Eat in, eat out
Try out some new ingredients to make these modern Aussie-inspired recipes
Milk Beach serves Australian-inspired dishes in London’s Queen’s Park, and has a heated, well-spaced al fresco area that was popular between lockdowns. Head chef Darren Leadbeater is from Mackay, Queensland. He has worked in Sydney’s leading restaurants, where he developed an interest in Asian !avours that in!uences his cooking today. Owner Elliot Milne is passionate about low-intervention wines and co"ee, and helped set up the Co"ee Initiative Project in Ethiopia. Milk Beach roasts and sells co"ee in small batches from farmers the project has assisted. For more on this and delivery options, go to milkbeach.com.
Potato gems, buttermilk roe
Think of these little ‘gems’ as your best ever hash browns.
45 MINUTES + COOLING + OVERNIGHT CHILLING SERVES 6 AS A SIDE OR STARTER | A LITTLE EFFORT |
Désirée potatoes 500g
clarified butter or ghee 40g, melted potato flour 25g
vegetable oil for deep frying TO SERVE
buttermilk 250ml
Tabasco a few drops
salmon roe 3 tbsp
chives 4, cut into 4cm pieces
Cook the potatoes in a large pan of lightly salted boiling water for 10 minutes or until almost fully cooked but not completely tender. Drain and leave to cool slightly, then peel.
Finely grate the potatoes into a large bowl. Add the butter, potato flour and 1 tsp of salt. Line a 22cm x 14cm dish
(we used a 900g loaf tin) with baking paper, then tip in the mixture. Push it into the corners, then smooth the surface so there are no air pockets. The layer should be 3-4cm thick. Put a same-sized dish on top to weigh it down, then chill overnight.
Set a colander lined with muslin (or a thin tea towel or some kitchen paper) in the sink and pour in the buttermilk. Leave until some of the whey has drained away, then chill for 3-4 hours until slightly firm. Tip the buttermilk into a clean bowl, season lightly and add some Tabasco to taste. Chill until ready to serve.
Turn the potato layer out onto a board. Cut into 24 cubes, roughly 4cm x 4cm. Fill a pan no more than a third full with oil and heat to 180C or until a cube of bread browns in 30 seconds. Fry the cubes in small batches for 2-3 minutes per batch until deeply golden. Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on kitchen paper. Season with sea salt. Keep warm in a low oven.
To serve, spoon a dot of buttermilk over each potato cube, followed by Ω tsp of salmon roe, a snip of chive and a pinch of sea salt.
PER SERVING 249 kcals | fat 17.4G saturates 5.2G | carbs 17.8G | sugars 2.7G fibre 1.5G | protein 4.6G | salt 0.9G
Chicken ‘schnitty’ and fermented chilli mayo
Darren makes his own koji paste to marinate the chicken, which makes it incredibly tender, as it breaks down the proteins. This recipe swaps it for miso, which will give a similar flavour. Milk Beach also uses chicken salt to season its chips – we’ve swapped this for regular sea salt flakes.
1 HOUR 30 MINUTES + BRINING + FERMENTING + MARINATING | SERVES 4 A LITTLE EFFORT
salad leaves to serve
4% CHIPS
Maris Piper potatoes 4-6 large, peeled fine sea salt 40g
vegetable oil for deep frying FERMENTED CHILLI MAYO
long red chillies 1kg, stalks removed
garlic 35g (about 1 large bulb), peeled
ginger 35g, peeled
coriander Ω a small bunch
caster sugar 2 tsp
Kewpie mayonnaise 8 tbsp SCHNITTY
corn-fed chicken breasts 4 (about 180g each) white miso 100g
panko breadcrumbs 150g
togarashi 15g
clarified butter 50g
sunflower oil 2 tbsp
Start preparing the chips five days before serving. Cut the potatoes into 2cm-thick chips. Heat 1 litre of water in a pan and add 40g of fine sea salt. Whisk until fully dissolved, then remove from the heat. Leave to cool. Put the potatoes in a sterilised jar or container, and pour over the brine so they’re completely submerged. Leave in a cool, dry place for five days, removing the lid every day to release the carbon dioxide that can build up.
Start preparing the chilli mayo three days before serving. Put all the ingredients except the mayo, plus 2 tsp of fine sea salt, into a blender and whizz to a fine purée. Pour into a sterilised jar or container and leave in a cool, dark place for three days, removing the lid every day to release the carbon dioxide that can build up. This will make more than you’ll need but it will keep in the fridge for a few months.
The night before serving, cut each chicken breast through the middle so they can be opened out like a book. Open them out, then put each one between two pieces of baking paper and use a rolling pin to bash them out to a large, even piece, about 11/2cm thick. Whisk the miso with 50ml of water or just enough to make a thin paste – you want it to be able to loosely coat the chicken breasts. Tip the miso into a large bowl or container, add the chicken breasts and toss to coat. Chill overnight.
To cook the chips, fill a pan no more than a third full with vegetable oil and heat to 140C or until a cube of bread browns in 1 minute. Fry the chips in batches for 10 minutes per batch until cooked through and light golden. Drain and cool.
Turn the heat up until the oil reaches 180C or until a cube of bread browns in 30 seconds. Again fry the chips in batches for 3-4 minutes per batch until golden and crunchy.
Drain and season well with sea salt.
Spoon 3 tbsp of the chilli pulp from the fermented mixture (it will have separated during the fermentation process) into a blender and whizz with the mayonnaise until emulsified and thick.
For the chicken, blend 50g of the panko and all the togarashi in a food processor to a fine powder. Tip into a large, shallow container and mix with the remaining panko and 1 tbsp of fine sea salt. Coat each chicken breast in the breadcrumb mixture, pressing it down to coat well. Heat the butter in a non-stick frying pan with half of the sunflower oil and cook the schnitzels, one at a time, for 4-5 minutes on each side until deeply golden, adding a little more oil if needed. Keep warm in a low oven as you go.
Put the chicken schnitzels on plates, spoon over some of the fermented chilli mayo, and serve with the chips and some salad.
PER SERVING 1,149 kcals | fat 67.8G saturates 16.8G | carbs 77.5G | sugars 3.2G fibre 8.2G | protein 53.2G | salt 8.2G
co ’s no s
If you don’t want to make the 4% chips, you can deep-fry frozen chunky chips in 180C oil for 4-5 minutes until golden and crunchy instead. If you like, you could also skip fermenting the chillies and just blend the mayonnaise with sriracha for a sweet, funky shortcut.
Sunny side cocktail
5 MINUTES | SERVES 1 | EASY
chilli-infused rum 25ml
mango purée 50ml
lemon juice 1 tbsp
ginger beer 100ml
grenadine a splash
red chilli 1, finely sliced, to garnish
Combine the rum, mango purée, lemon juice and ginger beer. Pour over ice in a tall glass. Add a splash of grenadine and garnish with a chilli slice to serve.
Single-origin coffee custard tart with coffee crumble
2 HOURS 10 MINUTES + CHILLING | SERVES 10 A LITTLE EFFORT
TART BASE
caster sugar 90g
butter 120g
plain flour 200g, plus extra for dusting
cornflour 15g
egg yolk 1
COFFEE CUSTARD
espresso 120ml (find Milk Beach’s single-origin coffee beans at milkbeach.com/shop)
double cream 400ml
egg yolks caster sugar 90g
COFFEE CRUMBLE
dark chocolate 50g
butter 30g, melted
used coffee grounds 40g
caster sugar 60g
plain flour 30g
To make the base, beat together the sugar and butter using an electric whisk until light and fluffy. Add the plain flour, cornflour and a pinch of salt, then bring together into a dough using your hands, adding 1 tsp of cold water at a time until smooth. Wrap and chill for at least 1 hour.
Heat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Roll the pastry out on a lightly floured worksurface, then use it to line a 28cm loosebottomed tart case. Trim the edges, line the tart with baking paper, then tip in some baking beads and bake for 15 minutes. Remove the beads and paper, pierce the pastry with a fork and turn down the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Bake for 10 minutes more, then turn down the oven again to 120C/fan 100C/gas 1. Whisk the egg yolk, brush it over the base, and bake the case for another 5 minutes.
Mix together all of the coffee custard ingredients, then carefully pour into the tart case. Bake for 45 minutes-1 hour or until just set with a slight wobble in the middle. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
To make the crumble, melt the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl in the microwave in short bursts. Combine the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Mix the wet into the dry, then chill for 1 hour. Heat the oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Spread the crumble mixture over a baking tray and bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven, break up roughly with a fork and bake for another 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
Top the cooled tart with the coffee crumble, then cut into slices to serve.
PER SERVING 589 kcals | fat 41.9G saturates 24.1G | carbs 45.7G | sugars 26.1G fibre 1.5G | protein 6.4G | salt 0.5G