Chocolate Crusted Lemon Tart

This weekend I wanted to make something sweet & I had a bit of a chocolate craving, so I flicked through all of my books for the perfect recipe that would not require a mix master (I still haven’t decided what to buy). I ended up with this tart from Green & Blacks Chocolate Recipes, I adore a good lemon tart & have never had one with a chocolate base before & thought it sounded even better than a plain crust, I wasn’t far wrong, I loved it & the two flavours were perfect together, it would be even better with some fresh berries alongside too I think. Yum!

Chocolate Crusted Lemon Tart

Pastry
175g plain flour
25g cocoa
pinch of salt
25g icing sugar
125g unsalted butter, chilled & diced
1 large egg yolk
2 tablespoons cold water

Filling
75g dark chocolate, grated
3 juicy unwaxed lemons
150g caster sugar
4 large eggs
150ml double cream
icing sugar to sprinkle

To make the pastry, sift together the flour, cocoa, salt & icing sugar. Rub in the cold butter using a food processor or your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.

Mix the egg yolk with the water, and add to the mixture to make a dough. You may need to a little more water. Gather the pastry into a ball, wrap it in greaseproof paper (or glad wrap as I did) & chill in the fridge for about 1 hour.

Roll out the pastry from the centre and away from you, then back to the centre & down towards you, using your weight to push down on it to avoid stretching it. Line a 23cm tart tin with a removable base with the pastry. Prick the pastry base with a fork in several places & chill for at least 2 hours or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 200c. Line the pastry case with foil & baking beans ad bake for 15 minutes, then remove the foil & beans & bake for another 5 minutes. Remove the tin from the oven & reduce the oven temperature to 170c. While the pastry is still hot, scatter the grated chocolate evenly over the base & then leave to cool.

To make the filling, finely grate the zest from the lemons into a mixing bowl. Squeeze and strain the lemon juice & add it to the zest with the sugar. Whisk until the sugar has dissolved, then whisk in the eggs & cream until the mixture is smooth.

Pour the filling into the cooled pastry case & carefully return it to the oven. Bake for 30-35 minutes until just set. Remove from the oven & leave on a wire rack to cool completely before removing from the tin. Dust with icing sugar before serving.

Passionfruit Yo-Yo’s with White Chocolate Ganache

Here is a delicious recipe for Yo-Yo’s from a recent Gourmet Traveller, I think it was thier passionfruit special. Passionfruits are going for $1.50 a pop now so I used the tin of passionfruit pulp in syrup you can but from the supermarket instead, seemed to do the job without a problem & much less fiddly then pulping & processing too.

Passionfruit Yo-Yo’s with White Chocolate Ganache

Makes about 24 biscuits

180gm butter, softened
90g pure icing sugar
80ml (1/3 cup) passionfruit juice
225g (1 ½ cups) plain flour
100g (2/3 cup) cornflour

Ganache
90ml pouring cream
45ml passionfruit juice
2 pieces of lemon rind, removed with a peeler
180g white chocolate, finely chopped

For Ganache, combine, cream, juice & rind in a saucepan and bring just to the boil over medium-high heat. Place chocolate in a bowl, strain over hot cream mixture, whisk until smooth & refrigerate for 4 hours or until thick.

Beat butter & sugar in an electric mixer until light & fluffy, add juice & combine. Add flours & mix until just combined, then turn onto a floured surface, form into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap & refrigerate for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 180c. Roll out pastry to 8mm thick & using a 3cm diameter cutter, cut rounds from pastry & place on baking paper lined oven trays. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until just golden, cool on trays for 5 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Spread half the biscuits with a teaspoon of Ganache, sandwich with remaining biscuits & stand until set. Uniced yo-yo’s will keep for up to 1 week in an airtight container.

Note: To make your own passionfruit juice, blend passionfruit pulp in a food processor to crack seeds, then strain through a fine sieve. 12 passionfruits yield about 1 cup of juice.

Caramelised Pecan Tart

For Mothers day I made a couple of cakes to take along for the family lunch. One was a black forest cake which tasted great but was a bit of a disaster in that the top sort of fell apart so I wont be giving that recipe. The second offering was this pecan pie at my mum’s request. She had recently tried making one which didn’t quite work out so this was another recipe, this one from a recent Delicious Magazine, the original recipe also came with bourbon ice cream which I have skipped. Also I used normal everyday supermarket caster sugar as I have no idea what ‘golden’ caster sugar is. It was really very yummy & my mother has also approved, sorry about the crap photo taken very hurriedly on the paper plate before scoffing!

Caramelised Pecan Tart

225g plain flour, sifted
150g chilled unsalted butter, cubed, plus 120g for the filling
300g pecan halves, broken into pieces
150g runny honey
100ml thickened cream
2 tablespoons (40ml) bourbon or whiskey
5 egg yolks
150g golden caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon grated fresh nutmeg

For pastry, combine flour with a pinch of salt. Use your fingertips to rub in cubed butter until mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs (or whiz in a food processor). Add 2 tablespoon of iced water & stir with a knife (or whiz again) until pastry forms a ball. Knead briefly on a lightly floured surface until smooth, then roll out & use to line a 24cm loose bottomed tart pan. Prick base with a fork & chill for 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200c. Line pastry with baking paper & fill with pastry weights or uncooked rice. Bake for 15 minutes, then remove paper & weights. Bake for a further 5 minutes or until pastry is a pale biscuit color.

Remove pastry case from oven & reduce oven temp to 190c. Spread nuts on a tray & toast for 5-6 minutes. Meanwhile warm honey, butter, cream & bourbon over low heat until butter melts. Beat yolks in a bowl, then stir in honey mixture, nuts, sugar, vanilla, nutmeg & a pinch of salt. Pour filling into pastry & bake for 40 minutes. Serve warm or cold.

Chicken & Sweet Leek Pie with Flaky Pastry

This is another dish from Jamie Oliver’s Jamie’s Dinners in his top ten. It’s a pretty good pie, I’m a pie fan loving any type of pastry dish so this was a winner for me, a good combination including lots of veggies & the filling was not too runny as I find a lot of pie recipes are. One note however, the recipe is to serve 4, once you add the mash & any other sides you will get at least 6 very generous serves out of it & that’s saying something as Michael & I are pretty big eaters (I hate to admit it but its true, can you tell?)

Chicken & Sweet Leek Pie with Flaky Pastry

Olive Oil
2 knobs of butter
1kg boned & skinned chicken legs (cut into pieces) – I used thigh fillets
2 medium leeks, trimmed, washed & sliced into 1cm pieces
2 carrots, peeled & roughly chopped
3 sticks of celery, finely sliced
a small handful of thyme, leaves picked
2 tablespoons flour
1 wineglass of white wine
285ml/1/2 pint milk
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
255g good pork sausages
1 x 500g pack of all butter puff pastry (or a couple of sheets of ready rolled as I used)
1 egg

Preheat the oven to 220c. Take a large casserole pot & add a lug of olive oil & the butter. Add the chicken, leeks, carrots, celery & thyme & cook slowly on the hob for 15 minutes. Turn the heat right up, add the flour, and keep stirring for a couple of minutes before adding the wine, a wineglass of water & the milk. Season with a little salt & pepper, then cover with a tight fitting lid & simmer very slowly on the hob for about 30-40 minutes until the chicken is tender. Stir it every so often so it doesn’t catch on the bottom of the pan. The sauce should be loose but quite thick. If it’s too liquid, just continue to simmer it with the lid off until it thickens slightly.

Pour the mixture into a pie dish. Squeeze the meat out of the sausage skins, roll it into balls, brown then in a little oil & sprinkle them over the stew. Roll out your pastry to about 0.5cm thick. Egg wash the rim of the dish & drape the pastry over the edges & trim. Egg wash the top, crimp the edges & cut criss crosses into the top to allow the pastry to go crisp & flaky. Cook in the oven for about 30 to 40 minutes, until golden on top. Serve with sweetcorn & mash.

Apple Pie

After all my apple recipes I’ve tried this season thks to the tree out the back I cant believe it has taken me so long to get to the good old classical apple pie. With nearly the last of my Granny Smiths I made this superb version from Jamie Oliver’s Jamie’s Dinners. The recipe suggests a mix of both cooking & eating apples however I stuck to the Granny Smiths & it was excellent, my mum proclaimed it was about the best she has eaten & was amazed at how easy the pastry was to make from scratch & of course the result no comparison to the frozen variety at all.

Apple Pie

Pastry
225g flour
140g butter
85g caster sugar
finely grated rind of 1 lemon
2 egg yolks

Filling
A small knob of butter
Flour, for dusting
1 large Bramley cooking apple
4 eating apples
3 tablespoons Demerarra or muscovado sugar
zest of ½ a lemon
½ teaspoon ground ginger
a handful of sultanas or raisins
1 egg yolk mixed with a splash of milk

Preheat oven to 150c. To make the pastry, in a food processor, whiz up the flour, butter, caster sugar & lemon rind, then add the egg yolk & a tiny drop of water to bind the mix together. Butter a 20cm inch metal pie dish (metal is supposed to conduct heat better & cook the bottom at the same time as the top – I used a ceramic dish with no ill effects).

Divide your pastry dough into two & roll half of it out on a flour dusted surface until 0.5cm thick. Lay the pastry in the metal dish & gently push it down into the sides. Don’t worry if it tears or breaks, just patch it up. Pop the pie dish & remaining half of the pastry into the fridge, peel your apples, core & cut into eighths. Toss them into a pan with the sugar, lemon zest, ginger, sultanas or raisins & a tablespoon of water. Simmer gently for 5 minutes or until the apples are just tender. Remove from heat & allow to cool completely.

Remove the pie dish from the fridge & pack the apple mix tightly into the dish. Egg wash the pastry rim & then roll out the remaining pastry & drape over the top of the pie. Roughly pinch the edges together & trim any excess pastry. Egg wash the top, make a couple of small incisions & bake in the oven for 45-50 minutes. Serve hot with ice cream, cream, custard or whatever takes your fancy.

Simple Apple Tart

Another very simple recipe to use up some of my Granny Smiths, this recipe comes from Stephanie Alexander’s ‘The Cooks Companion’. Very easy, hardly seemed like cooking as just a couple of ingredients thrown together. A very nice & light tart which we had with some ice cream while it was still warm out of the oven.

Simple Apple Tart

1 quantity Shortcrust pastry
4 tablespoons apricot jam
3 eating apples, peeled & thinly sliced

Line an 18 or 20cm loose-bottomed flan tin with pastry. Blind bake at 200c for 20 minutes or until golden (note mine took much less time). Remove from oven, allow to cool for a few minutes & reduce temperature to 180c. Warm jam & brush some over case. Arrange apples in slightly overlapping concentric circles. Bake for 15 minutes. Baste with remaining jam & cook for 15-20 minutes until apple looks a little caramelized on the edges.

Ricotta & Tomato Tart

For brunch with the girls the other day I made this tasty Tart from Bill Granger’s ‘Bill’s Sydney Food’. To save time I made the pastry the day before & even though when I took it out of the fridge the next day it was rock hard & I thought an absolute disaster, after leaving out for quite some time I was finally able to roll it out, it did break up a bit & needed some squishing back together but in the end it was light & buttery & fantastic, not bad for my first attempt at puff pastry I must say. As you can see mine was a very rustic looking pie indeed. The filling was really yum too & the tart made for a nice morning/afternoon with some salad, bread, prosciutto & cheese to accompany it.

Ricotta & Tomato Tart

Filling
2 ripe tomatoes, finely sliced
sea salt
2 cups ricotta
2 eggs, lightly beaten
¼ cup cream
¼ cup finely grated parmesan
a pinch of ground nutmeg
freshly ground black pepper
1 cup finely shredded rocket
1 egg yolk, lightly beaten, for glazing
2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley

Rough Puff Pastry
200g plain flour
½ teaspoon salt
200g chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
2 tablespoons chilled water

Place flour & salt in a bowl, add butter & rub through with fingertips until the mixture resembles large breadcrumbs. Add enough cold water, cutting in with a knife, to form a ball. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap & refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Roll out dough into a 30 x 15 cm rectangle. Fold in the two short ends to meet in the centre, then fold in again. Roll the pastry into a 30 x 15cm rectangle again, then repeat folding process. Refrigerate as a small rectangle for a further 30 minutes before using.

Preheat oven to 200c. Place tomatoes in a colander, sprinkle with salt & leave to drain. Place pastry dough on a lightly floured surface & roll out to a circle about 35cm in diameter & 3mm thick. Place dough on a lightly floured baking tray.

Place ricotta, eggs, cream, parmesan, nutmeg, salt & pepper in a bowl and mix well. Add rocket & stir to combine. Place this mixture in the centre of the dough, and spread filling over the dough leaving a 5 cm border around the outside. Using your hand, lift & push the border onto the filling. Arrange tomato slices over the top of the filling. Brush pastry with egg yolk & bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes or until golden. Serve sprinkled with chopped parsley & freshly ground black pepper. Serves 8

Raspberry Frangipane Tarts

Raspberries again, today in Frangipane tart form, recipe courtesy of Matthew Moran as featured in an old Delicious edition. The tarts were absolutely scrumptious & apart from the number of steps you need to take, all in all very simple. I have only one complaint with the recipe, it is supposed to make 8 & there was at least half of the pastry left over which is not too much of a problem as I froze it, but then there was also heaps of filling left over too which if I had of known I would have prepared extra shells to start with, as it was I was a bit stuffed by the time I got to that stage & threw the rest out, what a waste! Also take car not to overfill as I did as it all came spilling over the edges & Michael now has a nice mess in the oven to clean out for as in my current state I am not allowed to do much, I am lucky I am still allowed to cook occasionally!

Raspberry Frangipane Tarts

150g Raspberries
Icing sugar, to dust

Shortcrust pastry
90g icing sugar, sifted
2 cups (300g) plain flour
185g chilled unsalted butter
1 extra large egg

Frangipane
180g icing sugar
180g unsalted butter
3 eggs
1 ½ cups (180g) almond meal
1 ½ tablespoons dark rum

Sift the icing sugar onto a cool work surface (or large bowl as I used) & add the plain flour. Chop the chilled butter, then use your fingertips to rub the butter into the flour & icing sugar until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

Make a deep well in the centre of the dry mixture and add the egg. Gradually bring the dry ingredients into the centre, then combine with your hands to form a smooth ball. (Alternatively, process ingredients in a food processor until well combined). Enclose in plastic wrap & chill for 20 minutes, then divide pastry into 8 portions.

Roll out 1 pastry portion to 2.5mm thick on a lightly floured surface. Lightly flour the rolling pin. Drape over the tart case & press into base & sides, the cut off excess. Repeat with remaining pastry & pans. Chill for 30 minutes.

For the frangipane, cream the butter & sugar until pale & thick (don’t over do or it will rise & collapse in the oven). Add the eggs one at a time, mixing continuously and adding some almond meal between additions. Slowly add the rum to the mixture until all ingredients are combined.

Preheat oven to 180c. Divide the frangipane mixture among the tart cases & smooth top. Press 6 raspberries gently into each tart & bake for 30-35 minutes or until lightly browned & cooked through. Cool in pans for 5-6 minutes, serve warm dusted with icing sugar with left over raspberries & vanilla ice cream

Steak & Guiness Pie

For dinner tonight another favorite from Jamie Oliver, this time from Happy Days. The thing I love about this dish is it’s so easy & can be prepared ahead of time ready to just pop into the oven later.

Steak & Guiness Pie

680g stewing beef, diced
sea salt & fresjly ground black pepper
2 heaped tablespoons flour
Olive Oil
1 onion, peeled & roughly chopped
4 sticks celery, washed & roughly chopped
2 parsnips, peeled & roughly chopped
1 handful of fresh mixed herbs (ie rosemary, thyme & bay)
565ml/1 pint Guiness
2 x 400g rins tomatoes
1 x 500g pack puff pastry
1 egg, beaten

Season your beef generously with salt & pepper, sprinkle with flour & toss around until coated. Heat 2 or 3 glugs olive oil in a large casserole-type pan & fry your meat until golden brown. Add the onion & fry for another minute, then add the carrot, celery, parsnips & herbs. Fry for a further 4 minutes then pur in your Guiness. Add the tomtoes & rbing to the boil, simmer for around 2 hours or until the meat is really tender, season to taste. At this stage you can move to the fridge until ready to serve, this will also intensify the flavour.

To make the pies, preheat oven to 190c. Put your meat filling into a dishor dishes (if making individual pies). Cut your pastry into circles about 1cm bigger than the top of your dish(s). Brush the rims with beaten egg, place the pastry on top squash the excess down the sides to secure. Lightly score the top of the pstry in a criss cross pattern & brush with the remaining beaten egg. Bake for 45 minutes until golden & Bubbling.

Squashed Ginger Biscuits & a disaster!

Yesterday I slaved away all morning making some lemon meringue pies at the request of my mother. Alas they were a complete disaster & had to be dumped. The pastry was fine (even though I misread the recipe & added too much butter), the meringue tops were fine & even the filling tasted pretty good but it just didn’t set at all so a bit difficult to eat unless you like lemon meringue soup! I have a feeling that I should have cooked the filling & bit longer and allowed it to thicken more even though I already had cooked it for double the time the recipe suggested. Needless to say I am throwing out that recipe & it will be a while before I attempt these again.

So to make up for my disaster today I whipped up a batch of very simple ginger biscuits, pretty sure the recipe is from the latest Donna Hay. They were a cinch to make & Michael loved them, they had a lovely ginger & spice flavour that wasn’t too subtle or overwhelming. My only comment would be that if you have a fan forced oven, cook them at a lower temperature & a bit shorter duration as mine were quite crunchy despite the fact the recipe states you will end up with soft biscuits. Still crunchy was good.

Squashed Ginger Biscuits

115g (1/3 cup) golden syrup
100g butter
150g (1 cup) plain flour
2 tablespoons white sugar
3 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 teaspoon each of mixed spice & ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 220c. Combine golden syrup & butter in a saucepan & stir over low heat until butter melted. Sift remaining ingredients together in a large bowl, add golden syrup mixture & stir to combine.

Roll tablespoons of the mixture into balls and place on baking paper lined oven trays. Bake for 5 minutes then reduce heat to 180c and using a spatula, flatten biscuits & bake for another 10 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Biscuits will keep for up to 1 week in an airtight container. Makes approx 18.

Baked Chocolate tart

Today Rach was coming over for a bit of a catch up, she is a bit of a sucker for chocolate (just like me in my present state!) so I whipped up this tart of Jamie Oliver’s from ‘The Naked Chef. I had some left over pastry in the freezer from when I made the lemon lime tart so this cut down considerably on my prep time which was excellent, means I got to spend the whole morning in the garden! I’ve included the pastry recipe as per previous post. I served the tart with fresh strawberries & blueberries & let me say this, it was sensational, absolutely delicious. The fact that it was dark chocolate made it very intense without being too sweet, it tasted a little like a chocolate pudding but solid of course & of the sweetness of the berries was perfect along side. Also I have to say home made short crust pastry definitely kicks ass over the frozen kind. Make this tart & trust me you will not regret it.

Baked Chocolate Tart

1 x 25cm flan or tart shell, baked blind
140g butter, unsalted
150g good quality chocolate, (70% cocoa solids)
8 tablespoons cocoa powder, sifted
small pinch salt
4 eggs
200g caster sugar
3 tablespoons golden syrup
3 medium heaped tablespoons sour cream or crème fraiche

Place the butter, chocolate, cocoa powder and slat in a bowl over a pan of simmering water & allow to melt slowly, stirring occasionally until well mixed in. In a separate bowl beat the eggs & sugar together until light & well creamed, and then add the golden syrup & sour cream. Stir your choc mixture into this mixture, scraping all of the chocolate out with a spatula. Once you’ve mixed it well pour it into the pastry shell. Place into a preheated oven for 40-45 minutes at 150c. During cooking a beautiful crust will form.

Carefully remove the tart from the oven & allow to cool on a rack for at least 45 minutes, during which time the skin will crack & the filling will shrink slightly. Serve with fresh berries

Short Crust Sweet Pastry

To make 2 x 30cm/12 inch tart moulds
250g butter
200g icing sugar
a medium pinch of salt
500g flour
4 egg yolks
4 tablespoons cold milk/water

You can make this by hand or in a food processor. Cream together the butter, sugar & salt & then rub or pulse in the flour & egg yolks. When the mix has come together, looking like coarse breadcrumbs, add the cold water or milk. Pat & gently work together to form a ball of dough. Use minimum movement as the more you work it the more elastic it will get, causing the pastry to shrink & be chewy. Roll into a large, short & fat sausage shape, wrap in glad wrap & place in the fridge for at lest 1 hour.Carefully slice off thin slivers of pastry lengthways, around 5mm thick. Place the slivers in & around the bottom & sides of your tart mould, then push the pieces together & level out. Now it needs to rest again for at least 1 hour in the freezer this time.Bake the tart for about 15 minutes at 180c, completely cool & fill with any uncooked fillings.For baked fillings, bake blind first at 180c for only about 12 minutes. You can fill the shell with rice, baking beads, etc but if your pastry is straight out of the freezer you shouldn’t have problems with shrinkage, etc.

5 things to eat before you die

Reb from Cucina Rebecca has tagged me for the latest meme which seems to be spreading like wild fire, 5 things to eat before you die. This all started not so long ago by Melissa at The Travellers Lunchbox. Here is my contribution which doesn’t contain quite as many fancy things as some, when I came to thinking about my favourite things, they all came back to pretty simple stuff!

1. Pierogi – Home made & Polish style the way my grandma used to make them. One of my best memories from childhood was visiting my Grandma when a fresh batch of pierogi were made, or even better making them with her, this was a whole day affair as when you make them you make 100's so you can give them out to the whole family to take home of course. I think the fact that they were made on this mammoth scale each time is what has deterred me from making my own so far. Pierogi are a European pastry, hers were filled with mashed potato mixed with loads of onion fried in butter. They are then boiled, drained, lots of butter applied until melted & then served with lashings of sour cream. The seconds were then pan fried a golden brown & again served with sour cream. So this simple fair is something I miss dearly & have vowed to stop being so lazy & make & perfect myself before I die. Now that I am about to start my own family hopefully this will inspire me so that my children can grow up with them as I did.

2. Cherries - these luscious beauties would have to be my favourite fruit of all time. I love them & eat them all on their own, they are so sweet & heavenly that I find they need no embellishment. The only downside to cherries is that the season is so short that from beginning to end I eat as many as I can before its all over for another year.

3. Chocolate - sorry to be so general but good chocolate in any shape, size or form is on my ultimate food group list for obvious reasons

4. A picnic of fresh local produce somewhere fabulous with the one you love. A couple of memorable ones for me would have to be a spring picnic in Paris in the botanical gardens with Michael, eating French cheese, bread & wine amongst other delights & the recent picnic I had in Lorne for my wedding anniversary which as well as some fantastic fresh food we topped off with a bottle of Dom Perignon which we had picked up in Champagne itself a few years ago, great food for me does not have to be fancy, the setting & company can play just as major a part & nothing beats eating fresh regional food where its made, ie Fresh bread, local cheeses, chutneys, jams, fruit, dips, chocolates

5. Grilled Haloumi on fresh bread. Something more specific for number 5. Haloumi grilled with a bit of oregano & drizzled with some lemon juice on top of some really good fresh bread would have to be one of my favourite ways to eat cheese, I do love all cheese however this is number one & is so good can pretty much eat enough so that it is a meal in itself

And before I go I will pass this on & tag (hope no one else has got to you first!)

Mellie at Tummy Rumbles
Sarah at Sarah Cooks
Niki at Esurientes
Kaylyn at Kaylns Kitchen
Ellie at Kitchen Wench

Lemon & Lime Cream Tart

For dessert on Saturday night I totally ignored my Curry theme & made a gorgeous lemon & lime tart, I thought the tanginess of this tart would be perfect after a night of curries. The recipe comes form Jamie Oliver’s The Naked Chef. To start with you make the pastry & there is enough for 2 which is handy as next time I need a quick dessert it’s just a matter of filling the case up! I also used the food processor option which makes it so easy. I love a lemon tart & this one is pretty good, very tangy & rich though so only the smallest piece is needed & berries of any type are great on the side.

Short Crust Sweet Pastry

To make 2 x 30cm/12 inch tart moulds
250g butter
200g icing sugar
a medium pinch of salt
500g flour
4 egg yolks
4 tablespoons cold milk/water

You can make this by hand or in a food processor. Cream together the butter, sugar & salt & then rub or pulse in the flour & egg yolks. When the mix has come together, looking like coarse breadcrumbs, add the cold water or milk. Pat & gently work together to form a ball of dough. Use minimum movement as the more you work it the more elastic it will get, causing the pastry to shrink & be chewy. Roll into a large, short & fat sausage shape, wrap in glad wrap & place in the fridge for at lest 1 hour.

Carefully slice off thin slivers of pastry lengthways, around 5mm thick. Place the slivers in & around the bottom & sides of your tart mould, then push the pieces together & level out. Now it needs to rest again for at least 1 hour in the freezer this time.

Bake the tart for about 15 minutes at 180c, completely cool & fill with any uncooked fillings.

For baked fillings, bake blind first at 180c for only about 12 minutes. You can fill the shell with rice, baking beads, etc but if your pastry is straight out of the freezer you shouldn’t have problems with shrinkage, etc.

Lemon & Lime Cream Tart

1 tart shell, baked blind (For his tart egg wash before blind baking!!!)
340g caster sugar
8 large eggs
350ml double cream
200ml lime juice
100ml lemon juice

Egg wash your tart shell, then blind bake. This will keep the pastry crisp for longer.

Whisk together the sugar & eggs. When mixed well, slowly stir in the cream, lemon & lime juices. Put the shell back in the oven & slowly pour in the filling (this will reduce spillage). Bake for around 40-45 minutes at 180c or until the filling is set but semi wobbly in the middle. After cooling for an hour the filling will have firmed up. Don’t cut any earlier or it will be gooey & ooze out. If preferred dust with icing sugar to serve. Serve with fresh berries.

Tags: lemon, lime, tart, recipe

Steamed Prawn Wontons with Red Chilli and Spring Onion

Tonight for dinner for something different I made some prawn wontons from Jamie Oliver’s Jamie’s Kitchen. The mixture was really quick & easy to prepare unlike making the wontons which as everyone knows is fiddly & time consuming. Lucky my mum had given me one of those cheap pastry makers that you get from $2 shops or Asian grocery stores where you basically just lay your pastry down, drop in the filling then clamp it shut to seal together. A hell of a lot easier then folding & pressing by hand I must say. We tried these with sweet chilli & soy sauce but honestly the filling was so tasty you really did not want to add too much or the lovely aromatic flavour of the filling was lost.

Steamed Prawn Wontons with Red Chilli and Spring Onion

2cm piece fresh ginger, peeled
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 small handful of fresh coriander
2 fresh red chillies, deseeded
5 spring onions
300g raw prawns, shelled
1 tablespoon sesame oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
pre-rolled wonton wrappers (approx 30)

Finely chop the ginger, garlic, chillies, coriander & spring onions & place in a food processor with the prawns, pulse until combined. Add the soy & sesame oil & pulse again. Fill the wontons with a small teaspoon of filling, brush the edges to seal.

Put the wontons in a steamer basket on baking paper & steam for approx 7 minutes. Serve with sweet chilli or soy sauce.

Tarte Tatin

I have seen so many recipes for Tarte Tartins lately that I just knew I had to try one soon. Finally I had my excuse today when Elise came over for lunch. I followed the recipe in Allan Campion & Michele Curtis’ 2006 Seasonal Produce Diary which has not let me down with a recipe yet. The recipe was fairly simple, the only difficulty factor is in tipping it upside down without leaving too much mess & hopefully getting it on the plate straight. With a bit of help from Michael I managed to succeed reasonably well. As you can see in the picture it is not the prettiest of dishes though I swear all the magazine pics look 100% better than mine! The flavour was luscious, very sweet, almost like stewed apples, served with some vanilla ice cream created the perfect balance, really good & you can kid yourself its almost healthy due to the fruit factor. Oh & by the way I used up my entire crop of granny smiths for the season for this recipe & still had to buy 2 apples from the market, yes that’s right, my tree only produced 2 apples for the whole year, hope to have better luck next year. You need a 22cm deep sided cast iron pan for this or alternately you can cook up the apples in a fry pan then transfer to a pie dish before covering with pastry. I used my paella dish which is oven proof, glad to find another use for it.

Tarte Tatin

75g butter
150g caster sugar
4 granny smith apples, cored & cut into 8ths
1 piece of puff pastry, approx 25 x 25cm
egg wash (1 egg yolk with 1 tablespoon milk)

Cream or ice cream to serve

Preheat oven to 190c. Heat pan over medium-high heat, add butter & sugar & cook for 8-10 minutes, stirring constantly. Cook until sugar & butter are a golden caramel colour. Note do not lick the spoon during this process or you will have a burnt tongue like I now do. Next, carefully add the apples taking care not to splash, cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring to coat the apples with caramel. The apples will begin to release their juice & stop the caramel from over cooking.

Set the pan aside & cool a little. Place pastry over the apples & tuck down the sides to completely cover apples & trim off any excess. Brush pastry with egg wash & place in oven. Cook for 20-25 minutes or until pastry is risen, golden brown & cooked.

To serve, place a large plate over pan or pie dish. Then, using oven gloves, tip plate over & remove, leaving apples on top & pastry on the bottom. Serve immediately with cream or ice cream

Fragrant Peach Tart

This weekends sweet cooking is for Michaels mum & dad again as it’s a very hot day so we thought we could pop into their place for a swim. For the tart I got to use my new food processor for the first time & it’s fantastic, I used to have one with a teeny tiny bowl that you could not fit anything in, this one is huge & industrial strength & I love it, thanks mum! The tart looks beautiful, I was a bit disappointed with the taste though, the peaches I used didn’t seem to have that much flavour & you definitely need something with a strong flavour, so I would use apricots or much sweeter peaches if making it again. The recipe is from the Marie Claire Luscious book

Fragrant Peach Tart

6-7 small ripe peaches
Tart Case (see instructions below)
2 eggs
115g (4oz/1/2 cup) caster sugar
4 tbpsns plain flour
½ teaspoon rose water
110g unsalted butter
double cream to serve

Preheat the oven to 180c. Slice the peaches in half & remove the stones. Slice the flesh into think wedges & arrange in the base of the tart case, cut sides up. Crack the eggs into a mixing bowl, add the sugar and beat with electric beaters until pale & fluffy. Fold in the flour & rosewater. Heat the butter in a saucepan over high heat. When it begins to froth & turn pale golden brown, pour it into the egg mixture & beat for 1 minute. Pour the filling over the peaches & bake for a further 15 minutes, or until the filling has set. Allow to cool & serve with cream.

Shortcrust Tart Case

200g (7oz/1 2/3 cups) plain flour
100g (3 ½ oz) chilled unsalted butter
2 tablespoons chilled water

Put the flour, butter & a pinch of salt in a food processor & process for 1 minute. Add the chilled water & process until the mixture comes together. Wrap in plastic wrap & refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Grease a 25cm tart tin or 6 8cm tartlet tins. Roll the pastry out as thinly as possible between 2 layers of plastic wrap, then use it to line the prepared tin(s). Chill for a further 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180c. Using a fork, prick the pastry case(s) over the base, line with crumpled baking paper & fill with rice or baking weights. Bake for 10-15 minutes, or until the pastry looks dry. Remove from the oven & allow to cool.

Goats Cheese tart

Tonight we’re off to an engagement party so though I would cook up a tart for a late lunch/early dinner, the party starts quite early & don’t want to be standing around on a full tummy from too much dinner too late. The outcome was very nice though dare I say I think there may have been just a little too much goats cheese & I even ended up making 2 tarts with the list of ingredients below. Pretty good though my fave is the leek & cheese tart I have made heaps of time & is listed under my savoury recipes

This recipe is from delicious magazine. Supposed to serve 6 so I only made a little salad for Michael & I & froze the leftovers for a ‘too busy to cook’ day

Goats Cheese tart

50ml olive oil
8 red onions sliced
2 pinches white sugar
2 pinches fresh thyme leaves
200g shortcrust pastry
350g goats cheese
1/3 cup (80ml) milk
1/3 cup (80ml) thin cream
3 eggs
a pinch paprika
ground nutmeg

Tomato salad

4 vine-ripened tomatoes, peeled, quartered
2 ox hart or similar type of tomatoes, quartered
1 punnet yellow teardrop tomatoes, halved
1 punnet cheery tomatoes, halved
2 tblspns extra virgin olive oil
5-6 basil leaves

Heat the olive oil in a pan over low heat. Add the onions & sugar & stir continuously for about 20 minutes, until brown & very sweet to taste. Add the thyme leaves, stir, remove from heat & leave to cool.

Preheat oven to 190c. Grease a 26cm loose bottomed tart pan.

Line the tart pan with pastry rolled out 2mm thick. Half fill the pastry with the caramelised onions & top with slices of fresh goats cheese.

Combine milk, cream, eggs, paprika, nutmeg, salt & pepper. Mix well, then pur over the top of the tart. Bake in the oven for abt 40 minutes, until the base of the tart is golden brown & the mixture has set. Cool slightly on a metal rack, before cutting into slices for serving.

To make the salad, toss all ingredients together with sea salt & freshly ground black pepper.

Rathdowne Tavern, Carlton - Nances Dinner

Last night a few of the Nances (my netball team) got together for a bit of a meal at the Rathdown Tavern on Rathdowne street in Carlton.

We have been here a couple of times now as this is where our Finals prizes gift voucher dictates where we dine.
I really like it here, the bar where we start off with a drink is very nice & friendly, and then the restaurant where we are seated is quite cozy, 2 edges of the table lined with wall seat/couches of which I am always a big fan of, find it much more comfy that sitting in a chair. I skipped an entrée tonight opting instead to save room for dessert.

For main I chose the fresh papardelle with a brasied duck in red wine sauce, you can see from my yet again blurry photo (too much wine I think), that the sauce was very rich & meaty, let me tell you this was really delicious, in fact several people ordered this & we were all impressed. The sides for the table were also delicious, rosemary & garlic roast potatoes, crunchy potato pieces, huge chunks of beautifully roasted garlic & lots of lots of rosemary, steamed greens & a tomato salad, thin slices of tomato with olive oil, herbs, etc - very nice

For dessert I had Sfoglitella Santa Rossa, which was a fine pastry filled with macerated cherries & crème patissiere, served with a cherry sauce & ice cream, this was fabulous, I was sharing with Michael & really wished I had the whole dish to myself.
Others on the table had the Gianduia Chocolate tart with candied orange - had a try & very good also, the tart was made with bittersweet chocolate so not too sickly as it could have a tendency to be

The staff were very quick & helpful all night also which made for a perfect night

Boomerang at Byron Bay Monday 12th November

Well I am lucky enough to say that i have just returned home from a glorious week in Byron Bay where Michael & I did a damn fine job of relaxing, lots of long walks on the beach, good food & afternoon naps!

We arrived last Saturday & Sam & Tracey, friends from Brisbane had come to down for the night so it was off to the pub for drinks & then Cocomangas for dancing the night away, good way to start the holiday. Aftr all op this of course we were in need of a huge greasy brekky so we headed down to The Beach Cafe overlooking the beach, brekky was lovely. I went for the big one of course & had a very generous dish of bacon, poached eggs, grilled tomatos & mushies, baked beans & a home made hash brown on sourdough toast, needles to say I didnt finish it all. Very yummy & the hash brown did it for me, I love these & its not often they come home made - definitely worth a visit if youre ever in Byron

Monday we headed out for dinner to Boomerang which I found listed in the Gourmet Traveller 2006 restaurant guide, lucky as its not on a main street & could have been easily missed! There was only one other couple in tonight so we had excellent service & Marc Romanella the chef & I believe owner was serving tonight which was excellent as he was very passonate about his food & wine. The decor & table settings were all beatiful too.

The menu was a bit different to the norm as you are asked to create your own degustation menu from a list of fantastic choices, choosing from as little as 2 to 5, we chose 3 as we were told the portions were only entree size to allow you to taste several. We also went for the matching wine option.

I started with the Crusted yellowfin tuna sashimi with an ume, fuji & chilli chutney. This looked too gorgeous to eat & was delicious, the fruity flavour of the chutney was a brilliant match for the tuna. As this was a sweet flavoured dish I had a Japanese plum wine which was really nice, I had not had one of these before so nice to try something new too.


Second was a Marinated Beef tenderloin with parsnip rosti & white asparagus in soy, ginger & red wine served with a Bendigo Shiraz, again sensational flavours & the beef was very tender


Lastly I had the Duck pudding with citrus confit in Grand Marnier & ginger. This sounded odd & when asked exactly what a duck 'pudding' was Marc explained that it was actually slow cooked lamb wrapped in fine pastry, was absolutely scrummy & served with a lovely 1998 merlot from Washington.

The servings were also quite generous & with the hot bread rolls & herb infused olive oil on the side we were quite full by this stage, though of course I couldnt pass up the opportunity to try out dessert at such a wonderful place so we shared a Blood Orange tart with Mango & tequila sorbet & fresh strawberries on the side, Luscious!

All in all, this place is not to be missed!

Sunday 6th November 2005 - Lunch

Yesterday was another glorious Melbourne day, 30 degrees & its not even summer yet, I love it although I can hear all of those Winter lovers complaining loudly already. I only hope that it means we're in for a long hot summer, we haven't had one for a while & its about time if you ask me
I was having my parents & Godmother over for lunch so this meant that once again I could set up outside & enjoy some more el fresco dining in the courtyard
Have been really busy lately so cooked up an old favourite, nice to cook something you know will work & is not too much effort every now & again. Was a leek & cheese tart, the recipe originally featured in a newspaper some time back. I served this with Green salad leaves topped with a combo of cherry, grape & roma tomatoes roasted in garlic, olive oil, basil, oregano, salt & pepper & a simple dressing of olive oil, balsamic vinegar & basil

Leek & Goats Cheese Tart Recipe

The recipe is supposed to serve 6 though I would say 6 entrée portions & if serving for a main sp if boys eating, double as I did yesterday

Shortcrust pastry (1 if making 1 big tart or 2 if making 4 individuals)
50g butter
3 meduium leeks, pale section only, washed & sliced
3 eggs, lightly whisked
1/2 cup thickened cream
1 tbspn fresh thyme leaves
100g soft goats cheese, crumbled
75g grated gruyere
freshly ground black pepper
Preheat oven to 200c
Line your case(s) with pastry & prick the base of the tart a few times to stop the air getting in while baking
Bake tart case for 10 mins then take out of oven and set aside
Meantime cook leeks & butter in a saucepan for approx 20-25 mins or until soft
Remove from heat & cool
Whisk together eggs & cream, stir in leek, thyme, & half of the goats cheese & gruyere, season
Pour mixture into the tart case & sprinkle remaining chesse on top
Bake in oven for 25 minutes or until just set in the center
Serve warm or at room temperature

I've tried a few leek & goats cheese tarts as I love them & this is definietly my favourite & a crowd pleaser too

Enjoy!