See Philippa Sibley’s online-only recipes below.
Philippa Sibley is one of Australia’s most celebrated dessert and pastry chefs. She’s known for her skilful, inventive creations and her meticulous craftsmanship, spiced with whimsy.
Sibley’s early love of pastry was honed at fine dining restaurants in London and Paris and she has operated lauded restaurants at home in Melbourne.
Her latest adventure, as part-owner and head chef, is a bold new concept in a city laneway, with Jason M. Jones (Porgie & Mr Jones, Snow Pony and Friends Of Mine). Prix Fixe, which opened last month, is a ticketed “theatre” restaurant where “your table becomes the stage and the food the show”.
March’s menu is themed around Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The overture is an asparagus avgolemono and the final act a “bottom” dessert of truffled honey, apricots, pine nuts and roses. April’s menu will be The Whole Hog, with dishes such as porchetta with drunken dates and smoked maple.
Chef’s choice
Sibley calls the well-used Pacojet on the counter at her new lavish marble-topped kitchen away from home her “dream machine”. “It processes things to a super-fine consistency. It’s incredible,” says the chef. The $4000 micro-fine blending machine is employed daily to make purees, mousses, ice-creams and sorbets at Prix Fixe.
She admits it doesn’t get as much use at home, but it’s a staple in any kitchen Sibley works in – and compact enough to sneak it out of the restaurant if she needs it.
At home, Sibley describes herself as a “one-pot wonder” cook and her vivid orange Le Creuset casserole dish will bubble away on her stove when friends or family are popping in.
Kitchen essentials
Sibley’s lovingly worn timber pepper grinders, hand-turned by her father for her earlier restaurants Est Est Est and Luxe, are treasured possessions.
“Freshly ground pepper is very important to my cooking,” she says.
She’s also gathered a collection of antique silver spoons, foraged from second-hand shops over the years, which are critical tools for serving and shaping desserts.
Sharp knives are essential, too, and chef brand allegiance is often tied to sponsorship and company support. But, for Sibley, it’s all about the feel of a knife handle and how it is weighted, and the quality of the blade. Top-quality chopping boards make the job a little more effective.
Cooking at home
If she’s cooking for herself at home, Sibley’s go-to dishes might be couscous with melted butter and spinach, or pasta with a fresh tomato sauce. Often on the menu is a favourite chicken dish, fragrant with saffron and cinnamon and sweetened with raisins and ripe tomatoes. She serves it with couscous as a comfort food for friends and family. “I like food that you can eat with a fork, and the whole idea of a single meal in one pot that’s easy to eat,’’ she says.
“I love making soups too and if I’m going to have a dinner party there’s almost always a soup on my menu: maybe a celeriac soup with a poached egg, a chunky lamb and barley soup or a chicken soup with lots of fresh veg and some parmesan cheese added at the end. It has to be served with good crusty bread, too.”
Desserts always feature heavily, she says. “If I wanted to show off during a dinner party, I’d make a clafoutis with beautiful fresh fruit.”
From the garden
Fresh herbs, grown in her Richmond backyard, are a staple in Sibley’s cooking – she uses them in salads, desserts and cocktails. Marjoram is her favourite “hard” herb, while tarragon is a favoured “soft” herb. Both grow luxuriantly in her garden and are regularly picked for use at Prix Fixe. Verbena and rose geranium thrive there, too, and feature in many of her desserts.
Cooking influences
Sibley learned to cook by watching her parents entertain. “My mother was a wonderful cook and my parents entertained a lot. They threw lavish dinner parties and spent hours researching each theme. Guests would dress up and I remember beautiful pewter goblets on the table. As I grew up, I helped in the kitchen, mostly with small jobs, cleaning up or watching and licking the bowl,’’ she says.
“I remember poring through mum’s cookbooks by Julia Child, James Beard and Elizabeth David. By the time I was 15, I was cooking at least three times a week for my parents and three siblings.”
Sweet treats were an early love and as a teenager she began baking biscuits, cakes and slices. When it came to desserts she excelled. In New Classics, Sibley describes her cooking as a celebration of the tried and true, “almost like covering a favourite song or remaking an unforgettable movie, with respect and love”.
>> New Classics, by Philippa Sibley, $49.95 (Hardie Grant Books)
ONLINE RECIPES
Celeriac, poached egg, smoked eel soup
Serves 6 generously
1 smoked eel (350-400g), filleted and skinned (reserve the bones and skin)
600ml milk
600ml chicken stock or water
2 large sprigs of thyme
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 small all-purpose potato, preferably désirée, peeled and thinly sliced
100g butter
1 small brown onion, peeled and thinly sliced
500g celeriac, peeled, quartered and grated
3 inner stalks of celery, including leaves
120ml white vinegar
6-8 very fresh eggs (you need only six but have two extra in case some break)
Salt
Extra virgin olive oil
Red wine reduction
½ bottle (375ml) good quality red wine
1 tablespoon sugar
METHOD
– Place the eel, bones and skin in a saucepan. Add the milk, stock, thyme and garlic. Bring to the boil; reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
– Turn off the heat and allow to infuse for 30 minutes. Strain into another saucepan, reserving the eel. Discard the skin and bones. Add the potato and simmer until it is soft.
– Meanwhile, melt the butter in a saucepan and sweat the onion until soft but not coloured. Add the celeriac and cook, stirring often, until soft enough to mash with the back of a spoon, 8-10 minutes. Add the milk and potato mixture and simmer over medium heat for five minutes. Transfer the mixture to a blender and process until smooth. Push the mixture through a fine sieve.
– Pick the leaves from the celery and reserve. Thinly slice the stalks and blanch in boiling salted water for one minute. Drain and set aside. Break the eel into small pieces (three small nuggets for each person).
– Bring a large saucepan full of water to the boil. Add the vinegar. Break the eggs into individual cups. Reduce the heat of the water to a rolling boil. Swirl the water with a slotted spoon to create a gentle whirlpool.
– Gently tip in three eggs (one at a time) and poach for about 90 seconds.
– Gently remove the eggs and drain on a tray lined with a paper towel.
– Repeat this with the remaining eggs. Keep them warm until serving.
– To make the red wine reduction, stir the wine and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat until reduced to a syrupy consistency, 10-15 minutes.
TO SERVE
Reheat the soup and check the seasoning. Put a poached egg into each warmed bowl. Scatter on some celery and the pieces of eel. Divide the hot soup into the bowls, sprinkle with celery salt and the celery leaves, and drizzle in some of the red wine.
Blackberry and pistachio clafoutis with pistachio ice-cream
Serves 6
Ice-cream
300ml milk
250ml thickened (whipping) cream
40g pistachio nut paste (coloured and flavoured)
100g egg yolks (about five)
55g caster (super-fine) sugar
Clafoutis
115g caster (super-fine) sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
80g pistachio nuts, finely ground, plus extra coarsely chopped pistachio nuts for garnish
10g plain (all-purpose) flour
2 whole eggs
60g egg yolks (about three)
250ml thickened (whipping) cream
500g fresh or frozen blackberries
METHOD
– To make the ice-cream, combine the milk, cream and pistachio nut paste in a saucepan and bring to a simmer over low heat.
– In a bowl, whisk the egg yolks, then add the caster sugar. Continue whisking until pale and thick. Pour in one-third of the hot liquid, whisking constantly. (This tempers, or stabilises, the egg yolks. If you add all the mixture at once the yolks may curdle.) Pour the yolk mixture back into the pan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly and slowly with a wooden spoon, using a figure-eight movement, until the mixture begins to thicken. To test whether the custard, or crème anglaise, is ready, draw a line across the back of the spoon; if a line remains visible for several seconds, it is ready. If you are unsure, use a candy thermometer. When the anglaise reaches 80 degrees it is ready.
– Pour the custard into a bowl and place over another larger bowl filled with iced water to arrest the cooking. Allow to cool completely, stirring occasionally, then strain through a fine sieve.
– Churn in an ice-cream maker, according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Churn the ice-cream no more than several hours before serving so it stays soft and spoonable.
– To make the clafoutis, mix together the dry ingredients. Whisk the whole eggs, egg yolks and cream together in a bowl, then add the combined dry ingredients and mix well. Allow to rest at room temperature for several hours.
– Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Butter six individual 250-300ml baking dishes and sprinkle with caster sugar. Knock out the excess sugar. Divide the blackberries among the dishes and pour over the batter. Sprinkle with the coarsely chopped pistachio nuts and bake for about 15 minutes or until puffed up and set. Allow to cool for a couple of minutes.
TO SERVE
Top each individual baking dish with a generous scoop of the pistachio ice-cream and serve immediately.
Note: This story has been edited since originally published. Philippa Sibley’s business parter Jason M Jones is behind Porgie & Mr Jones, Snow Pony and Friends Of Mine, and not Mamasita and B’stilla as originally reported.
