Sunday 5 December 2010

ultimate chocolate brownies of awesomeness to the max x 100

Last week I was lucky enough to go along to a pantry tour and dinner at Black Pearl Epicure in the valley, and I learnt lots of things about olive oil, vinegars, salt, cheese, and CHOCOLATE.

To say that I'm a chocoholic is probably the biggest understatement of ALL TIME, I love scarfing down chocolate, and cooking with chocolate (and eating the spoils) is probably my favourite sort of cooking.

Brownies are basically one of the most awesome inventions on the planet, and I decided I would whip some up today, using some of the lush ingredients I bought at Black Pearl!  These brownies are super easy, and even more importantly, insanely chocolatey and delicious.


Super Awesome Brownies

125g unsalted butter
1 cup cocoa powder (I used Valrhona dutch processed cocoa from Black Pearl)
1 1/2 cups castor sugar
1tsp vanilla essence (I used Black Pearl's vanilla essence, so vanillary!!)
2 eggs
1 cup plain flour
1tsp baking powder
1 cup chocolate chips (I used Callebaut 54% couverture chocolate from Black Pearl, you could use white choc bits or a mix, or whatever you want, you could also add some chopped nuts if you feel inclined).

Pre-heat your over to 170 degrees C.  Melt the butter in a saucepan over low heat - once melted, stir in the sugar, cocoa, and vanilla essence.  Transfer to a mixing bowl and allow to cool a little.  Whisk in the eggs, then sift in the flour and baking powder and mix until combined.  Mix through the chocolate chips, and spoon into a greased slab tin, I used a square silicon cake tin about 20cm x 20cm.  Bake for approx 25 mins - it should still be a bit soft when you take it out of the oven, but the top will be delightfully crusty and shiny.  You want some serious goo-factor in the middle, unless you're INSANE, in which case you can probably continue baking for a further 5-10 minutes (but seriously, why would you??).

Cool in the tin and it should firm up a little, then cut it up and scarf it down!  It's ridiculously rich, so small pieces are the way to go! Enjoy!!

Wednesday 24 November 2010

Kim Thanh Restaurant is 24!

I was so lucky to attend the 24th birthday celebrations of Kim Thanh Restaurant in West End on Monday. A twitter pal of mine is Bao, who is training in the kitchen of his mum's restaurant, and doing a pretty good job indeed if Monday night is anything to go by!

Bao's Tasting Menu


Nem Nuong Cuon Cham Tuong Hue (grilled pork ricepaper rolls with Hue dipping sauce)







Goi Ngo Tom Thit (pickled lotus stem salad with prawns and pork belly)



Mi Vit Tiem (master stock cooked duck with egg noodles in Chinese herbal broth)





Bo Luc Lac (wok tossed black angus with Dalat salad and tomato rice)
















Dua Nuong Trai Vai Ca Rem (toasted coconut and lychee icecream)

It was all so good! I have trouble picking a favourite, but the duck soup was out of this world, sweet yet savoury at the same time, I've never had anything like it before (generally being scared to order anything 'herbal') so it was great to try it and I'd definitely love to have it again, and again! The icecream was also out of this world, served with crumbled up coconut snap cookies (which taste very similar to fortune cookies, HELLO!!) it was creamy and delicious and I finished it all despite having trouble fitting it in.

All in all an awesome night, spent with great people, and it was really nice to be part of such a special celebration! Thanks again Bao for the invite!!

Kim Thanh Restaurant
93 Hardgrave Road
West End
www.kimthanhrestaurant.com.au

Monday 15 November 2010

gotta bake a cake for my partner's father's 60th.... desire to bake is strangely non-existent.  Need inspiration... help?
  

Wednesday 10 November 2010

Sourdough is not a pizza cake

I am so rubbish at witty and/or pun-tastic blog titles.  But I am good at showing up on time for awesome bread and pizza making classes @ awesome bakeries such as Brewbakers at Albion!

On Tuesday night I had the pleasure of attending a very informative and delicious class and learnt all about sourdough, stretching pizza dough, and the skills involved in rolling a bagel.



Richard from Brewbakers filled us up with wine and explained the science behind baking (or maths? So many percentages, brain could not compute) sourdough and the other delicious breads and things he churns out regularly.

We got to play with our own soft smooshy lump of pizza dough, and smother it with delicious ingredients which he then baked for us, and I have to say was one of the most delicious pizzas I've ever eaten.


I discovered that I posses the seriously cool ability to eyeball a giant lump of dough and precisely cut off 400g in one go (?!? missed my calling??) which became a delicious crunchy ciabatta that didn't even last the night in our house. Before:


After:


The ugly duckling has become a delicious swan!!

Best part of the night (besides the maths) was eating the spoils. You don't even need to be a culinary genius like me to sample similar delicious treats, just visit Brewbakers (337 Sandgate Road, Albion) and stock up. I've heard the sourdough donuts are to die for. They're definitely on my list to try once I recover from this carb induced coma.

Friday 8 October 2010

That's a club I wanna be in!

One of my favourite foods on earth is malaysian. If I could have my way, I'd move to malaysia truly asia (MTA) in a heartbeat. I love a good curry laksa like I love fluffy little ducklings. Coincidentally, I had duck laksa for dinner on Friday night!

I met my partner, Kim the Koolman (he made that up, not me!) after work on Friday for a spot of light retail therapy (I got new sunnies, ILU dj's sale) and then some dinner. KK is rubbish at making serious decisions like where we should eat, so I decided on Satay Club in Charlotte street. Fast service, delicious food, cheap price.

Since it was fairly early evening, we didn't bother with starters, but if you do, the satay is awesome! Diving right in to the mains, KK chose the duck special dry noodles (another firm fav of mine) and I ordered my laksa 'medium' having been ballsy enough to order it 'hot' in the past and barely surviving to tell the tail. They let you choose the noodles for your laksa and I opted for rice vermicelli.

Food arrived about 5 mins later along with a pot of tea we also ordered. IDK what sort of tea it is, but I become obsessed with looking in the teapot every time we go there. It has these flowers in it! Maybe next time I'll ask.




My laksa was, as always, very delicious! Lots of plumb juicy duck with crispy skin and NO BONES. My only complaint would be that it wasn't very spicy, but I choose less spicy over too spicy.




KK's dry noodles were also quite delicious (I snaffled some). He is a big eater but couldn't finish them off. He said they were a bit oily this time which he didn't really like.

2 meals and tea for two cost something ridiculous like $24. Told you it's cheap! Serves are huge and food is quite authentic. We followed dinner with a Japanese cupcake from my fav Japanese bakery 2-in-1 at Post Office Square (pre purchased before dinner). So fluffy and delicious!! The cake had a slight orange flavour and a fluffy creme pattisiere filling. Yum!





Satay Club
Charlotte St
Brisbane

2-in-1 Japanese Bakery
Post Office Square (outside next to Coffee Club)
Brisbane

Monday 27 September 2010

You don't win friends with salad

Another day, another lunch rant. Once again forgetting to bring my lunch, I was forced to venture out into the wastelands of south bris for something to munch on. Again, restricted to a 30 minute window, I couldn't make it down to west end markets for a trusty chicken kebab.

So, what will it be today? Another overpriced foccacia? A potentially salmonella-ridden chicken sandwich from a not to be named dodgy local cafe? A chikko roll from the paul's canteen?? No, no - a salad from Oliver and Co, some deli come providore come cafe thing down and across the road from my office.

I opt for the 'medium' sized salad which gives me the option of 3 different salads from the soggy selection of about 6 salads on display. I thought to myself "what looks most edible??" it was a tough call, but I eventually decided on the mushroom pasta salad, and the green bean and roasted cherry tomato salad. Said salads set me back a whopping $8.90 which seemed a bit rich for the size, compared to design your own salad sort of places in the city.

But I digress. I took my salad back to my office and proceeded to wolf it down. The mushroom pasta salad was actually really delicious! The only slight was the addition of very gritty black cloud ear fungus. Do not want in pasta salad thanks. Save that one for a stirfry or something, thanks Oliver. The swiss brown, button, and enoki mushrooms were all good though. And the pasta was nice and al dente. The dressing was quite zingy and fresh. Yep, that mushroom pasta salad went all right!





The green bean salad was a bit of a different story. Drenched in oil and soggy tomato gizzards, it was not a pleasure on the tastebuds at all. After 1 mouthful, I had a gross oily coating throughout my mouth. I don't know what the story was, but when I eat salad, I like to at least -pretend- it is healthy. 3 litres of cacky oil and a few beans and soggy tomatoes does not meet this criteria. Do not recommend this salad.

Did I think this lunch was delicious? I give it 5 out of 10, because the pasta salad was pretty good but the beans SUCKED, and I usually love beans.

Do I think this lunch represents good value for money? Nuh. It's pretty typical for south brisbane, but it's still a bit of a rip.

Will I get lunch from Oliver and Co again? Maybe, if I'm really hungry and feeling cashed up. I'm actually keen to try their yoghurt which I've heard is pretty good, but yoghurt is more of a breakfast time food.

Oliver and Co
108 Melbourne St
South Brisbane

Saturday 25 September 2010

Zen, and the art of finding an affordable lunch in South Brisbane.

Until I couple of months ago I was a city girl. I loved working smack bang in the middle of the cbd because I could always get something cheap and delicious for lunch, aka I never had to make lunch. In July, I moved offices to South Brisbane... and not even a good part of South Brisbane, I am in the middle of nowhere, it's a good 15-20 minute walk to southbank! I have been bringing my lunch to work, which is ok, because it's usually leftovers and I'm a pretty rad cook (high self esteem, isn't it), but sometimes I forget to bring it, or don't make enough for left overs, or can't be bothered making a sandwich or salad to take. I hate frozen meals, so I have to venture out and find something to eat, and this is usually punishing on the wallet.

On Thursday I forgot my lunch, and had a strict 30 minute timeframe to fit it into, so had to venture not far from work to get something (or get a packet of 2 minute noodles from the vending machine, but they only had the 99% fat free ones, yeurgh). I decided to hit up Raw Space Cafe which is only about a 5 minute walk from my office. After perusing their display cabinet of overpriced sandwiches and limp looking salads I decided on a Chicken Turkish, toasted. $8.50! Seemed like a bit of a jip compared to the awesome sandwich place near my old office where I could get basically the fanciest sandwich every for $5. Anyhoo, I was given this blue buzzer which started beeping, flashing, and vibrating madly after the 12 minutes it took to toast my fricking sandwich, and it was already made up, so I don't know why it took so long.

After what seemed like an eternity (but as mentioned above was only in fact 12 minutes) it was ready to go! I grabbed it and hot footed it back to my office to scarf it down in 8 minutes.



Ooooh brown paper bag, totally worth the exxy price.



The filling included some actually really tasty chicken, baby spinach, some kind of melty cheese, and some tomato-y pesto-y tapenade-y stuff. It was a really tasty sandwich, but it wasn't very big and I was still hungry after I woofed it down so quickly. I think I probably would have been satisfied if it was 2 bites bigger. I like to measure my food in bites.

So, at $8.50, bit of a rip off I reckon. Not that I should be complaining because it's certainly not the biggest lunch ripoff scam around my woods! Friday's lunch was an even bigger jip, but that's a whole other blog post.

I also occasionally get a coffee from here, and it's passable. Except for the time they gave me soy milk (WTF???) and for that I punished them by not buying coffee there for 3 weeks. I'm sure they were very concerned.

Raw Space Cafe
99 Melbourne Street
South Brisbane
www.rawspace.org
(it's also a gallery)

Tuesday 21 September 2010

Pinxto Tapas Train

I always struggle deciding what to order at restaurants, and usually as soon as my meal arrives I feel remorse. That's why I love tapas, so many options, and I get to EAT THEM ALL!

Pinxtos at New Farm is awesome for tapas. They have a frikkin TRAIN of tapas, that's how awesome they are. Like sushi train, but tapas, which are like a million times better than sushi (despite living in japan, I've never really felt the sushi love, weird huh). So, my awesome friend Jayde is up visiting from Melbourne, and Pinxto have 2-4-1 tapas on tuesdays, so I booked us a seat on the train!

I was running late, because I got sidetracked looking at heavily discounted Poetic License shoes in DJ's (btw do I want a pair of black velvet heels with a cute metallic snakeskin heel?? y/n?) so when I arrived, my mate was already seated and knocking back sangria by the carafe, and smashing a bowl of mixed olives. I then commenced smashing sangrias and olives also. In the next 10 mins or so, we worked our way through skewers of manchego cheese, jamon serrano and quince paste, bread topped with tomato and chickpea puree and pickled garlic, tortilla, and a few other things I can't even remember but it was all awesome.

Then we started ordering hot delights from the menu, our waitress could see the hunger in our eyes and kept the food and service (and sangria) coming like our true savior. We worked our way through 2 plates each of croquettas, patatas bravas, calamares, scallops, chorizo and caramalised onion, prawns wrapped in jamon, and spinach and mushroom empanadas. ZOMG between us we ended up smashing about 16 plates of tapas, a litre of sangria, and the total bill was only about 60 bucks! ILU 2-4-1 tuesdays, and ILU Pinxto Spanish Taperia! Although now I can hardly move due to my enormous amount of overeating, but it was so totally worth it.

Check it, this isn't even all our plates!



Totally recommend you give Pinxto a shot, they have good deals on all the time, like $5 dessert nights, and $12 lunch deals which includes a spanish beer! Highly rated by Hungry-Hungry!! DO IT!

Pinxto Spanish Taperia
561 Brunswick St
New Farm
www.pinxto.com

Thursday 15 April 2010

Brunswick Stew, for veggies! - Daring Cooks Challenge

My second Daring Cook's challenge!

The 2010 April Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Wolf of Wolf’s Den. She chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make Brunswick Stew. Wolf chose recipes for her challenge from The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook by Matt Lee and Ted Lee, and from the Callaway, Virginia Ruritan Club.

 
Brunswick Stew is traditionally made with 2 or more kinds of meat (like chicken, rabbit, bacon, etc) but I really wanted to make a vegetarian version, since we're trying to eat less meat these days.


I used the following recipe, sans meat:


Serves about 12
1/4 lb / 113.88 grams / 4 oz slab bacon, rough diced
2 Serrano, Thai or other dried red chiles, stems trimmed, sliced, seeded, flattened
1lb / 455.52 grams / 16oz rabbit, quartered, skinned
1 4-5lb / 1822.08- 2277.6 grams / 64-80oz chicken, quartered, skinned, and most of the fat removed
1 Tablespoon / 14.235 grams / ½ oz sea salt for seasoning, plus extra to taste
2-3 quarts / 8-12 cups / 64.607-96.9oz Sunday Chicken Broth
2 Bay leaves
2 large celery stalks
2lbs / 911.04 grams / 32oz Yukon Gold potatoes, or other waxy type potatoes, peeled, rough diced
1 ½ cups / 344.88 grams / 12.114oz carrots (about 5 small carrots), chopped
3 ½ / 804.72 grams / 28.266oz cups onion (about 4 medium onions) chopped
2 cups / 459.84 grams / 16.152oz fresh corn kernels, cut from the cob (about 4 ears)
3 cups / 689.76 grams / 24.228oz butterbeans, preferably fresh (1 ¼ lbs) or defrosted frozen
1 35oz can / 996.45 grams / 4 cups whole, peeled tomatoes, drained
¼ cup / 57.48 grams / 2.019 oz red wine vinegar
Juice of 2 lemons
Tabasco sauce to taste

The veggies I used were carrot, potato, fresh corn (3 cobs worth, de-cobbed..?), butter beans (1 tin), 1/2 cup lentils, celery, onions, and whole peeled tinned tomatoes. I used veggie stock in a tetra-pack in place of the chicken broth.

Directions-




1-In the largest stockpot you have, which is hopefully larger than the 5 qt ones I have, preferably a 10-12 qt or even a Dutch Oven if you’re lucky enough to have one, fry the bacon over medium-high heat until it just starts to crisp. Transfer to a large bowl, and set aside. Reserve most of the bacon fat in your pan, and with the pan on the burner, add in the chiles. Toast the chiles until they just start to smell good, or make your nose tingle, about a minute tops. Remove to bowl with the bacon.


2- Season liberally both sides of the rabbit and chicken pieces with sea salt and pepper. Place the rabbit pieces in the pot and sear off all sides possible. You just want to brown them, not cook them completely. Remove to bowl with bacon and chiles, add more bacon fat if needed, or olive oil, or other oil of your choice, then add in chicken pieces, again, browning all sides nicely. Remember not to crowd your pieces, especially if you have a narrow bottomed pot. Put the chicken in the bowl with the bacon, chiles and rabbit. Set it aside.

3- Add 2 cups of your chicken broth or stock, if you prefer, to the pan and basically deglaze the4 pan, making sure to get all the goodness cooked onto the bottom. The stock will become a nice rich dark color and start smelling good. Bring it up to a boil and let it boil away until reduced by at least half. Add your remaining stock, the bay leaves, celery, potatoes, chicken, rabbit, bacon, chiles and any liquid that may have gathered at the bottom of the bowl they were resting in. Bring the pot back up to a low boil/high simmer, over medium/high heat. Reduce heat to low and cover, remember to stir every 15 minutes, give or take, to thoroughly meld the flavors. Simmer, on low, for approximately 1 ½ hours. Supposedly, the stock may become a yellow tinge with pieces of chicken or rabbit floating up, the celery will be very limp, as will the chiles. Taste the stock, according to the recipe, it “should taste like the best chicken soup you’ve ever had”.

4- With a pair of tongs, remove the chicken and rabbit pieces to a colander over the bowl you used earlier. Be careful, as by this time, the meats will be very tender and may start falling apart. Remove the bay leaf, celery, chiles, bacon and discard.5 After you’ve allowed the meat to cool enough to handle, carefully remove all the meat from the bones, shredding it as you go. Return the meat to the pot, throwing away the bones. Add in your carrots, and stir gently, allowing it to come back to a slow simmer. Simmer gently, uncovered, for at least 25 minutes, or until the carrots have started to soften.

5- Add in your onion, butterbeans, corn and tomatoes. As you add the tomatoes, crush them up, be careful not to pull a me, and squirt juice straight up into the air, requiring cleaning of the entire stove. Simmer for another 30 minutes, stirring every so often until the stew has reduced slightly, and onions, corn and butterbeans are tender. Remove from heat and add in vinegar, lemon juice, stir to blend in well. Season to taste with sea salt, pepper, and Tabasco sauce if desired.

6 You can either serve immediately or refrigerate for 24 hours, which makes the flavors meld more and makes the overall stew even better. Serve hot, either on its own, or with a side of corn bread, over steamed white rice, with any braised greens as a side.

As I wasn't using any meat in the dish, I started by sauteing my onions, carrot, and celery, and then added the stock and other ingredients.  The end result was a delicious thick and hearty veggie stew which was perfect for dinner as the weather is getting a bit cooler now.

As per Wolf's original post, "most agree that, Brunswick stew is not done properly “until the paddle stands up in the middle.”"

so here is my obligatory spoon standing up in the stew photo :)

Yet another great challenge for The Daring Cooks, and certainly a dish that we'll be enjoying for the next few days because we have LITRES of the stuff (good thing it's so yummy!).







Sunday 14 March 2010

my first daring cooks challenge - risotto

I decided I'd join the daring kitchen (www.thedaringkitchen.com) and start taking part in challenges, both the daring cooks, and the daring bakers.  Here is the result from my first challenge in the daring cooks:

The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of MelbournefoodGeek and Jess of Jessthebaker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from the Australian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf.

I followed the base stock recipe as provided in the challenge:

Chicken Stock
1 large chicken 2-3 pounds about 1 kg
chicken bones 2-3 pounds 1 kg
2 onions, roughly diced
1 medium leek - white part only, roughly diced
2 sticks celery, roughly diced
2 cloves garlic, halved
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp. white peppercorns
2 bay leaves
peel of 1/2 lemon
1/4 tsp. allspice
I also added in about 500g carrots, just washed - don't worry about peeling them.

The end result was a beautiful chicken stock, I'll def be using this recipe again


The risotto recipe I chose was a Pea, Goats Cheese, and Herb Risotto that I found on www.luculliandelights.com while madly googling for goats cheese recipes. I am in LOVE with anything goats cheese at the moment, and peas are also a favourite of mine.

Pea, Goats Cheese, and Herb Risotto
About 1 kg unshelled peas which is about 250-300 g once shelled
1 fresh onion
450 g of rice, Arborio or Carnaroli (I used Aborio)
1 ½ cups stock.
Fresh herbs like thyme, oregano, sage, parsley and rosemary
100 gor more fresh mild goat's cheese,
A large knob of butter
Salt
Freshly grated parmesan cheese

Monday 8 February 2010

Cupcakes, Ahoy

I had raspberry white choc ganache left over from my macaron experience, so I decided to whip up some cupcakes to use it up on. Then I had to make some choc ganache as well, because there wasn't enough of the other to ice all the cupcakes.... Now I have left over choc ganache. It's a cruel cycle.




How awesome are these silicon patty-pan things!! So cute, and environmentally friendly. ChouxGirl loves the planet, you know.




Recipes from Taste.com.au


Classic Cupcake Recipe

Ingredients

  • 2 cups self-raising flour, sifted
  • 3/4 cup caster sugar
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 125g butter, melted, cooled
  • 2 x 59g eggs, beaten
  • 1 teaspoon Queen Natural Vanilla Essence 

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 200°C. Grease a 12 x 1/3-cup capacity muffin pan. Alternatively, line holes with paper cases. Combine flour and caster sugar in a bowl. Make a well in the centre.
  2. Add milk, butter, eggs and vanilla to flour mixture. Using a large metal spoon, stir gently to combine.
  3. Spoon mixture into prepared muffin pan. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Stand in pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

Double Chocolate Cupcakes

Makes

12

Ingredients

  • 1 quantity classic cupcake recipe (see above recipe)
  • 1/2 cup cocoa powder, sifted
  • 3/4 cup dark or milk choc bits
  • 1 tablespoon cocoa powder, extra, to serve
  • 1/2 cup cream
  • 200g dark chocolate, roughly chopped

Method

  1. Follow step 1 of classic cupcake recipe, reducing self-raising flour to 1 1/2 cups. Stir in cocoa powder and choc bits.
  2. Follow step 2 of classic cupcake recipe.
  3. Bake cupcakes following step 3 of classic cupcake recipe.
  4. Make icing: Place cream and chocolate into a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir with a metal spoon until smooth. Remove from heat. Refrigerate for 30 minutes, or until a spreadable consistency. Spread over cupcakes. Sprinkle with cocoa.

Notes

  • Shortcut: Place cream and chocolate into a microwave-safe bowl. Heat, uncovered, stirring every 30 seconds with a metal spoon, for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes on MEDIUM (50%) power, or until melted and smooth.



Sunday 10 January 2010

Success!!

My macarons turned out beautifully!! I left them to sit for 4 hours before putting them in the oven and they all came out with perfect feet!! The colour is a little off in the photo because I couldn't find my camera and had to resort to iPhone pic, but they turned out a lovely pale pink, and the ganache filling was dark pink lusciousness! They are also V yum!!



And here is the recipe:

Macarons with white chocolate and raspberry ganache

Serves 40
Cooking Time Prep time 20 mins, cook 15 mins (plus resting)
130 gm   pure icing sugar
110 gm   almond meal
105 gm   eggwhite (about 2), at room temperature, left out overnight
65 gm   caster sugar
4-5 drops   rose food colouring
White chocolate and raspberry ganache
50 ml   pouring cream
100 gm   white chocolate
45 gm   raspberries, coarsely chopped


1 Process icing sugar and almond meal in a food processor until finely ground, triple-sift into a large bowl and set aside. Whisk 90gm eggwhite in an electric mixer until soft peaks form (1-2 minutes). Add caster sugar, a tablespoon at a time, whisking continuously until incorporated and mixture is thick and glossy (2-3 minutes), then add food colouring. Stir in almond mixture in batches until incorporated and mixture slowly slides down sides of bowl when bowl is tilted. Add remaining eggwhite to loosen mixture, spoon into a piping bag with a 1cm plain nozzle, pipe 3cm-diameter rounds of mixture onto heavy baking-paper-lined oven trays, stand until a crust begins to form (4-5 hours).
2 Preheat oven to 140C. Bake macarons until firm but not coloured, swapping trays halfway through cooking (10-12 minutes (more like 20 mins!) ), set aside, cool completely on trays.
3 Meanwhile, for white chocolate and raspberry ganache, bring cream just to the boil in a small saucepan. Remove from heat, add chocolate, stand until melted (5 minutes), stir until smooth and glossy. Refrigerate until firm yet still pliable (45 minutes-1 hour) then stir until smooth. Add raspberries, stir to form a ripple effect, then spoon a teaspoon of ganache onto half the macarons. Sandwich with remaining macarons and refrigerate until set. Macarons will keep for 1-2 days refrigerated in an airtight container.

Note If fresh raspberries are unavailable, substitute defrosted frozen raspberries.

This recipe appeared in the July 2009 issue of Australian Gourmet Traveller.

Saturday 9 January 2010

Wish me luck!!

These suckers have to sit tight for another hour or so before they go into arsehole oven. So far they look good....


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Macarons

I want to make macarons today, but I don't feel confident that my oven will deliver.... I'll keep you posted.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Wednesday 6 January 2010

Mignons de Porc Arlonaise

It's all fancy food lately at our house! Pork tenderloin in beer. Thank you, le cordon bleu at home, lesson 65.



I need to practise turning my vegetables a little more. Talk about tedious. Want the recipe???

Tuesday 5 January 2010

Choux, Darlink

My next attempt at choux was slightly more fruitful. Following the same recipe as for the Paris Brest, I made another batch of choux pastry and this time piped out eclairs and choux buns/profiteroles. My oven was slightly kinder to me, and they turned out rather well!! Proof:






I also followed the same basic pastry cream recipe and then split it into 2 separate bowls, melted some milk chocolate (a handful of melts) and stirred it into one of them. When it all cooled down, I poked a hole into the bottom of each profiterole and piped in the chocolate pastry cream, and filled the eclairs with the vanilla pastry cream. I drizzle chocolate on both and sprinkled flakes almonds on the profiteroles,





and the end result was delicious; even if my drizzling was a bit rubbish. I was in a hurry!!!

Next post, French for dinner: ooh la la

Saturday 2 January 2010

The Less Said about The Brest, The Better


Paris Brest
Originally uploaded by gemblie
Today I tried my hand at Paris Brest (Lesson 65 - Le Cordon Bleu At Home). Paris Brest is a french pastry that is essentially a ring of choux pastry, filled with a praline cream.


The praline was a piece of cake - toast some finely ground almonds (6 tbspoons) til golden and fragrant and set aside. In a heavy based saucepan place 3tbspoons of water, half a cup of sugar, and a tspoon of vanilla extract and make a caramel. Mix them together and spread on a baking tray (oiled, or lined with trusty greaseproof) until cold and set. Then whizz it up in the food processor or tackle it in the mortar and pestle (which is what I did, too lazy to take the food processor out of the cupboard) until you have a fine powder. EASY PEASY.


Even the pastry cream was easy - 1 cup of milk in a saucepan along with 1 tspoon vanilla extract - heat, but don't boil. Meanwhile, beat 2 egg yolks with 1/4 cup sugar until light and fluffy, and then beat in 2 tbspoons of plain flour and 2 tbspoons of corn flour. Then gradual whisk in the hot milk and return to the stove (low heat, please!!) and whisk whisk whisk until thick and delicious. Then throw in the praline and mix it all up (I just put it all back in the kitchenaid <3) and set aside til cool (p.s. rub the top with butter to stop it forming a skin??? I tried this and ended up with custardy fingers...)


Once the pastry cream has cooled down, it's simply a matter of returning it to the mixing bowl and whisking in a tbspoon of rum, and then gradually encorporating TEN tablespoons of softened butter. Mmmmmm creamy. For the record, this praline cream filling was so delicious, it's lucky it filled ANYTHING apart from my boyf's tummy. I've never heard just pleading to lick the bowl please.


So, the part where I failed... or, my oven failed me (nothing like passing the blame): The Choux "Crown".


The choux pastry itself was easy enough to make. People seem to get their knickers in a knot over choux (hello crochembouche challenge on masterchef) but making choux buns and eclairs etc is not that difficult, even with an arsehole oven like mine. But the "crown" or pastry ring was just not working for me. CHOUX FAIL. I got hardly any rising at all. Then end result was super flat but still quite crunchy and delicious.... just not puffy. Boo. Here is how it's done anyway, in case you want to try it yourself in your oven that isn't a jerk (I have a shitty gas electrolux thing, probably a kazillion years old - the amount of swearing I did yesterday has resulted in my lovely boyf promising me I can have a new oven ASAP thanks... ILVE, yes please.)


Choux:

Preheat your oven to 200 celcius (or 400 fahrenheit). Bring 1 cup water, 7 tbspoons of butter, a pinch of salt, and 2 tbspoons of sugar to the boil. Take off the heat and sift in 1 1/3 cups of plain flour and mix well til combined. Return to a low heat and continue beating with your wooden spoon until the dough comes completely together, and leaves the sides and bottom of the saucepan. You need to give it a good flogging with your wooden spoon to work the gluten which will make it puff nicely (if your oven is kind). Transfer the dough into a mixing bowl (or kitchenaid etc) and gradually add 4 eggs - 1 at a time, mixing in completely between each egg. After the forth egg your batter should be glossy and dribble slowly off your beaters. Then transfer into a pastry bag with a large round tip.


So, you need a baking tray lined with greaseproof paper, and if you're not good at free-handing, trace on a circle about 20-25cm in diameter. Pipe a circle of dough approx 2cm wide onto the baking sheet. Then pipe another just inside and touching the first. Brush both with some beaten egg, then pipe another on top of the first two. Brush the whole lot with egg wash, and sprinkle with flaked almonds. Bake at 200 for 10 minutes (DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR) and then turn the oven down to 180 and continue to bake until the pastry is "well risen" and golden in colour, which will take around 15-20 mins longer. In my case it went golden, but not "well risen" at all. Slightly risen, yes.


So then you let it cool, slice it open, and pipe in your pastry cream, with a star tip nozzle if you're feeling fancy and dust with icing sugar. The picture at the top is what it should look like, all golden and puffy and delicious. (but I won't show you what mine looked like because it was sad).

To make it up to you, and ME, I'm making eclairs this afternoon and will provide photographic evidence that I, ChouxGirl, can actually make a decent choux.

xx