Gooey Rocky Road Soufflé

I'll let you in on a secret: when it's late at night and there's no one else on the road, I will more than likely drive over roundabouts. Of course, I also avoid my boyfriend's glares and then sheepishly explain, "I don't like moving my arms." I'm not an inactive person, I'm actually quite athletic. It's just that at the end of a long day of driving - granted curves and bends are fun - my arms are tired and roundabouts are just too much.

Likewise, some things like rocky road involve too much chewing. It tastes great, don't get me wrong, but after 3 bites my mouth is just in mastication overkill. This is why I decided to make a gooey rocky road: the same great taste but with 95% less chewing required.

To a chocolate soufflé, I added pink marshmallows, white chocolate bits and macadamia shortbread. The white chocolate and marshmallow melt into the soufflé and you end up with a rich, intensely chocolatey soufflé with gooby bits on top. The macadamia shortbread is dense and crumbly and it all just melts in your mouth. This is exactly the kind of lazy eating that's needed for a long weekend.

Gooey Rocky Road Soufflé
Adapted from Gordon Ramsay's Chocolate Soufflé recipe

Unsalted butter for greasing, softened
6 squares dark chocolate, finely grated
20g cornflour
200ml milk
200g dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids), chopped
80g egg yolks
200g egg whites
150g castor sugar
Pink marshmallows
White chocolate bits
Macadamia shortbread

Preheat oven to 180°C.

Grease the sides of 8 small ramekins with butter in upward strokes. Refrigerate for 5 minutes and grease again. Sprinkle grated chocolate on the sides evenly.

In a small saucepan, combine cornflour with a bit of milk and create a smooth paste. Gradually mix in rest of milk. Bring to the boil on low heat, whisking continuously. When the mixture thickens after around 30 seconds, add chocolate and whisk until the chocolate is melted. Remove from heat and whisk egg yolks in. Cool in a large bowl.

Beat egg whites with an electric beater. When medium peaks form, gradually add castor sugar. Beat until thick and glossy.

Carefully fold egg whites into chocolate mixture, one third at a time, until just combined.

Pour into ramekins and level off with the back of a knife.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the soufflés have risen well past the rims of the ramekins.

Serve immediately with marshmallows, white chocolate bits and crumbled macadamia shortbread.

Raspberry Sorbet, Toffee and Lime

When I think about foods like blue cheese or even something simple like meringue, I always wonder how people came to invent these recipes. How did someone know to leave cheese to age for a few years or beat egg whites for a long time and then bake it? Well a few nights ago I had a similar revelation: I stumbled across how to make a really great sorbet.

It started with a long day of uni work, coming home spent and having to push on into the night. I needed a raspberry smoothie. Bad. I blended raspberries, ice cubes, icing sugar and fruit juice together and found that it had the texture (if not a bit softer) of sorbet. Then I remembered from an episode of The Naked Chef that sorbet is essentially frozen sugar and water. Man am I glad I made a smoothie that night, because I never knew making sorbet was this simple!

So now that I don't have back-to-back assignments, I decided to make it again tonight with some adjustments. I added a thick sugar syrup with glucose so that it'd hold and it'd have that lovely thick texture of mango sorbet. I've got to say, I am really happy with this recipe so I hope you guys enjoy!

Raspberry Sorbet

2 milk glasses of ice cubes (smoothie measurements!)
1 milk glass of raspberries
½ cup sugar
¼ water
1 cinnamon quill
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon glucose
Icing sugar to taste

Place sugar, water, cinnamon, vanilla extract and glucose in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to the boil then simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, take out the cinnamon quill and cool completely.

Place ice, raspberries and sugar syrup in a blender. Blend until smooth.

Depending on the sweetness of the raspberries, you may want to add icing sugar for extra sweetness.

Set in a shallow dish in the freezer overnight.

Toffee Shell

½ cup sugar

Lightly grease the backs of metal tablespoons.

Heat the sugar over medium-low heat until the it liquifies and colours slightly. Remove from heat. Cool until you can make ribbons on the surface.

Drizzle over the spoons in criss-cross patterns.

Cool the spoons in the freezer for a minute and gently remove toffee from spoon.

Set aside at room temperature.

Mould the sorbet with two tablespoons and fit the toffee shell onto one side. Serve with creme fraiche and candied lime zest. It's creamy, sweet, fruitily refreshing and the toffee adds a crunch to it.

Spice Temple, Sydney CBD

10 Bligh St, next to Rockpool Grill & Bar
Modern Chinese restaurant
Reservations taken online and on 02 8078 1888 3 weeks in advance

A 2009 addition to the Neil Perry empire, Spice Temple gives a modern twist on old world China and its cuisine. The whole experience carries an air of mystique. The entrance is neatly tucked away like a secret nightclub - only if you look closely do you realise that the electronic billboard is a hidden door that opens up to reveal a dimly lit stairwell. The spiral stairway is shabby chic, like an old warehouse, with odds and ends placed haphazardly on landings.

Yellow Gold Oolong, $5

At the bottom we are led to our table, walking past evocative portraits of Chinese women and into the main dining area enclosed in wooden vertical venetian blinds. Each table has a low-hanging pendant lamp concocting the feel of candlelight and secrecy. The decor exudes Chinese glamour circa 1960 (I feel as though I could be Maggie Cheung in In the Mood for Love with red lipstick and a cheongsam) and New-York-esque trendiness.

Hunan meringue: citrus vodka, limoncello, grand marnier, mango mousse and vanilla lemon foam, $17. Consume quickly before the meringue settles.

Steering away from typical "Cantonese fare", the menu is a hit for me. I am reminded of my grandparents' cooking and eating at family friends' homes but there is a pronounced difference: the flavours are sharper, more distinct, and the ingredients are incredibly fresh. We decide to go the banquet menu ($69 per person) between the three of us and see how the night unfolds.

First up was cabbage and radish pickle cucumber with smashed garlic (unfortunately, the photos are too blurry to post) - clean, crisp flavours.

Tofu and preserved egg with soy chili dressing

This was beautiful. I love, love, love slippery tofu with chili. The preserved egg was surprisingly light and had a jelly texture.

Steamed eggplant with three flavours: garlic, coriander and sweet pork

The eggplant was actually served with the garlic, coriander and sweet pork on top, separated, and the waiter folded it all together for us at the table. This really was a nice touch - we got to see what was in the dish and appreciate that each dish was served fresh.

Fried squid with whole five spice and dark chili paste

Steamed Blue Eye fillet with salted chili black bean

Hot, sweet, sour and numbing pork: chili, sugar, black vinegar and Sichuan peppercorn

We were wondering why it was called 'numbing pork' and we soon found out why - it numbs your tongue! However, this dish was so much more than just spicy pork. It had an initial crunch like caramel popcorn (it was even as sweet as caramel popcorn), it melted on the tongue and the flavour of the pork came through and finally, the spicyness gradually set in.

Stir fried David Blackmore's wagyu brisket with baby eggplant and chili

Stir fried amaranth with garlic

Watermelon granita with ginger syrup

This was so lovely. The granita tasted like really fresh and sweet watermelon, then at the bottom were fresh pieces of watermelon in a sweet ginger syrup.

The portions may look small but don't be deceived like we were! The dishes were aplenty and accumulated to about two hours of non-stop eating. For $69, this was really great value. Also the service was amazing. The waitstaff were very attentive and helpful with the dishes. After dining like this, it's hard to walk back up the stairs and rejoin the real world.

African Food Safari: Doro Wat

Doro wat served with fufu

Doro wat is a wonderfully earthy and sweet red chicken stew originating from Ethiopia. It's cooked long and slow, like many African dishes, using onion as a base flavour. The method is very particular and interesting - it calls for 3kg of onions cooked over medium-low heat for an hour with no added liquids. Oils and spices are added, then chicken that has been soaked in vinegar and lemon juice, more ground spices and finally, hard-boiled eggs. The result is a rich, thick and dark stew that looks like a North Indian or Nepalese curry. The texture is very close to dhal and madras but it is much sweeter than any curry I've ever tasted.

This took me almost three hours to make. First I made the niter kibbeh. I love that I was confident about making it a second time 'round and I didn't have to stress over a pot of hot butter. Next I chopped the onions in a food processor and cooked it for an hour until reduced. To that I added olive oil, niter kibbeh and berbere.

I found the next step interesting because I'd never done it before. I soaked chicken pieces in 2 parts vinegar and 1 part lemon juice for 15 minutes before cooking. This keeps the chicken tender and juicy even after the long cooking process and you can't taste the vinegar or lemon in the finished dish. (This is a fantastic little trick for stews and pies!)

Look how succulent that piece of chicken is

Cardamom seeds, nigella seeds, ajowan seeds, black peppercorns and salt are ground in a mortar to a powder and stirred into the stew. When the stew has reduced and the chicken is cooked through, hard-boiled eggs are added before removing from the heat.

Fufu

Doro wat is traditionally served with injera but since I couldn't get my hands on any, we had it with fufu, an African starch staple made from dried and ground plaintains. The flour is mixed with water until a thick paste forms, then it's kneaded over heat with a wooden spoon and moulded into a ball by hand. It tastes like a dry and starchy potato mash and is great with stews and soups. I loved ripping little bits off with my fingers and eating it with mouthfuls of chicken.

Recipe by Karim Degal from the Food Safari cookbook.

The Royal Easter Show 2010

Sydney Showground, Showground Rd, Olympic Park
April 1-14
Book online or buy tickets at the door

I love the Easter Show for two reasons and two reasons only: glorious carnival food and small, fluffy animals. And because we're only allowed to come so close to the animals and taking them home is out of the question, the food is a much more satisfying exploit. I especially love my once-a-year conjugal visit with the hot dog on a stick - you seriously can't get ones like these anywhere outside of the Easter Show (not since Muscle Beach closed down years ago, sigh). The best part is how cheap all the food is! My mission was to always have something munchable in my hand.

So here are the highlights of our day...

Chicken shaslick, $8

Baby back pork ribs, $10

My lover, hot dog on a stick, $4

Cheese on a stick, $4

I'm havin' a Gouda time

Fresh lemonade, $5

Pacific oysters, $9 for half dozen

I love an oyster so fresh that you can eat it au naturel with a bit of lemon juice. So yum!

Caramel and fig gelato and mango sorbet from Art of Gelato Michelangelo, $6

Kransky hot dog from Wagners German Gourmet Sausages, $8

Fairy floss bucket, $10

I love saying "Hang on a second, let me close my bucket of fairy floss," like it's the most natural thing in the world.

Okay that's all for now. Hopefully I'll get some more free time to do some cooking in the next few days (yay!).

Easter Egg Mousse Cups

It's no secret - I am a very busy lady. I wish I could say it's because I lead an exciting life, but I can't. No, that's not true - today I cracked open a double-yolked egg. Anyway, spare time is hard to come by and over the four day Easter long weekend, I could only find four consecutive hours to shop for ingredients and cook. This really put a kibosh on my dream of making something extravagant like a simnel cake (oh cake with balls of marzipan, fate will bring us together one day).

So I decided to turn something simple into something exciting: chocolate easter eggs, filled with chocolate mousse, filled with a choice of toppings.

I used my chocolate mousse recipe with white chocolate.

Even though it sounds dead easy, there was a little drama. After buying two easter egg moulds from Wheel & Barrow ($6.95 each), I got home and realised they were useless unless you wanted giant balls of solid chocolate. I cheated and drove back to Chatswood Chase to buy pre-made chocolate eggs, but if you want to make easter eggs yourself, opt for thin and flexible plastic moulds and use lots of oil.

The fillings were the most fun to make, and Dan even helped out! After the beautiful Easter dinner Dan's mum prepared for us, Dan and I served up these babies while everyone picked which topping they wanted.

Butterscotch sauce (recipe courtesy of smitten kitchen)

¼ cup butter

½ cup packed brown sugar

½ cup heavy cream

½ teaspoon sea salt

1½ teaspoons vanilla extract

Melt butter over medium heat and add sugar, heavy cream and salt. Combine well. Remove from heat and add vanilla extract. You can add more salt to taste. I love the contrast of sweet and salty in dessert.

Lime and tapioca pudding

100g white chocolate

½ cup heavy cream

Zest of 1 lime

Juice of ½ a lime

2 tablespoons tapioca seeds

Simmer tapioca seeds in water for 15 minutes or until they turn translucent. Heat chocolate, cream and lime zest over low heat. Combine well. Remove from heat and gradually whisk in lime juice (like you would when whisking lemon juice into hollandaise sauce). Drain tapioca and stir in. This has the wonderful texture of rice pudding and tastes heavenly.

Raspberry with vanilla almond praline

1 punnet raspberries

1¼ cup sugar

Handful of candied vanilla almonds

Heat raspberries and ¼ cup of sugar over low heat for 10-15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Push through a fine sieve and you have a raspberry coulis. Set aside. Heat 1 cup of sugar over low heat until it caramelises. Place the almonds in a ziplock bag and crush with a mallet or rolling pin. Lay out in a flat layer on a baking tray, lined with greaseproof paper. Pour caramel over and set in the fridge. Score the praline and break into pieces to serve.

Salted duck egg yolk

I was most excited about this one purely because I was so curious about whether or not it'd taste good with chocolate (it works with moon cake, so why not other desserts?). You can buy salted duck eggs from Asian grocery stores or you can make them yourself by preserving duck eggs in salt water for 3-4 weeks. I love the texture of salted duck egg yolk, it's so unique. It's not as dry as chicken egg yolk (when cooked through), it's firm to the touch but it melts in your mouth. As I suspected, it worked amazingly well with the chocolate mousse. It was slightly sweet, slightly salty, and with the mousse it was like eating moon cake ice cream.

I hope everyone had a lovely Easter weekend. I cannot wait for the carnie food at the Royal Easter Show!