Hare and Grace

It was Friday, Mr. just finished his week of night and was awake when I got home. Me in the mood of spending some quality time together while Mr. was feeling of heading into the city. Withins minutes, we were both dressed and on our way to the city. Without any reservation on hand, the planned was to walk around and check out some restaurants and were hoping it won't take us to long.

On the way, H recommended Hare and Grace after I requested some suggestion on Twitter. Knowing H, we knew we won't go wrong with her suggestion. Off we go to Hare and Grace after we parked our car. It was a pretty decent walk and discovered the other part of the city which we rarely explore.



Guess who I saw once we stepped into the dining room???? Adriano Zumbo!!!! It was the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival so it wasn't surprise to see him in Melbourne. I'm able to recognise him as I being catching his Zumbo show on SBS online for the past week. No, I did not ask for a autograph or a photo as I felt it's very rude to interrupt him and his friend. He definitely deserved some privacy.

Back to the food. We spend quite a bit of time deciding whether to go for 3 course banquet menu which cost $90 pp. Mr. was interested in trying the steak grill and he also questioned about the 3 course banquet potion. The waiter told us Chef is pretty generous and doesn't allow us to walk out without feeling full. After much hesitation, we went for 3 course. Save us the trouble of picking what to eat. Sometimes it's good to just sit back and relax and let someone do the thinking for you.



We started the meal with bread and butter. I love the butter as it's really light and sprinkled with hazelnut powder. I'm guessing the butter was pre-whipped. It's different from all the other restaurant I being so far.



We had 3 dishes for entree.

1st entree was Braised Red Peppers in their Juice


This dish surprise us. It was really refreshing and light. I was served cold and red pepper was sweet. It's not a dish either of us will chose so both were happy the chef picked it.

2nd entree was Braised Pork Ribs


The meat was braised for a long time because it just melt in your mouth. Do find this dish a bit heavy to be a entree. Flavour was nice but strong.

3rd entree was Scallops Garlic Aioli Herb Breadcrumbs


We had 2 scallops each and it was our favourite dish of all! The herb combination wasn't overpowering, breadcrumb was crunchy and scallop was fresh and cooked beautifully.

At this point both of us were feeling full which was unusual. We were struggling to finish 2 mains and 1 side.

1st Main was Roasted Founder Milk - Fed Mussels Potted Shrimps


This dish tasted light with a hint of milk in the gravy. All the seafood was really fresh.

2nd Main was Braised Beef, Beef Tongue with Vegetable and Mash Potato.


I don't really remember the taste of this dish. I should have kept notes using my iPhone. But this dish left a deep impression on Mr. He even wanted to go back and try their steak. I do remember it's another dish that melts in the mouth. The beef tongue had a pretty firm texture, it was my 1st time eating beef tongue so not too sure what to expect.

Side was Beetroot, Green Strawberry Salad


It was my 1st time eating a unripe strawberry. It was very crunchy but also sour! As for the beetroot, nothing special just normal beetroot.

Up to this point, we were very happy with the meal and definitely enjoying. Can't wait for dessert to be served. We were served with 2 desserts.

1st was Lemon Liquid Tart Sesame, Lemon Passionfruit Juice

2nd was Blackberry Trifle Tahini Custard Macerated Sponge

Both desserts were so beautifully presented! We don't even want to dig into the dish. BUT when we had our 1st mouthful, we were very surprise and very disappointed :-(

In the end, I was the only one finishing both dessert. I reckon I had more than 80% of them. Mr. found the lemon tart too sour. I felt it was meant for someone who loves eating fresh lemon pulps like me. As for the "tart pastry", it wasn't really a pastry made from flour and butter. I think it's made of sesame and it taste bitter if you had it by itself. I wasn't a fan of the "tart pastry" and left it out.

Mr. didn't like the blackberry trifle as well. The sponge was soaked with really strong hard liquor(suspect vodka). As Mr. practically doesn't drink at all, the strong liquor smell and taste turn him off. I can only taste the alcohol and nothing else :-(

Although the dessert was a letdown, I believe we will return and try other dishes and desserts. Service was fantastic and we were very well taken care off. The waiter was definitely right. We left with such a full tummy which will explode any min.

Paella in the Park - Melbourne Food and Wine Festival 2011

Melbourne Food and Wine Festival 2011 had started 5 days ago. After staying here for 5 years, we finally got our act together and attended some of the events. Today is Day 6 of the festival and I already managed to squeeze in 3 events (planning to write all). But there isn't any plan to attend more till the end of festival.



Paella In The Park was the 1st event we attended. It was held at Bridges Reserve in Coburg last Sunday 3rd March 2011. Mr. loved Paella and it had never occurred to me to give it a try cooking in my own kitchen yet. Just felt it's a dish not easy to master.

Melbourne was blessed with fantastic weather during the weekend. The day was hot, sunny, clear blue sky without a single cloud in the sky!!!! In fact I found myself with a tanned line that evening by just sitting in the sun for 2 hours.

Without entry fee required + nice weather + outdoor venue + live entertainment, it was a very family friendly event. The crowd was already building up when we arrived at the venue with H, our new found friend + makan kaki.

There were quite a few stalls set up but all by Spanish Gourmet Caterers. This was the 3rd time that I came across to them. 1st was the Suzuki Night Market at Victoria Market and 2nd was Johnston Street Fiesta. There were a few varieties of paella available :  Squid Ink, Pork and Mushrooms, Chicken and Chorizo, Vegetarian, Seafood all selling at $10 per plate.

Lucky there were 3 of us, we were able to split the job of getting the food. Each of us with a paid coupon in hand, queuing at individual stall line to buy our chosen paella.



With team work, we were able to combine the jointed effort and tasted all 3 different paella side by side. My attentive Mr. got me and H a glass of ice cold Sangria each.

 I got the Seafood Paella.

 Mr. Vegetarian Paella.

 H got Chicken and Chorizo Paella.

Make a guess which one stand out the most. It was the most unexpected Vegetarian Paella. It was sweet. We got another plate to share after finished all 3. The most disappointing was the Seafood Paella. Couldn't taste the "sea" in the rice till you take bite on the mussel. As for the Chicken and Chorizo, it had the strongest taste of all. Think it's because of the chorizo. Overall, it wasn't too bad.

With our full tummy, we found a nice spot in front of the stage and waited for the live performance, Flamenco to start. Spotted a coffee stall next to the stage and bought a cup of coffee to try. We were hoping for Spanish coffee but it only served Italian coffee. The nice coffee did make up for it.

Cookbook Challenge (Love) - Flourless Hazelnut Chocolate Cake

4th Theme for the Cookbook Challenge is Love. Honestly I was a bit stuck with this theme. How am I going to link the food with Love? Something which I love eating? A dish which uses a ingredient which I love? 

I started seeing others who written about the meal they cooked for Valentine day. I didn't cook anything special. Just steak with 2 sides which all the ingredients were purchased from the Farmers Market the day before and yes I did try new recipe for the 2 sides but I didn't manage to take any photos. So fail big time :-( 

Then it occurred to me, I haven't got the chance to blog about the birthday cake which I made for myself. It was the 1st time I used the recipe. It's a bakecook which I seldom used. I used my birthday present to make the cake which I loved! The present was from my lovely husband. Should fit in the theme right? Or it's still consider cheating??

Mr. kept requesting me to bake my own birthday cake a week or two before the actual day. That is actually pretty unusual! Being together for more than a decade, he had never made such request even for his own birthday. Smell something fishy!!!

A few days before my birthday, I accidentally saw Mr. checking out the KitchenAid website. A stand mixer as gift??? That was my guess as he knows that's one of the many kitchenwares I wanted to add to my kitchen but price was holding me back.

Two days before my birthday, Mr started to hint me about the gift. He even allowed to let me search the house and I can open it if I find it. But he never expected me to find it in less than 1 min!!! Although the house area is pretty big but areas to hid something from each other is pretty limited.

With just a big box + super heavy, I knew it must be the KA stand mixer!!!! Yeah!!! Finally I own it!!!! Plus I love the bright red colour!!!





As there's isn't any discount, Smatchbox gave a free cookbook and offered Mr. the latest edition KitchenAid cookbook. I had flipped thru the book but hadn't got around to try it. What surprised me was it didn't contain much baking recipes at all! A handful of bread making recipes and rest were mostly cooking recipes.

It didn't take me long before having a play with the new toy. On my birthday eve, I baked a tray of chocolate cupcake for work. I was falling in love with my toy. I was learning about my toy.



On my birthday, I started immediately baking my birthday cake once I got home from work. I even managed to document the process.

Cake for the occasion : Flourless Hazelnut Chocolate Cake
Bakebook : Crave a passion for chocolate
Author : Maureen McKeon



Ingredients
300 g chopped dark chocolate
100g unsalted butter
7 large eggs, separated
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
115g caster sugar
80g ground hazelnut

Method
Preheat the oven to 160 degrees. Butter a 23cm (9 inch) springform tin or deep round cake tin and line in with baking paper.

Melt chocolate and butter gently in a heatproof bowl over hot water, ensuring that the base does not touch the water.


Remove from the heat and allow to cool.


Using an electric mixer, beat the egg yolks for 1-2 mins, or until pale and thick and ribbons form when the beaters are lifted out of the mixture.


Using clean beaters, beat the egg whites and cream of tartar in a large bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in the sugar, then continue beating until the mixture is stiff but not dry.


Combine the egg yolks and melting chocolate mixture and beat gently. Using a rubber spatula, fold half the meringue into the chocolate mixture, then return this combined mixture to the remaining meringue. Add the ground hazelnuts and fold in gently until combined.

Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 50-55mins, or until the cake comes away slightly from the side of the tin. Allow to cool completely in the tin before turning out.

The cake actually raised a lot during baking. Lucky I laid the baking paper above the tin height as you can see from the photo below. But it started to sink once I took it out from the oven. What did I do wrong?? Over mixed?



It looked all fine when I turnover the cake. Yes it looked ugly but it taste really nice. It was still moist inside :-)



We had it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Just the way we like it.

Cookbook Challenge (Rice/Noodles) - Chicken Briyani

3rd Cookbook Challenge theme is rice or noodle. I kept pestering Mr. to pick a recipe from the pile of cookbooks I owned. In then end, he chosen a dish which I had cooked and even wrote before. Does it still considered a challenge??

This time, I did follow the recipe pretty strictly. Included all the herbs even though knowing Mr don't like them. I did went through the end product and try picking all the herbs out.

As usual, I didn't use any tomato puree. I used a lot more tomatoes instead.


I didn't colour the rice and still wondering why the rice turned out brown.


Maybe because the shallots were burned?


Every time I cook, I spend ages in preparation. Just like baking, I like to wash all the ingredients and chopped them up, placed them into individual bowl/plate, placed them all next to the stove before turning on the heat. Totally opposite from Mr.


This time I managed to shot more photos during the cooking process.


Frying ginger, garlic and chillies. I added red chillies this time to more it more spicy.


Waiting for the tomatoes to break down. It did take a while.


With the chicken pieces added in.


I did have it in on the stove for a while to thicken the gravy. Knowing Mr. loves the gravy, I did increased the liquid ingredients amount.


Frying ginger and garlic for the rice.


Added in the pre-prepared shallots.


With all the herbs and rice without liquid


Liquid added in. I cooked the rice on the stove instead of rice cooker. I had never done that before. No idea what trigger me to give it a try. Lucky it turned out fine.

Cookbook Challenge (Citrus) - My Mother-In-Law's Madeira Cake

I should be working on my 3rd or 4th cookbook challenge but I'm so disorganise that I only manage to finish the 2nd challenge. But it's better to be late than never right? Hopefully I can catch up, work on the 3rd challenge next week and 4th the week after. Wish me luck!

The theme for the 2nd challenge is Citrus. I love this theme because I jus simply love lemon and lime. Do you know I can actually eat fresh lemon and I enjoy it. Especially when having fish and chips, I can squeeze the juice onto the fish, peel away the skin and eat the pulps away.

For this challenge, I chosen My Mother-In-Law's Madeira Cake by Nigella Lawson How To Be a Domestic Goddness. I'm visiting a ex-colleague tomorrow and felt this will be a great gift. Not nice to turn up empty handed.

I added more lemon and poppyseed into the basic recipe. So it can also be consider as Lemon Poppyseed cake. I have never came across poppyseed till I stayed in Aust. Bought a pack of poppyseed and kept it the pantry but never managed to use it till now. Poppyseed is actually banned in Singapore, I had never seen it available. In fact, a SG blog which I followed experienced Central Narcotics Bureau knocking on her door and confiscated all her poppyseed. Is it really necessary? It's for own consumption anyway.



Did a taste test just now when it had cooled. Smell lemony but find it a bit dry. Quite crunchy on the outside. Taste a bit like pound cake, guessing due to the amount of butter used.





My Mother-In-Law's Madeira Cake


240g softened unsalted butter
200g caster sugar , plus extra for sprinkling
grated zest and juice of 1 lemon
3 large eggs
210g self raising flour
90g plain flour
23 x 13 x 7cm loaf tin, buttered and lined


Preheat oven to 170 degrees.
Cream butter and sugar, and add the lemon seat.
Add the eggs one at a time with a tablespoon of flour for each.
Then gently mix in the rest of the flour and,finally, the lemon juice.
Sprinkle with caster sugar (about 2 tablespoons) as it goes into the oven, and bake for 1 hour. (mine was done before 1 hour)
Remove to a wire rack, and let it cool in the tin before turning out.


Variation:
For lemon poppyseed cake, add the juice of another half lemon and a tablespoon or two poppyseeds. I added two tablespoons.

Three Bags Full

Three Bags Full
60 Nicholson Street
Abbotsford VIC 3067

We visited Three Bag Full on Melbourne Cup day after our monthly marketing at Victoria Market. During the visit, we were seated directly under a huge painting and behind the painting lies a story. Apparently the owner discovered a really old 1930's Melbourne Cup tipping graffiti on the wall during renovation and I was amazed that it was very well preserved. We even had the honour of viewing it.

As usual we started off by satisfying our caffeine addiction. They definitely served good coffee.



Mr. and me both aren't coffee drinker till we walked passed Jasper coffee at Fitzroy on Brunswick Street few years ago. The strong and fragrant coffee smell actually attracted us to walk in and purchased a cup of mocha. We enjoyed the coffee so much that we ended up buying some coffee beans, a stovetop espresso maker, a electric milk frother to whip the milk and a thermal mug. It was full on from then and no turning back. We are so spoiled till unless we know it's going to be good coffee if not we won't even bother paying to get some.

Mr. had the Egg Benedict with Smoked Salmon. The eggs were poached to our liking and the hollandaise sauce was very different from the others. It's not overpowering and doesn't feel sick when had it too much.



As for me, I had the Ricotta Hot Cake with Poached Pears, Berries and Rhubard. It was my 1st time having ricotta hot cake and also rhubard! It's also a dish I wouldn't create in my own kitchen because I'm not confidence to. Not knowing what to expect, I actually enjoyed it a lot. Did felt there was too much ricotta cheese and left some aside. But guess that's just me not having the habit of taking much cheese.



Did noticed the crowd started streaming in even though it was a great day for sleeping in! It didn't take long for all the seats to get occupied.

We are starting to adventure into breakfast and hope we can cover more new cafes this new year.