Cointreau lime quencher.

It is the first day of Spring here in Sydney. So to celebrate the end of Winter and look longingly forward to the warmth of Summer, I have decided to serve these fresh and fruity quenchers on the deck before dinner. I want to thank my eldest daughter’s boyfriend Peck for the idea. He works in a bottle shop when he is not slogging it out at University. His side passion is to whip up all these amazlingly good aperitifs for us to try.

All you need is a bottle of Cointreau, some limes and a large bottle of Sprite or Lemonade.

Take your cocktail glass, splash in 1 shot or 30ml orange-flavoured Cointreau, a squeeze of lime juice (freshly please) and top up with Sprite. Embellish the rim of your glass with a small wedge of jade green lime and serve. If you would like to have the cocktail icey-cold to serve for summer, then pour over some ice in a cocktail shaker, shake vigorously, then pour into individual glasses. You could substitute the limes for lemons if you don’t have any limes to hand. To further decorate your glasses, you could dip the edges in salt for a Mexican feel, or dip them in sugar for added sweetness when the glass hits your lips. You could even try colouring the sugar. Have fun experimenting.

There really is no better way to start your evening and ring in the glory of Spring than with a thirst quencher like this.  Sharp yet sweet. Fresh. Cloudy. Translucent. Bubbly. Enjoy!

Cointreau lime quencher.

Rigatoni with chorizo and manzanillo black olives.

Like most mums, sometimes getting a meal on the table in the evening can be quite a challenge. If you are, like me, a taxi driver as well as cook, then this recipe is for you. Quick. Easy. The whole family will think you are amazing. We all would like that! This certainly qualifies as dinner in a dash. Not that I have anything against swinging past the drive-through of Maccas, I prefer to whip this up instead. The spicy-ness of the chorizo, the sweetness of the tiny tomatoes, the salty-ness of the olives along with the zing from the parmesan cheese, your taste buds will be in heaven.The recipe for the tomato and basil sauce follows. This is what is required to get you started.

Take some tiny sweet tomatoes...

some fully ripe black olives, full of flavour...

2 x chorizo spanish saucage spiced with paprika and dried smoked red pepper for a hit of heat...

tomato and basil sauce

baby spinach for a hit of colour

a chunk of parmesan cheese, grated

a packet of rigatoni, tube shaped pasta with ridges

chop the chorizo into bite-sized pieces

fry the chorizo in a dry pan until it is coloured and crisp. No need to add oil, it will release it's own oils and flavours.

quarter the tomatoes

boil the rigatoni in a large pot of salted boiling water

stir the tomato and basil sauce through the rigatoni

add the tomatoes

and the spicy chorizo

shiny black manzanillo olives

and toss through the baby spinach

sprinkle with a shower of parmesan and serve.

Here’s the recipe for the tomato and basil sauce.

Ingredients

3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

3 x 400g cans of chopped tomatoes

1/2 teaspoon dried chilli flakes

2 teaspoons of balsamic vinegar

2 teaspoons of sugar

1 large handful of basil leaves, torn into pieces

salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Method

1. Heat oil in a saucepan and gently cook the onion and garlic until soft. Stir in tomatoes, chilli flakes, balsamic vinegar and sugar. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 45 minutes. Stir in the torn basil and season with salt and pepper.

Note: this sauce is so handy. You can freeze it as well. So make up a huge pot and put some in your freezeer to save time when you next have to be taxi driver!

Sweet corn fritters, roast tomato, spinach and avocado salsa.

I ventured into the city yesterday for a meeting. Bills Darlinghurst was the venue. Whilst we only consumed coffees and peppermint teas during the meeting, as soon as all was finalised we decided to stay on and partake in some of Bills simple, fresh food. 

Avocado salsa.

Bill Granger is known for his relaxed style of cooking. Originating from Melbourne to attend art school in Sydney, Bill undertook waitering jobs to supplement his income. He has a hands-on approach, starting out as a home-cook. He opened Bills Darlinghurst in 1993. From there, he has gone from strength to strength opening a further two restaurants in Sydney – one in Surry Hills in 1996 and one in Woollahra in 2005.  His next venture saw him taking on Japan, opening in Tokyo in 2008 and Yokohama in 2010. Bill Granger is a popular, well-known celebrity chef, known for his simple, fresh food approach.

Sweet corn fritters.

I decided to satiate my appetite with a childhood favourite – sweet corn fritters. The plump juicy corn kernels provide a sweet crunch amongst the denseness of the batter. Bills fritters were packed full with loads of corn and the fritters themselves were of generous size. The roasted tomato was sweet and blended nicely with the crispness of the spinach. The avocado salsa was smooth and creamy.  A classic at Bills, served in the all day breakfast menu.

Generous amounts of corn kernels provide a crunch against the denseness of the batter.

Meanwhile, my colleague decided from the Lunch menu. Her choice – Pan fried free range chicken breast with pink grapefruit, avocado and green goddess dressing.

Pan fried free range chicken breast.

This dish is an example of Bill’s use of fresh seasonal produce with ingredients such as avocados and pink grapefruits currently in adundance.

Goddess dressing.

The chicken breast was delicately cooked with golden crisp skin contrasting the soft coral colour of the pink grapefruit. The goddess dressing drizzled lovingly over the breast and the whole thing piled high with mixed salad leaves and green beans. A delicious dish.

The coral pink grapefruit.

Bills Darlinghurst.

433 Liverpool Street,

Darlinghurst.  NSW  2010

Ph: 9360.9631

Warm and comforting french toast drizzled with maple syrup

‘The one’ has been away on a business trip to Moscow. I always miss his company when he is away so I thought I would cook up a storm for his homecoming. I just wanted to gently remind him what he has missed – my cooking. He is due to step in the front door at 7am. So, what better for a welcome home breakfast than french toast lightly dusted with cinnamon sugar and topped with macerated strawberries. Surely the way to a man’s heart?

Take 8 fresh eggs

2/3rds of a cup of cream

and 2/3rds of a cup of milk

Put them all in a bowl...

And whisk.

Place 1/2 cup of caster sugar and 2 teaspoons of cinnamon in a seperate dish

Mix to combine and set aside.

Take a slice of bread (I used fruit loaf) and soak it in the egg mixture until coated.

In the meantime, melt some butter in a frypan.

Cook the bread in the pan until golden. Approximately two minutes each side.

Golden and ready for dusting.

Toss in sugar mixture to coat. Then give the bread a shake to remove any excess.

Take a punnet of ruby red strawberries, wash and drain them.

Slice and sprinkle them with caster sugar. Drizzle with a little balsamic vinegar. Allow them to sit and soak up the sugary sweetness until you are ready to decorate the french toast.

Once the french toast has been lightly dusted with the cinnamon sugar, place the bread on a plate. Decorate with the plump, macerated strawberries and lightly drizzle with maple syrup. Watch his eyes light up as you serve this to your loved one. I hope it works for you too!

The egg mixture and the sugar mix are enough to make up to 16 slices of toast. If this is too much for your family – by all means halve the recipe. Beaucoup d’amour.

Warm and comforting french toast drizzled with maple syrup

Thick and delicious chocolate buttercream.

If you have a buttercream or chocolate addiction, as I do, then this is the recipe for you. That is, if you can drag your mouth away from licking the beaters or the wooden spoon and actually apply some to your cake. Here is the recipe, as promised, from the tiered birthday cake I made recently for my beautiful daughter’s 21st birthday. Enjoy.

Two layers iced. On to the third.

This recipe is adapted from the Chocolate Buttercream Frosting recipe by Ina Garten.

Ingredients

450 grams of dark chocolate (good quality)

350 grams milk chocolate (good quality)

3/4 cup eggs whites (that is 4 to 5 extra-large eggs) at room temperature

1 1/2 cups caster sugar

1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

3/4 teaspoon salt

680 grams unsalted butter at room temperature

3 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

3 teaspoons instant coffee powder, dissolved in 1 1/2 teaspoons water

3 tablespoons dark rum

Method

1. Break up the chocolate into small pieces and place in a heat-proof bowl. Melt in the microwave, a minute at a time and keeping a very close eye on it, stirring each time, until melted with no lumps. Set aside until cooled to room temperature (Note: do not let the chocolate get too cold as it will cause little lumps in the final product making it difficult to pipe).

2. Beat the egg whites, sugar, cream of tartar and salt with an electric mixer. Place the bowl of egg whites over a pan of simmering water and heat the egg whites until they are warm to touch. This should take approximately 5 minutes. Return to the electric mixer and beat on high speed for approximately 5 minutes or until the meringue has firm peaks.

3. Add the butter, one tablespoon at a time on medium speed. Add the melted chocolate, vanilla, coffee and rum. Stir through until completely blended. (Note: if the buttercream seems too soft, allow it to cool and then beat it again until right consistency is achieved). Makes approximately 4 cups of icing. It was enough to ice my three tiered cake despite any licking on my part.

4. To ice the cakes, place the 10 inch cake on the serving plate flat side up. Cover entire layer with icing. Place the 8 inch cake in the middle of the 10 inch cake flat side up. Cover this layer entirely with buttercream icing. For the top layer, place the 4 inch cake, flat side down, on top of the 8 inch cake and cover with icing. Smooth the buttercream. Put spare buttercream into piping bags with desired nozels attached for decoration. I used a Wilton 2D but play around with different nozels until you get the look you want. Have fun with this and I suggest wholeheartedly that you have a little practice on some baking paper before decorating the cake.

Three tiers covered in buttercream ready to be decorated.

Piping bags full of buttercream ready for decoration.

To finish decorating the cake, apply florist tape to the cut stems of whichever flowers you choose to decorate the cake with. Choose colours to suit your colour scheme or anything that takes your fancy at the time. It is important to tape the cut stems so that the sap doesn’t seep into the buttercream. Not all flowers are edible and we don’t want to poison our guests, do we? Otherwise, make sure to ask the florist which flowers are edible and skip the tape. Carefully position the flowers and gently push the taped stem into the cake once you are happy with the position. Embellish with candles or other decoration. 

I used this pretty butterfly 21st key amongst the flowers for decoration.

Using the piping bag, carefully pipe around the base of the cake as it sits on the plate. If desired, you can then pipe around each level or on the top. It is all up to your imagination, so go for it. Whenever you are happy, set aside and serve when ready. Voila!

The very pretty and deliciously devine finished product.

Images – me

Heavenly Chocolate Buttercream Birthday Cake

I decided, since it was my eldest daughter’s 21st birthday, to have some fun with her birthday cake. I wanted to make it pretty, girly, chocolatey and most of all – it had to taste good. It was also imperative the cake was befitting such a momentous occasion. I think the end result summed up all of those things. This chocolate cake, smothered in chocolate butter cream, is rich, moist and tastes heavenly. I was really happy with the denseness of the cake – being middle ground between buttercake and mudcake. In other words, not as light and fluffy as a buttercake or dense and heavy as a mudcake.

21st Key embellishment.

Now, I have been called lots of things in my lifetime – some nice and some not so nice. Obsessive is probably right up there, along with ‘neat-freak’. But, you know what, I don’t care. I certainly do not make any apologies for my eccentricities either. I like things to be just ‘so’ and I will go to all sorts of lengths (see previous posts of handmaking frills for the crown roast). I really wasn’t all that fussed with the 21st candle options I had shopped for. So what to do? Improvise, that’s what. I am always on the lookout for embellishments or alternative options for cakes and decorating. Luckily, I stumbled upon this little gem and had stored it away for just the right occasion. I incorporated the key into the cake decoration, therefore only adding a single white candle to the very top of the cake. Simple – but beautiful.

Closeup of the 21st key adorning the cake.

This recipe is adapted from Ina Garten’s Tiered Chocolate Buttercream Cake.

Trio of cake tins. I used 10 inch, 8 inch and 4 inch.

Measure parchment paper for lining base of each tin. Then grease the tins and set aside.

The lined cake tin ready to be greased.

Ingredients

3 1/2 cups plain flour

2 cups of good quality cocoa powder

1 tablespoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

340 grams unsalted butter at room temperature

1 1/3 cups caster sugar

1 1/3 cups brown sugar, pressed down firmly

4 extra-large eggs at room temperature

4 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

2 cups of buttermilk at room temperature

1 cup of sour cream at room temperature

1/8 cup brewed coffee

1/8 cup dark rum

Method

1. Pre-heat your oven to 180 degrees Celcius.

2. Line and grease the three tins, as stated above.

3. Sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt together in a large bowl.

4. Using the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugars together on a high speed until the mixture looks lighter in colour. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Combine the buttermilk, sour cream, coffee and rum.

5. On low speed, add the flour and the buttermilk mixture alternatively in thirds, beginning with the buttermilk mixture and ending with the flour mixture. Only mix until all is combined.

6. Divide the mixture between the three tins. Smooth tops with a spatula. Bake on the middle rack of the oven as follows:-

4 inch tin – 45 to 50 minutes

8 inch tin - 85 to 90 minutes

10 inch – 100 to 110 minutes

Check the cakes. You will know when they are cooked as a skewer will come out clean when inserted into middle of each cake. Cool the cakes in the tins for 10 minutes and then turn out onto cooling racks until completely cold.

7. Place the 10 inch cake on a serving plate, flat side up. (You will need to trim the tops off each of the cakes so that they are flat). Frost this cake with the buttercream. Place the 8 inch cake on the top of the 10 inch cake, flat side up. Frost top and sides of this cake. Place the 4 inch cake in the centre of the 8 inch cake, flat side down. Frost the top and sides of that layer with buttercream. Make sure all cakes are evenly covered with the buttercream and smooth as best as possible.

8. Decorate the finished cake with embellishments, candles or decorations of choice.

9. Serve.

Cake batter in the prepared tins.

The cooked cake. Don't worry about the split in the top, that will be evened out by slicing the top off.

Butter cream recipe to follow. Keep tuned.

Images – all taken by me

Red Wine Jus

If you are going to hold a dinner party, I think going that little bit further is definitely the way to go. Sure, it usually means more work for you but the rewards of having your guests sigh with pleasure when they taste your food most definitely makes it all worthwhile. So to accompany my show stopping centrepiece crown roast, I wanted to provide a dark, rich and velvety jus to drizzle over  the dainty cutlets. This recipe is easy to make. There is an intensity as well as a good balance of flavours. Besides, any leftover can be frozen and used for your next roast dinner or just poured over a nice char-grilled steak. Delicious!

Red Wine Jus

Ingredients

Olive Oil

2 shallots, chopped roughly

175ml port

175ml red wine

1 sprig fresh rosemary

1 bay leaf

750ml beef stock

salt to taste

2 rounded tablespoons butter

Method

1. Put enough oil in a pan to caramelise the shallots. Add port, wine and herbs. Bring to the boil. Simmer and reduce by half.

2. Add stock and reduce by half again.

3. Taste regularly and add salt if needed.

4. Remove pan from heat and strain through a fine sieve.

5. Return to stove and bring to boil. Remove from heat and add in butter.

6. Serve in an elegant gravy jug with a serving spoon for guests to spoon this delicious liquid over their meat.

A succulent crown roast waiting to be drizzled with the flavoursome jus.

“Jus – this French word is roughly equivalent to ‘juice’, but has more specific meanings in French cookery than the English word. It is used primarily for the gravy of a roast, made by diluting the pan juices with water, clear stock or any other suitable liquid, and then boiling it until all the goodness in the pan has been absorbed into the stock.”

“Reduce – To concerntrate or thicken a liquid such as a sauce or stock by boiling, which evaporates some of the water and reduces the volume.The time required will depend on the quantity of the liquid and the degree of concerntration required…the aim of reducing a sauce is to improve it’s flavour, smoothness and consistency.”

Images: pleasures of the plate

Recipe: www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipe/Red-Wine-Jus-L6376.html

Definitions: Larousse Gastronomique (New Concise)

Red Wine Jus

The stuffing mixture.

As a follow on from the crown roast post, I thought I should add the recipe for the vibrant and colourful stuffing that uses a mixture of white and wild rice. Apart from providing a tasty accompaniment to serve with your roast, it’s alternative purpose is to provide support for the crown roast as it cooks, allowing the roast to keep its shape. It also looks beautiful when served in the centre of the roast on a beautiful platter.

Wild Rice Stuffing Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup long grain rice

1 cup wild rice

4 cups of chicken broth

4 stalks of celery, sliced

8 green onions, sliced

2 cups thawed frozen peas

1/2 cup pine nuts

3/4 cup dried cranberries

pinch salt

pinch pepper

2 eggs, lightly beaten

Method

1. Place the chicken broth in a medium sized saucepan. Add both white and wild rice, bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and cover. Let cook for 40 minutes. Remove from the heat and cool completely.

2. Heat a small frypan on medium heat. Add the pine nuts and cook, tossing frequently, until lightly golden brown. Remove the pine nuts from the pan and cool.

3. In a large bowl, mix together the cooled cooked rice, chopped celery, green onions, peas, dried cranberries, pine nuts and salt and pepper. Gently stir through the beaten eggs.

4. Spoon the stuffing into the cavity of the crown roast, pressing the stuffing down firmly. Cook the crown roast as per instructions given by the butcher according to the size of your roast.

5. Take the roast as a whole to the table for carving. Serve the stuffing along side a couple of the cooked cutlets.

The cooked crown roast - ready for serving.

This recipe has been adapted from the original recipe by Simply Recipes for Wild Rice Salad  http://simplyrecipes.com/recipes/wild_rice_salad

Succulent Crown Roast with Wild Rice Stuffing.

For my beautiful daughter’s 21st birthday, we held an all-girl, elegant dinner party for her and 7 of her girlfriends. To make this a special event, I decided to cook a Crown Roast with Wild Rice Stuffing along with mash, roasted truss tomatoes, yellow squash and green beans tossed with garlic oil. To top it off, the succulent meat was drizzled with red wine jus.

The Crown Roast as prepared by the butcher.

If you haven’t already developed a good relationship with your butcher, then now is the time to do so. Not just for the crown roast – they are brilliant in helping with special cuts of meats, making things to specific sizing (I once had a whole pile of miniature beef patties made to make up some mini burgers for a football night) and also letting you know just how long to cook these special cuts of meat. My butcher prepared 18 lamb cutlets and then strung them together into the crown with some string. As an added extra, he also prepared some off cuts to place at the base of the crown as it roasted, to help keep it shape.

Place the roast into a roasting pan and prepare the marinade. Brush the marinade onto the cutlets and on the inside of the cutlets. Sprinkle the marinated cutlets with some lemon thyme. Set aside whilst making the stuffing.

Olive Oil for Marinade

Pepper for Marinade.

Sea salt for marinade.

Fresh rosemary for the marinade.

Marinade

To make the marinade for the crown roast, put some good quality olive oil, a pinch of pepper, a pinch of sea salt and some chopped fresh rosemary into a jar or container and shake. Using a pastry brush (I keep one specifically for this purpose so that you don’t mix it with your baking one) brush the crown roast cutlets with the marinade.

Beautiful leaves to serve as a bed for the crown roast.

Cook the crown roast according to directions from the butcher.  Once cooked, place the crown onto some pretty leaves as a bed base to serve. Serve with your choice of vegetables along with red-wine jus.

Roasted truss tomatoes.

I decided to serve the roast with roasted truss tomatoes, yellow squash and green beans, along with mashed potatoes. I found the colours of the tomatoes, squash and green beans were vibrant against the mash. If you have them, serve the vegetables in silver servers with lids to keep them warm.

Creamy mashed potatoes.

The vibrant colourful vegetables.

There you have it. A beautiful feast. I will follow with the recipe for the stuffing and also the red wine jus. I definitely think dinner parties should become the norm again! Enjoy.

My beautiful daughter Mez

Last Saturday night we held an elegant, feminine, all-girl dinner party for my beautiful eldest daughter’s 21st birthday. An amazing feat considering at the tender age of 18 months she was diagnosed with bacteria meningitis with an extremely poor prognosis. We were informed that she would be profoundly deaf, have brain damage and never be able to walk again. Things definitely were looking on the downside. But never one to give up (her or me), through hard work and sometimes sheer frustration, she learnt to walk again. Hearing tests proved positive and after a two year battle things returned to a somewhat normal state. Mez had a full recovery and completely regained her balance with numerous years of ballet tutelage. Despite being a pocket-sized beauty, she has a dogged-determination and an iron will. She won’t take ‘no’ for an answer. These, along with her drive and intelligence, I am sure were the contributing factors in her complete recovery. We are blessed to have her as our eldest daughter.

Now anyone even remotely connected to me, knows that I love, LOVE, L O V E to entertain and cook. Maybe that can be put down to my design background and my continual strive for attention to detail. Who knows? So for me, entertaining of any kind is not just about the food, or the location. It is all the little details that help make the event (whatever it may be – Christmas, Valentine’s Day, a picnic or a boating trip) a memorable occasion. It is these little details that I will concerntrate on in this particular blog post.

A selection of scissors from Smiggle

The craft items I made for the dinner party included:-

Named Place Cards

Placemats

Paper frills for a Crown Roast topper

All of these were made with the same Paisley print paper I used for the individual invites.

Paisley print paper.

Named Place Cards

Place Cards

Tools and Materials

scissors of choice (you could use scalloped or frilled etc)

desired paper

ruler

glue

Method

Measure 10cm x 10 cm squares of paper. Fold them neatly in half. Type, or use a labeller, the guests names and secure on each folded name tag with glue. Allow to dry. Easy as that!

Labelled place card.

Paisley Placemats

Tools and Materials

Laminator

Paisley Paper

Laminating pouches

Method

Heat Laminator as per instructions from manufacturer. TAKE CARE. Laminators are hot to touch and care should be taken when using. Carefully place desired paper inside the laminating pouch. Once the laminator has reached desired heat (mine displays a green light when ready) gently feed the pouch through the heated laminator. Once the pouch passes right through, carefully remove and allow to cool. Voila! Placemat!

Laminator

Laminating pouch.

Placemat passing through the laminator.

Laminated Placemat.

For the main course, I decided to serve a crown roast. I think this looks amazingly regal when toppe d with these pretty frills. It certainly looks dressed. With a little bit of time and effort, you will have your guests ”oooowing” and “ahhhhing” as you approach the table carrying this.

Paper frills

Tools and Materials

Desired paper

Frilling scissors (or of your choosing)

ruler and pencil

double-sided tape

Double-sided tape.

Method

1. Cut desired paper into 8cm wide by 20cm long strips. You need to cut enough of these strips for each of the cutlets on the crown roast (mine was 18).

2. Fold the strips in half lengthwise. Then, using the scissors, cut into the folded side, about halfway through the width. You need to do this along the entire strip.

Frill with double-sided tape.

3. Take one end of the strip and curl around your finger. The whole length of the strip should be wrapped around your finger. Secure with a square of double-sided tape. Repeat for all strips.

Completed frills.

4. Top each cutlet on the roast right before serving.

The Crown roast ready for serving.

These little crafty ideas do take time, but it will have been well spent once the table is set. Write out a “TO DO” list for each day in the lead-up to the event. That way you will give yourself plenty of time and things will flow smoothly. I also suggest a “SHOPPING LIST” for food and also one for incidentals like flowers, candles, even coffee beans to make sure everything you need is covered and there will be little chance for that last minute panic.

The set table.

I will continue with the 21st posts in the future, covering recipes. Keep a lookout for them. Happy crafting!