Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone. I can't wait to get back and post a Christmas activities round up and then get back into some regular blogging. Stay save and eat lots in the meantime!

Hairy Canary

I went to see Priscilla Queen of the Desert on Saturday night with some friends. Since Priscilla is quintessentially Sydney, it was only fitting to start the evening with something quintessentially Melbourne: wine and tapas at a small bar.

So many choices make for much menu reading however by the end of the night I had sampled Albondigas, Chargrilled Chorizo and Blue Cheese and Leek Tartlet with rocket. The Albondigas , spicy meatballs with currants and pinenuts, arrived as a generous portion smothered in a chunky sugo. Moist flavoursome bites but seemingly lacking in said spice. This discrepancy with the menu continued with the tartlet, I may be wrong as I grabbed one of the last, small bites left but I tasted fresh goats cheese, not blue. Delicious all the same.

We supplemented these little delights with pizzas and dips to fill us up. Roast garlic, artichoke and feta offered subtle flavours whilst off the specials board chorizo with roasted peppers was a little more robust. With a huge pizza oven protruding into the dining room you can be assured the base will be thin and oh-so-crisp.

I’ve not tried the larger dishes however the selection swings from Italian to Spanish with a large selection of seafood in between. Vegetarians may have to opt for the gnocchi, depending on the day’s specials. A long wine list offers most by the glass and bottle. Don’t be scared to sample the house wine, with the canary label, as it offers good value.

I’ve eaten here on numerous occasions and always enjoy the food, but I so have a gripe with the service. I’ve given it enough chances now to come out and say the wait staff seem to be more interested in appearing cool than waiting tables. They’ve definitely got aloof down pat. You don’t pay exorbitant prices at canary but it would be nice to devote your entire attention to dining companions rather than constantly keeping an eye out for the waiter.
Finally, don’t forget they’re open for breakfast. You should try their famous eggs in purgatory.

Hairy Canary
212 Little Collins St
Melbourne

Home Sweet Kitchen

Well after nearly a month of coming and going I'm finally back. For a week at least. My last few week's worth of eating has consisted of lean cuisine microwave meals. I began buying ingredients for simple salads but cooking for 1, for 1 night only seems to result in a lot of wastage. So pre-packaged food it was. The delights of tandoori chicken, butter chicken, frozen lasagne and beef stir fry have finally taken their toll and it is with glee that I step back into my kitchen.

This afternoon is ironchef 4, and I must apologise to McFly as I haven't written up his lunch from a few weeks ago. I will post the photos soon. I am tasked with dessert today whilst S-bo is cooking the entree and main. I can't possibly tell you in advance what he is cooking, however on the dessert front I have been up to my elbows in melted chocolate and gloopy, gloppy, glorious double cream. Nothing like jumping in at the deep end, my kitchen is currently mid-dessert, with chocolate and egg white everywhere! Rather than proceed through the mid-cook wash up, I thought I'd come and post.

All this travel does make me wonder how people who do it all the time manage. The only way I could stay healthy and not break my bank account was to resort to the lean cuisine. How do others do it? Surely you can't live on lean cuisine for too long. I certainly couldn't. Healthy fast food can be ridiculously expensive and yet, as I mentioned, trying to prepare healthy meals intermittently was resulting in much food wastage. Of course there's always the old casserole in the freezer trick, but who has time to cook all of that up whilst packing and organising for impeding trips?

Where have I been you might ask? Well it's been a combination of party weekends away and work trips. The engagement party of N1 and N2 was a particular highlight up in Goondiwindi (South Western QLD). I finally had the opportunity to sample Corish lamb from the lamb feed-lot N2's family runs, and it was delicious. If only I was not too busy having a good time to record the sensational catering at the party. The following weekend saw a trip to the Dunkeld Races in Victoria. As picnic races we went well prepared with French Sparkling Wine and chicken salads. Such a great day and we did feel particularly gourmet amongst the sausage sizzles (although I do love a sausage sizzle....)

Anyway, I guess I should go finish this dessert.

What have I been eating?

Due to numerous travel commitments I haven't been able to record my eatings over the last month or so. I hope to be back later in November...

Keep Eating,
Ali-k.

Butterscotch Cupcakes

Never before has a cupcake seemed so decadent. So much butter, cream and sugar couldn't be anything else right? It was recently Foges' birthday and workplace tradition stipulates you bring cake for eveyone else to enjoy. Our workplace is getting so big now that 2 cakes are needed. As Foges had her sister visiting she didn't have time to cook, so I volunteered to make cupcakes to supplement a bought cake. Now call me noble (go on...) but really I just wanted an excuse to make cupcakes again. It's been a while.

Butterscotch cupcakes are simply a burst of cream and caramel in your mouth. As directed by a 2006 Donna Hay magazine I whipped butterscotch flavoured liqueur into cream and drizzled messily with caramel sauce. Incase you're wondering, yes that bottle of cheap butterscotch schnapps you bought to have CS Cowboys will do. That's what I used, it was left over from a cocktail party, honest.

These cakes have surprisingly few ingredients. As they emerge from the oven and you snatch a warm one for eating then and there, you will be worried that they're not cooked enough. Give them a little time (overnight) and they seem to bind together. My greediness and impatience led to a self destructing sticky mess of cake, cream and caramel. This got me a little worried however the next day at work they were near perfect texture. Phew. I had visions of caramel stickiness forever on the office floor, people eyeing me darkly whenever they got stuck.

Give them a go, I think you will be amazed at the delicateness of flavour in a seemingly rich cake.

Butterscotch Cupcakes (Donna Hay, May/June 2006)

250 g butter, softened

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

4 eggs

2 1/4 cups plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 cup milk

For the Caramel:

25 g butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup single or pouring cream

Butterscotch Cream:

2 cups double (thick) cream

3 Tbsp butterscotch flavoured liqueur

To make the caramel, place the butter and sugar in a saucepan over high heat and stir until dissolved. Add the cream and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 min or until slightly thickened. Set aside and cool completely

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees. Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until light and creamy. Gradually add the eggs and beat well. Sift over the flour and baking powder and beat until combined. Fold through the milk and spoon the mixture into 2 12 hole, 1/2 cup capacity muffin tins (lined with pretty paper cases of course). Bake for 15-20 min or until cooked through. Cool on wire racks.

Beat cream and liqueur together until soft peaks form. Spread the cream over the cupcakes and drizzle with caramel.

Eating Write & Pub lunch at Hotel Warnambool

For the last 2 Tuesdays I have been attending a course entitled "Eating Write". It's essentially a food writer's course and it was a birthday present from my workmates. I'm learning all sorts of great things. Like yes, you should obtain a menu instead of relying on your memory. Yes, it's ok to take notes as long as you can disguise it and yes, it's ok to tell the restaurant you are a reviewer after you have eaten & paid. In addition to learnings, there are also some challenges. No point taking a course if you're not going to be challenged. This week our homework was to write a review of no more than 110 words. For a professional writer this might seem like a piece of cake. For me as a blogger this indicates I must cut out my blog-ramblings. You know those ramblings...they allow you to type as you think so the words on the page have little structure. I like to think they are endearing but in reality they're probably ill-thought out.

I'm not to keen to change the way I write on my blog, as I see it as much more of a personal expression. But I'm enjoying learning new styles that I might be able to use elsewhere. Lets face it, we could all do with a little structure in our lives.

So without further ado, here is my short review on Hotel Warnambool. It's very raw, I would work a little more on it before going public but since it's a simple writing exercise I will share it with you.

Hotel Warnambool

Eat with the locals as exposed timber beams and a log fire encourage patrons to settle in. The menu predicts standard counter meals, however the kitchen is shared with the restaurant at rear so diners will be pleasantly surprised. Fetta, bocconcini, pesto and parmesan pizza bread will adequately fill until mains arrive to distinguish offerings from standard pub-grub. A specials board might offer beef satay that falls apart at the touch of a fork whilst chicken schnitzel is actually house-crumbed fillets topped with a tangy herb yoghurt. One thing that does stick to pub tradition is the hefty serve of chips and salad on the side. A large selection of beers on tap will ensure you don't go thirsty.

Thai Saffron, Auburn

Peter, from Souvlaki for the Soul, and I have been having a discussion about Thai on and off for a little while now. You can get some excellent Thai here in Australia and now more and more people are travelling from Aus to Thailand. So it's no surprise that many people are familiar with really good, really authentic Thai. I've discussed my favourite type of Thai food previously (and here) yet I think I haven't articulated myself very well. Whilst I could sit down and be blown away by authentic Thai (and have elsewhere) with the freshest of ingredients, the Thai I crave when I'm hungover, when I want a quick takeaway meal or when I'm in need of some comforting fare, is far from authentic. Sure the staff and chef are Thai, but the food is aimed at the western market, with an emphasis on get in, eat and get out. It's not necessarily an experience, more a means to fill the belly. I love the gloopy sauces which are both sweet and salty at the same time. I love the smell and taste of starchy rice straight from the rice cooker. It screams warmth and an edible meal to me, as it was where I'd go when I could handle on-campus food no longer.

Sometimes it's hard to pick a difference in taste from one dish to another, the meat is usually thinly sliced to disguise it's dryness, yet I like this. There are times (usually those mentioned above) when I would even pick this cheap style of Thai over authentic. The purists may scream, but that's the way it is with me.

So without further ado, I give you Thai Saffron. Many months ago when I explained to Flatmate what I had been missing in my Thai food down here she said she knew just the place. It's taken us this long to get there,but we tried it last week. This was a regular haunt of Flatmate's when she lived over that way and I can see why. No frills decor, cheap prices and quick service are just the ticket for those nights you can't be bothered to cook.

We ordered Chicken Satay, Pork and vegetables in oyster sauce and Stir-fried tofu with vegetables. The food nearly beat us to the table, which is worrying, but it was piping hot and the vegetables crisp. We remarked that when cooking vegetables at home we clearly cook them for a little too long. For $39.10 we had 3 mains with rice and 3 softdrinks. Not bad considering we wound up more than satisfied, with food still on the plate. I made sort work of stirring the satay sauce into my rice at the end and munching on that for as long as I could hold out. I'd eat rice drenched in satay sauce alone, or coconut curry, for lunch every day if I didn't suspect it could be bad for me.
With my craving satisfied I think I can safely move forward from here, but I'll always no where to turn when I need my "just-like-Newtown_Thai" fix.

Thai Saffron is on the corner of Riversdale and Auburn Roads.

Ironchef 2: Veal

So, Ironchef 2 and I am already nearly 2 weeks late in posting it. I should apologise to all, especially Foges, who went to so much effort to prepare a beautiful meal and I have left it undocumented until now.

As I mentioned in my Tom Phat post, the day was beautiful and sunny, then slipped to heavy rain as the afternoon progressed. Perfect for eating slow cooked veal and drinking wine, I say. You can find out how our Ironchef events started here. However I’ll summarise by saying that five of us take turns to host a lunch. Two courses are cooked, with the main according to a selection of designated themes, be it ingredients or chefs, cuisines and so on. The third dish is provided by the person next in line to cook and the previous month’s cook plus any additional guests bring wine. That means 2 out of 5 cooks get a free ride twice!

Foges cooked a beautiful mushroom soup when we dined last month so we knew we were in for a treat. Before we could start on the beautiful smell that was wafting from the kitchen we were provided entrée by McFly (named because an unidentifiable source decided he looks a little like Marty McFly…..). Salmon poached with Kaffir Lime leaves was used to make these delicious Salmon Cakes which we snapped up double time. I’ll have to tell you the exact ingredients of the sides later, but the whole ensemble was delicious. I was starving by this time so when that last cake was sitting on the plate, you know the one everyone’s too polite to take, I took it.

Luckily I was still hungry when mains came out, because it wasn’t a dish to pass up. From Stephanie Alexander’s Cook’s Companion Foges had cooked veal brisket stuffed with olives. Apparently veal brisket (a breast of veal) is quite hard to source, so if you’re planning on using it you should order in advance. Foges had just returned from 4 weeks overseas just 5 days earlier so she had little planning time, not enough to order veal brisket. Whilst this makes her lunch even more admirable, it meant she had to use whatever cut the butcher could offer. Instead of one large roll or meat, we each got our own little tender parcel, stuffed with a mix of pork, sourdough, olives, parsley and garlic. All this cooked for 3 hours in stock, with vegetables and bacon. We ate the dish with risoni drenched in the meat juices.


By this stage we were well past our 3rd bottle of wine and ready for the lemon tart prepared for dessert. I’m a big fan of citrus tarts and this one was particularly creamy. I must remember to ask Foges what recipe she used.

Four bottles of wine later (including a strange Slovakian red) we had cleaned up and were ready to declare Ironchef 2 a success. Who knows, soon enough we may start our very Zingara Cucina….

Tom Phat, Brunswick

Oh Blog, how rude am I to leave you repeatedly for a week at a time without posting. I promise to try harder. I think I am suffering from Blogger's Block. I have little inspiration at the moment to document the great food I've been eating. I'm not worried by this. Other bloggers seem to go through the same ebbs and flows and always come back out on top. There's a few of us around who are toning down the writing a bit, and I think it's because of the weather. Sitting behind a computer is not my favourite thing to do when it's sunny outside. Then again, it might not be blogger's block, perhaps just poor time management. It's already past 10 pm and I am hoping to get up bright and early for the gym tomorrow morning. As I write this I still need to pack some clothes for such madness and pack a lunch for work. Ok, so that's no big deal in the scheme of life, I know the mother's out there are tut tutting and wondering how I would ever survive time management as a parent. I'm sure you're probably right, but it's not really a worry as I don't intend on having a family anytime soon.

So from writers blog to time management to kids (?) I seem to have strayed off the topic of food. Since my last post I have participated in our 2nd Ironchef lunch, dined here at Tom Phat, feasted at Bar Lourinha and made some little free-form lemon curd tartlets. I can only hope to recap over the next few days. Other delights include marinated, butterflied leg of lamb at G&Ts house, a picnic at Point Lonsdale and an icecream in Queenscliff.

I won't start with Ironchef because, frankly I can't remember the proper name of what Foges cooked. And I can't get it wrong now can I? I can tell you how it was a delightful late lunch which started in sunshine and ended in rain. The rain came right about the time S-bo and I realised we needed to be at Sydney Road for dinner. Nothing a rude exit and a quick cab ride couldn't fix.

Here's where the bottle of wine consumed over lunch starts to cloud my memory. We ate duck spring rolls, salt and pepper calamari, Panang curry and two other stir fries. How's that for detail huh? I can say with some certainty that I enjoyed out little visit to Tom Phat. Here is something close to the Thai of my uni days, dressed up in stylish surroundings. On a rainy night such as our visit, Tom Phat's dimly lit decor is quite enveloping and I would have been very comfortable on my bench seat for quite some time.

Cream Cafe Bar, Canberra

Back to Canberra for a visit last weekend and a group of us had dinner at a new restaurant, Cream. I was a litle taken aback upon entry with the bright flourescent lights but realised once seated that whilst it was different, it did work. My initial impression is that Cream tries to cover too many bases: Restaurant, Bar and Cafe all in one, instead of doing one thing well. However I later reaslied that Canberra needs somewhere like this to lift the profile of dining in Canberra. Whilst they are not raising the bar in quality by any stretch, they are re-setting the bar in terms of style. Canberra's nightlife has always been questionned and as far as I know this is the first place where you can enjoy a good meal or just have a couple of drinks.

Unfortunately Cream already has a reputation for particularly slow staff. The organiser of our dinner opted for a banquet because she thought it might mean our meals arrived at the table in a more timely fashion. No such luck. We were all seated within 30 minutes of our 7.30 pm booking. The waitress kindly came and opened our bottles of wine but we then sat there for 5-10 minutes longer before someone realised that wine glasses might come in handy. I'm not sure whether it was because the wait staff weren't very good or because they were understaffed, but attention to detail was not a focus.

The first half of our banquet was inspiring. Delicious dips with pita and garlic turkish bread filled the growing hunger until the tapas plates arrived. Marinated olives sat alongside rocket and parmesan salad. Prawn wontons were crisply fried and tasted of lime, however the chilli balsamic dipping sauce was nowhere to be seen. Salt and pepper marinated quail was flavoursome and a pleasure to eat whilst the roma tomatoes stuffed with goats cheese with red wine balsamic syrup were definitely something new for Canberra.

Sadly the quality stopped here. Considering we had a 7.30pm booking, the long wait between our tapas plates and main course started to drain us. One diner who had to leave at 10pm missed her mains altogether. Just after 10 large bowls of pasta and pad thai arrived almost as an afterthought. The website states "served in tradition banquet fashion" so I can only assume they were aiming for the current trend of communal eating. Instead, given the wait, I felt like the chef had forgotten us then thrown something together at the last minute. The Conchiglie Putanesca seemed like something I would whip up on a Sunday night with a tin of tomatoes and some frozen veges. The Pappardelle however was something different. Piping hot lamb sat amongst the pasta ribbons and simply fell apart on the fork, nevermind melt in your mouth. Perhaps we waited so long because they were slow-cooking the lamb to order. I would almost say the wait was worth it.

Overall I would say don't go to Cream to experience new heights in Dining. But do go to lift the profile of eating in Canberra. If this restaurant does well hopefully more of it's kind will open, which is exactly what Canberra's eating scene needs. We can only hope the quality will follow shortly after.

Free-form Cherry Cheesecakes

I had some friends over for dinner last night and couldn't quite decide what to make for dessert. Everything I decided on required baking but the oven was occupied by a 5 hour leg of lamb. After a big feed of roast it's hard to turn around and eat a heavy dessert, so I wanted something that was still decadent, but light. S-bo suggested fruit salad but I found all the chopping a bit daunting. This recipe came from a recipe scrapbook I started when I was about 18. I haven't attempted many of the recipes in there. Not sure why I even kept half of them.

Still, waiting so long to cook this one is quite a shame as it was delicious. If you're very organised you can prepare it before your guests arrive. I, on the other hand, was not organised and so ended up whizzing biscuits whilst my guests enjoyed cheese. I was then mixing cream cheese etc. whilst everyone else let their mains settle over a few glasses of wine. If only I had one of those huge kitchens with a big wooden table, where it's "cool" to cook as you go because everyone can join in. My kitchen is not terribly small as renters go, but it's not quite interactive.

The cream cheese/mascarpone mixture is great and make sure you don't skip the lemon zest. You could make a low-fat version by using reduced fat cream cheese, but what's the point really? If you can't handle the fat, don't have dessert! No, I'm kidding, what I really mean to say is everything in moderation is fine. I used mascarpone from the supermarket and got a great, creamy result, so I can only imagine how improved it'd be with some good "deli-grade". For a super quick dessert you could probably use some good full-cream vanilla or natural yoghurt and spoon the cherries straight from the can. My cherry syrup didn't thicken that much anyway!


The Recipe:
100 g amaretti biscuits (I used arnott's buttersnap), crushed
250 g cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 lemon, zested and juiced
250 g mascarpone
400 g can black cherries in syrup
1 tbsp cornflour, dissolved in 1/4 cup water

Drain cherries from syrup and set cherries aside. In a saucepan combine syrup with the cornflour mixture. Place over medium heat and bring to the boil, stirring constantly for 2-3 minutes until mixture thickens. Remove mixture to a bowl, stir in cherries, then refrigerate.

Divide crushed biscuits between 6 small glasses, dessert bowls or ramekins.
Beat cream cheese and sugar with an electric mixer until creamy. Beat in lemon zest and juice, then mascarpone. Divide mixture evenly between the glasses - but don't worry about smoothing the surface. Spoon a little cooled cherry mixture over each cheesecake.

Serves 6, however this recipe could easily be stretched out to 8.

Asiana

Having grown up in the country I often fall into the trap that Chinese food is not particularly extravagant or special. Now before you blow your trumpets and think I am being unfair, you must realise that Chinese restaurants exist in nearly all NSW country towns and are as cheap and cheerful as your next-door fish and chip shop. There was never anything wrong with the food, and it was always a treat to have takeaway on a Friday night, regardless of what you were eating, but special dinners involved trips to other local restaurants. Usually a birthday treat for someone in the family. The humble Cantonese restaurants of my childhood served the MSG versions of sweet and sour pork, beef and cashew and honey chicken, always preceded by a serve of spring rolls.

Leaving my country town heritage and moving to Sydney I discovered Thai restaurants. I’ve mentioned my love of Thai previously but I also specify what sort of Thai: cheap. And no, this is not because I am a scrooge, it is because it’s exactly the sort of Thai that I became used to. Cheap Thai replaced my Friday night Chinese meals of childhood. $10 meals on Newtown’s King St became a staple weekly treat. Now when I eat Thai I look for those familiar tastes and smells. When I don’t get them I am disappointed because my expectations aren’t met. That’s not because my expectations are high, they are just specific.

Sowly, slowly my perception of Asian foods, and Chinese in particular, are changing. Yes, a trip to Flower Drum definitely contributed but the kick start was on a work trip to Melbourne before relocating last year. We went to a restaurant in Chinatown called Kun Ming. All of a sudden Chinese restaurants offered polished service. I crossed out good here because there was nothing wrong with service in other restaurants, it just wasn’t polished. Battered dishes such as honey chicken and salt and pepper squid were no longer oily and stodgy, but light and salty and perfect for bringing out the underlying flavour.

In a sense I have been falling into good Chinese, the same way I practically fell into Kun Ming and Flower Drum. A drink with a friend at the Beach Hotel in Albert Park, before heading out to a movie, on the weekend turned into a need for some food. A hop, skip and a jump up the road and I fell into Asiana. Now this restaurant isn’t Chinese as such, more a selection of flavours from Asia. What’s more it puts in a regular appearance in The Age Good Food Guide.

We had no booking but there was no problem seating 2 of us. And when we explained our time constraints that was no problem either. Being in a bit of a hurry I spent very little time reading the menu. There is a large selection so I honed in on one or two things that I wanted to try and away we went. For future reference I did notice specials which appear on the menu and the blackboard as well as house specialties in the menu, which are very enticing. There’s also a large selection of entrees so if you felt like picking and choosing you’d be well positioned to do so. There’s a good range of wine by the glass but expect to pay about $10/glass. Alternatively BYO for $10 corkage.

Between the two of us we ordered salt and pepper calamari (entrée size), Vietnamese inspired lemongrass chicken and Singapore noodles. We had asked for all dishes to arrive together and the food was beautifully presented at our table and then whisked away for serving. Perhaps the food appeared a little too quickly but we had mentioned timeframes and it did seem hot and fresh. The calamari was delicious with just the right amount of chilli garnish to give a kick if you chose. Appearance-wise the lemongrass chicken was quite plain, sliced chicken meat with only a small amount of garnish, no vegetables. Unfortunately the plainness extended to the taste, I would have preferred the lemongrass to be a little stronger but this didn’t prevent the chicken from being tender and succulent. That’s succulent in the moist way, not the KFC advertisement way. And for future reference, the Singapore noodle dish was HUGE for 2 people. All up $75 for 2 glasses of wine and 3 dishes which, whilst not quite $10 Thai standard, is not bad I guess. On top of that there is a great feel to this restaurant. Low lighting and mute décor seem to absorb noise so the packed restaurant had a buzz which made you feel that yes, you were in a good, popular restaurant and yet you could still hear the diner across from you.

Asiana
181 Victoria Ave
Albert Park

The oven strikes again: Chocolate Brownies

I made chocolate brownies the other day to take to work. After repeated oven woes I still haven't gone out and bought myself an oven thermometer, although I really should.

The brownies were made on Tuesday night, the same night I made the turkish pizzas, so it's a great surprise that the oven was my only worry. What with eating the pizza and checking out the lunar eclispe at the same time, I was bound to leave an ingredient out, as I so often do. Luckily I fluked it.

I did the normal trick of turning the oven 10 degrees lower than recommended but it didn't seem to work. The brownies still had 15 minutes to go and they were smelling burnt. Sure enough my reliable oven had left a black burnt crisp around the edges. Surprisingly the actually still tasted ok. Good, even. Nice and sweet and chocolately with just the right amount of gooey-ness in the centre. They're not a very rich brownie although I did use milk chocolate not dark. I have a few brownie recipes floating around so I might have to test and compare. Just another excuse to eat brownies right?

Chocolate Brownies (From a Family Circle cookbook I think)
150 g butter, chopped
125 g dark chocolate, Chopped
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/2 cups caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1 cup plain flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
icing sugar, to dust

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and grease a 20 cm square tin. Line the base with baking paper (it's great to extend the paper over the side to make it easy to take out the brownie)
Melt butter and chocolate in a double saucepan then cool slightly.
Use a whisk to beat the eggs, sugar and vanilla together in a large bowl. Add the melted chocolate mixture and whisk together. Stir in the combined sifted flour and cocoa. Do not overbeat. Pour into tin and bake for 40 minutes or until slightly risen and just firm. Leave to cool in the tin (the brownie will sink a little), cut into squares and dust with icing sugar.

Back in the Kitchen: Turkish Pizza

It's funny how you can overlook the most simple recipes and sometimes they're simply wonderful. That's not quite the case with this turkish pizza. I wouldn't call it simply wonderful, but it was pretty damn good and a very quick, easy way to whip up a yummy Tuesday night meal.

After my weekend of minimal cooking I was keen to cook something new. My quest to cook all clippings is still going and I've had this one ear-marked for a while. I'm getting down to the very difficult ones, or those with expensive ingredients or those that require very long cooking times. So I'm not entirely sure how this one slipped past the radar. I think I tore it out of a Gravox promo booklet of all places.

The mint really makes it but being beef mince there's something quite homely about it. It reminds of spaghetti bolognese, or the toasties you might whip up from the leftovers. I ate so many bolognese jaffels as a student. Most students have some form of toasted sandwich maker and whilst the sandwich presses allow a little more "gourmette", you can't go past a jaffel surely.

I didn't use lamb and mint gravy mix last night, I used a plain gravox that was floating around in the pantry. But I'm sure beef stock would be exactly the same really. I upped the mint to compensate though.

Luckily this can be a cutlery free meal once cool enough. So I trekked outside with my piece of turkish bread pizza to watch the lunar eclipse. I think I missed the moon at it's reddest though, I thought it was all a little overrated until I saw the pictures in the paper today. Clearly I went at the wrong time. Nevermind.

Turkish Pizza
1 tbsp oil
4 spring onions
1 clove garlic, crushed
500 g beef or lamb mince
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/3 cup Gravox (insert registered trademark symbol here) lamb with mint gravy mix (sounds appetising huh? Just use beef stock)
1 1/4 cups water
4 tbsp tomato paste
1 long turkish pide loaf, halved horizontally
1/3 cup pine numts toasted
2 roma tomoatoes diced
1 tbsp finely chopped mint
2 cups tasty cheese
extra mint to garnish

Preheat oven to 230 degrees C. Heat oil and cook onions, garlic and mince until mince is browned. Combine spices, gravy mix, water and tomato paste. Add to the mince mixture, bring to the boil then reduce heat and cooke for a further 4 min.

Cut each pide in half and place cut side up on a baking tray. Spoon mince mixture evenly over each piece and top with pine nuts, tomatoes, mint and cheese. Bake for 15-20 min until cheese is golden and base is crispy.

Serves 4.

Summer's come early?

Not a lot of food to blog about from the weekend just gone. The weather in Melbourne was stunning so even I found it hard to stay inside and cook. Times like these I need a barbecue.

Friday evening started with drinks at the Railway. We ambitiously sat outside but moved in quite quickly. Whilst the weather has been glorious it's also a little chilly when the sun goes down. The railway in South Melbourne is a popular spot for our work drinks and we often eat there too. They have great tapas style bar snacks and we often stock up. This Friday however I was off to S-bo's for tacos then I pottered on home for a quiet Friday.

Saturday was porridge in the sun and a banana smoothie. Can it get any better? Well apparently it can, as I headed to South Melbourne Markets to do the groceries and grabbed one of the famous steamed dim sims for lunch. S-bo then took a break from studying and we had coffee at Provincia. I still can't quite get over how well they make the coffee. I went there for breakfast last week and had gnocchi! For breakfast! It was breakfast gnocchi with mushrooms and chorizo and it was goooood. A totally new concept for me though, has anyone else come across this before? It's great for someone who doesn't eat eggs.

Sunday saw me stupidly throw myself around Albert Park Lake in a fun run. Westie and I have been doing a little running, mainly to control expanding waistlines bound to result from our monthly ironchef lunch. Obviously one can't over-control so we headed to Albert Park village for brunch afterwards. Too exhausted to remember my camera we plonked down at Dundas Place Cafe, sunnies on, and proceeded to order sugary pancakes with cream. Hmmm. Unfortunately the pancakes didn't live up to my expectations. It took a while for brunch to land on our table and when it did the pancakes were overcooked. Crispy and golden had given way to brown and just burnt. Sigh. Service was a little lacksidasical and apparently it's giggle-worthy to forget to serve a bowl of muesli with a spoon. Nevermind, it was so lovely and sunny nothing could break my spirit. That was until Westie and I stood up and our legs confirmed that yes, we had stupidly ran 5 km and were about to pay for it. I went home and slept on the couch.

I was particularly dehydrated and felt horrible. I did manage to venture out for a stroll about 4pm and a pink cupcake from brumbies. I couldn't waste the whole day's sun afterall. With such warm weather it would seem illogical to make soup, but that's what I did. I still have pecorino to use up from the gnocchi. It's too good to waste so I made this hearty pasta, lentil and tomato soup. Please forgive the photos, they were taken with S-bo's phone as my camera went dead just in time (handy that).

I went to bed a very full, happy and sleepy girl.

(The Soup.......
1/4 cup olive oil
2 onions, finely chopped
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 celery stalks, finely chopped
110 g bacon, rind removed and, you guessed it, finely chopped
225 g green or brown lentils
4 vine-ripened tomatoes, skin and seeds removed, chopped
400 g can chopped tomatoes
2 bay leaves
3-4 sprigs of thyme
1.75 L chicken stock
225 g macaroni or other short pasta, cooked
3 tbs chopped fresh parsley
75 g grated parmesan (or pecorino in my case)

Heat oil and add onion, garlic, celery and bacon. Cook on low heat for 10-15 minutes or until vegetables soften. Add the lentils and stir to coat with oil. Add fresh and canned tomatoes and bring to the boil then add bay leaves, thyme and 1.5 L of the stock. Simmer for 40 min or until lentils are cooked. Continue to top with stock to ensure lentils are covered. Stir in the pasta and garnish with parsely and cheese.)

Banana Sour Cream Cupcakes

I was searching for recipes the other day to use up some sour cream I had in the fridge. S-bo and I did a good job with a late night, after-pub meal of nachos but there was still quite a lot left. Because I usually shop and cook according to what recipes I want to try, rather than according to what’s in the fridge, I have to be very careful I don’t waste things. I had plans for the sour cream. There was the nachos, and later this week I hope to have chicken burgers with salsa and sour cream (a favourite from uni days at Burgerlicious on King St, Newtown). But still I had too much sour cream.

I thought surely I could find a cake recipe calling for sour cream. But it had to be quite straightforward, ‘cause I didn’t want to buy a whole stack of ingredients…it seemed to defeat the purpose of using up an ingredient. I looked high and low but it wasn’t’ till I came to my Women’s Weekly Cupcake book that I found a recipe. It’s funny how you always see things but then when you’re looking for something specific is eludes you. Like shopping really.

Anyway, that’s how I arrived at Flower Cakes. I thought I would be ambitious and make the suggested butterfly and flour decorations too. I’ve never used modelling fondant before and let’s just say these cakes aren’t what the book intended. I was meant to make pretty 3 dimensional butterflies but they were never going to work. First I couldn’t find an appropriate butterfly cutter, then I couldn’t really get the “damp wire” to stick to my hand-cut shapes. Plus I wasn’t quite sure where the wire was meant to go anyway. So I made some shapes anyway and set them to dry, but the next morning the wire snapped off as soon as I tried to manipulate it. Nevermind, I made the cakes according to the recipe below and then stuck some shapes, 2 dimensional, onto the cream cheese icing. A workmate of mine, known as The Other Dan, although her name isn’t Dan at all, has just bought and moved into an apartment and I had planned the cakes to be a congratulatory gift. So when the butterflies didn’t work I thought why not make a little house. Which is precisely what I did.

I don’t like this recipe as much as a normal banana cake but it’s really not too far different and did turn out to be a great way to use my sour cream. Next time (because I always have too much sour cream) I might try the raspberry and coconut cakes. No modelling fondant required.

Banana sour cream cake
90 g butter, softened
½ cup (110 g) firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
½ cup self-raising flour
½ cup plain flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp mixed spice
2/3 cup mashed, overripe banana
1/3 cup sour cream
2 tbsp milk

Preheat oven to moderate (180 degrees) and line 12-hole standard muffin pan with paper cases.
Beat butter, sugar and eggs in a small bowl until light and fluffy.
Stir in sifted dry ingredients then banana, cream and milk. Divide mixture among cases, smooth surface and bake for about 25 min.
Turn cakes onto a wire rack to cool then ice with cream cheese frosting.
Please email me if you would like the cream cheese frosting and modelling fondant recipes They are both pretty standard.

Jamie's Pasta with Amazing Slow-cooked Meat

When I made the Gnocchi last weekend I had some leftover pecorino, so I went on the hunt to find a recipe worthy of such delicious cheese. I was thinking of replacing the parmesan in risotto, then I came across this recipe. I have a stack of slow-cook recipes piling up that I don't have the time for. Not that they are time consuming, I just have trouble staying at home for too long without popping out for something or other, and I'd be too worried to leave the stove unattended.

Anyway, cut a long story short, I love slow-cooked meat but rarely cook it. So this time I was determined. The recipe's pretty straightforward. S-bo gave me a hand cutting things up finely as I was cutting the time a little short. 2.30 pm and already time's running out to get dinner ready. Funny huh? There's not a whole lot to say about the initial cooking phase. I actually was planning on eating the sauce the next day, so I cooked the meat for 2 1/2 hours then left it 'til the next day. It was very liquid-y but perhaps that was 'cause I used crushed tomatoes, maybe it was meant to be whole. Also the size of my pot meant a lot of water was required to over the meat by 1 cm.

I'm not good at slow-cooking, I see little movement in the pot so I turn up the heat. But this time I finally decided to rely on past experiences and I kept it very low indeed. Still I was worried that I'd stuffed things up nevertheless, when the meat wasn't flaking off the bone so well on day 2. Turns out (I think) that I didn't have such great osso bucco. There were lines of sinew through the meat. Now I quite like fat, not afraid of it at all. I have been known to eat the whole lamb chop, fat and all, licking the bone clean as I criticise other's and their healthy ways. Fancy putting the fat to the side and not eating it. But this wasn't melt-in-your mouth fat, it was clear hard-to-cut-with-carving knife sinew. That was a little disappointing but in the end it mean I just used a sharp knife instead of 2 forks to shred the meat.

I set the shredded meat aside and boiled off some of the liquid still in the pan. It worked a treat, although I probably boiled too far.

The dish was delicious and very deserving of the pecorino. S-bo was most impressed, Flatmate enjoyed leftovers for lunch the next day and workmates looked on enviously as I ate my lunch share. Give it a shot, it beats spaghetti bolognese.

1-2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
800 g braising meat on the bone (such as lamb shanks or osso bucco)
Handful of fresh rosemary and thyme, leaves finely chopped, plus extra rosemary to serve
1 small red onion, finely sliced
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
2 wineglasses of dry red wine
800 g canned roma tomatoes
2 tbsp pearl barley
400 g fresh or dried pappardelle or pasta of your choice
100 g unsalted butter
2 handfuls grated parmesan, plus extra to serve.

Heat the oil in a large casserole over high heat and fry meat in the oil for 3-4 min ‘til brown. Add herbs, onion, garlic, carrot and celery, then reduce heat to medium and continue to fry for 5 min ‘til veges have softened. Add wine and simmer until it has almost cooked away but left you with fantastic colour and fragrance.

Add tomatoes, barley and just enough water to cover the meat by 1 cm. make a cartouche of greaseproof paper – cut out a sheet the size of the pan, wet it under the tap, rub with a little oil, place over pan and put the lid on.

Cook over very low heat for 2-3 hours, depending on the type of meat. It’s ready when it flakes away in tender strands. Season to taste and cool slightly before removing meat from the pan. Pull apart meat with 2 forks, discarding bone, then put the meat back in pan over low heat.
Cook pappardelle in a pan of boiling, salted water. Remove sauce from heat and stir in butter and parmesan (pecorino!) with a little of the pasta cooking water – this will make it juicy and shiny. Toss together with pasta and serve immediately, sprinkled with rosemary and cheese.

Chocolate Spiders, Childhood Favourites

I’m not sure if anyone would know of these childhood favourites. I’ve had mixed reaction from people my age, some remember and some look at me like I’m crazy. “Sorry? A chocolate crackle thing made with peanut butter and fried noodles?” Um yes, that’s right.

I thought of these a little while ago when reading a post on Esurientes about peanut butter cups. I googled and googled, which was difficult since I couldn’t remember the name, only to find that the recipe is still on the back of the Chang’s Original Fried Noodles packet. There you go. So basically you melt 200 g cooking chocolate (milk or dark – I used a mix) with 2 tbsp peanut butter in the microwave. Once melted, stir in 1 packet Chang’s Original Fried Noodles and spoon mixture onto a baking tray or into individual paper patty pans.

I forgot that my perception of size has probably changed a bit over the last 15 years so I made them a little large. I served them as dessert when I held my HHDD Gnocchi dinner party. You might think it’s a strange dessert; more an after dinner treat really. However we were eating an early dinner and drinking red wine before heading down to the pub to watch the Swans play. I stated that we probably didn’t want chocolate whilst drinking red wine, but the punters were keen.

They were a bit of a success, in an ugly-as-a-picnic kind of way. A very easy way to satisfy your chocolate + peanut butter craving. If you really like your peanut butter you’d do well to up the content.
As I write this I’m thinking the reason not many people know of these is that they probably aren’t allowed in schools anymore due to peanut allergies. So whilst I’m marketing this as a childhood favourite I guess it’s really an adults-only snack now. Pretend you’re 10 years old again and enjoy.

If you do have peanut allergy sufferers in your household there are two other recipes from the Chang's packet: Fruit crunch and Oriental Fried Noodle Salad. I bet there's a few people out there who remember Oriental Fried Noodle Salad from summer Christmas buffets.

Weekend Food Shopping

I have a new weekend routine. Well, I call it a routine but I’ve only done it twice. I intend to make it a routine, how’s that? Last weekend I wandered from the South Melbourne Markets to St Ali and realised how very close the two are. So this weekend I collected my groceries from the markets, strolled up Coventry St via Chefs Hat and the Hardware store to pick up some supplies, and then sat and had coffee and toast at St Ali with S-bo. I’ve taken to going to the markets quite early to avoid the crowds. I love the bustling feel of the place when it’s busy and you have all the time in the world but when you’re in a hurry it’s terribly tempting to use that green bag as a battering ram just to get what you need. Best to go when it’s quiet really.

When I put it into words it seems like a terribly dull routine. But it’s a great feeling buying fresh ingredients bright and early on a Saturday then enjoying a leisurely stroll past some great homewares stores, only to be rewarded with excellent coffee at the end.

Hay Hay it's Donna Day #14 - Gnocchi

Gnocchi! This month’s Hay Hay it’s Donna Day theme is Gnocchi, set by Lynne at Cafe Lynnylu. Gnocchi has always seemed very complex to me. So complex in fact that I hadn’t even bothered to consider how to make it. So it was very tentatively that I went on a search for a recipe. I rarely buy food magazines as it takes me so long to cook anything I tear out, let alone a whole magazine! But I do have a copy of Delicious magazine dating back to 2005. S-bo bought it for me one day and it’s an Italian Special. So that’s where I found my Gnocchetti recipe. (Gosh Gnocchi is a funny word isn’t it.)

I found the recipe surprisingly easy. I cooked the potatoes and probably one of the hardest things was peeling the hot tatas. I always knew that song “hot potato” was silly. Who in their right mind would try and pick up a hot potato. Ouch. I didn’t have a potato ricer or food mill so I used my new food processor to grate. Potato cooled then I got set making the dough. This was all fine and dandy and I’m thinking “Gee this gnocchi stuff is easy”. I rolled and chopped and then proceeded to put my little gnocchi’s in a bowl. I looked at them and though “they might stick together” so I smothered each layer in more flour and then left them, covered for the afternoon (NOT in the recipe). Easy right?

I had some friends around to help me eat the Gnocchi. I began to cook the sauce (70 g butter and 70 ml oil…this stuff was going to be good) and alas, all my little gnocchis had stuck together. Now here is where I decide gnocchi is not so easy after all AND that I have great friends. We all picked up bits of dough, roughly rolled them up and cooked them. Before you can say “where’s the flour” we were sitting down to eat, disaster averted (well, corrected really).

The sauce was sensational, aided by the excellent ingredients I’d been able to pick up. I went off in search of pecorino dolce amongst numerous delis and I’m still not sure if it’s a soft cheese or hard. The picture in the magazine suggests soft but I came home with a chunky piece of hard cheese. I wasn’t sure about it until the lady gave me a little sample, then I was sold. I needed much less than the recipe stated though, so there is now some very expensive, very delicious pecorino in my fridge, waiting to be used. Also expensive was the basil. At $5 a bunch you’d expect it to be good and frankly, it was the highlight. I’m not sure quite how to describe it. Just think of the best basil you’ve ever had then think this was better! The basil at the markets was looking all a little sad so I purchased it from our 24 hour (!) fruit shop.

Back to the Gnocchi, how was it? It was pretty good. Not as heavy as I was expecting, and almost a little creamy. What with all the fuss of trying to turn my lump of dough back into gnocchi and feed 4 diners there wasn’t a lot of time for a beautifully composed Donna Hay photo. I hope what I managed will suffice.

Gnocchetti (baby gnocchi) with tomatoes and sweet pecorino
500 g brushed potatoes (such as coliban)
1 cup (150 g) plain flour
1 egg
200 g pecorino dolce (sweet pecorino) or ricotta salata tostata (baked salted ricotta), grated, plus extra to serve
1/3 cup basil leaves, to serve

Sauce
70 g unsalted butter
70 ml extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
400 g can diced tomatoes

Leaving skins on boil the potatoes until cooked through. When soft drain, peel and, while still warm put them through a mouli or potato ricer. Set aside to rest and cool, then mix with the flour and egg and season well with salt. Dust a bench or other work surface with a little flour, divide the dough into 4 equal parts and roll each into long stick or snake shapes. Cut these into 1 cm cubes.

To make sauce, melt the butter and oil together in a saucepan over low heat, add the onion and a pinch of salt. Cook the onions until softened, without colouring-this will keep them nice and sweet. Add the tomatoes, season with salt and cook until the oil separates from the sauce and sits on the top for about 10 – 15 minutes. When tasting the sauce, make sure it is sweet in flavour, this is the secret to the dish.

To cook gnocchetti, bring a large pot of salted water to the boil, then place your gnocchetti into the water – cook in batches if necessary to prevent the water temp from dropping too quickly. They will be cooked when they rise to the top and float on the surface. Drain and add to the sauce with the grated pecorino. Serve with extra grated pecorino and fresh basil leaves.

Sunday Lunch

Fish and salad seems like a summer meal to me. It reminds me of the beach and crisp, fresh ingredients. That didn’t stop me one sunny, but wintery Sunday, from cooking up a lovely late lunch for S-bo and I. It all started like this: I had some blue cheese in my fridge that was probably near its end. I’ve never made blue cheese dressing so that’s what I had decided to do. But what to serve with the dressing? Yes, I know people generally organise a meal around the staple, but that’s not how this meal was working. So crisp greens were a start and I just decided that a lovely piece of fish would go well.

I’m relatively new to cooking fish so I feel much more comfortable with a recipe I hand. I had in mind a good swordfish steak or similar but every recipe I came across was of the Asian slant. It didn’t seem appropriate with blue cheese dressing. Stephanie Alexander, my ever present “companion”, came through for me with tuna grilled with rosemary. This was also the source of my blue cheese sauce.

Not only have I never made blue cheese sauce, I’ve never made mayonnaise either. It’s always seemed terribly daunting but in the end it was quite a piece of cake, really. A lot of whisking, but otherwise ok. My mayonnaise turned out a little bland because I didn’t include white-wine vinegar, white pepper or Tabasco, I didn’t think it would be necessary when going into blue cheese dressing. My quantities were all a bit out as I only had a little chunk of cheese left but here’s how it went: 1 tbsp finely chopped shallots, 1 clove garlic, home-made mayonnaise (1 yolks worth), some sour cream (don’t remember how much), ½ tbsp red-wine vinegar and salt n pepper. Whizz then add enough parsely to add colour & interest to the dressing. Simple huh!

The tuna recipe is below. I unfortunately don’t possess a barbecue or char-grill plate so I used my trusty frypan. I would imagine the rosemary would have burnt away a little if not cooked in a pan, but I left it there ‘cause I thought it looked good. When I got to the markets there was very little fish left so I had purchased some very pink looking, sashimi quality tuna. I’m not sure if sashimi quality might be a little more expensive, but I really didn’t feel like it cost much more than a piece of salmon.

The fish was great, although I had a little trouble determining when it was cooked enough. Between S-bo and I we managed not to overcook it so that’s a bonus. The blue cheese dressing was very sharp, we both liked it quite a bit but next time I will try and make it a little creamier.
So main course safely served and enjoyed, it was time for dessert. I am lucky enough to live particularly close to Jock’s ice cream in Albert Park so dessert was a very simple affair. Before the meal I cut a square of puff pastry (approx 10 cm) in half diagonally then placed in a moderate oven to cook. Once cooked I split the triangles in half and sandwiched the ice cream in. S-bo produced some chocolate freckles from Haigs and all of a sudden some very humble ice cream (or not-so-humble if you know Jock’s) was transformed into quite a classy dessert.

I think this meal would be great as a dinner party. There’s just so much you can prepare in advance, to the point where salad is plated, the fish is marinating and the puff pastry split. All you do when the guests turn up is cook the fish and serve!

Mayonnaise
1 egg yolk
pinch salt
lemon juice or white-wine vinegar
100 ml olive oil
white pepper or Tabasco

Work yolk with salt and 1 tbsp lemon juice ‘til smooth. Gradually beat in olive oil a couple of spoonfuls at a time, beating very well after each addition. There is now some info about adding the oil in a steady stream, but I didn’t have said helper so I just continued bit-by-bit. And then I had mayonnaise. Like magic really.

Grilled Tuna with Rosemary
4 x 180 g tuna steaks
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
16 sprigs rosemary, each about the length as the tuna steaks
salt
freshly ground black pepper.

The recipe says, several hours before dinner, to rub tuna with half the oil and cross-tie each steak with fine sting as though tying a parcel. Slip 2 sprigs rosemary under string on each side of each steak. I didn’t have string so I simply wrapped the steak, with rosemary on each side, in some cling wrap and refrigerated. Recipe says refrigerate up to 6 hours…I managed about 1 ½.

Remove steaks from fridge 30 min before cooking. Prepare barbecue or preheat a chargrill pan. Season fish and grill for 2-4 min each side, depending on thickness. It’s best medium-rare. Snip strings and slice steak, or serve whole. Drizzle with remaining oil and serve at once.

Pea, Pimiento and Prosciutto Pasta

With my recent vow to cut back on fatty foods (it's a short term thing, I'm already planning my next bake-a-thon) my quest to get through my recipe clippings has fallen behind a little. Now when I cook I aim to get through at least one clipping per week. It's not really a rule, just the way it's working out.

I've had this recipe for ages. Since 2002 to be precise. I must have torn it out of the Sunday Life magazine whilst at home on university holidays. Next to the pasta are "Quick Pasta Sauce Ideas From the Deli" whilst on the opposite side is Chicken with Potatoes and Olives and Marinated Bocconcini. I tried the former last year and wasn't too impressed. Marinated bocconcini is a keeper however...maybe I'll blog about that another time.

So, the pasta. To start with, it includes one of my favourite vegetables: frozen peas (no really). I think I like frozen peas so much because it takes me back to being a child and eating them, still frozen, whilst waiting for our meat and 3 veg. The recipe calls for small pasta shapes however S-bo had recently done a bit of work at a pasta manufacturer and as a result I had some delicious fettuccini. Not entirely suited to this dish, as you want to get as many components on your fork at once, but delicious all the same.

The pimiento sauce adds a little kick although it wasn't necessarily the peppers that I used. I had some roasted red pepper strips from the supermarket leftover from something or other. They weren't terribly exciting but did need to be used up, so I combined them with some freshly bought roasted red capsicum from the deli. I think the kick might have actually come from the mustard seed floating around the supermarket variety. Anyway, long story short, there was a kick and it was pleasant.

Don't be alarmed if you make this recipe and the sauce is a little runny. I kept boiling and boiling to thicken but it really wasn't necessary.

Pea, Pimiento and Prosciutto Pasta
1 1/2 cups frozen or fresh peas
3 zucchini, sliced
100 g prosciutto, cut into strips
300 g small pasta shapes
1 1/2 cups pimiento sauce (below)
1 cup small Ligurian olives
salt and freshly ground pepper

Cook peas on boiling for 3 minutes, then drain well and keep warm. Pan-fry zucchini slices in a little oil to brown. Set aside. Pan-fry proscuitto strips until crisp.

Meanwhile, cook pasta until just tender. Drain well and toss with pimiento sauce, peas, zucchini, proscuitto and olives. Season with salt and pepper. Serves 6

Pimiento Sauce
1 cup pimientos or roasted red capsicum
2 cloves garlic
1/2 cup chicken or vegetable stock
sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Puree half pimientos and juice with garlic and chicken stock. Thinly slice remaining pimientos.

Place puree and pimiento strips in a saucepan and bring to the boil. Season with salt and pepper. Makes 1 1/2 cups

Spicy Fish

Should I have realised that all dishes in a restaurant called Spicy Fish would be spicy? No, probably not. The reason all our food was spicy was 'cause we left the ordering to the South Australian & S-bo. The restaurant actually indicates spiciness of food by placing chillies on the menu and I tell you what, they don't lie.


This venue was the South Australian's recommendation and it should be noted that he hasn't failed us yet. I'm not so sure about this place though.....

According to the South Australian, the drawcard dish here is the Scallops & Eggplant however I didn't get around to trying it as we ordered far too much food, most of it of the "burn off your tastebud variety". We were not sure what to do with Chicken & Chilli (top) when it arrived. However turns out it's not the spiciest thing we ordered. I've never encountered this before, perhaps because I usually eat the westernised version of Chinese food, but in this particular dish the chicken came complete with bones. Now this wouldn't normally be a problem, but the pieces were very small and about one third chicken, one third batter and one third bone. I persevered but in the end crunching bones is not my favourite meal. I actually enjoyed the chillies more.

I followed the chilli chicken with crispy duck and was unimpressed. As I said, I'm sure Flower Drum has ruined any chance I have of enjoying Chinese food because S-bo and the South Australian raved about this duck.

After duck I moved on to salt and pepper calamari (not pictured sorry). The calamari pieces were great. I love anything battered and this was a prime example. Also there was just enough chili lingering on the batter to add a kick. In amongst the calamari were bright red slices of fresh chili, with seeds. Now I'd handled the Chilli Chicken fine so surely the smallest little slice of chilli in this dish would be a piece of cake, right? Nope. This was pretty hot, possibly the most concentrated spice I've had (the slice was less than half a centimetre). I toughed it up however and kept eating. That's when I came across my downfall...a whole half of one of these lethal little guys sitting on the plate. I offered it to S-bo and he politely declined. Being the mature (and slightly tipsy) person I was that night I then challenged the South Australian to eat "the chunk". He accepted the challenge and proceeded to pick out an equal amount of chili for myself. With four pairs of eyes on me I couldn't offer a challenge and then refuse to take it myself. I should have though. After a good 30 seconds of chewing I no longer had tastebuds and the South Australian was crying, water teeming down his cheeks.

How do you recover from such an experience? You eat as much rice with sweet and sour sauce and drink as much red wine as possible, because that's the only relief available on your table. You can ask for water but the waiter will laugh as he delivers it. But can you handle more spice? I was yet to try the restaurant's namesake, spicy fish so I gave it a shot. I really didn't think I had any tastebuds left but I had just enough for this dish to tip me over the edge. All I can say about it is hot! Now others might disagree and granted I'm not the biggest eater of spicy food, but I did just eat nearly half of the hottest chili in the world so no-one's allowed to call me a wuss this time.

The wrap up from Spicy Fish is that I didn't enjoy the food that much, but let's be fair, I didn't make any selections myself. I'm sure there are items on the menu which aren't spicy and that's what I would have chosen. If you like your spice, go for it but don't expect any other taste sensations at the same time. My main gripe was the price, we payed$130 between 5 for our selection of crazy Chinese spice and I thought it was a little too much considering the portion sizes. The South Australian has not let us down previously and again made a good selection. Perhaps not because of the food but because we spent all night laughing. You can find such hilarity yourself in Chinatown.

Our very own Iron Chef

That's right, the great monthly cook-up has started. We talked about this on and off with different people for a little while and then over dinner at Aloi Nah. From there we scheduled a meal to plan and we came up with some rules:
1. Each person in our group of 5 has to cook a late Sunday afternoon meal, with the main according to 1 of 2 themes given to them. They can invite whoever they like provided the original 5 are all included. The monthly chef has to cook 2 dishes: entree and main or main and dessert.
2. The person who will cook next month must bring the third dish
3. The person who cooked the previous month must bring the wine (as must any special guests).
It was Westie's turn to kick it off (named so because she lives in West Melbourne which is quite different to Western Sydney or far western NSW as the name might suggest). She had to choose between Moroccan or seasonal and with a menu like Moroccan lamb followed by apple crumble, I'd say she hedged her bets and covered both.

Foges is scheduled next and was therefore responsible for entree. When she turned up with a large stockpot under one arm we knew we were in line for soup. Many a carton of cream went into that pot and in no time at all we were served steaming mushroom soup. I've never had mushroom soup before and this was delicious. I could really detect flavours of thyme and lemon. Just kidding...I knew what recipe she used. The soup is meant to be very smooth but Foges decided that a little blending was enough. She was right as the soup had a great texture. It is rather rich so we're all glad Foges followed the recipe and served small portions (well, they weren't that small but we didn't fill the bowl to the top or go back for seconds....promise. Although the only thing that held us back was the knowledge that Westie was about to feed us moroccan lamb.

Westie claims to have never cooked couscous before but I'm hesitant to believe her. Sometimes I find couscous to get a little dry and boring by the end of the plate but she did a wonderful job. Apparently the butter was omitted accidentally but the couscous was so light and fluffy that I'm tempted to try that out next time. Adding to the delicious-ness of it all was amazingly fresh herbs (parsely, mint and oregano) very generous servings of lamb backstrap of the moroccan variety.
And just when we thought we couldn't eat any more, out of the oven pops "mum's apple crumble" Foges asked for a small serve but the boys and I figured we'd come so far, why stop now? Vanilla ice cream and some cream left over from the soup topped us right up. Fifteen minutes later the boys were falling asleep on the couch and us girls were staring into our wine glasses. The most we could do was make a cup of tea and keep staring out the window. Quite a good way to spend a Sunday afternoon and an excellent start to our challenge.

My flatmate is trying to kill me.....

With heart disease that is..... As I mentioned earlier, I have recently celebrated a birthday. In aid of the celebration Flatmate generously made me a birthday cake. It was a big surprise. I had to choose the main ingredient (chocolate, of course) and the est was a mystery. After a sport of birthday shopping I came home to this:

The richest chocolate cheesecake I have ever experienced. We’re still working our way through it, one week later. After having N1 & N2 visit and then my parents I was feeling like I’d been eating and drinking a little too much and was planning a health kick. Chocolate cheesecake has postponed that somewhat. Someone has to eat it. Said cake contains: 150 g butter, 450 g dark chocolate, 675 g cream cheese and 1 ½ cups sour cream. Flatmate assures me she used low fat options but I’m not so sure…it all tastes pretty full-fat and divine to me.

In addition to cheesecake there was “late cake” to be made and eaten. Everyone who bakes knows what late cake is, even if they don’t use that name. Late cake is when you are cooking a cake for the next day. You might be taking it to work or preparing it for a friend’s birthday and before you know it you’re pulling it out of the oven at 10 pm and hoping like hell it cools soon so you can ice it. My mother is a queen of late cake. Heading off to boarding school or back to uni I would request some form of baked goods. However I would also request help packing my bags, doing my washing, mending that jumper, hemming those pants and so on. Poor mum would participate in late cake after all that just so I had something to nibble on during the first week.

Late cake this time was Stephanie Alexander’s banana cake, as posted about previously and a caramel mud. The banana cake, though cooked from the same recipe and for the same length of time was a completely different colour and texture to last time. I rarely measure the amount of banana, just throw in 2 or 3 that are looking sad on my bench. As for caramel mud, this is an old favourite of mine that never used to work out at home. Mum’s oven was not the best for baking which made it a seldom-rewarded gamble. But this time it worked and was extremely popular at work (everyone provides cake on their birthday and eats everyone else’s year round) despite being perhaps the sweetest cake I’ve made ever. As you would expect given the quantities of brown sugar required for caramel!

So this week it’s on to that health kick for me. Less butter, more vegies and I’m sure my body will thank me for it. That’s after I fill it with (late) birthday drinks this evening. And then I promise to be good. Really…..

Provincia

It was my birthday on Saturday and S-bo took me for dinner at Provincia. I’ve blogged about breakfast here before however I thought this time I’d sit back and enjoy a nice dinner with S-bo, celebrate my birthday and not worry about rushing home to blog (although who am I kidding, my posts are always late).

So no camera, no photos, no mentally preparing what to write. Still I can’t help but post because the experience was simply wonderful. Andrea, the owner/manager/chef/head waiter brings his own warmth to each table. His thick Italian accent talks you through antipasti to have with your aperitif and points out the short comings of his grasp of the English language, as displayed ever-so-subtly on the menu. Still, such casualness in dealing with the customers doesn’t detract from the fact you are eating at a very stylish, very ‘schmick’ establishment.

The menu swings from simple pasta dishes, available in small and large sizes, to more substantial mains. It’s Italian as the locals might know it. There’s no bolognese, no lasagne and no tiramisu. If you want that go to Lygon St. However if you want something to tempt you to jump on a place and find any Italian household who will cook their regional specialty, come to Provincia. S-bo enjoyed Lamb Shanks on Polenta whilst I had Pasta with Osso bucco sauce.

The winelist includes a lot of Italian wines which I know wine lovers are wary of. S-bo and I chose an Australian Sangiovese only to be told it wasn’t available. But don’t worry, there was another one, an Italian, for similar price and better! We were dutifully provided with a bottle of Sangiovese Di Romagna, Umberto Cesario (I think). Whilst I’m not certain on the name luckily I remember the label because S-bo and I are going to hunt this one down. It was sensational. When we find it I’ll publish the actual name and you can all go forth and get your own! Trust me.

For dessert I couldn’t decide between the Chocolate Pudding or the Blueberry Panna Cotta with hazelnut praline. Andrea recommended the pudding and I was rewarded. I can’t remember such a sumptuous dessert. An individual made-to-order, soft centred chocolate pudding arrived with a pear poached in red wine and nougat icecream. Amazing.

So where is Provincia? It’s on Victoria Avenue, Albert Park. The number 1 tram will take you right past and I promise you wont regret the tip. Mains are priced reasonably at around $20-30, with pastas a little less. If you think travelling across the city is a bit of a gamble why not come on a Sunday or Monday evening: 2 courses + glass of wine for $25. Although Sunday nights you wont get Andrea’s service as he’s in the kitchen.

St Kilda's David Moyle & Stokehouse

My parents were in town for a week and they wanted to take me out for dinner on Wednesday evening as an early birthday celebration. We ummed and ahhed about where to go, until I remembered Downstairs Stokehouse has guest chefs on Wednesday nights. The deal is $39.50 for 2 courses and I was certain such good value would book up quickly. However 4.30pm on Wednesday afternoon there was still room for 4. Mum, Dad, S-bo and I turned up and not only was there space for us, we’d been seated at the window. Score!

I haven’t eaten upstairs, but downstairs had the laid back feel you expect from a casual eatery, with warm, low lighting to add just a bit of “specialness” of an evening. Service is relaxed, as you would expect, with very bubbly and endearing waitresses. Perhaps the setting on its own isn’t quite enough for a special dinner but throw in a guest chef and hey presto! On this particular evening we were catered for by David Moyle from Circa, St Kilda. Like upstairs Stokehouse, Circa has also earned two hats.

The menu: For entrée Mum & Dad had smoked eel and roasted potato soup, bacon and crème fraiche, whilst S-bo and I both opted for slow cooked organic carrot salad, white onion, shanklish and sorrel.

The flavours of the salad were very delicate, with none overpowering the others. I’ve never eaten shanklish before, nor did I know what it was. I now know its cow’s milk cheese made in Syria or Lebanon, although some sources say sheep’s or goat’s milk as well. My take? It’s like a smooth version of feta. Apparently it comes in a ball, almost like a dirty tennis ball according to Wikipedia, however on this occasion it was crumbled through the salad. There was a form of creamy yellow dressing of which I’m still not sure what it was. I’d guess that it included some pureed carrot. The carrots themselves, little dutch ones with stems still attached, were sweet and tender but they were just carrots. What brought this dish alive were the flavours together as a whole. The white onion deserves special mention as well for bringing excellent tangy bursts to the plate.

Mum and Dad both enjoyed their soup. I tried some of the eel and it tasted, well, smoked. Funny that. They were both very impressed.

Mixing up the combinations for mains, Dad and I had confit lamb brik, parsnip and yoghurt puree with roasted lamb sauce whilst S-bo and Mum had wood roasted calamari, grilled radicchio, black Victorian olives and pink fur potatoes. S-bo enjoyed the calamari very much, whilst Mum found the sauce a little spicy. The sauce was actually quite mild but I’m sure my mother isn’t the only person around with a very low tolerance to spice. I think it should have been stated on the menu to ensure everyone had the best chance to fully enjoy their main.

Dad and I were a little dismayed when our dinner arrived. It appeared to be a small slice of lamb fillet, some strange rectangular thing and a couple of broad beans. Of course the strange rectangular thing was actually the brik and it was choc-full of flavour. Shredded lamb mixed with a myriad of flavours, including parsnip I guess, was drizzled with the yoghurt puree. Use all this to mop up the roasted lamb sauce and I was in heaven. Interestingly enough the rare slice of lamb was very tough to cut, almost like sticking a knife into rubber, but once in the mouth it was so very tender. Second to the lamb were the amazing tomatoes on my plate. You wouldn’t think that little tomatoes could stand up to a dish such as this but they must have been so fresh and ripe when picked off the vine. The last time I remember eating a tomato that tasted so good was on our road trip from Sydney to Adelaide via the coast. We picked up some ripe organic toms from a growers market and I decided to shed my childhood hang-up of not eating tomatoes. I’ve never looked back.

Dessert didn’t tempt us quite so much at the time. We skipped malted milk parfait with sherry and prunes for cake and coffee on Acland St. Always a winner…if you know what to choose, which of course varies from person to person.

Before ending this post I should mention the wine. We ordered a bottle of Underground Pinot Noir. Whilst not your most stunning Pinot it was still particularly enjoyable and at $33 a bottle restaurant price, is probably much better positioned for most of us than your stunning Pinot. Coincidentally Mum, Dad and I drove past Underground the next day on the Mornington Penninsula. We were going a little fast to stop and returned a different way in the afternoon, but it’s definitely a vineyard to keep your eye out for.

Downstairs Stokehouse has a couple of different weekly events including the guest chefs on Wednesday and some lunch specials. You should check it out if you’re after something a little different without paying the earth. You are also welcome to order off the standard downstairs menu too.