RECIPES

Floral & Hearty with Bethany Finn

view printable pdf

 

On a bright and breezy afternoon, Bethany Finn escapes to the garden, accompanied by her “two white shadows”. She tends the roses, snips her hedges and potters in the potting shed where her precious cuttings are kept. All the while, her two white terriers, Tosca and Billy, scamper around the place.

“This is my escape,” the chef and co-owner of award-winning restaurant Urban Bistro says of the private little oasis at the back of her Parkside home. “It’s nice to feel the sun on my back and be outside in the fresh air. And my two white shadows follow me wherever I go.”

Gardening and food have been two constants in Bethany’s life since she was a young girl, planting strawberries in the backyard or eating mangoes from the tree outside her home in Papua New Guinea, where her family lived for two years.

So, it is not surprising that when Bethany invites her sister Megan Power and her children Samantha and Charlie over for lunch, the meal has a floral theme – though it’s not too girly, the chef insists.

It is also appropriate because the two sisters are conspirators in pretty much everything. “We play hockey together,” says Bethany, who has a 10-yearold son, Harrison. “We had kids together, we love food, we love champagne. And we love gardening.”

The pair are also “liberators of plants”, Bethany says, growing most things from found cuttings, from natives to succulents, to geraniums and hollyhocks.

None of these make it on to the plate today. Instead, there is a zucchini flower, beautifully set into a fluffy potato blini, rosemary flowers with a stuffed leg of veal, borage in the heritage tomato salad and strawberry flowers as well as fruit with the semifreddo. While they are not the exact dishes you will find at Urban, they do reflect Bethany’s philosophy of taking the best ingredients and letting them speak for themselves. She says the menu at Urban is a catalogue of the food memories she shares with husband and co-owner Spencer Cole – from her mum’s lemon curd to the exotic flavours the couple discovered on their honeymoon in India.

After training at Regency College of Tafe, Bethany began her career as a chef at Spanish restaurant La Bodega, then moved to Windy Point (where she first met Spencer) and then travelled to London. She returned after being offered a position at the Hilton where she went on to become executive chef. It was at the Hilton that Bethany was able to work with celebrated chefs Cheong Liew and Simon Bryant.

Nine years ago, Bethany and Spencer opened Urban. “It’s a tag team. I do the mornings and my husband works the nights,” Bethany says. “There’s always someone looking after the business and someone looking after the family.”

recipes and photos courtesy of Appetite Magazine

Blini

  • 1kg of Dutch Cream potatoes*, peeled and cut in half
  • 2 whole eggs
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 3 tbsp crème fraiche
  • 4 tbsp 00 flour**
  • Salt and white pepper
  • 12 egg whites
  • Zucchini flowers
  • 50g snow pea tendrils
  • 1 punnet sugar snaps
  • 50g frozen peas, cooked
Steam potatoes for 15mins or until tender, then push through a potato ricer or mouli. As the potatoes cool, add whole eggs one at a time, then the yolks. Once combined, stir in crème fraiche, flour and seasoning. Allow to cool in the fridge. In a separate bowl whip egg whites until soft peaks form, then fold through potato base. Heat a blini pan with a little ghee, flatten out one flower in the base of the pan per blini. Spoon the potato mixture into the pan and cook for 10mins at 180°C. Serve the hot potato blini with a salad of snow pea tendrils, sugar snaps and peas.

*Dutch Cream potatoes available from Adelaide Showground Farmers Market and Willunga Farmers Market.
**00 flour available from Mise En Place.

Heirloom tomato salad, fresh mozzarella and rosemary salt

  • 1kg assorted heirloom tomatoes (cherry, black Russian, zebra, yellow, roma and tiger)
  • 2 tsp sea salt
  • 1 tsp icing sugar
  • 1 bunch of fresh thyme, chopped
  • 2 tsp of garlic, chopped
  • 500ml extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 head of garlic, peeled
  • ½ bunch of basil, picked
  • Forum cabernet sauvignon wine vinegar*
  • 2 balls of fresh mozzarella, torn
  • 1 punnet of mixed flowers, eg borage or yellow violas
  • 1 punnet of baby leaves, eg baby tatsoi or purple radish
    rosemary salt
  • 30g dried rosemary
  • 30g sea salt
  • 1 smoked chilli, ground
To make slow roasted tomatoes This part should be started the day before. Preheat the oven to 100°C. Take a punnet of cherry tomatoes, cut them in half and sprinkle with salt, icing sugar, chopped thyme and 2 tsp garlic (to taste), drizzle with a couple of spoonfuls of olive oil and place them in the oven and turn the heat off. Leave overnight to dry and avoid opening the door until the morning.

To make confit tomatoes Take three of the smaller red tomatoes, remove the core and cut a cross on the bottom of each tomato. Heat a large pot of salted water and plunge the tomatoes into boiling water for 30secs, then lift out of the water and refresh in ice-cold water. The skin of the tomato will peel away with ease. Set aside the skins to fry later on. On a low flame, heat 300ml of good olive oil in a small pot with five cloves of garlic and basil. Add the peeled tomatoes to infuse for a couple of minutes. Set aside to cool at room temperature. Heat a pan with a little oil and fry the tomato skins until crisp. Drain onto absorbent paper towel. Cut remaining tomatoes into wedges and toss with Forum cabernet sauvignon vinegar and the rest of the olive oil. Mix together dried rosemary, sea salt and chilli and sprinkle over tomato wedges.

To make salad On a serving platter, spread the confit tomatoes, slow roasted tomatoes and the torn mozzarella. Add the fresh tomatoes and scatter the fried tomato skins, flowers and baby leaves, season with a little rosemary salt.
*Forum cabernet sauvignon wine vinegar available from Mise En Place.

Rump of spring veal with smoked ham and Emmenthal, mustard and cheese crust

  • 1kg veal rump
  • Butcher’s string
  • 100ml of vegetable oil
  • Sea salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 10 thin slices of smoked leg ham
  • 10 sliced of Emmenthal swiss cheese
  • Dijon mustard
  • Baby vegetables
  • 1 punnet rosemary flowers to garnish
    gruyère sauce
  • 500ml milk
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 5 cloves
  • ½ brown onion
  • 50g melted butter mixed with 50g plain flour
  • 200g Heidi Gruyère*, grated
    cheese crust
  • 150g Panko breadcrumbs (find at Asian grocers)
  • 50g melted butter
  • 100g Heidi grated Gruyère
  • 50g grated parmesan
To make Gruyère sauce In a pan add milk, bay leaves, cloves and onion. Bring to the boil then allow to simmer for 10mins. Strain the hot milk into a clean pan and whisk in the butter-flour mixture, turn the flame to low and let the white sauce thicken. Keep stirring while adding the Heidi Gruyère. Once the mixture is smooth, cool.

To make cheese crust Combine Panko breadcrumbs, melted butter, Heidi grated Gruyère and grated parmesan. Set aside.

To prepare the veal Preheat the oven to 180°C. Tie the leg of veal to keep its shape. Rub veal with oil, salt and pepper. Roast for 30mins until rare, remove from the oven and allow to rest and cool. Carve thick slices, without cutting all the way through. In each slice, add two slices of ham, a slice of Emmenthal and a spoonful of gruyere sauce. If needed, retie the roast to keep it tight. Brush the surface with Dijon mustard and top with the cheese crust. Cook for 15mins more or until golden brown. Serve with spring vegetables on a platter.
*Available from Say Cheese.

Strawberry and lemon semifreddo

  • 800ml cream
  • 700g caster sugar
  • 260ml water
  • 6 egg whites
  • Juice of 4 lemons
  • 300ml Greek yoghurt
  • Zest of 2 lemons
  • 1 punnet of strawberries
  • 100g dried strawberry powder
  • 1 punnet of raspberries
  • 1 punnet of strawberry flowers*
  • Purple and white violas from the garden
Whip cream until soft peaks form and keep cold until the Italian meringue is ready. Mix the caster sugar and water together and heat until 118°C baume (use a kitchen thermometer). Using an electric beater, whip egg whites to a soft peak, then slowly add the sugar mixture, while still beating on a medium speed. Allow the Italian meringue to cool completely. Then fold the lemon juice into the Italian meringue to soften it. Mix the yoghurt, lemon zest, sliced strawberries and strawberry powder into the cream. Fold the Italian meringue into the strawberry cream. Pour the semifreddo into a tin lined with baking paper. Freeze overnight. Serve with fresh strawberries and fresh flowers.
*Strawberry flowers available from AMJ Produce.

Copyright © Appetite Magazine