Timpana

Timpana is a Maltese dish and it's basically a baked pasta pie. Pasta is cooked separately to under al dente and added to a rich bolognaise style sauce, originally and often with chicken livers. With the addition of eggs, the mixture is cooked in a pastry case in either a deep dish or baking tray until its golden brown.

Just imagine your spaghetti bolognaise topped with flaky puff pastry. :D

Recipe adapted from SBS Food. (Serves 8-10)

Ingredients:

• 2 frozen puff pastry sheets
• 500g penne
• 500g pork mince
• 300g bacon, finely diced
  
• 500g onions, finely diced
  
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 300g cheddar cheese, grated
• 3 eggs, beaten
• 400g canned diced tomatoes in tomato puree
• 500ml chicken or beef stock

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200°C. Sauté the onions and garlic for 5 minutes. Add pork mince, stirring well to separate and break up any lumps.
   
2. Add stock, mix well and bring to boil. Simmer for 20 minutes. Add canned tomatoes with purée.
3. While the sauce is cooking, cook pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until just undercooked.
   
4. Drain and mix with sauce, adding tasty cheese. Stir in beaten eggs.
5. Spoon pasta into a baking dish and top with your puff pastry sheets. Making sure to cut some holes to allow the steam to escape.
6. Brush top of pastry with some beaten eggs. Bake in oven for 45 minutes.

Fresh out of oven.

Mine didn't turn out as red as it should be as I didn't use tomato paste. For a dish that requires star ingredients such as bacon and cheese, I'm quite disappointed with the outcome because I know I can create so much more lip smacking stuff with those key ingredients which consumes less time.

Fellini, Adelaide

Upon listening to others telling me that not only does Fellini serve wood oven pizzas, they also make dessert pizzas! Of course, me being the adventurous one when it comes to food, we went there. :P

Mars Bars Pizza

Looks good? But.

The wait for the pizza was extremely long. It took 40 minutes after putting in the order before it actually arrived. The pizza itself was nothing to shout about. Obviously store bought chocolate, strawberry and vanilla ice cream was used. The best bit was the Mars bars and condensed milk which I easily could have gotten myself.

Doubt I'll be back anytime soon.

Fellini Cafe
102 O'Connell St
North Adelaide 5006 SA
Phone: (08) 8239 2235

Entree: $9.90-$17.90
Mains: $9.90-$32.90
Dessert: $15.90-$16.90

Basic chowder

This dish was introduced to me by a friend and the ingredients are very similiar to ABC soup except with the addition of bacon and cream. My friend scolded me when I cut off the fatty part of the bacon because she believes it is the best bit.

I'm sorry but it is my arteries that will be ending up clogged. :P

Ingredients:(Serves 5)

• 5 bacon rashers, cut
  
• 5 potatoes, diced
• 3 carrots, diced
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 1.25L water
• 6 tsp chicken bouillon powder
• 200g meat
• 1 tbsp dried parsley
• 1/2 tbsp dried chives
  
• 300mL cream

Method:

1. Fry the meat and bacon until cooked then add in onions, carrots and potatoes. Stir fry for 3 minutes.
2. Pour in 1.25L of water and add in the chicken bouillon powder to make chicken stock.
3. Sprinkle in dried chives and dried parsley and simmer on low heat until the potatoes are tender.
4. Pour in cream and stir well. Leave for 1 minute then serve.
   

ETC, Adelaide

The first and most frequent comment I hear about ETC cafe otherwise known as East Terrace Continental cafe is that they have "The Best Banana Pancakes Ever!" and mentioned by Delicious Magazine 2007 as "The Best Breakfast in SA". If people dare to dub it the best, I suppose you would agree with me that it's definitely worth a try?

Breakfast, here we come! :)



ETC works

A friend ordered this which is bacon, eggs of your choice, sausage, mushrooms, hash browns and roasted tomatoes served on sliced foccacia bread. Definitely very heavy for breakfast but the eggs were poached to perfection and every element on this dish is tender, succulent and definitely packed with flavour.

Of course, then there's the legendary banana pancakes. Their pancakes are moist and fluffy served with chunks of fresh bananas in between. I must admit that the secret lies within their banana syrup! I flooded every bite of pancake with the syrup and was compelled to lick it off the plate. From what I can tell, it tastes like a very good butterscotch cream with a hint of banana. Yum!

East Terrace Continental
6 East Tce
Adelaide 5000 SA
Phone: (08) 8359 2255
Website: www.etccafe.com.au

Entree: $7.50-$13.50
Mains: $8-$22.90
Dessert: $2.50-$5.50

Thai Sticky Glutinous Rice with Mango

I remember my family and I used to visit the Thai Food Bazaar that was held annually at One Utama Shopping Centre, KL and we would feed ourselves with their lovely laksa and desserts. The Thai sticky glutinous rice with mango was definitely a must for my sister and I.

It has been a few years since I last had it but since I had the opportunity to stumble upon the recipe, I knew I had to give it a whirl and satisfy this dormant craving for this dessert. :P It's a pity I didn't use fresh mangoes as they were not in season, otherwise it would be perfect. Had to resort to canned sliced mangoes. :(

Thai Sticky Glutinous Rice with Mango (Khao Niaow Ma Muang)

Recipe adapted from Tan's Kitchen.

Ingredients: (Serves 2-3)

• 1 cup glutinous rice
• 3/4 cup coconut cream
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/8 tsp salt + 1/2 tbsp salt
• 1/4 tsp rice flour
• Sesame seeds, for sprinkling
• 1 mango, sliced
  

Method:

1. Wash glutinous rice, then soak it for two to three hours or overnight. Steam it for 30 minutes.
   
2. Heat, on low, half of the coconut cream needed in a small saucepan and add sugar and 1/2 tbsp of salt until all dissolved.
   
3. Remove from heat and pour into cooked rice. Stir to mix well and set aside to let stand for about 15 mins.
4. Heat the rest of coconut milk and add salt. Stir until the salt is dissolved. This makes the topping sauce.
5. To serve, place sliced mangoes on a side of a plate. Spoon some seasoned sticky rice on the other side.
6. Top the rice with 1 or 2 tsp of coconut milk, sprinkle some sesame seeds and serve.

Why must coconut cream taste so good?

Apple Crumble Bars

Do not be intimidated by the long list of ingredients and methods, it isn't as hard as it looks. I was recipe hopping as usual and when I saw that all the ingredients are lying in the pantry, why not? ;)

The streusel topping is a winner! The apple filling is good as well. I'm not too sure about the crust but the streusel is amazing!

Recipe adapted from Dessert First

Ingredients:

a) Filling:

• 3 large apples, approximately 800g
• 50g butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon

b) Crust:

• 2 cups plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 100g butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg

c) Streusel:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup + 2 tbsp plain flour
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 100g chilled butter, diced

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 175°C. Peel, core, and chop the apples in 1/2-inch cubes. Set aside in a bowl.
2. Melt butter in a pan over medium heat. Add the apples and sauté for about 8 minutes until the apples are semi-soft.
3. Add sugar, lemon juice, flour, and cinnamon to the apples and stir to combine. Cook until mixture begins to bubble, then turn heat to low and cook for another 3 minutes, stirring constantly. Allow filling to cool.
4. Line a 9 by 9 inch pan with aluminum foil, leaving enough to hang over the edge and act as handles to remove bars after baking. Grease foil.
5. Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt together in a bowl and set aside. In a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar together on medium speed for several minutes until light and fluffy.
6. Add egg and mix to combine. Add flour mixture and mix to combine.
7. Pour the dough into the prepared pan and gently press into the bottom of the pan and about 1/4” up the sides, making sure it is level. Set pan aside while you make the streusel.
8. In a stand mixer, combine sugar, flour, and salt and mix to combine. Add butter and mix until crumbly and the butter pieces are very small.
9. Spread cooled apple filling evenly over the crust, leaving about 3/4” between the pan sides and the filling. Sprinkle the streusel evenly over the filling.
10. Bake for about 35 minutes until the top layer is golden. Cool completely on wire rack before removing. Cut into bars.

Apple cinnamon filling

Pressing the crust onto the bottom of pan

In goes the filling.



Fresh out of oven.

I'm stubborn and impatient. I'm the one who opens the oven before time is up and always eager to pop it in my mouth and slice it up for serving immediately out of oven instead of allowing it to cool.

Which usually results in less beautiful presentation during slicing. :(

Steamed banana muffins

Instead of the usual baking, I thought I'd give steaming a go. I admit I'm quite skeptical with steaming. After all, who doesn't like baked goods, right?

I managed to nab myself a good deal with a grocer trying to get rid of his overripe bananas. You can bet I was elated about that.

Recipe adapted from Amanda.

Ingredients: (Makes 6 medium sized muffins)

• 1 egg
• 45g brown sugar
• 2 overripe bananas, mashed
• 3/4 cup plain flour
• 3/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• pinch of baking soda
  
• 30mL oil

Method:

1. Sift together flour, baking soda and baking powder then set aside.
   
2. In a mixing bowl, whisk together eggs and sugar till ribbon stage.
3. Mix in mashed bananas, beat till combine.
4. Gently fold in flour mixture and oil, taking care not to deflate the eggs and sugar mixture.
5. Pour atter into muffin pan, lined with muffin cups.
6. Steam over high heat for 15mins or till an inserted skewer comes out clean.

It turned out very soft and fluffy. Definitely a good change from the normal baking. :)