180degrees

Crostata and Sciacchetrà....mmm....

Fri, 07 Sep 2012 10:47:00 +1000

Hello my little munchers! As in food munchers. As in I’m referring to the fact that you all eat food…yay!

Anyways, hello!!! So I think I may have mentioned to some people that I went to Italy over the summer (omg omg omg) and that I did lots of super awesome cool stuff over there. For example, I hiked up some mountains and ate lots of food and I looked at a lot of really pretty looking things. But ALSO I tried something a little bit incredible called sciacchetrà. What is sciacchetrà you ask? Well it’s a dessert wine that’s only made in this tincy tiny part of the world known as the Cinque Terre and guess what, I went there.

The reason it was EXTRA special though is that I got to go into this little cellar type of room with the guy who makes it and he gave us some to try out of his personal stash. Naturally, after someone has been quite so hospitable, you should spend all of your euros on his wine, which is exactly what I did.

So when I came back home, I was looking for the perfect dessert to eat it with, and that’s where this tart comes in. This recipe is based on one that I found on taste.com but I kinda edited it a little so that it reminded me more of the sorts of things I ate while I was overseas. And honestly, I was pretty blown away by it all, it turned out even better than I had hoped. Yay. So please please please cook this because it looks super impressive and it is exactly the type of thing that I think of when I think of Italian desserts and it is just SO SO YUMMY.

Crostata di Ricotta e Marmellata di Amarene

Which basically means Ricotta and Sour Cherry Jam Tart

Ingredients

2 3/4 cup plain flour

1/2 cup caster sugar

1 tbsp finely grated lemon rind (I have this crazy grater thing and it’s really sharp and it does such a good job and I love it)

1-2 tsp lemon juice (depending on how sweet your jam is, see below)

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

180g cold butter, chopped into little chunks

1 egg

1 egg yolk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 cup good quality cherry jam (I say ‘good quality’ to make me sound fancy, but what I really mean is preferably one that still has chunks of cherry in it)

Ingredients - Filling

500g (approx. 2 cups) fresh ricotta (I got full fat om nom nom)

1/3 cup caster sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

3 eggs

Method

1. Ok guys let’s start by making this amazing pastry. Get the flour, sugar, lemon rind, baking powder and salt a mix it all together in a nice big bowl. Rub and pinch (hope that makes sense) the butter into the flour mixture with your fingertips until it looks all crumbly and yummy.

2. Now whisk the egg, egg yolk and vanilla together in a separate bowl. Add to the flour mixture and kinda cut it through the mixture, as in don’t stir so much as bring it all together by folding one bit over the other. When it’s all combined, bring the dough together and shape it into a nice ball. Cover with plastic wrap and rest in the fridge for about 30 mins.

3. Ok, while that’s chilling out in the fridge (hahaha chilling, because fridges are cold) let’s do some filling-making-fun-time. Oh yeah. Get your super delicious ricotta (seriously, if you’ve got the good stuff you should taste some at this point. So good right?) in a food processor and make it whiz until smooth. Now put it in a big bowl. With a wooden spoon, beat in the sugar and vanilla until combined and super yummy (taste again omg). Whisk in the eggs, 1 at a time, until combined. It should just be all yummy and awesome now.

4. Turn your oven on to 180°C. Roll out 2/3 the pastry on a lightly floured surface to 5mm-thick roundness pie-case-shape. Line a 3.5cm-deep, 22cm fluted tart tin, with removable base, with pastry leaving 1 cm extra over the top of the case, then trim the pastry.

5. Now get your yummy cherry jam in a saucepan and heat it up. Keep stirring gently, you’re looking for it to get smoother, but don’t squash your cherries either. Now add your lemon juice (as I said, at your discretion depending on how sweet your jam is). Set aside for 3 minutes to cool slightly. Pour the filling into the pastry case. Spoon the jam evenly over the surface (don’t spread tooooooo much or else you start mixing the jam into the filling and we don’t want that now do we).

6. Roll out the remaining pastry on a lightly floured surface so that it’s about 5mm-thick. Use a ravioli wheel to cut the dough into ten 1.5cm-wide strips (omg this bit is so much fun). Arrange half the strips, at 2cm intervals, across the top of the tart. Repeat, at a 90 degree angle, with remaining strips. LOOK AT HOW AWESOME IT LOOKS!! Fold your 1cm hangovery bit over the edges of your crinkly top pastry. Press all the pastry into each other to seal.

7. Place the tart on a baking tray on a pretty low shelf in your oven and bake for 55 minutes or until golden and yum yum yum. Set aside for 15 minutes to cool in the tin before transferring to a wire rack to keep cooling all the way down. Dust with icing sugar. Cut into wedges (you can decide how big) and serve, preferably with cream and - if you are lucky enough to have some like me - some sciacchetrà.

Just a side note - You may think that it makes more sense to eat this tart straight out of the oven, especially if it’s a cold night and that’s just what you feel like darn it. But honestly, it was so so good at just room temperature and the pastry is going to be trickier to cut and the filling will ooze out a lot if you cut it warm. But hey, it’s your call. You’re the one who made this yummy thing after all, you should choose how to eat it.

Blog Appetit!

So here in Melbourne the sun actually popped out for most of the...

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 18:10:16 +1000

So here in Melbourne the sun actually popped out for most of the day which is really quite a rare thing this time of year, but I suppose it reminds us all that we’re going to be coming out of winter soon and before we know it we’ll be wearing shorts and swimming in pools and pretending that we’re Miranda Kerr wearing oversized sunglasses.

Gah, why are you such a babe Miranda Kerr…

Anyways! This means we need to GET HEALTHY PEOPLE! We need to get ourselves out of all the fatty cakes and puddings that we’ve all been eating in our heated houses under layers of blankets and raisin toast so that we can go to the beach and be all like ‘Hey, look at me, I’m damn fine’.

And what’s healthy and unfattening and all kinds of goodness? FRUIT. Check out the strawberries in this dessert! See basically, it’s just so gosh darn healthy because of those tiny slices of strawberry that I can eat A DOUBLE SERVING. Strawberries are a delicious way to be super duper healthy. Studies show that strawberries are unparalleled in their abilities to make you look freakin’ awesome. Yeah that’s right, you know I’m gonna be looking pretty hot in my bikini this summer. Pfft, Miranda Kerr…

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I made a mistake you guys :(

Sun, 19 Aug 2012 13:00:00 +1000

Eugh, everyone, I’ve made a mistake. So basically I’ve been going on about how awesome my rating system is, by having such and such a number of “om’s” out of a whole “om nom nom”, and you know, that’s super duper cool and awesome. But basically it has just been pointed out to me that I never actually mention what number a full om nom nom represents. EUGH.

So like, for example, the other day I was saying that Beef Two Minute Noodles were like icky and unhappy and I gave them 4 om’s out of a full om nom nom. But see, you might think that a full om nom nom is equal to 5 om’s. And this would be disasterous. Because then you would go out and buy two minute noodles. And then you would heat them up. And then YOU WOULD EAT THOSE DISGUSTING LITTLE MORSELS ALL BECAUSE OF ME AND THEN I’VE RUINED YOUR DAY AND THEN YOU START SHOUTING ‘CURSE THAT GEORGIA, SHE’S AS BAD AS THAT GUY WHO DID THAT BAD THING THAT ONE TIME’.

And oh crap. I don’t want that.

So yeah, just putting it out there, om nom nom = 10. Yep. Makes it sound pretty boring when I put it like that. So here’s a photo of me being all like ‘Oh well, what’s done is done’:

Blog Appetit.

What a Load of Beef

Tue, 14 Aug 2012 20:58:00 +1000

Hello again fellow eaters,

Today I was in a bit of a pickle. I was rushing out the door and needed something to take into uni for lunch. Thrust in my face was a packet of beef two minute noodles and a thermus (is that how you spell it? I’m getting a nice little wiggly red line under that one…)

Now this was in fact a very kind gesture; navigating oneself through the various food-serving stalls at university is very tricky. Last week I felt rather ill and decided that a sweet corn and chicken soup would do the trick. Instead, I sat with two other rather lovely individuals debating whether it was noodle, cabbage or good ol’ chicken fat floating through my soup.

It was chicken fat. I’m positive.

So today, it really was necessary that I go to uni prepared. Beef two minutes noodles seemed like a great idea. In fact, I’m pretty sure I know a fair few people who live off the stuff. So maybe it was my bad mood from wearing something wayyyy to light for the middle of winter; or maybe it was my heavy concentration on my econometrics lecturer talking about homoskedasticity (glad I threw something in to make me sound smart); or MAYBE I’m just becoming too food snobbish…but I didn’t like them noodles.

THIS WAS REALLY UNEXPECTED. I have such fond memories of two minute noodles!!! I think it probably didn’t help that they had sat in the thermus for like an hour, but they just tasted kinda… powdery or something. I’m trying to think of how to describe it better than that but my mind just keeps thinking about that guy in that Gangnam Style film clip. Hahahahaha, oh he cracks me up….

Guys, 4 om’s out of a whole om nom nom. Yep, still standing by this rating system.

Blog Appetit!

P.S. I hope you enjoyed the happy snaps of me getting frustrated with the thermus. It was fun taking them. Clearly I’m a busy and important person.

Risotto. That is all.

Thu, 09 Aug 2012 15:04:00 +1000

So I think it’s about time that I talk about risotto. Let me get all mushy for a second (hahaha, mushy, like risotto…not my risotto though, mine’s not mushy, it’s yummy, but yeah). Risotto is a very special thing for me, I’m not entirely sure why, but I always feel like the gastronomy gods are looking down upon me when I’m cooking it. It always feels like a spiritual experience. Only there’s food involved.

The other great thing about risotto is that it uses wine. So when you cook it, there’s a wonderful ‘one glass for risotto, two glasses for me’ type of thing going on (maybe that’s why I’m having spiritual awakenings while I cook).

Basically, it’s a dish that makes me very happy and that I have cooked many a time. I have tried plenty of different techniques and I am more than aware that what makes a perfect risotto is a widely contentious issue, from nonnas to michelin starred chefs all around the world… But I reckon I do a pretty darn good job.

Risotto con Zucca, Chorizo e Feta (for all those who didn’t use Google Translate, that’s Risotto with Pumpkin, Chorizo and Feta)

Ingredients

A nice glug of olive oil

3/4 Onion, nicely diced please (don’t worry, you’ll use the whole thing, see below)

3 Cloves of Garlic, chopped up all tiny

1 tsp Dried Sage

1 tsp Dried Thyme

1 cup Risotto Rice, Arborio is good

1 glass of dry white wine (plus however many additional glasses you may require for yourself)

1 litre of vegetable stock

A big handful of grated parmigiano reggiano

A generous Tbsp Butter

Method

1. Get out a frying pan and put it on a medium heat. When hot, add to the pan your glug of oil, followed by the onion and the garlic. Turn the heat down so that it all cooks much slower. We’re looking for the onion and the garlic to go soft, but not brown, taking about 15 minutes. This is called a sofrito.

2. When the vegetables are nicely softened, it’s time to add the herbs. Just mix them through for about a minute, and then add the rice and turn up the heat. You want to fry off the rice just a little so that it’s translucent around the edges and white in the middle. I wouldn’t do this for longer than about a minute.

3. Now quickly add your wine and keep it at the high heat, letting the alcohol burn away. Again, this shouldn’t take too much longer than a minute. Once the wine has evaporated, you can start adding in your stock. Put your first ladle of stock in and turn the heat down to a slow simmer (this is probably a good time to season). Also, now you can start on your pumpkin (please see method below).

4. So here’s the contentious part: some people will like to add the stock and not stir, others will like to stir it a lot. I have tried both, and I’ve had good, but different, results from each method. Not stirring seems to leave a bit more toughness in the middle of the rice, so personally I stir. The way that I think is best is to stir by pressing down into the rice and massaging it to push out the starch.

5. Keep adding stock each time it looks almost all soaked up by the rice until the rice is al dente, or to your liking (you may need to add more liquid, it can be more stock if you have it or boiling water will do just fine).

6. When your rice is cooked, turn off the heat and throw in your parmesan with the butter, stir it through roughly (and reasonably quickly) and then cover the pan with a lid or something and just leave it for about five minutes. THIS IS THE SECRET TO MAKING IT AWESOME PEOPLE. DON’T SKIP THIS STEP. IF YOU DO, THE RISOTTO WILL BE VERY UNHAPPY.

Ingredients for Pumpkin, Chorizo and Feta

1 tsp Olive Oil

1 tsp Butter

The other 1/4 of your diced onion

1 clove garlic, finely chopped

1 tsp Dried Sage

1/4 Butternut Pumpkin, chopped into 1.5x1.5cm squares (approximately, I’m not a freak with a ruler)

1 Chorizo Sausage, sliced

200g feta, crumbled into chunks

Method

1. Get the oil and the butter and melt it in a small frying pan over medium heat. Add the sage and the pumpkin. Coat pumpkin in butter and sage and cook until pumpkin is mostly tender.

2. When the pumpkin is almost cooked, add in the chorizo and cook it all together until the pumpkin and chorizo are cooked through.

3. At the very end, add half of the feta, stir it to melt through. Take half of your pumpkin mixture and stir it through the cooked risotto. Stir the remaining feta through the second half of the pumpkin mixture gently to make sure it stays in nice little chunks. Top each serve with the remaining pumpkin mix. Et voila. Eat your yummy.

Blog Appetit!

Ok, first, I’m gonna have to address that pink tutu-wearing...

Fri, 27 Jul 2012 10:43:00 +1000

Ok, first, I’m gonna have to address that pink tutu-wearing elephant in the room: I haven’t been writing for a while.

I KNOW. I’M SORRY. IT SUCKS. See I was away in the middle of Australia with no internet and getting eaten by crocodiles (I can’t do a food review from their perspective unfortunately, but I’m sure I taste like chicken).

Anywho, I’m back now so yay! And moving right along to the important stuff, I was having a think about prawns. I really like them. I kinda don’t get how their bodies work as living creatures, but as a food item they are down right delicious.

Last night I cooked myself a prawn laksa and I was all like om nom nom, and THEN I saw this picture and I was all like ‘ahhhh prawns following me everywhere!’ And they just look so good…

Problem is, I hear some people don’t like prawns. In fact, I know a few of you nay-sayers (that’s a word, right?) and I have to say, I’m a little disappointed.

You’re missing out guyssssss!!! They taste like….they just taste like awesome. And you put them with stuff like garlic aioli or a chilli and tomato linguine and you’re like FAR OUT THIS STUFF IS INCREDIBLE WHAT EVEN ARE YOU??? ACTUALLY I DON’T CARE I JUST WANT TO EAT MORE.

Ah, let me finish my food coma….

Until next time, Blog Appetit!

Giuseppe, Arnaldo & So-So

Fri, 29 Jun 2012 18:47:42 +1000

Friends, I would just like to begin this post by saying that I do not usually complain about food, restaurants or the like. In fact, I am usually so pumped up with excitement for food that when I do eat, I gaze helplessly out to the world, begging for an explanation as to how the food is able to be so un-understandably delicious.

So it would be fair to say that it takes a fair push for me to dislike a restaurant. But yesterday, I feel that I was most certainly pushed.

Last night, I ate at Giuseppe, Arnaldo and Sons on Southbank in Melbourne and was pretty super duper excited to be going there, I was beaming and skipping all the way there (or at least internally, it was ridiculously cold). For anyone who is unfamiliar with this restaurant, it’s super funky and serves a really broad range of Italian foods that make you go OMG GIVE ME EVERYTHING ON THE MENU BEFORE I FAINT FROM EXCITEMENT.

But it was only so-so. Major sad face.

The wine, just lovely. The bread, endlessly refilled and very yummy. The space, sooooo cooooooool. Even the cocktail that I had while we waited for a table to be available was pretty darn good. But I still found myself a little disappointed. We ordered arancini, which had great cheesey and spinachy risottoy-ness, but was a little burnt on the outside. Then the pasta that I ate for my main, which had sounded so amazing on the menu - Pappardelle, Hand Cut 6 Hour Veal & Pork Ragu “Bologna Style” - was kinda lacking in sauce and all of my pasta was stuck together.

However, even though the food wasn’t super amazing,at this point I was still pretty happy, I was really having quite a lovely night. Oh and the waiters were in lab coats, that was kinda cool.

BUT THEN IT TOOK 45 MINUTES FOR THE BILL TO COME AND NO-ONE EVEN APOLOGISED AND THE WAITRESS JUST KEPT TELLING US HOW DIFFICULT HER NIGHT WAS AND SERIOUSLY HOW DIFFICULT IS IT TO PRINT A BILL, YOU PRINTED US FOUR DIFFERENT BILLS AND THEY WERE ALL WRONG, I COULD HAVE BEEN AT HOME WATCHING MASTERCHEF IF IT HADN’T TAKEN SO LONG EUGHHHHHH.

Yep, seriously, that coloured the whole night. Maybe you think I’m being too cruel? I dunno, I don’t really like to complain, but this had to be said. Hopefully next time I won’t rant so much.

Blog Appetit!

Most Overused Comment on MasterChef:

Wed, 13 Jun 2012 16:00:27 +1000

“It can’t be overcooked, but you have to make sure that it isn’t undercooked either.”

(N.B. “It” refers to chicken, pork, steak, prawns, capsicum, bread, soufflé, baked cheesecake, continental cheesecake, sashimi, fresh figs or a chopping board.)

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Ok, I know these aren’t food, and actually, I don’t...

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 11:25:00 +1000

Ok, I know these aren’t food, and actually, I don’t even know what these are. But oh my goodness gracious me they are so cute!!! Whatever they are they look like like little puffballs of snuggles.

Actually all this pastel-ness reminds me of fairy floss for some reason. Fairy floss is a weird name for it really. Is that actually what fairies floss their teeth with? Shouldn’t we be scared for the kinds of dental issues that fairies must be experiencing as a result of their misinformed dental hygiene habits??

Anyway, I’m just gonna put it out there that I don’t particularly like fairy floss. Hope I don’t offend anyone. I mean it’s ok now and again, but it does freak me out a little. So so fluffy….

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Good morrow! as you are a food professional, i have a question of dire importance to ask you. In what order do you eat standard m&m's? I myself go with brown-green-yellow-orange-red-blue, but i'm not sure if this is right? Am i losing any flavours with this method? Regards, derplydodah. Ps, i liked the pumpkin ravioli. Looked delicious!

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 20:38:00 +1000

Well this does sound like a very serious question indeed! I feel like I should sit down and create a few graphs demonstrating flavour vs vibrancy of colour and then analyse the results and come up with a table that presents us with the most effective manner for eating m&ms. Unfortunately, I have no need for this as I already have a rather good method for eating m&ms and it is this:

Grab a handful, eyes closed, and shove into mouth. That ought to do it.

Otherwise, eat all the blue ones. Everyone knows they are far better than the rest anyway.

P.S. So glad you liked the ravioli :)

The Day I Got Burritoed

Fri, 08 Jun 2012 17:27:00 +1000

Guys, I spend a bit of time cooking, but I spend even more of it eating. That’s why from time to time, I like to try me some delicious takeaway food. On this particular occasion, my boyfriend and I decided it was about that time of day where we should sit on the couch and do nothing, but we needed some lunch to go with it. So we went a-looking and found this place with only the coolest name in the whole wide world:

HIGH TECH BURRITO!

Has anyone been? It’s on Glenferrie Rd in Hawthorn (Victoria, Australia) and if the name doesn’t get you there, then the definitely food should. Ahhhhhh so good. I had a Chicken Fajita and the boyf had something weird with black beans. He liked it, but probably not as much as I liked mine, which I understand because I don’t like black beans. I ate them once and my mouth turned blue. Has anyone else had that? Yeah…

But basically, really yummy food. Mine had lots of chicken and red capsicum and onions all fried up together in lots of spices. And then to make it even more awesome they throw in that Mexican rice that you always find in good burritos, with cheese and salsa and mmmm. Makes it pretty filling though, they were huuuuuuge, and would have made a really good dinner but probably a bit too much for lunch. Same goes for the prices really; $14 for a takeaway lunch is getting pretty steep but I would have considered it a bargain dinner.

The guy who owns they place was also really nice and helpful, made sure you picked things that you were going to like. He even gave us a first time customer discount. Totes awesome. Actually, even more awesome than that was how the packaging came with instructions! Super cute! Check it out:

![]

All in all, I’d definitely recommend it. I’d give it like 7.5 om’s out of a full om nom nom. Yep, that’s a ranking system, you got a problem with that?

So go and get yourself burritoed and then chillax on a couch and watch Community. All afternoon. Like me.

Blog Appetit!

Pumpkin and Leek Ravioli with Sage Burnt Butter Sauce

Wed, 06 Jun 2012 14:44:00 +1000

Pasta has got to be one of the best things in the world. I love pasta. I also love making pasta. When I started getting some serious pocket money from my parents, the very first thing that I bought with it was a pasta machine. I was 12. Not even joking. LOVE IT LOVE IT LOVE IT.

This recipe is something new that I was just making up as I went along and I think it turned out pretty well. Sorry to my parents though who had to deal with me getting a little stressed when I forgot to flour the bench, but I think they forgave me because they got a good meal out of it :D

(Serves 2 people and one very hungry father)

Ingredients

200g Semolina

200g Plain Flour

4 Eggs

1 Brown Onion (diced, so so diced)

2 cloves of garlic (chop it up all small like)

1 tsp ground sage

400g Pumpkin (chopped into little itty bitty pieces)

1 Leek (cut off the green bit and chuck it in the bin, chop up the white stuff and use it)

75g Feta

2 tbsp Butter

Big Handful of Fresh Sage Leaves

Method

1. Let’s get our pasta dough going. Mix your flour and semolina together. You can do it in a bowl if you like, but I’m HARDCORE and I do it straight onto the bench. Now make a little well/hole/dint in your mix and crack in your first egg. Pretty important that you only do the eggs one at a time. You incorporate the egg slowly into the dry ingredients by mixing with a fork. Do this with each egg.

2. Now get your hands into it. Mix it all up and knead it until it looks like a pretty ball of dough. If it feels a bit dry, you can add some water. Alternatively, if it’s a bit too wet, add some flour. Basically, you want it to feel soft, but not sticky. Wrap it up in some cling film and leave in the fridge for about an hour.

3. While the dough is resting and getting yummy, let’s get going on our filling! I sorta made this up based on what I had around the house, so you can definitely afford to use different ingredients or quantities if you do so desire.

4. Yep Step 3 was just me chatting. Ok, let’s start by getting a frypan on low-medium heat with a nice glug of oil. Add your onion, garlic and leek and cook for about 15 minutes (niiiiiice and slowly now) until soft but not brown. This is called a sofrito! (How fancy of me).

5. Once softened, add the ground sage and the pumpkin. Let this cook up until soft, keep stirring it lots and lots.

6. Awesome, it’s all cooked (see how I’m giving you the thumbs up? It’s because it’s cooked. Nice work you). Now we want to make it smooth. I used a hand held electric blender type device and it worked, if you don’t have one, you might need to transfer it to a blender, or otherwise just try and mash it up with your spoon if you don’t mind it being a bit lumpy.

7. Now we add the crumbled feta, stir it through. Now we have nice little chunks of feta in our pumpkin :) Leave the pumpkin mixture to cool.

8. Let’s get our dough out of the fridge! You wanna separate it into a few smaller balls (I usually split in into the number of pieces that is the same as the number of eggs I used, so four). This just makes it easier to handle.

9. Flour your dough and start feeding it through your pasta machine on the widest setting. Run it through this setting at least six times, flouring and folding as you go. This is essentially kneading your dough for you and making it super duper lovely! Continue to feed your dough through the machine, reducing the width each time you put it through, until you reach desired thickness (I put it through to the second thinnest setting on my machine).

10. Now take your lovely long rectangle of rolled out dough and lay it on a FLOURED bench somewhere. Fold it in half and press lightly over the crease to make a small line. Fold it back out. Now go and get your yummy pumpkin and start spooning teaspoons of mixture a couple of cms apart, making even lines of pumpkin on your pasta of line. Only do this on one half of your pasta sheet though, and make sure you leave space around the edges of the pasta for later.

11. Fold your pasta back over and press down around the little pumpkin balls. You’ll notice that your top dough sheet is now smaller than the bottom (this is why we needed to leave the spaces!). Try to get as much air out as possible because this means that they’re gonna cook nicely :) Then cut them out into little squares with a knife or a pizza rolling knife thingo or an axe or whatever suits you. Repeat with rest of dough and filling.

12. When you’ve cut out your little ravioli, chuck em (gently) onto a floured tray and let them roll in floury blissfulness.

13. Now we cook our pasta (yay!) in a big pot of boiling salted water. Big pots are good, we don’t like to crowd the ravioli (they get claustrophobic). And this shouldn’t take more than about five minutes. Just cook til the pasta is tender and al dente (more fancy words).

14. Oooo. Now let’s make yummy sauce. Just get a little frypan, melt your butter, let it fry fry fry a bit and then chuck those sage leaves in and poof! Sage and burnt butter! Well, after it goes a bit brown, that’s when it’s done.

15. Now you serve it all up and you eat and you tell me how good it is :D

Blog Appetit!

If I Wasn't Sick I Would Have Thought of a Title

Mon, 28 May 2012 22:19:41 +1000

Helloooooo everyone! How’s it going? Oh me? Fine thanks. Actually no, not so fine. I’m sick. Stuck in bed kind of sick. Although at this time of year it’s stuck-in-bed-with-a-pile-of-textbooks in preparation for exams. Eughhhhh. Advanced corporate finance anyone? No? Oh but it’s so fun. And I love the examples in the textbooks. Seriously “Loki Industries wants to takeover Thor Industries. How many shares does Loki need to take Thor down?” Good thing some awesome friends made me watch The Avengers or else I would have failed finance.

But like I said, I’m sick, ad if sick calls for anything, it’s soup and I have been going through soup like nothing else. Today, after exhausting all of the home-made soup stores yesterday, I found myself with the above. Laksa cup-a-soup. Awesome? How cool that space age made it onto Earth a few decades back and now anyone can make a meal out of a handful of powder. I dunno…I’m not convinced.

Basically, my tastebuds have been relatively non-existent anyway, but I’m gonna give it above a 5.5/10. Milkiness wasn’t fun for starters, personal preference, and also I was put off by those tincy little bit of colour they call vegetables. But hey, nice box design. I want the red mug. Send it to me and I could bump it up to 6.

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I thought that I would draw this up so that everyone could...

Sat, 26 May 2012 10:30:00 +1000

I thought that I would draw this up so that everyone could understand my views on life. This image encompasses them all.

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I Heart Pizza

Wed, 23 May 2012 22:48:39 +1000

I’m really just putting this photo in here to brag. I WENT TO ITALY OVER THE SUMMER EVERYONE. I came back, um, how long ago was it now….goodness gracious FIVE MONTHS AGO. Now that is sad.

The reason I took this photo though was because this was the very first pizza that I ate in Italy!! I ate it in Rome down a little cobblestone alley right next to the Spanish Steps. It was without a doubt the most incredible pizza I have ever eaten, but I’m kinda hoping that you can guess that just from looking at it. The proscuitto was incredible and the cheese…. but the most amazing thing was the base, slightly chewy but oh so generally awesome in a way that I just won’t even try to describe.

However despite all of my love for the pizza, this is a HORRIBLE thing because now pizza is ruined for me FOREVER!!! Eugh, here in Melbourne we think we know Italian. THIS PIZZA WAS SO GOOD. So so good. I would have run away and married this pizza. On a beach. Or a mountain. Or wherever the pizza wanted to go because I’d be up for it. But then I ate it. Not a great way to start a long and happy marriage…

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I had a pretty decent sandwich for lunch today, all chicken and...

Tue, 22 May 2012 17:39:00 +1000

I had a pretty decent sandwich for lunch today, all chicken and avocado deliciousness, but I gotta admit, kinda wishing I’d eaten these instead. Don’t judge me, you know you would do it too. Sandwiches are awesome, but could there be anything in the world that makes a person feel like I do when I see these?? Just look at them!! Where do you come from, oh strange creation? What kind of happiness are you?? Please let me find you so that I CAN EAT YOU UNTIL MY SKIN IS GLOWING WITH RAINBOW JOY.

Look, some things need to be said, I’ve just got the guts to say them.

Blog Appetit!

I always get strong urges to cook when I should be studying. What is your favourite thing to cook when you feel like procrastinating?

Mon, 21 May 2012 21:00:02 +1000

Hahaha, that sounds like my every day. Well, if it’s stressful study then I’d say risotto. Mmmmmm so so good and relaxing. I pour a glass of wine for the rice and then a glass of wine for me! And since when has wine not been good for studying…

Peaches and Cream Tart

Mon, 21 May 2012 18:35:16 +1000

I don’t know about you, but I am extremely talented at remembering useless things. I remember how many buses I passed in my car today (an impressive four), I remember how I did my hair on the first day of school (pig tails, and actually my mum did it) and I remember exclaiming in Grade 5 that I knew the lyrics to The Ketchup Song (“I said a hey, a hop, a hey, a heavy, to the heavy, you say you don’t like my hobby and a boogie and a wiggle the beat”).

But unfortunately, not everything seems to stick in there, so in posting this picture of this tart, I am not even going to try to pretend that I remember how I made it. And I’m sorry about this, I really am. Because it was freaking delicious.

Fortunately, I do remember one thing, and that is the pastry. For this recipe I used sweet shortcrust pastry, and I’ve tried a few different recipes, but this is the one that I’ve known the longest and it’s a neverfail. Like the water company.

Sweet Shortcrust Pastry

Ingredients

350 g (2 cups + 1/3 cup) plain flour

150g butter (Some people prefer to use unsalted and then salt their own. I just can’t be screwed.)

100g (1/2 cup + 2 tbsp) icing sugar (We know how I feel about icing sugar)

2 eggs

Method

1. Sift flour into a bowl or, if you feel classy like me, onto your bench. Make a well (why do they even call it that? It’s really just a hole) in the centre and add the butter and the sugar to your ‘well’ and kinda pinch it with your fingers so it softens a little.

2. Start to incorporate the flour by gently flicking and pinching it (be a real big gentle bully with it) until you get what roughly resembles dough. Knead it a few time until it’s smooth.

3. Roll the dough up in gladwrap (no advertisement intended, but if they want to pay me I’ll GLADly accept) and pop it in the fridge for at least an hour.

4. Yay! Take it out of the fridge! Flour your bench and your rolling pin and then roll the dough out. DON’T FORGET THE FLOUR. SOMETIMES I DO AND THEN MY BENCH AND THE DOUGH MEET AND BECOME ONE. Which isn’t romantic when we’re talking about dough.

5.This is the best part!! When you’re done rolling, you get to roll the dough up over your rolling pin and then roll it down over the tin!!! Kinda imagine one of those things you blow at little kid parties rolling up and then rolling out again. So yeah, do that.

6. Think about how awesome step 5 was.

7. Let it rest in the tin for at least ten minutes before baking anything in it. Or don’t if you like to live on the wild side. But just this once I’d recommend refraining from succumbing to the wild side.

And there you have it, traditional pastry making.

Alternatively, chuck it in the food processor and let it flick, pinch, punch or give wedgies to your dough for you. School yard politics these days…. But I can’t really judge, that’s usually the way I do it.

Blog Appetit!

Blog-a-Bagel

Sun, 20 May 2012 18:25:00 +1000

Has anyone ever really sat down and thought about bagels? I mean seriously, just run with me here for a minute. Bagels, what even are you? Is there anything else like you? I actually don’t think so. You are both bread-ish but you also have this nice unidentifiable quality that makes you just a little bit more awesome than bread. Oh oh oh, and you have a crust, but it’s not like the crust you get on a baguette or something that’s all crunchy, oh no, your crust is all chewy and shiny and it only makes me love you more.

Personally, I eat bagels pretty often. I like blueberry ones and I toast them and eat them with cream cheese and I am pretty convinced that it’s delicious at any time of day. You midnight snack with chips you say? Well I midnight snack a bagel. With a cup of tea. Don’t forget the tea.

Mmm, blog appetit!

Inspiration Cakes

Sat, 19 May 2012 14:40:00 +1000

(…or if you feel like being boring we can call them Lemon Cupcakes)

So as I said in my last post, I love to bake, and this was what I baked when I came up with this whole blog idea so they shall from here on in doth be named INSPIRATION CAKES.

Ohhhhhhh yeahhhhh, you know you want some inspiration cakes, get your creativeness happening with some of these:

Ingredients:

125g butter

1/2 cup + 1 tbsp caster sugar

Grated zest of a small lemon

2 eggs (room temperature please and thank you)

3/4 cup + 1 tbsp self-raising flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

3 tbsp milk

1/2 cup icing sugar (feel free to make your own choices in your lives, here at 180degrees we give you the liberty to do that, but for crying out loud don’t use pure icing sugar unless you want to stand over a bowl sifting for three quarters of an hour)

2 heaped tbsp butter

2 heaped tbsp cream cheese

Grated zest of half a lemon

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 180degrees (HAHAHAHA IT’S THE NAME OF THE BLOG! NOT INTENTIONAL AT ALL! Yeah it was pretty intentional actually…) or 160 if you are using fan forces (which I recommend actually).

2. Get out a 12-hole muffin try and fill it with cupcake cases. I used yellow. Because it’s lemon. And lemons are yellow. Inspiration is yellow too.

3. Now add your butter (room temperature please), caster sugar and lemon zest to a nice bowl and use an electric hand mixer to whip it all up for three minutes. Look at it now and see how fluffy it is!! Now taste.

4. Add your eggs one by one and mix for a minute after each. Now taste. Mmmm.

5. Sift your flour and baking powder into the bowl and stir it by hand until combined. Now taste. Yum yum yum for you and me.

6. Now add your milk! Wizz it around in your hand mixer for like 30 seconds-ish. Now taste, reserve some mixture for your cupcake pans though…. maybe we’ll just make six cup cakes instead.

7. Scoop the mixture into the cupcake pans (yay!), and chuck it in the oven (yay!) for ten minutes. After the first ten minutes, do a little check and then either a) turn your oven down to 160 if you had it on 180 before or b) turn the fan off if possible… or turn it down to 140 if your oven doesn’t let you turn the fan off.

8. Cook for another 5-10 minutes until juuuuuust golden. Not too golden. That means they’re burnt.

9. Take them out of the muffin tray as quickly as possible and leave to cool. Or, taste!

For the icing:

1. Mix icing sugar, butter and zest together for about two minutes with electric hand mixer. Now taste.

2. Add the cream cheese and mix it through for another minute. Now eat, I mean taste.

3. Adjust as necessary for how thick you like your icing. I kinda just like to spread it, but if you want to pipe it then you should probably get some more icing sugar.

And yay!! You should have something that looks like this! I would have posted some more pictures but I just ate them too darn quickly. And then felt some inspiration to do a whole lot of stuff.

Until next time, blog appetit!