Old fashioned goodies...

Amongst all the fancy food that we can create, eat and imagine these days, the different varieties of panna cotta, fancy names we call simple food, the mix of east and west, different types of sauces for pastas, and food for every person's desire, there is always going to be a soft spot for the old fashioned goodies... so we're back to basics today... and may I present you the very reliable chocolate chip muffins and banana and cinnamon bread.

Sometimes, and to sound very sentimental, it's the good old fashioned things, that last... that suit every person's palette... who can ever find fault with a chocolate chip muffin or banana bread? Okay, unless you really dislike those ingredients... but let me tell you, even if you dislike chocolate or banana, you will love the aromas that fill your kitchen when you bake these babies! I am not kidding... it's unexplainable... it's like you feel so comfortable, so homely and for me, very excited that my kitchen, was filled with the good old fashioned aromas. Whilst I have to admit that these muffins (From Nigella Lawson) were not the best - I have to tweak it for next time round - you honestly cannot help but smile when you take them out of the oven. Too bad for my kids next time, they will never be allowed to eat a store-bought muffin!!!



Why do I love banana bread? I just do! I have a soft spot for them... when I saw the recipe I couldnt wait to try it out! Let me describe this...now, these were extremely heavenly.... the whole living and kitchen area was embedded and showered with the aroma of bananas... my kitchen smelled like a bakery... I think what I love about cooking and baking is that it makes the house a home, the kitchen more than just a storehouse of pots and pans, but just totally alive!

When I was in Sydney last year for work, there was this small cafe at the bottom of the building next to mine that made EXCELLENT banana bread... and honestly it is the best I have tasted... in between toast and a moist bananan cake... they toasted it and spread it with a thin layer of butter... I looked forward to work each morning, knowing there was going to be banana bread and a cup of coffee :)

Whilst my banana bread last night was more like a cake, it was still very good, just not bread like enough.. although I'm going to tweak it to suit my taste buds, like my brother reckoned it could do with bananas (Im not sure it is possible! It seems saturated enough!), and I added a bit of milk due to my paranoia of dry cakes, and I think the sugar could be decreased.... and perhaps I would just put a couple of pinches less cinnamon, this was good... Best served as a thick slice! Im not sure the picture actually captures this, but whilst not as good as the Sydney one, it was certainly not bad!

Friday Dinner Review

It's often much easier to go out for take away, go out for dinner, especially on a Friday night. However, we decided that we could still have that style but less most of the effort. So whilst, what follows is all mainly purchased, I thought it was still worth a review to see how we can definitely spice up a dinner quickly - just to celebrate the beginning of a weekend!



Above - Mason's Rose Sparkling Grape Juice @ $2.97 per bottle, this easily filled 6 glasses. You can taste the tinge of rose at the end of the sip. Bonus, it was pink!

Rose Breed is "Peace" - a tinge of pink highlights the tips of this rose. It is one of the largest roses I have seen! From my garden :)

I love this black rectangular platter and dip bowl from Alex Liddy (Myer) - Dip was the Wattle Valley "Grilled Eggplant, Parmesan and Cashew Dip" - not bad, but I prefer the capsicum version, the cheese flavour was a little strong, but definitely one of the better dips avail as you can definitely feel the dip... :)

King Island Double Brie Cheese - man this is good!!! :)

Crackers and cucumber - the usual :)

Smoked salmon - who can resist! Try this with the Brie cheese and crackers... yuuummm....


Leonards has some good marinated chicken... we wanted the Tandoori chicken but they ran out, so tried their portugal marinated chicken, which is about $3.75 for half... we had about 4 pieces here... and it's really quite quick in the oven and browned really well and crispy too!

I baked the potatos, to quicken the process, microwave and then toss with oil, cracked pepper and salt and chuck it in the oven! Do this with some pumpkin too!


Now, this was really the star of the night! A strawberry flan from Jean Claude Pattiserie. It's on Rokeby Road, Subiaco and it is a tiny shop, that often has lines outside it (must be a marketing ploy! The shop is so small - packed with bread and of course therefore people have to line up outside!) - honestly, they have one of the best strawberry tarts. It definitely does not come cheaply, but definitely worth a taste... or two!

Breakfast by the Beach... in Trigg....

... the perfect way to start the weekend! A few of us decided to start the long Foundation Weekend with something different! Breakfast by the Trigg Beach @ 930am on Saturday! We found this humble cafe called Bennison Street Cafe on West Coast Drive or Hwy, Trigg! Trigg is one of the famous Northern Beaches, and it really is so beautiful, as the pictures below will show...

Breakfast is one of those meals that seem like a luxury, although we have been told is really a neccessity! But once you actually manage to pull yourself out of bed and sit down to a scrumptous breakfast with a hot cup of coffee or a refreshing juice, you wonder why you don't do this every weekend!!!

The Beach Breakfast - with Scrambled Eggs $15.90

Eggs Benedict... $15.90

New York Style Bagel! $14.90
This was filled with Smoked Salmon, scrambled eggs and spinach :)

Beach Breakfast with Eggs, Sunnyside Up! $15.90

Vegetarian Beach Breakfast with Poached Eggs ... $15.90

3 Egg Omelette $14.90
Filled with Ham I think!

Happy to finally eat... I made them wait for me to take photos of their food before they could eat it! Thanks guys!!! :)

Happy moments... after a filled stomach, we decided to walk across the road to appreciate the view... where the ocean was before us...

The Breakfast Club... where shall we patronise next?! :)

The Green Pancake and Shanghai Dumplings!

So as previously mentioned in my below post, I went cooking crazy! This green pancake is called "Kueh Dada" - not sure exactly what it's origins are! But basically it is a coconut, pandan flavoured pancake that you cook - make sure it is fairly thin and wrap it up with some fresh coconut that has been cooked with this brown sugar called Gula Malaka. It's really nice, very rich and not for the faint hearted! :)




I love Shanghai Dumplings - must be the combination of the grated ginger, chinese wine (otherwise known as Shaoxing cooking wine), sesame oil and the soya sauces - all mixed up with minced pork and chives and/or spring onion! Leave to marinate for awhile, and then wrap it up with either storebought or home made pastry. I actually made the pastry here - because well, if I can, I like to make things from scratch which at times is hard - ie curry pastes etc which require 101 ingredients, a pounder and other stuff! Hahaha! But here, all you need is flour and water, hands and patience :)

This pastry turned out sticky - so please make sure if you're not using gloves, wash your hands thoroughly before handling. Once made, let it sit for awhile and I still found it sticky, so use flour to make it easier to handle and roll it into a "log" and cut into slices which you then roll out using a floured rolling pin. Wrap the minced meat in it, lightly oil a non-stick frying pan, and lay down the Shanghai dumplings and you'll hear the satisfying sounds of a soft sizzle, add water for more sizzle, cover, which acts as a steamer till the pastry turns colour - it would originally be white as dough is, which when cooked turns to a light translucent colour... not exactly clear, but perhaps more like cooked wanton skin colour! :)

Serve with vinegar and thinly sliced ginger! YUM!

p.s. There is an art to folding these dumplings - mine looked a little odd... more like mini curry puffs I thought! :P Practice makes perfect I guess! :)

The Cookie Barrel!

I literally went kitchen crazy this long weekend! I was in this total baking and cooking mode and wanted to bake anything and everything! :) I think I wanted to take advantage of the full long weekend and totally inspired with all my recipe books that constantly stare at me :) I even read them in the car on the way to work!

Okay, the samples for the Cookie Barrel were Custard Hearts and Melting Moments with Passionfruit cream :) I have never made these before and only ever eaten Melting Moments store bought!

Cookies are pretty to look at and nice to nimble on, but they are time consuming! But satisfying once completed! I baked the cookies on Sat night and used my heart cutters to get the heart shape, and a cake tester to make the little dots on the hearts :) They do indeed look better with the dots :) Almost like cross stitch!



On Sunday, I made the 2 different creams and sandwiched them together. Okay, Im not much into the use of icing sugar and think it's just sweet and well just sweet! But I have changed my mind. The passionfruit cream, although sweet (made of icing sugar, butter and passionfruit pulp) was really quite pleasant, there was definitely a twist with the passionfruit.

The custard cream was a DREAM! I honestly cannot explain how I feel about the texture of the cream... I know, I sound bizarre, who ever gets passionate over cookie cream? This isn't your usual whipped cream, but really like the cream between your Arnold's biscuits. It was beautifully smooth, a very golden yellow custard colour and OH! just really nice :) Tasted okay too!

I have actually yet to try the custard heart cookies, but I did try the Melting moments which used Self raising flour - and when they say Self raising flour, they also mean self expanding flour. This was not just a moment, but a GIANT moment :) Came out larger than I expected, but yes it really does melt in your mouth and definitely deserves a "Fragile" sticker :)

Happy Happy Birthday!

Last weekend was my friend's Birthday, so we celebrated her birthday for her! Birthdays are a perfect opportunity to get together and let us say, last weekend was a very memorable birthday! We had plenty of food, which I dont have pictures for, but here is a picture of the cake that I baked and my Mum and I decorated! :)

The cake is Nigella's Chocolate Malteser Cake - but I decided to change it a bit and just used the cake but different decoration. There are 3 layers to the cake, filled with fresh cream and fresh strawberries, each layer of cake brushed with Baileys and to top it off, more fresh cream and crushed almonds for the side. Decorated with Strawberries and Maltesers! YUM!

Spaghetti Marinara!

This has to be one of my favourite pastas of all times.... simple, yet totally tasty and yet pretty healthy! Spaghetti Marinara! I cooked dinner for my friend last night, and was thinking of a fast, no-meat dish that would not be entirely boring and yet totally yummy to make!

I cheated and bought pre-cut up and already prepared marinara mix (this one was bought from our local gourmet grocers called Limes, in Melville) - this one was great, full of REAL seafood, rather than all the cocktail stuff which doesnt necessary taste much like seafood.

So here it goes.............

• Boil spaghetti whilst you cook the marinara sauce
  
• Heat some oil up in a deep pan
• When warm, fry with chopped garlic (I really do recommend the fresh garlic - one, it doesnt "spit" at you as much when frying and tastes just so much better than the bottled ones) till slightly brown - then fry the seafood.
• Okay, if you were to prepare the seafood yourself without any marinate, just marinate it with fresh parsley and garlic and perhaps some salt
• Dont overcook the seafood as you will be cooking it off again later
• When 80-90% cooked, take the seafood out and place it aside
• Now in the same pan, toss in canned tomatos and add salt, pepper to taste and also a couple of tablespoon of tomato paste - I find this just makes the sauce so much richer and tastier!
• Last night I added in a little water, but for an even richer sauce, dont add water and if you need more liquid, add more chopped canned tomatos
• Chuck in fresh basil
• Then toss in the already cooked seafood, together with any remaining "juice" and simmer for a few mins to ensure seafood is cooked through and also warmed up
• Lastly, toss in some spinach for your vegetable intake!

Honestly, it only takes about 30mins and you have a lovely, fresh and tasty healthy meal! :)

Chocolate Overload!

At times, nothing is better than a thick slice of delicious, totally choc-a-block full of chocolate cake! It's strange how chocolate can comfort! I have known more than one girl who have found eating chocolate very comforting! So last weekend, I decided to try out Nigella's Quadruple Chocolate loaf (taken from her "Feast" book)... it looked heavenly and it did taste pretty darn satisfying too!

Quadruple because there was cocoa, chocolate buttons (I used Cadbury's cooking chocolate instead because it had a higher cocoa content - however I would suggest perhaps the melt would be better or if you soften the choc first... there were literally choc blocks at the bottom of this loaf - talk about a chocolate overload!!!), a chocolate sauce and there was meant to be chocolate shavings - I left out the last bit, I was lazy to shave the choc :P

It is most wonderful eaten warm with cream or a scoop of ice-cream!


This recipe was really quite lovely, you literally mix everything up together - I didnt quite believe it, and really believe in more of the creaming method etc, but hey this worked and managed to use my pink pink pink blender for this! I really enjoyed using the blender and am sure it is because of the pink! However, next time it probably would be better to use a cake mixer (check out the flamingo roses from our garden!) - I felt like I was exhausting my blender!!!



Chocolate is welcomed anytime and everytime - crusty on the top and totally moist, full of chocolate oozing goodness and totally indulgent!

Windsor Bar & Restaurant

open scotch fillet steak sandwich, roasted onions,
bacon, mixed greens, tomato relish, aioli & fries
$17.90

The minute I walked into this place, I thought how funky, relaxed, and a fun place to be on a Sunday afternoon! The place buzzed... and I mean buzzed... and the fit outs with plastic red chairs (no, not at all tacky!), wooden tables, modern yet not cold, really made me go "wow" - why hadnt I discovered this place earlier!

What really stole the show, was the outdoor area - or the Garden area as it is referred to. We didn't sit there, but I could see it from the window, and since yesterday's weather was on the cool side, I was not too disappointed. I didnt get to take pictures, so you'll have to take my word for it and check it out yourself!

Prices were fairly reasonable, food was good and well presented. I had the steak sandwich (see above) and you can really rave about this! It was definitely gourmet. Not your usual piece of beef in between two slices of bread with some lettuce and fries on the side. No, this was on ciabatta bread (I think... some type of gourmet bread), a thin slice which was toasted, and piled on top with a good portion of scotch fillet, creamy aioli, cooked onions, roasted peppers with relish, tomatos, english spinach and topped with watercrest, served with a very fresh portion of fries on the side. Totally satisfying. I love it. Must replicate! The scotch fillet was tender, tasty and a generous portion. What I really liked was that there was more ingredients than bread here, really felt like a decent meal!

Spicy Chicken Nachos $15.90

pappadelle pasta, roasted butternut pumpkin,
artichokes, courgettes, toasted walnuts, english spinach,
semi dried tomato cream
$19.90

My friends had the spicy chicken nachos and this creamy pasta - each under $20. They were both yummy, and definitely there was a kick with the nachos! The pasta was fantastic, creamy, al dente and whilst not a fan of vegetarian dishes, I would give this one the thumbs up!

The portions were definitely beyond decent, prices really reasonable as well!

Service was a little on the poor side, it took them quite awhile to get me my drink, quite awhile to get our orders and even longer to collect the bill. We had to ask them to take our money! However, being a Sunday, and it being busy, we forgave them and definitely will return!

The Windsor Bar & Restaurant
112 Mill Point Rd, South Perth
http://www.thewindsor.theguide.com.au/#2986

Cooking with Speed!

I love taking my time with cooking... I like to just slowly enjoy each step, have a cup of tea or coffee during the process, do this and do that, listen to music and end up with something fantastic from the kitchen!

However, I was challenged a couple of weekends ago! I have never cooked with such speed, and was cooking for friends who had high expectation *grin*!!! Thank God it turned out pretty okay, despite the rough approx measurements here and there, and the sauce that turned out pretty nice in the end :) (thanks for the encouragement!!!)

So if you ever run out of ideas of what to cook, although I will say this wouldnt be the fastest thing to cook, (nothing beats 2min noodles), it is pretty awesome for the amt of time that it actually takes you to cook it! So have a go!

Jamie Oliver's puff pastry chicken thing... he calls it "My old man's superb chicken" - this is a dish that I'm sure will win your guests heart! Simple, with really fresh ingredients, not much salt, and fantastic tasting :)

Okay, it doesn't look that great here, we were too hungry by the time it was ready to really take artistic and perfect shots... but with this, all you do is buy ready made puff pastry, fresh chicken breasts (nothing beats this - so much nicer when you eat it the day you buy it!), and to make the stuffing, fry a bit of olive oil with chopped garlic (use fresh if possible, it is WAY better!), chopped fresh mushrooms and a handful of italian parsley (or also known as flat parsley). Add freshly cracked pepper and salt to taste. Simmer till mushroom and parsley is tender.

Stuff the chicken breast with this mushroom mixture, wrap the chicken breast with the puff pastry, and pop it into the preheated oven (approx 180 degrees) for about 45mins.

To make the white wine mustard sauce... just a couple of tablespoons of wholegrain mustard and a glass of white wine, simmer till the alcohol smell is practically gone.

Serve with salad or oven chips.

Next... dessert... self saucing chocolate coffee pudding (taken from Donna Hay's magazine) - now this is an awesome recipe.... it's got self raising flour, almond meal, coffee, cocoa and sugar of course, but hey wow this is yummmmyyyy with a capital Y - baked straight from the oven, and eaten with some fresh cream, sensational! :)






(P.S.stay tuned for a restaurant/cafe review........ this is my new favourite place!!!)