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Meal to share: Pub Food

Meal to share: Pub Food

May 17, 2011 by · 5 Comments

Hooray, it’s time for another Meal to share. This is technically last month’s as we are running slightly behind schedule but that’s alright. That means you’ll get two this month. Exciting, no?

This month’s theme was pub food and I had to admit that I was scratching my head for awhile because I had been allocated the position of a starter for this theme. I knew what the local pub served for mains and desserts, but starters?

I could do… chicken nuggets? Uh…

Well, here’s what I ended up with in the end. A very sad looking attempt next to the other two girl’s amazing contributions. Why do I always do this to myself….


Starter: Shallow Fried Calamari Rings in Garlic Breadcrumb by me.

Main: Pub Stout Braised Ox Cheeks with Cheese and Mushroom Dumplings by Penny.

Dessert: Sticky Date Pudding by Agnes.

*pokes sadly at her lame photo* that’s what I get for taking photos at night! Need to dig my light box out again. Sigh.

And yes, I did burn them somewhat. I really don’t like frying things, shallow or deep fry alike. I find it so hard to balance the heat of a hot plate and while I’m busy doing something else, the oil is burning or the rings are burning. Something’s always burning. Just like my patience.

But I have to say tho, burnt or not, they tasted amazing. I devoured them all because they were just too amazing. Plus easy to make! When my deep fryer comes, I’m going to make them again and hopefully this time, not burn them.

There is a dip. I forgot to picture it. Whoops.

And don’t judge me on the Cascade. We can only get cheap local beers out here in the country, and amongst the sea of melbourne bitters and carlton draught, I think cascade light is one of the better ones there is.

Shallow Fried Calamari Rings in Garlic Breadcrumb

Ingredients

Calamari Rings
Garlic Breadcrumbs
Flour
1 egg, whipped

Method

1. Coat Calamari Rings in flour then coat it with the whipped egg.
2. Coat rings in garlic breadcrumb and pop it into the hot oil.
3. If you are lucky and fail less at frying, your garlic rings won’t burn like mine!
4. Fry till golden brown. Drain on paper towels and eat!

To be honest, they hardly needed a dip. They were amazing on their own. So good. So, so very good.

Okay, off you go now to check out our main and dessert. Have a good meal, everybody!

Filed Under: Cooking, Cooking & Baking, Meal to Share, Modern Australian, Recipes Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
Recipe & advertorial : BPAY Short and Sweet in the form of Pumpkin Rice!

Recipe & advertorial : BPAY Short and Sweet in the form of Pumpkin Rice!

March 1, 2011 by · 19 Comments

Sponsored by Nuffnang

When you are working full time (as many of us are), you tend to find that coming home and cooking up a big meal isn’t always possible. You kinda want to come home, collapse in a pile and not really worry too much about cooking (and cleaning the kitchen!) I remember not too long ago when I lived in the city and on the days where I felt like even walking that extra step was too much effort – takeaway and delivery always sounded so enticing! And that would often be the fallback.

But living out here in the middle of nowhere, takeaway isn’t really possible. There is one cafe in town but the prices are hardly everyday prices and the food isn’t all that great (sorry!) So you end up turning to simple recipes that require as little time to cook up and as little dishes to wash up as possible. Something short and sweet!

And that’s how I remembered that one of mum’s favourite dishes to cook on a Friday night when she was just so incredibly tired out was to cook up a whole pot of pumpkin rice. It was always so incredibly tasty yet so simple and easy to cook up. And possibly, the longest thing that needs prepping is the pumpkin!


Pumpkin Rice

Ingredients

Rice (don’t cook it yet!)
Pumpkin
Peas
Chorizo
Dried shrimps
Prawns
Ginger

Method

1. Prepare all meat and vegetables.
2. Fry up everything in the pan including the uncooked rice grains.
3. Pop everything into the rice cooker, add water and cook!
4. Done!

The beauty of this recipe is that other than the pumpkin and rice, everything else is up to you! Instead of chorizo, you could use lap chung (which is what mum uses), and instead of prawns you could use chicken. A lot of it is instinct cooking, and you season everything accordingly to your taste. Mum likes to use dark sauce to give it a nice overall dark colour, but I left my dark sauce in Melbourne so I’ll have to do without.


Do try it – it’s an absolute no brainer – and so easy to make! Short and sweet… made even more sweet by the pumpkin in the dish!

And much like the recipe above (which is going in for a competition!), BPAY (who is hosting the competition) makes paying bills short and sweet. I’ve been using BPAY for quite a few years now and I have to say that without it, I’d have so many bills left unpaid as I have no time to get to the post office at all! I didn’t realise that over 19,000 different billers offer BPAY payment. To be honest, I thought everybody did. Whoops. But in my world, 19,000 might well be everybody. God knows I hope I never have to pay 19,000 different bills.

You should try out for the competition too!

Here’s how:

BPAY created the Short & Sweet competition to celebrate condensing all that is long and arduous into delicious bite sized pieces. To enter, they’d like people to write either:
1. A recipe
2. Give a film synopsis,
3. Pen a love poem
4. Write a short fiction
… all in 120 characters or less.

You can enter via the following options:

1) Online, visit www.bpayshortandsweet.com.au and follow the prompts.

2) Via SMS, text your name, category and your 120 character entry to 0427 777 743

3) Via Twitter, tweet the category and your 120 character entry to @BPAYSS

Category names:
Love Poem = POEM, Recipe = RECIPE, Short story = STORY, Film and Book synopsis = SYNOPSIS.

Filed Under: Cooking, Cooking & Baking Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,
Meal to Share: Russian Feast

Meal to Share: Russian Feast

February 28, 2011 by · 8 Comments


Russian is something I’m not very familiar with. In fact, I think I haven’t even tasted anything from it before. That was until I started researching it up and then I recognized something that I have made before. Beef stroganoff!

I was originally going to make something else, but lack of ingredients in Murrayville made it hard for me to fulfill my brief. My time in Melbourne was so short I couldn’t possibly try anything overly fancy and due to all these (and the fact that I had all these ingredients in my pantry already) plus the fact that I was craving it… I made Beef stroganoff again.

But before we head over to the recipe, let’s not forget about the whole meal. Russian food seems to lean towards strong colours. Have a look at what Penny and Agnes came up with!


For starters, Agnes made Borscht which was a really close call for myself as this dish had been on my perhaps list! The brilliant red colour is from the addition of beetroot and I’m definitely making this sometime this week to come up with my version of it too!



And for myself, tasked with coming up with the main, I made Beef Stroganoff. It looks better than my last attempt but I’ve made it a fair few times since. And can I just say – having not have this for so long, I damn near passed out and went to heaven when I tasted this. You have no idea how amazing it was to go through the tender eye fillet and amazingly tasty sauce.


Penny made Kissel which is a fruit soup. I’m quite taken by fruit soups. They just seem like such a novelty as we don’t do them much around here. Like the time I made strawberry soup. So I’m definitely going to try making this as well!

Source: masterchef

Recipe: Beef Stroganoff

Serve: 4

Ingredients

2 tbs sweet paprika
100g flour
500g piece beef eye fillet (from the tail end), sliced into strips
¼ cup olive oil
40g butter, plus extra to serve
200g Swiss brown mushrooms, thinly sliced
3 eschalots, finely diced
2 tbs tomato paste
½ cup brandy
1 cup beef stock
2 tbs Worcestershire sauce
1 cup crème fraiche
2 tbs extra virgin oil, to serve
baby parsley, to garnish

Method

1. Combine paprika, flour and 1 teaspoon of sea salt in a bowl. Toss beef in the mixture to coat.
2. Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large frying pan over high heat and sear the beef for 1-2 minutes or until browned. Remove and set aside.
3. Reduce heat to medium-high; add half the butter and remaining the olive oil. Cook the mushrooms until caramelised.
4. Reduce the heat to medium, add remaining butter, eschalots and cook for a few minutes until softened.
5. Add the tomato paste, brandy, stock, Worcestershire sauce and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to medium, stir in crème fraiche, reserved beef and juices, then season with salt and pepper.
6. To serve, toss cooked fettuccine with extra virgin oil and garnish with baby parsley.


Tasty doesn’t even begin to describe it. If you need to try something new, try this. You won’t regret it. And I’m pretty sore that I couldn’t bring any back up to Murrayville with me. I think it’s high time I got some of those ingredients for my Murrayville pantry!

Thanks for checking out today’s Meal to share. Remember that we are here every last day of the month!
Till next month!

Filed Under: Cooking & Baking, Meal to Share, Russian Tagged With: , , , , ,
Meal to Share #2: Outdoor food

Meal to Share #2: Outdoor food

November 30, 2010 by · 25 Comments



It’s that time of the month again, for the Charlie Angel’s to shine!

Ahem.

I mean… welcome to the monthly segment that Agnes, Penny and myself have started up! This month’s theme is Outdoor Food.

Before we get onto the photos and the yummy food, let me preface it by saying that it’s been an incredibly bad month for me. I haven’t been at my healthiest, and I have been so incredibly busy! I’m sure you noticed… my entries this month can be counted on one hand! I will make it up to you guys, I promise. Double dosage of blog posts next month maybe? Okay, let’s not promise what I might not be able to achieve… especially because my parents will be here next month… doesn’t end of year just make everything seem so … hectic? At any rate, what I meant to say is that I fear I might have fail in my part. After seeing what the other girls did, I am almost ashamed to post up my creation! So simple in comparison!

Without further ado…. (don’t forget , to appreciate this in its entirety, you’ll have to click through and follow the meal on the other ladies’ blogs before coming back for the dessert!)

Penny is amazing. Despite having been on holiday in New Zealand, she still managed to turn up to the party with a mouthwatering starter.




Sausage with radish, baby leeks, celery, pear and topped with pretz.

Such beauty in its simplicity and such lovely flavour pairings! It was only recently that I was introduced to the beauty of radishes and now I can’t get enough of them.



And Agnes‘s contribution of Hot Smoked Ocean Trout really puts me to shame. How amazing does the trout look and how incredibly juicy? I’m so so so in love!



Dessert at last, and here is my very humble Ice Cream Sandwich. Slightly melted due to my amazingly bad photography skills (took too long to get a half decent shot..) and not quite as colourful as the Ice Cream Sandwich you find back home in Singapore, and lacking the bread as well, but the biscuits do work well, and topped with David Lebovitz Chocolate Sauce? Amazing. Not to forget, that ice cream is freshly made vanilla ice cream… What it lacks in the looks department, it makes up for in taste. That much I can guarantee.

Vanilla Ice cream

Source: David Lebovitz, the one and only dessert genius.

Ingredients

1 cup (250ml) whole milk
A pinch of salt
3/4 cup (150g) sugar
1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise
2 cups (500ml) heavy cream
5 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Method

1. Heat the milk, salt, and sugar in a saucepan. Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean into the milk with a paring knife, then add the bean pod to the milk. Cover, remove from heat, and infuse for one hour.
2. To make the ice cream, set up an ice bath by placing a 2-quart (2l) bowl in a larger bowl partially filled with ice and water. Set a strainer over the top of the smaller bowl and pour the cream into the bowl.
3. In a separate bowl, stir together the egg yolks. Rewarm the milk then gradually pour some of the milk into the yolks, whisking constantly as you pour. Scrape the warmed yolks and milk back into the saucepan.
4. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly and scraping the bottom with a heat-resistant spatula, until the custard thickens enough to coat the spatula.
5. Strain the custard into the heavy cream. Stir over the ice until cool, add the vanilla extract, then refrigerate to chill thoroughly. Preferably overnight.
6. Remove the vanilla bean and freeze the custard in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions.



I shared the chocolate sauce recipe here and as for the Ice Cream sandwich itself, take two chocolate biscuits or wafers of your liking and then cut a chunk of nice frozen ice cream and sandwich it between the biscuits! Easy. And the combination possibilities are endless. Chocolate Ice Cream? Strawberries Ice Cream? Even yoghurt would work!

Do you like Ice Cream sandwiches?

Filed Under: Cooking & Baking, Dessert, Meal to Share, Recipes Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,
August Cookoff: Dessert

August Cookoff: Dessert

November 14, 2010 by · 7 Comments



So for a quick dessert after our Pizza Masterclass, Celina and I decided to bring Vanilla Panna Cotta and Vanilla Cupcakes respectively.

The original recipe was from Taste but I then changed it to suit what I had at home.

Vanilla Panna Cotta

Ingredients

(serves 6)

1 1/2 cups (375ml) cream
1 1/2 cups (375ml) milk
1 vanilla bean
1/2 cup (115g) caster sugar
2 1/2 tsp gelatine powder (I substituted with agar-agar powder)
Sliced strawberries and blueberries, to serve



Method

1. Place the cream and milk in a saucepan.
2. Use a small sharp knife to split the vanilla bean lengthways, then scrape the seeds from inside the bean.
3. Add the seeds and bean to the saucepan. Slowly bring to the boil over a medium heat. Remove from the heat and set aside for 10 minutes.
4. Discard bean from cream mixture.
5. Add sugar and return to a low heat. Cook, stirring, for 5 minutes, or until sugar dissolves.
6. Place 2 tbs of boiling water in a small heatproof bowl. Sprinkle over gelatine.
7. Bring a small saucepan of water to boil. Remove from heat. Sit the bowl of gelatine in the water and stir until dissolved. Cool slightly, then stir into the cream mixture.
8. Lightly oil 6 x 1/2 cup (125ml) dariole moulds or ramekins. Place on a tray and pour in cream mixture. Refrigerate for 4 hours.
9. To serve, break the seal by inserting a small knife between the panna cotta and the mould. Turn onto a serving plate and shake to release. Serve dish with fresh berries



Definitely no blueberries in this panna cotta but I did top it with a strawberry and strawberry preserves. Very very tasty, tho the texture wasn’t quite right yet. More experimentations needed!

And Celina’s vanilla cupcake was pleasing as always. Her baking skills are improving in leaps and bounds!



Filed Under: Cooking, Cooking & Baking, Dessert, Monthly Cookoffs, Recipes Tagged With: , , , , , , ,
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