Big Day Out 2011

When I arrived to Sydney, a friend who has been here since 2006 told me about this festival called Big Day Out he once attended in order to see Björk. Apparently it was full of drunk and/or stoned teenagers so I thought “I’ll never go there”. But then BDO 2011 lineup was released and guess who was the main act? Tool. One of the two bands that have been my greatest musical influences ever, which I had never seen live. When the news came out that they were not playing side shows in Sydney I had to decide whether to fly to Brisbane or Melbourne or attend the BDO here. The most sensible choice was to stay in Sydney, in part to avoid the cost of air tickets and accommodation, but also to save annual leave days. Deftones and Rammstein were in the lineup, too, so why not?

Australia Day was hot and humid. Thankfully, not as hot as last year’s. Alvaro and I arrived to the Olympic Park around 4 pm and walked around looking for the orange stage. I had brought my camera, supposedly to take some pics of the bands, but I couldn’t help myself and snapped a few food shots. There were more stalls than I thought, some of them selling stuff I hadn’t seen before in Sydney (only in food websites from the US like This Is Why You’re Fat). As usual, the majority of the food was junk food, exactly the kind of things you crave when you’re drinking. Refreshing stuff like ice cream, lemonade and frozen cocktails were big sellers, too.

I bought a beer right before going to see Deftones. I hadn’t listened to them for about 7 years, it was nice to hear old stuff from Around The Fur and White Pony, made me feel a bit younger. It was hot and humid so the first thing we ate when the show ended was gelato. Alvaro’s scoop of forest fruits was half melted because the cold display was facing the sun, but he liked it anyway. My scoop of choc mint was pretty average in flavour but refreshing.

Then we started to walk around looking for a shade to sit under, checking out bands in case we liked one (we didn’t), getting re-hydrated. Alvaro got hungry and bought a small “smoked meat delight” pizza at a The Wood Fired Oven. The topping, according to the menu, had deliciously tasty smoked ham, pepperoni, cabanossi, quality mince and cheese. The crust was thick (not my favourite) and not oily at all. It was quite expensive but surprisingly good.

Smoked meat delight pizza ($10)

There were a few things that grabbed my attention. There was a Spanthai stall: Spanish & Thai Food in one place (paella, pad Thai, pad see ew, chicken satay, spicy chicken wings with sweet chili sauce). Don’t know about you but I try to avoid eateries with such mixed identities.

There was a neon sign announcing “good food” on top of a hot display with footlong dagwood dogs (sausages on a stick, battered and fried) and other deep fried junk. Sarcastic, huh?

Alvaro wanted more ice cream so he got a caramel thickshake. Flavour-wise it was better than Peters but worse than proper gelato. But what would you expect from a pink ice cream caravan?

Caramel thickshake ($7)

I’m not a cocktail person but with that temperature frozen cocktails suddenly looked very attractive to me. Alvaro got a Vodka Pash (passion fruit flavour) and I a Lime Margarita. They were awful, especially the vodka one. They tasted like paint (or like what I imagine paint tastes like). But they did the job of cooling us down. We drank them while listening to Wolfmother (which Alvaro kinda liked and I didn’t).

Frozen cocktails ($12 each)

Then we headed to the orange stage to see Rammstein. We had the bad luck of having to wait while Iggy Pop finished his act. He sucks. Rammstein’s show was good. I liked some of the songs (mainly the music) and the fire/fireworks display was impressive. Before they finished we moved to the blue stage (which was next to the orange) hoping to find a spot in the front. Unfortunately it was packed, so we stayed in the middle. Tool started a few minutes late, but it didn’t matter to me. Many people have said they sucked, mainly because they compared their act on stage to Rammstein’s. I think those people know anything about Tool. Tool is about the music and Adam Jones’ artwork. Granted, Maynard James Keenan’s voice faded a few times but the music was flawless.

Recipe: Cebiche de pulpo y pescado (with seafood from Faros Bros)

I love seafood. That’s not news, since I come from the coast of Peru, where we have heaps of top quality seafood. In Lima, most supermarkets sell fresh seafood and I had a good supermarket at a short walking distance from home that was opened until midnight. Here, things are a bit more complicated. Fresh seafood is not always easy to get and not always really fresh. Lucky me, I mentioned going to the fish market one day to a friend and she told me about a place in Marrickville where she buys her seafood, according to her, fresher than in the fish market shops.

I reserve public holidays and non-busy weekends for preparing “special” dishes, for example those that require ingredients bought on the day, or those that have to be served immediately. So Australia Day was the perfect excuse to satisfy my craving of cebiche. I know it wasn’t a “politically correct” meal for that day but that’s what I felt like eating.

Faros Bros is located in an industrial part of Marrickville, very close to the Sydenham train station. If you look it from the outside you’d think there’s nothing going on there. But past the plastic blind-type curtains a wide range of fresh seafood at good prices makes you want to eat it all in the spot with a squeeze of lemon juice and a cold beer.

I got a fillet each of red snapper, barramundi and salmon, four medium octopus and half a kilo of fish roe (yes, I like it battered and fried). The snapper and one of the octopus were for the cebiche, the rest for future meals.

There are dozens (or hundreds, perhaps) of ways of preparing cebiche. What is right or wrong depends on what you like, but what is authentic is usually easy to spot because it’s simple. Think about tacos, for example. If you eat a taco that’s so full of ingredients that you can barely have a bite without it falling apart, and that gives you a bad indigestion right after, then probably it’s not very authentic. If you order a taco in Mexico, you’ll get a tortilla with carnitas (pork), green onions and chilli. Simple and delicious. The same happens with cebiche. A traditional one has nothing more than fish, onion, lime juice, chilli and salt. Simple and delicious, too.

Cebiche de pescado (fish only) and cebiche mixto (mixed seafood) are the most common versions offered. My current favourites are octopus + fish, octopus + prawns + fish, and fish + conchas negras (black scallops). Combinations are endless. There’s even chicken cebiche for non-fish eaters and mushroom cebiche for vegetarians. In the North of Peru there’s a white bean cebiche (the bean is called sarandaja) that is served as a side.

In the quest for umami, some people season cebiche with MSG. Some use celery water. Some use palabritas (a small shellfish) stock. I don’t use any of those.

Regarding sides, the typical ones are corn and sweet potato. For the last 10 – 15 years the old-fashioned boiled sweet potatoes have been replaced by glazed sweet potatoes (shaped like a rugby ball, boiled, and then glazed with butter, sugar, and sometimes orange juice). For me, that’s overkill. Sweet potatoes are sometimes replaced by yuca (cassava) or potatoes. Finally, there are people who eat their cebiche with white rice. Outrageous.

If you want a green touch you can add some chopped coriander leaves. But I prefer the good old yuyo (seaweed) that complimented every cebiche when I was a kid and is slowly making a comeback. Of course there’s no yuyo in Sydney but I suspect wakame would be a fine substitute.

When you go to a cebichería in Peru, instead of a basket of bread you get a bowl of canchita (roasted and salted corn kernels), sometimes served with chifles (salted banana chips). Being this an special occasion, I opened the (very expensive) bag of canchita I bought in Tierras Latinas.

The best pairing for cebiche is a crisp lager or pilsner, or a good sauvignon blanc. But because I like malt beers and ales better, whenever I eat cebiche in Peru I drink a dark malt beer (Cusqueña negra), and here any of my favourite Aussie ales (this time a Monteith’s Summer Ale).

Cebiche de pulpo y pescado (fish and octopus cebiche)
Serves 2 as a main course

500 grams red snapper fillet (or similar white-flesh fish)
1 medium octopus
1 small Spanish onion
9 limes
1 sweet corn
1 sweet potato
1/2 celery stalk
1 clove garlic, peeled
salt, white pepper
red chilli to taste (optional)
canchita (optional)

Thinly slice the onion and soak in water. Finely chop chilli.

Boil corn and steam or oven-roast sweet potato.

Boil octopus with celery and garlic until tender, approximately 20 minutes. Refrigerate when ready.

Let corn and sweet potato cool down, then cut the corn kernels from the cob, peel and cut sweet potato in pieces.

Once the corn, sweet potato and octopus have cooled down, cut octopus in 1-inch pieces and place in a bowl. Cube the fish and add to octopus. Add the drained onions and chilli. Season with salt and white pepper.

Squeeze lime juice on top of the mix. Toss and taste, adjust seasoning if needed.

Serve a portion of cebiche with corn and sweet potato on the side.

Enjoy with a chilled beer and canchita if you like it (and can find it!).

Faros Bros
34 Buckley St
Marrickville NSW 2204
(02) 519 3785
Monday to Friday 7am – 6pm
Saturday 7am – 5pm
Sunday 8am – 5pm
Public Holidays 9am – 4pm

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Eating backgrounds

Tell me what you eat and I’ll tell you where you come from. Sounds pretty logical, doesn’t it? Sometimes, I’d say. I’m not a typical South American in any sense: don’t arrive late, don’t like dancing, don’t do the social thing very well, don’t eat what is supposed to be typical Peruvian/South American food on a daily basis.

But last week I kinda felt “at home” when I attended a farewell lunch hosted by a Peruvian family. The day before I had been in a BBQ hosted by a Aussie-German family. The differences between both meals were very noticeable. If you’d like to theorise based on the meals alone, you would say Aussies are lighter than Peruvians. However, the opposite seems to be true. While I haven’t been able to find official data about how Peru ranks in worldwide obesity charts, I suspect it’s nowhere near Australia (which is currently in the 6th position after the US, Mexico, the UK, Slovakia and Greece). While the average office worker in Lima looks a bit chubbier and less healthy than the average office worker in Sydney, the majority of population there comes from smaller cities and towns and, if lucky to have enough to eat, their food is prepared at home. Here the fast/processed food trends seem to be increasing, and that’s bad news for the scale. Another thing that makes me think Peruvians are not as obese as Australians is that it’s almost impossible to find many Xs in clothes sizes. The only place to get them is in factories that export to the US.

But enough theory for now, let me show the evidence.

Aussie BBQ:

Sausages and lamb

Grilled pineapple

Pasta salad

Noodle salad

Potato salad

Leaves, broccoli, radish, snow pea salad with Asian dressing

Lettuce, cucumber, tomato, onion salad

Cubed pineapple

Bread

Marble cake with custard

Plus: beer, white wine, Scotch, bottled juice

Peruvian lunch:

Morcilla (blood sausage)

Chorizo

Grilled pork

Cau cau *

Causa de atún **

Russian salad, pasta & tuna salad

Lime gelatine with cream cheese

White rice

Lime pie

Berries and yogurt cheesecake

Plus: sangría, beer, soft drinks

Did you notice the lack of light, green salads in the Peruvian table? I didn’t miss them because it was only one meal, but I wouldn’t be able to eat that way every day (I would, but constipated, at least 5 kilos heavier at not very fit, like I was until 8 years ago). Why is this post relevant? I have no idea, I just felt like sharing my mental mumbling inspired by a weekend spent with friends from different backgrounds.

Cau cau is a stew made with mondongo (cow’s stomach), cubed potatoes, palillo (turmeric) and a herb called hierbabuena, similar to mint.

Causa is made with mashed yellow potatoes mixed with salt, lime juice and pureed yellow chilli. The dish consists in two layers of this mash with a filling of canned tuna, mayonnaise, avocado, chopped onions and boiled eggs.

Review: Cafe Ism

I’ve walked by Cafe Ism a lot of times. Most of them I’ve seen the tiny place packed with people who seem to be regulars and locals, mostly young families with kids. This happens almost every Saturday morning, when I’m on my way to the market (and on my way back home) but I had never stopped to have breakfast there mainly because I almost never eat breakfast out.

Last Saturday we had an inspection two houses away from the cafe around 12:30, so it was the obvious choice for lunch. All the tables were full but there were two free stools on one of the benches. We sat there and browsed the menu while a waitress brought us glasses and a chilled bottle of tap water. Everything on the menu “sounds good on paper”, but I couldn’t see any of the dishes I was curious about at other tables, to compare my mental images with reality. The lady next to us had ordered pancakes with maple syrup and blueberries that looked absolutely delicious but were not a sensible lunch choice.

I wanted the feta & pesto scrambled eggs with roast tomato, mixed leaves and toast, but then I flipped the menu and saw the Gourmet ISM burger (lean beef & lamb pattie, with home-made spicy beetroot relish, tomato, caramelised onions, cheese & lettuce), and the inner debate began. Luckily, Bonnie said she would order the burger too, so I suggested sharing one plus a salad. We chose the haloumi salad with cucumber, tomato, red onion & avocado.

Right after ordering we moved to a table that became available. We were given more chilled water when our bottle was finished (excellent service!). The burger arrived in a focaccia-style bread instead of the burger bun I was expecting. Much better for me, actually. The bread was great, the beetroot relish too. The pattie, however, was not that good. It was a bit underseasoned and it tasted boiled instead of pan-fried or grilled, suggesting that they hadn’t cooked it at a high enough temperature. Bonnie had an issue with the taste of lamb being too overpowering; it was fine for me.

Gourmet ISM burger ($15.00)

The salad was wonderful. Simple ingredients but well thrown together. The haloumi was not rubbery, the vegetables were fresh and the balsamic dressing was delicious.

Haloumi salad with cucumber, tomato, red onion & avocado ($12.50)

We didn’t get to try the coffee this time but I’m planning on doing it soon. Even when the burger was not as good as I hoped, the menu is full of great-sounding options, the service is good and the vibe is great. One small detail I noticed when looking at my photos is that they had the burger listed in the specials blackboard at $14.50 (50 cents less than the menu). Because I just gave Bonnie my half of the bill and she paid, I don’t really know how much they charged. It’d be cool if they had consistent prices everywhere they’re written.

Cafe Ism
187 Wilson Street
Newtown NSW 2042
(02) 9519 1166

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Review: Agapé Organic Restaurant & Bar

We finally made it to Agapé! I’ve been wanting to try this organic restaurant since August last year (I remember the month because it was one of options for Alvaro’s birthday). My sister and I were given $20 discount vouchers in the organic expo, also in August, and it wasn’t until last Wednesday that we managed to go.

We booked a table for 6 pm and arrived a bit earlier. The restaurant was closed but luckily there were two pubs right across the road. A midi each and we were ready for dinner. The restaurant is located in the corner of Botany Road and Bay Street and it looks like it was a pub in the past.

However, its rough exterior contrasts with its charming interior. Not my cup of tea, but you can tell they’ve cared about creating a nice environment for the diners.

Probably because I’ve never been to a restaurant that plays my kind of music, I’ve learned to filter out whatever sound is coming from the speakers. In this case we couldn’t help noticing that the tunes selected didn’t always match the decor of the place, or even each other.

We faced the important dilemma of deciding what to order. Not as in “which dish”, but as in “how many of what kind of dishes”. Finally we decided that a main each, one side and a dessert each would be enough. To share we ordered the rocket, pecorino and pear salad. The main I chose was the kingfish and Gladys ordered the roasted lamb. The waitress told her that they were actually serving the lamb pan-fried instead of oven-roasted (apparently they didn’t have the right cut), so Gladys opted for the slow roasted pork loin instead. We ordered a glass of wine each: a semillon/sauvignon blanc for me and a shiraz/cabernet sauvignon/merlot for her.

The food took long to arrive, which made sense having ordered one slow roasted meal. While we waited, I saw the chef sticking his head out of the kitchen from time to time, perhaps nervous because there were no other customer except us. Finally the three dishes arrived.

The salad was very nice, the peppery taste of the rocket worked well with the sweetness of the super thinly sliced pear and honey, and the sharpness/saltiness of the cheese.

Rocket, pecorino, pear, honey, mustard dressing ($10)

My fish was wonderful. Two fillet pieces, one on top of the other, were surrounded by delicious asparagus, pea and broccoli puree, yoghurt and lemon juice, and topped with quinoa.

Hiramasa kingfish, asparagus, pea & broccoli puree, royal quinoa, homemade yoghurt & lemon ($32)

I had a bite of Gladys’ pork and the flavour was great, too. That particular ingredient combo is hard to beat.

Slow roasted pork loin, potato rosti, cabbage, apple, sage & spring onions ($32)

As soon as we had our first bites Gladys realised that she needed a starchy side. The only two options were bread and chips; she chose the chips (I swear it wasn’t me!), which luckily didn’t take long to arrive. They were well cooked, thick and with a bit of outer crunch. The homemade tomato sauce was chunky and tasty, much better than bottled stuff.

Hand-cut chips, homemade tomato sauce ($10)

The food was great, but Gladys had the feeling it lacked a “wow” factor. We thought that maybe it was because of the service, which without being rude, was not very welcoming.

While we ate a few more clients arrived. Mum, dad, grandma and baby in one table, construction workers in another one. Let’s say the clientele of the eatery is as eclectic as its music selection.

Some minutes after finishing our meals our empty plates were taken away and replaced by the dessert menu. Again, we were faced with a dilemma: should we have dessert wine or not? In the end, the decision was made by the waitress, who came back so quickly that no wine was ordered.

Gladys chose the lemon tart with sloe gin and lemon sorbet. The tart was delicious, covered by a syrup (I guess that’s where the sloe gin made its appearance, although I couldn’t feel any booze in there), a few orange wedges and a refreshing scoop of lemon sorbet.

Lemon tart, sloe gin & lemon sorbet ($16)

I had the poached berries with meringue and vanilla ice cream: a good number of berries surrounded by dollops of sweet crunchy meringue and topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I liked it a lot but towards the end I realised that it was a bit too sweet. Ordering dessert wine would have been a terrible mistake. Now that I think about it, it would have been cool to have half servings of both desserts for each, to balance out the sourness of one with the sweetness of the other.

Poached berries, meringue, vanilla ice cream ($16)

I have until next month for using my $20 discount voucher. It would probably a good idea to try their famous spelt pizzas then.

Agapé Organic Restaurant & Bar
1385 Botany Road
Botany NSW 2019
(02) 8668 5777
www.agaperestaurant.com

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Review: Organic Produce (Hunter Connection)

The Hunter Connection Shopping Complex is not only the best way to avoid traffic lights when going from my office to George, Hunter or Pitt streets. It also holds a good number of shops that sell a variety of stuff from baby clothes to booze. Food-wise, there are a few good-looking shops among dodgy-looking Asian eateries. The sushi rolls from the place that is right in the arcade are pretty decent, and the juices and sandwiches in the nearby juice shop don’t look bad. But what really made me plan a meal out (because I normally bring my lunch to work) was the word “organic” on glass walls right up the escalators that are near Pitt Street.

On Tuesday I went to collect my ID from the consulate and then made a quick detour up the escalators to get my lunch. The shop belongs to Organic Produce, who besides supplying organic food to restaurants, run a catering service and a cafe in Surry Hills. The Hunter Connection seems an unusual place for them to have a smaller shop due to the nature of the other businesses (mainly cheap takeaway). Reality is that organic food is more expensive and its market share is smaller than that of conventional food, but this particular outlet seems to have quite a few regulars.

Even when I was after a salad, I had a quick browse through what was on display. There were chicken drumsticks, quiches, savoury tarts, sandwiches, wraps and a variety of prepared salads, everything very tempting.

There were different sizes of containers for the salads, ranging from the small ($7.50) to the large ($11.50), the latter being as big as your regular Chinese/Thai/Indian takeaway container.

There were sweet things too, which I didn’t bother looking at to avoid craving them, and a cold display full of Parker’s organic juices.

While I was checking out the salads the friendly guy behind the counter advised me that I could have more than one in a container. So I picked the protein and the beetroot salads and paid for a large container. Each of the salads has a tag with the complete list of ingredients clearly stating whether they’re organic.

The organic protein salad has organic carrot, organic free range eggs, organic chickpeas, organic quinoa, organic mung bean & carrot fritter, organic shallots, organic spinach, organic parsley, soy mayonnaise, chilli powder, cumin seeds, salt, and pepper. The organic roast beetroot salad has organic beetroot, organic walnuts, daikon, mint, balsamic vinegar, organic lemon, garlic, thyme, salt, and pepper.

Organic protein salad + Organic roast beetroot salad, large ($11.50)

Both salads were good, perhaps a bit dry but the seasoning was right and they felt light, even when the serving was very satisfying. Highly recommendable.

Organic Produce
Hunter Connection Shopping Complex
7 Hunter Street
Sydney NSW 2000
www.organicproduce.com.au

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Recipe: Olluquito con carne

When I arrived to Sydney I made a resolution to cook Peruvian food at least once a week. There have been weeks I’ve adhered to my goal and whole weeks, even months, that I have totally forgotten about it. This is partially because, as I’ve said before, most Peruvian food is not healthy, according to my standards. It’s healthier than junk food without a doubt, but it relies heavily in starches, often mixed within a same dish. But I think it’s good to keep one’s roots alive, so here I am again, trying to include some food from home into my repertoire.

Some months ago I bought stuff from a Latin American shop called Tierras Latinas. One of the items was still unopen in my cupboard: a tin of ollucos, which are root vegetables similar in shape to kipfler potatoes. The most popular dish prepared with them comes from the mountains and is called olluquito con charqui, ollucos with a kind of jerky made from alpaca meat. The urban version of the dish uses beef instead of charqui. It’s not a fancy dish by any means, more like an ordinary weekday dish that some people don’t like. But my aunties cooked a really tasty version of it, and not only because they added queso fresco (feta cheese) and quite often a fried egg on top. One small detail that I liked about their version was that they bought whole ollucos and sliced them in rounds instead of buying it pre-julianned like most busy people do.

The tin I bought contained nothing but whole ollucos, water and salt. They didn’t have the yellow/orange colour of the fresh stuff and the texture was way softer. I sliced them in rounds and proceeded with the prep.

Most Peruvian recipes start with aderezo, our version of the Italian soffritto and the Spanish sofrito, which consists in chopped onions, garlic and chilli. Variations depend on the recipe, but the basic idea is to cook the ingredients over slow heat for as long as you can wait until they soften and the mix becomes super fragrant. This recipe uses ají panca, a dried red chilli that is very aromatic. Unfortunately, I’m not able to find it fresh here, so I use the bagged powdered stuff I used to hate before migrating.

The other spices in the recipe, also present in many other Peruvian dishes, are cumin, paprika and oregano.

This time I cooked the onion and garlic for 10 minutes.

Then I added the spices and cooked the aderezo for 5 more minutes.

Most Peruvian dishes are served with white rice as a side, which is cooked with sautéed garlic and salt. I don’t eat rice often and when I do, I prefer to keep it plain to enjoy the taste of the stew.

Olluquito con carne
Yield: 3 servings
Adapted from Yanuq

1 tin of ollucos
2 tablespoons olive oil
350 grams beef
1 medium Spanish onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon de paprika
2 teaspoons ají panca powder
1 teaspoon oregano
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons parsley, finely chopped
150 grams queso fresco or Australian feta cheese (optional)
3 fried eggs (optional)
white rice

Rinse and drain ollucos and cut them in slices.

Season beef with salt and pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a pan and brown the meat. Reserve.

Turn heat to low, add the rest of the oil to the same pan and cook the onion and garlic until soft, about 10 minutes. Add paprika, ají panca, cumin and oregano. Cook for about 5 minutes.

Add ollucos and beef. Cover pan y cook on high heat for 15 to 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Optional: turn off heat and add cubed cheese.

Serve sprinkled with chopped parsley, an optional fried egg on top, and white rice as a side.

Review: Kelly’s On King

I’m not gonna make any comments about Saturday except that Saturday pub lunches in between house inspections are not over yet. The bright side is that with so many options in the area, I get to try a different pub every week.

Last Saturday was Kelly’s turn. As weird as it may sound I had never been to Kelly’s, not even for drinks. My friends are regulars there, but somehow I’ve managed to not be there when they have been. Well, last Saturday Kelly’s was chosen because it was the third closest pub from where we parked the car and the two others weren’t worth a visit (the first one was The Courthouse, already reviewed, and the second was Zanzibar, where I had terrible chips and expensive ordinary tap beer).

The place is what I suppose can be called a “typical Irish pub”. I haven’t been to Ireland, but I’ve been to a few Irish pubs here and in Liverpool (UK), and yes, it fits the image that comes to mind. There’s a lot of wood inside the pub. Some of the tables are made of a circular board on top of a beer barrel. There’s football and Guinness.

The weather that day was hot and humid. Some of the menu options were very wintery (steak and Guinness stew, Shepherd’s pie, bangers and mash, weekend roast) and the non-wintery ones were a bit boring (the whole deal of pub food with chips and salad) so I just forgot about the temperature outside (thankfully inside was cooler and drier) and ordered something Irish: the steak and Guinness stew. It would have made perfect sense to have a schooner (or even a pint!) of Guinness, but I opted for a Pure Blonde (I know…).

The menu, as I said is pretty much standard but at least keeps people like me amused with its typos, the funniest of them being “sour doh”.

Bonnie ordered the chicken parmigiana, which arrived over chips and with a side salad. I had a bite and some chips, the chicken was good, the chips were ok, I guess, although some of them were old and wrinkly. They reminded me of the chips you usually get in cheap charcoal chicken restaurants in Lima. But Bonnie liked them in spite of their appearance. The salad, she said, was very nice, with a light and tasty dressing.

Chicken parmigiana ($16)

My stew came in a bowl with plenty of gravy. For a second I felt like a typical Peruvian and missed a generous side of white rice but then I realised the bread roll would be enough to soak up most of the liquid. There were chunks of tender beef, cocktail potatoes with the skin on (I could hear my knees scream in horror), coarsely chopped carrots and some onion slices in there. The stew was comforting and tasty, the perfect meal for a rainy winter day… a bit less than perfect in the middle of summer, but equally satisfying. The bread roll had been reheated, which suggests that it wasn’t fresh but it didn’t feel stale either. I didn’t touch the butter.

Steak and Guinness stew with a bread roll ($14)

The servings were big so it was a good thing that we had to walk a bit to get to our next inspection. We closed the arvo with another schooner in The Courthouse, this time from one of my favourite breweries: Little Creatures.

Kelly’s On King
285 King St
Newtown NSW 2042
(02) 9565 2288

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Recipe: Apple cake

We had a surplus of conventional (non-organic) apples at home last week. The Eveleigh market re-opened on Saturday, so I thought I could be able to score a bag full of delicious organic apples*, so I had to figure out a way to get rid of the conventional ones. Ok, the truth is that I needed an excuse to bake a cake this weekend and freeze most of it to have a good supply of reheatable dessert.

I wasn’t particularly looking at cake recipes (there are tons in my file that haven’t been tested yet) but browsing through posts in Serious Eats the words “apple cake” and the photo in one post got my attention. The recipe calls for 3 tablespoons of butter for the topping plus 1.5 cups of vegetable oil (ouch!) for the cake. That’s a lot of fat, but also a lot of moisture, which is good. I’m not a big fan of vegetable oil due to the inflammatory properties of the omega-6 fatty acids they typically are full of, plus their excessive processing. I swapped the oil for 1 cup of semi-clarified butter (didn’t have the patience to do it properly) and half a cup of coconut oil, and omitted the 3 tablespoons of butter meant to be distributed between the topping layer and the cake.

The recipe also calls for a lot of sugar: 2 cups. Once again, sugar gives moisture to cakes, so I only reduced it by a quarter of a cup and used raw sugar instead of white caster sugar. Because I still thought it was too much sugar, I omitted the optional 3/4 cup of raisins listed in the recipe. Other ingredient substitution was whole wheat cake flour for all-purpose flour and a mix of Pink Lady and Red Delicious apples for the Granny Smiths. Of course, with Granny Smiths the cake would have been less sweet and more tart, but I would prefer to use an extra sweeter apple and cut down the sugar further.

The recipe calls for a 10-inch (25.4 cm) springform pan. Because the only one I’ve got is 8 inches (20.3 cm) in diameter, I had enough batter to bake two personal cakes in ramekins. The cake was good, moist as expected but still too sweet for my taste. Too bad I didn’t have a good espresso at the time, but I’ll make sure I do when I reheat the next slice.

Apple cake
Yield: 12 to 16 servings
Adapted from Serious Eats

8 to 9 medium-sized apples, peeled and cored (Granny Smith suggested)
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/3 cup brown sugar
salt
3 cups whole wheat cake flour or all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups raw sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, plus additional (optional) for dusting
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 large eggs
1 1/2 cups clarified butter, coconut oil, or a mix of both
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup toasted and coarsely chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 325°F and adjust oven rack to middle position. Grease 10-inch springform pan and place on a foil-lined baking sheet.

Thinly slice (about 1/4-inch thick) 3 apples and place in medium bowl. Toss with 1 tablespoon lemon juice, brown sugar, and 1/8 teaspoon salt. Arrange apple slices in 2 concentric circles in prepared pan with slices slightly overlapping.

Cut remaining apples into large chunks and pulse in food processor with remaining 1 tablespoon lemon juice until coarsely chopped; measure out 3 cups and set aside.

In medium bowl, whisk together flour, granulated sugar, cinnamon, allspice, baking soda, and 1 teaspoon salt. In a separate large bowl, whisk eggs. Slowly whisk in clarified butter/oil and vanilla extract. With rubber spatula, fold in flour mixture in three additions, alternating with processed apples. Fold in nuts and mix just until combined.

Pour batter into pan and bake until toothpick inserted in middle of cake comes out clean, about 1 1/2 hours. Invert cake onto cooling rack and let cool 20 minutes. Remove sides of springform pan, then, carefully remove pan base with the help of a knife. Cool completely before serving. If desired, dust top of cake with additional ground cinnamon.

Cake may be stored in an airtight container up to 1 week.

* The apple guys weren’t in the market and I had to buy an overpriced bag of waxed apples instead.

1 comment   |  tags: apple cake, recipe | posted in Food, Recipes

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