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Beef Bourguignon
2007-09-16 17:27:00
Cooking French food is always lots of fun, especially when you're cooking for a real French person. This Friday, I hosted a little dinner for a few friends, one of which who's French through and through (I also suppose she'd kill me if I did injustice to her national cuisine!). Rather than going all out to do something new, I trusted my better judgement and went with an old favourite of mine that I keep handy in my arsenal for ocassions like this: la boeuf bourguignon!I've cooked this dish many times before, both at home and at work, and it's one of those dishes that guarantee a high probability of success. I mean seriously, who doesn't have a soft spot in their heart for rich, meaty, fork-tender, slow braised beef? For the best possible beef bourguignon that you can make, here are some tricks of the trade that I'd be happy to divulge:1) This dish has its origins in Burgundy, France. Most of the red wine produced in Burgundy is of the Pinot Noir variety, so a deep, full-bodie...
More About: Beef

Chouquette, New Farm
2007-08-04 08:31:00
Coffee Eclair, Paris Brest, Cherry Macaroon (yum!) and Chocolate MacaroonHidden away from the heavy traffic of Brunswick Street, somewhere in the heart of New Farm , lies this little gem of a patisserie. Chouquette (pronounced shoo-ket) is named after a darling little French pastry made simply with choux pastry (the good stuff used in eclairs) and coarse sugar crystals. Don't get me wrong when I say this, the chouquettes there are lovely ($2 for a bag of 10 bite sized morsels), but what I'm here to rave about are actually the macaroons! The finest yet that we've come across, especially the cherry one, which boasts generous chuncks of fruit laced through the ganache filling. ChouquettesAmong the other goodies that we sampled were a coffee eclair, a Paris Brest (a donut shaped ring of choux pastry split open and filled with cream, then topped with toasted almonds and icing sugar), and a chocolate macaroon. Just a little trivia about the Paris Brest, and how its name came about: a F...

Thai Deep Fried Egg Salad - Yum Kai Dow
2007-07-16 10:47:00
I first had this dish at a picnic cum potluck a few years back, where a Thai friend of mine, Noi, proudly presented this dish to the crowd. I was shocked at how delicious this dish was, considering the few very simple ingredients and steps involved in its preparation. Unfortunately I never got around to asking her for the recipe. Just last week, we had invited another Thai friend of ours, Pang, over for dinner. This time, I was madly craving for Yum Kai Dao and decided that I HAD to make her show me how to prepare it. I've eaten Pang's Thai cooking before, and I can seriously vouch for its goodness; I guess I could rely on her to recreate Yum Kai Dao for me. So she did. And it was lip smacking!Yum Kai Dao - Deep Fried Egg Salad 4 large eggs1 brown/white onion, thinly sliced2 tomatoes, wedgeda bunch of lettuce/salad greensa bunch of corianderDressing:1 tsp finely grated raw garlic4 tbsps fish sauce4 tbsps fresh lime juice4 tbsps palm sugarchopped fresh chilli, quantity as desiredCra...
More About: Asian

The Inside of a Meat Pie from Absynthe Bakery
2007-07-12 17:36:00
Hi folks, just to further expound on one of my previous posts regarding meat pies, I made a special journey down to Circle on Cavill, Surfers Paradise just to test out the acclaimed meat pies at Absynthe Baker y . There were only 2 types of pies left by the time I arrived, a beef and red wine pie, and a lamb and mushroom version. I got to sample both, and they were fantastic. Just to prove my point, I took a picture of the inside of the lamb pie, showing the sheer amount of filling that they pack into their pie pastries. I know it's a bit of a nasty shot, the pie being chewed up and all, but just look at the quantity of meat in that baby! For pies of that size and meat density, they certaintly make for a full meal all on their own. And boy, was I stuffed!http://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/pin g
More About: Meat , Inside , Synth

Baked Italian Sausages, Beans and Eggs
2007-07-11 11:30:00
Here's another dish to warm up your chilly winter. Preparing and cooking the beans takes a bit of time, if you are using dried beans that is. However, if you don't mind the idea of using canned beans, please be my guest; it will save you heaps of time to be frank. But for the sake of those purists out there, I will talk you through the steps right from the top, using dried beans to begin with.Beans in Tomato Sauce with Italian Sausages and Eggs 300 gms dried borlotti/cannellini beans, soaked overnight in water2 litres waterhalf an onionhalf a tomato 2 bay leaves1 onion, chopped3 cloves of garlic, chopped1 anchovy fillet (optional)pinch of dried chilli (optional)1 stalk of rosemary3 stalks of thyme1 litre of passata, or equal volume of tinned tomatoes6-8 Italian pork sausagesa few eggsextra virgin olive oilcrusty bread, to serveDrain the beans from their soaking water. Add them to a pot with all remaining ingredients and simmer for half an hour to 45 minutes, or until beans are just...
More About: Baked

Buffalo Wings with Blue Cheese Coleslaw
2007-07-11 10:10:00
Sorry guys, we know it's been a while since our last post. Bev and I have been pretty tied up with work and all for the last few weeks. Anyway, we're back again, and here is the first of a few backlogged entries to come.This is a recipe for buffalo wings from Bev's stack of recipe cuttings. I matched these wings with a recipe for blue cheese cloeslaw that I chanced upon at CHOW.com, one of my favourite foodie sites. And as funky as it sounds (blue cheese coleslaw), it actually makes perfect sense, seeing that buffalo wings are typically served with crunchy vegetables and a blue cheese sauce! Just keep in mind, if you were to use the Italian Gorgonzola for the blue cheese, be sure to use Gorgonzola Picante (a sharp gorgonzola) instead of Gorgonzola Dolce (a milder, sweeter gorgonzola), as there will be huge variances in the results. Also, instead of undertaking the labour intensive task of shaving my own vegetables for the slaw, I simply popped open a bag of ready shaved coleslaw ...
More About: Blue , Cheese , Buffalo , Wings

As Nice as Pie
2007-06-17 10:39:00
In this month's issue of the Australian Gourmet Traveller, the Gourmet News section on page 16 is devoted to featuring the editor's picks for some of the best pies around the country. Of these, proud Queensland establishments Bespoke, Yatala Pies, Joycelyn's Provisions and Absynthe Bakery can celebrate the great honour of making the list. In addition to that, and just to delve further into the topic of good pies, I would like to make an honourable mention of Songbirds in the Forest, which serves a killer rabbit, mushroom and herb pie. Their's is essentially a revamped version of everyones classic favourite, served atop a mound of smoothly pureed mushy peas, and drizzled with a rich madeira jus. Yes, I know this is a little of a longshot from the usual comforts of a messy, saucy meat pie with tomato sauce, but it sure makes up for every bit of that in the taste catagory alone. Rabbit, mushroom and herb pie from Songbirds, Mt TamborineMeat pies have been feeding the hungry man for...
More About: Nice

Thai Wi Rat - Our Favourite Thai Joint
2007-06-15 17:56:00
Thai Wi-Rat in the Valley is by many standards our favourite Thai restaurant here in Brisbane. No doubt, it could also easily stand up to any other great Thai restaurant that you'd find in this big country. The restaurant has been around for a while now, and Bev and I have been there at least 6 times this year alone (talk about a lot, geez). And everytime we go there, the food never fails to impress. We've tried most of the stuff on their menu by now, and feel confident enough to announce to the whole of Brisbane that Thai Wi-Rat absolutely rocks! Yen Ta Fo noodles- noodles and seafood in a tasty red soup, topped with crispy pork cracklingUnfortunately, and oddly enough, everytime we eat there, we forget to bring our trusty camera along. Perhaps its because we're always too excited about the thought of eating there that we blindly rush out of the house. Well, this last ocassion was different, and we finally arrived at Thai Wi-Rat prepared. Here's some incriminating pictoral evid...
More About: Thai , Asian

Custard 2 Ways: Baked Creme Caramel & Frozen Vanilla Custard
2007-06-08 16:59:00
As spoken about previously, I promised the good people at the Mount Tamborine Winery cellar door that I'd feature a dessert dish on my blog that (hopefully) does justice to their fantastic Mountain Muscat. Now, I think I've outdone myself! Here is a second dessert, following last week's olive oil and Muscat cake, a duo of of creme caramel and frozen custard, laden with that wonderful Muscat. I won't deny it, this dish does require a bit of effort. But irregardless of whether you're a self-confessed culinary dummy or an accomplised home cook, this should'nt be in any way out of your league. So here's how its done:Muscat Creme Cara mel and Frozen Custard Caramel:150 gm sugar100 ml waterCustard:200 ml thick cream200 ml milk100 ml Muscat (or other appropriate dessert wine)seeds of 1 vanilla pod, or alternatively, a few drops of vanilla extract4 whole extra large eggs (59g min weight)4 egg yolks110 gm caster sugar8 buttered ramekins200 ml cream (extra)Preheat the oven to 160C. For t...
More About: Baked , Vanilla

Save on Washing Up with a One-Pot Chicken and Chorizo Rice Pilaf
2007-06-08 16:06:00
Now here's a recipe thats simple to prepare, and best of all, made in one pot. That's gonna save you heaps of time in front of the kitchen sink after dinner; and if anyone asks me, that sounds like a mighty good plan! A pilaf is a dish where rice (or other grain) is browned in oil, then cooked in a flavoured broth. There are variations of pilafs across the many different cultures of the world. The Spanish have paella, while Indian and Pakistani cultures have biryani. The Italians have risotto, and Africans can be proud to add jambalaya to this list. Chicken and Chorizo Sausage Rice Pilaf5 chicken thigh fillets, skin intact, cut into cubessalt and pepper1 tsp ground cumin1 tsp ground fennel1 tsp ground coriander1 tsp ground pepper1 tsp smoked paprika1 large onion, diced1 capsicum (green/red), diced5 cloves garlic, chopped1 chorizo sausage, diced3 cups long grain rice750 ml hot chicken stock, infused with a large pinch of saffron threads5 medium roma tomatoes, roughly diced1/2 cup f...
More About: Save , Shin , Washing

Olive Oil and Muscat Cake with Roasted Pears and Vanilla Cream
2007-06-06 14:38:00
Its been raining for the last couple of days and the weather forecast predicts that this will continue into the week. Thank goodness for this, our dear state certaintly needs every bit of rain it can get. In liew of this cosy weather, here is a recipe for a stunning cake that can be both healthy and decadent at the same time (minus the cream that is), and really warms you up from the inside out. It was inspired by a recipe in Neil Perry's book "Good Food" that I received as a present from Bev a month back. Neil's recipe is based on a cake batter of olive oil and Sauternes, a wonderfully sweet dessert wine with raisin flavours. In place of Sauternes, I have chosen to use a sensational Muscat from the Mount Tamborine Winery instead, which boasts gutsy flavours of butterscotch and caramel (I think it was $25). I picked up this bottle of goodness on my last trip to Mount Tabmorine, on the Gold Coast hinterland. It was there that I also promised the lovely lady at the cellar door that ...
More About: Olive Oil , Cake , Roast , Cream , Pears

The Perfect Laksa- Mastering the Art of 'Tumis'
2007-05-29 17:48:00
For those new to laksa, it is a traditional Singaporean and Malaysian dish which is served with permutations of a strict few condiments: boiled prawns, fish cake, tofu puffs, bean sprouts, cockles, and hard boiled chicken, duck or quail eggs. Some vendors like to vary the toppings by adding shredded chicken or crayfish tails to the mix. Either way, real laksa deviates not much further from this set of toppings. So, now that you have been introduced to the real deal, if you ever see roast duck or scallop coming into play, please let it send alarm bells ringing. For an interesting article that talks about real, authentic laksa, please visit this link. Making laksa from scratch is very simple. All you need to do is learn the art of 'tumis'.The art of making the perfect laksa, or any other curry for that matter, lies in this one simple process known as 'tumis'. Tumis is a Malay term that refers to the act of frying a spice paste till it is properly caramelised. All too often, I ha...
More About: Perfect , Master , Teri , The A , The Art

Duck Degustation at Isis Brasserie
2007-05-28 12:47:00
Isis Brass erie is one of the places in town that I would recommend anyone to go to for some seriously good food. Chef Jason Peppler and his team have, in the past, provided Bev and I with some of our top dining experiences here in Brisbane. For all you food lovers out there, you might like to know that they're running a special degustation menu exclusively for the months of May and June. I have attached the degustation menu here. The menu costs $95 for 9 courses of food, and $155 for food and matching wines.The feature of this degustation is duck. And my oh my, these people really know how to turn the feature ingredient inside out, manipulating the humble canard into shapes and forms that go beyond our immediate expectations. Lo and behold, duck neck skins, duck eggs, duck livers, duck wings, duck blood, and the entire duck works found their way onto our plates in the most refined and elegant manner.There was an article in The Age about the dawn of the degustation menu age, and how...
More About: Duck , Stat , Isis , Serie

Pastries from Absynthe Bakery, Surfers Paradise
2007-05-27 04:31:00
After being at the helm of the Queensland dining scene with his restaurant Absynthe, 2 Michelin Starred chef Meyjitte Boughenout opened Absynthe Bakery on Bastille Day in 2006. Located in the new complex, Circle on Cavill, Absynthe Bakery aims to "bring quality bakery goods to the heart of Gold Coast".We decide to drop by Absynthe Bakery while in the Gold Coast to see for ourselves if their pastries were as good as they were claimed to be. We arrived a little late in the day, and so the selection had dwindled to the remaining 7 or so varieties of tarts and cakes left in the display. I was initially very tempted to try the vanilla brioche, but decided against it, seeing that it had been left out at room temperature for what I think would have been a good part of the day. Another time perhaps, if I can get there early enough to sample it while its at its peak.So we ended up ordering 4 types of tarts between us, and we all eagerly joined in the tasting. This is what we sampled: a passi...
More About: Pastries , Paradise , Arad , Surfer

Settlers Cove Celebration of Australian Food and Wine Festival - Noosa
2007-05-26 14:10:00
The Grand MarqueeFinally the day had come! We were in Noosa, and the weather was perfect. It was the day we had all been anticipating. The Saturday of the Settlers Cove Celebration of Australian Food and Wine Festival . And what a mouthful that was, in both senses of the word.It truly was a day to remember, and although we did not participate in any degustation dinners or guest chef cooking masterclasses (we did not have the budget for it), we were fortunate enough to have been able to participate in the culinary exhibition and food and wine tastings in the Grand Marquee at Lions Park.Our day began with cooking demonstrations by celebrated chefs from all over Australia. Chefs Giovanni Pilu and Matt Moran were the two that I was particularly keen on seeing. And so it was. Chef Pilu teamed up with Chef Phil Scott, Head Chef of Pilu in Noosa, to prepare classic Italian dishes such as grilled sardines and tomatoes on bread, and pasta Amatriciana. Matt Moran was scheduled to present toget...

Roast Pork Belly with Crushed Anchovy Sauce and Cos Lettuce Hearts
2007-05-14 15:53:00
This is the second pork dish in a row that Bev and I are posting on our blog. We can't help it. The quality of pork in this country is nothing short of fantastic, and so we are blessed. I'd expect that in a few days time you'd see yet another pork dish featured here in our blog: pork trotters braised in milk and sage, pulled apart and tossed through some fresh egg pasta. But let's leave that till then. For today's dinner, we cooked up a roasted pork dish using a slab of pork belly purchased from Burlington Butcher in Chinatown Mall, Fortitude Valley. Pork belly is one of the cheaper cuts of meat that you can purchase. We got ours at around $9 a kilo, and a kilo of that makes up a pretty big slab! Because it has quite a fair amount of intra-muscular connective tissue, pork belly needs to be cooked gently and slowly to make it tender and delectable. Braising, slow roasting and simmering all work wonders for this cut of meat. Below is the recipe for the roast pork dish that we mad...
More About: Rush , Belly , Sauce , Hearts

Teriyaki Glazed Pork Cutlets
2007-05-13 16:37:00
Teriyaki sauce is much easier to make than most would think. I do agree, it may come across as rather silly to trouble yourself in making a sauce so easily available in supermarket aisles. "It's as ridiculous as making your own ketchup!", a friend of mine once exclaimed. Nonetheless, I'd like to tell all my dear readers that it's dead simple; it calls for only 4 ingredients (sake, mirin, soy, sugar), and takes at most 30 seconds to make! Some might be put off at the thought of finding sake and mirin althogether, but truth be known, sake can actually be found at your local bottle shop, and mirin at any supermarket. Eureka! Teriyaki sauce goes with anything.. absolutely anything: steaks, chops, fish, prawns, vegs.. Take a minute to make up a little batch of this and it will keep in the fridge for weeks. Whip it out at any time to season grilled meats or spruce up stir fries. See, cooking IS easy when you have versatile sauces like this on hand! Teriyaki SauceBasic ratio:3 tbsps s...
More About: Pork , Cutlet , Teriyaki , Teri , Riya

Chicken Noodle Soup- an Ode to Mom
2007-05-13 16:03:00
This here is a different little take on the old chicken noodle soup that we are all so familiar with. This dish goes beyond the boundaries of being just an ordinary food. It can actually mean quite a lot to many people, evoking memories of childhood, rainy days and those times when the flu bug struck, and Mom saved the day with a steaming bowl of chicken soup.Well, today being Mother's Day, I decided to cook this as an ode to my mother, for all those times in my childhood that she nourished me with these kinds of wholesome foods (Ok, there were some yucky foods that she forced upon me too, but for today's sake, I'll chose to forget those).Chicken Noodle Soup 6 chicken wings, cut into sections1 brown onion, diced1 leek, sliced2 stalks celery, diced 1 large carrot, diced1 clove garlic, chopped2 bay leaves2 sprigs of thyme2 cups of small pasta shapes or spaghetti broken into short lengths1 litre of chicken stock, or water mixed with instant stock powderparmesan cheeseextra virgin oli...

Home-Cured Kingfish 'Bacon'
2007-05-07 20:30:00
Most of us know pancetta, the famous Italian version of bacon, which is essentially pork belly that has been salted and spiced, and left to dry for around 3 months. But which of us would have thought of making pancetta with fish? Well, thanks to the the ingenuity of Melbourne chef, Matt McConnell, the brains behind Bar Lourinha, I've had the joy of making this myself. The recipe for this dish appeared in the September 2006 issue of the Australian Gourmet Traveller, and I've been wanting to make it for the longest time, except that I couldn't find any decent kingfish around Brisbane. Or maybe I just wasn't looking in the right places. Anyway, John West, the household name known best for tinned salmon, has recently released a range of packaged fresh seafood for Coles supermarket shelves. Within the range I found yellowtail kingfish, one of those wonderful foods that I've been hunting down for ages. In a snap, I bought a pack, and raced straight home to finally make this dish that...
More About: Home , Cure , Bacon

Pasta with rocket pesto and ricotta fritta
2007-05-04 14:43:00
A pesto is a fabulous sauce to have on hand at any time. It can be tossed through pasta, potatoes, salads, mixed into a cream sauce for meat and seafood, or literally drizzled over anything at all. Making pesto is so simple, and the ingredients required are few. Just be sure to follow the general guidelines below. Once you have tasted your own fresh pesto, you'd never go back to buying it off the shelves.PESTO 101- Use a good handful of greens per batch of pesto. Basil, rocket, coriander and parsley are all widely used to make pesto, basil being the most traditional.- Use a handful of freshly grated parmesan-type cheese (parmigianno reggiano, pecorino, grana padano, romano, etc). Never be tempted to use those longlife shelf versions, they just don't match up. Someone once compared their aroma to baby vommit.. I second that.- Use half a clove of raw garlic (not half an entire head!). Just a little raw garlic goes a pretty long way.- Throw in a couple of teaspoons of toasted pinenut...
More About: Pasta , Rocket , Pesto , Ricotta , Rico

Stir Fried Snake Beans, Tofu and Scallion
2007-05-03 20:04:00
We stumbled upon some lovely looking snake beans (a.k.a. yardlong beans) today. Snake beans are, as you can probably tell, a member of the legume family, a close cousin to the more familiar green or haricot bean. These beans are wrinkly and pretty long, measuring up to over 30 centimetres. They can often be found on Chinese restaurant menus, stir fried with a fiery and garlicky pork mince. You can easily source them from most Asian grocery stores and some green grocers. Tonight I took a much simpler approach to cooking these. This stir fried dish literally takes minutes to prepare from the wok to the plate, or in my case, Chinese soup spoons. Lately, I've also been experimenting with the 'under 5' formula, something that I have come about to believe in. Basically, this idea holds that the number of key ingrediens used in a particular dish should be no more than 5. Hence, with such great simplicity, the beauty of the individual ingredients can truly shine through. These 5 ingredie...
More About: Beans , Tofu , Fried

Nonya Style Glutinous Rice Parcels Wrapped in Bamboo Leaves
2007-05-02 18:00:00
A mouthful of a title, isn't it. Well, that's pretty much what a Nonya 'Chang' is - Nonya styled stewed meat, stuffed in a bamboo-leave wrapped glutinous rice parcel. It is an East Asian delicacy that fervent households would churn out annually to mark the month of the Dragon Boat Festival. It is tradition that Chang or Zongzi is made during the month when the festival is held. There are many variations of this delicacy, but this Nonya one happened to be the 'easier' version that I was willing to attempt as a first timer. What I also mean to say is that, as much as I welcome a challenge, I'd rather not shoot for the sky and risk setting myself up for failure afterwards (and not to mention, making a terrible mess of the kitchen and wasting good ingredients).I got this particular recipe from Miss Lily's lovely site. Apparently, she in turn took her recipe from the book, The Best of Singapore Cooking by Mrs Leong Yee Soo. The recipe was titled Kueh Chang Babi, and a great recip...
More About: Style , Rice , Bamboo , Wrapped , Leaves

Southern Fried Catfish with Mac & Cheese
2007-04-28 21:32:00
Catfish are very common here in the waters of the Brisbane river. 2 nights ago, Eddie and I went to the river in hopes of hooking us up some dinner. And did we indeed, with the capture of 3 fine looking catfish. Actually, I think it was him that caught all of the fish..We decided to cook them up with a cornmeal coating, a.k.a. 'Southern ' style. I also made a simple macaroni and cheese to go alongside the fish.Catfish require a different cleaning technique compared to most other fish. Visit this website to learn how to clean and prepare whole catfish.'Southern' Fried CatfishFillets of catfish, cut into chunks1 cup full cream milk/buttermilk1 tsp cayenne pepper/paprika1 eggsalt and pepperCornmeal (polenta) for crumbingMix the milk, cayenne/paprika, egg and seasoning in a bowl. Add chunks of catfish and leave to soak for at least 30 mins. Dredge in a separate bowl containing cornmeal. Deep fry till golden. *the soaking process takes away some of the muddy flavours associated with c...
More About: Cheese , Catfish , Hern

Barang, Indooroopilly
2007-04-25 19:53:00
Barang, pronounced as Bah-rung, opened barely two weeks ago along the Station Road stretch of surburban Indo oroopilly. Opened by a young Singaporean couple, Barang aims to educate the general population who "can't tell between a Nasi Lemak and Nasi Goreng, Penang Laksa or Nonya Laksa" on the specifics of South East Asian food. New Brisbane was first in to conduct a review, and it did a great job of covering much of what I'd like to say about this new eatery/retail outlet. Apart from that, what I can add is that the food is really tasty and authentic. Being particularly familiar with Southeast Asian food, I have to comment that their chicken curry beats the other Brisbane competition hands down. All the extra little touches in their food, such as the addition of fresh curry leaves in their chicken curry, truly reinforce their claim to authenticity. Now this is the REAL stuff.Assurance in their food is very evident here, given their 6-dish main course menu. It takes a lot of confide...
More About: Door

Spatchcock Braised in Red Wine
2007-04-24 21:16:00
Just a little something I cooked up for dinner. I used American smoked bacon in this dish, which was purchased from Ingredients, a wonderful little deli in the Kenmore Village Shopping Centre (which also sells my favourite Spanish Jamon Iberico!). The spatchcock was from Clancy James, one of my favourite meat retailers, in Taringa. When cooking with red wine, be sure to use a wine that you would deem as good enough to drink. Most people open a bottle of wine, find that's not quite nice to drink, then use it to cook with instead. Either that, or they think that spending the extra few dollars on a good wine for cooking is a waste of money. Truth be told, I too have been guilty of these more than once in the past. However, costs aside, cooking does indeed condense the flavours of wines, and if you use wines that have unpleasant flavours (to you), you'll concentrate the 'bad' taste to end up with a pretty nasty final dish. So give it a try, don't scrimp on those extra few bucks wh...
More About: Wine , Red Wine , Cock

Sardines on Toast with Marinated Onions
2007-04-18 20:11:00
Bev and I have this weird habit of cooking at the wee hours of the morning. Granted, it does affect our waking up the next morning, but something still drives us to do it regardless. Tonight, we were shuffling for space again in our "compact" kitchen. Bev was baking her chocolate cake (again, for the 4th time in 2 weeks!), and I was just trying to make a snack for myself as I was suffering a late night attack of the munchies. Sardines-on-toast and I go way back. My dad used to bring me to the golf club every weekend when I was 7. There he'd slip me his membership card so I could order any food or drink to keep myself busy the entire afternoon while he'd muck around with his mates. Somehow, I'd always end up ordering either grilled cheese sandwiches or sardines on toast, the clubhouse's specialties back in the day, and then wolf them down with a tall chocolate milkshake alongside. Ah, those innocent days.Tonight, I decided to revisit those moments by making myself something simil...
More About: Toast , Mari , Onion , Nate , Onions

Parsnip Soup with Mushroom Toast
2007-04-17 07:33:00
Now's mid-April, and the weather here is starting to get a tad cooler than it was in the last 3 months. Moreover, winter's coming up again in a short while, and that only means one thing for me: lots of hearty winter foods! Admittedly, I am highly enthusisatic to begin writing about my favourite topic.. comfort foods. I know it's still a little early in the season to be talking about pasta soups, game casseroles and baked fruit, so just to ease us into the upcoming winter, here's a simple recipe that I reckon suits the current climate here in Brisbane. Parsnip Soup with Mush room Toast s for 2 hearty portions:3 small parsnips2 cloves of garlic, chopped1 small white onion, chopped3 cups chicken or vegetable stock1/2 cup thick creamsalt and white pepper2 slices of baguette, toasted1 clove of garlic, cut in half1 tsp of pinenuts (optional)3 medium sized mushrooms, diced (I used field mushrooms)1 clove of garlic, choppedA fruity extra virgin oilive oilSalt and coarse black pepperPeel...
More About: Room

Cooking with Cola
2007-04-16 14:41:00
Yes, you read it right- chicken wings with cola.We all love cola in so many ways: in its traditional form as a beverage, in juicy gummies and lollies, as a 7-11 slurpee flavour, and so on. However, most of us aren't quite familiar with the less-than-obvious hidden culinary utilities that the humble cola beholds. In 2005, I visited the sunny Philippines. It was then that I was first exposed to a savoury application of this fizzy, sweet, black stuff- in a local dish of squid stewed in cola and other aromatics. It was strangely delicious. Henceforth, that single experience triggered the opening of my mind to the wide world of culinary secrets that lay within those aluminium cans.Today, there numerous websites, such as this one, that educate us on the multitude of ways that we can incorporate cola into our everyday recipes. Very interesting indeed.Tonight, inspired by my trip to the Philippines, I cooked up a dish of chicken wings stewed in cola and vinegar. I served it with jasmine ri...
More About: Cooking , Cola , Cook , Cookin

Confit of Berkshire Pork Belly with Fennel and Apple
2007-04-12 18:58:00
Pork and apples and fennel.. how wrong can one get? Not very I suppose. Ye old trusted combination, reworked time and again by cooks all over. Indeed, there is good reason why the term "classic pairings" exists. The pork was marinated with rosemary, bay leaves, pepper and lots of salt and sugar overnight. The next day, it was drained and rinsed twice. Then, the meat was submerged in oil (or lard) and baked in a 120 degree celsius oven for 3 hours. When done, it was left to cool in the fat, and stored for a week in the fridge to allow the tasty flavours to fully develop, just as with all other confits. Pan fry the pork when needed, simply to warm through and crispen the skin. I dished it up with shaved fennel and apples dressed with a mustard vinaigrette (mustard goes well with pork too!). I also added caramelised apple and chorizo sausage slices to make it a meal fit for a hungry man like myself.Technorati tags: food and drink, food, brisbane, food blogs, slow food, kitchen expediti...
More About: Apple , Pork , Belly , Berk , Berkshire

Deep Fried Toffee Apples
2007-04-12 17:50:00
Bev stumbled upon this fantastic online recipe for candy-ing apples. We got our hands dirty and ended up with a plateful of these crispy and sweet morsels. It's very interesting, the way the recipe calls for the apple wedges to be first fried in a tempura-like batter, then coated in caramel, and finally plunged into iced water just before serving to harden the caramel. You should really try this if you can.Technorati tags: food and drink, food, brisbane, food blogs, slow food, kitchen expeditions, toffee apple, toffee, chinese cuisine, chinese, chinese cookinghttp://rpc.technorati.com/rpc/ping
More About: Apples , Deep , Fried