Tamarind Bay Indian restaurant @ Hastings, Mornington Peninsula review

The weather was really hot last Saturday. Luckily the cool air returned on Sunday and we took the opportunity to visit the Sunny Ridge strawberry farm at Mornington Peninsula on a nice cooling day. A number of people must have had the same idea on the long Aussie Day weekend and thus, the farm was packed! We did enjoy picking strawberries although it was crowded.

Not knowing the area well, we simply browsed through Urbanspoon and chose to visit Tamarind Bay Indian restaurant for lunch. It was almost 3pm when we arrived at the restaurant and there were only 2 customers who were about to leave. Tamarind Bay is quite a big restaurant. The ambience is good and the place actually looks quite classy. Because we were the only customers there, it felt like private dining.

There is quite a selection from the menu. Given that we were starving, we thought of getting something quick. Hence, we ordered chicken biryani rice and prawn biryani rice. To my surprise, the biryani rice took quite a while to cook! Luckily we hadn’t fainted before the food was served. 

Both the dishes were served in a traditional karahi dish or bowl with an elegant looking copper spoon.

The prawn biryani rice was fabulous. Well, the rice was quite different from those I used to have in Indian restaurants. It has a good balance of flavour and it was moist. There were about five King prawns which were perfectly cooked. 

The chicken biryani rice was quite nice too. Other than the perfectly cooked biryani rice, the chicken was well marinated, tender and juicy. 

It was a good meal at reasonable price. I will definitely return to this restaurant on my next visit to Mornington Peninsula.

Japanese green tea cheesecake recipe

I have a bad habit of stocking up food whenever there's a discount. Often, I end up throwing them away simply because I have no time to finish or use them before the expiry date. I recently realised I have 2 blocks of cream cheese which are expiring in 1-2 months time. Rather than baking a few cheesecakes together towards the end of its shelf life, I thought I should at least use a block now. This is when I decided to bake a Japanese green tea cheesecake.

This is my second attempt in baking green tea cheesecake by modifying the Japanese cheesecake recipe which I baked previously. My previous attempt wasn't that good as the batter was a tad too watery after I increased the amount of milk and the cake sunk. Hence, I tweaked the recipe further by increasing the milk portion and reducing one egg to reach a balance this time. Besides that, instead of turning green tea powder into green tea paste which has extra water content, I used the green tea powder directly. The result was satisfying! 

Recipe:

(Make one 8 inch cake)

150 ml milk

50g unsalted butter 

250g cream cheese 

60g cake flour

20g corn flour

5 egg yolks  

20g green tea powder 

5 egg whites 

1/4 tsp. cream of tartar

110g castor sugar (increase the amount if you prefer a sweeter cake.)

1. Heat up the milk until warm. Pour warm milk onto cream cheese and butter in a mixing bowl. Melt the mixture and mix well over a pot of hot water. Some recipes suggest to sieve the mixture at this point to get rid of the small slumps. Interestingly, my mixture was silky smooth so I didn't sieve the mixture. It's up to you to decide. 

2. Cool the mixture. Add in the sifted cake flour, corn flour and green tea, followed by egg yolks and mix well. Leave the cream cheese mixture aside.

3. Beat the egg white in a mixing bowl.

4. Add cream of tartar as soon as the beaten egg white starts to foam.

5. Gradually add in the sugar when the egg white starts to thicken. Beat until soft peak stage.

6. Add the egg white mixture onto the cream cheese mixture in 3 batches. Mix until they are almost combined on each addition. Lastly, scrape down and fold until everything is evenly combined. Bang the batter on the table for a few times to release the big air bubbles.

7. Pour the batter into a 8 inch round cake tin. I used a non-stick cake tin. Otherwise, you could lightly grease and line the bottom and sides of the pan with parchment paper. 

8. Bake the cheesecake in a water bath in a pre-heated oven at 160c for 1 hours 10 minutes or until golden brown. 

9. Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool on the wire rack.

10. Gently separate the cheesecake from the cake tin. Cut (without sawing) and serve.

Note: If you want to chill the cheesecake, make sure you remove the cheesecake from the fridge 30mins before serving. Otherwise the cheesecake will be a bit firmer and not cotton soft.

Chocolate cake recipe

Happy 2015! I hope it's not too late to wish everyone a happy new year :) 

I baked my first cake in 2015. I'm glad it turned out well. It's nothing new, it was the chocolate sponge cake with mascarpone cream filling and chocolate cream frosting which I baked before. The only difference is the presentation of the cake. I think it looked nicer this time. Besides that, I added a layer of chocolate cream as the filling on top of the mascarpone cream layer so that it has more chocolate flavour.

Well, it was so yum that 2 adults finished the whole cake in 2 days! Check out the recipe here.

Fai Thai restaurant at San Remo review

Christmas Day is the quietest day in Melbourne where most of the businesses are closed. Hence, my family and I decided to go on a short trip to Phillip Island to enjoy the sunshine at some beaches. Knowing that it's a rest day for most of the businesses, finding lunch would be challenging. Luckily, Fai Thai restaurant at San Remo was opened for business on that day. I reckon it was one of the few restaurants in that area that was opened. 

Fai Thai is a Thai restaurant located at San Remo just before the bridge to Philip Island. I had been to this restaurant probably 2-3 years ago during Christmas too. It's a small restaurant with less than 10 tables which offers dine-in and takeaway. Maybe because it was one of the few restaurants that opened on Christmas day, it was very busy and a reservation was recommended to avoid a long wait. 

Similar to other Thai restaurants, there is quite a selection from the menu. We ordered a mixed starter, a single serve of prawns tom yum soup for tasting, prawns pad thai, stir fried vegetables and a fried trout with spicy sauce. 

The mixed starter which cost $9.90 merely consisted of one spring roll, one fish cake, one curry puff, one prawn fritter and a calamari ring. All in all, this was rather pricey. Taste wise, they were just average. 

The prawns tom yum soup was quite diluted. It tasted like the soup from the tom yum instant noodles which wasn't good. 

The prawns pad thai was quite nice. However, the portion was a tad small. It's definitely not value for money as it was about $16-17 based on my vague memory.

The stir fried vegetables was not bad although there's room for improvement. 

The fried trout is usually served with the spicy sauce on top. However, I requested for the sauce to be separated just in case it was too spicy for my family. The fish was nicely fried as the meat was still juicy and the sauce was good. The only problem was that there wasn't enough sauce.  

Overall, the food at Fai Thai was okay although it's a bit pricey for the portion of food you get. However, given its touristy location and the time of the year, I have no complaints at all. 

Chee cheong fun sweet sauce recipe

Ready made chee cheong fun or rice rolls can easily be found at any Asian supermarkets in Melbourne. It's so convenient that one just need to steam or heat up the rolls before serving. Besides that, most of them are quite good with nice texture and the right thickness. Some of them even come with filling inside the rolls. However, these chee cheong fun don't come with any sauce. Hence, it's up to you to create your own sauce. 

There are various types of chee cheong fun and sauces available in Malaysia. Basically, there are the Hong Kong style light soya sauce chee cheong fun, the Penang style shrimp paste chee cheong fun and the general sweet sauce chee cheong fun that one could find in KL. 

I couldn't get the right sauce for my chee cheong fun until someone kindly shared this lovely sweet sauce recipe on a forum. It tastes just like those in KL! Ever since then, I could always enjoy a perfect plate of sweet sauce chee cheong fun at home. 

By the way, I like to top my chee cheong fun with some yong tau foo (stuffed vegetables/tofu) and various fishballs. Don't be surprised that yong tau foo can be found in Melbourne too. I often get the frozen yong tau foo from Hometown Asian supermarket. Sometimes I think that we're spoilt living in Melbourne as Malaysian food and groceries are easily available. 

Recipe:

3 tablespoons hoisin sauce

2 tablespoons sesame sauce

1 teaspoon thick black caramel sauce

1 teaspoon soya sauce

2/3 tablespoon peanut butter

Sugar - according to your required sweetness

3 tablepoons hot water

1. Mix all the ingredients above in a bowl and stir well.

2. Microwave it for 1.5 minutes. 

3. Remove from the microwave and stir until everything is combined. 

4. Add additional water if needed to your desired thickness.