Olive Oil and Muscat Cake with Roasted Pears and Vanilla Cream

Its been raining for the last couple of days and the weather forecast predicts that this will continue into the week. Thank goodness for this, our dear state certaintly needs every bit of rain it can get.



In liew of this cosy weather, here is a recipe for a stunning cake that can be both healthy and decadent at the same time (minus the cream that is), and really warms you up from the inside out. It was inspired by a recipe in Neil Perry's book "Good Food" that I received as a present from Bev a month back. Neil's recipe is based on a cake batter of olive oil and Sauternes, a wonderfully sweet dessert wine with raisin tones.

In place of Sauternes, I have chosen to use a sensational Muscat from the Mount Tamborine Winery instead, which boasts gutsy flavours of butterscotch and caramel (I think it was $25). I picked up this bottle of goodness on my last trip to Mount Tamborine, on the Gold Coast hinterland. It was there that I also promised the lovely lady at the cellar door that I'd whip up a fancy dessert to do justice to the fantastic wine somewhere in the near future. Mission accomplished.

Neil Perry finished his rendition of this dessert with Sauternes roasted pears and double cream, and I have done so too, substituting Muscat for Sauternes once again, and adding vanilla seeds to the cream for that extra bit of oomph. I urge you to give this one a go too!



Olive Oil and Muscat Cake

115 gms caster sugar
2 large eggs
185 ml extra virgin olive oil
125 ml Muscat (or other similar dessert wine)
80 ml milk
finely grated zest of 2 lemons
185 gms plain flour
2.5 tsp baking powder

Beat sugar and eggs in a bowl till pale and creamy. Add in oil, wine, milk and lemon zest and whisk to combine. Sift flour and baking powder into the wet mixture in the bowl and mix till evenly incorporated. Pour batter into a greased loaf tin (11 x 22 cm) and bake in a 180 degree celcius oven for around 40 minutes till cooked through. Rest the cake in the tin till it cools down significantly. Cut into slices and serve warm with roasted pears, and a sinful dollop of double cream with some vanilla seeds mixed in.

Muscat Roasted Pears

4 buerre bosc pears, quartered lengthwise, cores removed
80 ml Muscat
2 tbsps caster sugar
2 tbsps olive oil

Place pear quarters into a roasting tin/sheet and drizzle with wine, sugar and oil. Toss to coat. Roast in a 180 degree celcius oven for 45 minutes, alongside the cake, turning ocassionally. Pears are done when they are tender and caramelised. Cool to room temperature.

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The Perfect Laksa- Mastering the Art of 'Tumis'

For those new to laksa, it is a traditional Singaporean and Malaysian dish which is served with permutations of a strict few condiments: boiled prawns, fish cake, tofu puffs, bean sprouts, cockles, and hard boiled chicken, duck or quail eggs. Some vendors like to vary the toppings by adding shredded chicken or crayfish to the mix. Either way, real laksa deviates not much further from this set of toppings. So, now that you have been introduced to the real deal, if you ever see roast duck, pork, beef, scallops or bok choy coming into play, please let it send alarm bells ringing.

For an interesting article that talks about real, authentic laksa, please visit this link.

Making laksa from scratch is simpler than it sounds. All you need to do is learn the art of 'tumis'.



The art of making the perfect laksa, or any other curry for that matter, lies in this one simple process known as 'tumis'. Tumis is a Malay term that refers to the act of frying a spice paste till it is properly caramelised. All too often, I have witnessed fellow colleagues and Aussie TV chefs frying spice pastes for a mere 2 minutes before adding the other ingredients for a particular recipe. Please allow me to insist that cooking a spice paste should take at least 15 minutes, not 2 or 3. Undercooked spice pastes turn out dishes that are bland and horrible.

This techinque of tumis-ing can almost be compared to caramelising onions for French Onion Soup. You need to make sure that the base of the dish is completely and thouroughly caramelised before adding in any other ingredients, or else the dish just wouldn't take off. This, in my opinion, is the trick to cooking many a South East Asian dish.

The picture above shows a laksa spice paste which has just gone into the saucepan. It is mild yellow in colour, homogenous, and emulsified. It needs to be fried with the addition of a little oil in the saucepan till the solids in the paste caramelise. This will take a good 15-20 minutes of continuous stirring over a low heat (just imagine you are cooking risotto, keep stirring and don't walk away till its done).



This next picture (above) illustrates what a properly tumis-ed spice paste should look like. It has now transformed from a pale yellow into a deep red/orange. Notice also that the solids have 'split' away from the oil, and are now frying in their own fat. This is the easiest way to tell when the spice paste is done; the oil seperates from the paste, and the solids begin sizzling in the oil. Now now, there's no harm frying it even longer after this stage; you will just be deepening the colour and intensifying the flavour, which is always a good thing! Thus, I generally continue frying my pastes for a further 5 minutes past this point.



In the above picture, the dot of yellow stuff is a laksa spice paste that is 'raw'. The reddish dot above it is the same paste that has been cooked for 20 minutes over a slow flame, till it has been properly tumis-ed. Now, that should make for a pretty good bowl of laksa!

Laksa paste:
3 lemongrass stalks, lower 2 inches only, sliced
1 cm galangal peeled and sliced
3 candlenuts (or macadamia nuts), chopped
12 dried chillis, reconstitued in warm water
6 shallots, sliced
2 tbsp dried shrimp, reconstitued in warm water
1 tbsp tumeric powder
1 tbsp coriander powder
1 tsp shrimp paste (that smelly stuff from Asian grocers)
water
vegetable oil

Place all ingredients into a blender with a little oil and water to facilitate blending. Blend till smooth. Add more oil and water as necessary to keep the mixture blending.

Tumis as per guidelines above.

2 cups coconut milk
3 cups water
salt
sugar
noodles and condiments to serve
vietnamese mint (laksa leaf), chopped

Once paste is properly tumis-ed, add in water and coconut milk. Return to the boil and simmer for a few minutes. Season to taste with salt and sugar. Ladle over a bowl of noodles and top with condiments such as bean sprouts, hard boiled eggs, cooked shrimp and chicken. Scatter generously with Vietnamese mint, a must-have ingredient in laksa. Do not fret, Vietnamese mint, and all other ingredients listed are available in Coles and Woolworths supermarkets; the exceptions being dried shrimps and shrimp paste, which are easily available at most Asian grocers.

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Duck Degustation at Isis Brasserie

Isis Brasserie is one of the places in town that I would recommend anyone to go to for some seriously good food. Chef Jason Peppler and his team have, in the past, provided Bev and I with some of our top dining experiences here in Brisbane. For all you food lovers out there, you might like to know that they're running a special degustation menu exclusively for the months of May and June. I have attached the degustation menu here. The menu costs $95 for 9 courses of food, and $155 for food and matching wines.

The feature of this degustation is duck. And my oh my, these people really know how to turn the feature ingredient inside out, manipulating the humble canard into shapes and forms that go beyond our immediate expectations. Lo and behold, duck neck skins, duck eggs, duck livers, duck wings, duck blood, and the entire duck works found their way onto our plates in the most refined and elegant manner.

There was an article in The Age about the dawn of the degustation menu age, and how these dining styles ought to be tools for chefs to showcase their talents and the quality of their ingredients. I completely agree that the chefs at Isis have done precisely that. Even my dining companions agree that they could, I quote: "taste the skill that went into the food".

I apologise for the shoddy photos. I normally have trouble taking photographs at Isis because of the combination of the following 3 factors: 1) I'm still an amateur photographer, 2) their lovely mood lighting makes for a photographer's nightmare, and 3) I just want to dig in as soon as possible, the aroma of duck is way too irresistable to hold off for too long.


Canape: Duck and pork rillettes, sour dough crostini and cornichon


Cappuccino of duck with porcini mushroom powder- my favourite course of the night


Duck neck sausage (in the style of a galantine), with a salad of quince, apple and pistachio


Duck egg pasta, seared Queensland scallop and sauce albuferra- I lapped up every last drop of the gorgeous sauce


Duck liver on brioche, crisp proscuitto and sauce soubise


Civet of duck wing, home-made duck black pudding, peas and smooth potato puree


Sorbet: Lemon and star anise- I personally loved this combination of flavours


Seared duck breast, sweet potato fondant and Amarena cherries


Lemon scented souffle (probably made with duck eggs), white chocolate sorbet

We were highly impressed with most of the dishes on the menu. In our opinion, there were 2 dishes that fell a little under the mark though. We all agreed that the duck liver was slightly overcooked, and the dessert way too sweet. But yet again, in their defence, these are all mistakes to do with the food preparation on the day itself, rather than with the core concept of the dishes. Hopefully, these glitches won't occur when its your turn to dine there!

You need to book the duck degustation menu in advance should you wish to treat yourself to this all out duckfest. I suggest you buzz them real quick as this menu only lasts for a few more weeks!

Isis Brasserie
446 Brunswick Street
Fortitude Valley
Tel: (07) 3852 1155

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