Miniature Food Mentions

Food + Jewellery = Cute!!!

I am totally obsessed with anything in Miniature size!

Be it canapes, desserts, toiletries or any other variety of packaging, there is something so exciting about receiving a product at a tenth of its original size. I love the miniature toothpaste in hotel rooms, or the tiny bottles of sauce/ketchup you receive from hotel room service, and especially love the free samples in the letter box of deoderant and shampoo that is an exact scaled down version of it's supermarket parent. I think this stemmed from a childhood obsessed with childrens kitchen play sets of replica supermarket foods and ingredients!

Most of the time I find I will buy a product purely for that reason alone....

So what does girl do when she stumbles upon two of her passions in life, food and jewellery, combined in a new and so damn cute way???

At the Glebe markets the other weekend, whilst lapping up the beautiful winters day on show, Craig, friends and I strolled amongst the endless rows of store holders showcasing their wares of items new and used.

We stumbled upon this store holder who was selling the most precious little jewellery that was made up of miniature replica's of various food items.

And although not made in Australia, they are so cute and I just had to mention them on here! If only I had a little daughter to purchase them for....

You can find more of these designs Here.

So anyway, in my continued search for inspiration and in keeping with today's miniature theme, I came across a lady's blog who, along with her husband, were inspired to take up a challenge by Martha Stewart and create a tiny version of take-away food. I think the results are self explanatory on how successful they were, and how much effort they went to in recreating what you see below. Check it out here.

It gets my mind ticking.....

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Good Food and Wine Show, Sydney

Good Food and Wine Show, Sydney

Thursday 2 - Sunday 5 July 2009

On the weekend just passed, Craig, myself and friends headed to the Sydney Good Food and Wine show at Darling Harbour. It was the event de-jour on Friday, Saturday or Sunday for anyone with a love of all things gastronomical. With hundreds of exhibitors promoting over a thousand products from the humble cracker to gourmet confectionary and boutique beers to top shelf liquor, the show had something for everyone.

There were plenty of taste testing products to be devoured and also the chance to buy them at a bargain price and for an extra $20 you had the option to purchase tickets to see a live demonstration by Gordon Ramsay in the celebrity theatre.

As Craig and I had already been to its Melbourne counterpart the month earlier we kind of knew what we were getting ourselves in for, however upon arrival at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Centre we were not prepared for the crowds that confronted us. Granted it was Saturday and probably the busiest day of the show, we didn’t let it deter us and carried on ahead to see what goodies were on offer.

When we first arrived and entered the show, we shuffled our way a few metres then came to a stand still where the crowd of people became denser and denser. As I am not the tallest person in the world, I stood on my tip-toes and in the distance I could see Gary Mehigan on stage presenting some of his recipes to a crowd of eager onlookers. Realising we would not get any closer we took advantage of the situation and began wandering the aisles of stalls tasting and taking in all that was on offer.

A handful of local chefs such as Toby Puttock (Fifteen), Matt Moran (Aria), Gary Mehigan, George Colambaris (MasterChef) and Ben O’Donoghue from ‘Surfing The Menu’ also delighted patrons by presenting live demonstrations throughout the course of the show and at the Lindemans Early Harvest Restaurant you were able to purchase a meal created by these chefs with accompanying wine for a modest price, which we didn’t do as we were more interested in the wine tasting!

Dozens of Australian winemakers (think: Cedar Creek, McGuigans, McWilliams, Brown Brothers and De Bortoli) were represented, promoting top quality Aussie wines and offering free samples to all and sundry. And with all that all that drinking it certainly builds up quite an appetite and you find yourself in the perfect surroundings to fill those cravings.

The unique aromas of handmade pastries and chocolates, smelly cheeses and exotic spice blends, oriental and Italian delicacies and all added to the heady atmosphere that fuelled our apetite.

Poultry, Game and Farm providores all had their fine produce on offer, and there were producers of organic food, tea, coffee and chocolate as well as suppliers of cutlery and table linen.

All in all it was ultimate place to indulge your senses. And the four of us came a way with a satisfying belly full of gourmet morsels and a few bags full of inspiring produce and wares to recreate and attempt all that we had seen and learnt throughout such a wonderful day.

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You know you're addicted to MasterChef when....

1. You steal one of those luminous orange, plastic traffic cones from a roadworks site, so that you can practice making croquembouche.
2. As fishermen get distracted, you gobble some of their bait.
3. You awaken sweaty shouting "I can't be responsible for taking away someone elses dreams"
4. You sell the Commodore and buy a red scooter......because...well just because
5. Your colleague returns to the office after a lunch break and you greet them by running and leaping onto then and wrap your legs around them squealing.
6. You've taken to wearing colourful cravats when you eat, and you find that you carefully roll each mouthful around in your mouth (and roll your eyes along with it)
7. It's knock off time and you burst into tears saying "It's not my time to go"
8. When it’s your husbands turn to cook, you sit in the kitchen and take notes
9. You now are compelled to do every vegetable three different ways on the one dish.
10. You prepare 3 meals every night...cover them in black cloths........sit the family down on bar stools and make them guess which one is tonight’s dinner
11. You install a surveillance camera to keep an eye on the beef!
12. The supermarket bans you for trying to shop in 2 minutes.
13. You have a crazed urge to stand on a ladder above whoever is cooking in the kitchen and yell down encouragement and helpful suggestions.
14. The kids want fish and chips for tea, so you ring around boat hire companies
15. When the kids hold up score cards on the dinner you have just made
16. You have painstakingly trimmed all the hedges in your garden into the shape of the MasterChef logo
17. Your girlfriend says she wants to play 'hide the beef' & the 1st thing you think of is Tom
18. When you cut one of your trees down do bring in the trunk base to serve your cupcakes that you have just sat on
19. When you place an order at a restaurant and you find yourself yelling out to the chefs - "Cook as if your life depends on it - Yeah!!!"Make me proud - Yeah!!!"
20. You can't talk about food without throwing the word 'caramellisation' in there somewhere.
21. You refer to any sort of burning, browning, as "caramelising"
22. You tell your boyfriend you'll meet him in the Pantry and he'd better Make It Happen.
23. You rearrange your pantry ever week then cant find what you need as it is in a new spot.
24. You wrap a bandaid around every finger, just so you have 'the look'.
25. Before MasterChef, you had no idea what a silk cravat was.
26. You start rocking back & forth on your feet when you talk to people and go higher when you want to make a point
27. You finally know what 'reduction' means and keep using it in every sentence, even when it doesn't make sense such as…..Oh that coffee would be with be nice with milk reduction
28. You are going to have baked beans and you think 'how can i take this to another level'
29. You make cupcakes for the local school fete......and crumble them all into a pile

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Matt Moran - Warm Pear Tart

OK, so anyone who watched MasterChef last night would still probably be drooling from the challenge he put to Justine to make his Aria Restaurant dessert of Warm Pear tart.

It had Craig and I salivating at the bit and looked absolutely divine! Now Justine did an amazing job (she is such a cool customer under the hammer) scoring a very respectable 24 out of 30 against a multi time winning multiple chef's hat winner!

Had a look on the MC website this arvo and to my shock found the actual recipe that Justine followed...thought maybe he'd rope you into buying his latest book to obtain it ;)

I know I won't be able to match the quality and skill shown last night but I'm always up for a challenge and it sure does look like fun!

maybe the trick is in perfecting each separate process before combining them all together.....am I biting off more than I can chew......NEVER! well OK, maybe...

http://www.masterchef.com.au/media/MATT_MORAN_WARM_PEAR_TART.pdf

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Lost, but FOUND!!!

Yay! I finally found my Lemon Tart recipe and have posted it under desserts! phew.....

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Chocolate Churros

Chocolate Churros

(pictures to come)

Makes about 20

Ingredients
½ cup milk
½ cup water
90grams butter, chopped
1 cup plain flour, sifted
1 egg lightly beaten
50g dark block chocolate, grated
Vegetable oil for deep frying
½ cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon


Combine milk, water and butter in a medium saucepan. Heat on low until butter melts then bring to the boil.

Add flour to pan all at once and beat vigorously with a wooden spoon until mixture comes away from the sides of the pan. Set aside to cool slightly.

Add egg, beating until well combined. Beat in chocolate.

Heat oil in a deep fryer or large saucepan on high until a little dough sizzles immediately when it is added.

Spoon the dough into a piping bag fitted with a medium (1.5cm) star nozzle. Reduce heat to low.

Carefully pipe the dough, in 3cm strips, into the oil in batches – do not overcrowd the pan. Deep-fry for 2-3 minutes, turning, until golden brown and cooked through - oil must not be too hot. Drain on paper towel.

Combine the caster sugar and cinnamon in a bowl. Toss hot churros the sugar mixture.

Serve with coffee or tea.

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On my to do list!

So as you know we went to Melbourne on the weekend, and it (unintentionally) ended up revolving pretty much entirely around food. We had worked out that by lunchtime on Monday we had travelled the culinary globe and had eaten (not at the one time! ;) foods influenced from the USA, Vietnam, Spain, Malaysia, Italy, Thai, France, Germany and Australia to name a few!

One of our favourite finds was when we went walking around Flinders Station and the Yarra. We found a little hole in the wall selling Churro's, which are apparently the original Spanish donut without a hole! Hot, Cold, Sweet Savoury - these proved to be delicious and hugely dangerous! A deep fried heart attack, though they claim to better for you (what? as opposed to normal deep fried donuts!!! lol) as they use 100% vegetable oil!

Any way after much debate - i settled on an original sweet one with icing sugar and white chocolate dipping sauce - soooo good even after they had turned cold! And Craig could not resist a Hot caramel filled one (he never can when it comes to anything with caramel! :) As you can see it looks delish, and it was!!!!

It's funny how something I had not thought about in years hits me twice in the space of about 3 days. Back in Sydney relaxing in the bath reading a magazine (a guilty pleasure) my mother recycled by handing on to me, what do I stumble upon??? ......but a recipe for - yes, you guessed it - a Churro!

Although I have not yet tried this recipe, I feel that Craig will be itching to make some so I'm pretty sure it will be tested out this weekend. Any hoo - I'll post the recipe for your info and will post my success or failure on Monday!

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Good Food and Wine Show - Melbourne

Craig and I travelled to Melbourne on the long weekend just gone, and I was completely unaware that the GFWS was on. Needless to say that we ended up buying tickets and going along to join in all the fun and festivities on Sunday. We also purchased tix to see Gordon Ramsay and Matt Moran (ARIA, Sydney) up close. It was a fantastic afternoon, and truly nailed our visit to Melbourne as being a gastranomical delight!!!

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