A food blog from a would be gastrop*rnographer

Catering a reception...

2009-10-02T21:04:00.001+02:00

The menu:
- sundried tomato palmiers

- gruyere gougers

- potato and pesto tortilla

- caramelised onion and gorgonzola pizzettas

- mushroom mini focaccias

- five spice duck and mango salsa croustades

- cucumber boats with smoked salmon and pickled ginger

- salmon, ricotta & sage crepe rolls

- miniature chocolate chip cup cakes

Note: this is quite a few dishes for a reception. Generally for a pre-dinner reception, you would make between 6 and 8 pieces per person, and probably only 4-6 different items. But I get bored myself with being faced with the same dishes over and over again (unless they are particularly delectable) so do tend to make a few more dishes. The salmon, ricotta and sage crepe rolls were a last minute addition, as I had been told that there would be 50 attendees, and then on the day was informed that in fact they had had 70 people rsvp positively.

Amuse-bouche: black and white bowties with haloumi, serrano ham & baby tomatoes

2009-09-15T23:17:00.000+02:00

This charming amuse-bouche was a bit of a last minute inspiration, and went down a treat with the little dinner party I put together the other night.

My inspirations were multiple: a funky pasta I have in my cupboard just itching to be used, a visit to "goodies" (a local meditteranean shop) where I found haloumi, discovering a source of relatively inexpensive serrano ham, and the dinner party itself. The result was this simple, colourful and delectable medly, which I encourage you to try - I promise it is easy and scrummy.

Cooking time: I think it took me less than half an hour from start to finish.

Black and white bowties with haloumi, serrano ham and baby tomatoes

50 g Haloumi

2 slices Serrano Ham

17g of baby bow tie pasta or 3 pieces per person giant bow tie pasta (+3 pieces spare)

120g mixed baby tomatoes (red and yellow)

Finely cut the haloumi into 1/2cm cubes, and cut the baby tomatoes in quarters. Tear the serrano ham into pieces about 3 cm by 2cm (no need to be too careful, tear, not slice).

Brown the haloumi in a frypan with a tiny splash of olive oil - if you have a herbed oil so much the better. At the same time, bring a pot of water to the boil and cook the pasta until done (I won't give an exact time as it will depend on the style of pasta you choose) and then drain.

Once the haloumi has started to get a golden colour, put your chopped tomatoes into the pan. You don't want to cook them so much as warm them up. Add your cooked pasta and gently stir to combine in the pan.

Serve in small dishes garnished with the serrano ham.

The photos somehow don't really capture just how attractive this dish is... I need my friend Ed's photography skills!

Miniature chocolate chip cupcakes

2009-07-27T21:46:00.002+02:00

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups sifted self-raising flour
3/4 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder, sifted
3/4 cup dark or milk choc bits
1 tablespoon cocoa powder, extra, to serve
3/4 cup milk

125g butter, melted, cooled

2 lightly beaten eggs

Instructions
Preheat oven to 200°C.

Prepare an oven tray with tiny paper lined foil cups.

Combine flour and caster sugar in a bowl. Stir in cocoa powder and choc bits. Make a well in the centre. Add milk, butter and eggs to flour mixture. Using a metal spoon, stir gently to combine.

Spoon mixture into the paper cups, till 3/4 full. Bake for 5 to 10 minutes until risen and set. Cool.

The menu of the wedding

2009-07-20T12:39:00.004+02:00

I am sure that I have forgotten something and was too busy cooking to photograph everything but I hope to get photos from friends which I will post up. Watch this space for the recipes!

Apero:

Peking Duck Tartlets
Vegetarian Samosas
Smoked Chicken baby quiches
Vegetarian Sushi

Entree:

Wild Mushroom and Prosecco Feuillettes

Buffet:

Pasta with Sugo
Roast Lamb
Roast Chicken
Filipino Rice
Spanish Ham
Salami
Mediterranean Couscous Salad
Potato Salad
Green Salad
Tomato, Mozzarella & Basil
Caponata
Olives, Sundried Tomatoes, mushrooms

Dessert:

Wedding Cake (I didn't make this)
Berry Fool
Toblerone Chocolate Mousse (white and dark)
Rich Chocolate Tarts with gold leaf
Flourless Orange Cake
Mango Coconut Cake
Mini Lemon Meringue Tartlets
Micro Choc-chip Chocolate Cupcakes
Zabaglione Tartlets

With Coffee

Shortbread Biscuits

Coconut Mango Cake

2009-06-24T14:15:00.001+02:00

This cake is both delicious and pretty. The mango gives it the most glorious gold colour and the taste combination of coconut and mango is sensational. You can use either fresh mango puree, or tinned at a pinch.

Ingredients

330g caster sugar
250g butter
4 eggs
160ml mango puree
2 cups desiccated coconut
375g self raising flour

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees. Grease and line a cake tin (baker's grease will work really well too... hmmm must post the recipe for that!)

Beat the sugar and butter in a mixing bowl until combined (not light and fluffy, just combined) then add the eggs one at a time - don't beat strongly, just to combine. Grab a wooden spoon and stir in the coconut and mango puree and then the flour. Spread into your prepared cake tin - the mixture is quite thick.

Bake for about 1 and a half hours. Stand for a few minutes in the tin before turning out on to a wire rack; flip so it is top side up to cool.

Icing:

1 and a half cups of icing sugar
1 egg white
2 tablespoons mango puree
3/4 cup desiccated coconut

Beat the egg white till foamy... gradually beat in the icing sugar a tablespoon at a time. Stir in the puree and coconut, and then spread onto the cake.

Strawberry and Galingale cordial

2009-06-01T10:20:00.000+02:00

So, what do you do when you have a spare punnet of strawberries? Make cordial of course!

This cordial is super simple, smells exquisite while cooking and makes a delightful summer drink. The galingale adds just a little edge of spicyness without the bite of ginger:

2 cups water
2 cups caster sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
500g strawberries (washed hulled and halved)
2 pieces of dried galingale

Put the sugar, water, galingale and lemon juice in a saucepan . Cook, while stirring over a low heat, for 2 minutes or until the sugar has dissolved. Raise the heat and until the mixture thickens just a little (about 5 minutes).
Reduce to medium-low. Add the strawberries. Simmer, stirring occasionally, for 20 minutes.

Remove from the heat and allow to cool. Strain through a fine sieve (I used a muslin cloth as well to remove the seeds) and pour into a bottle. Keep in the fridge.

To serve.... just add water!

Yoghurt Cake

2009-05-07T22:44:00.000+02:00

This recipe is from a non-food blog: french word of the day. I subscribed to Kristin Espinasse's list a few years ago when I moved to Geneva. Back in 2007 she posted up a recipe for a yoghurt cake which sounded really fun to make, but somehow I never got around to making it. Not sure why, guess because whenever I had yoghurt in the house, I ate it instead of baking with it!

After I had an operation two years ago, I have become oddly sensitive to yoghurt, to the point where I really can't eat it any more. Some friends of mine were emptying their fridge before they departed for a long trip and gave me some yoghurt. Rather than throw it out I thought to myself "ahah! I can finally make that recipe!".

Here's hoping that I can eat cooked yoghurt.

The funky thing about this recipe is its beautiful simplicity.

Ingredients:
- one small container of plain yoghurt (reserve for measuring the remaining ingredients)
- flour
- sugar
- vegetable oil
- two eggs
- 2 teaspoons baking powder

Instructions
Fill/empty the yoghurt container...
...3 times with flour
...2 times with sugar
...1 time with vegetable oil

First combine yoghurt, beaten eggs & sugar. Next, add flour and baking soda, stir. Add a pinch of salt... Pour in oil and mix well. Pour into a greased cake pan and bake for 45 minutes at 150°C (300°F).

How easy is that?

Cinnamon & apple cookies

2009-03-21T21:05:00.000+01:00

With the delicious combination of oats, brown sugar, apples and cinnamon, these biscuits are like an apple crumble in biscuit form. This recipe isn't mine, but is adjusted from the ever reliable Australian Women's Weekly. Remember if you are cooking from this blog, my recipes are metric!

2 eggs
1 1/2 cups brown sugar (275g)
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 cup mild vegetable oil
2 tblspn golden syrup
2 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups chopped dried apples (135g)
1 3/4 cup plain flour (150g)
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp bi-carb soda
1 tspn ground cinnamon

Set your oven to preheat at 210 degrees.

Beat the sugar and eggs with an electric mixer until the mix becomes light in colour. Stir in the vanilla essence, oil and golden syrup. Then stir in the oats, apple and sifted dry ingredients. Cover and refrigerate for an hour.

Roll tablespoons of the mix into balls, and press down onto a silicone-paper lined baking tray. Bake for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on the tray.

Clementine Cookies

2009-02-22T16:18:00.008+01:00

I had a fit of baking last night: we are doing some fundraising at work for the Australian bushfire appeals. I did a giant batch of anzac bikkies. I finished the anzacs at about 2am but by then the baking bug had bit me and I found myself searching through my cupboards for ingredients to make something, anything more!

My eyes fell upon the net of clementines in the big fridge (ie, on the balcony, which during winter becomes my second fridge). Grand. I would make something from them. Grand. umm... what??

From this 2am dilemma sprang this invention:

Clementine Cookies

2 dessert spoons of finely grated clementine rind
2 egg yolks
125 g butter
1 cup caster sugar
2 tablespoons clementine juice
2 and a half cups self raising flour

Turn your oven onto moderate (approx 170 degrees C) to warm up.

Beat the egg yolk, butter, rind and sugar until fluffy. Add the flour and then drizzle in the juice until it comes together into a dough. Knead gently on a lightly floured surface until the dough is smooth.

Take dessertspoons of the mixture and roll into balls. Press onto baking trays that are either lightly greased or have silicon paper. Bake for 15 minutes until lightly browned and allow to cool on the tray. Once cool ice and decorate - make up an icing with clementine juice and icing sugar.

This recipe makes about 60 biscuits.

Brie and Asparagus Quiche

2009-02-06T00:02:00.001+01:00

Surprisingly, because it isn't the season for them, there were bunches of asparagus in the shops this week, and at a pretty reasonable price. No I didn't do terribly immoral things by buying asparagus from the other side of the world... no, these had a pretty ok carbon footprint having come from Spain.

So... what to make for a winter dinner with friends, using this delicious vegetable? I know...

Brie and Asparagus Quiche

1 cup cream or sour cream

1 bunch of asparagas (500g)

200g brie

salt & pepper
3 eggs
300g shortcrust pastry

Roll out the pastry and line a ceramic or glass quiche dish.
Lay out the asparagus and tuck slices of brie between.
Mix eggs & cream till nicely blended. Season with salt and pepper
Pour egg mix into the quiche dish
Bake in an oven at 200 degrees C for 25-30 minutes until nicely browned.
Serve warm or cold as you like... delicious!

Perfect Christmas turkey?

2009-01-11T01:41:00.008+01:00

This year I was cooking a small Christmas dinner, just for 7. Last year, I did duck breasts with a port and fig glaze, which was glorious, but this year, I wanted to remind myself of home a bit, so decided to do a turkey. I had planned to do my prosciutto and leek stuffing, but when I heard that one of the guests doesn't eat pork, did a bit of a rearrangement. So it was roast turkey with a leek and chestnut stuffing instead.

I also decided to try brining for the first time. I used a modified Nigella recipe for the brine:

1 turkey (3 kilos)
1 cup sea salt
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup vinegar
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon allspice berries
2 tablespoons black peppercorns
2 cloves garlic, peeled and lightly smashed

I mixed the brining ingredients, and, putting the turkey into a plastic food bag, poured the brine over it and sealed it. I kept the turkey in the fridge overnight.

The stuffing was pretty straight forward.

4 small cleaned leaks, sliced and then sweated in butter until soft
1 loaf of white bread, a little stale, torn up into small pieces
sage
oregano
500g cooked chestnuts
3 eggs

Mix the ingredients together and stuff into the bird. Easy eh? Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Put a piece of baking paper on top of the bird in a deep oven tray, then cover the whole thing with foil and seal in.

Bake for 30 minutes at the higher temperature then drop the temperature down to 180 degrees. Total roasting time is an hour per kilo. I took off the paper and foil about 45 minutes before the time was up to allow the skin to brown. Rest a little before carving.

I was a bit cynical about whether brining really would make a difference, but some research came up with some scientific reasoning, and now having done it, I can confirm that it really does make for a moist and tender bird. The only negative is that I thought that the meat did end up a little salty and I can imagine my parents chucking a fit about the evils of salting food. (They keep no salt in the house at all... I can live with that but for two things: boiled eggs and gravy) None of the dinner guests found the bird salty I should add!

Photo courtesy of Ed

Aranyszarvas - a restaurant review

2009-01-04T20:44:00.006+01:00

So, dear reader, you think that just because I am off on holidays in Hungary, that I am simply relaxing in hot spas and shopping, forgetting you completely? Never, I say, never!! As always I am willing to sacrifice my time and money and waistline, to bring you advice on where to eat wherever in the world I/you go.

Today my visit was to a Budapest restaurant by the name of ˝Aranysyarvas˝ (ask me not how you pronounce this!).

This restaurant has been around for quite a while in various forms and once was one of the hangouts for the artists of Budapest. Nowadays it's decor is more dignified than bohemian, as is it's game-oriented menu.

I started my meal with an entree of stuffed pheasant soup. This consommé had carrots, pheasant, a slice of what I assume was stuffing, and what appeared to be a few slices of black truffle. Sadly the truffle did not really make any impact on the soup, which was on the whole uninspired. The carrots were overcooked and the broth was pleasant but ordinary enough that I didn't bother to finish it once the solid bits were gone. The best part was definitely the stuffing, which was really delicious, with what was just a hint of something exotic... maybe anise, which I enjoyed very much.

Before moving on to the main course, the bread is worth a mention. The bread was good, but more interestingly, was served with a small pot of hommous. This is a charming idea and makes a nice change from butter. The hommous had none of the errors that can be made with this dish - commonly it can be either dry and grainy, conversely oily or dominated by garlic or tahini. Instead this was simple, moist and tasty.

The main course for me continued the game theme: deer with game sauce and noodles. I was a bit surprised by the dish that was set before me (when I get home I will upload the photos) as the ˝noodles˝ were in fact two large dumplings. They didn't look too promising to be truthful, but in fact were incredibly light, fluffy and delicious.

To pontificate a little, let me say that there are really two ways to deal with game meats such as venison. Cook it fast and rare, or long, slow and well done. The 1st is great but you have to be dealing with clients with an educated enough palate to cope with being served meat that still has a little blood in it. The 2nd is more dangerous a route as you risk the meat drying out and toughening. The restaurant chose the latter route and mostly carried it off. The meat was very very well done and I suspect if there hadn't had been sauce would have bee incredibly dry, but in fact it was not tough.

The sauce however was a bit of a shocker. At the risk of being uncharitable I would say the sauce was simply made of American sweet mustard! It overwhelmed everything else. The dumplings, with their delicate oregano flavour were definitely best kept at a distance from the sauce, and the meat, unless scraped clear of it, could have been any random red meat at all - no way to tell what! Once freed from the mustard (so to speak) it did have its own flavour which was worth discovering. I usually really love the sweet and game combination, but sadly this one just did not really work for me and I just could not get that hotdog mustard idea out of my brain.

Conclusion: Now, while the above review does sound somewhat condemning, I would have to say that if I lived in Budapest I would definitely give this restaurant another shot and in fact would say that my experience was, on the whole, positive. There is an interesting sort of hungarian mezze option which I would have liked to try, and if I had been there with a partner would definitely have made a push for.

The restaurant also deserves a big thumbs up for being one of the few non-smoking restaurants in Budapest, a definite plus in my books! The waiting staff were attentive and helpful, the black, cream and old gold decor is elegant without being intimidating. The background music was fascinating (hearing a soft jazz version of YMCA was slightly bizarre but surprisingly pleasant) and the price is reasonable. My meal of (the most expensive) entree, main and a soft drink (including a built in 10percent service charge) came out at about 4000 forint. (about 20US, 30AUD, 22 CHF, 15 EURO).

Where to find Aranyszarvas? It is in Buda district I, Szarvas Ter 1. (the number 5 bus coming from the Pest direction goes right to the doorstep). Open midday to 11pm every day. Ph: +36 (1) 375 6471. http://www.aranyszarvas.hu

First experimentation with the new pasta machine - Foie Gras Ravioli with Pumpkin Veloute

2008-12-30T12:47:00.008+01:00

Foie gras is a very traditional thing to eat at Christmas time in France and (at least southern) Switzerland. Last year I made tiny little foie gras and red onion tartlets (which I completely failed to photograph, how bad am I?) and this year I thought I would put my new pasta making machine to work and make foie gras ravioli.

I started with a basic egg pasta dough:

300g fine white flour
3 eggs

Place the flour in a heap on the work bench, and make a well in the centre. Break the eggs into the centre and then using your fingertips work the flour into the eggs. This is the really fun messy bit. Once incorporated, knead the dough, if necessary adding just a drop of water or two to get a good workable consistency. How long to knead? Till the dough stops feeling sort of grainy and starts feeling smooth. Wrap up in plastic wrap and let sit for at least half an hour.

Break the dough into two pieces (leaving one wrapped up) and set your pasta machine to the widest aperture. flatten the ball of dough out a bit so it can fit through and feed it through by cranking the handle on the machine. Once fed through, fold it in half and feed it through again. If the dough kind of catches on the rollers and has a rough knobbly surface, smooth just a little flour on to the dough before folding and feed through again. Do this 6 or 7 times... I promise you will know when it is done as your pasta dough will be smooth and silky.

Then take the machine in a step and feed the pasta through again. In another notch and feed again... You might find you now have an unmanageably large length of dough; if so, cut it in half and put one half under a damp clean dishcloth while you deal with the other half. Keep taking the machine in a notch and feeding the pasta through until you have the finest sheet you can get. Don't worry if the edges are not perfect!

Stage 2: the Ravioli
1 bloc du foie gras (about 200g)
1 batch egg pasta dough

If you are making square or triangular ravioli you can simply place the sheet on the bench, brush it with water, put your ingredients on top, lay another sheet on top of that, and then press together and cut out the ravioli. In my case I wanted to make something a little more festive, so I cut out heart shapes. Then I (and my handsome assistant) brushed the edges of one heart with water and then placed pieces of bloc du foie gras on the pastry, leaving a good edge of pastry. We then placed another heart of pasta on top and pinched around the edges firmly.

Sprinkle the hearts with flour to stop them sticking together then spread out on a tray and pop them in the freezer. Once frozen you can put them into a ziplock bag and keep them that way until ready to use.

Stage 3: Pumpkin Veloute

1 medium onion, finely diced
1 butternut pumpkin (aka squash)
1 tsp caster sugar
drizzle of olive oil
1 litre of chicken stock.

In a large pan, soften the onion in the oil until translucent. Add the cubed pumpkin and sprinkle with the caster sugar. Stir the cubed pumpkin over medium heat until the pumpkin is browned and the sugar has caramelised. Pour over the chicken stock and raise the heat to bring to the boil. Simmer until the pumpkin has cooked completely then put through a ricer, after which you can use a stick blender to blend to a velvety smooth veloute.

To complete the dish:

Heat the veloute until warmed. Bring a large pot of water to the boil. Once it has reached boiling point, add the ravioli (still frozen). Cook for just a few minutes till al dente. Put out serving plates, add some of the veloute and then lay the ravioli on top in a decorative fashion. Grate a little nutmeg on top.

Photo courtesy of Ed.

My new toy

2008-12-20T00:18:00.003+01:00

Sorry its taken so long to post up the answer to my question of 7 December... what is this?

The answer is that I finally got my new pasta making machine. Best of all it was free - I finally got enough loyalty points from one of my local supermarket chains to get it.

Isn't it beautiful? Gleaming and solid and just begging to be used.

...I have this idea for christmas dinner. I will let you know how it goes.

2008-12-14T20:45:00.003+01:00

Here at last, I am delighted to announce that my friend Cynthia's book "My Caribbean Cookbook" is now available for pre-ordering from AKD Press.

Cynthia is one of my fellow foodbloggers, although far more established and talented than I! Her lovely foodblog has delectable recipes accompanied with delightful stories that really take you with her to her Caribbean home.

I highly recommend her blog, and think that the promise of her new cookbook would be a fabulous Christmas gift for anyone you know who is a cooking fan.

Beef in Beer

2008-12-10T21:57:00.004+01:00

On my weekend jaunt across the border I bought myself some beef. I had the idea that I would make beef bourguignon from my new recipe book "The Complete Robuchon". Nice simple meal, beef, burgundy, onions. Nope. 19 ingredients (mind you that is including spices). Cooking time, 2 and a half hours plus 25 minutes for the onions, 5 minutes for the lardons and 10 minutes for the mushrooms. 5 pots or pans. 5!!!!

As we say in Australia "bugger that for a game of soldiers".

Beef in beer instead. 7 ingredients. 1 frypan, 1 crockpot - much better!

900g diced beef
3 medium sized onions, sliced
3 large carrots chopped up
500g new potatoes (cut larger ones in half)
Olive oil
2 large cans of beer (or one bottle)
2 beef stock cubes

Chop the carrots and cut in half the bigger of the potatoes. Put in the crock pot/casserole.

Heat up a fry pan with a little oil, and brown the meat in batches and add to the crock pot. Cook the sliced onions in the pan till softened and a little browned. Pour some of the beer into the pan to lift the delicious browned bits from the pan. Pour into the crockpot and add the rest of the beer and the stock cubes. If using an electric crock pot, cook for 8 hours on low. If using a pot on the stove, simmer gently for 2 hours.

How easy is that? Ok so it takes a while to cook, but effort? Almost zero and the taste... delish!

400 anzac bikkies later

2008-12-07T19:55:00.003+01:00

A fun and busy weekend!

Friday night was a work function (which I didn't have to cater), and on Saturday morning I rented a car and drove off in search of fabric and food. Geneva is only a matter of 10 minutes away from France, but sometimes it is a world away in what you can and cannot find in supermarkets.

For example, brown sugar can't be found for love nor money in Geneva, but cross that wee border and there it is, in every supermarket. Golden syrup, smoked chicken and even Vegemite can be found on the other side of the air strip. (In one direction to get to France from Geneva you drive under the airplane landing strip)

The other grand difference is the cost of things, especially meat. Lamb can be found for about 6 euro a kilo, (about 9 Swiss francs) where in Geneva it is up to 40 francs a kilo! There are limits on how much you can bring across of course, but still, its a fair old difference eh?

Saturday evening I met with friends in a cafe for a burger and a chat. This was followed by a quiet drink (but we couldn't bear the bar for long because of the cigarette smoke... when oh when are the Swiss going to join the 21st century?) then on to a night club for a bit of dancing.

In the morning, one of my friends came over and we headed back over the border again to visit the Divonne markets. Churros, cheese, onions, tapenade all found irresistable.. some for me some for my friend.

Back home and into the kitchen to finish cooking 400 anzac biscuits (cookies for my US readers). All done by 7pm. (whew!)

Now what to have for dinner? Time too cook up those lovely fresh French onions into French Onion Soup. Mmmmmm...

So as I type, the onions, which have been softened in butter are now caramelising. As soon as there is enough of the lovely golden edges for my taste, I will sprinkle flour onto it, to start a roux. Once that has been cooked for a little while (vital to cook it or you end up with a grainy floury taste to your soup) I will add my beef stock. The roux soaks up the butter, preventing an oil slick on top of the soup and making it thick and rich. Once brought to the boil, I add a final splash of brandy and voila, ready to eat - a perfect Sunday evening dinner. There is a slightly more exact recipe earlier in my foodblog if you want it. Oh, and the anzac biscuit recipe too!

What is this?

2008-12-07T14:37:00.002+01:00

Stay tuned and all will be revealed

Watch this space....

2008-11-26T22:51:00.000+01:00

Have you missed me?

2008-11-18T20:41:00.004+01:00

Sorry, I have been away in Florence and Lisbon... But I promise I ate and drank and thought of you!
No recipes to share today, but two photographs from Cafe Florian, which makes fantastically thick, rich hot chocolates.

Lemon iced biscuits

2008-10-29T20:00:00.000+01:00

I made a batch of these pretty iced biscuits as a birthday gift for a dear friend. They were sweet, delicious and incredibly cute.

200g butter
1 tsp vanilla paste
1 egg
1 1/2 cups of plain flour
1 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup self raising flour

Method 1. Put all the ingredients into your food processor. Pulse until combined. Wrap ball of dough in plastic wrap and put in the fridge to rest for an hour.

Method 2. Beat butter, sugar, vanilla and egg until pale. Gradually add the flour until combined. Wrap in plastic wrap and put in fridge to rest for half an hour.

Roll out to 5mm and cut out circles. Because this recipe has a raising agent in it, it isn't really suitable for shaped biscuits. Another easy option is to form the dough into cylinders and roll in plastic wrap,twisting the ends. Cool for an hour and a half, remove from the oven and then slice to make rounds.

Bake in a moderate oven for about 10 minutes. Cool for 5 minutes on the tray and then move to wire racks.

Ice with lemon icing (add lemon juice drop by drop to icing sugar until you have a spreadable paste). Sprinkle with decorations while the icing is still wet.

Handful soup

2008-10-20T22:59:00.006+02:00

Dinner tonight was a super quick and easy soup. I am dubbing it "handful soup" because it is assembled from handfuls of ingredients; no measurements, no fuss.

1 handful of dried mushrooms
1 handful of frozen peas
1 handful of snow peas torn in to pieces
1 handful of rice stick noodles
1 mushroom (or beef will do) stock cube
about 2 cups of water
1/2 a star anise

In a saucepan, bring the water to the boil. Add the dried mushrooms and star anise and simmer for about 15 minutes until the mushrooms are rehydrated and tender. Add the stock cube, rice stick, frozen peas and bring back to the boil.

After about 3 minutes (when the rice stick has softened), add the snow peas and turn off the heat. Allow to sit for a minute, and serve. Easy eh?

The star anise is the real secret to making this soup fragrant and irresistibly delicious.

Quick review: the Village Idiot

2008-10-16T21:47:00.006+02:00

A short trip to Brussels and my favourite restaurant there "L'Idiot du Village". Well, to be truthful I have only been to a handful of restaurants in Brussels, but the list does include a Michelin starred restaurant and a very famous Japanese fusion restaurant, and believe me, l'Idiot is by far the best.

I was meeting up with friends from Australia, and just had to take them there.

The real star was the main course shared between my friend and I, pheasant with roasted apples and chestnuts. Apparently it was the first night of the season that this dish was being served, and as I do love eaten food when it is at its best, in season, how could I say no?

The jus was delicious, the meat absolutely tender and the apples caramelised and sweet. After this, I was too full to be able to even contemplate dessert. Next time perhaps!

Impromptu fig conserve

2008-10-09T14:50:00.003+02:00

With figs in season as they are, I just had to buy some more didn't I? I had this idea in mind for tomorrow night's dinner, but tonight, the figs were looking a bit peaky... not to be left for tomorrow night. Hmmm... what do I do with them then? I know, I will make jam!

The challenge is that I only had 6 figs, not the kilo or so that most recipes seem to demand. So I just had to invent something, and here it is.

6 figs
1 cup jam sugar*
1/2 cup grand marnier
1 star anise
1 tsp lemon juice

In a small saucepan, combine the chopped figs, jelly sugar, lemon juice and grand marnier. Sit for an hour to soak.

Start the stove and bring the mixture to a gentle bubble. Add the star anise. Cook for 15 minutes stirring regularly. Remove the star anise and then continue to cook for another 15-20 minutes, stirring regularly, and crushing with a potato masher, to break up the bigger pieces. Once thickened to "soft ball" stage, pour into sterilised glass jar. Makes 1 x 500g jar of jam.

*jam sugar is a sugar which includes pectin

The figs starting to break down into delicious jam..

Sweet potato, pumpkin & feta pizza

2008-10-01T22:30:00.001+02:00

Long gone are the days of pizza having to have tomatoes and mozzarella.

Nowadays you can get pretty much anything on a pizza, for example, tandoori chicken & thai green curry.

You can even buy strange dessert pizzas. I am all for pushing the envelope in cooking, so I am pretty open minded about what should or should not go on a pizza.

That said, there are some things that should simply not go there... along with deep fried mars bar and deep fried cupcakes, and I am thinking that rocky road pizzas are one of those things.

But this delicious pizza is all good. The combination of the sweetness of the pumpkin and sweet potato and saltiness of feta create a perfect partnership joined with the textural joys of the softness of the vegetables and crispness of the crust.

1 small sweet potato (around 200g)
1 wedge of pumpkin (around 200g)
1 onion
50g feta
pizza dough

Preheat your oven to 200 degrees C.

Peel and dice the pumpkin, sweet potato and onion. Pan fry with a little olive oil on a relatively low heat until the onion has gone transparent and the vegetables have softened.

Spread the mixture onto the pizza dough and crumble feta on top. Bake for 20 minutes until the crust has crisped and the cheese has browned.