Melting Moments

October 26, 2009 - Alex Leave a comment

I borrowed the book Cooking: A Commonsense Guide from the library while waiting for my container load of cookbooks to arrive from the UK. The book is full of sensible, familiar recipes so I was, obviously, going to try out some sensible familiar biscuits!

The recipe alleges it makes 40 biscuits so I decided to reduce measures by a half: after all, 40 biscuits is quite a lot for anyone for afternoon tea (and I only had about 100g of butter). This recipe is given two ‘saucepans’ (the book’s way of grading difficulty) – thus requiring “a little more care and time”. Thanks to the power of the Magimix, this recipe quickly becomes within the grasp of the nervous baker. I did not have a piping bag and fluted nozzle, so my biscuits were just generous teaspoon sized blobs, slightly flattened with a damp fork.

These are very quick to put together and use store cupboard standards, so this is an ideal recipe if you ever find yourself in a biscuit emergency (and yes, such a thing does exist).

For 15-20 biscuits.

90 g unsalted butter
1/6 cup icing sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1/6 cup cornflour
1/2 cup plain flour

decoration (optional): glace cherries, blanched or slivered almonds …

Preheat oven to 180C. Line a baking tray with baking paper.

If using a food processor, beat butter, sugar and vanilla essence together until light and fluffy. Add cornflour (if doing this by hand, sift the cornflour first) and mix until just combined.

The mixture will be quite stiff. Spoon (or pipe) onto the baking sheet. Top with topping of choice (or leave plain) and bake at 15 minutes, until lightly golden and crisp. Leave to cool on wire rack. Be aware that, when hot, the biscuits will be very fragile. Even after they’ve cooled, they are very short so plates may well be the order of the day.

Cooking: A Commonsense Guide is available from Fishpond for $AU28.97, from Amazon UK for £6.53 and from Amazon US, used from just 44c!

Hotel Tivoli

October 24, 2009September 3, 2015 - Alex Leave a comment

Date of visit: Friday 12 June 2009

By the time we tried to book for dinner at the Tiv Friday night was all full up. No matter, in the long run, because we ended up eating at the excellent Farina. That didn’t stop us heading there for a recce in the guise of a pre-dinner drink.

I remember the Tivoli as being a somewhat grotty live music establishment (and bikie hangout – so I’d never actually been) so I was interested to see what its recent refurb and transformation into a ‘gastropub’ had done for it.

We entered the bar just before 6 and it was already extremely busy. Bar service itself was swift, although battering your way through the crowd took a little time and commitment. The beer selection is standard (Coopers) although Asahi is also available on tap. There are happy hour specials during the week as well as a Credit-Crunch Lunch.

The bar is decorated in a fairly generic modern pub manner, and while there are comfortable lounges (with tables) along the walls, seating is a little limited. We were lucky enough to grab a table – but the lack of seats didn’t seem to bother most customers and there was definitely a lively (and noisy) feel to the place. On a Friday it seems mostly frequented by office workers in their dress-down Friday gear.

The restaurant is hidden out the back – it’s not completely secluded from the bar and certainly some of the noise carries through. The menu looks interesting enough for us to sneak back for a meal at a later (and almost certainly mid-week) date.

There wasn’t really anything that made the bar of the Tivoli stand out: I certainly wouldn’t head here for an intimate tête à tête, but for a larger group or for a swift post work drink, it does the job.

Contact: The Tivoli, 265 Pirie Street, Adelaide, SA, 5000, phone: (08) 8223 4790.

Weekend Wine Tastings

October 23, 2009 - Alex Leave a comment

This weekend sees the start of East End Cellars‘ ‘Varietal Series’ of tastings. Saturday’s tasting, which runs from 12-4, focuses on varieties of ‘tradition’. This is followed up on 7 November with ‘alternatives’ and wraps up on 21 November with ‘Champagne and friends’.

Tickets for each of the tastings are $25 per person. The ticket price is redeemable against dozen purchases on the day, there will be discounts on the wines on tasting and, any dozen purchased, puts you in the running to win a wine from every supplier present on the day.

Although tickets are available on the door they are limited and you can book in advance either at the shop (just off Rundle Street at the eastern end) or through the website.

If you fancy getting a double dose of bubbles, wine behemoth Dan Murphy’s has a Champagne and Sparkling Wine Expo running at the Glenunga store on Sunday, from 1-4pm. There are to be over 50 wines on tasting although, as the tasting is free, I suspect it’s very much a case of first in, best dressed! The tasting is also being run at stores in other states.

For those who like to eat while drinking, East End Cellars is also hosting a dinner at Rigoni’s (on Leigh Street) on Tuesday 3 November. Nicolas Belfrage MW will be matching Italian wines to four courses of Italian food. Tickets are $120 per person and, as before, can be booked through the website or at the shop.

In the not too distant future, we’ll be adding a calendar to Eating Adelaide so you can keep up with events throughout the state. If you’re running an event you think we should know about – let us know!