Melbourne Food Tales

Red Hill Brewery Cafe

2011-09-12T19:58:00.000+10:00

Red Hill Brewery Cafe is to restaurants what smart casual is to dress codes. In the middle of the Mornington Peninsula's cellar door mecca, this venue exudes neither the fine dining polish or the calculated casualness of others in the area. Instead it's the real deal rancho-relaxo. Choose the airy dining room with floor to ceiling windows, or the covered deck as you're presented first and foremost with the drinks list. Beer is not surprisingly the focus and if you can't choose between Golden Ale, Wheat Bear, Belgian Blonde or Scotch Ale you can purchase a tasing paddle for $12.

As the ideal venue for long, late lunches you'd be advised to take your time over the brief, but satisfying list of "Nibbles for Sharing". Belgian Nibblies' bite-size slices of Gouda is a strange concept but worth it to sample the salty dipping condiments, almost as moreish as the spicy, ale-roasted nuts. However neither should take precedence over the gooey Stoemp Cakes. Crumbed and fried, these cheesy mashed vegetable patties with housemade mayonnaise are sure to please all.

Mains are served quickly so it's not a bad idea to wait and order after you've enjoyed your nibbles. Still, most find it difficult to wait for the venue's star food attraction. An inch thick slab of tender corned beef served on-top of parsnip mash has fellow diners and waitstaff alike hovering like star-struck school girls. The Brewmaster's Ploughmans is the perfect canvas to showcase the Cafe's emphasis on local produce and includes a delightful chunk of pork pie, while another favourite beer standard, the Steak Sandwich, impresses all with its sheer size as it parades from the kitchen to tables. Disappointingly the pork belly fails to crackle but a special of chicken delights with its contrast of rich, creamy mustard sauce and crisp, fresh snow peas. Diners comment on the generous servings, exceptional value at less than $30, while washing it all down with more beer. Wine drinkers are not forgotten, with a brief list of locals by both bottle and glass. Vegetarians, on the other hand, may find life difficult.

Dessert specials are listed on the wall, if you have space after all that beer. Chocolate sticky date pudding has thick, dark chocolate sauce replacing butterscotch in spectacular fashion, while a rhubarb and almond tart is a civilised, although conservative, way to finish the afternoon. Not enough room? A serving of local cheese, matched to the seasonal beer will wrap things up nicely.

Stretching and rolling your way out the door you'll encounter afternoon drinkers enjoying the beer. You'll wish you could join them for just one more pot, if only your stomach had room.

The Fawkner Bistro Bar

2011-07-31T15:33:00.002+10:00

Floor to ceiling windows through which to observe the bleak winter weather increase the appeal of the Fawkner Bistro Bar's open wood fire. Add a quality list of local and imported wines by the glass and a bowl of unctuous olives and you may stay put all afternoon.

Those feeling peckish may be tempted to cross the floor to the restaurant, perhaps motivated to try the widely renowned Fish and Chips. Beer battered King George Whiting fillets demonstrate that simple really is best. Elsewhere on the menu a rib eye cooked to perfection and a tender but under-seasoned duck confit deliver generous serving sizes. Unfortunately such portions are a stark contrast to that of the lone vegetarian main of roast portobello mushroom caps, stuffed with pearl barley and preserved lemon and served with a quenelle of goats cheese. You'll need to make use of the complimentary bread and extensive entree and pasta menus instead.

Service has its ups and downs with less than subtle waitresses often dampening the mood. Fortunately a dessert menu hitting well-loved standards, including a warm chocolate brownies and a creme brulee, rounds out the meal well and leaves diners happy to forgive most sins.

The Fawkner Bistro Bar
03 9867 5853
52 Toorak Rd West
South Yarra
Victoria

Entrees: $10-18
Pasta: $26-27 (entree serves available)
Mains: $27-32
Desserts: $10-15

(some of) My Life in Pictures

2011-05-23T21:38:00.010+10:00

My iphone is a relatively new device when it comes to this blog. Sure I've had it for over 2 years now, but how many times have I blogged during that period (ok, don't answer that). It might now be slow and clunky - true Apple genius that ensures I upgrade - but tonight it has given me a fun trip down memory lane.

I rarely carry a camera, having realised long ago that my digi-handy-cam of the occasional tourist variety didn't do much justice to the food I was eating. However, I've happily snapped here and there with my iphone with only the best intentions to turn iphone snaps into blog posts. Trouble is, I download my iphone so rarely that the snaps never make it to the blog.

Two weekends ago, on my way to Moonee Ponds to listen to Food on the Page, with Melbourne Gastronome, I stopped at The Premises for a quick bite. I'd intended to sit down tonight and write about my delicious meal, but I've been severly distracted by the trip back in recent past that is my iphone's photos.
Stretching back over this time includes the wine wall at Mr Wolf, hilariously kitsch interiors of a Daylesford Chinese Restaurant, a random cupcake from goodness knows where, the birth of my parents' vege garden and a lone tulip I managed to grow.

There's a muffin from Mart130 (circa October, based on the Melbourne Macaron comp snippet) and an intriguing bowl of cookie dough. It took me about a minute to remember that this was a Matthew Evans recipe I'd adapted to use up evey imagineable ingredient in my pantry. Perhaps it was this baking session that saw the oven dial break, warranting an email to my agent with photographic evidence.
Moving quickly to December, there are some fuzzy photos of dessert at Hare & Grace for S-bo's office Christmas party. A hilarious evening where neither the non-foodie workmates nor half the staff really got the food in general, let alone the chocolate soil presented under dessert.

The no-man's land between Boxing Day and New Year's Eve passed blissfully on Sydney's northern beaches, including the day when all the "adults" caught the ferry to Cottage Point Inn while us "kids" sipped a delicious I-forget-the-label Pinot Gris and supped away the afternoon at Barrenjoey House. It was walking home from this event that I spied Coco Juice - if anyone can explain this strange product, your comment is most welcome.Post New Year's saw a trip down to Sin City proper and a visit to Victor Churchill before gazing on this coffee collage while enjoying pastries at Baker Friday, which is apparently now called Central Baking depot. Can any Sydneysiders clarify?
There's random football photos, photos of products in my role as a Goodist, a half eaten tartine from Maison Ama Lurra (above) and indecipherable photos of winelists from some "proper" writing that I was doing. The cute little tartlettes are from Hausfrau and any foodie would recognise the pile of pumpkins from Melbourne's Metlink Edible Garden, earlier in the year. I did wonder, as I wandered, what would happen if I started eating all the plants right then and there.
I've skipped the great photos I have from mine and S-bo's anniversary weekend in the Yarra Valley. They're all scenery shots, but if I captured any food you would have seen how much we over-ate. Harvest Cafe, De Bortoli, Yarra Valley Pasta, Yering Wine Bar, Healesville Hotel and Bella Vedere might've been just a bit too much eating for a 2 night stay. Needless to say we didn't get around to tasting much wine.
And finally, testament to the randomness of my iphone photos, I come to a shot I took recently at Cafe Balderdash because I liked what they did with wine bottles and flowers. Something tells me they won't like what I did with iphone fuzziness. All of this is bookended by a shaky photo of The Premises' menu (because I panicked and didn't think I'd remember my dishes ingredients) and a delicious cauliflower salad. But, sadly, we've run out of time tonight, so I'll save my Premises photos for another day.

Golden Fields

2011-05-14T18:15:00.006+10:00

Ok, so I don't write often. I'm just beginning to realise that this is ok, so today I'm not going to make any promises that I'll write more often. Instead I'll promise to write whenever I feel like it!

Why am I writing again? For starters, Once a Waitress mentioned my blog in one of her recent posts about Friends of Mine prompting a desire to write again. For seconds, I was lucky enough to head to Golden Fields last night-what more inspiration do I need? (Apparently a lot, because this post is taking a while and I'm struggling to articulate the amazing evening I had).

The much anticipated addition to Cutler & Co and Cumulus Inc quietly opened its doors last week, revealing super clean lines and serious attention to detail - and that's just the fit-out. We particularly loved the contrast of black chairs and towering lamps against white tiling and marble. Far from being an immediate attack of extraordinary, Golden Fields revealed its quirks to us gradually. The chicken's feet coat hooks emerged pretty quickly but it wasn't until halfway through the evening that I saw the blue grouting and taps in the bathroom. Why blue? Not sure but it definitely creates a talking point (or is it just females that talk about the bathrooms?)

The food was no surprise; it was seriously good. Far from analysing every dish for the purpose of a blog post, I simply sat back and enjoyed. Standouts for me included a Kumamoto oyster served with fresh wasabi, sauteed mushrooms with poached duck egg and braised Blackmore brisket, rump cap, wasabi butter and garlic shoots. What fascinated me most were the differing perceptions around our table. The "spicy as" braised runner beans gave a serious kick to noone but me, while the sauteed mushrooms, with duck egg richness that I loved so much were a little salty for another. Overall, the food has McConnell's trademark ability to intrigue and satisfy. It's an extensive menu divided into raw, to start, salads & vegetables and meat & fish. After all the delights we sampled (I've given a mere snapshot), I'm surprised we made it to dessert but super glad. Predictably, the peanut butter parfait, salted caramel and soft chocolate rocked all socks but the real adventure was found in the green tea ice cream, pumpkin and liquorice. Yup, pumpkin. And don't forget to look for hints of refreshing ginger hiding behind the lime in the black sesame, lime and yoghurt creation.

According to metlink journey planner, I can probably get from my house to Golden Fields in a mere 20 minutes. Something tells me this could become a habit.

(As a side note, and on a housekeeping front, I dined with a vegan and a coeliac who were both easily accommodated).

Golden Fields
157 Fitzroy St
St Kilda

Charcoal Lane

2010-11-05T13:03:00.000+11:00

It's been a week since dinner at Charcoal Lane and I'm still gushing about the experience to anyone who will listen. A Sydney friend of mine, Mrs G, who works for Mission Australia and was down for the Melbourne Cup Pin and Win promotion, suggested the venue for our catch-up weeks ago and I'd been looking forward to it ever since.

The first thing that strikes me about Charcoal Lane is not the beautiful bluestone building itself, but the way the warm lighting shines through the windows, welcoming patrons and passers-by alike. Modern, interiors are clean and simple resulting in an overwhelming feeling of space.

We were greeted by pleasant staff and left to settle in and contemplate wine list and menu, before enjoying an amuse bouche of creamy salmon. An entree of poached WA marron was tempting, but the kangaroo tataki came highly recommended and didn't fail to deliver. Rich, tender red meat was lifted by the freshness of ginger and soy while occasional tastes of wasabi (or was it horseradish?) used an element of surprise to thrill. Serious food envy circulated around our table, with two of us enjoying kangaroo tataki, but it was largely unfounded. S-bo ate the marron which, whilst subtler than the kangaroo, was delicate in flavour and beautifully presented and Mrs G's risotto of garden peas, native mint and mascarpone cheese spoke loudly of spring, particularly with the addition of bright green broad beans.

Sitting on the receiving end of food envy continued with the arrival of mine and Mrs G's main: crispy pork belly, seared scallop, ginger glaze, apple salad and fried saltbush. I find pork belly disappoints more frequently than it delivers, probably due to its frequency of menu appearances across the city, so it's stars like this that make me realise the gamble is worth it. I will continue to order pork belly in the hope I get a dish like this, every time. A dish where crispy really means crispy and a generous slab of moist flesh can actually be found under the delicious fat. Two huge, tender scallops, amazing in their own right, were a mere garnish in the shadow of such great pork belly.

I told you I was gushing.

Elsewhere on the table, Mr G (not to be mistaken as Mr G off Summer Heights High) enjoyed barramundi fillet and S-bo ate slow cooked wildfire spiced king salmon, which, although delicious, could have upped the wildfire spice. I'd love to know what's in the peppery and herby blend and S-bo was craving for more.

The wine list is familiar and comfortable thanks to a selection of quality Australian drops and good value is a bonus. Of course it's fun to browse wine lists that rival War and Peace sometimes (a bit like this post), but the concise, reliable offering was somewhat relaxing. We still managed to change our mind three times and for that I apologise to the waitress. After downing an '08 Punt Road Pinot Gris (between the four of us, that is) we went a little bit gaga over a 2008(?) Warramate Pinot Noir.

The blow-by-blow monologue continues into dessert. Don't even try to consider what to have, order the selection of desserts for two. It cuts out indecisiveness and you get to try all 5. I want to describe each one in detail but I'll try to stick to a quick run-down. The selection is strikingly presented with orange crisps, mandarin mushrooms and a gravity-defying maple syrup snap all pointing skywards. A surprise favourite of mine was the rice pudding, cinnamon myrtle, strawberry gum and date icecream, the dark chocolate tart was always going to be a crowd please and I have to give a special mention to the Heilala Vanilla ice-cream accompanying the flourless blood orange pudding.

I didn't set out to document a chronological recollection of the evening, but every bit was good. How to choose which bits to write about? Charcoal Lane is a lovely story and a noble, successful pursuit; but, its also a great restaurant in its own right. We ate great food in a polished yet relaxed atmosphere, supporting a great cause along the way seemed like a bonus when, in actual fact, the bonus is the former.

Charcoal Lane
136 Gertrude St
Fitzroy

(03) 9418 3411

Spoonful

2010-10-25T22:05:00.004+11:00

A bon voyage coffee with a friend heading to Europe landed me at Spoonful a few weeks ago. The spoon was well and truly full but, by fluke of timing, we scored a seat at the front communal table, which we shared with families, book readers and posies. A late breakfast would have been acceptable but, having diligently eaten my weetbix and toast earlier in the morning, I headed towards the cake cabinet and eyed off a conservative serve of biscotti which rested politely beside a flamboyant chocolate roulade.

Fortunately my Europe-bound friend's delight at the roulade's presence convinced me that perhaps I could splash out a little. Langers had apparently been to Spoonful before just to try the Chocolate Roulade, only to find it unavailable.

I had long-forgotten the delights of morning (or afternoon) coffee and cake. Sweet, silky chocolate cream, fresh strawberries and chewy chocolate meringue at Spoonful certainly reminded me and I was glad to be sharing this; not just because the serve was so generous, but because such deliciousness should surely be discussed and enjoyed with others.
543 High St
Prahran
(03) 9521 4807

Breakfast with, and at, Friends Of Mine, Richmond

2010-10-16T18:06:00.008+11:00

Parking on Swan St Richmond, just near the netball courts, has probably never been so tight. But with faithful Melbourne foodies chasing the next big thing and milling around outside in near sub-zero temperatures at brunch rush hour, you can bet you'll do a couple of laps.

After opening last Thursday (11th), Friends of Mine has been trickling onto blog posts Melbourne-wide. SwanBridgeVic and The Social Marketplace for being so prompt. The place certainly stands out with its Verve-Clicquot-Yellow awnings. Ok, so they're not actually Verve branded awnings, but the cheery colour just screams champagne to me. Fortunately, if you are that way inclined, you can enjoy a glass of bubbles with your eggs (Champagne Henriot NV at $18 a glass).

So, lets re-cap what others have said. We'll do it quickly because word travels fast and most of you probably know this by now and have done so for a little while, given how hungry us Melbournians are to be 'in the know'. So, a) The newest venture of Jason Jones, of Porgie and Mr Jones, Snow Pony and Bright Young Things fame; b)Decked out in vintage industrial style; c) Offering menu favourites from the other venues, including herb and cheesy toast and smashed avocado and mushrooms; and d) offering the best of ingredients from the best of Victoria's producers (FOM are so proud of this that they've listed said producers on their menu and website. Check it out.)

I'm a big fan of the front two rooms. Infact, I'd like my own kitchen to resemble this, if only I had Jason Jones' eclectic style and a bit of space. The third room is a slightly different style, a little more bistro to me. Maybe there's future plans for this space or maybe its a deliberate ploy to get people talking about the decor in general. If its the latter, its working.

We couldn't have arrived at a worse time, bang on 10.15 am; but, we were told a mere 15 minutes and I think we waited for less. I was a little disappointed to be seated in the more formal room (I swung by on open day and immediately knew I'd enjoy breakfasting on the communal table); but, beggars and choosers and all that. Besides, we were right under the heater which was delightful after waiting in the cold.

I had the herb and cheesy toast with bacon and eggplant kasundi. Its surely an art to have crust so crunchy and bread so soft, probably a combination of noisette bread and chef prowess. The cheese was pretty mild but boy, did the eggplant kasundi pack a punch. It was delicious, but so generous and so spicy that I left a fair dollop on the side. All dishes were pretty generously proportioned and I didn't really need to finish off my toast, but I couldn't bear to leave it.

Friends of mine, those I was eating with that is, had Smashed Avocado with Thyme Buttered Mushrooms (and poached egg) and Jack+Jill Smashed Avocado (with poached egg) and and they were generous enough to give me a little taste of the delicious Green Eggs. You can read about these on ...it pleases us and SwanBridgeVic respectively. Not bad places to check out some photos either, along with The Social Marketplace and Broadsheet Melbourne. I felt Saturday breakfast service wasnt the best time to start snapping around.

What have I forgotten? Hmm, the coffee? Fantastic. I'm not exactly sure what beans they're using, but it went down a treat. Oh, and the waitress uniforms ... interesting that the female waitstaff, all two of them, were decked out in bright yellow pinafores while the guys kicked around in their own funky style. That struck me as a little odd.

Courtyard seating is apparently in the pipeline, which could ease the breakfast squeeze. Its easy to be cynical of us fanatics who rush from one 'next big thing' to the next 'next big thing' and I've been a little slack at checking out new places recently, but when the food lives up to the hype you remember its more about hunting down and supporting great venues who are good at what they do, than it is about being in the in-crowd.

Anyone keen to do it all over again tomorrow?

506 Swan St
Richmond
7.30 - 4 Mon - Fri
8.30 - 4 Sat - Sun

Taste of Melbourne

2010-08-31T14:30:00.004+10:00

Taste of Melbourne hit the Carlton Exhibition Building with style over the weekend, not hard to do when inside the walls of such a beautiful building.

Having not been to Taste before I was expecting jostling crowds and fierce competition to try the "it" dish, enter the Gourmet Traveller kitchen or snap-up the latest samples. Instead, I was surprised by the easy-going crowd, possibly the result of the copious quantities of wine flowing from every corner. I hope the exhibitors sold a few bottles because they certainly dished out their fair share of samples. We enjoyed the offerings from Dalwhinnie and Pizzini, as well as the broad range at Wine Selectors.

I had carefully planned my menu (thanks to Taste publishing the selection online), only to be disappointed by Mezze Bar and Grill running out of Pork Cheek (instead check out the description at Melbourne Gastronome). Disappointment turned to frustration when, having returned later for Cavatelli di Messini with Prawns, Peas, Pecorino and Lemon oil, I was told the snaking queue was waiting for pork. The assistant apologised profusely for not telling me there was more to come. Luckily I was in a pretty jovial mood by this stage and the pasta was fantastic. I dubbed it Macaroni and Cheese for Grown-Ups.

Keen to try the Hopkins River Beef due a family connection, S'bo's Mum purchased the Seared Hopkins River Beef with shitake and aged soy dressing from maze Restaurant and maze Grill. A cool dish, thanks to the logistics of the whole set-up, with tender slivers of beef doused in sesame oil that showcased the produce perfectly.

Unable to stop there, we tried Duck Rilletes from Libertine, with a subtle blend of flavours that allowed the smokiness to come through, and Seared Kingfish, Red Curry and Puffed Rice from Charcoal Lane. S-bo called the latter "a cold fish curry", an uappetising name that doesn't do the dish's spice and delightful coconut foam justice. Perhaps the best value dish was maze Restaurant and maze Grill's seared marlborough salmon with warm sweet corn and potato salad. Like the beef this was a prime exmple of allowing quality ingredients, in this case Salmon, to speak for themselves.

Dessert was a vanilla tapioca pudding from Longrain that reminded me I'm not a fan of jackfruit. Light on vanilla but heavy on coconut milk, this was a complex dessert that called for a few spoonfuls before your tastebuds could adapt.

For more desserts we hit to exhibitors. Avoiding the long Ben & Jerry's queue we tried delicious Gundowring from the Kiewa valley and Movenpick. Charmed by the producers, the former won our hearts.

The other highlight of the day was catching Nicolas Poelart from Embrasse in the Taste kitchen. Unassuming yet passionate about his food, the Frenchman charmed most of the audience. Personally I enjoyed the plants that were handed around, showcasing the benefits of foraging if you know what to look for. Nibbling on some borage I was astounded to discover that it really does taste "a bit like oysters"!

Overall, a great way to spend Saturday afternoon munching on goodies and chatting to producers, chefs and punters alike.

Pizza in Albert Park

2010-05-24T18:33:00.009+10:00

View Pizza in Albert Park in a larger map

1. BASILICO

Dine in & Takeaway

180 Bridport St
Albert Park
03 9699 4288

The best pizzas in Albert Park, served by friendly, efficient staff. The woodfired oven means this is a great place to be in winter.

2. PORTA CASA PIZZA & PASTA

Dine in & Takeaway
175 Victoria Ave
Albert Park
03 9699 9933

Great selection of gourmet and traditional pizzas, with gluten free available. Takeaway pasta also available.
Menu

3. DON DINOS PIZZA & PASTA CAFE BISTRO

Dine in & Takeaway

149 Victoria Ave
Albert Park
03 9699 9386

Al-fresco tables and fantastic family atmosphere. Generous toppings sometimes lead to a slightly soggy base, especially if you are taking away. Don Dinos is a locals favourite, especially on warm summer nights.

4. FAVORI PIZZA

Dine in & Takeaway
85 Victoria Ave
Albert Park
03 9699 3157

Conveniently located next to Jock's Ice Cream, Favori is always popular however it is my last pick of the bunch.

Mirrool Creek Lamb

2010-04-27T22:19:00.003+10:00

Sixth of April! There have been no posts since that date, shame on me. Still, I've been somewhat distracted by the hoard of lamb in my freezer. That's right, lamb, my favourite source of protein. And this is not just any lamb, believe me.

Sam Hayes from Mirrool Creek Lamb is a friend mine from Sydney and as a wedding gift she presented S-bo and I with seven cuts of fantastic lamb. Some might find meat a strange wedding gift, but if you're reading this blog you obviously like food as much as I do and I doubt you would even blink. As Mirrool Creek Lamb is a finalist in the 2010 Delicious produce awards S-bo and I feel very spoilt indeed.

Mirrool Creek Lamb comes from the Riverina region of NSW, an area renowned for high quality lamb production. All stock is bred free range and pasture fed, vital to ensuring the produce benefits from the unique soil, climate and rainfall conditions of the Riverina. Low stress handling throughout the lifecycle, particularly prior to processing, ensures exceptional quality and consistency. For more information check out Mirrool Creek Lamb's website.

All cuts come in a cryovac and will keep for 3-4 weeks in the refrigerator. The rack was prepared so finely, it was a pleasure to work with. A neat strip of muscle that could almost be described as elegant, with a fine edging of fat for flavour and moisture was an exciting prospect. The rack was seasoned and then seared before being roasted for 20 minutes in a medium oven. Homemade olive and rosemary tapenade formed a crust on the outside during cooking and filled the room with a mouth-watering smell.

Cooked to medium-rare, this was the most tender lamb I can remember eating, what's more, it tasted like lamb. That sounds like a funny claim to make, but too often I find lamb is either too light on flavour, or too strong, conjuring images of mutton at boarding school (fortunately those dark, dark days are behind me).

My first attempt at cooking this beautiful wedding present demonstrates how successful anyone can be in the kitchen when using good quality ingredients. What's more, I have 6 cuts to go. Dinner anyone?

If you're heading to Sydney you can find Mirrool Creek Lamb at various markets and food stores. Unfortunately there are no stockists here in Melbourne, instead you can sample this great produce at Longrain.

You can also find Mirrool Creek Lamb if you're lucky enough to be headed to Noosa Food and Wine Festival. As a finalist in the 2010 Delicious produce awards the lamb will be on display in the Grand Marquee on Saturday and Sunday and Martin Boetz from Longrain will be serving the lamb on his Spice Trail. And if you see Sam up there, send her my thanks!

Quinces

2010-04-06T19:17:00.004+10:00

Three lovely quinces from our march long weekend on the peninsula. A little on the green side, I think poaching these might be the only option. Any thoughts?

Mr Wolf

2010-04-04T15:33:00.000+10:00

It's been a little while since I've been to Mr Wolf in St Kilda, but it still holds a little piece of my heart. It was one of the first restaurants I went to in Melbourne upon moving here, it was where I took S-bo when he completed his last CA exam and it's where I had potato on a pizza for the first time ever. The patate pizza comes and goes as the menu shifts, but Mr Wolf is still getting it right.

Specials for the kiddies make the venue ideal for families; but, if you're not blessed with little angels you should choose to eat a but later. Whilst providing a laid-back, casual vibe, the marble table tops and timber interiors can also bounce sound around rather effectively.

Don't be fooled into thinking Mr Wolf is just about pizza, infact the antipasto items are so moreish you might not even make it to pizza. Mt Zero mixed olives are sophistacated nibbles, but why not consume an entire course worth of food? Crumbed eggplant fritters, served with lemon yoghurt mayonnaise, have a creamy texture inside a batter so light you'll believe its healthy, and the salted fish cakes dance to a similar tune.

The famous pizzas are supplemented by a few other options, including lasagne, a wet dish of the day and, on the night we visited, a nicoise salad special, which GB enjoyed. I stuck with the basics and, just like the patate pizza experience four years ago, this visited heralded an eating epiphany: I ate anchovy on a pizza and actually liked it! Diavolo (tomato, mozzarella, anchovies, olives, capers, chilli, oregano, basil) had no overpowering fishiness, instead a mild salty seafood flavour greeted this sceptical eater.

That's not to say I'm an anchovy convert, I'll definitely try anchovy on a pizza again but on this evening I was happy to stop at one piece, particularly when we'd ordered a few other winners. Signore Lupo (my pick; roast tomato, roast cauliflower, mozzarella, sausage, pancetta, chilli) was dominated by the chilli but had a wonderful chewy texture thanks to the sausage and mozzarella, and Funghi (porcini, roasted garlic paste, mozzarella, roast mushrooms, thyme) shifted the focus onto the fantastic Mr Wolf bases (also available in gluten free). Unfortunately, a chorizo pizza special had too many toppings and the flavours got a little lost, but hey, you win some, loose some. The chorizo itself was great, it could have been served on cardboard and I'd still be happy.

One unexpected winner, particularly given the quantity of pizzas with chilli on them, was the cabbage salad. A not-quite-coleslaw offering was GR's suggestion and thank goodness we obliged. Many a diner has been known to walk out the door with a copy of Karen Martini's Cooking at Home book just so they can make this salad at home.

We glossed over Mr Wolf's dessert menu as we had another dessert venue in mind (St Kilda, dessert? Melbourne foodies will know exactly where I mean). Still, we couldn't resist a scoop or two of Mr Wolf's vanilla icecream made with the deliciousness of Heilala Vanilla pods. Thanks to the kitchen for sorting this little sampler out for us ;-)

Melbourne Food and Wine Festival

2010-03-17T18:52:00.001+11:00

Does anything get Melbourne foodies as excited as the annual food and wine festival? Probably not. But as I sit on a plane flying to Brisbane, in the process missing the much-hyped hawker street market, I can't help but feel on the outer.

Every year my full-time job, the one that funds this food obsession, seems to get in the way. This festival sees me travel to Sydney from 13-14 March for a friend's wedding, followed by a work trip from 16-17 March. I get a quick respite over the weekend then it's off to a week-long, residential management course.

Shouldn't the entire world stop during Melbourne's food and wine fest?

Melbourne hardly leads by example, packing a multitude of festivals into one little March. We've seen the madness of Moomba parade past and launch into the yarra and we're currently enjoying worldly flavours and washing it all down with wine. Some of you may even be wishing you hadn't indulged quite so much as you squeeze into the latest trend to attend the concurrent Melbourne Fashion Festival.

Once those obsessions wrap-up we can laugh our abs back into shape at the Melbourne comedy festival. But wait, want to know how to grow all the fabulous produce you enjoyed? If you miss the Metlink Edible Garden you can head along to the International Flower & Garden show or, in stark contrast, continue your decadence at the Australian Grand Prix.

Its no wonder we're all go, go, go. Its a callenge to juggle day-to-day commitments for some, throw a "what's on" calendar at people and the city is upside down with sensory overload. The Victorian Government's attempts to bring people to Melbourne yield polarised opinions due to taxpayer funding but there's no doubt such events add to the diversity of our city. I wonder if we'd have such a vibrant food scene without the help of festivals, events and celebrations which make the city such a popular place. I'm sure it'd have some impact.

So, I have 3 days to enjoy the festival and I'd better pack as much in as possible. I sometimes find the plethora of available options overwhelming and I always miss out on tickets to hot features. It certainly doesn't help that I'm reluctant to buy tickets too far out incase I need to travel. Although that attitude is clearly justified.

To all of you who are going to many events, right down to those attending just one, enjoy!

Tamar Valley Tasmania

2010-03-05T18:15:00.000+11:00

Seven days in Tasmania. So much to eat and drink yet so little time. Planning a wedding didn't leave much time for planning a holiday in Tassie and scoping out scrumptious dining destinations. Still, one can achieve a lot with help from a tourist information centre and an iPhone, right? Wrong. Launceston's tourist centre boasted a few brochures about the Tamar Valley Wine route and that's it. What's more, mobile reception, and therefore iPhone internet access, deserted us mid way through day one. Oh!

Still, S-bo and I bravely ventured forward with our wine route brochure in hand. Our first destination was Velo, a great little winery that I have previously mentioned. What I didn't know back in 2009 was that the vineyard was originally planted in 1966 by Graham Wiltshire, who is not just a pioneer of wine in the Tamar Valley, but in the whole of Tasmania. Velo's reserve shiraz was a standout with rich flavours yet none of the brashness found in shiraz from hotter regions.

With longing eyes we bypassed Ninth Island. I knew we could taste the Ninth Island Wines just across the river at Pipers Brook (and at your local Victorian bottleshop) and we were far too early to enjoy lunch with Daniel Alps at Strathlynn. Poor timing became a feature of our trip, missing the much-hyped Angasi at Binalong Bay, new star Granite at Bicheno and Gourmet Traveller favourite Piermont at Swansea, despite staying at the resort. I guess chefs need days off too.

Instead we continued on to Rotherhythe, not a cellar door I would recommend due to their limited range, but we did have a rather interesting conversation about the importance of marriage, the local's reaction to the proposed Pulp Mill and other such meaning-of-life-musings. S-bo and I had decided not to visit any Gunns Ltd Wineries whilst in Tassie, as a stand against the pulp mill, but I'm still not sure if that was the right thing to say at Rotherythe.

To get back onto the topic of wine we aimed for Stoney Rise, which was actually the site of Rotherhythe's vines until Joe Holyman bought it and pulled out the existing cabernet savignon, planting Pinot Noir and Chardonnay instead. Two labels, Stoney Rise and Holyman, deliver wine made in two different ways. Stoney Rise presents easy drinking wines with the Pinot fermented in old oak and the chardonnay bottled early. On the other hand, the Holyman label aims to produce wines for cellaring, with more complex structures. I will be seeking out a bottle of the 08 Holyman Pinot Noir from Prince Wine Store here in South Melbourne. The only problem will be finding the discipline to cellar it for a few years (or more).

Many wineries from the Tamar have limited distribution on the mainland but developing a collection of your favourites isn't a problem, despite the baggage restrictions of cheaper airlines. Tasmanian Wineries will happily send mixed cases (or part thereof) for merely the cost of freight. Leaving a case at the last cellar door you visit will be met with a smile and "no problem". It cost us just $16 to freight our case back to Melbourne.

Fortunately we had prepared ourselves a picnic lunch before leaving Launceston, because enticing providores and delis were hard to come by, something I found surprising in a wine region. A quick trip to Goaty Hill, another of my stops from last year, revealed that the Clover Hill cellar door may have been open, a very rare event. Across the river into the Piper's River region, three wrong turns and lost mobile reception later we found the rumour to be untrue.

Still, we weren't too poorly done by when our consolation price was a visit to Jansz Jansz and a bottle to enjoy with our dinner.

Cottage Point Inn

2010-02-23T17:48:00.004+11:00

So, after a nine month engagement, a fun-filled wedding and a 10 day honeymoon, I am back to the blog. But where to start after so long away?

It is tempting to skip straight to our 7 days in Tasmania, but our visit to Sydney's Cottage Point Inn deserves a mention. Whilst the boat ride from Palm Beach highlighted waterways more reminiscent of a QLD tourism campaign than Sydney's better known sights, the destination was far more important than the journey. A filling entree of house-smoked salmon, delicately layered into a terrine and served with scampi and basil mayonnaise kicked off a fabulous meal. If a rich start is not your thing, the pan fried Hawkesbury River squid with leek and squid ink risotto delivers just a much flavour, but in lighter form.

The menu is unsurprisingly seafood-you could almost imagine the fish was caught off the outdoor deck that morning. Duck leg confit was certainly tempting, but when in Rome! So instead I opted for pan fried ocean trout which flaked away beautifully to reveal a vibrant mango, chilli, cucumber and coriander salsa underneath. The citrus vanilla and hazelnut dressing was mostly citrus but overall the meal was a perfect follow on from my rich entree.

The boat allows a mere two hours or so to complete your courses, and you're encouraged to notify staff upon arrival if you want three. The caramel banana soufflé and citrus pannacotta, among others, failed to tempt me. Instead I opted for the palate cleanser from the degustation menu. A spherical scoop of strawberry sorbet served in a glass topped with Moet. I wouldn't have accepted anything less than French, it was our honeymoon afterall.

As we finished our Jules Taylor ’07 Pinot Gris, from an extensive international wine list, we peered from the deck to the water below and waited for our return boat-trip. Decadence might have increased had we taken the seaplane or stayed overnight, but I couldn’t think of a more relaxing, luxurious was to spend day 2 of the honeymoon.

Photo courtesy of Cottage Point Inn

Stewed Figs

2009-04-13T14:01:00.004+10:00

For me the fig season all too often passes by in the blink of an eye. I seem to miss those precious few weeks (days) when figs are just right in terms of quality and price. It's a grey area, I feel, between figs that are early season and exorbitantly priced and figs that are late season and terrible quality. (Clearly I'm not blessed with a tree in my backyard).

I did happen to pick up a punnet a short time ago that was filled with plump, unblemished figs and I feasted on them for 3 days straight. I enjoyed figs, rocket and feta as a salad and figs with melted blue cheese alongside steak. The third night however saw the few remaining figs looking a little worse for wear. Clearly they needed cooking but I wanted something quick. My favourite fig dessert from a few years ago involved grilled fruit drizzled with redcurrant sauce, but this was a complex process of frying, grilling and then reducing the sauce.

To solve my problem I found this reciped for Stewed Figs, cut out from an ancient Good Weekend magazine (you'd expect nothing less from me surely). The use of basil was intriguing, but quite appropriate as my plant was bordering on going to seed and I was trying to use it as much as possible before trimming back. In the end the basil complimented the light sweetness of the overall dish and I enjoyed the last of my figs immensely.

150g sugar

200ml water

1cm piece ginger, peeled and julienned

1/2 lemon, zested

1/4 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped and removed

8 medium sized figs

6 basil leaves, torn

Good Greek yoghurt

Bring to a simmer the sugar, water, ginger, lemon zest and vanilla. Gently cook for 5 minutes to draw the aromatics from the spices.

Place the halved figs skin-side down into the hot syrup and cook for 5 minutes. Carefully turn the figs in the pan so that the flesh is facing down, add the torn basil leaves and cook for 5 more minutes.

If your figs are not completely ripe they may need a little more cooking. If overripe, take care they don't break apart and become pulpy. For presentation purposes the figs need to keep their figgy shape.

Let the cooked fruit cool and serve in a bowl with plenty of the cooking syrup and some yoghurt on the side.

Parap Markets, Darwin

2009-04-06T21:27:00.003+10:00

Is this really a blog about Melbourne food? You may very well be wondering this as I write about eating in Perth, tasting in Tasmania and now drowning (in sweat) in Darwin. Darwin may not be quite so disgusting right now (weather wise), but back in February when I penned this post it was.

It is true, I have not had much time in Melbourne this year and this particular humid Saturday morning I found myself at the Parap Markets in Darwin. The top-end capital is known for being an Australian frontier from which South East Asia beckons. Furthermore, it is a melting pot of local cultures and of those that seep in from the north. Nowhere is this more evident that at Parap markets. Wander past the paintings from Arnhem Land and the over-priced pendents and the markets open out into tropical fruit heaven. Dragon fruit, paw paw, passionfruit and monkey bananas all compete for space while stall-holders slice up pineapple into snack size pieces.

I had not had a latte for four days, so I was naturally drawn to Just Coffee. Glance over the many blends of beans lining the counter while you wait for your fix. And fix it did… for about 5 minutes. The coffee was strong and bold however after only a few sips I realised this was a bad idea. As I sweated like someone who’d eaten too many chillies I decided that the varied fruit smoothies on offer would have been a smarter option. We live and learn.

After buying Morrocan Cous Cous, Pumpkin Ravioli and Beetroot and Feta salads to take home for lunch, I turned my attention back to the Asian influences. Gado Gado from Jakarta was sold alongside Thai Sweets and the steaming hawker food was a tempting mid-morning snack, despite the heat. As is standard for many of these markets in Australia all of the offerings were fried with nothing steamed in sight. Disappointingly the money bags, chicken satay and beef spring roles reminded me that all too often markets like this smell better than they taste. Nevertheless, the oppressive humidity, the vapours of wok-tossed meat and tropical fruit made me feel just for a second that I really was in a hybrid country of Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam, so close yet so far from Australia.

Goaty Hill Tasmania

2009-03-18T22:06:00.007+11:00

A trip to Tassie last month saw The Foges and I spending a leisurely Saturday puttering around the Tamar Valley performing the delicate balancing act of wine tasting and hire car driving. Tamar Valley (north of Launceston) may well be known for Pinot Noir, with Ninth Island being the label you're most likely to see in your local bottleshop. However, as is so often the case in wine regions, it was the much smaller producers I enjoyed visiting the most. The passion that is evident in small cellar doors immediately generates a real enthusiasm for the wine.

Goaty Hill was our pick for lunch and you'd wonder why I've decided to rave about it on my blog when our cheese platter, although lovely, was reasonably run of the mill and there were only two wines on taste. No, I'm not raving because it's a sponsored post (it's not), I'm raving because this little Billie Goat is streaking ahead despite being reasonably young. Their riesling has won a swag of awards, including a gold medal for the 2008 vintage at the 2009 International Cool Climate Wine Show (Redhill). And their 2007 Pinot Noir vintage was sold out after taking home best Pinot from The Taste of Tasmania 08/09 Festival.

We got to taste the award winning 2008 Riesling which really left a crisp clean taste in the mouth. Not being so hot on "wine speak", I had to consult their website to tell you that this wine has grapefruit characters and hints of citrus.

What I don't need to read from the website is that the 2008 Pinot Noir had earthy flavours that took me right back to the first Pinot I ever tasted, which happened to be on the Mornington Penninsula (Stoniers I think...although there were a few by the end of the day). I really like the complex smokey, earthy flavours that the Mornington is so good at. Whilst I probably won't be cracking open the 08 Pinot I brought home for at least another year, there's definitely some great flavours even at this young age.

Goaty Hill has also just advertised to mailing list members their 2006 Museum Release Riesling. Again, more awards (incl. The International Riesling Challenge). How can you get your hands on this one? Well with only 50 cases released you'll just have to be on the mailing list (see their website). For interest's sake the 2008 Riesling and Pinot Noir are $19.95 and $27.95 respectively, and they do deliver to Victoria.

A brief mention also should go to Velo Wines who had a great Unwooded Chardonnay and sensational Reserve Shiraz. At the time of our visit they had just begun supplying Vue De Monde so, whilst they're not currently distributing anywhere else in Victoria, it's another label to keep your eye out for.

Eating in Perth. Part III

2009-03-10T15:58:00.003+11:00

My last post from Perth is definitely worth writing up, despite the events taking place so many weeks ago. The final instalment starts with S-bo and I tripping out to Rottnest Island for the obligatory bike ride and snorkel. Not long before our trip I’d read a travel write-up of Rottnest, depicting it as a place where life moves slowly and effortlessly ambling is the way to go. Well they got the slow bit right. However we moved slow because of the endless hills to be cycled up, not because we were absorbed by any external pace. Armed with only a few pieces of fruit we thought it best to stop in Settlement for a quick coffee before setting out. I was shocked to see amongst the tiny cluster of shops a Red Rooster and a Subway. Call me idealistic but it just didn’t sit well with my idea of a grassroots holiday village. Consequently S-bo and I were keen to leave the fast food, and half of our average $4 coffees, behind us.

Fast forward 5 hours and we limped back to Settlement, our sore butts barely supporting the body’s quest for food. Enter the Quokka Arms Hotel. Newly refurbished, this pub is part family friendly leisure and, I would imagine as the evening creeps in, part Frat Beach Party, especially during the infamous leavers’ week. Whatever’s going on, the broad beach frontage allows you to choose a group whose vibe you approve and sit near. S-bo and I kicked back with beer, chips and pizza. Rottnest heaven (and the pizza wasn’t bad either).

The following day was my chance to finally chase down some of the places recommended to me. S-bo was playing golf and I realised time was too short to put a dent in the essay Matt (Abstract Gourmet) had emailed. Still, I thought I’d treat myself to a great lunch, and from the email it seemed like Balthazar or Must Wine Bar were the places for me. It was a toss up but I chose Must Wine Bar for two reasons. First, I got the impression it was a little more laid back and that appealed to me. Secondly, I have a friend who used to live in Mt Lawley and I wanted to check it out. I took a cursory glance at the street directory and thought “surely it’s not that far to walk from the station”. I should’ve taken a bus, but all of a sudden I was alone and could’ve been overseas for all I knew. I’d got the trains, I’d figured them out and knew how to buy tickets, when to get off etc etc.

I did not know how to walk from the station to Beaufort st. Which side of the station should I exit? Do I go left or right? Am I heading in the right direction? Where the hell are the people that live in this suburb, I need to ask directions. Phew. All on my own I eventually limped onto Beaufort st, my smart little lunching attire not suited to neighbourhood walking in Perth humidity. And yet where was the wine bar? I had forgotten to record the street number so I just walked some more. I walked and walked and nearly gave up. Sadly, when I finally got there I did. It was quite a large venue and it was completely empty. Now I trust Matt’s judgement and I knew the food would be good, but I couldn’t bring myself to eat alone when I was outnumbered by the waiters. Every cloud has a silver lining however and my blistered feet headed back up to Cantina.

Cantina was recommended a few times and I was a little surprised when I first walked past it. Perched on the edge of a shopping arcade it looked nothing more than a suburban sandwich café. However, stepping inside I was greeted by warm timber and distressed walls, an effortless rustic feel that really worked. Limited menu choices typed onto plain white paper suggest, although I’m guessing here, the menu changes often, making use of whatever produce is best at the time.

Ham and cheese ciabatta seemed a little plain for my lunching expedition and whilst the three panini’s on offer sounded delicious I reasoned there were plenty of good sandwiches in Melbourne. Clearly a venue that relies heavily on its char grill plate, the choice of three mains included a salad of char grilled local prawns or char grilled veal tongue in a green sauce. Despite these delectable offerings, how I could resist prosciutto that was labelled “the best from Italy”? Teamed with char grilled bread I agreed, until about half way through my generous serve. I realised that a whole plate of prosciutto to myself was a little over the top, and whilst it broke my heart, I did leave a few slices behind. Not to worry, extra bread and an olive oil that had more floral notes than bitey grasses helped the meal pass, as did the glass of 07 Bollini Pinot Grigio.

Bravo to Cantina for its laid back feel and service to match. And bonus points for pouring my wine at the table, just a small thing that showed this little Cantina is punching well above its neighbourhood café appearance. I was tempted to stay for coffee but I was determined to try at least one more of Matt’s recommendations. Enter Spring Espresso in Subiaco.

Why Spring when I was in Mt Lawley? Well I was keen for a wander through Subiaco and I certainly wasted some time in Simon Johnson’s along the way, although I had forgotten the trend of price tags there. Is it really expensive or am I spoilt by Melbourne’s food accessibility? Spring Espresso wasn’t quite what I had in mind for a mid afternoon coffee and cake but I liked it. Bright yellow walls scream “Wake Up”, and it’s all down to the business of getting coffee and moving on. I could see that this was many people’s ideal barista fix as they dashed to work each morning. So I grabbed a takeaway and ambled back to the station.

Thank you Matt, and everyone else who made suggestions, for helping me to find some of Perth’s gems. Even if I didn’t get to try many. Despite early eating times and higher-than-Melbourne prices it really is easy to make any meal enjoyable in a city as laid back as Perth.

To do, to drink, to cook, to spend

2009-02-21T15:15:00.000+11:00

2009 began as the year of lists for me. Since January I’ve been jotting down in my diary “to-do”s, “to-read”s, “to-drink”s and so on. I have 2 diary pages full of wines to try already and an even larger list of books to read. Albums to listen to, restaurants to try (listed according to suburb) and the odd recipe have nearly all but filled the unused dates left behind in January.

Shortly I’m going to have to start a “recipes to cook” list too. I’ve always had a folder of clippings which I like to try before they are transferred to a more permanent collection, but now my delicious magazines are starting to stack up. The new edition arrived yesterday before I’d cooked anything from the last month’s. This is in part due to our trip to Perth and to S-bo playing a greater role in the kitchen while I partake in extra-curricular activities (sailing, pilates, tennis, touch football…how good is summer). I’m very thankful and fortunately he’s really enjoying it.

I’ve heard of people who cook practically everything in the magazine before the month is up and I wonder how I could justify buying such a range of ingredients, often exotic, every month. And this brings me back to my lists above. It’s all very well to have these lists, but they do tend to clash with my conservative spending tactics. I don’t deliberately set out to save money, I just can’t escape the values instilled from an early age by my bank manager father. Compared to my parents’ generation I live an extravagant lifestyle, however I think that by “Gen-Y” standards I really don’t spend much at all. I don’t buy new clothes every week and, more importantly, I really struggle to treat myself to dinner at a top restaurant for anything other than a very special occasion. Let alone order three courses. What kind of foodie am I? I love Melbourne’s liberal licensing laws and the great venues it fosters, but I miss Sydney’s BYO trend and the ability to have a great bottle of wine over dinner for half the price. I cling to restaurants in my area that do BYO every night of the week, as they are rare in my immediate surroundings.

Still, I think I will clutch these lists all year. I’ll know exactly what to pick up in the bottle shop on the way to a friend’s house for dinner and I’ll have perfect book ideas for birthday presents. What’s more, I’ll have ready access to restaurant ideas for those nights when you find yourself in the city, or a little-explored suburb, and can’t decide where to eat. Slowly, very slowly I’ll tick great restaurants off my list, only to have more added by the continuing life-cycle of Melbourne openings.

Cooking Pizza at Home

2009-02-15T15:22:00.004+11:00

S-bo and I returned from Perth just over two weeks ago and were greeted at 2am by a house that was surely hotter than the outside temperature of 30 degrees. Our camelia ("Jen", shown below with SPF paper bag) was burnt and the herbs survived only thanks to the Foges and her watering visits.

What does one eat when the weather is so hot? Salads of course. Any food that requires no cooking and minimal time in the kitchen. Certainly you would be a fool to turn the oven up to 25o degrees and cook pizza, wouldn't you? Well call S-bo and I fools, but that's exactly what we did.

We've been talking about it for a while, this pizza making business. Postulating about all the money we'd save if Friday's takeaway pizza and wine turned into homemade pizza with cleanskin. So 2 weeks ago, armed with yeast and a rolling pin, we made our own dough to save dough. And what a success. We have a long way to go before they're perfect, and a pizza stone will probably be the first step, but this venture was a winner.

A simple recipe of 1 tsp sugar, 2 tsp dry yeast, 1 cup warm water, 450 g flour, 1 tsp salt and 60 ml olive oil got us underway. Although I imagine we should experiment with a few different dough recipes. As far as toppings go we've been pretty ad hoc, but the spicy salami has been a standout success.

So taken were we with making our own pizzas that we made them again the following weekend in the company of V. Also accompanying us was a bottle of 2002 Juniper Estate Cab Sav from Margaret River. As a result of the heatwave we came very close to losing some good bottles of wine we'd put aside. It was disappointing to discover all the bleeding corks however the recent events in Victoria helped keep our emotions in check. People have lost lives and homes and we simply lost a couple of bottles of wine. Although "lost"is a little dramatic. Our friends from Sydney Wine Centre have told us that, whilst it's not ideal, we just need to drink the wine within 6-12 months. I can handle 6 months of drinking our better wines! The Juniper was great, as was last night's 04 Cab Sav from Dominique Portet, thanks to N1&N2.

Wine and Music

2009-02-10T08:43:00.003+11:00

I still have one more post to write about the trip to Perth. I have some random jottings in my diary to ensure I don't forget the details, all I need now is time to sit down and write it out. No easy task when I've since returned from WA, been to Tassie and back, and about to go to Darwin. But here is something I wrote whilst on the way to Perth, after reading the Australia Day Long Weekend edition of the Australian Financial Review.

Tim White wrote a brief, but intersting article in AFR about possible relationships between wine and music. One example was a session tasting Rose accompanied by Rachmaninov's Second Symphany (in E minor). Apparently an enjoyable combination. White mentions a researcher, Clark Smith, who, I would assume from the article, has investigated relationships between food and wine. Apparently his theory is that grape varieties respond differently in the presence of differing music styles. (I presume this refers to music being played whilst tasting, as opposed to serenading vines...)

The scientist in me is horrified at my secondary referncing for this post. Ideally I should search this Clark Smith guy and quote from the source. However I'm penning (literally) on a plane, with little (no) resources for research, and it has me wondering. Does music really affect the taste of wine or do we draw on common connotations shared by varieties and music alike. For example, drinking a clean, crisp Pinot Gris goes hand-in-hand with afternoon al fresco grazing, as does the laid back sounds of acoustic folk music. Thus one could clearly see a complimentary connection between the two.

I'd love to hear about your favourite wine and music combos. However whilst you are sitting back, sipping and listening, spare a thought for the victims of Australia's bushfire tragedy as we near 7 days on. Click here to donate to the Red Cross Victorian Bushfire Appeal or here to donate to Wildlife Victoria.

Eating in Perth. Part II

2009-02-01T18:09:00.005+11:00

Having been back in sweltering Melbourne for 3 days Perth is now a cool memory and it is a full week since we enjoyed Australia Day Long weekend in the western capital. Of course we attended a wedding which was a highlight, but the weekend was also filled with some great eating.

Sunday morning Lovely & the Doctor took us to their neighbourhood brunch spot, John St cafe. Popular with the pram set, this place was busy and we were told to expect a 15 minute wait for a table. As it was a leisurely Sunday we didn't mind, until we noticed that those who came around the same time as us were not only seated, but eating. Checking in with the waitress
it was discovered that a devious bruncher had pretended to be us. Perhaps we should have hovered around the entrance instead of politely waiting near the coffee window. Perhaps the waitress should begin writing brief descriptions if she can't remember groups ie. 'Ali, 4, green shirt'. Either way the queue jumper is destined for bad karma I'm sure (our good karma came the next day when we jagged a prime parking spot at the beach).

I got the impression that John St Cafe is a bit of a "place to be" and you couldn't blame people for wanting to enjoy their weekend breakfast under such huge norfolk pines. The food on offer contained standard breakfast ingredients in both regular and not-so regular combinations, including the vegetarian stack (above) with hollondaise. My pick, being a non-egg eater, was the breakfast bagel, smeared with cold cream cheese, bacon cooked to perfection and a slightly-too slim wedge of avocado.

Despite the initial hiccup we left satisfied, a decent coffee under our belts to kick-start the day. It should be mentioned that a return visit yielded a weak, lukewarm coffee so lets hope the latter, rather than the former, is the exception.

The next day we were feeling a little slow after our friend's wedding the previous night but a quick dip at North Fremantle beach perked things up. Heading down to the centre of Fremantle we wandered around and explored the markets. I thought the fruit and veg looked especially vibrant and fresh, particularly as I'm becoming sceptical of the freshness of some produce I've been picking up at South Melbourne Markets. After a prolonged period inhaling the aromas of flavoured coffee, which I'm happy to smell but probably wouldn't drink, we felt it was our duty as out-of-towners to head down to Little Creatures Brewery.

I'd heard a lot of this place and certainly sampled their pale ale in the past, but I didn't really know what to expect. What I found was an energetic space into which a lot of time, effort and money has been poured to achieve the effortless. They did it well. Wooden tables, booths and schoolyard style steel chairs have been assembled as though the brewers stumbled upon an early 1980's government auction and thought "hey, lets buy this stuff and set up a bar in our massive shed".

We had our pick of tables,which I'm told is unheard of, so when it got a little warm outside we easily packed up and shifted inside. Fortunately this placed us under the care of a seemingly more competent waiter. We had a few beers, the famous frites with aioli and what S-bo claimed to be the best Nachos he's had! It's a huge call but I can't refute it. With beef, chunky guacamole and, of course, sour cream it offered a just-westernised dish, topped with the most amazing jalepenos to give that extra mexican zing.

Our day was destined to end at an Australia Day bbq but we were just to comfortable at Little Creatures. We bypassed the bbq and even the Triple J Hottest 100 countdown and eventually made our way home for more delayed telecast Australian Open.

Eating in Perth. Part I

2009-01-27T21:11:00.008+11:00

I've had 4 days in Perth, or "Perff" as it was affectionately known by S-bo and I yesterday in honour of Australia Day, and only 2 to go. I received some great advice from Abstract Gourmet and Beyond Beeton about great places to try and I've also been shadowing Claire's November 08 trip (from Melbourne Gastronome) perhaps a little too closely. From Cottesloe fish & chips to the dingo flour sign and Fremantle markets. However despite that, I haven't actually been doing too much eating out. Kicking back instead at our friend's house enjoying wine, home-cooked meals and good company.

However there are a few highlights so far...

Friday night saw us land and head straight for a pre-wedding get-together at The Vic, a pub conveniently located next to the accomodation of most wedding guests. I really enjoyed kicking back in their beer garden drinking Redback beer, especially with slices of lemon. Unfortunately the pizza we ordered doesn't deserve mention, something tells me it's more a boozy, good-time pub rather than a top place for meals.

"The Vic"

We didn't stay too long as Lovely and the Doctor, our generous accomodation providers, had us booked in early Saturday morning to accompany them on a Swan Valley Wine Tour. Having decided Margaret River was a little far for this trip, we were eager to boat our way up the Swan and be picked up and ferried around the wineries by bus. In the past I've been sceptical of wine tours by bus, fearing that you only get taken to large, commercial wineries with a bunch of uni students or American tourists. However this was a great day out. Joining the boat in downtown Perth, with it's airline-style seating (complete with tray tables) we glided up the river, tasting some not-bad table wine courtesy of a couple of large commercial wineries. It was very pleasant and I was most impressed by the lovely Swan River.

Garbin Estate

Somewhere along the line we were greeted by Abi and we left boat for bus to visit 4 wineries, a brewery, a nougat company and a chocolate factory. Phew. We drank a lot of Chenin Blanc, Verdelho & Viognier from Garbin Estate, Jane Brook Estate, Jarrah Ridge and Edgecombe Brothers.

Edgecombe Brothers

At Jane Brook Estate the champenoise style of wine making was explained and I must confess that I didn't realise the huge difference between champenoise and other sparklings. We then had lunch (included) consisting of cold meats, salad, olives, bread & dips. The platter was beautifully presented with extremely fresh ingredients however we could have managed something a little more substantial with so much wine tasting.

Jarrah Ridge presented the best value wines, with their clean, crisp Chenin Blanc & Classic White selections for only $12 a bottle. Definitely our pick of the day for quality too as we also enjoyed their Reserve Shiraz & Shiraz Viognier.

The rest of the afternoon passed quickly. A super brief stop at Mondo Nougat stimulated our appetite for sweetness and it was on to the Margaret River Chocolate Factory, a branch located in the Swan Valley to capture more of the Perth market than is possible down south. Another whirlwind stop really, but don't forget to check our their sacks of chocolate buttons down the end of the counter for free tastings of their dark, milk and white chocolate.

Chaos at Margaret River Chocolate Factory

And finally the brewery consisting of beer and German Sausage (strangely accompanied by corn chips). Not much on our trip to Little Creatures (more to come...)

Feeling slightly tipsy with very full stomachs we headed back to Cottesloe where the boys enjoyed a dip. Incase we needed more alcohol we strolled up to The Cott for a beer, watching our first WA sunset over the water. The plan was to have Cottesloe fish and chips but we were feeling so unhealthy that we found ourselves ordering grilled snapper and salad from a burger joint who's name I don't remember. Four sleepy bodies then polished off our meal back at home with a bottle of Jarrah Ridge Chenin Blanc & the Australian Open. Zzzz......

The disaster that nearly was

2009-01-21T16:56:00.003+11:00

After indulging over the Christmas break I’ve developed a bit of an afternoon sweet tooth. (I swear I didn’t have it before, those mid-afternoon chocolate bars were more a compulsion to spend than eat, promise.)

To satisfy this craving and to cook something nice for S-bo, instead of taunting him with yummy creations, only to take them to work morning teas, I decided to make a Mango and Coconut Cake (pictured) last week. Would you believe I still have a folder full of uncooked recipe clippings, after all that effort in 2007. This clipping is so old that I can’t even remember where it came from, all I know is it’s on the back of my faithful and popular Caramel Mudcake recipe.

So has it made the cut and gone into my permanent recipe collection? You betcha. I chose the cake because, apart from begging to be cooked for a very long time, it seemed appropriate for this time of year, with the summery flavours of mango and coconut. The cream cheese icing takes on the personality of yoghurt, and could even do with a little more mango nectar, while the coconut gives the cake a great crunchy texture.

So where is the disaster? You might be asking this question due to this posts title, but if you’re familiar with my baking style you’d probably be asking it anyway. The cake is missing an egg! I realised this about 2 minutes after the cake went into the oven. If I used particularly large, good quality eggs then I might not have panicked so much. However the eggs had been floating around the fridge since before Christmas and appeared to come from a 7-eleven or similar, not well known for free range, quality produce I’m sure. No offence to 7-eleven if I’m incorrect as this is my preferred place of purchase when I’m in a blind panic, half way through baking late on a Sunday evening, only to find no eggs in the fridge. Back to the present disaster though…

Two minutes into the oven (the cake, not me) and I’m wandering whether I can pull the cake out and stir in a beaten egg. I opted for no. Instead I wrung my hands for the entire 85 minutes, expecting to be rewarded with a strangely textured cake. Fortunately my 3 piddly eggs must have been sufficient, as the cake turned out fine.

Phew, I’ve made it through my 2nd post AND survived a baking disaster. This is definitely rebirth by fire. Email me if you would like the recipe.

Recipes Out My Ears

2009-01-18T16:26:00.003+11:00

After a very long stint of nothingness I think it’s time to write again. Why? Because I like it. A swag of recipe books for Christmas will be enough to keep me busy, so why not throw in writing on top. I’ve already joked to S-bo that I need to go part time to ensure I can cook all these wonderful new ideas.

My haul included a subscription to ABC’s delicious. magazine, which in itself would be enough to keep me busy all year. However it comes complete with Valli Little’s new book Faking It. Top that up with Fast Food, a great little book which I always seemed to have on the shelf thanks to generous housemates. When S-bo moved in I lost access and have since been craving the salt & pepper chicken recipe within. Chinese Five Spice here I come! Completing the new collection, from my brother in London, is a hefty copy of Gordon Ramsay’s Sunday Lunch with bonus DVD, which I have yet to watch.

That’s not to mention the books Mum received which I’m sure I’ll borrow at some point: Two of Donna Hay’s Simple Essentials collection, “Fruit” and “Pasta, Rice & Noodles” (some great sushi ideas I’ve got my eye on).

This very lucky little cook can also add some beautiful homewares and handy kitchen gadgets to the Christmas bounty. S-bo and I both walked away from the Christmas tree with a chopping board and water jug each. Luckily all are sufficiently different to a) avoid the store return and b) have their own special place in our kitchen and on our table. A handheld beater will also make cooking easier. After the demise of my mixer last year I had saved enough money to buy something flash (ie a Kitchenaid) however the size of our kitchen means the money is still sitting in my bank account and will remain there until we have a larger kitchen. I thought I could make do with my food processor, and I did remarkably well considering my penchant for kitchen disasters, however beating egg whites just didn’t work.

And last but not least is the bbq cover. Late last year S-bo and I moved from the apartment to a small house so we could enjoy all things alfresco, with the bbq being high on the list. Unfortunately our super small bbq is a little hard to clean. There’s nothing like having to clean the bbq before you cook on it to send you scurrying back to the indoor frying pan. I flew home at Christmas armed with a raft of ideas to make my own bbq cover. As happens with all my home-time holiday projects, my mother had visions of being left to complete an impossibly ridiculous project on her own while I scurried back to the city. So she went out and bought me one. Thanks Mum ad Dad.

To begin writing again at this point in the year is a tough task to set myself as I have a very busy January ahead. Mum and Dad are staying at the moment, part of their annual Australian Open pilgrimage. Then Friday Sam and I are off to Perth for 6 days. We have a wedding to go to and lots of friends to catch up with, but I’m sure we’ll have some time to visit Perth’s “must eat” venues…let me know if you have any favourites.

Claypots, St Kilda

2008-02-23T19:26:00.004+11:00

It's time for the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival and unfortunately I'm too busy to participate. Shock and horror I know, but my best friend, N1 is getting married next weekend and there's much to do. Not to mention the 4-day working weeks I've been enjoying as a result of hens trips away and the wedding itself. Every second weekend I seem to take Friday and Monday off so it's a high life.

Between dress fittings, shoe shopping and various other tasks for the bride, there hasn't been much time for food, so I was keenly anticipating a visit to Claypots in St Kilda last night. I am a relative seafood newbie, refusing to eat fish the entire first half of my life and only recently converting to prawns. So Claypots was going to be a challenge. I desperately wanted to go to see the place live up to it's reputation but did this mean I had to eat the slippery things that come from shells?

As I had tennis lessons 'til 8.30 I sent my dining companions along to deal with the stressful event of getting a table. I managed to swan up at 9pm, down half a beer and stroll straight in. Oh what an easy life. However it must be said the others didn't arrive until 8.30 and we were still seated by 9.30 (for those that don't know, Claypots does not take boookings).

The restaurant is a pure festival upon entry. Walk through the bar to see glum faces of people desperately seeking a table then it's straight past the kitchen with the evening's selections staring at you from the display. Continue and you're confronted with tables of noisy people criss-crossing arms to get at the communal seafood plates while jazz blares in the background. We were seated in a booth, carriage style complete with luggage rack overhead. The waitress then went through the complicated process of ordering: all fish comes with potato and bokchoy and is priced according to size, with the famous Claypots ideal as side dishes or entrees.

Now if you think you're happy to eat late and believe turning up at 8.30 for a 9.30/10 table is no problem, be warned that they do run out of fish, a testament to their freshness policy I'm sure. We were able to choose from Snapper and Dory. Not such a big deal when you can still choose citrus roasted snapper to share.

Our fish was preceeded by a giant king prawn each. You might think all king prawns are giant but I now know there are king prawns, and there are king prawns. Served with bread and dripping in garlic oil I think we had the latter. Now I hope I'm not being sacreligious but I wasn't overly taken with the claypots. A mixture of rice, fish, mussels and pippis meant that yes, I did eat the slimy things from shells. I did this in quite a brave fashion after the obligatory chew or swallow jokes but honestly, I couldn't taste much other than the cajun spices of one and the moroccan spices of the other. Not to worry, it was handy filler to supplement our sensational snapper. I honestly believe this rather large snapper had been eating citrus it's whole life such was the intensity of flavour. Eating fish skin has never been so enjoyable. Underneath the pearly flesh had ot be the seafood version of wagyu beef, surely. I've never had such wonderful fish before, not even my parent's neighbour's macadamia and coconut stuffed red emperor.

By the end of the night I may nearly been completely won over to the seafood side of life.

Orrechiette with rost peppers, preserved lemon and goat's curd

2008-02-06T21:28:00.000+11:00

The observant among you will see that this dish is actually spirals with roast peppers, perserved lemon and goat's curd. I had previously bought the ingredients but not had a chance to get fresh orriechiette. When S-bo and I returned home from a weekend on an Echuca houseboat, we really didn't want to go to the supermarket. That's why I substituted spirals and frankly, it turned out well.

It's been a while since I've cooked a new recipe and this one was really really rewarding. It's effectively a warm tossed salad but the combination of extra virgin olive oil and goats cheese is very satisfying, even if they do take away many of the benefits of "salad". This was my second experience with preserved lemon too, and let me tell you, rinsing the lemon beforehand makes it a lot more palatable. Thanks to whoever gave me that tip. I love many things citrus and couldn't bear the thought that I wouldn't enjoy preserved lemon.

Like many of my "uncooked from the archives" recipes, this one came form an old Good Living clipping, back in the Sydney days. 31st Jan 2006 featured this recipe along with a profile of then-new Andrew Cibej's Surry Hills enoteca, Vini. If only I had've been. Next time Gadget.

This week sees the first round of ironchef for 2008 kicking off, so I've spent all evening researching dessert. Hopefully I can tell you all about it on Friday!

Orrechiette with roast peppers, preserved lemon and goat's curd
500 g orrechiette
240 g fresh goat's curd
1 large roasted, peeled and roughly chopped red pepper
1/4 preserved lemon, finely chopped
1/2 cup of both torn basil leaves and picked continental parsely
1/2 cup wild rocket
1 cup EVOO
60 g parmesan cheese, grated
Sea salt & Pepper
80 g black olive tapenade

Cook pasta in salted boiling water. Drain, reserving a small amount of cooking water. In a large bowl, toss together pasta, water and all other ingredients except tapenade. Place onto plates and top with tapenade.

Serves 4

Footscray Markets

2008-01-28T16:54:00.000+11:00

Having lived in London, Sydney, Canberra and now Melbourne since leaving home, not to mention frequent travels throughout Europe at the ages of 18/19, I think of myself as being somewhat worldly. And yet, I know can still be very naive.

This was further reinforced on Saturday, which, funnily enough was Australia Day. Us Australians like to think of ourselves as multicultural but sometimes we rarely scratch the surface. Perhaps we are paracultural instead (yes, I think I just made that up, I mean many cultures running parallel). I am not a racist person but I really can be quite ignorant, perhaps as a result of growing up in the country, far from the multiculturalism of Sydney and Melbourne.

S-bo has recently moved in with me and we needed a vacuum cleaner. We also needed groceries for an Australia Day BBQ. Searching the location of Godfreys (an Australian vacuum cleaner shop) we saw that there is a Godfreys situated quite close to Footscray market. I know little of Melbourne's suburbs (in that sense I may be worldly but I'm not victorian-ly) but I did know that Footscray was, in a sense, similar to Sydney's Cabramatta. So I prepared myself for an exciting trip to Melbourne's pocket of South East Asia. I had visions of exotic fruit and vegetables with stallholders eager to explain the best ways to cook them. My naivety comes through here. I was expecting a market selling ethnic goods for the westerner. Instead I found a market catering to it's market: Australians of many different backgrounds, mostly ethnic. Perhaps some would not publicly admit to being so narrow minded, but I think if you're prepared to air your views on the internet then you should be honest.

I'd like to think that if I wasn't in a hurry I would have taken my time to explore the goods on offer and patiently caught the attention of the stallholder to ask questions. Instead I was looking for the familiar in unfamiliar territory and I wanted it quickly. What on earth is in Chinese Sausages? I just want skinny beef snags for the BBQ. Who in their right mind would buy those fish heads in the first place, Let alone sitting out in the open like that? And can people puh-lease stop pushing and shoving. All of this surrounded by people speaking different languages. Not one language, but many different languages. I'm sure this combines to make Footscray Markets great markets indeed, but at the end of the day, I admit I was out of my comfort zone and I panicked. I'm sure it's like any other market...don't make your first visit when you're in a hurry. I got fed up with South Melbourne market first time because I didn't know which places were "good" and felt I had to know exactly what I wanted before stepping up to the frantic deli counter. I'll know next time, thanks to the Foodies Guide to Melbourne, that T.H. Butcher has one of the broadest ranges, whilst Pelekand Deli could have sorted me out with Goat's curd. I'll be sure to not waste my next trip there and allow myself plenty of time.

Christmas feasting wrap-up

2008-01-07T18:53:00.000+11:00

Christmas has come and gone just as quickly as it does every year. No doubt gyms across the country are having a surge in membership applications as people reflect on all the goodness that they ate. I declared to Mum that she shouldn’t have to cook for only 3 people again and so we treated ourselves to a Christmas lunch outing (well, Mum and Dad treated me). We all decided that 3 people or 30, the cleaning up would be the same so lets just not. Mum still got into the spirit and cooked a rolled loin of pork two days before as well as chicken breast stuffed with fetta and wrapped in proscuitto. Yummo.

Christmas eve saw us pack up the presents and head to Opal Cove in Coffs Harbour and the next day we ate ourselves silly at the Christmas Buffet. There are a few photos which I hope to post soon but they don’t do the spread justice. We started with prawns, oysters, smoked salmon, smoked trout, calamari, crab and snapper. Mum was so impressed with the prawns that I’m not sure she made it to the turkey. There was a vast array of cold meats and pates and of course the traditional roast Christmas lunch. Of everything I was particularly taken by the smoked trout, the calamari and the turkey with a thyme jus, whilst Dad raved about the roast beef. Still, it didn’t end there. We had the obligatory piece of warm pudding with a great brandy kick, covered in custard and a myriad of other desserts. As it was a buffet, and a Christmas Buffet at that, we decided we really should sample all the desserts, which is exactly what we did. French Christmas log, chocolate mudcake, lemon meringue pie and cheesecake all landed on our table for just a little nibble.

All this food was then followed by wine and cheese on the terrace, overlooking the resort pool. If it wasn’t Christmas we would’ve shown much more restraint. Honest. I knew I was in trouble when I decided to have a dip at 5 pm and had to leave the pool because I felt I’d sink.

But that wasn’t all for my Christmas feasting. Two weeks earlier it was my turn to host the 5th and final Ironchef for the year. Between us we decided it had to be a bit of a Christmas celebration. As one of my themes was French I thought it a perfect time to cook Buche de Noel.

Whilst mine wasn’t as perfectly rolled as our buffet version, I was quite proud of it. I write about dessert first because that’s what I had to make first. This was actually a frozen Buche de Noel and therefore had to be made the day before. I’ve never rolled sponge before and I didn’t consider the implications of this until the sponge broke and softend ice cream oozed out everywhere. What can one do? I simply squished it together as best I could and shoved it back in the freezer. I’m not sure if I broke any rules doing this but the very next day I pushed chunks of ice cream into the sponge by hand, just to give it more of a rounded appearance.

Of course we ate entrée and main before dessert. Westie produced a mouth-watering mushroom lasagna to start. Honestly we probably could’ve skipped straight from entrée to dessert, not to mention the cheese our guest V brought, but in true Christmas style we had to eat our absolute limits.

Lamb cutlets on the bbq formed the basis for strawberry, lamb and feta salad, with sides of kumera crumble and warm zucchini and almond salad. So overall lunch went pretty smoothly, something tells me I wouldn’t be so lucky if I tried turkey. I find something comical about the idea of such a big bird fitting into any of the small baking trays I own. Next year maybe…..

Merry Christmas

2007-12-24T13:16:00.000+11:00

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

2007-11-26T17:03:00.001+11:00

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

2007-11-25T12:40:00.000+11:00

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?

2007-11-05T13:59:00.000+11:00

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

2007-10-11T21:35:00.000+10:00

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

2007-10-09T21:40:00.000+10:00

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

2007-09-30T14:01:00.001+10:00

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

2007-09-27T22:29:00.000+10:00

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

2007-09-23T21:24:00.002+10:00

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

2007-09-18T07:20:00.000+10:00

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

2007-09-10T17:59:00.000+10:00

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

2007-09-04T13:29:00.001+10:00

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

2007-09-01T12:53:00.000+10:00

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

2007-08-29T20:02:00.000+10:00

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?

2007-08-27T20:43:00.000+10:00

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

2007-08-24T21:09:00.000+10:00

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

2007-08-21T21:12:00.000+10:00

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

2007-08-20T17:30:00.000+10:00

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

2007-08-19T14:50:00.000+10:00

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

2007-08-16T17:35:00.000+10:00

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

2007-08-11T13:21:00.000+10:00

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

2007-08-09T21:34:00.000+10:00

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

2007-08-07T08:35:00.001+10:00

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

2007-08-06T21:49:00.000+10:00

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.....

2007-08-04T17:47:00.000+10:00

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

2007-07-31T22:08:00.000+10:00

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

2007-07-30T17:24:00.000+10:00

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.

The Flower Drum

2007-07-26T22:39:00.000+10:00

I’ve abandoned my blog for over a week now and there’s a good reason, I promise. N1 and N2 were back for a visit, as was another friend Slowie. Consequently I’ve been eating and drinking my way around Melbourne. Sometimes it’s hard to write about food when you’re too busy consuming it. What’s worse is the high life started on Wednesday, didn’t stop till Sunday and I had to keep turning up to work. Obviously I had the weekend off but yesterday was particularly painful and my morning run today wasn’t much better.

Still, these are the times you have to take hold and run with. They all say good food and wine is best enjoyed with great company and you can’t fully appreciate that if you’re stressing about going to work the next day, spending money or getting things done. So this was precisely my attitude when N2 suggested the Flower Drum for dinner last Wednesday night. Of late I’ve been hit by the money swallower…you know the mysterious force that keeps dragging the notes out of your wallet and you’re not sure where they’re going? Therefore, upon mention of Flower Drum after a cocktail at the Sofitel’s Atrium, my first thought was “eek…not this month, please…I really don’t think I can afford it”. Fortunately I decided I wouldn’t be a party pooper and I kept my thoughts to myself. Sometimes my inner-scrooge stops me from enjoying things and needs to be squashed.

Booked out on a Wednesday night, we had to wait a mere 30 minutes for a table which was fine. A phonecall drew us back and we were ushered into the lift. There’s a certain old world charm about the room and service, dating right back to the 1980s. I can imagine new and old money wheeling and dealing over their Cantonese; big business sealed with Peking Duck.

It took a little while for menus to be brought to our table and when they were we were bamboozled. What to order? So we let the waiter choose. You will see very few photos here. I tried, I really did but the waiters are so attentive it’s hard to get a minute to yourself. I don’t like drawing attention to taking photographs. Partly because I don’t want to disclose that I may be critiquing the meal in any written way and secondly I just don’t like to. Being as discreet as possible tends to make those at my table more comfortable. N1 and N2 definitely had a good chuckle the first time I did it, but they are used to me now. At one point the waiter saw me snap the Peking Duck and offered to take a picture of us all. I agreed and the 3 of us smiled awkwardly, explaining our food photographs under the pretence that a friend was meant to be there, couldn’t make it in the end and was very upset.

As I said, the service was very attentive. At some points I nearly felt I had been transported back to Colonial times. There was a style about the service that emphasized we were the diners, they were the staff and all are not quite equal. Don’t get me wrong, if I’m paying big bucks for a meal I want service that crawls, but never do I want to feel like we would be anything other than equals outside the restaurant.

Our food selection was nearly all thanks to our waiter. We started with Salt and Pepper Squid and King George Whiting on a bed of fried enoki mushrooms. The batter was light as a feather. You know when you’re eating fried food and your body knows it’s fried food but it tastes too good to be anything but good for you. The waiter kindly showed us how to dip our morsels into the lemon juice and then salt, warning us that the chilli sauce was very, very hot. We must have really looked like we didn’t know what was going on, as he rushed back with some raw enoki mushrooms just to fully explain what we were eating. It was very sweet (of him, that is not the mushroom).

Next came Peking Duck. We ordered our duck off the specials entrée rather than the regular menu. Our pancakes were prepared at the trolleys a little way away from our table and then delivered one by one. This whole process involved about 3 staff which was quite impressive. As you can see from the picture these are no frills and all about the food. The meat seemed a little dry to me. Some might interpret that as wonderfully lean however I would have like mine to be dripping with a little more fat. If you’re going to eat duck you may as well have it laced with the delicious fat. It was still the best Peking Duck I’ve ever had!

Mains arrived at our table all together: steamed vegetables, sweet and sour pork and what I think was Sichuan beef. As the waiter was describing the dish it sounded like he was saying Citron. However he was referring to a province in China so I’m thinking Sichuan? It was a beautiful cut of beef, quite rare and extremely tender. Chilli and blackbean sauce masked a lot of the beef flavour however this was all about texture.

Sweet and Sour Pork was my selection. I’m not sure why but I often crave the taste of sweet and sour. When I satisfy the craving I’m usually disappointed by fatty chunks of pork in deep-fried batter. Luckily this wasn’t so at Flower Drum. Unluckily Sweet and Sour Pork will never be the same again.

We polished off 2 lovely bottles of red something or other from Coldstream. That might seem particularly ignorant of me, however N2 took care of wine ordering and I was happy to sit back and let decisions be made for me as waiters dutifully topped up my glass. From what I’ve read, the winelist at Flower Drum is notable, so I’ll have to go back again, just to check it out.

I really did feel I was having a once in a lifetime dining experience. I do confess I’m not sure whether that was because of the restaurant or because of the reputation that preceded it. Either way I’m so grateful N2 suggested it, because I’m not sure that I would have got there otherwise. My evening ended at the same time as 3 other quite drunken gentlemen. Obviously regulars they pointed at a table which had held a large 21st party and said “that’s the biggest table I’ve ever seen at ‘the drum’, phft, they can’t afford it!” And whilst I was disgusted at such blatant show of snobbery, we were acutely aware that our wallets were a lot lighter. My advice? Go there if you can, throw all caution to the wind and pretend your Donald Trump cracking it big in the real estate game (that’s before he went bankrupt and re-built his empire).

A new book, an egg yolk and an empty jar

2007-07-15T19:41:00.000+10:00

N from Tamworth visited Melbourne two weeks ago and in her wake she left S-bo and I a copy of bills open kitchen. S-bo decided that for the moment it should live at my place and already I've been looking at the recipes with anticipation. Especially the sweetcorn cakes which were a treat whenever I visited MB in Woollahra. N from Tamworth felt she was leaving S-bo and I a little taste of Sydney so we didn't get too homesick down here.

Leftover from the dumplings the other day was a lone egg yolk floating under some water in the fridge. I often end up with egg yolks and can never work out what to cook with them. Mayonnaise? Custard? My favourite is lemon curd but I don't usually have a jar that I can sterilise and keep it in. Until today! I had a look at a few different lemon curd recipes and opted for bills because it was "the new book" and because it used the least egg yolks. Flatmate brings eggs back from her parents farm and I feel guilty using them all up in my cooking frenzies.

Previous attempts at making lemon curd have yielded mixed results but they have taught me the whole double saucepan thing is not necessary. Still, I made bill's lemon curd by the book, finding it quite labour intensive as a result. All that whisking really does tax my short attention span and next time I'll probably go back to direct stovetop. Nevertheless I found the making of the curd quite therapeutic. I had some music on and the weather outside was sunny but very cold. What a better way to spend such an afternoon than in the kitchen.

I haven't tried much of the curd yet. A little lick of the spoon makes me think it tastes like lemon curd, surprise surprise. I will hold onto it for now, perhaps crack open the bottle one sunny morning and spread it on brioche. It's hard to wait really.

Bills Lemon curd
3 eggs
Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 cup caster sugar
50 g butter cut into small pieces

Place the yolks, zest, juice and sugar in a heatproof bowl and whisk together until smooth.
Place the bowl over simmering water, making sure the bottom doesnt touch the water. Stir for 8-10 minutes or until thickened slightly.
Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter, one piece at a time.
Cool

I believe lemon curd will last quite some time in a sterilised jar. I have it in the fridge too, just incase. Otherwise any container will do but you should use it within the week.

Banana Cake

2007-07-14T18:39:00.000+10:00

I have a low fat recipe for banana cake...this is not it! Until recently I haven't been a big eater of banana cake. I started to make the low fat recipe because it was on hand, not because it was low fat. The cake is actually quite good. It uses wholemeal flavour and as a result has a great texture and is a little nutty. I'm not sure why I decided to bake, but I did and thought this time I might have a crack at the real deal. That gamble definitely payed off.

In my quest to bake all of my recipes I don't often step outside my standard collection of chefs and cooks. This is no exception, with the cake coming from Stephanie Alexander's Cooks Companion. I'm no expert on banana cake recipes but I think this one is pretty damn good. It's quite easy and straightforward to make, creating very little washing up along the way. The recipe suggested a brown sugar and walnut topping, to be added before baking. But I was keen to have a nice thick icing. The low fat cake has a very poor excuse for icing, it's main drawback actually. It's a watery mix of icing sugar, lemon juice and water. Where's the butter you may ask? Well that wouldn't be low fat would it. To make up for previous deprivation I aimed for a thick, rich cream cheese frosting from Women's Weekly Cupcakes. I'm always on the search for a great cream cheese icing. This one was pretty good. Nice and thick on the cake. I think next time I will increase the cream cheese just a tad.

So am I wholeheartedly converted to banana cake? Absolutely. I will revert back to the low fat cake on occasion. I enjoy providing kilojoule-conscious friends with clear conscience cake. I might swap the pathetic slop of icing for the creamy, cheesy delight however.

The full fat ensemble goes something like this:

Simple Banana Cake (Ali-K's version)
125 g softened unsalted butter
1.5 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 ripe bananas, mashed (this is the perfect banana balance for me and can depend on the size of the bananas. If you prefer a more consistent result aim for 1 cup mashed banana)
A few drops (or small slosh) of vanilla essence

250 g plain flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup buttermilk or 1/2 cup milk mixed with with 1 teaspoon lemon juice.

In true Ali-K style I realise as I type this that I left some ingredients out. You could add 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon and 1/8 ground allspice however the cake probably wont miss it, considering I didn't realise until now. Flatmate laughs and thinks I should make a guessing game of the things I leave out of recipes. At least it wasnt the bicarb this time!

Butter and flour a 22 cm square cake tine, then line base with baking paper. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
Cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in eggs, banana and vanilla. Sift dry ingredients and add to the mixture, alternating with buttermilk.
Spoon into tin and bake for 1 hour or until a fine skewer inserted come out clean.
Cool cake in its tine on a wire rack for a few minutes before turning out. Cool completey before cutting or storing.

Cream Cheese Frosting
30 g butter
80 g cream cheese
1 1/2 cups icing sugar

Beat butter and cream cheese until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in sugar.

Chicken and mint dumplings

2007-07-12T20:51:00.000+10:00

Sometime last year I made chicken and mint dumplings and I remembered them being kind of ok. But do you think I could find the recipe this year, when I had some chicken mince in the freezer, waiting to be used? The closest I could come was pork wonton from Flatmate's "the BIG book of wok". This was accompanied by a delicious looking broth so I thought my mind was made up. I was going to make the pork wontons with chicken instead and serve with asian pea broth.

That was until I re-found my chicken and mint dumpling recipe. I then discovered that I liked the look of the asian pea broth more than the original broth. So we have now arrived at Chicken and mint dumplings in asian pea broth. Simple.

On the day I invited S'bo round to dine on this meal with me, he came down with a cold. What's a better cold remedy than a warm, gingery broth? Exactly, not much. It became a joint effort and I quite enjoyed cooking together. I'm not always great at sharing my kitchen with others. I'm also not great at folding up wonton wrappers, probably made harder by the fact that I had square instead of round. I ended up halving the wrapper diagonally and they turned out ok, if not a little funny looking..

The broth was very flavoursome and paired pretty well with the dumplings. I should add that the dumplings really did look like little brains. Inside the chicken was well cooked although I think I should've used extra mint/coriander for more flavour. The dumplings were surprisingly filling but you know what they say, "feed a cold...." I think S-bo felt a little better as a result.

Chicken and Mint Dumplings:
I'm not sure where this recipe came from, it's one I've had floating around for a fair few years now.

150 g chicken mince
1 red chilli, seeds removed and flesh finely chopped
1 tbsp min, chopped finely
1 tbsp coriander, chopped finely
8 round wonton wrappers

In a bowl, combine the chicken mince, chilli, mint and coriander and season with salt and pepper. Lay the wonton wrappers on a flat surface and palce a tablespoon of the mixture onto the centre of each wrapper. Brush the edges with a little water and fold in half, sealing edges completely.

Bring your chosen broth to the boil then reduce the heat to a simmer. Cook the dumplings for 3-4 minutes.

Asian Pea Broth
I will try and recount the recipe I used, however it is a combination of that given with the dumplings and that from "the BIG book of wok"

Oil
1 large leek
2 cloves garlic
3 cm piece fresh ginger, finely chopped
4 tbsp Chinese rice wine
750 mL chicken stock
1.5 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 stick lemongrass, white part only, sliced thinly into rounds
150 g frozen peas

Heat the oil in a pan and stirfry the leeks for 2 minutes. Add the garlic and ginger and stirfry for a further 2 minutes. Pour in the wine and continue cooking until most of it has evaporated.
Add the stock and bring to the boil. Reduce to a simmer and add soy sauce, peas and dumplings. Simmer for 3-4 minutes.

Garnish with coriander.

Pumpkin Pie

2007-07-10T21:46:00.000+10:00

I've never had pumpkin pie. Until recently I didn't think many people in Australia had. Turns out there are a few people around, which is great because I needed someone to confirm that yes, the strange concoction I made is actually what it's supposed to be like. A colleague put it as "It's spicy not sweet, the way gingerbread is spicy but not sweet." And with ground cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg, I guess you can't expect much different.

I'm not particularly good at making pastry. I used the shortcrust recipe in Cook's Companion however I used a food processor instead of benchtop. I just don't have the space in my kitchen. First time round (I made the pie twice 'cause I had so much pumpkin mixture) the pastry wasn't particularly good. Second time I invested in some actual baking weights (instead of rice) and was much more successful.

I think it's best to eat the pie warm, and as fresh as possible. You really can't taste the pumpkin, it's all about the spices. However the longer you leave it, the stranger the filling texture becomes. Guinea pigs praised the pie. I, as always am a little more critical of my cooking. Anyways, it's worth giving a go, at least once.

Pumpkin Pie (from Cooks Companion)

1 kg pumpkin (jap or gramma), peeled

Zest and juice of 2 lemons
1 knob butter
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 egg yolk
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp ground cloves
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup currants

Steam pumpkin then mash.

Line an 18 cm pie plate or loose bottomed flan tin with pastry and bake blind at 200 degrees for 20 min. Remove and increase oven tempeture to 220 degrees.

Mix pumpkin with remaining ingredients, then pour into prepared pastry case and smooth top. Bake for 10 min, then reduce heat to 180 and bake for a further 10-15 min.

Note: The recipe says 18 cm tin. I have a much larger tin so I made 1 1/2 times the pumpkin mixture. This isn't really necessary as I had more than one extra pie's worth of filling leftover.

HHDD #13: Sorbet

2007-07-08T14:33:00.000+10:00

This month’s edition of Hay Hay it’s Donna Day got me very excited. Sorbet! Laura from EAT DRINK LIVE was inspired by the approach of summer in the north and put out the call for sorbet. My recipe isn’t quite sorbet, but neither is it conventional ice cream either. Sadly for those who can’t have dairy, this ice cream isn’t for you. But if you’re someone who can eat dairy and loves licking the bowl after cooking biscuits then read on….

In my quest to cook up all my recipe clippings, I’ve had my eye on this one for a while. Banana, Brown Sugar and Sour Cream Ice-cream. The reason I kept it out in the first place is because it doesn’t require a churner and I don’t have one. So whilst it might not quite fit the bill of sorbet, I jumped at the chance to make it. As it’s winter down south my firm belief is that any dessert should be at least a little fattening.

The recipe involves whizzing the ingredients in a food processor. Why do I mention licking the bowl? Because this particular recipe is divine and so is the resultant mixing bowl! The strong taste I normally associate with bananas is softened by the creaminess, whilst the brown sugar makes the final product taste just a little like banana cookie dough.

There’s no repeat mixing required, just whiz it all up and place in the freezer. It works best if you give it a little time to soften, however an important note is it doesn’t freeze rock hard. The recipe makes about 2 litres so there’s plenty to go around and my friends have been very receptive. For just a little class, add a sprinkling of nutmeg…

The Recipe:

500g ripe banana's
4 eggs, separated
2 tsp lemon juice
100g dark brown sugar
300g sour cream
100g (about 4 tbsp) glucose syrup (aka corn syrup)
pinch salt

Peel the bananas and whiz in a food processor with the egg yolks, lemon juice and brown sugar until smooth. Mix in the sour cream and pulse until silky.

Whisk the egg whites with the glucose syrup and salt until soft peaks form. Gently fold 1/4 egg whites into the banana mixture until nearly combined, then fold this lightened mixture into the remaining egg whites until you get an even consistency. Put into an ice-cream container and freeze for at least 3-4 hours.

Don't forget to lick the bowl.

Fettuccine with Zucchini, Lemon, Ricotta and Almonds

2007-07-04T19:14:00.000+10:00

During its construction, this dish looked boring. I wanted something quick, easy and inexpensive yet delicious, that I could share with flatmate. I thought this little gem fitted the bill however halfway through I wasn’t so sure. There was no colour in my frying pan to lift the soggy looking zucchini and nothing screaming “eat me”.

Have I sold it to you yet? Well don’t fear, this meal was amazingly quite delicious. The subtle flavours of zucchini, lemon, ricotta and almonds combined so well that flatmate couldn’t stop assuring me it had turned out ok. I can have quite a low cooking-esteem at times and a bland looking dish when I’ve promised to cook can really get to me. I used dried fettuccine and can only imagine how sensational this would be with fresh. Italian dishes can often be so bold and rich that it’s easy to forget the effectiveness of simplicity. Just look at the best pizzas around.

I will add a humorous note and say that my quest for inexpensive nearly came undone when I took the zucchinis to the check out. They truly were mammoth, with no littlies in sight. The recipe says four medium so I thought 2 large would do the trick. When I went to leave the checkout chick informed me that “those zucchinis will be about $12, do you still want them?”. I decided it probably wasn’t necessary for two of us so I just took one. I can’t remember what the price per kilo was and whether they were particularly expensive or just so damn big.

Fettuccine with zucchini, lemon, ricotta and almonds

4 tbsp unsalted butter
4 tbsp flaked almonds
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 medium zucchini, quartered lengthwise and cut into 1 cm pieces
2 cloves garlic, finely sliced
1 cup chicken stock
Juice of 1 lemon
Zest of 1 lemon
400g dried fettuccine (500g fresh)
125g fresh ricotta
Sea salt
Black pepper
2 tbsp flatleaf parsley, chopped.

Heat half the butter and fry almonds until golden brown. Strain to remove excess butter and reserve.
In a pan gently cook the rest of the butter, oil, zucchini, garlic, stock and lemon juice and half of the zest, covered until zucchini is quite soft (recipe says about 20 minutes but it didn’t take very long at all). Put aside. Cook fettuccine and drain. Return zucchini to simmering point, add ricotta in chunks, then pasta, then season. Tip into a warmed bowl and mix through, adding parsley and remaining lemon zest, then scatter with almonds.

Meat & 3 Veg

2007-07-02T20:45:00.000+10:00

Well I haven't posted for a few days now. I've just had a manic, crazy weekend with barely any time to eat, let alone write about it. Whilst living in Victoria and enjoying the Swans win AFL (not that that has happened lately) I am a rugby girl at heart. To all those unaware, I might take this opportunity to highlight that Rugby Union (aka rugby) is quite different to rugby league (aka league) and the two should not be confused.

With that out of the way, here's how my weekend panned out and what I ate along the way. I've already mentioned Sarti on Thursday night, which was divine. Friday night included a trip to Bluestone Bar on Flinders lane for drinks and pizza to celebrate AO'B's birthday...mighty good pizza however a slightly surly barman. Mental note to all, if you don't know a wine that's on your wine list that's not the customer's fault!

A late trip to the airport on Friday night saw N (from Tamworth) join us for a coffee at Albert Park Deli on Saturday morning. Saturday afternoon was a shopping trip and Risotto in one of the little cafes in Block Arcade followed by the rugby! Pre match drinks were at the Imperial, during match drinks were at the ridiculously slow bar in MCG Ponsford Stand and post match drinks back at the Imperial. We wrapped up the night with a streetside hotdog (classy) and a trip to Albert Park's 24 hour fruit shop! That's right, a 24 hour fruit shop.

Feeling guilty for eating such rubbish the night before, N (from Tamworth), S-bo and I trekked off to South Melbourne Markets and bought ourselves a Sunday feast of dips, bread, cheese, olives and lamb cutlets. What a way to finish off the weekend.

So you're asking, where's the meat and 3 veg? I have no respectable pictures of the weekend so I thought I'd post a picture otherwise destined for back-post: Chicken Baked on Sweet Potato Rosti.

The sweet potato is cut thinly and tossed with parmesan, garlic, pepper and oil. Sadly mine didn't crisp up after baking for 20 minutes at 220 degrees, but the flavour was great. The chicken is another example of the virtues of good quality ingredients and a simple recipe. I bouth the breasts skin on from the market, rubbed the skin with salt and pepper, cooked in a pan for 5 minutes and then in the oven till cooked through.

Dessert was also simple: Chocolate Sausage Rolls. Not quite, but they looked like it. Take a thawed sheet of puff pastry, cut into 4 portions and sprinkle each portion with 1/4 cup chopped chocolate, 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 2 tbsp roasted hazelnuts. Instant dessert! Well not quite, you do need to cook in a 200 degree oven till puffed and golden.

Even better, you can eat them hot or cold. So evening time was chocolate roll with icecream, and morning tea the next morning was chocolate roll snack!

Enjoy....................

Sarti

2007-06-29T18:09:00.000+10:00

Last night I slipped inside the little door near Gin Palace, on Russell Place. You know the one with the funny little beehive sign (pictured) out the front and nothing else? An out of towner like myself would have no reason to realise that this is the home of Sarti. But it is!

A friend is in town this week and we had planned to go out for dinner. This weekend is set to be an expensive one for myself, with the Bledisloe Cup in town, multiple friends visiting to watch/work and the associated eating, drinking and socialising that comes with such excitement. With this in mind I chose Sarti because it had good reviews, a chefs hat and a price range which included options below $30.

Reviews seemed to say that Sarti had perfected all the extras: service, ambience, decor etc, but that their food was only just reaching it's peak. So I was expecting good food and excellent service. After our experience, if I was to describe the service in one word it would be "strange". Our actual table service was good, just the right amount of attention and always a full wine glass. The strange part came from more general dealings. When I booked the person on the other end of the phone was very vague, almost to the point of unwelcoming. Upon arrival we realise there's a large function, taking 2/3 of the floor space and consequently our little table for 3 was tucked way in a corner, almost in a walkway. Interesting. This was after we were taken to the bar, presumably for them to get our table ready, only to be taken to the table before we'd had a chance to sip our water. I feel we should have been warned about the function, particularly as it meant we were sat in the corner of a walkway, in front of the kitchen, behind the bar and near no other tables.

Luckily we were in good spirits and not ready to let this bug us. Because it really was nothing more than a tad strange and why let that ruin a good meal. The up side to being off to a side is you can carry on like the old friend catching up that we were and no one really notices.

The menu has a good selection of starters, salads, pastas, mains and sides. We were all starving so we munched up the provided bread and went straight for mains. I ordered pasta with braised duck leg, marinated artichokes and a sage sauce. I would like to say up front this is one of the nicest pasta sauces I've ever had. There was such complexity of flavours and yet the dish wasn't so rich that I was full. A tangy tomato-ness worked well with the tender duck. Amazing. Unfortunately the complexity of my dish made it hard for me to get much out of the other two meals, but the diners assure me they were amazing. S-bo ordered funghi and ricotta ravioli whilst BD had broadbean risotto, which was very subtle. A funny little quirk was S-bo and I ordered main sizes and BD had an entree size. Whilst the bill says all was in order we all feel they may have got the other two size mixed up. BD's risotto was huge whilst S-bo's ravioli particularly scarce. Unfortunately the photos didnt come out so well due to the lighting, which is why I took a happy snap of the logo.

Risotto

I was the only one in our trio to order dessert, I just couldn't get away from the double chocolate tart with clotted cream. The dessert menu seemed very imaginative and enticing, so I was a little disappointed when my tart arrived. It took a long, long time for them to slice me off a bit and bring it to the table. It arrived a rectangle slab of chocolate on shortcrust pastry with a blob of cream next door. The first few bites revealed a creamy, smooth, rich chocolately filling, unfortunately this wasnt quite enough to sustain my interest throughout the dish. I finished (with the help of the others) a little bored with the dessert, merely eating it all because it was chocolate and I love chocolate.

I've highlighted a few negatives from the evening, but Iwould go back. Why? Because my pasta was excellent and S-bo +BD were equally as impressed. Overall Sarti was laid back, relaxing and reasonably priced.

6 Russell Place

Melbourne

03 9639 7822

Irish Stew

2007-06-28T16:49:00.000+10:00

Slow cooked meat would have to be one of my favourite foods. I love how the meat just falls off the bone and dissolves in your mouth. I fail a little at actually cooking stews, casseroles and roasts as I'm rarely at home long enough. I get home a little too late on a weekday. As for weekends I'm usually cramming far too much into the two days to cook anything which takes more than 1 hour to prepare and cook. Often this cramming includes some kind of baking so perhaps I could cook sweets after the stew is underway. Still, there I go again, more cramming. I'd like to think the idea of a long, slow stew is about slowing down in general. Staying inside, cozy and relaxed. I think I will make an effort to make slow-cooked meals more often. Wind things back a little, take my time and watch the pot boil.

Having said that, this Irish stew is one thing that can be prepared and forgotten. My inspiration came for a Good Weekend clipping but I consulted various different recipes to get the feel of things. The clipping's ingredients were lamb, potatoes, onions, water and salt/pepper. Surely you need more than that to make a meal delicious? Apparently not, I included a few additions, as outlined below, but it was still pretty simple and tasted delicious. The potatoes really soaked up the flavour and were a particular highlight. All recipes I consulted suggested the potatoes should be peeled. I wasn't so keen on this, partly because I thought it added a rustic touch, but also because I couldn't really be bothered. Were the Irish bothered back in the day? On one hand I think waste not, want not. But on the other hand, I guess illness and disease were killers and potatoes probably weren't as well washed in the clean water that we have today.

Many recipes also stated mutton over lamb. I didn't even try to get it. I probably should have. The flatmate often brings back legs of mutton from her parents farm and they are delicious. The bigger flavour of mutton is definitely under-appreciated, hidden by mutton being a "cheaper" meat and often poorly cooked. It takes me right back to student days and institutionalized food. I did try to get neck chops as suggested but the butcher claimed forequarter would be just as good.

The recipe (serves 5):

1 kg mutton or lamb neck chops (this quantity of chops was a little short for 5 people, you could increase it without changing anything else in the recipe)
1.2 kg potatoes (this is heaps for 5 people), peeled.
2 medium onions, peeled and sliced
Salt and pepper
1 cup stock (beef, veal or lamb)
about 3 cups of water
thyme
parsely
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees

Trim the chops of all fat, including the skin. Slice the potatoes about 5mm thick and lay half evenly over the base of a large casserole dish/pot. Sprinkly with half the onion and then lay the chops over the top to form another layer. Season well with salt and pepper, add 1-2 stalks of parsely and thyme each, sprinkle with remaining onion, top with potato and season again. Add the stock and enough water to almost cover the contents. Cover and put the pot in the oven.
After 15 minutes turn the heat down to 150 degrees and continue cooking for about 1 3/4 hours.
Check half way through that there is still enough broth left to cook the potatoes and meat. You can remove the lid for the last 15 minutes to crisp up the top layer of potatoes.

I cooked the stew and had S-bo's flatmates round to help me eat it. There was ample potato but a little less meat. Don't forget to reserve the liquid from the cooking. If you let it cool and skim fat off the top it makes a delicious stock. I can't wait to make soup with it!

Beef Rice Noodles with Snowpeas

2007-06-25T17:51:00.000+10:00

I'm still on my quest to get through all my recipe clippings, and I have a way to go yet! I'm falling behind in my posts a little, so stay tuned for Chicken Baked on Sweet Potato Rosti as well as Irish Stew. In the meantime have a go at beef rice noodles with snowpeas when you want a quick and healthy dinner. On a side note, I've always thought stirfries were pretty healthy (minus coconut milk), however just recently my mother's doctor said no. He claimed the food soaked up the oil. I would like to publicly disagree. Surely if the pan is hot enough you don't need much oil and secondly, olive and vegetable oils are unsaturated. Am I right? Hmm, this is the doctor who said walking 9 holes of golf wasn't enough exercise. Anyway, back to the food.

I preferred this meal to the Honey and Sesame Stir-fried Beef I cooked a little while ago. The marinade had a little more depth and using rice noodles meant all flavours mixed in well and the meal was quick to prepare. I definitely under-utilise rice noodles, dump them in some hot water for a bit, throw them in the pan and away you go. Much quicker than waiting for rice to cook.

So here's the recipe, from an edition of Good Living in about 2004. I think a little bit of ginger might give it a great lift too.

Beef rice noodles with snowpeas

Marinade:

2 tsp cornflour

1 tbsp rice wine
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil

300g rib eye or sirloin, finely sliced
500g fresh rice noodles
Vegetable oil
2 garlic cloves, finely sliced
100g snow peas, sliced lengthwise
200g bean sprouts, rinsed
1 tbsp rice wine or dry sherry
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp sugar
2 spring onions, finely chopped

Combine marinade ingredients and leave beef to marinate for 30 minutes.

Pour hot water ove rthe noodles, gently working them apart with chopstickes. Drain, rinse under cold water, shake dry and rub in a little oil.

Heat a wok (I use a frying pan, even if I had a wok I don't imagine it'd go so well on my electric stove) then add 2 tbsp oil. Add garlic and snowpease, toss well over high heat for 1 min. Add the beef in marinade and toss well until coloured, then tip onto a warm plate.

Add a little extra oil to the pan, and toss the drained noodles and bean sprouts over high heat for 2 mins. Return the beef and snowpeas to the pan, then add the rice wine, soy, oyster sauce and sugar, tossing well. Add a dash of water if dry. Scatter with spring onions and serve.

Serves 4

Cafe Gusto, Queenscliff

2007-06-24T11:46:00.000+10:00

This is yet another back-post. I seem to be forever taking photos and not getting around to posting. The photos stack up and before you know it it’s 2 weeks since I had this meal. On the Queen’s Birthday Long Weekend (happy birthday Liz) S-bo and I took a drive down to Queenscliff. It wasn’t a conscious decision, but I’m sure it was very appropriate to visit Her Majesty’s cliff on Her Majesty’s birthday holiday.

It was what I am beginning to see as a typical Victorian day: windy and rainy. S-bo and I were in search of a warm cozy place to have a nice meal and a good glass of wine, we found it at Café Gusto. A strange building, this place seems like it would really come into it’s own during summer. The inside dining area is quite small, long and skinny but out the back is a huge area, perfect for a party, with pavers and a nice garden, including a herb garden! Since it wasn’t summer, the inside did us quite well. The open fire kept us warm and cozy as we watched the chefs prepare meals in the open kitchen. Ordering provided no contest, the menu isn’t limited, with quite a good selection of sandwiches, salads and a curry or two, but neither S-bo nor I could go past bangers and mash on such a rainy day. Thick pork sausages, field mushrooms, caramelized onions and tomato relish on sourdough. Heaven in a sausage skin. The meal didn’t disappoint, I can only assume the tomato relish was homemade because it was just so good, definitely the highlight on the plate.

The service was pretty standard for café, our order was taken and meals arrived in a timely manner which is notable considering how busy they were, some cafes can fall apart at the seams as soon as all their tables fill. What’s more the staff were friendly and bubbly.

S-bo and I washed our meal down with a nice glass of pinot. Being two weeks ago I can’t remember what pinot, but it was a nice way to spend a holiday lunch. The wine list is charmingly written on a blackboard and it looks like it’s edited frequently, indicating to me that Café Gusto pays attention to what wines it’s serving and rotates on a regular basis. Unfortunately, despite a large range of bottles, wine by the glass was a little harder to come by. The red options included a shiraz, a merlot and the pinot. Considering this was the only fault I could find (not that I go looking for faults) I’d give Café Gusto a thumbs up!

Flourless Orange Cake II

2007-06-22T17:07:00.000+10:00

Well, I had another crack! Luckily there were still some oranges leftover from Bulk to make this cake a second time round. Regular readers will remember my oven woes and associated unsuccessful attempt a short time ago. The recipe can be found by following the link, but it basically entails boiling up the oranges for 2 hours and then processing, skin and all with some eggs. It's quite an easy recipe to make, but my oven is poor at the best of times and has a particular dislike for anything flourless. Perhaps it's watching it's weight and knows the evils of almond meal!

To speed cooking time and thus decrease over-browning I cooked the same quantity of batter in 2 tins, making for a much shallow cake. The resulting "fingers" looked perfect for a sophisticated afternoon tea with cucumber sandwiches. Instead S-bo, flatmate and I ate them with ice-cream. The cake was very moist, I'm not sure if it's how it should be or whether the oven imprinted it's mark afterall. It made for a beautiful dessert but after a few days the pieces I took as snacks to work were getting a little soggy, rather than moist. It did brown a little on the sides, but nothing drastic. The citrus taste is very strong, I guess because of the peel. Overall I think this cake has a lot of possibilities, but I'll leave it for now, at least until I have a better oven. I'll stick with an orange buttercake recipe I have, which tends to turn out pretty well.

Jam Drops

2007-06-19T18:42:00.001+10:00

There’s no doubt about it, some food is just comfort food. Not in the clichéd sense of the term…warm fatty foods that you can enjoy beside a fire, but in the sense that some food brings back great memories. My good friend, N1 who I have mentioned previously, used to make jam drops all the time (and probably still does, do you?). Returning to boarding school after holidays was accompanied by an ice-cream container of the biscuits. Onto uni days and visiting N1 in Brisbane usually involved jam drops and a cup of tea at some point. She used to keep them in the freezer so the jam would be nice and sticky.

Not only do they bring great memories for me, they’re also no-fuss to make and fairly foolproof (hmm, read on…) When a morning tea at work called for us all to bring a plate I settled on jam drops. Unfortunately I got a little distracted while they were in the oven so the end result was burnt on the bottom. I could blame the oven however it’s probably the reason they were burnt only on the bottom and not all over. The morning the biscuits were required saw me scraping off the burnt bottoms the way people scrape toast, a funny sight I’m sure.

Anyway, here they are. I’m not really sure where I got this recipe. It’s not N1’s recipe and it’s not an old family recipe either. I picked it up somewhere about 2 years ago and it’s been scribbled on the back of an envelope ever since. I’m sure it’s one of a hundred different versions.

Jam Drops

80 g butter
1/3 cup caster sugar
2 tbsp milk
½ tsp vanilla essence
1 cup SR flour
1/3 cup custard powder
Jam of your choice

Preheat oven to 180°C. Line 2 baking trays with paper. Beat butter and sugar until light and creamy. Beat in milk and vanilla. Add sifted flour and custard powder and mix to form dough.
Roll 2 teaspoons into a ball and put on trays, pressing down in the middle with your finger. Fill with a drop of jam.
Bake for 15 minutes and cool on a tray.

Radicchio Risotto

2007-06-18T16:32:00.000+10:00

This is a back-blog. A dish that I have made in the recent past and not had time to post about. You might remember the duck dinner and the radicchio that I forgot to serve. Katie, over at Other People’s Food just happened to post a Liquorice and Radicchio Risotto she’d made around the same time, so I declared that I would make the same dish. Unfortunately, as Katie found, ground liquorice root was a little hard to come by. I was told by a lady at the markets that she hasn’t seen ground liquorice root for months. Katie couldn’t find it either and made do with liquorice extract. A national shortage maybe? So instead of using Katie’s recipe I made a basic lemon risotto and incorporated the radicchio as directed by Cook’s Companion.

I made a few mistake when cooking this risotto, namely forgetting to put the star ingredient in with the onion, before the rice. I didn’t realise until well after the first couple of ladles of stock. Nevermind, I briefly cooked the radicchio in a little oil and added it half way. The risotto still took on a brilliant pink colour. I’m not really sure that the radicchio lent much flavour as it still tasted like a plain lemon risotto to me. That’s not to say it wasn’t delicious, and I was the envy of my workmates when I took leftovers for lunch the next day. I was cooking for myself this particular evening and I had just enough rose, also leftover from the duck dinner, to have a glass with my meal.

So, here’s to leftovers, in many different forms.

Radicchio Risotto

1.5 l chicken stock
200 ml white wine
120 g unsalted butter
1 red onion, minced (although I used a brown onion, chopped and this worked out fine)
250 g finely sliced radicchio
2 cups arborio rice
salf & pepper
90 g grated parmesan
¼ cup chopped parsley
grated zest + juice of 1 lemon

Heat stock and wine, (I often use the microwave instead of dirtying another saucepan). In a heavy-based pan melt half the butter over gentle heat, sauté onion until softened and translucent then stir in radicchio. Add rice, raise heat to moderate and stir to ensure grains are coated with the butter. Add 1 cup of hot stock, simmer and stir constantly. Once liquid is absorbed continue adding, simmering and stirring, 1 cup at a time. After 15-20 minutes rice should be perfectly cooked. Remove from heat, season and add cheese, remaining butter, parsley and lemon juice/zest. Cover for 2 minutes then serve at once.

Serves 6

Mr Wolf, St Kilda

2007-06-12T22:24:00.000+10:00

Karen Martini's creation if I'm right, this is what my friends SD & Newie would call “fancy pizza”. And coincidentally we all toddled off to Mr Wolf’s for SD & Newie’s farewell party. It was a sad and exciting occasion. Sad as two friends of mine are about to go overseas indefinitely and exciting because it spells new challenges for them AND means S-bo and I got to go to Mr Wolf. We went here the very first weekend I moved to Melbourne and loved it. But it’s not an everyday experience…they don’t call it “fancy pizza” for nothing.

I think I may have ordered the same pizza we had last time we went too…Pancetta (below). I can’t find it on the website’s menu but it had pancetta (obviously), mozzarella, basil I think, olives and chilli. Our first time to Mr Wolf I found the chilli a bit much so this time I asked them to tone it down a little. Unfortunately I then ended up with too little chilli. My mistake really. It’s not that I don’t like (moderately) spicy food; I’m just big on chilli overpowering other flavours. I should just build my tolerance.

S-bo had a special, Porcetta (top) (possibly dubious spelling here). The pizza consisted of pork, artichoke and lemon among other things. He was keen to try something different but wasn’t so sold on this. It was a little unconventional I guess, I think I liked it more than him.

There was a very different vibe on a Saturday night compared to the Sunday that we visited. Obviously, being busy, it wasn’t as relaxed. I remember the service first time round as being exceptional whilst this time it was simply adequate. The waitress was friendly and efficient, but did need chasing when drinks were empty. To be fair we were a difficult booking: large and early, arriving in dribs and drabs. The evening was far more about friends catching up and I’m sure service would have been its usual top notch if our objective was more about the food. I really don’t want to nit-pick the restaurant because the evening was great, but it does beg the question should service be of the same standard regardless of what night of the week you attend a restaurant?

Similarly the pizza wasn’t quite as good as I remembered, but then I did bland-down my pizza and on our first visit I was entirely in awe of all things Melbourne, having lived here for all of 1 ½ days. Don’t get me wrong, it’s exceptional pizza, fancy even, I just had particularly high standards on this occasion.

Mr Wolf does BYO on Tuesday nights, so I’m keen to head along and pair a bottle of Sangiovese that I’ve been hoarding for a while with a delectable pizza. They also have takeaway and home delivery.

Note: On second thoughts I may have had Calabrese on my first visit.... should return to compare and contrast me-thinks.

Mr Wolf
9-15 Inkerman St
St Kilda (03) 9534 0255

Flourless Orange Cake…aka Disaster Cake!

2007-06-10T13:10:00.000+10:00

My workmate brought oranges back from his farm…perfect for making an orange cake. I have a great recipe for buttery orange cake, but this time decided I needed a new challenge. It seemed straight forward enough, but never underestimate the power of Ali’s baking disasters!

I’m not so keen on my oven. My mother has fought a bad oven for years until getting a new kitchen recently, so what did I do? Moved into a flat with a bad oven! No fan-forced for me. The element is on the bottom and the oven is about 20 degrees too hot I think. The first ever cake I made in this oven was a whisky, chocolate and raisin cake…expensive ingredients that all went in the bin when the outside was charcoal-burnt and the inside as uncooked as….. Anyway, it was uncooked!

The problem seems to be worse in cakes with low flour content. Usually I set the oven 20 degrees cooler than suggested and turn the cake regularly and it seems to work ok, just. Like the whisky, raisin and chocolate cake, the flourless orange cake browned very quickly on the surface and remained uncooked inside. I think I will try the cake again in a shallower tin…cook it quickly before it has a chance to brown. It really didn’t help that I left out the baking powder and madly tried to stir it in, with help from my flatmate, after the cake had been in the oven for 15 minutes.

Here’s the recipe, from Cooks Companion:
Interesting is the boiling of the oranges, filling my apartment with a beautiful, fresh citrus smell.

Claudia Roden’s Middle Eastern Orange Cake

2 large oranges
6 eggs, beaten
250 g ground almonds
250 g sugar
1 tsp baking powder

Boil oranges, barely covered with water, in a covered saucepan for 2 hours. Allow to cool, cut open, remove pips and chop roughly (including the rind).

Preheat oven to 190 degrees and butter/flour a 24 cm springform tin. Blend oranges and eggs thoroughly in a food processor. Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl then add the orange mixtures and whisk to combine. Pour batter into prepared tin and bake for 45 - 60 minutes. Cool in tin before gently turning out.

HHDD #12....Don't Forget to Vote!

2007-06-07T21:16:00.000+10:00

Don't forget, you have 2 day's left to vote for your favourite Caesar Salad. Katie at Other People's Food has put together a great round-up. Pop along and check out all the scrumptious takes on Caesar Salad. Clearly there's more than one way to toss a salad!

Honey and Sesame Stir-fried Beef

2007-06-07T20:52:00.000+10:00

Over the last two and a half years I’ve collected hundreds of recipe clippings. A recipe organizer from Kikki.K, given to me by AO’b and MB, has inspired me to work my way through the clippings, keeping what I like and discarding those that I will never cook again.

I’ve already cooked a few things that haven’t appeared on this blog, including lemon and orange delicious pudding and mushroom and white wine risotto. This post features a recipe I made last week, honey and sesame stir-fried beef. It’s a Christine Mansfield recipe published in the Good Weekend 20th Anniversary Issue, 2004. Uh huh, I have uncooked recipes from 2004.

I used a little too much chilli when making this, which masked the honey a bit. It’s an easy recipe to whip up and I served it with rice and steamed greens. The marinade is quick, meaning you can prepare it and forget it, perfect for starting before the gym and cooking and eating when you return, as I did.

Leftover beef, which formed my dinner the following night was delicious! The flavour enhanced, honey stronger and chilli weaker.

This week’s menu includes Chicken on Sweet Potato Rosti (Marie Claire) and Beef, rice noodles and snow peas. I’m also hoping to try Katie’s (Other People’s Food) Licorice and Radicchio Risotto, with the leftover raddichio from the duck dinner. Unfortunately I can’t find powdered licorice root. Katie used licorice drops, does anyone know of anything else that can be substituted in?

Back to the Honey and Sesame Stir-fried Beef:
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tbsp light soy sauce
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
2 tbsp light honey
1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
3 red birdseye chillies
2 tbsp vegetable oil
500 g beef tenderloin fillet, thinly sliced
2 tsp white sesame seeds, lightly toasted
1 bunch chives cut into 5 cm lengths

Combine the first 7 ingredients with half the oil. Add beef slices, mix well and marinate for an hour.

Heat a large wok with half the remaining oil, add half the beef and marinade and toss over high heat so the beef sears and cooks quickly (chopsticks will help keep the beef strips separate). Repeat with the remaining oil, beef and marinade.

Sprinkle the sesame seeds and chives over the beef. The recipe suggests serving with rice, noodles or watercress salad.

Duck for Dinner Part II: Dessert

2007-06-03T13:25:00.000+10:00

These little plum and almond cakes formed the dessert for the last week’s duck dinner. They were from the same article by Bill Granger in Good Living. Plums are out of season at the moment yet I had hoped to still source some. When I couldn’t I opted for strawberries, which worked amazingly well. The little cakes are very light, the almond meal gives a texture similar to friands yet without the heaviness you sometimes get. The batter is quite runny which can be disconcerting to start with. The great thing about this recipe is it can all be done by hand. Two bowls, a fork and a spoon make life a lot easier than pulling out the mix-master whilst trying to cook the rest of a meal...you might remember from Part I how disorganised I was so this was a Godsend.

Here’s what to do:

1 cup almond meal
1 ½ cups icing sugar, sifted
½ cup plain flour
150 g unsalted butter, melted
6 egg whites, beaten lightly with a fork
2 plums, halved, stone removed, sliced
1/3 cup flaked almonds
½ cup thick yoghurt
½ cup crème fraiche

Preheat oven to 180C. Grease ½ cup capacity muffin tin.
Combine dry ingredients together and add melted butters and beaten egg whites, stir until just combined.
Spoon the mixture into about 9 muffin holes and top with a few plum slices and the flaked almonds.
Bake for 20 minutes until golden and cooked through.
Combine yoghurt and crème fraiche and serve a dollop on warm cakes.

Laneway 3000: Winter Party

2007-06-02T16:15:00.000+10:00

Apparently there was a laneway party on last night! Some friends and I tried to find it but we got side-tracked by food on Hardware Lane. We had every intention of going to the party but our stomachs won out.

We found ourselves at Aloi Na! A Thai place amongst many other Italian places. Hardware lane is an amazing place on a Friday night. Never in Sydney would so many people choose to dine outside in such temperatures. Unfortunately Aloi Na! wasn’t as vibrant as the setting. The food was what I’d been looking for at my last visit to a Thai restaurant, however not worth the price tag. The Massamun Curry was particularly amazing, the chicken with cashews nuts standard, run of the mill chicken with cashew nuts (what more can you expect) and the Pad Thai was apparently bad. Pad Thai was never my favourite dish, so I can’t claim to be an expert but my fellow diners were disappointed. An interesting wine list include Sticks Pinot Noir for a mere $25, surely that’s cheap for restaurant price, with a retail of around $16.

Two bottles of wine later we decided to check out the festivities. “VIP” after parties were being held at Golden Monkey, Horse Bazaar and Murmur. First we went to Apartment to search for some friends. Some poor barman dropped a bottle of Smirnoff on the bar and a suit got quite irate. These things happen and I have a nice little cut on my pinkie finger to prove it. We moved on to Murmur, but didn’t have any Eat Drink Winter brochures to get 2-for-1 cocktails. Never mind, instead we enjoyed an amazing playlist from the early 90s…Dire Straits, Gunners, Springsteen etc. I believe the DJ didn’t turn up so the guys behind the bar were having the time of their life controlling the CD player. Ok, so I don’t know that about the DJ for sure, but there was an empty deck in a corner and the guys behind the bar were controlling the tunes!

When 90s music got too much we made our way to Workshop for a final nightcap. Overall I got a well-rounded tour of more Melbourne laneways and bars, and I think that’s what the Winter in the City promotion is all about!

More photos to come.

Duck for Dinner

2007-05-31T21:04:00.000+10:00

I could blog about so many aspects of this meal. “I’ve never cooked duck before” is just the start. There’s the discussion I had with a vegetarian colleague about eating your pets, just prior to buying the duck, then there’s my visit to Luv-A-Duck in Port Melbourne, which also seemed to highlight the “eating your pets” thing, with a cutesy duck as their logo. Surely such cuteness associated with their product is bad for business.

What about my search across Melbourne for redcurrant jelly, a problem I’ve encountered previously. My unsuccessful search for out-of-season plums? What about disorganization in the kitchen. Then there’s my apparent inability to cook celeriac and dessert that sticks to the pan. Not to mention my forgetfulness…oh yes, I forgot to put an ingredient on the plate.

Phew. Did I mention the reason for holding this meal? A desire to get through two years worth of uncooked recipe clippings, including a duck recipe, combined with a bottle of rose I was dying to drink. That’s probably a good place to start. And since that sentence needs no further explanation, I guess I’ve started. I should add that I picked up the wine when travelling around Hawkes Bay in New Zealand; a 2004 rose from Alpha Domus.

The meal was Cinnamon spiced duck with pink grapefruit and raddichio. Or not, as the forgotten ingredient was radicchio. I’d seen it a few weeks earlier at the South Melbourne Markets and yet, when I went to buy it I had to search, hard. But I found it. Sadly it’s still sitting in my fridge. I’m sure I can make something of it. Hard-to-find was a feature of this evening. Even pink grapefruits and celeriac, which have been everywhere I turn, mysteriously disappear when I’m being specific at the market. As for redcurrant jelly, I often searched for this in Canberra and it was never available in the supermarkets, except at Christmas time apparently. I’m sure Essential Ingredient had some, but that was a long way across town from where I lived. In this instance, Albert Park Deli had a lone bottle, tucked right up there behind the cranberry.

I can tell this is going to be a long post, let that be a warning. But I encourage you to keep reading because, whilst it all sounds disastrous, the duck turned out beautifully. The recipe is from Good Living, about this time a year ago, with thanks to Bill Granger. The duck breasts appeared quite lean (4 people, 4 breasts) and I scored the skin a couple of times before rubbing 1 tsp ground cinnamon and 2 tbsp brown sugar into the skin. I was just doing this as my guests arrived, my little trip to the deli had detoured to the expensive fruit shop to see if they’d magic-ed some plums and a quick duck into the IGA (get it?) for last minute ingredients. Nevermind, it was all hands on deck in the kitchen and Fogarty, bless her, said I remained very calm and collected.

The duck quacked its way into a hot pan, skin side down for 2 minutes, turn for 1 minute and then into the over for 10 (oo, there that talk of pets again).

A few things were going on while this duck business was unfolding. In a large pan I had 500 g of peeled potato and 500 g of peeled celeriac. Dessert was being plopped into a muffin pan and strawberries were being placed on-top, along with almonds.

Into the hot pan went 80 ml pink grapefruit juice and 2 tbsp redcurrant jelly. I was meant to whisk until it combined, but I occasionally gave it a half-hearted stir whilst doing other things. I was meant to simmer it for 3-4 minutes, but I left it till needed. AND, as I write this post, I realise I was meant to put 80 ml chicken stock in there too. Another forgotten ingredient!

I plopped some grapefruit segments on each plate, proceeded to mash the potato (cooked) and celeriac (uncooked) together with cream and butter. I don’t know what happened to the celeriac. It remained very fibrous, which makes me think it wasn’t quite right to begin with. So, I avoided the chunks and served very creamy, runny potato mash with a faint hint of celeriac. S-bo is a big fan of celeriac and has cooked it quite successfully, inspired by his Aunt Jane.

My guests were starving by this stage, so there was not a lot of time to take pictures. I snapped a couple quickly and I’m sure you’re used to my dodgy photography by now.

Sigh, it’s amazing what great company, great ingredients and great wine can do to a dinner party. Despite bombarding my guests with jobs, pots and pans and general kitchen chaos, the dinner turned out delightful. The duck was sensational and the sauce, minus the stock, perfect. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I think the grapefruit segments are just for show, because their flavour was a little too strong for the delicateness of brown sugar and cinnamon. I’d probably skip them next time. The duck was melt-in-your-mouth tender and I’ll have to make another visit to Luv-A-Duck to write a dedicated posting.

I think this posting has gotten long enough, so you’ll have to wait to here about dessert! I’ll leave you with the rest of the wine and a photo I took of the remaining pink grapefruit in the fruit-bowl after clean-up.

I haven't included the recipe here, if you would like a copy please email me and I'll happily oblige.

The Albert Park Hotel, again

2007-05-31T09:37:00.000+10:00

Newsflash re: Albert Park Hotel. Epicure has published this review, claiming the pub tailors to the “upmarket inhabitants of top-tax bracket Albert Park”. Judging by the number of people who seem to pull over in their shiny cars and ask for directions to APH whilst I’m out walking, and the number of taxis going to and from APH, many patrons are not actually from Albert Park. Now I haven't lived in Albert Park for very long, but locals talk of a wonderful old, character-filled, local boozer, with good bar meals and great atmosphere. What happened to that place? Did it really exist before the re-fit or are “inhabitants of top-tax bracket Albert Park” getting nostalgic? I’d like to know. I’d also like to know who the patrons are too, are they truly Albert Park locals or if not, where are they from?

Do I have a chip on my shoulder? Not really, I’m just intrigued by this place. Yes the food is good and the wine list impressive, but otherwise it seems like a place to go just to be seen and network. Go for the food and bistro service, but personal preference dictates this is not my place for relaxed drinks with friends. Wood fire or not!

Koh Samui

2007-05-29T22:12:00.000+10:00

The restaurant in Middle Park that is, not the location (I wish).

For my first three years in Sydney I lived in Newtown. As we lived on campus and ate the associated food, my friends and I often got takeaway. And what better place to be getting takeaway than Sydney's Thai Food capital. Consequently I have very high standards when it comes to Thai food. Although, I was a uni student and not eating in the finest establishments, so perhaps it's more appropriate to say I have very specific standards.

Koh Samui didn't quite match those standards, although it's clear that a lot of care goes into the dishes. To tell you the truth, I can't even remember the name of my dish. I'm sure it's loosely translated to flash-fried chicken with vegetables and tamarind. The word Maram seems to stick in my mind, or something similar. Kai (chicken?) Maram? Nevermind, the chicken was excellet; light with just a hint of peanut oil to satisfy the wicked side in me. The vegetables were standard (Australian) Thai fare, fresh and thinly sliced. S-bo had the Thai Chilli Squid which was well on the tough side.

Koh Samui seems to be reaching out with their menu, producing dishes that I don't associate with my lower-end-of-the-market Thai history. Things like Baby Snappper La Prik (deep fried whole baby snapper with special lime sauce) were not things I was privvy to at university. I was looking for my familiar Pad Prew Warn, of which I can't even remember how to spell, Satays and greasy spring rolls. There were spring rolls and they weren't greasy which, despite my previous statement, is a good thing. They were however a little light on filling.

I'm not saying bad things about Koh Samui because it's not a good place. It just didn't match my previous prejudies. The service is attentive and the atmosphere good, as long as they keep the music playing. Don't be misled by the Richardson St entrance. The tables seen from the front window were vacant and deserted, however out the back are more tables and more people in a nice modern, but not stark setting. The price is more than I would usually pay for Thai ($16-$26 for a main), with smaller portions. But there's that uni student again. Although, for that price in Newtown you could be getting some pretty damn amazing Thai food and excellent.

I guess I'll go back. Until I can find a Newtown Thai in Melbourne I'll always need something to satisfy my cravings.

251 Richardson St
Middle Park
(03) 9696 3080

Provincia, Albert Park

2007-05-27T22:04:00.001+10:00

I’ve discussed earlier my dislike for eggs. This sometimes makes going out for breakfast difficult…if everyone else is eating eggs, what do I eat? I try and search out savoury options; bacon and mushrooms on sourdough, ham, cheese and tomato croissant etc. However I have a very sweet tooth, so often I give in and order something sugary, like pancakes.

Breakfast at Provincia is a pleasant surprise, the menu contains a lot of variety and maintains the strong Italian influences of lunch and dinner, for example carozza, a savoury French toast filled with mozzarella, tomato and basil.

Nevertheless, I still opted for sweet: breakfast pikelets with berries, mint and mascarpone cream. Some breakfast items are offered on weekends only, indicating to me that you’ll be getting wonderfully fresh ingredients.

The service is interesting. It’s definitely good, but I might also call it colloquial. Staff were suffering the after effects of the FA cup final the previous night and it was expected that we sympathize with them. Being a sports lover myself, we did. Regulars were treated with prejudice and everyone was treated as a regular, so it worked well. Andrea Faraone has done a wonderful job capturing Italy in food, interior and vibe. What’s more, the coffee is gooooood and served with a shot glass of soda water for cleaning the teeth afterwards.

Will I go back? Of course, I have to sample lunch and dinner now.

95 Victoria Avenue

Albert Park

(03) 9345 5260

HHDD #12: Caesar!

2007-05-24T23:07:00.000+10:00

I’ve kept my eye on HHDD events for a while. Not long after I started blogging. Alas, I haven’t been in the position to enter. Until now…..

Katie has pitched the challenge of all things Caesar. I’ve never made a Caesar Salad before so I decided to run with it rather than incorporate key ingredients into another dish. Purists beware; my salad doesn’t contain egg (other than in the dressing) or anchovies because I don’t like them! Don’t like egg? Yup, that’s right. Put it in a cake or biscuits and I won’t bat an eyelid……Batter? Yes, I’ll eat raw egg in cake batter too, being the queen of bowl licking. However, put that egg in a quiche, frittata and other such egg-y concoctions and I’ll turn up my nose. It’s not for lack of trying. On Sunday I even had a bite of S’bo’s eggs benedict, but alas, eggs are still not for me.

As for the anchovies, according to Wikipedia, original Caesar salads didn’t contain anchovies, instead it was Worcestershire sauce that gave the distinctive flavour.

Anyway, on with the show. I pulled my recipe from Cooks Companion, special mention should also go to the lady at a South Melbourne Market Deli, who gave me my anchovies free because I only wanted two!

Caesar Salad with Sourdough Croutons

I will work from the dressing onwards. I rarely understand why cookbooks will give ingredients for dressings (and sauces etc.) last yet get you to make them first.

3 eggs
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 anchovy fillets
2 tsp mustard (I used seeded for aesthetic reasons, however the recommended is Dijon)
1 tsp lemon juice
1 ½ Tbsp red-wine vinegar (I upped the vinegar to make a sharper dressing)
1 Tbsp spoon grated parmesan cheese
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
Salt & Pepper

S’bo was around to help so, being an egg eater, I put him in charge of boiling the eggs for exactly 4 minutes. I then whizzed them up a bit with my stick blender. I’m not fortunate enough to own a food processor…..yet. From here I added the garlic, anchovies, mustard, lemon juice, vinegar and parmesan. The recipe recommended I work them all to a paste before adding to the eggs, however I just blended like mad. The oil went in next, followed by salt and pepper to taste. This made about 2 cups.

For three people (+ next day’s lunch), I washed and chopped 2 cos lettuces and arranged them on plate. In a pan I cooked 4 rashers of bacon until crispy and then fried cubes of sourdough (I used 3 slices for 3 people). I tore up the bacon and scattered it with the croutons over the leaves. Next to come was the dressing, then some fresh parsely and finally, shavings of some great parmesan that I picked up a week or so earlier.

So there you have it, my first ever Caesar Salad AND my first HHDD. Thanks Katie for being a great inspiration.

Albert Park Hotel

2007-05-17T22:07:00.000+10:00

What’s more important? Great food or great service? Well it doesn’t matter at Albert Park Hotel, because you get both. I’ve had the odd drink here, being one of the closest pubs to my place, and I’ve found it very trendy and consequently intimidating in a way that only slightly-less-trendy females like myself can understand. However, to step into the bistro at the rear is to step into another place. The décor is an eclectic mix of trendy, sophisticated and eccentric; from the stem-less Riedel glasses on each table, to the carpet taken straight from Grandma’s floor.

The thing that stands out from the beginning is the service and attention to detail. I called ahead and was told I didn’t need to book on this particular night. “Just turn up and we’ll look after you”. As we perused the menu a plate of (great) olives and grissini arrived at our table to keep us going. As tempted as I was by the zucchini flowers stuffed with fontina, artichokes and ricotta, we decided to skip straight to mains. The menu has a heavy seafood focus, with cuttlefish salad, sea scallops and smoked ocean trout amongst the entrée selection, and barramundi, kingfish and flounder amongst the mains.

I regularly opt for red meat when eating out however I bypassed lamb and steak for wild barramundi fillet, green papaya relish with crispy pork and roasted chilli sambal. S-bo ordered the roasted kingfish on celeriac mash with fennel, radish and fetta salad.

We took a little longer to decide on a wine, particularly considering the depth of the list. Did we want red or white? Sparkling? A whole bottle or perhaps a few glasses of a few wines? In the end, on the waiter’s recommendation, we chose a bottle of the Vavasour Pinot Gris from the Marlborough, NZ. There’s a good selection of wines by the glass if you’re just after a couple too.

Bread arrived on our table and meals came shortly after. I was about to say the fish seemed fresh, but in fact the whole plate was fresh. Lime juice gave the whole dish a lift and cut through the chilli. The green papaya relish didn’t have a distinctive flavour but that was more than compensated by the pork.

It’s a great feeling when you’ve eaten a beautiful meal and feel satisfied but not full. We thought it was such a nice feeling to enjoy our wine without our stomachs bursting that we skipped dessert and had some cheese instead. Of the three cheeses on offer, we ordered the Bleu Brebis La Memee. Not only did this come with crackers, it also came with semi-dried grapes (stewed? I’m not really sure what they were) and quince paste.

It was the perfect way to end such a delicious dinner. Albert Park Hotel will no longer be “the pub down the road where everyone’s trendy”, it’ll be “the pub down the road with the great bistro out back”.

Albert Park Hotel
Cnr Montague St & Dundas Place
Albert Park
ph. (03) 9690 5459

Eating in Melbourne on a Sunday Night

2007-05-12T09:40:00.000+10:00

Back to N1 & N2's visit visit, their last night in town was Sunday and we went out to dinner. N1 was keen to head to hardware lane where we'd once had a great meal last year.

The Melbourne natives amongst us will say "there's nowhere open in the city on Sunday night" and to a large extent they're true. With this forewarning I searched a few books and found a smattering of places claiming to be open on a Sunday night...wrong! It might be rude-ish to be closed on a Sunday night (I guess everyone needs a night off) but to advertise you're open and then be closed! That's downright rude. Especially when you're supposedly a "Melbourne local" and therefore an all-knowing tour guide in your friend's eyes. Luckily N1 & N2 were very understanding of the fact that I couldn't click my fingers and find an open restaurant. N1 convinced us to try Hardware Lane just on the offchance.

As we walked off Bourke st, past the carpark everything looked pretty closed. But, just down a little further we were convinced we could see umbrellas. And is that music we could hear? Sure enough, Vons Restaurant and Bar was open and teeming. There was a band on one side of the alley and people eating under the comfort of heaters on the other. It was a food oasis for our hungry tummies. The vibrant atmosphere was a stark contrast to an otherwise closed city.

Apparently one can't be too choosey on a Sunday night in the city and Vons did all right. I ordered Osso Buco which was as lovely and tender as it should be. It also came with polenta which I'm not always so keen on, but this was so moist it was more than enjoyable. The flavour intensity of the sauce could have been a little sharper as things became quite bland towards the end of the dish.

Having made only a recent return to my blog I'm a little out of practice at taking photos without the flash, so you'll have to apply a little imagination to my images while I practice up a bit. I've also been forgetting to take my camera out and instead having to make do with a mobile phone camera (see post to come.....)

S-bo had lamb fillets, with red onion confit, polenta and baby peas, and N1 & N2 both had pasta. Whilst not groundbreaking, the food was good quality and generous. The service unfortuantely was a bit hot and cold. The floor manager was excellent however the waitstaff were a little scatty. Maybe there's a reason why Sunday is traditionally the night off in town. We took a little while to order and our waitress kept returning prematurely. Even a polite "we'll call you over" made no difference. Perhaps I'm being fickle, I know a few posts ago I was accusing staff of being too inattentive!

Our meals arrived together but N1 ordered carbonara and received calamari, so one dish had to be sent back anyway. These things happen, I guess "carbonara" and "calamari" sound sort of the same, but we were a bit annoyed when carbonara AND calamari arrived on our bill. The bill was more than expected and I just put it down to a Sunday loading. Luckily someone looked closer.

It was an unfortunate way to end an otherwise enjoyable evening. We left no tip, but I'm sure we'll be back if we want a meal in the city on Sunday night. Apparently Vons has been open on a Sunday only for a few weeks and are relying purely on word-of-mouth. Their website doesn't list Sunday opening times so call ahead to be sure.

Celebratory Lasagne

2007-05-09T22:14:00.000+10:00

Last weekend the crew from work gathered together for a team dinner, to celebrate the completion of a project. We all pitched in, bringing mains, dessert, beer and wine. I volunteered to make lasagne for the obvious reason that it feeds many people. Unfortunately I'd forgotten how much work a lasagne is. There was the trip to the markets mid-week to source quality ingredients, the bolognese sauce made from scratch and the white sauce with it's associated stress (I'm paranoid of ruining white sauce yet I can't actually remember ever doing so). Then of course comes assembly and the grating of parmesan on top. Not to mention the transporting of this big bertha over to Bulk's house (my workmate hosting the dinner) for deployment to the oven.

Upon emergence from the oven the lasagne looked pretty good. So good that everyone tucked in before I had a chance to take a photo! I used a basic red wine bolognese sauce, preferring pancetta over bacon. I can't ever remember making such a large quantity and I was initially quite alarmed at how much reducing might be needed. Luckily it was good to go by the time I'd pottered around and made the white sauce (about an hour or so later). I think next time I'll make a cheese sauce instead of a basic white sauce for a little extra flavour. One of the main reasons I didn't do so was I didn't have enough time to grate any cheese.

Despite my grumblings above, I really enjoyed making the lasagne. But it brings me to the topic of shortcuts. Surely when cooking a lasagne for so many people it would make sense to simply use bottled pasta sauce instead of making bolognese from scratch. Packet grated cheese instead of white sauce? Yup, it would certainly be quicker, but there's a large part of me that stubbornly wont let go of making things from scratch. I'm sure everyone who likes to cook from scratch would agree, there's a lot of love going into scratch-made food. I refuse to accept that food from scratch is always better, often it takes much trial and error to get things right. And once that occurs, you become adventurous, tweak something here and there in the recipe, and the cycle starts again.

There's also the question of "how scratch is scratch?" Can I truly claim to have made the sauce from scratch when I used packet tomato paste and tinned tomatoes?

My ability to cook, write in this blog AND time-manage appears to be lacking (as evidenced by my sporadic postings). If I refuse to do anything but cook from scratch then I guess I should choose my recipes a little more thoughtfully. At least until my life calms down a little.......because that will happen soon, won't it?

Time for seconds anyone?

St Ali, South Melbourne

2007-05-07T22:25:00.000+10:00

Such an appropriate name for a cafe don't you think? Personally I still find Melbourne's back alleys a novelty so I can't resist taking visitors down as many random streets as I know (the ones that I know lead somewhere funky that is). So when N1, my roommate and best friend from boarding school, and her boyfriend, N2 came down to Melbourne I took them here for lunch.

St Ali seems to be a known gem for South Melbourne's coffee lovers however I first heard about it only 2 weeks ago, over a few Friday night drinks. When I bumped into some fellow drinkers the next morning at the gym we decided to check it out over a post-gym coffee. I only stayed for coffee but I was most impressed, not to mention pleasantly caffeinated as I made my way home. (Note: Saturday gym is not a habit of mine. I often talk it up the night before over a wine or two but rarely do I back myself up!)

N1 & N2's visit seemed the perfect excuse to have lunch here. The atmosphere is great, with high warehouse ceilings, cement floors and clever usage of coffee sacks. I was particularly taken with the hessian mounted on wooden frames and hung as pictures. N1, who owns a homewares store in Goondiwindi, laughed and said she'd never be able to sell pictures like that because all the farmers would turn around and make them themselves. Still, how often do you see things at the market and say "I could make that" and then never do it! A few louds bangs echoed across from the walled-off half of the building just as we were ordering however the waiter managed to downplay the noise with his sense of humour.

Apparently St Ali takes a lot of influence from Yemen, including their namesake. There's a definite Middle Eastern and North African feel to the dishes but I would've never picked Yemen. Check out their website for more info on the namesake. I ordered pork and fennel sausages on pide, with tomato relish, chilli and roquette. The sausages were sensational. I thought the chilli overpowered some of the flavours however my tolerance to chilli can fluctuate so perhaps my tastebuds were feeling a little sensitive.

My fellow diners all had lamb. S'bo and N2 both had the lamb pizza (pictured) and thought it was good, quite a compliment from N2 really, who's mother has a lamb feedlot business in Goondi (check this link to abc). N1 had lamb kofta which looked great and was apparently delicious, although the portion seemed a little on the small size, perfect for a raining afternoon snack perhaps?

The prices for lunch are very reasonable, but I'm simply excited to have found a place in Melbourne where the coffee is comparable to my favourite roaster in Sydney, Campos. And, just round the corner! I hadn't even had a chance to look for somewhere yet, so the stumble-across makes it all the more sweeter!

St Ali

12-18 Yarra Place

South Melbourne

Ph. 9686 2990

Open for breakfast & lunch, 7 days.

Dante's Fitzroy

2007-04-29T22:56:00.000+10:00

My friend Foges and I popped into Dante's Fitzroy on Saturday. Foges and I had driven over to explore Gertrude Street, just for something new. We were starving from the moment we parked the car and Dante's was the first place we came across. First impressions hinted at a lot of character, if only there were other customers around to support it. I checked the website before sitting to write this and felt like I was looking at a completely different restaurant. However the similarity between the speed of service and the speed at which they pull christmas promotions off their website indicated that I was indeed looking at the same place.

As I mentioned, we were starving! We sat for a few minutes and no menus arrived so Foges went and asked for some. We were told they'd bring some out, only to sit and watch a whole iced coffee being made before this happened. Once the menus arrived and we'd made our selection it took a lot of eyebrow raising at the waitress to have our order taken. Compliments to the chef as he must be able to tell a very interesting story. Eventually I walked over, interrupted and asked to order. Did I mention there was barely another customer in sight?

The food arrived and luckily it was just the thing for our hungry tummies. Foges and I decided to share a wrap of rare roast lamb, baba ghanoush and salad plus a plate of dips. The wrap and dips were pretty standard, although the lamb was quite tender for sandwich fare. The dips seemed to be lacking a little in garlic and the tzatziki had a faintly sweet lemon taste, almost as though lemon essence had been used instead of lemon juice. It was quite peculiar but faint enough for the tzatziki to still be my favourite over the hummus and baba ghanoush. The bread was particularly fresh as well as generous in serving size, a pleasant change from other bread-and-dip deals. The olives were also generously dished out, with a total of 10 fat, fleshy olives on our plate.

I'd be keen to check out Dante's when a few more customers are around to add atmosphere but I'm not sure I'd cross town for it again. Although, apparently Monday is magic night.........

Dante's Fitzroy
150-156 Gertrude Street(cnr Napier Street)

Fitzroy 3065
ph. 03 9417 2468

Cheese Workshop at Richmond Hill Cafe and Larder

2007-03-22T07:53:00.000+11:00

A cheese workshop? No, not getting all messy making the stuff and washing and turning it, that’s left to Ryan Andrijich, our cheese leader, and his team. Our job was to taste, listen and learn. S’bo’s family bought us both a voucher for a Cheese Workshop at Richmond Hill Café and Larder as a Christmas present. The information sheet included words like “informal guided cheese tastings”, “benchmark examples of our matured cheeses” and “about cheese and wine matching”. Needless to say, when we fronted up to Bridge Road, my mouth was watering.

We turned up 15 minutes early for a complimentary glass of bubbly, an excellent way to shift from work to food. Warm attire is recommended and for good reason, as the cheese room was a cool 14 degrees, or thereabouts. What follows are my tasting notes, how the cheeses compared to my preconceptions/existing knowledge (which will reveal how little I actually knew about cheese) and the information given to us by Ryan.

First up were fresh cheeses. I’ve never taken much interest in Ricotta one way or the other, it was just something handy to put in tiramisu. Mungalli Creek Biodynamic Ricotta changed that! From QLD, this ricotta is made from full milk, which Ryan tells us is rare. Commercial products are made by extracting milk solids and as a by-product of other cheeses. Mungalli Creek is like the first press, or extra virgin olive oil version of ricotta, resulting in a creamier product perfect for dessert cooking. Baked figs anyone?

Holy Goat! The next cheese was good! Holy Goat La Luna Ring had a texture I wouldn’t normally associate with fresh cheeses, a little harder than expected and it seemed to break away almost like fresh coconut when bitten. Our notes said a “citric creaminess” and “nuttiness on the palate”. I was more interested in the crinkly mould, called Geotrichum, which was thin and subtly tasting. The cheese inside didn’t seem influenced by the mould so much, apparently a result of it being made as a ring not a tiny cheese, which is also available.

Prior to going to the class, if I had to pick a favourite style of cheese I’d have chosen white moulds. We compared an Australian white mould, Alcharinga to a French, Brie de Nangis. The Alcharinga was “camembert style” which is testament more to its shape and size than its taste (Camembert cheese should be no bigger than 12 cm diameter). Alcharinga was really distinguished by its strong, thick rind. I found the cheese inside quite mild in comparison. Brie de Nagis was a bit stronger than Alcharinga, especially in the back of the mouth. Our notes said vague mushroom characteristics and “steamed cauliflower which rich cream” which was surprisingly true.

Endangered cheese anyone? According to Ryan, Taleggio, that beautiful cheese that conjures up images of rich Italian food and red wine, may soon be affected by global warming. The very unique flavour of Taleggio is a result of cave maturation, drawing unique characteristics from surrounding snow. As the earth heats up, the snow may melt, forever changing the nature of the caves and the resulting cheese. Once you taste the cheese from Lombardy, Italy, you’ll be very motivated to cut down your greenhouse gas emissions. The other washed rind we tasted was Pont L’Évêque from Normandy, France. Imports from France are apparently meatier than those from Italy, which have more yeasty tones. Whilst I hadn’t heard of it before, Pont L’Évêque must be the cheese of the month as I’ve since seen it on offer at Dogs Bar, St Kilda and Albert Park Deli, within a weekend.

I was keen to try Rochefort, as there’s been so much hype about an unpasteurised cheese being available in Australia. Unfortunately it wasn’t on the evening’s menu, but we did get to try a different raw milk cheese, Marcel Petite Comté, which was actually my favourite of the evening. Whilst not pasteurised, the milk is heated up to 60°C before the cheese is matured in caves or old underground forts. It had a very nutty taste and I can’t wait to try this cheese again, my mouth is watering at the thought. The other hard cheese we tried was Tomme de Chevre. Interestingly Tomme indicates that milk is sources from several herds in an area and the cheese is made by a professional cheesemaker. This apparently results in a higher quality cheese. The flavours of the cheese were quite delicate compared to the Comté, salty but with a very smooth aftertaste.

And finally, to finish the night with a bang, we had some Blue Cheese. Here we got to try an alternative to Rochefort, Bleu de basque. We also had Colston Bassett Stilton (S’bo’s favourite) and washed it all down with a glass of Moscato. Our tasting notes had many descriptive words for these two; “intense syrupy” and “yeasty vegemite” for the Stilton and “nutty texture” and “sweet floral aftertaste” for the Bleu de basque, however I was too blown away by the complexity of these cheeses to come up with many specifics. There was just so much flavour in one bite. Importantly, we were still learning even this late in the evening. For instance, I wasn’t aware that blue cheeses are pierced by needles in order for the mould to grow in “veins”.

I was bursting with information by the end of the night, not to mention cheese. I refrained from eating too much bread so I didn’t get too full, which was lucky considering how much cheese alone I ate. Ryan’s knowledge was overwhelming at times, which only reinforced the fact we were being taught by someone passionate-always a plus. Whilst it was up to the individual to absorb as much about each cheese’s characteristics as they wanted, other information was provided in handy, take-home sheets. I did find it hard to keep up at times, but that’s not a problem really, just more time to concentrate on eating the cheese.

Richmond Hill Café and Larder has a few different cheese-themed workshops, including one more focused on matching cheese and wine. Importantly the cheese and wine workshops doesn’t look at quite as many cheeses as the cheese workshop alone. So if you’re keen to go make sure you choose the right course depending on whether you’re more into cheese or more into wine. Personally, I’d take the cheese!

RHCL
48 - 50 Bridge Rd
Richmond
(03) 9421 2808

How Red is My Beetroot!

2007-03-20T17:21:00.000+11:00

I’ve never cooked with beetroot before and since I love it, both tinned and fresh, I thought it was time I tried. There’s nothing like chunks of beetroot in salad and I don’t think a burger is complete without a slice, even if it is tinned.

Last week I was flicking through my Fabulous Food Cookbook, a low-fat cookbook I picked up when I used to work for Fernwood Women’s Health Clubs. The recipes are quite yummy, although that’s probably because I usually skip the low fat options (evaporated milk in carbonara anyone?) and replace them with the real thing (mmm, cream). I came across a cucumber, beetroot and mint salad, so next trip to South Melbourne Markets included a couple of bunches of beetroot.

I find grating foods labour intensive, yet I always pick recipes that require things like grated zucchini, citrus zest and so on. Grating beetroot adds another dimension. Red fingers, red hands, red bench-tops, red everything! Not surprising, but there you have it. I trimmed and peeled and grated my way into a big red beetroot mess. Was the salad worth it? Probably, but that’s only because I managed to keep my clothes clean.

Other ingredients were 1 large cucumber, 1 red onion (although I used half and this was adequate), a tsp of salt, 2 Tbsp finely chopped mint, 1 tsp lemon rind (grating, again!), ½ cup lemon juice and 1 tsp sugar. Once the beetroot was grated and the chopped cucumber was salted and rinsed all that was left was to toss everything together.

S’bo, who’s also just relocated to Melbourne, and I ate the salad with some delicious lamb chops and natural yoghurt. The lemon flavour was a little too strong so next time I’d probably cut it back a bit. Overall I’ve tasted better beetroot salads, usually ones with nice, fatty chunks of goats cheese, although I very much enjoyed the leftovers for lunch the next day.

The beetroot fiesta didn’t stop there; I roasted the leftover beetroots the next night. I much preferred wrapping them in buttered foil than grating, although I think I could’ve washed them a little more thoroughly. I’m sure that faint earthy taste shouldn’t be there. I guess I’ve still got a little way to go when it comes to beetroot cooking, but something tells me I won’t give up just yet.

Cherrijam

2007-01-10T18:15:00.000+11:00

Just before moving I was in Sydney and keen to have dinner with some close friends. Living in Canberra meant that I didn't get to see Sydney friends often and I imagined it would only be harder in Melbourne. We chose Cherrijam because of it's location, that is it's close to where some of my friends live, close to a train station for those further afield and close to the Sheaf on New South Head Road, just incase we decided to be silly and drink extra after dinner (we did!).

Location aside, I have been to Cherrijam before and quite liked it. This particular visit lifted the bar even higher. The menu is an ecclectic mix of tapas items and more substantial dishes, which is great for an informal yet classy meal with friends. The Middle East/North African decor downstairs works well, with the low tables in the open area leading to the bar at the back. I've never had reason to venture to the function areas upstairs but with names like the cigar lounge I'm thinking the theme may not follow.

I especially liked the blankets, draped over the furniture just incase diners get cold. If there's not enough? Just ask the staff and they'll fetch some more!

You've probably noticed by now that I have quite a few pictures and haven't referred to them. That's the curse of the neglected blog really. This meal took place back in November and my memory is a little fuzzy. Unfortunately the menus posted on the website don't correlate with what we ordered from, so there's no memory jogging available there. It hasn't changed in a little while either, which is something to bear in mind if you're planning on visiting and want a preview before you go.

I do remember that the turkish bread and dips (top) and the "turkish chips" (below) were snapped up very quickly. I'd take a stab at hummus (roasted red pepper maybe), baba ghannouj and beetroot, but I'd just be pulling popular dips out of the air. I do remember beautifully roasted garlic as a common theme and very creamy. Perhaps there's nothing wrong with my memory, maybe we just ate it all too quickly.

The pizza was my favourite and I do remember it. Spiced paprika scented lamb fillet with onion, rocket and persian feta. I love persian feta. The other popular favourite was beef tagine. And I know that my memory wouldn't help here-I was too busy scoffing pizza to really get a good taste of the tagine before it was all gone. Bottom? Multicultural antipasto maybe? The chorizo was a big winner; just enough spice to keep you going.

The final star of the night was the wine. Cherrijam has an adequate wine list, including their self-labelled cleanskin which we opted for. Nothing flash, just good easy drinking.

According to the website, Cherrijam is open for breakfast lunch and dinner.
16-18 Cross St.
Double Bay
ph. +61 2 9363 0555

Christmas Dinner

2006-12-27T10:34:00.000+11:00

It's been a long time since we've had Christmas Dinner or Lunch in our family, opting instead to gatecrash the lunchtime festivities at my Aunt and Uncle's. However this year my brother is home from London for Christmas, the first time since 2000, so Mum thought a special meal was in order. Dinner was scheduled for Christmas Eve, which I think is not so unusual in Australia; turkey and other hot foods in the evening and seafood, salads and cold meats on Christmas Day.

Mum decided on the menu; Roast macadamia pork with pickled cherries and roast turkey breast, served with potato bugs (see below), roast pumpkin and baby peas.

For the pork, we stuffed a boned loin with a yummy mixture of macadamia nuts, fresh breadcrumbs, pancetta, parsley and horseradish cream. The end result was a nutty stuffing with a tangy kick from the horseradish cream. Mum has recently renovated her kitchen, so she was very excited to put the new oven to the test, cranking it up to 220 degrees for maximum crackling. You would appreciate her excitement if you knew that our old oven was so useless that roasts were done in the microwave.

(No kidding, and not really as bad as it sounds...a bit of garlic and basil and roast lamb used to turn out pretty good, all things considered.)

The cherries were a great touch with the pork as well. Family friends of ours often give us a box of cherries and sometimes it's hard for the 3 of us (4 this year, although brother doesn't eat cherries) to get through them all. Last year I pickled them, according to a recipe from Stephanie Alexander, and we cracked them open this year for Christmas. They were lovely and sweet with a hint of cloves infused in the vinegar, making them perfect with the roast meat. Other cherry recipes have not gone so well, such as 2 years ago, when I soaked cherries in vodka and sugar. We opened those this year as well and boy, there was a whole lot of alcohol and not a lot of edible. If anyone has any recipes for cherries, I'd love to hear about them in the next few days.

Our turkey was roast turkey breast. Again, being only small in number it's hard for us to get through a whole bird. The sides were nice and simple, roasted alongside the meat. Mum cooked hasselback potatoes - desiree potatoes cut in half and then scored at 5 mm intervals. I called them potato bugs earlier because I think they look like little seafood bugs once they've been roasted. They were very crispy and great drizzled with the pork gravy.

Finally, after main we had ice cream instead of pudding. Brother doesn't like plum pudding so instead we had malteasers and hazelnut icecream. The malteasers were all crushed up in the 2 layers of vanilla, with the chopped hazelnuts in the chocolate. The malt made the vanilla layer nice and chewy, a new texture as far as icecream is concerned.

So all up, a pretty good Christmas Dinner I'd say. Of course on Christmas Day we headed down to gatecrash the seafood and beer at my aunt and uncle's.

Merry Christmas everyone.

My poor abandoned blog...

2006-11-22T20:52:00.000+11:00

It's official, I have now abandoned my blog for over a month. Four postings and then.....nothing.

Unfortunately the move to Melbourne has involved less food and more stress than I had anticipated. Nevertheless, I'm back. I haven't failed to take photos of some of my eats, I've just failed to post them. So hopefully over the next few weeks I can start putting up some of those photos as well as food goodies that I'm sure to eat over Christmas. Lets just hope that I can remember exactly what the photos tasted like.

AO'B, a good friend of mine from Sydney, gave me the Entertainment book for Melbourne which I hope to put to good use. Combined with The Age Good Food Guide, given to me by my colleagues in Canberra, I think there's some serious eating to be done.

Already I've dined at EQ Cafe Bar at the Arts Centre, Mr Wolf in St Kilda and stacks of cafes along the way. I've also had my share of cooking disasters whilst trying to self-cater in my little serviced apartment, with only one frying pan and one saucepan.

Hopefully I can post all about my first few weeks shortly...Thanks for not losing faith.
Happy Christmas eating!

Lemon Meringue Cupcakes

2006-11-14T10:55:00.000+11:00

As my moving plans get started, I've had less and less time for cooking. Lemon Meringue Cakes are the latest thing that I've cooked in my Canberra kitchen and they'll probably be the last.

I made the recipe, from Women's Weekly cupcakes, for friend BA, who is obsessed with citrus based cakes and desserts. Spoonfuls of tangy lemon curd sit in the top of the cake, before being covered by meringue. Whilst B liked the curd best (of course), I liked the coconut, which gives the cake lightness and is also in the meringue.

I've previously mentioned baking disasters (An Unglamorous Beginning) and this attempt was no exception. I started with the curd, but trying to cook an evening meal and the cupcakes concurrently quickly led to problems; the curd went lumpy and there was no saving it. I try and have double the eggs I need for instances just like this one, so I was able to start again. However this time I used Stephanie Alexander's lemon curd recipe and it was much simpler. She makes some interesting points about lemon curd, having debunked the theories that unless you make it in a double saucepan it will curdle and if you leave it uncovered it will form a skin. Apparently not true!

So here is the recipe:

Coconut lemon curd cake
125 g butter
2 tsp grated lemon zest
2/3 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup milk
3/4 cup desiccated coconut
1 1/4 cups self raising flour

Beat butter, rind, sugar and eggs until light and fluffy, stir in milk and coconut then sifted flour and divide between 12 standard muffin cases. Smooth surface and bake for 20 minutes in 180°.

I mentioned earlier that the coconut in the recipe is great. I think if you substituted the lemon rind for vanilla essence, this cake recipe would work well for cupcakes with any toppings.

Lemon Curd, from Cook's Companion
4 egg yolks
2/3 cup castor sugar
60 g unsalted butter
2 tsp grated lemon zest
100 ml lemon juice

Whisk egg yolks and sugar until well combined but not frothy. Tip into a saucepan and add the remaining ingredients. Bring to a simmer point over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. As soon as bubbles appear remove from heat, still stirring. Allow to cool.

Coconut Meringue
4 egg whites
1 cup castor sugar
1 1/3 cups shredded coconut, chopped finely (I used desiccated)

Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar and beat till dissolved, fold in coconut.

To assemble the cakes, cut a 2cm deep hole in the centre of each cake and fill with the curd.. Pipe meringue onto the top of each cake and bake in a hot oven for 5 minutes, or until meringue is browned lightly.

I made little nests with the leftover meringue, filled them with the leftover curd and served them with coffee after dinner. Yum!

Tagged with: cupcake, cake recipe, lemon meringue