chocolate chip cookies

Somehow or other, trips to the supermarket seem to end up in me buying yet another bag of choc chips - and well, it's usually the dark choc chips and at last count, I seem to have at least 3 packets sitting in the pantry. Then again, I could say that about the blocks of butter, the flour, and the caster sugar. And let's not forget the cookbooks, the food magazines - I'm sure you get the gist of it.

Whilst I had Bill Granger's 'Sydney Food' sitting around on my table, I got around to making his recipe for 'Chocolate Chip Cookies'. Quoting Bill, these are simply 'irresistible eaten fresh and still warm from the oven' - the cookies maintain a soft chewy centre with nice external crunch to them.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Place 125g softened butter and 1 1/4 cups brown sugar in a bowl and beat until light and creamy. Add 1 tsp vanilla essence and 1 lightly beaten egg and stir to combine. Stir in 1 1/2 cups sifted flour, 1/2 tsp baking powder and a pinch of salt until combined. Fold through 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips.

Place spoonfuls of cookie mixture on a lined baking tray, allowing room for spreading. Here I used a fork to squash them down slightly (also to give it a nice pattern on top).

Cook for 15-20 minutes until they turn a nice golden brown.

Allow to cool on the tray for 5 minutes.

Place on a wire rack to cool further.

Recipe says it should make 16 cookies, I made at least 32. To be honest, I think I could just empty the pantry of chocolate chips and bake more of these cookies. They were delicious! I gave these away for Chinese New Year (so every family got a little bag of cookies). With the warm weather, the chocolate chips did melt a little which was a bit of a shame but otherwise I can't really find a fault with this recipe!

granny mac's shortbread

I was starting to enjoy the slightly cooler nights but alas, summer is not over and doing any baking can be a bit of a workout. On one of the cooler nights we've had, I did bake a batch of 'Granny Mac's Shortbread' from Bill Granger's 'Sydney Food'. If you are new to Bill Granger, well let me just say that his recipes are fantastic. I can easily pick up any one of his cookbooks and whip something up - the ingredients he lists and uses are commonly found in the pantry, which is how this batch of shortbread came about after I came home from work on a weeknight.

Sift 2 cups plain flour, 1 tsp baking powder and 1/2 cup caster sugar into a bowl. Add 125g softened butter (try let it soften at room temperature) and rub in with fingertips until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Mix in 1-2tbsp of cold water to form a dough. Add 1 lightly beaten egg and combine to form a stiff but workable dough.

Roll out the dough on a sheet of greaseproof paper to form a 20x30cm rectangle. I debated whether to put this in the fridge to let it harden up a little to make it easier to roll but decided against it fearing there would be cracks.

Spread 1/3 cup jam evenly over the dough and sprinkle with 2 tsp ground cinnamon.

Roll up the dough swiss roll style, peeling away the greaseproof paper as you go. At this point, I thought it might've been good to stick the dough in the fridge for a little while just to let it harden up slightly and make it less difficult to roll. Ah well, next time!

Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

Remove dough from refrigerator and cut into 1cm slices. Place shortbreads on a lined baking tray.

Bake for 15-20 minutes or until lightly browned.

Cool on wire racks.

When I saw the word shortbread, I was expecting this recipe to be quite buttery and 'short'. The final baked product was neither, it tasted more like a mini cake; not too sweet and actually quite light. J happily gobbled a handful of these with a cup of tea.

Next time I could probably roll these up a bit tighter and cut the slices thinner so that these don't turn out so big. For the first time ever, I made less portions than what the recipe said it would make. This recipe is meant to make 24 pieces of shortbread where I made the 21.

penne with chorizo & peas

It's been awhile since I've done any proper cooking; I've either been baking or eating out. And well, my dad has been going insane in the kitchen; he's quite addicted to the pressure cooker and has been boiling and cooking things in it every hour and hogging up most of the kitchen so I'm left with the oven only to do some baking. I tried to share the stove space with him once and nearly ended up in an argument. Thought it best to leave him to it; dad is just as passionate a foodie as I am.

Anyway, did manage to grab hold of the kitchen last Sunday and cooked up a batch of pasta for lunch (with leftovers taken to work the next day). Not to boast but I cook pasta consistently well and if anything, I do a good job of improvising each time.

Recipe has been adapted from The Good Food Magazine '101 Pasta & Noodle Dishes' cookbook. I had every intention to get all the ingredients but at the last minute, decided that I didn't want to trek all over the suburb and made do with everything that was available at Franklins and the grocery shop nearby. Almost half the ingredients have been altered from the original recipe.

Start by cooking 1 bag of penne pasta in a pan of salted boiling water as per the instructions on the pack. Three minutes before the pasta is ready, tip in 100g of frozen peas and cook with the pasta. Whilst the pasta is cooking, split open 6 chorizo sausages and squeeze out the meat.

Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a pan and stir fry the meat for 3-4 minutes until golden.

Add a pinch of chilli flakes, grated zest of 1 lemon to the meat and cook for 1 minute.

Stir in 1 tbsp of english mustard and 200g low fat cooking cream and simmer for 2 minutes.

Drain the pasta and peas.

Chop up a handful of parsley.

Stir in the pasta and peas into the chorizo mixture. Toss through the chopped parsley.

Serve!

You can add salt and pepper to taste but I found the chorizo already gave the pasta a lot of flavour. If you like parmesan like me, do add a generous serve of it!

This pasta was great taken to work the next day. It reheated well in the microwave and despite the lack of sauce, the pasta wasn't dry at all and remained just as tasty as after I'd cooked it. The light cream is something you can hardly taste and unlike previous cream based pastas I've cooked, the light cream didn't leave an oily mess after being reheated.

So far, every pasta recipe from this book has turned out spot on so if you're looking for a pasta recipe book, do give this one a go!

wood & stone wood fired pizza @ crown st., surry hills

It doesn't make sense for shops to be closed on a Sunday. There's so many other days in the week where shopowners can take a day off but why of all days, choose Sunday when most people don't have work? So it seems that I had to learn it the hard way that Peter's of Kensington is shut on a Sunday. Drove all the way there (a good 40 minutes) and greeted by a closed door. Argh!

So Peter's of Kensington aside, the trip out to Kensington was accompanied by a nice lunch on Crown Street. There were a number of places to choose and this the one we picked - Wood & Stone Wood Fired Pizza. Planning to only have a quick bite, the 1 hour parking spots just outside suited us fine (there were a handful of spots for a Sunday afternoon - definitely much better than a Friday or Saturday night!)

Potato Wedges with Sweet Chilli Sauce & Sour Cream. The sprinkling of parsley was actually a nice accompliment - an edible garnish!

A half-half pizza - Kangaroo & Peking Duck. Whoever came up with peking duck pizza, you are a genius! Loved it and wood definitely have it again.

Pizza and wedges was ample to feed two. We each ordered a drink and J contemplated the beers which he thought was really, really cheap. Food came quickly to the table and whilst tables around us started to fill up (despite it being after 2pm), the one waitress had the whole floor under control. When we went to pay, the bill hardly made a dent to our wallets which really impressed me for the quality of the food and the service you get here.

I guess the nice lunch softened the disappointment/frustration that Peter's of Kensington was shut (as that was our next stop). Ah well, I guess I need to go on a Saturday next time!

sagano japanese restaurant @ cnr. jamison & clarence street, sydney

It was a Thursday night and J had called to say that he'd made dinner plans with our friend C and that I was coming along. I think J knew without question that if we were going to a Japanese restaurant, I probably wouldn't say no and it did happen to be a Japanese restaurant for dinner that night (the boy only knows me too well!) Meeting up with C, he was telling me that this place had great ambience and up until we sat down and during the meal, he kept asking me 'Don't you think this place has great ambience?' I'll share my opinions on ambience in a sec but here's what we had for dinner:

Mixed tempura - the batter was light and crunchy. I do love tempura but I actually prefer the ones with vegie in them, I'm actually not a big fan of the prawn tempura.

Beef tongue. This has been a dish I've been ordering from restaurant to restaurant. It's done well here (slightly chewy) but it's definitely done better at Jurin where you get a thick slice of beef tongue which just melts in your mouth.

Curry Udon (Udon noodles in a thick curry soup)

Oyakodon. Thought I'd order this as I haven't had it in awhile. It's a very home-cooked dish (I make a rather mean oyakodon at home too!) but it's always nice to have it out and have someone cook it for you.

Pork Belly. This is probably another dish I've been ordering pretty much everywhere I go. I know pork belly probably isn't good for me but then when you share this dish amongst three, I don't think it can be too bad. Do recommend you order the pork belly here - the meat just melts in your mouth and the bed of mash it sits on is so incredibly fine and buttery!

So the question of ambience - I do agree with C that this place has great ambience. The furniture/decor is very traditional Japanese. Loved the fact that they have booth seating and with the shop being quite tucked away, you actually do get some peace and quiet even whilst your smack bang in the middle of the city. The place seems to attract a much older crowd with the majority of customers being businessman and office workers in the area. Service is polite (in true Japanese manner) and well, whilst the food is quite slow to come out of the kitchen, it actually doesn't seem so bad as the restaurant ambience is quite conducive to you sitting and have a good chat with the people that you're dining with.

Thanks C for introducing us to this place!! I really enjoyed it!