Cibo E Vino - Cooking with Friends (Cooking Class)

     Ever wanted to be able to cook restaurant quality dishes to impress your friends? Cibo E Vino and their head chef Paul Toogood are opening up their kitchen for you to come in for a hands on cooking class to learn to cook a three course meal. I was recently invited to a media preview of the class and also get my hands dirty learning to make some pasta.

     We were split into 2 groups. Chef Paul takes us through how to make orecchiette. The dough is prepared before hand and chef starts breaking it up into little balls. We're then shown how shape them into little ears, he seems to be making them at the speed of light so I ask him to slow down so that we can see exactly what he is doing. It's then our turn to churn them out. It's simply a push of the thumb and then a quick flick and they are done - easier said than done of course ;)

Working hard or hardly working? ;)

Our combined effort, is this going to be enough for lunch?? ;)

    We then move on to watch Chef Colin Lambrisket prepare the pasta dough for the linguine. The dough has been premade and he rolls it out with a rolling pin until it's the right thickness and width to go through the roller of the pasta machine.

     Once it's almost ready, we also get a few goes at cranking the handle. Chef makes it look so easy! It's actually quite an effort for me to turn the handle just a couple of rotations, lacking some arm muscles I think.

    The dough is folded multiple times and put through the roller to 'laminate' until a nice smooth silky consistency is achieved.

     We then all come together again to watch Chef Paul show us how to make gnocchi. The potatoes are peeled, chopped and then steamed. Once cooked, they are put through a mouli which grinds them down to a smooth mash. An egg yolk is added to the potato mash and then equal amounts of plain flour and semolina are added and worked into the dough.

Chef Paul showing us how it's done.

My baby! We all get our own batch to make.

     Once the dough has come to the right consistency, it is divided up and rolled into long sausages and then cut into little pillows.

A finished batch of gnocchi.

     Chef Paul takes out a block of truffle pecorino cheese to shave to make the sauce for the orecchiette. He lets us all have a small tasting. The cheese was so tasty, I could have easily eaten the whole block!

     The orecchiette is added to a stock, to which the peccorino is added to make a creamy sauce - no cream added.

     Due to time constraints, we missed seeing the linguine being cut but this is what the end result looked like.

     Once the gnocchi is done, Chef Paul moves on to preparing the pasta sauces while talking us through the processes.

     Tossing the gnocchi in a butter sauce, helps prevent it from sticking as well as adding flavour to it. The third chef in the brigade at Cibo E Vino is Chef Danny Westside. They are all super friendly blokes and made the cooking class experience a fun one. The three pastas are dished up and we all get to eat! Not before photos are taken of course...

Orecchiette with truffle peccorino sauce.

     It was a shame that by the time we had this, the pasta had gone cold. It was a little too firm for my liking but I'm sure if we had eaten it while it was piping hot, the texture would have been absolutely wonderful.

Gnocchi with house made sausage sauce.

     There was a lot of murmuring around the table when everyone tucked into this dish. The gnocchi dumplings were soft pillows of melt in your mouth potato goodness - just how they should be.

Linguine with prawns, tomato, peas and basil.

     The flavours and colours in this dish were vibrant and fresh. I absolutely adore basil! The prawns and peas added some sweetness to the dish.

      What sets this cooking class apart from the others is that after your hands on session with the chefs, 3 of your friends get to come in and eat what you have cooked. Your chance to impress them with the skills the chefs have taught you ;) Though there are 3 pasta dishes shown above, the chefs will teach you how to make an entree, a main and a dessert from the restaurant menu. For more information and bookings, visit the class information page on their website. The next class will be held on Saturday 18th August and will be limited to 4 people so that you get a bit more one on one time with the chefs.

      All I can say is that I was so inspired by the class, I went home and tried to make gnocchi on my own! Ryan has made it before and has done a pretty awesome job and I have just always been too afraid to try. After watching and learning how to make it from Paul, I wanted to see if I could do it myself. I succeeded, though my gnocchi was no where near as good as Paul's or Ryan's. Lots more practice needed. And yes, that's shavings of truffle. We visited the Marrickville Organic Markets that weekend to buy some produce to make an anniversary dinner and were very excited to get our hands on some fresh truffle. What better way to eat it?

      This is not my first visit to Cibo E Vino though it has been a long long time since I had last been (Castle Hill is a little bit out of the way for me, if I was a local I'd definately be visiting more often). It's where I had my first taste of hand made gnocchi, which I absolutely fell in love with. It saddens me when I see packet gnocchi being used, it's just very very different in taste and texture, it's not the same! The restaurant has been through some changes since but it's great to know that the gnocchi is still just as good, if not even better than when I first tried it. They now focus on a range of hand made pasta dishes and have established themselves as an 'Artisanal Pasta House'. I've also heard that their fries are to die for. YUM! Go pay them a visit. NOW.

Cibo E Vino

Shop 2, 299 Old Northern Road

Castle Hill

Open Tuesday -Saturday, 6:00 - 10:30pm

Mamak, Lindt Cafe, Pasticceria Papa - A day out in the city (30th April)

        I love working for a company which gives us "You Days", a day off every month, or you can save one and have two consecutive days off in a week, think 4 day weekend every once in a while! I generally take mine as they are due, planning it with Ryan so that we can spend the day together if I don't have any errands to run that day. Ever since he's started working night shift, his time is so limited that we rarely ever get to spend a day of a weekend together because he's always busy with other things.

        On my day off in April this year we had planned to visit the fish markets for some nice brunch. Being Friday and knowing how hard and expensive it is to park in the city we decided to drive down to Lilyfield and catch the tram in.

Testing the capabilities of my camera gear.

Artistic no? =p

On the tram.

I love weekdays off, you don't have to deal with the crowds.

There was this strange white cat sitting on one of the platforms.

        The day ended up being absolutely grey and wet so plan B had us in the city, first visiting St Peter Julian Catholic Church at Haymarket and then having lunch close by. As I had read so much about Mamak and all the foodies/bloggers seem to rate this place I mentioned it to Ryan and asked if he wanted to give it a go. We managed to beat the crowds arriving just before 12 but it didn't take very long for the place to fill up.

        This is pretty much our first time eating Malaysian food. We're very suprised by the super fast service. Our drinks are the first to come out, Ryan orders the Teh tarik (I think?) which is a Classic Malaysian sweetened tea, ‘stretched’ for a frothy topping. I order the Teh ‘O’ ais limau which is just an iced tea with a splash of lime. Ryan's tea is nice and comforting for such a wet day outside. My ice tea was refreshing.

        The food almost instantly appears as soon as our drinks are set on the table. Heard great things about the Roti so we decide to try the original Roti Canai served with two curry dips and sambal sauce. We both enjoy the Roti, the sambal is suprisingly not hot as I expected it to be. It was a great combination when combined with the curry sauces. I love the stretchy fluffy texture of the Roti.

        The first of our mains is the Rojak - a Malaysian-style salad with prawn and coconut fritters, fried tofu, hard-boiled eggs, freshly shredded yambean and cucumber, topped with a thick spicy peanut sauce. Loved the textures in this salad though found the sauce a little too sweet. The yambean and cucumber was a nice refreshing cooler when eaten in combination with our spicy curry.

        Our second main is the Kari Kambing - spicy lamb curry slow-cooked until tender. Definately spicy and packed a punch. The lamb was not as tender as we had hoped. It was an experience for our taste buds which have only ever experienced Thai, Vietnamese and Indian curries. We found that this curry was a bit too spicey for our liking, and thought it wasn't quite balanced. The dish was nice but nothing that wowed me.

        Overall, we had a good experience at Mamak, perhaps because we're not used to Malaysian food we wern't all too blown away by it. I'm glad that we did have our Mamak experience though. Maybe next time when we're in the area and there isn't a big queue out the door we will give Mamak another try.

        After lunch the rain has stopped so we wonder down to Darling Harbour. Iron Man 2 poster on the IMAX building.

        Mr Johnny Depp Mad Hatter looks absolutely freakish blown up so big.

        Typical touristy shot, was just testing my zoom capabilities on the larger lens.

Pretty good for a kit lens.

        Was mesmerised by the water fountain wanting to capture the beads of water falling.

        I love the Lindt Cafe, even though we were still full from lunch with no room for dessert (just yet) I just had to stop by and grab a couple of items to take home.

Love the seal.

        Ohhh I havn't seen these Lindor flavours before - Raspberry and Stracciatella. They were yummy!

        Two macarons for a treat later on - Peach and Strawberry. I love the classic flavours of the Lindt macarons, and the technique/finish is done well, they always looks so perfect and taste pretty perfect too. I'm yet to go back and try out their two new flavours, Salt Caramel and Oliv.

Heading back home, or to Lilyfield on the Tram.

        As Haberfield is on the way home I manage to convince Ryan to stop over at Pasticceria Papa so we can try out what is apparantly Sydney's best cheesecake.

        I fall in love with this cheesecake, served with a bit of cream on the side. The cream is suprisingly sweetened and delicious to eat with the cheesecake. The cheesecake itself is smooth and creamy, perfectly flavoured. The pastry crust is a nice and tasty contrast to the cheese filling. "Oh yeah, it's good" is the murmur that comes out of Ryan's mouth. I almost want to lick the plate.

        We had to try the Ricotta Cannoli too. I'm suprised at how crispy the shell is as we've had a fair few cannoli, some have been good, whereas some were just soft and soggy. The ones from Papa's are awesome. I've always wanted to make my own but these are so good I don't think I would bother. Stopping over at Papa's I think was a fitting end to our day out.

Roast Pumpkin Gnocchi with Sage butter, Celeriac, and Fennel & Italian Spiced Pork Sausages

        So last Friday during our usual "What are we doing tonight" conversation Ryan said he wanted to stay in and cook (seems like all we do now, unless invited to some event). He felt like cooking with pumpkin and was thinking something along the lines of pasta with a pumpkin sauce as we have done before. I wanted to do something a little different and was thinking of attempting to make our own gnocchi and found this recipe for Pumpkin Gnocchi with Sage. It took a little bit of convincing to get Ryan to agree to the recipe, I think he is very fond of his pumpkin sauce.

        The contents of our shopping bags. That block of parmesan is meant to be peccorino, we were going to substitute it but somehow I ended up picking up the parmesan after comparing prices and trying to get the cheaper one.

         While picking up ingredients Ryan said he wanted to try celeriac so we bought one to try out - had no idea what he was going to do with it. But being something we both hadn't tried before I was keen.

        I was thinking we needed some kind of meat/main to go with the gnocchi as a side. Found these Fennel & Italian Spice Pork Sausages which sounded good and would be easy to cook.

        Just absolutely love fresh sage! We used the whole bunch this time, I find that I always overestimate the flavour of the sage and the other flavours always overpower it.

        My chef at work, I just helped with all the prep, cleaning and photo taking =D My battery was on it's last little bit of power though =(.

        Ryan picked up some knife skills during his time working as a waiter, he became friends with the chefs. There would be no way that I would come out unharmed if I was cutting something like this. I'm not very good with a knife at all though I love mum's cmall cleaver which I use for everything.

        Ryan's mum has a habit of collecting odd things around the place, this is pretty weird but cool haha =D. She's also fond of collecting duck themed things.

        So Ryan diced the celeriac and sauteed it with a bit of butter and a sprinkling of the nutmeg and lemon zest which I grated. He was going to make a puree of it but couldn't find the blender anywhere. He leaves it as is and mixes it through the gnocchi later.

        The pumpkin shrank so much after roasting and I was a little worried we wouldn't have enough to make the gnocchi. The recipe did say 500gr of pumpkin and that was more than half a kilo of butternut pumpkin which we bought.

        We (Ryan) mash up the pumpkin with the zest, nutmeg, and parmesan and then mix through the 2 eggs as stated on the recipe (we added one and mixed it through and felt it was a little runny and thought if the recipe said 2 we would add 2 thinking maybe the second egg would thicken the mixture a little).

        Ryan then adds the flour to the pumpkin mixture mixing it through and then turning it out onto the bench to work the flour through. I keep adding flour to it because it looks really wet.

        The gnocchi "dough" reading to be rolled and cut into pieces. Ryad had made regular potato gnocchi before and this was a first for pumpkin gnocchi.

        Ryan makes a few plates of these while I put some water on the boil and clean up.

        I'm in charge of cooking the gnocchi while Ryan finishes rolling and cleaning up the bench. It doesn't rise to the surface as quick as what I am used to when cooking premade gnocchi.

        The little dumplings are a little dense, I have a feeling we probably added too much flour and also overworked it. Ryan looks at me when I say we've put in a little too much flour. They are full of flavour though from the roast pumpkin.

        We just threw these into the oven after roasting the pumpkin while we make the gnocchi. They look a little overbrowned, Ryan was too busy with the gnocchi to keep an eye on them. I was in the other kitchen washing up.

        Ryan does the burnt butter and sage sauce to go with the gnocchi and mixes the diced celeriac through. I go and dump a sausage on a plate waiting for Ryan to finish with the gnocchi and spoon it onto the plate next to the sausage. I got told "Um is that how you're going to do it?", obviously not good enough of presentation for Ryan. Sometimes I get too lazy and by then it was 2 hours later and I was starving so presentation was the last thing on my mind. The only downside was the texture of the gnocchi but I loved all the flavours which made up for it. It was quite an earthy dish with the flavours of pumpkin, celeriac and the fennel in the sausages.

        For dessert I've bought us a treat of peanut butter and stracciatella (cookies & cream) Lindt Lindor balls - I'd actually bought a box of each. My two favourite flavours at the moment.