Sweet little mystery – Sarah Wilson’s ‘I Quit Sugar’ Cookbook

June 6, 2012June 6, 2012 | GastronoMel - Melissa Brauer

I have a confession to make. My name’s Melissa and I’m a sweet tooth. I always look at the dessert menu first in a restaurant, and I am a self-confessed, card-carrying chocoholic. And I love a drink. Or three.

But I am also an avid fan of Sarah Wilson and have been following her blog for some time. I love her positive, honest messages, and the whimsical, beautiful imagery of her posts. I watched with interest months ago as she invited countless people to follow her ‘I Quit Sugar’ program via Twitter and Facebook. It was like a science experiment that I was observing, waiting to see what happened. And what happened was people started raving about how delicious everything was and how they lost weight and felt amazing and wait…did I mention they GAVE UP SUGAR? Wahhhhh….

I didn’t wanting to have to commit to anything as drastic as cutting sugar out of my diet forever because quite obviously I WOULD DIE, but it had sparked my interest enough to give it a bit of a crack. I wanted to try and incorporate some Sarah’s ideas into my daily life, slowly and gently – after all, my New Year’s resolution this year was to stop eating processed foods, which I’ve been doing (mostly) quite well with.

When Sarah announced the ‘I Quit Sugar’ cookbook I was super excited, and as soon as it was available I printed it all off, as well as using the handy tool on the PDF version to create a shopping list, and got in the kitchen with my pile of new supplies, alongside some of my staples, like coconut oil, LSA, and chia seeds.

I went straight to the sweet section of the book, and started with the choc berry mud, made using frozen berries, ice cubes, avocado, spinach and raw cacao powder and a tiny bit of stevia powder all whizzed together in the blender. The first spoonful was a shock, as clearly my tastebuds were expecting something super-sweet and went into cardiac arrest, but after that it was just plain delicious, very smooth and creamy.

The second little treat I whipped up was for breakfast, using almond milk, chia seeds and some cinnamon. I also added some vanilla, and some raw cacao powder again, because the chocolate taste makes it feel a bit naughty and the end result is something like ridiculously satisfying adult Coco Pops but with NO SUGAR. This is my new work desk-breakfast for ever. Until I try one of Sarah’s other recipes for something else as easy and delicious anyway.

Next was the recipe for chocolate nut balls (are you sensing a theme yet?): I used a mix of walnuts, cashews and almonds, crushed in the food processor, and mixed with butter, coconut oil, almond spread, LSA, shredded cocunut, raw cacao powder (obviously I am going to have to start buying this in 10kg bags) vanilla and cinnamon. After a spell in the fridge, these little babies come out tasting like nutty chocolate crackles. The 7 year old has 2 of them in his lunchbox today and he’s pretty excited about it.

I also took the pumpkin porridge breakfast recipe and turned it into dinner, using pumpkin puree, coconut milk, some galangal, lemongrass, chilli, kaffir lime leaves, fish sauce and lime juice and stirring through some cooked quinoa. This was sensational.

This entire experiment has let me experience the true flavours of all the ingredients I’m cooking with, without having everything tinted with a sugary glow. It’s made me think alot more about how much sugar is in just about everything we eat. And best of all it’s given me a huge range of super-healthy options for making snacks at home out of ingredients I now have as standard in my pantry, and every single bite is doing my body the world of good. You’ve got to be happy with that!

Hola, St Kilda! Radio Mexico

May 25, 2012May 25, 2012 | GastronoMel - Melissa Brauer

Much has been written about the explosion of Mexican eateries in Melbourne, and some are definitely better than others.

I travelled across town recently to try Radio Mexico and all I’ll say is that I’m jealous of the locals. JEALOUS.

Located just next to The Galleon in Carlisle St, this little taqueria is bound to charm you – casual, colourful and inviting.

I arrived early because we all know well enough by now that trying to get a table anywhere that doesn’t take bookings after about 6pm in Melbourne is about as pleasant as stabbing yourself in the eye with a cactus.

I was early enough in fact to have a good chat with the very friendly staff, who mentioned that despite being open just a short time, it feels like they have always been in the neighbourhood. Their prediction was that within the hour, the place would be jam-packed. Inside was quiet (ish) but outside, with a fireplace on the deck, which overlooks the taco-truck styled kitchen, it was already over half-full with punters enjoying a cerveza with their tortillas. In any case they were spot on. As my dining companion and I chowed down on spectacularly good tacos, oblivious to the building crowd behind us, when we turned around, the place was overflowing.

That brings me to the staff, who could not have been more pleasant, enthusiastic, and attentive. Despite people waiting for tables, there was no pressure at all, and we were encouraged to keep ordering tacos as long as we felt able to fit them in. They recommend you order your tacos one at a time, since they come out super-fast, and whilst you could be forgiven for thinking with a crowd this big you may be forgotten about when time came to order your next one, you would be dead wrong. We couldn’t fault it.

The tacos themselves were just bursting with fresh, crisp ingredients, and between us we sampled free range pork with jalapenos/black beans with avocado /bbq bugmeat with habanero slaw as well as street-style corn on the cob and a wonderful ceviche of rockling, ruby grapefruit and avocado.

We finished with the most DIVINE coconut icecream sundae with cajeta caramel and roasted coconut. Ariba! Which may or may not be Mexican for ‘do it’.

Marmalade and a whole lotta Soul

May 23, 2012May 25, 2012 | GastronoMel - Melissa Brauer

Now HERE is a gem. Owned by Raymond Capaldi (renowned chef of many years repute both overseas and here in Melbourne, not least including co-owning Fenix, and now owner of the very fabulous Hare & Grace in Collins St), Marmalade and Soul is located on Queens Parade in Clifton Hill, a stone’s throw from Brunswick St.

The first thing that hits you, aside from the gorgeous fit-out (thankfully not too cliched, with some nice vintage touches, and cleverly-designed light shades made from colanders and other kitchen utensils, as well as an open kitchen and a fabulous communal table) is the incredible menu.

I’ve never seen anything like it, and I eat breakfast out alot. Probably way more than I should. In any case, apart from a few staples, and an offering for the kidlets of either googie-eggs with soldiers or Coco-Pops, we were in uncharted territory. It was impossible not to succumb to the adventure. Presented with such confidence, the sheer balls of it had me going ‘hell yes, I WILL have some scrambled eggs cooked in burnt butter with curry powder’. Thank God I did because that, my friends, was some curry, eggy goodness right there. It also probably didn’t hurt that our waitress was ridiculously lovely, friendly and FRENCH, which meant when she recited the specials <yes they also have breakfast specials> we asked her to do them again, just to hear her accent.

The coffee was SPLENDID. I think it’s worth saying that again. Splendid. So good, I had 3 piccolos and was pinging off my head by the time I left.

But back to breakfast. Between us we also tried the caramelised orange and olive cake, with burnt orange custard, and maple bacon, and the corned beef jaffle with baked beans and salted egg yolk marmalade. My brain hurt trying to think about how this was all going to work, but BAM! Out it all came, on beautifully mismatched vintage crockery, my heart just told me to go with it and my tastebuds happily followed. Everything was fabulous. Loved it all.

Friendly welcome: check. Great service: check. Awesome coffee: check. An utterly original menu that makes you go WHOOOOO! Checkmate.

Good god. After a truly spectacular lunch at Hare & Grace last week with my new food partner in crime, and now this breakfast magnificence, I’m officially a Ray Capaldi groupie. And considering he’s kinda like a rugged Billy Bob Thornton, that may not be bad thing. Unless of course, you’re my husband. Shhhh!

Chicken Dumpling Soup recipe

April 27, 2012 | GastronoMel - Melissa Brauer

Now that the weather is cooling down here in Melbourne, I’m turning back to my soup recipes to feed the hungry hordes at our place (7 year old boy and husband are always ravenous)!

A family favourite is a recipe I discovered in a Weight Watcher’s cookbook of all places…it’s perfect for a weeknight as it’s simple to prepare, and it’s nice and healthy.

Ingredients: (Serves 4)

1 litre chicken stock

1 litre water

3 large chicken breasts (skin off) or 400 gms chicken mince

2-3 cloves garlic

1 bunch fresh coriander

4-6 spring onions, chopped

1 stick lemongrass – chopped into chunks

1 red chilli finely chopped (this is optional. Kids love this dish so you might want to skip the chilli in this case)

1 chunk ginger, finely chopped (or larger so kids can fish them out if they’re not into it!)

1 bunch choy sum or Chinese broccoli, roughly chopped (inc stalks)

Soy sauce – 2 tablespoons (or to taste)

Fish sauce – 1 tablespoon (or to taste)

Juice of 1 lime

Noodles (optional but great with this dish. You can use anything from 2 minute noodles, or vermicelli to Udon noodles)

Put the stock and water in a large saucepan, together with the ginger, soy sauce, and lemon grass and bring to the boil

In the meantime, blitz your chicken breasts in the food processor together with the garlic and a large handful of coriander, or if you are using chicken mince, you’ll need to get your hands dirty here and crush the garlic, finely chop the coriander and mix these through the mince in a bowl.

Once the stock is boiling, start rolling the chicken mince into balls with your hands (3-4 cms across) and drop them carefully into the stock.

Once they are cooking you can add your noodles (depending which ones you get and how long they take – the chicken dumplings cook in a matter of minutes)

Once the dumplings are done, add the choy sum and the spring onions and cook for a minute or so, then turn off the heat, and stir in the lime juice, fish sauce and a handful of coriander.

Ladle into big bowls and slurp your way to happiness. Enjoy!

Green Smoothies – local and delicious!

April 13, 2012June 4, 2012 | GastronoMel - Melissa Brauer

I’ve been banging on about green smoothie goodness for a while now, and here by popular demand is a post dedicated to the what, why, how and where of it all.

Green smoothies are quite simply the result of blending ripe fruit and raw leafy greens together with water.
I like to add lots of other good things to my smoothies, like chia seeds, LSA mix, coconut oil and flaxseed oil, gubinge and maca powder. These collectively do great things for your system like help lower cholesterol, increase metabolism, maximise nutrient absorption, balance hormones, enhance memory function and much more.

The health benefits of green smoothies have been well documented, but Victoria Boutenko’s book ‘Green for Life’ (and subsequent Raw Family website) is perhaps the definitive guide on the subject.

In Victoria’s own words, green smoothies are good for you because “greens are the most nutritionally dense food available on the planet. They are loaded with vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, proteins, and phytonutrients. What better way to consume them than in a delicious green smoothie? The fresh ripe fruits dominate the flavor of the greens and the absence of any fats maximize the absorption of the nutrients. These two factors make the green smoothie the most epic nutritious concoction the world has seen to date. Adding even one cup of green smoothie a day to one’s existing diet can dramatically improve anyone’s health. And the best part is, nearly everyone already has what they need to make a green smoothie sitting around in their kitchen right now!’

Another health benefit of the green smoothie is that unlike juicing, you actually retain and consume the fibre which is essential for a good digestive system and helps eliminate toxins from the colon.

A really handy tool recommended to me by a mate is the iPhone app from Raw Family, which gives you ideas for green smoothie combinations, as well as the nutritional value of each of the ingredients – you can get the app here.

So down the the basics – how do you make a green smoothie?

You’ll need a blender, some water, and whatever (preferably seasonal) fruit and fresh leafy greens you fancy.

The types of greens we eat at home (and grow ourselves) are: spinach, lettuce, bok choy, choy sum, kale, and silverbeet (chard). And if we don’t grow it, we buy it from the lovely folk at Ceres, or at one of our local farmers’ markets – see here for your nearest one. We also like to shop at Organic Gertrude in Fairfield, who are kind enough to provide information on where all their fruit and veg comes from, and you can see how many food miles your goodies travelled to get to you!

You don’t need a big garden to grown your own vegies – friends of ours have built an amazing greenhouse on the balcony of their apartment, and we’ve gone down the permaculture route, using existing wine barrels containing our lime and lemon trees, and have planted all our greens around the base of the citrus plants.

<Insert local produce rant here> I’m passionate about supporting local business and farmers, and avoid buying fruit, vegetables, meat (or dairy if I can help it) from the supermarkets. I’d rather know where my food comes from, and thanks to the most excellent work from the good folk at the Victorian Farmers Market Association, as well as the Locavore Edition with their Field Guide to Victorian Produce, it has never been easier or more enjoyable to connect with your local producers and get your food on the the day it was harvested. There’s also the added bonus of being able to sleep at night, knowing the wonderful people who spent their time growing your food are being fairly paid for doing so. <end rant>

Which fruit you select is entirely up to you, but the ones we have had the best results with include bananas, pineapple, mangoes, blueberries, strawberries, apples, pears, peaches, nectarines, watermelon, and some dates for extra creaminess. We try at all times to utilise what’s in season, with the exception of pineapples and bananas which we use year round.

It’s important not to overdo it on the fruit, since fructose is still sugar – but a few well chosen pieces will have your smoothie tasting super-delicious, and you won’t even realise you’ve just drunk a cupful of spinach. And take it from me, if my 7 year old is happy to drink one of these bad boys every single day, then you won’t have a problem downing some of this green goodness!

It’s usual to start with the fruit, so roughy chop your fruit, only peel the obvious ones like bananas etc, core your apples and pineapple etc, take out pips from peaches and so on. Add fruit to the blender jug with at least 1 cup of water. Now is the time to throw in all your awesome additions like the chia seeds, coconut oil etc. Start blending, and once it’s nice and smooth start adding your spinach, lettuce etc. Cucumber is also a fantastic smoothie ingredient. Again, don’t peel it.

Listed below are some ‘beginner’ combinations to get you started – once you get a feel for it, you’ll know what works and what you like, so just experiment and have fun with it. Just remember to rotate your greens and don’t eat the same ones every day. There are many to choose from, so it isn’t hard to do.

1 cup berries (any kind), 2 cups fresh spinach, 1/4 inch fresh ginger, water

1/2 bunch lettuce, 1 cup strawberries, 2 bananas, water

2 big handfuls mixed baby greens, 1 pears, 1 mango, 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

1 handful of spinach, 2 bananas, 1 apple, 1 cup water

1 cup spinach and 1 pear, 1 cup water

Once you’ve cut your teeth on these, start getting stuck into the chard, kale, choy sum, etc. You’ll love it!

Some more great recipes from Victoria Boutenko, can be found here. There are literally hundreds of websites dedicated to green smoothie goodness, and everyone has recipes to share so get googling!

Here are a few to get you started:

http://www.veryediblegardens.com/iveg/green-smoothies

http://greensmoothiegirl.com/

http://www.vitamix.com/household/Health/green_smoothie.asp

http://rawfoodhealthwatch.com/raw-food/green-smoothies-recipe/

http://cheekychimpsmoothies.com/green-smoothie-recipis/green-smoothie-recipes/

Greenhouse by Joost – Part II

March 8, 2012June 6, 2012 | GastronoMel - Melissa Brauer

The Greenhouse by Joost has been delivered into my lap so to speak – assembled literally outside my building, so that I pass it 3 or 4 times a day. I’ve been delighted to be able to sneak a quick piccolo in each morning before work, and just soak up the green-ness of it all, enjoying the warm welcome of a cheerful team who appear as happy to be there as I am, as well of course as admiring the work of infamous Iron Chef/Perth Greenhouse/Danish master shoulder-rubbing Matt Stone and his killer ink. For a more detailed post on the actual Greenhouse concept see my previous entry here.

Lunch has inspired a second post, just simply because I love it, it’s too pretty not to take pictures of, and I can’t get enough of the place.

We started off with some sublimely refreshing drinks, a house-made lemonade and a ginger ale, served in the ubiquitous jam jars, and decided between us to have the spicy chicken, with quinoa and yoghurt, and the pumpkin, chickpea tagine with green chilli yoghurt.

Both were bursting with flavour, fresh, spicy, healthy and quite perfect in their simplicity. Gorgeous.

Oh, and did I mention you can buy the lovely dishes, coffee cups and glasses at the counter, and take a slice of the green heaven home with you? The philosophy behind the design, according to the man Joost himself, is presenting food in pots and terracotta makes you think back and connect with how your food is grown and where it comes from.

They also have organic cotton t-shirts for sale, emblazoned with ‘green’ messages, including the one I bought which says ‘Imagine buildings that grow food’. Imagine indeed.

I’m going back again tomorrow!

Green Awesomeness at the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival

March 1, 2012March 5, 2012 | GastronoMel - Melissa Brauer

If you’ve been anywhere near Queensbridge Square on the Yarra River this week you would have seen a hive of activity as the Greenhouse by Joost was built for this year’s Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.

Today it is open, and is a magnificent homage to sustainability in its entirety.

From the building materials used, to the food sourcing and production, to its furniture design, it is a lesson in green awesomeness. And the coffee is ACE.

Chef Matt Stone (from the Greenhouse in Perth) will be cooking up a green storm, with a breakfast, lunch and dinner menu using only fresh local ingredients, so local the wheat is being milled on site, and the yoghurt and butter is made from organic milk and cream delivered daily.

There is a gorgeous rooftop garden and bar overlooking the river, full of plants for the kitchen, and herbs line the exterior walls in terracotta pots in a vertical garden. The electricity comes from unrefined canola oil, the walls are formaldehyde-free plywood and the glue is made entirely from soybeans. This place is so sustainable they’re even harvesting human urine to use as crop fertilizer for a farm in Daylesford. I’m probably a little more interested in this than I should be – if you are similarly fascinated, you can read more about this in detail here.

Joost Bakker is the visionary architect of the Greenhouse space, having created the original back in 2008 in Federation Square in Melbourne, and then creating the whole restaurant in Perth.

He is quite simply my HERO, and I’ve never been so proud to be Dutch!!

As anyone who knows me can tell you, my 2 biggest passions are food and sustainability so this has me jumping out of my skin with excitement, much like I did when I first visited the Greenhouse in Perth last year.

The calendar of events for the Greenhouse over the coming weeks is nothing short of senstational, naturally the dinner with great Dane Rene Redzepi is sold out, however there is a veritable smorgasbord of other options to whet your appetite.

I’m booked in for lunch with Rosa Mitchell, for some homestyle Italian cooking on March 14^th.

You can view the whole timetable here.

There’s even a free iPhone app for the MFWF which you can download here.

Get involved Melbourne, this one’s going to be HUGE! Much like my waistline after all the eating I’m going to be doing. Buon appetito, y’all!

Top Ten Desserts for 2011

February 23, 2012March 5, 2012 | GastronoMel - Melissa Brauer

You may have noticed we got around a bit last year. My tastebuds had an absolute flogging at the hands of many seriously good offerings, some of which I am going to share with you now, in the form of my Top Ten Desserts for 2011.

Now I know I should give up sugar, or at least cut down (which I have made a concerted effort to do this year) however I freely admit to letting the calorific hair down for these treats and it’s only right you should know about them. They.Were.That.Good. Please enjoy the following food p*rn, in no particular order. It’s a tough job but somebody’s got to do it. And being that one of my New Year’s resolutions is to eat even more locally grown and sourced food, I’ve got a whole lot more foodlove to share from our fair city so stay tuned!

1. Ilona Staller’s Bombe Alaska

2. Rockpool‘s Devil Food cupcake

3. Bistro Guillaume’s giant salted caramel macaron

4. St Katherine’s Mister Whippy

5. Cafe Vue’s Chocolate mousse cake

6. Miami Fontainebleau’s Key Lime Pie

7. Seven Seeds’ Meringue cup cake

8. Sarong Bali’s Duck egg and ginger custard with cashew nut icecream

9. Disney World Resort’s Boardwalk Bakery Red Velvet Cupcake – note the icing to cake ratio here

10. Grossi Florentino’s canoli

And 2 extremely refreshing and delightful beverages we enjoyed regularly (but responsibly of course) were:

Dal Zotto Puccino Prosecco

Rekorderlig Pear Cider

The Sustainable Living Festival, Melbourne

February 20, 2012June 4, 2012 | GastronoMel - Melissa Brauer

Birrarung Marr on theYarraRiver in Melbourne was transformed over the weekend into a festival of awesomeness – 2 long rows of marquees displaying unimaginable goodies, winding along the river, and tantalising with the aromas of local, healthy food.

The happens every year in February, and is jam-packed full of fantastic events, speakers, information-sharing and workshops, all well as stalls stocked with new and innovative products and services and people just bursting to share the love.

During the course of 3 hours we saw Perma Pete giving a talk on how to make your own cider, learned that we can plant complimentary herbs around our citrus trees from the folk at http://www.VeryEdibleGardens.com, saw the gorgeous Joyce from http://cyclestyle.com.au/ with her glamorous array of bike accessories, and fell in love with the most stunning Bachhara www.bachhara.com silk kaftans made in Bangladesh from the ladies at http://sevencanaries.com.au/marketplace/sevencanaries/ .

I tried locally-made, cruelty free mineral make up from http://www.adornmineralcosmetics.com.au/ (it was excellent), found sweat-shop-free organic fair-trade undies from Etiko http://www.etiko.com (they were funky!) and got some fantastic solar energy information for our home, as well as beautiful raingarden inspiration from Melbourne Water http://raingardens.melbournewater.com.au/, and picked up my much coveted copy of the Field Guide to Victorian Produce from the Locavore Edition http://www.locavored.com/field-guides/. Make sure you check out their beautiful website!

I also grabbed a rad bumper sticker from the rock chicks Victorian Farmers Market Association at the which is now proudly proclaiming from the rear of my car that ‘I don’t buy food from strangers’. Classic. (photo credit for this particular image goes to VFMA) . We topped this off with a chat to the lovely ladies at making sensational curry mixes right here in Melbourne at No Worries Curries which are going straight into my slow cooker!

And to keep our strength up we visited http://www.misterniceguy.com.au for a spectacular coconut and lime creation, and the lovely folk at AllPress made us a cranking piccolo late, no mean feat considering they were making it in a tent.

We came home energised and excited about all the cool stuff we saw and sampled and inspired by the passion and creativity of all the exhibitors and participants. Mission accomplished!