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!