Miss Marie

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Multicultural Cuisine of... breakfast time!

Miss Marie Cafe

45 Beetham Pde, 

Rosanna

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Let's be honest - there's really not a lot better than a quiet work day, with time for a lunch break with a girlfriend at a cosy, beautiful little cafe. And last Friday, I got to do just that!

In my last week of work, my colleagues were off to a leadership training day. I should have been going along, but my resignation from work 2 weeks earlier meant that instead, I stayed behind to hold the fort with another few staff members. That was ok with me though - it was a beautiful, sunny day, and my friend Poo (who I've known for.... almost 21 years now!) had just arrived home from a big overseas holiday! I decided to start work bright and early at 7:30am so I could make time for a quick, hour-long lunch date with Poo at local all-day breakfast eatery, Miss Marie.

Miss Marie is a little cafe run by Vanessa and Paul, a husband and wife team who decided they had what it took to run a successful cafe in the otherwise quiet suburb of Rosanna. I thought I'd be good and organised, and emailed the cafe a few days before to see if they could cater for my gluten free-ness - to my enormous surprise, the email I received back from Vanessa the owner, turned out to be an old high school-mate of mine! Wow! Small world! After 10 or so back and forth emails, I discovered that Vanessa and her husband Paul, both big coffee lovers, were looking for a new venture after selling a previous restaurant business. They scoured Melbourne, hunting down the best coffee, before a little shop came up for lease in Vanessa's home town of Rosanna. They jumped at the opportunity and here we are, Miss Marie!

But, back to lunch. At 12:35pm, I left the beautiful sunlight and walked on into the cafe, finding Poo at a little table with some gorgeous retro fittings and flowers.

The tables are old school, school classroom type tables, with wooden school chairs. There's lots of random little knick knacks, collected by Vanessa and Paul over the last two years.

 

I think my absolute favourite part of the decor was the wooden-door-turned-chalk-board (home to the specials menu) on the wall... loved it!

After about 15 minutes, it starts to get quite busy, and we realise we were smart getting in when we did!

Poo orders a cafe latte (it looked much prettier, but her spoon beat my camera!), and regales me with tales of her time in New York, Greece, Russia, and everywhere in between.

I am paying attention to her for the most part, but unfortunately I'm also facing the kitchen, watching the most magnificent plates of breakfast coming out...

Finally, I can wait no more. I have to interrupt so we can order, and I wait slightly impatiently for my all day breakfast/lunch to arrive. Considering how busy they were, kudos to the chef's, because our lunch came out quite quickly!

First up was Poo's lunch - she decides to go with the sweet option in ricotta hotcakes with poached pears.

Ricotta Hotcakes, $15.00

They are thick, fluffy, soft, and swimming in a sweet, syrupy lake. I can't help myself (naturally), and grab a forkful. It tastes every bit as amazing it it looks! The hotcakes are perfectly cooked and melt in my mouth, and are perfectly complimented by the ricotta and maple syrup.

As for me, I decide that I too want breakfast as lunch. There is also a wide range of sandwiches, salads and pides, but I just want eggs! The friendly waitress is more than happy to replace the standard toast with the gluten free version, and with that, I'm ready for my veg brekkie! For lunch!

Veg Brekkie, $16.00

My goodness, it is certainly value for money! My poached eggs arrive on my gluten free toast, along with spinach, miniature mushrooms, oven roasted tomatoes, avocado, and chef Luke's homemade relish.

I can't tell you what the mushrooms were sauteed in (butter, would be my guess...), but they were hands down THE BEST mushrooms I have EVER had. No joke. The relish was the next most amazing thing on the plate - it was perfect and sweet and tomato-ey, but not overpowering. A mouthful of egg + avocado + mushroom + relish = absolute heaven. I was also veryyyy impressed with the generous serving of avocado - in my cafe breakfast experience, I find they're usually a little stingy with the avocado. Not so here. And my eggs were cooked perfectly!

Absolutely could not have been any happier with my brekkie-lunch. The service was friendly and prompt, the food beautiful and fresh, and the atmosphere kind, friendly and welcoming. Back off to work I went an hour later, tummy full, smile on my face, and already planning a return trip with Sous-Jeff. Upon seeing these photos later on that night, it was pretty easy to convince him that he needed to be taking me out for breakfast, and soon.

Full disclosure, and not because it's a friend's cafe, it was a truly amazing food experience, and I genuinely cannot remember the last time I had that good a cafe breakfast. For lunch.

Would rate it 9 out of 10.

Lemon, Spinach and Ricotta Risotto

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Multicultural Influence of...Italy

So, this gluten free thing actually really isn't as hard as I thought it'd be. I must admit, after watching my sister stick to a gluten free diet for the past few years and listening to her complain about how crap the bread and pasta and other gluten free food is, I was more than a little concerned. But once I realised I could still eat rice, I was a lot more relieved. Take proper, good old fashioned pasta away from an Italian girl, and you have a problem. Take risotto too, and it's just a disaster. 

I've been eating a bit of rice pasta, which is actually no where near as horrible as I was led to believe - as long as you don't over cook it, it's actually quite nice! As for the risotto, I'm glad to report nothing's changed there, I can still cook that as normal! But I felt like being a bit adventurous after stumbling upon a post from Honest Cooking - a lemon risotto with mint and ricotta. I decided to try it without the mint, and with a bit of spinach, and a side of roast veggies. Here's how we went...

Some diced mushrooms, eggplants and zucchinis on an oven tray, drizzle with olive oil and sprinkled with some basil and salt, into a moderate oven until they start to brown (about 20 minutes).

For the risotto itself, I used:

• 1 cup of arborio rice
• 50g butter
• half a diced onion
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 1/2 cups chicken stock
• 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
• juice from 1 large lemon
• 3 handfuls of baby spinach leaves, roughly chopped

First, melt the butter in a medium pot over medium heat

Add in the onions and cook until they begin to become see through.

Add the rice in and stir to coat with the butter and onion mixture.

Add the wine to the pan, stirring for a few minutes until the liquid begins to become absorbed, then add in a cup of the chicken stock. Add more stock as needed, stirring gently and occasionally until all the liquid is absorbed and the rice is cooked through.

Once the rice is cooked through, add in the spinach and stir until wilted.

Take the pot off the heat and stir in the cheeses, stirring to combine.

Next, add in the lemon juice and stir to combine, and season with some salt and pepper.

Out of the oven with the veggies, and onto the plate with it all!

Perfectly creamy, thanks to the ricotta, with a little bit, thanks to the lemon. I really loved the texture the spinach provided, and think next time for yet another texture I'll add in some toasted pine nuts.

It was a perfectly warm and comforting winter meal - and best of all, gluten free, so I didn't feel like I was missing out on anything! Delicious :)

Quick & Healthy: Stuffed Mushrooms and Polenta

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Multicultural Inspiration from... Italy

Another long day at work, not much left in the fridge the day before grocery day, and another quick and healthy dinner required. And to make it even harder, I'm attempting to go gluten free at the moment. So no quick bowl of pasta or cous cous for me!

Why gluten free? For reasons that are my own, I haven't been entirely kind to my body lately. And it is suffering for it. I've been feeling quick lethargic, sluggish, bloated, have put on a few kilos (which bless them, my lovely friends have been kind enough to ignore and not draw to my attention - don't worry guys, I plan on having the weight I put on off within the next 8 weeks!) and I actually have a pimple (I never ever ever get pimples - in fact, I got teased at high school for not having any!). After some of my own research, a chat to a nutritionist, and a good hard look at Leanne Vogel's blog "A Healthful Pursuit," I decided to try out a month of no alcohol and no gluten. The reported benefits of a non-gluten diet include easier digestion, less bloating, improved concentration and a decrease in sugar and fat intake. I may go into my reasons behind trying this out and why I've been so horrible to my poor body in another post, but for now, let me know you one of my first gluten free Quick & Healthy meals...

First, turn on the oven to around 220°C, and grab 5 medium sized mushrooms, take out the stalks and cut a little more flesh out of the middle, to make little holes like this:

Next, dice up some veggies - my favourites are butternut pumpkin, zucchini and eggplant, with a few cherry tomatoes thrown in too. Put them on a lined baking dish or tray, spray a little oil and sprinkle with sea salt and herbs - I like thyme for this dish. Then, into the oven while you get everything else going.

While the veggies are going, grab 2 handfuls of baby spinach and roughly chop. Put a tiny bit of spray oil in a small saucepan and add in a tablespoon of pine nuts and toast them until golden brown. Add the spinach in and cook until wilted, then throw in a little bit of lemon zest and salt and set aside.

Heat another spray of oil in a fry pan and heat the mushrooms a little on each side.

Once slightly browned, take them off the fry pan, and put a small spoon of ricotta in the holes.

Spoon a bit of the spinach mix on top of that...

... sprinkle a little parmesan cheese on top (if you want)...

... and quickly pull the oven tray out with the veggies, pop the mushrooms onto the end, turn the heat down a little, and put it back into the oven!

While I was waiting for that, I decided to quickly whip up some soft polenta, because I absolutely LOVE it! Half a cup of milk and half a cup of water into a small saucepan and bring to the boil, slowly adding the cornmeal bit by bit, whisking as you go, until it's nice and thick and yellow, trailing a little as you whisk, and coming away from the edges of the pot.

At this point, I like to throw in a small handful of grated parmesan and a pinch of salt, stir it up and spoon it onto my plate!

Out with the veggies and mushrooms, and onto the plate...

... and dig in!

The roasted veggies on the soft, creamy polenta takes me back to my childhood at my Nonna's house, and the combination of the lemon, ricotta, spinach and pine nuts are one of my favourite -the zesty, citrusy punch with the crunchy nuts and creamy ricotta is just amazing! I know it might seem a bit time consuming, contrary to my "quick" label, but if you wash as you go, it actually is quite time efficient - by the time you're ready to eat, all your dishes are done and you can just kick back and relax!

And over to you lovely readers - what are your current quick and healthy meals?




(*** NOTE: Not all of my next few posts will be gluten free, as I still have a few posts on the wait list to be blogged when I have time to write them up! But I swear, I'm not eating gluten in July!***)