Christmas Lunch

I spent Christmas day with three other families in air-conditioned comfort and relief... it was 40+ degrees outside, so the choice of venue or space was vital.  It was decided that no-one should cook for Christmas lunch and we should focus on cold foods.  Seafood salad and cold chicken tandoori had already been decided on.  I had hoped to cook this fab meat and mushroom sour-cream pie, but I'm not a big fan of any fusion cooking, and abhor Christmas feasts without a theme.  I decided to re-interpret the cold issue, and decided that it was more that one shouldn't spend too much time cooking on Christmas day.  With a bit of to-ing and fro-ing of the various cooks, this was our final menu:

Christmas Cooking and preparations...

Jorge's gingerbread men and trees...

It was with surprised relief that I took down our Christmas tree the day after Boxing Day.  I don't ever recall feeling so much relief that Christmas was finally over.  It seemed to have gone on for weeks, and my mood ebbed and flowed according to the rhythms of the various gatherings I attended, the food I cooked (or didn't get around to) and the planning around the actual day. There is so much pressure on each individual to get that day right.. to spend it with the 'right people' - friends or family, and to get that feast 'right'!  This feast day and festival is imbued with so much relevance about one's legitimacy as a person.  Next year, I want to take off to Vietnam or Cambodia a week before, and let the day drift by with barely a whimper.  I doubt my son will let me do this.  He is hanging on to every last thread of the Santa myth that he can...  including the food.  Here is the before and after shot of Santa's feast for this year. Santa's food consisted of: gingerbread men and stars, turkish delight, soft chocolate torrone, cherries and ginger beer, of course! And he and the reindeers left behind a big mess on the floor by way of paw prints.  I'm wondering if this will be our last visit from Santa, but I suspect not.

Santa food, before and after

This year's interpretation on
the
Christmas Nativity.

Christmas Treats: Sourdough Stollen

Last year I made  Dresden Stollen for friends for Christmas.  Not that I'm German (I'm not), but I do find the German Christmas traditions endearing, and yes, one day I may even  experience them.  This year I adapted my stollen recipe and made sourdough stollen, sadly it didn't make it to friends.  My family ate all three loaves (apart from a half loaf that could still be sitting in Jamie's bag?)  It was a great success, and stayed moist for much longer than my previous stollen.  But after eating so much  stollen , I couldn't face making any for  friends.  Instead they got or are still to get torrone, loukamis and/or paneforte.

Stollen is a German yeast bread, made traditionally for Christmas.  My (skippy) Mum made great stollen and some of my sisters try to emulate it, but they never succeed in my opinion.  My mother followed the wonderful recipe in the Foods of the World German Cookbook for Dresden Stollen.. I have also followed this recipe in previous years, but have adapted it this year for use with sourdough and  according to what is available in my pantry in terms of dried fruits ((I have added some beautiful dried sour cherries. )

So, you will need an active 'mother' or starter, and it needs to be ready to go.  I had been feeding mine for 24 hours before I started this recipe.. Also, this recipe is meant for a warm humid Australian summer day... perfect for bread-baking, and the amounts are a bit of guess work, in particular the ratio of starter to white flour.

Ingredients:

150 gm sultanas

150 gm glazed citrus (I have used orange and citron)

75gm glazed cherries

75 gm dried cherries

Almonds,

6 tbsp brandy

1/2 teaspoon grated lemon or lime rind

pinch salt

Vanilla bean

100gm unsalted butter

2 eggs

50gm melted unsalted butter

200gm White sourdough starter

600gm White flour

100ml Milk

200gm white sugar

Icing Sugar

Method

1. Place sultanas, glazed citrus and cherries in bowl with brandy and soak for at least one hour.  
2. Drain the fruit (keeping the liquid) and pat dry. Toss the fruit with about one datblespoon of flour and set aside.
3. Heat 125 gm sugar with milk and allow to cool.
4. Put flour, sourdough starter, milk, eggs and brandy into the bowl of a stand mixer with a dough attachment and 'knead' until a rough dough is formed.
5. Add pinch salt and grated lemon or lime rind, vanilla and continue to knead for another 5 minutes.  The dough should be quite moist.
6. Place a tea-towel on top and let the dough rest for 20 minutes.
7. Return the dough to the mixer, and with the speed on low, gradually add the dried fruit and almonds.  Allow to rest for another 20 minutes.
8. Return the dough to the mixer, and with the speed on low gradually add the butter piece by piece until is is fully absorbed.  Allow the dough to rest for between 1 and 2 hours.
9. Divide the dough into three.  
10. Place one of the pieces onto a floured board and roll out or press out until the dough is about 30cm long and 20cm wide.
11. Divide melted butter and sugar into three lots and spread the butter and sugar down the centre of the dough (leaving aside a tablespoon of extra butter for each loaf.).
12. Fold one long end of the dough over then the over end.  The dough should resemble the baby Jesus in swaddling clothes.  Place on baking tray and coat the loaf with some remaining butter.
13. Put plastic over top and repeat with the other two loaves, and allow to rest for at least two hours or up to three hours depending on the temperature.
14. Half an hour before you are ready to bake the bread, preheat the oven to 180 degrees celsius.
15. Bake the bread for around 45 minutes until golden and crusty.
16. When ready, allow to cool completely on rack.  Repeat with other loaves.
17. Just before serving, dust with icing sugar.

Christmas Treats: Glazed Oranges

I got down to my last glazed orange slices 2 weeks ago,  making a birthday cake for the lovely Silva, and I decided I just couldn't stand doing an online order for glazed oranges when there were perfectly good, even beautiful oranges in the shops (and often on the trees) in Alice Springs.  And I use glazed oranges a lot: ricotta cheesecake, orange cake, paneforte,  orange slices dipped in chocolate..etc... and Christmas is coming closer and closer....

 I had looked for several years for a good glazing recipe but had not located one.  I mentioned the problem to my lovely Mark and to my astonishment,  he found a document, and emailed it to me... As is often the case with electronic communication from those who are part of our daily lives, I had ignored it... or perhaps, overlooked is a better word.  Well, when I found and read this article, I was overwhelmed.  It made perfect sense.  The glazing process takes several days, and the glazing mixture includes corn syrup (or in my case glucose syrup) and sugar.

The recipe I first used was for Citron (cedro), and it didn't work for oranges.. for a start I overcooked them, and then I didn't need to cook them everyday.  So here's the recipe for what I did do, and succesfully (check out the photo).

Ingredients

Sliced oranges (I prefer Valencia, don't use navel), with seeds removed (or not, as can be seen by my photo)
Pinch salt
1.5 litres water

700 gm sugar

60 gm glucose syrup

Time

Method

1. Slice the oranges cross-wise into slices, about 7mm thick.  Discard the ends and remove any seeds.
2. Places the oranges in a large saucepan of water, add a pinch of salt and bring to the boil.
3. Simmer for between 20 and 30 minutes, taking care that the oranges do not overcook.
4. Carefully remove the oranges, or pour through a strainer.
5. In the same, or another saucepan add the water (1.5 litres), sugar and glucose syrup and bring to the boil.  
6. Add the orange slices and simmer for 20 minutes.  Put the lid on the saucepan and leave the oranges to soak.
7. The next day, repeat this process, ie. Bring the saucepan with the oranges to the boil and simmer for 20 minutes with the lid off.
8. Carefully remove the oranges and place on a cake rack.  Allow to sit and drain for around 12 hours.  You may want to put a sheet of baking paper over the top.  
9. Test the orange.  It should be sweet and not too tough and not too fragile.
10. Place in a sealed container and leave in the fridge.

More Cakes of Legend: Birthday Cake(s) No 3 for Birthday No 9

This is the final birthday cake(s) for this Jorge's 9th birthday... he requested macarons for the cake for this part.. three types: salted caramel, passionfruit and raspberry - and so he got his wish.

Up till 2am last night, and cursing my oven.. wishing I had a new one, only to remember that I do have one that's been sitting in our living room for two years now..  I have given myself till Christmas to have it installed.

Macarons  piled high on a plate were divine!  But I wasn't completely happy with the results. 
 I had some lopsided problems which I suspected was due to my oven, and confirmed via late night research..
 Recipes for macarons are as per my previous posting on salted caramel macarons.  Raspberry ganache was made with white chocolate, cream and fresh raspberrries in double boiler till melted, chilled, then whipped.  Passionfruit filling is another story: passionfruit curd with whipped cream.. need to work on this one. 
The party was a hit:  Halloween inspired and involved children dressing up and visiting five houses in neighbourhood... Glad I live in Alice Springs.  There were more activities: Piñata, nerf gun trials, brandy, soccer, etcc and of course pizza, cooked in pizza oven on sourdough bread.  All children were happy, and I am exhausted. Good night!

Arancini - Wonderful for leftover Risotto

Not sure how appealing this picture looks, but these are soooo  yummy!  In keeping with the birthday theme, my lovely son asked for Risotto for this birthday dinner. (And chocolate mousse for dessert... discussed earlier today.) Not going to give the recipe for risotto tonight, but rather these beautiful deep fried risotto balls.  For a long time, I used only to put mozarella in the middle of my arancini (also called suppli sometimes), and then I tried one at Brunetti's in Melbourne, and it had bolognese in the centre as well.  It makes it more of a meal, and has a very Italo-Australian sensibility...

Ingredients:

2 eggs

Left over risotto (I have used Risi e Bisi risotto)

Quantity of bolognese (everyone should have this on hand in your freezer)

Mozarella, cut into small cubes

Breadcrumbs

Deep-frying oil

Method

1. Beat up one egg and mix it through the cold risotto.
2. Beat up the other egg and put in a shallow bowl.
3. Place breadcrumbs in second shallow bowl.
4. Take a heaped teaspoon size amount of risotto and place in cupped hand, creating a hollow in the middle.
5. Into this hollow, place a teaspoon of bolognese sauce and a cube of mozarella.  
6. Take another teaspoon of risotto mixture and place over the top.
7. Very gently make a round ball.
8. Roll the ball in the beaten egg mixture then breadcrumbs.  Leave aside and repeat with remaining risotto.
9. Heat up cooking oil, and when hot carefully place a ball in the oil.  There must be enough oil to cover the ball.  Cook and turn until brown and drain on paper.
10. Eat quickly while the cheese is still runny...

More Cakes of Legend: Birthday Cake No. 1 for Birthday No. 9

I love birthdays, and fortunately I send my son to a school that also appreciates birthdays.  Jorge's birthday celebration yesterday was very special and involved a song, a few stories by me and a chocolate mud cake (also by me and a simple recipe courtesy of Women's Weekly Cookbook.)

The cake was made special with candles raspberries, and of course silver leaf...

More Cakes of Legend: Birthday Cake No. 2 for Birthday No. 9

This was Jorge's Birthday Cake No. 2 for his 9th birthday... basically a Chocolate Mousse in a ring

mould with strawberries in the middle, and individual ones for three children.

Found a fabulous chocolate mousse recipe from a more fabulous blog than my own at this address: http://www.chefeddy.com/2010/02/dark-chocolate-mousse/

Cakes of Legend... Polenta and Fig Cake

I have cooked a lot of cakes lately, and I'm at that point of being sick of cream, chocolate, icing, butter etcc...  Not that there is anything wrong with my beautiful cheesecake recipe, montmorency cake or the orange yoghurt cake I made for Sliva's birthday last week. But today, I want something else... something simple, yet complex in other ways.  And so, I have had this cake on my mind for a few weeks.  I found this recipe online, when I was also heartily sick of the chestnut and rosemary cake I had become an expert on.

Polenta and Fig Cake is simple, and delicious and wonderful.  I don't think of it as a gluten free cake (it is), because it is a celebration not a substitution for the main ingredients of:  polenta, pine-nuts, dried figs, sultanas and fennel.  And it's simple, and don't omit the alcohol, it's essential.

I will give the link for the recipe rather than repeat it.  The only additional thing I do is to absolutely lather the cake tin with unsalted butter, then sprinkle a little butter and polenta on the top.

Enjoy!

Cakes of Legend: le Montmorency Chocolate Cake & Variations

 I have cooked this cake, and varied it several times, over the past 20+ years.  I first cooked it in 1989 and then not again till last year, when I replaced the cherries with quandongs (photo above and for this blog) and tripled it for my friend Bess' 50th birthday.  It was great!

Last week I cooked it for another friend, not my best effort and I would use more cherries or go back to quandongs.

I used a bigger cake tin than the recipe asks for for Donna's cake above...
 and possibly less cherries.  I was disappointed with the
 results and would suggest that the recipe is adhered to for best results.

I love this cake because it's a bit odd.. I love odd cakes. (Check out the polenta and fig cake).  And I have just been pondering the current fad in cakes for barbie dolls, or aeroplanes etc.. and I must admit I'm not a big fan.  For me a cake is a cake, and it's beauty is looking like what it is, not something else.  To get your chocolate glaze right... with just the right amount of shine and thickness, or have your strawberries sit perfectly in a champagne jelly on the top of a cheesecake... this is beauty.

Anyway, Montmorency cake.  I do use Kirsch, and buy it when interstate.  As a replacement you could use.... schnapps or grappa.

Lifted and adapted from the Time Life "Good Cook" series, Cakes and Pastries.

Ingredients

Cake

250 gm chocolate

1 shot espresso coffee

2 tablespoons kirsch

4 eggs, separated yolks from whites

175 gm unsalted butter

50gm flour

salt

125 sugar

2 X 450gm bottles morello cherries or more, or 500gms fresh cherries

Method

Butter and line a 22 cm cake tin with baking paper.

Heat oven to 190 degrees celcius.

Find a stainless steel bowl that sits over a saucepan with 4 cm of water, without touching the water.

Heat the water to boiling pint.

Place the chocolate and coffee in bowl, with half the alcohol for 2 minutes.  Turn off heat, and stir until chocolate is melted.  Remove from saucepan immediately.

Off the heat, stir in egg yolks one at a time, then return to heat and cook through until mixture has thickened slightly.

Off the heat, beat in the butter, a tablespoon at a time, then stir through the flour.

Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until they form soft peaks.  

Gradually add 60gms of the sugar until the mixture forms soft peaks and is glossy.

Gently fold the chocolate mixture into the egg whites and pour into prepared pan.

Bake for around 25 to 30 minutes until  cake has puffed and is cooked in middle after testing with cake tester or skewer. (Do not overcook)

Allow the cake to cool for 45 minutes before unmoulding.

If using morello cherries, drain them and roughly chop.  Heat through with kirsch and remaining sugar until pulpy.  Allow to cool.

If using fresh cherries, stone them and place in a saucepan with remaining sugar and kirsch.  Cook over a medium heat for 30 to 40 minutes with lid on.  Uncover pan for last 10 minutes until they reduce to pulp.  Allow to cook and roughly chop.

Scoop out the middle of the cake so there is around one centimetre left around the edge and the same on the bottom of the cake.  Add the scooped out cake to cherries and stir.  

Return the mixture to the cake and smooth the top and allow to rest for at least 8 hours, preferably overnight for flavours to set.

Glaze

Ingredients

300 gm dark cooking chocolate

1 cup cream

Method

Using the double boiler method described above, place chocolate and cream in bowl and melt.  Stir through.

Divide mixture into 2:1.  Chill the larger amount of mixture in fridge for at least a half hour.

Whisk the larger mixture and spread over cake and sides, trying to make it as smooth as possible.

Chill for another half hour.

Warm the remaining mixture slightly so it is liquid.

Place cake on cake rack and pour over liquid chocolate glaze.

Decorate with cherries and chocolate leaves.

Variations

Replace cherries with fresh quandongs, remembering to leave the most choice quandongs for decorating.  You may need to add a bit more sugar to get the balance right.

Cheesecake - Triple layered

This one's my own, with some rather unique suggestions from my lovely niece Sarah for her 21st Birthday Cheesecake.

Ingredients:

2 packets of Oreo biscuits (classic)

1 tablespoon melted butter

2 packets Philadelphia cream cheese

2 eggs

1 vanilla bean

grated rind of 1 lemon and 1 orange

3/4-1 cup castor sugar

2 tubs creme fraiche

2 tbsp fresh cream

3 gelatin leaves

1 cup white wine or champagne

squeeze of lemon juice

3 tubs strawberries

2 tbs castor sugar

Method:

1. Butter an 18cm-20cm spring form pan, and line the bottom with baking paper.
2. Put oven on low heat, around 100 degrees (Celsius).
3. Using  a food processor, grind up the oreos. (If you don't have a food processor, place the biscuits in a large clean plastic bag and crush with a rolling pin until fine.)
4. Place crushed biscuits in a bowl and add melted butter.
5. Pour crushed oreos onto pan and press down to make a base. (Don't go up the side.) Place in refridgerator.
6. Place cream cheese, eggs, vanilla bean, citrus rind and around a half cup of castor sugar into food processor and blend until smooth.  (You can add a tablespoon of fresh cream and more sugar to taste.)
7. Pour into cake tin and bake for around 40 minutes.
8. In the meantime, blend cream fraiche and 2 tablepoons of castor sugar.
9. Pour onto cream cheese mixture and continue to make for another 20-25 minutes.
10. Cool cheesecake.
11. Place gelatin leaves in cold water.
12. Place wine or champagne into small saucepan and heat until sugar dissolves.  Allow to get to room temperature and add squeezed gelatine leaves.
13. In the meantime, hull and slice strawberries and arrange on top of cheesecake.
14. Gently pour the wine mixture over the top of the cheesecake and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.  You may need to put a tray underneath cheesecake to catch any of the jelly.
15. When the jelly is set, remove cake.
16. Carefully run a sharp knife around the outside of the cake and loosen the  ring. 
17. (Optional: Serve with strawberry coulis, made with a punnet of strawberries, pureed up with champagne and sugar to taste.)

Checkout the cake in action:

A very special cheesecake...

In keeping with my current trend of giving gifts of food, I offered to make my niece's 21st birthday cake. (I had offered to make my father's 80th birthday cake but my sisters sadly rejected the offer on the grounds of distant memories of messy kitchens).  However, she wanted a cheesecake.  Not a Sicilian ricotta cheesecake, but a baked philadelphia cheese-cake and a biscuit (oreo!!) base.  Now, I love gourmet foods and I'm not a snob about food.  I love the peppermint chocolate slices my neighbour gives me,  home-made stew and dumplings, and I'll even go a meat pie (once a year).  But this was a challenge, to make something special from the mundane, and this was the result:

One layer of oreo biscuit crust , a layer of baked cheesecake, a layer of baked creme fraiche topping, a layer of strawberries set in a wine jelly, and a strawberry coulis. And all without a recipe.  But I do remember what I did, and will post it soon.

The Rise of the Super Butcher

I have discovered something new in life - it's called a Super Butcher - and it lives in an outer Brisbane suburb called Waterford West, but I don't imagine it's a solitary creature.  I suspect there are a whole family of Super Butchers out there.  So, what makes a Super Butcher, different to a Butcher?

Meat is meat??? But no, there's more... there's so much more ... meat! Piles of Wagyu blade, special packages of porterhouse (at $28.99/kg, it's not what I'd call a bargain)  pre-packaged in large quantities, a half or quarter of a beast, and a special frozen section, where you'd have to bring your uggies if you spent more than 10 minutes perusing the flesh.  I'm a bit taken by the whole experience, and it's not a pretty one either.  Not being a meat lover myself, I have assumed the world is moving toward a more healthy, organic, semi-vegetarian approach to food.. but I suspect this is just my world.  And somewhere out there is a whole bunch of meat lovers that I just don't know.

Catering out bush...

I have just spent the past week in a remote community on the AP (Anangu Pitjantjatjara)  Lands called Umuwa, or rather the 'Canberra of the AP Lands', attending and participating in the 13th Remote Indigenous Media Festival.  This is my work life....
Around 100 people from remote Australia, from as far away as One Arm Point on the Dampier Peninsular (north of Broome), to Darnley Island (outer Island of the Torres Strait), to Blackstone in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands... attended a five day festival to celebrate the media and media makers of remote Australia. 
Despite my uncertainty about where I was sleeping from day to day, and the ridiculous working hours, from 8am to 11pm each time,  I had a fabulous time, and one of the factors that made this festival so great, was the food.

A group of about five people, fed 100 people three meals a day, using camp ovens, barbecue plates and open fires.  They had one refrigerated van and operated outdoors most of the time in a small fly-screened tent and  despite rain, near cyclonic winds, and the occasional 35+ degree day, managed to serve up a great menu. We had stir fries, goulash, corned beef with vegetables, grilled eggplant, fennel and orange salad, grilled capsicum and the occasional fabulous desert of cinnamon baked pears with fresh cream. Enamel plates and metal cutlery were provided, as was fresh fruit and coffee. 
I've been to many a  city based conference where the food came nowhere near to the quality of this food, and certainly nothing compares with the friendly attitude of these caterers. And they seemed to enjoy the process.

 Sadly, I took no photos of this fabulous cooking team..  But what heros they were.  And I was quite happy to be immersed in my world of video-making, screenings and governance, and be fed.. constantly...

Feed your people well, and the rest will follow.
Stay posted, I'm looking for photos..

Wattle-seed Milkshake

Jorge insisted, yet again, on entering the bushfoods competition in the junior category.  He had some great ideas such as bush tomato soup and quandong red-skins, but when it came down to it, I was pushed for time and ideas, so we opted for a wattleseed milkshake and quandong truffles.  We chose these recipes because children can make both of them, and they're fun and yummy!

I'm not sure how we ended up with 4 children, over two days... plus a dog, and a number of friends dropping in for a cup of tea...  and there were moments, when it was great, and moments when it was not.

Now, the recipe....

Wattle-seed Syrup

INGREDIENTS

1 cup roasted wattle-seed

2 cups sugar

2 cups water

METHOD

Using a mortal and pestle, grind up the wattle seed roughly.

Place the wattleseed, sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to the boil on a medium heat.

Allow to simmer for 20-30 mins.

Strain the syrup through a fine sieve, and allow to cool.

Wattle-seed Milkshake

INGREDIENTS

30mls wattle-seed syrup

100 mls full-cream milk

1 scoop vanilla ice-cream

METHOD

Place milk, syrup and ice-cream in large cup or milkshake container, and press that button.

That's it.

Toffee as Jewels... the Belt of Deltora

Recently my son - Jorge - had a Book Day at school. This is where the kids are expected to turn up to school dressed as their favourite 'book character' for the year.  Given that we have only read one book (or trilogy) over the past year, and this being the much loved  Deltora Quest  (apart from a few forays in Zach Power, and Jorge went as Zach Power last year).. there was little choice but for Jorge to go as the young hero - Lief. 

Jorge's dad fashioned him a sword out of plywood, and I was left with the task of making the belt and the finding a cape.

Now, for those who haven't read this fabulous book, the belt of DELTORA is made up of 7 gems/jewels, these being Diamond, Emerald, Lapis Luzuli, Topaz, Opal, Ruby, Amethyst (spells Deltora).... and so I was pondering, how I would get hold of seven large coloured jewels, in less than 24 hours, in Alice Springs. I thought about glass, coloured glass, melted glass... and then I wondered if there was any substance that I could create that looked a bit like glass... of course I thought food.

I thought of jelly, agar, and then I thought:  toffee... of course.

This belt is half made of toffee, and half of found objects like Christmas decorations.  For the Emerald, I put green glitter though the toffee, the Topaz is pure toffee, and the Opal is my ultimate creation with about three different colours of glitter through the toffee. The red toffee in the photo is for the ruby, it was a bit soft and then we found a lovely ruby coloured Christmas decoration, so Jorge got to eat these toffees.

Of course, I had to explain to Jorge not to let any of his class mate eat the toffees (apart from the Topaz). He claims there were many greedy eyes on his belt all day... but not thieves..

Garden Instalment #3

Up to my 4th bed... potatoes looking good, and surviving (just)  the mad dashes of one red heeler puppy called CC.  Can't say the same for the silver beet, although fennel seems indestructable.

I got one tomato from all my healthy bushes (see below), and it was fab.... but way too much effort for one tomato (a couple of small ones).. although this ox-heart variety tasted fantastic... check out the colour and the flesh.  Served here with a splash of olive oil, parsley (sadly no basil) and some wet sea salt.  I am currently pulling out my vines and getting read to plant more seedlings.. 

  From now on, I will plant according to the Alice Springs calendar, rather than assume I know better... I don't.

Fennel Head below...is a champ!   Already sick of fennel and dog can't seem to destroy it.

And here are my carrots... very proud of this effort.  Got purple ones in at the moment...

But really, what I am most happy with is my daikon radish (below)... I can't begin to explain the joy of planting seeds and growing a particular vegetable you can't get locally so you (me) can cook a particular dish... In this case: Agedashi Tofu.. yum!

Cannoli ... first try

I made my first (not quite the last) attempt at Cannoli (evening of the macarons... cooking Sunday!)  I had finally purchased some cannoli tubes in Melbourne, in between meetings, and had my heart set on trying these delightful treats.

I found a Gourmet Traveller recipe which used a chocolate/marsala pastry and a pasta machine for rolling out.

Now, I was disappointed with the pastry... quite fragile and easy to burn, and just didn't crisp up like I wanted.  Cooking these pastries is also a bit tricky....  Also the filling was just not right... next time, I think I'll do chocolate custard.

Stay posted for the my next attempts.

my best macarons yet....

Yes, I feel I've finally achieved a significant Macarons goal.. I made salted caramel macarons, and they were divine...

As you can see, Jorge was also delighted.

Now the recipe for them I got from two websites, which I highly recommend:

For the macarons, go to the food geek.  He uses Italian meringue, which is the key.  I've used recipes with the French meringue, but the results are nowhere near as good. (I also used a natural food colour here...)  Zumbo also uses Italian meringue.  (One tip I just read from Zumbo, is to add your food colour to the toffee!  Check out Zumbo here.)

For the salted caramel, I found this lovely site called Honey & Soy..  I kept thinking I was making honey and soy macarons... now there's food for thought!

Yes, macarons are tricky but well worth the effort.  Wanting to try passionfruit macarons this weekend, and maybe perfect my cannoli.

Joy!

Melbourne, macarons & other joys...

Lovely tea-house in Block Arcade, can't remember the name, but never seem to have the time or right head-space to go in and try the treats and have a cup of tea.

 Not sue where this one was....

For some reason I took very few photos of macarons when recently in Melbourne on a short stay... but I did taste a lot, not just macarons but many other joyful foods.

The cakes above and below are from one of my favourite pastry shops in Little Collins Street.  Yes, they had macarons as well.

Melbourne & Macarons... and many other delights

Macarons..

I am joining the growing number of people pre-occuppied with French Macarons.  Now, I have seen them in pictures and on television, and have now attempted them three times. See below:

I have not been happy with any of these attempts, although the second picture (third attempt), was much more successful (next time I will pipe the filling onto the macaron. )  I used this recipe from 'my food geek' which I highly recommend as it uses Italian meringue which seems to give more lift to the macarons.  The macarons I made were raspberry and white chocolate, and orange and chocolate.. However, living in Alice Springs, I am still not sure what they should taste like, ie. have I been successful.. I need to compare them with something other than an image...  I need to know whether or not the macaron  should be a bit chewy, or dry and crunchy... and how important is that gloss, not to mention colour.

Well... in a fortnight I am going to, not to Paris, but to Melbourne (for work), and I have set myself the task and seeking out, and buying, and tasting the best macaron that Melbourne can provide - and taking photos of course.

Sourdough #1 in pizza oven

I tried my first sourdough batch in my pizza oven last week... I worked out all the timings.  Started feeding the sourdough on the Friday, made the dough and knocked it back a couple of times on the Saturday, created three batards on Saturday night (technique thanks to youtube) which sat in the fridge overnight, and then Sunday morning... well things fell apart.  The air temperature was over 20 degrees (more like 30) and I took the loaves out of the fridge too early, and then the pizza oven wasn't ready... so I knocked them back.  Got the pizza oven to the right temperature with the help of  my new laser thermometer, sprayed the interior with water and placed an oven tray full of wet rags in the back of the oven, and then placed my batards in the oven.  Twelve to fifteen minutes later I checked them out and was..... disappointed... same old, same old sour dough. No caramel top or large gaps of stretched dough.. none of that special wood fire taste and texture I was hoping for.

What did I do wrong?  What will I do next time?

Next time, I will use a strong (possibly not organic), high protein flour.

I will use small pieces of wood which will burn quickly (rather than the large logs of gum I used this time)  and make a mother of a fire in my pizza oven.

And, I will use my new hose wand to get more water/steam into my oven...

That's about it.

Nurturing my Sourdough...

I have started a new sourdough plant, and I am nurturing it like a newborn.  Taking it with me on trips to Ulura, ... moving it around the yard to follow the sun, and now it's  under its cosy crochet blanket next to my wood fire.  Only gets fed spring water and organic flour...  what a precious plant it is! I hope it looks after me.  I am planning a first use of the sourdough this weekend, and am still deciding on whether or not to use the pizza oven.  Stay posted.