my picnic basket

I've been wanting a picnic basket for  awhile now. The boy kept saying I was silly to get one and yes, I do admit that it's a little old fashioned but hey, who doesn't like the idea of a picnic? And like most boys, they say one thing and do another - guess what the boy got me for Valentine's Day this year?

This picnic basket set has glass plates and cups. The wicker itself is quite delicate but I love how authentic this basket is, complete with buckle straps to close.

Prawn, Spinach & Garlic Aioli Baguettes for lunch.

Fresh homemade lemonade to accompany the baguettes.

Blueberry with Orange Juice jellies & Strawberry with Cranberry Juice jellies to complete lunch.

A big thumbs up to the boy for preparing the picnic (I was quite stoked to find that he'd prepared everything himself - so much for him saying that he can't cook!) There were a lot of baguettes which could've fed four quite comfortably and as insistent at the boy was for me to eat up, we couldn't quite finish them.  It was a shame that the weather wasn't great to go outdoors but the picnic was just as nice indoors. Definitely more picnics coming up soon!

apple & cinnamon crumble cake

Seems like everyone is getting married in 2011; I wonder if it's a particularly auspicious year or if it's just sheer coincidence. I was at a high school friend's wedding the other weekend and sitting at my table at the reception was one couple that got married a few weeks a ago, another couple getting married and having their reception at the exact same place in 1 weeks time, and then there was another couple having their wedding in 3 weeks. The fourth couple i.e. my best friend was there with her husband, leaving myself and one of my girlfriends (as they boy hadn't been invited) to look at each other in every effort not to feel a little odd. 

Anyhow, in tandem with weddings are kitchen teas and hen's nights. For this particular girlfriend who was getting married, her maid of honour offered up her place to host the kitchen tea where all guests were invited to bring a dish to share. I ended up making an Apple & Cinnamon Crumble cake the night before to bring along.

The actual recipe is for a Pear & Ginger Crumble Cake from Linda Collister's 'Cakes & Bakes from my mother's kitchen'. With a few little twiddles, you have yourself a new cake recipe and I'm quite partial to the combo of apple and cinnamon.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. First make the crumble topping - Place 60g plain flour and 1 tsp ground cinnamon in a bowl. Add 50g cold unsalted butter cut into cubes and quickly rub it into the flour with your fingertips. Add 3tbsp light brown sugar and rub again until the mix resembles coarse sand. Refrigerate until needed. In a large bowl, beat 125g softened unsalted butter and 125g caster sugar with an electric mixer until pale and creamy. Add 2 eggs, one at a time and beat well with each addition. Tip in 125g plain flour, 2tsp baking powder and beat for 1 minute until the mixture is smooth. Spoon the mixture into a prepared cake tin and level the surface. Peel and core 2 apples and mix in a bowl with 1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice. Arrange on top of the cake.

Sprinkle over the crumble topping and bake in the preheated oven for 40-45 minutes until the cake is risen and golden on top.

Leave to cool slightly before removing from the tin and cutting into slices.

Store in an airtight container in a cool cupboard or the refrigerator and eat within 2 days.

This cake is very moist and packs a punch with flavour. Only downside is that the cake doesn't seem to keep very well. Despite placing in the fridge, it was moldy by the third day (so the recipe is quite right about eating this one within 2 days!) I think the original recipe for pear and ginger is worth a try; it's been awhile since I've made a ginger recipe!

honeyed anzac biscuits

Since I've been sick, the one thing I've craved for more than anything else is honey - it automatically soothes the throat and makes my day feel just that tiny bit better. And if you are after proof that I've been eating up lots of honey, our 500mL squeezy jar of honey is on it's last drizzles. And I need to actually make a trip to the supermarket and get myself a new squeezy jar. I fear that if I have no honey in the house, things might get a little odd!

Just happens to be that in the February issue of Delicious, there was a recipe for 'Honeyed Anzac Biscuits'. Recipe is by Matthew Evans and there's a cookbook by this very gentleman that I have by beady eye on!

Preheat oven to 160 degrees. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper. In a small saucepan, heat 125g chopped unsalted butter and 2 tbsp honey over medium heat and stir until combined. Remove from heat and stir in 1 1/2 tsp sifted bicarb soda.

In a large bowl, combine 100g rolled oats, 150g sifted plain flour, 200gs caster sugar and 70g shredded coconut. Pour the honey mixture and stir to combine. If the mixture is very dry and crumbly, add 1-2 tsp water.

Place 1 tbsp mixture on the prepared trays for each biscuit, spaced at least 4cm apart.

Bake for 12-14 minutes until golden.

These Anzac biscuits are chewy as traditional Anzac biscuits should be (and that's just the way I like them). The colour on these is also great and really you won't feel too guilty gobbling up a few of these. The honey is a most welcome change to the traditional golden syrup used in most Anzac biscuit recipes and with my latest honey cravings, that's even more of an excuse for me to stock up on a supply of honey!

simple apple & mixed berry cake

One of the chefs I really admire is Donna Hay. Her cookbooks were of the first lot of cookbooks I owned and many a recipe of hers has been cooked by yours truly, passed on and then cooked again. I really think Donna makes cooking simple and having used her recipes many times now, her recipes just get better. I love the fact that all the ingredients in her recipes are easy to find (if not in your kitchen pantry already), you can make do with equipment you have at home and flicking through her recipes, there's always a photo of what you're cooking so you know what to expect. Often, I have trouble deciding what to make because she makes everything look so good!

I was reading the The Sunday Life Magazine over the weekend and there was an article in it about Donna and her recent weight loss. Watching several episodes of Masterchef, I'd been a little curious to see why she'd dropped weight so suddenly (thinking it all had to do with losing weight for the show) and well, little did I know that she'd been suffering from severe back pain for months and as part of her recovery, she'd taken up running 9km a day, 5 days a week to strengthen her back. Donna - you really are an inspiration and on the side, you're looking great. Keep up the great work!

So in honour of Donna, here's her 'simple apple & mixed berry cake' recipe which I made a little while back. I'm very much in love with this recipe as I'm with Donna herself!

Preheat oven to 160 degrees. Place 225g sifted self raising flour, 165g caster sugar, 125g softened butter, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 2 eggs and 125mL milk in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until just combined. Spoon mixture into a greased 22cm springform tin lined with non-stick baking paper. Top with 1 cored apple, thinly sliced. Add  3/4 cup mixed berries to the top and sprinkle with 2 tbsp demerara sugar.

Bake for 45 minutes or until the cake is cooked when tested with a skewer. Serves 8-10.

This teacake looked great going into the oven and even better when it came out! The texture of the cake was so soft and buttery and the combination of the mixed berries (this was a store bought Creative combination of wild blueberries, blackberries and normal blueberries) and the apple was a match made in  heaven. I've previously found this Creative combo rather sour but it definitely wasn't the case in this teacake.

This recipe comes out of Donna' latest cookbook 'fash, fresh, simple' which has taken a permanent place on my desk, within easy reach for when I'm looking for that perfect recipe to make!

taste of shanghai @ rowe st., eastwood

I've lost track of the number of weeks (or months!) since I've been sick. I've spent this weekend mostly curled up in bed or sleeping on the go and I've hated every minute of it. In a nutshell, what started off as the flu developed into a secondary infection and despite a course of antibiotics, a dry cough lingered for about 2 weeks and I'm back with the flu and still coughing. I really think it's time for this sickness to go away! 

And whilst I've been sick, the backlog of photos and the blog posts have been building up and well, it's somewhat amazing the amount of food that I can still get through whilst I'm sick! For the record, I have resorted to slightly blander food in the hope of finally getting better and whilst this might feel like the worst thing in the world right now for someone that enjoys food, getting better is my priority - I can't stand another cough or another minute curled up in bed. Anyway, catching up on some eatings this year....

Taste of Shanghai has been in Eastwood for a good little while now and every night there seems to be the same queue that snakes out the door. That was also what put me off going there in the first place and good news for the restaurant (and perhaps not so good news for myself and other dining patrons), yes, you need to be prepared to wait for a table in that queue.

Seems like the renovating of the restaurant has also seen a revamp of the menu. I remember the food to be quite oily when the shop first opened but on this visit, the food was clean, crisp and certainly tasty. We tried this Pork with Bean Starch Sheet Noodle which is an ideal dish when you can't quite decide ordering between and entree and a main.

Steamed Pork Dumplings - how I love that slurp of soup when you bite into one of these but I always seem to be burning my tongue!

Noodles with sliced cucumber, pork mince and black bean sauce. 

Taiwanese Milk Tea - a lot milkier than a traditional Hong Kong Milk Tea (which I swear by) but still  a good cold drink for a warm day.

Seems like eating lunch at 2 or 3pm in the afternoon (or 8-9pm at night i.e. outside of standard meal times) is the only way to beat the queue here but otherwise, the usual 15-30 minute wait is worthwhile at the end of it - you just have to hang in there (as hard as it may seems). There's been times when I've grabbed a ticket and in the end, went elsewhere to eat whilst we were waiting. Other times, I've planned on going here and changed by mind at the last minute after seeing the queue. If only they could do something about it and then I could eat here a bit more often! 

Anyway, don't let me deter you from coming here. I definitely recommend the food. It's the sensible me that says don't bother waiting in a queue for 30 minutes for food which I think is open for debate. I'm personally not a big fan of it but you may think otherwise.