Kerbside

Stepped out this afternoon with the lovely Renee of Pantry Review fame to check out a new Brisbane laneway bar called 'Kerbside'. Tucked behind Fringe Bar, this eclectic space just oozes creativity and charm and offers simple lunches and quality beverages. My Hot Chocolate was warm, light and went down a treat on this rainy afternoon. Kerbside is a lovely space to indulge and worth checking out.


Address: Constance Street, Fortitude Valley
Open: Wednesday - Thursday: 9:30am - 3pm. Friday: 9:30am - 5pm. Saturday: 4pm - 5am. Sunday: 1pm - 1am
Phone: (07) 3252 9833
Price: Light meals from $3.50.

You'll Love Coles Pavlova?

If the rumours are to be believed, if you make a Pavlova on a humid day, you'll die. Well something like that as the rumours are persistent and loud. But in Queensland, Summer humidity is a constant. So feeling nervous about my first attempt at making a Pavlova, I decided to buy a back up You'll Love Coles Pavlova for $7.00.

Lucky for me, I didn't need the back up and one evening, my taste buds piped up, "hey, Jo! How about something nice for dessert?" So I whipped up some Chantilly Cream and decorated with strawberries, kiwi fruit and banana. The You'll Love Coles Pavlova looks great, it's beautifully uniform, sits up high and has enough body to hold the cream and fruit. The bad news is, after you've made your own Pavlova ... it's just second best. So make your own, I dare you.

How about No

Photo courtesy of GiniMiniGi at the Stock.xchng.

The media is once again tabling the idea of eating insects for a sustainable foodie future. Dutch Professor of Entomology (the study of insects), Marcel Dicke stated in a recent presentation that he believes that the consumption of insects is the answer to tackling our world population's (soon to reach 7 billion people) protein requirement. Dicke claims:

• For every 1kg of beef, you need 10kgs of grain. However you could instead raise 9kgs of locust meat.


• We annually ingest 500 grams of insects through processed food.

I consider myself pretty adventurous when it comes to food, I've eaten water snake, crocodile, turtle, water buffalo but I draw the line at insects. I just can't bring myself to eat them despite the fact I always told myself:

1. if you're starving you'll eat anything.
   
   
2. I've been told time and time again they are delicious. I can remember relaying my horror to my Mother about bounding home from a long Macau shopping trip, to find my Grandmother cutting up live Rice Paddy Worms with scissors as they thrashed in a beaten egg mixture. As I looked to Mum's face for a reaction, a look of pleasant nostalgia appeared as she informed they were a delicacy and that I should have tried them.
   
   
3. I HATE locusts. I hate their furry legs, their blood red eyes and molten gold armour. It probably didn't help a specimen the size of an adult male hand, once came straight at my face in the middle of the night.

Knowing this I should do what all humans do, and show them who's boss and conquer my fears with my fork ... but I can't and now I have good reason ...

Dicke estimates, "1kg of grasshoppers has the same amount of calories as 10 hot dogs or six Big Macs."

So I'm opting out of saving the world and leaving my cognitive dissonance in tact for vanity. I'll leave the consumption of insects to culturally inducted and the tree huggers.

New York Cheesecake

There are two things I am certain of - Australian Womens Weekly (AWW) Cook Books and New York Cheesecake. So when Mum brought the AWW Cooking School Cookbook in a book sale I was keen to investigate. Like all the modern AWW cookbooks, it comes in a large, hard cover edition with a handy ribbon to mark your favourite recipes. I've also made Sticky Date Pudding recipe from this book and it's delicious. I tend to prefer using brown sugar as opposed to white sugar as it gives a wonderful caramel taste which compliments the dates. But I'm waffling, this entry isn't about Sticky Date Pudding. It's about New York Cheesecake. I decided to make this Cheesecake for the family New Years Day dinner.

Though you can use any sweet biscuit, I used Milk Arrowroot Biscuits. I think this is my favourite part of making the Cheesecake as you feel like a kid in a sandbox again.

After your shell cooks, you can pour in your cream cheese mixture (cream cheese, lemon zest, sugar, eggs, sour cream and lemon juice). This is then baked for one and half hours, before you cool it and pour on a sour cream layer (sour cream, sugar and lemon juice). This topping is then baked for additional 20 minutes, before you leave it to cool in the oven with the door ajar. I recommend leaving the cheesecake overnight as I feel three hours doesn't give it adequate time to set.

New York Cheesecake in its full glory!

Custard Tart Again

One of my dear friends, Amy is dropping by this afternoon and I've promised her a slice of Custard Tart. I was thinking this morning about Careme's Vanilla Bean Sweet Shortcrust Pastry. It's one my preferred pastry short cuts as works well and fills the house with the most divine vanilla scent. So feeling inspired I decided to shake up David Herbert's Shortcrust Pastry recipe a little, I've added some Vanilla Bean Paste, reduced the amount of water, chilled the shell again after rolling out the pastry and egg washed the shell after the initial blind bake. I'm pretty happy with the result and look forward to tucking into it. There goes my diet for another day!

Candied Orange Slices Battle: Part Two

So it's been two weeks since I first started blogging about Candied Orange Slices and my quest to find the best method. I've now pulled my Brownie Points Immersion Method orange slices (pictured) from the syrup and dried them. If you have time, these are simply the most amazing gifts and this would be my preferred method. However if you are making cakes and are looking for decoration than the Repressed Pastry Chef method is great as it's quick and they are ultra tasty.

New Year's Eve

"The only way to spend New Year's Eve is either quietly with friends or in a brothel. Otherwise when the evening ends and people pair off, someone is bound to be left in tears." - W.H. Auden.

I subscribe to the W.H. Auden school of thought when it comes to New Year's Eve. Since I would rather spend it in the company of friends, as opposed to shagging a random stranger, I decided to host a dinner party. Entree was an Anti-Pasto Plate and Pork and Veal Terrine, main was Osso Buco with Soft Polenta or for those with allergies Roast Lamb with Chat Potatoes and Roast Pumpkin and a Berry Pavlova for dessert.

We also made Champagne Cocktails. Champagne Cocktails are so easy and delicious - blend one bottle of pink Champagne, one tub of lemon sorbet and serve in a champagne flute with fresh strawberries. Here are some food snaps from the evening:

Pork and Veal Terrine. My recipe comes from the lovely Marcus and features a number delicious ingredients - brandy, cream, pistachio nuts and moreish chicken livers. Mmm.

Berry Pavlova. The recipe comes from the 'Women's Weekly Cooking School' cookbook. I finished the Pavlova with Chantilly Creme.

The majority of the chocolates come from Chocolate to Die For (bar the Mint Cameos which come from the Blue Cat). Chocolate to Die For changed ownership about a month ago but the girls are still as friendly as ever. The new owner even has ambitions to make her own chocolates on site so stay tuned.