Omega 3 And Couscous

What better way to start a week of uni than with a serving of brain food? I'm talking fish! One of my sisters gave me Jamie Oliver's book "Jamie's Dinners" for my birthday, and it's a beauty! Omega 3 and Couscous - yes it's really called that - is a great recipe with punches of flavour (http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/fish-recipes/omega-3-couscous) . 

I couldn't get my hands on red mullet, but used a salmon fillet instead. The recipe was really easy to follow, but I went a bit hard on the gas thinking the fish wouldn't cook and burnt the pan a little when the fish, vegetable mix and couscous were simmering. Next time I'll keep it low because the fish cooks in the steam that's produced. The natural yoghurt, fennel leaves and lemon mixture really lifted the dish. It was super easy to cook and the flavours were sensational. I ate the leftover couscous for lunch and it tasted amazing even without the salmon. Go on, give it a try!

Homestyle Pizzeria

After a few heavy nights at the snow everyone was after a little more than a vegemite sandwich for lunch when we returned home. So we made comfort food for the masses - pizzas. We used souvlaki wraps for bases which worked really well for a thin and crispy finish. The bases were covered with a mixture of puttanesca sauce and tomato paste, and mozzarella. We made four styles of pizzas. They were all really tasty and there were no leftovers :) My personal favourite was the one with Wagyu salami...

Wagyu salami, shredded ham off the bone, mushroom, capsicum, olives and anchovies

Spanish chorizo (cooked before added to pizza), mushroom, capsicum
Spanish onion and paprika

Fresh tomato, roasted pumpkin, spinach, fetta and olives

Mushroom, Italian sausage and onion (the sausage and onion
was cooked before added to pizza)

(Not So) Merrijig Ski Lodge, Mt Buller

Last weekend was spent with the family at Mt Buller. The conditions weren't perfect - poor visibility, howling winds and lack of snow in places, but we all had a great time - in the pub mostly! The place we stayed was in a great location, but the service part of the facility needs a real shake up. It wasn't exactly service with a smile. A pound of butter would possess more social skills than the managers combined. They appeared burdened with the task of running a ski lodge. 

 Fortunately a bit more passion was put into the meals. The smoked salmon and avocado terrine was really tasty and nicely presented. The thai chicken curry rather confused me as it was served with a poppadom! It wasn't an authentic thai curry and it didn't taste as good as the one I cooked (see post from 30th July 2011). The dessert was the saving grace - dark chocolate pudding with fudge sauce. The meal on the second night consisted of crab cakes, rack of lamb (which was cooked to perfection) and sticky toffee pudding. Unfortunately the sweet taste the food left in my mouth wasn't enough to counterbalance the sour taste left by the management team. 

Smoked Salmon and Avocado Terrine

Thai Chicken Curry

Dark Chocolate Pudding With Fudge Sauce

Home-Made Gnocchi With A Touch Of Jamie

A few weeks ago I tried my hand at making gnocchi. It was a pretty straight forward process and the results were really good for a first time effort, although I think the consistency was a bit too thick.

Next time I won't add as much flour as I've read that adding too much flour can make the dough heavy. There are plenty of recipes, and they're basically all the same. http://www.taste.com.au/how+to/articles/2245/make+gnocchi

The great thing about making gnocchi is that you can freeze what you're not using (once you've cut the dough into balls) and cook it from frozen the next time you fancy gnocchi. Which for me happened to be last night!

I decided to use Jamie Oliver's sauce from his recipe Trapani style rigatoni (but without the rigatoni, of course!). It's a bit like a pesto - I added blanched almonds, 40g parmesan and a red chilli to the food processor. Once the mixture was smooth I added a bunch of basil, 4 anchovy fillets, a big clove of garlic and 150g mini roma tomatoes to the mixture and whizzed it till it was a smooth paste (you can add olive oil to help smooth the mixture). Then all I had to do was cook the gnocchi until the pieces rose to the top of the boiling water, drain the gnocchi and then mix the sauce through. To serve I cut up a couple of the leftover tomatoes and added some basil leaves. Simply delicious!

Birthday Indulgence

I love to eat good food on the best of days, so when my birthday comes along I take it up a notch and it becomes a nonstop eatfest - no fingertip is left unstuffed! A few years ago I went to my favourite restaurant for lunch and then went back for dinner! My sister and I decided to go to the Lindt Chocolate Cafe on Collins St (www.lindt.com/au/chocolat-cafe/) to start the indulgence wheel rolling. I tried the hazelnut hot chocolate. OMG best hot chocolate I've ever had!  The waitress brought out a milk jug of frothed milk and a smaller jug with thick, glorious, melted Lindt chocolate. I would've quite happily eaten the chocolate by itself!

After our sweet tooths were more than satisfied, we decided it was only fair to balance out sweet and savoury by going for brunch. We wandered down through the lanes and went to Issus cafe (8/10 Centre Place, Melbourne 3000) because they were serving all day breakfast. I've been here before - they have a good solid menu and reasonable prices. I went for the Eggs Issues, but later found out it was a typo - it's meant to be Eggs Issus (I wondered why the eggs would have issues...). Two poached eggs on a muffin with bacon, avocado and hollandaise sauce. A great breaky, however we made the mistake of ordering a side of mushrooms, which was a complete ripoff - $3 for a tablespoon's worth! But apart from that, it was a good breakfast.

No birthday is complete without a cocktail, so we sipped pre-dinner cocktails at Double Happiness (double-happiness.org/) which is an Asian inspired cocktail bar in China Town. My cocktail contained chilli vodka - a sure fire way to slow your drinking speed!

For dinner we went to one of my favourite restaurants, HuTong Dumpling Bar (hutong.com.au). We shared scallop dumplings, garlic, chive and prawn dumplings, pork shao long bao, scallops with ginger and oyster sauce, prawn and eggplant claypot, and barbecue pork ribs (in running with the indulgence theme!). The portions were very generous, the staff were attentive and corkage wasn't extortionate - all factors which made our night just wonderful. It's a keeper!

(l-r) garlic, chive and prawn dumping, scallop dumpling, shao long bao

Barbecue pork rips

Scallops with ginger, shallots and oyster sauce

Prawn and eggplant claypot

Myrtleford Butter Factory

Myrtleford's a cutesy town on the Great Alpine Road en route to Mt Hotham and Falls Creek, and only about an hour from my parent's place. Because of its location there are a number of great ski shops there (which was the reason for our visit), but there's also some lovely wineries and cafes. I decided to check out the Myrtleford Butter Factory (www.thebutterfactory.com.au/), and thank goodness, there was more than just butter on the menu!

After a somewhat rowdy night the night before I was craving something a bit more substantial than the caramelised onion, blue cheese and pear tart on the menu(which sounded lovely, but just would not do!). So I went for the baked buttermilk ricotta, herb and spinach gnocchi with a creamy garlic, parsley and white wine sauce with a Parmesan crust. It was presented in the cast-iron pot it was baked in, and tasted delicious. A good choice for those days you're not feeling 100%...

A Fabulous Weekend Of Family, Frivolity, Festivity, And Food, Food, Food!

There are a few things that you can expect when you stay at my parents house – a comfortable bed, a fridge full of beer, and a barrage of delicious mouth-watering delights. My mum, aka super chef, was put to the test this weekend with a full house to cater for, including my grandparents and aunty and uncle (hi Deb!).  It was a really wonderful weekend full of laughter, wine and anecdotes.

Mum and Dad recently returned from Italy where they took part in a cooking class, and we were treated to an Italian feast of pasta amatriciana, made with pork cheek, and authentic tiramisu for dessert.

There was a slight incident involving mutton the next night, but Mum wasn’t cooking! I still enjoyed it, but the meal has gone down in family history as ‘The Double Mutton Disaster of 2011” – word of advice – doubling the recipe doesn’t always work. I’ll leave it at that…

Mum made a delicious rustic pork belly and liver terrine – one of Rick Stein’s recipes. The flavours were sensational!

One of my favourite entrees is prawn wrapped in prosciutto, and as we were celebrating my birthday on Saturday night, the dish was added to the menu! They were served with a salad and balsamic dressing – delish! We followed with rabbit ragu. I’d never eaten rabbit before so I was excited to try it. The rabbit looked like chicken but had a much stronger, meatier flavour – I really enjoyed it.

Being a sucker for anything chocolate I decided to bake a cake I’d made before (which had been a huge hit) for my birthday cake. The recipe’s aptly called Ultimate Chocolate Cake (http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/3092/ultimate-chocolate-cake). The recipe is very easy to follow, and it doesn’t matter if the top of the cake splits or isn’t even because it all gets hidden with the chocolate curls. I made my chocolate curls by melting down a block of chocolate, pouring it into a log cake tray and putting it in the fridge to set. Once  the mixture has hardened I removed it from the tray and scraped a cheese grater along the edge until I got the shape I wanted. Not only is it an ultimate chocolate cake, but it's an ultimate crowd pleaser. My uncle's not much of a sweet tooth, and he went back for seconds!

 "There is no love more sincere than the love of food." - George Bernard Shaw.