Here's another 2 things I've never done before. Made shortbreads and roasted figs. In fact, I've never cooked with figs before ever. How did this come about then you ask, figs were on special in the supermarket. I bought some thinking I'd find something to make, and on the day of the Spiced breakfast bread, I made these for a delicious dessert. Dinner that night is a whole other matter. It will become part of a 3-part saga in the hopes I try and test the best pastry for quiche.
The shortbread recipe was surprisingly easy and they were delicious. Another of Gordon Ramsay's but a different book completely - Chef for All Seasons. Marty thought they were perfectly cooked, but I could have had them cooked a little longer so that they were a little drier and crispier. This recipe is also designed to be kept in a tube-shape in the freezer so you can have shortbreads whenever you like, and that's what we did. We only needed a couple each for the recipe, and I have frozen the rest. I cut off a couple the other night and baked them a little longer and they were incredible.
Now when it comes to shortbreads, I may not be a connoisseur, but I have grown up on the best shortbreads I think there are - in my opinion. Christmas-time was the time that my gran, and too my mother and aunt would slave over the oven to make homemade mince-pies, Christmas cake and shortbreads. And those shortbreads were melt-in-your-mouth. Hopefully one day that recipe will be passed on to me so that my kids can enjoy them as much as we all did - unless my mother wants to make them and send them down from Queensland. An arrangement I am more than happy with. Could it be that we only had them once a year that made these shortbreads so irresistible or are they just that good? Nothing store-bought has ever compared and I can safely say that as nice as my shortbreads were, they were a distance second to the ones I love with all my heart! It's probably a very good thing for the waistline that we only have them once a year.
The figs were interesting, and tasty, but following the recipe I would have added more liquid, be it butter or whatever was appropriate, to make more syrup so I could have cooked them longer and they would have got softer. I will also listen to Gordon when he says use a pan that's big enough, the pot I used was too little and was a little bit awkward to work with. Nevertheless this was interesting and when figs are roaming about again I will put in a brave second attempt, potentially enlisting the chef's help with the figs.
Stay tuned for the delicious risotto we had on Saturday, and the quiche pastry debate is set to begin.
xoxo
Showing posts with label Desserts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Desserts. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
What's for lunch on Easter?
So the loooonnnggg weekend has been and gone and our Easter Sunday lunch has been gobbled up, and I think I miss it a little! Can't wait to have everyone over again because this one was definitely a success! Our contributing partners were 6 friends and then us, and they supplied some pre-lunch nibbles, while the Chef was working his magic - a Butterflied lamb marinated in Spanish smoky paprika, garlic and lemon juice, and a Spatchcock chicken marinated in garlic and herbs. Both done to perfection on the Weber. The lamb was a little dry due to the fact that needed to be basted constantly, but I may have been the only 1 that felt this.
We served this with couscous and mash potatoes, a salad of mixed greens, and then cucumber and cherry tomatoes served separately. Lastly we had some homemade tzatiki and red cabbage mixed through with balsamic vinegar, spring onions and garlic. Quite a spread that went down pretty quickly!
I think made a gorgeous sorbet and it was super simple! Based on a Spanish cocktail, it was very easy to make up and delicious to eat.
So you'll need:
300g Castor sugar
300ml water
300ml Red wine - a Spanish wine like a Rioja, or a nice fruity Shiraz blend. This doesn't have to be fancy, a nice quaffable wine works best!
300ml fizzy lemonade
zest and juice of 1 lemon.
Dissolve the sugar in the water over a medium heat and then bring to a rapid boil for 5 to 7 minutes before the syrup starts to colour. Put aside to cool. Combine the wine, lemonade and lemon juice in a large jug and add the cooled syrup when it's ready. Give it a good stir and either put it into 1 deep freezer container to be used all at once, or divide it into smaller containers to be used at different times.
Pop in the freezer and give it a muss up with a fork every 15minutes for the 1st hour or so. When you're ready to serve it, put small quantities into a food processor to blend it up to be fluffy and smooth.
And you're done! We served this before dessert which was Gordon Ramsay's Dark Chocolate Torte served with pouring cream. This is in his Just Desserts book and was divine! Our oven runs a little hot so we'll take the temperature down next time, but otherwise it was lovely! Recipe to follow I promise!
Follow this and add to it with plenty of wine and some Easter choccies and it certainly was a fun day! Looking forward to thinking up our next dinner menu. I'm feeling French, classic and warm for these autumnal nights that are quickly turning to winter. Lamb shanks, Coq au Vin and delicious heart-warming meals here we come! I can't decide what I love most about winter - the clothes, the food or the red wine? Staying in with friends is definitely up there too.
Ciao
xoxo
We served this with couscous and mash potatoes, a salad of mixed greens, and then cucumber and cherry tomatoes served separately. Lastly we had some homemade tzatiki and red cabbage mixed through with balsamic vinegar, spring onions and garlic. Quite a spread that went down pretty quickly!
I think made a gorgeous sorbet and it was super simple! Based on a Spanish cocktail, it was very easy to make up and delicious to eat.
So you'll need:
300g Castor sugar
300ml water
300ml Red wine - a Spanish wine like a Rioja, or a nice fruity Shiraz blend. This doesn't have to be fancy, a nice quaffable wine works best!
300ml fizzy lemonade
zest and juice of 1 lemon.
Dissolve the sugar in the water over a medium heat and then bring to a rapid boil for 5 to 7 minutes before the syrup starts to colour. Put aside to cool. Combine the wine, lemonade and lemon juice in a large jug and add the cooled syrup when it's ready. Give it a good stir and either put it into 1 deep freezer container to be used all at once, or divide it into smaller containers to be used at different times.
Pop in the freezer and give it a muss up with a fork every 15minutes for the 1st hour or so. When you're ready to serve it, put small quantities into a food processor to blend it up to be fluffy and smooth.
And you're done! We served this before dessert which was Gordon Ramsay's Dark Chocolate Torte served with pouring cream. This is in his Just Desserts book and was divine! Our oven runs a little hot so we'll take the temperature down next time, but otherwise it was lovely! Recipe to follow I promise!
Follow this and add to it with plenty of wine and some Easter choccies and it certainly was a fun day! Looking forward to thinking up our next dinner menu. I'm feeling French, classic and warm for these autumnal nights that are quickly turning to winter. Lamb shanks, Coq au Vin and delicious heart-warming meals here we come! I can't decide what I love most about winter - the clothes, the food or the red wine? Staying in with friends is definitely up there too.
Ciao
xoxo
Saturday, April 16, 2011
Double Feature weekend - Chicken Tagine and Tiramisu..
Wow, what weekend of great food and cooking! Marty definitely got his groove back and decided to cook up a storm on Sunday! Chicken, Olive and Preserved Lemon Tagine followed by Tiramisu. I will say right up front I have never been a Tiramisu fan, but this one was unbelievably good. Not too heavy, beautiful flavours and quite simply to die for. The Chicken Tagine however I feel needs some work and a couple of adjustments, but to that later!
Before I go any further, here is the link for the Tiramisu recipe - because you have to go and try it: http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/other-recipes/best-tiramisu. I'll run you through the tagine recipe, and also let you know what would be the variations we'd do now. I think after the Beef tagine was such a success, I expected the same from this dish. Not that it wasn't, it just wasn't what I'd been expecting. In most Moroccan dishes there's this beautiful balance of sweet and savoury and spicy, as was the beef with the prunes and the Moroccan spices. This one was much saltier - should have guessed it by the name I suppose - and there are are definite things that can be done the next time we make this - because there will be a next time - to improve on this first experience and make it a dish to remember. I've learnt from Marty that the most important thing about cooking is a little experimentation, and when you're trying something new and it doesn't work, it's best not to give up, but tweak and adjust because that's where a beautiful dish can come from. I mean, Jamie does is a cookbook all about tweaking and updating traditional recipes!
The first step in the tagine is the preparation of the chicken.To serve 4-6 the recipe calls for a whole chicken, skin-on and jointed into 4. The butcher would be able to do it, but you can generally buy it like this in a 'barbeque' style pack. Then you need to prepare a rub for the chicken to marinate in consisting of:
When it's time to cook, you're going to brown the chicken in your casserole pot/tagine, and while that's happening you want to chop a fennel bulb into 8, chop a couple of onions, and get a good sized bunch of fresh coriander and cut the stalks off. That's the part you want to use. You can add these to the mix once that chicken is deliciously golden brown and mix around. Now here comes the exoticness! A good pinch of saffron, about 80gm of stoned black and green olives (1st bit of salt) and a preserved lemon, chopped up. 1 if it's homemade, 2 if it's store bought. Add about 500ml of hot stock, chicken and preferably organic, cover and simmer on a low heat for about and 1 and a half. It was more like 2 in the end. Keep an eye out and give it an occasional stir. Add water if it's starting to look dry, and if, when the chicken's cooked and it looks a little bit liquidy, let it blip away with the lid off for a little to thicken slightly (Jamie's words not mine! but it accurately describes the sound it makes!)
Serve with steaming couscous and a sprinkle of coriander leaves. It is such a simple delicious dish. However, whether it was the combination of cooking a little longer, preserved lemons being strong or the added olives I found it overwhelmingly salty. The lemons are preserved with salt - another subject for another post- so they have a lot going on already, and I did our homemade ones Marty's way without adding the cinnamon and bay leaves which would have helped to soften the flavour. They've also been preserving for about 3 months now so they're pungent. Next time I would only use half or a quarter instead of 1 for a more subtle taste. the olives themselves where salty, so the 3 variations I can see in the future are:
1. No lemons
2. No olives
3. No olives or lemons.
I'll get back to you on what combination worked best. I think that by halving the lemon and maybe the same for the olives will allow the rest of the dish to work without being overwhelmed by these strong flavours.
I have no variations for you on the Tiramisu, only to say it was simple to make - I helped with some of it, and absolutely delicious. the added egg whites to the mascapone meant that it wasn't a thick, heavy dessert and it wasn't overwhelmed with coffee and cream. I used freshly ground and percolated coffee as opposed to instant coffee and it made a lot of difference to a smooth and subtle taste.
Looking forward to hearing how it went when you make it!
Ciao xoxo
Before I go any further, here is the link for the Tiramisu recipe - because you have to go and try it: http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/other-recipes/best-tiramisu. I'll run you through the tagine recipe, and also let you know what would be the variations we'd do now. I think after the Beef tagine was such a success, I expected the same from this dish. Not that it wasn't, it just wasn't what I'd been expecting. In most Moroccan dishes there's this beautiful balance of sweet and savoury and spicy, as was the beef with the prunes and the Moroccan spices. This one was much saltier - should have guessed it by the name I suppose - and there are are definite things that can be done the next time we make this - because there will be a next time - to improve on this first experience and make it a dish to remember. I've learnt from Marty that the most important thing about cooking is a little experimentation, and when you're trying something new and it doesn't work, it's best not to give up, but tweak and adjust because that's where a beautiful dish can come from. I mean, Jamie does is a cookbook all about tweaking and updating traditional recipes!
The first step in the tagine is the preparation of the chicken.To serve 4-6 the recipe calls for a whole chicken, skin-on and jointed into 4. The butcher would be able to do it, but you can generally buy it like this in a 'barbeque' style pack. Then you need to prepare a rub for the chicken to marinate in consisting of:
- 1 heaped tsp coriander seeds, bashed up
- 1 level tsp ground cumin
- 1 heaped tsp ground ginger
- 2 tbs olive oil
- seal salt and freshly ground black pepper
When it's time to cook, you're going to brown the chicken in your casserole pot/tagine, and while that's happening you want to chop a fennel bulb into 8, chop a couple of onions, and get a good sized bunch of fresh coriander and cut the stalks off. That's the part you want to use. You can add these to the mix once that chicken is deliciously golden brown and mix around. Now here comes the exoticness! A good pinch of saffron, about 80gm of stoned black and green olives (1st bit of salt) and a preserved lemon, chopped up. 1 if it's homemade, 2 if it's store bought. Add about 500ml of hot stock, chicken and preferably organic, cover and simmer on a low heat for about and 1 and a half. It was more like 2 in the end. Keep an eye out and give it an occasional stir. Add water if it's starting to look dry, and if, when the chicken's cooked and it looks a little bit liquidy, let it blip away with the lid off for a little to thicken slightly (Jamie's words not mine! but it accurately describes the sound it makes!)
Serve with steaming couscous and a sprinkle of coriander leaves. It is such a simple delicious dish. However, whether it was the combination of cooking a little longer, preserved lemons being strong or the added olives I found it overwhelmingly salty. The lemons are preserved with salt - another subject for another post- so they have a lot going on already, and I did our homemade ones Marty's way without adding the cinnamon and bay leaves which would have helped to soften the flavour. They've also been preserving for about 3 months now so they're pungent. Next time I would only use half or a quarter instead of 1 for a more subtle taste. the olives themselves where salty, so the 3 variations I can see in the future are:
1. No lemons
2. No olives
3. No olives or lemons.
I'll get back to you on what combination worked best. I think that by halving the lemon and maybe the same for the olives will allow the rest of the dish to work without being overwhelmed by these strong flavours.
I have no variations for you on the Tiramisu, only to say it was simple to make - I helped with some of it, and absolutely delicious. the added egg whites to the mascapone meant that it wasn't a thick, heavy dessert and it wasn't overwhelmed with coffee and cream. I used freshly ground and percolated coffee as opposed to instant coffee and it made a lot of difference to a smooth and subtle taste.
Looking forward to hearing how it went when you make it!
Ciao xoxo
Monday, March 14, 2011
The Christmas Dessert showdown... Part 2.
Let me begin by quoting Jamie for this one, 'It's exotic, dramatic and absolutely delicious...' What chance did my humble trifle have? Marty made the amazing M'Hanncha with Date sauce and although I've searched for the recipe online, I must advise you to watch the series and grab the Jamie Does... cookbook. This is another nod towards Morocco, and another reason that we have to plan a holiday there in our future. Just another example from a fabulous place that they have some exciting and appealing cuisine.
This was a work of art when Jamie did it, and I'm sure with plenty of practice we'll get it looking the same, and although it wasn't an exact replica it was impressive. I have never seen anyone make quite so much mess though! The pictures tell a great story, and this was delicious days after warmed with ice-cream.
I also know that many chefs have tempers and are foul-mouthed, but I haven't heard one of them ever say those things to filo pastry before. Let's suffice it say that it was a b@#%ch to deal with! The method to make this is complex in the execution as it requires a quick hand to keep the pastry pliable, put the filling down, and then roll it into a snake shape. Frustrations abound. But it was delicious, dramatic and worthwhile, and sometimes a picture really does say a thousand words. Enjoy.
This was a work of art when Jamie did it, and I'm sure with plenty of practice we'll get it looking the same, and although it wasn't an exact replica it was impressive. I have never seen anyone make quite so much mess though! The pictures tell a great story, and this was delicious days after warmed with ice-cream.
I also know that many chefs have tempers and are foul-mouthed, but I haven't heard one of them ever say those things to filo pastry before. Let's suffice it say that it was a b@#%ch to deal with! The method to make this is complex in the execution as it requires a quick hand to keep the pastry pliable, put the filling down, and then roll it into a snake shape. Frustrations abound. But it was delicious, dramatic and worthwhile, and sometimes a picture really does say a thousand words. Enjoy.
And that my friends is the finished product! Not quite the same as the picture in the cookbook, but super delicious!!
Ciao xoxo
Friday, February 25, 2011
Jamie vs. Gordon. The Christmas dessert showdown... Part 1
Unfortunately the only glass dish I had had been smashed a few months prior, and never replaced. A mad dash around on the 23rd was fruitless, so there's no side view. I layered the Madeira cake - about a 3rd of it - on the bottom, chopped into bits. Then in the blender whipped up a 3rd/half of the raspberries and strawberries with castor sugar and some water, and mixed that in with the remaining full berries. Lastly, followed his recipe for custard very carefully. This whole recipe can be found in 'Gordon Makes it Easy', which is my favourite and most useful Gordon Ramsay cookbook, and definitely in our top 5 overall. The Madeira cake was layered with the fruit, then topped with the custard. and into the fridge overnight.
This left the other dessert up to Marty, and that you'll need to wait for in part 2 on Monday or Tuesday! See you then.
xoxo
Bon Appetite xoxo
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