A few photos from the launch of Duck Duck Goose which I attended recently...Duck Duck Goose31-37 Artemis LaneQV, MelbourneVic 3000(03) 9005-0888WebsiteDuck Duck Goose is a new bar and restaurant in QV, combining French and Chinese influences into one enormous restaurant and bar.Upon entering, I was most impressed by the archways and gorgeous bar and lounge area. Its size...
I recently came into possession of a block of lovely reggiano cheese, and thought it would make the perfect base for a simple supper-for-one. I chose to make a version of Nigella's capellini con cacio e pepe, from Forever Summer, as I thought it would really highlight the wonderful flavour of the cheese. It is really just pasta...
Indya Bistro643 Rathdowne StCarlton NorthPh: (03) 9347-6387WebsiteIndya Bistro is a casual modern-Indian restaurant located on a busy section of Rathdowne street (near Cafe ZumZum and other Melbourne foodie favourites). They recently hosted a "Wine and Spice Night", matching 6 courses with 6 wines for $49. Even though this represents excellent value, I was lucky enough to be invited...
A Swiss roll is one of those odd cakes that are simple, but can incite the most irrational fear in home bakers. I know this, because I felt that fear. Yes, it's just a sponge cake with jam on the inside, but there are just so many places you can stuff it up. The batter itself is easily...

You all know I love Christmas, yes? I love the presents, I love the turkey lunch, I love the Weihnachtsgebäck, I love the mince pies, I love the Christmas cake, I love the post-Christmas barbecues, I love it all! I especially love Christmas pudding, so I was very excited to be invited along to The Langham's "Christmas in July" pudding making class tonight.
Even though we did end up elbow-deep in pudding mixture, the night started off quite a bit more sedately, so let's begin there. We arrived to a very warmly decorated function room upstairs, enjoying champagne and some beautiful canapés. There were quite a few more on offer than the 6 I photographed below - did you know it's really, really hard to eat and photograph at the same time? Traybound food is especially hard because it keeps moving! (I must have gotten out of practice ever since Sandra took over the bulk of the photography for my blog. Oops. Must practise more!) Sandra didn't attend tonight's event, so these photos were all me!

Bottom row: Lamb (I think!) wrapped in zucchini, crab cakes, fried zucchini flowers
We were then taken down to the pastry kitchen, to have a look at some chocolate work. The canapés and champagne kept on flowing, which was lovely. (I must admit it was a bit of a change for me to see waitstaff working back of house, hehe.)


There were also a few treats on offer, and you may remember the granola clusters (left) and the florentines (right) as 2 of my favourites from the afternoon tea. Fab!

Down here, Pastry Chef Zara showed us how to temper chocolate and dip truffles.


The first truffles were white chocolate filled with elderflower liquer and raspberry ganache, and Chez Zara got some very funky patterns on the white truffles by rolling them along the rack with a fork! So simple and effective.
These ones below were rum truffles dipped in Lindt milk chocolate and topped with cocoa nibs.

Wait a minute... did someone say Lindt milk chocolate? Lindt milk is my favourite chocolate of all time! I love how smooth and caramelly it is. I used to buy the piccoli (i.e. the little hexagonal pieces of couverture) in the 2.5 kilo bags. I've stopped doing that now, probably for the best.


After the chocolate, it was time for the serious business of making pudding. The way it worked is that head Chef Anthony Ross dumped the ingredients on a huge marble bench, and we all stuck our (well-sanitised) hands in to mix! (And if you're wondering, it was left-hand-in-the-dough, right-hand-on-the-camera. Awkward, but effective!)

As you can (just) see in the top picture of this post, we each got a little charm to put in our puddings, which was wrapped in foil, and covered in pudding mixture. The chefs at The Langham are going to cook and store our puddings, and we'll get them at Christmas.

The mixture was quite light in colour and the texture was quite fine compared to my usual Christmas pudding. I'll be interested to see how it turns out come December! If the taste of the raw dough is anything to go by, I'm sure they'll be fabulous.
Sarah attended Christmas in July as a guest of The Langham hotel.
That lovely foam coming out of the nitrous oxide cream whipper is not actually whipped cream, but a warm white chocolate and soymilk foam, created by the cocktail masters from Der Raum for the Vitasoy vs. St Ali event.The warm foam was the topping for their amazingly delicious 'pina colada' - rum, pineapple juice and agave nectar. Like,...