Poor Knights of Windsor

Stale bread happens to all of us. A beautiful baked loaf, crusty on the outside, fluffy in the middle, dries out to an impenetrable heavy and crumbly mess within days. Give it a little more time, and, with the right swing, it soon becomes a potentially lethal weapon.

The latest Is My Blog Burning event (a free-for-all online cook-off for foodbloggers) is Yesterday's Bread hosted by Derrick from An Obsession with Food. Because in spite of its unfriendly appearance, stale bread is often the classic star in any culinary rags-to-riches story.

In this vein, Poor Knights of Windsor always sounded romantic and gallant to a hungry sugar-obsessed nine-year-old. More importantly, the photo of them in my mother's Woman's Day cookbook looked unbelievably delicious. It was always at this page that I paused at on rainy Sunday afternoons, the hazy image of fried French stick slices, dusted heavily with shimmering sugar crystals, stopping me immediately in my tracks .

Of course now I know that Poor Knights of Windsor are in fact just a sherry-added twist on classic French toast. They are still irresistible. The older the bread, the more it soaks up the sweet egg mixture, and a flash in the frypan cooks the egg to a wonderful golden brown. Stale bread takes on a custardy, almost cake-like texture, and the crunch of sugar on the surface, as loud as footsteps on gravel, leave a happy childlike trail of satisfaction around the lips.



Poor Knights of Windsor

Stale bread (preferably a French stick)
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup sherry
1Tbsp oil for frying
sugar to dust
cinnamon to dust (optional)

Slice French stick into 2.5cm widths (1-inch). If using sliced bread, trim crusts.

Whisk eggs and add milk and sherry (the sherry can be omitted if preferred). Dip bread into egg mixture and coat both sides. The staler the bread the more egg mixture it will soak up. If the bread is relatively fresh, dip quickly.

Heat oil in a frypan (you may use clarified butter if you can be bothered) and add battered bread slices, frying on both sides until golden brown. Remove to plate and dust heavily with sugar (and cinnamon, if preferred).

Eat hot and eat lots.

Technoratic tags: IMBB 25 + cooking + recipe + food + drink

Deco, Civic Hotel, Sydney

Despite its recent classy refurb, with rich burgundy curtains, grand piano in the corner and art deco fittings, the Deco dining room at the Civic Hotel remains true to its Aussie pub roots: the unrelenting wobbly table.

"I'm really sorry", says our apologetic waitress, as she disappears out of sight underneath our table. We try to offer some direction as she carefully wedges a folded linen napkin into various positions. The enormous circular bases on each table don’t help her cause.

"It's these olden wooden floors", she says, standing up with a flushed face. "They're beautifully restored but because they're old they’re a little warped in places."


BBQ baby octopus $15.00
with radicchio, chorizo and chilli dressing

Our food, thankfully, is not similarly afflicted. An entree of barbecued baby octopus is ferried from the kitchen with frightening speed. It arrives modestly plated, nestled amongst a bed of salad greens and visibly charred strips of red capsicum and chunks of spicy chorizo. The octopus is delightfully tender.


Red wine braised lamb shanks $25.00
with bacon and polenta

A loud gong within the depths of the kitchen sends the floor staff scurrying. Seconds later the lamb shanks arrive on our table, tantalising the air with wafting tendrils of aromatic steam. The shanks, hearty-looking and resplendent with meat, look magnificent. Crowned with jewels of crisp bacon and a confetti of herbs, they recline majestically against a dollop of polenta, buttery smooth in a creamy yellow.

The meat falls off the bone like good shanks should. The gravy is rich and warming with nuances of reduced red wine. However the polenta is a little too buttery for my liking, overwhelmingly luxurious after more than a mouthful.


Spinach linguine with crab and salmon roe $24.00

The spinach linguine is awash with crab morsels and plenty of plump pearls of salty salmon roe. Tossed generously throughout, I take great delight in popping each roe individually, allowing the briney goodness inside to explode spectacularly on my tongue.

As we meticulously clean the final morsels on our plates, we watch a couple being seated at a table nearby. Within a few minutes they call a waiter over to their table, and, like clockwork it seems, a folded napkin is summoned as he disappears beneath.



Deco at the Civic Hotel
Level 1, 388 Pitt Street, Sydney
cnr Pitt & Goulburn Street

Tel: +61 (02) 8080 7040

Lunch: Tuesday to Friday 12:00pm - 3:00pm
Dinner: Tuesday to Saturday 6:00pm till late

Blogs on the Menu

I've finally gotten around to uploading some pics from last week's Courier Mail article on Australian food bloggers. Thank you Kelly for so thoughtfully sending me the entire Good Life liftout in the mail! Check out the updated post here.

Equilibrium Hotel, Sydney

It's not often that one gets to enjoy super comfy seating, floor to ceiling views (even if it is just Goulburn Street) and a cheap meal all at the same time.

We checked out Equilibrium Hotel, a blokily trendy bar in World Square. It has a masculine feel with leather-look seating, enormously high-backed booths, lipstick red chairs and a splattering of chrome. Pressed metal ceilings provide some decorative relief, although the most eye-catching feature is probably the battalion of 64 beers on tap behind the bar.

A late lunch means the suits have all come and gone by the time we arrive. Even better is the menu of $10 specials--there are ten different options which come with either a glass of house wine or beer. Bargain!


Beer battered fish and chips
with lemon aioli and rocket salad


Thai chicken salad
with mixed greens, crisp julienne vegetables, coriander,
lemongrass and a lime and coconut dressing


Penne chicken
tube pasta with chicken, mushroom and thyme in a light creamy sauce


Equilibrium salad
Roasted vegetables, cous cous, mixed greens and raisins
with a white wine vinaigrette dressing

The food is all fairly reasonable for the price tag. The pasta is a little lacking in flavour and the roasted vegetables in the Equilibrium salad look like they came out of a jar. But the fish and chips look impressive, and the rocket salad comes with a thin slice of real parmesan cheese.

The Thai chicken salad is the runaway winner for the day though. Plenty of chicken, general handfuls of coriander and mint, all dressed in tongue-tingling fresh flavours of lime juice and lemongrass with a hint of creamy coconut.



Equilibrium Hotel
World Square, Levels 8-11
680 George St, Sydney

Tel: +61 (02) 8272 2400

Scones

April 23 is St George's Day. I hadn't heard of it until a Londoner told me about it, but to my satisfaction I noticed I wasn't the only one so blase about it all. It barely seemed acknowleged around town, bar a miserly display of dragon-themed cards near the registers at Clinton's.

So what do a pair of inspired foodbloggers do? Create greater publicity with an international bake-off of English-themed pud.

Scones
Adapted from a recipe in The Cook's Companion by Stephanie Alexander

470g self-raising flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
100g butter
300ml milk soured with a squeeze of lemon juice
1/4 cup sultanas

Preheat oven to 220C and grease a baking tray.

Rub the softened butter into the flour and baking powder until it forms fine breadcumbs. Add the sultanas and coat thoroughly with the flour. Make a well in the centre and pour in most of the milk.

Slowly collapse flour walls into milk and combine. Add the rest of the milk if necessary, taking care not to unnecessarily overwork the mixture. The more you touch it, the tougher your scones will be.

Quickly turn out the mixture onto a lightly floured board. Press into a log shape and cut into 8-10 squares.

Place the squares close together on the baking tray and brushly lightly with milk.

Bake for 12-15 minutes and cool on a wire rack.

Enjoy fresh out of the oven. Lashings of butter, strawberry jam and clotted cream optional but highly recommended.

Technoratic tags: What's For Pud? and St George's Day

Jasmin, Lakemba

Tabouleh $5.00
Crushed wheat, chopped parsley, onion, mint,
tomatoes, lemon juice and oil

If there's anything that brings people together, it's food. Communal dining is even better. Sharing dishes amongst the table means everyone has to engage with each other, and consumption is no longer a private affair but a loud and colourful group effort.



At Jasmin, in Lakemba in Sydney’s south-west, there's plenty of sharing and chatting going on. Groups of friends are talking amidst regular bursts of laughter, kids are swinging their heels mid-mouthful, and parents are clucking as they replenish everyone's plates.

We've visited Jasmin a couple of times now and each time the place is full. Despite the chatter, people tend to quickly eat and leave, and it's never long before our smiling host shows us to our table.

The decor here is strangely compelling. Rendered textured walls come complete with coloured stucco paintings framed with marble. The ceiling beholds three recessed church-like domes, each handpainted and inlaid with downlights.

Tables are a practical black marble, and the chairs--in 70s style brown or black--scrape with jarring regularity on the chequerboard floor. The menu is short and sweet: 19 options of which five are combination meals. Pricing is simple. $5 if it's vegetarian, $8 for meat, and $12 for a mixed plate of almost everything.


Baba ghannouj $5.00
Mashed eggplants, sesame seed paste, lemon juice and garlic

For me, Lebanese food is all about the dips. A basket of Lebanese bread, cut with scissors into manageable quarters, quickly diminishes as handfuls are torn off into makeshift spoons. Splodges of smoky baba ghannouj are mopped up with gusto, alternated with packages of bright green tabouleh, zinging with plenty of lemon juice.


Foule $5.00
Broad beans, lemon juice and garlic

We try the foule, a comforting dish of simmered broad beans in garlic and lemon. Fateh is another homestyle dish with cooked chick peas on a bed of yoghurt-soaked Lebanese bread and dusted with paprika, parsley and a handful of crunchy pine nuts. There's plenty of plate passing and friendly reaching as arms criss-cross all over the table.


Fateh $5.00
Chick peas, pine nuts and yoghurt


Falafel $5.00
Cracked chick peas, cumin and other herbs

The greatest test of a Lebanese joint, however, is the falafel; on both occasions Jasmin doesn’t fail to disappoint. The falafel are superb. Giant orbs of deep-fried darkened brown are irresistibly crisp, and they remain so even until the end of our meal. The chick pea mash inside is flecked with green, the texture is light and fluffy and tasty too. These are reputed to be the best falafel in Sydney and I see no reason to disagree.


Complimentary condiments
Toum garlic sauce, tahina sauce and salad plate

If I could only eat two dishes at Jasmin, they would be the falafel and the toum. Toum, a kind of garlic fluff, is made primarily of garlic and oil, whipped until fluffy and addictively delicious. It's like garlic fairy floss and its lightness of texture makes one quickly dismiss any superficial concerns about resultant garlic breath.

Also complimentary are tahina sauce, made from sesame seed paste, and a salad plate of assorted greens. There are chunks of raw onion, tomato quarters, olives, gherkins, jalapeno peppers and sprigs of mint and parsley. Plenty of fun for the tastebuds.


Chicken tawouk $8.00
Sliced chicken thigh fillet (thin)

We try chicken tawouk twice, sliced thick and sliced thin. Thick is the way to go.


Chicken tawouk $8.00
Sliced chicken thigh fillet (thick)

We also sample charcoal chicken: whole thigh fillets grilled on charcoal, and lamb shish kebab.


Chicken grilled on charcoal $8.00


Both arrive hiding within a pocket of Lebanese bread, the bed underneath soaking up all the tasty juices. This chicken isn’t as spicy as the tawouk; the lamb alternates between somewhat rubbery and delightfully tender.


Lamb shish kabab $8.00
Lamb cubes grilled on skewers


Hot sausages $8.00
Mince meat, hot chilli and spices

Hot sausages are spicy little fingers of mince. Meaty with bits of pine nuts, there are washed down well with mouthfuls of sweetened tamarind drink, a Lebanese national drink.


Tamarind drink $2.50

The food is fresh, fast and ridiculously cheap. On both occasions we’ve eaten ourselves to burst for under $10 including drinks. Forget about the mixed platter for one. Bring your friends and dig on in.





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Jasmin
30B Haldon Street, Lakemba, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9740 3589

Open 7 days, 8.30am-10pm

Related GrabYourFork posts:
Jasmin, Lakemba (Feb10)

Lebanese - Al Aseel, Greenacre
Lebanese - El Jannah, Granville
Lebanese - El-Manara, Lakemba
Lebanese - Emma's on Liberty, Enmore
Lebanese - Jasmin I, Punchbowl
Lebanese - Rowda Ya Habibi, Newtown (Dec09), (Mar07) and (Jul04)
Lebanese - Sahara, Parramatta

Pier 26 Seafood Cafe, Summer Hill

BBQ chilli octopus with chips and salad $20.50

One Sunday morning we found ourselves at Pier 26. Not Pier 26 Bar, our long-favoured lunch spot in Darling Harbour, but Pier 26 Seafood Cafe, in Summer Hill.

There's no water here, no piers to be seen. It's inner west suburbia and we're in desperate need of brunch.

It's a casual set-up with cane chairs, aquamarine walls and a series of red chiffon banners floating incongruously overhead. There's hardly anyone about--only a few people come in to pick up or order servings of fish and chips.

I have the barbecue chilli octopus, a generous serve of tender cooked octopus on a bed of chips (rapidly going soggy) and a carrot-heavy salad. It's not particularly glamorous in presentation, but it's tasty and delicious.


Smoked chicken salad with baby rocket, dried fig and apricot $15.50

The smoked chicken salad is more disappointing with the slices of chicken a little too compressed for our liking. The figs are tasty though and the apricots add mouthfuls of sweetness.


Barramundi steamed in banana leaf with
fresh mango, chilli, lime and coconut $25.50

The steamed barramundi takes 20 minutes (pre-warned on the menu) but it is definitely worth the wait.



Chunks of fresh mango add freshness to the thick slab of sweet Barramundi. Lime gives it zing, the chilli adds just enough heat and a nuance of coconut tempers the flavours.

Takeaway fish and chips (a dying tradition we've noticed, with the infiltration of American franchises) start from $6.50. We're definitely filing that one away for future reference.

Pier 26 Seafood Cafe
26 Lackey Street, Summer Hill, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9798 8886

Mon – Thu 4pm-10pm
Fri – Sun 12noon-10pm

Ikea Restaurant and Sweden Shop, Homebush Bay Drive

Knackebrod crispbread

The one travel wish regrettably not fulfilled when I was living in the UK was Scandinavia. There were efforts made, but alas, t'was not to be.

A much cheaper and easier way of embracing all things Nordic is to head to your nearest Ikea. After examining the limitless practical storage ideas, admiring the funky yet functional furnishings, and really really wishing you could fit into the cocoon-like kids' swivel armchair, so much time will have passed that your stomach will start to rumble and your feet will find themselves trotting off in the direction of the Ikea Restaurant.




Pre-sliced cakes in the chiller cabinet


Ikea Restaurant servery

We skipped the Swedish meatballs (Julia's ones in Ikea Singapore looked much more appealing than the ones on offer here) and grabbed a quick feed, all cheap and filling and it even came ready-assembled too!


Minestrone $3.95


Gravalax $3.95


Sushi box $3.95

Much more exciting though is the Sweden Shop near the exit on the other side of the checkouts. This little enclave is packed with a treasure trove of Swedish goodies, each delightfully packaged and stacked in uniform rows and towers oh-so-very-neatly.


Cloudberry jam and lingonberry jam


The chiller altar of pickled goodness


Pickled herrings


Frozen dessert cakes
I really wanted the Daim bar cake!


Daim bars

Almonds, crisp buttery toffee, chocolate... drool... I love these bars and used to eat them by the truckload!


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Ikea Restaurant and Sweden Shop
Ikea Homebush Bay Drive
1 Oulton Ave
Entry via Rhodes Shopping Centre
Off Homebush Bay Drive, Rhodes, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9313 6400

Mon - Wed 10am - 7pm
Thurs 10am - 9pm
Fri 10am - 7pm
Sat - Sun 9am - 7pm

Related GrabYourFork posts:
Homebush -- Janani (Oct05), and (Jul05) (Sri Lankan)
Rhodes -- Rhodes Phoenix (Chinese)
Strathfield -- Bagan (Burmese)
Strathfield -- Crystal Seafood (Chinese)
Strathfield North -- Bar Biscotti (Cafe / Breakfast)
Strathfield North -- Outback Steakhouse (American)

East Ocean, Haymarket, Chinatown

Crispy skin chicken $16.80

Ever since the old Marigold closed down (about five years ago now, and still fondly remembered) most of our family special occasion dinners in town tend to take place at East Ocean in Sydney's Chinatown. There's a certain affection in having an automatic standby venue for family dinners. No thought is required, just: "I'll go make a booking."

Familiarity breeds contempt, goes the maxim, and although much time is often spent scanning the menu for something new or exciting, we always end up ordering the same old family favourites.


House soup

We start with a complimentary serving of house soup. Ask your server for it as soon as you sit down. The soup is tasty but somewhat sweet, and some diligent "fishing" in the soup tureen will often reveal tasty pork bones and bits of veg.


Large Pacific oysters steamed with ginger and shallots $5.80 each
(Live from tank)

Our appetites whetted, we officially start proceedings with large Pacific oysters, steamed until just cooked and doused in a tasty pool of soy and ginger. The juices are fantastic, briney and sweet and covered in tendrils of shaved green onions. I am always tempted to pour the residual sauce into a bowl for drizzling onto my steamed rice later on in the meal.

I am wholeheartedly a fan of Sydney rock oysters raw, but a good steamed Pacific Asian-style ranks pretty highly as well.


Stewed beef brisket in casserole $18.80


Braised prawns in eggwhite casserole $16.80


Rock cod with snow peas $22.80

The rest of our dishes jostle for position on the rapidly overcrowded lazy susan. The stewed beef brisket is the only disaster, tough and undercooked with tendons that cannot be sawed through even with a knife.

The rock cod is fairly tasty, the egg white casserole could do with a little more egg. Easily the most popular dish tonight are the Chinese mushrooms, which are meaty but tendy and more-ish.


Braised vegetables with Chinese mushrooms $22.80

Dessert turns out to be a five course degustation. In addition to the mandatory fruit platter (Chinese restaurants always know how to pick the sweetest oranges don't they?), we also receive two kinds of Chinese petit four: sweet red bean pastries and almond cookies as well.


House fruit platter


House red bean pastries


House almond cookies

The red bean pastries are especially good: flaky, delicate and lardy just as all good Chinese pastries should be. Soft and sweet, they taste as if they'd just come out of the oven. They're so good in fact I declare they must be outsourced to pastry makers, but our waitress assures us quite emphatically that they're all made on the premises in the East Ocean kitchens.


House sweet red bean soup

We continue with a red bean soup which is as sweet as I last remembered. I have many memories of abandoned bowls of red bean soup as a child, but like many things, it seems to be one of those dishes that increases in value the older you get.


Sago pudding $16.80
(Must be pre-ordered 48 hours in advance)

Another family tradition is the ordering of a sago pudding, a request which must be made at least 48 hours in advance. A good sago pudding is hard to find. The best are eggy, sweet and coconutty, and baked in the oven until the skin of the custard caramelises.



The sago pearls, which have been cooked in boiling water, drained then baked in a custard mixture for two hours, should be fat, shiny and slippery. Alas this one comes up short tonight. The custard is pale and in need of egg yolks, and the taste and feel of cornflour is a little too evident.

But like an old family member, we tend to forgive any hiccups. We know it too well to not come again, although we probably won't be indulging in the French Premium Red Wine selection anytime soon...



East Ocean
Entry either from
421-429 Sussex St or
86-88 Dixon St, Haymarket, Sydney

Tel: +61 (02) 9212 4198

Related GrabYourFork posts:
East Ocean dinner, Feburary 2005
East Ocean yum cha, August 2005
East Ocean yum cha, October 2004