Coffee on Campus

Check out our latest video! We decide where the best place to purchase coffee on campus at Macquarie University is.
Scores are out of 10, and we judged based on:

• Taste
• Service
• Price
• Location

Have a look to see where the best place to get coffee is.

A bit of Italy!

Hey there everyone, today I'll be teaching you how to make pasta carbonara one of my favourite Italian dishes. Now there are two ways to make this pasta there is the way using cream out of a container which is the easier version and the other way were you make your own from scratch, I'll be teaching you the latter which is the traditional version and in my opinion the much better tasting version, especially when you perfect it. You might have a few bombs the first time as it can be a little tricky to get the mixture completely right but you'll be having mouth watering pasta soon.

What you'll need: 4 eggs, parmesan cheese, pasta or spaghetti or you choice (the recipe works with both), pancetta (bacon bits),

The recipe:
Firstly start cooking your pasta al dente, or thoroughly cooked however you prefer it, and while that's cooking we'll start to make our cream, whisk about 4 eggs for about 500g of pasta, put salt and pepper into the mix and start shredding parmesan cheese into your mix and after you've done that grab your bacon and put it into a small frying pan and cook it for approx 5 mins or until it is slightly crispy.
When your pasta is cooked strain all the water into the sink and immediately chuck your pasta back into your cooking pot and put it back on the stove on the lowest possible heat and throw in your cream and mix it around the pasta for about two minutes until you see the egg has been half cooked or a bit more and throw in your bacon top with extra parmesan if you're a fatty like me and enjoy your meal.

Classic Tomato and Herb Gnocchi

So it's getting to that time in the evening where you're feeling like something extravagant for dinner but you don't have a few hours to prepare a meal or the energy to! This is one of my own recipes, and it is quick and easy to make! You can have the entire meal cooked within 20 minutes! It's a simple and delicious italian dish which everyone will enjoy.

What you will need:
- Half an onion
- A clove of garlic
- Canned tomato and basil
- Paul Newman's tomato and basil sauce
- Cheese (tasty, feta & mozzarella)
- Mixed italian dried herbs
- And of course, Potato Gnocchi

You are more than welcome to make your own potato gnocchi balls from scratch, but for time's sake i'll cut down a few hours of preparation to only 5 minutes cooking time.

First things first: Dice your 1/2 onion and fry until golden brown, then dice your garlic and fry with the onion for a few minutes

Next combine 1 full can of canned tomato and basil and 1 full jar Paul Newman's tomato and basil sauce. Leave this on a low heat.

Boil a pot of water and tip in about half a packet of potato gnocchi. The trick to the perfect gnocchi is leaving it to boil for the perfect amount of time. As soon as the gnocchi rises and floats to the top of the water, grab a strainer and drain the water.

Next, add the gnocchi to the pot of tomato base, add about half a cup of grated tasty cheese and about ¼ of a cup of mozzarella cheese. The add dried herbs. Leave on a low heat and stir for about 5 minutes so the gnocchi can soak up the tomato and herb flavours.

Turn off the heat, add some feta and serve! Easy peasy!

I personally think this gnocchi goes perfectly with some Panini!

Afternoon treats

When I was younger my favourite thing was to come home to was the smell of freshly baked biscuits. So fresh that you bite into them and they are still warm in the centre. The best was when they were chocolate chip - my absolute favourite. They smell delicious, and when they are fresh from the oven all of the chocolate is still soft and beautiful! I thought today I would share with you my favourite recipe for chocolate chip biscuits.

You will need:

• 1 1/2 cups of plain flour
• 1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
• 125 grams of butter
• 1/2 cups of white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• Milk chocolate chips
• White chocolate chips

Step 1:
Preheat your over to 180 degrees Celsius.

Step 2:
Sift the flour and bicarb soda into a bowl and set aside

Step 3:
Cream butter and sugars together. You will know when to stop when the mixture is light and fluffy.

Step 4:
Add the egg and the vanilla essence to the mixture, and beat well.

Step 5:
Stir in the flour and soda you sifted earlier, and then add the chocolate bits - see tips at the end to find out the amount of chocolate chips I use.

Step 6:
Put baking paper on an over tray, and place even amounts of biscuit mix onto the tray. Don't roll the mixture into balls, it tastes better if it isn't heavily handled, it just looks a bit more rustic!

Step 7:
Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes, until golden on top

Step 8:
Cool on a wire rack and then eat!!

Tips

• Make sure you take the butter out of the fridge at least 45 minutes before you start to bake, it makes the butter a lot easier to work with. 
• Sometimes if the mixture is taking too long to creme, then add the egg anyway, it will make the mixture lighter, and can sometimes help it to creme. However do not give up easily! Only do this if you feel as though it has been in the mixture for ages and no change is occurring. 
• You can use a the mixer rather then stirring in the flour - I suggest you do, it's so much better at ensuring all the flour is mixed in. But make sure you stir it in roughly first, otherwise when you turn the mixer on the flour will go everywhere! 
• Usually when I make this I use Nestle Choc Bits, and use both white and milk chocolate, but you can use just one type, or dark chocolate if you wish as well. Usually I just pour chocolate in until it looks like enough. This is 1/2-3/4 of each packet (I think the packets I usually use are 250g each). This can be changed to taste though, I know some recipes say to only use a total of 100g of chocolate.
• If you want to be extra fancy you can put leftover chocolate chips on the top of the biscuits, this looks really good

Fancy Pants Techniques - Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of the dessert techniques series! Today I will be covering a technique that is bound to impress: tempering chocolate. If you've cooked with chocolate before, you may have noticed that once you have cooked with it, it can become dull, soft, and even have a white "bloom" sort of appearance on the surface. This happens because when in a solid form, the cocoa butter crystals in the chocolate are suspended. However when it is heated, this suspension is broken and the crystals surface, causing the "bloom" appearance when it is cooled. So whilst it still tastes nice, it doesn't look the best!
The idea of tempering the chocolate is to return the chocolate to it's suspended state and ensure that when you use it, e.g. for chocolate moulds or cake decorating, it maintains that glossy finish and crisp snap. Here's the how-to:

How to Temper Chocolate

What you will need:

• Required chocolate for your recipe
• A cooking thermometer
• A saucepan of simmering water 
• A bowl that sits on top of your saucepan but not fully in it 
• A spatula or spoon

Method:

1. Chop the chocolate in to pieces of the same size, as small as you can get them. Alternatively, you can roughly chop the chocolate and blitz it in a food processor in order to ensure uniformity.
2. Place 2/3 of the chocolate in the bowl and sit it in the saucepan over the top if the water, but not touching it (as contact with the water will make your chocolate too hot and the elements will separate).
3. Melt the chocolate to 50 degrees Celsius, stirring occasionally.
4. Remove the chocolate from the heat and add the remaining 1/3 of chocolate, stirring until the chocolate is consistent and reaches 32 degrees Celsius.

Test: spread your chocolate in a thin layer on to a plate. If it sets quickly and has a shiny, smooth finish, you have successfully tempered your chocolate!

For a demonstration video, click here. 

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/techniques/how_to_temper_chocolate

http://www.cadburykitchen.com.au/kitchen-tips/view/tempering-chocolate/13/

Posted by Clare Mannion.

Fancy Pants Techniques Part 1

Hello fellow foodies,

So I would like to teach you how to use a few fancy-pants pastry chef techniques, and today is Part One in the two-part series! These techniques can be slightly more advanced and are for those of you who are looking to up the ante on your baked goods, pastries, or desserts in general. The techniques I will be laying out include how to temper chocolate, which is basically making sure your chocolate looks nice and shiny and snaps crisply after you have cooked with it, and how to quenelle something such as cream in a slightly more sophisticated fashion than the good old dollop. Both of these techniques are great for the presentation of your dishes, so listen up if you're eager to impress! Today I will be covering how to quenelle.

How to Quenelle 

What you'll need:

• Two spoons of the same size - go for a deeper spoon if you can, as it makes creating a rounder shape much easier! The spoons should be at a temperature warm enough to manipulate the ingredient, but not so warm that they melt it.
• The ingredient you wish to make in to a quenelle shape, e.g. ice cream, whipped/double cream, or mousse. The ingredient should be at room temperature - i.e. Not so firm that it can't be shaped, but not so close to a liquid that it can't hold it's shape. 

Steps:

1. Hold a spoon in both hands and scoop a reasonable amount of the ingredient into one of your spoons. Carefully scoop underneath the ingredient with the second spoon, transferring the contents between spoons. 
2. Transfer the ingredient back to the original spoon using the same movement. You will notice that this begins to create a smooth, rounded surface. 
3. Keep repeating this process, passing the ingredient between the spoons until you have the smooth, oval shape that you desire.

This can be a bit tricky, so if you need help see this video for further demonstration.

Source: http://www.finecooking.com/item/13273/making-quenelles

Posted by Clare Mannion.

The Perfect Breakfast

Every Sunday morning my family will wake up and my Dad will make us all breakfast before I have to go to work. Every Sunday we have the same thing - French Toast. There is not many things I like more then French Toast, all of the egg in a beautiful piece of bread - delicious!

French toast is really simple to make. All you will need is

• Sliced bread
• Milk
• Eggs
• Salt and Pepper

Use an egg for each person you're cooking for, and about 1/4 of a cup of milk per egg.

Step 1:

Whisk the eggs and milk together and put in some ground salt and pepper.

Step 2:

Put the desired amount of bread into a large dish (I usually use a casserole dish) and pour the egg mixture over the bread. Ensure all the bread is covered in egg. Turn the bread over after half the mixture is poured to get the desired coverage.

Step 3:

Cook in a fry pan until golden.

French Toast isn't really difficult to make, but there are a few secrets that will make all the difference to your breakfast.

Secret 1 - the bread

Using just your normal bread from the supermarket will be ok, but it won't be as good as it could be. Using sourdough or a heavier bread like this will make the meal so much better. Make sure you don't slice it too thick though - slices about 1-1.5cm thick will be perfect. The bread doesn't need to be fresh, it could be left over from lunch a few days before. Just make sure it isn't too far gone or it won't be very nice. 

Secret 2 - soaking the bread

The longer you leave the bread to soak the nicer it will be. This is particularly important if you use a bread like sourdough, where the egg needs longer to make it to the whole way through the bread. My advice, make the mixture and pour it over the bread, and then go make a coffee or have a shower or something. After you're ready come back and cook it, and it will be delicious.