Author: Alex Prichard

Mary Berry’s Chocolate Brownies

- Alex Prichard 1 Comment

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A while back I bought a copy of Mary Berry’s 100 Sweet Treats and Puds (I bought it from Clouston and Hall but they no longer have it).

Mary Berry is a UK baking icon and co-hosts the original Great British Bake Off. I hope she’s not offended by me saying she’s a very grandmotherly type. Both my grandmas were pretty good cooks and I certainly didn’t go short of sweet and savoury treats. But if you didn’t have a grandma who baked then one episode of Bake Off and you’d probably be interested in adopting Mary Berry.

I spent quite a bit of time reading through the book deciding what to cook first. A reasonably impromptu Father’s Day lunch saw me volunteer desserts and, realising I was short of time, I decided on the brownies because they looked really easy.

It turned out that time was even more of the essence than I’d realised because, on the morning of lunch, with brownies yet to make and the other dessert to assemble, one of our neighbours popped his head over the fence and the already tight schedule was thrown out of whack!

These brownies taste great with a deep chocolate flavour, are slightly squishy and fudgy and are really easy. If you’re not confident melting chocolate, you want a store cupboard alternative or you want a quick recipe (you still need 40 minutes baking time though!) then this is the recipe for you.

A couple of notes: don’t be freaked out by what feel like unconventional quantities of ingredients. Hold your nerve! Mary Berry’s original recipe uses 375g caster sugar but I had only 300g left and topped up with dark brown sugar. This is always a result in brownies and adds extra richness.

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Mary Berry’s Chocolate Brownies

Ingredients

  • 275g unsalted butter (slightly softened if you working by hand or using a stand mixer)
  • 300g caster sugar
  • 75g dark brown sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 75g cocoa powder
  • 100g self raising flour
  • 100g dark chocolate chips

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 160°C fan and line a roasting tin (30cm x 23 cm) with baking paper.
  2. Combine the butter and sugars then add the eggs. Mix in the cocoa powder and self raising flour and finish by stirring in the chocolate chips.
  3. The mixture will be very thick. Spoon it into the baking dish, smooth it out and bake for 40-45 minutes. The cake should be set and a skewer should come out clean but you also don't want to over bake because otherwise the brownies won't be squidgy.
  4. Leave to cool in the tin (if appropriately squidgy it will collapse a little) before cutting into 24 squares and serving.
https://eatingadelaide.com/mary-berrys-chocolate-brownies/

Taste of the Himalayas

- Alex Prichard 2 Comments

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Nepalese platter

date of visit: Saturday 24 August 2013

Well, it seems that Nepalese restaurants are like buses. After our recent visit to Himalayan Kitchen, we’ve managed to find time to hit Taste of the Himalayas, the new Nepalese restaurant in Brighton.

As it’s walking distance from my parents’ house, we decided to take my dad there in celebration of his birthday. This caused some confusion because mum thought we meant on the day itself – so she had been ready for the meal for the best part of a month!

Actual details of the outing ironed out, we headed off, aiming to be there for the restaurant’s 5:30 pm opening. Best laid plans and all meant we arrived around 6pm. We weren’t quite the first people there but might as well have been. All good when you have a two year in old tow. A two year old who thinks that as soon as he sits at a table, food should appear …

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We started off with a few drinks – including, for me, a real Nepalese beer, Mustang. Given the small hungry person, we opted for main courses only. For the (apparently starving) toddler, I chose the choila, a chicken entrée, where the meat is marinated in traditional Nepalese spices. This was an absolute hit and was carefully, slowly and steadily demolished.

Andy chose a barramundi curry, mum the lamb cutlets, dad the goat curry and I had the Nepalese platter. The platter included lentils, a chicken curry (I had a choice of chicken, lamb or goat and chose chicken on the basis that mum and dad already had lamb and goat covered), mustard green spinach and a tomato pickle. We also had rice, roti and extra lentils for the table.

Everyone really enjoyed their food – the great thing about Nepalese food is that while it’s essentially curry, it’s all about spice flavour rather than spice heat.  If you don’t like chilli, you can still eat Nepalese. There were a couple of uneven patches but overall, we agreed we’d be more than happy to head back. Dad thought his goat was a bit tough and while some of the roti were perfectly crispy and delicious, some were a little thicker than others which meant they were a touch doughy. My gripe (and this is very typical of me) is that my food wasn’t as fearsomely hot (thermally) as I like it to be. I loved the lentils and gobbled up not only the ones that came on my platter but also some of the second portion too. The stand out dish (which I didn’t actually try) was mum’s lamb which was a generous portion (served on a sizzling hot platter) which dad announced would be what he would have next time.

Service was very friendly and, for the most part, pretty good. As the restaurant got busier and busier (and, here’s a tip, if you are going to go on a Saturday night you should either book or get there no later than about 6pm) it tailed off a bit and I did get a sense that perhaps they could do with one more body on the floor.

Taste of Himalayas also gets a big tick for proper tablecloths and napkins!

The restaurant is also well set up for takeaway (there are couches for those waiting) and there’s a fish tank which seems to keep two year olds pretty happy. On a Sunday night there is a buffet (if that is/isn’t your thing).

Prices are very reasonable – 4 and a half of us left having spent well under $40 a head, and that was plenty of food as well as pre dinner drinks and a bottle of wine.

Definitely somewhere to check out!

Taste of the Himalayas
489 Brighton Road
Brighton SA 5048
phone: 8358 2483

Taste of the Himalayas on Urbanspoon

WIN! Paul Newman’s Own Aioli

- Alex Prichard 1 Comment

Paul Newman Aioli

Disclaimer: I was sent the two new aiolis to try and Paul Newman’s Own has supplied the prizes.

I know that if you turn on a cooking programme on tv you’ll see a chef/cook/contestant whipping up mayonnaise or aioli in a matter of moments. And I’m pretty sure that most people don’t actually do that at home. We don’t do that at home. And do you know why?

Because when we want mayo or aioli we usually want such a tiny amount that the effort to make our own just never feels worth it. Plus, the whole point of having a BLT for dinner is minimal effort!

Paul Newman’s Own has just introduced two new aiolis to sit along its plain aioli: basil and black pepper and smoked paprika. The first thing I was impressed to note is that the products are made with the same things that you or I might use: oil, egg and no artificial flavourings.

Paul Newman’s Own is also a not for profit entity: all profits go to the Newman’s Own Foundation and they are then distributed to charities in the regions where the products are sold. So when you buy any of the products you can be confident that the profits will be directed back to charities in Australia, if not South Australia.

Last year, for example, the Foundation’s focus areas were children with life-limiting conditions and (fittingly, for a food company!) nutrition. South Australian charities that benefited were: Australian Cranio-Maxillo Facial Foundation, Day of Difference Foundation, Down Syndrome Society of SA and The Epilepsy Centre. (Check out the website for the full list of Australian 2012 recipients).

However, all these warm and fuzzies are just a bonus – they’re not the thing which will get you buying the products in the first place. That all comes down to taste.

I was sent jars of both the basil and black pepper and the smoked paprika aiolis to try out. The basil and black pepper aioli had an outing on the lazy Sunday night dinner: the BLT, while the smoked paprika I used to make a very quick and simple celeriac remoulade.

BLT

admittedly, this could be any random BLT … but trust me, it has aioli in it!

Of the two, I definitely preferred the smoked paprika aioli. This had a stronger flavour all round and definitely a stronger garlic flavour. The basil and black pepper was very subtle on the BLT (maybe I’m too stingy!) but tasted on its own, the fresh basil flavour does come through.

Paul Newman Aioli

For the remoulade, I simply chopped the celeriac very finely, put it in acidulated water and, after draining it, mixed through the aioli. This is a very easy way of doing remoulade and you could complicated it by mixing through a little sour cream or crème fraîche, or some mustard – but the beauty of the smoked paprika is that you don’t need to do any of that.

I also thought that both would work really well as a dip on a plate of crudités. They’re very pretty colours and the garlic is not overpowering.

If you’re interested in trying the new aiolis, you don’t even have to head to the shops. Paul Newman’s Own has FIVE prize packs (one of each aioli in a cute bag) for Eating Adelaide readers.

Entry is easy – just use the Rafflecopter entry form below*.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*Ts&Cs:

You must be resident in Australia (and have an Australian postal address).

The only mandatory task is liking Eating Adelaide on Facebook.

Winners will be contacted by email, and published on the Eating Adelaide Facebook page. They will need to respond within 48 hours, otherwise I will redraw.