March 29, 2013

PHOODIE’S PHABULOUS ‘TIM TAM ENGAGEMENT CAKE’

Often when I create something, I feel as though words are useless when it comes to describing it to you guys.

I believe that photos are the only way that I can communicate the wonder of whatever it is I have made.

So, without further ado, let’s allow my snaps to do the talking.

I will give you jot down a couple of quick details below that I know you will message me about if I don’t, but then I will simply stand back and ‘watch’ you weep and howl and fall to the floor over this truly PHENOMENAL chocolate masterpiece, featuring (without a doubt) Australia’s MOST LOVED BISCUIT! (Fun Fact: 1 in every 2 households in Australia contains a packet of Tim Tams and around 35 million packs are sold each year – that’s nearly 400 million biscuits!)

PHOODIE’S PHABULOUS ‘TIM TAM ENGAGEMENT CAKE’

Two thousand and Nine Arnott’s Tim Tams were used in the making of this cake.
Approximately 4 kilos of Milk Chocolate was used in the making of this cake.
The cake was 5 tiers.
The cake was made for an Engagement party with 250 guests. The party was held at The Royal Oak Hotel in Sydney, Australia.
The following flavours of Tim Tam were used at random in all tiers of the cake; Original, Honeycomb, Double Choc Vanilla, Turkish Delight, and Choc Orange.
About 400 Tim Tams were consumed on the evening of the party, leaving over 1600 for the guests to take home (and for me to nibble on…. and continue to nibble on.)

These biscuits were sent to PHOODIE courtesy of the fabulous and VERY generous folks at Arnotts.

March 25, 2013

PHOODIE’S HOT CROSS BUNS

The only difficult thing about this recipe is NOT EATING THE OUTCOME once you’re done!

HCB’s are seriously SUCH a simple thing to make….. they take time due to all the resting and rising, but they are not hard in ANY WAY at all!

Wishing everyone who celebrates Easter a very happy one filled with loads of great food, plenty of family and a sickening amount of CHOCOLATE!

INGREDIENTS

(To make 10 buns)

50 grams unsalted butter

150 ml milk

Zest of 1/2 lemon

1 teaspoon All spice

1 egg

400 grams plain flour

7g dried yeast

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

100 grams chopped dates

50 grams mixed peel

Egg wash – 1 beaten egg

Flour cross – 4 tablespoons plain flour, 1 tablespoon caster sugar, 5 tablespoons hot water

METHOD

1. Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat with the milk, zest and All Spice – set side to cool. Once cooled, whisk in the egg with a fork until all combined.

2. Sift the flour into a bowl and add in the yeast, ginger, cinnamon, peel and dates.

3. Add the cooled milk/egg mix to the bowl of dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon. Turn out onto a floured bench and knead dough until it is fully combined, about 5 minutes.

4. Place the ball of dough into a lightly greased bowl and cover with cling film. Leave in a warm spot for about an hour or so, until it has approx. doubled in size.

5. After it has rested, knead it again for another 5 or so minutes and then pre-heat oven to 210 degrees celsius.

6. Cut the ball of dough in half and then cut each half into 5, leaving you a total of 10 pieces of dough, roll into balls.

7. Put the 10 balls onto a baking paper lined tray about 1cm apart and cover with a kitchen towel for 1/2 and hour.

8. After 1/2 an hour brush each bun with egg wash and then using a disposable piping bag (or a plastic sandwich bag with the tip chopped off) pipe on the flour cross (made from combining all flour cross ingredients in a bowl until you get a thick paste…. if too thin, add flour, if too thick, add water.)

9. Bake for 15 minutes (or until golden – I overcooked mine a tad in the pictures below!)

HAPPY EASTER!

STEP BY STEP SNAPS

THE WET INGREDIENTS

THE DRY INGREDIENTS

COMBINE

THE BUNS

THE HOT CROSS

DONE!

March 20, 2013

Spaghetti with Truffle Oil, Parmesan + Egg

One of the most delicious things that I have ever eaten is Chef Armando Percuoco’s ‘Fettuccine al Tartufovo’, (Truffle Egg Pasta), at his gorgeous Sydney restaurant, Buon Ricordo.

I have probably had this dish 30 or more times now, but I still remember the first time I ever tasted it. My friend Jane took me there to celebrate a new job I was about to start and she said, “Phoodie, THIS is what you’re having for Entree.” It sounded amazing and so I didn’t argue. Not that I ever would with Jane’s suggestions as she knows her stuff!

Anyway, a few weeks ago the wonderful people from Enoteca Sileno sent me some AMAZING Martelli Spaghetti and stunning Naturbosco White Truffe infused extra virgin olive oil, among other delicious things (all of which can be purchased here) and It did not take me long to work out what I was going to do with them. Although my first instinct was to down the truffle oil like a shot, (THAT’S how amazing the flavour is), I quickly snapped back to reality and accepted that this was probably not the most sensible idea. So, I decided that I would attempt to recreate the flavour combo from Armando’s famous dish. Now I must state, I was not trying to replicate his dish as his methodology is slightly complex and he uses a bucket load of cream (NOTE: THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THIS, I just didn’t want cream in this dish), all I wanted was to achieve the same flavour profile.

It was BEYOND AMAZING and I will be whipping it up again very soon!

Ingredients

Serves 4

For the Pasta

320 grams spaghetti

1 tablespoon butter

1 teaspoon truffle oil

Salt and Pepper

1 and a half cups grated parmesan (I used shaved as that’s what I had but grated is ideal)

For the topping

per person: 1 teaspoon butter, 1 egg, 1/4 cup grated/shaved parmesan

Method

1) Cook your spaghetti, add butter, oil ,salt, pepper and parmesan and mix. Place the lid on top to keep it hot.

2) Heat a teaspoon of butter on medium and when heated, add egg, ensuring to keep yolk in tact.

3) AS SOON as edges of egg start to go crispy (they should not turn brown, it’s the second BEFORE they turn brown) take it off, place it straight on top of a bowl of pasta.

4) Season with salt and pepper and place the additional parmesan on top.

5) Serve immediately, ensuring to toss the egg through the pasta so that the pasta’s residual heat cooks the yolk somewhat.

YUMMMMMMMM!

STEP BY STEP SNAPS

March 19, 2013

THE NAPPY ‘CAKE’

Continue reading →

March 16, 2013

STICKY PEAR + GINGER CAKE

My good friend, K, who put me on to the RIDICULOUSLY DELICIOUS Honey + Pine nut Tart recipe recently gave me Karen Martini’s FEASTING cookbook. Inside the front of the book she wrote “Make sure you try the Sticky Pear and Ginger Cake, it’s amazing!” ! I never ignore her advice and so one day last week when the kids were asleep I whipped it up! PHENOM DOT COM! The ginger definitely packs a punch, so if you’re not a ginger fan, then this one’s not for you, but if you are, this’ll be a keeper!

Click here for the recipe.

Annnnnnd this week, I’ve done something different with the pics! I’ve combined them all into a little 2 minute video with a voiceover!

Enjoy!

(The tea you will see in the video is SERIOUSLY beyond beautiful! It was sent to me to try and I am now 100% hooked – all details HERE!)

March 14, 2013

‘UNDER THE SEA’ – Miss 3’s Birthday Party

Hi wonderful Phoodies! I am going to let the pictures do the talking today for this post! Please Facebook message me, tweet me or leave a comment if you have any questions at all / want to know where something was sourced / what something was made from etc! I know a popular question so far has been “What is the sand?!?” The answer to that is Arnott’s NICE biscuits, PLENTY of them and blitzed FOREVER in a food processor until the consistency is that of actual wet sand. The smell was DIVINE and the texture was smooth and gorgeous!

ENJOY!

🙂 Phoodie

March 11, 2013

TIM TAM LOVE + A FACEBOOK COMPETITION!

Above: Double Vanilla Tim Tam Bircher Muesli with yoghurt, honey and raspberries

IT’S COMPETITION TIME: ‘Like’ us on FACEBOOK to enter and get all of the details on how to win!

Last Thursday I was lucky enough to be invited to a gorgeous breakfast, hosted by Arnott’s, with Aussie Pastry chef Adriano Zumbo in attendance, to celebrate the country wide tour of the ARNOTT’S TIM TAM LOVE MORE BUS!

The bus, packed the the rafters with Tim Tam treat packs, has travelled over 5000 km over the past 3 weeks, sharing the love across Australia, from Melbourne to Adelaide, Ballarat to Bathurst! Hundreds of thousands of Aussies have experienced the magic of the Tim Tam Love More Bus which has distributed more than 120,000 Tim Tam biscuits along the way!!! Now THAT’S a lotta chocolate!

New Tim Tam treat packs are a smaller pack available in a variety of DELICIOUS flavours. The treat pack size means Tim Tam fans can love more than one flavour! Personally, I DEEPLY love each and every option!

The bus finsihed it’s country wide tour in Sydney, down at Customs House on Thursday 7th March. There were a tonne of fun games and activities going on PLUS lots of Tim Tam treat packs up for grabs… IN EVERY FLAVOUR! Have a look below at some snaps from the day!

Also, check out my pics of some of the DIVINE creations served at the breakfast event! They were SERIOUSLY yum!

To celebrate the goodness that is the Tim Tam treat pack, one lucky PHOODIE reader will WIN……A YEARS SUPPLY OF TIM TAMS! All of the entry details are on the Phoodie FB page so pop over there, “like” us and find out how YOU could be the fortunate human to take out the prize!

Above: Honeycomb Tim Tam Yoghurt Parfait

Above: Tim Tam Pancakes with Whipped Cream and Crushed Original Tim Tams

Above: Double Vanilla Tim Tam Bircher Muesli with yoghurt, honey and raspberries

March 6, 2013

Phoodie’s CRUNCHY Brown Rice Salad with Roasted Almonds and Salad Seeds

Have you “Liked” us on FACEBOOK yet?! Following me on TWITTER?! Snap to it! Competitions and Prizes galore PLUS always be the first to know about EVERYTHING that’s going down in the land of PHOODIE! Annnnd, in other news, we are set to launch the new site towards the end of the month – GET EXCITED PEOPLE!

Crunchy.

I actually, REALLY, don’t like that word but I LOVE what it means!

Nuts, salad seeds, gorgeous brown rice. This one’s a winner!

INGREDIENTS

(Serves 8 as a side)

350 grams Brown Rice

1 yellow capsicum / pepper

1/2 bunch spring onions

1 punnet grape tomatoes

1 red onion

1 fennel bulb

1 bunch parsley

1/2 bunch dill

1 cup slivered and roasted almonds

1 cup salad seeds (whatever seeds you want to use you can! I use a combination of sesame and pumpkin seeds)

salt pepper to taste

juice of 2 lemons

1/2 cup olive oil

METHOD

1) Prepare the rice as per the instruction son the packet. Spread out on a large plate to cool.

2) Finely dice all vegetables and herbs. Place them into a large bowl.

3) Add 1/2 of the cup of almonds and 1/2 of the cup of salad seeds (you will use remainder as a garnish) Mix gently.

4) Add salt, pepper, lemon juice and 1/4 cup olive oil to the rice, toss gently.

5) Bit by bit add the rice to the vegetable bowl and mix.

6) Transfer to serving platter, drizzle over remaining olive oil and top generously with remaining nuts and seeds.

YUMBO!

STEP BY STEP SNAPS

The Rice

The Vegetables

The Crunch

Dressing the rice

Combining

Garnish

Yummy!

March 4, 2013

PHOODIE REVIEWS: PaperPlanes, Bondi, Sydney.

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http://www.paperplanesbondi.com/

I love Japanese food. Always have. Always will. I really could eat it every night of the week, which is why Tokyo is one of my favourite places to visit!

I was absolutely THRILLED to discover, the other week, a restaurant so close to home whose menu alone made me salivate. I knew I had to go, and so made a booking for the following week. My expectations were super duper high because, as I said, the menu on my computer screen had already made me weep from excitement. Paperplanes had a lot to live up to!

In summary, all I can say is WOWSAS. Seriously, WOW – SAS! I have not stopped raving to everyone who will listen about what an amazing night we had! How delicious and unique (yet familiar) the food was and how top the service was too. Attentive, yet not annoying, the perfect waiters! I cannot wait to go back and am trying to work out when the next opportunity will be! Hopefully very soon!

Every time a dish came out I would say to V, “this is my favourite!” and then something else would come out and I’d say “no THIS is my favourite!” I just couldn’t decide! That said, highlights would HAVE to be the PaperPlanes Prawn Gyoza (see below) and the Soft Shell Crab Tempura (see below). Oh and the desserts! And the Sushi! I’m serious!

We went on a Thursday night and the place was full. Apparently on the weekends, there is awesome live music which you can read more about on their website and facebook page.

With an amazing ‘Classic and Cool Bondi meets Funky Tokyo’ custom interior, featuring one-off artworks and a ceiling full of colourful skateboards and origami, THIS, folks, is your next Sydney dinner venue.