Dining with the Skamp - Wills Domain

I love a good degustation.  It can be so much more playful and inventive than the entrée/main combo. My husband and I often order a bunch of entrees, rather than a main each when we dine because the entrée is where a chef often shines. They can be a bit more experimental, more bold, more fun. Because if you don’t like it, it’s only a small dish, and you have a main coming to fill you up. Generally that’ll be a much safer meat + vegetable + sauce scenario and is rarely the stand-out of a whole dinner out. Good and dependable, but nothing groundbreaking. A degustation takes the playfulness of an entrée and runs with it. I’ve had a few degustations over the years, and so far, Wills Domain has probably been my favourite.

The lunch is 7 courses, with two additional courses available at an extra cost – all with the option of matching Wills Domain wines. Well, what’s the point in half-arsing a fabulous food experience? Lance and I went the whole hog and did both additional courses. In fact, we even went the wholer hog and added an additional course, making it a 10 course lunch. I have to stress though, that it wasn’t added because we needed the extra food! Lance had eaten the degustation at Wills Domain back in November and ever since, wanted to take me down there for the experience, and for one dish in particular – the carrot and quinoa salad with smoked yoghurt. You might recall that he is currently obsessed with smoking foods, so this smoked yoghurt dish blew him away. It was swapped out for a different “Garden” dish on the dego menu, but still available ala carte, so he asked them to add it in for us, which they happily did. Our service that lunch was top-notch from all staff. They were friendly, attentive and so knowledgeable of the dishes and wines they were bringing us . We were told that that day, there was a review lambasting the service in the paper and so everyone was on their best behaviour – but Lance had mainly the same staff on his last visit, and had already remarked how good his service was. In fact, a lot of the staff remembered him from his last visit and welcomed him back before we even started.

 

We started with a sourdough bun with cultured butter, a glass of their NV sparkling and the three ‘snacks’. The snacks on our day were crispy kale with wattleseed, mini herring tacos and fish bladder with a creamy fish sauce. The herring tacos were more of a tostada – with the corn tortillas crisped up and the perfect textural counterpoint to the oily fish. The fish bladder was something of a revelation. The texture was similar to a prawn cracker, slightly oily and that crispy/tingly/stick to your tongue awesomeness. It had quite a fishy taste, and slid through the accompanying creamy fish sauce, it was so unique and delicious. It was rich and salty and went perfectly with the sparkling. Lance said that last time they had beef tendon, which was the same prawn cracker texture but meaty, rather than fishy.

 

The next dish was cured Kingfish. Kingfish is my favourite sashimi fish, and cured it was just as good. The cucumber mousse and lemon curd were the perfect accompaniment to the fish. This was paired with their 2013 Rose. A lovely bright rose made from Shiraz grapes, which is also one of their cheaper wines, which makes it perfect to take to summer lunches! It treads that line between sweet and dry very well, making it easy drinking and well suited to seafood.

The extra dish Lance ordered for us and my favourite dish of the original degustation were both the “Garden” course. And both were mind-blowingly good, worth going to Wills Domain for by themselves. The current summer menu pairs various heirloom tomatoes with various types of basil from their own garden. The flavours of each basil leaf are vastly different, whilst still maintaining the basic basil flavour that goes so well with tomatoes. This was then paired with a crispy savoury pine nut granola which was delightful and one of my favourite things ever – mozzarella ice cream. My goat’s cheese ice cream is one of my favourite ice creams ever, and this blew it out of the water. It has a strong mozzarella punch that made the tomatoes sing. The ice cream is intensely cheesy and very savoury, whilst still being unmistakeably ice cream. It’s perfect in this dish, but could also make an amazing dessert – maybe with grilled figs! I am a much more savoury person than sweet person and this ice crean the perfect combination of salty and sweet. I would curl up on the couch with a whole tub of this ice cream and a whole bottle of the accompanying Semillon by myself. Who needs a cheese platter, when you have a cheese bowl?

 

From here we went to the broth supplement. This was a very simple, but very delicious dish. A small marron, a few native fruits in the quandong and bunya bunya nuts, as well as sea spinach and then a lovely jamon broth poured over at the table. Theatrics is always fun! Whilst eating it, I couldn’t help but quote some Arrested Development – the jamon broth was essentially “Hot Ham Water” – but delicious hot ham water. Hot ham water that was so delicious that in a fancy establishment, I uncouthly but discretely picked up the bowl to drink the last little bit that my spoon couldn’t reach!

 

The ocean dish was a piece of dhufish (although this changes depending on the market that day), with a piece of silken cuttlefish draped over the top and a lovely crunchy potato stack. The cuttlefish was a beautiful shiny black ribbon, slightly chewy in texture and fairly mild in flavour. Definitely a way of presenting cuttlefish I’ve never had before. And the matching Cuve d’Elevage Chardonnay was my favourite wine of the lunch. We were told that this vintage doesn’t use malolactic fermentation, but still had a wonderful creamy/butteriness in the mouthfeel. It was such a smooth Chardonnay, and so good, we left with a bottle. It’s a little pricier as it’s on their reserve list, but it was well worth it in my opinion!

Paddock then brought us a melt-in-your-mouth-tender piece of rump with a caramelly-charred baby onion. This and the fish both showcase how good the local meat and seafood are down south. Very simply cooked and presented – the flavour is in the produce itself. This was paired with their 2010 Reserve Shiraz, that we also bought a bottle of, as it was Lance’s favourite wine of the meal. We’ve since drunk that one with smoked chicken and smoke-roasted potatoes and it also paired wonderfully with that. The smokiness loving the boldness of the wine.

 

After Paddock, we had our extra Garden dish – the carrot and quinoa salad with smoked yoghurt. It was everything Lance had talked it up to be and more. Beautiful multi-coloured carrots, roasted to a tender, sweet but still fresh crunch, or peeled in long strips decorated a salad made of quinoa and various nuts and seeds dressed simply, and a few small dollops of strongly smokey yoghurt dabbed around the plate. It was a perfectly realised dish. Each texture and flavour element bringing out the best in every item. If you don’t go the whole hog and do the dego at Wills Domain, I strongly urge you to order this dish. It’s filling enough for a light lunch and is just so full of flavour. As Lance put it, it’s rare that he’ll order a vegetarian dish, but this was so flavoursome, so ‘complete’, that he didn’t feel like he was missing out on anything by not having any meat.

 

If you couldn’t tell from my gushing over the mozzarella ice cream, I am a big fan of cheese. I must admit, I don’t know a huge array of cheeses, so I love finding any opportunity to try more. So of course we were going to order the cheese supplement. This cheese was the Heidi Raclette, which is a Swiss style cheese, nutty and ripe flavoured. A fairly plain buckwheat cracker, a long, thin strip of apple and drops of intense almost burnt onion jam brought out the cheese flavours perfectly. It was served with a German style of grape in the Scheurebe wine.

 

The first dessert was served with a 2008 Shiraz. The aging of this wine making a wonderfully mellow accompaniment to the first chocolate dessert. Lance and I will often have a couch movie date with a bottle of Shiraz and a block of Bahenand Co Chilli Chocolate, so the Shiraz-chocolate pairing is one that we were excited about. Being a summer menu, instead of having a rich and heavy chocolate dessert, this was a rich and light dessert. The dish consisted of 3 different flavoured and textured balls, one a ganache, one an ice cream, one I can’t remember what (possibly a sorbet?), topped with a ribbon of beetroot. The flavours of beetroot and chocolate are fairly classic. The flavours of beetroot and caraway are fairly classic. The combination  of all 3 was extremely good. The caraway was very subtle, not overwhelmingly aniseedy, and the whole dish refreshing, despite it’s richness.

 

The final dish was an elderflower cheesecake with an oaty cookie base and strawberries, served with a dessert wine. This was a lovely, but I guess ultimately forgettable dish as I can’t really remember all the details of it, like I can every other dish. But I guess out of 10 dishes, that’s not bad. I did enjoy it at the time, but nothing about it stood out enough to gush about it like I have every other dish. The dessert wine was enjoyably sweet, and not cloying like some tend to be. It had a nice floral tone to match the cheesecake.

Oh, and I’ve forgotten to mention the palate cleansers! The first was an ‘apple sour’ and it was truly one of the most delicious drinks I’ve ever had. It was zingy and vinegary and refreshing. It was like a combination of apple cider with a dash of apple cider vinegar and such a novel take on palate cleansers. Apparently they have had people complain it’s a little too sour, but I thought it was absolutely delicious. Add some rum and it would make an epic cocktail! The second was a herby sorbet. Flavours of basil, coriander and mint all mingled in your mouth in a fun way, each flavour taking precedent at times as we tried to pick the herbs used.

 

Not wanting our epic meal to be over quite yet, Lance and I both ordered coffees while our taxi for the day and friend checked out the gallery and cellar door. And they came with peanut butter salted caramel truffles. Just in case we weren’t blown away enough already, these little bites were a perfect full stop to the day. There is nothing not to love about peanut butter, salted caramel and chocolate, and nothing about these disappointed, with just the right level of each component.

 

Secret Cake Club (Take Two) - Profiteroles with Camembert Creme Patisserie

So, given that I don't bake a huge amount, I decided to bake a few things to take to the French Secret Cake Club. Just in case my cheesecake was a massive fail. It wasn't, but I still decided to take my back-up dish as well. Having a whole batch of profiteroles in the house just for Lance and I is never the best idea in the world.

My second French dish is an actual French pastry, with a Skamp-twist. Again, I stuck with the cheese theme, and made a Camembert Creme Patisserie to fill my profiteroles. Fragrancing it with a touch of cardamom and drizzling some dark chocolate ganache over the whole affair.

I remember my nanna making choux pastry when I was little. I didn't know back then that it WAS choux pastry, I just remember it being crazy. Pastry, cooked in a pot? What!? Then when it's baked it turns into Chocolate Dog Bones! Or at least, that's what my brother used to call Eclairs. Then when I was in my early twenties the croquembouche as birthday cake and wedding cake really took off in Perth. I know some people were paying $3.50 per profiterole on the cake, and I automatically assumed that must mean that it was difficult to make a profiterole. I know my nanna used to be a great cook, so it made sense that it was something she'd practiced and perfected. Turns out, profiteroles are actually easy. Like, really easy.

The way the pastry is made requires a little elbow grease, but it comes together pretty simply. Boil the water and butter. Stir in the flour. Cool briefly, stir in the eggs. The hardest part is that the eggs won't immediately want to combine, but they do with a bit of stirring. It takes around 5 minutes of stirring with a wooden spoon. The water in the dough does the rest of the work for you, puffing up the balls into lovely airy pillows.

Make the filling first, so it can cool.

Camembert Creme Patisserie

1 3/4 cups milk
3 cardamom pods
80g camembert, rind removed and chopped
3 egg yolks
1/3 cup caster sugar
1/3 cup + 2 tbsps corn flour, sifted

Warm milk and cardamom pods until a simmer, and add the camembert pieces, stirring to melt the cheese. Whisk yolks and sugar together in a bowl. Add the flour and whisk well.

Sieve the milk to remove the pods and any unmelted lumps of cheese. Pour over the egg mix in a thin stream, and whisk to combine.

Return the whole mix to the saucepan over a medium heat and stir for 5 minutes, until mixture thickens. Pour into a glass bowl and cover surface with plastic wrap. Cool in the fridge.

Profiteroles

(makes about 24)

100g butter, softened
1 cup water
1 cup plain flour
4 eggs

Preheat  oven to 200C

Combine butter and water in a large saucepan and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring to melt the butter.

Add the flour in one go. Stir with a wooden spoon to incorporate fully and continue beating mixture until it pulls away from the side of the pan. Remove from heat and set aside to cool 5 - 10 minutes.

One by one, beat the eggs into the mixture. Making sure the first egg is fully incorporated until you add the next.

If you'd like you can pipe the balls, but I just form balls with 2 tablespoons, rolling a bit of dough between the two, then placing on baking paper lined trays. Should make around 24 balls. Sprinkle a bit of water on the trays.

Bake for 15 minutes without opening the door. Then remove, pierce the bottom of each one with a knife or skewer to remove steam. Lower the oven temperature to 170C then bake an additional 5-10 minutes  until golden and dry.

Cool on wire racks before piping the filling in through the hole you made with the knife earlier.

Chocolate Ganache

50mL cream
100g dark chocolate, chopped

Heat the cream in a small pot to a simmer. Take off the heat, and drop the chocolate over the top. Let stand 30 seconds, then stir to a smooth mix. Drizzle over the top of your profiteroles.

Secret Cake Club - Brie Cheesecake

My first foray into cooking was through baking. I used to help mum bake biscuits and cakes all the time when I was little, then when I was old enough, I was off and running doing it by myself. I'd generally work my way through a well-used copy of the Australian Women's Weekly Big Book of Beautiful Biscuits. It remains one of my favourite baking books with simple, no-fail versions of a lot of classic cookies. I have yet to meet a better ANZAC biscuit recipe! As I got older and other things got in the way of baking as a hobby, my cookies skills were stretched in a more 'practical' way and meals have become my focus. But I still love baking, I just don't do it as often. And as such, I haven't experimented as much. I'm more a special occasions baker. Realistically, I'm more of a baked-goods eater, than a baker!

After hearing about the Secret Cake Club, I knew it was something I wanted to get involved in. It was the perfect excuse to get my bake on, and dust off some skills. The theme for the one I scored a place in was French. Now, everything I know about French baking is that it's notoriously 'finicky'...and that it's delicious. People get extremely passionate about their patisseries and I wanted to make something worthy of the theme, and the event. I didn't have time to learn the secrets of a perfect macaron foot. And I didn't want to splurge and buy myself Madeleine or financier trays. And the only French things I've had experience with - souffles and French Toast - are best served immediately (although someone brought a French Toast that was fantastic!)

So, me being me, I thought I'd go a little bit out of the box and bake something "French", rather than a traditional French baked good that I probably wouldn't do justice. So, what's French? For me, that's cheese and wine. Specifically, soft cheeses like Brie and Camembert. And red wine, like a Cab Sauv, or a Burgundy. The idea for a French Cheese French Cheesecake was borne. It just needed a little fleshing out.

One of my other left-field ideas was to use French Lentils as my "Frenchness". I toasted (on a tray in an 165C oven for around 10 minutes) and ground some lentils into flour to experiment with and found they gave a lovely nutty flavour, but made for the crumbliest of biscuits. A little bit of reading informs me that pulse flours need to be used in combination with other flours because of the lack of gluten, and some arrowroot powder will help it 'stick' and bind together. Voila! Perfect. I changed a simple Sables Breton into an even more French Biscuit by adding French Lentils. The cheesecake was bake on top, and the crowning glory comes from Cabernet Sauvignon Caramel Figs. Traditional French? No. Skamp's French? Totally!

French Lentil Sable Breton

makes a 23cm cheesecake -serves 10-12
(adapted from Gourmet Traveller)

240g butter, softened

6 egg yolks

260g caster sugar

1/2 tsp ginger powder

105g french lentil flour

10g arrowroot powder

115g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 165C. Line the bottom of a 23cm springform cake tin with baking powder and lightly grease the tin. 

In a small bowl with a handbeater,beat the butter until very fluffy and pale. This will take around 3 minutes. In a standmixer, whisk the egg yolks until creamy, slowly adding the caster sugar until it's all combined. Beat until this is also very light and fluffy. Add the butter in 3 batches, beating until smooth. Then beat in the ginger.

Turn the beater off, then sift the flours and baking powder over the top, then fold until just combined. Spoon the batter into the tin and smooth down the top. Baked until golden and puffed, around 25 minutes. Set aside to cool completely in the tin.

Brie Cheesecake

350g cream cheese, at room temperature

350g Brie cheese, at room temperature, rind removed.

4 eggs

1/2 cup cream

1/3 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 165C

In a medium bowl with a handbeater, beat the brie until light and fluffy. This will alter in time, depending on the softness of the brie you bought, but it could take a few minutes.

In a standmixer, beat the cream cheese with the sugar until smooth and fluffy. Beat in the brie, then the eggs and cream. Make sure it's well-combined, but don't over beat because the cheese can separate.

Pour the cheesemix over the sable breton base and tap the container on your counter a few times to remove air bubbles.

Fill a roasting tray with boiling water and place it on the bottom rack of the oven. Pop the cheesecake on the middle rack. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until set with a tiny amount of jiggle in the centre.

Set aside to cool to room temperature

Cabernet Sauvignon Caramel Figs

150g sugar

1/4 cup water

2 tbsp Cabernet Sauvignon red wine

1 tsp water

6 figs, sliced into quarters

In a small saucepan, heat the sugar and 1/4 cup of water over medium heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves, then leave it to boil and become a lovely caramel colour. Stir via shaking the handle here and there to keep the liquid moving. And brush any sugar crystals that form down with a wet pastry brush.

When caramel coloured, very carefully add the red wine and extra teaspoon of water. It will fizz and spit at you. Stir through and mix until smooth. Using two forks, drop the fig slices in the caramel, then place on the cake. Drizzle the remaining caramel over the top. You can briefly reheat the caramel over a low heat if it starts getting too solid.

Serve!

Chicken and Corn Gnocchi with Rum and Green Mango Sauce

Our mango tree that was so incredibly prolific last year, hasn’t been as fruitful this year. There are probably less than a quarter of them than last year, and we lost quite a few of those before they got anywhere near size. So when 4 green but still fairly mature mangoes fell, I decided to use them. I want my mango fix! I haven’t had a great deal of green mango dishes. Here and there there’s been green mango salads accompanying spicy Asian dishes but that’s about it. These salads are usually wonderfully tart and salty. The green mango very sour in comparison to the crazy sweetness of a ripe mango. And the salt tames the sour and brings out more of the fruit flavour.

With that idea in mind, I created this pasta. I was in the mood for gnocchi, not sure why, but I was. And I had half a roast chicken leftover from the night before’s dinner. Summer corn is plentiful and cheap at the moment, so that was going to be added. I thought I’d then round it out with a combination of ginger and coriander as a tip of the hat to the Asian green mango dishes and dark rum as a tip of the hat to the tropical feel of mango. And it worked so well! Salty chicken, sour green mango, sweet corn all working together with the rum to coat the soft pillows of gnocchi.

I only used two of our green mangoes, but I think I’ll use the other two to just repeat this dish!

Chicken and Corn Gnocchi with Rum and Green Mango Sauce

(serves 3-4)
2 tbsp coconut oil

1 brown onion, sliced
3 cloves garlic, mince
Thumb size piece of ginger, peeled and thinly sliced
2 green mangoes, flesh cubed
50mL dark rum
100mL water
1 tsp salt
Kernels from 3 corn cobs
½ cooked chicken, meat shredded
½ red capsicum, sliced
1 packet pre-cooked gnocchi
Handful coriander leaves, chopped
Green chilli, sliced into rings

Heat the coconut oil to medium heat in a frypan. Add the onion slices and half the salt. Leave to cook, stirring here and there so they don’t stick for around 10 minutes, or until lightly browned and caramelly. Add the garlic and ginger and cook until the garlic is translucent, around 2 minutes. Add the rum and simmer until reduced by about half and slightly sticky. Add the mango and corn and stir well to coat everything. Simmer until the corn is tender and the rum has reduced to the point where the corn is sticking to the pan in parts.

Add the water and remaining salt and stir to pick up any brown bits stuck to the pan and create a more cohesive sauce. Add in the chicken, capsicum and gnocchi, stirring well to coat in the sticky sauce and veges. Cook 5 minutes until the chicken and gnocchi are warmed through. Just before serving, stir through the coriander leaves and garnish with chilli slices.

Summer Sensations - Chipotle Crab Pasta

So, I did mention that our new car was amongst other activities, chosen for crabbing trips. However our first crabbing trip this year coincided with the day we picked up the Zoolander. Now, I’m not precious about a clean car – but I did want the car to be clean for at least one full day. So we took my sister-in-law’s car. It wasn’t our most successful trip, but we managed to catch enough for a feed for the 4 of us that went. I’m hoping we can go back later in the season so that all of the undersize ones have had a chance to grow into monsters!

After crabbing, cleaning off the gear and boiling up the crabs in plenty of water with a splash of vinegar and hot English mustard, we showered and finally got to bed around 5am. Then as has been tradition, Lance and I set up a shelling station in front of a tv. Then with a movie playing, we sit and peel all of the crabs. This year it took us 1 and a half movies. This equated to about 400g of crab flesh. I divided it into 2, then froze half for a later dish.

That night I cooked this very simple chili crab pasta. This pasta took it’s form from two of the things growing prolifically in our garden this summer – grape tomatoes and oregano. The grape tomato that Lance planted and lovingly waters every day has rewarded us with buckets of fruit. Some days we pick over 2 dozen! Then the flavours of the rest of the dish are Mexican, in a wonderfully fusion-food kind of way. It became like my riff on a Sopa Seca – or “dry soup”. A Mexican noodle dish flavoured with chipotles in adobo and served with sour cream and a smokey salsa. It was the perfect thing on a tired Sunday night with a lovely anejo tequila on the side.

 

Chipotle Crab Pasta

(serves 4)
200g crab flesh, picked through for cartilage
One brown onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 chipotles in adobo sauce, plus 1 tbsp adobo sauce
20 grape tomatoes, roughly diced
2 tbsp chopped fresh oregano
Big knob of unsalted butter (around 100g)
50mL reposado tequila
Zest and juice of one lime
Sea Salt
500g angel hair pasta
To serve
Greek yoghurt
Jalapeno slices

Bring a pot of water with a decent pinch of salt to the boil.

Heat a splash of olive oil in a large sauté pan or wok. Add the onion and cook for 10 minutes or so until soft and golden. Add the garlic and cook a further 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes to the pan and cook until soft and breaking down.

At this point, the pasta water is probably boiling. Add the pasta.

Add the tequila and lime juice and zest and stir through, scraping up bits that might have stuck to the bottom of the pan. Reduce the liquid by half, then add the butter and whisk through to melt and emulsify into a thick, glossy sauce. Stir through the chipotles, adobo sauce, oregano and crab. Cook for 5 minutes, or until the crab is heated through.

Drain the pasta, then stir through well to evenly coat with the sauce.

Serve with a dollop of Greek Yoghurt and sliced jalapenos. And maybe a lovely glass of tequila on the side!