post#100 - ' the GOLDEN NESTED EGG .'

Beetroot marbled free-range Hens egg in Nest of Golden Sweet Corn Silks accented by Nasturtium petals & leaves, Pea greens, Olive oil leaf herb, Water Hyssop and Edible Wild rocket flowers.

                         Post number 100 @ food play and I'd like to give thanks and appreciation to the support out there, the forwards, the comments and the general help to spread the site globally. A special thanks to my wife for early pursuits in spreading the word and for encouragement and praise, but I guess mainly for her taste buds and their critique. This blog started October last year and has been viewed by over 30 countries and has had thousands of page views, I would never have thought. So for the 100th instead of the golden nest egg, I've done 'the GOLDEN NESTED EGG'.                              

                         The idea for this dish came from applications I've seen similar with the root of the concept coming from a soup that uses every part of the corn ear but the kernels are only used for garnish. Starting with striping the husks which are roasted and the silks were fried for a crunchy accompaniment, the spent cobs were grilled and charred and used with the husks for the base of the chowder. Upon doing more prying I've seen a number of chefs using the corn silks to form nests to present various egg preparations. I thought it would be appropriate to post a breakfast for #1oo as the very first post was a breakfast post as well.

                         To make this dish I first put a pot of water on the stove and brought to the boil, adding a little vinegar to the water I cooked some eggs for 5 minutes and 12 seconds before plunging the eggs into cold water. In a blender I added chopped beetroot, rice wine vinegar and a little water before blending to a juice. This was then passed through a sieve and poured into a tall glass filling to three quarters in height. I then made cracks all over the egg shells with the back of a spoon before placing into the beetroot juice and set aside for about 2 hours or enough time for the beet juice to penetrate the cracks and stain the egg whites with pink fuchsia. Next I heated some oil in a saucepan to around 180 deg. c. and deep fried corn silks in the arrangement of a birds nest, once the silks had puffed and turned from light green to golden I removed the nest with a slotted spoon and drained onto paper towel. And next I foraged the gardens in the backyard for some fresh accents for the nest, these were arranged around the rim of the nest and placed in the centre of the plate for serving. Next I drained the egg from the beetroot juice and under a trickle of running water I carefully peeled the egg revealing the stained beetroot marbling. I then placed the egg in the nest of corn silks and seasoned with smoked sea salt and cracked black pepper before serving.
                                                                                                       

' MUSHROOMS , MARROW & DATES .'

Grass-fed Bone Marrow in Swiss Brown mushroom stems, Charred Dates, Balsamic reduction and Vegemite paste. 

                Another really simple little dish to make and tastes sensational, the mushrooms have a rich meaty flavour and an almost steak like texture, the dates were pounded to a thin rectangle, adding  sweetness and a roasted flavour. The accompaniments of the balsamic vinegar reduction gives a distinct sweet acidity to balance the marrow out and the Vegemite paste adds a savoury streak for both the eye and the palate. Exquisite grass fed beef marrow has been stuffed into hollowed swiss brown mushroom stems to replicate marrow bones and sauteed in rendered marrow.                                                                
              I started this dish by placing some dried dates on to a tray and into a 180 deg. c. oven for about 20 minutes, until some parts were starting to char. The dates were then removed and placed between two sheets of silicon paper and rolled out to about 2 mm thick. I then made an outline of the rectangle shape using a ruler and marker on to the top sheet of silicon paper before cutting the shape out and setting aside for plating. Next I removed the stems from large swiss browns and hollowed the middles out with a cutter. Scraping some of the raw marrow from the bones I gently filled the stems, these were then placed in the fridge to set. In the mean time I placed a little mandarin juice and balsamic vinegar in a saucepan and brought to a gentle simmer, reducing the vinegar to a thick syrup before removing from the stove and setting aside for plating. The Vegemite was simple thinned with a little olive oil and to finish the dish I sauteed the mushroom stems in a little rendered marrow just before plating.

' CARAMELISED CAULIFLOWER CUSTARDS .'

Caramelised Cauliflower custards served with Garden Pea greens dressed with Barrel aged Fish sauce & Lemon oil .

                     This is a simple little taster dish to put together and a really good little way to showcase seasonal produce. The custards in this dish are extremely dynamic in that it has a great crust, are hot throughout and melts on the tongue like a decadent cauliflower puree rather than the firm set that it resembles. To accompany these I dressed assorted pea greens fresh from the garden in a little aged fish sauce and lemon oil.                                                                                                                                  
                     To make the custards I placed heavy cream, diced cauliflower, salt, cayenne, and cinnamon in a saucepan over a medium heat, I brought this to the boil reducing to a low simmer, covering with a lid. Once the cauliflower was cooked and tender I transferred the mixture to a blender and mixed to form a smooth puree, this was then placed into a small saucepan and brought to a simmer with 1.5% gellan gum whisking to dissolve and disperse the gum. The the puree was then removed from the heat and poured into a plastic mould and placed in the fridge to set. At this time I dressed the pea greens with a little barrel-aged fish sauce and some olive oil mixed with lemon. I kept the pea greens fresh and not cooked to give the dish a little fresh crunch to cut the rich creamy custard. The greens were then plated and ready for the the custards to be re-heated and caramelised. In a medium hot pan I added some olive oil, removing the custard from its mould I sliced the custard into bite sized cubes of which I lightly pan seared one side of the cube before immediately arranging them on to the plate with the pea greens and seasoned with smoked sea salt to serve.

' faux MICRO CHEESE BURGER & FRIES .'

 Caramel & Sesame seed macaron filled with Chocolate & Almond patty, Salted caramel slice, Diced Apple and Raspberry ketchup, served with Apple & Arrowroot fries. 

                  This dish is another sweets entry with a straight forward play on food or 'food play'. I've seen this dish or I've seen the macaron burger similar being served on degustation menus but I thought I'd go a step further and try recreate visually something we all are familiar with, that fast food giant. My macaron making experience from scratch was many many years ago and the macarons that I used to make were the traditional plain almond type, not the the modern day colourful types. So sucking in my pride I've used the help of Adriano Zumbo and his macaron mix, I chose the salted caramel variety to get the best resemblence of a seeded bun as I could, for the overall effect. The surprise for me that came from this dish was the apple fries, which upon eating at first I thought tasted like regular french fries. Weather my mind was tricking my taste buds or by-passing my taste buds altogether and operating purely from associated experience but I thought I was eating McDonalds fries and it wasn't until the aftertaste left on my palate that tasted of flavours similar to apple danish and with the raspberry sauce, that I realised this was part of a tasty dessert and how easily your mind can be tricked even if you know the trick.                                      
                 To make this food player I began by making the macaron shells the night before as per the recipe on the packet. As the piped mixture were resting on their trays before backing I sprinkled half of them with sesame seeds and baked them off for 16-18 minutes in a 150 deg. c oven before removing and allowing to cool. The shells were the placed in to a airtight container and stored in the fridge over night. The next day I began with the cheese burger fillings, in a bowl I mixed together melted milk chocolate, melted butter, almond meal and homestyle Orio cookie crumb. After forming the mix into a ball or dough like consistency I formed little patty rounds and placed them on the bottom half of the macaron as these were the meat patties. Next I used the caramel supplied in the kit and rolled some out thinly between two sheets of baking paper. I then cut little squares of the caramel slice to match the size of the patties and these were arranged on top of the patties to resemble melted sliced cheese. The raspberry coulis was from an older preparation but with some of this I added a little balsamic vinegar to cut the sweetness of the sauce and the entire dish and also give the coulis a more authentic ketchup look. The diced onions on the burger are made from really finely diced apple. The last preparation was the fries and all along I wanted to use apple as the potato substitute and I was just going to simply slice the apple julienne and fry them in hot oil. And it wasn't until I was cutting them I thought of the idea of frying them in a starch to give them more rigidness and structure. So I coated some in arrowroot flour and did a test batch and to my surprise they came up looking like a real french fry. I coated the rest and my stumbles through cooking rewarded me and became the final product you see.

  
                                                                           

' 53 deg . C . LAMB SOUVLAKI in GRAPE LEAF .'

53 degree C. Sous vide cooked Tassie Royal Lamb Souvlaki in Grapevine Leaf served with Minted Greek yoghurt , Preserved lemon , Salted capers , Black garlic paste , Fried parsley and fresh oregano.

                  During the week I visited my favourite independent grocers 'food fantasy' after work. I love going to this humble little food hub and its been a few weeks now that I had paid a visit to the store. A different delicacies were on offer, I picked up a pack of brined grapevine leaves ( good,big,green ) about a dozen in total for $2.20 AUS. While I was in the store foraging I came across fresh Kalamata olives and when I asked one of the staff what was involved in the prep of the olives, he went out the back and got the little old Italian lady. Familiar with my face she talked me through the four week process of brining the olives while hand selecting me a half kilo into a bag that I'd requested. The olives were $6 a kg. costing me $3 AUS. for my Kalamata olives. So I guess the trip to the 'food fantasy' and the butchers for the quality piece of free ranging grass-fed lamb from greener pastures of Tasmania have been the inspirations of this Mediterranean flavoured cuisine.                                                          
                 This was a very simple dish to make I began by marinating the lamb overnight in the fridge in a vacuum sealed pouch containing butter, dried oregano, smoked paprika, dried thyme, salt, white pepper, a pinch of cumin and a little garlic paste. The next day I set the sous vide machine to a water bath temperature of 53 degrees C. and cooked the pouch of souvlaki marinated lamb for one hour. during this time I prepped the accompaniments firstly the minted yoghurt was a mixture of greek yoghurt, fresh mint from the garden finely chopped, a little garlic paste, drizzle of olive oil and a squeeze of lime juice before being lightly seasoned with salt. To make the black garlic paste I simply blended black garlic with a little olive oil to form a puree. The preserved lemons was an earlier prep, I mean way earlier, like this time last year or earlier. These are simply preserved over time in jars packed with salt and filled with lemon syrup. Over the time the skins soften and the pulp turns to the preserving liquor it is the skins that are scraped back and rinsed before being added whole or diced into dishes to give an up lifting citrus element to the dish. The capers were store bought but have been drained and mixed with himalayan pint salt in a container in the fridge for a number of months now. Once the lamb was ready I removed the lamb from the pouch and straight into a hot pan with the juices of the pouch poured over the lamb while it quickly seared on both sides of the fillet. Once the outside of the meats proteins had caramelised I removed the fillet from the pan placing it straight at the bottom of a spread brined grapevine leaf on a cutting board. The lamb was then rolled in the leaf and returned to a hot pan with a little olive oil to cook the outsides of the leaf, while this was cooking a placed some sprigs of parsley in the hot oil to crisp up. Both the parsley sprigs and the rolled lamb were removed once cooked and left to rest for 3-4 minutes. The parsley was then seasoned with smoked cypress sea salt.                  
                I presented this plate by making a series of random swipes with the minted greek yoghurt. I then sliced the grapevine leaf wrapped souvlaki lamb in to various widths and strategically arranged them around the plate displaying the beautiful perfectly evenly cooked lamb contrasted by the dark green vine leaf. I then added the accompaniments of salted capers, preserved lemons, black garlic paste, the crunchy fried parsley and to finish the dish fresh micro oregano leaves from the garden.

' plated CHICKEN , PEA & NOODLE SOUP .'

Plated Free range chicken broth , Garden pea caviar , Fresh egg noodles , Shredded chicken breast , pea flower & greens.

                     Its the beginning of mid autumn here and you wouldn't think so weather wise, with only the night temperatures dropping ever so slightly, the humidity is still high and the day temps are in the high 20's pushing 30. The peas in my garden have shot up and we're starting to get our first pods and the snow peas are in prolific flower, great signs of a good crop. This dish was inspired by the garden harvests and with a left over chicken frame in the freezer I decided to serve up a plated soup. To add a little twist I turned the broth into a thickened sauce and made pea caviar using the 'cold oil spherefication' technique form pureed garden peas.                                                                                        
                      To make the chicken broth sauce I began by placing in a large stock pot a frame from a free range chicken, caramelised onion halves, chicken breast fillets, chopped carrots, celery, parsley, bay leaf and seasoning, covering with water I brought the stock to the boil reducing to a simmer for 2 and a bit hours. This was then strained and the breast fillets were put aside for shredding, some of the broth was reserved to make the sauce and the rest was placed into a small sauce pan with some fresh garden peas and brought to the boil. Once the peas were cooked they were placed into a blender with a little of the cooking stock and blended to a puree, this was then stained and set aside. I then placed a tall glass of canola oil in the freezer allowing the oil to chill and thicken for about half an hour. In a small saucepan I put the strained pea puree and 1% agar agar heating to a simmer while whisking to dissolve the agar powder, this was then removed and allowed to cool to 60 deg. c before I removed the oil from the freezer and prepared to make the pea caviar. With a syringe I drew up the pea liquid and slowly drop droplets of the liquid into the cold oil, as they slowly sunk to the bottom of the glass they had time to set solid. Once a dropped all the liquid I strained the the glass of oil, collecting the oil in a jar for later applications and trapping the caviar in the strainer, these were then rinsed and set aside for plating. In a bowl I combined flour and eggs and made a simple dough, kneading for 5-10 minutes. After chilling the dough for half an hour I rolled the dough out on a floured surface before passing through the rollers of the pasta machine, this was then run through the spaghetti attachment and dusted with flour to keep the strands separated. In a large pot of rolling salted boiling water I cooked the noodles for 2 minutes before removing and placing under cold water to stop the cooking process. To finish the sauce I placed the reserved chicken broth in a small saucepan bringing to broth to a simmer, with a little of the heated broth I added some arrowroot flour and made a paste before adding back into the broth and whisking to incorporate. Once the sauce had thickened I removed the pot from the heat ready for plating.                      
                   To plate I began by spooning some of the chicken broth sauce in the centre of the plate. I then arranged the shredded chicken breast, pea caviar and egg noodles on top of the broth. Garnishing the plate with droplets of broth with pea caviar, pea greens and topped with a pea flower.                    

' QUAIL SALTIMBOCCA ROLLS with FIG SAUCE .'

Quail Saltimbocca rolls with Caramelised Fig sauce and micro fresh sage leaves.

                        Saltimbocca simply translates as 'leap in the mouth' which is exactly what these tasty little morsels do. This step up from the devils on horseback is an absolute taste sensation leaving you with a taste of wanting for more. Traditionally saltimbocca is done with veal but keeping the core ingredients of sage and parma prosciutto can be done with all sorts of meat variants and in this case
I used quail and accompanied them with a caramelised fig sauce.                                                            
                        To start I began by be-boning the jumbo quail to give me the boneless breast fillets to which I took to with a meat mallet to flatten out and give an even distribution. I then marinated the quail breasts in minced garlic, lime juice, thyme and salt and pepper for around half an hour. During this time
I soaked some dried figs in a sweet white dessert wine from greece until soft and plump. I then prepared some fresh figs by slicing thinly, these were to added to the saltimbocca rolls later. To prepare the rolls I laid out some thinly sliced prosciutto so they overlapped, I then arranged the marinated quail on top, layering some large sage leaves before topping with the prepared fresh figs. This was then rolled up to form a roulade to which I seared in a hot pan before finishing off in a 160 degree c. oven for around 8-10 minutes. I then removed the roll and allowed the meat to rest before slicing into one inch pieces.
To make the sauce I pureed the soaked dried figs and the wine before simmering in a small saucepan until thick and syrupy.
                         To plate I made a swipe with the caramelised fig sauce, arranging the pieces of the quail saltimbocca on the sauce and garnished the dish with fresh micro sage leaves.

' 64 deg . C EGG YOLK CROQUETTES .'

64 degree C. Sous vide cooked Egg yolk croquettes with Pecorino cheese sauce , Micro greens and truffle salt.

                         This little dish is a take on those creamy spanish croquettes that are served at the many tapas bars. I remember vividly as a child, mum would make beautiful creamy corn croquettes and they were to die for and always a welcomed item at the dinner table. The idea to use egg yolks as the filling came from the molecular recipe website, where they used the method of cooking the yolks sous vide to achieve a gelled structure that can't be achieved by boiling or soft boiling the egg. This dish looks very simple but requires great dexterity and technique when handling these delicate egg yolks. By cooking the eggs sous vide gives us the control and guarantees the perfect temperature of 64 degrees the temperature at which the protein livetin denatures and causes the egg yolk to gel and form a creamy custard like consistency as apposed to boiling where the outside of the egg cooks quicker than the yolk leaving us to guess the condition of the yolk and depending on the size of the eggs an extra 30 seconds too long can turn a soft yolk to a hard boiled before your eyes. The recipe I went off called for the pairing of a nutty flavoured gruyere foam, instead I opted to accompany the croquettes with a cheese dipping sauce made from pecorino cheese, which I think is just as nice.                                                  
                          I first cooked the eggs in their shells in a 64 degree sous vide water bath for one hour. The recipe called to cook the yolks on their own floating in the bath for 45 minutes, turning them at 25 minutes. This method can get fiddly and messy if one ruptures during the cooking process. Once the eggs were cooked I de-shelled them rinsing the unset whites from the yolks carefully under running cold water, these were then placed into a bowl of room temp water until ready to be crumbed. As our pullets have just started laying over the last few weeks, I lost a few yolks to what they call blood spots or meat spots in the yolks, this will be less frequent as they get a little older. But at least I'm assured of fresh free ranged organic eggs at our disposal with vibrant yellow yolks from the supplemented leafy greens in their diets. In a bowl I whisked a whole egg with a pinch of salt, this was for the egg wash. I then seasoned some flour in another bowl and in the last bowl I placed some bread crumbs seasoned with salt and some Dorrego pepper leaf. Using my hands I carefully dusted the yolks with the flour, dipping them into the egg wash and then coating them with the bread crumb. In the mean time I heated some light olive oil, enough to cover the croquettes, in a saucepan to 190 degrees cooking the croquettes one at a time for about 2-3 minutes until they were nice and golden in colour. Bringing the oil back up to 190 degrees each time to assure a perfect shell of crumb around the yolk centres. To make the sauce I heated a little butter in a saucepan and sweated off some finely chopped onions. Once they were clear and translucent I removed them from the pot adding some more butter and a little flour I made a roux to which I added gradually milk to form a white sauce. This was seasoned with truffle salt and grated pecorino cheese was added to complete the cheese sauce.                                                      
                           To plate I smeared the cheese sauce on the plate arranging the croquettes on top and garnished with some micro greens. I seasoned the croquettes with a little truffle infused sea salt.

' BRAISED LEEK with OYSTER MUSHROOM .'

Oven braised Leeks with Sugar-cane raised Brown oyster mushrooms , Wild rocket , Green apple & chilli jelly and Miso & maple foam.

                      This little taster dish is a perfect way to showcase some of the mushrooms coming to harvest of late. My mycology set up is outdoors and has very little climate control so having said that the mushroom season for me is between now and late october, outside of these dates the temperatures
are just too high and not ideal for growing. I grow mainly oyster mushrooms (of all colours) and I have
some log cultured shitake that are half way too fruiting. The oysters I grow are raised on pasteurised sugar-cane mulch and are grown in bags, ziplock bags and in buckets. My method of using inoculated dowel spawn has been a success but this season over winter I will be trying grain spawn poplar wood boards and recycled paperback books to mix things up a bit. It will be interesting what the different growing mediums will have to the overall taste of the final product. I think the sugar-cane fed mushrooms have a slight grassier taste to store bought oysters which I find are quite bland in taste. Leeks are also in season right now but for this dish I used store bought leeks. The wild rocket has been
a perpetual patch in my garden for 2 years now, going to seed and the seedlings keep popping up giving me an all year round harvest of the mustard flavoured green leafy and not to mention those little
mustard flavoured flowers I often include in my dishes. This plate is packed with flavours from the sweet flavours from the braised leeks to the spice of the chilli to the earthy and grassy flavours of the cane fed oyster mushrooms and the Unami flavours of the miso in the foam. This also makes for a great little vegan option for an entree.
                          I started by chopping the leeks into 1 inch thick pieces and placing them into a roasting pan. I then added some vegetable stock to come to the top of the leeks but not covering them, to this
I drizzled a little sesame seed oil, seasoned and covered the pan with foil before placing into a 160 deg. c. oven and braising for an hour until soft and sweet. In a saucepan I placed chopped green apples and some green chillies with half water, half cider. This was brought to the boil and reduced to  simmer for around half an hour until the apples were pulpy. I then poured the pulp into a cloth bag and allowed to filter for around 2 hours,collecting the juice. I then added the juice to a clean saucepan adding sugar, allowing 500g for every 500ml of juice and a little lemon juice. This was brought to the boil for about 10 minutes before being poured into hot sterilised jars and sealed for later use. I then sauteed the mushrooms in a little unsalted butter and seasoned them with salt and cracked pepper. Just before plating I placed some rice wine vinegar, white miso paste, maple syrup, soy sauce and soy lecithin into a tumbler and using a stick blender I formed bubbles. The excess liquid was poured off leaving just the foam which was kept in the fridge until ready to use.                                                                                    
                            To plate I spooned a little half set apple, chilli jelly in the middle of the plate arranging the braised leeks on top accompanied by the sauteed oyster mushrooms. I then spooned the foam over the dish and garnished the plate with some wild rocket and cracked black pepper.

' ZUCCHINI FLOWER with SMOKED COD .'

Zucchini flower stuffed with Smoked Cod mornay served in Chilled sun-ripened Tomato water with White Truffle oil , Sun-dried Tomato dust and olive oil leaf herb.

                          As with many of the dishes I post up here the inspiration starts from whats in harvest in the backyard gardens and at the moment the gardens in transition from the remains of late summer plant outs to the early autumn produce. Here in Brisbane we have the options of planting later summer crops or plant quick growing spring vegetables for a quick harvest, like the quick zucchini crop I put in to receive these wonderfully delicate tasting flowers. The soil temperatures are still quite warm and lend a hand to successful propagation of almost anything. I used the male flower for this dish for two reasons, the first being I want to reap the rewards of a harvest of zucchini and the second being that it simply suits the application better. The last flushes of Roma tomatoes are ripening on their vines and with the recent rain are starting to split and show age cracks on their crowns as they're ready to burst. So with that I decided to do a chilled tomato water to accompany the stuffed zucchini flower. Chilled tomato water resembles the look of a tomato consume but is made purely of filtered seasoned tomato juice rather than the other ingredients that accompany a consume, usually made with white wine or orange and lemon juice flavoured with fresh herbs and seasoned.                                                                        
                         To make this dish I began with the tomato water, chopping the vine-ripened tomatoes in quarters before placing in a blender to form a puree. I then seasoned the puree with sea salt and cracked black pepper before filtering several times through cheese cloth to extract the water and discard the solids and pigment. This was then placed in to a glass and chilled in the fridge until required for plating. Next in a medium sauce pan over a gentle simmer I poached a fillet of beautifully smoked cod from south africa in a little milk and sweated sliced onions until the flesh flaked away from the skin. This was then removed from the heat and allowed to cool before straining the poaching milk and setting aside. I then flaked the flesh, removing any skin and bones, in a small saucepan I made a roux to which I gradually added back the milk, over a medium heat whisking to remove lumps and form a thick white sauce. To the sauce I added a little curry powder and some grated tasty cheese mixing to melt the cheese and bring the mornay sauce together. The the saucepan was then removed from the heat and the poached smoked cod was folded into the mornay and placed covered in the fridge to cool before stuffing the zucchini flower. Once the mixture had chilled, I spooned the mornay into the zucchini flower, brushing the outside of the flower with a little white truffle oil. I then steamed the stuffed flower for a minute and a half before removing from the steamer and chilling before being served. The last application was the tomato dust of which I simply ground sun-dried tomatoes in a coffee grinder to form a powder.                                                                                                                                                  
                          Presenting this dish I placed the smoked cod mornay stuffed zucchini flower upside down, standing upright in a shallow soup bowl, pouring the filtered sun-ripened tomato water in the bowl to cover the bottom of the bowl to 5mm deep. To this I added droplets of summer white truffle oil and sprinkled a little of the sun-dried tomato dust, before garnishing with a sprig of fragrant olive oil leaf herb to finish. This is a delicate, but robust flavoured dish served chilled or warm as an entremet.

' faux CHEESE AND GRAPES .'

faux cheese - ( Sangkhaya ) Thai coconut custard with Strawberry gelee rind , faux grapes - ( Look choop ) Kaffir lime flavoured mung bean paste desserts.

                    Its time to play with food again this time the dish is designed to trick the eye of the beholder into thinking they're about eat cheese and grapes only to discover the grapes is flavoured mung bean paste and the cheese is really a silky smooth delicate thai coconut custard, both traditional Thai desserts. Look choop was designed to impress the palace royals with all its vibrant colours of hand painted portions of mung bean paste shaped into tiny fruits and vegetables and dipped in an agar syrup to give shine and life. Is it art, with food as the medium or just cooking.
                   I started preparing this dish a week ago starting with the look choop. To make this I first soaked 125 g of yellow split mung bean in cold water for 2 hours before steaming for a further half an hour. I then mixed the mung beans with a quarter cup of caster sugar, and half a cup of kaffir lime leaf steeped and drained coconut milk into a blender to make a puree. This was then transferred to a medium pot over a low heat and cooked while stirring until the paste became thick and wouldn't stick to my hands. The paste was then removed from the heat and wrapped in plastic film before being placed in to the fridge for an hour. This recipe is for about 30 pieces, so once the paste was chilled I shaped pieces of the paste into grape shapes and using a tooth pick I skewered the grape and with the other end I placed standing in a piece of foam ready to be painted. Once I finished shaping all the grapes I mixed together some blue and red food colouring to achieve a dark purple colour to which I then painted all the grapes, I ended up applying more coats to some to try and achieve different tones. In a small saucepan I added one cup of water, two table spoons of caster sugar and one table spoon of agar, this was brought to a simmer whisking to dissolve the agar and sugar before removing from the heat. Once cooled a little I dipped the look choop in the agar glazing and allowed them to dry before repeating this process another two times giving the grape a three coat layer of shinny jelly syrup. The look choop were then allowed to fully dry before being placed between layers of silicon paper in an air tight container in the fridge until plating.
The sangkhaya or custard was made by heating coconut cream with grated palm sugar and egg yolks over a medium heat until thick and creamy to which the custard is then traditionally steamed, but for this purpose I wanted a bit more structure and less aeration so I set the custard with a little agar agar. This was added at 1% and whisked while simmering the custard until the agar had dissolved and then removed from the heat and poured into a round mould. To make the strawberry flavoured cheese rind I placed some strawberry coulis, water, red colouring and agar agar at 1% into a small saucepan and brought the mixture to a simmer while whisking to combine and dissolve the agar agar, this was then removed from the heat and poured onto a flat tray and put aside to set. Once the gelee had set I cut a strip the same thickness as the custard and secured the gelee around the circumference of the un-moulded custard round. To plate I cut a wedge of the custard from the round and accompanied the wedge of custard with the kaffir lime flavoured look choop.

' 54 deg . C BANANA PRAWN in PEA WATER .'

54 degree C. Sous vide cooked Queensland Banana prawn in a Chilled Pea water & Celery juice broth with Nameko mushrooms, Charred onions, Thai basil, Pea butter & greens.

               In many styles of food over the years, the chefs, cooks, housewives of the world abroad strive to cook meals with complexity and richness in flavour, with meals displaying layers of depth. In the modernists kitchens of today meals are being prepared using a minimalist approach to ingredients but showing execution of great techniques in showcasing these few ingredients and enhancing them. This dish is a good example of bringing out the raw flavours of each ingredient. The onions have been sauteed and caramelised to bring out the sweetness of the onion, the prawn was cooked in a 54 degree C. sous vide water bath with only butter and garlic to accompany. This allowed the prawn to cook evenly trapped in its own juices. I've seen the pea water prepared a little different to mine, with the use of a centrifuge, pea puree is spun at 1200 g's separating the liquid from the solid. My way still requires a pea puree but then this is manually passed several times through a cheese cloth filter. This technique removes the starch from the pea and it is starch which inhibits the body from tasting sweetness. So with most of the starch removed, it leaves the pea water tasting sweeter than the original whole peas used.
              I began by making the juices needed for the pea and celery water, first I put a pot of peas on the boil and roughly chopped celery into chunks. One serving requires 15 g of pea water and 5 g of celery juice so be sure not to over do it. I juiced the celery and ran it through a cloth filter several times before pouring into a glass jar and placing in the fridge to be chilled. Once the peas were cooked I drained them placing into the blender with some cold water and forming a puree. This was then ran through a cloth filter several times and poured into a jar before placing in the fridge to chill. While these were chilling I prepared the prawns in food safe plastic pouches along with a little butter and some garlic paste. This was then vacuum sealed with the food-saver and placed into a 54 degree c. sous vide water bath for 12 minutes. The pouch was then removed and placed directly into an ice water bath and the into the fridge to chill. In a skillet I quickly sauteed some nameko mushrooms and pearl onions before removing. I sliced the onions in half and returned them to a hot skillet face down to caramelise.
            To plate a placed 5 g of filtered celery juice and 15 g of pea water into the base of the bowl. In the centre of this I placed the sous vide prawn topped with pea greens and arranged the nameko mushrooms, micro purple thai basil leaves, charred onions and the pea butter around the edge of bowl.