Poporo

Poporo is one of the new places that has opened up where Mama's Kitchen used to be in Market City. The food is "Japanese modern cafe", the decor funky and the staff friendly.

Along the front of the restaurant are row of touch screen computers where you put in your order - great novelty value!

The service was quick, our seaweed salad arriving minutes after our order was put in. This had an eclectic mix of purple, green and white seaweed on top of a garden salad, dressed with an olive oil and soy dressing.

Assorted seaweed salad

The squid ink spaghetti had a rich tomato flavour, despite the inky looking sauce.

Squid ink spaghetti

The huge Poporo burger stack consisted of a crumbed and fried beef patty with bolognaise and white sauce, bacon, Italian leaves, tomato and parmesan cheese.

Poporo burger

A bit of an Asian take on your average cafe food - some interesting combo's I wouldn't mind trying include the teriyaki tofu and vegetable burger and the crabmeat and eggplant doria (oven baked white mornay sauce and melty cheese in tomato rice) - there's always next time!

Election Night Dinner

Once upon a time there was an election. On election night, Lynn says to Patrick, "Go into the kitchen and make us some pizza!" And he did. Patrick slaved away for hours and hours, making the pizza dough (from scratch)...


...and made us three delicious pizzas. The first pizza was topped with ham and artichoke hearts.

Ham and artichoke pizza

The second, tomato, basil and mozzarella. And the third pizza was the bestest pizza in all the land with pepperoni, olives, sun dried tomatoes and oven roasted chilis.

Pepperoni, sun dried tomatoes, olives and chili pizza

And for dessert? Chocolate creme brulee and cherry friand slice!


And we all lived happily ever after when the wicked witch of the (north) west lost his seat and the election!

Chocolate Creme Brulee and Cherry Friand Slice

Two seemingly unrelated desserts but it will make sense...

This is an incredibly easy recipe for creme brulee (chocolate is optional):


Whisk together 2 cups of cream, 5 egg yolks, 1/2 cup sugar and 1 tbsp vanilla essence. Divide into ramekins and place in baking tray filled halfway with hot water. Bake at 180 degrees C for 45 min-1 h until set. Chill in fridge overnight. To serve, sprinkle with sugar and caramelise with blowtorch for a sugary crust.

For a chocolate version, heat chocolate and cream over a double bioler until melted then mix in other ingredients when chocolate/cream has cooled a bit.

So this brings me to the second part... what to do with all the egg whites after you've used the yolks for the creme brulee? Friands! Or this slice version (from AWW cakes biscuits and slices)...


Mix together 4 egg whites (1 left over!), 100 g melted butter, 1 tbsp milk, 1/2 tsp vanilla essence, 1 cup almond meal, 1 cup icing sugar (sifted), 1/3 cup self-raising flour (sifted) and the seeds from 1 vanilla bean until combined. Pour mixture into slice pan and sprinkle with 100 g frozen cherries, roughly chopped. Bake at 170 degrees C for 30 minutes. Serve dusted with icing sugar.

Of course you can freeze the egg whites for later but where's the fun in that?

Longrain

Recently we went to Longrain restaurant for a bit of a celebratory dinner. Arriving at 20 to 7, we were lucky enough to get the last "table" for four. I say "table" because one side of the restaurant has three large mess hall-type tables and so we were actually just slotted in between two groups of diners on the middle table.

To start we had the betel leaves topped with smoked trout, shredded herbs, chili and fish roe. Such small delicate servings with a wonderful combination of sweet, salty, sour and spicy flavours leaves you wanting more.

Betel leaves topped with smoked trout

The eggnet salad arrived beautifully presented, with literally an eggnet covering a salad of mostly beansprouts and a few greens. The salad was served with sweet vinegar on the side, but this was a little too sweet for my liking.

Eggnet with bean sprouts, peanuts, pomelo, coriander and sweet vinegar

The highlight of the dinner was probably the deep fried soft shell crab in a mild red curry with pineapple pieces and topped with betel leaves. The curry was surprisingly not creamy and not too sweet - one of the best red curry I've had.

Soft shell crab and pineapple red curry

The grilled beef had a great blend of flavours - sesame, lime and tamarind. The only downside was the beef itself which was a little overcooked and slightly tough.

Grilled skirt steak with sesame, lime and tamarind

The chicken was lovely and crisp, covered in a sticky blood plum glaze. This was served with lemon and szechuan pepper which provided a good contrast to sweetness of the sauce.

Crisp fried barossa chicken with blood plum sauce and szechuan pepper

Overall, not a bad dining experience - the service was excellent, the atmosphere was lively and the food was generally good but tended to be a little on the sweet side.

Lamrock Cafe

What a beautiful weekend! To make the most of it and the fact that our friend Ade was visiting from Melbourne, we went to Sculpture by the Sea in Bondi.


Before our walk from Bondi to Tamarama, we stopped by Lamrock Cafe for a bit of fuel. I was ravenous (as usual) and went for the hearty Cajun chicken burger, served with (salty!) fries. Tender spiced chicken pieces, lettuce, tomato and mayo on a crusty burger bun.

Cajun chicken burger

Ade was in the mood for something sweet and ordered the pikelets from the breakfast menu. This came with orange slices and maple syrup.

Pikelets

Em went for the vegetarian lasagne, a huge serving of pasta with a chunk of feta on the side.

Vegetarian lasagne

Content with our lunches, we leisurely made our way along the coastal walk, along with hundreds of other people who also realised this was the last weekend of the exhibition! Oh well... maybe we should go earlier next year :).

Peanut Butter and Choc Chip Cupcakes

One of the recipes from the 500 cupcakes cookbook (of course). The original recipe was for peanut butter cupcakes and this was one of the variations - like I've said, can't really go wrong with chocolate. Although from the looks of the split open cupcake, there doesn't seem to be enough! :O


Used one of the nozzles from the cookie gun set to pipe the icing - soo much fun! And easy too!

My New Bible...

You may have noticed a few cupcake posts recently (and more to follow). This is all thanks to my new cookbook...


Quite an impressive collection of cupcake and muffin recipes - all have variations on the basic recipe, which is how they get to 500 I suppose. Good if you're looking for a variety cake recipes (rather than ways to decorate a cupcake) and includes a good selection of savoury recipes.

Roast Pumpkin, Onion and Feta Tarts

Found this recipe in the cafe food book that came with this months Delicious magazine. Being a huge fan of pumpkin, I'm always willing to try out new pumpkin recipes.

To start off, pumpkin and onion was roasted with some thyme, cumin and olive oil. The tart shells were made from puff pastry baked in a muffin tray until puffed and golden. The tart shells were filled with the roasted pumpkin and onion and some feta cubes. A mixture of egg, cream and chives was added to the tarts and baked until the egg was set.


The pastry stuck to the tray a bit (arrghh!) but the rest was ok. The tarts were served with tomato chutney and a side salad.

Chocolate Jaffa Tart

What to do on a rainy afternoon when work does not look appealing? :)

Flipping through my Wicked Sweet Indulgences cookbook, this chocolate jaffa tart recipe caught my eye. Looked easy enough and you really can't go wrong with chocolate, cream, sugar and eggs.


A bit of mess later, I had a rich chocolatey tart finished off with a silky ganache layer. Definitely one I'd make again.