Daring Bakers November Challenge: Cannoli

I was both excited and nervous when I found out this month's challenge: cannoli. I love cannoli (especially the ones from Pasticceria Tamborrino in Five Dock with the ricotta and rum filling....) but I've never thought of making it myself and I'm very unaccustomed to deep frying. Anyway the month kind of got away on me and I only remembered today that it was posting day so as soon as the Monkey went down to sleep I got straight into it! One very good thing about the recipe is that the ingredients are typical storecupboard fare so you don't have to buy anything extra (depending on your filling) so I put the dough together in no time and didn't feel the need to even get out the food processor.

I was originally planning on just making the stacked version but when I found out that you could use cannelloni pasta in the cupboard I thought I'd give the tubes a go. The whole process was surprisingly easy although I think I should've rolled them a bit thinner to get more of the desirable "blistering" effect.

I did hit three small hurdles along the way:1: Not enough oil - as I left it so late (evening of 27th and Daring Bakers have to post on the 27th) I only had about an inch and a half so had to turn my cannoli as they cooked but that didn't seem to be a problem. 2: The ricotta I had in the fridge to fill them turned out to be past its sell by date and I was exhausted and nothing would convince Mr Jen to go to Bondi Westfield to buy some on a Friday night when Stargate or similar was on TV. When the cannoli had cooled I dipped the ends in some melted dark chocolate and began my improvised filling. I decided to just fill one tonight and get some ricotta tomorrow so I improvised with some greek yoghurt which I mixed with vanilla, rum and some icing sugar. 3: The heat of my kitchen eventually got the better of me and despite a spell in the freezer, my filling kept running out of my cannoli but its nearly 10pm so I grated a little chocolate on top and took a quick snap.

I will try to add a pic of some more elegant looking fillings tomorrow!

While I was initially daunted, I think I would definitely make these again, especially as the shallow frying was quite effective. What a way to end a dinner party!

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.

Equipment:

Cannoli forms/tubes - optional, but recommended if making traditional shaped cannoli. Dried cannelloni pasta tubes work just as well!

Deep, heavy saucepan, enough to hold at least 2-3-inches of oil or deep fryer

Deep fat frying thermometer. although the bread cube or bit of dough test will work fine.

Metal tongsBrass or wire skimmer OR large slotted spoon

Pastry bag with large star or plain tip, but a snipped ziplock bag, butter knife or teaspoon will work fine.

Cooling rack

Paper bags or paper towels

Pastry Brush

Cheesecloth

Sieve or fine wire mesh strainer

Electric Mixer, stand or hand, optional, as mixing the filling with a spoon is fine.Food Processor or Stand Mixer – also optional, since you can make the dough by hand, although it takes more time.

Rolling pin and/or Pasta roller/machinePastry or cutting board

Round cutters - The dough can also be cut into squares and rolled around the cannoli tube prior to frying. If making a stacked cannoli, any shaped cutter is fine, as well as a sharp knife.

Mixing bowl and wooden spoon if mixing filling by hand

Plastic Wrap/Clingfilm

Tea towels or just cloth towels

Required: Must make cannoli dough and shells. If you don’t have or do not want to purchase cannoli forms, which I would never ask of any of you, you could simply cut out circles, squares, or any shapes you want and stack them with the filling of your choice to make stacked cannoli's aka Cannolipoleons (directions below). If desired, you can channel MacGuyver and fashion something heat proof to get traditional shaped cannoli (6-8 inch sawed off lengths of a wooden broom stick or cane, sanded down and oiled, is THE authentic cannoli form!), or non-traditional shapes such as creating a form to make bowls, or even using cream horns if you happen to have them. Mini cannoli would be great too, and I've provided links to retailers of cannoli forms of all sizes.

Also, for those who don't like to cook or bake with alcohol - grape juice, cranberry juice, pomegranate juice, apple juice..any sweet juice of a fruit, especially ones used in or to make wine, can be substituted. Just add a little more vinegar to insure you get enough acid to relax the

dough

Variations: The filling is YOUR choice! Anything you want to fill them with is perfectly fine, sweet or savory, or you can use the filling recipe provided – making whatever changes you want to it. Cannoli would make a great addition to a Thanksgiving dessert table/spread. In many Italian households, during the holidays, cannoli is always part of the dessert offerings. You could also make a Thanksgiving themed cannoli, like pumpkin cannoli (I came up with a great pumpkin filling recipe below) or apples, pecans, walnuts, any dried fruits etc. An idea to gussy up your cannoli is; dipping the rims of the shell in melted chocolate and rolling in chopped nuts or sprinkles, then letting them set prior to filling. Dipping or pressing mini chocolate chips into the filled ends OR just stirring mini chocolate chips into the filling prior to stacking or filling whatever shaped shells you come up with, is another great idea and makes a nice presentation The sky is the limit here, be creative! Naturally, if you have any dietary restrictions, by all means, go with it. I’ve provided a link to a gluten-free cannoli recipe and a slightly savory vegan cannoli recipe to help get you started.
Bonus option: Make your own ricotta and/or mascarpone cheese! http://lisamichele.wordpress.com/2009/05/04/eating-my-curds-and-ditching-the-whey/http://www.bakingobsession.com/2009/05/02/homemade-mascarpone-cheese/
Technically, I know, this is not baking, and if you prefer to steer clear of the deep fry, you can bake the shell. You won’t get the snappy, blistery texture and appearance that make cannoli so special, but I’m sure it’ll taste good nonetheless. Here’s a link where the cook bakes some of his cannoli shells: http://www.ifood.tv/network/cannoli/recipes
Lidisano’s CannoliMakes 22-24 4-inch cannoliPrep time:Dough – 2 hours and 10-20 minutes, including resting time, and depending on whether you do it by hand or machine.Filling – 5-10 minutes plus chilling time (about 2 hours or more)Frying – 1-2 minutes per cannoliAssemble – 20–30 minutes
RECIPE NOTE: THE EQUIVALENTS FROM THIS RECIPE WERE PREPARED USING THIS CONVERSION SITE: http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/index.asp.

CANNOLI SHELLS

2 cups (250 grams/8.82 ounces) all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons(28 grams/1 ounce) sugar

1 teaspoon (5 grams/0.06 ounces) unsweetened baking powder

1/2 teaspoon (1.15 grams/0.04 ounces) ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon (approx. 3 grams/0.11 ounces) salt

3 tablespoons (42 grams/1.5 ounces) vegetable or olive oil

1 teaspoon (5 grams/0.18 ounces) white wine vinegar

Approximately 1/2 cup (approx. 59 grams/approx. 4 fluid ounces/approx. 125 ml) sweet Marsala or any white or red wine you have on hand

1 large egg, separated (you will need the egg white but not the yolk)

Vegetable or any neutral oil for frying – about 2 quarts (8 cups/approx. 2 litres)

1/2 cup (approx. 62 grams/2 ounces) toasted, chopped pistachio nuts, mini chocolate chips/grated chocolate and/or candied or plain zests, fruits etc.. for garnish

Confectioners' sugar
Note - If you want a chocolate cannoli dough, substitute a few tablespoons of the flour (about 25%) with a few tablespoons of dark, unsweetened cocoa powder (Dutch process) and a little more wine until you have a workable dough (Thanks to Audax).

DIRECTIONS FOR SHELLS:

1. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer or food processor, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in the oil, vinegar, and enough of the wine to make a soft dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and well blended, about 2 minutes. Shape the dough into a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest in the fridge from 2 hours to overnight.

2 Cut the dough into two pieces. Keep the remaining dough covered while you work. Lightly flour a large cutting or pastry board and roll the dough until super thin, about 1/16 to 1/8” thick (An area of about 13 inches by 18 inches should give you that). Cut out 3 to 5-inch circles (3-inch – small/medium; 4-inch – medium/large; 5-inch;- large. Your choice). Roll the cut out circle into an oval, rolling it larger and thinner if it’s shrunk a little.

3 Oil the outside of the cannoli tubes (You only have to do this once, as the oil from the deep fry will keep them well, uhh, oiled..lol). Roll a dough oval from the long side (If square, position like a diamond, and place tube/form on the corner closest to you, then roll) around each tube/form and dab a little egg white on the dough where the edges overlap. (Avoid getting egg white on the tube, or the pastry will stick to it.) Press well to seal. Set aside to let the egg white seal dry a little.

4. In a deep heavy saucepan, pour enough oil to reach a depth of 3 inches, or if using an electric deep-fryer, follow the manufacturer's directions. Heat the oil to 375°F (190 °C) on a deep fry thermometer, or until a small piece of the dough or bread cube placed in the oil sizzles and browns in 1 minute. Have ready a tray or sheet pan lined with paper towels or paper bags.

5. Carefully lower a few of the cannoli tubes into the hot oil. Do not crowd the pan. Fry the shells until golden, about 2 minutes, turning them so that they brown evenly.

8. Lift a cannoli tube with a wire skimmer or large slotted spoon, out of the oil. Using tongs, grasp the cannoli tube at one end. Very carefully remove the cannoli tube with the open sides straight up and down so that the oil flows back into the pan. Place the tube on paper towels or bags to drain. Repeat with the remaining tubes. While they are still hot, grasp the tubes with a potholder and pull the cannoli shells off the tubes with a pair of tongs, or with your hand protected by an oven mitt or towel. Let the shells cool completely on the paper towels. Place shells on cooling rack until ready to fill.

9. Repeat making and frying the shells with the remaining dough. If you are reusing the cannoli tubes, let them cool before wrapping them in the dough.

Stacked cannoli:

1. Heat 2-inches of oil in a saucepan or deep sauté pan, to 350-375°F (176 - 190 °C).

2. Cut out desired shapes with cutters or a sharp knife. Deep fry until golden brown and blistered on each side, about 1 – 2 minutes. Remove from oil with wire skimmer or large slotted spoon, then place on paper towels or bags until dry and grease free. If they balloon up in the hot oil, dock them lightly prior to frying. Place on cooling rack until ready to stack with filling.

ASSEMBLE THE CANNOLI:

1. When ready to serve..fill a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch plain or star tip, or a ziplock bag, with the ricotta cream. If using a ziplock bag, cut about 1/2 inch off one corner. Insert the tip in the cannoli shell and squeeze gently until the shell is half filled. Turn the shell and fill the other side. You can also use a teaspoon to do this, although it’s messier and will take longer.

2. Press or dip cannoli in chopped pistachios, grated chocolate/mini chocolate chips, candied fruit or zest into the cream at each end. Dust with confectioner’s sugar and/or drizzles of melted chocolate if desired.

TIPS AND NOTES:

- Dough must be stiff and well kneaded

- Rolling the dough to paper thinness, using either a rolling pin or pasta machine, is very important. If the dough is not rolled thin enough, it will not blister, and good cannoli should have a blistered surface.

- Initially, this dough is VERY stubborn, but keep rolling, it eventually gives in. Before cutting the shapes, let the dough rest a bit, covered, as it tends to spring back into a smaller shapes once cut. Then again, you can also roll circles larger after they’re cut, and/or into ovals, which gives you more space for filling.

- Your basic set of round cutters usually doesn’t contain a 5-inch cutter. Try a plastic container top, bowl etc, or just roll each circle to 5 inches. There will always be something in your kitchen that’s round and 5-inches if you want large cannoli.

- Oil should be at least 3 inches deep and hot – 360°F-375°F, or you’ll end up with greasy shells. I prefer 350°F - 360°F because I felt the shells darkened too quickly at 375°F.

- If using the cannoli forms, when you drop the dough on the form into the oil, they tend to sink to the bottom, resulting in one side darkening more. Use a slotted spoon or skimmer to gently lift and roll them while frying.

- DO NOT crowd the pan. Cannoli should be fried 2-4 at a time, depending on the width of your saucepan or deep fryer. Turn them once, and lift them out gently with a slotted spoon/wire skimmer and tongs. Just use a wire strainer or slotted spoon for flat cannoli shapes.

- When the cannoli turns light brown - uniform in color, watch it closely or remove it. If it’s already a deep brown when you remove it, you might end up with a really dark or slightly burnt shell.

- Depending on how much scrap you have left after cutting out all of your cannoli shapes, you can either fry them up and sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar for a crispy treat, or let the scraps rest under plastic wrap and a towel, then re-roll and cut more cannoli shapes.

- Push forms out of cannoli very gently, being careful not to break the shells as they are very delicate. DO NOT let the cannoli cool on the form, or you may never get it off without it breaking. Try to take it off while still hot. Hold it with a cloth in the center, and push the form out with a butter knife or the back of a spoon.

- Fill cannoli right before serving! If you fill them an hour or so prior, you’ll end up with soggy cannoli shells.

- If you want to prepare the shells ahead of time, store them in an airtight container, then re-crisp in a 350°F (176 °C) oven for a few minutes, before filling.

- Practice makes perfect. My first batch of shells came out less than spectacular, and that’s an understatement. As you go along, you’ll see what will make them more aesthetically pleasing, and adjust accordingly when rolling. My next several batches turned out great. Don’t give up!!

Sugar Free Banana and Mango Muffins

As the Monkey is just as fond of cakes as her mother, (I actually found her leafing though "How to be a Domestic Goddess" by Nigella Lawson today - pointing at the photos and saying "Yum Yum") I'm always looking for ways to make recipes healthier without sacrificing too much taste. I generally just cut the sugar amount in half and I never miss that extra sweetness. Today I found myself with a load of overripe bananas and an overripe mango so after the Monkey went to bed I set to some quick baking. I decided to turn them into muffins and try leaving out the sugar altogether in my usual recipe. The results were a huge success - you wouldn't satisfy a sweet tooth with them but they were sweet enough for my taste and the fruit kept them very moist which tends to bode well for freezing - their final destination. My concern was that they might not rise very well with all the fruit but it didn't seem to be a problem.

Just so you know these are what I call "proper" muffins less sweet and cake like than the so-called muffins they sell in the supermarket.

This recipe started out life as the Banana and Butterscotch Muffins in Nigella Express http://www.nigella.com/recipe/recipe_detail.aspx?rid=155 - the most fabulously easy muffin recipe although I've never found the butterscotch morsels so substitute with chocolate chips or raisins.

Ingredients

Very Ripe Bananas (3 large, 4 medium or 5 small - I used 5 little organic ones)

1 Very Ripe Medium Sized Mango - finely chopped but leaving a few larger chunks - I scrape off the skin so you end up with a bit of puree in there too.

2 Eggs

125ml vegetable or other light oil - I used rice bran oil

1 tsp vanilla extract

280g Plain Flour

1 tsp Baking Powder

1/2 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

1: Preheat oven to 200 degrees and line a 12 bun muffin tin with muffin cases (I used my little silicon cases as I find better to freeze cakes without paper cases as they go soggy in the defrosting process)

2: Mix the eggs, oil and vanilla in a bowl

3: Mix the flour, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda in another bowl

4: Tip the egg mix into the dry ingredients and mix through

5: I then re-use the egg bowl to mash up the bananas (to save on washing up!) and add to the muffin mixture and mix through

6: Lastly mix in the mango

7: Spoon into your muffin cases and bake for about 20 mins

Cooking Club - The Inaugural Meeting

My friend Emma had the great idea to start a cooking club for all her foodie friends. She was inspired by her parents who live somewhere that where there are no decent restaurants so they and their friends started a dinner club where they take turns in cooking a fancy three course meal for the others. Emma did some research and pared down some other ideas for cooking clubs and went for the following format; We take turns hosting the club with a few wildcard restaurant dinners in between. The host picks the theme which could be anything from an ingredient to a national cuisine. The host cooks a dinner on that theme and everyone else brings a recipe on the same theme.

The theme of the first one was “Curries”. I contributed my Pakistani Haleem King of Curries recipe. (ADD LINK) Emma went down the South East Asian route and served beef satay skewers for entree followed by Indonesian Grilled Chicken for mains. For dessert lime and white chocolate cheesecake which was fabulous. The big hit for me was the chicken - the delicious taste combined with the quick and easy recipe had me already cooking it for Mr Jen and the Monkey three days later.

I came away from a lovely evening with a folder full of nice new recipes – perfect – bring on the next one!

Emma's Indonesian Chicken

8 chicken thighs (on the bone)

8 drumsticks (on the bone)

Marinade:

4 lemongrass stalks, outer leaves discarded and roots trimmed

a large handful of fresh coriander leaves

6 French shallots peeled and cut in half

8 large garlic cloves, peeled

2 thumb size pieces of fresh root ginger, shopped

4 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp curry powder

2 tsp pepper

½ tsp salt

4 tbsp Thai fish sauce

400ml coconut milk

Place all the marinade ingredients in a food processor and pulse until it becomes a rough puree.

Place the chicken in a suitable container and pour the marinade over the chicken covering well. Chill overnight or for at least 4 hours. Remember to turn once or twice.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Cook chicken (covered) in oven for 40 minutes and then remove foil. Cook for 30 – 45 minutes until tender and golden.

Serves 8

Daring Bakers October Challenge: Macaroons

The 2009 October Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to us by Ami S. She chose macarons from Claudia Fleming’s The Last Course: The Desserts of Gramercy Tavern as the challenge recipe. My results this month can only really be described as pretty disasterous! My macaroons did not turn out particularly well - in fact they may be the ugliest in history! They were all chewy but very little crunch. However they did taste fantastic!

The sticking point was my offer to Mr Jen to bake whatever flavour he fancied. He immediately picked raspberry. The recipe advised to avoid adding any additional moisture to the mix so I went in search of freeze dried raspberries or powder thereof. The only ones I was able to find were lyophilised raspberries from the Ferran Adria Range at Simon Johnson. Unfortunately these cost over $50 a tin which I thought was pretty steep (although I was tempted.....). Then I had a brainwave. When we were over in Ireland last year, Mr Jen decided he liked Special K Red Berries cereal. On returning to Sydney we couldn't find them until I saw an own-brand version whilst on a chocolate and baby wipes run to Aldi (its the best place to buy chocolate for baking!!). I stocked up on three boxes only for Mr Jen to do his usual cereal behaviour i.e eat a few bowls then go off it entirely....... With two boxes sitting on the shelf I decided to pick out all the raspberries - it didn't take long and I was quite impressed with my haul which I blitzed with the almond flour and icing sugar in the recipe.

My salvaged freeze-dried raspberries

While the raspberries were fairly dry they were a bit sticky so I'm definitely putting them down as the reason for my failure........ I made a dark chocolate ganache to fill them with (melt 200g chocolate with 150ml cream and 1 tsp of vanilla extract and then whisk until smooth and thick). The combination worked really well flavour-wise as the raspberries gave a tart edge to the macaroons and the ganache was pure chocolate with very little sweetness which I loved.

Anyway, here's the Claudia Fleming recipe if you'd like to give it a go. The methodology is pretty simple but next time I think I'll try aging my egg whites for a few days in the fridge and drying the macaroons for 30 mins-1 hour after piping and skipping the first oven stage in the recipe as that does seem to help according to other people. I decided not to add food colour due to the risk of additional moisture and I was happy for them to look a bit rustic (not quite this rustic though!)

Ingredients

Confectioners’ (Icing) sugar: 2 ¼ cups (225 g, 8 oz.)Almond flour: 2 cups (190 g, 6.7 oz.)Granulated sugar: 2 tablespoons (25 g , .88 oz.)Egg whites: 5 (Have at room temperature)

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 200°F (93°C). Combine the confectioners’ sugar and almond flour in a medium bowl. If grinding your own nuts, combine nuts and a cup of confectioners’ sugar in the bowl of a food processor and grind until nuts are very fine and powdery.

2. Beat the egg whites in the clean dry bowl of a stand mixer until they hold soft peaks. Slowly add the granulated sugar and beat until the mixture holds stiff peaks.

3. Sift a third of the almond flour mixture into the meringue and fold gently to combine. If you are planning on adding zest or other flavorings to the batter, now is the time. Sift in the remaining almond flour in two batches. Be gentle! Don’t overfold, but fully incorporate your ingredients.

4. Spoon the mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a plain half-inch tip (Ateco #806). You can also use a Ziploc bag with a corner cut off. It’s easiest to fill your bag if you stand it up in a tall glass and fold the top down before spooning in the batter.

5. Pipe one-inch-sized (2.5 cm) mounds of batter onto baking sheets lined with nonstick liners (or parchment paper).

6. Bake the macaroon for 5 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and raise the temperature to 375°F (190°C). Once the oven is up to temperature, put the pans back in the oven and bake for an additional 7 to 8 minutes, or lightly colored.

7. Cool on a rack before filling.

Yield: 10 dozen. Ami's note: My yield was much smaller than this. I produced about two dozen filled macaroons.

Cafe Next, Rozelle

While I love experimenting with new restaurants for lunch and dinner, I am always a little more cautious when it comes to breakfast venues. If I have a disappointing breakfast I feel like I've started my day on the wrong note. As we were picking up an overseas friend who was staying in Leichhardt I decided to go outside my comfort zone and try somewhere new. My first step was to call our Leichhardt dwelling friends who I would trust implicitly for restaurant recommendations. Without pausing for breath they recommended Cafe Next in Rozelle. I looked on Eatability and the reviews and rating seemed to confirm their enthusiasm so the venue was decided.

We ordered coffees immediately, closely followed by the food. I went for the Mediterranean Eggs - scrambled with pesto, tomato and feta. The food all arrived at about the same time but I wish the same could be said for the coffees which arrived in three separate deliveries - you'd think they needed to re-use the cups as we'd finished the first batch before any others arrived! We also ordered a babycino to entertain the monkey (yes - she's so Eastern Suburbs....) but we had to ask three times before we received it.

Mediterranean Eggs $13

My meal was slightly disappointing - the portion was ample but not massive and the eggs were pretty bland considering all the components -the feta was pretty rubbery when I expected a more crumbly cheese. Our overseas friend ordered the buttermilk pancakes with banana which were fantastic and all other food ordered was good.

Buttermilk Pancakes with Banana

While the food was pretty good the service really let this place down for us. The coffee situation was pretty average plus on arrival we asked if they had a high chair for the monkey, the slightly sullen waitress said she would go and see. As a frequent cafe diner, the monkey knows the score when she's in a high chair - she sits quite happily for as long as there is food to be eaten. Without a high chair she is more like a caged animal as she's too small for an adult seat and being on our laps isn't ideal for anyone. As we never heard back we assumed there was no high chair so were disgusted to see one being brought out as we were leaving. As the waitress would have seen the struggling monkey throughout the meal, I can't belive she'd forgotten our request. Despite the decent food I don't think we'll be returning....

Does service make or break cafes/restaurants for you?

Mercredi Passion – Orient & Epices , Anse Vata, New Caledonia

Giant tagine

The first Wednesday of each month, the tourist board here organises a street fair down by the beach in Anse Vata. This month the theme was “Orient & Epices” roughly translated as “The East and Spices”. It was a lovely evening so we went for a walk along the promenade to build up an appetite first.

There were a variety of stalls selling local and “eastern” items including some big bags of vanilla pods at a bargain price l but I don’t think I’d get them through Aussie customs. Now onto the fabulous food stalls. We first hit a French Caribbean themed stall (not sure how that relates to the Orient?) – they were selling a wide range of sweet and savoury pasties. We went for a couple of meat ones (250 francs/approx $3.50 each) – they were tasty with slightly spiced ground meat inside but they would have been better if they were hotter.

We then homed in on the Indian stall which apart from anything else was the most crowded and I’m all for following the crowd in this type of situation. They had a huge range of little appetizer sized items all for only 50 francs each (about 70c). We made a start on the savoury side with chicken and fish mini samosas and little patties made from semolina and mild chillis – we went back for more as soon as we’d finished our trial batch. We held ourselves back a little as there were also plenty of sweet options. My favourite of these were little banana dumplings which were somewhere between banana bread and a doughnut – very banany without being too sweet.
We’d made the schoolboy error of eating too much too soon but managed to squeeze in a bag of Achas de Poisson (fish fritters - I've never seen the word Achas anywhere before?) from another Indian stall (500 francs ($A7) for a dozen although I got the last portion of the batch so I ended up with about 18! Again these were excellent but it would’ve been nice to have some sort of dipping sauce. I had grand plans to head back to the apartment and mix some onion into some yoghurt for a quick dip but needless to say our little bag of Achas didn’t last that long.....

Achas de Poisson

Lastly we couldn’t resist a portion of Moroccan tagine and couscous to takeaway (900 francs ($A12.50). There was plenty for the two of us when heated it for lunch the next day and while we’d thought it was just chicken and vegetable, Mr Jen in particular was glad to find a couple of spicy merguez style sausages in there too.

The monkey was fading fast so we had to head home before the entertainment began but there was a troop of Indian dancers all ready to go as we were leaving so I think the party was only just starting....

New Caledonia and French Supermarkets

We were long overdue a relaxing holiday as Mr Jen and I figured out that we’ve never actually managed to take a holiday together that didn’t end up involving visiting friends/family and a hectic schedule. I wanted to head east so that the time difference would work in our favour in terms of the Monkey’s wake up time. I did my dissertation at uni on the French Pacific so I’d always been interested in visiting New Caledonia. I had heard that it was pretty expensive but when I realised I could get the flights on frequent flyers I couldn't resist.

New Caledonia is a “territorial collective with special status” of France – I won’t go into details but I suppose its kind of like a colony. As confirmed Francophiles, Mr Jen and I were excited about it being a little piece of France without a 24 hour flight! The native people in New Caledonia are Melanesian plus there has been a significant influence from Polynesian, Indonesian, Vietnamese and of course French migrants which have all got to lead to some exciting food options.

I must start by admitting that I have what can only be described as a fetish for foreign supermarkets so the prospect of French supermarkets was potentially one of the things I was most looking forward to on this holiday. Eating out is expensive here (although but no means as expensive as I had been expecting), but this gave me the excuse to head straight to the supermarket on the morning after we arrived to stock up our apartment.

I was pleased to find that most prices were either the same or slightly more that my local supermarket in Sydney. The best thing was to stick to local produce and French imports – if you wanted Australian imports you’d be paying a significant premium but that certainly wasn’t what I was here for. We stocked up on a variety of cheese, saucisson sec (salami type thing), salad veggies and some kitchen staples - including French butter of course which I would eat by the spoonful if I could! Despite all the fabulous French imports, Mr Jen was most excited by the big jars of Dry Roasted Peanuts which he can never get hold of in Australia.....

I don’t know what it is about French supermarkets in particular, the quality of the in store butchers and cheese counter is always great but I’m also a sucker for a bit of exotic packaging – I think I’ll be bringing the table salt back to Sydney purely for that!

We’ll no doubt be making another supermarket trip and I can’t wait – is it wrong to look forward to that more than the beach?

Daring Bakers September Challenge: Vols-Au-Vents

The September 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Steph of A Whisk and a Spoon. She chose the French treat, Vols-au-Vent based on the Puff Pastry recipe by Michel Richard from the cookbook Baking With Julia by Dorie Greenspan.

I was distinctly underwhelmed when I saw this month's challenge. While I love puff pastry, the idea of making it myself never appealled to me as I felt confident that my time would be better spent on fillings etc than on the actually pastry making process. Also, while I'm always up for some retro cooking, vols-au-vents just seemed a step too far into seventies dinner party territory for my liking.

We were pointed to a fantastic video online which includes the recipe and technique if you're interested and if a picture is worth a thousand words, a video must be worth a million as I have no idea how I would have managed without it: http://video.pbs.org/video/1174110297/search/Pastry
FYI I halved the quantities and still had a huge amount of pastry at the end.

You initially pop the flour and water in the food processer and blitz until you have a ball of pastry - i found I needed considerably more water than the recipe prescribed. Then you refrigerate the pastry for 5 mins before you start rolling with the butter. I won't go into details on how to roll and fold the pastry as its all the video. As I started rolling out I thought the butter was just too hard and looked like it was going to break though so I found just pounding with my rolling pin to soften things up worked well at the start. At this point I was expecting a complete disaster but with two "turns" completed I decided to go for two more before I refrigerated the pastry again. They went ok but I could see the butter breaking up a little. After an hour in the fridge I completed the final two turns with no difficulty and popped it back in the fridge for another few hours and went off to walk the dog around Queens Park with the Monkey and Mr Jen. We stopped off for pizza at Queens Park Pizza - definitely the best in the area although I still miss Love Supreme from Paddington - if only they delivered here...... It was the Monkey's first pizza and I thought she would love it being a cheese and bread fan just like me. Unfortunately she didn't seem to like it - all she ate was the olives from the salad and the pizza - very strange.

After I'd put the Monkey to bed I constructed my vols-au-vents. I decided to only make two and save the rest of the pastry for my favourite puff dish (Nigel Slater's Onion and Cheese Tart: http://uktv.co.uk/food/recipe/aid/533882). A halfway check while they were baking proved tricky as so much butter comes out that they were slipping all over the baking tray so they got a bit squashed and didn't rise any more after that but looked ok as they came out of the oven (should've taken a photo then). While they were cooling they slumped a bit but I was glad it was over and hungry for dessert!

As we're still trying to be vaguely healthy in an attempt to look half decent in our swimmers when we hit the beaches of New Caledonia next week, I decided to fill our vols-au-vents with yoghurt and blueberries. The combination turned out to be a good one as the slight sourness of the yoghurt and the berries countered the rich butteryness (how do you spell that? did I just invent a word?) of the pastry. The pastry was amazing - so different from the frozen stuff and definitely worth the calories!

Overall the process of making the pastry was a bit of an effort but it tasted at least twenty times better than anything I've ever bought and considering you can make a big batch and freeze it, I'm surprised to say that I would make it again. I don't think I'd bother with vols-au-vents though as there are far more delicious uses for puff pastry in my opinion.

Rambutan

Firstly, to clarify, I'm talking about Rambutan the restaurant not the fruit, although the fruit did feature in a few of the dishes. Our house guests generously decided to take Mr Jen and I out for dinner and asked a chef friend of ours (known as "Chef") what his meal of the year so far had been and he immediately picked a fish dish at Rambutan. We were able to book a 7.30pm table for that night which was refreshing as I hate the "two sitting" times that lots of restaurants seem to use these days. 7pm is too early as the Monkey only goes down at that time and while we can get the babysitter to do it, its much easier if we know she's settled before we leave. 9pm is just too late for me as you never end up eating before 9.30pm and I'm starving by that point. Anyway, as we knew nothing about the restaurant we asked what style the food was and they told us it was "thai with a southern feel" which sounded interesting....


We arrived hungry so immediately ordered our starters and picked some pre-dinner cocktails - there is a cocktail bar downstairs which would be nice for a drink if you arrived early. With advice from the friendly waiter, we ordered betel leaves with tea smoked trout, a chicken dish described by our waiter as a thai san choy bow and some salt and pepper squid. I think they took note of our hunger and the food arrived really quickly. The betel leaves were nice but the other dishes were far better - the chicken was fresh and zingy with coriander and chilli and the salt and pepper squid was perfectly cooked and had a real peppery hit. I wasn't so keen on the lemon dipping sauce with the squid so after my first dip I just left it plain but my dining companions stuck with it and said it grew on them.


We relied on our waiter to help with the mains as we couldn't remember which dish Chef had recommended, there were two fish dishes - a hot, sweet and sour whole crispy fish or a salty fish with crispy pork, lemongrass, thai herbs and hot sweet fish sauce. I can never resist a pork addition to a dish and the waiter recommended it so we went for the salty fish (pictured above). We also ordered a king prawn yellow curry, a dry red curry with pork belly and the crispy duck with sweet rambutan, eschallot, garlic and tamarind sauce. The prawn curry arrived first which was right up my street and I had to use all my willpower not to pile my plate high with rice and covered it with the sauce. I held back and just had a small delicious portion. I was glad of my restraint when the other mains arrived. The salty fish was more of a salad with crunchy pork and a great constrast to the other dishes. The pork belly was also excellent and my dining companions all voted it as their favourite immediately. Then the duck arrived. Now to put this in context, I never order duck in restaurants anymore as its so often a disappointment. I also don't like fruit with meat so the rambutan sauce didn't appeal either. I tried it first and can say without a doubt that this was the best duck I have ever tasted. The meat/fat/crispy skin ratio was perfect and the sweet but sour sauce was an ideal accompaniment.

We were too full for dessert but decided that we could fit in two portions of the ice cream/sorbet selection between the four of us. The ice creams and sorbets are all made in the restaurant and each platter consisted of: sesame ice cream with tamarind syrup, passionfruit ice cream with red chilli syrup and a rambutan and kaffir lime sorbet. I love sesame ice cream but I couldn't pick a favourite out of the free as they were all so good .


While the food was amazing, the great service with personality really made the meal. We found out later that night that Chef's favourite dish was actually the hot, sweet and sour whole crispy fish - what a fantastic excuse to go back again! But why didn’t he tell us about this place sooner??


Rambutan
96 Oxford Street
Darlinghurst
NSW 2010
02 9360 7772

02 9360 7772

Cookbook Addiction - Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook Review

Today is a very special day in my house as a parcel arrived containing the new Nigel Slater cookbook - Tender: v1: A Cook and His Vegetable Patch. I can't comment on this book yet as I am saving it for a quiet moment when I have the house to myself and I can spend some serious alone time with Nigel. To say that I love him would be an understatement. I have all bar one of his cookbooks (I'm missing the 30 Minute Cook - Christmas present alert for Mr Jen!!). As I begin to fill the third bookshelf with cookbooks I thought I should do a quick count and found I was up to 67. I then remembered the 3 sitting by my bed for nighttime reading so I have hit the big 7-0 - I'm so glad that Nigel saw it in with me! Anyway, I thought it might be worth reviewing a few on my blog. As I baked some cookies for my always hungry pregnant friend the other day, I thought I'd start with the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook.

The Hummingbird Bakery itself is in London and was opened by Tarek Malouf (the book's author) to bring some American style cakes -in particular cupcakes - to the UK. I was drawn to the book as I'm becoming a keen baker and slightly lacking in baking books (Christmas present alert No.2) and have been relying on my "How to be a Domestic Goddess" by Nigella Lawson for most of my baking needs. The Hummingbird book comes with an endorsement from Gwyneth Paltrow on the front which seemed a little strange as no matter how many trips around Spain she takes for TV, I'll never believe that skinny Gwyneth is a real cake lover. The book contains 16 cupcake recipes plus other recipes for cakes, pies, brownies, muffins and cookies including American classics like Key Lime Pie and Pumpkin Pie. Overall there is a good mix and some interesting ideas that I'm looking forward to trying, especially the Green Tea cupcakes and the peanut butter cookies.

I decided to test some staple recipes first - the vanilla cupcakes, the brownies and an oat and raisin cookies. I found the cupcakes a bit on the sweet side, like many of the recipes in the book, they are very heavy on sugar. I would recommend Nigella's fairy cake recipe instead which gives a far more buttery result which I prefer. http://www.nigella.com/recipe/recipe_detail.aspx?rid=13670. I found the same problem with the brownies - far too sweet. Again, Nigella's recipe which is higher in butter and eggs and lower in sugar is much more to my taste.

I have baked the Oat and Raisin Cookies (pictured above) three times now. The first time I followed the recipe to the word and found them far too sweet with not enough oats and far too many raisins. I've adapted the recipe a couple of times (doubling the oats and reducing the raisins and sugar quantities) and when I made them for my pregnant friend I used spelt flour as she can't eat wheat. I also make them into thicker cookies than prescribed in the original recipe as I feel that the egg content makes them kind of "cakey" anyway. Given that everything I've tried so far has been too sweet for me, I don't think this has been my most succcessful purchase but as I always tend to adapt recipes to suit my taste I'm sure I'll end up trying a good few more of the recipes so I'll report back....

Oat and Raisin Spelt Cookies (adapted from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook by Tarek Malouf)

Ingredients - makes about 20 cookies

270g Butter at room temperatire

200g Dark Brown Sugar

2 eggs

1/2 tsp Vanilla extract

350g Spelt Flour (you can just use plain wheat flour instead)

1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

1 tsp Salt

1 tsp Cinnamon

200g Rolled Oats

150g Raisins

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees.

1: Mix the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy (I used my electric hand blender - it would take longer by hand)

2: Add the eggs one at a time and then the vanilla

3: Mix the flour, salt, bicarb, cinnamon and oats in a separate bowl and then add to the butter mixture and stir in the raisins

4: Arrange the cookie dough in equal amounts on baking trays that have been lined with greaseproof paper

5: Bake for 12-15 minutes until golden brown and firm. Turn onto a wire rack to cool

Bringing in some order....

After throwing away a scary amount of food from my fridge on my return from holiday I have decided to become more organised and start planning meals.

I’ve always taken a bit of a slapdash approach to supermarket shopping with only a meal or two in mind and so I usually end up making several repeat trips during the week plus a night or two of “Ready Steady Cook” style invention to try to use up the random food items that caught my eye whilst shopping. No matter how inventive I am, I always end up with veggies that have to be thrown away which I hate.

After a diet consisting mainly of cake and cups of tea for the last fortnight, Mr Jen and I are determined to get healthy and have the added incentive of our nutritionist friend coming to stay which should inspire us to stick to the plan.

In terms of main meals I generally try to rotate on a Meat-Fish-Vegetarian cycle so we end up with at least two of each every week. I also aim for things that I can cook most of when the Monkey is on her lunchtime nap with only last minute preparation before dinner. Plus Mr Jen usually takes his lunch into work so leftover-friendly meals are also good.

A whole week in advance seems quite daunting so I first broke it down to type/cuisine – so 7 main meals can include: Curry, Pasta/Italian, Mexican, Asian, Slow cooked stew, 2 Main course salads (as its going to be warm on the weekend!)

Now to add the actual dishes:
Curry – Sweet Potato and Chickpea Curry with Brown Rice and Green Salad
Pasta/Italian – Broccoli Pesto with Pasta
Mexican – Chicken Fajitas with Corn Tortillas
Asian – Green Thai Fish Curry (yes I snuck an extra curry in!) with Brown Basmati
Slow cooked – Morroccan Spiced Lamb Shoulder with Red Lentils
Salad – Grilled Trout with Guacamole and mixed salad
Salad 2 – Beef Thai Salad

Realistically we’re going to end up eating out and/or getting takeaway at some point so the seven meals can work for some weekend lunches too. For the spicier meals, I just take out a monkey-sized portion before I add the chilli element. All I need to do now is to write the shopping list. Will I manage to stick to it.....

Daring Bakers August Challenge - Dobas Torte

Since I started this blog I thought I should join the Daring Bakers as I don't want to sit back on my laurels and churn out my old easy favourites all the time. Check out http://thedaringkitchen.com for more info about it.

The August 2009 Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonfulof Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular DobosTorte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers' cookbook Kaffeehaus: ExquisiteDesserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

The recipe looked daunting but turned out to be surprisingly simple (apart from the caramel but I'll come to that later). You whip up some super light sponge cake with loads of eggs and bake six layers separately which seems like a chore but as they bake in about 5 minutes and you can have two (or more) in at once its really quite fast. The chocolate buttercream was also relatively simple, you could make a more basic buttercream but the eggs do add an amazing richness. The caramel which is supposed to coat the top layer ended up soaking into my sponge and my presentation really wasn't up to scratch as you're supposed to prop up each caramel coated slice with a hazelnut but my nuts sank into the chocolate.

Despite my shortcomings, my guests were more than happy with the result and wolfed down half with Mr Jen taking the remainder to work the next day to try to save my waistline. He must be in line for most popular employee by this stage as he always takes in my baking as I have no control if its in the house.

Here is the recipe from Rick Rodgers if you want to give it a go - you could leave out the caramel layer and while it wouldn't be a real Dobas Torte it would still be a delicious chocolate cake.

Sponge cake layers
6 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
1 1/3 cups (162g) confectioner's (icing) sugar, divided
1 teaspoon (5ml) vanilla extract
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (112g) sifted cake flour (SUBSTITUTE 95g plain flour + 17g cornflour (cornstarch) sifted together)
pinch of salt
Chocolate Buttercream
4 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup (200g) caster (ultrafine or superfine white) sugar
4oz (110g) bakers chocolate or your favourite dark chocolate, finely chopped
2 sticks plus 2 tablespoons (250g) unsalted butter, at room temperature.
Caramel topping
1 cup (200g) caster (superfine or ultrafine white) sugar
12 tablespoons (180 ml) water
8 teaspoons (40 ml) lemon juice
1 tablespoon neutral oil (e.g. grapeseed, rice bran, sunflower)
Finishing touches
a 7” cardboard round
12 whole hazelnuts, peeled and toasted
½ cup (50g) peeled and finely chopped hazelnuts
Directions for the sponge layers:
NB. The sponge layers can be prepared in advance and stored interleaved with parchment and well-wrapped in the fridge overnight.
1.Position the racks in the top and centre thirds of the oven and heat to 400F (200C).

2.Cut six pieces of parchment paper to fit the baking sheets. Using the bottom of a 9" (23cm) springform tin as a template and a dark pencil or a pen, trace a circle on each of the papers, and turn them over (the circle should be visible from the other side, so that the graphite or ink doesn't touch the cake batter.)

3.Beat the egg yolks, 2/3 cup (81g) of the confectioner's (icing) sugar, and the vanilla in a medium bowl with a mixer on high speed until the mixture is thick, pale yellow and forms a thick ribbon when the beaters are lifted a few inches above the batter, about 3 minutes. (You can do this step with a balloon whisk if you don't have a mixer.)

4.In another bowl, using clean beaters, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in the remaining 2/3 cup (81g) of confectioner's (icing)sugar until the whites form stiff, shiny peaks. Using a large rubber spatula, stir about 1/4 of the beaten whites into the egg yolk mixture, then fold in the remainder, leaving a few wisps of white visible. Combine the flour and salt. Sift half the flour over the eggs, and fold in; repeat with the remaining flour.

5.Line one of the baking sheets with a circle-marked paper. Using a small offset spatula, spread about 3/4cup of the batter in an even layer, filling in the traced circle on one baking sheet. Bake on the top rack for 5 minutes, until the cake springs back when pressed gently in the centre and the edges are lightly browned. While this cake bakes, repeat the process on the other baking sheet, placing it on the centre rack. When the first cake is done, move the second cake to the top rack. Invert the first cake onto a flat surface and carefully peel off the paper. Slide the cake layer back onto the paper and let stand until cool. Rinse the baking sheet under cold running water to cool, and dry it before lining with another parchment. Continue with the remaining papers and batter to make a total of six layers. Completely cool the layers. Using an 8" springform pan bottom or plate as a template, trim each cake layer into a neat round. (A small serrated knife is best for this task.)

Directions for the chocolate buttercream:
NB. This can be prepared in advance and kept chilled until required.
1.Prepare a double-boiler: quarter-fill a large saucepan with water and bring it to a boil.

2.Meanwhile, whisk the eggs with the sugar until pale and thickened, about five minutes. You can use a balloon whisk or electric hand mixer for this.

3.Fit bowl over the boiling water in the saucepan (water should not touch bowl) and lower the heat to a brisk simmer. Cook the egg mixture, whisking constantly, for 2-3 minutes until you see it starting to thicken a bit. Whisk in the finely chopped chocolate and cook, stirring, for a further 2-3 minutes.

4.Scrape the chocolate mixture into a medium bowl and leave to cool to room temperature. It should be quite thick and sticky in consistency.

5.When cool, beat in the soft butter, a small piece (about 2 tablespoons/30g) at a time. An electric hand mixer is great here, but it is possible to beat the butter in with a spatula if it is soft enough. You should end up with a thick, velvety chocolate buttercream. Chill while you make the caramel topping.

Directions for the caramel topping:
1.Choose the best-looking cake layer for the caramel top. To make the caramel topping: Line a jellyroll pan with parchment paper and butter the paper. Place the reserved cake layer on the paper. Score the cake into 12 equal wedges. Lightly oil a thin, sharp knife and an offset metal spatula.

2.Stir the sugar, water and lemon juice in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over a medium heat, stirring often to dissolve the sugar. Once dissolved into a smooth syrup, turn the heat up to high and boil without stirring, swirling the pan by the handle occasionally and washing down any sugar crystals on the sides of the pan with a wet brush until the syrup has turned into an amber-coloured caramel.

3.The top layer is perhaps the hardest part of the whole cake so make sure you have a oiled, hot offset spatula ready. I also find it helps if the cake layer hasn't just been taken out of the refrigerator. I made mine ahead of time and the cake layer was cold and the toffee set very, very quickly—too quickly for me to spread it. Immediately pour all of the hot caramel over the cake layer. You will have some leftover most probably but more is better than less and you can always make nice toffee pattern using the extra to decorate. Using the offset spatula, quickly spread the caramel evenly to the edge of the cake layer. Let cool until beginning to set, about 30 seconds. Using the tip of the hot oiled knife (keep re-oiling this with a pastry brush between cutting), cut through the scored marks to divide the caramel layer into 12 equal wedges. Cool another minute or so, then use the edge of the knife to completely cut and separate the wedges using one firm slice movement (rather than rocking back and forth which may produce toffee strands). Cool completely.
Assembling the Dobos
1.Divide the buttercream into six equal parts.

2.Place a dab of chocolate buttercream on the middle of a 7 1/2” cardboard round and top with one cake layer. Spread the layer with one part of the chocolate icing. Repeat with 4 more cake layers. Spread the remaining icing on the sides of the cake.

3.Optional: press the finely chopped hazelnuts onto the sides of the cake.

4.Propping a hazelnut under each wedge so that it sits at an angle, arrange the wedges on top of the cake in a spoke pattern. If you have any leftover buttercream, you can pipe rosettes under each hazelnut or a large rosette in the centre of the cake. Refrigerate the cake under a cake dome until the icing is set, about 2 hours. Let slices come to room temperature for the best possible flavour.

Iggy's Bread and Five Dock delights

Apologies for being such a slack blogger. I've made the crazy decision to take a last minute trip back to the UK and Ireland with the Monkey next Saturday so my head has been somewhat full of flights, car hire, presents, accommodation etc etc. I promise to report back from the other side of the globe.

I am finally reporting on last Sunday when we had our neighbours and their gorgeous little girl over for afternoon drinks and snacks. We had a spare couple of hours on the Saturday afternoon so we took the opportunity to head over to Five Dock to pick up some Italian treats.

For those who don't know, Five Dock is a suburb of Sydney with a large Italian population. Its a little more off the beaten track than Leichhardt which only benefits the lovely delis, butchers and bakeries. Hearing all the staff and customers chatting in italian gets me in the mood for some serious eating! I always head to Rizzo Deli (107 Great North Road), where the staff are always friendly and heavy-handed with the tasters while we decide what to buy. On this occasion we picked up a variety of salamis, a few cheeses and some delicious sicilian olives. Sadly they were out of their pesto stuffed peppers which are the star of any antipasto platter.

We made a quick call to friends in Leichhardt and arranged to pop in for coffee on the way home which gave us the perfect excuse to pop into Pasticceria Tamborrino (75 Great North Road) for their amazing cannoli. We bought a mixture of mini cannoli - chocolate, vanilla and (my favourite) ricotta flavoured with rum and devoured them shortly afterwards.

To go with our italian platter I popped into Iggy's Bread (49 Belgrave St, Bronte) on the Sunday morning to pick up some of their delectable sourdough ficelle (photo above). Iggy's are actually an American "chain" - www.iggysbread.com who have come to Sydney operating out of Bronte. I have heard that the current hole in the wall is temporary until they get DA approval to bake in their Macpherson St (Bronte) shop which they currently just sell from on the weekend. As the two shops are equidistant from my house I don't really mind! The current location means I have a excuse to pop in to Favoloso for coffee which is always good.

All the goodies were collected and laid out. With the addition of our neighbours and a couple of bottles of wine, our Sunday afternoon was a success. I was especially impressed with our 2 year old neighbour's ability to eat around the stones of the olives. I'm going to have to start training the Monkey for that one!

Vegetable Purees - Beyond Babyfood

I didn’t really go down the pureed food route with the monkey, instead opting for the “Baby Led Weaning” approach where you give the baby chunks of food for them to chew (or gum) their way through. However I have recently found some new uses for veggie purees that I thought I’d share.

The Monkey is a big fan of pasta (like her mother) but tomato based sauces give her a bit of a rash. While I love a creamy carbonara, obviously its not the healthiest option and I’m keen to include extra veg whenever possible so I’ve been exploring using veggie purees as sauces. The Monkey isn’t a huge fan of broccoli – she seems to think it is something to play with rather than eat. She wolfed down most of my portion of spaghetti pesto when we were down in Melbourne which gave me a brainwave for a quick dinner idea. I steamed two heads of broccoli, pureed them with my stick blender and stirred in a shop-bought tub of pesto adding a drop of the pasta cooking water to get to the desired consistency then mixed with the cooked pasta and served with some extra parmesan. It was a success all round with Mr Jen enjoying it just as much as the Monkey who made liberal use of the latest word in her repertoire – “MORE!”.

The other success has been steamed pumpkin which I’ve just mashed and added parmesan and some pasta cooking water for another tasty sauce. Both of these sauces are made in about the same time as it takes to cook the pasta so are fantastic 15 minute dinners.

Mr Jen’s potato addiction has reared its head since the detox ended so I tried an alternative to mashed potato the other day – pureed cauliflower. It was a triumph! I couldn’t believe how well it turned out. I steamed a whole head of cauliflower and then pureed it with the stick blender and added a tiny bit of butter , a drop of milk and sea salt and pepper. It was absolutely delicious with a slight sweetness that was perfect with the grilled trout that I served it alongside. I used a fraction of the butter that I’d use in a potato mash and really didn’t miss it – that combined with the great nutritional value of cauliflower – this dish is a winner all round. Even Mr Jen agreed it was a worthy alternative to potato which I never thought he’d admit!

Haleem "King of Curries"

I finally attempted Haleem "King of Curries" - my absolute favourite at Faheem's. While it wasn't quite as good as the original I thought it turned out pretty well and my husband was delighted to come home to it as he's working the weekend. Its basically a heavily spiced dhal with beef or lamb which is cooked for at least 4 hours so that the meat begins to almost dissolve into the dhal. The garnishes add extra heat and freshness to the dish.




I simplified the recipe from Food Safari http://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipe/118/Haleem as I didn't fancy trying to find all those types of lentils! Also I had rump steak rather than meat on the bone which would certainly be better if you can be bothered to remove the bones halfway through.

Ingredients - Serves 4 as a main curry with rice

500g beef (stewing steak or similar)
3 cups channa dhal or yellow split peas
2 tbsp garlic, crushed
2 tbsp ginger, crushed
10 cups of water - approx - I replaced 2 cups with beef stock to bolster the flavour as I didn't include bones
Salt to taste
1 tbsp ground coriander
1 tbsp ground cumin
1 tbsp dried red chilli
1 tbsp turmeric
1 tbsp garam masala
2 onions, peeled, sliced and fried in ½ cup of vegetable oil
Fresh coriander leaves
1 Green chilli, finely sliced
1 lemon

1. In a large heavy based pan or a slow cooker (much easier as its so hard to get the heat low enough for dhal on the stovetop unless you have electric), add dhal/split peas, garlic, ginger, and 8 cups of boiling water/stock. Bring to the boil and cook for about 3 hours - until the meat starts to fall apart. Check on it every half hour or so to see if the lentils have sucked up all the water as you may need.
2. Add the salt and spices (except the Garam Masala) and cook for another hour.
3. Add fried onions (keep some for garnish) and garam masala. Cook for a further 15 minutes.
4. Serve with green chilli, coriander, fried onions and lemon.

Breakfast at Caffe Quattro Passi

On Saturday morning the Monkey and I joined my dad and the step-family for an early breakfast at Caffe Quattro Passi on Elizabeth Street in Paddington. A special mention to my step-sis for getting up extra early to see the Monkey!

Despite moving away from Paddington, this remains one of my most regular cafes due to the friendly owners, Vikki and Robbie (pictured), the lovely italian coffee (Caffè Diemme if you're interested) and the great and reasonably priced homemade food. Its also great for kids with high chairs and plenty of toys.

My stepsis went for my usual order - the S.T.A.R (Sourdough, tomato, avo and ricotta - pictured). Dad and I had eggs and stepmum just had toast. The Monkey had already breakfasted but she tucked into some toast and made a mess of a babycino.

Some Details as there is no website:

Caffe Quattro Passi

8 Elizabeth St, Paddington, NSW 2021

Open Mon-Sat 8am-4pm

The Scotsman's Birthday Dinner - Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing Recipe

Following a very greedy weekend in Melbourne, yet more food was on the horizon as we'd missed the Scotsman's birthday so I'd promised a birthday dinner with birthday cake of his choice.

I was in a wintery mood despite the gorgeous weather so I served up slow cooked lamb shanks with mashed potato, roasted pumpkin and steamed broccoli. I cooked the lamb in the slow cooker for 6 hours with a "bourguignon" style sauce - bacon, onions, mushrooms, red wine, stock etc. The lamb turned out great and I was delighted to see everyone sucking the marrow out of their bones at the end! My dad pointed out that he'd seen something called a marrow spoon on the Antiques Roadshow which despite my overflowing cupboards and drawer, I do not own. My husband came up with the idea or using skewers to get the last bits of marrow out instead which did the job perfectly.

The Scotsman (very vaguely) asked for cupcakes for his cake so I went for plain cupcakes with chocolate cream cheese icing. I use the Nigella Domestic Goddess recipe for the cakes although what she says stretches to 12 cakes, I think is more like 9 if you're using larger cases as she prescribes. The chocolate cream cheese icing is my own invention. I created it when I had hardly any butter in the house and couldn't be bothered to go to the shops. It was an instant hit - all the lovely texture and slight savouriness of cream cheese icing with the decadence of chocolate! The following recipe would generously cover 12 cupcakes:

Easy Chocolate Cream Cheese Icing

Ingredients:

150g Full Fat Cream Cheese (eg Philadelphia)

50g Unsalted Butter at room temperature

250g icing sugar

50g Dark Chocolate (min 70% cocoa) - melted

1: Add all the ingredients at once. Whisk together either using a hand held electric whisk or in a mixer for 3-5 mins stopping as soon as its light and fluffy. If you're making by hand mix the butter and sugar together first before the adding the rest of the ingredients

If you want a darker chocolate icing - add another 25-50g of melted chocolate - but you'll need to ice immediately as this will harden up more than the quantities above. The look and taste is better for dark chocolate lovers such as myself but as I'm constantly distracted by the monkey, the softer recipe works for me in case I end up taking a play break halfway through.

Faheem's Fast Food

Just noticed how ugly my fish stew photo looks. I promise its delicious!!

Last night we had our monthly curry club and this time it was my choice so naturally I went for my favourite - Faheem's Fast Food on Enmore Road. Before the birth of the Monkey, I used to go and see as many bands as possible at the Enmore theatre just so I'd have another excuse to visit Faheem's. No website I'm afraid but check out the old SMH review - http://www.smh.com.au/news/restaurant-reviews/faheem-fast-food/2006/03/10/1141701679333.html

As there were 10 of us, we got to try a few new dishes but my favourite remains the Haleem "King of Curries" which is beef cooked with lentils and green chillis. Its cooked for something like 24 hours so the beef is almost dissolved into the lentil sauce. I must make an attempt to recreate it at home. Does anyone have a good recipe? The best of the new dishes I tried was the Dal Makhani - a black lentil dish. As Faheem's are masters of the tandoor we also went for a variety of nan and the chicken and fish tikkas which I would also highly recommend.

Don't expect great service, you'll probably have to get your own water and cutlery (although we had great service last night) but do expect fantastic curries - perfect for a winter's evening.

Ligurian Fish Stew

After being inspired by a delicious stew at Bondi Tratt (http://www.bonditrattoria.com.au/), I decided to create my own version during the husband's detox and it has earned a permanent spot in my cooking repertoire. I omitted the prawns, squid and potatoes commonly found in this dish but they could easily be reinstated. Some tail-on prawns would certainly make it look a little prettier! As I serve it with rice, I think the potatoes are a bit superfluous although my husband would disagree as he believes that potatoes are a worthy addition to any dish and that the "double carb meal" is always a winner.

Ingredients (serves 4)

500g Firm white fish - cut into 5cm chunks - I've used monkfish and ling before

2 onions - roughly chopped

2 cloves garlic - thinly sliced

1 head fennel - thinly sliced (sometimes I slice a bit thicker depending on how rustic I'm feeling)

1 heaped tsp fennel seeds

1/2 a glass of white wine (I use dry vermouth if I don't have a bottle open)

700ml passata (i.e one jar)

Small bunch of flat leaf parsley - chopped

Lemon juice and salt/pepper to taste

Olive oil

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan, add the onions and cook on a lowish heat until translucent. Add the garlic and fennel seeds. Cook for about a minute and then add the fennel. Cook for another few minutes then add the white wine/vermouth and cook for another minute or so. Add the passata and I tend to use a little water to wash out the leftover passata in the jar and add that too - about 50ml? You can always add more water if the stew ends up too thick so don't add too much at this stage. Bring the stew up to the boil and then add the fish. Bring up to a simmer and cook for another 10-15 mins or until the fish is cooked. If you decide to include prawns, add them just before the fish is cooked through - i.e a couple of mins before the end.

Add flat leaf parsley, a squeeze of lemon juice and sea salt and pepper to taste. I find it takes a good bit of salt.

I usually serve with brown basmati rice and a green salad. In Bondi Tratt they serve it with a big slice of crusty white bread that seems to have been lightly fried in olive oil which was great but slightly less calorie conscious!

A weekend of excess......Part 2 - Sunday

I was up early as usual with the Monkey (our 14mth old) on Sunday so decided to make a dawn supermarket visit so my husband could lie in. On the way home I stopped at the fabulous Gerbe D'or in Paddington for takeaway hot chocolate and croissants. As you can imagine, I scored serious points when I returned home with my loot. La Gerbe D'Or continue to make the very best croissants in Sydney - they are golden yellow from all the butter and if you dip them in the super rich hot chocolate, you end up with a buttery film on the top of your drink. For once, I refrained from dipping and instead opened some Rose's Spring Rhubarb jam which was the perfect accompainment - nice and tart against the croissant and the sweet hot choc.

No, we still hadn't eaten enough.

After the Monkey refused to nap for more than half an hour at lunchtime, we headed to Balmain to the Welcome Inn (http://www.thewelcomehotel.com) for a winter favourite - their Murphy's Irish Stout Meat Pie. The courtyard is baby friendly so the Monkey enjoyed the side dish of peas with ricotta (not sure why they add ricotta?) while we tucked into our giant pies. The pies are served in large bowls with a pastry top and less greedy people would be better to share one between two with a side of the delicious creamy mash. I was reminded yet again what a small town Sydney is as we bumped into no less than three groups of people we knew in the Welcome, a place that we only ever visit maybe once or twice a year.

By the evening I was fortunately able to find a little space left for some lovely salads made by my sis served with take out chicken from Waverley Chicks - one of the only chicken shops where I don't get a strange smell off the chicken - does anyone else find that?

I'm sorry that there are no photographs of the weekend's exploits, unfortunately most items were already consumed before I remembered to get the camera out. Looks like I'll have to do it all again......

A weekend of excess......Part 1 - Saturday

As the detox is over we decided to have a blow-out weekend to make up for lost time before resorting back to healthy(ish) eating to shift the stubborn last three kilos that have taken a long-term residency on each of our bellies.

We began our culinary expedition at 11am sharp at the amazing Din Tai Fung in World Square (check out their website http://www.dintaifung.com.tw/en/index.asp and the more useful SMH review http://www.smh.com.au/news/restaurant-reviews/din-tai-fung-sydney/2008/06/27/1214472754072.html). Din Tai Fung is a Taiwanese chain with branches around Asia, in LA and in Sydney. For people like me who love Asian food before midday, this is a great alternative to Yum Cha. The wait staff are friendly and efficient and took particularly good care of the Monkey (our 14 month old daughter). We ordered some fried rice and green beans cooked with minced pork before the main event - the dumplings.... We ordered the crab, the pork and the pork and prawn soup dumplings - all sublime. No matter how many times I visit, I still marvel at how they get the soup inside them....(no I don't know how - can anyone enlighten me?). We also went for the pork and prawn dumplings in "tangy" sauce from the appetizer menu - the sauce is amazing poured over some rice. I already can't wait for my next visit.

Fortunately, we were hungry again by the evening as we were invited to a Christmas in July party at Sahnia's on Campbell Parade in Bondi. The food was ok - vegetable soup which was passable followed by a full turkey and ham christmas dinner which would have been fine if we could see it. The lighting was so low that it was like a lucky dip as to what I was going to taste in each mouthful. For that reason alone, I won't be returning for food.

The end of Detox Dinner - Steak feast at Prime

To celebrate the end of the long six weeks of my husband's detox we booked into Prime - the fancy steakhouse in the basement of the GPO Building in Martin Place(http://www.gposydney.com). My husband hadn't been before so was suitably impressed by the surroundings - fantastic sandstone walls and very masculine furniture - I assume they get a good deal on leather... Unsurprisingly, the whole restaurant was full of business men - I only spotted one other female in the place. It is certainly a businessman's dinner type venue - I'm pretty sure we were the only ones not putting it on expenses.

I ordered the 400g Grass Fed Black Angus Scotch Fillet with Béarnaise and Potato Puree, my husband went for the sirloin with the potato gratin and mustard selection (I thought at $46 a main they could supply mustard without wasting a sauce choice on it). We shared sides of green salad, snow peas/sugar snaps and french fries (yes - potato overload but my Irish husband hadn't had a potato in 6 weeks - is that a world record for an Irishman?). This was all accompanied by a delicious Pinot from Ten Minutes by Tractor (not to badly priced at $58).

Overall I was slightly disappointed. Service was great and my steak was tasty enough but probably not enough for $46 and there was more fat and gristle that I would've liked. The biggest disappointment were the french fries, I had ordered the Béarnaise especially for dipping purposes but when the fries turned up they were thick cut (weird when they had another thick cut option that was only slightly thicker so I'd assumed these would be skinny and crisp) - plus they just weren't very crispy and were ever so slightly undercooked on the inside - not enough to send back to the kitchen but certainly not worth the calories.

I just went for sorbet for dessert which was fine. My husband opted for the creme caramel with banana foam and vanilla ice cream which was delicious. I'm generally not taken with the "foam" craze but this one was perfect.

Overall a bill of $235 including 1 bottle of wine, mains and dessert could have been worse but I don't think I'll be hurrying back. I'd prefer to get my steak fix at the fantastic Vamps in Paddington - you don't get the choice of 15 different steaks but its BYO and the fries are fantastic!

Detox-Friendly Zucchini Lasagne

The Zucchini Lasagne was a big success! My detox weary husband and I both enjoyed it and really felt like we'd had a lasagne. It turns out that the pasta and the cheese on top don't count for as much as I thought - its the mingling of the creamy bechamel with the bolognaise that makes the lasagne.

Here is the recipe in brief. I've been deliberately vague on quantities as it depends how many of you there are and the size of your dish. Obviously the zucchini will not suck up liquid like pasta would so you need to have quite a dry bolognaise to start off with. Also try to use smaller zucchini as they tend to have lower water content. If you can only find large ones, just take your strips from either side avoiding the watery core.

Ingredients

Bolognaise (I had leftover detox-friendly lamb and red lentil bolognaise)

Zucchini (I used 2 small ones for 2 people)

Bechamel Sauce (due to detox restrictions I made mine with goats milk, spelt flour, cold pressed rice bran oil, sea salt and pepper which worked surprisingly well)

1. Heat the oven to 190 degrees.
2. Chop the top and bottom off your zucchinis. Then use your peeler to create long strips.
3. Layer the bolognaise, zucchini strips and bechamel as you would an ordinary lasagne, ending with bechamel sauce on the top. If your diet permits - a sprinkling of freshly grated parmesan on top would be perfect.
4. If your ingredients are hot going into the over it will probably only need 15mins but if, like me, you cook in advance and bake it at the last minute, you'll need 30-40mins depending on the size. You want to see bubbling hot sauce at the side and check the centre is hot. As I had no cheese I popped it under the grill at the end to get more colour on the top.
5. Serve with a green salad.