One gift I got for my birthday but forgot to mention in my previous post was this awesome Dr Oetker German cookbook, sent to me by my host parents in Deutschland. Vielen Dank! "Backen Macht Freude" means "baking makes fun", and is full of wonderful traditional German cake recipes - marble cake, sunken apple cake, Bienenstich (!!!!!), Black Forest Cake and much, much more.

The recipes are divided into 13 chapters, depending on the type of Teig (dough) used or the type of Gebäck (sweet/pastry/cookie) the finished product is. For example, chapters include Rührteig (basic creamed-butter dough), Hefeteig (yeasted dough), Biskuitteig (sponge cakes, often made into fancy layered tortes), Fettgebäck (deep-fried) etc.

My first proper recipe was a Haselnusskranz - hazelnut ring. It is made up of a buttery Knetteig (kneaded dough), filled with chopped hazelnuts. Oh, lecker! Now, even though Knetteig means "kneaded dough", this doesn't include bread (obviously that would be a Hefeteig). It's more like a basic shortbread.

Der Teig.
One of the tips in the book is not to use too much flour when kneading, so the dough doesn't dry out. Instead, if it gets too sticky, they suggest chilling the dough in the fridge.

The filling is made of hazelnut meal, egg, sugar, and water... (you're supposed to add bitter almond aroma, but I had none, only fake almond essence... and I hate almond essence). I bought fresh hazelnuts and ground the whole lot up in my new blender.


Spreading it out. This made me feel like I was working at St. Cinnamon (American equivalent - Cinnabon).

Rolling up the dough...

Crudely formed into a ring. I used a piece of excess dough to rougly patch it up.

You glaze the kranz with condensed milk and cut slices "in a star shape" before baking. I was a bit hesitant and just scored the dough, not making very deep cuts, so they didn't really leave much of an impression once baked. Oops.


Ta-dah!
Hehe, I don't think it's supposed to have a massive crack in it, but let's just chalk that up to my inexperience with Knetteigs.

Ooh, pretty! I'm glad I left the skins on the hazelnuts, as it made the swirl a bit darker, contrasting better against the dough.

We loved it! About half that ring was eaten in the 30 minutes after the Kranz came out of the oven, which is when it was at its gentle best. I loved the subtle nutty taste, and the fact that it wasn't overly sweet. Store-bought cakes tend to be a little too sweet for my taste. Having said that, the condensed-milk glaze was frikkin' fantastic! Not only did it make the Kranz shiny and pretty, but it tasted damn good too. Way better than an egg-wash glaze. Sigh... I *heart* condensed milk. I found myself eating the insides first so I could save the caramelly crust for last.

Just a quick post about some other foodie birthday gifts I got this year. First up, a 300gm block of my favourite chocolate, milk Lindt. Yum!

My parents got me a KitchenAid blender (hehe, to match the coffee machine from last year).


It's totally awesome, and slices and dices through onions, ice, carrots and meat in seconds flat.
Ta-dah!

Sandra got me a small (20cm) red Le Creuset. Love it!!! It's super cute. Perfect for when I eventually move out and only need to cook small portions.

I used it to make Jamie Oliver's honeycomb cannelloni - so called because it's cooked vertically and all the tubes look like a giant piece of honeycomb from the top. It's in Cook With Jamie.
You layer up white sauce, spinach, and a deeply mushroomy tomato ragout, and stick the cannelloni (dried obviously, not flaccid and fresh) in there, fill with more ragout, top with more white sauce and cheese, and bake!

In Jamie's book the pasta fit exactly into the pot, but as you can see from my photo the tubes were too tall. (Had to put a tray underneath to catch drips!) I was afraid the top might get dry and hard, but as long as there's sauce inside the pasta tubes at all time, there's enough liquid for the pasta to cook through. I noticed that as it cooked, the liquid in the pot reduced and didn't fill the pasta up to the top anymore, so I topped it up with more ragout and white sauce halfway through the cooking time. (Jamie's recipe makes a MASSIVE vat of ragout - you will need it all). It was fabulous - great recipe! A little different, and very tasty.

I loved my gifts, and felt very very lucky. (As you can guess, the chocolate was devoured in less than a week.) Oops!

Happy Birthday Me! I am now 25 years old - still young enough to be asked "how old are you?", but old enough to feel like I could get away with acting tetchy about it, hehe. I had a couple of celebrations spread over my birthweek. Because that is the way I roll. First up was b'day drinks with friends.

Match Bar
247 Lt Lonsdale St
Melbourne 3000
(03) 9654 6522
Website

I haven't been doing the bar thing a lot lately, and wanted to choose a nice place that wasn't too pretentious or expensive, but that had a good relaxed vibe. A couple of friends recommended Match Bar, and after a quick squiz at the website, I decided it would fit the bill.

We went on a Saturday night, and knowing it would get super-crowded late at night, I booked a table for 6 for an 8pm dinner. This way, we'd a) eat dinner, and b) have scored ourselves a sweet spot before the rest of our non-eating friends found their way to us.

My friend An shouted the table a bottle of Cava. He told me to order a bottle of whatever I want from the menu (not red though, he doesn't drink it), and I happened to choose the cheapest thing. I wasn't just being considerate, I seriously love Cava, and it's not readily available everywhere. I have great memories of drinking it at the St. John's May Ball at Cambridge in '06... *sigh* Thanks AN!

There was bread, with awesome olive oil...

I had a chicken schnitzel with a raisin and pine-nut coleslaw - $22.


An had a pork rack with an apple, fennel and chive salad - $28.

George had the superfood salad, which includes broccolini, alfalfa, cucumber, avocado, quinoa, toasted seeds, feta, mint, parsley and olive oil - $18.

Of course, fries with aioli - $8.

The other lovely ladies at our table had, respectively, a fillet steak, a big serve of mussels and a veggie risotto. Apparently they were pretty good, but in the photos I took, they just look like any steak/mussels/risotto you'd get around town, so I decided not to post any pics.

An & Adri shared a "chocolate something", which on the night we went, was a chocolate fondant with coffee ice-cream. $11.
I was trying to be (reasonably) good, so I abstained from any dessert... but after stealing one taste from their plate, I sure wish I hadn't! It was dee-licious. Crunchy, hot, soft, molten... everything a good chocolate pudding should be. Even better, it wasn't inaccesibly dark and intense. I wonder how I'd recreate this at home.

The food was a little slow to come out, but that wasn't a huge deal for us, as we were planning on staying the whole night anyway. Staff were nice, especially the person with whom I made my phone booking. And they were understanding of our group - with a couple of late arrivals, some indecision when ordering and other changes which I'm sure are hideously irritating for waitstaff. Thanks guys!

Whilst the food wasn't mindblowing, it was good, and reasonably priced. The menu has a variety of dishes, including mains, salads, small/sharing plates which I think would satisfy diverse groups. (Case in point: my fried schnitzel and George's superfood salad). I liked the atmosphere, and the central location makes it a good place to catch up with friends for a relaxed meal or a drink. By about 10-ish, the dining area had morphed into a normal drinking area, and soon was packed. Because I was in the one spot, talking to people all night, I didn't get a chance to look around the actual bar section of Match Bar, but will do so next time.

Oh! Presents. My foodie present of the night was a copy of the Planet Cake cookbook. Hurrah! I have been wanting this book for ages, not just for the detailed sugarwork (best leave that to the professionals), but for the awesome-looking basic cake recipes and ganaching tips. I have to say, I love a book where "ganache" is a verb.

More birthday stuff to come!

I think I might have missed out on Jackie's Amnesty fortnight... but better late than never! Today's post is on restaurants! These were visited in a period from November last year up until the present...

Della Nonna's Bruschetta

Della Nonna
844 Glenferrie Rd
Hawthorn Vic 3122
(03) 9819-6444

We visited Della Nonna in November 08 for a Sunday lunch... as it was so long ago I can't remember the exact prices or menu details, sorry! It was a little pricey for a casual Sunday lunch, but I really enjoyed it and would definitely recommend it!

Wagyu carpaccio... or was it bresoala? I can't remember... but I remember it tasted great and came with rocket, salty olives and fresh anchovies. Such a great combo!

Sausage Pizza


Koliba Czech and Slovak Restaurant
11 Johnston St
Collingwood Vic 3066
(03) 9417-3797
Website
Duck kiev with 2 red cabbage, sweet & sour cabbage and potato dumplings - $22.50

Another visit to our favourite Czech and Slovak restaurant. (Well, it's the only one we know of, but we really like it!) Special of the day was duck with 2 types of cabbage. (Just like in Prague!) Ooooh yeah. Service is super-friendly, and has gotten a lot smoother since the first time we went. Lovely!


D.O.C.
295 Drummond Street
Carlton Vic 3053
(03) 9347-2998
Buffalo mozzarella with speck - $24

We love D.O.C. The pizze, the mozzarella!!!! My cousin Barry (quite the wine buff) was intrigued by my Facebook status: "I'm looking forward to the pizza and prosecco at D.O.C!", and asked if they went well together. Please, everything goes well with prosecco. In addition to the speck e mozzarella, we had porcini pizza, Napolitana pizza (mozzarella, San Marzano tomatoes, anchovies) and pimped-up margherita (i.e. with luxurious buffalo mozzarella). Delicioso.


JJ's Bar and Grill
Level 1
Crown Towers
(03) 9292-6891

We had a stunning meal at JJ's for my brother's birthday this year. (Previous visit in '06 blogged here). The highlights included:

Grilled Scampi and Scallop Risotto - $19.50 (entree)

Yellowtail king fish with pine nut salsa and citrus reduction - $36.50


St. Ali
12-18 Yarra Place
South Melbourne Vic 3205
(03) 9686-2990
Website
Zucchini fritters with baby spinach, a fried egg, grilled halloumi and beetroot relish

I came here the first time for a coffee tasting event (blogged in detail by Claire), and knew from the funky set-up and insane focus on coffee quality that my bro would love it. We came a couple of weeks later, and were suitably impressed. My bro's gf ordered the zucchini fritters with baby spinach, a fried egg, grilled halloumi and beetroot relish. The combination was great, and the halloumi just put it over the top. I've just moved offices to South Melbourne, so I envisage that I'll be visiting St. Ali much more often. Yay! (I should add, that the next time I visited, I ordered the fritters for myself, and they were still raw on the inside... Eek! But a trip to St. Ali is worth it, just for the coffee alone).


Belgian Beer Cafe
557 St Kilda Road
Melbourne Vic 3004
(03) 9529 2899
Website
Beef Pie with peas and mashed potatoes

We always have fun at the Belgian Beer Garden. (Way better than the similar, but crappier Little Creatures Dining Hall). This visit was on a cold day, so we went inside the cafe itself for hot food rather than standing around outside with beers. I seem to recall we all had an intense craving for waffles... but had to get through some frites, a pie, a croque monsieur, some escargot and some beers first, hehe. That was shared between 4 of us! Previous visit blogged here.


Ambrosia Mediterranean Cuisine
221 Camberwell Road
Hawthorn East VIC 3122
(03) 9882-3422

Ambrosia is a friendly yet professional family-run restaurant. Servings are generous and the food is super-fresh. Very nice!
Fresh Sardines - price forgotten (approx $20??)

Jel (the owner) gets up at the crack of dawn every morning to bake his own bread. Yummm.



Maedaya
400 Bridge Rd
Richmond Vic 3121
(03) 9428-3918
Quail's eggs wrapped in bacon

I like going to Maedaya when I start to miss smoky Japanese izakaya and kushi-katsu bars. Or just when I want a good feed and good sake at even better prices. I like to sit upstairs so I can order some yakitori (like the incredibly delicious quail egg and bacon you see above), and then get stuck into grilling my own meats over a smoky little brazier.
Hot Tip: don't wash your hair before you visit. And the free sauces kick ass.



I *heart* Melbourne!

My latest book review is up at The Gastronomer's Bookshelf, of Sudi Pigott's How to be a Better Foodie.

If you've just gotten a new-release cookbook and would like to share your opinion, why not contribute a review?

We went for dinner at Thanh's house last week. As per usual in the preceding week there were a flurry of back and forth emails deciding what to cook, when to have it, how we'd get there etc... (sorry Duncan!). In the end Thanh decided on a chicken recipe followed by chocolate puddings for dessert from his Movida cookbook.

We got there around 2, and Thanh swiftly put us to work making the chocolate puddings. The pudding seemed to be a typical molten chocolate pudding recipe, but you had to put the mixture back in the fridge twice (before spooning it into the ramekins, and once it's in the ramekins) before you bake it.
That's Thanh's concentrating face. :o)

Then we started making the chicken. The recipe seemed to be a lot more work than Thanh thought it would be. It wasn't too hard, just long and fiddly. You have to chop up masses of capsicums and tomatoes and onions and garlic, and sautee them all one after the other... then brown chicken pieces, pour the sauce over, then bake.


We also made roast potatoes, using the Nigella method and chicken fat. Yum. Thanh wanted to make a beetroot salad, but he couldn't be stuffed after all the cooking, hehe. We did a pared-down version with just spinach leaves, fetta, toasted pine nuts and dressing.

A couple of Thanh's friends also brought oysters and lemon. (Score! Especially considering 50% of the people at the table didn't eat oysters...)

Roast potatoes. Crispy!

The chicken was frikkin amazing! It was so tender, with heaps of great flavour from the capsicums. I loved it, and would love to make it again for my family or a dinner party.

After we ate, Thanh put the puddings into the oven. They only took about 15 minutes (?) to bake.

I thought we were gonna eat the puddings straight out of the ramekins, but apparently the idea was to turn them out on plates. They were a bit difficult to get out (Thanh blamed my crappy flouring, I blamed Duncan's crappy buttering, Duncan blamed Thanh's lack of instructions... heheh)... but they were still totally delicious. I love molten chocolate puddings with their crackly tops and soft rich centres.


Mmm... fattening.

That Movida cookbook is great. I'd totally have stolen it from Thanh if it didn't represent 20% of his total cookbook collection. Thanks for a great dinner Thanh!