breakfast in the Hunter

Lovely scenic pictures of the hunter valley, just outside the best winery- scarborough's (well according to my friends anyways, considering i didn't try any!)

The BEST study group ever (and the best friends ever, lauren should also be in this picture)
The boys and the girls on john's farm.

I was very lucky last weekend when i was invited by a few friends to a farm in the hunter valley. The hunter is an area full of wineries and cheese but more than that, it's picturesque. I took so many pictures, got to feed cows and ride on a quad bike (this was the highlight of my trip).

My friend jacki driving a quad bike in a blazer, such city people, feels like flying.

This is me feeding C5 (named by Tim), these are angus beef cows.

I must admit i was a little hesitant to go since i don't drink nor do i eat cheese, but i am very glad i went since we made a breakfast fit for a king! With the help of my trusty friends bek and jack, we whipped up some corn fritters and pancakes. The corn fritters were inspired by bills in sydney. Ours weren't quite as good but i think they came pretty close (i find that with a lot of my recipes). So here is the recipe for the corn fritters which we served with smoked salmon or bacon, baby spinach and an avocado, tomato salsa.

Ingredients for corn fritters:

4 cobs of corn

2 rashes of bacon (chopped finely)

1 onion (chopped finely)

1 cup self raising flour

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1 teaspoon baking powder

salt to flavour

Method:

Boil the corn to cook it.

Remove the kernels from the cob using a knife.

Pan fry the bacon and onion until golden and crisp.

In a bowl, add the flour, baking powder, eggs and milk, whisk together. Add the cooked corn, bacon and onion and mix until combined.

Heat a frying pan, ensure it is non stick or use oil. Pan fry the fritters, similarly to a pancake. Keep them all in the oven till they are ready to be served.

Salsa: chop up avocado and tomato's finely, mix with some lemon juice and sea salt.

Serve the fritters with smoked salmon or crispy bacon, salsa and baby spinach.

Yi's (vietnamese for aunty's) chicken ragout

Hello again, sorry it's been a while between posts, uni has started up again. This recipe is a traditional vietnamese recipe with a big french influence. I am vietnamese and i decided it was time to learn some of the recipe's i grew up eating such as this ragout. It's quite a watery stew with chicken, carrot and potato mainly in a tomato based soup. I hope you try it out, it is very easy and delicious for dinner, make a bit extra and have it for lunch also cause it heats up perfectly. I think as with most stews, it will taste better the next day when the ingredients have really had a chance to mesh and marinate. Here's the recipe

Ingredients:

10 chicken drumsticks (cut into half, remove skin)

garlic (crushed)

2 onions (diced)

4 large potatoes (peeled and chopped)

2 carrots (peeled and chopped)

400ml coconut juice

4 tablespoons tomato paste

300mL chicken stock

salt and pepper

chicken stock powder (optional)

Method:

Marinate the chicken with garlic, chicken stock, salt, onion and pepper. Leave in the fridge for 30 minutes-1 hour.

In a pan, fry half the garlic and 1 chopped onion until it smells nice. The add the marinated chicken to seal the chicken (it doesn’t have to be cooked yet, just sealed). Add the tomato paste and the coconut juice to the chicken and let it simmer for 5 minutes.

In another deep pot, fry the rest of the garlic and onion, then add the potatoes and carrots. Pan fry for about 5 minutes until the potatoes are sealed then add the chicken stock.

Add the juices from the chicken to the potato pot and let the potatoes cook for 20 minutes until they are soft.

Add the semi cooked chicken to the pot and simmer with the lid on for about 20 minutes (check to see the chicken and potatoes are both cooked). Add salt and pepper to taste (shouldn’t really need much as the chicken stock is already salty and the coconut juice is already sweet). If there is not enough juices add more chicken stock. Simmer for another 10 minutes with the lid of, redo a flavour check may need more salt, pepper).

Serve with crispy toast or rice.

It's a very versatile recipe since you can add whatever vegetable you fancy, it's even nice with beans! I hope you try it and let me know what you think. xoxo

bakeathon on labour day- oatmeal sandwich cookie and craisin, white choc and coconut slice

Today was a public holiday in sydney so i decided to take a day off from study and bake! With the help of my trusty cousins- Amy and Linh we baked oatmeal sandwich biscuits with a cream cheese frosting and craisin, coconut, white chocolate slice (it is similar to a brownie). The recipes we used were modified from annies-eats.com (a US blogger who i hope to be like one day, she is already a doctor and has a successful food blog). The oatmeal sandwich cookie was inspired by buppa's bakehouse's credit crunch cookie which is hands down my favourite cookie, please go to this bakehouse in newtown (king st) it is amazing. They specialise in homestyle american treats. Their credit crunch cookie is still better but mine are still delicious! here is the recipe

Oatmeal sandwich cookie with cream cheese frosting

ingredients

250g butter (cut up into cubes)

1 and 1/2 cups brown sugar

2 eggs

dash of vanilla essence

1 and 3/4 cups of plain flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

pinch of salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

2 cups rolled oats

1/2 cup crushed walnuts

1/2 cup white choc bits

Method:

Preheat oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Beat together butter, sugar till creamy. Then add eggs and vanilla essence and beat till smooth. In another bowl sift flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add the dry ingredients to butter mixture and mix till combined. Fold in rolled oats, walnuts and white choc bits. Use your hands to mix until well combined, roll into balls and press onto baking paper lined baking tray. Balls should be about the size of a golf ball (like a meatball), make sure there is plenty of room on the baking tray since they will melt down and spread out, if they are too close together they will become one big biscuit. Bake for 8-10 minutes, allow to cool before you move them as they will crack. If you want they chewier bake them for less time, if you want harder biscuits bake them for longer, for the sandwich cookies i think they should be baked for 10 minutes, this makes it easier to sandwich them.

Cream cheese frosting: this is to go between the cookies to make the sandwich

In a food processor, blend 250g cream cheese (like Philadelphia cheese) until smooth, add 1 bag of icing sugar (500g), and blend well, add a dash of lemon juice (to your liking) and process it all in the food processor till smooth. Most recipes will tell you to sift the icing sugar and you probably should but i'm lazy and hate sifting so i just added it straight from the bag, it was still smooth (maybe beginners luck!).

Once the cookies have cooled spread the cream cheese frosting and sandwich the cookies.

I hope you try these and let me know how i can improve on them but i really love them, they are the closest thing to the real buppa's bakehouse credit crunch cookie!

Craisin, white choc and coconut slice

Ingredients:

1 cup plain flour

pinch of salt

8 tablespoons of melted butter

1 cup brown sugar

1 egg

dash vanilla essence

1 cup shredded coconut

1/2 cup craisins

1/2 cup white choc bits

Method:

Preheat oven to 160 degrees celcius. Line a baking tin with baking paper.

In a large bowl combine combine the flour and salt. In another bowl beat sugar with melted butter till mixed then add egg and beat till lighter in colour and smooth. Add the vanilla essence and mix. Add the flour mix to the butter mix and stir to combine. Add the coconut, craisins and white chocolate bits and mix till combined. Transfer to the baking pan and bake for 15-20 minutes, do not over bake, the mix will still feel soft to touch but maybe golden in colour.

Once it's cooled drizzle with melted white choc and cut into slices.

This recipe is modified from annies eats under the chewy coconut chocolate chunk blondies, but we made it with white choc and added craisins. Thanks annie!

All in all today was a successful day of baking which ended with a movie. We rented 'the quiet' possibly the worse movie ever, we should have known when we rented it, even the rental shop owner said he'd never heard of this movie before! There is a reason, it was crap! But the cookies and slice made the movie durable. Enjoy, xoxo

ps the dress i'm wearing is my new marc by marc jacobs emi dress in smoky amethyst from saks fifth ave (they post internationally!), it was inspired by 500 days of summer. My favourite colour is now blue and the eyelet lace is beautiful in this dress. It is so simple but perfect for baking and hospital days. I loved the frill neckline and the little puffy sleeves. The other picture is zooey deschanel from 500 days of summer, the inspiration for this dress.

planet cake pretty cupcakes

Thursday was the best day ever at planet cake. I did a pretty cupcakes course and it was amazing, so relaxing with an amazing end product. The class was $400 for the day which includes lunch and was held at the planet cake showroom in balmain sydney. This was my 6th planet cake class and i think it was my favourite- perfect for beginners (as my friend emily was) or the more experienced decorator. Here are some pictures of my cupcakes! I really hope someone's birthday is coming up so i can make more cupcakes!

It really would be a dream of mine to own a shop selling cakes and clothes but i have chosen another path, maybe when i'm older and have done the whole med thing and wanting to retire with cakes and clothes! (even though by then i think i'll own an old ladies shop). It's so difficult to know what to do for a career since you have so many choices and they all seem amazing, let alone all so different. I think thats why life is so long, then you can do everything!

I hope these cupcakes inspire you to go bake and maybe do a planet cake course, i went from no hobby to addicted to cake decorating! It's a really good distraction from study, speaking of which better go study now, speak soon xoxo

raspberry brownies from donna hay

Hello again, 2 nights ago i had an urge to bake and since i was at my boyfriends house (which has no cookbooks) i decided to buy the donna hay books. They had an amazing recipe for brownies which i decided to add some raspberries to. I followed the recipe exactly and and it was looking good till i burnt them! i way overcooked them so they became more like a dry cake than moist, fudgey brownies. My boyfriend ate them none the less and said he loved them! there you go donna hay rules (even when they're burnt!), i must say i burnt them since i overcooked them, the recipe would have been perfect otherwise. here are some pictures of the end result. i don't know what's come over me, maybe it's a big process of procrastination but i love to cook! It's been a really good holiday and before uni starts again i think i'll let myself slide into a no study vacation! But as soon as i get back things will change.