Lunch with International Flavour

Our lunch with international flavour was a success. Four years ago, we did a morning tea and back then our group was a mixed of Fijian Indian, Filipino, Chinese, Korean, Kenyan and Aussie. Fast forward to today, our Team has changed - Chinese (4), Fijian Indian (2), Indian, South American, Lebanese, Sri Lankan, Filo, Portuguese and Dutch. Everyone brought a lovely dish and I think I over ate again!

Mozzarella Sticks (South American)

creme caramel cake (Filipino sponge cake)

pancit canton (Filipino noodle)

Indian Daal 

Chinese pork and chive dumplings

Chinese Vegetarian Spring Rolls

Sri Lankan Fish Cake

Indian Chicken Curry

Samosas

baklavas

Portuguese Egg Tarts

empty plates while waiting for some more team members heating up the rest of the food.

It was nice to eat different flavours of home cooked food once again. Happy tummy=happy Gracy. ;)

Happy New Year

Our humble NYE's spread - pancit, roast beef with chips, teriyaki fish, sticky rice, fruits and wine!

Cheers for the coming year!

(No family photo because the little one is sound asleep!!!)

The most sinful chocolate cake

After going to the market today, I made sure to grab 2 bars of Nestle Dark Chocolate from the baking aisle because I really wanted to bake the most sinful chocolate cake by Casa Veneracion. This recipe is on top of my list despite me not really a chocolate person. I wanted to bake this for hubby and see if its really as simple as the recipe suggests.

For my version, I used one bar of Nestle Plaistowe 70% Dark Chocolate, just over 175g of unsalted butter (I am trying to lessen the butter content), 1 cup of sugar, 2 heaping spoon of flour (hubby wanted a bit more flour than the 1 tbs suggested in the recipe) and 4 eggs. After mixing the ingredients, I then put in on my preheated fan-forced oven at 175C for 30 mins, and left it there for 10 mins with the oven turned off. After cooling my cake, I turned it upside down and saw a burnt bottom of the cake, I scraped the bottom and the picture below is the finished product. My mistake for the burnt bottom was that I didn't reduce the temperature (fan forced oven should be set lower than normal ones!). But it didn't affect the taste of the at all.

 my cake after scraping the burnt part

 so moist and fudgy

really really sinful!

I shared this one slice of cake with hubby and it was really really good! I don'y have a sweet tooth but this one hit the mark ---not too sweet and not too bready either. And believe me, its really sinful --- think about the sugar and butter content and you will think twice of eating over a slice of this cake. And since its only me and hubby, I told him to bring the cake to the office tom and share it with his officemate who are all chocoholics. Hmmm, I think I'm gonna bake this cake more often but not for our own consumption. =)

Thanks PinoyCook for the inspiration! You made my weekend a very fruitful (and tummy-full) one.

Cake orders anyone?





Grilled Saturday

I was feeling hungry by this afternoon because hubby and I only had boiled corn for lunch. I was silently doing an inventory of food in our fridge and realized that I only had 2 pcs of chicken thigh in there and we are not going to the market until tommorrow. Then I remembered I had 4 pcs of small eggplants, a pizza base and some shredded cheese so the idea of having a grilled eggplant pizza came to mind.

I brought out my stove-top griller and put it on high heat while turning on the oven at the same time. I then salted the sliced eggplant to remove some of its moisture, then basted it with olive oil. When the pan was hot enough, I put on the sliced eggplant, turning it once for that char-grilled look.

The pizza was then prepped, with fresh basil from the garden, cheese, grilled eggplant, a bit of chili flakes and some pepper. I then put in on my Pizza Stone - something I bought a long time ago but only used today.

After 10 mins, the pizza is ready for eating. And its soooo delish!!! I will definitely make this more often, not as fattening as my meat-based pizza.



yummy grilled eggplant pizza cooked in my very own Pizza Stone

 nice grilled marks on my eggplant

Because my griller is still hot, I want to make full use of it. I checked my freezer and there's a Kransky (some kind of sausage which is really yummy!) inside. I defrosted it in the microwave for a minute, sliced and grilled it.

 yummy Kransky. I now have two tapas. =)

To make my grilling worthwhile, I took out the chicken thigh, defrosted it a bit, then rubbed dry spice (lemon pepper spice) and salt to it then off to the griller. The smell coming from the kitchen is so divine. I want to have dinner at 4pm! But because of the pizza we ate, we have to wait for 6pm to have my grilled dishes.

grilled chicken rubbed with dry spice.

All these cooking made me want to create a food blog, haaay... Last weekend, while homealone, I cooked these three dishes I got from my new fave food blog Casa Veneracion. Yum, yum, yum!!!

tuna spring roll.

 beef salpicao

creamy baked chicken and potatos with yogurt (instead of cream)

There are still a number of dishes from her site that I really want to try, I have a list and one day I can tick off everything from that list. =)

So, what's cooking in your kitchen this Saturday afternoon?



Nilagpang na Manok

For several days now, Sydney was drenched with torrential downpour that the City flooded last Saturday. This morning, on our way to the office, the rain did not give any indication that it will stop anytime soon. That got me thinking of piping hot lagpang na manok for dinner (yes, it was still early morning and I am already thinking of dinner!!!). I bought free-range chicken from the shop yesterday with the thought of making chicken sopas but Nilagpang sounded better.

On my way home, I texted my Mom to ask her if I should put lemon grass on the dish and this is what she texted back: Yes, lemon grass, ginger, onion, garlic, spring onions, chili and grilled chicken.

So as soon as I arrived home, I turned on the griller, got dressed, and prepared the ingredients. As soon as the chicken were grilled to perfection, I sauteed all the other ingredients (except for the lemon grass and spring onions), then added the chopped-straight-from-the-grill-free-range-chicken. When the spices coated the chicken, I added just enough boiling water and let it boil. Next into the pan was the lemon grass, after adjusting the taste with salt and pepper I then added the spring onion right before turning the fire off just in time for hubby to arrive home from work.

It was a good enough version to satisfy my craving, the chili added a zing to the dish which is perfect for the weather. It would have tasted even better if I used native chicken but none is available, so the next best thing is free range chicken. From now on, I will pay a premium price to have a better tasting fowl dishes. =)

my take on Nilagpang na Manok (left over na to!)



Random Thoughts for the Day

travel.
I'm thinking of living and working in New York? hmmmm. Maybe just a visit but not really to live and raise a family there.
Palawan and Boracay
How about the May 2011 Europe adventure??? Top Deck tours daw sabi ni Ellyn.

food.
I have my macaron ingredients at home, I just need to buy my piping bag. Time to use my Homeworld gift certificate.
Masterchef is my life for 4 months now, I don't know what I'll do on July 26. Withdrawal syndrome na eto!!!
I need to replicate my banana peanutbutter chocolate cupcakes and this time I will take photos of it. yumyum!

online.
chuvaness
daphneosena
topazhorizon
marketmanila
philstar
inquirer
fb
twitter

work and studies.
August is our yearend, August is the start of the cpa program
bonus in november, results of cpa exam in dec
new year, new work in 2011??? (parang mas maganda pakinggan ang 'new year, new work, new yok' hahaha. but no, I love Oz, US will just be a holiday destination)

family.
miss my hubby and will miss him more next month for an out-of town engagement
talk and text sa Bukid.
need to have a check up to make sure nothing is wrong with me, GPs cannot be trusted, need to go to specialist this time. I wanna have a beybi!!!

television.
Masterchef finals week. I hate curry.
Friends Season 10. I love Rachel, Joey, Chandler, Monica, Ross and Phoebe.
Modern Family. So dysfunctional so loveable.
Don't lie to me. Your facial gestures gives you away.

back.to.work.

chips no more

fter giving up hot chips for lent, i salivated at the sight of ribs and rumps chips --- my lunch for today. it doesn't taste as good as before. =(

maybe my tastebuds' telling me not to eat junk foods. i could benefit from this, yey! from now on, i will try not to eat chips, no more kfc, mc do, hungry jacks etc etc...

Finance End of Year Party

For the past two years, GWF always have an uber-cool end of year Finance Party. Last year's Amazing Race saw us running, eating, sweating and having so much fun (with our competitive spirits really coming out) around Sydney CBD. The Pink Team (that's us) won last year's event.

Go Pink Team!

This year, the committee had a different take on FUN. We went to Double Bay Marina Yacht Club for a day of cooking demo and skills testing. Yep! a chef was there to show us how to prepare an entree, main and three desserts!

Everyone enjoyed the cooking (and the eating afterwards). Too bad we didn't win the best presentation. :( I loved the Ocean Trout with Salsa Verde that I cooked it the next day at home (but i forgot to take a photo of my masterpiece, sayang!).

Finance Team and the food we cooked.

My Lunch Mates =)

I made this Tiramisu! I was the Dessert Girl for our Team.

Chocolate Liqueur with Caramelized Walnuts

What could be next? :=)

Morning Tea with International Flavor

The Central Finance in GWF is a team of 12 different nationalities:
1 - true blue Aussie with a Russian ex-hubby
1 - Slovak origin with an Aussie hubby
2 - Filipinos
2 - Fijian Indians
1 - Indian
1 - Armenian
1 - Kenyan
2 - Chinese
1 - Korean

With this diverse culture, we decided to have a morning tea with each one bringing a dish from their own country... and here are what we had last Wednesday (too bad I didn't get the name of the food, hehehe)

Leche Flan from Pinas (from the Filipino Store, hehehe)

From India (the round one is spicy but oily)

From the Fijian Indian - with almonds and ginger. this is sweet

Flossy sweet food from India. I can taste ginger.

tasted cinnamon on this one from Kenya

yummy pastry filled with sugar and butter (cholesterol!!!) from Armenia

Didn't have a photo of the Scone (Oz), Spring Rolls (China), Fried Rice (China), Curry Chips (India) and Choco Cookie (Korea).

I ate almost everything. Im getting fat!!!

:-)

ps... they LOVED the leche flan... creme brulee but not as sweet. :-)

not a millionaire... for now. :D

so i didnt win Oz lotto last Tuesday. The prize, which went up to $106M, was shared by two people from Adelaide and Gold Coast. Oh well, the money is too big for me anyway, musakit lang daw akong ulo ug huna-huna what to do with the prize, hahaha.

there'll be more lotto draws to come, hahaha.

by the way, i ate like a pig this week. Thursday was our lunch out for Duncan who will join Speedibake. I ate seafood fetuccini and Santorini Pasta and it was sooooo filling!!! Dinner was at Pancake on the Rocks as we officially welcome Tanya S here in Sydney. I had my favorite Mexicana Crepe. I was bloating by the time I arrived home. We had morning tea for Duncan this morning and I ate spring rolls, cake, cheese and some vegie sticks. Then Friday night drinks followed at 4pm... And this is not the end of my pig out week... tom, we are heading to Chatswood for Noemie's baby shower and I bet there'll be overflowing food again. I seriously need to burn all these calories. Agie, lets jooogggg/ runnnnnnnnn, and I mean really go out and sweat it out, let's not fake it by doing the running in Wii, hehehe. Pero, another note, pag super lamig pa din sa Sunday, mag wii Fitness coach na lang ulit tayo. :D

mood: heavily bloated (if there is such a term as "heavily bloated")

Pinoy Food

I went to the Filipino shop (aptly called Manila Sari Sari Store) in Chatswood last week to see if they have red chippy. I have been craving this ultimate comfort-food (for me that is) for some time now and it's always out of stock. Well, it must have been my lucky day coz not only did I get to buy my red chippy, I also got ----



Pinakurat!!! - who would have thought this vinegar would make its way here in Oz. Highway robbery nga lang ang price at $6.00 pero care ko, binili ko na dahil masarap etong sawasawan.

Manggang hilaw! yum! this was not from the Filo store but rather sa suking vegetable stall namin sa Chatswood. This is proudly Australian produce (ayaw nila mag export) and was labelled "cooking mango". Cooking daw? hehehe. Kinain ko na at naglalaway na ako.

And of course, the reason why I went to the store --- my red chippy (and vinegar on the side). Ang sarap... kaya di ko pa masyado na mi-miss ang Pinas kasi dami Filipino food dito.

At ang iba ko pang nabili sa store: Mama Sita Kare Kare mix (yep, nag kare kare kami last Saturday), Menudo mix, Knorr Toyomansi, Ding dong atbp...

I love food and I love to eat (kaya tumataba na din ako, haaay). :-)