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The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” – G.K. Chesterton

Wednesday 28 December 2005

Trifle matters

I volunteered to bring dessert to both my parents' Christmas eve dinner and to Rob's mum's Christmas lunch, and was quite impressed with how both turned out. Both trifles are quite different, and although I liked the Peach/mango one more than the Black forest trifle, Rob said he preferred the Black forest one. The fact that the Peach/mango one is lighter and less rich and creamy may have something to do with the differences in our opinions.

These trifle recipes are non-alcoholic but you can definitely replace the juice/syrup with a sweet alcohol or liquer of your choice if you wish to. I don't like the taste of alcohol and have never liked it in my food hence I don't use alcohol in my cooking. Also, you need to use a stale-ish cake (sponge, madeira, muffins - whatever you want, really) in trifles so the cake can absorb the moisture from the remaining ingredients without turning mushy. I prepared these trifles one day in advance to allow the flavours to integrate and develop.

Remember, with trifles, anything goes! Don't be afraid to experiment.

Peach/mango trifle



I made a plain cake for the base of this trifle a few days prior to making the trifle. Opened a can of Goulburn Valley 'Peaches in Mango' and reserved some of the mango juice to pour over the cake base of the trifle. Using a combination of the mango juice from the canned fruits, 100% apple mango juice and gelatin, a relatively hard jelly (~500mL) was set and chopped into smaller pieces (with the intention that it would still hold its shape rather than disintegrate when it's chopped into smaller pieces). The cake muffins were then sliced into 1cm thick pieces, slathered with fruit jam between two pieces and placed one layer of these 'jammed' pieces at the bottom of a glass bowl. The reserved mango juice from the canned peaches were poured over the cake base, and a layer of peaches and chopped jelly were then placed on top of the base.

I chose to use Brownes Dessert-style 'Mango Passion' yoghurt as the next layer instead of custard because it had the right thick consistency I wanted (as opposed to the liquidy custard you buy at supermarkets) and also because the flavour complements the fruits I have used in this trifle. If you have enough ingredients for another set of layer, by all means chuck them on. I wanted to keep this trifle light so I chose not to finish it off with cream. Instead, I sprinkled chopped cashews on the yoghurt layer. This was a nice and light dessert to finish off a big meal.

Black Forest Trifle



For this trifle, I made a chocolate cake (just by adding cocoa powder to the ingredients used for the plain cake). I bought a packet of port wine flavoured jelly and used less water than suggested on the packet instructions to make a harder jelly, but the jelly was still a bit too floopy for my liking. The cake was sliced into 1cm slices, slathered with fruit jam in between two slices and placed at the bottom of a glass bowl. The syrup/juice from big jar of morello cherries were poured over the cake base for moisture, then a layer of morello cherries and port wine jelly were placed on top.

For the custard layer, I still wanted a thick custard so I decided to make the custard from scratch - i.e. using milk, egg yolks, sugar, vanilla and some cornflour. I am so glad the custard did not curdle and I didn't even have to use a sieve which some of the custard recipes I'd looked at instructed to do. Yay! Rob said it tastes just like custard. The custard did not thicken up as much as I wanted, but it was definitely better than the ones you buy at the shops. Use remaining ingredients (if any) for another set of layer. I finished the Black Forest Trifle of with whipped chocolate cream/mousse from a can and decorated with fresh cherries. The trifle was very visually appealing and received several compliments from those who saw it before it was mauled (it's unfortunate that a trifle cannot maintain its good looks after a servings have been taken from the bowl).

Tuesday 27 December 2005

Food glorious Christmas food!

Christmas Eve dinner

Yummy! The Christmas feasting started on the eve of Christmas when we had dinner at my parents'. My mum prepared a delicious seafood feast with sambal prawns, steamed fish, her famous fried beehoon and oysters au naturel. Delicious! I prepared a peaches/mango trifle for dessert.

Sambal Prawns


Steamed Fish


Mum's Famous Beehoon


Oysters Au Naturel






We then sat near the Christmas tree and exchanged presents. My nephew Seth received the biggest gifts and had more presents than anyone else. Needless to say, he was very excited and happy with his new toys and clothes (he was very good at showing his appreciation - and at his age of three, I wasn't quite sure whether it was done out of politeness or sincerity).



I thought this was a gorgeous pic of Rob and Seth:


I think Rob was trying to get me to do this two-person mexican wave type thing with, which caught my dad's interest, and hence this photo:



Christmas Day lunch

Christmas day, Rob and I went to his mum's for a more typical Aussie Christmas lunch - roast turkey and chicken, leg ham, roast veges and a few desserts (to which I contributed a black forest trifle). Everything was delicious.













I believe most of us fortunate enough to have a feast on Christmas felt a bit like this:



Rob and myself hung around until late night keeping his mum company after his brothers and their families have gone, and we had a lovely fruit platter for a light dinner.

Friday 23 December 2005

Disappearing truffles

I decided to make little truffles to give my collegues in my division as Christmas treats. Truffles are very simple and easy to make, but it takes so long to do them! I made four different types over three nights. That's rolling and dusting/coating approximately 130 little treats. And how about the time it took to package 27 little packs for my collegues? Highly time consuming, but I enjoyed making them (except towards the end of last night when it was getting late and I just wanted to finish wrapping them!)

The reason why I call them 'disappearing' is the fact that they disappear as I was making them. You know, taste testing them to see if they are good enough. Rob enjoyed licking the bowl and spoon after I was done with the truffles..

Note that for all these truffles, you can use crushed nuts, cocoa, icing sugar, coconut, sugar etc for coating the truffles.


Plum Pudding Truffles (Makes approximately 40)



Ingredients
800grams of bought plum pudding (I bought the fundraiser Mills and Wares brand for which all proceeds goes to the Legacy fund)
2 tablespoons plum jam (or enough to moisten and make the pudding stick)

(You can also add alcohol like rum or brandy if you like, but I don't like the taste of alcohol in
my food and we don't have alcohol at home because neither of us drink alcohol).

Method
Break the pudding up into crumbs, add the jam and use your hands to combine into a sticky doughy consistency. Roll into balls and coat in cocoa powder. Coconut or nuts or even melted chocolate would work well as coating.


Apricot Balls



Ingredients
1.5 cups dried apricots, chopped
1 cup coconut
150mL condensed milk
Extra coconut for rolling

Method
Combine the dry ingredients and add the condensed milk little by little until the desired consistency is achieved (if you've overpoured the liquid, you can always add some more coconut). Roll into balls and coat with coconut.


Dark Choc Truffles



Ingredients
250g dark chocolate block
1/3cup thickened cream
Sugar for coating

Method
Melt chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water, ensuring that no moisture enters the bowl (otherwise the chocolate will seize and will be wasted). Heat the cream and add to the melted chocolate and mix well. (Alternatively, you can finely chop the chocolate, heat the cream and add hot cream to chocolate to melt. You're basically making ganache for this truffle recipe). Chill until firm to form balls. Roll into balls and coat with sugar (looks really pretty)


Mocha Coconut Truffles



Ingredients
0.5 cup butter
2.25 cups icing sugar
0.5 cup cocoa
0.25 cup cream
1.5tsp vanilla
Enough coconut to achieve desired consistency

Method
Cream the butter. Combine icing sugar and cocoa and add alternately with cream and vanilla to butter. Blend well and chill until firm to form balls. Roll into balls and coat with coconut.


The truffles were all then separated into little packs of four and wrapped with white and red tissue wrapping paper (a cardboard square was used as a base for packaging stability and I wrote the names of each truffle on it so that my collegues knew what they were eating.




My personal favourite is the dark chocolate one, probably because it is made from real dark choc and I love dark chocolate. I'm not big on fruit cakes nor coconut, so that would explain why I am not that keen on the remaining three. Strangely though, it seems like the apricot balls were a favourite amongst my collegues (strange because it was the easiest one to make next to the plum pudding one ;P). And I keep forgetting that not everyone likes dark chocolate..

I have leftover condensed milk and thickened cream, so I'm planning to make more truffles for my family for our dinner on Xmas eve, and for Rob's mum for our lunch on Xmas day.. Whether I have the time to is another matter.

Sunday 18 December 2005

Making Fruit Mince Pies

Rob and his mum used to make fruit mince pies when Rob was still a young 'un, and for the past few Christmases, he's been quite keen for me to experience fruit mince pie making with his mum. So we made plans with his mum this year to make fruit mince pies, and off we went to get the jar of fruit mince.

The pastry was made using Rob's grandma's recipe. There's flour, butter, sugar, egg all mixed into a dough and rolled out.



Circular shapes big enough to line the little aluminium foil patty pans were cut out for the pie base, and smaller circles were cut out for the pie tops. The fruit mince were spooned onto the pastry base and egg white was brushed on the edges to seal the pastry top onto the base. The top of the pies were then brushed with egg whites to allow browning while baking.



Pop in the oven (180degC) until the pastry looks done, take it out and cool.



If you wish, you can dust the pies with icing sugar, and eat when the
pie has cooled.





The verdict? Really yummy :)

Friday 16 December 2005

Shun Fung Restaurant on Barrack Street Jetty, Perth

It was my sister Faye's birthday on Monday 12th December, and she took us and my family to dinner for a joint birthday celebration with her son Seth whose 3rd birthday is coming up on the 21 December. She booked a table at the fancy looking Shun Fung Seafood Restaurant which is located on Barrack Street Jetty. Great location next to the river, but no doubt the price of the food will reflect this fact. (Rob and I checked it out last year as a possible venue to have our wedding dinner celebration so we kinda knew what sort of prices to expect.) We bought a "Strawberry Fields Choc" cake from the Cheesecake Shop for Faye and Seth.

When Rob and I arrived at 7pm (on our bikes too coz we were running late and wouldn't have had the time to walk or drive - the carpark was packed and finding parking would take longer than for us to ride in), Faye, Seth, James and my dad were already there. It was a miracle that the cake was still good (I was a nervous wreck the whole (5-10min) ride though, and it didn't help that we encountered this lady driver who didn't know the rules of the road and abused us for crossing the intersection of Stirling and Newcastle Streets eventhough the light was green for us to go - some people need to re-learn their road rules so they know that cyclists have to stay on the road and not the pedestrian footpath).



We enjoyed the view at Shun Fung whilst we wondered whether the food is as good as the prices suggested. Rice comes at $1.50 per bowl (price is not even per person! It's usually $1.00 per person (i.e. 'bottomless') for the standard Chinese restaurants both in Chinatown and in the suburbs) and dishes are upwards from $14. Soups like the standard chicken and sweetcorn is around $8.50 per bowl, and up to $19 per bowl for Shark's Fin. There is this special soup (can't remember the name of the soup - was too busy falling off my chair when I heard the price) which comes in at a grand $88 per bowl! Hm.

Honey was still working at Burswood, my mum was hitching a ride with her, and they didn't arrive until 8pm, so we ordered a few dishes first:

The jellyfish and pork dish (~$18) is served cold. Although the pork was rather plain, the jelly fish was marinated well.


The sizzling beef (~$18) was quite nice. The marinade/sauce was not overpoweringly salty as some can be.


Seafood tofu claypot - I always order a tofu claypot dish when trying out a chinese restaurant for the first time - it's like my 'benchmark' dish on how good the restaurant is. For its price (~$23), there wasn't much of it in terms of quantity, and it tasted rather average.


After Honey and my mum arrived at the restaurant, we ordered more dishes:

Crispy Chicken (~$20) - quite nice, although a bit too greasy for my liking. But that's the unfortunate part of having 'crispy' dishes.


Sizzling Fish, imperial style (~$33). Not sure what 'imperial' style is supposed to be, but the sauce that the fish was cooked in tasted like mild curry. I'm pretty sure curry sauces didn't exist back in the Chinese imperial times, but I could be wrong. I like fish, so this dish gets my thumbs up.




Faye also ordered the "Special Seafood Fried Rice" (~$20) which had crabmeat and eggwhite. It tastes like fried rice ought to taste and I don't really remember tasting much crabmeat in it.

It was then time for the cake!


(I like this picture)









Overall, it was a good night. As for the venue - the location is great. It'll be a good choice for a function, however be prepared to pay for it. In my opinion, the food is definitely not worth the price you pay. You can get much better food for much better prices in the Chinese restaurants in Chinatown (eg Billy Lee's, City Garden etc).

Wednesday 14 December 2005

Roast dinner

Made my first roast chicken dinner. Everything from scratch, even the stuffing. Rob makes great chicken roasts but he usually use the whole chicken that already has the marinade inside the packet. This time, we ventured out to buy a 'naked' frozen whole chicken. Bought the usual veges for roasting: butternut pumpkin, carrots and sweet potatoes. Rob likes cauliflower cheese, so we had boiled brocolli and cauliflower served with cheese sauce as well.

The stuffing was made with whole-grain bread, chopped onion, minced garlic, chopped celery, mushrooms, an egg, chopped parsley and some stock. The chicken was prepared using the juice of half a lemon, minced garlic, olive oil, fresh rosemary, salt and pepper, and then stuffed with the stuffing. The roast veges were coated in olive oil, basil, parsley, rosemary, salt and pepper. And the result? A very late but yummy dinner. The stuffing recipe has room for improvement, but since I don't really like stuffing in general that much anyway, I probably won't try it again (sorry Rob!).

Roasts take so long to cook (which is why stirfries are still one of my favourite type of meals to prepare). I can't go to bed yet as my tummy is still digesting dinner.. Rob mentioned while washing the dishes: it takes one hour to prepare the food, two hours to roast it, one hour to clean up but just 20 minutes to eat it. Sigh. Poor Rob only just finished washing up the dishes.

The whole thing (no, I didn't bother with presentation):


Served on a plate (minus the cheese sauce):

Sunday 11 December 2005

BBQ at South Perth Foreshore (Mill Point)

I said to Amy and Chrissy: "It is time for us to have a catch-up dinner with everyone else", and Chrissy gave the wonderful suggestion of doing a bbq or a picnic to enjoy the great weather rather than the usual dinner. Hence Chrissy, Amy and myself began organising this bbq outing on the foreshore at Mill Point - a pre-Christmas catch up with the rest of our uni friends. Abundance of yummy food, wonderful company and good weather ensured that we all had a great time. The few of us remaining after lunch went surfcatting on the Swan River - the wind was perfect for a cool ride :)









Sunday 4 December 2005

Atrium Restaurant @ Burswood Hotel

My siblings and myself took my parents to the Atrium at Burswood to celebrate my dad's 60th birthday (yes, my mum enjoyed the treat from us although it was my dad's birthday). We enjoyed the all-you-can-eat buffet lunch with lots of seafood such as yabbi, king prawns, various seafood salads, roast turkey and dessert! Plus, you receive a birthday cake and champagne if you mention that you're there for a birthday celebration. Honey works at the Burswood Convention Centre, so she gets a 20% off staff discount at restaurants in Burswood. We had a great time together as a family, and it looked like my dad had a fantastic time too (Mission: Accomplished). Here are the pictures of the day..

My first plate:


My sister Faye's plate: (notice yabbi and meringue, fruit tart and pavlova on one plate - yeah, I know she's odd)


Seth practising the too-cool-for-anything look:


I really like this picture of my parents - my dad was feeding my mum icecream


Seth practising the I-can-get-away-with-looking-grubby look:


My dad and the complimentary birthday cake (we were too full to eat the cake so the waiter kindly packed the cake for my dad to take home):


My family (minus Lynn who is in Sydney):