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Friday, March 28, 2014

[Recipe] Coffee-Rubbed Porterhouse Steak with "Yehaa" Raspberry Sauce and Sweet Potato Salad


We always get so clueless on what to eat and cook for dinner. It can be really stressful most of the times because at the end of the day, we always come back to almost the same stuffs every (day or) week. Well the case for this dinner was that, it is all started couple of days ago when we had this really good sandwich of coffee rubbed chicken at Industry Beans and OMG! It was really good and we said to ourselves that we have to make something like this at home because no surprise here that: 

1. We really love good coffee.
2. We really love good steaks.
3. We really love good berries sauce. 

So as a result, we thought "Hey, why not marry all them together" with good seasonings - smoked paprika, freshly cracked black pepper, ground cinnamon and the finest sea salt flakes; and boy oh boy! It was just, MAGICAL. The coffee crusted steaks really worked well with the "yehaa" raspberry sauce (due to the existence of "a bit of heat" in the sauce) and the sweetness from the sweet potato salad just complement and balance the overall components in this dish. I am not going to say anything anymore, so here goes the recipe:

Coffee-Rubbed Grilled Porterhouse Steak
Serving: 2

500 g Porterhouse steaks
1 1/2 tbsp coffee grounds (we use Sensory Lab Steadfast Espresso Blend)
1 tsp smoked paprika
sea salt flakes
olive oil

"Yehaa" Raspberry Sauce

1 cup fresh/frozen raspberry
1/2 tsp cinnamon ground
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp white balsamic vinegar
sea salt flakes
sugar (optional)

Instruction:

1. Mix coffee ground and smoked paprika.
2. Pat dry steaks with kitchen towel and season with sea salt.
3. Pat the coffee ground mixture onto the steak.
4. Heat heavy bottomed skillet over medium heat and add olive oil.
5. Cook steaks for 5-6 minutes on each side.
6. Let it rest on a plate covered with foil for 5-10 minutes before serving. 
7. In a small saucepan add raspberry, cinnamon ground, cayenne pepper, white balsamic vinegar and a pinch of sea salt.
8. Let it simmer and reduce for 1-2 minutes before serving.

Sweet Potatoes Salad

1 sweet potato
1 avocado
2 tomatoes
mint
toasted pine nuts
olive oil dressing 

Instruction:

1. Boil sweet potato until tender, drain and put aside.
2. Mix everything in a bowl.
3. Prepare your preferred salad dressing. 
4. Pour in salad and mix well before serving.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Sunset at St Kilda

If someone throws me a question "Aim, is Melbourne fun? Because my family/friend said Melbourne is pretty boring"
(I would love to knock some senses to them for asking me this kind of question)

I might ask them back "What do you mean by that question?"

Or simply "What sort of question is that?"
(In calm and as polite as I can be)

I am still clueless on how people can ask me or my husband that kind of question(s) because CLEARLY our love for Melbourne is blossoming day by day and can be shown clearly by the magnitude of updates we have made in our Instagram or Twitter or Facebook account. So please, for the love of God, do not throw us that kind of questions anymore. Pretty please. You might give us a massive heart attack for trying to be polite but sarcastic at the same time.


Anyway the video above was shot using our GoPro Hero 3+ at St Kilda Beach (last summer) and the best parts were that, it was a spontaneous decision to just took a tram and head down to St Kilda like an hour before the sunset and second of all, we managed to shot this beautiful sunset in time-lapse mode after sitting at the deck for almost an hour plus but it was all..WORTH IT! Background music by Arcade Fire - Photograph (OST for Her movie) and the video is best viewed in HD. Enjoy!

Cheers,
Aim xx

Pleasures

I will be posting simultaneously at this page and my "The Daily Muses" space simply because, "The Daily Muses" is more of a personal space for ME whereas this space is all about what ever pleasures that we find or made us happy. Get it?

So pleasure #1, we are glad to be able to extend our stay in Melbourne. Alhamdulillah, syukur, syukur.

And pleasure #2, we are happy with pleasure #1 and we will continue posting our journey - exploring Melbourne (or Aussie in general) and the beauty of coffee/food/art/music scene in Melbourne (?) Or where ever that amuse us.

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Life is Simple Pleasures

I, once read that:

"Sometimes, the simple things are more fun and meaningful than all the banquets in the world" - E.A. Bucchianeri

SIMPLE PLEASURES. That's it.

So to celebrate the simple pleasures in life, ours particularly, so this be it, the blog