Category: From The Kitchen

  • On Traditional Australian Pie Base

    We all know that a great pie, first and foremost must taste good. The filling should be tasty, tender, moist, not too runny and not too thick but, …it ain’t a pie if the pie crust just ain’t right! I know this. You know this. We all know this, so why is it so hard…

  • Rice Cooker Kidney Bean & Lamb Stew

    Was in the kitchen today, looking at the fridge and the dramatically reduced kitchen cookware at my disposal. I had this lamb that needed to be cooked, or I’d risk loosing it. So, I thought, “stew!” But I only had one, large pot,an elecric table top bbq griddle plate and a rice cooker. “Sweet!” Use…

  • Following Instructions

    The other day I had a rather unremarkable start, to an otherwise challenging day. No mater what I did, I just couldn’t seem to get anything right. Perhaps you can see where I made my mistake… The Instructions said, …in a large pan, reduce one bottle of white wine, with a few coarsely chopped mushrooms,…

  • A Simple System of Pie Identification

    Here at Villa Tempest, we have explored various methods of identifying what pies are what once they’ve been baked. this is what we’ve settled on. To help keep track of our different types of pies, we use a simple, vent hole identification system: A slit for beef… An oval hole for Chicken… Fork holes for…

  • What’s News: Dough Sheeter, Pastry Roller

    One: Recently, after a long term of searching, designing, and being told, “No! Can’t be done in Hanoi” we finally took ownership of a manual dough sheeter (Máy cán bột). Having first sighted such an item in the kitchen of Cafe CCCP, we managed to track down and eventually find not only a supplier who…

  • Free Range Chickens & Eggs

    One of the core philosophies guiding the selection of ingredients in the Villa Tempest Kitchen is the choice to use the best possible products available at the time. For example through the “Friends” network we have acquired Kampot Black Peppercorns and Kampot White Peppercorns so that we can grind fresh spice when needed. We use…