Bill Granger's Coconut Pancakes with Passionfruit Syrup and Banana

Since it was Rach's Birthday on the weekend, I thought I'd make her breakfast in bed. I came across this recipe for Bill Granger's Coconut Pancakes and thought it was great birthday breakfast food. They take a little bit more effort and have a few more ingredients than your standard pancakes, but are well worth the effort. Rach was very impressed and the pancakes were much more of a success than our dinner at Verge!

(recipe sourced from http://www.foodreference.com)

Makes 18

215 g (1 3/4 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 tablespoon caster (superfine) sugar

65 g (3/4 cup) desiccated coconut

a pinch of salt

4 eggs, separated

250 ml (1 cup) milk

250 ml (1 cup) coconut milk

50 g (1 3/4 oz) unsalted butter, melted

butter, for greasing the pan

6 bananas, sliced in half lengthways

passionfruit syrup (below)

Preheat the oven to 120°C (250°F/Gas 1).

Place the flour, baking powder, sugar, desiccated coconut and salt in a bowl and stir to combine. Place the egg yolks, milk and coconut milk into another bowl and whisk to combine.

Add the milk mixture and butter to the dry ingredients and mix lightly with a metal spoon until just combined.

Place the egg whites in a clean, dry stainless steel bowl and whisk until stiff peaks form.

Using a large metal spoon, fold the egg whites through the batter in two batches.

Heat a large non-stick frying pan over a medium heat and brush a small portion of butter over the base.

For each pancake, drop 3 tablespoons of batter into the pan.

Avoid overcrowding the pan with pancakes.

Cook for 2 minutes on one side, turn and cook for another minute.

Transfer to a plate and keep warm in the oven while you make the remaining pancakes.

Serve the pancakes in stacks of three with the banana and passionfruit syrup.

PASSIONFRUIT SYRUP

115 g (1/2 cup) caster (superfine) sugar

60 g (1/4 cup) passionfruit pulp

Combine the sugar, passionfruit pulp and 125 ml (1/2 cup) water in a small saucepan over a medium heat and bring to the boil, skimming any scum from the surface.

Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

Yarra Valley Ice Cream

So, we all know I'm obsessed with the Yarra Valley. "Why don't you just move there" I hear you all say. Well, unfortunately, I'm not here to tell you that that's what I'm doing. I'm here to talk up Yarra Valley Ice-Cream! If you haven't tried it before, try to get your hands on some. I know that you can get it from a few places around the Yarra Valley; Harvest Cafe-Healesville, Ripe-Sassafrass, Yarra Valley Dairy-Yering. I'm not sure who stocks it in Melbourne, but it's definately worth tracking down! It's not cheap, usually around $6 for a little noodle box type tub that serves one. Here I'm eating the Tiramisu flavour which is my favourite so far. The chocolate is actually from the amazing Chocolate makers at Kennedy and Wilson. I'm not sure of what other flavours there are, but they always use locally sourced flavours and the ice cream is made with free range eggs. Get your hands on some!

Pear, Pomegranate and Walnut Salad with Yarra Valley Persian Fetta

This is my twist on the old classic Pear and Walnut Salad, which, don’t get me wrong, is great, but I thought I’d try it with 2 of my favourite ingredients; Pomegranates and the deliciously creamy Yarra Valley Persian Fetta. This cheese is so smooth, it’s almost like silk, it’s marinated in various herbs and is one of my most favourite products from my beloved Yarra Valley. Give this salad a shot, it’s fantastic!

Ingredients:

1 cup of Walnut Kernals
Juice and Seeds of 1 Pomegranate
½ a Garlic Clove
Zest of 1 Lemon
125ml Extra Virgin Olive Oil
300g Rocket
2 Ripe Pears (not too soft)
150g Yarra Valley Persian Fetta or similar

Put the Walnuts, Olive Oil, Garlic, Sea Salt, Grated Lemon Zest into a blender, which will form part of the dressing for your salad.
Toss the rocket in some of your pomegranate juice and a dash of olive oil.
Core your pears and slice them thinly, a v-slicer helps with this, if your knife skills aren’t up to scratch.
Arrange the pear on a plate with your Rocket.
Crumble the Fetta in and around the Rocket and sprinkle your Pomegranate seeds over the salad.
Drizzle your Walnut dressing over the salad and you’re ready to enjoy! Nice!

Easy Banana Bread

Everyone loves, fresh, warm bread in the morning, but I’m a little more partial to a sweeter type of breakfast bread. Here’s a recipe for the most moist, perfectly sweetened Banana Bread that you will find. All you need to make sure this recipe works is some really ripe bananas that you have forgotten about for a few days, so that they’re practically black. Apparently you can help speed up the ripening process by placing the bananas into a brown paper bag, in a dark cupboard, give it a go.

Spread your warm baked bread simply with some butter and maybe even some honey drizzled over the top. Yum!!

Ingredients:

90g Softened Butter
115g Caster Sugar
2 eggs
1 Teaspoon of Natural Vanilla Extract or a fresh Vanilla Bean
2 Cups of Plain Flour
2 Tspns of Baking Powder
2 Largish, Very Ripe Bananas
Zest of an Orange or a Lemon
1 Small Handful of finely chopped Walnuts (optional)


Method:

Preheat oven to 180c
Place all of your ingredients into a food processor, except the Walnuts (if adding).
Blend until a smooth batter forms.
Place batter into a 8 x 16 baking tin.
Bake for an hour, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Spread your warm baked bread simply with some butter and maybe even some honey drizzled over the top. Yum!!

Figs with Prosciutto, Basil and Buffalo Mozzarella

Here’s an easy one for you, which is a great summer classic. I put this together in our little cabin, whilst holidaying in Wilson’s Prom for a few days. It only takes a few ingredients to make these fantastic little gems of goodness. The one thing that I have to stress is to make sure your ingredients are the freshest you can get. Remember, the fresher the ingredients, the better the end product!

Ingredients:

6 Ripe Black Figs, cut into quarters.
24 Basil Leaves, washed and dryed
12 slices of Prosciutto, sliced in half, lengthways
1 Ball of fresh Mozzarella (Buffalo is best, if you can get it), torn apart into 24 similar sized pieces
Sea Salt, Black Pepper and Extra Virgin Olive Oil to serve

Method:

Lay a Prosciutto half flat on the bench.
At one end, place a basil leaf, a piece of fig and some mozzarella.
Sprinkle with a little salt and pepper
Roll your piece of prociutto around the cheese, basil and fig.
Place on a plate and drizzle with some olive oil to serve.

Papaya (Sydney)

Shop 7, 307 Military Rd, Cremorne. Phone (02) 9953 8992

Coming back from Sydney city, back to Cremorne one warm evening, our attention was caught by a bustling restaurant, just off Military Rd, Papaya. It's large bi-fold windows were open, allowing the pungent aromas of delicious Thai food to waft down the street. Once we smelt the spicy goodness, we had to check it out. The place was packed and we didn't have a booking so we thought we would miss out, but as soon as we stepped inside, the lovely, smiling waitress said 'table for two?' and showed us straight to what I think was the last table left in the house.

The restaurant is decked out in both traditional and modern decor. The roof is slatted with planks of wood, which reminded me very much of the black bamboo roof at Gingerboy in Melbourne. The most eye catching piece though at the very modern Chandeliers which have been purchased from the very posh design store down the road.

The menu and food at Papaya isn't just your standard 'local Thai' dishes, it's a bit more modern than that and the dishes are all thoughtfully and creatively presented. There are so many great choices on the menu, that we seemed to spend forever trying to decide on what to order.

First up we decided on the Prawn Cakes, which were served with a sweet chilli sauce. The cakes were perfectly cooked, golden and crunchy on the outside and just cooked prawn meat on the inside, delicious!

Next up we ordered a couple of mains to share. Pad Thai was the first served. It came on a big plate, wrapped in a big, crunchy omelette. On the side was lemon, little piles of sugar, peanuts and chilli, with some bean shoots. I thought this was a great way to present the old favourite, Pad Thai. The extras on the side made it possible to adjust the flavours to your own taste. We really loved this dish, it was great!

The next main was Red Duck Curry with Lychees, served in a hollowed out pineapple half. The curry was quite spicy, but the Lychees helped tame down the stronger flavours as did the juice that must have been seeping into the curry from the pineapple half. The duck was perfectly cooked and had a perfectly soft texture.

We loved Papaya, so much that we went back for a second time before we left Sydney. As far as price goes, for Thai food, it's not cheap, but for really good quality fresh food, that's really tasty, it's not expensive. Mains were about $18 and entrees about $8.

The service was fantastic both times we visited, the girls were always smiling and always made sure our water was kept topped up - even when they were rushed off their feet!

Papaya is definitely worth checking out if your near Cremorne, it's damn good Thai food, and that's saying something coming from me, especially since I've been doing the Ezard Challenge, I'd like to think I know what I'm talking about!

Waqu (Sydney)

32 Falcon St Crows Nest NSW 2065, Phone (02) 9906 7736

On our last night in Sydney we were planning on heading out to a posh restaurant like Aria or Rockpool, but since most of the restaurants we had visited so far we had found on www.eatability.com.au, we thought that we would try another place from there. Especially since most of the ratings were spot on so far and the places were very good value. The place we found was Waqu, a Japanese place in Crow's Nest (just across the harbour on the North Side of the Bridge). Eatability users had rated it very highly, especially their 5 course tasting menu for $39.
The first thing we noticed when we walked into Waqu, was that a majority of the people eating there were Japanese. I always think it's a good sign when people from the home country of a restaurant choose to eat there.

The room is tastefully decorated, but with minimal Japanese influence. A lot of Japanese restaurants are covered in Japanese writing, figures, posters, but Waqu seems to have avoided travelling down that road.

I have listed the 5 course tasting menu below and included the pictures of what we ate. There's actually 6 courses if you include the Broccoli Soup Starter.

Cold Soup broccoli cream soup



Course 1 (assorted entree) deep fried soft shell crab taco beef tataki, ponzu jelly and frying fish roe dressing, chargrilled eel fillet and eggplant, yuzu pepper, roasted garlic aioli tartar


Course 2 (sashimi plate) chef's daily selection of sashimi plate


Course 3 (entree) oven baked cod fillet with "saikyo" miso sauce or roasted duck fillet, raspberry sauce or tempura fried prawns, vegetables and 'yuba' tofu sheet


Course 4 (main) salt black pepper angus beef steak, creamy mashed potato or roasted whole quail, tamari ginger sauce or deep fried soy marinated chicken, 'shiso' leaf salsa dressing


Course 5 (dessert) white sesame cream brulee or green tea mousse with green tea ice cream

I'm not going to review each dish for you, but I can tell you that the whole experience was amazing. We loved each dish in it's own way. None of the flavours were over powering, especially considering we were eating strong flavours such as Eel and Creme Brulee made from Sesame Seeds. The sushi was so fresh, you would think it was just killed out the back! My favourite was the deep fried soft shell crab taco beef tataki, ponzu jelly and 'frying' fish roe dressing. I'd never had soft shell crab before - apparently it's a type of crab that shed's it's shell, and when it does, they're ripe for the eating. I read that you usually buy these frozen. The tastes and textures in this little taster were amazing, so fresh and crunchy. It really was like eating a little Japanese Taco! The Angus beef was great too. The sauce wasn't too strong, allowing you to enjoy the full taste and soft texture of the meat.

If you're in Sydney, I definitely recommend paying a visit to Waqu- the quality of food and service that you get for $39 is fantastic and located so close to the city, it's easy to get to. I loved it and will definitely return on my next visit!

Holiday in Sydney

I'm back! After a much needed holiday in Sydney, I've returned for some more blogging action! Whilst in Sydney, we were lucky enough to stay in Cremorne, which is on the very posh Lower North Shore, just down the road from little Johnny Howard in Kirribilli. We did lots of eating out in Sydney and ate some really good, interesting food while we were there. I'd always heard that Sydney was a really expensive place to eat out, but most places we ate out at were quite reasonably priced. Sure you have your places like Aria, who's prices are some of the most expensive I've seen, but there are some good local food places, which are very reasonably priced.

Near where we were saying was Military Road, which runs through Cremorne, Mosman and Neutral Bay. Along this strip there are plenty of restaurants worth checking out. We used www.eatability.com.au to find some recommended places to eat. Sydney-siders seem to use this site a lot more than us Melbournians do. It came in very handy indeed.

We also paid a visit to the Sydney Fish Markets. I've always wanted to check out this place, I've heard so many good things about it, like how big it is, how much good seafood there is there, but it really wasn't anything special. It definately wasn't cheap, that's for sure. Queen Victoria Market has just as much variety and is probably cheaper. It was worth a look though. It was also pretty cool to eat lunch there, down by the water, with the fresh ingredients used from the stalls.

I visited a few nice little restaurants and a couple of not so good restaurants. I've taken lots of photos too, so I'll put up some reviews on these places, so if you're visiting Sydney, you can have a couple ideas on where to go.

Trout Fishing at Marysville Trout and Salmon Farm

Last Sunday while visiting the Yarra Valley (yes, again!) we thought that it would be cool to visit the Marysville Trout and Salmon Farm for a spot of fishing. After paying our $3.50 entry fee, we were originally planning on catching a Salmon. The salmon was $18kg, which doesn't sound too bad, but the guy who worked there told us that you could catch a salmon anywhere from 1kg - 4kg. We kind of feared the thought of catching a 4kg salmon, which would have cost almost $80, so we headed for the Trout ponds instead, where the fish were $11kg and significantly smaller. Now, you'd think that catching a fish at a farm would be really easy, but it actually took us 2 hours to catch a fish. If you're worried about having to kill the fish yourself, the guys there will actually kill it for you and then clean it.


The fish that we caught weighed 1kg, so we were off home to cook up our freshly caught Trout.I found quite a simple recipe in a Jamie Oliver book, which was basically lemon thyme bashed up in a mortar and pestle with some good olive oil and then rubbed all over the inside and outside of the fish. We also put some lemon and more thyme sprigs inside the fish's cavity.


We cut some thick slices of lemon and poked some bay leaves inside the lemons. I then laid the fish on top of the lemons keeping it off the tray so the fish would cook from underneath and also take on some of the lemon flavoured steam. I also parboiled some potatoes, sliced them up and then browned them in a pan with some salt and olive oil.

Throw in some nice, fresh rocket, dressed with some more lemon and olive oil and you've got just about the freshest dinner you could want and nothing could be more satisfying that knowing you caught it yourself. I'd never really had much trout before, but it was delicious, so soft and melting apart in your mouth. Not too many bones to pick out and the ones that were there were quite large.

Banana Fritters

Who doesn't love Banana Fritters!? I love them, I could eat them everyday! The crunchy battered shell, surrounding the soft, warm, sugary banana, drizzled with golden syrup and resting in the slowly melting vanilla ice cream! I love it.


Since I just bought a deep fryer, I thought I'd give my all time favourite a go. My first attempt was one from Ben and Curtis' Surfing The Menu book. This batter was made of coconut milk, which turned out quite tough and really crunchy... too crunchy. Nothing like the ones I remember eating in Footscray when I was a little kid.
My next attempt was using a beer batter. The batter was literally a cup of flour and enough beer to make a slightly thick batter. Apparently it's best to stir the batter with chop sticks and leave some lumps in there.
This batter turned out perfectly, (as you can see pictured) it was thin, it was crunchy (not too crunchy), and in case you've never had beer batter before - it tastes nothing like beer. The fizzyness of the beer helps keep it light and make it crunchy.
You could make these in a wok or saucepan if you don't have a deep fryer. Give them a shot - I love them! Just like the lady used to make in the vietnamese shop when I was little!

The Napier Hotel, Fitzroy

It’s amazing how many restaurants around Fitzroy are closed on a Sunday evening! After discovering that all my favorites were closed, I thought I would try one of the famous ‘Bogan Burgers’ at The Napier Hotel. I pulled up a seat outside on a lovely Sunday arvo and hung out with The Napier’s Cricket Team who were also seated outside.
When my burger arrived, I was amazed at the amount of food on my plate- Salad, Crispy Potato Wedges and a HUGE burger in a Turkish bread bun. There was no way I was going to be able to eat this burger in one piece, so I had to cut in half. Once I cut it open, I discovered that the Bogan Burger is in fact exactly that. A total Bogan Burger. Inside is a Chicken Schnitzel, a piece of steak, a potato cake, fried eggs and more salad. WOW!
I didn’t know that that’s what a Bogan Burger actually consisted of, before ordering. How was I going to finish this? Well, I didn’t. Not only because it was huge, but because I was the worst burger I’d ever eaten! Every mouthful was a mouthful of grease!
The potato cake really didn’t work in there and the cheap chicken schnitzel had absorbed every piece of oil it was cooked in. I think I ate about half of it, mainly because I’d spent $16 on the burger, I felt I had to at least try to eat some of it. But I left feeling physically sick. I have to say, it’s one of the worst eating experiences I’ve had in this town. That will teach me not to try and eat out in Fitzroy on a Sunday!

Brandy Snaps with Vanilla Cream, Strawberries and Chocolate

This little dessert is pretty impressive for the amount of effort that goes into it.

Buy some store bought Brandy Snaps. Whip some cream with sugar and a vanilla bean to taste.

Remove the green leaves from some strawberries and cut them in half.

Put some of the cream on the Brandy Snaps, then top with some strawberries, the a bit more cream on top. Get some chocolate, I used some left over Cadbury from Xmas and grate over the top. Garnish with a mint leaf and you've got a great dessert which literally takes 5 minutes to put together!

Steamed Oysters in Soy Dressing with Spring Onions and Toasted Sesame Oil

I've never actually eaten an Oyster before. I had one once at The Beach restaurant in Albert Park. It was an uncooked Oyster, a rather large uncooked Oyster. The idea of Oysters back then kind of scared me, especially raw ones, but I'd heard good things, so I thought I'd give it a go. In my mouth it went, the slimy little beast. All I could think of was a mouth full of snot, disgusting I know, which is why I couldn't swallow it. As much as I tried, I just couldn't get it down, even with water. I ended up taking the Oyster out of my mouth and hiding it under some greens on my plate.


Today, I decided to pay a visit to the good people down at Sea Bounty Mussels on Gem Pier, in Williamstown for some of their Tip Top Mussels. But unfortunately, by the time I got there, they were completely sold out of their Mussels! Oh no! What would I do? I noticed that they also had freshly shucked Oysters for sale ($10 a doz) as well. So, even after my previously weak effort at consuming this apparent delicacy, I was determined to give them another go. So, off home I went with a dozen ice packed Mussels for my dinner. It's quite possible I could be going hungry tonight!


On my way home, I remembered the wonderfully fresh looking Oysters on the cover of Ezard's new book 'Lotus', so I thought I'd give those a go. Now these Oysters are actually steamed and not raw, I know I'm kind of cheating, but I'll start off slowly and lead up to the raw Oysters.

This recipe really is quite simple, it basically consists of a basic Soy dressing which includes light soy, ginger, chilli, mirin, rice wine vinegar, garlic and sugar.

The Oysters are steamed for a couple of minutes, then you drizzle them with the dressing, and garnish with some chopped coriander and spring onions. You then drizzle over some smoking hot sesame oil.. be careful, it will sizzle and spit!

After being a little hesitant at first to try these little fellas, I managed to work up the courage. Their texture I thought was like a big juicy mussel and their flavours more subtle. I have to say I liked it! The Oysters from Sea Bounty I imagine to be perfect specimens, just like their Mussels always are. You can literally taste the freshness in the Oysters! The dressing and the smoking hot oil drizzled over the top, brings out the delicate flavours of the Oysters. There. I'm over my Oyster fear and I enjoyed conquering my fear. If you're like me, a bit hesitant at trying Oysters, this is a good recipe and I'd recommend getting them from somewhere like Sea Bounty, just because you KNOW they will be as fresh as you're likely to get them anywhere in Melbourne. Next... raw mussels!!

Campion and Curtis' Tiramisu Cake

I'm not a huge fan of baking, simply because I'm not that great at it, which is why you rarely see any baked goodies on my blog. I usually try and get away with making sweets that stay well away from the oven and never need to rise! I'm hoping to one day get better at baking, but until then, I'm going to stick with goodies like this Tiramisu Cake, out of Campion and Curtis' book, 'Food with Friends.'

This is seriously one of these easiest cakes you could make. It's cheap to make, takes no time at all and best of all, requires no baking! I saw that Vicious Ange also had a go at this cake ,so I thought I'd steal the recipe off her for you enjoy, thanks Ange!

Tiramisu Cake

200g dark chocolate chopped into chunks (Lindt 70% works well)

3 medium eggs, seperated

60 ml (1/4 cup) marsala

250 g mascarpone

150 g Italian sponge fingers

100 ml strong coffee

cocoa powder

cream to serve

22cm springform cake tin

Put chocolate in a heatproof bowl & set over saucepan of simmering water until melted. Beat egg yolks with marsala until pale & creamy.

Add mascarpone to beaten yolks & beat until smooth.

Add melted chocolate to mix & stir until well combined. Whip egg whites until stiff, fold into the mix.

Line springform tin with greaseproof paper. Lay half the spnge fingers in the bottom of the cake tin & drizzle with half the coffee. Pour the mascarpone mix into cake tin.

Top with remaining biscuits & drizzle with remaining coffe. Cover with glad wrap & refrigerate for 3-4 hours or overnight until set.To serve, remove cake carefully, dust with cocoa powder & serve with cream.

Pearl

Last year, I started a tradition in my family of taking my parents and sister out to dinner to a nice restaurant, in place of buying them presents. It makes Christmas shopping much easier for me and my family gets to try some food that they wouldn’t get to try usually try anywhere else.
Last year I took them to Ezard’s and they loved it. So, this year, I decided to take them to another Asian inspired restaurant, Pearl.
I’ve been there for breakfast many times, but never for dinner. I’ve been wanting to go there for so long and even more so after seeing Geoff Lindsay (owner/chef of Pearl) do a demo at the Werribee Harvest Picnic.
The menu at Pearl is I guess what you would call ‘Modern Australian’, mostly influenced by Asian Cuisine, but there’s also an obvious hint of Middle East inspiration as well.
As you may have seen in one of my previous posts, I’ve been wanting to try Pearl’s Roast Red Duck Curry for quite a while now and even had my own attempt at it. Finally I was going to get to try the real thing!


The Pearl dining room is a light, bright, mostly white room with a black floor, with big windows looking out onto Church St, Richmond. You walk in through the automatic swing door at the front and enter into the foyer / main bar area and then step down into the main dining room.
Instead of having slices of bread on the table, Pearl gives you a largish roll, which has been cut into quarters from underneath – not quite all the way through, so when you look at it from the top, you can’t actually tell it has been cut. At first we thought maybe they’d only given us enough bread for one, but then discovered it was ready to tear. The bread was served with some lovely, bright yellow, zingy, lemon infused olive oil for dipping- very Italian.
I ordered the Red Roast Duck Curry (of course), while my Mum ordered Garfish with Nam Jim and Green Mango Salad. My Dad and sister both ordered the Morton Bay Big tails with Crab and Scallop Won Ton’s.


My Duck Curry comes served on a plate with 3 bowls. In the first bowl is the Duck pieces with the curry itself. The second bowl consists of a deep fried poached egg, sweet fish sauce, a chilli split in half, half a lime and some mint leaves. The third bowl is your rice. Sandwiched between the bowls is a long spiky piece of wom-bok. The waitress explained to me that there’s a recommended way to eat the curry, so I got her to show me how it was done. Basically she took the chilli and lime out of the second bowl and mashed up the poached egg (which still had a runny yolk, even after being poached AND deep fried) into the sweet fish sauce. She explained to me that then I take the duck pieces out of the first bowl and put them on my plate, then incorporate the mixture from the second bowl into the curry into the duck curry in the first bowl. Then you’re supposed to taste it for sourness and heat, if you think it needs more, you can add more lime or chilli. I added all of the lime, but could have done with some more. Once I had pieced all the pieces of the Duck Curry puzzle together, I was ready to eat! This duck curry was so rich in flavour, that literally from the first mouthful, I felt like I was already full! There was no way I wasn’t going to finish that delicious, tender duck though. It was everything I had imagined it to be, and for $40, there was no way I wasn’t going to finish it – I didn’t care if I self combusted right there at the table! I did in the end manage to finish it though, after two glasses of water and a bottle of Limonata. I can’t wait to go back again to have another one.
Although I didn’t try any of the other meals on the table, they did look sensational. Somehow, I managed to find some room in my tummy though for dessert! I ordered the Apricot Soufflé, which came with a Raspberry Tart and Almond Ice Cream. The Souffle was perfectly risen and light and fluffy. However for an Apricot Soufflé, it didn’t really taste all that much of Apricot, even though it had the slight Apricot colour to it. The tart that it came with was barely a raspberry tart, it was mainly a lemon tart with a few raspberries at the bottom of the tart. One thing I can’t stand is a lemon tart and this one was no exception. It may have been good for a lemon tart, but I wouldn’t know. The Almond Ice cream was delicious. It had that unmistakable texture of homemade ice-cream. Not quite as soft as the store bought stuff, but much more flavoursome.


My Mum ordered the Turkish Delight Ice-Cream with Pommegranite seeds, Persian Fairy Floss and Rose Petals.


My sister had Taro dumplings filled with Valhrona Chocolate- Dark, White and Milk, which were garnished with flecks of Gold Leafing. Very impressive!


Overall, we had a fantastic little Christmas dinner at Pearl, we will definitely be going back. The service was very attentive, even though at times they were very busy. Our water was always topped up, more bread offered, plates cleared when they needed to be and the service came with a smile, which was what made our night out a memorable one.
Ooooh, I want some more Duck Curry!!

Beechworth Bakery and Chandon Winery, Yarra Valley

I love the Yarra Valley, I’d move here if I could, but for the moment, I’m going to have to settle for the occasional day trip up there. After visiting the Werribee Harvest Picnic a few weeks ago, I noticed a sign that said there was a Farmers Market on in Yering this weekend, so I thought I’d drive up and check it out.
Unfortunately, I hadn’t bothered to actually check out where this farmers market exactly was and when we got there, I couldn’t actually find it. Oh well, I wasn’t too fussed, it was a great day, not a cloud in the sky (only smoke from the fires) so we thought we check out Healesville for a few hours.


Last time we were up here, we noticed that the Beechworth Bakery was building a branch of their famous Bakeries up here, so we thought we’d see if it was finished and that it was.
The bakery at the end of the main street is a country inspired building with a modern feel. It’s a huge place, which has both indoor and outdoor seating – even it’s own car park.
Since I was planning on having breakfast at the farmers market, I had an empty stomach, so I thought here was a good a place as any to fill up.
I had a Cheese and Spinach roll to start with. These can often be a bit hit and miss, often being dry and tasteless and all too often un-seasoned. Not this one though. This one was very moist, with perfect seasoning and soft crunchy pastry.


Being the ‘guts’ that I am, I then ordered a Chicken and Leek Pie. Unfortunately, unlike the Cheese and Spinach rolls, this pie was very, very dry. I needed to have a glass of water just to wash down each mouthful! However, apart from the lack of moisture, the taste was there and the pastry was nice too.


Now, even though it was mid-morning, I thought, after stuffing my face with pies and rolls, I would treat myself to dessert. I spotted something which looked so gorgeous and had a great name – the Snickerdoodles! I’m sure I’d heard of these before, I think Nigella has them in one of her books. Basically they are kind of Custard Tarts topped with super fresh raspberries and drizzles with sugar syrup. I absolutely LOVED these things. I wish I had of saved my money and bought another 5 of these instead of wasting precious tummy space on the pies and rolls!


I definitely recommend picking up one of these little gems if you’re anywhere near on of the Beechworth Bakeries around regional Victoria.
Next we dropped by K&B (Kitchen and Butcher), the new shop owned by the guys who own the Healesville Hotel. It’s a great little specialty food store with all your standard specialty cheeses, pantry products, kitchen tools, etc. It also literally doubles as a butcher shop, selling the best of local meats. While I was there I picked up some lovely fresh eggs from the Harvest Farm and also some Pomegranate Molasses, which will come in handy with my Ezard Challenge.


On our way home, we stopped off at Chandon Winery. This place is probably the most beautiful place I have ever visited in Victoria.

Everything is perfect, from the lush green grass to the hundreds of rows of the curly, whispy grape vines. They water their gardens with dam water from the property, so it’s one of the few places around where everything is still green.
We took a seat in the tasting room and Rach ordered the Sparkling Wine taster, which consisted of 4 half glasses of Chandon’s signature sparkling wines.


The colours reminded me of those old Crayola Crayons that you used to be able to get with the metallic colours of Metallic Silver, Copper and Gold. I don’t drink, so unfortunately I couldn’t enjoy the 4 pretty glasses of sparkling colours, but it did come with a small plate of bread, cheese and relish, which I did help myself to. The 4 half glasses of wine came to $15, which included the bread plate.


Like I said earlier, I love the Yarra Valley, if you’ve never been make sure you pay a visit- especially if you love your food!