Cabbage Rolls

Chinese cabbage was plentiful in the markets recently and I usually buy a whole one (not a pre-cut half) and then struggle to think what else to cook with it besides stir fried cabbage with dried shrimp and bean thread noodles.

I have made these cabbage rolls once before and decided to make them again this time using turkey mince filling. With the turkey, I also added chopped garlic, shitake mushrooms, shaoxing wine, soy sauce, pepper, sesame oil and a little salt and sugar. The flavours are very nice, but the meat was a little dense so I might add some more vegetables like water chestnut or carrots.

You must be wondering how to wrap the cabbage since it is not pliable at all! Be sure to select the outer/middle leaves so that you will have a large enough leave to wrap the filling with. You only need the leafy bit so cut away where the leafy bit ends and the stem begins. Blanch the leaves in boiling water for half a minute, then refresh in cold water so that the leaves remain green. You don't want your dish looking like they've been sitting in the bain marie for three days!

Drain the leaves, and pat dry if you have to. Then put some filling at the bottom of leaf and roll upwards, be sure to tuck the two sides in before finishing rolling. As there is already quite a lot of moisture in the leaves, there is no need for a sealing agent like corn flour slurry or water.

Steam the rolls till cooked, about 15 minutes and finish off with a sauce of your choice. I used abalone sauce with scallops but you can also use oyster sauce or chicken stock (thickened with corn flour slurry). 

Mushroom Cake from Gelato Messina

Look at this super cute mushroom cake from Gelato Messina! This is a limited edition Dr Evil's Magic Mushroom Cake created by Gelato Messina in collaboration with eBay to celebrate the latter's 21st birthday. Only about 450 were sold Australia wide. The mushroom cake is Gelato Messina's most popular cake and retails for around $80 (17 people portion) so I was very happy to be able to taste this limited edition, popular and beautiful cake. 

The mushroom is made of vanilla gelato, chocolate coated honeycomb, raspberry jam, hundreds and thousands cased in red chocolate glaze and white chocolate dots in blue, green and yellow the eBay colours. The green dots tasted like matcha while the blue, red and yellow dots are white chocolate. 

The chocolate stem is made of vanilla gelato and dulce de leche paste. Lastly, the grass is popping candy feuiletine. I had to google up feuiletine - it's a crispy French crepe pastry. 

My favourite bit is the feuiletine grass because it gave me such a nice surprise when the popping candy started to jump and dance in my mouth. I also really love the dulce de leche paste in the mushroom stem because it is so decadent.

This gelato cake feeds 8 people. Initially, I didn't think it was possible but after tasting the cake, it is probably the right estimate because I already felt quite full after one small piece. It was very creamy and filling. 

This is probably the nicest looking cake I've had the pleasure to eat for some time!

Seafood Galore!

It has been several months that seafood especially lobsters, crabs, quality tuna are at their cheapest. With the supply chain to export markets disrupted due to Covid19, quality seafood are now redirected to the domestic market instead. For example, lobsters are selling at $40 per pound whereas it was double the price previously. 

Well, we did take the opportunity to savour the taste of lobster noodles in the brief 1 -2 month window when Victorian restaurants opened for dine-in. With the restaurants only providing takeaway service these days, I would think twice about ordering the same dish. Even at such prices, lobsters are a treat food for special occasions so I'd rather be served steaming hot lobster noodles at a restaurant than be eating from a takeaway container. 

What is more affordable are crabs, and I must say I generally prefer the mud crabs to the flower crabs because the former is meatier and the meat is firmer. But in terms of preparing them, I prefer the latter because it is easier to cut up a flower crab than through the thick shells of a mud crab. Also, it is impossible to find fresh not frozen but dead mud crabs. I just cannot bear the thought of slaughtering a live, moving animal myself. 

So to fulfil my craving for crab curry that one would get from a restaurant, I cooked this flower crab curry with okra, tomatoes and onions at home. And now that I know how easy it is to prepare, I am going to make this every month! The trick is to find a curry paste (haha, cheating!) that you like and dump the crab into the sauce, then the veges and voila, crab curry! I used MasFoods Seafood Curry paste for this dish. 

Next on my list of restaurant dishes to replicate was lobster noodles with spring onions and ginger. I bought a lobster tail from the supermarket and bulked the dish up with fish slices and prawns. I think it tastes 90% close to the lobster noodles one gets from the restaurant. 

 Are there any dishes that you like to eat in a restaurant but have been making at home? 

Country Cob Bakery, Boronia

The humble meat pie is the quintessential Australian food. China has its Xiao Long Bao, Malaysia its Nasi Lemak and Australia has its meat pies! (of course, I'm over generalising here, there are so many other delicious foods in each of the aforementioned countries).

And where do the best meat pie in Australia come from?? Country Cob Bakery!! This bakery is located in Kyneton and Boronia, and its American BBQ Whisky Pork and Quail Eggs Pie has just been awarded the Best Gourmet Pie in the whole of Australia by the Baking Association of Australia! It's Pepper Beef Pie was awarded the Best Pepper Beef Pie and they also received a myriad of other awards, not just this year but in the past few years too. And to think we have not tried them before today... sigh*

We bought the Pepper Beef Pie and the BBQ Pork and Quail Eggs Pie to try, as well as a Vanilla Slice. A very typical Aussie lunch, it makes me want to eat them at a construction site with a cold beer by my side. 

Pictured below is the BBQ Pork and Quail Eggs Pie ($6.90). See those markings on the pie? They are there so people don't get confused about which pies they're getting. The full summary of pie markings can be found on their Facebook page if you're interested. With over 30 varieties of flavours, it's a wonder that the staff can remember which pie is which! 

There are several things that I look out for in a good pie - pastry, filling, and sauce. And this pie just ticks all of them!! (oh except one). The pastry was light, does not feel oily or heavy. It was flaky and fragrant. It was generously filled with big chunks of beef and oodles of sauce. It was tasty stuff. The only gripe I had was that the pie I got DID NOT HAVE ANY QUAIL EGGS!! :( :( :( :( :(... (some tears there).

Look at the picture below of the pie innards, there is not one quail egg to be seen whereas the sample picture of the same pie on their Instagram account had at least 3 eggs. I love quail eggs so I was very disappointed. Maybe they forgot to fill my pie with any quails eggs.

Gaz had the Pepper Beef Pie ($5.90) which was delicious, so much tasty gravy. It certainly lived up to its name, it has 3 different types of peppers in the pie though it was too peppery for me. Compared to the Gourmet Pies, the pepper beef pie had minced meat (rather than meat chunks) filling but I enjoy a traditional meat pie nevertheless.

For dessert, we devoured their Vanilla Slice which definitely deserves equal mention as their pies. The vanilla custard was soooo good! The taste of vanilla was thoroughly unadulterated, the pastry was fresh. I think it deserves an award of its own. 

Country Cob Bakery has appeared in many media including being the subject in a short film by SBS. The founders are two brothers from Cambodia who migrated to Australia and decided to open up a pie shop because they had never had pies in Cambodia before. It's such an inspiration to see their success story unfold. I hope they continue to do well. For those who wish to taste their pies, the bakery is open through Covid19 and does delivery too, delivery is free for orders over $100 in September. 

As a side, I have posted a picture of my chicken pie that I made for Gaz's mom here. It certainly is no award winner, but I put a very cute touch on the pie, spelling out the word MOM. The recipient was easily amused and thought it was an innovative touch.

                                         

October

We have reached the month of October - it has been 10 months since Covid19 turned our world upside down, and 2 more months to Christmas. I wonder what Christmas will look like this year? Covid19 has changed the world so much that it has been a year of 'firsts' - first time wearing a mask while outside the house, first time not seeing anyone else for months, first time wearing pyjamas to work.... perhaps there will be no family Christmas celebration this year. Hmm... I think that is not entirely a bad thing. Imagine the reprieve from busybody relatives, the uncle who like to ask how much you earn before tax, the auntie who always compares how well her daughter's roast turkey is (but has never offered to bring) to yours. 

I was just thinking the other day about how October seems to be a popular month for awareness for mental health. October is the National Depression Education and Awareness Month, Positive Attitude, Self-Promotion, Head Start Awareness, Emotional Intelligence and Emotional Awareness. It's also a month to celebrate pears, pineapples, pretzels, popcorn and pizzas (no pun!). My favourite is the I'm Just Me Because - not only does it sound rebellious, like something you'd say to your mom when you don't want to cut your hair or wear something other than black it also celebrates diversity.

So if you have used up your exercise time quota this October and have some time on your hands, consider your mental health and have some healthy food.