Author: Alex

Food Forward 2012

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07 December 2011

Weber Shandwick has released its inaugural food trend report, Food Forward 2012.  The report looks at a number of food related trends.  It will be no surprise to anyone in Australia that the supermarkets’ milk wars came in as the number one food story for 2011.

Looking forward, the hot predictions for 2012 are:

  • Thermomix – the kitchen appliance that does everything.  Why do I still not have one?!
  • Pepe Saya Butter – one I hadn’t heard of, a cultured hand churned butter that, in South Australia is available at Say Cheese in the Central Market (for other states, check the website).
  • Central and South American flavours will be all the rage (think cumin and coriander), as will things Korean (soy bean, and my favourite chilli sauce, gochujang).
  • Bitter Greens – wasabi salad leaves and leaves from the Kale family, including Cavalo Nero.
  • Sous Vide (literally “under vacuum”) – where food is cooked in sealed (airtight) plastic bags in a water bath, generally at a low temperature.

While the Thermomix and sous vide might be out of reach of most domestic kitchens (or budgets) perhaps it’s almost time to splash out on some fancy butter …

Maru Japanese and Korean Restaurant

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takeaway gyoza

date of visit: Saturday 26 November 2011

We actually had dinner more or less all lined up and at the last moment we decided we just couldn’t be stuffed cooking. What to do, what to do … pizza? fish and chips? Neither of those options was really taking our fancy but then I remembered seeing Maru from the bus one afternoon.

Maru (no website, but you can see the menu on UrbanSpoon) is a relatively new Japanese and Korean restaurant in the small group of shops just outside Flinders Hospital. It’s tiny which is worth bearing in mind if you’re planning a visit. In our case, we were planning on takeaway, which was very fortunate because if we’d turned up at 7pm on a Saturday night there’s a good chance we would have been turned away.

The menu does a good job of covering the Japanese and Korean classics: sushi and sashimi, tempura, bento boxes, noodles and (most importantly if you’re me!) bibimbap. We ordered steamed gyoza, bibimbap and the spicy pork stone pot – obviously not served in a stone pot for takeaway purposes! This came to the princely sum of $34.

Having been pleased with the cheerful phone manner of whoever took my order, it was great to arrive at the restaurant and receive the same level of service. Our food was ready (always a plus!) and off I trotted, my stomach rumbling away as I drove home.

The gyoza, which we scoffed quite quickly, were good. They look rather anaemic in the photo (blame that on being steamed, but we really didn’t think that fried would survive the take away journey) but they were tasty, with plenty of spring onion.

Main course wise, I ploughed through my bibimbap like a woman possessed. It was great – all the vegetables were fresh and crunchy, and the supplied chilli sauce (gochujang) was really hot. Of course, not being in a hot stone pot did mean the rice lacked its crispy base but if you’re too lazy to go to the restaurant to eat you can hardly complain!

Andy’s spicy pork stone pot was also good (I did try some but it was after I’d started slathering my bibimbap in gochujang so my taste buds might have been a little fried …). While nowhere near as spicy as my chilli sauce laced bibimbap it did have some heat to it and it was such a massive portion that he had the remainder for lunch the next day.

Hopefully you can tell that we really enjoyed our takeaway and actually eating in at the restaurant is definitely on the cards.

Maru Japanese and Korean Restaurant on Urbanspoon

Maru
3/4 Rupert Avenue (at the entrance to Flinders Medical Centre)
Bedford Park SA 5042
phone 08 8374 3668

Rocket Pesto

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IMG_1350

So, rocket, or arugula, or even more irritatingly, roquette.*  It grows like a weed in my parents’ garden and there’s only so much that can be used in salads or as decoration.  Mum gave me a huge bunch after a weeding session and probably thought it would sit in my fridge until it was thrown out.

To be honest, I was a bit worried when I came to the bunch of rocket a couple of days later … but mum had done the Jamie Oliver trick of wrapping the herb in damp kitchen roll and then putting it in a plastic bag and it was as good as new.

The most painful part of this recipe was picking over the rocket and stripping the leaves.  If you go and buy a bag of rocket from the supermarket you won’t have to worry about that (it’s also likely that your rocket won’t have quite as much flavour as home grown, but you can’t have everything).

Throw your rocket, with a clove or two of garlic, into a food processor (we all know that that was my trusty MagiMix), and chop it finely.  Add some pinenuts (you don’t need to toast them and walnuts make a perfectly adequate substitute), a good few handfuls of grated parmesan and mix it all up, adding some good quality extra virgin olive oil, to arrive at the consistency you want.  Taste as you go along … if you’re generous with the parmesan, you may not need salt.  If you want to use this as salad dressing, add more oil, if it’s to be used on canapés, use less.

This isn’t really a recipe – it’s a technique.  Some bought pestos aren’t bad (and some are outright awful), but this but a few moments to put together and is far tastier than anything you’ll ever find on a supermarket shelf.  And if you have free rocket it is also far far cheaper.

Just look at the gorgeous colour!

*Most people are neither Italian nor French, so unless you are going to start referring to basilico or basilic you have no business called rocket anything other than rocket!