There are cookbooks that come and go, and when you are lucky, you
stumble across a cookbook that is destined to be a treasure. And holy shit
batman did I find one this week. I feel like Mikey and Chunk in Goonies when
they find the treasure of Pirate One Eyed Willie. Boom. Its called Huxtabook.
And you need it. My copy is already dog-eared (kinda pointless when you are
likely to try and cook it from cover to cover), splattered on with kitchen
aftershocks, and one I know I’ll love for a long time to come - we're really going to go the distance. Right now its total infatuation. I throw
adoring looks in its direction at random times, its part of my bedside reading
vigil, and I don’t want to leave the house without it. Actually it makes me not
want to leave the house at all - I want to squirrel away in my kitchen and cook
from it. Constantly. Right now it’s leading the fray for the top ten cookbooks of 2014.
I love living in Sydney. But Huxtable, The Estelle Bar and Kitchen,
Moon Over Water, Pei Modern and The Town Mouse are restaurants that make me
long for Melbourne. This is not to dismiss the amazing food here in Sydders,
there is just something about these places – the food and the spirit when you
visit that I long for. At least now I can cook from Huxtabook and pretend I’m
there. Chef Daniel Wilson actually shares some of his most popular recipes. It shits me to no end when chefs link their books closely to their restaurants then don't actually include any of the favourites - culinary false advertising. But here, Daniel offers em all up for greedy cooks like you and me. Kudos Chef.
Well he is a chef. And given how damn arse hard, unrelenting and often thankless that job is - there is some pretty sweet cred straight off the bat. He's worked for Andrew Blake in Melbourne, a stint for chef Daniel Boulud at Daniel, jointly won The Age 2003 Good Food Guide Young Chef of the Year award, 4 years as head chef of Arintiji for Jaques Reymond and family, then the Graham restaurant before opening Huxtable in Fitzroy as well as two burger joints - Huxtaburger (and trust me these are not burgers to be sniffed at).
Because the recipes are outstanding. And a little bit different. And most importantly I feel, this is a book that also doesn't undermine the confident home cook. Too often chef's books whether intentional or not, throw a tone of "lofty" haute cuisine and treat the reader like an idiot. There is a really fine balance in how a recipe reads and the advice it does/doesn't provide the reader. Huxtabook has really nailed it. The book is divided into sections - land, sea, bites and sweet - straightforward and quite a lovely way to divide recipes into sections.
And despite being a chef's recipes they do work. Too often the translation from commercial kitchens to home kitchens mean wayward quantities like a kilo of aioli for a dish that serves 3 - that sort of thing. But obviously time and care has been taken in testing and scaling
down quantities and it shows. Because of the dishes I have already cooked (and I will be doing more) everything has worked like a treat.
Quite simply, all of them. I’ve cooked the wagyu and green
peppercorn curry with coconut, shallot and lime leaf. Outstanding. Although I didn't bother with wagyu intercostals (that's chef speak for meaty beef ribs) I just used oyster blade. It said to serve with rice and beer. So I did. And then had a bit more beer. And it was lovely. Both the curry and the beer. My only bit of advice here is to watch it while it brews and potters on the stove. I was a bit concerned about the amount of liquid - it really cooked down too much for me and I had to add a bit more coconut milk - that's not me questioning the recipe - just me acknowledging my over anxious gas heating element and warning you to keep an eye on yours if it has similar tendencies.
For Easter lunch I cooked the crisp lamb puttanesca with lemon yoghurt for warm up, then the grass fed porterhouse with
caramelized onion puree and pepper sauce. I possibly should have read the quantities more closely - still eating lamb puttanesca filo logs and will be until the end of the week (it makes 24). Could be worse things to eat on repeat though. For dessert I made the quince cakes with cinnamon crumble and almond ice cream. Crazy amazing delicious.
Thank you Huxtable for sharing the recipes here. You have to try these!!
Thank you Huxtable for sharing the recipes here. You have to try these!!
CRISP FILO LOGS OF LAMB PUTTANESCA WITH LEMON YOGHURT
1
boneless lamb or mutton shoulder, about 1.5 kg (3 lb 5 oz)
1 kg
(2 lb 3 oz/4 cups) tinned whole tomatoes, crushed with your hands
155 g
(5. oz/1 cup) pitted kalamata olives
6
anchovy fillets
12
garlic cloves
3
tablespoons salted capers, rinsed
2
long red chillies, sliced into rounds
10
basil stems, leaves finely chopped
375 g
(13 oz) packet kataifi pastry (shredded filo), left
in the packet at room
temperature for about 1 hour
melted ghee (clarified butter), for brushing
LEMON YOGHURT
1 kg
(2 lb 3 oz/4 cups) Greekstyle yoghurt
juice
of 2 lemons
FOR THE LEMON YOGHURT
Line a sieve with muslin
(cheesecloth) and set it over a bowl. Put the yoghurt in the sieve and leave to
drain overnight in the fridge. The next day, mix the lemon juice through and
season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Refrigerate until ready to
use, but bring to room temperature for serving.
FOR THE LAMB
Preheat the oven to 110°C
(230°F).
Line a roasting tin with baking paper. Trim any large pieces of
fat from the outside of the shoulder, but don’t remove all. Season the lamb with
salt and pepper, then place it in the roasting tin. Spread the tomatoes,
olives, anchovies, garlic, capers and chilli over the lamb, then wrap well with foil.
Bake for 10 hours, or overnight. When the meat is done,
transfer the meat and other bits to a colander set over
a bowl. Once the meat has
cooled a little, but is not cold, pick it apart with your fingers and discard any
fatty bits. Mix the meat well with all the olives, garlic and other bits.
Once the juices have
settled, transfer them to a saucepan, skim of f the excess fat, then reduce the liquid
over high heat for 20 minutes, until thick. Mix the liquid through the meat
mixture, then add the basil. Check the seasoning: it may need some pepper, but
should be salty enough from the capers and olives. Line a 25 cm x 30 cm (10
inch x 12 inch) dish with baking paper. Press the lamb mixture into the dish, so
it’s about 1.5 cm (. inch) thick. Place another piece of baking paper on top,
then a flat tray roughly the same size. Top with some
weight, such as a few tins
of food. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours, until firm.
FOR THE LOGS
Cut the meat mixture into
24 logs. Tease the kataifi pastry strands apart with your fingers. Lay a portion
of the pastry on the bench, in a rectangle shape, and brush liberally with
melted ghee. Put a meat log on top, and roll the pastry around it. Place on a
baking tray lined with baking paper and repeat with the remaining pastry and meat.
Refrigerate for 20 minutes to allow the ghee to set. Preheat the oven to 190°C
(375°F).
Bake the logs for 10 minutes, turning once.
Serve warm, with the lemon
yoghurt on the side.
MAKES 24 LOGS
GRASS-FED PORTERHOUSE WITH CARAMELISED ONION PURÉE & PEPPER SAUCE
Serves 4 as part of a shared meal
30 ml (1 fl oz) olive oil
ONION PURÉE
100 g (3. oz) butter
3 large brown onions, sliced
50 ml (1. fl oz) sherry vinegar
PEPPER SAUCE
1 tablespoon olive oil
100 g (3. oz) beef trimmings
1 tablespoon blackpeppercorns, cracked
1 tablespoon whitepeppercorns, cracked
4 French shallots, sliced
2
garlic cloves, sliced
2
tablespoons redcurrant jelly
100
ml (3. fl oz) red wine vinegar
2
teaspoons port
300
ml (10 fl oz) red wine
1
litre (34 fl oz/4 cups) veal stock
FOR THE ONION PURÉE
Heat the butter in a
wide-based saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and a generous sprinkle of
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Turn the heat down to low.
Cook, stirring frequently, for about 1 hour, until the onion is very soft,
sweet and golden. Remove from the stove and leave to cool, then place in a
blender with the vinegar and blitz to a smooth puree. Check the seasoning and set
aside somewhere warm.
FOR THE PEPPER SAUCE
Heat a heavy-based saucepan
over high heat and add the olive oil. Cook the beef trimmings and
peppercorns until the beef is quite brown and caramelised and the juices
have caramelised on the bottom. Add the shallot and garlic and sweat for
about 7 minutes, until they have caramelised. Stir in the redcurrant
jelly until dissolved. Add the vinegar and reduce until almost dry. Add the port,
then cook until almost dry. Now stir in the wine and cook until it has
reduced by half. Add the stock and cook over low heat, skimming frequently, for
about 10 minutes, until it has reduced by half. Strain the sauce through a
fine strainer and reserve in a small saucepan.
FOR THE STEAKS
Heat a barbecue or cast-iron
grill plate to high. Rub the steaks with the olive oil, then cook for 5
minutes on each side, or until medium–rare. Remove from the heat, cover and leave
to rest for at least 10 minutes.
TO SERVE
Quickly reheat the steaks
for 1 minute on each side on the grill. Spread the onion puree along the
middle of a platter. Slice each steak slightly on the bias and lay
slightly spread over the puree. Generously drizzle the pepper sauce over and
around the steak.
Gift it only if you have also purchased a copy for yourself. Its
that simple. Its definitely for the more foodie orientated confident cook. This is not your Donna Hay, 10 minute meals sort of cooking, you
want to be comfortable with multi step, multi component recipes. In saying that
though – the ingredient list is simple enough – no truly random esoteric
ingredients that will have you schlepping all over town to try and find. And quite a few of the elements can be pre-prepped so if you are cooking for a crowd its easy enough to manage.
