Photo Bomb

Pending Grande update #2, I thought I would break up the posts with a few photo's of some recent things I created.


Coconut Bavarois, Raspberry Parfait, White chocolate mousse, Dehydrated Malt Chocolate Chips

Crispy Skin Barramundi, Crab and Scallop ravioli's (one basil, one squid ink), Pan fried baby octopus and squid, topped with balsamic roasted cherry tomatoes.

Custard Apple Sicilian Slice, Honeycomb, Fig reduction, Custard Apple and Pistachio Compote, and a Orange Granita

 Pan-Seared Atlantic Salmon, Proscuitto Wrapped Asparagus, Potato Fondant, and topped with a capsicum and tomato Compote.

Grande update #1

Yes yes, I know I haven't posted anything in ages.
To be honest it's been hard to do anything but work at the moment. Completely new menu going in, staff leaving, training new staff, position changes, potential long term high class positions opening up, meetings, boardroom catering events. I've been doing it all lately....aaaaaand I'm tired as dog's balls to be honest.
But I was just sitting here relaxing, playing some starcraft 2 HotS when I thought, why don't I update my blog, since I'm being a lazy bastard and not doing anything.

So continuing on from the last entry, I'm going to do a recipe for the Strawberry and creme tartlet.
It's a nice simple dessert, but is oh so elegant and a classic at that.

I'll say it now, my recipes are always written in short hand for chefs, because I've basically got hundreds of recipes that I have to sift through and write up for dumb apprentices to read. So I do the basics so they can follow it. But for here I'll posh it up a bit :D

Pre-heat your oven to 150 degrees Celsius

Strawberry and Creme Tartlet

So lets start with the pastry. There are so many short crust pastry recipes now days that you can't just pick one and go with it. Over the years I've created many different ones, but through experimentation I've come up with the perfect (well I like to think so) recipe. And now I'll share it with everyone :D

This recipe will make 6 tartlets by using 4 inch tartlet flans.

Pastry

160g icing sugar
250g plain '00' flour
150g unsalted butter, room temp, cubed
4 egg yolks, fridge temp

Method:

Sift together the icing sugar and flour into a large mixing bowl. Add the cubed butter and start working the butter into the dry ingredients with your hands, rubbing it in until resembles fine breadcrumbs. You want it to be dry and light. Now add the 4 egg yolks and combine it all with your hands until you have a soft dough. Don't overwork the dough.

Now don't bother about resting the dough before pushing it out into the tartlet flans, do it after you have pushed it out, this way the dough rests and holds its shape for baking.
So break the dough up into 6 pieces and grease your 6 tartlet flans. Don't bother doing the old, roll the dough out into flat circle and placing over the flan, it's a pointless and time consuming job that does nothing. Simply start pushing the dough in the flan and working it up the sides, keeping it all in once peice. If you have to much dough coming up the sides, just level it off with a knife.

Now once you have finished that, place the flans in the fridge for an hour to rest.

Long time no see!!!

So yeah I've been inactive for a while, but that was because I ended up doing 2 months straight at work :( but alas I am back to a normal roster woo hoo!

So here is a bit of a preview of what is to come in the next day or so.

 So the dessert on the right is completly experimental haha. I was bored one day at work and just made it out of nothing.
Dehydrated mousse chips, Fig and Cinnamon Parfait, Compressed raspberry sorbet. It is an interesting idea of different textures and temperatures .

I was also featured in the E.T Online Magazine early this year. Tis me on the far right :D

And finally the Strawberry and Creme tartlet. A true classic in it's own right. I'll be releasing a recipe for this in the next post.

The first of many...

Well I guess this is the start of my new blog about food, gaming and well whatever else I have to talk about, but I'm sure it's going to be mostly about food.

So lets start off with a quick intro.

I'm the senior sous chef of a restaurant in Sydney, Australia. I started my career uh 7 years ago now...I think. Anyways I have always been cooking, I cook all the time when I'm at home and it is one of the most enjoyable things I could possibly do. 

I create all of the desserts that are served at the restaurant, and I usually test them out on friends and family before introducing them to work.

So I guess this will be a nice middle ground so everyone can see what I make first before it goes to the restaurant.

So this first dessert is something of a classic, but re-invented. It's an old Sicilian family recipe from one of my bosses, which was passed on to him from his mother. I've taken the standard recipe and turn it into something restaurant worthy....I hope ;)

I present....The Sicilian Vanilla Slice with vanilla bean mascarpone and passionfruit syrup.

It's not the most photogenic dessert, but who cares! The taste is amazing!!

It's a bloody simple dessert, but tastes so god damn good! The longer it sits and absorbs the citrus syrup, the better it becomes. And this baby can be left out at room temp as well, it tastes 100 times better than being cold.

So how do we go about making it you say hmmm?

Well here is the recipe, super quick to make, pretty well fool proof, and you will want to make a big batch, because once you start eating it, you won't stop :)