2. Get off the bus at the first stop (Big Bear shopping center)

4. Cross the road

5. Turn left and walk 50 meters to Tanpopo.

6. Enter Tanpopo. Take seat. Look at Menu.

7. いただきます！

Review

Tanpopo is a great little Japanese restaurant recently opened in Neutral Bay. The chefs are totally かっこいい and have obviously named the restaurant after the movie with the same name (or so I like to believe). If you haven’t seen the movie, make sure you do. It’s a classic!

Most of the time, small restaurants such as these are good all-rounders and leave the ramen up to the experts. Not so Tanpopo. All of their food is good and the ramen is certainly no exception.

On the night pictured above we had Miso Tonkotsu Ramen and Hokkaido Ramen. You could tell both were hand crafted with care and they don’t skimp on the ingredients.

In the past we’ve had the Tanpopo Ramen which sported a single chunky portion of charsui instead of wafer thin slices. It’s this which really makes the dish stand out. It’s really good to eat a more substantial piece and experience it melting in your mouth.

We’ve never tried the Scampi Ramen though. If you try it, let us know!

Highly recommended. 4/5

Tanpopo

3/81 Military Road, Neutral Bay NSW 2089

(02) 9908 4280 ‎

On the menu was a blueberry and plum yoghurt muffin, and prosciutto and bocconcini toasties.  The muffins were made with our homemade yoghurt of course.    We used the recipe for this muffin from cuisine.com.au here.  It’s very rare that we’d follow a recipe exactly, but these muffins turned out so well; it was very impressive.  It was a risk using plums because they are still rather sour, but the end result was super moist, fluffy muffins with just the right hint of tartness.  It really did taste as good as it looks!

As for the toasties, the ciabatta was buttered on both sides before being toasted in the cafe press with proscuitto and bocconcini slices inside…and a bit of leftover avocado.

The standard of coffee is very high on The Strand at Dee Why.  Of the 1.5 years we’ve lived here, the coffee has always being pretty consistent.  All in all, warm Autumn sun, strong coffee, homemade food, and great friends made it a beachside brunch to remember.

Ingredients (makes 2L of yoghurt):

2L Milk

2 tbsp Skim milk powder

4 tbsp Yoghurt (buy a very small tub of naturally set yoghurt to start)

Method:

1. Heat milk to 90C, stirring occasionally so that bottom of pot does not burn.  Use a steel pot, not glass.  I use a coffee thermometer to monitor the milk temperature.
   

   My trusty coffee thermometer.

2. Rapidly cool to 40C.  I place the pot into a bowl of iced water.
3. Whilst the milk is cooling, boil a kettle of water.
4. Once milk has cooled, stir in the skim milk powder and yoghurt.  Use a whisk to ensure yoghurt is distributed throughout.
5. Ladle mixture into containers.  I have old yoghurt tubs, but glass jam jars work quite well too.
   

   Ready for fermentation.

6. Fill up several glass jars with boiling water.  These help keep the milk mixture warm for optimal fermentation.
   

   Glass jar of hot water.

7. Place the milk mixture jars and the water jars into an esky.
8. Wait for about 8 hours, and you have your own yoghurt.  Place yoghurt into the fridge to help harden.  It’s good to refresh your cultures (ie buy new starter yoghurt) after several batches for nice solid yoghurt.
   

   Finished yoghurt product.

   

   Close-up yoghurt shot.

Serves 4.

Searing the tail with galic and onion

Ingredients

• 1 carrot cubed
• 1 onion chopped coarsely
• 2 potatoes cubed
• 1/2 capsicum chopped coarsely
• 2 field mushrooms chopped coarsely
• 2 cloves of garlic chopped finely
• 1 kg ox tail with excess fat trimmed.
• 200ml beef stock
• 1 cup red wine
• 1/4 cup parsley chopped for garnish

Assorted vegies

Method

Pat the tail portions dry and sear along with onion and garlic.Searing destroys harmful bacteria which can flourish at the lower temperature of slow cooking.

Add all solid ingredients to the slow cooker ensuring the volume of liquid is just over half full as the vegetables will release more liquid whilst cooking.

Cover and depending on how much time you have until dinner choose low (7-8hrs), medium (5-6hrs) or high (3-4hrs). Check with your slow cooker instructions for specifics, or, if you’re like me, wing it.

Before serving, skim off the fat from the surface and serve with mashed potatoes.

Voila! Ox tail stew

Alternate method

If you’re short on time but rich in ox tail, you can always use the oven instead. Bake at 180 degrees for 1½ – 2hrs or until the meat falls away from the bone.

Secret Hint

In Encyclopedia of Food and Cookery by Margaret Fulton (Australia’s Julia Child), is the hint that if you cook the oxtail the day before and refrigerate over night, the fat is easier to remove (presumably as it is solid) and delivers an improved flavour. I can always vouch for leftovers tasting better.

Hmmm.. I wonder if we can apply the same methodology to pizza. That always tastes better the day after.

Slow cooking with good wine. Oh yeah!

I need to note here that both of us fell ill to “Delhi Belly” during our Indian holiday, so our overall impression of the cuisine may not be fair judgement.  Then again, it may be the most accurate glimpse of what to expect as a Western visitor to India…

Our first fish curry was in Panjim (Panaji), a city in central Goa.  There’s no photo because we were unimpressed.  The fish I believe was Pomfret, and it tasted muddy, like the taste you would expect of the brown waters surrounding the city.  We didn’t give up though, and tried a different venue and different fish.  Can’t recall the fish variety, as though it was an improvement on the Pomfret, it was unmemorable.  The red dish on the left is chicken by the way (also very mediocre).  So perhaps Goan seafood was not all it was cracked up to be…or so we thought.

Next stop was Palolem Beach, to the far south of Goa.  I must emphasize how gorgeous our accomodation was.  If you go to Goa, please try to stay at Ciaran’s Camp.  It is just beautiful, with lovely staff and is a true paradise among the scattered beach huts along the Goan coast.  By the time we had made it to Palolem, we had both been sick and were starting to get extremely homesick, and well, just totally over it.  It was with great courage that we persisted on eating seafood.

At Ciaran’s Camp there is a restaurant on the beachfront.  Here I ordered prawns, barbecued on the outdoor grill.  They were delicious.  Huge prawns, generous with meat but tender, and juicy.  Next night I tried Coconut fish.  I’d never had this before, but it is a white flesh fish popular with the locals.  Again, I had it barbecued, and ate the whole thing by myself because it tasted so good.  Very fresh and mild in taste, and a breeze to eat because its big bones are easy to pick out.  I felt like a heffa, but it was all good, and I was satisfied.

Both the Miso and Dashi vary regionally across Japan, with the most common being White and Dashi made with Kombu (dried kelp) and Katsuobushi (shaved Bonito flakes). All of these ingredients are readily available at your local Asian grocery.

There are a number of different ways to make Miso:

1. Dashi Miso paste (Miso paste with Dashi stock magically imbued) (super easy)
2. Dashi powder and normal Miso paste (pretty easy)
3. Hand made Dashi with Kombu, packet Katsuobushi, packet Wakame and Miso paste. (a bit less easy)
4. Hand made Dashi with Kombu, hand shaved Katsuobushi, packet Wakame and Miso paste. (a lot less easy).
5. Hand made Dashi with freshly harvested Kombu and Wakame, fresh caught and dried Katsuobushi and hand-made miso. (impossible!!)

Anyone can (and should) make numbers 1 and 2:

Easy Miso

1. Mix the Miso paste and Dashi powder (if not using dashi miso) in boiling water.
2. Add wakame (and tofu and/or any veggies you want)
3. Bring close to boil then lower temperature
4. Serve in small bowls with chopped spring onions.

Hint: Use a ladel to mix the miso paste and boiling water rather than dumping it into into the pot. This ensures no lumps stick to the bottom.

Numbers 3 is a little harder, but not hard enough for us at nicetoeatyou.com, so we’re going to do Number 4 in detail.

Ingredients

• 2tbs White Miso paste
• 10cm sq Kombu
• 30g Katsuobushi shavings
• 30g Wakame

As far as I’m aware buying a whole dried katsuobushi in Australia is pretty much impossible (although I’m happy to be proven wrong). Luckily for us we found some in Kyoto on a trip to Japan in 2008. We only recently got ourselves a katsuobushi kezuriki which is required to thinly slice the katsoubushi. Whether your katsuobushi flakes come from a bag or the back of a dried fish makes no difference to the process (only the flavour!).

Katsuobushi Kezuriki

Dashi Stock

Slicing the Katsuobushi takes me back to wood work in High school. The Kezuriki is pretty much an inverted wood plane with a convenient tray for the flakes to fall into.

Slicing the Katsuobushi

Freshly shaved Katsuobushi

Kezuriki or not, depending on the desired taste, you need between one and two handfuls of katsoubushi flakes.

1. Chop some incisions into a 10cm square of Kombu and place it in a saucepan of cold water for half an hour.
2. Place the saucepan containing the Kombu on high heat.
3. Remove the Kombu when you see bubbles rising from around it.
4. With the water still on a medium heat, sprinkle the Katsuobushi flakes on the top of the water. Don’t stir.
5. When you see bubbles rising around the katsoubushi, turn of the heat and wait for the flakes to sink to the bottom.
6. Strain the dashi stock through a sieve lined with a paper towel.
7. Wrap the remaining katsuobushi and press the extra liquid out.
8. Place the Dashi stock back in the sauce pan.

Straining the Katsuobushi

Miso Soup

1. Place the dashi stock on a high heat
2. Add two table spoons of Miso paste.
3. Add tofu and/or any vegetables you fancy (our favourites are mushroom and zucchini).
4. Add wakame.
5. Bring to boil and remove from heat.
6. Serve in small bowls with spring onions.

Miso Shiru with Wakeme

There’s an array of cheeses, hams, salamis & sausages on offer here.  The price is comparable to Woolies and the owner slices the cheese/ham for you on the spot.  Our favourite is the ham off the bone.  We also bought some St Claire cheese here to take to a party and it was demolished on the cheese platter.

Croatian Pork Liver Pate.

They also stock a range of Eastern European groceries.  Spice mixes, dry foods, confectionery and tins of exciting pates.  You can choose from several different cans of pates, they’re all like $1.50 or something.

We’ve noticed over the past month or so there’s been more and more people at this deli, sitting outside with their coffees.  It’s probably just any old Easter European deli to people who live anywhere else in Sydney, but if you’re a foodie on the northern beaches, this place is worth a visit.

Check it out for yourself.

Shop 2
11-13 Oaks Avenue
Dee Why
Sydney

http://www.deewhydeli.com

This is the Bolognese sauce recipe my Mum taught me. I distinctly remember her serving it on wholemeal spaghetti when I was young. I loved it so much that she went so far as to send this recipe to me when I was living in London.

I tend to whip this sauce up on a Sunday afternoon for freezing, but, of course, it’s best eaten straight away on the pasta of your choice, in a lasagne or for the more open-minded, on rice. Yum!

In the photos above I used extra onion as they were about to turn. Like all recipes on this site, please adjust the quantity of the listed ingredients to your taste and available ingredients.

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil.
1 medium onion
2 garlic cloves
3 rashers un-smoked bacon
A couple celery stalks, finely chopped
1 carrot, grated
1.5 cups chopped mushrooms
300g beef mince (more or less to taste)
4 tbsp tomato paste
~1 glass of red wine
Tinned or skinned and chopped tomatoes
~1 cup beef stock
2 tbps brown sugar
ground nutmeg

Method

1. Heat the oil in a largish saucepan and add the Onion, garlinc, chopped bacon, celery, carrot and mushrooms.
2. Fry till onion is brown.
3. Add the beef and stir with a fork to ensure it’s all properly broken up.
4. Whack in everything else and bring it all to the boil whilst gently stirring.
5. Lower the heat and simmer for 45 minutes.

I tend to leave the lid on the pot for a while and, depending on what saucy consistency I want, remove it to allow excess water to evaporate.

This sauce freezes really well, however be sure to get it out the morning of the day it’s required as it takes ages to defrost.

You can use up the scrap vegies left in the back of the fridge at the end of the week in a quiche.  This is so simple and freezes really well, so just bake a massive quiche and enjoy it throughout the week for an easy work lunch.

We don’t even own a quiche dish.  I just use an oven safe 28cm non stick frying pan and it gives us 8 very generous servings.

Ingredients

Crust
¼ cup olive oil
¼ cup cold water
approx. 200g self raising flour
salt

Filling
Leftover vegies – I used mushrooms, zucchini, tomatoes, kumara and onions.  Microwave the kumara covered with water for 3-4 minutes before putting into quiche.
Leftover meats – bacon is great.  You can also do mince and chopped up steak just make sure you cook it first.
5-6 eggs
Grated cheese

Method

1. Pre heat oven to 200°C.
2. Mix olive oil and water to make a cloudy liquid.  Slowly add to flour in a bowl and knead to make a dry dough.  Add more liquid or flour as you go to adjust the moisture of dough. Dough should stay together but be a bit flaky.  It should be dry enough that it doesn’t stick to the kitchen bench.
3. Season with some salt.
4. Roll the dough out with a rolling pin. My pan is non-stick, so I don’t grease it.  You might want to grease your baking dish with butter if you’re using that. Place dough into quiche dish or frying pan to from the crust.
5. Chop up your vegies and place on the crust.
6. Add the meat.
7. Mix the eggs in a separate bowl and pour into the baking dish, covering the vegies and meat.  Add more eggs if the fillings are not covered.
8. Sprinkle some cheese on top.
9. Bake in oven for about 35 minutes.
10. Remove from oven and allow to settle before serving.

I love tomato sauce on quiche, that’s why I usually don’t season the filling.  Don’t season the filling if you’re using bacon or ham because they’re already quite salty.

To store, once cooled, just cut the quiche into single servings and wrap with cling wrap and pop it in the freezer.

Chicken Schnitzel
(makes 4)

We don’t usually buy chicken breasts, because we find them too dry and chewy.  We like chicken thighs for their juicier, fatty texture and flavour.  Schnitzel though, is a nice way to enjoy chicken breasts.  Who knew this pub favourite was so easy to make!  This recipe is made extra yummy and simple by using breadcrumbs intended for tempura. Suitable to freeze, so a bit of your time and some crumbly mess, you can pull out a schnitzel from the freezer anytime; how good is that.

Ingredients:
4 chicken breasts
2 eggs
100g (approx) Panko breadcrumbs
Plain flour
Oil for frying

1. Beat the chicken breasts with a rolling pin to get to about 8mm thickness.
2. Ligtly season with salt and pepper.
3. Beat eggs in a bowl.  Add a bit of water (1 – 2 tbsp) to make it runny.
4. Set up 3 trays.  Left should have flour, middle tray with egg and tray on the right should have the breadcrumbs.
5. A note on the breadcrumbs, we actually ran out of Panko the first time we did this.  So we simply put some stale brown bread through the food processor.  It turned out fine, but Panko is definitely worth getting to get a guaranteed crispy result.
6. Take the breasts and dip in flour.  Make sure you dust off any excess.
7. Dip in egg, followed by breadcrumbs.  Cover generously with breadcrumbs.  You can wrap in plastic and store in the freezer at this stage.
8. Shallow fry in oil.  Oil should be on a medium heat.  Throw some breadcrumbs into the oil and if it sizzles straightaway, the oil is ready for your chicken.
9. Cook until crispy.  This take a lot longer than you would think.  Be patient, the chicken has to cook remember, and wait for schnitzel to be golden brown.
10. Drain on some paper towels.

We served it with some mashed potatoes with broad beans and green peas through it.