Spatula, Spoon and Saturday

I love risotto. Naturally we have it a lot more often in winter but this was another one of those menu that was born out of cupboard staples and had a distinctively summer feel to it. I am a big fan of tomatoes for breakfast, so we always have at least 3-4 tomatoes hanging around in the fruit bowl.

This recipe was inspired by Jamie Oliver’s tomato, basil and ricotta risotto but naturally I lost it half way and started doing my own thing. Hey, like I said, it hasn’t turned out badly yet.

Risotto for two people who are in lurrve

1. 1 cup of arborio rice
2. 1 onion, finely chopped
3. 1/2 bulb of baby fennel, finely chopped*
4. 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
5. 3 very ripe, sweet tomatoes, chopped into large chunks.
6. 3 large chunks of marinated goat’s cheese (about 80 g.) **
7. 3 tbsp of standard dressing (i.e. one part olive oil, one part balsamic vinegar, salt & pepper)
8. a sprinkling of dried chilli flakes
9. 4 large leaves of fresh oregano, thinly slices ***
10. 1 handful of fresh basil leaves
11. 1 litre of vegetable stock, simmered (I use 1 tbsp Vegeta Gourmet Stock powder + 1/2 cube of Massel veggie stock)

Dress the tomatoes with the standard dressing and set aside. Sprinkle the goat’s cheese with the chilli flakes and organo and grill for ten minutes or until golden.

Heat a glug of olive oil in a sauce pan and fry off the onion and fennel gently for ten minutes on low heat. Add garlic and cook for another minute. Turn the heat up, add the rice and fry until hot to touch. Ladle in some hot stock. Keep stirring and add the stock one ladle at a time. Add 2/3 of the tomatoes half way through. Cook, stirring and keep adding stock until the rice is soft and creamy but firm to bite in the middle.

Stir in the rest of the tomatoes, grilled goat’s cheese and the basil leaves. Rest for one minute and then serve immediately, drizzled with a good grassy olive oil. Yum.

On hindsight, really, I should have pretended that this was my Cookbook Challenge Week 7 but it’s too late. I’m going to hit post now.

* I had the fennel left over from something else, you can use celery instead.
** As mentioned previously, marinated goat’s cheese (soft and creamy) is our fridge staple (having a cheese maker for a brother-in-law does have its advantages). You can use ricotta or other soft goat’s cheese instead. Drizzle a bit of oil on it before roasting.
*** A few pinches of dried oregano is fine but hey it’s summer and I have a pot of oregano.

This is an appreciation bit for my oven

I love my oven. I don’t care if it’s a second hand bought rental oven. It’s old. In fact, it may even be called retro. But It rocks. I have had brand new oven. I have used my parent’s whiz bang oven. I have used other friends’ whiz bang ovens. But mine rocks the most. You know why?

It’s a gas oven. Get gas. Seriously. Having an electric oven is like having electric hotplates.

Book: Encyclopedia of Creative Cooking: Beery & Wine Cookery Theme: Christmas Recipe: Egg Nog

I would like to (belatedly) wish everyone a happy Christmas but more importantly now that Christmas is over, a much more fabulous New Year than the last. So let’s get our Cookbook Challenge out of the way first, shall we?

We have our Christmas at lunch at Josh’s nana and grandpa’s every year and it’s always the same food – roast lamb, roast chicken, potatoes, pumpkins, peas, carrots, cauliflower with cheese sauce and gravy. For desserts we usually have pavlova, apple crumble, plum pudding and custard. And I never have to cook. It’s awesome. So this year, Jenny had put me in charge of drinks so I figure I might do the Cookbook Challenge all in one hit (two birds and all that).

I have to say I thoroughly cheated and not follow the ingredients and measurements and instructions on this recipe at all. But hey, it’s Christmas. Or something. Any excuse will do. Also I was worried about Josh’s grandparents consuming raw eggs so I made an executive decision to make cooked eggnog and not raw. Read the rest of this entry »

I love Journal Canteen. I love the simple perfectly made Italian food that is served there. What? Am I giving away the ending again? Sorry.

(small antipasto platter – $15)

Well, I work near Journal Canteen and we go there for lunch quite often, so this post will be about a few trips that we made to Journal Canteen and some the fabulous food they serve there.

First things first, Journal Canteen is not Journal (the cafe), which is visible from Flinders Lane. They are in the same building so don’t get confused. To get to Journal Canteen (also known as Rosa’s Kitchen – its red neon lettering visible from Flinders Lane), you need to go into the CAE building and it’s up a few steps up on the right.

(the same antipasto platter but on the other side)

The menu at Journal Canteen changes almost everyday. There’s the standing favourite, of course, which is the anti pasto platter (small or large). The items on the platter do change depending on seasons (we have had zucchini flowers) but this time we had olives, sliced salami, zucchini fritter, dressed potato, dressed zucchini (with mint), grilled capsicum, grilled eggplant with tomato sauce. The very first time Nicole had the eggplant, she reckoned it was the best eggplant she ever had. The eggplant itself gets cooked different ways each time we visited though.

(complimentary bread – just bread, no butter, no oil)

The menu, as I mentioned earlier, changes daily but it always consists of generally a pasta or two dishes, a meat or two dishes and a vegetarian option. Read the rest of this entry »

This is a public announcement.

I feel the need to mention the ongoing Menu for Hope VI. However, I do not wish to reinvent the wheels. So I am going to send you over to the following places:

1. Chez Pim – the original mastermind of Menu for Hope to read what it’s all about.
2. Tomatom – the host of the Asia-Pacific Menu for Hope to see what prizes are available for us Oceanians.
3. That Jess Ho – who sponsors the most fabulous prize that I am vying for even though I can’t hold my own liquor worth a damn.

Thank you for listening. Yes, I have stolen the logo from Pim’s site. I hope she doesn’t mind. Alternatively, if you think this whole prize thing defeats the purpose of generous giving (my cynical part kind of does but my drunken, alco part wins out), you can still just donate, innit.

Another week. Another Cookbook Challenge. We are now onto Week 5 and the theme is Greek.

Book: Falling Cloudberries by Tessa Kiros Theme: Greek Recipe: Semolina & Yoghurt Syrup Cake with Rosewater

I have with me two distinctly Greek cookbooks. One is Falling Cloudberries and another is Greek Cookery from the Hellenic Heart by George Colombaris on loan from Nicole. Good old George. I can’t say I have any affinity with him since I have yet to see an episode of Masterchef and never really took his anti-food blogger rant personally. However, it seems to be a food blogger tradition to have a slight dig at him. So Tessa wins this round with her lovely, more femininely detailed book as opposed to George’s cold masculine writing style. I am also in love with the idea of rosewater in cakes. Nicole, my personal Greek consultant, said ‘you know, Greeks don’t use rosewater that much. That’s Turkish.’ Whatever Nicole. Tessa assures me this is a typical Greek-Cypriot cake!

Rilsta (from My Food Trail) had kindly invited us around to her fabulous home for a baking session on Saturday. It was also where I met up with Agnes (from Off the Spork) and Arale79 (from Meals on Budget) – who were both amazingly lovely and put up with me jabbering away for 6 hours straight. Where do you find nicer people!?! They also showed me baking tricks and tips (‘you have to use a scale!’) and I had a go at Rilsta’s fabulous red Kitchenaid (so hands-off, so not my style of cooking) but I have to say it’s impressively red and much more awesome than my handheld mixer.

So before I go on to talk about all the fabulous things that the other ladies had made, I will write about the cake. As always, this recipe has been heavily adjusted from the cookbook. So please refer to Tessa’s book if you would like her recipe. Read the rest of this entry »

(Chicken curry, dal and coconut sambol)

I used to spend a fair bit of time a few years back when I did my postgrad and subsequently worked at Monash University. And Gedera used to be one of our favourite lunch spots.

I suddenly had a desperate craving for egg hopper one day and since Josh had never been to Gedera, we would drive to Caulfield for this little treat.

(egg hopper, and plain hoppers to the left)

The cafe was minimally decorated but the warm greetings from our hosts who were more than happy to help us out with the menu. Although I was a regular, the cafe had changed hands and I was relieved to hear that you can now get hoppers everyday rather than just on Wednesdays. Hoppers, as you may be aware, are a type of popular Sri Lankan pancakes made rice flour and coconut milk. I promptly order the egg hopper pack ($9.oo), which consisted of one egg hopper, two plain hoppers and a dish of Sri Lankan-style chicken curry, dal and coconut sambol. The hoppers were perfectly crunchy and coconuty – just as a good hopper should be. The chicken curry was spicy and the dal and sambol complimentary.

(masala dosa pack served with sambar and coconut chutney – $9.50)

Josh, being a newbie to the world of Sri Lankan cuisine, took ten minutes to decide on a dish and settled for the dosai, which was a type of South Indian savoury pancake (also popular and made also native in Sri Lanka). Trust him to go and pick a non-Sri Lankan dish. Read the rest of this entry »

Two background stories: #1 We love our good bread and our bakery of choice is Purebread Bakery in Surrey Hills. They do the best bread in my humble opinion. Our top favourites are the corn sourdough and the cheese & onion sourdough. And yes, I have tried many of the famous Melbourne bakeries. Hope Farm is a close second but they only sell their bread at farmers’ market. Anyway, digressing. #2 One of my favourite Spring/Summer breakfast is a bruschetta made from the above mention sourdough bread with diced ripe tomato and fresh basil with a little bit of standard balsamic dressing.

So one Sunday afternoon I came home from shopping to find that Josh had made us lunch, which was a surprise in itself (he cooks but rarely without my prompting) but what was even more special was that he invented a whole new salad with the ingredients that were lying around the house that needed to be used up! And guess what? It was absolutely delicious. He said he was inspired by my breakfast bruschetta and he wanted to try to recreate a salad version from it. And not only those, he took photos! Have I mentioned I love this man and that he is a perfect food blogger’s spouse?

Read the rest of this entry »

Seriously, why have I left it so long until November 2009 before I set foot in The European? Totally inexcusable as this gem was there all along. So it was a Sunday where the four of us girls had made plans to go and see Chicago the Musical (yes, again for me). This time I had scored us the front row tickets. So I thought a lunch at The European would be a nice pre-theatre lunch event. Turned out I was right of course. I generally don’t steer you wrong when it comes to choosing restaurant!

(complimentary crusty bread and aioli)

The European promised us ‘Elegant dining’ – I’m not really sure about that. The place was noisy and lively despite its dark brooding image (the dining room was rather dark as you may have worked out the decline in photography). But it was, as the name suggested, very European, old fashioned and most importantly very delicious food was served.

(fried white baits – $10.50)

I didn’t feel like ordering a main and felt like trying lots of things since the menu was interesting so I ordered two separate smaller dishes (and a dessert but we’ll get there). First up for me was the fried whitebaits. To me, whitebaits are just one of those quintessentially British things. Very simple but done oh-so-right. The fish were fresh and perfectly fried until golden and with wonderful crunch. It was served with a slice of lemon and some sort of sauce (my brain is a bit hazy at this point). Beautiful. On a subsequent visit, I had the fried school prawns done perfectly again. I guess I love the little seafood that you eat whole. The European still had not let me down.

(baby beans and almonds – $9.50)

My other dish was a side of green beans and almonds. Perfectly cooked green and butter beans with shallots, broad beans (?) and almonds in a bit of olive oil. I added a squeeze of lemon from my white baits, which didn’t actually need lemon. Perfect. Read the rest of this entry »

Book: Thai Street Food by David Thompson Theme: Beans Recipe: Crunchy Omelet of Mussels

Week 4 of the Cookbook Challenge! Personally, I feel like this week is a bit of a cheat really. I did use David Thompson’s new Thai Street Food as an inspiration and a guide but I deviated from his recipe so far that it practically was something I made up. Ah well. In fact, I’m even slightly indignant about calling it ‘Crispy Omelet’ as he did because as far as I’m concern egg is an optional ingredient in this dish. I think that’s the main difference between this dish and the Fujian oyster omelet. Well, that, and the fact the mussels, not oysters, are used.

But anyway, I love Thai Street Food. At first I thought, ‘What a silly idea! Aren’t all Thai food sold on the street anyway? What’s the difference?’ Until I had a chance to really flip through the book (I mean the thing weighs a tonne! Who randomly flips through a book that weighs a tonne?) and listened to his explanation of what he meant by street food. ‘Street food in Thailand’, he said, ‘as opposed to home cooking, are those food that are eaten throughout the day as snacks and main meals where a portion is not made for sharing. A single dish food, if you like.’ and that’s when it came to me that I would never find such a book that has all of these recipes. That was when I bought it. And David Thompson signed it. In Thai. Isn’t that cute?

But back to this dish. My mum used to take me around to her favourite hoy tod vendor on the street (of course) near the market where we used to live. It was one of her favourite street vendors (mine was the khao mun gai, chicken rice, lady) She would have hers with extra mussels, no egg and with picked sliced chilli and fish sauce. No Sriracha sauce. I guess it’s one of those childhood street food memory I grew up on. I swear Australia seriously lacks street food culture. You can never be a foodie country without street food culture. No sir-ree. And drinking beer and eating chips outside a pub on a Summer day does not count. Read the rest of this entry »

Seriously, with a name like that, how could you not? Let me ask again, HOW COULD YOU NOT?!?

So I said to Josh on a working Monday – how about we do lunch to celebrate our first wedding anniversary? Where would you rather go? Bistro Vue or New Kun Den? My treat since I totally screwed up and booked us into David Thompson’s book launch that night (I forgot all about the anniversary thing. Seriously, who remembers things like this?)

(complimentary broth)

The man chose New Kum Den. Not only he is low maintenance. He is also childish to the max. I guess you win some, you lose some. So we rocked up in the restaurant expecting a somewhat dodgy haunt. We were disappointed. It was all sort of new, and shiny and clean. The waiter greeted us with bowls of carrot soup and then gave us a lunch menu which was awfully boring but quite cheap (note to self for team lunch) – the usual stir-fries, fried rice, noodles. So we asked for dinner menu. Still nothing interesting however, I ended up picking salt & pepper Japanese silken tofu. Josh had decided on pork spare ribs with wuxi sauce. Mainly because neither of us had any idea what wuxi sauce is. And a New Kum Den seafood and ham fried rice from the lunch menu.

(seafood and ham fried rice -$9.50)

Our fried rice arrived within five minutes. I guess the lunch menu gets a bit of priority. The fried rice was yummy. Glossy and full of flavour. The ‘seafood’ in question must mean scallops because they were everywhere! There was no other seafood to be found but I love scallops and didn’t mind. It also had a bit of ham although not to the same extent as scallop. Read the rest of this entry »