Ingredient: Kaffir Lime



I was so lucky to receive the fragrant leaves and fruit fresh from a friend's tree today. Immediately, I thought how wonderful they would be imbibing their sunshine-y unique flavour into a seafood curry and I was amazed at how much more potent and layered the flavour imparted was from a super fresh leaf. I'm now inspired to grow my own, which i have just read will grow happily in a pot and will bear fruit in warmer climates!

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Review: Brew



A sweet spot in the city to muse over the day ahead and steady yourself with a great coffee can be hard to find. Well, stop looking and bound down the lane (Lower Burnett Lane) just past rocking horse records and you'll find yourself at Brew. Great coffee, friendly service, a basic but sweet breakfast menu all wrapped up in an atmosphere that makes you smile. Go to here!

And for the thirsty among us, Brew is a neat place for a beer in the afternoon.

Brew on Urbanspoon

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Providores: Sourced Grocer



EatMe is very excited to welcome Sourced Grocer to the neighbourhood. Nestled in Florence St, Teneriffe you will find a feast for your eyes and tummy. Sourced creates a perfect shopping experience for that essential ingredient and the fit out is just magnificent, think open wooden warehouse brimming with organic fresh produce and my favourite part; a walk in cold room brimming with artisan meats, cheese and fruits and vege.

I'm particularly thrilled to see that they stock a great range of Eumundi Smokehouse goods- looking forward to noming the natural smoked bacon I picked up yesterday

There is also a cafe attached to the site that sells delightful bread.

Well Done guys.
Sourced Grocer on Urbanspoon

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Recipe: Mushroom Risotto in the Oven!


Well, well , well, risotto in an oven, "no way" i hear you say.
This was also my reaction when i first stumbled upon the basic recipe on Donna Hay's excellent website. I have adapted it to celebrate the mushroom and provide warm fuggy comfort on the table on what is a very chilly evening. Cheers to mushrooms, cheers to the oven and cheers to you!

Mushroomy, Leeky Risotto Oven Magic
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed and leeks
• a brown bag full of mushies, chopped
• 30g Dried french forest mushrooms
• ¾ cup (150g) arborio rice
• 2 ¼ cups (560ml) vegetable stock
• parsely
• ½ cup (40g) finely grated parmesan
• 20g butter
• sea salt and cracked black pepper
Preheat oven to 180°C (355°F). Heat the butter in a large, non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Add garlic, mushrooms and thyme and cook for 5 minutes or until browned.Meanwhile, soak the dried forest mushrooms in sub-boiling water for 15 mins and drain (reserve some of the glorious liquid for the stock). Place mushies and leeks in a 5 cup-capacity (1.25L) ovenproof dish with the rice and stock and stir to combine. Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes or until most of the stock is absorbed and rice is al dente. Stir through the spinach, parmesan, butter, salt and pepper. Serves 2.

Don't forget to have wine! Tonight I'm having it with the D'Arenberg Footbolt Shiraz..mmmm warming and enjoy the revolution of a no stir oven awesome risotto!

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Review: Archive Beer Boutique



I love the concept here at Archive; great beers from both independent micro brewers and the larger boutique beer houses enjoyed in a relaxed, retro industrial atmosphere.

We pulled up sofa on Friday afternoon for a schooner and some chippies. We were happy to find out that on Fridays they set up a traditional hand pump attached to a keg and pull beer the old-fashioned way- three pumps to a schooner. This particular Friday, Little Creature's Pale Ale was the keg attached to the hand pump. The result, a deeper bodied, muskier and all round smoother beer. The hand pumping results in finer bubbles that are way less fizzy.

Chips were super tasty- beer battered and delightfully crispy. This is such a great pub.

Archive Beer Boutique and Bistro on Urbanspoon

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Hot Cross Buns


No doubt these represent to you all that is good about Easter; warm, fuggy goodness.

I was particularly interested to read that the humble hot cross bun pre dates christianity and were made and eaten in honour of the saxon goddess Eostre (Easter!) who was the custodian of the dawn in saxon lore. Interestingly the four sectors formed by the cross are reported by some to symbolise the four quarters of the moon. Kooky and yay to have a sweet bun eaten in honour of you.

So why not make some to celebrate the goddess in your family. I found this recipe below from Gourmet Traveller. I reckon a dash of cointreau would be very welcome in this too.

Hot cross buns

Serves 16

INGREDIENTS

Buns

750 gm (5 cups) plain flour, sifted

55 gm (¼ cup) caster sugar

2 tsp (14 gm )dried yeast

1 tsp allspice

½ tsp cinnamon

250 gm (1½ cups) sultanas

100 gm candied orange peel, coarsely chopped

1 orange, finely grated rind only

300 ml milk

100 gm unsalted butter, coarsely chopped

1 egg


Glaze

55 gm (¼ cup)caster sugar

¼ tsp mixed spice

METHOD

1

Combine 700 gm flour, sugar, yeast, spices, sultanas, orange peel and rind and 1 tsp sea salt in a bowl. Gently warm milk and butter over a low heat until butter melts and mixture is tepid. Add egg to milk mixture and whisk. Make a well in the centre of flour mixture, add milk mixture and stir. Turn dough onto a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes or until smooth. Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and stand in a warm place for 40 minutes or until doubled in size. Knock back dough and cut into 16 equal pieces. Knead each piece into a ball, place in a lightly greased 22cm-square cake pan, cover with a damp tea towel and stand in a warm place for 40 minutes or until doubled in size.

2

Preheat oven to 220C. Combine remaining flour and ¼ cup water and stir to a smooth paste. Spoon into a piping bag fitted with a fine nozzle. Pipe lines down each row to form crosses. Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce temperature to 200C and bake for another 10 minutes or until golden. (They’re ready when they sound hollow when tapped).

3

For glaze, combine ingredients with ¼ cup water in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for 1-2 minutes. Brush glaze over hot buns, then transfer to a wire rack to cool


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Review: Home Ground on Brunswick



Boy oh boy do I love a perfect cup of coffee and you'll find it here at Home Ground.

Miss Eat Me Brisbane is a long black drinker, which can make finding a well bodied perfectly balanced cup of joe hard to find. Not here though and the other coffees looked the goods too. To top it off you also get a complimentary tasty little cookie with your order. Nice touch.

Home ground also caters to the light lunch market with wraps and soup specials. I totally recommend dropping in and enjoying the awesome wall art. I'm very excited that a coffee house with personality has arrived on the Brunswick St strip.

Home Ground on Brunswick on Urbanspoon




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Cookbooks: The Good Heart Recipe Book- Jonsi and Alex

This is such a sweet and amusing video. Jonsi and Alex cooking, so not only do they make great music, they are now also cooks. You can peruse their recipes from their website.

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Hello Autumn



It feels like Autumn is trying to wash Summer away with the rain this morning. I personally cannot wait for the crisp cool air to waft on in and herald the beginning of the cosy months.

March 1 was strictly speaking the beginning of Autumn , I love changing seasons particularly with regard to cooking as it brings with it a new crop of ingriedients and produce that are at their best. I really believe in seasonal eating it just makes so much sense.

So hello Autumn and hello to your bounty


Beurre Bosc Pears
Quince
Pistachio
Hazelnuts
Almonds
Pomegranate

Red Cabbage and Lettuces
Pumpkin (see recipe below)
Ginger
Sweet potato/potato
Shallots
Fennel
Mushrooms
Leeks
Celery
Olives

What a bounty! So why not celebrate Autumn with this tasty pumpkin salad- recipe and photo from 101 cookbooks.


Roasted Pumpkin Salad

3 cups of pumpkin (or other winter squash), peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
extra-virgin olive oi
fine grain sea salt

12 tiny red onions or shallots, peeled (OR 3 medium red onions peeled and quartered)
2 cups cooked wild rice*

1/3 cup sunflower seeds
1/3 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons warm water
1/2 cup cilantro, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 375 F
Toss the pumpkin in a generous splash of olive oil along with a couple pinches of salt, and turn out onto a baking sheet. At the same time, toss the onions with a bit of olive oil, sprinkle with salt, and turn out onto a separate baking sheet. Roast both for about 45 minutes, or until squash is brown and caramelized. The same goes for the onions, they should be deeply colored, caramelized, and soft throughout by the time they are done roasting. You'll need to flip both the squash and onion pieces once or twice along the way - so it's not just one side that is browning.

In the meantime, make the dressing. With a hand blender or food processor puree the sunflower seeds, olive oil, lemon juice, salt, and honey until creamy. You may need to add a few tablespoons of warm water to thin the dressing a bit. Stir in the cilantro, saving just a bit to garnish the final plate later. Taste and adjust seasonings (or flavors) to your liking - I usually need to add a touch more salt with this dressing.

In a large bowl, toss the wild rice with a large dollop of the dressing. Add the onions, gently toss just once or twice. Turn the rice and onions out onto a platter and top with the roasted squash (I'll very gently toss with my hands here to disperse the pumpkin a bit). Finish with another drizzle of dressing and any remaining chopped cilantro.

Serves 4.

* To cook wild rice: Rinse 1 1/2 cups wild rice. In a medium sauce pan bring the rice and 4 1/2 cups salted water to a boil. Reduce to a simmer. Cook for 40 minutes or until rice is tender and splitting open, stirring occasionally. You'll have enough for this recipe and some leftover.

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Food Trends: Would you be an in vitro-tarian?



The times they are a changing! Well maybe. Some very brave new world-esque research may change forever the way we eat. Researchers in Europe in collaboration with PETA are discovering methods of meat creation from a single animal cells as reported in the penultimate science weekly, Nature (http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101208/full/468752a/box/1.html).

The idea is to amplify the animal cell eg a pig cell to create sweet tasty meat wholly in a petri dish. The advantage would be reducing the cost associated with animal farming and would help solve the problem of a resource scarcity. Despite an initially oh hell no reaction to this, it cannot be denied that our current farming and agricultural practices do have a finite limit ie there is only a certain amount of arable land. So as much as lab fresh meat in my mind will never be as satisfying and tasty as paddock grown im glad research into alternative sources of food is under way.

Would you be an in vitro-tarian?

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