A vegetarian degustation for Phil's birthday

Entree

crepes with roast vegies inside

salad

stuffed capsicum

mushroom stroganoff

passionfruit and lavender tart

For Phil's birthday, we decided to try somewhere new. We booked a table at Sarah's Cafe at Where Inn. It was on cute little Leigh street in the city. The menu changed everyday, the chef sourced whatever was freshest and created dishes around the produce. A degustation meal was what we had in mind and it did not disappoint. We had told them previously of our allergies (chicken, tuna and chocolate!) however when we arrived they informed us that they were actually a vegetarian cafe! A vegetarian degustation was new to us, especially since we won't find out what we are going to eat until the food was served. The element of surprise was part of the fun!

The dishes were not overly fancy, but very tasty and wholesome. They were not small portions either, which I expected from a degustation. After all there are a LOT of courses to get through!

The ambience was interesting, with blue neon lights, I kind of felt like we were in a bar or club. It was very spacious and the chairs reminded me of the wide chairs you would have in an office meeting room! The service was wonderful and I had a very relaxing time.

My favourite was the passionfruit and lavender tart for dessert!

I would definitely recommend it!

Yum Cha

While we were at the central markets, (it was phil's birthday) we decided to go for yum cha at Kowloon cafe. We were pretty late so we had to order off a list instead of waiting for waiters to come around with the selections of food.

Yum Cha had always been a part of my bringing up, and tradition. Sunday, was yum cha day, (well in Hong Kong everyday is Yum Cha day.) My grandparents go for yum cha every morning after waking up, and also for afternoon tea. (Instead of having lunch.) It's pretty enjoyable chatting, reading a newspaper, drinking tea and eating a range of different little steamed or fried dishes. It is definitely like chinese tapas. My memory of yum cha in Hong Kong always included the old ladies pushing around trolleys with food on it and saying or yelling out loud what types of dishes they had in their trolleys.


The trolleys had steamers in them to keep the steamed food warm, or they had constantly boiling/hot water in containers so if you wanted to boiled choi sum vegies with oyster sauce, they do it straight away (so your vegies are fresh and not limp) Sweet soup also came in similar ways, you'd ask the ladies to lift the lid so you can have a look inside to see what yummy dessert soups you can have today. Egg tarts and other steamed or baked desserts came on trolleys with glass windows so you can see inside what they have.

People often went to their "regular" restaurant for yum cha, so all the staff and the trolley women would know you. And when I went back to the usual restaurant my grandparents go to, the staff (especially the trolley women would say "ahhhh, its Mrs. Wong's oldest daughter's daughter, she's back from Australia... look how much she's grown.. and etc." Its pretty cute :) The people have worked there for so long they remember your grandkids!


Last time I went to Hong Kong, the restaurant that I have been to all my life, have changed to the list ordering system. So you basically tick/select the dishes you want and hand it to the waiter. Its just not as fun anymore. Ahh, the old days!

Back to yum cha at Kowloon cafe, the selection of food is a little bit less than what you have in Hong Kong, but that doesn't matter, it's still yummy! We only had two people eating, but its definitely more fun if there's people, you can order a lot more dishes to share!

We ordered:

"Lor mai gai" Steamed Lotus leaf wrapped sticky rice with chicken pieces, pork mince, shrimp etc inside.

"Ma Lai Go" A steamed bun/cake favourite of mine, especially when I was young, it's more a dessert, so we ate it at the end.




"Gow Choi Gow" Steamed chive dumpling, a staple at yum cha. (on the right)



"Cha Siu So" BBQ pork pieces wrapped in triangular shaped pastry and baked. The pastry is soft and crumbly, not thick at all.



This was a newbie.. its a green tea mung bean cake, I think it had lotus seed paste inside. If you like green tea, this is for you!



Phil's and my favourite, "Hoy Jit" This is jelly fish strips with cucumber. carrot and spring onion (salad) dressed with sesame oil, seeds and paste and a little fresh chilli. It usually comes with chicken but since I'm allergic to chicken we ordered it with duck strips. (I asked mum the other day if this was Cantonese, but she thinks it originates from Shanghai!) It is divine! I love it!

Mediterranean fish stew with saffron

This is one of my all time favourites. It's so easy to make and the saffron just adds a magic touch!
You can use any type of white fish. I usually use basa fish fillets, they are handy as I usually have them frozen in my freezer and hold together quite well when cooked for a while.

This is one of those dishes you don't feel guilty about if you eat more than your share. I found it in the Heart Foundation's healthy recipes book from the library. So it can't be too unhealthy :P

Below is the recipe, I did stick to these measurements when I first started making this dish, but it varies a lot now, sometimes I put more leek, more or less garlic, and no parsley.

Serves 6

1/2 teasp saffron threads
2 teasp olive oil, plus 2 teaps extra
700g perch fillets - (its really up to you how much fish you want to use)
1 large leek (or 2 smaller leeks), well rinshed and thinly sliced
4 garlic cloves chopped
1 cup dry white wine
4 medium ripe tomatoes, peeled and chopped (sometimes I use a can of tomatoes if I don't have fresh tomatoes handy)
1/4 cup chopped flat-leaf parsley


1 Place the saffron in a small bowl, pour 1 tablespoon of hot water over saffron and stand at least 20 mins or until needed.

2 Heat a large non-stick pan over moderate heat. Add 2 teapsoons of oil and when hot (but not smoking) add the fish. Saute until all sides are seared, about 2 mins. Remove from the pan and set aside.

3 Add the extra 2 teaspoons oil to the pan and cook leek over moderate heat until soft, about 4 mins. Add garlic and cook 2 mins, stirring constantly.

4 Stir in the wine and saffron with its soaking liquid and cook a futher 2 mins.

5 Add tomatoes and parsley and cook uncovered until the sauce thickens, about 10 mins. (If you use canned tomatoes, add about half a can of water into the pan as well. Return fish to the pan and simmer over low heat until cooked through, about a further 5 mins. Serve immediately.

I usually serve it with steamed rice.

20 mins to prepare, and 25 mins to cook.

Lazy lunch at Minos Cafe

While perusing through the Entertainment book, we spotted Minos Cafe. Fantastic, its on the way to Ikea... let's check it out.

Big, spacious space on Henley Beach Road, has typical cafe fare available. We chose a pasta dish with chorizo and mushroom and a vegetarian pizza.

The pasta was of a creamy, tomato base and satisfying however we failed to find any mushrooms. :( The pizza was a good thickness, and had all my favourite roasted veggies on top! All in all, it was a enjoyable lunch on a wet, windy day! They also had a big cake and sweets selection, but we didn't choose to indulge...

German style pork knuckles with butter baked cabbage (with a star anise thrown in)

Walking around the central markets, we found a bargain at the butchers, $5 for two pork knuckles. We decided to attempt to recreate the pork knuckle dishes we devoured in Munich and Prague earlier this year.

Once again, we waded through a huge list of recipes on the net to do with pork knuckle, and decided on this one: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Schweinshaxe/Detail.aspx

The aroma of the meat, carrots, leek and celery simmering for over 2 hours was mouth watering. The meat was so soft and falling apart when we took it out of the pot, I wasn't sure how the dish would turn out when it came out of the oven. Unfortunately the skin wasn't as crispy but the meat was still tender and tasty. Next time we may try pan-frying the skin as suggested by some other recipes.

The cabbage recipe came from here: http://www.opensourcefood.com/people/theory/recipes/butter-baked-cabbage

I stuck in one star anise as suggested by this recipe and my gosh, it was amazing. The scent and taste was divine. I highly recommend everyone try this, its too simple!

Mixed berry and white chocolate muffins

I'm a big fan of muffins, especially berry ones. This time I decided to add a bit of white chocolate to the mix. I bought white cooking chocolate instead of a normal bar of white chocolate. It seems that the white chocolate is smoother, perhaps more oily.

The muffins were quite moist when they came out of the oven and so are best left to cool down in their cases. Below is the recipe I used, Phil asked for bigger muffins, so I made 10 muffins with the same amount of mixture, however I felt that the muffins tended to collapse on themselves, especially the ones I tipped out off their cases without letting them stand for a while. Anyhow, have a go and experiment.. the tangy berries combined with the white chocolate is just such a good pairing!

Makes 12 muffins.

300g (2 cups) self-raising flour
150g (2/3 cup) caster sugar
170g (1 cup) chopped white chocolate
2 teaspoons (10ml) lemon juice
250ml (1 cup) milk
125ml (1/2 cup) oil (I used olive oil.)
1 large egg
200g berries (I used a mixture of fresh strawberries and frozen mixed berries)

Preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius (170 degrees Celsius fan-forced). If you are using a conventional (not fan-forced) oven, place the oven rack in the centre of the oven. In a conventional oven, the position of the muffins in the oven affects how they brown. We like them to be close, but not too close, to the top element.

Grease or line muffin tins.

Whisk lemon juice, milk, oil and egg in a medium bowl until combined.

Mix self-raising flour, caster sugar and white chocolate together in large bowl. Stir in berries.

Gently stir wet ingredients into dry ingredients. Stop stirring once the ingredients are combined (do not over mix). The batter should be quite wet.

Divide mixture evenly between muffin cases.

Bake for about 22-27 minutes. To check whether muffins are cooked, press lightly on the centre of a muffin; if it springs back, it's ready. A knife inserted into the centre of a muffin should come out without any batter attached. Stand the muffins in their tins for 15 minutes before turning them out.

Serve muffins warm or at room temperature; dust with icing sugar if desired. Muffins can be reheated in the microwave. They are best eaten on the day they are baked.

(The above photo is of another batch I made. I added some lindt milk chocolate into the muffin mixture just before I popped it into the oven. )

The Greek Mezze

On a whim, Phil and I decided to try out The Greek Mezze on Gouger Street for lunch today. We have always walked past but never ventured inside. I'm happy we did though, their lunch menu was a good deal, a change from all the asian food at central markets (although I do love asian food!) I only had my phone camera with me so these slightly blurry photos will have to do, but the food was really delicious.

I chose the Gemista that consisted of fresh peppers stuffed with meat, herds, rice and tomato, baked and served with tzatziki dipping sauce. 

And Phil had the vegetarian burger (I've now forgotten their fancy name for it). Sundried tomato relish/paste on a yummy soft bread with fresh salad and the zucchini veg patties on top. 

I was also temped to try their chargrill octopus but that will have to wait till next time...

Check them out at http://www.thegreekmezze.com.au/index.html

Osso Bucco with lemon, saffron and parmesan risotto

It was a cold, August Saturday, I had a bit of time on my hands and decided to attempt the Osso Bucco. It was always one of those dishes that seemed too hard to cook, so I'd rather eat it at a restaurant, but to my surprise, it was quite easy to master.

I looked up many recipes on the web and in cook books, they were all slightly different as with most recipes, and decided to base my Osso Bucco on the Abstract Gourmet's recipe  - http://abstractgourmet.com/2007/08/theres-a-buco-in-my-osso/ but added  gremolata and served with lemon, saffron and parmesan risotto. Waiting for it to cook slowly for 2 hours was painful.. the delicious scent of it permeated the house! And this was one of the recipes with the least amount of cooking time! Anyway here's the recipe (serves 2)

2 pieces of osso buco -
flour for dusting
1 onion - chopped finely
3 cloves garlic - chopped finely
1 can tinned roma tomatoes
2 carrots chopped into 1cm wide rounds
Around one cup of red wine (you can add more later)
sea salt and cracked pepper.

Lightly coat the osso buco in flour, shake off any excess, then fry them in a pan with a bit of oil till they're lightly brown all over.  Take out of the pan and leave aside.

Meanwhile fry up the onion and garlic with a bit of oil. Add the carrots and cook for a bit until the onion goes soft and transparent. Put the osso bucco back in the pan and make sure they are lying flat and touching the bottom of the pan. Pour in the red wine and the tin of tomatoes, add a bit of passata if you have some on hand. Make sure you have enough liquid to just cover the meat.

Turn the heat down to low so it just simmers and put the lid back on or just ajar .

Wait 2 hours or more, check it now and then to make sure there is enough liquid in the pan to just cover the meat. I poured in some more wine and vegetable stock and water. Season it with salt and pepper halfway through. I cooked it slowly in the pan for 2.5 hours, before I couldn't wait any more (my stomach was grumbling!) But Im sure it doesn't hurt to cook it for longer, it will just get softer!

While the meat was cooking, I made the Gremolata. The ingredients are:

1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
just under half a cup of flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
zest of 1 lemon

Mix well and sprinkle over osso bucco when its ready.

Heres the recipe for the lemon, saffron and parmesan risotto. The osso bucco and the risotto really does go hand in hand. Something about saffron...

a knob of butter
a tbsp olive oil
1 onion peeled and finely chopped
2-3 handfuls of Italian Arborio rice
2 cups of vegetable stock
a few saffron strands
salt and  black pepper
juice of half a large  lemon
half a cup of parmesan cheese
grated rind of 1 lemon

Add oil and onion to a saucepan on medium heat. Cook till onion is  slightly transparent and add the rice with a bit of butter. Stir and cook for a couple of minutes. Add boiling vegetable stock  to till it just covers the rice and drop in a few strands of saffron.  Turn the heat up so the liquid is starting to bubble, then turn it down to low heat and simmer for about 20 minutes. Stir frequently until liquid is absorbed. Add more stock  if the rice has absorbed all the liquid but isn't soft enough yet. When it is ready, the consistency should be that of the rice lazily falling off the spatula. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice, cheese and lemon rind, add salt and pepper to your liking. Return to heat and cook for 1 minute, stirring before serving.

Be careful taking the osso bucco out of the pan, its very soft and easily falls away from the bone.

Place it with the risotto and you have a very hearty, delicious meal! Its worth the wait :)