Author: Dennis Leslie

Pho – Vietnamese Beef Noodle Soup

I started working as a chef in a hotel that is right next door to the Adelaide Central Markets and China Town.

As a young chef learning their trade, I could not have asked for anything more.  Imagine seeing your states best produce on the walk to work.  Can’t get any more inspiring and educational than that really.  You see the freshest ingredients and also learn about the seasonality of many fresh produce.  You get to talk to vendors and build that ever so important relationship between producers and cooks.

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Wholly Duck!!

Photo by Jun Pang

I never used to like duck.  I was never around it all that much growing up.  Filipinos don’t normally cook with duck so I didn’t really discover it until I was cooking in a commercial kitchen.  I assume that most people are the same. Most people I know haven’t really eaten a lot of duck in their lives unless of course it was in a restaurant.

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Apple Tart Tatin

Photo by Jun Pang

Two simple things I love, warm apple pies and warm apple tart tatins, both served with vanilla ice cream.

I grew up eating Granny Smith apples straight from a tree my mate’s dad grew.  I love the tartness of these apples, the crunch and the floury texture on the inside.  I remember eating them right to the core.

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Sauteed Mushrooms, Toasted Sour Dough, Poached Eggs and Hollandaise Sauce

I think that breakfast can be the most enjoyable meal of the day.

There is nothing better than waking up on an “early-ish” Sunday morning, going to the farmers market and shopping for fresh ingredients like fresh mushrooms, freshly baked bread, eggs fresh from the farm and herbs straight from the farm garden. It’s a peaceful start to a day, no rushing about and you can really enjoy these wonderful stress free moments and for me, to enjoy that part of the day is rare because it is usually the busiest time of my normal day. You can really let your mind wonder and relax.

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Nicoise Salad – nothing cheffy here, just healthy stuff!

Photo by Jun Pang

Nicoise salad is a salad that is traditionally served with tuna.  Usually, it is a salad of beans, tomatoes, nicoise olives and boiled eggs then served with a vinaigrette.  There’s a lot of speculation as to where it originated and even the great Julia Childs gets a guernsey.

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Vego Pasta with Broccolini & Goats Cheese

Pasta is one of those items you should always have in the pantry.  Instant pasta is so easy to cook and there are so many good quality “fresh” dried pastas in the market, you can really have a good choice between almost every type of pasta from your normal spaghetti right through to lasagne sheets.

There is another use for lasagne sheets other than in lasagne’s.  When I was a young apprentice, I remember how much it surprised me when I was shown another use for lasagne sheets.  The chef cooked a chef’s meal by simply heating a pan really hot, cooking lasagne sheets, ripping it into smaller strips and browning it in a pan until it’s slightly “crispy” then adding all the other ingredients through for flavour such as the shallots, garlic and chilli.  Simple dish, quick and using only the ingredients available in the kitchen.

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Vegetarian Green Curry

Photo by Jun Pang

Lets not forget about the vegos hey!!

it seems that there are more vegos out there in the world.  I don’t know why and hey, it’s not a bad way of eating, it’s just that the world doesn’t really accommodate for them as easily as we would expect.  I’m not a vego but I can sympathize for them though.  So many times I’ve been out at a restaurant and the choices for vegos are very limited.  I like to change that as much as I can in the restaurant, I mean why wouldn’t you do it, there’s so many fresh indgredients grown from the ground that it would be sacrilege not to use them.

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Tomato & Pork Neck Chop with Olives, Capsicum & Speck served with White Polenta

Photo by Jun Pang

Nothing fancy here but it’s open for fancy stuff.  Chuck some smoked paprika into the braise to add little more flavour or saute some chorizo sausage in before you add the liquids, it lifts the dish to another level.  The polenta can also be added to like a little truffle oil at the end or saute mixed mushrooms in butter and fold it through just before serving and finish it off with a poached egg – bloody beautiful!

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