Welcome to the final Unblogged Files for 2013! December was really busy - lots of catchups with friends and family; cooking, eating and shopping for Christmas; and all the usual craziness of the festive season! (You've already seen my Christmas post, and the Lobster party).

I cooked at home a little bit this month, and looking over my photos, it seemed I was really in the mood for comfort food. My favourites in the below photo collage are the Swedish meatballs with dill cucumber salad, kohlrabi/spinach and potatoes, and the very German veal schnitzel with potatoes and white asparagus. So lecker!

Top row: Swedish meatballs, cucumber salad, sugared potatoes, kohlrabi and spinach; Roast chicken and vegetables Middle row: Spaghetti with bacon and garlic; Wagyu burger Bottom row: Nuggets and chips; Wienerschnitzel with white asparagus, potatoes, cucumber salad

I made a couple of cafe visits, but mainly for quick snacks or workday lunches. Aside from my beloved Beatrix, I think I'm a bit over the whole Melbourne brunch scene at the moment - poached eggs, corn fritters, smashed avocado blah blah blah.

Iced coffee, coke, chips with garlic aioli at Leroy Espresso, 191 Acland Street, St Kilda

Pork belly sandwich at EARL Canteen, 500 Bourke Street, Melbourne

I took a Canadian friend of mine for pork belly at EARL Canteen, and I must admit we were a bit disappointed - whilst the pork itself was both crispy and juicy, the coleslaw didn't fill the whole sandwich, and I preferred the old crunchy baguette to the soft ciabatta they're using now. (Apparently they changed the bread because lots of customers didn't like the crunchy baguette, so I guess you can't please everyone!)

Escargot and Latte from Plantation, Melbourne Central

Peanut Butter Banoffee Pie at Beatrix, 688 Queensberry Street, North Melbourne

I was invited to attend a charity dinner at Radisson Flagstaff Gardens to raise money for the Philippines Typhoon Relief Fund - a very worthy cause and a very delicious dinner!

Beetroot cured ocean trout on potato gribiche and horseradish cream

Serrano jamon wrapped beef tenderloin with baby vegetable 'pot au feu' and parsnip cream

Assiette of chocolate featuring truffe au chocolat, white chocolate ice cream & chocolate brownies

Sandra and I took a wonderful weekend trip to Mornington, staying at the most fabulous B&B, visiting great restaurants and just generally relaxing. It was an expensive weekend, but a lovely lovely treat! Blogposts to come!

St Andrew's Beach

Breakfast at Big Blue Backyard

With all the busy-ness of the month, I ate out a lot more often than normal (yes really!), often grabbing something Cheap and Cheerful when I couldn't be bothered cooking or wanted to catch up with friends.

Tempura Don from Hanaichi, QV

Spring Rolls, Chicken Pho, Beef Pho and Spicy Beef Broth at Thanh Nga Nine, 160 Victoria Street Richmond

Ayam Penyet (flattened chicken) with rice, egg, tempeh and tofu at Bali Bagus, 85 Franklin Street Melbourne

Pork Chop noodle soup at The Booth, 612 Station Street Box Hill

Chicken and vegetable meatballs at Bopha Devi, 27 Rakaia Way Docklands

Classic ramen with shoyu broth and extra egg at Little Ramen Bar, 346 Lt Bourke St Melbourne

Curry chicken with steamed bread; Vegetarian Char Kway Teow, Lychee soda and Milo mocha at Pappa Rich Chadstone

Mango Snow Ice with Crystal Jelly and Popping Pearl at Dessert Story

We went for Korean BBQ at G2 (301 Elizabeth Street Melbourne) with a good friend and his Korean fiancé, and loved it so much that we went back the next week! I'm not very familiar with Korean food in general, and we loved the jap chae, the pork belly and all of the banchan. (Turns out I do like kim chi! Who knew?)

Korean BBQ at G2

There were also some slightly fancier restaurant visits, mainly for end-of-year celebrations with coworkers (N.B. these were all self-funded!)

Saganaki with grilled lemon and honey at Gazi

We went in a big group for lunch at Gazi (2 Exhibition Street, Melbourne). I thought the food was of very high quality, but my fellow diners mentioned that they thought the service was very abrupt and that it didn't seem good value for money (we got a $49 sharing menu). I brought my camera and took photos - would anyone be interested in a full blog post?

Another lunchtime we hit up Captain Melville (34 Franklin Street Melbourne). I had that same fab quinoa salad that I tried on my first visit, and also really really liked the hand cut chips!

Hand-cut chips at Captain Melville

Another night, we had a girly catchup with my work Angels - lovely risotto and polenta at Merchant (495 Collins Street Melbourne), followed by cocktails and desserts at the Market Lane Bar in the Intercontinental Hotel.

Porcini mushroom polenta at Merchant

Espresso martini and cabernet sauvignon at the Market Lane Bar

Churros at the Market Lane Bar

Spice Temple again! Highlights were the bang bang chicken (that sauce!) and the pork belly with smoked tofu. Delicious.

Top Row: Bang bang chicken; Crisp pork belly and smoked tofu with spicy ginger and garlic dressing Middle row: Handmade egg noodles, Hunan style with smoked bacon and chilli; Stir fried quail and peanuts with steamed egg custard Bottom row: Chinese broccoli with house made oyster sauce; Caramel chocolate and peanut parfait

We had some food blogger friends over for a fun afternoon tea one weekend, and I made matcha croissants! Blogpost and recipe to come.

Matcha croissants

I did my Christmas food shopping at Prahran Market, fuelled by an excellent coffee from Market Lane Coffee.

Latte from Market Lane

How beautiful are these rainbow radishes?

Rainbow Radishes

I made Hannah from Wayfaring Chocolate's raw vegan brownies and raw vegan blondies - both fabulous, although I preferred the dark cocoa smokiness of the brownies to the blondies. I'm a big fan of chocolate avocado icing, but I think these would be just as delicious without the icing. Perhaps in little balls with added protein powder? I must experiment.

Vegan Blondies and Brownies

And finally, we caught up with some friends for a cheese party - a Cheesemas, if you will. We sat around eating cheese, drinking wine and other fabulous treats. There was a Lot of Cheese! I baked oatcakes too, and will blog the recipe soon.

#CHEESEMAS

And that was December! We're just having a quiet one for New Year's Eve. Happy New Year everybody! Here's hoping your 2014 is full of lots of happy memories and delicious moments!

Lobster Pot Pie

Welcome to the third annual Lobster Party post! You know the deal: one friend brings a lobster tail, another brings his professional chef skills, we host and provide dessert, everyone overdoses on delicious lobster. You can check out the last two lobster parties here:

• Lobster Dinner
• Lobster Roll Party

Normally we make New England-style lobster rolls, but this year I wanted to mix it up a bit with a lobster pot pie, and luckily my friends were up for it!

Dips

My friend Alaina brought some nibbles for us to enjoy while we prepared the lobster. There was delicious cheese (Buche D'Affinois), some addictive roasted pistachios and fab dips from Bill's Farm in the Vic market. I loved the green one - super garlicky!

So, here's what Adrian and I did to make the Lobster Pot Pie. We just winged it, so I won't be writing a full recipe with weights and measures, but I'll let you know all the steps we took in case you feel like making something similar at home!

The first step was to cut the shell open and gently remove the tail meat.

Lobster tail

Lobster tail

We chopped up the shell, and placed it in a saucepan with some water, chopped leek, carrots, bay leaves, black peppercorns, parsley stalks and lemon juice, and boiled it for about ten minutes to make a simple court bouillon.

Lobster court bouillon

While the stock was cooking, we chopped up the lobster tail into generous chunks. Once the stock was ready, we strained out all the bits, then cooked the lobster meat very briefly in the court bouillon.

We placed the the cooked lobster meat in my pie dish, with some peeled broad beans, lemon zest and chopped parsley. (I bought an enamel pie dish last week! How hipster of me! I love it SO MUCH!)

Pie filling

Pie filling

Pastry lid

We glazed it with more beaten egg for a shiny finish, and then it went into the oven at 200C for about 30 minutes. (I also made a couple of mini beef and bean pies for our seafood-avoider Sandra, which were really cute and very tasty - I'll be blogging that recipe soon!)

Ta-dah! Wow - the pie was so, so good! The flaky, buttery pastry, the generous chunks of lobster, the rich seafoody flavour of the sauce. A very, very decadent Christmastime treat!

Pie!

Pie insides

Knowing that the pie would be very rich, I had made a simple refreshing salad of shredded cabbage and cucumber with dill, white vinegar, salt and sugar. (Recipe from the Smitten Kitchen cookbook!) It was a good salad, but people were (understandably) a lot more excited by the lobster pie!

Cabbage and cucumber dill salad

Dessert was a maple pecan pie (because we really needed more pastry!) with a little crème fraîche. I made up the recipe myself and I'm pleased to say it worked really well, so I'll be blogging the recipe soon. Yay!

Maple Pecan Pie

Champagne

Merry Christmas and happy holidays everybody! I hope you're all having a nice relaxing time, and, for those of us in Melbourne, enjoying the wonderful sunny weather! I've got an entire week off work and I am So Excited! Today I wanted to show you the meals I cooked for Christmas with my family.

As you can see, I went with a vaguely Scandinavian theme for the Christmas Eve dinner. I started a few days earlier by preparing the gravlax. (Nigella recipe, previously blogged here!) How pretty is the salmon fillet?

Salmon fillet

With mustard / gin / sugar / salt

Dill blanket

Ready for curing

On the day itself, we made the remaining items. Normally I go for buckwheat blini with gravlax, but I saw a recipe for potato pancakes in Tessa Kiros' Falling Cloudberries, and thought it looked fabulous - mashed potatoes mixed with flour, egg and cream. (I thought they'd be dense and stodgy but were actually very delicate and light!) The cucumber salad was just a mixture of thinly sliced cucumber, salt, sugar, chopped dill and apple cider vinegar.

Vegan Chocolate Avocado Cake with Avocado Chocolate Icing

So yes, I know Christmas is only four days away. I have to admit I've not been very organised this year - I totally forgot about Nikolaus, I haven't baked a Christmas cake or mince pies (yet), we haven't decorated the flat, and we didn't even host a Christmas party. In fact, the extent of my Christmas spirit this year has been watching a lot of Christmas specials on Lifestyle Food (Nigella, Jamie, Nigel, Donna, Lorraine), and really really looking forward to the week off! I haven't done much planning, but fret not - we are having a proper Christmas Eve supper and Christmas lunch, as well as a couple of low-key foodie Christmastime catch ups with friends. The turkey and ham have been ordered, and today was spent at the market picking up supplies. Fun! Watch this space.

Recently I've been busier with non-Christmas baking. As you will have seen in my last post, "How to Slice an Avocado", I've had a glut of gigantic avocados on hand, and wanted to try making something sweet with them. I remembered seeing this delicious-looking "Almost Vegan Chocolate Avocado Cake" a while ago on The Chronicles of Ms I-Hua and The Boy, and thought it would be a good one to try! Reading I-Hua's post, I saw that she adapted the recipe from the Vegan Chocolate Avocado Cake on Joy the Baker, and I really wanted to see what the pure vegan version would taste like, so I ended up making Joy's recipe. (This also meant I got to share it with the children of a colleague of mine, who happen to have dairy and nut allergies - yay - they get to eat cake too!)

In my "avocado dessert" Googling, I came across this avocado-chocolate frosting on Paleo Spirit, and couldn't believe how rich, luscious and how chocolaty it looked, despite being 100% vegan - no cream, milk, butter or chocolate. I had to try it! I skipped Joy the Baker's bright green avocado buttercream and made the choccy avocado one. (Of course I completely un-Paleo'd it by using super refined icing sugar instead of the suggested maple syrup, haha).

Let's look at the icing - it's just a mixture of ripe avocados, cocoa powder and icing sugar, blended until smooth and creamy.

Barham Avocado

Icing ingredients

I couldn't believe it - twenty seconds in the mixer and bang - it turned into this amazing glossy icing.

Chocolate avocado icing

Of course I had to taste test, and you couldn't taste the avocado at all - it just tasted like dark chocolate, thanks to the cocoa powder. The quantities in the recipe I've given below make a very dark-tasting icing, definitely a grown-up taste. If you want something sweeter, I'd suggest starting with half the amount of cocoa and then adjusting to your liking.

The icing was a dream to work with - so smooth and creamy! It was way easier than a normal ganache or a standard chocolate buttercream as it doesn't seize up or set - it stays velvety smooth for ages.

Iced cake

Joy's recipe makes two 20cm cakes, which she makes into a sandwich cake, but I wanted something smaller that was easier to share around, so I did a small 18cm round cake, as well as a 20cm square slab cake.

Slab cake

I was so impressed with the cake too! Again, despite the inclusion of avocado and the lack of eggs, it didn't taste odd or have an unusual texture - it was just a moist chocolate cake.

Slice of cake - love that texture

I shared the cake with friends and colleagues - and none of them twigged that there was anything unusual about it until I mentioned that it included avocado. An easy-to-make crowd-pleasing chocolate cake that also satisfies a bunch of dietary requirements? Win win win!

Cake the next day

Slice of cake

Vegan Chocolate Cake with Avocado Chocolate Icing
Cake recipe from Joy the Baker
Avocado Chocolate Icing adapted from Paleo Spirit

Ingredients
For the Cake
3 cups plain flour
6 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup well mashed avocado
2 cups water
2 tablespoons white vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups caster sugar
For the Icing
1 very ripe avocado
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
3/4 cups icing sugar

Method
For the Cake
Preheat the oven to 175C. Line two 20cm round cake tins with baking paper. (I used a 20cm square tin and a 18cm round cake tin).
Sift together the flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder and baking soda into a mixing bowl and set aside.
Whisk together the oil, mashed avocado, water, vinegar and vanilla extract, followed by the caster sugar.
Mix the wet ingredients and dry ingredients together, whisking until smooth.
Pour the batter into the prepared tins. Bake for 40 minutes to an hour, or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Allow to cool in the tins for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a cake rack to cool completely.
For the Icing
Place the avocado flesh, cocoa powder and icing sugar in a food processor and whizz to combine. Add a tablespoon of water if necessary to achieve a spreadable consistency. Spread the icing over the top and sides of the cold cakes in a swirly fashion.
Makes 2 x 20cm cakes

Enjoy!