Chocolateria San Churro

After a disappointing dinner at Coast Steak & Seafood we stopped in at San Churro for some yummy churros & affogato for dessert. I'm so glad we did as it salvaged the night.
The churros were deliciously crunchy and the affogato was lovely with creamy ice cream and strong espresso.
The staff were friendly & efficient and we were in and out and heading back to our hotel room in no time.

Churros & Affogato

Cholocateria San Churro

47/48 Circle on Cavill
3184 Surfers Paradise Boulevard
Surfers Paradise, Queensland
Australia 4217

Plough Inn

The Plough Inn is a great pub in Southbank for a leisurely lunch or dinner.

Ploughman's Board

Chilled english pork pie, aged cured meats, tea smoked lamb, vintage cheddar cheese, pickled onions, house- made relishes & chutneys freshly baked sourdough - $34

BBQ Spanish Seafood Sizzle Plate

Sizzling king prawns, scallops, calamari, mussels, moreton bay bugs, salmon in a romesco sauce, sticky saffron rice, grilled corn bread, house salad - $35

Plough Inn
Building 29 Little Stanley St
South Brisbane,QLD 4101

Ciccio's Pasta Bar

With family visiting from Victoria I went in search of an Italian restaurant in the city which was kid friendly and yet served high quality and authentic dishes. I narrowed it down to two and mentioned the options to my future sister-in-law. They had actually gone to Ciccio's the night before with friends and were keen to go back because it was so good - you can't get a better recommendation than that..

We started with pizza breads, a lovely crisp roast garlic thin crust pizza cut into 6 generous slices each.


The Gnocchi al forno was a deliciously cheesy entree with perfectly cooked gnocchi in a tapas style ceramic dish. I will definitely be ordering this the next time I visit Ciccio's.

The Gnocchi della casa had crispy cubes of pancetta and the gnocchi was perfectly cooked and then lightly pan fried so it was crispy and delicious.


The Parpadelle with slow roasted beef cheek was lovely and tender and it came with a slice of crusty bread to mop up the delicious sauce.


Penne arrabiatta - get the chef to boost the chilli for a bigger hit

Fettuccini pesto with chicken.


I definitely recommend Ciccio's and will be heading back. They also have a supper club downstairs which can be booked for private functions or if you just want a more intimate setting for your next special occasion.

Ciccio's Pasta Bar
471 Adelaide St
Brisbane 4000 QLD

Curried Sausages

H has been travelling quite a bit for work and is in need of some comfort food so I decided to make curried snags for dinner tonight. I smashed together a few different recipes I found online and came up with this. Next time I think I'll add in some sultanas to give it a sweet element.

1 kg beef sausages
2 tablespoons white vinegar
2 Tbsp oil
1 large brown onions, cut into wedges
150g celery, chopped
2 Tbsp madras curry powder
2 Tbsp plain flour
200g sweet potato, chopped
150g pumpkin, chopped
450g potato, chopped
200g carrot, chopped
3 cups beef stock
1 cup frozen pas & corn
2 tsp cornflour (optional)

water (optional)

Preheat oven to 180C
Prick sausages and place in saucepan with enough cold water to cover, add vinegar.
Bring to boil and simmer gently for 10 minutes. Drain, cool and remove skins from the sausages.
Chop sausages into 5cm pieces and brown in a frypan. Set aside
Heat oil in a deep oven proof saucepan and sauté onions until soft. Add celery and sauté for 2 minutes.
Add sausages and sprinkle curry powder and flour over the surface and stir to combine.
Add sweet potato, potato, pumpkin and carrot and stir to combine.
Add stock and bring to the boil while stirring.
Cover and bake for 30mins.

If you need to thicken the sauce mix some cornflour and water together and slowly add to curried sausages and stir.
Serve with mashed potato or with white rice.

Serves 6

Pasta with the lot

Why should only pizza get to have all the toppings when pasta tastes great with everything as well? Why not give your spag bol a makeover and clean out your veggie crisper with this delicious pasta dish.



1/2 Tbsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tsp crushed chilli
1 kg premium beef mince
400g mushrooms, sliced
1/2 red capsicum, diced
1/2 green capsicum, diced
1/2 yellow capsicum, diced
1 carrot, diced
4 Tbsp Sacla Olive and Tomato Pasta Sauce (or pesto)
1 jar Bolognese Pasta Sauce of your choice
400g tin whole tomatoes
10 Kalamata olives, pitted
1/4 cup red wine
pasta of your choice, cooked
parmesan cheese, to serve

Heat large saucepan over med-high heat and add oil. Sauté onions with garlic and chilli until soft.
Add mince and cook, breaking up large pieces, until cooked through.
Add mushrooms and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add all remaining ingredients except pasta and simmer, covered for 20-30 minutes.
Stir through cooked pasta and top with parmesan cheese.

Enjoy!

Serves 6

What's in season - November

For all of you Aussies out there find out which fruit and vegetables are at their very best and cheapest in November and get cooking!

Fruit
Bananas
Blueberries
Carambola/starfruit
Cherries
Grapefruit
Honeydew melons
Lychees
Mangoes
Rockmelon/cantaloupe
Watermelon
Oranges
Red papaya
Passionfruit
Pineapple
Strawberries

Vegetables
Artichokes
Asparagus
Chinese greens
Gai lan (Chinese broccoli)
Green beans
Cucumber
Chillies
Hass avocados
Lettuce
Spring onions/green shallots
Peas
Potatoes
Silverbeet
Snow peas
Spinach
Sugar snap peas
Sweet corn
Zucchini

Perfect mashed potatoes

For perfect mashed potatoes every time get yourself a potato ricer. There are a few different varieties but the common theme is that the ricer incorporates air into the potatoes, making the fluffiest, most luxurious mashed potatoes. But the best thing is that you will never have lumpy mash ever again!

The potatoes are prepared the same as for normal mash:
Peel and chop the potatoes into 1 inch pieces.
Place in a saucepan of cold salted water, bring to the boil and simmer until fork tender.
Drain the water and place the drained potatoes back into a hot pan to help evaporate remaining water.
Spoon the potatoes into your ricer a few at a time and turn the handle or press down (depending on the design). The potatoes will be pressed through the holes in the die of the ricer (mine came with three different sizes). This is called "ricing." Perform this step over a bowl to catch the riced potatoes.
Continue to add more potatoes to the ricer until you have riced all of the potatoes.
Stir in warmed milk and butter with a fork and season to taste.

Variations:
- add chopped chives
- add dry mustard powder
- add French Onion Soup packet mix
- make a Root Purée: try using the ricer for mashed summer squash, pumpkin, carrots, turnips, celery root, parsnip and sweet potato

Perfect hard boiled eggs every time!

If you are sick of getting a grey ring around the yolk of your hard boiled eggs give this method a try. You will get lovely yellow yolks without the ugly ring every time.

Place eggs in a saucepan and cover with cold water by about 1-2 inches.
Bring to the boil and take off the heat. Cover the eggs and allow to sit for 12 minutes.
Transfer eggs to a bowl filled with cold water.

For a quick snack add some sea salt and Dijonnaise (mix of Dijon mustard & mayonnaise) and gobble them up. Yum!

Granola à la Curtis Stone

This morning I stumbled across a YouTube video of Curtis Stone making Granola and decided to give it a go before I polished off all the almonds and dried apricots in the pantry. My kitchen smells divine right now!

Here is my version using a few different ingredients as I didn't have any pumpkin or sunflower seeds..



Makes about 6 cups

1/2 tsp plus 50g butter
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup (packed) golden-brown sugar
2 cups rolled oats (not instant)
1 1/2 Tbs sesame seeds
1/2 cup whole almonds
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/2 c dried apricots, chopped
1/2 c sultanas

Accompaniments: plain yogurt or milk, fresh fruit such as peaches, apples or berries

Preheat oven to 170°C / 350°F. Not fan forced..

Lightly coat a large, heavy baking sheet with 1/2 tsp butter.

Combine remaining cup of butter, honey, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves in a small, heavy saucepan over medium heat. Stir for 5 minutes or until the sugar dissolves and the mixture comes to a simmer. Set aside.

Combine the oats, sesame seeds and almonds in a large bowl.

Drizzle the warm syrup over the oat mixture. Toss to coat well.

Transfer oat mixture to the prepared baking sheet, forming an even layer.

Bake for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the mixture is dry.

Stir in the apricots and sultanas, and continue baking for 10 minutes, or until the granola darkens slightly.

At this point the granola will be soft, but as it cools it will become crunchy.

Transfer the baking sheet to a cooling rack and let granola cool completely, I managed to wait about 20 mins before I just had to taste it... It will set into chunks; simply break it up into smaller pieces.

Enjoy with fresh fruit and yogurt or with cold milk.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week.

Variations:
Use coconut oil or grapeseed oil instead of butter
Other sweeteners like pure maple syrup can be used instead of honey
Substitute or add pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds
Substitute or add raw walnuts, cashews, pecans or flax seeds
Substitute or add dried cherries and golden raisins
Try other dried fruit like cranberries, goji berries, chopped peaches or apricots

Minestrone

This recipe can serve 4-6 but to keep the calories down you would probably want to stretch it to 6 by adding more water with the stock cubes. If you want to reduce the calorie count you may want to look for the lowest calorie bacon and four bean mix.

I usually use green cabbage but I thought that I would try red cabbage this time. But it coloured the soup and had a different flavour so I would recommend sticking to green cabbage..

4 rashers of bacon, diced
1 brown onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 Tbsp olive oil
2 carrots, chopped
2 zucchini, chopped
1/2 small cabbage, shredded
1 tin diced tomatoes
1 tin four bean mix, drained and rinsed
1 tin Cannellini beans (white beans), drained and rinsed
1L beef stock
1 cup dried pasta (spirals or shells)
cracked black pepper
grated Parmesan cheese to serve

Heat oil in a deep saucepan. Cook bacon, onion and garlic until onion is soft.
Add carrot, zucchini and cabbage. Stir well and cook for 5 minutes.
Add tomatoes, four bean mix, cannellini beans and beef stock and stir well.
Add pasta and crack some black pepper over the top and simmer until pasta is cooked.
Serve with grated Parmesan cheese.

Total: 1767 cal / 7380 kj

Per Serve (if serving 6): 294 cal / 1230 kj