step outside is to become a melting puddle of a person, desperate to seek the cool shelter of a shopping centre or movie theatre.  Yesterday was the same.  The streets in my suburb are eerily quiet as everyone bunkers down inside to escape the heat.  I think the only way to keep cool would be to sit in a nice cool bath and change the water regularly - and unfortunately, I do not have a bath.

Last night, when it was slightly cooler due to the presence of a gentle breeze, my friend Tim and I went to dinner at Heaven Gastro Lounge on St Kilda Road.  It is an unlikely place for a restaurant open on weekends, nestled as it is in the basement of an office building, but it was a fantastic find, courtesy of a discount voucher that I purchased online.  

The top of this post shows the interior of Heaven - dark and moody, but with fairy lights on a latticework partition and Campari posters on the walls, with television screens silently showing MTV.  On its website, Heaven describes itself as "modern English Gastro Pub food with French, Italian & Asian influence".  I pretty much think that says it is unique and makes its own path.  The chef, Sanjeev Johri, has over ten years experience, and has worked for, among others, Jacques Reymond.

Our deal entitled us to an entree (described in American style as an "appetiser" on the menu), a main and a dessert, with a cocktail.  Our Cosmopolitan cocktails came out first (curiously, sans cranberry juice), and in the heat did not touch the sides.  Accordingly, I followed it up by purchasing a glass  of Fleur de Lys sparkling wine.

For entree, Tim chose the cured New Zealand king salmon served with salmon caviar:

while I chose the five spices calamari with lotus root, Spanish chorizo and spicy tomato sauce:

Both dishes tasted good, and with mine, I enjoyed the contrast of the cool vegetables against the zingy five spice coated calamari.

For main, I could not go past the pork hock with chilli caramel sauce, apple puree, Vietnamese salad, pickled melon and pan seared scallop:

The meat apparently slow cooks for 5 hours, and comes out crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle.  The chilli caramel sauce makes the dish - it is the perfect balance of zinginess and sweetness, and complemented the dish nicely.

Tim selected the crispy skin duck in traditional Yorkshire sauce served with potato mash, pumpkin and daikon salad:

The duck was pleasingly soft and moist under the juicy skin, and Tim liked the citrusy tang to the sauce - not immediately what I'd associate with Yorkshire, but that is being nitpicky.

For dessert, Tim chose a very fine tiramisu made with chocolate cake:

while I chose the trio of icecreams (chocolate, vanilla and a raspberry sorbet) with chocolate stick and brandy snaps: 

The brandy snaps were absent, but I didn't mind - I deliberately chose the icecream as a light option for dessert after my rich pork hock main.

Mains at Heaven are around the $30 mark, entrees are around the $20 mark while desserts are around $15.

The staff were very attentive and friendly, and it was suitably cool and dark inside the restaurant to provide relief from the heat outside.  All in all, it was a good experience, and I'd definitely go back.

Heaven Gastro Lounge
580 Lower Ground Floor,
St Kilda Road,
Melbourne VIC 3004
Ph: (03) 9041 2129

Daring Bakers - Back to Basics: Scones

There was a table set out under a tree in front of the house, and the March Hare and the Hatter were having tea at it: a Dormouse was sitting between them, fast asleep, and the other two were using it as a cushion, resting their elbows on it, and talking over its head. `Very uncomfortable for the Dormouse,' thought Alice; `only, as it's asleep, I suppose it doesn't mind.'

From Chapter VII, A Mad Tea Party, Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

I have now been a Daring Baker for 4 years - since January 2008.  My first Daring Bakers recipe was lemon meringue pie.  Every now and again, especially when I am time poor, I think about giving it up, but then a recipe surprises me and I keep on going. I look forward to the possibilities that this year will bring with the Daring Bakers, a group of thousands of bakers from all over the world who bake the same recipe once a month.

Audax Artifex was our January 2012 Daring Bakers’ host. Aud worked tirelessly to master light and fluffy scones (a/k/a biscuits) to help us create delicious and perfect batches in our own kitchens!

Scones are a tea time favourite in Australia, inherited from the British migrants to this country.  Traditionally, scones are served with jam and cream to make a Devonshire tea or a Cornish tea, depending on whether you put the jam or the cream on first (or so I have been told).  On my first trip to England in 2001,  I made sure that I had tea (in a pot, of course) with scones with jam and clotted cream in a small tea room in Kensington, London, somewhere close to Harrods.  It was fabulous, of course, and is a treasured memory of my trip.

Audax's recipe for scones was neither hard nor expensive, but I certainly learned a lot about scone making, despite having made scones since as far back as home economics in year eight at high school. I was pleasantly surprised by how high and fluffy the scones I made this month were:

I am scraping this in the day before it is due on the Australia Day holiday, so I haven't made any variations.  I just made Audax's basic recipe.  I froze the grated butter, I cut the butter into the flour with a pastry cutter, I  rested the dough for twenty minutes before cutting it, I used a cold cutter, I didn't twist the cutter when cutting out the scones, and I brushed the tops with milk before baking, and baked them in the hot oven recommended.  I am not sure which element it was, or whether it was all of them, but these were the highest, fluffiest scones that I have ever made.  I was very pleased!  The only downer was that I only got three scones out of the recipe - perhaps my cutter was too big?

In the Australian/English tradition, I served my scones with jam (blueberry on this case) and whipped cream, all gussied up in little soy sauce pots from a sushi set:

Nom!

Thanks to Audax for proving that even when you think you know something, there is always more that can be learned about it.  Audax will publish the recipe on his site, if you would like to try it.  And check out the other Daring Bakers efforts at The Daring Kitchen.

FFwD - Broth-braised potatoes

Ahhh, it's Fabulous Friday - in a few hours time, I can kick back and relax for a couple of days. Yah!

This week's French Fridays with Dorie dish is broth-braised potatoes.  This involves boiling potatoes in chicken stock and various herbs for flavour.  My initial thoughts were that it wasn't worth the effort, but I was pretty happy with the end result.  The potatoes were mighty tasty, and made a change from potatoes boiled in salted water.

I served my potatoes with M. Jacques roasted chicken from FFwD a couple of weeks ago.

To see what all the other Doristas thought of this simple but tasty dish, visit the FFwD website. 

Pavlova Roulade with Passionfruit for Australia Day

Australia! Australia! so fair to behold
While the blue sky is arching above;
The stranger should never have need to be told,
That the Wattle-bloom means that her heart is of gold,
And the Waratah red blood of love.

From Waratah and Wattle, Henry Lawson

Today, 26 January, is Australia Day, and Australians have a public holiday to give us a moment to pause and think of what makes us Australian and what we love about living here. 

To celebrate Australia Day, I have made a pavlova roulade with passionfruit, that I will take to share with my friends at Jazz in the Gardens this evening, a free event sponsored by Stonnington Council.  Tonight, the function will be held in Malvern Gardens in High Street, Malvern. 

My roulade is inspired by Julie Goodwin's Pavlova Roulade recipe on page 174 of the December 2012 edition of The Australian Womens Weekly, and by Donna Hay's Pavlova Roll recipe on page 170 of the December/January 2012 edition of Donna Hay magazine.  However, it is not the same as either of them, and I have set out the recipe for my version of the roulade below.

Pavlova Roulade with Passionfruit

Ingredients:

4 egg whites (~100g)
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
2 teaspoons vanilla
250ml thickened (heavy) cream
2 passionfruit

Preheat your oven to 160 degrees Celsius.  Line a 26cm x 38cm Swiss roll tray with baking paper, leaving some overhang on each side to use as "handles" later.

In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form.  Continue beating while adding the sugar, a little at a time and scraping down the sides as necessary, until the sugar has dissolved.  Add the vinegar, cream of tartar and vanilla, and continue beating until stiff peaks form.

Spread the egg white mixture evenly over the lined Swiss roll pan, then bake in the preheated oven for around 20 minutes or until the top of the pavlova is just firm to the touch.

Remove the pavlova from the oven and allow it to cool on the tray on a wire rack for ~ 5 minutes.

While the pavlova is cooling, lay out a clean cotton or linen teatowel on the bench, and cover it with a piece of baking paper.  Sift icing sugar liberally over the baking paper.  Take the pavlova and turn it out of the pan, face down, onto the baking paper.  Carefully remove the pan liner from the pavlova, ensuring that you avoid tearing as far as possible.  Allow the pavlova to cool to room temperature. 

In the meantime, whip the cream with two tablespoons of icing sugar until firm peaks form.  Spread the cream down the centre third of the pavlova.  Remove the pulp from the passionfruit and place evenly on top of the cream:

Fold each long side of the pavlova up over the cream to encase it, using the baking paper to assist, and flip the pavlova over with the seam side down.

Carefully lift the pavlova onto a serving tray using a long spatula or egg lifter.  Cut a small piece off each end of the pavlova roulade to expose the filling:

Cut into slices and serve with extra cream, icecream and berries, if desired.  Enjoy!

To all of my fellow Australians, I hope that you are having a wonderful Australia Day.

Wednesdays with Donna Hay - Brown-Buttered Beans

Welcome to Wednesday!  This week, Kayte of Grandma's Kitchen Table and I are making brown-buttered beans for Wednesdays with Donna Hay.

If you have never tried browned-butter, then I can highly recommend it to you.  It involves cooking the butter until it turns brown, which in turn makes the flavour nutty, and makes it a perfect accompaniment to sweet and savoury dishes.

This is the first time that I have used browned butter in a savoury dish (as far as I can remember, anyway), and it gave a superb flavour to the steamed green beans, which are also topped with roasted pine nuts for crunch.  How good is that?

Kayte is cooking these along with me - go visit Kayte to see her beans.  And of course, you are welcome to cook along with us - the recipes are online at donnahay.com.au.

Next week:   Puffed cheese omelette

Blue Dish, Highett VIC

Blue Dish, in Highett, Melbourne, is a rare gem of a cafe introduced to me by my colleague Lee, who in turn was introduced to it by our colleague Jess. The interior of Blue Dish has an old-fashioned charm, with upstairs and downstairs seating available.  However, the food is definitely not old-fashioned, and an all-day breakfast menu is available as well as the lunch and dinner menus.

In addition to in-house dining, Blue Dish sells an array of take-away gourmet products and patisserie items.  The patisserie items in particular look delicious, but I have avoided purchasing them to date only from the view of being able to fit into my clothes after lunch.

There is something for everyone at Blue Dish.  At the top of this post is pictured the pulled-pork sandwich with coleslaw,  which is a firm favourite with Lee and Jess.  It smells devine, and the sauce on the pork is delicious, but it is a little too rich for me to have every time.

Other dishes which I have tried at Blue Dish include the Moroccan Baked Eggs, which had a fresh, almost Thai-style flavour:

Most recently, I tried the devinely creamy pumpkin, spinach and goats curd risotto:

This is a perfect vegetarian option.

Other dishes that I have tried include the steak sandwich and the home baked beans with lyonnaise sausage on toasted sourdough, both of which I highly recommend.

The service at Blue Dish is attentive, prompt and friendly, and I love that they always ask if I enjoyed my meal. I feel lucky that we work close enough to Highett (which is otherwise outside my sphere) to enjoy this cafe occasionally for lunch.

On a  totally unrelated note, I could not resist sharing this photo of 4 cheeky cockatoos perched on the power lines that I saw on my walk to the train last week:

They raucously announced their presence to anyone below while gaily swinging on the power lines, including upside down at one stage.

Also, I wanted to share the gorgeous birthday cake that my friend Lorien made for the first birthday of her youngest son, Oliver, whose party I attended in Queensland on the weekend:

The cake was chocolate cake, decorated with rolled fondant.  The small children especially enjoyed the smaller cakes in the shape of alphabet blocks, although Oliver himself did not have any cake, and had the idea that "it's my party and I'll cry if I want to".  Big brother Liam came to the rescue by blowing out the candle, and middle brother Alexander charmed us all  with his dimples and golden curls.

Hope you all had a good weekend!

Blue Dish

326 Highett Rd

Highett, VIC 3109

Ph:  +61 3 9939 6641

FFwD - Quartre-quarts

This week's French Friday with Dorie is Quartre-Quarts.  Well you may ask, "Eh?"  Well, to explain it in Dorie's words, it is like the French version of a pound cake.  However, in my view, it is much lighter and springier than a pound cake, and dare I say it, more delicious.

Look at that golden fluffy crumb: 

The cake is topped by a sprinkle of brown sugar which is supposed to create a glaze, but in my case, kind of sank into the cake - which suited me, as it caramelised and gave a certain crunch to the cake.

I loved this cake on its own, although Dorie suggests serving it with cream and berries - but why mess with perfection?

To see what everyone else thought of this cake, visit the LYL section of the FFwD website (but give it a while - the US is half a day plus behind Oz).