Easter 08 – a birthday, anniversary and cheesecake!

Easter this year was pretty special. I always love having four days off, but this year Easter coincided with Alastair's birthday (on Saturday) and our first year wedding anniversary (on Monday).

We celebrated Alastair's birthday at home with Birthday Lasagne. Every year, I ask him what he would like for dinner on his birthday. I offer to make him anything. And every year he asks for lasagne! I'm often rather critical of my cooking, but even I thought that his Birthday Lasagne this year was frickin' awesome! The meat sauce was flavoursome and rich, having simmered for a couple of hours, and there was oodles of cheese.

Apart from Birthday Lasagne, Alastair also had Birthday Pancakes and Birthday Cheesecake. He was rather spoilt.

The recipe for the cheesecake was from Jamie Oliver's "Cook with Jamie" (the recipe is at the end of this post). In the book, he calls it the Bloomin' Easy Vanilla Cheesecake. Was it easy? Well, it would've been much easier if I hadn't been trying to juggle making lasagne at the same time! I broke my food processor pulsing the crumbs for the base – the tabs locking the bowl in place snapped. Then the cream cheese wasn't quite soft enough when I started beating the filling, and I got cream cheese on my face, on the bench, on other appliances, basically everywhere!

The other thing to note about this cheesecake is that it's HUGE. It has almost a kilo of cream cheese in and although the book says it serves 8-10 people, I reckon 12 people is a more accurate number. If I had realised just how big it was going to be, I would've scaled it down. It's pretty rich and filling, so it's not the kind of dessert where you'll have seconds. We had a piece of it after our anniversary dinner the next day, and I thought it tasted better after sitting in the fridge for a day.



We also celebrated our anniversary in the weekend, again at home. We popped a bottle of champagne that had been a wedding present (thanks Scott!) and I prepared some garlic and chilli tiger prawns, steamed mussels, pan-fried salmon and tuna sashimi.



It was a wonderful way to celebrate our anniversary. And we had such a lovely weekend that it was hard to go back to work on Tuesday!


Bloomin' easy vanilla cheesecake

From Jamie Oliver's Cook with Jamie
Serves 8-10 (serves 12 in my opinion)

150g /5 & 1/2 oz unsalted butter, melted, plus extra for greasing
250g /9oz digestive biscuits, crushed
115g/4oz caster sugar
3 tablespoons cornflour
900g/2lb full fat cream cheese, at room temperature
2 large free-range eggs
115ml/4 fl oz double cream
1 vanilla pod, scored lengthways and seeds removed, or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
zest of 1 lemon
zest of 1 orange

for the cherry compote
400g/14oz stoned cherries (I used a punnet of raspberries)
3 heaped tablespoons caster sugar
options: a swig of port or whisky
icing sugar, for dusting

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C/350 degrees F, and grease and line the bottom and sides of a 24cm/9 & 1/2 inch springform cake tin. Mix the biscuits and butter in a bowl, press into the base of hte prepared tin and cook for 10 minutes. Then remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Turn the oven up to 200 degrees C/400 degrees F. Combine the sugar and cornflour in a bowl. Add the cream cheese and beat, ideally with an electric whisk, until creamy. Add the eggs and beat well. Gradually add the cream, beating until smooth, then beat in the vanilla seeds or extract and lemon and orange zest.

Scrape the mixture on to the biscuit base, and gently shake it to level out the surface. Put the cheesecake in the centre of the oven and bake for 40 to 45 minjutes until the top is golden brown and the filling has set around the edges. (A piece of foil over the top will stop it browning too much.) Let it cool at room temperature and serve after 2 or 3 hours. Or, for a slightly firmer texture, put it in the fridge until it's nice and cold.

Before serving, put the cherries in a pan, sprinkle over the sugar and add a splash of water. Put on a low to medium heat and simmer gently for 10 minutes. If you've got some port or whisky handy, feel free to add some. When the compote has reduced down it may be a little dry, so add a splash of water to loosen it. Remove from the heat and let it cool down, then serve spooned over the cheesecake with a dusting of icing sugar.

Plane food: Air New Zealand

On our recent long weekend in Wellington we flew Air New Zealand. With a flight time of approximately three and a half hours, just a short hop across the Tasman, a full meal wasn't served.

On the way over to Welly, we were served a light dinner. We were right at the back of the plane and it took SO LONG before we got food. I was starving and the food smells wafting out of the kitchen at the back didn't help!

One meal choice was shepherd's pie and potato salad, and the other wasn't memorable because I can't recall it! The shepherd's pie was a cottage pie (beef mince rather than lamb mince) and was actually rather good. The pastry was light, and the filling was adequately seasoned. There was, naturally, a packet of tomato sauce provided. The potato salad was less successful and needed a bit more zing (some mayo would've been great!) - and I did wonder about serving a potato topped pie with more potatoes on the side. Carb city!



Dessert was a slice of cake, wrapped in plastic. I wanted to wait until I had a cup of tea before eating it, but, just like when getting our meal, tea and coffee took aaaaaaaages. I never have been good with resisting when the food is right in front of me! The presentation of the cake slice was rather average, but happily it tasted better than it looked. It was moist and light, and nicely vanilla flavoured.

The flight went pretty smoothly, apart from the descent into Wellington when the wind buffeted the plane. It was all rather familiar. The runway in Wellington is quite short, being sandwiched between two areas of sea. Along with the frequent gusts of wind, landing there can be rather unpleasant! I have had some horrible landings in Welly, but fortunately it was relatively smooth on this trip.

Have a look at the video for some unpleasant landings!





On the way home, the flight left at the ungodly hour of 6.30am. On the up side, this meant that I was tired enough to sleep most of the way home! I did wake up for breakfast though. The choices were between a warm breakfast, a ham and egg croissant, or a cold continental breakfast. The croissant was passable - flaky, but a tad dry.



There was also a small chocolate chip muffin provided. It was just okay, and despite appearances it wasn't as nice as the cake slice on the trip over.



There was also a small fruit salad of pineapple and orange.

All in all, the food was average but it was perfectly fine for the short flight. The planes were looking a tad tired, but we arrived home safely - and in the end that's the important thing!

Brunches: Bunyip, Red Star, Panette and El Mirage

Bunyip

We seem to visit South Melbourne every couple of weeks, probably because I like going to the market there. We tend to have brunch before visiting the South Melbourne market, and recently we brunch at Bunyip. Bunyip is located in an old Victorian, which looks like it once may have been a house. It was a glorious day, and we ended up sitting outside underneath a couple of large, yellow umbrellas. I didn't notice until I uploaded the photos to my camera, but the umbrellas gave an unpleasant tint to my pictures that I haven't been able to totally correct. Doh!



I ordered the Spanish eggs ($14). Two poached eggs came in a rich napoli sauce, with chorizo and black olives. The sauce was thick and a touch spicy and the eggs were happily runny. Initially I thought there was only one egg, but there was one hidden underneath the sauce. Happy days!



The Boys had corn fritters with roast tomato, bacon and relish ($12). I love corn fritters for brunch, and these looked pretty good.

Bunyip Cafe,
313 Coventry Street, South Melbourne,
Phone: 03 9682 5844


Red Star



The scorching weather last week was a surprise, as was the fact that at Red Star I had a sweet breakfast, while Alastair had a savoury one. I started off with an iced coffee, which was large and full of milk and ice cream. It wasn't very strong coffee wise though, which was slightly disappointing.



I ordered the french toast with maple syrup ($7.50) adding grilled banana and bacon ($2.60 each). I think I could've skipped the banana, and I did wonder where the other half of my banana went (in the photo you can see a nub of the other half)! They were very generous with the bacon however, and that was great with the french toast. Points off for the fake maple syrup though.



Alastair and Pat had the big breakfast which came with two eggs, bacon, sausage, hash brown, tomatoes, mushrooms and scwhob's toast ($19). I thought it was a bit on the expensive side, even for a big brekkie. The toast was great – Pat took one bite and drooled due to the generous buttering. I ate a piece too and it was gooooooooood.

Red Star
315 Coventry Street
South Melbourne, 3205
Phone: 03 9682 1678

Caffe Panette



I have blogged about the fabulous gnocchi bolognaise previously, and Panette also do a spinach gnocchi. For some reason I haven't noted down any details about this one, but from what I can remember the spinach gnocchi is served with a napoli sauce and topped with mozzarella.



It's not as light and as tasty as the other gnocchi but it's pretty good. And if you're watching your weight, just try and ignore the massive amount of cheese!

Caffe Panette
144 Cecil St, South Melbourne 3205 VIC
Phone: (03) 9690 2803


El Mirage



The other weekend we were in the Brunswick East area because I had to drop by a friend's house, and we took the opportunity to try a new cafe.

El Mirage was very busy when we arrived, and we had to wait a few minutes for a table. As we ordered, the waitress advised us that meals would take about half an hour, due to lots of people ordering at once. That was okay with us, so we ordered and waited.

Everyone in the cafe, especially the staff, seemed very trendy, and I felt like we weren't cool enough to be there. :)

My long mac was very enjoyable, although I tried to delay drinking it. I knew that drinking it 30 minutes before eating would make me all jittery from the caffeine!



Either the time went very quickly, or 30 minutes was a worst case scenario, but it didn't seem to be too long before our food arrived. Bro and I both had the Gringo ($15) which came with poached eggs, mexican beans, tomato, bacon and "home-fries". The eggs were soft and runny, and I loved the beans and the home-fries. I always like it when you can get something a bit different from regular eggs and toast.

El Mirage
349 Lygon St
Brunswick East
Phone: 03 9388 0966

Wellington: Southern Cross

After drinks and cheerios, we felt a bit peckish. Since we were already at the Southern Cross, we took the easy option and decided to eat there.

We asked for a table in the dining area, and unfortunately got seated in the darkest corner of the room, so excuse the shite pics! The "stone grilled" section of the menu intrigued us - you choose your desired meat/s, plus chips/potatoes and salad/green vege. The meat comes out on a slab of volcanic rock, letting you cook it to your liking. Gimmicky? Probably.... but we are suckers for a gimmick!

Holy moly!

Alastair and I shared the "A Taste of the Cross" ($58, serves 2). My eyes widened when our petite waitress appeared carrying our meal - a plank of wood about one metre in length, on top of which was bread, dips, a bowl of nuts, a bowl of olives, the volcanic rock, potatoes and vegetables, smoked salmon, avocado, salad and a cup of pulled pork. On top of the slab of heated rock were two pieces of completely raw rump steak, two mussels, two oysters and two spoons holding scallops.



The meat sizzled away on the extremely hot rock and the seafood sat quietly cooking. Unfortunately I was overcome by the novelty of the big plank being plonked on to our table, plus was um... taking pictures, and only noticed the oysters after they had been on the hot rock for a couple of minutes. It was long enough for them to cook. Gak. While the meat was cooking, we ate the mussels and scallops. Well, I ate a scallop. Alastair dropped his one on the floor!



The rosemary roast potatoes were okay (although I must confess that I very rarely dislike potatoes!) but didn't have much rosemary flavour. The green vegetables were okay too, although a couple of the green beans had some brownish spots.



We only nibbled at the bread and dips. I think one dip was capsicum and despite appearances one seemed to be blue cheese. There were also olives that were marinated with preserved orange. I wasn't really a fan of the preserved orange and left the olives after trying one. I did eat most of the bowl of mixed nuts though.



The pulled pork came in a ice cream sundae cup, and it was spiced and smokey. There was a bit too much food though, and we didn't eat much of the pork.

When we had finished eating, the rock was still hot, so we sat and chatted and plonked random things on the slab. Naturally we had to ask about the rocks, and found out that they are heated in a kiln for several hours. They can cook for 30 minutes and stay hot for an hour and a half!

It was a fun meal and definitely a gimmick worth trying at least once.

The Southern Cross
35 Abel Smith Street, Te Aro
Wellington, New Zealand
Phone: +64 4 384 9085

Chickpea bake

I have heard many things about the famous Moroccan Soup Bar and it's amazing chickpea bake, but I haven't been there yet (I know, I know). I have eaten a chickpea bake once, when a friend made it at one of our FFOFs, and I remember it being tastier than it initially seemed. I was thinking about it the other day because I had some Lebanese flat bread in the pantry. The bread was a bit stale, so I was trying to think of a way to use it up.

In some ways it's a good thing I've never had the Moroccan Soup Bar version of the chickpea bake because I don't have any preconceived ideas about how it should taste. I can tinker with my own version to my heart's content!

So I googled for a chickpea bake recipe, and found one on a blog called the mobius strip. I adapted this recipe to my taste, mostly in the way I cooked the eggplant and flat bread. I also added some chermoula spice, that I had purchased from the Harvest Picnic.



The chickpea bake was good - I really loved the crispy flat bread and the tangy, slightly spicy chickpeas. I thought it could've used a squeeze of lemon juice and might try that next time I make it.

I topped the bake with some spinach from my garden, to add a bit of green. Speaking of my garden, I have cracked the coriander growing problem. After a bit of research, I found that coriander is quite sensitive to transplanting, which might be why I had so much problem with seedlings. I sowed some coriander from seed a few weeks ago, and they sprouted without any problems. They've very small at the moment, but seem to be growing successfully. The rest of my plants are also growing well, although my basil, mint and spinach seem to have been decimated by unidentified insects and the recent heat wave. I'm hoping they will revive! They're not completely toast, but they're not as lush as they were a week ago.



Chickpea Bake

Adapted from the mobius strip

Serves 3-4

3 pieces of flat Lebanese bread
Olive oil for spraying
2 teaspoons of chermoula spice (or any other desired mixture of spices)
1 medium eggplant, cut into cubes
1 teaspoon of olive oil
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
1 onion, peeled and diced
1 teaspoon chermoula spice (or other mixture)
400g can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
Salt and pepper
1 cup yoghurt
A handful of baby spinach (optional)

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Lightly spray the bread with olive oil, and sprinkle the spice on top. Toast in the oven for about 10 minutes, or until nice and crispy. Take it out of the oven and crush/rip into smallish pieces. Turn the oven down to 180 degrees C.

Steam the eggplant over boiling water for about 10 minutes, or until tender. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a frying pan over medium heat, and saute the garlic and onions until soft. Add the spice mixture, chickpeas and the steamed eggplant. Fry lightly for a couple of minutes to warm the chickpeas. Season with salt and pepper.

Put the chickpea mixture into a baking dish, then stir through the yoghurt. Place the dish into the oven until the chickpea bake is just warmed through (don't bake it for too long or at too high a heat in case the yoghurt curdles).

Take the chickpea bake out of the oven, and stir through the toasted flat bread (or layer if you prefer). Top with spinach if desired, and eat immediately before the bread softens.

Wellington: a long weekend, and a wedding

Alastair and I flew into Wellington on Friday morning for a long weekend. It was a very busy one - we attended a wedding, had a couple of drinks with friends, had dinner with Alastair's dad, and went to a wedding lunch, a wedding dinner, a day after wedding lunch, day after wedding drinks, plus many, many walks (in high heels) up the stupid hill to our hotel on the Terrace.


Wellington from the Majestic Centre

Somewhere in the middle of all that stuff, we managed to have a quick walk around Wellington. I hadn't been back in almost four years, and wasn't terribly surprised to find that not much had changed since my last visit. Most of the shops and restaurants were still the same, the bucket fountain was still there, and it was still windy.



On Friday, after a quick sleep, we met up with mum and dad to give them some tech support. They had especially brought their laptops down from Auckland, and Alastair patiently answered all their questions (sucks to be the IT guy, huh?). Alastair needed a bit of strength first though, so we walked down the road to get a coffee. We walked into a place that looked cool and hip, and Alastair went up to the counter to order us some coffees. I'm not sure what the problem was, but he had issues ordering a latte - maybe it was the accent, or perhaps the guy was new, but eventually Alastair had to flag down someone else to place the order!

The picture above wasn't from the place in question. This coffee was at Old Bank Arcade on Lambton Quay. We had a quick bite to eat there before going to the wedding ceremony. The coffee was good and we returned on Sunday morning. I felt like a soy latte on that morning and although I didn't take a photo it was the BEST soy latte I've ever had. It tasted like chocolate, caramel and soy. Yum.



At the Old Bank Arcade, I had a smoked salmon and rye bagel for breakfast. I did take the pickle out and eat that first though.



On the soy latte day, I had a mushroom croissant. Alastair had a danish on both days.



On Friday evening, we caught up with one of my friends for a drink. She suggested the Southern Cross. Later that evening, we met up with one of Alastair's friends. He made it super easy for us by suggesting that we meet at Southern Cross. And where was the day after wedding drinks held? Yup, the Southern Cross!

While there we wanted something to nibble on before dinner. Normally we would get a bowl of hot chips, but then we discovered you can buy a bowl of cheerios - so cheerios it was! It made me think of birthday parties that I attended as a youngster where cheerios and tomato sauce would always be served.



Speaking of being a youngster, we went to the supermarket so I could buy some supplies to take back - sour cream and chive Grainwaves, Chocolate fingers and Aprioot and chocolate CookieTimes. While there, I saw a bottle of Mello Yello, and had to buy it for the nostalgia factor. And.... it was sickly sweet and icky. What a disappointment. Some things should remain in the past!



These photos were taken from the 28th floor of the Majestic Centre, Wellington's highest building. There's no public viewing facilities in the building - we were there for the wedding cocktail luncheon. The view from up there is gorgeous. The room that the function was held in appeared to be a meeting room - what a waste of a view!

Carrot cake muffins

I like the humble carrot. I wouldn't say that it's my favourite vegetable, but it's certainly one of the most useful. I put it in almost everything – pasta sauces, soups, stews, stir fry, sandwiches, roasts and salads as well as eating it raw by itself or with dips.

Carrot juice is probably my favourite juice, although I don't drink it often due to the amount of carrots needed to make a cup (plus I don't have a juicer). And carrot cake? Carrot cake has got to be one of the best cakes ever. Foodtimeline says that carrot cake was most likely descended from Medieval carrot puddings, where they were used due to the natural sweetness (because sweetners were expensive). Carrot cake was around here and there since that time, and recipes for cakes with a cream cheese icing started to appear in the 1960s.

This recipe was adapted from Stephanie Alexander's The Cook's Companion. The original recipe called for plain white flour and walnuts. I used wholemeal flour instead, because one of my favourite things about carrot cake is the nuttiness. Because I don't like walnuts and therefore never have any in the pantry, I substituted pepitas.

I made muffins instead of a big cake and ate them over a few days - they were a great mid-morning snack.



Simple carrot cake

Adapted from Stephanie Alexander's The Cook's Companion

125 g self-raising wholemeal flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
2/3 cup olive oil
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups finely grated carrot
60 g roughly chopped walnuts or pepitas

Preheat oven to 180 degree C and grese an 18 cm springform tin or 6 cup muffin tin. Mix flour, sugar and spices. Add oil and eggs and beat in a food processor or an electric mixer for 1 minute. Stir in carrot and walnuts/pepitas. Spoon into prepared tin and bake for about 1 hour (less if making muffins). Cool in tin before turning out.

When cold, dust with icing sugar mixed with ground cinnamon or ice with cream cheese mixed with a touch of icing sugar and lemon juice.

Hien Vuong Pasteur

Whenever we have visitors, we mostly let them sort out their own sightseeing. I love this city, but I find it hard to think of interesting "touristy" things to do. Unlike other cities that have several must-see sights, Melbourne has charms that grow on you over time.

While we're not good with the sightseeing agenda, we do have a food agenda. This is a list of must-eat items that our visitors need to experience. On the list are things like: dumplings at Camy, a hot chocolate at Koko Black, perhaps a claypot at EC pot (I need to go back and write a post on this place!), a parma, and a big bowl of pho.

On a recent visit to Footscray, we decided to try a different pho restaurant. We walked past one that was packed with customers, always a good sign, so we took our chances and went in. The restaurant was decked out in the usual style – brightly lit with mirrored walls, menu written on the wall, and inexpensive tables and chairs. There's also two large plasma TVs mounted on the walls, providing something else to focus on apart from your reflection (which was a tad distracting).



The bowls of pho come in three different sizes – small for $6.50, medium for $7.50 and large for $8.50. The rice noodles and meat come swimming in a beef soup that has so much flavour, this is now our pho restaurant of choice. The one pictured here is a large - the Boys were hungry that night!



Apart from the 20 different styles of noodle soup, there's also the usual spring rolls and pork chops on rice and vermicelli. I believe this bowl of vermicelli was $8 (the price isn't written on the walls). It was a huge bowl of noodle, and while the sauce wasn't as tasty as in other places, it wasn't bad. I had actually ordered it because I had a hankering for some crunchy spring rolls – and didn't spot the springs rolls on the menu until after I ordered. I was a tad envious of the Boys with their bowls of pho.



The one disappointment is the tea tastes a bit strange. It may be due what they use to clean the thermoses. Both times we visited, the tea had an overwhelming taste and smell of detergent. But with three colour drinks cheaply priced at $2, and a big bowl of soup to drink after you've finished scavenging every last meat and noodle scrap from the bowl, who needs tea?

Update: they seem to have fixed the strange tasting tea! It has been fine in subsequent visits.



Hien Vuong Pasteur
144 Hopkins Street
Melbourne , VIC 3011
Phone: 03 9687 9698

Harvest picnic at Hanging Rock

Last Sunday we went out to Hanging Rock for the annual Harvest Picnic. I had given the Boys a leaving time before we went to bed, but unfortunately my Bro was a touch hungover and needed a bit of prodding. It was a slower start than I wanted, but eventually we climbed into the car and headed off.

45 minutes later we had arrived and parked (in a paddock). All around us were people pulling chairs, baskets and eskies out of their cars. It was our first time to the Harvest Picnic, and we felt very under prepared carrying a single picnic blanket!

We had a wander around before deciding on what we were going to buy/eat. Typical of these type of events, there were lots of stalls offering samples/tastes of wine, cheese, spices, preserves and oils. There were also quite a few stalls where you could buy different things to eat.

The Boys had a buffalo sausage. I sampled some buffalo cheese, which was rather good. I didn't buy any though.



They also had a caffeine fix. I'm told it was average coffee, but then what can you expect from a portable stand?



I had a lamb, cheese and spinach gozleme. There was a big queue by the time I got to the stand but I entertained myself by watching them being made.



The gozleme was a tad salty, but got scoffed down pretty quickly.



Bro had a chicken pie. It looked awesome but I'm told it was just okay.



We also had a calamari skewer and a sweet chilli prawn skewer. I'm not a fan of sweet chilli, but the prawns were actually really good. They tasted more garlicky than the usual sickly sweetness that sweet chilli has. The calamari wasn't so great though – by the time I walked them back to where our picnic blanket was located they were cold and a tad tough.



And last I also bought a smoked salmon plate to share. A couple of pieces of pide, a fair amount of smoked salmon, pickled onions, gherkins and some tartare sauce. I somehow managed to inhale the vinegar fumes when I was eating the pickled onions and it gave me a big coughing fit!

To finish off, I had a nice piece of Turkish delight that I neglected to take a photo of. It was rather nice, but not the best Turkish delight I've ever eaten. I'm not a huge fan of Turkish delight, but I once ate a piece that was super smooth and silky. I'm still trying to relive that moment.

We also went home with a few items - some fresh mushrooms, 3 blocks of cheese (two cheddar and one blue), and some spices and dukkah. I've been eating little pieces of cheese every day since we got back. Now I remember why I don't buy nice cheese unless there's an occasion. I eat too much of it!