Tag: Lunch

Cafe Con Leche

Cafe con Leche

amcarmen4 Comments

Today I visited one of my most loved food spots in Sydney, Cafe con Leche, a Latin American café just on Fitzroy St. in Surry Hills. My high school friends from Brunei decided to meet up for lunch, and while we were discussing places to eat, naturally I suggested Cafe con Leche. How I came to know about this little gem is quite funny actually. It all started when my friend Jialing got on the wrong bus to campus and got off at the stop on Fitzroy St. She told me she smelt something so great and saw the café just across the street, so one Wednesday afternoon in between classes, we decided to go to this magical-smelling café. While we were digging into our meals, Jialing came across that ‘magical’ smell again and asked one of the staff where the smell was coming from. To our surprise, she said, “Oh it’s from the muesli place next door”. We had an “oh…” look on our faces, but honestly, if it weren’t for Farmer Jo’s sweet smelling muesli, we probably wouldn’t have known about Cafe con Leche. This was around late last year and to date, Cafe con Leche is and will always be in my top places to eat.

The food is simply divine, and affordable I may add. Good service, quick, and the staff, very friendly too, but I miss seeing this one lady who used to serve my friends and I when we first started going. She was always so shocked (in a good way) to see how happy and excited my friends and I got when our Arepas for three touched our table (we are always excited to see food arrive to our table, especially when we’re so hungry).

If you haven’t been or heard about Cafe con Leche, now is the time to befriend me so that I can join you and keep going back for more! Today between the 3 of us, we had the Ham and Chicken Quesadilla, South American Style Eggs and an Arepas for 2 plate to share. It was so good.

Cafe Con Leche: Arepas for 2
Arepas for 2, $12 – served with ogao, sour cream, guacamole, ropas vieja and aji

Cafe Con Leche: Ham & Chicken Quesadilla
Ham & Chicken Quesadilla, $9 – served with cheese and tomato with guacamole

Cafe Con Leche: South American Style Eggs
South American Style Eggs, $14 – scrambled eggs chorizo, served with an arepas and guacamole

As I mentioned above, I have been here many times and have tired numerous dishes on their menus, and of course photographed every meal (a true foodie). So if the above dishes aren’t to your liking, then here are some other dishes to try, all a big thumbs up from me. L-R: Arepas for 4, Chorizo Salad, Ajiaco (Colombian chicken soup) and Beef Lasagne.

Cafe Con Leche

Café con Leche
104 Fitzroy Street
Surry Hills, New South Wales
Australia, 2010

– Ally xx

Smoked Salmon & Sour Cream Baked Eggs

Smoked Salmon & Sour Cream Baked Eggs

amcarmen2 Comments

Coles Magazine: Smoked Salmon & Sour Cream Baked Eggs

Every month Coles releases a magazine that makes the most of fresh seasonal produce, as well as featuring tasty everyday recipes that are quick, easy and something that whole family will love. Coles Magazine is like my Bible for food. I NEED to get a copy for myself every month, and the best thing about it is that it’s free! Pictured above is the March 2014 issue of Coles Magazine. I looked back to last month for today’s recipe: Smoked Salmon & Sour Cream Baked Eggs.

I followed the recipe and changed minor things for various reasons, firstly instead of dill, I used chives only because I didn’t want to buy a whole packet of dill (I barely use this herb), and secondly, I didn’t add green peas as the recipe stated only because I didn’t have any to use. Nonetheless, the recipe turned out really well and it’s definitely a keeper. Cheap, simple dish that serves 4 – the only thing that was relatively expensive was the smoked salmon.

PREP TIME 5 MINS | COOKING TIME 12-15 MINS | SERVES 4

INGREDIENTS

  • 2/3 cup sour cream
  • 1 & 1/2 tbsp chopped chives, plus extra to serve
  • 1/4 small red onion, finely chopped
  • 100g smoked salmon, roughly chopped
  • 4 large free range eggs
  • Slices of Pane di Casa bread from Bakers Delight, toasted and buttered
  • 1 bunch baby asparagus, woody ends snapped off
  • Olive oil
  • Ground salt and pepper to taste

METHOD

  1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease four ramekins (or in this case I used my mini cocotte pots) and place on a baking tray.
  2. Combine the sour cream and chives in a small bowl, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Scatter the chopped onion evenly in each cocotte. Divide the salmon and half of the sour cream mixture among the cocottes and crack an egg into each. Top with the remaining sour cream mixture.
  3. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until eggs are just set. Meanwhile, grill the asparagus on a grill pan over high heat for about a minute per side or until tender. Turn the heat off and drizzle a bit of olive oil over the asparagus still in the pan and season with salt and pepper. Transfer to a serving plate.
  4. Set aside for a minute to settle. Top with extra chives, and (optional) a little bit of paprika.

Smoked Salmon & Sour Cream Baked Eggs

BON APPÉTIT!

– Ally xx

myTaste.com

Kangkung Belacan

Kangkung Belacan

amcarmen3 Comments

My mom used to make this dish all the time back home. Honestly, I’ve never made it for myself ever since being here in Sydney, except for today. On occasions though when I’d be eating out with friends in various Asian-Malaysian restaurants, I would come across this on their menu and MY GOODNESS were they overpriced! Like I get the whole profit making thing but honestly, it’s like more than a 500-600% profit for this simple dish! Mamak in Chinatown for example is priced at $14.00 while Delima Restaurant is priced at $17.95. I know Delima adds prawns to their kangkung, but seriously. Overall, if I totalled how much I spent for this dish, it would total to about $3.00 inclusive of all the ingredients, and naturally it’d be even cheaper back home. Here a bunch of kangkung averages to about $1.50 depending where you get it from, while back home you paid 99c for five bunches.

Kangkung, also known as ‘water spinach’, is a vegetable commonly used in Southeast Asian cuisines, mainly Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore where it is usually stir-fried in a chilli sauce. Kangkung is also evident in other Asian cuisines and I do recommend that you check out how else it can be used by going to wikipedia (I know, the whole conception of wikipedia not being a reliable source, but trust me). Belacan, or sambal belacan, basically consists of fresh red hot chillies, roasted Malaysian shrimp paste and lime, made into a paste or sauce to be used either as a condiment, or as an ingredient in cooking.

So for today’s recipe as titled: Kangkung Belacan (stir-fried water spinach with chillies and shrimp paste).

Kangkung Belacan

PREP TIME 5 MINS | COOKING TIME 10 MINS | SERVES 3-4

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 tbsp canola oil
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/2 red onion, diced
  • 2 red bird’s eye chillies, sliced
  • 1 & 1/2 tbsp sambal belacan*
  • 1 bunch kangkung, washed, leaves separated from the stems, and stems cut into short lengths
  • Handfull of small-sized ikan bilis (dried anchovies)

*I used a store bought paste, but you can always follow a recipe make your own.

METHOD

  1. Heat oil in a medium frying pan over high heat. Add the ikan bilis and fry until crisp. Set aside.
  2. In the same pan, add the garlic and 1 of the sliced bird’s eye chilli and sauté until golden brown. Add in the onions and sauté until soft. Bring the heat down to low and then add in the sambal belacan, cooking the belacan over high heat will cause it to spit all over the stovetop and we don’t want to have a messy cooking area. Cover if needed. Sauté the belacan until fragrant.
  3. Add the the kangkung leaves, stems and a little bit of water to dilute the belacan you think can’t handle the heat. Cover until the leaves start to wilt. Toss around the belacan to coat the leaves and stems evenly (kangkung literally takes only a minute to cook).
  4. Transfer to a serving plate and top with the fried ikan bilis and fresh red chillies. Serve with hot rice.

Kangkung Belacan

BON APPÉTIT!

– Ally xx

myTaste.com

Cheesy Mushroom Omelette with Avocado Mint Greek Yoghurt & Wilted Spinach

Cheesy Mushroom Omelette with Avocado Mint Greek Yoghurt & Wilted Spinach

amcarmen2 Comments

First off let me be the last to wish everyone a glorious Good Friday! Welcome everyone, to my very first blog post ever! I have been meaning to start up a food blog of all my kitchen adventures, well more like I have had other blogs before but I never kept up with it. So I decided to start fresh!

I just went through a hard week of procrastination and a 2500-word essay that was due yesterday and I’m so glad that it’s the Easter weekend and mid-semester break! So to celebrate the end of the first half of the semester, and of course Good Friday, I wanted to whip up a special BIG brunch for myself – though I think my eyes were way much bigger than my tummy, I only ate half of it and kept the rest.

Today’s recipe as the blog title says is: Cheesy Mushroom Omelette with Avocado Mint Greek Yoghurt & Wilted Spinach:

Cheesy Mushroom Omelette with Avocado Mint Greek Yoghurt & Wilted Spinach

PREP TIME 10 MINS | COOKING TIME 15 MINS | SERVES 1

INGREDIENTS

For the Omelette:

  • 4 regular-sized Swiss Brown Mushrooms, sliced
  • 3 large free range eggs
  • 2 sprigs of fresh thyme
  • 1/2 gourmet tomato, diced
  • 1/2 green capsicum, diced
  • 1/2 red onion, diced
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 2 tbsp canola oil
  • Ground salt and black pepper to taste
  • Handful of shredded parmesan cheese
  • Knob of butter

For the Avocado Yoghurt:

  • 1 small-sized avocado, roughly mashed
  • 1 cup regular greek yoghurt
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1/2 cup of fresh mint leaves, roughly chopped
  • 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
  • 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • Ground salt and black pepper to taste
  • 1 cup of loose-leaf baby spinach

Just note that I sometimes work without measurements in the kitchen, so some of the measurements in the ingredient list may not be very accurate. I’ve tried to remember roughly how much of each ingredient I’ve added in, but please feel free to adjust to your liking! Also, I don’t work with timers very often (unless it’s for baking or cooking with seafood and other meats). For this recipe I used my eyes to tell when something is cooked – probably not to perfection like Masterchef and all, but definitely cooked.

METHOD

  1. Combine all the avocado yoghurt ingredients in a small bowl. Refrigerate until needed.
  2. In a large fry pan on high heat, melt the butter. Then add in the onions and stir until soft. Add in the mushrooms and stir until colour changes. Add in the capsicum, tomatoes and 1 sprig of the thyme leaves, stir for about a minute and transfer to a dish. We don’t want to over cook the capsicum and tomatoes, so that they still retain a slight crunch.
  3. Turn the heat down to medium-low and add oil to the same frying pan. While waiting for it to heat up, beat the eggs in a bowl with the milk and season with salt and pepper. Pour the egg mixture into the frying pan.
  4. Sprinkle the parmesan cheese over the top and let the egg cook until the egg starts to set. Top half of the egg with the mushroom filling. Fold omelette in half, and cook for a further minute or so. Transfer to a plate.
  5. Add the spinach to the same frying pan and stir until wilted. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to the plate.
  6. Garnish by sprinkling fresh thyme leaves over the omelette, avocado yoghurt and wilted spinach.

Cheesy Mushroom Omelette with Avocado Mint Greek Yoghurt & Wilted Spinach

I remember when I was chopping up all the ingredients, my housemate came into the kitchen and she said, “Wow it smells so fresh in here!” And again we met again when the meal was cooked and ready to be devoured by me, she said “THAT LOOKS AMAZING!” She’s so adorable 🙂

BON APPÉTIT!

– Ally xx

myTaste.com