Spatula, Spoon and Saturday

I completely forgot about this. This is what I served with the country style rabbit casserole and I forgot to write about it.

This is for four side serves:

1. 500 g. pumpkin, peeled and sliced
2. 1/2 sweet potato, peeled and sliced
3. 1/2 cup of cream
4. 1 tsp of ground nutmeg
5. a pinch of salt

The reason that the pumpkin and sweet potato should be sliced thinly is so that they cook faster. Start by steaming the pumpkin and potato pieces for 10-15 minutes until they fall apart when you put a knife through. Drain. Reserve some cooking water, you might need it to thin down the puree.

Heat the cream on low heat and add nutmeg. Toss through the sweet potato and pumpkin and using a fork or potato masher or you can use a stick blender (I don’t bother). Add a bit of the reserved cooking water if needed. Keep mixing until you get the desired consistency. Salt to taste. The purée should not be salted the way, say, mashed potato should be salted sparingly to round off the sweet taste of the pumpkin and sweet potato. Sometimes I use vegetable stock powder instead.

This year’s Taste of Melbourne was held at the Royal Exhibition Building near the Carlton garden. It’s basically a festival of all things food with food and food-related stalls. The highlights of the show are of course the food stalls held by some of the more popular Melbourne fine-dining scene.

We consumed a fair bit of food in the 3 hours that we were there! Not only there were a lot of food available to buy, there are also a lot of stalls that give out samples as well. We were in food heaven with lots of foodies peddling their wares. Too bad it was such an awful rainy day. But well, this is Melbourne. We did arrive at 1pm, an hour later than the opening, which turned out to be a good idea because we missed the queues and were able to go straight in.

(MoVida – Slow cooked cuttlefish with chorizo and chickpeas)

Without further ado, a bit of a review on each of the dishes that we tried in chronological order. I first settled on MoVoda’s cuttlefish and chorizo stew. The first thing I noticed about it was that it was not hot, in fact, it wasn’t even lukewarm. That really ruined the dish. But I enjoyed the flavours and the cuttlefish was very tender. Josh had such funny averse reaction to it and he thought it was awful! Read the rest of this entry »

This dish started off in our household as my attempts at okonomiyaki, which worked really well. I even added katsuobushi for the dancing fish effects. Josh, on the other hand, had decided that because I wasn’t around (this came about during my project in Singapore period) he was free to bastardise my okonomiyaki recipe however he damn wished.

I came home to find my recipe horribly butchered so, as a saving grace, I introduced the smoked salmon and sour cream components and it has worked out a treat since.

You will need for 6 rather large pancakes or many littler ones:

Pancake batter

1. 3/4 cup of self-raising flour
2. 1/4 cup of plain flour
3. 2 large eggs
4. 2 cups of cabbage, thinly sliced*
5. 1 large-ish carrot, peeled and grated
6. 2 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and grated
7. 1 tbsp of chopped fresh mint leaves (optional)
8. 1 tsp of salt
9. 1 tsp of pepper
10. 1 zest of lemon
11. Some milk
12. Some butter

Mix the flours, egg, salt and pepper together. Add the vegetables and loosen with some milk until the right consistency is achieved (sorry we generally don’t measure).

Add some butter to a non-stick frying pan, spoon the pancake batter and fry until both sides are golden brown.

To serve:

1. 1 slice of smoked salmon per large pancake**
2. 1 tbsp of sour cream
3. Fresh parsley, chopped

Spoon some sour cream on top of pancake and drape a slice of smoked salmon across. Sprinkle with some chopped fresh parsley.

* He used purple cabbage in the picture. I prefer green cabbage, it tastes better and the colour doesn’t look so wrong the next day.
** For vegetarian option, leave out the smoked salmon and squeeze in a bit of lemon juice into the batter. Serve with sour cream and parsley (or chive)

I took my friend Rowena who was in town for the week from good old Queenstown in New Zealand. So I figured I should take her to the Queen Vic market for some boreks and German hotdogs – my favourites! I can’t say which one is my favourite borek because I love them all and just rotate what I get.

But nope. She had one borek (didn’t even like it because it had too much parsley in it) and decided that that was enough bread she could handle for one meal and that she missed good old Cantonese style food. So, wouldn’t you know it, we ended up at the food court. You know, Row, if I had know you wanted Chinese, I would have taken you to China Town! Much closer!

The food court (I’m assuming it’s new because I haven’t been there before) was nice and spacious. Best of all lots of good natural light for photos. Which is why I want to write this up as the photos are much better than the food! I’m really generally not a fan of food court food (but that’s me being fussy, innit).

Row decided on braised beef with noodles, which was noodles topped Cantonese style beef stew and stock. She put liberal amount of chillis on it and loved it. I just like this photo!

Row enjoyed it immensely because apparently you don’t get this sort of food in Queenstown. But she lives in the most gorgeous house by the most gorgeous surrounding – I think that might be compensation enough!

I settled on Laksa. I’m not too sure why. It was very average. I have had much better laksa in my time. It didn’t come with coriander though. Row didn’t like it on hers so she piled it on mine. The eggplant that was on the laksa was quite good but that’s pretty much it.

Personally, I would have gone for the hot dog!

(Vietnamese broken rice – $8.50?)

I can’t remember how we ended up there one night. We usually popped into a restaurant on Victoria St. due to being out late in the city and just needed some food. I do believe this occasion was one of them.

I have been to Co Do once before and was reluctant to go again, not because the food or service was no good, but because I have this misguided notion that I should try every restaurant on Victoria St. at least once so I shouldn’t go back on the one that I have already been to.

(complimentary side salad)

Unfortunate (or fortunately), we went in there because it was the first restaurant we went past that had an EFTPOS sign. Good thing we did. We had some really good food on the night.

I felt like a bit of noodle soup but I didn’t feel like the usual pho (which I love) so I ordered rice vermicelli with duck and bamboo shoot soup. Now, most Vietnamese noodle joints give you a bit of beansprouts, lemon slice and some basil, if you’re lucky, but Co Do goes all out with a heap of fresh yummy-looking beansprouts with a tonne of mixed lettuce and cabbage. The salad was very nice and fresh.

(rice vermicelli with duck and bamboo shoots soup – $8.50?)

The soup was beautifully mellow. The bamboo shoots were different types to ones you’d get in your usual Chinese-style stir-fries, it was a bit softer and just different. I know (being a Thai and all) that there are at least 4-5 different types of common eating bamboo shoots but this wasn’t one of the ones I was familiar with. The duck was tender and well cooked. I have this strange notion that duck pieces in a soup should be stewed until it falls apart but this one didn’t but it wasn’t tough and it was just right. It also came with a bit of duck’s blood cube. I’m never a really big fan of blood cubes anyway so I took a tiny bite and decided that it wasn’t any special worth bothering with.

(Vietnamese broken rice with fried egg, grilled pork chop and other goodies – $8.50?)

Josh, bless his cotton socks, went and ordered the Vietnamese broken rice. So predictable. Mind you, it is a really good Vietnamese dish. Whoever invented it was a genius. Basically, using ‘broken’ rice i.e. rice grains that were broken during the husking process i.e. second-grade, cheaper rice, they managed to make it a very special dish by serving it with grilled pork chop (marinated Vietnamese-style with lemongrass), fried egg and shredded pork rind (I think flavoured with toasted and ground rice – really I don’t know how. It’s one of those things that’s good so you don’t bother questioning it). Some restaurants also serve it with Vietnamese egg/pate/meatloaf type thing (again, don’t question it). Co Do’s broken rice is an example of a typically good Vietnamese broken rice dish.

(stir-fried mixed vegetables with tofu – $11?)

I was also desperate for some veggies (I suppose if I had remembered that the side salad was huge, I might not have bothered) so I ordered stir-fried vegetables with tofu. It was yummy but nothing special.

All in all, it was a good meal but I still have to go through ALL of the restaurants on Victoria St., damnit. How much can one eat!?!

Co Do Vietnamese and Chinese Restaurant, 196 Victoria St., Richmond, VIC

This was so ridiculously easy. It was one of those weeknight magic. This is basically a left over from Country-style Rabbit Casserole.

But first the absolute laziest way to make pappardelle:

Go off to your local supermarket and buy a pack of ‘fresh’ lasagna sheets. Hey it was Tuesday night – there is no making of pasta on week nights thank you very much. Cut the pasta sheets into pappardelle – which are about 1-2 inches.

I think this is entirely up to you, so it depends on how wide you think pappardelle should be. Personally, I reckon it should be about1.5 inches wide. So I cut them into quarters. We only needed about 1/4 of a pack per serve.

Back to our leftover casserole. I got Josh to pick the rabbit meat off the bone and shred them into tiny pieces. I heated up a frying pan with a little bit of butter and added a spring of rosemary. I picked out all the pickling onions from the casserole and add the rest of the casserole in. I loosened the mixture with a little bit of white wine.

I added zest of half an orange into the ragu. Seasoned it with pepper and just a little touch of cream. The idea of the creamy wasn’t to make the sauce creamy. But rather to round off the flavour because I was using fresh pasta. If I were using dried pasta, I probably would have drizzled extra v olive oil on instead.

I then turned the heat off and rested the sauce. I brought a saucepan of water to boil and added the pappardelle and cook for about 2-3 minutes. I then spooned some of the ragu in a separate frying pan and heat up the sauce. I used a slotted spoon to transfer the cooked pasta onto the sauce. I added a little bit of the cooking water to the pasta to loosen it.

And that was it. I grated some more orange zest on top and sprinkled chopped fresh parsley on the pasta. It was lovely. I have the say the rabbit improved a lot after sitting in the fridge for a couple of days. I even made another serve and packed a lunchbox for Josh.

Fresh pasta doesn’t really do well sitting around but you know, lunchbox expectations were never high! So he loved it the next day too.

A quick one before I run off yet again. Nicole and I were trying to find Journal Canteen – of course we  failed abysmally the first time and ended up at Journal. I mean, how were we supposed to know? They have practically the same name and they are in the same CAE building!

We have been there a couple of times since the space is rather awesome to just discuss work – usually a bit of a brain storming session. Coffee is usually good (and they have freshly squeezed orange juice) but the last time they unforgivably burned my espresso so I’m still considering the next return.

(roasted pumpkin and rocket salad – $15.00)

Anyway, the food was rather nice despite limited menu. We both settled for salad on the day. Nicole went for roasted pumpkin and rocket salad. She said it was good despite not being able to finish it (“I can’t eat too much pumpkin!”)

(prociutto and witlof salad – $15.00)

I went for the prociutto and witlof salad, which seemed the most interesting thing on the menu. It was beautiful. The salad was made of witlof (of course) but with a bit more concentration of raddichio, pear slices, blue cheese and walnut. It was perfectly dressed and topped with slices of prociutto. Definitely ++ for this little gem.

We were given two slices of toasted crusty bread drizzled with olive oil. Carb-free meals are overrated.

A great space for casual coffee and lunch. The salads weren’t bad either! Still undecided about the coffee.

Journal, Lower Ground Floor, 1/253 Flinders La., Melbourne VIC

Pim and Hong (aka the two girls with the worst case of sweet toothitis I have ever know) desperately needed some chocolate, in fact they specifically asked for Koko Black. Who am I to refuse the prompting of (very domineering) fate? Good thing there’s one five-minute drive away (plus it wasn’t a bitch to find parking, who could ask for more?)

So we ended up Koko Black in Camberwell. It was outfitted like, y’know, any Koko Black store except it has a bit more room and a chocolate room at the back where a chocolatier was doing her stuff.

We decided since it was mid morning and we would head to lunch soon-ish, we would only order a drink each and share a chocolate platter (Belgian Spoil – $22.00) Note only being the operative word!

(Belgian hot chocolate with chilli – $5.75)

I had a Belgian hot chocolate with chilli – one of the better chilli hot chocolate out there but to be perfectly honest I’m fussy and I’m not a big fan of Koko Black. And the pink whatever-it-was put me off somewhat.

(Belgian hot chocolate – a part of the Belgian Spoil set)

Pim ordered the original Belgian hot chocolate. She thought it was great.

(Belgian iced chocolate – a part of the Belgian Spoil set)

Hong ordered iced. Not too sure why. I mean, it was winter! And yes, one of these days I would learn to take better pictures and maybe even learn to use Josh’s DSLR. One of these days, I would also go to the gym in the morning. Haha.

(Belgian Spoil – a ‘traditional’ chocolate platter)

The chocolate platter set included the two drinks, a chocolate cake, shortbread, chocolate, chocolate mousse, chocolate ice cream.

Chocolate mousse was quite nice. I’m not a fan of chocolate mousse in general but I didn’t mind this one. Chocolate ice cream was all right. You can’t really beat Haagen Dazs chocolate ice cream though.

The chocolate cake was nice and so was the shortbread. Didn’t have any of the chocolate pieces but Mat bought me a box of Koko Black choccies for my birthday which I enjoyed greatly. They were absolutely yummy. Thanks Mat!

(now this is what I call the spoil!)

I’m probably not the best person to do a chocolate review and to be honest, I can never get excited about a chain. Well. Maybe. Sometimes. But not this time.

Koko Black Chocolate, 799 Burke Rd., Camberwell, VIC

I figured Brunswick Street would be a really good place to take two out-of-towners to experience one of those Melbourne food strips. Somehow, and I wasn’t sure how, I decided that we should give Pireaus Blues a try. And we weren’t disappointed.

We decided on the banquet ($38.00 per person). The moment I said to the waiter, ‘we’ll have the banquet, please.’ And his reply was ‘for all four?’ and I nodded I realised we could have ordered just a leetle bit more food than we would have been comfortable eating!

(Greek dips -  from front anti-clockwise: tzatziki, melitzanosalata, skordalia, taramosalata)

We started with warm pita bread which was slightly charred and smokey. This made it the more better! It was served with the classic Greek dips: skordalia (potato and garlic), taramosalata (some sort fish roe), melitzanosalata (eggplant) and tzatziki (cucumber and yoghurt).

(pita bread)

I took a quick vote and it seemed like the potato dip was the most popular. I personally liked the eggplant best but the potato dip won out by three votes! All the dips were rather good though.

(marinated capsicums)

Our next entree was marinated capsicums. They were cut into thin strips and served cold. The dish went rather well with the dips and the pita bread.

(saganaki)

Our next entree to arrive was saganaki – which was Kefalotyri cheese fried until golden. It was very creamy and salty. It went beautifully with a squeeze of lemon on the pita bread. It was perfectly fried with the outside sharp and crispy and the inside creamy. Make no mistake though, it was a very strong, salty cheese. We were reaching for drinks after a few bites! Read the rest of this entry »

Okay, it’s Friday night and I’m getting ready to go out (again) so just a really quick post on a very light lunch from last week.

I went to the market and found a bunch of really nice looking baby silver beet, so I grabbed a bunch. I figured since I had the really good Pure Bread Bakery onion and cheese sourdough bread (i.e. a really good crusty bread), it didn’t really need much.

I used:

1. 1 bunch of baby silverbeet
2. 4 slices of crusty sourdough bread, toasted (I recommend best crusty bread you can get)
3. 2 cloves of garlic, sliced
4. 2 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
5. 1 tsp of salt

Carefully wash the silverbeet and remove the tough parts of the stalk. You can either chop the silverbeet into smaller pieces or slice the stalks lengthwise so that they cook faster.

Bring a pot of water to boil, salt it and blanch the silver beets for 3 minutes (I used baby silver beets so yours may need more coaxing).

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil in a frying pan until warm and add the garlic. Fry the garlic gently on low heat until soft. Try not to let the garlic colour. Drain and squeeze out any excess water from your silver beets and add to the pan. Sautee gently for two more minutes or until the silver beets are soft. Serve on top on the crostini.