Jamie Oliver's Cauliflower Risotto

Now for a change of pace...

Risotto ai cavolfiore

In between all the Christmas baking, I am still (attempting to) cook and eat normal meals in between. On Tuesday night, I suddenly had a craving for risotto, and so, set about cooking one!

This recipe comes from Jamie's Italy, and starts with a base of standard white risotto.


Pieces of cauliflower are cooked slowly in the hot stock, which is added to the rice in ladlefulls.


This results in a cauliflower-flavoured white risotto! I was considering adding some cream, but after adding a generous knob of butter and some grated Parmesan cheese, the risotto became creamy enough. The recipe calls for chopped parsley, but as I had none on hand, I substituted chopped chives. Unconventional, yes, but I just adore them.


Another touch that Jamie adds is an anchovy pangratto, for flavour and crunch. This involves taking cubes of stale bread, and whizzing them up with anchovies and dried chilli.
Cubes of light rye

The crumbs are then fried in a little oil until crispy.

And just because I can no longer resist setting the table...

The candle holder was cheaply bought at Ikea!


This was a very easy weeknight dinner, 30 minutes work all up, and all the more appealing for the rarity of the flavour. I liked the mild taste of cauliflower, and whilst the pangratto added interesting crunch and colour-contrast, I found the taste too strong, overpowering the delicate risotto. In future I would just season generously with Parmesan and salt, and either parlsey or chives.

Now for a change of pace...

Risotto ai cavolfiore

In between all the Christmas baking, I am still (attempting to) cook and eat normal meals in between. On Tuesday night, I suddenly had a craving for risotto, and so, set about cooking one!

This recipe comes from Jamie's Italy, and starts with a base of standard white risotto.


Pieces of cauliflower are cooked slowly in the hot stock, which is added to the rice in ladlefulls.


This results in a cauliflower-flavoured white risotto! I was considering adding some cream, but after adding a generous knob of butter and some grated Parmesan cheese, the risotto became creamy enough. The recipe calls for chopped parsley, but as I had none on hand, I substituted chopped chives. Unconventional, yes, but I just adore them.


Another touch that Jamie adds is an anchovy pangratto, for flavour and crunch. This involves taking cubes of stale bread, and whizzing them up with anchovies and dried chilli.
Cubes of light rye

The crumbs are then fried in a little oil until crispy.

And just because I can no longer resist setting the table...

The candle holder was cheaply bought at Ikea!


This was a very easy weeknight dinner, 30 minutes work all up, and all the more appealing for the rarity of the flavour. I liked the mild taste of cauliflower, and whilst the pangratto added interesting crunch and colour-contrast, I found the taste too strong, overpowering the delicate risotto. In future I would just season generously with Parmesan and salt, and either parlsey or chives.

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Christmas Dinner the first, Vanillakipferl, Pistachio Crescents

Nigella's Pistachio Crescents

Sunday night marked the second Advent, as well as our first Christmas dinner for the year. For many, the holidays are a time to catch up with friends and loved ones, and to reflect on the year gone by. For me, it is also a time to squeeze in as many recipes, afternoon teas, dinner parties, barbecues and lunches as I possibly can! It's only the 7th of December and this is already my second Christmas post - eeek!


A Casual Holiday Meal for 3

Party Poussins
Roast Butternut Squash and Cumin Carrots
Festive Couscous
Vanillakipferl / Pistachio Crescents


The savoury part of the meal was from Nigella Christmas' Come on Over chapter, which includes simple yet festive menus that you can cook when you have friends over during the holiday season. How apt! It's been ages since I'd done a full Nigella menu, or even cooked a proper meal (thank-you crazy work timetable and post-holiday blues!), so I was very happy to be getting back into the kitchen.

I eschewed Nigella's suggested dessert of chocolate-chestnut pots, in favour of more Christmassy fare. I baked my beloved Vanillakipferl, as well as some pistachio crescents. The pistachio biscuits are from How to Eat, (previously made here), and I think of them as a Middle-Eastern version of Vanillakipferl - in-keeping with the theme of the menu.

The biscuits undoubtedly required a lot more time and effort than the rest of the meal, so I made them first. The Vanillakipferl recipe is here - you can thank me later. To make the pistachio crescents, I started by blanching and peeling the shelled pistachios. It's a tedious task, but it makes the finished product so much more intensely green and beautiful.


The denuded pistachios are then pulverised in a blender, and added to butter, icing sugar and flour to make a nubbly green dough.

Crescents ready for baking

And the lovely, buttery result is that plate of biscuits you see at the top of this post.

Below we have a generous plate of Vanillakipferl - the pretty plastic plate is from Balha's. It's good to make a big batch, as most of them will get eaten before you get a chance to share them.

As you might expect for a Nigella menu, the dinner itself is very easy to put together. Just drizzle the chopped pumpkin with spices and oil, do the same with the unchopped poussin, stuff them with garlic cloves and lemon pieces, and put everything into a hot oven for an hour. The couscous is very, very quick - all you need to do is pour hot water over couscous, cranberries and spices and wait 10 minutes. If you were organised and purchased everything in advance, I think this menu would be do-able for a midweek dinner.

The low-prep, long-cook procedure gives you heaps of time to clear up the kitchen and set the table. Ta-dah!

The table: check out the Adventkranz and my colour co-ordinated, cravat-folded Ikea paper napkins.

When I first started blogging, I used to be very apathetic about place settings and decor, but times have changed. At the bare minimum, I like to set the table before my friends arrive, so that they know they're welcome and I'm expecting them. As I get older I plan to increase my collection of table runners, cloth napkins, napkin rings and the like, but for now I'm sticking to colourful Ikea paper napkins and my trusty brown Vue cloth napkins that my bro and his GF bought me for my bday.

After about 30 minutes of roasting, the kitchen started to fill with the most delightful smell of garlicky roast chicken.

One poussin, some veggies, couscous.

There is something very festive and special about getting your own mini-chicken, which, due to the high cooking temperature, was wonderfully crispy. I should add that the chickens weren't actually poussins, but were labelled as "spatchcocks", haha. Either way, the mini-chicken was both juicy within and crispy without - this is a balance I struggle with when roasting full-sized chickens. If you cook them at a high-enough temperature for the skin to get crisp, the meat can tend to dry out.

The couscous - I forgot to buy coriander for sprinkling over, so it looked a bit plain, but tasted great.

The vegetables were gorgeous - we added carrots because there were some lying in the fridge - and the heat of the oven really intensified the sweetness of both pumpkin and carrots. I was really pleased with the warm golden colours too!

Action shot:


And that was my first Christmas dinner of the year!

Nigella's Pistachio Crescents

Sunday night marked the second Advent, as well as our first Christmas dinner for the year. For many, the holidays are a time to catch up with friends and loved ones, and to reflect on the year gone by. For me, it is also a time to squeeze in as many recipes, afternoon teas, dinner parties, barbecues and lunches as I possibly can! It's only the 7th of December and this is already my second Christmas post - eeek!


A Casual Holiday Meal for 3

Party Poussins
Roast Butternut Squash and Cumin Carrots
Festive Couscous
Vanillakipferl / Pistachio Crescents


The savoury part of the meal was from Nigella Christmas' Come on Over chapter, which includes simple yet festive menus that you can cook when you have friends over during the holiday season. How apt! It's been ages since I'd done a full Nigella menu, or even cooked a proper meal (thank-you crazy work timetable and post-holiday blues!), so I was very happy to be getting back into the kitchen.

I eschewed Nigella's suggested dessert of chocolate-chestnut pots, in favour of more Christmassy fare. I baked my beloved Vanillakipferl, as well as some pistachio crescents. The pistachio biscuits are from How to Eat, (previously made here), and I think of them as a Middle-Eastern version of Vanillakipferl - in-keeping with the theme of the menu.

The biscuits undoubtedly required a lot more time and effort than the rest of the meal, so I made them first. The Vanillakipferl recipe is here - you can thank me later. To make the pistachio crescents, I started by blanching and peeling the shelled pistachios. It's a tedious task, but it makes the finished product so much more intensely green and beautiful.


The denuded pistachios are then pulverised in a blender, and added to butter, icing sugar and flour to make a nubbly green dough.

Crescents ready for baking

And the lovely, buttery result is that plate of biscuits you see at the top of this post.

Below we have a generous plate of Vanillakipferl - the pretty plastic plate is from Balha's. It's good to make a big batch, as most of them will get eaten before you get a chance to share them.

As you might expect for a Nigella menu, the dinner itself is very easy to put together. Just drizzle the chopped pumpkin with spices and oil, do the same with the unchopped poussin, stuff them with garlic cloves and lemon pieces, and put everything into a hot oven for an hour. The couscous is very, very quick - all you need to do is pour hot water over couscous, cranberries and spices and wait 10 minutes. If you were organised and purchased everything in advance, I think this menu would be do-able for a midweek dinner.

The low-prep, long-cook procedure gives you heaps of time to clear up the kitchen and set the table. Ta-dah!

The table: check out the Adventkranz and my colour co-ordinated, cravat-folded Ikea paper napkins.

When I first started blogging, I used to be very apathetic about place settings and decor, but times have changed. At the bare minimum, I like to set the table before my friends arrive, so that they know they're welcome and I'm expecting them. As I get older I plan to increase my collection of table runners, cloth napkins, napkin rings and the like, but for now I'm sticking to colourful Ikea paper napkins and my trusty brown Vue cloth napkins that my bro and his GF bought me for my bday.

After about 30 minutes of roasting, the kitchen started to fill with the most delightful smell of garlicky roast chicken.

One poussin, some veggies, couscous.

There is something very festive and special about getting your own mini-chicken, which, due to the high cooking temperature, was wonderfully crispy. I should add that the chickens weren't actually poussins, but were labelled as "spatchcocks", haha. Either way, the mini-chicken was both juicy within and crispy without - this is a balance I struggle with when roasting full-sized chickens. If you cook them at a high-enough temperature for the skin to get crisp, the meat can tend to dry out.

The couscous - I forgot to buy coriander for sprinkling over, so it looked a bit plain, but tasted great.

The vegetables were gorgeous - we added carrots because there were some lying in the fridge - and the heat of the oven really intensified the sweetness of both pumpkin and carrots. I was really pleased with the warm golden colours too!

Action shot:


And that was my first Christmas dinner of the year!

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

In der Weihnachtsbäckerei

In der Weihnachtsbäckerei... In the Christmas bakery...


It was first Advent on Sunday last week, so it was time to light up the candles, and get my Christmas baking started! There are four Advents before Christmas, or as I like to think of them, four opportunities to get my baking on, hehehe!

I decided on Spekulatius, from my Dr Oetker Backen Macht Freude book. You might know these as spekulaas, those addictively crisp and spicy Dutch Christmas biscuits. Spekulatius is the German version.


The dough includes almond meal, and a heady mix of cinnamon, ground cloves and cardamom.

You just can't make German Gebäck without Vanillin-Zucker and little vials of Aromen!

The instructions simply tell you to mix everything together and knead to a smooth dough. (At least I'm pretty sure that's what they said - they were in German, after all).

It took quite a bit of kneading to get a smooth dough - I think it might have been more effective if I'd creamed the butter and sugar first, and then added the rest of the ingredients slowly.

I didn't have a funky wooden mould like the one in the book's photo, so went for gingerbread-people, and rectangles with flaked almonds.



These were lovely - just the right amount of spice, and a pleasantly chunky texture from the ground almonds. A few of the biscuits were slightly overcooked and hard; my bad, I should have taken them out of the oven when they had just turned a lovely light brown colour. Most of them, however, were just delicious.


So, dear friends, for the next 4 weeks, my kitchen is turning into eine Weihnachtsbäckerei (a Christmas-bakery). And no, I didn't just come up with that myself. Here is the inspiration! In der Weihnachtsbäckerei - a totally kitsch, totally German Christmas song, sung by Andy Borg & heartthrob (apparently) Florian Silbereisen. Guaranteed to get you in the Christmas spirit. Click play. If you dare...

In der Weihnachtsbäckerei... In the Christmas bakery...


It was first Advent on Sunday last week, so it was time to light up the candles, and get my Christmas baking started! There are four Advents before Christmas, or as I like to think of them, four opportunities to get my baking on, hehehe!

I decided on Spekulatius, from my Dr Oetker Backen Macht Freude book. You might know these as spekulaas, those addictively crisp and spicy Dutch Christmas biscuits. Spekulatius is the German version.


The dough includes almond meal, and a heady mix of cinnamon, ground cloves and cardamom.

You just can't make German Gebäck without Vanillin-Zucker and little vials of Aromen!

The instructions simply tell you to mix everything together and knead to a smooth dough. (At least I'm pretty sure that's what they said - they were in German, after all).

It took quite a bit of kneading to get a smooth dough - I think it might have been more effective if I'd creamed the butter and sugar first, and then added the rest of the ingredients slowly.

I didn't have a funky wooden mould like the one in the book's photo, so went for gingerbread-people, and rectangles with flaked almonds.



These were lovely - just the right amount of spice, and a pleasantly chunky texture from the ground almonds. A few of the biscuits were slightly overcooked and hard; my bad, I should have taken them out of the oven when they had just turned a lovely light brown colour. Most of them, however, were just delicious.


So, dear friends, for the next 4 weeks, my kitchen is turning into eine Weihnachtsbäckerei (a Christmas-bakery). And no, I didn't just come up with that myself. Here is the inspiration! In der Weihnachtsbäckerei - a totally kitsch, totally German Christmas song, sung by Andy Borg & heartthrob (apparently) Florian Silbereisen. Guaranteed to get you in the Christmas spirit. Click play. If you dare...

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Vanuatu: Coconut Crab

That magnificent creature above is a Birgus lato, or a coconut crab! Coconut crabs are quite the delicacy in Vanuatu. Before my trip, I'd heard of Vanuatu's famous coconut crab, but I assumed that it was a way of preparing crab, not an actual species. D'oh! These crabs are called coconut crab because they eat coconut!

When I was in Vanuatu, coconut crabs were available in many restaurants but - gasp! - I never ate one. There were 2 reasons for this.

First, they're endangered! Apparently sometimes the Vanuatu government places restrictions on harvesting, to protect the population. No bans were in place at the time, but I did not feel comfortable ordering them.

And second, they are one of the freakiest creatures I have EVER seen.

During our trip, we went on a (rather disappointing and expensive) "river kayak" tour, at Blue Water Island resort. The website makes the resort look shiny and new, but in reality it is very tired and old - our tour guide (who was lovely!!) told us there were no guests at all. It's half an hour out of town, in the middle of nowhere, and it felt like it was on the verge of repossession. I'm not sure if it was because of the poor location, or maybe the owners just stopped caring.

They did have some cool stuff though, including pools where you could feed reef sharks and beautiful big turtles. And a couple of cages of coconut crabs!

Argh! It looks like a massive creepy spider!



Check out those massive claws.

According to Wikipedia...

The coconut crab climbs trees to eat coconuts or fruit... Coconut crabs cut holes into coconuts with their strong claws and eat the contents; this behaviour is unique in the animal kingdom.

It was only a couple of days later, on a much better snorkelling tour to Paradise Cove, that we realised just how strong those freaky coconut crab-claws must be.

Aah... Paradise Cove

Part of our tour included a coconut demonstration, where our tour guide broke down a coconut.


The coconut is twisted on a stick to loosen the husk...

...and he uses a lot of strength to pry the husk away from the coconut.

Apparently the husk is used in many ways - for toothbrushes, as bedding for chickens, for kids to play with as little sailboats, to make bags and more!

Then he whacks the coconut several times with a big rock before he breaks it open...

... and we can all feast on the sweet coconut within.

It took him about 10 minutes all up, using a lot of strength and a sharp stick and rock. And these coconut crabs can do it WITH THEIR CLAWS!!


Previous visitors to Vanuatu - was anyone else more adventurous than me? Or less concerned by dwindling coconut crab populations? What did you think of it? (I know Ed ate some!)

***EDIT*** The first photo was taken at our hotel, held up by one of the lovely (and obliging) chefs, when a few of us sneaked to the kitchen to look at the many fascinating coconut crabs that had just arrived.***

That magnificent creature above is a Birgus lato, or a coconut crab! Coconut crabs are quite the delicacy in Vanuatu. Before my trip, I'd heard of Vanuatu's famous coconut crab, but I assumed that it was a way of preparing crab, not an actual species. D'oh! These crabs are called coconut crab because they eat coconut!

When I was in Vanuatu, coconut crabs were available in many restaurants but - gasp! - I never ate one. There were 2 reasons for this.

First, they're endangered! Apparently sometimes the Vanuatu government places restrictions on harvesting, to protect the population. No bans were in place at the time, but I did not feel comfortable ordering them.

And second, they are one of the freakiest creatures I have EVER seen.

During our trip, we went on a (rather disappointing and expensive) "river kayak" tour, at Blue Water Island resort. The website makes the resort look shiny and new, but in reality it is very tired and old - our tour guide (who was lovely!!) told us there were no guests at all. It's half an hour out of town, in the middle of nowhere, and it felt like it was on the verge of repossession. I'm not sure if it was because of the poor location, or maybe the owners just stopped caring.

They did have some cool stuff though, including pools where you could feed reef sharks and beautiful big turtles. And a couple of cages of coconut crabs!

Argh! It looks like a massive creepy spider!



Check out those massive claws.

According to Wikipedia...

The coconut crab climbs trees to eat coconuts or fruit... Coconut crabs cut holes into coconuts with their strong claws and eat the contents; this behaviour is unique in the animal kingdom.

It was only a couple of days later, on a much better snorkelling tour to Paradise Cove, that we realised just how strong those freaky coconut crab-claws must be.

Aah... Paradise Cove

Part of our tour included a coconut demonstration, where our tour guide broke down a coconut.


The coconut is twisted on a stick to loosen the husk...

...and he uses a lot of strength to pry the husk away from the coconut.

Apparently the husk is used in many ways - for toothbrushes, as bedding for chickens, for kids to play with as little sailboats, to make bags and more!

Then he whacks the coconut several times with a big rock before he breaks it open...

... and we can all feast on the sweet coconut within.

It took him about 10 minutes all up, using a lot of strength and a sharp stick and rock. And these coconut crabs can do it WITH THEIR CLAWS!!


Previous visitors to Vanuatu - was anyone else more adventurous than me? Or less concerned by dwindling coconut crab populations? What did you think of it? (I know Ed ate some!)

***EDIT*** The first photo was taken at our hotel, held up by one of the lovely (and obliging) chefs, when a few of us sneaked to the kitchen to look at the many fascinating coconut crabs that had just arrived.***

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Market Lane Coffee

I had a wonderful late breakfast this afternoon (eep!) at Market Lane cafe, Melbourne's newest coffee temple in Prahran market. It was supposed to be a quick bite and sip before food shopping, but we ran into Claire, and so ended up having a nice chat whilst enjoying the coffees. How did I know I'd run into another food blogger there?

Market Lane
Shop 13 Prahran Market
163 Commercial Road
South Yarra VIC 3141
(03) 9804-7434
Website

Market Lane Coffee is located in the corner of Prahran Market where an organic grocery shop used to be. It's on the Elizabeth street side, near Aldi and Fuji mart. Or for those of you who are less gourmet-inclined, it's on the side street where the Chapel street KFC is.

It is run (and owned?) by Fleur Studd, she who loves coffee like Will Studd loves cheese. There are a lot of nice touches that give you a sense that they really care about their cafe and their product.


For example, each table had a jar of Costa Rican Rapadura sugar. It was medium-dark in colour, and softly granular, quite like light muscovado sugar. I don't take sugar in my coffee, but I could definitely handle some of the rapadura!

Loved the chalkboard describing the milk. I didn't get a picture of the milk fridge, but it seemed to be the same yellow and black-labelled brand as the unpasteurised "bath milk" that I have bought at farmers' markets. *Wink wink*.

Oh oops, I only just noticed that there's a guy standing under the "pick up here" sign. A coincidence, I assure you!

My coffee of choice was the Brazillian Cachoeira de Grama, done in the pour over style, for $3.50. This means it's hand brewed using what looks like a ceramic version of a paper-coffee filter, and "is the gentlest way to brew coffee", providing "good clarity of flavour".

The coffees we ordered came with cute postcard-sized tasting notes, with information on the beans, the production and the farms. I told you the guys here really care about their coffee!


I'm not very good at picking out individual flavours in coffee, but the tasting notes said it was creamy and sweet, with a soft orange acidity and notes of milk chocolate, cocoa and toasted hazelnuts. To be honest, I was enjoying the coffee so much that I was halfway through it before I thought to look at the notes and compare it to the actual taste.

Claire had a Costa Rican Geisha coffee (pourover), whilst Barbara had a La Pira (cup of excellence), done in Clover style.

Action shot! I thought the jug and cup were very cute.

What I really enjoy about pourover coffee (or Clover or Siphon, for that matter), is that you get a consistenly good cup of black coffee, without the harsh bitterness of espresso, or the muddiness that you can get with plunger.

At home I officially ditched the plunger a few weeks ago, and bought a very daggy drip coffee machine, beloved by American housewives and only $20 from Target! It's, obviously, a different league from the pourovers and the clovers, but it is easy to use and makes a consistent, clear-tasting cup.

Of course, Market Lane do normal espressi as well.
Cafe Latte - $3.80

Sandra said it was very, very strong. A good dose of rapadura sugar and extra steamed milk was required to adjust it to her taste.

The food menu is very limited, but of good quality - just a few pastries on offer, and bread and jam.

A very lemony, moist and fluffy blueberry friand. I don't remember the exact price, but I'm gonna assume it was about $4.

I was after a proper breakfast, and was very tempted by the baguette, served with jam and Lescure butter. From memory it was $4.50??

Breakfast of Champions - baguette, jam and Lescure butter

Everything about this breakfast was proper. The baguette was crusty and chewy, requiring real effort to chomp down on it; the jam tasted of real fruit and wasn't overly sweet; and the butter was, well, wow. It's a good thing they only provided those 2 thin slices, because otherwise serious artery damage could (and would!) have occurred.

I don't hang out at Prahran market a lot any more, but now I'm really thinking that I should!

I had a wonderful late breakfast this afternoon (eep!) at Market Lane cafe, Melbourne's newest coffee temple in Prahran market. It was supposed to be a quick bite and sip before food shopping, but we ran into Claire, and so ended up having a nice chat whilst enjoying the coffees. How did I know I'd run into another food blogger there?

Market Lane
Shop 13 Prahran Market
163 Commercial Road
South Yarra VIC 3141
(03) 9804-7434
Website

Market Lane Coffee is located in the corner of Prahran Market where an organic grocery shop used to be. It's on the Elizabeth street side, near Aldi and Fuji mart. Or for those of you who are less gourmet-inclined, it's on the side street where the Chapel street KFC is.

It is run (and owned?) by Fleur Studd, she who loves coffee like Will Studd loves cheese. There are a lot of nice touches that give you a sense that they really care about their cafe and their product.


For example, each table had a jar of Costa Rican Rapadura sugar. It was medium-dark in colour, and softly granular, quite like light muscovado sugar. I don't take sugar in my coffee, but I could definitely handle some of the rapadura!

Loved the chalkboard describing the milk. I didn't get a picture of the milk fridge, but it seemed to be the same yellow and black-labelled brand as the unpasteurised "bath milk" that I have bought at farmers' markets. *Wink wink*.

Oh oops, I only just noticed that there's a guy standing under the "pick up here" sign. A coincidence, I assure you!

My coffee of choice was the Brazillian Cachoeira de Grama, done in the pour over style, for $3.50. This means it's hand brewed using what looks like a ceramic version of a paper-coffee filter, and "is the gentlest way to brew coffee", providing "good clarity of flavour".

The coffees we ordered came with cute postcard-sized tasting notes, with information on the beans, the production and the farms. I told you the guys here really care about their coffee!


I'm not very good at picking out individual flavours in coffee, but the tasting notes said it was creamy and sweet, with a soft orange acidity and notes of milk chocolate, cocoa and toasted hazelnuts. To be honest, I was enjoying the coffee so much that I was halfway through it before I thought to look at the notes and compare it to the actual taste.

Claire had a Costa Rican Geisha coffee (pourover), whilst Barbara had a La Pira (cup of excellence), done in Clover style.

Action shot! I thought the jug and cup were very cute.

What I really enjoy about pourover coffee (or Clover or Siphon, for that matter), is that you get a consistenly good cup of black coffee, without the harsh bitterness of espresso, or the muddiness that you can get with plunger.

At home I officially ditched the plunger a few weeks ago, and bought a very daggy drip coffee machine, beloved by American housewives and only $20 from Target! It's, obviously, a different league from the pourovers and the clovers, but it is easy to use and makes a consistent, clear-tasting cup.

Of course, Market Lane do normal espressi as well.
Cafe Latte - $3.80

Sandra said it was very, very strong. A good dose of rapadura sugar and extra steamed milk was required to adjust it to her taste.

The food menu is very limited, but of good quality - just a few pastries on offer, and bread and jam.

A very lemony, moist and fluffy blueberry friand. I don't remember the exact price, but I'm gonna assume it was about $4.

I was after a proper breakfast, and was very tempted by the baguette, served with jam and Lescure butter. From memory it was $4.50??

Breakfast of Champions - baguette, jam and Lescure butter

Everything about this breakfast was proper. The baguette was crusty and chewy, requiring real effort to chomp down on it; the jam tasted of real fruit and wasn't overly sweet; and the butter was, well, wow. It's a good thing they only provided those 2 thin slices, because otherwise serious artery damage could (and would!) have occurred.

I don't hang out at Prahran market a lot any more, but now I'm really thinking that I should!

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Victoria Sponge with Hazelnut Crunch Buttercream

And now for something completely different...


Yes, there are a *lot* more photos from Vanuatu to share, but I thought I'd change it up a little. Remember my blog's 5th birthday? I wanted to make a a very funky cake to celebrate, and having just received my copy of Warren Brown's Cake Love to review for The Gastronomer's Bookshelf, I decided to try a recipe from there.

One of the first blog posts I ever wrote, back in 2004 (can you believe it?!) was about the Cake Love bakery in Washington DC. I saw the bakery featured on Tyler's Ultimate, and was inspired by the story of its owner, Warren Brown, the one-time lawyer-turned cake baker. What an inspiration!

My review of Cake Love has been published at The Gastronomer's Bookshelf, so I will just talk about the cake! After much reading and indecision, I chose to make a Yellow Buttercake, filled with Hazelnut Crunch Buttercream.

Let's start with the buttercream. I realised it's a German-buttercream, which means it is a crème pâtissière, with cubes of butter whipped through. Intense stuff.

To get the hazelnut flavour, you heat hazelnuts in hot milk, and let it steep for 10 minutes. The drained, hazelnutty milk is then used to make the crème pâtissière, as below.

Once it's thick enough, you turn it into a mixer, add some other flavourings and whisk until room temperature.

Then you add cubes of room-temperature butter, one by one, whisking all the while. Then something quite magic happens...

WOW. Check out that cream! I have no idea how adding butter to custard results in something that looks and feels like a cloud, but there you go.

The recipe calls for you to crush the hazelnuts and fold them back through the buttercream, (hence hazelnut-CRUNCH buttercream), but a very vocal contingent in my house wanted smooth filling, so I saved the hazelnuts and toasted them in sugar to decorate the top.



Now, the cake. I'm not sure if it was the American measurements that I'm not used to, or Brown's super-wordy, highly detailed recipe, but something went wrong. Look below:
Argh! What the hell is that?! Check out all the creepy vertical air hole tunnels! It was so dense and heavy, and it took forever to cook through (about twice the time stated in the recipe). I think it could have hurt someone if I threw it at them. Very disappointing, but I couldn't bear to let all that buttercream go to waste. Instead, I whipped up a Victoria sponge in 2 sandwich tins.

Humped, but reliably delicious.

I flipped the cakes so the flat sides were outermost, and filled them with the buttercream...


...topped it with ganache....

... and spread it out smoothly with an offset spatula.

A crown of sugared hazelnuts (with a few judiciously taste-tested first!), a little candle, and my birthday-blog cake was done!

I was very pleased with this cake, and we ate it happily over the next few days. The hazelnut flavour was very delicate, and went well with the buttery Vic sponge. The ganache was made with dark chocolate, and a little too intense for the cake, actually. I thought choc and hazelnut would go well together, but I didn't realise how delicate the hazelnut flavour would be.


If I were to make this cake again (any takers?), I'd pare it down a little, and just layer up the cake with thick swathes of hazelnut buttercream. Heaven on a plate!

And now for something completely different...


Yes, there are a *lot* more photos from Vanuatu to share, but I thought I'd change it up a little. Remember my blog's 5th birthday? I wanted to make a a very funky cake to celebrate, and having just received my copy of Warren Brown's Cake Love to review for The Gastronomer's Bookshelf, I decided to try a recipe from there.

One of the first blog posts I ever wrote, back in 2004 (can you believe it?!) was about the Cake Love bakery in Washington DC. I saw the bakery featured on Tyler's Ultimate, and was inspired by the story of its owner, Warren Brown, the one-time lawyer-turned cake baker. What an inspiration!

My review of Cake Love has been published at The Gastronomer's Bookshelf, so I will just talk about the cake! After much reading and indecision, I chose to make a Yellow Buttercake, filled with Hazelnut Crunch Buttercream.

Let's start with the buttercream. I realised it's a German-buttercream, which means it is a crème pâtissière, with cubes of butter whipped through. Intense stuff.

To get the hazelnut flavour, you heat hazelnuts in hot milk, and let it steep for 10 minutes. The drained, hazelnutty milk is then used to make the crème pâtissière, as below.

Once it's thick enough, you turn it into a mixer, add some other flavourings and whisk until room temperature.

Then you add cubes of room-temperature butter, one by one, whisking all the while. Then something quite magic happens...

WOW. Check out that cream! I have no idea how adding butter to custard results in something that looks and feels like a cloud, but there you go.

The recipe calls for you to crush the hazelnuts and fold them back through the buttercream, (hence hazelnut-CRUNCH buttercream), but a very vocal contingent in my house wanted smooth filling, so I saved the hazelnuts and toasted them in sugar to decorate the top.



Now, the cake. I'm not sure if it was the American measurements that I'm not used to, or Brown's super-wordy, highly detailed recipe, but something went wrong. Look below:
Argh! What the hell is that?! Check out all the creepy vertical air hole tunnels! It was so dense and heavy, and it took forever to cook through (about twice the time stated in the recipe). I think it could have hurt someone if I threw it at them. Very disappointing, but I couldn't bear to let all that buttercream go to waste. Instead, I whipped up a Victoria sponge in 2 sandwich tins.

Humped, but reliably delicious.

I flipped the cakes so the flat sides were outermost, and filled them with the buttercream...


...topped it with ganache....

... and spread it out smoothly with an offset spatula.

A crown of sugared hazelnuts (with a few judiciously taste-tested first!), a little candle, and my birthday-blog cake was done!

I was very pleased with this cake, and we ate it happily over the next few days. The hazelnut flavour was very delicate, and went well with the buttery Vic sponge. The ganache was made with dark chocolate, and a little too intense for the cake, actually. I thought choc and hazelnut would go well together, but I didn't realise how delicate the hazelnut flavour would be.


If I were to make this cake again (any takers?), I'd pare it down a little, and just layer up the cake with thick swathes of hazelnut buttercream. Heaven on a plate!

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