This month's weird food is another product you wouldn't usually find in a can, bacon.
And before you ask, yes it's American.

"Each can is 9 ounces of fully cooked and drained bacon. Between 2-3/4 and 3-1/4 pounds of raw bacon go into each can. Each can is the highest quality fresh #1 bacon slices. Cured to our specifications, cooked and then hand wrapped, rolled and packed in the U.S.

We cook this bacon down for you prior to canning, so you won’t pay for all of the natural shrinkage that occurs whenever you cook bacon. Then we carefully drain all of the fat and liquid off and can it fresh so it will taste as good out of the can as it would right out of the refrigerator.

100% U.S. bacon!! "

The product boosts a shelf life of 10 years. I'm not sure I'd want to be eating anything that is 10 years old, not even chocolate! I can understand the appeal for taking this if you are going camping, but why would you stock it in your pantry when you can get good, fresh bacon?

For more details, click here, or for the taste test results, click here.

As you may have seen in a previous post, a few of us went out for flaming crepes a few weeks ago. Before having dessert we wanted to have some dinner, so we went to a Chinese / Malaysian restaurant just a few doors down.

I had the curry laksa which was very very bland. I had to request for some soy sauce. I added so much soy sauce, and there was still no flavour! I was very disappointed as I was really looking forward to a nice spicy soup with lots of noodles and chicken.

Rob had the Ipoh Ho Fun, which was not what was I was expecting it would be. It was still a delicious looking noodle soup for a cold wintery night. Rob said it was a little bland as well, but not as bad as the curry laksa.

Flaky tofu and a vegetarian fried kway teow were enjoyed by the vegetarians. No complaints of blandness about either dish. The flaky tofu, looking a bit like a creme caramel looked very delicious.

In my opinion, I probably wouldn't go back. I'd be willing to give it another try, but from what I had, it wasn't very authentic. Service was pretty good, prices were reasonable but not that cheap being in South Yarra.

My friends and I needed a cheap feed before going to the Ross Noble arena spectacular. I picked a restaurant near the venue so we didn't have to drive across town and co-ordinate everyone.
None of us had been to Saigon Rose before, and decided it was about time we gave it a try.

We started off with some mixed spring rolls and some rice paper rolls:

The spring rolls were alright, a bit average. They weren't bad, but they weren't the best I've ever had. They were still good on a cold wintery night.

The rice paper rolls were pretty flavourless, so the sauce was the real saviour. Packed full of filling though, but lacking in flavour.

The one thing that grabbed me was, they had Pipsqueak cider on the menu, my favorite drink!
The Singapore noodles were great, lots of noodles, and flavour. I wish we didn't share them, because I could have eaten the whole plate.

Beef with chilli lemongrass was lovely and tender, a nice amount of spice, plenty of capsicum to accompany it.
The chicken curry is similar to how my mum makes it, but a bit watery. Great flavour, gorgeously cooked chicken and delicious flavour.

The vegetarian claypot, packed full of veges, I didn't try this but it did look yum!

Everything was fresh, the service was friendly, just the rice paper rolls could have had a bit more flavour. I'd go back though, I want to try the traditional chicken noodle soup that wasn't available for Friday and Saturday evenings.

To start the weekend, have a slice of this delicious orange cake. It's so moist and light, you'll wonder why you never made it before, and wonder when you can make it again!

Next time I will be substituting the milk or orange juice to see if it will pack more of an orange flavour. But as it is, it is simply delicious! It couldn't be easier to make either, just put everything in a bowl and mix it!


Orange Cake

150g butter, softened
1 tablespoon finely grated orange rind
2/3 cup (150g) caster sugar
3 eggs
1 1/2 cups (225g) self raising flour
1/4 cup (60ml) milk
3/4 cup (120g) icing sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons orange juice

1. Preheat oven to 180°C / 160°C fan-forced. Grease deep 20cm round cake pan; line base with baking paper.

2. Beat butter, rind, caster sugar, eggs, flour and milk in medium bowl on low speed with an electric mixer until jude combined. Increase speed to medium; beat about 3 minutes or until mixture is smooth and pale in colour.

3. Spread mixture into pan; bake about 40 minutes. Stand cake in pan 5 minutes before turning; top-side up, onto wire rack to cool.

4. Meanwhile, combine sifted icing sugar and juice in small bowl; stir until smooth. Spread icing over cake.

Serves 12.

Voila! Bon Appétit!

After a recent episode of my favorite TV show, Masterchef, I was inspired to make chocolate fondants. I have made similar things to chocolate fondants before like the molten chocolate cakes, soft centred jaffa puddings, and warm chocolate pots, but never, a chocolate fondant.
First of all Sam stuffed up his fondants, but in the group challenge, the chocolate fondants served at the wedding made me, and most of Australia drool in unison. I knew I had to give them a go as soon as possible!

I made the batter a day ahead to make my life easier. I made the caramel sauce 3 times. I tried 2 times and failed. When I added the cream and butter to the caramel, it would just turn to toffee and it was a massive fail. Not wanting to feel defeated I tried one last time a few hours later just before serving and got it to work. The key is do not plonk the cream and butter in and stir, add them gradually whilst stirring and it will work. I did have a few toffee shards so I just strained the sauce through a sift.

Other than that, it was relatively easy to make. If you over cook them, you won't get a gooey centre, which is the key to a good chocolate fondant. I think the caramel sauce is a must, as it has a nice sweetness. I served mine with vanilla ice cream and we all in dessert heaven for a brief moment.
You can make them in ramekins, disposable tins, or like I did, in a muffin tray.

Chocolate Fondant
Gordon Ramsay

50g melted butter , for brushing
cocoa powder , for dusting
200g good-quality dark chocolate , chopped into small pieces
200g butter , in small pieces
200g golden caster sugar
4 eggs and 4 yolks
200g plain flour
Caramel sauce (see 'Goes well with') and vanilla ice cream or orange sorbet, to serve

1. First get your moulds ready. Using upward strokes, heavily brush the melted butter all over the inside of the pudding mould. Place the mould in the fridge or freezer. Brush more melted butter over the chilled butter, then add a good spoonful of cocoa powder into the mould. Tip the mould so the powder completely coats the butter. Tap any excess cocoa back into the jar, then repeat with 1 the next mould.

2. Place a bowl over a pan of barely simmering water, then slowly melt the chocolate and butter together. Remove bowl from the heat and stir until smooth. Leave to cool for about 10 mins.

3. In a separate bowl whisk the eggs and yolks together with the sugar until thick and pale and the whisk leaves a trail; use an electric whisk if you want. Sift the flour into the eggs, then beat together.

4. Pour the melted chocolate into the egg mixture in thirds, beating well between each addition, until all the chocolate is added and the mixture is completely combined to a loose cake batter.

5. Tip the fondant batter into a jug, then evenly divide between the moulds. The fondants can now be frozen for up to a month and cooked from frozen. Chill for at least 20 mins or up to the night before. To bake from frozen, simply carry on as stated, adding 5 mins more to the cooking time.

6. Heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Place the fondants on a baking tray, then cook for 10-12 mins until the tops have formed a crust and they are starting to come away from the sides of their moulds. Remove from the oven, then leave to sit for 1 min before turning out.

7. Loosen the fondants by moving the tops very gently so they come away from the sides, easing them out of the moulds. Tip each fondant slightly onto your hand so you know it has come away, then tip back into the mould ready to plate up.

8. Starting from the middle of each plate, squeeze a spiral of caramel sauce - do all the plates you need before you go on to the next stage.

9. Sit a fondant in the middle of each plate. Using a large spoon dipped in hot water, scoop a 'quenelle' of ice cream.

10. Carefully place the ice cream on top of the fondant, then serve immediately. Repeat with the rest of the fondants.

Tins or ramekins?
As we make the fondants in such great volumes in my restaurants we use disposable 150ml aluminium muffin tins, but ramekins work just as well. The cooking times I have given here are for ramekins but if you want to use the muffin tins then 10 mins in the oven will be fine.

9 puddings for 8 guests
If you are making the fondants for a dinner party I would advise you cook one extra as an 'insurance policy' that you can test for doneness. If everything goes according to plan I'm sure there will be no shortage of guests wanting second helpings.

Variations

Once you have mastered the fondants it's very easy to adapt their flavour. For a boozy version add a generous splash of Baileys to the melted chocolate. You can also make a chocolate and orange version by adding the finely grated zest of 1 large orange and an optional splash of orange liqueur.

Serves 9.

Voila! Bon Appétit!

ANOTHER ricotta recipe? Yes. And trust me, there will be at least 1 more after this one! Using Perfect Italiano Ricotta!

Look in the background of this cheese photo and you will see what my crepes were meant to look like. Look below and you can see some not so photogenic crepes. However, they were still delicious! The delicious creamy ricotta filling with sultanas, lemon zest and vanilla, goes extremely well with the crepe and bitter orange sauce. I would definitely makes these again, but make them better looking!

Crepes with Ricotta Filling & Bitter Orange Sauce
Bill Granger

Crepes:
90g (3/4 cup) plain flour
1 egg, lightly beaten
250ml (1 cup) milk
20g butter, melted
a pinch of salt
extra butter, for greasing the pan

Filling:
2 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons sultanas
250g (1 cup) ricotta cheese
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
1 1/2 teaspoons icing sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Bitter Orange Sauce:
80g (1/4 cup) good-quality orange marmalade
60ml (1/4 cup) orange juice
1 tablespoon brandy, or Grand Marnier (optional)

1. To prepare the crepes, put the flour in a large bowl, add the egg, milk, melted butter and salt and whisk until smooth. Refrigerate for 2 hours before cooking.

2. While the crepe batter is resting, prepare the filling by heating the milk and sultanas in a small saucepan over a low heat for 2 to 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for 4 minutes. Transfer the milk and sultanas to a bowl, add the ricotta, lemon zest, icing sugar and vanilla extract and stir to combine.

3. Heat a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat and brush a little butter over the base. Ladle 2 tablespoons of batter into the pan and tip the pan slightly to quickly and evenly spread the batter. After a minute, lift the outer edge of the crepe and flip it over and cook for a couple of seconds on the other side. Repeat with remaining batter.

4. Make the bitter orange sauce: put the marmalade, orange juice and brandy or Grand Marnier, if using, in a small saucepan over a low heat and stir until the marmalade has melted.

5. Place a heaped tablespoon of filling in the centre of each crepe. Fold the crepe into quarters (crepes can be made in advance to this stage). Heat a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat and brush with butter. Put the filled and folded crepes into the pan and cook for about 30 seconds on each side. Place two crepes on each serving plate, dust with icing sugar and drizzle with sauce.

Serves 4.

Voila! Bon Appétit!

Instead of mid-week cooking this week, I went out for some flaming crêpes with some of my peeps. Chris, the newest member to the gang had told me about this place a few weeks ago and wanted me to join him for flaming crêpe some time soon. So we finally set a date and trekked down to South Yarra for some flaming fun!

Nerdy Rob and I started off with a cider. There are 2 French ciders and 2 Australian ciders available. We went with with the French ciders. One was rather sweet, and one was a bit bitter. I ordered the bitter one but convinced Rob to swap with me! haha!

Whilst there is a good range of savory, sweet and speciality crêpes, well all ordered off the LES CRÊPES FLAMBÉES (flaming crêpes) menu.

Banana, Chocolate & Rum - $12.50

(top picture: crêpe on fire - bottom picture: crêpe extinguished)

The waiter brings the crêpe to the table, along with a little saucepan of rum. He lights the rum on fire with a lighter then pours the flaming rum over the crêpe. You can either leave the crepe on fire till it burns out, or you can blow it out so the flame doesn't cook off all the alcohol.

It was a hard choice as to which crêpe I would get as they ALL sounded so good, but luckily there were 4 of us so we could all sample each other's. I went for the banana, chocolate and rum because ever since getting banana and nutella crepes in Thailand, it has become one of my favorite combinations. I even have nutella and banana on toast sometimes, but it's just not the same as a crêpe.

Antillaise - $13.00

Rum and raisin ice cream, raisins, melted dark chocolate & cream flamed with rum créole.

Chris got the "Antillaise". The raisins were nice and sweet which went really well with the rum flavour. The melted chocolate was a nice touch, but then again, when is melted chocolate not welcome?

Williams - $14.00
Pear, melted chocolate & pear eau de vie.

David got the "Williams", which was a delicious combination of pears and melted chocolate. The pear was very refreshing, I was rather jealous and wanted to eat the whole thing!

Suzette - $15.50
Caramelised orange sauce, candied orange peel and melted dark chocolate flamed with Cointreau.

Finally, Rob got the Crêpe Suzette which was incredibly delicious! The dark chocolate that was melted on the inside of the crêpe made the dish look a little bit special. The bitterness of the candied peel worked very well with the orange sauce. Very nice and I'm glad we all shared!

Finally when the bill came, we received some caramel lollies from France. Our waiter explained they were going to be extremely sticky, and they were! A nice way to end the evening.

I'm not sure if the waiter was French, but he was speaking French most of the evening which was something different. I really enjoyed it and would happily go back again!