Restaurant Chez Palmer opens it's doors for the first time

Last night fledgling restaurant Chez Palmer opened it's doors to customers for the very first time.

The private dining room provides an intimate setting to relax and enjoy a fine dining experience prepared by our excellent team of chefs.

The menu opened with hand made sunflower and paprika rolls, served with New Zealand cultured butter.

This was followed by a delicious pea soup, served with pancetta crisps, poached quail egg and truffle oil.

Main course consisted of  Cider braised pork belly on a pumpkin puree, served with potato gratin and a cider jus.  Fresh seasonal vegetables were also provided.

A french dessert capped off the evening in fine style, consisting of layers of Brittany shortbread, roasted pineapple, vanilla parfait, brunoise of green apple and pineapple, and finally a layer of pineapple sorbet.

Chez Palmer offers a large range of drinks to suit the tastes of all diners.

Another integral part of the experience offered is the ability of the restaurant to cater to diners of all ages.  A special children's menu is offered, designed to suit the ages of the young guests.

(1 review)

To the owners of Chez Palmer,

 

We are pleased that you have opened your new restaurant and that you have now joined the Home-Based Restaurant Association of New Zealand.  Please find attached our review of the opening night of Chez Palmer on October 11th, 2013. 

 

Kind regards,

 

Tanya Carter (on behalf of HBRANZ)

HBRANZ

Home-Based Restaurant Association of New Zealand

HBRANZ Review for:       Chez Palmer

                                                     Muriwai Road, Waimauku

Date:                                        11/10/13

Ambience:

                  The wide entrance and modern décor in the main area are attractive, with splashes of Matt-red highlighting the spacious interior.  A designated children’s area is welcoming and inviting.  The dining room is cosy, with an over-zealous candle or two carefully placed, an inviting fire and the surprising addition of a furry, moving cat-rug.

Service:

                   Patrons are looked after well, with supervision available for children, polite and friendly waiting staff with happy smiles, and a constant supply of a wide range of drinks.

Cuisine:

                  For those used to the finest cuisine, it is impossible to be disappointed at Chez Palmer.  The home-made bread was tastefully presented.  The well-textured pea soup was given a lift by the salty pancetta, and the quail egg was, of course, poached to absolute perfection.  The star of the mains was the delicately cooked pork belly which was beyond belief.  The cold pineapple dessert on a Brittany shortbread base was well worth the effort of the chef, as it consisted of layers of cool delight that complemented each other beautifully and left customers wanting more.

The children’s menu was appealing and exciting for the little ones, with much thought obviously having been given to each part of the menu.  Complimentary colouring sheets, treats and Lego were given in named gift bags – a sure way to invite customers to come back to Chez Palmer frequently.

All dishes were presented to the highest standards and were a visual work of art.  Many customers were observed taking photos of them throughout the night.

Customer Comments:

“That was amazing!  The chefs were absolutely unbelievable and definitely fudge-worthy.  I really liked the dancing waiters – even one of the customers was seen dancing as well.  Our experience at Chez Palmer made this the best anniversary celebration we have ever had.”

“I liked the toys and the food.”

“The service was exceptional, the waiters were friendly and the food was sublime.”

“I liked all the food and the stuff that they let us do.  The waiter helped me with my Lego.”

Overall Rating:

                  Five stars without hesitation. ✰✰✰✰✰

Winter soup

It has been a while, but I am still cooking, and still running around after kids. I have been trying a cash budget for the last several weeks, and I think it is very definitely saving us money as I tend to try to make do a bit more rather than just going out and buying more food when there is really plenty in the house. 


We have also been trying to have a vegetarian meals at least once a week. 
Tonight we had a winter vegetable and barley soup from the latest Dish magazine. I didn't have spinach, but there was some very green curly kale in the vege garden, so that worked really well.  On a tangent, curly kale tossed with a little oil and salt and pepper and then baked makes really good chips.


So, the soup....topped with basil pesto and shaved parmesan and served with toasted homemade grainy bread....

Apologies for the bad photo quality - it was taken on the ipad.  I would have posted this from the ipad too, but alas, it appears that I am technologically challenged as I couldn't work out how to attach the image on the ipad.


As for the verdict?  Braden and Kyla both had seconds so it appears that it was a success.  Will have it again I am sure.

Sourdough Success!

I am so pleased!

I made a loaf of sourdough on Friday, and it worked really well. It took ages to rise (which apparently is quite normal) and it spread too much in the oven, but it did taste great - a nice sour flavour but not too sour as to be unpleasant.

So, I tried again yesterday, and this time baked it in a preheated cast iron pot with the lid on for the first half hour, and then the lid off to let it crisp up for the last 20 minutes or so.

I think Daryl is finding it quite funny how pleased I am with this, but I am just amazed that I can manage to make it work, with no commercial yeast at all!

We are having this for dinner tonight in the form of steak sandwiches with caramelised onions and tomato chilli jam (Sonia's recipe that Kyla is currently making).

Yum!

I have now taken part of my starter and added some rye flour to it to see how that works - so far it is looking good. It is 30% rye for anyone remotely interested (probably no one).

Soggy Doggy, Cute Cat

Soggy Doggy

Cute Cat

Sourdough

It has been a while since I wrote anything about food…. and given that this blog is supposed to be about life and food, and that we do still eat, it is about time for me to write about food again.

My latest project involving food is the growing of a sourdough starter.

I have thought about, and read about this many times, and finally decided to take the plunge and actually try it.

So, last Friday was Day 1 of the Sourdough Saga.

I chose to use the River Cottage Recipe, which I had recently seen on a River Cottage episode on TV. It seemed fairly straightforward on TV, so I thought it would be worth a try.

The only ingredients in the starter are flour and water… a mixture of wholemeal and white to start with.

Day 1 (Friday) was fairly boring… mix the flours and water together in a container, cover loosely and leave on the bench. Nothing to see really.

Day 2 (Saturday), looks fairly similar, a few bubbles… discard half the mix, add more flour and water, leave.

Day 3 (Sunday)… what is that terrible smell? It smells like vomit! Discard half, add more flour and water again, hope it will stop smelling so bad.

Day 4 (Monday)… hmmm, maybe something has gone wrong - vomitous smell still there. Discard, feed, Google "sourdough starter smells like vomit" and discover that around day 3-4 this is a fairly common occurrence, just keep going seems to be the advice offered on numerous websites.

Day 5 (Tuesday)…tentative sniff…maybe not so bad. Discard, feed.

Day 6 (Wednesday)… sniff… very different smell, not like vomit this time - more like an alcohol smell perhaps? Discard, feed, observe….. few hours later - we are on the right track I feel. The starter has lots of bu

bbles, and has doubled in size in the container. Phew.

So, now I continue the discard and feed routine until we get to Day 7, when I can try using the starter and see if it has matured enough. If not, then continue the discard and feed routine till Day 10 and try again.

Watch this space.

Happy new year

Another Christmas has been and gone, and we are into the second month of the year already!

Today Braden and Lauren have gone back to school, and tomorrow Kyla returns for a half day before starting fully next Tuesday.

Then, the usual busyness of the year really kicks in with the restart of all the after school and evening activities. I am not looking forward to that as I have really enjoyed the relaxed evenings of the holidays.

Just a small comment from Braden to share with you…

As a family we spend time with Paul, T and Nate, and we know several families with preschoolers.

The amount of work involved in children of this age has apparently not escaped his attention. We had been looking at a photo album of Kyla, Braden and Lauren as young children/babies and his astute observation was

"Wow, Mummy, you must have been very busy!"

Wellington

Well, life is certainly not predictable, and this last week has certainly shown that to be true.

This time last week I was frantically working away to get a job finished. I was then going to spend the weekend cleaning up the house while Daryl and Kyla were in Wellington for the National Secondary School athletics Championships, to have it all ready for Paul and T to move in while Daryl and I took a few days off to relax in Queenstown.

Friday afternoon it all turned to custard.

I was on my way to Kyla's school to watch her emcee and receive an award at the prizegiving. My cellphone rang, and being the good girl that I am, I pulled over to answer it. It was Daryl, telling me that some V.I.Ds (Very Important Deadlines) had been suddenly changed, and not only was our trip to Queenstown off, but he needed to pull out of going to Wellington with Kyla in order to stand any chance of actually meeting the deadlines.

So, in addition to watching Kyla emcee (very well I might add), I was also texting Daryl, Mum, T and Sandra to cancel arrangements and make new ones. Daryl found me a flight on Air NZ (as Jetstar refused to change the name on the ticket he already had) and the madness began.

Just for the record (in case you didn't already know), Kyla was 1st in Spanish, Graphics, Digital Technology (computer stuff), and 3rd in Social Studies, and received a Dean's Citizenship award. It also happens that on her report it records her as being 4th= in English. She has worked hard and achieved exceptionally well this year!

So, after watching the prizegiving, I raced home to empty Daryl's suitcase and pack mine. Daryl arrived home, and we raced out to the airport with my flight leaving at 5:30, and Kyla's at 5:50. I have to say I was feeling a little shell shocked when I left, and not at all sure that I would enjoy myself.

It turns out that it was a really good weekend.

Kyla was not competing on Saturday, as the 3000m track race she was entered in had been changed to Sunday at 11am, 3 hours after her 3000m road race. This change meant that her coach opted to scratch her from the track race - her preference was always for the road race anyway, and it was not reasonable to compete in two 3km events 3 hours apart.

We spent Saturday watching other team members compete, and it was a good day. We took a break at one point and wandered down the road to check out a french patisserie that we had passed in the van on the way to the Athletics.

It turns out that they did a fantastic raspberry and chocolate tart, and chocolate filled eclair. The coffee was excellent too. We shared them both, and it was the best thing we ate all weekend!

Kyla's race was the 3km year 9 girls road race, and was held at 8am on Sunday at the Westpac Stadium/Cake tin. It was a little odd - they didn't actually run on a road at all, rather the circuit did a loop of a very long carpark, before going into the top tier of the stadium, and around there before emerging back into the carpark.

Kyla started serious training for this about 6 weeks ago, and her time then was around 15mins for the 3km. She completed the run in a very impressive 12:26 which was a personal best for her, and put her in 30th out of 40 girls. I am amazed that any child that has my genes can achieve that - clearly Daryl's genes are dominant. A fine effort and her coach was very pleased, as were we. I tried attaching a video of her finishing, but sorry - no luck!

We returned to Auckland on Sunday afternoon, and now prepare for Christmas. Daryl is working crazy hours to get things done. Our tickets to Queenstown have been transferred to mid January - whether we get to go then or have to rebook again remains to be seen.