FoodieChat

This is no ordinary sausage sizzle.  Fetes and festivals are characterised by a charity gristle sausage smothered in sauce on a thin piece of no frills white bread. onions if you’re lucky.  This works great – yummy, cheap, maximum profits.  However, when festivals turn foodie, such a charity treat is no longer enough – not when you can get gourmet sausage rolls.  Enter the chorizo roll, or for an even more upmarket gourmet version – the chorizo and garlic prawn roll!!!   For $10, you get a halved chorizo grilled on the BBQ, and half a dozen of garlic prawns smothered in spicy tomato sauce.  And garnished with fresh parsley.

The dude at the grill – the master BBQ-er has perfected the rhythm of turning, cooking, filling, passing.  I’m sure it’s a hot and smoky job, but we appreciate you!  The result is the most amazing juicy (huge) mouthful.  These guys also make an appearance the Entertainment Quarter markets in Moore Park.  But I sure am hoping that they will turn up at tomorrow’s Burwood Festival. I am counting on it!

Masterchef Australia should come with a warning.  Warning: Do not watch unless you have a well stocked pantry of food to satisfy guaranteed longings.  Well I luckily do have tonnes of stuff in my pantry and fridge, and today’s craving was for a warm tarte tatin.  That’s a French upside down apple tart.  The apples are caramelised then covered with a puff pastry blanket to cook (traditionally in a frypan), inverted and served with vanilla bean ice cream.  I wanted to make individual serves, so here’s the recipe for 2 people.  Step 1: Peel and slice one granny smith apple.  Step 2: Melt a tablespoon of butter in a saucepan, and a tablespoon of brown sugar. Step 3: Put apples in and cook until soft and some of the juices have come into the saucepan to form a sauce. Step 4: Meanwhile, cut two discs of puff pastry and preheat the oven to 220 degrees. 

Step 5: I lined two tart tins with baking paper but for the traditional way, just simmer off some of the liquid until the caramel is thicker, then lay a whole sheet of puff pastry on top and put it in the oven.  For my way, lay the apples nicely in a spiral, then simmer the sauce until it’s thicker, and then pour over the apples.  Lay the pastry on top.  Step 6: Bake in the oven until puffed and the edges are very brown and the sauce is caramelised.

Final step: carefully invert onto a plate and serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Eat immediately whilst still warm and whilst the pastry is crispy.  Cooked and eaten in 40 minutes

I’m intrigued – what is claypot rice?  Well I sort of knew, but how could you have a whole restaurant based solely around this one style of cooking?   Well, the queues outside the shop indicated that it is possible, and highly desirable!  First Taste is a chain of small family very casual restaurants that serves rice topped with all sorts of different meats and toppings that is baked in a claypot as its name implies. The rice forms a delicious crust on the pot, much in the same way that paella has one, and is brought to your table on your personal wooden board.  First Taste is also a specialist in soups.  For $4.50, try the wintermelon and pork soup to whet your appetite, as the rice takes 20 minutes to cook. 

Soups range up to $38 per serve that includes shark fins, fish maw and other specialties that may be new to the Australian palate.  But we’re here for the rice!  Delicious black pepper beef tenderloin rice is so tender, just the right amount of spice, and very saucy to mix through your rice.  At $7.50, you’d think yo ureally are eating in China!

Very popular is the chicken and mushroom rice ($7.80), it’s chicken thighs steamed with mushrooms and also chinese sausage.

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This is my interpretation of a pumpkin and leek lasagna from Australian Good Taste magazine.  I never would have thought that something with no meat could be SO tasty, such that I even relished leftovers!  It makes a great work lunch too.

Ingredients

• A wedge of pumpkin, chopped into 1.5cm cubes
• 250g of baby spinach
• Clove of garlic, finely chopped
• 6 free range eggs
• 200g sliced mushrooms.
• 1/3 cup of cream
• 1 handful of chopped mixed fresh herbs (I used parsley, basil and oregano)
• A handful of vintage cheddar cheese, grated

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