A Lunch Affair: SMH Dymocks Literary Luncheon with Matt Moran

Good Food Month is long gone and most revellers are still rubbing their brimming bellies full of a whole month’s worth of good food. For me GFM ended with the last of the SMH Dymocks Luncheons and this one in particular was for celebrated Aussie chef, Matt Moran. I am guessing that the luncheon was held to coincide with the release of Matt's first cookbook, self-titled Matt Moran. It was held in the dimly lit ballroom (hence the yellow photographs) of the Four Season Hotel in the city.

I had heard of Moran’s short fuse and his somewhat fiery Ramsay-esque persona, however I had never watched the SBS series Heat in the Kitchen nor had I read or seen much of Matt Moran other than from his Aria Restaurant fame. So when I encountered him for the first time, I really didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t expect him to fly off the handle at such a civil luncheon in his honour but I also wasn’t expecting a saint. It’s fair to say that although his reputation preceded him, there was certainly more to this man than his hot-headed alter ego. All I can say is that on stage, he was nothing short of charming and delightful.

Helen Greenwood features writer for SMH's Good Living section, introduces Matt to the stage after a glowing account of her first impressions of Matt as a young sous chef. Cue the laughter and a round of applause, as Matt walks to the podium, his imposing stature and tough-guy appearance is affirmed by his bald head and casual blue polo shirt. A self-confessed thug, Matt begins to tell of his home economic days at school, his short stint at Parramatta RSL and his big break at La Belle Helene. This is where the infamous story takes place, where Matt unknowingly strains some duck stock over the sink and literally down the drain. Surprisingly the head chef doesn’t impale him with a mop or slash him to bits with a cleaver, which he probably deserved but rather offered him a full-time job. Gee, if only my misadventures could bring me this much luck!

Although it did seem like fate for Matt to become a chef, his beginnings were humble and his country boy upbringing in Dubbo was everything short of culinary-rich. He confesses that he never had a decent meal until he was about fifteen and jokes about how he thought he never really liked seafood, until he actually tasted it for the first time. I guess there wasn’t much in terms of seafood up in Dubbo. Luckily for us, this country boy is now far from Dubbo, seeing the big lights of city. Aside from managing the kitchen at Aria he has also landed a partnership alongside Singapore Airlines as a consultant for Business and First class dining, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Gordon Ramsay, George Blanc and Alfred Portale and has also been invited to cook at the James Beard House. It’s an enviable list of qualifications for any chef.

But enough about Matt and more about the food; the lunch started off with some free flowing De Bortoli Willowglen and some sourdough rolls and butter, which is always a good start if you ask me. Then came a neatly plated jewfish with mushroom crust and gremolata. Beneath the perfectly cooked jewfish, which according to Helen is extremely hard to source, were some nicely sautéed kipfler potatoes. There wasn’t much to the plate although by the last mouthful I was almost stuffed.

I did say I was almost stuffed, but not completely. So of course there was enough room to squeeze in some dessert, which was a mango carpaccio with passionfruit and lime ice cream. The wafer thin slices of mango was as fresh as you could get, plump, juicy and sweet. Combined with the lime ice cream, it was an explosion of flavours in your mouth. Unlike some sickly sweet desserts that make you feel ill afterwards this was the contrary, it was refreshing, light and a great counterpart to the fish.

Altogether the meal was exactly what I would expect from Matt Moran. It was simple and stylish, excellent but not striving. He wasn’t about pushing flavours or pedestrian food trends; it was all about the produce and the cuisine. I now have a newfound admiration for Moran, who from humble beginnings worked tirelessly to make a name for himself. He might be a celebrity chef, but that title doesn’t come easily or at all without the toil of a tough fifteen-year slog. His ego isn’t really all about himself, it’s more about the food and making it excellent; and I suppose when you become an accomplished chef, you kind of just unwittingly grow yourself a character. I guess it comes with the territory.

After the meal, Matt proceeded into the foyer of the Four Seasons ballroom and began to sign autographs and further engage in culinary discourse with the eager crowd. We wavered between staying and going although by this time the line had multiplied to the size of an Amazonian anaconda and by then we were not in the mood for standing in a queue. So I took a few customary shots of the illustrious Matt Moran, most of them blurry and off we went to do some shopping.

Aria Restaurant
1 Macquarie St
East Circular Quay,
Sydney NSW 2000
Phone: (02) 9252 2555

Serendipity Ice Cream Class: Part II

All hands on deck

Eighteen strangers arrived at Serendipity's Marickville factory on a crisp Wednesday evening with eager anticipation and probably a certain amount of trepidation as to what delights or possibly horrors were in store for them that night. Thankfully, within the first 5 minutes of the class, owner Sarah Mandelson had already managed to capture the attention of her class regaling us with amusing anecdotes and enthusing about her love for ice cream. You could tell that ice cream is her passion and she and husband Richard have really staked their reputation on making some of the finest and most luxurious ice cream in Sydney.

The first portion of the class was a basic introduction to her and a short history on how Serendipity Ice Cream came about; which was actually borne more out of necessity than pure chance. Her mother Alix Mandelson, who was an American married to an Australian, missed all the “wacky” American ice cream flavours like Run and Raisin and Rocky Road that were not available here in Sydney during the 60’s. So she found Serendipity Ice cream; and back then Alix would make all the ice cream for the shop using her manual self-churn ice cream maker, an austere contraption that looked a lot like a bucket with a wheel attached to churn the cream while it was submerged in some ice. Now that’s a lot of elbow grease! Ice cream is most certainly in Sarah’s blood, as her mother was not only heavily pregnant while (self)-churning her first batch of Serendipity ice cream but she was actually in labour with Sarah.

The ice cream being made for the class was a Wattleseed and Grand Marnier Ice Cream. You start off with a crème anglaise consisting of cream (35%-40% fat content), milk (full cream or 4% fat) and egg yolks (free-range). This mixture needs to be stirred over a double broiler continuously. Once you have started this process you shouldn't leave the stove, as Sarah emphasises the minute you leave the stove is the instant the crème anglaise will decide to turn into scrambled eggs.

While stirring the crème anglaise, you can now add your sugar; you can also use honey, golden syrup, maple syrup or glucose, whatever you like. Also other flavours you would like to infuse your ice cream with can also be added now, especially things such as herbs, spices and coffee which need to be steeped to release their flavour. Just remember solids such as cinammon sticks and cloves will need to be strained before churning. Once the crème anglaise has thickened, which is after about 20 minutes of continuous stirring you now have your base for your ice cream.

Now it's time to add your flavourings- today we are using wattleseeds, orange zest, orange essential oil and Grand Marnier. Sarah mentions it is advisable to add several types of flavourings if your base flavour is not potent enough. For example, the orange zest would not have been sufficient to render our ice cream the orange flavour we desired, so to solve this, we added some orange oil and Grand Marnier to boost its overall orange flavour. For the purposes of the class and time restrictions we made a concentrated crème anglaise base and just added this to a large batch of plain crème anglaise that Sarah had made and chilled earlier. That is why the crème anglaise looks extremely dark here.

The next step, which is vital, is to chill your crème anglaise; as it is not advisable to pour your mixture into any type of ice cream machine while still warm. As Sarah recalls, this is how you would effectively destroy your ice cream machine and your crème anglaise. If this ever happens, you will need to start over. Seeing that for our class Sarah had already prepared a chilled batch of crème anglaise, all we had to do was pour in our concentrated wattleseed mixture into the prepared batch and take a short walk to Gina, their affectionately named ice cream machine.

Then you play the waiting game. Luckily for us, Gina is a commercial ice cream machine and can churn nearly 20 litres in less than a mere 10 minutes. After Gina spits out the churned ice cream into buckets we were then allowed to go for our life and fill our 1-litre containers. Sarah asserts that we all fill our containers to the brim as that pockets of air in the container will cause undesired ice crystals to form when frozen. We gladly took her advice and with even more enthusiam accepted the offer to make sure we licked our giant ice cream spatulas clean. They didn't call it hands on for nothing.

After you have placed your ice cream in its container you will have to chill it for some time until it is completely frozen. Depending on how efficient your freezer is, this could take an hour or so. We were lucky that Sarah packed our ice cream with some dry ice to continue the freezing process on the way home. Once the ice cream is frozen, the only step left is to devour it with as much gusto and appreciation that was excercised while making the ice cream.

These are some things I learned...
+ Sugar not only makes you ice cream taste better, but it also acts to depress the freezing point of your ice cream thus making for a softer product that is easier to eat. It is actually better to use natural sugars as opposed to artificial sweeteners when making ice cream as that the sugar helps to bind and create a smooth luscious texture to your ice cream.
+ When substituting sugars, replace it weight for weight as sugar volumes vary between different sweeteners. So substituting by weight is a safer bet.
+ Unless you are making gelato or sorbet (not ice cream), do not skimp on the cream or the amount of butterfat content, using more milk or water will cause your ice cream to be harder and not as velvety. They don’t call it ice cream for nothing.
+ Do not use too much alcohol in your ice cream, as that alcohol will cause the ice cream not to freeze at all, resulting in a gooey mush that evidently will not look or taste like ice cream. As a guideline, your ice cream should have no more than 2%-4% alcoholic volume. You can cook the alcohol off first if you want to use more for flavour.
+ Alcohol will actually give the ice cream a very cold “mouth feel”. But adding too much will result in a disaster.
+ When making a vanilla bean ice cream, rub the vanilla beans into the sugar to disperse the seeds and not form clumps.
+ Pieces of nuts should not be added to your crème anglaise. To get maximum flavour, roast them first, chop them and then mix through after churning.
+ Never under any circumstances add citrus juice (acids) to your crème anglaise unless you want to make yoghurt. For citrus flavours, use the zest or essential oils instead.
+ Fruits that have high water content may need to be cooked to a jam consistency before adding to your crème anglaise.
+ When it comes to ice cream, you are only limited by your imagination!

See Part I, with pictures of the the final product

Serendipity
333 Enmore Rd
Marickville NSW 2204
Phone: (02) 9557 8986

Check out the last of the round up for Good Food Month here.

The winner is...

The fritter entries came through in mass, and this month’s Donna Day has proved to be another nail-biter. With the contest again being won by only one vote, it was a tight race for first place. So I am pleased to announce the winner is…

virtual drum roll follows…

Il Cavoletto di Bruxelles’ Prosciutto and Asiago cheese fritters with balsamico onions!!!

With such a mouth-watering entry like this I can see why it came through triumphant in the end. Your fritter not only showcased some of your regions finest produce but your dish was inspired and so beautifully presented. So a big congratulations to Sigrid, who is the brains behind this beauty. I now pass the baton to you and dub you Queen of Fritters!

Serendipity Ice Cream Class: Part I

[I apologise now for this rather verbose post, but when it comes to ice cream I just cannot be concise]

When one is presented with the opportunity to witness ice cream being made by one of the city’s leading artisans, one should not retreat into reticence but rather do everything in their power to get themselves to that class. Be it feigning illness to get out work commitments or even selling the proverbial kidney, do whatever needs to be done to get to there, especially when one claims to love ice cream almost as much as breathing itself.

Boy do I love ice cream.

Okay, perhaps my passion for ice cream really does not extend so far as to support those outlandish claims, but I cannot ignore the fact that I love ice cream. Even as a child I have vivid memories of how slowly and meticulously I would eat a scoop of ice cream, scooping, scraping and licking in a methodical and almost Zen-like fashion. So whatever it is I love about ice cream, it began at an early age and I am forever ruined for it. Nothing else can compare to a creamy scoop of velvety ice cream, or gelato, or sorbet or semi freddo. Anything frozen and scoop-able is encompassed in this affection.

So where does this lovesick introduction lead us? To the Serendipity “hands on” class being run during Good Food Month, that’s where!

Running the hands on class was Sarah Mandelson, who along with her husband is the owner at the helm of Serendipity. I was delighted to see that she was nowhere near the size of a house and thus proved to me that ice cream does not cause you to, let’s just say, “chubbify”.

A little bit of history. The company was started by Sarah’s mother Alix, who as an American living in Australia pined for the “wacky” American ice cream flavours that seemed to be absent in Australia. Apparently the only unconventional flavour Australia boasted back then was the humble Neapolitan, and unfortunately her mother was allergic to chocolate which left for an uninspired combination of strawberry and vanilla. So what this meant was that an alternative had to be birthed, and so came Serendipity.

The underlying mantra for Serendipity is to use all natural ingredients and to use the best, which means no skimping on the cream and to always use the freshest eggs. This I cannot agree with more and after tasting a scoop of Sarah’s ice cream, you will notice how lacking the conventional store-bought ice creams really are. She claims that for the money you would pay for a seemingly “premium” ice cream from the supermarket, there is probably more air churned into the mixture than ice cream itself. Serendipity can pride themselves on making “super premium” ice cream which refers to the fat content (at least 14%) in their ice cream. I know what you’re thinking, whoa mama that's a lot of fat! Although this may seem like a lot, one scoop of her rich and creamy ice cream is more than enough to satisfy. Her ice cream wasn’t designed to be eaten in bulk; it’s more of a luxury item than a cheap thrill.

Sarah’s teaching style is light-hearted and humorous, and her approach to making ice cream is simple and straightforward. She is not one for convoluted techniques and asserts that those long-winded steps are just being “too precious”. What she lacks in convolutions she makes up for creativity, and urges us that the flavour of ice cream is only limited by our imagination. For instance, she tells us of a Laksa ice cream her and her husband concocted for a recent festival in Chinatown. Probably one of the few ice creams to ever contain seafood products! I don't know if I would have fancied this flavour, but this is what she coins as, “intellectual ice cream”- ice cream that will make you think, but will not make you go for another scoop; as opposed to “emotional ice cream”- the kind that you always want more of despite better judgment (and your hips) telling you no.

The class cost me $40 for 1½ hours but to be honest, I felt like I got a lot for my money. When I left the Marickville factory, I came away with a handful of great ice cream recipes, a wealth of knowledge in making homemade ice cream from scratch, a truly enjoyable time, and a 1-litre tub of freshly made Wattleseed and Grand Marnier Ice Cream packed with my very own reserve of dry ice to keep my ice cream frozen throughout the trip home. All bases were covered and really, what more could you ask for?

Part II: an ice cream class pictorial

See more hands on experiences during Good Food Month at Rebecca Cucina.

Serendipity
333 Enmore Rd
Marickville NSW 2204
Phone: (02) 9557 8986