4-Course ... Breakfast?

Good evening (or morning or afternoon depending on where you are) my fellow followers, hope you have all been well. There are a few posts that I do intend on posting up this week if I do get a minute or so. 

Today was a beautiful Sunday, where the sun was shining, sky was magnificently blue, birds chirping outside with a perfect 25 degrees celcius. There was a very slight breeze in the air and honestly, it is definitely one of the most relaxing days I've had in a while (unfortunately still a lot of things I'm worrying about at the back of my mind, but that's not the point). 

One of the most perfect ways to start a day like this, is of course, a sleep in without being woken up by alarms, but rather have the sunshine peeking through the windows. After that, it is time for a 4 course breakfast ... yes, you've heard right, BREAKFAST! The even better thing was, it was actually made by myself. Most of my friends were either busy today (especially at this time of the year) or away on holidays. So I decided to cook up something magical instead of going out for brunch:

4 main course breakfast

As I was feeling creative, I have decided to whip up these four elements, but instead of separating it into different dishes, I was feeling rather inspired by some of the other restaurants and have basically used a similar idea...serve up all the courses on one huge dish. Typically in the 'upper class' chic restaurants, a course like that would be considered a tasting plate with literally sample sizes of each course. However, as I was feeling rather generous at home and this is home cooking at its best after all, I decided to use bigger than average portions to ensure that the breakfast/lunch was adequately filling. So on the menu today was (rotating from bottom left anti-clockwise):

Entree: Butter-infused with garlic, shallots and Italian parsley on rye toast

First main: Portobello mushroom steak with freshly cracked black pepper and sea salt

Second main: Grilled eggs with chilli napolitana sauce

Dessert: Layered blueberry yoghurt with banana and freshly toasted hazelnut and organic maple syrup muesli

So you see, these elements were not very hard to produce individually. The only challenge was knowing what to do whilst preparing the other element as you want all the dishes to be warm/cold/crispy, i.e. as fresh as possible. There was not a better way to start this lovely morning but with a huge 4-course breakfast. I hope this has inspired some of you to start your day with a huge breakfast.

Au revoir ~~

A-Oval Invaded by Pharmacy Students

Bonsoir my dear followers/readers, I have been extremely busy once again this past week, and will continue to be busy for the next coming few weeks, so please do forgive me for my minimal number of posts each week. I will try and post as many as I can (there are quite a number in the pipeline, waiting to be written up!).

Tonight's post is basically about an event which occurred last Saturday (10 September 2011). It was the Guild Annual Pharmacy Ball held by the South Australian Pharmacy Student's Association (or SAPSA). This year, it was held at the Adelaide Oval function centre in North Adelaide on War Memorial Drive. The newly renovated catering function centre looks quite nice, but the food on the other hand was debatable. We had a 3 course meal which is quite a standard format (food-wise) for the evening.

Here were the following dishes for the night:

Roasted pumpkin, leek & sage with black pepper & goats curd

Well, for soup starters are the standard for the ball (need to keep prices low as it is a student event after all). The description of the soup sounds absolutely divine, but the actual taste of it was well... "can-like" to put it in a mild way. It wasn't as thick as I would've liked it (which once again really depends on what people like so it is debatable), but the leek and sage could not be tasted at all. The pepper was evident (at least), but the goats curd was not...the white dash in the soup actually just tasted like ordinary cream, nothing too fancy. So the soup starter was a bit of a disappointment.

Frenched lamb cutlets with rosemary & garlic fondant potatoes, spinach strudel

This was an alternate drop to the chicken (which I cannot comment about as I received the lamb). The lamb cutlets were frenched really nicely and it wasn't overcooked which was good. However, the rest of the 'parts' of the dish was not really up to a very high standard. The potatoes did not have any garlic flavours whatsoever, and the spinach strudel was absolutely terrible — it was basically an extremely dry pie base with overcooked dry spinach sitting in the pie base, and according to them, is a spinach strudel... The tomato and broccoli actually also played no part in the dish. It was there really to make the dish look more colourful, but that actually 'cheapens' the quality of the dish that it could have been.

Eton mess: Vanilla cream, summer strawberries & crushed meringue

Well this was definitely one of the biggest failure of the night. As any close friends of mine would know, I have an extremely sweet tooth and I love sweets! However, I have never been more disappointed with an Eton mess. It can be such a simple dish to do well without being overcomplicated. The presentation looks absolutely lovely. However, the chefs need to seriously reconsider what they are writing in the menu and what they are actually presenting. There was no vanilla evident in the cream; the cream that was there was basically straight out of the container, not sweetened or flavoured with vanilla. It was just eating cream. The supposedly crushed meringue was actually not very crushed. Yes, fine the cream is not sweet and the meringue should sweeten it up, but its not going to do the job if there are only 2 button sized pieces of meringue in the whole huge cup of cream. The summer strawberries also didn't look like strawberries either. They were actually frozen berries. Sorry to be ridiculing this dessert but a more appropriate name for this would be Eton fail: carton of cream with frozen berries and 2 pieces of meringue buttons (at least it would be the correct description). 

So unfortunately, the caterers for this year was very disappointing. Not only was the food extremely average, but the presentation of the plates were so inconsistent. With the lamb cutlets, just from quick glances around the table and at other tables, the plating was horrific; some people had 2 pieces of tomatoes, others one, some with vines, some without...and then comes the broccoli - there were 2 pieces, 3 pieces, brown pieces of broccoli, 1 huge broccoli, and even NO broccoli for some. That was disappointing. Hopefully, the caterers do a better job for your functions in the future if you are looking for a venue, but based on my experience, I wouldn't recommend the venue if you need very decent food to be served (unless you only need a venue for a presentation or showcase and need some drinks and light meals to go on with).

Good Morning Adelaide.. Well the North of it

As promised, here is the second post for the night.

On the recent weekend that has zoomed past, couple of my friends DA and AP decided to roam the city and we had an absolute ball. However, for some unknown reason, I decided to wake up extremely early on Sunday morning. It was a cold, winterish morning; the sun was playing peek-a-boo so it was a bit unpredictable.

I was actually in real need of coffee and was quick hungry (which was unusual considering I ate extremely late, or early some might say). This was of course at around 7.30 in the morning. As I was on O'Connell Street in North Adelaide and the sun was shining, I decided to stroll down the street (yes in my Adidas track pants, Nike jumper and Tigers...I really look like a crazy sports guy up ridiculously early on a Sunday morning). I was really surprised that not only was Un Caffè Bar open, but the machine was ready to go, with their range of take-away breakfast all set up in the fridge ready to go.

What I really love about this particular coffee joint is the location; whether you're sitting indoors or out, on a sunny day, it is beautiful. The sun comes in and just hits the right sections of the store. So I decided to order my usual coffee (my usual at Un Caffè is large skim cappuccino with an extra shot of coffee) and as I was rather peckish, I had to get one of their quick take-away breakky:

Berry granola topped with Greek yoghurt and fresh mixed berries

The granola was a nice mixture of corn-flakes, granola pieces, bits of muesli, dried fruits, and some other bits and pieces. The yoghurt with the mixed berries was a nice substitute for milk (I don't think I was ready to have too much milk this early in the morning since I haven't exercised). It is just a nice and clean start to the day to break the fast on a lovely Sunday morning. If you are ever down O'Connell Street in North Adelaide extremely early on a Sunday morning, I suggest you pop by for a visit for a fantastic way to start your day.

...and into the Lion's Mouth We Go!

Désolé my dear readers, for I have been lazy (and my honours project isn't very light on me, and I am also trying to train with 2 weeks notice for a 12km run!). 

I'll make this post short and snappy, and if I have time, then I may put up another post later in the evening.

So a couple of Saturdays ago (not the one that just went past), a whole group of us went to The Lion for a birthday dinner. I've been there a couple of times, but I'm trying different things each time. There are two sections to The Lion dining area: the 'proper' dining area which is right beside the pub/bar area, or the 'pub' dining area which is more informal. 

Their pub dining menu still had some pretty "proper" dishes, but as to how well done it was, that will come later in the review. People usually go to The Lion for their burgers, steak, i.e. basically their meats. Before I went there, an awesome friend, LP (who is THE dessert queen), recommended that I try out their beef bourguignon which is only available in their pub dining section. It was a struggle to find as it wasn't written on the menu, and there wasn't really a 'specials' board. If you head up to the counter where you order, it is actually hidden tucked away at the top corner in the dark where it says "Winter Warmers". It was an extremely inexpensive dinner (approximately $15AU) AND it came with a free glass of Jacob's Creek cab. sav. (alternatively you can have a beer with it, but I'm not a big fan of beer). 

Winter warmer - beef bourguignon with soft polenta and gremolata

This dish is not only inexpensive, but an absolute flavour explosion in your mouth! The beef was so soft and tender. The polenta was done incredibly - it was soft and creamy, cheesy, yet not sickening...it was amazing; and the gremolata (can't see it very well sorry!) went really nicely- the nice tang and the herb-iness was fantastic.

The Lion Burger - beef, with french fries

WG ordered this and he said was really good (it does look nice). I'm not too sure if it is able to beat the burgers at Burger Foundry, but perhaps next time... 

ML ordered lamb shanks with confit garlic mash, gremolata and glaze which looked pretty good, and he said the shank was done pretty nicely. Unfortunately I did forget to take a photo of it, but the presentation was very decent. There was one dish however that many people who ordered were not happy with - TMN ordered the panfried atlantic salmon with toasted cous cous, green beans, almond figs and cider vincotto, which sounds really lovely, but the taste is another matter. The skin was not crispy at all (very easily fixed by salting it a bit more!), and the salmon was not seasoned properly, i.e. it was pretty much tasteless. If you do happen to feel like seafood, I recommend that you best avoid that dish!

However, I was quite pleased that night with the meals. The dishes were whipped up extremely quickly and there is a vast selection on their menu (considering it was such a big group) ~ they didn't modify the menu at all which means that the whole pub dining menu was available for selection. I would definitely recommend The Lion if you feel like a burger, a winter warmer, or if you have a large group booking you need to make.

Good Life..Good Pizza

Bonjour! It has been over a week since I last posted now! Things are getting a bit busier as it gets closer to the end of the year.

Last week, my friend, LT, and I went to Glenelg to buy some sports gear, but then I was feeling rather peckish from the money spending! As we haven't had pizza for a while, we decided to try out Goodlife Modern Organic Pizza - a lot of people have been talking about them, giving rather positive feedback. There are 3 different locations in total; one in Glenelg (which is the one that this review will be based on), one on Hutt Street and the other one in North Adelaide.

The first time around, we actually walked right past the restaurant without realising where it was. The tricky thing about this particular joint is that it is located on Level 1 (so that yes, there are stairs involved ~ I guess it gives you a slight workout before reaching there =P) and the name isn't that particularly obvious. The bottom of the stairs is quite dark so you really need to keep an eye out, otherwise you will miss it.

As we weren't  overly hungry, we decided to order one large pizza (a 2-person pizza, i.e. 12-inch) to share. Unfortunately, they don't do half-&-half pizzas (i.e. two flavours on one pizza) - there were a couple of different ones I definitely wanted to try. We ended up ordering a duck pizza:

Free-range roasted duck with shitake mushroom and spring onion ginger jam

It was absolutely mouth-watering and delicious! The smell wafting from the pizza as it was brought to our table already awaken our tastebuds, sending them to overdrive. The duck was really nice ~ soft and tender. The crust on the pizza is done very well; it was thin and the outer crust was very crispy and has a very nice texture contrasted to the soft delicious centre-filling. My favourite thing on the pizza though was the spring onion ginger jam! If any of you have tried Hainanese Chicken Rice before, the jam reminds me of the flavours of the spring onion and ginger dip that comes with the rice, except the one on top of the pizza is slightly sweet, making it very nice. After having one bite, it leaves you wanting more.

Overall, the service was good - the waiter and waitress came back often enough, checking orders, drinks and asked how everything was. I definitely recommend that you try this pizza joint out; I will certainly be back to try the others.

Saturday at SQ

Good evening mesdames et messieurs. I recently went out with a group of people for a dinner on Saturday night and I've come to realised that it is in fact very challenging for such a big group of people to go out to a very decent and nice place without alterations to the menu (in total, there was around 20 people).

This review was going to be about Culshaw's Grill at the Majestic Hotel on Frome Road but because of the change to a-la-carte menu, I decided to change the venue of the dinner gathering. I was just browsing around for different places, trying every single site or book I could find, from Google to Entertainment Book to the papers for places to go. At the end however, I managed to find SQ Restaurant (part of Mantra Hotel in Hindmarsh Square in Adelaide's CBD).

The staff were very nice and the service was definitely top notch. It is a nice little hidden place, yet still located right in the heart of the city. From the start, the tapas and the starters menu looked very intriguing, but I was not extremely hungry so I did not order any. My friend LK however, did decide to order bread which came with an olive oil dip and dukkah (the typical) - the only let down was the bread; it would have been a lot nicer if it was warm.

Most of us went straight into the mains. Being such a huge crowd meant that there were a variety of dishes, but I unfortunately could not take a photo of all of them. So here are the ones that I did manage to snap up:

Duo Beef served on Vegetarian Risotto

This dish was part of the specials on for the evening. The combination of beef was cooked beautifully. The Wagyu brisket was absolutely amazing - so tender and literally a "melt-in-the-mouth" moment. The steak was a bit over-done on the edges, but the middle is cooked to perfection (I like them medium-rare). The risotto on mine was cooked very nicely as well - creamy, yet not very gluggy (the way it is supposed to be done!). The platting could be a bit nicer though, but the food was good at least.

Side dishes: House Fries with Lemon Salt and Roast Onion Aioli and Rocket, Pear & Parmesan Salad

The fries weren't crispy which was a bit disappointing (double-frying could crisp them up) and there wasn't enough lemon salt in the chips, but the aioli made up for it - very addictive dip.  The salad was as expected, nothing too grandeur; it was just as it should be, a rocket, pear & parmesan salad. 

Snapper (I think) and seafood cous cous served with wakame

This was another dish which was on the specials menu. I am not too sure in regards to how the fish was done. The wakame addition to the top of the seafood cous cous is interesting - two people ordered it and one definitely did not like it, whilst the other thought the combination as odd. I quite agree that this was an odd combination; instead the wakame should be served on the side, almost as a starter if it was going to be utilised in the dish.

Angus Coorong Sirloin Steak on Shallot and Roast Garlic Rousti and Cabernet Jus
Side dish: Potato Mash with White Truffle Oil

My friend, TN, said that it was done perfectly (I'm pretty sure he wanted it medium-rare as well), and the meat did look extremely tender, beautiful and juicy. I think it is quite safe to say that it was a winner.

From the overall experience, it was quite positive. The let-down for the evening was actually the plating of the dish. The same dishes were plated inconsistently. For example the snapper which was ordered by a couple of people looked extremely different - the cous cous wasn't plated in a round circular manner and the size of the snapper were extremely different. The Duo of Duck, another popular dish for the evening was again plated extremely inconsistently - some plates had more duck pieces, whilst others had a mixture of big and small pieces. For the amount you have to pay for each dish, you would be expecting them to be plated very similarly, if not, exactly the same. However, it was still an enjoyable evening with lovely food and wine (I can't remember the exact one but it had a combination of Shiraz/Grenache/Viognier — highly recommended). 

Dinner for Three, Four, or Just...Moi

Bonsoir! Hope you all enjoyed the previous few posts on Sunday evening - it was a posting spree that night considering the amount of food I cooked during that beautiful day.

I haven't been eating out as much for these couple of weeks as I have been rather busy (and I actually forgot to take photos at a couple of the places that I did go...) but I will promise to do my best. For tonight's late post, it will be about home cooking.

There is nothing better than strolling a day in the markets, tasting the fresh local produce that is available, as well as eating food from other countries. That is one thing I absolutely love about Central Market in Adelaide. I really could have been in numerous countries today with the amount of food I tasted today ranging from the cheeses (France) to mettwurst (Germany), Sicilian olives (Italy), piroshki (Russia) and so much more (not forgetting to mention the number of local fruits I was trying before buying!). Tonight's ingredients will basically all come from today's expedition to the markets.

Dinner doesn't have to be complicated, whether it be cooking for 3 people, 4 people, 10 people, or only yourself. It is all about proportions and how you plate up the dishes - you can make it as complicated as you want it to be, or as simple as you would like. I had quite a slow night at work, and the last thing  I really wanted to worry about when I got home was dinner, but I decided that healthy eating was definitely the way to go. So for dinner, I decided to cook sausages - if you thought that it wasn't very healthy, well, I am here to prove you wrong!

Sun-dried tomato organic beef sausages with onion chilli jam and salad with roasted capsicums and Sicilian olives

Dinner tonight really could have been split into two or three dishes (absolutely great idea if you have lots of guests to cook for): entree as Sicilian olives, main dish as the sun-dried tomato organic beef sausages with the onion chilli jam, and the side dish as the salad with multiple different varieties of lettuce, roasted capsicum and eggs with a light raspberry vinegar. 

The sausages were made from organic beef and contained sun-dried tomatoes as well - you can really taste the difference from these sausages compared to ordinary sun-dried tomato beef sausages; they are produced from the Barossa Valley regions, but I managed to buy them in Central Market. When I went to the Lucia grocery store in the markets, I also managed to pick up a bottle of raspberry vinegar and onion chilli jam. They are both amazing accompaniments and dressings to ordinary dishes. The vinegar I used tonight in the salads transformed it into a beautiful light dish to go with the sausages - the raspberry was definitely evident. The onion chilli jam is a definite MUST for the pantry do go alongside the other common condiments such as tomato sauce; it just gives it that extra little edge of gourmet and uniqueness to the foods that you are cooking everyday. 

Onion chilli jam

This jam pretty much goes with any of the meaty dishes - I think you can actually also have that very easily by itself on a piece of toast. The sweetness of the onion and the heat from the chills is a wonderful combination (not forgetting to mention the spices exploding on your tastebuds). I have included a photo above as to what the bottle of the onion chilli jam looks like in case you are interested in obtaining a bottle. 

Dinner is of course not complete without dessert, and so the finale to complete the triage is the following:

Fruit'n' yoghurt with warm raw honey

That was just a random name I decided to name the dessert but really it contains (from the bottom upwards) dark grapes, strawberries and navel orange pieces. As I have decided to go healthy tonight, I was against using cream or ice-cream; instead I changed to something even more flavoursome - plain yoghurt mixed with equal proportions to mascarpone and added vanilla paste to provide that rich flavour without being overly sweet. It is however topped off with warm organic raw honey to give it that extra bit of sweetness and warmness to complete the taste sensation of the palate. 

If you are interested in making any of the dishes or have any queries about the products I have mentioned, feel free to send me an e-mail, comment on the post or ask whenever you see me next =) 

Au revoir until next time ...

The Proof is in the Pudding

Last post for the night! Puddings :D One of my favourite things to enjoy, especially in Christmas, or on cold wintery nights, those rich sauces to go with the warm gooey pudding.

There are so many different varieties, depending also on the occasion or the weather as well. Christmas puddings are full of spices and fruits (reminding me almost of a fruitcake), and after coming out fresh from the oven or boiler, topped off with warm brandy custard or finished off with vanilla gelato... makes my mouth water just thinking of it.

Tonight however, this post is about a different type of pudding. Something a lot simpler... self-saucing puddings. I was about to post a butterscotch self-saucing pudding up a couple of nights ago, but I was too tired. Today I actually made a chocolate self-saucing pudding and it would be a better idea to have a comparison between the 2 of them.

The ingredients for the self-saucing pudding isn't extensive. I have listed below the required ingredients for the chocolate self-saucing pudding. Just searching on Google will enable you to find extensive listings of the different recipes of puddings.

Ingredients:
Cake

• Self-raising flour
• Cocoa Powder
• Dark brown sugar
• Original Baileys liqueur
• Butter
• Milk
• Egg

Sauce

• Brown sugar
• Cocoa powder
• Boiling water

The first time I made a self-saucing pudding, I thought that the dish was absolutely destroyed when I added the running watery sauce on top. However, there is no need to fear as the liquid actually thickens up quite dramatically and sinks to the bottom upon baking.  Below are the photos of the 2 types of self-saucing puddings:

Butterscotch self-saucing pudding

Chocolate self-saucing pudding with a hint of Baileys

The chocolate version looks slightly burnt at the top — it is actually not burnt (the cocoa powder sprinkled on top makes the top appear extremely dark). Both puddings are extremely rich and I highly suggest serving small portions with plain vanilla ice-cream.  Some people aren't extreme fans of chocolate based desserts (rare, I know, but there is always at least one!), so the butterscotch self-saucing pudding would be a good alternative to the chocolate version.

The puddings are best served warm, and because of that, the sweetness of the puddings is also quite evident. Remember to serve it with ample amounts of ice-cream to balance the flavours out. It is a fantastic dish to whip up on a cold winter night after a hearty home cooked meal. Try making them for yourself and let me know how it turns out =)

Note: different alcoholic liqueurs can be substituted, e.g. Amaretto (if you like that almond flavour - serve it with almond and rosewater-infused ice-cream), Kahlua, Frangelico, etc. or if you wish to make a child-friendly version, omit the alcohol altogether. 

Adieu pour aujourd'hui