RAW Space cafe, South Brisbane

RAW space Cafe,

99 Melbourne Street,

South Brisbane

p: 3844 9952

Open Mon - Fri 7am - 2.30pm

Saturday Brekkey: 7am - 12pm

Cafes like Raw Space are hard to find - its like the "olden days" when a huge variety of homemade food was jam packed into a display cabinet - fresh daily.

Raw Cafe is just that, a friendly space that is kind of a gallery (rob kelly, one of the owners is an art curator) but leaning towards more a local food haven.

The only down side is that there is so much on offer it is hard to decide what to have: lasgane, beef or pumpkin & fetta ($9.50), salmon & potato Pie ($3.5), zucchini fritatta ($4), risotto of the day ($8.5), chicken burger ($8.5) or choose from a huge range of fresh cut sandwiches ,bagels, turkish ($5 - $8) - my hubby just loves the egg & lettuce sandwiches (some people are just easy pleased!)

There are salads galore - big colorful plates of greek, caesar, nicoise, roasted sweet potato, beetroot and green beans. Sooomuch to choose from. The top of the counter is laden with fresh muffins, cakes, biscuits - most made on the premises by the chefs Lucinda and Bimbi out back.

There is quite simply something for everyone. Breakfasts have just started on Saturdays - although it is available all week. Blueberry pancakes with whipped pecan butter ($12.5), israeli eggs with yoghurt, coriander and toasted turkish bread ($13.5),
housemade baked beans ($8.5), savoury mince cob ($10.5) and of course the BIG brekky ($16.5) with all the bits plus loads more offerings ...far too many to mention.

All meals are served in takeaway containers however if you "dine in" your meal gets placed on a funky green tray. I chose the Rice Pilaf - which was like a chicken fried rice. Just what I felt like with a cup of very good coffee (Abrisca $3)

The hubby had the steak sandwich which was great, onions, chutney, tomato & letteuce $8.50 served on a turkish bread - so big he bought half home for arvo tea. (he eats like a sparrow!)

Raw is a great little find and a cafe that we would all love to have up the road - pop in and see for yourself. I bet you won't know what to choose!

Sticky Pear Shortcake

STICKY PEAR SHORTCAKE

I have been making a version of this for years after one of my bosses when I was about 18 taught me this "everything" recipe. The shortcake here can have milk added to it and tuirned into a cake - it can have a bit more flour added to it and turned into biscuits - it is just an everything recipe.

So the other night I had some friends over and was making pear tarte tartin but didn't have any pastry - so thought I would just whip up my everything recipe and dollop it on the top of the caramelised pears and bake in the oven - the result was so delicious it was verging on perfection!

So here it is my everything recipe and the caramelised pears.

2 pears sliced

1/2 cup brown sugar

100 gm butter

1 tspn vanilla bean paste

dash of sweet wine

Cook in a pan that can also go in the oven.

Place butter, sugar, vanilla and a slug of something you mat be supping on in a pan with the sliced pears.

Cook over a medium heat until soft and caramelised - about 7-10 mins.

The "everything" part of the recipe.

Shortcake:

250gm softened butter

11/2 cups sugar

2 whole eggs

1 tspn vanilla paste

2 cups SR flour

Place the butter and sugar in a food processor and cream together.

Add the eggs and vanilla and give another mix until creamy.

Add the flour and make a delicious stiff doughy mix.

Place spoonfuls of this mix all over the pears and bake in the oven (160 degrees celcius) for approx 10 - 15 minutes.

Allow to sit for a few minutes then run a knife around the edge of the pan and place a plate on the top and flip out the tart.

I served with Maggie Beers Burnt Almond ice-cream but a big dollop of something creamy is perfect.

ENJOY - this is truly lipsmacking!

My favorite Pho Kitchen

Pho Hien Vuong, Pasteur -
Shop 21 Market Square

Cnr Mains Rd and McCullogh St,

Sunnybank

Open 7 days a week.

Whenever I feel like I need a bit of a warm food hug, I jump into my car and head out to Sunnybank. I love the shopping and the hustle and bustle and then I love retreating to the little pho shop in the corner. There are no airs and graces in this little premises - it is clean, has laminex tables laden with chopsticks, thermos of green tea, cups, tissues, hoi sin & chilli sauce, sugar, tub of ground chilli and some spoons. It is always crowded with locals at anytime of the day having their fix of pho.

I always like to start with a coconut juice or one of the many gorgeous drinks full of tapioca or the coconut and pandan jelly with beans. Some of them are a meal in themselves - really some tea is probably enough. But who says enough is enough - not me.

At Hien Vuong, they have all the normal stuff such as the rice paper rolls and the spring rolls but they do a roaring trade in all things pho. Queenie and the team here even do mini personalised steamboat - wow and yum!

There are many other great options on the menu. They do a great selection of Bun (m $8 Lg $9)(vermicelli salad) with BBQ chicken, the ubiquitous spring roll or tender shredded pork - all are delicious. The Com (m $8 lg $9) (rice) dishes are also great for sharing as well. The usual Vietnamese suspects are here BBQ pork chop, Crispy Chicken and BBQ Pork Rind all served with rice, shredded cucumber, carrot, some herbs and lettuce. It is such a fresh and enjoyable way to eat (doh! any eating is enjoyable - right!)

But today it was raining so I opted for straight Beef Pho (s $7) it is the greatest stock and a simple rice noodles, slices of beef, spring onions and then the gorgeous plate of beanshoots, chilli, lemon and asian basil - I want it now - again! I added some hoi sin and a bit of chilli oil a squeeze of lemon and I was off.

I stop here for lunch on our Taste Trekker Asian Sunnybank shopping tours so am lucky enough to eat here quite a bit. As they do all sorts of soups with Combination (livers, giblets, pigs blood, tendons, fat brisket) one of the fellas on the walk was really hungry so he ordered a large combination beef soup - the result: a large salad bowl ($9) full of miscellaneous beef bits that he had to pick his way through. There was no way he was ever going to finish it. I now order for everyone.

The pho kitchen is a must stop if you are out Sunnybank way and need a food hug - great value for money and some of the tastiest pho I have had in Australia or Vietnam for that matter.

Raspberry & Coconut Rice Pudding with Lime

COCONUT, RASPBERRY AND LIME RICE PUDDING

Time to prepare: 5 mins

Cooking time: 30 mins
Devouring time: Not long - none left over for seconds.

Dishes: one pot!

This recipe started from a twittersation about rice pudding and yummy things to serve for brunch. Divinepurple was saying she would like to make a coconut ice rice pudding with frozen raspberries folded through the pudding - I thought that sounded like a damn good idea. In todays Brunch Cooking Class I gave it a whirl...so here it is.

I had a recipe for rice pudding with Papaya from Christine Manfields new book Fire and then changed it a bit - this is how it turned out. It was ABSOLUTELY a hands down winner and sooo easy to make.

Coconut Rice Pudding with Raspberries and Lime
Serves 4

what you need...
160gm aborio rice
500ml coconut milk/cream
200ml milk
100gm sugar
zest of 2 limes
½ tspn vanilla paste
250ml cream
20ml fresh lime juice (about 1 lime)
150gm fresh or frozen raspberries
50gm raspberries for garnish
30gm coconut flakes or shredded for topping

what to do.....
Wash the rice under running water to get rid of excess starch as normal.
Place the rice in a pot with the coconut milk, milk, sugar, lime zest and vanilla paste. Cook over moderate heat – stirring every now and then.
Once the rice is simmering, cover with a lid and turn down low – cook for around 30 minutes or until the rice is soft and has absorbed all that liquid.
Remove from the heat and let sit for 5 mins.

Stir through the cream, raspberries and half the lime juice.
Spoon into serving bowls or one nice big one and top with remaining raspberries, lime juice and coconut.

I served it in a gorgeous glass bowl on a stand - it looked stunning! However I nearly forgot to take a pic - so this is all I could manage.

Enjoy!

Dudley Street Espresso

Dudly Street Espresso

494 Ipswich Rd.

Cnr Dudley St and Ipwich Rds, Annerley.

As I wandered along Ipswich road blindly looking for a place to get my morning hit of caffeine (I wasn't staggering home or anything untoward,my pilates studio is around the corner) - I stumbled upon the delightful Dudly Street Cafe, Espresso and Collectables. Half cafe, half funky op shop. A big long table takes up the front of the shop filled with regular caffeine junkies all getting their fill.

once again greeted by two big smiling dials of the two owners - I love a big smile to greet. Everyone should get onto that!

I ordered a toasted turkey turkish ($7.5)and a cup of their finest ($3.5). Giancarlo from Grinders is their bean of choice, not my favorite but its ok when made well. My turkey turkish was good too- I did want the buffalo mozzerella, tomato & basil sandwich ($5.5)but there were none left. A nice selection of the cafe regular assortment was available and a few salads ($8)

A nice selection of cakes and danishes are available - they all looked a bit to perfect to be churned out of an oven on site but they looked quite nice - choc tart thingy, an orange cakey one. I didn't indulge so can not give comment on taste. I will go back so will go nuts then.

The curios and collectables were interesting; world globes (you know the one you had as a kid and wondered why australia didn't fall off the bottom of the world!), clocks, boxes, tables, signs, pictures, blackboards - all very cool collectables.

Apparently the boys do a mean white hot chocolate so the lady sitting next to me said - and I believe her - the fellas here don't do a lot but what they do they do well.

Desmond & Molly Jones

Desmond & Molly Jones
Stanley St, Woollongabba.

Oh bla de oh bla dah ...ooooh how life goes on . When a new cafe springs up in my neck of the woods I am there quicker than the food reps that will no doubt turn up in their droves close behind.

I watched Desmond & Molly Jones for weeks - peeking through the newspaper that always conveniently lets one piece drop so that you can kinda see whats going on - but not really!

So after parking illegally in another shops carpark ( I know I am ashamed) - parking is at a premium in this neighborhood - I wandered around past Heinz Meats (more on that later) and into the gorgeous shop of Desmond and Molly Jones.

Exposed brick walls and funky wall paper and retro furniture. Fresh herbs out the front and old window shutters as tables clashing with the primary colored stools of the 70's - I love the simplicity of the fit out. Its all quite simple really - a few enticing dishes, great coffee and a whopper of a smile on your arrival - all make for a great start at Desmond & Molly Jones.

I was greeted by the extremely bubbly Kristina who helped me decide quickly on a greek spinach pie ($8.5) and a delicious roquette, pinenut and orange salad.

The meal was tasty and HUGE....I couldn't eat it all and I love food but this had me beat! Plus I really wanted to leave room for a Genovese Coffee as that really is my favorite. The pie was delicious, full of cheese, spinach and rice and wrapped in puff pastry with a dollop of cheesey pinenut spinach dip on top ( I wasn't a big wrap on that it was kinda more of the same). The table & chair situation is to find a comfy chair and rest your plate on your lap - its all a bit " front of the telly" style eating as the tables are small and low - but I like that. The elderly lady before me struggled a bit but she'll work it out!

The daily offering is written up on a huge wall of blackboard . Brekkey can be crumpets and jam ($4.5) , turkish toast with housemade jams ($5) or muesli with rhubarb, ginger and yoghurt ($6.5) -all sounds deliciously uncomplicated. Lunch consists of a selection of interesting sandwiches ($8.5) with fillings such as veal meatloaf, rolled pork belly and smoked chicken and the daily special (which on this day was the pie!)

The benchtop display of rocky road muffins($4), savoury muffins ($3.5) vanilla greek cake (this looked amazing!) all looked scrummy and I couldn't help but buy a rocky road muffin and it was totally indulgent, choc o bloc full of goodies.

I will definitely return to this little joynt - great value, nice choices and bloody good coffee!

Straddy, lights, action!

What a fun week I have had. I trekked off to North Stradbroke Island with my mate Kylie (shes a photographer) to do a cooking class over on Straddy to be filmed for Channel 7s Weekender. We had shot this footage before but in the nasty storms last year the roof flew off at channel 7 and many of their stories were ruined in the floods.

So off we trotted back to elandra (these houses are great, 3 houses and each sleeps 8) - as i had the same lot of eager volunteers I put together another dinner party menu based loosely around greek food. The weather was absolute crap - raining and really windy - so those shots of us all relaxing at the beach were not happening. It was interesting trying to connect all these little situations to make a story that can be told in a few minutes on tv.

We started with ouzo of course and a few snacks.....we cooked up greek lamb cigars, made some herby labna and cooked up some gorgeous blue swimmer crabs that one of the fellas had caught that day. Then we made greek lamb, smashed potatoes, fennel and baby tomato salad - followed by a chocolate and hazlenut torte - which I served half cooked as it was taking way too long to cook. I don't think they noticed I just said it was a saucy pudding and wacked a few berries over it!

The enthusiastic volunteers all then went and got their musical instruments and we ended up with a bit of a jam session going on - we even had a flute player! Sat up much of the night discussing if it is a little wierd to take nude photos of your sister while she is pregnant!!!! I thought yes.

The next morning we did a breakfast shoot out by the BBQ - same volunteers. We did baked eggs on the BBQ with yoghurt bread , apple pancake and watermelon granitas - delish!

A quick trip to the beach as the water was magnificent finished off a great couple of days - I tell you some people really do live the life we only dream about!