french lessons - justin north

I’ve been away awhile. Still cooking, but when my son starting eating solids at the beginning of the year most of my creations were pureed and looked the same going in as they did coming out. Perhaps they are worthy of mention, and I will one day, but they certainly aren’t worthy of photographing.

I’ve started working again, from home, for a fantastic new wine, food and travel site that is launching in the next few weeks. The coolest thing about my new gig is that I get to review cookbooks. Oh heaven, there you are!

So Justin North’s French Lessons turned up in my mailbox a few days ago. Justin is chef/owner of Becasse restaurant in Sydney and is first book, called Becasse, was an exploration of regional foods and producers in Australia.

His new book really is a beginners guide and is set up in a series of lessons: flavourings, stocks, soups, preserving, confits, roasting, sorbets, gelatine, breads and the cheese course. A great companion for someone learning about French food.

Images are great, the recipes are easy and there’s information on cooking times to accompany each, so you know straight away if you’re attempting an all day extravaganza or a simple miracle.

Now, what shall I cook first….

custard tart

Today I learnt many things.

• Wine bottles do not make great rolling pins;
• Nigella’s pastry, while fabulous, quick and easy, will not be patched. Roll it perfectly the first time or start again;
• Pastry shrinks, make neat edges after you blind bake it;
• Nigella is hot, and her blind baking is hotter … to hot for me I’m afraid;
• Sweet pastry burns easily;
• Even the smallest hole in your pastry matters, though I’ve not idea how to fix holes other than starting from scratch;
• Sweet pastry can be eaten raw;
• Custard tarts are worth making over and over again until you get them right.

It sounds dire, but really there were only two attempts. There will be another attempt to perfect the custard tart, but this one turned out edible and almost presentable. Some trick photography covers up the effect of having a hole in my pastry, which let the custard mixture seep out to create a second custardy case in the gap between the flan tin and the crust. I haven’t attempted to extract it from the tin yet. This may be my undoing.

Ingredients

Pastry
120g flour (00)
30g icing sugar
80g butter
1 egg yolk
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1 tbspn iced water

Measure and sift the flour and icing sugar into a bowl and cut the butter into cubes on top. Place the whole lot in the freezer for 10-15 minutes. Mix the egg, vanilla and iced water together and put in the fridge.

After 10 mins put the flour mixture into your food processor and blitz until the mixture resembles oatmeal. Add the liquid and blitz until the mixture almost forms a ball - it gets kinda lumpy looking. You may need to add more iced water, but do so a tinsy little drop at a time.

Scoop out the dough, push it into a disk and cover with clingwrap and bung in the fridge for 20 minutes, or longer. Then roll it out and line your flan dish (23cm thin or 20cm deep dish). Don’t trim the excess off until after you’ve done the blind baking - it shrinks too much.

For a custard tart you need to blind bake your case, so cover it in baking paper and pour over some rice or ceramic beads or something. Nigella blind bakes at 200 degrees for 15 mins, then covers the edges with tinfoil and blasts it for another 10 mins. I got crisps on my first go at her temperatures, so I did the second attempt at 160 degrees, which is the temperature you’ll bake the custard at anyway.

So, bake with paper and rice for 15 minutes then pull out the rice, brush the case with the left over egg white (this helps seal it), cover the edges with foil and bung it back in for andother 10 - 15 minutes until the base is nicely browned. Let this cool slightly before you add your custard mix.

Custard
3 eggs
1 egg yolk
2 tbspns sugar
splash of vanilla essence
300ml single cream
100 ml milk

Put the milk and cream in a saucepan and heat until just about to boil. Whisk the eggs, yolk, sugar and essence together in a bowl then slowly pour the hot milk mixture into the eggs, whisking constantly.

Pour the custard mix into your pastry case and top with grated nutmeg. Bake for 45 minutes, checking at 35 minutes. When it’s done it will be slightly wobbly still, but will set more as it cools.

Easy, huh?

food porn on wednesdays

she’s coming to my house!

Nigella is coming to my wednesday nights

yee ha!

Nigella’s pea risotto

I love Nigella. I love her lard and butter and bread and that she has given me permission to grate nutmeg into everything and weld a Marsala bottle to my hand to swig from and splash with as I see fit. Oh Nigella, where have you been?

I have How To Eat out from the library at the moment. I know … but we are a one income family at the moment, so if I am going to indulge it’s limited to three week periods. Testing cookbooks by borrowing them before you buy is a great way to ensure you don’t end up with shelves full of duds, though only having this one for a short time just makes me want it more.

There are many great things about this pea risotto recipe. Firstly, the pea puree is possibly the most delicious thing I’ve ever tasted. Velvety, nutmegy, cheesy heaven. I am officially gagging for my son to get to the puree foods stage now that I have discovered this. This boy and his mum may live on pea puree.

Secondly, it works when you cheat. Nigella does the whole hot stock one ladle at a time thing, which is commendable and I’m sure gives you a much better result. I whack all the stock in at once. Cold. From the packet, then bring it to the boil, pop the lid on, turn the heat down low and take my bottle of Marsala (well, beer actually) out to stand next to the barbecue and talk to my husband while he cooks the steak.

Two things to remember, which I didn’t. Make sure you turn the heat down and let your pan cook between cooking the peas and frying the onion. I didn’t and so browned the onion. Instead of keeping the brilliant green of the pea puree, everything got a little muddy looking. I’m sure Nigella wouldn’t mind. Also, the drop of oil with the butter when you add the onions is important. Somehow it stops the butter from burning/browning - anyone know why?

Ingredients

60g butter
150g frozen peas
1 litre stock
grated nutmeg
2 tbspn grated Parmesan
1 small onion
drop of oil (this is important, it stops the butter burning)
200g arborio rice
80ml white wine or vermouth

Melt 1/3 of the butter and add the frozen peas. Cook for 2 minutes until defrosted then remove 1/2 the peas and add a ladle of stock to the remaining peas. Pop on the lid and boil for 5 minutes until soft. Puree this with 1 tbspn of parmesan, 1 tbspn butter and a grating of pepper and nutmeg.

Try not to eat all of the puree while you make the risotto.

Turn the heat down and melt the remaining butter and that very important drop of oil. Add your onion, finely chopped, and cook 1 minute. Don’t let it brown. Add the rice and stir to coat, then you can either  do it the hard way, adding a ladle at a time and stirring each time until all the stock is absorbed, or dump all the stock in, bring it to the boil, turn the heat down very low and pop the lid on.

Either way, after 10 minutes add the reserved peas and at about 15-20 minutes beat in the pea puree and the extra tbspn of parmesan.

Serve with well rested steaks.

crumbed lamb cutlet comfort

The love of my life has been screaming at me for the past three days. At first I thought he was just over me, but when he started screaming at his dad too I figured it’s not just me. After a particularly long bedtime wind down, which is in fact a wind up for me, all I wanted was comfort food.

I am an emotional eater, aren’t we all, and usually emotional eating equals chocolate, but this week it equaled beautiful tender lamb cutlets with a thick crusting of breadcrumbs and mint from the garden, slowly fried in macadamia nut oil (oh yes). Somehow sucking on a cutlet bone takes all the baby blues away.

Crumbing anything at home can be a little messy, but it’s so worthwhile. You can of course, buy your cutlets already crumbed, but then you miss out on the pleasure of adding your own flavours. Parmesan is a great addition to the crumb mixture, as are any herbs you have on hand, and spices - chilli anyone? I haven’t given exact measurements below - you need enough to cover the amount of cutlets you’re crumbing.

Ingredients

mint - fresh is best, but dried will do
breadcrumbs
2 eggs
flour
salt and pepper

3 cutlets per person (2 to serve, and an extra one to suck on later)

macadamia nut oil
olive oil

Chop mint finely and mix with breadcrumbs and salt and pepper - spread on a plate. Lightly beat the eggs together in a bowl. Spread flour on another plate. Dredge each cutlet in the flour, then the egg, then the breadcrumb mixture, making sure they are well coated. Put crumbed cutlets in the fridge for 20 minutes to set.

Heat enough oil to cover the base of your largest fry pan - the temperature should be about medium, not so hot that it smokes, just hot enough for a light sizzle. I used half macadamia and half olive oil, mainly because I have a bottle of macadamia nut oil that’s 6 months past its useby date and I’m desperately trying to use it up before it goes rancid. However, it is still suprisingly good and gave the cutlets a really sweet, nutty tone.

The key here is to cook your cutlets slowly, browning the breadcrumb mixture slowly so nothing burns. Place cutlets in the hot oil and cook, about 3 minutes on each side.

Line a plate with absorbant kitchen paper and place cutlets in a single layer to drain. Cover with another layer of kitchen paper and then a couple of tea towels to keep everything warm. Leave to rest for about 10 minutes. This is really important, the kitchen paper soaks up a lot of the excess oil and the resting, well, it’s meat. Be patient. It’s always worth it.

ps … this month I’m channeling Nigella

malay chicken

My philosophy is never miss out on a meal just because you don’t have all the ingredients. Substitute where you can, or just leave stuff out. Sometimes this works really well for me, other times I have to do a last minute dash to Red Rooster to feed the family. Drive thru’s are my saviour.

I’m devouring Gordon Ramsay’s Sunday Lunch at the moment and took inspiration for last night’s dinner from his Malaysian Chicken recipe. I am ashamed that my pantry was missing whole star anise and lemongrass, but the result was still delicious. One day I will try it with the ingredients I left out.

Making your own curry paste is great fun and now that I’ve done it a few times I don’t think I’ll ever go back to the jars from the supermarket. It’s worth the trouble for the frangrance you house is filled with when you pound, or process, your own pastes. It keeps okay in the fridge for a few days too.

Ingredients

Curry Paste
3 garlic cloves
1 long red chilli
2cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
1 small onion
zest of 1 lemon
1 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp vege oil

Roughly chop everything and either pound with mortar and pestle, or zap in the food processor until ingredients form a paste. I like it a little chunky, but you can puree if you need to hide the chilli chunks. If you want it hotter add more chilli, or use the little birdseye ones - they’ll burn the hairs on the inside of your nose!

Curry
2 tbsp vege oil
2 skinless chicken breasts (or 4 chicken thighs) chopped in 2cm pieces
1 onion, peeled and sliced
2 kaffir lime leaves
1 cinamon stick
300ml coconut cream
100ml chicken stock
1 tsp brown sugar
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 handfulls of grean beans

Heat the vege oil in a large heavy bottomed fry pan. Add the curry paste and stir over a medium heat until gragrant. It smells utterly fabulous. Add the onions and cook for a few minutes until they start to soften, then throw in your chicken pieces and stir to coat them in the curry paste. Cook for 5 minutes until chicken starts to brown slightly.

Add the lime leaves, cinamon stick, coconute cream, chicken stock, brown sugar, soy and fish sauces and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes until chicken is tender and the sauce is creamy. Add the grean beans in the last 10 minutes of cooking time.

Serve with steamed rice.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

The Edmond’s Sure To Rise cookbook is a kiwi institution. Every New Zealand household must have one, and I am certain no kid leaves home without getting their very own copy. I have had three or four copies over the years - they are always stolen by people in share houses I’ve lived in around the world.

The book covers everything, baking included, and the best of all baking recipes are the Chocolate Chip or Sante biscuits. The secret ingredient is Edmond’s Sure to Rise baking powder, but really any old baking powder will do.  These are so easy to make, just watch the time in the oven because the bottoms can caramelise (read burn) very quickly.

Ingredients

125g butter, softened
1/4 cup sugar
3 tbsp sweetened condensed milk
few drops of vanilla essence

1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Cream butter, sugar, condensed milk and vanilla essence until light and fluffy. Sift flour and baking powder together and mix into creamed mixture. Add chocolate chips. Roll tablespoons of the mix into balls and place on a greased oven tray. Use a a fork dipped in flour to flatten each ball. Bake for 20 minutes, but keep an eye on them and pull them out as soon as the bottoms go golden.

Makes about 25 cookies.

Coffee And Breakfast at The Old Fire Station

I just rated The Old Fire Station great for coffee and breakfast at Docoloco.

All hail “The King”. Had I known about this when I was pregnant I would have eaten here every single day. Peanut butter and banana sandwiches made as french toast and served with bacon and honey. Their coffee’s not bad too!

the BBB at Las Chicas

I just rated Las Chicas great for Breakfast … especially the BBB at Docoloco.

The Bikini Blowout Benedict is possibly THE most divine breakfast in Melbourne. I travel from far north Melbourne once a week to feast and its worth every second of the drive down Punt Road. A famous Balaclava bagel smeared with avocado, crispy bacon and two perfect poached eggs drowned in the creamiest hollandaise sauce. Pop one of these creamy yolks and all your dreams come true (except for the bikini ones).

chard & spinach pie

We have three silverbeet (or chard) “tree’s” growing in our garden. Slowly over the past few months we’ve been eating them leaf by leaf, but with the warmer weather and a bit of rain they’ve gone tropo and are almost as tall as our back fence. I’ve been hunting through cookbooks looking for recipes, but most tend to use the white stalks and recommend keeping the green leafy bits for soup.

I found a recipe for a spinach pie and have modified it to half spinach, half silverbeet.  Considering how tragic my experiments have been over the last few weeks, this turned out spectacularly. I used to have a theory that all mothers were great cooks - the act of giving birth bestowing you with magical culinary skill. Now that I am a mother my ability to cook seems to be slipping, blowing that theory out of the water. Perhaps when I start to sleep again the magic will appear.

Ingredients

1 bunch of  silverbeet
2 small bunches of English spinach
1/3 cup finely chopped spring onions

1 tsp dill seeds
1 tsp oregano leaves
sea salt
black pepper

250g cottage cheese
250g  feta cheese, crumbled
3 eggs, beaten lightly

375g block puff pastry (or 2 sheets ready-rolled butter puff pastry), thawed
1 egg, beaten lightly, extra

Preheat the oven to 220°C and grease a 20cm x 30cm lamington pan. Line the pan with half the  pastry.

Remove the stalks from the silverbeet and wash the leaves. I roll them up into logs and then slice them finely and drop them into a pan of boiling salted water for 2 minutes. Add English spinach to the pan, return to the boil then drain. Cool and squeeze out excess water - it needs to be really dry or the pastry will go soggy, so wrap it in a teatowel and give it an extra squeeze to get rid of all the water.

Combine spinach, silverbeet, spring onions, spice mix, cottage cheese, feta, and eggs in a bowl and pour mixture into pastry and spread evenly.  Cover with remaining pastry and pinch the edges together to join leaving no holes. Brush pastry lightly with the extra egg.

Bake for about 30 minutes or until golden brown on top.  Leave to sit for 10 minutes before slicing.