jimmy's recipe malaysia @ george st., galeries victoria

With the boy being Malaysian and having a grandma that cooks all forms of Malaysian food, I rarely go out to Malaysian restaurants and even when I suggest it, the boy's response will be that 'My grandma can make it better at home'.  There is however one Malaysian restaurant that the boy doesn't mind going to and it's a place that we've been going to since we were in uni - Jimmy's Recipe Malaysia in Galeries Victoria (just opposite The Arthouse Hotel). It's a bit of a funny shaped restaurant with a cafeteria type setting where you order and pay at the counter and then you wait for your food before you take it to your table. If you are new to Malaysian cuisine, I'd say that this is a good starting point - the meals are very reasonably priced and in the words of a fellow Malaysian - the food is authentic.

My favourite Malaysian dish is Hainan Chicken Rice. The boy tells me that most places serve a Singaporean style version of the dish. If you were ever to eat Hainan Chicken Rice in Hainan, the rice is usually moulded into little balls. I would love to go to Hainan and just spend my holiday there eating Hainan Chicken Rice but in all reality, Jimmy's makes a rather good one and I don't have to travel far to get hold of a plate.

A good couple of minutes of deciding whether to get the Ipoh Hor-fun or the Prawn Har-mee, the boy decides on the former. If you look at the menu, the two dishes are actually quite similar which explains why the boy took so long. I thought the Hainan Chicken Rice was nicer.

A dish each is actually more than enough to fill you up but when you're not eating by yourself, it's a good time to try a few things on the menu. Thought we'd give the Roti Canai a go; disappointingly it was flat and not a bit fluffy but the satay chicken that came with it was delicious.

If you're planning to come here, I'd say that the Nasi Lemak and Laksa are the other two dishes that are worth trying. The first time I came here I had the Nasi Lemak, second time was the Laksa and well, I've been alternating between these two dishes and the Hainan Chicken Rice since then. Anyway, it's been  awhile since I've been here, good to come back and find that the food is just as good as ever!

wholemeal raisin scones

'Okashi' has been my go to cookbook of late and well, out of all the books on my bookshelf, it's probably been the most used. I'm flicking through the pages now and am finding little bits of food stuck to the pages (which isn't all that appetising) but well, I can at least say I've tried that recipe and tell you whether it was a good one or a bad one.

I've mentioned this book a couple of times now but here's what it looks like. Some of the recipes are a little convoluted and could do with a rewrite but nonetheless the proportions and the ingredients work out and so far I've managed to bake some rather tasty treats out of it. Coming home on a weeknight, I thought I'd give the wholemeal raisin scone recipe a go.

Preheat oven to 200 degrees. In a bowl, rub together 50g wholemeal flour, 170g plain flour, 1 tbsp baking powder with 80g softened unsalted butter. Add to the mixture 30g caster sugar and 1/2 tsp salt and combine till the mix resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Add in 110g egg yolk and milk mixture (combine 1 egg yolk with enough fresh whole milk to make up amount), 40g raisins and mix until a smooth dough is formed. 

Place dough on a floured surface and knead lightly. Roll out to a thickness of about 2cm. Instead of cutting my scones into rounds, I simply sliced mine into squares with a knife. Remember to push the scones right up next to each other so that each scone pushes the other up when they expand. You'll find that you'll also get a scone that is more moist than when you spread them out.

Bake for 12-15 minutes until scones are golden brown. Remove from heat and cool on a wire rack.

Serve scones warm with butter and jam. Otherwise if you happen to have cream at home, make yourself some freshly whipped cream which I think is the best, but in the absence of cream, I think butter (a good dollop of it) makes a rather good substitute.

The texture of this scone was unlike any other I've made in the past - very short and crumbly and a tad salty even (although it could've been me being a little heavy handed with the salt). I know this will sound a little silly but it tasted very much like an Asian scone - the texture and taste is what you'd expect out of most Asian baked goods. Mum absolutely loved it (as it wasn't sweet at all) and well, I'm of two minds - it's so different to the scones I'm used to, it still tasted good but is it really a proper scone? Anyway, I've recently come across a stack of scone recipes so a bit more testing, I might be able to answer that question!

the swiss cottage restaurant @ lurline st., katoomba

Just another quick post about my recent weekend in the Blue Mountains - we were there for 4 days so you can imagine, at lot of food and meals to get through! Dinner on the first night was at The Swiss Cottage Restaurant on Lurline Street in Katoomba (just a very short drive from where we were staying). We found out about it when we were at the Info Centre picking up pamphlets and looking for a cheap to mid range place to eat, The Swiss Cottage seemed like just the right place!

We were promptly at the door at 6pm which is when they start their dinner service.We actually made a booking beforehand and to be safe, I would make a booking as the restaurant filled up very quickly after we sat down. It's an absolutely gorgeous restaurant and I think this photo speaks a thousand words - need I say more?

A side of crunchy French bread and butter served in a very adorable mini basket.

Our entree of Stuffed Mushrooms - mushrooms stuffed with ham, cheese and parsley. It was a luscious serving of cheesy goodness and despite the small plate, it ended up being quite filling.

The boy's choice of White Farm Rabbit - farm rabbit in a basil sauce served with rosti. In so many ways like chicken but not.

I think this was the first time I'd eaten out at a Swiss restaurant and decided for a more traditional dish. Veal A La Creme is apparently a Swiss traditional meal - a combo of veal fillet and button mushrooms in a creamy white wine sauce and served with rosti.

We were considerably full after entrees and mains but thought why not, we were there anyway and it only made sense to get some dessert. Unable to decide on one, we ordered four! Le Petit Naughty - named for four mouthfuls of their best desserts.

The bill comes to the table in this rather cute little cow!

Really great place for dinner, staff are incredibly friendly and there's so many more items on the menu that I want to try! Saw a couple of tables next to us having the fondue which seems like one worth trying but otherwise the Veal a La Creme and the Le Petit Naughty were the ones ordered by most.

There's a selection of housemade produce available at the counter and I was tempted to buy what looked like a bag of rolled waffle cones; if I only I'd bought it! Anyway, Katoomba isn't too far a drive from Sydney, I'll definitely be coming back here soon!

katoomba st. cafe

I can't believe how quickly this year has gone by! And in the mad rush of work and not realising that I had so much leave saved up, I was lucky enough to take a few days off and have a nice and relaxing weekend in the Blue Mountains with the boy . We stayed at a gorgeous B&B (Edgelinks) and had a rather food filled weekend. It was a definitely a holiday that went by too quickly and I could only wish it were longer!

In my world, hot chocolates should always be served with freshly whipped cream and big marshmallows.

Giving the Ploughman's Lunch a go - it's toasted bread with cold roast meat, boiled eggs, pate, cheese, caramelised onion and relish.

A hearty pie with wedges for a particularly cold day up in the Blue Mountains.

I love this print!

So that's lunch at Katoomba Street Cafe!

After lunch we had a good wander down the road and looked in all the antique and second hand shops (of which they are many). Managed to be good but trust me, it was awfully tempting! 

sweet expressions @ SWEETNESS - the patisserie

This post comes a little late but I guess late better than never! Sweet Expressions @ SWEETNESS was one of the events I attended as part of this year's Crave Sydney International Food Festival. I didn't make it to any of the Sugar Hits (which is what I usually scout out) but I think I more than well made up for it by going to Sweet Expressions which was one of the two events Gena (owner of Sweetness) hosted this year for the first time.

Unlike 'Tea on Tuesdays' which I also attended, Sweet Expressions was an art cross marshmallow evening spent in the Sweetness Kitchen - sounds a little cryptic so maybe a few photos might give you a better idea. To be quite honest, up until the day, I was actually unsure of what we were doing or what to expect but in the true nature of Gena and her patisserie, it was a most pleasant surprise and I had a really lovely evening!

The view from outside - the window display was created for the night by Yumi Takahashi who was co-hosting the evening with Gena.

Meeting Yumi - artist/water colour painter. Her work is stunning and part of the goodie bag we took home that night was one of her limited edition prints. I framed mine straight away and have it sitting on my table and it's ever so pretty!

In a nutshell, the evening was about marshmallows and art. We didn't actually get to make our own marshmallows but used Gena's marshmallows as a canvas for artwork. Here's an assortment of nibbles which we helped ourselves to over the 2 hour session.

It would've been good to have a hands-on session making marshmallows but nonetheless we did get to ask questions about making them and Gena was more than happy to explain the technicalities of making her best-selling product (and little do I need to explain why; try her marshmallows and you won't be eating any other marshmallow for good!) Here's artwork that the boy and I created that night, inspired by the lovely Yumi who I think is extremely talented and I would love to have more of her work to hang up at home! The colours we used were non-toxic pastels mixed with a little grappa - in case you're worried about non-toxic pastels, these are used for cake decorating also and are actually safe to eat.

The two hour session quickly drew to an end and the class of six of us had managed to create some very different and unique pieces of artwork. We also had tour through the kitchen and I just remember asking Gena a lot of questions and me falling in love with her and her patisserie! Here's the goodie bag we got to take home, the boy gave me his print so now I have two!

I really have a big girl-crush on Gena - her story of how she came to open up a Patisserie is both amazing and inspiring. She is so friendly and personable, stepping into her kitchen is like being welcomed home and there's so many things in her kitchen to look at, I could very well entertain myself for a day in her kitchen. Anyway Gena, please run more sessions next year; I thoroughly enjoyed both Tea on Tuesday and Sweet Expressions!