Tag Archives: Meringue

Steak, crabs, flowers and sweets, lots of sweets


Okay where to start? This last week has been pretty good for food. Too much really but who can say no. I mean when it’s good it’s good.

On Monday night crusted some salmon with herbs. I’m still doing towers with my food tube.

Tuesday morning late in September, you know Spring, it was still –2 °C. Yikes. Canberra weather sucks.

On my morning walk I came across a possum. This tree is right in front of a shopping mall. He/she was fat. I bet he/she had been plundering rubbish bins.

Halfway through the walk I pass the Owl Statue and say hello. You can see it has started to warm up.

On Tuesday night Bron made three different sorts of pizza. they were delicious. I haven’t eaten pizza for so long. These were mouth watering. Each type of pizza, even the vegetarian versions were delicious.

You may recall from my Daydream Island post I had my first dessert pizza there. Bron has broken me now for dessert pizzas. This is the uncooked stage. Notice the milk and white chocolate, the banana and the marshmallows.

This is the cooked stage. This was unbelievably good. the marshmallows were perfectly cooked and not too hot. I had marshmallow all over my lips and cheeks and chin. It was so good.

This was a weird weather week. On Wednesday morning, it was a much warmer 9.2 °C. The Owl was happier.

On Thursday night Bron made her David Lebovitz inspired meatball hoagie or grinder or sandwich. It was fantastic. So tasty and so full of flavour. Much better than my effort from Saturday night.

On Friday morning it felt tropical. Do you see the temperature? It’s 17.2 °C. I was in heaven. If it had rained it would have been perfect. Mr Owl was very happy.

On Friday we said goodbye to a friend who was going on maternity leave. One of my work mates made this vanilla slice with sweet lattice biscuits. My Mum used to make vanilla slices like this. The custard was so light and smooth and just the right amount of sweetness.

On Friday night Bron and I went to a Hog’s Breath cafe and we enjoyed a prime rib steak. Mine had curly fries and mushroom sauce. I like mine rare.

I had dessert with Bron at her place and we had a chocolate self saucing Gü

For breakfast on Saturday Bron made me a poached egg. As always, perfect! :-) The parsley was the only vegetable matter I had all weekend (not something I’m proud of).

On Saturday night we went to Kingley’s steak and crab house for a friend’s birthday. Bron and I wanted Alaskan King Crab. Here are the tools which I didn’t really use.

We planned to make crab sandwiches. This is a sourdough cob with lots of butter.

We also added thick cut hot chips to our sandwiches.

I asked for 400 grams of crab.

This is me eating a crab and hot chip sandwich. Notice the bib I made for myself from the serviette. Yes I wear reading glasses sometimes when I eat so I can see the food better.

This is my first ever Affogato. It was nice.

I’ve had this dessert before and it’s always good. Cheesecake with peanut brittle.

For breakfast on Sunday Bron made her scrumptious scrambled eggs. As always they were gorgeous. We were still a little full from the crab dinner, but there was no way I wasn’t eating this delightful dish.

On Sunday afternoon we went to Ricardo’s and I chose a chocolate raspberry meringue. It was very good.

Today is a public holiday in Canberra. We went to Floriade. This is a black swan. They’re common in Australia. I have been told they are a rare sight in the northern hemisphere.

For breakfast this morning we had a bacon and egg roll with barbecue sauce.

Floriade is great. A sea of bulbs. I liked the composition of this image.

At Floriade there is always a gnome contest.

Beautiful flowers.

Walking through the crane forest at Floriade.

This is the route we took this morning. http://runkeeper.com/user/garydlum/activity/121791194

For lunch today we went to Grazing at Gundaroo. For a main we had the beef (rare). It was accompanied by crumbed bubble and squeak. It was pretty good. I would happily go back for more.

For dessert I had the poached pear with honeycomb and ice cream. It was okay but afterwards I thought I should have chosen the cheese platter.

It’s been a good week in food.

Alaskan King Crab, macarons and a chocolate meringue and orange chocolate ganache layered cake


Wow what a dinner we had this evening. Bron out did herself. This morning we went to Costco with the aim of getting some King crab. During the Summer, Costco has a pavilion set up for seafood. It looks like in the Winter this is not the case. We ended up finding some Alaskan King crab in the frozen food section of Costco.

King crab at Costco (iPhone)

When I got to Bron’s place this afternoon she was in the midst of macaron manufacture.

Ready for the oven (iPhone)

These are a jaffa flavour.

Piping macarons (iPhone)

Macarons with orange chocolate ganache (iPhone)

There is also some cointreau in the ganache.

King crab waiting to be eaten (iPhone)

You can find the twitpic link at https://twitter.com/bron99/status/226597992789065728/photo/1

The aioli was amazing (iPhone)

It took a while but we finished four legs and two claws (iPhone)

For dessert Bron made a chocolate meringue layered with orange chocolate ganache topped with cream and raspberries.

Chocolate meringue with chocolate orange ganache topped with cream and raspberries (iPhone)

Chocolate meringue with chocolate orange ganache topped with cream and raspberries (iPhone)

Chocolate meringue with chocolate orange ganache topped with cream and raspberries (iPhone)

After dessert I was still feeling peckish so had the last of the salted caramel chocolate Bron had made plus a macaron.

Salted caramel chocolate and macaron (iPhone)

I now feel full and have strong garlic breath from the aioli.

 

Red meat, white meat and carbohydrates galour


It’s been an odd weekend. Bron has gone away for a couple of weeks so I have to fend for myself. Thinking of Bron I made Brioche French toast yesterday morning and then we went to the local club for dinner last night. Today I cooked pork belly (my other white meat).

The Brioche was soaked in cream, eggs, vanilla and sugar.

Brioche soaking in cream, vanilla, eggs and sugar

I served it with cream and maple syrup because I didn’t have any berries. Note the Brisbane Broncos mug taking pride of place given they defeated the Canberra Raiders on Friday night.

Served with cream and maple syrup

After breakfast I went to Costco to pick up a new pair of reading spectacles. While I was there I happened upon one of the many meat cabinets. I picked up some red meat in the form of a rack of lamb and some scotch fillet.

I plan to cook this this week some time.

I love my vacuum sealer. I can prepare meat and freeze it to keep for extended periods.

My scotch fillet in food saver bags.

On Saturday night we went to the Southern Cross Club at Jamison. This is a local club and they do a reasonable steak. I tend to go for the scotch fillet with prawns and calamari in a Béarnaise sauce served on a bed of mash potato.

Steak, served rare as I want it.

For dessert we had a layered meringue cake. It was delicious. I should have asked for ice cream too.

Meringue layer cake with cream

The meal was fairly good. The service is okay. Saturday night is a pretty busy night for the Southern Cross Club.

This morning I made a salami and Gruyere cheese omelet for breakfast. It was pretty delicious.

Salami and Gruyere Cheese omelet for breakfast

This afternoon I took a piece of belly pork and slowly cooked it in a low oven. After I got it to room temperature I scalded it with boiling water.

It's upside down but this is after it's been scalded with boiling water

I then seared the skin in a saucepan while the oven was heating up.

After searing in a saucepan

I then put the saucepan and pork into an oven for five hours at 110 °C.

This is how it looked after a couple of hours.

I also made a sweet potato and Gruyere cheese and cheddar cheese bake.

To the bake I added some curry powder we got from the Easter Show.

Madras chicken curry

I served the pork with the sweet potato and some asparagus spears.

Plated up pork belly with sweet potato and asparagus spears

It’s been a good weekend, although I will miss Bron for a couple of weeks.