Some people find cooking stressful, a boring chore to be avoided at all costs. Poh Ling Yeow is not one of those people! For Poh cooking is all about nurturing and sharing so she loves inviting friends into her kitchen to play, experiment and help her refine her unique cooking style. This week she catches up with Emmanuel Mollois, a pastry chef trained in Paris who proudly carries forward the torch of tradition. Emmanuel is highly amused by Poh’s "wild" approach as they both prepare delicious desserts they remember loving as kids in Malaysia and France.
Poh is a huge fan of Thai cuisine and when she discovers that Thai food guru, David Thompson, is in town she pulls out all stops to get him to drop by the kitchen. David is more than happy to come and share a recipe for a classic green curry, and especially more than happy to pursue his favourite pass time of making people eat chillies. How does Poh fare? Find out tonight on Poh’s kitchen.
Poh has made some Sujee Biscuits with almond meal and it’s got her thinking about experimenting with almonds in other recipes. She visits a heritage almond grower and tastes some heritage almonds but is entranced by finding out about green almonds and takes a bag of them back to her kitchen to experiment with. French chef Emmanuel Mollois is her guest and shows her the best way to cook salmon and accompanies it with Almond Milk, a recipe he’s adapted from an old 14th century French recipe book. Poh cooks recipes using all kinds of almonds and even impresses Emmanuel with an exotic almond cocktail.
Poh is on a quest to find out more about ’Wok cooking’. She’s no stranger to this ancient culinary art, having two wonderful mentors in her Mum and Aunty, but when it comes to cooking with high heat and lots of flame, it still presents a challenge. So Poh meets renowned Sydney chef, Neil Perry. Neil is a trail blazer of Australian cuisine and one of the best when it comes to both Asian and wok cooking.
Poh loves all areas of cooking but she particularly loves baking, and barely a day goes by without her popping something into the oven. But she knows that you can never stop learning about the mysterious art of pastry, and this is one of the reasons she always welcomes good friend Emmanuel Mollois to her kitchen. Emmanuel is a first-class pastry chef who trained in France, and he loves sharing his knowledge with Poh. As he prepares some "French-sized" chocolate èclairs, Poh surprises him with some amazing fried meringues.
Last time Thai food guru, David Thompson was a guest in Poh’s kitchen he took great delight in having Poh road test more than one hot chilli! However, despite the chillies Poh welcomes back this cheeky chef/ come scholar to share with us an ancient Thai recipe. David is also more than a little impressed with Poh’s traditional Malaysian stir fry.
On this week's program, Poh's cooking 'Chinese', a cuisine, which given her Malay/Chinese background is not unfamiliar to her, but when it comes to Modern Asian cookery she feels she needs a little advice and invites Sydney Chef Neil Perry back to her kitchen.
In this episode national award-winning Indian chef Ragini Dey joins Poh to explore the ancient secrets of Indian kormas. Together they cook two very different kormas both with richly layered spice combinations - rich and creamy in taste but surprisingly easy to make. To add textural elements of crunch and freshness to the creaminess of the kormas they make lentil parathas and a surprising tandoori broccoli stuffed with homemade paneer cheese, fruit and nuts.
Growing up, Poh ate whole fish with her family two or three times a week and loved it, so she recently got to wondering why she didn't cook them herself. Go on, be honest: have you ever cooked a whole fish? Poh has now overcome her phobia and discovered that it's actually quite easy to do. Ever curious, Poh wants to refine her fish technique so this week she's invited one of Australia's finest fish cooks into her kitchen, Neil Perry. Neil was one of the chefs who helped to carve out the culinary style now known as 'Modern Australian' and there isn't much he can't tell you about how to catch, handle, and cook delicious fish.
As the warmer days draw to a close, it’s the perfect time for a barbecue. In Neil’s apartment overlooking beautiful Sydney harbour, Poh makes on an old family recipe, traditional Malaysian Satays. Strips of beef and chicken are marinated in a deliciously spicy mix of coriander, cumin, lemon grass and turmeric and then served with a succulent peanut sauce. Neil meanwhile has fired up the BBQ, eager to show Poh how he cooks meat, using this classic Aussie method.
Poh's on the road thanks to an invitation from one-time TV Chef and long-time good food lover, Ian Parmenter. These days' Ian's backyard is WA's wonderful food Mecca, Margaret River, and he delights in showing Poh the region. The paella they cook together in the town's farmer's market shows off the local produce and is a visual and taste sensation that's simple to recreate and guaranteed to please a crowd. While the crowd feast on Paella, Poh and Ian head south to the famous annual Leeuwin concert where fifteen hundred black tie diners are catered for. Both Poh and Ian have an appreciation of the demands of catering for a crowd and back in Poh's kitchen they give us a couple of great recipes that are guaranteed crowd pleasers. Ian makes a prawn noodle salad with a tangy Thai dressing. The prawns are flambéed in brandy and tossed with a fresh salad of cucumber and tomato and rice noodles. The Thai dressing is a zingy, citrusy blend that just sings with the prawns. Poh makes a simple, tasty Nonya fried rice. The flavour is robust, and aromatic and Poh tops the dish with crunchy cucumber which, for Poh, really makes the dish. Her tip for good fried rice is to refrigerate the rice before cooking.
After a week as Ian Parmenter's guest in WA's Margaret River, has Poh finally become a country girl? She certainly mixes it up with the local Alpacas and proves a dab hand at catching freshwater marron! On Ian's verandah, with his vineyard as a backdrop, they cook up wonderful local produce including the marron, pink grapefruit from the garden, farmed rabbit and zucchinis from the local primary school.
In this week's program Poh and Emmanuel explore colour and taste from two different cultural persepctives with French chef Emmanuel Mollois sharing one classic and one brand new recipe for Parisian macaroons - the wild, flavour-filled biscuits in hundreds of zany colours, all the rage in Paris. Poh cooks a Malaysian version of French macaroons - brightly coloured Malaysian snacks with some surprise fillings - one that she remembers making as a child and nick names 'Sticky Marbles'. Emmanuel gives Poh the challenge of making a 'Poh's Kitchen' macaroon and food matching with tea - a wonderful way to compliment or contrast food flavours with a cup of tea! Emmanuel and Poh build a macaroon pyramid and Emmmanuel tastes something he vows he'll never eat again!
What's the secret to cooking the perfect roast? Poh has mastered many exotic dishes and cooking styles, but she's strangely intimidated when it comes to something as straightforward as meat and three veg. She's determined to master the art of roasting, so this week her guest in the kitchen is the master of meat, Neil Perry. Poh knows that only the best ingredients will satisfy Neil, so she jets off to Tasmania in search of remarkable produce.
Give your guilty conscience a night off! This program's all about indulgence, letting your hair down, forgetting the kilojoules just once and cooking something utterly decadent for a special occasion. Poh's love of food is well-known, but she doesn't just think about and cook it - she loves eating it and inspired by the excitement of the Fringe Festival Street Party and some decadent desserts afterwards, she decides to cook a very labour intensive and traditional Indonesian Layer Cake that uses 15 egg yolks and is grilled layer by layer in the oven. French Chef Emmanuel Mollois cooks Deep Sea Bream in Clay which is simple and healthy but pairs it with the most decadent mashed potato you'll ever taste in your life. Emmanuel says it's on a par with fois gras or caviar for that once-a-year treat. Poh also visits her Aunty Lynda who makes specialist Malaysian kuih or desserts and meets a group of women who love cooking as much as she does. It's luxurious, pleasure-seeking and decadent and the health police will hate it but once a year it's worth every moment. Indulgence with Emmanuel Mollois on Poh's Kitchen this week.
Neil Perry is fast becoming a regular in Poh's Kitchen and there are no prizes for guessing why: Poh and Neil love cooking together and Poh's always eager to grab tips from one of Australia's best chefs. As Neil guides Poh through his recipe for Taro Crusted Duck with Mandarin Sauce he demonstrates that complicated recipes don't have to be intimidating if you break them down into simple steps. Of course, Poh is no slouch in the kitchen herself and this week she's eager to impress Neil with an old family favourite, Steamed Taro Cake, plus a slightly bizarre creation straight from the mind of Poh, Wasabi Ice Cream. Something traditional from Malaysia, a hybrid Chinese/Thai concoction and a truly original dessert? It must be Poh's Kitchen.
This week on Poh's Kitchen your tastebuds won't know what's hit them...savoury sweets and sweet savouries...an episode exploring sweet and savoury from two very different perspectives. Poh wanted to call this episode 'Taste first: Think Later' because the Asian love of sweet meats and salty desserts seem a bit 'wild' at first but the absolutely delicious recipes in this episode will win over the faint-hearted...and Emmanuel's hot and cold soufflès add a twist to traditional favourites. Most children love chocolate but when Poh was little one of her favourite snacks was sugared cuttlefish and it's that fine balance of sweet and savoury in one dish that's a real hallmark of Asian cuisine and to demonstrate this combination Poh cooks the deliciously fragrant and sweet Dry Beef Floss Curry (Serunding Daging) with Turmeric Rice. Emmanuel, true to his French heritage cooks a soufflè, but he's experimented to create something savoury with a young, sweet taste and whips up an Asparagus Soufflè that is simple and elegant. For dessert Poh uses sticky rice again to create Kuih Seri Muka - a traditional Malaysian bite-size snack with a sticky rice base and slightly salty coconut milk custard topping. Emmanuel makes a Lime and Mango Frozen Soufflè with the zing of lime and the smooth sweetness of mango.
Antonio Carluccio, the Godfather of Italian cuisine, is incredibly inquisitive, loves vibrant colours, has a ready smile, a great appetite for a good joke and a home spun passion for simple food. Tonight he and Poh crumb lamb cutlets and bake pears using his philosophy of MOF MOF - Maximum Of Flavour, Minimum Of Fuss. Tasting Australia is one of the largest food festivals in Australia and is held annually in Poh's home state South Australia. This year Poh enjoys the privilege of being part of the festival and takes the opportunity to borrow one of its main attractions, Italian food legend, Antonio Carluccio. In the kitchen Antonio demonstrates quintessential Italian peasant cuisine. His first dish is beautiful lamb cutlets cut and stuffed with cheese, Parma ham and sage and then crumbed and pan fried. They are moist and pink with a beautiful hint of saltiness and of lovely delicate flavours imparted by the cheese and sage. Antonio serves the cutlets with a simple, delicious salad of green beans and zucchini which are cooked until just soft then tossed with mint, lemon, oil, salt and garlic. Again simple flavours perfectly combined for an exquisite result. Poh is well aware of Antonio's love of mushrooms and manages to intrigue and surprise Antonio with a dish called "Buddhist's Delight" which includes many varieties of mushrooms that Antonio is familiar with as well as some ingredients he has never seen before. The main feature of the dish is an ingredient called "mock meat" which is essentially wheat gluten. When the gluten is deep fried and braised with the mushrooms the texture mimics meat and soaks up the flavours of the broth. The broth itself is very delicately flavoured with ginger and a slight saltiness from fermented bean curd and with many different mushroom from enoki to King Oyster and Cloud Ear it is a dish that is very much about texture.
This week Poh moves out of her kitchen and heads off overseas - to Malaysia, the country where she was born. She is on a three week trip to find out more about her heritage and about the traditional dishes that come from Malaysia. In the first week of her trip, Poh visits Kuala Lumpur, her hometown. This is a city known for its street food and immediately after she arrives, Poh's out on the street looking, eating and meeting a number of local chefs including Chef Ismail Ahmad. The dishes she learns about in this episode include her Great Aunt's Popiah and Chef Ismail's Jackfruit Curry.
This week on the program, Poh continues her Malaysian adventure, heading south from Kuala Lumpur to the historic port of Melaka. Once a vibrant maritime trading centre at the heart of the international spice trade, this UNESCO listed heritage site boasts a rich historical and culinary history. It's the 'Baba & Nonya' culture that most interests Poh. The Babas and Nonyas are descendants of Chinese settlers who arrived in Melaka around six hundred years ago and intermarried with the local Malay people. The interweaving of these two cultures has given them a unique and increasingly popular cuisine, commonly known as 'Nonya'.
This week on Poh's Malaysian adventure, she heads north to the 'Pearl of the Orient', the island of Penang. A popular tourist destination, this tropical paradise has a diverse cultural background, which is clearly reflected in its reputation as the 'Food capital of Malaysia'. As Poh discovers, Penang is a food lover's paradise and boasts some of the best and cheapest street fare in Asia, many Malaysians holiday here just to sample its unique cuisine. When it comes to choice, there's almost too much. On nearly every street corner, you can see a mix of Malay, Chinese, Nonya and Indian influences, a feast for any culinary eye. To help her on her journey Poh meets up again with Malaysian chef's Florence Tan and Ismail Ahmad, who have offered to be her culinary guides. With them she explores and cooks some of the ingredients and dishes that make Penang so special.
Visiting Malaysia recently, Poh noticed that people eat all sorts of amazing and spicy things in the morning, and this has got her thinking: why do we eat what we eat for breakfast? To find out more about breakfast traditions around the world Poh shares amazing meals with her Indian friend Ragini Dey and Moroccan restaurateur Mohamed Bartaouch. She also invites Emmanuel Mollois into the kitchen to demonstrate the French art of dipping bread into hot chocolate. So what do you cook a Frenchmen who’s visiting for breakfast? Crepes of course! And just to make sure no-one starts the day hungry, Poh throws in a soft boiled egg with parmesan soldiers for good measure.
This week on Poh’s Kitchen it’s all about food traditions from the ancient city of Peking (Beijing) and the French countryside- and it’s not just the recipes and how they’re cooked but how they’re eaten that guarantees taste combinations that are perfectly balanced and an honour to experience. When Poh finds that Emmanuel, whose passion is food history, has never had the full Peking Duck banquet experience she treats him to the 600 year old tradition that's still practiced today. From the expert preparation of the duck by Chef Chan to the white - gloved waiter who carves at the table and the three courses prepared firstly from the duck skin, then the duck meat and finally the bones cooked into a delicate broth. It's a food tradition that Poh's pretty excited about.
Tonight's episode is definitely one for the meat lovers. Poh offers her service as apprentice to butchers, Jason and Bill and in the kitchen Poh and the boys demonstrate how one cut of meat can produce two very different dishes. Growing up in a Chinese household Poh wasn't exposed to cooking with large pieces of meat but as someone keen to develop her cooking skills in a country that produces great meat she is determined to learn more. And who better to teach her that a couple of men who admit to being "born to be butchers". Jason Bradley and Bill Smith have had a shop together for eleven years and were more than happy to take Poh on as an apprentice for a day. After delving into a bit of dicing Poh proved she was a dab hand at customer service and discovered how the time honoured tradition of fritz giving is at the heart of good butchery. In the kitchen Poh tackles her first roast. The leg of lamb is marinated with mustard and infused with rosemary and garlic before being beautifully roasted. A braised cabbage dish provides tang to cut through the richness of the meat and Kipfler potatoes "smashed" and baked with butter give an added crunch. Poh also makes traditional gravy using the pan juices from the roast, stock and red wine. It's a beautiful warming winter dish. The butchers do what butchers do so well by changing the way we look at cuts of meat. They take a leg of lamb, just a Poh used in her roast, and then bone and butterfly the leg before marinating it in a Greek style marinade using fresh Greek oregano and then pan frying and serving with lots of garlicky yoghurt as delicious Greek Yiros. Bill then cooks up two different steak cuts. Poh finds them equally tasty and equally tender, a real eye opener given that one cut is twice the price of the other. Yet one more reason why getting advice from a good butcher can really pay off.
In her kitchen this week, Poh's guest is Martin Boetz. Born in Germany, Martin is now the Executive Chef of two restaurants, one in Melbourne and the other in Sydney. Martin began his cooking career in a western kitchen but all that changed once he had eaten at David Thompson's famous Darley Street Thai restaurant. Martin began working with David, going on to create his own take on the cuisine. Martin's food has been described as 'a singular blend of Thai and modern Australian food' and his restaurants are both popular and universally acclaimed. Martin loves Thai food because he says it makes him 'feel good' and, for him, it's all about traditional Thai recipes cooked with the best of Australian ingredients. Fascinated by the balance of the sweet, the sour and the salty in Thai food Martin cooks two dishes which are all about balance and texture. His Orange Sour Curry is a curry where the paste is cooked off in stock with added vegetables and salmon. This is an interesting and easy curry and well suited to the home cook. Martin's other dish, a Crispy Fish Salad, is also interesting in that flathead is dried, pulverised and rained into hot oil to create fish with incredible crunch and crispness, the fish is then served with a beautiful Thai salad. To complement Martin's dishes Poh cooks a coconut based Malaysian dessert which is shaped and cooked in banana leaf and is called Kuih Koci.
In Malaysia recently Poh was reminded of the depth and complexity of Nonya culture, and this inspired her to master an old classic, Nonya Chicken Curry. The dish has always been a firm favourite in Poh’s family, but Poh was slightly intimidated by all the spices in the recipe. When she cooked it and it was just like the dish she loved through her childhood, Poh jumped for joy: it was like conjuring magic. To find out more about the mysterious and intriguing world of spice Poh has invited Indian chef Ragini Dey back to share some of her amazing knowledge.
This week Poh welcomes French pastry chef, Emmanuel Mollois back to her kitchen where they cook a combination of classic French - Russian cuisine. Many of the recipes that are considered in the West to be traditionally Russian actually come from the Franco-Russian cuisine of the 18th and 19th centuries, and include dishes such as Beef Stroganoff, and Chicken Kiev. Looking for inspiration, Poh takes Emmanuel on a shopping trip to Adelaide’s Central Market, where they visit a favourite culinary haunt of Poh’s, a Russian café serving Pirozhki. Poh decides to create her own version of these tasty Russian pies to serve with the hearty winter soup she has in mind. With a relatively small Russian population in Australia, it’s not easy to find the cuisine, so Poh joins some members of her local Russian community for a customary celebration. With the vodka flowing, a Balalaika ensemble and plenty of traditional Russian food, it turns into a very memorable night.
This episode - Paris, cakes and pastries - is all about taking traditional recipes and creating something new and exciting. Emmanuel travels to Paris to catch up with family and friends and catch up with the latest food trends and inspires Poh to create one of her most beautiful desserts – Rhubarb Lily Tart – it just has to be seen to be believed. Delicate lily leaves made from hazelnut and chocolate biscuit, with a delicate baked rhubarb lily in a pond of orange infused crème anglaise. It’s Poh at her creative best! Emmanuel spends the afternoon with Denis Ruffel, one of Paris’s most respected master pastry chefs who has created a cake he has named ‘Le Papillon’ (The Butterfly) especially for Poh. It is a dome of layered decadent chocolate mousse, chocolate sponge biscuit and raspberries iced with chocolate and decorated with gold leaf, pistachio and fresh raspberries and topped with a beautiful chocolate butterfly. Complex, delicate and beautiful – just like Poh! Paris, cakes and pastries – a celebration of traditional methods used to create beautiful new desserts for spoiling those you love.
Tonight Poh is in Darwin to work with international chef, Jimmy Shu so come and bask in the warmth of a dry season day in the top end. Glorious fresh produce, wonderful people and stunning environments provide a colourful backdrop to the tropical recipes. Jimmy guides Poh through a number of dishes which include Paw Paw Salad and Pad Thai.
This week Poh invites her friend Andre Ursini into the kitchen. Andre, a friend Poh made through their mutual love of cooking, has just opened his first restaurant and like Poh has reconnected with his family background through food. It wasn’t until Andre went back to Italy that he found out that the dish he makes today, gnocchi, not only translates as ‘dumpling’ but also ‘stupid one’ - a nickname his grandmother always had for him when he was young.
On this week’s program Poh takes us on one last trip to Malaysia to share some more of the unique and colourful experiences from her recent visit. She meets up again with two of Malaysia’s most experienced and entertaining chefs, Florence Tan and the irrepressible Ismail Ahmad, who take her to Penang’s tropical fruit farm, where the produce is about as exotic as you can get and perfect for Florence’s ‘Fruity Nutty Chicken’. As Poh finds out, this classic sweet and sour dish is quick and easy to prepare and is guaranteed to tempt the kids too! Poh also meets Florence's cousin Amy Koh, a famous nonya cook, who shows Poh one of Malaysia's favourite dishes, Garam Assam.
What’s black and knobbly, grows underground, has a complex earthy aroma and almost indescribable taste and costs up to $3000 dollars per kilo? Truffles of course! This week’s episode is all about the seriously decadent Australian-grown, black French Perigord truffle inspired by the Mundaring Truffle Festival in the Perth hills 40 minutes east of Perth. It’s here that Poh and Emmanuel take part in cooking demonstrations, truffle tastings, a truffle degustation dinner and the world’s longest truffle themed lunch and where 40,000 people are lucky enough to sample one of the most expensive edible commodities in the world. Back home Poh cooks Chicken Mousse and Truffle Soup Dumplings – a recipe she was inspired to create after experimenting with truffles and which Poh calls ‘Frinese’ – a fusion of French and Chinese using a French chicken mousse combined with truffles and a liquid chicken soup inside a traditional Chinese dumpling. A surprisingly subtle taste and combination of textures with the unmistakable flavour and aroma of truffle. Emmanuel, true to his French pastry chef training, combines truffles in pastry with a truffle and Creme Anglaise and apple filling in his Tarte Coquelin with Truffles and combines it with a decadent creamy Truffle Ice Cream.
Tonight Poh is back in Darwin to; soak up the sun, enjoy stunning fresh seafood and bask in the company of great friends. Join Poh, Jacko and Elton as they fish for sand whiting, track down pearl meat and introduce us to some favourite local recipes. For Poh there is no better way to get a feel for a place than through the eyes of locals, and in Darwin she was lucky enough to have the company of a co-worker from Adelaide ABC, Elton, who grew up in the territory. Not only was Elton able to show Poh the lie of the land but he introduced her to highly regarded local cook, Geoffrey Angeles, better known as Jacko. Jacko shows Poh and Elton how to catch and cook at one of his favourite fish, the local sand whiting. The fish is lightly fried in peanut oil to crispy perfection with the tail left on as the ultimate crisp treat. To accompany the fish Poh makes a fresh, tangy Thai style salsa with a hit of citrus provided by the beautiful local torch ginger. For the next seafood sensation on the menu Poh and Elton fly east to the pristine waters of the Coburg peninsula to source one of the seas’ great delicacies, pearl meat. This by-product from pearl farming is delicate and sweet and Jacko demonstrates how to keep the meat the hero of the dish by marinating it lightly in an Asian style sauce, giving the meat no more than a quick sear and using a delicate pink grapefruit for accompaniment. The flavours are subtle, the texture firm but delicate and the pearl meat definitely has its say on the plate. The final dish Jacko introduces Poh to is a Darwin family favourite, Numus. Numus is a raw fish dish where the fish is pickled using vinegar and lemon and enhanced with palm sugar, chilli, soy and garlic. Versions of the dish can be found right throughout the top end of Australia but the common factor is the use of a firm white flesh fish. Jacko’s preferred fish is Queen fish but tonight he uses one that more people around Australia would be able to find, Trevally. The pi
In Poh’s Kitchen this week it’s sauces and stir frys with Emmanuel Mollois. Before his life as a pastry chef Emmanuel worked in Paris as a Saucier. Making sauces is, according to Emmanuel, a ‘noble art’, ruin the sauce and you ruin the dish. With Poh working alongside him, Emmanuel shows us the secrets of a béchamel, a hollandaise sauce flavoured with blood orange, and explains the magic béarnaise sauce brings to steak. Trading tips and know-how Poh also shows Emmanuel the intricacies of the stir fry, she cooks a squid stir fry for Emmanuel and he returns the favour and, much to Poh’s delight, creates a delicious stir fry of prawns and garlic shoots. This is a show where two experts trade their skills, secrets and tips from how to cut your vegies for a stir fry to the sauce that will make your kids (of any age) eat their vegetables
This week Poh’s invited her friend Andre Ursini to her kitchen for some more of his northern Italian cooking. Andre’s obsessed with polenta and has even opened a polenta bar and invites Poh to his kitchen to learn a little about this humble ingredient that’s essentially just ground corn. Andre cooks her polenta with mushrooms and adds great dollops of creamy gorgonzola then surprises her with polenta icecream for dessert! Just as polenta is a northern Italian staple, Poh cooks a Chinese staple...Pork and Cabbage Dumplings and to get some inspiration, Poh visits a restaurant specialising in freshly made dumplings made by 21 year-old dumpling maker Qin Qin and Mr Wong, a master dumpling maker from China. Andre cooks Polenta Ragu alla Bolognaise, a traditional northern Italian dish using white wine and milk in the bolognaise sauce. To top off his recipe Andre needs a good parmesan cheese so he and Poh visit a cheese wholesaler with the biggest cheese maturing room in Australia where passionate ‘cheese woman’ Valerie Henbest shows them three different hard cheeses – an Australian parmesan, an Italian Grana Pedano and the beautiful handmade, Italian Parmigiano Reggiano.
On this week’s program Poh and Chef Emmanuel Mollois, immerse themselves in the world of salted fish. This method of preserving has been around for millennium and is common across many cultures, providing a cheap and effective alternative to fresh fish, without loss of flavour or versatility. Using salted mackerel from her local Asian grocer, Poh cooks two delicious dishes, ‘Salted Mackerel with Chicken’ and ‘Salted Mackerel with Noodles’. Emmanuel uses salted cod, preserved the European way, making ‘Brandade of Cod’, a wonderfully rich combination of fish, crème fraiche and olive oil served with semi dried tomatoes and garlic toast.
Poh’s Kitchen has received many requests for Filipino recipes and in tonight’s episode Poh brings us executive chef, Denis Leslie, who draws on his Filipino heritage to treat us to a traditional tangy soup and “melt-in-the-mouth” chicken dish. Poh also has a surprise for Denis, a savoury Nonya soup that features watermelon rind.
For many there is nothing as good as a piece of meat that has been slow cooked, the tender, succulent slices just seem to melt in your mouth. The Chinese have a great tradition of slow cooking and tonight Poh cooks Dong Do Pork as well as a very quick entree of Savoury Egg Custard. It’s chef Emmanuel Mollois who’s back in the kitchen with Poh and his slow cooked recipe is a ‘Lamb Shoulder Confit with Spices’ and it’s a dish full of tradition and memories. Emmanuel serves this French/Moroccan dish with a Couscous Salad and a traditional French Ratatouille.
Bill Granger is internationally renowned for his breakfasts. His scrambled eggs have been described as ‘light as the breath of an angel’ with The Times of London saying they’re the best in the world. This week Bill visits Poh’s Kitchen to share two of his stylish yet simple breakfast dishes (and share his scrambled eggs secrets) and Poh cooks a breakfast dish from her childhood and another that’s a weekend favourite. Bill arrives with a smoked trout and cooks his own simplified version of the famous Anglo-Indian breakfast dish – Kedgeree. It’s gently spiced rice with sweet smoked trout, hard-boiled eggs and freshened up with lime and coriander. Poh cooks another rice dish – Chicken Congee – a favourite savoury rice porridge breakfast from her childhood and a staple in many Asian countries. For their second dish, Poh and Bill cook remarkably similar recipes – each with their own twist. Poh cooks Eggs Poached in Chorizo and Bean Salsa. It’s a bit Mexican, a bit Spanish and a bit Poh – super easy and super tasty – posh baked beans, eggs and sausage cooked in one pan. Bill cooks Shakshouka – an Israeli breakfast dish that originated in North Africa and was taken by Tunisian Jews to Israel. It’s eggs poached in a fry-up of capsicums, tomatoes and onions with a dash of paprika and chilli and served with crisp paprika flatbread.
Whatever your beliefs, or background, it’s hard not to get caught up in the Christmas spirit and that’s exactly what Poh and Chef Emmanuel Mollois are doing this week on the final episode of ‘Poh’s kitchen’ for 2010. As an alternative to the heavy Christmas pudding, Poh bakes a ‘Yuletide Chiffon cake’, while Emmanuel, crazy about chocolate makes a traditional, French ‘Christmas log’.
Poh starts her culinary adventure in one of the country’s premium seafood regions, Eyre Peninsula in South Australia. Arriving in Pt Lincoln, Poh gets her first NEW experience – swimming with tuna and this inspires her to celebrate this internationally-prized fish by preparing her elegant Tuna Carpaccio. Next it’s up the coast to meet brothers Bob and Tony Ford – a diver and a chef. These guys are a couple of cowboys of the sea who collect and cook some of the best crayfish and succulent abalone you’ll ever see. To cap this incredible journey Poh finally arrives in Coffin Bay – another location with a big reputation - this time for oysters. After a trip to Lester Marshall’s oyster farm and eating the biggest oyster you’ve ever seen, Poh is back in her kitchen cooking Deep-Fried Oysters with Lime and Wasabi Mayo – a dish she specially creates to share with all oyster lovers.
Poh’s on the road in central Tasmania to discover the secrets of flour. At a beautifully restored flour mill in Oatlands, Poh meets baker Graham Prichard and discovers the delights of stone ground Tasmanian flour. After grinding her grain at the windmill, and then baking her very first loaf of sour-dough bread, Poh takes more of her freshly milled flour to Gordon Ramsay’s former pastry chef, Tasmanian Alistair Wise. Alistair uses Poh’s flour to create his rich and delicate dessert of Puff Pastry with Goat Milk Ice-cream and Peaches. Always willing to get her hands dirty, Poh gets the job of milking the goat!
Poh’s on the road and this week she’s in Singapore, one of the great international food capitals of the world. With its modern and cosmopolitan style, Singapore is a place where chefs from all over the world (including Australia’s Tetsya Wakuda) ply their trade and Poh gets in amongst it meeting food loving ex-pat Antonia Kidman and food stars Andre Chiang and Janice Wong.
This week Poh’s on the road to South Australia’s Fleurieu Peninsular, an area with a rich food and wine culture. She is off to Port Willunga to attend the ‘One Magic Bowl’, an event where 11 local chefs are creating 11 seafood dishes to be served in one bespoke bowl on the beach.
Poh's on the road to the Australian Alps. Recently Poh has been using beer as an ingredient instead of wine to give an extra bit of sweetness and complexity to a dish. So she's off to the Alps to visit a charming little boutique brewery near Bright. Keen to find out more she talks to some local brewers and meets local chef Anthony Simone, a chef who is fascinated with beer and cooking. Anthony also represents the other thread that drew Poh to the Aussie Alps and that's the local Italian community. Italians here still keep up fantastic traditions like salumi (Italian smallgoods making). Originally from Umbria, Anthony's family run a local restaurant which combines the best of Italian tradition with a love of the region and its bounty. As well as talking beer and cooking, Anthony teaches Poh the finer points of making salami and pancetta. Poh's last alpine adventure is to go on a wild mushroom hunt. She's been invited to lunch with the Simone family and wants to take something. She decides to use the local, wild mushrooms to create a mushroom spring roll. The spring rolls go down a treat at lunch and there's even time for Poh to take a toboggan ride in the freshly fallen snow.
Poh’s on the road to the sheep country of the Flinders Ranges in northern South Australia and it’s a trip of firsts - her first night sleeping under the stars in a swag and her first attempt at shearing a sheep. Sheep have always meant two things in Australia - meat and wool - so first up Poh tries her hand at shearing with Jamie McTaggart, a former shearer and fifth generation sheep farmer. After her success with shearing, Poh follows the mustering of Jamie’s Dorper sheep, animals that have been specifically bred for arid country, not for their wool, but for their meat. With their diet of saltbush and native grasses these sheep produce a slightly seasoned and very clean tasting meat. In her first ever attempt to cook on a campfire, Poh uses the lamb minced to create an easy spiced lamb sausage and egg breakfast for Jamie. In turn Jamie shows Poh how to cook tandoori style lamb in a camp oven. Travelling further north into the picturesque Flinders Ranges (country that Hans Heysen made so famous in his paintings) Poh arrives in Blinman which is situated in the highest part of the Flinders. The only pub in town has an Italian owner, Tony Cutri, who uses lamb on his Greek style pizza that he serves to the locals every Friday night. After a great night with the locals (the entire town came) Poh gets a few pizza tips from Tony and then shares her love of lamb with her favourite moussaka recipe.
Alfresco dining has become a real mark of the way Australians enjoy eating and Poh’s in Sydney on the hunt for the great outdoors. After a refreshing swim in the famous Bondi sea pool and a healthy breakfast at a local eatery right on the beach, Poh meets surfing nutritionist and cook Sarah Glover who shares her recipe for the great muesli that Poh’s just tried. Chock full of healthy ingredients, Sarah’s muesli includes some truly Aussie ingredients such as wattle seeds. Sarah’s muesli inspires Poh to make her twist on the iconic Anzac biscuit which she takes back to the beach to feed the local lifesavers. All agree the biscuits are the perfect snack for a big day at the beach. Then, with a nod to her Asian roots, Poh travels across Sydney’s beautiful Harbour to the Opera House to experience some Vietnamese style Sydney street food with Nahji Chu. Miss Chu, as she’s known, has been winning over locals in Sydney for a couple of years. Her Vietnamese inspired food is known for bringing together traditional techniques and contemporary flavours. With the backdrop of the Harbour Bridge, Nahji shares her secrets to creating the perfect rice paper rolls. She then allows Poh to road test a new recipe with her customers. And Poh’s dumplings prove to be real winners with Nahji’s customers – young and old.
Having always been fascinated with Thai food, Poh starts her Thailand road trip in the northern city of Chiang Mai where tradition is revered and celebrated. It’s here that Poh learns about the basics of northern Thai cooking including how to prepare Khao Soi, the most famous of this region’s dishes. Poh’s version of the dish, her first attempt, gets the thumbs up from the locals and Poh is delighted. Next it’s Bangkok where food writer Chawadee Nualkhair also concentrates on the traditional by taking Poh to the famous canals of Bangkok to meet women of a Muslim community who produce Nam Prik. This chilli based condiment is in every Thai household and is the basis for many of their dishes. The women that Poh visits even supply their Nam Prik to the Royal Palace. In a twist on tradition, Poh then meets Australian chef Dylan Jones. Dylan and his Thai partner Bo are fast making a name for themselves in Bangkok. Their food is deeply indebted to the traditions of Thai cuisine. Bo is a keen student of traditional recipes but Dylan describes it as ‘simply our interpretation of Thai food’. That ‘interpretation’ has won rave reviews both locally and internationally. From the restaurant to the street and Poh’s last stop in Bangkok is to the famous street stalls of the capital. There are literally thousands of these food stalls and as Poh discovers the traditions of Thai food are kept as strong and delicious as ever.
This week Poh’s road trip takes her to King Island. Poh immerses herself in island life. First she visits a dairy farm owned by Philip and Kelly Lancaster, a third generation farming family and tries her hand at milking. Then it’s off to the famed King Island Dairy to talk to master cheese maker Ueli Berger about the island’s renowned cheeses. “They are like my babies” says Ueli. Next it’s a call into the local organic egg farm owned by Dave and Glenda Holloway where the chooks run free, and when the time comes retire to a paddock of their own. Poh’s King Island experience is distilled into her recipe for kefir, a fermented milk drink that she discovers on the island. She then uses the island’s wonderful cheddar cheese for a soufflé and an apple pie with a cheese crust to be topped off with a dollop of King Island cream.
On the road again and this week Poh is in Melbourne to find out why this city takes its coffee so seriously. So many factors have influenced the growth of Australia’s coffee culture and Poh finds its all on show here in Melbourne’s back streets. Poh is interested in seeing what the flavour of coffee has to offer her as a cook and meets barista Claude Sawaya who runs her through the do’s and don’ts of a good coffee. She goes to a coffee smack-down where young baristas vie for the right to call themselves champions and meets the Aussie who was the runner up in last year’s World Barista Championship. Then it’s a visit to a restaurant where food matching is all about the coffee and not the wine. To accompany all this coffee there’s a recipe for baklava, plus Poh makes an affogato and then, to top it all off, creates her lime and hazelnut coffee cupcake, the ultimate cake to have with your coffee.
While Poh loves to bake a cake what she loves even more is to decorate it, and tonight she's off to Perth to meet Rochelle Adonis, who's clients include the UK royal family.
On Poh's final road trip she's in Far North Queensland and luckily she has her friend Elton along with her as a guide. Elton's father's people are the Tablelands Yidinji.
In the first episode of her third series ‘Poh’s Kitchen; Lends a Hand“, Poh joins forces with a team of young chefs who share a troubled start in life, but that’s about to change. In an incredible few weeks they have gone from sleeping rough on the streets to being trained to cook in a professional kitchen for the first time. Melbourne’s ultra competitive restaurant scene will be a baptism of fire and it’s Poh’s job to get them through the biggest week of their lives. To make sure they live up to her high standards she creates some testing cooking in some unusual locations and opens doors into Melbourne’s finest restaurants for a sneak peek of the kitchens these troubled kids dream of one day ruling. When two of the team, Ben and Aaron take Poh on a journey into their homeless past she is shocked at the world these talented youths have come from. Back in the restaurant they work together to create a night for a special guest list to celebrate their inspiring journey from the street to the kitchen.
Poh and a team of cooks with disabilities are given a big challenge when they become responsible for planning, baking and serving a wedding cake.
In Australia, over 100,000 people sleep rough and Poh is about to meet and cook for the homeless in Adelaide. Every night the volunteers at Fred's Van feed those down on their luck and Poh is challenged to create a new menu.
Poh visits Kinglake, the Victorian town almost wiped out during the 2009 Black Saturday fires. Food is being used to heal and bring the community together and Poh helps the youth group christen its new communal kitchen.
This week Poh packs her rucksack and pulls on her walking boots, to lend a hand to 'Operation Flinders', a wilderness therapy program that helps transform the lives of young people at risk.
As Poh continues her search for food being used to help communities, she hears of an Aussie, Scott Neeson, who is working with the children of the notorious garbage dump Steung Meanchey in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. So she travels to Cambodia on what is to become a life changing adventure.
Poh invites three of her chef mates, Emmanuel Mollois, Andre Ursini and Dennis Leslie, to cook their favourite Christmas dishes with her. Together they create a truly delicious multicultural Christmas.
