At Perry Lane @ Paddington

Ever since the cold weather/day light saving hit, Mochi's daily walk has been deprived! By the time we get home from work, it's too dark to take him out for a walk or for a game of fetch (not that he comes back with the ball! Very often that he runs after it, but then we have to go and fetch it back ourselves! =.=") So we thought that we'll take Mochi out for a day of fun!!!! First of all, we have to fill our stomach to get some energy first! 

A friend of mine suggested a cafe in Paddington called At Perry Lane, it's dog friendly (that's our first criteria) and it has good coffee!! The cafe is hidden behind Oxford Street in a quiet laneway. You really wouldn't know that the cafe exists unless you know about it! It's located in a courtyard area behind a shop, a pretty interesting setting! 

We were greeted by the friendly staff as soon as we walked in, and he greeted Mochi as well! We sat down at one of the court yard tables (and there's an upstair section for people who wanted some shade!) and menu was passed to us straight away. The first thing that we were shown to the menu by the wait staff was the 'dog-a-chino'!!!! A doggie menu! It's a frothed skim milk sprinkled with liver treats and biscuit on the side! How could we not order one for Mochi! 

At Perry Lane only opens fri-sun, and it serves all day breakfast! I love all day breakfast. My hubby being a typical guy, of course he would go for the big breakfast - Perry Lane Breakfast. And for me I went for the poached egg on ciabatta toast with cured salmon as extra. 

Cappuchinno $3.5

We didn't have to wait for long for the coffee to come. And the coffee was strong and silky smooth! Just the way I liked it, I always like a good strong coffee kick! 

Dog-a-chino $1.5

The next thing that came along was the dog-a-chino! Mochi seemed to quite enjoyed it, he licked every bit of it out of the bowl!! 

Perry Lane Breakfast $16.50

The big breakfast was quite sumptuous with crispy bacon, pan fried chorizo, balsamic mushroom, poached eggs and toasted sourdough.... Oh... it came with grilled tomatoes as well! But of course it ended up on my plate, because hubby doesn't really like tomato, although slowly I'm trying to sneak it into his meals!!! haha... 

Poached Eggs on Toasted Ciabatta with Tomato Relish and Caramelised Onions $9 

Extra Cured Salmon $4

For mine, although it doesn't look very exciting. But the poached egg was done perfectly!!!! It's the best poached eggs I've ever had! The egg yolk was runny, and the egg white was JUST cooked! The cured salmon was also very delicious!!!! I think it is a must try! It's not too salty, and it has a very smooth texture that could just slip down my throat! The tomato relish had just the right amount of spice to add a kick to the whole breakfast plate! 

I will definitely return to this cafe! It has beautiful food, strong coffee, friendly staff, and great environment! I think Mochi would love to come back for his dog-a-chino too! =)

At Perry Lane

Rear 264 Oxford St

Paddington

Apple Bread

On the Monday Anzac morning, woke up thinking... "ummmm... what should I make today??" On a public holiday, the restaurants/cafes out there are either closed or have a 5% surcharge (after going to Cairns, I've realised that 5% surcharge is not that much at all, compare to their standard 15% on public holiday!) so I thought that hubby and I can have a quiet lunch at home. 

What's better than having the smell of freshly baked bread filling the whole house? So I've decided to make apple bread - Project 4 - both me and my hubby's favourite! I don't think I can ever go on a no carb diet, cos bread is one of my favourite foods on the list, and it ranks pretty high up. It's definitely my weakness! 

Ingredients:

250g bread flour

2 tbsp of skim milk poweder

30g unsalted butter, room temp

3 tbsp sugar

1 tsp instant yeast

1 egg + 120ml milk 

1 tsp salt

1 apple 

1 tsp cinnamon

20g butter

1-2 tbsp sugar

1-2 tbsp jam

1. In a bowl, mix the flour, milk powder, butter, sugar and yeast

2. Heat up the milk to be slightly hotter than your skin temperature, then add in eggs. Pour half of the egg mixture into the flour mixture. Knead. Then add in the rest of the egg mixture (leaving about 10ml for later use). Knead until it's mixed well (can add in more flour or water to form the dough). Add in salt, and knead until the surface is smooth. 

3. Leave the dough in the bowl in a warm place and wrap with glad wrap. Wait for 30 min for it to rise. 

4. Meanwhile, peel and corded the apple and cut into small pieces. Heat the butter in a pan, add the apple pieces with sugar. Stir until soft. Remove from heat. 

5. The dough should be doubled in size. Take out the dough and knead out all the air bubble gently. 

6. Roll the dough into a ball, then cover it with a wet towel and wait for 15 min. 

7. Roll out the dough into a 20x30cm sheet, sprinkle the apple along the long side of dough, and cinnamon on top, then roll up. Cut the roll into 6 even sections and arrange it in a greased cake tin. 

8. Cover it with a wet towel, and leave it in a warm place for the second rising. 

9. Brush the dough top with the left over egg mixture. Decorate with some almond flakes, and bake in a preheated oven for 20 min at 180C

10. Warm up the jam in the microwave, and brush it on top of the bread to create a glaze. 

This is actually a quite easy recipe, but it takes time for the dough to rise, which is the frustrating bit! My bread tends to take a long time to rise, double or even triple the time suggested, I don't know why. But it still turns out at the end! 

I love freshly baked bread, I like the feeling of having it hot in hand, tearing it out bit by bit seeing the fibre rips apart with steam coming out of it! Both of us polished almost the whole tin of bread.... almost.... my hubby was very tempted to eat the last bit as well, but he stopped himself, so that he could have it as breakfast the next morning! haha.... Fresh bread always get out of control in this household!

Spiced Slow-Cooked Lamb Shanks

To make good use of the casserole, I've decided to make another slow-cooked dish! Since mum has decided to go out with her friends on sunday, so this week I have plenty of time to do a nice meat dish! 

OK... time to flip through Jamie Oliver's book again!!! Project three of this long weekend - Spiced Slow-Cooked Lamb Shanks. I love lamb, it's probably the meat that I enjoy eating the most! Some people can't stand that unique lamb flavour, but personally I think that flavour is what makes it so special and tasty! Absolutely love it! 

Serves 4

4 lamb shanks

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 teaspoon of coriander seeds

1 small dried red chilli

1 tbsp fresh rosemary

1 tsp dried marjoram or oregano

1 tbsp flour 

1 tbsp olive oil

1 clove of garlic, finely chopped

1 large carrot, finely sliced

6 sticks of celery, finely sliced

2 medium onions, finely chopped

2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

170ml dry white wine

6 anchovy fillets

2x400g tins of plum tomatoes

1 handful of fresh parsley, roughly chopped 

1. Season the lamb with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Smash up the coriander seeds and dried chilli and mix with the chopped rosemary and dried marjoram. Roll the lamb in this mixture, pressing it in well. Dust the lamb with flour. 

2. Heat the casserole pan, add the oil, and brown the meat. Remove from the pan. 

3. Add garlic, carrot, celery, onions and a pinch of salt and sweat them until softened. 

4. Add the balsamic vinegar and allow it to reduce to a syrup. Pour in the white wine and allow to simmer for 2min. Add the anchovies and then the tomato. 

5. Shake the pan and return the lamb to it. Bring to the boil. Put on lid and simmer in the oven at 180C for 1.5 hours, then remove the lid and cook for further 1/2 hour. 

6. Skim off any fat and taste for seasoning. Stir in a handful of roughly chopped parsley. 

I served this lamb shank with some balsamic mushroom and baked potato. Well, I didn't have enough time to bake it properly, even though I've already baked it for 40 odd minutes. =.="

Although this recipe has quite a few ingredients in it, but all these little ingredients add to the flavours! The meat was soft and off the bone, although the meat was the main ingredient of the dish, but I think the tomato base sauce was the BEST bit! I used the left over sauce to make it into angel hair topping for lunches the next day, and it was surprisingly DELICIOUS!!!!! With this pasta dish, I didn't have to add in any more salt and pepper at all, I think because the essence of lamb has already seeped through to the sauce during its 2 hours of cooking!!! So, remember to make use of every drop of the sauce when you try this recipe! 

Chocolate Cherry Cake

Chocolate cherry cake was my second project this long weekend! Every month I have to make a birthday day for our church fellowship to celebrate people's birthday in that month. I've started doing that since the beginning of last year, and so far I have been able to do a different cake every month! After 12 cakes, now I'm struggling to find a 'different' cake to make. Thanks to Mable who randomly bought me a dessert recipe book from Hong Kong where I found this recipe! 

I usually have to double the recipe when I make a fellowship birthday cake, because we usually have around 20-25 people! And not after I started making the cake, I realised how much butter, and chocolate are used in this cake! Gosh... I don't think I've ever used so much butter and choco in one cake before! And the topic in that fellowship was about 'healthy body'! Sorry guys! Everyone only had a small piece, so I guess it didn't hurt much! =P 

This recipe below is a normal portion! 

Ingredients:

Cocoa Sponge Base

300g eggs

150g sugar

200g plain flour

180g butter

110g milk 

40g cocoa

Kirsch Chocolate Cream Filling

200g cocoa sponge cake crumbs

200g dark Chocolate

235ml whipping cream

20g inverted sugar

40g butter

150g canned dark sweet cherries

15ml kirsch 

Chocolate Glaze

40g dark chocolate

50ml cream

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Beat the eggs until foamy. Add sugar and beat until pale and thick. 

2. Heat the milk up and add butter. Stir until it melts. Pour the hot milk into the egg and sugar mixture and stir well. Sieve in flour and cocoa. Fold in gently.

3. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Pour the batter in. Bake for 20min. Leave to cool.

4. Measure the diameter of cake tine, and cut the cocoa sponge into thin 4 think slices horizontally with the correct shape. Blend the remaining sponge in a blender into cake crumbs.

1. Boil the cream and turn off the heat. Stir in inverted sugar, chocolate butter and kirsch. Stire until chocolate and sugar.

2. Drain the dark sweet cherries, chop them finely and set aside. 

3. Mix the chocolate mixture, chopped dark cherries and cake crumbs together. 

1. In a cake tin, put in a slice of cocoa sponge. Spread a layer of kirsch chocolate cream filling on top. Place another slice of cocoa sponge over the filling. Repeat untill the mixtures are use up. 

2. Spread the chocolate gnanche on top of the cake and decorate with fresh raspberries.

After I've made the cake, I truly thought to myself that this cake would be soooo dense, and it will turn out like a heavy mud cake. But surprise surprise... it actually turned out to be not heavy at all! But I wouldn't call it 'light' though!  =P At the end of the day, I quite like this cake and I'll make it again!!!

Inverted sugar - what is inverted sugar??? I had no idea! But I did a little research online, apparently you an get it in some cake supplies shop! Due to the limited time frame, I used a large spoonful of 'golden syrup' instead. Apparently it works in a similar way according to a few websites! And it turned out fine! so i guess the websites didn't iie! =P

For this cake, I definitely made a big mess in the kitchen, crumbs were everywhere on the bench and on the floor from cake cutting, a lot of dirty bowls, and utensils. But thanks to my lovely hubby who are always (ummm... 99% of the time) willing to clean up the mess after me! Thank youuuuuu!!!! =)

Risotto with Lemon Thyme, Sliced Prosciutto, Pecorino and Crumbled Goat's Cheese

Long weekend... I love long weekends! Especially if it's an EXTRA long weekend! Haha... My hubby and I decided to take friday off as well, to make the long weekend extra long! To be honest, we didn't have much plan on what to do, except for taking our dog Mochi out to have some fun! Nothing planned... What does that mean? It means more time to cook! Yes! I have spent quite some time in the kitchen in these 4 days! 

I was watching Masterchef the other day, and poor Jimmy had to do two dishes in the bottom 10 challenge because his partner decided to drop out. He ended up making a risotto and a strawberry (or raspberry!??! can't remember) tart. The judges commented his risotto as poorly made!!! I wonder what went wrong there! 

After the Masterchef inspiration, I've decided to make risotto as dinner on friday night - the first project. I flipped through all my Jamie Oliver books (thanks to Alice for getting me the collection!) because I do recall that his books have a lot of pasta and risotto recipes in them!! One that caught my eye was the risotto with lemon thyme, prosciutto and cheese! 

Serves 3

Ingredients:

500ml chicken stock

1 tbsp olive oil

1 medium onion

1 cloves of garlic

200g risotto rice

1 wine glass of dry white wine

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

35g butter

1 good handfuls of fresh lemon thyme, leaves picked

50g percorino cheese

70g goat cheese

4 slices prosciutto

1. Heat the stock. In a separate pan heat the olive oil, add the onion and garlic and fry slowly for about 4min. When the vegetables have softened, add the rice and turn up the heat. 

2. Keep stirring the rice until translucent. Add the wine and keep stirring.

3. Once the wine has cooked into the rice, add your first ladle of hot stock, lemon thyme and a good pinch of salt. Turn down the heat to a simmer so the rice doesn't cook too quickly on the outside. Keep stirring and adding ladles of stock one by one, allowing each ladlefuls to be absorbed before adding the next.

4. Remove from heat and add butter and percorino cheese. place a lid on the pan and allow to site for 2-3 min. 

5. Add prosciutto just before eating and serve with the goat's cheese. Scatter with a little extra thyme leaves. 

This is the BEST risotto I've ever made, not that my cooking skills has improved, but this recipe is just awesome!!!! It's creamy, gluey and full of flavour, the lemon thyme was able to balance out the creaminess due to it's citricy fragrant/flavour. This recipe serves 3, but between my hubby and I, we polished off every grain of rice. Although there wasn't much meat in the dish, my hubby still said "I don't want to stop eating this dish..."

This dish required the use of goat cheese, but if you don't like the taste of goat cheese, you can always replace it with ricotta. But I think the sour taste in the goat cheese helps to break up the thick and gluey texture of this risotto! Your choice! I think it will still taste good with the ricotta. 

This is THE DISH that I'll definitely make again!!! 

Anzac Biscuits

I remember one girl from my old work, she used to bake anzac biscuits every year to 'celebrate' the event... ummm... more like she just wanted to give herself an excuse to bake!! haha, because she was a real baker! 

Since I've changed job, and no more anzac biscuits from the girl! And all of a sudden, I had the crave for the fragrant from the golden syrup, so I've decided that to bake some anzac biscuits, which I have never done before... Oh no, I lied! I think I have baked it before, back in Year 7 in Home Economic class! 

Some like the anzac biscuits chewy and some like crunchy, personally I don't have a preference, because I only like the smell of golden syrup! haha... 

Ingredients:

115g plain flour

1 tsp ground ginger

165g rolled oats

140g brown sugar

2 tbs boiling water

2 tbs golden syrup 

1 tbs bicarbonate of soda

125g butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 160C. Line the tray with baking paper. 

2. Sift the flour and ginger into a large bowl. Add the rolled oats and sugar. Stir to combine. 

3. Combine boiling water, golden syrup and bicarbonate of soda in a small jug. Once the mixture froths up, stir in the butter. Set aside to cool. 

4. Add the butter mixture to the flour mixture and use a wooden spoon to combine. 

5. Roll 2 tsp of mixture into a ball and place onto the lined tray, flatten slightly with your fingers. Repeat with the remaining mixture. Leaving about 3cm between each biscuit. 

6. Bake in oven for 15min. Cool on tray, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely. 

Again, I don't like shredded coconut, so I ignored that ingredient! =P 

My anzac biscuits turned out a bit too flat!!!! =( I think because I've flattened them too much! Remember to leave enough room between each biscuit, because they do spread quite a bit!!! Also, mine turned out a little chewy. I guess if you like your biscuits to be crunchy, you can bake it for a little longer!

The fantastic smell of golden syrup in the oven filled the whole house while baking!!! And the biscuit tasted beautiful when it was still warm, and not too overly sweet which I like!  

OK.. Anzac biscuits - more room to improve! 

Homemade Toasted Muesli

Each morning, I'd serve myself a nice cup of coffee and a breakfast! I wouldn't say my breakfast portion is excessively big, but probably bigger than most girl my size. And my breakfast portion is normally bigger than my hubby! =P For weekdays, I either have a big bowl of cereal (and I do mean a BIG bowl) or a big bowl of porridge, or bircher muesli, or one of those big cafe size muffin, or a thick slice of banana bread. Sometimes on weekends, I'd indulge myself with a big breakky of a thick slice of warm homemade bread (thanks to the bread machine!!!), scrambled egg, sausage or smoked salmon. And an extra pot of baked beans for my hubby (I'm not a big fan of beans!!!) 

The other day, I've found some oats, dried apple, dried apricot, dates, almonds in the pantry, and I know that it's time for some homemade toasted muesli! All I need to go and buy is a bag of mixed seeds, and some apple juice! 

Ingredients:

rolled oats

Dried fruits (any sort of mix), chopped into small bits

almonds 

mixed seeds (or any seeds you want)

apple juice

1. Preheat oven to 180C. 

2. Mix the rolled oats, almonds and mixed seeds in a large bowl, and add enough apple juice to soak the mixture. Set aside for about 15min for the oats to absorb up the juice. 

3. Line a baking tray with baking paper, and scatter the oat mixture on top. 

4. Bake for about 40min or until the oaks are dried and turned brown. Give the mixture a little stir every 15 minutes to avoid burning on one side. 

5. Cool on tray, then mix with dried fruit. Store in air tight container.

Toasted muesli is great with yoghurt and drizzle with honey and some sliced banana or fresh berries! Most importantly it's low in GI, that means I don't start snacking in mid morning!!! 

Osso Buco...

I always wanted to do a slow cook dish - osso buco, lamb shank, roast chicken etc etc... But unfortunately, what I lack in the kitchen is one of those big heavy lidded casserole! 

This time, we've invited our dear friends Iva and Freddy (and Sunday - Iva's dog - how can we leave him out!) to come over for dinner to have a catch up. (Although we see each other every sunday at church, but very rarely that we get the time to really sit down and catch up) And this gave me a very good reason to go out and get a casserole to do an osso buco dish!

What I love about osso buco is not the meat itself, but the bone marrow that sits inside the hole! The soft slippery texture that you sip straight out of the hole and down your throat is just amazing. Someone told me that a restaurant actually serves the bone marrow raw! Ummm... I'm not too sure about that though! 

Serves 4

Ingredients:

40g butter

4 pieces of osso bucco (1kg)

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 tbsp fresh rosemary leaves

1/2 cup of port

1 cup beef stock

1. Preheat oven to 170C

2. Melt the butter in a casserole, brown both sides of the veal. Add garlic, rosemary, port and stock. 

3. Cover, bake in the oven for 2.5 hours. 

EASY! Only 3 steps! And you can just leave it in the oven and let it cook its way through while you do other things! 

I used the salt reduced stock for this dish, which I found there's a lack of flavour to the beef. Probably next time I'll use the normal stock, or add a bit of salt and pepper to enhance the taste. But overall, it wasn't bad, the meat was soft and fell off the bone, and we all enjoyed it! We had the beef with some bread and truffle butter (yummmmm....) but I think it matches well with some mashed potato or polenta too! 

After we were all full, I had one piece of osso buco left - that means my hubby can take it to work for lunch. I quickly made some pasta, and chop up the meat in chunks and mix it in along with some sauces left in the casserole. Done!

At the end of dinner, I had a little problem... I now need to find a space to store this giant casserole! But funny enough, after moving and stacking things around inside the kitchen cupboards. I managed to fit the casserole in without problem! Haha... does that mean I can invest in more of my toys?? =P

Just a little side story... Sunday seemed to be more comfortable around Mochi this time, at least Sunday didn't try to escape the house! And Mochi got a little jealous when I tried to feed Sunday some of his dinner, it was funny seeing Mochi tried to use his nose to shuf Sunday away!! I think they can be friends.... eventually! =P 

Dark Chocolate Rocky Road with Macadamia Nuts...

The other day I took a big bag of Aldi marshmallows from work!!! Initially I though "ummm... that's perfect for hot chocolate!!!" But after I sat down.... I realised "that's a VERY BIG bag of marshmallows to be used on hot chocolate, and that means alot of cups of hot chocolate!!!!"

Then I thought.... ROCKY ROAD!!!! I never really liked the rocky road you get from shops, purely because I don't like shredded coconut, and in general milk chocolate is used instead of the bitter sweet dark chocolate which I prefer! So this time, I've decided I'll make a coconut free dark chocolate rocky road! 

Ingredients:

350g 70% cocoa dark chocolate (or 80% if you want to go for the real bitter taste)

1 big bag of marshmallows (I actually like the Aldi marshmallows better than Pascall! It's more spongy!)

a good handful of raisin (optional)

a big handful of macadamia nuts (or peanuts if you like it better)

1. Chop the chocolate into small pieces, and melt over simmering water

2. Chop the marshmallows in halves.

3. Mix the marshmallows, raisin and nuts together in a baking tray (lined with baking paper). Lightly press down. 

4. Pour the melted chocolate on top. 

5. Refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight. 

This is probably one of the easiest thing you can make without any skills!!!! This large tray of rocky road ended up sharing with both hubby's and my team of people at work!!! =)

Next time, to make it more adult like, I think I'll add in some Rum or Grand Marnier!!! Maybe I can add in some finely grated orange peel as well!!! That's the beauty of making your own food from scratch, you can add in whatever you want according to your own taste, and create your own unique flavour! 

Chocolate and Orange Marble Cake with Chocolate Sauce and Roasted Almond and Pistachio...

Another home fellowship challenge... Late on a thursday nite, my hubby kindly asked/informed me to make a cake for the next day's HF because it was Fiona and Kitty's birthday. Ummm.... what can I whip up something quick? What's there in my pantry?!?! Found some chocolate, cocoa, eggs, orange, butter and cream in the fridge. Ok... it's chocolate and orange marble cake! 

Ingredients:

330ml milk

380g sugar 

1 tsp vanilla extract

250g butter, melted

225g plain flour, sifted

40g SR flour, sifted

2 eggs

20g cocoa

150g dark chocolate

1 tbsp grated orange rind

1. Preheat oven to 160C. Place the milk, sugar and vanilla in a bowl and whisk to combine.

2. Add butter and whisk to combine. Then whisk in  flours and eggs until smooth. 

3. Divide mixture into 2 bowls. Add cocoa and chocolate into one. Whisk until smooth. Add orange rind into the other and whisk until smooth. 

4. Pour the chocolate mixture into a well greased 2L Bundt tin. Drop spoonfuls of orange mixture onto the chocolate and gently sirl with a butter knife to create marble effect. 

5. Bake for 1hr10min or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Cool in tin for 10min. Turn out on a wire rack to cool. 

To jazz up the cake a little. I made a chocolate fudge sauce and found some almonds and pistachio in the pantry, so I toasted them as well. 

To make the chocolate fudge sauce, I simply just placed the chocolate and cream in a saucepan over low heat and cook. Stirring until melted and smooth. Depends how fudgy you want the sauce to be, you can just adjust the proportion of chocolate and cream. 

After the cake is completely cooled, pour the chocolate sauce on top, and let it run freely down the side of the cake. Sprinkle with the toasted nuts on top... =) 

The good thing about drizzling chocolate sauce on top is... it hides ALL the imperfections!!!!! haha... 

Sometimes you're surprised how simple the ingredients needed to whip up something so delicious and presentable! And the best thing about this recipe is, it doesn't require much effort, no creaming of butter, no excessive beating, JUST MIX AND WHISK! Love this simple action! 

Thanks to my hubby for this late thursday nite challenge!