bills #3

having visited bill grainger's restaurants in darlinghurst and surrey hills, i was delighted - nay, ecstatic - to discover there is a third version in woollahra, paddington. to re-cap my earlier experiences, i adored the darlinghurst place but was less in love with the surrey hills version, so my expectations were tamed a little.

bills woollahra is a beautiful spot, a cool, shaded courtyard away from the heat of the day already brewing at 8 or 9 am. to give you an idea of the area, this is a snippet of overheard conversation between two aus-sloaney women with yappy dogs 'you have to take him to board there - they hand-feed him poached chicken'.

however pampered the dogs, the people are every bit as lucky. i started with a flat white coffee, then submerged myself in corn fritters with bacon and tomato, and a side of avocado chunkily chopped up with spring onions. bert and the murph shared the same, plus a bowl of seasonal fruit. hg had creamy curds of scrambled egg on sourdough toast. i tasted the eggs and speculated out loud how they were made. 'his book uses cream in them' bert said, then added 'if you really want to know why don't you just ask him?' and nodded to the table behind me, where bill grainger himself sat.

bill! in all of his white teeth, man-tan, white-t-shirted glory! the man who put the inverted commas around 'lifestyle' in australia! look at his picturesque kitchen... and family... and wife! actually, melly bo is convinced it's a charade and he protests too much; that he's as gay as he is camp. i digress: how rude of me to gossip. the breakfast was delicious, the star-spotting wasted on someone as shy as me who would never disturb a breakfasting celeb, and the whole morning immortalised.

it didn't escape my attention that bill is doing a book signing in ten days...


links:

bills
http://www.bills.com.au/

another blogger has written about bills, darlinghurst here. i am fascinated by the whole blog and it's rating system.... and also the list of other breakfast blogs:
http://thebreakfastblog.blogspot.com/2005/05/bills-darlinghurst.html

Vegetarian Chopped Liver

Note to self about this great Jewish cook book I have been reading at Verity's. I was excited to finally discover what kreplach and cholent are, and I just adore the writing. I can't say any more now as Bert has just covered the table in cheese, olives, beer, fresh bread... Very Good Times!

'The art of Jewish Cooking' by Jennie Grossinger, Bantam Books, 1958 ISBN 0553205838

Incidentally, other great titles in the Bantam series of this time include: ' Fasting as a way of life', 'Blend it splendid'

are raisins ever welcome in a puttanesca?

to me, the answer is no. and the overwhelming majority of the straw poll i conducted (well, only bert so far) agreed with me.

a puttanesca is so easy and already super-flavourful ... why add raisins? there was also a smattering of toasted pine nuts which i'm not sure a purist would have necessarily added. i got my recipe from anna del conte so i am pretty sure it's a regular version.
well. i just had to get that off my chest.

in other news, bert made the most terrific salads this evening. there was tabbouleh, a fennel dish with lemon and orange zest, and also a salad of spinach, pumpkin and chevre cheese. super, super tasty and fresh. i am still craving fruit and veg after the long flight so this was perfect. there was fresh baguette with a virgin oil to dip into, plus another dish of sesame seeds and spice to dip the oily bread into. hg and i are being thoroughly spoiled here; we are going to have to think of something good to cook for bert and jim this week to say thank you. thinking cap on...

I have just had my second free coffee in two days. If only this were the start of a beautiful trend! Yesterday I benefitted from a latte surplus to requirements, and today I was apparently recognised as a regular who hasn't been seen in a while and this was a ploy to lure me back. Either that or I was being chatted up: I'm not very good at spotting the difference.

There's no reason for me to be impartial so.... Pret: the coffee shop that keeps on giving.

Come dine with Katie!

Before we even started there was a strong gin, served with my very favourite thing in all the world: devils on horseback. The beautiful little smoked salmon blinis were just lovely, but nothing can beat a sweet-salty prune and bacon combination.

On to the menu...
Smoked mackerel pate with oat biscuits












Chicken breast stuffed with mozzarella and chorizo served with crushed new potatoes with herb butter, and vegetables. The herb butter on the potatoes were really delicious, I could eat a whole pile of potatoes dressed like this. The chorizo was just a little overpowering for the chicken and mozarella, but entirely delicious all the same.

Pink chamapgne and rhubarb jelly with ice cream. This was awaited with curiosity by everyone... would you be able to taste the champagne? Warmed on the tongue, the jelly fizzed a little, as if a dab of sherbert was hidden in there. The rhubarb lent a clean, sour note, and the clotted cream ice cream was definitely needed to counterbalance this with its sweetness. The two together were amazing.

Coffee and chocolates.
And what chocolates they were. Handshaped dark chocolate with nuts: no after eights for this lady!

Katie also entertained us royally throughout, but I don't need to elaborate on that. Let's just say I was better at conducting with a chopstick than I thought... and Andy looks really cute in a white bear suit.

andy's brekkie

Putting the cart before the horse, here is the breakfast Andy made for us all, the night after Katie's meal:

I don't often crave a fry up, but if I know Andy is in front of the oven then I know it's going to be good.

pheasant, not peasant!

Having mortally offended my male parent by forgetting to take my brace of pheasants at Christmas, I had to accept the penalty of a 50% reduction in his affection... and was given one, naked pheasant last weekend.

Lucky me! And twice lucky that I didn't have to pluck and singe it, either. Having a constraint can be much easier sometimes. The constraint was time, the solution was casserole.

I chunked up the bird, taking off the leggy bits and breasts, and chopped the rest of the carcass in two. I browned it all in oil then removed to a plate, then flash-fried some diced pancetta in the pan and set aside with the pheasant.

Next, two small onions chopped finely and two cloves of garlic, sweated down.

Pheasant back in the pan, a glug of marsala, half a diced up squash and a few choice carrots... some marigold stock and a random 250 ml or so of beef stock from the freezer, which I was sick of seeing in there. Finally, some mushrooms from our veggie box were cleaned and added whole. It cooked for an hour then sat and mellowed until the next day.

After some wonderfully awkward, quiff and two-left footed dancing, dinner was dead quick. The casserole re-heated quickly with a dash of cream, and served with date cous cous* and toasted flaked almonds.

The gent chose wine from the very tiny Tesco selection. The label tells me it is 'Caves Saint-Pierre' and a 2007 Cotes du Rhone. The gent told me it is a mixture of grapes and not just from one grape. Or the other way round, and this is good because it avoids the flower bomb effect. Or, fruit bomb. Of cherry flavour, was it -? Perhaps I should have asked *before* we drunk it :/

*cous cous aside: it happened to be wholewheat cous cous, to which I added cinnamon, turmuric, chopped dates and marigold stock