What Could Be More Important Than a Little Something to Eat?

April 17, 2016April 17, 2016Leave a comment

There’s something unnerving and interesting about being a tourist in your own city. Quite often we live our lives in our comfort zones. We get in habits and frequent the same areas for catch ups, dinners and shopping.

Before we take off to explore new land, I really wanted to head down to Fremantle to explore some old land. Though it’s only a half an hour drive, we very rarely get our butts down to this end of town. And what a mistake that is, Freo = foodie heaven.

With two of my best gal pals in tow, we wandered around the town, through the markets and around the marina. If anyone is wondering, three is the magic number for food sharing. We were able to sample so many things without getting ridiculous with the portioning.

Chimek, What the Bao and Muffle & Co stole our hearts, wallets and stomach capacity. The New York Buffalo Wings are deeeelightful! Spicy and saucy, with the crunchiest fries on the side. I suggest you follow this up with some bao buns; we recommend the Crispy Skin Duck, Soft Shell Crab and Korean Beef.

After you walk off the first round of food, and wash it down with a drink at one of the 27,000 bars and pubs around, it’s time for dessert.

Enter: the Muffle. A thing of beauty.

Waffle mix (which tastes more like pancakes?) with a surprise in each bubble, forming a cone which is then filled with toppings and ice cream. We got the banoffee to slide us right into a food coma and craving an afternoon nap.

Thank you Anh and Rach for our mini Freo tour, I’ve loved hitting up some of the best spots in Perth with the best company.

My hot dates

Now, get yourself down there and try those bao buns!!!

Hanbel.
x

The Sweetness of Doing Nothing

February 14, 2016February 14, 2016Leave a comment

Two weeks into my unemployed life, and I’ve never been more relaxed… or freaked out because I’m so relaxed.

I wake up, and have nothing to do. No one will get mad if I don’t turn up somewhere, there aren’t really any emails to check and technically speaking I have no reason to get out of bed.

My brain won’t let me do that though, it wants me to be as busy as ever. Which means the last two weeks have been full of mountain biking, HIIT, walks, yoga, selling our things on gumtree, scouring for a casual job, grabbing coffee and anything else I can think of.

Howdy Coffee, in Bayswater [sooooooooo good]

I do all that, and still have so much free time. It’s been a real struggle coming out of full time work, to nothing. Which sounds absolutely ridiculous, I know, because I should be overjoyed that I can do whatever I like, as leisurely as I like. But, I’m a people pleaser, a do-gooder and a helper. I make a great assistant and truly freak out when I don’t have anyone to look after. So now it’s time to make that person ME.

I’m going to practice “Dolce Far Niente” or “The Sweetness of Doing Nothing”, as explained in one of my favourites; Eat Pray Love.

I began today, celebrating Valentines with my one true love: My Mum. We spent the day in Fremantle; eating, drinking, wandering and ending at the Cottesloe Beach Club for a rosè and long chats. It was heavenly, and so relaxing.

Beetroot cured Salmon at Bread in Common

Now I have “When Harry Met Sally” playing, a cup of tea waiting, two new books to read, flowers from Andrew on the table and a date night in to look forward to.

Life is sweet, and I can enjoy it.

Love to all, Happy Valentine’s Day!
Hanbel.
x

Let Them Eat Cake!

February 4, 2016Leave a comment

So, I’ve been baking again.

And if you like chocolate, coffee, salted caramel, snickers or sugar and butter in general, you will LOVE these cupcakes.

Andrew’s Cousin (also Lucy’s bestie – Perth is too small) is getting married in under a month!!! We celebrated her kitchen tea this past weekend, and the bridesmaids asked if I could contribute my baking skillz.

I’m sure you all know by now that I will take any opportunity to bake, so this was a no brainer. Also, I found this video by Cupcake Jemma and was DYING to try it out. The name itself says it all: Salted Caramel Chocolate Mudslide Cupcakes. C’mon!!

First up, we’ve gotta make some Salted Caramel, which is so much easier than you think!
Pop one teaspoon of vanilla extract (essence is way better, but this is what I had) into 1 cup of double cream, and put to the side.
Put a tea towel down on your bench, you’ll be needing this very soon!

Then, combine 6 tablespoons of tap water with a cup of caster sugar and bang it on the heat (that was a bit Jamie Oliver wasn’t it?). Now here’s the tricky part: leave it on medium heat for around 8-10 minutes. Do not touch it. No stirring, no whisking, no sloshing around. Let it do it’s thing.

When it looks like this:

Take it off the heat, and add in your cream. AND NOW YOU GET TO STIR. Please don’t stop stirring while you pour the cream in steadily until it’s all combined. It will then smell unbelievable and look like all your caramel dreams. Which is when you add in a teaspoon of good quality sea salt flakes and set the jar aside for later on.

Now, the actual cupcake part.
Make a dry ingredient bowl: 350g plain flour, 60g cocoa powder, 370g caster sugar, 1 teaspoon bicarb soda, a pinch of salt and 150g chocolate chips. Mix it up!
Then a wet ingredient bowl: 240ml cooled coffee (I made two cups that morning, one for the cupcakes, one for Hanbel), 240ml buttermilk, 210ml vegetable oil and 3 large eggs.

Add the dry into the wet and combine, simples!

Pop them into cupcake cases, and then into a 180 degree oven for 22 minutes. While they’re cooking and getting even more delicious, move onto the icing.

Start by beating 300g soft unsalted butter until it’s light and fluffy (I use a hand mixer, but a standing mixer is perfecto). Next up, 540g SIFTED icing sugar is added in two stages. I say SIFTED in CAPITAL LETTERS because I didn’t sift mine, and had piping bag issues later on. It wasn’t the end of the world, but life is easier with sifted icing sugar.
Add in half of the salted caramel we made earlier (around 150ml) and whiz away.

These bad boys come out of the oven, and it’s time for the sneaky part.

Using a chopstick, or something similar, poke a decent hole in the top of each cupcake. This is where the rest of that amazing salted caramel goes!

Frost your cupcakes however you like, piped or spooned on, and you’re almost good to go! I had a little of the salted caramel left over, so I drizzled that over the top. As per Jemma’s suggestion, I had also frozen mini snickers bars ahead of time, to chop up and place on top. Because these cupcakes didn’t have enough chocolate in them already…

There you have it, the final product:

So dense, soft and delectable (I’m avoiding the M word, but you all know it). I went a little light on the frosting, but as these were very sweet and rich, I think it worked out well.

Go on, give them a go. You know you want 24 of these puppies to yourself…

Hanbel.
x

Cuppa Tea Love?

January 1, 2016Leave a comment

Welcome 2016, it’s very nice to meet you. Minus the lingering hangover, I like you already.

I’m very excited to see what you have in store for me, and for Andrew.

We have kick-started our year hanging out at home, watching Star Wars and packing up the Christmas decorations. For the first time, I’m actually not too sad about Christmas being over, because I’ve got a good feeling about what’s coming next.

Before, we get into any of that though, let’s reminisce a little.
Christmas morning was spent at Andrew’s parents place with coffee in hand and nibbling on potato cakes topped with smoked salmon and cream cheese. Lunch at Mum’s house was perfection. The food was spot on and absolutely delicious, with just enough for leftover packs. We spent the afternoon sipping tea and watching the Grinch until we were ready to do it all over again.
Dinner with Andrew’s loud, crazy, lovely family means a huge secret santa game of stealing and swapping, more food than you could ever imagine and so much laughter.

I hope you all had just as amazing day!

A few friend-related events, many busy days and exercise attempts later, brought us to New Years Eve. This year, Andrew organised for us and 22 of our closest friends to take part in a small ‘tour de fridge’, with just 5 stops very close to one another.
Each house had a loose theme, and we picked two drinks accordingly. Our house became the British house with Pimms and Gin & Tonic on offer. Never one to shy away from a theme, I wanted to go one step further and try out a new cupcake recipe I stumbled across.

Enter The English Breakfast Cupcake.

Thanks to Cupcake Jemma (friend of Jamie Oliver) I whipped these up yesterday, and despite having a lot of elements, it was a fantastic recipe to follow.

Lemon curd: Combine 2 whole eggs, 2 egg yolks and 3/4 cup caster sugar in a saucepan. Then, place over the heat and add the zest and juice from 2 lemons along with 1/3 cup chilled butter. Keep stirring until thick and strain into a bowl to use for later.
Tea Milk Mixture: Pop 6 english breakfast tea bags into 150ml of milk and heat on low for 3-4 minutes. Pop to the side, with the lid on until cool.
Biscuit base: Ground 150g of your choice of biscuit (usually one you’d have with a nice cuppa – I went with Maries), add in 50g melted butter and 1 1/2 tbsp golden syrup. Pop a spoonful of the mix into your cupcake cases and press down to firm it up.
Cupcake batter: Combine 125g self-raising flour, 125g caster sugar, 1/4 tsp bicarbonate soda and the zest of one lemon. Then pop in 125g butter and give it good zap in a mixer or hand-mixer. Add in 2 large eggs, mix for another minute before popping in 1 1/2 tbsp of that lovely tea milk. Whaz it all for another 30 seconds, and you’re good to go! Pop a dollop on top of the biscuit base and these babies go into a 175degree oven for 20-22 minutes.
Tea Drizzle: 5 tea bags go into 100ml of boiling water, to which 80g caster sugar is added and heated over a stove for 3-4 minutes. Set aside to cool.
Icing: Mix 200g soft unsalted butter on it’s own until it’s beautifully smooth and light. Add in 450g icing sugar in four batches, mixing in between and finally 3 tbsp of the tea milk.
Cupcakes! Assemble! This is the fun part…
Once your cupcakes are cool make a little hole in the top (Jemma uses an apple corer, I just used a small cheese knife) and pop in a little dollop of lemon curd. I used a star nozzle, but it’s baker’s choice of course, to pipe that lovely icing on top. The last step is to drizzle the cooled tea syrup over the top.

They were time consuming, but so much fun to make, and very well received. Not many can refuse a little sugar on New Years!

And now, I need to get back to exercise. Ha! Soon enough…

Happy New Year everyone, wishing you lots of love and big smiles for this fresh year.
Hanbel.
x

And Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas Now

December 24, 2015December 24, 2015Leave a comment

Merry Christmas Eve my lovelies!

This week has been a little hectic, driving around Perth picking up last minutes goodies for the big day. However, in between the madness I’ve been embracing the last few days of Christmas cheer.

Baking a lemon and pomegranate polenta cake for an early Christmas at Dads;

Enjoying those few days where all the presents are sitting beautifully underneath the tree;

Trying out a new breakfast spot with mum, pre-errand running;

Hitting up the best Mexican in town for tequila, micheladas and tacos;

Stopping for a coffee at my favourite beach-side hang out;

and tonight will be spent eating seafood and watching Love Actually at Mum’s, our new favourite tradition.

I’m so looking forward to tomorrow, like I haven’t been counting down for months now! It’s a day for relaxing, indulging, laughing, story-telling and appreciating those crazies we call family.

I truly hope you all have a safe and happy Christmas, get spoilt rotten and finish the day with full bellies and hearts.

Much love to all, Merry Christmas!
Hanbel.
x

The World of Hanbel

Working on Living that Dream

Category: Food