Raspberry Friands

I had a group of my close girl friends over for a baking session at my place because what is more fun than baking well it has to be baking with great gals. Since most of them do not bake often I decided to start with this fairly easy recipe which requires no effort at all. It's a one bowl recipe where you prepare the dry ingredients and mix it in with the wet ingredients.

Ingredients:

Melted butter to grease

Plain flour to dust 

195gm pure icing sugar sifted

75gm plain flour sifted

155gm almond meal 

3 eggs lightly whisked

180gm butter melted

100gm frozen raspberries

2tbsp flake almonds

Icing sugar to dust

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 deg, brush a muffin tin with melted butter and dust with plain flour.
2. Combine the sugar, flour and almond meal in a bowl. Make a well in the centre. Add egg and butter. Stir well until combined.
3. Divide among among the muffin tin. Place a few raspberries in the centre and sprinkle with flake almonds.
4. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until light golden. Set aside in the pans for 5 minutes to cool slightly before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.
5. Dust the friands with icing sugar to serve.

We enjoyed the fruits of our labour with a nice cup of tea and gal chit chat, what a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon. This is one of many baking sessions to come, look out for it.

Flourless Chocolate Cake

I usually bring what I bake to work as most of the time it will be too  much for me and my family to finish all by ourselves and also because we do not want to add onto much to our expanding waist line. Recently we had a colleague who join our team who was gluten free and she always ends up missing out on the treats I bring in. So just for her I decided that I'll bake a gluten free cake so she won't have to miss out.

This is an easy to follow idiot proof recipe and it did not take any effort at all except for whisking the egg whites which in today's modern kitchen there's always a mixer handy to assist.

Ingredients:

200g dark chocolate

200g butter

60ml hot water

30g cocoa powder

4 eggs separated

300g brown sugar

155g hazelnut meal

2tbsp coffee liqueur

cocoa powder to dust

Method:

• Preheat oven to 180 deg. Grease and line the base of a 23cm square cake pan.
• Combine chocolate, butter, water and cocoa in a saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring, for 2 to 3 minutes or until mixture is smooth. Transfer to a large bowl.
• Add egg yolks, sugar, meal and liqueur, stir to combine.
• Use an electric mixer to whisk egg whites in a clean, dry bowl until soft peaks form. Add one third of the egg white mixture to the chocolate mixture and gently fold until just combined. Add remaining egg whites and fold until just combined.
• Pour into the prepared pan, smooth the surface. Bake in preheated oven for 40 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.
• Set aside for 10 minutes to cool. Dust with cocoa powder, cut into squares and serve.

T my daughter could not wait to have a piece of it and she had it with vanilla ice cream. She said it was rich and chocolatey, love every bite of it. I had the cake 5 minutes longer in the oven than required so the corners are a little burnt but that did not affect the overall taste of the cake. It was still really rich and moist.

Pabu - Collingwood

We celebrated our wedding anniversary at Pabu a Japanese Sake & Grill no frill joint which serves tapas size shared portions. I had to book two weeks in advance as this place is pretty popular and you won't get a table trying to book it a day before I should know as I tried and failed. So to be safe I make reservations well ahead of time to guarantee a spot.

The moment we stepped into the restaurant we were greeted by enthusiastic staff, our wait staff  showed us to our table that had the reserved tag. She handed us our menu and explain how the concept worked and even suggested a few of their best sellers without hesitation we ordered them.

We had reservations for 7.30pm so by the time we got there we were famished and fortunately we did not have to wait for long before our dishes got served to us. As soon as one dish was finish the next one arrived to our table, I like how it flowed one after another.

Tempura Vegetables

First was the tempura vegetables note that I cannot remember the name of the dishes as they were in Japanese so I have given you what I thought the dish was. The batter was light and crispy and not at all greasy. The vegetables were still fresh and crisp.

Gyu Tataki

Then it was followed by the gyu tataki which was thinly slice beef drizzled with mayonnaise, spring onions and ginger. The beef was so fresh it just dissolved in your mouth, the dressing had the right balance of sour, spice and sweetness. The spring onions and sesame seed gave it crunch.

Chicken Kaarage

Next came the chicken kaarage which they use the chicken spare ribs part which was nicely coated with batter and fried to crispy golden perfection, the meat was juicy and tender as you bite into it. It was serve with wasabi mayo that left a good heat as it dissolve on your tongue.

Salmon Sashimi

We were recommended the kingfish sashimi but I was not a fan of kingfish so we opted for the salmon instead, and again this dish did not fail. The salmon was fresh and got quite a few pieces from the small serve we ordered.

Soft shell crab

We are a big fans of soft shell crab so we did not think twice of ordering the next dish, the crab was fried to golden crispiness and there was no hint of grease on it. It was serve with a light salad with mayo dressing and sweet chilli sauce.

Mixed grill

The dish up next was the mixed grill which was one of their chef recommendations, it consisted of chicken balls, pork belly, beef steak, tofu skin and chicken pieces. each serve with their own individual dressing sauce on top. All of it was good although we all agreed that the best was the chicken balls and tofu skin.

Sizzling beef teriyaki

Each dish that was served up was a treat to the senses and the sizzling beef teriyaki was no different, the beef was tender and the teriyaki sauce complimented the dish well. It was serve with mash sweet potato on the side which was really good too.

Soft shell crab roll

By this time we were full and we had one last dish to go, which was the soft shell crab sushi roll that came in a generous size. They had a generous serving of crab in the roll and although we were full each mouthful was just a delight. The spicy mayo left a slight heat on the tongue nothing too hot that we cannot handle.

Overall we enjoyed the experience at Pabu and will definitely be back over and over again. And if you have read my review I suggest you make reservations soon to try it out yourself.


Location:
190 Smith St
Collingwood
VIC 3066
 

Apple Lattice Pie

I'm a huge fan of cooking shows as I get a lot of my inspiration on what I cook and bake from it. Currently on television which I'm watching religiously is My Kitchen Rules, a cooking show where two people cook for a guest of 12 in their instant restaurant which is in their home thus the title of the show my kitchen rules. I got this recipe from contestants Cathy and Anna a mother and daughter duo. The judges gave full marks for the dessert, so I reckon that if it was good enough for those judges it was good enough for me to try. 

The apple pie was served with creme anglaise but I skipped that as I almost passed out at the amount of egg yolks that was required. Even the pastry required quite a huge amount of butter to achieve the short crust buttery melt in your mouth taste.

Apples peeled and diced

 Apple Filling:

2kg large granny smith apples

440gm caster sugar

100ml water

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon 

90gm butter 

2tbsp orange marmalade

Stewed apples

Pastry:

60ml milk 

Raw sugar to dust

Melted butter to grease

310gm butter, chopped, at room temperature

60ml boling water

500gm self raising flour, sifted plus extra to dust

pinch of salt

Blind bake pastry

Note: The original recipe makes 12 individual pies but because I do not have mini individual pie tin I make mine in a 8" pie dish. After making the apple filling I realise I had too much left over I would cut the quantities of apples to 1kg. 

Method:

1. To make apple filling, place apples, sugar, water and cinnamon in a large saucepan over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, for 4 mins or until sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat to medium low. Cook, covered and stirring occasionally for 15 mins or until apples are tender. Drain slightly, leaving a little liquid in pan, then stir in butter and marmalade. Set aside to cool.
2. Preheat oven to 180 degrees and grease a pie dish with butter
3. Place butter and water in a bowl, mash to combine. Mix in sifted flour and salt to form a soft dough.
4. Shape into a disc, wrap in cling wrap and refrigerate for 30 mins
5. Using a floured rolling pin, roll out pastry on a lightly floured work surface until 2 to 3mm thick. Carefully roll pastry onto rolling pin and place on pie dish. Roll out remaining pastry and cut into 1cm strips.
6. Fill pie dish with cold apple mixture. Place pastry strips on top to form a lattice pattern. Press end of strips to join pastry crust. Brush with a little milk and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 25 mins or until golden.

Apple pie fresh from the oven

The pastry was really hard to work with as it was crumbly and really soft. The picture does not do it justice but I'm comforted by the taste of it though. It melts in your mouth and takes no effort to eat at all. Because I did not make the creme anglaise as a accompaniment I had the pie with ice cream instead and it was just divine. The pastry just melted in your mouth and the apple was warm with the taste of cinnamon. I can now understand how this dish scored a perfect 10 from each of the judges.

Slice of apple pie best served with ice cream