Extra Special Harvests

Once upon a time I imagined a field of parsley growing in my garden, when I would never have to pay a couple of dollars to acquire this wonderful, tasty herb...

And then one day, the parsley had bolted and had gone over 4 feet tall!

to give you some perspective I stand at about 5 feet 6 inches 

and where my hand is, is the height of one of the parsley plants that is ready to flower and produce seed

meanwhile, this is a spinach leaf

from the backyard as well!

We have a compost pit where all our biodegradable kitchen veggie scraps go (including tea bags, cofffee beans) and we use it to fertilize the veggie patch. I would like to think that this cycle is keeping everyone happy! Anyway, I can't take too much credit for the veggie patch - he takes care of it more, and I just happen to do something with what grows there. :D 

a harvest of kale

the previous plant was pretty much raped by white aphids

kohlrabi - "german turnip" - a cousin of the cabbage

apparently you shouldn't let them grow bigger than a tennis ball if you were to harvest 

(except if you commercially sell them and they need to be as big as a saucer!)

It is just quite an amazing feeling to be able to harvest all these wonderful vegetables right within our own backyard - capturing fresh flavors as part of the day's meal. This Saturday's lunch was fresh from the garden...

With kale and the kohlrabi I decided to whip up something quick and easy - just stir fry the shredded veggies with crisped up spicy sausage, 3 cloves of minced garlic, 1 minced onion and a dash of vinegar and soy sauce, to be served over hot steaming rice.

Life is good :)

Daan's Cake (again!)

Our Dutch friends have 2 boys, both of which celebrate their birthday in September. This year, they were away for  holidays during the boys' birthdays so they had a belated party last weekend. I have grown very fond of these boys, basically seeing them grow up before my very eyes, and they are such good natured kids, it is difficult not to like them!

The other M was requested to make Thai fish cakes, his recipe which was a hit from a previous Sunday lunch. The cake I made was the sweet kind!

marshmallow fondant, made from microwaved marshmallows, kneaded with icing sugar

The cake is a lemon and caraway cake base from a previous recipe, slathered with a bit of cream cheese and whipped cream, so that the fondant would stick. I made two circular layers, and thought because it's a kids birthday, it would be a nice touch to decorate the cake with lollies, making it a huge treat!

And it was great to see the cake go down well. But not as great as seeing the children have a fabulous time!

Previous cake for Daan here

China Red

China Red is a restaurant in Bourke St, Melbourne CBD, modest in size but providing a bit of a wow factor with their touch screen wall mounted ordering system. Each meal is sent instantaneously, the next thing you'll know is that someone's popping over to drop off a dish you've just selected.

tap tap tap

I hope I didn't have to say that they serve Chinese cuisine, but there I've said, to remove all shadow of doubt! And when you're out dining in a Chinese restaurant, there are a couple of familiar dishes that you can't help but order. I personally  like sampling the hot and sour soup, which I think is a good gauge if a Chinese restaurant is kick ass awesome or not - if their hot and sour soup fails to impress, then it's like not getting the basics right . Well, at least that's what I think.

Anyway, so their hot and sour soup wasn't very bad, but one dish that caught our eye is the Fish Fillet in Hot Oil. It had an image of 2 chilis beside the name on the menu, denoting how hot it is. It was immediately ordered.

Fish Fillet in Hot Oil

Now this one is really not for the weak. Even the seasoned tongue (hah!) might get singed with this dish. The heat builds up different dimensions without invoking pain, and is heightened by the whole and ground szechuan peppers infused in the oil. In case the red things floating in the photo above didn't catch your eye, it's mostly whole and slightly crushed dried red chilis, and they are not just for decoration! The ladle is almost a 'sievelike', with holes in it so that you literally just fish for the fish, as you really wouldn't want to ladle the 'chili' soup on to your bowl. The bean sprouts had a bit of crunch and the lightly floured fillet of fish was soft and tender A bowl of rice is a must. And a couple of napkins to wipe away the sweat. And a Yanjing beer (they have some, it's pretty good and easy to drink - I wanted to take a photo of the beer bottle but after pouring it on to the glass the waitress immediately scurried off!)

We also got some xiao long bao - dumplings with soup inside. They weren't 'heavenly' but tasty enough. Perhaps I am just biased and loyal to the xiao long bao from Din Tai Fung. I would have to say though that the highlight of the night is the house chili sauce - which was really spectacular. It made everything taste great. I could've taken the bottle home!

yum

Service was quick, but sometimes too quick that arms appear to swoop from all directions to take plates and glasses away. Dishes seem reasonably priced for the serving size. Might be worth coming back some other time as I noticed they served pork intestines :D

** apologies the photos are from my blackberry. i think the resolution is not too bad for a camera on a phone, but compared to other photos, it does look a bit off, doesn't it :)

Chocolate and Guinness Cake

A colleague from work celebrated his 40th birthday last (Saturday) night. The man loves chocolate, and is married to an Irish lady, so I thought it would be nice to give him a fusion of something which represents each of them. So chocolate and something very Irish... what could be more Irish than Guinness?

Hence I researched chocolate and guinness cake recipes. It seems that one of the best recipes is Nigella's version. There was a lot of rave reviews about how moist and really tasty her cake turned out to be. I managed to do only minor tweaks - after all, the basic ingredients made perfect sense - the bubbles in the beer and eggs would give an the cake a lift, but not so much so I can imagine how dense it would be...the butter and sour cream is a great tandem to ensure it is moist, and chocolate+Guinness=enough said!

I followed the recipe from Nigella's website except I added two handfuls of bitter sweet chocolate chips to the beer mixture while melting the butter. The cake batter almost reached the top of my springform tin, and gradually rised beyond the tin, but eventually puffed down after just 55 minutes of baking.

The only other change was that I sprinkled chocolate shavings over the frosting to further highlight the 'chocolatiness'!

Guinness + butter + chocolate chips melting over medium heat

chocolate plus sour cream art 

cooling in tin 

finished product

The cake was a huge success - it was served during the party, and I watched a lot of people (most of them I've just met that night) wolf down the slices. Empty plates with telltale crumbs and happy faces said it all - it was a rewarding experience for something that was a gift to someone else in the first place!

Before and After

Before :

After ! 

** Winged creature not included in 'before' photo :p

These broad beans were succulent and went straight to the pot for a quick blanch before it was tossed into a salad. It is amazing how tasty fresh picked veggies are compared to store bought ones (or perhaps it's just all in the mind!) -  a really good motivation to keep it going!

This is also what happens when you let a dwarf white cauliflower simmer in the veggie patch - it becomes a mutant stemmed edible floral arrangement!

Sourdough Starter Experiment - results!

And one week later, here's the result of the sourdough starter experiment :

I think I can officially say that we have new pet, and we've decided to name it Bublé, because it is bubbly. :)

The 'essence of wild yeast' now resides in a wide mouthed bottle covered with cling film and a modest rubber band, and left in the fridge, and now I can feed it once a week only. For the past few days I have been religiously removing half of the mixture and adding 3 heaped tablespoonfuls of plain flour and almost half a cup of warm water to help propagate those wonderful microorganisms that would help me make wonderful (artisan?!) breads later!

This shows a bit of the 'hooch' forming on top of the mixture. Hooch is like beer - fermented liquid, basically. except i don't think it's suitable for drinking :p it also smells beery. I like to think that it's the booze for my pet! (we all gotta have our share don't we?!)

One last photo pose before it went to the fridge!

There is a lot of information about making sourdough starter but I find that this this link summarizes it quite succinctly. Check it out if you would like to make your own!

Harvest

Just backtracking on a previous harvest of silverbeet and watercress! I made these veggies into a fritata of sorts - which I'm sure I took of photo of, but just can't remember where I saved it!

He is now clearing the rest of the watercress to make way for new crop. Unfortunately it seems that the insects which could have been 'raping' the watercress have now moved on to the remaining silverbeet.

We pay expensive tax to these creatures! We've chosen an organic way to grow our veggies, so no chemicals or insecticides. I've googled some homemade sprays that might help (like a chili spray, or white oil) so we just need to get those going!

Princess

This post is actually just to check if Mobile Uploads really works - and it does!!

This photo is to remember the 3 books I've finished sometime back. I've now returned them to their owner!

Next book is the Hades Factor by Robert Ludlum - a $1 purchase from a Fete in the neighborhood. It was a spring time Fete which led us to some brilliant (and cheap) finds. A new favorite :D

Sourdough Starter Experiment

After a burst of inspiration from watching Hugh-Fearnley Whittingstall as he taught a bunch of mums on how to make bread, I set of to create his sourdough starter recipe. It is very simple - 2 tablespoons wholewheat flour, same amount of white flour, enough warm water to make a thick batter which has the consistency of double cream. The batter is whisked and fingers are crossed such that some wild yeast gets incorporated into the mixture to create the magic. He added a small slice of rhubarb, which is supposed to make it work. I didn't have any rhubarb handy, so I'll just keep my fingers crossed :D

I covered it with clingfilm and left it in the kitchen counter where it could get warm for the most part of the afternoon. Hopefully overnight it would leave some telltale signs of activity (foam, bubbles?). As it will be a living matter, it should be constantly fed with flour and water for a week. In every home there is wild yeast naturally occurring, and I hope that this starter catches a good dose of this wild yeast!

Those bubbles are from whisking though :)
If this succeeds I will have my first sourdough starter :) so wish me luck!

Making sourdough breads would be a great addition to  my usual soda breads, focaccia, pan de sal... I am really looking  forward to it! I'm still reading about starters and how to feed them. After leaving this overnight I'm supposed to discard half and topup lukewarm water and flour. Discarding half of it makes the mixture keeps the acid levels of the mixture on a good level, as it ferments more. It is an interesting chemistry experiment, just like the ones we had in school, except this time I am slightly more keen to enjoy the practical applications.. so watch this space!

Here's one of the episodes about sourdough starter from the River Cottage TV series.

Yes, I am a fan :)

Orange and Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

In keeping with the flavor of the season (lemon, that is, due to the very fruitful tree at the backyard!) I whipped up an orange and lemon poppy seed cake one afternoon despite being slightly groggy from cough syrup and drugs - I somehow managed to succumb to the office virus and have been out of commission for the past 3 days due to a bad cough, but that didn't stop me from baking. Rest assured the best possible standards for cleanliness have been observed to make this baked goodie. :p

I rarely get sick but when I get a cough, I get it bad. Despite having everything with lemon to amp up on vitamin C, I still have a lot of lemons left to use for everything else!


To make this cake I used
1/3 cup poppy seeds soaked in 1/4 cup milk
1 cup caster sugar
125 g butter, softened
3 eggs
zest of 1 orange and 1 lemon
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup orange juice

2 cups self raising flour

Soak the poppy seeds and set aside.

Grease a bundt tin and preheat oven to 160C.

Cream butter and sugar together. Add one egg at a time, ensuring it is well incorporated before the next addition. Beat in zest. Fold in flour, orange juice, poppy seed mixture and milk; mix until combined.

Pour onto prepared tin and bake for 45-55 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when cake is poked.

Frost if desired. I used a thin glaze made of lemon juice, icing sugar and orange zest and decorated with fresh mint leaves.

This one's another cake for someone's farewell by the way... at the rate at which people are leaving our current workplace, I could have made a couple of hundred dollars if I sold these babies! :) But I'd rather not... I just hope they appreciate the thought... most of them seem to, so all is good :D

Olive Oil Micro Mini Cakes

A couple of neighbors were coming over for afternoon tea so as a sweet treat I thought of creating something quick, easy, light yet tasty and small enough to hold and nibble on while having a chat.

Still in keeping with the lemon theme (flavor of the season, the tree is still bringing forth a lot of fruit), these olive oil cakes are made with very simple ingredients found in anyone's pantry, and mixed in a blender!

Recipe was based on this link I found here except I decreased the sugar.

Olive Oil Micro Mini Cakes with Lemon Zest and Thyme
1 scant cup white sugar
zest of 2 medium sized lemons
2 whole eggs
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (I used spanish EVOO, which is quite fruity)
2/3 cup milk
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme

Icing:
3 tablespoons icing sugar
2 teaspoons melted butter
2 teaspoons lemon juice

Prepare a 12 muffin tray. In this instance I used a muffin pan with 24 small cups, lightly sprayed with oil (or buttered) and dusted with flour. Pre-heat oven to 180C.

zesty goodness

In a blender, pulse white sugar and lemon zest until combined. Add one egg at a time, pulsing after each addition.



Slowly add milk and olive oil, and pulse until emulsified.



In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients and thyme. Pulse half of the flour mixture into the wet ingredients, then add next batch. Do not overmix. It will be a thin batter.

Pour onto prepared tray and bake for 20-25 minutes or until the cakes are pulling away from the sides.

Whisk icing sugar, melted butter and lemon juice until smooth. Adjust ingredients accordingly to create an icing of pourable consistency (but not too thin).



When cakes are ready, let cool before drizzling the icing on top. Alternatively, dunk cakes into the icing and serve with either a pinch of lemon zest or some thyme leaves.

Serve with tea, or white wine, or bubblies

That's the micro mini cake sitting on a teaspoon :)

Lemon Semolina Cake

It's spring and the lemon tree is on a roll! We've had several batches of fresh citrus goodness so far, and the tree is still flowering.

This cake was for someone from work who resigned. As part of a 'farewell', the team would have afternoon tea, the immediate superior of whoever is leaving gives a little speech, hands over a giant card signed by everyone, and a little gift purchased through a collection (hat passed around as part of the card).

The farewell gigs have been happening a lot quite lately, so I have been a busy baker. Well, that, and birthdays!

To make best use of fresh available produce, I baked a lemon cake, made a little different by using semolina for texture. I also candied some lemon slices as garnish.

Lemon Semolina Cake

1 1/2 cups self raising flour
2/3 cup coarse semolina
125g softened butter
zest of 1 lemon
1 cup caster sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk or buttermilk

Lemon Syrup
2 small lemons, sliced thinly, crosswise
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup lemon juice

Pre-heat oven to 180C. Grease and line a baking tin of your choice (I used a springform cake pan).
Beat butter, sugar and lemon zest until light and fluffy.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Fold in semolina, flour and milk
Pour mixture into prepared tin and bake for around 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean.

Meanwhile, make the lemon syrup by combining ingredients together and bring to a boil. I added sliced lemons but remembered that this could turn out bitter, so you can leave these lemons out (these turned out quite nice though, a good balance of citrusy sweet with a little bitter aftertaste).

Alternatively, prepare candied lemons by putting sliced lemons in a small saucepan and cover with cold water, bring to a boil, discard water and repeat the process 3 times. This takes the 'bitterness' away from the citrus peel. After the 3rd boil, add 1 cup water and 1 cup sugar, bring to a boil, then reduce heat into a gentle simmer until the lemon slices are translucent.

Turn cake out into a plate and poke holes into the surface. Pour a generous amount of the lemon syrup on top, and let it seep through the holes. Garnish as you see fit.

this one had rosemary flowers too 

The cake was a winner. So was our former colleague, who finally escaped the bitterness of the workplace - however, he might have felt he was boiled more than 3 times! :)

New York T-Bone Steak with Horseradish Cream

This started with the sight of horseradish, wrapped in cling film, sold for a couple of dollars from a fresh product shop. Having tasted this before (and seeing it from the cooking shows), it was definitely worth a try in the House on the Hill Kitchen.

Horseradish is a cousin of wasabi, brocolli and cabbages, and is a rare ingredient... well, at least compared to the abundance of tomatoes and onions around :p

It was like reverse engineering... the first thought that came to mind after BUYING the horseradish was to make steak with horseradish cream. Beside the Fresh Produce shop is a butcher, and they sold New York T-Bone steaks (other than the aged scotch steak which was tastier and more expensive....)

 the creme fraiche was from coles - thankfully they have it!

 creme fraiche is like somewhere in between sour cream and heavy cream. but it does not curdle. it has the texture of softer cream cheese, and a more delicate taste. which is really awesome. and expensive. at $6 per 250g, it's a pretty decent price for something so tasty.

 the horseradish was grated in a microplaner and mixed with the creme fraiche, along with salt and pepper. I used one whole root for this because we like it quite spicy

Served here with handcut potato wedges tossed with extra virgin olive oil, salt, pepper and paprika, and baked in a hot oven (200C) for around 45 minutes. The steak was lightly coated with olive oil and a generous amount of cracked black pepper, cooked  5 minutes on one side on the very very hot stove top using a non stick frying pan, and cooked around  6 minutes on the other side while the heat was turned down to medium (this is quite a huge steak!).

Let the meat rest for a couple of minutes before serving.

Sangria

Sangria is basically a Spanish wine punch, and something that you should have tried by now! Most recipes recommend using a cheap spanish wine, because anything otherwise defeats the purpose. However, in this kitchen, the principle is that good and fresh ingredients make good food/drinks, so a Spanish wine was purchased for this Sangria.

To make this particular Sangria you would need:

Sugar syrup base :
a couple of sprigs of fresh spearmint (or mint) - this handful was snipped from the mint bucket
peel of 1 orange
peel of 1 lemon
1 cup water
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup orange juice
2 cinnamon quills
3 cloves

1 bottle of Spanish red wine
1 bottle of tonic water (1.5 liters)
1 orange, sliced
1 apple, sliced
1 lemon, sliced
2 shots of brandy

boil the ingredients for the sugar syrup base over a medium heat for around 5-7 minutes

 meanwhile, let the wine breathe!

strain the sugar syrup and in a pitcher mix it with the wine, 1 orange chopped crosswise, 1 lemon chopped crosswise, 1 apple chopped into segments. Let steep overnight in the fridge. Before serving, top up with 1 bottle of tonic water and 2 shots of brandy (VSOP is good!) and mix well. Serve chilled!

Lilac and Lavender

Spring brings forth a lot of lovely flowers. There are 3 lilac bushes - or should I say trees - in the property. The lavender is something we've introduced around mid last year after purchasing 2 different varieties from a gardening expo. These flowers are lovely and fragrant, and I wanted to make them last forever, if forever was possible at all.

One of the tried and tested techniques in preserving flowers is drying. I found a website with instructions on how to dry lilac, and hopefully these beauties will stand the test of time. I hung them out to dry out of the sunlight somewhere in the garage, in a makeshift clothesline. There are also several bunches hanging inside the closet in one of the bedrooms. Let's see what area works better!

Another technique is making sugared flowers. This is basically making candied flowers. A lot of google research revealed that lilac is actually edible (and I am very much pleased!). I gave this a go as well, and if you have some free time I recommend that you do so too!

lavender on the firing line

'paint' it with egg white

alternatively, you can just dip it into the egg white 

or use powdered egg white mixed with a little water to avoid salmonella!

after being coated with egg white, roll in sugar and crystallize that gorgeous thing!

lilac and rose petals shown here

like frozen stiff!

Leave the flowers to dry in room temperature for a few days, or in a very low oven (with the door ajar) for a couple of minutes. Might come in handy for decorating cakes  or cupcakes in the future!