Last night was the Brisbane Times Good Food Guide awards and boy does Brisbane, and Queensland, have some stuff to be proud of! Now as much as it pains me to say that as a born and bred Sydneysider and, of course, Blues supporter, Brisbane has been my home for the last 12 or so years, and it does make me very happy and excited to see Brisbane grow into a first-class city.

Brisbane is no longer thought of as a big country town, we are now attracting big name restaurateurs from down south and more impressively we have a whole heap of homegrown culinary masters taking the Australian food scene by storm.

Well done Brisbane. Now get out and enjoy all the culinary wonders this city has to offer.

Brisbane Hats

THREE
Esquire

TWO
Aria, Ortiga, Stokehouse, Urbane

ONE
Bistro One Eleven,  Brents the Dining Experience,  E’cco Bistro,  The Euro
Gerard’s Bistro,  Il Centro,  Malt Dining,  Montrachet,  Prive 249,  Public
Restaurant Two,  Sake,  Tank,  Tartufo,  Vintaged

VITTORIA RESTAURANT OF THE YEAR
Esquire

CITIBANK CHEF OF THE YEAR
Alejandro Cancino – Urbane

PLUMM WINE GLASSES BEST NEW RESTAURANT
Gerard’s Bistro

Serves 4

2kgs mussels
2 eshallots, finely diced
1 tbs butter
1 tbs oil
1/2 tsp curry powder
1 stem of coriander, washed, roots and leaves attached, plus a handful of leaves for serving
1/2 cup Hoegaarden
1/4 cup cloudy apple juice
1/2 cup cream
1/2 tsp salt
Crusty bread

For the moules, start off by cleaning and debearding the mussels, then set aside until needed. 

In a large saucepan, add the oil, butter, eshallots and cook over a medium heat until soft and translucent, stirring often to avoid browning. Add curry powder and coriander. Once curry powder is cooked off and fragrant increase heat and add Hoegaarden, apple juice, cream, salt and pepper and bring to the boil and allow to reduce slightly.

Add the mussels and cook covered for 5 minutes, shaking every now and then to move the mussels and splash with sauce. Once the mussels are all open and cooked, take off the heat. You want to cook the mussels until just cooked and open, overcooking makes mussels shrink and go tough. You want to keep them plump and juicy.

Serve mussels in large bowls or pots, pouring the sauce over the mussels. Serve with a sprinkle of freshly chopped coriander,  warm crusty bread and a Hoegaarden.