Inspiring Chocolate Snaps with Sea Salt

Those ‘Top 10’ lists make fascinating reading, from the top-grossing movies, to the highest-paid stars, to the best-selling books (books? how quaint!) and the most-visited blogs.

Then came the news that the ‘richest chef in the world’ is likely to be Jamie Oliver (this), ahead of other famous pot-rattlers such as Alain Ducasse, Gordon Ramsay and Heston Blumenthal. Gosh, pushing out a couple of TV shows, endorsements and cookbooks each year certainly pays off, though it must take a lot out of you. Not that I’d know, but it’s probably a good guess.

So where does that leave lesser-known, but popular food stars, like Nigel Slater? Nigel has a lovely TV series on called Simple Cooking, and he has a more gentle approach than the sometimes manic Jamie Oliver. His shows features dishes that are so easy to prepare that even a disorganised amateur (like me) will be inspired and enticed.

Here’s my take on one of his creations. Super easy to whip up, beautiful to look at and makes you want more. That makes him number One on my hit list at the moment.

Chocolate Snaps with Sea Salt

makes approx 9

Ingredients

100g dark chocolate

2 tblsp flaked almonds

½ tsp caster sugar

¼ cup unsalted pistachio nuts, chopped

Sea salt flakes, to sprinkle

Dried rose petals (optional)

Method

1. For the chocolate: Break up the chocolate into small pieces and place into a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Stir the chocolate until it is almost all melted, then remove from the heat and stir to fully melt.

2. For the almonds: Put the almonds on a baking tray and place into a moderate oven (180C/350F) until golden, about 3 minutes. Remove the almonds from the oven and sprinkle over the caster sugar, then return to the oven until the sugar melts, about 2 more minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside.

3. Place a sheet of baking paper onto a tray, then spread a heaped teaspoon of some melted chocolate onto the paper, into a circle shape. Scatter over the almonds, pistachios, sea salt and rose petals. You may need to press the nuts and petals into the chocolate so they stick.

4. Chill the chocolate in the refrigerator for 20 minutes before peeling the chocolate snaps from the paper to serve.

recipe adapted from delicious (July 2012)

From top: dried roses, flaked almonds, pistachios

The roses are from a pack of rose tea that I got in an Asian grocer; I just rubbed the petals off the roses for this recipe.

The almonds are sprinkled with sugar to caramelise before being dropped onto the melted chocolate together with crushed pistachios, rose petals and salt flakes.

Take my word, these chocolate snaps are really easy to make and even easier to eat.

The sprinkling of sea salt flakes is an inspired touch. I used 'Lindt dark chocolate with Sea Salt' to give an extra boost of saltiness.

Parmesan Rosemary Biscuits and bein' Chill

I’m quite proud of these Parmesan Rosemary Biscuits, because I whipped them up one evening while waiting for my dinner to cook (roast chicken, or something like that). Since the oven was on anyway, and these bikkies needed an hour in the fridge, they were an ideal way to use up the rosemary that was in the roast chicken.

To look up the recipe (via handy taste.com.au) was the work of a moment, and a quick whizz in the food processor later, the dough was ready. It was even easier to roll out the dough and cut the biscuits and to bake them as the chicken came out of the oven. Very easy peasy. Makes me feel quite ‘chill’ to think that there was no rushing around for ingredients and stressing out like I normally am at dinnertime.

And speaking of ‘chill’, check out the latest pictures of Henry and Tabitha – and try and

pick the relaxed cat.

Parmesan Rosemary Biscuits

approx 30

Ingredients

100g butter, chopped

100g parmesan cheese (or half parmesan/half cheddar), grated

1 tblsp rosemary leaves, chopped

¾ cup plain flour

½ tsp sea salt

¼ tsp ground black pepper

Method

1. Place the butter, cheese, rosemary, flour, salt and pepper into a food processor and mix until it comes together in a ball.

2. Turn the dough out onto a piece of plastic wrap and press into a 15cm (6in) disc. Wrap in the plastic and refrigerate for one hour or until firm.

3. Preheat oven to 180C/350F.  Line oven tray with baking paper.

4. Roll the dough between 2 sheets of baking paper to a ½ cm (¼ in) thickness. Use a 5cm (2in) round cookie cutter to cut out pieces of the dough.  Knead together the scraps and roll out again to use up all the dough.

5. Place biscuits on the prepared baking tray and bake, in batches, until golden, about 6-8 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

These biscuits can be stored in an airtight container, lined with foil, for up to 5 days.

recipe from taste.com.au

Some of the ingredients: Rosemary and Parmesan

The dough is easy to make and roll out (refrigerate it first to make this easier).
Cut out rounds with a cookie cutter.

 

Golden, crispy, cheesey and moreish - perfect with coffee.

PS: Win your own Bialetti espresso maker and some lovely espresso glasses - to enter, click HERE.

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Tabitha vs Henry Update

Pick the relaxed Cat

Henry cat is so laid back that he fell asleep against the window while laying on the outdoor table.

Tabitha cat is always on the alert when Henry's around. Here, she is highly offended that he has fallen asleep while she was glaring at him.

A bit of face time.

Espresso Granita plus a Fab Giveaway!

 What’s the coffee like at your place?

And, more relevantly, are you a caffeine addict?

Me, I’ve always been a tea drinker, mainly because the smell of coffee is always better than how it ultimately tastes. And I’m very fond of the saying, ‘Some drink coffee because they have to; others drink tea because they want to’, with the implication that coffee addicts need one to get through the morning, while we tea drinkers are so discerning with our white, green and grown-on-a-dewdropped-mountain varieties.

Then, out of nowhere, I’m suddenly having a coffee in the morning, and maybe one in the afternoon. A ‘weak long black with a dash of cold milk’ is my current drink of choice, meaning that I’m well on the way to a one-and-a-half-shot-macchiato-thanks. Really, I can’t get enough of the stuff, dammit!

Here is a beautiful way to get a daily dose of caffeine goodness into your diet. This fabulous espresso granita is not too strong, a little bit sweet, and keeps you coming back for more. Kind of like me, hahaha…

Plus, please stick around for a fantastic giveaway – your very own espresso maker and elegant coffee cups.

Espresso Granita

serves 4

Ingredients

¼ cup caster sugar

_2/3 cup water

a few drops of vanilla extract

1 cup of freshly brewed espresso coffee, cooled

Whipped cream, to serve

Method

It’s best to start this recipe about 3 hours before you want to serve it.

1. For the sugar syrup: place the sugar, water and vanilla in a small saucepan over low heat. Stir until the sugar dissolves, then increase the heat to high and bring to the boil. Then reduce heat and simmer for about 4 minutes, until the syrup thickens slightly. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

2. Meanwhile, place a metal loaf pan or shallow metal tray (10cm x 20cm) into the freezer to chill. When the syrup has cooled, pour it into the metal pan together with the cooled espresso. Place in the freezer. After about 1 hour, use a fork to scrape up the partially frozen granita, then put it back in the freezer.  Do the same scraping thing 40 minutes after that, then repeat in 40 minute intervals, 2 more times, or until ready to serve.

3. To serve, spoon the granita into glasses and top with whipped cream. 

The basis for the granita is espresso coffee, made here in a Bialetti Moka Express.

You could win one! Read on...

 After a bit of scraping and freezer-watching, the granita is ready.

Topped with unsweetened whipped cream, it's just like a cold, refreshing Vienna coffee.

 The Bodum Pavina double-walled glasses keep the granita frozen and delicious.

And you could win these glasses - read on!

By the way, I used caramel-flavoured coffee beans, so the granita tasted just like Kahlua, but without the alcohol. Sooo good!

Still waiting for the giveaway? Then read on...

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Kitchenware Direct Giveaway!

 

Thanks to Kitchenware Direct, (and particularly Brad from Kitchenware Direct!) you could Win! Win! Win!

That’s right, make your morning coffee (or anytime coffee) like the Italians do, with this sturdy Bialetti ‘Moka’ stovetop espresso maker. It’s a handy 3-cup size, and it’s so easy to store away, clean and use. 

And to enjoy your just-right brew, the prize comes with a set of Bodum Pavina double-walled espresso cups, to keep your coffee warm and your fingers cool.

To enter, just leave a comment on this post, with the magic words “Un Espresso, per favore!” (or email, details below). Entries close midnight 16^thSeptember 2012. Prize can only be delivered to Australian addresses. Other conditions are below. Good luck!
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Update: This competition is now Closed.
Congratulations to the winner of the Kitchenware Direct products: Andrea L (via email)

And Thanks to all who entered.

 

Conditions of Entry

1. Entry to this contest is by a comment on this post containing the words “Un Espresso, per favore!”. Alternatively, enter by sending an email to oohlookbel2000 [at] gmail [dot] com

2. Entries close at midnight 16 September 2012.

3. Winner will be randomly selected

4. The prize can only be delivered to Australian addresses. Prize will be supplied and delivered by Kitchenware Direct.

5. Please include an email address or your blog URL in your entry so I can contact you if you win.

Mexican Pulled Pork with tortillas

In preparing this dish of Mexican Pulled Pork with tortillas, my mind flew back to the time I visited Mexico many years ago. It was an excursion during a tour of the USA, and we did a day trip to Tijuana, from San Diego.

I honestly can’t remember what we ate, probably something in a café – we did eat a lot of ‘soup and salad’ while in the US, and I recall drinking some 7UP in Tijuana. I was pretty excited about the duty-free shopping there and picked up some Estee Lauder perfume (!!!) because, at the time, the Aussie dollar was hopeless against the greenback, so Mexico was fairly cheap in comparison. I also bought some little handcrafted dolls from a street vendor, as souvenirs.

Well, Tijuana was hot and dry and a bit grimy, and it was a relief to get back onto our pink tour bus/coach for the journey back. The most exciting part of the trip was having the coach searched at the border, with the armed guards looking at the underside of the bus and in the hold for any stowaways. When they realised it was just a bus full of gawking, English-speaking tourists, they lost interest and waved us through without even checking our passports. So much for any hoped-for intrigue, because there was none, so it was a rather sanitised visit, as far as I was concerned.

This recipe can also be made in a pan on the stove – just simmer for 1½ hours and you too can experience the flavours (though slightly restrained) of Mexico.

Mexican Pulled Pork

serves 4

Ingredients

2 tblsp olive oil

500g piece pork scotch fillet

2 medium brown onions, sliced

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tblsp ground cumin

2 dried bay leaves

400g can diced tomatoes

Flour tortillas or rice

Avocado, green chilli and lime wedges, to serve

Method

1. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Sear the pork on all sides until browned, about 5 minutes. Transfer the pork to a slow cooker.

2. Heat the remaining oil in the pan and add the onion, cooking until softened, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, cumin and bay leaves and cook for another 1 minute.

3. Stir in the tomatoes plus ½ cup of cold water. Season with salt and pepper, then bring to the boil. Remove from the heat.

4. Pour the tomato mixture over the pork in the slow cooker and cook on Low for 6 hours.

5. When ready to serve, remove the pork from the cooker and shred the meat using 2 forks.

6. Heat the tortillas, if using, and top with the pork and some of the tomato sauce. Serve with sliced chilli and lemon wedges. Alternatively, serve the pork and sauce with rice.

recipe adapted from taste.com.au

Ingredients, including tomatoes, onion, cumin, bay leaves and pork, and a lime, green chilli and avocado for later.

The pork is shredded with forks ('pulled') after it's cooked, and just look at that luscious meat.

Serve the pork and its sauce on warmed flour tortillas with the chilli and lime.

The avocado ended up being hard as a rock, so I didn't use it in the end and replaced it with some salad leaves.

Make like Speedy Gonzales (who is from Guadalajara, Mexico) to get your hands on this delicious dish.

Berry nice: mini strawberry tarts

There has been a young guy selling strawberries on the local main street in the past couple of weeks, a pallet of rather healthy-looking berries laid out on the footpath in front of him as he greets passers-by. The strawberries are quite tasty, though the price is more than the nearby supermarket charges.

I had to know, is it really strawberry season, for the prices to be fairly low and the fruit so plentiful? So I looked up my culinary encyclopaedia (Stephanie Alexander’s Cook’s Companion). It says that strawberries are of the genus Fragaria, which is a member of the rose family. They are harvested in southern Australia during summer, and in Queensland (northern Australia) during winter. The peak season is September to January (spring to mid-summer here). And, get this, “some berries appearing in the Southern states during winter may not be worth eating”.

Forewarned is forearmed, as the saying goes. However, the strawberries around at the moment all seem pretty good, and very reasonably priced. Good enough motive to dig in and enjoy the bounty. And do I have a recipe for you (or, rather, Donna Hay does).

Mini strawberry tarts

makes 6

Ingredients

30g butter

¼ cup caster sugar

½ tsp vanilla extract

2 tblsp water

250g strawberries, hulled and halved

1 sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed

Method

1. Place the butter, sugar, vanilla and water into a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to the boil, stirring while the sugar dissolves, then cook for another 2 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Lightly grease six holes of a 1/3-cup muffin tin. Place the strawberries in the holes, then spoon over the butter/sugar syrup.

3. Cut rounds of puff pastry to fit over the muffin holes, then put the pastry over the strawberries, pushing in the edges to cover the strawberries.

4. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the pastry is golden. To serve, carefully use a spoon to remove the tarts from the tin (be careful, they’re hot!). Tarts are best eaten while still warm.

recipe adapted from donna hay (dec/jan 2012)

Lovely strawberries.

Place the strawbs into a muffin tray, then cover with caramel and puff pastry.

Gorgeous red tarts, coveted by the queen of hearts.

Check out the Sweet Adventures Blog Hop: Berry Nice to Meet You!

Mr Wong, Sydney

Who hasn't realised that the new Merivale restaurant, Mr Wong, has arrived?

They certainly know how to build up the excitement, with the Merivale marketing machine in overdrive with the tweets and the emails and goodness knows what else announcing the imminent opening of star chef Dan Hong's latest venture.

There was a tweet last week saying that the restaurant, in Bridge Lane, Sydney, was a day early in its prep and was opening right now! So when we went there for lunch on Saturday, it had been going off for only two and a bit days. You wouldn't know it, though, it already runs like a well-(sesame)-oiled machine.

Entrance to the restaurant. It is in the former Tank nightclub site, on the lower ground floor of the Establishment complex in George Street. Lots of heavy wooden beams, exposed pipes, open kitchens.

Dan Hong in da kitchen.

The menu is mainly nouvelle Cantonese. The food is fabulous.

There were 2 of us for lunch, with its dim sum menu. This is what we had.

Warning: Lots of pictures and a corny advert at the end.

This is chicken and jellyfish salad with pig's ear ($14).

Just like the salads in Chinatown, with smooth poached chicken and crunchy jellyfish and pig's ear in sesame oil. Lots of coriander (unfortunately for me, the coriander-hater).

Foie gras prawn toast ($12) was piping hot, with fresh oil used to fry the prawn on bread. The subtle but the unmistakeable flavour of foie gras takes this to another level.

Sichuan steak tartare ($18) had sweet-tasting undertones and a chilli oil kick, and the raw steak was nicely tender. Topped with fried garlic slices and served with fried crispbread (like pappadums) and refreshing cucumber slices.

Abalone chicken shumai ($9.80) had tiny, tender abalone atop chicken mince. Intense flavour in the chicken, maybe from shiitake mushrooms. Wish they served this at normal yum cha places.

There is a roast meat section on the menu, and freshly roasted ducks and chickens hanging in the kitchen. Out the back are dozens of denuded raw ducks ready for their tanning treatment.

Those doors (above right) are for the toilets.

We only ordered one main, Salt and Pepper Calamari ($27).

Again, good frying technique results in tender calamari coated in lots of salt, pepper and spices such as star anise. Quite salty, but moreish.

Tsingtao beer ($9) and silver jasmine tea ($2 per person).

I must say that this was the most fragrant, beautiful jasmine tea I've had in a restaurant. The waitstaff don't seem to recognise the international signal of teapot-refilling-needed, though (lid askew on the pot).

The only criteria I had for ordering the other dishes was, "Must leave room for dessert".

Mr Wong's deep-fried ice cream with butterscotch sauce ($14) was eagerly awaited - and quickly eaten.

Fresh cake crumbs around the ice cream, but for me, the butterscotch sauce was to die for. 

I ordered the roast white chocolate ice cream with yuzu curd, longans and raspberries ($14).

One word: OMG!

The citrusy yuzu curd was the perfect foil to the smooth ice cream. There was also some biscuit crumbs in there, making the dish like a deconstructed something. 

In case you hadn't noticed, I really, really like Mr Wong. Excellent food, wonderful atmosphere.

The waitstaff are dressed like stereotypical French waiters, with black waistcoats and long white aprons. The open kitchens are filled with industrious workers who are surprisingly quiet, and it's the diners who are the noisy ones as they enjoy their meal and each other's company. It's probably not the type of place your traditional Chinese parents might enjoy (the prices!), but like Red Lantern on Riley, it's a Gen X-Y-Z version of what the parents like.

By the way, I'm definitely showing my age, but do you remember that ad from the 80s? It went like this:

Scene: A group of Aussie tourists in Hong Kong with their tour guide

Tourist: Mr Wong! Mr Wong! 

Mr Wong: What is it?

Tourist: I've lost all my traveller's cheques!

Mr Wong: Ohhh. What kind were they?

Tourist: American Express...

Mr Wong: Ahhh, they have an office right here in Hong Kong!

Smiles and nods all round.

And that's how this new Mr Wong makes you feel, all happy that everything is right in the foodie world.

Mr Wong is at 3 Bridge Lane, Sydney (enter via Pitt St or Bridge St).

web: http://merivale.com.au/mrwong/

ph: 02 9240 3000

Unboring Brussels sprouts and lentils

I just realised how booorrrring the title of this post sounds.

Brussels Sprouts (erk!)

Lentils (double-erk!!)

 But please don’t change the channel just yet. This is a surprisingly tasty little dish that, when served with something meaty – like roast lamb, maybe? – will make you feel that being vegetarian might not be so bad after all. You’d just need to give up roast lamb.

Hope you like it anyway. I did, and wasn’t bored at all!

Brussels sprouts and lentils

serves 4 as a side

Ingredients

¼ cup Puy lentils, rinsed and drained

500g (1 lb) Brussels sprouts, trimmed and halved

3 tblsp butter

1 tblsp olive oil

2 eschalots, sliced

Dressing:

1 tblsp red wine vinegar

1 tsp Dijon mustard

2 tblsp olive oil

Method

1. For the lentils: place the lentils in a small saucepan with 2 cups of cold water. Bring to the boil over medium heat, then simmer for 20 minutes, until the lentils are soft. Drain and rinse with cold water and set aside.

2. For the Brussels sprouts: bring a saucepan of salted water to the boil and cook the sprouts for 2 minutes. Drain and set aside.

3. Heat the butter and olive oil in a frying pan over high heat. Add eschalots and cook for 5 minutes until softened and browned. Add Brussels sprouts and cook for 5 more minutes, until golden.

4. For the dressing: whisk the dressing ingredients together with salt and pepper.

5. To serve: combike the sprouts and eschalots together with the lentils in a bowl. Pour over the dressing and toss together.

recipe from Donna Hay magazine

Ingredients: Brussels sprouts, lentils and eschalots

The Brussels sprouts are blanched in boiling water before being tossed in a hot frying pan

Golden Brussels sprouts and Puy lentils - a vegetarian delight (except for the butter)!