A bunch of coconuts!!

Hey all. Yes, I agree it's a bit crazy to be typing at almost 3am in the morning on my blog! But it's worth it! There are a couple of new dishes I've created to change the menu. I've played around with enough different recipes to convert them into my own and reveal to you a couple which are starring on the menu starting tomorrow!! I mean today. heheh

For all the people who see me chop coconuts and fear for my hand getting chopped off by a cleaver, (Left hand holds the coconut on the side mid air, while right hand holds the cleaver) I will be happy to tell you that I am taking the delicious young coconut pannacotta off the menu but replacing it with coconut creme caramel. The recipe does not require young coconut water so no need to worry about my hand or the splatter of juice in my face when I hit it on a peculiar angle. However, I do need to be careful of hot burning caramel. In saying that because I scorched the tip of my finger today in hot caramel. It is so sore and typing on it ain't easy. Lesson learned!!!
I've had the urge to make creme caramel for a while now and am glad i did it! My craving is fixed after eating...

Coconut creme caramel, pineapple and kaffir lime salad, wonton crisps



With all the recipes I looked at to create this creme caramel, I just wasn't happy. They either had coconut milk with normal cream or coconut cream with normal milk. I made this dish with coconut cream and coconut milk. It doesn't taste eggy and is just so smooth. Better yet, it's a lactose free dessert. When the wonton skin gets fried up and is dusted with icing sugar, it tastes like the italian crostoli. Yum yum!!

On the topic of special dietary requirements, this week's sweet special has been a sweet success! It has five different components which marry together beautifully and is lactose and gluten free.

Almond pannacotta, chocolate meringue sponge, dark palm tapioca caramel, poached pear, coconut sorbet and coconut wafer

Hot roasted almonds are infused in warm 'Bonsoy' soy milk for 24 hours to transfer the nutty taste. The chocolate sponge has only eggs, sugar and cocoa powder which makes it moist and has no flour in it. Oh..and I lied before, I might still need to crack a few coconuts for the coconut juice to make the coconut sorbet. At least I don't need to make my own shredded coconut for the coconut crisp though. The caramel is made of dark palm sugar, honey and a little butter. When cool, it is mixed with the cooked tapioca pearl. Tapioca pearls are made from the starch extract of cassava root. I call this the Asian trifle.

Souffle for the week is...

Pear souffle with fresh figs, creme fraiche sorbet and macadamia crumble

The figs are drizzled with the reduced poaching liquid of the pear. The macadamia is very nutty and all the flavours go well together. Sweet and tangy. I'm dying to sell it! It's refreshing and truly an Autumn dish.

Coconut sponge, strawberry and pineapple compote and chocolate crumbs

The sweet bite are mini mouthfuls of the description above. However, it also has the additional spoonful of vanilla anglaise which adds a creamy element to the bite.

Pyengana Cheddar, Brie de Nangis and Rogue River Blue 'Special Reserve'


I'm falling asleep, I think it's time for bed. Have a good sleep and maybe I'll edit tomorrow. Xx

Roy Choi at CODA!!!

Good morning all!!

You are about to witness the experience that Roy Choi has made his mark in Australia through cooking at CODA! hehe..and of course this post is a Roy Choi exception which contains mostly savouries! I had to share the experience!! It was Brilliant!!

KOGI is a food business running from 5 food trucks and 3 venues throughout LA serving Korean Mexican flavours.The Kogi team Roy, Natasha, Caroline and Alice were here for Melbourne Food & Wine Festival. It was a privilege to work beside Roy (or better known as Papi Chulo) during his events at CODA and the Langham where his masterclasses were held.

The flavours I tell you are 'flavour on steroids' as Adam D'Sylva puts it. It is so tasty, tangy, sweet, hot, sour... fireworks in your mouth type food. I'm in love. I made sure in a week, I got as much of my KOGI fix as possible... or else I'd have to buy a ticket to go to LA to experience again (which isn't a bad thing of course)!

On Wednesday I assisted in the kitchen for the Gourmet Traveller Roy Choi Dinner. Before the night began, we had a briefing and taste of Roy's Menu. Yummy.

Hot Boxing It eaten by the handful, lotus, taro root and potato chips are sprinkled w kaffir dried shrimp salt

Tacos, Beachside Ahi poke chillis w red tofu in butter lettuce and sesame leaves, salsa verde and home fried shallots join the party

Parking Lot Prawns Grilled w avocado smash and grapefruit pico de gallo, fried garlic shavings and some salsa roja to get down with

Notorious: Juicy our love letter to cochinita pibil, a slab of fatty, spicy pork takes a low dip in some salted baby shrimp vinaigrette and chive kimchi

2Pac Chops a little sun soaked California love rubbed into our kalbi-marinated lamb chops w pickled Asian pear gremolata and salsa verde

OG status straight up, bone-in, aged and chilli-salted prime rib - roasted, grilled and served w lemongrass creme fraiche and rice

Gracias Sujunggwa cold, summertime persimmon, cinnamon ginger tea w lychee sorbet, pine nuts, berries and torn mint to cap off a warm and rainy day in Melbourne.

Thank you for salivating over the food I got to enjoy last week. You better wipe the drool off now hahaha.

I'll post more pictures up later behind the scenes in the kitchen and when I dine the next night in the dining room. Only at CODA.

For more of KOGI, please visit http://www.kogibbq.com/

Ciao ciao Xx

Floral and Frangrance!

Good morning to all!

Keeping it short and simple today, I have a new souffle dish that may or may not rock your world. Why don't you come in and try and tell me what you think? =)

Blood peach souffle with elderflower ice cream and earl grey sable



It's a very floral dish. Elderflower are tiny scented cream flowers which has a tropical taste. Kind of like lychee. Sable is a french term for shortbread and I used a standard recipe adding dried earl grey tea leaves grinded into a fine powder. Peaches are still in season at the moment so I decided to use blood peaches. They are a bit tart compared to normal yellow peaches, but serves great purpose of flavour in many desserts such as sorbets, ice cream, chutneys, jams...

Hope I get your tastes buds salivating! Xx

Movida Aqui!

I have been to Movida Aqui a few times with friends and had a few different dining experiences there which is quite nice. I had the chance to experience a seat at the bar, have lunch in the dining room and eat dessert outside on a nice summery night. The savoury food is awesome, but as my blog says..it's all about the sweets!!!
During a night out with friends recently, we decided to have desserts at Movida Aqui! We shared the taste plate and the cheese plate.

The taste plate Postre Para Compartir: Flan, Churros, Sopa Inglesa (trifle) and Chocolate with olive oil ice cream.

The Cheese: Basque de Bleu and Goat's cheese with quince paste and muscatels

I love the flan! I always order it whenever I get the chance at Movida or Movida Aqui! It comes with this spiced shortbread called pestinos and they're deep fried. Delicious goodness!! Unfortunately, the caramel was a bit burnt this time but at least it was nice and creamy. The churros were yummy! I just love deep fried food!! Especially dipped in chocolate !! The trifle was beautiful. It was fresh and I just loved the crunchy almonds!! I wasn't a big fan of the chocolate square. I think they used the spanish Selvetico chocolate which has a yoghurty chocolate taste to it. It was very rich. But nonetheless, I enjoyed the mouthfuls as I shared the platters with 3 of my friends over coffee and alcoholic beverages.

Last year when I went to eat at Movida Aqui for the first time, we ordered this chilled rice pudding! It was absolutely incredible!

Chilled rice pudding with cherry coulis and Spanish shortbread. (It has been so long, I forgot the name of it).

Great place to casually dine and enjoy savouries and desserts!!

G'night xx

http://www.movida.com.au/

Autumn!

Hey everyone! Autumn is here! Goodbye Summer and Hello Autumn!

CODA has started off Autumn being amazingly busy! All the staff have been under the pump trying to meet demands of hungry customers and the adrenalin rush is just taking over! I say "BRING IT"!

With the excitement of LA celebrity chef Roy Choi coming next week to star for 2 nights at CODA and the Melbourne Food and Wine festival going on, this month is going to be CRAZY!! and fun of course!!

To welcome Autumn, I give great pleasure to return the chocolate tart for a guest star appearance to accommodate the fresh organic figs I picked from my sister's backyard!

Chocolate tart with caramelised figs, mascarpone and a drizzle of PX sherry



My boss Adam D'Sylva had bought fresh pistachios to see what they were like and I took great pleasure...not.. hahaha into peeling them. They were rewarding in the end tasting buttery and OMG..so ridiculously pretty in colour.

Fresh Pistachios (you peel this soft layer, then there is a hard shell protecting the nut inside)

Peeled Pistachio (the nut after being removed from the shell)



The pistachios were best served freshly peeled with our cheese platters.

Mauri Taleggio, Pyengana Cheddar and Queso Valdeon Blue with Muscatel and verjus paste and fresh pistachios

Also, pistachios look great and are tasty in the biscotti I baked last night. So for our sweet bite, pistachio biscotti or Banana cream crumble is on offer this week. I made a banana compote and it's coated in butterscotch sauce with a dollop of creme patissiere and oat crumble.

 

Pistachio Biscotti and Banana cream crumble

G'night Xx