It Just Has To Be Delicious

Archive for May, 2020

Pappagallo, Leederville

Pappagallo is a bustling Italian restaurant that occupies a corner position at the junction of Oxford Street and Bourke Street. It’s about halfway along Oxford Street and away from the main Leederville strip. I first discovered this place a few months back when I was looking for traditional Italian pizza – not hawaiian, not chicken tikka, just beautiful simple unadulterated Italian pizza. Pappagallo really delivered on the pizza with the last mouthful being as perfectly tasty as the first, and we have visited regularly for our pizza fix.

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The drinks menu is quite extensive and we love the Galvanina range of soft drinks that are offered – the blood orange soda is a wonderful drink.

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Today we chose to share a pizza, a pasta dish, and a salad. Pappagallo do a mean coleslaw salad, however it’s a winter menu item and was not available today, so we chose a red cabbage, cucumber, celery, lemon zest and basil salad – quite a nice backdrop to the other dishes.

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The pizza was a Napoli with tomato, mozarella, capers, anchovies, and olives. Wonderfully piquant and oozing with cheese, on top of a perfect thin crust – absolutely delicious and the reason why Pappagallo pizzas are so popular.

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We also chose the ravioli of the day – lamb ravioli on a bed of butternut pumpkin puree. Again, delicious, the huge pillows of ravioli perfectly seasoned, the pumpkin lovely and soft underneath.

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We felt fairly full but decided to share a dessert. Italian ricotta doughnuts with chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream. Excellent quality ice cream with soft sugary doughnuts and a wonderful glossy chocolate sauce – yum.

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Other items on the menu include a range of starters – a platter of cured meats, cheese and pickles; arancini; chicken skewers; italian sausage; polenta. As well as pizza and pasta dishes, you can choose chicken, fish, steak, veal and a seafood soup – anything that you would find in a cafe in Italy.
I consider this to be one if the best Italian restaurants in Perth, and definitely my ‘go to’ place for pizza.

This is the amazing Italian doughnut dessert:
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Last Visit Date – December 2017

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Le Papillon, Joondalup

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We popped into Le Papillon for a quick coffee and pastry. This cafe is on Lakeside Drive in Joondalup and has seating inside and out. We were pleasantly surprised to find out that they have freshly ground decaf beans (so many cafes just use decaf powder, which is never very good). I asked for almond croissants, and they didn’t have any ready, but the nice lady said she would have some freshly made in ten minutes.

We settled down at a table by the window and sipped on our lovely smooth coffee.

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A short while later our croissants arrived and they were definitely worth the wait – crispy with just the right amount of almond paste filling.

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Le Papillon is definitely one of the better local patisseries and the customer service is great – a cafe run by people who know how to please the crowds.

Last Visit Date – June 2020

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We went back recently to try some cakes for afternoon tea:
Key Lime tart:
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Lemon Meringue tart:
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Petition Kitchen, Perth CBD

Petition Kitchen is housed within the impressive State Buildings in the Perth CBD and is part of a trio of Petition establishments, the others being the wine bar and the beer corner. The restaurant is long and dimly lit with an open kitchen area, with a variety of regular tables and ‘perching’ tables. I was quite glad that we got a regular table as I can find the higher tables quite uncomfortable.

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We were offered bread and olives to start, which we accepted. The bread arrived with some whipped butter, but the olives did not materialise throughout the whole meal.

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I think that Petition probably have more of a passion for their alcohol rather than food. The wine list seemed quite impressive, and I fancied a glass of my favourite Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc, but couldn’t find one in the ‘by the glass’ section. There was a quite interesting ‘cloudy sav’ from WA, and I originally chose that, but the waitress indicated that it was really cloudy and quite sour, so I changed my order to a South Australian Riesling which was very nice, and if I hadn’t driven, I would have been happy to drink a whole bottle.
The menu is made up of sharing plates from small plates like kingfish and croquettes to more substantial dishes like lamb shoulder and steak. It was very dim in the restaurant and impossible to read the menu without my trusty phone torch.
We decided to go for three dishes to start with, and order a fourth if necessary. First we chose the raw Geraldton kingfish with sweet ginger and creme fraiche which was excellent, good quality fish, and clean crisp flavours – a very nice dish.

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Then came the foie gras and chicken liver parfait with aged balsamic and grilled bread. My main gripe with dishes like this is that you never get enough bread. The waitress did say that we could order more bread if we wanted (and we did), but why not just provide enough bread in the first place. I love parfait and was expecting this dish to be the star of the meal, but it was really quite average. The texture of the parfait was a bit softer than expected, but the vinegar pearls were a nice touch and added a bit of piquancy.

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The third dish was charred cauliflower mornay with chive, smoked brioche and salted egg. This was not a great dish. It arrived as a whole chunk of cauli with the sauce underneath and it was undercooked, so we had carve it up to share it out. I love eggs but I didn’t really detect the salted egg flavour, and at the end of it all, I felt that I make better cauliflower dishes at home. It was frankly disappointing.

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We decided to go for a fourth dish and chose the pigs head croquettes with red harissa and aioli. They were nice and crispy, the harissa had a heavy spice kick and the aioli provided a good contrast to the heat. The filling was very soft and altogether the flavours matched quite nicely.

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Although the wait staff were nice, I felt that they seemed very rushed, just plonking dishes on the table with no real explanation and rushing off again. I also felt that our meal was hurried along, something that often happens when we are not indulging in alcohol – I feel that restaurants are happy for clientele to linger when they are spending money on wine and spirits, but when they realise that you are there for a relatively non-alcoholic meal, they seem to want to get rid of you as soon as you’ve eaten, and this is the impression that I got at Petition Kitchen.
I wasn’t wowed by the dessert menu, warm artichoke custard just seemed a bit pretentious for the sake of it, and the only thing that appealed to me was the fig clafoutis with spiced walnut ice cream. We decided to give it a miss.

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All in all, Petition was okay, but I wasn’t wowed by it, and it didn’t deliver the fine dining experience that I had imagined. If you love your wine and want to try a range of wines with some nice food to chomp on while drinking, then it is probably the perfect venue, but as a foodie I found it fairly average and I won’t rush back.

Visit Date – April 2018

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Peninsula Tea Gardens, Maylands

Peninsula Tea Gardens is situated at a pleasant leafy spot on the Swan River at Maylands, next to Tranby House and on the site of Peninsula Farm (one of the first colonial farms in Perth). It’s a popular place for hen parties and baby showers and they do not charge corkage, so there were plenty of champagne corks popping when we visited.
We chose the standard Parisian High Tea. Peninsula provide two serves of drinks with this and you can choose from a variety of loose leaf teas, coffee, sparkling juice and iced drinks.
I chose the Lovers Leap tea which was a caramel floral option. When the three tiered high tea arrived it looked appetising and carefully put together.

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The first layer consisted of 4 varieties of sandwich and a meat pie each. Sandwiches were ham and egg with Dijon mustard, beef and horseradish cream cheese, garlic herb chicken with avocado sour cream, and smoked salmon, cucumber and mayonnaise. My favourite was the garlic herb chicken, and although the pie could have been any supermarket party pie, it was nonetheless tasty and the pastry was nice.

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The next layer consisted of a large scone each with cream and jam. The scones were a good recipe, great consistency and the jam and cream were good quality. We didn’t have enough jam and cream for everybody, but they provided additional portions when asked.

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By now we were getting fairly full and ordered another drink before moving on to the cake layer. I ordered an iced coffee, which was a little weak and milky, but the ice cream was luscious.
The cake layer consisted of 4 cakes each – a macaron, an oblong raspberry biscuit, a lemon meringue pie and a cup cake. The cupcake was really nicely textured, soft and spongy, and the macaron was perfect. The meringue was nicely presented but nothing special, and the raspberry biscuit was again well presented but could have had a stronger raspberry flavour.

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All in all it was a very pleasant high tea, the waitresses were very helpful and the location was lovely. All served up on Royal Albert bone china complete with tea strainers and silver napkin rings. They also provided take away boxes for the left over cakes. One of the nicest high teas in Perth with a great view of the river.

Last Visit Date – December 2017

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Health Freak Cafe, Joondalup

If you are on a special diet, or have food allergies, Health Freak provides a range of foods that you can eat – Vegan, Vegetarian, Paleo, Dairy Free, Gluten Free – there’s something for everybody.
With a range of healthy burgers, salads, dessert bowls, juices, smoothies and fries the menu is tempting for the dietary-challenged customer, and it’s nice to read it and think “oh I can eat almost everything here” rather than the regular process of picking just one or maybe two items that fit one’s brief. Options include Pulled pork BBQ jackfruit burger, the ultimate vegan burger, sweet potato fries which can be loaded with jackfruit, keto waffle egg benedict, dairy free ice cream, natural iced teas, acai bowls, caffeine free lattes…the list
goes on.
We popped in to the Joondalup branch for a healthy treat and chose a peanut butter slice:

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This was nice but could have been a bit sweeter – agave syrup is a good sweetener. The peanut section was quite thick and crumbly and could have been nicer to eat if it was softened with maybe some vegan cream substitute. The chocolate a biscuit layers were very nice.

We also chose a chocolate brownie square:

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This was a nicer texture than the peanut butter slice and much more chocolatey but had a bit of a bitter aftertaste.
I chose a red apple tea which consisted of rooibos tea with freshly squeezed apple and mint. It was nice, but I didn’t get much of the tea flavour.

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All in all the healthy treats were okay, but they also didn’t blow us away, and it was quite expensive – not surprising really, because healthy does seem to equate to costly.

Visit Date – January 2018

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Chocolate Caramel Pie

When I saw the good quality chocolate and cream at the Herdsman, I was inspired to make choclate caramel pie again. I made the caramel using the Dulce de Leche method.

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I used Gippsland cream (which is the closest thing to Clotted cream that I have seen in Australia, so thick and luscious) and Hachez 77% chocolate. It is important that the chocolate is a high percentage cocoa because it needs to contrast with the sweet caramel.

Pastry:
1 1/4 cups or 190g of plain flour
1/4 cup or 40g self raising flour
1/4 cup or 50g caster sugar (I use brown sugar and pass it through a sieve)
90g unsalted butter
1 egg
Pinch salt

Method:
1. Sieve the flours and sugar into a food mixer.
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2. Cut the butter into small cubes and add it to the flour/sugar. Start the food mixer and mix until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs (you can rub the butter in using your fingers if you like, but I have warm hands, so I use a food mixer).

3. Pour the mixture into a bowl and add the egg and a pinch of salt. (My photo shows a double quantity which is why there are two eggs). Mix with a spatula or wooden spoon until it comes together, then using your hands, lightly knead and shape it into a round (keep handling to a minimum, and if you have warm hands like me, rinse them in cool water first so that you start off with cool hands).

4. Roll the pastry out into a round and use it to line a flan tin or dish. Put the pastry lined flan dish in the fridge for approx 30 mins if you have time – this will stop it from shrinking away from the edge in the oven.
5. Cut a circle of baking parchment slightly bigger than the middle of the flan dish, and put some ceramic baking beans in the middle. Bake for 10 minutes at 190 deg C, then remove the baking beans and bake for a further 10 minutes. (The baking beans just stop the middle of the tart case from rising too much, you can get away without using them, but you will need to prick the base with a fork, and you may find it will rise a little).
6. Remove the dish from the oven and leave the pastry to cool to room temperature.

The caramel (dulce de leche method):
1 tin of condensed milk (must be condensed – not evaporated) Check that the tin is in good condition, do not use if dented – the lid must be unopened and not damaged.

1. Using an old saucepan, place the unopened tin of condensed milk in the saucepan, cover with water.
2. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 3 hours. You can cover it with a lid to stop the water from evaporating too much. Check it every hour to make sure that the water is not boiling dry – top the water up as necessary.
3. Carefully remove the tin from the water and leave it to cool thoroughly – it can be stored in the fridge until needed. Do not attempt to open it while it is still warm – I have heard stories of some tins exploding when opened, but I have never had a problem – be sensible just in case – cover it with a cloth when opening.

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Regular Caramel:
Use this method if you don’t have condensed milk
300g golden caster sugar
175g butter
200ml double cream

1. Place the sugar in a pan with2 tablespoons water. Heat until it dissolves but do not stir.
2. Boil until amber.
3. Stir in the cream – add a pinch of salt if you like salted caramel.
4. Stir in the butter and simmer for a further 3 minutes.

Chocolate Mousse:
200g good quality dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons icing sugar

1 1/2 cup (375ml) of whipping cream, whipped with the icing sugar
1. Place the chocolate in a bowl and melt by placing the bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water (the base of the bowl must not dip into the water) – or use a microwave if you are confident that you can melt it perfectly. Personally I use the saucepan double boiler method – I am not a fan of microwaves.
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2. Cool the mixture for 5 minutes.
3. Fold in half of the whipped cream/icing sugar mixture – it will look claggy at first but keep folding with a spatula, then add the rest and fold again.

To assemble:
When the pastry case is cooled, you can add the caramel to the base of the pastry case. If you like salted caramel you can add a few scant flakes of sea salt on top of the caramel (if you have not already salted it).
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Put the caramel coated pastry case in the fridge so that it is completely cool before adding the mousse. This will help to keep the layers nice and separate.
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Top the cool caramel with the mousse mixture and leave to set in the fridge. 3-4 hours should do it.

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This recipe was inspired by Soda’s beautiful chocolate caramel pie at the North Beach cafe. Sadly Soda is no longer in business:

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Linguine with meatballs

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When I visited The Herdsman I chose some ingredients that would make it easy to prepare a quick midweek meal. With the array of fresh pastas and sauces, it was hard to choose, but in the end I settled for linguine, meatballs and a puttanesca sauce. The meatballs were quite large and took approx 8 minutes to cook. Meanwhile, I boiled the kettle ready for the pasta.

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Once the meatballs were nicely browned on the outside, I added the sauce along with some chopped mushrooms and onion. You don’t have to, but you can add anything you like to pimp up the sauce, like chilli, garlic, bacon, peppadew peppers, fresh tomatoes etc.

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The pasta took approx 4-5 minutes in boiling salted water, and I served the dish with the rest of the Herdsman’s garden salad and a sprinkle of parmesan. The whole dish took less than 20 minutes. Ideal for midweek and delicious too.

Prawn Ravioli with crabmeat and prawn oil

When I came home from the Herdsman with my basket of goodies, I set to work cooking, newly inspired by what I had seen and sensed in the shop. My first recipe was a home made prawn ravioli on a butternut squash puree, with crab meat and prawn flavoured oil.
This is based on a Gary Mehigan recipe but has my own personal twist.

PRAWN RAVIOLI ON BUTTERNUT SQUASH PUREE WITH CRAB MEAT AND PRAWN OIL
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The amount that I made was enough to feed 3 people comfortably or 2 greedy people ! I bought a ready cooked swimmer crab from the Herdsman and used a crab pick to remove the meat, but you can cook a raw crab if you prefer. Once the crabmeat is prepared, you need to get the ravioli filling ready, and the oil infused with flavour.

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For the oil you need :
6 large tiger prawns (approx 200g)
200ml of good olive oil
2 bay leaves
1 star anise
1 teaspoon of tomato paste/puree
1 small fennel bulb
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I had 6 huge prawns, which I de-shelled and removed the black food canal from (you do this by gently running a knife along the back of each prawn and easing the black tube out with the knife tip). I then sliced a fennel bulb thinly (you need about 30g but the exact quantity doesn’t matter too much). I placed the prawn shells in a pan with approx 2 tablespoons of olive oil, the sliced fennel, 2 bay leaves, and a star anise. When the fennel is soft, add more oil (up to 200ml) and a teaspoon of tomato paste/puree. Put the lid on and continue to heat gently for 20-30 minutes to infuse the flavours into the oil. Keep the prawn
meat for the ravioli filling. When the oil is done, pass it through a sieve to remove the shells and spices, discard the shells.

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For the filling you need:
Prawn meat as above (approx 200g)
1 egg white
a pinch of cayenne pepper or smoked paprika
the zest of half a lemon
1/8 – 1/4 teaspoon of salt
100ml thick cream

Whizz up all of the ingredients in a food processor, adding the cream last as you may not need all of it. Try 50mls of cream first and check the texture – it should be soft but not runny. We want the filling to hold together inside the ravioli.

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To make the ravioli, you can either make fresh pasta or buy lasagne sheets. I bought lasagne sheets both for convenience and because I wanted to test the quality of the Herdsman’s produce. You can make your own pasta dough by mixing 200g of ’00’ flour with 2 beaten eggs, a tablespoon of olive oil and a pinch of sea salt in a food processor. This dough should be left to rest for a while at room temperature before passing it through a pasta machine.

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To make the ravioli, cut a rectangular piece of dough approx 6cm x 12cm. Place a small spoonful of filling in the centre. Brush some milk around the edges and fold it over, making sure that you push out all of the air while you are sealing up the pasta. If the edges look uneven you can trim them with a knife or a wavy pasta cutter. The ravioli take approx 5 minutes to cook in boiling salted water.

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For the butternut squash puree you need:

300g of grated butternut squash
60g butter or dairy free spread
80ml milk

Melt the butter in a large saucepan and add the butternut squash. When it starts to soften, add the milk, cover and cook for 6-8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, then use a stick blender to puree it. You can also sieve the mixture if you want it to be really smooth. This can be made in advance and reheated while the pasta is cooking.

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To assemble the dish, place some butternut squash puree on the plate, the ravioli on top, and some fresh crab meat on top of the ravioli. Drizzle some of the flavoured oil around the dish.
I served this with one of the Herdsman’s pre-prepared garden salads and the olive and onion bread.

Raspberry and Peach Scones

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Recently I have made some very successful blueberry scones and I had the idea to try a kind of melba scone using raspberries and peach icing. The Herdsman had some lovely raspberries on display, so I made sure that they went in my basket. The recipe is very similar to the blueberry scone recipe.

Recipe:
2 cups (approx 250g) self raising flour – however, if you only have plain flour, you can add 2 teaspoons baking powder
half a teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder (even though it is self raising flour, I added a little extra boost)
5 tablespoons (70g) butter or non-dairy spread
1 cup of raspberries (this is approx one small 150g punnet)
1 cup (250ml) of double cream or some cocnut cream/yoghurt
For the glaze – approx 1 cup (140g) of icing sugar and half a fresh peach

Method
1. Heat the oven to 200 deg C and line a baking tray with some baking parchment.
2. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl or food processor i.e. the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
3. Either rub in the butter or use the food processor to blend it in until it is like fine breadcrumbs.
4. Stir in the raspberries.
5. Add the cream (if using coconut cream or yoghurt, add less than the recipe states and gradually add more as needed) and very gently fold it in without crushing the blueberries, then pat the mixture together to form a soft dough. Treat it very gently, it does not have to be perfectly smooth.
6. Roll the dough out into a long rectangle approx 12 inches by 3 inches. It will be quite a thick layer of dough (1-2 inches thick) Cut this in half, then cut each piece in half again so that you have four pieces approx 3 inches square. Cut each piece diagonally so that you have 8 scones.
7. Brush each scone with some cream (or milk or coconut cream) and place on baking tray. Bake for approx 25 minutes.
8. To make the glaze, sift the icing sugar into a bowl. Peel the peach and puree it using a stick blender. Add the puree to the icing mixture a little at a time until you get a soft glaze which isn’t too runny.
9. Spread the glaze over the top of each scone.

Did my idea work ? Well it was 50% successful. The raspberries were delicious in the scones although they are not quite as robust as blueberries, so they spread and bleed into the mixture a lot more. The peach icing tasted very sweet and not particularly peachy. If I were doing this again I would maybe include some peach chunks in the scone mixture and use a lemon glaze as before, or maybe no glaze. The scones did taste lovely, it’s just the glaze that needed some refinement. Again I was very impressed with the quality of the Herdsman’s ingredients.

The Herdsman Market

The Herdsman is a grocery store which sells fine produce. It is quite a large store and has a good selection of fresh fruit and vegetables, oils, cheeses, fresh pasta, bakery goods, fresh meat, fresh fish, dairy produce. It has everything that you could possibly hope to find, especially if you are looking for unusual ingredients or planning a special dinner party.
It is located in Flynn St, Churchlands, not far from Herdsman Lake. If you like Boatshed Markets, you will love The Herdsman.
As you walk in, you are confronted with an array of fresh fruit and vegetables, I chose peaches and raspberries for a ‘peach melba scone’ recipe that I invented in my mind. I also chose a lovely butternut squash and some nice fresh basil and oregano. I haven’t seen fresh oregano in Perth before. The quality of the fruit and veg is clear.

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There is also an array of ready prepared salads, pies and quiches to make it easy for busy customers. I chose a garden salad (which stayed fresh for quite a few days after  purchase), but was tempted by all of the other salads – Greek, Italian, Beetroot etc. There is also a selection of salads on the deli counter and colourful fresh fruit platters are available.

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The condiment shelves are stacked with oils, sauces and dressings, and there is a section of fresh pasta and sauces which makes it very easy to prepare a quick midweek dinner. I chose the linguine and a puttanesca sauce.

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There are delicious chocolate mousses and desserts which are a feast for the eyes.

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A very comprehensive cheese selection containing over 400 cheeses and also great accompaniments. I like a cheese board with contrasting flavours and textures to go with the cheese such as honeycomb pieces, quince paste, fig paste, sour cherries, muscatel grapes. The Herdsman has everything that you need to create an impressive cheese platter – I was pleased to see my favourite Roquefort on the shelf as well as Brie,  Camembert, Cheddar, Stilton – all the great international classics alongside Australian cheeses.

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The delicatessen section is amazing with fresh olives, pies, salads, and the fresh meat section supplies both marinated meats and fresh meat. Items included satay, curry, marinated ribs and chops, lamb souvlaki and honey soy chicken. The meats are sourced from quality local farmers and include a majority of free range organic options guaranteed to make your dinner party main course a success.

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Sausages galore:

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The fresh fish counter had some beautiful raw tiger prawns which I chose along with a cooked blue swimmer crab. The fish all appeared to be fresh and the selection was excellent. I had an idea for a recipe, and the selection allowed me to adapt my recipe so that I could include the freshest of the ingredients. I was impressed with the fresh tuna, snapper, barramundi and emperor on display.

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The bakery section has a stunning array of delicious cakes, pastries and breads, most of which are baked on the premises. I chose a gluten free olive and onion bread, but was very tempted by the muffins, brioche. croissants, cookies, scrolls and savouries that were  on display.

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The Herdsman is one of those stores where I wanted to buy everything, the produce is good, fresh and inspiring. I could enter the store without any idea of a recipe and come out with everything that I needed to make a great dinner party standard dish. There is a very impressive selection of pre-prepared food to make life easier for time-challenged people, and the pre-prepared foods are of a high quality so that your ready meal can be nutritious as well as delicious. I love how everything that you need is together in one store – I do tend to travel from one shop to another to get the quality that I like – the Herdsman certainly eliminates the travelling time. In this blog I haven’t covered all of the products available here, there are also fresh flowers, good quality confectionery, baking products, spices, vinegars, oils, flowers – everything that you could need under one roof.
Will I be going back to the Herdsman regularly ? I certainly will, whether it is for
something special for entertaining, or something ‘ready to eat’ for convenience – this store has it all – selection, quality and taste.

Last Visit – August 2017

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