A Cooking Class with South Australia's finest Chefs - Sydney Seafood School, Pyrmont

Its an exciting time for the dining scene in South Australia with plenty of creative juices flowing from up and coming young chefs taking the local produce new levels. We were lucky enough to learn first hand from chef Cole Thomas, Callum Hann, Lachlan Colwill and Emma Shearer as well the best produce South Australia had to offer.

Scallop with Squid Ink Soil, Trout Roe and Fennel puree

The venue for the evening was the Sydney Seafood School above the Fish Markets in Pyrmont. It is a very modern cooking theatre, complete with TV screens focusing on the preparation bench, where you can see in detail each demonstration taking place. Its like being back at Uni all over again for us Empty Fridgers, complete with fold away tables only this time we were attentive and well behaved students. Not even the Barramundi skin wallpaper could distract us as we wanted to pick up on any techniques and skills on show.

Sardine Spring roll and Chef Cole Thomas at work

 Exciting stuff is happening within the dining scene in South Australia and Chef Cole Thomas enthusiastically tells us about some newly opened restaurants. He is the Executive Chef of Hentley Farm at the Barossa Valley and also owns Cullenetic and the Adelaide Central Market Kitchen. Cole is all about innovative cuisine has a strong focus on optimising quality focus. He tells us of a dish he has developed a dish which involves levitating a small piece of tuna at the table giving new meaning to "flying fish".

Cole prepares a deep fried Spring Roll with macadamia nut pieces, apricots, capers, cabbages and a sardine fillet. Chef Cole has directly worked with producers in South Australia to shine some light on the under-utilised species of fish readily available. The sardines are just that, as well as flavoursome and an interesting addition. A Scallop entree is also prepared and Chef explains that the variety produced in South Australia is smaller but more dense compared to the water-pumped American counterpart. The scallop is served with squid ink soil, trout roe and a fennel puree. Both starters were interesting dishes showing how a mix of unlikely ingredients can be mixed together to produce great flavours, much like what is happening with the food scene in South Australia. 

Chef's Emma Shearer and Lachlan Colwill were up and ready to go for the next demonstration. The duo work together for the Trim Hospitality Group, The Grace Establishment and the Manse Restaurant where Lachlan runs the kitchen operations and Emma heads up the dessert pastry menus and is the Senior Pastry Chef. Lachlan also runs Sparrow Kitchen and Bar in North Adelaide. Emma demonstrates tonight's dessert which is a Barossa Vache Curd Mousse, Meringue, Lime Curd and Freeze Dried Passionfruit.

Vache Curd is produced by Barossa Valley Cheese Company and is similar to goats curd but uses cows milk instead. It takes two days to make the curd - one day for fermenting the milk and then another day for the curd to set. It was a good thing that both chefs were working together to make this dessert as Lachlan spent the whole time whisking the lime curd over the stove. The result is an interesting and loosely constructed cheesecake dessert with contrasting textures and flavours. The soft vache curd mousse adds a strong tart flavour, which contrasts the crunchy sweetness of the meringue. The freeze dried passion fruit scattered on top packs a vicious punch of unexpected flavour also.

Callum, everyone's favourite Masterchef runner up contestant hails from the Barossa Valley and was here to represent. Pairing up with Lachlan; the pair proceeded to demonstrate how to carve up a duck, showing techniques that can be applied to other winged creatures. The large duck we are working with tonight is from Waechter Dux, a free range duck far within the Barossa Valley. The ducks are on a special Barossa grain diet and lead a happy life roaming the farm fields. 

 The duck breast meat was to be part of the dish we would be recreating later in the evening. Lachlan demonstrated with ease how to carve out the breast from a full duck. In a nutshell the wings and legs are extended and the bones broken and cut off. Any joints are used as an indication of where to cut through the skin folds. Lachlan made this look very effortless, however this might not be the case when trying it at home. We were then showed how to cook the duck breast, pan frying it until golden and then popping it in the oven for 8 minutes to finish the job. Meanwhile Callum was showing everyone how to concoct the swede puree we would all be cooking later in the evening. 

 After the lesson in poultry carving we were presented with a big Kingfish. More specifically it was a Hiramassa Yellow Tail Kingfish, farmed by Cleanseas in South Australia. Lachlan was explaining that the quality of the fish is amazing because the flesh is not damaged or bruised. It's the perfect fish for sashimi because it is fleshy and full of flavour. 

He procees to then explains to us how fresh this partucular fish is with its firm texture, glossy sheen and as morbid as it sounds - the bright red blood. After a "gutting" demonstration, Lachlan expertly slices the fish along its spine from the base of the head working right down to the tail. With surgical precision, he produces a fine piece of boneless hiramasa fillet and proceeds to slice it into bite sized pieces. 


And now, it was our turn to re-create these delectable dishes.

 The second part of the Seafood School was the fully equipped modern kitchen. We were assigned groups and provided with the recipes to recreate the Kingfish and Duck dishes demonstrated earlier. Our group of five consisted of Bridget aka The Internet Chef, Carmel aka @CarmR, Bianca from the PEPR team and this Empty Fridge duo. Teamwork was cruicial in getting the two dishes underway and everyone was given a component of each dish to complete.

Happy Australia Day - Now have a drink!

 Booze and Barbecues - Dare I say there is nothing more Australian than that?  I love celebrating Australia day. The weather, from memory, is always glorious and all around our beautiful country groups of friends and families are perfecting the art of the backyard BBQ. Although our menu turns out more Mediterranean than Australian (hey - its a bunch of 4 euro's and a token asian!) we are Aussie kids through and through!

 I wanted to share some photos from the BBQ we had last weekend with our very best friends Steph, Lu and E. It was a lunch that was planned at the very last hour and we amazed ourselves at what we managed to pull together. The sun was out, and we hustled together to get food on the table - so as a result, the five of us ended up with a spread that would feed 20. Whoops! It just really proved that BBQ's are ingrained in our Aussie DNA and that when a webber and group of people are present - it just manifests! It was such a fun day and with the amount of food we consumed, we had to wait more that an hour before jumping in the pool.

Greek Keftedes & the Sydney Food Bloggers Christmas Picnic

There are a million things I have to do right now - and on top of the list is packing. You see, we thought it was a smart idea at the time to book a flight on Christmas night. Yes, on the evening of the 25th we are boarding a plane at 10:00 pm..this is a guess a I haven't even printed the itinerary. Unfortunately, between finishing up everything at work, catching up with friends before the holidays and not to mention the 2 Christmas eve dinners and 2 Christmas day lunches between both Demos and My families - the last thing I want to do is the necessary - so I procrastinate! Here's hoping the magical elves pack my suitcase while I write up this post!

 A few weekends ago, the a few very lovely members of the  Sydney Food Blogging community (seen fiercely posing in the photo above care of Simon @theheartoffood) all joined forces to bring some Christmas cheer to Centennial Park. Organised by Helen @grabyourfork and Suze @chocolatesuze - it was a fun afternoon filled with delicious food, fun games and awesome company! Behold the sweet treats and prepare for hunger pains! The dish we brought to the Picnic were homemade Greek Meatballs - aka Keftedes. I don't even think that I can even say that "we" brought this dish - since the only contribution I made to the cause was a hand written sign saying what they were. Yes, it was all by Demos, who spent the morning rolling each serve, frying them, and organising everything down to the Christmas napkins and placemat.

I will add the secret family recipe at the end of this post - I don't think Demos' yia yia and pa pou wil be too happy about that though :) So for some distraction - check out some of the treats that were on the day...