The Harvest, North Fremantle

This is ONE great restaurant you should visit! As you can tell, it is a "house" restaurant, located in North Fremantle, in a location that could be easily missed (we almost did!). However, do not let the looks of this house deceive you, because behind the doors a cosy, homely dining experience awaits you!

This is "The Harvest", a very cosy, personal restaurant in North Fremantle.... the minute you step into this place you know you're going to have a great time! They had really nice funky type of music, and the place was buzzing! We went there for breakfast on a Saturday morning (quite a few weeks ago! This is a very overdue entry!) and no bookings were allowed, but we took the chance.

The door is old - infact you might have thought this was one of those unkempt houses, but once you open it, it's a whole other world! The walls are lined with flowery wall paper, coffee aroma and the happy clinking of utensils. We had to wait for a bit, and they have these large homely leather sofas for us to sit on. Wooden floor boards, bold coloured walls and funky music.

Scrambled eggs and salmon on toast, with little bits of shaved truffles

"The Harvest" - instead of hashbrowns, they served cubed roasted potatos

Waffles with stewed pears and very decadent chocolate mousse.

Unfortunately, the food for its price was not as fantastic as the actual restaurant's atmosphere itself. It was rather pricy for the quantity, and taste wise, it was nice, but nothing I would really rave about. However, I would recommend this place just for its atmosphere and the coffees were served really fast, and the service was pretty good too. They do open for lunch and dinner too, I would like to go back and try that!

(Photos courtesty of G - many thanks!!!)

The Harvest
1 Harvest Road
North Fremantle WA 6159
Phone: (08) 9336 1831

Chorizo Pasta & Caesar Salad!

Despite it being a weeknight, I just could not resist cooking! Had some friends over for dinner, and we said that we would just do a takeaway because we work and there would be no time to cook.... but as the dinner day came closer, I couldnt resist a chance @ cooking! So whilst this is nothing fancy, it is pretty delicious, wholesome and a great winter comfort dish!

Chorizo sausages, olives, semi-sun dried tomatos, fresh basil, cans of tomatos, fresh garlic and onion and pasta! Honestly, that's it! You basically fry up the garlic and onion with the sausages, add in the cans of tomatos, season to taste and chuck in the fresh basil and the al dente pasta! Mix all together and serve! This is a great combination - lots of different bits to eat in one mouth full!


Caesar salad - tossed to perfection by Shona! :)

I just found a new recipe I'm dying to try out - so I shall attempt to do it this weekend, will keep you in suspense for now...:P and a couple of outstanding restaurant reviews will be coming up soon too.... Have a great week all!!! :)

"Man" Biscuits!

Now you boys can bravely eat these Pocky sticks! We figured it must be "men" biscuits because it was a dark chocolate pocky stick! haha!

And boys, incase you wanted some advice, wisdom and encouragement.... turn to Pocky! :P

Melt & Mix Mud Cake!

You know those days where you feel like eating a real cake (ie not from a cake mix!) but yet you want it to be as easy as a cake mix? Well I had that feeling this weekend! I miss the kitchen... I feel like I haven't been in it much!!! And one of the best things in life is a rich smelling cake baking in your oven!

I found this recipe "Melt & Mix Mud Cake" from www.taste.com, which is a fantastic website for pretty easy recipes and they have a million chocolate and pasta recipes! I liked it because you literally just melted and mixed the ingredients, stirred it and put it in the oven! I have doubts on such recipes at times, but this one really did prove me wrong! It is a COMFORT cake! Rich and friendly! But on happy days, well, it can just make your day that bit better! :)

Ingredients (serves 8) (Thanks to www.taste.com.au)

• 200g butter, chopped
• 300g good-quality dark chocolate
• 1/4 cup hot water
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup caster sugar
• 3 eggs, lightly beaten
• 3/4 cup self-raising flour
• pure icing sugar, to serve

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160°C. Grease a 6cm deep, 20cm (base) round cake pan. Line with baking paper.
2. Place butter, 200g chopped chocolate and hot water in a heatproof, microwave-safe bowl. Microwave, uncovered, on HIGH (100%) for 2 to 3 minutes, stirring every minute with a metal spoon, or until smooth. Add cocoa to warm chocolate mixture. Stir until smooth. Stir in vanilla, caster sugar and egg. Sift flour over chocolate mixture. Stir gently to combine.
3. Pour half the batter into cake pan. Chop remaining chocolate and sprinkle half over batter. Top with remaining batter and chopped chocolate. Bake cake for 55 to 60 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre has moist crumbs clinging.
4. Allow cake to cool completely in pan. Remove and dust with icing sugar. Serve.

It's crusty on the top and sizes, and inside the cake literally melts in your mouth... crumbly but soft and moist - for max. taste and cake experience, put it in the microwave for about 10s to soften it and honestly, with a cup of tea or coffee, you will add this to your list of blessings!!! :)

Happy weekend all! :)

Blueberry filo tarts!

Hello hello hello! Very strange, but I havent been cooking much in the past couple of weeks... life seems to have got busy! However, my mind hasn't been too far from the kitchen!

Yesterday, I learnt a new skill - weeding. I almost wanted to cry looking at it, but thank God my very very very good friend EH helped me out (this is self sacrificing... weeding on the weekend...:P) - she probably did more of the weeding than me... it was hilarious though on reflection! 2 asian girls wrestling with the weeds (and Im not exaggerating here!!!) and even wondering which were the weeds and the plants! Sometimes you couldnt tell! So although I will never love weeding, I'm glad to have learnt something new, and EH's advice: when you see a small weed, PULL IT OUT STRAIGHTAWAY!!!

Before weeding, we baked a New York Cheesecake! I havent got any pictures, but apparently it was nice! There was lemon and orange zest in the cheese mixture, and we used Arnott's Nice biscuits and butter as the base!

Okay, back to the Blueberry Filo Tarts (taken from Donna Hay's Aug/Sept 2007 Issue) - original recipe asked for fresh strawberries, but as I didnt have any, I used blueberries instead and they were really quite nice! Filo is an interesting pastry... it reminds me of the spring roll pastry... pretty dry, thin and very very delicate!

The mixture was almond meal, butter and caster sugar and an egg yolk! Mixed together and served in the centre of the filo pastry, topped with some blueberries. Baked in the oven for about 8-10 mins and you have this very simple, fairly quick (although a little fidley!) dessert! The filo pastry was so crisp! Yum yum!!! :)

Pretty Wedding Cupcake!

The latest craze in Wedding cakes seem to be these cutely decorated individual cupcakes!!! Isn't this SO cute! I was flipping through some wedding cake magazines and my my, the cakes are gorgeous! No wonder they can cost several hundred dollars! Anyway, it does seem these cupcakes are quite the craze! Tiers and tiers of cupcakes!!! Ahhh!!! :)

My parents recently went to an old friend's son's wedding and the above was their cake! Each guest had one of these cuties to take home! We could hardly bring ourselves to eat it! :)