My interpretation of a classic French dish from the Burgundy region.  The sauce is really moorish, I couldn’t get enough of it.

]]> http://www.cafecampana.com/2011/poulet-a-la-moutarde-de-dijon-chicken-with-a-dijon-mustard-sauce/feed/ 2 http://www.cafecampana.com/2011/yay-new-camera-tangy-honey-mustard-chicken/ http://www.cafecampana.com/2011/yay-new-camera-tangy-honey-mustard-chicken/#comments Fri, 07 Jan 2011 10:28:21 +0000 Mark http://www.cafecampana.com/?p=508

W00t W00t I have my first DSLR Camera.  I have made the plunge.  After an unsuccessful attempt to score one as a Christmas present (even after heavy suggestions for much of November and December), I have made the plunge and purchased one.

I have spent the last three days going to every website, camera shop and electronic shop in the Great Sydney region searching for a good deal.  It was frustrating at times but I have come up with the goods.

I decided on the Canon 550D as it has a lot of good features and isn’t too expensive.  I loved the feel of many more expensive cameras but I just could not justify the expense.  I have spent much of the afternoon playing with my camera and trying to remember what Billy was talking about at his Photography Workshop last year (yes it still feels funny saying that).

The dish below is nothing special, it’s just an everyday dinner that I felt the need to photograph just to play with my new toy.  This is pretty much the easiest recipe I know and it tastes great.

Time for me to kick back after all that shopping and suck down some beers.  Wow being a blogger is a hard life!

We all get a little sad when we hear of animal species on the cusp of extinction.  Often this can be due to the influence of humans in over fishing, hunting or destroying their natural environment.  We are reminded that once the damage has been done it cannot be reversed and we will have lost something of value for ever and the only place we will see these animals, fish, birds or insects is in a museum or a text book.

The same occurs with food.  Mass produced and low quality food threatens the rich culinary culture of many countries.  If people do not learn to cook the recipes, capture the experiences and the food culture will not be passed to the next generation and effectively dies.  The only place we can learn of these foods and traditions is through food.  Effectively resulting in culinary extinction.

Many people are acutely aware of these phenomena and actively learn their families or cultures recipes.  Blogs such as thefoodblog and groups like Kulinarya Cooking Club also share these experiences.  The rise of shows like Food Safari, My family Feast, MasterChef and the Cook and the Chef to name a few, truly reflect the communities interest and desire to understand food from both their own and different cultures.  In Australia we have a very interesting food culture whereby there are very little home grown recipes, instead we have adopted the dishes of migrants so it is very dynamic.

I feel food blogging is the latest evolution in the food world.  The internet provides a great medium to share ideas, photos, recipes and comments.  There are some great blogs that celebrate food from their families or experimentation and others that are sharing the foodie explorations.  The diversity is amazing.

I find it interesting that every six months or so one of the mainstream news papers runs a story that is highly critical of food bloggers.  The tone of the story usually insinuates that because bloggers are amateurs somehow their opinions, ideas and observations are somehow less valid than that of a seasoned professional.  I find this concept quite hard to swallow.  Food blogging is about passion, learning and community.  Mass produced magazines and news papers often lack these essential elements.

One food that is facing extinction is the humble pasty.  Most of these I have tasted are lack flavour and have the texture of a wet sponge.  I really don’t enjoy them and therefore I never eat them.  One day this all changed for me.  I was travelling in the UK and was walking through a market in Oxford.  It was an amazing experience.  The market had all sorts of foods including a hundred turkeys hanging up on the wall in preparation for Christmas, a wild boar and I even saw a pheasant plucker.  That day one thing I ate was a pasty.  They had a small bakery that only cooked pasties.  I had the Chicken and Stilton pasty and the taste was amazing.  Four years on and I can still remember this little pocket of flavour.

I have attempted to make my interpretation of this pasty.  The flavour is quite rich so I recommend making them in fun size.

Of all foods I think roast chicken is one that practically everybody (barring vegetarians) enjoy.  It is really easy to cook, cheap and it looks pretty cool as well.  I like the fact it can be enjoyed on its own or as leftovers in a myriad of different dishes.  However with all the great things about roast chicken come some draw backs.  Firstly it isn’t completely foolproof.  If it is cooked too long it can come become dry and unpalatable.  People usually overcome this issue by drowning the dehydrated carcass in lashings of gravy (often Gravox ).  The other issue is the mess.  The spitting fat off the chicken goes everywhere, all over the oven and often on the benchtops and floor.  So what is the solution to these problems?

You could purchase a precooked chicken in a paper bag from the local supermarket.  These taste okay but are nothing like cooking it at home and are kind of a rip off.  Alternatively you could get some from a takeaway store.  These often taste great but are very expensive and if you are feeding many people it can be a costly exercise.  Besides it isn’t cooked by you.

My solution is barbeque chicken.  I have been investigating different ways of cooking it.  One method is a rotisserie.  This is probably the best way to cook it on the BBQ but it requires some expensive equipment.  Alternatively you could cut the chicken on either side of the backbone, butterfly it out and cook it on the grill.  I have tried this method with almost catastrophic results (I might post it later, one word, phoenix).  However, the chicken requires constant attention which is far from ideal when you have people over.

This lead me trying beer can chicken.  I had heard of it before and there are plenty of instructions and recipes on the internet.  The concept interested me.  Basically this method involves stuffing a half full can of beer into the cavity of a chicken.  Then you stand the chicken on its end, resting on the bottom of the can on the barbeque.  Unfortunately the base of a can is notoriously unstable.  Luckily there are little stands on sale at barbeque stores expressly for this purpose.  The theory is that the beer in the can boils and the resulting steam cooks the chicken from the inside.  This also keeps the meat moist.

Beer can chicken is a great way to cook and provides a little spectacle when you are cooking for a party.  I served my chicken with Trissa’s Mexican Corn and Kartoffelsalat.  It was enjoyed by all however one guest put too much chilli powder on his corn and he turned a funny shade of red.  Whilst this is a novel way of cooking a chicken it is actually works, which is surprising.

P.S.  Hello to all the Sydney Food Bloggers I met the other night at drinks.  I had a great night and it was great to put faces to all the wonderful blogs I have been reading.  I look forward to following your future posts and maybe catching up again

The concept of salad is a bit foreign to me.  It is usually a neglected side dish that I serve onto my plate and forget.  It never gets eaten.

I have recently invented the concept of a Salad Trading Scheme (STS), much like the federal governments Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) where corporations can offset pollution with carbon credits.  I figure if I load up on healthy foods and earn salad credits I can then redeem salad credits for meals of pure indulgence without guilt.

Unfortunately unlike an ETS I can’t purchase salad credits on the open market.  I have some health nut friends who definitely have a surplus for credits, all they eat is salads.  So the question remains how can I eat more healthily without my taste buds crying too much.

Over the past few weeks I have seen many references to the Middle Eastern salad called Fattoush.  Many Sydney food bloggers have been frequenting places like Franks and El Jannah and sampling this salad.  It looked really colourful and interesting.  I might just be able to eat this as a meal.

I became increasingly more curious when this salad popped up in two other forms of media in a week.  I was watching Channel 7’s “My Kitchen Rules” and the couple Veronica and Shadi paired fattoush with grilled snapper.  Although it didn’t get the best review from the other competitors it still looked great in my eyes.  Latter in the week I was reading the March edition of Delicious magazine and Matthew Evans “The Gourmet Farmer” had written a recipe for fattoush.

By this point I was salivating over a salad.  I know I didn’t think I could react like this to a salad.

So I started my research.  What recipe was I to use?  They all looked so good.  Many deep fried the pita bread.  From experience this tastes great but it is hardly going to earn me salad credits.  I decided to toast the pita in the oven.  This give you the crunch required without the fat.  Additionally I reduced the amount of dressing involved  to save a few more calories.

I paired the salad with a grilled chicken breast that I had marinaded in a little olive oil and a harrissa paste.

I was a tasty salad and was the envy of work colleagues when I ate the left overs for lunch at work the next day.

What is your favourite salad?

I served this with some grilled haloumi.  Left over toasted pita can be used in lieu of crackers for dips or antipasti.