crispy trout.

40-44 Little Bourke St
9671 3151

Coconut Tapioca Pudding

1 cup tapioca pearls

12 cups water

500g superfine castor sugar

½ cup coconut cream (use ‘kara’ cartons if you can find them)

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon salt

Bring 8 cups of water to the boil and pour in the tapioca, stirring so that the pearls do not stick to the bottom.

Simmer until the pearls become transparent with just a tiny dot of white left in the middle. This will take about 10 minutes.

Pour into a strainer and rinse in cold water.

To make sugar syrup

Combine the castor sugar and 4 cups of water in a heavy-based saucepan over a moderate heat and stir until the sugar dissolves. This makes 1.2 litres.

Place the pearls in a mixing bowl and add 1 cup of sugar syrup, coconut cream, vanilla extract and salt.

Stir to mix through.

Set the mixture in individual ramekins and serve.

Mos Def – Mathematics (zSHARE)

Grilled Squid & Pomelo Salad

Coldplay – Politik (zSHARE)

This salad was beautifully refreshing, I couldn’t get enough of it. If you don’t like chilli I would recommend not adding the full amount. If you’d like the salad a bit hotter you can always add some chilli powder in at the end. Both the salad and the snapper recipes are from the longrain cookbook.

Green Papaya Salad

Serves 4

2 green bird’s eye chillies

1 clove garlic, peeled

1 tablespoon shaved palm sugar

1 tablespoon dried prawn (shrimp), soaked in warm water for 10 minutes

1 ripe tomato

1 snake bean, cut into 2.5cm pieces

1 tablespoon tamarind

1 tablespoon lime juice

1 tablespoon fish sauces

4 tablespoon roasted peanuts, crushed

1 medium-sized green papaya, finely shredded, soaked in ice cold water and drained

A handful of coriander

Add the chillies and garlic to a mortar and pestle and pound the paste.

Add the palm sugar and drained shrimp, lightly bruise.

Add the tomato and snake bean.

Pound and bruise, the liquid released will form a light sauce.

Add the tamarind, lime juice and fish sauce.

Taste – it should be sweet, sour and salty. If you think it’s intense, remember that the green papaya is yet to be added.

Add the green papaya and coriander.

With your hand and a spoon, mix to combine all the flavours in the mortar.

Taste and adjust seasoning, if necessary.

Spoon onto a serving plate.

A little fried coconut treat we picked up on Victoria Street, Richmond.

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Braised Snapper with Star Anise & Cinnamon Bark

2 coriander roots, scraped and cleaned

2 star anise

2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed

2.5cm piece of ginger, peeled

1/2 teaspoon white peppercorns

vegetable oil

50ml chinese cooking wine

2 tablespoon rock candy, pounded to a power

100ml oyster sauce

4 cups stock (chicken or fish)

3cm piece cinnamon bark

1 whole snapper, cleaned and scaled

A splash of fish sauce

A handful of coriander leaves

Ground white pepper

Crisp-fried garlic

Preheat the oven to 150°C.

Pound the coriander roots, 1 star anise, garlic, ginger and peppercorns in a mortar and pestle to a uniform paste.

Heat a little vegetable oil in a heavy-based pot and fry the paste in as little oil as possible until crisp and fragrant.

Deglaze with the cooking wine, then add the rock candy, oyster sauce and stock. Bring to the boil and skim. Lower the heat to a simmer and taste – it should be sweet, aromatic and salty.

Add the cinnamon bark and remaining star anise. Set aside.

Score the fish on both sides and douse with fish sauce. Drain and place in a braising pan, deep enough to hold all the hot liquid.

Cover the fish with the liquid then cover with baking paper and foil and place in the oven for 20 minutes.

Remove the fish from the oven and discard foil and baking paper. Let the fish rest for 10 minutes.

Lift the fish out with 2 spatulas and place on a serving dish. It should be fragrant and a light tan colour.

Bring the braising liquid back to a simmer, check the seasoning and strain enough liquid over the fish to half-cover it.

Garnish with coriander, a little white pepper and crisp-fried garlic.

Junior Boys – In The Morning (zSHARE)

Longrain is consistently great. The food is amazing, the staff are attentive and friendly, the building is beautiful and the decor simple and warm.

I’ve been going to Longrain since I was about 11 when it first opened in Sydney. I enjoy it just as much now as I did back then only now I can drink the fantastic cocktails. My favourite is the ‘Gin Sin’ which is a stick drink mixing gin, lychee liqueur, fresh lychees, ginger, kaffir lime and ginger beer. I also like the ‘Red Dragon’, perfect for any chilli lover, a mix of chilli vodka, peach liqueur, fresh raspberries and cranberry juice. I love the freshness of the flavours in the drinks at Longrain and the textures of the pieces of fruit – the martinis and the strained drinks are also good though.

My first memories of Longrain are of me eating and loving anything put on the table and my sister, who has always been a fussy with food, eating her embarrassing “special” order of plain grilled chicken and thinly sliced cucumber. Two dishes I am still ordering 9 years later are the tofu and the tapioca.

The ‘Betel Leaves’ are unlike any other food. They spicy and when topped with ‘Smoked Trout Chilli Garlic Galangal & Trout Roe’ or ‘Prawn Peanuts Roasted Coconut & Ginger’ they are the perfect flavour explosive starter to your meal.

The ‘Kingfish Fillet wrapped in Banana Leaf’ is cooked with curry paste but is mildly infused with flavours of banana leaf, it comes with pea eggplants and is topped with crunchy fried thai basil. The ‘Steamed Snapper’ special was perfectly cooked and wonderfully simple and delicious. The ‘Salt & Pepper Tofu’ with stir fried chinese broccoli comes in a light oyster sauce and is the best tofu I have ever had – a crunchy skin like coating and a soft silken inside.

Almost all of the stuff on the menu is really good but I also recommend the: Freshly shucked oyster with Red Chilli Lime Juice & Deep Fried Eschalots; Crisp Skin Barossa Chicken with a Spiced Plum Sauce; Soft Shell Crab; Caramelised Pork Hock with Five Spice & Chilli Vinegar; Eggnet Filled with Pork Prawns Peanuts & Sweet Vinegar; Salt & Pepper Squid with Sweet Soy & Ginger.

And don’t be foolish like I was a few nights ago and forget to leave a lot of room for dessert. They are all great but I highly recommend you get the tapioca or if you are with a few other people/you just want to be a guts like me definitely get the sample plate. They sometimes have a new dessert or sorbet but Coconut caramel custard, Coconut Tapioca, Banana Fritters, Black Sticky Rice and Coconut & Durian Pancakes are usually on offer.

Prawn Betel Leaves

Smoked Trout Betel Leaves

Kingfish Fillet wrapped in Banana Leaf

Steamed Snapper

Salt & Pepper Tofu

44 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne

03 9671 3151

Tuesday-Friday 12:00pm-2:30pm

Monday-Saturday 6:00pm-11:00pm

Sunday 6:00pm-9:30pm

http://www.longrain.com/

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