Inside Rockpool Bar & Grill
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Food Bites Autumn
Inside Rockpool
Bar & Grill WORDS BY EMMA WESTWOOD
RECIPES BY NEIL PERRY
FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY BY JAMIE DURRANT
ROCKPOOL INTERIOR PHOTOGRAPHY BY EARL CARTER
Food Bites Autumn
Spicy Mussel
and Saffron
Stew with wood-fire grilled seafood
and aioli
I have been playing around with mussels
and saffron together for years! One of the
greatest spices in the world and it relates so
perfectly to the humble mussel. The base of
this recipe – the paste and the consequent
sauce – may seem involved but once you get
there, you have a product that can be used as
a flavouring for risotto, the base for a fantastic
soup, a simple sauce over a steamed lobster,
or as we do here: with your favourite grilled
seafood and finished with a great garlicky
aioli.
With recipes like this, it is vital that
the quality of the produce speaks volumes
from the very first – if you skimp on the
bones for the stock, it will be revealed in the
final product. They need to be as fresh and
as perfect as the seafood you are grilling at
the end.
If you have stock or sauce left over,
pop it in the freezer for next week’s risotto
or pasta.
Serves 8
Sauce Seafood for grilling
500g mussels, beards removed Prawns, lobster, fish, squid, etc
100ml white wine
Pinch saffron Aioli, to serve (see separate recipe)
250ml olive oil
Sea salt Method
10 kaffir lime leaves To make the paste, simply combine all the ingredients except the oil together and puree
500g white fish bones, washed with a stick blender. Blend to a smooth paste, gradually pouring in the oil as you go.
4 vine-ripened tomatoes, roughly chopped
2 tablespoons tomato jam (see separate recipe) To make the sauce, put the wine in a large pot with a tight-fitting lid, over a high heat.
4 litres chicken stock
When steaming, add the mussels to the pot and steam them open. When all the mussels
Paste are open (discard any that don’t open), strain the liquid and reserve. Reserve the mussels
2 Spanish onions, roughly chopped and discard the shells.
3 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
1 large fennel, roughly chopped Combine the saffron with the mussel juice in a small pot and let steep over a low heat
10 cloves garlic until infused.
1 x 2cm piece galangal, peeled and finely chopped
Skin of 1 kaffir lime In a large pot heat the olive oil until smoking. Add the paste with a handful of salt and the
3 stems lemongrass, outer layer removed, finely kaffir lime leaves, reduce the heat to low and cook for 20 to 30 minutes or until the paste
chopped has lost its rawness. Add the mussels, fish bones, tomatoes and tomato jam, and continue
12 scud chillies to cook for 5 minutes. Pour the chicken stock and saffron water into the pot and bring to
2 tablespoon fennel seeds, roasted and ground the boil; reduce heat and simmer for 25 minutes. Put through the mouli or a ricer and pass
2 tablespoon coriander seeds, roasted and ground through a fine sieve.
3 tablespoon white peppercorns, roasted and
ground Serve with any grilled seafood that takes your fancy – scallops, fish, prawns, yabbies, lobster
200ml olive oil and more. Finish with a dollop of garlicky aioli and enjoy.
essentials magazine autumn 2008 page 11
Sirloin
‘Minute Style’
with Café de Paris Butter
M y dad was a great butcher – and a great
cook. I guess it is from him I get my true
and unadulterated love of meat. At Rockpool
Bar & Grill in Melbourne (and soon to be in
Sydney), I really believe we serve the best
beef in the country. I don’t mean to be cocky
but we buy from guys who love their produce
as much as we love cooking it – it is grass fed
and dry aged on the bone. Such a great natural
flavour.
And I really love the sirloin cooked
minute stye… hot and fast, and all the juices
perfectly trapped inside. Be sure not to
overcook this.
The butter is a perfect
accompaniment – but equally great would
be some horseradish or simply your favourite
mustard. Add sides of chips, a simple salad,
our delicious long-cooked beans or a bowl of
spinach puree and off you go. Nirvana.
Food Bites Autumn
Serves 4 Method
To make the butter, heat the oil in a frying pan
4 sirloin steaks, beaten out with a meat mallet and cook the onion and curry powder over low
to about 1cm thick heat until soft and fragrant. Set aside to cool.
Sea salt
Extra virgin olive oil
Freshly ground white pepper Process all ingredients until just combined.
Juice of 1⁄2 lemon Adjust the seasoning if necessary. Roll butter
into a 3 to 4cm diameter log, wrap in plastic
Butter and refrigerate until firm (any unused butter
125g unsalted butter, softened can be frozen if it is not going to be used
15ml vegetable oil within a week or so).
1⁄4 white onion, finely diced
10g Indian style curry powder Season the steaks well with salt. Cook on a
1 small handful parsley leaves
1 clove garlic very hot grill for 1 minute each side for rare or
Juice of 1⁄2 lemon 2 minutes each side for medium rare. Remove
2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce from the heat and rest in a warm place for 5
3 anchovy fillets minutes.
1⁄2 teaspoon capers, rinsed
1⁄2 teaspoon sea salt To serve, cut four discs of the butter and place
1 teaspoon ground pepper on top of the well-rested steaks. Drizzle with a
1 small handful basil leaves little extra virgin olive oil, give a good grind of
1 small handful thyme leaves white pepper, a squeeze of lemon and serve.
VIEW TO A GRILL 1⁄2 tablespoon ground ginger
Inside Rockpool Melbourne 1⁄2 egg yolk
essentials magazine autumn 2008 page 12.5
Aioli
Makes 1 cup
Ingredients
125ml extra virgin olive oil
125ml olive oil
3 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon sea salt
3 egg yolks
Juice of 1/2 lemon
Freshly ground white pepper
Method
Combine the olive oils.
Crush the garlic and salt together in a mortar
with a pestle.
Whisk in the egg yolks, add the lemon juice
and continue whisking while adding the
olive oils in a thin stream until the emulsion
thickens.
Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary.
Food Bites Autumn
Relaxed and ‘in control’ – Neil Perry
Wall of wine/reservations
Makes 1 litre
Tomato jam
Ingredients
20 vine ripened tomatoes
Olive oil, for cooking
1 brown onion, very finely diced
2 cloves garlic, very finely chopped
120g caster sugar
120ml red wine vinegar
Method
Roast the tomatoes in olive oil, in a medium oven,
until well caramelised, then pass through a mouli
or ricer.
Sweat the onion and garlic together in a little olive
oil, until soft, fragrant and transparent. Add the
tomatoes, sugar and vinegar and cook about 1 hour.
Check the balance of the vinegar and sugar.
When cool, store in an airtight jar in the refrigerator.
Great on any meats or seafoods or in pastas and
soups.
Neil Perry’s Rockpool
Bar & Grill Melbourne
Food Bites Autumn
Neil Perry, a tour-de-force in Australian food, talks about the roots of his love
of fresh food, being ‘swept up’ into the world of celebrity chefs and the latest
developments in his burgeoning restaurant empire.
A ccording to the Sydney Morning Herald, chef
Neil Perry is ‘rightly regarded as one of the
godparents of Asian-influenced contemporary
five books (most recently Good Food), popular
cooking shows on The Lifestyle Channel and a
consultancy for Qantas airlines, and it’s easy
He was a butcher, a fisherman and a gardener.
He loved to bring fresh food to the table so he
really taught me that eating was about taste
Australian food’. Considering the list of awards to see why Perry sits at the forefront of the and flavour and memory and celebration.’
attributed to both his flagship restaurant current craze for everything culinary. Not bad Perry’s memories of family meals
— Sydney’s Rockpool — and the more recent for the son of a butcher/fisherman. are fond. ‘It was all about fishing and cooking
Rockpool Bar and Grill in Melbourne, it’s clear From the age of 18 through to 25, fresh fish or eating mud crab and going out to
this is one of Perry’s many badges of honour. Perry learnt the art of the restaurant trade restaurants or eating oysters off the rocks. Life
Over the last decade, Australia has seen an by working as a waiter where he got to see was built around what we would be eating.
unprecedented culinary revolution, creating things from the customers’ perspective, before ‘That experience of really understanding
a country of exceptional chefs. If there was following his natural calling to the kitchen. “fresh” and eating food at its peak, which we did
any doubt that Perry’s work stands out, then However, his appreciation for good food was together, that’s made a really big impression on
Rockpool’s consistent presence in the Top 50 honed a long time before that. me. That and, I guess, knowing how to scale, gut
Restaurants in the World, voted annually in UK’s Speaking of his youth, Perry says, and fillet a fish at a very young age, because we
Restaurant magazine, proves his reputation is ‘Importantly it was my father who was were catching them, prawn hunting… or doing
truly an international one. Couple that with focussed on the quality of ingredients. whatever we did. We had a lot of fun.’
essentials magazine autumn 2008 page 15
If there’s a common thread that
runs through all of Neil Perry’s endeavours, it’s
a commitment to fresh, quality ingredients.
‘I think no matter what we do, it’s the quality
of the ingredient that is the main focus. We
focus a lot on purity. We focus on sourcing the
best fish, the best meat and making sure that
it’s actually of the highest quality to start with,
then we bring out the flavour or enhance the
flavour… but the starting point is finding the
best you can possibly eat.’
In 2001 Neil made his first television
series with The Lifestyle Channel, leading to
a successful, yet essentially un-orchestrated
career as a celebrity chef. ‘I was approached
to do those things, so you kind of get swept
up in it. I don’t think so much at any stage I
sat down and said, “Here’s a plan – let’s do
consulting for an airline and let’s do TV and
let’s write a book”. It’s really, as they would
come, another opportunity would unfold. It’s a
hard thing to plan something like that. In any
case, it’s best to fall on you because it means
the people who you form relationships want to
be with you, and you’re not hawking yourself
to them. It’s a much better way to set out.’
Fortunately, Neil didn’t find the
transition from restaurant kitchen to the small
screen difficult. ‘Because cooking’s the thing
that I do and I love communicating, and because
I’m passionate about it, and everything that
I’ve done is part of my skill base, then that
makes it really interesting,’ he explains. ‘I just
cook on TV – I don’t really present. If you asked
me to act, then forget it. But doing something
that you just do naturally, that’s very easy.’
Even with four TV series under his
belt, Neil says he still finds the experience of
being a celebrity ‘quite bizarre’. ‘If you own
your restaurant and you make your fame
through being a chef, customers sit in the
restaurant, dine, and they may say ‘hello’ BRONZE SOPHISTICATION Rockpool Bar Melbourne
on the way in and the way out… but once
you’ve been on TV and people come into the
restaurant… There’s a very different experience. casual dining venue, with a seafood-focussed defines Neil, who readily calls himself ‘a bit
There’s a kind of a reverence or respect for menu with a slight Asian bent and breezier, of a chameleon’, equally enamoured with
you being a chef — and I’m not saying in a more ‘nautical’ décor. As freshness is the cooking both Eastern and Western foods.
disrespectful way — but there’s a familiarity essence of good seafood, at Rockpool (as Despite being considered one
that people have from you being on the small with the Bar and Grill) there’s an ‘ocean of Australia’s most influential chefs, Neil
screen. They walk up and go, “Hi Neil, how are to plate’ program of gathering the seafood remains self-effacing. ‘We’ve been lucky.
you?” …Because they see you on the TV, there’s from the source. ‘People really focus on the I work with some great people. We’ve
an ownership thing. Quite extraordinary.’ freshness of fish. We age beef for a very always had a very strong philosophy
Neil Perry’s longevity in the long time and all but people don’t go to the about what we’d like to do and achieve.’
restaurant and celebrity chef game, which butcher shop and ask, “How fresh is that Given the scope of his endeavours,
he admits has put pressure on his life, may meat?” It’s not such an issue. But because and that he likes to remain hands-on in his
be attributed to his philosophical attitude. seafood is a really delicate protein and it kitchens, one wonders if Neil ever gets sick of
‘If you let it get to you, it would drive breaks down quickly and its flavour profile food. ‘No. I wake up in the morning and think
you crazy. But I just try to relax about it, changes so quickly, people have a really of what I’m going to eat. I cook at home all
understand it. It comes with the job.’ passionate fascination with how fresh it is.’ the time… I live at Rose Bay where we’ve got
In addition to commitments with An important part of Rockpool’s this balcony that looks over the harbour, so it’s
television and publishing, Perry opened philosophy is that, with climate change, sometimes more difficult to find a place where
Rockpool Bar and Grill in Melbourne’s seafood is a precious resource that requires you want to eat that’s got the same outlook.’
Crown Casino complex in late 2006. ‘It’s careful management. ‘We’re working really With three young daughters, Neil muses, ‘It’s
essentially a steakhouse – it’s a very smart hard on getting a completely sustainable just easier to make pasta, roast a chicken or
steakhouse, but it is a steakhouse,’ he seafood program up with a select number barbecue something and drink a great bottle of
says. At the restaurant entrance, diners of fishermen throughout the country,’ wine. My wife says some people don’t find it
can view whole sides of grass-fed and says Perry. ‘I thought that would be a as easy as me to cook, but I don’t believe that,
Wagyu beef hanging in a special glass- really wonderful project to be involved in.’ it’s not that difficult.’
walled room, dry-aging at close to zero In 2008, Neil’s plans extend to
degrees, becoming incredibly tender opening two further restaurants: Rockpool
and flavoursome in the process. It’s this Bar and Grill (in Sydney), which will be a
attention to time-honoured ways of caring ‘benchmark’ steakhouse along the lines of
for produce that has won Rockpool Bar and its Melbourne sibling, and an Asian restaurant Rockpool Bar & Grill Melbourne
Grill so many accolades, including the 2007 called Spice Temple, which Neil promises Crown Complex
Age Good Food Guide Restaurant of the Year. will be ‘modern Asian, but completely Southbank, Victoria
Meanwhile, the original Rockpool different to anything in Australia or around Tel. 03 8648 1900
has been recently transformed into a more the world.’ This blending of genres well www.rockpoolmelbourne.com
essentials magazine autumn 2008 page 16
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