Friday, May 27, 2011

Donna Hay's lemon mascarpone cheesecake



1 cup (150g) plain (all-purpose) flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ cup (55g) caster (superfine) sugar

1 tablespoon finely grated lemon rind

80g cold butter, chopped

2 egg yolks

softened butter, for greasing

double (thick) cream, to serve
  
Mascarpone topping
2 cups (500g) mascarpone
⅓ cup (75g) caster (superfine) sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon plain (all-purpose) flour
1 tablespoon finely grated lemon rind
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 160ºC (320ºF). Place the flour, baking powder, sugar, lemon rind and butter in the bowl of a food processor and process until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. With the motor running, add the egg yolks and process until well combined. Press into the base of a 20cm-square cake tin lightly greased with butter and bake for 20–25 minutes or until light golden and firm to the touch.

To make the mascarpone topping, place the mascarpone, sugar, egg, flour, lemon rind and vanilla in the bowl of a food processor and process until just smooth. Spoon onto the base and bake for 30–35 minutes or until the edges are golden and the middle is just set. Refrigerate for 3 hours or until set. Slice and serve with double cream. Serves 8.
lemon mascarpone cheesecake 
Bon Appetite!

Braised cabbage in apple cider and balsamic vinegar

This is a great vegetable for a cold winter nite, and goes very well with meat, pies etc. I served this with a home made chicken paprika pie, it was great pairing - the acidity in this veg helped to cut through the fat from the super rich buttery shortcrust pastry I made for the pie.
Serve 6-8p
1/2 a cabbage (either red or normal), julienned.
2 medium red onion, or 2 to 3 shallots
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
50g of butter
3/4 cup of cranberries (or raisins)
1 tsp of sugar
1 tsp of salt
2 tsp of balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup of chicken stock (1 tsp of Vegeta and water will do)

This time, I used the normal green cabbage, and coloured the dish red by adding 1/2 a cup of beetroot juice which I had from boiling fresh beetroot to made an accompaniment beetroot salad.

Heat a heavy based pot with olive oil, and saute the onion and garlic till softened. Add cabbage. Saute the cabbage till soften, and melt butter on top of it. Add the salt and sugar for seasoning. When pot is hot enough, ie cabbage is "drying" out, add all the other "liquids to deglaze the pan and start to caramelise the cabbage. Cover with lid and simmer on low for 15-20 minutes. Switch heat off, and leave to rest for another hour an hour. When ready to serve, open lid, reheat and at same time reduce liquid, until rich caramlised texture. Crack some pepper over before serving.

The cabbage will be still slightly crunch, sweet and sour, very appetising.

Bon Appetite!

Donna Hay's Baked Cheese Cake

I watched Donna Hay made this on Masterchef Australia today. It looked good, very smooth surface and smooth texture, and according to the contestants', Gary and George who tasted it, super yummy!

Pastry (Base of Cake)
3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup almond meal
90g chilled butter
1/4 cup sugar

Rub the butter into the flour/almond meal until it is like breadcrumbs. (My thoughts: can pulse this in a food processor for easy and even result). Pour onto a 20cm springform cake tin (Kaiser light colour tin). See tip below.

Press the pastry gently down and smoothen with the back of a spoon.

Tip: Flip the base of the tin over, ie bottom up. Line it with ovenbake paper, put back the sides of the tin and lock the tin. Cut off remaining paper sticking out. This way we dont have to dig down and along the sides to remove the cake! Brilliant!)

Baked  at 150C for 15 minutes. Leave to cool, brush the sides of tin with butter to prevent cake sticking.

Meanwhile, prepare the cheesecake mixture.

Cheesecake mixture
500g fresh ricotta cheese (non smooth)
330g cream cheese - cut into squares
1 1/4 cup sugar ( I would reduce by half)
Zest of 1 lemon
4 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla essense
1 tbsp corn flour mixed with 1 tbsp water (to bind all the protein together, and give it a nice gelatin shine).

Put all ingredients into a food processor. Blend until smooth. (The consistency is almost like pancake mixture). Note: Dont beat or whisk as it will create more air/bubbles.

Pour mixture into cake tin on top of pastry base.  Get bubbles off by taking a spoon and pressing them off surface, so that we get a smooth surface.

Baked 150C for 1hour. Turn the oven off. Leave it in the oven for 1hour more. The residual heat will cook the cheesecake through and give it a golden colour. Then, leave it in the fridge for a 3 hours to set perfectly.

Serve it with some fresh berries.

Bon Appetite!

Monday, May 16, 2011

Lime and Pear Tart with Shortcrust Pastry

We baked this to bring over to Andrew's parents place, Annie, his mum, made super delicious pea soup and spicy beef casserole. The tart was a success, and I must say, I liked it too. The lime flavour came through, but yet not overly tangy, easy to the taste buds. And the thin shortbread pastry adds a nice crunch. Very moist, tangy, crumbly, melt in the mouth texture.

Juice and zest of 2 large limes.
1/2 cup buttermilk (or milk with 3 tsp of lime juice)
75g unsalted butter, cut into small squares
75g raw/castor sugar (I used a mix of both)
75g (1 cup) almond meal (ground almonds)
3 large eggs
2 tbsp Contreau (or any orange liquer)
1 tbsp double cream
1 pear, thinly sliced, soak in lemon/salt water to prevent from turning brown, until ready to put into tart.

Preheat the oven to 180degC fan force

Grease a 9 inch round tart tin.
Ground 5 pieces of shortbread biscuits** in a processor till it is like breadcrumbs.
Pour it into tart tin to form pastry base. Compress the crumbs till it forms an evenly thin layer of pastry bottom and sides.

Put the juices, zest, butter, sugar, cream, into a heavy based pan, and heat gently stirring till thickened.
Separately whisk eggs till creamy, add slowly buttermilk, and whisk till creamy.
Very very slowly pour whisked eggs into juice pan, and stir as you are pouring, continue to stir till thickened.
(Note, heat must be gentle so as not to overcook/curdle the egg). Easy test: pan must not be too hot for the hand to touch.
Fold in almonds, liqueur.
Pour 3/4 mixture into the tart tin with shortbread pastry.
Arrange the slices of pear on top of the filling.
Place into oven. And pour in rest of mixture.
Note: Tart tins are usually not deep, so to prevent spillage as you put the tart into the oven, it is suggested to pour rest of mixture after tart tin is in the oven. Also, if you have one of those with removable bases, it can be fumbly.
Lower oven temperature to 160 degree.
Bake for 28 minutes.

** Tip: I used leftover shortcrust pastry from making another tart a few days ago, and baked into shortbread. And now, I am using the shortbread to make the biscuit base for this tart.

Bon Appetite!

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Maggie Beer's Quince Almond & Chocolate Tart














For 12 p

Pot Roasted Quinces750g Quinces, peeled, cored and cut into large wedges
Squeeze of lemon juice
300ml water
200ml verjuice
165g castor sugar

Chocolate and almond cream120g unsalted butter, softened
150g fine castor sugar
200g ground almond meal
2 free range eggs
1 free range egg yolk
80ml vino cotto
50g dark chocolate cocoa

Sour Cream Pastry200g Chilled unsalted butter
250g Plain flour
125ml Sour Cream

1 Pre-heat fan forced oven to 170c.

2 Once you have peeled and cored the quince place in pot of water with a squeeze of lemon and set aside, to help stop oxidising.

3 To pot roast the quinces, place the quinces, water, verjuice and sugar into a medium sized pot, place this over a high heat, bring to the boil, cover with a lid and place into the oven.

4 Cook for 1 hour, then give the quinces a very light toss making sure not to break up the wedges. Place back into the oven.

5 Check the quinces every 15 to 20 minutes to make sure that the liquid has not all evaporated, if it starts to and looking like that they will catch on the bottom and an extra 100mls of verjuice. They will take between 2 and 2 ½ hours to cook.

6 Once the quinces are cooked they should be a beautiful ruby red colour and a small amount of syrup left in the base of the pot. They should not be dry or the caught on the base of the pot. Remove the quinces from the pot and place onto a plate or tray and set aside to cool.

7 Increase the temperature oven to 200c

8 To make the almond cream, place the butter and castor sugar in to a food mixer, beat until light and creamy (approx 6 minutes).

9 Add the eggs and yolk (1 at a time) then cocoa, vino cotto and mix for further 1 minute.

10 Add the almond meal, mix until well combined. Set aside until ready to use.

11 To make the sour cream pastry, pulse butter and flour in a food processor until it looks like breadcrumbs.

12 Add ¾ the sour cream, pulse a couple of times then add the remaining sour cream and continue to pulse until the dough just starts to come together.

13 Tip the pastry out onto the bench, bring it together and form it in to a rectangle (approx 2cm thick) with your hands. Wrap in plastic film and refrigerate for 10 to 20 minutes to rest. No more than 20 minutes.

14 Roll out the sour cream pastry to 3mm thick.

15 Grease a flan tin (23cm x 2.5cm) and line with the pastry, cut off the excess pastry around the edge but allow the pastry to come above the fin tin by 5mm, this is due to the pastry shrinking during blind baking. Place in the fridge for 15 mins to chill.

16 Remove from the tart shell from the fridge, spike the bottom with a fork, line the top with bake well paper and place blind baking beans on the top.

17 Blind bake for 15 mins, then remove the beans and bake well paper, cook for a further 5 minutes then remove.

18 Reduce the oven temperature to 175c

19 Place one third of the chocolate and almond cream mix on the base of the tart shell. Top with cooked quince wedges and dot the remaining amount of chocolate almond cream on top of the quinces.

20 Return the tart to the oven and bake for 50 minutes to 1hr, this time will depend on the oven, but need to make sure that the almond cream is cooked in the centre.

21 Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Bon Appetite!

Maggie Beer's Roast Chicken with Garlic and Verjuice














Last Friday, (2.5.2011) Maggie Beer gave some MasterChef contestants a class on making roast chicken with roast garlic. It looked really good, nice golden brown, very moist and tender, melts in the mouth, including the chicken breast!. Here are the notes I took.

1 large size range free chicken (2kg)
50ml olive oil
About 30 cloves garlic unpeeled (4 cloves peeled and chopped, the rest blanch in boiling water for 4 minutes)
About 1 tsp sea salt and pepper
125ml verjuice
125ml water
1 cup chicken stock
3 rosemary sprig
1 lemon, cut into half

Preheat oven to 200deg

Prepare chicken to be at room temperature (so that it cooks evenly).
Place chicken on a trivet/rack sitting on top of a shallow oven baking tray (5cm deep). (a deep oven tray would trap some heat at the bottom of the tray, distorting heat circulation throughout the chicken)
Massage into the skin of the chicken the olive oil and the chopped garlic, sprinkle with sea salt.
Stuff the rosemary and squeeze the lemon juice into chicken cavity, leave lemon in
(Note: The chopped garlic is my personal choice/addition to the recipe.)
Tucked the wing tips under the chicken, for even cooking.
Place chicken, breast side up on the rack.
Cover breast (from neck to bottom) with foil, leaving only the legs exposed. This protects the breast from overcooking/drying.


Bake in the oven for 40 minutes.
After 40 minutes. remove chicken from the oven.
Pour verjuice all over chicken.
Baste the chicken with the juice in the tray.
Shift foil, so that it now exposes the breast, cover the legs.
Place blanced garlic onto the oven tray.
Pour water into base of tray to prevent garlic from burning.
Return to oven, cook for 20 minutes.
Remove immediately from oven to rest chicken.

Remove foil and turn chicken upside down, ie breast facing down.
This "returns" the moisture in the chicken back into the breast keeping it moist.
Loosely cover (not wrap) the chicken with foil.
Let chicken rest for at least 20 minutes (40minutes preferred) in room temperature. I guess it depends on the season!
Chicken will continue to cook in own heat while resting.

To make the jus, pour all the pan juices from the baking dish into a small saucepan and add 1 cup of warm chicken stock, pour into a narrow serving jug, then refrigerate this while the chicken is resting. Just before serving, scoop away the fat that has risen to the top, warm the remaining jus.

Carve the chook, then pour over the jus and serve accompanied by the roasted garlic, parsnip and pear mash and salad.

Bon Appetite!

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Annie's tomato tarte tatin

This is a great savoury tart for lunch or as a starter for dinner. The depth of the tomato flavour is simply delicious, well at least the one made by Annie. I havent yet tried to make it myself.

For 6-8p
15 medium size tomatoes (peeled and halved lenghtwise)
3/4 cup olive oil
3 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
110g (1/2 cup) of sugar
1/4 cup water
30 shallots peeled and olive oil to fry
80g (1 cup) freshly grated parmesan cheese

Pastry
150g (1 cup) flour
50g butter, melted and cooled

Steps in order of preparation

1.Tomato preparation
Place tomato, cut side up, in a roasting pan.
Pour over oil & vinegar, sprinkle with garlic, season to taste.
Bake at 180deg fan oven for 1 hour.
Remove tomatoes, drain on absorbent paper for at least 10 minutes.

2. Pastry
Sift flour and 1/2 tsp salf into a bowl.
Add 1/3 cup water and mix with a wooden spoon to form a dough.
Turn out on a lightly floured sudface and knead lightly until smooth.
Roll into a circle and brush with half the butter.
Cut round into 6 wedges.
Stack wedges in a pile, wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.

3. The Tart
Line shallow 28cm tin with baking paper
Combine sugar and water and stir over low heat until sugar dissolves.
Bring to the boil and cook, without stirring, until golden.
Pour immediately over base of tin.
Heat extra oil in frying pan and cook the shallots over medium heat until golden.
Firmly pad tomatoes, cut side down over base of prepared tin.
Fill gaps with shallots.
Sprinkle with cheese.
Knead pastry wedges together until smooth.
Floured surface to a 30 cm round.
Place over tomatoes, making folds in pastry to fit.
Brush with remaining butter.

4. Baking
Bake at 180deg for 30 minutes, draining any excess liquid during cooking if necessary, till golden brown.
Stand in tin for 5-10 minutes to cool slightly before inverting on a plate.
Remove paper and serve at room temperature.

Bon Appetite!