Eggsellent

In all my years of cooking I have never been able to make a decent poached egg. I have tried a number of different techniques. I have added vinegar to the water and swirled the water around before adding the egg. I have tried using rapidly boiling water and just about boiling water. All of there methods produced a pretty average poached egg that I was not very impressed with.

I always wanted to be able to poach an egg like they do in café’s and restaurants. I wanted to produce a nice little compact egg with a lovely runny yolk. Well I am here to tell you that I have at last figured it out. Recently I have come across a few articles about poaching the perfect egg and I have put together a couple of techniques to produce what I consider a great poached egg.

In a frying pan (as opposed to a sauce pan which I used to use) bring some water to the boil. Then turn the heat down slightly so that there are small bubbles rather than large rapidly boiling bubbles. Crack your egg into a cup. Then lower the side of the cup into the water and let the egg slip out of the cup very slowly. Leave the egg to poach for 4 minutes. During this time I spooned some of the boiling water over the egg to make sure the yolk cooked properly. Remove the egg using a fish slice (better than a slotted spoon as it prevents the water from pooling on the egg. Allow the water to drain for a couple of seconds and then you are good to go.

I had a whole weekend of poached eggs and they were all excellent. There is nothing better than cutting the yolk open and having it pour all over your toast. A little bit of rock salt to taste and your talking about a near perfect breakfast. I am a happy poacher now.

Such a Treat

I know this photo should depict some beautiful fresh croissants that I have just baked. Or maybe some fresh apple and carrot juice which I have freshly squeezed. Maybe even a pot coffee I have just brewed. But this breakfast was made for me by the very lovely J on my weekend of doing absolutely nothing. It consisted of orange juice, Lyons Green Label Tea, exactly the way I like it, and a couple of Weetabix that came all the way from the UK (not on that morning of course cos that would have required a little too much patients on my part). To me this is the perfect breakfast, mainly because it was brought to me in bed. Of course it wasn’t until I had finished it that I thought, Hey I should take a picture of this. Oh well you get the picture.

My weekend of doing nothing was only lovely. J had a few little jobs that he wanted to do. Unfortunately these jobs took on a life of their own and grew and grew to take up most of the weekend. These were boy jobs that involved hammers, nails and lots of swearing so I was not involved. I did tag along for two trips to the hardware store where I love nothing more than dreaming up projects for the future.

Give me lemons and I will make ...

In fact, give me any citrus fruit and I will find something tasty to make. Last Friday I left work early and headed off on a five hour drive down the South Coast to visit my very good friend Trina in Tuross Heads. In the past Trina and I have enjoyed many an outdoors weekend but this one was going to be different. Twelve weeks ago Trina gave birth to a beautiful baby girl and I was making the trip so I could get cuddles and play time with this new bundle of joy. It was well and truly dark by the time I arrived so I had no idea that when I woke up the next morning and opened the window I would be greeted by the sight of so many citrus trees in full fruit. It was such a beautiful sight. Oranges, Lemons and Grapefruits all ripe for the picking.






At the end of the weekend I went home with a lovely big bag of oranges, lemons and grapefruits. We are going to have a serious overload of vitamin C in our house this week.

I had been warned that the grapefruits were very tart when eaten straight from the tree so I decided to sweeten them up a little for breakfast this morning. After a quick read through a few recipes on the internet I came up with this little combination

Citrus Breakfast
Serves 2

1 Orange, cut into segments
1 Grapefruit, cut into segments
1 tblsp honey
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp desiccated coconut
1/3 cup toasted flaked almonds

Mix them in a bowl and pop them under the grill for about 3 minutes.

Later in the week I plan to make a lemon sorbet and a citrus salsa to serve with fish. I'll let you know how they go.

Breakfast Solution

In the morning I am an early riser but J most definitely is not. His idea of heaven would be to sleep an entire day away without me or the dog trying to raise him from his slumber. At home I get up early and potter away by myself until I eventually decide I want some company and then I wake J with any number of lame excuses. When we go away on holidays it poses a bit of a problem when we get the old “Breakfast will be served between 8:00 and 10:00”. J will only get out of bed at 9:59 meaning that we then get a bit of a frosty reception from the staff as we arrive at the very last minute. I have come up with a few crafty solutions to this problem - lying to J about what time breakfast is served, changing the clock in the room (luckily J doesn’t wear a watch) or just skipping breakfast altogether. Each time we go away we discuss how lovely it would be to stay at a place where they served breakfast until midday but last weekend we stayed at a place that provided an almost perfect solution – a DIY breakfast.

We headed away for a wonderful weekend with J’s parents. I did a bit of research and found a place in Forster (only 3 hours from Sydney). It met all our requirements – close to where we were going windsurfing, close enough to Sydney that we could head off after work on Friday, fantastic views, our own little cottages and best of all they are dog friendly so Teddy could come with us. Clarendon Forest Retreat was such a great choice for our weekend and it was made special by all the little touches. Champagne and a cheese plate awaiting us on arrival, fresh flowers throughout the cottages, a spa to relax in, big huge comfy beds and lovely big white fluffy robes. But the best bit of all was that they provided breakfast baskets in the fridge that had enough food for two breakfasts. The basket had little boxes of cereal, juice, bacon, gourmet sausages, eggs, bread, milk and lots of different jams and spreads. I loved this idea. It was perfect in every way. We could have a light continental breakfast or a full greasy fry-up whenever we felt like it. This was just one of the many things that made this weekend away very special.

I would highly recommend Clarendon Forest Estate for a weekend away from the hustle. The owners are so friendly and accommodating and the views around these beautiful cottages are breathtaking – especially at sunset. Pack up the pooch and head there for a lovely weekend away.

Clarendon Forest Retreat
Coates Rd, Possum Brush Via Taree,
NSW 2430
Phone (02) 6554 3085, (02) 6554 3162

Girls weekend away

I have just been away on an excellent girlie weekend with six of the funniest women you could hope to be on holidays with. I think over the last few months each of these women has appeared as an initial somewhere in this blog. S decided it was about time we all got together for some good food, copious amounts of wine and endless conversation in the picturesque area of Gerringong (about two hours South of Sydney).

This blog has gotten me the reputation of a bit of a foodie so I was in charge of the food. S did the shopping with me on Thursday and the best bit was that we were able to choose all our favourite foods for the weekend. When I was trying to decide on the menu I immediately knew what I was going to do for Breakfast. It was one I spotted on Delicious Days a few months back and every time I have made it, it has received rave “mmmmmm”’s. It’s a healthy breakfast that tastes divine and completely fills you up for a day of shopping in Berry with the girls. I think it is the combination of so many different flavours and textures that works so well with this breakfast. The house we were staying in had the most magnificent view down to the sea so we had the pleasure of sitting out on the deck admiring the view in the sun while enjoying the food. A little piece of heaven really.

After a cursory look around the shops in Berry it was time for lunch. Food played a very big roll in the weekend. I had read good reviews about the Berry Woodfire Sourdough Bakery so we headed there. The building itself is lovely with big tall ceilings and a lovely smell of the wood fire burning that reminds me of my grandmothers house.

The food here is top notch. One of the people sitting at the table beside us had a plate of Parpadelle pasta with prawns and it looked so good that four of us ordered it. Lucky for us it tasted as good as it looked. The restaurant/bakery is BYO so we were able to chill out for the afternoon with a few glasses of wine at the outdoor tables.



No sooner were we out of the restaurant then it was time to head home and pop open the champers and God forbid there would be some time spent not eating, we also set out a selection of cheese and crackers for everyone while I prepared dinner. I went for a salmon gravadlax with cous cous. I had soaked the salmon over night in Brandy and to be honest I think I used too much brandy because it was very overpowering. [Note to self: go easy on the strong stuff]. I am still getting used to cooking for more than four people. Sometimes you just don’t need to use four times the ingredients to cater for more people.

The night was spent drinking and playing Cranium, an excellent game for a big group of people that had us in tears laughing most of the night. Thank God the next neighbour was miles away.

Sunday morning I was relieved of cooking duties because S made us her lovely scrambled eggs on Turkish toast. When all the face-packs were washed off and the nail varnish had dried it was time to do some serious shopping in Berry - no more window shopping for us. Of course all this shopping tired us out and eventually we needed to stop for a coffee and a cake. We were so impressed with the Sourdough Bakery that nowhere else seemed up to par. So why fight it – we went back to the Bakery and enjoyed coffee and cakes all around.



Unfortunatly the weekend had to come to an end and we all headed back to Sydney (and Brisbane for some). Everyone had such an excellent weekend we are already planning the next one. Good girlie weekends are definitely good for the soul.

Here are some pictures from the beautiful garden where we were staying.











And our walk along the beach at sunset.

Our New Area

I seem to be focusing on breakfasts recently. I think it’s because dinners have been a little rushed (or at the local restaurants) recently whereas weekend breakfasts have been enjoyed at our leisure. That said, this breakfast took only minutes to put together. Granted I did cheat by buying pikelets instead of making my own but in my defence they were recommended to me so I was actually just trying them out. Pikelets with layers of smoked salmon, some mustard and dill mayonnaise topped with poor mans caviar. Saturday was a late rise after a big night out on Friday so the smoked salmon pikelets were a great little brunch that took very little effort.

The area we've moved to has numerous cheap and cheerful restaurants. I've always enjoyed nights out here and now it’s all on our very own door-step. We even timed the walk down to the main street – 5 minutes. I used to live in this area years ago and it has changed considerably over time. In particular there seems to be a better class of restaurant now. Competition has done well to encourage a higher standard in the area.

On my wander around the area at the weekend I noticed a new bistro style restaurant called Roxanne which I’m keen to try out. We have a few friends coming over soon so I might try to persuade them to have dinner there. I don’t think it will take much persuading as the menu outside had a few tasty sounding dishes.

There are also a number of different take away restaurants that will come in handy when it’s J’s turn to cook. His idea of making dinner is being the ones that pops down to the take away to pick up the order. I’d love to say J shares my passion for cooking but unfortunately his passion wanes a little when it’s comes to shopping or cooking. Luckily though he’s a very enthusiastic dinner partner and is a dab hand when it comes to cleaning up. So really I can’t complain.

A Healthy Breakfast

Well at last we’ve settled into our new house. The kitchen is small but I've managed to rustle up a few decent meals over the week. I miss my gas top cooker. Gos cooker is going to be one of my first requirements for the new kitchen, along with a large pull out pantry and a garbage disposal unit. What I love about the kitchen is the big window which allows the sun to stream in during the morning. Here's the picture I promised of the little kitchen.



The beautiful morning sunshine got me in a mood something healthy and tasty. I have a little book called a perfect day that has all sorts of lovely photos and suggestions about life’s little pleasures. It has a piece on the best ever granola and the line “after sampling this granola, you will forget all other granolas” got me interested.

I mixed together the ingredients and popped them in the oven. The beautiful aroma from the kitchen wafted up stairs (still getting used to the novelty of stairs) and tempted J down to find out what was on offer. It was a beautiful fresh morning and the sun was enough to tempt us out into the garden for a little alfresco breakfast. I just love having a garden. There’s no grass yet in our garden but that is a minor inconvenience that will soon be rectified when I make a call to the nice men who will lay the turf for us. Don’t you just love the modern conveniences of life today – no need to spend weeks growing your own grass. Just phone someone and ask them to lay down a ready grown garden for you.

Granola

300g rolled oats
50g whole almonds
50g raisins
25g ready to eat dried apricots
25g sunflower seeds
25g golden caster sugar
4 tblsp maple syrup
(I also added 1 tsp of cinnamon)

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and then transfer to a baking sheet.

Bake in a preheated oven at 160C for 25 mins until toasted.
Remove from the oven and stir well
Return the mixture to the oven and cook for a further 15 mins until the granola is crisp and light golden. Remove from the oven.
Eat the cereal while hot with milk, or let cool, then transfer to an airtight container and store.

Eggsellent

I love these oversized egg cups. I got them from a home-wares shop called House near me. They even have little woolly hats to keep the eggs warm while you’re preparing the soldiers. Not exactly a necessity but they do look cute.

They came in individual tins and I had a look at one this morning to see if there was a web site mentioned. It’s funny, in this day and age you expect all consumer goods to reference a web site but there was no www address to be found on the tins. If all else fails, google it. But still nothing.

So, sorry, if you want to add these colourful egg cups to your collection you will have to send me an e-mail and I’ll pick them up for you at my local store.



And staying on the egg note, a couple of weeks ago I was flicking through a great cookbook called Eggs by Michael Roux which contained some lovely looking egg recipes. Being a big egg fan (that’s a big fan of eggs, not a fan of big eggs) I was very interested but I think I got distracted by something my Mum was showing me. I didn’t buy the book but it was on my mind. Recently I was reading a post on Chubby Hubby about baked eggs and, low and behold, it was from the same book. The egg gods were sending me a message so off I went and bought it yesterday. I see many potential lunch dishes in here and as soon as I’ve made one I’ll be sure to let you know.

The truffle with eggs

I have just had an incredibly relaxing Sunday. After a monster session of cleaning the apartment on Saturday I was ready for very little on Sunday and that’s exactly what we did. I woke early, as I always do, and the first thought that popped into my head was breakfast in bed. I pictured us having a lazy morning, reading the papers and snoozing and then maybe we would contemplate facing the day. So I put my clothes on over my night attire (as you do) and headed to the shop for some fresh bread and eggs. I wanted to whip us up some scrambled eggs with truffles. When I eventually woke J, in preparation for our romantic morning in bed, he told me his brother was about to arrive with his computer which needed fixing. Ohh well, breakfast on the balcony it was then. The eggs were delicious especially when I stirred in a spoonful of Tetsuya’s Truffle Salsa.

When I was out getting the breakfast ingredients I also picked up some flowers. I want the place to look pretty when Mum arrives on Wednesday morning. I’m very, very excited about seeing her as it has been 16 months since we have last seen each other. She has asked me to make reservations for a meal at Tetsuya’s so there will definitely be a post about that extravaganza.

Sydney has been hit by a huge swell for the last couple of days, so we head to Bondi back to check out the massive waves pounding the coastline. They were excellent. There were some mad surfers in the water even though all the beaches have been closed. It looked like they were having an amazing surf but I can’t imagine how difficult it would be to get out passed the break (you can tell I’m not a surfer).

We headed back to the Icebergs Bar to watch the sunset and the waves crashing in over the sea-pool as we enjoyed our G&Ts. It really was a lovely relaxing Sunday.

At one with Nature

This weekend was camping time. The idea of being 'At one with Nature' was greatly aided by the fact that we were car camping. God forbid we should have to carry all the gear we used during our camping weekend. My friend, Trina, and I went camping at Green Patch in Jervis Bay and we had two full cars of gear. I think we both had enough food to feed an army for the weekend and we managed to get through most of it.

But there was no sausages and baked beans for us. We started the weekend with a crunchy chicken salad. Trina got the recipe off the back of a packet of Changs noodles. She brought down a pre-cooked chicken which made life very easy. She also brought a box of ice cubes so that we could enjoy a few Gin & Tonics - this really was luxury camping.

We had an ongoing battle with a gas bottle that was connected to a lamp and a two burner stove but it always seemed to come good when we needed it most. Which was handy when I was preparing marinated steaks on the second night.

The highlight of the camping gastronomy were the pancakes which Trina made on the last morning. Now I would love to be able to say we whipped up some batter on the morning but really the extent of our culinary input to the pancakes was deciding on how much water should be added to the pancake mixture. After a bit of a dud start, caused mainly by the lack of a spatula to flip the pancakes, Trina perfected the little golden beauties. She ingeniously put together a pancake flipper with the use of a plastic lid, a Swiss army knife, a twig and some tape from a first aid kit - she must have watched a few episodes of MacGyver in her day. This is definitely one woman you would want to be stranded on a desert island with. Before you'd know it she would have put together a life raft and away you'd sail.


I would highly recommend camping at Green patch (section Y). The wildlife is fantastic and the beach beside the camp site is magnificent. We were blessed with good weather all weekend and even managed a hike in to Steamers beach which is a real hidden gem.