OLD VIENNA COFFEE HOUSE

Sydney is a raining city in June. With its overcast sky and strong wind the best place to hide from the unpleasantry is the interlinked shopping malls and cafes.  While shopping in QVB we dropped by Old Vienna Coffee House to have hot drinks and desserts to wait out the rain. 

The Old Vienna Coffee House is lavish and traditional in decor.  Looking up at the chandeliers make ones feel you are at a ballroom.  Good atmosphere to linger with soft entertaining music

Classic stylish menu

A hot cup of Macchiato

Orange Pekoe Irish breakfast tea

Lemony crepe to go with lemon ice-cream

Cherry Strudel - Filled with luscious cherries and velvety smooth custard sprinkled in icing sugar

Rich chocolate mud cake in heavy chocolate frosting

Rain stopping while the sun going down and time for dinner

LEISURE TIME

A leisure day, together with your other half,  to enjoy a cup of coffee or tea with some lovely snacks and to people watch.  The children are grown and have their own lives which leave us more free time to indulge in our free time. 

Tea cum dinner

Pumpkin and bacon quiche  -  the sweetness of the pumpkin blends well with the bacon and cheese

Savory quiche fill with spinach

Chocolate lemon tart to balance the savory quiche

Of course there are Mocha latte and ice tea

X'MAS DINNER 2011

X'mas was celebrated with dinner cooked by my eldest girl with dessert, a pear tart baked by 2nd daughter.  All my DH and me had to do was to sit down and enjoyed the meal.

Beet root apple and spinach salad to start off the meal.

Coq au vin (chicken stew in red wine) adopted from the recipe by Nigel Slater.  The chicken meat was infused with the aroma of wine and paired beautifully with mashed potatoes.

Desserts to satisfy our sweet tooth.

A pear tart with pears stewed in sugar syrup and baked in sweet dough base of frangipani filling.

Plain glutinous balls paired with azuka red beans and matcha ice-cream.

BANANA PIE

With left-over bananas waiting to oxidize I used all up to make a banana custard pie.  As usual the pie is sweet dough.

LEMON CURD

3 eggs; 2 yolks, half cup sugar, 3 lemon grated zest, 4 tbspn butter and 3 gelatine sheets

  1.  Soak gelatine sheets separately (2+1) in cold water till soft
  2.  Whisk whole eggs, yolks, sugar, juice and zest together
  3.  Gently heat mixture and whisk till thickens to coat back of
       spoon.
       Make sure not to boil.
  4.  Stir in butter and soften gelatine sheets (2).
       Leave to cool
  5.  Pour curd into pie shell and refrigerate till firm
  6.  Boil the remaining gelatine sheet with 2 tbspn water till
       melted
  7.  Decorate banana slices over curd
  8.  Pour the melted gelatine over bananas and leave to set

PEACH PIE

To celebrate my youngest girl's birthday, I decided to bake something other than a cake.  A pie as a birthday cake instead and it was a peach pie.

Sweet pastry, canned peaches in syrup - cut into slices, 500ml fresh milk, 120ml peach syrup, 4 egg yolks, 125g sugar, 30g cornflour, 3 gelatin sheets and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Soak gelatin in peach syrup till soft and boil till gelatin melts.  Set aside
Whisk yolks and sugar together with cornflour, add in milk slowly and mix thoroughly
Bring mixture to boil over low heat, stirring till thicken and add in gelatin syrup
Pour mixture over baked pie and leave to cool Arrange peaches over custard Pour a thin layer of gelatin (boil 1 gelatin sheet with 30ml peach syrup) over it and keep refrigerate

Happy Happy Birthday !  A Birthday Pie

VEGETABLES QUICHE

My great interest is watching Hong Kong TVB Cantonese serials. Whenever they are being broadcast on local channels I will not miss.  However sometimes the broadcasting time coincides with my cooking or dinner time, and in order not to miss any parts of the show I will cook food that can be eaten conveniently in front of the box.  Quiche is one of the convenient food.

Pastry can be prepared ahead and put in the fridge till ready to use.  For this vegetables quiche, I include 1 big onions, half a leek, preserved artichokes in brine, fresh mushrooms and 6 pieces of cheese tofu, slice in half.  Mix all fillings together and season with salt, mirin and pepper.

The size of the pie pan is 8 inch and so 7 eggs is needed.  Beat eggs well and mix in 2 tablespoon of thick cream.  Pour over filling and bake in medium hot oven (for my oven I use 120 degree) till egg fillings set

Pie is ready when skewer comes out clean

Accompany pie with a bowl of hot soup and enjoy the show

BERRIES

Berries are in season and with shelves line with packets of berries and at reasonable price, my shopping cart was soon filled with boxes of blueberries, strawberries, cherries and blackberries.   In the meantime I had no idea what I am going to do with all the berries I have bought, besides eating them fresh.  Anyway there is always room for fruits pastries.

Open fruit tarts and lattices pies for a light afternoon tea

Bursting blackberries and blueberries under the cover of lattices

Open tarts filled with luscious and glittering berries

A cup of light Yuzu tea to go with the tarts

TCC

Dinner at new TCC in Airport Terminal 3.  A bit quiet during weekday but comes weekend waiting time is long, especially late into the night.  A nice place for supper.

Beef Soup - thick broth full of beef flavor.  Accompany with crisp garlic toast

Pumpkin Soup - Spicy and full of kick

Smoke Salmon Salad - Come with baguette filled with fresh tomatoes and cheese, and orange sorbet which I like most, tangy and refreshing

Asparagus Puff - Flaky puff with creamy tender asparagus.  Sides of whole fresh tomatoes

Cherry tomatoes topped with salsa sauce and creamy mushrooms

Mushroom Pasta - light dish

Salmon Burger with avocado cream and cheese

Tuna Pasta

Herbal Mint Tea

Nutella Float - very chocolaty

Volcanic Chocolate Cake - The flow of thick chocolate lava is sensation combined with raspberry sauce

APPLE PIE

The girls have been urging me to make apple pie for quite sometime but due to my laziness I have ignored their request.   While shopping at Carrefour saw apple pies on sale but cost $7 for one, which is quite expensive.  Instead of buying one went to the fruits section and pick up some green apples to make pie.

Make the dough and leave it in the fridge for 20 mins (The pastry recipe was from Dorie Greenspan cookbook "Baking From My Home To Yours").  Cut up 3 apples to stew with brown sugar and cinnamon till soft.  Cut another 2 more apples into thin slices and sprinkle with lemon juice and set aside.   Roll out dough and put into the pie pan.  Prick the bottom of the pie with fork.   Line parchment paper on top of pie and scatter beans over.  Bake in the oven till pie is half baked.

Sprinkle almond meal over the pie and pour in the stewed apples.  Decorate the top with apple slices till filled.  Spread a layer of honey over the apples.

Put the pie back into the oven and bake till apples are caramelized.

Forgot to photograph the pie till half eaten as it was too delicious