Catering Melbourne Blog

Chocolate Zucchini Bread
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup oil
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup buttermilk
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
5 tablespoons cocoa
2 1/2 cups grated zucchini
1/2 cup milk chocolate chips
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional)

In a large bowl, mix the sugars, oil, and margarine together. Add the egg into the mixture one at a time. Mix in the buttermilk and vanilla. In a small bowl, sift together the flour, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, and cocoa. Add in the zucchini and dry mixture by alternating. Add in the chocolate chips, raisins, and nuts. Grease a 9×13-inch pan and pour the batter into it. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour.

3/4 cup butter or margarine (softened)
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
grated rind of 1 orange
3 cups grated, unpeeled zucchini
3 to 3 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup butterscotch or chocolate chips
3 cups granola cereal

In a large bowl, mix together the butter and sugar. Mix in the egg, vanilla, orange rind, and zucchini. Add in the flour and baking soda. Mix in the granola cereal. Then mix in the butterscotch or chocolate chips. Grease a cookie sheet and put teaspoonfuls of the dough onto the sheet. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 12 to 15 minutes.

Strawberry Lemon Pie

4 ounces of cream cheese, softened
1 (6 ounce) ready-made graham cracker pie crust
1 tablespoon milk
1 tablespoon sugar
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 package (8 ounce) whipped topping
1 pint of strawberries, hulled and halved
2 cups cold milk
2 (3.4 ounce) packages instant pudding mix, vanilla or lemon

In a medium bowl, mix together the cream cheese, 1 tablespoon milk and sugar. Beat until the mixture is smooth. Add in the lemon juice and lemon peel. Add 1 1/2 cups whipped topping into the mixture. Pour this mixture into the pie crust and spread it out evenly over the bottom. Spread the strawberry halves evenly over the cream cheese mixture. Keep some to garnish the top.

In a large bowl, put the pudding mixes and the 2 cups of milk. Beat together for 1 minute. Let the mixture stand for a minute or until it has thickened. Add in 1 cup of the whipped topping. Put this mixture over the strawberry layer in the crust. Put the pie in the refrigerator for 4 hours or until the pie has set. Put the rest of the whipped topping and strawberries on top just before serving.

Lemon Sour Cream Pie

1 cup sugar
4 tablespoons cornstarch
dash of salt
1 cup milk
1/4 cup butter
1 (9-inch) pie shell, baked
1 teaspoon lemon peel
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 cup sour cream
3 eggs, separated

Meringue:
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

In a large saucepan, add 1 cup sugar, cornstarch and salt. Mix together well so the cornstarch is thoroughly mixed. Add in the milk slowly. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the mixture boils and thickens. In a small bowl, beat the egg yolks. Add in a little bit of the hot mixture to the egg yolks and mix well. Then add the egg yolk mixture to the main mixture. Continue to let it cook, stirring constantly for 2 more minutes. Remove from heat and mix in the butter, lemon juice and lemon peel. Cover the mixture and allow it to cool. After mixture has cooled, add in the sour cream. Put the lemon mixture into the baked pie crust.

For the meringue: In a small bowl, beat together the egg whites and the cream of tartar. Gradually add in the 1/2 cup sugar and the 2 tablespoons of sugar. Beat the mixture until it is stiff and forms peaks. Put this mixture on top of the pie. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 13 to 15 minutes or until brown.

One of the basic tools that a kitchen should not be without is a good knife and a cutlery set. There are may processes in food preparation and these include among others the slicing, chopping and cutting of food ingredients. As one may think one sturdy kitchen knife can handle all the cutting tasks, think again. There are more to knives than meets the eye and the types of kitchen knives available in the market today are quite a handful. Here are a few of them.

Chef’s knife

The chef’s knife as its name suggest leads the pack of blades used in the kitchen. This knife can go through all the functions of chopping, slicing, mincing and dicing food elements. A chef’s knife usually measures at 6 to 12 inches. On the average this knife is about 8 inches. The main bonus of this knife is on the blade. The latter is curved to allow for a more accurate and defined cut.

Bread knife

The bread knife is definitely for cutting bread. Sizes measure from 6 to 10 inches and still 8 inches on the average. Bread knives have a jagged saw-like blade that permits them to slice through breads and pastries with ease.

Paring knife

Ranging from between 2 to 4 inches, the paring knife epitomizes the expression “small but terrible.” This knife can work for a lot of purposes same as the chef’s knife albeit its petite size. Ideally paring knifes are used for peeling and tricky cutting tasks such as making garnishes or pare sea foods.

Steak knifes

Sometimes cutting through meat is tough. This is the reason why steak knives came to be. Usually placed near the steak on the dining table setting, the steak knife typically supports a saw-toothed blade. It measures from 4 to 6 inches long.

Carving knife

With a thin blade, a carving knife has the aptitude to slice more precise cuts on cooked meat, poultry, hams and even roasts. A size of a typical carving knife measures between 8 to 15 inches.

Slicing knife

Slicing knives are usually present during barbeques as they slice better through these grilled beef and pork cuts. The blade in a slicing knife may or may not have a serrated blade. Generally, they are longer and narrower than a carving knife and are known to sport a rounded or blunted edge.

Boning knife

Bones can never be too far when there is a boning knife in the picture. Designed to aid in taking out the bones from meat, these knives are flexible enough to get through small spaces. Measurements are usually at 5 to 6 inches.

Fillet knife

Fillet knife is a kind of boning knife that serves to work with fish. The blades of a fillet are longer at 6 to 11 inches.

Peeling knife

As its name entails, the peeling knife is tasked to remove the skin off fruits, vegetables and other foodstuffs. This knife is generally small and its blade has a downward pointed tip.

Decorating knife

If you are preparing something fancy then you need a decorating knife. The ornamental and lavish cuts and patterns in fruits and vegetables on your salad may very well have been conjured with the help of a decorating knife.

This time of year the question always comes up; what wine pairs well with Turkey? If you’ve been asked to bring the wine or have people coming to your house for Holiday dinner, no need to stress about what to serve. The good news is there is no correct answer. Turkey pairs well with red wine or white wine depending on what you and your guests like. Turkey is adaptable and the way it’s prepared as well as other dishes to the meal really dictate what wine to pair it with.

If you are a red wine drinker, try a Pinot Noir. It’s a nice flavored red wine that will pair well with turkey. Pinot Noir has very little tannins which means it won’t overwhelm the meal. Even though gathering around the table and sharing in a holiday meal seems like a great time to pull out a special Cabernet Sauvignon you’ve been saving, don’t. They over power the meal. You could try a Zinfindel but save the “in your face” Zins for after dinner.

There are many good brands of Pinot Noir from California, Burgundy (France) and from Oregon. Find a known name brand in your price range and enjoy the meal. Serve Pinot Noir very lightly chilled. Putting the Pinot Noir in the refrigerator for about 20 minutes before serving it will bring out the fruit and will take away the ‘bite’ that alcohol can give when served at room temperature. A couple of good brands

If you like white wines, try a Chardonnay or even a Pinot Gris. This is where the turkey is really adapatable. Almost any good white will work, but stay away from the sweet dessert style whites. Light and crisp Chardonnay’s along with most Sauvignon Blanc’s will work.. If you want to be a little more adventurous, include a Viognier. It has a floral, peach, apricot, pear, fruity flavor and is m edium in body.

Sparkling Wine also works as well, and brings a festive note to the meal. There are some powerful, yet affordable brut Champagnes that have sufficient weight and structure to stand up to a rich meal. Again, stay away from the sweeter Champagnes.

If you want to enjoy something special, try a Beaujolais. Every year in November, Beaujolais Nouveau (”new Beaujolais”) is the first wine to be harvested in the Beaujolais region of France. Made from the Gamay grape, this wine is fresh, fruity, light-bodied and has hints of cherry and plums with peppery finish. It complements holiday fare well, and as it can be enjoyed slightly chilled, it can be enjoyed by those who favor a white wine.

Try one and tell me what you think! I suggest doing a trio of wines; red, white and sparkling. And let the fun and memories begin.

Normally, trips to wine suppliers are very hard work (no, honestly) and the preserve of our buying team, trying to find the best cuvées at the best prices. However, occasionally we are given the opportunity to take our other staff on fact-finding visits, which are great fun, if a little hectic.
In February, we took a group to visit the world-renowned Champagne house of Bollinger. Such a treasured visit demanded the most treasured staff, so we identified our ‘unsung heroes’ at the company’s front line, who regularly go out of their way to give extra special service to our customers. Hence, at a really unsociable early hour on a cold February morning, some of our sales, accounts, warehouse and shop staff flew out to Paris to meet the people who make Bollinger.

A two-hour drive from Charles de Gaul Airport brought us to the home of Bollinger in the stylish little town of Ay, which was covered with a light dusting of snow. Ay is the most famous Grand Cru village in Champagne, located some 30km from Reims. We had an exquisite lunch at the house of Madame Lilly Bollinger, where the history and ethos of the company was explained.

Madame Lilly Bollinger is one of the most famous figures in Champagne’s history. In 1918 Elizabeth Law de Lauriston Bourbers (known as Lilly) married Jacques Bollinger, head of a small but growing Champagne house. When Jacques died in 1941, Lilly took the reigns and famously traveled the world, spreading the word about Bollinger. In many respects she was a true pioneer in creating an internationally recognised brand. Lilly was also a great spokeswoman for the Champagne region as a whole, leaving several infamous quotes.

“I drink it when I’m happy and when I’m sad. Sometimes I drink it when I’m alone. When I have company I consider it obligatory. I trifle with it if I’m not hungry and drink it when I am. Otherwise, I never touch it — unless I’m thirsty.” Madame Lilly Bollinger, Daily Mail 17th October 1961

Today the success of Lilly’s promotional endeavours is clear from the prestige and familiarity of Bollinger Champagne. However, it was a surprise to most to learn just how small their volumes are in the great scheme of things, producing just 2.1m of Champagne’s total annual output of 300m bottles. They remain, in essence a small, artisan producer. We visited the coopers’ workshop, the last one in Champagne where wooden barrels are still made, repaired and restored. Seeing a workshop with such ancient tools, and complete lack of machinery indicated the depth of craftsmanship and skill that was being preserved, not for the tourists, but out of necessity. A tour of the vast chalk cellars beneath the village showed how manual the whole process is, with teams of cellar men manually racking the reserve bottles. Seeing such quantities of precious Champagne, gently maturing in the perfect conditions, was humbling. We emerged from these labyrinthine cellars into the winery, several streets away, and into a very different world of immaculate white tiles and stainless steel - the absolute epitome of hygienic, up-to-date wine-making. This was where the ancient crafts met the modern world.

It’s only now that we realised that we had spent many hours, discovering the different delights, rapt with attention at the details of production and historic facts being offered. We had been transported to a different world for a day, completely removed from ours, yet the fruits of which we would enjoy by opening a bottle at home. An evening in Reims was followed by a morning flight back to reality and work. But the general impression from all was one of awe, at the passion and detail that goes into making a bottle of Champagne that we may have taken for granted before. Suddenly, the price of a bottle of Bollinger seems remarkably good value for money. So if you ever call the Averys office to ask about Champagne to be met with an effusive story about how it is made, you’re probably talking to one of the lucky staff who came on this trip.

You can buy Bollinger online Averys Dot Com where we are currently listing the UK’s best price for Bollinger Special Cuvee NV- just £25 per bottle.

When thinking of healthy foods does brown rice or rice bran come to mind? It is common for us to have a list of favored healthy foods; our favorite fruits and vegetables; skinless white meat chicken; yogurt and low fat cheese.
Then there is that list of foods that brown rice may be on. The list of foods one knows is healthy like brown rice or rice bran and maybe they’ll try it one day; or not. Healthy grains like brown rice or rice bran are usually on this list.

Consciously, the choice is made for white rice instead of brown rice; processed baked goods instead of something with perhaps a healthy grain like rice bran on the ingredient list.

We opt out of the chewy texture and nutty flavor of a natural whole grain item like brown rice; or the unexpected sweetness of a rice bran product? If you had a choice and were ordering take out, would you look on the menu for brown rice? Would you go out of your way to inquire if brown rice were available at your local Asian restaurant?

I’m not talking about the fried rice that just happens to be brown from the cooking and seasoning process; I’m talking about unadulterated brown rice.

Hopefully we haven’t lost something in the low-carb revolution; the part of the message about needing grains like brown rice in our diets to aid in digestion; fight constipation; control blood pressure; and perhaps lower LDL cholesterol in the fight against heart disease.

In addition brown rice provides our bodies with healthy nutrients like magnesium, phosphorus, copper, thiamin, niacin, fiber, iron and vitamin B-6. Brown rice is a staple with other healthy grains in vegetarian and macrobiotic diets for these nutrients. It also has three quarters more dietary fiber than white rice.

The benefits of whole grains may not mean that every individual on the planet needs to follow the recommended guidelines.

Individuals seeking medical attention for diabetes or allergies may receive special nutritional advice from professionals regarding their diet. However adding the right mix of vegetables and healthy grains to your diet is smart eating.

No doubt your taste buds will need some time to adjust. Make your brown rice selection with care. Check labels to ensure a freshness packing date. Since brown rice hasn’t been through the same processes as white rice the expiration date may not be as lengthy. Stale brown rice will taste rancid and shouldn’t be eaten.

Make the transition of adding brown rice or rice bran to your diet a slow process. Gradually swap out processed foods for a smart food like brown rice and rice bran. Read ingredient labels; find whole grain breads that list rice bran in the first few ingredients.

Ask your favorite Asian restaurant if they serve brown rice in place of white rice. Mix it with white rice in a favorite recipe like stuffed peppers until you’re used to the nutty whole grain goodness of the brown rice on its own. In no time your taste buds will be thanking you.

Goodman Fielder announced on Monday it will close its oils manufacturing plant at Mascot south of Sydney and start building a new state-of-the-art packaged food manufacturing plant in the western suburbs.
GF Managing Director Peter Margin said the Mascot plant was an old facility and not up to modern efficiency standards.

“I regret the necessity of closing the plant and the impact this will have on our people who work at the site, but unfortunately the recent loss of a major bulk oils contract has made the plant sub-economic to operate.

This means that we needed to bring forward our plans to restructure our manufacturing base and build the new plant.” Construction of the new plant is expected to start in early 2008, with completion and the closure of Mascot expected to be around June 2009. “When this new low-cost, flexible manufacturing facility is completed, the bulk oil production that is currently undertaken at the Mascot plant will be transferred to existing plants in Brisbane and Melbourne. Retail grocery product production will be transferred from Mascot to the new western Sydney plant,” Peter said. The new site, which will be located close to distribution centres operated by Goodman Fielder’s major customers, will be developed and owned by a third party and operated by Goodman Fielder under a lease arrangement.

“We plan to invest around $30 million in new plant and equipment and the site will also include a modern fully equipped research and development facility to ensure we stay at the forefront of new product innovation. Part of the new facility will include a bulk tank farm from where we will be able to distribute the freshest oil at competitive prices to our Sydney customers,” Peter said. The Mascot plant employs around 120 people and the company will endeavour to place employees in other parts of the business. Where this cannot be achieved, full redundancy entitlements will be paid and outplacement services made available.

Total Mascot site closure costs will be about $13 million, including $5 million that has been previously announced.

Fonterra considers listing on stock exchange
Fonterra is initiating a two-year consultation to adopt a preferred capital structure that could see it split in two and list on the New Zealand Stock Exchange.

The co-operative – formed six years ago out of a three-way merger between New Zealand Dairy Board, New Zealand Dairy Group and Kiwi Co-operative Dairies – is owned by some 11,000 farmer shareholders in New Zealand (96 per cent of the country’s dairy farmers), who supply it with milk and, in return most of the income is distributed among them.

However the board of directors has been weighing up six options for changing its capital structure with a view to ensuring it stays relevant, competitive and adaptable in the changing dairy market. The capital structure plan would see the Dairy Co-operative listing its business operations in a separate company, while maintaining a controlling interest. The farmer co-operative would remain 100 per cent owned and controlled by farmer shareholders, but all the assets, liabilities and operations of the co-operation would shift over to a second company.

The plan is for this second company to be farmer owned for two years, but ultimately for shares in this to be listed on the New Zealand Stock Exchange. The farmers would own about 80 per cent of the listed entity – 65 per cent through the co-operative and 15 per cent through their shareholding. The remaining 20 per cent would be up for sale to the public. The consultation process will involve two shareholder votes, with the first expected to take place in May.

This will be on whether to change the structure of the business to two entities, and introduce a more transparent milk pricing mechanism. At least 75 per cent shareholder approval will be needed for the proposal to pass through to the second stage

Seventy-five per cent will also be required for the second vote, which would take place in 2010, on whether Fonterra should list on the stock exchange and introduce external capital.