Cake Pop...

Christmas is the time to celebrate the birth of Jesus!!! But it's very unfortunate that many people nowadays take it purely as the season to party, to eat, and to shop! However, one thing that I like is the idea of giving gifts to others as a gesture of love and care =)

In recent years, I have been making some goodies as a gift to others in the Christmas period - everyone loves food for sure, especially in the Christmas time!!! This year, I've made some cake pops for colleagues at work. Cake pop is something that I've read from other people's blogs - these cake pops are easy to make, and the look of them are soooo adorable!!

Ingredients:

300g Oreo

150g cream cheese, chopped

200g white chocolate

a little copha

sprinkles for decoration

Lolly pop stick

1) Break the Oreo in small pieces and put in a food processor into crumbs

2) Add in the cream cheese, and make it into an 'Oreo paste'

3) Roll the 'Oreo paste' into small balls

4) Melt the white chocolate with a little copha

5) Dip the lolly pop stick into the melted white chocolate, and then stick into the ball of Oreo.

6) Put the tray of Oreo balls into the fridge for at least 30 minute

7) Dip the Oreo balls into the melted chocolate and sprinkle with your choice of decoration.

Ta-da.... all done... easy right?!?!?! And the thing is everyone in both Hubby and my work loved them! =)

A random lunch @ home...

A couple of weekends ago, Hubby and I went to the Masterchef Live in the Horden Pavilion in Moore Park... What made it even better was we got FREE tickets!!! Thanks to Stephen!!!!

Anyway, we went there after church on Sunday, thinking that it was like the annual Food and Wine Show in Darling Harbour which doesn't have many 'ready-to-eat food stalls'... but I was wrong!!! It had ALOT of decent food stalls which I wanted to try badly!!! But it was ashamed that we already ate, so all we could fit into out stomach was the small food samples... =(

We had a good walk around the venue, but maybe because of the steaming hot weather on the day, and the fact that hubby and I went for a bush walk the day before, we didn't have much energy... but we still managed to buy some goodies... and one of those was the Sultana & Walnut Sourdough, which made became our lunch for the next day....

I also went and bought some cold meat (Roast beef, and roast pork neck) from the local deli to go with the bread, and made it into a Ploughman's Lunch!! The sultana in the bread was giant... and very juicy indeed!!! Yummm....

A Special Dinner made by Hubby...

Hubby's annual special dinner is here!!! hahaha.... just joking... he probably makes dinner more than once a year, but only if I keep on asking him to make me a nice dinner though!!! =P

This dinner was definitely very impressive!!!! Restaurant quality for sure!!!!

Menu of the night:

Roasted garlic and potato soup

Roasted spiced potato with flame grilled prawn

Porterhouse steak with horseradish cream sauce

Chocolate Fondant with vanilla ice-cream

We had the soup as the first entree, it was garlicky and very creamy - even though hubby said he didn't put in any cream because he couldn't be bother buying a 300ml bottle when he only needed to use less than 1/3 of it! But it was the soup to die for. If I saw the name of this dish, I actually wouldn't even waste my time looking into it, because it sounds like a very heavy and filling soup and will give you a very bad breath afterwards. But in fact, this soup is light in texture, and the amount of garlic flavour was just right, and I can ensure you that you won't get a garlicky breath afterwards!!!

The second entree - roasted spiced potato and flame grilled prawn - although it sounds a bit ordinary, but it was really awesome in taste. The potato was spiced with paprika and chili, so it actually has a mild spiciness to it - not too hot. The prawn was delicious!!! Apparently hubby didn't need to marinate the prawns at all, only a small sprinkle of salt then flame grilled it with a cream brulee torch. Therefore it was kinda like half cooked and half raw, and you can really taste the sweetness of prawn!!!!!! I wanted more!!!!!

Steak... I reckon cooking beef is a challenge, but I always tend to either over cook it or under cook it, never just right! But hubby managed to cook it perfectly - pink in the center with the perfect sauce on the top. He made this horseradish sauce with garlic butter which tasted awesome with the beef!!!!!! Yummmm...

You see.... hubby can be a top cook if he wants to be!!!! hehehe... =)

King Fish Sashimi with Truffle Oil + Pan Fried Lamb Loin with Pearl Couscous

Another special dinner night... haha.. but this was dated back in early Nov - one month ago!!!

When I was in Hong Kong a couple of months ago, a friend of mine took me to a Japanese restaurant in Causeway Bay. This restaurant is really a hidden gem!!!! It's one of those small restaurants that hides in a commercial building - as soon as you walk in, you feel as if you went into an authentic eatery in Tokyo, it's small and crowded, all furniture and furnishing are in that high gloss oak wood, and all waitstaffs are dressed in the blue and white japanese fisherman clothes.

One of the dishes we ordered that I felt in love immediately was the King Fish Tataki with Truffle oil!! And in this special occasion dinner, I've decided to try to mimic it!!! Of course it wasn't as good as the ones I had in the restaurant, but it wasn't bad!!! =)

Katoomba St Cafe @ Blue Mountain

We planned to go out of Sydney on our anniversary, just to get out of the city and for a change of scenery!!! We've decided to go for a bush walk and get close to the nature, breath some fresh crisp air and enjoy God's creation.

But before we do all these... we have to fill our stomach first!!! Haha!!!! We got to Katoomba town centre and just randomly walked into a cafe. As soon as we sat down, we knew that this is not right, the girl at the coffee machine just gave us a glance, without any greeting, she turned back to her coffee!!! OKAY.... we were finally given the menu and hubby decided to order the lamb burger with wedges as extra on the side, since I knew that I'll nibble on hubby's wedges, so I ordered something light.... 'Our famous scones with fresh cream and jam' as stated on the menu. And two coffees please...

ummm... after the first sip, I was puzzled... then I had a second sip.... my reaction was... this has to be the worst coffee ever!!! It was tasteless - tasted like diluted skim milk with a coffee colour!!!! Yuckkkkk... I pushed the coffee to the side and never had my third sip of that coffee!

The scones came together with the lamb burger, and both of them looked pretty decent. I quickly sneaked my finger onto my hubby's plate of wedges.... ummmm.... not bad, not bad... crunchy and golden on the outside and soft on the inside!!! Yummmm... The lamb burger itself was alright, nothing exciting about it - just a lamb burger.

Ok, back to my own plate of scones... I sliced the scone in half and smeared it with a thin layer of cream and jam.... took my first bite.... didn't really enjoy it, took another bite, and my feeling didn't change.... To me, scones should be dry and fluffy, cream and jam will help to give it the fresh moist taste. But this scone was very buttery and moist like a pound cake, and the cream was overloaded with sugar which made this scone overly sweet! This 'famous scones' definitely not what I called scones!!!!

Overall I'd score this cafe pretty badly, maybe a 4/10 for food - bad coffee, bad scones, Ok for the burger and the only thing that I'd give it an above average mark was the wedges. However, this is only my personal opinion!!!

Another Jap Night + Vanilla Bean Ice-cream with Almond Toffee Dust and Poached Pear

8 years... I can't believe that time flies like a rocket!!!! Hubby and I have been together for 8 years, and of course there have been lots of ups and downs, joy and sorrow. The day hubby decided to stay in Aus for good, to when we started going out, to the day we united as one and have our home and family till now, God has definitely carried us through and let us experienced his blessings.... =)

The day of our 8 year anniversary happened to fall on a weekend, and happened to have great sunshine after weeks of miserable weather - thank you God.... so we've decided to out of Sydney and enjoy a day out at the Blue Mountain. But that also means we'll have a simple dinner at home, no extravagant cooking!!!! You might say, we should have gone out for dinner... but I guess december time is the month of celebrations and parties, so having a simple dinner at home is not such a bad idea!!!

I asked hubby what he wanted for dinner... he said sushi!!! hahaha.... yes you can tell we both love our japanese food!!!! So the menu for the night was:

Eel sushi and tofu pocket sushi plate

Edamame

Cabbage salad with vinegar dressing

Cold prawns

Very simple menu indeed!!!!! Eel and tofu pocket can be bought from Asian grocery store, also the edamame, which can be found in the frozen section!!!

A special night like this, how can you go without dessert?!!?!? Ohhh... I think I forgot to mention... I recently purchased an ice-cream machine!!!!! Yay!!!! Now I can make ice-cream in all sorts of different flavour, and tonight we had the test run of a basic flavour - vanilla bean!

With the ice-cream machine, it's so easy to make homemade ice-cream now. Before I had to go through the repeat process of freezing and churning, freezing and more churning. But now I just had to mix all ingredients and bring to a slow simmer, then pour into the machine and done! Although the thought of making your own ice-cream is fabulous, but the cost of making it is actually not too much cheaper than buying a tub from supermarket!!! =P but I guess it's the idea that makes it fun and priceless!!!!

Dessert for the night was vanilla bean ice-cream with almond toffee dust and poached pear! After the ice-cream was ready, I poured it into a tear-drop shaped ring to make this ice-cream extra special!!! hahaha... this tear-drop shaped ring is my recent purchase from Hong Kong!!!! So cheap!!! It was like $20HKD (<$3AUD)!!!!!

Almond toffee dust - sounds weird right??? Well... it was suppose to be almond praline, but I think because I didn't let it go hard enough before I put it in the blended, after the first pulse it turned into dust!!!!! =.=" anyway... it still tasted good! And the trick of doing a poached pear is the cinnamon stick!!!!! It makes such a different in flavour, so next time when you do any poached fruit, stick a cinnamon stick in there for that extra spice!!!!

Salmon Sashimi + Sea Urchin

Ummmm..... oh my gosh, I've neglected my blog for over two months!!!!! Very bad of me!!! Half of the reason was my laziness, and half of the reason was I've been away overseas and to several church camps. I'll try to catch up with all the posts, keep the finger crossed! =P

The place where I work at the moment is very close to the fish market, which means I can just pop down at lunch time and get all sorts of different fish for dinner! But I must say, this place doesn't smell all that great, very very fishy!!! Plus, since now fish market has become a 'tourist attraction', prices of the fish are not cheap at all!

One day I had a crave for sashimi, so I decided that I'd do a Jap dinner night!!! Lucky that I made this decision because I didn't leave work till late that night, and sashimi on sushi rice is just a quick fix for dinner!!!

Sushi rice is basically just normal medium grain or short grain cooked rice with a splash of japanese rice vinegar and a spoon of sugar! Easy!

Besides salmon sashimi, I also got some sea urchin as well - hubby loves that! And as I was queuing up at the sashimi bar, the glittering oysters caught my eyes!!!! ummmm.... ok, I'd get the oysters as well - I said to myself. I was gonna get the salmon roe also.... but I resisted... thinking that this normal week night dinner will get too expensive!!! hahah...

Homemade Gnocchi with Chorizo, Snowpeas and Exotic Mushrooms

One night I've decided to make gnocchi... one thing that I haven't made for a long long time!

Serves 4

Ingredients:

4 desiree potatoes, peeled, quartered

Salt & white pepper to season

1 egg, lightly whisked

300g plain flour

20g finely grated parmesan

1 Chorizo, sliced

Handful of snowpeas

200g exotic mushroom

2 cloves of garlic, chopped

1 tsp truffle salt

1. Bring a saucepan of water to boil, and steam the potatoes covered for 15 min or until tender.

2. Pass the cooked potato through a sieve using a spoon.

3. Add the egg and stir with a wooden spoon until combined.

4. Add half the flour and parmesan and stir until combined. Add the remaining flour in 2 more batches until a firm dough forms.

5. Divide the dough into 4 portions, and roll each portion into a log shape about 30cm long, then cut it into 2cm pieces.

6. Roll each 2cm piece into a ball, and flatten slightly with a floured fork.

7. Bring a saucepan of salted water to boil, then add the gnocchi in in batches, and cook for 3 minutes or until they float to the surface. Drain.

8. Heat up a fry pan with a tbsp of butter, add in garlic then chorizo. Once the chorizo is slightly browned, add in snowpeas and mushrooms. Stir continuously, then add in truffle salt. Lastly stir in the cooked gnocchi until everything is well combined.

I must admit this time my gnocchi was a little heavy and dense.... disappointing! =( But the flavour was awesome, I reckon it was the magic of truffle salt! Although the truffle salt didn't do much to the chorizo, because chorizo itself already has strong spicy flavour, but it definitely helped to bring up the flavour in the exotic mushroom!!!! Also the snowpeas added an extra crunch to the whole dish, creating a contrast with the gnocchi! Sometimes you just need that contrasting texture or flavour to make the dish more interesting!

Next time, I'll try making a ricotta base gnocchi, which apparently can avoid it becoming heavy and dense!

New Shanghai @ Ashfield

"What's for the dinner?" This question kept on popping up in our minds while hubby and I were driving back from Canberra after the Floriade!

By the time we come back to Sydney, it would be around 7:30, 8pm... so we didn't want to go anywhere that was too out of the way. Hurstville, Beveley Hills, Strathfield, Ashfield.... ASHFIELD.... how about some Shanghainese food?!??!?! OK... deal!

Hubby drove all the way to Canberra and all the way back, so he deserved some rewards! Pan Fried Pork Buns.... his favourite!

When we go to Ashfield, basically there are only two Shanghainese restaurants that we go to, either New Shanghai or Shanghai Night, they are just side by side to each other. These two eateries are probably the only 2 places that are always full! I feel sorry for the other nearby Shanghainese restaurants which are usually empty or with only 2-3 tables of customers! I guess this explains the quality of food in New Shanghai and Shanghai Night!

We walked into New Shanghai, and it was packed with people, there was a table just about to leave, so we were lucky! We sat down and had a look at the menu, one plate was already set - pan fried pork buns, and for the second dish we picked Drunken Chicken.

This place is similar to the Chatswood outlet in the sense that it has a glass room which enables people to see their dumpling making process. However, it doesn't have the overall up market decor as the Chastwood one! I guess their target market is quite different!

Drunken Chicken

The drunken chicken arrived at the table pretty quickly. The chicken meat was velvety smooth, and the texture was soft and tender. The amount of alcohol taste was just right, not too powerful that it becomes bitter like some I've tasted before. This dish was beautiful!

While we were waiting for our Pan Fried Pork Buns, we saw so many plate of this walked pass us! Every time we saw one came out of the kitchen, we would guess... 'is this ours? is this ours?' We were hoping that it came faster because both of us were very excited about it. We very rarely order this dish because there are 10 buns in one dish, and that's a bit much for just the two of us! Since this was a reward for hubby's driving effort, so this was a treat for him!

Pan Fried Pork Buns

Finally our plate arrived, 10 identical buns sat nicely and steadily on the plate waiting for us to pick on them! What was so nice about this dish was it has a pan fried crispy bottom, but a soft fluffy top, when you bite into it, it has a pool of pork soup that is full of flavour, and a ball of juicy meat inside!!! What I usually do is.... bite the top off, then suck the soup out of the bun, then pour some black vinegar inside and then eat the rest of it! Yummmm.... But be careful of the soup, it's boiling hot! I always ended up having a sandpaper like tongue afterwards from sucking the hot soup! =P

One thing that I would say about these pork buns is they could have pan fried them a little longer to get them just a bit more crispier!!!!

New Shanghai Chinese Restaurant

273 Liverpool Road,

Ashfield

Sesame Seed Bagel + Date Cinnamon Bagel

"Is bagel hard to make?? Can you make it??" My dear hubby asked one day...

Well, I've never made bagel before, but I know that it involves boiling it which gives the chewy texture! I guess it can't be that hard, making bread is always just a matter of time, and I'm sure that I have a recipe somewhere in my collection.

Woke up at 8am on a Saturday morning, had a quick breakfast, checked email... then started the bagel making process at 9.... Yeah... needed to start this early so that we can have the bagel in time for lunch.

Makes 4

Ingredients:

200g bread flour

10g butter, melted

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp instant yeast

170ml water

1.5 tsp salt

1 tbsp honey (optional)

Egg, beatened

1. Place the flour in a large bowl, add in melted butter, then sugar and yeast.

2. Heat up the water just slightly warmer than body temperature. Add half of the water into the yeast, then knead the flour together with the water. Add in the rest of the water and knead into a dough. Add in salt and continue to knead until the dough is smooth.

3. Wrap the bowl with glad wrap, and leave in a warm place to rise for about 50 min or double in size.

4. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface and punch out all the air.

5. Divide the dough into 4 portions, and cover with a wet towel and rest for 15 min.

6. Knead each portion to remove air, and roll into a long tube, then form in a donut shape.

7. Place each bagel onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Then cover with wet towel and rest for 20 minutes in a warm place for second rising.

8. Fill half the pan with water and 1 tbsp of honey (optional). Heat up the water, and just before it boils, place the bagel into the water and cook for 1 min on either side.

9. Dry the bagel with paper towel, and return to baking tray. Brush with beatened egg, and bake for 20 min at 220C.

I just love the smell of freshly baked bread!!!! Yummmmm.... my bread turned out to be a bit burnt... only slightly though... hahaha... maybe because I added a hint of honey in there to give it a bit of a sweet taste! Also I sprinkled two of the bagels with sesame seeds, which hubby absolutely loved! And the other two I knead them with some cinnamon and chopped dates in step 6 - just to give it a bit more variety! Feel free to add in your own creative flare!

Although the surface of my bagel looked a bit burnt, but it actually didn't have any burnt taste at all! These freshly made bagels have a soft outer shell, and the inside texture is nice and chewy - just like a perfect bagel!

Silo Bakery @ Kingston, Canberra

I've been living in Sydney for the past 20 years, and can you believe that I haven't been to the Canberra Floriade?!?! Well... somehow it never really interest me until last year when I saw the photos of some of my friends took at the Floriade that made me think maybe I should pay a visit!

One year later, Canberra Floriade is back!!! And initially I wasn't gonna go because hubby and I couldn't find a time that we're free for this day trip, but because of a little incident that all of a sudden we have a few free days on hand! So I said to my hubby.... lets go down to Canberra to see the Floriade!

The day before the trip, I was going through people's food blog - this has become my daily habit now! And I saw on Not Quite Nigella's website that she blogged about the Silo Bakery in Canberra, and I thought.... just the right time, we'll go there for a visit, since it's only 10 min drive from the Canberra city!

After the 3 hour drive, we reached the Canberra Info Center to grab a map and some info. I flipped through the brochure quickly to the food section to see what's there... and Silo Bakery was also mentioned as a must visit destination, so off we went, drove straight over there to have our lunch! On Not Quite Nigella's website, she mentioned about the breakfast menu, but when we got there at 12pm, the lunch menu was on show! This small bakery was constantly full of customers, tables were full at all times, and people come in and out to get coffee, bread and pastries. Pastries were all lined up at the front counter on a marble benchtop, loafs of sourdough bread were sitting against the white tiled wall behind the counter. What's so special about this bakery is, it also has a cheese room!!!!

When we got there, we were lucky that they had one table left, at the very back of the bakery right next to the entrance to the baking area! Nice.... I had a quick glance at the menu, and found that each item on the menu is matched with a glass of wine! Very tempting, but at the end I said no to the wine and ordered coffee instead! The menu consisted of only light lunch ideas such as clear soup, pizzas and nibbling plates. I had my eye on the Potato, Anchovy, and Chili Jam Pizza and for the second plate.... I was tossing between the Antipasto Plate and the Lunch Cheese Plate.... At the end the antipasto plate won.... no particular reason though... but when I think about it now, we should have ordered the lunch cheese plate, since it has a cheese room, their cheese must be good! Maybe next time!

Freshly baked bread ready to be put on shelves

The Cheese Room

Cappuccino & Flat White

Our coffee came without waiting for long, and while waiting for our lunches to come, I took a peep at the front counter and tried to decide what to have as our dessert... haha... Tarts are probably one of their specialities because they have more than 10 different flavours in the glass cabinet! Half of them have some form of berries in them, which I needed to rule out because hubby doesn't eat berries.... =( THE tart that made my eyes glittered was Vanilla Brulee! The cream brulee tart at Bourke St Bakery has been my favourite of all tarts so far, and I want to see how this vanilla brulee compare with the bourke st bakery one!

Antipasto Plate $24

Potato, Anchovies & Chili Jam Pizza $18

The antipasto plate came with 7 different bits drizzled with olive oil... let's see whether I can remember them all. Proscuitto with seedless grape (which looked live olives!), tomato with cheese, chorizo on toasted bread, fresh oyster, field mushroom with cheese, roasted vege stack, and...... can't remember the last one. =P This dish was simple yet nice, all 7 pieces were beautifully presented on the round plate. Very appetising indeed!

After finishing the antipasto plate, we dug straight into the potato, anchovy and chili jam pizza! The crust of the pizza was thin and delicious, it was very different to the usual pizza base you have at any of the gourmet pizza places! I might be a bit vague here, but I can just tell that it was different... in a nice way... but can't put in words how is it different..... maybe just the lack of my vocabulary! Better go and try it yourself! =P Thinly sliced potatoes were arranged neatly on the crust with anchovies scattered randomly on top, and a dollop of chili jam on each square of pizza to finish off! Yummmm.... The random anchovies helped to give the pizza some saltiness to the sweet tasting potato, and the mild spiciness and sweet sensation from the chili jam added an extra dimension of flavour to the pizza! Heaven!!!!

Ok... lunch finished... time for dessert... I walked out to the front counter again to reassure myself that vanilla brulee is THE pick! As soon as I reached the counter... I've found that half of the cabinet was empty already, and there was only ONE left of the vanilla brulee... okok... need to order quickly before it goes!!!!

Vanilla Brulee Tart

I used my fork to tap the top of the tart... ummm... no sound, it's soft! Shouldn't the top crust of a brulee be hard?!??! Unlike the Bourke St Bakery tart which has a flaky tart base, this one is the traditional buttery tart base - very tarty base!!!! If you like a tarty tart... then this one you'll love! The filling was smooth and full of vanilla flavour, the only thing that let the tart down was the cameral top, which I reckon should be sweet, thin and crusty!

While hubby was at one side of the front counter paying the lunch bill. I was at the other end of the counter choosing some more pastries to take back to Sydney... it was around 1:15pm and ALOT of the pastries were gone already, I hope that they were in the process of baking more! But since we were in a rush to get to the Floriade, we couldn't really just stand there and wait for the next bake off, so I just had to grab what was left there! Two of these and two of that please... I said to the girl behind the counter.... hehehe... and then I asked her... 'by the way... what are they!!?!?' 'Apple, sultana and almond in croissant pastry, and blueberry brioche'.

Blueberry Brioche & Apple, Sultana and Almond in Croissant Pastry

One of each was given to my parents, and we had the leftover for breakfast the next day. I heated up slightly at the microwave so that they are warm, and here comes the exciting moment... I had a bite into the brioche, and the texture was soft yet dense, while the croissant pastry was buttery and flakey!!! Delicious.... best to wash down with a cup of coffee!!! Usually pastries wouldn't be on my breakfast list because of their high fat content and calorie count.... but every now and then, I guess it wouldn't hurt! =P

Silo Bakery

36 Giles Street,

Kingston, Canberra

Fried Dough Wrapped with Egg Omelette

hahaha... something very random! The other night I've decided to make chicken congee as dinner with fried dough... and we had 1 left over fried dough after dinner, so what should I do with it?

I remembered that in some Northern Chinese Restaurant, sometimes they have this dish that have the fried dough wrapped in egg omelette... so I thought I can mimic that, can't be that hard - crack a couple of eggs in the frypan and the dish should be done!

Firstly I reheated the fried dough in the oven, so it becomes crispy again. Then I added a little oil in the frypan, whisked two eggs together with some salt, then pour in the hot pan....

Ummm... sometimes the easiest dish is the hardest to make it tastes good! My omelette was a bit too thick, maybe 1.5 egg would have worked better... but that will leave me with half an egg left over! =.=" and because I was in a rush... so I didn't heat the fried dough for long enough in the oven to make it crispy!!! Bad bad bad.... crispy fried dough should be the important part of this dish and I let that down! =(

Will need to have a second go at this dish next time!