30 June - Attica

The celebration!
3 birthdays
2 end of semesters
1 resignation
1 end of financial year
1 special housemates' dinner (+ honoured guest)

We ladies know how to spoil ourselves with ah-may-zing delectable delights!

Walnut cream with pine mushrooms, served in this cute way in their own walnut shells

Crumbed mussels with sea vegetable. I wish there was more than 1 per person! So good I eat a tonne of these and I don't even like mussels!

Simple shitake mushroom broth with "greens from the garden"
The bitter leaves provided a great contrast to the delicious soup

First course: Crab & artichoke leaves

Second course: Marron, leek and native pepper with a prosciutto broth

Third course: A simple dish of potato cooked in the earth it was grown.
a potato that was melting in the mouth because it was cooked for 3 hours (I think that's what they said...), served on a bed of goats cheese cream and coffee

Fourth course: Meat from the Pearl Oyster, served with black salt and walnut cream

Fifth course: kumara, almond and pyengana
Sweet potato cooked in salt crust for 2 hours, served with pyengana aged cheddar soup and almond crispy bits and a slow cooked egg yolk.
If ever a dish can make you float to heaven, this would be it! I could sing its praises forever.

For our vegetarian friend, the 6th course: slow roasted jerusalem artichoke with pine mushrooms

For us carnivores, the 6th course: Flinders Island Wallaby, Bunya pine and Ground berries

Native fruits of Australia, with granita and custard

What's in the box?

hmmmm????

Honeycomb?

Well, it's called Plight of the Bees and it's all things "honey" themed...
I can't remember all the layers... but it had thyme flavoured meringue, honeydew granita, honeycomb icecream, sliver of pumpkin on top with dried powdered apple on top... something like that.

Let's just call it yum and get it over and done with, ok?
It was double yum, triple yum and I could have more if I could. Yes sirree!

oh, surprise course! It's a pukeko's egg!
a white chocolate egg with salted caramel on the inside... so good I could gobble 2 dozen of these easily.

Thanks for the memories ladies, it was an awesome amazingly fun night to celebrate all these accomplishments, and some non-accomplishments :Þ

17 July - Hainanese Chicken & Rice

Chicken and ginger, the flavours just work wonders on tastebuds.

16 July - Wontons in Miso Broth & Soba

15 July - Corned Beef with Bechamel & Boiled Cabbage

I've been craving and wanting to try making this for months now, and finally thought it cold enough to do....

So I made the traditional corned beef, the bechamel sauce (my own style and recipe), the boiled cabbage, and the non-traditional curried baked cauliflower (my own recipe and invention)
The cauli just goes so well with this dish. Any dish really. it's just awesomeness cos I invented it.

14 July - HAPPY BASTILLE DAY!

For tonight's menu, we thought it smart to get into the french festivities so we went to see Napoleon, the exhibition at the NGV.

And then our original plan was to eat crepes in the city... however, plans go awry and you just gotta go with the flow... who knew that every french person in Melbourne would be at the NGV celebrating with Monsieur Bonaparte instead of in the kitchen of their tiny little creperie making crepes for me to eat... the gall of these people, indeed!

So, in frustration and hunger we drove home with some supermarket bought french-style cheeses and had a carpet picnic in the loungeroom at the Mews and watched the Masterchef marathon on tv.... great night.

Awesome night.

We even forgot to take pics of our picnic.

Oh well, c'est la vie...

13 July - Egg Noodles, Wontons & Kimchi

So my brother made a filopino dessert called a frozen brazo for a work competition, and this was the leftovers from that...
It's biscuit, with pandan icecream, with custard, with meringue on top. How could this not win!??!

So, because it wasn't frozen properly, the layers melted into one another, but that doesn't matter, it still tasted bloody good.

And this is the same dessert, but with vanilla icecream instead, and double layer of biscuit base.

12 July - Curried Prawns & Vegies

So Tuesday night (10th July) we were at Miss A's house to meet the cutest little addition to her family, the gorgeous little Gnocchi, a pugx maltesex shitzhu puppy. And Miss A made us pasta for dinner. Much appreciated, we should do that more often!

And last night since I got home late and was by my lonesome, I just ate cold leftover vegetarian mock meat straight out of the fridge and straight out of the tub. The laziest dinner I've had since I arrived at the Mews.

But tonight was different, awesome housemate prepared a wonderful tastebud's delight!

9 July - Egg Noodles with Tofu Vegetarian

So I did bikram yoga tonight and since the rest of the house went out to dinner, I got home rather late to a cold house with little food left and no energy to actually do any cooking...

Settled on this instead.

So my folks came over on the weekend and left me a box of buddhist vegetarian food (ya know, the tofu, the gluten mock meat etc) and I just basically cooked up some egg noodles and mixed through the vego stuff.

Doesn't look pretty, but it did the job. Tasty. Filling. Satisfaction achieved.

8 July - Couscous & rice paper crusted Blue Grenadier and Fennel Orange Salad

No breadcrumbs, so how to crumb fish?

Couscous and dried rice paper crushed to the rescue! And boy did it work ever so perfectly!

7 July - Home Made Gnocchi with Mixed Mushrooms

So the last time we made gnocchi, we made heaps and froze some... this is it! The frozen gnocci.

Unfortunately, it didn't cook all that well... I'm not sure why. They were perfect when fresh but frozen then cooked = gluggy mashed potatoes. No good.
Looks alright though doesn't it? Tasted perfectly fine, was just a bit mushy is all

So I made a baked mushroom to go with it