I always swore that if I opened up my own ice cream store, this is the flavour that people would want most. I actually got this many years ago from Vogue forum’s food section by member afj, and made it straight away and kept making it over and over again. It is not an understatement that this will get you an ovation every time. It is so very delicate and unusual a combination but it’s also one that will have you thinking “Why isn’t this a more common combination?”

I’ll be frank, you don’t need Wild Figs for this although these happened to be the ones that I had to hand. You could certainly use those non-wild (tame?), sweet, juicy dried dessert figs although you will need less as these are larger than the small Wild figs. And even better, you don’t really need an ice cream maker to make this.

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I know, I know, its about time I had been to Lindt café. Ever since it opened its first store (in the world apparently!) in Martin Place, I had always been meaning to go and whilst I’ve taken away plenty of macarons (or delices as they call them) I’d never eaten in until today. But as my friends are the kind to watch what they eat, willingly wanting to go to Lindt café seems almost like surrendering to the dieting gods and indulging with abandon. Or at least giving up the notion of dieting which is not something that the girls will do often.

We arrive one Sunday afternoon and as its a beautiful day, Darling Harbour’s Cockle Bay is packed. With spy one empty table and grab it. Its dog eat dog here and ruthlessness will be rewarded with chocolate. One needs to order at the counter so we go in to select our goodies. As its a Sunday, there is a 10% service charge added which is reflected in the prices. I can never go past a Delice (macaron) and today sees two new flavours. I order a Pistachio (my standby favourite), a Strawberry because its pink and the prettiest, and two of the new flavours: Lemon and Ginger & Lime (all $2.20 each, usually $2 each). The other flavours on offer are: dark and milk chocolate; hazelnut, coffee and champagne. I also order an Iced Coffee ($6.60). Teena orders a Ice cream sundae with praline and hazelnut chocolate covered with melted chocolate, whipped cream and praline shards ($9.35 usually $8.50). Gina orders a chocolate chip sable biscuit ($3.30 usually $3) and an Iced Chocolate ($6.60 usually $6). There are also slices of cakes and individual cakes that are $11 each.

Lindt Delices (Macarons) clockwise from back left: Ginger & Lime, Strawberry, Pistachio and Lemon $2 each

We take our sundaes, delices and cookies away and we’re told that the drinks will arrive shortly. I try the Lemon delice first and it lovely, light and lemoney but not overpoweringly so. Its as delicate as a butterfly’s wing and is quite simply superb. I hope they become a regular fixture in the rotation. The Pistachio is next, always a favourite and it is slightly larger than the other which is a gluttonous bonus. Of course its gooey and soft inside and whilst not extremely pistachioey, its has a bit more filling than the others which I always like.

I try the prettiest one next, the strawberry. Its subtle strawberriness is lovely and it feels almost like a crime to bite into this beauty. I’ve saved the most curious one for last, the Ginger and Lime. Trying it I am perplexed. There doesn’t seem to be any ginger or lime flavour. In fact all I can taste is the darkest, most bitter chocolate filling which overpowers any other flavour that might be present. Not a hit with me or anyone else at the table I’m afraid.

Lindt Ice cream sundae $8.50

I try some of Teena’s ice cream sundae. The hazelnut ice cream is strong in the hazelnut flavour whereas the praline is more subtle in its flavour. The praline shards add a nice texture to the sundae and its creamy, icey goodness.

Chocolate sable biscuit $3

Gina samples her chocolate studded darker-than-dark cookie and she remarks that its the oddest thing-it has no flavour at all! Curious, we try some to see whether this is the case and indeed it is. I’ve never come across a cookie like this where there is no flavour to it at all. Its certainly dark and chocolatey enough!

Iced Coffee $6

By this time our drinks arrive and I sip my iced coffee which is sans cream which is a bit of a visual disappointment as other Iced Coffees around me come with a cloud of whipped cream. Its incongruously coated in dusted cocoa which is bitter and spills on my cream dress before I can even take a sip. So I’m rather grumpy that one of my favourite dresses is stained with cocoa when I take a sip but once I do I find it oh so delicious and just the order for a hot sweltering day. I don’t try any of Gina’s Hot Chocolate topped with white and milk chocolate shavings but she seems pleased with her choice.

Iced Chocolate $6

I haven’t quite forgiven the injury to my clothes but I have a sneaking suspicion that the Delices and Iced Coffee will certainly beckon another visit.

Lindt Chocolat Café at Darling Harbour

124-125 Cockle Bay Wharf, Cockle Bay
Tel: +61 (02) 9267-8064
Mon-Wed, 10am-7.00pm
Thursday 10am-10.00pm
Friday 10am-11.30pm
Saturday 10am-11.30pm
Sunday 10am-8.00pm (10% surcharge on Sundays)

Also a location at:
53 Martin Place Sydney City
Tel: +61 (02) 8257-1600

The key with going for a successful food adventure is going with people that truly love food. Our friends Queen Viv and Miss America are always willing to go that extra mile for that extra special meal which is a sentiment I always appreciate as I am the same. So despite the fact that Miss A. has been up for over 25 hours straight and she is still willing to go out for dessert after our carnivorous fest at Carne Station proves what a strong constitution and resolve she has. Just what a beauty queen needs really.

Turkish Oud

So its late in the evening when we drive up to Auburn and revisit a place we’ve been to several times before lured by Grab Your Fork and known for their fabulous Dondurma (salep enriched stretchy Turkish ice cream), Mado cafe. Service is a unsure and wary, as if we’ve fallen outside of a spaceship and our questions are answered with a confused “I don’t know”. Its a pity the service is so neglectful as the desserts are divine.

Dondurma (Turkish stretchy ice cream) churning

We know what we want, what we’ve had before and loved, the ice cream (including a must have black mulberry) so we choose the Cup Maras which is an ice cream sundae with scoops of black mulberry, pistachio, sour cherry and maras (white) with fruit salad and sour cherry sauce ($9.50) and the Kazandibi ($5.50) a “cauldron bottom” charred pudding thickened with salep from the orchid root. To quench our thirst we order a Turkish sour cherry drink ($3), Gazoz a Turkish lemonade ($2.50) and Turkish mineral water ($2.50).

From left to right: Gazoz a Turkish lemonade ($2.50), Turkish sour cherry drink ($3), and Turkish mineral water ($2.50)

Our drinks arrive along with our sundae and pudding. The Turkish mineral water tastes like regular mineral water, refreshing and with hard large bubbles, not softly carbonated. The sour cherry drink, always a favourite (we downed about 20 bottles of this last time) is gorgeously fruity and the Turkish lemonade has a fruity flavour to it, almost like creaming soda.

Cup Maras sundae $9.50 Four flavours of ice cream with fruit salad and sour cherry sauce

We dig into our mermaid decorated sundae and I start with my favourite, the black mulberry. Its sweet and with a slight berry tang to it but so heady in berries, its like burying your face in a field of the sweetest berries. The pistachio is lovely too, although not particularly pisctacho-ey with just a faint echo of it. The sour cherry ice cream looks to be replaced by the mango which is nice enough but we know that the sour cherry would have been nicer-I wish they had told us that it was not available. The maras is a mild, plain flavour, more like a milk flavour. The fruit salad is fairly small consisting of a few grapes and tiny cubes of melon but the thick sour cherry topping is gorgeous and I want it by the jar to drizzle over ice cream at home.

Kazandibi $5.50

The Kazandibi, always a favourite of ours, is gloriously stretchy and sweet with a liberal touch of cinnamon. Its hard to describe as there’s nothing quite like it, its similar to a super stretchy rice pudding without the grains of rice.

I contemplate buying the black mulberry by the tub but alas with the night so warm and the journey home so long I know that it will be melted (or eaten) long before we reach our driveway…

Mado Cafe

63 Auburn Road, Auburn Sydney
Ph: +61 (02) 9643-5299
Monday-Friday 8am-midnight, Saturday-Sunday 10am-midnight
Payment accepted: MasterCard, Visa, Diners Club and American Express
Vegetarian options

Also locations in Brisbane and Melbourne

I don’t know if having an American style barbecue on the Australia Day weekend is somewhat perverse or likely to get your Australian citizenship annulled. My husband and I along with our friends, Gina, Hot Dog, Teena and Phillippe do World Theme Nights on occasion and, Your Honour, when planning our American theme night, it just happened to coincide with the Australia Day weekend. Our World Theme Nights involve cooking the chosen nation’s food, dressing in the clothing, speaking with the appropriate accents and listening to the music.

Since Gina is Canadian, which is near enough to America, she told us about her nephew, Matthew Fabian who lives in Milton, Canada. Prior to this he lived in Burlington and every year many cities in Canada enjoy a Ribfest competition where restaurants in the area have a stall in the park with their rib recipe for all to try and they compete for title of ‘best ribs’ as voted by the critics and public. Matt did not officially compete as he is not a restaurant, but as the story goes, a large group who went to Burlington’s Ribfest, then to Matt’s place, (unofficially) nominated his recipes as the best tasting on the day. He has kindly given me, via her, the recipe for these babies and I was more than happy to try the recipe out. The instructions are his word for word as I thought the fact that he wasn’t sure if we had Bourbon in Australia was funny and how he specifically mentioned using a new and not used paintbrush was truly hilarious.

If it does seem like a bit more work than your usual ribs, I think you could probably use a very good bought BBQ sauce instead of making your own but as I am literally a trouble maker, as in someone who prefers to make things more complicated, I made the BBQ sauce. Instead of using baby back ribs, I use regular pork ribs that my parents have found a reliable supplier of as they’re juicier and meatier. The heady smell of the dry rub will have you salivating and they’re worth the extra effort and the home made sauce is gorgeously tangy, much nicer than any bottled sauce you could buy although it seems to become a little milder once bottled and refrigerated. Dare I mess with perfection and suggest a drop or two of Tabasco? The ribs themselves are fantastically good, soft and incredibly flavoursome with the heady mixture of the dry rub and BBQ sauce permeating each bite. They aren’t what you’d call photogenic, looking almost burnt but glisteningly so, because of the dark dry rub and BBQ sauce basting.

As for my dessert contribution, Ice Cream Cake, is from Nigella Express. Peanut butter and chocolate are undoubtedly an American combination and it seemed fitting to give this to Gina as her slightly belated birthday cake, on this allegiance muddled American themed Australia Day as she is often mistaken for an American but she is in fact an Australian citizen now but formerly a Canadian citizen!

Home made honey roasted peanuts (with more honey coating than usual)

I roasted my own peanuts as I couldn’t find any honey roasted peanuts at the supermarket and made a slightly different mix as I didn’t have the Bourbon creams or Nestle milk chocolate and peanut butter chips. Instead of the Bourbon creams I used a mixture of Arnotts Caramel Crowns bludgeoned to death with a rolling pin and instead of the chocolate chips I used a combination made up mostly of Reese’s Peanut butter cups with some Cookie Dough Kit Kat (cookie dough is definitely an American thing) and milk chocolate chips and macadamia praline.

One of the best parts of this is that I had 1/2 litre left over of Streets Blue Ribbon light vanilla ice cream to do with what I wanted. My choice, if I could have my wicked way with it would be to squeeze Ice Magic on top, let it harden, eat the chocolate and repeat until the bottle of Ice Magic has finished and then eat the ice cream. Terrible I know but I live in hope that I am not the only one that does this… I wouldn’t recommend using Streets Blue Ribbon light if you’re transporting it though like we did, when it melts, it separates into a yellow layer and a white cream layer.

Other additions to the BBQ spread were BBQ chicken wings (deep fry unadorned wings in deep fat fryer and then coat with “Crazy Mother Puckers BBQ sauce”). Made by Hot Dog in his deep fat fryer.

Coleslaw also featured-seasoned with fragrant dill. Made by Teena

As well as Havana Beach Cocktails (like a delicious pineapple Splice ice cream, recipe below). Made by Gina.

And delicious Pumpkin tarts also made by Gina

And creamy Spinach dip from Teena (recipe below)

And crispy Bloomin’ Onions (American version of what Australians eat, recipe below) made by Gina and fried by Hot Dog

Ribfest-but-better ribs

Ingredients:

• 6 racks of baby back ribs
• 2 large onions
• 2 apples
• apple juice or cider (small)
• I use aluminum disposable roasting pans you buy at the grocery store (I just used regular roasting pans as I couldn’t find big enough disposable ones)
• Plus all the stuff below for Dry rub and BBQ sauce

Pre-prepare the following;

Dry rub (mix it all together and put in a jar - can be done way ahead of time):

• 2.5 tablespoons paprika
• 1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoon dark brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons celery salt (I couldn’t find this so I used regular salt)
• 2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon dry mustard
• 1.5 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

BBQ Sauce (I usually prepare the night before - can be done a couple days before and kept in fridge)

• 1/2 sweet onion very finely chopped
• 2 Cups Ketchup
• 1/2 cup light flavoured molasses
• 1/3 cup bourbon (I use Jim Beam - but if that’s not available any bourbon will do. If they don’t have bourbon Down Under, skip it) I used Chivas Regal scotch whisky as I didn’t have Jim Beam
• 1/4 cup Dijon Mustard
• 2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 teaspoons paprika
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder

Drop a splash of vegetable oil into a saucepan and add onions, cook until they start to become clear. Turn heat down to low-medium and add rest of ingredients. Stir regularly for about 20 minutes and then bring to a simmer for about an hour (stirring occasionally). Let cool and refrigerate

The resultant rich, tangy, eye wateringly good BBQ sauce

For the Ribs:

Get a whole bunch (6) of baby back ribs, and the night before rub the dry rub into them well on both sides. Wrap them in foil or saran wrap in the fridge overnight.

Dry rub on one of the rib racks

Now on the big day.

Heat your oven to 250 degrees fahrenheit (120 degrees Celcius)
slice up the onions and apples and lay them on the bottom (mixed) of the pans
Lay your ribs over them and put the whole lot in the oven for about 4.5 hours. Every half hour or so spray (or lightly sprinkle if you don’t have a sprayer) the apple juice/cider on the ribs

At the 4.5 hour (or so) mark take them out of the oven and put them on the bbq. Set the bbq at low-med (around 350 degrees or less is good)
Start slopping the bbq sauce all over the ribs (I buy a paintbrush for this - I don’t need to tell you to use a new one right?). Coat the ribs in the sauce real good. And keep slopping it on every few minutes for about 30 minutes. That’s about all the time you’ll have before the crowd gets surly from the sweet smell.

If you’re really gung ho about it you can use your bbq as a smoker and smoke the ribs at the end vs. straight grilling.

Ice Cream Cake from Nigella Express

I don’t think a cook’s job should be to deceive, but there is something appealing about the fact that this looks and tastes as if it were incredibly hard work and yet involves no more than a bit of stirring. You must, though, serve a warm sauce with it-the crowning glory-and I’ve certainly given you options below.

To be frank, you can choose different biscuits, different nuts and nobbly bits to mix in with the ice cream and give crunch, texture and sudden shards of flavour. I find it hard to believe, however, that this could be in any way improved. Sorry, but that’s just how it is.

• 1.5 litres of vanilla ice cream
• 100g honey roasted peanuts
• 200g Nestle swirled milk chocolate and peanut butter swirl chips (or chocolate chips of your choice) I used Reese’s Peanut butter cups and Dime bars which are like Hershey’s Skor bars
• 40g Crunchie bar
• 150g bourbon creams broken up into crumbs and rubble
• 1 batch butterscotch sauce plus 1 batch hot chocolate sauce or 1 batch chocolate peanut butter sauce

Ice cream and “rubble” mix

1. Let the ice cream soften either in the fridge for while or out in the kitchen

2. Line an deep 20cm springform tin with cling film both in the bottom and sides of the tin so that you have some overhang at the top.

3. Empty the slightly softened ice cream into a bowl and mix in the peanuts, 150g chocolate and peanut butter morsels or chocolate chips, Crunchie shards and 100g of the Bourbon biscuit crumbs

Cake ready to re-freeze

4.Scrape the ice cream mixture into the springform tin, flattening the top like a cake, cover the top with clingfilm and place in the freezer to firm up.

5. Serve the cake straight away from the freezer unmoulding from the tin and pulling the clingfilm gently away, before putting on a plate or cake stand. Let it stand and soften for about 5 minutes before cutting.

6. Sprinkle the top of the cake with the extra 50g of chocolate and peanut butter morsels or chocolate chips and the remaining Bourbon biscuit crumbs.

Pre saucing

7. Cut into slices and serve with the butterscotch and chocolate sauces, letting both dribble lacily over each slice. If two sauces sounds like too much trouble-they’re not-just opt for the chocolate peanut butter sauce. Its hard to find an argument against it.

Recipe by Nigella Lawson from Nigella Express

Bloomin’ Onion

Slice onion as pictured and spread out petals .

Dip in egg and milk mix and then in seasoned flour and paprika mix.

Dip again and deep fry.

Spinach Dip

• 1 block of frozen spinach (thawed with as much moisture squeezed out of it as you can)
• 1 block of Light Philadelphia cream cheese
• 1/2 packet of French onion soup mix
• 1 cup shredded tasty cheese to taste
• 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 1 Cob roll, hollowed out

Mix all ingredients together thoroughly and stuff back into Cob “shell”.

Havana Beach cocktail

• 1 part rum
• 2 parts pineapple juice
• 1/2 lime juiced
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 4 parts ginger ale
• Ice

Combine all ingredients and enjoy!

This recipe comes with a warning. Its so ridiculously easy to do, especially if you buy the vanilla ice cream (please make it a good one), that you may feel slightly embarrassed when people start applauding and asking for a signed recipe. Or you may not, preferring to bow and accept the accolades graciously. Even easier still, for a dinner party situation, the sauce can be made ahead of mine and warmed up just prior to serving. And please do serve it in a martini glass, it makes any ice cream looks fabulous!

Honeycomb Affogato

Serves 6
1 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup water
2 Tbs coffee flavoured liqueur
12 scoops of best quality vanilla ice cream (I made mine but I like to make simple things difficult)
3×50g Violet crumble or Crunchie bars coarsely chopped

Combine sugar, water and liquer in small saucepan. Stir over a low heat without boiling until sugar is dissolved. Bring to boil and remove from heat.

Divide ice cream scoops among 6 serving glasses (1 cup capacity). Martini glasses always make ice cream look nicer. Surround bottom scoop with chopped chocolate bars, then pour over hot coffee liquer syrup or if you have a nice pourer, pour syrup over ice cream at the table.

Serve immediately!