Tag Archives: Peanut paste

Ruchi Belconnen Southern Indian dining for a #CBRTweetUp Shout out @Sister_Ratched

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Last year I blogged a couple of times about the food at Ramas in Pearce. I have enjoyed the food there and the company on the occasions we dined there helped make the evenings memorable. After blogging about Ramas a Canberra Twitter friend, viz., Jude @Sister_Ratched commented (via Twitter and on my blog) that she thought there were better places in Canberra and Sydney for Indian cuisine. She suggested she could introduce me to such places. I was very happy to be introduced to new dining experiences.
Jude is lovely, she avidly comments on my blog and given the amount of food I post on Twitter and Instagram, Jude has shared her thoughts. At times this has been a concern for the quantity and quality of food I would post. I believe in some ways, the recent changes in my diet have been influenced by Jude’s comments about cholesterol, the importance of fresh ethically harvested produce and the health benefits of salad :-) Jude is a Registered Nurse and currently practises in gastroenterology. I respect her opinion.

On Friday night Jude organised a Canberra Tweetup. I regret not taking names and Twitter handles because I’ll offend some new friends if I don’t mention them. Suffice to say this is not the last #CBRTweetUp I will attend. It was a most enjoyable evening and it really is great to meet tweeps in real life and get to get to know them a little better. One of my favourite Canberra bloggers was also there. T1 from InTheTaratory fame. T1 has been prolific recently on Twitter as part of the #LikeCanberra campaign for the Centennial celebrations of the Australia’s capital city.

We all met at Ruchi Belconnen. Ruchi specialises in Southern Indian cuisine. Jude recommended I try a Thali. A Thali is a tasting plate made up of a selection of various dishes. The food is served in small bowls on a round tray. In the middle there was bread and plus a piece of flesh (fish in my case). I asked for the Ruchi Special Non­‐Vegetarian Thali for $24.50. This consisted of Chapatti, channa curry, Kerala chicken, beef vindaloo, pickles, thayir pachadi, rasam, and boiled rice. When the food was being served I heard the waiter say “special non-vegetarian Thali” and I assumed it was mine. It turned out not to be what I asked for but it was a Mysore Maharajah Non-­Vegetarian Thali which consisted of Meen porichadu, chapathi, boiled rice, sambar, Mysore chilli chicken, daal, lamb korma, rasam, thayir pachadi, pickles, and a coconut dessert. This dish was considerably hotter in terms of spices than what I was expecting. It was not at all unpleasant, on the contrary it was delightful. I really enjoyed this tasting plate of Southern Indian delights. The company was great and in the end it was not a late evening but it was certainly a very enjoyable one. The next #CBRTweetUp is being organised. I’m looking forward to it.

Ruchi special non-vegetarian thallis #cbrtweetup

Mysore Maharajah Non-­Vegetarian Thali

The menu can be downloaded from http://www.outincanberra.com.au/files/client-menus/Ruchi-Menu-August-2012-Dine-in-menu.pdf

I would definitely recommend Ruchi Belconnen. I’ll be returning.

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Friday was made even better with a Mavi Breakfast wrap which meant I didn’t need lunch.

#breakfast Tongue of bacon in my Mavi breakfast wrap #yummy

A beautiful tongue of bacon.

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This afternoon. I enjoyed a pastry treat from Ricardo’s Cafe at the Jamison Plaza.

The Peanut Paste #yummy

This is the Peanut Butter. It contains a very subtle peanut paste flavoured mousse with a heart of caramel resting on a delicate chocolate crumb biscuit base. It was lovely.

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Ruchi

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http://www.outincanberra.com.au/ruchibelconnen

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Ramas
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A wonderful weekend of gardens and food

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This past week has been a bit emotional for me. On Friday we remembered the events of ten years ago in Bali. I needed a break and Bron had very kindly organised a weekend away with her sons and me. The destination was to be Cowra with nothing specific planned except dinner at Tommy’s Bistro in the Imperial Hotel. We knew that Cowra was known for the Japanese Garden and the prisoner of war camp. The POW camp is the site of the Cowra Break out.

We stayed at the Vineyard Motel on Chardonnay Street in Cowra. This is a small but well presented motel. The best thing is the heated floor of the bathroom and main living area. This is so good on cold nights and mornings. I would recommend this motel as accommodation a little out of the town centre and in amongst grape vines.

For higher resolution views, click on the images and they’ll open up into bigger clearer images.

Vineyard Motel

In amongst the grapevines

Grapevines

Bird bath

In the Afternoon we went and headed into town to find a pie for lunch and then ate it in a local park.

Tomato and onion pie with coke

After lunch we ventured to the Japanese Garden. This is truly a delightful place to visit. It is so serene and tranquil. I would highly recommend visiting.

Bonsai

Water feature

After the garden we went to the Cowra POW Camp site.

The replica guard tower

The grounds where the site was

On Saturday evening we went and had dinner at Tommy’s Bistro in the Imperial Hotel.

Both Bron and I enjoyed the crispy crackling pork belly and scallops for an entrée and then a rare Scotch fillet steak on Paris mach for our main meal. For dessert I had a sticky date pudding with Queensland nuts and ice cream. The service was fast and friendly. The decor very warm and inviting. I would highly recommend Tommy’s Bistro for a dinner.

Garlic bread

Crispy crackling pork belly with scallops

Scotch fillet and prawns with Paris mashed potato

Sticky date and Queensland nut pudding

After a good sleep we enjoyed a motel breakfast. I had peanut paste and orange marmalade on whole grain toast.

Our intention for the morning was to go for a walk in a national park and then visit a winery for lunch.

The Wallaby Walking Trail in the Conimbla National Park is an easy walk of a couple of kilometres. The brochure from the Cowra Visitors’ Centre suggested the walk would take 30 minutes. The sign at the trail suggests 1 hour. In the end it took us about 40 minutes after a couple of water stops. You can see our route on my RunKeeper site.

In the end we didn’t get to a winery but we did find Taste Canowindra. A delightful venue for wine, art and music plus great food.

I had a chicken terrine made with crushed strawberries. It was really very good. I would recommend this place to anyone who wanted a good lunch on the way home to Canberra.

When I got to my place I made myself a chicken red curry with lychees and pineapple.

Cowra


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Tommy’s Bistro

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Japanese Garden

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Vineyard Motel

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Edgell Park

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taste Canowindra


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Duck pancakes, homemade from scratch!

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Bron has been talking about Peking duck and duck pancakes for weeks. She has been looking at various recipes and had settled on a modified Donna Hay recipe. When I say modified, I mean taking the best ideas from other recipes and using them in her creation.

I remember when my Mum made a Peking duck as a kid. It took her a weekend. I recall she built her own airing frame and had a fan set up to help dry out the duck.

Bron’s didn’t take that long and honestly it was an awesome product we had in the end. Bron reckons the most difficult part was getting the hang of making the pancakes.

Peking duck airing with a fan

It’s important to dry out the duck before cooking

Peking duck out of the oven

It looks so good

Peking duck out of the oven resting

Gently resting

From eye level

It’s good to get down to bench level

The table getting set

Lebanese cucumber and spring onions are a must for crunch

Pancakes, vegetables and hoi sin sauce

The pancakes kept well in the cool for a few hours

The bits I like, note the crispy tail in there

I love the tail, neck and thigh and the bones to chew

The carcass was picked clean later

The carcass got a real going over after we finished :-)

Shredded duck meat

The meat was succulent 

Getting ready with the hoi sin sauce

The pancakes were perfect 

Ready to roll. Yummo

It really was delicious

Ready to eat and enjoy

Two bites and this was gone

The last slice of the chocolate peanut paste cheesecake :-( It was so good.

I’m going to miss the cheesecake 

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A couple of repeats and some squid

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Tonight we repeated Yorkshire puddings with the ocean trout, horseradish and cream cheese, plus we had calamari and then cheesecake. The Jamie Oliver recipe is really good.

Sizzling in the oven

Getting bigger

This short video just shows how good they sizzle in the oven.

This is a great plate of puds.

Straight out of the oven, two different sizes.

Smoked ocean trout with horseradish and cream cheese

Smoked ocean trout with horseradish and cream cheese with yorkies

Smoked ocean trout with horseradish and cream cheese with yorkies

Smoked ocean trout with horseradish and cream cheese with yorkies

Squid is good You should check out dileeshus she loves squid

Sizzling squid

Resting squid

Lots of squid

Plated squid

The squid was amazingly tender and fresh and perfectly cooked. The dipping sauce Bron made was delicious.

Dessert is chocolate and peanut paste cheesecake with Queensland nut brittle

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Australia Day dinner. Yes it’s lamb again.

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For the last few years an Australian personality, viz., Sam Kekovich has acted as a lambassador for the Australian lamb industry. It’s just as well I have a deep and abiding fondness for lamb as evidenced by last night’s blog (Lamb cutlets with mint sauce and radish salad).

Every Australia Day Sam gives an address to the Australian people and beyond.

Today while we enjoyed Australia Day cheesecake Bron had her slow cooker going with lamb shanks. Lamb shanks in red wine is one of my favourite meals.

In the slow cooker

The smell in the apartment was amazing.

Plated up

Look I had greens plus potatoes and a plate load of the best tasting meat around. It was so jelly like and amazing.

The remaining bones

I had fun sucking the marrow out of the bones.

Chocolate and peanut paste cheesecake

We finished with Australia Day Cheesecake.

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Australia Day cheesecake

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For the past few weeks Bron has been talking about cheesecake since she made a white chocolate cheesecake some weeks ago. She has had her eye on a recipe from Nigella Lawson. To give it more interest, Bron chose Nigella’s Chocolate peanut butter cheesecake.

I need to digress and explain why this has more interest for me. I grew up in Queensland in the 1960s and 1970s. We only knew of peanut paste and Queensland nuts. We’d heard of peanut butter and Macadamia nuts but our impression was that only southerners used those terms. As Queenslanders we knew better. There are a few sites that mention the debate, e.g., Peanut Butter or Peanut Paste? and there is also a Facebook page. As far as I’m concerned, the edible species in the genus Macadamia found in Eastern Australia are Queensland nuts and that’s how I shall always know them. While it may be Australia Day, I am and always will be a proud convinced and convicted Queenslander.

Last night I also learned that 24 January is national peanut butter day in the USA from food blogger John-Bryan Hopkins also known as the Foodimentary Guy.

Back to the important stuff though. This is a baked cheesecake. Nigella describes it best, “This is not for the faint-hearted. Unashamed indulgence, wallowingly so, is what this recipe is all about: think reese’s Peanut Butter cup in cheesecake form. For that reason, I don’t bake this in a water-bath as I do the Banoffee cheesecake. The water-bath is excellent if you want a silky texture, but for me, the peanut butter constituent demands a certain amount of pleasurable, palate-cleaving clagginess. And baked like this, too, the top gets a slight crust when it’s cooked, making it all the easier to spread the chocolate topping.”

Baking in the oven

Straight out of the oven

Time for the chocolate topping.

Here comes the chocolate topping

It is good.

Smoothed over chocolate

Melted chocolate swirls.

Chocolate swirls

The finished product with the Queensland nut brittle similar to the cheesecake we had at Kingley’s steak and crab house.

A perfect slice of cheesecake with Queensland nut brittle

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Some of the preparation happened in a new blender.