Nick [Santa] Haddow lives on Bruny Island

Xmas came early this year. Nick Haddow and his industrious little elves from the Bruny Island Cheese company sent us this little box of bliss this week.
Five extraordinary cheeses.

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Diane and I sat down after work to explore this true artisan statement, but where to start…

1792 is the date that the French first set foot on Tasmanian soil. This cheese presented on a sliver of Huon pine filled the room with a vintage aroma that permeated our consciousness as we devoured its unctuous interior.
The inevitable question popped up, much discussed when the wine and the cheese give you that Gallic groove.

What if the French got established here first and stayed? Mmmm
Nick comes from an alternate cheese universe and 1792 is a key to the portal The link is bellow.

The next night we had a visit from cheese Gabriel named for the Angel messenger [Nick’s nomenclature is pure Haddow]
The milk comes from a herd of Toutenberg goats that graze high above the Huon valley. This cheese was alive and Gabriel’s message was clear. The box needed Norman Lindsay’s magical pudding spell cast upon it. More please.

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Then came the Penny Dropping moment His name is C2 or C squared a Slow cheese traveling at the speed of light?
This will change the way cheese is made in this country forever.
[ask Nick to explain]

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The following night in this scheherezade of cheese was for the Bastard. Half ewe’s milk half cow’s milk. And what a bastard it is when it was finished!

TOM and half a bottle of Farr’s Sangreal Pinot left over from the bytheglass stash will complete the set.

Tardis! take us to Bruny Island.

Click below

http://www.brunyislandcheese.com.au/

Is It Really A Restaurant?

Just back from Melbourne with a new jamon.

The menus at Sunnybrae are a slow evolving process based on the garden the market and whatever else happens to come in the back door of the kitchen.
I like to get ham, or indeed any meats at all, on the bone. When a ham is boned or vacuum packed I feel that some of the life and lots of the flavour seems to disappear into the ether.
The bread will be made with fresh local potatoes and about a third wholemeal spelt and Lauke Euro unbleached bakers flour. The potato gives a moist but light texture and the combination of flours allow for a thin but crisp crust.

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The market provides a few new ingredients that may eventually make it on the menu. I found these extraordinary conch shells, they are alive, affordable and have sparked a curiosity: so a little experimentation is on the cards for staff lunch tomorrow. I have never cooked them before but the techniques for abalone may work? Any hints? I have a love of parsnips and have lately been making a veloute style soup with mussels from Portarlington. It’s a simple soup but care must be taken to get really young parsnips and to remove the hard core before cooking. The freshly cooked mussel-water gives the soup a wonderful depth of flavour.

Miner's lettuce from the garden will marry with radish as an accompaniment to the ham.

There are finally enough artichokes to think about a new dish. There is also enough asparagus to put them on as a set entrée. I will pair them with some shaved fennel and a few aromatics.
The main course will be young new season’s lamb that has been hung and dry aged for 21 days and slowly roasted in the wood oven. Leo Donati has hung it for me as I have found it hard to rely on the local suppliers to do the right thing. Ironically Leo gets his lamb from Herd’s from around here.
Roasting in front of a fire in a masonry oven is what roasting should be.

A closed oven is baking, quite different. The trick is to bake the bread then re-light the fire and get the temperature and timing right for the meats to be properly roasted and rested just when they are needed. That’s the joy of cooking in your own space. The set main course is always the one that we think fits into the whole 5 courses to best advantage. But there will also be choices for those that wish to stray… the simple dishes like plain fresh fish and grills you can always take for granted but for the non- conformists there will be rabbit, duck, Cotechino and a few special vegetarian choices

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The garden is still very sparse but we have lots of sorell, some really great crossbred self seeded broccoli, lots of baby cos lettuce and radicchio, green garlic, rhubarb. The lovage has come back with a vengeance and I can see that the French tarragon has erupted in leaf again back from its winter hibernation. The spiced morello cherries will find a spot near the charcuterie.

Our soft dried tomatoes are nearly finished but the oil that they have been stored in will make a fine dressing [no I will not make a gelato from it, possibly in summer] but there is still an abundance of our sauce that seems to have been neglected in the larder. Our own dried prunes are running out as is the white peach Bellini mix for sorbet but the peach tree is again in flower.
All the scraps from the great truffle kerfuffle are stashed in our honey so the panna cotta will be dressed in mourning suits this week.

The menu is like a big sodoku or jigsaw each week to get the balance and flavours just right.
Tomorrow is for stocks, cleaning, pre-prep and more menu planning, Friday is all day picking, prep and final ring around for the fish and other seafood. The menu for the weekend is always written on Saturday morning just in case that kilo of morels just happens to materialise.
Sat and Sunday: all day with prep and service, Monday class or the garden.

But hey, don’t you just do two days a week?

GO CATS.

Balladonia Blues or The Whore's Pasta

For the start of the story

click Below http://sunnybraerestaurantandcookingschool.blogspot.com/search/label/Angelos%20sauce%20or%20how%20to%20cook%20Spaghetti%20Bolognese

Take Two

Balladonia Blues or The Whore’s Pasta

Woke up to the sound of pots rattling in the kitchen next to my room and realised that I was still in Kalgoorlie and out of a job.
Angelo and the publican had given me three days’ grace in the staff digs at Hannan’s, just enough time for the circus to get to town.
She had left a note by the bed six months before in Carlton.
A short classic: “gone to join the circus”
Circus Oz was quietly germinating from the ashes of the Pram Factory. This new performance art was to be physical; a circus without animals, left of centre, proudly Australian. The players needed to pay their dues and learn the ropes so she had joined the big-top at Circus Royale and hit the road. Thirty or so years later she would be setting up the now magnificent circus school at Swinburne Uni in Prahran.
Meanwhile a brave new restaurant scene was emerging in Melbourne from under the red velvet corset of a dozen pregnant reptilertaurants. The labour was going to be long and painful.
We were a disparate bunch of upstart cooks and waiters. The common cause was to liberate a few kitchens and dining rooms from the stranglehold of thick starchy liaisons, frozen muck served by bow-tied blokes with bad fake Franco- Latin accents. We already had our mentors. Bilson had left his mark at the Albion, Mietta and Tony had begun their journey. Hermann was at his peak.
We dreamed of eventually opening a place in the country with a big vegetable garden and in the meantime planted shallots (and other unobtainable vegetables and herbs) in the backyards of our shared household digs.
Jeremy our leader  had a good year at the track and found a café for sale in Carlton less than 500 metres from Jack Canals seafood store.Bruce came on board and I was given the back room upstairs as the live in second cook. The fit-out was serious Austin Powers and we loved it. We could lightly send up the flocked wallpaper, cull the Victoriana and eventually add a coolroom to the tiny but well–set-up kitchen. We also added a private dining room, spruced up with an original French Degue egg chandelier and a killer deco dining suite that was pure Rhullman in Queensland maple and ebonised blackwood. It was so big that the architect owner had nowhere to put it and was dead-set on building a room next to his studio especially for it.
We could have it till he got his act together.
I bought two paintings from Barry Humphries via the High St dealers that had originally hung in the cocktail lounge of the Menzies Hotel and suddenly the industry began to come. The room had the X factor in spades.
We cooked postcards from China, veal, eggplants, giant live bugs cost fifty cents a kilo. Mains cost $3. We gave away the mineral water, wokked the vegetables and flirted with Asia. Jeremy had worked in a good grill in New York, I had had a week in a kitchen in Rabaul, Bruce was just a natural. It was a crime of passion.
Downes reviewed us after a tip off from Aiton and then la merde really hit le ventilateur. Booked solid for three months after a month’s trading. No one was prepared for the rush. We were making it up day by day. The plonge, just out of the nick, was in love with the Persian princess. The boss had come down with a mystery virus and was often confined to bed; the band next door didn’t know it but they were soon to be initialized. XS was the name of the game. Sunday lunches morphed from the after party at Trotters.

After 9 months it was time to hit the road.

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Highwire and I were still mates, good mates I had the farewell note somewhere in the swag. The posters around Kalgoorlie declared Circus Royale was about to hit the goldfields.
After the caravans had tented up near the footy field I heard she had bailed out at Balladonia for a better offer. It would take another two years, an island, a crossword and a big cray before our paths would cross again.
My second encounter with Balladonia that day was at the dole shop. The notice said: “Grill Cook Wanted accommodation and transport into the site provided. Balladonia Roadhouse”.

I really wanted to see the desert.

The roadhouse was well-named, about as sad as any roadhouse could be. Small cold caravans for the kitchen staff next to the generator that kept the complete food supply deep-frozen and the staff awake all night.
We fried stuff, grilled stuff, sang a lot of songs into the morning watching the satellites and meteorites over the desert sky. All children of the road in a time when hitchhiking across the Nullarbor was a safe and wonderful adventure. Then the order came into the kitchen. Table five are all vegetarians!
Now that was quite an order from this room as most of the stuff we cooked was some sort of cryogenically held animal protein fried into next week or grilled beyond recognition straight from the freezer. But one look into the room told us these guys were serious oids. We asked them if they ate anchovies and proceeded to cook them the whore’s pasta, our usual staff dinner.
After service we saw their rigs-- Joe Cocker’s Band. It was in a time when semis carried the gear on the road, Joe and the band flew. The roadies were really roadies.
They took us to Fremantle, we thought we were off to Africa..


Pasta Puttanesca or The Whores’ Pasta

This classic store cupboard pasta sauce has its origins in the red light district of Trastevere Rome. The name puttana means prostitute.

Two rules:It has to be prepared in the time it takes the water to boil.And

No cheese is served with it.

Peeled tomatoes, black olives, anchovy fillets or better still saltedsardines (rinsed), capers, garlic, parsley, a pungent extra virgin olive oil, dried chillies.

You don’t need the quantities. The method would only confuse you, but start with the oil.

I like it with very fine aldente spaghetti with all the ingredients cut very small.

For the Authentic Gonzo Instruction video click below.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKUkmYM4Lhk

Stephanies Kitchen Garden Charity Auction

Sunnybrae is pleased to be involved with Stephanie's Kitchen Garden Week charity auction. You can bid online at the link below for a table at many of Victoria's best restaurants.

Our enticement is a table for 6 on October 11th or 12th all bids go directly to the Kitchen garden Foundation.

Our partner school is Teesdale Primary School

and they will be making a visit to our garden in the next few days to bake pizze as well as picking all the ingredients for a special lunch.

I will also be making trips to the school to work with the students in their own garden and kitchen.

No sermons needed, whereever you go during this week it will help to make a great difference.

Details and bidding on the link below.

http://www.kitchengardenfoundation.org.au/

Accommodation near to Sunnybrae

There are many fine hideaways, bed and breakfasts cottages and private houses available for short stays in the district. Most can be found at http://www.birregurra.com/ where all fine details are available. If unsure please ring and we can guide you further.
Here’s a short list from the closest to the furthest but still close enough to walk, within say a 2km radius from the restaurant. Most places will drive you to the restaurant and we can certainly drive you back to where you are staying. I have also included Tarndwarcoort  which is about 8 km from Sunnybrae.

We can also drive you back to the railway station if you came on the train.... check the timetables.

Butlers Guest House

5236 2116 Jenny and Ross Fox

In Birregurra, a converted hospital, sleeps up to 16, home theatre [cinema no operations], big lounge for after lunch get-togethers and dinners. Great for bigger groups. Self Contained and Band B

Link http://www.butlersguesthouse.com.au/


...

68 Main Street

... Tony Wheeler 52362004

Very stylish modern renovated cottage next to and with access to, the owner’s exceptional gardens ‘Graton’.
Graham and Tony open the garden each year in the Victorian Open Garden Scheme. Cottage has all mod-cons short walk in to Birre.
Self Contained.
Link http://www.graton.com.au/

Elliminook

. Peter and Jill Falkiner 52362080

National Trust listed heritage Bed and Breakfast, all en-suites, historic details, magnificent gardens. Link http://www.elliminook.com.au/





Birregurra Escape

A new hideaway about 3km from Sunnybrae. Mod Eco house complete privacy. Relaxed modern design, fruit trees, like a home away from home. Young Melbourne owners opening up their own bolthole to you.

 
Bicycles to get to lunch or explre the area. Very Cool......  

• Tim Riley: 0407 846 965  timykriley@hotmail.com
• Craig Robertson: 0434 149 783  craig.b.robertson@gmail.com

Details here 

Tarndwarncoort Homestead

Tarndwarncoort Homestead, 170 year old Dennis family home, is now available for family groups, associations, wedding or other any special occasion. Tarndwarcoort is about 5km from Sunnybrae.


Tarndwarncoort homestead accommodates up to thirteen people. The seven bedrooms consist of 1 king, 3 double, 2 twin & 1 single. Historic dinning room, refurbished bathrooms, comfortable den and two relaxing sitting rooms

Tarndwarncoort cottage price from $39 to $66 per person per night. Discounts for three or more nights stay & woolcrafters. Guest receive a complimentary breakfast basket & voucher to Birre Cafe, Birregurra for 2 or more nights stay. price on application. Tarndwarncoort Homestead, 170 year old Dennis family home, is now available for family groups, associations, wedding or other any special occasion price on application. Tarndwarcoort is about 8km from Sunnybrae.
Website http://www.tarndwarncoort.com/
Ph:- 0458 493 363

Contact:homestead.australia@bigpond.com

Ph:- 0458 493 363

Asparagusta!

The first asparagus in our garden always gets away.

As the weather warms a vigilant eye is cast on the well-mulched bed that hides this herald of spring, but each year the first spears, cheeky and defiant shoot early as if to say ‘catch me if you can’. They grow at such a rate that if not picked within a day or so their real sweetness and tenderness is easily lost.
Asparagus is truly a vegetable where size does matter. None of your baby this and baby that, thick fat asparagus is prized. So much so that all the first grade product is exported. The marketing spin-doctors have even tried to sell us the idea that scrawny thin spears are the go.
Sometimes really fat asparagus is in the market at a very good price but you will notice a little bend at the top…rejected from export. Second grade but still wonderful. Look for tight young heads that have not started to open at all.
To start a bed you can buy two year old crowns but it will take another two seasons before it really starts to thicken up. But then, if you take care, the bed will keep you and your friends in fat tumescent spears for more than a decade.
Then you are faced with a different problem.
White? green? purple? or wild?
Do you eat them with butter or oil? Vinaigrette or Hollandaise? Grilled or poached? Soup or salad?
Whichever method you choose will have one thing in common- speed. They cook very quickly. Some cookbooks tell you to snap the top from the base and they will break at the point where they begin to be tender. I am a little greedier and cut them lower and peel the base of the stalk. Not only do you get more but also they will cook evenly and the top and button will be equally tender cooking at the same time. No need to tie them in bundles and cook them standing up in the pot.

White asparagus is prized by some; it is grown in deep mulch.
Thick white asparagus has to be peeled all the way as the skin can be very stringy. The purple is exceptionally tasty but turns green on cooking. Wild asparagus is usually an escapee from an old vegetable garden. I have only seen it in one spot around here near the old disused railway line that used to haul the logs to Birregurra from the Otways. It has a small tip is quite thin but has a wonderful strong flavour that only wild produce can give.
Asparagus goes well with eggs, cheeses like a Heidi Gruyere or Raclette.

But for me the best way to enjoy them is with a simple dressing. Butter with a touch of lemon? Olive oil? a touch of vinegar, sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Nothing to prove just great home grown ingredients simply served.

The broad beans are not far away!

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