Taste of Melbourne Part III - Nous Nous Reverrons, Embrasse Review and Nicolas Poelaert

Third post of my Taste of Melbourne 2010 fun is mostly about sitting in for Nicolas Poelaert's Taste Kitchen and trying his menu at the pop-up restaurant of the day, Embrasse!


The crowd was starting to build up 30 minutes before the scheduled cooking class was meant to begin...


The list of Chefs that were participating in the Australia Gourmet Traveller Taste Kitchen


Regal Pure Indulgence, being one of the sponsors provided...


The guests with a delicious king salmon hors d'oeuvres


*nom nom nom*


There were many seats kept "reserved" for VIP guests (who paid extra), but people weren't following orders and were seating on the places anyway... *Tsk* *Tsk*


Ta-dah... Chef Nic is demonstrating how to use a Kitchen Aid to make frangipani (almond meal filling)


How to roll dough (and make fresh)


Chef Nic explaining how to clean fish (and kill bacteria) by soaking it in brine for about 10 minutes (water, salt and some sugar)...


Preparing the herbs and getting ready the sorrel leaves to pass round to the audience...


Voila! 15 minutes and the pear tart is ready!


Because I forgot to take down notes (I KNOW!).. all I remembered was, this was a deconstructed dish of something...


With mussels, king fish, cauliflower, purple cauliflower, sorrel and flowers


Quite beautiful isn't it?


The aftermath...



The people that converged upon the cooking area once the demo was done...


On Sunday, for the first 10 people to get into the Gourmet Traveller Chefs Table, they had Nic in there having an informal chat with wine and canapes and talking about his food and Embrasse...


The crew at Embrasse (Camm, Wife and the whole team, including art work) was at the show!


The crowd waiting to sample the food...


They closed Embrasse for the day to provide their full attention and dedication to catering for the event!


Embrasse was running a competition with the winner getting a free 5 course degustation for 2!!!


John Dory cooked in squid ink served with a burnt carrot puree and heirloom vegetables (10 crowns) - it was the first time I'd eaten anything cooked in squid ink. The flavours were very light and subtle... a great dish to start with...


Mr. Donati's crispy Pork Belly, peas and wild sorrel coulis, purple potato, fromage frais and garden herbs (10 crowns) - super duper good value, and we had a version of this when we dined at Embrasse for their Slow Sunday Lunch


Hazelnut & Chocolate parfait on forest floor (12 crowns)... worth... every... penny!!!

Plus I had an extra one courtesy of Chef Nic =)


For details on how to get to Embrasse, check out my other post on their Sunday Lunch =)

Martin Boetz from Longrain - Chadstone 4 Day Food Festival: Eat

I've always wanted to visit Longrain in Melbourne to try their offerings. And when we found out that Chadstone was organising an Eat - Food Festival,

(We were given recipe's as well as a box of tea from Oriental Tea House... Note: The pictures provided on the recipe pads are just random shots of "same sounding" food, not the actual food itself!)

with Martin Boertz (Executive Chef and owner of Longrain), as the "celebrity" chef teaching a FREE class, of course we had to go!



In his, "A Journey into Asian style dining", Martin showed us how to cook 2 dishes...

Mee Grob Crispy Noodle Salad with Prawns



and a Sour Orange Curry of Ocean Trout



Due to limited time, and because he was a proper chef, he was cooking both the dishes at the same time... but due to my wonderful editing, I've split them up for easy viewing/reading/salivating =)

Ingredients for the Sour Orange Curry (which is a variation of David Thompson's recipe)



The brand of fish sauce Martin uses



The palm sugar which is a necessity in Thai cooking...



With the Crispy Noodle, what he did was blanch normal rice vermicelli in water (tap) for 20 mins until soft. Drained and spread out on absorbent paper to absorb any exess moisture. Separate the noodles into individual strands as much as possible.



Meanwhile, heat oil in a wok and stir-fry the mince pork and prawns (150g each) until cooked. Drain away any excess liquid and set aside. In a heavy-based pan, melt 150g shaved palm sugar with a little water to help break it down. Allow the sugar to caramelise, then add the yellow beans (mashed to a paste) and fish sauce and combine until the consistency of a thick sauce, remove mixture and fold through the cooked meat.



It should look like this =) (The background bottle behind the pan is the brand of the yellow beans)



Back to the noodles, lightly brush the noodles with a little eggwash (the whole egg), which will make the noodles turn a golden colour when cooked.



Heat the vegetable oil (160 degrees), until just smoking. Work with small bunches of noodles at a time, and drop them into the hot oil in batches. They should separate and cover the surface of the oil and look like a spider's web (takes about 30 secs to cook). Remove with a Chinese spider, drain on absorbent paper (layer each spider noodle with absorbent paper)



To combine, place the pork in a mixing bowl and add mandarin juice (1 mandarin), toss in all the salad ingredients and lightly mix to bind all the ingredients together.



Break the crisp noodles and toss through the salad. Serve at once as the noodles will start to lose their crispiness if left to sit.



Garnish with thinly shredded omelet (Martin's signature).



Voila! Served with a lime wedge on the side.. mouth watering!




~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now for the curry! His assistant was really HOT by the way... and I digress =P



Soak red chillies (15 dried chillies) and shrimp (125g)separately in warm water for 20 minutes to rejuvenate them. Drain.



Blend garlic, eschalots and dried shrimp to a smoth paste (by pounding or blending). Add in tamarind paste and chillies and continue pounding with the mortar and pestle.



Bring stock to the boil, add lime leaves, and 1/2 a stalf of lemongrass and add 3 tablespoons of the paste.



Season with fish sauce, sugar and tamarind - it should taste sour, salty and sweet. Keep simmering and then put in the fish and vegetables (4 betel leaves shredded included)



Dish and serve with rice



Slurpiliciously SPICY!



Martin smiling at me taking pictures 0_0



It was a fantastic cooking class experience, and there is more to come =)