Mind-Blowing Mushroom Risotto (with truffle)

Ladies and gentlemen,

In a hole in the ground lived a hobbit,
Hello darkness my old friend,
Mr and Mrs Dursley,
Good morning,
The world is changed,
Butter.
These are the beginings of some of my favorite things. Now the latter, that beautiful dairy product, starting with a nice soft 'B' , ender with a tender 'r' and melting on your tongue some where in the middle is the ingredient of the gods. You ask any decent chef what are the 3 core ingredients of french cooking and they will tell you this ; butter butter and butter.
Now as a rule i try not to keep butter in my house because otherwise i lose my mind and start adding butter to everything, which half of the time, is really not necessary but i just cant help myself.
Sometimes I lose the plot anyway and steal my housemates butter which I then have to replace, and this means I have half a block of butter left and it all goes downhill from there.
But let me tell you something, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, the secret to a risotto, a really good risotto, is butter.
Some nice stock, onions and garlic and your flavoring of choice will help improve your risotto no end.
In a wild splurge I went to my local fine food store the other day and baught a few beautiful ingredients and one of my splurges was some Simon Johnson risotto rice. Now a really sexy risotto rice is twice the price but really worth it.





Now I'm not going to say I'm a snob and dont ever cook risotto with the risotto rice you buy in the supermarket, because that would be an outrageous lie... But sometimes, just sometimes, its nice to buy the special stuff and really treat yourself.
The grains hold their shape for a wonderful feeling between your teeth and the way the sauce thickens is a beatiful thing. But I digress, either will work here just fine.
Now it is time for a secret.
A secret that may change your life and your tastebuds, forever.
Truffle Tapenade.
The first few times i tried truffle it was via truffle oil. And though truffle oil is a beautiful product it is very heady. And this just wont do for everything. But truffle tapenade is made by blitzing a small amount of truffles into a mushroom paste and let me tell you that this is warm and earthy in the most amazing of ways.
It still makes your head feel a little funny and your nose start proposing marriage and I personally prefer this to truffle infused oil almost every time.





By god, ive been ranting for far too long, Ive actually made myself hungry again, just thinking about this risotto.

But dont be daunted if your living on the poor side of life; supermarket risotto rice, mushrooms and stock minus the truffle paste will still rock your socks. And possible your cocks, if you have one. Just don't skimp on the butter....

200gm risotto rice
15o gm butter
splash of oil
1 small brown onion, fairly finely diced
2 cloves of garlic, sliced or diced (but NOT minced in a jar)
4-5 button mushrooms
2-3 Field Mushrooms
Splash of dry white wine (maybe 50-1oo ml)
2 tsp truffle tapenade (or to taste)
About 600ml of stock
100 gm more of cold cubed butter
cheese of choice (i suggest parmesan or a soft goats)




Pop your stock on to heat over a medium pan.
In a nice large saucepan softly fry off your onion and garlic in the butter and splash of oil. Keep the heat medium to low and cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon.
Dice your button mushrooms and wack into the heavenly sauteing onion mix. Fry out for a further 2-3 minutes, or until soft and sexy.






It may seem like a little too much butter at this point but what you are
going to do next is plonk in your risotto rice and stir until all the oniony garlicky flavored butter coats your grains of rice in a beautiful sheen. Cook for a minute or so, stirring as you go then add your white wine with a lovely splash and let it infuse and absorb.
Get a ladle in your simmering stock and get ready your wooden spoon and arm of choice.
Add the stock, a ladle at a time, stirring constantly but without great effort . Let all the liquid absorb before you add your next ladle. Make sure you use your spoon to stir the whole pan, so as nothing is missed.
Continue until most of the stock is added and the rice is cooked but still with a little bite and a wonderful texture.
What you don't want is for your risotto to be stiff. Some things should most definately be stiff... But risotto is not one of them.
Now turn the heat right down and add the cold cubed butter, stirring until the risotto softens and becomes silky and lush. Adjust seasoning, truffle paste and some grated parmesan, if using.
Turn off heat and let sit for 2-3 minutes. This allows the risotto to rest and become the best it possible can be. Add a little more butter if desired.
Ladle onto a plate. The risotto should spread like so...



If it holds its shape it is too thick. Most restaurants, unfortunately, have this wrong.
Garnish with some shaved parmesan, or little chunks of goats cheese.






Taste. Decide that this, in all great likelihood, is what you would order for your last meal on earth.





My friend, apon tasting this said, "This is possibly the best thing I have ever had in my mouth."
Oh yes.

LIP-SMACKING LEMON LINGUINE

How about a quickie, then?

You want it fast. You want it now. You want it lip-smackingly good.
You don't want a substitute on satisfaction.
But what to do? What to do? Luckily for you there is a handy-dandy super-sexy lemon- linguine recipe coming your way...
You might look at the recipe and think it is too simple, that it will not knock your socks off, but you will be wonderfully wrong.
Enough chit-chat. Its business time. You are about to make a dish that you will go back to time and time again. Guaranteed.
350 gm long pasta, preferably linguine or a nice spaghetti
juice of half a lemon (as long as it nice and juicy)
finely grated zest of half a lemon
Salt and Pepper
75ml cream
1 egg yolk
75gm finely grated Parmesan plus more for serving if desired
(please none of that horrible pre-grated sawdust)




Wack plenty of salted water on to boil. Put a lid on the pot to speed up the process.
Mix all ingredients except pasta in a large bowl.
Cook pasta. Drain. Toss with a knob of butter if desired.




Dump into the bowl and stir through till thoroughly coated. Taste. Adjust seasoning.
Place elegantly into a bowl. Grate over a little more Parmesan if the mood hits you.
Devour.



I made this the other day for the first time in ages and I remembered how ridiculously wonderful it is. It comes from Nigella Lawson's fantastic book 'How To Eat' which everyone should own and I made it even more fantastic by stirring through some chopped preserved lemon and torn rocket.
Darn tasty. This feeds two hungry people but feel free to adjust size as necessary.
Also I am keen to try it with smoked salmon or salmon gravalax but have not got around to it as yet. To be honest its pretty perfect as is.
Tell me if you do. I'd love to hear your feedback.

Darkly Seductive Ginger and Plum Pudding

So it was my birthday recently and I decided to celebrate by making a dessert idea I had been playing around with for some time.
When I was a little younger, some while ago I was shown how to make one of the simplest desserts known to man.
Plums in green ginger wine.
You simply open two cans of plums in juice, cover them in Stone's Green ginger wine and leave to infuse for a few hours, preferably overnight.
Once they have soaked up the exotic gingery flavor you simply serve them with generous dollops of cream of mounds of vanilla ice cream. They take the effort of buying a store baught cake but taste like a team of gourmets crafted it for you.
However I have had an idea floating around in the creative part of my head for a while, forming, growing and then, some two weeks past, it came to fruition.
A little more effort, perhaps, but if you're looking to impress - this will knock some socks off.
An exotic twist on tirimisu that is darkly seductive, fascinating to your palette and utterly irristible...

1 Bottle of Stones Green Ginger Wine
800 or so gms of tinned plums in their natural juices
Tub of mascapone
600 ml cream
1 large packet of Saviordi biscuits (they will be in the biscuit isle in the supermarket)
1/4 cup of castor sugar
4 eggs, seperated

Dump the plums into a large bowl and cover with about half the bottle of green ginger wine. Leave to sit for minimum two hours, preferably overnight.

Whip cream to soft peaks. Fold through the mascapone. Mix in the yolks and sugar.
Whip whites till soft peaks. Fold this in. If you have never folded before, it is very simple. The best thing to do is look up a tutorial on youtube... seeing is much easier than describing. But its pretty much just gently mixing.

Get the container you want to serve your pudding in. Place a layer of saviordi biscuits along the bottom. If you have made tirimisu before this is very similar.
Pick up each biscuit and dunk it quite well in the plummy gingery soaking liquid then place it back in the container. Once you have a nice layer of gingery sponge biscuits cover it with half the mascapone-cream mix.
Spread it evenly over the biscuits. Tear apart the plums with your fingers, removing the seeds as you go, and gently tumble half over the cream mix.
Repeat the whole process again. Biscuits. Cream. Plums. Cover with glad wrap and leav in the fridge till its ready to serve.
If you really want to go all out reduce down the extra liquid with 1 cup of sugar until it forms a sticky syrup and drizzle over the pudding. This however, is not necessary.

And remember, if you need a quick fix in a hurry, simply soak your plums and serve with cream. Its damn good.

The pudding, needless to say, was devoured with comments of, 'go on, just a bit more than. Thats right, one more spoonfull.'
Just you watch. Its sinful.

Two Eggs

And now, time for a bad joke...

Two eggs are sitting in a pan, sizzling away. One egg turns to the other and says, "Wow, its hot it here."
The other egg nearly jumps out of the pan, exclaiming, "Oh my god, a talking egg!"

Pandora's Box - Poached Eggs

Did you know that somewhere deep in Pandora's box was a small cache of recipes?
Whenever a person desired to roast a perfect mammoth or know how to bring the best flavor to their foraged root vegetables a recipe would form in the depths of the box.
And there they sat, quietly basking in their own brilliance, content knowing they alone had the knowledge that humans so desperately desired.
And as humans changed, discovered new foods and dreamt new desires that they never thought possible, so too did this cache of recipes grow within Pandoras chest of forbidden wonders..
Then the box was opened and many things were let free and the recipes, in all their arrogance, boldly strode off to mingle with all the other recipes janging out around the world.

And before long it was hard to tell which was which. The godly from the mundane.

But if you look carefully, throughout your life, you can discover the secret to the simple things.. The perfect scone, the never-forgotten-chocolate truffle or that wonderfully poached egg that only chefs seem to know how to cook..

Luckily for you i have discovered a couple such recipes. Here is the first, in all its beauty...I have been a lover of poached eggs as long as i can remember.

For many years I cooked them the way mum showed me until, glory of glory, i was shown the secret of the Chefs Poached egg...

A smooth white oval, gently wobbling atop your toast.. You ready yourself, with baited breath to cut into its centre and oh! that gorgeous orange ooze of yolk! Only with a poached egg can you create the breathtaking duo of set white and gently warmed yolk. Obviously if you like your yolks more well done you can leave it in a little longer.. But it is, of course, up to you.

I would recommend that you use fresh free range eggs for maximum effect. When i dream of the perfect egg, i prefer for it not to have come from a chicken who has been tortured most of its life... Plus, they genuinely taste better.

My Mums Way;
Boil a kettle, or get your hot tap ready.
Gently heat a tsp of butter in a small pan with a splash of oil. You dont need much. Crack your eggs into the pan and leave them to set for literally about 30 seconds. Pour in the hot water, making sure you are not pouring directly onto the eggs, but rather near them so as not to break them. Add enough water so as to cover them. Simmer gently for 1-2 min until it becomes just a shade paler. To test doneness, lift from the water with a slotted spoon and press gently with your finger. Cook longer if necessary.
This method is the simplest way i know to poach eggs however the problem with these is that the bottom will always be more cooked than the top. Not really a great prowblem i know, but we are looking for perfection here, though it still is pretty sexy.. Admire.

THE CHEFS METHOD

Bring a pot 3/4s full of water to a slow boil. Add a dash of whatever cheap white vinegar you have lying around. You don't need heaps. All the vinegar does is help the whites to set, not flavor your eggs. Don't be tempted to use balsamic or red wine vinegar, it tends to send them a creepy color. Trust me, i have done this.

Get your toast (or desired accompaniment) ready to go and acquire yourself a slotted spoon or failing that a wooden spoon. Swirl the water around till you have a makeshift whirlpool in your pan. Crack the egg into the centre of the whirl pool . As the water swirls around it will elegantly wrap the white around the yolk forming a beautiful thing.

Swirl the water again and crack in your next egg. I would recommend not to cook too many eggs at one time. Depending on the size of your pan. In a small pan try not to put more than 4 eggs at a time. Gently swirl the water again to keep the egg rotating if necessary and then let simmer for about 2 min.
Check done-ness with your slotted spoon and a gentle poke, drain on a paper towel then place atop your fresh toast. Or Salad. Or your head. Whatever. Enjoy.

Notes;
Take a moment while the water is heating to make your life easier. Get your eggs. Put your toast down. Grab a plate and put some paper towel or a clean tea towel on it. Calm down. Its easy.

If you're not very confident in your egg cracking abilities simply crack them into little individual molds or ramekins or cups then simply pour it from your desired container straight into the whirlpool with no worry of splitting your yolk
Also practice cracking your eggs when it doesn't matter if they break, like when your making an omelette, scrambled eggs or a cake. Tell me how it goes.
Pandora's box is not a euphemism for the fun parts of a woman named Pandora. You have a dirty mind.

Inspiration

So I just finished watching the movie Julie and Julia.
And though I watched it previously at the cinema I wasnt a blogger at the time.
For those of you who don't know what the movie is about it follows the tales of the lives of two real people.
One story is that of Julia Child. She is the woman who pioneered good food in America. Way Back in 1949 she learnt at fourty-something to cook in France where she fell in love with the food, the people and with cooking...
She began cooking lessions at Le Cordon Blue, the famous cooking school in Paris, the only female to attend, also the only non proffessional. She is played to perfection by Meryl Streep, one of my favorite actors.
We skip forward to 2002 to the other tale; that of Julie Powell. A woman on the verge of thirty stuck in a job she hates who never manages to finish anything she begins.
And so, she decides to cook her way through Julia Child's cook book. 534 recipes in a year! And she does it! Now that is dedication!
Frankly it makes me feel a little lazy. Granted I work fairly long hours but I like my job and i cook all the time yet somehow i manage not to blog about it. Slack, I tell you, slack.
You shouldn't let me get away with this.
So right now, at 11.25 at night, full of inspiration after watching Julie and Julia I will make a pledge.
I'm aiming for a minimum of 3 recipes a week.
I think part of the problem I have is that I only blog about exciting things, forgetting how excited i was to first learn how to make scrambled eggs like a chef, or discover simple little tricks.
Last night my boyfriend asked how i got my onion to taste the way it does and i told him and he was excited.
So here we go. Three recipes. Per week. About everything.
Keep me dedicated.

Ambrosial apple tart

Now listen closely.

The secret to the perfect apple pie, like the secret to the female orgasm or the recipe for turning iron into gold is an elusive and much sought after piece of knowledge.
And in my opinion all three have been kept secret for far too long.
Now while I don't yet know how to turn iron into gold and men everywhere are beginning to discover the clitoris (gasp) luckily for you.. I can help you out with the secret to the perfect apple pie.
In a related note this pie will help take you closer to that fated orgasm...


A crisp sweet pastry.
A tart filling with notes of honey, cinnamon and just the right amount of texture. Do we want apple mush inside our tart? We do not.
The perfect buttery crumble. It's oozing girl-next-door sex appeal.
Served warm with a generous scoop of vanilla icecream (or better yet, home made honey icecream ..) or served cold with dollops of cream.
Moist but not wet. Sweet without being sickening. And most importantly.. It actually tastes of apples.
And talking of moist... Lets make this tart. The sooner we make it, the sooner we eat it....

For The Pastry;

See Luscious lemon Tart

For the Filling;





10 Granny Smith Apples- peeled and cored
3/4 cup sugar
500 ml water
2 sm cinnamon quills
1 heaped tbls of leatherwood honey
1 tbls butter
a pot with a large base and a fitting lid, if possible



For The Crumble Topping;

300 gm flour
2tsp cinnamon
200gm sugar
270gm cold diced butter

Make the sweet pastry, as per the instruction as per luscious lemon tart here.
While it chills, make your filling.

For the filling;
Peel your apples and take the core out. I prefor granny smiths as their delicious tartness works perfectly in the tart, but you can substitute other crisp tart apples if you wish.
Quarter the apples and slice each quarter into thirds like so...





The shape and thickness means you keep some texture within your pie, which is wonderful.
Melt the butter over a medium heat in your large-based pan, swirling to evenly
Tumble in your apples and coat evenly with butter, gently so as to not break up your apple pieces.
Sprinkle over sugar, drizzle over honey. Pour in water and cover with lid. Simmer 4-5 min. You want your apples to go a little soft, but maintain their shape and texture.
Strain liquid. Pour one cup back into pan and thicken with 1 tbls of cornflour which you have mixed to a smooth liquid with 2tbls of cold water. Stir your apples through the slightly thickened liquid and spread out on a tray to cool. While its cooling get on the crumble mix.



For the crumble mix;
Sift flour. Stir through sugar and cinnamon. Mix butter through with your fingertips till it resembles bread crumbs.

Bake your chilled tart case.




Fill with cooled apple mix.

Sprinkle topping over.



Bake at 180 till golden and your kitchen smells of wonder.
If Eve had smuggled the apple out of the garden of eden this is the pie she would have made with it.... Enjoy.





Warm or cold, either is orgasmic. Dont forget to share....

Quote of the Moment

One of the very nicest things about life is the way we
must regularly stop whatever it is we are doing
and devote our attention to eating.
~Luciano Pavarotti and William Wright

Farmers Market Fantasy - Smokin' Salmon Sexiness

Almost every Wednesday I make a mission to my local farmers market to peruse, smell, talk, touch and buy.

It is very satisfying to my inner foodie voyeur.
Tables heaped high with heirloom tomatoes.

Trays of homemade marinated olives, fresh herbs and sexy little tubs of artichokes calling seductively to me.
I brace myself apon arriving to not spend all my money on the outrageously rich brownie stall handing out free samples. Damn them and their chocolatey goodness.
There is a man who sells fresh produce and goats cheese who always looks you straight in the eye and says, "These passion fruit are like sex. Try one. I never lie about food. Do you see this goats cheese? Award winning. You won't be disappointed.' And he somehow manages not to sound sleazy at all.
There is a spice stall where I buy my vanilla beans and dukka. Three sexy Tahitian vanilla beans for only $10. Its amazing.
If you walk past the mushroom stall and your nose doesn't become mesmerized by the smell of their simmering mushroom-soup-in-a-cup you clearly don't love mushrooms at all...
And bread!
I grew up eating locally-made wood-fired sourdough bread and for a long while it ruined me for other bread. But now! Now their is a plethora of amazing bread for me to peruse and buy.
I may look slightly strange walking down the street hugging a paper bag smelling my olive and rosemary sourdough, but do I care? I do not.
Unfortunately I have so far been too mesmerized by the food to take any photo's but I will get around to it soon, I swear!
So I woke up this morning and threw together myself a lunch using almost only ingredients I bought at the market yesterday.
Easier to prepare than buying Tim tams on special (well, almost) this tasted like it took a mob of chefs to prepare... I mean, just look at it.

1 bundle of organic dried udon noodles
salt, pepper and olive oil

50 gm of Camembert or Brie of your choice
Rocket, or some other peppery lettuce




Handful of heirloom cherry tomatoes
squeeze of lemon
50 gm of hot-smoked salmon (not to be confused with the cold-smoked salmon you normally buy)


Boil some water. Cook your udon. Flake the salmon apart with your fingers like so...

Roughly cut the tomatoes, tear the brie into little chunks and toss with the olive oil and rocket and salmon. Season well.
Strain the udon. Mix through.
Devour with gusto.

Notes;
- I do specify dried udon noodles here as the fresh ones work better in stir-fries. The dried ones have a lovely bite to it, a little like linguine or spaghetti. Both of these pasta types would go spiffingly here if you have some in your cupboard.
-The cheese I have used in these pictures is Tasmanian Heritage signature Camembert and it will make your insides go as gooey as its oozing loveliness.
The picture above is how soft it is straight out of the fridge. You should see it when you let it come to room temperature...
- If you have never tried hot-smoked salmon you are missing out. I love the cold smoked salmon you buy in the supermarket but this is a totally different beast. Same fish, different taste entirely.
Hot smoked salmon is smoked with heat and takes on a lovely campfire flavor and flaky texture. No words can fully evoke the sumptously complex rich smoky flavors of this wonderful ingredient.
Do yourself a favor. Go online, find someone near you who is making it and buy some. Here is the guys who made mine... They smoke it onsite, at the market. Yowza!
I do know how to make it myself. Ill blog about it someday.

Effortless Late Night berries with Sexy Apples, flirtacious spices and Cheap Vanilla Icecream

This isn't so much a recipe as an inspiration. In fact it takes about as long to make as reading the title of this blog. Ok, perhaps a little longer, but you get the point.
You may think that when you have cravings for something sexy and truly sweetly satisfying at two in the morning that only one thing will do.
But you would be wrong. And though we all love a good horizontal late night tango (if you know what i mean) there are other things that will satisfy you with little to no effort. And if you have used all your energy on previously mentioned sexy-good-times this might be exactly what you are looking for.
This was one of those things born of cravings for something sweet and warm and grew from the bits and pieces that were hanging around in the sometimes scary depths of my fridge...

So simply chop up two apples into bite size chunks (take the size of the mouths of your guests into consideration) and bung it in a pan with a tbls of butter.
Add 1/2 tsp cinnamon and either 1 tsp of vanilla extract or, if you happen to have one on hand, half a vanilla bean, seeds scraped out into the pan. Throw the pod in right after it.
Tumble in 1-2 cups of frozen mixed berries and 2-3tbls of sugar, depending on how sweet your berries are.
I prefer it a little tart.
Next in goes one cup of water. Turn it down to simmer and cook till the apples are a little soft and you really cant wait any longer. It should only take about 5-6 minutes.




Thicken it with a little (1tsp) corn flour mixed into a some water to make a thin liquid and then stirred into your luscious berries. Thats it. Perhaps 10 minutes of almost no effort and your cravings will be satiated.
Lob a good hunk of vanilla icecream ontop and devour.
Sometimes fancy and fresh ingredients are required.. Here all thats required is a voracious appetite and and some odds and ends.

Note; Dont feel remotely guilty about eating this by yourself.

Luscious Lemon Tart

There is a dream.
Somewhere over the rainbow.
Where troubles melt like lemon drops. Away apon the chimney tops.
And although we cant always go there, and although I dont have a chimney, what we can do is bring a little of the dream into our kitchens.
Now I dont known about you, but when the weather is cold and rainy I want a little sunshine in my kitchen.
Luckily for me I have wonderful friends. I recieved a text last week proclaiming, 'We should get together soon and make something we have never made before.'
Without further ado I replied with,' How about Wednesday?' and a date was set.
A large baking extravaganza was had.
He wanted to make a lemon tart and although I have made lemon tarts before, its been some while.
And nothing brings sunshine into your kitchen quite like lemon tart.
There is something entirely sensual about making pastry by hand.
Its the feel of the thing.
It was, I must admit, a bit daunting to approach setting the filling in our atrocious oven. This is an oven that burns vegetables on the outside before they are cooked on the inside.. It hurts my soul a little. Would the tart curdle? Would the pastry burn before it set? Would it taste of eggs? Be too firm?
I should have trusted the melting-lemon-drop-dream. For a dream it was.
Gastranomique citrus porn.
Are you scintillated? Good. Because if I can make this tart in my monstrosity of a temperemental oven, anyone can. And with good faith...

For the pastry;

300 plain flour
pinch salt
115 gm icing sugar
225 gm of butter, cubed
1 egg yolk


For the Filling;

180ml lemon juice
190gm castor sugar
Zest of two lemons
Approx. 300 gm of whole eggs
285ml cream

To make the pastry;

Mix the salt flour and icing sugar.
Rub the butter into the flour until it resembes fine bread crumbs.





If you are in a hurry use cold butter and blitz the flour and butter in a food processor.
Add yolk and knead until it becomes shiny and smooth.
There really is something wonderfully sensual about this. The feel of the flour crumbling and forming is a beautiful thing.




If you have never kneaded before look up a video on youtube for some technique pointers.
It is really fairly self-explanatory though.
Give the dough some love and it will love you back.
Form into a block and wrap in glad wrap or a plastic bag. Place in the fridge to chill.

To make the filling;

Place eggs in a bowl and beat till smooth.
Place two small pans on the stove. Heat the cream in one and the sugar, lemon juice and zest in the other.
Bring the cream to a simmer. Don't let it boil over.
Pour the cream into the eggs, whisking as you go. Whisk till smooth.
Heat juice and sugar mix till sugar disolves. Whisk into cream mix.
Allow to cool while you make the base.
Roll out a round flate pancake with your dough. Try and keep it even. Lay it evenly over you tart dish and press into the corners.
If there are any broken bits or holes patch it up with some pastry trim.
Trim the edges.
Chill in the freezer for 10 min.
Poke holes all over with a fork and bake at 180 c till lightly golden.
Pour in filling. Turn down oven to 100 c .
Gently place your tart in the oven and cook for 1 hour.
If your oven is a dangerous beast, set the timer for 30 minutes and turn the tart around to ensure even ness of cooking. Then set the timer for a further 20 min.
It will be ready when you shake it gently and the middle is no longer liquid.
Remove from the oven and cool on the bench till room temp.

Serve with cream, mascapone, ice cream or just devour as is.
Excuse my twee-ness when i say this but...
That's what sunshine tastes like.

Long Time No See!

I just realized how long it has been since i updated my blog!
Sorry everybody...
I have been doing some crazy hours at work, what with two people leaving and two people going on holiday and I have been busy, busy, busy. But there is light on the horizon. To be exact its actually already here and I got a pay rise!
Ameretto Sour's for everyone!
(They are my new favorite cocktail!)
The good news is that I have still been cooking and photographing for the blog I just haven't had a chance to update yet.. So I will be making up for my long absence with a veritable cornucopia of updates. Stay tuned...

At Last! Breakfast at the Gunshop Cafe....

Ah, The Gunshop Cafe...

There is a little cafe in West End that is renowned far and wide for its fantastic breakfast. And although I worked in West End for almost a year and although I have attempted to eat there many times.. I have always been thwarted.
I was beginning to think perhaps there was a bane laid apon me...
Many a time me and my boyfriend would venture all the way to West End, our stomach's rumbling and then simply be too hungry too wait in the line for seats.

Or once we arrived just in time for them to change to their lunch menu...
It was to be breakfast or nothing at all!
And then, miracle or miracles, one morning, after a friends housewarming, a little hungover and a lot hungry, we took a mission to the Gunshop Cafe.
We waited patiently in line and then we got a seat. At last. Our bane was lifted.
Oh joyous day!




I got a chai latte to start.. and in came in a teapot. Wonderment.
It was a balmy late morning and the sun shone in through the spacious windows, adding to the lovely bustling ambiance of the place.
Even though it was packed it had a laid back vibe and we sat in a perfect spot to see the colorful street life of West End passing by.
It is by no means a place to blow you away but rather the cafe you feel you could come back to time and time again.
I guess I do understand why it was voted Australian Cafe of the Year last year.
Nice vibe, good food, cheerful, laid back but professional service and above all it feels a little like you are being welcomed back, rather than staying for the first time.
Perhaps I am being a little whimsical.
Breakfast was simple, but beautifully made.
A classic with a twist..


I got vodka-cured salmon with locally made sourdough toast, poached eggs, baby spinach and hollandaise...



Perfectly poached eggs...




My boy got potato the potato and fetta hash cakes with herbed sour cream and tomatoes... It was perhaps a little sparse but delicious none the less...



It was, I think, worth the wait...
I will be going back.
Check out their website here if you are in the area...

Poached Eggs