Whenever there is a lot of hype about a restaurant I always go along with my critical eye, hoping to pick fault. but I have nothing to fault. We called ahead to book a table; we were told they were full, but as there were only two of us it would probably be OK to walk on in, and sure enough, they found us a table. You can’t argue with that, we called at 11:30 for a table at 12 the same day.

The menu consists of single serve Tapas dishes and slightly larger portions to share.  We struggled to choose as there was nothing on the menu that didn’t take our fancy. Between us we managed to sample the following:

Anchovy on crouton with smoked tomato sorbet. This was a tough dish to start with as I wasn’t sure how the others could keep up with the standards.

Preserved tuna with piquillo pepper and brik pastry.

Sardine sandwich with compressed capsicum. So refined it could be served to the queen.

Squid ink croqueta with cuttlefish.

Manchego with quince paste. Simple yet divine. This dish gives me a licence to eat slices of cheese straight from the fridge. Why mess with something to perfect?

And then onto the meat. First we sample the quail. Pressed quail with blood sausage, apple and garlic.

The finale. Slow cooked duck shank with hazelnuts, raisins and onions. We started on a high, and ended on a high, and everything in between wasn’t that low.

I left the restaurant on a high, so the first thing I thought of when I got back to Sydney was how to recreate this experience at home. It is impossible to recreate such refined Tapas, but with the help of Jamie Does… and the inspiration of these dishes I created a feast for two.

Jamie Oliver’s recipe for croquetas is superb. You will never achieve the squid ink version at home but these ones were a pretty good second best. And you can’t cook up a Tapas feast without the obligatory Patatas Bravas.

The highlight of my homemade Tapas feast? Inspired by the smoked anchovies and tomato sorbet and the sardine sandwich, I combined the two to make smoked sardines with tomato sauce served on crispy bread.

I salted and smoked the six sardines as per my recipe for smoked trout, except I dramatically reduced the times for both due to the small size of the sardines.

Once smoked I removed the flesh of the sardines and combined it with three tablespoons of the tomato sauce (from the patatas bravas before I added the paprika), seasoned to taste with salt, pepper and lemon juice and served on some crispy French bread.

Movida is open 7 days from noon until late. Tapas dishes start at $3.50

Back to the meat. The final challenge is to show off all of the skills we have learnt in the past year. For the apprentice challenge, create something that includes 3 charcuterie skills and for the charcuterie challenge create something that demonstrates 4 or more skills. So where do you start? I’ve learnt so much that I wanted to create something that demonstrated all of my new skills. The first idea that popped into my head was canapés. I love making platters of bite sized goodies and don’t need too much persuasion to cook up a storm. I didn’t manage to include all of the skills from the past twelve months but I gave it a red hot crack.

The most amazing discovery this year has been the smoking. I’ve never smoked before in my life so all the twitter spam I received trying to persuade me to stop was hilarious. If only they knew what I was really up to.

I enjoyed the smoked bacon, but my real triumphs were the smoked duck ham and whole smoked trout. This was the third time I have smoked a duck breast this year and each time it has got just a little bit better. I smoke things using my barbecue which is by no means an exact science resulting in slightly dry meat the first time. But practice makes perfect, and even if I do say so myself, I think I have perfected it.

The duck ham was served as part of a charcuterie platter but also wrapped around a cube of Gorgonzola.

The smoked trout was combined with a small amount of creme fraiche and horseradish sauce and served on a savoury shortbread biscuit. For recipe see below.

Brining. Check.

Smoking. Check.

I don’t think a month has gone by this year without the fridge containing a bag of bacon. I now refuse to buy it. The dishes that the bacon finds its way into are too numerous to name but in the name of showing off this had to be something special. As I was flicking through my cook books this dish caught my eye. A Caesar salad canapé with a bread ‘cup’ that acts as the crouton, holding all the usual elements of a Caesar salad. Don’t be fooled by the egg, these really were bite sized thanks to the mini muffin tray and the quails eggs that grace the top.

Dry cure. Check.

Another item I have made on more than one occasion is the duck prosciutto. I love duck and salting and hanging a breast turns something I love into something I adore! This was also the best batch to date. Over the year I have found that it does take a little bit of practice to get things right and this last batch of duck prosciutto was the perfect texture. Not too dry and just cured enough. In fact this batch was so good I got the seal of approval from an Italian friend who suggested I sold it to the Italian community in Sydney!

I served the duck as part of a charcuterie plate and wrapped around a small piece of dried fig.  The left over end that was too small to slice was chopped up and combined with spring onion, fried and served in a lettuce cup with sour cherry and fresh mint.

This year has also given me a freezer full of wonderful leftovers so to finish off the spread I dug out some leftover sausage meat and turned them into sausage rolls by wrapping it in puff pastry, sprinkling with sesame seeds and baking for 25 minutes in a hot oven.

What a year and what a great way to wrap it up by sharing all my new skills with my friends. One thing’s for sure I will definitely continue with home charcuterie and next year I might also add home cheese making to my repertoire. Watch this space.

Here is the recipe for the savoury shortbread and the smoked trout pâté:

For the trout:

1 whole rainbow trout
125g rock salt
50g brown sugar
Fennel tops
Parsley stalks
Creme fraiche
Horseradish cream
Lemon juice
Seasoning to taste
Tarragon leaves to garnish

For the shortbread:

125g plain flour
100g grated Parmesan
1 tablespoon finely chopped rosemary
Tiny pinch of cayenne pepper
Pinch of salt
100g butter
1 egg yolk

To smoke the trout combine the salt and sugar and place half of the mixture in the bottom of a non reactive dish. Stuff the trout with the fennel tops and parsley stalks and place some around the trout. Put the whole trout on top of the salt and sugar mixture and cover with the remaining mixture. Cover the dish with cling film and refrigerate for twelve hours.

After twelve hours remove the trout from the salt and rinse off any excess salt. Return to the fridge, uncovered to dry out for about six hours.

To smoke, soak some hickory chips in water before putting in the smoking tin. Prepare the barbecue for indirect cooking and preheat to 100 degrees centigrade. Put the tin with the soaked hickory chips over the heat and the trout on a cooling rack on the other side of the barbecue. Close the barbecue lid and maintain the heat at 100 degrees until the trout is cooked. This usually takes about an hour and a half. Be careful not to over cook the trout as it becomes dry.

Once cooked allow the trout to cool and carefully remove from the bones. Flake the trout into a bowl and combine with some creme fraiche, horseradish cream, salt, pepper and lemon juice to taste. Add just enough creme fraiche to bind the trout into the pate but be careful not to add too much or the mixture will become sloppy. Set aside while you make the shortbread.

To make the shortbread combine the flour, Parmesan, cayenne pepper, rosemary and salt in a mini food processor. Once combined add the cubed butter and continue to mix until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the egg yolk until the mixture comes together t form a dough. Tip out onto a clean surface and form into a ball. Wrap in cling film and put in the fridge to rest for at least an hour.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Once the dough has rested, roll it out until it is about 2mm thick and carefully cut out the biscuits using a 4cm cookie cutter.  This mixture should make about 40 biscuits, but if you don’t need 40 freeze the remaining dough for another day.

Place the biscuits on a baking tray lined with grease proof paper and bake in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned and cooked through.

Once cool, place a spoonful of the trout pate on top of each shortbread and top with a tarragon leaf.

The other by product of pizza making is the bocconcini. The smallest packet I can get is 220g and you certainly don’t need that much for a pizza, especially, if like me, you like to make white pizzas that don’t need mozzarella. With these leftovers I needed to come up with a quick dinner. I know what your thinking, the obvious option is a salad, but I only end up with these leftovers  in winter when I have to buy the herbs, so a winter, comfort food dish was required.

So there you have it, my crazy story behind a dish that has become a firm family favourite, and one that I like so much, that I would consider buying the ingredients rather than waiting for the leftovers.

I adapted this dish from one I found on the BBC Food website.  I substitute the canned salmon for the fresh variety, as I just prefer it and I use cooking cream or creme fraiche instead of the mascarpone as I don’t want to end up with another tub of leftovers that I have to use, and mascarpone is pretty pricey here.

Salmon Pasta Bake serves 4

300g Rigatoni
300ml passata
60ml cooking cream/creme fraiche
400g salmon skin and bones removed
220g bocconcini/mozzarella
large handful ripped basil leaves
60g breadcrumbs
30g pine nuts
Parmesan to taste
Salt an pepper
olive oil

Pre-heat the oven to 200C. Prepare the sauce in a large bowl. Mix the passata  with the cream and stir in the basil leaves.Season the sauce to taste. Meanwhile, part boil the pasta for a few minutes less than the packet says. I usually do mine for 5 minutes, as the pasta will continue to cook in the sauce in the oven and I prefer my pasta to be al dente rather than suitable to serve up to a baby.

While the pasta is cooking, chop the salmon into bite sized chunks (not too big or the salmon won’t cook) and rip the mozzarella/bocconcini into small pieces. Stir the salmon pieces into the sauce. You can also stir the mozzarella into the sauce, but I prefer to evenly distribute the mozzarella in the dish once I have put the pasta in it so that I know I will get my fair share.

Once the pasta is ready, drain it and combine it with the passata sauce and pour it all into a large lasagne dish.  If you haven’t added it already, evenly distribute the chunks of salmon and mozzarella throughout the dish and then top with the breadcrumbs, pinenuts and Parmesan.

Drizzle in olive oil and bake in the oven for 20 minutes or until the topping is brown and crispy and the salmon is cooked. You could serve it with a green salad or peas, but I like it just the way it is, and plenty of it!

Smoked trout

On paper Australia has four seasons, but when you do a little more research the Australian seasons were imposed by the British when they arrived in 1788 without prior knowledge to the real weather patterns this vast country actually has.  Along with many other British ideas they randomly assigned dates for the start of each season which they thought should correspond to the seasons in the Northern Hemisphere but at the opposite time of year.  It didn’t really work. In my head Sydney has two distinct seasons with minor variations, but nothing concrete that you can teach a child in school – so I have summer and winter.  Summer starts in September and goes right on through to April and winter is occupied by the other months.  There is no Autumn in Sydney, when I look out of my window the trees are green all year, so when I try and teach the children I am working with that Autumn is when the leaves fall off the trees I’m lying – they don’t. I also cannot categorically say that Spring is when the blossom comes on the trees and the flowers pop up out of the ground because it’s not. There are trees in blossom now.  The British should have consulted the Indigenous people, as they have a far more accurate representation of the seasons and they vary according to which part of Australia you reside. If you’re interested there is more information here.

Anyway, I’m ranting.  The reason I am writing about the seasons is because when I left for the UK on March 30th summer was still in full swing, and when I arrived home on the 26th April winter was well on it’s way. I somehow felt a little cheated that I hadn’t had a gentle transition and I just wanted one more summer dish before I embrace the comfort food that is winter cooking.

Smoked Trout

So with my new found excitement for smoking I felt compelled to smoke some trout tail fillets our local fishmonger was selling and turn them into a tart.

I based the smoking process on the instructions in the book, I don’t have to tell you the name by now, surely?! The smoking process in the book is for cold smoking but I can’t control my BBQ well enough to get the low temperatures so I hot smoked mine instead. It worked. Although next time (and there will be a next time) I’ll salt it for less time, as the tails were quite thin and ended up a little too salty for my taste.

Smoked Trout Tart

Smoked Trout and Potato Tart makes 4

200g shortcrust pastry (ready made, or see recipe here)
200g cooked potatoes, cut in 1cm cubes
200g smoked trout
200g sour cream
2 tablespoons horseradish cream
Squeeze of lemon juice
Seasoning to taste

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius.

First make the individual pastry cases (or buy some if you can find some good quality, savoury pastry cases). Roll out the pastry as thinly as you can (3-4mm) and line 4 small (10cm) tart tins with the pastry. Trim the extra pastry from the edge, line with baking paper, fill with baking beans or uncooked rice and bake blind for 15-20 minutes. Remove the baking paper and beans for the last couple of minutes to ensure the pastry is cooked through and evenly browned. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

While the pastry cooks make the filling. Carefully flake the smoked trout, removing any bones. In a bowl, lightly season the sour cream and stir in the horseradish cream and lemon juice. Add the potatoes and smoked trout to the bowl with the sour cream and carefully combine. Make sure you don’t over mix at this stage otherwise the potato and trout will turn to mush. You may need to adjust the seasoning at this point.

Fill the cooled pastry shells with the filling and serve with a fennel and lemon salad.