Balcony Garden: Harvest Monday #43

My mint didn't fare too well after it's stress of a waterless four weeks whilst I lived in up in Europe. I came home to what was basically a dead plant with just a few bits of greenery on it....oops.  So I did what any good gardener would do...chopped of ALL the dead bits (aka the whole plant) and saved any minty goodness to use for myself.

True to its reputation as being a trooper of the balcony-gardener world, the mint has ALREADY started to sprout new greenery, in just over two weeks it's making the come back of all come backs. I'm impressed as after two weeks of being home and back at work I still feel deader than the mint.

With my few scraps of mint I decided to try and replicate one of my favourite breakfast dishes from one of my most favourite cafes in Parramatta - Three Ropes Cafe. 

And here we have my version of Three Ropes smashed avocado on toast with feta, lemon and mint.  The whole lot has a good drizzle of olive oil, a squeeze of lemon with some black pepper + rock salt on top.  It's pretty good - but I don't think it's anywhere near as great at the Three Ropes version. A girl can try though, right?

You can view more Harvest Monday posts on Daphne's Dandelions blog. 

Chinese Noodle House, Haymarket (Chinatown)

It's not long before The BFF and are back at The Prince Centre to try "the other" Chinese Noodle joint nestled in this little complex - Chinese Noodle House.

As far as I can tell Chinese Noodle House is pretty much the same restaurant as its doppelgänger, Chinese Noodle Restaurant.  There's just a few shops separating these two eateries - but that's about the only thing that seems to separate them. The menu seems the same, as does the decor - inside and out.

The Mapo Tofu is served with rice and is a steal at just $9.50.  This dish is excellent.  It's my first time trying Mapo Tofu and I'm IN LOVE! The silken, soft tofu that had a really good savoury, salty hit and as I ate each spoonful I was already anticipating the next.  I've heard that this Mapo Tofu is often served with mince pork, but I honestly don't know how that could make the dish any better for me.

I would've been happy to continue with the vegetarian theme for the night, but The BFF was in the mood for something meaty - enter the Spring Pancakes with Beef ($8.80 for two rolls). These rolls were beyond ENORMOUS - each being the size of an Indian Dosa and stuffed to overflowing with a filling of beef, beanshoots and other veggies.  They were also enormously messy and impossible to eat with chopsticks - definitely finger food. I really enjoyed this dish.

Pork + Chive pan-fried dumplings ($8.80 for a dozen). Sometimes dumplings like this can be quite oily with the filling being a bit...insipid BUT I'm glad to report this was not the case here. Each dumpling had a lovely, crispy bottom and the filling was moist and flavoursome. Two hoofs up from me.

I had a great meal at Chinese Noodle House.  Best of all it was filling AND cheap. All up we spent just over $27 for two people (AND I got to take one of the spring pancakes home to have for lunch the next day).
 

If I had to choose between Chinese Noodle House and Chinese Noodle Restaurant would I? Could I? No way, why choose when I can go to both. What would you choose "dear reader"?

Chinese Noodle House is at 8 Quay Street, TG2 Prince Centre, Haymarket, Chinatown.

The Adventures of Miss Piggy: Balcony Garden: Harvest Monday #42

Before our holiday I needed  to use up the last of my sad looking snow peas. I used most of the "harvest" (I use that term loosely considering how slim the pickings were) a few weeks before, but somehow a few new pods popped up.

Some of my carrots were also starting to look like they were ready to pick.  Carrots will basically tell you when they're ready to be harvested.  They will start to rise up out of the ground and you can clearly see their orange carrotness.  They are practically shouting PICK ME PICK ME! So I did.

Last winter I'd cooked Stephanie Alexander's "simple beef stew" and I knew that my carrots and peas would be perfect for this dish.  The recipe calls for carrots but I'm sure there'd be no harm in chucking in the six peas that I'd harvested...

This is the PERFECT recipe for me.  When Stephanie Alexander called this recipe "easy" she meant "easy"! Chuck everything into one pot, pop into the oven and pull out in a few hours.

And there you have it - the perfect "still winter" casserole. I wish every dinner was as easy to cook as this. If only, hey?

You can view more Harvest Monday posts on Daphne's Dandelions blog.

How to start a Balcony Garden

I was recently asked by Chris from The Life Creative to write a guest post for his blog about how I came to set up my (sometimes) thriving Balcony Garden. I thought I'd share my tips with my readers too...and it's good timing seeing as I basically need to restart my balcony garden due to its post-holiday devastation.

Growing your own food, no matter how small your little urban “farm” may be is a great way to connect yourself with the food chain. It’s certainly got me up off the couch and into the great outdoors…of my balcony!

1.    The first thing to do is understand how much sun your plant growing spot is going to get each day. I’m lucky that my balcony faces due-North and we get hours of directly sunlight everyday.  This is the ideal situation for plants and I can grow pretty much anything (except for mushrooms as they LOVE dark).  People with shady growing areas will still be able to grow things – you’ll just be a bit limited.  Mr Google can help you out here – but as an example parsley and mint are quite partial to a bit of shade.

2.    I know this sounds kind of obvious but grow things that you like to eat and cook with. Somehow I’ve ended up with an ENORMOUS thyme bush on my balcony...and a rather large rosemary bush too. They look wonderful and smellsamazing but I really don’t have any idea of what to do with all that thyme/rosemary other than offload it onto my neighbour who loves cooking with it.

3.    You need to be aware that most herbs and veggies are seasonal - they won’t grow all year round as they either like it hot or cool or somewhere in between. After shopping in ColesWorth for most of my adult life I never really understood this properly until I started to garden.  In these big supermarkets I can lay my hot little hands on anything I want whenever I want and now, as a “gardener”, I finally understand that a lot of these herbs, fruits and veggies are imported or they sit in cold storage for months just wanting to be wheeled out to unsuspecting shoppers like moi.  This is a useful tool for the best time to plant your goodies.

4.    I grow things from seed packets rather than buying seedlings as it’s cheaper. This is entirely personal…I prefer to spend my money on eating out rather than buying pricey, half grown pots of herbs. For me half the fun is planting out my seeds and seeing what pops up and what just…fails. That said I could NOT grow rosemary from seed (or sage as I couldn't find any seeds) so I caved and bought myself a nice seedling to kick things off.

5.    Use a good quality potting mix. The stuff from the supermarket doesn’t come with a lot of “good stuff” in it so I buy my (organic) potting mix from Bunnings or a garden centre. Be careful with potting mix…it has micro-organisms in it that are harmful if you breath them in. I always wear gloves and a face mask when I’m using potting mix. It’s not sexy, but hey it’s safe.

6.    Remember to feed your plants regularly as they will quickly gobble up the nutrients that came in the potting mix.  Every week or two I add some liquid Seasol to my watering can. I also occasionally do the same thing with a bit of Dynamic Lifter as it has different “goodies” to the Seasol so I figure it cannot hurt. Ask your garden centre for their recommendations which is what I did. So far, so good.

7.    Finally just have fun. Things will die or they’ll get scoffed by caterpillars or other nasties but don’t give up – try again. Mother Nature can be a real shocker sometimes but hey, that’s gardening for you! 

Miss Piggy xox

BaoTown pop-up @VellaNero Cafe, Sydney

On Sunday I was lucky enough to be invited to the media preview of the soon-to-be-launched BaoTown pop-up that is being put together by fellow food blogger T (aka Theresa), from the blog, The Gook.

Until a few years ago I had no idea what a Bao even was (an infliction not uncommon to most Aussie kids growing up in Aussie country towns), but in the space of a few short years I've grown to know them...and love them. A LOT. Unlike me, T grew up eating Bao -- they were practically a daily after-school treat made for her by her nan...hence the source of her Bao passion and the inspiration behind BaoTown.

The lovely T, chief Bao-ologist and mastermind behind BaoTown

So what is a Bao? You know those Pork Buns that we all know and love at Yum Cha? That's a Bao. Bao (pronounced "bow") simple means "bun"...a doughy casing for whatever inventive filling the bao-maker wishes to stuff them with.  Like all good food, it's meant to be eaten with your hands...so put those knives + forks down people and tuck in.

At the media launch we got to try all four of the savoury Bao's that will be appearing and the pop-up PLUS the two incredible sweet baos on offer. I may have snuck an extra Bao when noone was looking and just so you know eating seven Bao may be one too many. Maybe...

Miso Eggplant Bao - sweet eggplant slow roasted with shiro miso, sake, mirin, sesame seeds and ginger. Topped with a coriander salsa.

Coconut Pork Belly Bao - pork belly slow cooked for 4 hours in young coconut juice, soy and fish sauce + star anise (I may or may not have had two of these. Don't judge)!

Yellow Chicken Curry Bao - fragrant chicken curry made with turmeric, curry leaves, fish sauce and coconut cream (sadly I could not fit in two of these - my stomach let me down).

Beef Bo Kho Bao - traditional beef stew slow cooked in soy sauce, tomato, lemongrass and cinnamon.

From my limited Bao knowledge sweet fillings in Bao isn't uncommon, but T took her sweet fillings to a whole other level. Behold the Molten Chocolate Bao (you can put in a drum roll there if you like cause I think it's kinda worth it).

On first glance it looks innocent enough - some pastry wrapped around some chocolate. No big deal. But then you bite into it and a river of glossy, oozy, molten Marou chocolate runs out like a river of sweet silk.  This baby sh!ts all over those Nutella crepes I was scoffing in Paris a few weeks ago.

 

The Lemon Polenta Bao is also pretty dang great, especially for those people (like me) who love the tart zinginess of a bit of lemon in their food.

As the pop-up is being hosted by CBD cafe + coffee roasters Vella Nero we also get to indulge in some fine Vietnamese Iced Coffee (which I REALLY appreciated as I'm still feeling a tad jet lagged and still on London time).

So what are you waiting for? It all sounds delish, right?

The first BaoTown pop-up is being held on 12th October at Vella Nero, 259 Clarence Street in the city between 10.00am - 5.00pm.

There is also a November + December pop-up on the cards.