Lemon Sherbert and Green Tea Marshmallows - The Sweet Swap

July 2013 is now known as the month of sugar overload as I join many other Australian bloggers in this years Sweet Swap.  For this event I found myself battling for kitchen real estate with my general partner in crime Mrs Shanks who had decided to join in on the fun via her own new blog What's Mummy Up To.

The Sweet Swap is an online event where you are randomly assigned three bloggers to make and send a treat to.   In return you receive treats from three other bloggers and post about your experience and recipe.  The great thing is that the small admission fee goes towards charity, Child fund Australia.

I decided to make a recipe I've been longing to try.  Those who know me may know that I've been keen on mastering, to no great success, a macaron recipe.  I've experimented with French and Italian methods and found the Italian technique more forgiving.  The difference between the two, is the way you incorporate the sugar into your egg white mixture.  The Italian technique consists of adding boiling sugar syrup to the whisking egg whites resulting in a much silkier meringue.  The same technique was applied for these marshmallows only the addition of gelatine to firm up the meringue.

After receiving an abundance of lemons from Lobo, a lemon treat was a must which brought me back to my childhood love of Lemon Sherbert bomb's.  Yes one would have thought I would have attempted to make these hard lemon flavored candy encasing a centre of fizzy sherbert but due to time restraints (as I mentioned the battle above) and general know how I decided to use the elements and create them in marshmallow form.  Also as I'm a matcha freak I just had to try a green tea version.  So what did I receive you ask......

Anna from The Littlest Anchovy created these decadent Salted Almond Brittle and decadent they were.  The perfect amount of salt that lifted the caramel/butter scotch flavor to another world.  It was hard to stick to a small piece to go with my morning coffee every day.  Thanks Anna!!

Maureen from Orgasmic Chef sent these delightful Russian Caramels + Watermelon Ice.  My kids MiniB and Hburger's eyes lit up at the sight of the colorful watermelon ice, which was backed up with a coconut grin.  Thanks Maureen!!

Finally I was spoilt for choice by Shez of One Bite More who made not one but three treats.
Black Gold Bars (sticky treacle chewy toffees with a hit of mocha and chilli), Szechuan pepper Fudgy Bites, and Sour Gummy (cherry and passion fruit) gummy chews.  My favorite hands down was the Black Gold bars with it's chilli kick.  Thanks Shez!!

Many thanks also goes out to Sara of Belly Rumbles and Amanda of Chewtown for organizing this event.  It was such a thrill receiving random packages of sweet goodness in the post and all for a good cause.


Till next time ... we eat!!

Shanks



Marshmallow (Matcha or Lemon Sherbert)

Ingredients:

   Marshmallow Mixture
   25 gm powdered gelatine
   185 ml  (¾ cup) flavored fluid (i.e. lemon juice or green tea)
   500 gm caster sugar
   200ml water
   1 tbsp liquid glucose
   2 eggwhites
   1/8 tsp creme of tartar

   Lemon Sherbert Marshmallow Coating

   1 packet of Wizz Fizz
   20gm icing sugar
   30gm cornflour
   grated lemon peel of 1/2 lemon

  Matcha Marshmallow Coating
   1/2 tsp Matcha green tea powder
   33gm icing sugar
   30gm cornflour
   An additional pinch of Matcha powder for serving

  
Method:

Line a 30x15cm baking (or something similar) tin.  I found a silicone mat a lot easier to remove the mixture from than baking paper.

Combine gelatine, lemon juice to a small bowl and let stand until the gelatine has absorbed all the liquid.  Fill about half way of a larger bowl with boiling water and set the small bowl with gelatine mixture on top of the larger bowl (similar to a double boiler when melting chocolate).  This is to keep the mixture warm and to stop the gelatine from setting.  Set aside.

Place sugar, water and glucose in a saucepan and bring to the boil.  Continue heating (roughly 5-10 minutes) the sugar syrup until temperature reaches 125 degrees C.


While you are waiting for the sugar to reach temperature, add the creme of tartar to the egg whites and begin whisking.  An electric stand mixer is preferred as you'll be have your hands full when combining the mixture.  I generally start whisking on high while when the sugar syrup starts to boil.  It should reach soft-medium peaks once the sugar has been boiling for about 3 minutes but slow the mixer down if it is forming stiff peaks before the sugar syrup is ready.

Once the sugar syrup has reached temperature, slowly add drizzle the syrup down the side of the mixing bowl while it's still whisking.  Simultaneously slowly drizzle the gelatine mixture to the egg whites.  Continue whisking until the the temperature of the bowl reaches body temp - i.e. slightly warm to the touch.  This will take about 10-15mins.  At first sight it may seem like that the syrup and gelatine has flattened all the air out of your egg mixture but keep whisking and it will slowly combine as the mixture cools.

Spoon the mixture into the baking tin and smooth off the top.  For best results refrigerate overnight.

Combine the cornflour, icing sugar and flavoring (i.e sherbert or matcha) and put through a fine sieve.  Sprinkle some of the mixture on to a flat surface and remove the marshmallow onto this mixture.  Coat the rest of the marshmallow and slice it into your preferred shape /size.

Sieve additional sherbert, lemon peel or Matcha before serving.

Kobe Jones - New Winter Romance Menu

Mrs Shanks and I were lucky enough to be invited to try out Kobe Jones new Winter Romance menu which was just perfect as we missed out on a date for our wedding anniversary back in April.  It was a much need distraction from the everyday business plus being cooped in the house the past few weekends due to the excess rain we've been having in Sydney.

Kobe Jones is located in the heart of the dining district of King Street Wharf.  A stylish restaurant with modern Japanese influenced decor and I've noticed the glass bi-fold doors that open up the dining area to panoramic waterfront views of Darling Harbour.  Well known for it's Japanese-Californian fusion style of eastern cuisine matched with western sauces and their famous Volcano Roll, Kobe Jones now has a new head chef Hong Sub Lee (Edan) running the show. It's been a while since we've been to KJ so it was great to come back and see what has changed.

Kobe Jones Sunset and LLB

On their website I have noticed that the menu structure has changed focusing on sharing-style banquet meals that range from $55-$180pp.  Their a la carte menu ranges from rolls, sushi & sashimi, tobonayki, hot rocks, and everything in between.  I like the vast variety of the banquet menus so that you're not restricted based on budget or the number of courses.  The variety also showcases the chef's specialties and we got to try dishes that we would not generally consider ordering off the menu.

Number One Special

A great start to the banquet was KJ's Number One Special Roll.  Crab salad with avocado is always a win for me, but when it's wrapped with kingfish and baked in secret sauce makes it all the better.  KJ's secret sauce sweet, sticky, caramelized, hoisin flavoured goodness that balances well with the cream topping.  I'm not a big fan of alfalfa but thought this added some freshness to the dish and an additional dimension to the overall taste.

Tantalising Tasting Plate: Spicy Ebi Nigri, Wagyu Tataki, Salmon&Seafood Poke, Lollipop Sushi, and Spider Roll

The Tasting plate is elegantly plated on a long slate tile (hard to photograph though) highlighting the level of detail into each bite sized morsel.  As sushi and sashimi are chef Edan's first love, this platter truly displays his passion.  Each mouthful had distinct textures and flavors.  My favourite would have to be the Seafood and Salmon Poke, Hawaiian style marinated sashimi cubes served with poke sauce which I think had a dash of sesame oil which just brought the dish together.  This also reminded me of a similar dish we had on our honeymoon, the Fijian Kokoda - which we dubbed "fish in a cup".

Pacific Calamari Fritto

The Calamari Fritto was a highlight.  Crisp light panko crumbs encasing pillow soft calamari drizzled with roast shallot mayonnaise.  Mrs Shanks and I also couldn't get enough of the marinated yellow radish which had a smokey flavour and we both agreed we could have a whole bowl of this stuff with an ice cold beer.

Jalapeno Salmon Tataki

The salmon had a wonderful texture, lightly flamed slithers of salmon with briney pops from the salmon roe and hint of heat from the jalapenos.  The dish was a bit on the oily side to my liking and could have been lifted with some citrus.

Spicy Seafood Tabonyaki

IT'S ALIVE!!  is what Mrs Shanks said upon witnessing the air-dried tuna shavings wriggling on top of this warm hearty dish.  A seafood medally of prawns, scallops, squid and mussels with wild mushrooms tossed in KJ's seaweed butter and baked Tabonyaki style in cream sauce.   This was a welcomed hearty dish but we both feared the carb-overload as we were only halfway through the banquet.

Volcano Roll

KJ's infamous Volcano Roll oven-baked scallops layered with crab and avocado roll covered in a molten cream sauce, roasted sesame seed, smelt roe, and shallots with lashings of bitter sweet soy glaze - enough said.  It's a great dish with a good combination of flavours and textures.  If I were to be really picky I would have to say that having this straight after the seafood tabonyaki was border line cream sauce overload, and it may have been better served before the calamari ... but seriously, who can ever get enough cream sauce!?!

Alaskan Crab - Before and After

The dish I'd been waiting for had come.  The Alaskan crab legs were as long as my arm and surprisingly quite thorny.  KJ's menu describes that the crab leg is grilled robata style to highlight the crabs sweetness and I'd have to highly agree with this cooking method.  Not only was the crab meat succulent and sweet, the grilling also gave smokey tones that enhanced the crab's natural seafood flavor.  The separate soy/lime dressing was not required in my mind as the taste was already complete.

Lobster Hot Rock

Fresh sweet slipper lobster meat served on a hot rock at the table - what's not to love?  The initial searing of the lobster gave an amazing aroma as well as a smokey charred flavor to compliment the lobster's natural sweetness.  The lobster was served with three sauces garlic seaweed butter, ponzu and motoyaki sauce.  Out of the three sauces the garlic seaweed butter was the winner for me.

KJ's  Tiramisu + Flaming Green tea Anko

Not that we weren't spoilt (and full to the brim) enough already with an awesome array of dishes, but then our waiter did not ask us which dessert (a choice of two) we wanted.  Instead he came out with the flaming lot - literally.  The green tea and Anko (red bean paste) brulee arrived alight, infusing the vanilla liqueur to the brittley sugar coated top.  I was surprised to find the brulee still retained a crack-worthy toffee crust.

The tiramisu consisted of a green tea and sake infused sponge served semifreddo topped with chocolate shards and strawberries.  A refreshing dessert with good contrast in flavours. 

One the way out I also noticed that KJ is not only for fine banqueting, but they also do lunch and dinner specials for those wanting a quick meal.  $32 (at time of review) for a mixed plate lunch and they are still doing $29pp all you can eat sushi platters (min 2 persons).  Time to get your Volcano Roll fix!!

Anyway, we enjoyed a fantastic winter-romance date, with the atmosphere, seating arrangements, heaters (which were very welcome on a particularly wet and cold night), great service and the sharing-style menu providing a warm and intimate dining experience, with a hint of luxury thrown in.

Till next time ... we eat.

Shanks

Yaya's Yum Yums dined as guests of Kobe Jones.