A journey to Maha - 2008

This is an old review that I did in 2008 - we went to Maha early March, just a couple of weeks after it had opened. I went there again last night, so I'm planning on writing a new and improved review ... here is the first version:

My uncle is German. A lovely guy, but well, he’s German. I’ll say no more. My uncle had come to Melbourne from New Zealand with my aunty and parents. As a German he consumes three things. Meat, cheese and beer. When I was asked where I’d booked dinner for that evening, the words “Maha” choked out of my mouth. “I want Prawns” said my uncle. Gulp, I responded, I thought he only liked meat! “Um, surely they have prawns?” I said. It was definitely more of a question than an answer and my dear old uncle saw through me instantly. Please god, let them have prawns I thought. “What type of food do they serve?” he asked, he’d seen the fear in my eyes and he was suspicious. “um…. Well, its sort of a mix between um, middle eastern um.. type foods?”, again, more of a question than an answer. “It’s from the team who run ‘The Press Club’”. I got an icy stare from my uncle. He’s not from Melbourne. He doesn’t know what ‘The Press Club’ is.
Ten minutes later we were wandering down the dark stairs of Maha. I was seriously nervous. My uncle, lets call him Hans, is the scariest food critic ever. If the food and wine weren’t up to scratch, we’d know about it. Despite having an eight o’clock booking, there was certainly no chance a table was ready for us, the place was packed, and people looked like they were enjoying themselves. Just before nine we were seated. Our waiter was knowledgeable and charming. He recommended a couple of Israeli red wines to have with our meal, the 2005 Recantat, Shiraz Gahlee from Israel and the 2003 Yatir, cab/merlot/shiraz from the Judean Hills, Israel. Hans looked incredibly skeptical, “if I don’t like these you’ll hear about it”, our lovely waiter smiled and said “oh sir, I expect too.”
As a few members of the table weren’t hungry and others were, we decided against the set menu, which looked stunning by the way, an opted for a few shahen zghir (small meals), shahen kbeer (large meals) and mouabalet (sides). Hans chose the slow roasted lamb shoulder, harr battata and the lamb special, the tenderist of tender lamb on top of grilled Halumi cheese. We were trying to choose the other meals and to everything Hans said “I won’t eat that. I just want lamb.” My aunty chose the grilled sardine, chickpea, tomato and mint salad whilst my parents chose the John Dory with hazelnut and rosemary mahkroun and an Arabic mushroom sauce. Hamish and I settled on the ma’ahani sausages with cumin roasted pumpkin. After some discussion we decided we also needed the pomegranate cured tuna with an apple and cardamom foam, the fattoush salad and green beans, feta and pine nuts as sides.
Well, the wine arrived, and as Dad and I are complete crowd pleasers (in the sense that we consider a failure in food or wine a personal failure – regardless of who choose it) we were both incredibly nervous as it was poured. I think Dad may have even squeezed my hand slightly – I felt like I was walking down a plank and the sharks were circling. But, we needn’t have worried, it was stunning. Hans was quiet after his first sip and then exclaimed “this is good.” So too was the food. So good in fact, I am not sure what the best was. What shocked my uncle was the slow roasted lamb shoulder. As he kept exclaiming – it fell off the bone. Now when I say that, I don’t mean that in a ‘it fell off the bone” (Imagine that being said in an annoying voice), no, it SERIOUSLY fell of the bone. Just a gentle caress with the fork and the meat was yours. The sausages and tuna were so different, yet the qualities were identical, subtle, balanced and well thought through. Shane Delia is a genius. Seriously, I want to marry him (no offence to my darling boyfriend) but really, can I meet him? The beans were almost the highlight, and I don’t think I’ve ever said that about a side. They were so fresh, so sweet and so perfectly complemented by the feta, roasted pine nuts and the drizzled oil. Now, as I’m sure you can tell by now, I could go on and on, but I won’t. (I haven’t even got to the lemon meringue with saffron yet) and I won’t, you’ll have to find out for yourself. If you want to know how good Maha is, don’t ask me. Ask Hans.

Air Kisses and cheese

Sunday night I went to the Block Party at Guiseppe Arnaldo & Sons.

Aside from the fact that WAY too many people were in attendance, it was a great evening – good food – for those lucky to get it, wonderful company, and enough celebrity foodies (my favourite type of celebrity) to have me drooling all over the show.

Highlights were the lemon meringue tart – heaven and the arancini balls. There is nothing like the ooze of the centre of a hot, crisp arancini ball to fill you with giddy joy. Bring on dinner tonight – Maha. Will let you know how I go.

Horse Dorves

My darling brother married his beautiful wife a couple of weeks ago. I was entrusted with the most handsome of tasks, the Horse Dorves (Hor' dorves). Now, normally this would be a daunting task - 200 hungry quests, stress, upper lip sweat and a few choice swear words. Not this wedding. My Bro and his betrothed only had 8 guests (including me). Easy peasy. So, due to the large (read two, but when there's only 8, that's a fair percentage) of vegetarians, I opted for stuffed button mushrooms and cherry tomato (off the plant) and feta tarts with a Parmesan homemade pastry. 

Wanna hear how I did it?

The mushrooms were simple - I blended together breadcrumbs, Parmesan, lemon rind, salt & pepper and a variety of herbs (I was also going to use pine nuts but my father forgot to buy them!) and then stuffed the mushrooms with the mixture (obviously removing the stalk first).

Roast till they look scrumptious (about ten minutes) and they're done. Obviously I had to try one first, just to be sure of course (notwithstanding I'd already made them all - what was I going to do if they weren't okay?).

The tomato tarts weren't so simple... first I had to pluck those ripe little bosoms off the tree, together with a few fresh basil leaves of course.

Then I had to make the pastry - I couldn't find a recipe book so I made it up - a cup or so of flour, two or three free range egg yolks, salt, cold butter (add a little and then work in more if you need too) and some grated parmesan (maybe halfa cup?)

First mix the butter together with the flour - cheats can use a blender but I use my fingers. Messy and gratifying. Then mix in the egg yolks and the Parmesan. Then I need it altogether for quite some time.

Once its looking good - not too crumbly, lovely orange/yellow colour (those yolks) and the Parmesan is evenly distributed - I wrap in glad wrap and pop in the fridge to chill while I make the pesto.

The pesto is a bunch of fresh basil from the garden, roasted pine nuts, Parmesan, garlic, lemon juice and oil. Blend together, then add salt and pepper and you're done - I think what ever consistency you want is fine - likewise for the quantities of basil and pine nuts etc - mix it up, play and see what you prefer.

Then roll out the pastry and cut in rounds - either with a cookie cutter or a sharp knife and press into muffin trays.

I blind baked the pastry for ten minutes - not using baking paper or rice, just by itself - they're just babies!

Once blind baked, put a dollop of pesto in each, layer a couple of sliced cherry tomatoes and a piece of feat and bake in the oven for another 10- 15 mins. 

To serve, place a basil leave on top as a garnish.

Voila!