Mushrooms on Toast

Lately Michael & I have been going for nice long walks each weekend & going out for brekky with Miss Chloe which is something we all seem to like & behave for. This weekend however we went out for a quick dinner while giving the grandparents a trial run at babysitting. It didn’t go quite to plan with Chloe deciding she would not drink one drop of her expressed milk from grandma so I fear we will be needing lots more practice before we are able to leave her for more than a couple of hours, which we need to do in December for a wedding and various Christmas functions. Anyway the point of this is that as we went out for dinner we skipped our breakfast ritual & instead I cooked up a delicious breakfast at home. Of course I turned straight to Bill Granger for inspiration as I looovvee his breakfast recipes. This one was from Bills food & was no exception, I used some Hope Farm Rye & Caraway Sourdough that I picked up from the inaugural Carlton Gardens Primary Farmers Market which was delicious. The caraway seeds gave the bread a flavour that I have missed for years, my grandparents used to buy a particular rye bread all the time & have it out for sandwiches whenever we would visit & this is exactly what it tasted like. Thanks Haalo for your market listings which I regularly check & discovered this new market in. The mushrooms were simple & tasty, put the whole lot together with some ricotta & a beautiful dish is created once again.

Mushrooms on Toast

40g unsalted butter
1 tablespoon olive oil, plus extra, for brushing
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
500g mixed small mushrooms
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat leaf parsley
1 teaspoon chopped fresh tarragon
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
4 slices sourdough bread
1garlic clove, extra, for rubbing on bread
250g (1 cup) ricotta cheese

Put half the butter with the oil & chopped garlic in a saucepan over medium to high heat. Add the mushrooms, 60ml water & sat & pepper to taste. Cover & cook, stirring occasionally for about 15 minutes or until the mushrooms are cooked & the liquid is syrupy. Stir in the balsamic vinegar, parsley, tarragon and lemon zest. Taste for seasoning & adjust if necessary. Whisk the remaining cold butter through to thicken the mushroom sauce.

Towards the end of the cooking time, brush the bread on both sides with the extra oil. Grill until golden on both sides, then rub both sides with a cur garlic clove & place on serving plates. Top with ricotta & then mushrooms & serve immediately. Serves 4.

Andy Fairfield Granola

Over the long weekend I thought it would be fun to make my own breakfast cereal. The recipe comes from Nigella Lawson’s Feast & is really simple & the taste is amazing, it’s great with milk for brekky or just by the handful as is whenever a snack is required. It makes about 2.5 litres worth so you end up with heaps & I think it was definitely worth the effort. Mine cooked for 40 minutes in a fan forced oven & was probably just slightly overdone though not too much the worse for it. And by the way I’ve never eaten Granola before though I’m pretty sure its just muesli by another name so I don’t know how this compares to the store bought variety.

Andy Fairfield Granola

450g rolled oats
120g sunflower seeds
120g white sesame seeds
175g apple compote or sauce
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
120g brown rice syrup or rice malt syrup or golden syrup
4 tablespoons runny honey
100g light brown sugar
250g whole natural almonds
1 teaspoon Maldon salt
2 tablespoons sunflower oil
300g raisins

Mix Everything except the raisins together very well in a large mixing bowl. Spread the mixture evenly on two large baking trays & bake in a 170c oven, turning over halfway through baking & re-distributing the granola evenly during the baking process. This should take anything from about 40 minutes. Electric tends to be faster than gas.

Once baked, allow to cool & mix together with the raisins & store in an airtight container.

Gingerlee, East Brunsiwck

Sunday morning Michael & I took Chloe for an early morning walk to check out Gingerlee, a new café on Lygon street in East Brunswick. The breakfast menu had a few items on it with quite a Middle Eastern feel, it was quite interesting offering dishes from toasted apricot & walnut bread, poached eggs with slow braised field mushrooms, Persian feta, avocado & lemon to the home made baked bean tagine that Michael had & the Syrian style French toast, orange blossom syrup, honey labne, stewed rhubarb & pistachios that I ordered. Mine was sensational, I could have eaten 2 plates full, the toast on first impressions could have been too sweet but as soon as you team it with the yoghurt it was perfect, as I said, absolutely luscious & nice to have something different to the usual suspects that appear on most breakfast menus. Michael enjoyed his beans though not as much as I did my dish, he said there was a flavour in there (couldn’t name it) that didn’t quite sit right with him, it did look good though especially when they brought it out in the tagine, lid & all before uncovering at the table. All in all another great addition to this strip. Also I would like to note that on the way home I stopped at Sugardough for some bread & noticed they now sell bomboloni too, custard, jam, apricot jam & chocolate flavoured & I’ pleased to say that after tasting the custard filled variety it is even better than Dench’s – in my opinion only of course – I love this bakery.

Gingerlee
Ph: +613 9380 4430
Fax: +613 9380 4436
117 Lygon Street
East Brunswick
Email: rebeccadietrich@gingerlee.com.au
www.gingerlee.com.au

Potato Cakes with Smoked Salmon & Mustard Dressing

Another breakfast from Bill Granger, this one from Bill’s Food. As I absolutely love potato pancakes of any description, even the ones from Macca’s when I have a hangover though of course it has been a long time since one of those was present, ahh those were the days! Anyway I thought that I would try this recipe of Bills even though I thought it sounded like an odd combination, you never know until you try right? The pancakes were good but I hate to admit that I don’t think they worked too well with smoked salmon & most of all not with the mustard dressing but who knows some of you might love these 3 together, all elements were great alone, they just didn’t do it for me as a mix, you decide.

Potato Cakes with Smoked Salmon & Mustard Dressing

3 large potatoes (about 700g)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh chives
60g butter, melted
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
60ml (1/4 cup) olive oil

Mustard Dressing

2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
60ml (1/4 cup) canola oil

To serve
8 slices smoked salmon

Preheat oven to 150c. Grate the peeled potatoes & squeeze out any excess liquid. Put the potato in a bowl & add the chives, butter & a little salt & pepper.

Heat the oil in a large non-stick pan over a medium to high heat. For each potato cake, spoon 1 ½ tablespoons of mixture into the pan & fry until golden on both sides. Drain on paper towels & keep warm in the oven until all the potato cakes are made.

Meanwhile to make the dressing, whisk the mustard, sugar, salt & vinegar together in a bowl until the sugar has dissolved, then whisk in the oil in a thin stream.

Put two potato cakes on each plate, top with salmon & drizzle with dressing

Ricotta Hotcakes with Honeycomb Butter

Over Easter I whipped up another fantabulous breakfast from Bill Granger’s Sydney Food to snack on over the break. More on the pancake theme which I have to say is my favourite breakfast item at the moment & the honeycomb butter is truly special.

Ricotta Hotcakes with Honeycomb Butter

1 1/3 cups ricotta
¾ cup milk
4 eggs, separated
1 cup plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of salt
50g butter

To serve
Banana
Honeycomb butter (below)
Icing sugar for dusting

Place ricotta, milk & egg yolks in a mixing bowl and mix to combine.

Sift the flour, baking powder & salt into a bowl. Add to the ricotta mixture & mix until just combined.

Place egg whites in a dry clean bowl & beat until stiff peaks form. Fold egg whites through batter in two batches, with a large metal spoon.

Lightly grease a large non-stick frying pan with a small portion of the butter and drop two tablespoons of batter per hotcake into the pan. Cook over low to medium heat for 2 minutes, or until hotcakes have golden undersides. Turn hotcakes and cook on the other side until golden & cooked through. Transfer to a plate & quickly assemble with other ingredients.

Slice one banana lengthways onto a plate, stack 3 hotcakes on top with a slice of honeycomb butter. Dust with icing sugar. Serves 6-8.

Note: Batter can be stored for 24 hours in the fridge covered with glad wrap before cooking.

Honeycomb butter

250g unsalted butter, softened
100g sugar honeycomb, crushed with a rolling pin
2 tablespoons honey

Place all ingredients in a food processor & blend until smooth. Shape into a log on plastic wrap, roll, seal & chill in fridge for 2 hours. Store leftovers in the freezer, apparently its great on toast too!

Dench Bakers, North Fitzroy

It was such a gorgeous day yesterday that Michael & I ventured out for a walk along the Merri Creek path & emerged on St Georges road for a quick lunch with Chloe at Dench Bakers in North Fitzroy. This is a great bakery that also operates as a café which we hadn’t yet tried out. I have been inside before to purchase the brioche for my Apple Charlotte & I have tried the amazing bomboloni (sensational sugar coated, custard filled doughnut) as pointed out by a couple of local bloggers, Jamie at The Breakfast Blog & Niki at Esurientes, so I was really looking forward to having lunch here.

The place was rocking & of course there were no free tables though there were a couple of stools set up on the side walk so we sat down, had a coffee & waited our turn. A table was free in a few minutes which was great so we happily moved in. The menu was smallish but diverse with various breakfast options both hot & cold, sandwiches, paninis & a great specials board. We both went for the specials, Michael had the zucchini flower & pumpkin risotto which was great while I couldn’t go past the ricotta hotcakes with baked autumn plums even though it was lunch at 1.30 in the afternoon. My dish was sensational, the hotcakes were delicious & the simply baked plums were juicy & sweet & didn’t make the hotcakes go soggy at all which is always a good thing, and look at how huge the serve was! Anyway I love this place & it comes highly recommended, and as Jamie says, as well as eating your brekky or lunch or whatever you will end up walking out the door with a bag of goodies too, the baked goods on offer look too good not to bring some home for later.

Dench Bakers, Atrisan Sourdoughs
109 Scotchmer Street
North Fitzroy VIC 3068
Ph: 03 9486 3554
denchbakers@optusnet.com.au

El Mirage, East Brunswick

3.5 weeks in and I had my first sit down ‘meal’ out since the birth of baby Chloe. We put her in her sling & she was wonderful sleeping the whole way through her first dining out experience. It was a lovely day out if a bit windy on Saturday so I decided that instead of sitting around on our bums as we usually do with all of our visitors we would go for a walk & attempt to eat out. Michael’s sister Julie was the lucky one who got to try this out with us. We headed over to Lygon street (East Brunswick end of course) & decided to try out El Mirage, a relatively new café in the strip. We grabbed a seat at the bar on the outside side of the terrace where there was a nice corner to park the pram (we brought it along in case we had problems with the sling), we thought outside would be best in case we ended up with a screaming baby on our hands 7 needed to make a hasty escape. The terrace is nice & spacious with just a few tables & the bar to sit at & the inside looked pretty roomy too which is nice as that is the sort of thing I have to look out for now. Even though we were out for lunch I had breakfast as it’s been a while since I was allowed to eat proper runny poached eggs. I had the Eggs benedict which was served with prosciutto & hollandaise on what I think was a ciabatta roll instead of the usual ham & muffin combo. It worked very well for me, I’m not a traditionalist & I loved the changes, the roll was much nicer than a boring muffin & I love prosciutto, eggs were good & the sauce I had no complaints with. As well as breakfast which range from various egg combos including a Mexican one with beans & home fries that looked delicious when spied coming out on someone else’s plate, bircher muesli & pancakes amongst others, they do serve lunch dishes & the menu all up had quite a nice selection to choose from. Overall a welcome addition to Lygon street for me & sure it will be visited many times again on my walks with Chloe

El Mirage
349 Lygon Street
Brunswick East, VIC 3057
Ph: 9388 0966

Apple & Blueberry Shortcake

Yesterday to use up even more of the Granny Smith’s I tried out this recipe from Bill Granger, Bills Food. I love his recipes, especially breakfast & sweets, I find them a bit different to a lot of stuff in my other books & no matter how strange they sound or nervous they make me that they wont work so far I haven’t failed to bake a winner. This was no exception, delicious straight from the oven with some fresh whipped cream, very fruity & the shortcake was lovely & light, don’t worry if when you’re rolling it, it sort of falls apart as it all melts into place when cooked.

Apple & Blueberry Shortcake

4 large Granny Smith Apples
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons sugar
125g unsalted butter
125g caster sugar
1 egg
185g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
155g (1 cup) blueberries
sugar, for sprinkling

To serve
Whipped cream

Peel the apples, remove the cores & cut each apple into about 16 slices. Put the apples, lemon zest, sugar & 2 tablespoons of water into a medium saucepan, then cover & stew over a low heat for about 10 minutes, until the apples are soft but not mushy. Allow to cool.

Cream the butter & caster sugar together in a bowl until fluffy & smooth. Add the egg and mix well. Sift the flour and baking powder into the mixture and stir until combined. Turn onto a lightly floured surface & knead until smooth, Divide into two 7 refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180c. Roll each half of cake dough into a round approximately 22cm across. Press one round into a 24cm non-stick springform cake tin. Spread the apples over the dough, leaving a small border around the edge. Sprinkle with the blueberries. Place the other round of dough on top & press the edges together. Brush with water & sprinkle with sugar.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, then allow to cool in the tin for 20 minutes before removing. Serve with whipped cream.

Scrambled Eggs - Bill Granger Style

While spending yet another tortuous day lying around dying to have this baby I decided to cook breakfast to try & keep myself busy. As I'm no good on my feet too long these days I wanted something simple so thought it was about time I sampled Bill Grangers Famous Scrambled Eggs. As I'm not going to be in Sydney any time soon luckily the recipe is in his 'Sydney Food' Book. This dish has been placed on a list of definitive Sydney flavours by the Sydney Morning Herald's Good Living section & has been raved about my seemingly millions. I can see why with 1/3 cup cream for every serve it is wicked & anything that bad generally tastes pretty damn good! Bill also suggest using free range eggs & a good non-stick frypan. Following his instructions to the letter I think I did a pretty bloody good job of reproducing what he must serve up in his cafe's. They were oh so light, creamy & fluffy & just melted in the mouth & if you do what he says there really is nothing to it & it's a lot cheaper than a flight to Sydney so try them, they are definitely the best I have made by far.

Srambled Eggs

per person

2 eggs

1/3 cup cream

a pinch of salt

10g butter

Place eggs, cream & salt in a bowl & whisk together.

Melt butter in a non-stick frying pan over high heat, taking care not to burn the butter. Pour in the egg mixture & cook for 20 seconds, or until gently set around the edge. Stir the eggs with a wooden spoon, gently bringing the egg mixture on the outside of the pan to the centre. The idea is to fold the eggs rather than to scramble them. Leave to cook for 20 seconds longer & repeat the folding process. When the eggs are just set (they will continue to cook as they rest) turn onto a plate & serve with toast.

Note - If making more thn 2 serves, cook seperate batches so as not too crowd the pan

Breakfast Bars

This morning, still on my healthy breakfast thing I made up a batch of muesli bars from Marie Claire’s Luscious. Very easy to prepare, the flavor was delicious though mine had a bit of trouble keeping form when cut, they did keep their shape though they were very delicate & the edges crumbled, think maybe they needed to cook just that bit longer than the 30 minutes I allowed. Anyway this will be something nice Michael & I can take along to work this week.

Breakfast Bars

150g butter
175g (1/2 cup) honey
200g (2 cups) rolled oats
60g (1 cup) shredded coconut
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons sesame seeds
200g (3/4 cup) pitted prunes, chopped
100g (2/3 cup) dried peaches, chopped
75g (1/2 cup) currants
3 eggs

Preheat oven to 170c. Line a 23 x 32 cm sandwich tin with baking paper.

Put the butter & honey in a small pan over medium heat & stir until butter has melted.

Toss the oats, coconut, baking powder & sesame seeds together in a large bowl. Add the prunes, peaches & currants & mix well. Add the warm honey mixture & eggs & stir to combine, then spoon evenly into cake tin.

Bake for 25-30 minutes or until the mixture is cooked through & the top is golden brown. Remove from the oven & allow to cool in the pan before cutting into 12 bars.

Retro Brekky on Brunswick Street

Today Michael & I headed out to Bruswick street for a bit of brekky & a wander. We ate at Retro which I have walked past hundreds of times yet never eaten in before, it always looks so inviting, I love the retro outfit of the place.

To start with I was a bit dissapointed in the limited breakfast menu, they had the usual toasts, cerals & various egg combo's, all featuring poached eggs, ie, florentine, benedict, big brekky, no scrambled, omelettes or anything else interesting. With the amount of cafes out there doing good breakfast at the moment I like to see a menu with a bit more creativity thrown in. Having said that I ordered the poached eggs & bacon on toast with hollandaise & a hash brown on the side. Being pregnant I'm not supposed to eat runny eggs so I ordered my poached eggs non runny & they did manage to cook them perfectly, no runniness yet not overdone at the same time. The sauce was nice, hash brown good though I suspect forozen & the bacon was good too. All in all a good breakfast but not outstanding. Great space to catch up with friends in though as it has a great feel & lots of big tables & couches & I noticed they even had high chairs & room for prams so will have to keep in mind for the future.

Retro
413 Brunswick street
Fitzroy
9419 9103

Cook Islands Trip

We have just returned from our week of Paradise in The Cook Islands, as you can see from the photo, it is gorgeous over there & the pic doesn’t even do the place justice. We even got to spend a day & night in Tahiti as on the way there some very strong winds – apparently 120kms/hour, prevented us from landing so we had to divert, thanks to Air New Zealand for providing all we needed it was actually really enjoyed rather than being the disaster it could have been. They put us up in The Intercontinental which was beautiful, we spent the day swimming in their gorgeous & mammoth pool, walking around & chilling out. As for the food, well I know resorts aren’t usually the best but I have to say the buffet lunch was pretty awful so the eating extravaganza I had planned was not off to a good start.

All in all our food experience did not end up being that great apart from a couple of good feeds, for the most part I thought it was pretty awful, so as you can imagine I was very disappointed. Most of the food is imported from New Zealand which brings the prices up for a start, they are more or loss on a par with Australian restaurant prices which I wouldn’t mind paying if the quality was the same. The fact that it wasn’t & there really weren’t any cheap & easy options available for dinner didn’t make me any happier paying these prices. Lunch was a bit better with more available & at more reasonable prices. We had a tropical breakfast included daily which was fine, not much can go wrong with cereal, fruit, toast & pastries after all! I hate to write about bad experiences but really wasn’t left with much option. So anyway that being said now I will tell you about the good bits.

When we finally made it The Cooks, our first port of call was the stunning Island of Aitutaki, the photo is actually One Foot Island which is one of the surrounding motu’s (Islands). We did an Island cruise taking in a few surrounding Islands & some snorkelling – fantastic, and we had a local lunch on Honeymoon Island put together by the cruise people. This was great as they laid out a platter of traditional fruits & vegetables including Sea Grapes, these were very weird looking, a small branch with lots of very small ‘green grapes’ attached, squeezed with lime juice very tasty & apparently very good for you too, paw-paw, guava, lady bird bananas (as you can imagine I made the most of readily available bananas & stuffed myself with them for the whole week), some baked tapioca pudding – yum, steamed tapioca, purple kumara, fresh coconut & some fresh tuna sandwiches. Most of it was delicious though I was a bit iffy on the kumara & steamed tapioca. It was all served in a tiny little open hut on woven plates lined with freshly picked leaves of some sort, really enjoyed this experience.

That night was Sunday & not much is open on Sunday nights in Aitutaki so we opted for Te Vaka Bar & Grill, we caught a taxi there & the lovely driver gave us a piece of sponge cake for the ride that she had freshly baked that afternoon, it was delicious & moist & as you can probably tell the people here are very friendly, a very nice experience & cheap too! The restaurant was in a lovely open air building with the usual wicker furniture & Island feel, the food here was quite nice too, not fantastic but pretty good. Michael tried the Cook Islands speciality ‘Ika Mata’ which is fresh tuna marinated in lemon juice then tossed in coconut cream with onions, garlic, tomato & cucumber, he gave it the thumbs up, being pregnant I had to take his word for it as raw fish off the menu for me for now. I had Garlic chilli prawns, these were good too, with the marinade all making a lovely thick jammy sauce for the prawns. Michael then had some coconut topped Mahi Mahi (very nice fish if done the right way – we had a lot of it over the week) with calamari & I had an Island chicken curry, absolutely huge servings, don’t think I even ate half of mine. I then had some ice cream with freshly grated coconut & chocolate fudge sauce, their desserts were not overly creative! All in all it was a pleasant experience.

As you can probably tell by now they are very big on coconut on EVERYTHING in The Cook Islands, I was ok with it at first but by the end of the week hated it as most of the time thought it was way overdone & think it will be a while before I eat anything with coconut again which is a shame as I really like the stuff.

Anyway back on the mainland, Rarotonga a couple of places worth mentioning. FBI fish and chips , near the main bus stop in town. As we were getting off the bus we could smell it and you know what that smell does to you, we had no choice but to then find the place & order up. The fish was Parrott fish & the batter was light & crispy & all seemed to be cooked in nice fresh oil & at NZD11.50 for the 2 of us very good value for a change.

We went to Trader Jacks for dinner one night which is apparently the place to go, unfortunately I thought the food was crap here, our char grilled octopus was very tough & chewy & the coconut braised lentils it was served on well, yuk! For the mains Michael had some Wahoo fish, pan fried with garlic, lemon, fresh herbs & fries, this was nice & simple & really good, I ended up eating half of it as my Mai Mai wrapped in banana leaf & served on a bed of ginger, coriander, chilli & COCONUT cream was disgusting, I had one bite & didn’t go any further. So I was pretty hungry after this & ordered dessert, Chocolate & apricot cake with chocolate fudge & ice cream – bad mistake again, cake was dry & I don’t know what the fascination is with bloody vanilla ice cream & hot chocolate fudge on anything either! The place had a good feel & was fun but I would definitely order plain if going again, the bar pizzas looked & smelt terrific too – maybe that’s the way to go?

For our last night we went to Tamarind House, recommended as the best spot on the Island I had high hopes & it didn’t disappoint, the setting is a majestic restored colonial era building & the piano player perched in the corner all night also added to the ambience. Michael started with the seafood chowder, another Island specialty which he enjoyed & I chose the chicken & mushroom won tons which were delicious, I finally learnt not to order Cook Islands food which I have developed an intense dislike for! For mains I had some smoked salmon spaghetti & Michael some Island style swordfish, we both left very happy customers for once.

All in all it’s a gorgeous & relaxed place for a holiday, Aitutaki was the highlight & highly recommended but if you go don’t have too high expectations for the food, hope I am not being too critical here, who knows maybe its just my pregnant taste buds after all.

Weekend Breakfast blogging

Nandita at Saffron trail has started a fortnightly event called weekend breakfast blogging

I thought I would remind you all of a wonderful Christmas breakfast I made last year that I truly reccomend you all try, here it is again


Sweetcorn & Ricotta hotcakes with smoked salmon & basil dressing

To use up some more of my smoked salmon I cooked up a treat for Michael & I on Christmas morning, we were not expecting the whole family over until dinner time so wanted something nice to start the day.After doing the Allan Campion cooking class at Vic Market & him making it look so easy I thought I would try this recipe out for myself. Again it was really easy & have heaps of leftover hotcakes to have for brekky over the next few days. Think the corn & smoked salmon teamed with the basil is a great combination too.The recipe is from 2006 Seasonal Prodcue Diary, here it is

Sweetcorn and ricotta hotcakes with smoked salmon and basil dressing

1 cup basil leaves
1 garlic clove, peeled & sliced
120-160 ml (1/2 - 2/3 cup) olive oil
salt & freshly ground pepper
2 medium eggs
250g ricotta
60 ml (1/4 cup) milk
125g (1/2 cup) natural yoghurt
150g (1 cup) self raising flour
1/2 tspn baking powder
1/2 tspn salt
2 corn cobs
olive oil for cooking
rocket to serve
12 slices smoked salmon

Place basil & garlic in food processor & blend until chopped. Slowly add the olive oil until the basil is pureed & forms a thickish sauce. Season with salt & pepper & set aside.Beat eggs & ricotta. Add milk and yoghurt & beat until smooth. Sift flour with baking powder and salt & add to ricotta base, stir until combined.Remove husks and silky tassells from corn. Run a sharp knife down each cob to remove the kernels. Stir kernels through pancake mixture.Heat a heavy based pan over medium heat. Add a splash of oil to hot pan, then a few ladlefuls of ricotta mixture. Mixture should spread to abt 6 cm wide. Cook until bubbles form on top & base is golden brown. Turn over & cook for a further 2-3 minutes. Keep warm until all hotcakes are cooked.Place one hotcake on each plate, add a handful of rocket, place another cake on top. Add more rocket & arrange 2 slices of salmon on top. Repeat with remaining hotcakes. Drizzle basil oil around hotcakes & serve immediatleyPS - As you can see from the photo I didnt do the fancy arrangement just for the 2 of us!

Small Block, East Brunswick - Brekky

Sunday morning breakfast at Small Block in Brunswick. Once again we felt like a morning walk & what better way to do it than with a brekky stop in the middle. I’ve been here many times before & never disappointed. The place is always packed & usually a wait on the stairs is the way to go before scoring a table. Today we were lucky & there was a table available outside & the sun was shining so it was actually nice, even for a winters day. The only problem today was that a few customers were letting their dogs run riot off their leashes & they all seemed to want to jump on me or slap me with their tails, not the cafes fault but really wish dog owners would keep their pets under control especially if they are bugging the other customers.

Today I had the baked eggs with tomato, chorizo & saffron ragout, this was served with some toast & was delicious, have never tried this dish before, the eggs on top were delicious & even though baked still nice & gooey. Underneath was a lovely mix of tomatoes, chorizo, onions, saffron & olives, great combination. Michael had the scrambled eggs with pesto & fetta, I’ve had this before & it’s a great full of flavour egg scramble. To drink as well as coffees I had a Phoenix Organic apple & pear juice from New Zealand, these are great juices so try one if you ever come across them. Anyway all in all I love Small block & have never had a bad feed here, I think its all excellent quality & the choices are a bit different from the usual which gets another thumbs up for the place too. Friendly staff & quick service complete the picture.

Small Block
130 Lygon Street
Brunswick East
9381 2244

A Minor Place & A Sensational Brekky

After a big Friday night out on the town yesterday morning (afternoon!) I went for a walk down the streets for a big brekky at A Minor Place, have been dying to try this out for a while now. This tiny café is on Albion street not near much of anything so very easy to miss if you don’t know about it. I had an iced coffee to start with which was really lovely, then moved on to the Minor Breakfast. This consisted of toasted organic sour dough topped with grilled ham, perfectly done poached eggs, grilled tomato, spinach & Henry’s beans. I don’t know who Henry is but I would kill for the recipe for his beans, I could not tell at all what was in them – I know very bad for someone who loves to cook so much, but I would go back here for the beans alone. Everything else was also very yummy & the café had a very cosy, friendly feel inside. Feel I may be back again soon. One of my top breakfast places for now.

A Minor Place
103 Albion Street
Brunswick
9384 3131

Breakfast at Mario's

Yesterday I caught up with a friend for a fabulous brekky at Mario's after a big night out tearing up the dance floor. I have been meaning to try out the famous breakfast here forever & really cant believe it has taken me this long. The place was crammed full of people as you would expect & luckily after only about a ten minute wait I managed to nab a table.

I had the specialof the day which was white bread with melted cheese on top, herbed scrambles eggs, spicy chorizo sausages, chutney & rocket. Can you tell just by looking at it how sensational it was, absolutely scrumptious & will be back for more soon!

Marios Cafe
303 Brunswick Street
Fitzroy
ph: 9417 3343

Spiced lamb tagine with preserved lemon & green olives

Well after going out for a fairly late breakfast this morning I wasn’t really up for lunch & instead when I got peckish late this afternoon I had some left over Christmas plum pudding made beautifully by my mum, I love the way these things last forever & get better with age (as do women of course), a very generous dash of custard & a minute or so in the microwave & yum all done!

As is typical of Melbourne weather, after a couple of gorgeous perfect hot days the sky turned dark, lightning flashed, the sky rumbled & then came the rain, has been pretty heavy & steady all afternoon which of course left me with lots of time to cook up some slow food for dinner as I couldn’t get stuck into the garden as planned.

Made the following Lamb Tagine which in my modesty I claimed to be ‘absolutely sensational & possibly even better than the one I had at Mecca Bah recently’. Michael though, as is usual said it was ‘nice’ but much preferred last nights duck as the flavours were not strong enough for him. Anyway I think this dish won out myself, lamb falling apart, beautiful subtle spicy flavours, & perfect with a glass of 2001 Brown brothers merlot & the sounds of the rain beating down outside. Now all I need is a Tagine Dish so I can make it for my next dinner party & impress everyone, next time I’m in Morocco perhaps…! The recipe was ripped from a recent magazine, sorry can’t remember which one, here it is

Spiced lamb tagine with preserved lemon & green olives

Olive Oil
3 sticks celery, finely diced
2 carrots, finely diced
2 medium brown onions, finely diced
6 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tbspn roasted & ground cumin seeds
1 tbspn roasted & ground coriander seeds
¼ tspn ground turmeric
¼ tspn ground ginger
¼ tspn ground cinnamon
pinch saffron threads
1 boned lamb shoulder, approx 1.5-2kg, cut into 6cm pieces
2 x 400g cans chopped tomatoes
2 bay leaves
2 sprigs thyme
2-3 litres chicken stock or water
2 tbspn honey
2 tbspn harissa
1 cup pitted green olives, cut in half
1 tbspn julienne of preserved lemon
salt & pepper
1 cup picked & washed coriander leaves
1 cup picked & washed parsley leaves
steamed couscous to serve

In a saucepan big enough to hold the lamb, heat a good splash of olive oil, add the veges & garlic & cook over low heat for 15 to 20 minutes or until soft but not brown. Add the mixed spices, lamb, tomatoes, bay leaves, thyme & enough stock or water to cover the lamb. Bring to the boil, skim the surface of any fat, then reduce heat to low & simmer very gently for 2 hours or until the meat is very tender.

Skim the fat from the surface again, then add the honey, harissa, olives & preserved lemon. Season to taste with salt & pepper, then transfer to a tagine dish (if you are lucky enough to have one that is!) for serving.

Scatter the herbs generously over the top & serve immediately with steamed couscous on the side.