Saturday, 31 December 2011

Meat and Cheese Only Part 1: The Rage Introduced (a.k.a. How To Order A Pizza)

Superman says:

As a man of habit I stick to things I like and know and stick to the mantra “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”. My intention with this blog is simple – I am fighting the good fight of people who would like a plate of food without the bullshit. Don’t feed me vegetables with a side of steak. If I order Mongolian Lamb I didn't order a plate of fucking onions and capsicums - stop cost-saving and give me my lamb! A pizza doesn’t come with eighteen toppings – have you been to Italy? A burger should not contain a pickle, nor should it contain cheap tomato sauce (unless at Oporto, in which case give me extra kthnxby). In case you haven’t worked out the theme yet, meat and cheese only derives from a simple ordering technique that one needs to employ to alleviate the mess that finds its way onto my plate – tell them to hold the shit and put only the good stuff in. 

This isn’t without flaw. The good fight against the foods one doesn’t like is certainly not without incident.  In high school I went into a McDonalds and ordered a burger “meat and cheese only” (a.k.a. The Burger known in a very non-P.C. way as being somewhat irregular, deviate or unusual). Sidebar: censorship on my first post! Oh no! ... Because such a simple concept is too creative for the employees, I ended up getting a bun with nothing on it. McDonalds 1 Superman 0.

Also, ordering pizza can be a struggle. When asking for “meat and cheese only” (or in pizza’s case: “ham and cheese only”), this concept can be too non-conformist for knob employees. When met with that 10 second heavy-breathing silence as their brains try to process the order that is clearly not explicitly on the menu, you must do the heavy lifting for them:

- Option A (works 33.33% of the time): Margherita plus Ham. Tell the half stoned, 12 year old employee that they need to bill you for a margherita pizza with the additional cost of the added ham. It can also be polite to call them a moron at the end of such an explanation.

- Option B (works 66.67% of the time): Hawaiian minus Pineapple. Now I don’t know what Hawaiians have to do with a traditional pizza menu, but OK, I’ll roll with the punches. Pineapple on a pizza? I’d rather a turd sandwich. Anyway, telling the employee that you will pay the normal Hawaiian cost, despite the missing ingredient is a MUST. I can’t begin to tell you how many times their pea-sized heads shrivel into obscurity trying to deconstruct the pizza costs to work out the individual costs of toppings trying to work out how much the Pineapple is worth on a pizza. In my mind, fiscally speaking, the true cost of Pineapple on a slice of pizza is a slap in the fucking head. Next you will be putting all the other ‘juices’ on a pizza: oranges, apples, mangoes. What the fuck? Give me my ham and cheese. And hold the spit when you make it. I don’t like the taste of your disdain.

Now that you get the idea of the eternal fight, my next posts will revel in the ingredients I don’t like. As a preview, it is internationally agreeable that coriander is Satan.

Superman out. The fight against bullshit food continues. We will prevail.

Restaurant Review: Cafe Sopra (Fratelli Fresh)


It's about time I wrote this review; Superman and I have been going to this restaurant at least once a week for about a year now. My biggest regret is that the one time I came here before the coeliac diagnosis, I got risotto instead of pasta. Every time we go, SM gets the best looking pasta dishes known to man, and I get salad.

Please note to find it - walk through the Fratelli Fresh store, and go up the stairs to the left, past the cooking school section and up more stairs. Anyway..back to the review...
Service: the staff here are consistently friendly and helpful, and many remember my gf/df status and tell me off the bat if I can order the specials of the day. I have heard the service unfortunately isn't as good at other branches of Sopra, but I have never had a problem here.
The other thing worth mentioning is this place is brunch/lunch only, and doesn't take reservations. So either turn up for lunch no later than 12:30 or expect to wait ~ 10 minutes for a table. Mr R. "doesn't do lines" so I don't bother trying to go here with him. But you can order coffee or wine in the line so I'm happy.
Food: SM has covered the pasta section of the menu 10 times over, and recommends anything with the word ragù, bolognese or duck in it.
Salad wise, depending on what season it is the best ones are
-
Shaved Brussel Sprout Salad with Pancetta and Poached Egg
- Bresaola salad with Gala apples and aged Balsamic Vinegar 

- Witlof salad with hazelnuts, gorgonzola, pear and pomegranate
- pickled beetroot with soft boiled egg, pancetta, gorgonzola and rosemary
and as a side, the cabbage with reggiano and balsamic is great.
Dishes we dont like: smoked trout salad, and spaghetti carbonara

Desserts are always great, but rarely gluten and dairy free, but the sgroppino is good, as is the meringue, the baked rhubarb, and i'm told the tiramisù.
Ambience: as you can see from the photo, it is on the top level of a warehouse which is pretty cool, but not a formal atmosphere.

Who to take: parents who don't know why you live in Surry Hills instead of the North Shore, Eastern Suburbians slumming it west of Anzac Pde, your beau of the moment for lunch the morning after the night before, groups of friends who like getting boozed on good italian wine, reluctant boyfriends who don't understand how you spend so much money on produce.
Who not to take: grumpy children - their crying echoes, people who don't do lines, people with limited mobility - no disabled access.

Café Sopra on Urbanspoon


Restaurant Review: Muum Maam

Finally, a thai restaurant with a gluten free menu (that I trust)!
Mr R. and I found this recently after an extensive search of the gluten free friendly asian eateries on offer in the Surry Hills area. As any coeliac (or close friend of) will know, finding an asian restaurant that you can rely on to use clean pans, not use any soy sauce or wheaten corn flour in their "gluten free" offerings are few and far in between. On this note, if  anyone knows of another Chinese restaurant in Sydney apart from Fu Manchu that has a gluten free menu plese let me know!

I have been to Muum Maam 5 times now, and each time I have found the majority of specials to be gluten free (and tasty) and plenty of options on the gf menu (see http://www.muummaam.com.au.php5-16.dfw1-2.websitetestlink.com/menu/vegetarian-and-gluten-free/ )
Superman and Mr R. have also found great non-GF options there too.

I highly recommend the poached chicken salad, however Superman finds it "too herby" for his tastes (some of his other comments about food like this include - "what is this f*ing coriander doing in this dish?" "why can't you just cook food normally without f*ing it up with all this herb sh*"
Did I mention that Superman is king of the bullsh* ordering? His order at McDonald's is "double cheeseburger, meat and cheese only (none of that sauce sh*, it ruins it)", Domino's "Hawaiian, no pineapple aka. ham and cheese, hold the spit".

Anyway, back to Muum Maam. Other good choices on the menu include the satay chicken sticks (if coeliac, ask for it to be cooked on a pan, they normally cook on a grill that is also used for soy marinades). I also enjoyed the various curries and the pad thai.


Muum Maam on Urbanspoon

Recipe: Lasagne al Forno

I cooked this last night - it was kinda awesome! I have, however, altered the original recipe if only because the pedant pharmacist (and italophile) in me doesn't agree with some of the mise-en-place. At the bottom of the recipe, I have written how I made the recipe more lactose free. It is gluten free if you use gf pasta sheets.
The original can be found here: http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/beef-recipes/simple-baked-lasagne

Lasagne al forno
  • 100 g pancetta or speck, sliced/diced (depending on how you buy it)  
  • a pinch of cinnamon
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 1 carrot, cubed
  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 2 handfuls of fresh herbs (sage, oregano, rosemary, thyme) - chopped roughly
  • olive oil
  • 400g veal mince
  • 200g pork mince
  • 2 x 400g tins of diced italian tomatoes
  • 400 mL (1/2 a bottle) red wine
  • 2 bay leaves
  • sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 400g fresh lasagne sheets (or gf ones if required)
  • 400g mozzarella, torn up 
for the white sauce
• 1 x 500ml tub of crème fraîche
• 3 anchovies, finely chopped
• 2 handfuls of freshly grated Parmesan cheese
optional: a little milk



for lactose free white sauce option
  • 1 x 250g tub of soy sour cream
  • 1 cup lactose free thickened cream
  • 3 anchovies, finely chopped
  • 2 handfuls of parmesan, grated
Method
  1. In a large pot or pan slowly fry the pancetta and cinnamon until golden, then add the onion, carrot, garlic and herbs and about 4 tablespoons of olive oil. 
  2. Add the veal and pork mince. Cook for about 5 minutes, then add the tinned tomatoes and the wine or water. 
  3. Add the bay leaves and bring to the boil. Then get some greaseproof paper, wet it and place it on top of the pan with a lid placed on top. Simmer on a low heat for ~1.5 hrs. 
  4. When the sauce is sufficiently reduced, season to taste and put aside. 
  5. Mix together your crème fraîche, anchovies, and a handful of Parmesan, and season with salt and pepper. You may need to loosen the mixture with a little milk. 
  6. Turn the oven to 200ºC. To assemble the lasagne, rub an earthenware lasagne dish with olive oil, lay some sheets of lasagne over the bottom and drape them up the sides of the dish.
  7. Add a layer of meat, a little white sauce and a sprinkling of Parmesan. Repeat the layers, finishing with a layer of pasta covered in white sauce. Tear the mozzarella and sprinkle with some extra Parmesan. Cook in the preheated oven for 30–35 minutes until golden.

What the F* is a Soffritto?

http://proximalkitchen.blogspot.com/2010/08/carbo-loading-tagliatelle-alla.html
This is an essential piece of knowledge for any self respecting foodie/cook - Clementine and I had an argument heated discussion about it this morning over breakfast, including RE its spelling.
I was perplexed as to why it wasn't a part of the lasagne recipe I recently used (can be found HERE)

AKA: mirepoix (french), refogado (portugese), sofrito (spanish)

A soffritto is the flavour base of many sauces, soups and stews e.g. bolognese sauces, minestrone; it normally consists of celery, carrot and onion. The vegetables are diced (all the same size) and sautéed with olive oil and/or butter.
The italian version can also include garlic and in some recipes the onion is swapped out for leeks or shallots.

Sunday, 18 December 2011

Recipe: Milk Chocolate Rocky Road

This is the other rocky road that I'm going to make for Christmas. I always buy Rowie's Cakes' gluten free, dairy free Rocky Road from the supermarket for morning tea at work, so thought I'd make the one from Rowie's cookbook! (Indulgence, by Rowie Dillon)
I have made it dairy free by using Sweet William dairy free chocolate (health food aisle).

Not So Nutty Rocky Road
Makes 18 - 20 pieces

  • 2 cups marshmallows, roughly chopped
  • 30 g puffed rice (make sure gf - had to go to organic grocer to get one that was uncontaminated)
  • 70 g hazelnuts, toasted and roughly chopped
  • 50 g sultanas
  • 50 g fresh or frozen raspberries or cranberries
  • 375 g dark chocolate, chopped
  1. Line a tray with baking paper
  2. Combine the marshmallows, puffed rice, hazelnuts, sultanas and berries in a large bowl
  3. Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (do not let the bowl touch the water). Stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth
  4. Pour the chocolate onto the marshmallow mixture and stir until well combined. Spoon onto the tray and allow to set. Beak into random pieces and serve.

Christmas Tree 2011