Angie Lives to Eat (and Cook)!

Etch Restaurant - New Year's Eve Dinner, and the year that was

2012-01-04T22:34:00.000+11:00

(Intercontinental Hotel - Mint Bar and Lounge)

Etch Restaurant is located at The Intercontinental Hotel. The hotel holds a very special place in Ryan's heart and memory. It's the place where they celebrated all of his grandmothers milestones, and it was where she had one of her last birthday dinners before her health declined rapidly and had to move into a nursing home. This is the first time we've set foot into the hotel since then.

Happy New Year!

2011 has been an absolutely fantastic year. We've had our highs as well as our lows, and it seems to have been the most busiest year ever. So busy that this little blog has sometimes had to take a back seat as I've just been too exhausted to write up any posts. Have barely had time and energy to do what I enjoy too, reading food blogs. I definitely have been busier than ever in the kitchen cooking, baking, experimenting and occasionally eating out at a few new places, and taking photos of all the food as I always do.

Here's a recap of some highlights and lowlights to the year,

January saw some of my family lose their homes and all personal possessions in the Queensland floods. After the clean up, my brother, cousin and I drove up with a car load of donations from friends and family and spent the weekend up there. I even cooked my family some fish and chips with the fish we caught on a fishing trip with them.
February was when Ryan's grandmother passed away. Her funeral was a few days before Valentine's so we will now always remember her at that time of the year. Ryan's mum asked me to do the funeral flowers.
March is Ryan's birthday and we had a fantastic lunch at Quay to celebrate.
April saw two of our friends get married, and there was an awesome lunch catch up we had at Ryan's cousin's place. Then there was Easter.
May had Mother's Day and I cooked up a little Thai dinner for the family. There was also the 'Masterchef Challenge'.
June is my birthday and Ryan suprised me with lunch at Glass Brasserie at the Hilton and then cooked a wonderful dinner for some friends and I to celebrate. I also had a couple of cake orders come in.
This July Ryan and I celebrated 11 years together, look forward to celebrating number 12 with my best friend in 2012. One of my good friend's baby was Christened and I made a delicious 2 tiered cake and made my first ever fondant figurine tiger to go on top as a present to him. We were also busy finalising everything for our big trip in August where we spent 4 weeks half way across the world ticking off some major dreams - visiting Egypt, Israel, Madrid and Paris.
September was a bit of a write off with us suffering withdrawals from our travels and just adjusting back to life at home (and me spending the first few days recovering from food poisoning I caught on the plane ride from Paris to Dubai). The little boy who was Christened in July was also celebrating his first birthday this month and I was asked to make his cake and it was a raving success.
Ryan also played part in a saxophone trio at the 50th Birthday of a close family friend of his which was also their 25th Wedding Anniversary. My aunty passed away this month and her funeral fell on the same day as the 50th birthday party. It was a very long and tiring few days for the both of us and I also did the flower arrangements for my aunty.
I took on my first ever major major baking project in October. I made my very first 3 tiered wedding cake with a cascade of macarons. The bride's cousin is married to my cousin who came to me with the request earlier this year. I may have been a little crazy when I said yes but I managed to pull it off. Needing a little escape, Ryan and I went away for a few days to Ettalong Beach thanks to a voucher I had actually bought at the end of 2010. We did not escape all the busyness upon returning back to Sydney, as we drove straight to the western suburbs for saxophone practice.
November was D day for Ryan and his saxophone quartet. They had actually been practising throughout the year for this (I went with Ryan every weekend) and the day had finally arrived. They played Pacabel's Canon as one of their old band associate members and close friend walked down the aisle.
There was also my work end of year party where I managed to score a lucky dip prize of 1000 recognition points which is equivalent to $1000 on our rewards system. I cashed out my points for $1000 of Myer vouchers.
And come December, well it's been crazy. Ryan took me to a Society Ball, loved dancing to our first live Jazz band. There was also a wedding of two good friends and I did the flowers for the Bride and her Bridesmaids (and the Groom and his Groomsmen). Then there was the annual Christmas dinner at Ryan's Parish Church. And so much cooking and baking to do for various parties throughout the month (and year).
Before you knew it Christmas came and went and there was another death within the family. My cousin's great grandmother passed away on Boxing Day so there was a rush to organise the funeral and I was asked to do the flower arrangements for it. Before I could catch my breath the end of the year was upon us and I feel like time was slipping away again. But I am looking forward to the new year ahead and whatever it may bring.

Etch is one of many in Justin North's great empire of restaurants. It's also one that I have been keen to visit and when an email came out about a New Year's Eve special menu they were offering, Ryan and I were sold. It was a 5 course degustation for $100, which I thought was relatively reasonable for our pockets for New Year's Eve and with the matching wines it was only $150.

I thought it would be a nice end to a great year and location wise it was conveniently located close to Circular Quay, so if we chose to we could stay after dinner to catch the fireworks.

The restaurant itself was a little tricky to find as it's not directly in the hotel. It has it's own separate entrance on the side of the hotel's Bridge Street entrance. It's quite an intimate space and Ryan and I absolutely love the décor the moment we walk in.

We're actually one of the first tables to arrive at 6pm as I was a little confused over the correct starting time for their first sitting for the night but it all worked out well. It was nice to have the place to ourselves for the first 15 minutes or so.

As soon as we let our waiter know we are ready to start, a plate of bread and whipped butter comes out. I love good quality bread and butter and it's always the perfect start to keep my stomach from growling before our first course arrives. Ryan says that it reminds him of Paris, though in Paris the bread is actually not served with butter and it is topped up endlessly throughout the meal, and the bread is just so good in Paris.

Salad of prawns, mango, wasabi

NV La Zona Prosecco, King Valley

Our first course arrives and it is quite a pretty plate. The 'salad' is actually prawns done two ways. The first is a ceviche of prawn and the second is poached prawn with mango and a sesame crisp. The dab of wasabi added a little kick to the sweetness of the mango.

This is the first time either of us have had 'raw' prawn and we both actually enjoyed it. I know that a ceviche is technicially not raw though as the acids in the dressing would have slightly cooked it but I think it's the rawest we've eaten a prawn. It was a great light start to the meal and all the flavours and textures in this one dish had me excited and looking forward to the rest of the dishes. I did wish there was a bit more on the plate though.

The matching wine complemented the dish perfectly. It was very light and crisp on the palette, thus it did not overpower the delicate balance between the prawns and the mango; rather it uplifted the flavours of the dish, in particular the mango. Also, as it was also a sparkling wine, it acted as a cleanser to prepare us for the next course. To sum it up, a very delicate and complex combination to start off dinner.

Scallop and crab lasagne, vanilla, Champagne foam

2009 Bella Modella Pinot grigio and Garganega, Veneto

When we saw 'vanilla' on the menu, it had us intrigued. We've only ever tasted vanilla in dessert dishes. But when the dish was placed in front of us, we got that first big whiff of vanilla. On the first mouthful I sensed the aroma of vanilla filling my mouth, followed by the savoury notes of the other components of the dish. I must say that this flavour combination was slightly odd. I can't say I was a huge fan of the vanilla but overall the dish was nicely done, soft silky sheets of fresh pasta and chunks of scallop and crab underneath. Ryan was left wishing he had some bread left to wipe the plate clean.

As for the wine (an Italian white), it was light on the palette and had lots of citrus undertones. It complemented the seafood nicely, and as the sauce had butter in it, the wine lightens the butter taste in the sauce so you could actually taste the seafood.

Our third wine for the night and I was already light headed. It's actually our first proper fine dining degustation and also the first time we'd had matching wines. I'm not a huge drinker and don't really much about different wines so this was quite an educational experience.

Tasting of Aylesbury Duck - Smoked breast, parfait & orange butter, consomme, crispy pancakes

2010 Petit Rimauresq Rose, Provence

This was a truly decadent set of mini dishes. The first thing I smell as soon as our waiter arrives is the consomme. The duck breast was smoked to perfection and the duck liver parfait was just the smoothest and silkiest thing I have ever eaten. Ryan was the first to taste it while I was still finishing my duck breast and was telling me how good it was, after my first fork full I was speechless. It was a little on the salty side, and combined with the richness of the parfait and the orange butter it was a bit of a struggle to finish.

We both agreed that something a little tart was needed to break up the richness of the parfait and perhaps even a few pieces of bread would have been nice to eat it with. Ryan did discover that a sip of the consomme in between really made it enjoyable to eat and helped to take away the saltiness. I still can't get over how absolutely smooth it was. What we thought were crispy pancakes were not pancakes but pieces of duck skin deep fried to a crispy finish, duck crackling as Ryan described it.

The accompanying wine was a Rose from Provence (I miss France!). It was actually quite robust for a Rose, as previous Rose wines that Ryan and I have drank previously have been quite light. What we noticed in the wine is that it had a "smokey" flavour that complemented the robust taste of the duck perfectly. It actually made the dish more appetising in fact.

Charred Wagyu scotch, carrots, Pedro Ximenez

2007 Clairault Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, Margaret River

Our final course before dessert. I love the fact that the aromas of the dishes hit me before the waiter reaches the table, when the food smells good it's got to taste good too right? Scotch fillet is naturally a very tender cut of meat, the fact that it was also Wagyu made it all that more decadent to eat. It was charred perfectly and the cubes of extra meat (not sure what cut of meat they would have come from) added quite a contrasting texture. I absolutely loved the carrots done two ways. I'm not usually a fan of carrots as they have a very strong taste but these pieces of carrot and puree were quite mellow and sweet and I enjoyed every last bite.

The accompanying wine was a very powerful red indeed! I usually prefer a white and am only beginning to get used to red wines but this was very strong. It had a very savoury taste to it, thus I found it hard to drink, as I need a bit of citrus or sweetness in a wine to help me drink it more easily. The wine unfortunately obliterated any flavour of the beef and especially the carrot seeing that it was so delicate. Needless to say neither Ryan or myself could finish this wine.

Peach Melba

2008 McWilliams 'Morning Light', botrytis Semillon, Riverina

I must admit, I was a little sceptical about dessert when I saw 'Peach Melba' on the menu. 'Peaches and raspberries, what's so special about that?' I thought to myself. As soon as the plate arrived I was quite taken aback as to how pretty it was. The peach component consisted of a poached peach served on a round of light sponge cake. Ryan thought it was a little too light and slightly denser cake would have been nice. The raspberry component was a quinnelle of raspberry sorbet which was nice and smooth with the right amount of tartness from the raspberries. The vanilla marshmallows were also a nice touch though Ryan thought they were a little too delicate for the dish. Overall I thought it was a nice way to end the meal, not too rich and heavy.

The accompanying wine had very strong melon characteristics. Did I also mention that it was really sweet? My goodness the wine could've been a dessert in itself! At first Ryan commented that it was a very nice wine but when we had it with the dessert, the sweetness overpowered the peach. I must admit though it did complement the raspberry quite well. The tartness of the raspberry went very well with the wine. Too bad the peach was the main dessert component though.

Ryan and I thoroughly enjoyed our experience at Etch and Ryan is still talking about that duck parfait we had. Not sure if it's even offered on their regular menu but it's definately a place I'd be keen to go back to again. We tried to catch the 9pm fireworks from The Rocks as Circular Quay was full but the buildings we were standing next to completely blocked our view and no fireworks were being launched from the bridge yet. Once they were over we gave up and headed back to Wynard for the train back to Strathfield and drove to Meadowbank to join Ryan's work mates bring in the new year with the view of the fireworks from afar. It was a great way to end a great year and I am looking forward to our adventures in 2012.

Happy New Year to all my friends and readers of the blog. Wishing you all a great year ahead and also a prosperous year full of lots of good food ;)

xoxox

[Angie Travels] - Egypt (Cairo to Mt Sinai)

2011-11-26T16:13:00.000+11:00

Continuing on from our adventures in Cairo. It's an early wake up call and we say good bye to the Nile River and the city of Cairo and head south east into the desert headed for Mount Sinai. We were warned that it was going to be a long trip - around 6 hours. It was a very very long bus ride, looking out at nothing but desert sands. Thank goodness for pit stops.

It's time for a toilet break, and snacks, and one of the guides from the other bus gives a presentation on the Suez Canal, which we'll be going under in order to cross the Gulf of Suez to get to Mount Sinai. There seemed to be a queue at the bar for freshly brewed Egyptian coffee so Ryan decides to join it. It's a very thick coffee and gets quite sludgy towards the bottom but the aroma was quite magical and the taste was not like what we're used to at home, almost chocolatey to me.

Before we continue our journey, we're each given a papyrus painting depicting the journey of Israel's exodus from ancient Egypt, which we are following on this pilgrimage.

Our next stop is Ayun Musa, also known as Moses' Spring. Exodus 15:22-26.

And wherever we go, there are bedouins selling trinkets and souvineers. While waiting around, our tour organisers pull out some portable speakers and pump up some music, roving entertainment in the middle of the desert!

Our stomachs are telling us that it's lunchtime - all 100 or so of them. On the way to our lunch stop our guides have to take our orders on the bus and phone ahead with them just so that the restaurant can get ready for our arrival. I think we filled the place to capacity.

Plates start flying out onto the tables, we have sides of pickled vegetables, and a plate of beige sauce which tasted like tahini to me but never got a chance to confirm it.

Soft fluffy pita bread comes out in little wooden baskets and we're also given a bowl of potatoes cooked in a tomato based sauce.

We also get given some rice and the meat options we had were either grilled chicken (photo didn't come out right) or lamb koftas which is what I opted for. Apart from those amazing falafel sandwiches we had in Cairo, this was another fantastic meal to be had in Egypt.

We eventually cross under the Suez Canal at the Gulf of Suez and are in the Sinai Peninsula. We stop by the Feiran oasis which is said to be the site of Rafadim - battlefield between the Hebrews and the Amellecti (Exodus 17). Atop a near by hill, there are also the ruins of an ancient church.

Some bedouin children approach us with bags of hand made jewellery and crafts. Lots of photo opportunities with the sweet kids.

We're running a little behind schedule but we finally make it to our final pit stop, St Catherine's Monastary which is based at the foot of Mount Sinai. They say that this is also the site of the original burning bush (Exodus 3:1-13). We spend quite a bit of time here as this site also has a world renowned collection of ancient manuscripts and valuable icons. By the time we leave it's already dark. We get to our accommodation for the night, have a quick dinner and then get ready for bed, it's only a couple of hours before we have to get up again.

We've barely slept a wink before we are awoken by our alarm clocks ringing and loud knocks on our doors at midnight. We get back on the bus for a short ride back to the base of Mount Sinai and then it's a short walk up hill in darkness to the camel station.

We're told to line up single file as the bedouin camel owners allocate us our camels. We can't use our torches or take photos with the flash as the camel's eyes are very sensitive. This was my first time ever riding a camel and I admit that I was not all that keen on the idea. But the only other option was to walk up the mountain, which was 2285 metres high. We were a big group which meant that there were at least 80-90 camels going up the mountain that night.

I can still remember struggling to get onto my camel's back. I was wearing jeans and also because I am short I found it difficult to get my leg over the hump and the wooden peg that was strapped onto it's back. There was no harness, no footrest, all I had were the pegs on the saddle at the back and to the front of me to hold on to.

The moment that the camel stood up, I squealed. It was an awkward few jerks, I had no warning that my camel was getting up so I had to quickly grab on to the wooden peg to stop myself from falling. As the camel has such long legs it took quite a few goes before it was standing on our four legs. I had to lean back and try to balance myself so that I wouldn't fall off.

The journey up the mountain is definitely something I will never forget. Travelling in pitch darkness, with nothing but the million stars in the sky guiding our way. It was just a magical moment, whether you are religious or not, there was definably a spiritual presence in this place. It was just amazing.
The camels were quite well behaved most of the time, following a path that they have most probably walked all their lives though there were some moments when I was sure my camel would just fall off the edge of the path into the valley below. I'm glad that I couldn't see my surroundings because if I did, I don't think I would have made it to the top.

There was one incident where I thought my life was about to end with me falling off my camel. Our small group of camels came to a bit of a road block caused by another group of camels which had stopped in the middle of the track. It was a chaotic moment where I was holding onto my wooden peg for dear life as my camel went off track and up and over a large boulder on the side of the path in confusion.
I was glad when my guide pulled the camel back onto the path but I could feel my heart beating a million times over for quite some time after that.

We finally reach the last camel station at the top of the mountain. The actual peak is another 750 steps further up. A small handful of us decided to stay behind due to various reasons. After squatting down all those steps to the bottom of the pyramid my thighs were absolutely too sore to be climbing any stairs. I still had to walk all the way down the mountain later on. Ryan went on ahead and conquered the 750 steps.

We sat for a moment in complete darkness, just watching the sky slowly change colour, listening to the sound of silence all around us. Cardinal George Pell lead some prayers and then we sung a couple of songs.

There was a group of African pilgrims who had also made the trek to Mount Sinai. Some of them went to the top and some of them joined our group at the camel station with prayers and song. It was amazing how religion can bring people together no matter where in the world they come from.

Top photo is of a small chapel at the top of Mount Sinai which Ryan took. Bottom photo is one that I shot while we were waiting for the sunrise.

The moment we were all waiting for, a glimpse of the first light of day. It was quite tranquil, the silence all around us as we watched the sun grow.

An unforgettable moment with an unforgettable sunrise.

Not the best photo of me but the only one I have of me on Mount Sinai. It was too dark to take one when I was on the camel.

As the sun gets higher we prepare for the long walk down to the bottom. It's amazing to keep looking up at this huge mountain and to think that we had just climbed up to the top of it.

When everyone finally reaches the bottom we make our way back to our accomodation for some well earned breakfast. Along the way we stop by the Plain of El Raha (Plain of Rest) where the Chapel of the Golden Calf was built to commemorate the false idol made by Aaron while Moses was on Mount Sinai.

After breakfast we collect our bags, leave our little Mount Sinai hotel and hop back on the coach for a long ride up to the Egyptian/Israeli border city of Taba where we stay the night at a luxurious resort by the Red Sea. The next day we will be entering into the Holy Land of Israel.

Belgian Waffles - It's a Waffle Party!

2011-11-10T20:49:00.001+11:00

Do you LOVE waffles? Crisp on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside. Heck I think that's how I like a lot of my food, it's about the contrasting textures!

I was actually never a huge fan of waffles to start with and only ever liked the Vietnamese pandan waffles but I will make an exceptian for the Belgian ones.

At work, we have a rewards program where we are rewarded with points for our good work and also for service recognition/anniversary with the company. You can trade in your points at any time in exchange for something from the catalogue which ranges from things like movie vouchers, homewares, electronics, even overseas trips.

I had accumulated enough points to claim a compact digital camera with super zoom however it wasn't quite what I was after so I donated my camera to Grandpa who had lost his during the Queensland floods. I had enough points left over to claim a Sunbeam Belgian waffle maker, which I had been eyeing off for a while now.

One cold rainy Friday evening Ryan was called into work, so earlier that day I sent out a message to some friends for an impromptu waffle party at my place, what better way to christen my waffle machine? With some eager reponses I went about researching online for a recipe for Belgian waffles and found this recipe. I remember I had to make a few changes to it but never wrote down exactly what those changes were.

The batter that I ended up with resulted in some pretty tasty waffles. It's a yeast based waffle batter which meant that I had to sit my mixing bowl next to a heater to help it rise on this particular cold night. It was well worth it though.

My fellow wafflers came and we fired up the waffle machine to start making some hot waffles. I had plenty of chocolate at home to make a sauce and also had some strawberries in the fridge. I requested my guests to bring some additional toppings of choice, and a tub of vanilla ice cream too.

The chocolate sauce is simply some milk chocolate melts and milk, melted over a double boiler and stired until combined.

So our toppings of choice are 'maple' syrup (shame it wasn't the real deal), strawberries and a mix of crushed walnuts and cashew nuts. Chocolate sauce and vanilla ice cream not shown in this pic.

Golden goodness. I actually doubled the batch and we were eating waffles a few days in a row, such indulgence.

DIY waffle assembling. All on with the toppings for most of us. It's more fun that way, and everyone gets to pick and choose what they want to go with their waffles. Great for those picky eaters. I've got to say I was actually a little skeptical about the crushed walnuts and cashews but they went so well with the chocolate and strawberries and vanilla ice cream. We didn't have any bananas that evening but the next day I was able to have a waffle with some ripe sugar bananas from the garden - it was delicious.

What could possibly be better than this? Definately beats heading out to Max Brenner to queue up on a cold and wet Friday night! And we had much more fun at home making our own waffles.

Best Banana Bread Ever!

2011-10-26T19:58:00.001+11:00

Who doesn't love banana bread?? Banana bread is the best way to use up old black bananas, the blacker the better. Well one of the ways, the other would probably be banana cake... or hummingbird cake!

I've plopped a bit of butter on the slice above for photography purposes but this recipe really doesn't need the extra butter because it's nice, rich and moist. Unless you feel like you really need it, then I won't stop you ;) I had been searching around for banana bread recipes and have not moved on since I landed on this one. I actually originally came across it on the blog Ohh-Look by Belle which was taken from an old issue of delicious magazine, but have tweaked it over time and always use it as more of a guide than following it exactly.

I've made it time and time again and every loaf that comes out of the oven doesn't take long to disappear, which is why I always bake two at a time. I know there are many recipes out there that take their claim as the best banana bread, but trust me with this one. It's the most easiest recipe ever, melt, mash and stir. Exactly what I like. And I've even had a request for it so here it is.

Recipe: Banana Bread

Ingredients:

1 1/3 cups self raising flour

1/2 - 1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

2/3 cup brown sugar

150 grams chopped walnuts

3-4 large over ripe bananas

2 large eggs lightly whisked

1 - 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

100 grams unsalted butter, melted and cooled

1. Preheat oven to 175 degrees celcius, grease and line a small loaf tin.

2. Sift all the dry ingredients into a bowl together with the sugar and chopped walnuts. Stir until combined.

3. In another bowl, mash the bananas and then stir in the melted butter, eggs and vanilla.

4. Fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until just combined.

5. Pour into the tin and bake for one hour or until golden and a skewer inserted comes out clean.

I've actually made my banana bread with sugar bananas and it gives a very different texture and taste compared to using regular bananas. I actually prefer the banana bread made with sugar bananas and even Ryan agrees it gives a much sweeter and better textured loaf. As they are generally smaller than your regular bananas I add a couple extra just to make sure there's enough banana in there.

With the Queensland flood at the beginning of this year affecting the prices of bananas I guess I can count myself lucky that we have a sugar banana tree at home which has been giving us plenty of fruit all year round. Sometimes mum will also bring home the blackened bananas which have failed to sell at my uncle's grocery store, score for free bananas!

Walnuts, I looooove walnuts and Mum says that they are what make the banana bread. I actually use a packet of whole walnuts and roughly bang them with a cleaver so that they are not all completely crushed or chopped. It helps to add another texture to the banana bread. And I usually add plenty of nice fragrant cinnamon.

Um yes, mashed banana and melted butter looks really appealing. But I love the fact that I don't have to wait to soften the butter (or over do it in the microwave), and creaming the butter is just too tedious of a task.

I find that if I grease the loaf tin well I don't need to line it and it just pops straight out. Tap it a couple of times on the counter to move any air bubbles around and up to the surface.

I always love the moment when the timer tells me they are done. And then I pull out two of these beautiful loaves from the oven. The smell around the house is just blissful.

It's always hard to resist temptation not to wait, hot straight from the oven is best. That way you get a nice thin crispy edge and a wonderfully soft fluffy interior with bits of crunch from the walnuts.

[Angie Travels] - Dubai and Egypt (Cairo)

2011-10-18T18:48:00.001+11:00

(Top: Dubai Airport (biggest in the world), Bottom: Dubai Highway)

Good Day Habibi! If you've been following my blog you'll know that I've been overseas for a month and have had the time of my life visiting 5 countries over 4 weeks. It's been about 6 weeks since I've returned home but it has been a hectic 6 weeks. The first few weeks were spent recovering from jet lag, exhaustion and trying to get myself off cloud 9 (dreaming of still being in Paris) and we've also had many events to attend and people to catch up with. The few weeks after that have also been tough for my family with the loss of an aunty to cancer. And to top all that off, all my spare time in the last two weeks has been taken up making my very first wedding cake, and a special first birthday cake for a good friend's little boy.

It's been quite a task to find the time and energy to sort through my thousands and thousands of travel photos and trying to conjur up the energy and time to compose a blog post is another great task in itself. It's only taken me about 6 weeks to complete this first instalment on my travels. So here goes...

(Left: Burj al Arab, Right: Burj Khalifa)

On the way to Cairo, we stopped in Dubai where there was a 7 hour transit stop for our connecting flight. Our trip organisers Harvest, had kindly arranged for a coach (well 3 to be exact) to take our group around to see the city sights. Dubai is an extremely hot place, with maximum temperatures of around 40+ degrees celcius. It may have only been about 4 or 5 in the morning when we left the airport but I could feel the heat hit me in the face as I walked out the sliding doors.

The city itself looked very artificial, there were so many high rises and everything was very modern in design. Ryan even went as far as describing it as 'having no soul'. It was all show but no substance, it was the biggest and the best of everything e.g biggest airport, biggest mall, tallest building etc. but didn't feel all that warm and inviting. It was like a concrete jungle in the middle of the desert. I would have liked to see the old Dubai. Probably doesn't help that we saw most of Dubai from the comfort of an air conditioned bus though.

(Top: Dubai Marina, Bottom: The Atlantis Hotel)

As it was still quite early in the morning, and also being Ramadan, there was not very much activity going on around the city and everything was still closed. We mostly stayed in the coach with a few pitt stops at significant landmarks or places of interest. Shame as it would have been fun to go into some of the places or poke around some of the shops. The photo doesn't show it that clearly but Dubai marina is the also largest man made marina in the world (surprise surprise).

(Top: Entrance to the Souk Madinat Jumbirah, Bottom: Inside the Souk)

We stop by the Souk Madinat Jumbirah which is a large indoor 'market', or shopping complex modelled on an Arabian theme, to use their toilets and also walked through to some points of interest inside the complex. Disappointed that all the stores were still closed but I loved the architecture of this place.

(Top: Man made canal inside the complex with a view of the Burj al Arab, Bottom: Stores and restaurants surrounding the canal)

(Top: Supermarket Bottom: Antipasto items)

And what about the food you might ask? They tried to take us to McDonalds however as it was closed due to Ramadan, we were taken to a supermarket to grab a 'snack'. It was similar to the large chain supermarkets (Coles, Woolworths) back home in Sydney. Even though we were fed breakfast before we landed, travelling does take a lot out of you and sustenance is needed. Ryan and I just grabbed a couple of things to keep our energy levels up. As it was Ramadan, we were instructed to take our food back to the coach and eat on onboard as it was disrespectful and rude to eat around people who were fasting.

(Top: Spicey corn and rice salad Ryan and I shared, Bottom: Box of baklava which we were lucky enough to sample)

(Top: Entrance to the 'Gold Market', Bottom: Gold/Jewellery shop with security guard out front)

We were taken to the 'Gold Market', which is just store after store selling mainly gold and other jewellery. There were also other little stores selling clothing and various other items. It was definately a market environment here with a lot of haggling to be done (and being ripped off if you weren't on your guard). This area also seemed to be the poorer side of Dubai, a big contrast to the slick looking concrete jungle we had seen all morning.

(Top: Dubai Aquarium - inside Dubai Mall, Bottom: Biggest candy store I've ever seen)

And of course we couldn't stop by Dubai without checking out the world's largest mall. It's just a quick (and long) walk through to the other side where we get a spectacular view of the Burj Khalifa. Inside the mall is also the Dubai Aquarium which is just mind blowing, just look at that first picture above to see how big it is. And that's just the outside of it. Opposite the aquarium is also the biggest candy store I've ever seen, we admired from afar though.

We then head back to Dubai airport where we grab some lunch before boarding our flight to Cairo (and get fed by Emirates again).

(Top: Outside Cairo airport, Bottom: Cairo highway)

Arriving in Cairo and walking out into the airport was quite a huge culture shock. You could tell it was a culture dominated by men, and as a foreigner (and a female) you stuck out like a sore thumb. The men would seriously undress you with their eyes which made me feel ultra self concious. Cairo, capital of Egypt, looked the complete opposite of Dubai. You could see that Cairo was nothing like Dubai on an economical scale. And I think that being surrounded by desert did not help for the appearance of the city either. A lot of the buildings appeared very dirty (or dusty), helping aid the impression that it was a poor country.

(Top: Streets of Cairo, Bottom: Spotting a pyramid in the distance)

One thing that caught me by surprise as we drove through the city to get to our hotel was how close the pyramids were to the city. As soon as I spotted a dark triangular shadow in the horizon, my heart skipped a beat and I almost squealed like a little girl. I studied ancient Egyptian history in high school and have always dreamed of visiting Egypt but I guess I never actually thought that dream would come true so soon in my life. And spotting that little dark triangle in the distant horizon just made me realise one of my dreams was about to become reality.

(View from our hotel room)

It was an exciting moment waking up the next day. I woke up quite early which was surprising because I barely slept a wink in the past 24 odd hours since we left Sydney, I thought I would have slept like a log. I do always have trouble sleeping in new beds though and probably because I was also super excited to know I was going to be ticking off one of my dream experiences.

I could see the pyramids in the distance from the balcony of the hotel room which I shared with two other girls. I went out and sat on the balcony watching this dark triangle come to life as the sun rose in the sky. It was an amazing experience and I knew that it would probably only ever happen once in my life time.

(Largest out of 3, Pyramids at Giza)

Things get even better with our first official day in Cairo. Leaving the office to embark on my 4 week adventure was quite surreal as I've never been away for so long before and it felt completely weird saying good bye to everyone. I was told something along the lines of 'in a few days time you'll be standing at the foot of a pyramid looking up and thinking 'wow' '. And when I stood at the foot of that pyramid and craned my neck up to see the top of it I thought to myself 'wow' and remembered what was said to me on my last day of work.

I was absolutely giddy, kept grabbing Ryan's hand, pinching myself to just see if it was all real. It was absolutely amazing, to stand in front of this enormous structure, something I had ever only seen on documentaries and in text books. It was an absolute high light to start off my big adventure.

(Ryan and I in front of one of the smaller pyramids)

We also got to go down one of the smaller pyramids, there wasn't much to see as it had been cleared out and the walls were bare but it was a cool experience to be able to walk into something that was only once a flat square diagram to me.

(Left: Sphinx, Right: Pizza Hit 200 metres from the Sphinx)

We were also taken to see one of the last standing Sphinx in Giza. Was a little disappointed as I had imagined it to be a lot bigger. Still, it was pretty cool to see one in real life. And as I was informed by a food blogger that apparently there was a Pizza Hut only about 200 metres away from the Sphinx, we just had to see it for ourselves so our tour guide asked the bus driver to drive past it. It was closed for Ramadan though.

(Left: Papyrus scroll production demonstration, Right: Previously made sheet of papyrus)

We're taken to a papyrus house to check out some art works and for some souvineer opportunities. It was interesting to see a demonstration of how a papyrus sheet is made. There were many beautiful hand painted pieces, however I left empty handed.

(Top: St Joseph's Cathedral, Bottom: The inside of the cathedral)

A pilgrimage is not a pilgrimage without daily Mass so after our visit to the papyrus factory, we high tail it through the city to downtown Cairo to St Joseph's Cathedral. It was quite a beautiful cathedral, the first of many more that I will see on my trip.

(Falafel pita sandwich)

Our culinary experience in Cairo was limited to our hotel food, which was quite mediocre. That was until our kind tour guides provided us with some falafel sandwiches for lunch after Mass. One bite into the falafel and Ryan and I were in love. Crunchy on the outside, soft and fluffy on the inside, it was nothing like what we had experienced back home. The falafel in Cairo were out of this world!

(Top: Pita bread sold on the streets in mass, Bottom: Prickly mangoes in a cart)

I did envy the locals, if only we were able to eat like the locals did without any repercussion. Would have been happy eating falafel sandwiches if they were all as good as the ones our tour guides bought for us.

(Left: Nunnery of Saint George, Right: The Hanging Church)

So our pilgrimage of Egypt continues after Mass where we visit Old Cairo (Coptic Cairo) to see all the sacred sites important to Christianity in Egypt. We visited the St George Convent, St Barbara, The Hanging Church, and Abu Sarga. The Hanging Church got it's name because it was built on the southern gate of the Roman fortress.

(Abu Sarga, St Sargus Church)

Abu Sarga is the oldest church in Egypt, it is believed that the crypt of the church is where the Holy Family took refuge while they were in Egypt.

(Top: Streets of Cairo, Bottom: Street side market)

It was quite fascinating just observing the lifestyle of the Egyptians as we drove through the city.

(Cairo farm landscape with the city and Great Pyramids in the background)

It's been a long and exhausting day, we're taken back to the hotel where we get the choice of free time to swim in the pool, or to stay on the bus which was heading off on a shopping expedition for essential oils and cheap t-shirts. Ryan and I decided the pool looked too good to say no to, and I'm glad we chose the latter.

The next day is an early wake up call and a very long bus ride to St Catherine and Mount Sinai.

Greetings from Israel!

2011-08-12T05:05:00.002+10:00

Dear Readers,

Just letting you know I am safe and well. Currently in Israel at the moment around the area of the Sea of Galilee, about 7 hours behind Sydney time. Yes, I know the photo above doesn't look anything like Israel but it's one of my favourite shots and one of few that Ryan and I have had together (we're too busy taking photos ourselves).

We move to our last destination of this leg of the trip tomorrow which is Jerusalem where we will be until Sunday when we head to Tel Aviv to fly to Madrid.

I can't believe it's only been a week but it has been a jam packed AMAZING week full of adventure. I've taken loads of photos and have picked out a few to post up, just follow the link below

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/set=a.10150330883895540.387326.627110539&l=fc86a34b40&type=1

Seeing the pyramids, riding a camel up Mount Sinai to watch the sun rise, floating on the Dead Sea, I can't believe I've done it all!

I havn't been online much, some places we've had limited wireless internet access and it's actually been nice to be disconnected from the world back home. And with our busy schedule there's barely any time to blog so if you want to follow my adventures just follow my photo album link above. I will try and do an update on my photos every few days or at last once a week, just use the same link if you want to see my photos.

Stay safe and eat well my friends.

Love Angie.

Angie is on holiday!

2011-08-03T10:09:00.000+10:00

Dear fellow readers,

Just letting you know I will be on a 4 week break from the routines of daily life. I will be with Ryan and 100 other young Sydney Catholics following a pilgrimage starting in Cairo, following all the significant Christian sites making our way into the Holy Land of Israel (passing through parts of Jordon along the way too). Places we'll be visiting include the great Pyramids at Giza, The Hanging Church, Mt Sinai, the Red Sea, the Dead Sea, Jericho, Nazareth, Galilee, Jeruselem, and there is so much more on the itinerary. The pilgrimage/trip is organised by Harvest Pilgrimages and they offer a whole range of different packages to different areas of the world at other times of the year too. Head over to their website to have a look at our particular journey in detail - we'll be doing the Exodus Encounter, though the one we're on is a slightly condensed version.

The pilgrimage will be for about 12 days and then we will be flying over to Madrid, Spain, joining thousands of other Australians and the rest of the world to participate in a week long celebration of activities leading up to World Youth Day on Sunday 21st August. After that Ryan and I decided to treat ourselves to a small side trip and will be hopping on an overnight train ride from Madrid to Paris where we will be for about a week before heading home.

I havn't travelled much, have only been on a few trips with family when I was younger (oh and also New Zelandand last year with family too). This will be a whole new chapter in my adult life, travelling without a safety net (and sometimes restrictive net that family is). The places I'll be going to will be completely foreign to me and I'll be so out of my comfort zone but I just can't wait to see them all. I'll try and do a few posts while I'm travelling to just keep you all (and my family and friends) updated.

I can't wait to tell you all about my experience on my return but until then stay safe and eat well!

Love, Angie.

Two tiered Christening cake for a little tiger

2011-07-25T21:21:00.001+10:00

I always love an excuse to bake and experiment in the kitchen. I like to do it anyway, special occasion or not. Sometimes I'll just bake a cake and bring it into work 'just because'. I seem to be a glutton to punishment at times though, taking on challenges to do something 'different', and driving myself insane in the process. But the end results are always satisfying, and I get to learn from my mistakes and improve on for next time.

A few weeks ago, a good friend Anne had a Christening/Dedication Service for her baby boy, Zac. Me being me, I offered to make a cake in lieu of bringing a present. At the time though, I didn't know what I was going to get myself into. After some emails backwards and forwards my 10 inch round one tiered Christening cake covered in fondant had turned into a 2 tiered cake. She was worried about attendance numbers for the catering, which in turn got me worried that one cake wouldn't be enough. Mind you, I hadn't had that much experience working with fondant (never made figurines before) and I had never made a 2 tiered cake before either. But as I had made 2 cakes in the past few months for other people, I guess I was on a little confident cake making roll.

One of my previous cakes was an order for a 60th birthday cake. My cousin in law's cousin is getting married later in the year and I was recommended to make the cake. The design they were after was a fondant covered chocolate cake with a garland of macarons cascading down the side. As I'm not a professional/practising cake maker I was asked to make this birthday cake as a bit of a trial. I made a rich dark chocolate mud cake and covered it with white fondant. To keep with the macarons theme I made some pink macarons and filled them with white chocolate ganache. Received good feedback but not sure if I'll get the wedding cake.

My second cake was just a small simple cake (macarons were requested) ordered by a friend at work. I decided to make a coconut cake, with a lime white chocolate ganache. The macarons are lemon shells filled with the same lime ganache.

So for my Christening cake, I decided to make two different flavours for the two tiers. As Anne is lactose intolerent, I wanted to experiment and create a cake that was completely dairy/lactose free so that she wouldn't have any issues eating the cake. The bottom tier was a 10 inch dark chocolate mud cake filled with and covered in a dark chocolate ganache. The top tier was an 8 inch almond and orange cake filled and covered with a lactose and dairy free white chocolate ganache. The ganache was made of a dairy free white chocolate and lactose free long life thickened cream.

As I was working after coming home from regular work, it took me a little longer than what it normally would. I baked one cake a day, or else it would have been past midnight by the time I finished baking.

The next day is the ganaching stage. Each cake was cut into 3 layers, filled and then covered. I had gone out and bought all sorts of tools but I still couldn't get the finish as smooth as I wanted to be - like how I learnt to do it when I did the Planet Cake course.

Dark chocolate mud cake with dark chocolate ganache. The cakes are left overnight so that the ganache can set and harden.

The next day I cover the cakes in fondant. I was making this cake during an extremely cold and dry week. It played absolute havoc with the fondant. Fondant can be quite temperamental depending on the weather, normally people have problems with heat and humidity. The cold dry air wasn't any good to me either, the fondant would just dry out as soon as I rolled it out which resulted in cracks and tearing. It didn't help that the layer of ganache underneath wasn't as smooth as I wanted it to be either, resulting in a bumpy finish with the fondant. I wasn't entirely happy but there wasn't much I could do.

I left one layer white and the coloured the other one blue. The blue actually has a light marbelling effect through it (half intentional/half because I just couldn't be bothered blending in the colour any further).

It's time to assemble the cakes. The cakes are quite heavy so I had to use some wooden dowels in the bottom layer to support the top layer and stop it from sinking into the bottom layer. I also cover the cake board in fondant to give it a more streamline look.

The next day I work on making the figuring to sit on top of the cake. I have never ever made a fondant figurine before so wasn't sure what I was in for. Originally I thought a cute little teddy bear would be simple and easy enough to do. After googling some images of Christening cakes online I thought I might attempt an elephant. Elephants have a bit of significance for me as it reminds me of the toy elephant Ryan and I bought little Zac when we first went to visit him. Anne did mention though that she was keen on a tiger as it's Zac's chinese zodiac animal. I thought a tiger would be too difficult so we both agreed on either a teddy bear or an elephant if I was game enough to do it.

Being a gluten to punishment, I let myself experiment and make a tiger for the top of the cake. So I coloured in some fondant with red and yellow colouring gel (to get orange) and proceeded to mould by hand something that I thought might resemble a tiger (above). My brother walked past and asked me what I was making. He said my tiger just looked like an orange person. I was yet to put on some black strips and a face. Happy with what I produced so far for the base, I had to scrunch it back up and add some setting agent to the fondant to get it nice and hard. I then proceeded to remake my tiger.

3 hours later and this is what I produced. It was such a cold day that my hands were absolutely shaking which made it tricky to make all the stripes and stick them on. I've already got shaky hands which makes fine detailed work hard enough as it is. It wasn't perfect, but I was quite happy with my little tiger.

By the time I was ready to decorate the rest of the cake, I started to get stomach cramps which did not help at all. Again the cold dry air played havoc with my fondant and in the end I spent 2 hours rolling up individual beads to go around the edge of my two tiers. I kept trying to roll out long ropes but they would just snap when I got close to the required thickness and length. I probably wasted a lot more time trying to get the ropes rolled. Should have just given up earlier and gone with the beads. The rest of the cake was just decorated with shapes made by cutters, with the exception of the crosses which were hand cut by Ryan.

Side view of the complete cake. I asked if Ryan could see all the imperfections in the cake that I could see and he said no. And then he said that if he wanted to be really critical it just looks like my cake has a case of cellulite.

Other side of the cake and tiger.

I think my best piece of work sat on top of the cake. I was quite proud of my first ever fondant figurine. I even saved him for little Zac when I went to cut up the cake but apparently it got pinched from the bench while they were cleaning up. Some little girl pinched it and ran off with it. It's probably ended up in some garden or bin somewhere. I'll have to make another one for him, perhaps for his first birthday ;).

The cakes also received great feed back. Even my critical uncle who tasted mud cake said it was one of the best mudcakes he'd had - 'very moist, as it should be'. And Ryan now has a new favourite cake, he loved the orange and almond cake. The only issue was that the white chocolate ganache was a bit too thick, only because of technical issues which made the layers separate and fall apart.

I did walk away saying I'd never ever do this again. But reflecting back now, it was a good project to do, I learnt things which is the only way you can improve yourself.

Photo of my cake taken at the Christening by someone with a very cool camera (hides the cellulite!). Added my watermark because I don't want anyone going around stealing the image.

La Grande Bouffe (Revisited) - Celebrating 11 years (8th July)

2011-07-19T22:40:00.003+10:00

Ryan and I used to be quite content with picking a handful of favourite places to eat but ever since I've started blogging I'm always keen to 'try somewhere different', for research purposes of course though the photos and experiences don't always make it onto the blog.

La Grande Bouffe has been marked as a favourite though it has been a long long time since our last visit. As we are travelling overseas next month, Ryan and I didn't really make any plans to celebrate our 11 year anniversary, but decided last minute to have a nice little casual dinner out. So a revisit was a must.

La Grande Bouffe is a little cosy French bistro in Rozelle. They also have a sister restaurant, Apres in Potts Point which Ryan and I also adore. Ryan and I love the food here, and it's convenient that it's not too far from (my) home. I made a booking for 6:30pm to take advantage of their dinner special where you can order 3 courses from the a la carte menu for $60 a person. The only catch was you had to be seated by 6:30pm, place your order for all 3 courses up front and be out of there by 8:30pm (Fridays and Saturdays) - easily done.

Can't resist a warm baguette slathered with butter.

Amuse bouche - escargot in garlic and herb butter.

Our first dinner here was when I had my first taste of escargot, and loved it! It's like eating mussels and clams, without the seafood taste. Am looking forward to the real deal when we visit Paris very soon.

Ryan's entree - Fennel soup with smoked trout.

Ryan let me try a few spoonfuls of his soup. It was smooth, creamy and delicious. The trout added some extra flavour and smokiness to the soup and the roe added some interesting texture, loved how it popped in my mouth.

My entree - Bacon wrapped scallops with leek fondue.

The scallops were nice and plump and cooked nicely, we've tried cooking them at home before and they either came out under or overcooked. These were perfectly cooked and I loved the balance of flavours between the bacon, scallops and creamy leek.

The only issue I had was that towards the end of my second scallop I experienced a bit of 'gravel'. Not really sure what it was but I just sifted it out and kept eating my scallop. By the time I had my third scallop the 'gravel' was alot more noticeable and the bits I spat out were quite large and it was just unbearable to chew as every mouthful was just gritty.

I alerted one of the waitresses who came back telling me that supposedly it was some sort of bones in the scallop. Never heard of that one before but perhaps I was just unlucky. I was however disappointed that I had left half a scallop behind and the kitchen didn't do anything to compensate for the fact that the scallop was totally inedible due to these 'bones'.

Ryan's main - Twice cooked beef cheeks, carrot puree, winter vegetables and cepes.

Soft, melt in your mouth goodness these cheeks were thanks to them being twice cooked. The perfect dish on a cold winter's night, loved all the flavours coming together in one mouthful.

My main - Roasted Salmon fillet with potato scales, cauliflower puree and school prawns.

It's been a while since I've had salmon so thought it would be nice to follow my seafood entree with a seafood main. I love the detail of the 'potato scales' on the fillet of salmon. It was perfectly cooked, crispy on the outside, still soft and opaque on the inside. I loved the capers which added a little zestiness to the dish.

Ryan's dessert - Pear Tarte Tatin with vanilla ice cream.

Originally he said he was just going to get petite fours with coffee for dessert, which totally disappointed me, how can someone pass on dessert? In the end he changed his mind and ordered the tart tatin, something that he wants to make but hasn't quite mastered yet (burnt toffeed apple/pear anyone?). The pear was nice but we found the pastry a little on the soggy side rather than crispy. The ice cream was DElicious, generously flavoured with vanilla bean.

My dessert - Sour cherry clafoutis with vanilla ice cream

I've seen numerous recipes for clafoutis (cla-foo-tie), which is normally made with cherries, but whenever cherries are in season I can't help but down them by the handful just as they are. So this makes it my first taste of a clafoutis. I've imagined it to be almost like a frangipan tart, but it was more like a dense eggy and custardy pancake. I liked how sour cherries were used as it was a welcome tartness to counteract the sweetness of the batter and ice cream. Will have to try another one when I get to Paris ;)

All in all it was a wonderful evening to mark the occasion. Still can't believe it's been 11 years! We have practically grown up together, and no one knows me better than he does. And I am the hand that feeds him =p. Looking forward to our first big trip together, let's see if we survive past the 11 years after this hey ;)

Glass Brasserie (Hilton Hotel) - A suprise for my birthday lunch, and my birthday weekend

2011-07-12T21:45:00.003+10:00

My parents have returned from Vietnam which means my life *somewhat* goes back to normal. With 3 weeks to go until my big overseas trip it's all feeling a little hectic at the moment, finalising stuff for the trip, social events in my calendar every weekend until I go, it's crazy!

So it was my birthday a couple of Fridays ago and I took the day off work to spend the day and have lunch with Ryan. The lunch location was kept a suprise and I did my absolute best not to ask too many questions or even try to figure out where we were going (unlike last year). As soon as we were in front of the Hilton Hotel on George Street I knew exactly where we were having lunch.

Glass Brasserie has been a place I've had my eye on for a while now, though I'm not sure Ryan even knows about my ever growing wish list. It just so happened that Ryan had been wanting to try it out too. It was nice to see owner chef Luke Mangan walking around the restaurant during lunch chatting to guests and just keeping an eye on everything. I was tempted to ask for a photograph but was just too shy to, and I didn't want to intrude on him.

We start off with the complimentary bread, and we do love our bread when it's made well. This bread is seasoned with zaatar (a spice blend) and served with Luke's own brand of extra virgin olive oil. I know shouldn't fill myself up before the food but the bread is so good it's hard not eat it all. I am the most indecisive person when it comes to choosing, especially when there is good food involved. To eliminate the dilemna of constantly changing my mind between dishes I let Ryan take charge of the ordering.

We started off with two of the tapas style dishes from the menu to share, the first being the Pan fried goose foie gras, scallop, quince, hazelnuts, spiced bread. It was only small but this piece of foie gras was the most decadent, rich, smooth and silky thing I had eaten. I've had foie gras before but generally it's been more of an element to a dish rather than the main star. It paired perfectly with the scallop, quice and hazelnuts on the side as well as the spiced bread that came with it. It helped to cut through the richness of the foie gras.

The spiced bread. Ryan called it ginger bread, which in essence it almost did taste like it. And he said it was the best damn ginger bread he had tasted.

Second dish was the Beef tongue char grilled with four spice, green tomato, radish & shaved fennel. Ryan and I are not offal lovers but we first had (veal) tongue at District Dining as it was part of a set menu there. It was the most amazing dish we had tried. And this beef tongue at Glass was even more amazing. I've always imagined tongue to be quite tough and chewy, and the thought of even eating tongue just really put me off. The tongue here is cooked beautifully, it's actually quite soft and smooth on the tongue (excuse the pun). I do find it slightly over seasoned but find relief in the garnish that comes with it.

Ryan suggested we have one of the mains to share, which I happily agreed to. We chose the Roast lamb rack, hay-baked & glazed shoulder, carrots, leeks, green beans, white bean skordali.

The main was served table side and we had two very friendly waiters looking after us. One was more photogenic than the other.

That's a plate for one! The servings are absolutely huge, I'm sure there was enough food there to feed four. We probably could have skipped the entrees, but they were a nice start to the meal. The lamb rack was not too fatty and cooked to perfection. The shoulder was just so soft and tender to eat. We enjoyed every little morsel that we could fit in. I absolutely struggled to eat my half but there was no way Ryan was taking my leftovers because he didn't have any room left either.

Sides Truffled Mash, White Bean Puree. I'm not sure if the truffled mash was suppose to come with the lamb as it wasn't on the menu. We originally did request for it with our mains but were told that we wouldn't need it as the lamb came with plenty of sides. We were so happy to have it though. It was almost like a puree, the most smoothest, silkiest potato puree I've ever had. And I just love the aroma of the truffle oil blended into it. Even better than the mash/puree we had at Quay. I would have been happy eating just a bowl of it. It actually outshone the white bean puree which I thought was nice, but nothing like the potato puree.

Macarons (spelt macaroons on the menu): Mixed berry, Choc Mint. We really truly did not have room for a full blown dessert. But I managed to talk Ryan into getting a couple of macarons, as they are our weakness. We were a left disappointed though as the shells were a little on the too hard side for our liking. The choc mint was okay flavour wise but the mixed berry filling was just way too sweet.

The stunning interior of the resturant. This photo doesn't really capture the essence of the dining space, you'll just have to have a look for yourself ;) After lunch we walked (rolled) down to Event Cinemas on George Street and watched Kung Fu Panda 2 (and we actually watched the first one with some friends for my birthday the year it was released). I absolutely loved it as much as I loved the first one.

On Saturday, Ryan offered to cook up a feast for me to celebrate with some friends. I did come over early to give him a hand, and there was alot to do.

There were two legs of lamb, which he roasted with some garlic and rosemary. Even though they were a little raw in the middle when it came time to carve them, they were delicious (nothing a frying pan can't fix). There was also a saffron cashew sauce that went with the lamb (no photo). Everyone loved the sauce.

Roasted winter vegetables - pumpkin, swedes, celeriac and shallots. They could have done with a few more minutes in the oven too, dear boyfriend underestimated his time and everyone was getting hungry and anxious with anticipation too which didn't really help.

One thing that can't really go wrong. Ryan made truffled mash and even went and bought real (brined) truffles to mix through it. He surely knows my weakness.

To top off the night - best ever ricotta cheesecake in Sydney! And everyone agreed after they had a taste. I had to go to Pasticceria Papa at Haberfield in the morning to pick up my own birthday cake because Ryan was too busy to ;). He had actually wanted to make dessert but seeing as it wasn't his specialty he thought he would take the safe option. It had actually been a long while since we've had this cheesecake so a birthday was a great excuse to indulge. I also served up some macarons I had made a few days earlier. It was a great night, spent with some great food and great company.

On Sunday I cooked up a feast for my family but didn't take any pics apart from this one of my dessert stand. We had nem (thanks to Mum's frozen stash), sausages, buffalo wings, pork ribs, salt and pepper calamari, roast potatoes, garden salad, and garlic fried rice. Plenty of leftovers but it was all put to good use the next day with my parents and also Ryan's parents being overseas. For dessert I had chocolate dipped vanilla profiteroles and cinnamon & milk chocolate macarons. I also decided to make use of the Christmas present Ryan's mum gave me - the cake stand.

And just when I thought birthday festivities were over I return to work on Monday and have a morning and an afternoon tea (both with cake!) organised for me. Turning 27 this year wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be. And it has and will be a great year ahead, I just know it =).

Bake or Donate at work - Fundraiser for Breast & Prostate Cancer Research

2011-06-30T21:35:00.002+10:00

Just a quick post to let you know I'm still alive here! It's been a hectic 3 weeks with Mum and Dad overseas in Vietnam. On top of working full time I have to come home and put on dinner for my 3 sibblings and myself. They are old enough to look after themselves and have been very helpful with chores around the house but there are some things that I can't rely on them for, like dinner.

I was mighty impressed a few weeks ago when one of my younger brothers (who has never cooked anything other than bacon and eggs) decided he wanted to try and cook chicken schnitzels from scratch and researched a recipe and did all the shopping for ingredients himself. For a first time, I thought he did a great job, that was a one off though.

I've also had various baking projects squeezed in between all of that, and trying to fit in a gym session here and there so I am completely exhausted by 9:00pm and am ready for bed. Barely any time to blog or read other blogs.

So about 2 weeks ago, we had a bake off at work to raise money for the National Breast Cancer foundation and the Australian Prostate Cancer foundation. I love it when we do this kind of thing at work. It's actually been about 2 years since we actually have. The amount of effort everyone puts in and the crazy and creative ideas that come out is quite amazing. Most people (myself included) would have stayed up past midnight in their kitchen putting together their creations.

There were 4 sessions held across 3 days to cover day, afternoon and night shifts. Each shift had awards for Most Pink, Most Blue, Most Creative, and People's Choice. There were alot of pink and blue cupcakes and a few very outstanding creations too.

From what I saw, this had the second highest number of votes for People's Choice. The teapot was a Missisippi Mud Cake and the round cake was an almond cake. I work with the lady who made this and it's her first ever time using fondant icing. Better than my first go at it.

This received the most votes for People's Choice. The top half of a cake is a female body with a bra and the bottom half is a male body with briefs.

A bouquet of cupcakes.

This actually was brought in on the previous night shift and won the grand prize but was put on show for the rest of the event. Apparantly the person who made it was a cancer survivor.

Snakes and Ladders cupcakes. Can't remember what the note said about the meaning behind this but it was pretty creative.

Checker board with pink and blue cupcakes. There's a note that asks 'have you had your check up yet?'. See those blue cupcakes there? They won the award for most blue. I had one and think they should have got an award for most sweet too. They were very yummy but the sweetness sent my brain into a spasm, and that's the only thing I ate for that morning. Was probably a good thing I didn't eat anything else.

Some pretty dainty cupcakes with pink and blue icing ribbons.

And these were my creations. I knew I just had to make macarons to bring in (and I also knew how popular they would be). My pink macaron boobies are what they are and achieved the effect that I had hoped for. The blue macarons... well I had no idea what I could do for prostate cancer. Male anatomy was just too rude so I had a great idea of piping P's in blue. Well, with a broken piping bag and an oven disaster that's how they turned out above. And all the boobie jokes in the office afterwards... =D

The reactions I got at work... were quite amusing. And embarrasing on my part because I was the one that made them. I think they made some people a little uncomfortable and were the last to go in the bake sale. So I guess I 'accidently' made what I originally thought was just too awfully rude to be bringing in to work... not that I ever had the intention to do it anyway! Everyone absolutely loved them, it was funny hearing the echo's around me 'Did you try a macaron yet? They are so good!' And then it was like a chain reaction with someone else grabbing one to try.

And guess what? I won the most pinkest goodies! Which totally caught me by suprise because I wasn't expecting to win anything. Last time I made pink profiteroles, with pink pastry cream and pink icing and they didn't even get me anything. ***Edit. Charlie points is our rewards system at work. It eliminates the whole issue of having to get gift vouchers & makes the reward system streamline and more transparent across the whole business. One point = $1 to spend on the online 'gift shop', kinda like Red Balloon, you can trade in points for any goods or experiences.***

So in total across the 4 sessions we managed to raise $3050.00 in total. Our MD was really touched by the event and said that he would match what we raised dollar for dollar so that brings out total donation to $6100.00 to be split equally between the National Breast Cancer foundation and the Australian Prostate Cancer foundation. The organising team did an absolutely awesome job organising the whole event and it was all for a good cause. I do hope that they do it again next year.

Restauracja Teatralna - (Restaurant at The Polish Club Ashfield, Under New Management)

2011-06-09T21:12:00.003+10:00

(Stairwell up to the Polish Club)

Ryan informs me that we will be checking out a new Polish restaurant that has just been opened by his younger brother Robin's best mate's dad. He was under the impression that this place was out west somewhere but we found out on Friday night from his mum and brother that it's actually in Ashfield, at the Polish Club. I was a little confused because I knew that there was a already a restaurant there (according to google search). From what Robin's mate Daniel tells us, it sounds like they have taken over the restaurant/catering contract with the club. Daniel tells us that his dad has actually worked for many restaurants before, including the previous owners of this restaurant at the Ashfield Polish Club (about 10 years ago), and they even owned their own restaurant down in Wollongong.

It was a little tricky to find as the Polish Club is situated on a one way street in the backstreets of Ashfield, not sure if there's an entrance off Liverpool Road.We had to circle a few blocks until we found it, it's not very well lit either so can easily be missed. The club looks a little old and run down so we were initially a little unsure if we were in the right place or not. Ryan and I arrived first and signed ourselves in as temporary members of the club. It wasn't clear where the restaurant was at first glance, and then I noticed the plain tables behind a couple of glass panels towards the back of the main foyer, then a familiar face coming out to greet us. We were then soon joined by Robin, their mum, and aunty.

Friday nights are not very busy for them at the moment, they had a few tables who had cleared out before we arrived. They also do catering for functions held at the club and Saturdays sound like the busier days. The restaurant is open Fridays and Saturdays for dinner and Sundays for lunch and dinner. I'd come and try them out when they are a bit on the quiet side, just call ahead to check they don't have a function on (9798 7469). We could hear music coming out from one of the function rooms, it sounded like they were holding dance lessons that night.

It's a very cosy little place, very minimal decor, plain white table clothes, vinyl chairs, single vases of fake flowers, Ryan actually thinks it was a little too minimal, perhaps some paintings, or items showing off some Polish heritage would be a nice touch to the stark white walls. I do love the red feature wall behind the counter though. Even though they restaurant/club seems to have gone through an update, it looks like a lot more could be done.

Daniel was running front of house this night. His dad and brother were in the kitchen. Apart from Robin, who seems to have become a bit of a regular here already, none of us had tried Polish food before.

It's a simple one paged menu, but doesn't make it easier to choose what I want to try since I am always so indecisive. It looks like the menu hasn't changed much from the previous people running the restaurant according to my research, and still has all the traditional Polish dishes on there (apart from dessert). Drinks are to be bought from the bar, which I thought was strange but it's only a few steps away. They also only accept cash at the restaurant. We end up starting with two serves of soup to share and picked a dish each to share between the 5 of us.

Al La Ambassador Soup $8.00

There are two soups on the menu. Daniel recommended the Ambassador telling us that it was very nice. It had walnuts and bow tie pasta in it. Even though it looks quite heavy the broth was really lovely to eat, nice and light. Ryan describes it as tasting quite meaty, though we don't see any meat in sight.

Home Made Poppyseed Bread.

Daniel brings out a plate of bread for us to have with the soup. He proudly informs us that his dad made it in house. The bread was light and airy albeit a little on the oily side so probably didn't need the extra butter. I slather the butter on anyway, how could I resist? It mopped up the soup perfectly and the poppyseed in the bread was a nice textural touch. Apparantly this was purely experimental because they wanted to try something a little different with the bread.

Pierogi z Meisem/Meat Dumplings $10.00

There are 10 dumplings per serve in the mains section. I'm glad we were sharing because I would have struggled to finish all 10 dumplings on my own, they're quite filling. This was definately different to the type of Asian dumplings that we're used to. Ryan said he would have preferred them fried a bit. I didn't mind them, the skins are thicker than what I am used to be they were soft to the bite.

Pierogi Ruski / Cheese Potato Dumplings $10.00

These were served with some creme fraiche which I really liked. The creme fraiche added a nice touch of tartness to the dumplings. Liked these (must be the potato).

Sznycel po Wiedensku/Vienna (Veal) Schnitzel $20.00

The veal schnitzel was a hit with the family. I didn't mind it but it wasn't my favourite dish of the night. I guess because it wasn't anything special to me. It came topped with an egg sunny side up and served with a side of mash and cabbage salad.

Placek Po Wegiersku/Hungarian Style Potato Pancakes $20.00

Now this was interesting, and was recommended by Daniel too, was there anything he didn't recomment? =D. It was quite a thick dense pancake and came with some goulash over the top. Being a sucker for anything with potatoes in it I loved it. It came with a small cabbage salad, which was needed to cut through the richness of the dish.

Gulasz Kopytkami/Goulash with Gnocchi $18.00

Daniel proudly informs us that the gnocchi is hand made by his grandmother, who comes out to sit in the dining room to have a break with some tea and creme brulee made by her other grandson. Hand made gnocchi is always a winner with Ryan and I, especially made by grandmothers. They are well made, light and soft though we do get the occasional small lump of potato when we bite in. Totally nothing wrong with that but that was just Ryan's observation. He's obsessed with getting his gnocchi absolutely smooth and melt in the mouth. I loved the pairing of the goulash with the gnocchi. The goulash was just delicious, the meat was cooked to a perfect tenderness that just melted in your mouth as you ate it. Can you tell which dish was our favourite?

We are all pretty full and wern't sure we even had room for dessert but we eventually get talked into trying all 3 desserts on the menu. Intitally we were just going to share 2 but Daniel's brother Nick insisted that we try out the third dessert too. (Daniel must have told him I was taking photos for my blog). We learn that Nick is the mastermind behind the desserts for the restaurant. Apparantly he likes making desserts and is self taught in the kitchen (just like me!) He also helps their dad out in a kitchen hand type of role.

If you notice, the desserts arn't really Polish desserts as this is only what Nick knows how to do. I'm sure if they asked nicely their grandmother should have some Polish dessert recipes tucked up her sleeves somewhere. Daniel tells us about these Polish donuts that sound absolutely droolworthy but says they don't make it because they don't have a recipe for it and his dad usually only buys it in. If you have a recipe for them, perhaps you could pass it along and they could have them freshly made on the menu ;)

Palacinki $5.00

Thin crepe, rolled up with jam and served with a small scoop of ice cream.. There are 3 choices of jam, plum, sour cherry or rose hip. The choice was left to Ryan and I and we went for the rose hip. We all enjoyed the crepe. It was nice and light with the sweetness coming from the jam. Daniel says they eat these at home all the time, usually laid flat and spread with nutella. They thought it would be nice to add it to the menu and served them rolled up and filled with jam. The crepe probably needs a little something just to finish off the presentation, looks a little too plain.

Creme Brulee $6.00

We did have a bit of an issue with the brulee part of the creme brulee, the sugar was spread a little too thin and it was lacking a caramelised top to crack through (it's the essence of a creme brulee). When you ate it, the sugar was still quite grainy. Apparantly others have made the same comment so it's probably something that needs practising. The custard however was lovely, smooth and creamy, not overly sweet, Ryan's mum loved it.

Pavlova $9.00

Daniel insisted that Nick wanted us to try his pavlova. We thought that 2 desserts was enough to share but we were assured that the pavlova was not very big. It was the last dessert to come and came with an apology from Nick saying that it wasn't his finest work and that he didn't want me to take a photo of it. Apart from some technical issues it was gorgeous to eat. Ryan's mum loved it even more than the creme brulee. It was a chocolate meringue topped with cream and strawberries and drizzled with a bit of passionfruit, a great combination of flavours. It was actually very light and we had no problems spooning it down, even scraping the bowl that it was baked in.

We all enjoyed our little Polish feast, and will definately be coming back for some more. The food was good honest homestyle cooking which left us all satisfied and then some - it was ultimate comfort food. Don't come here expecting much more and you won't be disappointed. I can't say that it was a great restaurant experience (can't really tell because we were the only table dining) but definately come here for the food. Especially grandma's goulash with gnocchi. For the 5 of us, the total bill came to just over $110.00 which I think was great value for money. Don't think you can get better food for that price per person at any other club.

We didn't really get a chance to look around the club before or after dinner but from what I've read there is (or was?) a deli downstairs. Bummed that we missed it. The club also has it's own facebook page. Apparantly they hold regular events and socials so check it out if you're interested.

Easy Sticky BBQ Pork Ribs

2011-06-06T22:44:00.003+10:00

Who doesn't love a nice sticky rack of ribs? Funny thing is I'd actually been craving for ribs ever since going on holiday with my family to New Zealand. Of course we would talk about food, and ribs were brought up but we never actually got to have any. Since coming back from the trip I wanted to try and cook them at home. I'm not sure why I hadn't done so earlier but I think I was under the impression that ribs were really hard to cook.

New Year's was approaching so I invited the extended family over for a BBQ on New Year's Eve. My parents were away at the time so I was left to prepare and cook for approximately 20 hungry mouths that afternoon all by myself. Okay, so I did get some help cooking the meats on the bbq, and getting my potatoes peeled, but I was pretty much left to planning and executing the whole thing by myself to the suprise of my uncle and aunty and grandparents. Mum is known as the big cook in the family and I guess they were always under the impression that I was her side kick. My menu consisted of pork ribs, t-bone steaks, lamb chops, bbq'd corn, roast potatoes, sauteed beans, garlic bread and salad.

These ribs have now become a family favourite ever since I started making them way back then, continually improving the flavour and cooking technique each time I make them. Mum is constantly bringing home gifts of rib racks from the butchers because she sees how much the sibblings (and sibbling's friends) enjoy eating them. Everytime ribs are on the menu my little brother thinks we're a restaurant and invites friends over for dinner.

The original recipe for these was found on the taste website. It's actually a recipe for sticky smoky spicy ribs cooked over a bbq but I usually start it off in the oven and finish it over a coal bbq. Finishing them off in the oven is also fine if the bbq is not running when you are making these. You just lose out on the smokiness but I havn't had any complaints about that. I'll give you the recipe as original, just multiply the quantities accordingly to how many ribs you'll be cooking. The actual quantities that I personally use may vary slightly, as I measure with my eye most of the time, but it all comes down to the taste.

I also started off buying the American style pork racks, but Mum has been bringing home all sorts of different ribs for me to try out from our local Vietnamese butcher (trying to find a better and cheaper cut, ribs are not cheap considering there's more bone than meat, but there's more meat than ribs on an animal so I suppose that's why they're pricey to buy).

We've settled on a perfect cut of rib that has quite a bit of meat still attached on both sides of the bone (which is actually quite thin, maybe it is a short rib?), and has a nice amount of fat so releases plenty of juice when cooked which helps to keep them quite juicey during the cooking process. I would have no clue what they are called but they are actually really hard to get, some days they'll have one or two small racks only and Mum will buy them and stockpile for the weekend.

You can really use any style of rib that you can get your hands on. The fattier and meatier they are, the better or else you end up with a very dry rack of ribs after the long slow cooking. But I guess it's personal preference. I like my ribs to still have a nice amount of meat on them once they are cooked through. And the meat needs to be nice and tender, almost falling off the bone.

Recipe: Sticky BBQ Pork Ribs (recipe adapted from taste)

Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/3 cup barbecue sauce
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
2 x 680g racks Aussie-style pork ribs (or any other ribs will do)
1 tablespoon corn flour

1. Combine all the ingredients in a dish.
2. Coat the ribs in the marinade, cover and refridgerate overnight.
3. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius. Place ribs into a roasting tray and bast generously with the marinade, reserve any remaining marinade. Cover with foil and cook for 45 minutes. Turn the ribs and bast them again with the marinade and cook for another 45 minutes.
4. Take out the ribs and pour the pan juices into the remaining marinade and return the ribs to the oven.
5. Place the marinade and pan juices into a saucepan and cook over medium heat until reduced and thick.
6. Combine the corn flour with a small amount of cold water to dissolve and stir into the sauce. Take off the heat.
7. Take the ribs out and pour the sauce over them. Cook over a smokey bbq or in the oven uncovered until the sauce caramelises and the ribs are sticky. Turn and coat the other side for even coverage.
8. Serve with some roast potatoes or chips and extra sauce on the side.
(I usually don't garnish my ribs but these were being taken to a birthday party, I wanted them to look a bit more presentable so sprinkled over some sliced shallots that were already in the fridge)

I recently had a request for these from a friend celebrating her 21st birthday. She'd had my ribs at my sisters 21st (though they still had heaps of improvement needed back then) and when I asked what she wanted me to bring to the bbq, ribs were immediately requested. At first I was reluctant to because ribs arn't cheap to buy and I was worried there just wouldn't be enough to go around. In the end I gave in and got Mum to buy me 3 kilos worth. I cut them up into individual ribs and even made a note to get people to just take one first so that most people had a chance to try them out (mum's idea). I finished them in the oven at home and stuck them into a styrofoam box to keep them warm to take to the park. At the end of it the box was empty - always a good sign.

We had ribs again this weekend. Though they wern't my best batch as I was a little rush with a change of schedule. They were meant to be Saturday's dinner but then were changed to Sunday dinner and then last minute were changed to Saturday lunch. I just didn't have the time to let them cook as long as I wanted as I needed the oven to cook other things for the lunch too. I also had a birthday cake order to do so spent my entire Saturday in the kitchen. No complaints though which is always a good thing.

Launch of 'Seizure' - Issue 1: 'Food'

2011-06-04T03:35:00.001+10:00

'Seizure is a new magazine for new writing'. This is a new publication of writing, which is released bi-annually and based on different themes. I received an invitation from subeditor Rosanna Stevens to attend the launch of their first edition which so happened to be based on FOOD. The launch was held at The Paper Mill, in Angel Place, Sydney. I was also a little nervous attending an event where I didn't know anyone but it was a relief to see some familiar faces. How do you spot food bloggers at an event? Huddled around the food prep/serving area with digital cameras snapping away at everything ;). Sandra from The French Wench did an amazing job covering the event (it helps when you have insider knowledge). I didn't mingle as much during the night, was totally out of my comfort zone. But I did have my eye on the food.

Christopher The, owner of Black Star Pastry.

Coming straight from work (via home to grab my camera), I was pretty hungry and wine was not good on an empty stomach. I was excited that the catering was going to be provided by Black Star Pastry.

Spiced pumpkin tarts. These were interesting, I think they needed more of a flavour kick though. But then that's my personal taste, I love bold flavours over subtle ones.

Green Olives in dukkah and honey. Wasn't in an olives mood so didn't try any of these. They did look yummy.

Aussie burgers. How can anyone say no to these cute little burgers? Just a plain meat pattie with some relish between a mini burger bun but it hit the spot.

Test tube of apple cider granita with champagne. It sounded like a great concept when explained to us however by the time I got to try one the granita had melted and diluted the champagne so it just tasted like watery apple juice. Shame. The gold flakes suspended in it did look pretty after you shook the test tube.

Time for the formalities. Alice Grundy - Editor in chief of Seizure.

We also had a few words from Australian novalist Delia Falconer.

After the formalities we were all given a 'Miracle Frootie', which was a pill made from a miracle berry which was supposed to make everything taste sweet. (And apparantly changes the taste of bitter food too). The sensation usually lasts about 30 minutes to an hour.

There was a selection of sour fruits for tasting. Lemons, limes, red grapefruit, green apple, strawberries. I actually had my pill after I tasted the rest of the food, just so my tastebuds were not too warped. It was a very strange sensation. My first tasting was the lime, I could taste the sour notes but my brain/tastebuds were telling me that it was okay to eat. There was no scrunching up my face type reaction at all, and it was sweet. I then had a piece of green apple which was quite sweet and pleasant to eat, I actually couldn't stop myself going back for more - that couldn't have been a bad thing though right? I was eating apples! Then I went back for a second piece of lime and felt my face scrunch up. 'It was like we were at a G rated rave party, but with food and happy pills.'

Beetroot sherbet. These were interesting. Earthiness of beetroot but then sweetness and tartness of a sherbet.

Goats curd on pumpernickle. I thought they tasted a bit odd, wasn't a fan of the taste and texture of the pumpernickle. It probably is an acquired taste though.

Balsamic turkish delight with strawberry. One of my favourites of the night (not only because it was sweet). The turkish delight was just melt in your mouth with the slight tartness from the balsamic and the strawberry actually paired quite well with it.

Guiness and chocolate spider. I don't think I've ever had guiness before. And I don't think I will ever have it again. Didn't like the taste of it at all. Was an interesting concoction though. I'm sure you'd love it if you like your guiness.

Roasted chestnuts. These were freshly roasted but it was too cumbersome to try and eat with a camera and wine glass in hand.

Creme brulee flambe. The little vanilla creme tarts were sprinkled with sugar and then sprayed with a mix of vanilla and alcohol.

Flambe! These were absolutely delish. Soft short pastry, creamy custard, fragrant vanilla, caramalised sugar. Went back for more ;).

The magazine was sold at a special price of $10 at the launch, so I grabbed myself a copy for some bedtime reading. You can find out where to get a copy here.

I love how the contents are layed out like a menu. Very creative. The articles in the magazine make for some interesting reading, makes my writing look pretty ordinary (it probably doesn't help that I havn't done much creative writing since leaving high school, hence losing my touch on the writing world).

Awesome article about ramen! And the wonderful person behind one of Sydney's best ramen spots Gumshara, Mori, whom I got to chat to briefly.

It was not all literature, there was a pretty delicious looking recipe from Cafe Mint for Apple Cider Duck Tagine.

And a recipe for 'Hugging Cake', contributed by Christopher The, of Black Star Pastry. It almost looks like a scientific diagram of sorts.

The next edition of Seizure is already in motion and it's theme is 'Sci-Fi'. Food is an easy topic to write about, but I wonder what sort of things will be written about Sci-Fi? Shame I'm not into Sci-Fi at all!

The 'Master Chef Challenge' - 10 hours, 5 teams, 10 dishes and 1 experiment

2011-05-24T22:07:00.004+10:00

It's been a hectic two weeks since I last blogged. Ryan built me a new computer since then which we had to work through and tweak out all the little glitches. Then I had to reinstall all my programs and transfer all my files over from my back up hard drive which took a while too. Yes, my boyfriend can cook and build computers too - arn't I a lucky girl? ;) We're also travelling overseas for 4 weeks in August so I'm too super excited to do much other than google places to go, things to eat etc (especially in Paris - THE food capital of the world). I had to decide on what to blog about next and thought that this is way overdue on my list of things to blog about.

Over the Easter break some friends of ours were getting together for a 'Master Chef' challenge of sorts of their own and Ryan and I were invited along. We were all split into pairs and the 'rules' were as follows:

Couples were split - it was deemed that all the couples knew how to cook so would have unfair advantage as not everyone knew how to cook

Names drawn out ‘randomly’

Each team was assigned a ‘secret ingredient’randomly: Eggplant, Spinach, Carrot, Pumpkin, Tomato

2 hours to cook two dishes, your own recipe

The hosts decided last minute that they wanted dessert too so each team had to cook one savoury and one sweet dish (secret ingredient only had to be used in 1 dish)

All ingredients were bought beforehand and BYO kitchen utensils/serving apparatus if the
host could not accommodate

All prep and cooking had to be done in the 2 hours allocated

Only one team cooking in the kitchen at a time (limited space)

Dishes to be tasted at the end of each session

Each team had to wash up after they finished cooking

Ryan and I were absolutely excited about the challenge. We cook well as a team but have never really had a challenge like this where we were going to compete head to head. And being assigned a theme ingredient got us thinking more creatively as to what we wanted to dish up. We discussed our ideas for weeks, and had a bit of friendly rivalry going on between us.

But rules are made to be broken right? Well we never ended up judging the food. And there was a particular team who had made their cheesecake the day before (because it needed chilling) and bought a pre-prepared roast. Some of us also went overtime and some of us required a little help from other teams. There was only a small handful who had cooking experience - some more than others, and some who wouldn't know the difference between a spatula and a wooden spoon. Some teams did a dish each, and some teams collaborated and worked together on both dishes.

I was very impressed with everyone's efforts. We started at about 10:00am and the last dishes were served up about 8 hours later. It was an epic day full of food which had us constantly grazing every 2 hours with snacks in between. And to top it all off, we had a late night Maccas run for Chicken Nuggets too - crazy I know.

Team 1 - Eggplant

How many guys does it take to watch a pot?

Poaching pears in a cinnamon syrup, a first time for the person responsible for this dish.

There was a fair bit of liquid in the pot and I was asked how to thicken it. I just told them to keep it simmering until it reduces. Came out beautifully.

Cinnamon poached pears served with (Blue Ribbon) Caramel Swirl ice cream. I was impressed.

Hint on how to get uniform looking eggs in the pan, break them into a small bowl first then pour into the saucepan. That way you can control the way the egg falls better.

Grilled eggplant and proscuitto with egg sunny side up and toast soldiers.

Team 2 - Spinach

These two never cook, but I am very proud for what they dished up. Even if I was in the kitchen for the entire 2 hours guiding them along.

Some apple and crumble from the night before.

She says she wasn't following a recipe as such, that she just read a few recipes and then memorised all the good bits and put them all together to make her dish. Kind of sounds like me sometimes =).

She looks so proud of her creations. Even though the oven switched itself off for about 15 minutes before we realised it, they still came out okay.

Spinach and Ricotta pastries.

This guy sends me a text the day before asking me if I knew where he could buy Marshmallow Creme/Fluff from. I knew straight away that it was an American product which I'd never ever heard of before and wouldn't exist in Australia. I ask him for the recipe to see what and how it is used. He found the recipe by googling something along the lines of 'easy no cook recipe'. Here's the recipe he found.

My only advice was to try and melt some marshmallows to get the same effect. But not really knowing how the recipe would turn out by doing this. It was as simple as blending together the ingredients once we managed to melt down the marshmallows. And soften the cream cheese after we started processing it. They also don't sell strawberry flavoured cream cheese here but we figured the strawberry flavoured marshmallows was enough.

Marshmallow Fluff Fruit Dip with fresh fruit. It was definately an interesting tasting dish this one. Suprisingly the little bit that I tried with a piece of pineapple was quite tasty. And Ryan agrees that it went well with the pineapple too.

Team 3 - Carrot

This was my team! I wanted to think outside the square a bit and challenge myself here. I also wanted to do a dessert with carrot. Even though we only had to use the ingredient in one dish I was ambitious and wanted the challenge of cooking two dishes, sweet and savoury which both included carrot. I thought I'd leave it up to my partner to think of a savoury dish but I think her creativity was a bit limited when it came to food *Edited: When she pointed out previous statement I realised how bad it sounded. Her idea of creativity was stir fry or korean potato noodles which included carrot in it already (not that that's a bad thing). My idea of creativity was to take something well known and take it in a new direction, or to think outside the square a bit so I adapted a recipe I found on the taste website so that it featured our secret ingredient. I wanted to win! This was before I found out that we wern't even being judged for our dishes. If I had known this was the case, I wouldn't have worried too much about what we cooked.

I knew my audience, so I wanted to make a dessert that was special and unique to them. And I also wanted to show some creativity using the secret ingredient. What I came up with was a carrot cake souffle, a souffle that featured all the elements of a carrot cake. It was pretty much a basic souffle recipe but I added some processed carrot and the same spices that were in a regular carrot cake.

I served my souffle with some cream cheese frosting on the side and some walnut brittle - to keep with the elements of a carrot cake but with a bit of a twist.

I was very happy with what I plated up, even though I knew we wern't being judged anymore. It certainly got the reaction I had hoped for. Though upon tasting, my souffle could have done with an extra 5 minutes or so in the oven. We were already pushing overtime with our 2 dishes. Ryan had to step in and help us with the cooking. My cooking partner was struggling a bit and I was busy getting my souffle on the go.

Our savoury dish was Carrot Samosas with a Cucumber and Mint Raita. We cheated and used store bought puff pastry. They are traditionally made using potato as the main ingredient but I added carrot to the mix and had more carrot than potato. I made a basic dipping sauce of yogurt, finely chopped cucumber and mint. These were a huge hit. My cooking partner insisted that we make them that little bit spicier which was a great match with the refreshing sauce.

Team 4 - Pumpkin

Ryan's team! As soon as Ryan found out who his cooking partner was he knew he was a bit disadvantaged. Let me rephrase - HIGHLY disadvantage. I mean, this guy replied to an email revealing our ingredients with 'boiled pumpkin'. He had absolutely no cooking knowledge/skill at all. He did make a very good sous chef/kitchen hand though. *** Edit: Due to a comment made below on this blog post I would like to add that I was in no way putting down our friend, the 'annoymous' commenter has taken my comments/thoughts way out of context. Ryan's team mate acknowledges that he is lacking in cooking skills but learnt alot from cooking with Ryan on the day.

Ryan's sous chef getting the potato mash nice and fine.

Mmmm chorizo.

As Ryan has been on a bit of a gnocchi making frenzy and is getting very good at it he wanted to try and make a pumpkin gnocchi again. The first time we made it, we ended up with a stodgy dumpling but he insisted that he had a method to get the most perfect pumpkin dumplings. The trick was to actually mix the pumpkin with some potato. After boiling them he finished them off in a saucepan to seal them off.

Pumpkin gnocchi with chorizo, sauteed pumpkin and sage.

Ryan originally wanted to make a pumpkin and sage pannacotta but I told him 2 hours would not be enough time to make and chill it. (If we knew we could bend the rules I think it would have been awesome). He decided to do what he is good at - a creme brulee. And it was a pumpkin creme brulee to incorporate the theme ingredient. We didn't try it straight after the 2 hours though as we needed to try and cool it down substantially before it could be eaten.

Unfortunately I still didn't have any gas in my blow torch so tried to put one under the grill but the sugar was too thick and the direct heat melted the custard. Ryan wanted to be a bit creative and made a layer of toffee to place on top of the creme brulee. It didn't quite work as he had imagined it to. It was just too thick to break through. They did vote between Ryan's dessert and mine and Ryan got crowd favourite. I thought it was okay at the time but when I tasted the leftovers the next day - OMG it was absolutely DEVINE. I'll have to get Ryan to recreate it again some day.

Team 5 - Tomato

Now this is a bit of a biased pairing I reckon ;) Both ladies have at least basic - medium cooking skill but yet we have a cheese cake that was pre done the night before, a pre-prepared store bought roast and a simple pasta dish. If we were being judged I think they should have been penalised highly for that =p.

Some pretty good cheesecake. Everyone kept asking what the PJ stands for - it's the first letter of the name of each team member.

Some cream and strawberries for a finishing touch.

Master Chef Kitchen Rules?

Even for a store bought roast this was pretty tasty. We all thought it was beef though when it came out of the oven a little pink. Then we realised it was pork so into the oven again it went.

The secret ingredient was almost left out, then added on in the last minute.

Pasta with sausage and tomato, was a bit of a heavy ending to a day of feasting but after constant small meals and nibbling all day I think we wanted some real food.

The Experiment

We had a few extra people show up to eat the food we cooked but wern't in any of the teams and didn't contribute to any of the cooking. Except this so called experiment. Deep fried McDonald's Cheeseburger and Oreos. Not all of us were fond of this idea of 'cooking'.

Battering the cheeseburger.

Crispy shards on the bottom of the burger.

Would you eat this?

I've read about deep fried Oreos but was not game to try it.

Looks a bit like Mickey Mouse?

Guinea Pig # 1.

Guinea Pig # 2 - mastermind of the fried Oreo.

Guinea Pig #3 - master of the batter.

Ryan had a bit of the fried cheeseburger. There were a few disgruntled moans but apparantly it didn't taste too bad. 'It just tastes like a regular cheeseburger' I heard someone say.

We ended the night just veging out in front of the TV, followed by a couple of drinking games (though Ryan and I didn't drink) it was fun just watching them make fools of themselves. Even though I wasn't under the influence I had a sudden urge for something friend - hence the late night almost midnight run to the local Maccas for Nuggets. There were 40 nuggets, 2 large fries and a double cheeseburger between the 7 of us who were left by the end of the night. I think we had eaten enough food for a week in just one day. But it was a great day of food and fellowship.

Giant Sticky Chocolate Brownies - Edible Gifts

2011-05-11T21:14:00.001+10:00

What's better than an edible gift made with love? Especially when it's a box of deliciously soft and gooey brownies. Last month some good friends of ours got married. The bride was a great fan of my Sticky Chocolate Brownies and I had been meaning to make up a batch for her but just never got around to it. I also didn't want to be the cause of her not fitting into her wedding dress before the big day either. It's quite customary to give monetary gifts at Vietnamese weddings but as a last minute decision I decided I wanted to bake some brownies for them (her) as a little extra gift on the side. I also had another friend with a birthday the week after so thought that I would make some extra to give to her too.

Cookbooks also make awesome presents. I received this chocolate cookbook for my 25th birthday a couple of years ago which is where this Sticky Chocolate Brownie recipe comes from. It is an awesome brownie recipe and not like your regular chocolate brownies. If cooked properly it should be soft and sticky and gooey (hence it's namesake). I did miss the mark a bit this time around, overcooked them slightly so they wern't as soft and gooey but still had a slight sticky chewiness to them. They're not as dense as regular brownies either and can get quite addictive.

Sticky Chocolate Brownies

(Adapted from Love Food - Chocolate Box, book pictured above)

Ingredients:

• 85g butter

• 140g sugar
• 100g brown butter
• 125g plain chocolate, broken into pieces
• 1 tbsp golden syrup
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp chocolate or vanilla essence
• 100g plain flour
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/2 tsp baking powder

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius. Lightly grease and line a shallow 20cm square cake tin.

2. Place the butter, sugars, chocolate, golden syrup in a saucepan and heat on medium low, stirring continuously until well blended and smooth. Remove from heat and leave to cool.

3. Beat the eggs and essence then whisk in the cooled chocolate mixture. Sift together the dry ingredients and fold into the chocolate and egg mixture.

4. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 25 minutes until the top is crisp and the sides start to shrink away from the tin. The inside should still be stodgy and soft to the touch.

5. Leave to cool, then dust with cocoa powder and cut into squares then serve.

I doubled the batch and used a roasting pan to bake the brownies. I also decreased the heat to 170 degrees and baked it for a bit longer just to make sure the middle cooks properly without overcooking the edges. Perhaps I cooked it for a little too much longer. I left it overnight and cut it up the next day, it wasn't as gooey as the other times I had made it.

Instead of cutting them into smaller squares (or rectangles) I decided to cut them into slabs to resemble cakes and to fit into some pretty gift boxes which I had bought. Also had to cut off the edges because they wern't pretty enough. I mixed some icing sugar with the cocoa just to lighten it up a little. Brown is not a very pretty colour, though when associated with chocolate I think it's delicious.

I then proceeded to melt some chocolate to do some writing on the brownie slabs however the chocolate didn't want to stay on to the cocoa icing sugar surface when I started dragging along my piping bag to write so I decided to stick some sugar decorations I had in the pantry on instead (used the melted chocolate as glue).

I lined a gift box with some cellophane and baking paper and then placed the brownie slab into it. Looked so pretty I just wanted to keep it for myself. This reminds me of the giant cookies and cookie cards you can buy from Mrs Fields cookie shops. I think giant brownies are just much more awesome than giant cookies though ;).

As it was last minute I didn't have enough time to shop around but managed to pick up these two pretty boxes from The Reject Shop. I just wanted to keep them too.

Leftover brownies and edge pieces because they were too ugly to include in the slab. They really are the best bits though ;).

Brazo De Mercedes (Take 2)

2011-05-05T08:34:00.000+10:00

I am a perfectionist. I am a control freak. I just set my expectations too high for myself and get upset when I fall short of them, even when other people think I've done a good job (maybe they are just too kind) I still think I can do better. I guess I just have to learn to lower those expecations or keep working on reaching perfection. And keep remembering that practice makes perfect.

This is my second attempt at the well loved Filipino dessert Brazo De Mercedes (Meringue Swiss Roll with Egg Yolk Custard filling). And it wasn't a perfect job. It fell short of perfect, though it was definately better than my first go on so many levels. I guess all I can do now is learn and try again to reach perfection. You can have a look at my appalling first go here. I decided to have another go at it and make it to take to a catch up lunch with Ryan's cousin. This recipe is my adaption of a few that are around on the internet.

Brazo De Mercedes

Ingredients:

• 10 large eggs, seperated

• Pinch of Cream of Tartar
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 can of sweetened condensed milk (Nestle 395g)
• 1 tsp vanilla bean extract
• Icing sugar, to dust

I decided I wanted to make two rolls, so had 20 eggs to seperate. I did it on my bedroom floor in front of the TV. You might also want to make the custard a day before you make the meringue. It allows the custard to set and thicken which makes it easier to handle.

To make the custard, combine the egg yolks, condensed milk and vanilla bean extract in a saucepan. Cook on a medium low heat, stirring constantly until thickened, this will take approximately 20 minutes or so. You need to be patient with this. I cooked my custard over direct heat, you could also do it over a pot of simmering water if you're worried about the mixture curdling.

My custard is not curdled as such but it is quite lumpy as I keep turning the heat up and down because I got impatient. This is why it is important to constantly stir over a consistently low heat to avoid the custard scrambling or seperating.

I don't recomment that you do this, but it did work for me. I placed my lumpy custard into my blender and whizzed it to get rid of the lumps and it came out nice and smooth. I guess it would only work if your custard hadn't turned to scrambled eggs. Place into the fridge until the custard is thick and cold (preferably overnight).

To make the meringue, combine the egg whites and cream of tartar in a mixing bowl and beat on high speed until stiff peaks form. Pour the meringue onto a lined and greased tray and spread out with a spatula. To even out the surface, run the blade of a knife across the surface scraping away any excess meringue. Optionally, you can use a comb to smooth out the meringue and create ridges/patterns on the surface.

Bake in a pre-heated oven at 140 degrees celcius for about 45 minutes, the meringue is ready when it is a nice golden brown. Leave to cool before dusting with icing sugar and then inverting the meringue sheets onto another lined tray.

Thick, sticky custard.

Recipes tell you to spread the custard along one (long) side of the meringue sheet and then rolling the meringue around the custard. I decide to experiment with two ways and also spread the entire meringue sheet with custard hoping to get nice even spiral layers of custard and meringue. It's probably easier to handle spreading the custard down the one side and then rolling the meringue around it.

I find that I have to use the baking paper to help roll the meringue as it is very fragile to handle. It also holds the rolls together nicely. Place them into the fridge to set a little before attempting to remove the paper.

Unveiling one Brazo De Mercedes. You can see that this one cracks a little in some parts along the side. Perhaps my meringue was a little too thin, or slightly over cooked.

The ends don't look too nice so I cut them off, this isn't such a good idea as the custard seeps out. It was a warm day too so that didn't help either. I also divided the rolls to give out, this meant that there were more exposed ends which resulted in custard slowly seeping out everywhere. It's probably a better idea to cut the meringue to size first and then filling them and then rolling. The two different ways of spreading the custard also doesn't really make that much of a different visually so I'd just go for the easier method next time.

Sprinkle with extra icing sugar before serving. It may not be perfect, but it's definately a much better attempt compared to my first go. During our critiquing conversation, Ryan suggested perhaps I add some gelatine to the custard to make it more stable. Some recipes include mixing ground cashew nuts to the custard which perhaps gives it a thicker sturdier consistency I suppose? Or else I just shouldn't cut the end off until just before serving to keep the custard from seeping out.

This dessert is not for the faint hearted. It is super sweet, but is super addictive too. Soft fluffy meringue that just melts in your mouth, paired with a sweet sticky custard that just compliments it perfectly. Serve with a cup of your favourite tea and it's not too bad. It is definately a treat to be had for special occasions only ;) I did attempt to make a blueberry coulis to serve with the dessert to help cut through the richness but ended up stuffing it up (too sweet) so left it out. This is not the last time I will be making this, perhaps third time lucky.

Sydney Royal Easter Show 2011

2011-05-03T17:53:00.000+10:00

It's been a while since Ryan and I last went to the Sydney Royal Easter Show. It seems to have lost it's appeal over the years as we grew older and it's no cheap day out. I'm not quite sure what made us want to go this year but we actually had a very enjoyable (and exhausting) day out and managed to not spend much money at all. We probably won't be rushing to do a return visit anytime in the next few years though, maybe when we have kids ;)

Muscle cars *wholf whistle*.

This stand is always a first stop when it comes to show food. One Cheese on a Stick and a Lemonade ($4.50 each).

Hot gooey melty cheesy innard.

Next must eat item at the show - Fresh hot corn on the cob ($4.50).

A plaque/ribbon at the front of the stand indicates that they use top quality produce.

Visiting the poultry shed. Some mighty big birds in there.

I suffer from bird phobia (having been bitten once by a swooping Kookaburra nabbing my afternoon tea & getting my lunch snatched by a Sea Gull). Ryan thought it was funny making me stand close to the cages with these giant squawking birds. As long as they are not swooping and are caged I am not too frightened.

Pig mother and her little piglets.

These little guys were so adorable.

There was an exhibition we don't remember seeing on previous visits. The 'Food Farm' was mostly aimed at the kiddies, showing them where food comes from, kinda like from paddock to plate style. We sure learnt alot seeing these displays, I'm always confused where different cuts of meat come from on the animal.

Next door was the petting farm which we stumbled upon. 'Why not?' we though even though our stomachs were wanting food. There were animals big and small. Goats, sheep, a stray dog or two.

Checking the R.M.Williams display with the stallions.

We also wanted to see the dogs. We also stopped a little to watch the judging outside. It was quite fascinating stuff, didn't realise how competitive this stuff got and how serious people take it.

We were hungry and needed some food but I couldn't go pass trying the CWA scones. The queue was about 15-20 minutes but I was not going to budge from my spot, the line actually grew behind me. You see, I've read many good things about these ladies and their scones but always missed them at the show. Seeing as I wasn't sure I'd be back again anytime soon I was determined these made it onto the agenda.

All the scones are made fresh and pretty much to order. They just simply couldn't keep up with the demand hence the long wait.

We finally got to the front of the line, and the current tray was empty! Luckily another tray comes out of the oven so ou wait is over.

Ryan was starving so grabbed one of the vegetable rolls from the hot food section. So scrumptious it was!

These were well worth the wait! Best scones ever! Soft, fluffy, dolloped with lots of cream and jam. It was heaven. We had a Devonshire Tea Set each which included 2 scones with jam and cream ($7.00).

Completely forgetting about checking out the cake/baking competitions in the Arts & Craft hall we are led by our hungry stomachs into the Woolworths Dome. Freshly shucked oysters from De Costi Seafoods. (Half a dozen for $9.00). Ryan chose to get 3 Pacific oysters and 3 Sydney Rock oysters so we could try out the difference in flavours. I am not a huge oyster fan but will be okay downing one or two. These were also small in size so wern't to hard to swallow. It seems so long ago so I can't remember which was which and which one I preferred.

The famous agricultural displays.

Who can pass a melted cheese toastie? $2.00 a pop but the line was every growing for these things.

Passed by a curry/spices stand and tried some cashew korma. Tasty.

Prize winning honey displays.

Found our way to the Flower & Garden hall. This brang back so many memories of my previous career. And the fact that I entered a flower arranging competition here years ago and landed second place!

I can imagine myself being lifted up, up and away if I had to hold this. Always love looking at them.

Still peckish, so we hunted down the 'Chip on a Stick'. First time I've had one of these too. Curly potato freshly fried, and dusted in a satay flavoured salt mixture. Totally bliss to eat.

Still a little hungry so we grab some gozleme to share ($11.00). Beef, spinach and cheese. Hot and tasty, brings me back to the time we first tried gozleme after a grand final NRL match at the stadium.

Last pitt stop for the day, we watched the dogs on the lawn. Love this guy - Dulux dog I call him (the paint ad).

Spotted this funky cool looking retro milk bar on the way out but we were both much too bloated to fit anything else in. It was a great day out, we learnt stuff, we ate stuff, and we left happy and content. It'll be a long while before we step foot in the show again. The show doesn't change hugely over the years so you don't miss out on much. But I think it's good fun once in a while.

Melting Moments with Rhubarb Jam Custard

2011-04-26T14:22:00.001+10:00

Soft crumbly buttery biscuits, that just melt in your mouth. Sandwiched with a sweet, smooth, creamy filling. It's like taking a bite of cloud - if you could indeed do so. This is exactly how it should be if these biscuits are done right. I've made melting moment biscuits a couple of times before but they've always been on the slightly crispy side, which is not what these biscuits are all about. I also sandwiched them with buttercream instead, but I think you can really fill them with whatever you please.

This time I decided to make a rhubarb jam custard, as I was sent some jams to sample so thought I would use it in place of the stewed rhubarb for the custard as per original recipe. My biscuits turned out a little soft and fragile though, but they were a dream to eat. You just had to make sure you had a plate or your hand to catch the crumbs, so that there is no wastage =).

I've turned to my favourite cookbook the Women's Weekly 'Cookies' book for these Melting Moment biscuits. These biscuits are so easy to make and don't require many ingredients at all. They are quite fragile so handle with care. Like all sweet treats packed with butter and sugar, they are meant to be savoured, but it is very hard to stop after one.

Recipe: Melting Moments with Rhubarb Jam Custard

(Adapated from the Women's Weekly 'Cookies - rhubarb custard meting moments recipe)

Biscuits

Ingredients:

• 250g butter, softened

• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• ½ cup icing sugar
• 1 cup custard powder
• 1 cup plain flour

Rhubarb Jam Custard
Ingredients:
• 1 tbsp custard powder
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• ½ cup milk
• 2-3 tbsp Anathoth Rhubarb & Red Berry Jam
(or use whatever jam you please)

Preheat oven to 160 degrees celcius/140 degrees for a fan forced oven. Beat the butter, icing sugar, and vanilla extract until pale and fluffy.

Sift together the custard powder and flour, then mix into the butter in two batches. It is supposed to be a very light wet mixture but should not be sticky, add a light sprinkling of flour if it is too wet, be careful not too add too much or else it will change the texture of the biscuits.

Roll balls of dough and place on a baking tray. They say to use teaspoon measurements of dough but I do it freehand and mine are probably the size of small walnuts (shell on). Use a fork to flatten slightly and give the biscuits a bit of a ridge in them.

Bake for approximately 15 minutes (more if you have larger biscuits) and then stand to cool.

While the biscuits bake, make the custard filling. Combine the milk, custard powder and sugar in a small saucepan and stir over medium heat until thickened. Add the jam and stir until well combined.

The jam actually turns the custard a disgusting colour so I added some powdered red food colouring to make it look more appetising.

Once the biscuits are cold, spread or pipe them with the filling and then sandwich together. This is where you will need to handle with care. But if you've got the dough right and baked them perfectly then they probably won't be as fragile as mine were.

These biscuits really are the ultimate tea time treat. It'll be hard to stop at one. And they will melt in your mouth, true to their name.

Thanks to Rachel from Beyond the Square Communication for sending me these lovely samples. I love jams, but actually rarely eat them. I think it's because the jars always look so pretty but when it comes to taste and texture, they've always disappointed me. Anathoth Jams have actually been on supermarket shelves for a while now but I've never thought to try them. They have recently launched this new flavour, Rhubarb & Red Berry.

All I can say is, once I popped the lid off one of these tubs it only took days to empty it, compared to all the jam jars I have bought in the past that sit in the fridge almost full until past their expiry date. It's all natural, made of just fruit and sugar just as they are home made. There are no additives, preservatives, or extra artificial pectin added. You can tell from the way it just falls off your knife, unlike the solid jelly's that some other brands sell. I've promised myself that I'm going to make my own jam one day. Even if I do it just once.

I originally made some scones to test out my jam samples but decided not to write about them just yet. They didn't turn out as I had imagined them to, and my technique needs some refining. I also need to follow the recipe properly. I'll be making them again soon so keep an eye out. I made some vanilla whipped cream to go with the jam. They were scrumptious little morsels. Not as good as the scones that the sweet old ladies from the Country Women's Association dished out at the Easter Show. But still tasty none the less.

Hot Cross Buns - 2 Flavours - Double Choc Cinnamon Chip and Mixed Fruit & Spices

2011-04-19T18:59:00.006+10:00

With Good Friday and Easter only days away, I thought I would get my hot cross buns post up. I attempted to make these last year for Good Friday, but they were made last minute. I hadn't planned on making them last year and Ryan showed up at my doorstep proclaiming he had totally forgotten to grab some from the shops, so I offered to 'whip some up' but they didn't turn out too good. This year I thought I would plan ahead, and actually have them ready for Easter week starting with Palm Sunday.

I wanted to steer away from the the traditional sultana, peel & spice mix, the traditional buns are readily available all over the place anyway, so if I was going to make my own, I might as well put my own spin on them. The two flavours I end up with are, Chocolate with Milk Chocolate Chips & Cinnamon Chips, and Mixed Fruit & Spice (Sultana, Apricot, Cranberry & Mixed Spices).

I based my buns on this recipe from taste. I doubled the recipe for each flavour I made, which meant I was going to be pumping out 4 batches of hot cross buns - all in one day! I had to enlist the help of Mum's small commercial mixer, my little KitchenAid just didn't quite have the capacity for a double batch of dough. And I spent all day in the kitchen, from the moment I woke up (at 11am) until I left the house that evening to head over to Ryan's place.

I counted 192 hot cross buns at the end of the day. Yes, 192! Crazy I know. They were mini, but they were many. I wanted to make heaps, so that I had plenty to give around to my family and also for Ryan's family. While I was baking, I thought I might as well make extra to take to work too. So that's how I ended up with my 4 batches. 2 batches would not have been enough and any less than 4 would have been messy trying to calculate ratios and proportions and what not.

Mixed Fruit & Spice Hot Cross Buns

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups warm milk

• 2 tsp (7g/1 sachet) dried yeast

• 1/4 cup caster sugar

• 60g butter, melted

• 1 egg, lightly whisked

• 4 cups plain 00 flour

• 1 tsp salt

• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

• 1 1/2 tsp nutmeg

• 1 1/2 tsp all spice

• 1/2 cup dried apricots

• 1/2 cup sultanas

• 1/2 cup dried cranberries

Variation - Chocolate with Milk Chocolate & Cinnamon Chips

• Replace 1/2 cup of flour with 2/3 cup cocoa powder

• Omit the spices

• Replace fruit with 1 cup milk chocolate chips and 1 cup Hershey’s Cinnamon chips

Flour Paste

• 1/2 cup plain flour

• 1/3 cup water

• 1/2 tbsp sugar

• 1/2 tsp vanilla powder

Bun Glaze

• 1/3 cup (80ml) cold water

• 1/2 cup (170g) apricot jam

• or one part sugar and one part water

Make the buns:

1. Combine milk, yeast and 1 tbsp of sugar and leave aside in a warm place until frothy.

2. Combine all the remaining dry ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly, make a well in the centre.

3. Beat the egg and melted butter into the milk and yeast mixture.

4. Pour into the flour mixture and mix with a wooden spoon until combined.

5. Turn onto a lightly floured work surface and knead for about 10 - 15 minutes until the dough is smooth and stretchy.

6. Place in a bowl and cover, leave in a warm place until dough doubles in size.

7. Preheat oven to 200 degrees celcius and grease a baking tray or cookie sheet.

8. Punch down the dough to get rid of the air bubbles, divide and roll into balls and place onto the baking tray. Set aside in a warm place until grown by at least a couple of cm.

Make the flour paste:

9. Combine all the ingredients and mix until smooth. Fill a piping bag with a small nozzle or any plastic sleeve will do (just snip off one corner)

10. Pipe rows onto the buns horizontally and vertically.

11. Bake in preheated oven at 200 degrees celcius for 10 minutes, reduce heat to 180 degrees celcius and bake for another 20 minutes.

Make the bun glaze:

12. Mix together the apricot jam and water and mix over medium heat until combined. Or combine the sugar and water and stir over medium heat until sugar dissolves and syrup thickens.

13. Brush over buns while still hot.

Rolled balls of dough waiting for the second rising. If I was going to do this again I wouldn't put them so close together. They really grow when baked.

My rows of crosses. Probably could have made the flour paste much thicker. On Ryan's complaint that the crosses on the hot cross buns are always so plain, I flavoured mine with a bit of sugar and vanilla powder. Don't think it made such a difference because my crosses kind of just blended into the bun.

This is what happens when you try to squish too many buns onto the one tray. I brushed them with the sugar glaze and then decided they could probably do with another 5 or so minutes in the oven so popped them back in.

Don't ever do that (cram too many buns on one tray, and bake them again once glazed). Oops, baking them further with the sugar glaze crystalised the top, great crispy toffee like tops though.

I ran out of flour paste for my fruit buns so had to make up another batch. Was a little sloppy and ended up with a much runnier consistency but... I was feeling a little too lazy to fix it up by now. I also never followed the recipe properly hence me stuffing up the crosses.

Finally! All my hot cross buns are baked.

They were absolutely soft and fluffy and fragrant eaten straight after they're out of the oven and cooled enough to handle. Even though I didn't rebake the fruit buns after glazing them I also ended up with crystalised sugar syrup on them when they cooled. Think it was to do with my syrup mixture, and the fact that I had to keep reheating it because it went cold in between. It all dissolves overnight though.

Breakfast the next day. The buns actually stiffen and dry a little overnight - the only downside of home made 'bread' but a quick zap in the microwave or a quick toast under a grill and they are alive again! The upside of home made buns is that you can pack them with as much flavour as you like. Even though my buns were smaller than your average store bought ones, each one was packed full of either choc and cinnamon chips or fruit and spice. I also find the store bought ones a bit on the too sweet side, so adjusted the amount of sugar in mine and they were lovely. Because they were not too sweet and were absolutely light and fluffy, it was hard to stop at one. Smother with a bit (or a lot) of butter/spread and serve with a cup of tea and you have the most perfect Easter breakfast.

Being the good niece/cousin/future daughter in law/colleague I divide up my buns so no one misses out. (Okay I lie, there are so many more family members (and friends) who are missing out but sometimes it's just not feasible to include absolutely everyone. I promise one day I will get around to you all, and visit with some baked goodies). Ryan and his family loved them, he even suggested that I bake some for his Church to serve after the Good Friday Mass this weekend. Work colleagues loved them too. But who in that place doesn't love my baking =p. Don't know if I can go back to store bought hot cross buns now. Home made is just so much better hehe ;)

Warm Gnocchi Salad, Pulled Pork Tacos & Brazo De Mercedes - A wonderfully long lunch & a catch up with family

2011-04-15T12:00:00.054+10:00

Ryan and his cousin Dieter were close as kids, but as most kids do, they grow up and grow apart. Now that they are both adults they don't really see each other much and the only times we've ever seen him have been at birthday gatherings and funerals in the family. I think Ryan sees my cousins more than he sees his own. At the last few meet ups Ryan and Dieter kept saying 'we'll catch up sometime' or 'come over to my place and we'll have a BBQ' but then time passes by and being the laid back guys they are nothing really happens. So one day I sent a message to Dieter to get the ball rolling and we organised a catch up between the cousins (and partners too of course).

Unfortunately Dieter's brother and his partner couldn't make lunch and Ryan's brother was hung over so it was just the four of us for lunch. The facebook invitiation did say BBQ but this was no ordinary BBQ with steaks and snags because we were lunching with two like minded food lovers. And it was an absolutely gorgeous Saturday for a long lazy lunch.

Ryan and I turned up at Dieter and Alex's place with our hands full with our contributions to lunch. Ryan's dish was a warm gnocchi salad. I helped Ryan prepare his salad at my place and he rolled and cooked the gnocchi when we got there. He actually made the gnocchi dough the night before with my help (we had some for dinner) and made plenty enough to have with the salad and then some (we finished off what was left of the gnocchi again that night for dinner).

Ryan has been experimenting recently and I think he has the got gnocchi making process spot on perfect. I am yet to get perfect little dumplings on my own (we do work better in pairs though.) You can follow recipes and read about gnocchi making as much as you can but it all comes down to hands on practice/experience, and learning to get the 'feel' for when it's right. Once you eat the little soft fluffy pillows of potato that are perfectly hand made and cooked gnocchi you will never want to go back to the packet stuff again. So it's quite disappointing when restaurants get the home made stuff wrong.

Dieter and Alex have a Labrador called Oscar or 'Ozzy'. He is just absolutely gorgeous! But always seems to be in the way though.

Ozzy also has a love for food just like his owners. Anything that dropped on the floor was quickly snatched up by him so you didn't really get a chance to sweep it up. We were told that recently he had to go on a diet because he was just getting too fat. Sounds like me ;).

Dieter was cooking up some pulled pork for our lunch on his 'big green egg' bbq and let's me have a sticky beak (and to also check on it).

He also made some soft tacos for the pulled pork.

The pork needs a bit more cooking time so we decide to have Ryan's salad first as our first course since it's ready (and because we were all getting a little hungry and it was getting late). The salad includes spinach, mushroom, nashi pear (my little addition), baby bocconcini, fried haloumi and Ryan's pan fried gnocchi. The salad dressing is a mixture of olive oil, lemon juice, dijon mustard and truffle oil. The idea came from a recipe he found but was adapted to our taste. Everything worked well in this salad, all the flavours really combined well and there were the different textures, oh and fried haloumi!. Dieter and Alex had nothing but praise for Ryan's salad =).

After the salad Dieter makes the tacos to go with our second course.

Ryan helps him cook them while D rolls out the dough.

This little clay pot belonged to Alex's grandmother and apparantly has been sitting on the shelf unused because they didn't know what to do with it, until now - great thinking D!

The pork is ready! Well as ready as can be because we needed (wanted) to eat it. D explains that he slept in so wasn't able to get it cooking as long as he wanted to and had to cook it on a higher heat to get it cooked in time for lunch which resulted in a slightly drier and firmer meat than he had liked it to be. 'That's okay, there's always next time' I tell him. And I'm counting on it! ;) Ryan and I wouldn't have known any better, we absolutely loved it.

Mmm we get a bit of crispy crackling as he pulls the pork apart.

Porky goodness!

The pork is drizzled in a little of the fat to help keep it moist.

The pork is served with a huge variety of Korean side dishes and oysters a la momofuku bo ssam style. It's my first time eating pulled pork, and bo ssam.

Soft Taco 'shells' in the pot.

Looking at this has got my mouth salivating now... There was no real order as in how you were suppose to eat this. A little bit of this, a little bit of that, some pulled pork, an oyster, sauce and wrap it up and take a bite. My hand was dripping in deliciousness pouring out from my little wraps. The pork was perfectly seasoned and the small bits of chopped crackling added a textural sensation when added with the other sides. You had sweet, savoury, tangy, all in one bite.

And look at who wants in. Apparantly when he begs for food he'll come up and put his head in your lap. We're instructed to push him away with our elbows and tell him 'No'. I felt his head in my lap a couple of times.

We help them clean up (and let out stomachs digest) before we dig into dessert. I made a Filipino dessert called Brazo De Mercedes, which is a meringue roll filled with egg yolk custard. I've made it once before but didn't do it justice so will do another post with my recent much better attempt. Alex offers us a whole range of teas to choose from which made me feel so spoilt (most households only have one or two tea choices or sometimes no choice apart from just 'tea'). I chose an Almond tea (which I think was the Twinnings brand) and it was delish, especially with my dessert. We are all absolutely stuffed but absolutely satisfied by the end of our lunch - epic food coma (for me anyway). Wish I had taken more (better) photos, but I just enjoyed standing around chatting, watching food being prepared, admiring the house, playing with their dog.

I am so glad that I had part in organising such a great lunch. It's funny how food brings people together, alot of our conversation did surround food, but it was just so natural, and you could just tell that we were food lovers as there was just so much passion in the conversation (and the fact that Dieter and I kept whipping out our cameras to take photos of the food). We did talk about other things too but things always came back to one topic ;). Ryan and I couldn't stop talking about the lunch for the rest of the weekend. It was just such great food, great company, and their house was absolutely gorgeous and so homey and inviting. It was just good to be on the other end of the meal, the one not hosting and cooking everything and then cleaning everything up afterwards. There was something about that afternoon that I can't quite find the right words to describe (I'm a crappy writer) but Ryan totally understands how I feel. It was just awesome. Thank you Dieter and Alex for having us over! We're definately looking forward to the next time we catch up again.

Pasta with Prawns, King Brown Mushroom & Capers - Ryan Cooks (and Bakes!) and a Double Rainbow

2011-04-12T20:33:00.001+10:00

So it's Friday night, we've spent all day out and about so it's time to chill out at home, hmm what's for dinner? It's the month of Lent and Ryan has decided to go meat free on Fridays. Mum had cooked fish for dinner but there wasn't quite enough for both of us to eat too (she always expects that we'll cook our own or will be going out for dinner).

So into the fridge and freezer I go, seeing what we could use to cook with. Pasta is always a pantry staple, and we almost always have prawns in the freezer and I was in luck that there were just enough prawns left for us to use. These two ingredients are always a winning combo. I had some capers left from when I made my pan fried fish with salsa and pea puree and I also spotted a tray of Oyster mushrooms and King Brown mushrooms so we decided to throw in one of the King Brown's. Some other fridge staples like garlic, chilli and white wine and we have ourselves a very tasty sounding pasta dish for dinner.

I let Ryan take care of dinner because I had decided that I wanted to make macarons so needed to to all my prep so I could make them after dinner.

While Ryan is cooking I notice that there is a huge rainbow right outside. I run out and see that it's a full length rainbow, and it's a double rainbow!

I ran in to grab my camera but by the time I came out the clouds already started to come rolling in and the rainbow was slowly disappearing. I could still see both ends of the rainbow but unfortunately my camera wasn't capable of capturing it.

My brother notices that the sky is glowing a bright amber in the direction of the sun setting. There is a really eerie feel in the air, reminds me of when we had the dust storm that made the skies red. The rainbow has faded into the clouds so I return back to the kitchen and dinner is almost ready.

I can't give you an exact recipe for this (because I can't remember exactly how much we used and what we did) but I'll give a list of ingredients and basic instructions which should help inspire you to recreate it if it takes your fancy. Vary the amounts according to your own taste. This is what Ryan and I have labelled as cooking by instinct. We have a general idea of what flavours work well and we 'wing it'. Most of the time dishes made this way turn out really well for us. We were a little heavy handed on the chilli (even without the seeds there was quite a bit of heat), but other than that it was a tasty flavourful pasta dish. The capers really lifted the dish and gave it a bit of zing. The King Brown mushroom added sweetness while the prawns provided the savoury element. It was a well rounded dish in terms of flavours and textures, exactly my kind of dish.

Ryan and Angie's Pasta with Prawns, King Brown Mushroom & Capers

Ingredients:

Dried spaghetti (or any type of pasta), half a pack
Shelled prawns approximately 300grams
Handful of capers in brine
1 King Brown mushroom, sliced
1 Chilli, finely chopped
2 cloves of Garlic, finely chopped
White Wine, approximately 1/4 cup
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

1. Cook pasta and drain.

2. Heat oil in a frying pan and cook the prawns, remove from the pan.

3. Return pan to the heat and add mushroom, garlic and chilli and brown.

4. Pour in the white wine and let it boil to evaporate the alcohol.

5. Add the pasta, prawns and capers to the pan and toss well. Season with salt and pepper.

6. Serve with a splash of lemon juice - enjoy!

After dinner I attempted to make my macarons. I was trying out a new recipe and technique (from a blog I'd found that guaranteed to break the 10 myths of macaron making). I also realised that Ryan has never ever seen me make macarons before this (but has always been a happy taster and critic of them). He watches me make the batter and when I offer him the piping bag he declines but then decided to have a go at piping them in the end. Not a bad job for a first timer! He ends up piping most of the batter for me except for the last tray which I end up doing.

Unfortunately my macarons did not turn out, they didn't cook through properly and were cracked on the surface. I've been trying to experiment and make a manuka honey macaron shell and this being my second time (with manuka honey), was also a failure. The first time I used manuka honey I tried an italian meringue recipe and that didn't work so I thought that this supposedly fail proof recipe/method would help me achieve my goal but alas this one gave me a failed batch of macarons too.

Ryan and I have concluded that perhaps honey changes the characteristics of the batter hence ruinging the macarons. I bake them longer and on a higher heat to turn them into delicious little honey meringue cookies. I tried the same recipe/method again the next day (without honey) but get the same results so it could possibly be that I was doing a few things wrong, like undermixing the egg white and almond meal mixture. I also think I may have cooked them on too high of a heat and then when I turned the heat down a little, I probably needed to cook them for longer.

I've made okay macarons before but being the perfectionist that I am have never thought that they were good enough so am always trying to improve them. I might just resort back to the original recipe I've used as a guide, at last I know it gives me results (even if I don't think my macarons are perfect enough yet).

Grilled Chicken Wraps with Home Made Spring Onion Flat Bread (8th Jan)

2011-04-06T21:33:00.003+10:00

Everyone loves a wrap, you can fill them with anything you like, and even serve them DIY style where everyone can just make their own and put as much or as little in as they like. I was on a bit of a bread making frenzy when I made my home made burgers with brioche bun, and then the sweet cinnamon pretzels, also because I had some yeast that was close to expiry which needed to be used up. These were made during the time that my parents were overseas, so naturally being the elder sister I was in charge of getting everyone fed, and I'd like to think I fed them well while Mum and Dad were away. I'm also a fan of easy recipes, especially onces which I could cook from scratch but yet be simple enough that I didn't have to slave away all day in the kitchen, and this is one of them.

Why spend money on a packet of tortillas or flat bread when you can make it yourself from scratch with no hidden additives and add whatever flavours you want to them. They're also great eaten freshly cooked. This recipe for flat bread comes from a great cookbook which uses only three or four ingredients per recipe. Some of the recipes do use premade or packaged basics but I generally use the book for inspiration as to what I could do with what I have on hand when I am stuck for time or want a quick/easy meal. I spotted this recipe for flat bread and thought it was perfect so I planned it into my day which also involved making those scrumptious pretzels too.

Recipe: Spring Onion Flatbread (adapted from: Best Eever Three & Four Ingredient Cookbook)

Ingredients

450g plain flour
1 sachet instant dried yeast
4 spring onions finely chopped
1 tsp (5g) salt
1 1/4 cups (300ml) warm water

A stand mixer will make it easier but you can mix and kneed the dough by hand. Place all the dry ingredients into a bowl and stir to combine.

Add the warm water to the flour mixture and mix to form soft, but not sticky dough. Attach a dough hook or turn out the dough onto the bench and knead for about 5 minutes until smooth.

Return the dough to the bowl and cover with some plastic wrap and a tea towel and let it rest in a warm place until doubled in size. Punch down the dough and turn out onto a floured bench. Divide the dough into approximately 16 balls (less if you want larger rounds).

Roll each ball of dough into a round ball and then roll out into a flat round with a rolling pin.

Heat a large fry pan on high and place a round in shaking off any excess flour, and cook for about 1 minute and then flipping it over and cooking for another 30 seconds or so, or until browned.

I decided to fill my wraps with chicken, everybody loves chicken. I just marinated some chicken breast in whatever herbs and spices I had in the pantry, bit of paprika, ground chilli, cumin, can't remember exactly what the combination was but you can season it with whatever your favourites are. Cooked them on a griddle pan to get the nice charred effect.

Sliced and layered with some lettuce, tomato and cucumber and a squeeze of sweet chilli sauce and we have some ultra tasty home made chicken wraps. I was actually suprised at how well they turned out, and they were an absolute hit with the sibblings and the boyfriend. I think the home made flat bread made all the difference though.

I wasn't even thinking about plating presentation so they are looking a little plain. The great thing about these wraps is that you can customise them with whatever ingredients you want. I unfortunatley had to keep mine pretty simple as I was feeding 4 picky eaters, each one different to the other. But sometimes simple is best.

After stuffing ourselves with the wraps for dinner, Ryan and I headed out into the city for Sydney Festival's First Night. I took my new camera out with me to play around with some night shots. This was Martin Place.

Some awesome drum performances.

Chifley Plaza glowing in blue.

A different perspective of Chifley Square.

DJ playing in Chifley Square.

This was around the corner from Chifley Square, close to where Parliament House and the Sydney Hospital are. There were some street performers which is what everyone was crowded around. It was a fun night, out and about just soaking in the atmosphere.

Sun Sun Chinese Kitchen Flemington/Homebush West - and my first live soccer game (10th July '10)

2011-03-29T19:40:00.004+11:00

Going through my backlog I was reminded of a little local restaurant that Ryan and his family have been visiting. I kind of got inspired to pull this blog out of the closet and support a local gem because of a post by fellow blogger mademoiselle délicieuse about the hardships of running a local cafe.

This is Sun Sun Chinese Kitchen, a quaint little family run Chinese restaurant in the suburb of Flemington, in Sydney's inner west. According to Ryan, this restaurant has been there forever, as far back as his childhood memories take him. Ryan has told me tales of when his late Grandfather used to take him here as a bit of a treat. Since dating Ryan, I've eaten here only a hand full of times with him, sometimes dining in and other times getting take away. His family hadn't been visiting much either in recent times. It had been a long long time since we last ate here before this particular visit, but the owners had not forgotten about the Romero family.

It was a Sunday night, and Ryan, Di and I were off to watch a game of soccer. My first ever time watching a live soccer game - it was the Sydney FC vs Everton friendly. Before meeting Phil at the stadium we needed to fill our tummy's with some food. We were a little tight on time so thought we would try and stay local and seeing as the little hub of restaurants in Flemington was only down the road from Ryan we thought 'why not?'. There's not a huge range to choose from, you have either Vietnamese, Chinese, Vietnamese or Chinese or even the possibility of a fusion of the two. We decided on Sun Sun as it had been a while since we last visited.

As soon as we walk in the doors, Ryan is pretty much bombarded with questions from the lady behind the counter. 'Hi! Long time no see! How are you? Where have you been? How are your parents? How is your Grandfather?'. You generally don't get a whole string of questions like that unless the people really know your family. We take a seat at a table and decide over what we want to eat. Some complimentary glasses of tea are poured out for us, which is a lovely touch to a chilly night.

Sticky Pork Ribs. This is a dish that Ryan and I absolutely love. The ribs are cooked until tender, the sauce is a lovely balance of sticky sweetness and savoury. And there is a nice portion of meat on each rib.

Tofu stuffed with Pork Mince with Salt and Pepper. Another favourite of ours. This took a little while to come out, but it was worth the wait, even if we had a soccer game to catch. Piping hot, freshly deep fried fluffy puffs of tofu fried to perfection, with a nice filling of mince pork mixed with some diced fungus.

Some fried rice to go with the mains. Lovely smokiness throughout the rice, a nice even spread of char siu pork, some vegies, egg, and seasoned with a bit of soy.

I insisted that we had to have some vegetables, we needed some balance to the meal. A plate of stir fried vegetables was ordered., just done simply with a bit of soy and oyster sauce. It was quite a lot of food for 3 people, we ended up having a few pieces of tofu left over which we asked to take away (can't waste good food). Ryan ended up eating them during the soccer game later on.

The food coming out of this place is always consistently good. It might not be the best ever Chinese restaurant in Sydney, but for a local joint it deserves it's loyal customer base.I havn't been often enough to work my way through the menu but the dishes that I have tried were all decent. And the owners are always super friendly to you. If you're a local I'd suggest you pay them a visit. I'm hoping that they'll be there for another while yet. It would be a sad day if they ever decide to close their doors.

*** Edit - Just had a friend on facebook say that apparantly they have changed owners, but it's still the same cook. I'll have to pass the news on to Ryan and make a visit back soon. Have to make sure that the food is still as good as it was! See, this is what happens when you don't support your locals!***

Our friends wanted to go watch this soccer game because Sydney FC was playing against Everton. For someone who doesn't really follow sports it ended up being an extremely boring game for me to watch. There was just not enough action on the field for me. Give me an NRL match anyday!! Go the Roosters!! ;) It was a good night none the less, it's the company that matters.

Manuka Honey & Pistachio Dukkah Ice Cream

2011-03-22T18:57:00.001+11:00

It's been a long while since I last made home made ice cream. I've actually been sitting on this flavour combination since August last year, after attending an event relaunching the Table of Plenty dukkah range. At the end of our banquet we were served a dessert plate which included a dukkah ice cream which had hints of honey in it. I think it was the most memoreable part of the meal. I knew that it was something I was going to have a go at recreating myself.

Spring came and went and then Summer just got too hot to churn ice cream using my little machine, the ice bucket just melts before the ice cream even has a chance to churn. But luckily, Autumn is now here and the warm days are turning cooler in the evenings which means I can safely pull out my ice cream machine and start churning again.

I was given a goodie bag containing some Table of Plenty dukkahs to play with at home. Ryan and I made some dukkah crusted steaks with some and I had been saving this pistachio one to make an ice cream with. If you don't know what dukkah is, it's a mixture of ground nuts, spices and seeds traditionally eaten as a dip with some bread and oils. You can also use it to season proteins before cooking or to mix through salads. I was inspired when I had it in a dessert, ice cream of all things, I just wanted to experiment and make it for myself. It just took me a long time to get organised and do it (and waiting for the weather to cool down slightly too).

Some liquid gold. This is actually the 1kg jar of Manuka Honey which Ryan and I bought on our trip to New Zealand with my family. I decided that the Manuka honey would give a nice flavour to the ice cream, rather than regular honey. I make up a basic ice cream recipe then add my flavurings, using a few sources for comparison and then making up my own measurements for the ingredients. I'll give you the recipe as I remember it (measurements may be approximations only).

Recipe: Manuka Honey & Pistachio Dukkah Ice Cream

Ingredients

600ml thickened cream

250ml milk

1/4 cup sugar

3 eggs

1/2 cup honey

30g dukkah mix (I used the Pistachio Dukkah by Table of Plenty)

Whisk the eggs and sugar until pale and creamy and then add the honey and whisk until combined.

Heat the cream and milk until just simmering (do not boil). Leave to cool for a minute or two. Slowly whisk the milk and cream mixture into the egg mixture and whisk until combined. Pour the mixture back into a clean saucepan and cook over medium heat without boiling until the cream mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. (When you run your finger through the mixture it should stay seperated). Strain the mixture into a large bowl or container and cool, then store in the fridge overnight.

Set up your machine as per manufacturer's instructions. Stir your cream mixture and then add it to the machine and churn according to the instructions provided. I own a Krups ice cream machine which comes with a bucket which needs to be pre-frozen 24 - 48 hours before churning the ice cream. I then attach the rings and little electric motor with beater and away she goes.

The handy thing about living at home and Mum having a large chest freezer is that the tub lives in the freezer until I am ready to make ice cream hence no need for pre-planning. I do need to remember to return the bucket back once it's been cleaned and thawed out.

Once the mixture is poured into your ice bucket don't wait around taking photos. I learned the hard way that the mixture instantly freezes around the edge and because the motor is only low voltage and the beater is plastic, I have a good old time trying to scrape all the frozen mixture off the sides and bottom so that the beater attachment can churn the cream mixture. It keeps getting caught trying to push through the already frozen mixture stuck to the sides and bottom.

After a lot of kafuffle the ice cream is churning and we soon see the mixture progress to a nice thick fluffy creamy consistency.

The dukkah is then added and mixed through.

This is as far as you will get, the ice cream at this stage is more of a soft serve ice cream. Just pop it into the freezer for a bit until it firms up before serving. The ice cream does solidify quite a bit after prolonged storage in the freezer as it doesn't contain as much air and other additives which commercial ice cream contains. Just be patient and leave it out for a couple of minutes to soften before serving. A bit of extra dukkah sprinkled on top before serving is optional.

And the verdict? Mellow sweetness from the Manuka honey, a bit of crunchy texture from the nuts and seeds, bit of spice which gives the ice cream a very slight savoury undertone, combined with creamy ice cream, it was really lovely to eat. Mum and Dad didn't mind it, Ryan loved it, I thought it was pretty addictive. I'm glad I finally got around to making this flavour, it sure beats all the boring classics on the supermarket shelf ;).

Pan Fried Fish Fillets with Pea Puree, Tomato Salsa & Tempura Kumara

2011-03-16T21:00:00.003+11:00

All my blog posts seem to be about baked and sweet items. It's not that I don't know how to cook savoury dishes, it's not that I don't like savoury dishes, I'm just better at baking and making sweet items. It's also a bit of a pain to keep stopping and starting during cooking to take photographs and I just want to dig in to my food straight after because I am just absolutely starving. When I am that hungry I don't really have the time or patience to take that 'perfect' photo, one that actually looks appealing for the blog. I'm also not into setting up my food with props and having extra washing up to do on top of the mess I make cooking and serving my food, maybe one day in the future I will, but for now I like the enjoyment of eating what I cook while it's still nice and hot and freshly made, straight from whatever container that I have decided to serve it in. I do have a backlog of photos of dishes that I've cooked, but I guess none of them have looked so appealing to me that I don't think anyone else would want to look at them either.

There was a whole heap of frozen fish in the freezer, courtesy of my trip up to Queensland with my brother and cousin to visit my relatives after the floods. We caught over 100 fish from a lake which my aunty froze and put in a styrofoam box for us to bring home (not all 100 of them though). I have no idea what species they are (Vietnamese to English translations wern't quite working for me whenever I tried to ask someone what the fish were). I just know that because they were frozen almost straight after they were caught, the flesh remained nice and firm and still tasted quite fresh. I decided that I wanted to cook something with the fish since we had so much of it. Ryan also requested no meat on Fridays during Lent so fish it was going to be for dinner.

This dish is actually my own creation, though inspired by a dish I had at a restaurant a couple of weeks before (and bits and pieces I picked up reading cookbooks/foodblogs, watching cooking shows) but adding my own twist to it. When I cook like this I don't really measure out all my ingredients and just cook by vision and taste. It's how my mum cooks and that's how I learnt to cook.

I start with the tomato salsa, I had some cherry tomatoes left in the fridge from the weekend before that needed to be used and thought they would work perfectly as a salsa. I quartered them, added some capers, chopped basil (Thai basil because that's what we had at home), minced garlic, salt, pepper, a pinch of sugar, a couple of teaspoons of olive oil and mixed it all up. Salsas (and tomatoes) seem to be a popular as an accompaniment for fish. Mum makes a dish where she pan fries a whole fish until crispy and then sautees a chopped tomato which just gets placed on top of the fish which is then dressed with a home made fish sauce dressing and then served with rice.

Next I make the pea puree. I just used frozen peas (a freezer staple item) and cooked them in some chicken stock and then blitzed it all in a blender.

Such a vibrant green! I actually end up with a much thinner puree than I had anticipated (almost like a soup it was) so I'd suggest using only a small amount of stock to blitz the peas with. I ended up using a whole 500gr bag of frozen peas and about 2/3 cup of stock. The puree was to also act as a bit of a sauce for the fish.

I wanted another element to go with the salsa and puree and decided to make some tempura kumara slices. I sliced them a little too thick, and my tempura batter didn't quite give me the consistency I wanted. They were more like battered sweet potato chips, which was fine, but not obviously not quite the 'tempura' I wanted.

Lucky for us my aunty and cousin gutted and cleaned the fish before freezing which meant less messy work for me - yay! I can't say I've ever attempted to gut and clean a fish myself, but I don't think I could bring myself to do it, I get really squirmish about things like that. I'll buy my fish readily cleaned from the fishmongers thanks. I did have trouble filleting the fish though as I've never done that before either! Mum came to the rescue though and helped me get my fillets. I get people telling me I should try out for Masterchef, if I can't even clean and fillet a fish I'd be kicked out of the competition when it comes to those kind of challenges.

I was under the impression that the seemingly fat fish I chose would give me some nice sized fillets. When mum gave me my fillets she pointed out that there was probably only enough to feed one so I quickly go and defrost another fish in the microwave. I overlooked the fact that there was a big stomach cavity and a spine going through the fish, lucky there was backup in the freezer.

Apart from grilling and pan frying salmon fillets, battering fish fillets and deep frying them I have never actually cooked with other fish before. Paying attention to cooking shows helps here ;) I season the fish with salt and pepper and rub some salt onto the skin. A pan is heated to high and I make sure that my oil is very hot before adding the fish, skin side down. The fish does look a little burnt around the edges here but it actually is not. I should have pressed down the middle of the fillets more while cooking as the middle of the skin doesn't crisp up as much as the edges do. I got a little overzealous with one of the fillets and flipped it over a couple of minutes before the skin was crispy and browned so flipped it over again to get the skin as crispy as I could.

Ryan was actually stuck at work doing the afternoon shift on Friday (not his usual work day). I spent most of the evening in the kitchen prepping and doing all the elements myself so that as soon as he came over after work, all I had to do was heat the puree, fry the fish and kumara chips and assemble the dish.

I wouldn't suggest making the puree too far in advance though as it starts to seperate a little sitting there. I probably could have strained it to refine it a bit more but it seemed fine after I blitzed it. I'm too hungry to wait for Ryan so make my own dinner and eat it without him.

Presenting a dish nicely has never really been my strong point. It's usually all about the eating. But I'm quite happy with this attempt of mine. And I absolutely love all the vibrant colours in it, and the flavours are as vibrant as the dish itself. I am one who loves her strong bold flavours, it's something I have been brought up on. Was probably a little heavy handed on the pea puree but I had heaps of it and I do love my sauce in dishes. When you think about it, it's pretty much fish and chips with a salad that I've cooked up ;) But it sure was hard sitting there looking through the lens of my camera thinking how delicious it all looked! It sure was a great reward to be able to eat it once I was done photographing it.

Ryan's verdict: It's really good. Really strong flavours, all the elements work well and complement each other. Sweetness of the tomatoes works well with the saltiness of the puree and the tartness of the capers gives it another dimension. The sweet potato could have been sliced a bit thinner and the batter could have been thinner too. But what's with the bones?

There was a small sliver of bones still stuck in one of his fillets. The semi defrosted fish was a little trickier to fillet and when I attempted to cut this piece out I saw that it would have made the fillet really small and I wanted to maximise whatever we could get out of the fish so I left it in, and forgot to warn him beforehand. Oops.

I had also bought some plump figs for dessert. The figs have been absolutely gorgeous the past few weeks and I have been totally obsessed with them, eating a couple almost every day of the (working) week. I wanted to try and cook with them this time around so decided to stuff them with some ricotta cheese, drizzle them with some honey and then grill them. I initially was thinking some Manuka honey but remembered that I had some Lavendar honey I had bought from NZ in the pantry and thought it would be a better pairing with the figs.

I was too eager to eat them (and impatient) and pulled them out of the grill a little too soon so they don't get the caramelised finish I was looking for. Ryan and I both agreed that they needed a bit more honey so I drizzle over another few spoonfuls and quickly zap them in the microwave. It was just heavenly to eat. The lavender honey complimented the figs really well, drawing out the floral tones and enhancing their sweetness. I think this is where my fig obsession ended, I saw them at the fruit shop on my lunch break this week and actually didn't buy any (unlike my other recent visits). It was a perfect way to eat the figs though and a nice sweet end to the meal.

Family Holiday - Rotorua NZ - Part 1

2011-03-13T16:08:00.003+11:00

Our family went on a short holiday to Rotorua, New Zealand the week before Christmas 2010. There were 16 of us travelling, our family of 6 plus Ryan, my aunty's family of 5 plus my cousin's boyfriend, our grandparents and another aunty who decided to come along with us (without her family). We flew to Auckland and hired out two mini busses and went on a road trip down to Rotorua.

It was a late flight, the only one for Jet Star getting in at around 1:00am NZ time which meant we had to sleep over in Auckland before making our way to Rotorua. First stop of the morning after we flew in was breakfast, and where do we find ourselves? Stopping at some little suburb of Auckland at a Vietnamese restaurant. Trust my uncle to sniff out the local communities. You see, when travelling with our families (in the case of the adults anyway), they always try and find familiarities, especially in the case of food. Wherever we travel, they will seek out the local Vietnamese community, or at least an Asian community where they will generally stock up on food for our trip. Yeah, they're weird like that.

So, it's breakfast time. We actually got there a little early so Ryan and I wondered around the block sussing out what else there was in this little community. The smell of fresh bread baking lured us to a nearby asian bakery where we couldn't resist grabbing a couple of pastries from. We first had to go and get some cash from mum seeing as neither of us had any local currency yet. We couldn't get over how cheap everything was even in NZ dollars, at this bakery anyway. We were too hungry to pause for photos.

The restaurant finally opens and all 16 of us go in and take our seats at the table, all the adults on one end and all the young ones on the other.

No milk and cereal for this breakfast. I ordered a lychee smoothie which Ryan enjoyed so much he had to order one for himself. It was nice and refreshing, tasting of pure lychees blended with ice, perfect as it was, not too overly sweet.

All the adults seemed to be ordering Pho and other noodles dishes for breakfast but I was in a rice mood (I'm generally a rice over noodles type of person). I ordered the crispy skin chicken and rice, which is pretty much the only thing I order whenever I eat out Vietnamese. It was pretty average, rice and chicken a little dry needing the small bowl of broth that came with it, and also the extra seasoning from the bowl of fish sauce.

That's me in the driver's seat of the huge Toyota Hiace, I pretty much only drove it from our Hotel to the Restaurant and Ryan took over driving for the rest of the trip, I wasn't complaining.

Ryan and I spotted this big Asian grocer on our walk around the block, I had a suspicion that we would somehow end up here and I was totally right.

Stocked with all the expected asian groceries and fresh and frozen produce. They were whinging a little about the high prices, I guess the cost of importation is a little more considering the distance it needs to travel further than Australia. They buy all the neccessities like Jasmin rice, cooking sauces, noodles and Asian herbs etc.

Our good looking driver for the trip.

So we are on our way to Rotorua. We drive through what is mainly countryside. It was a beautiful drive and we are just absolutely mesmerised by how gorgeous the land is.

And there were so many cows! Almost every piece of green grass had cows feeding off it.

And it seemed like the majority of the crop grown in the area was corn, every field was just covered in corn.

We take a toilet break pitt stop at a little town called Cambridge. The queue at the service station was a little long (remember 16 of us) so Ryan and I wondered over to the neighbouring tourist/info/souvineer centre to use their toilets.

Food stuff!! No time to stop and have a proper look though =(.

Ryan and I wondered upstairs to this quaint little cafe to grab a coffee and perhaps a small snack to fuel us for the rest of the trip.

The coffee was really good, and so were their sausage rolls! When you get flaky pastry dropping all over you, you know it's good.

So off we go again. Ryan and I were pretty wowed at how absolutely lush everything was, it was such a nice feeling driving through this. The trip wasn't all this nice though, we copped some heavy rain during the drive. Our van also suffered some electrical problems on the way, we really didn't think we would make it to the destination as the engine seemed to want to give way. With Ryan's persistance we ever so slowly pushed on and arrived at our destination.

EuropCar, the abolutely worse rental company to deal with regarding problems (in NZ anyway). We had no choice though because they were the only one out of the big guys that had the Hiace for rental. We had road side assistance come and fix the car for us and everything seemed to be okay again... so we thought at the time anyway.

After what seemed like a whole day of driving we arrived at the Worldmark Maramar Resort, Rotorua. We had booked out two chalets for our two families plus the extras but whenever our families travel we split into a 'kids' vs 'parents' sleeping arrangement.

First agenda after settling in was a trip to the nearest supermarket. Countdown is New Zealand's equivalent of Woolworths, everything was the same except for the name. Mum spotted that they had live green mussels selling for just over NZ$3 which we simply could not pass up. Off I went and grabbed 3 and a half kilos for dinner that night.

And guess who's in charge of cooking the mussels for dinner? Me! With Ryan's help, and I also had minions help me clean them before hand.

The adults had managed to prepare a feast, we had rice paper rolls with cooked prawns, omlette, braised pork and vermicelli rice noodles, and with home made fish dipping sauce and a hoi sin sauce too.

My mussels - garlic, onion, diced tomato, parsley, chilli, lemon, white wine, and bread for dipping. The mussels were absolutely plump and juicey! I don't think I've ever experienced such fresh mussels as these. I had about 10 and couldn't take anymore.

Whenever you travel with our family, you are guaranteed a good feed, just ask Ryan! =D.

Day 2. We wake up nice and early to dreary grey skies heavy with rain. It's a Sunday and Ryan wants to attend mass so we pop down to the local Catholic Church while everyone is getting up and doing their morning thing. The church was so beautiful and they have managed to incorporate Maori culture into the interior decor of the church. This photo of the church was actually taken on our last day in Rotorua when the sun and blue sky decided to come out to play.

After mass we high tail it back to the cabins and quickly throw together some breakfast for ourselves as the others have already eaten their big breakfast. I have placed two knives down, I didn't realise this until I went to pick up my cutlery to eat breakfast with.

We pretty much drove around Rotorua all day with nowhere to go as it's just too wet for any activities. It was quite depressing to start our short holiday like this.

We did stumble across a whole heap of bubbling thermal pools in the middle of the town. It was quite fascinating and it was then that we realised why it was so stinky in Rotorua! I was under the impression that all these thermal pools and hot springs were situated further away on the outskirts of town. Luckily for us though that there is a big lake seperating our resort from the town centre and we don't actually get any smells (or thermal pools) on our side of the lake.

Day 3. Rise and shine for breakfast. My recruited breakfast brigade. I am merely the one co-ordinating and giving orders =).

What was left of the usual suspects in the fridge/freezer. Hash browns, bacon, sausages, eggs.

Today's main breakfast though was going to be pancakes, my uncle bought us what seemed like a never ending supply of bananas so when he said he was popping out to the supermarkets I got him to pick me up some flour to make pancakes with (to go with the bananas!)

A breakfast feast to start the day.

The view of our 'backyard'. It's still a little grey but the rain seems to be holding off. Thank goodness.

We head out to the Waimangu Volcanic Valley. Family group photo at the entrance, missing Ryan though as he's lagging behind somewhere...

All the young ones, inside the valley.. Oops, I put my camera onto the top of a bin to get this shot, must have tilted a bit after I set the timer and jumped in.

All the adults looked like smurfs with their ponchos =D.

There's a big hot pool in the middle there, we walk through the valley and get closer to it.

So much steam coming from the bubbling water.

Hot flowing creek running off the pool.

Look how goregous the colour of the water in this pool is. The water is high in acidity though.

After the volcanic valley we try and stop over at the prawn farm. Unfortunately we've come a bit too late and there's not enough time to go in. So prawn golf it is! (It's just aqua golf). Look at grandpa go.

Gobsmacked when we saw this sign, Look how far from Sydney we are!

Thanks to Ryan, we stopped at the Bee Hive. Lots and lots of honey products to sample and buy!

Lots of honey mead! (Honey wine). We leave with a fair few bottles of this.

Sitting on the floor, drinking my honey mead, and chopping chocolate to make cookies. The boys had to take over because I was a bit tipsy =D. Don't want to lose any fingers now do I?

Chocolate cookie mix.

Not exactly the best looking cookies or photograph but they were fun to make =D. I actually made some the night before which were really good that they all wanted some more. These however didn't turn out as good as the first batch I made which was actually just thrown together with no recipe on hand.

So that's the end of part 1 and day 3 of our trip. Stay tuned for more! I'll also upload the rest of my photos to facebook so feel free to snoop here for part 1 ;) I did take over 2500 photos so lots more to come.