Author: Alex

Nigella’s Chocolate Nut Bar

- Alex Leave a comment

Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Nut Thing

Normally, when I go to a lunch or dinner at a friend’s house I take some chocolate brownies. But it has been so hot here in Adelaide that there was no way I was putting on the oven. No way at all.

I don’t really do a lot of no-bake desserts so I was at a bit of a loss, until I was around at my parents’ house and my dad had made some sort of peanut-chocolate-biscuit bar thing that he’d seen on a Nigella Lawson program on TV (I don’t know which one – whatever is on TV at the moment … does anyone know?!).

Of course, being dad he had changed things and me, being me and hating peanuts and all (seriously – they’re not even NUTS – that really winds me up) a few things had to change further. I had a search around the internet and found a few recipes and had a discussion with him about what he had done and not done and I was ready to go.

Begin by melting 200g of dark chilli chocolate with 90g of salted butter and 1 tbsp of golden syrup. If you’re looking for speed here, you’ll do that in the microwave! And my top golden syrup hint is to coat your spoon in a flavourless oil (I used peanut) – that way the syrup will slide off effortlessly and you won’t have a sticky mess to clean up.

Once the chocolate is melted, stir in a generous pinch of salt. I used ½ tsp which, with the salted butter, might be a tad too much for some (it makes the finished product very moreish, I have to say). Then mix in about 150g of roughly chopped nuts (I used raw macadamias, my dad is on to using hazelnuts and I think brazils would work a treat too – so use your favourite nut). Finally stir in 170g of chopped KitKat. Here again, I used this because I love KitKats and 170g is the size of the big bar you can buy. I used the milk KitKat but my dad maintains you have to use the dark. But use your favourite chocolate bar – because a Violet Crumble mixed through it would be awesome too!

Grab a baking tray, cover it with baking paper, spread the chocolate mixture over it and pop in the fridge for at least 4 hours – preferably overnight. If the weather’s stupidly hot, a quick sojourn in the freezer won’t do it any harm (particularly if you have to transport it).

Once it’s set, cut or break into bite size pieces and enjoy.  Aside from the setting time, this is really quick and painless to make – if it’s late at night and you need to make something for a shindig the next day … this is it!

MP3 Cafe, Brighton

- Alex 2 Comments

brighton_jetty_20100606_01photo by eosdude

date of visit: December 2011

Something I really, really hate to come across in anything pretending to be a restaurant is a laminated menu. Sure – it might be durable and easy to clean but for a start they get tatty really easily and secondly they show up just how unseasonal your menu actually is.

MP3 is a case in point. It was a warm summer evening and the menu had lamb shanks on it. Seriously, lamb shanks in the middle of summer.

To compensate for the limitations of such a menu MP3 has masses of specials – and not only does this (I suspect) confuse customers, I know from experience that it confuses the staff. At some point a restaurant has to realise that it’s impossible to please every single diner and to flood your menu with dishes in an attempt to make every customer’s mouth salivate is just not going to work.

I wish I could say that my little rant was over. But no, it’s not. We managed to score a waiter who was working her first shift. I’m firmly of the opinion that managers of any customer facing team need to make sure that staff are prepared for the moment they do face the customer. In our case, our waiter was not. On the night we were there, the menu offered two variations on salt and pepper squid – one was on the laminated menu and one was on the specials board. I didn’t know which one I wanted, our waiter didn’t seem to know the difference and once she had taken our order the manager had to come out and verify the whole thing. And he was pretty woolly on the squid dishes too.

It transpires I’d ordered an entrée sized squid dish. The squid itself was OK and it was served with a non descript salad. What totally ruined the whole dish was the fact that it was all drowning in sweet chilli sauce. That was not good.

We only had the one course and, using our Entertainment Card meant that it was a very cheap meal for four (after discount aobut $85). Cheap, but not good value.

Not one I’ll go to again.

MP3 on Urbanspoon

Victory Hotel, Sellicks Hill

- Alex 1 Comment

 

 

date of visit: Monday 2 January 2012

Here in South Australia the New Year started with something of a bang. A very hot bang with the temperature hovering around 40°C. There’s not a lot to do in that type of weather other than go out for lunch …

My last visit to the Victory Hotel was well over a year ago and with the lovely views over the sea it’s the ideal place to take overseas visitors. On this occasion, I think we must have scored the last table in the house – and I was pretty surprised about that, ringing up just the day before.

When we arrived for our 12:30 booking the pub was already busy. We’d booked an inside table (seriously – it was 40°C – we were NOT going to be sitting outside, nice views or no) and they’ve done a good job of both packing tables in but making sure customers don’t feel cramped. As usual, our table was complete with high chair and we’d been given a spot that ensured the high chair could be out of the way of both staff and customer traffic.

The way the Victor works is that food orders are taken at the table but you order your drinks at the bar. This place is renowned for its wine list and I was happy (as in, super happy) to be able to order a Leo Buring Leonay 2004 Riesling for a very sensible $55. Yes, on this occasion I had made sure I was not the designated driver.

In addition to the menu, which you can check out on the website, there are daily specials. I opted to start with one of these – the vodka cured salmon with deep fried capers, white anchovies and the ubiquitous microgreens. I was a little disappointed to find only a couple of tiny anchovies on my plate (I was busy dreaming of the big fat boquerones you get in Spain … because I’m a bit of a greedy when it comes to those!) but there was plenty of salmon and the dish not only looked good, it tasted good too. Andy started off with another special – a crunchy prawn and pork Thai style salad with nam jim which he said was good and pleasantly spicy.

For main course I couldn’t go past the crispy skinned pork belly with a slipper lobster (I had to look this up – they are one of the marine bugs like Moreton Bay and Balmain), a granny smith remoulade and kipfler potatoes. In fact, 75% of our table had this dish and one person didn’t eat all their crispy skin so I got to finish it off!

This dish was really something – a generous piece of pork belly, perfectly moist and tender with great crackling. The granny smith remoulade was excellent – it really cut through the richness and smoothness of both the pork and the slipper lobster. This is definitely something I’ll think about pairing with pork in future. On a hot day, this is perhaps not the most obvious thing to order (and certainly something I wouldn’t be cooking at home!) but it absolutely did the job. I would go back for this dish.

We couldn’t fit in desserts so we just wrapped up with coffees. Main courses are mostly around the $25-$30 mark so expect to spend around $50+ per person (this depends a bit on how excited you get by wine lists …). This makes the Victory Hotel expensive for a pub – and in many respects you won’t forget you’re in a pub while you’re there. Everything is very casual, the chances are you’ll wander through the front bar, and you most certainly don’t have to dress up.

But then again, every now and then it’s wonderful to go out for really good food and have it be a casual affair. The Victory doesn’t sell itself as a fine dining venue – but it absolutely delivers with respect to both the food and wine.

Victory Hotel on Urbanspoon