Adriano Zumbo Mini Chocolate Mousse Cake - limited edition

We weren't all lucky enough to have the chance to buy one of Adriano Zumbo's Chocolate Mousse cakes in last year's lottery.  Nor were some of us clever and competent enough to make our own (recipe from MasterChef here), though there were plenty of excellent attempts.

Fortunately, for this week only, Zumbo presents a mini chocolate mousse cake ($9.50 each) for our consumption and entertainment.  All the components of the original masterpiece are here in a more compact form.  The flavour of the chocolate mousse is incredibly intense yet light in texture.  The caramel is rich and gooey, and the apple filling is a refreshing counterpoint to the overall sweetness.

It's topped by a curl or two of white chocolate (sprayed with lime green food colour), and a hazelnut dipped in silver metallic dust. 

Head to Adriano Zumbo Patissier (296 Darling St, Balmain, NSW 2041. Ph: 02 9810 7318) for your own little piece of genius before the end of this week.

A work of Art!

Pear Frangipane Tart - shortcut without shortcrust

You may have noticed that I am all for shortcuts in cooking – anything that speeds up the process or makes it easier is all right by me. That said, I haven’t caught the ‘slow cooking’ bug yet, but as I’m a classic late adopter, I’d give it a couple more years...

But back to the shortcuts. I came across this recipe for Pear Frangipane Tart in Australian Good Food magazine. It’s by food writer, Lyndey Milan, who quite rightly points out the time usually spent making the pastry and poaching the pears for the tart. So, her solution is to use readymade puff pastry and tinned pears. Sounds good.

A couple of things I noticed: the recipe calls for blanched almonds to be cut in the food processor; it might be easier to use almond meal (ground almonds) instead. The texture of my tart was quite grainy, so almond meal might make it smoother. Also, my taste tester said, when he saw this tart, “Isn’t frangipane tart supposed to have shortcrust pastry?”. Er, that’s right. So using readymade shortcrust pastry instead of puff might also be better (and less likely to burn).
Here’s my effort, anyway!

Pear Frangipane Tart
serves 6

Ingredients
375g (1 sheet) puff pastry (OR shortcrust pastry)
100g blanched almonds (OR 100g almond meal)
100g caster sugar
100g butter
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
800g tinned pear slices

Method
1.  Press the defrosted pastry into a 23cm flan tin with removable base.  Prick base and sides with fork. Place in freezer for 30 mins.  Note: If the pastry sheet does not fit the pan, you may need to roll or stretch it out to fit.
2.  Preheat oven to 220 C. Place a sheet of baking paper over the pastry base and fill with dried beans, rice or baking weights.  Bake pastry for 15 mins.
3.  Process almonds and sugar in a food processor.  Add butter, egg and vanilla and mix until combined. Spread into tart shell.  Place pear slices in an attractive manner on top of the filling.
4.  Bake in oven for 30 mins until golden.  Cover the top with foil if it looks like it is browning too quickly.
5.  Serve warm or cold with thick cream.

Recipe adapted from Australian Good Food magazine (Sept 2008)

I only have a 25cm flan tin, so had to stretch out the pastry a bit...

Alternatively, use 100g ground almonds instead of whole almonds.

I used pear quarters, which are substantial enough not to fall apart when baked.

This shortcut pear tart is moist and delicious, with a very flaky pastry. 

The old 'Butterflies in a Frame' trick

If you're a visitor to markets and craft shows, you may have noticed how popular are paper butterflies stuck into a wooden box frame.  There are so many different designs around these days, and they've always appealed to me because of their simple, clean style.  In fact, part of the appeal of the butterflies (or birds, or whatever design is chosen) is that they are sometimes handcut from vintage papers - very delicate yet bold.

So of course I think to myself "I could do that!".  This type of decoration has been around for years, and I first thought of making my own about 2 years ago.  However, with one thing and another (aka 'procrastination'), I've only just completed the project.  As it was, both pictures took less than an hour to make.

The box frames are from IKEA (bought, er, 2 years ago).  The butterflies were cut from various scrapbooking papers and from an old crappy novel I was about to throw out (Fingersmith by Sarah Waters, if you're interested).  To save time, I used a Cuttlebug machine with a butterfly die cut - so much quicker than handcutting, and less prone to error and frustration.
The butterflies are attached with 1/2" quilting pins on foam core board.

The final effect looks pretty good, I think.  The feeling of relief at finally getting them out of the way is... priceless!

Butterflies cut from an old yellowing novel, attached to black foam core board.

Butterflies cut from scrapbooking paper, on white foam core board.

Getting a bit of a craft display going on the upstairs landing.

More on the BBQ side - asparagus prosciutto and olive salsa

Fact:   Summer = barbeques + flies + long cool drinks. 
Fact:   Barbeques = meat overload
Fact:   Meat overload = opp(Sides + sides + sides)

Don't get me wrong, I love a summer BBQ.  But sometimes, you need something a bit different to counteract all that meatiness.  Like seafood, or some interesting side dishes to serve with your steak. And no, I don't mean boring salads.

Here are two sides that complement roast lamb particularly well.  The olive salsa is great on barbequed meat, like lamb.  The asparagus with prosciutto can be thrown on the barbeque to cook while the meat is resting.

Olive Salsa
makes about 1 cup

Ingredients
1 cup (120g) pitted green or black olives (or a combination of the two), finely diced
1 tblsp olive oil
1 tblsp mint, chopped
1 tblsp parsley, chopped
1 tblsp red onion, finely chopped
2 anchovies, chopped
1 tblsp minced garlic

Method
1.  To ensure that the olives and herbs are finely chopped, you can put them into a food processor and whizz for a couple of seconds
2.  Then combine all ingredients in a bowl and cover and refrigerate until needed.
3.  Serve on sliced barbequed lamb


Asparagus with prosciutto
serves 3-4

Ingredients
1 bunch asparagus, trimmed (ie. ends cut off and peeled if necessary)
4 slices prosciutto

Method
1.  Cut the prosciutto into 2 or 3 pieces, crosswise
2.  Wrap a piece of prosciutto around a stalk of asparagus
3.  Cook on a barbeque over medium heat for 5  minutes, until the prosciutto is crisp and the asparagus is cooked
4.  Can be served immediately or is great served cold the next day.

Thanks to Nathan for this recipe idea!

Wrap prosciutto pieces around asparagus stalks before barbequeing

Serve olive salsa on the barbequed lamb with the asparagus and prosciutto

Asian influence - Prawns with coconut rice and sago dessert

This is a quickly-prepared meal for when you don't much feel like cooking or sweating over a hot stove (er, when do I ever not feel like that? - rhetorical question).  It's prawns with coconut rice.

The prawns are bought from the supermarket or fish shop already peeled and cooked - large prawns are better in this dish.  The rice is cooked in coconut milk which imparts a wonderful flavour and moistness to the grains of basmati.  To cheat even further, I used a packet of pre-cooked basmati rice (the ones that you microwave, except I didn't microwave it).  The cooking time is reduced because of the pre-cooking, but the coconut milk still gets absorbed readily.

Prawns with Coconut Rice
serves 2

Ingredients
200ml light coconut milk
150ml water
200g basmati rice
1/2 tsp salt
1 lime, juiced
1 tblsp fish sauce
1 tsp minced ginger
1 tsp brown sugar
200g large cooked, peeled prawns
1 stalk celery, finely sliced
1 red chilli, finely sliced

Method
1.  Bring coconut milk and water to a simmer in a large saucepan.  Add rice and salt.  Cover and cook until the liquid is absorbed, about 15-20 mins.
2.  Make a sauce by mixing the lime juice, fish sauce, ginger and brown sugar.
3.  Spoon the rice into bowls, top with the prawns, celery and chilli and pour over the sauce.

The basmati rice can be the pre-cooked variety.  The sauce is a fragrant mixture that includes fish sauce and lime juice.

Pour over the sauce before serving.

Add a couple of lime wedges to squeeze over.

For dessert, I mixed the leftover coconut milk with a jar of sago dessert that I picked up from the Malayisa Festival a few months ago.  You just mix a 1/4 cup of coconut milk with the sago and chill in the refrigerator.  The sago dessert is extremely sweet - full of caramelised palm sugar - so the coconut milk is essential.

This dessert is a refreshing complement to the prawn and coconut rice.  It would also be good after a spicier meal, such as rendang or curry.

Reminder: Don't forget to enter the buysterlighting giveaway. There's an $80 voucher up for grabs!

Let there be light - and a Giveaway!

You might have noticed that I abhor dimly-lit restaurants, where you can’t see the fork in front of your open mouth, let alone the food lovingly prepared by the chef. Similarly, a gloomy kitchen or workspace is not conducive to decent food photography or study, either.

Well, someone is paying attention, namely Maree from BuysterLighting.com.au. For she has brought to attention a way to search for and purchase a range of lights to brighten the darkest of rooms and to enhance the dullest of complexions (okay, maybe the latter is stretching it a bit in my case…).
Here are some table lamps that caught my eye…

But why should this be of interest to you, the eager reader? Well, thanks to BuysterLighting, I have an $80 voucher to give away to one lucky winner.

What do you have to do? Just leave a comment on this post (as many as you like, limit of one per day). Winner will be selected randomly. Delivery of prize is within Australia only.  Small print conditions are below.

So, have a look at buysterlighting.com.au for some cool lighting to set the mood, and be in it to win it! Good luck!

Conditions for buysterlighting $80 voucher giveaway
1. Competition closes midnight 31st January 2010.
2. Entry is by comment on this post, limit of one comment per person per day. Comments will be moderated but not published, so don't be shy in entering as often as you like
3. If your entry does not contain your contact details (eg. via blog address), then please email me your details (with your first entry) to ooh-look@hotmail.com, so I can contact you if you win.
4.  Sorry, the prize can only be delivered to Australian addresses.

=========================================================

1 February 2010

We have a winner:  Congratulations to Andrea for your entry. You are the winner of the $80 prize from buysterlighting.com.au

And a big Thank You to everyone who entered.

Chicken with lemon - delicious in more ways than one

In my neverending quest to find uncomplicated, quick-to-make meals, I came across this recipe in delicious magazine.  It would not usually leap out, as it looks fairly nondescript, but it does contain lemon, butter, white wine and chicken, which is always a wonderful combination.

Chef Tobie Puttock describes how this dish was very popular when he was an apprentice at Caffe e Cucina in Melbourne, and how it can be made in one pan.  You're preaching to the converted, Tobie.  'Tagliata' means 'cut' in Italian, and the chicken is finely sliced to promote quick cooking.  The original recipe calls for chicken breast fillets to be used, but I used chicken thigh fillets instead, as the flavour and texture are much better and the meat does not dry out so easily should you leave it in the pan for too long.

Maltagliata di pollo con limone
(pan-fried chicken with lemon)
serves 2

Ingredients
1 lemon
2 tbs olive oil
20g unsalted butter
1 onion, thinly sliced
1/4 cup (35g) plain flour, seasoned with salt and pepper
400g chicken thigh fillets, cut into 5mm strips
100ml dry white wine
100ml chicken stock
1 tsp caster sugar
2 tsp roughly chopped marjoram or parsley
rocket salad, to serve

Method
1.  Cut thin strips of lemon rind using a zester, then peel the lemon and thinly slice the flesh. Set aside.
2.  Heat 1 tbs oil and 10g butter in a large non-stick frypan over medium heat.  Add onion and cook for 3-4 minutes, until softened.  Remove from pan and set aside.
3.  Add remaining oil and butter to the pan.  Toss the chicken in the flour to coar.  Shake off excess flour and add chicken to the pan.  Cook chicken in batches for 1 minute, until golden.
4.  Return onion and all the chicken to the pan.  Add the wine, then simmer for 1-2 minutes until almost evaporated.
5.  Add lemon zest, lemon slices, sugar and stock.  Bring to the boil, then simmer for 2-3 minutes until the liquid has reduced by half and the chicken is cooked.
6.  Season to taste with salt and pepper and stir through the herbs.  Serve with rocket salad.

Recipe adapted from delicious (Dec 2009/Jan 2010)

Chicken not shown (nothing attractive about raw chicken, I've found)

After adding and simmering the wine, stock and lemon, the sauce becomes thick and syrupy.  Sprinkle with herbs for flavour and colour.

This is a light, flavoursome dish...

...and very tempting to Tabitha cat when dining alfresco...