Beach Birthday 2012

Gosh, how is it already halfway through February!!

I have to admit I still sometimes write 2011 in the date fields of forms… even though it’s been 2012 for… a while now. Whoops.

The beginning of the year always has a bright spot for me, my birthday is at the end of January! Every year I organise a birthday picnic at the beach. Every second year it has rained out. This was to be the second year in the cycle. Plus… add to that the coolest, wettest summer Sydney has ever experienced, and the prospect wasn’t favourable.

BUT THEN…

NOT PERFECT… BUT IT’LL DO.

The weather was actually pretty great!! Slightly overcast but warm (the water itself was very warm), with patches of sun… and only a very brief drizzle of light rain.

I decided to make this year’s picnic at Clovelly Beach – which I’d visited before, but never swam at. Thanks to my friends Beanie & Bretto I’ve been getting into snorkelling lately – and everyone’s told me that Clovelly is such a good beach for it, since it is so sheltered and shallow. Plus there is always the chance of meeting the famous blue groper fish! (aka… the fun, socially acceptable kind of groper)

Since we can’t snorkel on an empty stomach… and since there’s not much in Clovelly’s environs for a cheapie lunch (besides the one kiosk there, which looked a little bit too fancy for my shindig) – I took the liberty of ordering everyone some food.

First up I got some boxes of banh mi thit from Hong Ha in Mascot.

Despite being Vietnamese, I can’t profess to being a pork roll expert – so I enlisted my mum and brother as my tasting panel the weekend before. Mum proclaimed the chicken to be her preferred roll, and my brother gave his tick of approval – with the caveat that he wasn’t sure whether they were worth the $5 per roll ($1-1.50 more per roll than the ones he buys in Bankstown & Cabramatta. Being a uni student, he is super srs about a cheap lunch!)

Convenience won out over economy in the end, and I ordered 28 rolls for $140 (no discount, but with a bit of cajoling the lady threw a few extra ones in for free), 2/3rds of them were pork, and 1/3rd were chicken, and the pork still managed to go first!

Delish! My Banh Mi thit was pretty much awesome. The bread was of course baked on the premises that morning, and was super fresh – crispy on the outside, fluffy inside and still warm. Inside lay slatherings of pate and mayo, topped with thin slices of pork, pickled veggies, cucumber and spring onions. Is it just me or is this one of the perfect forms of food?

om nom nom!

For dessert – I visited Pat & Stick’s and Pepesaya’s factory in Tempe that morning to pick up a whole heap of one of my favourite foods… icecream sandwiches!

This is what 25 icecream sandwiches… AKA MY DREAMS COME TRUE looks like

If you have a chance, you must visit the Tempe factory! Pat was there, and was super great in helping me pick out all the flavours (unfortunately, his and my favourite – Caramel Pecan – was completely sold out… noooo!), even rustling up some limited edition flavours from the back of the coolroom (like the Luke Mangan for Virgin Australia raspberry swirl flavour, which is usually only available in their airport lounge). 

(Extremely random but did you know Pat speaks fluent Mandarin?? Completely freaked my poor HK-born boyfriend out with his fluency hahaha.)

Pat was even nice enough to pack them all neatly with dry ice so the little sammiches would last until after lunch.

Once we got going they didn’t last long!


Chocolate lace icecream sandwich by Pat & Stick… perfection!

Last year for my birthday, my friends bought me a camera that can take photos underwater! Which means I can show you these…!

Bretto the spearfisher being impressive as usual

Got a bit choppy out there for a few mins!

Female blue groper! It was so friendly! Swam right up close to you and let you pat her.

Fishies!

Snorkelling at Clovelly was so great! The whole beach is so shallow, and the ocean floor so close, you can swim right amongst the fish. And so many fish! Completely unafraid of humans. They must know it’s a safe area. Will definitely be coming back here again.

The best surprise came afterwards though… guess what my amazing incredible friend and fellow Ace of Cakes fan, Beanie, made me??

I CAN HAZ CHEEZBURGERRRR

So completely amazing! She made the whole thing herself. The bun is vanilla cake, the pattie is chocolate brownie, fondant cheese, jam sauce and peanut butter buttercream icing! So blown away.

Cheezburger Cake Cross-section

If that weren’t enough, I also received some very rad presents too! Including a UKULELE from Jason! (I am currently learning how to play it now), a Brasserie Bread baking class voucher (my friends must have been sick of me rabbiting on about bread-making hehe), a Tintin & Snowy figurine, Kate Beaton’s Hark a Vagrant book, a panda purse, camera cookie cutters, a tshirt about cats, a shopping bag with llamas on it… and THIS TOTE BAG:

Pugs not drugs. Completely amazing.

As a bonus for reading this far here is the Maru book making me smile like an imbecile:

:’) friends are the best.

Our crew all stretched out on the lawn

Such a good day!

Hong Ha
1151 Botany Rd
Mascot NSW 2020
Ph: (02) 9667 2069

Pat and Stick’s Tempe factory
Unit 4, 3 Wood St,
Tempe, NSW 2044
Ph: (02) 9114 6377
Open Mon-Fri, 9-5pm and some weekends (call first to make sure)

Brasserie Bread’s Schiacciata con l’uva

This post begins with a lie… the recipe I’m sharing with you is for Schiacciata Con L’Uva – but the bread that I made isn’t “Con L’Uva” (with grapes) at all! It’s kind of the beauty of it though – even though this recipe is for a traditional Italian flat bread with grapes, it’s so versatile you can really top it with anything. The photo above is a Schiacciata I made with blueberries – which just happen to be in season and so super cheap right now – but honestly you could use almost anything.

Tomato and cheese!

I first learnt how to make this bread last year at Brassierie Bread’s Artisan Bread Masterclass at Masterchef Live (see my post about it here) – it’s so simple and now I make it all the time! Home-made bread takes a little bit of time to make – the kneading, and proving… but the results are so worth it! I’m definitely no expert, and if even a super kitchen noob like me can do it, I reckon anyone can!!

Of course reading a blog post is nothing compared to being taught the actual process live – and if you are able to, I would strongly recommend booking in a baking class at Brasserie Bread. You will not regret it! Their teachers are so patient and excellent and really give you the confidence to make bread at home!
Here is the Brasserie Bread Class Schedule for Sydney (Melbourne classes are also available)

This whole procedure for the Schiacciata Con L’Uva is actually shown in Season 2 of Masterchef – when Brasserie Bread’s Michael Klausen led Marion and Aaron in a bread making masterclass. You can watch the whole thing here:
Masterchef Online Video

When Matt Brock from Brasserie Bread showed us how to make artisan bread at Masterchef Live – he had a few handy tips for us:

• Some recipes call for you to mix your yeast with warm water to “activate” it and to speed up the process. This is totally unnecessary. Adding warmth to the process speeds it up, but this comes at the cost of flavour. This recipe from Brasserie Bread instead calls for chilled water, and if possible – to keep your dough in the fridge as it rises. The cold slows down the process and allows the complex flavours to develop.
• Don’t be alarmed if your dough is really wet and sticky! Your first instinct will be to flour your table or board and to keep adding flour to make your dough drier. Resist the temptation! The wetter the dough is, the better. The dough will become less and less sticky as you begin to knead, until it eventually becomes nice and smooth. Adding extra flour by flouring your board will only make your bread tougher!
• Instead of kneading the dough for 20mins straight, this method uses a process called “Autolyse” – where you alternate between kneading for short bursts, and letting the dough rest. As the dough rests, the enzymes in the flour continue to break down the proteins and starch – effectively doing all the work, with no added effort from us! Sweet! (there’s a cool article about autolysis here if you want to read more about it: The Autolyse Method)
• Bread calls for flour with a high protein content. Brasserie Bread uses beautiful unbleached organic Kialla flour, which they also sell in their cafe shop in Banksmeadow. The Kialla flour has a protein level of 12.5% – which means it’ll be able to form the strong gluten bonds that are necessary to make bread. Ordinary plain flour has a protein level of around 10% and if you use it, your bread will probably rise too much and then fall flat, as the gluten bonds aren’t strong enough to hold in the air.

I was able to find 5kg bags of Wallaby unbleached baker’s flour by Laucke in my local Coles supermarket for about $10. It has a protein level of 11.9%

Yeast on one side, Salt on the other side – if the salt comes into direct contact with the yeast, it will kill the yeast!

The kneading uses a French method popularised by Richard Bertinet… here’s a youtube video I found which demonstrates the throwing method! This way works air into the dough, giving you a light and fluffy texture.

PS. It’s also a really good way of working out any anger issues you might be having. Just sayin’

My final dough!

Now on to the recipe!

This recipe will make 2 loaves (they fit in my 2 brownie pans)

Schiacciata Con L’Uva

(recipe from Brasserie Bread and reposted with permission)

Ingredients:
420g organic unbleached plain flour
6g instant yeast (you can buy this from the supermarket in little sachets) – if using fresh yeast, double this amount
285g chilled tap water
10g extra virgin olive oil
10g salt

For the topping:
10g extra virgin olive oil
100g seedless red grapes (or cherries)
20g organic raw sugar

Method:

Sift the flour into a large bowl and crumble yeast on to one side of the flour. Sprinkle salt on to the other side (you want to keep them apart otherwise the salt will kill the yeast)
Add water and oil to the flour and mix well

Turn onto a clean unfloured bench and knead for 2 minutes then rest for 2 minutes
Complete this kneading/resting sequence 5 more times (6 times in total)
Test dough for ‘Gluten window’ by stretching a piece of dough between your fingers – if it stretches into a thin film without breaking, you’re good to go! If not, knead it for a few more minutes and test again.

Shape the dough into a boule (round shape) and place into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with cling wrap and place the bowl in your fridge for approx 1 hour (until it’s doubled in size)
‘Knock back’ the dough by pushing the air bubbles out of the dough. Cut the dough in half, and final shape by flattening slightly into large oval shapes onto a lined baking sheet

Now is when you add your toppings! Dip your fingers in olive oil, and push the dough in, creating indentations. Push the toppings (cherries, grapes, tomatoes, cheese cubes, whatever!) into these indentations.
Drizzle with more olive oil and if making a sweet bread, sprinkle generously with sugar
Allow to prove for another 30 – 40 minutes in a warm place

Bake in a pre heated oven at 190˚C for approx 20 minutes until golden brown
Allow to cool slightly then enjoy!

Zay and Mel’s Fun Punch! (Alcoholic fruit punch)

WELL… summer in Sydney was a bit of a no-show! After a few beautiful days over the holiday break, it seems like we’ve angered the weather-gods somehow – rain is forecast for every day over the next month! (nooooo!)

Anyway, I was going to share our Fun Punch “recipe” (the word recipe is used here very loosely) – to sip as you while away the long and warm summer nights… oh well. Now we can drink punch anyway, and pretend.

Our fun punch recipe is based on Zay’s tita’s recipe… reverse engineered, and with our own little twists. That’s kind of the fun of it though – there’s no real way you can mess it up! As long as you keep topping it up with ice and juice (and booze) all night, it’ll be good to go. As we say… all roads lead to fun punch!

The base of the punch is a sweet moscato. I just picked the cheapest at Dan Murphy’s, which happened to be this one for $7:

And cheap tropical juice:

Zay’s tita (that’s filipino for aunty!) recommends that you pre-freeze half a bottle of tropical juice into a big block – then you can place it straight in your punch, and it will keep it cold as it melts. Unfortunately we weren’t that organised, so we just put in the juice as it was, and made do with regular ice.

Other ingredients included…

Tinned fruit salad in syrup:

Strawberries:

Which were then sliced and left to soak in a few shots of vodka

I also added some thinly sliced nectarine:

And slices of lime:

As well as a good squeeze of lemon juice!

Top it up with some soda water and some torn mint leaves and that’s it really… embarrassingly simple, but very very tasty!

Zay & Mel’s Fun Punch

Ingredients

1 bottle sweet Moscato
1 bottle tropical juice
1 bottle soda water
4 shots of vodka
1kg can of fruit salad in syrup
1 punnet strawberries
1 nectarine
1 lime
1 lemon
mint
ice (optional)

The night before: pour half your tropical juice into a plastic container with a lid (or some clean takeaway boxes will do) and place them in the freezer. Put the half-full bottle of tropical juice back in the fridge.

The day of: Bring your tropical ice block out of the freezer to thaw as you prep the rest of the ingredients.

Slice half of the strawberries, and finely dice the other half (and reserve a few for garnishes). Place these into a small bowl and add the 4 shots of vodka and leave them to soak.

Finely slice the rest of the fruit, and place them inside your fancy punch bowl! Add the whole can of fruit salad, including the syrup. Add your tropical fruit ice blocks.

Pour in half the bottle of Moscato, and half the bottle of soda water, and add the rest of the tropical juice, and a squeeze of lemon to taste.

Tear the mint leaves and sprinkle on top.

As the night goes on, keep topping up your fun punch with the moscato, soda water and tropical juice! Serve with a strawberry perched on the glass, or a paper umbrella if you are fancy. chin-chin!

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a fantastic new year’s! This year (like most years actually) Jabs and I decided to skip the crowds by the harbour and hosted a mini bbq at his place.

THERE WAS LOTS OF FOOD.

I made bread:

And some salted caramel macs:

Jabs braved the Sydney Fish Markets on New Year’s Eve to get us fresh sashimi

SASHIMIIIII!

Our friend Zay made a super duper pavlova!

and these amazing salted caramel filled cupcakes, drizzled with toffee!

Zay and I made Fun Punch™

Jabs & B “manned” the BBQ and cooked up some perfectly cooked steaks

as well as the requisite snags!

Perfect mini bbq!

and then when the clock struck midnight…. SPARKLERS!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Chinta Ria – Mood for Love

Satay skewers at Mood for Love

Last month, I was lucky enough to try out Chinta Ria‘s newest restaurant incarnation, Mood for Love – with fellow FAB (fricken amazing blogger) onebitemore, on invitation by head chef and onebitemore’s family friend John Poh (ex Kuali).

It doesn’t feel like we’re in a shopping centre. Which is a huge deal, considering how pervasive the cold stainless steel of Westfield Sydney is. In contrast, Mood for Love‘s room is enticingly dark, warm, cushioned – with rich wooden tables and small cosy corners to sit in.

I’ve always loved the way the original Chinta Ria restaurant on the rooftop of Cockle Bay Wharf is able to create an atmosphere from the moment you step into its temple-like rotunda. But whereas the Cockle Bay Wharf Chinta Ria restaurant creates a sense of communal sharing and celebration, Mood for Love definitely aims for something a little more sultry.

Gone are the garlands of prayer flags, canisters of joss sticks and colourful plastic bowls and cutlery – replaced instead with a cinematic theme. Mood for Love playfully takes its cues from Wong Kar Wai’s beautiful movie, “In The Mood for Love” – going so far as to present the menu in a brown manilla envelope, designed as a beautifully laid out movie script.

I absolutely adore the attention to detail – and that’s before you even get to the names of the dishes. John takes us through the menu – taking care to point out the puns and elaborations he finds most cheeky. Under “Scene 3 – Seducing You… Our Mains” we find such delights as Kiss me Chick (Traditional Malay grilled chicken $17) and Hug Me Honey (Pan fried tenderloin beef with honey and pepper chilli sauce $25), and under “Scene 5 – Are you in… Sweet Heart??” we find the traditional Malaysian dessert Ondeh Ondeh renamed to the rather suggestive On Me On Me All Day.

But when you dine at the invitation of a chef, I always find it’s best to place yourselves at their mercy. We asked John to make a selection for us, of dishes he thinks we would most enjoy.

First we order some cocktails – some of which I am pretty sure were chosen on the basis of their names alone – Sexy Genie (Vodka, Dry Vermouth, Lemon Juice, Sugar Cane Juice, Basil Leaves – $16); Love Bite (Gin, Vodka, lychee juice, rose syrup – $15); Kiss Kiss (Gin, elderflower, soda water & mandarin) and Come Always (Campari, Angostura bitters, tonic, lemonade) – mine, the Love Bite is dangerously easy to drink!

The first dish to come out is Chilli Scallops ($13.50 for 3 pieces) – the scallops are cooked to the perfect amount of doneness, and sauce on these is so good every drop is scraped off the plate. My only complaint is that one each is no where near enough!

Seduction Rolls $12

Onebitemore tells me that the alluringly named “Seduction Rolls” are actually a chicken version of Lor Bak, Malaysian 5-spice pork rolls, wrapped in bean-curd skin and fried. Whatever they are, the chicken is piping hot and tender and the outside crispy delicious!

We get a combination of chicken & beef satay  ($12 for 4 skewers) – which goes great with the peanut dipping sauce. I’m no expert on satay, but the meat on both is succulent and lightly smoky from the char. I think I like the chicken best.

OK now I am the first to admit that I am a bit of chilli wimp (though I am trying to get better) – but I THINK THIS IS ONE OF THE HOTTEST THINGS I HAVE EVER EATEN. Wow. So tasty, but so burny. O Tak O Tak (Spanish Mackerel mousse – $13) comes in the cutest little bamboo steam baskets, one between two. At first it looks so small and cute, but don’t underestimate it… wow it packs a punch. Even after eating only the smallest spoonful – my mouth is on fire, and J’s face has gone bright red as sweat breaks out from his brow.

It does taste good though!! Which is what keeps you going back even though your mouth is in exquisite pain.

Well they did warn us!

The rest of the mains come out in a torrent:

Pearly Butter Prawns ($27) is such a fun dish – the crumbly buttermilk batter is indeed rich and buttery, and the prawns are cooked to a perfect crisp translucence.

Quack! Quack! Kiam Chye ($25) is warm and comforting – the succulent and fatty duck keeps from being too rich thanks to the slightly sour pickled mustard vegetables.

Beef Rendang ($19) is a favourite Malaysian dish of mine, and though the flavours are wonderful the beef isn’t quite as fall-apart tender as I’d like.

Bella Chan Kang Kong (Kangkung Belacan – $15) is always a tasty dish, with the chilli prawn paste giving the water spinach a bit of a kick. Some of the people at our table find the taste a bit confronting though

Teoh Chiew Fish (Steamed fish of the day – $29) – is another warm and comforting dish, but unfortunately gets a bit lost when compared to the strong flavours of the other dishes. John tells us that this is a really healthy dish, with almost no fat in it! (does that add to our disinterest? I don’t know, but perhaps a little )

By now we are beyond stuffed. So many dishes and we have barely even dented the menu!

But of course there is dessert, and thankfully it comes as a dessert platter to share ($22) – so we can all nibble and try a bit of everything.

I’ve never really eaten Malaysian desserts! To tell the truth, I am so in love with roti, that whenever the stuff is near – I will more than likely stuff myself with it, leaving no room at all for dessert.

But wow! This dessert plate looks so tempting, it’s no struggle at all for us to eat up every crumb.

First we eat the Ondeh Ondeh pandan balls – which eaten up in one bite as they are filled with warm palm sugar syrup! The Kueh – rolled pandan crepes – are fresh and sweet, and contrast nicely with the slightly savoury coconut filling.

I have no idea what to make of Cassava Delight (the little rectangles on the right), but I think they end up being my favourite! Sweet and slightly spiced with cinnamon they are not at all what I am expecting. If you didn’t already know (I sure didn’t!) Cassava is the starchy root vegetable that tapioca is made of – and the chewy resistant texture reminds me a bit of it.

Pandan Sago is refreshing after eating the starchier desserts – the little balls of tapioca are fun to eat, and I think I could drink up the coconut milk & palm sugar syrup by itself.

Finally the Durian Panna Cotta… This was yum, but I don’t feel like I can judge this one properly having never eaten real durian! But J and Onebitemore are massive fans and proclaim it to be their favourite dessert of the night. According to them, the panna cotta perfectly replicates the creaminess of durian, without the smell. Win!

Phew! What a feast. Mood for Love is definitely not the cheapest Malaysian food around. Had we dined not at John’s generosity but on our own coin, the meal would have come to around $54 each (not including cocktails) – definitely an upper market price, and not surprising when you consider the restaurant’s surroundings.

This isn’t a hawker style restaurant – service is careful and attentive rather than rough and ready. But beyond the lush and elaborate atmosphere, and beyond the playful menu names you can sense the love, care and serious intent of a chef who cares about craftmanship, quality ingredients and authentic flavours.

I think I’m in love!

(crunchytiger and onebitemore dined as guests of Chinta Ria – Mood for Love)

Chinta Ria… Mood for love
Level 6 / Shop 6009
Westfield Sydney
188 Pitt Street NSW 2000

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Wibbly Wobbly Timey Wimey Birthday Party

(As a warning – a great deal of this post will probably not make sense if you don’t know much about Doctor Who… but you’re welcome to observe our strange ways. This is mostly a blog for all our friends who recently moved overseas and couldn’t join us in person! To those people… helloooooo!!)

So – it all began, as all of our most madcap plans do, in an innocent gmail thread. Our friend D was turning 30 in November and his amazing wife A & our friend F came up with the brilliant plan to throw him the most nerdtastic surprise party ever! A Doctor Who theme was settled upon, as D and the rest of our friends are mad fans.

A time and a place was set. Keys were sneakily exchanged via an accidentally-on-purpose meeting at the shops the day before. The unsuspecting birthday boy was lured out of his apartment with the promise of a birthday brunch…

… which allowed the rest of us to sneak into D & A’s apartment and decorate it with a bunch of blue streamers, some blue balloons, home-made fezzes and bow ties, and a pile of edible treats.

Tardis Blue Blueberry and Passionfruit Pavlova

I have to confess I’ve never actually made a pavlova from scratch before!

The last time I’d even thought about making a pavolva was in year 10, when I was on exchange in France. Before we left, our teachers had encouraged us to memorise a classic Australian dish to cook for our host families – and of course, what’s a more quintessentially Australian (cough cough, or New Zealand depending on who you talk to) dish than a classic pav! Of course my plan all fell to pieces once I heard my host mother mention in passing that she detested meringue. Uhoh! Oh well, their loss… I served them vegemite toast instead… (“it’s very… special” was all my host father could politely muster)

So when I heard about the food blogger pav blog hop, I knew I’d have to give it a go – if only to make up for my French pavlova that never was.

My family aren’t super sweet tooths, and I was wondering what I’d do with a whole pavlova all to myself. But luckily, the pavbloghop day coincided with the date of my friend D’s Doctor-Who-themed-30th-birthday-party! And as we were all encouraged to bring a dish, why not kill two birds with one (very delicious) stone!

I used this recipe from The Cook & The Chef - I don’t really know why… maybe because then I can imagine Maggie Beer is looking after me over my shoulder. It was a pretty basic recipe, but I found it didn’t go into enough detail in the egg whipping stage. I’m pretty much a baking noob, and didn’t realise I had to add the sugar in bit by bit to reach hard peak… as a consequence, it took a lot longer to whip together than the recipe stated. But I got there in the end!!

Of course the Doctor Who theme meant I had to make the pavlova blue coloured, in honour of the Tardis (Time and Relative Dimension in Space… or basically a big blue box that the Doctor travels around in). In the end I decided that a blue swirl would suffice, as I was a bit too scared to serve my friends a completely blue dessert (visions of Bridget Jones’ horrible blue dinner party soup springs to mind)

Swirly!

The pavlova started to crack as it baked and then cooled – I don’t mind so much, as I then I can pretend that it is “rustic”, but if you prefer no cracks, apparently running a spoon up and down the sides of the meringue to create grooves before you bake it makes the formation more stable. (check out Bizzy Lizzy’s Good Things‘ pavlova post for a beautiful non cracked and structurally sound pavlova). Too bad I only learnt that little titbit after my pav was already in the oven. Maggie Beer!! You’ve let me down…!!!

Anyway, whipped cream covers a multitude of ills. I decided to stick with the blue theme and used blueberries as toppings (plus passion-fruit because for me, a pavlova without a bit of tartness to balance out all the sugar is a deathwish!!)

When my mum found out I was making the pavlova to take to a party, she requested I make a baby one for her to eat at home haha.

Pretty pleased with how it turned out…!! And it seemed to go down well with D and the rest of my friends…!

I like how the swirls run all the way through the pav!

Tardis Blue Blueberry and Passionfruit Pavlova (adapted from the Pavlova recipe at The Cook and the Chef)

Ingredients

4 egg whites
1 ½ cups caster sugar
1 teaspoon corn flour
1 teaspoon white vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
Blue food colouring

600ml thickened cream
For the topping:
Passionfruit
Blueberries

Method
Preheat the oven to 150˚C.

Beat the egg whites on a high speed until fluffy, about a minute (mine took a bit longer). The bowl should be clean with no grease in it, the eggs room temperature and you should be careful not to get any of the yolk in the white.

Keep the mixer on, as you slowly add the castor sugar bit by bit – making sure that the sugar is completely dissolved before you add more. If you rub a bit of the meringue mixture between your fingers, it shouldn’t be grainy. Mix until the mixture is thick and glossy with a hard peak, then beat in the corn flour, vinegar, and vanilla. Swirl in the blue food colouring.

On a baking tray lined with a sheet of baking paper, pile the meringue up high to get a marshmallowy centre or flatten it out if you prefer crusty. Make an indentation on the top for the filling.

Bake the pavlova for 50 minutes until quite firm, then turn the oven off but leave the pavlova in it to cool completely.

When you’re ready to serve, whip the cream (do not add sugar!! Believe me, there’s enough sugar in the base) – and add the passionfruit and blueberries!

ENJOY!

Eat Drink Blog 2011

You know that eerie feeling you get when you suddenly realise you have a great deal in common with a group of people you thought were strangers?

All the familiar signs were there: gorgeous plates of food, impressive looking dslrs hovering above tables and no one brave enough to take even a morsel before everyone had a chance to take a photo.

Welcome to the bizarre world of food-bloggers: where the pictures look beautiful and where the food is delicious but most probably lukewarm!

The Eat Drink Blog Conference was held on Nov 5th, and was a great chance for a lucky cross-section of Australia’s food bloggers to meet up, chat about our shared foibles, swap tips and most importantly EAT! (after the pictures are done)

Bloggers and their cameras

The food:

Miss Piggy shows us how it’s done!

Thanks to our kind sponsors and organisers, the conference was completely free for attendees (hooray!) and well catered (double hooray!).

Like reverse Gremlins, it is well known that if you place a large group of food bloggers in one place and do not feed them… bad things happen.

Coconut Tea Cakes by Brasserie Bread and Fruit platters from IMPACT Australia

Yep! That’s a whole délice tower from Lindt for us to snack on as we pleased. As predicted, the salted caramel macarons went first… dang it!

Milk chocolate Lindt délice, deliciously gooey

Lunch was slow cooked shoulder of spiced lamb prepared by Noni Dwyer (ex River Cottage), in association with the Meat & Livestock Association of Australia. So tender and flavourful, gosh it was probably the nicest lamb dish I have eaten in a long time. Though the slow cooked lamb was undoubtedly the star – the unbelievably sweet just-shelled peas and broad-beans, and the heirloom tomato salad sure had no trouble holding their own.

Thanks to the MLA’s well publicised involvement in the live exports scandal earlier this year however, I know a few bloggers intended to conscientiously decline lunch provided by this association.

In addition to all this food, we also had Toby’s Estate baristas on hand to make coffees to order, and a Breville Juice bar!

It was such a funny feeling attending a conference inside a ginormous kitchen showroom. At times it kind of felt like we were intruding on someone’s home (albeit – a remarkably well furnished home that happens to have multiple kitchens in it). At least it meant there were a lot of fridges to hold drinks in:

Drinks provided by Daylesford and Hepburn Mineral Springs

The talks:

I had no idea what to expect from the conference part of the Eat Drink Blog Conference, but I knew I was in a good place when our lovely MC, Tammi (from Tammi’s Tasting Terroir) began to set out the housekeeping guidelines for the presentation portion of the day:

• Save your questions until the end
• No self-disclaimers (if you are here, you are a “real” blogger. Don’t sweat it.)
• No flash photography,
• and PLEASE tweet, Tweet, TWEET!

Oh my goodness… what a difference Twitter makes! It made the traditionally passive media of a lecture feel so much more interactive (how much do I wish I had Twitter when I was in uni!!). Following the tweets on #eatdrinkblog2011 let you enter a whole other level of insight and discussion taking place concurrently with the presenter on the stage. My over-stimulated, attention deficit, multi-tasking gen-y brain was in heaven!

Best slide ever

I was surprised at how relevant and interesting the lectures were though. I have to honestly say I found something interesting and engaging in every talk – regardless of how interested in the topic I thought I’d be going in to the conference. Here’s a few things I learnt:

Copyright Panel – presented by Dominic Villa

• A list of ingredients, nor an idea for a dish are not in themselves subject to copyright – but the written form of a recipe might be!
• Generally, you’re allowed to take photos wherever you like, however a restaurateur is also allowed to place conditions on your taking of photographs. In order for you to remain on their private property, you must comply with these conditions. If you do not comply, they are allowed to ask you to leave.

Defamation Panel – presented by Stephen Estcourt, QC

• You may be liable for defamation due to a comment someone else has posted on your blog! Even if you didn’t write it, the fact you didn’t take the libellous comment down may be enough
• It’s a good idea to put a disclaimer on your blog to make it clear that everything you express is your opinion only

Search Engine Optimisation – presented by Michael Gall of Terroir.Me (you’re welcome Michael)

• LINKS LINKS LINKS make the world go ’round. Every time someone makes a direct link to your blog, you get brownie points from the big Google Page-rank god in the sky
• In addition – I also learnt that if anyone says the phrase “pork crackling” in front of me more than one time – I will promptly stop listening to what they are saying and will start thinking instead of said pork crackling.

Writing Panel – presented by Valerie Khoo

• Passive writing keeps the reader at a distance, active writing draws people into the action. An example from Valerie -
  Passive sentence structure: “Coriander was used by the chef to create a distinctly Thai flavour.”
  Active sentence structure: “The chef used coriander to create a distinctly Thai flavour.”
• To make your writing more active, bring whatever or whoever is doing the action up to the front of your sentence

The workshops:

After lunch we were treated to a Butchery Masterclass run by Noni. I don’t know how many of us had seen an entire lamb carcass butchered in front of us before (I’m willing to bet, not many!) – but despite the odd small globule of lamb meat flinging to the ground from the force of Noni’s sawing, it wasn’t as gory as I’d expected!

It was plain that Noni respected the animal she was working with, and it really gave all of us a new perspective on the lunch we’d just eaten.

During her butchery demonstration, Noni highlighted the lamb breast and the lamb neck as two cuts of meat that are less popular than they deserve to be. She showed us a few ways to prepare them – including LAMB BACON…

Yep. Deep fried lamb bacon. Deep gasps were emitted from the crowd as we all considered the magical possibilities. If she hadn’t already won our hearts over with her dexterous use of a hacksaw, then after showing us lamb bacon we were definitely smitten!!

After Noni’s demonstration, we were split up to go to our chosen workshops. I chose to attend Souvlaki for the Soul’s Food Styling workshop, and Brasserie Bread’s sourdough appreciation workshop.

Food Styling Workshop -

Peter from Souvlaki from the Soul gave away some of his secret hints and tips on food styling.

• Source props from everywhere. Op shops, chain stores, markets, the side of the road. It’ll become an addiction before you know it.
• Don’t forget the little touches – powdered sugar hides a lot of ills, and an atomiser of olive oil can give a nice sheen to savoury dishes.
• A tripod that can point down is a great investment
• DON’T TAKE IT TOO SERIOUSLY!

I was so impressed by his collection of props – definitely inspired to start looking for my own!

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Brasserie Bread’s Sourdough Masterclass

Having recently attended a Brasserie Bread masterclass at Masterchef Live – I knew exactly which other workshop I wanted to take, even if a lot of this would be welcome revision for me. Matthew Brock again took the class, and he was as great as ever!

Unlike the previous class I took which had an emphasis on home baking techniques, this class was about making sourdough. Matt took us through the process of creating a starter (wild yeast) to create our own sourdough. We even tasted the starter (Yep…. it is very sour).

Maintaining the starters sounds like a lot of work. Matt joked that having 3 starters was like having 3 extra children! You have to feed it every day, and it can take up to 4 weeks before you can start baking with it!!  But hopefully I’ll get to try making my own sourdough myself one day.

Tasting time hooray!

The final panels about food culture and ethics allowed for a lively discussion about what is acceptable behaviour from bloggers. There will never be complete consensus with such a large and diverse group of individuals but it was really fun to listen to everyone’s point of view on this contentious subject. The general agreement was to: be respectful and constructive in your criticism, remember that these are people’s livelihoods, tell the truth, and always disclose when you accept complimentary things. All common sense really.

FINAAAALLLYYY… we ended with lucky dip prizes, and GUESS WHAT! I won a coffee hamper from Toby’s Estate.

It had a lovely coffee table book (how appropriate) called “Coffee Trails”, 2 bags of Toby’s Estate coffee beans, a tin of hot choc, a tin of sencha and a bag of chocolate covered coffee beans. Given how little caffeine I have to drink for me to get buzzing I predict this will keep me awake for WEEKS.

It was a great day (with the lucky dip prize to top it off). Blogging can be such an introverted activity, but it’s events like these that truly remind us of what a lovely big community we are. Despite all the crazy fun diversions of the day, meeting new and old friends (and meeting some old friends for the first time IRL!) is always a pleasure and a highlight.

I have to thank the incredible and seemingly tireless Eat Drink Blog crew – Simon, Jen, Reem and Trina – for their amazing work with the conference. None of it could have happened without you, and I hope you all got to have a well deserved rest the next day!!

Danks St Depot – Spreets offer

(This post is super late! But I just wanted to quickly post about the Danks St Depot breakfast deal I got from Spreets a few months ago, as I noticed it was back on again!)

Danks St Depot is a veritable institution of the inner city suburb of Waterloo. Though the suburb may once have been infamous for its proliferation of housing estates, Waterloo has definitely undergone a period of urban renewal in the past decade. These days, Danks street in particular has got a cool mix of reclaimed commercial/industrial spaces fused with a vibrant cafe and food culture. Besides Danks St Depot, you’ll also find a Sonoma bakery, the very first Fratelli Fresh (with its requisite Café Sopra on top) and… a Hillsong! Talk about a broad mix!

I’d been to Danks St Depot (both the Waterloo branch, and the airport branch) a few times in the past, but couldn’t resist getting the Spreets coupon: $27 for breakfast for 2. Although I did really enjoy the food the last time I’d been, it isn’t the cheapest place. Jared Ingersoll is a well known advocate of sustainable, locally grown and ethical eating – the chicken sandwich ($18) on Danks St Depot’s menu for example features organic chicken, biodynamic eggs, non GMO-free oil and bread from our favourite artisan bakers, Brasserie Bread! All of this great stuff is of course reflected in a slightly higher price than you may expect at your local cafe… and plus it’s a damn good sanga.

The Spreets deal allowed you to choose any egg dish from Danks St Depot’s normal breakfast menu – quite generous as a normal egg dish runs for around $18, plus a share plate between 2. During the time of my deal, the share plate was roasted Corella pears with labneh, roasted walnuts and honey, though I’ve noticed they’ve changed this to the more seasonal mango.

Roasted Corella pears with labneh, roasted walnuts and local honey

Such a pretty dish. Sometimes I like these coupon deals, because they make you order things that you wouldn’t have ordinarily haha. The pears were wonderfully sweet, and still retained a bit of its crispness. It was balanced nicely with the tart labneh (a kind of yoghurt cheese) and torn mint leaves – the drizzle of honey keeping it from being too sour.

As a table of 4, we managed to order a few options between us.

Slow cooked broccoli and eggs

My mum and I both got the slow cooked broccoli and eggs – I thought the broccoli was lovely and soft. I didn’t really taste the white wine and chilli it is apparently cooked with though. The sheeps milk feta brought a welcome hit of salt to the mild broccoli, and the eggs were lovely and just set. I am always a fan of Brasserie Bread sourdough, and this time is no exception.

Creamed Eggs with Truffle oil

My dad ordered the creamed eggs with truffle oil – it doesn’t seem like much on the plate, but I found the eggs to be quite rich, so I don’t know if I would have been able to eat much more than that. The eggs definitely had the taste of truffle, but weren’t quite as creamy in texture as I expected them to be (actually, if you see a photo of the same dish my friend ordered at the airport branch, you can see the eggs appear much more creamy). Nevertheless this was still quite tasty.

Poached eggs with bacon hash

Poached eggs with bacon hash was my brother’s – and he was very pleased by the hunks of bacon on his plate. No pansy rashers in this dish! This also comes in a silverbeet version, which is still lovely and hearty, but not quite as heavy.

Everyone really enjoyed their meals, but the richness of some of the dishes led us all to agree that this is definitely a once in a while breakfast treat.

Service was friendly and attentive, even though the place was bustling (as it is on most weekends). We didn’t have to wait very long for our meals, though unfortunately I have heard other bloggers didn’t have quite as nice an experience. If you purchased the recent Spreets coupon, I would suggest you book via email asap – as the spaces for Spreets members are limited and the weekends filled up quite quickly. We had to book quite a few weeks in advance to get a weekend. But if you’re willing to take that chance I thought the deal was really good value!

Happy eating!

Danks St Depot
1/2 Danks Street,
Waterloo NSW 2017

ph: 61 2 9698 2201
e: enquiry@danksstreetdepot.com.au

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Masterchef Live 2011 – Brasserie Bread Artisan Baking Workshop

Artisan Baking Workshop with Brasserie Bread

Masterchef Live was great fun (you can read about the rest of the day in my post here: Masterchef Live 2011), but the highlight of the day would have to been the hands on Brasserie Bread artisan breadmaking course! I’m a huge fan of Brasserie Bread’s bread and cafe, and have always wanted to do one of their baking courses. The classes ran every 2 hours, and with only 20 spots – competition was FIERCE. My friend and I made the executive decision to line up for as long as it took. How long it took turned out to be little over an hour. We basically lined up as soon as the last class ended, and waited for our class to begin!

Matthew Brock was our tutor, and he talked about what the difference was between commercially baked bread, and artisan bread. Along with using and honouring traditional methods, Artisan bakers use their hands, and bake from the heart.

Our fearless teacher, Matthew Brock, Brasserie Bread’s training officer

He demonstrated a simple recipe for an Italian Schiacciata – an olive oil based flat bread similar to a foccacia. I was amazed at how few ingredients were required – just some strong bread flour, water, a teaspoon or two of olive oil, instant yeast, and salt!

Matthew showed us the Autolyse method of dough kneading. Instead of kneading the dough continuously for 20 minutes straight, we kneaded for 2 minutes, then let the dough rest for 2 minutes – repeating this process a total of 6 times. Much less work, for a better flavour! Kneading the dough is incredibly fun, and involves throwing, stretching and folding the dough over and over. Very cathartic!! Sorry, not too many photos… hands all doughy.

Stretching the bread dough

My little dough ball

I have to say at this point I was totally revelling in my “Yakitate Japan!” fantasies, and could be heard yelling out “SOLAR HANDSSSS” at regular intervals.

Our dough balls ready to sleep

I was wondering how we’d have time to mix, knead, prove AND bake our breads in such a short 1 hour class – and I was worried we’d have to throw our little dough balls away at the end. But no! We got to keep them, to bake later that night at home ! The Brasserie Bread stand kept our little named boxes in their fridge for us, ready to pick up at home-time.

Matt showing us how to final shape our dough

Schiacciata con l’uva – bread with grapes!

“Here’s one I prepared earlier”

And of course we all got to taste:

Crunchy on the outside from the demerara sugar, and the thin crust – and light and fluffy on the inside, the grapes on top have burst in the oven, letting the juice escape to form a caramelised layer. SO GOOD. And after doing all that kneading, I bet it tasted even better.

Such a good lesson, and well worth the 1 hour waiting time. Matt was such a great teacher, and I really appreciated how the class was aimed at simple techniques that could be replicated at home. After the class I felt really confident to bake my own bread (and in fact I did… which I will blog about soon!)

Masterchef Live was held from the 7th-10th October 2011
Hordern Pavilion & Royal Hall of Industries
Tickets were $30.

If you liked this post you might enjoy my other post about Masterchef Live:
Masterchef Live 2011