Cooking The Books - Bill Granger's Holiday

Following on from our ultra enjoyable Cooking The Books - Jamie's America session, we had another cooking the books, which again was organised by the wonderful Kat and generously held for free at The Cooking Space.

Joining Kat and myself were Emma, Michele & Hamish, April & Laik and newcomers Celeste & David, Agnes & Alastair.

This time, the book we were cooking from was Bill Granger's Holiday. I've never made anything from Bill's books before but had flicked thought they looked quite simple. AS it turns out, this was the case. Some recipes worked, while others were nice but not super delicious.

To make up for my atrocious efforts last time, I decided to make two dishes. The first I made was a Soy and Mirin Chicken Wings. It was very easy to make and I liked the added mirin flavour. I would add more marinate next time so I could further reduce down the marinate and pour more of it over the wings to cook.


Kat made a Morrocan Spiced Leg of Lamb, while April made a Beef in Red Wine Stew. The lamb had a bit of a kick to it, and was cooked nicely, but I didn't really like the flavour combinations. Same too went for the beef stew. Again, it was cooked well, but lacked flavour for me.


Michele made meatballs again. The Jamie meatballs previously were my favourite dish of the day. The Bill Meatballs in Coconut Milk didn't really do it for me. However, Michele's Sausage Rolls were super delicious, and apparently easy to make. I must try making it one day. Sausage rolls and pies are one of those iconic Australian food items that I eat so often but always think are too hard to make so never attempt them at home. This year, I shall try making both.


This time, my favourite dish of the day was Agnes' Mini Chicken Burgers. They were super cute with the little buns she made. The patty had good flavour and paired with the amazing chilli sauce that Agnes made, it was sensational. Take note Michael, another source of great chilli sauce, although you might have to beg Agnes to give you a jar.


Wisely, Celeste decided to make something a bit healthier. There was a lot of brown on that table. The Ratatouille was a welcome and refreshing relief to the heavy heavy meal we were having.


Some confusion ensued between myself and Emma when we both thought we were making the same cake. It turned out we were talking about different things, but it all worked out for the best. So Emma made a beautiful Macadamia, Mango and Lime Trifle, with layers of cream, macadamia cake, fresh mango and lime syrup. Extra delicious. Instead of making a mango cake, I made the Flourless Hazelnut Cake, which too was excellent. It is super super rich and a thin slice is enough. But boy, is it decadence on a plate. It so rich, and is something you would find at a restaurant served with a dollop of thick cream or some berry sauce. I love this cake and will suerely make it again.


And that, my friends was another excellent day of cooking and eating. I discovered a few good Bill Granger recipes. In fact, from that day, I browsed the book a bit more and have made Bill's Passionfruit Yoyos 4 times. Everyone, including myself, love them, and they are so easy to make and keep really well.

Thanks again to Kat for organising the cookup, and to everyone that attended and brought such delicious food. Thanks Agnes for the jar of chilli sauce, I love it. Until the next session, keep cooking and eat up.

Miss Marples Tea Room

382 Mount Dandenong Tourist Rd
Sassafras, VIC 3787
Ph: 9755 1610
Website: Miss Marples Tea Room

To increase our fitness and just enjoy a day out in the sun, a group of us went to Mount Dandenong for some hiking. We revisited much of the same ground as my previous visit, as there are only so many things to do up there.

The day started with a couple of hikes up and down the "1000" steps. My thighs were killing me by the end of the second lap, when I saw an old man passed me on his third circuit. Must get fitter!


So after our massive climb, it was time to eat of course. Where does anyone go except Miss Marples Tea Room. It's touristy, but so what, it's fun. The over the top building and waitresses in period costume is a bit of fun. The food is also good, albeit pricey. It is a tourist destination after all.

While waiting the obligatory 30 minutes for a table, we wondered around all the shops in Sassafras. I really like the Tea Leaves shop as I really enjoy tea. Look at all the amazing teapots and miniature teapots.





For lunch, we shared between the six two Beef Pies, two serves each of Pineapple Ham Fingers and Smoked Salmon Fingers. I like all the food, with the pie being hearty and the fingers being a good simple item.



And lastly, you can't go past the famous Scones, or as I like to call them, Sponge Cakes. Whatever they are, they're tasty, combined with their whipped cream and homemade raspberry jam.


So, if you have a day free and not sure what to do, take a quick drive to Mount Dandenong and climb the 1000 steps. You can take it as a challenge and try a few times at a quick pace, or take it easy and climb up slowly enjoying the sights and sounds. Then you can reward yourself with some yummy scones at Miss Marples.

First Taste Springvale

2C Windsor Avenue
Springvale, VIC 3171
Ph: 95467283
Website:First Taste

First Taste is a franchise restaurant that serves Claypot rice as their speciality. The restaurant in Springvale is always crowded and I can see why. For as little as $9, you get a massive bowl of claypot rice with an assortment of accompaniments.

The restaurant itself is your standard Springvale style place, with simple tables and chairs. They've gone to a bit more effort and there are some decorations of wall hangings and these plastic fruit in jars. The ever popular large flat screen tv is also available, streaming Chinese cable tv all day so you can enjoy your favourite Cantonese dramas while eating.


The Wonton Noodle Soup is good, with a flavoursome broth and some "handmade" wontons. Can machines make wontons? Maybe food technology has advanced more than I thought, as I always thought all wontons were hand made.


On the left is the Pork Black Bean Claypot. It's quite good, with chunks of pork ribs covered in black bean. On the right is the Chicken and Mushroom Claypot, which is my favourite. I order this everytime, now that I've tried all the claypot rice. Something about the combination of flavours in this dish makes me love it so much. The chicken is nice and smooth and pan fried. The mushrooms has lots of flavour, with bits of Chinese sausage and spring onions adding to the flavour. However, my favourite part of this dish is to put huge slatherings of their chilli sauce (shown above), pour lots of their soy sauce (it's slightly sweet and tastes like it's been cooked off and hence not harsh but instead more subtle in flavour) into the rice and stir it all up. The rice is just sensational, with the crispy charred bits that stick to the side of the claypot my absolute favourite.


The restaurant is buzzing with people talking at all times, so if you don't like noise, probably not a good place for you. The service is actually very good, with the ladies all being extremely polite and helpful. I would recommend coming for a claypot rice, but they also do a variety of other rice and soup dishes. Their soups are also very good, with a wide range to choose from. I like their Chicken Feet soup as a starter before the claypot rice. A good place for a casual meal at extremely cheap prices.

Shyun - Part 2

126 Koornang Rd
Carnegie VIC 3163
Ph: 95696530
Website: Shyun

I've written about Shyun previously and how it's one of the hidden (not so hidden now as so many know about the place, which is good as it means it'll continue operating, but bad because it's hard to get a table sometimes) gems in the 'burbs. I go back there at least once a week now for lunch and occasionally for dinner. During dinner service, they have specials dishes than at lunch time, so I tried out a few of them when I was there last with friends.

The Soft Shell Crab rolls contain crispy crab inside a roll with lettuce and tiny fish roe on the outside. The serving also comes with some fried soft shell crab by itself. Not quite enough as a main meal, but good to share as entree with someone. Other entrees include Takoyaki and Potato Croquettes. I like the takoyaki but my friend who's worked in a Japanese restaurant for 10 years reckons they're from a packet. I think he's right as I doubt they'd make these fresh each time in such a tiny restaurant with one or two chefs.



The Chirashi is the dish that everybody loves and you can see the beautiful bowls on many tables. For $17, I think it's fantastic value. You get loads of fresh sashimi and an eel. The sashimi consist of the usual salmon and tuna, a variety of white fish, another couple of types of red fish, scallops, razor clams, sweet prawns and egg. I find I'm unable to finish the whole bowl by myself. The bento "boxes" as I've written previously are excellent value for money. The photo on the left shows the Deluxe Bento ($14), which includes salmon belly, sushi, vegetable fritters (utterly amazing), salad, mash and choice of two other items. The Regular Bento($10) on the right has salad, mash, gyoza, and a choice of two other items. I especially love their Chicken Karaage and Teriyaki Chicken options.



Lastly, there is dessert. The stock standard ice creams are available, but they also have this dessert plate ($3 with an order of bento), which has sesame ice cream and a very delicious green tea panna cotta with red bean.


The restaurant is extremely small so feels very cosy. It's more in the style of a cafe with small plastic black tables and small stools. It's self service where you order at the counter and grab your own cutlery and water. It's more a casual and quick sort of meal rather than a sit down for 4 hours meal. I highly recommend their bento boxes, sushi and sashimi as they are excellent in quality and value for money.

Overall Rating: 16/20, Excellent simple Japanese food at good prices.

Scores: 1-9: Unacceptable, don't bother. 10-11: Just OK,some shortcomings. 12: Fair. 13: Getting there. 14: Recommended. 15: Good. 16: Really good. 17: Truly excellent. 18: An outstanding experience. 19-20:Approaching perfection, Victoria's best.

Recipes Index Updated

Hooray, it's a new year so I've decided to take a slightly different approach to my blogging. I've found that like all other food bloggers, I was eating out and cooking a lot more than I was able to keep up with in blogging it all. So instead of blogging a lot of bad restaurants and recipes, I'm going to focus on blogging about good things instead. Also, I found it overwhelming when lots of blog posts started to creep up on me and were left unwritten. So I'm going to be disciplined and have started a list of items that I want to do each night, focusing on each item for only one solid hour. I won't distract myself with multi-tasking and won't work on anything more than one hour. This way, an hour will go by quickly and I'll enjoy each task without it becoming a chore.

So, I've already manage to use my one solid hour to update my recipe index, something that I've wanted to do for a while and was reminded after Emma from Cake Mistress said she was going to go through my recipe archives.

Below is the updated recipe index, which you can also click on the tab at the top of this page.
Recipe Index

Goodbye Cakes of 2010, Hello Cakes of 2011

So yet another year has passed. We all get a bit older, and hopefully a bit wiser. It's at this time of year that people like to reminisce and examine the year that has passed and what they have done. For me, I thought I'd write about all the cakes I've baked this year as I associate many memories with each cake. Actually, it's not even all the cakes I've baked this year, as I forgot to photograph many of them and some cakes I make over and over again. I had all the good intentions to write out the recipe for each cake throughout the year, but as is the common excuse "I just didn't have enough time" will be used in my case as well. I find it strange that as we get older, our lives seem to go by faster and time is a precious commodity that we just never have enough of. I wonder why this is? Is time actually accelerating faster than Einstein predicted? Are our minds hard wired to perceive time going faster for a reason? Do we over complicate things as we get older and hence we use up our time dealing with our numerous issues? Do we waste time being polite to preserve face rather than just saying no when we were children?

Too many questions that I'll never get the answers to, so enough of my philosophical musings, below are the cakes that I have managed to photograph for this year. I'll write some brief descriptions about them and I'm sure that with the power of Google, you can use these cakes as inspiration and either find the recipe yourself or develop your own cakes.

I hope that this year has been a good eating year, and that you managed to achieve some of your dreams. If not, it's still not too late. The new year brings yet more hope, and disappointment, which just adds another stitch to the tapestry of life. I'm wishing everyone a Happy New Year and lots of good eating in 2011. I hope to blog about more delicious things in 2011, and as always welcome your comments and recommendations.

Chocolate Buttermilk Cake with Salted Peanut Caramel
Let me start off the cake review with one of my most used cakes all year, the Chocolate Buttermilk Cake. This chocolate cake is super easy to make, light but sturdy enough to support a generous frosting. In this instance, I decided to pair the cake with this year's latest trend, salted peanut caramel for my friend's morning tea. The cake actually tasted really good, and the salted peanuts were super amazing. I'd reduce the quantity of caramel next time as it was too sweet.


Chocolate Marsala Cake by Nigella Lawson
Hot on the heels of the Chocolate Buttermilk Cake, the next cake that I adore is Nigella's Chocolate Marsala Cake. It is divine in taste and again super easy to make. It's a bit more fragile so harder to work with when trying to frost, so usually I just put a chocolate ganache. Occasionally I will mix it up and frost it a bit and make it more special. On the left, you can see the classic cake with just ganache. On the right, I made three layers of it and filled with with alternating layers of chocolate fudge, whipped cream and dressed it with roasted hazelnuts for a friend's birthday.


Chocolate Cakes by Bill Granger
I was introduced to Bill Granger's cakes when we did the Cooking the Books meet ups. I've yet to blog the Bill meet up, but on the left is the cake I made for it. It's Bill's Flourless Chocolate and Hazelnut Cake. It's a super sweet and decadent cake. This is the type of cake that restaurants serve a tiny wedge of and give you a massive dollop of cream. I do like it but it's so sweet that I wouldn't eat more than a tiny tiny slice each time. On the right, we have Bill's Never Fail Birthday Chocolate Cake. It's one of the easiest chocolate cakes to make as you literally just mix everything. I paired the cake with a passionfruit buttercream and fresh strawberries. If in a rush, I might make this cake but otherwise I found the flavour and texture quite boring and would make the many other chocolate cake recipes I've tried.


And Even More Chocolate Cakes
So by now you may have noticed that I, and my friends, like chocolate cake. I have two never ending quests in baking, to find the best chocolate cake and choc chip cookie. On the left, I made a dense chocolate mud cake that I first read from Ellie's blog. It's my staple dense chocolate mud cake recipe. I tricked it up by adding dollops of peanut butter in it, then frosted it with whipped cream, but here is where the genius comes in. I put a second layer of frosting over the whipped cream, a butterscotch sauce. Ooooh this cake was delicious. Equally delicious is Stephanie Alexander's Whiskey and Raisin Chocolate Cake. This is so so so good that I'm thinking of replacing Ellie's mud cake with this one as my third favourite chocolate cake. This cake is moist while still holding its form so you can easily frost it. I love rum and raisin but whiskey and raisin work a treat too.


Sponge Type Cakes Covered in Chocolate
On the left, I made Nigella's Victoria Sponge Cake, and filled three layers with passionfruit curd. Then the whole cake was covered in a chocolate ganache. I love the passionfruit curd and used that in many other cakes since. On the right, we have Poh's Orange Chiffon with Vanilla Cream, Chocolate Ganache and Roast Hazelnuts. The chiffon and vanilla cream by itself was perfect and light, but the chocolate ganache and roasted hazelnut actually ruined the cake. They overpower the subtle flavours of the orange and vanilla. I would make this again without the need for the chocolate and roasted hazelnuts, which is a blessing since taking the skin off roasted hazelnuts is really hard.


Coffee and Caramel Cakes by Belinda Jeffery
My favourite baker Belinda Jeffery never fails to delight me. Some of her cakes from Mix and Bake are my staples and I make them again and again. Her banana cake, chocolate brownies and orange cakes get used for every occasion and just for eating in general. Below, her Mocha Cake with Caramel Shards is a definite winner. The mocha cake is dense and had a great mocha flavour. The shards are a bit of work and working with burning sugar is never fun, but the results are stunning, both in looks and flavour. If you leave the cake overnight in the fridge, the thinner shards melt into the cream and give the most amazing flavour. The fatter shards hold their form and still look amazing the next day. A definite fantastic cake. Belinda's bundt tin cakes are also very good. On the left, the Chocolate and Coffee Crumble Cake tastes good, although you can't really taste the coffee crumble. On the right, the near identical looking Caramel Crunch Cake works better, as you can really get the caramel crunch in the centre.



Green Tea
For a while, I was making green tea everything, from cakes to biscuits to slices and cupcakes. It was probably due to the 1kg pack of green tea powder that I bought. I've captured the Green Tea Slice and Green Tea Cupcakes below. The Green Tea Slice is super delicious and so easy. It's just the Women's Weekly Vanilla Slice with one teaspoon of green tea powder added for each portion of the recipe. I know this slice uses store bought pastry and custard powder and food snobs would turn their nose at it, but give it a try. I find that it's really tasty and better than 90% of slices you buy at bakeries. The Green Tea Cupcakes are just simple Vanilla Cupcakes, I prefer the Magnolia Bakery Vanilla Cupcakes, with a green tea buttercream. I like them but my work mates didn't really like the green tea and vanilla combo.


Fruit Cakes
On the left, we have a Women's Weekly Blueberry and Cinnamon Crumble Cake. I like the cake without loving it. The texture was ok and the flavours of the blueberry and cinnamon didn't come through as much as I would have liked. Instead on the right, we have Magnolia Bakery's Aunt Daisy's Fresh Fruit Torte. I love the texture of this cake, soft and smooth. However, instead of using pears which I don't like very much, I used peaches which I love. Baked peach just has the most amazing flavour. I sprinkled a few bluerries and strawberries for good measure as I had them around.


Cheesecake and Mousse Cake
I love my baked cheesecakes and have gone through so many recipes. A favourite of mine is the baked cherry cheesecake, and now I can also add this simple Baked Vanilla Cheesecake that I first read about on Agnes' blog. It's so easy and what really makes the cheesecake different to all the rest and taste really good is the sour cream frosting. Who would have thought that sour cream can be used for a frosting, genius. On the right, I made this cake for a friend's birthday. I decided to make a Jaconde, then layer it with vanilla mousses, sandwiching raspberries and finally finishing it off with a chocolate cream. The texture was beautiful and it tasted really good. I would put a thinner layer of chocolate cream next time and it slightly overpowered the delicate flavours of the vanilla mousse.


Old Skool Cakes by Women's Weekly
Seeing as they've been around forever, there's a lot of old skool recipes in the Women's Weekly books. But just because they are old, doesn't mean they aren't good. The Lemon Meringue is one of those old skool recipes and I made this for a friend's birthday. He loves lemon merinuge and thought it was fantastic. I'm neither a fan of lemon cakes or meringue, so wasn't a big fan of this cake. The Sticky Date Cake with Butterscotch Sauce was totally to my liking. I thought I would be sickened by the sweetness of the cake, but since I only made one quarter of the butterscotch sauce recommended, it was actually really nice and you could taste the dates. The texture of the cake was also quite light and moist surprisingly. I really liked this cake and have made it quite a few times.


Non Cakes
So these aren't technically cakes that I baked in 2010, but the title would have been rather lengthy if I had written "Goodbye Cakes, Cupcakes, Slices, Mousses, Biscuits and Pancakes of 2010, Hello Cakes, Cupcakes, Slices, Mousses, Biscuits and Pancakes of 2011".

On the left, you have the most amazing sweet breakfast ever. It's Bill Granger's Ricotta Hotcakes. Bill normally just serves it with a Honeycomb Butter, which I also add. But, to make it the best ever sweet breakfast, you need to also add caramelised banana, roasted walnuts, two scoops of good vanilla ice cream and then drizzle it all with proper Canadian maple syrup. Heaven. On the right, we have Magnolia Bakery's Chocolate Cupcakes, which are the most divine cupcakes with their super smooth frosting. You must follow the instructions for making the frosting to the letter in order to achieve the beautiful velvety consistency. Finally, below is my third attempt at Kourabiedes, or Greek Almond Cookies. They were good, but just nowhere near as nice as the ones that our company secretary's mum made. Unfortunately, before I could get the recipe, the secretary had moved onto another workplace. So now I shall forever be left in search of the perfect kourabiedes. So please, please dear blog readers, if you know of a delicious kourabiedes recipe, email it to me so I can try it out.



And that, was the year that was. Hopefully I'll get round to blogging future cake recipes in more detail and finally finish updating the recipes index on this site. Again, I hope you all have a Happy New Year and may your eating dreams come true.