Cream Puffs with Chocolate Sauce

This was homework for my stepdaughters french class. I've never made choux pastry before so I was glad when they worked out so well. I just love when the children are given cooking related assignments!

My Garden

Well this shabby start to summer had to have a silver lining and here it is...... My garden has responded well to all the rain and the result is more spinach than I know what to do with. That's not strictly true, as I am rarely at a loss with what to do with spinach.

Christmas Cupcakes

I thought I'd bring a little festivity to my Friday morning tea at the office. I've barely posted anything of late but I assure you this is not due to lack of interest! I, like all of you I'm sure, have been completely run off my feet of late and so it looks like January will bring an inundation of recipes to my blog that have otherwise been put on the back-burner.

Christmas Pudding

Can you believe it's the 1st of December!!!??? well luckily for all of you I am a food obsessed crazy lady who has been soaking fruit for Christmas puddings for months. so please take advantage and use this recipe this Christmas to make your own Christmas pudding because there is just nothing quite like a home made Christmas pudding.

Oh but here's one little tip from the drunken chef, there really is no need to cover the fruit in alcohol when soaking it, you just need to add a cup or two of brandy and or cherry and agitate your jar or container every day or so. I originally used a 700ml bottle to soak 1kg of fruit and although I thoroughly drained the fruit before using it, it was so strong with alcohol I fear you could have been arrested for drink driving after eating it. whoops.



Ingredients:

3 cups fresh bread crumbs

2 cups milk

2 cups flour

3 heaped teaspoons baking powder

2 cups brown sugar

250g butter

4 eggs

1kg soaked fruit

2 cups slivered almonds

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ginger

Method:

soak fresh breadcrumbs in the milk.

cream butter and sugar then add the eggs one at a time. you really need the eggs to be at room temperature for this so you don't end up with a curdled mess.

pour the soaked bread crumbs into the butter, sugar and egg mix and stir it all together. scoop your fruit out of the alcohol and add it to the mixture, add the rest of the dry ingredients and mix it all together until you have a nice silky batter.

pour your pudding mix into two greased pudding tins. put the pudding tins into a large saucepan each and fill the saucepan with water until it reaches 3/4 of the way up the side of the pudding tin. bring the water to the boil and then cook on a medium heat for 3 1/2 hours.

My Beautiful Step Daughters First Perfect Omelette

Well it's been too long between visits but I wanted to share this omelette by beautiful stepdaughter made in the weekend. she did it all her self, just the way I taught her and look how lovely it is! The omelette was made with 2 eggs and lots of tomatoe, cheese and onion.

Afternoon tea

Brownies

I’m developing a few easy recipes for one of my home made Christmas recipes. I am making brownies and oat cookies in a jar, all the dry ingredients will be in the jar and all the recipient has to do is melt some butter and add an egg or two to the ingredients, follow the baking instructions and  enjoy the fruits of their labour….. it’s almost cheatingJ

The first batch of the brownies were excellent, i just think they needed some nuts. I'll keep you posted on the success of these recipes/gifts.

Quiche

I have never been a big fan of quiche, the pastry is never quite to my taste. In a bid to better understand why the bottoms of quiches are so soggy I attempted to make two quiches with different pastry styles. I made one with Maggie Beer’s sour cream pastry and one with a short crust.

Sour Cream Pastry - Spinach and Fetta Quiche.

For the filling of the spinach I used about 1 bunch of silver beat to 250 grams of fetta and 6 eggs.

The sour cream pastry was not blind baked, it was set in the freezer for 30 minutes then the filling was poured in and it was baked at 160°C for about 45 minutes.

The shortcrust quiche was flatter and it’s filling was made up of sautéed radish, asparagus, leek, garlic and carrot. I mixed the sautéed spring vegetables with some parmesan and 10 eggs.

The shortcrust was blind baked for 20 minutes first on 180°C then allowed to cool. I poured in the filling and cooked it t 160°C for about 30-35 minutes.

I much preferred the sour cream pastry, the sides turned into a flaky crispy delight but the base was still to soggy for my liking……… perhaps I just don’t like quiche????

Creme Brulee

I went out to dinner with my handsome boyfriend the other night and I won’t mention the name of the restaurant as I am not a food critic and I really enjoy going there but they must have a new chef because the food was down right cooky. The enjoyable side affect of not enjoying your dinner however is that there is plenty of room for dessert. We were served a crème brulee unlike any other I’d seen in that it was cooked in a bowl instead of a ramekin. We liked it so much that I had to try it at home. This is my attempt at the crème brulee.

Poached Quail Eggs with Spicy Tomatoes and Spinach

I topped this breakfast with some buttery sage and mushrooms..... Very yummy.

Quail eggs are so delicate and this is the first time I have poached them. Their whites are much stringer than chicken egg whites, when cooked the slightly chewy whites perfectly encase the soft sweet yolks. I just love these eggs!

Radish Salad

I was watering my garden the other day and saw some wonderful flashes of red beneath the green foliage I was watering. They were my first radishes. It was a hot day and these radishes were just the thing I needed to make a crisp peppery salad to go with dinner which would be alfresco.

The salad I made was quite simple; I used some fresh dark green leaves from the garden with the finely sliced radish and dressed it with olive oil and verjuice. You could serve this salad with anything really but I chose a nice piece of fish with lime and pepper.

Perhaps with a side of asparagus with smoked almonds and butter.........

Pear and Blueberry Loaf

I found some pears looking a little worse for ware in the fruit bowl yesterday so after a horrible afternoon that drove me to my kitchen they were a little gift from heaven. In an effort to hide away from the rest of the world, presumably in a cloud of butter and sugar, I used said pairs to create this lovely pear and blueberry loaf. what a treat......

Ingredients:

3 soft pairs

2 cups frozen blueberries

2 cups plain flour

1 cup almond meal

3 teaspoons of baking powder

100g butter

2 tablespoons of brown sugar

2 tablespoons molasses

2 tablespoons of maple syrup

Method:

Chop and remove the core from the pears then mash them in a large mixing bowl. add the sugar, molasses and maple syrup to the pears then melt the butter and pour it over the mixture and give it a good stir.

Sift in the flour and baking powder over the fruit mixture and stir it in then stir in the almond meal. Pop the frozen berries into the mix and fold them through.

pour the mix into a lined large loaf tin and bake at 150°C for about 40-45 minutes. the loaf needs to spring back when touched in the centre but a skewer needn't come out clean. You can add some nuts to the top as I have done but it will be quite lovely without it.

Brunch

I love lazy Sundays when breakfast turns into lunch. Today it was poached eggs with fresh tomato and basil.

Raspberry and White Chocolate cupcakes

Fridays at work have turned into a routine Cake Day. I bake of course. Today after not so subtle hints from my colleagues, it was raspberry and white chocolate cupcakes.

Thai Style Trout with Broccoli Salad

This dish was really light and tasty, the only thing I would have changes was the pasta in the salad. It would have benefited from maybe some soba noodles or udon noodles, anything really that had a hint of an Asian heritage. The Italian pasta spirals stuck out like a sore thumb but they were only added as they were left over from the children’s dinner and I was feeling lazy.   

Ingredients:

Fish:

2 Trout fillets

1 thumb size piece of ginger

1 bulb of spring garlic (save the tops of the garlic for the salad)

1 lime

Salad:

1 small head of broccoli

1 hand full of beetroot leaves (you can use a different dark green salad leaf if you like)

1 cup of cooked soba noodles

The top of a spring garlic bulb

Dressing:

2 tablespoons of soy

1 teaspoon of palm sugar

2 teaspoons of sesame oil

Juice of 2 limes

Method:

Fish:

Place one each piece of fish onto a large square of aluminium foil. Peel and very finely slice the ginger and garlic, sprinkle it over the fish. Slice the lime into about 6 round slices and layer those over the garlic and ginger. Season the fish with cracked pepper then wrap the fish up in a little bundle with the foil making sure there are no wholes in the foil. Pop each parcel into the oven at 180°C for about 10 minutes.

Dressing:

Grate the palm sugar and pop it into a small bowl. Add the lime juice first and stir up the sugar until it dissolves. Once the sugar has dissolved add the rest of the ingredients and mix them all up.

Salad:

Blanch the broccoli then rinse it in cold water. Finely slice the spring garlic top. In a large mixing bowl add the broccoli, beetroot leaves, chopped spring garlic, cooked noodles and dressing. Give it all a mix by hand making sure everything has a nice coat of dressing.

Put a generous mound of salad on the plate and carefully remove the fish from the foil to serve it with the salad. Enjoy!

Spinach Filo

Well what a busy couple of weeks. It’s not that I haven’t cooked but have been unable to post the recipes so this one will be one of several catch up posts I make over today. Last weekend was the Italian Festival at Leichhardt. I routinely run the cooking tent where a chef demonstrates some Italian recipes for the crowd and introduces some local Nonas who also share their recipes. It’s a good day and the crowd are well fed and entertained. This year the chef gave me some fantastic Italian cheeses to go home and experiment with so firstly I would like to share my spinach filo I made. I used the Ricotta Salata cheese, it’s a hard salted ricotta which can be grated.

I had to make spinach filo as my wonderful garden has once again filled with leafy greens. I have English spinach in abundance. I have listed a recipe below but remember mine is all from the garden so exact amounts I’m unsure of, I’ve tried to round it up or down to even bunches you would get at your fruit and veg shop.

Ingredients:

1 packet of filo

2 bunches of English spinach

1 bunch of basil

½ bunch of mint

Zest of one lime

2 cups of grated Ricotta salata cheese

1 egg

Method:

Wash and dry the spinach and herbs then chop them roughly and throw them into a large mixing bowl. Add the grated cheese lime zest and egg and mix by hand until everything is coated in egg.

Use about 5 sheets of filo per roll. You can oil or butter in between each sheet if you like, I find the easiest way to do this is use the spray olive oil and spray each sheet then carefully lay the next sheet on to the oiled one, continuing until you have five sheets. If you are more health conscious you can leave the oil out all together and it will still be a nice filo.

Place half of the mixture onto your pastry length ways; brush the edges with milk to help seal the roll. Fold each side in then roll the filo into a log and place it on a baking tray and cook at 180°C for 25 minutes or until golden brown.

the Ricotta Salata was a lovely point of difference in the filo, i make this recipe often but use feta  or soft ricotta. This cheese kept the filling firm and somehow less oily. I liked it and will source this cheese again.

Spinach and Fetta Ravioli

I read a book recently called The Love Goddess' Cooking School written by Melissa Senate, it revived a love of Italian cuisine inside me that had lay dormant for some years and I just had to make ravioli....it would appear I need more practice on the fundamentals of pasta as mine was not perfect but the filling was delightful and I would try it again.

I made a basic (she says as if she is an expert) egg pasta which is usually around 600g of flour to 6 eggs I think. The first error I made I fear is that I used any old flour I had in the pantry. You should try to source some Durum Wheat flour. You just mix the two ingredients in a large bowl or on a wooden board until they have come together, then you knead the dough until it is nice and smooth. Rest the dough for about ½ an hour (second mistake I made was not resting the dough) then roll it out making sure it’s nice and thin.

For the filling I used some spinach, leek and mint from the garden with some marinated fetta and lemon rind. The quantities worked out to be roughly what i have listed below.

Ingredients:

½ a leek

1 bunch of English spinach

1 hand full of fresh mint

The zest of one lemon

2 generous tablespoons of marinated fetta

Method:

Sautee of the leek until softened then toss in the chopped spinach and allow it to wilt down. Turn off the pan and grate in the lemon zest and toss through the mint. Allow the mixture to cool a little then add the fetta and mix together.

Use a round cutter to cut out circles in your pastry sheets, flouring the board as required. Place a little mound of the filling into the centre of half of the circles of pasta then brush the edges with an egg wash or just a bit of water. Then cover your ravioli piece with another pasta circle and pinch the edges together, making sure they are sealed and no filling is peaking out.

Bring a large saucepan of water to the boil. Gently lower your ravioli pieces into the bubbling water and watch them patiently. They are cooked when they float to the surface. When they are done scoop them out and serve them immediately with a rich tomato sauce, I made a tomato and caper sauce.... bellissimo

Quail Egg Nicoise Salad with Crispy Skinned Trout

I came across these beautiful quail eggs in the supermarket recently and just had to use them. I thought I would make an old favourite of mine, nicoise salad, and these tiny eggs proved to be the perfect size. I served the salad with a crispy skinned trout fillet, it was all round lovely. Handling the quail eggs made me feel as though some fairies had secretly delivered magical ingredients to my kitchen, they are just so pretty.

Ingredients:

2 Potatoes

2 handfuls of Green beans

10 Quail eggs

1 cup of olives (usually kalamata but I used a mix)

½ a bunch of Dill

1 Lime

Olive oil

A pinch of chilli flakes

A pinch of salt

Method:

Boil potatoes until they can be easily pierced then set them aside to cool.

The beans need to be blanched so and easy way to do this is but them in a bowl or saucepan, boil the kettle and pour the boiling water over them, let them sit in the boiling water fro about 30 seconds then drain them and rinse them under cold water.

Bring a small saucepan of water to the boil then gently lower your quail eggs in and cook them for 2 minutes. After 2 minutes rinse the eggs under cold water and peel them.

Finely chop the dill.

Get a large mixing bowl and start putting the salad together. Chop your potatoes into bite size squares and pop them into the bowl, throw in the dill, olives and green beans. Drizzle a generous slurp of olive oil over the salad, sprinkle a pinch of sea salt and chilli flakes over the lot. Give it all a gentle mix up.

Pile a mound of the salad onto each plate then cut your quail eggs in half and arrange them around the salad.

Now my trick to a crispy skinned salmon or trout fillet is to get your pan nice and hot, cover the fish in olive oil (don’t pour oil into the pan) and place the fish skin down into your hot pan. Cook the fillet until you can see about one centimetre of the fish has changed and is cooked then pop the whole pan (use a frypan with a metal handle) into a preheated oven at 180°C for about 5-6 minutes depending on how well cooked you like your fish. To get the fish off of the pan use a metal spatula.

Spring Asparagus with Tuna Risotto

Forgive the blurry photo but I had to share this meal. I made a tuna and lime risotto and served some wonderfully fresh blanched baby asparagus on top of it with a generous dollop of my spicy tomato sauce. A very satisfying meal

Passionfruit Cake

As I still have my friends KitchenAid mixer in my possession, cake for dessert was naturally on the menu. My boyfriend's daughter and I made this cake last night and by all accounts it was hailed a success. I didn't write quantities down but I think this is about right.

180g butter

1 ½ cups sugar

2 eggs

1 tablespoon of vanilla extract

2 cups flour

2 heaped teaspoons of baking powder

¾ cup milk

¾ cup passionfruit pulp

Cream the butter and sugar until thick and pale then add the vanilla and the eggs one at a time while beating.

Add flour and baking powder and beat on a low speed until mixed through.

Add milk and beat until batter is formed.

Fold the passionfruit through the batter and pour it into a greased and lined cake tin

Bake 1t 160°C for about 45 minutes or until skewer comes out clean

Pan Fried Fish with Thai Eggplant and Coriander Salsa

I saw these little eggplants in my local fruit and veg shop the other day and just had to have them. I decided to cook them by cutting little slits in the side and steaming them, this allowed me to flatten them out a bit when I later wanted to give them crispy bottoms by finishing them in the frypan.

I served them with some lightly floured and pan fried fish on a bed of coriander and cherry tomato salsa. I didn’t write down exact quantities but it was heavy on the coriander and lime with a light seasoning of salt and chilli.

Victorian Sponge

I have in my possession at the moment my friends KitchenAid and it has to be said .... I'm in love. I thought it best to use this fleeting time I have with my new lover to make a Victorian Sponge that without a decent mixer would be almost impossible for a mere mortals such as myself.

so here is my recipe for vanilla sponge

Ingredients:

6 eggs separated

¾ cup caster sugar

100g butter (melted and cooled)

1 cup plain flour

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Method:

Grease and line a 26cm cake tin and preheat your oven to 190°C.

Melt your butter then add the vanilla and set aside to cool.

Beat the egg yolks with ½ cup of the caster sugar until thick, pale and creamy. In a separate bowl beat the eggwhites until they have formed mountainous peaks then add the sugar a little at a time while continually beating until the mixture is very stiff.

Add ¼ of the egg white mix into the yolks and fold in until combined.

Add the rest of the whites into the mix and gently fold through.

Sift the flour on top of the eggs and gently fold it through. Pour the cooled butter and vanilla down the side of the bowl and fold it into the mix until you have a rich glossy batter.

Bake at 190°C for about 25 mins or until the centre of the cake springs back when touched and the sides of the cake have started to come away from the tin.

The vanilla is optional in this cake and traditionally would be left out, I wanted a vanilla and strawberry flavour when serving this cake.

Slice the cake in half and fill with whipped cream and your favourite jam or as I have done with whipped cream and fresh strawberries. 

My Nanna's Pavlova

This dessert came to be at out table after some reminiscing of favourite Nanna treats. I was telling my friends how I loved when Nanna grated the peppermint crisp over the mountains of whipped cream on her wonderful pavlova. Much to my disgust, not one of my friends knew what a peppermint crisp was. If you find yourself in this unfortunate category then please do yourself a favour and go to the supermarket, head straight for the chocolate isle and look for the bright green wrapper marked "peppermint crisp".

I couldn't have people I know and love going their whole life not experiencing such a treat so I called in the big guns...... I called my Nanna.

Below is my 88 year old Nanna's recipe for pavlova.

Ingredients:
4 Egg whites
1 cup caster sugar
1 teaspoon corn flour
1 teaspoon white vinegar

Method:
Beat the egg whites until stiff then gradually add the sugar while beating, add the corn flour with the last bit of sugar.

Stir the vinegar in last.

Mound the mix onto a baking tray covered with foil.

Bake at 100° C for about an hour.

It was a hit and more importantly now everyone knows what a peppermint crisp is

Morning tea

I often like to spoil my workmates with a little treat for morning tea. Today it was treacly banana muffins.

Prawn and Garlic Wonton Soup

Well it's soup again from me, the weather has insisted on this craving of mine.........

Ingredients:

250g prawns (raw)

2 cloves raw garlic

4 shallots

1 egg

2 teaspoons of soy

25 won ton wrappers

Mince up the prawns with the garlic, the whites of the shallots and the egg.

Slice the green of the shallots and stir it through the mixture with the soy sauce.

It is very hard to explain how to fold the wontons so I have included a link for a great quick demonstration. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wUiwMOa-BI&NR=1

For the broth you can just use a fish stock or any stock really but I made a broth with:

1 tablespoon of fresh ground Thai spices (something I always have in my fridge)

1 tablespoon of Thai style chilli jam

1 tablespoon of fish sauce

1 teaspoon of palm sugar

Juice of one lime

1 teaspoon of sesame oil

Cook all of these ingredients off in a saucepan together then top with about 3 cups of water. Poach your wontons in the broth; they will float to the surface when they are done.

Serve your soup with some slithers of raw carrot and a handful of fresh coriander.

Spicy Tomato Soup with Spinach and Herb Dumplings

Well Mother Nature sure is confusing my senses at the moment. How is it that in the first month of spring I am again making piping hot soups to warm my family? Whatever the reason, I will embrace it as should you because this is a truly delicious recipe. This recipe is for two so just double or triple as required.

Ingredients:

Soup:

8 large tomatoes

½ knob of garlic

½ bunch of sage

Pinch of salt

Drizzle of olive oil

1 hot chilli

1 onion finely diced

Dumplings:

6 leaves of silver beat

½ bunch of mint

½ bunch of continental parsley

1 egg

Flour for dusting

Basil and olive oil to serve

Method:

Soup:

The soup is incredibly easy first you pop the tomatoes, chilli and garlic cloves with the bases cut off) into a baking dish and drizzle olive oil over them. Bake them in a preheated oven for about ½ hour to 45 minutes or until the skins of the tomatoes are splitting and slightly scorched, do this ahead of time and enjoy the aromas that fill you home. When the tomatoes are ready take them out of the oven and allow them to cool, once they have cooled peel the majority of the skin off of the tomatoes and squeeze the garlic out of its skin (discard all the unwanted skins). Once your tomatoes and garlic are peeled and ready to go, finely dice your onion and roughly chop the sage heat a heavy base large saucepan and sauté the onion and sage until onion becomes translucent. Once the onion is pour in the contents of your baking tray and start squashing down your tomatoes. Use about one cup of water to wash out the baking tray and pour the liquid into the soup mix. Let the mix cook for about 10-15 minutes on a low heat with the lid on. Once everything has reduced down give the soup a rough blitz with the stick blender (don’t make it too smooth though).

Dumplings:

These dumplings are really quite simple but they take quite a bit of explaining. Just wash and destalk and roughly chop all of your herbs and silver beat. I have a metal colander I use for the next step but any strainer should work. Put all of your washed spinach and herbs into the colander and boil your kettle. Pour the boiling water over the herbs and watch them wilt down, keep pouring until you have used all of the water in the kettle then rinse the herbs with cold water from the tap. Now all you need to do is separate them ix into about 6 portions, squeeze each potion out in your hand forcing the entire liquid out and forming a little ball of spinach and herbs, do this for all of the portions. Crack the egg into a bowl and give it a quick whisk with a fork then pour some flour into another clean bowl. Dip each spinach and herb ball into the egg first then into the bowl of flour making sure the entire ball is covered with both egg and flour. Bring a saucepan of water to the boil and gently lower each dumpling into the boiling water and cook for about 1 ½ minutes, making sure that the dumpling have all risen to the top of the pot before you take them out. Pop your dumpling onto a baking tray and coat them with olive oil and a sprinkle of sea salt. Pop them into the oven until they start to brown slightly then they are ready.

Serve the soup with a few dumplings each, some fresh leaves of basil and a drizzle of olive oil and sprinkle of sea salt. Enjoy