Easter Sunday - itching for fish...
Went to the Fish Market and found a beautiful "arrivage" of turbot, one of my favourite fish and quite rare to find in Sydney, as it is a cold water fish and is usually imported from New Zealand.
The young Indonesian lady who served me pointed me first towards the Yellowbelly flounder, but I had no intention to settle for this cheap cousin of the Dover sole and even more so with a load of beautiful turbots next to them.
But this young lady was not your ordinary sales attendant, just there to earn a wage and improve her cash position while attending Uni.
She actually asked me why it was better and how you should cook it.

So while some of her colleagues back of house was filleting my turbot, we engaged in a short and concise cooking lesson. So this post is for her.
Although I didn't prepared a "beurre blanc" (literally "white butter") today - I just poached the fish and added a drop of Lebanese virgin olive oil after removing the skin - I thought I would show you some of the steps I took to cook this beautiful fish and my usual side of braised fennel.
And I will add two videos found on YouTube, one in French, one in American, illustrating two different methods to prepare a "beurre blanc".
First thing first, you need to prepare a "court-bouillon' - literally a "short boil":
Take an oven dish, fill it halfway with hot water, add bay leaves (laurel), pepper corns, cloves, and some sea salt
and put it on the stove and bring to the boil.

In the meantime, start preparing your vegetables: slice some oignons, red peppers and a couple of fennel bulbs.
Throw some of the leaves in the cout-bouillon and keep some in the pan with the vegetables.
Get a saucepan with a thick bottom, pour a little extra virgin olive oil, bring to sizzle, add the onions and peppers first and cook for five minutes. Add the fennel, season with salt and pepper, reduce the heat and cover

Then, if you were to prepare a "beurre blanc', you would do that now, during the 15-20mns it takes for the fennel to cook - more on that later.
So here is the French video on how to prepare a "beurre blanc"

Note the simplicity of the ingredients: shallots, vinegar, white wine, salt, pepper and...butter
I would use some from "Echire" (available in Sydney at Harris Farm, midly salted, so don't add any more salt...)
or you can use the unsalted Lurpak from Denmark, available both at Coles and Harris Farm.
You need some rich butter to get the "fluffiness" right. The butter needs to be at room temperature.
Now. let's have a look at the American version. I let you watch and then, I will make some comments...

Altough the French recipe is labelled "easy" (facile", it is actually the American version which is not as challenging, because the butter doesn't need to be at room temperature - the recipe is done on the stove - and as a result, you need to add cream, so the butter doesn't risk to "split" due to the heat.
Besides, adding cream changes the taste and makes it less refined, espacially if you have access to real butter!
The advantage is that your sauce will be still warm enough when you serve.
The french version needs to be rehated on a "bain-marie" until you are ready to serve.
Now, let's see what we do next with the turbot:
Remove the heat from the cout-bouillon, wait for the boil to stop and then immerse the turbot fillets gently in the court-bouillon. depending on the thickness of the fillets you may need up to 10mns to cook them through.

By now, our fennels should be almost ready: add a little water, put the heat up with no cover, so all the juices from the olive oil and the vegetables get to caramelise a little - don't burn it!

It shouldn't take more than a few minutes, so now it is time to share some oysters and a glass of wine with your guest! Turn the heat off, cover up and enjoy yourself.

It is finally time to assemble your main course: gently remove a fillet of turbot from the court-bouillon, add some fennel on the side and serve immediately. Serve the beurre blanc separately for each guest to use to their own preference. Add a small bottle of extra virgin olive oil on the table for people who would prefer. Enjoy!!!

Herve Gambs is an eclectic artist and designer, with a predilection for perfumes and nature inspired objects. His most recent shop has opened less than a year ago Boulevard Beaumarchais near Le Marais.
He has another shop in St Germain and one in Japan.
You can also shop online.
The shop I visited is on two levels, and includes a design section, a flower shop, a homewares section and a cafe. 
Chances are you will find something interesting in this diverse, elegant and quirky environment.
Every month, a designer is invited to show his/her creations.
Over my visit in October, some interesting cardboard furniture was on display by Audrey Meline, a young French designer  trained at The Arts Decoratifs School in Strasbourg. It is certainly up to the minute, recycable and affordable (almost...)

I was quite taken by the funny clocks and also the flowers: it felt like being in an urban jungle with its profusion of different species and perfumes: no wonder Herve wanted to bottle them up!

And I can't believe that I just received an invitation from GAMBS today, so if you are in Paris next week, just go!

As Provence is in my blood through my mother's ancestry, Vendee is in my blood through my father's family.
Interestingly enough, he ended his life there quite by accident, mainly because my sister chose to buy a house in Les Sables d'Olonne for her retirement.
We used to come to this part of the world and to Noirmoutier in particular for summer holidays and to visit my horologist great-uncle Victor in La Roche-sur-Yon.
I have great memories of these visits, as many a child would do, being left alone to our own devices, roaming the beaches, climbing trees and being treated to somptuous meals populated by all the wonderful local produce that Mum would accomodate in endless and delicious permutations.
I have just updated my "Travel" page with stories and photos of this pleasant part of France. Click here for more.

After a two month break, the growers are back at the Pyrmont Market in Sydney.
Before Christmas, I paid a visit to compatriot extraordinaire, Gilles, who with his wife of 30 years grows organic garlic near Braidwood, a small town between Canberra and Batemans Bay. It is a very seasonal business, as the garlic is harvested in November and all sold by the end of February, when it is time to plant again. See photo below.
Today brought two surprises; a new frenchman, Jean Marc Amar, who is at the market for the first time with his Australian made, but very French saucissons. It is believed that a 300g saucisson doesn't last more than 15mn...These ones will certainly have the same fate (or should I say fete...)
The second surprise comes in the form of an Italian inspired goat cheese from Willowbrae Cheese. Karen went on a grand tour of Italy last European Autumn and has refined her recipe since. One word: amazing!
Both products featured photographically below.
If you are going to have saucisson and/or cheese, then you need bread...and some red wine: you are in luck!
Near by in Ultimo, Ultimo Wine Centre have just received a shipment of the most amazing Pinot Noirs from Burgundy, and Domaine Gachot-Monot: Nuits-Saint-George, Cote de Nuits-Village and Bourgogne.
I have tried the Cote de Nuits-Village: it is simply delicious, supple, fruity, typical Pinot Noir, and thanks to the high aussie dollar, it is only 39.00$. I gather it won't last very long...If you miss out, you might want to rush and get one of the very few bottles left of Ultimo Wine Centre Hospices de Beaune Corton Grand Cru ‘Cuvee Dr Peste’  2007...
Finally, we can find bread and pastries (fromage et dessert anyone???) in Rozelle, where Labancz Patisserie boulangerie has taken over my favourite bakery, Moana Bakery, which has been operating for over 15 years and with three different owners. Pierre Labancz, of Deus Cafe fame is baking a reasonable baguette, although not as good as Moana, but excels in the "pate feuilletee" department: croissants and pains au chocolat being butter rich, crispy and fluffy at the same time...

Happy New year and Happy Chinese New Year to all of you.

We spent New Year's Eve and New Year in Carmel, California, far away from our traditional Sydney summer picnic and fireworks.
Instead, we had a quiet dinner at La Bicyclette, (http://www.labicycletterestaurant.com) quite a good French restaurant there. Returning to Carmel after 25 years of absence was kind of familiar and at the same time new, as boutiques and restaurants are now everywhere and the city has finally surrendered to worldwide concern for OH&S by lining the streets with sidewalks!
But it is still a charming little place,  with antique shopa, wine bars, delicatessen, fashion and cosmetics boutiques aplenty and gorgeously set among the tormented pine trees. And obviously, once you get to the beach, you could think you are somewhere in Australia, if not for January wintery chill in the air!
It seems also fashionable to have a "meute" of dogs to walk the beach and people seemed almost more attentive to their pets than their fellow human colleagues...

As a gift to all of you for this New Year, we will give you free access to our newsletters until the end of February, including our latest one on "Olives and Olive Oil". Enjoy!

I was barely back from Paris that work took me to another Capital, and for almost three weeks, Canberra has been "home away from home". I just returned yesterday and hopefully there will be little travel from now until Christmas...
So, having been on the road almost non-stop since the beginning of October, my usual enthusiasm for going out for dinner started to become more a necessity than a pleasure.
Sure, I do enjoy coming back again and again to Belluci's in Manuka, because of the honest Italian fare and the friendly service that one enjoys by being a regular, and also having "brekkie'"at My Cafe in Manuka as well, where I do not have to place an order as most of the waiters and waitresses as well as the owner would not dare serve me my coffee before I have finished my food (they make a very good Egg Benedict...), an unfortunate habit of all cafes in Australia, where you end up either ordering a second one later or drinking the first one cold...
So out of frustration, I went back to the Promenade Cafe at the Park Hyatt, a "valeur sure" in the Canberra hotel and restaurant scene. We had experienced some of the "new" style brought in by their new Executive Chef, Hartmut Kehm, and his Chef de Cuisine, Jiju Rajappen last Christmas, when I took my wife for a tour of the region's museums, restaurants and wineries and stayed at the Hyatt.
So here I am on a lonely Thursday night, and surprise, surprise, there is now a three-course menu for 65$! That has to be good value, even if you add a couple of glasses of wine (which I did...obviously!) and the total bill was 84$.
Most nights, for more money, I certainly didn't experience such good food in such a confortable and friendly environment.
Dinner that night consisted of an entree of prawns, followed by a lovely pair of Italian style home made sausages on a mash and a generous cheese plate. It was so good that I asked if I could talk to the Chef, and Jiju comes and introduced himself,  we have a chat, I told him about my blog, and how impressed I was with the new menu.
We said our good byes and a couple of days later, I got an email from him, asking me if I was going to be in Canberra two weeks later for an special Asparagus dinner. I may have done the trip just for that, but didn't have to as I was already booked to spend the week in Canberra anyway  - and no, it was not because the POTUS was in town...

The memories of this dinner still linger, being one of the best meal I had in a long time. See my review on our "Restaurants" page.

Also Jiju was kind enough to recreate some of the dishes from the set menu, so I could take proper photos: