The Gourmet Challenge

Results - Roast Wild Barramundi with King Prawn and Fennel Salad

2009-11-10T21:16:00.004+11:00

My first EPIC fail! Woo hoo! I can get it behind me and move on! For a while, every time I attempted a new restaurant recipe I though, "Is this the one that's going to end my wining streak?" There were a couple there where I though the degree of difficulty was a little higher than what I was used to, surely I'll fail there, but in the end it was the easiest recipe of all that made me come undone. I even had a video to watch and I still managed a royal muck up of it!

Lets look at the positives first. It tasted delicious! Fennel and prawn are such a great combination, The salad so impressed me that I will never eat them apart again! Except maybe in tempura prawns, garlic prawns oh cant forget prawn dumplings!...hmmm maybe every prawn dish imaginable, just take my word for it....it tasted good. The tomato and basil salad was pretty tasty too. Who could beat the awesome power of tomato coupled with the sexy aroma of basil? It was such a spring dish, and considering the extremely warm weather we've been having around Melbourne, it was a great way to say goodbye to spring and hello to summer, a whole month early!

Basil and Tomato Salad

Fennel and Prawn Salad

I hear you say what went wrong?, how did you stuff it up? Well thanks very much for totally over seeing the ugliness of the dish, you're so kind. I vividly remember Michael Lambie saying in the video to be extremely careful about skin sticking to the pan and ruining the crispy skin texture. I've never really had this problem before, and I LOVE crispy fish skin so I do my best to get the money shot. But this time, I don't know what happened, I sprayed my pan with non stick oil, waited for the pan to get really hot, I even dried the barramundi skin to make sure it would turn out extra crispy. But I guess the skin gods were not on my side this day, and I suffered from bad skin even after I'd gone through puberty!

Getting the fish out of the pan was disaster number 2. I planned on presenting it the wrong way up, but some how I managed to put a big great gaping hole in the nice fish flesh. I did make two portions of this dish, and the other fish faired even worse! Poor Daz, he always gets the rejects.

Everything chopped up ready to go!

The last issue with the dish was more of an oversight than an error. When making the tomato basil salad I cut my tomatoes up and put them in the bowl without removing any seeds. The Dressing ended up being quite watered down by the tomato juice. So I would suggest only using the tomato flesh and try to scoop out as much of the seeds and innards as possible. I always try to make the best of a bad situation, so turned the tomato juice/left over salad into a delicious dipping sauce. I added a little extra olive oil and Daz and I dunked out bread like bread had never been dunked before! It was like a deconstructed brucchetta.

Sliced fennel

Despite the few mishaps, the dish was actually very tasty. Its extremely difficult to get Daz to eat something that isn't capable of mooing, fish being one of the worst! But he really enjoyed this dish. The Barramundi has a pleasant un-fishy smell and that seemed to appeal to him. I was really shifty and didn't explain any of the components of the dish to him before he started eating, he didn't realize he had eaten fennel (his arch nemesis of the vegetable world) until he was taking his last bite. *insert evil laugh here* I have some left over fennel in the fridge, I might try my luck again and see if I can get the same results.

Roast Wild Barramundi with King Prawn and Fennel Salad

2009-11-06T14:48:00.004+11:00

Restaurant: Taxi Dining Room (VIC)
Recipe from Chef Michael Lambie (Appeared on 9am with David and Kim)
2010 Rating: 100th, 1 Star

I've been going a little crazy with the seafood lately. The last 3 restaurant recipes I've tried have all been seafood inspired. After dining at Taxi dining Room earlier this year I was inspired to find a recipe by Head Chef Michael Lambie. The Internet is my friend and I found an awesome video of Michale appearing on the 9am show with David and Kim. I cant say that I'm a avid watcher of Daivd and Kim's, mainly because I'm at work by the time their show comes on, or if I happen to be at home I'm usually still in bed....what? its my day off I can sleep until 1pm if I choose!

So I'll give it a whirl! Here's the recipe....results to come soon!

Roast Wild Barramundi with King Prawn and Fennel Salad

INGREDIENTS
Serves 4

4 x 160 g portions wild barramundi
I fennel bulb shaved
¼ bunch flat leaf parsley picked and washed
8 King Prawns cooked and shelled
4 tomatoes chopped
4 shallots diced
1 garlic clove crushed
4 basil leaves shredded
8 coriander leaves shredded
Olive oil / lemon juice
Salt and pepper

METHOD

Lightly season the barramundi portions with salt and pepper, Fry in hot oil for about 4 minutes until just cooked but caramelised on the skin.

Make the dressing by frying the shallot and garlic in olive oil. Add the diced tomatoes and warm through. Add the basil, coriander and lemon juice.

Mix the shaved fennel, parsley and king prawn together.
Season with lemon juice and olive oil and arrange attractively on a plate.

Spoon the tomato dressing onto the plate and top with the barramundi.

Cupcakes on Location: Sophisticakes of Melbourne

2009-11-01T21:51:00.004+11:00

If you've ever read any of my posts, you'll know that I LOVE cupcakes. I'm sure that if after my death I need an autopsy performed on me, the coroner will find a fully intact cupcake in my stomach, frosting and all! For the longest time I've wanted to eat the cupcakes at the Sunday Arts Center Market. But every time we're gone past them, Daz has ushered my away very quickly. He loves me enough that he knows that I cant control myself, and if I see cupcakes I NEED to eat them. For my health and well being its safer ton keep me away from them. But now that I have a blog, I MUST eat them, I'm not only consuming cupcakes for my own satisfaction, but its now become a vital community input, thats my story and I'm sticking to it!

So we headed down to the Arts Center Sunday Market and discovered that the gorgeous cupcakes are made by Sophisticakes of Melbourne. The display was beautiful, dozens upon dozens of cupcakes all tucked away in their little cake stands, all yelling "pick me! pick me!". I noticed a little sign on the table stating no photography, a food bloggers worse nightmare. So Daz and I made our selection and went somewhere a little more peaceful for the photo shoot.

Since we were so close to the river, we headed down to devour our cupcakes. I chose a vanilla sponge with strawberry frosting. It was light and fluffy and surprisingly not too sweet. I noticed the massive mound of frosting and my teeth started to hurt instantaneously, I was very surprised when I bite into it and discovered my fears were unwarranted. The frosting was exactly as it had promised.....strawberry flavored. It was really good, but I couldnt help compared it to Little Cupcakes. The actual cake was much better than Little Cupcakes, but the frosting fell a little short.

Daz chose cookies and cream. He is very unimaginative when it comes to choosing cupcake flavours. Its a little frustrating. Cookies and cream cupcakes all taste the same, like cookies and cream! I guess he always chooses that flavour because he knows what hes going to get. I'm always the one who loses out though. Partners of food bloggers are always long suffering, we share almost everything we eat, so he gets half of my strawberry delight and I get half of his cookies and cream....groan! Nothing against Sophisticakes, but I'm a little over cookies and cream.

From half the cupcake I had I was pretty happy though. The cake was quiet moist, and as a topping we got a FULL Oreo. Some places only put half an Oreo, or even a mini, and then there are the places that have substitutes! Shock horror!!

It was a beautiful day so we deiced to go for a stroll. We walked past the National Gallery of Victoria and contemplated going in. While walking past we noticed glimpses of colour emanating from the moat surrounding the building. Curiously Daz and I stared into the water. After quite a bit of squinting we noticed the bottom was scattered with colourful plastic knives. Not quite Excalibur, but interesting non the less. Was it a large scale art piece? or hundreds of litters getting rid of their cutlery after dinner? I thought about it for a minute, took a quick photo and continued on our walk. But even today, I still wonder what happened to all the forks?

Fifteen - Melbourne

2009-10-21T22:02:00.008+11:00

Fifteen MelbourneBasement, 115 – 117 Collins Street, Melbourne(Enter through George Parade)

I know I'm a little late with this review, but I've never been one to be trendy. Fifteen's 15 minutes of fame has come and gone, but until recently I had never dined in the underground establishment. When the dynamic V duo suggested Fifteen for a mid week dinner, Daz and I were there in a flash!

I like the idea of Fifteen and to be honest, I wish I could be as productive to the community. They take young adults, who have little other options and transform them in to trained and talented chefs. Some are homeless, drug addicted or even just unemployed. Its good to see that a foundation such as fifteen is offering an opportunity to people and really helping out the community. But ultimately we're here for the food right??

I'm always a little nervous when taking my camera out at fancy restaurants to take pictures. And I make a habit of asking if it is ok to take a couple of happy snaps during the meal. AtFifteen when I asked the question I got the most interesting answer so far. The waiter said it was no problem, as long as I don't go up to the chefs and blind them with my flash. Instantly I had images of paparazzi giving chefs seizures by taking multiple photos, did that happen regularly around this place? I had no intention of photographing the chefs, so it was all good!

We ordered quite quickly because we were all a little hungry. We could only get an 8.00pm reservation, which is kinda late for a weekday. Surprising, the restaurant wasn't as full as I had expected. There was a pretty loud table of Americans, so they provided the atmosphere. WE had a little bread and dipped it in Oliveria’s new season Fifteen olive oil. It was actually quite nice, fruity and definitely fresh!

V1 : "I've run out of bread! But look at my perfectly manicured fingernails!"

So what did we order? We decided to go for entree and mains, with an option of dessert if we weren't too full. The dynamic V duo had an House smoked Tasmanian salmon with grilled asparagus, lemon and Oliveria’s new season Fifteen olive oil. They both reported that it tasted like smoked salmon, hence nothing overwhelming.

Daz had the 'Tagliatelle with a rich beef shin ragout, rosemary and orange gremolate and parmigiano reggiano'. After taking 3-4 bites of his dish be was a little freaked out. He said that half of the tagliatelle were overdone and half were underdone! Weird. The texture sensation was a little off putting, but he reported that the flavours were quite good, its a real shame that the pasta wasn't up to scratch.

I had 'The lightest Toolangipotato gnocchi with hot smoked ocean trout, creme fraiche, grilled fennel and pangrattato'. I had a very similar problem to Daz, although all my pasta was over cooked. Not to the point where it was unpleasant, the dish was actually quite nice, but I wish that the gnocchi were a little firmer. I especially enjoyed that creaminess of the cream fraiche and the chunky pieces of trout.

For Mains the V1 and V2 decided to be different and order something they usually would. V2 is a avid meat eater. So much so that I think he could tackle and eat and entire cow in one week! But tonight....he's decided to forgo the moo and have 'Pan seared fillet of Blue-eye cod with cavalo nero and lemon'. As far as I could tell the dish was quite nice, no complaints from V2, other than the lack of red meat!

Up until our visit to Fifteen V1 had never eaten polenta! Shock huh??!!?? So she decided to order 'slow roasted, crispy berkshire pork bely with oozy parmesan polenta, jus and salsa verdi'. I was actually going to order this dish for myself, but something else caught my attention. I felt for V1, while the polenta was piping hot it was creamy and delicious, but as soon as it started to lose temperature it resembled wall paper glue, polenta will do that to you though. She also isn't a huge fan of Parmesan, and the polenta had a pretty decent whack of it. It just wasn't here dish. We did a plate swap after a while and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The crackling was crispy and dry...yum! And the pork was tender. The salsa verdi was a little strange, it tasted exactly like pesto which wasn't a bad thing, but polenta and pesto together is something I've never even thought about before!

The only other man at the table, Daz, decided to go for meat. 'Grilled Gippsland porterhouse (served MR) with roasted new potatoes in a rosemary and anchovy dressing'. I'm sure 90% of the attraction to ordering meat is getting a big fat juicy steak in front of you that you can hack into with and over sized razor sharp knife. I felt so sorry for poor little Daz. His steak can sliced! You should have seen his face, I swear I almost saw a tear roll out of his eye. Once he got over the fact that he couldn't butcher his own steak, he thoroughly enjoyed it, I even got a bite! It was tender and pretty tasty!

I ordered the 'Pan roasted free range and organic chicken 'con pepperonchini' with dressed rocket and lemon'. There was a flavour party in my mouth and everyone was invited! The chicken marinade was a real fire cracker! It was spicy, witch I love, and flavoursome! I really wasn't expecting something that hot, but it was delicious. V1 LOVE's chilli and anything hot, so I gave her some of my dish and even she loved it. The generous amount of lemon on the salad was great to cut through the spiciness. I would go back just for this chicken!

As a side we got Roasted new potatoes and Fried polenta with aioli. They weren't anything special, but they were enough to fill us and miss out of dessert.....NOOOOO!!! I tried convincing the Dynamic V's to reconsider, but I went to bed with no dessert that night, and I wasn't even bad!

This...PLUS...

This...EQUALS...

THIS!!

Other than the few mishaps with undercooked/overcooked pasta, Fifteen was a pretty enjoyable meal. Before I go, I have to say one thing, fifteen had my most favourite thing of all......HOT PLATES!! As a food blogger we all know that taking that perfect shot takes time and sometimes the dish doesn't end up being as hot as you'd like. No such problems here, every dish was piping hot, even AFTER I took my photos. Great work!

School Girl Giggling Within...

2009-10-17T20:22:00.005+11:00

V1 from the dynamic V duo has been attending a few hens nights lately. At the first hen night she was in charge of the entertainment, so asked me to help with the catering. After a few hilarious phone calls we decided to make a cake fashioned in the shape of a love tool. We settled on red velvet with cream cheese frosting, the red velvet is perfect for that dramatic effect after cutting into it. After the success of the first cake, she was asked to make another for an upcoming hen night. So we got busy again making the love trungeon cake.

The first cake was for Arlene. On this particular night my hand held mixer finally died during the frosting making. I was both a little sad and overjoyed. I finally had an excuse to get myself a brand new kitchenaid....woot!

So here are a couple of happy snaps of the first love wand.

V1 sculpted the love stick from a picture we found on the net. Before this whole novelty cake thing I had no idea there were so many pictures of that nature on the Internet........did you buy that lie? For the hair we used chocolate flavored Persian fairy floss. It did an awesome job, and really looked authentic. Unfortunately overnight the fairy floss collapsed quite alot from the moister in the air. But I was told that it had the desired effect despite the flaccidness.

The second love tickler was for Thuy. On this occasion we decided to buy a cake tin and hopefully make our lives a little easier. By now we were total sculpting pros and had the easiest time putting it together, well it was easier, but with more skill comes more ambition right? So we decided to add a hand and some arty but descriptive bodily fluid.....eeewwww! We actually made the hand first, and didn't realise until later that it was a tad too small for the love muscle. V1 was on the ball and just said that the hand belonged to a petite Asian lady. hehehehehe.

So here are some happy snaps of the second love organ

I had so much fun making these two cakes. I don't think I've giggled so much in such a short period of time. So many obvious jokes, oh so many...uncountable. My absolute favourite was from V2 who suggested we should go on Masterchef as contestants and present every dish we cook in the shape of a trouser snake. I'd love to see Matt Preston dig into that while wearing his cravats!

Congratulations to Arlene & Anh, and Thuy & Cuong, may you're wedded life be long and joyful....a bit like a love flute...sorry I had to do it! And as a visual parting gift, I give you Romeo and a paper cutout.....I hope you can put two and two together.

Results - Oysters in Tempura with Ponzu Sauce

2009-10-14T13:19:00.003+11:00

At this very moment I'm sitting at home feeling a little sorry for myself. My head is a walking, talking case of pus. I have sinusitis, a throat infection, the biggest coldsores you have ever seen, yes more than one coldsore! and swollen infected neck glands to boot. My head literally feels like a truck parked on top of it. I usually post results to restaurant recipes pretty quickly, I do like to keep my audience in suspense but I like to think I'm not cruel, but the acute elephantiasis that I've been experiencing in the right side of my face has kinda gotten in the way. I'm feeling a little better today, I can actually feel confident enough to venture outside without having small children run in fear from the sight of me, so I thought I would post this while the going is good.

Just a note to start with, the recipe called for St Helen oysters, I couldn't get my hands on any so instead went for Coffin bay oysters. I bought them already shucked, I know not the best, but I'm not confident enough to shuck my own oysters yet. I have visions of knives going through my hand and bright red blood spurting everywhere!

I'll start with the bad, I felt that the tempura batter was a little thick for the oysters. I'm used to very light crunchy batter and this was a fair bit thicker and more chewy. I didn't use a thermometer on my oil, so if I had it at the perfect temperature it may have resulted in a much fluffier and lighter texture.

I really enjoyed the oysters in the batter. It was a novelty for me. I've never had deep fried oysters before. I enjoy them au natural or lightly grilled with a nice sauce, so having the little ones encased in a skin made out of batter was totally new.

The oysters on the inside were perfectly cooked. Really juicy and smooth, not even a hint of rubberiness, frankly - a fear that I had. The ponzu sauce was interesting. It was tangy and went perfectly with the fishiness of the oysters. I didn't have any konbu, so I substituted with nori. It worked quite well.

I really liked this recipe, and I'll definitely make it again however I would use a different recipe for the tempura batter or at least get a proper thermometer to keep the oil at the right temperature.

Oysters in Tempura with Ponzu Sauce

2009-10-11T21:37:00.004+11:00

Restaurant: Esposito (VIC)
Recipe from Chef Maurice Esposito (The Esposito Recipe cards, from the Esposito newsletter)
2010 Rating: Not rated, 1 Star

The hot weather is coming, which means I'm craving cold beers and bar snack food. When those warm days come I love nothing more than sitting in the warm sun with a cold one and some food to snack on. By the end of the day I'm slightly boozed up, possibly a little red from sun burn and a satisfied belly. A couple of weeks ago I got a newsletter from Esposito Seafood dining which showcased St Helen Oysters prepared tempura style....perfect beer food! So here is the recipe, and you know what comes next....the results!

St Helen’s Oysters in Tempura with Ponzu Sauce

serves 4 - 3 oysters each

12 St Helen’s Oysters, freshly shucked and removed from their shell

Tempura Batter

2 egg yolks
2 cups iced water
2 cups sifted plain flour
oil for deep-frying - canola, rice bran or grapeseed

Make the batter in 2 batches. It’s very important to prepare the tempura batter as close to cooking time as possible - this ensures it doesn’t get heavy or become too combined. Prepare the first batch just before you are ready to begin deep-frying. As you are waiting for the oil to heat, in a mixing bowl, lightly beat 1 egg yolk, then pour in 1 cup of ice water and give this a few stirs (chopsticks or a fork are good to use here as a mixing tool). Add 1 cup of the sifted flour all at once. Stir through a few times, just until the ingredients are loosely combined. The batter should be very lumpy.

Have a plate lined with a paper towel and a slotted spoon at the ready and once the oil is hot lightly coat each oyster in the tempura batter and gently place in the hot oil with a slotted spoon. Don’t walk away from the oil at any time while you’re cooking these.
As soon as the batter becomes golden, take the oyster out with the spoon and put on the paper towel. Continue to do this until all the oysters are cooked and serve immediately next to Ponzu sauce (recipe follows).

Once the first batch of batter is used up, take the oil off the heat and make the second batch of batter and continue to cook the oysters.

Ponzu dressing

makes about 1 cup

2 tbsp lemon juice
8 tbsps rice vinegar
4 tbsps soy sauce
2cm square konbu (kelp)

Mix together the juice, vinegar and soy sauce, wipe the konbu gently with a cloth and then add to the combined liquid. Leave in the fridge overnight or longer if possible.

Moon Festival

2009-10-08T14:24:00.006+11:00

On the weekend Daz and I went down to Queen Victoria Market to celebrate Moon Festival. I love me a festival, especially when there is food involved. And since its spring, the festivals seem to be popping up quicker than the weeds in my garden!

I have a feeling that this was the first year that it was hosted at Queen Victoria Market, there didn't seem to be alot of stalls, and when we turned up it was a little light on people. But towards the afternoon it started to get quite crowded. There were heaps of activity planned, some singing, an impressive sword dance, and my favourite of all - a Lion dance. Oh those lions are so cute with their huge fluffy eyebrows!

So onto the food right?, that's why you're all here! We decided to buy one dish at a time and share it between the two of us, somehow in my mind that equaled more dishes to try. While walking back from the awesome display of sword dancing I spotted a stall deep frying squid. Crispy fried things taste better straight out of the oil so I snapped some up straight away. They were crispy, hot and delicious!

Next I followed my nose. *sniff* *sniff* I can smell something bbqing *sniff* *sniff* I can smell charcoal and satay and so my nose lead me straight to the satay stick man. The best thing about being at a festival when there isn't a big crowd is getting piping hot food. We ordered 4 sticks and watched as they were grilled for us right before our eyes. Things always taste better when you have to wait a little for them. I was standing right in front of the charcoal, so my clothes got a good dose of meat perfume, so I could savour it later in the day.

We walked past the dumpling place a couple of times, and thought that the line was too long to bother. But then I thought, if there are so many people lining up, its gotta be good right? We ordered a serve of pork dumplings. Sadly they weren't so good. I was pretty disappointed. The skin was really rubbery and the insides was a little dry and not very tasty. I felt a bit ripped of. So I needed something else to quench my rumbling belly.

Japanese octopus balls (takoyaki)?? What in the world are they?? We stood around and watched the lovely young ladies cooking these. They look so similar to dutch poffertjes!!

The batter goes in

Then a little lettuce

Then a little octopus

You gotta flip the little buggers so they get nice and round

Then pull them out so they can get into my belly!

Oh man these were delicious! So the balls are covered in Japanese mayo, tonkatsu sauce, nori and Benito shavings. Oh man so mouth watering.

I only got a small serve, oh I wish I had gotten the larger serve. I love Daz, but I'm sure he ate more than his share! grrrrr! How will we ever get married if we cant learn to share??

And of course I had to get the obligatory inside shot. Look at those cute little tentacles resting inside there batter cocoon!

Before we left we hang around for the lion dance. We were treated to not one lion, but TWO! Even though I've seen the dance so many times, I still giggle like a little school girl when ever I see them.

After a great day out, with lots of good food and interesting entertainment it was time to go home. Daz HAD to have some beef jerky before we left, so $2.50 and 3 bites later we were ready to leave. Sadly I have no photo, I now know that my reaction time is about 4 bites long....nuts!

Results - Slow-cooked ocean trout with Israeli couscous, zucchini, and sadly WITHOUT any chilli or bottarga

2009-10-05T13:25:00.011+11:00

*Drool* *slobber* *groan* *hmmmm ummm hmmm*

So good, oh so so good. I've wanted to cook with the sous vide method for a while now. A couple of things have been stopping me, firstly I don't have a vacuum sealer, and secondly I don't own a water bath. Double nuts! So when I saw this recipe which took into account that the everyday cook lacks both of these implements, I jumped at the chance to try it. Yes, sous vide is a method of cooking something for an extremely long time, so this recipe doesn't quite cut it, but for my purposes, its close enough! Baby steps right?

I was really impressed at how moreish this dish really was. The fish was so juicy and packed full of flavor and the way the fish was cooked meant that the flesh kept all of its original colour. The pearl couscous, oh my god that couscous. I want to make it every night of my life. I LOVED it. I never thought I could cook something in my own home that tasted of that caliber. The creamy gooey texture of the cheese, the slightly crunchiness of the zucchini and the popping like texture of the couscous, this dish was MADE for me. Its so simple, but yet so delicious.

Only one little problem with it, IT STINKS!! yep it smells like rotten old feet. If you have an issue with smelly cheese, substitute the fontina, but if you're like me and think the smellier the cheese the better, stack in extra!!

The smelly culprit!

There were a couple of errors that I made which I think worked out for the best. First of all. I forgot the chilli. Yep, how freakin stupid am I! I had already decided that I would leave out the bottarga, I'm a little poor at the moment and couldn't bring myself to buy this stuff for one dish. And the last and most fatal error, I used non-salt reduced chicken stock, so my couscous come out on the salty side. Well probably not so salty to a normal person, but I tend to not eat that much salt (something to do with Daz dying before I have a good go at torturing him with my stupid jokes). It was perfect with the fish, and the extra flavour from the stock was well worth the increased salt level. I could imagine that the bottarga would add a fair amount of salt to the dish anyway, so I'm extra glad I left it out.

Size really does matter right? especially when your sitting next to your pewny competitor!

Hey, it is exactly like a risotto, in it goes with a little oil to toast....ahh so easy!

Its actually really simple to cook this entire dish. As long as you have everything prepared and ready to go. The couscous is extremely straight forward, really no more difficult than a simple risotto. The tricky part was keeping the temperature of the water for the fish bang on 48C.

I had my trusty candy thermometer, I was fresh out of "ocean trout poaching thermometers" so resorted to what I had handy. I decided that 50C was close enough to 48C and if I could keep it there I would be pretty happy with myself.

It was a bit of juggling. I heated my water to 50C, dropped my fish in...trying to keep it as flat as possible (its all about presentation!) and watched the thermometer. As soon as it started to drop I would put the pan on the gas for a few seconds. I continued to do that for the entire cooking time. I actually poached it for longer than the recommended 15 minutes, closer to 20 actually. It resulted in fish that was a little rarer than my liking, but I've always been a fan of sashimi. Daz on the other hand was feeling a little sick after eating some half cooked fish fat, so decided to microwave his for 20 seconds and ended up with PERFECT fish. Who would have thought. So I would recommend either having smaller portions or cooking it for a little longer.

Overall, this dish was STELLA! Daz doesn't really like fish (poor boy is stuck with a seafood lover) and after eating this dish he suggested we should start buying more fish. Hallelujah! I knew if I persisted I would make him turn! Now, if only I could convince him on black pudding.

Slow-cooked ocean trout with Israeli couscous, zucchini, chilli and bottarga

2009-10-03T20:37:00.006+10:00

Restaurant: Forty One (NSW)
Recipe from Chef Dietmar Sawyer (appeared on Gourmet Traveller Website)
2010 Rating: Number 92, 1 Star

I was recently sent a sample* of Blu Gourmet Pearl Couscous also known as Israeli Couscous. I've wanted to try pearl couscous for a while, but never really had the chance. I saw this particular recipe ages ago and I wanted to try it. I have a real soft spot for anything with couscous, and the temptation of trying a whole NEW type of couscous was too much!

In the information pack that came with the couscous there were a whole heap of nifty facts about Blu Gourmet Pearl Couscous, one being that restaurants such as Nobu in New York, Maha in Melbourne and Canvas in Melbourne all use this type of couscous, sounds pretty good to me. The absolute clincher was Gabriel Gaté's face on the packet. I'm a real sucker for french accents and I vow to speak in a French accent the entire time while cooking this dish. So onto the recipe, and remember to stay tuned for the fabulous results...accent and all!

Slow-cooked ocean trout with Israeli couscous, zucchini, chilli and bottarga

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

4 90gm ocean trout fillets, skin on
2 tbsp olive oil
2 golden shallots, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
100 gm Israeli couscous (see note)
500 ml boiling chicken stock
2 small zucchini, thinly sliced widthways
5 gm bottarga, finely grated (optional, see note)
1 small red chilli, finely chopped
30 gm finely chopped Fontina

METHOD

1. Drizzle trout with 1 tbsp olive oil and season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Place in a zip-lock bag, expelling air. Heat a saucepan of water to 48C, add fish and poach for 14 minutes or until heated through.

2 . Heat remaining olive oil in a frying pan and sauté shallot and garlic over medium heat for 2 minutes or until soft, but not coloured. Add couscous and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes, then gradually add chicken stock, ½ cup at a time, adding more as liquid is absorbed. Cook for 15 minutes or until couscous is al dente. Add zucchini, bottarga and chilli. Remove from heat, gently stir through Fontina and season to taste. Serve immediately with fish.

Note Israeli couscous is a toasted pasta similar to Italian orzo, about the size of tapioca. This Israeli staple is available from Middle Eastern and specialty food stores. Bottarga is sun-dried mullet roe used widely in Sicilian and Sardinian cuisine. It is available from David Jones Foodhalls, specialty food stores and select fishmongers.

*Sample sent kindly from Liz at Haysac.

Blog Birthday and More Cupcake Fun!

2009-09-30T20:39:00.004+10:00

Today my little blog turned 1!! So exciting, I cant believe its been a full year since I sat down and decided to start my own little experience in blogging. You cant have a birthday without cake right? and any excuse is a good excuse to have cake. I popped into Laurent on my way home from work today and got a chocolate mousse cake.

It was a delicious cake, very rich, but perfect for the occasion.

So what have I achieved in the 12 months to date? well so far I've only eaten at 14 out of the 100 restaurants. Thats only 14%...seems like such a daunting task ahead of me! I've only managed to cooked 10 recipes from the restaurants. I really need to lift my game! Well I have holidays coming soon, so there will be plenty of cooking and eating to come! yay!

For a bit of fun I bring you part two of cupcake fun! I love seeing cupcakes in everyday life, and like I said in my previous post, they seem to be poping up more frequently! I apologize for the bad quality photos, but cupcakes attack at any time, and sometimes I'm only armed with my mobile phone!

First up we have a cupcake bib. Its a great idea, get them addicted early and they will have a long happy life....with cupcakes!

My trip to work takes me past the Melbourne showgrounds and recently the Royal Show was on. While stopped at a red light, I turned my head and what did I see, cupcakes! Yay! I contemplated buying a ticket to go in and see said cupcake, but then the light turned green and I had to go.

Next is good old Riot Art Supply. I find alot of cupcake inspiration/material here. The most recent addition is a cupcake apron.

Lastly from my local newspaper a story about cupcakes! They also featured a recipe for cupcakes. To view a larger version please double click on the image.

Tucked in the far corner is a price comparison between iced and un-iced cupcakes. My question to you is, is a cupcake still a cupcake if its un-frosted/iced????

Well that caps the first birthday of this little blog. The song was sung, candles blown out and cake eaten. So bring on the next 12 months, at least there will be cake again next september!!

The Art I Choke!

2009-09-27T11:22:00.010+10:00

Its spring, the birds are chirping, the bees are buzzing and the snow is falling on the mountains. Hang on a sec, the last ones not right. Looking at the calendar, we're definitely supposed to be in spring, but the weather man decided that we all needed a little reminder of what winter used to feel like. Its not such a bad thing, before it gets too hot I can have the oven on for long periods of time and I can make all those hearty soups and stews I'll be longing for soon. Artichokes always remind me of cold days. Probably because when I was little, as a family we used to go collecting wild artichoke out and about, I remember it being cold and windy with my cheeks stingy from the chill factor. These days I'm not as adventurous and get my artichokes from the local green grocer. Since they are now in season, I thought I'd make my mums stuffed artichoke.

You can stuff the artichoke with anything you like, as long as there is enough egg in your stuffing to bind everything together. I guess you could convert this recipe into an entirely vegan or vegetarian friendly dish, with a few exclusions and alternatives. The sweet taste of the artichoke is hard to beat. I remember when I was a kid I would bring friends over to have dinner with us, sometimes artichokes would be on the menu. Most of my friends thought that it would taste horrible and it always took a bit of coxing to get them to try it, after a short lesson in how to actually eat the thing! Once they tried it, they were hooked.

Daz was exactly the same as my friends. I remember the first time he ever tried it, he had such a shocked and confused look on his face. He didn't want to make a fool of himself by eating the artichoke the wrong way, but on the other hand he wasn't exactly up for eating hard chewy fibrous leaf. So quietly while no one way watching I told him how to eat it. On the outer leaves of the artichoke, only the very inner center of the leaf is edible. You put the leaf between your teeth and scrap the soft sweet flesh off and eat it.

As you get closer to the heart of the artichoke, the entire leaf become edible. The actual heart is so soft and gooey its a delight, but it is an acquired taste. It seems to take up all the flavor and becomes very intense. Daz always leaves it aside. I can't convert him on everything!

My mum usually fills the artichoke with a meat mixture, weather it be pork, lamb or beef. I prefer pork. Its a shame that the brown on green is so ugly and these pictures wouldn't make it into a Donna Hay magazine, but sometimes the ugliest foods are the tastiest!

So heres the recipe:

Pork Stuffed Artichokes

Serves 4 people

4 globe artichoke
400 gram pork mince
2 cups fresh bread crumbs
1-2 handfuls of dried bread crumbs
2 eggs
2-3 handfuls of Parmesan cheese (depending on how cheesy you want it)
1/2 cup parsley, chopped
salt and pepper

1. First the artichoke needs to be prepared. Peel off the harder outside leaves and discard. Cut the stalk of relatively close to the base of the artichoke. Peel the stalk, this will be added to the pot to add extra flavour. Trim around the base to remove the bitter outer peal. Fan the leave open as far as possible without breaking the leaves off. Rinse the artichoke under cold water and leave upside down to drain.

2. To prepare the stuffing, all the ingredients into a bowl and mix together. Make sure to season the mixture well. The mixture should be the same consistency as a stiff meatball. If it is too wet add some extra dry breadcrumbs.

3. Take the artichoke and a small amount of stuffing. Push the stuffing into the space between the leaves. Continue to fill until most of the artichoke is filling. The heart of the artichoke will remain stuffing-less.

4. Find a pot, with a lid, that is barely big enough for the artichoke to fit in. They need to all be squeezed together, standing upright. This will take a little work, the fit must be very tight. This is extremely important as the mixture will shrink, and the artichoke will start to fall apart, so the support of its neighboring artichoke will keep it intact.

5. Add enough water to come halfway up the artichokes. Add the stalks to the pot, and lightly salt the water. The water will evaporate so only a small amount of salt is needed.

6. Put the lid on the pot and cook on medium-low for 45 minutes. You can tell if the artichokes are ready when you pull a lea and it comes away easily. You can also eat one of the leaves, if it is soft and not squeaky its done.

When I was cleaning the artichokes I found a baby artichoke disparately clinging to its mother. I couldn't bare separating them so I chucked it in the pot too. When everything was cooked I took it out and though, maybe I could eat it whole. So being the horrible person that I am, I ate the baby whole! Nom Nom Nom, baby back ribs!

After filling the artichokes I had a fair bit of stuffing left over. I may have mentioned before, theres nothing better than getting two dishes out of one. I often recycle left over mayonnaise or too much icing and I'm ashamed to say that sometimes the spin off dish tastes better than the original! What to do with all that tasty meat filling??? hmmm....I'll make meat balls!! I also had some crumb-less bread crust that I didn't want to feed to the birds. Attracting birds around our cat Romeo is not a good idea! **chirp chirp...meow....pounce! puuurrrrr** So I made little spindle meatballs, fried them off and sat them in little crust boats. I chowed the whole lot down with a squeeze of lemon. I might actually make these again, they were pretty tasty and perfect for a finger food. I will call them PORK BOATS!

Review - Cupcakes by Paolo

2009-09-20T19:57:00.010+10:00

I LOVE cupcakes

**EDIT 30 September 2009 - I've recently discovered that the Cupcake by Paolo website is not original and has been lifted/stolen/borrowed from another site. In order to be as fair as possible I've decided to remove all links to the website. I contemplated removing this entire post, however I thought that would be unfair and chosen to keep the rest of the post. At the end of the day, the actual cupcakes are the most important thing.

Recently I was contacted by Paolo from Cupcakes by Paolo who runs a made to order cupcake business. He wanted me to try some of his cupcakes. Since I love anything cupcake I gladly and gleefully said yes...yes please!! Paolo not only sells his cupcakes on a made to order basis, but his cupcakes are also stocked at Lutong Pinoy within the Footscray Market. Double score for me! Lutong Pinoy is a Philopino takeaway food store that makes some delicious Halo Halo. I do have one piece of advice though, if you want to try his cupcakes from Lutong Pinoy you better get in early, they sell out pretty fast!

So onto the cupcakes, the STAR's of the show! When we arrived we had some gorgeous cupcakes already arranged on a platter for us. Wow, we definitely got the royal treatment. I snapped a couple of photos, and then I was given an uber cute box to take them away and sample them. It was 9 am, despite my love for cupcakes, I know having a cupcake breakfast is probably not the healthiest thing in the world. So I decided to eat them a little later in the day.

First up we had the Aromatic Mocha -"A moist chocolate base with espresso buttercream icing dusted with powdered chocolate. Inhale the rich Aroma"

The cake was delightfully fluffy, a shot of coffee flavor is offered in both the frosting and the cake which ensured you get a double hit of espresso. I love the extra touch of cocoa dusted on top. In a way I wish I had eaten this for breakfast. It would be a great way to start the day. There were two Aromatic Mocha in the box for me, later that night I was meeting up with a few friends, so I skillfully dissected the cupcake into three and handed them out to my friends. They absolutely loved it, in fact one of them exclaimed "that was exactly what I needed"....I need to win lotto, but each to their own!

Next we had the Divine Orange - 'A light and fluffy orange base with orange buttercream icing garnished with a orange gummy, so orange its divine'

Nom Nom Nom. Orange in a cupcake, what else can I say! I've never experienced a cupcake that is actually refreshing. Not too sweet, and slightly tangy, I love the little extra touch of a gummy orange on top, it was great. Daz cut the cupcake in half but left the gummy intact. He ended up taking a great whopping bite out of the gummy leaving huge teeth marks. I wish I had taken a photo, it look almost violated!

Exotic Buko Pandan - "A light and fluffy pandan base with a pandan buttercream icing garnished with coconut shavings. Bring the holiday home."

Think Homer Simpson drooling over a doughnut, freeze the second where drool actually spills out of his mouth, that was me when I took a sniff of this beauty. So coconutty, so fluffy (check out the massive air holes in the cake), the intense green color of the cake and icing was completely reflected by the intense flavor that it offered. There was only one in the box, but at that very second I wished all of them were Buko pandan flavor! By far my favorite. If I had super powers, it would be the ability to instantly metamorphosize one of these into my hand....oh and xray vision! I've been told that this is the most popular flavor, I can totally see why.

Pavlova Passion - 'A light and fluffy passion fruit base with a wall of Italian meringue flooded with a passion fruit icing. Taste the passion'

Daz and I were divided by this one. He stood on the side of deadly against, and I was strongly for it. I adored the deep tropical passion fruit flavor with the marshmallowy Italian meringue, I could have eaten 3 more. But Daz instantly hated it, which is kinda strange because he usually likes passion fruit. We don't always have to agree on everything, makes life a little more interesting "awwww babes you don't want the rest of that cupcake? here I'll help, I'll eat it for you"

And lastly we had the Pineapple Crush - 'A light and fluffy pineapple base with pineapple buttercream icing dusted with pure icing sugar. Its like falling in love all over again.'

I was a little disappointed by this one, but I think that's my fault. I had left it to very last, because as you might have noticed I love tropical flavors and pineapple is just delicious. All week I had been eating dehydrated pineapple, so I was expecting the cupcake to be just as intense, sadly it wasn't. It was still a very fluffy and enjoyable cupcake, but I think the Buko Pandan cupcake has ruined me forever!

Overall I love ALL the cupcakes on offer from Cupcakes by Paolo. Its obvious that the cupcakes are baked with a huge amount of love and attention. There was no hint of dryness at all and every single one was fresh. Something that I'm slowly, but surely, getting more in tuned in recognizing. Its been about 3 days since I had a cupcake and I'm starting to get withdrawal symptoms, not even good old cake can keep the cravings away anymore. Looks like I'm going down to Footscray on the weekend!

You can purchase single cupcakes for $3.00 from Lutong Pinoy at Footscray Market within the food hall, right next to the lift.

The power of cupcake within my hand!

Cheesy Mushroom Arancini

2009-09-18T21:23:00.007+10:00

Recently the vivacious V1 hosted a hens party for a friend of hers. As she was responsible for all the fun and frivolity on the night, she asked me to help with the catering. We made a range of things, including these Cheesy mushroom arancini and a very "special" cake which I will hopefully bring to you soon. All I'll say is it rated PG-18.

The hen had told V1 that she wanted good food, so if she was to get extremely wasted and eventually have to throw up she wanted to bring up something that tasted good. Rice balls are both delicious and soft. Great for the hens' purposes.

I usually make arancini with meat and vegies and a tomato sauce, but this time I had a real craving for Camembert and mushrooms, and besides it was good for any vegetarians in attendance. I made them with 4 different types of cheeses, just to pack in the cheesy-ness, Parmesan, tasty cheese, mozzarella and Camembert. The photo doesn't do them any justice, the mozzarella comes out so stringy and oozy its delicious, they are best eaten hot straight from the pan, but they can be kept for the next day and reheated if desired. Hmmm I'm salivating just thinking about it.

They require a little fiddling about and some deep frying, but I promise you the end result is was worth any trouble!! So here the recipe, with step by step photos on how to assemble the rice balls.

Cheesy Mushroom Arancini

INGREDIENTS

Rice needs to be cooked 1 day in advance

2 cups of medium grain rice

500 mushrooms

2 cloves of garlic, minced

4 -6 eggs

breadcrumbs

1 pinch of saffron soaked in a teaspoon of water overnight (optional)

Vegetable oil (for deep frying)

100 grams Parmesan

mozzarella, rolled up into small balls

tasty cheese

Camembert, cut into small cubes

METHOD

1. Cook rice in salted water until just cooked. Drain, let it cool and then cover with plastic wrap and place in fridge overnight. Make sure that it is tightly wrapped so that it does not dry out at all. On the next day take it out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature before using.

2. Dice mushroom into small pieces and saute with a little olive oil in a large flat frying pan. Add garlic and cook until mushrooms are soft, but not dry, season to taste with salt and pepper. Let the mixture cool to room temperature.

3. Add saffron to rice (this gives the rice a golden color and a sweet flavour)

break two whole eggs into the rice. Add the yolks of two more eggs and place the whites in another shallow bowl. Add Parmesan and a couple of hand fulls of tasty cheese.

Using your clean bare hands mix everything together. Feel the consistency of the mixture if it is too wet add a hand full or two of breadcrumbs, if the mixture does not stick together easily, add another egg. Continue this mixing until a sticky but not too wet rice mixture is achieved.

4. Whipped egg whites until they are very frothy and firm, but not stiff. As you use the egg whites you will need to keep whipping them to get them frothy again. Place a shallow bowl of water next to the rice mixture. I find it easiest if I have a helping hand, but isn't that with everything in life?

5. Bring the mushrooms close to you, fill a bowl with dry breadcrumbs and assemble all your ingredients so they are handy including cheese's.

6. Wet the palm of your non-dominate hand with water, this prevents the rice from sticking to your hand. Wet the tips of your fingers with some water and take a generous pinch of rice and spread it on your hand to make a flat section of rice. Remember that the smaller the section of rice, the smaller your rice ball. I suggest starting big and then making them smaller as you get better.

7. Add a tablespoon of mushroom mixture, a mozzarella ball and a piece of Camembert to the flatten riced.

8. Take another generous pinch of rice in your dominate hand, with the your fingers and thumb flatten the rice to make another section of rice to place on top of the mushroom mixture.

9. Bring your hands close together and press them gently together, shape into a ball.

10. Roll in egg whites, you only need a little so I usually take a dab or two and coat it in my hands.

11. Coat ball in breadcrumbs. Deep fry them in some oil on medium heat. Make sure not to roll them around too much as they easily break. cook them until golden brown then drain them on some absorbent paper.

Some tips and tricks

- After you make your first ball is the true test of rice stickiness. If it doesn't come to together easily, add another egg to the rice mixture

- During the rolling stage if you see any filling coming out poke it back in and seal the hole with a few grains of rice. This is very important as if there is any exposed filling it is sure to burst when cooking.

- When rolling in breadcrumbs if cracks appear or the ball is in jeopardy of falling apart, roll it in generous amount egg white and then roll with a thick amount of breadcrumbs. This will form a "plaster" shell that is more difficult to break, and will mend any cracks.

- Test the temperature of the oil before dropping your first ball in. Take a grain of rice, if it sizzles than its ready. Keep a close eye on the temperature of the oil, if it becomes too hot the outer shell with brown without the inside heating up and melting the cheese.

Review - Happy Home Made Cupcakes

2009-09-13T18:30:00.003+10:00

After my massive cupcake tour of Melbourne I was contacted by Neev from Happy Home Made Cupcakes. She runs her own cupcake business from home and was keen to get me and Daz to sample some of her delicious treats. Daz and I being the cupcake fiends that we are were never going to knock back an offer like that! So today we got the best treat ever and have an entire cupcake platter prepared for us! How lucky are we!

I must compliment Neev on really thinking about Daz and I, she had prepared a combination of regular sized cupcakes and mini cupcakes. Considering that there were quite a few flavours on offer, tiny morsels are the best to taste test without getting too full along the way. I do have to confess though, they were so good that Daz and I went back for seconds! Diet starts tomorrow!

After visiting Cupcakes by Heather and Lori in Vancouver a couple of years ago, the cupcake bug well and truly took a bite. Neev started the business in March this year after a little gentle persuasion from her daughter Ameesha. All cupcakes are proudly baked from scratch, containing no artificial preservatives. And I must say Happy Home Made is the most perfect name for her cupcakes, after meeting Neev and her whole family I can see that alot of love and happiness goes into every single cupcake.

So onto the eating right!?! Listed in order of consumption. We started with a Vanilla cupcake with vanilla frosting. This was Ameesha's favourite. I thought I would get some inside knowledge before diving in, and it was a good way to start. Subtle vanilla flavour with a good dose of vanilla frosting.

Then we moved onto Coconut cupcakes with meringue frosting. Daz loves anything meringue, so this one was pretty close to his heart, and I adore coconut. The crunchy intense coconut on top was a delight. You would think that anything with a meringue frosting would be overly sweet, but the sugar levels were just right. That's absolutely perfect for me, its means that I can eat more without feeling like I'm about to fly out of a room on a sugar high!

Next we had Dark brown sugar cupcakes with caramel and cinnamon butter cream frosting. This was good, real good. The kick from the cinnamon was unexpected and freakin delicious! Daz really loved this one, he was raving about it all the way back home. We were even lucky enough to get a couple to take home....they didn't last long....sigh.

We left the best to last. When I looked at the Chocolate Mud cupcakes with Caramel frosting topped with violet crumble and a drizzle of caramel I knew we were in for a treat. They looked like miniature volcanoes exploding with flavour, with a trickle of caramel magma flowing over the side. Deep, dense, intense chocolate flavour topped with subtle caramel and crunchy violet crumble. Hmmmm these were my favourite. I'm crazy about dark chocolate and there was a good dose of it in these cupcakes.

Neeve is an absolute delight and I'm so pleased that I got the chance to sample her baked goods. If you would like to order some of her cupcakes you can contact her through her blog at Happy Home Made Cupcakes or drop her an email at neevrap{AT}hotmail.com

Punch Lane

2009-09-09T21:10:00.004+10:00

Punch lane

43 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne

It was a cold August night and we'd ventured out into the wind and rain to meet up with the dynamic V's for a bite to eat. We'd left early so we could find a close park and have the opportunity to sit in the warm comfort sure to be awaiting us inside Punch Lane. I parked on Little Collins street. I was so proud of myself, I've managed to find the perfect car spot on the exact same street that the restaurant is on, how often do you get to do that in the CBD. Daz and I got out of the car and started walking up the street. "Where is it?....its 43 right...so it should be here somewhere"....."are you sure its on Little Collins street" CRAP!...wrong "Little" street!

So a slight detour and 15 minutes later we were inside the bar. The place was packed so our table wasn't quite ready, so we sat at the bar....all of us starving, cold and uncomfortable (who thought tall wooden chairs were a good idea?). Cured meats hung mockingly in front of us. I contemplated grabbing a sausage and chowing down before a waiter could notice, but the dignified side in me kicked in and stopped me just in a nick of time. My stomach soon gave way to my bladder, time for a pit stop. I don't usually mention toilets at restaurants, but this one was a doozie. I walked in, and as a women the first thing I did was look for the bag hook. I looked everywhere, and then....I looked up. The bag hook was way up on the wall, way above my head! I thought it best not to put my bag up there, just in case it fell off and knocked me unconscious while sitting on the toilet. Knowing me and my track record so far that night, that would be likely to happen.

We got to our table, and my favourite thing about any restaurant....plentiful free bread. Since there were four of us and the waitress was a class act, the bread baskets were flying at us at an incredible speed.

We each had a glass of wine and then it was time to order. There was a winter express menu on offer so we opted to go for that.

Daz started with a huge bowl of cream cannellini soup with chorizo and spinach. It looked so lovely and creamy, with crispy pieces of chorizo floating on top. Daz was so kind to give me ONE spoonful, it was warm, thick inviting and perfect for a cold wet night. I really wish I had ordered that dish for myself, atually I wish Daz was more inclined to share half his meals with me, we have a mortgage together...whats half a bowl of soup!?

The rest of us had the salted salmon, potato and olive salad, with fresee and lemon mayonnaise. The salted salmon tasted a little weird. It was originally supposed to come with salted cod, but they had run out for the night. I wondered it if would taste much nicer with plain smoked salmon. The mayonnaise was the saviour of the dish, it was tangy and refreshing, an element that was really needed to combat the saltiness of the salmon.

For mains, V2 had a confit of chicken with winter cabbage, peas and jus roti. He was bitterly disappointed, and I was for him too. Confit is one of my favourite dishes, and his tasted exactly like fried chicken...nothing special, didn't taste bad....just ordinary. sigh. I dislike ordinary.

The rest of us had braised lamb shanks with creamed carrots and swede. We hit the jackpot. The lamb was tender and juicy, exactly what a lamb shank should be. The creamed carrot and swede was delightful. It was so special, I still think of it to this day. It was fluffy but filling, the dish had a few olives dotted here or there. Your mouth would burst with excitement when you took a mouthful of mash and hidden withing was a salty little package that just made everything taste so well rounded. I had never thought to throw some olives into a mash, but I sure am going to do that now!

We also got a side of Greek salad and crispy french fries.

Overall the dinner was pretty good. I enjoyed the atmosphere and I'll definitely be going back. Hopefully next time I can try some of their cured meats, and park on the right street!

A death in the kitchen + Peanutbutter Gelato + KitchenAid = AWESOMENESS!

2009-09-06T21:39:00.007+10:00

I started my weekend on a bad note, or as it later turned out - the best thing that has ever happened to me! While making a cake with the vivacious Ms V, my trusty - but cheap - hand held mixer finally died (You'll find out about the cake soon). While beating the frosting the motor made a funny noise, struggled for a bit and then started to smell like electrical appliance death. I shed a little tear for my dear friend and said my good byes. We had alot of fun together, the countless cupcakes we've made together, I'm surprised she didn't die on me earlier!

Today, while shopping with Daz I saw a gorgeous limited edition candy apple red KitchenAid stand mixer. We went in to check it out and low and behold it was on special! $599. Was it my birthday? nope. I've been hmmming and arrrhing about getting a KitchenAid for ages. I have an issue with purchasing things, impulse buying is not in my repertoire. Daz convinced me after offering to pay for it, not only is it on special, but you're telling me I can have it for free? GIVE IT TO ME....NOW!

I got her home, unpacked her and gave her a little kiss. Daz and I stood around for a while and just stared at it. There's something incredibly hypnotic about a shiny red piece of metal. Then came the difficult part, giving her a name. We recently welcomed Beryl to our home a couple of months ago, and shes been couriering cupcakes back and forth like a real pro. A shiny new RED kitchenaid needs a name that is sexy and sounds like alot of fun......cause we're gonna have fun together! So we decided to name her Corinna. Here are some happy snaps

Now to the second part of this post, on a recent trip to Leo's I came across some peanut butter flavoured gelato, made by Gelati Sky. I LOVE peanut butter anything....who doesn't like peanut butter? I went against my better judgement and ignored the $7.80 price tag for 1L.

I purchased it on Tuesday night, and its been sitting in my freezer since. Not because I didn't want to eat it, oh on the contrary. I wanted some good lighting to take photos before I hoed into it, so I waited until the weekend. If I know anything about myself, I know I cant resist gelato if its anywhere near me, so I'm pretty proud of myself for lasting 4 days!

Oh man was it good, it tasted like peanut butter funnily enough. The surprising part, there were swirls of chocolate through the gelato which I didn't expect. It didn't taste overly like chocolate, but it was a great flavour to contrast with the salty peanut, it actually tasted alot like a picnic bar without the crunch and caramel. It was delicious, no wonder they've won awards!

So in the end it was a pretty great weekend, I got peanut butter ice cream and I finally got a KitchenAid! Woo hoo!

Cupcakes in Melbourne

2009-08-30T20:39:00.013+10:00

Competing in the cupcake challenge has intensified my already insatiable appetite for cupcakes, recently Daz and I decided to go on a grand cupcake tour of Melbourne, for research purposes of course. I searched the Internet for anything cupcake related that existed in Melbourne. We set out early in the morning, had some breakfast, bad mistake, then proceeded to eat our own weight in cupcakes, along the way we almost made ourselves violently ill from eating too much frosting. So here's what we tried.

Little Cupcakes

Shop 7 Degraves Street Melbourne

No cupcake tour would be complete without making a stop at the infamous little cupcakes. So we started at the best and worked our way through my list. We tried a selection of mini cupcakes. My thought process was, they're tiny so I can eat more of them. They are $2.50 each or $2 each if you purchase 4 or more, and everything you buy is served with the most friendly smile you will ever see. Top score for customer service! We tried, cookies and cream, strawberry, Belgium chocolate and chocolate mocha.

Cookies and Cream Cupcake

Chocolate Mocha Cupcakes

Belgium Chocolate Cupcakes

Strawberry Cupcakes

Every single one was delicious! The frosting was so light that it wasn't sweet at all. I had intended on only consuming half, but I just had to eat all of them right there and then. My favourite was the strawberry, so full flavoured and cute with its little silver balls.

The Cupcake Bakery

495 Collins Street Melbourne

A relatively new addition to Melbourne, this bakery was first started in Sydney. A friend of mine had been to the bakery the week before and warned to stay away from the Chocolate cupcakes, she thought they were a bit dry. We tried the Choc Mint (Standard - $3.50) and Tiramisu (Delux - $4.50).

The service at the cupcake bakery is fantastic. I got into a conversation with the owner about cupcakes, and even told her I was a food blogger, something I don't do often from fear of being attacked. They even have a massive cupcake on display!

So we grabed our cupcakes and sat down to enjoy the cakey goodness. I would love to say that the choc mint cupcakes were wonderful, but unfortunately it was a little dry.

The tiramisu was moist and very tasty. It was a little on the dense side, something that is good in a mud cupcake, but I don't think this cupcake was intended for that purpose. I doggy bagged half of my choc mint cupcake, I thought it would be best to save my stomach at the early stay in the tour.

Let Them Eat Cake

147-149 Cecil Street, South Melbourne

We didn't actually get to sample any of the cupcakes at Let Them Eat Cake. Whenever I go somewhere food related, I usually ask if I can take photos....as a courtesy. I don't have to explain why I take photos, I just don't want to surprise anyone and make them upset. At let them eat cake I was so excited about all the pretty cakes in front of me that I totally forgot to ask if I could take photos. I took two snaps and then I was attacked. And I'm not kidding. I had heard that they were pretty rude at let them eat cake, but the lady behind the counter exceeded rude! She told me off for taking photos, even after I apologised, she still attacked me. She demanded I delete the photos from my camera, which I wasn't going to to. I still wanted to order something and thought that she would put it behind her, but as I was ordering she was still talking down to me and pointing out what a "bad thing" I had down. I didn't want to be spoken to that way any longer, even after I had said I was sorry, so Daz and I left empty handed. As Daz and I were walking out she was still screaming across the counter at us, with a shop full of people! I've decided that I'm going to go back, buy some cupcakes, then take photos of her and the inside of the shop from the street. I'll be on public property there so she wont have any say. Ha Ha.....take that rude cake lady!

Crabapple Cupcakes

Shop 6/163 Commercial Road, Prahran Market

I like crabapple cupcakes. Most of their cupcakes are quite dense and if you get them fresh, they are delicious. I've been to crabapple cupcakes a couple of times and every time I always seem to get the raspberry white chocolate mud cupcakes...mainly due to the frosting I wish I could make frosting like that! So on this occasion we tried the raspberry white chocolate mud, lamington and flourless chocolate mud cupcakes.

Lamington Cupcake

Raspberry and White Chocolate Mud Cupcake

Fourless Chocolate Mud Cupcake.

I was a little disappointed in the lamington cupcake. To me it just tasted like a vanilla cupcake with chocolate frosting and coconut sprinkles, nothing like a laminton at all. I dont know why, maybe t needs a really fluffy light sponge cake with a oozzy chocolate sauce. It was still really nice, just not like a lamington.

Planet Chocolate

Highpoint Shopping Centre L03 7326, Highpoint, 200 Rosamond Road, Maribyrnong

Whatever you do, never...and I mean NEVER buy cupcakes from Planet Chocolate. Yes they look kinda cute and have the potential to quench a cupcake thirst, but they do the exact opposite. I asked the girl behind the counter what flavour she had and it was a choice between vanilla and chocolate. I decided on vanilla. When I asked her what type of frosting it was she told me it was cream cheese so I was sold. She Literally threw the two cupcakes into a bag, I was worried they would get damaged and look terrible. To my luck they were as hard as a rock and could have been tossed off the top of a 3 storey building and still stay intact.

The cream cheese frosting was not cream cheese at all. It tasted like a big wad of lard, and no cream cheese frosting I know could withstand a nuclear attack. Lesson learnt, keep walking past Planet chocolate.

Peterson's Cakes

117 Chapel St, Windsor

On our way to crabapple we drove past Peterson's Cakes, and saw a lovely wedding cake made entirely out of cupcakes which apparently is all the rage now. I was pretty sure that they they didn't sell cupcakes over the counter, but the store on chapel street has a cafe section and Daz was a little thirsty, so we stopped in for a look see.

I walked all the way around the shop and saw no cupcakes. Sigh. Daz had a drink and a little rest on a chair, then I got up to pay the bill when low and behold I saw it. The last cupcake left in the entire shop. Yes it was more of a patty cake than a cupcake, and yeah it was a little worse for wear, but I gotta give it a try right....I'm on a cupcake tour, I just have to. I handed over my $2 for the patty cake/cupcake. I sat it down, had a good look at it and then ate it. It was really nice. I total surprise. Despite it probably being older than me, it was pretty moist and the icing was nice. The taste reminded me of cupcakes my mum and I used to make when I was little. It was good, ugly, but good.

After exiting Peterson's Cakes, Daz told me he had to give up. His head was hurting and he was a little sugared out. I could have kept going for ages, it was only 2pm, the day was still young. I still had more places on my list to visit, but for the sake of our relationship, we drove home and Daz had a rest. He promised that next weekend we could finish the tour. The other locations are;

Sweet Source in Carlton
The Replete Providore in Hawthorn
Cooks Food in Toorak (not sure about this one)
Switchboard cafe off collins street,
The Lounge Bar Cafe on Swanston street
Sophisticakes of Melbourne @ The Arts Center Sunday Market (my review here)
Wild Holly Cakes in Brigton.
Ferguson Plarre Bakehouses
Happy home Made cupcakes (my review here)
Cupcakes by Paolo (my review here)
Amsterdam St cafe in Richmond for Sugadeaux Cupcakes
I've even been told that Costco have cupcakes, so I'll have to try them!

So stay tuned for part two of the cupcake tour, In the meantime, do you have any suggestions of cupcake venues I should try?

2010 Gourmet Traveller Awards

2009-08-25T21:36:00.005+10:00

Today the post man bought me a surprise, the 2010 Gourmet Traveller Australian restaurant guide. I did what I do every year, opened the guide, took a red pen and marked off all the restaurants I've visited. In the space of 2 minutes I went from eating at 17 top 100 restaurants to 14. Bugger! I've just gone backwards! Well I look at it this way, I have even more places on my list to visit, and that cant be a bad thing.

For all the information on the awards winners and a complete list of the top 100 visit the gourmet traveller website. I've also updated the top 100 list on this blog.

And so starts another list to get through, how many top 100's have you tried?

Taxing Dining Room

2009-08-23T19:14:00.003+10:00

Dining Date: August 2009

2009 Rating: 87th

2009 Star rating: 1

Chef: Michael Lambie

Location: Level 1, Transport Hotel, Federation Square, Cnr Flinders & Swanston Streets

Melbourne Victoria

Website: www.transporthotel.com.au

Taxi dining room is located at federation square in the heart of the Melbourne CBD. We ventured out to the city on a particularly nice day, the sun was shining, the weather was warm and I was feeling flirty. So I put on a dress and some nice high heels. It seemed life the rest of Melbourne had the exact same idea and everyone was heading for the city. The traffic was a nightmare and we ended up parking a mile away. My feet are still angry with me! We were late, and I HATE being late. We practically sprinted to the restaurant from the car park, at least once we got to the location we could sit down and relax. I was really worried that they would have given our table away. We were having another winter express meal and he session times are pretty strict. Luckily the table was still waiting for us, and there was no need to chow down at lightening speed.

Taxi has a great atmosphere, laid back while still being funky and modern. The views across the river or city, depending on where you sit, are breath taking. I'm in love with the city of Melbourne and can never bore from seeing the tree lined Yarra river, or the towering sky scrapers. I managed to take a couple of shots of the interior of the restaurant before my camera battery decided it had enough, its funny how batteries require regular charging. Thanks to modern technology my pocket camera, which doubles as a mobile phone was all I had to document the meal. Apologies in advance for the crappy photos!

We started with a glass of wine each, Galli estate Pinot Grigio from Heathcote Victoria. The selection of what to have for entree and mains was limited, but I didn't mind. The quality of the overall meal was exceptional so I don't feel like I missed out at all.

We started with Panko crumbed brandade cake with spiced tomato jus. It came with a cold noodle salad on the side and I'm not quite sure what the other thing was. But it tasted delicious! Daz and I decided to share the entree and dessert at the end of the meal. As soon as I took my first bite, wished I had opted for my own main. The cake was so crunchy on the outside and beautifully fluffy within, such a joy to eat.

If the entree was nice, the main was heaven. I love a really good slow cooked piece of meat and the braised beef with mushrooms, bacon, pommes puree and red wine jus was fall apart perfect. We were given a knife that looked like a ice pick. It was so pointy and extremely sharp with menacing serrated edges, I thought it was hilarious as the dish could have been eaten with a spoon.

I loved the crispyness of the bacon. Everything on the place was so soft and juicy it needed something to contrast with so you could fully appreciate the texture. The crunchy bacon was such an awesome surprise when you took a mouth full of the creamy luscious mash. I was so extremely happy after eating this dish I think I had a meat-o-gasm.

We were sitting directly opposite the pass for the dessert section. Literally every minute 4 souffles would be whisked away to hungry customers. Looking at all those beautiful gravity defying souffles I had to have one for myself. We discovered that it was a Grand Marnier souffle with orange caramel and blood orange sorbet. The souffle was piping hot, so fluffy that when you put it n your mouth it disappeared. But the absolute stand out for me was the sorbet. I could have a massive bowl of that sorbet on its own, then ordered another for dessert. It was so tasty, the true flavour of orange was right there on your palette, it filled your mouth and was so tangy and sweet that it made my mouth water while I was eating it! Something that doesn't happen often to me.

After we devoured the entire thing I contemplated licking the plate, no jokes. So I moved the cup that the souffle was baked in and unwittingly discovered Taxi's secret anchoring system. We all know that a lot of restaurants use sauces or puree's to stick down food to the plate, but did you know they use pieces of cake? Underneath the cup was a perfectly circular piece of cake. It was ingenious, no slipping and fits snuggly in place. The thought of eating the cake crossed my mind, but then I thought it probably wasn't intended t be eaten so might give it a miss.

Overall I liked Taxi Dining Room. I thought all the dishes I tried were well executed, some even presented with a little flare. I would definitely go back to sampling some of their dishes other dishes.

Cupcake Fun!

2009-08-19T13:52:00.004+10:00

With all the cupcake fun going around the blogging world lately*, I thought I would join in too, I was supposed to bake my very own batch of cupcakes for the RSPCA cupcake day, but worksafe got in the way. I've been trawling the inter-of-the-net and made do with drooling over everyone's fantastic creations. There's even been a new discovery in the tiny cake world, the first ever reported siting of the muffcake! If I cant bake myself, at least I can live vicariously through others in the comfort of my own cushioned seat.

Lately I've noticed something curious, well maybe not recently.....I've only just started documenting it. Every where I look there are cupcakes, and not just the cupcakes of the baked variety, cupcakes in every shape and form. Here are a couple of fun photos I've taken over the last few weeks that are cupcake related. Please excuse the quality of the photo's, they're all taken on my mobile phone.

The first is from Spotlight, all things fabric and home deco. This was a treasure trove for cupcake paraphernalia. There was a kitchen timer in the shape of a cupcake, which I sadly didn't take a photo of and I found various cup cake mugs and dishes

I even found a cupcake place mat!

At Riot they had a gorgeous cupcake stand made entirely out of glitter and Styrofoam. I seriously wanted to bite into one of these! After asking if I could take a photo, one of the sales assistants said it was a great idea to entertain kids with. Buy a whole heap of Styrofoam balls and make cupcakes.....yeah.....thats why I'M taking a photo, tips on how to entertain children. Little did they know I was the massive kid with a cupcake fetish. I got out pretty quick after that.

I saw a cupcake trapped in the Eiffel tower in a gift shop at Chadstone. Wish I had taken a photo, is was so freaking funny. But my favourite of all is left until last. Today I was at Boarders on one of my frequent trips to drool over cookbooks I may want to purchase if I win lotto, or a very sick rich old lady dies and leaves me all her money. Where do you find these?.....off track....anyway I was trying to keep a low profile in the bakery section when I looked up and noticed they were filed away under "diet". Holy mother of goat, the fitness industry has finally come to their senses and made....'the cupcake diet!' I did not touch a thing and at least 4 titles were facing outwards and featured cupcakes on the cover. After taking the photo I delved a little deeper and found more cupcake books on the shelf. Freakin awesome!!

I'll continue to keep an eye out for cupcaky-ness and bring you another instalment soon!

* Some of the most inspiring creations come from the most humble blogs;

Agnes from Off The Spork

Conor from Hold The Beef

Stephcookie from Raspberry Cupcakes

Lilia from My Sweethearts Bakery

Sharon from We Love Baking

Kat from Kats Creations

Lorraine From Not Quite Nigella

Trissalicious from Not Another Food Blog

The guys at Koali Life

Rilsta from My Food Trail

Results - Savoy Cabbage, Pine Nut, Raisin and Pecorino Insalata

2009-08-16T17:53:00.002+10:00

I was once a avid hater of raw cabbage, now I'm a convert. And it was all because of this recipe! There are a couple of things that I've learnt during the time that I've had this blog, making macarons is not fun and cabbage can actually taste good when uncooked. I think that is a massive bonus to this recipe too, there is absolutely no cooking required, that is if you don't count toasting bread crumbs in the oven as cooking.

To be honest you dont need any skill to make this recipe either. Its just a whole heap of chopping, slicing and arranging. Most of the effort is required when eating it, another bonus in my book! There's very little clean up too! I only made a half batch of the recipe and it made quite a bit, I had left overs for lunch the next day. The bread crumbs were a little soggy on day two, but the salad cream was delicious soaked into the beard crumbs!

Chop your cabbage

Toast your crumbs

Put it all in a bowl....

Then toss! "Now, you shake it to the left. You shake it to the right. Do the Hippy Shake Shake.. With all of your might!"

On the night that I made it, I didn't really feel like eating meat, which happens from time to time. Daz was pretty annoyed at that, being a red blooded male if there isn't something that either moo-ed, baah-ed or oink-ed on his plate for dinner....he still feels hungry, regardless of how big the meal might be. So I braved the elements (Daz at cranky level 9 is like sitting through a storm!), and dished up the cabbage with a soft centred fried egg on top. He loved it. The only way I can get away with not serving meat is by substituting egg, and with the runny center going all over the cabbage it was like having extra sauce. It was pretty good. I can imaging this salad being pretty tasty at an afternoon bbq, a couple of beers to wash down the cabbage would be extra nice.

Savoy Cabbage, Pine Nut, Raisin and Pecorino Insalata

2009-08-10T20:51:00.006+10:00

Restaurant: Buzo Restaurant (NSW)

Recipe from Chefs Todd Garratt and James Hird (Hopefully not the Essendon Bombers James Hird) (appeared on Attica website earlier this year)

2009 Rating: Number 90, 1 Star

I've never been a fan of coleslaw. Coming from an Italian background, all my exposure to cabbage has been of the cooked variety, so exploring raw cabbage is somewhat of a novel experience to me. I had half a head of savoy cabbage in the fridge and I wanted to use it, preferably something different to my usual braised cabbage. So I turned to my trusty friend gourmet traveller.

Savoy cabbage, pine nut, raisin and pecorino insalata

Serves 6

Cooking Time Prep time 15 mins

100 gm Iranian raisins (see note)

125 ml (½ cup) marsala

600 gm (about ½) savoy cabbage, thinly sliced

1-2 tbsp white balsamic or white wine vinegar

100 gm (2/3 cup) pine nuts, toasted

100 gm sourdough breadcrumbs, torn into 5mm pieces and toasted

80 gm pecorino, finely grated

4 cups (loosely packed) flat-leaf parsley leaves

Salad cream

4 egg yolks

2 tbsp white wine vinegar

2 tsp Dijon mustard

300 ml olive oil

100 ml pouring cream

1. Place raisins in a bowl and pour in marsala to cover, cover and stand overnight.

2. For salad cream, process egg yolks, vinegar and mustard in a food processor until combined, then gradually add oil in a thin, steady stream until emulsified. Transfer to a small bowl, stir through cream and season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Refrigerate until needed. Salad cream will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.

3. Combine cabbage and vinegar in a bowl, toss to coat and stand for 10 minutes.

4. Drain raisins, discarding marsala, and add to cabbage with pine nuts and half the breadcrumbs, pecorino and parsley. Add salad cream, toss gently to combine and season to taste. Serve immediately scattered with remaining breadcrumbs, pecorino and parsley.

Note Iranian raisins are available from specialty food stores or see www.pariya.com for stockists. If unavailable substitute with seedless raisins.

Esposito

2009-08-06T21:50:00.002+10:00

Date: August 2009

2009 Rating: 75th

2009 Star rating: 1

Chef: Maurice Esposito

Location: 162 Elgin Street, Carlton, Victoria

Website: www.espositofood.com

Its been a while since my last top 100 visit, and this month I've managed to visit a few, thanks in part to the Put Victoria on the Table promotion. Earlier this week we moseyed on down to Esposito @ Toofeys. Esposito is renowned for his seafood so I at least knew what I wanted for my main, something fishy.

The decore and atmosphere was actually quite lovely, there was only one problem. Jonquils! I HATE Jonquils, don't get me wrong, I think they are very pretty, but they smell horrid! I would not immediately pair the smell of Jonquils with mouth watering dishes, but on the other hand I really dislike them, the next person to walk through the door may love them. So its hardly something I can complain about.

We started the meal with a complementary appetiser. I love it when the chef takes the time to come up with something that each of his/her diners receives before they start their meal. Its even better when that little something extra tastes awesome! We received a tiny little dish filled with mixed herbs including tarragon, mint, dill, parsley, fennel and spring onion all combined in a mustard dressing. It was delicious, great way to kick things off.

We weren't particularly hungry so stuck to the two course dinner. For entree/main I had the John Dory fillets with kipfler potato and mud crab crush and artichoke tortellone. I enjoyed the dish. The crab/potato crush was by far my favourite, you could really taste the crab in the crush and it went really well with the crispy skin on the dory. The problem? The fish was extremely under seasoned and there was a tomato on my plate in the middle of winter. Enough said.

Daz had the Black Angus fillet steak with mushroom ragout, 50 year old balsamic vinegar and potato puree. The plate was quite pretty. Daz's reaction was that the dish was good, but not great.

For dessert I had the Hot date tart - Spiced frangipane with vanilla bean ice cream. I just couldn't resist the name of this dish and I just had to have the hot date for myself. I was pretty glad I did. There was some slight confusion and my date went to another table, would have been understandable if it had been a blind date. By the time it reached me, the ice cream had melted quite a bit. The pastry was flaky and it definitely lived up to its name, piping hot with the nice thick layer of date. Hmmm yum!

The end of Daz's meal was a bit more cheesy than mine. He had Pyengana cheddar, toasted fruit bread and house of Hines quince paste. I had a little nibble of his cheddar and it was pretty good. Crumbly and sweet, too bad the fruit bread was more like toast.

Esposito was nice, I wish I had a chance to try more of the seafood, so another visit is needed.

Bastille Day Wrap Up - Macarons and Truffles

2009-08-02T17:20:00.004+10:00

Yay, after all my procrastination, I am finally up to the last instalment of the Bastille Day epic. And what a good one it is. It involves tears, catastrophic failure....multiple ones, booze, dizzying heights of joy and finally exhaustion, and that's only the macarons! So I think that's probably the best place to start. When I received my June issue of Gourmet Traveller with the gorgeous macarons on the front cover, I knew immediately what I would have for petit fours. So I did what any fellow food blogger would do, I hit the blogs. I wanted to find out what everyone else's experience with the tasty macarons was. Duncan @ syrup and tang has a great resource, and he truly knows what hes talking about, for sheer beauty I turned to Ellie @ Kitchen Wench and her beautiful macarons, a few sound tips from Julia @ Melanger and a good old belly laugh from Rilsta @ My Food Trail and her macaron sunglasses, I'm sure the first in the world!

Many years ago I baked my first macaron, resulting in a massive failure. 2009 was the year to give it another go. So first thing first, trial run for the big day, I chose Duncan's macarons au sucre cuit recipe. I weighed my ingredients, made my batter, piped them out and then put the little ones in the oven and out they came - hard as a rock and looking nothing like french macarons. Little did I know that my scales were registering ZERO grams when in fact I had put in 50! So the next day I purchased a brand new shinny set of digital scales, and boy do I love them, they weigh things correctly....if only my bathroom scales were like my old kitchen scales!

Attempt two saw me under mix my batter, so I ended up with shells that weren't exactly shiny and they distinctly lacked the "feet" I was looking for. So onto attempt 3, this time I mixed them perfectly, they came out of the oven shiny and they even had feet....bonus score! But....and there is a BIG but, my ganache was not so good. I followed the gourmet traveller recipe, which was a big mistake. It turned out a little wet due to the whole pieces of raspberry, so by the following day my macarons had turned into a wet goopy mess. I had taken them into work to show off my new found skills and I ended up almost crying. I popped open the box and saw these.......

I try to pick one up and it turned into this.....

I officially hated macarons at that point. Because I'm a complete nutter, by late afternoon I had already resolved myself to trying one more time, the saying is 4th time lucky right???? This time I got it right! Woo hoo, go team me. I changed the ganache recipe, I made a thick raspberry syrup and added it to the ganache, and I was in macaron heaven! It only took me 4 goes, dozens of eggs and countless hours of my sanity. But it was all worth it in the end!

The second component of my petit fours were cointreau and chocolate truffles, thankfully these were alot easier than the macarons. Here is the recipe.

Cointreau and Chocolate Truffles

INGREDIENTS

250 ml pouring cream

425 gm dark chocolate buttons

50 ml cointreau

For dusting: Dutch-process cocoa

METHOD

1. Break chocolate up into small pieces and place in a bowl. Bring cream to the boil and pour over chocolate. Add alcohol and stir until smooth and glossy, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, but still workable.

2. Using two spoons, make quenelles and then return to refrigerator for 2 hours to set. Dust with cocoa powder and refrigerate overnight.

And so concludes the Bastille Day series, now we can all get back to real life.