Recipes // Cherry Clafoutis

I LOVE cherries. 

I remember as a child my Dad always coming home with a bag of cherries as soon as they were in season and we all just eating them like sweets. 

So when I saw the first of this seasons cherries at the market last weekend, I got little excited and bought the biggest bag I could find (and spent way too many $$$) 

As much as I love them just as they are, we were having a lovely piece of duck for dinner so I thought a cherry dessert would be the perfect end to our meal and decided to try a Cherry Clafoutis. 

Makes 4
Recipe inspired by this one in Gourmet Traveller.

200ml pouring cream

1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped

4 eggs

80 gm caster sugar

25 gm plain flour, sifted

finely grated rind of 1/2 lemon

50 gm hazelnuts, finely chopped

icing sugar for dusting

Cherry compote

250 gm Cherries

15gm caster sugar

juice of 1/2 lemon

Preheat oven to 180C. For the cherry compote, combine ingredients in a small saucepan and stir over medium heat until cherries bleed colour (3-5 minutes) Set aside.

Combine cream and vanilla in a jug. Separate 2 eggs and set eggwhites aside. Beat yolks with remaining 2 eggs and sugar in an electric mixer until light and creamy. Add flour and lemon rind and whisk to combine. Whisk eggwhites in a separate bowl until soft peaks form, then fold into yolk mixture. Add nuts and fold to combine.

Divide batter among 4 lightly buttered and sugared  1-cup shallow ovenproof dishes. Spoon on cherries and bake until golden and just set in the centre (12-18mins)

Stand to cool briefly, serve warm dusted with icing sugar.

 I hope you enjoy this years Cherry season :)

Fashion // Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival

A couple of weekends ago I was very lucky to be invited to the Caulfield Cup. Even though I've been in Melbourne for over 4 years now I've never really experienced the races, and definitely not with a pass for the Medallion Club (real glass not plastic!) Thank you Bojana.

I can't describe the buzz that surrounds Spring Racing Carnival. Even though in 

the UK we have wonderful racing venues and racing events, it just seems to take over every aspect of Melbourne - they don't call The Melbourne Cup the race that stops the Nation for nothing.

Fashion is one aspect that plays a huge part in this coming week.

Derby Day (Sat 1st) has a strict Black & White dress code. Whereas Melbourne Cup Day (Tue 4th) encourages you to embrace your personal style with colour being key. Oaks Day (Wed 6th) is all about dressing to your show your feminine side and finally Stakes Day (Sat 8th) is one for the family. 

Even though I won't be there in person, if I could be this is what I'd love to be wearing. Championing Australian designers, I hope the below inspires your racing attire. 

Life with Bird dress // Jack and Jill Millinery // LK Bennett shoes 

Cameo dress // Morgan Taylor disk // Tony Bianco shoes

Camilla and Marc dress // Fiona Powell headband // Tony Bianco heels

Cameo Skirt & top // Tina Crinoline fascinator // Nine West shoes

Have a wonderful weekend and I hope you win big.

Recipes // Lemon Pie Bites & Others

Recently I have been getting the worst mid-afternoon cravings. 

Not wanting to eat chocolate or have a coffee I started to look for an afternoon pick-me-up that would give me the sweetness I'm after but without the slump (and calories!)

For a short time my yoga class was lucky enough to be taught by Lola Berry, during that time she released her book The 20/20 Diet Cookbook and these little Lemon Pie Bites are one of her recipes.

Lemon Pie Bites

Serves: Makes about 24 balls 

Ingredients:

1 and ½ cups of almond meal (same as almond flour)

½ cup of desiccated coconut

3 tablespoons of maple syrup

Juice of 3 lemons

Zest of a lemon

Seeds of a vanilla pod 

½ a cup of melted coconut oil

Pinch of Himalayan crystal salt

1 cup of shredded (or desiccated) coconut for rolling

Method: 
Add all your ingredients into the blender and mix together. Spoon the mixture out and roll into little balls. Roll in the shredded coconut and pop them in the fridge for about 20 minutes to firm up, then store in the fridge.

The sharpness from the lemon and also the richness from the vanilla and coconut is delicious and now I've got a boxful ready for when the cravings kick-in. 

I love to use lemon in my cooking full stop so making the Lemon Bites has inspired me to think of more ideas where lemon is used, see some of my favourites below.

  

Squid & prawn spiedini lemon tabouli // Asparagus and eggs two ways  

Fried haloumi with lemon, coriander and pine nuts

Orzo rocket salad with lemon thyme

Carrot, ginger & lemon cake

Lemon tart

Lemon tartlets

I hope this has inspired the use of lemon in your cooking :)

Travel // Port Douglas - Aquarius Sail & Snorkel

One of the reasons we decided to head to Port Douglas for our mini-break was to go snorkelling. Luckily for us we picked the perfect time of year when the water was particularly warm but the stinger season hasn't started. 

There are lots of options for snorkelling or scuba-diving trips, over a variety of price points and size of boats. We knew we wanted the boat part to be just as lovely as the experience of seeing the coral so we chose the Aquarius. This catamaran has a maximum of 23 people allowed on board but on our day we were one of only three couples - Uh how lucky were we!? It felt like we had the whole boat to ourselves.

The sail out to the Low Isles was about 1hr 30mins. From the Cat we took the glass bottom tender to the Island and then snorkelled off the shore. We had a lovely guide who took us to all the parts you'd want to see, giant clams, beautiful coloured corals, two different kinds of turtles (that were without doubt my favourite) and of course a huge variety of fish.

We then toured the Island with our Captain, he pointed out different corals, trees, birds. And told us the history of the island and about the conservation work they are doing on the reef - such a nice addition to our day and yet another thing that sets Aquarius apart from all the other tours.

Back to the boat for a delicious lunch... guess what I ate the most of... PRAWNS!

Then back into the sea for an afternoon of snorkelling before heading back to shore.

We were a little bit sunburnt, very tired but so content. There is nothing like a day at sea for putting life into perspective.

Happy Sailing :)

Travel // Port Douglas

We had the most gorgeous 4 days away in Port Douglas. 

After a very early flight out of Melbourne, we picked up our hire car and headed from Cairns to Port Douglas, along the most amazing ocean route (a little hairy on some corners!) but we took our time, and enjoyed the views.

We stayed at the QT Port Douglas. 

It's a little bit out of town but with the shuttle bus and the walk via the 4 Mile Beach getting into town was easy.  

We headed for breakfast and found a cute little place called The Little Larder.

Then we leisurely walked around the town letting our brekki go down before heading back to the hotel for a swim.

That night we headed to The Tin Shed, I'd been raving about their bucket of prawns for ages so Oli wanted to get stuck in...which we did while enjoying the sunset.

The next day was pretty similar to the first but we walked the other way up the 4 Mile Beach... 

Tried a different pool in a different hotel (Sheraton Mirage) 

And ate more prawns but at a different venue (QT Bazaar)

We had the most amazing day out snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef but I'm going to do a separate post on that because I just took too many pictures to share them all here. 

Only a 3hr flight from Melbourne and you're in Paradise.

Happy Travels :)