Peanut Butter Pie!

So it was my annual Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday night, I do think it was my best ever! The turkey was amazing, the soup turned out just fine, and the pies were all pretty good!

This recipe is from Maggie Beer's cookbook 'Maggie's Kitchen'. It has a number of wonderful recipe's in it, and, as I have previously posted, I really do feel that all her cooking is very approachable & 'common sense-ish'. She does amazing recipes very simply, which mean that even someone with meagre cooking skills could easily make this pie.

This pie requires minimal baking (the base for 10 mins), but substantial fridge time - a minimum of 4 hours, ideally overnight. I then pull it from the fridge when I'm serving the main course, giving it a chance to come to room temperature a little, before slicing & serving it up.

I absolutely intend to make this again, the only thing I would do differently is perhaps use 50% chocolate from the top. I found the 70% chocolate (I use Lindt) to be a bit too dark for my tastes, and I am a dark chocolate fan! I think something lighter, with a bit more sweetness, would have been better. Entirely a matter of taste of course!

Maggie Beer's Peanut Butter Pie

the crust

180g wheatgerm biscuits (I used Digestives, but Arrowroot, or Breton crackers would work well to)
90g unsalted butter, melted
3 tsp caster sugar

the filling
1 cup (250ml) pure (thin) cream
1/2 cup (75g) caster sugar
320g cream cheese, chopped, at room temperature
375g crunchy salt-free peanut butter

the topping
150ml thickened cream
150g dark chocolate (70 percent cocoa), chopped
20g unsalted butter

Method
Preheat oven to 180 deg C.

Pulse the biscuits in a food processor until they all crumbs. Add sugar and melted butter and pulse to combine, then press into the base of a 22cm springform cake pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Set aside to cool.

For the filling, place the cream and sugar in a saucepan and simmer over low heat for 3-4 minutes, stirring until the sugar dissolves. Make sure you keep stirring until it dissolves, or else the sugar will form into sort of rock crystals, and will not be usable.

Blend the cream cheese and peanut butter in food processor until combined. Add the cream mixture and pulse to combine (or mix in by hand). Spoon the filling on top of the pie crust and leave to cool.

Now at this point, I popped it in the fridge for an hour or so. This is only because I had forgotten to get chocolate for the topping, and had other things I needed to do before popping to the shops. I think refrigerating for an hour or so works well. But it isn't in the recipe instructions.

For the topping, bring the cream to just below boiling point in a saucepan over high heat. Place chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl, then pour the hot cream over. Leave for 3 minutes without touching. Then gently stir to melt the chocolate and butter into the cream. Pour the topping over the pie.

Chill the pie in the fridge, uncovered, for 4 hours or longer.

I put a piece of baking paper over the top as my fridge was packed w/ a heap of different things, and I didn't want any of the smells to get in. Again, this isn't in the recipe instructions.

I would suggest serving very thing slices . . . it is pretty rich!

Shaariya Medfouna

Or 'Buried in Vermicelli'!

This is from a cookbook by the fabulous Claudia Roden called Arabesque. She really is one of the best English speaking authorities on Middle Eastern Food.

This dish is a speciality of Fez, and it is so yummy. It is a good dish for people who aren't accustomed to much i the way of herbs or spices. It is wonderfully flavoursome, but not overpowering.

In Morocco they also cook pigeons & lamb in a similar way. This isn't the full recipe (which calls for 2 whole chickens). This is the version I made for lunch w/ my gorgeous friend Mikarla.

2 large chicken breasts
4-5 chicken thighs
2 onions, chopped
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp saffron threads
60g butter
2 tsp clear honey
1 tsp orange blossom water (optional)
handful chopped parsley
handful chopped coriander
100g blanched almonds
500g vermicelli nests

Put the chicken into a pan & pour in 500ml of water & bring to a boil. Skim the scum from the surface. Add the onions, half of each of the cinnamon, ginger, and saffron. Add salt & pepper & simmer, covered. Turn the chicken occasionally so they are well cooked all over.

Lift the chicken out of the pan (keep warm somewhere), and turn the heat up on the liquid mix and reduce it slightly. Add the butter, honey & orange blossom water & cook for a few minutes. Taste & season w/ S&P. Add the chopped herbs, the rest of the spices & return the chicken bits to the pan.

Dry roast some flaked almonds in a frying pan until nicely toasted - be careful, they can burn very easily.

Bring a pot of water to the boil, and cook the vermicelli until al dente.

Put the noodles on top of the chicken, scatter the almonds over the top & serve.

Wine Match
I served this with a lovely bottle of lightly oaked Chardonnay from the Bloodwood vineyard. I think the mellower flavours of a Chardonnay work better than the crispness of a Sauv Blanc or Pinot Grigio.  A semillion might also work.

Slow Cooked Beef Cheeks w/ Baharat

Hello again!

This recipe comes from one of the more unique cookbooks that I own, 'Spice Notes & Recipes' by Ian Hemphill, the owner & operator of Herbie's Spices in Rozelle.

Herbies is the best foodie shop in Sydney. It has every conceivable spice. Literally. You walk in & it is floor to ceiling herbs & spices, row upon row.

http://www.herbies.com.au/

This definitely qualifies as 'slow cooking'. It takes about 4 or so hours, though is very quick to bring together.

To make this dish you need baharat. You can by it already prepared from Herbies (it is $4.40, and they will post it to you if that is easier), or you can make it yourself - let me know if you want the recipe to do this.

You will likely need to go to a specialist butcher to get beef (or 'ox' - they are the same thing) cheeks. They are relatively inexpensive, and are a wonderful stewing meat. They really take on the flavours of everything in the pot.

2 Tbs Baharat spice mix

1 Tbs flour

2 or 3 large carrots, peeled & cut into fingers

2 parsnips, peeled & cut into fingers

1 kg beef cheeks

1 cup dry white wine

mashed potato to serve

Preheat the oven to 150'c.

Combine the Baharat & the flour in a bowl, mixing well, then use this mix to coat the beef cheeks. In the oven-proof dish you intend to use, heat some olive oil, and then seal the cheeks on both sides. You may need to do this in batches.

Put all of the vegetables in to the pot, place the sealed beef cheeks on top, then add the cup of red wine. You may need to add enough cold water so that everything is (just) covered by liquid; I usually add about another cup. Bring everything to a gentle boil on the stove top before placing the lid on the pot, and putting it in the oven, reducing the temperature to 100'c. My oven is a gas oven, and it won't go lower than 120'c, and this is fine.

Cook for around 4 hours, or until the meat is easily pulls away when pressed. This should serve between 4 - 6 people.

Taste, season w/ S&P and serve atop mashed potatoes. The ultimate cold-weather-comfort food!

Wine Match!

This, obviously, is a red wine dish! Ideally serve it with the wine you used in the cooking, or failing that the same varietal.

Roast Capsicum Soup

Yes, another soup! But it is that time of year, and this is a delicious and easy soup, & as it is dairy free (the yoghurt is just a garnish), it freezes very well.

This is from the massive 'Marie Clair - Kitchen' cookbook. It was a gift to me from my friend Kitty, in a round about, amusing way. My friend Nat & I had given Kitty this book as an engagement present. When Kitty left the firm where we worked a few months later, they gave her this same book as a farewell present .... a fact Kitty quickly & loudly announced as she unwrapped it!

So the book found its way to me as an early Christmas present. I use many of the recipe's in here. Its 'cocktail' section is particularly good. The recipe for blinis is very good, as are a couple other of the 'canapes' that I have tried (pan-fried mushrooms w/ pancetta on sliced french bread - yum!).

I have made this soup several times. It always turns out well, it always tastes delicious, it is great in winter w/ its chilli kick, and it looks a little bit impressive. Win, win, win in my book!

In the picture above I served it with a dollop of Maggie Beer's salsa / pesto thing. This works fantastically well, but this isn't a required part of the recipe: yoghurt and fresh mint are the traditional garnish.

Roast Capsicum Soup

4 red capsicums

4 tomatoes
olive oil
500ml vegetable stock (as good a quality as possible)
1 tsp chilli powder, or 1 dried chilli, sliced (more of course it you want!)
1 tsp cumin
yughurt (to serve)
fresh mint (to serve)

Preheat the oven to 200'c.  
 
Put a few good glugs of olive oil into a roasting tin, add the whole tomatoes & capsicums, and use your hands to make sure each veg is has a good coating of the oil.
 
Put into the oven (I also turn the oven's fan on), and roast for 25 - 30 minutes or until the caps have started to blacken. then remove from oven, and when cool enough to handle, remove the skins & seeds from the capsicums, and put into a blender with the still-whole tomatoes, & blitz till smooth.
 
Put the vegetable stock in a saucepan, add the tomato/capsicum mix, and stir to mix well together. Taste, and season w/ S&P as necessary.
 
Add the chilli & cumin, stirring well into the soup, then bring the whole thing to a boil. After you've had a rapid boil for a couple of minutes it is ready to either serve, or you can keep on a low heat (or take off the heat), and just warm it up again when you are ready.
 
Serve w/ a dollop of thick yoghurt & some crushed/sliced fresh mint leaves.
 
 
 
 

Maggie Beer's Barossa Chicken w/ Raisins & Pesto

This is a recipe from Maggie Beer's amazing book 'Harvest' . . . . quite possibly the most expensive cookbook ever! It has an embroidered cover, making me permanently terrified of having it on the countertop when I cook: don't imagine the stains would come out easily!

I hadn't visited it in a while - I've had it around 18 months . . . I think I was intimidated by just how gorgeous it is: I don't want to get it dirty! It is a wonderful cook book (tome is a better word!), and one to really treasure. Reading through over the weekend, I was inspired by many of the recipes, and I will be trying quite a few different things from this one over the coming months, so watch this space

There is a recipe for peach (apricot?) halves, where you fill the kernel hole w/ butter, ginger & almonds, that is just so simple, and utterly delicious. One of my best dessert ever according to my brother, and he is an expert!

There are a few different steps to this chicken recipe, but none of them are overly complex or tricky.

You need to make this pesto, and make this polenta, and marinate the chicken breasts for an hour so I would suggest either save this for a weekend meal., or if you want this for a special mid-week dinner, get a little organised and make the pesto, and marinate the chicken etc ahead of time.

The end result is absolutely worth it!

BTW: 'Verjuice' is something that Ms Beer is quite famous for. In fact I believe she was one of the first people in the world to produce it commercially. You see it in more recipe's now, but you see it in Maggie Beer recipes all the time. It is the juice of unfermented grapes, and you use it similarly to how you might use vinegar, except that it isn't tart at all. Harris Farm stock it (yes, them again! No, I'm not secretly working for them!), as does the DJ's foodhall, and most good deli's. Or you can order it online from her website:

http://www.maggiebeer.com.au/

1/3 cup (55g) raisins

1/4 cup (60ml) verjuice
2 sprigs of rosemary
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
4 free range chicken breasts, (the recipe says skin on, but I used skinless)
1/3 cup (50g) pine nuts
1 tbs butter
Polenta and Salsa Agresto


Soak the raisins in the verjuice overnight (or microwave on 'defrost' setting for 5 mins). If you are like me, and can't figure out how to work your microwave, you could do what I did: I microwaved them on normal for 1.5 mins, and then left to soak until I needed them an hour or so later.

Strip the rosemary leaves & save for another day. Put the rosemary 'twigs' into a dish w/  the olive oil (except 1 tbs, save this for cooking the chicken) & a little pepper, then add the chicken breasts, coating them in the oil/twig mix. Cover & marinate for at least 1 hour.

Pre-heat the oven to 220'c, and moisten the pine nuts w/ a little of the olive oil, place on a baking tray & roast for 5 minutes, or until golden. Be careful as they go from golden to burnt very quickly!

Heat a frying pan large enough to have space between the chicken: if it isn't, cook them in batches. Over medium heat add the butter, and once golden brown, add the saved tablespoon of olive oil. Put the chicken in, skin side down, and fry for 6 - 8 minutes until golden (lots of golden in this recipe!). Flip over & cook the other side. Season, and leave in a warm place, skin side down.

Discard any butter left in the frying pan, and toss in the raisins, and stir to deglaze the pan. Turn up the heat up to high to reduce the liquid by half. Stir in the pine nuts, and mixing to incorporate them well.

Place some polenta, then a chicken breast on a plate, and pour over some of the sauce. Add a generous dolop of the pesto, serve!

Wine Match!
This is lovely with a not-too-sweet rose, pinot noir, but I served it with a bottle of Bloodwood Chardonnay (a cool climate chardonnay from Orange, not too oaky of course!).




 

Salsa Agresto

This is great to serve with the Chicken & Raisin recipe I have also posted. It also goes very well w/ a Roast Capsicum I will post a little later in the week.

It is about 5 minutes of effort, but it is just delicious.

1 cup (160g) almonds    

1 Cup (100g) walnuts
2 cloves garlic
2 3/4 cups flat-leaf parsley leaves
1/2 cup firmly packed basil leaves
1 1/2 tsp sea salt flakes
freshly ground black pepper
3/4 cup (180ml) extra virgin olive oil
3/4 cup (180ml) verjuice

Preheat the oven to 200'c. Roast the almonds & the walnuts in separate dishes for about 5 minutes, shaking occasionally to prevent burning.

Remove from the oven, and rub the walnuts with a teatowel to remove the bitter the bitter part of the skin, then leave to cool.

Blend the nuts, garlic, herbs, spices, salt & 6 grinds from the pepper mill in a food processor w/ a little of the olive oil. With the motor running add the remaining oil, and the verjuice. The consistency should be like a pesto. If it is a little thick, use verjuice, not more oil, to thin it out a little.

Polenta, of the softer variety

I had never made polenta before in my life, but when making the chicken dish, I didn't want to just serve it w/ mashed potatoes. I wanted something a little more special. Also my friend I was making it for (shout out YK!) can't eat gluten, so polenta was an obvious choice.

It is very simple, though the stirring required is labour intensive, the end result is great. I found the version in Maggie Beer's 'Harvest' cook book.

Polenta

125g soft polenta (not the instant stuff!)

1 cup chicken stock

2 cups milk

100g butter

salt & pepper

Combine the stock, milk & butter in a saucepan and bring to scalding point. Reduce the heat, and add the polenta, whisking to incorporate.

Keep whisking / stirring for 30 minutes. Season & serve.

Now, to be fair, I sure as you-know-what didn't want to stand there stirring for 30 mins. I did stir it very frequently, once ever minute or so.

When we sat down to eat our entree, it did stiffen up a little, so I just added a little bit more milk, stirred it through, and it came back beautifully.

Spiced Apple Mergingue: oh my!

I made a new friend on the weekend! How exciting is that!

This dessert was the final course of lunch w/ my new friend, who happens to be gluten intolerant.

As I have previously posted, I am not a fan of gluten free flours etc, they just don't work as well, and frankly I don't see the point of 'imitation'. Either go whole hog, or don't bother.

So what could I do w/ winter fruit, and no flour?

Stew some apples w/ cinnamon & cloves (am reluctant to call it 'stewed apples', but that, effectively, is what it is), pop stiff eggwhites on top, and put the whole thing in the oven.

Spiced Apple Meringue

 4 apples, peeled & cored (I used Granny Smiths)

1 cinnamon stick (or 1 tsp of ground cinnamon)
4 whole cloves (or 1/4 tsp ground cloves)
4 eggwhites
50g + 3tbs sugar

Grease an 1.5ltr oven proof dish w/ butter & set aside. Preheat your oven  to 150'c.

Put the apples, 50g of sugar in a saucepan w/ 2 tbs of cold water, and gently cook, stirring ti dssolve the sugar, at which point you add add the cinnamon & cloves. Keep the heat on med-low, and pop the lid on the pot.

Whisk your eggwhites until peaks form, then, w/ the motor still running, add the 3 tbs of sugar, one tablespoon at a time, making sure each tablespoon is well incorporated in between. Keep beating until stiff peaks form, and the eggwhites are glossy.

  

 I left my apples to infuse overnight, but this isn't really necessary (though it did give them a wonderful flavour). If using the cinnamon stick & whole cloves, pick them out, then line the base of your ovenproof dish w/ the apples, then spoon the stiff eggwhites on top.

Pop into the oven, and bake for 25 - 30 mins, or until the meringue is puffed up & golden.

Serve immediately, as the meringue will deflate when removed from the oven.

I served it w/ thick cream, though vanilla ice-cream, or even custard, would work very well too.

Soup-a-Doup-a! Roast Pumpkin Soup!

I love cold weather. I appreciate that may see me in the minority! One of the reasons I love cold weather is the wonderful, warm hearty food.

This soup is insanely easy: you need a handful of ingredients, and it can be made relatively quickly. Enjoy!

600g pumpkin (I use butternut)

4 cloves of garlic, crushed

2 or 3 sprigs of rosemary

500ml -750ml good quality vegetable stock (depending on how thick you like your soup)

olive oil

Preheat the oven to 180'c. 

Cut the pumpkin into chunks. I prefer to keep the skin on when I roast pumpkin, I think the flavour is better that way, obviously it is totally up to you. Douse the pumpkin, garlic cloves & rosemary in olive oil, and then spread across a baking sheet. Roast in an oven for 25-30 mins or until golden, and soft. 

Put the stock into a saucepan & bring to a gentle boil. 

Remove garlic & rosemary & discard. The skins from the pumpkin & discard. Put the pumpkin into a blender & pulse until smooth. Add ladelfuls of the simmering stock, until you get the deisred consistency, stirring well each time to combine. Taste & season w/ S&P according to your taste. I had some cream in the fridge, so I added that to the pot too, but it isn't necessary.   Serve w/ toasted bread.

Wine Match!

This is lovely w/ a dry white wine or even, if your taste head in this direction, a dry sherry.