The Hangry Chef

Helloo all my Hangry followers out there! I'm very excited to be posting for the first time in 2016! I still have that child-like wonder at the beginning of the year and the hope that the coming year will be filled with great new adventures... Or it could just be that I've had over two weeks off work already and I've still got more then two to go. Ahhh bliss! As usual, the Christmas break has been filled with tonnes of food and drink. We've had the traditional 'Aussie Christmas' this year, which was a treat after spending last Christmas traveling the U.S.A. There has been no shortage of prawns, ham, other assorted cold meats, salads, more seafood, grilled meats, pavlova , smoked meats ... And don't even get me started on how many bottles of wine and cases of beer have disappeared between work Christmas parties, family Christmas's (we have two, consecutively- one with my family and one with my husband's family), then friends gatherings which a...

An article has recently been released that gives us a scientific explanation of what hanger is; basically in a nutshell it is when your blood sugar levels drop and your brain begins to perceive this as life-threatening. In the hunter-gatherer days, this would have benefited us as it would help us focus our attention on securing that tasty morsel and give us more motivation to seek food. But now, in the Western World of Abundance it's more of something you need to apologise for when you snap at an unsuspecting server at the Maccas drive-thru window. People close to me know that I'm generally a happy person. Except when I'm hangry. When I have passed the pangs of hunger and reached a point where everything seems to annoy me (usually my poor unsuspecting husband). I feel my blood sugar levels dropping and with them any human decency. I liken this change in mood to PMS, just a total, irrational anger that can only be cured by a large amount of carbohydrates. Preferably de...

The Tri-Lambda's from Revenge of The Nerds, a classic 80's movie :-D I'm the kind of person who enjoys studying... Call me a nerd if you will but I feel like if I go too long without learning something my brain starts to turn to mush. I've got grand plans of one day going to uni and studying something but until I know what that is, I'll just plod along and do courses that interest me. Last year I did a 6 week course (one day a week) in Training and Assessing, which means I can teach vocational education- mainly teach people how to be chefs. The thing is, I'm currently happy in my job and I think I have it pretty good so I'm not in a rush to leave and work somewhere else. So this year I have decided to brush up on my knowledge of nutrition and dietetics, I've got a pretty good understanding of nutrition from learning a module while I was training to be a chef and also from research I have undertaken for my own personal benefit. I'm hop...

Hi guys, Sorry I've been notably absent for a few months! Last year I had a pretty hectic end of year, which included some pretty crazy surgery (all fixed up now!) and a 5 week trip to the U.S. I won't go on too much about our trip OS,  I will say that we ate our way across the continent and I have not only gotten a whole heap of inspiration but I've also gained about 3 kilos... Which I should probably lose if I want to ever get back into my size 10 jeans. I'll just give you a few of the foodie highlights of the trip; 1. We came full circle on our trip, starting with In & Out Burger when we first landed in L.A, we also ended the trip with the same burgers at the same restaurant.  http://www.in-n-out.com 2. I am now ruined for life after eating dinner at Eleven Madison Park (3 michelin stars), I will never be able to top this exquisite meal, but I will always cherish the memories of the playful and delicious take on American cuisine. http://elevenmadiso...

Hello to anyone who is reading this right now!! It's been a little while since I posted any recipes. I had been on holidays for a couple of weeks and I have been avoiding sitting at the computer! Instead I traded my trusty laptop for the TV and my exercise bike. I watched so many movies and shows in the holidays, I'm definitely getting my monies worth of Foxtel! More importantly, I've started delving into the scary world of documentaries and books about diet and food. I've always had an awareness of what I eat, this doesn't mean I eat well though. I go through cycles of healthy eating which for me consists of calorie counting, upping my intake of fresh food and limiting processed foods. This is usually short-lived until I get stressed, bored or tired of constantly thinking of food or cooking healthy meals so then I give up, start binging and really not caring about what I put into my body... Until I start feeling sick or look at the scales and realise I need...

As I was typing my last post they released more information!!! http://www.thefatduck.co.uk/Australia/ Reservations will be taken through an electronic ballot. The ballot will be open to apply on  WWW.THEFATDUCKMELBOURNE.COM  from 9am (Melbourne time) on Wednesday 8th October 2014, and will close at midnight (Melbourne time) Sunday 26th October 2014. When you go to The Fat Duck Melbourne website, you a greeted by a black webpage with a pocket-watch world clock on it and to the side it says MELBOURNE Reservations will be taken through an electronic ballot. The ballot will be open to apply on this website from 9am (Melbourne time) on Wednesday 8 th October 2014, and will close at midnight (Melbourne time) Sunday 26 th  October 2014. Sign up here  to be the first to know the latest about the opening of The Fat Duck restaurant in Melbourne.

Image taken from crownmelbourne.com I'm waiting with bated breath for ANY announcement about how to score a table at Heston Blumenthal's The Fat Duck restaurant opening in Melbourne's Crown Casino in 2015. It was announced on Facebook at 2.20PM (Australian Eastern Standard Time) yesterday that they will be revealing TODAY how you can possibly score a much coveted table at the restaurant. One Hour Ago Crown Melbourne's Facebook page posted an image of the building stating 'Look Up! It's The Fat Duck... taking shape at Crown Riverwalk. We are excited to share more new with you in the next could of hours #HestonAtCrown stay tuned..' These teasers are painful! They know how to build suspense! The whole thing has been very hush-hush, and although I've been stalking all the appropriate avenues (social media mainly) there has been little information given. This is all we know so far: Heston is relocating his entire Fat Duck staff to Crown Casi...

We celebrated our first wedding anniversary about a month ago, this year has gone so quickly I can't even fathom where it went. We've had a pretty great year, after we got married and had our relaxing, much needed honeymoon we relished in not having to plan anything (a year of wedding plan ups and downs took it out of us!). We've enjoyed spending time together, not having to stress about saving money- in the 6 years we've been together there's rarely been a time when we haven't been saving towards something, new cars (check), travel around Europe, Asia, Australia, NZ and the Pacific (check), a house (check), new furniture (check), a wedding (check), a puppy (or two-check, check). We've been blessed that we both have been lucky enough to have decent jobs and the ability and motivation to work hard to reach our goals and outcomes, I think it helps too that we have the same goals and the same drive and persistence to achieve them. So getting to the poin...

I just thought I'd share an experience with you today instead of a recipe. We went up to Sydney a little while ago and went out for dinner to a Brazilian Barbecue restaurant in the Darling Quarter (Darling Harbour, Sydney) called Braza.. Matt and I had been to one of the Braza restaurants before (they have three restaurants, one in Leichhardt and one in Newport also) and I'll tell you now they did not disappoint! They have a churasco menu, which is a set-price-all-you-can-eat-meat-a-thon. They roast all their meats over hot coals and serve them on swords, with waiters coming to every table and slicing off generous chunks to pile onto your plate. The variety is staggering and I wont list them all because it'll take me all day, but they have all the cuts of beef, lamb and pork under the sun, not to mention chicken, fish, prawns, chorizo, and haloumi.... Ohhh the haloumi.... Matt ended up eating at least 10 slices of the stuff. Then to finish off they have roasted pineapple-...

I know I've been a bit slack this year with my posts, I've been super busy with doing a course (Training and Assessing if anyone is wondering), and the new year at work has been totally insane! I've been working like a powerhouse to make sure I'm super organised for the next 3 months so I can cope with my extra workload. On top of all that I've dedicated a lot of time to the preparation and organisation of one of my closest friends hens weekend (which is interstate mind you). It's going to be awesome! So needless to say I haven't had too much time to get on here and have a good crack at posting more recipes, not to mention actually having the time to cook new and exciting dishes. I've still been making a conscious effort to eat better though which isn't really paying off because I don't really exercise, but I guess I have been feeling a bit more energetic (except for today because I didn't sleep enough and it's rainy and miserable whi...

Look at these gorgeous salads! Just what I've been looking for leading up to Christmas! Inspiring :-) Recipe Roundup: Thanksgiving Salads | Williams-Sonoma Taste

I know it's died down in Hangry-town, I've been super busy at work coming up to the end of the year. I have planned out meals for the next few weeks so don't fret! I'll have a bit of everything, all aspects of menus that you can use for the coming Christmas season. For entree I'll be doing a hot smoked salmon salad, Larb Gai (which is like a Thai San Choy Bow-chicken or pork mince with flavourings served in lettuce cups), pasta primavera and healthy savoury muffins. For mains I've got some yummy venison dishes lined up for the coming weeks. I think it's an underrated meat! It's lean and good for you, if you've never tried it, its easy to find nowadays. I picked mine up from Coles- they keep it in the game section next to the Kangaroo meat (which I plan to cook in the coming months also). For those who don't like game, there'll be some chicken dishes with Middle Eastern influences, make-your-own chicken nuggets and a vegetarian quiche....

Since we began our treks to the local farmers markets and growing our own herbs, there's been nothing but positive repercussions. The number one obviously being better tasting food, but also saving money. It's amazing to think that making such a small change can have such an impact on the way we eat as well as on our wallets! For starters, buying our fruit and vegetables directly from the markets is so much cheaper then buying from the local grocery store. You tend to buy less food, because there's no 'Special Bulk Offers' more often which means its fresher and there's a lot less chance of wastage. You're also cutting out the middle man, and not really having to pay overheads for international shipping and storage which means everything is soooo much cheaper. Investing in growing our own herbs has had a massive impact too, because quite often I'd buy those big pre-packaged herbs, use one sprig and then the rest would sit and wilt until I found anot...

We were in Sydney visiting some friends last weekend, so we looked up somewhere to go for food. It wasn't hard to find information online about Sydney's Good Food Month , which is Australia's largest food festival and features food from all around the globe all around the city, presented in thousands of different ways. Upon entering the noodle night markets you are dazzled with a canopy of multi-coloured lanterns, trees adorned with twinkle lights and lets not forget why we're here- the never-ending line of stalls selling any kind of Asian cuisine you can think of. It's impossible to try everything you want to. We had heard about the new Ramen Burger craze that's taken over ' Cronuts' and now is the 'in thing', so we had to see what the fuss was about. We were lucky to get there a little bit earlier so we did the smart thing and split up and went to a couple of different stalls, which meant we only had to wait about 45 minutes for our Ramen...

I'm straight back into it this week! After a brief hiatus from my routine I'm back into work, cooking and blogging. During my break I didn't really do too much, we got GTA 5 when it came out so that's been fun, I'm a maniac driver and Matt is a ruthless shooter so we make a good team when he complete's a mission and I'm the getaway driver (in the game that is... Not in real life) I cleaned the carpets which took me 4 days, after using one of those shampoo foaming sprays that you vacuum off it looked like there had been some kind of marshmallow explosion and ended up looking all splotchy (I would not recommend using these!), I ended up buying one of those infomercial type carpet cleaning sprays and it really did the job! But being more of a spot cleaner it meant I spent the better part of those four days on my hands and knees with a scrubbing brush and bucket of water. Fun times. After my Catching Up post I did end up at the markets, and now I have ...

I've been a bit quiet on the blog-front this week! It's school holidays and I've been a busy little bee catching up on all my chores that I don't get a chance to do while I'm working, hence not much cooking. I'm pretty exhausted after the last couple of weeks, I was hoping no one would notice that I didn't post Sunday's cupcakes. That's because they didn't happen. I'm not a quitter, I just CBF making one more batch of cupcakes, and to be honest I can't even remember what I did instead.. Seriously... Mind Blank. I reckon I was probably hangry. AAAAAANNYYWAYS... Off topic it's Matt's birthday next weekend and we're going out for dinner to The Hungry Duck in Berry. Pretty excited for some yummy locally-sourced food... And to have a nice meal that I don't have to cook or eat out of a takeaway container. I'd take photos and blog about the food but I think I'd rather just sit back and enjoy it and hang out with my h...

Thought I'd take a little break from cupcaking (don't stress I haven't given up- I'll be posting Apple Streusel cupcakes later today), and just give a quick update on my other ventures! Ok, so my herbs have gone mental... It's either the organic fertiliser, the spot on the window ledge down the side of my house or something, but they're loving it! I've never had any luck growing basil before which made me sad but now it's growing really well so I'm happy. I'll probably have to repot them in the coming months into a bigger receptacle. I like that word. Receptacle. I mixed a cup of the fertiliser pellets with water to make a tea and I've been adding it to all my plants. My wine barrel with the lavender, succulents and rosemary is very happy indeed and the succulents have doubled in size over the last couple of weeks. I decided to plant some nasturtium seeds in there so we'll keep an eye on those and hopefully they'll take off soon! ...

My sourdough now lives in the fridge and I feed it once a week... I received a banneton (proving basket) from my bother-in-law and his girlfriend as an early birthday gift, alongside our Truffle Tree which was very thoughtful! Yesterday I fed it and took out some dough for a nice loaf, I added some thyme, rosemary and a teeny bit of smoked garlic we got from Kiama Markets I look about 100gr of the starter out of the fridge, placed it in a bowl and fed it a tbs of flour and water and let it prove overnight. The following morning I mixed it with about 150ml of tap water, a pinch of salt and sugar and the flavourings.  Then rained in the flour (I'm still using a mix of spelt, rye and bread flour) as I mixed it together until it formed a slightly sticky dough. I put a good amount of flour on the bench and kneaded it for several minutes, while adding just enough flour to stop it sticking to my fingers and the bench. I popped it in the banneton, lined with cling wrap and ...

www.keepcalmcollection.com It's Cupcake Week next week! It's come around so quickly! So far I've had a couple of recommendations; Lavender Cupcakes - Hayley Earl Grey Cupcakes with Marmalade - Gem Chilli Cupcakes - Maddie Bacon Cupcakes - Matt So I need 3 more cupcake ideas from you guys... Get creative!!

Our Truffle Tree :-) It's Matt's birthday coming up and his brother and girlfriend bought him (and me too) an English Oak Tree inoculated with Truffle. What a cool gift! For those of you who don't know what a truffle is, they are a fungus that grow underground around the roots of trees. They are edible and extremely aromatic, if you've never had tried it, the closest thing to the truffle flavour is a porcini mushroom, they are really pungent and earthy tasting. They are definitely an acquired taste, and are a delicacy going for around the $2000 a kilo mark, but you only need a couple of grams per meal as the flavour is quite intense! So needless to say, having our own tree is quite an exciting prospect, I will be researching as much as I can to make sure that we care for it properly and hopefully can cultivate some of our own home-grown truffles in the next few years- it can take up to 5 years to have any edible truffles, if your lucky!! I have already lea...