Bourke Street Bakery - Surry Hills

On the easter weekend I got to go to one of my favourite places to have lunch, Bourke Street Bakery in Surry Hills. I like this bakery as they make all the food fresh each day as its all cooked/baked on premises and it tastes really good. They coffee they make is also really good and they even sell a book explaining how they make all their delicious food.

I like going here with friends and family and I always get really good service. This time I decided to have coffee, carrot cake and a home-made pie with chicken and also just a chocolate drink. The mood in the cafe is always relaxed, it's a good place to hang out with friends, the setting of the cafe is a very rustic style as all the table and chairs are wooden and aged. This cafe attracts a very young crowd and is always really busy.

Post By Spencer.

Creme Brulee

As inspired by Pathum from his last blog post, I decided to talk about my favourite dessert of all time as well! : )

After a bit of a hard time for me to decide which dessert I will be talking about in this blog post, I finally chose a French dessert - creme brulee.

Creme brulee is one of the most popular international dessert and so it's not hard for you to have creme brulee in any Western restaurant or even some fusion dessert restaurant!

And now I'm going to show you guys the few steps to this actually-not-that-hard-to-make dessert! :D

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C).
2. Beat egg yolks, 4 tablespoons sugar and vanilla in a mixing bowl until thick and creamy.
3. Pour cream into a saucepan and stir over low heat until it almost comes to boil. Remove the cream from heat immediately. Stir cream into the egg yolk mixture; beat until combined.
4. Pour cream mixture into the top of a double boiler. Stir over simmering water until mixture lightly coats the back of a spoon; approximately 3 minutes. Remove mixture from heat immediately and pour into a shallow heat-proof dish.
5. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature. Refrigerate for 1 hour, or overnight.
6. Preheat oven to broil.
7. In a small bowl combine remaining 2 tablespoons white sugar and brown sugar. Sift this mixture evenly over custard. Place dish under broiler until sugar melts, about 2 minutes. Watch carefully so as not to burn.
8. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Refrigerate until custard is set again

Enjoy! :D

Posted by Shireen :)

Gulab Jamun

Today, I'm gonna talk about one of my favourite Deserts. It is very sweet, full of sugar but one of the favourites of many people. This treat called Gulab Jamun is a very popular desert in Sri Lankan, Indian and Bangladesh communities. You have this as a desert after a meal in the above communities as you may know they have some very spciy main meals - having a sweet like this will definately ease that pain!

It is made of a dough, consisting mainly of milk solids, traditionally, khoya, an Indian milk product (buffalo milk) is rolled into a ball together with some flour then deep fried. It is then put into a sugar syrup flavoured with cardamon seeds and rosewater, kewra or saffron.

Before you eat this, you can put any sauce on is. My personal preference is to leave it alone as it's already dripping in syrup.

Pathum Wanigasekara

Tonkatsu

Today, I'm gonna talk about one of my favorite Japanese food, Tonkatsu. I love cooking it, too!! It is very popular in not only Japan, but also many countries. We can have Tonkatsu in Sydney as well because almost of Japanese restaurants in Sydney have this menu. Some of you might have eaten it before...：-)

The ingredients are;
Sliced pork meat and salt, pepper, bread crumbs, egg, flour.
As desired, some vegetables, (in the picture case, chopped cabbage) and lemon.

How to cook

1. Make incisions on fiber using tip of knife.
2. Pound meat with meat mallet of with the back of the knife. (Do not pound meat too thinly.)
3. Sprinkle salt and pepper on both sides of the meat.
4. Put egg, flour, bread crumbs in 3 separate shallow trays.
5. Dredge flour on both sides of the meat. Pat excess flour off then dip into beaten egg.
6. Spread meat onto bread crumbs. Cover top of meat with crumbs and press.
7. Start frying when oil temperature reached 180C. When meat starts to brown, reduce oil tempurature to 160C. And continue to fry slowly.
8. When small bubbles form on top of the oil, increase oil temperature back to 180C. This insures its crispness.
9. Drain oil on net.
10. Cut into bite size. Move meat to plate.

Before you eat this, you can put any sauce you like on it!! My recommendation sauce is sweet Miso with mastard sauce!!：P

Posted by Daichi

Din Tai Fung (Chinese dumpling house)

On the weekend I went to Din Tai Fung a famous restaurant in Hong Kong and China. This restaurant specialises in steamed dumplings. It's one of my most favourite places to eat the food and service is very good.

I really enjoy the hot broth that sits inside the dumpling, you have to be careful because it is boiling. The skin of the dumpling should be soft and thin, the contents of the dumpling usually contain a meat and some vegetables. This particular one has crab meat inside.

Din Tai Fung is located in the CBD in world square. It is always very busy because it is so popular. Dishes range for $7~20.

Posted by Spencer!

Miso Soup

Today, I'm gonna talk about traditional Japanese soup 'Miso Soup'. It is the most common sidedish and it can be eaten with any food. When I was youger, my mother used to cook it with lots of ingredients. There are a lot of types of Miso Soup, but this time I will explain how to cook 'Miso Soup with Tohu', which is my favorite.

The ingredients are...
7 g dried kelp (Hoshi wakame), 1/2 block tofu, 4 cups dashi (niboshi dashi), 80-90 g miso.
(This amount of ingredients are for 4 people)

How to cook
1, Soak kelp (wakame) in warm water, remove hard stems and rinse with water, strain with net and cut into    bite size pieces.
2, Heat dashi without bringing it to a boil.
3, Smash miso through a net ladel  into dashi, when it is about to boil remove foam rising on the top.
4, Add wakame in the soup

5, Place tofu on palm, cut lengthwise and then into 1/8 th pieces. Slide into soup.

6, When tofu floats to the top, turn off heat.

 posted dy Daichi 

Chinese steamed cake

The kind of food that I will be talking about in this post is a Chinese traditional dessert, which can be commonly ordered during 'yum cha', and it is called the Chinese steamed cake. It tastes a bit sweet and the texture is spongy. And it is my favourite food when I go 'yum cha' with my family!

Here are the directions of making a steamed cake: 

1. Arrange a large bamboo steamer or a large vegetable steamer over simmering water. Make sure it is large enough to hold the baking pan. Line a 9 inch square pan with waxed paper.

2. Separate the eggs. Place the yolks in a large bowl along with the sugar and water. Beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until the mixture has increased about three times in volume. Whisk together the flour and the baking powder; sift this over the egg mixture, and fold in gently. Blend in the extract.

3. Whip the egg whites in a clean bowl to stiff, not dry, peaks. Fold into yolk base. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and smooth out to edges. Rap the pan on the counter to get rid of large air bubbles.

4. Place the pan into the steamer. Cover the top of the steamer with a kitchen towel, and place the lid on top; the towel will absorb any steam that collects on top from dripping onto the cake. Steam for about 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack. Dust with confectioner's sugar.

This is a post by Shireen :D

Seafood Platter

Today, I'm gonna talk about my lunch from today, Had a beautiful seafood platter on the harbour. It comprised of seafood sticks, crab meat, calamari - crumbed and fried, mussels, fried chips, barramundi fish and a salad. A tangy lemon to spray all over your food gives it a crispy tangy taste. The combination itself is a great feast for two, can be a tad pricey being $72.00 - but that's what you expect eating at the sydney harbour.

 

This is the picture of the Seafood Platter. How delicious does it look? Mmm very yummy!!

I would definitely recommend anyone going to Darling Harbour to try the Seafood platter, if not try the fish markets, very fresh and the best opportunity to try the freshest fish of Australia and it's surroundings.

  

Pathum Wanigasekara

Chicken Friend Noodles

 

Today, I'm gonna talk about my lunch from today, Chicken Fried Noodles from Hokka Hooka Noodle shop at the Myer Food Court, City. You can make any combination with noodles, meat, sauces, vegetables but i'll be specifically be talking about my one that I had today. It comprised of Hokkien Noodles, Chicken thighs, Baby Corn, Brocolli, Carrots, Satay sauce and ofcourse red chilli pieces and sauce all stir fried together. I love this combination especially the satay sauce as it is very succulent.

 

 

This is the picture of Chicken Stir-Fried Noodles. How delicious does it look? Mmm very yummy when you're hungry!!

1. Get a plate.

2.Choose your noodles.

3. Choose one or more meats and vegetables.
4. Choose your sauce topping (satay, chilli etc.)
5. Put the ingredients you want in a hot pan and stir fry for 5 minutes.
6. Let cool for 2 minutes, flavour with your choice of sauce and enjoy!

Enjoy the succulent taste:) All for $9.90!

 

Pathum Wanigasekara

Sushi

Today, I'm gonna talk about the most favorite Japanese food, Sushi. There are two types of Sushi in Japan. One of them is 'Maki-Sushi' and other is 'Nigiri-Sushi'. In Japan, People eat Sushi when they selebrate something or meet their relatives. So, most of Japanese people eat Sushi on New Year's day!!

This is the picture of Maki-sushi. Maki means 'roll' or 'wrap' in Japanese. It can be seen that it is difficult to cook. but it is not.:-) What we need to do is...

1, Cook rice and add vineger on the rice and mix them.
2, Let the rice cool (←This is very important!! We can't cook Sushi with hot rice)
3, Put the rice on laver and make the rice flat
4, Put the ingredients you want to eat on the rice
5. Roll them!!!

It is not difficult, is it? Then, try it and enjoy it!!!

You can cook your original 'Maki-Sushi' yourself!!


Posted by Daichi

Bangers and mash!

Today I will be talking about a meal my Mum cooked over the weekend. This dish is fairly common within Australian households and was traditionally brought over from the UK when Australia was colonised. This dish is extremely easy to make. All you really needs is sausages, some potatoes and even some vegetables.

Preparation is as follows:

1. Fry onion and sausages in a sauce pan.

2. Boil potatoes in water until cooked.

3. Steam vegetables and boil sweet corn in water until cooked.

4. Serve dish.

I also decided to have a glass of orange juice with the meal.

Picture of dish.

Posted by Spencer!

Tom Yum Gung!

The dish that I will be talking about in this entry is a traditional Thai soup called Tom Yum Gong! This soup is very famous even in overseas, and I believe a lot of people have tried this soup before in Thai restaurants all over the world! Though  it's a bit too spicy for me, I'm sure this is a favourite dish of a lot of spice-lovers!
Many people may think that this soup is really hard to cook, but actually it is not! The preperation details are shown below:

1. Prepare the chicken stock in a medium to large sized pot, and then bring to a boil.
2. Add the lime leaves and lemongrass stalks to the pot, and reduce the heat to simmering. Cook for five minutes.
3. Remove only the lemongrass, and turn the heat to high. Add in the shrimp, mushrooms, chili oil, and the Thai chilies. Boil until the shrimp are done (about 2 minutes)
4. Remove from stove, you're almost done!
5. Add in the fish sauce and limejuice, and stir. Some like it more sour, others more salty. You decide on what makes you happy.
6. The most important step!!! Enjoy!! :D

Looks delicious!

Another blog post by Shireen :)

Stir-fried Tofu With Mushrooms!



This is a picture of the finished dish!


This dish is called Stir-fried Tofu with mushrooms! And it is a Chinese traditional dish which is very common in Hong Kong, and it's also a very popular dish in restaurants. Moreover, due to its easy cooking method and the cheap ingredients, this dish is also popular to serve as normal meals at home!
The preperation for this dish is very easy as well, details are shown below:

1. Remove the tofu from the package and drain.
2. Cut the tofu lengthwise through the middle, so that you have two equal pieces about 1-inch thick. Cut into large cubes.
3. If using dried mushrooms, reconstitute by soaking in warm water for 20 minutes or until they have softened. Squeeze to remove excess liquid and thinly slice.
4. Rinse the bamboo shoots in warm running water and drain, mix together the dark soy, oyster sauce, sugar, and Chinese rice wine or dry sherry and set aside.
5. Heat the wok. When the wok is ready, add the oil.
6. Add the bamboo shoots and mushrooms and stir until they are heated through.
7. Add the tofu and the dark soy/oyster sauce/sugar/sherry mixture.
8. Stir-fry until the ingredients are heated through. Serve hot.

This is a post by Shireen : )