These are actually Pithiviers but we like to think inside the box, not in the round. Actually we just couldn't be bothered to cut the pastry out.
Get a nice hunk of meat suitable for pressure cooking (or braising, if you're being traditional) and cook the hell out of it. I did it with a leg of lamb in the pressure cooker - beautiful. Initial cook with a bunch of celery, an onions, salt and plenty of peppercorns. Oh and a garlic head cut in half.
When it's soft, take the meat out and shred. Strain the liquid, push through veggie goodness, return to pan and reduce the liquid until it goes syrupy. Because it was lamb and very fatty, I put a step in there where I cooled it down initially and skimmed some fat off. Well worth doing.
Return shredded meat to the liquid and if necessary give it another pressuring. Fry up (separately) whatever veggie flavourings you're putting in. I used slivered onions and red peppers, caramelized.
Mix the whole lot together, and if you can let it cool that's great.
Lay out your puff pastry sheets, cut each square into fours. If you can't be bothered to cut one smaller and one larger, you'll have to trim the edges at the end but that's not too onerous.
Get a ring mould (or if you've got a square one go for it) that leaves at least a 1 inch rim in the pastry and mound the filling into it on to of one of the pastry squares. Remove ring. Put another pastry square on top and tuck down the sides. At this point you'll have to trim the sides because the top will be shorter than the bottom (unless you've been clever beforehand and cut out a larger one for the top). Do so. Make indents with a fork around the edges to seal / make pretty. Egg wash the top of the pastry. Bake on hot until beautifully golden.
I found these particular ones were beautiful served with pureed pumpkin, with lots of butter and cinnamon sugar in it. Serves as a kind of sauce. Big hit with the kids.
Thursday, July 24, 2014
Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Pumpkin Pie
Make standard sweet crust pastry but DON'T blind bake.
For the filling, 500g pumpkin puree, 3 eggs, 1.5 cups thickened cream, heaps of gingery cinnamonny spices, and 185g brown sugar.
It'll need to bake at about 160 for a fair while, up to about 50 minutes. Will pouf up and then fall a bit - that's normal.
Serve hot or cold, with or without cream. (Never say I never gave you choices.)
For the filling, 500g pumpkin puree, 3 eggs, 1.5 cups thickened cream, heaps of gingery cinnamonny spices, and 185g brown sugar.
It'll need to bake at about 160 for a fair while, up to about 50 minutes. Will pouf up and then fall a bit - that's normal.
Serve hot or cold, with or without cream. (Never say I never gave you choices.)
Rather vague gnocci recipe
OK, so instead of measuring up the quantities of flour and potato, this one just 'tops up' the potatoes with flour, to feel.
For a couple of large leftover roasted potatoes (whole ones), once you've mashed them, add plenty and plenty of seasoning, mustard, chopped fresh thyme, and one egg. Then comes the vague flour. Just enough for the mass to cohere - as little as possible, in other words. Note: seems a good point to mash the potatoes pretty fine, even doing the whole sieve thing.
Roll out into gnocci with as little flour as possible. Boil until they float and have nearly doubled in size. Drain, etc. Then fry the little buggers in some butter until they've got nice crispy sides. (Crispy sides rarely hurts any foodstuff).
THe serving suggestion I saw with this (but haven't tried myself due to everyone here hating peas, oh and parmesan) is mixing them up in the pan with some beautiful fresh peas, some chopped fresh mint, and then topping the dish off with plenty of grated parmesan. Yum.
Oh well, they were good with other more mundane accompaniments, too. I liked the addition of thyme.
For a couple of large leftover roasted potatoes (whole ones), once you've mashed them, add plenty and plenty of seasoning, mustard, chopped fresh thyme, and one egg. Then comes the vague flour. Just enough for the mass to cohere - as little as possible, in other words. Note: seems a good point to mash the potatoes pretty fine, even doing the whole sieve thing.
Roll out into gnocci with as little flour as possible. Boil until they float and have nearly doubled in size. Drain, etc. Then fry the little buggers in some butter until they've got nice crispy sides. (Crispy sides rarely hurts any foodstuff).
THe serving suggestion I saw with this (but haven't tried myself due to everyone here hating peas, oh and parmesan) is mixing them up in the pan with some beautiful fresh peas, some chopped fresh mint, and then topping the dish off with plenty of grated parmesan. Yum.
Oh well, they were good with other more mundane accompaniments, too. I liked the addition of thyme.
Chocolate mousse terrine (in various stages)
The one constant I like in this one is the sponge on the base. You can make a chocolate one or a vanilla one depending on how you feel - but just a plain one will do. If it's adults, and you have a chocolate sponge, it's nice to pour a bit of Kahlua over it. Or brandy. Or whatever comes to hand. Anyway, prep your sponge in the same size as the terrine.
Strawberries and chocolate are nice. Slice some strawberries in half, arrange flat along the base of your terrine, after lining the whole thing nicely with ling film. Then pour in the first layer of mousse, which will be some combo of
200ml thickened cream, about 120g melted chocolate (white, milk, dark, whatever you want), a couple of tsp of gelatin dissolved in about 50ml of warm milk. Mix, pour over the strawberries, allow to set (about an hour).
You can follow this up with another layer of chocolate, of another sort. I'm thinking of trying a chili dark chocolate layer and a white chocolate layer. When it's all set and ready (1 hour per layer) put the prepped sponge on top and refrigerate for another couple of hours.
When you're ready, turn out onto a serving platter. Slice.
Strawberries and chocolate are nice. Slice some strawberries in half, arrange flat along the base of your terrine, after lining the whole thing nicely with ling film. Then pour in the first layer of mousse, which will be some combo of
200ml thickened cream, about 120g melted chocolate (white, milk, dark, whatever you want), a couple of tsp of gelatin dissolved in about 50ml of warm milk. Mix, pour over the strawberries, allow to set (about an hour).
You can follow this up with another layer of chocolate, of another sort. I'm thinking of trying a chili dark chocolate layer and a white chocolate layer. When it's all set and ready (1 hour per layer) put the prepped sponge on top and refrigerate for another couple of hours.
When you're ready, turn out onto a serving platter. Slice.
Sticky Date Pudding
Chop 250g pitted dates, add 1/2 cup of boiling water and 1 tsp bicorbonate of soda and leave for 30 minutes. Alternately, it also works if you microwave them for a minute or so.
mix 125g butter, 1 cup brown sugar, vanilla extract, 2 eggs, 1.75 cups of self-raising flour (or plain, with baking powder, which is what I normally do.)
Mixy mixy, add the dates, pour into tin, bake at 180 for 30 to 40 minutes.
Caramel sauce
heat 1 cup brown sugar, 300ml thickened cream, vanilla extract, and 60g butter until they're thick an delicious. Honestly, you don't need the butter. But it's in the recipe so there we are. And you might as well double the quantities because the sauce is divine.
mix 125g butter, 1 cup brown sugar, vanilla extract, 2 eggs, 1.75 cups of self-raising flour (or plain, with baking powder, which is what I normally do.)
Mixy mixy, add the dates, pour into tin, bake at 180 for 30 to 40 minutes.
Caramel sauce
heat 1 cup brown sugar, 300ml thickened cream, vanilla extract, and 60g butter until they're thick an delicious. Honestly, you don't need the butter. But it's in the recipe so there we are. And you might as well double the quantities because the sauce is divine.
White Chocolate Cake
180g butter, room temp
230g caster sugar
vanilla extract
2 eggs
250g flour
200ml milk
140g melted white chocolate
Do the honours with the cake mix. Bake at 160 - either in one tin or in sandwich tins - personally I prefer a single tin. Usually like to serve this with cram cheese icing though you can slather it in more types of chocolate or chocolate icing. Pretty sweet but that seems to be a plus as far as the kids are concerned.
230g caster sugar
vanilla extract
2 eggs
250g flour
200ml milk
140g melted white chocolate
Do the honours with the cake mix. Bake at 160 - either in one tin or in sandwich tins - personally I prefer a single tin. Usually like to serve this with cram cheese icing though you can slather it in more types of chocolate or chocolate icing. Pretty sweet but that seems to be a plus as far as the kids are concerned.
Chinese Pouffies (Steamed Dumplings)
Actually you can stuff these with anything - leftovers? Anything that can be made into a stuffing-ish consistency will do, including chicken and ricotta, ham and cheese, even roast pork and cabbage. It's all good. Haven't tried any sweet versions yet but I bet they'd work.
1. Make a starter with
1/2 cup each of water and flour, 2 tsp dried yeast, 1 tsb sugar. Cover with cling film and leave to rise for at least 30 minutes or until it's looking like something from a sci-fi movie.
2. Make the dough, by adding 3 cups of flour, 1 cup of water, 1/4 cup of sugar, 1 tsp salt and 2 tblsp veg oil to the sci-fi starter. Have to admit I always end up fiddling around with the quantities so this might not be perfect first time.
3. Leave it to rise. It should be nice and soft and slightly sticky by the end.
4. Take off little chunks and pat them out, fill with whatever you're stuffing them with. pinch closed at the top. NOTE: I tried rolling them out first time but it didn't work out so well. You need realtively thicker dough in the centre, where you put the filling on, or it turns soggy and liable to break apart. So I pinch them thinner towards the edges, crimp the little dough-purse shut, and steam them upside down so the smooth side is upwards. Other people steam them smooth-side down.
5. Steam. Probably about 10-13 minutes - they'll be firm when they're done. They'll pouf out so leave space.
6. Serve hot and fresh, with some appropriate dipping sauce. Great after-school snack as well as a nice lunch.
1. Make a starter with
1/2 cup each of water and flour, 2 tsp dried yeast, 1 tsb sugar. Cover with cling film and leave to rise for at least 30 minutes or until it's looking like something from a sci-fi movie.
2. Make the dough, by adding 3 cups of flour, 1 cup of water, 1/4 cup of sugar, 1 tsp salt and 2 tblsp veg oil to the sci-fi starter. Have to admit I always end up fiddling around with the quantities so this might not be perfect first time.
3. Leave it to rise. It should be nice and soft and slightly sticky by the end.
4. Take off little chunks and pat them out, fill with whatever you're stuffing them with. pinch closed at the top. NOTE: I tried rolling them out first time but it didn't work out so well. You need realtively thicker dough in the centre, where you put the filling on, or it turns soggy and liable to break apart. So I pinch them thinner towards the edges, crimp the little dough-purse shut, and steam them upside down so the smooth side is upwards. Other people steam them smooth-side down.
5. Steam. Probably about 10-13 minutes - they'll be firm when they're done. They'll pouf out so leave space.
6. Serve hot and fresh, with some appropriate dipping sauce. Great after-school snack as well as a nice lunch.
Chewy Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
1 cup each of plain flour and rolled oats,
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup butter, softened,
cinnamon
pinch of salt
1/2 cup each of granulated and brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 egg
vanilla essence
6 oz chocolate chips
Mix up (combine dry ingredients, whisk wets, then amalgamate), dollop into baking trays well spaced and bake at 180. Make sure NOT to overcook or they'll turn into Ninja throwing weapons.
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup butter, softened,
cinnamon
pinch of salt
1/2 cup each of granulated and brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 egg
vanilla essence
6 oz chocolate chips
Mix up (combine dry ingredients, whisk wets, then amalgamate), dollop into baking trays well spaced and bake at 180. Make sure NOT to overcook or they'll turn into Ninja throwing weapons.
Deep-fried brie and truffle
No need to say much more about this. Slice brie, sandwich thin slices of truffle inbetween two slices of brie, dip in flour, then egg, then panko (breadcrumbs) and deep fry until golden. Really sets off the truffle nicely, Make sure you eat it hot. Fantastic aperitif.
Easy Apple Cake
I didn't cook this one myself so I hope the details are right - kids loved it and it was pretty quick to make.
Apply part: peel and chop 'some' apples and stew them with some cinnamon, ginger and similar spices and sugar to your taste. Cool a little and blitz into a puree. End up with about 200-300g's worth, probably.
Cakey part: used a plain vanilla cake mix. Or you could to an equal-weight standard mix with 3 eggs and 180g each of flour, sugar and fat.
Mix. Bake. Yum. Really moist, so leave yourself some time to bake this one, at 180.
Apply part: peel and chop 'some' apples and stew them with some cinnamon, ginger and similar spices and sugar to your taste. Cool a little and blitz into a puree. End up with about 200-300g's worth, probably.
Cakey part: used a plain vanilla cake mix. Or you could to an equal-weight standard mix with 3 eggs and 180g each of flour, sugar and fat.
Mix. Bake. Yum. Really moist, so leave yourself some time to bake this one, at 180.
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