Laws of the Kitchen

Wednesdays with Donna Hay - Puffed Cheese Omelette

2012-02-01T06:00:00.004+11:00

This week, for Wednesdays with Donna Hay, Kayte of Grandmas's Kitchen Table and I made the Puffed Cheese Omelette. This is a delicious omelette made with fluffy whipped egg whites folded into the yolks which have been beaten with cream (I used light cream). The omelette is cooked on one side in a pan coated with sizzling butter (in my case, margarine)before being filled with a mixture of marscapone (I used light ricotta) and chopped chives.

I made it for breakfast - and it was delish:

I would definitely make this again - easy and tasty.

Go see what Kayte thought of this omelette in 16 hours time.
Next week: Potato and parmesan soup with parsley pesto

Heaven Gastro Lounge, Melbourne

2012-01-29T14:25:00.000+11:00

Today in Melbourne is one of those desert-like, dry, hot summer days where to step outside is to become a melting puddle of a person, desperate to seek the cool shelter of a shopping centre or movie theatre. Yesterday was the same. The streets in my suburb are eerily quiet as everyone bunkers down inside to escape the heat. I think the only way to keep cool would be to sit in a nice cool bath and change the water regularly - and unfortunately, I do not have a bath.

Last night, when it was slightly cooler due to the presence of a gentle breeze, my friend Tim and I went to dinner at Heaven Gastro Lounge on St Kilda Road. It is an unlikely place for a restaurant open on weekends, nestled as it is in the basement of an office building, but it was a fantastic find, courtesy of a discount voucher that I purchased online.

The top of this post shows the interior of Heaven - dark and moody, but with fairy lights on a latticework partition and Campari posters on the walls, with television screens silently showing MTV. On its website, Heaven describes itself as "modern English Gastro Pub food with French, Italian & Asian influence". I pretty much think that says it is unique and makes its own path. The chef, Sanjeev Johri, has over ten years experience, and has worked for, among others, Jacques Reymond.

Our deal entitled us to an entree (described in American style as an "appetiser" on the menu), a main and a dessert, with a cocktail. Our Cosmopolitan cocktails came out first (curiously, sans cranberry juice), and in the heat did not touch the sides. Accordingly, I followed it up by purchasing a glass of Fleur de Lys sparkling wine.

For entree, Tim chose the cured New Zealand king salmon served with salmon caviar:

while I chose the five spices calamari with lotus root, Spanish chorizo and spicy tomato sauce:

Both dishes tasted good, and with mine, I enjoyed the contrast of the cool vegetables against the zingy five spice coated calamari.

For main, I could not go past the pork hock with chilli caramel sauce, apple puree, Vietnamese salad, pickled melon and pan seared scallop:

The meat apparently slow cooks for 5 hours, and comes out crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle. The chilli caramel sauce makes the dish - it is the perfect balance of zinginess and sweetness, and complemented the dish nicely.

Tim selected the crispy skin duck in traditional Yorkshire sauce served with potato mash, pumpkin and daikon salad:

The duck was pleasingly soft and moist under the juicy skin, and Tim liked the citrusy tang to the sauce - not immediately what I'd associate with Yorkshire, but that is being nitpicky.

For dessert, Tim chose a very fine tiramisu made with chocolate cake:

while I chose the trio of icecreams (chocolate, vanilla and a raspberry sorbet) with chocolate stick and brandy snaps:

The brandy snaps were absent, but I didn't mind - I deliberately chose the icecream as a light option for dessert after my rich pork hock main.

Mains at Heaven are around the $30 mark, entrees are around the $20 mark while desserts are around $15.

The staff were very attentive and friendly, and it was suitably cool and dark inside the restaurant to provide relief from the heat outside. All in all, it was a good experience, and I'd definitely go back.

Heaven Gastro Lounge
580 Lower Ground Floor,
St Kilda Road,
Melbourne VIC 3004
Ph: (03) 9041 2129

Daring Bakers - Back to Basics: Scones

2012-01-27T06:00:00.038+11:00

There was a table set out under a tree in front of the house, and the March Hare and the Hatter were having tea at it: a Dormouse was sitting between them, fast asleep, and the other two were using it as a cushion, resting their elbows on it, and talking over its head. `Very uncomfortable for the Dormouse,' thought Alice; `only, as it's asleep, I suppose it doesn't mind.'

From Chapter VII, A Mad Tea Party, Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

I have now been a Daring Baker for 4 years - since January 2008. My first Daring Bakers recipe was lemon meringue pie. Every now and again, especially when I am time poor, I think about giving it up, but then a recipe surprises me and I keep on going. I look forward to the possibilities that this year will bring with the Daring Bakers, a group of thousands of bakers from all over the world who bake the same recipe once a month.

Audax Artifex was our January 2012 Daring Bakers’ host. Aud worked tirelessly to master light and fluffy scones (a/k/a biscuits) to help us create delicious and perfect batches in our own kitchens!

Scones are a tea time favourite in Australia, inherited from the British migrants to this country. Traditionally, scones are served with jam and cream to make a Devonshire tea or a Cornish tea, depending on whether you put the jam or the cream on first (or so I have been told). On my first trip to England in 2001, I made sure that I had tea (in a pot, of course) with scones with jam and clotted cream in a small tea room in Kensington, London, somewhere close to Harrods. It was fabulous, of course, and is a treasured memory of my trip.

Audax's recipe for scones was neither hard nor expensive, but I certainly learned a lot about scone making, despite having made scones since as far back as home economics in year eight at high school. I was pleasantly surprised by how high and fluffy the scones I made this month were:

I am scraping this in the day before it is due on the Australia Day holiday, so I haven't made any variations. I just made Audax's basic recipe. I froze the grated butter, I cut the butter into the flour with a pastry cutter, I rested the dough for twenty minutes before cutting it, I used a cold cutter, I didn't twist the cutter when cutting out the scones, and I brushed the tops with milk before baking, and baked them in the hot oven recommended. I am not sure which element it was, or whether it was all of them, but these were the highest, fluffiest scones that I have ever made. I was very pleased! The only downer was that I only got three scones out of the recipe - perhaps my cutter was too big?

In the Australian/English tradition, I served my scones with jam (blueberry on this case) and whipped cream, all gussied up in little soy sauce pots from a sushi set:

Nom!

Thanks to Audax for proving that even when you think you know something, there is always more that can be learned about it. Audax will publish the recipe on his site, if you would like to try it. And check out the other Daring Bakers efforts at The Daring Kitchen.

FFwD - Broth-braised potatoes

2012-01-27T06:00:00.014+11:00

Ahhh, it's Fabulous Friday - in a few hours time, I can kick back and relax for a couple of days. Yah!

This week's French Fridays with Dorie dish is broth-braised potatoes. This involves boiling potatoes in chicken stock and various herbs for flavour. My initial thoughts were that it wasn't worth the effort, but I was pretty happy with the end result. The potatoes were mighty tasty, and made a change from potatoes boiled in salted water.

I served my potatoes with M. Jacques roasted chicken from FFwD a couple of weeks ago.

To see what all the other Doristas thought of this simple but tasty dish, visit the FFwD website.

Pavlova Roulade with Passionfruit for Australia Day

2012-01-26T14:25:00.000+11:00

Australia! Australia! so fair to behold
While the blue sky is arching above;
The stranger should never have need to be told,
That the Wattle-bloom means that her heart is of gold,
And the Waratah red blood of love.

From Waratah and Wattle, Henry Lawson

Today, 26 January, is Australia Day, and Australians have a public holiday to give us a moment to pause and think of what makes us Australian and what we love about living here.

To celebrate Australia Day, I have made a pavlova roulade with passionfruit, that I will take to share with my friends at Jazz in the Gardens this evening, a free event sponsored by Stonnington Council. Tonight, the function will be held in Malvern Gardens in High Street, Malvern.

My roulade is inspired by Julie Goodwin's Pavlova Roulade recipe on page 174 of the December 2012 edition of The Australian Womens Weekly, and by Donna Hay's Pavlova Roll recipe on page 170 of the December/January 2012 edition of Donna Hay magazine. However, it is not the same as either of them, and I have set out the recipe for my version of the roulade below.

Pavlova Roulade with Passionfruit

Ingredients:

4 egg whites (~100g)
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
2 teaspoons vanilla
250ml thickened (heavy) cream
2 passionfruit

Preheat your oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Line a 26cm x 38cm Swiss roll tray with baking paper, leaving some overhang on each side to use as "handles" later.

In a clean bowl, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Continue beating while adding the sugar, a little at a time and scraping down the sides as necessary, until the sugar has dissolved. Add the vinegar, cream of tartar and vanilla, and continue beating until stiff peaks form.

Spread the egg white mixture evenly over the lined Swiss roll pan, then bake in the preheated oven for around 20 minutes or until the top of the pavlova is just firm to the touch.

Remove the pavlova from the oven and allow it to cool on the tray on a wire rack for ~ 5 minutes.

While the pavlova is cooling, lay out a clean cotton or linen teatowel on the bench, and cover it with a piece of baking paper. Sift icing sugar liberally over the baking paper. Take the pavlova and turn it out of the pan, face down, onto the baking paper. Carefully remove the pan liner from the pavlova, ensuring that you avoid tearing as far as possible. Allow the pavlova to cool to room temperature.

In the meantime, whip the cream with two tablespoons of icing sugar until firm peaks form. Spread the cream down the centre third of the pavlova. Remove the pulp from the passionfruit and place evenly on top of the cream:

Fold each long side of the pavlova up over the cream to encase it, using the baking paper to assist, and flip the pavlova over with the seam side down.

Carefully lift the pavlova onto a serving tray using a long spatula or egg lifter. Cut a small piece off each end of the pavlova roulade to expose the filling:

Cut into slices and serve with extra cream, icecream and berries, if desired. Enjoy!

To all of my fellow Australians, I hope that you are having a wonderful Australia Day.

Wednesdays with Donna Hay - Brown-Buttered Beans

2012-01-25T06:00:00.015+11:00

Welcome to Wednesday! This week, Kayte of Grandma's Kitchen Table and I are making brown-buttered beans for Wednesdays with Donna Hay.

If you have never tried browned-butter, then I can highly recommend it to you. It involves cooking the butter until it turns brown, which in turn makes the flavour nutty, and makes it a perfect accompaniment to sweet and savoury dishes.

This is the first time that I have used browned butter in a savoury dish (as far as I can remember, anyway), and it gave a superb flavour to the steamed green beans, which are also topped with roasted pine nuts for crunch. How good is that?

Kayte is cooking these along with me - go visit Kayte to see her beans. And of course, you are welcome to cook along with us - the recipes are online at donnahay.com.au.

Next week: Puffed cheese omelette

Blue Dish, Highett VIC

2012-01-22T23:26:00.000+11:00

Blue Dish, in Highett, Melbourne, is a rare gem of a cafe introduced to me by my colleague Lee, who in turn was introduced to it by our colleague Jess. The interior of Blue Dish has an old-fashioned charm, with upstairs and downstairs seating available. However, the food is definitely not old-fashioned, and an all-day breakfast menu is available as well as the lunch and dinner menus.

In addition to in-house dining, Blue Dish sells an array of take-away gourmet products and patisserie items. The patisserie items in particular look delicious, but I have avoided purchasing them to date only from the view of being able to fit into my clothes after lunch.

There is something for everyone at Blue Dish. At the top of this post is pictured the pulled-pork sandwich with coleslaw, which is a firm favourite with Lee and Jess. It smells devine, and the sauce on the pork is delicious, but it is a little too rich for me to have every time.

Other dishes which I have tried at Blue Dish include the Moroccan Baked Eggs, which had a fresh, almost Thai-style flavour:

Most recently, I tried the devinely creamy pumpkin, spinach and goats curd risotto:

This is a perfect vegetarian option.

Other dishes that I have tried include the steak sandwich and the home baked beans with lyonnaise sausage on toasted sourdough, both of which I highly recommend.

The service at Blue Dish is attentive, prompt and friendly, and I love that they always ask if I enjoyed my meal. I feel lucky that we work close enough to Highett (which is otherwise outside my sphere) to enjoy this cafe occasionally for lunch.

On a totally unrelated note, I could not resist sharing this photo of 4 cheeky cockatoos perched on the power lines that I saw on my walk to the train last week:

They raucously announced their presence to anyone below while gaily swinging on the power lines, including upside down at one stage.

Also, I wanted to share the gorgeous birthday cake that my friend Lorien made for the first birthday of her youngest son, Oliver, whose party I attended in Queensland on the weekend:

The cake was chocolate cake, decorated with rolled fondant. The small children especially enjoyed the smaller cakes in the shape of alphabet blocks, although Oliver himself did not have any cake, and had the idea that "it's my party and I'll cry if I want to". Big brother Liam came to the rescue by blowing out the candle, and middle brother Alexander charmed us all with his dimples and golden curls.

Hope you all had a good weekend!

Blue Dish

326 Highett Rd

Highett, VIC 3109

Ph: +61 3 9939 6641

FFwD - Quartre-quarts

2012-01-20T06:00:00.002+11:00

This week's French Friday with Dorie is Quartre-Quarts. Well you may ask, "Eh?" Well, to explain it in Dorie's words, it is like the French version of a pound cake. However, in my view, it is much lighter and springier than a pound cake, and dare I say it, more delicious.

Look at that golden fluffy crumb:

The cake is topped by a sprinkle of brown sugar which is supposed to create a glaze, but in my case, kind of sank into the cake - which suited me, as it caramelised and gave a certain crunch to the cake.

I loved this cake on its own, although Dorie suggests serving it with cream and berries - but why mess with perfection?

To see what everyone else thought of this cake, visit the LYL section of the FFwD website (but give it a while - the US is half a day plus behind Oz).

Wednesdays with Donna Hay - Sticky Chicken Parcels

2012-01-18T06:00:00.003+11:00

Today's Wednesday with Donna Hay recipe is Sticky Chicken Parcels, selected by Kayte of Grandma's Kitchen Table.

Who doesn't like getting a present, and these little parcels certainly are a gift. They contain chicken breasts marinated in soy sauce, plum sauce and garlic, paired with vegetables (baby corn, leek, capsicum, carrot and ginger), all wrapped in parchment paper.

I didn't have any string to tie the parcels shut, but that didn't matter - I was able to fold them well enough to keep everything in.

These parcels were very tasty and quick to make, and I like the fact that it was a "one bag" meal (although I paired it with potatoes and beans, this is not necessary).

Go visit Kayte for an alternative view on these parcels.

Next week - Brown buttered beans

Thai Nee Cafe, Brunswick East

2012-01-15T14:29:00.000+11:00

On Saturday night, I headed out to Thai Nee Cafe in East Brunswick with my Northern dwelling friends, Veronica and Christian. As the name suggests, Thai Nee is a relatively tiny establishment tucked into the non-touristy end of Lygon Street, and is a firm favourite with the locals judging from the reviews online. Thai Nee is BYO and cash-only, so bring your alcohol and a cashed-up wallet.

The prices at Thai Nee are very reasonable, and the food was good. The service was a little slow, but this was likely because the restaurant was very busy, despite it being 8.30pm before we arrived. Veronica and Christian have been before, and said that on a Thursday night, the service is much quicker.

We shared our dishes. For entree, we started with the chicken mince spring rolls, with sweet chilli dipping sauce (the full serve was 6 rolls):

We also ordered the very delicious fish cakes, which also came with a sweet, honey-like dipping sauce (forgive the blurry photo):

These fish cakes were not battered or crumbed, but were rather flat cakes of fried fish mince with herbs and spices - and were utterly moorish.

For mains, Veronica and Christian ordered their "signature dishes - the chicken yellow curry:

and the ginger beef:

The curry was very mild and sweet, while the beef dish was zingy with a touch of bite.

As the newcomer, I ordered sweet and sour chicken "with pineapples" (according to the menu):

I was relieved when no whole pineapples arrived at the table - rather, the rich, tomato-based sweet and sour sauce was bejewelled with pineapple pieces. Veronica was a fan, as was I, but Christian not so much.

We also ordered steamed rice for the table to mop up all of that glorious sauce. The rice arrived in a large patterned aluminium bowl in a matching stand, looking for all the world to me like the goblet that Edmund drank from when given a drink by the White Witch in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

The food was very reasonably priced, with starters around the $7-8 mark, and mains at ~$12 for pork, beef or chicken, and $16-17 for seafood.

Thai Nee is definitely a keeper - just remember to leave the plastic at home.

Thai Nee Cafe
150 Lygon Street
Brunswick East VIC 3057
(03) 9388 0411

FFwD - M. Jacques Armagnac Chicken

2012-01-13T06:00:00.003+11:00

This week's French Fridays with Dorie recipe is for M. Jacques Armagnac Chicken. This is basically a chicken roasted with brandy (or Armagnac, if you have some) with vegetables and seasoning.

I am never sure which way up to roast my chicken, and mine looks rather immodest - I assume that I got it wrong again. Oh well, it tasted good (I adore roasted chicken), but it didn't knock my socks off.

I did like the flavour of the vegetables, which were seasoned with salt, pepper, thyme, rosemary and bay, and after roasting, are left to bubble away in the thickening sauce on the stovetop:

This was my dinner on night 1 of this chicken dish:

I was too lazy and it was too late at night (this dish takes around an hour and a half to make) to add some greens to the mix - perhaps tomorrow night.

To see what the other FFwD members thought of this dish, visit the LYL section of the website.

Wednesdays with Donna Hay - Roasted Pistachio and Honey Yoghurt and Smoked Ham and Cheese Toasties

2012-01-11T06:00:00.001+11:00

Hooray! I am so excited, because my blogging buddy, Kayte of Grandma's Kitchen Table, and I are going to be making Donna Hay recipes together this year, and posting the results on Wednesdays. Kayte is from Indiana in the US, so it will be double the fun to watch her post exactly the same thing as me all those miles away and approximately 16 hours or so apart! (As I write this on a Tuesday evening, it is currently an obscenely early hour on Tuesday morning in Kayte's part of the world - hopefully she is still asleep.)

Kayte first suggested last year that if I had the same Donna Hay book as she did, we could both make things together out of it. I didn't have the book, so time ticked by, but the end of Tuesdays with Dorie gave me the kick I needed to raise it again with Kayte. In time, we may go to one of Donna's fabulous books, but for now, we have decided (Kayte's suggestion) to cook recipes from Donna Hay's website. For the uninitiated, Donna Hay is a phenomenal Aussie foodwriter, food stylist and cook; you can read more about her here.

On to the recipes!

Week 1 is breakfast, and was actually last week, but I was away from my own kitchen, so I am catching up this week. Kayte chose Roasted Pistachio and Honey Yoghurt - you can see Kayte's post, which includes the recipe, here.

My version is pictured at the top of this post, served in a martini glass a la Mad Men (I would love to look like Joan Holloway in another life!). I used roasted pistachios and passionfruit yoghurt. I may have been a little heavy on the honey, as my nuts sank right into it. (See Kayte's version for nice layers.)

My Christmas present to me was a DSLR camera - you can see from the yoghurt shot that although my photos should get better, I have a way to go. (Gotta love the auto-focus though - makes life so much easier.)

This week's Wednesday with Donna Hay (it rhymes!) is lunch - and I chose Smoked Ham and Cheese Toasties:

You can't see it that well in the photo, but these decadent toasties have Dijon mustard, smoked ham and grated cheese on one side, and cheese sauce on the other side - oh so good! I had to flood the pan with the leftover cheese sauce, because I kept dipping my finger in to eat it as is! I used light Coon cheese instead of Swiss cheese, but otherwise made the recipe as suggested.

The only catch with these toasties is that you need to make my nemesis, the roux, to make the cheese sauce. I tried to use an ordinary saucepan first up to make the sauce instead of a heavy bottomed pan (because I didn't have a small one). This was a disaster - the roux burned. Luckily, I was making this recipe for one and didn't get past the first step, so there wasn't any harm done, and I ended up making the tiniest amount of cheese sauce in a whopping great pan.

Go visit Kayte in a few hours time to see what she thought of these toasties - and check out her fab nutty honey yoghurt.

Next week: Dinner - Sticky chicken parcels

FFwD - Bubble-top brioche rolls

2012-01-06T06:00:00.002+11:00

It's a new year for French Fridays with Dorie, and this week's challenge is Bubble-Top Brioche Rolls. These cute little brioche rolls are given their bubble-top effect by rolling the dough into little balls before its final rise.

You are supposed to use a muffin tin to bake the rolls, but as I am at home with my mother and she doesn't have one, I used the friand tin that my brother gave me for Christmas. This is why my rolls are oval-shaped.

The end result is a glazed, shiny, nicely-shaped roll, which is fluffy and golden inside:

I also almost added salt instead of sugar to these because I mixed up the jars - this would have been a huge disaster! Luckily I realised my mistake after spooning the salt on top, so I scooped it off, and from the taste of the end result, successfully removed most of the excess salt (although these were slightly saltier than usual).

I ate these plain - they were good with absolutely nothing on them.

To check out what the other FFwD participants thought of these rolls, visit the LYL section of the FFwD website.

The Atlantic, Crown Complex, Melbourne

2012-01-04T06:00:00.003+11:00

Bringing the dining experience back home, the legal group Christmas lunch was held just before Christmas at The Atlantic seafood restaurant in the Crown Casino complex in Melbourne. On its website, The Atlantic describes its philosophy as follows:

The Atlantic is inspired by the famous New York meat packing district and the hustle and bustle of the fish markets of years gone by, in New York and Chicago.

With an uncompromising focus on excellence – our seafood is sourced from Australia’s very best producers, it is this spirit that infuses every aspect of the restaurant, from its design and ambiance to service and of course its cuisine- all in this magnificent waterfront location.

The food was magnificent, and a lovely way to cap off my last day at work before Christmas.

I wasn't going to post about this meal originally, but my colleague, Lee, took photographs anyway, so this post is for Lee. I don't have any photographs of my entree, but after being banned from ordering the Beetroot Salad, I ordered the devine Atlantic Seafood Cocktail of spanner crab, Moreton Bay bug, prawn, iceberg lettuce, rockmelon, basil and (wait for it!), soft-boiled quails eggs. This was simply delicious! We also ordered one of each type of oyster each, fascinated as we were by the menu description that some of the oysters were salty (expected), while others were creamy (definitely unusual!). And much to my surprise, they were right - I have never tried an au naturel oyster that was creamy before, but now I have, and I am converted. (I believe the creamy ones were the Duck Bay oysters from Tasmania).

For main, I selected the pan roasted hapuka from New Zealand, which is pictured at the top of this post. It is bright yellow because the fish is coated in saffron before being roasted in the pan. The dish also featured capers and sherry vinegar essence. It was good, but not outstanding.

Mark ordered the Portalington whiting on the bone:

He was the only one brave enough to order a whole fish. It looks good though!

Lee and John ordered the Citrus-Marinated Olive Oil Confit Salmon (what a mouthful!). It features ragout of spring vegetables, confit lemon, blood orange chip and lemongrass foam:

Sitting next to it in Lee's photo is the mashed bintje potatoes with butter, cream and nutmeg. I preferred the thrice-cooked russet potatoes with rosemary, garlic and sea salt which we also ordered. Our other side dish was the sauteed green beans with garlic and parmesan:

As it was our last day, and we were in the partying mood, we also ordered dessert (my favourite course!). I ordered the raspberry tart, with vanilla custard and raspberry sorbet:

This tasted as good as it looks! John ordered the Strawberries and Cream - layers of shortbread, lemon marscapone and strawberry salad:

And Lee ordered the magnificent peanut butter and jelly sandwich:

This was amazing - a PBJ sandwich in a dessert! There really was jelly in the middle of a peanutty fudge layer.

This was a magnificent celebratory lunch - thanks to our benefactors Mark and John for taking us out to this grand repast to celebrate the end of the year.

Crown Entertainment Complex

8 Whiteman Street

Southbank VIC 3006

Phone: +61 3 9698 8888

Los Gatos Coffee Roasting Company, Los Gatos, CA

2012-01-02T06:00:00.054+11:00

What did you do for New Year? Were you like me, and let it all pass you by, or were you out partying hard? Whatever you did, I hope you had a great time, and that 2012 is a fabulous year for you.

Seguing into the last instalment of my recent work trip to San Jose, it would be remiss of me to leave out the Los Gatos Coffee Roasting Company. On its website, this cafe is self-described as "The town's favorite gathering place for delicious coffee, conversation and camaraderie." It is certainly very popular, as both mornings that we were there, it was filled with people enjoying breakfast and a coffee, and many had brought their laptops to avail themselves of the wi-fi service at the cafe. On the first day, everyone seemed to know everyone there, so as a small group of strangers with funny accents, we really stood out.

This cafe-come-diner in the heart of Los Gatos was decked out for Christmas when we were there (as seen at the top of this post), and was one of the cutest places you could ever go for coffee. The people who made the coffee greeted us cheerily both mornings that we were there, and you can get an enormous coffee to kick start your day (a 16 oz!). I opted for the slightly smaller 12 oz, which gave me all the caffeine I needed, and the coffee was really good - American coffee has a bad reputation here, based mostly on the ubiquitous filter coffee, but this was the real deal made with a coffee machine.

On the first morning for breakfast, I ordered the oatmeal:

It was a steal at USD2.95 plus tax, and was served with dried fruit, nuts and brown sugar on the side. Unlike the glorified gloop that I have had in some cafes here (at around three times the price!), this oatmeal was made by people who know how it ought to be, and was absolutely delicious. I thought it was so good, I ordered it the second morning as well.

There is a range of hot food available at the cafe - as an example of what is on offer, my colleagues ordered breakfast calzonis and quiches.

I also continued my fascination with trying uniquely American flavour combinations, and bought a slice of pumpkin cream cheese loaf as "take out" for later in the day:

This was perhaps a little dry for my tastes, but the flavour combination was interesting. It has been a while since I have baked with pumpkin, but I will have to try and include it in my repertoire some more.

To give you a feel for the town of Los Gatos itself, here are a couple of photos taken in the street near our hotel:

As you can see, even the burger joint is picturesque! Beats the plastic fantastic of the Golden Arches and Hungry Jacks any day.

We were also in for a treat being there at Christmas, as there were Christmas lights in the town square:

Even though this photo was taken with an iPhone, you get a feel for how lovely it was - Christmas fairy-land material.

If you ever happen to be passing through Los Gatos, drop in for a coffee at the Los Gatos Coffee Roasting Company, and say hi to the friendly baristas.

Los Gatos Coffee Roasting Company
101 W. Main St, Los Gatos, CA
+1 408. 354.3263

Happy New Year!!!

2012-01-01T06:00:00.001+11:00

May it be a good one for you and your family.

White Chocolate Rocky Road

2011-12-31T06:00:00.001+11:00

Christmas has been and gone, but I think that White Chocolate Rocky Road is good all year round. I made the white chocolate rocky road pictured at the top of this post for my Christmas gift boxes. The great thing about rocky road is that you can put whatever you like in it, in whatever quantities suit you - as long as you have enough chocolate to bind it together, the sky is the limit.

I based my white chocolate rocky road on this recipe, containing toasted pistachios, marshmallows and cranberries. However, instead of white marshmallows, I used pink and white baby mallows, and I added a quarter of a cup of red glace cherries.

The verdict? Delicious and super easy, a treat for any time of year.

FFwD - Cauliflower-Bacon Gratin

2011-12-30T06:00:00.005+11:00

This week's French Fridays with Dorie recipe is Cauiflower-Bacon Gratin. This is a lovely dish of baked cauliflower florets, bacon, cheese, eggs, cream and milk - what's not to love?

I ate this dish initially on its own for my lunch, then as a side with main meals.

To see what everyone else thought of this dish, visit the LYL section of the FFwD website.

Happy New Year!

Double Chocolate Pecan Cookies - Gluten Free, Dairy Free

2011-12-29T06:00:00.002+11:00

As you will know from previous posts, my friend Craig is gluten and dairy intolerant. Accordingly, my regular Christmas box goodies full of dairy and gluten would not be approriate for him.

After a flick through Martha Stewart's Holiday Cookies (2010), I came across the perfect Christmas cookie recipe for Craig - Double Chocolate Pecan Cookies. You can find the recipe online here.

These cookies are made with icing sugar, egg whites, cocoa, pecans (I substituted walnuts) and chopped chocolate. The cookies are quite large, and are chewy, soft and very chocolatey. They are great, not just for those with dietary intolerances, but for anyone who loves chocolate. Best of all, they are very simple to make!

The Last Ever TWD - Kids' Thumbprints

2011-12-27T06:00:00.047+11:00

Well guys, after more than three years and more recipes than I care to count, this is it. Today is our last Tuesday with Dorie - ever. It's taken me through three towns, four kitchens and three jobs (counting the odd recipe or two that I baked at my mother's house) - now that is pretty amazing. When I think of where I started, and where I have ended up, I am amazed. I baked a lot, I learnt a lot, I got to make lots of beautiful baked goods and meet up in cyberspace with lots of lovely fellow bakers. It is therefore with a touch of sadness that I write this last TWD post.

The last recipe has been chosen by Dorie Greenspan herself, and is Kid's Thumbprints. These delicious biscuits are jam drops on steroids - packed with peanut butter and brown sugar, rolled in crushed roasted peanuts, and filled with fruity jam (in my case, plum jam).

I had a minor crisis in baking these because I was baking at my mother's house (where I am based for Christmas holidays), and I lined my baking trays with greaseproof paper instead of baking paper because someone had switched the rolls of paper - and my thumbprints stuck to the greaseproof paper! However, I managed to salvage all but two of them, and the rest is history.

These thumbprints are very addictive - they are almost fudgy in taste, and the crushed nuts give a satisfying crunch.

For the very last time, you can check out what the other TWD bakers thought of these biscuits at the LYL section of the Tuesdays with Dorie website.

Thanks to all of my gorgeous TWD baker friends, with whom I have shared so much over the last three years, including our adventures from Baking - From My Home to Yours. And thanks to Laurie for founding this amazing group, and to Dorie, without whom we would never have formed this group in the first place.

Don’t be dismayed at goodbyes. A farewell is necessary before we can meet again and meeting again, after moments or a lifetime, is certain for those who are friends.

Daring Bakers - Letting Nature Do the Work - Sour Dough Challenge

2011-12-27T06:00:00.005+11:00

Our Daring Bakers Host for December 2011 was Jessica of My Recipe Project and she showed us how fun it is to create Sour Dough bread in our own kitchens! She provided us with Sour Dough recipes from Bread Matters by Andrew Whitley as well as delicious recipes to use our Sour Dough bread in from Tonia George’s Things on Toast and Canteen’s Great British Food!

I made the French Country loaf - I did it free form as the recipe suggested, but it made a really flat loaf this way. I think the loaf would have benefited from being placed in a bread tin or such like so that it held its shape. I also used 100% all purpose flour - I didn't have wholewheat flour and I wanted to use the starter again for white loaves.

Otherwise, I was pretty excited that my starter worked - it bubbled, it frothed and it made bread, despite my cynicism about the lack of yeast:

I didn't make anything with my bread - I just ate it spread with jam. I really did not have the time or capacity to make anything else.

Thanks to our host Jessica, who will have the recipe. To check out what sour dough loaf the other Daring Bakers made, and what they did with it, visit the slide show at the Daring Kitchen once it is up.

Los Gatos Bar and Grill, Los Gatos CA

2011-12-26T06:00:00.002+11:00

Brian modelling a tater tot.

How was your Christmas Day? Did you have fun? Spend it with family and friends? Or a quiet one alone? Get lots of presents? Whatever you did and however you spent Christmas Day, I hope you had a great time, or that it least was relaxing and not stressful for you. I spent my Christmas Day with family in my home town.

Let me take you back to California for the next instalment of my extra-curricular activities on my recent work trip. On the Wednesday evening, after I was fully rested and feeling way more chipper than the night before, our host company took us to dinner. We were hoping to go to a Greek restaurant called Opa! in Los Gatos, but it was full and we did not have a reservation. However, two doors or so down the street, we found Los Gatos Bar & Grill, who accommodated our party of 6 quite easily. Los Gatos Bar & Grill is exactly what it says on the tin - a bar with hearty meals available. It is bright and colourful and full of action. The atmosphere is very relaxed, and we sat on couches either side of a low table. The service was prompt and cheerful, and added to the carefree air of the establishment.

We started off with a shared starter of tater tots (because I wanted to know what they were!):

In Australia, tater tots are known by the much less fun name of potato gems. Brian, a member of our party and featured at the top of this post with a tater tot, likes to take photos of food too, although he is not a blogger.

For mains, Jeff ordered the Mexicali Burger - guacamole, pico de gallo, pepper jack cheese, deep fried jalepenos:

The sweet potato tater tots were gorgeous - they were sweet and caramelly in flavour.

Brian ordered the seared Ahi Tuna Sandwich, comprising seared ahi tuna, sweet chili coleslaw, and wasabi aoli on a soft potato roll:

As for me, I braved the 11oz Grilled Flat Iron Steak with garlic mashed potatoes, fresh mixed vegetables and a port wine demiglaze:

The demiglaze on the steak was magnificently rich and fruity, and the steak (which I ordered medium rare) was soft and melt-in-your-mouth. I washed it all down with a very fine glass or two of Esperto Pino Grigio.

This dinner capped off a fun night. Would I go again? Yeah, absolutely!

Los Gatos Bar & Grill

15-1/2 N Santa Cruz Avenue

Los Gatos, CA 95030

Ph: +1 408 402.5870

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

2011-12-25T06:00:00.001+11:00

Langham Christmas Pudding

2011-12-24T06:00:00.001+11:00

Christmas is nearly upon us, so if you have not made your Christmas pudding yet, you may be well advised to buy one, as a new born pudding will not have time to mature and become all boozy and rich in time for this year. I was organised enough to make my pudding over the Melbourne Cup weekend back in November, so it had over 2 months for the flavours to meld.

Every year, I choose a different pudding recipe. After a disastrous brush with a recipe out of a newspaper that was plain wrong (but luckily had very little precious fruit in it, so little was wasted), I decided to try my hand at The Langham Hotel Christmas pudding, made by a few bloggers at an event last year. You can find the recipe online here.

Unfortunately my pudding stuck to the top of the steamer a little, hence its rough-hewn top. However, this does not affect flavour, and no-one will ever know the difference when it is cut up into bits.

Whilst this pudding tastes good (I have cut it up into pieces for my Christmas boxes), I found it to be a little crumbly, and should be stored in the fridge to make it easier to cut (if not re-heating the whole pudding at once). It is definitely not my favourite Christmas pudding recipe - that title is still held by Nigella Lawson's Non-Conformist Christmas Pudding, the recipe for which can be found online here.

How are your Christmas preparations coming along?

FFwD - Creme brulee

2011-12-23T07:24:00.000+11:00

This week's French Friday with Dorie sees us making a French classic - creme brulee. Although I am an avid eater of creme brulee, I have never made it myself before, primarily because I don't have the equipment to make the sugar crust.

On this occasion, I simply put my brulee under the broiler. The sugar crust was not as crunchy or evenly melted as if I'd used a torch, but it was good. My ramekins are obviously larger than Dorie's, so my poor brulee looked a bit lost in its enormous ramekin:

but it tasted good!

To see what the other Doristas thought, visit the LYL section of the French Fridays with Dorie website.

Glass Brasserie, Sydney

2011-12-22T06:00:00.067+11:00

A couple of weeks ago, I was in Sydney for our work's legal training conference. The conference always includes a lovely dinner, and on this occasion, the selected venue was Luke Mangan's Glass Brasserie at the Hilton Hotel in Sydney.

While we were waiting for dinner, we went for drinks at the gorgeous Marble Bar in the basement of the Hilton. I was glad that we went when the bar first opened, as it is extremely popular and fills up very quickly (after which new comers are locked out). Jess, Lee and I had a couple of cocktails in the beautiful surrounds of marble, bronze and cedar, with vintage prints. The bar was built in the 1800s, and was dismantled and re-assembled in the Hilton in 1973. It is definitely worth a look for its beauty alone.

From Marble Bar, we caught the lift up to Level 2 to Glass Brasserie. We were allowed to choose an entree, main and dessert from the set menu provided for our group.

For entree (starter), I chose the quail with dukkah, Serrano, pear and agresto:

Salted quail is a favourite of mine at Chinese restaurants, so it was fun to try it here.

Lee chose the tart of fig, Roquefort, onion marmalade and verjuice dressing:

She enjoyed it, but said it was very rich.

Adrian, another of our colleagues in the wider legal group, I believe was the recipient of this dish of tempura prawns, Thai salad, peanuts and tamarind dressing:

There were no complaints from Adrian, so I assume it tasted good.

For main, I chose the truffle poached jewfish, warm cucumber, garlic flower, onion, peas, white asparagus and shimeji (whatever that is!):

Doesn't it look delicious - so fresh and green with all those lovely vegetables.

Finally, for dessert, I chose the strawberry cheesecake:

All of this food was good, but we were a little spoilt having been to Aria the night before - so unfortunately, this food did not blow us away like our meal at Aria.

Our colleague Adrian then decided to drink whisky with Jess:

Adrian would have been very disappointed if I did not publish this photo of his stoic efforts. Unfortunately, Adrian did not realise that Jess is a legendary whiskey drinker, and therefore what a tough challenge he had set himself in attempting to match it with her. This is despite the fact that Adrian is a Scot and ought to know a little about drinking whisky. I did not even try to compete (I hate the burning sensation of whisky), and stuck with the wine.

Afterwards, we went to Zeta Bar (after a failed attempt to re-enter the Marble Bar), also in the Hilton, to continue socialising. We stayed there until 2am the next morning - I for one am way too old to deal well with such shenanigans, and was shattered the next day (and it was not the alcohol - it was the lack of sleep). We looked like an odd lot in the bar in our ordinary work clothes, mixing it with the clubbing crowd and those in formal wear who had escaped from Christmas parties. At least there was safety in numbers, and a good night was had by all.

Glass Brasserie
Level 2, 488 George Street
Sydney, NSW 2000

Ph: (02) 9265 6040

Zeta Bar
Level 4, 488 George Street
Sydney, NSW 2000

Ph: (02) 9265 6070

Marble Bar
Level B1, 488 George Street
Sydney, NSW 2000

Ph: (02) 9265 2000

Stained Glass Window Cookies

2011-12-21T06:00:00.002+11:00

It is nearly Christmas, and 'tis the season for making edible gifts. As part of my annual Christmas boxes, I fulfilled a long held ambition this year - to make stained glass window cookies. These are spice cookies with a hole cut in the centre which is filled with crushed hard fruit drops, then baked til the crushed lollies melt to form a "window" in the biscuits. If you want, you can cut a hole in the top of the biscuits so that they can be hung as Christmas decorations.

The recipe for these cookies is by The Australian Women's Weekly, and is as follows:

150 g butter
1/2 cup (110g) firmly packed brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
2 cups (300g) self raising flour
1 egg beaten lightly
24 wrapped hard fruit drops (remember them from tuckshop?)

Process the butter, sugar, spices and a pinch of salt in food processor until combined.

Add the flour and pulse until the dough resembles crumbs, then add the egg and process until the dough just comes together.

Divide the dough into half, and shape each half into a disc. Wrap each disc in plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes.

Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius, and line 3 baking trays with baking paper.

Crush the wrapped lollies with a rolling pin - or in my case, blitz them in a food processor (they are tough to break!).

Roll the chilled dough between two sheets of baking paper until 5mm thick, then cut out biscuits using cutters of your choice, and cut a shape in the centre of each biscuit in the desired shape of your "window". Place the biscuits on the baking trays, and fill the window in each biscuit with crushed lollies.

Bake the biscuits for about 10 minutes or until the edges start to brown. Allow biscuits to cool on the trays for about 5 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

TWD - Rewind - Grandma's All Occasion Sugar Cookies

2011-12-20T06:06:00.001+11:00

Wow! The second last week of Tuesdays with Dorie - ever. It makes me rather wistful that after more than three years, my weekly fix of Baking - From My Home to Yours is no more. I have met some great fellow bakers through this group, and will miss checking up on what they are doing every week.

This week is a rewind - a choose your own adventure of sorts. I decided to make Grandma's All Occasion Sugar Cookies, recognising how useful they would be as part of my homemade Christmas gift boxes.

Taking my cue from some of the other bakers when we made these back in December 2008, I made these cookies as the slice and bake kind - so much easier to deal with when using this soft dough - and rolled the sides in festive green and red sanding sugar.

To check out what the other TWD bakers made for their rewind, visit the LYL section of the website.

Steamers Grillhouse, Los Gatos, CA

2011-12-17T23:30:00.000+11:00

It has been a very exciting week for me. For the first time ever, I was given an overseas assignment for work. It involved a flying trip (in every way) to San Jose, California in the United States. And I had the most amazing time - probably the best week of my working life, ever!

My colleagues and I stayed at The Toll House in Los Gatos, and for dinner the first night, we chose a restaurant close by from a list provided by the hotel. That restaurant was Steamers Grillhouse, primarily a seafood and steak establishment, in the Old Town. My colleagues and I were joined for dinner by one of our hosts for the next day.

Here is our menu on the night:

For a starter, I naturally chose oysters "au naturel", served with salsa, horseradish and lemon the side:

These oysters were attractively served, but they seemed to have been overwashed, as there was a lot of water in the shells, and much of the salty taste of the sea had been lost. This meant that the salsa came in handy to add some flavour back.

Jeff chose the tuna tartare served on sesame crackers:

It was a very impressive looking dish, especially with the black and plain sesame seeds.

James selected the crispy calamari with garlic and chive aioli:

I wasn't game to ask my colleagues how their meals were (they were very tolerant of my food photo taking), so there was no way I was going to turn the conversation to their impressions of their meals. Both looked good though.

For mains, I ordered grilled salmon with seasonal vegetables and roast potatoes, with tartare sauce:

This meal was quite delicious, and the salmon was cooked to perfection.

Jeff chose the scallops with mushroom risotto:

I adore scallops, so I am sure that this meal would have tasted as good as it looked. I was impressed by the size of the scallops, as we generally only get tiny ones here.

Moving on to desserts, Jeff ordered the tiramisu:

Isn't this the best-presented tiramisu you have ever seen? I adore the chocolate basket in which the tiramisu is encased.

Simon, from our host company, ordered the apple charlotte:

I could not resist the pumpkin bread pudding with caramel-pecan topping and vanilla bean icecream:

I had to try this dessert as the pumpkin-pecan-caramel combination is very American, and where better to try this than in America? It was tasty, especially the icecream and topping, but the pumpkin custard-soaked brioche was very heavy, and I could not finish it after the other two courses (not to mention the flight lounge and in-flight catering before that).

There is of course a full selection of alcoholic beverages at Steamers. We shared a bottle of white from Decoy Wines in the Napa Valley, but I can't remember for the life of me exactly what it was (perhaps the Sauvignon Blanc?) - I am surprised I remember anything at all, as at 9pm California time, after a 14 hour flight to LA then another hour to San Jose, I hit the wall and began to fall asleep - oops. Sorry guys, it was not the company, it had just been a long day (in fact, two days - this was our second Tuesday after crossing the date line).

I liked the atmosphere at Steamers - it was friendly and relaxed. Our wait staff were attentive and lovely, even when James asked the trainee waitress why fish in Afghanistan are more expensive on Thursday - the poor girl looked puzzled, as I am still!

Steamer's Grillhouse
31 University Ave - Old Town
Los Gatos, CA 95030

Ph +1 408.395.CRAB (2722)

FFwD - Potato Chip Tortilla

2011-12-16T06:00:00.002+11:00

French Fridays with Dorie this week involved making a Potato Chip Tortilla. That's right - instead of chunks of potato, we used crushed potato chips (in my case, barbecue flavour).

I have big chunks of onion in my tortilla because I cut my hand while making this and couldn't use the knife properly. I used chives as my herbs, because I have managed to keep a pot of chives alive for around three months - a record for me.

This was nice, but definitely not healthy - perhaps why it was nice. I served it as a side with a healthy stir fry.

To see what the other FFwD participants thought, visit the LYL section of the FFwD website on Friday US time.

TWD - Puffed Double Plum Tart and Unbelievably Good Chocolate Blueberry Icecream

2011-12-13T06:00:00.002+11:00

This week's last Tuesdays with Dorie double-header is Puffed Double Plum Tart and Unbelieveably Good Chocolate Blueberry Icecream.

The Puffed Double Plum Tart was chosen by Julie of Someone's in the Kitchen. As the name suggests, it contains two types of plums - dried plums (prunes) and fresh plums (or, in my case, canned plums). The prunes are stepped in a spiced wine mixture, while the fresh plums are painted with the same mixture thickened into a syrup while atop the tart.

The fruit is arranged on a buttery, sugary bed of puff pastry, and the edge of that pastry is brushed with cream or milk and sugar.

The cooled tart is served with the thickened spiced wine:

This is a truly delicious tart, and would be perfect to warm a wintry kitchen.

Our next recipe was chosen by our founder, Laurie, of Slush - she picked Unbelievably Good Chocolate Blueberry Icecream:

Believe the hype - this stuff is crack candy. I am not a huge fan of icecream, and certainly not chocolate icecream, but I could eat this until I turned into a blueberry like Violet Beauregarde. This icecream is deeply, richly chocolate in flavour, and is subtly flavoured with blueberry jam.

Thanks to Laurie and Julie for this week's picks. They will have the recipes on their sites, or buy the book. To see what the other TWD people thought of these recipes, visit the LYL section of the TWD website for this week.

Next week is a rewind (own pick) week, and our very last TWD recipe ever is Dorie's pick - kid's thumbprints. The end is tantalisingly near ...

Aria, Sydney

2011-12-11T17:18:00.002+11:00

Last week, as an add-on to our trip to Sydney for work, the three girls in my team at work (including me!) went for dinner at Aria in Sydney. Aria is a fine dining establishment on the Sydney Harbour foreshore owned by celebrity chef, Matt Moran, and his business partner, and has a sister restaurant in Brisbane (which I went to with my friend Rowan in July).

We started our evening at The Opera Bar at Circular Quay, with a nice champagne cocktail:

As darkness came, we were treated to fireworks and lighting on the Opera House and Harbour Bridge for World Aids Day:

Suitably refreshed and entertained, we headed on to Aria in Macquarie Street, where we were treated to an amuse bouche of sweet potato soup with coconut foam:

We also received complimentary bread - this was the devine sourdough roll:

Moving on to entree, we all ordered something different. Jess ordered this gorgeous chicken and foie gras parfait with a salad of smoked duck,rhubarb and black pepper:

It looks deceptively like a dessert, but is eaten slathered on bread.

I ordered six freshly shucked Sydney rock oysters with Thai basil, cracked long pepper and Banyuls dressing:

I love oysters, and this was a nice, light entree to leave plenty of room for the remaining courses.

Lee ordered the Kurobuta pork belly with pork croquette and caramelised apple:

I had this in Brisbane, so I know it was devine.

Moving on to mains, I had the duck with cherry sauce (different to the duck dish listed on the online menu, so I am a little hazy on the details):

while Lee and Jess both ordered the roast lamb with mustard sauce (again, different to the online menu, so I can only give high level details and let the photos do the talking):

To accompany our mains, we ordered steamed broccolini with hazelnuts and lemon oil:

and truffled potato mash (buttery, buttery, buttery but good):

Out came some petit fours to have with our coffee. We were given lavender truffles, coconut macaroons and raspberry pate de fruit:

then out came our dessert to share - a mango and lime bombe with black sesame tuille and passionfruit sauce:

To complement the glorious food and harbour view, the service at Aria was impeccable - all of the staff were friendly, attentive and thoughtful.

As I mentioned, Aria is a fine dining restaurant, so unless you are in the Business Weekly top 50 richest, you won't be coming here every night. However, the food has an absolute "wow" factor that you won't get at any other type of establishment, and paired with the impeccable service, this restaurant was worth our bill of $160 per head (including wine and coffee).

1 Macquarie Street

East Circular Quay

Sydney NSW 2000

Ph: +61 2 9252 2555

FFwD - Chard-Stuffed Pork Roast

2011-12-09T06:00:00.014+11:00

I entered into this week's FFwD with some trepidation. Pork stuffed wth green stuff is not something that automatically makes me jump for joy, and I have hideous memories of chomping through tasteless, watery greenery.

However, I need not have worried - Dorie's Chard-Stuffed Pork Roast is magnificent! I used pork steaks instead of roast, and used frozen spinach instead of chard. I also used pre-ground pepper and cardamom to coat my pork, and as I did not have chilli flakes, I chopped up a dried chilli:

The end result was realy tasty - the cardamom gives a pleasant sweetness to the pork, and the chilli gives a zing to the stuffing. I also found that there was sufficient seasoning so that the stuffing was not a tasteless mass.

Would I make this again? Absolutely! It was a pleasant surprise taste-wise, and it wasn't difficult or time consuming to make. I loved this one - it is a real winner for me.

To check out what the other FFwD members thought of this week's dish, visit the LYL scetion of the FFwD website.

Carrot Cake for Mark's birthday

2011-12-08T11:43:00.000+11:00

It is my boss Mark's birthday today. Happy birthday Mark!

Because Mark is out of the office today, we celebrated his birthday with him at our office yesterday by taking him to lunch, giving him a pressie, and by sharing some birthday cake. The birthday cake was made by moi. It was Carrot Cake from Allyson Gofton's Bake. The recipe is online here.

The cake turned out beautiful and golden inside and out. It is quite a sturdy cake, so is ideal for travelling (eg to a party or picnic). There are walnuts and no raisins in this version of carrot cake.

The only change I made was to the icing by mixing in around 4 cups of icing sugar, as I found that Allyson's icing tasted like licking a block of cream cheese, even with the honey and lemon juice.

I decorated my cake simply with walnut halves.

Happy birthday Mark!

Cranberry coins

2011-12-07T06:00:00.040+11:00

Over the weekend, I visited friends in Sydney as an add-on to a business trip. I had a lovely time, not only making a gingerbread house, but seeing the Picasso exhibition at the NSW Art Gallery, going out to dinner and seeing the Harry Potter exhibition.

As it is Christmas, I decided to make my friends an edible gift to go with their cards and necklaces. I decided on Cranberry Coins from Martha Stewart Holiday Cookies, as they were in the section for sturdy cookies that travel well. In the end, I still had some casualties, but no matter - they still taste good.

To make your own cranberry coins, you will need:

225g butter (I used salted and leave out the extra salt in the recipe)

3/4 cup icing sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups plain flour

1/2 cup chopped dried cranberries

Beat the butter, icing sugar and vanilla to a cream in a stand mixer. (Martha says to do it in a bowl with a wooden spoon - not this little black duck!) Stir through the flour until just combined, then stir through the cranberries.

Divide the dough in half, and form each half into a log approximately 1 1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap the logs tightly in cling film and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. I also like to encase the logs in an empty paper towel tube that has been split up one side, as it helps to keep the logs round.

When you are ready to bake, preheat your oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit (I went slightly higher as my oven doesn't cope below 350F). Using a sharp knife, slice each log into rounds that are approximately 1/4 inch thick. Place the rounds roughly 1 inch apart on baking sheets lined with baking paper.

Bake the cookies in the oven until the edges just turn golden (~20 minutes). Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets placed on wire racks. The cookies will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.

Gingerbread house making at The Church by The Bridge, Kirribilli

2011-12-06T06:00:00.004+11:00

Because I accidentally posted my Tuesdays with Dorie post on Monday (yep, I couldn't get the date right), today I am posting about gingerbread houses. Yeah!

On Saturday morning, my friend Camilla, her friend Mel and I made gingerbread houses at The Church By the Bridge in Kirribilli, Sydney. After hearing from the women's pastor, Steph, about Christmas and the theme of "God is with Us", followed by a brief construction training session with Rachel, we set to work making our own gingerbread houses from pre-fab gingerbread house kits and lots of lollies.

Here is my house during construction:

All the walls up:

and then the roof, complete with gables:

and finally, the finished house:

complete with a garden and a small licorice allsort man:

I have made gingerbread houses before, not once but twice, however it was definitely fun to try again two years on.

There were some collapses in our group due to too many sweets, which were mended with pins. I went with a less is more approach, and my house survived the trip back to Melbourne. Here is my completed house, complete with icing sugar snow and wrapped ready to go:

I had a lot of fun making my gingerbread house:

Thanks to my friend Camilla and The Church By the Bridge for this fun seasonal activity. If you want to try gingerbread house making, the Church's groups are finished for this year, but they will run again next year.

Church by the Bridge

St John’s Anglican Church

Broughton Street (cnr Bligh Street)

Kirribilli NSW

TWD - Earl Grey Madeleines and Honey-Almond Fig Tart

2011-12-05T06:00:00.014+11:00

The first Tuesdays with Dorie double-header for December is Earl Grey Madeleines, chosen by Nicole of Bakeologie, and Honey-Almond Fig Tart, chosen by Kayte of Grandma's Kitchen Table.

Just as we are at the end of Baking - From My Home to Yours, I think I have gotten the hang of this madeleine caper. I get humps on my mads, I don't overfill the molds, and I know to check them before the end of the recommended baking time because they are nearly always done way before then. These madeleines contain Earl Grey tea-infused butter, hence their name. As a general rule, I can't abide the soapy taste of Earl Grey tea, but it only comes across subtly in these mads and is not bad at all. I ate three of these as proof.

Our second dish, Honey-Almond Fig Tart, is one that I made earlier. Due to a lack of time and figs being as dear as poison here at the moment (between $40 and $50/kg), I did not make it again, although it is a devine tart. If you have a fig tree, I highly recommend this tart, but beware - don't overfill the tart if you don't feel like cleaning up an enormous mess, as there is way more filling in the recipe than you need.

Thanks to our hosts, Nicole and Kayte. They will post the recipes, or alternatively, buy the book - it's a goodie, even if you are not US-based, and I definitely learned a lot from baking my way through this book. And to see what the other TWD gals and guys thought of this week's recipes, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.

FFwD - Matafan

2011-12-02T06:04:00.005+11:00

This week's French Fridays with Dorie almost never got made - we received the recipe list fairly late, and I have been away on business for the last two days. I squeezed in this week's recipe, Matafan (mashed potato pancakes) the day that the list was posted.

I had hoped that Matafan would be quick and easy, but unfortunately, they are a bit of a pfaff. You need to salt-roast potatoes for an hour and a half, then push them through a sieve, then mix them up with eggs, milk and flour, and after seasoning them, add separately beaten egg whites, and then fry them. Good grief!

As I do not have a potato ricer, and pushing the not really soft potato through a sieve didn't work very well, I just ended up trying to mash the roasted potatoes, and ended up with lumpy pancakes. Now this is not bad - think frittata and its ilk - but these probably would have been better if the potato was smooth. (I don't think an hour and half roasting time was quite enough for my potatoes.)

Lumps aside, these pancakes were rustically good - batter + potato + seasoning is rather good, but not better than bunging a pierced potato in the microwave for 5 minutes, cutting it open and slathering it with whatever you fancy. For my money, I will stick with the latter, but I am glad that I learned aboutt matafan (which are totally new to me - never heard of them before).

To see what the other Doristas thought of matafan, check out the FFwD LYL link for this week when it is up.

TWD - Sour Cream Pumpkin Pie and Normandy Apple Tart

2011-11-29T06:00:00.047+11:00

The last set of recipes for Tuesday with Dorie for November are truly fall delights (for those in the US), chock full of pumpkin and apples.

Our first selection came from Judy of Judy's Gross Eats, who chose Dorie's Sour Cream Pumpkin Pie:

There was an option to make a banana version by placing sliced banana in the base of the tart shell - I took Dorie up on this, as I had an aged banana to use up:

There was too much filling for one pie - I filled a 9" tartshell, and made two smaller 4" tarts, and still had filling left over. I recommend cutting down on the filling quantity by half.

I enjoyed this pie - it was smooth and sweet. However, as Australians are not familiar with pumpkin pie, it caused quite a stir in the kitchen at work. Someone called out, "Has anybody tried some of that cake in the kitchen? It looks weird." Hmmm, the poor boy has trouble identifying the difference between cakes and tarts, let alone identifying that it was pumpkin. One clever girl did identify that it was a pumpkin pie, and someone else worked out that there was banana in the bottom. It was very entertaining for me.

Our second dish was Normandy Apple Tart, chosen by Tracey of Tracey's Culinary Adventures:

This tart was quite unusual in that the filling was apple puree, rather than sliced apple, and sliced apple was then arranged decoratively on top. The end result was rather pretty, like a sunray:

This tart was nice (hey, how can lots of sweetened apple be bad?), but I prefer a traditional apple pie filled with apple slices. Here's a peek inside:

I hope you enjoyed this week's recipes. To see what the other TWDers thought, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.

A foodie's tour of Airlie Beach, Queensland

2011-11-28T06:02:00.123+11:00

I have just returned from a four day trip to Airlie Beach on the Whitsunday Coast in Queensland. It was absolutely marvellous, and I wasn't keen on coming back. I have posted some of the lovely scenic shots here on my travel blog.

Here, I will share with you some of the great places that Tim and I ate at while at Airlie Beach.

The first establishment of note is the Whitsunday Sailing Club, where you eat out on a wide shaded wooden verandah with the view at the top of this post, overlooking the water and the boats. This place was so good, we went back twice. Both times, I accompanied my meal with a glass of Wirra Wirra Mrs Wigley Grenache Rose:

It was cold, pink and fruity - what more could a girl want?

You order here by choosing from the menu and going up to the bar to order.

My favourite meal of the trip was this calamari salad ($17.50) at the Sailing Club:

The calamari is lightly spiced and seared, and rests on a bed of salad with a tangy dressing. On the side comes a pot of spicy, chilli flavoured sauce.

Tim went the beer battered fish and chips option:

It apparently tasted as delicious as it looks, and was very generous in size.

On my second trip to the Whitsunday Sailing Club, I ordered the minute steak with salad and chips ($11.50):

The steak was cooked to perfection and was also delicious, although it did not beat the calamari. (Tim went for the calamari on our second visit.)

On our second night at Airlie Beach, we dined at Airlie Thai, again overlooking the water at Airlie Beach.

For starters, we ordered the coconut prawns:

These were crisp and crunchy, and were served with a side of sweet chilli sauce.

For main course, I ordered the ginger and shallot stir fry with chicken:

and Tim ordered the Thai green curry:

Both meals were quite good. The Canadian waitress wins extra points for being so friendly and attentive. (This was in stark contrast to the Chinese establishment across the way, where I had to approach the girl behind the counter to get her to look up from her texting to ask for a table, and who gave us such a lacklustre and disinterested response that we left without ordering.)

A great place to eat at Airlie Beach is Mangrove Jacks Cafe and Bar, attached to the Airlie Beach Hotel. The food here was also good enough for us to eat here twice. There are no water views at Mangrove Jacks (it overlooks the road), but it had the advantage that we were there during Queensland Schoolies Week; unlike southern schoolies, Queensland schoolies are mostly under age, so we were not competing for space and atmosphere with the schoolies, as Mangrove Jacks is a licensed establishment where the schoolies could not enter unaccompanied.

Mangrove Jacks is proud of its wood fired pizzas. Although we did not order pizza, we ordered a close cousin, the tomato, basil and cheese bread (~$8.00):

This was a great starter, as it was tasty but light, leaving room for the very generous mains.

On my first visit to Mangrove Jacks, I had the pasta puttanesca ($19.90) - I didn't take a photo of it, but it had a lovely rich tomato sauce and was generously studded with olives.

On our second visit, Tim ordered the barramundi, served with potato mash, tartare sauce and salad (~$27):

All I can say is wow! This serve was enormous. Tim managed to get through it, but we had been on a half day hike that day, so had worked up an appetite.

I ordered the Thai beef salad (~$19.00):

I loved the sesame beef with crunchy noodles, salad and tangy lime-based dressing.

If you still have room, Mangrove Jacks serves coffee and cake for $7.50. They had a very nice looking cheesecake that I eyed up wistfully.

The service was prompt and attentive, although this is another establishment where, after being shown to your table, you order at the bar.

For breakfast each day, Tim and I ate cereal and fruit on the balcony of our apartment overlooking the marina at Port of Airlie:

Not bad, eh?

You don't go to Airlie Beach for the food, but there are certainly some great places to eat there - just watch out for the schoolies at this time of year!

Whitsunday Sailing Club
Club House - Airlie Point
Airlie Beach Qld 4802
Ph: +61 7 4946 6138

Airlie Thai
Beach Plaza
The Esplanade
Airlie Beach Qld 4802
Ph: +61 7 4946 4683

Mangrove Jacks Cafe and Bar
16 The Esplanade
Airlie Beach Qld 4802
Ph: +61 7 4964 1999

Daring Bakers - Filipino Desserts - Sans Rival Cake

2011-11-27T06:00:00.025+11:00

This month's Daring Bakers takes us to the sunny Philippines to try some cultural delicacies from that nation.

Catherine of Munchie Musings was our November Daring Bakers’ host and she challenged us to make a traditional Filipino dessert – the delicious Sans Rival cake! And for those of us who wanted to try an additional Filipino dessert, Catherine also gave us a bonus recipe for Bibingka which comes from her friend Jun of Jun-blog.

I only made the Sans Rival Cake - at this time of year, getting time to make anything is a bonus, and I made this early on in the month to make sure that I got it done.

The Sans Rival cake is made up of 4 layers of nutty meringue, sandwiched by lawyers of smooth sweet chocolate buttercream, and decorated with crushed cashews. I made the non-traditional chocolate version:

My quirky oven made hard work of firming up the meringue layers, but I conquered it by flipping the layers over towards the end of the cooking time. The thinner layers crisped up well, but the thicker lawyers unsurprisingly stayed slightly chewy.

I am not normally a buttercream fan, but this version of buttercream was fabulous - not at all oily or greasy:

I'd definitely make this again - it was good. Thanks to our host, Catherine, for introducing us to this dessert. To see how all the other Daring Bakers fared with the Sans Rival cake, visit the slide show at The Daring Kitchen once it is posted.

TWD Rewind - World Peace Cookies

2011-11-22T06:00:00.009+11:00

You know that you are getting old when you can't remember having made something ...

For the life of me, I swore that I hadn't made World Peace Cookies before, the chocolatey ones with the much hyped name, so I decided to make those for TWD rewind week. They were delicious - I loved the fudgy softness and the gooey chocolate bits.

But you see, I was not trying anything new - I had already made them! I put it down to the fact that it was another life ago since I made them, and they are definitely worth another shot. Besides, my photo is better this time ;)

These are slice and bake cookies, and although you need to get out the electric mixer to make them, they are pretty easy.

To see what everyone else made for Rewind weeek, visit the LYL section of the Tuesdays with Dorie website.

Pink rose cupcakes

2011-11-20T06:00:00.027+11:00

My colleague, Linda, is having a bridal shower for her daughter today. She asked me to make some cupcakes for the shower. I had made some basic Vanilla Daisy Cupcakes for Pink Ribbon Day, and Linda liked those, but wanted me to tone down the colour to pastel pink.

I wanted my challenge on this one to be the decorating. I normally couldn't be bothered putting much effort into decorating, but this time, I had a reason. From this video, I learned how to make fondant roses without cutters. What I loved about this technique is that the lady uses plastic to stop the icing from sticking instead of icing sugar or cornflour - which is so much less messy. I didn't make as many petals as her (I am not that patient!), but I think the roses look pretty good:

I used ready rolled fondant from the supermarket and coloured it baby pink with gel colour.

The next challenge was making the roses look as if they belonged on the cakes. I made simple buttercream icing using the Crabapple Bakery recipe (online here - I only needed half for 24 cakes), and coloured most of it baby pink with liquid colouring, reserving a small amount which I coloured light green with gel colouring. To ensure that the majority of tastes were catered for, I used vanilla extract to flavour the icing. (Rose water would have been nice too, but some people find it "soapy".)

After icing the cakes and setting a rose atop each one, I piped on leaves using the green icing in a handmade paper bag with a V cut into the tip:

So easy and so pretty!

Here is my rose garden:

I hope Linda and her daughter enjoy eating them as much as I enjoyed making them.

Happy Sunday!

FFwD - Braised Cardamom-Curry Lamb

2011-11-18T06:14:00.004+11:00

This week's French Friday with Dorie recipe is Braised Cardamom-Curry Lamb. As the name suggests, it is lamb cooked with curry powder and ground cardamom, with potatoes, raisins and figs thrown into the mix.

It doesn't look pretty:

but it was tasty. I like fruit with my meat - it's the sweet and salty thing.

To see what the other FFwD participants thought, visit the LYL section of the FFwD website.

TWD - Alsatian Apple Tart and Bittersweet Brownies

2011-11-15T08:00:00.002+11:00

It's another double header at Tuesdays with Dorie this week. Our first tasty recipe was chosen by Jessica of Cookbook Habit, who selected Alsatian Apple Tart.

This tart comprises creamy custard and sliced apple sitting prettily atop a sweet pastry base. I glazed mine with blackcurrant jelly for instant glamour:

What can I say - I loved this one!!!! Custard + fruit = devine. I'd definitely make this again, despite the extra effort involved in making a tart.

Our second recipe was chosen by Leslie of Lethally Delicious, who selected Bittersweet Brownies:

I had some issues with these. Dorie quoted 22 minutes to bake - at 22 minutes, my brownies had a wet shiny layer on top, so I kept checking - and checking - and finally at 50 minutes they looked about right ("dull" on top, to quote Dorie). Even after all that baking time, some bits of the brownie were still distinctly "fudgy", and contrary to popular belief, these were the crumbliest parts.

These brownies were very deeply chocolatey - perhaps this is not surprising, as they contain 250g of chocolate! That's a whole family block plus 50g more, for the benefit of non-chocolate loving folk (like my blogging bud and fellow TWDer Kayte).

As with nearly anything chocolate, these brownies went like hotcakes - in less than half an hour in the work kitchen, they were demolished. They must have tasted good!

Thanks to Jess and Leslie - they will have the recipes for this week on their respective sites when it's Tuesday their time, or buy Dorie's book. And to swoon over some more baked goods, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.

Moroccan quinoa soup

2011-11-14T06:07:00.006+11:00

Although I confess to not being a huge soup fan, there are definitely some soups that I enjoy, particularly those of the thick, hearty variety. The soup in this post, Moroccan Quinoa Soup, came about because I thought I had lentils, chickpeas and cannellini beans to use up in the pantry. The recipe is from All Recipes, at this link. As it happens, I was wrong about the lentils - I went to make the soup and found that the lentils I thought I had were not there. By that stage, I had mentally committed to making this soup, so my brain immediately went to the red quinoa that I have had in my pantry since a French Fridays with Dorie recipe called for it. Why not substitute quinoa for the lentils?

I made the recipe exactly as stated, except that I used quinoa in place of the lentils. The end result was a thick, rich, texture-ful soup that was hearty and filling. I loved it!

Preserved lemons and homemade vanilla extract

2011-11-13T10:00:00.000+11:00

Happy lazy Sunday to all! I can't be lazy today, as due to the bump and grind of corporate life, I have not had a chance to get my part of a tender submission for a tender due this week done in the normal working day, so I am sentenced to spending part of the day doing it. The fact that I am sitting here blogging demonstrates that I am not in that headspace yet :)

I thought that for today, I'd give you two easy projects that are useful for home cooks.

The first project is preserved lemons - great for Moroccan tagines, stir fries etc, and awfully expensive to buy for some inexplicable reason. There are a number of slightly different ways to preserve lemons, but I used a recipe from p17 of Fresh Moroccan. It is easy peasy - you need:

8 unwaxed lemons

5 teaspoons seasalt
juice of 1 large lemon

Scrub your lemons under running water, then soak in cold water for an hour. Rinse and dry the lemons with paper towel.

Cut the lemons into quarters lengthways from the top to 3/4 of the way down, elaving them joined together at the biottom. Place half a teaspoon of salt into each lemon, then pinch the sides together to close up the gap. Placve the lemons upright into a large preserving or other glass jar that has been sterilised, pour in the remaining salt and lemon juice, and cover the lemons with warm water.

Seal the jar and leave in a dry dark place for 4 weeks. Now your preserved lemons are ready to use!

The homemade vanilla is also easy - split open a vanilla pod, and place it into a small glass jar. Fill up the jar with vodka, and leave it in a cool dark place for 8 weeks. And presto - you have homemade vanilla! (I have vodka at home that I don't drink, so this was a great use for my vodka.)

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

FFwD - Spiced Squash, Fennel and Pear Soup

2011-11-11T06:00:00.003+11:00

On my walk into work from the station this morning, I saw the loveliest little girl walking with her Mum. She had brown curls, the longest ever eyelashes, silver sandals, pink leggings trimmed with lace, a long white spaghetti strap dress trimmed with silver sequins, and a white T-shirt underneath, and she was twirling just like the dancing man. It made me happy just to look at her carefree abandon, which was such a contrast to her well-dressed but harried-looking Mum beside her.

This week's French Friday with Dorie recipe allowed me to recycle ingredients from a couple of weeks ago when we made Pumpkin Stuffed with Everything Good. Even using just half a pumpkin, I had a lot of pumpkin to use up, so I was delighted when I saw that this week's recipe, Spiced Squash, Fennel and Pear Soup, could also be made using pumpkin instead of squash.

This soup is really different to anything I have ever tried before. It is quite thick, and has fruity, citrus overtones from the orange peel that you cook with the soup. The spices give the soup a pleasant zing, and overall, it is a rather delicious soup:

This from a girl who isn't a huge fan of soup!

To check out what the other FFwD members thought of this soup, visit the LYL section of the website for this week.

Two Good Eggs Cafe, Surry Hills

2011-11-09T08:00:00.006+11:00

Way back in May, when Tim and I went to Sydney for the football, we had brekky one morning at a great little cafe that I think deserves a write-up for being so fab. That cafe is Two Good Eggs in Surry Hills. Two Good Eggs was a chance find when I did a Google search for places to eat breakfast, which brought up this Sydney Morning Herald review. It sounded perfect and was in easy walking distance for us, so off we went to give it a go.

This is a shot of the interior, which appealed to my girly heart - after all, who could not love allusions to Paris, the city of love:

Tim ordered a fresh mixed juice, which tasted suitably refreshing:

Tim is also the world's biggest porridge fan (and eats it every day), so naturally, he ordered the porridge with pear and rhubarb:

It looks pretty good, doesn't it.

I am a sucker for baked eggs, so although I was tempted by the "goats on toast" (goats cheese with honey and walnut on sour cherry fruit toast), I went for the Spanish Baked Eggs with Spicy Salami, Black Olives and Manchego with Sourdough:

It tasted as devine as it looks - rich, meaty and filling, the kind of brekky to put hair on your chest and give you energy for the rest of the day. I loved it!

I hate cafes where the staff think they are too cool for school. However, the staff at Two Good Eggs were nothing of the sort - they were friendly, helpful, happy to answer my questions (including whether to choose the goats on toast or the Spanish eggs!) and amused rather than offended by my photo-taking. Oh, and the coffee is good!

If you happen to be near Surry Hills (I used to work there a long time ago), do give Two Good Eggs a go - the staff are lovely and the food is devine.

Two Good Eggs Cafe

Shop 2, No. 148

Corner Goulburn & Brisbane Sts

Surry Hills NSW 2010

Phone: (02) 9283 9694

TWD Double Up - Depths of Fall Butternut Squash Pie and Mini Madeleines

2011-11-08T06:00:00.018+11:00

It's double trouble on Tuesdays with Dorie this week. Our two recipes are Depths of Fall Butternut Squash Pie (pictured at the top if this post) and Mini Madeleines.

I have been away all weekend, so ran out of time to make the pie, chosen by Valerie of Une Gamine Dans Cuisine. However, I have made it once before, and you can read all about it here. It is absolutely gorgeous, just the kind of pie I like, and I highly recommend that you try it.

The Mini Madeleines became maxi madeleines for me, as I don't have a mini madeleine pan:

This recipe was chosen by Di of Di's Kitchen Notebook. I think that these are the best madeleines that I have ever made. The shapes are rather shell-like, despite baking slightly outside the moulds, and they have terrific humps:

The madeleines were also light and fluffy, and just devine while still warm out of the oven. Perhaps these madeleines have persuaded me to give them another go ...

Valerie and Di respectively will publish the recipe, or you can obtain it for yourself from Dorie's wonderful book, Baking- From My Home to Yours. Thanks to our hosts this week. To see how everyone else went with these recipes, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.

FFwD - Twenty Minute Honey Glazed Duck Breasts

2011-11-04T06:00:00.004+11:00

This week's French Fridays with Dorie dish is Twenty Minute Honey Glazed Duck Breast. Sounds delicious, right? Well, it is - even if you ask the poultry shop for a breast and get sold a Maryland.

This dish comprises a duck breast, with the skin scored, then each side cooked until just browned, then making a sauce of honey, balsamic and lime, in which the duck is finally coated after resting in a slow oven for five minutes. Easy peasy!

I served my duck with pak choy stir-fried in honey and soy, and ate it for a weekend lunch.

To see what the other FFwD cooks thought, visit the LYL section of the FFwD website.

TWD - Far Breton

2011-11-01T06:00:00.057+11:00

This is recipe number two for this week's ramped up Tuesdays with Dorie schedule. It was chosen by Nicole of Cookies on Friday, and is a Far Breton.

Now don't be put off by the dog's breakfast appearance of my Far Breton - it is actually a rather delicious custard and brandy-soaked fruit (prunes and raisins) concoction, that I could eat by the bucketload.

My Far Breton looks like someone sat on it because: The only 8 inch pan (required by the recipe) that I own has a removable bottom. At the twenty-minute baking mark, I looked into my oven and made a face like Munch's The Scream, as all of the custard had leaked out of the pan and into the baking tray beneath. Not wanting to start again, I scooped all of the par-baked custard into a 9 inch springform pan, and plonked all of the fruit back on top, and hoped for the best. At the end of the baking period, I ended up with a rather flat but intact Far Breton.

While my Far Breton is less attractive to look at than if all had gone well, it tastes fab, and I have been happily scoffing it since I made it (as I am on leave at present). To see what it should look like, visit Nicole's site. Nicole will also have the recipe, or do yourself a favour and buy the book.

TWD - Honey Nut Scones

2011-11-01T06:00:00.033+11:00

There has been a major ramp-up of Tuesdays with Dorie recipes to two a week so that we can finish the book by the end of the year. I am not sure that I am going to be able to continue at that pace, but for this week, I am doing it.

One recipe for this week was chosen by Jeanette of The Whimsical Cupcake, who selected honey nut scones. These are scones containing wholemeal flour (I used buckwheat flour instead) and walnuts (I used blanched almonds).

They are quite delicious:

I spread mine with Burch & Purchese Strawberry and Rose Petal Jam:

It must have been good jam, as I scoffed the entire jar in a week.

While I was at their shop in South Yarra, I also bought a White Chocolate, Honey, Raspberry and Lychee Cake:

which looks like this inside:

It was very tasty, but the $9 price tag is rather steep to make this anything but a special occasion indulgence.

Visit Jeanette's website for the scone recipe, or buy Dorie's book - I have been baking from it for over three years, even before I joined TWD, and it is good.

Date Surprise Biscuits

2011-10-31T11:51:00.001+11:00

Do you plan your baking schedule, or do you prefer to make on spec what you can from around the house? Because I am in a number of baking groups, I do have to do some planning, but otherwise, I am more of an "on spec" kind of girl, and like to use what I have around the house.

The genesis of the biscuits in this post was an "on spec" baking session. I looked at what I had around the house, then picked up my reliable Margaret Fulton Cookbook and had a flick through. The biscuits that I settled on are called Date Surprises. They are easy, quick, and don't use many ingredients. Best of all, if you like dates (like me!), they are super scrumptious, as they comprise whole dates wrapped in biscuit dough.

To make your own date surprises, you will need:

150g butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 cups plain flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
375g pitted dates

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Beat the butter in a stand mixer until light and creamy, then gradually add the brown sugar and beat until well combined. Add the egg and vanilla and beat well.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture, and mix in using a wooden spoon or the mixer turned on low speed until just combined.

Break off small pieces of dough and mould around each date in a cocoon shape, and place on baking trays lined with baking paper or a silicone mat. Place into the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden. Remove the cooked biscuits from the oven and allow to cool on their trays.

Enjoy with a cup of tea or coffee.

Eating Out - Trunk, Melbourne

2011-10-30T11:11:00.001+11:00

Yesterday, after QI Live, Tim and I went to dinner at Trunk in Melbourne. Trunk is on the corner of Exhibition and Little Lonsdale Streets, in the "theatre" district, and is named after a 150 year old coral tree in its yard. It serves modern Italian food, but in the last year, has also had a diner attached for breakfast and lunch.

The restaurant is located in "The Rintel Room", but Trunk also has a number of other spaces, including "the Honey Garden" in honour of the rooftop beehive project supported by the restaurant.

On arrival, we are served the bread at the top of this post, I believe sourdough, with olive oil on the side.

For entree, we ordered char-grilled pork belly with apple, walnut and celery salad to share:

I adore pork belly, and the crunch of the salad contrasted nicely with the softness of the pork belly. There was some kind of jammy stuff on the plate (perhaps plum sauce) which was gorgeous when mopped up with the bread.

Tim and I each ordered a pizza for the main course. The pizzas come on thin bases, so although they look large, it is feasible for one person to tackle a pizza by themselves.

I ordered the Melburnian pizza - tomato, mozzarella, ham, mushrooms, artichoke and eggs:

Tim ordered the Maremma - porcini pesto, pork sausage, pecorino and truffle oil:

I didn't taste Tim's pizza (as I was way too worried about finishing my own), but the Melburnian was delicious - I especially liked the baked egg on top, and the artichoke hearts scattered liberally across it. There was just the perfect amount of topping so that the pizza was not too overwhelming, and I could finish all but one slice (which was happily consumed by Tim).

As a side dish, we ordered a salad of beetroot, goats cheese, aged balsamic and almonds:

The creamy goats cheese really made this side dish, toning down the bitiness of the pickled beetroot.

We sat at a table near some fun artwork on the wall. Here is part of that artwork:

Tim and I were lucky - we were in by 6.30 without a booking, but the place filled up rapidly with race day crowds after that.

The service was courteous and efficient - despite the crowds, we were not left sitting for ages wondering when the ext course was coming.

Trunk was a fun dining experience, and I would definitely go back.

Trunk

275 Exhibition St.
Melbourne 3000
Victoria Australia

+61 3 9663 7994

The Pink Ribbon Post

2011-10-29T06:07:00.049+11:00

Howdy all, hope you are having a good weekend.

Monday, 24 October was Pink Ribbon Day in Australia, when workplaces around the country held morning teas to raise money for breast cancer research. We held our Pink Ribbon morning tea two days later on 26 October, and there was lots of yummy food on offer. I made pink ribbon cupcakes (pictured at the top of this post) as my contribution to the morning tea, complete with pink ribbon cupcake papers and pink ribbon sprinkles from the Cake Deco shop in the Port Phillip Arcade. The icing was a little more lurid than I had envisaged, but that's what happens with a slip of the hand when using liquid food colouring.

I used The Crabapple Bakery Vanilla Daisy cupcake recipe, which is my favourite basic cupcake recipe. You can find it online here. My colleague Linda liked the cupcakes so much that she asked for the recipe - so it is not just me that thinks that this recipe is tops. The cupcake is moist yet light, and is the perfect blank canvas for whatever you fancy.

Moving right along to a totally different pink topic, it is a big horse racing weekend here in Melbourne. Today is Derby Day, when all the punters traditionally frock up in black and white. On Tuesday, it is Melbourne Cup Day (a public holiday in Melbourne), when they run the race that stops the nation. I can remember at primary school it was a big treat for the year 6 and 7 students to go to the library to watch the running of the Cup.

I have only been to the Cup once, five years ago, and it was a disappointment for me as I arranged to go with a friend, who decided not to get out of bed until around midday, so we only arrived for the Cup itself, missing most of the day. For me, one of the highlights of the races is going early to see everyone looking gorgeous before the inevitable rot caused by too much drinking and heavy betting losses sets in. Some men wear toppers and frock coats, and they all wear suits (other than the novelty dressers), and look so amazing. With the ladies, it is a mixed bag - some of the younger set wear clubbing dresses, but you have the other end of the spectrum with elegant ladies looking like an exotic perfumed flower garden gracing the track.

Accordingly, I was so excited when I was invited to go to the Cup in a marquee as a guest of a work colleague's husband when clients pulled out. Hooray! I have never been in a marquee (and am never likely to again!), and we are travelling there by water taxi, which I have also never done before. I feel a bit like a kid in a candy shop.

In keeping with the pink theme of this post, I thought I would share my dress for Cup Day:

It is dusky pink, despite looking beige in this photo, and was on sale at Jigsaw last weekend. (I actually bought the dress before I received the invitation to the Cup - very fortuitous!)

I also bought this fascinator to go with the dress:

I hope to look pretty in pink and feel like a lady, at least at the start of the day.

It is a busy weekend for me, as Tim and I are going to QI Live today (gotta love Stephen Fry's soothing voice and Alan Davies who will always be Jonathan Creek to me), then I am going to see Contagion at the movies with E and T tomorrow. I believe we are eating beforehand!

Have a great weekend!

FFwD - Pumpkin Stuffed with Everything Good

2011-10-28T06:00:00.001+11:00

This week's French Fridays with Dorie recipe, Pumpkin Stuffed with Everything Good, caused me some serious issues. First, I didn't want to make a whole pumpkin, as I have no idea what I'd do with it. I then tried to buy a small pumpkin for one - I couldn't find one, which is why you see the far less dramatic half pumpkin that I settled for. When I went to sccop out the pumpkin, the hollow was only tiny, so I had to remove some extra flesh (not an easy task). And finally, while I can see that done with a full pumpkin, this would be a dramatic centrepiece at a dinner party for Halloween or Thanksgiving, the taste is not that exciting - I prefer roast pumpkin sprinkled with salt and pepper and herbs, and sprayed with oil before roasting.

That's my whinge out the way - now here is the cut pumpkin:

It tasted OK - I think the cheese makes it, although the filling also includes cubes of bread, cooked bacon, chives, cream and nutmeg.

Go look at some more pumpkins via the FFwD website - anyone who used a whole pumpkin will have prettier results than mine.

Daring Bakers - Povitica

2011-10-27T06:00:00.026+11:00

This month's Daring Bakers challenge was one of the most delicious breads ever, which tasted delightful, although it cost me a sore back to make.

The Daring Baker’s October 2011 challenge was Povitica, hosted by Jenni of The Gingered Whisk. Povitica is a traditional Eastern European Dessert Bread that is as lovely to look at as it is to eat!

This bread is made by stretching out the base bread dough and spreading it with filling (in my case, walnut filling as per the challenge recipe), then rolling the dough into a sausage and winding it into a horseshoe shape in a loaf pan.

When baked, the bread is one mass of swirls of filling and bread:

The filling is quite dense and moist, and tastes fabulous - unlike anything else I have ever tasted. However, because of the back-breaking process to stretch out the dough, I won't be making it again soon.

To check out what the other Daring Bakers did with this challenge, visit the Daring Kitchen website and watch the slideshow.

Candied blood orange tart

2011-10-26T06:00:00.041+11:00

My friend Sandra and I recently attended the Veg Out Farmers Market at St Kilda. It was a fun event, with my favourite purchases being a chocolate and toffee coated pear on a stick (bliss!), and a basket of blood oranges.

Blood oranges are not available all year round and are harder to get than navel oranges, so I wanted to use my blood oranges for something special that showcased the natural beauty of their ruby red interior. Haalo of Cook Almost Anything at Least Once had featured a recipe from a Gourmet Traveller Annual Cookbook for candied blood orange tart - and that is the recipe I chose. You can find it here.

This tart is truly devine - it comprises a buttery, melt-in-the-mouth pasta frolla crust, a semolina cream custard filling, and gorgeously glowing, bitter yet sweet, candied blood orange slices on top.

I could have eaten the entire tart by myself - it was that good. This is a rare statement for me, but it was seriously one of the best desserts I have ever tasted, whether bought or homemade. To limit my intake, I took all but two slices of the tart to work to share.

I served the tart with a drizzle of syrup from making the candied oranges. It is quite a beautiful deep pinky orange colour, and I have saved the rest for icecream topping.

If you love fruit tarts, do yourself a favour and make this one.

TWD - Fig Cake for Fall - errr, Spring

2011-10-25T06:00:00.016+11:00

In the Northern Hemisphere, it is now autumn (fall), so our host this week, Ursula of Cookie Rookie, chose the appropriately named "A Fig Cake for Fall" from Dorie's book, Baking From My Home to Yours. Unfortunately, because our seasons don't coincide, the availability of fruit in Oz is not the same as in the Northern Hemisphere. However, I was keen on using figs in this cake - after all, you don't get the cool alliteration if you don't use figs!

Purely by chance, I found some tinned Greek figs in the IGA at St Kilda. I have never set foot inside that supermarket before, but it was near to where I was getting my hair cut, and as I love nothing better than a stroll through food lined aisles, I went in, and the visit was fruitful (pardon the pun). Sadly, there were only 5 figs in the can - which cost $6.99! - so I have only a few figs on my cake

Because my figs came in syrup, I didn't poach them in port as Dorie suggested for fresh figs. However, I otherwise followed the recipe, which resulted in a tender, moist, golden cake that you could happily marry with any fruit:

As they say in TWD, This one is a keeper! Ursula will have the recipe, or buy the book. And to see a veritable harvest of fig cakes, visit the TWD website's LYL section for this cake.

Attica - Ripponlea, Melbourne

2011-10-23T18:03:00.003+11:00

Today is Tim's birthday, so last night, I took him to dinner at Attica, in Ripponlea. Attica is a "big deal" place to eat - not only is it a fine dining restaurant, but was awarded Restaurant of the Year in the 2012 Age Good Food Guide, and also was awarded three hats by the same publication. It is also currently ranked 53rd on the San Pellegrino World's Best Restaurants list. (This explains the four month wait to get a table.) Chef Ben Shewry originally hails from New Zealand, and his dishes are inspired by the natural wonders of his homeland. Interestingly, Ben forages for edible wild plants to include in his dishes.

On Saturday nights, the only option is the 8 course tasting menu, at $160 per head, or $270 per head if served with matching wines. We opted to make our own wine selection.

On arrival, after ordering a glass of bubbly each (Oakdene Matilda Blanc de Noirs from Macedon in Victoria), we are served with wattleseed bread, golden house-cured butter, and a smoked olive oil emulsion topped with black sea salt. The bread is absolutely devine - soft, with a chewy, slightly salty crust, and a slight hint of coffee from the wattle seed, which also adds crunch. The olive oil emulsion was smooth and creamy, reminiscent of creme fraiche in flavour, and my favourite topping for the bread.

We were then served an amuse bouche of crystal prawn, white radish and mustard seeds. It was delightfully tingly on the palate and hinted promisingly of things to come.

To accompany our tastings, we selected (with assistance from one of the lovely front of house staff) a half bottle of Valminor Albarino from Rias Baixas, Spain. It was a fresh, fruity white wine - and no, I do not know how it is pronounced.

The first dish served from the tasting menu was the Snow Crab. This dish has been a constant for a number of years, and many others have blogged about it. However, here is my take on it:

The snow crab is inspired by the appearance of Mount Taranaki in New Zealand. A mixture of crab meat, salmon roe, horseradish, barberries, puffed rice and verjuice granita is topped by a fluffy white pile of freeze dried coconut. The most curious thing about this dish is that it is warm on the outside and cold in the middle - like a mountain warmed by the sun perhaps. The horseradish added some much needed kick to the other ingredients. This was our favourite dish of the night.

The next dish was as pretty as a garden - marron with caramelised leeks, native pepper, broth and cabbage flowers and leaves. The dish was quite subtly flavoured on the whole, but visually gorgeous and quite delicious.

Next came a dish named "a simple dish of potato cooked in the earth it was grown". This is another constant on the tasting menu, and there have been mixed reactions among bloggers about it. However, Tim and I both enjoyed it a great deal. The dish comprises a potato baked until it is soft, smooth and creamy, served atop a bed of smoked goats curd sprinkled with coffee grounds and dried salt bush leaves. The tang of the goats curd complemented the silky creaminess of the potato perfectly - a lovely dish, and certainly unlike any other potato I have ever tried.

Our next dish was meat from a pearl oyster (Paspaley pearl oysters nonetheless, we were informed by our waiter), served with pork tail, radish (cut into a flower), broccolini stems and a shitake broth. Despite being named after the oyster meat, the standout and dominant feature of this dish was the pork tail - the tail had been deboned, compressed into a square patty, and deep fried. It was superb!

The next dish was a total contrast to what had gone before, and although tasty, was the least impressive dish of the evening for me. It comprised artichoke shavings, triangles of salt baked celeriac, Pyengana cheddar (perhaps in the cream sauce?), spiced almonds, organic egg yolk and a cream sauce. The flavours blended well, and the creamy, salty edge of the sauce was pleasant, but it was not as spectacular as the other dishes.

The last of the savoury dishes was beef tongue, vanilla, myrtus and lettuce stems. The tongue had been shredded and compressed into a tasty, moist beef patty, and perched atop it was a mix of chervil, dill and myrtus. As well as the lettuce stems, there were baby pickled lettuce hearts, a parsnip puree and dried beef shards. I particularly enjoyed the concentrated saltiness of the dried beef.

It was then onto my favourite course - dessert! Our first dessert was entitled Apples and Leaves. This simple name belies the complexity of the dish, comprised of slices of pink lady apple soaked in granny smith apple juice, atop dollops of cream infused with Turkish apple tea and apple brandy, interspersed by avocado (or was it apple?) jelly, and decorated by dried vine leaves sprinkled with freeze dried apple. I could not get enough of this dessert - simply devine! The smooth, sweet jelly contrasted nicely with the crisp tartness of the apple and the crunchiness of the vine leaves.

Finally, we were served a dessert called the Franz Josef. The Franz Josef is a glacier in New Zealand, and this dish invoked the glacier in appearance and experience. An avocado and mint puree served as a base for sweet snowy meringue, out of which jutted rocks of lemon sorbet and the glacial peaks of caramelised kiwi fruit. The Franz Josef was topped with powdery freeze dried coconut, like snow, and coconut ash (the black stuff). Just like a glacier, the contrasting textures at one minute soothed and the next took your breathe away like an icy gust of wind.

To complete our meal, were were provided with a print by Ben Shewry's father, Robert, of pukekos, a native New Zealand bird, accompanied by white chocolate pukeko "eggs" served atop a grass nest.

The association between the pukeko and Attica was explained on the back of the print - like pukekos, Ben Shewry forages in roadside ditches for sustenance, and just like birds building a nest, chefs take on ideas from other cuisines to make their own unique cuisine. (I am seriously paraphrasing here, so apologies to Ben if this potted summary is not quite what he meant to convey.)

The white chocolate egg shells, complete with brown spots to mimic the appearance of pukeko eggs, are filled with salted caramel - seriously delish!

The service at Attica was friendly and attentive throughout our three hour experience (we did the earlier 6.30pm sitting, although there is a second sitting at 8.30). The various wait and front of house staff all served us at some stage. They even dug my umbrella out of the umbrella holder on the way out (it was a shocking night weather-wise), and knew which one was mine was without asking.

Our Attica experience was thoroughly enjoyable, and made the occasion of Tim's birthday what it should be - special.

Attica

74 Glen Eira Road

Ripponlea VIC 3185

+61 3 9530 0111

FFwD - Pissaladiere

2011-10-21T06:00:00.009+11:00

This week's French Fridays with Dorie dish is something I have never heard of before - the Pissaladiere, the French equivalent of a pizza, topped with a poignant mix of caramelised onions, anchovies and olives.

The base of the pissaladiere is a thin pizza type dough, and is quick and simple to make. However, I was not such a fan of the topping - I adore anchovies and olives, but concentrated doses of onion are not for me. However, this base could be easily used for other toppings.

To check out other views on the pissaladiere, check out the LYL section of the FFwD website.

The perfect tart au citron (or lemon tart for the rest of us!)

2011-10-20T08:30:00.034+11:00

Melbourne has finally had some real spring days - the weather has been warm, fine and sunny, and even the nights have not dropped to frosty levels.

To celebrate the fabulous weather, and also showcase the lovely homegrown lemons given to me by my friends Christian and Veronica, I made a sunny yellow Lemon Tart by Felicity Cloake from The Guardian, which you can find here.

There is some lively debate in the comments section of Felicity's article as to whether this is a tart au citron at all, or whether it is simply a lemon curd tart. One school of thought is that a tart au citron must be filled with custard, not curd. However, Felicity chose this recipe, comprised of a curd and a pate sable, because to her it embodied what a lemon tart should be all about - bright, sharp, lemon flavours, silky smooth filling and a delicate, crumbly crust. Her filling recipe came from the king of patisserie, Pierre Herme, and the candied lemon decoration was inspired by Jane Grigson's recipe.

Honestly, I don't have any pre-conceived ideas about what a tart au citron should be, and I enjoyed this one. It has a heart-attack inducing amount of butter in the filling (300g!), so I probably won't make it again for that reason (there are much healthier alternatives around), but I really enjoyed the smooth silky filling and its tart, unmistakably lemon flavour. I also recommend going the extra mile to make the candied lemon on top - it is not necessary (as someone wrote in the comments, you don't need lemon on top to know it's a lemon tart), but it is absolutely worth it - the candied lemon tastes delicious and does add to the attractiveness of the tart. I did not blend the filling after adding the butter - I merely cut the butter into small pieces and stirred it into the curd while it was still warm, and it came out perfectly smooth.

The pate sable was the part I had the most trouble with - I accidentally added the egg white meant for painting the par-cooked crust to the pastry, which probably contributed to the pastry being rather sticky and hard to roll out. In the end, I was lucky that it was a rather forgiving pastry, as I lined the tart pan as well as I could with the pastry then patched it furiously - and it seemed to work out just fine.

For a special treat, this tart was a delightful dessert. I took it to dinner with Christian and Veronica so that they could enjoy some of their lemons in action.

I have since found a recipe for Thomas Keller's Lemon Sabayon Tart through the comments on Felicity's post - I might give it a burl next. What's your favourite lemon tart recipe?

TWD - Ginger Jazzed Brownies

2011-10-18T06:00:00.009+11:00

Ginger is one of my favourite things. I love ground ginger, stem ginger, crystallised ginger and chocolate coated ginger. Ginger ale and ginger beer are the beverages of the Gods. The only form of ginger that I cannot stand is the pink pickled ginger that is served with sushi rolls.

Accordingly, I was pretty chuffed with Clivia of Bubie's Little Baker's choice of Ginger Jazzed Brownies for Tuesdays with Dorie this week. These brownies contain ground ginger and fresh minced ginger - or more ground ginger if you like. Unfortunately, I have hurt my back, so I was not in a position to spend quality time mincing ginger with a knife, and I used 100% ground ginger (which Dorie suggests that you can).

My brownies were not fudgy in the middle - they were definitely like a rich chocolate cake in texture. This was not a bad thing, but I am not sure if this was the intended outcome of the recipe. A quick Internet search showed results all over the place, so I am still not enlightened on this point - perhaps the other TWD bakers' results will answer the question.

Thanks to Clivia for this week's chocolate brownies with a ginger zing she will have the recipe. And if you, too, are curious about what the texture of these brownies ought to have been, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.

Dulce de leche pionono

2011-10-15T06:00:00.034+11:00

Recently, I went for Sunday lunch at E & T's house. It was a belated birthday celebration for all of us. T made some delicious vegetarian quiches for us to enjoy, and then there was dessert - my favourite course!

E's mum is Peruvian and makes a dessert cake called dulce de leche pionono. I had never heard of such a thing, but when E mentioned it, my curiosity was piqued, and a quick Google search revealed a recipe for it here. Pionono is basically a jelly roll cake without the jelly that can be filled with sweet or savoury fillings.

Be careful when making the cake component - it sticks chronically to everything and gave me quite a few heachaches, even when I used baking paper and icing sugar to try and prevent it from sticking. Also, be careful when making the dulce de leche to ensure that you don't burn it - I did get small chewy overcooked bits through my dulce de leche, but ultimately it didn't affect the taste. I used reduced fat condensed milk and evaporated milk, which didn't seem to affect the taste of the final product.

E's mum just uses dulce de leche to fill her pionono, but my recipe called for mixing the dulce de leche with whipped cream:

Where I came unstuck is that I did not whip my cream quite enough, so I ended up with a rather flat pionono:

It tasted delicious though! The cake was light and fluffy, and the filling satisfyingly sweet. Best of all, I had leftover dulce de leche to eat straight from the pot.

I left off the caramel frosting - I thought too much sweetness would be overwhelming.

E made me a cake too - a vanilla cake swirled with blackberry jam and topped with canned frosting that tasted like white chocolate straight from the fridge:

What a brilliant afternoon it was - good company, good food, and lots of cake! And I finally got the chance to satisfy my curiosity by making a pionono (albeit slightly misshapen) - and it was so worth it.

FFwD - Buckwheat Blinis with Smoked Salmon and Creme Fraiche

2011-10-14T06:00:00.043+11:00

I love a bit of smoked salmon every now and again, and this week, Dorie aided and abetted my hankering with our French Fridays with Dorie recipe - Buckwheat Blinis with Smoked Salmon and Creme Fraiche.

Dorie's blinis, which are like little pancakes, are made with buckwheat, because Dorie says it gives them a nutty flavour. However, buckwheat is rather hard to find here - it is a specialty shop item which costs a pretty penny. Now that I am possessed of buckwheat flour, I will have to find other ways to use it, as it is right up there in price with chestnut flour.

Interestingly, Dorie's blinis are quite large - when you go to a drinks function here, the blinis served are teeny tiny teaspoon sized objects, whereas Dorie's are around the same size as your average pikelet.

The blinis are relatively easy to make, and I thought they tasted good without any topping at all.

However, the recipe was for blinis with smoked salmon and creme fraiche, so I continued on:

I rarely buy creme fraiche, it being a relatively exotic item that I first learned about through Jamie Oliver in his jubbly wubbly days (way back in 2001, I was besotted with his lifestyle as portrayed through his TV shows, and was so excited when I got a job in London the next year).

Although I adore smoked salmon, I knew I couldn't eat all of the blinis alone, and I wasn't going to splurge on lots of smoked salmon for my work colleagues, so I made up the remainder of the blinis with halved cherry tomatoes and creme fraiche:

These were pretty good too, although not as decadent as the smoked salmon version.

I enjoyed this week's FFwD - I have never made blinis before, and they are really quite delicious.

To check out what everyone else thought of the buckwheat blinis, visit the LYL section of the FFwD website.

Chicken Cauliflower Curry with Seven Vegetable Cous Cous

2011-10-12T13:42:00.027+11:00

It's probably time to mix things up a bit and allow your teeth to recover from all of my sweets. Today, I am going to share two delicious dishes that I made on the weekend - Chicken Cauliflower Curry and Seven Vegetable Cous Cous.

The recipe for the Chicken Cauliflower Curry can be found here. My inspiration for making it is - what can I cook using ingredients that I already have in the house? A quick Google search led me to this delicious curry, which has zing without being too hot, and is relatively healthy too - no cream, coconut milk or buckets of oil. I made the recipe as is and was worried there wouldn't be enough sauce - never fear, once you have simmered the curry for the prescribed time, there was enough sauce to cover it (though it wasn't "saucy" as such).

I teamed this delicious curry with a colourful Seven Vegetable Cous Cous:

You can find the recipe here. I skipped the harissa (which some people said overpowered the dish), and replaced the lima beans with tinned cannelini beans. I also skipped the squash (as I didn't have any), so technically, I made a six vegetable cous cous. Seven is apparently a magic number in Morocco, hence the origins of the seven vegetables, but you can add and subtract whatever you want from this dish. You could even add some cooked chicken for an all-in-one meal.

While the cous cous would make a fabulous main in its own right, I served it as a side dish to the curry:

Doesn't it make you happy looking at all of those colours on the plate together?

Both dishes contain raisins, which some people may baulk at, but I love a fruity main course. You could leave the raisins out without ill effect, or substitute cranberries.

Enjoy!

TWD - Basic Biscuits

2011-10-11T06:00:00.001+11:00

Sometimes, it's good just to make something quick and easy. So it was for this week's Tuesday with Dorie, for which Jennifer of Cooking for Comfort chose Dorie's Basic Biscuits.

For an Aussie like me, a biscuit will always be a slightly flatter version of a scone. I spread mine with rhubarb and raspberry jam, and put cheddar cheese on another (not just any cheddar - the cheddar I made at cheesemaking classes last year):

These took mere minutes to whip up, with minimal effort. Although Dorie loves using her hands to rub in the butter, I prefer my pastry cutter - one of the best gadgets I have ever bought. It saves my fingers from becoming caked with goo.

I brushed the tops of my biscuits with milk before baking to brown the tops a little - I am glad that I did, as they never did become really golden.

Thanks to Jennifer for this week's mercifully easy pick. To see what all the other TWD members thought of these biscuits, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.