ginger lime cider shandy

This will be my last post for 2010. We're right on the verge of the new year as I type this. Can you believe that's another one gone? Another boozy recipe is in order, I feel. One of my favourite alcoholic drinks is shandy, which is a popular beverage back in the home country whenever there are festive celebrations. It's easy, lightweight and requires only two ingredients - one part beer, one part fizzy lemonade. For a cheap drunk like me with a paltry pantry, it's pretty perfect.

This time around I thought to myself, why not try a fancier version of shandy with beer, cider, lime and ginger? So I did. Partly inspired by sangria, partly inspired by caipirinha, slightly stronger and a little less sweet compared to my regular shandy recipe, it's a cool cocktail of refreshing flavours.

ginger lime cider shandy

The following recipe is really quite arbitrary - feel free to tweak the amounts of each ingredient to suit your individual preference. For example, you can increase the ratio of fizzy lemonade for a sweeter drink.

ginger lime cider shandy

350ml chilled beer (I usually use a pale lager to make shandy)
350ml chilled alcoholic apple cider
350ml chilled carbonated lemonade / lemon-lime soda (e.g. Sprite, 7-Up)
1 large lime, such as a Tahitian
1 large knob ginger, nearly the size of the lime

- Slice the ginger and cut the lime into wedges. Remove seeds if any.
- Muddle the ginger and lime to release the juices, but try to avoid bruising the peel of the lime, as it can be quite bitter.
- Place muddled ginger, lime and juices in a pitcher.
- Carefully pour the beer, cider and lemonade into the pitcher one by one.
- Let the flavours infuse for a couple of minutes, then pour into glasses and serve immediately.
- You may add a little ice if you like, but be careful not to overly dilute the flavours.

Happy New Year's Eve to all! Whether you have a big night planned or nothing whatsoever, I hope you have a good one and I'll see you again in 2011!

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luxbite, south yarra: macarons, st honores and more!

a black sesame macaron from luxbite.

I visited LuxBite about a fortnight ago after reading about it at msihua's blog here. Its location, on 38 Toorak Rd, South Yarra (near the corner of Punt Rd), was a great one for me - I commute that way very often. It was only natural, then, that I had to go check it out. Especially knowing they have kaya toast macarons. Kaya, that wonderful eggy coconut jam with gorgeous hints of pandan and caramelised sugar. The favourite breakfast spread of so many Southeast Asians. Mmmmm. But moving along...

I have to confess, I very, very rarely eat macarons. I've always thought they were too expensive. But I splurged that day at LuxBite, purchasing a box of 4 for $10, which also got me a bonus extra thanks to a promotion they were running at the time. So in addition to black sesame one pictured above, I also have rose & lychee, kaya toast, blueberry and watermelon yoghurt, all nicely packed in a box.

from front to back: rose & lychee, kaya toast, blueberry and watermelon.

I enjoyed them all. LuxBite's macarons do have a lovely texture - light and airy, their crisp surfaces giving way easily to their chewy insides. Having said that, I most certainly do have my favourites. Out of the five I had, the red and green watermelon yoghurt macaron was particularly lovely with its fresh fruity aroma. And their signature kaya toast macaron is an utterly heartwarming delight that brings me home - the housemade kaya jam is incredibly similar to the the one my parents make. I adore it, yes I do.

luxbite's signature flavour, the kaya toast macaron.

It wasn't long before I made my way back again, this time for one of those spectacular-looking St Honoré cakes I saw on display last time. Unfortunately, they had sold out of the chocolatey ones when I visited. If you can call being forced to settle for the Pierre Hermé inspired Ispahan St Honoré an unfortunate thing...

ispahan st honoré cake with rose, lychee and raspberry.

This tasted - how shall I describe it - pretty. The graceful rose and lychee flavours interacting playfully with the tartness of the raspberries. The little cream puffs. The flaky pastry.

the obligatory cross-section shot of the ispahan st honoré cake.

Suffice to say, I'm very pleased to welcome LuxBite to the South Yarra suburb and I hope they do well. With friendly owners Bernard and Yen at the helm churning out those beautiful desserts, I have a feeling that won't be a problem!



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christmas celebrations

christmas tree decorations

Hello, hope you've all been having a lovely weekend of celebrations - I know I certainly did! My family isn't in Melbourne at the moment, but I had a wonderful time with friends. And of course, I ate a lot...

This fat slice of pecan cake was my breakfast on the eve of Christmas, courtesy of Simon's housemate Anthony, who received it as a gift and very generously said that we could help ourselves. Crunchy with pecan nuts and chewy with candied fruits, this was a delicious loaf of home-baked goodness.

a slice of pecan cake

On Christmas Day itself we went to a friend's place and were treated to a very satisfying Christmas lunch...

christmas lunch table decorations

Potatoes, onions, corn and peas surround the star of the show - roast pork with apple sauce and gravy. I had a second helping. And maybe even a third...

roast pork with gravy and apple sauce

I still had room for dessert though. A perfectly baked Alaska cake, complete with an inviting layer of ice cream, beckoned. Can't say no to that!

alaska cake

We ended up staying for dinner as well, a scrumptious one of roast pork sandwiches constructed with lunch leftovers, fresh vegetables from the garden and home-baked bread.

But it wasn't just the eating and drinking that made the day, of course. Filled with chatter and laughter, this was a day made lovely with the pleasure of friendship and good company. We are very lucky indeed! I know not everyone celebrates Christmas - I wasn't planning on it this year - but I couldn't have asked for more.

What did you get up to for Christmas, and what have you got planned for New Year's Eve?

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warm and boozy cinnamon honey milk

Mead. There's just something so quaint about it. When I first told a friend about mead, also known as honey wine, she mused that it sounded like something a character from a Tolkien novel would drink. Indeed, this medieval and mellifluous drink has been around for thousands of years, and is, I feel, one fit for both hobbits and humans.

One of the beverages I grew up having was warm milk with a hint of honey. As a child, it just made milk more palatable for me. Armed with a bottle of sweet, liqueur-strength mead, and with Christmas and New Year's coming up, I decided to give this childhood drink an adult makeover. With an additional touch of cinnamon, this is a lovely warm alcoholic beverage, great for the festive season - and beyond.

warm and boozy cinnamon honey milk, made with liqueur mead.

You will note that the following recipe doesn't have ingredient amounts. I hesitate here as the sweetness and intensity of mead can vary from brand to brand. If you do want a reference, however, the one I used was Maxwell's Liqueur Mead, which is sweet, flavoursome and has an alcohol percentage of 20%. I used a 30ml shot of the mead for 200ml of milk. Feel free to adjust it to your taste.

warm and boozy cinnamon honey milk

milk
liqueur mead
cinnamon

- Warm milk in a saucepan with a cinnamon stick, or a pinch of cinnamon powder. Let it simmer very gently, stirring, but do not bring to boil.
- Remove from heat and add liqueur mead.
- Strain out any curdled clumps* and pour into mugs. Thermo ones which retain heat would be particularly good.
- Sprinkle with a pinch of cinnamon, if desired.

*I would be interested in experimenting with a 3:1 ratio of milk and cream to see if that will fix the curdling issue. Not only that, it'll be richer and tastier!

Notes:
You can use mead that isn't liqueur-strength, it just won't be as boozy!
If the mead you have isn't very sweet, or if you would like a sweeter drink, feel free to add a little honey to the milk as it simmers.
If you feel like a cold drink, you could improvise and make a boozy cinnamon and honey milkshake instead!

This warm and boozy cinnamon honey milk is soothing and harmonious in its constitution. Just the kind of drink you want on a cold night, curled up with a good book in bed. Or while having a chat with an old friend as you both sink into bean bags, hands wrapped around those toasty mugs. Cuddly cats and flickering fireplaces may also make an appearance. I'll leave you to it...

a warm, fragrant cocktail of milk, cinnamon, and mead.

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chocolate matcha steamed egg cake



slices of chocolate matcha steamed egg cake


It's International Incident Party time again and for December, the focus is on colour. Yet again, Jeroxie encourages us to run wild with a great theme! My offering for this month isn't quite as creative as my previous ones, I think. Though considering my first idea was a flop, I'm just glad I managed to get something done in time!

I love steamed egg cake and I learnt how to make it from my mum, who also loves it.
As always, the simplicity of the recipe is big drawcard for me. The basic recipe for steamed egg cake is incredibly easy. All you need is (by volume) 1 part flour, 1 part sugar and 1 part eggs. So it would go something like this...

1 cup flour (regular or self-raising, see instructions below)
1 cup sugar
1 cup eggs
oil (for greasing, and optionally, for adding moistness to the cake)

- Beat eggs and sugar until thick, pale and frothy. Due to limited equipment at my apartment, I can't get the eggs done quite as well as I would like, so I use self-raising flour to make up for it.
- Add flour slowly into the egg mixture, then oil (if using), stirring clockwise until smooth.
- Grease any heat-safe receptacle (I used a stainless steel bowl), and pour in the mixture.
- Prepare whatever steaming device you're using. I opted for a rice cooker. Pour in some water, put a stand in it, and switch it to cook mode.
- Once the water starts boiling, put your cake bowl in and close the lid.
- Steaming times vary. I made a regular-sized cake and it took just over 15 minutes. I then made mini cakes and they were done in about 10 minutes. Test by sticking a fork in - if it comes out clean it's ready.

Notes:
1 part sugar is perfect for most people, but neither my mum nor I have a very sweet tooth, and we usually put in a little less than 1 part.
Oil is optional for keeping the cake moist. I actually don't mind a slightly dry touch to this cake and only added about 1/2 teaspoon oil for every egg used. You can add more if you like.

While I like steamed egg cake just as it is, its easy recipe lends itself quite happily to modifications, as long as you don't add too much extra liquid to it. I decided upon chocolate and green tea to add natural colours and flavours to my cake, using cocoa and matcha powder.

I actually made two styles of steamed egg cake that night - a big one with swirly colour effects, and a couple of small ones with block colour effects.

The swirly one was created by mixing the matcha and cocoa powder respectively with a little bit of water, first ladling one of them onto the middle of the cake mixture in the greased bowl, running a fork through it in circles, then adding the other one and doing the same. For this one, I also used some concentrated cherry juice boiled down from mashed fresh cherries, which accounts for the purplish streaks.

the first chocolate matcha steamed egg cake

For the mini cakes, I divided the mix into 3 parts, one plain, one with matcha powder and one with cocoa powder. The plain one goes right into the greased bowls. Then I spoon the other parts delicately on top of the unmodified mixture, green tea on one side, chocolate on the other.

second batch - a duo of mini chocolate matcha steamed egg cakes

Both of the cakes don't look so pretty when they come out, but once you slice them into portions they look much nicer.

a swirly slice of the first chocolate matcha steamed egg cake

cute little slices from the second batch of chocolate matcha steamed egg cakes

The first cake had more subtle flavours entwined together, whereas the second batch had solid, distinctive flavours in each bite. Really, it's a good day when you get to choose from two cakes - the only dilemma being which one to eat first!

more colour crazy folk!

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fritz gelato, prahran market

After our martial arts training on the weekends, a group of us often end up hanging out in the courtyard of Prahran Market. In summer, for me, that means getting the delightful award-winning frozen concoctions from Fritz Gelato. This invariably garners envious attention from my compatriots, usually with a few succumbing and trotting off to get their own.

The gelati here are made with fresh, organic ingredients, and shies away from artificial flavours and colours. As such, the flavours available can vary according to the season. Festive ones also pop up occasionally. At the moment, as we edge towards Christmas, I received their newsletter informing me of a Plum Pudding ice cream. I'm not even a big fan of plum pudding, but the next time I went to get my gelati fix, my curiosity got the better of me and I opted for a scoop of that, along with a scoop of an oldie but goodie, Very Vanilla.

If you like plum pudding, you'll probably like Fritz Gelato's version, as it does taste rather like the real thing with spice, rum, candied fruits, and even a subtle touch of doughiness. The vanilla is a solid choice, one that I've had before, and I like it because it's, well, very vanilla, and in a good way.

alliteration alert: Plum Pudding and Very Vanilla

As much as I appreciate Fritz Gelato's rich and creamy gelati, I'd probably say I like their refreshing fruit gelati even better. I discovered their beautiful Blood Orange earlier this year and was instantly won over by its authentic flavour and silky-smooth texture. Then there's Forest Berry, a luscious new revelation for me. Intense with the natural sweet-tangy taste of berries, this, too, will be making its way to my rotation list. And that deep reddish-purple colour is just sensational.

Blood Orange and Forest Berry sitting in a tree...

There doesn't seem to be many write-ups on Fritz Gelato, but all the ones I've seen, upon a quick search, are greatly positive. Most recently, Mel from Hot or Not rated it as Hot.

Other notes: Fritz Gelato was founded by Andrea Fritz, a Swiss immigrant. The first Australian store opened in South Melbourne in the 1960s, followed by stores in Richmond and St Kilda, though I've only tried the stall at Prahran Market. Take-home tubs are available. They also do organic donuts, which I like very much as well.



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mum's home-cooked meals

Apologies, for I'll be a bit slack with posts this month and quite possibly the next too. December and January are traditionally very busy times of the year at the company where I work - no annual leave is to be taken these several weeks, and I've been working late quite often, which means not having much time to do a lot of cooking.

I have to say though, I'm a lucky girl because my parents are here visiting from Malaysia and they have been good company and so fantastic and understanding. Not only that, but they've been adding a cosy domestic touch to my apartment, and in the evenings I often arrive home to a lovely dinner waiting for me. So here, I want to share with you a few of the highlights from the past two weeks.

This seafood dish had generous lashings of fish, prawns, and asian greens with a mix of somen and soba noodles. Pretty luxurious for something that was just hurriedly thrown together at a whim!

seafood noodles

This is a simple minced pork congee with a sprinkling of spring onions on top. My mum makes a distinctive style of congee - thick and gooey, instead of the usual delicate and watery ones. It's incredibly comforting, and I adore it.

minced pork congee with spring onions

And of course, the infamous bak kut teh. I grew up in Klang, after all, which is well-known for this rich-tasting herbal pork soup. This one was made with the help of pre-mixed spices, but it's good quality stuff and of course personal touches are added. Plus, the pork was carefully selected and prepared. Needless to say, pork leg made an appearance. You want some skin and fat in this dish - they're the best. Look at all that glistening, gelatinous goodness!

bak kut teh

That's all for now but there will be plenty more where this came from, because my parents are pretty awesome. I hope everyone is having a good December so far, and coping well with any of the madness that comes with the silly season!

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haruaki, windsor

Haruaki on the 145 Chapel St, Windsor is a cheap and cheerful little Korean restaurant with a Japanese touch, perhaps not the type of place that the hip and the glitzy would go for, but certainly one that has its share of fans and regulars.

I mentioned a few posts ago that my parents are visiting at the moment. The last time they came over I treated them to lunch at Movida, and the food was fantastic, but mum and dad, used to the inexpensive delights in Malaysia, were nevertheless perturbed by how much I was shelling out for the meal, and insisted that they would be just as happy with good cheap food. So this time I took them to Haruaki.

I haven't been there for months, and apparently in that time they had changed hands. They also had a lunch special, which I immediately pointed out to my parents: "$5.90 for those dishes! See, that's cheap!"

Unsurprisingly, they opted for the $5.90 specials. The servings were small by Australian standards, but it was perfectly adequate as far as my parents were concerned, and they even offered me a little bit of theirs to taste.

Mum got the bulgogi beef don. The meat was tender and savoury, and mum kept commenting on how nicely cooked the rice was: fluffy, well-separated grains which had just the right levels of softness and moisture.

beef bulgogi on rice

Dad went for the spicy pork don. Hot, saucy and succulent. Yum!

spicy pork on rice

I splashed out on a non-special just under the 10-dollar mark and got the vegetable bibimbap. I just always find it so difficult to go past bibimbap when I have Korean food, and I like Haruaki's - delicious and done dolsot-style, which gave it that lovely crunchy golden crust at the bottom of the stone bowl.

vegetable dolsot bibimbap

It was a warm day and I really felt like a cool dessert, so I went for a goma ice cream to finish things off. Despite the generic-looking chocolate sauce and flaked almonds on top, and knowing it wasn't house-made (I asked - though admittedly I had some trouble communicating with our waitress, as her English wasn't very good, so who knows!), I really liked this, and so did my parents - it was luscious, creamy, and packed with the flavour of black sesame seeds. Just writing about it makes me want one right this moment.

goma (black sesame) ice cream

We didn't get any banchan (Korean side dishes) with our lunch, but for the prices I don't see that as an issue. I was happy with the meal and so were my parents. The food was still as satisfying as I remembered, even with the change in management and staff.

Haruaki's not too far away from where I am, but if it was just that bit closer, I would likely be bombarding it with takeaway orders every so often. With an abundance of Korean eateries in Melbourne, this may not be a place many would travel out of their way for, but it's definitely a place that most would love as their local.



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