Truly Scrumptious

Restaurant review, Vegan/Vegetarian

Category:

Tagged with:

Chocolate Caramel Pie

27 05 20

When I saw the good quality chocolate and cream at the Herdsman, I was inspired to make choclate caramel pie again. I made the caramel using the Dulce de Leche method.

ccp 1

I used Gippsland cream (which is the closest thing to Clotted cream that I have seen in Australia, so thick and luscious) and Hachez 77% chocolate. It is important that the chocolate is a high percentage cocoa because it needs to contrast with the sweet caramel.

Pastry:
1 1/4 cups or 190g of plain flour
1/4 cup or 40g self raising flour
1/4 cup or 50g caster sugar (I use brown sugar and pass it through a sieve)
90g unsalted butter
1 egg
Pinch salt

Method:
1. Sieve the flours and sugar into a food mixer.
ccp 4

2. Cut the butter into small cubes and add it to the flour/sugar. Start the food mixer and mix until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs (you can rub the butter in using your fingers if you like, but I have warm hands, so I use a food mixer).

3. Pour the mixture into a bowl and add the egg and a pinch of salt. (My photo shows a double quantity which is why there are two eggs). Mix with a spatula or wooden spoon until it comes together, then using your hands, lightly knead and shape it into a round (keep handling to a minimum, and if you have warm hands like me, rinse them in cool water first so that you start off with cool hands).

4. Roll the pastry out into a round and use it to line a flan tin or dish. Put the pastry lined flan dish in the fridge for approx 30 mins if you have time – this will stop it from shrinking away from the edge in the oven.
5. Cut a circle of baking parchment slightly bigger than the middle of the flan dish, and put some ceramic baking beans in the middle. Bake for 10 minutes at 190 deg C, then remove the baking beans and bake for a further 10 minutes. (The baking beans just stop the middle of the tart case from rising too much, you can get away without using them, but you will need to prick the base with a fork, and you may find it will rise a little).
6. Remove the dish from the oven and leave the pastry to cool to room temperature.

The caramel (dulce de leche method):
1 tin of condensed milk (must be condensed – not evaporated) Check that the tin is in good condition, do not use if dented – the lid must be unopened and not damaged.

1. Using an old saucepan, place the unopened tin of condensed milk in the saucepan, cover with water.
2. Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 3 hours. You can cover it with a lid to stop the water from evaporating too much. Check it every hour to make sure that the water is not boiling dry – top the water up as necessary.
3. Carefully remove the tin from the water and leave it to cool thoroughly – it can be stored in the fridge until needed. Do not attempt to open it while it is still warm – I have heard stories of some tins exploding when opened, but I have never had a problem – be sensible just in case – cover it with a cloth when opening.

ccp 9

Regular Caramel:
Use this method if you don’t have condensed milk
300g golden caster sugar
175g butter
200ml double cream

1. Place the sugar in a pan with2 tablespoons water. Heat until it dissolves but do not stir.
2. Boil until amber.
3. Stir in the cream – add a pinch of salt if you like salted caramel.
4. Stir in the butter and simmer for a further 3 minutes.

Chocolate Mousse:
200g good quality dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons icing sugar

1 1/2 cup (375ml) of whipping cream, whipped with the icing sugar
1. Place the chocolate in a bowl and melt by placing the bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water (the base of the bowl must not dip into the water) – or use a microwave if you are confident that you can melt it perfectly. Personally I use the saucepan double boiler method – I am not a fan of microwaves.
ccp 10

2. Cool the mixture for 5 minutes.
3. Fold in half of the whipped cream/icing sugar mixture – it will look claggy at first but keep folding with a spatula, then add the rest and fold again.

To assemble:
When the pastry case is cooled, you can add the caramel to the base of the pastry case. If you like salted caramel you can add a few scant flakes of sea salt on top of the caramel (if you have not already salted it).
ccp 12

Put the caramel coated pastry case in the fridge so that it is completely cool before adding the mousse. This will help to keep the layers nice and separate.
ccp 13

Top the cool caramel with the mousse mixture and leave to set in the fridge. 3-4 hours should do it.

ccp 1

This recipe was inspired by Soda’s beautiful chocolate caramel pie at the North Beach cafe. Sadly Soda is no longer in business:

ccp

Category:

1 Comment

Tagged with:

Linguine with meatballs

26 05 20

ling 1

When I visited The Herdsman I chose some ingredients that would make it easy to prepare a quick midweek meal. With the array of fresh pastas and sauces, it was hard to choose, but in the end I settled for linguine, meatballs and a puttanesca sauce. The meatballs were quite large and took approx 8 minutes to cook. Meanwhile, I boiled the kettle ready for the pasta.

ling 2

Once the meatballs were nicely browned on the outside, I added the sauce along with some chopped mushrooms and onion. You don’t have to, but you can add anything you like to pimp up the sauce, like chilli, garlic, bacon, peppadew peppers, fresh tomatoes etc.

ling 3

The pasta took approx 4-5 minutes in boiling salted water, and I served the dish with the rest of the Herdsman’s garden salad and a sprinkle of parmesan. The whole dish took less than 20 minutes. Ideal for midweek and delicious too.

Category:

Tagged with:

Prawn Ravioli with crabmeat and prawn oil

26 05 20

When I came home from the Herdsman with my basket of goodies, I set to work cooking, newly inspired by what I had seen and sensed in the shop. My first recipe was a home made prawn ravioli on a butternut squash puree, with crab meat and prawn flavoured oil.
This is based on a Gary Mehigan recipe but has my own personal twist.

PRAWN RAVIOLI ON BUTTERNUT SQUASH PUREE WITH CRAB MEAT AND PRAWN OIL
pr 1

The amount that I made was enough to feed 3 people comfortably or 2 greedy people ! I bought a ready cooked swimmer crab from the Herdsman and used a crab pick to remove the meat, but you can cook a raw crab if you prefer. Once the crabmeat is prepared, you need to get the ravioli filling ready, and the oil infused with flavour.

pr 2
pr 3

For the oil you need :
6 large tiger prawns (approx 200g)
200ml of good olive oil
2 bay leaves
1 star anise
1 teaspoon of tomato paste/puree
1 small fennel bulb
pr 4

I had 6 huge prawns, which I de-shelled and removed the black food canal from (you do this by gently running a knife along the back of each prawn and easing the black tube out with the knife tip). I then sliced a fennel bulb thinly (you need about 30g but the exact quantity doesn’t matter too much). I placed the prawn shells in a pan with approx 2 tablespoons of olive oil, the sliced fennel, 2 bay leaves, and a star anise. When the fennel is soft, add more oil (up to 200ml) and a teaspoon of tomato paste/puree. Put the lid on and continue to heat gently for 20-30 minutes to infuse the flavours into the oil. Keep the prawn
meat for the ravioli filling. When the oil is done, pass it through a sieve to remove the shells and spices, discard the shells.

pr 5
pr 6

For the filling you need:
Prawn meat as above (approx 200g)
1 egg white
a pinch of cayenne pepper or smoked paprika
the zest of half a lemon
1/8 – 1/4 teaspoon of salt
100ml thick cream

Whizz up all of the ingredients in a food processor, adding the cream last as you may not need all of it. Try 50mls of cream first and check the texture – it should be soft but not runny. We want the filling to hold together inside the ravioli.

pr 7

To make the ravioli, you can either make fresh pasta or buy lasagne sheets. I bought lasagne sheets both for convenience and because I wanted to test the quality of the Herdsman’s produce. You can make your own pasta dough by mixing 200g of ’00’ flour with 2 beaten eggs, a tablespoon of olive oil and a pinch of sea salt in a food processor. This dough should be left to rest for a while at room temperature before passing it through a pasta machine.

pr 8

To make the ravioli, cut a rectangular piece of dough approx 6cm x 12cm. Place a small spoonful of filling in the centre. Brush some milk around the edges and fold it over, making sure that you push out all of the air while you are sealing up the pasta. If the edges look uneven you can trim them with a knife or a wavy pasta cutter. The ravioli take approx 5 minutes to cook in boiling salted water.

pr 9

pr 10

For the butternut squash puree you need:

300g of grated butternut squash
60g butter or dairy free spread
80ml milk

Melt the butter in a large saucepan and add the butternut squash. When it starts to soften, add the milk, cover and cook for 6-8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, then use a stick blender to puree it. You can also sieve the mixture if you want it to be really smooth. This can be made in advance and reheated while the pasta is cooking.

pr 13

To assemble the dish, place some butternut squash puree on the plate, the ravioli on top, and some fresh crab meat on top of the ravioli. Drizzle some of the flavoured oil around the dish.
I served this with one of the Herdsman’s pre-prepared garden salads and the olive and onion bread.

Category:

1 Comment

Tagged with:

Raspberry and Peach Scones

26 05 20

sc 1

sc 2

Recently I have made some very successful blueberry scones and I had the idea to try a kind of melba scone using raspberries and peach icing. The Herdsman had some lovely raspberries on display, so I made sure that they went in my basket. The recipe is very similar to the blueberry scone recipe.

Recipe:
2 cups (approx 250g) self raising flour – however, if you only have plain flour, you can add 2 teaspoons baking powder
half a teaspoon of salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder (even though it is self raising flour, I added a little extra boost)
5 tablespoons (70g) butter or non-dairy spread
1 cup of raspberries (this is approx one small 150g punnet)
1 cup (250ml) of double cream or some cocnut cream/yoghurt
For the glaze – approx 1 cup (140g) of icing sugar and half a fresh peach

Method
1. Heat the oven to 200 deg C and line a baking tray with some baking parchment.
2. Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl or food processor i.e. the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar.
3. Either rub in the butter or use the food processor to blend it in until it is like fine breadcrumbs.
4. Stir in the raspberries.
5. Add the cream (if using coconut cream or yoghurt, add less than the recipe states and gradually add more as needed) and very gently fold it in without crushing the blueberries, then pat the mixture together to form a soft dough. Treat it very gently, it does not have to be perfectly smooth.
6. Roll the dough out into a long rectangle approx 12 inches by 3 inches. It will be quite a thick layer of dough (1-2 inches thick) Cut this in half, then cut each piece in half again so that you have four pieces approx 3 inches square. Cut each piece diagonally so that you have 8 scones.
7. Brush each scone with some cream (or milk or coconut cream) and place on baking tray. Bake for approx 25 minutes.
8. To make the glaze, sift the icing sugar into a bowl. Peel the peach and puree it using a stick blender. Add the puree to the icing mixture a little at a time until you get a soft glaze which isn’t too runny.
9. Spread the glaze over the top of each scone.

Did my idea work ? Well it was 50% successful. The raspberries were delicious in the scones although they are not quite as robust as blueberries, so they spread and bleed into the mixture a lot more. The peach icing tasted very sweet and not particularly peachy. If I were doing this again I would maybe include some peach chunks in the scone mixture and use a lemon glaze as before, or maybe no glaze. The scones did taste lovely, it’s just the glaze that needed some refinement. Again I was very impressed with the quality of the Herdsman’s ingredients.

Category:

Tagged with:

The Herdsman Market

26 05 20

The Herdsman is a grocery store which sells fine produce. It is quite a large store and has a good selection of fresh fruit and vegetables, oils, cheeses, fresh pasta, bakery goods, fresh meat, fresh fish, dairy produce. It has everything that you could possibly hope to find, especially if you are looking for unusual ingredients or planning a special dinner party.
It is located in Flynn St, Churchlands, not far from Herdsman Lake. If you like Boatshed Markets, you will love The Herdsman.
As you walk in, you are confronted with an array of fresh fruit and vegetables, I chose peaches and raspberries for a ‘peach melba scone’ recipe that I invented in my mind. I also chose a lovely butternut squash and some nice fresh basil and oregano. I haven’t seen fresh oregano in Perth before. The quality of the fruit and veg is clear.

herd 1

herd 2

herd 3

herd 4

herd 5

herd 6

There is also an array of ready prepared salads, pies and quiches to make it easy for busy customers. I chose a garden salad (which stayed fresh for quite a few days after purchase), but was tempted by all of the other salads – Greek, Italian, Beetroot etc. There is also a selection of salads on the deli counter and colourful fresh fruit platters are available.

herd 7

herd 8

The condiment shelves are stacked with oils, sauces and dressings, and there is a section of fresh pasta and sauces which makes it very easy to prepare a quick midweek dinner. I chose the linguine and a puttanesca sauce.

herd 9

There are delicious chocolate mousses and desserts which are a feast for the eyes.

herd 10

A very comprehensive cheese selection containing over 400 cheeses and also great accompaniments. I like a cheese board with contrasting flavours and textures to go with the cheese such as honeycomb pieces, quince paste, fig paste, sour cherries, muscatel grapes. The Herdsman has everything that you need to create an impressive cheese platter – I was pleased to see my favourite Roquefort on the shelf as well as Brie, Camembert, Cheddar, Stilton – all the great international classics alongside Australian cheeses.

herd 11

herd 12

The delicatessen section is amazing with fresh olives, pies, salads, and the fresh meat section supplies both marinated meats and fresh meat. Items included satay, curry, marinated ribs and chops, lamb souvlaki and honey soy chicken. The meats are sourced from quality local farmers and include a majority of free range organic options guaranteed to make your dinner party main course a success.

herd 13

herd 14

herd 15

herd 16

Sausages galore:

herd 17

The fresh fish counter had some beautiful raw tiger prawns which I chose along with a cooked blue swimmer crab. The fish all appeared to be fresh and the selection was excellent. I had an idea for a recipe, and the selection allowed me to adapt my recipe so that I could include the freshest of the ingredients. I was impressed with the fresh tuna, snapper, barramundi and emperor on display.

herd 18

herd 19

herd 20

herd 21

The bakery section has a stunning array of delicious cakes, pastries and breads, most of which are baked on the premises. I chose a gluten free olive and onion bread, but was very tempted by the muffins, brioche. croissants, cookies, scrolls and savouries that were on display.

herd 22

herd 23

herd 24

herd 25

The Herdsman is one of those stores where I wanted to buy everything, the produce is good, fresh and inspiring. I could enter the store without any idea of a recipe and come out with everything that I needed to make a great dinner party standard dish. There is a very impressive selection of pre-prepared food to make life easier for time-challenged people, and the pre-prepared foods are of a high quality so that your ready meal can be nutritious as well as delicious. I love how everything that you need is together in one store – I do tend to travel from one shop to another to get the quality that I like – the Herdsman certainly eliminates the travelling time. In this blog I haven’t covered all of the products available here, there are also fresh flowers, good quality confectionery, baking products, spices, vinegars, oils, flowers – everything that you could need under one roof.
Will I be going back to the Herdsman regularly ? I certainly will, whether it is for
something special for entertaining, or something ‘ready to eat’ for convenience – this store has it all – selection, quality and taste.

Last Visit – August 2017

Category:

Store review

Coffee shop review, Restaurant review

Tagged with:

The Herdsman

Paper Avenue, Joondalup

26 05 20

Paper Avenue is a cafe that has recently opened on the corner of Boas Avenue and Davidson Terrace in Joondalup. It is very clean and modern in style, and the staff are passionate about providing really great food and coffee.
It is an ideal brunch/lunch spot, all food is homemade with love and care.
The menu includes:
Banana bread with lemon zest and a raspberry and star anise compote – absolutely delicious:

pa 1

Buttermilk pancakes with raspberries, jam and lemon curd. Very nice although the jam made them taste really sweet and I would have liked some yoghurt or marscapone to even out the intense sweetness of the jam:

pa 2

Strawberry smoothie – again very nice, pretty and lovingly made, but can be a little variable – the most recent version had too much yoghurt and not enough strawberry:
pa 3

Beef brisket brioche – absolutely overflowing with brisket, with a little special sauce (thousand island style) and apple and mint slaw, tastes lovely and is very filling:

pa 4
pa 5

Brisket Benedict – a very nice twist on eggs benny with hunks of bread and plentiful brisket, guacamole and perfectly cooked eggs all coated with hollandaise:

pa 6

John, Erika and Justin have created a really stylish cafe here. All food is created with perfection in mind, and they are very friendly owners, always keen to give customers little extras to try – “Here’s some chutney that chef made fresh this morning” is a typical example.
The coffee is great, sourced from Locale in Melbourne, it’s clear that they are prepared to go the extra mile to serve the best. With seating inside and outside, I can see Paper Avenue being very busy through summer and beyond – it’s just what Joondalup CBD needed.

Last Visit Date – September 2017

Category:

Tagged with:

Union Kitchen, Mindarie

26 05 20

Union Kitchen is located at Mindarie Marina next to the Boat pub, and is on the site of the old Waterfront cafe.
We visited on Christmas Eve for tea and cake and loved the muffins, so we decided to return for breakfast.
I chose the vanilla coconut chia trifle which was a very pleasant surprise. Each spoonful revealed more yumminess from the top layer of granola and yoghurt, through the berry compote and down to the depths of the soft chia. It was accompanied with a fresh fruit salad and ticked all of the healthy boxes for me.

union 1
union 2

I also ordered a detox green juice with apple, cucumber, lemon and kiwi. It was very refreshing and tasty.

union 3

One companion ordered the poached eggs on granary with a side of bacon. Simple but delicious and prepared with care.

union 6

My other companions ordered the blueberry buttermilk pancakes which arrived with lots of squirty cream and a blueberry and banana compote. The pancakes also had blueberries in the batter, and started off quite promising, but as each mouthful was consumed they became a little sickly and we ended up with two unfinished plates. It would have been better to contrast the pancakes with something less sweet, or to just reduce the overall amount of sugar. Maybe a lemon yoghurt instead of cream would have helped.

union 4

Tea was well presented with nice pots and all of the usual paraphernalia, and a little complimentary biscuit:

union 5

So what was the verdict on Union Kitchen ? It’s a great cafe in a wonderful location, the pancakes were good, but too sweet, and everything else was satisfactory. Definitely worth a visit.

Visit Date – January 2018

Coffee shop review, Restaurant review

Category:

Tagged with:

Fibber McGee’s, Leederville

25 05 20

As an ex UK resident, English born, I sometimes pine for a wonderful Sunday roast. I can cook lovely roasts at home, but sometimes I want to be the guest and have it cooked for me. We tried our local pub last year, but the carvery was dire, pre-cooked, pre-carved meats in metal containers – everything was overcooked and tasteless.

Fibber 1

I had seen Fibber McGee’s on several occasions, being a Leederville regular, but I didn’t realise that it was much more than a quaint Irish pub. Fibbers have their own organic farm, and they provide their own dry aged beef and organic produce for the restaurant.
The restaurant is an old fashioned room with leather seats with the homely feel of somebody’s lounge, but also very typical of an Irish pub that you would find in any town in Eire. The friendly staff are all Irish, and extremely helpful.

fibber 2

For the Sunday roast we had the choice of beef (medium rare), lamb, or pork, and we chose the classic roast beef. Other options on the menu included chicken and leek pie, Irish breakfast and fish and chips. Fibbers also provide a range of veggie options on a separate menu.

fibber 3

The beef was beautiful, sitting on top of a heap of stuffing, with a delightfully crispy but slightly stodgy Yorkshire pudding, perfectly cooked veggies and crispy tasty roast potatoes.
The vegetables were firm enough to hold together but soft enough to slice easily with a knife, and the cauliflower was perfectly cooked with a lovely coating of cheese sauce. Our only disappointment was that they had run out of horseradish sauce.
We were offered the dessert menu, but refused on the basis that we were about to collapse into a food coma. The four dessert options were ice cream, sticky date pudding, banoffee pie, and chocolate brownie. I may have been tempted if there was a crumble option. We also had a very generous Entertainment book voucher, so got one of the main courses free.

Fibbers have an impressive wine list too – it’s not extensive but every choice is a good one, and when I return I will have a hard time choosing a wine to accompany the meal. I will return, because that was a great Sunday lunch and I can’t wait to try some of the other menu options.

Visit Date – May 2018

Category:

Restaurant review

Tagged with:

John Street Cafe, Cottesloe

25 05 20

I have been making the trek to John Street for brekkie/brunch for quite a few years now, and although it seems to have changed hands in recent years, the quality is still the same.
Using wonderful quality ingredients, there is a selection of food for breakfast and lunch, to eat in or takeaway. Breakfast is served all day and lunch starts at 11:30am. There are also tables on the pavement which makes for a dog friendly cafe. Staff are friendly and welcoming, and even when the cafe is packed to the rafters, you can often get a table with less than a 20 minute wait.
The fresh orange juice never disappoints – delicious, freshly squeezed and sweet:

john 1

On this visit, the coffee was not particularly good, quite strong and bitter:

john 2

I usually like the John Street ‘Lot’ for brekkie, but on this occasion chose the Hash n Smash. Very nicely constructed veggie hashcakes with two poached eggs, spinach, chunky tomato relish and a heap of bacon. Also available with smoked salmon:

john 3

My companions chose the eggs benny with ham. Nice soft muffin with fresh thick hollandaise and perfectly poached eggs:

john 4

By the end of the meal, the plates were clean. Another triumph for John Street. The only minus points were for the lacklustre coffee. A great way to start the day followed by a walk along Cottesloe beachfront.

Last Visit Date – December 2017

Coffee shop review, Restaurant review

Category: