Sweet and Sour.

Sams' S&S Pork. 

Sweet and Sour

Two tastes working perfectly on the same plate.  

A rich balance of sweetness and saltiness delectably transported by slow cooked pork teaming with oriental flavours engrossed in a rich and golden pineapple speckled sauce.

Now this is eating.

For me the mention of sweet and sour pork brings about images and memories of grossly battered nuggets of chewy pork pulled together with a bizarre orange sauce propped with chunks of onion and capsicum. Somehow tasty, but so bizarre and not very appealing to the eyes or the stomach.

But, I’ll give it merit for flavour. There is something about foods that use both salt and sugar that has me grabbing for a tissue to catch the saliva drooling out of my mouth.

Pineapples were a dollar at the markets last weekend along with lemongrass and ginger, so I was inspired to make my own version of sweet and sour pork.

I knew I could take it one step further and make something tasty, easy, and full with flavour. Instead of having pork in the form of battered bad boys, I chose a slow cooking cut, the collar or neck, and had it cooking for 2 hours in my Le’Cruscet. The result was sensational, my boyfriend licked the pot clean!

I had to share!

Sams' Sweet and Sour Pork

1 lemongrass

3 garlic cloves

1 chilli

1 knob ginger

1 bunch coriander roots

1/2 onion finely diced

750 g Pork collar cut into small chunks

2 Tbs Fish sauce

1 pineapple cut into small pieces

1 capsicum

120 ml ornage juice

2 tbs White wine Vinegar

1 Cup chicken stock

1tbs salt

veg oil.

1 lime

Rice to serve

In a food processor blitz the lemongrass, garlic, chilli, ginger, and corriader with 1 tbs of vegetable oil to make a paste.

In a bottom heavy pot sauté off the paste and onion with and extra tbs of oil and 1 tbs of sugar. Add the pork and cook for 5 minutes to brown off the pieces.

Add the pineapple, capsicum, fish sauce, orange juice, vinegar and stock. Bring to the boil then add the salt and bring it down to a simmer covered for 1 hour.

After an hour remove the lid and cook for another hour stirring occasionally. When the sauce has reduced and almost sticky its ready to serve with rice and a wedge of lime.

Fish with Good Intentions.

 Fishy...

Squidy. 

Seafood is on the verge of being abused and battered (pun intended) with Easter only weeks away. So I thought I’d whip up a couple of easy-peasy seafood recipes that have some subtle quirky flavour combinations. These are my fishy recipes with good intentions. 

Fish of the day? When buying fish try to avoid sticking to the recipe. What I mean is if the recipe calls for barramundi and its $47 dollars per kilo, probably because its been caught 2000km away, try something different. Fish can be easily interchanged, and there are only too many varieties and species to choose from. Maybe a grunter fillet? Or a mixed reef fillet? You don’t need to break the bank and the end result will only be tastier because you’ve bought something fresher and local.

Nuts are great textures for food in general, but with fish the nuttiness seems to take fishiness to a whole new level. You can use whatever nut you fancy but I chose flaked almonds, I love the golden colour they turn in the oven! I matched my almond encrusted fish with a sour but rich orange and garlic beurre blanc (butter sauce) a punch of chili, a salty hit from some kalamata olives and earthy undertones from green kale. Making a healthy meal that gets Ten's for flavour, texture and eye-appeal in my book.

Squid and calamari tubes- yes they are different things, would have to be one of the most inexpensive seafood you can get these days. Fresh or frozen these white winged beauties are a versatile specie of the cephalopod family, and make for tasty bite-size morsels perfect for entertaining.

There are many recipes that café’s and restaurants are guilty to overdosing on and one of them would have to be salt and pepper squid. I always aim to be a little different when it comes to my recipes so I’ve created my own seasoning that will knock the socks of mere salt and pepper, with a big whack of sour sumac and robust rosemary!

Almond Encrusted Fish with Orange Beurre Blanc.

2 Fillets of White fish portioned

Flaked almonds

Olive oil

1 orange

125g butter

1 garlic clove finely grated.

50 g sliced kalamata olives

1 tsp red chili finely diced

5 De-Stemmed leaves of kale

Coat your fish in olive oil, then pat with almonds to form a crust. Place on lined baking tray and put in a 180 degree oven for 10 minutes, or until cooked.

Meanwhile on a low temp melt 100g of your butter with the garlic. Add the juice of 1 orange and the remaining 25g of butter in small cold chunks. Stir

When the fish is ready add the chili and olives to the sauce followed by the kale. Put a lid on the pot and bring the temp up. Cook for 2-3 minutes or until the kale is wilted.

To serve place the kale on the bottom followed by the baked fish and some of the remaining sauce.

Sumac and Rosemary Squid/Calamari.

4 tubes of Squid/calamari

1 cup plain flour

2 Tbs sumac

2 sprigs rosemary

Good quality mayonnaise (Home-made is always best, but its ok to cheat sometimes)

Salt

Pepper.

Vegetable oil.

1 lime

Open out your squid by cutting down one of the sides of the arrow. Butterfly it out onto the board and clean it with the back of your knife to remove any scum.

Gently score the inside of the squid with your knife on an angle then cut into strips.

Meanwhile fill a saucepan or deep-fryer two-thirds full with oil and heat to 170°C (or until a cube of bread turns golden in 15 seconds). Fry off your rosemary for 20 seconds then set aside on paper-towel.

To make the seasoning in a medium sized bowl (which will be used to toss the squid in) crumble the rosemary and mix with the sumac, salt and pepper .

Toss your raw squid in some plane flour then in batches fry it off  and when golden remove and toss in the sumac and rosemary seasoning. Serve hot with a wedge of lime and some mayonnaise for dipping. For extra flavour sprinkle some of the seasoning over the mayonnaise for an extra punch.

Not Easy Being Green.

 Green Schmear.

Pesto.

I love that word schmear, and while it usually refers to the stuff you paste onto a bagel, my ‘Green Schmear’ is a little different but still just as tasty.

Maybe even better than mere schmear. Sorry I’m confusing you aren’t I,

 I’ll try and keep it simple.

Pesto!

I’d like to think of pesto as the best food invention since the cave man decided to grill a bit of cows bum over a flame. A handful of nuts, some fresh green herbs, salty cheese, oil, a smashing of garlic and you’ve got yourself a dam fine schmear, that just so happens to be green.

This fantastic invention is available at supermarkets, you’ll find it crammed into pressurised glass jars with an off-green-tinge. But there is nothing better than making this schmear at home. And I just so happen to have the best tip (learnt off a French chef ironically) to keep it as green as grass for a long time. (That way you can make heaps of it)

So what is the trick?

Pesto Toasties.

Well as the saying goes: ‘Its not easy being green’ and Kermit the frog was right! Its not! Once you blitz the bajeebas out of a soft herb like basil it does this weird thing where it goes a yucky brown colour, due to oxidation. 

But I have the solution! Its all in the preparation people! 

(Exclamation overdose?)

By blanching off the basil in hot boiling water for 20-30 seconds then quickly immersing the leaves into a bowl of iced cold water, then drying it off on paper-towl,  you strengthen the chlorophyll greenies. This way when it gets blitzed the green colour sticks around.

Do you want the recipe? Here's a schmeared version that lets your taste buds be the decider.

For my pesto I would usually go a BIG bunch of basil(I get mine at the markets for $2 and its bigger than my face!), about 75g of parmesan, 2 garlic cloves, 150g blanched skinless almonds (you can use pine nuts but man they’re expensive) juice of 1 lemon, and enough decent olive oil to make it schmeary… if that’s even a word.

Now you can up the garlic, get it chunky with more nuts or make it less schmeary with more oil its up to you. All you need is a food processor or stick blender. I usually put the cheese and almonds in with the garlic and blitz it to form a crumb then I add the rest of the ingredients, some seasoning and blitz while slowly adding more and more olive oil until I like the look of it.

This makes a lot, so I keep it in the fridge in some sort of sealable container. I even pop some in the freezer for extra back up if its an extra large bunch of basil. This is definitely the best way to make pesto, once you blanch you can’t go back!

Pesto is fantastic with pasta, or schmeared onto toast for breaky!But could be put with anything really, get creative with it!

So next time basil is on sale, make a big whack of Green Schmear, AKA pesto. You won’t regret it and its worth all the effort.

Pesto pasta with sun-dried tomatoes.

Tea Dunkers!

Biscuits for Tea. 

How do i pick a good cafe? If my tea or coffee comes with a complimentary home-made biscuit. It means they care. That sweet addition to the usual hot drink makes for a whole different cafe experience, and one that you too can have at home!

The thing with these biscuits is, in my opinion, they've got to be butter based. No excuses people! 

You can flavour them with whatever you like!

I only baked half the dough made in this recipe, that way i can keep the rest in the freezer for a fresh afternoon snack! Nuts-wise i used almonds, hazelnuts and pistachios but you can use whatever you like, or swap it for almond meal to make a less chunky version. 

Nutty Shortbreads.

Ingredients.

125g Softened Butter 

3/4 cup Sugar

1 1/2 cups of Mixed Roasted Nuts- Roughly Chopped

1 3/4 cups of Plain Flour

1 Tbs Honey

1 egg

Zest of 1 Lemon. 

*You'll need extra nuts,and sugar for garnishing.

Method.

1. With cake beaters or in a food processor cream together butter and sugar for 4 minutes.

2. Add nuts, flour, egg, honey and zest then beat/blitz for 1 minute.

3. Roll out half the mix on grease proof paper the form a sausage, repeat with remaining mixture.

4. Freeze for 30 minutes or until solid. 

5. Preheat oven to 160 degrees and prepare biscuit tray with paper.

6. Take the dough out of the freezer and chop into 1cm thick rounds.

7.  Arrange on tray, then top with almonds and sprinkle with sugar.

8. Bake straight away for 10 minutes.

Dunk AWAY!

FRO YO!

Cookies and Coffee FRO YO! 

For those less familiar with the expression FRO YO, it stands for frozen yoghurt and its worth remembering. But with so many popping up, being a food trend of 2013, i can't imagine you haven't tried it before.
 So now it's your turn to have a churn!

Nothing beats the foods we invent when we want everything we love in the one place! 

Coffee+ Yoghurt +Cookies+ Frozen = A Delicious-Summer-Pik-Me-Up! 

This recipe is crazy easy! And perfect for refreshing your taste buds and invigorating your soul.

Recipe: Cookies and Coffee Fro Yo.

1 cup Milk

1/2 a cup of Sugar

3 Tablespoons of Instant coffee OR 3 espresso shots (Give and take depending on how much you like coffee)

Pinch of Salt

2 Cups of your favourite yoghurt

        *Right now i'm obsessed with the yoghurt company "Five:Am" For this recipe i used their cinnamon and honey yoghurt for something a little different.  

4-6 Cookies of your choice. (I used Triple Choc)

Method:

1. Put the milk, sugar, coffee and salt in a small saucepan and bring to heat so the sugar dissolves. 

2. Set aside in the fridge to cool. 

3. When cool, set up your ice cream machine.

4. Whisk the coffee mix into the yoghurt and churn in the ice-cream machine.

5. When the mix is thick add the crushed cookies and let the mixer fold them in. 

6. Serve cold with an additional cookie crumb! 

*If you don't have a ice cream maker, just chuck the mix in the freezer and give it a mix every so often

Makes 800mls of Fro Yo!

Have yourself a Passionfruit Christmas.

When I give presents i tend to opt for something i would want myself. So there's no difference when it comes to presents that i cook. One of my favourite things to eat is passionfruit curd, or butter whichever you like to call it. Smeared onto toast or wedged into a hot croissant, this stuff makes for a perfect stocking filler. Some may even take a spoon to it and eat the whole thing straight from the jar.

(Guilty as charged)

This is a small recipe enough to make 4 medium-sized bottles

-which for me covers Granmah, Nanna, my Mum and even one for myself! 

This is easy-peasy-passionfruity, and only takes about 25 minutes to make!

Passionfruit Butter. 

3 eggs

30g Butter chopped to small dice.

200g sugar

2 tablespoons Lime Juice

The extract of 12 Small but Sweet wrinkly passion fruits.

1. Take a medium sized saucepan and add your sugar, passionfruit, butter and lime juice.

2. Whip up the eggs in a separate bowl and add them to the saucepan.

3. Put over low heat and stir with a whisk for 2 minutes. 

4. Swap the whisk for a spatula and wipe the edges of the pan to avoid catching (We don't want scrambled eggs)

5. Stir and cook on a low heat for 15 minutes. (Figure 8's help here to make sure you get all the sides of the pan)

6. Poor the mix into hot washed jars, seal with lids and let set in the fridge. 

Enjoy and Merry Christmas! 

My Top 10 In Melbs!

Savouring Melbourne. 

Melbourne is known for being a food destination as it is full to the rim with restaurants that curl and sprawl down alleys, on river banks and pepper their delicious coffee and mouthwatering morsels of food everywhere from the coastline to the city. The cities 'Fooders' (That is Food Do'ers, not just food appreciators) are leading the way in food innovations for Australia. Always finding new ways to let people experience food by pushing the boundaries of both interior design and quality of menu.

So having had the pleasure of eating in Melbourne on various occasions (I wouldn't call myself a local but having a sister live there for 5 years I'd like to think of myself as a 'Tocal': Tourist Local) I have accumulated a list of must eats for you to salivate over. 

My top 10 places to eat in Melbourne are: (in no particular order)

1. Brunetti (380 Lygon st Carlton)

2. Las chicas (203 Carlyle st st Kilda)

3. The Green Refectory (115 Sydney road Brunswick) 

4. Shanghai Village Dumpling (112-114 Little Bourke St China town) 

5. Degraves st (City- Near Flinders St Station)

6. Blue train (South gate Complex Upper level, South bank)

7. Chin Chin (125 Flinders lane- Worth the adventure of finding don't use maps gets you no-where) 

8. Queen Victoria markets (Corner of Victoria St and Elisabeth St)

9. Falafel House(196 Toorak Rd, South Yarra, Melbourne) 

10. Innocent bystander (336 Maroondah Hwy Healesville Yarra valley) 

Brunetti is the ultimate for Italian pastries, coffee and pizza. In the heart of Lygon st, a well known Ittalian eating destination, Brunetti has recently been renovated into a bigger and better super store that will leave you trailing a drool path as you enter through its golden doors. Pastries are beautifully lined up in the glass cabinets, presenting what could be the definition of food porn. My favorite would have to be the Lobster tail, a crunchy pasty like pastry, almost like pasta, filled with a custard and topped with a liquored cherry. But I don't think you can go wrong with what you choose and partnered with a professionally barrister coffee from their traditional coffee bar you will feel like you're standing in Florence ordering yet another Latte cause its made so dam well. And the pizzas? Out of this world. Perfect base, saucey sauce and quality fior di latte cheese. 

Brilliant Brunetti.

Brunetti Pastries.

Las chicas was the café that made me rethink the standard of my local breakfast spots here in Sydney. Why don't all cafés come with quirky interiors, fantastic service, delicious coffee, value for money meals (meaning big portions), and top notch innovative and fresh food. Situated on Carlyle st in east St Kilda this eatery, i would say,  attracts creative people with its creative food concepts. Once I saw Hamish Blake which made my breakfast all the more tasty- if that's even possible. Las Chicas take the fuss out of eating and give you food that's tasty and exciting. For breakfast try the eggs Benedict,  perfectly balanced hollandaise and it comes on a bagel which speaks to the Jewish influence in the area. Also the pancakes are to die for, but you might need some help with the high rise stack! Smoothies here are also good, I took a friend who knows a good banana smoothie and she said it was the best she'd ever had! 

Las Chicas Breakfast

The Green Refectory. Brunswick is known for being a quirky area. Shops are scattered and spread all the way down Sydney road making it a great place to take a long walk. But to keep your Tummy's amused I would highly recommend this cute cafe style bakery. Cakes decorate the window like they're going out of fashion! Too many to choose from! But nothing beats their vanilla slice. And for something savory? The menu is authentic Australian with bakery items like sausage rolls, but they're matched with a home made tomato chutney that there never seems to be enough of! Definitely my top pick of Brunswick, and affordable prices too! 

The Green Refectory

Shanghai Village Dumpling was where I first discovered dumplings. A menu I can only call the dictionary for dumplings as there are so many options and combinations to choose from. My favourites: spring onion pancake, what i call prawrk dumplings (pork and prawn) and vegetarian.

Degraves Street is a foodified tourist destination. A picturesque lane-way filled with cafes and alfresco dining your sure to get a decent coffee here to start off your morning. While I'm sure the eggs on this street are great i had the fruit and nut toast with ricotta and honey. Most of the cafes serve similar things so its more wherever you can get a table. The people watching is fun too!

Degraves St

Blue Train Southbank is a not so hidden gem. A fresh and vibrant interior boasts high ceilings and stunning views of the city and Yarra river. And the open kitchen makes for some great food entertaining. I would recommend the mushroom pasta absolutely delicious, and childhood memories dessert is like a deconstructed mars bar that will take you back in time and leave your mouth dripping with saliva. A trip to the Crown after is a great night out for some cocktails and dancing.

Childhood memories

Chin Chin showcases street food at its finest. This Restaurant is everything Melbourne is about when it comes to food. Casual dining experience, brilliant authentic food, fantastic service and trendy decor. We tried to get dinner here on a Saturday night but we got there too late, so try to get there at 6 or go for lunch, we walked straight in on the Sunday. The Salmon wrapped in banana leaves is to die for, took me back to sitting on the beach in Jimbaran bay in Bali, smokey but sweet. Absolutely delicious. Cannot wait to go back and make my way through the menu.

Chin Chin Restaurant.

Queen Victoria Markets are the perfect place for a sensory stroll. Smells of fresh fruits and seafood's, sounds of "3 for $4" and "we've got the best mango's there is" and sights that will have your eyes darting from one stall to the next. For an afternoon snack i would recommend making something of a cheese plate. Buy a bit of this and that so as to make yourself a bountiful smorgasbord of yummy foods. but for something right away try the fresh Borak stand, its in the enclosed part of the market where all the cheeses are. A doughy pastry filled with whatever is on offer, i got the spicy beef.

Falafel House Shopping down Chapel street can be a marathon, so for a bit to eat i would try the Falafel house. Its a nifty new style eatery where you can make your own falafel burger or wrap or salad or just buy the falafel's on their own for a snack in between shoe shops.

Innocent Bystander. This is a must. If you have the chance to explore the beautiful Yarra Valley vineyards you must have lunch at the innocent bystander. All breads are made on site and the baguettes are to die for. Partnered with their delicious Moscato this is a fantastic eating experience and while i'd like to say priceless, its not, but its well worth the trip.

So get to Melbourne! 

GO on! On Ya Bike!