Cooking Crusade

Hey everyone! Sorry I’ve been MIA for awhile. I’ve been soo busy with work, church, apple picking and of course baking. I thought I’d take a bit of time to do some blogging

I couldn’t think of what to do for my bf for Valentine’s day… Since at the time, his V-day gift to me was a surprise, I had to come up with something romantic. I figured that since I love baking, and there are so many cute V-day themed bakeables, that I should bake something sweet. I also got the chance to use my cupcake shaped cookie cutter for the first time! I ended up baking him a bunch of basic sugar cookies decorated with royal icing

Sugar Cookies (adapted from a bunch of sources, you will see this one everywhere)
3 cups plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup caster sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 egg
1 t vanilla extract

Cream together butter and sugar, add egg and vanilla. Add flour+baking powder cup by cup until you have a crumbly dough. Refrigerate for about half an hour (makes it easier to roll out). Roll out, cut into shapes and bake for about 15 minutes at 150-160 degrees Celsius or until a pale creamy light golden colour (don’t underbake!) Cool completely and decorate.

For the frosting for this, I simply used a mixture of royal icing powder and lemon juice, then used Wilton paste dyes to colour it.

I loved making these, sooo cute!

This cupcake shape crumbled a bit on the side when I took it off the baking sheet, so I took the opportunity to make it “interesting” haha.

I also made some pale pink hearts with sprinkles.

Then experimented with some bow ties and polka dots.

In fact, I made so many that I bundled them up and took them to the office!

You can buy (quite large) cupcake shaped cookie cutters from Alfresco Emporium (I bought mine from Cherrybrook) for $9.95

Enjoy! xoxo

Christine

My gorgeous boyfriend surprised me by taking me out to Etch for dinner on Valentine’s Day. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Etch is a sister restaurant to Bécasse, since a good friend of mine and I have a booking to visit there next month.

The first thing I noticed when I walked into Etch was how beautiful this restaurant was. I pass a vase full of enormous silky-looking gorgeous black feathers on my way to our table. We are seated near an old fashioned fireplace in quite a spacious room with plenty of room for the waiters to move effusively between tables. I love the wallpaper near our table – flowery with a background of pale green, so delicately pretty.  Art covers all the walls. Everything is a mixture of old fashioned and modern – I love it!

For Valentine’s Day, Etch were serving a V-day tasting menu – 5 courses for $110 per head.

Before we begin, my boyfriend and I mention to our waiter that neither of us eat any shellfish (we don’t eat pork either, but saw no point in mentioning this as it didn’t make an appearance on the set menu.) The second course is seared yellow fin tuna with smoked Queensland scallop. The waiter said that we could either skip on the scallops or get an alternative vegetarian option or take one of each to share. We opted for the sharing option.

The first course was chilled sweet corn soup with iced basil and a spiced corn fritter.

The corn fritter comes skewered on a little bamboo skewer. M tastes it first. “This is sooo good,” he comments. Spurred on, I take a teensy bite… He is right. “Do we dunk it in the soup?” we wonder. It seems like the most logical step to do, so we do and it is wonderful. The crispy spiced fritter in the cool sweet corn soup is delightfully good and we are sad when it disappears in a few bites, but delight in drinking the rest of the soup which is wonderful as it is alone.

Our mocktails arrive. (Left) “Apple Beer” (Apples, lime and ginger beer) is my favorite of the evening. The crisp flavor of the ginger melds beautifully with the lime and apples. (Right) Grapes, cranberry, rosemary, lemonade. I could definitely taste the cranberry and lemonade in this, but not the rosemary. It is quite good, but the ginger mocktail is the real winner.

Second course arrives. I used to hate sashimi, but since Tetsuya’s, I have become a bit braver in trying raw fish. This was the seared yellow fin tuna with the smoked Queensland scallops, pickled radish, pea shoots with soy and mirin. You may remember that I requested no scallops, but unfortunately it seems as though there was a mixup in the kitchen and I ended up with scallops anyway (you can see them just above the radish). Not wanting to cause a fuss (and since I’m not allergic,) I just pushed it to the side of my plate and enjoyed the rest of the meal. This course was wonderful. The flavors of the soy and mirin really worked so amazingly beautifully with the fish and the radish and pea shoots were flavored with something incredible that I couldn’t put my finger on – but I did not want to stop eating it! Really loved this dish. The lamb of the night was spectacularly good, but this was probably  my favorite dish of the evening.

When our waiter came to take our plates and he realised that I had been given scallops, he looked well, shocked. I have never seen a more horrified waiter. He muttered something about it being unacceptable and a short apology and stormed back to the kitchen. In a couple of minutes, another waiter was at our table apologising about it and explaining how seriously they took allergies and promised to give us something extra special for dessert. Our original waiter also insisted on giving us more free mocktails on the house. Talk about excellent service! As I commented to my boyfriend later, accidentally getting scallops was one of the best things we have ever done at  restaurant, lol.

As I mentioned earlier, my bf got the vegetarian alternative for the scallop dish. This was a salad of marinated vegetables with goat’s cheese. I have to admit that I tried a little of the goats cheese and I’m still quite a cheese.. I guess.. beginner? Is the best word for it. I found it far too bitter for my tastes and the flavors that developed with it were not to my liking at all. I had to down a bit of the ginger mocktail to get rid of the aftertaste. I think that I must have eaten a large section of the outside skin section of the cheese? Either way, I guess that just means I’m not much of a cheese connoisseur. Give me a brie with crackers any day and I’m happy

Last savoury course for the night – this was the slow roasted lamb rump with olive oil potato puree, crushed peas and burnt pepper vinagrette. It also came with marinated/roasted capsicum on top. Normally, I despise capsicum, but this added a lovely sweetness to the lamb, which was cooked to absolute perfection. I was getting to be absolutely stuffed at this part of the meal, but I couldn’t stop eating this dish. I’m a total sucker for lamb and this was completely delicious. The crushed peas and the potato puree were also great – the potato puree was so creamy and lovely. Even my bf, who hates mashed potatoes enjoyed it.

Macerated summer berries with sorbet (I think it was strawberry or melon, can’t quite remember.) This dessert was refreshingly small (so stuffed at this point!) but was also a nice dish to segue between dishes and also acted like a palate cleanser. The berries were lovely and juicy and suited the sorbet quite well.

The final (official) dessert of the night. Vanilla creme brulee with passionfruit and strawberry sorbet. I loved this dessert. My creme brulee cracks under my spoon perfectly (even though just from looking at it, you imagine that it is quite fragile and will crack easily, but it does not disappoint;) and is creamy and wonderful, studded gorgeously with black vanilla beans. I personally would love to know how they managed to get the custard into that shape on the plate so neatly, I honestly would have no idea about how to do it myself… The strawberry sorbet was lovely and cool and the creme brulee tasted fantastic with a tiny dab of the passionfruit sauce on your spoon. I can’t help it… I’m a total sucker for a good creme brulee and this was one of them. Despite how full I was feeling, I managed to finish it all off! I know.. I’m such a fatty

These were the complimentary desserts I mentioned earlier.

(Left to right) ; Aerated dark chocolate infused with mint, nut honeycomb/praline/tasty noms, lemon sorbet in white chocolate, rhubarb crisp.

To be honest at this point we really could not eat any more, so fortunately the kind waiter wrapped up our remaining desserts and sent us home with them to munch on later (at work, in my case.)

While resting from the delicious meal at our table, I mentioned to the waiter that I had planned a visit to Becasse next month. He asked me when my reservation was for and my name and promptly disappeared. Who knows, maybe there will be something special there when I visit… or maybe he was calling to say something like “Under no circumstances can you give this girl shellfish.” Haha.

In summary;

I had a wonderful night out at Etch. Their Valentine’s Day menu was wonderful and all the dishes were excellent, which is sometimes a rare quality to find at some degustation restaurants. The service was impeccable and the decor was stunning, I would definitely recommend Etch as a nice romantic night out for you and a special friend.. or even a regular friend! I’d love to come and visit again in the future

For more info on their website click here for the Etch Dining website.

Hope you all had a lovely Valentine’s Day

xoxo

Christine

I’m continuing my love affair with scrambled eggs. Flecked with parsley flakes, salt and butter, I am eternally yours.

Although it may be difficult to believe, I’m always trying to come up with new ways to stick fruit and vegies into my diet. I often get bored with steamed greens and wilted spinach is quickly becoming a fast favorite. Prep for this is so incredibly easy, too. No pesky peeling or chopping, just a quick wash in the sink and then onto a pan with a teensy bit of garlic and oil and bam, instant side dish of veg. It also goes so beautifully into scrambled eggs.

Scrambled Eggs with Wilted Spinach (serves 2)

• 4 eggs
• 1 tablespoon of butter (no margarine here, folks!)
• 2 good handfuls of washed baby spinach leaves
• seasoning, dried parsley flakes (optional)

Heat a non-stick fry pan over medium heat. Melt butter, crack eggs into pan and stir until scrambled. Season and add parsley if using and add spinach. Stir egg and spinach egg mixture until eggs are cooked and spinach has just wilted. Serve on well toasted bread (just the way I like it!). No need to butter the bread as the flavor of the butter in the eggs will flavor the toast just beautifully.

Wash this gorgeous breakfast down with a cherry slushie ; which is so simple to make that it’s.. well, it’s patently ridiculous.

Cherry Slushie (serves 2)

• 1/2 a cup of frozen, pitted cherries
• 5-6 cubes of ice (depending on how icy you want it. this turned out preeeetty icy so you may wanna knock it down a notch)
• 1.5 cups of milk (you can use whole or light or skim or soy or rice or almond or goat…. i promise, you can use whatever milk pleases you!!)
  Method

Blend all ingredients together in a blender, pour into a tall glass and drink with someone absolutely delightful (it makes it taste better… I promise!) This is basically a simpler version of my fave cherry smoothie which I have been enjoying on a regular basis now, but have yet to post about. Promise that one is coming (when I can sit still and photograph it for long enough instead of drinking it straightaway!) I don’t like to add extra sugar to this, but if you feel it needs just a bit more sweetness, you could add a dollop of honey to the blender after tasting. A tablespoon of vanilla extract wouldn’t go too far astray either, that would result in a cherry-vanilla slushie…. mmm.

Enjoy!

xox

Christine