'slightly italian' tablenosh dinner recap

Another 'noshing' night in my cozy little Sydney apartment!  I had 10 guests, only 4 of whom I had met before at least once, it was a great night mixed with interesting people as well as discussion.  Hot topics seemed to be film, television, social media and technology.

The menu was called 'slightly italian' and consisted of a few things I had been practicing and a few new recipes as well.  I was not perfectly pleased and a few of these still need a bit of work, but overall I think the guests were well fed and went home full!

Here are a few pictures of prep and the final product...

Nothing like homemade apple pie!

And it is always nice to be able to pick something out of my garden...even if the only thing growing at the moment is mint!! :) 

The aperitif was a pomegranate martini.

For starters I made a 'caprese' bruschetta (fresh mozzarella, basil & tomato on crusty sour dough)

And a mushroom, pecorino and crispy prosciutto bruschetta.

The entrée was a 'tricolore' salad - 

which included endive, radicchio, rocket & parmesan w/ a lemon garlic vinaigrette.

The main was a parmesan encrusted chicken stuffed w/ ricotta & sun-dried tomato pesto, 

creamy gorgonzola risoni & pan fried asparagus.

Dessert was a trio including, tiny tiramisu cakes, deep dish pink lady apple pies and lemon mascarpone custard.

It was a great night, as always worth the time and energy that goes into it.  Once we retired to the lounge room for tea and coffee (and some chocolate truffles) I had the chance to relax and chat with everyone.  We ended up having a good discussion about my pilot and I even got a few great ideas...I'm just hoping someone also might have a really good connection for me!  

Next tablenosh dinner is June 25th (all proceeds go towards the pilot!)

buying fresh

Ugh is all I have to say!  I HATE it when I spend money on a vegetable or fruit at the grocery store and with in days it has gone bad!  I seriously wish I had a garden, sadly I am not really a good gardner so not sure if it would help much, but the Sydney Markets have definitely been a help.  I love my co-op which I started with some friends just over a year ago.  It really makes a difference, not just in the amount of money we spend, but the quality, the taste and how long our produce will last.

What I would also like to tap into is an 'organic' growers market to go to.  Some of the farmers at the Sydney markets are organic, but usually they don't have a label and you have to ask around. 

Needless to say, I am looking forward to my visit to the markets this Friday in preparation for Saturday night.  And I also do enjoy a good chat with a farmer or two :)

Good Times in the USA

I just returned from a quick trip to the USA for a couple of weddings.  While I was there I had a few fabulous food experiences.

The first was the organic homemade donuts at my friend Jessica's wedding.  Who would have thought....but these donuts were amazing and all organic!!!! Yummy.  I am not even a donut person.

The scond was having the opportunity to spend an afternoon in the kitchen with my favorite cake maker - Rachel Willis who is amazing http://mountaingirlcakes.blogspot.com/ (she made my wedding cake and was doing the cake for my friend's wedding).  It was such a treat and I definitely learned some new techniques and can't wait to start working on my next cake project.  Here is the final outcome - it was a lemon chiffon cake w/triple cream, fresh raspberries and grand-marnier buttercream icing.

Another was the welcome bbq for wedding number two.  It was a Southern Style Barbecue buffet with everything from potato salad to collard greens and more, it was catered by a friend and it was delicious...well done Rachel!

The last was dinner at a beautiful little restaurant in Charlottesville, VA called 'Tavola' it was a swanky little Italian place that was absolutely delicious, my Dad had the scallops which were served over a beetroot risotto, mom had shrimp in a buttery garlic Gorgonzola cream sauce that was divine and my sister and I shared the sea bass and a vegetarian pasta dish.  I am definitely going to be experimenting with scallops and beetroot risotto here I come!

Overall a fabulous trip and now it is back to my own kitchen and tablenosh adventures.  I am not sure what is on the menu for June 4th but am going to start experimenting this week.  So we shall see!

A Fabulous Celebration!

Nothing EVER goes according to plan, but somehow it all works out in the end.  I got off to a slow start on Friday and by the time I got home from the markets I had developed a terrible headache and had to get in bed.  I finally got back up and going around 5:30pm and managed to pump out my pearl barley risotto (for risotto balls), chocolate cake, my petite citrus cakes, the mocha mousse, passionfruit custard cream and do a few other things.  But nonetheless I knew Saturday was going to be busy and I was NOT going to feel very organized.

I was up and going by 8am and feeling like there was a billion things to do!  The house needed to get organized to fit at least twenty people in the living room as it was still raining and did not look like it was going to stop.  I could rant on and on about the day but how about I jump ahead and just say, it all came together, thanks to my fabulous help team (Chelsea, Nikki, Pete and Liz).  Definitely needed all hands on deck as we pumped out the cocktails and canapés.

My side-kicks for the evening!

The menu consisted of Raspberry-lime mojito's, Apple-Guava Martini's and a mocktail option.  As for the food there was, sundried-tomato & goats cheese crostini, corn & zucchini fritters w/avocado salsa, prosciutto wrapped dates, roasted pumpkin, pesto & parmesan foccacia, truffled pearl-barley risotto balls w/tomato jam, chicken, mushroom & capsicum empanadas, sweet potato, chorizo & haloumi spoons and coconut & macadamia nut crusted shrimp w/lime-garlic aioli.  Needless to say we were working hard and the guests were happily noshing!

Chorizo, Haloumi and Roast Sweet Potato 

At about 9:15 I gave a celebration speech...thank you EVERYONE for your support, I can hardly believe it has been a year and one month since I launched tablenosh.  I have since then done over 20 tablenosh events and had at least 150 different people dining together around my table this past year!  I have learned so many new things in cooking and it has been a wonderful adventure.  This year my goal is to shoot a Pilot for a Reality TV/Cooking/Hospitality show based on tablenosh!!!  I am so thankful to those special friends who have really encouraged and pushed me along the way.  I look forward to what the future holds for tablenosh and will keep ya'll posted!

After the speec I brought out CAKE, three different kinds...

Petite Citrus Cake w/Passionfruit Custard Filling and Lemon Buttercream Frosting

Chocolate Bundt Cake w/Mocha Mouse filling and a Dark Chocolate Ganache

Carrot Cake w/Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting & Almond Flakes

I think everyone went home full of cake and hopefully as happy as I was!  It was indeed a wonderful celebration and I am looking forward to what this year holds!  Thank you all so much and here's to underground dining...tablenosh style.

Cocktails, Canapes and Cake...April 30th!

It's time to Celebrate ONE Year of Tablenosh!  Come join the 'Cocktails, Canapés and Cake' Party on April 30th.

It is hard to believe it has already been a year of my 'underground' restaurant journey...a great year of gathering people around my table to enjoy different foods (I can hardly believe I really did it!).  I am not quite sure what this year is going to bring but I have a few ideas!  I hope April 30th will re-energize me for another year another fun 'tablenosh' experience in itself.  

I seem to be on a major cake kick this year, so I thought why not bake up a few more cakes for my tablenosh one year birthday!  Everyone loves cake...right?  I am envisioning 3 cakes, one carrot cake w/cream cheese frosting, one chocolate cake w/mocha mousse filling and a citrus cake with passion fruit custard and lemon buttercream icing...yummmmmmmy!

And for all the savoury people I will feature my favorite canapés and compliment it all with a few special cocktails!  

 

If you want to join in the fun and food just shoot me an email and I will book you a spot!

tablenosh for friends and neighbors

So, recently I must admit I have lost a bit of momentum for tablenosh (please feel free to encourage me!).  Maybe I overdid it and am all cooked out or maybe I need to leave more space in between dinners.  I am not really sure but am trying to re-think things to get myself motivated again!

One of my recent thoughts has been to focus on dinner parties with friends and if they want to bring a neighbor a guest then that's fine but if not, no worries.  This may have come from the fact that last weekend I had to cancel tablenosh due to a horrible migraine, but had so much food that the next night I just invited a bunch of friends over to enjoy it (and a few of them were very generous and chipped in on the cost).  It ended up being really fun to sit down and enjoy what I was preparing with friends (plus I love Mexican food and that was the theme!).

My scary fish w/lime, chilli and coriander!

In regards to costs I will ask friends to chip in 5-10$ for the evening (which will still include at least 3 courses, etc.).  This way I still get to do my cooking, some of the costs get covered and I can enjoy an evening with friends.  Seeing as this is probably our last year in Australia I thought I really want to make time for our current friendships.  However, this being said I will keep the doors open for strangers and other guests as well.  So, if you are stumbling across my site and think I really want to come to a 'tablenosh dinner' then just let me know and I will make you a friend too!

At the moment I am scheduled to do a Tablenosh Celebration evening on April 30th.  This will be a cocktails and canapes style party and is open to anyone.  I just need you to email and let me know you want to come leilanel@hotmail.com.

Learning to Cater...

The last three weekends I have had some type of catering responsibility.  First the wedding cake, then a morning tea birthday party and last weekend a 70th birthday buffet lunch for 40 people.  I am learning a lot! 

Over-catering is easy to do and we live in a society that tends to do just this, which sadly means a waste of money time and food!  This is something I am working on.  I have realized it is easier to do when you have finger foods or canapes or you are plating the dinner yourself, otherwise it is hard to know how much people will eat.  Generally you can expect guests to eat 4-6 peices of food and also you can know exactly how much should fill a person up.  With buffet style things I am learning this is a lot harder...go figure there was a lot of salad left over!

As for me and catering, I have decided I would probably be better at making specific items for people such as a cheesecake or a cake.  I think I might have to stick with the 10 people dinner parties or smaller until I get a better functioning kitchen!

Although the next BIG tablenosh event is for 30 people...I am throwing a Tablenosh One Year celebration/birthday party on April 30th.  If you are interested in coming book yourself a spot now!

My first wedding cake!

So, about a month ago a young couple we know called me to see if I would be willing to make their wedding cake!  They were having a fairly low budget wedding and said anything would do...now, it has been a dream of mine to make a wedding cake before I die, little did I know it would come before I had even taken a class!  Obviously I said yes and then decided I might as well give it my best shot.  I emailed the woman who made my cake in the US and asked for her help and also sought help from my cousin who has just gotten into making cakes.  They were both VERY helpful!

After the practice round last weekend I took a short break and then got back into making the REAL thing!  I started baking on Thursday night for a Saturday wedding.  I was going for 3 tiers, two would be chocolate with a raspberry glaze and filled with vanilla custard cream and raspberries.  The middle tier was a Lemon Sour Cream Cake with a raspberry glaze and filled with lemon custard cream.  The icing was Swiss Meringue Buttercream with a hint of Maple. I am just not a fan of fondant icing or icing that does not taste good.  However I now realize it is VERY hard to get this icing smooth...I did not quite figure it out, I will have to learn the trick next time.

So Thursday night I made the first batch of cakes, basically I had to make six cakes, two of each size.  I also made the frosting and started on the mascarpone custard filling (which I must admit is a Leila Original and a favorite!).  To make the swiss meringue buttercream frosting you use a LOT of egg whites and butter and begin by whisking the eggwhites and the sugar over heat until it reaches a certain temperature and the sugar can dissolve.  The you whip the eggwhites until glossy peak form.  I must add I am EXTREMELY thankful for the new mixer I bought last week, I am not really sure how I operated without it!  Next you add the butter and keep mixing until it begins to look SO smooth and delicious.

Friday I finsihed baking the other four cakes, they all seemed to turn out pretty good.  I finished off the custard filling, made the raspberry glaze and started to ice the cakes.  I needed to have each tier iced and filled so they could go in the fridge overnight.

Saturday morning I got up and made another small batch of frosting and then I hit a problem...I could NOT get the frosting the same color as the day before.  I ended up trying to re-ice all 3 cakes...with a very THIN layer of icing.  As you can notice from my picture, there is a little bit of a two-toned look happening! Oops.
I put wooden dowels through each tier and then boxed each section up and got ready to transport.  Needless to say I was feeling a little nervouse about the drive!  But they all made it safe and sound. 

Once I got to the church reception site I unloaded and set out to stack the cakes and do the final decorations.  I went with a very simple 'pearl' border since I was going to use fresh flowers to decorate it as well.

I managed to get all the tiers stacked and the icing as smooth as possible, I am still sad about my 'two-toned' look but hey what can ya do!  Here is another picture of the final product. 

This is Scott one of our friends who claims the cake was also really yummy!  Yay!  First wedding cake down...now what next?

Wedding Cake Practice

I have been asked to make my very first Wedding Cake!  Very exciting and overwhelming all at the same time.  I have never taken a cake class or anything, so this is an adventure.  I have spent the weekend practicing my cakes, fillings and frostings.  A lot of cake has been consumed! 

southern roots...

What can I say I do love the South (USA that is)... I kicked off my first tablenosh dinner this year with a few southern classics and some new recipes out of a recently purchased cookbook from the best Chefs in Charleston.  Hopefully the Australian diners were not too overwhelmed with new flavors, foods and concepts!

For example 'grits', what in the world you ask are 'grits'?  They are basically the inside of the corn kernal also called hominy and very similar to polenta.  They are a traditional southern food and often served for breakfast alongside eggs.  Over the years the chef's of Charleston, South Carolina and other places have come up with creative and delicious ways to serve this simple food.  I imported some grits back with me this trip and cooked them up for last night's dinner.  The featured Main Dish for the evening was called 'Low-country Shrimp & Grits.'   Which is basically a cajun shrimp dish, with onions, tomatoes, peppers, bacon and spicy sausage peices.  I think most people enjoyed it.

Mint Julep Martini

As for the rest of the menu...the evening started with a 'Mint Julep Martini' and Truffled Risotto Balls w/tomato jam.  A 'mint julep' is a popular southern drink made with mint infused sugar syrup and bourbon.  I squeezed in some orange juice, added a few drops of vanilla vodka, triple sec and topped it off with tonic.  Delish!

Truffled Risotto Balls w/ Tomato Jam

I served a Strawberry Salad w/baby spinach, carmelized walnuts and feta for the entree along with some buttermilk biscuits.  And for dessert we had blueberry peach cobbler with vanilla bean custard cream (that was the best part).

I think this year will be about recipes I love as well as experimenting and I have a feeling this new cookbook could be the inspiration for more than one Tablenosh dinners, so I hope the Aussies grow to love my southern roots!

The next tablenosh event will be a Tablenosh Re-launch/Birthday Party!  Stay tuned!

Back to the Blog!

Clearly I have been keeping myself busy and slowly falling behind with my blogging!  I just landed back in Sydney this morning and figured I better get back with the program.  The US was a fabulous time and even included a few exceptional dining experiences, which was a real treat. 


A beautiful chicken dish from 'Lucques', Los Angeles

As far as my own new recipes go, I have decided I will shoot for 50 original perfected recipes by the end of the year.  I have two in the works at the moment and a few to work on from last year.  Once I perfect them I will document the actual recipe and create a space for them on the blog. 

 Gingerbread Trifle - Leila Original #2 (still needs a little tweaking)

In terms of Tablenosh Dinners and Events, I am up and running!  I did a small 'tapas and sangria girls' night when I was in Virginia, but the first tablenosh dinner in Sydney is listed below and there are a few spots available.  I have determined the cuisine yet, but will keep you posted.  I am hoping to get some new flavors happening this year and lots of NEW people around the table!  I have also booked some private catering events, so if you have an idea and need some help with the food don't hesitate to ask me, it would be great to do some private parties or special dinners this year.

Upcoming Nosh Dinners:

February 19th at 7pm
March 12th at 7pm