Prior to our visit, my awareness of Innocent Bystander largely centred around their ubiquitous (and delicious!) moscato, however, the winery has been blogged pretty heavily - it seems to be a very popular destination for daytrippers!

We secured ourselves a table outside on the deck, and then took it in turns to explore...

There's quite a bit going on in the large space, and I started with a tasting of the wines (luckily I wasn't driving that day!)  We picked up a couple of bottles of the moscato to take home as well.


I had a sticky beak around the cheese counter... (there's a cheese room as well!)

I also found myself drawn to the variety of lovely-looking breads and pastries, baked in-house.  In addition to the breads, there were Polish donuts, croissants, chocolate tarts, lemon tarts and much more.  (You can't see the label in the below picture, but on the bottom right hand side, there's a cake simply labelled "Chef's Whim" - cute idea!)



Innocent Bystander is famous for their pizzas and they're all made to order on organic sourdough bases.

The pizzas are priced between $19-$24, and have a range of simple, classico toppings.  They have other meals as well - things like duck and mushroom pie, and red duck curry - but these were all rather expensive.  There were many items close to the $40 mark: a bit more than what I'd want to spend on a casual lunch.  We all ended up ordering pizza, and I'm glad we did, as they were generally very good!

I loved the burnished, bubbled-up dough (which I believe comes from the colomba method of folding and kneading the dough).  Apart from the gorgeous crunchy/chewy texture, it means you get little craters and pockets of flavour and filling - yum yum.  (Although sometimes this means you also get pockets of oil - not so pleasant).

Calabrese salami, san marzano tomato, oregano & buffalo mozzarella pizza -  $24

Roast mushroom, asiago, black truffle oil, roasted garlic & parsley pizza - $23

The mushroom pizza was the least tasty of the three we tried - whilst it had a great texture, it was very bland and really needed a lot of salt.

I paired my spicy pork sausage pizza with a glass of the moscato - (treat yo'self 2011!) - and the light sweet bubbles matched well with the spicy pizza.

Spicy pork sausage, buffalo mozzarella, san marzano tomato & chilli pizza - $23

Aah.. what a lovely way to spend a weekend afternoon!

It was reading Michael's review of Cafe Lua that got the idea of chia seed pancakes in my head.  The ones he ate there were savoury pumpkin and chia seed pancakes, served with a lentil and spinach salad - sounds delicious, right?  Cafe Lua is now on my (ever-expanding) list of places to visit, and on my next trip to the supermarket, I picked up a packet of chia seeds for the pantry, which I used in the sweet pancakes you see above.

You see, I've been attempting to eat healthily and exercise more in the lead-up to Christmas, and by the time the weekend rolled around, I really felt like a little treat.  I wanted something substantial, but not something that would ruin all my hard work.  I thought that a small stack of pancakes, enriched with health-giving chia seeds would do the trick.

I based the recipe on Nigella's American breakfast pancakes (How to be a Domestic Goddess), adding chia seeds and making them very small, like pikelets.  I initially considered making the batter in the blender, but I didn't want the crunch of the chia seeds getting lost.  I don't like the idea of sneaking healthy ingredients into normal food - (sorry Jessica Seinfeld!) - and much prefer the approach of finding healthy food that actually tastes good.  (Prime example: antioxidant-rich blueberries!)

Here is a pancake in the pan, just as it's ready to flip. Can you see the little grey specks from the chia seeds?

Bird's eye view of the stack

Nude stack

Adding the yoghurt

Adding the blueberries

With some honey

Chia Seed Pancakes
Adapted from Nigella Lawson's American Breakfast Pancakes
Makes 8-10 small pancakes, serves 2

Ingredients
115g plain flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
1 1/2 tsp sugar
15g chia seeds (black or white)
1 large egg, beaten
15g butter, melted and cooled
150ml milk
Extra butter for frying
To serve: vanilla yoghurt, fresh blueberries, honey

Method
Sieve the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar into a mixing bowl, and stir in the chia seeds.  Make a well in the centre, and gradually add in the beaten egg, melted butter and milk, whisking all the while.  Set aside for 30 minutes.  (Enough time to prepare the fruits, set the table and put a pot of coffee on!)
Heat a non-stick pan over a medium heat, and melt a teaspoon or so of butter in the pan.  Drop 30ml of batter at a time into the pan, (I use a quarter cup measure and get two pancakes out of each one), and cook until the top of each is bubbling and the base is sealed.  Flip over and cook for another minute or two until browned to your liking.  Keep the cooked pancakes warm as you cook your way through the remaining batter.

Serve with vanilla yoghurt, fresh blueberries and honey.

So, now I have a packet of chia seeds in the pantry - any suggestions on what I can do with them?

And here is my version. Just good quality unsalted butter, brown and caster sugars, vanilla extract, an egg, flour, some bicarb, some salt, toasted peanuts and milk chocolate.  And of course, some chopped up Snickers bars.  Aaah...
I based these cookies on Nigella Lawson's chocolate chip cookies (from Kitchen), but you can use your favourite chocolate-chip cookie recipe.  I chopped up a couple of 65g Snickers bars and added them to the dough with the chocolate chips and the peanuts.  (I reduced the volume of chocolate chips and peanuts accordingly so that the total volume of add-ins remained the same).

Here are the Snickers bars... yum yum.  Don't forget to taste test!


All the add-ins.  I used unsalted roasted peanuts, but I think that salted peanuts might work well too.  (Although if that were the case, I'd avoid putting any salt in the dough itself).

Mixing the dough...

And with the nuts and chocolate...

Nigella says to use a quarter cup measure to portion out the dough.  This resulted in evenly-sized cookies, but they were huge!  (Insert gratuitous joke about how Nigella has big cookies, har har).  I think somewhere between quarter-cup and one-tablespoon would be perfect - I should stay on the lookout for a 30 ml mini ice-cream scoop.


And here's one of mine, next to one of Woolworth's.  In all fairness, the Woolies' ones weren't completely terrible, they were just very average.  I don't get why anyone would buy something that calorific, when you could easily bake something.  (Or, you know, just buy a Snickers bar!)

They were unpleasantly tough and chewy, with all the add-ins cut up so small that the texture was uniformly soft - you could barely detect the presence of peanuts, chocolate chips or Snickers pieces!  (Although the inability to detect it is a good thing when it comes to compound chocolate.)  Nope, definitely sticking to home made!!

Mmm... melty...

Sweet potato galette

Mmm... here's a delicious sweet potato galette, from my new favourite cookbook: the Ottolenghi Cookbook.  You may remember my friend Clarice introduced me to this fabulous book in Paris, and after cooking some fantastic recipes together, I just had to buy it for myself.

N.B. This is a photo we took of the book cover itself

Ottolenghi, for those of you who don't know, is a famous cafe / restaurant / bistro with four locations in London (plus a restaurant, Nopi).  The book is written by business partners Sami Tamimi and Yotam Ottolenghi, who both hail from Jerusalem, and their passion for fresh, delicious food is evident on the pages.

Before I even got stuck into cooking the recipes, I knew it was my type of book.  Firstly, they use the soaked-bread-in-water trick that I love for meatballs; they acknowledge that their macarons are imperfect-looking-yet-tasty, and even recommend Ladurée for perfect ones; and finally, their cupcakes are the serious kind - lusciously thick ganaches and mascarpone based icings, none of that nasty crusty hard pink buttercream stuff!  Love!

Clarice described the book as having a similar style to Bill Granger, in that there's a balance between fresh, vibrant healthy savouries, and very decadent desserts.  Of course, they're also both based on well-renowned cafes!  However, I would say Ottolenghi definitely has the edge on Bill.  Even though I'm a fan of Bill, with Ottolenghi there is a level of technical skill and knowledge on the page that just doesn't come through with Bill's books.  Not to imply that Bill himself lacks technical skill, far from it, but just that his recipes seem too simplified to sustain my prolonged interest.

A clear theme I've noticed through the book is unexpected but well thought out flavour combinations and techniques - a sweet potato galette is perked up with raw garlic and chilli; blanched brocolli is given extra smoky depth by being cooked on a char grill, and so on.

I've been cooking heaps from the book, and I haven't come across a single dud recipe yet.  If I were ever to do another Sarah Discovers How to Eat-type project, it would be with this book.  In fact, I'm putting off buying the Yotam's next book (Plenty), because I'm afraid I won't ever leave the kitchen!  Let's have a look at what I've been cooking so far...


Sweet Potato Galettes

I'll start with the sweet potato galettes, as this is my absolute favourite recipe in the book! Since we've come home from Europe, I've made it at least four  times - perfect for relaxed dinners with friends, or an easy yet treaty meal at home.  These days I don't need the recipe anymore, but can simply wing it - yay!  It's just puff pastry, layered up with sour cream, roast slices of sweet potato, goat's cheese, pepitas and chillies.  I always use Carême puff pastry, for super flaky-buttery goodness!


After baking, you brush the tart with a punchy mixture of olive oil, raw garlic and parsley, really lifting what would otherwise be a uniformly sweet-ish tart into something memorable and delicious.


Turkey and Sweetcorn Meatballs with Roasted Pepper Sauce

I must admit I wasn't convinced by the name "turkey meatballs", turkey mince always reminding me of dry, uninspiring diet-foods.  But these were really good!  See the squished bread roll in the mixture? That's what makes the finished meatballs balls (heh) soft and bouncy!  As you can see, there are heaps of herbs and other ingredients to add interest.  The corn kernels are also roasted in a pan before being added to the mixture, giving a nice smoky flavour and tortilla-like aroma.


Ta-dah!

It's a bit of a pain to fry the meatballs and then bake them, but the results are worth it!  The accompanying red pepper sauce (not pictured) is pretty intensely sour, so I like to tone down the vinegar and add a pinch of sugar.  I like these served as a starter, or as a full meal with some rice.



This healthy and substantial recipe contains rice and quinoa (obviously), brightened up with a sparkly mixture of dried apricot, spring onions, rocket, pistachios, lemon juice and orange juice.  I think it's meant to be served as a room-temperature salad, but I served it hot for dinner.  The fried egg was my addition - very Asian of me, I know.

The original recipe specifies camargue red rice and quinoa, but I couldn't find red rice, so I substituted brown basmati.  I also made the spicy tomato sauce to go with it as I was worried it might be a little dry - it certainly wasn't dry, but I did love the warming, spicy tomato sauce with the rice and egg.



Marinated Rack of Lamb with Coriander and Honey

This was a very simple recipe for lamb (I clearly used chops instead of a rack), and I thought the pungent herby marinade took the lamb above a standard grilled lamb.  Very nice!


Butternut, Carrot and Goat's Cheese Tartlet

This tart recipe is a bit more involved than the galette above - you start by making a poppyseed shortcrust pastry, and fit it into individual little tins.


There is also a jammy-type relish from grated carrots...

... as well as goat's cheese, a creamy-eggy filling and roasted cubes of butternut pumpkin.  Phew!  Interestingly, the recipe says it will fill six 2x10cm tartlets, which I used, but I had enough mixture to fill those, plus an extra 20cm tart!


I brought these sturdy little babies to a picnic, along with the cucumber and poppyseed salad (another recipe from the book!)  I've made the cucumber salad almost as often as the sweet potato galette - it's definitely a staple in my house now.

They were very tasty, but quite a bit of work - I'd definitely like to make them again, but probably not as frequently as the sweet potato galette.  Perhaps for a future dinner party!


Blueberry Crumble Muffins

These are a simple muffin recipe, topped with a generous spoonful of crumble and studded with fresh blueberries.  I added walnuts for extra crunch.  The muffins were great - very tender crumbed and moist.  However, being based purely on white flour and with the crumble topping, they were a little sweet and soft; I think of them as more of an afternoon tea treat than a breakfast item.


Chocolate Fudge Cake

And finally I present the chocolate fudge cake! It's one of those sunken flourless chocolate cakes: rich with melted chocolate and lightened with whipped egg whites.  It's slightly different though, in that you bake two thirds of the mixture first, let it cool, add the remaining mixture and bake it again. This is to give different textures in the cake (although you can bake it all at once if you want!)


When I made it, I was too impatiently greedy to let it cool in between baking and after it was completely cooked, so it was very, very dense and fudgy, almost falling apart when we ate it. Oops!  It still tasted amaaazing though. Next time I'll be more patient and let it firm up completely before digging in. Maybe.