FoodieChat

This post serves two purposes. Firstly, to share with you an AMAZING chocolate cake recipe that my friend Bec found on the net. It’s a sour cream chocolate cake. Eww I hate sour cream. You too? Well doesn’t matter, because you can’t actually taste it! It makes the cake sooo moist. And for some reason, it generates a huge chocolatey hit even though the cake is only made with cocoa! I’ll say no more, here is the recipe:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/sour-cream-chocolate-cake-2/Detail.aspx

It makes a huge batch. I got 16 full sized cupcakes and 24 mini cupcakes out of it!

And the second purpose of my blog post, is to say – now I know why you have to use castor sugar if it says castor sugar! I made the cupcakes two days ago, and today reaching for one of them, I can see little white speckles all over them! On closer inspection, it is undissolved sugar! The recipe doesn’t say castor sugar, and since castor costs more than normal sugar I used normal….. learnt my lesson! No impact on taste or the inside though.

I find this case’s texture excellent for shaping, and making children’s cakes, it is very sturdy but still soft and crumby. Hope you find it useful!

Winter – perfect for long slow stews. This recipe comes from Australian Gourmet Traveller. The sauce is very rich. It is pretty much just white wine and tomatoes! The saffron adds a luxurious touch to the melt in your mouth braised meat. It’s fantastic as you prepare it, whack it in the oven and then forget about it for a couple hours whilst you enjoy your guests’ company rather than slaving away in the kitchen and letting them have all the fun!

Apparently it’s a recipe from a Melbourne restaurant called Massani. It’s in the section of Gourmet Traveller where readers write in asking for recipes from their favourite restaurants.   Here’s the link:

http://gourmet.ninemsn.com.au/gourmettraveller/recipes/db/gourmettraveller/71/7166.asp

Soooo sorry for the shameful 2 month absence!  Foodiechat had an unexpected whirlwind of a month at work, no fun  Well it’s over now, and it’s Christmas Eve – I thought I should share what we’re having!  First Christmas lunch was a couple of weeks ago, and thanks to my friends, I got free reign on the menu – yay! Thanks for trusting me guys! I’ve ALWAYS wanted to cook a whole salmon on the BBQ, and yay, 14 people meant there were enough people for it!

First up, I bought this lovely fella – it was $15 a kg and this guy was 3kgs.  He was really gross to touch though

I thought it was great value, as the salmon is already gutted, so you’re really eating pretty much all of it except the head and the spine!  First, wash him and then pat dry with a paper towel.  Next, stuff his belly with fronds of dill and parsley, and some lemon slices.  Then, rub him all over with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.  Wrap tightly in foil – double layers – and oops, I was lazy and didn’t grease the top layer of foil, thinking the oil on the fish was enough to make it non stick. So, the skin came off, oops  Nevermind.  Put the whole wrapped parcel on your barbeque on medium heat.  And cook it for 30 –  40 minutes.  It’s cooked if you stab through it and your skewer or knife goes through easily  This is what he looked like when we unwrapped it.

And after we ate the top layer, between 14 of us, we only ate 3/4 of the fish!  It was totally cooked to perfection.  One second more and it wouldn’t have been so perfect. Thumbs up guys! It was soo silky and delicate.  Highly recommend this for your Christmas table!

As if that wasn’t enough, Cecilia also cooked a pork roast.   Salt the skin and leave it overnight in the fridge to dehydrate and you’ll have the most perfect crackling.

Some vegetable is required – and the grilled capsicum and green zucchinis definitely suited the occasion with their very Christmassy colours!

My plate – a bit piggy? We also had chargrilled prawns and a rocket salad with pear, walnuts and pancetta. (more…)

It is SO cold lately, that all I want to eat every night coming home from work is a hot bowl of noodle soup.  Usually that’s noodles (udon, egg noodles, rice noodles), with veges of some sort, meat of some sort and some fish balls.  Tonight, I had some leftovers from a steamboat meal so my trick was to poach all the ingredients for just long enough to cook them without turning them into a soggy mess.  Two bowls of water going at once.  One for the fish ball squares – they need to be boiled for 10minutes.  And whilst that is going, poach the other ingredients in order of delicateness - golden mushrooms, shitaki mushrooms, then the tripe and finally the seafood ever so slightly.  Rinse the rice noodles under hot water (if you boil them they will be too soggy). And make the soup base: boil 2 cups of chicken stock, and add a slurp of soy sauce, a sprinkle of white pepper, a few drops of sesame oil and some chopped spring onions.  Place refreshed noodles in a bowl, and arrange all the ingredients nicely on top.  Pour on the hot soup and serve steaming hot.  No need for heaters and woolly socks, you will be warmed to the core In 15 minutes flat too