The reason for this is that I enjoy baking the most out of all of my culinary experiments – and usually they come out in large proportions, all of which I can, but do not want to eat all myself.

Therefore, when I started a new job last month, I was so excited – because it meant that I could go back to baking my large-scale things (cakes, etc) and bring them into work. It’s not to show off or to gain favour, don’t get me wrong; but for two reasons: 1. I love seeing people enjoy my food, and 2. I won’t have to work so hard at the gym later as I’m not eating all of it myself.

I haven’t made a baked cheesecake for some time, not since I started this blog. I’m a big fan of baked cheesecakes, and when I spotted this recipe on taste.com.au, I was immediately smitten with how simple it was. And instead of simply topping it with frozen raspberries as the recipe dictates, I decided to up the ante and make a raspberry coulis to swirl over the top.

You will need:

• 250g plain sweet biscuits (I used Arnotts’ Milk Coffee);
• 125g butter, melted;
• 2 x 250g packets cream cheese, softened;
• 3/4C caster sugar;
• 3/4C sour cream;
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste;
• 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon rind;
• 3 eggs;
• 100g frozen raspberries;
• 1 tablespoon icing sugar.

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees Celcius. Grease a 22cm round springform cake pan.

Make your crust by breaking up the biscuits into a food processor and processing until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Add the butter and process until combined.

Press the mixture over the base and sides of the pan leaving a 2cm gap from the top. Refrigerate for 30 minutes

Make your raspberry coulis by placing the raspberries, icing sugar and 60ml of water in a small saucepan and cooking over a low-medium heat. Stir until the mixture becomes pulpy and syrupy. Strain through a sieve into a small bowl and refrigerate.

Process the cream cheese, sugar, sour cream, vanilla and lemon rind until smooth.

Add the eggs, one at a time, until the mixture is smooth and combined. Pour into the prepared crust.

Smooth the top before dolloping on spoonfuls of the coulis and swirling with a skewer.

Place the cake pan into a deep baking tray and fill with boiling hot water until about 1cm from the top edge of the tray. Carefully placing it into the oven. By placing it in the water bath, it almost steams the cheesecake and ensures it doesn’t dry and crack. I also put another large square cake pan of boiling water at the bottom of the oven just in case.

Bake for an hour. The original recipe called for 50 minutes to an hour but because I had added a coulis on top and I had taken the precaution of using two water baths, my cheesecake took a little closer to an hour and 20 minutes until it was just set, with the centre having just the slightest wobble.

Making a cheesecake seems easy, you say?

Well, here comes the hardest part: waiting. Allow to cool in the oven for two hours and then refrigerate overnight. The suspense will kill you. As I was making this for work, I made this on Sunday and woke up super-early Monday 6.30am so I had enough time to photograph and slice it before heading into the office.

I was petrified when removing the springform tin that the sides would crumble, but thank goodness I had pressed the crust firmly enough and it held when I unveiled it with bated breath.

The best way to slice it is with a large kitchen knife and cleaning it in hot water in-between each slice to ensure a smooth, clean cut.

Serve it as it is. You won’t need any additional embellishments

Enjoy the rest of your week, lovelies xx

This wasn’t your usual group of six women though – these ladies have been visiting about a restaurant a month in their quest to eat their way through 13 Restaurants for 2013, following on last year’s 12 restaurants for 2012. I’m good friends with one of them in particular (Fashion Obsessed Girl) and knowing that I’m a foodie and that I occasionally have trouble finding people to try new restaurants with, she invited me along to join the clique.

Located a little while from the main CBD, Longrain is known for their unique ‘fusion’ take on Asian-cuisine. From some people that I’ve talked with before my visit, it seemed a bit of a hit and miss as most people these days are still in two minds when it comes to combining cuisines. But one should always make their own judgment of course, and that was what I was here tonight to do.

Longrain has a general menu that they post online and outside their restaurant, however it does change based on what’s seasonal. Dishes are large in size and designed to be shared among groups – which is, in my opinion, the best way to eat.

The inside of the restaurant is dimly lit and panelled in warm shades of wood, lit with yellow lights shining up onto the rafters and tables arranged in small groups, large communal tables or roomy, comfortable booths. With the high ceiling and emphasis on shared dining, the noise level got quite loud over the dinner service. Their bar, Shortgrain, is located downstairs and you can feel the consistent pulse and vibration of music thrumming under your feet as you dine.

But why don’t we start with a cocktail first? I went for my old favourite, the Mojito ($16), which was one of the most potent versions I’ve ever had in my life.

While the cocktails were potent and rather worth their price, the girls who had ordered mocktails had found their drinks to be slightly on the sickly-sweet syrupy side and needed a bottle of mineral water to help make it more palatable.

The food was much more welcoming. We had had some difficulties in deliberating what to order and our waitress was more than helpful in helping us narrow down our decisions and making recommendations.

The Filled Eggnet, pork, prawns, peanuts, caramelised coconut and cucumber relish ($33) came out with a resounding “Ooooh” of admiration from around the table.

It was easy to see the amount of intricate work that had gone into creating that beautiful net. Here is the back view of it, where you can see the gorgeous filling inside just spilling out.

It was incredibly fragrant and refreshingly light at the same time, with lots of crunch from the peanuts and bean sprouts.

Next to arrive was the Grilled Tuna Belly, sweet pork, green chilli, cashew nut nahm jim ($36).

Alas, while the menu looked predominantly Thai-oriented to me, the fusion element had slipped my mind and this dish arrived with a large amount of my Kryptonite, fresh coriander. Of course there would be a Vietnamese element! But once I got over my mortification and tasted it, the salad was wonderfully fresh and the slices of tuna belly were tender and perfectly grilled, having a lovely smokey flavour.

My other choice would have been the Grilled Angus beef, Vietnamese mint, chilli jam, roasted rice ($38), so I’m glad someone else had ordered it!

Just like the tuna, the beef had been perfectly grilled in its own way and the refreshing salad contrasted nicely with the warm strips of beef. The roasted rice added an extremely unique flavour and texture, having a very nutty aroma.

Fashion Obsessed Girl  has a love of curries and had opted for the Sour Orange Curry, Barramundi, betel leaves, lemongrass, snake beans ($44).

We all were a bit taken aback by the stark orange colour of the curry and were slightly tentative about sampling it. However it’s one of those dishes that doesn’t taste half as spicy as it looks. It was a very warm and comforting dish, with the pieces of Barramundi cooked until it was softly flaking apart. It wasn’t a curry in the traditional sense that most people are used to, probably being more stew-like.

Luckily we had also ordered Thai Jasmine Rice ($3 pp) for the table to soak up those rich, hearty flavours.

And last to arrive, but not least, was one of the other standout dishes of the evening. The Caramelised Pork Hock, five spice, chilli vinegar ($33.50) arrived and while it looked fairly ordinary, it had been caramelised and braised to such a degree that the tender meat fell apart with the slightest motion of your fork and spoon.

Soft and sweet, it astounded those around the table who aren’t so fond of pork, one of the most underrated meats out there. During my upbringing here and continuous learning curve of food, I’ve found that many Australians aren’t so partial to pork and you really do need to have it cooked to perfection, like this, to convert people.

All six of us were stuffed to the brim by the end of our meal and for the first time, I had to turn down the suggestion of dessert as I felt ready to pop. Perhaps another time.

Longrain Restaurant
85 Commonwealth Street,
Surry Hills NSW 2010
(02) 9280 2888
www.longrain.com

” Just bake me a carrot cake.”

Well, I could do that easily! I had recently had a bit of an online shopping splurge and had indulged in purchasing a couple of new cookbooks – something I haven’t done in a while as cookbooks can be a bit pricey and you can access so many recipes online. But I do love pretty pictures and I’ve always enjoyed the tactile aspect of flipping through paper rather than an eBook. One of the books I had bought was What Katie Ate by the famous food blogger Katie Quinn Davies, and when I saw she had a recipe for Carrot Cakes with Cointreau-soaked Sultanas, I was smitten.

As I tend to do, I’ve altered some elements of the recipe to suit what I have in the kitchen and the deductions that I have made as a result of testing the recipe. As I didn’t soak the sultanas in Cointreau, but in orange juice and Frangelico – I guess I can’t really call this Carrot Cakes with Cointreau-soaked Sultanas, can I?

Fluffy and lightly spiced, full of juicy, sweet sultanas and full of the fragrance of beautiful honey, these are divine. My mother absolutely loved these beautiful little cakes and The Sister said they had to be the best carrot cakes she’s ever eaten. Praise indeed.

To make 12 of these little beauties, you will need:

• 80g sultanas;
• Juice of one orange;
• 1 tablespoon Frangelico;
• 75g brown sugar;
• 125ml vegetable oil;
• 125ml runny honey, plus extra for drizzling;
• 3 free range eggs;
• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste;
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger;
• 225g plain flour;
• 2 teaspoons baking powder;
• 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda;
• Pinch salt;
• 3 carrots, grated;
• Small handful roasted walnuts, roughly chopped.

For the icing:

• 135g icing sugar, sifted;
• 85g unsalted butter, softened;
• 80g cream cheese;
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla bean paste.

Place the sultanas, orange juice and Frangelico in a small bowl and leave in the fridge overnight to macerate. The original recipe says to use Cointreau but I didn’t have any in the house. I found the Frangelico added a slightly nutty-aroma to the sultanas, but if you want to leave it out, feel free to.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius. Grease a 12-hole muffin tin, line with papers if desired.

Place the brown sugar, oil, honey, eggs and vanilla into a large bowl.

Sift the ginger, flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into another large bowl.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix well to combine.

Stir in the grated carrot and soaked sultanas.

Pour the mixture into the prepared muffin cases, filling each hole three-quarters full.

Bake for 20-30 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of a cake comes out clean. Remove the cakes from the mould and allow to cool on wire racks.To make the icing, beat the butter, vanilla and cream cheese together in a small bowl before gradually adding the sifted icing sugar and mixing to a smooth consistency.

Ice the cooled cakes and serve them topped with a scatter of the chopped walnuts and a drizzle of honey if you like. I really recommend topping them with honey as it really brings out the delicious taste of honey you baked into the fluffy little cakes.

Enjoy your weekend, lovelies! Catch you next week Monday when I review Sydney’s Longrain restaurant.

xx

I got to Epping by train and the cafe is a very short walk from the train station, along Langston Place. It’s simply decorated in minimalist style with white walls and chairs, high ceiling, and tables in either pairs or communal arrangements.

There’s a selection of a few freshly-baked muffins and cupcakes in the glass counters at the front. Kath works at a cafe close to her home and says that they have the same supplier for the cupcakes and said they’re very good, but I was more interested in the clipboard menu.

The clipboard menu has your usual breakfast favourites such as bircher muesli and bacon and egg rolls, but also has some exotic-looking things like Mango-Soaked Chia Seeds and Sourdough French Toast.

Kath decided to go for the Sourdough French Toast ($12) which came out presented beautifully.

There was a lot of ricotta and a lot of fruit, the whole thing having been drizzled in honey and topped with micro-herbs. Kath enjoyed her first taste of pomegranate however couldn’t seem to locate the cinnamon crumb mentioned on the menu. But it was tasty regardless, and she washed it down with an Iced Chai Latte ($5.50).

On the other hand, I was more in the mood for something savoury and so decided to go for the Free Range Poached Eggs ($13) which came with crushed peas and quinoa, and you can add either kurobuta ham or bacon for $3, so of course I went for bacon… because the world is always a better place with bacon!

It came out set out in almost antipasti platter style, meaning you tore the bread apart, topped it with the various elements, and occasionally ate the elements alone. The quinoa had been cooked to perfection in stock and wasn’t flavourless like I had been fearing.

And those EGGS. Lordy, those eggs.

A gloriously dribbly, runny mess which I mopped up with my sourdough toast. I can never get enough of runny yolks.

Oh yes, and I had also ordered a coffee. My favourite, a skinny hazelnut latte ($3.50+syrup 30c) that was simply perfect.

What a breakfast! In hindsight it probably wasn’t the best idea to go to Pilates straight after this epic breakfast! But I still ended up going regardless…sometimes I just never learn.

An amazingly fresh and delicious breakfast and it’s lovely to see a cafe with so many organic and free-range elements on their menu! Beautiful and honest food, presented well and good value for the quality of ingredients.

Pablo & Rusty’s
42 Langston Place,
Epping NSW 2121
(02) 9868 4828
www.pabloandrustys.com.au

On weekends however, I like to take my time and put a bit more effort into my breakfasts if I wake up early enough. I made this a while ago after seeing Nigella Lawson’s Breakfast Bruschetta on Nigella Express and almost couldn’t believe that she needed to write a recipe for something so simple – but if she could do it, why couldn’t I? I’ve altered and tweaked the ingredients with what I had in my kitchen garden and in the fridge, and what turned out was a breakfast that was simply sublime. So here I will pass it onto you.

You will need:

• Two slices bruschetta (I had one slice French white sourdough and one slice walnut sourdough but use what you like);
• Extra virgin olive oil;
• One clove of garlic;
• 1/2 a roma tomato;
• 1/4 avocado;
• 5-6 small basil leaves;
• 2 + 1/2 teaspoons of lime juice (bottled is fine);
• salt and freshly cracked black pepper.

Cut your garlic clove in half and rub over the two slices of bruschetta before drizzling with a bit of olive oil and toasting it. While it’s toasting, into a small bowl dice your tomato and combine with the basil leaves and 1 teaspoon of the lime juice. Into another small bowl, mash the avocado with a pinch of salt and the remainder of the lime juice.

When the bruschetta is toasted, put it onto a plate and top one with the tomato, and the other with the avocado. Drizzle both with more olive oil and crack over some fresh black pepper.

Breakfast doesn’t get much better than this It’s like summer on a plate.

Catch you on Wednesday, lovelies xx

Frankie’s is located on Hunter Street, a little way from Wynyard station towards Chifley Plaza and just next door to the infamous Malay-Chinese restaurant reknown for their laksa amongst the business-people around the area. It’s so overt, it’s covert, with its brightly painted Italian colours and a neon flashing sign.

Sometimes the doors are open, sometimes they aren’t. Once you push them open, and descend the short set of stairs, you’re in a warmly lit bar with black and white chequered floor, strings of dried chillies and garlic hanging from the ceiling, vines twisted around the walls among the framed photographs, and red-white chequered tablecloths upon which stand those cheesy melting candles. It’s Italiano overload. Toto, I have a feeling we’re not in Sydney anymore!

Frankie’s has gone quite American-esque in its manner of serving pizza, in that you don’t have to buy a whole 8-10 inch pizza, but that you can also order it by the slice for $5. The slice options are more limited however, being the more mainstream options like sausage and margherita. This is also a meal-for-one friendly option, meaning you can come by for a solo drink and a slice of pizza without feeling the pressure of having to round up a group for a visit.

To order your pizza, you go up to the counter and you’re given a receipt with a number on it, and when you’re pizza is ready your number will flash up over the counter indicating that it’s ready for collection. It kind of keeps you distracted from your conversation as you’re continually flicking your eyes towards the counter. But while you wait, do check out the pictures on the wall. I never fail to be curious about the identity and nature of the people in publicly displayed photographs. It’s like those family portraits you get when you buy blank picture frames – were these people actually a family or were they brought together for the sheer purpose of taking promotional photos?

Our pizza was finally ready and we had ordered the Frankie’s Special ($20), a thin-based pizza topped with figs, gorgonzola, tomato, prosciutto and cheese.

The pizza was topped with swirls of what tasted like barbeque sauce – its sweetness contrasting surprisingly well with the saltiness of the proscuitto. It was a very tasty pizza and us two ladies were happily munching away when my girlfriend pointed out something green on the pizza. Huh? A closer examination confirmed that it was the mould from the melted gorgonzola. Reassured, we resumed eating. Eating blue cheese has to be the only time when you see mould and are unfazed

Don’t mistake Frankie’s for being a pizza restaurant, however. This place is predominantly a bar and you can tell from the menu having one page devoted to pizza, and the others all devoted to their extensive list of different wines and beers.

My girlfriend recommended the Frozen Margaritas ($16), where you have to go through the swinging doors to the other bar to get. I didn’t get a photo of the inside as it was a bit dark, but it was noisier and more popular with the younger business crowd, playing 80′s music and with a small line of pinball machines in one corner. I bought my margaritas and returned back to the main bar to enjoy them.

I was expecting something more the flavour of an alco-pop, having had a Rekorderlig slushie and daiquiris before, but this margarita was a potent hit of alcohol. It wasn’t watered down in the slightest from being made into slushie. While the salt around the rim seemed to make my tastebuds shrivel up as soon as my lips touched the glass, you soon got very used to the unique combination that makes up a classic margarita.

A very charming bar and I’ve heard it gets very busy on Friday nights, as does any place that the business-crowd knows about. I’ll be back to try another pizza and for another one of those margaritas.

Frankie’s Pizza
50 Hunter Street,
Sydney NSW 2000

Thus I did a bit of hunting online and found this gorgeous recipe off taste.com.au. The recipe calls for two of those small 9cm heart-shaped baking moulds….

Did you really think I would be the type of person to own a heart-shaped baking tin?? Um, no. But what I did have was a cute little 10cm round springform cake tin which I bought with the idea of baking small birthday cakes as presents for friends.

Here I’ve given you the recipe of the ganache I made for the macarons, but I’ve halved the recipe there as that’s all you will need to make this delectably cute little cake. Don’t be afraid of the cake being too sweet with the addition of the ganache, as there’s quite little sugar in the cake itself.

Usually I’m a bit dubious about chocolate cakes that don’t have real chocolate melted into them, as they just use cocoa powder and turn out a little too dry and not dark enough in my opinion. However in this case I’ve used a gloriously dark and dense cocoa powder I’ve bought from Koko Black while I was last in Melbourne, so make sure you use a good quality cocoa. Also, with the use of almond meal, you get a beautifully fudgy cake akin to a brownie-like consistency, but not as heavy. However, it’s still rich enough that you will only be able to chip away at it one mini slice at a time… I hope you know what I mean by something not being heavy but still being rich!

For the cake, you will need:

• Light olive oil spray, to grease;
• 60g butter;
• 55g (1/4 cup) caster sugar;
• 1 + 1/2 tablespoons of good-quality cocoa powder;
• 30g (1/4 cup) almond meal;
• 1 egg, lightly whisked;
• 1 tablespoon milk.

For the ganache, you will need:

• 100g dark eating chocolate, broken into pieces;
• 40 g thickened cream;
• Small handful of raspberries, to serve.

Melt the dark chocolate and the cream together in a bowl set over a double saucepan. Stir until molten, combined and shiny, before removing it from the heat and placing the ganache in the fridge until it’s thick enough to be spread.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius. Spray your 10cm cake tin/two heart-shaped moulds with oil and line with baking paper. Combine the butter, sugar and cocoa powder in a small saucepan over a low to medium heat.

Cook, stirring for about five minutes until smooth and glossy. Take off the heat to cool slightly before beating the almond meal, egg and milk into the cocoa mixture.

Pour your mixture into the tins. Now if you’re using two heart-shaped moulds, I would recommend you follow the original recipe’s direction of just baking it for 10-12 minutes, but since I just used the one tin, the resulting cake would be thicker and so I cooked it for closer to 20 minutes.

It should be firm to the touch, but keep a watchful eye on it as you don’t want to overcook this baby at all!

Hmm looks a little dry, you may say? Not so. I kept lightly touching it with a fingertip just to make sure that it was ‘just firm’. Once it is, turn out and cool completely. Spread with the cooled ganache before topping with raspberries.

Perfection! And I did warn you, as much as you would like to be able to demolish this whole little thing in one go, it is so sumptuously rich that you will want to savour it as slowly as possible.

Enjoy the rest of your week, m’dears! I’ll be back at the end of the week to review one of the Sydney CBD’s more eclectic bars, Frankie’s.

Until then xx

EXTREME gelato?? You ask. How can gelato possibly be EXTREME??

Well this is extreme, most definitely. It’s gelato, and a show. I’ve never quite seen anything like it, save on Heston Blumenthal’s television shows.

N2 Extreme Gelato is located on Dixon Street, across the street from the main touristy Chinatown strip. There’s a few novelty stores around the area, before you come across the large, open shopfront, which has a patch of astro turf out front.

Rows and rows of conical flasks are lined up along the clear shelf under the counter, and up on the walls. The large cylinder to the right of the photo above was obviously where the dry ice was kept. KitchenAid mixers were all at the ready on the counter, and I stared enviously at all the different colours – I would love to have a baby blue one!

There’s bar seating along the opposite wall to the counter, and various plastic tables and chairs arranged in small groupings around the place, all in bright shades of neon. The blackboard menu is behind the counter and set out in a rather haphazard manner, which suits the quirkiness and ‘mad scientist’ vibe of the entire place.

According to my friend, N2 Extreme Gelato was the brain child of a few science students. On their website, they state that liquid nitrogen freezes ten times faster than a conventional Gelato Batch Maker, thus reducing the formation of large ice particles and giving the gelato a smoother texture. However they serve their gelato at -6 degrees Celcius, the temperature of freshly churned gelato, instead of -14, as at this temperature our taste receptors are better able to register and distinguish flavours.

How mind boggling. But enough discussing, it was time to try! I went for the “Bazinga”, which was orange-soaked sponge gelato with poppy seeds and a dash of Cointreau. I find it funny that on the menu above, one scoop was labelled as $6, and then under two scoops it said “you won’t need it”!

As promised, it’s gelato with a show. The gelato-maker wears protective eye-wear, as is required when handling liquid nitrogen. Into a KitchenAid went the gelato milk/cream mix, orange juice, poppy seeds, the Cointreau, and pieces of those gorgeous sponge finger biscuits. Add the liquid nitrogen and away it goes!

POOF. Smoke coming out of my ice cream and spreading across the counter and all over the floor!The process was incredibly fast and at one stage you could visibly see the KitchenAid struggling with the density of the ice cream. Eventually the guy turned it off and began the process of scooping it into our cups – I was expecting him to scoop it into a sphere as everyone does, and was surprised when he compacted it in tight and flattened the top.

It was such a generous serving! I dug into it right away. It probably was a bit different from what I’m used to when it comes to gelato, as the sponge fingers had been broken up and were well distributed evenly throughout the gelato, making it the general texture of the ice cream as opposed to being in chunks. The poppy seeds provided a lovely crunch and while I couldn’t taste any of the Cointreau, the orange flavour was quite pleasant. The orange flavour was just from orange juice, and I do think that a bit more zing from orange zest could have been used to liven up the ice cream, which did become a bit monotonous after half of the one serving. Or maybe it was because it was such a huge serving!

What a find and what an experience! I’ll definitely be bringing my friends here and sampling a few more of their wacky flavours.

Want opening hours? As their website says: We are opened 10 hours a day (1PM to 11PM), 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Or 4,200 minutes a week or 13,140,000 seconds a year. 

xx

N2 Extreme Gelato
Shop 43/1 Dixon Street, Sydney NSW 2000

I had been wanting to visit Reuben for some time, having heard food bloggers talk about their Salted Caramel Shake, and after having a look through their online menu, I thought it warranted a closer look-see.

Reuben Hills is situated on a very quiet part of Albion Street. We arrived just when the peak lunch crowd was ebbing, but were told it would still be a 20 minute wait. After writing our name down on a clipboard, we headed outside to loiter around aimlessly and sat chatting away before a waitress came to look for us. I like that she actually went around to the different groups of people saying my name as opposed to just shouting out my name at the doorway and when I didn’t jump up immediately, call the next waiting person.

The place has a high ceiling and upstairs area, which apparently is their ‘roastery’. Reuben Hills has a very overwhelming industrial warehouse feel about it, with fluorescent lights and a reasonable amount of natural lighting streaming through windows and the back ‘garage door’ and you can just hear their hip-hop music over the tide of combined chitter-chatter. There’s seating grouped in tables, bar tables, and large communal tables close to the back where we were seated. I’m not really sure of how the waitresses keep track of who belongs to which group with the haphazard nature of seating, but they somehow manage to remember it all.

Our table had a large bouquet of colourful foliage, which brightened up the place considerably.

Tap water to share is brought without having to ask, served in funky glass bottles and coloured plastic cups. We were asked if we wanted to order any drinks while we examined the menu. Girl from the Bus went for a skim Salted Caramel Shake ($8.50), I asked for a skim flat white ($4), and Fashion Obsessed Girl ordered an organic combination orange-grapefruit juice ($5).

As for the salted caramel shake…

There’s a lot of shake. It arrives three-quarters full and while Girl from the Bus was in bliss with the first few sips, she eventually tired close to the end and couldn’t finish. I had a sip and agreed it was delicious – creamy, perfect caramel and just the right amount of salt, but it was incredibly rich and I couldn’t have eaten a meal with it. This is more something I would get takeaway and take my time in drinking it verrrry slowly – which is saying something as I’m a notorious sweet tooth.

Meanwhile, in saying that a girl dining alone next to us had a black coffee, a salted caramel shake, as well as the crab tacos and put it all away and left before us. To this day, I still can’t believe it.

Anyway, I preferred my flat white. I had seen some bloggers’ photos with quite intricate latte art on their coffees; mine was a bit messy but it was nice nonetheless. Sugar comes from a jar in the centre of the communal table, which is brown and adds a nice caramelised flavour.

Our food arrived with a flourish very quickly. Reuben Hills predominantly serves Latin American ‘dude food’ with chilli and chipotle being regular words on the menu. You’ll find it hard to escape a spice hit with most of the savoury dishes here.

Kath, being a lover of seafood, ordered the Crab Tacos with avocado, sweet corn, smoked tomato and rocket ($18):

The shredded pieces of crab meat were incredibly sweet and creamy, and very fresh. It was a very light dish, but even she couldn’t finish it. Kath never seems to be able to finish her food around me! She also doesn’t like lime (crazy woman), so I ended up pinching it so I could use it on my Dirty Bird ($15).

The Dirty Bird is a deliciously spongy brioche bun with a spiced grilled chicken fillet, tomatillo salsa, cheese, pickles, and chipotle aioli.  The brioche was wonderfully buttery and its size meant there was no chance I was going to be able to pick up the burger with my hands and eat it in traditional style, so knife and fork it was. The salad inside was a refreshing contrast to the butter in the brioche and creamy (and quite spicy) aioli, and the blackened grilled chicken was very flavoursome. Funnily enough, as much as I dislike cucumber I quite enjoyed the pickles as they were sliced very thinly and saturated with vinegar – something I absolutely love.

Fashion Obsessed Girl had had her eye on the Really F***ing Great Fried Chicken ($16) ever since I had linked her to the menu. I kid you not, that is it’s name, and she had a giggle with the waitress when she ordered it, who I’m sure gets it all the time! The generous amount of fried chicken comes in a little plastic basket on a tortilla skin with green chillies and two types of dipping sauce – a creamy chipotle aioli like the one on my burger, as well as a much spicier salsa. The chicken were pieces of chicken thigh, quite lean but cooked well so that the meat was still succulent and juicy. They hadn’t been coated in a large quantity of batter, so they weren’t what you would call ‘crunchy’ (go to KFC if you want to eat more flour than meat), but this way it highlighted the chicken and the dipping sauce. I liked it with the aioli, but the salsa with its dangerous shade of red was a bit too much for me. Fashion Obsessed Girl, who is used to curries and spices, preferred the salsa over the aioli. While the basket of fried chicken was tasty, one can really only have so much fried chicken…

Us three girls tidied up before paying the bill and exiting the premises, receiving ‘thank you’s from the waitresses we passed. While I had originally felt a little out of place with the hipster vibe of the place, the service was incredibly friendly and efficient, and food was of a good quality and at an all right price. I’m sure I’ll make the effort to come by and taste some of the other options on the menu.

Reuben Hills
61 Albion Street,
Surry Hills, NSW 2010
(02) 9211 5556
www.reubenhills.com.au

As custard requires egg yolks, I thus had three egg whites remaining, and you all know what that means! MACARONS!

I hadn’t made macarons for some time since my Mojito Macarons and decided that it was time for me to refresh my skills once again. So here we go.

To make about 15 macarons, you will need:

• 110g icing sugar;
• 60g almond meal;
• 60g egg whites (plus about 5g extra, for later if required) aged and at room temperature;
• 40g caster sugar;
• Red food colouring paste (I used Wilton brand).

Into a large bowl, sift together your almond and icing sugar twice. Into another bowl, place the 60g egg whites in a large bowl with a bit of the food colouring paste. Feel free to be a little generous with the paste as the colour will be heavily diluted when the meringue forms and the almond sugar mixture is incorporated.

Whisk the egg whites for about 30 seconds on high until foamy, then continue mixing for approximately eight minutes, gradually adding the caster sugar until a thick, stiff meringue forms.

Fold through the dry ingredients in two batches. The mixture should have the consistency of ‘magma’, sliding off your spatula easily in ribbons but not too runny like a cake mix. If too dry, carefully add a little of the reserved egg white, using a butter knife to ‘cut’ the white if required.

Spoon the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a 1cm round piping tip and pipe about 4cm diameter circles onto two baking paper lined trays, placing the tip at the centre of the circle and squeezing gently to allow the mixture to naturally flow out into a circle.

Tap the trays firmly on the benchtop to allow any air bubbles to pop. Allow to rest in a cool, dry room for 30 to 45 minutes for a ‘skin’ to form over the macarons. Preheat your oven to 140 degrees Celcius. They are ready when you touch them gently with a fingertip and no mixture comes away on your finger.

Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes. Pray for feet!! I took one tray out earlier than the other and you can see the results! The earlier tray obviously wasn’t quite ready yet and was a little too soft but never mind, you never see the inside of a macaron when you’re eating it anyway!

Now onto your ganache! You will need:

• 200g dark eating chocolate, preferably 70% cocoa solids;
• 75 ml thickened cream;
• Half a punnet of raspberries.

Originally when I had been contemplating this recipe I was considering using frozen raspberries, but didn’t want to risk it with defrosted raspberries containing so much water. I waited for raspberries to go on special, although they still cost me $7 a punnet. Sigh, they are so dear!

Wash, dry (on a paper towel) and chop your raspberries roughly. Over a double saucepan of simmering water, melt the broken up chocolate and cream together. Once glossy, remove from heat and allow to cool a little before stirring in the chopped raspberries. Place the raspberry ganache into the fridge to cool enough to a consistency that it can be spread.

Sandwich your macarons! Always my favourite part! Besides from eating them, of course

Place them in the fridge and wait the awful 24 hours for the flavours to infuse! I can guarantee it is totally worth it And it also allows me to wait for a time where I can get natural lighting for my photos!

Hmmm, how to display them?? Like this??

Maybe that’s a bit too flat. I played around with them for so long at 9am in the morning that I was almost late for the start of my foodie day trip to Flour & Stone and Reuben Hills!

Now this is better!

Soft and not too sweet, you have the velvety texture of the macaron shell with the creamy dark chocolate, which lends each macaron a slight bitterness. Infused with the fresh raspberries, they are deliciously tangy, and everyone knows that dark chocolate and raspberries are a match made in heaven!

Enjoy the rest of your week, lovelies…catch you on Friday where I review the very hip Reuben Hills cafe in Sydney’s Surry… xx