Consumed Food Love

Taste of Melbourne 2010

2010-09-06T11:10:00.002+10:00

Naturally I was excited for Taste of Melbourne 2010 after having a great time last year with Doben. We went on Friday night and Sunday with two very different experiences. Friday night was very busy and frantic in a trashy night club sort of way, having to push through crowds and wait in long lines to buy food. I forgot to take my camera on Friday night, so the only photos I have of what I ate were the dishes that I ate again on Sunday when I did bring my camera!
First up on Friday we went to Longrain's busy and loud niche upstairs to try their Yellow curry of wagyu beef with cucumber relish. It was good, but seemed to lack something that we have found in their other outstanding curries at Longrain. Next we tried the Seared atlantic scallops, lardo, breadcrumbs, gazpacho dressing, Stokehouse.

Seared atlantic scallops, lardo, breadcrumbs, gazpacho dressing - Stokehouse

Next we tried the Cavatelli di messina with prawns, peas, pecorino, lemon oil - Mezzo Bar & Grill which was nice and piping hot. I then tried The Palace Wagyu burger, which was a bit disappointing with a dry pattie and dry bread accompanied by a very sweet red wine chutney. After that, we decided to try a dessert and happened to come across one that knocked all that bitter disappointment of my face!

The Bombe - strawberry sorbet, white chocolate parfait and toasted meringue - Stokehouse

Yes! I have a photo because I insisted we have this again on Sunday. I went with different group of friends on Friday to Sunday, so on Sunday I watched everyones reaction when they ate it showing me some serious amazed faces! What a dessert. I have never eaten this dessert due to it being a trendy concoction in the '80s which I was unfortunately too young or non existent to enjoy. I did often see this in some of my mother's cooking books and was always intrigued by the fact it being a ice cream sort of cake. I have had no other bombe to compare it to, but I think everyone that tried it would agree, Stokehouse done The Bombe every justice it deserved to ignite a comeback.

We didn't eat very much on Friday due to eating quite slow and saving the proper run for Sunday. I feared similar or worse crowds but thankfully there were fewer crowds and a more relaxed bunch they were. So Sunday: first up was what sold out on Friday,

Organic slow braised pork cheek, white polenta, raisins and marsala sauce - Mezzo Bar & Grill
Was nicely braised and tasty but I wished I could have more polenta, I love it! Next up was Maze:

Seared cured Marlborough king salmon, warm sweet corn and potato salad: Maze Restaurant & Maze Grill

The fish was unbelievably buttery to eat and very moist. The sweet corn and chorizo really worked nicely. Next was one of our absolute favourites of the whole day from The Palace by Luke Mangan,

Eye fillet, potato mash and sauce bordelaise - The Palace by Luke Mangan

I did over look this dish on Friday but this really was spot on. The two times that we ate it, everything was piping hot and melt in your mouth wonderful.

Tuna carpaccio, goats feta, rocket and ginger eschalot dressing - The Palace by Luke Mangan

This was nice, only really wished that the tuna was sliced a bit thicker (which would therefore cancel it out being carpaccio) and no goats cheese. The goats cheese was really strong against the subtle fish and overpowered the dish.

Smoked duck, apple ad walnut rillettes - Libertine & Le Traiteur

I really, really enjoyed this. We were offered a matched red for 4crowns, how could one resist? And this together with the wine was so heavenly. I really loved the apples together with the duck rillette.

Mr Donati's crispy Pork Bellly, peas and wild sorrel coulis, purple potato, fromage frais, garden herbs - Embrasse

Dory cooked in squid, organic beetroots and carrots - Embrasse

Unfortunately I think this dish worked against Embrasse being served as a tasting size. I have seen that this dish is on the menu in house, obviously with a thicker and larger piece of fish. I can see how this would work with a bigger piece as the smaller piece was overpowered by the squid ink.

Hazelnuts and chocolate parfait Forest Floor - Embrasse

We all really enjoyed this along with the cute presentation. Very creative and delicious mushroom with dirt!

Raspberry and rosella flower cannelloni, strawberry and native mint salad - Charcoal Lane

Pistachio 'panna cotta', caramel salted popcorn - Sarti

Overall I had a good experience at Taste this year. I had the opportunity to try dishes from restaurants that I would otherwise overlook or reluctant to try. Places I would really like to visit now are Stokehouse and Libertine from their outstanding tasting dishes. As for next year we have all planned to do it over on the Sunday again and I hope I can arrange to make it to Sydney in March to try out what Sydney's Taste has for me to devour!

Winter Comforts

2010-07-08T15:08:00.003+10:00

After an absolutely wretched semester of uni, I rushed back to Mildura once again for a break and some quality time with my family. Much is the same, only a change to freezing cold nights, frosty mornings, but never to fail me: calm sunny days.

Since last visit, mother's garden has grown in abundance: silver beet, lettuces, flowers blooming, the lemon tree heavy with fruit, a great bush of lemongrass, long red chillies and even strawberries ripening? Don't believe me?

Mildura boasts of a perfect climate for agriculture, which is shame due to the recent deregulation in the grape industry, resulting in my family selling our vineyard. Mildura has had a huge shift in this way, with many people who owned small 10-40 acre vineyards, being forced to sell, hardly able to even break even for their year-long hard work. It's heart breaking, that such a thing could happen to something as beautiful as it was. Now when I drive down the same road that we used to live on, many acres of land have been cleared because the vines were just useless. Some summers, our neighbours would just let the grapes ripen on the vines until they shribbled and fell off because no big winery or company wanted to take fruit from "petty" farmers. My next door neighbour even drove all the way to Vic Market one year to try to make a small buck for as much as he could bring in his ute.

Locals I have spoken to that had owned vineyards long before we bought the property, boasted of the good times: when a 30acre block could gain so much profit and it was all worth it. My family moved to Mildura in 96' and owned the vineyard for 12 years, with a rapid decline in return from the start. Initially were contracted with wineries for our sultana grapes and for the small portion of chardonnay. After a few years the industry started to change: we lost our contract to the winery, shifting to only contract 100+acre vineyards. This change threw off so many of the majority of average 30acre farmers, and that's when it all started to go downhill. We then gained a contract with Sunbeam, to dry sultanas which involved an enormous amount of labour for all of us and with less return. Slowly slowly, Sunbeam would cut back their contract with us, as a result in the growing replacement of cheap import from the Middle East. Eventually, as for many, we were forced to sell: an incredible heartbreak for my father. So many farmers, not only in Mildura were adversely affected by this deregulation and ignorance of the Australian authorities, on top of the result of little water allocation for Mildura and surrounding areas due to the drought.

Ever since being exposed to the nasties and lack of support for small farmers in the agricultural industry in Australia, only made me more passionate to make an effort to seek out small producers of all food. It is so important that the public understand how these industries are operating at present. It is a very serious issue. A lot of farmers fell into deep depression from losing their jobs: as self employed farmers. And from that depression, some people have died. For the farming families, to be a farmer was in their blood being passed on from the generations, inheriting land and vines from their ancestors. And then it was useless and cleared. I will continue to try my very best to support small producers/ businesses' and avoid huge supermarket chain products and produce as much as I can. I hope other's can too!

Anyway! Some sort of winter hibernating instinct in me was yearning to eat some winter food, and the only answer was Chicken Soup! For my family, I would say quite confidently that our Nana's chicken soup is the absolute peak of comfort food. Not any old chicken soup.

For our soup we used a whole chicken cut up and an extra 4 legs which was all cleaned very well to remove as much of the remaining guts and "slime" off the chicken carcass. This is important to result in a clear and clean tasting stock. Vegetables included: carrots, parsnip, sweed, cabbage, celery, onion, garlic and a huge bunch of fresh parsley from the garden. We're gonna' eat that too!

Then boil away for 2 hours or so at a gentle boil until all that goodness from the chicken bones has made a beautiful sweet stock.

Then we get on to the noodles. I have never made these fresh noodles for soup in my life, but thankfully my mum has. My mum learnt how to make these noodles from my Nana who learnt from my great-grandmother and so on. These noodles are traditional hungarian noodles suitable for soups. I asked Nana, "what should I do to make the noodles for the soup?" and she instructed, "a few cups of flour and 1 egg or 2 eggs or 1 egg with a bit of water, it just depends." So taking those instructions I had a go, firstly using 3 cups of four and 1 egg. She told me the dough needs to be hard enough so you can grate it but not soft and not to work it too much. So I did, but the mix was still too dry. With help of my experienced mum, we added more water gradually until it was soft enough to grate but not so dry that it would crumble.

This might look like little bits of crumbled dough to some, but to my family and surely for most hungarians that grew up eating these noodles in their soup, it's absolute gold!

Enough soup is transfered into a separate pot to boil the noodles. You must cook these noodles in the chicken stock otherwise they turn out quite bland. This only takes a few minutes with a taste test being the best indicator. The soup is served in the way that we always have: to pull out the vegetables and meat and place on separate plates and the soup is served on the table with the noodles kept it's own pot.

So I accomplished to make my Nana's soup noodles for the first time! They were so delicate and soft just like I had remembered them. It had been at least two years since I had eaten these noodles because my Nana is getting old, and cooking the things she loves has become more difficult lately. Nana would always cook this on birthdays and other occasions as a first course and also on the times I would sleep over with my brother. My family did eat chicken soup once a week throughout my childhood, but my mum wouldn't make her own noodles. So when I eat these fresh noodles, it reminds me sharing beautiful food with all my family. Food has such a strong connection with memories and to eat this soup with the fresh noodles is really so special to me. My ultimate comfort food.

International Noodle Incident - Vietnamese Noodle Salad

2010-06-20T11:15:00.010+10:00

I couldn't be more happier for the theme of this International Incident Party to be noodles. I grew up eating many noodles dishes, pancit - which is one of the national dishes of The Philippines, toros teszta - hungarian noodles made with cottage cheese, the very sustainable krumplis teszta - hungarian noodles with potato and of course growing up in Australia - Spaghetti Bolognese ( pasta is noodles after all!).

To this day, I still have a childish enjoyment to eat all types of noodles and I really find it so comforting to eat. Of all the wonderful noodle dishes I love to cook, I chose this one because I feel that it is a dish not from a country that I have any cultural heritage with, but a noodle dish with my own little twist on it. I really love to cook this dish because it really is so incredibly tasty and satisfying. A big bonus too, insanely healthy and a very sustainable meal to eat due to my modifications. (the mungbean noodles are 35 GI in place of rice noodles which are 80+GI! that's ridiculously low!) Lastly my apologies for making a summer noodles dish is the cringe of winter, but it really was to be my first choice noodle dish.

So anyway, my choice of noodles for the theme is:

Vietnamese Noodle Salad

Firstly there is my choice of noodles. Many would protest to say that these noodles are only used for cooking stir fried noodles, but I actually prefer the texture of these noodles in place of rice stick vermicelli. It is important to let the noodles sit in the boiling water for 3-4 minutes to make sure they are cooked through enough. After you have drained the noodles, it is also important that you let all the moisture come out of them. This may take around 30 minutes and you will be able to tell because they will seem stuck together. It is important to do this because if you were to put them in strait after draining them, firstly they would be hot and the dressing would just slide off them instead of absorb it. I tend not to rinse the noodles with any water at all because I found that this made them resistant to absorbing the dressing as well. So just let them sit in the strainer until they completely cool down and become stuck together. I find that if there are prepared properly, they don't go soggy like the rice vermicelli. Of course you can use rice vermicelli if you prefer, but I choose the bean thread. Madly healthy too!

Secondly and most important of any element of this dish is due to it being an uncooked salad, all ingredients must be extremely fresh. You really need to be buying the ingredients the day before, if not the same day due to the short life of coriander, mint and bean shoots. Another tool that is very useful here is a julienne grater. I bought mine at an asian grocer for $8. Before I had this, I did tediously julienne the carrot and cucumber with my knife, which took quite a while and made the preparation time longer than it could be. To use the julienne grater for this dish is a very good tool and will save a lot of time and strain. After all you still have to cut everything else as well.

For the salad

4 x 50g bean thread vermicelli
2 cucumbers
2 carrots
1 bunch mint
1 bunch coriander
handful of cleaned (tailed) bean shoots
2 spring onions (green part only)

Dressing: Nuoc Cham

1 small garlic clove
2 small red chillies
140ml fish sauce (nuoc man nhi)
5 tbsp white sugar
2 tbsp water
juice of 1 lemon

For garnish

Chopped roasted peanuts
fried onion
finely sliced red chilli (optional)

Method
1. Place the bean thread in a heat proof bowl and cover noodles with boiling water for 3-4mins. Drain and leave to sit in strainer for 30 mins.
2. Wash all salad ingredients.
3. Julienne carrot and cucumber. Slice green part of spring onions. Pinch the tails off the bean shoots. Remove mint for the stems and cut the coriander into 2cm pieces.
4. To make the dressing, pound the garlic and chilli in a mortar and pestle. Add all other ingredients and stir to ensure the sugar have dissolved.
5. Place the cooled noodles into a large mixing bowl. Put enough dressing on the noodles to absorb ( 5-6 tbsp ) and mix.
6. Add all other vegetables and add more dressing if needed.
7. Garnish with peanuts, fried onion and sliced chilli (optional!).

I served this salad along side my spring rolls which is whole other story and I won't get into now. You can also eat this salad as a one-bowl meal and cook some sliced beef fillet, quickly seared in a pan with some fish sauce and garlic (bun bo xao - vietnamese noodle salad with beef). Here I have put less noodles than usual because of it being served along side the spring rolls. For a one-bowl meal I prefer to put more noodles but really it comes down to how much vegetables or noodles you like. I love my noodles!!!

Here's the list of everyone else's contribution!

Penny – Jeroxie (Addictive & Consuming) – Homemade ban mian with minced pork and mushrooms
Christine – Christine’s Recipes – Spicy Pork Mince and Noodles in Crisp Lettuce Cups
Mardi – Eat, Live, Travel, Write – Ginger scallion & Butter noodles
Trix – Tasty Trix – Summer ‘Noodles’ with yellow and green zuchinni with cool basil oil tomato sauce
Shirley – Enriching your kid – Vermicilli Biryani with Tahini
Natasha – 5 Star Foodie – Homemade Soba Noodles
Anges – Off the spork – Handpulled noodles at home
Joanne – Second Helping
Cherry – Sweet Cherry Pie – Coconut noodles with honey glazed pork belly
Tracey - Tangled Noodle – Fork in the Road: North Platte Noodles
Evelyne - Cheap Ethnic Eatz – Incidental Noodles
Ms Baklover - Footscray Food Blog – Zha Jiang Mian
Casey – Eating, Gardening & Living in Bulgari
Tamar – Koreanfornian Cooking – Tteokbokki
Billy – Half-Eaten – Pumpkin Miso Noodles in Shitake Dashi Broth
Suresh – 3 hungry tummies – Twice cooked pork with rice noodles
Anh – A food Lover’s Journey – Taco Soba Noodle
Lori – Wannabe Gourmand – Nonya Curry Laksa
Malou – Skip to Malou – Fried Noodle Dish

Coda

2010-06-11T23:10:00.004+10:00

It was a few weeks back now that Doben and I finally payed a visit to Coda to celebrate his birthday. Like always, a first visit to a new place is a mix of excitement and fear..

First we had a salmon gravlax with baby vegetables and goats cheese was our absolute favourite dish of the entire meal. The salmon was perfect, vegetables, cheese, the whole thing just worked so incredibly well. I would go back just to eat this but unfortunately it only comes as a starter size. I was so overwhelmed eating this I would go back to eat this but I might have to order 3 serves!

After my amazing salmon salad were crispy rice paper rolls with a very tasty mix of pork and black fungus. I have to say, I have eaten these in Tien An in Footsgray and the skin was very crunchy. Here, unfortunately had a chewy texture, which was a bit disappointing when I was anticipating the same crunch we found in Footsgray. It was a shame because my partner and I absolutely adore vietnamese hot mint with spring rolls and the concept would be so perfect if the texture of the skin was crunchy. I have tried to make these fried rice paper rolls at home but I couldn't distinguish between the rice paper for the fresh rolls and the fried ones. A man on the Vietnamese Food Safari showed the difference by shaking the uncooked rice papers in the packaging, one being more flexible that the other to distinguish between the one used for fresh and the other used for fried. Even with the demonstration I still could not find the right one. Mine were most definitely the wrong rice paper and had very similar texture to these.

Next were spanner crab betel "beetle" leaves. These were fresh and subtle. The delicate flavours of the pomelo, lime and galangal did work together with the crab respectfully.

Quail lettuce delight - the sauce was very tasty and the combination of the shitake mushrooms, water chestnuts, lup cheong and quail was literally mouth-watering at each bite.

And now, our Coda rolls..

It might be that Doben and myself all of a sudden not like bone marrow or it really was that the batch of bone marrow was not that great. I really tried to like these spring rolls, but I just couldn't. I won't say anymore.

Lastly was our roasted yellow duck curry with taro chips. We were expecting to get a Thai or Malay inspired curry, but this curry was definitely Indian inspired. The spices were quite strong which did suit the strong flavour of the duck. Maybe a personal preference of curry style, we found the spices a bit too strong and did overwhelm our palates a bit more than we wanted. We were quite full and still in 'bone marrow shock' so this might have influenced our palates at this stage.

And so we fled, quite ironically to Longrain for dessert and a drink.

Our flavour packed pork and prawn betel leaves alongside some very strong drinks to end of the night with a bit of fun.

Finally our dessert of taro and coconut pudding with roasted coconut ice cream was SO disgusting... as in Matt Preston disgusting!!!

Longrain's desserts are insanely good. Really, they have dessert like no where else in Melbourne that I've tried. I have eaten a similar taro pudding to the one served in the Philippines, but in combination with the roasted coconut ice cream and the palm sugar syrup, it becomes something else. Last time we ate a custard apple and coconut trifle with coconut ice cream which just the same left us speechless. Can't wait to go back for more.

Snapper or Not to Snapper?

2010-06-07T22:06:00.006+10:00

I really do love fish. It's something that I have grown to appreciate more and more over the last few years. Especially after I moved out of the east end of CBD to a small unit in Parkville/North Melbourne, and only 2 blocks away from the Queen Victoria Market, I find myself buying fish very, very often.

It wasn't only until about 6 months ago that I came across the direct threat that commercial fishing poses the world's fish supplies through a random google search. I wasn't so sure how I was going to take all the information into my own purchasing choices, as I found some of the messages conflicting...

To eat thy snapper or not?

I found an Australian site (http://www.marineconservation.org.au/WhatWeDo.asp?active_page_id=238) suggesting that the common snapper species was in the overfished category. Snapper is one of my very favourite fish to buy. I only have to show my face for a second at my fish monger, and they already know what I'm after. So reading that my beloved snapper was on the list was very disappointing. The next time I went to the market, it did strike me how there was an awful lot of snapper in each of the shops and that it was so readily available all year round.

Then the other day, I decided to you tube search sustainable fishing and found a Neil Perry video on Victorian sustainable fishing. Finally, I had found a source that was specific to me and where I live.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SqL_8nDrng

I really enjoyed the video as it is specific to not only Victoria, but Melbourne! ps. Please ignore Neil's promotional video for his restaurant and as you can see I'm extremely incompetent and don't know how to load the video to my page. Please watch the link.

So my Snapper???

Well, I feel that if it was on the Australian list on the first place, it is without a doubt, overfished in many cases. Maybe not in Port Phillip Bay, but I still feel extremely sceptical if the all the snapper is coming from SO close to home all year round.

Anyway, for now I'll make an effort to make the most of the other fish mentioned and try to squeeze the truth out of my fish monger friend, to where the my dear snapper is from.

April Mildura Visit

2010-05-04T00:20:00.010+10:00

Although I mentioned I was eager to return to Stefano's this visit, I was again, tight on time, so even better I spent more time with my dear family instead. I still had many culinary joys, the one most memorable: harvesting my parents backyard garden. It is still a very young garden, so the little that I harvested was a special batch.

My parents moved from a their 10 acre vineyard just outside a small neighbouring town, to settle for a suburbia lifestyle and moved into a house in Mildura. Even after living in Melbourne for 6years now, it's been a big shift when I return from being surrounded by thousands of grape vines, mandarins, oranges, many stone fruit trees and free flowing vegetable plants bordering our house to standing in a backyard and being only 30ft from a fence. Even still, I can appreciate the space they have as it's bigger than any balcony space I've had in the time I've lived in Melbourne.

Mildura never fails to give me beautiful calm sunny days when I visit, a nice break from the windy grey days that Melbourne has become lately..

So back in Melbourne, I was to put my small harvest to so good use. As for all the bell chillies, they were blended with some garlic and salt then put in jars with some diced lemon to make a zingy sambal for everyday use. I came across a Nonna selling some passata in beer bottles in the Sunday Market, so pasta time it was, I made some veal and pork polpette. My polpette consisted of veal and pork mince, fresh bread crumbs, parsley, grana padano and egg. I didn't bother to make the pasta which I bought from David Jones Food Hall, since Donninis was too far and too late to get to in time.

Short Visit to Mildura

2010-04-10T13:38:00.005+10:00

Over my short visit to Mildura we decided to have a light lunch at Stefano's Cafe Bakery. I didn't have enough free time to go have dinner at his restaurant, will try and make some time next trip back.

Overall I would say we had a pleasant lunch. The service definitely needs a total overhaul, but wasn't so bad that we left disgruntled. Let's just say I'll be heading back when I return to Mildura in a few weeks to see what they have for lunch!

Doben chose the better dish than me as always - Moroccan Lamb with Couscous. Was very flavoursome - an absolute delight at every mouthful. I really loved the combination of the couscous, with the braised lamb, the yoghurt and tart tomato chutney. Would go back to eat this, but their menu changes daily!

My slightly average Stuffed Fritto Misto of eggplant and red capsicum, still had a lot of flavour, but probably could have been better if it was freshly cooked..

Some Sarma I made for my Tata's 80th Birthday. Whole sauerkrauts are difficult to buy in Mildura (let alone anywhere?) unless you have some stored in your garage, so instead I just par-boiled the whole cabbage leaves so the leaves could be rolled. Obviously the sour taste of the sauerkrauts was absent but still I was pleased with the result. My filling included a mix a veal and pork mince, garlic, onion, parsley, paprika, rice and egg.

Final product - Nana and Tata were very pleased!

Some green beans that my mum's friend dropped off that she had just picked the same day. From plant to mouth in less than 5 hours - that's what it's all about right?

Salad of fresh white peach, prosciutto and buffalo mozzarella

2010-01-22T19:57:00.010+11:00

It's only a few sleeps now before I head off to the Philippines, so I'm feeling desperate to enjoy some food that I know I'll be out of reach for a month. I went for a stroll around Vic Market yesterday to see what looked good and came across some white peaches that reminded me of the salad featured in the Epicure pull-out in The Age this Tuesday.

Bill's Farm could quite possibly be the only delicatessen in Vic Market that will slice you their hams on purchase and don't kick up a fuss about minimum weight purchases. I couldn't go past their parma prosciutto that would go perfect with the peaches and an immaculate white ball of buffalo milk mozzarella.

Salad of fresh white peach, prosciutto and buffalo mozzarella

1 cup watercress

1/2 cup torn basil leaves
1 white peach cut into 8 pieces
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
squeeze of 1/2 lemon
1 buffalo mozzarella

6 slices of freshly sliced prosciutto

Scatter watercress and basil on a plate and tear mozzarella into chunks around salad.
Place prosciutto and peaches around salad and dress with a sqeeze of lemon and drizzle with oil.
Season with sea salt and cracked pepper.

Serves 2 as a side

This is such a simple salad which really relies on the freshest and quality produce. The prosciutto was so silky to eat along with the fresh peaches and the creaminess of the buffalo mozzarella made the salad come together perfectly. I ate this for my lunch the same day I went to the market but would go great as a part of a meal along side some grilled seafood or meat. A fantastic summer salad.

Source: Inspired by - Salad of fresh peach, serrano ham and buffalo mozzarella, Caroline Velik, Epicure The Age 19/01/10

Festive Baking Sessions

2010-01-16T21:23:00.011+11:00

Amidst the frantic choas that was my Christmas, I had always planned to make something special for my family when I returned. I decided a summer dessert: one that I had never attempted before would be fitting for the occasion. It initially was supposed to be Christmas lunch dessert, that then became Boxing day lunch dessert due to the absence of my brother on Christmas day.

This is the first recipe I attempted from Bourke Street Bakery - very exciting indeed! As I ranted on previously, this is such a fabulous baking bible which I will love to cook more recipes in the future.

Since buying the book, the section that I absolutely adore is the tarts. My tart love was born after tasting the amazing creations at Dolcetti such as pannacotta tart, burnt lemon tart, cherry & walnut crostata, and so SO many more - all divine. So very fittingly, it was only a matter of time I had a go at it myself.

I chose to make the summer berry custard tarts. I started on the very long process of making the shortcrust pasty on Christmas night. This involved rubbing the butter into the flour then gathering the dough then rest for two hours and rolling the dough then resting overnight. I also made creme patisserie for the filling.

When boxing day came, I would cut the dough into discs and mould into the tart tins. This would then need to be frozen for 20mins. I would then blind bake them and fill the with the creme pattiserie. I used not only berries as the recipe noted. My mum had some excellent fresh and ripe peaches grown in her friends backyard so I decided to make them into fruit tarts.

and...

...vuala! What a joy they were to assemble and present. My long preparation was really worth it. I loved how they looked, and too, they tasted wonderful. My family were just as pleased as I and overall I would say it was a success. I would definately make them again. The only thing I would change next time would be to add some gelatine leaves into the creme patisserie as it was a bit runny, and it turn a bit messy if you were to bite into it. None the less, everything turned out great.

Delicious baking success!

Modern Thai

2009-12-11T22:28:00.015+11:00

Longrain restaurant is for sure, not your average 'Thai' food. Initially I was very reluctant to try out Longrain as I often eat at Ying Thai at Richmond and Ying Thai 2 at Carlton, which is very authentic and has good prices. To be honest I thought, "Why would I pay more to eat Thai food that isn't even made by a Thai?"

But who am I to judge..

I wouldn't say that Longrain's food is authentic Thai, more of a modern take on Thai cusine which makes the most of the fresh produce in Australia and has a strong focus on the aesthetics in presenting their dishes. Needless to say the taste of Thailand is there: the definate presence of fish sauce, palm sugar, lime and yes, chilli. Not all dishes have the same heat as authentic Thai dishes, but still, despite the majority of their diners being non-asian, the kitchen does not go light handed on the chilli, especially in the red curry dishes.

So after having new warmth towards modern Thai food, I decided to try some of the recipes from Martin Boetz's book: Longrain Modern Thai Food.

I really dread abiding by every millilitre and gram which goes with following recipes and because I learnt how to cook by watching my mother, grandmother and many other people I have passed throughout my time so far, measuring every ingredient does become very tedious and frustrating. I cooked this small banquet ( for 2 people: my partner and I ) and followed most of the ingredients but added the palm sugar and fish sauce according to my familiarity in seasoning with these ingredients as I use them quite often.

There really is no point of me noting the recipes as I didn't follow them so please just enjoy my photos!

Betel Leaves with Prawn and Pork

I also adapted the recipes to what I ate at Longrain, as the book has a recipe for Betel Leaves with Smoked Trout with Galangal and Trout Roe, I replaced the fish with pork and prawn instead.

Eggnets with Pork, Prawn and Beansprouts

Green Curry with Flathead Tails

I also replaced the prawn and vegetables in the Green Curry with flathead tails as I already had two dishes with prawns.

Mango, Raspberry and Coconut Custard Parfait

The recipe I was guided by was Lychee, Coconut Custart and Mango Trifle. I omitted the Pandanus sponge as it was too much to cook in too little time and as I thought the sharp sweetness of the lychees did not suit the subtle coconut custard, I decided to replace them with raspberries.

This meal was fantastic. Both I and my bf were so surprised how similar the taste was to what we ate at Longrain. Although it took a lot of time to prep and follow so many recipes: green curry paste, red chilli nahm jim, coconut caramel sauce for the beansprouts, red paste for betel leaves, coconut custard and mango jelly it all was very much worth the effort in the end.

Longrain

44 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne

Ying Thai 2

110 Lygon St, Carlton

Ying Thai

235 Victoria St, Abbotsford

Kaposztsalata (Hungarian Coleslaw)

2009-12-07T13:20:00.009+11:00

After eating too many rice meals days on end, I decided it was time to revisit some of my childhood food. As we all do, I loved my Grandmother's cooking. My family would devour delicious Magyar food everytime we visited my grandparent's house and had many generous feasts on birthdays and religious celebrations.

One side dish that would always be a part of a banquet was kaposztsalata, which is Hungarian style coleslaw. It is quite different from the coleslaw which Australians are familiar with, as there is an absence of mayonnaise. In turn, the dish is beautifully light and refreshing, perfectly complimenting the heavy meaty dishes that Hungarians enjoy.

Being able to make a perfect kaposztsalata is some what a right of passage for a hungarian girl. Despite only being half Hungarian (from my father's side), this is still one dish that I need to do right! On the occasions that I prepared this salad from my grandparents (Nana & Tata) thankfully, they strongly approved. phew!

After all, the recipe was passed on from Nana and she is the expert.

So there are a few things that are very important in getting this dish right:

Firstly you need super fresh cabbage! Not that I should even have to mention always using fresh produce, but really, what you are trying to achieve with this dish is crunchy sweet fresh cabbage. If the cabbage was old you will definately end up angry Hungarians, and you DO NOT want that.
You need to make sure to slice the cabbage as FINE as possible. You will definately need your knife to be super sharp and have patience because if the cabbage shreds are thick, the whole dish turns out wrong.

Ingredients

1/4 of a large cabbage - finely shredded

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp white sugar

1 tsp apple cider / white vinegar

1 tsp extra virgin olive oil

Method

Finely shred cabbage with a sharp knife and place in a bowl.
Add salt, sugar, cider/ vinegar and oil to shredded cabbage and mix to distribute ingredients.
Leave the cabbage for 15 minutes, mixing the salad every 5 minutes. This time will allow the cabbage to slightly pickle and give a good texture.

This salad is perfect with crumbed veal schnitzel and roasted paprika potatoes as I have here. Any other heavy meat dishes would also go well such as roast or Magyar meatloaf.

Recipe: Nana Margita Koroknai

Carlton Expresso

2009-12-03T18:55:00.023+11:00

The long awaited reopening of Carlton Expresso was revealed this week, finally.

Being the favourite cafe of my BF and I for many years, it has been a LONG wait of missing lattes, prosciutto and fontina foccacias and pancetta and egg paninis, which we always looked forward to on a day off together. We had replaced our coffee fix at Seven Seeds, although despite their passion for serving one of the best coffee's in town, our hearts were still longing for Expresso's coffee and foccacias!

I must admit, I was quite scared of Tony Nicolini's decision to expand his what seemed, a perfect sized cafe prior to the renovations, but thankfully what seemed to be impossible to improve, just got better. Other than the increased noise levels at the busy lunch period, many pleasant improvements have been made. The renovations included the expansion of the whole next door shop, now including a small kitchen downstairs, a courtyard at the back and about double the amount of seating. There is a new to-order menu including many pasta dishes such as "bimbo lasange - bambino lasange", daily zuppa, antipasti and of course our favourite - foccacias!

Opening hours have been extended:

Before: 7am- 5pm 7days.

Now: 7am - 9-930pm 7days.

Another unbelievable discovery was the decrease in price of foccacias...? Before all foccaccias were priced between $8.9 - 13.9, which I was more than willing to pay as the most optimum quality of small goods and cheeses are used. As for now, ALL foccacias are only $8.90- 9.9!? Hello delicious bargain!

(please excuse my new level of s*%thouse quality shots taken on my phone)

I got my usual (and greatly missed) San Daniele prosciutto w/ fontina & rocket focaccia and my BF got a new addition Capocollo w/ provolone, green sicilian olives & and rocket - delish! The bread was slightly different than before, mostly in shape (oblong rather than square, cut into two triangles) and slightly less use of the secret ingredient - lard in the dough but still perfection pane heaven!

So many delicious additions to the menu but not enough days off to go.. oh no wait.. they are open until 9pm 7days now!

I am truly amazed at the new interior design, Tony seems to be leading the way in a new Italian cafe experience. Unfortunately, I was too scared of looking like a total groupie and take shots of the new interior, I'll just have to suggest you go have a look for yourself (or wait until I have the courage to take a shot)!

Carlton Expresso

326 Lygon St, Carlton

Seven Seeds,

114 Berkeley St, Carlton

www.sevenseeds.com.au

Making the Most of Convenience

2009-12-01T22:24:00.014+11:00

" I don't have time "

" I'm just too tired "

Don't get me wrong, I understand the utterly touturous thought of cooking a meal after a long tiring day and not to mention the hideous aftermath (that is dish washing) and as I tend to miss my trips to Little Saigon (Footsgray) and Victoria Market in order to cook meals for dinner, I too find myself with a similiar dilemma. This is because I refuse to buy fresh fruit and vegetables from convenient supermarkets (with the exception of avocados, maybe mushrooms if I'm desperate) and staunchly refuse to buy any 'fresh' meat from such supermarket chains. So I too need to find a way to overcome such times of desperation to EAT.

But this is no excuse to dial some nasty pizza joint, or get in a car to shuv down some plastic burgers. This time calls for creativity.

Mostly when I have tired days, I take the opportunity to eat my weekly Pho at Chu The, 270 Victoria St Richmond, but on the occasions that my BF just can't be bothered tackling the mad traffic between 5pm - 7pm, I need to whip something up pronto!

At a glance you would assume that I had slaved over a stove for many hours to assemble this "Nasi Lemak" (although more of an Indonesian version).

NO WAY!

What I did cook/ prepare:

1. Peel and slice cucumbers.

2. Hard boil eggs.

3. Stir fry kang kong.

4. Cook coconut rice.

5. Cook Kering Tempe:

Kering Tempe (Fried Fermented Soybean)

1 piece Tempe - fermented soybean (300 grams)

oil for deep frying

100 grams peanuts

5 chillies, sliced

5 tbsp oil

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp tamarind water

50 gm brown sugar

1 tsp salt

50 gm shallot, sliced

100 gm dried anchovies

Cut tempe into 1 x 1 x 4 cm pieces and deep fry until golden.
Fry chillies, shallot, peanuts and dried anchovies untill crispy and set aside.
Add 5tbsp of oil into a pan and saute garlic until fragrant. Add tamarind juice and sugar until sauce has thickened. Season with salt to taste.
Add all the fried ingredients to the sauce and stir so all ingredients are coated well.

Recipe: The Best of Indonesian Cooking, Yasa Boga

As for what I did buy which saved me many hours cooking:

1. Beef Rendang

2. Ayam Goreng (Fried Chicken)

Both from Nelayan, 265 Swanston Street, Melbourne

Even just to serve the Beef Rendang with rice and stir fried kang kong would definately make a wonderful meal after your long day!

YES for enhancing take out!