Preservative Free Wine

Sulphur Dioxide or S02 is a natural by-product of wine-making. I don't admit to knowing a lot about the science or use of sulphur dioxide as an additive to the wine-making process, but for the fact its use as an antimicrobial agent and antioxidant preserves the wine quality and freshness. Along with over-consumption, it's all the additives and preservatives that tend to give you the "my head has been gripped in a vice and a thousand Russian Cossacks have been dancing on my brain" feeling after a night out on the tiles. Simplified, the quality of the grape - the ratio of residual sugar to alcohol will determine how much sulphur dioxide is added.

My own personal experience with organic and preservative free wines has largely been very positive.There are a few I think you should try, including this Italian branded "Zero" Vendemmia 2011 Sulphur Dioxide free wine I tried on the weekend. It has cherry and Christmas cake notes with a hint of smoke. It's retails at $29.99 a bottle or as it's advertised in my local for $22.99 as a part of a 6-pack. So whilst it's not necessarily a "weekday" wine - I have no issue to spend the extra dollars on something I know I am going to enjoy, and something a little more "green".

Another great preservative free wine is Australian made King Valley's La Cantina Sangiovese or Cabernet Sauvignon. You can buy La Cantina from Dan Murphy's or check their website out here

And perhaps a lesser known organic wine which I first tried at No 10 William St Winebar at Paddington, called Hochkirch Maximus Pinot Noir from Henty in Western Victoria. You can pick up it up by the bottle or case from Organic Wine's website which you can check out by clicking here

Bestest Road Tested Flourless Chocolate Cake

Hey come here...yeh you...closer...that's it...I've got a secret to tell you. What's that, you ask?. Well...I have a confession to make. I am a hopeless baker. Yups. If it has to be measured and it has to be precise, I am usually going to stuff it up. I found this Elizabeth David recipe which was adapted by Jill Dupleix, and have made it a number of times over the last 5-6 years. In fact, it's probably the only dessert I do well with the exception of a Neil Perry lemon tart. Uncomplicated, five ingredients and minimal elbow work. You will love this cake and no doubt it will also be added to your baking repertoire once you realise how easy and fudge-alicious it is.


Ingredients
250 grams bitter dark chocolate
150 grams caster sugar
150 grams butter
100 grams ground almonds
5 free-range eggs (separated)
Icing Sugar or Cocoa powder (optional)

Method

1. Heat oven to 180 degrees. Butter and Flour a 20cm round cake tin.
2. Melt chocolate sugar and butter in a heat proof bowl over simmering water. Or do what I do and cheat by putting it in the oven for a few minutes while it's warming up.
3. Remove melted chocolate mix from heat and stir thoroughly. Mix in the almond meal then beat in separated egg yolks one at a time.
4. Beat egg whites until stiff and peaked. Stir a couple of spoonfuls into the chocolate mix to lighten before gently folding in the rest (use a big stainless steel spoon to help aerate the mix).
5. Bake for 40-50 minutes and leave to cool in tin. Dust with icing sugar or cocoa powder to serve.

               

Lately I have been making a variation on this cake. I either bake two cakes individually (this makes a super-sized cake like the one in the picture below) or you can make one cake and cut it in half. Be careful if you do this though. I put my cake in the fridge to "set" before I cut my single layer cake into two. I then spread Nestle Top'n'fill Caramel over the bottom layer before sandwiching over the top.Just be careful as you can see from the picture on the left, because the cake is flourless, it will actually sink in the middle, and may also be a little cracked. That's okay it was made with love. But just to warn you to be gentle. Also as you can see from my finished product, the cake is a bit lopsided. I dusted mine with cocoa powder, and to be honest it was probably better the next day after a night in the fridge. Just take it out 2 hours or so before you want to serve it. Now if you want a richer dessert, serve with double-cream or ice-cream. I generally serve this with organic vanilla bean yoghurt as for me the tartness cuts through the richness and it makes me feel a little less guilty about the calorie and sugar overload. But hey - everyone needs a little sweetness in their lives right?

Lets get Pickled

Schwartz Smoked Meat Sandwich with Half Sours

I have wanted to pickle something for a while. Anything really. As long as it involves salt and vinegar I'm in. What really sold me on pickled cucumbers though were my recent trips to Montreal, Canada and also the USA. Half sours, full sours - they do an array of pickling styles and they do them all well. I was hooked on pickles, and on my return to Sydney I picked up a jar of McClure's Dill and Garlic Pickles from Essential Ingredient and demolished the jar in a few sittings. At $17.95 a pop, I quickly realised that whilst there ain't nothing better than the salty, garlicky, vinegary tang you get as you bite into a crispy cucumber spear I was gonna need to rob banks to fund my new addiction unless I learned how to make them myself. So I started researching pickling recipes. Some people swear against vinegar, choosing only to brine with salt and distilled water. I tried it. It didn't work for me. Back to the pickling jar I went. Until one day I stumbled across an online post from someone who claims to have attended a pickling class run by Bob McClure's of McClure's pickling fame. Look I don't know about the merits of this claim but in a way it's kind of like Colonel Sanders handing out 11 secret herbs and spices recipe cards.  You don't really give away your prized money-making award winning recipes - and then *cross your fingers* that some chump like me doesn't decide to post them on the world wide web.

Ingredients:
2.7kg small pickling cucumbers
6-12 garlic cloves (halved)
1-2 bunches dill
3 cups water
3 cups distilled white vinegar
1/4 cup kosher or sea salt
6 x Pint size jars (16oz)

Method:
1. Wash cucumbers and place in a bowl and cover with ice and pop in the fridge until needed. Doing this will make your cucumbers crispy.
2. Wash dill and trim roots.
3. Place peeled garlic in a bowl and pour hot vinegar over it. Let it stand for 1 minute then pour vinegar out. Doing this will stop your garlic from going blue in the brine.
4. Sterilise your jars - fill a pot with water and bring it to the boil. The water levels should be at least 1 inch above the tops of the jars. Submerge jars for about 90 seconds each, remove with tongs.
5. In another pot combine the vinegar, water and salt. Bring the brine to a rapid boil - make sure salt doesn't stick to bottom.
6. Take cucumbers out of fridge and quarter them. Trim cucumbers to same length so they fit into the jars without getting squashed (place 1 spear first in a jar to test its height). You can use the trimmings to pack into available jar space.
7. In each jar, place 2-4 halves of a garlic clove (depending on how garlicky you want your brine to be), one handful of dill then enough cucumber spears to fill the jar - making sure the cucumbers are below the "neckline". Place the lids in boiling water for 90 seconds before using.
8. Fill each jar with hot brine. Cap and seal the jars. Turn them over to make sure you have a good seal.
9. Place the jars in the boiling water for 10 minutes, this is called "processing".
10. Store in a cool place, and wait 1-2 weeks before eating. Refrigerate after opening. Pickles should keep for up to 1 year if stored in a cool dark place.

Well...go on then...! Get yer pickle on!

Bucket List Wines

"Wine is the most healthful and hygienic of beverages"

So said Louis Pasteur. Or if you are like me, wine is one of many things including a much cheaper version of therapy - particularly on a Friday at say uh, 5:00 O'clock. I have a local bottle shop which has a great mix of Australian and European wines and I really enjoy trying something new. The problem I always seem to have is remembering what I enjoyed and wasn't so mad about. I have walked into my local on countless occasions and stood in front of shelves bursting with thousands of bottles of liquid-goodness trying to recall the name of the wine, the region or at least the grape variety! So begins the game of charades with staff there "Last time I got a Pinot Noir here from Canberra...I think it had a white label?" (hands wildly gesticulating to indicate the shelf placement of the said bottle is met by doe-eyed expressions) "Ok what about the wine that was over there (traffic control hands again) and it was some sort of collaboration of 3 winemakers and I think one of them was like from the Hunter Valley or somewhere..." (now met by wider doe-eyed expression).

Later I discover the Pinot from Canberra is actually from Geelong and the Hunter Valley winemaker is actually Grant Burge from the Barossa. Well, that was before I decided that I would use my Iphone to photograph the wines recommended to me and the wines I enjoyed. Wine porn has become my fail safe method of ensuring guaranteed satisfaction much like the little black book was to Casanova. In frequenting my local - I have developed a bit of a rapport with one of the staff. For the sake of keeping the theme post-related we will call him AL KOHOLIC. AL has great wine knowledge and I have bought enough wine there now (please, no intervention is yet needed) that he knows my palate well to make suggestions as to wine he is pretty sure I will like. I do however enjoy challenging his wine skill by throwing down the gauntlet "Give me a wine you were even surprised how good it was for the price". Budget 10 bucks. That sort of thing. Us wine snobs sure know how to have fun.

JJ Hahn Barossa Valley Shiraz Cabernet Sauvignon 2010 $24.99

So my Wine porn camera roll is more like my Wine Bucket List, wines I want to tick off as "popped the cork on it already". Below are a few that feature, and I will most certainly keep adding and subtracting along the way. For now Vive Le Vino!

Shephard's Trail Adelaide Hills Pinot Noir

Serafino McClarenvale Shiraz 2010 $32.99

Boston Massachusetts

Following my stateside trip to San Francisco in December 2011, romantic crooner Tony Bennett's rendition of "I left my heart in San Francisco" struck a myocardial chord with me, that was, until I visited Boston this past US Summer. Bostonians are a resilient and hardy people (that much was evidenced by the recent Boston marathon bombing) and are absolutely die-hard committed sports fans. The weekend I was in Boston there was a NY Yankees and Boston Red Sox game, and 9 out of 10 people milling around the city and surrounds were wearing some form of Red Sox memorabilia. On the way to Fenway Park I even found myself singing along to "...take me out to the ball game, take me out with the crowd..." and secretly hoped I would find a street stall selling peanuts and cracker jacks. Hey, it's easy to get carried away with the excitement and buzz of a big game weekend.

Aside from being a foodie's mecca, Boston also happens to lay claim to a Goorin Bros hat shop on the hip shopping strip Newbury St, and the company was recently made even more famous for designing the "heisenberg" black hat Walter White wore in Breaking Bad when he was about to...well...break some bad.

  

Being a self-confessed foodie the highlight for me was the pilgrimage to Flour bakery + cafe which has been on my foodie hit-list ever since I saw a photo of owner Joanne Chang's famous sticky buns (not to be confused with buttocks). I will forever be indebted to Silent-diner for indulging me in my Flour bakery fantasy. We walked two hours to get there the first day from our hotel (Hyatt Regency on Avenue de Lafayette). Lucky for me, the sticky buns lived up to expectation and silent-diner agreed to a second visit the following day, where we also indulged in the "craquelin" - not to be confused with krokodil - craquelin is a kind of second cousin to brioche, this one filled with orange marmalade and covered liberally with a mix of flaked almonds and a crispy sugary top. 

 

"Can you spot the Craaaaq...el...in..."

Ready to flip a coin as to who gets what

On my return home, I was so intrigued by the egg sandwich and in trying to aptly describe its magnificence to anyone I possibly could, I decided to Google it in the most random off-the-cuff-strange-foodie-freak-chance that people like me (with nothing better to do than indulge in food porn) were also abnormally curious as to how they got the egg so light and fluffy yet so uniform in shape, and bada bing! Here it is for your sensory pleasure (and mine):

              

But I don't want it to seem like the whole trip was about Flour bakery. There was other stuff too. Like stumbling across an Italian street food festival in the North End on Hanover St where we ate freshly shucked oysters with red sauce, Mike's Pastry who make the meanest Cannoli outside of the motherland and are almost always guaranteed to have a six-deep line at the counter, and finding a "hole-in-the-wall" Vietnamese restaurant Pho Pasteur that won the "Certificate of Excellence 2013" from Trip Advisor (I know this, as the certificate was plastered all over the windows for diners reassurance about being provided excellent service and of course simply for our viewing pleasure).

Americans call them rice balls, the rest of the world calls them "Arancini"

Freshly shucked oysters

The bright lights of Mike's calling all sugar addicts in need of their hit

Mike's Pastry on Hanover St so popular it's always 6-deep at the counter

 

Now I am not afraid of the gratuitous plug, just as long as both of us know what we are getting ourselves into. There is no denying silent diner and I had a few massive (read: bloated) days of dining in Boston. There are just so many foods options, such little time, and we are both quite frankly guzzle-guts. When we were in Hanover St (North Italian area) there were two restaurants that literally had patrons waiting and lined up down the street. We got the feeling both restaurants were definite "local knowledge" hangs - unpretentious food, good flavors, great value, filled primarily with diners in-the-know who live in the area. The kind of place each of us has at least one of, tucked away in our local knowledge bag of tricks. So in order to not risk giving away too many local secrets I won't post the links to either restaurant, although I am sure if you look close enough at the signage in the photos you too will be armed with the right local Boston knowledge on your next visit to satisfy your epicurean senses.

 

The other great thing about Boston is it's such a walkable city - a flat version of San Francisco. We walked everywhere pretty much from exclusive Beacon Hill where we were told a terrace home recently sold for $17 million USD, to the multicultural and perhaps less salubrious South end or Back Bay where they is keepin it real yo, and we did enough walking to almost burn the calories from at least one of four shared Cannoli's from Mike's pastry. One of the things we were advised to do by a Bostonian living in Sydney was to take a Boston Duck tour. We were initially like - "ah, we will just walk and see pretty much what we want to see", but two days wiped us out, and the Boston Duck tours (who use replica amphibious landing vehicles styled on those actually used during WWII) promised a welcome reprieve from pounding the pavement. We took a 6:00pm tour, which is closing in on sunset during the Summer and just a really nice (and cooler) part of the day in Boston, especially as the Duck boats not only drive around Boston city streets past various historical landmarks but also take to the Charles River for some aqua action. The condDUCKtor (sic) we had was Captain Blackeye, supposedly a pirate off the coast of Boston who felt a sudden philanthropic twinge and making the decision he no longer wanted to rape and pillage folk, became a Duck tour guide instead. Yeh, it's a little quirky and whacky - but Captain Blackeye was passionate about Boston history and certainly put an arr me hearty kind of twist to the whole experience. 

Boston overall is such a great city, and as the Boston Red Sox theme song espouses she is the maiden with the sparkling eye. It has so much history being one of the oldest cities in the US, but it also has a great sports vibe and a fantastic foodie culture. On a game weekend head out to Fenway park, it's a great vibe even if you don't have tickets. You can head up to the roof deck of The Baseball Tavern on 1270 Boylston St, for a cold beer and to soak up the pre-game atmosphere. You can see the stadium across the road, and whilst it's not exactly being at the game - after a couple of cold ones and a street-stand hot dog you won't feel the difference.

Fenway Park game day

Soaking up the rays pre-game at Baseball Tavern

Chili Dogs

One thing I was disappointed to find out about after I had left Boston, were that two Boston restaurants were featured on Guy Fieri's "Diners Drive-ins and Dives" (Triple D) series (incidentally one of my favourite shows to watch when I am in the US or Canada) firstly Angela's Cafe in East Boston - a family run authentic Mexican restaurant at 131 Lexington St Boston where all the recipes are "Angela originals", and second Rino's Place an Italian joint at 258 Saratoga St East Boston, where apparently the lobster ravioli is as the Back Bayer's would say "da bomb". So I hope to get to Boston again one day, if not for the Triple D picks, then at least to die a happy sugar death in Mike's pastry.

Take me to the April sun in Byron...Oh...Oh...Oh!

We arrive at Byron Bay on a beautifully sunny late April weekend and it certainly doesn't feel like Autumn on the far North Coast of New South Wales. Byron Bay is one of those holiday destinations that has something for everyone - excellent surf beaches, great breakfast spots, a quaint shopping strip if that's your thing, music festivals to rival anywhere in the world, and some cool laid back bars and restaurants. Staying at Cavvanbah Beach House  where you can access Belongil beach via a bush-track almost at your back door, it is roughly 8 minutes walk to Byron Main Beach along the beach, or if you are feeling less Bo Derek-like, around 10-15 minutes on foot.

Cavvanbah Beach House

Bush track to Belongil Beach across the road

Private balcony to relax and enjoy the Ocean breeze

I can't recommend Cavvanbah Beach House highly enough. The owners, Jeff and Stephen are generally pottering around the place, they are there if you need them but otherwise unobtrusive. They come from a foodie background, and Stephen makes a lot of the breakfast from scratch - like toasted muesli so good you would hold downward facing dog pose all day long for. He serves it with organic yoghurt and poached seasonal fruits. There are always a couple of thick slices of bread to toast which he sources from an organic bakery in town and some fresh fruit, juice and coffee. He mixes it up daily too, so you don't get bored. Byron Bay is a pricey holiday destination - so to have breakfast included in your stay is a bonus.

A great Byron way to start the day

Deliciously nutritious

Our balcony spot set up to enjoy a hearty breakfast

A stay in Byron Bay is not complete without a trip to the Lighthouse at Cape Byron headland and having your photo taken at the most easterly point of the Australian mainland. It takes around 2.5 hours and there are a hell of a lot of steps, I mean of course you could drive there, but in such an idyllic setting with the most magical views of the peninsula, I'll take the walk every time.

You are spoilt for great beaches in Byron - don't be boring and just stick to Main Beach. We headed to Tallow Beach - which is great if you don't have small children and are a strong swimmer, cos there ain't no beach patrol. Another great spot is Lennox Head which is around 20 minutes drive from Byron and it's also less remote than Tallow Beach.

Do you like burgers? I am a bit of a burger afficionado. When I was a kid and came home from a swim at the beach with my Dad, my Mum would make me a peanut butter sandwich. Nowadays, I choose the burger option. "The Top Shop" a bakery + cafe up on Patterson's Hill at 65 Carlyle St Byron, is the grouse when it comes to burgers. The place used to be a milk-bar, and so it's amazing to see how the new owners have transformed it into an Old Spice Guy meets sun-kissed surfer kind of place. Ingredients are sourced from markets locally, and the sourdough and pastries are made on the premises, so while you are eating your haloumi burger with your eco-friendly cutlery and shaking the salt water out of your hair, feel good knowing you are helping to reduce the carbon footprint, man.
 

Do you like live entertainment? Head over to the Railway Hotel on Jonson St, where the beers are cold, and the music, is well, live. They have bands or solo artists play 7 nights a week, and it could be hit or miss dependent on who is playing on the night. The night we were there, there was a female artist who sang a very ordinary version of  Melissa Etheridge's "Bring me some water" and a massacring of Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car" replete with bongo drums. Did I mention the beers were cold?

If cocktails are your thing, then it's "The Balcony Bar" on Lawson St for you, but don't dawdle as it fills up quickly just prior to sunset - which might be because it is a lovely spot to sit and watch the sun go down over Byron Bay or more likely because they have happy hour between 4-6pm where cocktails are $10.00, wine $6.50 a glass and Coronas are $6.00.

If you are hungry and in the mood for Mexican you have two choices, OzyMex at 8 Jonson St, or Miss Margarita at 2 Jonson St (across from the Beach Hotel bottle shop). OzyMex carries the full range of Byron Bay Chili Company sauces to buy, and is more a takeaway or quick snack kind of place rather than a sit-down service restaurant. But the servings are big.

Miss Margarita is fun and funky. And their taco combinations are really, really tasty. At lunch they do 2 tacos for $12.00 or 3 tacos for $15.00 or $18.00 with a Corona - we liked it so much we ate there twice.

I have always wanted to try stand up paddle boarding - or "SUP" as the cool kids call it. I googled a couple of places, and contacted the other company who never called or emailed me back, before finding OZSUP and gave them a call. They were really helpful, and I spoke to "Seppy" who runs the Byron Bay arm. Seppy is a typical Byron Bay dude, just super casual, friendly and nothing is too much trouble, mate. We booked a time and he told us to meet him at "The Pirate Ship" - opposite the Hotel Brunswick in Brunswick Heads. Looking for a Captain Jack Sparrow look-alike, the skies above were grey and threatening. The Heavens had opened earlier that morning in Byron Bay, and we thought the lesson might need to be cancelled. We found Seppy (who looked more like Geoffrey Rush as Hector Barbossa) on board chillin in his pirate hood. He was pretty confident the weather would hold out, and luckily a cancelled booking meant Silent Diner and I pretty much had our own private lesson. 

We had an awesome time during the paddle, it being so peaceful and serene out on the river - and we even managed to see a couple of eagles flying high and pelicans cruising the water. It was however a different story on the way back, when just rounding the bend back in towards the pirate ship the wind whipped up and it started to spit down. It was like paddling on the spot there for a while. Luckily the wind eventually died down and we made it back in time to practice a a pivot turn Seppy said we should master before we finished. This is really trick-talk for "you will most definitely fall in the water if you haven't already". Now wet, but happy and thankful we remembered to bring a change of clothes. If you are thinking of SUP then give Seppy AHOY at the Pirate Ship on 0431 381 463. 

There is so much to do in Byron, and I really never tire of the place. How about snorkelling at Julian Rocks Marine Park? No problem, Byron Bay Dive Centre has you covered. You simply pick the a dive time and book online or over the phone and then meet them at their dive shop at 9 Marvel St, Byron Bay. From there, you will get kitted out with snorkel and mask, flippers and wetsuit and head to Clark's Beach in their 4WD - the only labour intensive stuff is actually jumping in the water once you get to the actual rocks which is approximately 2.5km off shore. 

There are so many fish to see, including sea turtles, leopard sharks and wobbegongs and the dive centre has a really comprehensive map of fish species, so on your return you can pinpoint the types of fish you have seen. Silent Diner still traumatised after watching Jaws one too many times as a kid, wondered why they included a picture of a great white shark. It was only after dive, he did some google-search (formerly known as research) and discovered a diver was taken in 1993 by a great white in the area. I am not sure I will get Silent Diner in the water again.

I had done my foodie research before we arrived, and decided yes, we really did need to travel the 30 minutes by car to Mullumbimby for wood-fired pizza. Is Milk and Honey the best feature of this two-pub town? Well the Rainbow Lorikeets that perch high in the date palms at dusk and screech and squawk amongst themselves like a gaggle of old ladies at bingo seem to like the place, so I suppose not. In fairness, the town actually seems to have a growing organic and bio-dynamic food movement, and any place that honors and supports its various local food sources has my respect. Milk and Honey is one of those places where you experience lots of "ooh" and "aah" moments, a bit like Meg Ryan in When Harry met Sally. You look at the table next to you, and tend to want what they're having.

No half and half - this place is the real deal

Milk and Honey serve Hot Chilli Oil in a jar with their pizzas, and that stuff is I'm-getting-down-on-my-knees-praise-be-to-Jesus good. Dried red chilli flakes swimming in extra virgin olive oil. Lord give me a fix of Hot Chili Oil salvation every day of the week!

Fennel and garlic salami pizza

Milk and Honey source their ingredients from local farmers markets and cured meats from local producer Billinudgel. What's great to see from the open plan kitchen is a lot of the raw produce, like whole pumpkins, being sliced and diced during service. It's as paddock to plate as you hope to make it.

Poached peaches with almond semi-freddo

So how good is Milk and Honey you ask? Well, good enough that Silent Diner and I drove the 30 minutes back to Mullumbimby a second night for dinner. Oh by the way, see that baked beetroot salad with green beans, endive, fetta and lemon? Well it was so good we ordered it twice.

Prosciutto, hot salami, fennel salami, pecorino papato and olives with crusty olive oil bread

Prosciutto, artichokes, tomato, mozarella and parmesan

PS: Byron Bay. I love you.