The world is a Chocolate Cupcake

Creamy smoked trout pate

2012-01-27T09:08:00.000+11:00

What a simple, easy to prepare dinner, courtesy of Jamie's Great Britain - creamy smoked trout pate.

It's one of those recipes where you are simply putting things together, mixing the cream cheese and horseradish, some herbs and gently mixing through a flaked smoked trout fillet and spreading it on delicious croutons or melba toasts. Not really a recipe so much.

Another great brussels sprouts recipe

2012-01-24T10:47:00.000+11:00

There are so many people who don't care for brussels sprouts. There are people who are confused by the plural "brussels" and "sprouts". Then there are people like me, people on the look out for ways to convert brussels sprouts haters to brussels sprouts likers (lovers is going too far).

Enter Smitten Kitchen, a blog by Deb who cooks from a tiny kitchen in New York, and the purveyor of a delicious brussels sprouts recipe - Dijon-braised brussels sprouts.

The most beautiful oysters

2012-01-21T13:57:00.001+11:00

Lunch at Claypots Evening Star in South Melbourne started with the most beautiful oysters! The dishes that followed, spicy mushrooms, potatoes with olive dust, galician octopus and cajun fried flathead were pretty awesome too!

(Friday Night Dinner) Kazbar

2012-01-20T20:02:00.001+11:00

Thumbs up - reasonable prices, charming french waiter and comfy outside seating.

Thumbs down- bland mushrooms, slow service and not enough labne on the lamb pizza.

G and I shared a lamb pizza and stuffed mushrooms. The waiter was kind enough to move us to an outside table when one became available. Food took a long time to come out - especially given the restaurant was half full and most people were just drinking.

Other than the French waiter and the kiwi manager, the staff were a bit lacking in responsiveness.

Conclusion - wouldn't return.

Pudding wars

2012-01-20T09:55:00.000+11:00

Oh, it's a tough life when you are faced with the most difficult of decisions - do I eat the pudding my grandma/mum made or the one G's dad made???

G's Dad's pudding

Mum/grandma's pudding

The answer must be that it doesn't matter which pudding you choose - just add a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

(Friday Night Dinner) Elbow Room

2012-01-18T16:58:00.000+11:00

G and I decided that it was time to actually use "the gold book" - aka the Entertainment Book.

We tore out 3 or 4 vouchers redeemable on Fitzroy St, St Kilda, and jumped on the number 16 tram. We ended up eating dinner at The Elbow Room with a complimentary main meal voucher.

G had the kangaroo steak salad, described as "medallions of pistachio crusted kangaroo fillet on a garden salad and sesame dressing" and I had the duck risotto + drinks = $45 (or $70 without the voucher).

G's kangaroo was a little lacking - certainly very small medallions, which led us to make jokes that perhaps the fillet had come from a rock wallaby, rather than a 'roo. My risotto was deliciously ducky, big pieces of tender duck and the risotto tasted like it was cooked in a duck/gamey stock - lovely and rich.

Being super glamorous, we finished up at Cold Rock - peanut butter ice cream with tim tams, raspberries and pb m&m's mixed in.

I made it (Empire Roast Chicken, that is)

2012-01-18T16:54:00.000+11:00

After raving about this dish and then being lucky enough to receive the necessary recipe book as a Christmas gift, I had to make Empire Roast Chicken. I assembled a number of ingredients - although I did spiced roast potatoes and made gravy from the chicken pan juices, so needed less ingredients than the recipe called for.

a gaggle of ingredients - mostly spices

the marinade that G was kind enough to make

the roasted bird

and some spiced, roasted taters

the whole kit and caboodle

You don't need to own Jamie's Great Britain to make this recipe - Jamie has made it available online. The gravy I made from the pan juices was heavenly, but next time I may give Jamie's version a try! I didn't need to flake off as many burnt bits as Jamie did, perhaps my oven is not as hot as his.

I would highly recommend this recipe - roasting a chicken is something that is super easy (but impressive) and quite comforting. While it does take some time, most of it is "idle supervision", that is, sitting around and reading a magazine while the bird is in the oven. Did anyone else's Mum ever tell them NEVER to leave the house with the oven on???

Lunch date - Hoboken

2012-01-17T10:05:00.001+11:00

I had a welcome to Melbourne lunch with a girlfriend at Hoboken in Hosier Lane. It's one of those "TC" Melbourne places that you will only find if you know where it is - thank goodness for googlemaps.

Another reason it's TC is that there is basically one choice - red beans and rice - with your choice of additions. I chose avocado, wilted greens and meat balls. Truly delish.

I guess the saving grace of this place is that the food, though simple, is great, and the service is friendly and definitely not TC!

Mister Nice Guy Cupcakes

2012-01-15T19:49:00.001+11:00

mmm Zombie Brains? Yes, we really ordered a cupcake that was called "zombie brains". The 2nd cake was a peanut butter cake from Mister Nice Guy cupcakes, an all vegan cupcakery, newly installed at the Prahran Markets.

Both cupcakes were very moist, bordering on too moist, as a fair amount of crumb stuck to the paper as we peeled it away. The peanut butter icing was generous and delicious, whereas the strawberry (zombie brains) icing was delicious, but certainly not generous. Looked effective, but didn't deliver enough flavour to the very chocolatey cake.

New year, new routine

2012-01-12T16:51:00.000+11:00

I like to eat my breakfast at work. I like to wake up, do some exercise (at least 3 mornings per week), shower, and head to work, where my raisin toast and fruit and yoghurt is waiting. I have been eating the same breakfast for at least 2 years and decided it was time for a change.

So while I have the benefit of being at home for a few extra days before I start a new job, I am trying out a new breakfast - The Minimalist's Wheat Berries with Sesame, Soy Sauce and Scallions. However, I couldn't track down wheat berries, so settled for some pearl barley.

Pearl Barley is kind of irritating to cook because it's hard to tell when it's cooked - it takes anywhere from 30 to 45 mins, and there is not that much of a difference with the cooked pearl barley at either of those points in time.

Once cooked, rinse under cold water and stir in sesame oil, soy sauce and spring onions.

I may have put on too many spring onions this time...

Kokoda fish

2012-01-06T09:51:00.000+11:00

G and I spent a blissful 4 nights in Fiji over Christmas, staying at The Pearl in Pacific Harbour and we enjoyed a delicious dish called Koko(n)da Fish.

I found a recipe on taste.com.au that looks quite accurate - although I haven't tested it out yet to verify, but plan to shortly.

Ingredients (serves 10)

850g (about 4) snapper fillets, skin removed
185ml (3/4 cup) fresh lemon juice
2 ripe tomatoes, diced
1 green capsicum, halved, deseeded, diced
1 brown onion, diced
100ml coconut cream
1 large fresh red chilli, halved, finely chopped
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
3 green oak leaf lettuces, stems trimmed, washed, dried

Method

Use a sharp knife to cut on either side of the centre line of bones in each snapper fillet, and discard the bones. Cut the snapper into 1cm pieces.
Place the snapper and lemon juice in a large ceramic or glass bowl, and toss to combine. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge for 8 hours or overnight to marinate, tossing occasionally with a wooden spoon. The fish will be white when ready.
Add tomatoes, capsicum, onion, coconut cream and chilli to marinated fish, and stir gently to combine. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
Line a serving bowl with the lettuce leaves. Spoon the kokoda onto the leaves. If you like, transfer portions of the kokoda and leaves into individual serving bowls.

Not sure where we will find the fijian bread - G was quite a fan!

Christmas blessings

2012-01-04T09:26:00.000+11:00

G and I were blessed with 3 fantastic cook books this Christmas.

And the first dish I am going to cook is Empire Roast Chicken - a curry roast chicken that I saw on a recent episode of Jamie's Great Britain. Will report on it soon.

Already

2012-01-03T11:52:00.001+11:00

I don't know what to say about this - the photo speaks for itself.

My favourite dish of 2011

2012-01-02T15:02:00.000+11:00

Many blogs do retrospectives at the end of the year, and I believe at the end of last year I reviewed my favourite Delicious Magazine recipes of 2010. However, Delicious has suffered this year (in my opinion) and the recipes have been less good, particularly later in the year. So instead, I thought I would present my favourite restaurant dish that I discovered this year - Pumpkin in Salted Egg Yolk. G and I ate it on NYE at China Red, along with some dumplings and drank some organic raspberry lemonade and organic cola. I even ate the Shao Long Bao even though I avoid pork as much as possible - but the dumplings are just so good. We've actually introduced a number of people to this restaurant (with touch screen ordering) and to this dish in particular.

G and I discovered that the menu has recently expanded - there are a number of additions on each section of the menu and we are looking forward to trying out a few new dishes, although not the dumplings that are shaped like goldfish and stuffed with prawn...

Another mince pie or 2

2011-12-23T20:49:00.000+11:00

Hey all, G guest blogging on one of my favourite subjects- Christmas mince pies.

A couple of blogs ago, K posted a picture of a pie from the Emerald Hill Bakery at the South Melbourne Markets

It was pretty good, pastry was very short, and the mince was fruity and tasty. Definitely worth another go.

Above are mince pies from Brunetti's (the one with the star cut out) and Laurent.

The one from Laurent had good filling, good balance of spice and fruit, but the pastry was too thin and not buttery enough. Probs not again.

The Brunetti's pie was sadly disappointing. The pastry was ok, not very buttery and too thick but had a nice sugar crust on top. And whilst advertised as rum mince pies, the rum was too much and you could barely taste the fruit, and certainly no spice. Won't be bothering about them any more.

So all in all, 2 out of 3 so far reviewed not meeting my admittedly very high standards.

Lunch at Cafe Vue

2011-12-22T13:01:00.001+11:00

In the new year I will be working in Carlton, rather than the city. So today I am having a last lunch date with G at Cafe Vue - the affordable Shannon Bennett option.

Today we each had a lunchbox. A tomato and rosemary fondue and crackers, a broad bean and citrus salad, a turkey and stuffing mini brioche roll and a Christmas cake. Yum!

Mince pie for me

2011-12-15T12:20:00.001+11:00

Picked up a scarily pale pie from Eclipse on Flinders Lane, Melbourne. Yes, the pastry was too pale but was delicious and the filling was great, full of chunky bits of fruit. A pricey choice, $3.50, but awesome.

Mince Pie macaron?

2011-12-11T13:07:00.001+11:00

Yes, really! And it was interesting - really was the taste if mince pie!

Cake decorating time

2011-12-10T14:00:00.001+11:00

After my recent class with Jennifer Graham of crabapple cupcake fame I am feeling inspired! So I fished out some tools from the back if the cupboard and bought some new tools too.

Cut out some shapes and then painted some shapes with shimmer paint and put some glitter on others. Still need to put mini cachous in the centre of the blossoms.

Not the first

2011-12-07T20:34:00.001+11:00

And unlikely to be the last if the season.

A moment with Nigella

2011-12-06T20:36:00.000+11:00

I am loving Nigella at the moment - particularly her Christmas DVD. G and I watched the DVD over the weekend and swooned for the Chocolate Christmas cake.

There is a comment on the Food Network page about this recipe, recommending that you double the cocoa to make it like a fruity brownie. Not sure that I am ready to take it that far, but am certainly keen to give the recipe a go. Has anyone tried it? Or any of Nigella's other Christmas recipes?

I think I will have to go dried fruit shopping and give the cake a try.

A tuna onigiri salad

2011-11-30T17:50:00.001+11:00

A delicious, pre sugar-flower making class dinner.

Lemon and marscapone pasta

2011-11-29T20:24:00.000+11:00

A while ago The Age published a top 25 quick pasta dinners - you know, cook the pasta and do 2 or 3 simple things in a pan and hey presto! dinner. Admittedly, The Age printed this list in May 2011 and this is the first time that I have cooked from the list, but better late than never?

A little white, I will grant that, but delicious. And with a salad gave a more reasonable serve a vegetables!

Something for you to take advantage of quickly

2011-11-28T16:17:00.000+11:00

Living Social and Jump On It are offering cupcake/macaron classes - $69 for a 6 hour class in the Melbourne CBD, run through Carrick Education - I have purchased that deal!

And, for my Sydney readers, Jump On It is offering 24 mini cupcakes for $24.

I won't normally be an advertising service, but I couldn't resist this one.

Arepas in Fitzroy

2011-11-26T13:39:00.001+11:00

A quick and easy Argentinian lunch on Brunswick St, Fitzroy. The restaurant is Cruzao, a small concrete-floored, red-brick walled restaurant and live music venue. At lunch time on a Saturday the music was from a CD, but there was a small stage laden with music gear - will have to come back with friends for some music and more arepas.

An impromptu cheese platter

2011-11-26T10:41:00.000+11:00

A less than elegant platter, but I love the combination of soft cheese and walnuts.

Is there a better way to end a meal?

2011-11-25T13:39:00.001+11:00

Cheat's apple "crisp"

2011-11-24T21:22:00.000+11:00

Happy Thanksgiving (to my American readers). Tonight, I surprised Geoff with a Thanksgiving Apple (and Pear) Crisp.

A museli bar, crushed up for the "crisp".

the best vanilla ice cream

apples and pears, to be cooked in a saute pan in butter (with a lid on the pan) for about 10 minutes

apple and pear crisp

Apple and Broccoli soup

2011-11-23T21:21:00.000+11:00

An odd concept - broccoli and roasted apple soup. Even stranger was that the apples are simply cored and roasted, skin on, and added to the soup, skin on.

I realised that this thickens the soup, and once blitzed in the food processor, is unnoticeable in terms of texture. However, I will agree that it is not the most attractively coloured dish.

Served with an apple and avacado salad.

A simple soup

2011-11-22T21:05:00.001+11:00

Poach the chicken in stock. Remove the chicken and cook pasta in the same stock. Shred the chicken and return to the pot with some fresh spinach.

Dinner. Oh, you could grate some Parmesan on top if you are so inclined.

A fancy afternoon tea

2011-11-21T19:53:00.001+11:00

What a charming way to spend Sunday afternoon!

Elizabeth David's chocolate mousse

2011-11-20T21:35:00.000+11:00

Just 30grams of chocolate (ghiradelli) with an egg and a tea spoon of sugar per person.

The recipe is here - give it a go.

Wedding cake, 1 year on

2011-11-19T21:22:00.000+11:00

This is what it looked like a year ago:

And this is what it looked like now:

It still tasted pretty good - though the icing was a little funny...

What's for dinner?

2011-11-18T13:23:00.000+11:00

It's going to be 33 degrees today, and I hate cooking* on a Friday, so where should I go and what should I have?

*No cooking means no turning on the oven or stove, but I will "put something together" if necessary.

Suggestions?

A "healthy" potato bake

2011-11-17T16:52:00.000+11:00

A former housemate of mine loves a potato bake. One afternoon he cooked one and the two of us sat on his bed and ate the whole thing. Delicious. Definitely not healthy - think of all the butter and cream (he is a bean pole, so that didn't bother him).

Instead, I decided to give this version a try, a supposedly healthier version, despite the cubes of butter you put on top at the end.

Layers of parcooked potatoes, ricotta, spinach and tinned salmon. With a fairly small amount of cheese and butter on top.

Delish

2011-11-16T18:25:00.001+11:00

Roast chicken

2011-11-15T13:34:00.000+11:00

I've often read that the true test of a cook is a roast chicken. It's so easy to overcook one part and undercook another, rendering the entire bird inedible. There are a couple of school's of thought that exist to avoid this problem, both relying on the fact that the breast cooks faster.

Bring the bird up to room temperature (by leaving it out of the fridge for half an hour) but tape/strap a bag of frozen peas onto the breast portion to ensure it is colder when the bird goes in the oven.
Preheat the oven with a cast iron roasting pan inside. When you have seasoned the bird, grab the hot roasting pan out of the oven and put the bird in thigh side down.

I did not use either technique and am not entirely sure which recipe I followed - I think it was from Delicious, and I will find it if I ever need to replicate it by looking for the stuffing recipe (mushroom and delicious).

Not salad nicoise

2011-11-14T12:36:00.000+11:00

A hot salmon nicoise - acceptable?

I generally prefer salmon to tuna, am not a huge fan of beans and on a cooler day I like a hot meal. Enter the salmon "nicoise".

Cooked the potatoes, blanches the snow peas and then sauteed it in the pan when the salmon was close to as done as I wanted it.

Check out those hard-boiled eggs - not even a hint of a grey ring.

Jamie's duck fiesta

2011-11-12T12:48:00.000+11:00

Another aeroplane Jamie's 30 minute meal special - this meal was a combination of a couple of episodes and was seasoned with what I had, rather than what Jamie suggested.

We used "Maha" spices - there is a restaurant in Melbourne called Maha. When you pay the bill you are given a small test tube of middle eastern spices, rather than an after dinner mint. There was definitely some kind of mild chilli, maybe some cumin and some cinnamon in the test tube. Anyway, we rubbed that spice blend onto the duck (just enough for 2 duck breasts with a little left over to use in the salad dressing).

To go with the middle eastern theme we cooked some couscous and mixed in some pomegranate and almonds.

Then I added a cucumber salad to the table. Jamie did an Asian style dressing and I toned it down a bit so it wouldn't compete with the Maha spices.

Jamie's quick ragu

2011-11-11T10:38:00.000+11:00

Have I waxed lyrical about Jamie Oliver's 30 minute meals before? I just love that show. I genuinely believe that I can accomplish what he does in the time allotted.

I watched a number of episodes on a recent aeroplane ride, and frantically scribbled down recipes on the back of the sick bag. This quick ragu was inspired by Jame's pregnant wife's cravings. However, it really is a great mid-week pasta meal.

The key is buying good quality sausages. Jamie mentions that the sausage should contain a certain percentage of meat, but that information is only helpful if you buy your sausages pre-packaged as the packaging will have that info.

G and I buy our meat from a butcher so we can't be sure of the precise percentage of meat, but are convinced that the sausages are good quality.

The process after that is simple. "Blitz" (ie use your food processor) onions, carrot, celery and the sausages. Do your best to peel the skin off the sausages (easier than it sounds) or otherwise keep an eye out for the skinless sausages.

Then fry, until everything is browned, add a tin of tomatoes and season. Try to complement the seasonings that were in the sausage. Cook some pasta and serve.

Pearscuitto pizza

2011-11-10T21:49:00.000+11:00

Pear is a fairly common savoury ingredient these days, particularly in salad. However, I was a tad skeptical when I saw a recipe for pear and proscuitto pizza.

I try to live "dangerously" and will give most things a try, and given the success we've had with other pizzas from Theo's book (Theo & Co), I figured it was worth a try.

The uncooked pizza looked a little funny - I guess we didn't do the best job making the pizza dough into a circle, nor laying out the pear slices in a particularly attractive manner.

Once cooked, the pizza was still obviously misshapen, but caramelised and crispy and, most importantly, delicious looking - and tasting!

Dessert fail

2011-11-09T16:38:00.000+11:00

And it was all my fault!

I had some careme chocolate short crust pastry in the freezer that was approaching its best before date, so I thought I would try a pear frangipane tart. I blind baked the crust, and then painted it with melted chocolate - supposdly meant to ensure that the crust stays crisp.

a cross-section of the finished dessert

the melted chocolate painted onto the blind baked crust

However, the chocolate was too thick (or it was just a silly idea) and it was very difficult to break through the crust when serving and eating the tart. The frangipane portion was ok but the pear made it a big soggy, so no real win on any portion of the tart!

Waste not

2011-11-08T15:09:00.000+11:00

I am a true believer in:

using things up to the absolute last little bit
giving things away once I have no use

The second explains why, though I am a lover of reading, I have very few books in my house. I borrow books from the library, or buy them secondhand and give them away once I am done. A book needs to be truly special to warrant a place on my bookshelf.

I also do regular culls and take donations down to the local Salvo's. However, when I have something that I can't donate I try to use it up - in this case, egg whites.

After making the birthday cake for my Mum I was left with 3 egg whites which I put in the fridge, to buy myself some time to think about what to do with them. In the end, I decided to make some plain meringues.

Mum's birthday cake

2011-11-07T09:05:00.000+11:00

I made Maggie Beer's moist buttermilk cake for my Mum for her birthday.

Ingredients
1 2/3 cup SR flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
125g unsalted butter
1 1/4 cup caster sugar
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tsp vanilla
2 lemons worth of zest
2 eggs + 3 yokls etra
1/2 cup buttermilk

Beat the wet ingredients, starting with the butter and sugar and then adding the rest (vanilla, olive oil, eggs). Then add the zest, flour and buttermilk and beat further.

Cook at 170 degrees for 30 mins, cover with a sheet of baking paper and cook for another 20 mins. Cool in the tin for 20 mins and then cool completely on a cake rack.

Slather in delicious lemon butter icing - 2 2/3 cup icing sugar, 100g salted butter 3 tbs lemon juice and 2 lemons worth of zest.

Yes, the cake is supposed to dip a little in the middle, but how much it does will probably depend on your oven.

Wholefoods

2011-11-06T11:21:00.000+11:00

There aren't really supermarkets on the corners in New York, but lots of little delis or grocers. There is also a chain of stores called Wholefoods, which is a super upmarket supermarket/cafeteria.

the hot bar

the indian bar

whoopie pies

the salad bar

the dessert bar

We bought a selection of delicious food and ate it at the cafeteria tables at wholefoods!

A foray into gluten free baking

2011-11-05T11:00:00.000+11:00

Gluten free baking, like deep frying, scares me.

I think we've seen that awful, crumbly mess that people try to pass off as gluten free bread, or that mushy, gluggy bowl of gluten free pasta. Gluten free to me means heavy but dry, usually with an unpleasant crumbly texture. However, a good friend at work is coeliac, and is often excluded from morning tea or given a special plate (of unappetising something or other) so I have been thinking about a dalliance with gluten free baking.

I saw an article in The Age about healthy baking and the chocolate cake was gluten free, so I thought it was worth a try. Unfortunately, the recipe is poorly written - the instructions do not mention the required oven temperature (I guessed at 180 degrees) and instruct you to pour into 2 prepared pans - let me tell you, the cake would have been a pancake if I had done that!

The mixture was incredibly wet - the cake starts out with 6 eggs so I guess that is to be expected.

Ingredients
6 eggs
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 cup honey
1/2 olive oil
200g almond meal
2 tsp vanilla
(pinch cinnamon - optional)

Method
Beat eggs and vanilla until fluffy, add in olive oil and honey and beat some more.

Add cocoa and almond meal and mix to combine.
(I did it all in the kitchenaid)

Bake, 30 or 35 minutes (or longer, depending on your oven) at 180 degrees.

Yes, the cake will be dense. Yes, the texture is not to everyone's taste. However, I topped the cake with some delicious chocolate icing (50% chocolate, 50% butter melted together then a tsp of corn syrup so it doesn't set) and most people won't complain.

The coeliac loved it.

Le Bernardin

2011-11-04T09:42:00.000+11:00

Our final fancy overseas lunch was at Eric Ripert's restaurant, Le Bernardin in mid-town, New York City.

A very unobstrusive entrance just off 5th avenue. Unfortunately, Le Bernardin has a jacket policy for men, so G was lent a navy jacket to "match" his grey suit pants, but that embarrassment aside, lunch was a seafood bonanza!

the unobstrusive entrance

the end of the salmon rilette

6 delicious oysters

smoked salmon entree

blackened bass with mini pork buns

salmon with 2 sauces

chocolate and peanut dessert

the olive oil dessert

National Blog Posting Month

2011-11-03T12:52:00.000+11:00

Despite blanking on a post on 1 November (I blame the public holiday), I am going to try and post something everyday for November and participate in National Blog Posting Month hosted by BlogHer.

Whose nation? Good question. I assume that like most of these things (Nanowrimo - National Novel Writing Month and Naswenimo - National Sweater Knitting Month) the nation in question is the USA. However, I don't think that should preclude me from participating.

BlogHer helpfully offers a daily prompt and though I expect that many will not be relevant to my food-focussed writing adventures, today's prompt is.

If you knew that whatever you ate next would be your last meal, what would you want it to be?

I'm sure that may of you have thought about this before - the eternal "last supper" question. Interestingly, the concept of a prisoner's last meal was cancelled in Texas following a fairly outrageous request by an inmate convicted of a hate-crime related murder - for more, click here.

There is a dilemma - choose a great tasting tried and true meal (safe) or risk your final meal with some rare ingredient that you have never had. Do you want to be alone? Out at a restaurant? Enjoying a home cooked meal?

There are so many elements that make up a good "meal", as opposed to merely selecting the final food item you could eat before you died (which would be hard enough).

It would come down to good company - probably just that of my husband - but likely cooked by someone else. I can't imagine much worse than having to wash the dishes moments before I died - or leaving them for G to do once I have passed away. I think I would probably choose dishes that I knew I would enjoy rather than risking something new. I would also need to first come to grips with the fact that I wouldn't be able to eat everything that I loved in my final meal (or the meal may never end). Some oysters, some salmon, something chocolatey, good wine and a great coffee at the end would probably do it for me.

I suppose the topic does not need to be quite so gloomy. The last meal in question could be the last before I lost my sense of taste, although that too would be quite devastating. Grant Achatz, a chef at Alinea, lost his sense of taste while fighting tongue cancer. Luckily he was successful in beating the cancer, and later regaining his taste.

Gloom aside, have you thought about your last meal? What would it involve?

A cupcake class in the East Village

2011-11-02T07:41:00.000+11:00

Although I have made dozens of cupcakes, G and I thought a cupcake class was in order in the city where the latest cupcake craze began. It was in a cafe in the east village called Butterlane.

We started the class by taste testing a variety of the cupcakes - including a fabulous raspberry icing! There were 8 of us in the class - 4 people didn't show up - and we made 9 dozen cupcakes in total.

filling the trays to bake

cupcakes ready to bake

the recipe and the mess

an industrial strength kitchenaid

The beautiful un-iced cupcakes

G's terrible first attempts

learning the icing technique

trays of cupakes to take home at the end

Magnolia Bakery

2011-10-30T10:07:00.000+11:00

Of course, G and I had to visit the famous Magnolia Bakery while we were in NYC. We were happy to find an outpost of the bakery at Bloomingdales, so grabbed a red velvet and a vanilla with chocolate icing. I also took the opportunity to study the ladies doing the icing, and am going to have to give it a go at home!

Katz' deli

2011-10-28T07:57:00.000+11:00

After the deli cooking class (which was a little disappointing as we didn't make the pastrami, sauerkraut or sauce, but just assembled the sandwiches) G and I took ourselves to Katz' Deli in the lower east side to experience the real deal!

I don't think that G's face does the sandwich justice - it was super delicious!

A deli cooking class

2011-10-26T09:41:00.000+11:00

G and I did a "Great New York Deli" cooking class where we learned to make:

reuben sandwiches - with pre-made pastrami, sauerkraut and sauce
egg creams
chopped liver
coleslaw
kreplach (jewish wontons)
chicken soup
kugel
black and white cookies

We were pretty busy!

Then we sat down to eat the spread!

Cake & Shake

2011-10-25T07:06:00.000+11:00

We arrived at the Met and were feeling a little peckish, luckily there was a pale blue van outside, selling cupcakes and milkshakes!

We sat on the steps of the Met and enjoyed the cupcake and shake and listened to an absolutely amazing group of buskers! The nougat centre was absolutely delicious - in fact, G thinks it was the best cupcake we had on our whole trip. The cake itself was soft and not crumbly and the icing (and the filling) weren't buttery and hard, but really soft and more like a mousse.

We didn't have time for a savoury cake, but they certainly sound awesome too.

PB and choc chip cookies

2011-10-23T14:06:00.000+11:00

Not a recipe, but a great new combination, using some reece's peanut butter chips found (for an exorbitant price) at the David Jones Food Hall.

I love that moment when you try to stir in the choc chips. This step has to be done by hand otherwise the mixed can cause the chips to break up (the bigger the chip the nicer it is to bite into, in my opinion).

Just cooked - golden around the edges. This ensures that the cookies are cookies, that is, soft in the middle, rather than biscuit like and hard all the way through.

Lamb involtini

2011-10-16T11:28:00.000+11:00

A quick break from the holiday recaps - I am back in Australia, but have a few holiday related posts to come. In the meantime, I have been doing some cooking!

The other night I made one of the most delicious dinners that I think I have ever made (a big call, I know).

Please excuse the messy plating, the red wine reduction ran everywhere! I used feta (instead of mozzarella and anchovies) and asparagus. The feta worked really well - it held its shape, but was lovely and all melted to bite into.

The preparation was pretty simple, cut the lamb, pound the lamb so it is really thin and then roll with the stuffing.

A gratuitous shot of the cross section of the involtini.

Baked by Melissa

2011-10-14T19:49:00.000+11:00

Baked by Melissa - 3 for $1, and yes they are absolutely tiny, but awesome, because you can definitely eat several in one sitting!

mmm tapas

2011-10-12T08:38:00.000+11:00

G and I threw ourselves into the Spanish lifestyle (that is, eating tapas, drinking sangria and partaking in daily siestas)!

Mercat de la Boqueria

2011-10-09T15:57:00.000+11:00

I'm sure that many of you are familiar with Mercat de la Boqueria in Barcelona, and perhaps some of you have been lucky enough to go for a visit.

G and I enjoyed a morning wandering around the market, tasting some of the Spanish delights.

Fresh raspberry juice

G's fave - the jamon

All kinds of shellfish

A decent chilli selection

Not exactly sure what this is - definitely shellfish though

So much seafood

G enjoying a skewer of jamon

Not so delicious tripe!

A seafood dinner by the sea

2011-10-07T07:55:00.000+11:00

After a lovely day on the beach in the riviera, G and I headed to an amazing looking seafood restaurant, and had to start with the oysters!

I enjoyed linguine with scampi - although getting the meat out of the scampi was a tad messy.

G loved his spaghetti with lobster - and the men at the table next to us pointed at his dinner and asked for the same.

Finally we ordered dessert - the waiter did not warn us that one dessert would be sufficient for both of us. I ended up with a platter of creme brulee and G ordered what turned out to be a very large chocolate cake!

Slow Food Festival in Nice

2011-10-05T09:49:00.000+11:00

G and I were lucky enough to be in Nice to enjoy a Slow Food festival, featuring chefs from Nice and Monaco.

It was a very controlled event - there were french street food vendors (fries, mussels and crepes) all along the marina, and then there was a section of the marina that was limited to a certain number of people at a time - and that area was where the slow food stalls were.

G and I made it in after only a 20 minute wait and perused some of the stalls. Each plate was 5 euros and below you can see the scampi and a dessert platter.

We also drank some good french wine (2 glasses for 5 euros) and met a lovely Italian-Swiss couple with whom we shared a table.

Aside from the food there were some cool stilt walkers, floats and fireworks. Aside from the slow food aspect we're not entirely sure what the festival was celebrating - but we sure had fun.

Cooking at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris

2011-10-03T12:13:00.000+11:00

So I know Le Cordon Bleu has cooking schools all over the world, but the one in Paris feels like its the right place to take a class!

We made a delicious quiche - using goat cheese as a significant part of the filling, with eggs and confit tomatoes.

Me whisking eggs for the quiche

The beautiful quiches

We also did a wonderful roasted sea bream, served with zucchini flan

Fish slice and stuffed - please note my knife skills. I also did a good job of deboning and scaling - according to our Chef teacher (Fredo - not sure of his French name)

We didn't eat any of the food on the day (aside from necessary "quality control") so took home bags of food to enjoy. Luckily our apartment in Paris came with a fridge, so we ate it over a couple of days.

G and I with our bounty

Me bruleeing up a storm

Macarons of Paris

2011-10-02T16:11:00.000+11:00

It's not a secret that G and I love a good macaron - and are quite particular about what constitutes a "good" macaron! In Melbourne most macarons are the same diameter, but in France, what we consider normal in Melbourne is miniature. Then there are the grande macarons - with fresh fruit sandwiched between normal sized macarons in France.

Pistachio with raspberry, and raspberry with more raspberry

A wide selection of "miniature macarons" at Le Bon Marche

Macarons from Laduree

Also, we had macarons from the Bouchon Bakery in New York - including this delicious carrot cake macaron. I did notice that in France the flavours were much more common - chocolate, strawberry, raspberry, pistachio etc. In America it was definitely a lot more adventurous. As well as the carrot cake macaron, we enjoyed fig and balsamic macarons.

A picnic in the Jardin du Luxembourg

2011-09-18T17:44:00.000+10:00

In Paris we stayed in the 6th Arrondisement - near the Jardin du Luxembourg and Le Grande Epicerie at Le Bon Marche - perhaps Paris' answer to the Harrods food halls! We had a couple of picnics in the Jardin du Luxembourg after some food shopping.

Licorice allsort coloured pasta

so much smoked salmon to choose from

You can buy all kinds of pre-made foods that we don't in Australia - gazpacho, confit duck and cassoulet

A small selection of Macarons

A bread kebab - a great way to try a few of the loaves, in miniature form

Our picnic

G's favourite - terrine

The produce at Borough Market

2011-09-14T23:28:00.000+10:00

I don't know if you have heard the hype about Borough Market in London, but it is a much talked about food market, that I managed to convince G to go to on Saturday morning in London.

British strawberries in summer are so good

So many people had told me "there's a great cheese shop at Borough" - wrong, there are several great cheese shops at Borough!

Oysters shucked, ready to eat with shallot vinaigrette or tabasco

We do not recommend the goat's milk ice cream - ours was not nice, and I saw someone else throw their scoop out.

So much bread - we only took home a couple of mini loaves

Jamon sliced to order

If you are in London on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday I highly recommend making the trip to Borough (near London Bridge) and picking up some picnic supplies and a few things to try as you enjoy your wanderings.

Lola's cupcakes

2011-09-13T05:46:00.000+10:00

The cupcake craze has hit London! We found Lola's Cupcakes in Topshop on Oxford St - that's right, inside a clothing store. It sounds pretty messy - but it is right in the middle of 2 sections (one of those is stockings in packaging, so no drama if you get icing on the plastic I guess) and then they get all wrapped up. G and I bought these last to keep them safe.

Anyway, G and I bought 4 small cakes to give Lola a good road test - nice cake texture, though the outside was quite "crisp" and the icing was super delicious - and good flavours, no fake fruit flavours here!

Lunch with Joel

2011-09-08T20:59:00.000+10:00

Continuing our theme of eating fancy lunches (at less than half the price of dinner) at michelin starred restaurants, G and I ate a L'Atelier du Joel Robuchon in London. We opted for the 2 courses with matching wines, as well as the amuse bouche and a cocktail to begin. As part of our trip we have been enjoying some fancy lunches - lunch is way more affordable than dinner!

A cocktail to begin

The mackerel rillettes - amuse bouche

My lamb steak with tempura beans and onions

Geoff's mackerel with saffron foam

Finally, G's cheese selection and my tart selection below.

Tsukiji

2011-09-05T16:42:00.000+10:00

Tsukiji is the largest seafood market in Asia, and is famous for its tuna auctions. Tourists used to be able to go and watch the auctions, but are no longer allowed - apparently there were problems about people touching the tunas. To purchase tuna in the auction you must be registered, and you are allowed to on-sell the tuna. As well as tuna auctions there is also the wholesale section of the market, selling the biggest range of seafood that I have ever seen.

Given the lack of tuna auction viewing, G and I arrived at about 8am for a breakfast of sashimi before some intense seafood admiring.

Then it was time to let the seafood admiration begin!

The last thing we saw, possibly the most unique thing we saw, was the ice man.

Although the little carts the dudes drive around on are also pretty unique - like barrels on little flat go karts.

Train sushi

2011-09-03T05:08:00.000+10:00

G and I enjoyed some sushi from a train sushi restaurant in Tokyo - though were put to the shame by the number of plates the other (Japanese) customers were able to eat.

No train sushi restaurant is complete without huge bits of melon floating along the train in between the sushi.

Pickled eggplant sushi

Tuna sushi (low in fat tuna)

Some of the fish on display

One of the chefs

Better (fattier) tuna

Our 8 plates - 2 pieces of sushi per plate. There were couples in there with closer to 20 plates between them!

Make your own okonomiyaki

2011-08-30T04:37:00.000+10:00

Twice G and I visited Sometarou in Asakusa, a make your own okonomiyaki restaurant. Even though I spoke Japanese to the waiter he insisted on cooking our okonomiyaki the first time - maybe it was because G committed the ultimate foreigner sin and ordered curry okonomiyaki (although it was delicious!)

I chose okonomiyaki with spring onion, which was super delicious.

The second time we went G and I had some different kinds of okonomiyaki, just to mix it up.

Some special tupperware

2011-08-29T02:18:00.000+10:00

I am certainly not averse to some specialised tupperware - G and I love our cupacakes (to take cupcakes safely to work) and our sandwich boxes, but I thought these ones, that I saw in Tokyo, were maybe, just maybe, taking it a bit too far.

Exhibit 1 - Donut to go. Understandable, but most donuts could probably survive in a regular tupperware box or a take away container.

Exhibit 2: churros container.

Look what I made!

2011-08-26T20:14:00.000+10:00

Ok, not made, but enjoyed at La Rochelle, Iron Chef Sakai's restaurant in Shibuya, Tokyo.

Seafood amuse bouche

Eggplant and whitefish ravioli

Roast chicken

Top - veal with foie gras, below - calamari

Above - Almond crusted flathead

Below - Black Croaker in spicy sauce

A little bit of everything from the dessert cart, coupled with a tea infused creme brulee

The petit four wagon

Smoked salmon pizza

2011-07-20T13:57:00.000+10:00

My first pizza from Theo's book involved giving the dough hook on the kitchen aid a bit of a work out.

We followed Theo's steps, used good quality cheese and delicious smoked salmon and this came out of the oven:

and was made even more delicious with the addition of the salmon

Blueberry and beer muffins

2011-07-17T21:51:00.000+10:00

Today's post is another guest post, from G:

For some reason, I put my hand up to provide some baked goods to my work colleagues for the Biggest Morning Tea held last month I took delight in saying that I would be doing all the baking though- everyone asked me if it was actually going to be my work, knowing the yummy treats I provide are normally not my own work!

I decided to choose a recipe from by beer cookbook, Cooking with Beer (not that imaginative a title really!). Having made successful blue cheese and ale muffins previously, this time I chose the blueberry and ale muffins. It's a pretty simple recipe, the US book calling for Bisquick, which we don;t have here. Much easier to get together the proper dry ingredients of a muffin mix anyway. So put the flour, baking soda, salt, and sugar together, then mix in the blueberries (fresh if cheap, frozen-thawed and drained-if not), beer and melted butter. Divide into muffin tins and bake until done (about 12 minutes).

Now, this was totally yummy, but not likely to win me any awards at the morning tea. So after asking K about further options, she suggested a simple cream cheese icing and some blueberry coulis for drizzling on top. Best idea ever!

So I easily won the prize for best sweet dish at the morning tea and now my reputation for baking at work is up there with K. Hurrah!

Left over lamb pizza

2011-07-12T19:50:00.000+10:00

Theo has a pizza recipe for greek lamb pizza, and while I was inspired by it, I didn't follow it because:
1. we had already cooked the lamb
2. we didn't have all of the pizza ingredients.

My pizza

Theo's pizza

gratuitous shot of the roast lamb

Zucchini involtini

2011-07-11T14:37:00.000+10:00

It's not often that I will bother to put on a show for Sunday lunch, but I saw a recipe in Delicious that I thought would be a simple Sunday lunch, albeit one that looked pretty impressive.

It wasn't quite as simple as I had hoped - zucchini slicing, salting, baking and rolling, but it was worth it.

Whoopie Pies

2011-07-07T17:45:00.000+10:00

A guest post from G:

It was K's birthday not that long ago, so after purchasing a delicious Brownie and Passionfruit chocolate torte from Le Petit Gourmet to get us through a few days before I was well enough to bake a cake, I decided to break out the whoopie pie book that had been a source of amusement a few times already (from the title only!). Whoopie pies are supposed to be somewhere between as cake and a biscuit, and look like macarons on steroids.

So I chose to make simple chocolate whoopies, with a peanut butter icing middle,

They worked out OK- I don;t recommend using Copha for shortening though. Use butter for all of the fat. The copha was just rubbish, and didn't do anything, and they totally didn't flatten out. As a consequence, the pies really were just mini cakes. But they were still delish, and the peanut butter icing is to do for!

A rose by any other name

2011-07-02T16:16:00.000+10:00

A recent day trip to Daylesford involved the visit to a chocolate shop (the name of which I cannot remember) where I picked up a chocolate rose.

and it all ended with a large raspberry chocolate ganache truffle in the middle!

Meatballs and soft polenta

2011-06-29T19:49:00.000+10:00

This was a combination of 2 recipes in Delicious - Tobie's meatballs (and peas) and Jill Dupleix's polenta (not that you really need a recipe for polenta). However, it is a great variation on spagetti and meatballs.

[G's job]

We accidentally bought non instant polenta, but it was still super quick and easy.

Caulflower and gorgonzola bake

2011-06-23T09:43:00.000+10:00

This dish really belongs in the VERY tip of the top of the food pyramid, as it something that, laden with cream and cheese, should be eaten rarely and sparingly.

Rigatoni, cauliflower, blue cheese and cream, cooked together until delicious, but seriously, a once a year recipe at the most.

Pizza Pizza Pizza

2011-06-20T11:33:00.000+10:00

I heard about Theo on an episode of 9am with David and Kim and knew I had to buy the book - even though I had never made dough before (pre-Cheesymite scrolls obviously).

It's a beautiful book

with step-by-step photos (my favourite)

with savoury

and sweet pizzas

A variety of birthday cakes

2011-06-19T19:04:00.000+10:00

I was lucky enough to celebrate my birthday with a variety of cakes!

[passionfruit and chocolate mousse brownie cake]

[baked cherry cheesecake]

[chocolate and peanut butter whoopie pie - blog post to follow]

Sugadeaux cupcakes

2011-06-09T12:08:00.000+10:00

G and I had originally considered getting sugadeaux cupcakes for our wedding cake, but couldn't taste test them because the owners were on holiday when G and I were in Melbourne cake taste testing.

When G came home and told me that he had seen sugadeaux cupcakes at Elevenses, an amazing little sandwich bar in Melbourne, I asked him to pick up one for a post-wedding taste test!

He grabbed a vanilla with strawberry icing, and the icing was amazing - much like The Cupcake Family - but unfortunately the cake itself was a little dry.

Create Great Cake cupcakes

2011-06-05T15:35:00.000+10:00

G and I were running late to the markets on the weekend, but managed to get their just in time to spot a new stall "Create Great Cake" who were selling 4 cupcakes for $10... who could resist?

Quite good cupcakes, and a particular mention to the good chocolate cupcake (top left) that was moist and not a mud cake!

Baked sweet potato

2011-06-01T10:27:00.000+10:00

There aren't very many meals that are so orange (unless you use a lot of tandoori paste I guess), but we decided to give it ago.

It was quite simple - roast the whole sweet potatoes, scrape out the insides and mash it with onion, garlic, herbs, some egg and taleggio, put the mash back in the skins and bake for 20 minutes or so until "set".

I did serve them with salad because I couldn't face such an orange meal by itself!

As a technique though, I could easily imagine using a potato, or an eggplant, or a small pumpkin if I could find one small enough, and changing the cheese and herbs as appropriate, perhaps with some bacon (if one liked bacon).

Roast tomato pasta

2011-05-31T09:29:00.000+10:00

A simple, weeknight meal.

Just some roasted cherry tomatoes stirred into some anchovies, chilli, oil and vinegar, tossed through some cooked spagetti.

I'm always pleasantly surprised when a "weeknight meal" from a cookbook is actually suitable for a weeknight meal for working people.

Belated Mother's Day

2011-05-30T11:47:00.000+10:00

Our family eventually got around to celebrating Mother's Day a couple of weeks late, and enjoyed a dinner at newly opened St Katherine's. While I would normally opt for the banquet menu, my family has some dietary requirements, so we chose some meals individually.

A pide with peppered figs

Some salad (possibly my favourite thing except dessert)

Calamari

the "disgusting" dessert - inspired by chocolate bars!

Tomato soup

2011-05-29T17:59:00.000+10:00

While I appreciate that the soup may not be as red as you would normally expect a tomato soup, but it tastes fantastic and is made with a carrot, celery and onion base and roasted roma tomatoes, topped with some basil and slightly melted bocconcini.

The bocconcini is melted by putting it in the oven for a few minutes and then into steaming hot soup, and it melts through the soup slowly - a neat twist!

Chocoholic, who me?

2011-05-25T17:47:00.000+10:00

Well maybe G is the chocoholic, because I bought him a voucher (for 2 people) to go on a Chocolate Lover's tour of Melbourne - complete with sticker that qualified us for a 10% discount on purchases on the day!

We started at Haigh's, in the Royal Arcade, and sampled pastilles and mango truffles. The dark pastilles are quite "milky" (that is, they have a lowish content of cocoa compared to some of the "dark" chocolate available commercially). In the end, most people preferred the dark because it was a little more intense than the milk, but not like a 75% cocoa which is not very sweet or creamy.

We moved on to T2 for a chocolate and tea tasting - the strawberry tisane really worked with the milk chocolate.

We stopped in at Deva for some chocolate art, peered in at the chocolate maker at Koko Black...

And not being full of sweet treats, finished the afternoon off with a coffee and some churros.

Cheesymite scrolls

2011-05-18T07:14:00.000+10:00

I love a cheesymite scroll, but it does seem a little expensive to purchase from the chain bakeries. Instead, I knew there would be a successful recipe somewhere online. And there was - dolcidoll's recipe.

To get there, of course I needed to get vegemite all over my hands! In all seriousness, spreading hard vegemite onto soft pastry with a knife is very difficult and it is far easier to melt the vegemite and then spread it using your hands (and more fun too).

It almost resembled a swiss roll, but was far easier to roll than cake.

They were delicious hot out of the oven, and I had to stop G from eating more than 1.

Currently craving Food Fest 365!

2011-05-11T20:46:00.001+10:00

I read a post on Saveur about National Eggs Benedict Day. Not entirely sure which "nation" was celebrating this day, but I was keen to jump on the bandwagon.

Food Fest 365!, by Yvan Lemoine, is the officially fun food holiday cook book - a different holiday food for every day.

For those of you who also enjoy eggs benedict you will have to wait until April 17 to celebrate the day, but you can eat eggs benedict any other day without the celebration!

In anticipation of purchasing the book, G and I decided to join in the national celebration, and enjoyed a slight variations on the eggs bene - smoked salmon instead of ham!

Toasted English muffins, smoked salmon, poached eggs, hollandaise and cracked pepper - delicious!

Haloumi bruschetta

2011-05-08T19:08:00.000+10:00

This, like the wellingtons and the steak with welsh rarebit, was in the Tuesday Night Dinners section of the Delicious magazine. This recipe is actually doable on a Tuesday night, after work, in my opinion.

Toast, haloumi and some cooked down tomatoes and chorizo. Done!

Cupcakes all over

2011-05-05T10:00:00.000+10:00

I guess it's not news that I love cupcakes - making them, decorating them, eating them and looking at beautiful pictures of them. So when I saw these super cute tea towels at Ikea I had to snap them up!

Mini beef wellington

2011-05-03T07:58:00.000+10:00

This was in the Tuesday Night Dinners section, but perhaps only really appropriate for someone who finishes work earlier than I do... However, the wellingtons looked enticing, and I was keen to give them a go. These kinds of dishes always start out messily, mixing herbs and spices in with the mince by hand (G's job).

My strengths are more, shall we say, decorative. So yes, I made the wellingtons complete with the lattice pastry.

I was supposed to line the pastry with proscuitto before adding the mince mixture but I forgot, and didn't miss it. Served with some roast vegetables, because I couldn't face a meal without a vegetable!

Cake balls

2011-05-01T14:23:00.000+10:00

Have I waxed lyrical about Bakerella before? The website is aweinspiring and of course I had to grab the book when it came out, admittedly some time last year. I have flicked through the book quite regularly, and was resigned to trying to recreate the cake pops using white chocolate and oil based food colouring.

After moving to Melbourne I started shopping at Cake Deco and found the requisite candy melts. The day I went to the shop I could choose between red, green, white with sparkles, pink and pale blue. I was thrilled!

So using a madeira cake, some homemade butter cream, the candy melts and hundreds & thousands, I made my first batch of cake balls.

Success! Next, cake POPS!

Maven brownies

2011-04-29T10:33:00.000+10:00

These brownies are quite cake like as opposed to fudgy, and are not that sweet, even though the recipe calls for over 2 cups of sugar, counteracted by the cocoa I suspect.

I love a recipe that let's me use the kitchen aid... and I particularly love watching the melted chocolate mix in with the eggs and sugar. Weird huh?

It all leads to the finished product, G's favourite part!

Easter extravaganza

2011-04-27T18:52:00.000+10:00

In my family I am definitely "the baker" so am the one who prepares desserts for family celebrations. However, for Easter one of my little sisters wanted to make the cake, so I rather ungraciously stepped aside. For whatever reason, she couldn't make the cake, so the duty fell to me. She had already decided what she would make, and had told people, so I thought I should do the same thing - even though it would be my first time using gelatine.

This is my version of the cake that was on the front of the Easter edition of the Coles magazine.

I used gelatine for the first time - easy, but gelatine stinks! Apparently it is the same smell that stale jelly crystals get if you add hot water, but having never smelled that, it was rather unpleasant.

Start by making a chocolate cream oreo base (with melted butter) and pour on some chocolate mousse (gelatine alert).

(mousse mid-mix)

Then when that is truly set, pour on some chocolate ganache, made with a touch of butter.

(and serve with some raspberry coulis)

Oh and G outdid himself and bought me a box of 6 macarons from La Belle Miette.

(super pretty packaging)

(strawberries & cream, chocolate, lemon, salted caramel, pistachio and raspberry - from the top left, clockwise around)

Delicious!

Shameless plea

2011-04-23T19:39:00.000+10:00

Please click over to The Sweetest Kitchen and vote for my Earth Day Cupcakes - "Garden Delight" - voting link!

In case you missed my blog entry about these beauties, have a look here.

The best pumpkin soup ever

2011-04-22T14:15:00.000+10:00

A simple recipe from the April Delicious, but absolutely delicious using some in-season produce.

Saute 1 chopped onion for 5 minutes
Add 1kg of chopped pumpkin and cook for 10 minutes
Add 1L of vegetable stock and cook for 15 minutes, simmering with the lid on.
Once tender, blend, blend, blend until smooth and return to the saucepan.
Pour in up to 300ml of cream (as much as you would like, I chose 200ml) and reheat

At this point, the recipe calls for sage oil (that you have made) and sage sandwiches, but I voted for some toasted sourdough and a spoonful of sage pesto.

I wonder if the trick to the soup is cooking the pumpkin without the stock for the first 10 minutes - maybe a hint of caramelisation?

Steak with welsh rarebit

2011-04-20T06:39:00.000+10:00

When G and I lived in England in 2004 we worked for a bar in the McMullen's Brewery chain. I remember the most unpleasant looking and smelling thing on the breakfast menu was toast with welsh rarebit. The welsh rarebit was stored in the fridge in a log, resembling the devon meat you can buy in the supermarket. Or if I am feeling less kind, it resembled the refridgerated tube dog food.

When I saw that there was a recipe in the April Delicious for steak with welsh rarebit I just kept turning the pages, but G encouraged me to take a second look (well after we saw the delicious looking porterhouse steaks available at the butcher). The recipe was quite simple - cheese, mustard, sour cream and worcestershire smothered on top of a partially cooked (pan fried) steak, then all bundled into the oven to finish cooking the steak and melt the rarebit.

The best part? The rarebit looked nothing like the log I remember from England, although still not super attractive.

Though dinner did look pretty delicious.

Salmon with black olive puree

2011-04-18T09:59:00.000+10:00

An odd combination I know, but the saltiness of the black olive really cut through the fatty salmon - home-made olive tapenade slathered on top of salmon fillets and then baked until the salmon is done (or as done as you like it)

It was supposed to be served on white onion, but I accidentally let it brown a little!