Mum's 60th birthday Recipe Requests - Shortcrust Pastry

So, I think it is fair to say that one of the cookery, um, skills (?) I am best known for is anything pastry related.

Generally sweet pastry, the kind that goes with apple pie, pecan pie, and all those good things.

For Mum's birthday I made a couple of savoury tartlets. One was filled with roast vegetables, the other with caramelised onions & goats cheese. The next post will be musings on the subject of tarlet-fillings.

This is how I made the tartlet shells: it is a recipe from Donna Hay's Modern Classics Book 1.

Basic Shortcrust Pastry
2 cups plain flour
145g (5oz) butter
some iced water

Process the flour & the butter in a food processor until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. As I have noted in my previous post it is important not to overwork the pastry mix. Always bear this in mind: there is nothing more dispiriting than tough, flat pastry.

Once you have 'breadcrumbs' slowly, in small increments, add enough iced water to form a smooth dough. I usually find that it doesn't come together into a 'ball', and adding more water ruins the mix. What I do is add a table spoon or two of the iced water, and once you have blended it through the mix, turn off the motor and take a teaspoon and press it against the mix. If it looks like it will 'hold' so that you can form into a smooth ball. It will likely take several tablespoons, but it can vary: in my experience there is no rhyme or reason as to how much water it takes!  Once you have the mixture to the right consistency turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, and very gently knead & roll into a circular disk, wrap in clingwrap, and refrigerate for one hour.

You can then roll it out and shape it as required e.g. for a large pie tin, or for individual tartlets.

Individual Tartlets

Take the pastry out of the fridge and roll it out on a lightly floured surface. Dip a large, upended tumbler glass in flour, and then use it to cut out circles from the pastry, and then line a muffin tray. I use the tumbler as I find cookie-cutters to be too small. Just pick something that will give you a smooth edge, & the right shape.

NEVER grease the tray first when baking pastry: there is enough butter in the thing to stop it from sticking!

Once you've filled all 12 muffin-holes w/ the pastry, place it into the freezer for 20 minutes.

Line each uncooked tartlet case with a square of baking paper, and baking weights (rice, pulses etc work too). Pop into an oven preheated to 180'c for 12 minutes, remove weights & baking paper, and put back into the oven for another 12 minutes, or until golden.

You can fill these whilst still warm, you can let them cool & then fill, or you can let them cool, then put them into the freezer to save for another time.

Mum's 60th birthday Recipe Requests - Lemon Syrup Cake

So I hosted my mother's 60th birthday last night, and it was a lovely evening.

For the birthday cake I made a delicious lemon cake, and it really was so yummy! By request, here is the recipe:

Lemon Syrup Cake 
This cake is very easy to make, and it is just delicious. If at all possible, serve it still slightly warm from the oven with a dollop of thick cream. This has a wonderful lemon flavour, and don't worry about the syrup, it isn't either to citrusy or too sweet: it really is just perfect.

Ingredients
Cake
melted butter
250g self-raising flour
pinch of salt
1 tsp baking powder
grated zest of 1 lemon
200g caster sugar
250g softened unsalted butter
4 large eggs
Syrup
2/3 cup caster sugar
juice of 1 lemon

Preheat oven to 160'c. Line a 24cm springform tin with baking paper. Brush paper & sides of tin well w/ melted butter. Stir flour, salt & baking powder into a bowl.

In a food processor, blitz (really, really blitz) the lemon zest & sugar in a food processor, then add the softened butter until thick & pale.

Add 2 of the eggs, pulse well to combine, then the1/2 flour, the last 2 eggs, then the rest of the flour, pulsing to combine well in between each addition.

Tip the batter into the prepared tin, and bake in an oven for approx 1 hour.

To make the syrup, dissolve the sugar in the lemon juice in a saucepan over medium heat.

Cool the cake for a few minutes in the tin before allowing to cool on a rack. Pierce the cake in a few places before pouring the syrup over, so that it really soaks in.

This is from Stephanie Alexander's seminal book: 'The Cook's Companion'.

She recommends allowing the syrup-soaked cake to cool completely before serving.

If this were a cake for afternoon tea or similar, serving the cake cool is what I would do.

As I noted above, last night I served it warm w/ a dollop thick cream, and it was fantastic. I'd do it this way if you were after a more 'dessert' type of treat.

Wine Match!

This is lovely with a simple glass of champagne for a tres elegant afternoon tea or dessert. A nice riesling could be good too - ask your bottle shop to recommend one to work with lemon flavours; you wouldn't want a riesling high in sugar as that would just be overwhelming I think. If you wanted the ultimate citrus hit, you could serve this with a glass of chilled lemoncello. 

Update: Raspberry & Oat Bars

I made (& then blogged about) these quite late last night, as my pesky cold wouldn't allow me to fall asleep. As they were straight from the oven when I posted the recipe, I hadn't had much of a chance try them (though the smell was just amazing).

O. M. G!! These are freaking awesome!!!

I think the choice of raspberry jam was very important: I used Harris Farm (own brand) raspberry jam.

Why Harris Farm own-brand? Well, when I  looked at the ingredient list of the many, many yummy looking jams they had & compared them (including the expensive fru-fru ones), the Harris Farm jam's list of ingredients stood out as being the best: raspberries (50%), sugar, pectin.

As in: the only 3 ingredients you would find in proper jam like Grandma used to make (assuming your grandma was into jam making that is). All of the other jams had more than 3 ingredients, including preservatives, fillers etc.

The quality of the jam is evidenced by the amazing flavour from these little bars of joy.

These, ladies & gentleman, are a recipe-box keeper!

Delights from Ottolenghi: Raspberry & Oat Bars

And a massive shout out to the gorgeous & much missed Sophie Rose! This recipe comes from 'Ottolenghi: The Cookbook' which was sent to me especially from London by Miss Rose for my birthday last year. Her birthday present for last year is still wrapped in tissue paper & sitting on my dresser: she is a much better friend than I am!

I have never eaten at either of the Ottolenghi establishments, but all I hear is how fabulous they are, and if the recipe's in the cookbook are anything to go by, I can see why it is so popular.

They have a cookbook of new vegetarian recipe's coming out, many of which can be found in a column by Yotam Ottolenghi in my favourite newspaper: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/series/thenewvegetarian

Unfortunately, the cookbooks are not available in Australia, though you may be able to order them online (though they aren't available in the US either, so maybe check a UK based website).

This was a really easy recipe, and I tweaked it a little based on what I had in my pantry: I used self raising flour instead of the plain + baking powder combo, and I used what nuts I had, so I am giving you my recipe, not the original one.

Raspberry & Oat Bars
Base
120g self raising flour
100g unsalted butter, diced
60g caster sugar
a pinch of salt
80g whole rolled oats

Filling
220g raspberry jam

Topping
280g almonds
(or 280g any combo of nuts)
100g butter
75g caster sugar
40ml milk
1 tsp vanilla essence


Preheat the oven to 170'c'. Lightly grease a 20cm square tin & line w/ baking paper.

To make the base, sift the flower into a bowl, and add the butter, sugar & salt, and rub everything together with your fingertips to form crumbs. Stir in the oats, and make sure you work it all together to get a good consistency.

Spread mix over the base of the tin; try not to press down too much, you want the base to remain light. Bake for 20 minutes, or until light brown.

Remove from the oven, allow to cool a little, and then spread the jam over the base.

For the topping, place the nuts in a large bowl. In a small saucepan heat the butter, sugar, milk & vanilla. Stir until the sugar has dissolved, then pour the mixture over the nuts & stir together.

Pack the nut mix evenly over the jam & return to the oven for 30 minutes, until the nuts have turned a nice golden brown.

Leave to cool, then remove from the tin & slice into bars or squares.

Home-Made Praline Ice-Cream

Yes, I make my own ice-cream!

It is relatively straightforward, but if you take your eye off it during the thickening process, you do risk curdling the mix. But your patience & observation will be rewarded: home-made ice-cream is so much better than the store bought stuff.

I am lucky enough to own an ice-cream maker, but you don't necessarily need one. If you use some electric beaters, and then pop in the freezer for 25 mins, then beat again, and repeat 3 or so more times, you will have a lovely creamy ice-cream. 

Ice-cream needs to be beaten to stop the water molecules turning into little ice-crystals; by beating the ice-cream you disperse the water molecules, stopping them from forming into crystals & have a lovely creamy consistency as a result.

This ice-cream is the one thing I know my friends would almost start swinging over to get their share (shout out Mama Nat! xx)

Anth's Praline Ice-Cream

For the Praline:

Preheat the oven to 180'c.

Place 1/3 cup blanched almonds on a baking tray lined

w/ non-stick baking paper & bake for 10 mins or until golden. 

Place 1/2 cup of caster sugar & 1/4 cup water in a

saucepan over low heat & stir until the sugar has dissolved. Do ensure that all the sugar dissolves, or you will end up w/ hard sugar crystals that are of no use to anyone.

Increase the heat and boil the mixture until a lovely golden colour:

    

Remove from the heat, allow the bubbles to sub-side & pour over the almonds.

When set, break into rough pieces, and then (to make it fine enough for ice-cream) blitz in a food processor until a fine-ish powder, though still with the occasional nice lump.

For the Ice-Cream:

1 cup full-cream milk

2 cups single (pouring) cream

1 vanilla bean, split & seeds scraped,

OR

1 tsp vanilla paste

6 egg yolks

2/3 cup caster sugar

Place the milk, cream & vanilla (whole bean & seeds, if that is what you are using) in a saucepan over medium hear & heat, stirring occasionally, until hot but not boiling. Remove from the heat & set aside.

Place the egg yolks & sugar in a bowl & whisk until thick & pale: this is an important step, so don't skip on the whisking! Remove the vanilla bean from the cream mixture (if used) and slowly pour over the egg yolks whisking continually to combine.

Pour the mixture back into the saucepan & stir over low heat for 4 minutes or until the mixture is thick & coats the back of a wooden spoon, so that when you drag your finger across the back, you easily leave a line. 

Set aside to cool, then cover in clingwrap & place into the fridge until cooled. 

If using an ice-cream maker, pour the mixture in & churn. 

Once the mixture has hardened somewhat, pour in the praline powder & continue churning. 

If using beaters, pour into a large, strong plastic container, and beat for 2 mins before placing in the freezer. Pop into the freezer for an hour and a half or so, then take out and beat again; freeze for another 1.5 - 2 hours and add the praline now before beating a final time, then store in the freezer until ready to serve.  

Wine Match

Serve this with a dessert-glass of chilled butterscotch schnapps: delicious!

English Onion Soup

This is one of my favourite soups to make. The effort of cutting up nearly a kilo of onions is absolutely worth the effort.  This is not something you can just whip up & be eating inside of 20 mins for a quick supper. All told it takes about an hour (50 mins of that is onion cooking time, when you can potter about doing something else). The end result is fantastic.

This is derived from a Jamie Oliver recipe. I used to be a bit take-it-leave-it about Jamie Oliver. I never really got into the whole naked chef thing. But lately the recipe's of his I have tried have been just fantastic: straightforward & delicious. I have also been hugely impressed with his efforts to improve school children's lunches, as well as just generally raise nutritional awareness. 

Yes I love to cook, and I like good food. But I still am staggered at how 'unaware' people can be of what they put into their bodies. Fruit, veg, protein, wholemeal grains. I mean come on: its only hard to remember if you don't want to remember it . . . . Maybe like walking from your car is hard so you drive through Maccas to collect your dinner instead. Oy.

But all this is beside the point: this 'English Onion Soup'.

I just love this soup: it is hearty, warming and just so delicious & I think my friends really enjoyed it. The cheesy toasts just complete it: they work so well, though if I were warming a bowl for just me at home I might not bother with this step unless I really felt like it. It would probably work w/ Parmesan cheese too, though maybe omit the Worcestershire sauce if you were doing this.

I used a smoked vintage cheddar for this that I purchased at Harris Farm: it was around $7 - $8 for a block large enough to yield enough grated goodness to amply cover 10 toasts. I think the smokey-ness of the cheese gives it a great flavour, but obviously totally up to you. I wouldn't use Coon, or Bega for this: I think it would be too stringy, or plasticy, when you tried to melt it.

Apparently the trick to cutting onions is to have a knife as sharp as possible, which means there is less 'tearing' of the onion, meaning the tear-fumes won't torn & released. Or something like that. I find a snorkel/goggle combo works a treat, but perhaps that is taking things to extremes.

English Onion Soup

A good knob of butter

olive oil

a big handful of sage leaves

6 cloves of garlic, crushed

Onions - as many different ones as you can, peeled & sliced e.g:

---

5 red onions

3 white onions

3 eshallots

---

300g leeks, trimmed, washed & sliced

2ltr good stock (any 'flavour' you like - beef works well, but then they all do!)

8 slices good-quality bread; a little stale, or I just grab some straight from the freezer 

200g cheddar cheese, grated

Worcestershire Sauce

1) Put the butter, 2 glugs of the olive oil, sage & garlic into a heavy pan. 

Now I always screw up this step as I inevitably slice the garlic, pop into a mixing bowl, then slice the onions & put them on top as I go.  I then realise my mistake when I get to the cooking part. I once upended the bowl ,but fishing slivers of garlic out of a 1kg of sliced onions is a tedious task, and one I abandoned after less than 30 seconds.  If you make a similar mistake, don't worry, I just omitted the sage from the first step, and dumped the garlic & onions together into the pot.

2) Stir everything around & add the onions, eshallots & leeks. Season w/ S&P, place lid on pot, slightly ajar, and cook slowly for 50 minutes. You don't want to colour the veg too much, so keep the heat on the very low end of medium (or the just medium end of low). Remove the lid for the last 20 minutes, the onions should be soft & golden. Stir occasionally so none of them have caught on the bottom of the pan. I know this is a long process, but your patience will be rewarded (Shout-Out: Ali!! xx).

3) When the onion & leeks are lovely & silky, add the stock, stirring well again to make sure the onions have been lifted from the bottom & mixed through the liquid. Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat & simmer for 10-15mins.

4) Turn your grill on (if yours has a temperature option, you want it on max. My grill is an on/off only affair). Toast bread on both sides (in a toaster), then pop onto a baking sheet lined w/ alfoil & lightly sprayed w/ olive oil. Pile a mound of the grated cheese onto each toast, sprinkle over the Worcestershire Sauce, and pop under the grill.

5) Making sure you are monitoring the grill process carefully, ladle the soup into bowls. Once the cheese has nicely melted & is bubbling a little, remove from under the grill, place one toast into each bowl, and serve.

(Sorry! Was so busy devouring my soup I forgot to take a photo of the finished product!)

Wine Match!

I served this with a couple of bottles (hey, there were 8 of us!) of a lovely Reisling from a vineyard in Orange called Mayfield. The lovely flavours of the wine, which has a slight oakey-ness (of which I am not usually a fan) paired perfectly with the soup.

http://www.mayfieldvineyard.com/product.php?id_product=9

Chocolate Dessert that DID turn out!

This, I am proud to say, is something I made!

To quote my friend Mikarla, it "looks like a chocolate bathtub!"
This, obviously, is a very chocolatey chocolate tart, and it was delicious. Not overwhelmingly chocolatey, but still rich & lovely, and very, very smooth.

I find tarts make a great dessert, because you can do so much of it ahead of time, reducing one's stress in the hour or so before guests arrive. They also look impressive . . . yes, I have an ego, who knew! The first couple I ever made were a little hit & miss, but I have started to develop a knack for them, and pies. My pastry making is developing nicely.

Pastry-Making Tips:Gluten is the enemy of good pastry

1) Care must be taken to blend the butter (or whatever fat agent you are using) & the flour together before adding any liquid. This ensures the flour granules are sufficiently coated with fat to inhibit water absorption, making it less likely for the gluten to develop.

2) On the other hand, overmixing releases the gluten, allowing them to create long strands that toughen the pastry. Always pulse in the food processor till the mix resembles breadcrumbs, and then stop!

3) Chill the pastry in the fridge. If the fat melts before it reaches a high enough temperature (e.g. before it goes into an oven of 180'c) you won't get a lovely leavened (crumbly) pastry: when the fat melts the water in it separates & the layers in the mix will all stick together, creating, in other words, tough pastry.

4) Chilling the pastry also allows the gluten's to relax, which means that your pastry shouldn't shrink (too much) when you bake it.

5) I find the best shape to chill the pastry in is a flattened disk. I have seen some recipes that say 'roll into a ball & chill'. I find the ball shape very hard to roll out: it has a tendency to crack, meaning I have to mush the whole thing back together, which means the pastry is getting worked more than ideal, potentially leading to tougher pastry. You don't want something like a fist. You want something like the open palm of your hand.

Anth's Chocolate "Bathtub" Tart

Chocolate Pastry Shell
200gm plain flour
60gm icing sugar, sifter
30gm good quality cocoa powder, sifted
100gm cold butter, coarsely chopped
2 egg yolks
enough iced water to form a ball (if necessary - depending on the eggs you may not need to add any)

Creamy Chocolate Filling
300ml pouring cream
300gm chocolate chopped
100gm chocolate, min 60% cocoa, chopped

1) For chocolate pastry, process flour, icing sugar and cocoa in a food processor until combined. Add butter, process until mixture resembles fine crumbs, then add egg yolks, process to combine. Add iced water if needs be, a little at a time. Turn onto a lightly floured work surface and bring pastry together with the heel of your hand. Wrap in plastic wrap, refrigerate for 1 hour to rest.

2) Preheat oven to 180c. Roll out pastry on a lightly floured surface to 3mm thick and line a 28cm-diameter loose-bottomed tart tin, trimming edges if you prefer; as you can see from the pictures, I prefer a more rustic look. Refrigerate for 1 hour, then blind bake for 8-10 minutes, remove paper and weights (either baking weights, or dried pulses, or rice works as well) and bake until dry and crisp (8-10 minutes).

3) Bring cream to the simmer in a small saucepan over medium heat, add chocolate, stir until smooth, remove from heat, allow to cool a little, then chill in the fridge w/ a clean tea-towel over the top (clingwrap will collect the condensation, which could drop back onto the chocolate. Chocolate + water don't mix). Once cooled, but still just runny, pour into the pasty shell & then return to the fridge to set.