Saturday, April 21, 2012

Massuman

If you know me, you'll know I love Thai food. 
My favourite curry is by far Panang Curry.

However, despite my love for a good Panang, this post is about a Massuman Curry we made at home one night.

Massuman is typically made with red meats such as beef and teamed with potato and onion. 
It has a similar flavour to a red curry, but with peanuts and with more of a 'meaty' flavour. 
Hence, this is a dish I rarely order at Thai restaurants.

None-the-less, we managed to turn this Massuman Curry into a chicken based curry with vegetables.


The chicken and potatoes heating in the Massuman curry base.


Vege's in the Massuman curry paste.


Adding the coconut milk.

with rice - yum!

This curry turned out to be one of the tastiest curries we've ever made at home!
So homely and bursting with flavour, it's the perfect curry to have on a cold night!

Who would have thought a Thai dish which is typically cooked with red meat can be turned into a delicious meal that my vegetarian self can also enjoy!

YUM!


Spicy Seafood Bisque

If I told you I have the most perfect boyfriend you will either do one of two things:

1) Roll your eyes - Displaying your relationship-hater stage as you ever so desperately try to find the man of your dreams through endless dating. or

2) Go "aww, that's sweet" as you acknowledge it's OK for someone else to be happy.
(choose this one!)

I came home after one heck of a day at work to find my man cooking up a storm.
Now, if you know me...

I love seafood.
I love chilli.
I love food.

and I love it even more when I've been working all day, I'm tired and ever-so-hungry!

Jack cooked me a Spicy Seafood Bisque for dinner.

Now this meal deserves to be celebrated as he literally just whipped it up one afternoon.

Using his amazing cooking abilities, he managed to cook each piece of seafood in this bisque perfectly. The fish just fell apart in my mouth, the prawns crunchy and light and the squid fresh and not the slightest bit rubbery as most restaurants will serve it to you like.
The rich tomato broth had a kick of chilli and spices to just send your tastebuds wild!

He toasted some herbed turkish bread and I was treated to the warm spicy seafood bisque that  
made. my. day.

If you're after a dinner-winner. Give this a go. It absolutely hit the spot!


High Tea at The George

It’s a cloudy Sunday afternoon and Perth cannot find it’s female population…

I visited The George on St Georges Terrace in Perth one afternoon with my lady friends for a goodbye high tea.

Here… I found 90% of Perth’s ladies.

The George is a classy venue, filled with ladies from all over the City enjoying tea beneath their towering stands of afternoon delights presently neatly on a three-tiered stand.

As I curiously sneak peaks at everyone’s table to see what they have ordered, I soon realise that everyone has identical tables, as the high tea menu is the same for all.

The sweet aroma of tea leafs waft through the dimly lit room, draped with curtains, comfy couches and neatly set tables with the wafting smell of cooked delicacies.

Now came the most important part - tea ordering time!

We were told the selection of teas were from T2 and I chose the Choc Chip Chai tea.

I love a nice authentic chai tea, so I thought a spin off the original could be very interesting...

The Choc Chip Chai had a beautiful aroma, smelling sweetly of that cinnamon, star anise and spices that I know and love. The choc chip flavour wasn't hugely there, I smelt a hint of cocoa but that was mainly it. 


The tea itself wasn't very strong. It was like they were running out of tea leaves and only half filled it, as the tea leaf flavour itself was missing.

I added sugar and milk to mine as Chai's are meant to be sweet and milky. I thought considering this was a choc chip chai, it was a cause for even more sweetness!


The overall, tea itself was enjoyable and many others on the table seemed quite satisfied with their tea too. I did get a few more comments on the strength of tea leaves in each of our pots however...so maybe this was a common issue at The George?

Out came our three-tiered stand of gourmet treats! 


I was given a "vegetarian version" of what was on the High Tea menu.
I had a quince scroll, a spinach and fetta quiche, a bagel with a sweet beetroot chutney and another with olives, goats cheese and mustard. The sweet selection was a lemon lime tart and a rich chocolate mousse tart.  

The rest of the table had the same pastries as me, but on their bagels were beef, and another with smoked salmon and capers with cream cheese. I absolutely love smoked salmon, so I found declaring myself a vegetarian and opting out of the salmon bagels was a rookie mistake.

Luckily I was able to sneak a salmon bagel from the communal stand and swapped one of my olive bagels as I'm not a huge fan of olives.


The three-tiered stand below with sweets and pastries on top, scones in the middle and gourmet bagels on the bottom. 


The scones were delicious!
Although I've been spoilt for years with pumpkin and date scones and all varieties, I normally shy away from the plain scone as they seem rather boring to me. These however, were a nice surprise. Light and fluffy, and despite being plain in flavour, this was made up by the fact I could team it with the Vanilla Bean Cream and Chilli-Raspberry jam.

The vanilla bean cream was ever so light and fluffy and balanced out that rich, sweet raspberry jam in which had no hint of "chilli" that I noticed. So in actual fact, the raspberry and vanilla with the plain scone was a lovely touch.

Overall, the service was fantastic; the tea tasty but but not strong; and the food sweet, small and rich.


Highs: An enjoyable sunday afternoon occasion to spend with the girls.
Lows: Paying $40 for a meal which left you a little underwhelmed. However I'm more one for getting a nice filling nutritious meal when I pay $40. 
Will I return? Probably not. Nothing against The George, but High Tea really isn't my thing. 
Overall: 4/10







The George on Urbanspoon

Monday, April 16, 2012

Macaron Magic

The Hawkers Markets in Perth City among other things, allowed me to spend $12 trying these little delicacies! 

Out of all the Asian, Moroccan, Turkish and Indian delights - I chose the sweetness that france offered.

Below are the six macarons I bought, sitting neatly on a plate, unaware yet of my pending judgement...



The first I tried was Blueberry.
This bright deep blue macaron was my favourite. Although the flavour of blueberry was not as authentic as I had hoped, it still had a sweet blueberry flavoured creme in the middle and a crunchy outside.

 Blueberry

The next macaroon was pistacio flavoured and was green in colour. I normally really like pistacio flavoured macaroons as they are often not as sweet as others and have that sweet nutty flavour that pistacios are known for. This was less pistachio-flavoured and more general-sweet flavoured. Gobbled up nonetheless. 


 Pistachio

This almond praline macaron was even less flavoursome than the pistachio macaroon. I expected to taste the almond, but again, just another sweet biscuit flavour with subtle almond flavours.

 Almond Praline 

Lemon macarons are my favourite because you get that sweetness from the sugar and that sour zing from the lemon flavour. This macaroon did not dissappoint. It was the sweet lemony goodness of a lemon biscuit and the even sweeter lemon-curd-flavoured creme filling.

 Lemon

The salted caramel was another hit, with that sweet caramel richness you expect from caramel flavouring to that ever-so-slightly salty tinge. A caramel-lovers best friend.

 Salted Caramel

The coconut macaron was not as strongly flavoured with coconut as I had hoped. The flavour was more of a coconut essence rather than that real coconut hit I was hoping for.
I think this was the pattern with these macaroons, not as authentic flavoured as I had hoped.

Coconut

All in all, a macaron is never a terrible experience really. I enjoyed treating myself to this well-deserved sugar high.