Annotated Menu

Early autumn means tomatoes are cheap, cucumbers are sweet, and basil is plentiful so these beauties make repeat appearances tonight.
1. homemade butter bread Jim Lahey’s famous “no-knead” bread recipe with butter layered in.
2. fennel, cucumber, and onion with Pecora mozzarella I cribbed this from Panzano in Denver. every night they show off their mozzarella on a different salad. I pickle the onions overnight to take the heat out.
3. chestnut pesto pasta Pesto is traditionally made with pine nuts. One farm in the Southern Highlands has planted pine nut trees, so we should have Australian pine nuts in a few years. Although Australia does have a walnut industry, local stores sell Californian walnuts. In the mean time, it’s chestnut pesto. I worked in a bakery where the owner taught me to omit parmesan and garlic to emphasize the flavour of the basil. Fresh linguini from Pasta Emilia.
4. panzanella salad I first had this classic bread salad at one of my favorite restaurants, Emilio’s in Santa Barbara. Over the years I’ve found that the only essential ingredient is ripe tomatoes. I often omit the bread. I’ve retained their combination of basil and mint, added purslane, and replaced pistachios with Australian macadamias.
5. Moobi Valley Farm rump steak with tomato jam The important thing is to cook the tomatoes until they get a little brown.
6. roasted zucchini and corn with kaffir lime leaves and coconut Roasting with plenty of oil and salt makes vegetables taste like candy. I’ve recently replaced rosemary with kaffir lime leaves.
7. Eumundi smoked chicken on wild watercress
8. Pecora Blue with fig and Eumundi Smokehouse Russian salami with pear compote One of the owners of Pecora Dairy has been able to quit their day job… Pears from Kurrawong Organics.
9. cucumber sandwiches (with Eumundi hot salami) A tradition of the Viand is to pun on the food. In this case I’ve made a Cal-Aussie take on the British classic.
10. persimmon with Kakawa chocolate Champion’s Mountain Organics

Produce from Kemps Creek Farms. All produce, fruit, pasta, cheese, charcuterie, and meat from Eveleigh Carraigeworks Farmers Market.
Murray River inland Australian salt . Kialla organic white flour.
Organic Times Butter. Clarendon Farms Eggs. Simon Johnson balsamic vinegar.

crumblier = short (like shortbread)
not the same as shortcrust: this is the kind of pastry i am used to making for quiches and tarts, pâte brisée, pâte sucrée, etc.
puff pastry is super flaky. this is made like croissant, by rolling layers of dough with butter.

findings:

1. butter is used for flavor, not texture. butter makes things HARD.

2. shortbread/crumbly cookies: 2parts fat/3parts flour (and 1 part sugar) (and fat is always butter)

3. short crust: 1 part fat/2 parts flour (sugar, for sweet crusts a couple of tbsp) better to use only part butter or no butter. lard desirable. keep fats cold (could grate frozen fat) while mixing with flour. then add water to bind. (our empanada recipe called for alcohol to bind!)

4. puff pastry: buy it from the freezer section of the grocery store

for precise info on crumbling and flaking see this report

Day 2
Empanadas in frozen puff pastry
with leftover 24th fennel cucumber onion salad
pan fried halloumi with tomatoes and green onion salsa
chilled tomato garlic soup with hard boiled egg and ham
blueberry pavlova
English custard with blueberries

2 Asparagus, Clevedon Valley Buffalo Mozzarella, 301 Karaka Bay Road lemon, Maldon sea salt (Wendy taught us to eat lemon on mozz)

3 Absolute Kumera Gnocchi with Uncle Joe’s Walnut Oil

4 Bacon wrapped date and lamb chop

5 Cliché-vu pizza: Sundried tomatoes, Puhoi Valley goat cheese, basil, black pepper, truffle oil from AlanR. On Jim Lahey’s no-knead bread with butter layered in… (Kiala organic Australian flour)

6 Smoked fish watercress salad with macadamias and kiwis Cribbed and modified from Yello Bistro, Sydney

7 Spicy Island Bay Butchery Sausage on roasted carrots with nutmeg

8 Xiao’s Tofu: A luxury vegetarian dish filled with oyster mushrooms, leek, and two textures of Tofu — one with Chinese Magic. Chinese chef performs his master’s most profound magic of putting any ingredients into a dish and taste great.  Enjoy the dish with a peaceful mind and feel the energy from the food.

9 South Indian Cabbage (vio’s grad school housemate Omar taught us this, and laughed at us for refrigerating eggs)

10 Kathryn’s Pastry Swans in Berry Coulis because Iain insisted… (Monavale Blueberries, Omaha Strawberries and Raspberries, Kiwis from Nelson)

Wine tastings from Mt. Koinga Vineyard: Richardson Pinot Gris 2007 available from www.richardsonwines.co.nz. Richardson Chardonnay 2008 will be available here once its released. Pinot Noir is blended into Richardson Pinot Noir 2008 and will be available here once its released.

All produce and baking ingredients from Commonsense Organics Market.

Lamb from from Ti Kouka farms via Commonsense Organic Market

Cheese from Moore Wilson Freshmarket

Bacon and Sausage from Murrellen Pork, Canterbury, via Island Bay Butchery

http://www.tonkiang.net/

http://www.blueplatesf.com/

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