BBQ at the Story Bridge

I feel  ashamed to say it, but today was the first time I had been to the end of Kangaroo Point, in the park next to the Story Bridge. The area almost feels surreal; you've got the river and CBD in addition to the over-towering bridge almost encapsulating, but certainly separating this quiet suburban pocket (if you choose to ignore the busy Story Bridge Hotel further up the street). The ability to view the city from afar, as well as the traditional stress reliever that is the Sunday barbeque was, to say the least; an enjoyable experience.

Late night snacks + coffee? ...or Gelato?

So I'm a sucker for devouring my bodyweight in desserts well past bedtime, in the past this has usually found me at pancake manor in the city, which to be honest is pretty shit, but a bit fun due to the 24/7 aspect of it. Thought it was about time for a change, so I've been on the lookout for cool spots around the place, found a kickass place last night...

Three Monkeys Cafe

Actually, this isn't the place I found last night, but just incase you hadn't heard of it, Three Monkeys in West End, kickass. Go there. Great coffee, great cake. Each time I've been there, the service has been pretty good, coffee within a couple of minutes of ordering it, cool interior, shit all over the walls, and anything from cafe style seats + tables to lounge chairs + coffee tables.

Milany

This one is a bit more out of your way if you live around the Kenmore area, but totally worth it in my opinion. It popped up on Urbanspoon the other night, and definitely don't regret pursuing it. It's in a little cluster of shops, think there's a pizza capers + few Italian restaurants that I walked past to get there, so could always do dinner and then wind up at Milany for dessert.

So the place does gelato, and does it well. I've heard that the best way to judge a gelato bar is to try their pistachio, I decided not to last night, partially because I didn't want to, but also because I don't know what it is supposed to taste like, so I could hardly judge if it was a good one or not. What I did end up getting was a banana split, with bounty, fererro rocher and mango gelato, well, that and a heart attack. Worth it.

My partner in crime got a scoop of cherry ripe and of their dark chocolate gelato. Both of which were amazing, also cheaper than what you'd pay at somewhere like cold rock / baskins, and a hell of a lot better.

Inside is pretty cool, very clean + shiny, huge ass counter showing off all of the different flavours, great menus giving the option of anything from a $4 icecream to a $30 monstrosity that'd feed a family for a week. Seats were cute little couches, and the staff (which were all asian females for some reason...) were lovely, seemed to be enjoying themselves, provided great service.

Thought I had hit absolute gold until I found the downside to it all. My mate also got a flat white. Awful. Holy crap. McCafe does better coffee. Beans were super burnt, milk may as well have been microwaved, and it was hotter than the sun. It is up there with some of the worst stuff I've ever drunk, along side with Dr. Pepper and fish sauce.

All in all, I am definitely going there again, but not if I feel like a coffee. I rarely get coffee late at night anyway, so not too much of a bother for me really, but a bit dodgy knowing it is never really a good option. The gelato was awesome, and the crap they have in the menu looks like it'd be great, so definitely heading back there to try some more out. Worth a visit in my opinion.

Dean Goes Bananas!!

Something has been happening to me of late. I swear I haven't been doing anything differently, but each week the number of bananas in my fruit bowl seems to grow. Don't get me wrong, I love bananas - in fact I start everyday with one - but no matter how much I eat, someone or something seems to keep replenishing the fruit bowl's stocks (I'm looking at you, Mother). So how is this a bad thing? Well, I suppose its not - my vitamin C and potassium levels must be through the roof - but it has got me thinking of ways I can use up these bananas before they turn towards the darkness (their skin that is) and make there mushy mushy way towards the Tuesday morning rubbish collection. So here's what I've come up with:


Option 1: The Classic
Grab one perfectly ripe banana. Peel & Eat.

'The Classic' is for those with a fruit bowl lucky enough to be graced by a Goldilocks banana (read: not to firm, not too soft...its just right!*). The banana may only maintain this 'goldilocks' state for a very small period of time, so please act with haste! No time for recipes, no time for nothing, just get that bad boy into your mouth pronto (yes, an innuendo). If you are feeling a little American, and want to find a way to turn something perfectly healthy into a high calorie (yet obviously delicious) snack, grab a packet of Peanut Butter M&M's (or Reese's Pieces) and push them into your bananas flesh. Enjoy

Note: Reese's Cups do not work

*beware of bears

Option 2: The Smooooth Operator
Grab one ripe-to-overipe banana, various ingredients (see below), and blend.

'The Smooooth Operator' is for those looking for something a little more substantial, and whose banana may be just beyond the Goldilocks zone. It's quick, it's filling, it's nutritious and it's perfect for summer. Traditionally I have tended to stick to a tried and tested low-fat health smoothie I have made for years, but of late I've tried to incorporate everyone's (read: my) favorite summer fruits - mangoes and blueberries! (Of course, being me, I pick the most expensive fruit around) The result? A delicious breakfast that holds you for most of the day! So check it out:

1 cup of skim milk
1 banana
1 mango cheek - (I use canned mangoes for basic affordability)
1 handful of blueberries - (I use frozen, again for affordability)
1 small handful of ice cubes
1 teaspoon of malt
1 big scoop of low - fat mango frozen yoghurt (or natural yoghurt if you want to limit sweetness)
1 teaspoon of honey

At this point I personally add a small handful of rolled oats and just a sprinkling of pumpkin or sunflower seeds, but that may not be everyone's cup of tea. Blend it all up and enjoy getting your daily requirement of fruit, and the majority of your recommended dairy intake, all at breakfast and in about 2 minutes. How smooth!



Option 3: The SNAB (Sensitive New Age Baker)
Grab some over-ripe, mushy, black skinned, grandma's of bananas and get baking.

So, finally getting to the original point of this post, what does one do with a banana too far gone to even consider eating 'raw' (so to speak)? One bakes my friends, one bakes. Our house is very much a banana cake house, but I recently decided to strike out from tradition and veer wildly into the world of banana bread - crazy I know. One thing I always tend to do is attempt to incorporate my favorite flavors at the time into pretty much anything I cook. These 'flavors of the month' can, and have, varied from the rich yellow coloring of turmeric, to chorizo, to cream cheese - making for some spectacularly different (read: not so great) dishes that I would probably have never mentioned to any of you. BUT, this time success was to be had! The last few weeks I have been obsessed with the Asian flavors of Coconut, ginger and lime (as Hana and Jackson will no doubt have picked up on at the Good Food & Wine show. Mmm lime olive oil). Admittedly my tasting of these flavors were limited to thai curries, asian stirfry's and salads, but that was all about to change. My 'New Age' banana bread was about to be born, and after widespread rave reviews (...a couple of people liked it) I suggest it is reborn in your kitchen next time you have neglected the bananas in your fruit bowl to the point of spontaneous implosions (or, preferably, a little bit before this stage). For the creation of the 'New Age' banana bread I took a basic banana bread recipe, and made quite a few changes in order to incorporate the flavors and make it work. Check it out:

1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup desiccated or shredded coconut
270ml coconut cream (I use light)
2 eggs
1 cup mashed banana
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 cup of glace ginger chopped
1/4 cup of coarsely chopped dates
1/2 cup of coarsely chopped walnuts (or less depending on preference)
The juice and rind of 1 lime

1. Preheat oven to 170°C/150°C fan-forced. Lightly grease and line a loaf pan with baking paper.

2. Sift flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl. Add sugar, coconut, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground ginger, glace ginger, walnuts and dates. Stir to combine.
   

3. Place coconut cream, eggs, banana, vanilla and lime juice and rind in a bowl. Whisk to combine. Gently fold into flour mixture. Spoon into prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.

The lime flavor tends to get a little lost in the cooking process, but this can be enhanced if served with a vanilla and lime marscapone, or a lime cream cheese frosting. Personally I enjoyed this banana bread best when served warm with a dusting of icing sugar, and a little bit of butter.



Now who ever said going bananas was a bad thing?

Sous-Vide

After long resisting the movement of sous-vide cooking as unnecessary and tedious, I decided to swallow my pride and try it out (as a quick background, sous-vide is slow cooking vacuum packed protein in a hot water bath around 60degrees - and we're back). And now, I'm convinced. My first foray in the art was not without tribulation (we'll get to that), but I must admit, the end product was an effect unreproducible through any other cooking method.

Quick facts

Dish: Sesame crusted chicken in a Thai salad.

Cooking time: long.

Result: great success.

The first hurdle encountered was the absence of a vacuum packer, so the brainstorming began. Many ideas were discarded for obvious reasons; sticky tape, surgical gloves, plastic laminate and condoms to name a few. Although the later might be revisited when Masterfoods and Trojan team up to release a line of gourmet herb and spice flavoured-condoms. Trojan gourmet - every sausage deserves the masterchef treatment. But i digress.

Eventually the duct tape of the kitchen, the ever trusty, glad wrap was settled on. So came problem two - no thermal immersion circulator. This was tediously circumvented using a large saucepan placed half over the smallest flame I could produce. Surprisingly, my rather imprecise meat thermometer informed me this set up maintained the temperature at an ideal ~63 degrees.

After generously coating the chicken in whisked egg and sesame seeds, it was thrice wrapped in glad wrap, then wrapped once more for good measure. This was placed in the water and weighed down with a smaller saucepan lid. 1:45hr later it was removed and the praying that it was cooked began. As I sliced into that tender, succulent chicken a wave of relief enveloped the kitchen as a slice fell away to reveal a perfectly cooked centre. On to a salad of Cos lettuce, some red lettuce, carrot, capsicum and sugar snap peas it went. After drizzling with a refreshing lime and chilli Thai dressing, it was complete.

The end result was the most incredibly moist and soft pieces of chicken I've ever had. Sous-vide literally degrades the proteins in meat, and if left for another 30mins or so i would hazard a guess that it would have turned to mush. But as it was, it was held together just enough to melt in your mouth. The biggest improvement I could have made would have been to sear off the chicken after removing from the water. This would have further evoked the flavours of the sesame seeds and crisped them nicely to contrast the soft centre (much like a Lindor Lindt chocolate), but ultimately I was ready to eat and the 30seconds that would have been required seemed too much.

While I would like to claim awesomeness, I found this website to be an invaluable reference and highly recommend it to anybody trying sous-vide for the first time. My set up was perhaps (read definitely) not the best option for sous-vide, but when faced with price tags approaching $1000 for a good immersion circulator, I must say this is a perfectly acceptable alternative for the occasional dabble. Other than the unique texture, the biggest benefit in sous-vide can be seen in the uniformity of the cooked product. Instead of having the centre at the perfect temperature with the temperature (and associated overcookedness) increasing towards the circumference, the entire cross section will show the same perfect level of doneness.

This is definitely a technique I would recommend trying at least once (if you're not confident perhaps use something other than chicken). Or at least, order it when you see it on a restaurant menu next time.

Happy Eating!