Rockpool on George @ The Rocks, Sydney

My 21st Birthday Celebrations continued, even after a month. As a part of one of my birthday presents, some of my girl friends invited me to a 3 course lunch at Rockpool on George. Due to exams, it was post-poned to July.I have tried Rockpool Bar & Grill, and now lucky enough to have tried Rockpool on George.

Rockpool on George, is now a 3 chef hat restaurant (2013), after being a 2 chef hat restaurant for the past 3 years (2010-2012). They have also won awards in all different areas over several years. The wall of awards shows a commitment to good food, and wine. We were seated at the table that was at the front of the restaurant and front of the kitchen, allowing lovely natural light and a view of the kitchen staff doing what they do best. 

We we able to choose from the lunch menu, or have the set 3 course lunch ($65 on Friday). We all chose from the lunch menu, where some people had one course, others 2, and myself 3.

Awesome crunchy bread, and a petal iced tea

Sushi: Chirashi zushi of kingfish, trevally, tuna, octopus, prawn and squid

I thought I would take advantage of the seafood available on the menu, so I chose the entree of sushi.  The element of sesame in the rice added a lovely taste and smell. The accompanying sauce was not your usual wasabi-soysauce mix, it was spicy and tangy. It was a fresh and tasty dish.

Goat's cheese lasagne, apples, lavender scented kiplers, 

pangrattato and broccoli sauce

2 of my friends ordered the lasagne, and with a little sample, it would have been a tasty dish to consume all to myself. The goats cheese was soft and creamy. The hint of lavender added an extra taste and aroma.

Pigeon with corn, scallops, eggplant, black mushrooms and coriander

This was my dish, pigeon. It was infused with Asian flavours with a lovely aroma and great taste. The pigeon had a slight caramelisation, which accompanied the eggplant well. I was able to get all the meat off the bone, as Rockpool provided a warm hand towel to clean my hands =).

Beef sirloin with celeriac, onions, grated daikon and sauce vierge

Another 2 of my friends ordered the beef sirloin. The presentation was clean. In terms of taste, there was nothing extremely exceptional about the dish.

Lamb from South Australia, rolled saddle, bo ssam shoulder, celery, wheat infused soybeans

and tea smoked muscles

I tried some of my friends lamb dish and it was delicious. The beans and muscles with the lamb was a combination I would have never thought would work. The sauce accompanied with the beans added a great taste. A lovely warm hearty dish for a winters lunch.

Complementary salad

Now for dessert, 4 of us opted for desserts, as they just sounded too enticing. 

Passionfruit Souffle

The passionfruit souffle was perfect. It was perfectly risen, with an intense yet balanced passionfruit flavour. The extra scoop of passionfruit ice cream, when dolloped on top of the souffle melted, and added to all the passionfruit goodness.

Toffee Apple: Roast apple and hazelnut parfait, puff pastry, cognac and

rosemary sabayon

This is not what you expect your normal toffee apple to be, especially in terms of presentation. The bits of apple were encased in the centre, underneath the caramel shell. The best part was the rosemary sabayon which they provided plenty of.

Vacherin: Pandan custard, coconut parfait, jasmine sorbet, lime granita and meringue

My choice was the Asian inspired dessert. I was completely wowed by the presentation. All the flavoured were encases in the smooth meringue ring. When digging into it, I was overwhelmed with the wonderful flavours. The sweetness of the coconut parfait, and pieces of young coconut. Then there was the fresh lime granita with jasmine sorbet. However, when all combined in one spoon, it was definitely a spoonful of goodness.

On top of the normal dessert, I was also provided with a special dessert because it was my birthday. It was a chocolate mousse cake, encased in sugar cage. They also provided a lovely candle, it was a great gesture.

We were also provided with petit fours, my favourite of them was the nougat and chocolate ganache with  popping candy!

Petit fours: Nougat, pineapple jelly, chocolate ganache with popping candy

and madeleines

If anyone has seen the movie No Reservations, and know the truffle scene, the same thing happened at Rockpool. The chef was smelling and testing the truffles to purchase. One of the wait staff whispered to us that the truffle delivery has come, and it is an exciting time of the year.

The service at Rockpool on George was exceptional, and food exquisite. The wait staff catered for every need and were also conversational. Our main waiter, even decided to jump in the photo with us. Definitely somewhere I plan to dine there once again!

Good food, good times!

Pandan Graduation Cupcakes

The sad moment when most of your friends start to graduate and you are still doing your degree. Even though it is a sad moment, I made it a happy moment by getting out my creative skills and creating graduation cupcakes, with an all time favourite flavour of pandan.

Pandan Cupcakes (recipe guided by muchamunch)
Makes 12 standard cupcakes

Ingredients

125g butter (softened)

1/2 cup caster sugar

3/4 cup caster sugar

3/4 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

2 eggs

3 tbsp milk

1-2tsp of pandan essence

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius. 

2. Using an electric or hand held mixer, combine sugar and butter until pale.

3. Add one egg and combine. Add additional egg once the first is well combined.

4. Add in pandan essence, and combine. 5. In a separate bowl, sift flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

6. Add half the flour mixture, and half the milk into the green mixture, mix well.
7. Once combined, add the remaining flour and milk. The mixture should be nice and smooth.

8. Spoon mixture 2/3 in cupcake cases, and bake for 20 minutes.

NOTE**: I used 2 teaspoons in my attempt, but I found that it turned out too green for my liking. Since I have only made this once, I am not sure what colour it would turn out when using 1 teaspoon.

Buttercream Frosting

75g butter (softened) 

1 1/4 cups of icing sugar (sifted)

1tsp vanilla bean paste

2 tsp milk

1. Using an electric mixture, mix the butter until it becomes pale (almost white)
2. Gradually add in sifted icing sugar (one heaped spoon at a time), and continue adding spoonfuls once each previous spoon is combined.

3. Add milk 1 teaspoon at a time, until desired consistency. Do not add too much.
4. Add in vanilla bean paste and combine.

NOTE** The addition of milk changes the consistency of the buttercream, so depending on how stiff or runny you would like the icing, depends on how much milk you add. If you feel that the icing is to your desired consistency without milk, then don't add it.

Graduation Hats

Materials:

Mini peanut reese's cups 

Melting chocolate (milk or dark)

Lindt chocolate block (milk or dark) - 10 individual pieces

Writing icing - any colour of choice.

White fondant/hard icing

Toothpicks

NOTES:

- Which ever chocolate you  use, ensure you get matching chocolates. i.e. milk melting chocolate, with milk lindt chocolate or vice versa.

- For the lindt chocolate, I used the thin flat block (blue packet) not the red packet.

- If you dont want to use block chocolate, you can melt chocolate and place in a piping bag and draw our your own squares to desired size.

- Miniature reese's cups can be found at costco or any speciality stores

Method

1. Melt 100g melting chocolate. (I used the microwave)
2. Carefully remove foil wrapper on mini reese's chocolate cup, and poke with a toothpick.

3. Dip into melted chocolate, and place on wax proof paper and remove toothpick.

4. Refrigerate until hardened (15 minutes). 

5. Neatly cut the lindt chocolate block into individual pieces.

6. Once reese's cups are hardened, place on cupcake (bottom side up).
7. Add a little bit of melted chocolate on top, and place lindt block on top (writing side down).

8. Leave to set.

9. Using writing icing,  add a tassel from the centre of the lindt block and drag to one side and leave to hang.

10. Using the fondant or hard icing, roll out small graduations scrolls.

11. Add little bow detail using writing icing.

As you can see, my bottom part was coated in dark chocolate, and I placed a milk chocolate lindt piece on top, and it looks funny. So I strongly advise using same coloured chocolate.

I made two cupcakes blank and using black writing icing to say Congrats Graduates. I wish all the graduates the best of luck, and hope they enjoyed the cupcakes!

Good food, good times!

Pandan Chiffon Cake

First recipe of 2013! I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New Year. 

Coming from Vietnamese origins, I have a slight obsession with Pandan. My first post was Pandan Mania where I made pandan waffles and pandan icecream, both recipes which to this day don't fail me. This time around I attempted to make a Pandan Chiffon Cake.

There were a few issues with this cake, where I think there may have been a bit of fat in the eggwhites, and I slightly undercooked the cake. Even with these issues, the cake was still nice, and was enjoyed by all those that tried it. Will definitely try again.

The recipe was guided by wendyinkk making pandan chiffon cake.

Ingredients

5 eggs (separated into whites and yolks)

1/4tsp lemon juice

200g sugar

150g flour

180g thick coconut milk

70g pandan extract (I followed Wendyinkk instructions for pandan extract)

**NOTE: you may need to remove some of the water in the extract for a better pandan flavour.

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 175 Degrees Celsius.

2. Combine coconut milk and pandan extract in a large bowl. Add  flour and mix to produce a batter and set aside.

3. Beat egg whites until frothy, and add in lemon juice. Continue to beat egg whites until medium peaks are formed.

4. Gradually add in 100g of sugar and beat until stiff peaks.

5. In another bowl beat egg yolks and 100g sugar until thick and pale.

6. Fold egg yolk mixture into batter (2).

7. Mix in 1/4 of egg whites into batter until well combined.

8. Fold in remaining egg whites into batter.

9. Pour mixture into a deep baking pan. (I used a bundt cake tin)

10. Bake for 45-50 minutes

11. Remove cake from oven, and allow to sit in baking pan for a few minutes before inverting to cool.

Unfortunately, I didn't get as much height as I would have liked, and you can see the undercooked part of the cake. Due to this, the result was a slightly more dense cake. It  was liked by some people, but traditional Pandan Chiffon Cake is soft like a sponge. Will definitely need to try again!

Good food, good times!

Pandan Mania!

For those who do not know what Pandan is, it is a leaf that is generally used to add flavour to food, by either being wrapped around the food or infused with a cream or milk. I have a slight obsession with pandan, and along with my friends we constantly crave for some of the pandan waffles you can get from Cabramatta. With that little obsession inside of me, I decided to make pandan waffles and pandan  ice cream!

Pandan waffles (A recipe guided by vietworldkitchen)
Ingredients (original)
1 cup of plain flour
7 tablespoons sugar 
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate soda 
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg, separated
1 cup coconut milk 
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 1/2 teaspoon pandan extract


**NOTE: You can generally purchase pandan extract/essence from most Vietnamese grocery stores.


Method: (When I made this I doubled the recipe)
1. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, bicarbonate soda and baking powder.
2. In a jug combine coconut milk, egg yolk, butter and pandan extract.

3. Add the liquid ingredients to the dry ingredients and gently stir using a rubber spatula. Set aside momentarily 
**NOTE: Expect the batter to be thick and somewhat lumpy. Avoid over stirring. 

4. Use an electric mixer to beat the egg white until a firm peak and use the rubber spatula to gently fold in the egg white into the mixture.

5. Heat up your waffle iron and spread a decent amount of batter onto the waffle iron, cooking as waffle iron instructions.
 **NOTE: Every waffle iron is different, but general rule is to stop the mixture about 1cm from the edge as when you close the lid the mixture spreads across. Cook the waffle until golden brown.
6. To remove the waffle, I would advise to use wooden chopsticks. This will allow you to lift up the waffle without tearing the waffle.

Pandan Ice-cream (guided by userealbutter)
Ingredients

1 cup whole milk

3/4 cup sugar

2 cups cream

pinch salt

5 pandan leaves, each tied in a knot

6 egg yolks

1/2 teaspoon pandan extract

Method:

1. In a medium saucepan, heat the milk, sugar, 1 cup of the cream, and salt over medium-high heat. Stir to dissolve the sugar.

2. When the milk begins to steam, remove from heat and place the pandan leaves in the cream. **NOTE: I used fresh pandan leaves, so I wet them a bit and then tied them into a knot.

3. Cover and steep for 30 minutes. (steep: means to leave in the liquid so the flavours becomes infused)

4. Whisk the egg yolks in a separate medium bowl.

5. Strain and slowly pour the cream mixture (with the pandan leaves) into the egg yolks while whisking (this is to temper so the eggs don’t curdle).

6. Scrape everything back into the saucepan and set over medium heat.

7. Constantly stir the custard, scraping the sides and bottom until it thickens.

8. Place remaining cup of cream in a large bowl and set aside.

9. Remove custard from heat and strain into the cream (cold cream).
10. Stir in the pandan extract until well-blended.

11. Let the custard cool and then refrigerate (covered) until it is completely chilled.

12. Churn using an ice cream maker, per the manufacturer’s instructions.

This was my first time making ice cream, and it was a great success! It had a natural taste, with a creamy smooth texture. This was definitely one of those moments in my life, where I felt that I have achieved something really great (may seem strange but the power of good food can do that sometimes). All the people who were lucky enough to try it enjoyed every spoonful, and some even said it was better then some restaurants (which was a huge compliment). From this success, I am very keen to try to make other ice cream flavours.


Good food, good times!