kopi – Page 21

Lemon Macarons

November 30, 2012 Posted in Baking, Confectionery, Cooking, Desserts, Recipes1 Comment

I love lemons and when I make something new, if there is a way to add lemons to it I will. I made Lemon Macarons with Lemon Curd and they turned out quite well if I don’t say so myself. I remember making macarons again and again but never could get those damned feet until I switched to the Italian Meringue method. This was my only success with French Meringue. Check out the recipe from Tartelette Blog with the Lemon Curd recipe from Taste.com.au.

Lemon Macarons (Tartelette Blog) with Lemon Curd

French Meringue Macarons

Ingredients

Makes 50 to 60 shells, for 25 to 30 filled macarons.
2¾ cups (8.8 ounces/250 grams) almond flour
2¾ cups (12.4 ounces/350 grams)
powdered sugar
1 cup egg whites (from 7 or 8 eggs),
at room temperature
Pinch of salt
2 teaspoons powdered egg whites, if weather is humid
¾ cup (5.3 ounces/150 grams) superfine granulated sugar
5 to 7 drops gel paste food coloring (optional) (I used 2 teaspoons lemon zest instead)

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 300°F (325°F for a non-convection oven) 150°C, and line your baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. Blend the almond flour with the powdered sugar in your food processor to make a fine powder (or sift together, discarding any large crumbs and adding a bit more almond flour and powdered sugar as needed to compensate). Then sift the mixture through a strainer until it is as fine as you can get it. This keeps crumbs from forming on the macaron tops as they bake.

3. With the wire whip attachment on the electric mixer, beat the egg whites with the salt and the powdered egg whites (if you are using them), starting slowly and then increasing speed as the whites start to rise. Add the granulated sugar and the food coloring. Beat until the egg whites form stiff peaks and your meringue is firm and shiny.

4. Pour the beaten egg whites onto your almond flour mixture and gently fold them in, using a rubber spatula. Move your spatula from the bottom of the bowl to the edges with one hand, using your other hand to rotate the bowl. Now slap the sides of the bowl until the batter falls in a wide ribbon when you raise your spatula. When you can’t see any crumbs of almond flour and the mixture is shiny and flowing, you are ready to start piping.
The French have a special word—macaronner—to describe the physical action of mixing all the ingredients for macarons. This has to be done by hand. You cannot do it with your mixer—you must be able to feel the consistency of the macaron batter.

5. Fit your pastry bag with a number 8 tip and fill with batter. Start by squeezing out a small amount of mix onto a parchment-lined baking sheet to form a 2½-inch circle. Be sure to leave 1 inch of space between macarons so they will not touch each other while they bake.
If the peak that forms on the top of the macaron does not disappear after piping, it means the batter could have been beaten a little more. Tap the baking sheet on the tabletop, making sure to hold the parchment paper in place with your thumbs.
Let the piped macarons rest for 15 minutes.

6. Bake for 14 minutes at 300°F/ 150°C. After the first 5 minutes, open the oven door briefly to let the steam out.
Let the macarons cool completely on a rack before taking them off the parchment paper. Press the bottom of a cooled baked macaron shell with your finger; it should be soft. If the bottom of the shell is hard, reduce the baking time for the rest of your macarons from 14 minutes to 13 minutes.
Using a pastry bag requires some practice. It may seem awkward at first, but you’ll soon get the hang of it.

Prepare the bag (if it hasn’t been used before) by cutting about 2 inches off the narrow end—just enough so that when you insert a number 8 decorating tip, about a third of the tip extends outside the bag. Push the tip firmly in place and spoon in your filling, leaving enough room at the top to twist the bag shut. It is best to fill the bag with half of the batter at a time, that way it is not too heavy. To make it easier to fill your pastry bag, place it upright in an empty jar or other straight-sided container. This will help steady the bag while you fill it with batter.
Squeezing the bag slowly, pipe each macaron shell out in a single dollop. Lift the bag quickly to finish.

Lemon Curd (Taste.com.au)
Ingredients
2 eggs, plus 2 egg yolks
3/4 cup (165g) caster sugar (Half sugar to 80g)
1/3 cup (80g) chilled unsalted butter
Zest and juice of 2 lemons

Method
1. Whisk whole eggs, yolks and sugar in a saucepan until smooth, then place pan over a low heat.
2. Add the butter, juice and zest and whisk continuously until thickened. Strain through a sieve into a sterilised jar. Lemon curd keeps, covered, in the fridge for 2 weeks.

Impressions

This was the first time I made macarons and they came out with feet! I don’t know what happened with the proportions for the shell because I recall reducing the icing sugar to half but it ended up extremely sweet anyway! Maybe I didn’t reduce the sugar at all haha. I loved the lemon curd, it was perfectly sweet and sour with that lemon aftertaste tang. Lovely.

Pho Bo Ga Mekong Vietnam

November 23, 2012 Posted in Food Reviews, Melbourne, Restaurant Reviews, VietnameseLeave a comment

Mekong is a Vietnamese restaurant located on Swanston Street, Melbourne and I’ve walked by it countless of times but never really have the urge to venture in. For one, the place looks like it hasn’t been renovated or cleaned in at least 10 years and many years back they voluntarily closed for pest control. My relatives came down for a visit and they like this kind of food so we thought there shouldn’t be any harm in dining there and it seems quite popular so it must be good?

My impressions of the place were already at an all time low, and getting seated you can see that cleanliness is not their priority. Tables and floors all have food scraps around. The supposedly clean tea cups still have food remnants on them. I don’t think I’m an utter clean freak or anything, but I do like to dine at places that at least feel clean.

Well I guess people come here for food so let’s talk about that. To go to a restaurant with the word Pho in it and not try their Pho seems blasphemous. So I opted for the Small Pho with Chicken, and I think it was reasonable. The soup wasn’t fantastic by any means, that feat goes to I Love Pho on Victoria St, Richmond and Pho Hung Vuong, Springvale but respectable. It lacks that same punch you get from the others, probably MSG but flavour is lacking.

Everything else is pretty much standard, it’s a nice cheapish meal but my OCD with cleanliness probably got in the way with actually enjoying the meal.

Pho Bo Ga Mekong Vietnam
241 Swanston St
Melbourne VIC 3000

Lasagne (Taste.com.au)

November 16, 2012 Posted in Cooking, Food, Italian, RecipesLeave a comment

Lasagne, Italian but as common as a hot dog or meat pie in Australia. I have a strong dislike for those frozen Lasagne packets, or those in the foil, they taste so artificial, lots of cheese and strange mince meat. Ever since I tried making lasagne for myself, I can never go back to the store-bought versions. The Taste.com.au recipe works a treat, isn’t too complex but still requires a few different procedures but well worth it.

“Our Favourite Lasagne Recipe” (Taste.com.au)

Preparation Time
20 minutes

Cooking Time
80 minutes

Ingredients (serves 8)

Mince Mixture
2 tsp olive oil
1 brown onion, halved, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
750g beef mince
2 x 400g cans Italian diced tomatoes
125ml (1/2 cup) dry red wine
55g (1/4 cup) tomato paste
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
Bechamel (Cheese) sauce
1L (4 cups) milk
1 brown onion, halved, coarsely chopped
8 fresh parsley stalks
8 whole black peppercorns
4 whole cloves
2 bay leaves
60g butter (Cooking Margarine can be used instead)
50g (1/3 cup) plain flour
70g (1 cup) finely grated parmesan
Pinch ground nutmeg
Salt & ground white pepper
Optional: Dried chilli flakes

Olive oil, extra, to grease
4 fresh lasagne sheets (Or cannelloni sheets but they are smaller and harder to use)
55g (1/2 cup) coarsely grated mozzarella
Mixed salad leaves, to serve

Method

Mince Mixture

1. Heat the oil in a large frying pan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until onion softens. Add the mince and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon to break up any lumps, for 5 minutes or until mince changes colour.

2. Add the tomato, wine and tomato paste, and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low. Simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, for 30 minutes or until sauce thickens slightly. Remove from heat. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Cheese Sauce

3. Meanwhile, to make the cheese sauce, combine the milk, onion, parsley stalks, peppercorns, cloves and bay leaves in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Remove from heat and set aside for 15 minutes to infuse.

4. Strain the milk mixture through a fine sieve into a large jug. Discard solids.

5. Melt the butter in a large saucepan over medium-high heat until foaming. Add the flour and cook, stirring, for 1-2 minutes or until mixture bubbles and begins to come away from the side of the pan. Remove from heat.

6. Gradually pour in half the milk, whisking constantly with a balloon whisk, until mixture is smooth. Gradually add the remaining milk, whisking until smooth and combined.

7. Place saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to the boil, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, for 5 minutes or until sauce thickens and coats the back of the spoon. Remove from heat. Add the parmesan and stir until cheese melts. Taste and season with nutmeg, salt and white pepper.

Layering

8. Preheat oven to 180°C. Brush a rectangular 3L (12 cup) capacity ovenproof dish with oil to lightly grease. Spread one-quarter of the bechamel sauce over the base of the prepared dish. Arrange 1 lasagne sheet over the sauce. Top with one-third of the mince mixture and one-third of the remaining bechamel (Cheese sauce) sauce. Continue layering with the remaining lasagne sheets, mince mixture and bechamel, finishing with a layer of bechamel. Sprinkle with mozzarella. Place on a baking tray. Bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes or until cheese melts, is golden brown, and the edges are bubbling. Remove from oven and set aside for 10 minutes to set.

9. Cut the lasagne into 8 portions and serve with mixed salad leaves.

Impressions

Making lasagne is like making a tomato based pasta sauce halfway as the mince mixture is not as wet but the flavours of it and procedure is basically the same and yes I do add chilli flakes in there too.

The cheese sauce needs a bit more watching as to avoid the milk mixture from frothing over the saucepan so be careful. The other focus point is when pouring the flour into the butter mixture, it can stick to the bottom of the saucepan/pot that you are using.

I love the bechamel sauce that it makes, it’s so flavourful unlike those take-away sauces. I know it’s an unfair comparison but that’s what most people are used to eating.

We actually used cannelloni sheets because we had some left over but they work just as well as lasagne sheets, but I think they are just a tad smaller so the sauce kinda seeps through when layering. Just layer twice and cover the gaps and it should be fine. I really do enjoy making lasagne and this recipe in particular, and the layering part is fun for kids too!

Meshiya

November 9, 2012 Posted in Food, Food Reviews, Japanese, Melbourne, Restaurant Reviews1 Comment

Meshiya is a Japanese restaurant located on Lonsdale St, just outside the QV food courts entrance and Officeworks. They serve a selection of Bento boxes, Sushi, Rice and Noodle (Fried or Soup based) dishes along with their own selection of Japanese Rice Wine too. Meshiya is very hit-and-miss, unfortunately. The first few times I have eaten here, it was pretty good but on my last visit eating the same kind of food just wasn’t the same quality I came to expect. Apparently, there are a couple of chef/owners so whether or not you like or dislike the food would probably come down to which chef you get. I think the first couple times it was the Japanese chef but on my latest visit it was a South-East Asian chef instead where I couldn’t believe I was eating from the same place!

The image above was my order for White Fish Teriyaki on Rice (Sakana Teriyaki Don). I found the fish to be wonderful in taste, and still very soft and cooked perfectly. The fresh fish flavour comes through well, and the slightly milder teriyaki sauce goes well with the lightly stir vegetables underneath the fish. The amount of fish they serve you seems generous so my impressions of this dish and Meshiya were quite high.

On my latest visit I had the Chicken and Fish Teriyaki and Tempura Bento and this is where all the nice impressions and expectations vanished. Firstly, the chicken was terribly overcooked. I was extremely disappointed, as they cooked the fish beautifully before and I had this sort of impression they took care in how they cooked their food. The sauce used here was different to the teriyaki sauce used in the Fish Teriyaki rice dish, it was much sweeter here, and overall more flavourful. Your usual teriyaki sauce. The fish teriyaki was very bland and also overcooked. Not delicate like before. To top it off, the rice was gluggy and also overcooked so it was all in lumps. This was probably the worst Japanese meal I have ever eaten, even some of the Chinese owned Japanese food court stores serve tastier food than this.

The only reasonable part of this dish was the tempura with their wafer thin batter. One prawn, one sweet potato and one eggplant but all had minimal oil and were crisp and crunchy.

Their ramen from their Happy Hour Lunch Menu was quite pleasant. It was still a bit bland and needed some extra chilli seasoning, but for the reduced price it was a sufficient meal. Nothing special to see here.

Impressions

As mentioned before, I have a hard time judging this place based on my very conflicting reviews. I would like to think that my last visit was just an off day but then again, I don’t want to give people too high of an expectation of this place thinking that it might actually be okay when my last meal was pretty poor.

The horrible bento box has left such a bad and long lasting impression that I can’t really recommend Meshiya to anyone. I’m not even sure if I would venture there again to see if it is a one off and I’m usually quite lenient when food is just so-so and would give it another go.

All I can do is caution you, and if you are served a tasty and satisfying meal, then that’s all I could ever want.

Meshiya
200 Lonsdale St
Melbourne VIC 3000

Ganache Chocolate – Hazelnut Fan Slice

November 2, 2012 Posted in Confectionery, Desserts, Food Reviews, Melbourne, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a comment

I’ve already reviewed Gânache Chocolate Macarons, now it’s time to try their cakes. Well… cake (no s) for the time being. One step at a time!

I bought the above pictured cake at their Collins Street, Melbourne CBD store. I heard from a few friends that their Passionfruit cake is pretty darn good but I was instantly drawn to their Hazelnut Fan Slice aka Hazelnut Mousse Cake. Being a fan of both Hazelnut for its tasty nutty flavour, and mousse as it’s so soft, light and delicate it seemed like a fantastic combination with chocolate.

Their mousse cake has a couple of layers as your can see. The bottom layer is this biscuit base that has elements of nuts mixed through it, I found it to be absolutely delicious. They call it a sponge but I usually identify sponge as light and fluffy, but this seemed more like biscuit to me.

The next layer is a hazelnut praline, which is basically soft hazelnut chocolate that’s similar in texture to Nutella. Hazelnut overload yet? I think not!

Apparently there is a layer of Paillete feuilletine, which I have had no experience in tasting nor could I recall eating it but it was there…I think.

The next layer, more like huge chunk, is the chocolate mousse which was beautifully light and melts in your mouth instantly. It’s what I’d call a perfect mousse.

The top layer is a chocolate glaze that is so soft and tasty, it really just blends well altogether. As edible decoration on top, we have a tempered chocolate curl that has that fantastic snap required. To finish the whole dessert off, there is hazelnut pieces to complete the Hazelnut cake.

Impressions

I’ve got to hand it to them, they really know how to create a cake for Hazelnut and Chocolate lovers. It’s almost as if this dessert was made just for me!

The mousse along with that strong hazelnut flavour really creates this pleasant not too overly sweet treat. Of course it’s sweet, but it’s not sickly sweet. Now I’m really tempted to try their Mango/Passionfruit cake for a less rich option.

Gânache Chocolate

245 Collins St
Melbourne VIC 3000

Homemade Pork and Cabbage Dumplings (Poh’s Kitchen)

October 26, 2012 Posted in Chinese, Cooking, Recipes1 Comment

Making your own dumplings is pretty simple. I’m the type of person that likes to make things from scratch to see if it tastes any better than those manufactured/processed ingredients. At least once anyway.

After watching Poh from Poh’s Kitchen/Masterchef Australia Season 1 make dumplings I thought what they hey, let’s do it. We made the dumpling skins, filling and sauce and it wasn’t too much of a challenge!

Pork and Cabbage Dumplings (Poh’s Kitchen)

Ingredients
Dumpling Skins
½ cup plain flour
½ cup wheat starch (wheat cornflour)
Boiled hot water

Dumpling Filling
2 ½ cups Chinese cabbage, finely shredded
½ tsp salt
250g pork mince
3 tsp ginger, chopped finely
1/3 cup spring onions or Chinese chives, chopped
1/8 tsp ground white pepper
¼ cup chicken stock or water
4 ½ tsp light soy sauce
3 tsp Shaoxing wine
1 tbs vegetable oil
4 ½ tsp sesame oil
½ cup shitake dried mushrooms, soaked and chopped

Spicy Dipping Sauce
¼ cup light soy sauce (1/8 tsp of soy)
6 tsp Chinkiang vinegar (1/4 cup of vinegar)
1/8 cup sugar
2-3 tsp chilli oil
3 tsp ginger, finely shredded
2 tsp garlic, chopped finely
A sprinkling of fresh diced chilli (Optional)

Method
Dumpling Skins
1. Place flour and wheat starch in a bowl.
2. Pour a small amount of hot water into the flour and starch mix and stir with a fork until you can tip it onto the bench top and knead into a firmish, smooth ball. Poh’s recipe doesn’t specify how much water to add, so add maybe a tablespoon at a time because I accidentally added too much and had to re-add the flour and wheat starch to balance everything out.
If it feels a little sticky, add a small amount of equal plain flour and wheat starch and mix to the dough.
3. Wrap in cling wrap and rest for an hour.
Note: If you don’t have wheat starch the traditional way is to use one cup plain flour but follow the same method.

Dumpling Filling
1. Mix salt with cabbage and allow to sit for 15 minutes so salt can draw liquid out of the cabbage. Wash cabbage briefly before squeezing to remove as much liquid as possible. You should end up with a heaped half cup of cabbage.
2. Mix together with remaining ingredients until everything is incorporated.
3. To make dumplings, sprinkle dough with some plain flour and roll into cylinders with a diameter the size of a 20 cent coin.
3. Cut into one centimetre thick disks and flatten with the palm of your hand. Tuck the disks under an overturned plastic container so they stay moist. With a dumpling rolling pin or 20 centimetre piece of dowel, roll ONLY inwards from the outer edge of each circle, so you maintain a regular circle. If you roll outwards, you will find the circle will become misshapen very quickly.
4. Once the dough has been rolled out to about one millimetre thick, spoon a teaspoonful of the filling onto the centre of the wrapper. When crimping, only pleat one side of the dumpling leaving the other edge straight. This will give the dumpling an attractive crescent shape and let it sit nicely.
5. There are two ways you can cook these. Firstly, you can just boil them in plenty of salt water. When they float, allow them to cook for a further ten seconds, then scoop out with a slotted spoon into a colander.
6. If you want a crispy bottomed finish, position the dumplings neatly in a frypan filled with about one centimetre of water and a dash of peanut oil.
7. Cover and allow the dumplings to steam for about eight to ten minutes. When all the water evaporates, the little bit of oil that remains will help crisp up the bottom. Serve immediately with spice dipping sauce.

Spicy Dipping Sauce
1. Mix all the ingredients together and serve with dumplings. In brackets I’ve mentioned using minimal soy and more vinegar, I found it was much more reminiscent of the sauces you’d find in any dumpling house. Poh’s recipe uses way too much soy sauce that you can’t even taste the slightly sour/salty Chinkiang vinegar.

We also added diced fresh chilli that really gave it a kick.

Impressions

The actual process of making the skins was extremely straight forward, and fun to make so that’s a definite plus!

The skin when cooked didn’t have the same bite to it as dumplings at a restaurant. Usually there is this slight chewiness but nonetheless I found the dumplings to be pretty darn good.

With the changes I made to the sauce, it just made a good dish to a great dish. Loved the Chinkiang vinegar with chilli.

The filling was pretty much what you’d get elsewhere so I’d say that’s a good achievement. What I liked about these dumplings is that it wasn’t drenched in oil. We used minimal oil or only as much as required so it didn’t stick to the pan and they came out well so I was very happy with the end result.

I might try a different skin recipe but I’d keep the filling and sauce (with changes) recipe for the next time I make it.

Straits of Malacca

October 19, 2012 Posted in Food Reviews, Glen Waverley, Malaysian, Restaurant ReviewsLeave a comment

Straits of Malacca is a Malaysian eatery on the popular Kingsway, Glen Waverley. I know what you’re thinking. Another Malaysian restaurant? What’s slightly different about Straits of Malacca, if you couldn’t guess from its name is that it offers a variation of Malaysian cuisine from Malacca.

There are your standard affair Malaysian dishes like Char Kway Teoh or Curry Laksa but Straits of Malacca offers their own take on these dishes, but some dishes are what you may see in any other Malaysian restaurant.

I ordered the Nasi Pattaya with Thai Sauce Fish Fillet and Spring Rolls. If you’ve eaten Petaling Street’s Nasi Pattaya you’ll notice the similarities. Nasi Pattaya is Seafood Fried Rice wrapped in a paper thin egg crepe and topped off with sweet chilli sauce.

Compared with Petaling Street, I found it lacking in flavour. It just didn’t have enough seasoning in the Fried Rice, but I’d still say it’s a pleasant Nasi Pattaya. The real winner of this dish is the Thai Sauce Fish Fillet. If you have tasted Assam Laksa, you’ll instantly be reminded of this taste. It has that superb sweet, sour, salty and spicy combination found in Assam Laksa. The sauce works so well with the salad and fish fillet. My only negative is that the fish is deep fried. I can see why they deep fry dish as it will most likely last longer but I just dislike deep fried fish.

The little spring rolls that accompany this dish are quite unique as it isn’t your commonly found spring roll. They have this very light crispy outside and the usual ingredients inside. I’ve actually never had spring rolls like this before, and it was mostly good!

Their Kuala Lumpur style Hokkien Mee reminds me of how delicious my mother’s Hokkien Mee is. I found that the sauce was strong but not too overpowering. I’m not a big fan of fishcake as I find it very artificial, but it is a standard in Hokkien Mee’s I’ve tasted so I can’t really knock it. As you can see, the dish is quite shiny, this is the oil that makes the noodles so glossy.

Again, another pleasant dish from Straits of Malacca.

On their Menu they have a selection of “Fish Banquet’ dishes, I believe this was the Malacca Style Curry Fish with Rice. Again, Straits of Malacca opts for deep fried fish which probably most will like but I find it takes away from the natural fish taste.

The curry was interesting as it was a bit sweet and not spicy but I found it tasty nonetheless.

You can’t go to Malaysian restaurant and not try their Ice Cendol. I always look out to see if the Cendol (the green jelly) is fresh or not. More often than not, the Cendol is hard, indicating the jelly has been left in the fridge for a couple of days or so.

I liked the flavour from the Ice Cendol, the brown sugar syrup and coconut milk were in a perfect mix. Not too sweet, but could have dialled down the sugar just a tad. My only con is that it was served in a glass! I like my Ice Cendol in a bowl so I can share it around.

Impressions

I know many have already decided whether or not they like Straits of Malacca but I really do like that it offers quite a different mix of dishes that you probably are unable to find elsewhere.

Some of their dishes are your standard affair but some dishes like their Nasi Pattaya are winners in my book. Straits of Malacca continues to be popular with locals as it constantly fills up during lunch time, and I do have to mention, they do have a number of tables. Basically they bought over the restaurant next to it months ago so its definitely one of the bigger restaurants on Kingsway.

I’ve seen they have also have stores in Prahran, Hawthorn and in the CBD but I’m unaware if the food quality is consistent among all locations.

Check them out if you’re interested!

Straits of Malacca (Official Menu) (Urbanspoon Menu)

78 Kingsway
Glen Waverley VIC 3150

T: 03 9561 3880

Almond and Vanilla Cupcakes

October 12, 2012 Posted in Baking, Cooking, Recipes, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Using The Crabapple Bakery Cupcake Cookbook by Jennifer Graham again (Buy it here/official website), we decided to do a variation of their Sweetheart cakes minus the icing and shape…. and probably the whole intention of making it actually!

Without any of the decorations and grandeur, these cupcakes are basically Vanilla/Almond flavoured cupcakes. Don’t they look all rustic and homely?! Check out the recipe below with how to make the decorations/icing as well for those that want to try it.

Almond and Vanilla Cakes

Makes 18 min-heart cakes/24 cupcakes

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
3 cups almond meal
250g softened unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups castor sugar (Used 3/4 cups)
6 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup natural yoghurt

Method
1. Preheat oven to 160C. Lightly grease three six-hole mini heart cake trays (Or just use cupcake pans with paper cups)

2. Sift together flour and baking powder. Add almond meal and combine

3. In a separate bowl, cream the butter for 1-2minutes. Add half the sugar and beat for 2 minutes. Add the rest of the sugar and beat for a further 2 minutes or until light and fluffy. Add the eggs two at a time, beating for 2 minutes after each addition or until mixture is light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and beat until combined.

4. Add a third of the flour to the creamed mixture and beat on low speed until combined. Add half of the yoghurt and beat until combined. Repeat this process. Add the remaining third of the flour and beat until thoroughly combined; do not over-beat as this will toughen the mixture.

5. Spoon mixture into the cake trays, filling each heart just over half full. Bake for 15 minutes or until a fine skewer inserted comes out clean. Leave to cool for about 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool for a further 30 minutes before icing.

To make regular cupcakes
5. If using regular cupcake papers instead of mini-heart trays, this recipe makes 24 cupcakes. Bake at 160 C for 20-25 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Decoration
2 quantities Quick Royal Icing
Rose Essence
Food Colouring: Rose Pink
1 quantity Sugared Rose Petals

1. Prepare the icing to pouring consistency. Add 2-3 drops rose essence and 3-4 drops pink food colouring during preparation.

2. Place the sweetheart cakes onto a fine wire rack with feet. Pour over most of the icing, so that each cake is completely covered. Add a few more drops of the pink food colouring to the remaining icing to create a mid-pink colour.

3. Using a teaspoon, drizzle the icing over so that it runs down the sides a little. Use an offset palette knife to life the cakes onto a serving plate, then sprinkle with the sugared rose petals.

Variation
If you’re making these cakes for a man, ice the cakes with Dark Chocolate Ganache and top with chocolate truffles.

Quick Royal Icing
Ingredients
Water
500 g bag premix royal icing

Makes 3/4 cup icing – enough for 12 cupcakes

1. Simply add a little water at a time to the sifted icing sugar, until you have the required consistency. If you want to use a flavouring essence, add a couple drops to the icing sugar before you add the water. If you want to use colouring, add it before you reach the desired consistency (if you add it at the end it will thin the icing). Use fruit juice or coconut milk instead of water for a flavoured icing.

Sugared Rose Petals
2 Fresh Pink Rose Heads (Not chemically sprayed)
1 egg white, lightly beaten
Castor Sugar

1. Rinse rose heads under cold water. Gently pat dry. Dip each rose petal into the egg white until just covered. Dip the wet petals into a bowl of fine castor sugar and shake off any excess. Place them on a wire rack to dry for about 1 hour.

Dark Chocolate Ganache
1 1/2 cups cream
400 g dark cooking chocolate (chopped)

Makes: 3 cups frosting
1. In a heavy based saucepan, bring the cream to the boil. Place the chocolate into a bowl and pour the boiling cream over. Leave for 1 minute to soften. Use a small spatula to carefully stir the ganache, being careful not to incorporate any air, until you achieve a silky frosting.

2. To use: If you want to achieve a smooth surface, dip cupcakes into the frosting immediately. If you want to achieve a fluffy frosting, let the ganache cool to room temperature and then apply to the cupcake with a small spatula. Do not stir the set ganache too much as it will become dull.

Impressions

We didn’t go through all that shebang as I’m not a big fan of icing as I find it usually sickly sweet. Crazy I know. So what you get here is cupcakes dressed down to look like muffins. They have this rough texture mostly because of the almond meal that isn’t a fine powder. The process of making this is quite simple, it’s like baking any other cupcake.

As the cupcake itself it’s quite pleasant, it’s light and has a predominant almond flavour. Which isn’t a bad thing by all means. The texture of the cupcake is more grainy because of the almond meal, the yoghurt helps to make it lighter against the richness of the butter so it doesn’t feel like you’re just having a vanilla butter cake. Overall, I think it makes a nice treat that jumps between muffin and cupcake.

Loi Loi (Take-away)

October 5, 2012 Posted in Chinese, Food Reviews, Malaysian, Restaurant Reviews, Richmond, Thai, Vietnamese1 Comment

Loi Loi has become one of my favourite Chinese-Vietnamese eateries on Victoria Street. They serve a wide variety of rice, fried noodle, noodle soup dishes and main meals for dinner even with a mix of Asian inspired dishes that probably isn’t authentic but still offerings something different.

During lunch time, if you eat in or take away as I did this time, they provide complementary sweet corn soup which is a nice starter or finisher to your meal. Service tends to be pretty snappy too even during peak time, but of course, if the food isn’t good why bother? Luckily, the food in general does make you want to go back again.

I ordered the Thai Fried Noodles, and it uses the bee hoon noodles stir fried in a sweet, spicy and salty flavour, coating the noodles just gently. The flavour is a departure to what I usually eat, but nonetheless it is a satisfying dish. With the fish balls, prawns as your main protein, it complements the noodles well. The fried dried onions as a garnish definitely add both texture and a toasty flavour to the dish. You also get the pleasant surprise of chopped peanuts which again just come together so beautifully. I really can’t fault the dish, Loi Loi’s dishes are generous in size, but maybe just one criticism is that its a bit oily. If it tasted this good as a take-away dish, I can’t imagine how much better it would have been fresh from the wok.

As you would, when you go to a Vietnamese restaurant is to order their Crispy Chicken on Rice. As this was a take-away dish, the chicken wasn’t as crispy, sadly. The chicken was also a tad dry, but with the sweet chilli sauce, it makes a perfect combination. I usually prefer the Crispy Chicken and Tomato Rice but I don’t think Loi Loi has that as an option. This dish doesn’t meet the high standards of some of the Springvale restaurants but I think it’s a decent offering. Probably much better if it was served hot and crispy.

As mentioned before, you get a nice Sweet Corn Soup with your meal if you order for lunch. It doesn’t look as appealing here, but it’s tasty and lives up to its name. You probably can find this in many Chinese Food Court eateries, and it’s pretty much the same everywhere. I don’t think you can make a bad Sweet Corn Soup. All in all, nothing too flashy but it’s lovely of Loi Loi to serve this to customers free of charge.

Impressions

Loi Loi doesn’t stray too far away from its Chinese-Vietnamese roots, but still has a few other South-East Asian dishes for added variety. Food is generally above average, and depending on the dish, can be fantastic. Really, if you’re in Richmond, wanting a good meal, Loi Loi is the place to go.

Loi Loi

364 Victoria St
Richmond VIC 3121

The Black Toro

September 28, 2012 Posted in Food Reviews, Glen Waverley, Restaurant Reviews, Spanish1 Comment

The Black Toro on Kingsway, Glen Waverley opened its doors in July 2012, replacing the Urban Burger before it. Their menu is Hispanic influenced and is one of the few higher priced eateries in the area but it’s fine dining and it has good reason to be, the quality of food served here will speak for itself.

Their interior is mostly dark, with black tables and chairs. Aesthetically, it’s pleasant with a huge Toro artwork on the walls providing a hint of Mexico to Melbourne and adding to that Spanish music playing in the background. It’s a nice touch that creates a different atmosphere.

My two companions and I were a bit overwhelmed with the menu at first, undecided on what to eat. There is a nice selection of starters/entres, mains and desserts, not too many options but enough to ponder on. We wanted to try the Lamb barbacoa as our main but to our slight disappointment we were told it’s unavailable for lunch due to the lamb needing to be slow cooked.

Instead of choosing a couple of dishes, we opted for the $45 Set Menu, helping us decided instead. The waitress mentioned these Set Menu’s are the Chef’s choice, but as we wanted the Sher Wagyu rump as our main, she mentioned that it could be our main if we wanted to.

To start us of we were served Guacamole with tortilla chips, as shown above, and marinated olives (Not pictured). It’s pretty much your standard tortilla corn chips, but the guacamole didn’t appear to have enough avocado flavour to it but was creamy and tasty nonetheless.

Our second dish was the Grilled corn on the cob with chipotle mayonnaise and toasted masa. As suggested by the waiter, we squeezed the cut lime on top . The corn was nice and juicy, and the mayonnaise not too rich but complementing the corn well. The toasted masa, gave it a hint of saltiness to the corn and mayo. The mayonnaise was delicious as it had a nice spiciness kick to it. A wonderful start to our lunch.

We were then served each a piece of Potato and Chorizo croquette with manchengo foam. The croquette itself was nice and crunchy. The fried layer wasn’t too thick and the perfect ratio to the potato and chorizo inside. The foam was quite mild in taste, I couldn’t really describe the taste to be honest. It was slightly plain and a tad salty but it worked well with the crispiness of the croquette and potato and chorizo pieces inside. Overall, it’s very filling but very tasty.

Our next dish was something I’d probably have never ordered but was glad to try. Pickled baby beetroot, goats cheese, quinoa and caperberries, it was an interesting combination of flavours. There was this jelly like diced pieces in this dish that I don’t think is mentioned in the menu, but it’s plentiful so I’m unsure why it’s not included in the dishes name. I found this dish to be overly salty. I’m unsure what it was that made it so salty. I think it might have been the goats cheese but because of the saltiness of the dish it was a bit off putting. I’d say it’s an interesting dish, but I’d probably not order that again.

Pardon me for the awful picture above. We dug into this one too quickly before I remembered to take a snap. Oops. This was the Mezcal cured salmon, avocado puree, smashed coriander meringue. The cured salmon was salty but still had a very nice salmon flavour to it. The avocado puree was smooth and I believe it had a hint of citrus juice that made it slightly sour. The smashed coriander meringue was slightly salty too but had an interesting coriander flavour. Quite something different to what I’ve eaten, to be honest. There was caviar on the dish too that wasn’t mentioned on the menu. Overall, it’s a pleasant, more refreshing dish to the two rich dishes before it.

We had seen many patrons order the Wagyu beef sliders with onion, tomatillo relish & jack cheese before us. Before this we were full already from the croquettes but these little burgers were too appetising. The wagyu beef was so juicy, it was just delicious. Perfect. The cheese and tomato relish complemented the beef well, and really you couldn’t as for a better dish.

At this point, we were wondering when would the food stop! This dish was the last one before the main. We were served, Pulled pork taco, shredded cabbage & sour cream. I loved this dish because of the surprising spiciness to the sauce. The pork was well cooked and really you couldn’t fault it. A winner in my books.

Ah the main, the Sher Wagyu rump, chimichurri, parsley & shallot salad. It’s only one shared between the three of us so I’m uncertain how it may go for less or more people. The wagyu beef here was tender, still a bit tough due to the cut but that’s expected. I don’t know how it’s marinated but the juices from the beef were absolutely delicious and with the chimichurri sauce it was just perfect. With this you are served with a shallot salad (Unfortuntely, not pictured) but it reminds me of a coleslaw but without the rich mayonnaise. The bitterness of the salad worked well with the wagyu. A good match.

We were also served a side of Triple cooked potatoes, paprika salt, garlic aioli, and my golly were these chips good. Boiled, and then deep fried twice, I think slightly different to how Heston Blumenthal does it but works just the same to obtain crispy chips but not overcooked inside. The chips are so crunchy and crispy but inside the potato it was still nice and soft. Delightful. I could certainly do without the garlic aioli and paprika salt as if I didn’t have a couple of salty dishes beforehand, this would have been perfectly fine though. The aioli was creamy but not rich enough like a mayonnaise would be so it went well with the crispy chips.

Although we didn’t get the set menu with desserts, after seeing a couple of these desserts go out we thought let’s having something to finish our meal off. This was called Peanut butter cheesecake, honeycomb, chocolate sorbet, and as you can see the peanut butter cheesecake is slightly deconstructed. The crumbs of biscuit is what you’d normally find at the base of a cheesecake, and we have a quenelle of the peanut butter cheesecake. I have to say the cheesecake was so flavourful, and intense, delicious to boot. As you’d normally find in peanut butter, it’s a tad salty. My palette was overly salted but again, on its own, adequately salted. The chocolate biscuit crumb gave it that added texture to the dessert and was just as if you were eating a cheesecake.

The honeycomb was crunchy and sweet, but in the mouth it gets stuck to the teeth easily. I actually liked the chocolate sorbet, it had a beautiful chocolate flavour to it unlike most chocolate sorbet or ice-creams around where the chocolate is almost artificial in taste. The sorbet was so light, and melt in your mouth, I couldn’t have asked for something better. A fantastic dessert overall.

Impressions

The Black Toro goes high above what you’d find in Glen Waverley in terms of service and food quality but of course for a price. Their menu encapsulates the Hispanic flavours but makes it their own. My one main complaint would be the over use of salt in their dishes. If you have an aversion for salt, their dishes may not be too your liking. Although if you only order a few dishes, the salt probably won’t be as noticeable.

The Black Toro’s dishes overall are delicious, there are a few I’d probably not order again but many of them I definitely would. I would like to point out even the water had lemon flavour to it which was a nice touch.

The service here was excellent, the two staff members made our dining experience much more pleasant and fuss free. I tip my digital hat to them.

At first I was a bit hesitant to try The Black Toro, it’s not normally in our price range. For a special occasion though, it’s perfectly reasonable. Full to the brim, a bit less in the pocket but immensely satisfying.

The Black Toro (Menu)

79 Kingsway

Glen Waverley VIC 3150

Lunch

Thursday – Sunday 12:00pm – 3:00pm

Dinner

Seven Days 6:00pm to late

T: 03 9561 9696

ohdenny

Author: kopi

Lemon Macarons

Pho Bo Ga Mekong Vietnam

Lasagne (Taste.com.au)

Meshiya

Ganache Chocolate – Hazelnut Fan Slice

Homemade Pork and Cabbage Dumplings (Poh’s Kitchen)

Straits of Malacca

Almond and Vanilla Cupcakes

Loi Loi (Take-away)

The Black Toro