Strawberry Vacherin

Every family has a certain cake that is requested year after year on birthdays. Well for us, it's a strawberry vacherin. Now this is no basic chocolate cake and it is more a dessert rather than an afternoon tea treat. It is, however, very easy to make and very versatile. Above all it tastes delicious!

Giggle and Hoot

I'm sorry that it's been a long time between posts, I do have an excuse. I have been a guinea pig in a dietary study so have had to follow a strict, boring diet for the past 3 weeks. Thankfully I only have one week to go so i'll be back cooking and eating and blogging as usual! You don't want to see what I've been eating recently... ;)

So instead of baking things for me, I baked a birthday cake!

I haven't edited this photo at all, sure I could have photoshopped
all the blemishes out but then I'd be lying about my skill!

Tom Turtle, CBD

Ever stood in front of the ice cream display struggling to decide what flavours to choose? I am such an indecisive person, especially when it comes down to the more important things in life such as choosing ice cream flavours. Luckily there is a place for all you indecisive people out there. It's called Tom Turtle and they serve their ice cream in little cubes, which allows you to try several of their quirky and interesting flavours. It's not cheap, but it's good for the novelty factor.

More Macarons...

I love baking macarons - they look pretty and the flavour combinations are endless. This weekend I tried a few different flavours in addition to my standards.

I always find it much easier to make a large batch of macs, after all they freeze so well. Given the time that it takes to make them (4 hours start to finish this time!!!), it's definitely worth making a batch.

This time I experimented a little and made four flavours:

Peanut Butter
Milo
Strawberry/Raspberry
Lemon

The Shanghai Round-up

Well another visit to Shanghai is coming to an end. I've been a bit slack with the pictures this time, but I have definitely made up for it in dining out! In the last 18 days, I have managed to have only 4 lunches and 3 dinners at home (well my parent's home.)

So here is a list of my favourite things this time...

The BEST meal of my life! (ie Ultraviolet, Shanghai)

I am in two minds about blogging this experience for it was the best culinary experience of my life and I know that I will not be able to do it justice through words and photos.

The Menu

Ultraviolet is a new restaurant/experience/concept by Paul Pairet, the owner of Mr & Mrs Bund, one of my favourite restaurants. Opening only in May, after 15 years of development and 2 years of delays, Ultraviolet is an entire sensory experience to induce the 'psycho-taste'. Each of the 22 courses ( YES 22 courses), is enhanced by a new atmosphere - think new sounds, smells, lighting even temperature and matched with a suitable beverage be it wine, beer, cider, juice, tea etc. The wait staff were amazing and perfectly choreographed to the second as well as being so friendly and relaxed.

French Toast

Yesterday I made challah. The only thing better than challah is challah french toast with caramelised cinnamon bananas and raspberries!

Sarah xx

Challah

So i'm not Jewish, nor do I claim to know a lot about Jewish food culture, the one thing I do know is that so many Jewish celebrations revolve around food which is awesome. Challah is eaten every Friday night for Shabbat. It's a delicious, slightly sweet bread, a little like brioche however it contains no butter. The only downside to challah is that it goes stale fairly quickly, which doesn't matter too much because it makes fabulous french toast!

Milo Biscuits

Yes, I am procrastinating AGAIN! Somehow whenever exam time comes around the house gets clean, my room gets tidy and I bake non-stop. Oh well - at least I'm productive!

Anyway given my recent obsession with Milo i have been searching for new ways to eat Milo, rather than simply with a spoon. Although i found several recipes for muffins, cupcakes, cake and biscuits, i decided I'd just play around with my tried and tested cookie recipe and see what happened.

This is the recipe that I use for choc chip/M&M/white choc & macadamia cookies. However, when adding Milo instead of chunky bits it resulted in a fairly crunchy biscuit. I think this is due to the high sugar content of the Milo. Maybe next time I need to reduce the caster sugar. Nonetheless they are tasty but if you like chewy biscuits then I'm afraid this recipe isn't for you.

Milo Biscuits - makes 28 biscuits


125g butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
1 3/4 cups SR flour
3/4 cup Milo

Preheat oven to 180 degrees and line 3 trays with greaseproof paper.
Cream butter and sugars until thick and creamy. Add extract and egg and beat until well incorporated.
Add flour and Milo and beat until mixture is homogenous.
Roll the dough into walnut-sized balls and place on the trays. Flatten them slightly.
Bake for 12 minutes

Enjoy!

Sarah xx

Apple, Pecan and Gingerbread Cake

As much as I love baking it's not often that I make the cake two days in a row. That was the case with this gorgeous cake from the July edition of Delicious Magazine. Honestly it is one of the nicest cakes I've eaten all year combining some of my favourite ingredients: apples, pecan nuts. ginger and cinnamon. How could it go wrong?

Ganache Chocolate, CBD

A couple of weeks ago my friends and I were complaining that after dinner we never have room for dessert. Fast forward a few weeks and along comes a brilliant plan - dessert BEFORE dinner! Ahh the wonders of being an adult...

Anyway as we were in the city we went to Ganache for no particular reason other than it was 5.30pm on a Saturday and not many other dessert places are open. We ended up getting takeaway so decided on getting virtually one of each and here is what we chose...

Egyptian Lentil Soup

Brrrr! It's a bit chilly in Melbourne at the moment!!! So what better to do than make soup? I have had soup every day this week, whether it be for lunch, dinner or both!

This lentil soup is one that I hadn't made before. I saw it in Feast magazine awhile ago and dog-earred the page. It is a beautiful soup. Before you go thinking 'oh yeah just another lentil soup' this one is different - it has a mound of caramelised onions on the top which impart a beautiful sweetness to the dish. It was so simple to make and definitely something warming to eat at this time of year.

Choc Bit Coconut Slice

This is such a simple recipe and it is delicious! I know there are other variations out there but this is what my Mum used to make when i was a child. I haven't yet met anyone who doesn't love this slice and it is so simple to make that anyone could do it!

The biggest issue with this slice is that it is fairly ugly! Delicious yes, but not too photogenic.

Did I mention how easy this recipe is? Don't believe me? Check this out!

Rococo, St Kilda

On a freezing Melbourne morning my friends and I headed down to St Kilda for brunch. The original plan was Galleon but they were super busy so we ended up over at Rococo.

I don't really have much to say about our meal and the service was average. We started off with coffees which were nice then got the food.

Avocado & fetta on sourdough with 2 poached eggs

Banana and hazelnut bread with mascarpone and strawberries

I know Rococo has a fairly decent reputation and to be honest the food was nice HOWEVER the portions were huge and the food overpriced. I mean $18.50 for avocado & fetta on toast with 2 poached eggs. Really? I would have preferred to pay half the price for half the serve! Another gripe we had was that the top of the menu clearly stated no alterations to menu items. Seriously - this is breakfast, the time where you are allowed to add an extra egg or take off the tomato.

I probably won't be going back in a hurry. I can get nicer food for a cheaper price elsewhere!

Sarah xx

Cheesymite Scrolls

First it was Milo, now cheesymite scrolls. I don't know what it is but recently i've been craving kids' food!  Not sure what it will be next - maybe fairy bread?

Anyway i leave home too early for the bakery to have baked their supply of cheesymite scrolls, so i decided that i'd give baking them a go instead.

It was super simple and the result is pretty tasty!

Here's what i did although any bread recipe (or scone recipe) would work too.

Mamasita, CBD

Mmmmmm corn!

Mamasita introduced me to 'real' Mexican. None of that cheese-loaded slop you find elsewhere (i'm looking at you Taco Bill!) Mamasita also got me interested in making real mexican at home and persuaded me that i really did need to buy another cookbook (Viva Vegan.) 

Mamasita was a place that my brother loved and the place that we went just before he headed off overseas for 18 months. So upon his return this week, a visit to Mamasita for lunch was definitely on the agenda!

Black Forest Cake

Last weekend was my Pop's 90th. A pretty awesome effort to get to 90 so i thought he deserved a pretty awesome cake. Unfortunately due to other commitments I didn't have to time to create a fondant-covered cake so instead set out to make a black forest cake with black forest cupcakes.

Gingerboy, CBD

Ahh Gingerboy - where do i start?

Gingerboy was, for a very long time, my absolute favourite restaurant. Gingerboy introduced me to 'real' Asian flavours, semi-fancy restaurants and waiters explaining the dishes as they are presented. I was looking forward to another meal at Gingerboy as i hadn't visited for awhile. 

The night didn't get off to a great start when we both left our wallets at home and had to return home, resulting in us arriving 30 mins late. Thankfully the staff were lovely and had kept our table. Gingerboy do a 6-6.15pm sitting and a 8.15pm sitting so i was worried we would lose our booking.

Vegos - you must ask for the vegetarian supplemental menu. The main menu has a couple of veg options but when you ask for the extra menu you end up with a choice of about 6 entrees and 5 mains - bonus! I don't understand why they don't advertise that menu more, i reckon they would get a much higher vegetarian patronage.

Fitzrovia, St Kilda (again!)

A couple of weeks ago a blogged about a brunch I had at Fitzrovia. Their menu, philosophy and decor appealed so much to me that i had to go back for a second visit, this time for dinner. The inside of the restaurant is so homely - it's like having dinner at a friend's place rather than a restaurant. Also, who doesn't like being able to look straight into the kitchen? The wait staff were very friendly and prompt at taking our orders.

Mock Duck

In 6 weeks i'm heading off to China and Hong Kong for a bit of a holiday. So, in preparation for my trip i thought i'd play around with some weird and wonderful ingredients. The first is mock duck - from a can!

I know i'm not the first person to use this, however I still found this ingredient a bit gross, especially when it plopped out of the can!

Investigating further, it seems that this mock duck is fairly harmless having quite normal ingredients - gluten, soy, oil. Nonetheless, by using this ingredient i have probably ruined my reputation of being quite a decent cook!

So, unsure of how it would taste I decided to make a stir fry, using multiple ingredients to drown out the taste/texture of the duck should it be terrible. Now I am a terrible hoarder of sauces and condiments, the pantry and fridge are full of bottles and jars from all over the world. So I grabbed a few of my favourite asian condiments - chilli bean paste, ya cai, minced ginger and soy sauce along with some garlic, broccoli, eggplant, lotus root and spring onion and got ready to stir fry!

The result wasn't too bad! The duck had a 'meaty' texture but its flavour was fine. To be honest the predominant flavour was the chilli bean paste. It still creeps me out that the duck came from a can!

Just in case any of you have a penchant for mock duck i'll post the (rough) recipe below.

Bring on the next weird ingredient! Suggestions anyone?

Sarah xx

Mock Duck Stir Fry

1 can mock duck, drained and sliced

1 small eggplant, sliced into 4cm rings then quartered

1/2 head broccoli

2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced

8 slices of lotus root, halved

1 heaped tsp minced ginger

1-2 tbsp chilli bean paste

1 tbsp ya cai

4 stalks spring onion, sliced

Soy sauce to taste

Steam eggplant and broccoli until cooked (the eggplant will take much longer than broccoli.)

Heat a wok and add oil

Add garlic and ginger and cook for 30 seconds

Add lotus root, duck, chilli bean paste and ya cai, cook for 2 minutes

Add broccoli and eggplant, cook for 3-4 minutes until everything is cooked through

Add soy sauce and spring onion, cook for 1 minute

Serve