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Cafe Sopra 2

Cafe Sopra has to be one of my favourite restaurants in Sydney. I have previously blogged about it here. I have never had a bad meal there, I just wish you could book a table! Especially since we had to drive back to Canberra after lunch and didn't want to be waiting too long for a table.We planned on getting there just before 12, so we could get a good table, but the traffic from Parramatta to Waterloo was terrible. So we ended up arriving close to 1pm..We went up past Fratelli Fresh, where a cooking class was going on, and put our names down for a table. The wait didn't end up being too bad, being only about 20 mins. We did have to share a table, but there was only another couple at the other end of the table, so we ended up having more room than if we had a table to ourselves. The table was right in front of the menu board too, which meant we could take a bit more time looking at all the options they had, rather than standing in front of it wondering if we were in anyone else's way.

It's best to get there early if you want to have your pick from the menu, as items do sell out. There were a couple of things already crossed off the board when we got there, and a few more things were crossed off as we got up to leave.

I think everything is really well priced here too for the quantity and quality that you get. They also have carafes of Italian wines which are so cheap and easy to drink.

Zucchini Flowers stuffed with 5 Italian cheeses - $4.50 each

We decided to start off with a zucchini flower each. These were so delicious and piping hot! The cheese was very creamy and I would definitely only be able to eat one of these. I am not sure what all the different cheeses were either.

At this point I remember reading somewhere that someone said that they got asked not to take photos here, so I was quite hesitant with my photo taking from this point...(no one asked me to not take photos by the way...)

Meatballs with Tomato Sauce - $20

These meatballs were huge! They were unlike any meatball I had had before either. I am pretty sure they had cumin in them, there was a curry like quality to them. The pasta was so good too. We ended up buying a packet of this pasta from the shop as well.

Papperdelle with Salsicce and Peas - $18

Frankie went with the Papperdelle. I was tossing up whether to get this, so I am glad he chose it. How delicious does that look! It was all mixed together perfectly so that you got a bit of everything with each bite.

I really wanted to order a dessert at the beginning of the meal, but after eating the pastas, mixed with the zucchini flowers, I was almost bursting!

I think next time we will get one pasta and a salad to share, so I can try that banoffe pie!

They also have other outlets around the city, but I have never been. After lunch we went to Fratelli fresh and bought lots of fruit and veggies to take back to Canberra with us. All the fruit was so lovely and sweet and not expensive at all.

Cafe Sopra
7 Danks Street
Waterloo NSW
No bookings allowed

View the original article here

Bella Vedere - Yarra Valley

So I have been away for a while... Since moving to Canberra I haven't been excited to eat out and photograph food as much as I had in Sydney. There are some great places in Canberra, but there are a lot more places that aren't great as well.. It is also so much more expensive to eat out here than Sydney as well, which means I have been cooking a lot more than going out.

So my blog now will probably have more entries of my cooking than my eating out. So lets see how we go this time!

Firstly I will take you back to a couple of months ago when Frankie and I went on a week's trip to the Yarra Valley. I had never been there before, so wasn't sure which place to book for a nice dinner. I had a booking at Mt Rael, but they were doing some renovations so I had to change our venue. So I looked at what had Chef's hats in the region and Bella Vedere was close to where we were staying and had some good reviews, so I booked us in there.

They have an a la carte menu, but on Friday and Saturday nights they have a set menu of 5 courses for $95. Everyone is asked to be seated by 7:30pm so they can get everyone's drinks underway in preparation for the announcement of the menu!

Tonight's menu is heavily based on cheese and ends up being too rich for me in the end and didn't get to try the dessert. We also got matching wines with each course, and they give you very full glasses!!

We started off with an amuse bouche of risotto balls. Can't remember exactly what was in it besides rice and cheese, but it was very tasty.

This was a smoked trout soup which had a quinelle of marscapone or some type of cheese. This was so beautiful. Although the serving bowls weren't the easiest to eat soup out of being wide and shallow.

The second course was a three cheese risotto with a hazelnut and rocket salad. The risotto was cooked perfectly and very satisfying. I shouldn't have eaten all of it, maybe then I could have fit in a bit of dessert...

Next up was slow cooked lamb. I think it was cooked for 24 hours or something and then rested it by the open fire. It was so good. I love roasted lamb and this was melt in your mouth. I would have preferred a bit more salad though..

The final savoury dish of the evening was a grapefruit, mandarin, Persian feta and hazelnuts. This was a combination I hadn't had before, but it all worked so well together. I was doing well up until this point and then I had a bit more of the feta and it just pushed me over the edge.

The dessert was a bombe alaska type dessert and when they brought the dessert to the table, they poured over some type of liqueur and lit it up. It was very cool.

All the wines were from around the region and were perfectly matched. We hadn't done much wine tasting yet, so it was good to get a taste of the wines before we tried to visit every winery in the yarra valley!

Frankie

Me

Bella Vedere Cucina
Badgers Brook Estate
874 Maroondah Highway
Coldstream VIC

Ph: 03 5962 6161

Breakfast and Lunch served Wed - Sun from 8:30am
Dinner Friday and Saturday from 7:30pm

View the original article here

Bavarian Bier Cafe - Parramatta

We were in Sydney a couple of weeks ago for a wedding in the Parramatta area. I had not been to Parra for ages, about 8 years I think when I used to work there. It hadn't changed too much, but I did notice a lot of restaurants down the main street. Although maybe I am not used to the abundance of restaurants in coming from a place like Canberra.

I did walk to the Parramatta Westfield too, which was massive, and I have never seen so many women with prams! I am not talking single prams either, most of them had space for at least 2 children.

It's always tough trying to find restaurants to go to when we come back to Sydney, as there are so many different ones I want to try. We always try and go to places that you can't get that type of food in, in Canberra, which is a lot.. Sydney is definitely spoilt for choice when it comes to food.

We hadn't had German food for ages, so while we were on our way to Sydney we called up the Bavarian bier cafe and booked a table for two!

The weather in Sydney that day was terrible, as it had been for all of the week, so it wasn't pleasant walking around the streets. Luckily our hotel was in the same street as the restaurant, so we didn't have far to go.

There are a couple of entrances to the place and we happened to walk in the wrong one where there was a function going on. I saw a bouncer there and thought it was quite strange for a restaurant to have a bouncer...

Once we found the right entrance, we were seated in a booth with very comfortable chairs. I could have sat there all afternoon, and then we got some beers! I love Weissbier and I usually get the mango flavoured one to start and then move onto the real stuff, but as I didn't want to have too much to drink, as we had a wedding to go to, I just got the one beer.

I wanted to get a pork knuckle, but I couldn't see it on the menu, unless I totally missed it, so I went with the tasting platter instead.

Bavarian Tasting Platter - $25.50

This was so good and well priced I thought! I loved all the different types of sausages on the plate and the sauerkraut was amazing. It all went so well together.

White sausage with mash underneath


Crispy Pork belly and Schnitzel. The pork belly wasn't melt in your mouth tender, but it was pretty close and the crackling was delicious and crispy. The schnitzel was probably the tastiest one I have had too and was so moist. I would definitely order this again.

Garden Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette - $11

We also decided to get a salad, as the food was quite heavy that we needed something healthy to go with. The salad was nothing fancy, but had heaps of veggies in it which was great.

Wiener Schnitzel with Sauteed Potatoes and Herb Mayonnaise - $27

Frankie went with the classic veal schnitzel. He said it was lovely. I didn't try any cause I already had schnitzel on my tasting platter and didn't want to use up more space with more schnitzel! i tried the sauteed potatoes, but they weren't really to my liking.

Luckily just before the wedding the weather cleared up for the day. The ceremony was scheduled to be in a park, so no alternative arrangements had to be made!

Bavarian Bier Cafe - Parramatta
2 - 8 Phillip Street
Parramatta
Ph: 02 8836 1400

View the original article here

Choc Chip Cookies

I had seen a lot of recipes around all the blogs for choc chip cookies recently which got me wanting to make my own! Choc chip cookies are my favourite type of cookie, as long as they have got heaps of chocolate in them, and these ones do. I am not one to usually put anything else besides chocolate in my cookies either, so if you want to add anything else then it's up to you.

The recipe says it makes 16 cookies, but I think I got about 19 and they were big chunky cookies too, so if you like your cookies smaller (so you can eat more) then it will make about double this.

I usually have all these ingredients lying around at home which is great to satisfy my cravings!

All the ingredients ready to go

Creaming the butter and sugar

Whisking the egg before mixing into the batter


Adding the dry ingredients


Adding the choc chips!

Put on a tray lined with baking paper


All brown and gooey!

Choc Chip Cookies

125g Unsalted butter
185g (1 Cup) Brown Sugar
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1 Egg, Lightly beaten
1 Tablespoon Milk
215g (1 3/4 cups) plain flour
1 Teaspoon Baking powder
250g (1 1/2 cups) Dark Chocolate Chips

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Line a couple of trays with baking paper

2. Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl using electric beaters. Mix in the vanilla and gradually add the egg beating well. Stir in the milk

3. Sift the baking powder and flour into a large bowl and then fold into the butter/sugar mixture. Stir in the dark choc chips.

4. Drop tablespoons onto a baking tray and bake in oven for about 15 minutes, or until turning brown. Cool on wire rack.

I love cookies on their own or mashed through some vanilla ice cream! yum!

View the original article here

Chinese Chicken Hotpot

During the week I love to make quick easy recipes that are tasty. I have a few Donna Hay books, but haven't cooked too much out of them, although this book I have cooked a few things from.

I found this recipe for a Chinese chicken hotpot and thought it sounded healthy and easy to make, but didn't know how good it would be, so I didn't take any photos. When we sat down to eat it I was amazed at how all the flavours worked so well together and thought it was delicious.

So I thought I definitely have to make this again and take pictures, and so I did!

The first time I made the stock with Vegeta and the second time with the Chicken flavoured version of Vegeta. Definitely preferred it the first time, so if you are planning on using powdered stock, use Vegeta!

Also in the recipe the only vegetables it says to include are snow peas, but I added in some bok choy as well, so that it had more vegetables, and it worked very well.

Very good recipes in this book and very easy

Most of the recipes are for 2 people as well, which is good for us being a 2 person home. Although this recipe could easily feed 3, or maybe 4..

Ingredients for the chicken part of the dish


Mixture for topping all ready to go - this is what makes the dish. I would make double quantities of this.

Everything in the pot ready to be dished out.


Ready to eat with a dash of Sriracha about to go on it!

Chinese Chicken Hotpot - Adapted from Donna Hay's No Time to Cook

2 1/2 Cups of Chicken Stock
3 Slices Ginger
3 Cloves Garlic, bruised and peeled
1 1/4 Cups Jasmine Rice
3 x 140g Chicken Thigh Fillets
100g Snow Peas, trimmed
Asian Greens (such as bok choy or gai lan)
Soy Sauce and Sriracha Sauce to serve

Onion Ginger Dressing
1 Green Onion trimmed and finely sliced
1 tablespoon finely grated ginger
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons chopped coriander
1/2 teaspoon sea salt flakes

To make onion ginger dressing, combine all ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

Combine stock, ginger and garlic in a medium pot and bring to the boil. Add rice, return to the boil. Top with the chicken and cover with a tight fitting lid. Cook for 10 minutes over low heat.

Remove pot from heat, add the snow peas and asian greens and allow to stand for 5 minutes or until all the liquid has been absorbed.

Spoon over the onion ginger dressing, sauces and serve.

Serves 2 (It can serve 3 people really well).

View the original article here

Chile Con Carne

One pot meals are my favourite thing to cook, if I haven't mentioned it already. I love it when you can chuck everything in a pot and leave it to cook until you are ready, and if you aren't ready then you can just leave it in there until you are.

This meal is nothing fancy, but it is very tasty, especially when you add some sour cream and avocado at the end.

I think next time I make it I will use chuck steak instead, so there are tender chunks of meat in the sauce.

Start off with some onion and garlic

Spices - Cayenne, Cumin and Coriander - the three C's

Some Beef Mince - this mince was really lean, which I didn't like. Make sure you get some juicy mince.

Throw in some tomato and kidney beans, and then add Jalapenos at the end. I love Jalapenos

Wait for a while

Then eat! Not the most glorious looking photo, I know. But it was very good.

Chile Con Carne

Ingredients (serves 4)

1 tbs peanut oil
1 brown onion, halved, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tbs ground cumin
1 tbs ground coriander
2 tsp cayenne pepper (optional)
600g lean beef mince
1 x 400g can Italian diced tomatoes
2 tbs tomato paste
1 x 300g can red kidney beans, drained, rinsed
2 tbs drained, chopped jalapeno chillies (Old El Paso brand) (optional)
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
1 x 250g carton light sour cream
3 green shallots, ends trimmed, diagonally thinly sliced
2 tbs chopped fresh coriander leaves

Method

1. Heat oil in a non-stick frying pan over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic and cook for 3 minutes or until onion softens. Add ground cumin, ground coriander and cayenne pepper (omit pepper if cooking for kids) and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.

2. Add mince and cook, stirring with a wooden spoon to break up any lumps, for 5 minutes or until it changes colour. Stir in diced tomato, tomato paste and kidney beans.

3. Reduce heat to medium and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes or until mixture thickens. Remove from heat and stir in chilli (omit if cooking for kids). Taste and season with salt and pepper.

4. Meanwhile, combine the sour cream, three-quarters of the green shallots and the coriander leaves in a small bowl. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

5. Spoon chilli con carne into bowls. Top with a dollop of the sour cream mixture. Sprinkle with remaining green shallots. Serve immediately.

View the original article here