Roast Pork with Crackling

Last dinner for 2009, we had Roast Pork with Crackling. As I mentioned in the previous post, it was my 1st time making this dish.

I reckon it turn out pretty good for 1st timer. The meat was a bit dry, crackling a bit too saltish. But the crackling was a huge success!!! It's super crunchy!!!! CL even asked for more after finishing everything.

In fact I'm pretty amazed by the taste because I didn't marinate the meat before popping into the oven. Only a layer of fennel + salt on the skin and a bottle of white wine after an hour in the oven. The taste was pretty unique, none of the "pork" smell or taste which I'm terrific off. I'm someone who doesn't order pork if I have other choice except for BBQ pork or Sweet and Sour Pork. If there's slices of pork in my noodle, I will either not eat it or pass it to CL. But if it's homecook pork dish, I have no problem with it. Strange? I admit.

Therefore I was a bit scared when it was cooking in the oven. Lucky it turn out way better than expected.

Cookware Purchased on Boxing Day

This are the two cookware which I purchased during Boxing Day sale. I had tried using the 20cm fry pan and I love it. As for the wok, it's kept safely in my storeroom at the moment. I will only take it out when my current wok start giving way which I reckon won't be too far away. 

1st Time

I'm roasting pork belly with crackling. It's definitely my 1st time doing this dish. I wanted to try it long ago but I'm pretty scared because it looks hard. So far after more than an hour in the oven, it looks promising. Just got to wait and see I guess.

Wish me Luck!

2009 Boxing Day Shopping

Ho ho ho ho!!! CL and me just got home from Doncaster Westfield. Got there after 8am to report for boxing day shopping. Spend 5 hours and ended up with a gigantic hole in his credit card our pocket.

I manage to buy a really nice jacket!! A pair of shoe and half year supply of intimate apparel. CL manage to buy some tops which we happened to hunt them down by luck.

I added some cookware for the kitchen again. This time a 20cm Jamie Oliver pan and a Jamie Oliver wok. Will post the photos up later.

Simply Spanish

During my parent's visit, we bought them around for international food cuisine : italian, thai, indian, vietnamese etc. The recent trip, we introduce them to Spanish food.





Simply Spanish at South Melbourne Market is the only place we being to for paella. I'm still hunting for other alternative to make a comparison. But at the meantime, we are enjoying the paella served here.


Simply Spanish served 2 types of paella. 1 is the big pan paella which they cook outside the store. We always have that, cost $10 for a box take away. They seem to be pretty popular as they have two big pans cooking at the same time. I even experience having to queue and wait as the demand was high. The other kind of paella is the small size seafood paella (enough for 2) which will take them 40mins to cook after ordering.





Since there are 4 of us and with time to spare, we ordered 1 serve of Big Pan Paella and another Seafood Paella all to share. Good chance to try taste what's the different between the two.


 Big Pan Paella


The Big Pan Paella was 1st up since they just finished cooking the 1st pan for the day. It has a mixture of mussels, squids, chicken pieces, chorizo etc. Dad and Mum enjoy the dish too :-)



While waiting, we also had Chickpeas with Spinach. The chickpea is cook with some spices. Can't really remember what spices but I like the dish. We also had some complimentary bread with olive oil.


As for drink, I tried their Spanish Coffee. It's very unique! I'm guessing the milk on the bottom of the glass is condensed milk. But the ration of milk : coffee is just right! It's not too sweet and the coffee is strong. At the end, we ordered another 2 glasses. 1 for CL and 1 for Mummy.


 Spanish Coffee


It didn't really seem that we waited very long for the Seafood Paella. Think because we being eating non-stop plus chatting. 


The Seafood Paella potion is huge. Definitely able to feed more than 2 people. The prawns are huge and fresh!!! The taste between the big pan and seafood is quite distinguish. Guessing because both are cook with different stock.


 Seafood Paella


Both paellas are winner to me. But if time permit, I will go for the Seafood Paella coz I love seafood more than meat.

Shark Feeding Dives Videos

Found some videos which I uploaded ages ago but didn't publish.

These 2 videos are taken by CL during our shark feeding dive in Fiji.

Johnnycakes

Johnnycakes with maple syrup and banana

We were I was planning to go to the Farmers Market at Collingwood Children Farm this morning. CL doesn't seem to be interested when I suggested to him last night. In fact I had suggested a thousand times and never make it to one. Plus we slept really late as a result of started watching a movie late.

CL suggested to have cereal for breakky since we had a heavy dinner last night. But cereal is our usual breakky during the weekdays as we tend to spend time sleeping more, quick shower and breakky before rushing off to work. Since we were not required to go to work, I suggested to have pancakes.

Filpping through Nigella cookbook How to be a Domestic Goddess. Found a recipe that consist of a mixture of plain flour and either cornmeal or polenta. So far, only tried making pancakes with plain flour so found this recipe very interesting. Since I had polenta in the pantry, I decided to give Johnnycakes a try.

I halfed the ingredients as it state the amount makes 30-35 pancakes. We definitely won't be able to finish all!

 I ended up with a pan full of pancakes which was just the right amount for us although I could easily eat a few more...hehe

Both of us loves this pancakes! It's yellow instead of white coz of polenta. The skin is a bit crunchy.....it is suppose to be...no idea. It can be pretty fluffy but I thinned it during cooking.

This is definitely our favourite pancake recipe!!

Good Life (Adelaide)

We stopped over at Adelaide for 1 night on our way to Kangaroo Island. Took the opportunity to meet up a friend of ours for dinner. She recommended Good Life pizza since we haven't tried it before.

I loved the their concept, organic plus local produces right down to drinks, flour to make the pizza base.

We started the dinner with Olive Bread served with Adelaide Hills Olive Tapenade. I'm one who doesn't really enjoy olives. I had tried it before but just can't accept the taste. As for this dish, I find the taste of dip pretty unique. Still acceptable for me. Sorry don't really know how to appreciate them :-)

We ordered 4 pizzas in total with 3 different variety.

The most popular pizza for the night was Free Rang Roast Duck Pizza with shitake mushroom and spring onion ginger jam. I only came upon restaurants serving poached chicken with spring onion ginger jam but never with duck. Loved the uniqueness of this dish!

The 2nd pizza was Angaston Spicy Salami with kalamata olives, red onion, baby bocconcini and basil. Honestly, I have no idea what it taste like now plus I only had a slice.

The 3rd pizza we had was Kapunda Chicken oven roasted with baby potatoes, garilc, rosemary and mild parmesan. 1st time having potatoes in pizza and the roast chicken is delicious. I remember I like the cheese including CL who don't really fancy cheese.

We also had 2 sides which I forgot to take pictures of. It was Roast Vegetables and another Mixed Lettuce Salad. Both were very nicely served.

At the end of the meal, we were all stuffed with pizza that leaves us no space for dessert at all. We couldn't even finish all the pizza.

I will definitely go back for the Duck Pizza if I happen to go Adelaide again. At the meantime, just have to look out for such restaurants in Melbourne.