Chicken Puff

I went to a Christmas Carol in the park with friends today, we had a fabulous little picnic where everyone just bring something to contribute for the picnic. My contribution today is my Chicken Puff that took me about 2-3 hours to make in total.

For 7 people

Ingredients :

• Ready made puff pastry - I used Pampas Pastry
• 1/2 cooked diced chicken (it can be boiled - I bought charcoal chicken from supermarket)
• 1/2 cup diced frozen carrot
• 1/2 cup onion
• 2 boiled egg diced
• 1/2 bunch Dill/ parsley chopped
• 100ml - 150ml milk
• salt
• pepper
• a pinch of sugar
• a pinch of cumin
• 1-2 tablespoon plain flour
• 1 whisked egg + 1 tablespoon of water (for glazing)

My ready made puff pastry, 6 sheets in a pack

Method - Chicken filling :

1. Stir fry onion & carrot for about 5 minutes
2. Add chicken, boiled egg, dill/ parsley, milk, salt, pepper, sugar, stir for about 5 minutes
3. Thicken by adding 1 tablespoon of plain flour

Method - Wrapping Option 1 :
I copied the wrapping method from the Pampas pastry packaging, it looks good but a little extra care needs to be taken.

1. Lay a sheet of greaseproof paper, lay pastry, spread chicken filling and start rolling
2. Spreading the filling over the puff pastry
3. Roll it like sushi - Leave about 2cm from the border - I forgot to do this...I had to scoop out the excess.
4. Lay aluminum foil in your oven tray & lightly greased them with butter
   
5. Brush the top with whisked egg glazing mixture
6. Bake at 220 degrees till golden brown

Oven hot !!

Method - Wrapping Option 2 :
I think this is an easier option, I actually make this version as well because I was lazy to make the roll.

1. Cut Puff Pastry into 9 squares
2. Put 1 tablespoon of chicken filling in the middle of the square
3. Fold it (triangle shape)
4. Lay aluminium foil in your oven tray & lightly greased them with butter
   
5. Brush the top with whisked egg glazing mixture
6. Bake at 220 degrees till golden brown

Sepia Restaurant

One more Birthday party to go for year 2009, birthday boy has asked me to select a place to go... da..dahhh..I picked Sepia Restaurant. I picked it because I heard some gozz that the owner used to be the head chef at Tetsuya and it is conveniently located in CBD (behind Darling Harbour) and everyone can just make their own way there.

Pre Starter - Eel consomme and seaweed
It is okay, kinda like drinking tea with seaweed flavour.

Friend's Starter - Ocean trout with apple salad

My Starter - Prawn with black sesame rice crackers, micro basil, black sesame sauce

Main - Butter poached Fish with subtle miso sauce & crispy seaweed, they laid some vegies underneath the fish but I can't remember the type of the vegs (I think it was garlic shoot).

Side - Creamed Corn with lime butter
I love the baby cooper pot, I just want to take it home.

Pre Dessert - Moscato jelly with lychee sorbet & peach

Dessert - Elements of Chocolate (chocolate bubbles, prune,etc)


Dessert - Sponge with strawberry, custard & buckwheat (deep fried)
Very yummy, not heavy and mild sweetness.

We definitely love the food, the presentation, the ambience etc, the only flop of the night was the rude & snob waiter. Not all of them got attitude problem, we just happened to be so (UN)lucky to be served by a yo-yo mood swing waiter.

Macaroni Schotel

I made Macaroni Schotel for friend's afternoon tea party, it is yummy but so full-o-fat (milk, cheese, pasta, spam, ham). This version of Macaroni Schotel is adapted for Indonesian taste (with Dutch origins), Happy Trying !!

For 8-10 people

Ingredients:

• Pasta 500gr - penne/ macaroni (anything hollow)
• 1 onion chopped finely
• 375 gr SPAM (medium can) - mashed using fork/ potato masher (this can be replace with corned beef)
  
• 100 gr ham chopped finely
• 1 teaspoon Salt
• Black pepper
• a pinch of sugar
• 1 litre Milk
• 1 teaspoon Ground nutmeg
  
• 5 Egg
• Shredded Tasty Cheese
• Bread Crumb

Step 1 - Pasta :

• Boil pasta as per instructions from the packaging less 2 minutes (to avoid super soft pasta)
  
• Strain pasta and run through cold water (pasta to stay in strainer to remove excess water)

Step 2 - SPAM mixture :

Stir fry onion, SPAM and ham for about 5 minutes - leave it aside to cool down

Step 3 - Milk mixture :

In a measuring cup, make milk mixture :
Milk + nutmeg + sugar + salt + black pepper + egg - - - whisk for about 5mins

Step 4 - Layering :

• Grease baking tray with olive oil/ butter (baking tray size width 23cm x depth 5cm x 33cm)
• Create layers :

Layer 1 : Pasta
Layer 2 : SPAM mixture
Layer 3 : Tasty Cheese
Layer 4 : Pasta
Layer 5 : Tasty Cheese

Step 5 - Finishing :

• Pour milk mixture from any corner slowly, once milk mixture reach the top shake the tray slowly to ensure milk mixture run evenly through the entire layer
• Sprinkle bread crumb on the top
• Bake in the oven till the top is golden brown

I forgot to take proper picture..however, it can give you some idea on how it will look like.

El Bulli (Sydney)

Another birthday invite this weekend for me, I was invited to go El Bulli Spanish Tapas located in Randwick. Took us around 15 minutes to decide what we want to order as they have good variety of tapas. We ordered double of everything except for Paella.
Did pretty well, 95% vanished from the table.
Overall they are good, friendly waiter, nice little cosy restaurant, and good variety of tapas.

Potato with aioli sauce

Chicken & chorizo Paella balls - don't be fooled by the size of this little paella ball (ping pong ball size), they are quite filling. Never mind...they are too good to be missed.

Chicken & chorizo Paella balls

Grilled Stuffed mushroom with pancetta and parsley

Garlic Prawn - not impressed at all coz they were using frozen prawns

Empanadillas - beef, olive & egg wrapped in pastry
This is spanish version of curry puff, pity that their puff is not crispy.
I still think Singapore/ Malaysian curry puff is way better.

Grilled Lamb with Garlic - I am not a big fan of lamb because of the smell, however this was okay for me as they are pretty generous with the garlic sauce which balanced the lamb smell.

Chorizo
Seafood Paella with chorizo

Seafood Paella with chorizo - mussel, prawn, calamari, vongole, etc.
This is a must try item if you go there, make sure you just order for 2 person (it is enough for 7 person).

Indonesian Yellow Rice

Yayyy...another friend's birthday bash tonight.
We had this yummy Indonesian Yellow Rice (Nasi Kuning) for dinner.

Clockwise - Shredded Egg, Fried Chicken, Chilli Potato (Sambal Goreng Kentang), Beef Rendang, Chilli Tempe (Sambal Goreng Tempe), Lung with Balado sauce (Paru Balado), Anchovies + Peanut (Sambal Goreng Teri Kacang).

The pretty looking Yellow Rice and friends + shrimp paste chilli sauce (container) + crackers (at the back) was totally cleaned up within 1 hour.

So much effort for the presentation & taste . . . (obviously not done by any of us), we ordered the set from this Indonesian lady :o)

Vegetarian Vermicelli Noodle

Feeling inspired after watching Masterchef show tonight, I decided to cook whatever I can find in my kitchen for my dinner (= very lazy to go out from the house to buy takeaway).
Okie...no meat in the fridge and I just have to be a vego tonight which I don't mind at all. This recipe is fairly simple, nothing fancy, just a bit of chopping to do.


Ingredients-Part I:

1. 2 layers of Vermicelli noodle (normally there are 4 layers in a package) - soak in hot water for about 5 mins (as per instructions from the package) then run under cold water in strainer
2. 1 Carrot - shredded/ fine cut
3. 4-5 leaves of Cabbage - fine cut
4. 5 Shitake mushroom - soak in hot water, squeeze the water out & sliced thin
5. Ginger - about thumb size, cut into 2-3 pieces
   
6. 2 cloves Garlic - chopped
   
7. 2 chilli - remove seed, chopped
   
8. 1/2 bunch Baby Asparagus - chopped diagonal
   
9. 2 Egg
10. Cooking Oil
11. Chinese Cooking Wine
    

Ingredients - Part II:

1. 1-2 tablespoon Sesame Oil
2. 1 tablespoon Fish Sauce
3. Light Soy Sauce as desired
4. White Pepper

Method:

1. Heat up your wok, sprinkle some cooking oil
2. Make scrambled Egg & once cooked, put it in a bowl
3. Heat up the wok again, sprinkle some cooking oil
4. Add garlic, chilli, and cooking wine, stir fry for 1-2 minutes
5. Add carrot, asparagus, cabbage, mushroom, stir for 5 minutes/ till soft
6. Add vermicelli, give it a good stir
7. Add all ingredients - Part II
8. Add scrambled egg
9. Ready to serve

Note:
This portion is enough for 4 people, I think I cooked too much :o)
I am going to bring some for lunch & give some to my friends, they can be my guinea pigs.

Bombe Alaska

We decided to avoid crazy CBD on the weekend to have Birthday celebration for my dearest friend ... thank God he loves it !!

Bombe Alaska
533 Willoughby Road
Willoughby NSW 2068
Sydney - Australia
Phone (02) 9958 8628

Entree - Scallop on Chorizo w Salmon Roe & Eggplant sauce
Perfectly cooked scallop, the whole package is just amazing, I need more.

My main - Rabbit Pappardelle with Olive
Home made pappardelle and tasty rabbit for the sauce. No one will know if this is rabbit, it tasted like chicken.



Friend's main - Lamb w mushroom pastry

Dessert - Bombe Alaska
errrr not that fantastic eventhough this is what they are famous for, I still think Bombe Alaska from Bather's Pavillion is much better. Their meringue is on the gluey side & was too sweet for me.

Japanese style Dragon

I am not referring to the actual Dragon (animal) here, I am referring to Dragon Roll in a Japanese restaurant called Nazimi.

Really resembles a (yummy) dragon, don't you all agree ?

Dragon Roll - eel, avocado, mayo, crabstick, and other goodies



Great food !! Great service !!
and conveniently located across Queen Victoria Building.

Kazbah Breakfast 24/10/2009

I can hardly get myself out from the house & yet Middle Eastern buffet breakfast is on the agenda. We booked a table for 8 at 9am (took us 30 mins to get there - including parking), not sure how I can fit the whole thing in the morning. I will try my best.

Kazbah
379 Darling Street
Balmain NSW 2041
Sydney - Australia
Phone: (02) 9555 7067

Porridge with Pear and cinnamon dusting

Couscous with mixed nuts (pistacchio, almond, cashew) and dates
Supposed to have this with milk, I love it without milk.

Turkish bread with 3 different styles of egg
Nothing spectacular :o)

Lamb tajine - lamb, tomato, egg (AGAIN), pumpkin
Egg seems to be their must have items in the morning.
Eventhough I am not a big lamb fan, I can't stop eating it. This is the best amongst all.


Haloumi cheese, Sausage, Grilled tomato, Bacon, Potato Ball
Dissapointed with the cold haloumi and dry sausage.

Side dish - mushroom, beans, spinach


Final - Thick pancake with BUTTER on the top
I can feel my cholesterol is hiking up to the top of the mountain right now.

Final - Thick pancake with Chocolate ice cream

If you have large morning capacity, this is a place definitely worth going. For myself, I enjoyed the experience for sure with dinner being excluded on that day, I was so stuffed.

Cafe Morso Breakfast 15/10/09

I am so glad that I'm out of the fish tank today & I don't have to put up with sharks. Pheuwwwwwwwww.... wat a relief.
Anyhow, I was desperate to have
fresh air + water + scenery + breakfast = Cafe Morso !!
Located near Star City casino, this sexy cafe is one of my very many favourite place for breakkie.

View around the cafe


Pain Perdu - French Toast w pear, ricotta, nuts & honey
This french toast is really devine, lightly fried & not the usual brown oil soaked french toast, generous amount of pistachios compliments the honey.



Bacon & egg focaccia with Morso tomato relish

Two Much Thai 10/10/09

Yes, we had two much Thai today.
Thai for lunch & Thai for dinner. I'm surprised that we both still not sick of Thai till now.

1.30pm Lunch @ Spice i Am

Main - Massaman duck curry, very nice, it's like Thai style Beef Rendang


Main - Crispy Pork with Basil
To all pork lovers around the world, this dish is a must try if you visit Sydney.

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TIME OUT - went to shopping centres to help ease out our digestion
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8pm Dinner @ Sugarcane

Sugarcane is a nice little restaurant in the city, great food with nice ambience. The only turn off factor is the place is not a perfect spot for gozz session, it's really hard to chit chat, you have to push out extra volume to chit chat.


Entree - Oyster w Sugarcane sauce (fresh and tangy) AND Prawn on rice cake with caramelized sugarcane


Main - King Prawn stir fry with shallots AND Crispy skin chicken with blood plum sauce (sorry no photo for this main, photo was dark silly me)

Dessert - Sticky rice w mango & coconut sauce, disappointed with the overcooked sticky rice & suppa sour mango.