Event - 2014 Good Food & Wine Show @ Olympic Park (澳洲雪梨2014美食美酒展)

Sydney becomes the centre of the food & wine universe!

27-29/6 我們參加了雪梨美食美酒展。一到場地就看到「熱鬧滾滾」擁擠的狀況。這𥚃頭可有近百家的廠商和攤位。

整個展區非常的大，但條條有序的規劃出各別的美食主題。每位工作人員都非常熱情，攤攤都免費的請大家試吃，試喝。大方又有誠意。

我們從頭吃喝到尾，又吃又有拿。吃喝到最後，大家都很亢奮呢！

CupCake Decorating: 
夢幻粉紅小熊杯子蛋糕

Do you want to know the trade secret to cook authentic Italian pasta? Ever wondered why restaurant pasta have that little edge over your home-cooked pasta? 

Secured a spot in the Barilla's cooking school! It's like a mini Masterchef platform - light, heat and action! An very interactive experience and a very fun one too!

I attended Casa Barilla's hands-on Cooking School and Italian executive chef - Andre personally taught & demonstrated the tricks to recreate the perfect Italian pasta at home. 

It is the difference that makes the difference. 

Today we are making Barilla's Casarecce Pasta with Italian Sausage, Pan-roasted Winter Vegetables in Ricotta Sauce & Salted Ricotta.

Ingredients:

- 2 cups pasta 
- 300g ricotta sauce 
- 1 large Italian sausage 
- 1/4 French onion 
- 1/4 leek 
- 100g pumpkin 
- 50g parsnip 
- 1 cup baby spinach salad 
- 50g salted ricotta or Parmesan cheese 
- 50ml extra virgin olive oil 
- Salt and pepper 

For those who could not personally attend the class, here are my notes which can be applied to any pasta recipes :)

Instructions:

1. In a large pot, bring plenty of salted water to the boil.

Tip: the ideal ratio is approx 7g of salt to 1L of water.

2. Add pasta to the boiling water and give it a nice stir. Let it cook for approx 8 minutes (or according to the packet instruction).

Tip: Do not add olive oil to the boiling water. (Apparently some people do that).

3. Dice the onion, pumpkin, parsnip and leek.

4. Heat some olive oil in a hot fry pan.

5. Add onion and leeks and cook for 2-3 minutes.

6. Add in the pumpkin and parsnip and cook for a further 2-3 minutes.

7. Season with salt and pepper.

Tip: when the mixture looks dry, add some of the pasta's salted boiled water to the frypan.

8. Let the vegetables simmer for another minute or two.

9. Remove the skin from the Italian sausage.

10. Diced the sausage into small pieces.

11. Add the sausage pieces into the frypan.

12. Cook through the sausages before adding the ricotta sauce.

13. Let the sauce simmer for 3 minutes.

14. Drain the pasta from the pot and add into the frypan.

Tip: the pasta should be just a little under al-dente, as cooking in the frypan will achieve that perfect al-dente taste.

Tip: al-dente pasta should have a firm chewy texture when bite into it. Over-cooked pasta is bad for digestive system as people will overeat too quickly.

15. Add half of the grated salted ricotta to the pasta.

16. Cease fire.

17. Toss in the baby spinach salad.

Tip: the residual heat will blend the cheese, spinach nicely with the pasta.

18. Serve immediately with more grated salted ricotta on top.

Tip: Add a drizzle of premium extra virgin olive oil on top for the perfect Italian pasta finish.

 
   The Barilla show-bag! I've got a very cute pasta tin and a Barilla apron!

Got a Barilla show bag & apron + a bowl of my freshly-cooked 'Italian' pasta.

There are so much good food & wine to sample - You won't find any starving children here. We are determined to graze from one stall to next ... 

Having heaps of fun making our own Little Bear fondant cupcake!

誰說來美食展只是吃喝？今天我們也來大顯身手來做個手工奢華風時尚小熊杯子蛋糕！

付$5材料費，我們就在這玩了一個下午。超喜歡這種無止境的創意空間和做完後的專屬感。整整的幸福滋味。

帶這經典又充滿童話氣息的小熊杯子蛋糕去品酒，反而讓工作人員愛上它!

This little bear attract more attention than we expected. A very worthy experience~