Archive | November, 2011

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

9 Nov

Multicultural Inspiration from…

America

I’ve been spending maybe a bit too much time with my Max Brenner cookbook lately. It’s been said before, but the Americans really were onto something when they started combining chocolate and peanut butter, a combination that features prominently in this brilliant book.

So, after getting sick of salivating over recipes, I decided it was time to haul butt into the kitchen, and whip up something myself – the only real ingredients I had to work with were a block of chocolate and half a jar of peanut butter – that’s all I needed! In addition to this, you’ll be needing:

  • 150g butter, chopped and at room temperature
  • 1/2 large jar of crunchy peanut butter
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 cups plain flour
  • 1 tsp bicarb soda
  • 200g block of milk chocolate, chopped roughly

Preheat the oven to 180°C, and place the peanut butter and butter in a large bowl. Microwave for 30 – 45 seconds, until it all begins to soften.

Add in the sugar and eggs, and mix with an electric hand mixer until well combined and smooth.

Sift in the flour and bicarb soda, mix it well to combine, then throw in the chocolate chunks and mix them in.

Roll tablespoon sized chunks of mixture and lay them out on a cookie tray, into the oven, and bake for 12 minutes – the idea is to have them ever so slightly under-cooked, so they are super chewy and yummy!

And there ya have it! If you can resist for 10 minutes or so after they come out of the oven, the outer shell will crisp up a little. If you can’t resist, well, we have something in common.

As you can see inside the cookie, they still have that chewiness that you get when you don’t over cook the cookies, with the chocolate chunks still soft and melty when they’re fresh out of the oven.

These cookies are my idea of perfection, and with the creaminess of the peanut butter, the sweetness of the chocolate, and that little bit of saltiness in the actual peanut chunks, they’re pretty amazing!

Over to you guys – what’s your current favourite cookie combo?!

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Roast Capsicum and Tomato Soup

8 Nov

Multicultural Inspiration from…

Italy

I’ve never been much a fan of soup as a meal. It’s just not filling enough for me. And, as a general rule, I don’t really like “soggy” foods – as a child, I absolutely refused to eat cereal with milk in it, because I liked the crunch too much. So, soup never really held much appeal. I still don’t really know what made me change my mind and decide to give this a whirl… maybe it was because of the use of the roasted capsicums, which I’ve always loved (the big Italian meals usually involve these in some form of anti-pasto), maybe it was the fact that I realised I didn’t just have to have soup, I could add bits into it. What ever the case, I decided to give it a whirl, and it is amazing! Here’s what you’ll need for your own batch that’ll serve 4…

  • 600g red capsicums, halved and de-seeded
  • 800g tinned chopped tomatoes
  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1 tbsp good quality olive oil
  • 1 small brown onion, diced
  • 400ml vegetable stock
  • 1 tsp ground sea salt
  • 1 tsp ground black pepper
  • 1 tsp dried basil

First up, preheat the oven to as high as you can get it, and lay a sheet of baking paper on a baking tray. Line up the capsicums, skin side up on the tray, and put it in the oven for around half an hour, or as long as it takes for the skin to start to blacken and blister.


Once done, take them out and off the tray, and into a plastic freezer bag, allowing them sit for 30 minutes or so.

Then, take them out of the bag, transfer them to a board, and take the skin off.

Work your way through all of the capsicum halves this way, then roughly chop them up and set aside.

Pre-heat your largest pot with the olive oil over high heat, then add the garlic and onion, cooking until softened. Add in the capsicum, tomatoes, stock, herbs and seasoning, bring to the boil, then simmer for 10 minutes.

Let the mixture cool for 10 minutes or so, then pour it into a bender (may have to do in 2 batches!)…

… and blend it until it’s nice and smooth:

And serve! I chose to add in some chickpeas and grilled mushrooms, but you can throw in what ever you want!

So, tell me: what are your food no-go zones? And have you found any ways to bend them to your will?!

Mrs Parmas

3 Nov

Multicultural Cuisine of…

pub life

Mrs Parmas
25 Little Bourke St,
Melbourne
(03) 9639 2269
Visit Website

 

It’s a disgrace that I haven’t been here sooner. Because I absolutely love a good parma. I mean, is there really much better than a bit, fat piece of crumbed chicken, all golden and crunchy, smothered in rich tomato sauce, thick, juicy ham, and perfectly melted cheese, surrounded by golden fried chips??! I didn’t think so. Mrs. Parmas has a reputation in Melbourne of making the best parmas around. They also have a reputation for revolutionising the service of these parmas – the chicken is not plonked unceremoniously on top of the chips, causing them to go soggy, but instead the chips are served in a seperate bowl! Brilliant! Mrs Parmas has been well documented by many other Melbournian bloggers, such as doublecooked, Parma Daze and eat, drink, stagger, and from the photos they produced, I just had to try them for myself, with Sous-Jeff along for the ride – he is a parma connoisseur after all!

We arrive at Mrs Parmas, and Sous-Jeff, true to form, heads straight to the bar. I may have neglected to mention the fact that Mrs Parmas is also very proudly boasting the wares of some of Victoria’s best micro brewers, with somewhere around 2 dozen obscure Aussie brews to choose from. The one thing Sous-Jeff is more passionate about than his parmas, is his beer. He is one excited boy. Eventually, he selects brew #1 (or about 4), and we finally order our parmas. We’re there early, around 6pm, so there isn’t much of a wait…

First up, props for separating the salad from the parma – no one likes their parma going soggy because of the salad. So, points for that!

Second up, the chips. Again, points for not burying them under the parma – soggy chips AND a soggy parma is not cool. Sadly, they weren’t the best chips though, so they do lose a point for them.

First up, Sous-Jeff’s choice, the “parma-geddon.” He was warned by our waitress that this was one hot parma – four different types of chilli/hot sauce, one of which that apparently takes a few days to concoct and brew to it’s full spiciness. Sous-Jeff scoffed at these claims, and ordered it anyway. And he loved it.

He did, however, turn a deep scarlet shade towards the end of the meal, but still claims it was great! My choice was the bolognese parma – your standard parma, but with bolognese sauce instead of regular tomato sauce.

Unfortunately, for a parma I was looking so forward to for so long, I was let down. It wasn’t as crispy as it could have been, and sadly for me, the bolognese sauce was a little spicy, which detracted from the whole experience for me a little (you know how I’m scared of spice and all). It was also a fairly thin piece of chicken, not big and thick like most.

Despite all of this, it actually wasn’t a bad parma – it was certainly big, the melted golden cheese was perfect, and the crumbs on the chicken were actually really nicely flavoured. They were great big meals, good value for money, and they truly did taste good, but not the best I’ve ever had.

 

Would rate it 6 out of 10.

 

 

 

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