PARTY OF 5, PART 3

My first and enduring love will always be Rick Stein, and so it should come as no surprise that I would turn to Rick for a dessert selection. And he has yet to fail me, think ferrero-esque crisp meringue and a chocolaty cheesecake type filling.
Otherwise known as Hazelnut Chocolate Dacquoise.

I preheated the oven to 200 degrees, and roasted 50g of whole hazelnuts for about 6 minutes, removed them from the oven and tipped them into a tea towel, rubbing the hazelnuts to remove the skins, Then blitzed them to a medium/ fine chop. And dropped the oven temperature to 110 degrees.

In a glass bowl a whipped 5 egg whites to stiff peaks and whisked in 225g of cater sugar to create a glossy, stiff meringue. The next step is to fold in all but a tsp of the blitzed hazelnuts, the create an almost ferrero type taste and aroma. Top one meringue with the reserved hazelnut, this will be the top ;ayer of the cake.

To cook the meringue, divide the mixture into 3 equal portions, forming 3 20cm circles on baking paper (to do this use a 20cm round cake tin and trace the base on baking paper with a pencil to make a 20cm circle, repeat 3 times on 3 pieces of baking paper).
Bake the meringue disks for 2 hours and then turn off the oven, letting the meringues cool completely in the oven. (the disks keep really well, so you can make these several days in advance).

To make the filling melt 100g of good quality plain chocolate, with only 50% cocoa solids (I used valrhona). To melt the chocolate, simmer a pot of water and place a glass bowl with the chocolate, over the pot, but don't let the water touch the bowl. Let the chocolate melt and add 150mls of créme fraiche, and mix well.
In a separate bowl whip 150mls of double cream until just beginning to thicken and fold through the chocolate, créme fraiche mixture. (if the chocolate mix is very runny refrigerate briefly to thicken the filling to make the dessert construction easier)



To construct the daquoise top one of the meringue disks with half the chocolate mixture, place another meringue on top and spread with the remaining half of the chocolate and finally top with the top meringue that was dusted with the extra crushed hazelnuts.

the cake is now assembled and needs to be refrigerated before serving to soften the meringue slightly whilst firming up the chocolate filling.

Rick is quite adamant that you not assemble the cake more than 2 hours before you intend to serve the dessert. But I think that if it goes into the fridge as your guests are arriving, 2 hours or more doesn't really matter, as long as you don't forget about it.

party of 5, PART 2

To follow on from the terrine and feed the hungry hoards, I drew inspiration from Jaime again with a warm quail and grape salad.


To make this scrumptious quail salad preheat the oven to 180 degrees. For 5 people I used 6 quails, rubbed with olive oil and generously seasoned with salt and pepper, and then draped each quail breast with slices of speck, fat, rind and all, then set the birds aside.

Next, I drizzled a large, deep baking dish with olive oil, the leaves from a few fresh sprigs of rosemary and 3 cloves of garlic, crushed with the back of a knife.
The next step is to tear some rustic bread into the pan forming large croutons (I used a panna di casa, which is a nice dry bread with lots of air holes which allows for maximum crispiness), the recipe suggests about 4 slices of bread, but I used almost a whole loaf, it just depends on your preference, but I tell you now, You'll be kicking yourself if you skimp on the bread, the croutons are probably the best part of the entire dish.
Again, drizzle the croutons with olive oil and lay the quails on the croutons, place in the oven and bake for 35 - 40 minutes and the bacon is golden, crisp like roast pork crackle .
the quail is ready when the juices run clear, or when the leg comes easily away from the body of the bird when gently pulled.

Once the quail comes out of the oven, move the birds to a bread board and with 1 strike of the knife cut the birds cleanly in half.

Meanwhile, position the tray so it slopes, scoop all the bread crumbs to the higher end of the tray allowing any juices to fall to the lower end of the tray. Pick out the garlic cloves removing the skins and squishing the garlic into the juices. Smoosh 2 large handfuls of mixed seedless grapes into the juicy end of the baking dish, season with salt, pepper and enough red wine vinegar to make a dressing.

Add a good mix of lettuce leaves to the pan (lambs tongue lettuce, rocket, watercress etc) and the quails, toss well and place on a platter to serve.

yum, so scrumptious.

Party of 5, a french inspired family dinner. PART 1

Whenever my mum, sisters & B.I.L come over for dins I love to try something new and tasty using all the evil ingredients I don't use in my every day cooking (butter, oil, full cream dairy...)

So when the wolves descended I fed them a well planned and executed meal.
We started with home made tomato foccacia and 3 cheese foccacia, accompanied by home made pork terrine, cornichons, olives, pickled onions and mustard.

The terrine recipe was thanks to Jamie Oliver who has a surprisingly simple recipe for this rustic french staple.
I added coarsely minced speck (about 80g) and 1 large chicken liver to 500g of pork mince.
I then added a small bunch of chopped thyme, parsley and 1/4 tsp of ground cloves, 1/2 a grated nutmeg, along with 2 finely chiffonaded bay leaves, salt and pepper to taste along with handful of breadcrumbs.

The ingredients need to be mixed by hand and packed into small ceramic dishes, like large ramekin's. Then place the ramekins into a deep baking dish and pour in enough boiling water to come half-way up the edges of the ramekins, making a bain-marie.

put the dish into a preheated oven ,160 degrees for 1 hour, (the terrine is cooked when you can insert a knife into the dish and the juices run clear) then remove the baking dish from the oven and allow the terrines to cool in bain-marie. When the water is cool you can put the terrine in the fridge, just cover with cling wrap.

cheesy, spinach pie

So I'm a big fan of using what's in the fridge. Consequently, as I was putting away the groceries from this weekend's shopping saga, I discovered some slightly wilting spinach ( silver beet) and some feta ( I have no idea how long it's been in the fridge, I don't remember buying it... oops!).
My brain jumps into overdrive trying to come up with healthy options for recipes and I decide to make 'kat's spanakopita'.

First, it's really important to thoroughly wash the spinach, the smallest speck of dirt in your dish and you'll definitely know it, one word... GRITTY. After washing the spinach, and removing the white vein running up the centre of the leaf, roll the leaves up and finely shred them. I like to give the spinach a few spins in the salad spinner to get rid of some of the extra liquid (spinach can be really watery). After the spinach is spun, I add it to a large bowl with 2 medium onion, diced, a pinch of salt and a decent amount of freshly ground black pepper.

Let the onion and spinach mix sit for about 30 minutes any drain off any water that leeches from the veggies. Then add some crumbled feta ( about 100g), some grated tasty cheese ( 100g) and I added some goats cheese ( just because it was in the fridge).
Mix the ingredients together and start to assemble the pie.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

To make the pie you need a deep baking tray about 20cm x 15cm. Spray the tray with canola cooking spray and place 3 layers of filo pastry in the base of the tray spraying each sheet with the canola spray before layering with the next sheet of filo. After you have lined the base with 3 layers, tightly pack the spinach mixture into the dish.
Next, beat together 5 eggs until frothy and pour evenly over the pie.

Although 5 eggs may seem extravagant, the size of the pie means that per serve you are getting about 1/2 an egg. Additionally, if you are using reduced fat cheese like I do, the fat content of your food goes down and you can enjoy a second serve sans guilt.

Top the pie with another 3 layers of filo pastry, again spraying each layer with canola oil before proceeding the next layer. Score the final layer of filo with a diamond pattern and spray with more canola spray so that the party browns slightly and crisps when you bake it.

Put the completed pie in the moderate oven for 45 minutes ( depending on the size of your pie and the level of goldness on the crust of the pie, you might want to leave the pie in the oven for another 10 minutes, your call).

Super tasty pie, packed full of iron and healthy vegetables.

Give it a try, bonne chance.

sweet soy noodles

These sweet soy noodles are great for when the fridge is bulging with an over-abundance of Chinese vegetables.

To begin, as with all Asian recipes, you need to fry the aromatics. In a wok, heat some sesame oil and fry off, 2tbsp of garlic, ginger and a finely sliced red chili (large). Meanwhile pour a kettle full of boiling water over a 1kg bag of thick cut rice noodles, to soften them.

Once the aromatics have just turned in colour, add 600g of thinly sliced chicken thigh (it needs to be thigh for this recipe, as breast would become to dry and ruin the texture of the dish).
Brown the chicken, it will cook very quickly, if you have sliced it thinly.

Add a lot of bok choy/ Chinese vegetables to the wok, at least 3 large bunches (the more the better really, because it cooks down to nothing), and allow to cook until softened.

Next, you want to add the drained rice noodles, and the sauce.
To make the sauce mix together 2 tbsp of kecap manis (sweet thick soy sauce), 1 tbsp of oyster sauce, 1 tbsp of fish sauce and 1 tbsp of palm sugar. ( I like to 1 & 1/2 or double the sauce quantities). Add the sauce to the wok, turn of the heat, stir the ingredients together and allow to sit for 10 minutes before serving, this allows the noodles to absorb the sauce and intensify the flavours of the dish.

Trés tasty.

really simple soup - hearty and healthy

I adapted this soup from a river cafe recipe for ribollita.
The original recipe uses dried cannelinni beans soaked overnight... who has the time?!
So here is how I made this delicious soup.
Slice some celery, including the leaves, about half a bunch. Quarter a carrot and dice into small chunks, dice about 3 small Spanish onions and finely slice 2 - 3 cloves of garlic and a small bunch of parsley stalks and all.



The original recipe is also vegetarian, However I decided to up the taste factor and fry off some lardons until slightly crisp before adding the vegetables with a pinch of salt and gently frying for about 30 minutes. keep cooking until the carrots are softened.

Meanwhile, drain a can of cannelinni beans, reserving the liquid and shred some silver beet (spinach), but make sure you only use the green leafy parts of the spinach, the white central vein the the plant can be bitter.

once the carrots are soft, add 1 can of diced tomato, all the spinach and the drained beans.
You also want to add about 2 cups of chicken sock and about half the liquid you reserved from the canned beans.

Give the soup a good stir and gently simmer for another 30 minutes.

Now this is something I never say, but I'm going to say it now, and you have to trust me, do not add any further seasoning, the soup doesn't need it.

After simmering for about 30 minutes, longer if you want, get a potato masher and mash some of the beans in the soup to change the texture from soupy to thickened and soupy.


Give it a try for a simple hearty and health meal on one of those nights when you get home from work and want something comforting but quick for dinner.

For a vegetarian alternative use vegetable stock and skip the bacon, it's still a tasty treat

Back and better than ever

Its nice to know that there are people out there who keep up with my blog, I was feeling quite disillusioned for a while. I didn't think anyone was actually following my culinary adventures.
So thanks Lee-Lee for your encouragement and I'll get right on it with some new posts.
Thanks again everyone