A Whole Lota Chocolate.....

If you're a fan of chocolate and you live in Melbourne then this is for you....


As a birthday present for one of my niece's, I took her on The Chocolate Delights Walking Tour where you discover one of the most elegant areas of Melbourne whilst tasting chocolate. Our starting point was The Chocolate Box at Collins Place where we met our guide and where we sampled a number of little delights. I just loved the look of these little Chocolate Olives...


Our next stop was one of my favourite chocolate shops...Haigh's. As previously mentioned in my blog, I've not a big chocolate fan, however, I'll never say no to Haigh's chocolate. Here we sampled a gorgeous chocolate - a sliver of orange, rind and all, dipped in dark chocolate....sensational. I did end up picking up some of my fav's....choc caramels, as well as a block of white chocolate with strawberry pieces....devine (although my thighs may not agree).


We then headed onto Koko Black. This is probably the cutest looking chocolate shop and their chocolate display looks absolutely amazing - it reminds me of the little chocolate shop in the movie Chocolat. However I actually find Koko Black way too rich and sweet. Here we tried their champagne truffel and unfortunately it was the piece that sent me over the edge....way to much chocolate for a non-chocoholic.


This is my niece biting into the truffel....as you can tell, she didn't find it too rich....


Their packaging is just beautiful though....


We finished off the tour with some afternoon tea of pistachio cake with poached rhubarb and a chocolate cream along with tea, coffee, or of course, hot chocolate. As you can imagine, not many people finished the cake, but the nice thing was that you were left to just sit and enjoy the surroundings at your own leisure.

My favourite part about the tour (being a non-chocoholic) was the knowledge our guide had of the families who started these businesses as well as the history of many of the buildings we passed along the way. It's made me interested in finding a heritage building tour of Melbourne now.


I definitely recommend this to anyone interested in chocolate and/or history - www.chocoholictours.com.au

It was a wonderful way to spend a couple of hours on a wintery Saturday afternoon.

PS...my niece loved it as well!

The Cookbook Challenge No. 36: Comfort Food

Seriously, what's better than comfort food?

That item of food that when you place it in your mouth it makes you smile. You exhale a breath once you swallow that first bite ready to lift the next bit up to your lips...ahhhh....comfort food!

There are a lot of foods out there that I absolutely love, and on certain days can give me a lot of comfort, but the food that I lean on (or wish I was leaning on) when I've had a hard day is.......pie. The simple and humble pie.

It can be apple pie, apple and rhubarb pie....i'm not fussy, but it has to have a buttery pastry, it has to be piping hot, and it has to be loaded up with fruit.

I don't tend to use a recipe though when making a fruit pie, I just wing it, or perhaps it's the fact that I make them so often....yep, my secret is out. The funny thing is though, I don't actually have a straight forward apple pie recipe..go figure? I thought for sure that Maggie Beer or Margaret Fulton would have a recipe in one of the books I have of theirs, but I couldn't find one. So it was good old Bill Granger to the rescue....another form of comfort in the shape of a smiling blond man.

Apple and Cherry Pies
Cookbook: Everyday
Author: Bill Granger

375g plain flour
90g icing sugar, sifted
pinch of salt
250g unsalted butter, chilled and cubed
90ml iced water
450g pitted cherries (frozen are fine)
3 granny smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into 2cm cubes
1 1/2 tbsp cornflour
4 tbsp caster sugar
1 egg white, lightly beaten


To make the pastry, mix the flour, icing sugar and salt in a food processor until combined. Add the butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Add the iced water and process until the dough comes together in a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Lightly grease eight muffin holes and line with strips of baking paper hanging over the edge (these will help you lift out the pies). Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured work surface until it is 3 mm thick and then use it to line the muffin holes. Cut out eight pastry circles to fit the tops.

Mix together the cherries, apple, cornflour and sugar and spoon into the pastry cases Top with the pastry circles and crimp the edges together with a fork. Brush the pastry with egg white. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until golden.


I found that if the pies weren't sealed properly then the sticky filling would spill out a little which made the pies stick to the pan (even with the baking paper), so ensure your pies are sealed and perhaps use a little more baking paper.


I really enjoyed these pies.


The pastry was delicious - really buttery which is what I love and what I look for in a fruit pie.


I had quite a bit of pastry left over along with some of the filling. It definitely was not being thrown out so I decided to add some extra apples and the sad looking rhubarb that was in my fridge and make a BIG PIE! Yeah...now we're talking!


Yummmmo. Again, the buttery pastry with the tart filling was the perfect combination. The wonderful smell from the oven as this little baby baked was exactly what the doctor ordered as I waited patiently curled up under the blanket with my cup of tea. Told you, it doesn't get any better than this!

Weekend Away....

There is something I love about Portarlington. I'm not sure if it's the quaint little town with its tiny strip of shops, or the fact that it's not overrun by tourists, but whatever it is, I love heading down there and that's where I spent this past weekend.


We started Saturday morning off with a lazy brunch down at Barwon Heads.


The sun was shining and the coffee was delicious - a perfect start before we headed off for a luxurious hour long massage down the road.


I think I could really get use to starting every weekend off like this...perhaps every morning....what a shame work and reality has to get in the way!


After a little window shopping around Barwon Heads (I found a gorgeous little florist that sold little frenchy household items called Moss), we headed a short distance away to the town of Queenscliff. Again, a spot of window shopping, turned into a spot of shopping, before we headed back around the coast to Portarlington for a well deserved LARGE bowl of pumpkin soup from the local bakery.

Just look at all of this bread....the smell inside was intoxicating.


Another wonderful weekend of walking, relaxing, and of course eating.

Thanks again Portarlington!

Pot Luck Lunch :: Spanish Theme

On the weekend, April from My Food Trail and Agnes from Off The Spork organised a Pot Luck lunch for those of us who have been participating in The Cookbook Challenge and live in Melbourne.

It was so lovely to meet some of my fellow challengers over a yummy lunch and share our food we'd prepared for this weeks theme - Spanish.

Those who also attended included Ange from Vicious Ange, Penny from Jeroxie, and Cherrie from Sweet Cherrie Pie.

OMG...check out all of this food! We had so much in front of us it was hard to know where to start....


Ange brought along a wonderfully fresh and vibrant salad filled with roasted peppers, tomatoes, onions, and garlic smothered in a zingy sherry vinegar dressing.


Penny spoilt us with a yummy Octopus Casserole with Spicy Chorizo and Olives....


....along with Baked Sardines in white wine on toast, and Buttered Garlic Mushrooms.


From April, a naughty Spanish garlic, and chilli prawns dish (naughty due to the amount of lovely butter involved).


From our host Agnes, we munched on a Chorizo and Chickpea Stew, Wrinkled Salty Potatoes with Mojo Verde, and a Spiced Ox-Tail Casserole.




Cherrie cooked up a beautiful, and quite unusual Spanish influenced Filipino dish called Morcon - beef rolls filled with egg, frankfurt and cheese....yes, I said frankfurt. Really unusual sounding dish, but delicious!


My contribution was Chorizo and Pea Filo Parcels.


Are you full yet?

We obviously weren't as out came dessert....


Some beautifully moist Chocolate Chip Friands from April. A light and tangy Lemon Tart and Catalan Creme Fritters (aka Deep Fried Custard) from Agnes, and I made some Catalan Biscuits (Panelletas) - Almond, Pinenut, and Chocolate.


It was mentioned during lunch that dessert used a different stomach....unfortunately it seemed both my stomachs had been filled before dessert even hit the table, but it sure didn't stop me. My God....I'm still full even now!


A big thank you April and Agnes for organising and getting us all together.

It was fantastic meeting you all!

The Cookbook Challenge No. 35: Spanish

Yum, yum, yum!

Who could possibly not like Spanish food! Little bowls of flavoursome dishes loaded with garlic....mmmmmm....

One of the things I discovered about Spanish food this week while flicking through my cookbooks looking for a recipe is that the recipes are all so simple with very few ingredients. I guess that's the reason they're strongly in favour of top quality ingredients. At first I thought I was just picking the really simple recipes, but they're all like that. Just another reason to love Spanish food!

For this weeks theme a few of us from the Cookbook Challenge got together for a Pot Luck Lunch (stay tuned for some photos of the feast), and below are the recipes I contributed to the day...



Chorizo and Pea Filo Parcels
Cookbook: Vogue Entertaining & Travel (Dec/Jan 08)

300g green peas
70g butter, melted
60ml puring cream
3 x 130g mild or spicy dry Spanish choirzo
9 sheets fresh filo pastry


Cook peas in boiling salted water for 3 minutes or until tender. Drain, then process with 1 tbsp butter and the cream in a food processor until smooth. Season, then refrigerate until chilled and firm.

Remove casings from chorizo, then process in a food processor to a paste.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Layer 3 sheets filo together, brushing with melted butter between each. Lay a line of chorizo along the long side of the pastry, then top with a line of pea mash. Gently roll up filo to form a long sausage shape, then cut in half. Place rolls on a baking paper-lined oven tray. Repeat with remaining ingredients, then bake for 15 minutes or until golden and crisp.

Cut each roll diagonally into 6 and serve.



Catalan Marzipan Cakes
(Panellets)
Cookbook: Vogue Entertaining & Travel (Dec/Jan 08)

500g caster sugar
500g ground almonds
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
2 egg whites
1 egg, lightly beaten
100g pinenuts
100g slivered almonds, chopped
20g grated dark chocolate, plus extra chopped chocolate


Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Using your hands, combine sugar, ground almonds and lemon zest in a bowl. Add 2 tbsp water and egg whites and, using your hands, rub wet ingredients into dry until mixture is well combined and pliable. This forms the panellet base.


Divide base into three and flavour each as follows: for pinenut panellets, roll tbsps of mixture into balls; for almond ones, form into logs. Brush both with beaten egg and roll in pine nuts or almonds, pressing nuts to stick. Place on a baking paper-lined oven tray and brush again with beaten egg.

For chocolate panellets, add grated chocolate and shape into balls, pressing apiece of chocolate into the top.

Bake all panellets for 8-10 minutes, turning the nut ones halfway through cooking. Makes approximately 40.


I really enjoyed both dishes, in particular the savoury dish. I'd probably make them a little smaller (thinner) next time, and you really need to watch the cooking time as the bottoms cooked really quick - I wonder if it was due to the oil coming through from the chorizo.

The biscuits were sooooooo easy to make, although the pinenut ones took the longest purely due to the fact that the pinenuts wouldn't stick to the dough...little buggers! They're a really sweet biscuit so you can't eat too many at a time, and I recommend eating the chocolate ones crumbled ontop of some vanilla ice-cream....just because I can!


As mentioned - photos from our feast day to come...stay tuned....

The Cookbook Challenge No. 34: Soup

Lately I have discovered that I am a 'S' food girl. I eat salads all Summer long, I eat soups all Winter long, and in between I eat sushi. So I was very happy that this weeks theme fell during the Winter months, and gave me a chance to try a brand new soup recipe, and that I did....


Greg Malouf's = Tunisian Lamb Soup with Preserved Lemon Olive Oil
Cookbook: Tree to Table
Author: Patrice Newell

4 lamb shanks
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
130 ml extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1 cinnamon stick
1 bay leaf
1 leek, washed and halved
few sprigs of thyme
2 ltr chicken stock
1 large onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
10 saffron threads, lightly roasted and crushed
1 tbsp honey
1 x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
18 pickling onions, peeled
100g dried chickpeas soaked overnight and cooked or 1 x 400g tin chickpeas, drained
50 ml preserved lemon olive oil (recipe below)
60g flaked almonds, fried until golden brown


Season lamb shanks. Heat 1/3 cup olive oil in a large heavy based saucepan over a high heat and brown shanks, turning them sot they colour evenly. Lower the heat and drain away any burnt fat.

Add garlic, cinnamon, bay leaf, leek and thyme. Pour in stock and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer very gently for 2 hours. Skim off any fat and scum that forms on the surface, You may need to top up with a little extra stock.

In a medium saucepan, heat remaining olive oil and saute onion and garlic over low heat for 5-10 minutes or until they soften. Add spices and cook for another 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Add honey, tomatoes, pickling onions and chickpeas and strain in liquid from lamb shanks. Simmer gently over a low heat for 20-30 minutes.

Remove meat from shanks, discarding bones, fat and sinew. Roughly shred meat and add to soup. Return to a gentle boil over a low heat and taste, adjusting seasoning if necessary.

To serve, ladle soup into bowls swirl in some preserved lemon olive oil and sprinkle with almonds.


For the Preserved Lemon Olive Oil

2 preserved lemons
2 lemons, cut into quarters
1 tsp crushed coriander seeds
1/2 tsp crushed black peppercorns
1 cup extra virgin olive oil

Scrape flesh from preserved lemons and discard. Finely dice skins and place in a sterilised 500ml jar with fresh lemon quarters, coriander seeds and black pepercorns.

In a sauce pan, gently warm olive oil over a low heat to blood temperature (just warm) and pour over lemons. Seal jar tightly and allow to sit undisturbed for 3 days.

Strain oil through a clean ta towl placed over a bowl. Allow it to drain naturally - don't be tempted to push it through as this will cloud the oil. Pour into a sterilised bottle, researl and use as desired. This infused oil will keep for up to 1 week in a cool, dark cupboard.


As I type this I realise that I completely missed adding the almonds at the end...doh!


I also (confession time) couldn't be bothered letting the Preserved Lemon Olive Oil sit overnight before straining, so I just let it sit for a few hours (while the soup cooked) and then just used it - with the chunks of lemon still in it and all.


I'm sitting on the fence with this soup. It was long and arduous to make, but the taste was lovely. The cinnamon adding such an unusual, yet moreish flavour. I'm a big fan of slow cooking, especially on a cold weekend, and the fact that this soup cooked for over 2 hours made me quite excited, however you had to keep working all the way through the cooking time which wasn't enjoyable, especially when it was just a soup.


Because of that, I don't intend on making this soup again so I'll just need to savour all the portions that are still in my freezer (yes, I made a lot).

Collingwood Farmers Market

What a gorgeous morning.

The wind is blowing, it looks like it's going to rain, and I'm rugged up and wandering around the Collingwood Farmers Market....bliss!


One of the things I like about this market is that it's accredited, which means you can be assured that the people selling the produce are the ones that either grew it or made it. Not someone who's stocked up at the Vic Market and is now selling it at a profit.


The other thing I love is that it's quite small. I find the likes of the Red Hill Market a little too big and I'm exhausted by the time I get around it, where as this one is just the right size, leaving you with plenty of energy to go home and cook with the gorgeous produce you just bought. Which is exactly what I'm doing.

I picked up some gorgeous potatoes and fennel which are now bubbling away on the stove turning into a yummy pot of Cream of Potato and Fennel soup.


Check out these chickens too.....they're like the cherry on top of a wonderful morning.