Eurovida for Breakfast

Eurovida
http://eurovida.com.au/

Whenever I make a mistake or stuff something up these days, I try and put a positive spin on it by thinking "what have I learnt from this". Sunday morning, on my way to Eurovida, I learnt that distances on Google Maps can appear much closer than they end up being in real life.

I'm not averse to walking. In fact, I love it. I've been known to walk more than 3hrs to get from one suburb to another (once at 2am in the morning but that's borderline psychotic so I won't go into details) and one of the things I enjoy most about overseas travel is walking through new cities. For some reason, this particular morning I was not in the mood for walking. Everything felt like it was uphill (even though it wasn't really). It was early on a winter morning but despite the fact that it was probably cool, I felt hot and annoyed and lost.

When I finally got to Eurovida, I was euphoric. It was like seeing an oasis in the distance and have it actually be real, rather than a mirage. Bliss. Joy. Somewhere to sit down.

Eurovida is a cute cafe located on Given Terrace in Paddington. Paddington is a cute cafe hotspot so there are many in this region and it's difficult to stand out. I liked the openess of Eurovida's dining set-up. Weatherwise, it was a stunning morning and the semi-indoor/outdoor seating area was bathed in sunlight. I couldn't have wished for better breakfast conditions. Plus, I'm a sucker for fresh flowers so put that on a table and I can't help but feel happy.

Latte

I arrived first so I ordered a coffee to get me going. It was a lovely, rich blend and gave me a little energy boost that was just what I needed after my travels.

Hot chocolate

When Kat arrived, we set out to order more food and drink. She ordered a hot chocolate and I chose a banana and honey smoothie.

Banana and honey smoothie

The banana smoothie was very obviously made from real banana, which is great but I don't expect anything less from a proper cafe. Fake banana syrup is for takeaway stores! It was a yummy smoothie that wasn't too sweet.

House made zucchini bread - with salt cured cherry tomatoes, charred zucchini ribbons, roasted field mushrooms and lemon ricotta

There were a number of items on the breakfast menu that stood out to me but I ended up going for the zucchini bread. I don't know what it is with me and zucchini lately but it's one of my grocery staples and I'm constantly looking up new ways to cook it. Zucchini bread is something I've seen a few times in menus but never tried before so I was curious. It came on a platter of grilled zucchini slices, mushrooms, ricotta and cherry tomatoes.

Texture shot of zucchini bread

The zucchini bread was more moist than I expected and on its own didn't have much flavor. Individual components were fresh but nothing special. When eaten all together though, they complimented really nicely. I thought this was a great breakfast meal because it was hearty but healthy.

Open omelet - with ham, asparagus, herbs and creme fraiche

Kat wanted the omelet, which is listed as sandcrab omelet on the menu, but she doesn't like seafood so she requested an alternative. The kitchen was happy to accomodate and she had ham omelet instead. I tried a bit and thought it was really great. Kat has this habit of putting tomato sauce on her eggs but she didn't this time and still ate it all so I think that must mean the omelet was good enough to distract her from asking for tomato sauce. I think it was the creme fraiche that did the trick. It was so delicious and reminded me of a lighter, zingy version of hollandaise.

I loved Eurovida. I know that I say that a lot about brunch places because I just love that style of food but on the flip side, I have been to so many cafes that it's not easy to make a positive impression. Eurovida did just that with impeccable service, tasty food, a menu that is creative without being too unfamiliar and a generally pleasant atmosphere. We got there early and it wasn't too busy but by the tine we were finished, there was a queue for tables. I can certainly see why they're so popular.

Cornmeal Biscotti

Cornmeal Biscotti
Home Cooking

Some things, I plan to bake weeks beforehand, gathering ingredients and building anticipation. Others are a spur of the moment decision born from a train of thoughts that go something like this: "oh, that sounds good... hey, I actually have all those ingredients! I also have a couple spare hours".

That's how I came about making these cornmeal biscotti.  Cornmeal aka polenta is something that I can't deal with. I can't. I feel almost uncomfortable not having any in the house 'just in case' a recipe will call for it and it'll RUIN the recipe not including it. However, unfinished packets of polenta just bother me. I'll find ways to use it up until I'm all out... and then I'll buy a new packet.

Anyhow, I had a quantity of polenta sitting in my pantry that turned out to be the exact amount I needed for this recipe. Win!

This recipe is from David Lebovitz, and you can view the original here. I divided the recipe in half when I cooked it. In theory that is supposed to result in 30 pieces of biscotti but I ended up with about 20 so I suspect mine are too big or too thick? I'll run through my feedback at the end.

Cornmeal Biscotti
Makes 30

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup (105g) plain flour
• 1/4 cup (35g) cornmeal/polenta
• 1/2 cup (100g) sugar
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• small pinch of salt
• 1 egg
• zest of 1/2 a lemon
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp (25g) melted butter
• 1/2 cup (50g) walnutes, toasted and coarsely chopped

Procedure:

1. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius. Line a cookie tray with baking paper.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, baking soda, sugar and salt.

3. In a separate bowl, mix together the eggs, lemon zest and vanilla extract.

4. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and pour in the egg mixture.

5. Add the melted butter and mix until the dough is wet and crumbly.

6. Add the walnuts and stir to get them mixed into the dough.
7. Turn the dough out onto a lighlty floured surface and knead a few times until smooth.
8. Roll the dough out into a long log about 33cm in length. Transfer it onto the baking tray.

9. Bake the log for about 20 minutes or until it feels set (it will spread out during cooking). Remove it from the oven and let it cool for 20 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 120 degrees Celsius.

10. Using a sharp bread knife, slice the log cross-wise into separate cookies about 1cm thick.

11. Place the biscotti onto a cookie tray flat (i.e. cut side down) and bake for 20 minutes. Remove the biscotti from the oven to turn them over and bake for another 10 to 20 minutes until golden in colour.
12. Let the cookies cool completely before serving. They can be stored in an airtight container for at least 2 weeks.

 I had a few problems with this recipe. I don't think I baked my loaf thoroughly enough the first time so it still had doughy bits, which made it hard to cut and cook for the second bake. So make sure you cook it through. If it's cooked and cooled properly, I imagine it to be easier to cut.

I suspect my pieces were cut too thick, which is probably why I ended up with 20 pieces of biscotti instead of 30. Because of this, my second bake took a lot longer than suggested for the pieces to crisp up. This appears to be a perfect example of how one mistake can snowball through. Once again I reiterate: cook your loaf through properly on your first bake!

Finally, the biscotti were too sweet for my liking. I don't take blame for that because I put the recommended amount of sugar in. I would repeat this with maybe half the amount of sugar. The lemon zest was lovely though. I'm really liking lemon zest in desserts. The corn flavor is mild but present. That's enough for me. I wouldn't want an overly corn-flavored biscotti. Why not buy some Doritos if that were the case.

The biscotti were a shade too crunchy and sweet to have on their own. When dunked in coffee though, they were just right. These are good for whipping out at afternoon tea and serving with your favorite hot beverage.

Dinner at Spring

Spring Food and Wine
http://www.spring.com.au/restaurant.html

You know life is good when the biggest 'problem' you have all week is deciding between a popular shared dish at a restaurant or picking individual dishes for greater variety. I first heard about Spring Restaurant from the guys at Brisbane Devoured and was a bit sad to see that it had replaced Barolo (even though I didn't love Barolo, it gave me one of the best pasta dishes I've eaten to date). The sadness didn't last long once I started hearing all these great reviews, particularly for Spring's shared slow-cooked lamb dish.

Spring is an interesting restaurant. I suppose it targets the CBD worker crowd because it doesn't open on the weekends. What a pity since their lunch menu sounds mighty appealing but I'm never in Brisbane on a weekday at lunch. I know that Spring is now doing 'Chefs Table' events where you can dine in an intimate environment and watch your food get prepared, listen to the chef and learn about the ingredients. According to the website, they run cooking classes too.

I headed straight to Brisbane after work on Tuesday night just so that I could have dinner at Spring. The next morning, I had a 6am start to rush back to Toowoomba for an orthodontic appointment. If you think this is all crazy, you have to realize I've literally flown interstate for a night of dining before flying back the next day. When it comes to food, this girl doesn't hold back.

Marc and I stuffed up our timing and ended up sprint-walking through the city to get there. We had the last booking of the night so I was worried we'd be told the kitchen was closed. I rang to let them know we were running off schedule and the girl on the phone was extremely forgiving. I swear I am the most punctual person in the world, so much so that I make a conscious effort to slow down and do extra things so that I'm not always early to things... so you can use the process of deduction to figure out which of us let the team down ;).

Cool pork-eating cutlery

We arrived at Spring red-faced and starving. After I got my breath back, I had a moment to take in the restaurant. I really dig the decor. It makes me think of country homes and sunshine and cleanliness and lemons. The colour scheme revolves around the theme of 'white' and there's an abundance of bleached wood, which I adore. It's quite strange having dinner late at night in an environment that's speaks so strongly of day time. I don't say that critically. I genuinely like that. Dark and romantic is OK for some but I'm a fan of the light.

I really couldn't decide whether we should go for the shared lamb or separate mains so I delegated the task of ordering to Marc and settled for wine consumption instead.

To quieten our grumbling bellies, we ordered bread to start with. Our entree arrived at the same time, which is unusual timing but it worked out for us because we were so hungry.

Fresh baked bread - with farmhouse cultured butter

The bread was a dense, white country-style loaf, served warm with butter. It's refreshing to see bread at a restaurant that ISN'T sourdough. The butter was delicious. These days, I'm getting a bit snobbish with my butter and whilst I'm far from being a professional butter coinosseur, I find the French make excellent butter and that's what I use at home. This one at Spring reminded me of that. I'm discovering a correlation between the yellowness of butter and how good it tastes.

Calamari fritti - with lemon and aioli

The calamari was a surprise for me. Crumbed calamari is one of those popular dishes that I like but never order. The biggest problem to me is a soggy crust, but calamari can also be fishy-tasting or tough or undercooked. It's a simple dish that's hard to get bang on. This one was extremely tender with a light crumb; much better than I was expecting. It was served with a garlic aioli that I steered clear from because I hate garlic but Marc said it was good.

Berkshire pork cutlet - with caramelized apple and sauteed chard

For our mains, we ended up going for the pork cutlet and the quail risotto, which was one of the specials of the day.

Inside shot of pork cutlet

The pork cutlet was massive and cooked through, but a bit tough for my liking. It was served on a bed of what I thought was polenta but Marc said tasted eggy so I'm not sure. The caramelized apple was a punch of dessertiness that sort of went with the pork but just too sweet.

Risotto of quail - with sage, proscuitto and chanterelles

My preferred main was the quail risotto. I wasn't a huge fan of the quail meat. It was firm and salty, reminding me of Chinese salted duck, which I love but I just felt was out of place. The risotto itself was delicious. That's twice now that a restaurant risotto has impressed me in as many visit. Maybe I should revise my opinion on restaurant risottos! They're not always gluey and gross. They can be flavorsome and cooked well. This wasn't as spectacular as the mushroom risotto at Anise but it was comforting and tasty all the same (and it also had mushroom; that's what the chanterelles are, in case you didn't know).

Caramelized bread pudding - with ice-cream and coffee creme anglaise

We were deliriously full at this point but I had my eye on one of the dessert specials and I couldn't let it go. The dessert special was a caramelized bread pudding with ice-cream and a coffee anglaise. It's a dessert that sounds irresistable, looks plain and tastes like a heart-warming hug.

Dessert in action

It's easy to be visually disappointed by the what appears to be a slab of toast on the plate. Appearances can be deceptive. It's a creamy bread pudding with a crunchy caramel crust. The ice-cream and coffee anglaise are perfect accompaniments and this dessert seeemed like a love child between bread and butter pudding and an affogato. This was the ideal ending to a great meal.

I really liked Spring Restaurant, which is a shame because as someone who doesn't live in Brisbane, Saturday nights are my main dining night and they aren't open then. The whole restaurant radiated homeliness and comfort, both with the decor and the style of food. I thought the service was smashing. We were the last 2 diners in the restaurant and I can understand how frustrating that must be from a restaurant point of view when all the staff wans to go home. The guys at Spring were wonderfully accomodating and didn't make us feel like we were being rushed out at all.

Mushroom and Ham Stuffed Zucchini

Mushroom and Ham Stuffed Zucchini
Home Cooking

I fall victim to the cooking trap of treating my fridge/pantry like a  home mystery box challenge (Masterchef reference, for those not in the know). I start thinking about what bits and pieces I have that need using up, finding recipes that accomodate them and often buying extra ingredients to bring those recipes together. That sort of defies the whole point but what the hey.

On this occasion, I had a tray of mushrooms that were bothering me. I usually pan-fry mushrooms with zucchini and eat that with goats cheese on toast or in a wrap. In light of my current mood for cooking, I thought I could use those ingredients but in a new way.

Googling for inspiration, I found a couple of references for stuffed zucchini so I decided to give that a crack. With any recipe that involves stuffing something with other things, there's a lot of room for alteration. For someone in my situation, that makes it the perfect platform for using up troublesome ingredients. I had some corn kernals and green chili too so I threw those into the mix.

Mushroom and Ham Stuffed Zucchini
Serves 3-4

Ingredients:

• 3 large zucchinis
• cup of mushrooms
• 50g ham, chopped
• 1/3 cup corn kernals (optional; I used frozen)
• 1/2 green chili, chopped finely (optional)
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs
• 1 tbsp lemon zest
• olive oil
• 1/3 cup mozarella cheese, grated
• 50g butter, melted
• rocket and fresh lemon, to serve

Procedure:

1. Boil the zucchinis whole until they're just tender (about 10 minutes). Let them cool down.

2. Meanwhile, stir-fry the mushrooms and ham in some olive oil until the mushrooms are cooked.

3. Add the corn and chili (if using) until everything is warmed throughout.

4. Make the crumble by mixing together the breadcrumbs with lemon zest, cheese and butter.

5. Slice the zucchinis in half lengthwise and scoop out the insides.  These bits can be incorporated into the filling mixture if you like.

6. Preheat the grill so that it's nice and hot. Set the tray towards the top of the oven.
7. Fill the zuccini halves in with the filling mixture. Top with some of the crumble and drizzle the whole thing with olive oil.

8. Grill until the crumble is golden and the cheese has melted.

9. Serve with a fresh rocket salad, with some lemon wedges.

Stuffed vegetables have the benefit of looking fiddly and slightly fancy when they're not that difficult to do. I recommend using a small metal spoon for scooping out the zucchini flesh. Again, I reiterate that you can use anything for the filling really.

My filling didn't have a clear theme (besides 'get rid of igredients that Cora doesn't want in her fridge') but you could go the Italian route and fill with tomato, basil and ricotta or maybe the Mexican route and try some mince with ground cumin and coriander, beans and corn.

The mushroom and ham stuffed zucchini suited with the lemon zest crumble and I thought rocket and fresh lemon was the best accompaniment. If you change the filling, you could try some different tops and sides to match.

Yum Cha Cuisine, Carindale

Yum Cha Cuisine
Shop 1201, Westfield Carindale, 1151 Creek Road, Carindale

A yum cha place that's not in Sunnybank or the Valley? It's been a long time coming. As a Carindale ex-pat, I feel honoured that Westfiled Carindale was chosen as the first site of Yum Cha Cuisine outside the Gold  Coast. There's a severe lack of Chinese-style food options in the Eastern suburbs so it's nice to have something larger scale, rather than a take away joint.

Yum Cha Cuisine is located in one of the newer parts of the shopping centre, in a semi-outdoor food court that also contains Toscanis, Wagamama, Movenpick, Guzman Y Gomez and more. The restaurant is fairly big and because it's brand spanking new, the fitout is predictably flash.

That morning, I had originally made breakfast plans with Nina but my car battery died and I ended up stuck at a public parking lot in West End, waiting for an hour for RACQ to show up. By the time they did, it was too late for breakfast so I headed over to mum and dad's and mum suggested yum cha.

Chrysanthemum tea

Because of the car incident, timing was a bit awkward so I guess could be called yum cha brunch. The kitchen had just opened up so we were advised that certain dishes were ready to go but others would require a wait. There is the option of grabbing dishes off waitresses as they come around, or ordering straight from the menu.

I was starving (I think I used up a lot of energy feeling flustered and frustrated all morning) so we didn't stuff around with waiting for dishes to come to us and ordered instead. I ran through my list of yum cha favorites, greatly over-ordering for 2 people but at the time, not caring because I wanted food. Fast. And lots of it.

Deep-fried taro dumpling

One of my ultimate guilty pleasures is the crispy fried taro dumpling from yum cha. I adore the delicate, lace-like exterior that literally crushes apart in your mouth.

Inside of taro dumplings

The filling has soft taro pieces, pork and shiitake mushroom. Fried taro dumplings are almost never bad but these ones were extra good because they were fresh and hot.

BBQ pork crisp

Our next dish was recommended by one of the waitresses. It's described on the menu as a BBQ pork crisp. The filling is that of a BBQ pork bun, i.e. sweet, salty, sticky and slightly charred but the outside is a flaky, short pastry. I'm a huge fan of this kind of pastry. It ressembles mainland Chinese pork mooncake pastry and mum and I have tried to replicate it at home without success. This BBQ pork version was absolutely delicious and is probably my favorite out of everything we ordered.

Chicken feet with black bean sauce

We always order the chicken feet because that's a yum cha classic. They're fried and braised in a black bean sauce. These were on par with the chicken feet we've tried at other yum cha joints.

Congee with thousand year egg and lean pork

Mum wanted the salted pork and century egg (referred to on the menu as 'thousand year egg') congee. For me, congee is all about consistency. The rice has to be broken up but not gluggy. This congee had a good consistency.

BBQ pork spare ribs

The BBQ pork spare ribs were something I haven't tried at yum cha before. The pork had a nice flavor but it was very similar to the filling of the BBQ pork pastry, only much sweeter (with a honey flavor). I did like it but I thought it was too sweet. You can't have more than a few pieces before needing some kind of palate cleanse.

Steamed rice noodle rolls with prawn filling

Our final dish was the steamed rice noodle rolls with prawn. I normally love this dish at yum cha and like to think of it as a comparatively 'healthier' choice. It's a simple combination of steamed flat rice noodle with some kind of filling and a sweet soy sauce. This one was a disappointment. The rice noodles were over-steamed and the texture was thick and gluggy.

I'm glad Yum Cha Cuisine has opened up in Carindale. Aside from the rice noodle rolls, the rest of the dishes were of a good quality, by Brisbane yum cha standards. The service was very friendly, something that I don't take for granted in Asian restaurants, and the atmosphere was almost peaceful (again, unusual). It's nice to have the option of having yum cha somewhere other than Sunnybank.