Taste of Melbourne 2010 - Part II - Maze, Izakaya Den, The Palace, Sarti, Charcoal Lane

Part II of my Taste of Melbourne Post concentrates on the majority of the dishes we had whilst working our way through the throng and bustle of the crowd... this is not counting all the other freebies of alcohol, cheese, lamb, chocolate etc...


maze Restaurant & maze Grill


Because we've already been to Maze when they first opened in Melbourne, we were curious to their new menu (well the Boy was more so than I)...


It was disappointing that not many of the head chef's were around and we didn't get to see Josh Emmett


Cured Marlborough king salmon with sweet corn, chorizo and kipfler potato (12 crowns)... the fish looked extremely well done.. but it wasn't.. it was amazingly tender and medium rare... and wonderfully rich in Omega 3!!


The Boy had a delicious Seared Hopkins River beef, with shitake and aged soy dressing (12 crowns)


Izakaya Den


Saturday's Pop-up Restaurant had me running towards it (as I didn't want to miss out)


Embarrassingly, I'd never heard of this Izakaya prior to this event (I know... I am *ashamed*)


The Sweet corn kaki-age served with green tea salt (8 crowns) was interesting and with the green tea salt adding in a delicate flavour to the sweet corn ... not quite worth the crowns though...


The same goes for the Spicy Tuna Tataki (12 crowns), good, but it doesn't stand out from the other Japanese Izakaya's out there...


Sarti


We didn't actually get to eat this dish from Sarti - although I really wanted too!

Pistachio 'panna cotta' with caramel salted popcorn (8 crowns)


Charcoal Lane


The happy team at Charcoal Lane =)


I only managed to sample 1 out of the 3 dishes on offer, but managed to get pictures for all of them anyway (GO ME!)

So here was the one dish I did try and it was delicious (although slightly salty)

Wallaby Tataki with ginger, soy and horseradish (10 crowns)... I can safely say, I much prefer Kangaroo over Wallaby =)


Their Seared Kingfish, Red Curry, Puffed Rice and Coconut (12 crowns)


Their star dessert of Raspberry & Rosella Flower cannelloni, Strawberry and native mint salad (8 crowns)


Longrain


I heard that their Salted Western plains pork & prawn sweet rool with pickled vegetables (10 crowns) was very much overpriced and under-taste (a pity)


However, that didn't stop them from drawing a huge crowd.


Longrain was situated just upstairs and had pretty much their very own busy disco and dance spot with a bar and DJ in attendance!


With a bar offering both alcoholic and non-alcoholic versions of drinks, it was hard to not want to try their drinks...


The Boy and I both had a Virgin Ping Pong - lychees, passionfruit and fresh lime (8 crowns) and a Virgin Moscow Mule - fresh lime & mint topped with ginger beer (8 crowns) --> the alcoholic versions were 12 crowns


In terms of drinks, I didn't hurry back for a second glass and hurriedly returned to Stokehouse for another Espresso Martini!!!

Read more about Part I of Taste of Melbourne...

Stay tuned for Parts III and IV!!!

Date with Martin Boetz (Longrain) Round 2 - Chadstone 4 Day Food Festival: Eat

The second class with Martin was aptly named "Delicate Thai and Chinese Fusion", and it was carried out 2 hours later from the first class



A smiling shot of the hot assistant =)



Martin was going to show us how to cook, "Yellow Egg Noodles, Chicken Curry with Cucumber Relish"



And, a "Crispy Fish with Pomelo, Coriander, Mint and Chilli Dressing"



Martin holding up a Pomelo so everyone could see how the fruit looked like ^_^



Crispy Fish with Pomelo, Coriander, Mint and Chilli Dressing

Starting off with the Crispy Fish Salad (again, thanks to my genius editing, you get to see it in a way that makes sense *grinZ*)

Start by mixing up 250g flathead fillets in a bowl with fish sauce (80 ml) and placing on drying racks (wire racks for cakes) on a tray. Place in oven and dry out on 140degrees Celcius for about 2 hours until dry but not crispy and then cooling it down.



Martin showing how it should be after the drying process...



Blend the cool dry fish in a food processor with 50g of smoked trout and it should have a bread crumb-like consistency



Heat the canola oil in a wok (160-180degrees) and rain in a small hand full of the flat head as can be seen in the video below (I'm getting all cool with technology now!)



Place fish on serving plate...



Dressing: Pound 1 long red chilli,3 garlic cloves, 2 coriander roots & 10g ginger to a paste, add 40g of palm sugar and 30ml of fish sauce. Por over 150g of lime juice and mix together well.



Mix the salad ingredients together & lightly dress ingredients with some dressing.



Place dressed salad over the fish & serve. Serve the rest of the dressing on the side =)



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Yellow Egg Noodles with Chicken Curry and Cucumber Relish

First of all, heat up a wok/heavy based pan and put in chopped: 1 red onion, 8 garlic cloves (peeled), 6 coriander roots, 1x4cm tumeric (peeled), 8 long dried chillies (seeded and soaked)

Dry fry them until the caramelise...



Random shot of fresh ingredients and the egg noodles =P



Dry roast 1 tablespoon of coriander seeds, 1 teaspoon of cumin seeds, and 1 teaspoon of fennel seeds



Combine the first and second step and blend together until it forms a thick yellow paste.

Seal the chicken pieces (4 chicken marylands, wuartered with skin on) by deep frying them until golden brown.



Place the coconute cream in a heavy-based pan on medium heat until it melts.



Add the curry paste (4 tablespoons)



Add some fish sauce into the curry paste as well and fry until fragrant



Add in the coconut cream (1 cup) and chicken. Season with palm sugar (100g) and 100ml of thick ABC kicap manis (thick soya sauce)



Whilst the curry is simmering, bring a good amount of water to the boil and also heat some oil in a woke to 160degrees.



Fry about 75g of noodles (per serve), whilst keeping another 75g of the blanched noodles aside.



Top the blanched noodles with a portion of curry, then pace the fried noodles on the top with some coriander leaves and serve relish on the side.



Cucumber relish was made with chopped cucumbers, red onion and seasoned with vinegar and sugar (I can't remember if there was anything else besides salt that was added)

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!




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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 =)