My Daily Bean: Cornersmith in Marrickville

Oh this is a cute cafe! I wish it was easier to get to or this was my local I could walk to. On busy Illawarra road it is difficult to find parking.

Serving up coffee from Mecca brand (the owner used to work at Mecca branch in King street Sydney). It’s good, strong but not bitter.

What is unique is that each week the cafe has a pickling day. On the board this week was Mulberry & Rhubarb jam, and Apple Chutney. They also sell their wares. I picked up a jar of marmalade.

The food is wholesome and delicious. Like kale and quinoa salad. Roman and broadbeans w housemade feta and salmogrilio salsa on toast. Its not your usual fare. Although the corned beef sandwich was a let down – needs to be a bit more than a thin sliver of beef which was mostly fat.

The fit out is very retro and nice music.

Coffee: 4/5
Ambiance: 4/5
Newspapers: yes
Gluten free: some items

Cornersmith
314 Illawarra Road
Marrickville NSW

Easy Panna Cotta

It has been a long time since I have blogged.  Put simply I ran out of steam.  I was organising a photobook for my partner for Christmas and it took up all my waking moments for the past 6 weeks pre holidays !  We then had a little trip to Hawaii for New Year.   In addition, I have been lacking a little inspiration in the kitchen of late and cooking up pretty simple meals and reducing our carb intake. Anyway, excuses over, I’m back to blogging …and first recipe of the year is my panna cotta.

I’ve been road testing recipes for panna cotta for a few months.  One recipe was based on Greek yoghurt, another included marscapone, there was one version with vanilla and grated orange rind (Sean Moran).  Then there was the pièce de resistance, coconut cream.

I like to serve the panna cotta with a simple fruit compote.  Now this could be strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, or a mix of berries. Pomegranate also works. Passionfruit is particularly great with the coconut – and for a fabulous tropical combination add a little fresh chopped mango when serving.

What I have discovered with this dessert, is that it is pretty full proof and very difficult to stuff it up!   Follow these tips and in five minutes, voila, you have the perfect panna cotta ready to go into the fridge to set. And even better, only one pan to wash up!

1. Some recipes use powdered gelatine, however I prefer to use gelatine sheets.

2. You can substitute the coconut cream for 200ml marscapone, or 200ml Greek yoghurt, or additional 200ml full fat cream. I recommend using the Kara brand coconut cream, that come in a Tetra pak.  It is the closest to home made.

3. You can reduce the sugar to 1 tblspn, if you prefer to keep down the calories, it will be less sweet, but still delicious. My sweetener of choice is coconut palm sugar. This gives the panna cotta a slight caramel colour (rather than the traditional snowy white) and a in my opinion a better flavour – plus it is low-GI (35).  I have yet to experiment with Xylitol (a natural sweetener, that has no carbs or effect on blood sugar).

4. You can omit the vanilla bean paste and substitute with a fresh vanilla bean, but don’t bother substituting with vanilla essence, it ain’t going to cut it !

5. A very light brush of macadamia oil in the mould will help the panna cotta to slide out of the dish easily.

6. This will make 4 serves of panna cotta (½ cup capacity).  You can easily double the recipe.

7. Allow the panna cotta to set for 3-4 hours. It will get thicker as time goes one and will keep in the fridge for 2-3 days.

8. Tap each dish lightly a few times to release the air bubbles. As you can see from my pics there are a few tiny air bubbles in mine.  I only learnt this trick recently, hence why my pics have bubbles.  They still taste fab, but apparently it is a sin to have air bubbles in a perfect panna cotta

INGREDIENTS
200ml coconut milk (see substitutions listed above)
300ml thickened cream (35%)
1-2 tblpns sugar (see note above)
½ tsp vanilla paste
1.5 sheets of gelatine

METHOD

1. Mix together cream and coconut milk, add the sugar and stir on medium heat until sugar has dissolved.

2. Meanwhile, soak the gelatine sheet in some cold water in a bowl.

3. Heat the cream mix until you see a few bubbles start to appear in the cream and turn off the heat.

4. Squeeze the water out of the gelatine sheets and add to the cream mix. Stir until the gelatine has dissolved.

5. Allow the cream mix to cool to room temperature.  During the cooling down process stir regularly, this will assist the cooling process and stop a skin from forming.

6. Pour the mix evenly into four ½ cup capacity moulds that have been lightly brushed with macadamia oil.  Tap moulds lightly a few times to remove air bubbles.

7. Place the panna cotta into the fridge to set (around 3-4 hours).

8. To serve, use your fingers to gently prise the panna cotta from the side of the mould. This should create an air bubble that dislodges the panna cotta gently from the mould. If it still sticks, carefully run a knife around the edge.  Turn upside down and un-mould. Serve with fruit compote (recipe to follow).

FRUIT COMPOTE
1 cup of berries (fresh or frozen) OR pulp of 3 passionfruit
Juice of half an orange
Grated rind of an orange quarter
1 tblspn sugar (I use coconut palm sugar)

1. Place all ingredients into a saucepan and stir to combine.  Cook on medium heat for around 5 mins until the berries have cooked and the juice has turned into a syrup.  Allow to cool and serve a spoon around the panna cotta.  Can be made hours ahead.

Rollina Fruit

I have mentioned not that long ago when I discovered soursop juice in Singapore how I love to try new fruit.

In my journey up to tropical North Queensland I came across Rollina fruit. It looks like a custard apple however it is yellow not green. Inside it looks very much like a custard apple too.

But it tastes like … lemon meringue pie! Yep I kid you not. Creamy and lemony with a very faint meringue taste.

Mother Nature never ceases to amaze.

My Daily Bean – Chill Cafe in Palm Cove, Far Nth Queensland

Today Soul Kitchen Blog comes to you from Palm Cove, near Cairns in Far North Queensland.

Palm Cove is a sleepy little town with a main street right on the water. It is palm tree lined with the ocean on one side and restaurants / accommodation establishments across the road. Few cars mean it is an idyllic place to relax.

The downer is that you can’t swim in the ocean from November to May, ie when it is steamy hot, due to stingers (or box jelly fish) in the ocean and you can’t swim in rivers up here either cause of crocodiles!

Chill cafe is a laid back little cafe but the coffee is very good. Apparently the best in Palm Cove so says Trip Advisor. And I have to agree.

What also was great was they had gluten-free bread. So I went with a BTL made with bush ripened tomatoes from Mareeba. Delicious.

In fact even the newly opened Surf Life Saving Club in Palm Cove has a number of gluten free options as well as gluten-free bread. Here’s cheers to that!

Coffee: 4 out 5
Ambiance: 3.5 out 5
Gluten free: Yes

Chill Cafe
The Esplanade
Palm Cove

Eva Longoria’s chunky guacamole and Vera Cruz corn

I came across Eva Longoria (from Desperate Housewives) cookbook in the library recently.  Now Eva is obviously gorgeous and extremely petite, so I did wonder what she would have to offer in a cookbook – 100 ways with carrot and celery sticks perhaps?

But I was wrong.  Eva’s Mexican heritage and her life in Texas has inspired her cookbook using her family’s recipes and techniques.

I really enjoyed reading Eva’s recipes and have particularly loved these two dishes – which have been on high rotation in our household since.  Chunky guacamole and Vera Cruz corn.

The first time I made the Vera Cruz corn I didn’t have the chipotle in adobo sauce required for the chipotle mayo, so substituted with Sriracha chilli sauce.  I then found the chipotle in Adobo (Goya brand) in my local Greengrocer, so have been using that since.  I would suggest that if you can’t find the chipotle in adobo, you can easily substitute with a Mexican sauce flavoured with Chipotle – Choula or Tabasco brand both make one.

Also we don’t have the Mexican cheese, queso fresco, so I just used some shredded cheese I had in the fridge (colby).   Oh and I also cheated and used Hellmann’s mayo instead of making my own.  It still taste great.

The chunky Guacamole is delicious with the Vera Cruz corn.  To add some protein, we’ve been having the dishes with some tinned tuna for lunch.  The tuna goes really well with both dishes.    The dishes would serve really well along side some BBQ chicken or beef along with a crisp green salad and some Pico de Gallo.

I haven’t made any other recipes from the book yet, but as there are loads that use corn tortilla so many dishes are gluten-free friendly

You can find the two recipes online here

Newsflash: real Greek yoghurt now available in Sydney

The most exciting foodie news I have had in a long long time has happened. Fage Total brand yoghurt is now being imported direct from Greece by Kebia Importex in Marrickville, Sydney.

This is big news indeed and it is my favourite brand of yoghurt in the whole world.  Read my previous post about my passion for it here.

Apparently Kebia are going to receive a shipment every two weeks or so.

This is a photo of my haul first visit 10 days ago. Ok I admit went a bit overboard given we are a household of two. But the joy from eating real proper Greek yoghurt !  My oh my.  We actually polished it ALL off pretty quickly.

Anyway, it ain’t cheap.  But it is a hell of a lot cheaper than a trip to Greece.

170g tubs are $3 and 500g are $6.  The small tubs need to be purchased in a tray of six. They are selling a great selection: plain yoghurt (5% fat), 2% (fat) and 0% (fat free) as well as a variety of flavours including blueberry, pomegranate and strawberry.

The flavoured variety has a clever packaging innovation, whereby you add the little side tub of fruit into the main tub of plain yoghurt and mix it through as much as you like.

I buy the full fat 5% plain yoghurt.  That said even the 0% fat is creamier and thicker than anything we can get here in Australia – and all have lower carbs (sugar).

You can buy direct from the factory, or call them to find out what retailers are selling it.

Kebia haven’t updated the website yet with the news, so no information available there.

Kebia Importex
4 Carrington Road, Marrickville, NSW 2204 Australia
Tel: (02) 9558 8555

Travel Memories: Briam in Nissyros, Greece

It is hard to determine a standout meal in a holiday full of fabulous food, but one of the most memorable meals I had on our recent trip to Greece, was at Kakakios Taverna on the waterfront on the island of Nissyros in the port of Mandraki.

We dined on a meal of local fried whitebait, Horta (boiled greens), Tzatziki and a dish of roasted vegetables called Briam.  It was all fantastic however it was the Briam that stole the show.  Most Briam recipes will include eggplant (aubergine) however this one did not and surprisingly was all the better for the omission.

I chatted to the owner about this fabulous dish, and he even kindly shared with me a little parcel of dried spearmint, which was a key ingredient in the dish.

Eager to replicate this dish whilst the taste buds could still taste it, I have cooked it up a few times since I’ve been back.   If only we had the same waxy potatoes as they do in Greece,  but alas we don’t, so I used Dutch Cream and it turned out well.

Here’s s pic of the real deal, and then my version underneath.  Look similar do you think ?

I served it up similar to what we had in Greece with a plate of Tzatziki and Horta, and if I close my eyes while eating it and imagine sitting by the ocean, with waves lapping at my feet – I could be right back in Greece.  The only thing missing is local whitebait …

INGREDIENTS

4 light green zucchini
1 medium to large size Dutch Cream potato (or other waxy variety)
1 Spanish (purple) onion
1.5 tblspn chopped tinned tomato pulp (I used Mutti brand)
1 tblspn finely chopped parsley
1 tsp sea salt
½ tsp dried rigano (Greek oregano)
½ tsp dried mint (spearmint preferably)
3 tblspn extra virgin olive oil

METHOD

1. Firstly chop the zucchini, potato and onion into a dice so that they are similar in size.  You want the vegetables to be cut about the size of a thumbnail and ½ cm thick.

2.  Next mix through the herbs and add the tomato, salt and olive oil. Stir well to combine.

3. Place into an oven proof dish – a terracotta one works well.

4. Bake at 180C for 2 hours, stirring regularly to ensure it does not dry out.  Add a little extra oil if you think it looks too dry.  Taste for seasoning and add more salt if necessary.

5. Serve at room temperature.

Serves 2-3