RECIPE – “Perfect” Arancini balls

Why is it perfect? Because I used “perfect” ingredients:

• Leftovers of Heston Blumenthal’s perfect risotto
• Leftovers of Heston Blumenthal’s perfect spaghetti Bolognese

Crispy & tasty & a lovely leftover food.

RECIPE – Heston Blumenthal’s perfect risotto

On the quest for perfect arancini, I have recently completed Heston Blumenthal’s perfect spaghetti and now it’s time to attempt his perfect risotto.

More of my attempts at Heston’s recipes and my experience at his restaurant are here.

The first part for me was sorting through the recipe to find the risotto – his “perfect” risotto has so many separate bells and whistles that I wonder if that can really be perfect risotto. I mean it might be the perfect risotto & accompaniments but I wouldn’t really call it perfect risotto. As I main goal was making arancini balls with the leftovers, I omitted the bells & whistles not directly related to the risotto.

RECIPE – Heston Blumenthal’s perfect spaghetti bolognese

After a bit of a breather, I’m back onto creating another of Heston Blumenthal’s recipes from his In Search of Perfection series.

For more of my Heston Blumenthal recipe attempts/restaurant experience, click here.

Today (well over several days, really), it’s Heston’s perfect spag bol.

Perfection – spag bol ala Heston Blumenthal

Cellar Bar (Grossi Florentino) – Lunch – Melbourne

On my recent jaunt to Melbourne, I had a lazy Saturday wandering around town and happened upon Guy Grossi’s ventures in Melbourne. Not wanting to burn a hole in my wallet, I decided to go for the “cheapest” option of The Cellar Bar.

It was surprisingly, not busy around midday on a Saturday which was a relief for me because I’m not one to wait for food.

The decor is well done and I quite like the cosy brassiere feel to it.

It’s a small place, I wouldn’t really consider it a bar, more of a cafe but it was still enjoyable nonetheless.

RECIPE – Uova di Raviolo (Egg yolk-filled Ravioli)

I recently visited Maggie Beer’s farm in Adelaide, SA and remembered that she was on a show called The Cook and the Chef on ABC.

One of the recipes I’d wanted to try for a while was an egg yolk ravioli and whaddaya noe? There’s a recipe for that on The Cook and the Chef website.

Uova Di Raviolo – Egg yolk ravioli

A beautiful little entre. Lovely homemade pasta with and liquid egg yolk centre – delicious!

RECIPE – Chicken Cannelloni with spinach & mushrooms

When I first started cooking (oh so many years ago), it was jar of pasta sauce & packet of pasta, this was the first recipe that I had tried to properly make and it was divine. Cannelloni is a large, cylindrical pasta where you can stuff filling inside.

It’s a bit time-consuming but well worth the effort.

Chicken Cannelloni on bed of spinach & mushrooms (okay, I could have browned the top a bit more, but I was hungry)

Lucio Pizzeria – Dinner – Darlinghurst

Oh wow! This pizza was absolutely fantastic – I can’t wait to go back again. I wasn’t sure I was at the right place, there was a courtyard with several restaurants connected together, but a glance to the open glass door read Lucio Pizzeria backwards, so we had finally found it.

This place normally gets pretty packed, especially Fri & weekends but it’s also busy Thursday nights as well.

This is a combo of 2 times that I’ve been to Lucio’s. One time was a Thursday around 9pm after I had just been doing some sports so my dining companion and I were in our *cough* trakkie daks *cough*. The second time was first thing as it opened at 6pm on a Fri night – it filled up pretty quickly but not to the point of people hovering around uncomfortably waiting. Great pizza – well worth a trip.

Lucio’s on the far left

Antipasto Misto – Platter for 2 – $26

RECIPE – Blue Cheese Gnocchi

So, it’s 10 mins until dinner time & you only have 2 ingredients in your fridge/pantry, gnocchi & blue cheese – what do you do?

Well, they’re a match made in heaven so it’s time to combine them.

2 ingredients, 10 minutes – easy as pie

RECIPE – Pasta Carbonara – My way

My “healthy” carbonara – it has veggies dun it?

I don’t know why, but I don’t like to add cream to my pasta sauce – probably because I can get the same creamy sauce without it.

You can really add whatever veggies you want to give this the appearance of healthy food. The only ingredients I wouldn’t want to go without are onions, mushrooms & bacon. 🙂 (and pasta, obviously)

Oh, and the sauce is a combo of egg yolk, parmesan & pepper – weirded out my housemate a little when I first cooked it – but don’t knock it til you try it.

RECIPE – Tiramisu (“Pick me up”)

“pick me up”, I sure will Tiramisu

Italian food is my passion, one of my first forays into cooking when younger was the making of tiramisu. When I first attempted it, I made it more mocha than coffee because I wasn’t at an age where I liked coffee. It’s very easy to make.

Now is a different story. 😀