Slow cooked lamb, sour cream, chive and garlic mash, cheesy cauli and bok choy.

I was in the kitchen today and got whipping up a good old traditional dinner. I found some cheap cuts of lamb, bits of shoulder with bones in which I trimmed the fat off and tossed in seasoned flour. The flour had salt and pepper, chilli flakes and freshly diced rosemary (which I stole from a garden down the road, the owners let you help yourself to any of their herbs in this massive herb garden so I guess it wasn't stealing!). I seared the seasoned lamb pieces and put them in a glass dish. I then cut up and cooked in the same pan, 2 small onions, a large carrot, 3 sticks of celery and half a head of garlic. I added a little balsamic vinegar and let it reduce with the veg. Once this was on it's way I added about 3 tbsps of tomato paste, a can of diced tomatoes, a glug of red wine, some shakes of Worcestershire and some water. I also sprinkled some of te left over seasoned flour over it to help it thicken. I dropped 2 sprigs of rosemary on the top, covered it with foil and put it in a medium oven for 1 1/2hrs. The meat was barely covered in juice, and it was all I needed, I cooked it uncovered for another half hr to reduce it further and give some colour to the dish after scooping off the excess oil from the top.

With this thick, rich dish I served some mashed potatoes. I cooked the spuds with their skins on for extra goodness and threw in about 5 cloves of garlic to boil with them for flavour. I mashed them right into the potatoes along with milk, butter, sour cream, finely chopped chives and salt and pepper. Divine!

Our veggies were a glorious dome of cauli and simple bok choy chopped up and sauteed in butter.

Doesn't the cauliflower look amazing!? And this was the one occasion when I was missing the bright yellow American mustard, which I hate all the time bar in my cheesy cauli crust. I cut the stem out of the cauli and par-steamed it then let it cool. I slathered it with a mixture of mayo, cheddar, parm, Worcester sauce, dijon mustard ( because there was no yellow stuff) and salt and pepper. It took about half an hr to crisp up in a medium oven. 

I loved the contrast of the rich, tomatoey sauce and the fall off the bone lamb with the mash, cheesy crust and then simple greens. Everyone else agreed, though not in those words, but by the empty plates, 'oohs' and 'aaahhs' and the second helpings! Love happy eaters!

Margaret River Chocolate Factory, Swan Valley outlet.

How wonderful to visit a chocolate factory on Easter Monday!?! Amazing! My cousin, who grew up in Zambia as well and now lives here and I haven't seen in years, took us to the Swan Valley for the day. What a lovely place, full of wineries ( and thus wine tours and sampling), breweries, chocolate, cheese, you name it!

We stopped by the chocolate factory first, good start! It was packed but we still found a table outside to have a coffee and peruse the menu checking out all the delights - fondue, cakes, fancy/decadent drinks. We saved ourselves for lunch later on but I will go back to try something from there, I have to!

What we did do was sample the free chocolate drops that they have in massive bowls in white, milk and dark. You can walk past them as many times as you like helping yourself to spoonfulls of it, what a great thing. There was everything you could imagine in there, all kinds of moulded figures, different fillings, a fridge full of truffles, the list goes on. There was a window that you could look through and watch them working too, with a sneaky little shute out of which slid chunks of whatever they were making at the time!

The original location is in Margaret River. We are going to be there next week actually, on a mini road trip, so I am hoping that we will maybe happen upon it as it is quite possibly even more superior to the Swan Valley outlet. As I write this I am thinking about the dark mint crisp bar of chocolate sitting in the fridge that came home with us from there, I think this entry will be cut short as a result!....

The website is chocolatefactory.com.au - go and have a look for yourself and see how great this place is!

Easter feast.

Time seems to be getting away with me and it has been a while since I last wrote. That does not mean I haven't been eating anything of note, in fact quite the contrary. Over the Easter weekend our hosting friends had a dinner here and it was a roaring success. I have to admit I did not see the end of it as a throat/ear infection sent me to bed early but people had been round since 2pm so there was still lots of socialising. 

We went along the pot luck theme, with a little guidance as to what kind of thing we wanted people to bring. I had been mouthing off about pulled pork shortly after we got to Australia and it must have stuck because it was decided that I would be making the meat for the meal and the rest fell around it! No pressure there then!

I decided not to go the whole hog with guests who aren't entirely familiar with eating bbq flavoured things and made plain pork with sauces on the side. I got some great instruction from Megan back in Canada about her delicious pork roasts and set to. 2 pork shoulders did the trick, I was expecting more left overs from it with 11 people round but I guess that was a good sign if people were clearing it up! I had the pork in salt and pepper and lemon juice for a couple of days prior to cooking, then brought it to room temperature and seared it in a hot pan with some oil. I then sat them upright in a tray with lots of salt on the skin to make crackling and left them in a low oven for 3-4hrs. Low being 150 degrees here in Oz or around 300 back home in Canada. They were so brown and crisp and juicy because the pork piece has lots of fat in it and I used lots of salt for crisping the skin and edges. When it was cool enough to handle I started to tear it apart, pulling out all the large pieces of fat. While it had been cooking I made a couple of sauces, one was an apple based gravy using all the drippings from the meat and some beer and the other was a smoky tequila bbq sauce. I made this with an apple, orange juice, tomato ketchup, brown sugar, various ends of jars of jam from the fridge (blackberry wine and a strawberry one), vinegar. ginger, garlic, chipotles and tequila. This one had huge, hit you in the mouth, flavour and I was a little hesitant about it's reception but everyone loved it! I left some plain incase anyone wasn't sure about the sauces. 

The idea was that you put some pork in a toasted bun along with some chipotle mayo and coleslaw then had all the sides aswell. Stu made a delish coleslaw that had apples in it, apple cider vinegar, partly creamy dressing and the purple cabbage was a great vivid touch!

He also made a great potato dish in line with the theme, roasting them large along with red onions, red peppers, chorizzo and cajun spices. This was also heavenly with the chipotle dip! He used some of the fat that I skimmed off the drippings to roast them in which added some great flavour.

Along with all this went a Greek salad, cold roasted vegetables, quesadillas, cheeses, dips, crackers and lots of other nibbles, then pavlova. Feast indeed! I was surprised in the lack of pork left overs as previously mentioned but we did get lots of snacks out of everything else and an entire meal the next evening with some freshly bbq-ed chicken to go with the potatoes, some plain rice, the coleslaw, chipotle mayo, veggies etc. Very satisfying. 

Hope everyone had a happy Easter! We also made it to a chocolate factory in Swan Valley on Easter Monday which was a real treat but that is another story.

Kangaroo on the barbie!

Ok so it was about time we tried some traditional or local Australian food right!?! Kangaroo it was. We found it in the local grocery store, that is how common it is, and it generally comes in either a steak type form or in burger patties. We opted for a piece of fillet. Chef Stu said that you have to eat it rare or it will be tough, so rare it was. 

The meat itself is very dark and lean, we did some lamb chops at the same time as they have some fat on them for a bit of contrast.

There was a very mixed verdict. Hubby loved it and I was not sure at all. It was extremely gamey and whilst I have eaten a lot of game back home in Zambia, it was never in a very rare serving. We tended to make stews out of it so this combination of rare and gamey didn't work wonders for me. I don't know if there was an element of psychological 'issues' there either? There was a tiny fillet piece that we had cooked medium-well which I ate, it didn't taste as 'gamey'. However, my tummy did tell me throughout the evening that it wasn't entirely happy with it.  Hubby ate the other fillet the next day in a glorious sandwich at the beach; crusty Turkish baguette with rare 'Roo, mustard, mayo and mixed leaves. He was a happy chappy!

Now to find some Emu and Crocodile and maybe some more tasty local seafood!

Greenhouse - greenhouseperth.com

We were wandering around down town Perth the other day and stopped by this little gem of a place for a snack. And little gem it is. The entire place is made out of recycled material, some of the outside furniture was made out of old road signs, the plants were in old fuel drums and there is even a herb garden on the roof. The tables and chairs are wood, all so unique and the outside walls are covered in potted plants.

The bottles of spirits are hung from the ceiling by strings, there are fold out tables at the bar, the light fixtures are wrought iron contraptions and your glass of water is poured from a watering can! You have to love this place!

Not only is this place funky and fresh and environmentally friendly but the food is amazing too! We just had 2 dishes to sample as a snack, the pizza of the day (roasted red pepper) and potatoes bravas. The pizza was really rustic with an almost gritty base if that makes sense, really rustic. I stopped by the open plan kitchen on the way back from the bathroom and happened to find the chef who was more than happy to tell me about the pizzas. He showed me the whole wheat kernels they have and the mill they use to grind it and what it looks like after and that they use half this cracked wheat and half normal flour in their bases. They also make fresh breads there entirely out of cracked wheat. I was really loving the feel of this place. 

The potatoes bravas came served in a cork bowl, and the aioli dip came in a jar lid! So innovative! And tasty!

The highlight of the visit was the trip to the bathroom. This may seem odd but I was blown away with the creativeness that went into the bathroom. I went into a cubicle and was surprised to see a sink above the back of the toilet. I then noticed that the flush buttons were on the sink. When you flush the toilet, the taps run, so you wash your hands and the cistern gets filled up at the same time and with the same water, when the cistern is full the taps shut off. You then dry your hands on a neatly sown rag from a pile in a metal bucket, I assume these all just get washed a re-used. Wonderfully designed! The door to the toilet was a floating device you would find on a large fishing net, looks like an orange life saver. Hubby said that in the mens they had a collection of rear view mirrors stuck all over the wall instead of a regular mirror! Brilliant!

If you live in Perth, go and try this place out, you won't be disappointed whether you go for the experience alone of the food. If you don't live in Perth, go on their website and have a mooch, it is really interesting!

Stu's home made pizza.

It wasn't long before those amazing pizza bases came out again after all! But this time as pizzas not just garlic bread, though we did have some garlic bread too! He makes this dough sound like it is the easiest thing in the world! I always see some yeast rising in a jug and then flour, and he does say he uses a little semolina aswell in there. By the time I come to see him rolling it all out it is co-operating religiously with him! Unlike the attempts I have with store bought dough, this stuff moves wherever he wants it to go and isn't sticky or anything, I definitely going to be procuring the recipe before I leave so we can at last use our pizza stone!

We ate outside on the patio and the pizzas were cooked on the bbq right there, so we ate one at a time while they were hot, amazing!

This was a tomato based, cheesy garlic bread. The mozzarella was a cheaper variety that was bought shredded, you know the kind. Chef wasn't impressed with it but it was a good way to use it, I loved it, though when the real mozzarella came out I was blown away! This tied us over for the real deals!

Topped with tasty chorizzo that had been fried perfectly, tender bocconcini, green onions and then once it was cooked further topped with fresh basil and rocket that had been tossed in balsamic - this was a master piece. It is common over here in Oz to find pizzas covered in rocket, I love it, it really makes it a whole rounded meal, especially when it is a thin crust, top quality toppings, not drowning in cheese and then the leafy matter, you can't go wrong! We had a very tasty Margueritta pizza too that had the same lovely bocconcini on it and even some fresh tomatoes, same post bbq topping of fresh basil and rocket. The texture was spot on, crispy base, yet still a bit of give in the centre, I was well impressed and thoroughly pleased with myself to be experiencing it all!

Last but not least a simple garlic bread on a pizza base, where you can really appreciate the quality base and lovely garlic and butter flavours. What a perfect dinner at Casa Hannah, eating food right off the barbie under a glorious Oz night sky.

Kate's Cosmopolitans.

I'm not a huge alcohol drinker but I haven't said no to one of these since I got here! Ingredients:

1 part Cointreau to 2 parts Vodka, with Cranberry juice. Rim the glass with lime juice and then flame orange peel into the drink. Though thus far we have had it with flamed mandarin and I would say it is even better than what orange would taste like. You squeeze the bit of peel and as the oil squirts out you burn it then drop the peel into the drink. Oh my goodness, so much goodness!

Stu's garlic bread on a pizza base.

I made bolognaise for dinner the other night, very tasty indeed, with lots of red wine and smoky bacon. Anyway, I have made bolognaise before and written about it before, this entry is all about the garlic bread that we had on the side! Stu made it from scratch, just banged out a quick batch of it; flour, water, salt, sugar, olive oil and yeast. The dough is slightly yellow from the oil which is nice. He lets it sit a while then freezes what he isn't using so yo can pull out little ready to use balls of it, very clever. He makes it on the bbq too, and keeps a tub of ready made garlic butter in the fridge for using on such occasions.

One was made with parm and the other with pesto. Interesting thing here in Oz, or I guess in W.A. as that is all we know really, but they are really anti importing so most things are local or extremely expensive. Pine nuts are very expensive so they actually make pesto with cashews instead.

I foresee lots of this bread in the near future...

Coffee at Lemon Station.

We popped in to see Kate today on our beach walk and to check out the cafe where she works. Lovely little place, huge windows open all sides with a lovely breeze coming in. Coffee is huge here, and I thought Canada was bad! They don't do drip coffee here either and it can take quite a while (in comparison) to get your coffee as the science behind it all is really intricate and detailed. I cannot believe the variety of coffee's there are to chose from, insane! Today hubby had a 'long mac', with a beautifully decorated top, which he said was great. Every coffee is his new best one! We will work our way through them all and check back later with final decisions. I am fairly firmly a fan of the Cappucino, and rarely try others to be honest, whereas hubby has been trying 'long black's, flat white's and espressos! Really interesting figuring it all out and tasting the difference in the milk and cream etc. 

Gelato on the beach.

After a mid day's worth of walking along the coast, sometimes on the path and sometimes down on the beach, it was time for a well earned break and some gelato to cool off. I had lemon gelato, hubby had choc chip. Heavenly! We actually had some the other day too further up the coast on a day trip to another beach and I had the passion fruit gelato, also heavenly. The great thing is that it is all made with real fruit juice so the flavour is amazing and you know the quality is good. We have also noticed how different the milk or cream tastes over here too, really interesting. 

Beef noodle soup.

I cannot tell you how blessed I feel to be staying with a chef! Wow, the dinner we had last night was such a treat, though him and his wife have it every week! Lovely beef stock, with fresh veggies, noodles and rare tenderloin slices. Oh my goodness. He made the stock and had it simmering, then added some finely cut veggies like carrots, green onion, bok choy and Chinese cabbage. He actually put the noodles in each of our dishes and poured boiling water over them then drained them and topped it with the veg and stock. In a pan he fried up the beef in olive oil then thinly sliced it, he cooked it rare because it will keep on cooking in the soup. Then you mix it all together and eat it! And tip the bowl up and drink the last bits too! Yum! Such a treat to watch a chef work!

Brunch at Toast.

We went to this lovely little place for brunch on the weekend. It focusses a lot on different kinds of bread and lets you pick what bread you have with what dish, very tasty, and dynamic!

I had grilled tomatoes, feta and fresh basil on plain-ish toast.

Hubby had a fresh muffin made with maple, blueberries and cream cheese.

The colour of the egg yolks is worth a photo alone! Orange almost, and that is because they are free range eggs. What a difference.

Kate had the chocolate crepes with toasted hazelnuts, and a side of ice cream. The chocolate was intense, in a very good way and the ice cream was out of this world good.

This place is well worth a try, even if it just for a slice of amazing toast, like the name suggests. There is a huge array of spreads and apparently if you like crispy bread the Turkish is the one to get! I hope we revisit this place soon.

Seafood at Sandrino's in Freo.

When the birthday girl has a hankering for seafood, the troop finds seafood. Yay me! I was not disappointed, especially when I found a dish called Barbequed Seafood that came with prawns (yes they call them that here, not 'shrimp'! Another reason to love Oz!), calamari, mussels and barramundi which I was really keen to try.

This is my idea of seafood heaven, I only wish I could have shared it with my Dad who shares a birthday with me and is also a seafood lover. I learnt later on via skype that he was having home made fish and chips made from nkupi fish that he had caught at a fishing competition and not only that but they had placed 2nd in one of the categories so they were really happy campers too! 

The barramundi was really good. Not like a white flakey fish at all, very much more dense with almost a grey/white flesh that really holds together nicely. It almost tastes earthy if that makes sense, like river. I would compare it to a Bream fish from Zambia at a push. We were dining with our friend's friend's too and he was a chef too and told us that the barramundi flavour can really vary depending on the season, from tasting muddy when it is in the rivers to really 'oceany' when it moves out to the estuary or ocean. Am loving the local knowledge!

Our friends ordered a pizza with roasted pumpkin, goat cheese, pesto and rocket on which looked divine!

Hubby's meat lover's pizza also looked divine, actually, it tasted divine, maybe a touch salty with the proscuitto but divine none the less.

All in all a very nice day! Loving Oz!

Birthday drinks in Freo.

Woohoo we are in Australia! And fingers crossed, jet lag free. The 12hr time change seems to have been dealt with by the insanely long journey. First couple days have been amazing here in Perth. My friend's husband is a chef, I cannot tell you how delighted I am to be living with them and discussing food and watching him work in the kitchen. He made red thai curry our first full day here and it was so good and I was so relaxed that I forgot to take pictures and document, boo! Am now on the ball again.

Yesterday we went to Fremantle for the day and mooched around, had drinks, moved on, had drinks, found food etc etc. The first place was a kind of warehouse on the harbour called Little Creatures, very interesting place. We sat outside on the deck for drinks and I discovered Pipsqueak cider.

This is definitely not a North American version of cider, nor really a hugely English one, the closest I could compare it to is Savannah dry which comes from South Africa. So light and crisp and fresh. And so welcomed on a roasting, sunny, blue skies afternoon with the sea breeze washing over you. Not being a huge alcohol drinker, I loved my cider and then moved on to my new favourite drink, Lemon, Lime and Bitters.

Another amazingly fresh, tart and crisp drink, I was in heaven. And not that it matters hugely, but what a beautiful colour no!? Here comes the warning - drinking this bottle version is amazing, however, if you order one in a restuarant where they will make it from scratch it will not be anywhere near the same as this! It was very sweet from the lemonade and almost orange from the Angustura bitters. I learnt rapidly that you need to order it SODA, lime and bitters if it is being made and you will have more luck with a tart, crisp drink. On the drink side, I was one happy birthday camper! With a hankering for seafood. Enter new post.