Aria, Sydney

Last week, as an add-on to our trip to Sydney for work, the three girls in my team at work (including me!) went for dinner at Aria in Sydney. Aria is a fine dining establishment on the Sydney Harbour foreshore owned by celebrity chef, Matt Moran, and his business partner, and has a sister restaurant in Brisbane (which I went to with my friend Rowan in July).

We started our evening at The Opera Bar at Circular Quay, with a nice champagne cocktail:

As darkness came, we were treated to fireworks and lighting on the Opera House and Harbour Bridge for World Aids Day:

Suitably refreshed and entertained, we headed on to Aria in Macquarie Street, where we were treated to an amuse bouche of sweet potato soup with coconut foam:

We also received complimentary bread - this was the devine sourdough roll:

Moving on to entree, we all ordered something different.  Jess ordered this gorgeous chicken and foie gras parfait with a salad of smoked duck,rhubarb and black pepper:

It looks deceptively like a dessert, but is eaten slathered on bread. 

I ordered six freshly shucked Sydney rock oysters with Thai basil, cracked long pepper and Banyuls dressing:

I love oysters, and this was a nice, light entree to leave plenty of room for the remaining courses.

Lee ordered the Kurobuta pork belly with pork croquette and caramelised apple:

I had this in Brisbane, so I know it was devine.

Moving on to mains, I had the duck with cherry sauce (different to the duck dish listed on the online menu, so I am a little hazy on the details):

while Lee and Jess both ordered the roast lamb with mustard sauce (again, different to the online menu, so I can only give high level details and let the photos do the talking):

To accompany our mains, we ordered steamed broccolini with hazelnuts and lemon oil:

and truffled potato mash (buttery, buttery, buttery but good):

Out came some petit fours to have with our coffee.  We were given lavender truffles, coconut macaroons and raspberry pate de fruit:

then out came our dessert to share - a mango and lime bombe with black sesame tuille and passionfruit sauce:

To complement the glorious food and harbour view, the service at Aria was impeccable - all of the staff were friendly, attentive and thoughtful.

As I mentioned, Aria is a fine dining restaurant, so unless you are in the Business Weekly top 50 richest, you won't be coming here every night.  However, the food has an absolute "wow" factor that you won't get at any other type of establishment, and paired with the impeccable service, this restaurant was worth our bill of $160 per head (including wine and coffee).

1 Macquarie Street

East Circular Quay

Sydney NSW 2000

 Ph: +61 2 9252 2555

FFwD - Chard-Stuffed Pork Roast

I entered into this week's FFwD with some trepidation.  Pork stuffed wth green stuff is not something that automatically makes me jump for joy, and I have hideous memories of chomping through tasteless, watery greenery.

However, I need not have worried - Dorie's Chard-Stuffed Pork Roast is magnificent!  I used pork steaks instead of roast, and used frozen spinach instead of chard.  I also used pre-ground pepper and cardamom to coat my pork, and as I did not have chilli flakes, I chopped up a dried chilli:  

The end result was realy tasty - the cardamom gives a pleasant sweetness to the pork, and the chilli gives a zing to the stuffing.  I also found that there was sufficient seasoning so that the stuffing was not a tasteless mass.

Would I make this again?  Absolutely! It was a pleasant surprise taste-wise, and it wasn't difficult or time consuming to make.  I loved this one - it is a real winner for me.

To check out what the other FFwD members thought of this week's dish, visit the LYL scetion of the FFwD website.  

Carrot Cake for Mark's birthday

It is my boss Mark's birthday today.  Happy birthday Mark!

Because Mark is out of the office today, we celebrated his birthday with him at our office yesterday by taking him to lunch, giving him a pressie, and by sharing some birthday cake.  The birthday cake was made by moi.  It was Carrot Cake from Allyson Gofton's Bake.  The recipe is online here.

The cake turned out beautiful and golden inside and out.  It is quite a sturdy cake, so is ideal for travelling (eg to a party or picnic).  There are walnuts and no raisins in this version of carrot cake. 

The only change I made was to the icing by mixing in around 4 cups of icing sugar, as I found that Allyson's icing tasted like licking a block of cream cheese, even with the honey and lemon juice.

I decorated my cake simply with walnut halves.

Happy birthday Mark!

Cranberry coins

Over the weekend, I visited friends in Sydney as an add-on to a business trip.  I had a lovely time, not only making a gingerbread house, but seeing the Picasso exhibition at the NSW Art Gallery, going out to dinner and seeing the Harry Potter exhibition.

As it is Christmas, I decided to make my friends an edible gift to go with their cards and necklaces.  I decided on Cranberry Coins from Martha Stewart Holiday Cookies, as they were in the section for sturdy cookies that travel well.  In the end, I still had some casualties, but no matter - they still taste good.

To make your own cranberry coins, you will need:

225g butter (I used salted and leave out the extra salt in the recipe)

3/4 cup icing sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups plain flour

1/2 cup chopped dried cranberries

Beat the butter, icing sugar and vanilla to a cream in a stand mixer.  (Martha says to do it in a bowl with a wooden spoon - not this little black duck!)  Stir through the flour until just combined, then stir through the cranberries.

Divide the dough in half, and form each half into a log approximately 1 1/2 inches in diameter.  Wrap the logs tightly in cling film and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.  I also like to encase the logs in an empty paper towel tube that has been split up one side, as it helps to keep the logs round.

When you are ready to bake, preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit (I went slightly higher as my oven doesn't cope below 350F).  Using a sharp knife, slice each log into rounds that are approximately 1/4 inch thick.  Place the rounds roughly 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with baking paper. 

Bake the cookies in the oven until the edges just turn golden (~20 minutes).  Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets placed on wire racks.  The cookies will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.

Gingerbread house making at The Church by The Bridge, Kirribilli

Because I accidentally posted my Tuesdays with Dorie post on Monday (yep, I couldn't get the date right), today I am posting about gingerbread houses.  Yeah!

On Saturday morning, my friend Camilla, her friend Mel and I made gingerbread houses at The Church By the Bridge in Kirribilli, Sydney. After hearing from the women's pastor, Steph, about Christmas and the theme of "God is with Us", followed by a brief construction training session with Rachel, we set to work making our own gingerbread houses from pre-fab gingerbread house kits and lots of lollies.

Here is my house during construction: 

All the walls up:

and then the roof, complete with gables:

and finally, the finished house:

complete with a garden and a small licorice allsort man:

I have made gingerbread houses before, not once but twice, however it was definitely fun to try again two years on.

There were some collapses in our group due to too many sweets, which were mended with pins.  I went with a less is more approach, and my house survived the trip back to Melbourne.  Here is my completed house, complete with icing sugar snow and wrapped ready to go:

I had a lot of fun making my gingerbread house:

Thanks to my friend Camilla and The Church By the Bridge for this fun seasonal activity.  If you want to try gingerbread house making, the Church's groups are finished for this year, but they will run again next year.

Church by the Bridge

St John’s Anglican Church

Broughton Street (cnr Bligh Street)

Kirribilli NSW

TWD - Earl Grey Madeleines and Honey-Almond Fig Tart

The first Tuesdays with Dorie double-header for December is Earl Grey Madeleines, chosen by Nicole of Bakeologie, and Honey-Almond Fig Tart, chosen by Kayte of Grandma's Kitchen Table.

Just as we are at the end of Baking - From My Home to Yours, I think I have gotten the hang of this madeleine caper.  I get humps on my mads, I don't overfill the molds, and I know to check them before the end of the recommended baking time because they are nearly always done way before then.  These madeleines contain Earl Grey tea-infused butter, hence their name.  As a general rule, I can't abide the soapy taste of Earl Grey tea, but it only comes across subtly in these mads and is not bad at all.  I ate three of these as proof.

Our second dish, Honey-Almond Fig Tart, is one that I made earlier.  Due to a lack of time and figs being as dear as poison here at the moment (between $40 and $50/kg), I did not make it again, although it is a devine tart.  If you have a fig tree, I highly recommend this tart, but beware - don't overfill the tart  if you don't feel like cleaning up an enormous mess, as there is way more filling in the recipe than you need. 


Thanks to our hosts, Nicole and Kayte.  They will post the recipes, or alternatively, buy the book - it's a goodie, even if you are not US-based, and I definitely learned a lot from baking my way through this book.  And to see what the other TWD gals and guys thought of this week's recipes, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.

FFwD - Matafan

This week's French Fridays with Dorie almost never got made - we received the recipe list fairly late, and I have been away on business for the last two days.  I squeezed in this week's recipe, Matafan (mashed potato pancakes) the day that the list was posted.

I had hoped that Matafan would be quick and easy, but unfortunately, they are a bit of a pfaff.  You need to salt-roast potatoes for an hour and a half, then push them through a sieve, then mix them up with eggs, milk and flour, and after seasoning them, add separately beaten egg whites, and then fry them.  Good grief!   

As I do not have a potato ricer, and pushing the not really soft potato through a sieve didn't work very well, I just ended up trying to mash the roasted potatoes, and ended up with lumpy pancakes.  Now this is not bad - think frittata and its ilk - but these probably would have been better if the potato was smooth.  (I don't think an hour and half roasting time was quite enough for my potatoes.)

Lumps aside, these pancakes were rustically good - batter + potato + seasoning is rather good, but not better than bunging a pierced potato in the microwave for 5 minutes, cutting it open and slathering it with whatever you fancy.  For my money, I will stick with the latter, but I am glad that I learned aboutt matafan (which are totally new to me - never heard of them before).

To see what the other Doristas thought of matafan, check out the FFwD  LYL link for this week when it is up.