Glass Brasserie (Hilton Hotel) - A suprise for my birthday lunch, and my birthday weekend

 

        My parents have returned from Vietnam which means my life *somewhat* goes back to normal. With 3 weeks to go until my big overseas trip it's all feeling a little hectic at the moment, finalising stuff for the trip, social events in my calendar every weekend until I go, it's crazy!       

        So it was my birthday a couple of Fridays ago and I took the day off work to spend the day and have lunch with Ryan. The lunch location was kept a suprise and I did my absolute best not to ask too many questions or even try to figure out where we were going (unlike last year). As soon as we were in front of the Hilton Hotel on George Street I knew exactly where we were having lunch.

        Glass Brasserie has been a place I've had my eye on for a while now, though I'm not sure Ryan even knows about my ever growing wish list. It just so happened that Ryan had been wanting to try it out too. It was nice to see owner chef Luke Mangan walking around the restaurant during lunch chatting to guests and just keeping an eye on everything. I was tempted to ask for a photograph but was just too shy to, and I didn't want to intrude on him.

 

        We start off with the complimentary bread, and we do love our bread when it's made well. This bread is seasoned with zaatar (a spice blend) and served with Luke's own brand of extra virgin olive oil. I know shouldn't fill myself up before the food but the bread is so good it's hard not eat it all. I am the most indecisive person when it comes to choosing, especially when there is good food involved. To eliminate the dilemna of constantly changing my mind between dishes I let Ryan take charge of the ordering. 

        We started off with two of the tapas style dishes from the menu to share, the first being the Pan fried goose foie gras, scallop, quince, hazelnuts, spiced bread. It was only small but this piece of foie gras was the most decadent, rich, smooth and silky thing I had eaten. I've had foie gras before but generally it's been more of an element to a dish rather than the main star. It paired perfectly with the scallop, quice and hazelnuts on the side as well as the spiced bread that came with it. It helped to cut through the richness of the foie gras.

        The spiced bread. Ryan called it ginger bread, which in essence it almost did taste like it. And he said it was the best damn ginger bread he had tasted.

        Second dish was the Beef tongue char grilled with four spice, green tomato,  radish & shaved fennel. Ryan and I are not offal lovers but we first had (veal) tongue at District Dining as it was part of a set menu there. It was the most amazing dish we had tried. And this beef tongue at Glass was even more amazing. I've always imagined tongue to be quite tough and chewy, and the thought of even eating tongue just really put me off. The tongue here is cooked beautifully, it's actually quite soft and smooth on the tongue (excuse the pun). I do find it slightly over seasoned but find relief in the garnish that comes with it.

        Ryan suggested we have one of the mains to share, which I happily agreed to. We chose the Roast lamb rack, hay-baked & glazed shoulder, carrots, leeks, green beans, white bean skordali.

        The main was served table side and we had two very friendly waiters looking after us. One was more photogenic than the other.

        That's a plate for one! The servings are absolutely huge, I'm sure there was enough food there to feed four. We probably could have skipped the entrees, but they were a nice start to the meal. The lamb rack was not too fatty and cooked to perfection. The shoulder was just so soft and tender to eat. We enjoyed every little morsel that we could fit in. I absolutely struggled to eat my half but there was no way Ryan was taking my leftovers because he didn't have any room left either.

        Sides Truffled Mash, White Bean Puree. I'm not sure if the truffled mash was suppose to come with the lamb as it wasn't on the menu. We originally did request for it with our mains but were told that we wouldn't need it as the lamb came with plenty of sides. We were so happy to have it though. It was almost like a puree, the most smoothest, silkiest potato puree I've ever had. And I just love the aroma of the truffle oil blended into it. Even better than the mash/puree we had at Quay. I would have been happy eating just a bowl of it. It actually outshone the white bean puree which I thought was nice, but nothing like the potato puree.

        Macarons (spelt macaroons on the menu): Mixed berry, Choc Mint. We really truly did not have room for a full blown dessert. But I managed to talk Ryan into getting a couple of macarons, as they are our weakness. We were a left disappointed though as the shells were a little on the too hard side for our liking. The choc mint was okay flavour wise but the mixed berry filling was just way too sweet.

        The stunning interior of the resturant. This photo doesn't really capture the essence of the dining space, you'll just have to have a look for yourself ;) After lunch we walked (rolled) down to Event Cinemas on George Street and watched Kung Fu Panda 2 (and we actually watched the first one with some friends for my birthday the year it was released). I absolutely loved it as much as I loved the first one.

        On Saturday, Ryan offered to cook up a feast for me to celebrate with some friends. I did come over early to give him a hand, and there was alot to do.

        There were two legs of lamb, which he roasted with some garlic and rosemary. Even though they were a little raw in the middle when it came time to carve them, they were delicious (nothing a frying pan can't fix). There was also a saffron cashew sauce that went with the lamb (no photo). Everyone loved the sauce.

        Roasted winter vegetables - pumpkin, swedes, celeriac and shallots. They could have done with a few more minutes in the oven too, dear boyfriend underestimated his time and everyone was getting hungry and anxious with anticipation too which didn't really help.

        One thing that can't really go wrong. Ryan made truffled mash and even went and bought real (brined) truffles to mix through it. He surely knows my weakness.

        To top off the night - best ever ricotta cheesecake in Sydney! And everyone agreed after they had a taste. I had to go to  Pasticceria Papa at Haberfield in the morning to pick up my own birthday cake because Ryan was too busy to ;). He had actually wanted to make dessert but seeing as it wasn't his specialty he thought he would take the safe option. It had actually been a long while since we've had this cheesecake so a birthday was a great excuse to indulge. I also served up some macarons I had made a few days earlier. It was a great night, spent with some great food and great company.

        On Sunday I cooked up a feast for my family but didn't take any pics apart from this one of my dessert stand. We had nem (thanks to Mum's frozen stash), sausages, buffalo wings, pork ribs, salt and pepper calamari, roast potatoes, garden salad, and garlic fried rice. Plenty of leftovers but it was all put to good use the next day with my parents and also Ryan's parents being overseas. For dessert I had chocolate dipped vanilla profiteroles and cinnamon & milk chocolate macarons. I also decided to make use of the Christmas present Ryan's mum gave me - the cake stand.

        And just when I thought birthday festivities were over I return to work on Monday and have a morning and an afternoon tea (both with cake!) organised for me. Turning 27 this year wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be. And it has and will be a great year ahead, I just know it =).

Warm Gnocchi Salad, Pulled Pork Tacos & Brazo De Mercedes - A wonderfully long lunch & a catch up with family

        Ryan and his cousin Dieter were close as kids, but as most kids do, they grow up and grow apart. Now that they are both adults they don't really see each other much and the only times we've ever seen him have been at birthday gatherings and funerals in the family. I think Ryan sees my cousins more than he sees his own. At the last few meet ups Ryan and Dieter kept saying 'we'll catch up sometime' or 'come over to my place and we'll have a BBQ' but then time passes by and being the laid back guys they are nothing really happens. So one day I sent a message to Dieter to get the ball rolling and we organised a catch up between the cousins (and partners too of course).

        Unfortunately Dieter's brother and his partner couldn't make lunch and Ryan's brother was hung over so it was just the four of us for lunch. The facebook invitiation did say BBQ but this was no ordinary BBQ with steaks and snags because we were lunching with two like minded food lovers. And it was an absolutely gorgeous Saturday for a long lazy lunch.

 

        Ryan and I turned up at Dieter and Alex's place with our hands full with our contributions to lunch. Ryan's dish was a warm gnocchi salad. I helped Ryan prepare his salad at my place and he rolled and cooked the gnocchi when we got there. He actually made the gnocchi dough the night before with my help (we had some for dinner) and made plenty enough to have with the salad and then some (we finished off what was left of the gnocchi again that night for dinner).

        Ryan has been experimenting recently and I think he has the got gnocchi making process spot on perfect. I am yet to get perfect little dumplings on my own (we do work better in pairs though.) You can follow recipes and read about gnocchi making as much as you can but it all comes down to hands on practice/experience, and learning to get the 'feel' for when it's right. Once you eat the little soft fluffy pillows of potato that are perfectly hand made and cooked gnocchi you will never want to go back to the packet stuff again. So it's quite disappointing when restaurants get the home made stuff wrong.

        Dieter and Alex have a Labrador called Oscar or 'Ozzy'. He is just absolutely gorgeous! But always seems to be in the way though.

        Ozzy also has a love for food just like his owners. Anything that dropped on the floor was quickly snatched up by him so you didn't really get a chance to sweep it up. We were told that recently he had to go on a diet because he was just getting too fat. Sounds like me ;).

        Dieter was cooking up some pulled pork for our lunch on his 'big green egg' bbq and let's me have a sticky beak (and to also check on it).

He also made some soft tacos for the pulled pork.

        The pork needs a bit more cooking time so we decide to have Ryan's salad first as our first course since it's ready (and because we were all getting a little hungry and it was getting late). The salad includes spinach, mushroom, nashi pear (my little addition), baby bocconcini, fried haloumi and Ryan's pan fried gnocchi. The salad dressing is a mixture of olive oil, lemon juice, dijon mustard and truffle oil. The idea came from a recipe he found but was adapted to our taste. Everything worked well in this salad, all the flavours really combined well and there were the different textures, oh and fried haloumi!. Dieter and Alex had nothing but praise for Ryan's salad =).

After the salad Dieter makes the tacos to go with our second course.

Ryan helps him cook them while D rolls out the dough.

        This little clay pot belonged to Alex's grandmother and apparantly has been sitting on the shelf unused because they didn't know what to do with it, until now - great thinking D!

        The pork is ready! Well as ready as can be because we needed (wanted) to eat it. D explains that he slept in so wasn't able to get it cooking as long as he wanted to and had to cook it on a higher heat to get it cooked in time for lunch which resulted in a slightly drier and firmer meat than he had liked it to be. 'That's okay, there's always next time' I tell him. And I'm counting on it! ;) Ryan and I wouldn't have known any better, we absolutely loved it.

Mmm we get a bit of crispy crackling as he pulls the pork apart.

Porky goodness!

The pork is drizzled in a little of the fat to help keep it moist.

        The pork is served with a huge variety of Korean side dishes and oysters a la momofuku bo ssam style. It's my first time eating pulled pork, and bo ssam.

Soft Taco 'shells' in the pot.

        Looking at this has got my mouth salivating now... There was no real order as in how you were suppose to eat this. A little bit of this, a little bit of that, some pulled pork, an oyster, sauce and wrap it up and take a bite. My hand was dripping in deliciousness pouring out from my little wraps. The pork was perfectly seasoned and the small bits of chopped crackling added a textural sensation when added with the other sides. You had sweet, savoury, tangy, all in one bite.

        And look at who wants in. Apparantly when he begs for food he'll come up and put his head in your lap. We're instructed to push him away with our elbows and tell him 'No'. I felt his head in my lap a couple of times.

        We help them clean up (and let out stomachs digest) before we dig into dessert. I made a Filipino dessert called Brazo De Mercedes, which is a meringue roll filled with egg yolk custard. I've made it once before but didn't do it justice so will do another post with my recent much better attempt. Alex offers us a whole range of teas to choose from which made me feel so spoilt (most households only have one or two tea choices or sometimes no choice apart from just 'tea'). I chose an Almond tea (which I think was the Twinnings brand) and it was delish, especially with my dessert. We are all absolutely stuffed but absolutely satisfied by the end of our lunch - epic food coma (for me anyway). Wish I had taken more (better) photos, but I just enjoyed standing around chatting, watching food being prepared, admiring the house, playing with their dog. 

       

        I am so glad that I had part in organising such a great lunch. It's funny how food brings people together, alot of our conversation did surround food, but it was just so natural, and you could just tell that we were food lovers as there was just so much passion in the conversation (and the fact that Dieter and I kept whipping out our cameras to take photos of the food). We did talk about other things too but things always came back to one topic ;). Ryan and I couldn't stop talking about the lunch for the rest of the weekend. It was just such great food, great company, and their house was absolutely gorgeous and so homey and inviting. It was just good to be on the other end of the meal, the one not hosting and cooking everything and then cleaning everything up afterwards. There was something about that afternoon that I can't quite find the right words to describe (I'm a crappy writer) but Ryan totally understands how I feel. It was just awesome. Thank you Dieter and Alex for having us over! We're definately looking forward to the next time we catch up again.

Pasta with Prawns, King Brown Mushroom & Capers - Ryan Cooks (and Bakes!) and a Double Rainbow

        So it's Friday night, we've spent all day out and about so it's time to chill out at home, hmm what's for dinner? It's the month of Lent and Ryan has decided to go meat free on Fridays. Mum had cooked fish for dinner but there wasn't quite enough for both of us to eat too (she always expects that we'll cook our own or will be going out for dinner).

       So into the fridge and freezer I go, seeing what we could use to cook with. Pasta is always a pantry staple, and we almost always have prawns in the freezer and I was in luck that there were just enough prawns left for us to use. These two ingredients are always a winning combo. I had some capers left from when I made my pan fried fish with salsa and pea puree and I also spotted a tray of Oyster mushrooms and King Brown mushrooms so we decided to throw in one of the King Brown's. Some other fridge staples like garlic, chilli and white wine and we have ourselves a very tasty sounding pasta dish for dinner.

        I let Ryan take care of dinner because I had decided that I wanted to make macarons so needed to to all my prep so I could make them after dinner.

        While Ryan is cooking I notice that there is a huge rainbow right outside. I run out and see that it's a full length rainbow, and it's a double rainbow!

        I ran in to grab my camera but by the time I came out the clouds already started to come rolling in and the rainbow was slowly disappearing. I could still see both ends of the rainbow but unfortunately my camera wasn't capable of capturing it.

        My brother notices that the sky is glowing a bright amber in the direction of the sun setting. There is a really eerie feel in the air, reminds me of when we had the dust storm that made the skies red. The rainbow has faded into the clouds so I return back to the kitchen and dinner is almost ready.

        I can't give you an exact recipe for this (because I can't remember exactly how much we used and what we did) but I'll give a list of ingredients and basic instructions which should help inspire you to recreate it if it takes your fancy. Vary the amounts according to your own taste. This is what Ryan and I have labelled as cooking by instinct. We have a general idea of what flavours work well and we 'wing it'. Most of the time dishes made this way turn out really well for us. We were a little heavy handed on the chilli (even without the seeds there was quite a bit of heat), but other than that it was a tasty flavourful pasta dish. The capers really lifted the dish and gave it a bit of zing. The King Brown mushroom added sweetness while the prawns provided the savoury element. It was a well rounded dish in terms of flavours and textures, exactly my kind of dish.

Ryan and Angie's Pasta with Prawns, King Brown Mushroom & Capers

Ingredients:

• Dried spaghetti (or any type of pasta), half a pack
• Shelled prawns approximately 300grams
• Handful of capers in brine
• 1 King Brown mushroom, sliced
• 1 Chilli, finely chopped
• 2 cloves of Garlic, finely chopped
• White Wine, approximately 1/4 cup
• Olive Oil
• Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Cook pasta and drain.

2. Heat oil in a frying pan and cook the prawns, remove from the pan.

3. Return pan to the heat and add mushroom, garlic and chilli and brown.

4. Pour in the white wine and let it boil to evaporate the alcohol.

5. Add the pasta, prawns and capers to the pan and toss well. Season with salt and pepper.

6. Serve with a splash of lemon juice - enjoy!

        After dinner I attempted to make my macarons. I was trying out a new recipe and technique (from a blog I'd found that guaranteed to break the 10 myths of macaron making). I also realised that Ryan has never ever seen me make macarons before this (but has always been a happy taster and critic of them). He watches me make the batter and when I offer him the piping bag he declines but then decided to have a go at piping them in the end. Not a bad job for a first timer! He ends up piping most of the batter for me except for the last tray which I end up doing.

        Unfortunately my macarons did not turn out, they didn't cook through properly and were cracked on the surface. I've been trying to experiment and make a manuka honey macaron shell and this being my second time (with manuka honey), was also a failure. The first time I used manuka honey I tried an italian meringue recipe and that didn't work so I thought that this supposedly fail proof recipe/method would help me achieve my goal but alas this one gave me a failed batch of macarons too.

        Ryan and I have concluded that perhaps honey changes the characteristics of the batter hence ruinging the macarons. I bake them longer and on a higher heat to turn them into delicious little honey meringue cookies. I tried the same recipe/method again the next day (without honey) but get the same results so it could possibly be that I was doing a few things wrong, like undermixing the egg white and almond meal mixture. I also think I may have cooked them on too high of a heat and then when I turned the heat down a little, I probably needed to cook them for longer.

        I've made okay macarons before but being the perfectionist that I am have never thought that they were good enough so am always trying to improve them. I might just resort back to the original recipe I've used as a guide, at last I know it gives me results (even if I don't think my macarons are perfect enough yet).

Steak with Mushroom Red Wine Sauce, Sweet Corn Puree & Duck Fat Chips - Ryan Cooks

        It's been a while since Ryan has cooked for me and even longer since I've posted about him doing so. The last post on Ryan cooking was when he made the loin of lamb with broad beans. It's nice to know he doesn't need some overcomercialised day in the calendar to spoil me ;). He's working tonight anyway so there is no romantic dinner for two or anything 'special'. We did catch up for afternoon tea before he went to work as we usually would, and watched all the male species of the world queue up at the florist for last minute roses/flowers.

        I did bake him some cupcakes as a 'Valentine' present yesterday. I would have baked them either way just to cheer him up a bit from the weekend's events. Oh and to think I knew everything there was to know after 10 and a half years, I only recently discovered his favourite cake as a kid was banana cake, especially the cream cheese frosting. No wonder he absolutely demolished my hummingbird cake! So I whipped up a batch of banana cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and had some frosted especially for him. He absolutely loved them! =)

        If you've followed me for a while you'll know that I love watching Ryan in the kitchen. Look at the concentration =). I had absolutely no idea what he was going to cook for me before he showed up at my place a few weeks ago. He just said 'beef'. I spied Matt Moran's book which I bought for him in his car on the weekend, which I can safely assume is where he got his inspiration from (he would have taken it to go shopping with).

        I thought I would get away without having to lift a finger in the kitchen but I have to help him peel the potatoes. The peeler which we use at home is not to his liking, but it's one that I am used to using.

Lurveee sweet corn!

        Cooking the corn in milk and cream, was wondering what the white streaks are in the top left corner and realised I must have taken this while he was seasoning it with salt =D.

        He wanted to make some fat chips and I remembered that I had some duck fat in the freezer (saved from when I made duck a l'orange (backlogged post) so I pulled it out so he could fry the potatoes in it.

Blender, best kitchen applicance next to the food processer.

Ryan frying the fat chips in the duck fat - YUMM.

Steaks resting.

Mmm corn puree!

He makes a mushroom and red wine sauce to go with the steak.

And dinner is served!

        The steak was nice and pink. Ryan said he was a little disappointed by the quality of the steaks he was given at the local butchers but I was totally happy with it. I loved all the flavours on the plate.

        The potato chips were really tasty straight out of the pan but quickly lost their crispiness. He was meant to finish them off in the oven but we ran out of time - too hungry to wait!

        Being a pair of sweet tooth's that we are we got the munchies later that night so decided to whip up some dessert. I've had a hankering for a souffle for a while and was about to give up when I discovered my electric beater had still not been returned but Ryan volunteered to whisk the egg whites by hand. It was all very impromptu and made up as we went along but I can say that we had Nutella and corn infused cream/milk (from the corn puree) in this souffle (was originally meant to be white chocolate & grand marnier, but the white chocolate didnt melt properly and we actually ran out of milk).

        It turned out to be the most spectacular looking souffle that we have made so far and the flavour of it, well I can say it was very interesting. It was not too sweet, and a little nutty according to Ryan. The souffle stood for what seemed like forever before it started deflating ever so slowly. We were mightly impressed, and even did a bit of a high five =D.