Tapas for Life round up!

On the 24th of March my sister Jenni and I held a tapas event for her Relay for Life team, and we were both blown away by the generosity of the local businesses who donated their wares so we could run the event and earn as much profit as we could to donate to the Cancer Council. We ended up making over $800 from the night which was such a great success, we have some fabulously generous friends!

The Organic Collective donated a gorgeous box of tomatoes, onions, potatoes, lemons, oranges and capsicums which could not have tasted any better - they were fresh, local and unbelievably tasty. You NEED to try one of their boxes, the quality is amazing.



I used the onions, capsicums, tomatoes and oranges to make orange scented albondigas, which went down a treat, they were a little bit different, but really moreish!

Photo c/o Carolanne Rushe

The same organic onions were caramalised, and paired with some gorgeous Ringwould goats milk fetta from a previous Urban Locavore box I had received to make a tasty frittata, that I cooked gently in a pan first, and then transferred into a shallow baking dish and finished off in the oven. This was gone - fast! I also used the caperberries from a previous box on the platters - there were none left at the end of the night!

I also had a smoked trout that I had frozen from the very first box, that I wasn't sure how to use. I ended up making some savoury pancakes with them, which were nice, but I used too much of the trout! Very nice if you love smoked fish ;) It was full of paprika, spinach and bites of trout. Unlike the pancakes I made at the Breakfast with Benefits, these were SO easy to make, and flipped like a dream!



Speaking of Urban Locavore, Paul, the brains behind the operation, was really generous and donated a box to the raffle. Rhianna Clarke was the lucky winner of the straw packed box of local goods, and was pretty stoked!

I had gone to The Tasting Plate at the Mezz shopping centre in Mt Hawthorn looking for some stuff of my own, and got talking to the manager Janine, about food, Relay for Life and her chilli company, Habaneros for Gringos. I realised I had tried some of her products at the Araluen Chilli Festival in Freo and had really enjoyed the curried onion dip! I told her what I was doing and she generously donated some of her products, as well as plenty of great items from the shop. We ended up having tasting plates of their DELICIOUS Habaneros 4 Gringos chilli fetta (Seriously. Find this stuff, its awesome), curried onion dip, and chilli olive tapanade, with marinated octopus, olives and manchego cheese from The Tasting Plate. There were loads of comments about the chilli products - everyone loved them, especially the curried onion dip!

Photos c/o Habaneros 4 Gringos

These went down so well with the Casalinga sourdough baguettes that New Norcia Bakery donated. Seriously good bread, as soon as you crack it open, you just want to take a bite. Just walk in there and TRY to walk out with nothing. I never do. Their coffee is great too.

Gorgeous bread from New Norcia Bakery, Mt Hawthorn.

I may have tried a portugese tart when I picked up the bread... for research of course! They are GORGEOUS!

One of the highlights of the meal was probably the amazing meat provided by El Asador. This business run by couple Emily and Max specialise in Argentine products and if you've been to any food markets in the last 6 months you would have seen their stall, or smelled their amazing giant bbq cooking up chorizo and asado! We were lucky to get loads of meat from them - beef asado, chorizo and morcillas! The beef asado is an Argentine cut of beef that is super tasty, slow roasted with their herb and salt rub (AMAZING! I always have this in the house) and then grilled to crispy deliciousness. This meat... Is genius. I couldn't cook on the bbq that night, so cooked them in a pan (after slow roasting them for 2 hours the night before). They are quite fatty, but a lot of the fat melts away when you bbq them - I cut a lot of the fat off (not all - fat is flavour!), took it off the bone and sliced it into sharing sized pieces, with chimmichurri on the side. That meat was gone in 5 minutes. It was so tasty and tender... If you see the El Asador bbq stall ANYWHERE, buy the asado. It is gorgeous.

Beef asado from El Asador - YUM! (Photo c/o http://elasador.myshopify.com/)

Their chorizo is fresh not cured, and really juicy. Served with chimmichurri again, these were super moreish bites that everyone loved. Look for the Choripan at their stall!

The morcilla is the Argentine version of black pudding. This is not something I've tried before, and that wasn't breaking my heart. Carolanne cooked it up, as the Irish love their black pudding and so I figured she would do it justice! It was quite crumbly, but had a great flavour - pretty much everyone tried some, even though the thought of it grossed some people out. Thing is though, everyone loved it!

Morcillas from El Asador (Photo c/o Carolanne Rushe)

El Asador also donated a fantastic hamper with a bunch of their products which was won by Jemma Edwards (I'm not jealous at all!).

El Asador hamper, full of goodies! (photo c/o Carolanne Rushe)

There I also made a huge batch of spicy paprika nuts, which were REALLY easy to make, and cheap. I went to Kakulas in Northbridge and bought about 2kg of blanched raw almonds and peanuts and it set me back about $15 - not a bad price for a MASSIVE bag of nuts!

Just in case there were still people who could eat, I bought out some flatbreads with tomato, herbs, roasted peppers and rock salt, just to fill any savoury holes people might have had in their tummies!

There had to be dessert... well there didn't really, there was so much food eaten! But I had made it anyway and so people were gonna eat it! Some pseudo Portugese tarts, made with yoghurt and orange instead of cream. Some had orange caramel on top, some were naked. They went down a treat and there were none left! Not too sweet, only a few bites, it was all we really needed after feasting all night.

Crust Mt Lawley were also awesome and contributed 2 $25 vouchers to the raffle - it wasn't hard to talk these up, have you tried the peri peri chicken, or veggie supreme pizza? Do it, they're SO nice.

Red Hot Spatula donated a voucher for 30% off one of their cooking classes, which is an awesome deal because Yvonnes classes are brilliant. I've been to one and we all loved it! They have just released a new line of spice pastes and rubs, which I can't wait to get my hands on!

Jenni's bath was FULL of donated booze for everyone to drink, including a carton of Custard Cider from the Real River Company - needless to say, people were merry!!

Cider for all! (photo c/o Carolanne Rushe)

The night was great fun - and most importantly, we raised a bunch of money for the Relay for Life in Katanning. All up the event raised over $70000 which is amazing considering its a town of about 4000 people. It just goes to show that everyone is touched by cancer in some way or another, and are willing to give generously if its going to help combat such a terrible disease. Its worth remembering though, that a cancer diagnosis is not always a death sentence. For some its an incredibly trying time which tests every limit they have, but eventually they come out of it with a greater zest for life than ever. Its these people who offer hope to others, who need to have their stories listened to and learned from. They deliver a message of appreciating what you have right in front of you every day, and taking nothing for granted.


Eat, drink and be merry, and savour every bite, every moment.

Relay for Life - Tapas evening!

After the success of the Breakfast with Benefits event I held in November, my little sister asked me if I wanted to help her out with another event, this time for her Relay for Life team. Obviously I said yes, but I wanted to do something a bit different - so I've gone for a tapas evening! There will be all manner of delicious things, from Chorizo, Jamon, and Manchego cheese, to Sangria, and Rioja! The food and drink will be as local as possible, and where we will be using imported products (Spanish wine etc) then I will be using Australian, preferably Western Australian, companies.

It will be held on the 25th March, and will be capped at about 25 guests. 


So far we have a carton of delicious Custard Cider and 2 bottles of apple port, donated by the very generous and talented brewers at The Real River Company, so already on day 1 of looking for sponsors for the event - we have a carton of the best cider in WA to keep the punters happy! 
Red Hot Spatula, caterer extraordinaire will be donating a voucher for 30% off a cooking class for 6 - which is awesome, I've been to a class of hers and they're FAB, and the food was amazing! 
El Asador, makers of fine Argentinian produce, have also jumped on board again to donate some of their delicious goods - including their delicious chorizo!
The Organic Collective have agreed to be on board again, supplying us with some gorgeous organic potatoes for our patatas bravas and Spanish tortillas!
Urban Locavore are an awesome new business in Perth who gather a collection of Western Australian products and delivers a tasting box full of goodies right to your door! We'll be getting one of these boxes to raffle off!
Crust Gourmet Pizza Bar Mt Lawley is on board again too, with vouchers for their delicious pizzas!



There will be more details to come, and this post will be updated when we get more donations/sponsors. Having prizes and products for the evening donated means that we can spend less on running costs, and make more of a profit to donate to the Cancer Council - so please give generously! Jenni has set up a webpage for her team, and if you'd like to donate you can do so HERE, either directly to the Cancer Council, or you can donate straight into a PayPal account to help cover costs for the fundraising events. ALL PROFITS will be donated directly back to the Cancer Council, and we are trying to get as much donated as we can so our profits are higher!


The relay itself will be held in Katanning (we raised $100 000 last time! Not bad for a small town!), however all fundraising events will be held in Perth.

At the moment we are half booked out already - so if you're interested get in quick! Just send me an email/comment and I'll put your name on the list! Breakfast with Benefits had a waiting list, so get your name down!!

Use Twitter? Look out for the hashtag #tapasforlife!

The Cabin, Mt Hawthorn

When we moved to mt hawthorn a couple of months ago, we decided to check out the cafe strip on Scarborough beach road and try all the different places there, as its not somewhere I've really been before, aside from the paddo! One place we drove past loads was the Cabin, upstairs above another shop, overlooking the IGA (scenic!) but with a view over the city.

The decor is very woody, lots of pine, tree trunk tables with knarled legs, looking very similar to their original condition as you'd find them in nature. It's very ski lodge, with deer heads on the wall, as well as the silhouette of a stag head being the icon attached to the bar.

The style of food is similar to tapas, and the menu is sorted into small and big eats, as well as sweets. They have a pretty impressive spirits list, as well as cocktails, beers and wines. Fridays they have some cocktails for $10 from 4-9pm which is a good deal! I had quite a few of their "surprise me" cocktails which was made of vodka, cointreau, grape juice n lime. Also had a frangelico mule, which had fresh lime and ginger ale added to the hazelnut liqueur. They also have a sparkling white cocktail with sugar and bitters, and a vodka sunrise. I've had a bourbon cocktail too which was nice but I decided I'm not big on bourbon anymore, too much in high school! The ladycello is also great, which is limoncello, grenadine and lemon juice. It's a really nice place to have a drink on their balcony and have some delicious food!

Speaking of food.. we've been there a few times, and when we came back for our 2nd visit, they had a new chef. The first time we went there we had the steak tartar with burger garnish, which meant pickles, mustard, onion rings, a quail egg and brioche buns. It was fantastic! Id never had it before but am a convert now! The flavours were fantastic, sharp mustard, creamy egg, crunchy sweet onion, and sour pickles. Loved it! We also got babaganouj, bread and dukkuh which was so good, we ordered it twice! But, that was the previous chef..


New chef is also great! I went with S one lazy Friday night, we sat on the balcony and ordered one or two dishes at a time, with cocktails. We started out with quail with Egyptian dukkuh, and toasted ciabatta with romesco sauce. One thing about this place is that the bread has always been fantastic! Toasted, oiled and salted, its crunchy and so delicious. S really loved the romesco sauce, and has asked for it to be made at home sometime. We enjoyed the quail but for the price we felt they were a bit stingy with the bird.. coulda put one or 2 more pieces on there. In saying that though, it was delicious. The dukkah was chunky and the quail was grilled nicely n had great flavour. 

We ordered the southern fried pork cheeks and harissa spiced lamb with couscous. S loved the pork, he was a huge fan. The pork was tender and falling apart with the pull of a fork. The seasoning on the outside was about half a cm thick, and crispy. It was quite salty which is perfect for having with drinks, but for me they were a bit heavy. The paprika aioli was nice, but added to the heavy feel of the dish. Tastewise though it was really nice, and again S has requested a replication at home! 

The lamb was also really nice and tender, but the harissa was very mild! It had some roast veg and couscous and was a good size to share. It would have been nice to feel some heat though! 

The last thing we ordered was a side of potatoes with vinegarette, bacon, and sour cream with chives. It was easily the biggest dish of the all the things we ordered, a huge pile of potatoes n they weren't shy with the cream! It'd be good for sharing with more than 2 as its a big serving! It was nice, nothing outta the ordinary to report, it was potatoes, bacon n sour cream! Nice, and good for $8, but too much for 2.. 

We decided (well I decided for us) that we were gonna have dessert.. we chose the brownie and cos S loves choc Orange, we asked to have a couple of the garnishes from the other dessert, with ours, which our waiter took care of without a problem or extra cost. It was served with pistatio, honey and cinnamon semifreddo and a drizzle of choc sauce. The brownie was served in a ramekin so it wasn't really a brownie just choc cake or pudding but it was hot, moist, rich and delicious! I didn't really love the semifreddo but pit together with the brownie it worked so well! Yum. S is a huge lover of brownies, and he died n went to heaven! It was a good brownie.. 

The next visit I went with mum so I could order the things S doesn't like! We got the smoked ham hock n pistascio terrine, the boiled eggs with curry mayo, and the crispy skinned duck with chilli vinegar. For dessert, we got the cheese plate. I really wanted to get the baked camembert with bread sticks, honey n walnuts, but it serves 4 n I wasn't sure we could really eat a whole wheel of cheese! 

The terrine came out with some small sliced pickles, some onion jam, more great bread, and a round terrine on a wooden board. Enjoyed the terrine, especially with the sweet onion jam. The sliced pickles didn't add enough sharpness for me n tasted a bit like nothing.. the bread was great, and with the terrine on top it was a satisfying bite. I found the terrine to be a little on the dry side but still the taste of fat was there. I'm pretty sure there was no mince in it, which may have given the terrine a better texture, a bit smoother rather than just having the possibly overcooked hock. It was tasty though and I enjoyed it. 

The duck was pretty delicious, however the chilli vinegar wasn't spicy at all, though very tasty. Combined with the duck, the vinegar worked perfectly with the rich fatty duck. I loved it! Is order that again for sure. 

The boiled eggs with curry mayo did pretty much what it said on the box, also served with their consistently yummy bread. The curry mayo was quite sharp and runny, which was good to pour over the soft boiled eggs that had spilled themselves over the bread when I cut them. We both enjoyed it, but it was a bit lackluster. However the menu says that this is what you get, so we can't complain! 

The cheese board came out with pear, walnuts, bread, water crackers and a pear and cider preserve. It looked great, and mum dove straight into the blue cheese which is far from one of my faves.. I tried some but didn't like it, just not into blue cheese! The highlight for me was the pear and Napoleone cider conserve, that stuff was amazing! I could taste the ginger, mum got the cloves, it was sweet with a hint of tartness. It was ridiculously good with the Spanish cheddar! Highlight!

I love The Cabin. Its walking distance from our house, I like the cocktails and the service is usually great. When its not great, its fine. Ive never had bad service, though there is one girl who looks a bit snarky but shes never served me. We will be back, for sure, I love that their menu changes and Im looking forward to when it does! We'll be back again. Its not the cheapest night out but its worth it. We get great food and good drinks, the staff always have a chat and have been really friendly to us. One waiter forgot about us for a while and then came back apologising and from then on was very attentive. Havent tried their breakfasts, that will be next!


For another view on The Cabin, check out Tannic Teeths take. Great photography!

The Garden, Leederville

After a long drive from my home town 3 hours away, and moving house the previous Thursday, S and I couldn't be bothered cooking dinner last night... Half the kitchen is still in boxes, we have forks and spoons, but no knives... too hard basket. The answer? The Garden, Leederville.

Ive been there before for drinks, but never ate anything before, and when we checked out the menu we were happy to see a tapas style selection, which were fans of. We were planning on going to Duende, but its shut on sundays...

At about 5:30 it was pretty busy, but we managed to snag a pretty decent spot on bar stools next to the restaurant. There were no menus or anything on the table so S went hunting for one and came back 5mins later. There were some nice things on there, and the headings were cool - Garden Deli, Small Things, Things in Bread, Pizza, Salady Things... It also had a wine list on the back, and a section on the food menu with their pitchers of cocktails made with Belvedere Vodka Fruit Macerations, all $35 - $45. We drove there so didnt get one, but the Pimms Pitcher appealed to us - Pimms, fresh lime, lemon, orange, cucumber, mint, dry ginger and lemonade. Yum. One for a hot saturday arvo. With a taxi home!

S went up to the bar and ordered (it sounds like he was doing all the work - he was. He owed me, I did all the leg work at the last place we went!), and we decided on the "garden variety of small things" and a pizza, topped with sausage, potato and rosemary ($20). He got himself a James Squire Sundowner Lager, and I started off with the Mazza Temperanillo from Donnybrook. Interestingly, the menu has prices for everything aside from the beer - which only shows the percentage of alcohol? Other things we liked on the menu were the Garden Farmhouse Cheeseboard ($30) with fig and pear relish, lavosh, green apple and a daily selection of cheeses, as well as mixed spiced nuts ($5), chorizo, piquillo pepper and fresh basil pizza, and the chicken, pancetta and ranch dressing pizza. The little nibbly things looked great - it turns out theyre all on the tasting plate so Ill talk about those soon!

We got a little garden bucket with a chalkboard on it, with our name on it and a table number, inside it held our napkins and cutlery as well as another menu. Was a cute touch, but sometimes I think it might be a bit difficult for the staff to see them? We liked it anyway!

We got the tasting plate first, with 4 little ramekins of goodness on a wooden board, and long bamboo skewers to eat with (fear not, there were knives and forks in the bucket!).

On it were (which can all also be ordered individually, for $10 each);
Braised meatballs w/spicy tomato relish
Brie & broccoli arancini w/ tomato chutney
Grilled chorizo, fresh parsley and lemon, and
Salt cod and potato croquettes w/ chipotle aioli.

Again, a little disclaimer - pics taken with my HTC Desire phone... not the greatest quality when its dark. Bear that in mind when looking at the pics of the food!

The meatballs were piled up, covered in a tomato sauce, with parmesan. They were pretty good, I had no real complaints about them. However I wouldnt order them, because I felt like they werent really special enough to order when going out. I tend to order things I wouldnt make at home, and these I just felt I could have made, easily. Nice, but nothing special.

The chorizo was exactly like it said on the packet. Slices, grilled, with a wedge of lemon. If you like chorizo you'll enjoy it! We found it to be really tasty chorizo, a little spicy and juicy. Some chorizo I find is just not as nice tasting as others. This was a good one.

The brie and brocolli arancini were good. Crumbed and fried balls of risotto always go down well when they're hot! Dipped in the tomato chutney, they were tasty morsels. You could really taste the brocolli. S, who doesnt really love brocolli OR cheese, had a bite and didn't mind them, which is a pretty good sign! They had a pretty creamy texture, as youd expect from both brie and risotto. I enjoyed them, and I ate most of them as S found other things he liked more!

Ive never had salt cod before, so mixed with potato in these little croquettes was a first for me. The flavour of the cod was very mild, S didnt even realise there was fish in it, and I could only just pick it up. A good thing to have for the transition from vegetarian to omnivore perhaps! The potato was creamy and soft, no lumps! The salt cod pieces were really small - like I said it had a really mild flavour so dont order it thinking its going to be really fishy. Again, I enjoyed them, and they actually gave me some inspiration to make them myself at some stage, but with salmon or tuna instead.

The pizza came out about 5mins after the tasting plate, and S got stuck straight in. The sausage on it wasnt sliced as I had expected, rather chunks of sausage meat, torn into bite sized pieces. The base was really nice, however we both felt that because of the chef being a bit heavy handed with the sauce and cheese, the base wasnt able to crisp up nicely. It was pretty cheesy, and it wasnt a really tasty cheese, so it was quite a heavy pizza. The hit of rosemary was a welcome respite from the bland cheese and the same sauce as what we'd gotten on the tasting place (there was a strong theme of tomato sauce/chutney/pizza base sauce which tended to taste very similar), as it gave a hit of flavour. In saying that, it wasnt a totally unpleasant pizza to eat - but it certainly wasnt the best Ive had, and it has the potential to be much nicer should the base improve.

We still felt a bit peckish, or maybe we just saw how nice the chips looked... so we went and ordered a serve of chips that we didnt need, but wanted. They came out after about 10minutes, and it was a huge serve! Considering they're $9.50 you would expect a decent size. We werent disappointed. They came in a metal colander, with a newspaper style lining. Cool presentation, however I cant help but think of the paper wasted, just for the purpose of a nice looking plate of chips. In any case, we couldnt finish them, and ended up heading off for a wander around the streets, followed by a stop at il gelato for some delicious lemon sorbet!

The vibe at the Garden is nice, I like it there. There are loads of tables all over the venue, it caters well to groups as well as only a couple of people. We found the music too load in some areas for a conversation which seemed weird as it was a sunday afternoon n theres no dance floor... We'll definately come back, as we didnt get to see the dinner menu (everything we ate was on the bar snacks menu - which is pretty extensive).

All in all an enjoyable experience, best enjoyed on a sunny afternoon with drinks and friends!

UPDATE
We went here again for drinks on saturday night at about 10pm after a meal at Kitsch Bar. It took 25mins to get served at the bar, and while waiting I decided that I was NOT going to go back to the bar for another drink, so I ordered a Belvedere Vodka jug, of the Starburst variety. It had Belvedere orange vodka, aperol, cranberry juice, grapefruit juice and soda water, with a squirt of lime juice, some oranges and lemon. It was pretty nice, but for $45 I kinda wanted more than 3 shots of vodka and one of Aperol.......... hmm.... We couldnt have a very good conversation, because the music from the Leederville Hotel next door was so loud. Im pretty sure that I wouldnt be heading back to the Garden on a saturday night, not really my style of place!