Cooking

Blueberry Cornbread Muffins

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Recipe from: Joy of Baking.com 

  • 1 cup plain flour
  • 1 cup cornmeal
  • 1/2 cup sugar (I used brown sugar so that the muffins would be more moist)
  • 3 tsp baking powder
  • zest of one lemon
  • 1 cup blueberries
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 cup milk
  • 1/4 cup corn, vegetable or canola oil

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200°C

2. In a large bowl combine the flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder, salt and lemon zest. Gently stir in the blueberries

3. In another bowl whisk together the egg, milk and oil

4. Combine the wet and dry ingredients and stir just until the ingredients are combined (over mixing will result in tough muffins)

5. Spoon mixture into a greased muffin tray and bake for 20 minutes (or until cooked through when tested with a skewer)

 

Overall:

These muffins were like nothing I had ever tasted before. The crunchy texture and subtle corn flavour combined with the blueberries and fresh lemon zest resulted in lovely muffins that are great to snack on.

Ramen Burger

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Recipe:

  • 1 pack of ramen or instant noodles
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 beef burger patty
  • 1 slice of Tasty cheese
  • 1 slice of canned beetroot
  • handful of rocket
  • tomato sauce

 

Method:

1. Cook noodles according to directions on the package. (I didn’t add any noodle seasoning but you can if you want to) Drain the noodles and allow to cool to room temperature.

2. Whisk 1 egg into a bowl and add the noodles. Mix well to ensure that the noodles are coated with the egg. Divide the egg-dressed noodles in half and place each half into a ramekin or other round container. Cover the noodles with plastic wrap, and place a can of soup or heavy bowl on top to press it into shape. Refrigerate for at least 15 minutes.

3. Add oil to a pan and once the oil is hot, cook the noodle buns until each side is golden brown.

4. Cook the burger patty on a pan and once it’s cooked to your liking, place the cheese on top so that it melts onto it.

5. Fry 1 egg sunny side up.

6.  Time to assemble the burger! The order I did this was: noodle bun, tomato sauce, burger patty (cheese side up), fried egg, beetroot, rocket and second noodle bun.

 

Overall:

A burger that looks terrific and tastes terrific!

 

 

 

Hot Cross Cookies

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Recipe from: Donna Hay

 

Alterations I made were:

  • substituting the sultanas in the recipe for chocolate chips
  • using melted white chocolate for the crosses instead of icing sugar

 

Overall:

I’ve had a cookie craving for the past week now and finally found some time today to make these. These sweet crumbly cookies have a distinctive cinnamon taste and I feel that one teaspoon of cinnamon instead of two is plenty enough. (Note that I didn’t use a piping bag, hence the uneven crosses.)

 

Hope you all have a Happy Easter!

The Best Vanilla Slice

It all started with the fact that I had never been to “that place in Sorrento” that makes the famous Sorrento vanilla slice. After a quick Google search I discovered that the place was called Just Fine Food. So one sunny afternoon I took a little road trip down to Sorrento to see what all the fuss was about.

 

Just Fine Food

23 Ocean Rd, Sorrento 5984 4666

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There was an ample amount of creamy yet lumpy vanilla custard that was mildly sweet. Although I found the pastry to be quite thin and ordinary, I did like the layer of jam that came at the bottom of the slice.

Just Fine Food on Urbanspoon

I finished off this vanilla slice thinking to myself that like the name of the place, it was just fine. It got me thinking that there had to be places that were closer to home that made fantastic vanilla slice. So I decided to go to Aviv Cakes and Bagels, as a friend of mine had once told me that the vanilla slice there was simply amazing.

 

Aviv Cakes and Bagels

412 Glenhuntly Road, Elsternwick 9528 6627

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The vanilla custard was smooth and moderately sweet, while the pastry was delicious: thick, crispy and almost biscuit-like. As a whole, I really enjoyed the sweet to creamy ratio of this particular vanilla slice.
Aviv Cakes & Bagels on Urbanspoon

 

I also had to make a stop at The French Lettuce as they have this sign in front of the place:

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The French Lettuce Patisserie and Bakery 

237 Nicholson St, Carlton 9347 7311

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The mildly sweet custard filling was light and extremely creamy, while the pastry was thick, flaky and buttery. The vanilla slice here also came with a side of strawberry jam which was perfect for breaking up the creaminess and for providing some contrasting flavour.
The French Lettuce Patisserie & Bakery on Urbanspoon
 

I also attempted to make my very own vanilla slice. I found this recipe from Best Recipes except instead of making up the icing, I dusted my vanilla slice with icing sugar.

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Notice how yellow my custard filling turned out? That’s because I added less cream than what the recipe required (not intentionally, but because I was out of cream and couldn’t be bothered going out to buy more). Also, notice all the little lumps in the filling? Turns out that you should probably sift the custard powder before you mix it with everything otherwise you will end up with lumps that are impossible to get rid of!

 

 

Overall:

This was a fun little quest and in the end the best vanilla slice for me personally was from Aviv Cakes and Bagels. The pastry was fantastic and the filling was very scrumptious as it had the perfect balance between creamy and sweet.

Soba noodle salad

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I went to a potluck a little while ago and a friend of mine made this amazing salad. It was light, crunchy, sweet, tangy and had a distinctive sesame flavour to it. I was desperate for the recipe and when I asked for it, my friend simply stated that it was all in the dressing: Roasted Sesame Kewpie Japanese Dressing.

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So this dressing can be found at asian grocery stores, particularly the ones that stock Japanese and Korean items.

 

Recipe:

  • Soba noodles
  • Kewpie Japanese dressing
  • Carrots (cut julienne)
  • Cucumber (cut julienne)
  • Baby Spinach leaves
  • Sesame seeds
  • Hard boiled eggs (optional)

 

Method:

1. Cook soba noodles according to package directions

2. Once the noodles are cooked, drain under cold running water for a few minutes minutes until they feel silky

3. In a large bowl combine the noodles, carrots, cucumber, spinach, hard boiled eggs (sliced) and Kewpie dressing. Mix well.

4. Serve with a sprinkling of sesame seeds