One highlight from our recent visit was the Buta Kakuni which is the slow cooked pork belly. This morsel of pork in a divine sauce was amazing. The pork fell away at the fork and was truly very beautiful. The chefs at Sono Restaurant have been very lovely and provided me with the recipe, which has been slightly amended so you can try it to at home. I hope you enjoy.

Buta Kakuni

Ingredients (serves 2):

400g pork belly (cut into 3-4cm pieces)

 2 sprigs of shallots (extra sprig for garnish)

 30-40 grams whole fresh ginger

 20cm piece of white radish (cut into 3-4cm pieces)

 450ml water (plus extra water for second cooking stage)

 70ml dark Japanese soy sauce (Kikkoman sauce suitable for this dish)

 100ml cooking sake

 20ml mirin (sweet rice wine)

 3tblsp brown sugar

 1tblsp honey

Method:

Stage One: pan-fry and seal pork pieces in a hot frying pan

Stage Two: place sealed pork pieces in sauce pan with ginger, shallots and extra water – enough to cover pork by 2cm. Bring to boil, then turn heat back to a low setting and simmer for 1 hour. After 1 hour, drain off water mixture (you do not need to keep this). Clean out sauce pan.

Stage Three: place pork back in sauce pan with white radish pieces. Add the 450ml water, sake, sugar and mirin. Bring this up to the boil, then return to a low hear and simmer for approximately 30 mins. After 30 mins add soy sauce and honey, continue to simmer for an additional 30-40 mins (To check tenderness place a skewer through the pork and if the skewer goes through easily  pork is ready). Garnish with finely chopped shallots.

*Thank you to Sono Restaurant for providing this recipe to be shared.

Sono Restaurant

http://www.sonorestaurant.com.au/#/sono-portside/home

Portside Wharf

07 3268 6655

You will need

4 chicken breasts with skin on and bone attached or 4 duck breasts with skin on

Salad ingredients

1 carrot julienned

1 chili – finely chopped

4 spring onions finely chopped

2 handfuls of bean shoots

1 bunch coriander – roughly torn

1 orange – cut into segments

Sauce Ingredients

20g butter

3 teaspoons grated orange rind

3cm piece ginger, grated

3 cardamom pods, bruised

3/4 teaspoon caraway seeds

1/4 cup orange juice – freshly squeezed is best

Pinch of cloves (ground)

¼ cup honey

1/2 cup chicken stock

1/2 red chili – finely chopped

3 teaspoons fresh coriander – finely chopped

Method

For the poultry

In a hot, oiled pan fry the chicken or duck skin side down until crisp. Remove from pan and put into a roasting tray skin side up and cook in a moderate oven aprox 25-30min (if using duck don’t let it cook for too long).

For the sauce

Melt the butter in a frying pan and cook the orange rind, ginger, clove, chili, cardamom and the caraway seeds. Stir until fragrant.

Stir in the orange juice, honey and chicken stock, bring the sauce to boil and then reduce the heat. Simmer for about 2 minutes or until the mixture thickens slightly – add more stock and orange juice if it thickens too quickly. Stir in the coriander. Remove the cardamom pods before serving.

To serve

Get all the chopped salad ingredients and add to individual bowls. Take out the duck or chicken from the oven and rest on top of the salad. Drizzle over the sauce and serve.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi is the story of 85 year-old Jiro Ono who is considered by many to be the world’s greatest sushi chef. His Sushi bar – Sukiyabashi Jiro is a 10-seat, sushi-only restaurant located in a Tokyo subway station. It is the first restaurant of its kind to be awarded a prestigious 3 star Michelin review, and sushi lovers from around the globe make repeated pilgrimage, calling months in advance and shelling out top dollar for a coveted seat at Jiro’s sushi restaurant.

To win 1 of 5 double passes to see the film all you have to do is comment on this post and tell us what your favourite type of sushi is. It’s that simple! Competition closes on May 12th 2012 at 5pm. One comment (entry) per person.

Please note the movie will be playing at the following locations – Palace Centro Brisbane, Chauvel Cinema Sydney, Palace Nova Eastend Adelaide, Cinema Paradiso Perth. *Not in Melbourne as it has already screened.

Good luck!

Pasta with Porcini Mushroom and Marsala

Serves 4 as an entree

Ingredients:

x4 or 5 Swiss brown mushrooms, sliced

1 handful of porcini mushrooms

1 brown onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

x3 bacon rashers (omit if making for vegetarians) cut into small squares

1 tbls parsley, chopped

1 tsp sage, chopped

1/4 cup dry white wine

3/4 to 1 cup thickened cream (I always add a little more if I think the sauce has evaporated)

1 tbls Marsala (or more to taste)

Salt & Pepper

Olive Oil

Pasta shells or fusilli

Method

Grab the handful of porcini mushrooms and put in a bowl with boiling water (about 800ml) and allow to soak for about 2 hours. Rinse the mushrooms but keep the liquid!

Heat olive oil in a pan and add the chopped onion, garlic and bacon. Let fry until the garlic and onion is cooked and the bacon is starting to get crisp. Add the Swiss brown and porcini mushrooms, stir and season with salt and pepper.

Add the chopped herbs and then add some of the porcini mushroom liquid. Add the wine and then simmer for approximately 25 minutes. Keep adding the porcini mushroom liquid as/if the sauce drys up. Add the cream and Marsala and simmer for a further couple of minutes.

Add the sauce to cooked pasta and serve with chopped parsley and parmesan cheese.

The setting is simple, bar stools, no wine glasses and no knives and forks. You share the meals and the waiter who serves you is also the cook. We had the $30 per person deal which is a mixture of meat, seafood and vegetarian tapas dishes. The amount of food we got was insane – it was such good value and each meal came out well timed and was absolutely delicious.

If you are looking for somewhere to eat that isn’t packed with noise or difficult to find a park then come here for something different – I’m certain you will enjoy.

 Mixed Mediterranean dips ( $12 on its own)

Haloumi prosciutto  with mango and paw paw chutney($10 on its own)

Keftethes and sieftali with tzatziki ($12 on its own)

Kalamaraki – Pan fried salt and pepper cuttlefish with garlic aioli ($12 on its own)

We also had -

Harissa Prawns ($12) – pan fried salt and pepper prawns with spicy harissa sauce

Garlic Mushrooms ($10) –  with creamy Greek fetta and Turkish bread

Chicken souvlaki ($12) marinated chicken with houmous

Where

Mezze Bar

Shop 12,25   Seaside Boulevard, Town of Seaside, Marcoola

 http://www.mezzebar.com.au/

Lamb Yiros

Start this recipe a day ahead

Serves 4 to 5
Marinade

700g lamb – cut into small strips

1/2 juice of lemon

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

70ml white wine vinegar

1 tablespoon sea salt flakes

2 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder

1 teaspoon white pepper – ground

3 1/2 teaspoons sweet paprika

2 tablespoons dried oregano

2 brown onions – sliced

Garlic Sauce

300g Greek Yoghurt

3 cloves of garlic crushed

1/2 juice of lemon

To Serve

Ice berg lettuce – shredded

Pita bread x4 or 5 – store bought or recipe here

Method

In a bowl, combine the lamb with the sea salt, garlic powder, pepper, paprika, oregano. Add the sliced onions and then add the olive oil, lemon juice and white wine vinegar. Massage the marinade in with your hands, cover with cling wrap and leave to marinade overnight in the fridge or at least 5 hours before serving.

To make the garlic sauce – combine the yoghurt, lemon juice and garlic in a bowl and combine. Again – leave overnight if possible for the flavours to develop.

30 minutes before serving, remove the Lamb from the fridge. Cook the meat on a barbecue or fry pan until the onion is browned and lamb is cooked – do not overcook or the lamb won’t be tender anymore!

At the same time, thinly brush one side of the pita bread with olive oil and place on the barbecue or in a fry pan to get some heat. Only leave on the heat for about 1 minute so you don’t get hard pita bread.

When the lamb and pita is cooked – add the lettuce to the pita bread, top with lamb and then drizzle with the garlic sauce. Wrap up and serve.

My brother would always get the lamb Yiros and he would sit across the kitchen table from me, ready to demolish it, whilst I would start my pleading to please have a little corner of the luscious, moist pita bread that was slightly oily but was clear of any “scary” lamb filling. And that was my fish and chip shop ritual – I would always beg for a few scraps of melt in the mouth pita bread before I was told I could have no more and to this day I have still not tried a pita bread as moist and insanely delicious as that. I came to realise only recently on one of my Yiros bread rants that I can’t believe my parents never just asked the owners for a piece of the bread to satisfy my very basic needs??!!! My mum did bump into one of the owners years later and redeeming herself (it’s not at all my fault that I was a picky little shit ) she asked about the brand of bread they used. She did find out…. but forgot again…. “You can still buy it though”, she reported to me. Good to know.

So on Friday night whilst assessing the money I had left until pay day, I decided walking to Coles to get some bland, card board pita out of my measly amount of money was a waste of time. I realised I could just make the pita myself and maybe I can once more experience soft, moist, unforgettable pita.  I was pretty happy with what I made - but it wasn’t quite the same as the one I remember from when I was little.  Still, I don’t think I will buy it anymore – it’s so easy to make yourself.

Pita Bread

Makes 8 large pitas

3 cups plain flour

1 (7)gm packet yeast

1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt flakes

1 tablespoon sugar

1 1/4 ( I used a tad more) water at room temperature

2 1/2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Method

Mix the yeast in with the flour, salt, and sugar. Add the olive oil and 1 1/4 cup of water and stir together with a spoon. Stir until all the ingredients form a ball. If some of the dough is not sticking then gradually add a bit more water – I needed about 1/4 cup more.

Once all of the ingredients form a ball, place the dough on your work surface and knead the dough for approximately 10 minutes.

When you have finished kneading the dough, form a ball and place it in a bowl that has been lightly coated with olive oil – making sure you coat the entire ball of dough in the oil.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside to rise until it has doubled in size or  approximately 1 hour 20 minutes.

When it has doubled in size, punch the dough down with your fist and divide it into 8 pieces – or if you want smaller pita breads divide them again. Roll each piece into a ball,  place on a tray or on baking paper and cover the balls with a damp kitchen towel. Let the dough rest for 20 minutes.
When you have got your balls resting preheat the oven to 200 degrees. I used a pizza stone to put the pita bread on – if you don’t have then a thin roasting pan would be fine.
Spread a small amount of flour on your work surface and place one of the balls of dough there. Sprinkle a bit more  flour on top of the dough and use a rolling pin to flatten the dough. Roll it out extremely thin –  to about  1/4 inch thick.

Place the Pita’s on the hot stone or tray – I could only fit one at a time. They will get puffy and be cooked at around 3 minutes. I found that 2 minutes was perfect as I like my pita soft and easy to roll up but 3 minutes is ok and they have a bit more colour to them. Try and test for yourself.

Serving Suggestion: Serve warm straight away or lightly brush one side with olive oil and put oil side down on a grill plate or fry pan to get the pita nice and warm and soft – don’t leave for too long or the bread will become crisp.
Serve with – Croatian Cevapcici with Sour Cream and Ajvar or Greek Yiros

The original dough recipe is an almost cake like pastry, sort of unusual and unexpected – the biscuit is soft and not crisp like a normal biscuit.  Mine were huge and not the tight little rolled up perfect bundles I recall from when I was young however, the taste was what I remembered even if mine were a massive, sloppy version.

Wanting to try the dough another way – my second batch were more biscuit like and although nice the taste was totally different and not the soft cake like consistency that I am used to.

I really couldn’t decide which dough recipe to share with you – they are very different so I’ve included both – you can try both and see for yourself.

Ingredients

Filling (Use for both versions)- These are all approximates – it’s really to taste so add a bit and keep tasting till you are happy.

Plum jam – about 1 cup

Almonds, lightly roasted and crushed aprox 1/2 cup or more so the jam isn’t too runny

2 tsp sweet sherry

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/2 tsp cinnamon

Dough Version 1 (Cake like recipe)

Makes about 4 trays

2 eggs

125gm caster sugar

125g unsalted butter

185ml of milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

Enough self raising flour to make a soft dough – about 800-900g – just keep adding until you can form a dough.

+ caster for dusting (if you want more sweetness)

Method

Beat eggs and sugar until fluffy. Melt butter gently and add to the eggs and sugar. Add the vanilla extract and then add the sifted self raising flour slowly until a soft dough forms.

Knead for 5 minutes and then roll out dough so it’s about 1/4 inch thick  and cut into triangles.

Add a blob of jam in the middle of the bottom of the triangle and roll up like a croissant, bending the two ends downwards.

Bake in a moderate oven 200C until light brown.

*To add some extra sweetness if you wish roll the biscuits lightly in caster sugar whilst still warm.

Dough Version 2  (more biscuit like)

Makes about 2 trays

125g unsalted butter

150ml thickened cream

1tbs caster sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

200g plain flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

+ Caster sugar for dusting

Method

Melt the butter in the microwave and then add to a bowl along with the 1tbs sugar, vanilla extract, cream and baking powder. Slowly add the flour until you have formed a soft dough. Knead for about 5 minutes. Roll the dough out thinly and cut into triangles.

Add the jam mixture in the middle at the bottom of the triangle and rollup like a croissant bending the two ends down.

Bake in the oven at 200C until brown.

*To add some extra sweetness if you wish roll the biscuits lightly in caster sugar whilst still warm.

I spent most of this weekend making and eating Cevapcici’s and after trying both pork and beef and pork and veal varieties – the veal version is definitely my favourite but it’s up to you which way you go.

You can eat Cevapcici plain with some tomato sauce which most Australians do at a BBQ  or you can use ajvar which is another product of the Balkan region that seems to differ depending on where you are from. Ajvar is a roasted eggplant and capsicum relish that can be served with any grilled meat.  You can find the recipe here.

Rather than eating the Cevapcici on their own I added, ajvar, sour cream with sweet paprika, Spanish onion and parsley wrapped in warmed pita bread – it was delicious – a Croatian Kebab you could say.

Cevapcici with ajvar, sour cream and spanish onion wrapped in pita

• Makes about 3 oven trays
• Start recipe a day before

Ingredients

700g veal mince – substitute for beef if you wish

300g pork mince

1 medium brown onion – grated

3 garlic cloves – crushed

1 tsp Vegeta

1 tsp Bi Carb Soda

1 tsp cayenne pepper – or as much as you like if you want your Cevapcici hotter

2 tsp sweet paprika

100ml sparkling water – or just enough so you have a soft paste

1 egg – lightly beaten

1 tsp of each salt and pepper

To Serve

Ajvar – see recipe

sour cream to serve plus a sprinkle of sweet paprika mixed in

1 Spanish onion – sliced thinly

1 tbs chopped parsley

large pita bread

Method

1. Place the veal, pork, onion, garlic, Vegeta, paprika, cayenne, salt and pepper plus Bi Carb Soda in a large stainless steel bowl and using your hands knead the mixture until it is well combined.

2. Slowly knead in a small amount of the sparkling water and egg so the mixture is paste like – be careful with the water as you may not need it all so add slowly!!

3. Using your hands, shape the mixture into approximately 10cm long by 2-3cm wide sausages and put on a lined oven tray. Once on the tray – run your thumb and index finger along both sides of the sausage making them a nice shape and not blob like. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight so they can set.

4. About 10 minutes before cooking – remove the tray from the fridge. Heat a fry pan or BBQ and using olive oil cook the Cevapcici in batches over medium heat for approximately 10 minutes – turning often to ensure all sides are cooked.
To Serve: Warm pita bread quickly (1 minute) so it is still soft on a fry pan or grill plate.
Spread half the pita with ajvar then place the Cevapcici on top – you can fit about 4 or 5 on the bread. Top with sour cream that has had a sprinkle of sweet paprika folded through it then add thinly sliced Spanish onion and some parsley. Fold the pita up and enjoy!

Ajvar

NOTE: Makes lots depending on the size of your capsicums and
eggplant. My recipe made about 4 cups. Keep in the fridge in an airtight
container for no longer than a week.

2 large red capsicums

1 medium to large eggplant

2 small baby carrots – carrots are not usually added to Ajvar
but it works quite well and adds an earthiness if you add a small amount.

2 garlic cloves – crushed

1 small lemon – juiced

1 1/2 tsp Vegeta

1/4 cup olive oil

2 red chilli’s – chopped

3 tbs parsley – chopped
1. Preheat oven to 220C. Place capsicums and eggplant on
a lined oven tray and roast for 40 minutes or until slightly blackened and soft.
On a separate tray or if you have room on the same one – lightly oil two peeled
carrots and roast until soft.

2. Once cooked, transfer the capsicum and eggplant to a
bowl and cover in plastic wrap and allow to cool.

3. Once cooled, remove the skins from the capsicum and
eggplant and remove seeds. Roughly chop the flesh and put in a food
processor.  Cut the carrot roughly also and add to the food processor along with the garlic and chilli.

Slowly add the olive oil and lemon juice until the mixture has thickened slightly and is
creamy and not chunky (unless you want it chunky and in that case do not
process for as long).

4. Transfer to a bowl and add the Vegeta – a bit at a time – checking the flavour.

Add salt and pepper to taste and then stir in the parsley – leaving 1 tbs to add as a garnish.