Gong Xi Fa Cai or Happy Chinese New Year to you all!

As most of you knew, Australia Day this year was also Chinese New Year Day. Being half Malaysian means the family, extended family and friends of the family get together for one hell of a feast. Usually everyone will bring a dish whether it be noodles, dumplings, curry, sweets, etc...
We all dig in, over eat, eat some more then go home and start our new years' resolutions of losing weight AGAIN. I know I didn't stick to it from the 1 st of January so I can try again now.

This year I am truely excited as it is the year of the Ox, the animal that I am. And I'm pretty true to my Chinese horoscope too: "Oxen are bright, peace-loving, often easy-going and trusting. But, on the other hand, they can also be stubborn, methodical, and fiercely competitive, with, shudder, fierce tempers to boot."
I just discovered I'm a wooden ox too.
To find out what your Chinese horoscope is have a look here: http://www.tuvy.com/entertainment/chinese_horoscope.htm

So back to the feast:

There were alot of people to eat all this food. Most people went back for second servings and we all took leftovers home! My favorite dish was the pig's trotters. Sounds a bit weird but they are cooked in the most amazing sauce, I could live on them with rice alone. ... Well maybe them and chocolate so I don't get sick of them!

Then the traditional new year salad: Yusheng. To find out more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yusheng


And then, some how, we all have room for dessert:


As usual, it was a delicious feast.
My god mother prepares another feast next weekend which I will be missing out on. She prepares quail, lobster, prawns, shark fin soup and all the other special dishes and trimmings. There is always next year!!

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Today, 1 year ago, the Iron Chef Shellie blog was born.

I've loved sharing my food adventures with you all, and hope we have many more this year.

To celebrate I baked some caramel mud cakes...mmmm..
So simple to make, you should have all the ingredients in your pantry. Not something that would normally excite me to make, but I was definitely glad I tried the recipe because I can't wait to bake them again!


Caramel Mud Cakes
Australian Women's Weekly

125g butter, chopped coarsely
100g white eating chocolate, chopped coarsely
150g firmly packed brown sugar
90g golden syrup
160ml milk
150g plain flour
50 self-raising flour
1 egg

1. Preheat oven to moderately slow (170°C / 150°C fan-forced). Line 6-hole texas or 12-hole standard muffin pan with paper cases.

2. Combine butter, chocolate, sugar, syrup and milk in small saucepan; stir over low heat until smooth. Transfer mixture to medium bowl; cool 15 mintues.

3. Whisk sifted flours into chocolate mixture, then egg. Divide mixture among cases.

4. Bake large cakes about 40 mintues, small cakes about 30 mintues. Turn cakes onto wire rack to cool.

5. Place doily, lace or stencil over cake; sift a little icing sugar over doily, then carefully lift doily from cake. Repeat with remaining cakes and icing sugar.

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So I've been very slack with my postings haven't I?
I've had some lovely messages from people saying they visit often for new recipes and I've been letting them down by not posting! Sorry!!

Well currently in my oven is a batch of cupcakes to celebrate my blog turning 1 year old! I'll post them up when the actually birthday is.

I recently spent a week in Perth and LOVED it! I'd love to move over there one day, or to near by Fremantle.

Some of the treats I enjoyed on my travels:

Frozen Snow - Lychee flavour. A block of frozen lychee juice shaved into a cup. The texture was all flakey and looked a bit like fairy floss. Perfect refreshment for a hot summer day.

Free canapes! Our hotel served free canapes and drinks between 6pm-7:30pm. We went EVERY night. You get sick of them towards the end but our waiter was always so much fun.



One of my favorite food chains, Croissant Express. They have croissants, sausage rolls, fresh sandwiches and the most amazing bagels! Why don't we have these in Melbourne I'll never know!


More yummy treats to come!

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Happy New Year to you all!
Hope you all had a lovely Christmas and brought the new year in with some fun and fabulous food. I know I certainly did. It was the best new years I've ever had, complete with the one the of the best views of the fireworks in Melbourne without being crushed by a crowd.


It's about time I shared a recipe with you all. I made these one afternoon when I was bored on holidays just before Christmas. They are hazelnut praline truffles, and just simply melt in your mouth. You can't stop at just one. They made perfect last minute gifts for some of my loved ones and a nice dessert for Christmas Eve dinner.
The dark chocolate coated ones are complete with flakes of gold leaf.

This recipe I HIGHLY recommend. It can be a bit fiddly, but it's definitely worth the work.


Hazelnut Praline Truffles
Taste Website

3/4 cup (165g) caster sugar
1 cup (150g) hazelnuts, roasted, peeled
650g dark chocolate, chopped
150ml pouring cream
100g butter, chopped
250g white chocolate, chopped
Silver and gold leaf and Dutch cocoa, to decorate

Makes about 35

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