Spatula, Spoon and Saturday

I have been wanting to sample the goodies offered by the Andrew McConnell brand of Cumulus Inc and Cutler & Co. for quite some time. Unfortunately the timing was never quite right (a couple of failed attempts to book at Cutler & Co. and the prospect of waiting at Cumulus Inc. just did not appeal) until Kelley came to town.

(complimentary bread)

I suppose if there was a place that everyone raved about in Melbourne in the past couple of years or so, this would be it. So we rocked up there relatively early (about 6pm) one day after we finished work and luckily scored the last table without booking. Mind you, I really don’t tolerate waiting for a table, if there was no prospect of getting one within 10 minutes, I honestly would have moved on. As I always say, I’m too old to queue up for anything other than toilet.

Anyway, gripe with not being able to book over, the menu was interesting – divided into Oyster (which I really wanted but party-pooper Josh wouldn’t let me eat raw stuff), To Start (which means absolutely tiny little morsels of food), Charcuterie (cured meats), Salads and Comestibles (side dishes and salads), Fish (main-sized fish), Meat (main-sized meat) and Dessert.

(slow-cooked octopus with aioli – $10)

We decided the slow cooked octopus with aioli to start with. The tiny plate contained tiny morsels of lovely, tender octopus topped with aioli and doused with oil. We wolfed then down with the lovely, chewy bread we were given. Almost mopping up every bit of the oil (hey, we were hungry!)

(slow cooked egg with artichoke, asparagus and bread  – $16?)

Soon after our next salad dish arrived: the slow cooked with egg with artichoke, asparagus and crunchy bread. Read the rest of this entry »

We made this when we were desperate to get rid of the frozen salmon fillets that we bought from Ikea. Please don’t ask me why I decided that it was a good idea to buy frozen Nordic salmon fillets instead of perfectly fresh Tasmanian salmon. And no, they were not good. They were kinda terrible compared to the fresh Tasmanian salmon you can get at the market. But at least I learned, right?

Once again this is an impromptu dinner – frozen salmon to get rid off, tick. Spaghetti, tick. Lemons we got a heap of from my father-in-law’s garden, tick. Butter from the fridge, tick. Parsley growing out in our herb pots, tick. Four Ingredients can kiss my butt.

Fishy dinner for two (and a bit of leftover):

1. 2 salmon fillets at room temperature
2. zest and juice of a small lemon
3. About 50g butter
4. salt & pepper
5. 3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
6. 2 serves of cooked pasta

Preheat the oven to 200′c. Add butter, lemon juice, lemon zest and lots of salt and pepper to a baking tin.  Place in the oven until the butter is melted. Add the fish fillet and turn over a few times. Bake for about 10 minutes or until cooked to your liking. I like them a bit pink in the middle.

Mean while, cook your pasta. Drain and add the buttery, lemony salmon to the pasta and toss through. Add chopped parsley and season to taste if required.

Last time this year I made: Insalata di Strada (Italian Street Salad)

(A table decoration)

I visited Misty’s in March this year. Yes. That long ago and I never got around to writing about my experience even though it was definitely something worth writing about. Not until Eat. Drink. Stagger. has done a review on it though so I am now inspired to write about it.

Misty’s Diner is one of those extremely kitschy (supposedly) 1950′s American diner that has to be seen to be believed. Despite serving favourite American junk (and let’s face it, favourite American junk is not high on my foodie agenda), I have been told by a friend who used to frequent the joint with her American ex that the place does a ‘really authentic’ chilli fries.

(Reese’s Pieces thick shake – $7.95)

Who am I to question authenticity claim by a native? So we rocked up one day. And oh wow did the kitschiness exceed expectation. We loved the decorations and were at once tempted by the a list of ‘thick shakes’ (and they can naturally be ordered doused in bourbon or whisky, of course). This was a bit of a mistake because the thick shakes turn out to be more of a melted sundae. Warning: it is not a drink, people. If you are not an American, it’s a dessert. So save it for later. Mind you, it was rather good.

(Side chilli fries)

The menu (full menu on Misty’s web site in PDF) consisted entirely of your stereotypical American diner food including all the things you have heard mentioned on TV and really have no idea what it is. We both decided on burgers because hey it was our first visit and a lot of the food items just seemed too scary and diabolical. We order fries as our sides. Not just any fries. Nope. I decided that I had to try chilli fries. I didn’t really know what chilli fries were but my instinct of normal fries topped with chilli con carne topping turned out to be the correct one. Read the rest of this entry »

People have been asking me since I received my brand new mixer, have I done any baking (and am I inviting them over for baked goods?) The answer is yes and yes! I have been baking like crazy. And it is a funny thing but if you have been looking at my blog for a while, you’ll probably realise that I am definitely not the baking type for two reasons: 1) I don’t have a sweet tooth and 2) I don’t have a lot of patience to measure things!

Well I am happy to announce that this has turned around and I have been embracing baking. I think it appeals to the scientist in me because baking, after all, seems to me a bit of an alchemy rather than an art. The boys at the office have been rather happy because they get to eat these baked things (I still don’t much care to eat them, to be perfectly honest and Josh is going to get really fat at this rate so I have to take them away from him).

So after having been given a quick lesson in cupcakes by April of My Food Trail, I have been experimenting with a few cupcake recipes and different type of frosting and I am happy to announce my own combination of these little beauties.

I baked these for my mother-in-law’s birthday dinner and I shall name them after her. With out further ado, I would like to present Lynnette: rich chocolate cupcake with lemon butter cream frosting.

Rich Chocolate Cupcake

(Makes 12-14 standard sized cupcakes – note I use standard Australian cooking measurements)

Preheat your oven to 180′c (no fan).

Creaming butter base:

1. 100 g. butter (salted, unsalted, whatever. I prefer cultured butter but it doesn’t make that much difference)
2. 1 1/4 cup (280 g.) caster sugar
3. 2 eggs
4. 1 tsp vanilla concentrate (or 2 tsp vanilla extract)

Cream butter in the mixer on low at first and then shift to high for about 2 minutes. Add half of the caster sugar, beat for further 2 minutes. Repeat with the rest of the sugar. Cream until the butter mixture is light and fluffy. Add an egg, beat for further minute. Repeat the same with the other egg and vanilla.

Good ol’ chocolatey goodness:

1. 1/2 cup baking cocoa powder
2. 1 heap tbsp instant coffee powder
3. 1/2 hot water
4. 1/2 cup water

Whisk together the cocoa powder, coffee powder and hot water to make a thick, lump-free paste. Add water and mix thoroughly.

Flour and magic:

1. 1 1/2 cups (225 g.) plain flour
2. 1 tsp bi-carb soda
3. 1/2 tsp baking powder
4. a big pinch of salt (cut the salt if you’re using salted butter

Soft together plain flour, bi-carb, baking powder and salt.

Putting it all together:

Add half of the flour and half of the cocoa mixture to the creamed butter mixture. Mix on low speed until combined. Repeat the process. Mix just until everything is combined.

Bake in a 12-hole muffin tin for about 20-30 minutes until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool on a cake rack for at least half an hour before icing.

Lemon Butter Cream Frosting

1. zest 1 lemon
2. 1/4 cup sweet lemon juice (I used home grown sweet variety which is subtler, you can try commercial lemons)
3. 100g. butter (salted, unsalted, whatever but cultured butter is nice)
4. 4 cups (600g.) icing mixture (you can use icing sugar but I find it too much of a pain to sift personally)

Cream butter in a mixer on low at first then high. Add half the lemon juice, lemon zest and icing mixture. Mix for another minute. Repeat the same process with the rest of the lemon juice. Beat on high until light and fluffy.

Ice with a piping bag and large star tip.

How’s that for my first ‘proper’ baking post?

This time last year I made: Char-grilled Steak, Asparagus and Burnt Sage Butter Mashed Potatoes

I am not a big coffee drinker. Don’t get me wrong, I love coffee but I try not to indulge my coffee habit because I just know that it will get out of hand. The problem is also that I am absolutely dead against disposable coffee cups. There’s one thing I really hate about Melbourne is that their coffee habit is killing the environment. Sure, everyone thinks they look cool with their little disposal coffee cups on the way to work and it’s oh-so-cosmopolitan. No. I am sorry.

No.

Because I rather like coffee a lot, I save it for special occasion. If you have it everyday, it loses its meaning right?

Anyway, one Saturday morning I woke up and thought I really could do with a nice cup of coffee. So I stole Josh’s phone and had a dig around the Urbanspoon app and it recommended Santucci’s. It’s not very far from home and it had a few nice reviews from the coffee drinking crowd so we upped and went.

The dining room was handsomely decorated. Nice wooden and with retro Italian paraphernalia and it was a rather nice space for a cafe. However, for someone who rarely eats breakfast out and spend Saturdays sleeping in, I find it strange to be surrounded by so many people so early on a Saturday. It was full of family brunching out, groups of girlfriends catching up over breakkie, parents, kids, babies. They were all there. Just weird for me. I am a breakfast-out noob.

(Pancake with berry compote and vanilla ice cream – $12)

Josh rarely ever eats fry-up for breakfast. The only time I have ever seen him eating poached eggs were when I made them for dinner despite him making me poached eggs for breakfast quite often. So pancakes are his usual choice. I had a bite and well, they were kinda terrible. The pancakes weren’t cooked through in the middle and there wasn’t enough syrup. Josh didn’t complain though so I guess they weren’t that bad. Read the rest of this entry »

Cookbook Challenge Week 42 Bird

Book: The Return of the Naked Chef by Jamie Oliver Theme: Bird Recipe: Roasted Hamilton poussin wrapped with streaky bacon and stuffed with potatoes and sage

Wow that’s a mouthful of a name. I have to say I miss poetic names in food. There’s no fun naming food after its actual description. That’s just plain boring. Here’s something we could learn from the Chinese. Think about it ‘ants climbing a tree‘ and ‘Buddha jumped over the wall‘ are much better names than ‘roasted chicken wrapped with streaky bacon and stuffed with potatoes and sage.’ What do you think?

Anyway, since I barely keep up with the Cookbook Challenge, I might as well just do what I can.

We had a couple of people over for dinner one night and me being a lazy person that I am, I decided to do a roast. Let’s face it, roast is really the easiest way to feed lots of people at once. I flipped through the earlier Jamie Oliver books because it seemed like he had a thing for roast chicken – each book would have about 3-4 different roast chicken recipes. So I picked out this one. Jamie used poussins (which are small chickens) but I used a full-sized roast chicken.

One Scrumptious Roast Chicken (fed four people with sides) – recipe adapted from Jamie’s

1. 1 large chicken (about 1.8kg)
2. 12 rashers of streaky bacon (I only had pancetta)
3. 5 medium potatoes, peeled, slice in to thin pieces lengthwise
4. a big handful of fresh sage leaves (Jamie said fresh thyme and rosemary are also good)
5. 12 cloves of garlic, crushed
6. 1 glass of white wine
7. Olive oil
8. Salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 220′c. Place potatoes in a saucepan of cold water and bring to boil. Simmer for about 5-10 minutes until the potatoes are tender (if you sliced the potatoes quite thinly, they won’t take long to cook). Drain the potatoes.

Make sure chicken is brought up to the room temperature before you start. This saves you a lot of cooking time. Clean the chicken and trim off excess fat around the cavity. Season the potatoes with salt and pepper, add torn up sage leaves. Stuff the chicken cavity with half  of the potatoes.

Place the stuffed chicken, breast side up, on a tray with the rest of the potatoes and garlic in the preheated oven for about 30-40 minutes until the skin starts to look nice and brown. Lay the streaky bacon (or in my case, pancetta) over the breast and tuck them in. Roast for further 15 minutes and check if the chicken juice runs clear by inserting a skewer. Unfortunately, my pancetta didn’t really want to stay on the chicken (see the photo) but that’s okay.

Serve with the roast potatoes and garlic. You can make gravy using the roasting juices, if you like. I also served it with green beans with almonds and shallots and spinach with porcini, rosemary and lemon (recipe also from the same book but I won’t put it here).

This time last year I made: Som Tum Thai (Green Papaya Salad, Thai Style)