Taste of Sydney 2014

Rain, rain and more rain. That is what I saw when I looked out of the window on Sunday. Really? Sydney is always hot, too hot if you ask me. And just when I want to go to an outdoors event it starts pouring down rain. The people who were in the St Patrick’s Day Parade weren’t happy either. 

So I waited until the rain stopped before making my way to Centennial Park where the event was held. It took a while. The event had been open during Friday and Saturday evenings but was due to close at 5pm on Sunday. It would be a brief visit to Taste.

And I was hungry. We were hungry. But we walked the wrong way and had to basically walk through centennial park before finding the event. However, it was worth it!

This was my first visit to Taste of Sydney so I did not know what to expect. I had already seen quite a few posts from food bloggers who received VIP access and had the opportunity to make really nice pictures. So don’t expect too much. I’m a beginner! 

Rekorderlig Cider Bar

I LOVE rekorderlig. It’s a Swedish cider, but I have never seen it when I still lived in the Netherlands. I have tried all the flavours, but the apple guava flavour is certainly my favourite.

There were also a few other bars at the event, including a Margarita bar. 

Hay Smoked Chicken Legs with Cured and Smoked Chicken with Corn and Local Garlic Cream from Biota Dining

This was more like a/one chicken leg instead of a few chicken legs. But the one chicken leg which was served in a nice cup was beautiful. The chicken was so crispy on the outside, I reckon you could even hear the crunch when I took a bite. The flavour was quite special as you could taste hay in the chicken meat. I think it’s pretty amazing you can achieve such a nice flavour by smoking the chicken in hay. The sauce was nice and creamy and even a bit tangy. I absolutely loved this dish and Mr BehomeforT had instant food envy. 


Ham and Cheese Croquettes from Biota Dining

This was Mr BehomeforT’s order. The croquettes were lovely and crunchy on the outside, gooey and creamy on the inside. It was not the most amazing ham and cheese croquette I have ever tried, but it was still pretty good.


Iconpark
I booked my Taste of Sydney tickets through Iconpark 

Iconpark allows people to develop a restaurant concept, and 6 of these concepts were showcased at Taste of Sydney. Buying tickets through Iconpark gave you a free Iconpark dish, worth $10. The type of dish depended on the concept you voted for. I voted for ‘Sedgwick Avenue’, not on the basis of their restaurant, but on the food they had on offer. Each concept restaurant was offering one dish only, and Sedgwick Avenue had an interesting combination on offer.


Brooklyn’s Finest De-Boned Free Range Wings with Grilled Watermelon and a Light Blue Cheese Sauce from Sedgwick Avenue @ Iconpark

I loved this combination. So tasty! The sweetness of the watermelon went very well with the saltiness of the blue cheese sauce, which was not too heavy. The chicken had a nice crunch and a lovely flavour. There was just not enough of it! I was surprised to see that Sedgwick Avenue has dropped to a fourth place, however, they are still in the competition. 


Savannah Estate Winery

I like wine. I LOVE wine! One of my favourite things to do is driving to the Hunter Valley and spend the weekend there to eat nice food and taste amazing wines. When we go to the Hunter Valley to taste wine we always end up with a car full of wine. The last time we brought home 42 bottles. And 3 wine memberships. 

We only wanted to taste some wine at Savannah, but the wine was so good that we ended up buying 3 bottles. We bought the Shiraz, the Premium Shiraz and the Chambourcin. Delicious! 

Wagyu Rossini with Shaved Fois Gras, Truffle and Madeira Jus from Chur Burger

I’m not big on burgers, but MrBehomeforT is. And he liked this fancy burger. This was Chur Burger’s icon dish at Taste, and therefore more expensive than their other dishes. Because Mr BehomeforT’s choice was not available anymore, he was offered to purchase the icon dish for half the price. Yes please. Now, I thought this was a pretty good burger. The beef patty was juicy and the madeira sauce gave it an extra dimension. I was missing some vegies though. I know, a burger falls apart easily when you add vegies, but just some beef, cheese and bread is not for me...


Suckling Pig with Smoked Potato Salad and Crushed Apple from 4Fourteen/Fourinhand 

I have been to 4fourteen before and had the most amazing pork dish. It had fantastic juicy pork, a fabulous and different crackling, amazing cabbage, colcannon mash, applesauce and a fantastic reduction. It was so good! This dish was not. I have to be honest. I expected a lot more!! The potato salad was bland, there was no crackling, the crushed apple was just... crushed apple and the pork was flavourless. It tasted like it looks... Sadface... 

Time for a drink at the Gardenbar where we had a nice cocktail. I had the mango and basil smash with mango, lime and vodka and Mr BehomeforT had the spiced apple mule with apple, ginger, honey, honey and ginger vodka and blanc vermouth. Both cocktails were lovely although mine was a bit sweeter. There was a nice area where we could relax for a bit before going to the beer tasting class

Beer tasting class
Taste put on a few wine and beer tasting classes and we were keen to try the beer tasting class. Everyone received a copy of wine magazine and got to taste 4 beers. 

The first beer was the Stone And Wood Pacific Ale. A lovely, light and not overly hoppy beer. I would describe it as a ‘girly beer’ because it was so fruity and easy to drink. 

The second beer was the Bridgeport KingPin from Oregon in the US. This is a triple hop double I beer. I might have said that wrong. I don’t know much about beer but this beer had a lovely deep flavour and the colour was almost caramel like. One of the makers argued that this would go well as a dessert beer. I agree. It was a nice rich beer to drink and it would go well with something made of chocolate.

The third beer was a vintage beer called Devon, made by Stone and Wood. It consist of a combination between malt and hops. The maker said that this would be ‘Coopers on steroids’. I don’t think I ever had coopers but I thought this beer was easy to drink, not overly fruity and not overly bitter. 

The fourth beer was Mr BehomeforT’s favourite. Apparently he ordered it a few times when we were on holidays in Austria. This Austrian beer is called Trumer and comes from a 400 year old brewery outside Salzburg. The way it is made it quite special and this manner is not often used in modern breweries. The top of the beer is skimmed off and then more yeast is added. This gives it a creamy balanced finish. You can imagine that such a production intensive process results in a high price. This is definitely not the cheapest beer, but surely tasty. 

The beer tasting was fun and I really enjoyed it. It was something different and perhaps I will try a cheeky beer here and there more often now.

We completely forgot that we did not have dessert! Because the festival was closing, stands were selling the last of their stock for a good price. We got these beautiful petit fours from Croquembouche Pattisserie. 


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Caramelised Onion Tart

It's autumn and I love the fact that summer is over!! Here in Australia even autumn can be very hot (for my poor Dutch body) and I am looking forward to the shorter and colder days.

Do you know the phrase: "you don't know what you've got 'till it's gone"? It's true! I'm talking about a proper autumn and winter! Back home in the Netherlands I loathed the cold. Autumn was generally rainy and windy, which is not very nice when you have to go everywhere by bike! Winter wasn't nice either if you had to go outside. Especially when the snow starts melting and becomes black and sloppy and yukkie! I fell off my bike straight into the wet snow more than once.

However, after more than 5 years in Australia, I miss the things that I thought I hated before. The cosyness for which the Dutch have a unique word, 'gezelligheid' is lacking in Australia, although sometimes they try really really hard. 

Imagine a cold night with a cold wind almost cutting through your skin, hurting your nose every time you breathe in, and cold ears, cold fingertips, cold toes, cold.... everything!!! And then imagine a dark pub, very dark, lit with candles, sometimes with a fireplace, almost always with a cat inside to catch the mice. A warm cider, a mulled wine. Warm heart warming food. And icepegs hanging from the roof. For a little while you are warm. You feel protected when you are inside, you feel happy. You are with friends or with your partner, there is food and drink, a nice seat, even a pet, and for a little while you don't have to go anywhere... It is.... gezellig..... 

I miss this so much!! Autumn and winter in Australia cannot compare, at all. Of course not all is bad, there are some positives to autumn and winter here, but it is definitely not like home. 

When the weather gets colder, I try to cook food which is a bit heavier. I'm not much of a beach person anyway and rather spend my time inside than outside, so a few extra calories do not worry me.

When I saw this tart by Jennifer from Delicious Everyday I immediately wanted to make it. It looked delicious and I liked the idea of a wholegrain crust. In the spirit of autumn I tried to make a bit of an autumn background when I took photos. We have some beautiful ikea pillows at home and I thought I'd showcase them in the background. Yes, it may look weird. Don't judge me, I have just started blogging and making pictures so I still have a lot to learn! 

Anyway, the caramelised onion tart. I was looking for something i could quickly reheat for lunch at work. This tart was just the right thing. Bring in a bag of lettuce and some balsamic and your lunch is done! 

Ingredients

Wholemeal shortcrust pastry (suggest normal shortcut pastry)

- 250g wholemeal flour (suggest using normal flour)

- 180 g cold butter

- 1 egg yolk

- 2 tbs cold water

Filling
- 8 large onions (3 in the original recipe, I made some extra so you can use this on sandwiches etc)

- 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

- 1 tbsp brown sugar

- 1 tbsp of butter

- 150 g strong cheddar (grated) – you can replace this with whatever cheese you have in the fridge

- 2 eggs and 1 egg yolk

- 150 ml cream

- 50 ml milk

- 3 tsp fresh thyme leaves (I always triple the herbs – so you can triple the amount if you like thyme)

The recipe

The recipe originally says that you start by making the pastry. I would recommend starting with the onions. 

Good caramelised onions take more than an hour to make and do not need any balsamic vinegar or sugar. This version uses the quick version. If you don’t have a lot of time, go for the quick version. The onions will not be as sweet and there will be a lot more than when you make the long version, but the balsamic vinegar and the sugar slightly makes up for this.

To make the short version, chop the onions in a kitchen machine and heat some oil or butter in a pan. Slowly cook the onions for 15 minutes or so before adding the thyme, balsamic and sugar and cooking for another 5 minutes. 

To make the long version, do exactly the same but then keep the onions in for more than an hour on low heat. They will break down, start caramelising, and in the end you will have a handful of caramelised onion goodness. I prefer this version – but I get it, we’re all busy, so the quick version will do.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius and start making the pastry. Add the flour and butter in a food processor and keep on mixing until crumbles form. Then add the egg yolk and the water and blend until a ball forms. Put the ball in plastic wrap and in the fridge

Grease a 30 cm loose bottomed tart tin and roll out the pastry. The pastry will easily break and it will be difficult to get it in the tart tin. I always roll it over some aluminium foil and then quickly turn the foil above the tart tin, and slowly remove the pastry from the foil. You will still need to break off some bits and pieces and add some pastry where needed. Refrigerate the tin for 15 minutes.

Put some baking paper in the tin and fill with baking weights. Bake for 10 minutes before removing paper and weights and baking another 10 minutes before slightly golden. Set aside to cool. 

Mix the eggs in a bowl with the egg yolk, the cream, milk and mix with some salt and pepper. Place the onions in the base of the tart and spread out easily. Sprinkle with cheese and then top with the egg mixture and more thyme. Bake for 18 minutes or so until the filling is just set. You can check this by inserting a skewer and if it comes out dry the tart is ready.

Serve with leafy salad and balsamic vinegar.

Review

I may have done something wrong or used the wrong flour, but I did not enjoy the texture of wholegrain in this tart pastry. It almost 'squeeked' when chewing on it and felt a bit like eating paper. I have therefore suggested replacing the wholemeal flour with plain flour, that may ensure that the pastry melts in your mouth. I have made similar tarts before and they worked our really well. It may just have been the type of flour I used. I would also recommend eating a tiny piece. This tart is heavy and very filling. Not a bad thing as it will give you many tart slices to bring to work for lunch. Enjoy!

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Movida, Surry Hills

I'm excited but also a little nervous, considering this is my first food review. I have always enjoyed writing reviews, generally on urban spoon or trip advisor, but I think it's always better if there are pictures so you can see how something looks like. And, if I read a good review on the Thousands, Timeout Sydney or a review blog like Not Quite Nigella, it really helps me in making my decision whether to go there or not. So I thought, why not? If I had a great dinner I might as well share it with you right?

I knew that it would be difficult to get a table at Movida on a Saturday night. No booking and we just rocked up around 7.30. The place was packed. We were welcomed and were told we could put our name on the list and come back in 45 minutes. That worked out well because we could pay a visit to our old local around the corner, the Dove and Olive, which was packed too, not very surprising.

I miss Surry Hills sometimes. When we lived on Bourke Street it was so easy to walk out on a Saturday night and go for some drinks and a nice dinner. Not that Newtown doesn't have nice places to go to, but it seems like Surry Hills has changed a lot the last few months, with new places popping up everywhere.

I think Movida has been in Surry Hills (Holt Street, near central) for a while. I was surprised to find out that it is actually part of a chain. There is another Movida in Melbourne (which is good news for my friends in VIC) and even one at the airport.

When we returned after 45 minutes there was still no table left, not even some places at the bar. I would soon find out why. This place is popular for a reason!

Mr BehomeforT and I ordered some wines which we drank while waiting for our spot at the bar/counter. Mr behomeforT had a Chenin Blanc which was absolutely beautiful. I wish I had written down the name because I would certainly order this another time. I thought I could easily find it back at the online menu, but unfortunately it's not on there. Well, now I know for the next review that I will have to take a picture of the wine menu too. I had a really nice Spanish wine, the 2010 Maranones ‘Picarana’ Albillo Madrid, Spain ($15). This was by far my favourite wine of the evening. It was unlike the Australian or New Zealand wines I normally drink. A lot milder, not overly sweet but definitely fruity, and easy to drink. I thought it was special and wish I had ordered another glass of it.

After 10 minutes or so we were seated at the bar and we had a look at the menu. Wow! So many good things. There were definitely a few items on the menu I would want to try. 

Bar seat

The lovely lady behind the bar recommended we took two 'tapa' and two 'racion'. The tapas were small bites whereas the racion were larger share plates. MrBehomeforT ordered one Rock Oyster ($4.50) for himself. I eat almost everything but I cannot stand oysters. So I was happy not to have an oyster when he did. 

Rock Oyster

It looked pretty though. I asked for his review and he said: "it tastes like the ocean". Fair enough, I'd say. 

Soon after we were brought the 'cigarillo de queso' ($5.50 each) which were two beautiful cigars stuffed with goat's curd and quince. The cigars were crispy on the outside and gooey on the inside. They had a beautiful sweet and creamy flavour, which was nicely complimented with a tomato sauce with a bit of a kick, but not too much. I don't like spicy food and too much of a kick would not make me happy. This was really nice.

Cigarillo de queso

Pretty much immediately after this we were brought the 'croqueta de jamon Iberico' ($8.50 for two) which were iberico ham croquettes. They were crunchy and nice and creamy on the inside. The flavour was lovely and there were a few bits of ham in there, which was a nice change to the smooth texture. Unfortunately these were not served with a sauce. I think a little sauce would have been nice, but the croquettes were nice without sauce too. All good. 

Croqueta de jamon Iberico

We ordered some more wine and this time I opted for an Aussie wine, a Pinot Noir. Again, I should have taken a picture as this wine cannot be found on the menu on the website either. This was Mr BehomeforT's favourite, and it would surely have been wise to write it down. MrbehomeforT had the 2012 Oliviere Riviere ‘Rayos Uva’ Tempranillo Gracian, Rioja, Spain, which was 'alright', in his words. I knew he really wanted my wine! I thought it was ok too. I should have ordered another glass of the Spanish wine I had first. Ah well...

We saw that some other guests got some bread, and MrBehomeforT complained to me (a bit too loud) that we did not have any. Well, our bread drought did not last long as we were given some bread within a few minutes after that (thanks for being too loud MrBehomeforT). The bread was (I think) a soda bread served with some olive oil. I never had soda bread before but it is really nice. This one was almost like a sourdough, nice and crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. Maybe it was a sourdough, who knows. It was pretty good. 

Bread with olive oil

I love vegies, MrBehomeforT does not. All good, more vegies for me! I ordered the mixed seasonal vegetables with artichoke, purple and orange carrot, tomato, grilled capsicum and spinach (I think it was $15, but not completely sure!) The artichoke was pickled or confit, not sure either. Doesn't matter, because what they did with it made it very nice. I could eat a whole bowl of this and may even consider becoming a vegetarian. I ate the whole plate myself. 

Seasonal vegetables

We also ordered the crispy pork with potatoes and scallops. Big juicy scallops. Again, not on the online menu, but I think it was in the $25 range. I thought the pork was deepfried, because the outside was crunchy and the fat which is normally, how would you describe it, fatty (yes, no shit sherlock) was very nice and chewy, almost cheesy. The potatoes were crispy too which worked really well with the scallops. This was nice, but not my favourite dish.

Crispy pork with potatoes and scallops

My favourite dish was the duck. The beautiful 'pato gf/df' ($24.50). The crispy duck leg was served in Moscatel wine and served with a pickled cabbage. Oh, that pickled cabbage! It was so good! It worked so well with the duck which was crispy on the outside and nice and soft on the inside. The sauce was (as Manu Feidel would say) 'to die for'. Normally I would say there was not enough of it, but there was, because I was so full. I was so full I could not eat a single bite anymore. Which means it was good, really good. 

Pato gf/df

I left Movida really happy (slightly nauseous, I really ate too much). I would definitely eat here again. I give this place a 8.5/10 (because an 8 was just not enough).

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Dean's Chocolate Tart with Honeycomb

Mr BehomeforT’s favourite dessert is chocolate cake. Or chocolate ice cream. Or chocolate brownies. Or just chocolate. Really, anything with chocolate will do.

Every time we go out for dinner and there is a nice chocolate dessert on the menu, he’ll have it, and I am more than happy to share.

When I found this chocolate cake on Taste, I had to make it. Not only because it looked so good, but also because of its name. Mr BehomeforT is now not so anonymous anymore.... I’ll still call him Mr BehomeforT though.

Anyway, I made this tart especially for him, and he loved it. I loved it too! And although the recipe category seems to suggest that the difficulty level is ‘advanced’, I highly disagree. This cake was baked in no time, and it was gone in no time too.

Do you know someone named Dean? Make this chocolate tart for him! He’ll be very happy you did!

Ingredients

Filling

½ cup full fat milk

1 cup thickened cream

175g dark chocolate, broken (you can replace this with milk chocolate)

1 egg

30g caster sugar

Vanilla ice-cream and honeycomb, to serve

Pastry
150g unsalted butter, and extra butter to grease

80g caster sugar

1 egg yolk

1 1/3 cups plain flour, plus extra to dust

25 g almond meal

The recipe

First, make the pastry. Beat the butter and the sugar with electric beaters until thick and pale. Fold in the yolk, the flour and the almond meal. Make a ball out of the dough, dust it with flour, put it in a plastic wrap and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes. Grease a 25cm loose bottomed tart pan.

Dust a rolling pin and clean work surface with flour, and then roll out the pastry to 5mm thick. This is the most difficult part. The recipe says you have to loosely wrap the pastry around the rolling pin and until it over the prepared pan. However, this is quite difficult. The pastry will fall apart very easily.

I decided to roll out the dough on top of some aluminium foil, and then quickly turn the foil upside down above the greased tart pan. You will have to evenly distribute the dough into the sides and trim off any excess dough on some sides, which you can add to other sides of the pan where there is not enough dough. Put the tart in the freezer for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Line the pastry case with a crumpled sheet of baking paper and weigh it down with pastry weights. Blind bake for 20 minutes and then remove the weights and paper. Be careful, the weights will be hot! Return to the oven for 10 minutes or until the pastry is dry and golden. Leave to cool completely.

For the filling, heat the milk and cream in a pan over low heat and add the chocolate gradually. Make sure you keep on stirring the mixture.

Whisk together the egg and sugar. Slowly add the chocolate cream, stirring until shiny. Return mixture to a clean saucepan over low heat and cook, stirring, until it becomes the consistency of thick custard. When it coats the back of a wooden spoon and does not ‘leak’ it is finished. Allow to cool.

Reduce over to 160 degrees Celsius. Poor the cooled filling into the cooled pastry base. Bake for 20 minutes or until set but still soft and mousse-like in the centre. Chop the honeycomb and press it in the top of the tart while it is still warm. Serve the cake at room temperature with ice cream.

Review

This tart was very filling and gooey, and also very sweet. A small slice will do, and some vanilla ice on the side works really well. I will definitely make this tart again!

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Easy Guinness Pie

One of the things I do on the weekend is cooking lunch for the whole week to bring to work. I cannot stand paying 8, 9 or even 10 dollars for a bland, basic and tasteless salad or sandwich that has been prepared in the morning and has been sitting out all day. With some proper menu planning and a bit of effort to cook a large batch of meals on the weekend, you have lunch covered for the whole week!

Back home in the Netherlands I have never had a real meat ‘pie’. The Dutch version of a pie would be a quiche or a ‘taart’ as we call it. My mum makes a fine ‘kip in de hoed’ or ‘chicken in the hat’ (chicken in da hood!) which is similar to a meat pie, but then with chicken.

When I moved to Australia 5 years ago (tomorrow, it will be exactly 5 years since I moved to Australia!) I soon found out that the meat pie is one of the staple dishes of the Ozzie cuisine. Let’s categorise them.

There are the ‘servo pies’ or, in proper English, service station pies. I have been told by mr BehomeforT that there is this particular servo pie which is the best. I do not believe him! I mean, who prefers a pie which has been heated for hours, maybe even days, processed and full with preservatives over a freshly made pie?? Apparently mr BehomeforT does.... Ah well.... I have to be honest, I have never tried one... and I am not intending to do so in the near future (I’m nearly 30, my crazy late party late-night-junkfood nights have been over for a while...).

The second category would be the ‘take out pie’ or ‘takeaway pie’. You can get them at bakeries, at ‘pie stands’ at events (such as the races). Harry de wheels pies are famous, apparently. Again, I haven’t tried this one! There are even shops here completely dedicated to pies! Pieface is one of them.

The third category would be ‘pubfood’ pies. Good and bad pubs often have a pie on the menu. Sometimes it is a freshly made pie, and sometimes the pie has been made from scratch. One particularly good pub pie I had was a deconstructed chicken pot pie at the ‘Duck in’ in Camperdown. It was beautifully made with fresh puff pastry and a creamy filling. I loved it!

And then the fourth and the last category is dedicated to the ‘fancy pies’! Fancy schmancy pies! I haven’t had one of these either. Not because I don’t go out for dinner to nice restaurants, but because I don’t think I should order a pie in a fancy restaurant. I mean, surely it cannot be that good? Mr BehomeforT tried one of ‘Bert’s pies’ at the Palings stand during the March into Merivale opening and when I asked him how it was he said ‘yeah alright’. Please note, this does not mean that it was an average pie. This is Mr BehomeforT’s standard answer. The best rating that any dish can get is ‘yeah, good’. I have never heard him say that something was amazing, or delicious, or SO good! So, I don’t think that his comments on this pie should be a good measurement system... So perhaps you should give the fancy schmancy pie a go yourself. Maybe I should too...

Anyway, enough talking about pies other than the one I have made. Back to easy lunches. If you make a batch of 10 or so of these pies on a weekend, you are set for the week. Sorted! You are sorted for dinner on the evening you have made them, and you are sorted for lunch at work. After making these pies, let them cool down for a while, and then individually wrap them in aluminium foil and put them in the freezer. Ready to go.

This particular pie is a Guinness pie. Two n’s, two s’es. Guinness.

Do you like Guinness beer? I don’t. It is very strong and bitter. None of that in this Guinness pie though. I’ll tell you more about that in the review.

This recipe has been slightly adapted from taste.com.au

Ingredients

1.25 kg diced casserole beef

1/3 cup plain flour

Proper amount of mushrooms, sliced

1 tbs olive oil

2 cups guiness

5 or 6 carrots (the perfect way to get kids or stubborn men to eat them)

2 sticks celery

2 brown onions, chopped

Lots of fresh parsley (I ALWAYS put in a lot more herbs than the recipe requires)

4 sheets good quality puff pastry (hey, it’s called an easy pie, not a fancy schmancy pie)

1 egg, whisked

The recipe

Get a nice large pan, and put some oil in. Properly season the beef with salt and pepper, and cover the beef with flour. You can do this by adding both ingredients to a large bag and shaking it to avoid lumps. Brown the beef in batches, and put to the side.

Add some new oil to the same pan and brown the onions, the celery, the mushrooms. Also add some salt and pepper. Once this has been properly browned, add the meat back and then add the Guinness. The flour will thicken the sauce. Put the pan away on low heat for 1,5 hours.

Reheat the oven on 220 degrees celcius. Grease the little pie forms. Often pies are made in ramekins, but it is easier to make them in pie forms so you can take them out and separately pack and freeze them. Roll out the puff pastry so the bottom and the sides of the forms are covered. Add the filling and cover with the puff pastry top. I have made these by ‘cutting’ the puff pastry with the pie forms. Seal the edges and make a small slit at the top. Put some of the egg on top and put them in the oven for about 20 minutes or until the pastry is crunchy and golden.

Enjoy!

Review

This is an easy to make pie. I cannot remember what Mr BehomeforT said when I asked him how it was. I guess he said ‘yeah, it’s alright’, haha! The beer gives a nice full flavour to the meat filling, almost a bit yeasty (which makes sense!). The filling has the perfect consistency (well, I think it does) – a lot of ‘chunks’ (vegies! Yay!) and a nice creamy sauce. If you’d like to, you can have a nice salad on the side, but I think that this pie is very nice by itself.

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Toasted Coconut Lemon Bread with Salted Honey Butter

Every week I make a ‘bread’ so I have a afternoon snack at work. Generally I try to make healthy breads with fruit and without butter or sugar (sometimes replaced by equal). However, sometimes I see something popping up on my bloglovin’ feed, and i NEED to make it. I MUST try it! This recipe has been slightly adapted from Half Baked Harvest

I have been loving lemons lately, and since it is still summer here in Sydney, I thought a combination of lemon and coconut would be very appropriate.

This beautiful cake is accompanied by a nice salted honey butter. Another thing I haven’t made before. But I like challenges! Let’s give it a go!

Ingredients
Toasted Coconut Lemon Bread

2 cups shredded coconut

¾ cups all-purpose flour AND 1 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

Zest of 4 small lemons

1,5 teaspoon vanilla paste

½ cup brown sugar

¾ cup canned coconut milk

¼ cup coconut oil (melted)

Salted Honey Butter

½ cup honey

2 tablespoons salted butter, melted (or normal butter with added salt)

Juice of 1 lemon

The recipe

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius and put baking paper on your baking tray. Spread the coconut evenly over the baking paper, and roast for 8 minutes or so. Make sure you keep a constant eye out to make sure that the coconut does not burn. This stuff burns so easily! Also make sure you mix the coconut so it browns evenly.

In a small bowl, combine the flours, the baking soda, the salt and the lemon zest. In another bowl, mix the eggs, the lemon juice, the vanilla bean paste and the brown sugar. Then, after this has been mixed properly, add the coconut oil, the coconut milk, and the toasted coconut, but leave enough coconut to put on top of the bread later.

Slowly mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Keep on stirring until consistent.

Then poor the batter in a greased baking tray. Make sure the mixture is spread out evenly. Bake this for 30-40 minutes.

The last 10 minutes the bread is in the oven, add the butter, the lemon juice and the honey in a pan and heat slowly. I added some salt here to balance the sweetness (I think I accidentally added too much honey).

Once the bread has cooled down slightly, put some of the toasted coconut you have kept on top of the  bread. Then poor the beautiful salted honey butter over the cake. This will make the bread moist and juicy and will add extra flavour.

Cut the remaining cake into thick slices and wrap them separately in foil. If you have a grill-toaster at home or at work, it will be easy to reheat this cake for a nice afternoon snack. Just put the frozen slice on your desk, and it will be defrosted in the afternoon when you are ready to toast it.

Review

What a lovely, moist bread. It was not too sweet, and the coconut gave it a nice consistency. The salted honey butter made the bread nice and moist and added some extra flavour to it. I am definitely looking forward to eating this all week!

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Dulce De Leche Brownies

There are brownies. Soft, decadent, chocolate-ey, moist brownies. And then there are brownies with Dulce De Leche. Soft, decadent, chocolate-ey, moist brownies with a sweet, gooey, creamy, caramel sauce. Dulce De Leche Brownies. Like brownies? You will love Dulce De Lece brownies!

I stumbled upon this amazing recipe when I scrolled through my bloglovin newsfeed. Brown Eyed Baker borrowed this recipe from another blogger (who might have taken it from again another blogger) and so on. Hopefully this recipe will inspire all of you bake-a-holics and we can pass on all the brownie goodness. The brownie gooey-ness. The brownie chocolate-ey ness.

Until a few weeks ago I did not even know what dulce de leche was. But boy am I happy that I was introduced to Mr (or Ms) Dulche De Leche. Also called “Doce de Leite”, this caramelised sweet (condensed) milk tastes like a creamy caramel. If you literally translate ‘Dulce De Lece’ it means ‘candy of milk’ or ‘milk jam’ (gotta love Wikipedia). There are many different variations of this beautiful cream. Various South American Countries use their own version – from unsweetened coconut milk Dulce De Leche in Puerto Rico to the Mexican cajeta which is made from goat’s milk.

Anyway, back to the brownies. This was the first time I have tried to make these brownies – and the result was bang on. Preparing them turned out to be more interesting than expected. I said to Mr BehomeforT..... Shall I call him that? That is what all bloggers do, right? Ok, Mr BehomeforT it is... Where was I? Don’t get distracted!! I said to Mr BehomeforT: “This won’t take long”. It did. It took a lot longer than expected. But I’m a beginner, so I can get away with that, right? OK, let’s get to the part you all have been waiting for: the recipe! Here we go...

Dulce De Leche 
Making the Dulche De Leche can be done in a few different ways, including cooking the condensed milk in its tin. Now, I have heard horrible stories about exploding tins and Dulce De Leche on the ceiling, so I decided to go with a safer option. Get a baking tin and empty one or two tins of condensed milk in the tin. Tightly cover the tin with aluminium foil, and then place it in a baking tray filled for ¾ with water. Put it in the oven on 180 degrees for 1,5 hours. Make sure you check the water level and that you add some water every 30 minutes to ensure that the milk does not burn. After taking the tin out of the water bath, cool it down a little, and stir like there is no tomorrow so all lumps are gone. Store in a jar in the fridge.

The brownies 
I know you are supposed to make brownies with dark chocolate. I think you are supposed to. Are you? Anyway, most recipes I have read use dark chocolate only. So does this recipe. But I like breaking the rules. I love breaking the rules. So i used half dark chocolate, and half milk chocolate. Because I can! Living on the edge! Turned out I did not have enough eggs. I made an apple/pear brown butter bread on the weekend and used a lot of eggs. Poor Mr BehomeforT had to run to the shops at 9.30pm. “I love that you love to cook” he said with an annoyed expression on his face. Is that sarcasm? I don’t get sarcasm. I don’t know whether it is the fact that I am Dutch or whether it is just me. Anyway, he was not happy. He felt a bit better when he ate some of the brownies though. More about that later.

Before I move on to the actual recipe, I want to warn you. The recipe tells you to melt the chocolate with the butter and to add the sugar after taking the pan (au bain marie) from the stove. The mixture did not turn into a smooth mixture but sort of ‘split’. A watery, oily butter substance was floating around the sugar, which slowly turned into lumps, the more we stirred and tried to mix it. This was solved once the eggs were added (make sure the mixture has cooled down, otherwise the eggs will cook!), and the mixture became smooth. I might have done something wrong. It doesn’t matter. I am not a professional chef, and I am still learning.

Ok, here is the recipe. Finally!

I have been a cheeky bugger and I have not changed the measurements/standards to the ones we use in Australia. You will have to figure that out for yourself (the ‘convert currencies’ app on my iphone was a lifesaver here).

Ingredients 
1¼ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon table salt
2 tablespoons dark unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Dutch processed)
11 ounces dark chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used half dark, half milk chocolate)
1 cup unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch cubes
1½ cups granulated sugar
½ cup light brown sugar
5 eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
¾ cup dulce de leche

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter the sides and bottom of a glass or light-colored metal 9x13-inch pan. Line the bottom with a sheet of parchment paper, and butter the parchment; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and cocoa powder; set aside. Place the chocolate and butter in the bowl of a double boiler set over a pan of simmering water, and stir occasionally until the chocolate and butter are completely melted and combined.

Turn off the heat, but keep the bowl over the water of the double boiler, and add both sugars. Whisk until completely combined and remove the bowl from the pan. The mixture should be at room temperature. Add three eggs to the chocolate mixture and whisk until just combined. Add the remaining eggs and whisk until just combined. Add the vanilla and stir until combined. Do not overbeat the batter at this stage, or your brownies will be cakey. Sprinkle the flour mixture over the chocolate.

Using a spatula, fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until there is just a trace amount of the flour mixture still visible. Pour half of the brownie mixture into the pan and smooth the top with a spatula. Drizzle about ¾ cup of the dulce de leche over the brownie layer in a zigzag pattern, making sure the dulce de leche doesn't come in contact with the edges of the pan or it will burn.

Use an offset spatula to spread the dulce de leche evenly across the brownie layer, leaving about a ½-inch border around the edges. In heaping spoonfuls, scoop the rest of the brownie batter over the caramel layer. Smooth the brownie batter gently to cover the dulce de leche layer.

 Bake the brownies for 30 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through the baking time, and check to make sure the brownies are completely done by sticking a toothpick into the center of the pan. The brownies are done when the toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs. Remove the brownies from the oven and place the pan on a wire rack; allow to cool completely to room temperature before cutting and serving.

The brownies can be stored, tight wrapped at room temperature, for up to 4 days.


The Review 
I don’t have to tell you how good these brownies were. The recipe says that you can store the brownies for up to 4 days. Trust me, they will be gone before that. Enjoy!

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