Month: March 2012

Our Date with Adriano Zumbo at Fenix Restaurant

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I was lucky enough to receive a ticket to ‘High Tea with Adriano Zumbo’ for my birthday from a close friend, and what a great day it was! This event was held as part of the 2012 Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, at Fenix Restaurant and Events, which is owned by Masterchef Australia’s Gary Mehigan.

The highlight of the afternoon was of course the delectable treats we got to sample from Adriano Zumbo, and meeting the King of the Macaron himself. There were many options on offer, including ‘Zumbarons’, Decorated Chocolate Fondant, Citrus Tarts, Chocolate Marshmallow Tart and an array of savoury pies and sausage rolls. I think I tried all of these things :O

My favourite Zumbaron was definitely the Cola one! It was really buttery but still tasted of Cola – so weird, yet so good. The Salted Butter Caramel was also amazing, but who doesn’t love Salted Caramel?!

Zumbo also did a demonstration making vanilla custard macarons, then he deep fried them! So weird. He is a very shy person, but he was really happy to answer anyone’s questions, and talked us all through the processes of creating the humble Macaron. One thing I learnt was that whilst the Italian meringue method is best used for making sweet macaron flavours, when attempting to make a less sweet version or even a savoury flavour, the Swiss meringue method is the best to use. His reason for this is that there is simply less sugar in Swiss meringue. I have never tried making Swiss meringue before, and it sounds a bit tricky. You apparently need to heat the egg whites in a waterbath until they reach a certain temp, then beat them back down to room temperature to create the meringue. Sounds complicated…

We had a great day at Fenix, and tasted some amazing sweets! It was awesome to meet Zumbo, he was happy to have a conversation with everyone there and to pose for photos…AND…contain your excitement fellow Melbournians…!!! We should expect an Adriano Zumbo store, possibly in Fitzroy or South Yarra, by the end of the year!!! Yessssssssssssssss 😀

Vanilla Bean and Musk Funfetti Cupcakes

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Everyone seems to be getting on the funfetti at the moment (see Raspberri Cupcakes, MiniBaker101 and Sweetapolita), so I thought I’d give them a whirl, too. I made these super pretty cupcakes for my little sister’s school fete’s cake stall, so the more colour and sugar, the better, hey!?

I used the same Vanilla Bean Cupcakes recipe as used in My First Order, which is from Taste.com, however I halved the recipe this time, and it made 15 cupcakes. This recipe is certainly a winner, they turn out perfectly every time! The pink buttercream is musk (clearly my favourite), and white buttercream is vanilla bean. Yum!

I put about 3/4 of a cup of funfetti hearts in the cake mixture, too. It may be sad to admit but I find it kind of exciting biting into the cake and seeing a kaleidoscope of different colours…or maybe I just love cake waaay to much! I think so.

I almost loved boxing these delights up as much as making them. They look so cute!! Mmm…I think I do love cake a little too much! But I guess if you’re reading this post, chances are you probably do too 😛

Have a great weekend and eat lot’s of cake! X

Salted Caramel, Chocolate Mousse and Brownie Stackers

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Some may call it sad, but I made my own birthday cake. I decided it was just a chance to try something new and different, and new and different this certainly was. I combined my three all-time favourite desserts/flavours/textures – salted caramel, chocolate mousse and rich, chocolate brownie to create this mouthwatering mini tower.

It was the first time I had ever used a ring mould, and it actually worked quite well. It all sounded great in my head, but when I started stacking the pieces together I began to slightly freak out because brownie was breaking, caramel was sticking to everything and I was becoming covered in mousse! Uh oh. But they worked, a bit messier than I had imagined, but that’s okay.

The taste of these ‘stackers’ was seriously out of this world! I’m not sure what I was expecting, but they were so good. The mousse was quite bitter, as I mainly used 70% chocolate, but when combined with the sweet and salty, thick caramel, it really worked. I also used 70% chocolate in the brownie, so the cake on a whole was still extremely rich and decadent, but it was far from sickly sweet which is what I wanted to achieve.

I simply used three different recipes (doubled the quantity for the brownie and the mousse) and stacked away. It did take me a while, but it really wasn’t that difficult. It’s definitely well worth it if you’re a chocolate and caramel feind like me 🙂

Janelle Bloom’s Chocolate Brownie Base: (this recipe is from Janelle Bloom’s ‘Fast, Fresh and Fabulous’ – a great book. This is actually the base for an amazing New York baked cheesecake). Makes 8-10 stackers.

  • 200gm dark chocolate, chopped
  • 200gm butter, chopped
  • 3 tablespoons cocoa powder
  • 1 cup caster (white) sugar
  • 2 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 1/2 cup of plain (all-purpose) flour
  • 4 tablespoons self-raising flour

Preheat oven to 185c fan forced. Grease and line 2 oven trays 1-2cm deep. Although, you could really use any oven proof dish, just spread the mixture 1-2cm thick. Place chocolate and butter in a microwave safe bowl, and microwave on high for 2 minutes. Stir until smooth. Whisk in cocoa powder until smooth. Stir in flours, sugar and eggs until well combined. Spread mixture evenly over base of prepared trays. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean. Don’t worry if the mixture is still a little soft. Cool for 15 minutes, then refrigerate while mixture is still in trays. Tip – make sure the mixture is completely cold before the circles are pressed out. There is a LOT of butter in this recipe, so it really needs to be hardened otherwise it will crumble to pieces (yes, this did happen!).

When brownie mixture is completely cold, press out circles with the ring moulds. There should be about 16-20 circles. When finished, refrigerate in an airtight container.

The Chocolate Mousse I made is from Taste.com, and it is really yummy and fairly simple. I doubled the quantities of the recipe, and it made HEAPS! If you don’t want mousse for lunch for the next week, maybe just do another half of the recipe. Obviously, I did not use the extra cream or the cherries.

Salted Caramel:

  • 2 cans sweetened condensed milk
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt flakes

Remove paper from condensed milk cans, and place them in a large saucepan, lying down. Cover with boiling water and simmer for 3 hours, occasionally topping up the water to ensure cans are always covered. Remove cans from saucepan and let cool for 20-30 minutes. Open with a can opener, and pour caramel into a large bowl. Add salt flakes and stir to combine. You can use as much or as little salt as you like, but I usually stick to half a teaspoon per can of caramel. If using on the day, make sure caramel is completely cooled. Otherwise, refrigerate overnight.

Assembly:

Now for the fiddly part! To begin assembling, place a brownie circle inside the bottom of the ring mould.

Place two teaspoons of salted caramel on top of the first brownie and smooth evenly. Place another brownie on top of the salted caramel layer.

Place 2 generous teaspoons of mousse on top of the second brownie layer, and smooth evenly.

Now cross your fingers and toes! To release the cake from the mould, gently tap cake on the bench until it begins to slip out from the mould. Once this has happened, you can either very gently pull the brownie further and further until it comes out, or keep tapping. It should look a little something like this…

They were a bit messier than I would have liked, so I tied a ribbon around each stacker in an attempt to make them neater! If you’re a perfectionist like me, use a round edged knife or a cheese knife and some warm water to smooth the tops and the edges.

Happy Baking! X

Vietnam: A wonderful world of food (Part 2)

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We begin again…!

These photos above are from a cooking class I did in Hoi An. We went to the Hoi An fresh food market in the morning, and collected all the ingredients for the dishes we would make. The market was a crazy place, so many people, and so much food. It was great to see all of the Vietnamese exotic fruits, vegies and herbs all together in one place, and to learn about them all and where abouts they come from. The fish market was amazing, there was even a hammerhead shark just lying on the table for sale! You really knew that the seafood was fresh because the whole area didn’t smell fishy at all.

After the market, we went back to the instructor’s home to cook. There were three of us in the class, and we each chose a dish from an extensive list of Vietnamese cuisine. This class was definitely one of the highlights of the trip, and I thoroughly recommend Van from Green Bamboo Cooking School if you’re ever in Hoi An (check it out on Trip Advisor). I chose prawn and pork fried spring rolls, as spring rolls are my absolute weakness, and I wanted to learn how to make them properly. The other dishes that were chosen were a coconut chicken curry and chicken, lemongrass and shallot rissoles. We also cooked some fresh squid, and seared some fresh tuna from the market.

I was really happy with how my spring rolls turned out. They were really crispy, and went perfectly with the dipping sauce we made. The sauce was really simple, just lemon juice, a heap of garlic, and a touch of chilli. However, you can add as much or as little garlic and chilli as you like, and you can also use lime juice, which I actually liked a bit better than the lemon juice. When I make the spring rolls myself though, I think I would actually leave out the pork and the prawn. Whilst they were beautiful, I think the prawns especially got a bit lost in the pork and the vegies. The prawns were amazing, so fresh you could actually see right through them, and as I was peeling them they were still flopping around which really freaked me out!! Unfortunately, I don’t think the spring rolls showcased the prawns enough.

The coconut chicken curry was sooo good! We actually used the coconut water from the market which made the flavour really prominent. Yum! I seared the tuna in the above picture, and it was really, really good. I had never tried fresh tuna before, and safe to say I won’t be going back to the canned variety! We used the salt, pepper and lemon juice mixture that I mentioned earlier, and it went perfectly with the seared tuna. Can’t wait to try that one again!

Last but not least, I have to showcase the best cocktail I had in Vietnam – espresso martini (Vietnamese style). I am by no means a coffee drinker, but this cocktail was to die for! There is something a bit different about Vietnamese coffee, I think it is a bit sweeter, and nowhere near as bitter as some of the coffee you get in Australia. And only $4! Mmm 🙂

 

Vietnam: A wonderful world of food (Part 1)

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After nearly a week being home, I have finally managed to start this post. Hopeless! I told you my time management skills were non-existant. For the past three weeks, my boyfriend and I have been travelling around Vietnam. It was a wonderful experience, and it is an amazing country with some wonderful, and not so wonderful food. So, I wanted to showcase some of the wonderful food we experienced. I won’t bore you with detailed descriptions of everything, so just hover over the photo for a quick explanation!

This is Pho Ga. The dish Vietnam is probably most famous for is Pho Bo, the beef version of this noodle soup. However, I definitely preferred the chicken.

 

These photos above were all from a night foodie tour we did with XO Tours (check them out on Trip Advisor if you’re heading to Saigon). This was definitely one of the highlights of our trip. We were taken on the back of a motorbike in a crazy city with next to no road rules, with young Vietnamese women as our tour guides. They took us to three spots across the city, and each had fantastic food – some of the best seafood I have ever had. The bottom photo here is coconut jelly, which was actually set in the coconut itself, then scooped out of the coconut with a layer of fruit at the bottom. Yum!

Something I will be definitely using from my experiences in Vietnam is the simple seasoning of seafood with salt, pepper and lemon juice. So simple, but so, so good. I had it on chicken, too, and you can see it above next to the tiger prawns. In Nha Trang (a beach town on the southern coast of Vietnam) where these photos were taken, most restaurants have a seafood stand out the front, where customers can choose what they would like cooked. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find our favourite, crab, anywhere in Nha Trang. Although, there were ladies across the road from the beach boiling fresh lobster to order. Yumm!

We had some of the most amazing Indian food in Vietnam. I am a sucker for a good butter chicken and garlic naan, and from one end of the country to the other, it was spectacular! You can see below that for 100,000 VND ($5AUD, $6US) we got a full meal with rice and a beer! You can’t get much better than that! I have set a challenge for myself to try and recreate one of these butter chickens, marinating the chicken overnight and making naan as well!

FYI – I am doing this post in 2 parts as it is not letting me put everything into one.