No Oridinary Chocolate Cake

This past weekend we had afternoon tea for our lovely friend Nick's belated birthday. Being a fellow sweet-tooth we decided to design a cake to suit not only his favourite flavours but one that is rich, decadent and just plain delicious! This creation is all Nat's, I just helped create it. 

 















This cake is very deceptive, from the naked eye (when it's whole) it looks like a good ol' chocolate cake with yummy frosting but when you cut into it there are surprise layers. These consist of chocolate fudge cake hollowed out and filled with peanut butter cheese cake, topped with salted caramel sauce and iced with chocolate frosting. 
Yes, I know what you're thinking, a heart attack on a plate and you may be right, but let me tell you this cake is amazing and I am still dreaming of it now! The really cool thing is that it can be adapted to whatever flavours you like.
This particular cake is going to be dubbed 'The Giant Peanut Butter Cup' and is now in the top 5 of my favourite sweet things, perhaps even my number 1 choice at the moment!!

Haloumi Breakfast Burgers

When I think about Australia day, I immediately think about relaxing and food (and for those who are lucky enough- the beach!!) For breakfast this morning we made grilled Haloumi Breakfast Burgers with some left over condiments and rolls from a dinner party. 

You will need:


Bread rolls
Haloumi, cut to fit in a bread roll
Eggs, soft boiled or fried- however you prefer
Baby spinach
Caramelised onion


condiments:


Tomato relish 
Aioli


Trick to the easiest, fail proof and mess free soft boiled eggs


- in a saucepan, boil some water
- if you can prick the base of the egg to stop it cracking but this is not critical
- add the eggs, gently swirling the water so that the yolk stays in the centre
- put a timer on for 6 mins
- when timer is up, place the eggs in cold water to stop the cooking process
- when cooled slightly, peel and serve

Roasted Cauliflower Pasta

As a quick dinner the other night, using Donna Hay for inspiration, we made Roasted Cauliflower Pasta.

To create this dish:

1 head cauliflower, chopped into florets
pasta, I often use fresh lasagne sheets and chop then up
2 tbsp philly cream cheese
1-2 tsp cumin
1-2 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
egg, lightly beaten
salt and pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
pine nuts, lightly toasted
lemon, a dash of juice
1-2 cloves garlic, chopped finely
parmesan, shaved to serve

Crush the cumin, coriander and chilli in a mortar and pestal until combine
Toss the cauliflower with the herbs, salt, pepper and oil
Place on a roasting try and bake until cooked through and slightly crunchy
Cook pasta in salted water
In a frying pan, add the pasta with a dash of oil, and the egg
Then add the philly cream cheese to make a sauce
Top with cauliflower mixture and squeeze over a bit of lemon juice

Enjoy.

Left over Veggie Tart

For an easy dinner last week, I made a filo pastry tart with lots of left over vegetables and feta.


Ingredients:


4-8 sheets filo pastry
Olive Oil
Broccoli, chopped
Feta
Cherry Tomatoes, halved
Pumpkin, cubed
Zucchini, cubed
lemon Juice
Haloumi, cubed
Rocket
Eggs, whisked


Method:


- Roast the pumpkin and zucchini with a dash of oil
- Line a baking tin or pie dish with filo, over lapping it and rubbing a bit of oil in between sheets
- Steam the broccoli for a couple of minutes
- Put the pumpkin, broccoli, cherry tomatoes and feta crumbled onto the pastry
- Pour over the eggs to cover vegetables
- Bake for about 30-40 mins or until eggs are all cooked
- whilst the tart is baking, fry off the haloumi and pour over a bit of the lemon juice
- When tart is cooked, put the haloumi and rocket on top
- serve with a nice fresh salad


Note: You can put pretty much whatever vegetables you want in this, caramelised onion would be nice, proscuitto, chorizo, carrot etc.

Our First Dinner Party

Last Saturday, the 12th November Nat and I hosted our first proper dinner party. With my love for Tapas there was no doubt that that would be the theme of the evening. We planned a menu based around some of our favourite dishes, some of which were made into miniatures. We shopped for all the produce (bar the cream etc) at the Prahran Markets which are conveniently around the corner from us.


We began with marinading the fruit for the sangria, the desserts were setting in the fridge (which were made on Friday night) We then slowly cooked our way through the menu.

The Menu:
Main Course-
Salt and Pepper Squid with Lime Aioli
Fennel and Pork Meatballs in Napoli sauce with fresh Basil and Garlic Bread
Chorizo and Tzatziki on Crunchy Bread
Mini Basil Pesto Burgers with Relish, Cheese and Rocket
Tarts with Cherry Tomatoes, Caramelised Onion, Basil Pesto and Bocconcini
Chicken and Haloumi on toothpicks cooked in Honey and Thyme
Ham and Cheese Croquettes

Dessert:
Mini Tim Tam Cheese Cakes with Raspberries
*Nutties with Lemon Curd and Strawberry Coulis
Chocolate Mousse with Burnt Toffee with Orange Zest

It was tonnes of fun and will definitely be doing it again soon.

*Nutties are basically Anzac Biscuits, we put them into cupcake trays to mould them like cups.

The Wonders of Pastry

When you are tired and can't be botherd cooking anything fancy one thing I love are Pastry Pizza's. They are simple and you can have a lot of fun with the toppings.

































Ingredients:
Puff pastry (approx 1 sheet per person)
Egg
Goats Cheese or your favourite soft cheese
Roasted Pumpkin
Cherry Tomatoes
Caramelised Onion
Rocket to serve
Add any of you favourite toppings
Method:
Pre-cook the pastry slightly (place another tray on top to keep it flat or just flatten it out when you remove from the oven)
Then put the toppings on and then bake for approx 15-20 mins or until pastry is cooked
Serve with fresh rocket or anything else you fancy

Summer BBQ

Warm summer days have been few and far between lately, with spring being far colder than it should be. But on those rare warm days its the perfect time to light the BBQ and have a nice cold beer.


We cooked some frenched lamb cutlets, haloumi cheese, asparagus and turkish bread on the BBQ and roasted some sweet potato and carrots in the oven. Once the lamb cultlets were cooked I put a homemade pesto and smeared it on top, this was made from marinated capsicums finely chopped, grated parmesan and a small pinch of bread crumbs. All the vegetables and turkish bread was combined as a salad and the cultlets were placed on the side. Needless to say it was fantastic and soo easy.

Who said being a vegetarian is boring...

Vegetable pie with pesto, parmesan and rocket.

A few of my friends happen to be vegetarian and I have claimed (over the years) that I am (if that involves me still being able to eat yummy bacon, mince and my favourite... lamb!!) ok so that's not exactly being vegetarian, but i enjoy vegetarian food and last night decided to make something I have never really attempted. A Pie. A Vegetable Pie to be exact.

It was made with short crust pastry (I didn't make this myself)

Bake the pastry for roughly 15 mins with pie weights or rice (and don't do what I did and put the rice straight onto the pastry, needless to say there was a 'take 2' and I have learnt my lesson to use baking paper in between, rookie mistake!!) then remove rice or weights and bake for a further 10 or so mins until golden brown and the base is cooked.

The filling:

- The base was smeared with pesto (I had a gourmet capsicum and tomato one but any is fine!)

- Then roughly 500g mashed sweet potato, combined with 2 tbsp cream, 200g ricotta and 2 tbs grated/ shaved parmesan

- Top with cut pieces of zucchini, eggplant and red/ green capsicums, then place halved cherry tomatoes on top (I roasted all the vegetables slightly so they weren't too crunchy)

- Bake it in a moderate oven for roughly 10 mins until the vegetables are cooked

- Top with fresh rocket and shaved parmesan.

Then enjoy.

I know I did and I had left overs for lunch the next day. Yum.

And as I usually do, I made some miniture pies. They are great cold as well as hot.

A Promised Feast

I promised my girlfriend I would cook her a yummy dinner early this week and it was put off for a few nights as I ended up having to work. So to make up for the delay, I decided to make a very special dinner on thursday night, a three course meal to be exact. To accomplish this I needed some help from my good friend (not in real life) Donnah Hay. I went slightly off recipe but still was heavily inspired by her and her recipes from her 'Entertaining' book.

To start, we enjoyed a few pieces of french stick, lightly toasted, topped with roasted holoumi cheese with olive oil, lemon zest and chopped fresh oregano and fresh cherry tomatoes to garnish.

Follwed by roast lamb with oregano and a potato, dill and red onion salad. The lamb had an simple yet amazing dressing of honey and dijon mustard (the honey we have is beautifully candied so gave it an amazing texture and flavour)

And last but definately not least, my all time favourite Sticky Date Pudding, and yes I used mini tea saucers to serve it, needless to say they absolutely melt in your mouth and you can't help but want more!

The best winter dish yet!

Goulash or maybe a pasta bake, either way it's amazing and you won't stop eating it until there is none left. I make this for the kids i nanny for and they love it and so does everyone else. Below is the secret recipe to this belly warming sunday classic.

Ingredients:

600-800 gms Mince

Large Tin of Tomato Soup

2-4 Cloves of Garlic

1 Brown Onion

3-5 Rashers of Bacon

Small tin of Corn

1 packet of cooked pasta (best choice- Barossa Valley Egg Noodles)

1 Cup grated cheese

Salt and Pepper

Paprika and Cayanne Pepper (to taste- the warmer the better i say though!)

Method:
Chop onions, garlic and bacon. Place into large casserole dish. Brown onion and and add to bacon mixture, add all other ingredients (the spice to taste), stir well and place covered in a moderate oven for an hour.
Then enjoy how easy it was to create a new lifelong family favourite.