Buns
Monday, April 05, 2010
Saturday, December 19, 2009
Tuesday, December 08, 2009
Bells Functions Reception
Reception venue on the Swan River with spectacular views
Menu
Entree
.... Veal scaloppini served on a mushroom risotto with a marsala cream sauce
Mains
... Breast of chicken wrapped in parma ham served with a roasted garlic sauce
... Fillet of Harvey beef, medium roasted, with a red wine, thyme and wild mushroom glaze
... Vegetarian roasted mushroom and vegetable stack with potato timbale
Dessert
... Vanilla cheesecake with a mixed berry compote
Wedding cake
Orchids
Tea Lights
Monday, December 07, 2009
Stranded on the Red Carpet
The photographer, none other than the 2-minute Noodle Cook, waits patiently in killer heels for the photographic shoot at Kings Park ...
... after the wedding ceremony, a red carpet event, with international guests dressed in exquisite garments that depict cultural diversity...
... the Eternal Flame site seems perfect: great lighting over a backdrop of misty Perth, with brilliant red flowers to continue the red carpet treatment....
... however, the bridal party decides on a different location and takes off, stranding the photographer in the beautiful red flower carpet!
Sunday, December 06, 2009
The Wedding
Black and white united in matrimony...
...signed and sealed, on the day that John handed over his baby boy to a lovely lady. Some tissues needed here for the tears....
Friday, October 16, 2009
Rock Lobster
Australian rock lobster do not have claws unlike the freshwater cousins. To prepare live rock lobster, put the lobster to sleep in the freezer. Plunge into boiling water and blanch for 5 minutes. Cut in half lengthwise. Clean. Brush the meat with olive oil dressing made with saute shallots and freshly chopped parsley. Grill for 10 minutes. Serve with melted butter and fresh lemon juice. Beautifully simple.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Bush Tucker Macaroons
Piquant lemon myrtle imparts an intense lemon aroma to this macaroon made with LSA, a mixture of linseed, sunflower seeds and almond meal.
The beautiful, mild flavour of quandong, Australian native peach, pairs well with the aroma of oriental almond (apricot kernel) and peach scented osmanthus flowers.
Together, these ingredients create this exquisite quandong macaroon. The amaretto-like aroma from apricot kernel and peach flavours work wonderfully together. There is a subtle hint of sourness from quandong to balance the sweetness of the meringue. The lovely colour comes from quandong and red fermented rice (ang kak). This macaroon is truly for the connoisseur.
Wattleseeds give these macaroons their hazelnut-coffee-chocolate flavour. The perfect pairing for wattleseed is vanilla cream, chocolate, and fruit like pears, peaches or berries.
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
Salted Black Sesame Macaroon
Post in progress.....
Black Sesame Macaroon
55 g black sesame seeds, milled*
75 g icing
40 egg white (from 1 x 67 g egg)
15 g sugar
1/4 t salt
1/2 teaspoon water, optional
To make these macaroons, check out instructions listed by David Lebovitz or use the method found at this restaurant. In a nutshell, process sesame seeds with icing and fold into a meringue made with the remaining sugar. The meringue can be made using French (slow sugar addition), Swiss (bain marie) or Italian (sugar syrup) methods.
This macaroon is designed to be eaten without filling. Suitable fillings include vanilla cream, caramel/butterscotch, palm sugar/coconut, chocolate and jasmine rice ganache.
*To mill the black sesame seeds, freeze beforehand. Mill in a spice grinder using short bursts. Freeze again should oil forms during milling. Finish milling with icing and return to the freezer. Just before making the macaroons, remove from the freezer and process to aerate and remove clumps. The milled black sesame and icing sugar mixture resembles a fine grey powder, not an oily paste.
For a dramatic look, sprinkle with black sesame seeds before cooking.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Macaroon
Nothing beats the mystique of the delicate almond flavoured macaroon whose history spans some 4 centuries, from monastic origins to haute Parisian tea parties, and war time interludes. The romance of these meringue cookies that marries a crisp crust and a soft chewy interior goes as far back as 1533 (The Food Chronology by James Trager). Read the history of Italian and French connections.
Traditional macaroons are like the Italian amaretti without the bitter-sweet amaretto almond liqueur. These macaroons are baked on edible rice paper. The rice paper is trimmed around the cookie after cooking.
Rice paper is used before the invention of silicone baking parchment. Some of the older folks probably remember the recycled brown paper shopping bags which require steaming over a hot wet tea towel to remove the cookies.
Coconut kisses are many a grandma's x-rated version of the macaroon.
The French spelling is macaron. Pedantic French patissiers refine the cookies, giving them ruffled petticoats or skirts, and smooth shiny, dome sugar crusts, by air drying while resting the uncooked cookies. Haute restaurants serve these intimate French rendition, sandwiched with ganache, buttercream or jam in many combinations of colours and flavours.
Part of the fun making macaroons is to find the perfect matching pair to join together. Grandma's generation bakes slap dash "kisses" without fuss. It takes time to master the intricacies of the macaroon, to create that perfect union in the French style.
Ingredients
60 g icing sugar (3 tablespoons)
40 g almond meal (1/3 c or 1/4 c + 1 tablespoon ground rice/cornstarch/cocoa)
40 g egg white (from 1 x 67 g egg)
30 g castor sugar (1.5 tablespoons)
1 teaspoon water or reserved egg white, optional
2 drops almond essence, optional
Method
Notes
One large egg white (40 g) makes about 72 cookies or 36 sandwiched macaroons with a diameter around 2 cm. For 3 cm diameter, the number of cookies is around 40, or 20 sandwiched pairs.
Instead of almond, use other nuts, seeds, crushed biscuits or coconut. Toast the seeds in a cast iron pan or roast the nuts in an oven at 200 degrees Celsius for 5 minutes. Freeze before milling to prevent clumping and/or oily butter from forming.
For icing sugar, mill granulated sugar to powder in a spice mill. For castor sugar mill granulated sugar in short bursts until the required texture.
Age the egg white at room temperature for at least 1/2 hour before, or overnight for a better consistency of batter.
For browning, cook at 160 degrees Celsius.
Cracks often develop for shorter resting time. Traditional macaroons are not rested. For the characteristic skirts (also called feet) on the French versions, rest for 2-5 hours for the sugar crust to form. Some patissiers dust the raw cookies with icing. Depending on humidity, resting times can be longer or shorter.
To flatten and even out the piped cookies, slap the silicon baking parchment on the kitchen bench before transferring to a baking tray.
To prevent the bottom from browning and reduce cracks, put 3 sheets of printing paper under the silicon baking parchment.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Malaysia: How to Weave Ketupat Basket for Satay Rice
A lovely palm leaf basket for cooking and serving satay rice. To make your own, follow the pictures below. Click to enlarge the thumbnails. Expert video instructions can be found here. 
Twirl 1-metre strips of palm leaves around the left and right hands to give 3 loops on each hand. The head of the palm leaf refers to the stem end, while the tail refers to the tapering leaf end.
Weave right hand loops (green) over left hand loops (yellow) using the following pictures as a guide.
For the first row (bottom of basket), pass right hand loop INTO the left hand loop, OUT over the top of centre loop on left hand, and INTO the last loop on the left hand.
For the second row (middle of basket), pass the middle right hand loop OUT over the top of the left hand loop, INTO the centre loop on the left hand and OUT over the top of the last loop on the left hand.
For the third row (top of basket), pass right hand loop INTO the left hand loop, OUT over the top of centre loop on left hand, and INTO the last loop on the left hand. That is, same as for the first row.
After weaving the right hand loops across the left hand loops, tighten and adjust the basket.
Turn over the basket from top to bottom so that the tails are on the top right. Variation for ketupat bawang, the onion-shaped version, is included at the end. Continue here to make the diamond-shaped ketupat basket.
Weave the horizontal tail (yellow) across the top and down the left side of the basket.
Weave the head (green), on the top left, across the top of the basket.
Flip over and rotate around so that the tail (green), which started on the left hand, is horizontal and to the top right.
Weave the tail (green) across the top and down the left side of the basket to meet up with the other tail (yellow), at the bottom left.
Weave the head (yellow), on the top left, across the top of the basket so that the two heads meet at the top right.
Tighten the heads and tails to complete the basket. To fill with rice, open a mouth at the corner where the heads meet. After filling to 3/4 full, pull the tails to close the mouth. Tie the heads or weave into the basket to seal. Tie the tails to secure.
For ketupat bawang, the onion-shaped version, vary the steps after weaving loops from right hand across to left hand and turning the basket over with the tails to the top right.
Instead of weaving the horizontal tail (yellow), weave the vertical tail (green) across the top and down the left side.
Flip and rotate the basket around so that the remaining tail (yellow) is vertical and to the top right. Weave the tail (yellow) across the top and down the left side to meet up with the other tail (green).
Rotate the basket so that the heads are vertical and the tails hang down. Weave each head across the top to meet in the middle. When completed the heads form the base of the onion. Tighten and adjust.
There you have it, ketupat baskets to impress diners. It takes 3 hours, depending on size, to cook ketupat rice in boiling water.
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