Desserted

I've been flicking through the small number of Asian cookbooks that I have and there don't seem to be many desserts whether traditional or otherwise. Being brought up with Western culture it seems incredibly strange! It's understandable though. When my mother was growing up in China, meat was considered such a delicacy that people who were sick from malnourishment would resort to eating human placentas. Peasants would cook up a stray dog found wandering the streets. Eggs could only be bought once a year if lucky and plain rice was what millions of people depended upon to keep their families alive during the famine that ravaged the country.

I have distant cousins, aunts and uncles living in Northern China, their lives still irreparably damaged by the destruction caused by the cultural revolution. Although we've never met, and despite my complete ineptitude with the language, I feel as though food could be a point by which we could all connect. Or perhaps not. The lack of desserts really irks me. I think that my appreciation of food really lies in the sweets department which is a little wanting in my current situation. I found myself making jar after jar of marmalade on my day off last week which really is quite a bizarre occurrence.

I think that from tomorrow, I'll start and I mean really start trying to teach myself all about cakes, pastries and whatnot. I'm not really too sure exactly how much I'll learn about desserts where I'm at now professionally. Anyway, for the moment, here is a recipe for steamed snapper - an adaptation from 'Kylie Kwong: recipes and stories'

Steamed Snapper

"essence: The naturally sweet. delicate, moist flesh of the snapper combines with the aromatic ingredients to create a beautifully balanced, subtle, clean and salty flavour. This dish is an excellent example of the way steaming preserves purity of flavour and texture."

750 g whole snapper
2 leaves wong bok (Chinese cabbage)
1/2 recipe fish sauce
2 knobs ginger, peeled & julienne
1/4 C. shao xing wine
pinch castor sugar
pinch ground white pepper
1 tsp toasted sesame oil
3 Tbsp tamari (gluten-free soy)
1/4 C. shallot julienne
1/4 C. peanut oil
1/2 C. coriander leaves

Hold snapper firmly by the tail and with a knife, scrape towards the head to remove any scales.

Make 5 or 6 diagonal cuts parallel to the head approx. 1 1/2 cm apart, through to the bone. Repeat on the other side.

Bring a large steamer pot of water to the boil.

Place snapper on a plate, cover the body with ginger and slosh over the shao xing.

Place inside the steamer and replace the lid.

Steam for approximately 10-12 minutes or until cooked (flesh will be exposed and white through to the bone).

Quickly blanch cabbage leaves, drain and chop into rough squares.

Arrange cabbage squares on a large flat plate or bowl.

Carefully lift up the snapper and place over the cabbage.

Sprinkle over the sugar, pepper, sesame oil and tamari.

Bring fish sauce to the boil and pour over.

Place shallot julienne over the body.

Bring peanut oil to smoking point and pour over the fish to soften shallots.

Garnish with coriander leaves and serve immediately.

Trading behind the scenes

'In the kitchen, the Chinese chef cooks consciously or unconsciously according to the culinary laws of Yin and Yang - where harmony and balance between flavour, texture and ingredient is the essence.' - K. Kwong

It's an interesting experience working in a restaurant that prides itself on its philosophy 'to leave as small and light an environmental footprint as possible, to give back to the community, whenever and wherever we can, and to think globally, act locally.' I've just put down a copy of Sarah Murray's 'Moveable Feasts : From Ancient Rome to the 21st Century, the Incredible Journeys of the Things We Eat' and I'm taking a little time to reflect.

Here, organic and even biodynamic produce are sourced from locally certified farmers wherever feasible despite the daily pressure from current and incredibly unreliable suppliers. The use of biodynamic eggs, lamb and beef, free range Barossa hens, fairtrade chocolate, sustainable seafood, organic fruits and vegetables and so forth, are all a reflection on the huge commitment not only towards a heightened quality of produce, but also to the soil, the animals, the people and the environment.

I take my hat off to the woman who has successfully established an iconic Sydney restaurant geared towards the betterment of society and, unlike most other chefs, she has used her media status to promote sustainable farming and fairtrade produce at events like the Organic Expo and the upcoming Live Green.

Although Billy Kwong customers have the opportunity to offset the carbon emissions produced by dining through the purchase of renewable energy credits from a wind farm in Hebei, China, Murray warns that methane (gas from animals not the customers) unfortunately "warms the planet more than twenty times as much as the same amount of carbon dioxide". According to the 2006 UN publication 'Livestock's Long Shadow: Environmental Issues and Options', livestock which take up approximately 30% of the Earths surface now produce more greenhouse emissions than all the transport in the world!

Picking up a bar of 'Cocolo - Premium Organic Fairtrade Chocolate' I decided that I too would investigate the distance needed to bring this product together. The ingredients include: organic fairtrade cocoa mass (Bolivia and Peru), organic fairtrade evaporated cane juice (Philippines) and organic fairtrade cocoa butter (Bolivia and Dominican Republic). The chocolate is made in Switzerland before being shipped to Australia, so I calculated the shortest and most direct route for each ingredient via air passage first to the international airport in Bern and then to Sydney.

Assuming that both the organic fairtrade cocoa butter and cocoa mass from Sucre, Bolivia travel in the same shipment, the distance to Bern, Switzerland is 10,318km.

Organic fairtrade cocoa mass from Lima, Peru to Bern, Switzerland is 10,588km.

Organic fairtrade evaporated cane juice from Manila, Philippines to Bern, Switzerland is 10,533km.

Organic fairtrade cocoa butter from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic to Bern, Switzerland is 7,591km.

Made in Switzerland. 100% Australian owned company.

Cocolo dark 70% cocoa premium organic fairtrade chocolate from Bern, Switzerland to Sydney, Australia is 16,677km.

Total distance my bar of chocolate has travelled is 55,707km. To cover this distance by foot (and to put this in a much more shocking perspective), I would have to walk an average of 5km/hr, 24 hours a day nonstop for a year and 2 weeks!

I don't really have a moral to this post. I love my chocolate too much to give it up and well admit it, the Earth is doomed to implode anyway. The probability of cocoa being farmed in Australia is virtually nil and if it did miraculously happen, any benefits of buying locally would most certainly be dwarfed by the incredibly high costs of artificially produced greenhouse climates needed. For the moment or until the pending apocalypse anyway, I'm glad to be sending my money off to help farmers in less developed countries through smarter fairtrade product choice.

I've Adopted!

On the 29th of April, I become the proud parent of an adopted truffle tree beginning its life in the south of France. The Truffle Tree adoption scheme is run by a man who goes by the name of 'Dick Pyle' and his slightly unconventional and terribly risky business venture has so far been a resounding success.

A large envelope arrived in the mail yesterday evening and to my great surprise, it contained an official certificate of adoption and a big glossy photo of the small Holm oak tree whose life I am now financing. Dick says that the tree "..was planted in November 2006 and has been mycorrhized with spores of the Périgord Truffle (Tuber melanosporum) by Robin Pépinières of Saint-Laurent-du-Cros". Very interesting stuff.

The Devil's Marmalade

Kylie's mother - Pauline Kwong, often comes into the restaurant bearing gifts. She dined with us 3 times last week. 3 weeks ago she brought us some delicious homemade fairy cakes filled with whipped cream and on Monday we were presented with a huge 3kg bag chocked full of homegrown kumquats (organic of course). Chef asked us if we wanted to take any so i dutifully obliged, packing a few handfuls into a plastic takeaway container to bring home with me. I think he plans to pickle the remaining fruits although when he'll find the time I have no idea. I ruined my 80 dollar set of scales after dropping them one night so until I come across another set as ergonomically pleasing, recipes from henceforth will be recorded in volume measurements. Oh! How has the world come to this!

I decided to have a second attempt at citrus marmalade and made it this time using the cut-rind method. Kumquats are quite bitter, with their small size there is a larger ratio of skin to flesh so after chopping them all into tiny segments and removing the seeds, I placed them in a pot with enough water to cover them and brought it to the boil. I repeated this two more times to leach out the most volatile and bitter oils and whatnot from the skins.

The seeds are a great natural source of pectin so to release all that magic stuff, I boiled them up in water with a knob of ginger and cinnamon quills thrown in. While that was bubbling away, I strained the blanched segments and let it soak in a little fresh water. This apparently helps to release extra pectin present in the skins themselves.

After roughly 10 minutes (I was a little impatient) I strained the seeds, discarded them and added the liquid to the pot of segments. I picked out the aromatics and added them back to the pot with the castor sugar. I brought it all to the boil and let it cook out until it reached 105ºC. The temperature of sugar syrup funnily enough relies more on the percentage of water present as opposed to the amount of heat applied. So, if you're a little pressed for time, use as wide a pot as possible to increase the rate of evaporation, start off with just enough water to cover the fruit to ensure even cooking (or you may still be wondering why on earth it hasn't reached the correct temperature before your retirement party comes around) and for god sake don't leave the lid on! Oh and remember when adjusting marmalade recipes - the more sugar you add, the more liquid:fruit you'll end up with and you may need to think about adding extra pectin to gelify the additional mass.
­
Kumquat Marmalade

3 C. kumquats
1 1/4 C. castor sugar
1 knob ginger
2 cinnamon quills

Slice kumquats and blanch in fresh water 3 times.
Drain and soak in fresh water with sugar thrown in.
Boil kumquat seeds in water with ginger and cinnamon for 10 minutes.
Strain and add pectin water, ginger and cinnamon to segments.
Bring to the boil (carefully now, it may want to bubble over), stirring occasionally until it reaches 105ºC.
Pour into a sterilised jar and seal.
Keep refrigerated.
­
­

Restaurant 08* Sydney

What really caught my eye when an invitation fluttered out of my letterbox and onto the ground almost two months ago was a glimpse of a familiar Danish face. I did a double take and the first thought that came to mind was: "Does he know about them using his picture?". Apparently not, athough in his light-hearted nature he seemed to find the whole situation quite amusing. It appears I won't actually be able to make it to the Restaurant Events Show this year which I'm moping around the house about. Since October last year I've never had to work on a Monday.. Of course, that is until now. Dagnabbit! Oh well. For everyone else who can go, it is being held this Monday and Tuesday (the 11th and 12th of August) at the Royal Hall of Industries, Moore Park. Tickets are free and can be pre-registered online here or on arrival at the event. Don't forget to tell me all about the goodies I missed out on *sobsob*.

restaurantevents.com.au

Something Smells Fishy

It's my third day on the job and I've already been promoted to working the steamer section. What does that mean you ask? For the first time I've been given total control over a 6 top burner to set up as I please, my very own hot section. With more responsibility comes hard work though and boy do I need to work hard! Last night was a bombardment of calls.

"New order! Banquet for two! I need two steamed scallops in!"
"Two snapper and a two minute call for rice to go with!"
"Oysters for four!"
"Scallops away. I need a pork in and 6 prawn wantons!"
"Here, take these bass fillets and pork"
"Oysters on the pass Chef!"
"You've got a calamari salad for 6!"
"Hot oil please!"
"Chicken to table 10!"
"How long for snapper?"
"I need a greens to go with those fish and 4 scallops!"
"Tofu salad!"
"6 scallops wontons and broccoli for 2 please!"
"Can I have the pork out?"
"Quick put this rice in!"
"Service!"

I stumbled home at half past one after my first Saturday night service at BK, kicked off my shoes and crawled straight into bed. I can't remember the last time I felt so exhausted. No wait. I take that back. It was Friday.

­

Head chef Hamish Ingham is finally saying his goodbyes to the restaurant. He's been around for so long he's like the B in Billy Kwong and we all know what Billy Kwong without the B is - illy Kwong. Not to mention unrecognisable! Even Google identifies it as an obvious mistake on my part.

­

I've never worked anywhere before that has really stressed the importance of using only the best and freshest ingredients to such an extent. Everything and I mean absolutely everything is prepped daily regardless of stock left over from the previous service (well ..with the exception of XO sauce which is made weekly). The refrigeration unit rivals only the space of my closet and without a freezer all the remaining produce goes towards staff meals at the end of the night.

­

Dashing waiter Clinton works out and has to have protein from the sea, either in the form of kingfish sashimi or bass groper. Flamboyant floor manager Kin likes a little more diversity and will choose from the bass groper, whole snapper or chicken but prefers everything with a little less soy (judging by his flawless skin it could very well be the reason behind his young complexion). Belle - waitress extraordinaire has had everything by now and will take anything you give her if you make her feel special. Runners - Natasha is a nondescript vegetarian with many secrets and Lucy is a shy youngster just beginning her romantic journey into the whirlwind industry that is hospitality.

­

It's fairly strange to work in a kitchen that lacks all measuring equipment aside from 3 large measuring jugs, one of which is used to hold oil for the wok station, the second to top up water levels in the steamers during service and the other just sort of hangs around with its sad-looking melted handle for no particular reason. Apparently the Chinese philosophy is to cook gauging by taste, sight and feel which at first frightened me because with lots of things (and baked desserts especially) inaccuracy doesn't yield very good results. Luckily there are no baked desserts involved but the balance of sweet, salty, sour, xian, heat, etc. is actually not too hard to pick up quickly. I'll leave you with a very roughly guesstimated recipe for 'fish sauce'. We use it very generously ladled over meaty white fish (whole snapper, bass groper & hapuka fillets) which have first been steamed with ginger julienne and shaoxing (fermented rice) wine then sprinkled with sesame oil, a pinch of sugar, crushed white pepper, a tiny dash of tamari (a gluten-free substitute for soy) and shallot julienne doused with sizzling hot peanut oil.

­

Fish Sauce

100 ml Shaoxing wine
1/9 cup organic cane sugar
400 ml water
90 ml organic tamari

In a medium pot bring wine to the boil.

Add sugar and stir to dissolve.

Keep at a rolling boil for 5 minutes.

Pour in water and tamari and bring to the boil.

Taste and add more sugar/water/tamari if needed.