Food July 2017

Question 1

Sesame scorched oyster, salt & vinegar cracker

Answer 1

Freshly shucked Pacific oysters.
Sesame oil & oyster in a white hot pan for 10 seconds, the oyster is warm, still raw. Cracker – fried sesame rice cracker, seasoned with bamboo salt (salt has been triple baked in bamboo pipes to purify salt, product from Korea) & vinegar powder. Spring onion relish – spring onions & salt chopped together seasoned with sesame oil

NF, EF, DF, GaF, GF

Question 2

Tempura Lakes Entrance Tails, salt & vinegar sesame

Answer 2

Lakes Entrance Bugs – a type of Slippery Lobster closely related to the Rock Lobster. Lakes Entrance is situated approximately 320 kilometres east of Melbourne.
The bug meat has been lightly brined in a salt solution for 20 minutes.
The bug is then battered in Tempura batter (corn flour, soda water, plain flour)
Served with Yuzu Mayo - whisk egg yolks over a Bain Marie adding yuzu juice & emulsify with olive oil, white soy & mirin (like a Hollandaise sauce) topped with mixed coloured sesame seeds.

NF, DF, GaF

Question 3

Spicy Lamb Buns, Szechuan pickled cucumber

Answer 3

Buns – from ‘the Pastry Lounge’ (flour, water & yeast)
Lamb - Lamb shoulder cooked on the bone from Great Southern (Victoria)
Slow roasted with thyme & olive oil for 12hrs @ 85°c.
Shredded then mixed with spicy hoisin – shallots, chilli, Shaoxing, hoisin, soy, vinegar & sesame oil.
Szechuan pickled cucumber – water, vinegar, light soy, sugar, sesame oil, Szechuan peppercorns, shiitake, chillies, ginger & garlic. Compressed in vacuum pack.

EF, NF, SF, DF

Question 4

Greenvale Farm capocollo, pickled cucumber & crisp bread

Answer 4

Capocollo - a traditional Italian pork cold cut made from the dry-cured muscle running from the necks to the 4th or 5th rib of the pork.
Pickled cucumber – Lebanese cucumber pickled under pressure. Cucumber and their peels put in cryovac bag with pickling liquid 3-2-1 (vinegar, salt, sugar and water). Served with house made crisp flat bread.

NF, EF, GaF, FF, SF, DF

Question 5

Crispy Turnip Cakes, Spring onion, Ginger Dipping Sauce

Answer 5

Turnip cake – grated daikon & onion covered with seasoned boiling water & left to steep for 2 hrs, drained & mixed with sautéed rehydrated shitake & spring onions. Mixed with rice flour, Shaoxing wine, black vinegar & sugar to a porridge consistency & steamed for 1 ½ hrs. Sauce - boil black vinegar, white sugar, salt. Add Fresh spring onion whites & grated ginger & Tears of Dragon. Cake cut into squares, deep fired to order, 4 pieces per serve.

EF, DF, GF, SF, GaF

Question 6

Candied Pork, Pickled Papaya & Red Nam Jim

Answer 6

Pork Belly - Cured in brine (water, white pepper, salt, garlic, liquorice root, mandarin peel & ginger)
Confit in Szechuan duck fat for 9hrs @ 95°c, this process renders out the fat. Fried to make the outside crispy then boiled in bitter sweet caramel (palm sugar, chicken stock, star anise & fish sauce)
Nam Jim – red chilli, garlic, coriander root, palm sugar – blended, seasoned with lime juice & fish sauce.
Papaya Salad – green papaya shredded, pickled in vinegar, water & red chilli, mixed with Taxi herbs & topped with toasted coconut.

NF, EF, DF, GF, SF

Question 7

Warm soba noodles, scorched garlic stems, broad beans, enoki, kombu dashi

Answer 7

Soba Noodle - Japanese thin noodles made from Buckwheat flour (Not related to wheat and they are gluten free) served with scorched garlic stems, enoki mushrooms. Garnished with spring onion.
Kombu Dashi Stock – rehydrated kombu and shallots added to water, brought to 80°c. When cooled, seasoned with sake, mirin & soy sauce.

DF, NF, EF, SF, vegan

Question 8

Willow Zen egg, pork & barley congee, snipped nori

Answer 8

Willow Zen egg – Open Pasture eggs grown on the rolling hills of Willow Grove, Gippsland. Only 130 hens per hectare. Eggs are cooked as ‘son-in-law’ which is firstly soft boiled and then fried.
Pork & barley congee – Barley are cooked in pork stock which is pork belly, sake, mirin, soy sauce, kombu, chicken stock, sticky rice, daikon and spring onion all cooked together for an hour and then strained.
Garnished with spring onion, snipped nori, shredded pork and first press sesame oil.

NF, SF, DF

Question 9

Kingfish, Pickled Daikon, Ponzu Jelly, Shiso & Toasted Sesame

Answer 9

Hiramasa Kingfish a natural inhabitant of the cold, crystal clear, clean water of the Spencer Gulf off the Eyre Peninsula in SA. Renowned as a superb sashimi fish with delicate texture & fresh, sweet, clean flavour.
Ponzu Jelly – Ponzu Sauce (a citrus-based sauce commonly used in Japanese cuisine) dark soy, yuzu juice, lemon & orange juice, rice vinegar, sugar, Kombu, Bonito (a staple in Japanese Cuisine made from dried, fermented, shaved fish) and mirin. Then added to gelatine to make the Ponzu Jelly cubes.
Spring onion oil – white part of onion roasted in a pan, oil added and left to infuse.
Daikon – (A long white crunchy vegetable from the radish family, light peppery flavour) shaved into ribbons and pickled in cry vac.
Shiso – (the more widely used name of the Asian culinary herb Perilla, belonging to the mint family) leaves have been fried. Garnished with spring onion curls and lightly toasted sesame seeds.

NF, EF, SF, DF, GaF

Question 10

OX tail & shiitake ragu, capunti, red wine shallots, toasted almonds

Answer 10

Capunti – short, oval pasta resembling an open empty peapod—comes from Puglia. Flour, water, salt.
Ox tail & shiitake ragu – Ox tail is marinated in red wine and mire poix for 2 days. The marinate is then reduced and added chicken stock, and braised for 3 to 5 hours. The meat is taken off the bones. The stock is reduced and added cut up daikon. Shiitake is sautéed with black vinegar and added later on.
Red wine shallots – fine diced shallots covered in red wine vinegar and cooked until dry.
Toasted almonds – mixed with sesame seeds (black & white), dried shiso, dried sansho pepper (Japanese prickly ash, packed with citrus flavour and a tongue numbing tingle), dried orange zest and dried miso.

SF, DF, EF

Question 11

Rare seared Tuna, Pickled Ginger, mint, wasabi, shichimi pepper

Answer 11

Tuna Back Loin -Sake and mirin boiled till the alcohol is cooked off. Tuna is then cured in sake and mirin, light & white soy - for 12hrs. It is then dunked into boiling hot water which seals the marinade in. Served with
Cucumber, Daikon & Pickled Ginger Salad
Cucumber Ribbons, White Pickled Ginger, Pickled Daikon, Black Sesame Seeds & Mint.
Yuzu Gel – yuzu juice, mirin, white soy, agar – Is then piped onto the plate.

NF, DF, EF, SF

Question 12

Milk Fed Beef Brisket, mustard cream cheese, pickled onion, miso rye

Answer 12

Milk fed beef brisket - Gippsland pure, raised on 100% milk. 4-month-old, 200 kg.
Take best end brisket on the bone, brained 72 hours, char grilled and pack it in spice and slow cooked 48 hours at 72 degrees.
4 pieces are char grilled and served warm with hot mustard cream cheese, picked baby red onions, picked cucumber, miso rye croutons and sprinkled with picked garlic, dried egg yolk, chop parsley and dill.

NF, SF

Question 13

Steamed Clarence River prawn dumplings, Szechuan broth

Answer 13

Clarence river prawn dumplings – Clarence river is situated at the southern end of the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales.
Prawns are folded through salmon mousse to bind them together with fresh aromats of chilli, garlic, ginger, kaffir lime leaves. Wrapped in wonton skins. (flour, water, salt)
Szechuan Broth – made from duck bones and Szechuan pepper, Shaoxing, lemongrass, chilli, ginger & garlic. Contains oyster sauce.
Garnished with swamp weeds which can be changed but predominantly penny wort, Thai basil and beetle leaves.

NF, DF, EF

Question 14

Pumpkin & Almond Tortellini, Buttermilk Purée, Crispy Sage

Answer 14

Butternut pumpkin roasted with skin on, mixed with almond meal, chervil & Espelette pepper (a variety that is cultivated in the French region of Espelette) in a wonton skin.
Buttermilk purée – buttermilk boiled with Xanthan & Agar agar, set in fridge. Blitzed to use seasoned with salt, pepper, lemon juice. Dish finished with Beurre noisette, activated almonds, crispy fried sage & freshly grated Pecorino.

EF, GaF, SF, FF

Question 15

Crispy Skin Salmon, Fennel, Mussels, Kimchi & Shiitake broth

Answer 15

160g Salmon Fillet from Huon Valley, Tasmania.
Kimchi Broth - broth is seasoned with rice vinegar and kimchi. 4pc mussels out of shells in the broth. Garnished with shaved fennel & dill.

DF, GF, NF, EF

Question 16

Barramundi fillet, seared scallops, leeks, shellfish emulsion

Answer 16

Barramundi fillet – from Cone Bay which is located in northeast Western Australia. It opens out into the Indian Ocean. Fillet is 160g.
Leeks – sou vide with buttermilk for 45minutes at 80degrees. Finished by charring one side on the pan.
Shellfish emulsion – Prawn heads and tails are roasted in the oven. Caramelise mire poix and tomato paste in a pot, and deglazed with white wine. Add prawn shells to the pot and cover it with butter for 2 hours and strain. Egg yolks, white wine vinegar is cooked in thermos mix for 20 minutes at 80 degrees, emulsify with prawn butter and allow to cool.
Sprinkled with fermented chilli powder which is dehydrated and ground chilli bean paste.

GF, NF

Question 17

Braised beef cheek, celeriac puree, bacon lardons, shallots, red wine jus

Answer 17

Beef Cheek (Cape Grim) – marinated in red wine and mire poix for 2 days. The marinate is then reduced and added chicken stock, and braised for 3 to 5 hours. Served on celeriac puree with bacon lardons, petit shallots. Finished with a red wine sauce.

GF, NF, SF, EF

Question 18

Whole Lobster tail, crispy pork hock & hand rolled rice noodles

Answer 18

260g lobster tails from WA. Steeped in 200°c aromatic oil (garlic, coriander seeds, lemongrass, ginger, chilli) Pork hock is deboned and marinated in Ketchup manis for 24hrs & braised in master stock (chicken stock, rock sugar, Shaoxing, soy, vinegar, garlic, onion, star anise, coriander seed, cassis, white pepper) for 5hrs, left to cool in stock for further 24hrs. Flash fried to order to create crispy outside & soft centre. Noodle – rice flour, boiling water. Set in sheets rolled with Hoisin sauce & spring onion, steamed to order. Chilli caramel – palm sugar, fish sauce, lime juice, chilli. Garlic & oyster sauce sautéed choy-sum. Garnished with deep fried rice paper, fresh coriander, snow pea tendrils and Shaoxing wine dressing.

NF, EF, DF,

Question 19

Whole Barra, kombu butter, caramelised lemon (excellent for 2 to share)

Answer 19

Humpty Doo – located in a remote part of the Northern Territory, halfway between Darwin & Kakadu on the Adelaide river they produce a sustainably farmed saltwater barramundi. Baked for 15 mins @250°c. Kombu butter- roasted snapper bones deglazed with sake add kombu (an edible kelp) & butter then strained, essentially a clarified butter. Lemon – lemon slices with olive oil in a pan, the natural sugars in the lemon caramelise to golden colour. Garnish –alfalfa, red vein sorrel, pickled onion, spring onion curls, sliced red radish dressed with olive oil & lemon juice.

EF, NF, SF, GaF, GF

Question 20

Slow roast lamb shoulder, mint jus (great for 2 to share)

Answer 20

1.1kg lamb shoulder in the bone from Great Southern (Victoria) Slow roasted with thyme & olive oil for 12hrs @ 85°c. Mint jus – roasted lamb bones, mirepoix, diced tomatoes & chicken stock left to simmer for 1.2hrs, reduced by 1/3 & strained. Fresh mint added to serve. Caramelized yoghurt- sheep’s milk yoghurt & pomegranate molasses cooked in thermo-blender @ 100°c for 45 to 60 mins. Pickles- white onions (white wine & white vinegar, sugar) cucumber pickled in 3-2-1.

EF, NF, GF, SF, DF

Question 21

Taxi’s rhubarb soufflé, gingerbread ice cream

Answer 21

Soufflé – Rhubarb puree thickened with corn flour. Add egg white and sugar into meringue. Gingerbread ice cream – Gingerbread (golden syrup, treacle - almost burnt sugar, brown sugar, milk and self raising flour) mixed with vanilla ice cream.

NF
Contains gluten, dairy, egg

Can be made GF (different ice cream instead)

Question 22

Warm poached pear, liquorice crumb, chocolate cream, burnt butter ice cream

Answer 22

Poached pear – Packham pears poached in a syrup (honey, treacle, golden syrup, maple syrup, star anise, black peppercorn, cassia bark and burned butter). Take some of the syrup and reduce it down. Then reheat the pear with the reduced syrup to order so the pears are warm.
Chocolate & liquorice crumble – (flour, cocoa powder, bicarb soda, butter, light brown sugar, normal sugar, pinch of sea salt and liquorice essence) all mixed and baked.
Chantilly cream – cream, vanilla, sugar
Burnt butter ice cream – milk, sugar, egg yolks, burnt butter

NF

Question 23

Victorian sponge, almond crumble, olive sherbet, milk ice cream

Answer 23

Victoria sponge – whole egg, sugar, vanilla is mixed and added flour, baking powder, melted butter and cream then baked. Sponge is then soaked in Artemis x Taxi gin (made with juniper, kombu, star anise, cassis, coriander, shiso, honey, Artemisia, finger lime) and vanilla syrup. Gin is added cold so the alcohol remains.
Almond crumb – almond meal, sugar, butter
Milk ice cream – full cream milk, glucose, sugar, stabiliser, trimoline – invert sugar
Green olive sherbet – olives are completely dried and mixed with icing sugar and citric acid
Almost burnt cream – 17 litres of cream are cooked for about 10 hours and its reduced down to 2 litres. Strain it and keep the solids then cook another 1 hour until turns brown.

Question 24

Yoghurt semifreddo, walnut dacquoise, cherry jam, cassis sorbet

Answer 24

Yoghurt semifreddo – egg whites, honey, yoghurt, cream and gelatine are mixed and freeze until solidifies.
Walnut dacquoise – crushed walnuts, sugar & eggwhites are mixed and baked.
Cherry jam – Cherry puree, sugar, glucose, yellow pectin, citric acid. Mixture gets cooked to 105 degrees, and is set using the cirtic acid.
Cassis sorbet – Black currant puree, water, glucose powder, sugar & stabilizer

GF

Question 25

Zokoko white chocolate cream, roasted ganache, blood orange sorbet

Answer 25

White chocolate cream – base (milk, glucose, gelatine, cream and vanilla) is mixed and boiled. It is then poured over Zokoko white chocolate. Once it’s set, take some of the base and mix it with cream and whip, add a little bit of yoghurt.
Roasted ganache – Zokoko white chocolate is melted, poured into a tray and roasted for about 20 – 30minutes until brown. Chocolate is then mixed with equal parts cream.
Blood orange sorbet – Blood orange puree, water, glucose powder, sugar & stabilizer.
Roasted macadamia – macadamia & caramel
Pink grapefruit – Poached in a syrup (water, sugar, Rosemary & Orangecello)
Cauliflower puree – Cauliflowers are cooked in milk, brown sugar, vanilla and blended till smooth.

GF, EF

Question 26

Woombye triple cream brie, waldorf salad, truffle honey

Answer 26

Woombye in the Sunshine Coast hinterland. Jersey & Friesian milk is sourced from three premium neighbouring dairy farms. Triple cream Brie’s delicate white bloomy rind hides a deliciously rich & creamy centre. Waldorf - walnut, celery, apple, celery leaf, grapes dressed with truffle honey.

Question 27

Cropwell bishop shropshire blue, fig jam

Answer 27

Cow’s milk blue cheese, mild to medium intensity. From Nottinghamshire in UK. Added annatto seeds (South American turmeric) and it makes the colour of yellow.
Garnished with Fig Jam.

Question 28

Yalla Valley Black Savourine, pickled beets, walnuts

Answer 28

● 100% goat’s milk semi matured cheese from Yarra valley. Rolled in ash which is made from the local vegetables.
● Garnished with pickled beet and honey walnuts.