Cook Book Challenge : Egg Pin Wheels for an Afternoon Tea Dinner

Theme 7 : Eggs

CookBook : The Dairy Book of Home Cookery by Sonia Allison 

for the Milk Marketing Board of England and Wales

Recipe : Pin Wheel Sandwiches

With my Hubby and his family originally from England, we were all excited for the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.  My mother in law came over for dinner but instead of eating dinner I prepared an afternoon tea affair.  The cookbook I used actually belong to Hubby's Nan in England.  She let me keep it during our holiday there a few years back.  This version was published in 1978 and as you can see it's been well used.  To this day, my mother in law still cooks dishes that she got from it.

Pin wheel sandwiches shows up regularly in afternoon teas, alongside other fabulous finger foods, sweet and savoury.  It can be filled with any filling you like.  I chose Egg.  

Tea is, of course, compulsory though coffee can also make an appearance.  I even took out our special Harrods tea towel just for the occasion.

Other dishes I also prepared for the Afternoon Tea Dinner :

My Afternoon tea table

Salmon sandwiches and cheese and cucumber sandwiches

Victoria Sponge Cake

After dinner, Hubby made Pimm's Deuce.  

Recipe :

4 hard boiled eggs, peeled and chopped

2 tbs mayonnaise or salad cream

1/2 tsp English mustard powder

salt and pepper

6 white or brown bread slices, crusts removed

butter

alfa alfa

1.  In a bowl, place the eggs, mayonnaise or salad cream, English mustard powder salt and pepper.  Set aside

2.  Using a rolling pin, roll over a slice of bread to flatten.

3.  Spread with butter and 1 - 2 tablespoons of the egg mixture.

4. Sprinkle alfa alfa over the egg mixture.

5.  Roll tightly to enclose the filling.  Place on place, seam side down.

6.  Repeat with the remaining of the egg mixture.

7.  Refrigerate for 30-60 minutes to firm up a little

8.  Cut into 3 or 4 even slices.  (as you can see, I didn't cut them evenly hehe)

 Check out my previous posts on this year's cookbook challenge.

Bon Appetite,
Cherrie

SBS Food Journey Festival 2011

With the picturesque Royal exhibition building in the background and delicious aromas wafting through the late summer air, you wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

I was at the SBS Food Journey Festival.  It was the first year this event was held for the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.  The interesting thing about this festival was that half of the stalls were outside.  Usually these type of food festivals, the stalls are all indoors.  The stalls indoors were producers of all sorts like Ganache, Movepick and Toscana to name a few.  The outdoors stalls were the food stalls where all kind of cooking was being done.  We managed to buy a few different foods to try but it was just too many to chose from. 

There were numerous stages dotted around the garden where  performances or demonstrations were being held.  The main stage was the Feasting Stage where Maeve O'Meara hosted a variety of presenters that have been featured on Food Safari.  There were also other popular chefs that were scheduled over the 3 days of the festival.  Adriano Zumbo, Tetsuya and Gabriel Gate to name a few.

Maeve O'Meara hosting a cooking demonstration

A few food bloggers were invited by @SBS_Food to come along to the event.  I was lucky to be one of them.  Adrian, Shellie, Thanh, Penny and I met up at the Alfresco Dinning Area to have a few bites to eat before heading off to each of our assignments for the day.

I had a while before my scheduled task so, along with Hubby, Mother-in-law, Deanna and Thomas we wandered around to take in the sight and smells of the festival.

Soo Twisted Potatoes Stix.  A snack that has recently found it's way to peoples  heart and stomach 

The Senor BBQ stall grilling up a storm

The Senor BBQ boys

The Senor BBQ chorizo sandwich

Mobile Wood Fired Ovens were cooking pizzas

A load of bull pizza from Mobile Wood Fired Ovens

Paellas being cooked

Inside the Royal Exhibition Building

Movenpick Ice Creams

Ganache Chocolates

Toscana oils and balsamic Vinegar

Tasmanian Gourmet Sauce Company

SBS stand where Costa Georgiadis was signing books

Thanks to @SBS_Food, I was a guest and was able to attend this first ever event and even got to review the internationally renowned chef, Gabriel Gate's cooking demonstration.  You can read it on the SBS Food Website

It was a great day of eating, sampling, watching and meeting chefs and producers.

Bon Appetite,

Cherrie

Chocolate and Nutella Thumbprint Cookies for World Nutella Day

World Nutella Day is held on February 5th and was the brain child of Sara, and Michelle .  The idea behind World Nutella Day is to celebrate and get creative with Nutella. You can follow them on twitter or become a fan on facebook.

My family loves Nutella, especially simply on toast for Breakfast.   My contribution is Chocolate and Nutella Thumbprint Cookies.  This is yummy.  The cookie is chewy and soft and the drop of nutella on top is a perfect match.

1/2 cup butter

2/3 cup sugar

1 egg, separated

2 tablespoons milk

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup all purpose flour

1/3 cup baking cocoa

1/4 teaspoon salt

1.  In a bowl add the butter, sugar, egg yolk, milk and vanilla and mix til light and fluffy.

2.  Sift the flour, cocoa and salt in a separate bowl then gradually add to creamed mixture,stir to combine.

3.  Cover and place in the refrigerator one hour, or until firm enough to shape into balls.

4.  Take 1 tablespoon of the mixture and shape into balls

5.  Using your thumb (or back of a 1/4 tsp) make an indentation in center of of each cookie. 

6.  Bake at 160degC for 10 to 12 minutes, or until center is just set.

7.  Let the cookies cool before filling them

Makes 24 cookies

 Fill the centers with Nutella.

 

I also made some peanut butter ones.

 There are many other fillings you can use but I think Nutella is the best one.

Bon Appetite,
Cherrie

Olive Oil Cake - LiveStrong 2010 with a Taste Of Yellow.

I found out that @winosandfoodies was hosting Livestrong with a  taste of Yellow Event to create awareness of Cancer Issues.  If you want to learn more or would like to help create awareness, you can click here.

There are many people who have been touched by cancer and this is my little contribution to honour those who have lived with cancer or knows someone that has.  My family has lost a loved one to cancer.  I dedicate this post to my uncle.  He will forever live in our memories.

For this blog Event, we are to create a yellow dish including a heart.  I have chosen to bake an olive oil cake.

2 large eggs

200g caster sugar

80ml extra virgin olive oil

100ml good white wine (I chose a Chardonnay)

200g self raising flour

1.  Beat together the eggs and caster sugar until pale and creamy.

2.  Add olive oil and the white wine and mix together gently.

3.  Sift the self raising flour into the mixture and fold.

4.  Pour into a prepared loaf tin.

5.  Bake in preheated oven (160deg  fanforced) for 30minutes or until cake is cooked

6.  Cool in the tin on a rack for 5 minutes before turning out.

7.  Serve with jam and a dollop of cream.

Bon Appetite,
Cherrie

Fine Food Australia 2010

I love food events.  Fine food Australia is an annual event for the food service and hospitality industry.  With more than 1000 exhibitors, you are bound to find something to give you great ideas or help you with your business. 

I was given a media pass by @fine_food_Aust so I went Tuesday Evening with my family (who had registered to go).  

Once in the buidling, my first thought was "oh my, it's so big".  We only had a couple of hours to go through the whole exhibit and it definitely wasn't enough time.  I would've loved to have gone again another day but unfortunately didn't have the opportunity to return.



The event was separated into "worlds".  There were drinks, bakery, packaging, gourmet food, confectionary, meat and seafood, natural products, general foods, dairy, and food safety and handling.  This assisted us as we had limited time, we were able to quickly go to which "world" were of interest to us.  The exhibitors ranged from bakeries and caterers to packaging and everything possibly relating to the hospitality and food service industry.

We started off at the catering equipment section and slowly made our way across.  Now that we think about it, we started off at the wrong side because all the food and food tastings was on the other side and by the time we got to that side, we only had about 30 minutes left till it closed.  We had to rush through.  We did, however, see powdered tomato, a machine that popped out rice cakes (yes, "popped out"), numerous different flavours of granitas and how a convection oven can steam dumplings.

The night was very informative and we spoke to great suppliers and vendors who were only to keen to get our business.  We walked away well informed with samples and brochures.

I would love to return next year and this time, I will put aside a whole day to ensure I get to see all the exhibitors.

Taste of Melbourne 2010

I was fortunate to win a double pass to Taste of Melbourne 2010.  This Event is held annually at the Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton and is held over 4 days.

There are 12 Melbourne restaurants and a number of bars to chose from.  You don't decide where you are going to eat but have to decide what to eat.  The restaurants feature 3 signature dishes each, so there are many to chose from.  There are also a number of exhibits you can have a look and try some of their produce.

 The Chocolate Master Exhibit

Ben and Jerry's Ice cream van

Sweet By Nature Exhibit

Before you enter, it's a good idea to have a look at the menu here and decide (if you can!) what you are going to eat because once you get in there, it can get really busy and you might miss something.

Hubby and I went on the opening night, Thursday.  We had a fairly good idea what we wanted but we still just wanted to have a look around at all the stands to see what looked good.  You also have to buy "crowns".  This is the "currency" used at the Event.  $1 = 1 crown.  You can buy crowns at the crown banks located around the event.  There are also crown sellers that are roaming around.

Organic slow braised pork cheek, white polenta, raisins and marsala sauce from Mezzo Bar and Grill (8 crowns)

Wagyu Burger by The Palace (10 crowns)

Salted Western Plains Pork and prawn sweet roll with pickled vegetables by Longrain (10 crowns)

Pistachio "Panna Cotta", salted Caramel Popcorn by Sarti (8 crowns)

The Bombe - strawberry sorbet, white chocolate parfait, and toasted meringue (10 crowns)

Swiss Chocolate by Movenpick (4 crowns)

My pick of the night was definitely the pork cheek from Mezzo bar and grill.  The meat was so tender and flavourful.  The white polenta was fluffy and silky.  Another winner was the Pork and Prawn roll from Longrain.  Oh my, this little roll was full of flavour and the pork had a little crunch from the crackling.  We aslo tried the Wagyu burger from The Palace.  I'm glad we got a chance to taste this as they had run out later in the night and not everyone got to try it.

For dessert, the bombe was "The bomb".  It was so delish.  The different layers combined into each other.  The sorbet was tart while the chocolate parfait was sweet.  Perfect.

Hubby and I left the event feeling so full and satisfied.  There was nothing there that we could say anything negative about.  The entire event was worth the wait in the rain for.