Anzac Biscuits

Today is ANZAC Day in Australia and New Zealand, the anniversary of the first military action of the Australian and New Zealand forces in Gallipoli during the first World War. ANZAC Day is a day to remember those who have given their lives in war.

ANZAC biscuits are biscuits are made of rolled oats, coconut and golden syrup.

Some ANZAC biscuits facts (Thanks to my local Zone Fresh newsletter)

The original ANZAC biscuit was known as an ANZAC wafer or tile and, along with beef bully, was part of the rations given to soldiers during World War I. They were included instead of bread because they had a longer shelf life. This was due to the use of golden syrup or treacle as a binding agent rather than milk or eggs.

The biscuits originally were so hard that many soldiers ground them into a type of porridge to make them more palatable.

ANZAC biscuits are also one of the few things that are legally allowed to use the word ANZAC (which is protected by federal legislation) provided the biscuits remain true to the original recipe. The following is a slight adaptation using brown sugar rather than white to make a chewier biscuit.

Chewy ANZAC Biscuits
from Fresh Living Magazine April 2004, courtesy of Taste.com.au

1 cup (150g) plain flour
1 cup (90g) rolled oats
1 cup (85g) desiccated coconut
3/4 cup (155g) brown sugar
125g butter
2 tbs golden syrup
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tbs water

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celcius. Line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper. Sift the flour into a large bowl. Stir in the oats, coconut and brown sugar.

Put the butter, golden syrup and water in a small saucepan. Stir over a medium heat until melted. Stir in the bicarbonate of soda.

Pour the butter mixture into the flour mixture and stir until combined.

Roll level tablespoobs of mixture into balls. Place on the trays, about 5cm apart.

Press with a fork to flatten slightly. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden brown.

Set aside on the trays for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack so it cools completely.

French Onion Soup

One (well, two) of my most recently watched Food Safari episodes were the ones on French cuisine. I've never really considered French food as a cuisine that I would be passionate (obsessive) about. Seeing that episode and all the French home cooking, however, might make me change my mind. I'm going to resist though - some of those recipes had a lot of butter! They also sound like pure comfort food to eat on chilly wintery nights.

That being said, I didn't immediately rush out to try the recipes like I did with the Waterfall Beef Salad from the Thai episode. In fact, the episode didn't come back to mind until I was asking DD if he liked soup, and he said that the only soup he liked was french onion soup made from onions rather than a packet. I've never had french onion soup, made from onions or otherwise - french onion soup was the packet mix you use to make dip! We were talking about meals for dinner this week and we decided to give this a try.

DD remembers french onion soup from a restaurant in America where it used to be served in a loaf of crusty bread in lieu of a bowl and that was how he wanted this soup to be served. I was going to buy a cob loaf to hollow out, but then saw in a magazine a soup that was served in crusty bread rolls. I wanted to do it that way instead, because if you served it in a cob roll it would look great, but you would still have to put it in a bowl to eat and meals at our house aren't table affairs. We couldn't find any crusty bread rolls though! So, in the end, we abandoned the whole thing and just served the soup in bowls with bread on the side.

It was a really easy soup to make, in my extremely limited experience of soup making. You cook the onions down in melted butter over a medium low even heat and stir in some flour, like an oniony roux. Add some water and wine and some gruyere cheese cut into chunks, season, and then let it bubble away for half an hour. I let it cook for longer, because DD wanted it to be thick.

I was a bit dubious when I tasted it for seasoning before it started simmering. There just didn't seem to be any flavour there. I had some stir-fry chicken pieces in the fridge and I had started thinking about what I could do with them at last minute if the soup turned out to be a failure.

The soup transformed during its half an hour simmer. The gruyere melted and thickened the soup and the liquid had reduced and the flavour had intensified so much. It was really good, I was very happy with it. DD also enjoyed it and since he is the connoisseur, his verdict was the most important. Unfortunately, he did say that it didn't taste at all like he remembered it. He said it still tasted yummy, so I'm calling it a success.

I used the entire 100g of gruyere in the soup and just used normal bread. I loved the flavour the gruyere added to the soup.

Soupe a L'oignon
from Food Safari France

60g unsalted butter
4-5 brown onions, peeled and thinly sliced (I used my mandoline)
50g flour
2L water
1 glass white wine
100g gruyere cheese, 1/2 cut into cubes and 1/2 grated
1 baguette
salt and pepper

Melt butter in a heavy saucepan, add onion then cook for 25 minutes until the onion is deep golden brown and beginning to caramelise. Stir from time to time.

Add flour and stir for two minutes.

Add water and wine and season with salt and pepper (I felt that it needed to be seasoned pretty liberally).

Add cubes of cheese and stir and bring to the boil.

Cover and simmer for 20 - 25 minutes. Check seasoning.

Slice the baguette, sprinkle with remaining cheese and grill until the cheese is melted.

Put the soup in a serving bowl and serve with the toasted baguette on top.

Kao Pad Krapao (Thai basil fried rice)

This dish is a great light meal bursting with Thai flavours that work so well together. It's really easy too, the only thing that would stop me from making this all the time is that it needs Thai (holy) basil. This is one thing that I don't have very often, because it's not normally stocked in my local food stores. However, yesterday I did have a massive bunch which I bought from the Broadway Growers' Markets so when dinner time came around, this recipe started calling me.

It's a fairly standard fried rice recipe, cook your meat, add some cooled cooked rice and then stir through your flavourings. The difference comes in the fish sauce/sugar/soy/lime liquid and the heady aromatic handfuls of herbs that you stir through right at the end. It is very very good.

Kao Pad Krapao
Adapted from Sue L's recipe on Recipezaar

1 tsp grapeseed oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 large red chilli, seeds removed
500g boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces
3 cups cold cooked rice
2 tbs sugar
2 tbs fish sauce
2 tbs soy sauce
juice of 1 lime
1 onion, chopped
2/3 cup Thai holy basil
2 tbs chopped fresh coriander

In a wok or large skillet, stir fry onion in oil until softened. Add the garlic and stir fry until golden. Add the chillies and chicken and stir fry until chicken is cooked

Add rice, sugar, fish sauce, soy sauce and lime juice and mix gently

When well mixed, add the basil and coriander and cooked another minute or so.

Serve with lime wedges.

Fiasco's Steakhouse at the Morrison Hotel

Please see the update on this restaurant as well!!

We went to dinner at Fiasco's Steakhouse at the Morrison Hotel last night, after a recommendation from a friend. DD likes Hog's Breath Cafe and A couldn't believe that he would choose Hog's Breath over another steakhouse. This made us admit that we've never been to another steakhouse, so this visit was arranged.

Fiasco's takes up almost half of the downstairs part of the Morrison Hotel in Woolloongabba. It's split into two dining rooms and an outdoor area, this does mean that the service is sometimes lacking. I know that it isn't an excuse, but it must be difficult to cover three areas that are so segregated. They could probably fix this by assigning wait staff to a particular area, but who I am to tell them what to do?

As it is a steakhouse, the menu is predominantly made up of steak. They have some impressive looking entrees, including oysters and calamari, but we didn't order entrees this time. Fiasco's recommended dish is the premium eye fillet. It's 180 or 300g of rib eye fillet steak wrapped in bacon and served with your choice of sauce, salad and chips/potato. Five out of the six of us went that route, and the picture of my dish is above. DD was the only one that chose otherwise, and he had the rib fillet, which was just a nice piece of steak.

With your steaks you can choose from a variety of sauces, including a pepper sauce, mushroom sauce and a herb and garlic butter. The side salads are a choice of a garden salad or caesar salad and you can choose between chips or a baked potato. A had told us that one of the reasons you come here was because when they give you a plate, you can enjoy eating everything on your plate. There's not a garnish that's masquerading as a salad which you push aside. I have to agree with him here, the caesar salad was really lovely (except slightly heavy on the dressing) and the chips were light and crunchy and everything was generously served.

I ordered my steak medium rare, and the steak was cooked to perfection. My only complaint was that the bacon surrounding it was cooked until it was crispy, almost blackened. This also happened to some of the outside of the fillet, and I'm not sure how they managed to do that without ruining the inside. I didn't like the dry, crusty feel of the outside at all, and I will not order the premium eye fillet again for this reason. The inside of the fillet was fantastic though - really juicy and it tasted wonderful.

Everyone enjoyed their meals and they were all quite reasonably priced, with the bill only $160 for the 6 of us (although there were only 3 drinks included). The thing that let Fiasco's down was its service. While its food was good enough to ensure that we will return, the service did make the night not run as smoothly as it could. We had booked a table for 8pm and when we arrived we were advised that they were running late and to check back in 10 minutes. We had some drinks in the bar while we waited. We were finally shown to our table at 8:30 and while we did receive our meals by 9:00pm, we really didn't see any staff at our table after that. DD and A had to go the bar to order more drinks. Our bill was delivered by a wait person who walked up to a point where she was as far from the table as she could be and still reach over and slide the bill onto the table and then she went away. She didn't even say anything to us. We had not even been given the opportunity to have dessert because no one had come back to our table since the meals were delivered. In fact, she was so quiet when she delivered the bill, that when someone came back to collect it quite a few of us hadn't noticed it was even there.

It was a little disappointing, but nothing that would ruin the night, which was good because of good food and good company. If there wasn't good food, nothing would entice me to return, because I really feel that regardless of the layout of your dining areas or how busy you are, you need to provide service beyond taking orders and dumping plates.

Overall, Fiasco's saving grace was that it did cook a good steak at a reasonable price.

After dinner we still felt that dessert would be a nice palate cleanser after the heavy meal and since we weren't given the opportunity at the restaurant we hunted down a gelato store. We stopped at Re Del Gelato in New Farm. I had tiramisu and burnt sugar and DD had chocolate and mint. It was lovely and creamy and everything gelato should be. It finished off the night nicely.


Fiasco's Steakhouse
Morrison Hotel
640 Stanley St
Woolloongabba
Ph: 07 3391 1413
(bookings highly recommended)

Re Del Gelato
706 Brunswick St
New Farm
Ph 07 3358 2177

Foodie morning: Broadway Markets, Chinatown, Rosalie Market

Today, DD and I had a happy foodie morning. First up was a visit to the Broadway Growers' Markets for some top quality fruit and vegetables at the cheapest prices. I always get really excited when you've filled two green shopping bags with vegetables and still only spent $20.

Next we had a quick stop in Chinatown for a stroll around the markets and a visit to Yuen's and Burlington's. I love Yuen's and I wish I didn't feel so self-conscious looking in there. I think it's because everything is quite closed in, and you feel like you are in someone's way while you marvel at the range of rice vinegars. DD doesn't like Yuen's at all, because he thinks it smells like fish. Sometimes I agree with him, the smell can get quite overwhelming at times.

Burlington's, on the other hand, is quite friendly to the foodie explorer. There are wide aisles and pretty accurate price tickets helping those who need their information spelled out for them. It also has a fantastic selection. I needed more cooking sake and I wanted some dashi and found them easily (not that they are tricky ingredients to find elsewhere, but still!). DD stocked up on tomato sauce chips. I wanted to try some ramen noodles, because all the bloggers (well, two) are raving about them at the moment and I've never tried them. Does anyone have a favourite brand of packet ramen noodles?

Our final stop was the Rosalie Gourmet Market for their olive oil spectacular. I've never been here before, and I was in deli heaven. There was a section with fresh fruit and vegetables, another section with herbs and spices and nuts (including a selection of spices from Herbie's), another with gourmet pastas, sauces and oils, then around the corner there's a section of kitchenware, then a fridge of cheese wheels, then a freezer of frozen meals, then a patisserie and heaps and heaps of breads (I was so excited) and then a deli of meats and cheeses and down the middle is a huge selection of sweets and cookbooks. There's more too!

I found some golden caster sugar here, I've never seen it before. I also found a can of baking spray, a combination of oil and flour used to grease baking pans. I must admit to not being a fan of greasing baking dishes. I much prefer cooking, where you can just spray the dish with olive oil. I try to remember to save my butter wrappers so I don't have to get my hands dirty, but I always end up ripping them and never do. So, this was very cool. Well, I hope it's very cool, as it was $17.

I was exploring the kitchenware section when DD disappeared. I found him at the patisserie ordering a Mars Bar slice. He quite happily went off to find me a basket when I asked him, and then he continued to earn his boyfriend points by waiting in the (long) line while I bought some ciabatta and a mini almond croissant. I was distracted from the line by a tasting plate of Tarago triple cream brie. It was the most wonderful brie I had ever tasted and after having some of it for lunch I am really glad I bought a wedge on impulse. DD went for double in the boyfriend points category by picking up some limes while waiting in line. I love limes, you see.

Unfortunately, DD lost a lot of those boyfriend points when he didn't want to go to Paniyiri, because it will be "too busy". I really want to go, so I'm a little upset.

DD said that it seems like all these deli/market places have the same things, so wherever you go things always seem the same. I disagreed, and said that while each place may stock similiar goods, the differences where in the variety. Some places have a small range, others have a large range, and the exciting part is when they have everything that you like in one deli. I haven't quite found this deli yet, but I think Rosalie has come the closest.

DD has just finished his Mars Bar slice and enjoyed it so much that he's happy to go again. I can't say that I'm sad about that.




Rosalie Gourmet Market
Corner of Nash St and Baroona Rd
Rosalie
ph 07 3876 6222
www.rosaliegourmet.com.au

Olive Oil Spectacular

Today was Rosalie Gourmet Market's Olive Oil Spectacular, where you could "come and meet some of the experts in Australian and European olives oils", according to the flyer. This was our first visit here, so I was quite excited to be visiting a new deli plus being able to taste lots of different oils. As an added bonus, there was 20% off all oils purchased on the day. Handy, when some of the oils were quite expensive. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

We arrived a little before the 11am start, and amused ourselves looking through the deli and I made mental notes of all the things I wanted to purchase when we came back. We enjoyed a $2 takeaway coffee from a place across the road and watched the people in the cafes. It was very nice.

The spectacular took place outside the market on long white-covered tables. There were three olive oil experts, one olive expert (with many actual olives in addition to his olive oil) and another lady dealing in sparkling water. I can only remember two of the olive oil experts, so I do apologise to the third because it was his imported extra virgin blend that was my favourite, but the oil's $40 price tag wouldn't let me buy it.

First up was a selection of Australian and imported Italian oils from Palatable Partners. There was a Coriole extra virgin blend from South Australia, a Benzu extra virgin oil from taggiasche olives from Imperia, Liguria (north west coast Italy), a Caroli blend from Puglia (southern Italy) and a Rustichella from Abruzza (central Italy). Unfortunately for these oils, none of them really struck me. Maybe it was the battle you had to fight to get near him to taste them, he was by far the busiest while we were there. There was one particularly obstinate gentleman who refused to let anyone through while also refusing to try the oils but grilling the representative from PP about the difference between Australian olive oils and imported Italian oils.

PP representative: well, you can try them and see for -
Obstinate gentleman: I'm asking you!

On the other side of the market entry there was a lovely expert from Fino Food and Wine offering a selection of Pendleton Estate olive oils. There was the early harvest, cold pressed extra virgin blend plus their lemon pressed, lime pressed and basil infused olive oils. The flavoured oils were divine. The lime and the basil really came through the oil and the lemon, while a more subtle flavour than the others, was beautifully light and perfect for salads. I bought a bottle of the lemon-infused, and I can't wait to use it. These were my favourites, however the extra virgin didn't quite make the top of my list like the flavoured ones.

My favourite was an imported olive oil blend from Italy offered by the third expert, but of course, I didn't get the name of it. It was not quite as peppery as some of the other blends, but was silky smooth and fruity.

I found that when it came to extra virgin, I enjoyed the Italian oils more than the Australian ones. The Italian oils just had that extra smoothness that I like in an olive oil.

Garlic Prawns with Pasta

I love seafood, prawns especially. DD does not like seafood at all, even the smell makes him feel ill, so this does present a problem sometimes. I tend to like frozen boxes of fish and prawns and calamari so I can have some seafood when he's not home. Sometimes it doesn't quite rate as highly as fresh seafood but it's heaps better than no seafood!

I am pretty particular with my frozen seafood though. I see some of those boxes which are only 40% fish and shudder. However I tried a box of Safcol prawns in herb and garlic sauce (55% prawn, which isn't ideal, but there's a heap of sauce and it's not processed meat, so I deal) and found them to be delicious, even if they are quite oily. This recipe comes from the back of the box.

Garlic Prawns with Pasta
adapted from the back of a Safcol Prawns in Herb and Garlic Sauce box.

125g angel hair pasta
olive oil spray
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 shallot, finely chopped
1/2 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1/2 cup white wine
handful baby spinach leaves
juice of half a lemon

Cook the pasta according to packet directions.

In a large frying pan sprayed lightly with olive oil spray, cook the onion and garlic, stirring, until lightly golden.

Stir oregano, basil, red pepper flakes and wine into the onion mix. Bring sauce to a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally for 3 minutes.

Add prawns to the pan and cook until they become firm and pink, about 3 minutes. Drain pasta in a colander and transfer to a large serving bowl. Add the prawn mixture and spinach leaves to the pasta and toss lightly to mix. Sprinkle the lemon juice over the pasta and serve.

I mixed my pasta and prawns in the frypan, rather than dirtying another dish. However, as I said above, the prepackaged sauce is really oily/greasy. Next time I think I will risk the prawns not absorbing the wine onion flavour and cook them separately, so I can cut out a lot of the oiliness. The dish was beautifully flavoured though. The lemon really hightened the garlicy wine flavour and the baby spinach added a pleasing touch of green.

This made a huge serving, and would probably serve two people. I was greedy and ate the lot myself though.

Asian Chicken Parcels

I found this recipe in April delicious. magazine. Not only did it look beautifully light and flavourful, it had the added benefits of being low in fat, high in protein and a good source of folate, potassium and vitamin A. However, it also said to add bok choy, and DD doesn't like boy choy so I left it out and I think the folate et al came from that.

It was also really easy and quick, a perfect meal for during the week when you don't want to spend ages in the kitchen. I didn't bother with individual parcels, I just put everything (minus bok choy) into one big parcel. This did nearly double the recommended cooking time, because when I pulled it out to check after 20 mins the tops were still uncooked (see picture).


It was really delicious, and it will definately be repeated!

Asian Chicken Parcels
from April delicious. magazine

4 x 170g skinless chicken breast fillets
1/3 cup (80ml) light soy sauce
1 tbs honey
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2 small red chillies, seeds removed, finely chopped
2cm piece ginger, peeled, cut into very thin matchsticks
4 star anise
1 bunch baby bok choy, quartered
1 cup (200g) jasmine rice, cooked to packed instructions

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celcius. Lay four 30cm squares of foil on 2 baking trays. Top each piece of foil with a square of baking paper the same size.

Score each chicken breast several times with a knife, then divide among the paper squares. Scrunch the foil and baking paper up around the chicken slightly to form a curved shape that can hold the sauce.

Warm the soy sauce, honey, garlic, chilli, ginger and star anise together in a pan over medium-low heat, stirring until the honey has melted. Spoon over chicken.

Arrange the bok choy on top of the chicken. Fold the edges of the foil and paper together to form well-sealed parcels.

Bake for 15 minutes or until the chicken has cooked through. Rest for 5 minutes in sealed parcels and then serve with rice.

Per serve: 1729 kJ (413 cal); fat 2.9g (saturated 1.1g); protein 43.7g; carb 50.6g; fibre 2.85g; chol 110mg; sodium 865mg.

Three Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies

These would have to be one of the easiest cookies I've ever made, even though I added a fourth ingredient in the chocolate chips. They are really really rich, make them small and don't have more than two at a time. Indulge responsibly.

Three (four) Ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies
adapted from About.com

1 cup peanut butter, I used chunky because that was all I had
1 cup caster sugar
1 egg
handful chocolate chips

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix until smooth.

Roll into small, teaspoon sized balls and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Press the balls down lightly with a fork.

Bake at 175 degrees Celcius for 6-8 minutes. Be careful not to overbake or the cookies will be too crisp.

Leave to rest on tray to harden slightly before transferring to a cooling rack.

My batch made about 30.

New Farm Deli

I've been wanting to visit the New Farm Deli for a couple of years now, but I have never actually made it there. DD remembered this and planned for us to go for breakfast this weekend, and even though I constantly forgot we were going he never tried to back out of it.

I've read a lot about The Deli, and all of the reviews are good. We've even visited its newest location at Bulimba, however going to the original deli was definately worth the wait. I ordered their eggs benedict with their own hollandaise sauce and DD ordered a simple ham and eggs with tomato and onion.

The food arrived quickly, in fact I think DD spent longer in the line waiting to order. The only criticism is that we received our food well before our coffee. The staff were friendly and polite and you can see just how many of their customers are regulars by the barista frequently welcoming customers by name.

My eggs benedict was a delight. The eggs were perfectly cooked too! I love my eggs benedict with the eggs just cooked, so that I can cut into the yolk and have it's orangey ooze mix into my hollandaise, but it's very rare that I get to do that. The eggs sat daintily on top of two pieces of ciabatta, which was interesting to me as the inside of the ciabatta tended to get quite soggy, but the crust remained very crispy. I'm not sure that I liked that as I hate soggy bread, but I did enjoy the dish. I think my preference is still very lightly toasted Turkish bread for my eggs benedict. It was also served with bacon and rocket, and I think the rocket was lightly dressed. This might have contributed to my soggy ciabatta interior. The holladaise sauce was lovely and creamy and had a distinct lemon flavour that went really well with the rocket.


I have to admit that I was too busy enjoying my own breakfast to ask about DD's, but he said afterwards that he really enjoyed the visit and would like to go again, so it must have been good!

We also ordered a cappucino and hot chocolate, both of which were devine. The meal was quite cheap too, it was about $40 in total. This is about $10 cheaper than our last visit to the Coffee Club, where we placed an almost identical order and the quality of both the ingredients and the presentation were far superior at The Deli.

After breakfast we wandered through their massive range of gourmet ingredients. I wanted to purchase a $16.50 sachet of ground vanilla beans and most of their cheese, but I restrained myself.

As an added bonus to our breakfast treat, we realised that the Jan Powers Farmers Markets were on this weekend. Thanks to the five Saturdays in March, we were a week out and thought that we had missed it last weekend because of our trip to Sydney. We were much later than we normally are when we visit the markets and DD was reluctant to try and find a park and battle all the people, but he quite happily agreed to drop me off and drive around the carpark while I went in to pick up some necessities. Isn't he lovely?

The New Farm Deli and Cafe
900 Brunswick St
New Farm
Ph 07 3358 2634
www.thedelinewfarm.com.au

Ribbetts at Dutton Park

I have a confession to make. I've never had ribs before. DD spent some time in America and loves American style ribs and when he found out about this and Ribbetts World Class Food at Dutton Park, we had to go. Although I think he had already decided we were going before I mentioned I'd never tasted ribs.

Ribbetts stands all by itself on a fairly residential stretch of Annerley Rd in a converted house. There's inside and outside dining and it was quite busy the day we went, so bookings are highly recommended. Ribbetts offer an all you can eat dine-in special for $22 and this is what we ordered (although you can choose to order from the menu, however your entire table must choose one or the other).

The all you can eat menu is quite expansive, offering a selection of pizzas and pastas. The only ribs available in the all you can eat were pork ribs, so if any of your party aren't a fan of pork, be warned! We did have a non-pork eater with us, but he did have a couple ribs because he said the sauce did overpower the pork flavour. In addition to two plates of ribs we also ordered a ham and pineapple pizza and a pizza which was half cajun chicken (cheese, tomato, chicken, cajun spices, onion and capsicum) and half chicken, bacon and banana (cheese, tomato, bacon, chicken and banana, funnily enough). There's also unlimited garlic bread, and were unable to resist having one loaf.

Ribs, I have discovered, are quite good. I am not normally a fan of food I have to eat with my fingers, but these were very nice. The meat was really tender and their barbecue sauce was amazing. Really delicious. Ribbetts sell their BBQ sauce and DD was very close to buying some to take home. The pizza was unexpectedly fantastic. The tomato base was rich and flavourful and the mozzarella cheese was a stringy delight. It is quite difficult to mess up a ham and pineapple pizza, but I also have it on good authority that the cajun chicken and even the chicken, bacon and banana (which they ordered just to see what banana on a pizza would taste like) were also really good.

Desserts were charged separately, but even after indulging ourselves in a lot of food we did have to try some of their desserts. We had two Giotto Gelato desserts (at $6 each), one passionfruit and one tartfuto, one apple pie with ice cream and one huge chocolate milkshake for DD. Unfortunately, the apple pie had a small accident during plating and ended up upside down. The gelato was nice light way to cleanse the palate after the fairly sauce heavy meal. The serving was really generous and I was struggling to finish it. The milkshake was also really generous, and it was the final straw for DD who started to feel ill from eating too much so we went home very soon after.

Ribbetts is BYO and corkage is included in the all you can eat price. They do have a fridge of soft drinks and orange juice for you if you forget to bring something (as we did). They also do take away, deliveries and even offer U-Heat ribs which can be posted Australia wide.

DD said afterwards that even though he enjoyed it, it did mean that he wouldn't be wanting ribs again for a while. However they do have some good looking catering packs which would be good for a home BBQ and it would let you choose between pork or lamb ribs. We have also decided that next time we will try home delivery/take away and pay the little bit extra to get the beef ribs, but I think that's a fair way off as I'm still digesting the meal now (the next morning!)

Ribbetts Fine Foods
167 Annerley Rd
Dutton Park
Ph 07 3846 3333
www.ribbetts.com.au

Waterfall Beef Salad, take two.

I made my own version of the Waterfall Beef Salad from Food Safari Thailand a couple of weeks ago and the flavours have been on my mind ever since.

We went to Sydney last weekend on a crazy visit for a friends' wedding (when I say crazy I mean crazy, we left Brisbane at 12:30 on Friday afternoon, got to Sydney at 2:30am local time, the wedding was at 3pm on Saturday but it was an hour away and somehow I managed to squeeze in a market between the 1 1/2 hour round trip to Mosman and we left to come back to Brisbane at 7:00am on Sunday morning to get home at 7:30pm in time for a good sleep before starting work the next day at 7:00 am. Phew!!) and after the busy weekend DD didn't not feel up to grocery shopping. After I explained to him that we had no food and had to go shopping, he appeased me by offerring to take me to James St to pick up a few things. I can never say no to a trip to James St.

At the butcher in the James St Market we picked up this huge piece of sirloin steak. It was nearly a 1kg piece! I put this to good use in another Waterfall Beef Salad.

This time it worked a little better. Rather than a herby marinade, this did look like a salad. I severely cut down the amount of fish sauce at the beginning, which meant I didn't have to add the huge amounts of sugar after to get a nice balance of flavours. I also had managed to track down some Thai glutinous rice (at an Indian food store!) and cooked it according to the fabulous microwave directions from ThaiTable.com.


It was just as good the second time around, if not better because of the added authenticity with the sticky rice. This is just a wonderfully flavoured light dish. I loved the sticky rice too, it was such a nice change from normal basmati, and it really worked in the salad. I didn't roll it with my hands like they did on Food Safari, but I still managed to get a bit of everything on my fork.

Waterfall Beef Salad
adapted from Thai Food Safari

1 giant piece sirloin steak
3 tsp fish sauce
3 1/2 tbs fresh lime sauce
1 tsp palm sugar
3 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs finely chopped coriander
2 spring onions, finely chopped
1 large shallot, finely sliced
handful of mint leaves
3 tbs toasted ground rice

Toasting the rice:
Put 1/3 cup of jasmine rice, 2 kaffir lime leaves and a stalk of lemongrass in a large flat pan and toast over high heat until the rice goes golden brown, keeping the ingredients moving constantly. Ground the rice in a spice grinder. (I have a spice grinder now, it was much easier than using the stick blender)

Cook the steak, ideally to medium-rare on a heavy based pan with no oil, and slice carefully into thin strips.

Mix the fish sauce, lime juice, palm sugar and soy sauce until the sugar has dissolved. Add the beef strips. Add the coriander, spring onions, onion, mint leaves and ground rice and mix well.

Gozleme

Mmmm. A spinach and cheese Turkish Gozleme from a stand at the Mosman Market, drizzled liberally with lemon juice. It was amazing, I haven't tasted anything like it before. I wish I could have tried one with the spicy mince filling as well. I'll have to go back to Sydney again!

Mechoui - Marinated Lamb Backstrap

I am really enjoying Food Safari. I got so hooked on it that the day after I saw the first episode on SBS I scoured shops looking for the DVD(s). I snaffled the last copy of season two from the ABC Shop in Carindale, and couldn't find any other copies of season one or season two anywhere in that area. In the end I found a whole stock of them at the ABC Shop and at JB Hifi in Chermside, so maybe the people living around Carindale really like the show?

Anyway, I was watching the Morrocan show and loved the marinated lamb backstraps they made. I really wanted to try it, but DD doesn't like lamb. He was working a late shift which meant he tended to skip dinner, so I took the opportunity to make a slightly modified version for me and our flatmate.

I love cumin and sweet paprika and I love coriander and lemon, so I couldn't see how this couldn't be good. It's really easy, just marinade some lamb backstraps (or stir-fry lamb pieces, in my case) in some cumin, sweet paprika, garlic, coriander, parsley, lemon and olive oil for a couple hours and then grill to medium rare. Easy!!

I did make a few changes to the above because I had run out of parsley. It was quite innovative, or so I tell myself, and made use of the fresh produce I had gotten at the farmer's market a few days before. Anyway, instead of parsley I used some finely chopped spring onion and garlic chives. I also added a small chopped chilli, seeds removed.

Everyone says to serve the lamb with some minted yoghurt, and as I just happened to have some reduced fat Jalna Greek style yoghurt about to expire and some fresh mint leaves
in the fridge, all the signs pointed to me having it too. I loved the yoghurt, it was so fresh and creamy and lightly flavoured. Nobody else likes yoghurt in this house, and it was way too much for me to eat by myself so I regrettably had to throw the rest of it out a few days after the meal.

The lamb stir fry pieces don't look quite as impressive as a lamb backstrap, but they still tasted amazing. I'll have to make this again the next time DD isn't eating dinner.

Mechoui (Marinated Lamb Backstrap)
adapted from Morrocan Food Safari

500g lamb stir fry pieces
1/2 tbs cumin
1/2 tbs sweet paprika
salt
1 tbs chopped garlic
1 tbs chopped coriander leaves
1 chopped spring onion
2 chopped garlic chives
1/2 tbs lemon juice
1 tbs olive oil

Put lamb in a bowl, add the rest of the ingredients. Using hands, combine to cover all of the lamb.

Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.

Grill to medium rare on the BBQ (or in a frypan)

Serve with minted yoghurt.


Minted Yoghurt
adapted from Moroccan Food Safari

1 cup Greek yoghurt
¼ teaspoon sugar
3 teaspoons chopped fresh mint leaves

Blend ingredients in a blender and serve with Mechoui (Marinated Lamb Backstrap).

Stuffed Peppers/Capsicums

I have been reading through the archives of A Spoonful of Sugar and found this great recipe for stuffed capsicums which, in addition to being really tasty, are actually relatively low in fat and calories.

I've stuffed tomatoes before, but I think stuffing capsicums is much easier, and capsicums have the added benefit of being a bigger bowl than a tomato.

The stuffing is a lightly spiced mix of minced beef, onion, parsley, paprika, allspice, parmesan cheese and rice and the capsicums are served with a sauce of red wine and a bottle of premade pasta sauce. Angela recommends added extra paprika and a spoonful of garlic to the mix, so I happily obliged. I love paprika and garlic. I didn't have any parsley, so I used a bit of artistic licence and added some spring onions and garlic chives.

DD is working lates this week, but I was able to prepare the capsicums, cook the rice and mix the ingredients with the mince, so all I had to do once we got home was cook the mix, stuff the capsicums and put them in the oven.

I scaled the recipe to fill six capsicums, because I had six capsicums and 500g of mince. However, the stuffing made quite a bit, and I ended up baking a dish of just stuffing alongside my full capsicums. The capsicums reheat surprisingly well, which is good because we had three leftover, but they don't hold their shape as well. The flavours in the stuffing develop quite nicely, especially the parmesan.

These were a great success with both DD and our flatmate. I didn't cook the capsicums in the sauce, but served it separately and I personally didn't really think they needed a sauce. It was beautifully spiced, looked great and was really enjoyable.

Stuffed Peppers
Adapted from Cooking Light

For six peppers

150g rice
6 medium red bell peppers
500g minced beef
1 1/2 cup chopped onion
2 spring onions, chopped
3 stalks garlic chives, chopped
2 tsp paprika
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp allspice
1 jar (500g) bottled tomato and basil pasta sauce
3/4 cup parmesan cheese, grated
3/4 cup dry red wine
Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 230 degrees Celcius.

Cook rice according to package directions, omitting salt and fat. Set aside.

While rice cooks, cut tops off bell peppers; reserve tops. Discard seeds and membranes. Place peppers, cut sides down, in an 8-inch square baking dish; cover with plastic wrap. Microwave at high 2 minutes or until peppers are crisp-tender. Cool.

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add beef and the next 5 ingredients (beef through allspice); cook 4 minutes or until beef is lightly browned, stirring to crumble. Remove from heat. Add rice, 1/3 of the bottle pasta sauce, and cheese to beef mixture, stirring to combine.

While beef cooks, combine the rest of the pasta sauce and wine in a small saucepan; bring to a boil.

Spoon the beef mixture into each pepper. Place peppers in a 2-quart baking dish coated with cooking spray; add wine mixture to pan. Cover with foil.

Bake for 20 minutes. Uncover; bake an additional 5 minutes or until lightly browned. Serve peppers with sauce. Garnish with pepper tops.