Essential ingredients

Pistachio praline cake

noreply@blogger.com (Essential ingredients) — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 10:07:00 +0000

Oh-my-goodness. This cake was absolutely divine. I adapted it quite significantly from a hazelnut praline cake recipe in one of my cookbooks -- "Crave: A passion for chocolate" -- to be semi-Christmas themed for our Christmas in July at work.

Green is Christmassy, right?

Ingredients

Cake
6 large eggs, separated
115 gr caster sugar plus 1 tbsp extra
185 gr chopped dark chocolate, melted and cooled to tepid
90 gr almond meal
95 gr pistachio meal (blitz 90 gr of pistachio kernels in a food processor)

Pistachio praline
125 gr pistachio kernels
250 gr caster sugar
55 ml water

Chocolate ganache
80 ml cream
100 gr dark chocolate

Pistachio white chocolate cream
235 ml cream
150 gr white chocolate
30 gr butter
1/2 quantity pistachio praline

4 drops of green food colouring

Milk chocolate cream
235 ml cream
150 gr milk chocolate
30 gr butter

Step 1: Make the cake
Preheat the oven to 180 C (160 C fan forced). Butter two 23 cm round spring form tins and line with baking paper.

Using an electric mixer, beat the egg yolks and the 115 gr of caster sugar on medium-high until pale and thickened.

Using clean beaters, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Add the 1 tbsp of caster sugar and beat until the mixture is glossy.

Mix the tepid chocolate with 3 tbsp of hot water and stir to incorporate. Add to the egg yolk mixture and stir to combine. Fold in the pistachio and almond meal. Gently fold in the meringue in two batches, until combine.

Pour 2/3 of the mixture into one tin and 1/3 into the other. Bake for 25-35 minutes or until the top is firm. Allow to cool completely in the tins before removing the cakes.

Step 2: Make the chocolate creams
Bring the cream to boil in a saucepan. Remove from the heat. Add the milk chocolate, allow to stand for 1 minute, then stir until smooth. Allow to cool slightly then stir in the butter. Cover and chill for at least one hours (you can speed this process up by putting the mixture in the freezer for 30 minutes).

Repeat the same process for the white chocolate cream.

Step 3: Make the pistachio praline
Preheat oven to 180 C (160 C if you are using a fan forced oven). Spread pistachios on a baking tray and roast for 5 – 10 minutes.

To skin the pralines, place half of the roasted nuts in a clean tea towel and rub the nuts between the tea towel until the skins come away. Repeat this with the remaining nuts. Put all the nuts on a sheet of non-stick baking paper on a tray.

Place sugar and water in a saucepan over low heat and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until the sugar dissolves. Increase heat to high and bring to the boil. Boil, without stirring, swirling or brushing down the side of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in water, for 8 minutes or until golden. Set aside until the bubbles subside.

Pour the caramel mixture over the nuts and leave to set.

When the praline is set, put it in a food processor or crush it until finely ground. Set aside.

Step 4: Make the chocolate ganache
Combine cream and milk in a small saucepan scald over a medium heat (do not let it boil). Add the dark chocolate, remove from heat, and stir until smooth. Let the mixture cool for 10 – 15 minutes, stirring every few minutes so it does not set.

Step 5: Prepare the creams
Remove the creams from the fridge and, using electric beaters beat the milk chocolate cream until firm peaks form.

Repeat the for the white chocolate cream and add half of the praline mixture and green food colouring, stirring to combine.

Step 6: Assemble the cake
Remove the cakes from their tins. Slice the larger of the two cakes in half, horizontally.

Place one of the cake layers on plate, flat-side down. Spread it with half of the white chocolate praline mixture.

Using a pastry brush, spread half of the ganache over one side of each of the remaining two cake layers. Place one of the cake layers on top of the layer covered with the white chocolate pistachio cream, ganache side down. Spread the remaining white chocolate pistachio cream over this second layer and place the last cake layer, ganache side down on top of the pistachio cream.

Cover the top and sides of the cake with the milk chocolate cream and press the remaining pistachio praline onto the sides of the cake.

Daring Bakers' Challenge - Swiss swirl ice cream cake

noreply@blogger.com (Essential ingredients) — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 10:44:00 +0000

The July 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Sunita of Sunita’s world – life and food. Sunita challenged everyone to make an ice-cream filled Swiss roll that’s then used to make a bombe with hot fudge. Her recipe is based on an ice cream cake recipe from Taste of Home.

Swiss roll ice cream cake (inspired by the recipe of the same name from the Taste of Home website)

Caramel swiss rolls

6 medium sized eggs
225 gms brown sugar
85gms GF plain flour
30ml boiling water

Pre-heat the oven at 200 C (180 C fan forced). Brush the baking pans ( 11 inches by 9 inches ) with a little oil and line with greaseproof baking paper. If you have just one pan, bake one cake and then let the pan cool completely before using it for the next cake.

In a large mixing bowl, add the eggs and sugar and beat till very thick; when the beaters are lifted, it should leave a trail on the surface for at least 10 seconds.

Add the flour, in three batches and fold in gently with a spatula. Fold in the water

Divide the mixture among the two baking pans (or only use half of the mixture if you have 1 pan) and spread it out evenly, into the corners of the pans. Place a pan in the centre of the pre-heated oven and bake for about 10-12 minutes or till the centre is springy to the touch.

Spread a kitchen towel on the counter and sprinkle a little caster sugar over it. Turn the cake on to the towel and peel away the baking paper. Trim any crisp edges. Starting from one of the shorter sides, start to make a roll with the towel going inside. Cool the wrapped roll on a rack, seam side down.

Repeat the same for the next cake as well.

Honeycomb swiss roll filling

500 mls whipping cream

1 vanilla pod, cut into small pieces of about ½ cm (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
70gms caster sugar
80 gr honeycomb, ground

Grind together the vanilla pieces and sugar in a food processer till nicely mixed together. If you are using vanilla extract, just grind the sugar on its own and then add the sugar and extract to the cream. Place the honeycomb in the food processor and blitz with the sugar and vanilla. Pass the honeycomb, vanilla, sugar mixture through a sieve to remove any husks from the vanilla pod.

In a large bowl, add the cream and vanilla-sugar mixture and beat till very thick.

Divide the cream mixture between the completely cooled cakes. Open the rolls and spread the cream mixture, making sure it does not go right to the edges (a border of 1 cm should be fine).

Roll the cakes up again, this time without the towel. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge till needed, seam side down.

Honeycomb ice cream
625 ml cream
1 vanilla bean, minced or 1 tsp vanilla extract
115 gr caster sugar
100 gr honeycomb, ground

I made the ice cream without an ice cream maker.

Grind together the sugar and vanilla in a food processor. Place the honeycomb in the food processor and blitz with the sugar and vanilla. Pass the honeycomb, vanilla, sugar mixture through a sieve to remove any husks from the vanilla pod.

In a mixing bowl, add the cream and vanilla/sugar/honeycomb mixture and whisk lightly until everything is mixed together. If you are using the vanilla extract, grind the sugar on its own and then and the sugar along with the vanilla extract to the cream.

Pour into a freezer friendly container and freeze till firm around the edges. Remove from the freezer after 30 minutes and beat with a balloon whisk until smooth, return to the freezer. Repeat 3-4 times and then set completely.

Caramel Fudge
275 gr caster sugar
1/3 c water
110 gr cream
135 gr unsalted butter

Combine sugar and 1/3 cup water in a saucepan and stir over medium-high heat until the sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil and cook for 8-10 minutes or until medium-caramel in colour, remove from heat.

Meanwhile, heat the cream for 30 seconds on high in a microwave. Carefully add cream and butter to the caramel mixture (be careful as the mixture will bubble and spit), stir to combine. Return to heat and cook for 2 minutes or until smooth. Let the caramel mixture cool before putting it into the bomb.

Note: you do not want the caramel to be hot or it will melt the bomb.

Chocolate ice cream
500 ml cream
230 gr caster sugar
24 gr cocoa powder

Grind together the sugar and the cocoa powder in a food processor . In a saucepan, add all the ingredients and whisk lightly.

Place the pan over heat and keep stirring till it begins to bubble around the edges.

Remove from heat and cool completely before transferring to a freezer friendly container till firm around the edges.

Pour into a freezer friendly container and freeze till firm around the edges. Remove from the freezer after 30 minutes and beat with a balloon whisk until smooth, return to the freezer. Repeat 3-4 times and then set completely.

Assembly
1. Cut the Swiss rolls into 20 equal slices ( approximately 2 cms each ).

2. Cover the bottom and sides of the bowl in which you are going to set the dessert with cling film/plastic wrap.

3. Arrange two slices at the bottom of the pan, with their seam sides facing each other. Arrange the Swiss roll slices up the bowl, with the seam sides facing away from the bottom, to cover the sides of the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and freeze till the slices are firm (at least 30 minutes).

4. Soften the honeycomb ice cream. Take the bowl out of the freezer, remove the cling film cover and add the ice cream on top of the cake slices. Spread it out to cover the bottom and sides of the bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and freeze till firm ( at least 1 hour).

5. Add the fudge sauce over the honeycomb ice cream, cover and freeze till firm (at least an hour).

6. Soften the chocolate ice cream and spread it over the fudge sauce. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for at least 4-5 hours till completely set .

7. Remove the plastic cover, and place the serving plate on top of the bowl. Turn it upside down and remove the bowl and the plastic lining. If the bowl does not come away easily, wipe the outsides of the bowl with a kitchen towel dampened with hot water. The bowl will come away easily.

8. Keep the cake out of the freezer for at least 10 minutes before slicing, depending on how hot your region is. Slice with a sharp knife, dipped in hot water.

Daring Cooks' Challenge - Nut butters

noreply@blogger.com (Essential ingredients) — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 10:57:00 +0000

The July 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Margie of More Please and Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make their own nut butter from scratch, and use the nut butter in a recipe. Their sources include Better with Nut Butter by Cooking Light Magazine, Asian Noodles by Nina Simonds, and Food Network online.

This was my first Daring Cooks challenge and I'm quite happy with it. I would have liked to experiment more with different nut butters but illness has consumed many a weekend over the last month for me!

Feeling under the weather had me craving spicy food. With this in mind, I set out to make peanut butter and a spicy satay sauce.

Satay sauce

Peanut butter

200 gr unsalted peanuts

Satay sauce

5 shallots, roughly chopped

3 birds eye chillies, roughly chopped

4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

1 stalk lemongrass (dry outer layers removed, use pale part only)

3 tsp tamarind paste

5 tbsp plus 2 tsp brown sugar

1 tsp salt

100 ml vegetable oil

500 ml water

1 tbsp walter

200 gr peanut butter

50 gr roasted unsalted peanuts, crushed

Step 1: Make the peanut butter

Pour the nuts into the bowl of a food processor. Grind the nuts in the processor until they form a paste or butter.

The nuts first turn into powdery or grainy bits, then start to clump and pull away from the side of the bowl, and finally form a paste or butter. The total time required depends on the fat and moisture content of the nuts; grinding time will vary from roughly 1 to 4 minutes. Set aside until needed.

Step 2: Make the spice paste

Roughly chop the lemongrass, chillies and garlic. Place in a mortar and pestle and pound for a few minutes to break down the fibres in the lemongrass.

Place the shallots and the lemongrass mixture into a food processor and blitz to form a fine paste.

Note: If the paste doesn't seem to be moving add half a tablespoon water but no more as this will water the sauce down too much and spit excessively when poured into the oil to cook. You do need a decent mini food processor for this (not a blender as this requires additional liquid to make the mixture move) job as a large one.

Step 3: Cook the spice paste

Heat oil in a heavy based saucepan or wok till medium heat and pour paste in. Stir fry, continuing to make sure bottom isn't catching till there is very little steam rising from the sauce and you can definitely see it
caramelising and smell it getting fragrant.

Step 4: Making the satay
Add peanut butter, crushed peanuts, tamarind, lime, sugar, only one teaspoon of salt (add to taste after adding saltedpeanuts). Stir to combine.

Add the water and bring to boil. Remove from heat and set aside till required.

You can make this a couple days ahead of time and keep in a glass jar in the fridge and then reheat to serve.

Serving suggetions

This recipe is delicious but, be warned, it makes an absolute truckload of sauce! We have used it for chicken skewers and a satay and rice noodle stir fry.

For the skewers

Step 1: Marinate the meat
Marinate 500 gr of diced chicken thigh meat in some of the satay sauce overnight or for at least an hour. Unfortunately, I didn't measure how much I used. A good rule of thumb is add as much as it takes to coat all of the meat in the sauce.

Step 2: Thread and cook the skewers
If you are using bamboo skewers, soak them in water for at least half an hour. This will prevent them from burning. Thread the meat onto the skewers and cook on a low to medium heated BBQ for about 20 minutes, turning once.

Note: we have a Webber. When cooking the chicken skewers, we heat it to 150 degrees and cooked them with the lid closed.

Step 3: Serving
Reheat some of the extra satay sauce to serve over the skewers. When you skewers are cooked through, smother with satay sauce and enjoy!

For the rice noodle stirfry

Serves 6

Once again I didnt measure how much sauce I used! At a guess it would have been about 375 gr of sauce and about 100gr coconut cream.

Ingredients
1 packet of your favourite rice noodles (I used Bamboo Pot), softened according to packet directions
300 gr chicken, sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely diced
1.5 cm ginger, grated
600 gr vegetables (I used brocolli, capsicum, carrot, zucchini, water chestnuts and bamboo shoots)
Satay sauce
Coconut cream

Place the noodles in a large heatproof bowl. Cover with boiling water. Set aside for 5 minutes or until tender. Drain.

Heat a small amount of oil in a wok over medium-high heat. Add the chicken, garlic and ginger and stir-fry for 2 minutes or until brown. Transfer to a bowl.

Heat another small amount of oil in the wok over medium-high heat. Add the vegetables and stir-fry for 4 minutes or until the vegetables are cooked to your liking. Add the satay sauce and coconut cream. Cook for a further minute. Transfer to a bowl.

Add the softened noodles to the wok. Cook for two minutes tossing to ensure they do not burn. Return the meat and vegetables to the wok. Toss until well combined and heated through. If your dish is a little dry or the flavour is not strong enough add more satay sauce or coconut milk.

Potato gnocchi with spicy tomato and chorizo sugo

noreply@blogger.com (Essential ingredients) — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 09:44:00 +0000

Mild chorizo, spicy chilies, sweet basil and tangy tomatoes. That's my kind of gnocchi sauce. While I do appreciate a good sage butter or decadent creamy sauce, I find it hard to go past the tomato based sauces when combining with beautiful pillowy soft potato parcels of gnocchi.

Spicy tomato and chorizo sugo

(Recipe by Stef @ Essential ingredients)

Serves 4

1 brown onion, finely diced
1 - 2 spanish chorizo
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 long red chillies, finely diced
1/2 cup red wine (something with a bit of guts like a Shiraz works well for this dish)
825 gr tin of finely chopped tomatoes
1 red capsicum, diced
12 basil leaves, shredded

Method

Cut the chorizo in half lengthways and dice into bite sized pieces. Place a saucepan over a medium heat and add a dash of olive oil. Add the finely diced garlic and chorizo to the pan. Cook over a medium heat for a few minutes, just until the chorizo releases some of its fat into the pan. Add the chill and onion to the pan and cook, stirring, until the onion is translucent.

When the onions are cooked, add the tinned tomatoes and red wine. Reduce the heat and let the sauce simmer for around 45 minutes or until reduced by 1/3.

When the sauce has been reduced, add the diced capsicum and cook for a further three minutes. Stir in the shredded basil just before serving. Add salt and cracked black pepper to taste.

Served with gnocchi or pasta.

Basic potato gnocchi

noreply@blogger.com (Essential ingredients) — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 06:15:00 +0000

Basic potato gnocchi

(Recipe by Stef @ Essential ingredients)

Serves 4

600 gr potatoes
3 egg yolks
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
½ tsp salt
½ c grated parmesan cheese
1 c GF plain flour, plus extra

Step 1: Cooking the potatoes
Spread a layer of rock salt on a baking tray and arrange the potatoes on top. Bake until a bit overcooked, about 45 minutes. Let sit until cool enough to handle.

Step 2: Making the gnocchi dough
Peel off the potato skins. Grate the potatoes on the large holes of a box grater. Place the mound of potatoes on a clean surface and make a well in the middle. Add the egg yolks, parmesan, nutmeg and salt. Mix in the potatoes and mix well with hands.

Sprinkle 1/2 cup of the flour over the potatoes and, using your knuckles, press it into the potatoes. Fold the mass over on itself and press down again. Sprinkle on more flour, little by little, folding and pressing the dough until it just holds together. If the mixture is too dry, add another egg yolk or a little water. If it is too wet, add more flour.

The dough should give under slight pressure. It will feel firm but yielding. To test if the dough is the correct consistency, take a piece and roll it with your hands on a well-floured board into a rope 1.5cm in diameter. If the dough holds together, it is ready. If not, add more flour, fold and press the dough several more times, and test again.

Step 3: Cutting and shaping the gnocchi
Keeping your work surface and the dough lightly floured, cut the dough into 4 pieces. Roll each piece into a rope about 1.5 cm in diameter. Cut into 1.5 cm long pieces. Lightly flour the gnocchi as you cut them.

As you shape the gnocchi, dust them lightly with flour and scatter them on baking sheets lined with parchment paper or waxed paper.

Step 4: Cooking the gnocchi
When ready to cook, bring a large pot of water to a boil and add salt. Drop in the gnocchi and cook for about 120 seconds from the time they rise to the surface. Remove the cooked gnocchi with a skimmer, shake off the excess water, and serve as desired.
Note: To freeze shaped gnocchi, line baking sheets with waxed paper and dust with flour. Spread the gnocchi on the prepared sheets and freeze until hard. Store in the freezer for up to 1 month. To cook, drop the frozen gnocchi into boiling salted water. Cook for about 2 minutes after they rise to the surface.

Chocolate fondant

noreply@blogger.com (Essential ingredients) — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 10:58:00 +0000

With a top temperature of about 6 degrees, this time of year screams for comfort food. What is more comforting that pudding? Moist cake, gooey sauces, flavoured creams.. ah, bliss. We have one chocolate fondant left in the freezer. Alas, it's not for me. Hmmm, forfeiting dessert (and pudding at that) for my boyfriend.. now that's caring about someone!

I usually serve these fondants with raspberry or mixed berry coulis and cream. For something a little different, however, I served these fondants with honeycomb cream and crumbled honeycomb.

Note: my changes and suggestions are italicised.

Chocolate fondants

(Recipe adapted from Rosemary Shrager's School for Cooks)

Serves 4
100 gr dark chocolate
80 gr butter
80 gr icing sugar
20 gr GF plain flour
2 eggs
pinch salt

Step 1: Fondant batter
Melt the chocolate with the butter and sugar over hot water then cool.

Melt a little butter and, using a pastry brush, grease 4 ramekins very thoroughly with butter then dust with flour.

Add the eggs, a pinch of salt and the sieved flour to the cooled chocolate mixture. 3/4 fill the ramekins. Freeze for at least an hour.

Step 2: Cooking the fondantsPreheat an over to 200 degrees (180 degrees fan forced). Cook for 12 minutes or until done. The puddings are done when the cake is cooked and the middle wobbles slightly. Turn out carefully (the centres will be runny) and place on a plate.

Step 3: Making the honeycomb cream
To make the honeycomb cream, whip some cream and add finely ground honeycomb to taste. Stir to combine. To achieve a smooth result, sift the honeycomb powder into the cream.

Honeycomb

noreply@blogger.com (Essential ingredients) — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 09:08:00 +0000

I made chocolate fondants the other night (recipe and photos to come). I usually serve these gooey pots of love with berry coulis and whipped cream. However, I felt like mixing things up a bit so I decided to try my hand at making honeycomb. Chocolate fondant with crumbled honeycomb and whipped cream.. mmmm delicious, right!?

Honeycomb
(Recipe from Masterchef)

182 gr caster sugar

70 gr glucose syrup

55 ml water

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Place the sugar in a saucepan with the glucose and the water, mix to make a slurry. Place the pan over high heat, swirling the mixture in the pan, until the sugar dissolves. Once the sugar has dissolved, wait for the bubbles to slow down and for the mixture to take on a faint golden tinge. Line a large bowl with baking paper and have a whisk ready. Add the bicarb and quickly whisk vigorously, then immediately pour into the lined bowl. Set aside to set for 45 minutes.

Vanilla and passionfruit friands

noreply@blogger.com (Essential ingredients) — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 10:21:00 +0000

A few weeks ago passionfruits were ridiculously cheap... so I purchased 20 and made passionfruit and chocolate tartlets. I had a lot of pulp left over from this recipe as all I needed was the juice from the fruit. I didn't want to waste it so I froze the pulp to use for another day and another recipe.

I love to cook. I find it relaxes me and takes my mind off anything that's troubling me. Sometimes I cook for pleasure and other times I cook to show the people I care about that I love them. These little babies were born as a "sorry for being such a prat" treat.

Note: The passionfruit and cocoa measures are estimates only as I didn't measure how much I was using at the time.

Vanilla and chocolate passionfruit friands

(Recipe by Stef @ Essential ingredients)

Makes 6

3 egg whites
1/4 c GF flour (I use white wings)
55 gr almond meal
3/4 c icing sugar
92 gr butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla extract
pulp of 6 passionfruits

(To make chocolate passionfruit friands, add 2 tbsp of cocoa with the other dry ingredients)

Step 1: Making the friand base recipe
Preheat an oven to 180 degrees (160 degrees if using a fan forced oven) and grease six holes of a friand tray.

Melt the butter and set aside to cool. Beat the egg whites in a large bowl with electric beaters until light and fluffy. Sift the almond meal, flour and icing sugar into the egg white mixture. Stir to combine. Add vanilla and pour in the cooled butter, stir to combine.

Step 2: Preparing the passionfruit
Put the passionfruit pulp in a small food processor and blitz until pureed. Pass the pureed pulp through a sieve, reserving the juice.

Add the juice to the friand batter and stir to combine.

Step 3: Cooking
3/4 fill the greased friand holes with batter. Cook for 25 minutes, turning the tray half way through cooking.

Flourless crunchy date and hazelnut chocolate cake

noreply@blogger.com (Essential ingredients) — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 07:43:00 +0000

Baking is a passion I think is best shared with others. Often when I bake things for work morning or afternoon teas, they are things I've never made before -- risky, I know. But the fine people I work with are more than happy to indulge my love of baking by being guinea pigs in my cooking experiments. Win-win!

This cake is really rich. To cut through the richness, serve with double cream or vanilla icecream.

Flourless crunchy date and hazelnut chocolate cake

(Recipe adapted from Lindt)

Serves 16

200 gr Lindt crunchy caramel chocolate

50 gr Lindt 75% cocoa

200 gr fresh dates, halved and deseeded

150 ml water

45 ml Frangelico (I didn't have any so I used brandy)

1/2 vanilla pod

180 gr unsatted butter

3 eggs

3 egg yolks

pinch salt

120 gr brown sugar

200 gr hazelnut meal

100 gr dry roasted hazelnuts, skinned and chopped

Ganache

125 gr Lindt 75% cocoa

125 ml cream

20 gr sugar

20 gr glucose syrup

40 gr unsalted butter

1. Preheat oven to 170ºC (150ºC for fan forced oven) and grease a 26cm springform tin.

2. Place dates in a saucepan along with water, Frangelico and split vanilla bean. Simmer over a low heat until dates are soft. Remove from heat and push dates through a coarse sieve, creating a smooth purée. Set aside to cool.

3. Using an electric mixer, whisk eggs, egg yolks, salt and brown sugar until mixture is light and fluffy.

4. Place butter in a saucepan and melt over a medium heat. Break up chocolate and place in saucepan with the butter. Remove from heat and stir until chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth.

5. Mix the chocolate and butter into the whipped egg. Fold in date purée and hazelnut meal, ensuring there are no lumps. Mix until well incorporated and fold in hazelnuts. Pour cake batter into greased tin and smooth top with the back of a spoon.

6. Bake for approximately 50 minutes or until cooked. Allow cake to cool in the tin. When cool, remove and top the cake with ½ recipe of plain ganache.

Make the ganache

1. Place the cream, vanilla, sugar and glucose in a saucepan and bring to the boil.

2. Once boiling, pour over the chocolate.

3. Mix with a whisk (or barmix) until the chocolate is molten und the mixture is smooth and glossy.

4. Add the butter and mix until molten.

Sticky date pudding with butterscotch sauce and almond praline

noreply@blogger.com (Essential ingredients) — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 11:14:00 +0000

Pudding and winter go together like icecream and summer. While I love pudding at any time of year, there's something extra nice about having a nice fluffy saucy pudding with a dollop of cream when it's cold outside.

This pudding went down a treat. It's probably the best sticky date pudding I've ever had, a sentiment reaffirmed by my boyfriend. I'm especially happy in the knowledge that we have another two in the fridge for tomorrow night.

My comments for this recipe are in italics.

Stickdate pudding

(Recipe adapted from Masterchef)

Serves 4

90 gr dates, pitted and roughly chopped

155 ml water

1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda

82 gr firmly packed brown sugar

30 gr butter, softened chopped

1 egg

75 gr GF self raising flour (I use White Wings)

Almond praline

55 gr caster sugar

17 gr slivered almonds

Butterscotch sauce

25 gr butter

110 gr brown sugar

125 ml cream

Step 1: Prepare the dates

Preheat oven to 180˚C (160˚C fan-forced). Lightly grease four (½ cup capacity) metal dariole moulds (I used ramekins).

Place dates and water in a saucepan and bring to the boil over a high heat. Remove from the heat. Add bicarbonate of soda, stir until dates start to break down, set aside to cool, stirring occasionally.

Step 2: Prepare pudding batter

Beat butter and sugar in a bowl using a hand beater, gradually add egg, beat until light and fluffy.

Add date mixture, stir to combine. Carefully fold through sifted flour, divide mixture evenly between the four moulds, until 2/3 full.

Step 3: Cooking the puddings

Put a kettle of water on to boil.

Fold a clean tea towel in half and place it on the bottom of a baking tray (this will prevent the bottom of the pudding cooking quicker than the rest of the pudding). Place moulds in a baking tray, carefully pour the boiling water in the tray until it comes up 1/3 of the side of the moulds. Bake in oven for 40 minutes or until golden and skewer comes out clean (I found I only needed to cook the puddings for 25 minutes, turning after 15 minutes).

Note: if the puddings start to brown, loosely cover with a piece of foil, shiny side down.

Step 4: Make the almond praline

Meanwhile, for the almond praline, combine sugar and 1 tablespoon of water in a saucepan over medium heat and cook caramel without stirring, swirling pan, until deep golden. Scatter almonds onto a baking paper lined oven tray, pour over caramel and cool until set. Break praline into pieces.

Step 5: Make the butterscotch sauce

For the butterscotch sauce, combine butter, sugar, and cream in small saucepan over low heat until butter melts and sugar dissolves. Bring sauce to the boil, reduce heat and cook for 5-6 minutes or until sauce thickens slightly.

Step 6: Serving

Run a butter knife around the pudding to loosen. Invert the hot pudding onto a serving plate, top with butterscotch sauce, shards of praline and a dollop of cream.

Chicken pistachio korma

noreply@blogger.com (Essential ingredients) — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 09:34:00 +0000

This picture really doesn't do this curry justice. Not only is this easy to make, it tastes great too.

The thought of making a curry from scratch has always been fairly daunting for me. I always thought they'd be really complicated and taste nothing like the curries I've come to love from some of the local digs in Canberra. For those of you in Canberra I highly recommend Blu Ginger (in Civic) and Taj Agra (in Dickson).

So one day during my lunch break I ventured out into the cold to buy a mortar and pestle. What better way to christen it than to make a curry... from scratch!?

Chicken pistachio korma

(Adapted from Poh's Kitchen)

Serves 5

4 onions, roughly chopped
¾ cup pistachio kernels
3 green chillies, roughly chopped
30ml oil
3 tsp ginger paste
3 tsp garlic paste
1 tbs coriander powder
1 tsp white pepper powder
700 gr diced chicken thigh fillets (skin and fat removed)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
3/4 cup yogurt
1/2 cup cream
3/4 tsp garam masala powder (made from ground equal quantities (2 gr of each) of roasted cumin seeds, cinnamon sticks, cloves, green cardamom and black peppercorn)

Step 1: Prepare the sauce
Boil onions in a pot of water for 10 minutes, drain, cool and puree in a food processor.

Meanwhile put the cumin seeds in a fry pan and roast for a few minutes, be careful not to burn them. Using a mortar and pessel, grind all of the spices so that you have a fine powder. Set aside.

Puree pistachios and green chilli.

Step 2: Cook the sauce
Heat the oil and add the onions and saute for four minutes, do not brown. Add ginger and garlic pastes. Fry for one minute and stir in coriander and pepper powders. Add pistachio and green chilli paste and cook for about a minute.

Step 3: Cook the curry
Put in the chicken with the salt and sugar and mix well. Add a little water (1/4 cup) and simmer over a medium heat until the chicken is cooked. Stir in the yogurt and cook for a further two minutes.

Add cream and garam masala and stir through.

Serve with boiled basmati rice and green beans.

Fajitas and tortillas

noreply@blogger.com (Essential ingredients) — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 11:54:00 +0000

Despite the vast improvement in gluten/ wheat free products over the years, there's one thing I find to be consistently gross, hard and near unpalatable -- tortillas! For those of you that are gluten free you'll know exactly what I mean. If you are after store bought GF tortillas that roll without snapping, good luck finding one. After seeing a post by a blogger that I quite like (Anita at Leave Room for Dessert -- http://leaveroomfordessert.com/) with a recipe for tortillas and fajitas, I decided it was time to give gluten free tortillas a go.

Gluten free tortillas

(Recipe adapted from Anita at Leave Room for Dessert)

Makes 5

2 c gf plain flour

1/16 tsp baking powder

55 gr butter, soften slightly

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp gluten substitute (e.g. Organ Gluten Substitute)

1/2 c plus 1 to 2 tbsp warm water

Fajitas

500 gr rump steak, thinly slice

1 red capsicum, thinly sliced

1 tbsp oil

Sour cream

Lettuce

Salsa

Grated cheese

Fajita marinade

1 c water

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp white pepper

1 tsp salt

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tsp ground chilli powder (more if you like things spicy!)

pinch ground cloves (I ground up 4 cloves in the mortar and pestle and used those)

3 tsp minced garlic

1/4 c red wine vinegar

1/4 cup oil

1 orange, zest pared into strips and juiced

1 lemon, zest pared into strips and juiced

Caramelised onions

1 onion, peeled and thinly sliced

1/2 tbsp oil

1 tbsp brown sugar

Step 1: Making the tortilla dough

Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and gluten substitute into a bowl. Add the butter, rubbing it and the flour between your fingers until you get a mixture that resembles breadcrumbs. Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in 1/2 c warm water. Mix to form a dough. If your mixture is dry add a little extra water, 1 tbsp at a time, working the mixture into a dough after each addition. Bring the mixture together to form a ball, kneading together for a few minutes. Return the dough to the bowl, cover and rest for 20 minutes.

Step 2: Prepare the marinade

Place the water, red wine vinegar and juices into a bowl. Add all of the spices and 2 ribbons of zest from both the orange and the lemon. Slowly whisk in the olive oil and set aside for 15 minutes.

Marinate the meat for 30 minutes to 1 hour.

Step 3: Caramelising the onions

Place the sliced onions and oil in a small sauce pan over a medium heat. Cook the onions until soft and translucent, about 10 minutes. Reduce the heat a little and add the brown sugar. Continue to cook the onions for around 20 minutes, stirring as needed so they don't stick to the saucepan.

Note: if you find the mixture is getting too dry, add a little more oil.

Step 4: Rolling out and cooking the tortillas

While the onions are cooking, you can roll out and cook your tortillas.

Break the dough into 5 equal portions, rolling each portion into a small ball. Preheat a fry pan or crepe pan to a medium/high heat. Roll out one of balls, on a silicone mat or lightly floured board, until a thin tortilla round is formed.

Place the tortilla on the preheated pan and cook for 1 minute on each side, or until lightly browned. Place the cooked tortilla on a plate and cover with a clean tea towel to keep warm. Repeat with remaining dough.

Note: little air bubbles will form in the tortilla dough when you are cooking it. This is normal.

Step 5: Cooking the meat and capsicums

Heat a fry pan to medium/ high heat. Add the oil, a few tablespoons of the marinade and the capsicums. Cook the capsicums for a few minutes until tender and remove from the pan.

Add the meat to the fry pan in a few small batches and cook until just browned. Keep the cooked batches covered while you finish cooking the meat.

Step 6: Assembling the tortilla

Place the tortilla on a plate. Spread a line of sour cream and salsa (I prefer mine without salsa) down the middle of the tortilla. Add the lettuce, meat, vegetables and grated cheese in a line down the centre of the tortilla, leaving room at one edge to fold up. Once the bottom is folded up, fold in the sides and enjoy!

Chocolate and passion fruit tartlets

noreply@blogger.com (Essential ingredients) — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 04:08:00 +0000

Dessert has become a regular thing in our household. Maybe it's got to do with winter setting in or me being inspired by Masterchef to create delicious things, but these days our fridge seems to be full of tarts (both sweet and savoury), creme brulees, cheesecakes, brownies and other goodies.

I was looking for inspiration for dessert recipes the other day and found it in the form of passionfruits. Passionfruit is usually pretty expensive at this time of year but for some reason my local supermarket was selling them for 29 cents each... so I brought 20! What is one to do with 20 passionfruits?

I remember a while back thinking I'd like to put a twist on the traditional lemon tart and use passionfruit juice instead, so that's what I did. I couldn't have been happier with the result. The filling was lusciously creamy and tangy. This will be a recipe I'll repeat the next time passionfruit is ridiculously cheap. The passionfruit juice can be substituted with anything acidic -- lemon, orange, lime or even grapefruit.

Chocolate and passionfruit tartlets (Recipe by Stef at Essential ingredients)

Serves 6

Ingredients

Passionfruit filling

3 eggs

1 egg yolk

150 gr caster sugar

150 ml cream

200 ml passion fruit juice (20 to 30 passionfruits)

Crust

220 gr plain flour (I use White Wings gluten free flour)

30 gr cocoa

100 gr icing sugar

100 gr unsalted butter

pinch salt

Step 1: Make the pastry

To make the pastry, place the flour, sugar, cocoa and butter in a food processer. Blend until the mixture looks like bread crumbs. Add the eggs and blend until combined.

Turn the mixture out onto a lightly floured board (or a silicon mat) and bring together into a ball, kneading until smooth. Wrap the dough in plastic and set to rest in the fridge for 20 minutes.

Step 2: Make the tart cases

Grease six 12 cm-diameter loose-bottomed tart tins.

Remove the pastry from the fridge. Divide the dough into 6 equal portions. Make a disc from one of the pastry portions and place it on a lightly floured board. Roll the pastry so it is around 5cms wider than the tart tin and about 3mm thick. Fit the pastry to the tin, pushing in into the fluted edges and trimming off any excess pastry. Repeat this for the other tins. Put in the fridge for 20 minutes to prevent the dough from shrinking.

Wrap and leftover dough in cling film and store in the fridge for a week or in the freezer for up to a month.

Step 3: Cooking the tart cases

Preheat an oven to 170 C (150 C if you are using a fan forced oven). Place a piece of baking paper in the tart cases and fill with ceramic weight, beans or rice. Blind bake for 10 minutes.

Remove the cases from the oven and increase the temperature to 180 C (160 C if you are using a fan forced oven). Remove the baking paper and the weights. Place the cases back into the oven and cook for a further 4 minutes. Remove and set aside to cool. Reduce the oven temperature to 140 C (120 C fan forced).

Step 4: Preparing the passionfruit juice

Cut each passionfruit in half and scoop out the pulp, trying not to loose too much juice. Place the pulp in a sieve over a bowl. When you’ve done this for half of the passionfruits use the back of a spoon the push out as much juice as possible from the pulp. Repeat this with the other half of the passionfruits. You can keep the passionfruit pulp and use it for another recipe.

Step 5: Making the passionfruit filling

To make the filling, lightly mix together the eggs, egg yolk and caster sugar in a bowl until sugar has dissolved. Stir in the cream and passionfruit juice. The mixture will thicken at this stage and some of the egg yolk may clump together. This is what is meant to happen. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve into a jug. Pour the filling into the tartlets shells and bake for 15-20 minutes or until just set. The tartlets are cooked when the filling still wobbles slightly in the centre. Leave to cool to room temperature.

Pumpkin, feta and sage risotto

noreply@blogger.com (Essential ingredients) — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 12:07:00 +0000

Risotto on a cold Canberra evening always goes down a treat. This is one of the few risottos I make that doesn't change. I've made it so many times that it's pretty much part of my DNA. My boyfriend and I love this risotto. I hope you enjoy it too. If you don't want it to be a purely vegetarian affair, add 100 gr of prosciutto as well.

Pumpkin and feta risotto (Recipe by Stef @ Essential ingredients)

Serves 4 - 6

1 litre chicken stock

1 tbsp olive oil

30 gr butter

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 onion, finely diced

1 ½ c aborio rice

½ c dry white wine

1/3 cup grated parmesan

500 gr kent pumpkin, cubed

100 gr spinach

125 gr Danish feta, cubed

¼ c pinenuts, toasted

12 sage leaves

salt to taste

Step 1: Prepare the stock

Place the stock and water in a medium saucepan. Bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and let simmer.

Step 2: Prepare the risotto base

Place the oil in a large heavy based saucepan over a medium heat. Add the garlic and onions to the pan. Cook the onion until translucent, about 4 minutes. Add the rice to the pot and stir to coat with the oil. Cook the, stirring, for a few minutes until the rice is opaque.

Step 3: Cooking the rice

Pour the wine in the sides of the pan, stirring until absorbed. Add 8 finely chopped sage leaves and stir to combine.

Add the stock to the rice, ½ cup at a time, stirring until absorbed. Continue to add the stock to the rice in ½ cup batches until the liquid is absorbed. Total cooking time should be about 35 minutes, or until the rice is just tender.

Step 4: Prepare the pinenuts and pumpkin (Note: be sure to keep an eye on your risotto stirring as needed if you’re going to do this step while the rice is cooking)

Preheat an oven to 180 C (160 C fan forced). Place the pinenuts on a tray and cook for 3 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and set aside.

Meanwhile, take the skin off the pumpkin and cut into cubes. Place the pumpkin in a pot of boiling salted water and cook for 5 minutes, or until tender. Drain the pumpkin and refresh in a bowl of iced water. Mash 300 gr of the pumpkin and set aside.

In a separate saucepan heat 30 gr of butter with a little oil and 4 of the sage leaves. Place the remaining 200 gr of the cubed pumpkin in the saucepan and cook for a few minutes, until browned, on one side the turn and repeat. When the pumpkin is nicely browned, place it on a piece of absorbent kitchen paper and set aside.

Step 5: Finishing the risotto

Add the parmesan to the risotto and stir through. Then add the spinach and cook for a few minutes until wilted. Stir through the pumpkin puree, toasted pinenuts and cubed feta. Take the risotto off the heat and add the browned pumpkin. Gently stir to distribute the pumpkin through the risotto. Taste and season with salt and pepper as necessary.

Bloomin' brilliant chocolate brownies

noreply@blogger.com (Essential ingredients) — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 09:42:00 +0000

I've had a lot of brownies in my time. My favourite type of brownie is chocolatey, dense and fudge-like in texture. I'm not after something light. For me, brownies are serious devil food :D!

I had some friends over last Sunday which was the prefect excuse to whip up these babies. But really, who needs an excuse?! This recipe come from Jamie Oliver.

While posting this I'm wishing we still had some brownies left in the fridge!

Bloomin' brilliant chocolate brownies (Recipe by Jamie Oliver)

Serves 20

50 g unsalted butter
200 g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), broken up
150 g chopped nuts (I use macadamia nuts. Please note that the recipe only calls for 50 g but I love nuts!)
80 g cocoa powder, sifted
65 g plain flour, sifted (I use White Wing plain gluten free flour)
1 teaspoon baking powder
360 g caster sugar
4 large free-range or organic eggs

Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Line a 25cm square baking tin with greaseproof paper. In a large bowl over some simmering water, melt the butter and the chocolate and mix until smooth.

Add the nuts, if you’re using them, and stir together. In a separate bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, flour, baking powder and sugar, then add this to the chocolate, cherry and nut mixture. Stir together well. Beat the eggs and mix in until you have a silky consistency.
Pour your brownie mix into the baking tray, and place in the oven for around 25 minutes.

You don’t want to overcook them so, unlike cakes, you don’t want a skewer to come out all clean. The brownies should be slightly springy on the outside but still gooey in the middle.

Allow to cool in the tray, then carefully transfer to a large chopping board and cut into chunky squares. These make a fantastic dessert served with a dollop of crème fraîche mixed with some orange zest.

Smoked chicken risotto

noreply@blogger.com (Essential ingredients) — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 10:32:00 +0000

Risotto is one of those great meals that is versatile and yummy. I have a few risottos that I make that actually call for a set list of ingredients. However, most of my risottos are developed out of what ever is left in the fridge. That's how this risotto was born.

Risotto is also great for those among us that are gluten intolerant. It can also be as healthy or as naughty as you like. I'm sure to post many more risotto recipes.

Bon appetit!

Smoked chicken risotto (Recipe by Stef @ Essential ingredients)

Serves 4 - 6

1 litre chicken stock

½ c water

1 tbsp olive oil

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 onion, finely diced

1 ½ c aborio rice

½ c dry white wine

3 rashers of bacon

1/3 cup grated parmesan

250 gr smoked chicken, sliced

200 gr mushrooms, sliced

½ c peas

¼ broccoli floret buds

100 gr spinach

2 tbsp whole grain mustard

2 tbsp sour cream

2 tbsp parsley, chopped

salt to taste

Step 1: Prepare the stock

Place the stock and water in a medium saucepan. Bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and let simmer.

Step 2: Prepare the risotto base

Place the oil in a large heavy based saucepan over a medium heat. Add the garlic, chopped bacon and onions to the pan. Cook the onion until translucent, about 4 minutes. Add the rice to the pot and stir to coat with the oil. Cook the, stirring, for a few minutes until the rice is opaque.

Step 3: Cook the rice

Pour the wine in the sides of the pan, stirring until absorbed. Add the stock to the rice, ½ cup at a time, stirring until absorbed. Continue to add the stock to the rice in ½ cup batches until the liquid is absorbed. Total cooking time should be about 35 minutes, or until the rice is just tender.

Once all the liquid has been absorbed, add the parmesan and mustard to the rice mixture, stir to combine.

Step 4: Finish the risotto

Add the sliced mushrooms, peas, broccoli, spinach and chicken to the risotto in separate batches, stirring after each addition. Take the risotto off the heat and stir in the sour cream and chopped parsley. Taste and season with salt and pepper as necessary.

Caramel apple cheesecake

noreply@blogger.com (Essential ingredients) — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 11:56:00 +0000

Caramel apple cheesecake (Recipe by Stef @ Essential ingredients)

Serves 12

Crust

1 pkt rice cookies, crushed

115 gr butter, melted

1 tbsp icing sugar

½ tsp ground cinnamon

Cheesecake filling

Apple filling

1 ½ tbsp butter

2 granny smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into small cubes

3 tbsp brown sugar

½ tsp ground cinnamon

Cheesecake batter

600 gr cream cheese, at room temperature

4 eggs

125 gr brown sugar

2 tsp corn flour

Step 1: Prepare the biscuit base

Grease a 20 cm diameter spring form pan and line the base and sides with baking paper. Put the rice cookies in a food processor and blitz to a fine crumb. Add the melted butter, icing sugar and ground cinnamon. Blitz until the mixture comes together. Press the biscuits into the base of the tin and place in the refrigerator while you prepare the filling. Preheat your oven to 180 C (160 C if using fan forced).

Step 2: Prepare the apple filling

Melt the butter in a saucepan over a medium heat. Add the brown sugar, cinnamon and apples. Stir to combine. Cook the apples for about 3 minutes, or until tender. Set aside to cool.

Step 3: Prepare the cheesecake batter

Put a kettle full of water on to boil. In a clean food processor, blend the cream cheese, brown sugar and cornflour adding the eggs one at a time. Continue to blend until smooth.

Step 4: Assemble the cheesecake

Place the cooked apples on the biscuit base. Gently pour other cheesecake batter over the apples. Wrap the tin in a few layers of foil to prevent water seeping in from the water bath.

Step 5: Prepare the water bath

Place the tin in a deep baking dish and pour in the boiled water around the cheesecake so that it comes halfway up the sides of the cheesecake tin. Be careful not to splash the cheesecake.

Step 6: Baking and setting the cheesecake

Cook the cheesecake for about 45 to 55 minutes. The cheesecake is done when the outside is set and there is a slight wobble in the centre. Remove the cheesecake from the water bath and return it to the oven. Turn the oven off. Let the cheesecake sit in the oven for 1 hour. Place the cheesecake on a wire rack and transfer to the fridge, covered in cling film when cool.

Strawberry hazelnut gateau

noreply@blogger.com (Essential ingredients) — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 04:24:00 +0000

My mum has been making this cake for me for years. I've had it on many occasions - on birthdays, christmases and just because!

A few years ago I started cooking it myself. Mum traditionally uses 'pavlova magic' instead of egg whites. However, I prefer to use fresh ingredients where ever I can so I adapted this recipe to use egg whites instead.

Because strawberries are not always in season or are, at times, ridiculously over priced, I've also made this cake substituting strawberries for tinned black or sour cherries. Frozen raspberries would probably also work quite well. Something I think would be nice, but have yet to try, is to substitute the hazelnut meal with a mixture of macadamia and almond meal and to use tinned sliced mango instead of strawberries.

This cake always makes me think of home :).

Strawberry hazelnut gateau (Recipe adapted from my mum's recipe)

Serves 12

Ingredients

4 egg whites
275 gr caster sugar
1 cup (100g) hazelnut meal
1 tsp white vinegar
½ tsp vanilla extract
185 gr dark chocolate, melted
20 gr butter, melted
600 ml thickened cream, whipped
250 gr strawberries, sliced with a few reserved for garnishing

Step 1: Heating the oven and preparing the tins

Preheat oven 180 C (160C if you are using a fan forced oven). Grease 2 x 20 cm springform tins. Line the base and sides of the tins with baking paper. Grease the paper, sprinkle with cornflour and shake away the excess flour.

Step 2: Prepare the meringue

Beat egg whites in small bowl with electric mixer until soft peaks form. Gradually add the caster sugar, beating after each addition until the sugar is dissolved. Fold in hazelnut meal, vinegar and vanilla extract.
Divide the meringue evenly between the two tins and bake for about 35 minutes or until the meringue is crisp. Release sides of tins and cool meringues on base of tins.

Step 3: Preparing the chocolate ganache

Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water. Stir the chocolate with a metal spoon until it begins to melt. Add the butter to the bowl and continue to stir until all the ingredients are melted and combined. Remove from the bowl from the heat and set aside.

Step 4: Assembling the cake

Remove meringue layers from the bases of the spring form pans and peel off the baking paper. Place one of the meringue layers on plate, flat-side down. Spread it with half of the chocolate mixture and top with 1/2 of the cream and strawberries.

Spread flat side of second meringue layer with remaining chocolate mixture. Place the second meringue disk on top of strawberry layer, chocolate side down. Cover top and sides of cake with the remaining cream.

Step 5: Dress the cake

Decorate the top of the cake and refrigerate for 3 hours.

Lemon chicken

noreply@blogger.com (Essential ingredients) — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 06:52:00 +0000

This dish has been a favourite in our house for a while. I developed it as a way of using some of the lemons my boyfriend's mum would bring us in the summer. It's a taste sensation of sweet and sour. The chicken is crispy and juicy and oh-so-delicious.

There's a lot of sauce in this dish.. mainly because I increased my original quantities by half... we love the sauce that much!

Lemon Chicken (Recipe by Stef @ Essential ingredients)

Serves 4

Serve with boiled rice and steamed greens.

Ingredients

Vegetable oil

600 gr chicken thigh meat

3 egg whites

1 ½ tbsp cornflour

½ tsp salt

8 spring onions

Lemon sauce

1 ½ tbsp cornflour

150 ml chicken stock

¾ c lemon juice (3–4 lemons)

3 tbsp honey

2 ½ tbsp white sugar

Step 1: Prepare the lemon sauce

Mix the cornflour and 3 tbsp of the chicken stock in a small saucepan over a medium heat. Add the remaining chicken stock, lemon juice, honey and white sugar. Stir to combine. Increase the heat to a medium-high heat and bring the sauce to the boil. When the sauce reaches boiling point, decrease the heat and simmer the sauce for a further 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside until needed.

Step 2: Preparing the chicken

Pour the oil into a wok or saucepan until one-third full. Heat over medium-high heat until hot.

Slice the chicken into cubes. Whisk the cornflour, salt and egg whites together. Add the chicken to the egg white mixture and coat.

Step 3: Cook the chicken

Fry the chicken in the hot oil in small batches. Once the chicken is cooked, set aside on a paper towel to drain.

Step 4: Combine chicken and sauce

Drain the oil from the wok. Return all the chicken to the wok and heat through for 3 minutes. Add the lemon sauce and the sliced shallots to the chicken and toss to coat the chicken. Cook until the sauce becomes “sticky”, about 3 minutes.

Triple chocolate praline tart

noreply@blogger.com (Essential ingredients) — Mon, 31 May 2010 07:50:00 +0000

This tart is truly a sweet-tooth's dream. Not only does it contain three chocolate elements -- chocolate pastry, chocolate cream filling and dark chocolate ganache topping -- it is also loaded with delectably caramely praline. Adding the praline to the chocolate cream filling results in the caramel from the praline going nice and oozy in places. Sublime!

I first made this little number for a competition at work -- which I very proudly won. It was devoured in about five minutes flat. It's debut was on Mothers' day. My little tart travelled with me from Canberra to Brisbane, making it all the way through airport security without a problem. It was a treat I just had to share with my family. When your mum asks you for the recipe, you know you've done a good job!

Triple chocolate praline tart

Adapted from Gourmet Traveller

Serves 12
Chocolate pastry
200 gr gluten free plain flour (I use White Wings)
60 gr pure icing sugar
30 gr dutch press cocoa
100 gr cold butter
2 eggs (I use free range eggs with a minimum weight of 55gm)

Milk chocolate praline filling
Praline
150 gr hazelnuts, roasted and skinned
175 gr caster sugar
100 ml water

Chocolate cream filling
300 ml cream
400 gr milk chocolate

Ganache
80ml cream
20ml milk
100gm dark chocolate

Step 1: Prepare pastry
Process flour, icing mixture and cocoa in a food processor until combined. Add butter and eggs. Process until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Turn onto a lightly floured work surface (or silicon mat) and knead pastry until comes together.

Note: if your pastry is not coming together because it is too dry add water, a table spoon at a time, and combine after each addition until it does.

Wrap the pastry in cling wrap and refrigerate for 30 mins to rest.

Step 2: Prepare praline
Preheat oven to 180 C (160 C if you are using a fan forced oven). Spread hazelnuts on a baking tray and roast for 5 – 10 minutes, or until golden.

To skin the hazelnuts, place half of the roasted nuts in a clean tea towel and rub the nuts between the tea towel until the skins come away. Repeat this with the remaining nuts. Put all the nuts on a sheet of non-stick baking paper on a tray.

Place sugar and water in a saucepan over low heat and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until the sugar dissolves. Increase heat to high and bring to the boil. Boil, without stirring, swirling or brushing down the side of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in water, for 8 minutes or until golden. Set aside until the bubbles subside.

Pour the caramel mixture over the nuts and leave to set.

When the praline is set, put it in a food processor or crush it until finely ground. Set aside.

Step 3: Tart case
Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface so that it is about 3mm thick. Grease a 28cm diameter loose-bottomed tart tin and fit the pastry into the tin, pushing it into all of the fluted edges. Refrigerate for 20 minutes to prevent the case from shrinking during baking.

Put a sheet of baking paper inside the tart case and fill with rice, dried beans or ceramic weights. Blind bake the case for 10 minutes at 180 C (or 160 C if you are using a fan forced oven). Remove the rice and paper or weights and bake for another 10 minutes, or until crisp.

While the tart case is baking, make the chocolate filling.

Step 4: Preparing the chocolate and hazelnut praline filling
Scald the cream in a small saucepan over a medium heat (do not let the cream come to the boil). Remove the cream from the heat. Add the chocolate and stir until smooth. Stir in ¾ of the praline mixture (reserve remaining to serve/ decorate). Spoon the filling into the tart, smooth over and refrigerate until set (2-3 hours or overnight).

Step 5: Chocolate ganache
Combine cream and milk in a small saucepan scald over a medium heat (do not let it boil). Add the dark chocolate, remove from heat, and stir until smooth. Let the mixture cool for 10 – 15 minutes, stirring every few minutes so it does not set.

When the ganache has cooled, spread it over the tart, smoothing the top. Refrigerate the tart until the ganache is set (45 minutes – 1 hour).

Step 6: Decorating
Sprinkle the remaining praline around the outside edge of the tart to decorate.

Banana, caramel and passionfruit tart

noreply@blogger.com (Essential ingredients) — Sun, 30 May 2010 09:23:00 +0000

Since discovering I have a wheat intolerance a few years ago, certain foods became taboo. Pastas, gnocchi and pastries. I love all things pastry.

Recently I tried my hand at making gluten free pastry and, after having great results with a number of different pastries (pate brisees, sucrees and sablees), I've been obsessed with all things (gluten free) pastry!

My latest creation was inspired after having dinner at my boyfriend's parents' house where I was offered some delicious banana, caramel and passionfruit tart for dessert (and had to throw away the pastry because it was not gluten free!).

The gooey caramel and sweet bananas contrast so well with the crisp pastry and tart sourness of the passion fruits.

Banana, caramel and passionfruit tart (Recipe by Stef @ Essential ingredients)

Serves 8

This recipe could easily be made with normal plain flour.

Ingredients

4 passion fruits

2 lady finger bananas, sliced into thin rings

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp brown sugar

300 ml cream

1 tsp icing sugar

Pastry

125 gr gluten free plain flour (I use White Wings)

50 gr unsalted butter

50 gr pure icing sugar

1 egg

Caramel

275 gr caster sugar

1/3 c water

110 gr cream

135 gr unsalted butter

Chocolate ganache

40 gr dark chocolate

30 gr cream

5 ml milk

Step 1: Make the pastry

To make the pastry, place the flour, sugar and butter in a food processer. Blend until the mixture looks like bread crumbs. Add the egg and blend until combined.

Turn the mixture out onto a lightly floured board (or a silicon mat) and bring together into a ball, kneading until smooth. Wrap the dough in plastic and set to rest in the fridge for 20 minutes.

Step 2: Make the tart case

Grease a 20 cm loose bottomed flan tin.

Remove the pastry from the fridge. Make a disc from the pastry and place it on a lightly floured board. Roll the pastry so it is around 7cms wide than the tart tin and about 3mm thick. Fit the pastry to the tin, trimming off any excess pastry. Put in the fridge for 20 minutes to prevent the dough from shrinking.

Step 3: Cooking the tart case

Preheat an oven to 170 C (150 C if you are using a fan forced oven). Place a piece of baking paper in the tart case and fill with ceramic weight, beans or rice. Blind bake for 15 minutes.

Remove the case from the oven and increase the temperature to 180 C (160 C if you are using a fan forced oven). Remove the baking paper and the weights. Place case back into the oven and cook for a further 5 minutes. Remove and set aside to cool.

Step 4: Making the ganache

Scald the cream and the milk in a small saucepan. Pour the warm cream mixture over the chocolate and stir until smooth.

One the pastry has cooled slightly, brush the chocolate evenly over the base and sides of the case. Put in the refrigerator for 10 minutes or until the chocolate is set.

Step 5: Making the caramel

Combine sugar and 1/3 cup water in a saucepan and stir over medium-high heat until the sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil and cook for 8-10 minutes or until medium-caramel in colour, remove from heat.

Meanwhile, heat the cream for 30 seconds on high in a microwave. Carefully add cream and butter to the caramel mixture (be careful as the mixture will bubble and spit), stir to combine. Return to heat and cook for 2 minutes or until smooth. Let the caramel mixture cool slightly then pour into pastry case and refrigerate for 2 hours or until set. Note: you do not want the caramel to be hot or it will melt the chocolate in the tart case.

Step 6: Preparing the tart dressing

Place the pulp of 4 passionfruit in a sieve to drain the juice. Reserve the juice.

Heat 1 tbsp of butter in a saucepan over a medium heat. Add the brown sugar and stir until dissolved. Add 1 of the bananas to the pan, cook for 1 minute on each side. Remove the banana slices from the sugar and butter mixture and set aside.

Stir the other banana slices with half of the passionfruit juice. Remove from the juice and set aside.

Add the other half of the passionfruit juice and 1 tsp of icing sugar to the cream and whip until medium stiff peaks form. Set aside.

Step 7: Dressing the tart

Lay the banana slices on the caramel, alternating between the cooked and uncooked banana slices. Spread half of the passionfruit pulp over the banana slices. Top the bananas and passionfruit with the whipped cream. Scatter the remaining passionfruit pulp decoratively over the cream.