One of the few things that can get me out of bed before 10am on a Saturday is the promise of a delicious breakfast. This weekend, it was an invitation from Nuffnang to a Chocolate High Tea that saw me schlepping across Melbourne in the cold and fog, to the warmth of The Langham hotel.

Aria Bar & Lounge
The Langham Melbourne
One Southgate Avenue
Southbank
Melbourne, Vic 3006
Ph: 1800 641 107
Website

Until the end of July, The Langham's Aria bar and Lounge are running two chocolate-themed afternoon teas: Monday to Friday is the Chocolate Indulgence Afternoon Tea, priced at $39 per person, and on weekends is The Chocolate Bar, priced at $59 per person. Sarah from Nuffang invited us to a special morning afternoon tea, put on especially for bloggers. They'd even set up a little laptop for us, just in case anyone wanted to Tweet! (However I think most people just used their phones to go online).

I arrived slightly early, which gave me some time to admire the jaw-dropping Chocolate Bar (above), and the beautiful table setting.

I loved the Mad Hatter napkin-ring, and I think more than one blogger took them home! (They're disposable paper ones, so it's ok, hehe).

The high tea is served with tea, coffee or hot chocolate - I chose English Breakfast tea. If it weren't for fear of succumbing to over-sugared, over-caffeinated hyperactivity, I would have had a coffee as well.

Thanks to Agnes for assisting me with the action shot!

Apart from the super-cute silver pot and the pretty gold-rimmed tea cup, I also appreciated the little crispy biscuit that came with the tea. It was crispy and similar to those Anna's Swedish Thins ginger biscuits, but not spicy.

After all the bloggers got there, we were introduced to German pastry Chef Markus Bohm (pastry chef + German = double win), and were invited to start digging into The Chocolate Bar. Chef Markus was so nice, and even humoured my feeble attempts to speak German - he said I pronounced: "Ich habe hunger" really well. My German teacher is definitely going to hear about that next week!

Here's a shot of the dessert buffet from the other side.

Let's have a closer look at the items. (The menu varies week to week). Each of the items includes a different type of chocolate, all of which are single origin, apart from the Lindt and the Callebaut.

Almond florentine, chocolate Vic Nayarit 37% (Spain)

These florentines were one of my favourite items from the whole chocolate bar, crunchy little bites of caramelized almonds dipped in milk chocolate.

Hazelnut chocolate éclair, Valrhona Guanaja Dark 70%

The choux pastry was very fresh, and the small éclair had a light and creamy filling. The chocolate on top didn't seem to have a particularly pronounced chocolate flavour, but did have a pretty sheen of gold glitter.

Rich chocolate pudding, Belcolade 55%

The chocolate puddings were, indeed, rich and dark, but not too sweet or heavy. In fact, they were quite fluffy inside, and doused with a lovely hot chocolate sauce.

Jaffa chocolate shot, Orange Callebaut

Langham torte, Milk Chocolate Callebaut, Dark 55%

The torte was covered in two types of chocolate, and had marzipan and almond-cake inside. I have a cross-section photo further down.

Back: Granola clusters with Lindt milk chocolate 45%
Front: Strawberry tartlette, white chocolate shell, creamy strawberry filling

Those granola clusters were insanely good! Whole macadamias and hazelnuts, encased in Lindt milk chocolate (my favourite chocolate ever!), topped with crystallised roses. Heaven. The little berry tarts were also delicious. Despite the white chocolate, they weren't overly sweet and were very refreshing. The strawberry filling had a pronounced fresh strawberry taste.

Lemon lime and bitters curd tart

These cute little tarts were topped with a whole blueberry each and were so shiny. I'm not sure if there was any actual chocolate in these, but they were very good. They were quite sour, which provided a good contrast to the other, more chocolatey items.

Chocolate marquise gateaux, passionfruit mirror glaze, Felchlin 69%

Pretty, huh? I've got a picture of an individual slice below, but let's all admire the shiny mirror glaze and the pattern around the outside.

Mixed nut biscotti dipped in Michel Cluizel chocolate 66% (Venezuela)

The biscotti were crunchy but not too hard (often a problem with biscotti). I liked the sprinkling of cocoa nibs on top, although being a biscuit-fiend myself, I would have liked these biscotti even better without any chocolate at all.

Alpine rocky road, Lindt white chocolate

I was afraid these would be too sweet, but the large whole nuts and toasted coconut prevented the rocky road from going over the edge. I was surprised how much I liked it!

Amarascata roulade with cocoa nibs, Choco Vic (Spain)

How pretty are these? I don't know if you can see it in the picture, but there was a touch of gold shimmer on the chocolate swirls on the top. The roulade was both light and creamy at the same time. This was my favourite out of all the 3 cakes.

Now, as promised, let's have a look inside the Chocolate marquise gateau with passionfruit mirror glaze. I liked how the tangy glaze cut through the richness of the chocolate mousse within.

As an aside, this gateau was gluten free. There were quite a few gluten free options on The Chocolate Bar - 6 out of 11, in fact - and they were all labelled as such. Items containing nuts were also clearly labelled.

Next up, let's have a look inside the Langham Torte:
Underneath the chocolate glaze was a layer of marzipan, and below that a dense almond-based cake studded with cherries. I quite liked it, although it was very different from what I expected. Marzipan can be quite a challenging taste; kudos to Aria Bar for including such a complex cake as their signature.

Before you ask, yes, I did try one of everything, even though I shared most items (thanks to Penny for sharing the load, haha). There was a huge bowl of strawberries on The Chocolate Bar as well, which leads me to believe that they have a chocolate fountain for normal seatings.

And as if that weren't enough food, out came the silver tiered trays of scones and sandwiches.

Scones (plain and fruit) with butter, jam and clotted cream
Sandwiches - including brown bread with cheese and prosciutto and chicken on white bread

Total deliciousness

The scones were fabulous. They had a wonderful crispy crust, but were still light and fluffy on the inside. They are served with butter, but I don't know who'd chose butter when clotted cream is on offer! Just look how thick and dreamy it is, so much better than the standard whipped cream you get at other establishments. The berry jam was also very fresh and fruity, and you could see whole berries held within the viscous jam.

I only had half a sandwich because I didn't want to get too full. I had the cheese and proscuitto on brown bread, which had a very thin layer of prosciutto - very dainty!

Table with trays and food & fashion bloggers. I think it will come as no surprise that the food bloggers ate a lot more than the fashion bloggers, hehe.

Finally, we were given passionfruit and chocolate chip soufflés, which came in little coffee cups and were cooked in the below portable oven.


This soufflé oven was like a little trip down memory lane for me. Back in uni, I spent a brief time working in a buffet restaurant, which mainly involved being yelled at by angry chefs, and running back and forth with huge trays of food from the kitchen to the buffet area. I also happened to be in charge of the cooked-to-order desserts, which were either flambéed crêpes or little soufflés, cooked in an oven just like this!



I love how high the soufflés rise when cooked like this. They had a nice crispy top, and were studded with molten chocolate pieces. However, I would have liked a stronger passionfruit taste throughout the soufflé itself.

I really loved the morning tea overall, and would happily come back again with friends and family. In fact, I'm craving a few of those granola clusters and scones right now! Whilst the items offered as part of The Chocolate Bar are certainly decadent and indulgent, Chef Markus has exercised a lot of restraint in keeping the overall effect light. I walked out full and satisfied, but not weighed down and bloated. Gut gemacht!

Clockwise from top left: Penny with Passionfruit Cake; Penny and I with Chef Markus; Violet LeBeaux (who is possibly the most adorable thing I've ever seen!); the beautiful foyer; Billy; the table laden with goodies.

Check out fellow bloggers posts: Joyce's at Mel: Hot or Not, and Anna at Much Love.

Sarah enjoyed the Chocolate Bar Afternoon Tea courtesy of The Langham hotel, with thanks to Sarah Stokely from Nuffnang for the invitation.

Last weekend we celebrated Sandra's birthday - dinner at Ezard's (yes, again!), followed by lovely cocktails at 1806. These will be blogged just as soon as I can, but in the meantime, let's have a look at this magnificent pile of donut French toast that I made for breakfast the morning after.

Our friend An was staying over at ours, (first guest at the new place!) and I somehow got it into my head that it would be a good idea to get up early after a night of drinking and make breakfast for us all. Of course, when the alarm went off at 9:30am I was cursing my own domestic goddessery, but if you know me, you'll know that I'd never pass up an opportunity to make something new and delicious.

The donut French toast recipe comes from Nigella Express, and I'd had the book for a while but wasn't inspired to make until I watched Nigella make it on the DVD. She drizzled it with luscious red strawberry sauce, and it looked heavenly! I was also intrigued by the idea of something that takes less than 20 minutes to make and tastes like donut. The French toast is donut-ified by the addition of vanilla extract to the beaten eggs. Nigella also dredges the cooked toast in powdered sugar, and I added cinnamon to my sugar to really amplify the donut theme.

The day before the breakfast, I'd bought a loaf of Country-style white bread from my local bakery, sliced it thickly, and left it out to dry out. In the normal run of things, you'd use up old stale bread, but that is not how I roll.


Then you dip the bread in the eggs, letting it sit for a good few minutes on each side so that it really soaks up the vanilla-scented eggy batter.


Then it is simply a matter of frying the bread. Nigella suggests using quite a bit of butter for this, but next time, I'd only use a small amount. You have to cook the bread on a low heat so that it cooks all the way through without burning, and as such, it soaks up a LOT of butter. I happen to have a kick-ass non-stick frypan which makes this easier.


Now, as I mentioned previously, Nigella serves a strawberry sauce with the toast, but as strawberries are out of season at the moment, I used frozen raspberries, with some icing sugar and some hot water to thin it out. It made a really intense, sharp and vibrantly red sauce.

The only other thing we needed was a pot of tea, and breakfast was served!

Table runners are so my thing.

Plain

With sauce

Without being too immodest, this breakfast was fabulous! So easy to make and really delicious. Even Sandra, who doesn't like French toast and normally skips breakfast, had 2 pieces. Wahoo! French toast in cafes is often huge, heavy, and weighed down with additions like mascarpone, labneh, honey and bananas. But made like this, simple and without excess adornment, it's a perfectly indulgent - but not too wicked - weekend treat.

... or "Variations on the theme of Roast Chicken and Tinned Peas"


I know it's been a while since I've blogged about something that I've actually cooked. Yes, I know the name of my blog is Sarah Cooks, not "Sarah Bakes Cookies", "Sarah Goes to Bars", "Sarah Goes to Restaurants". Although they all make compelling titles, don't you think? In fact, just yesterday I was reminded that I haven't done a cooking-related post since the meaty goodness of early April. Time to remedy that!

Since I've moved out, I've been cooking more, and looking through my recent photos it seems we've been going through a huge peas-and-chicken phase!

I've gotten obsessed with these French tinned peas/beans, below:


They're about $3.50 at Leo's supermarket, and I don't know what they do to the peas - the ingredients are just "peas, water and salt" - but they are absolutely delicious! We've been eating them with everything.

So, without further ado, let's have a look at some quick and easy weeknight dinners that I've been cooking.

Mackerel with Mushy Peas


I bought a beautiful, super-fresh greasy mackerel at the fishmongers, and it was only $2.50. Bargain! I filleted it myself (rather messily, as you can see!), then dusted them in seasoned flour and fried them in a lightly oiled non-stick pan. For the mushy peas, I did a simplified version of Nigella's upmarket mushy peas. I heated up a tin of the D'aucy peas in a small saucepan with a touch of garlic, and then mashed them up with a touch of cream. Easy, cheap and full of healthy omega-3's.


Sirloin with Peas and Onions

My dad gave us a couple of excess sirloin steaks he'd bought, which became the basis for the following meal.


Quite simple - I sliced up an onion and cooked the slices on a low heat until soft and golden, fried the steaks, and heated up a tin of the flageolet beans. Ta-dah!



Spatchcocked Chicken and More


Although I love a proper roast chicken, like the one you can see at the top of this post, they do take quite a while to cook. (About 90 minutes depending on the weight). Lately I've been getting into the spatchcocked chicken in a big way - just flip the bird upside down, cut away the backbone, flip the bird over and squish it flat. Well, I make it sound easy, but it takes a bit of practise to get it right. It also helps if you have a super-sharp knife.

And may I present to you...


I got a Wüsthof carving knife set a few months back with my credit card points, and it came in this kick-ass container! Looking at the knife, I didn't think it would be sharp, but boy, was I wrong! It's an awesome knife - it cuts through semi frozen chicken bones like butter. *Love*

Once the chicken is flattened, it only takes 45 minutes to cook in a hot oven. Easy! I usually squeeze lemon juice over, maybe some thyme, and chuck a few garlic cloves in too.

We served the chicken with the following accompaniments:

Creamy mushrooms with a touch of chilli.

Cubes of crispy roast potatoes with garlic.

Pea and mint salad. This is just like Nigella's pea, avocado and mint salad from How to Eat, but without the avocado. Unlike the peas in the rest of this post, these ones are not from a tin, but frozen ones. They peas are cooked, then steeped in a dressing of olive oil, vinegar and chopped mint. Delicious.

I don't normally cook this much on a weeknight, but for this particular meal, we were having a friend over for dinner. It only took an hour and 15 minutes to make everything from start to finish. Not a bad effort, I think!


Lebanese-style Charcoal chicken with Mash and Gravy and Peas

Yes, it looks like a meal you could get at Red Rooster. But it tasted better!

This is another spatchcocked chicken, but with a different marinade. I made it after work one day when I'd been obsessing over the stickily-roasted chickens you get at the Lebanese or Greek suburban charcoal chicken shops.

After some mobile-phone googling, I came up with this recipe. I boiled some garlic cloves in their skins until soft, drained them, skinned them, and mashed them up with a fork. I added lemon juice, olive oil, dried oregano, a pinch of cinnamon and some cumin.

I rubbed that all over a spatchcocked chicken, and shoved it in the oven for 45 minutes. (Ideally you'd do this the night before and let the chicken marinate overnight).


Because I was feeling rather industrious, I whipped up an onion-marsala gravy to go with.


Delicious. The chicken was very juicy, and stickily burnished on the outside. I was very happy with it, and would definitely make it again!


Pasta with Leftover Pan Juices


As you can see in the above picture of the spatchcocked chicken, there were a lot of pan juices. Rather than let them go to waste, I scraped them into a little bowl, and refrigerated them for the next day. Roast chicken pan juices make a fabulous, intense pasta sauce. (I got this idea from How to Eat as well).

Check out how gelatinous it is!

You scrape off the excess fat and let it melt in a pan. Add some cooked pasta, and any leftover chicken meat. (I had quite a bit). Heat it all up, sprinkle over some parsley and you are done! A tasty, easy and cheap weeknight meal.

So, you may remember I received some pretty funky cookbooks for my birthday last month. I'm still deciding what to cook first from the Japanese ones - it's all just too pretty! - but there was no such indecision when it came to David Lebovitz' new one, Ready for Dessert. I haven't even read all of the book yet, but I knew that his chocolate chip cookies would have to be first thing I made. (Although technically these are second recipe I've made - I made his cheesecake brownies last year in July after he published the recipe on his blog). He's also posted up a cute video where he makes these cookies, and feeds them to unsuspecting Parisians, who, surprise surprise, think they're fabulous.

His cookies are quite similar to The Rock's chocolate chip cookies (minus the oats), and my favourite chocolate chip cookies.


David does have a few tips though, to make his cookies extra-special. He suggests that you don't overmix the butter and sugars, so that the mixture doesn't become aerated, as this will make the cookies spread when you bake them! The recipe calls for a mix of white and light brown sugars. I didn't have any light brown sugar, so I substituted a rich dark muscovado sugar.

He also suggests using a chopped bar of chocolate instead of chocolate chips. Chips are designed to hold their shape, and chopped chocolate will give you more melty goodness. I used a couple of bars of Lindt Excellence 50% cocoa dark chocolate. I quite like the 50% dark chocolate - it gives intensity without harsh bitterness.

Finally, the dough should rest for 24-hours in the fridge. Unfortunately, I did not have the patience for a whole 24 hours - I just left the dough in the fridge for a couple of hours until it was firm enough to slice.



They only take about 9 minutes to bake, at whcih time they will be golden brown and smelling delicious! They were quite soft on the tray, but firmed up as they cooled down. From the below photo, I can see that the cookies did spread a little, but not too much.


These were a-mazing! They're soft and chewy like a Mrs. Fields cookie, with a slight crunch around the edges. I was worried the dark muscovado sugar might be a little too dark, but it gave the cookies a wonderful caramelly flavour that complimented the walnuts perfectly. (You know, like that maple walnut flavour combo). I also loved how melty the chocolate was. Very decadent. I ate an insane amount the day I baked them, but after that common sense took over and we packed the rest up to take to work.

These will definitely be my go-to basic choc-chip cookie recipe from now on.