Pear & Macadamia Nut Crumble

It may seem that all I am doing is eating sugar & butter laden sweets lately but that is not true, its just that my dinners have not made it to the blog world. For instance this week Michael was in NZ on business for a few days so I ate food from my freezer that I had cooked before (not horrible package meals), or food my mum made for me. I did also make a big batch of my tomato & lentil soup. So here is this weeks sweet fix, this is a great crumble recipe that really stands out, in part due to the spiciness of the pears & secondly the addition of macadamia nuts really make this one a winner. The recipe comes from Surfing the Menu.

Pear & Macadamia Nut Crumble

8 Williams pears, peeled, cored & quartered
100g caster sugar
finely grated zest & juice of 1 orange
1 stick of cinnamon
1 vanilla pod, split in half lengthways

Crumble
280g plain flour
125g caster sugar
100g roasted & crushed macadamia nuts
125g butter, softened

Vanilla ice cream, to serve

Place the pears in a medium saucepan with the sugar, zest, juice, cinnamon & vanilla bean. Cook, covered over a moderate heat until the pears are tender, but not mushy, about 20 minutes. Remove the cinnamon stick & vanilla pod.

Preheat the oven to 170c & grease an ovenproof dish (30cm x 8cm & 8cm deep). Spoon the pears into the prepared dish.

For the crumble, combine flour & sugar & nuts in a bowl. Add the butter and using your fingers, rub in until evenly distributed. Scatter over the pears & transfer the dish to the oven. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown on top. Serve warm with ice cream.

Finally my new toy arrives!

After my old cake mixer kicked the bucket a few weeks back I have been umming & aahing over various mixers with the Kitchen Aid being at the back of my mind the whole time. I wasn’t satisfied with any of the other brands in the shops & figured that if you’re paying a few hundred why not add a couple extra & get your dream tool, especially as I can easily justify it by pumping out a couple of cakes a week. So I ended up convincing myself that I had to have the Empire Red beast of mixers but there was no talking Michael into buying it for me even after I produced such a beautiful baby for him earlier this year, my birthday & mothers day came & went & still I was tool-less. Luckily a nice break on my tax return meant that I had the means to make the purchase myself & here it is, everything I dreamed of & more (sorry if I am sounding a bit over the top but it is a Kitchen Aid after all!)

So yesterday was the big day, I had bought it online for a discounted price that none of the other stockists would match so it arrived at my door which was much easier than dragging a 5 month old child through the rain to the shops, not to mention pushing a pram & lugging the box at the same time, would not have been easy. I was visiting the lovely Megan today who also popped out a beauty of a baby a few days ago so of course I had the perfect excuse to bake my first ‘Kitchen Aid’ cake. As it was an earlyish visit I chose this delicious but easy cake of Bill Granger’s from Bill’s Food. Once again he did not let me down & the cake was very yummy & I didn’t even make the custard that he suggested would go well with it. Oh and yes the mixer lived up to it expectations, it purred through the creaming like a dream & left me in no doubt that the right choice had been made.

Pear and Vanilla Cake

80g (3oz) unsalted butter
185g (3/4 cup) caster sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
grated zest from 1 lemon
185ml (3/4 cup) cream
165g (1 1/3 cups) plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
a pinch of salt
4 pears (I only used 2)
20g (3/4 oz) unsalted butter, melted
60g (1/4 cup) raw sugar

Preheat the oven to 180c (350f/Gas 4). Cream the butter & sugar together in a bowl until light & fluffy. Add the egg, vanilla & lemon zest & beat for another minute. Add the cream & mix until smooth. Sift the flour, baking powder & salt & beat until smooth. Pour into a 24cm (9 inch) non stick springform cake tin & smooth the surface.

Peel & core the pears, cut into 3mm (1/8 inch) slices & arrange on the batter in two concentric circles. Brush the pears with the melted butter & sprinkle with the raw sugar. Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour or until a skewer inserted comes out clean & te pears on top are lightly browned. Remove the side from the cake tin & slide the cake onto a plate. Cool slightly before serving.

Kugelhopf with Honeyed Muscat pears

This week I made this lovely Kugelhopf which featured in the July ‘French’ issue of Gourmet Traveller. It is a dessert that comes from the Alsace region, hence the German feel to it and apparently the Germans & Austrians all lay claim to the cakes origins too. Not having any Alsatian Muscat on hand (who does??), I used a lovely muscat that I had lying around from a trip to Rutherglen’s Campbells winery. It goes without saying of course that a glass of the stuff alongside the dessert goes very well indeed. I loved the cake which to me was quite unusual & different to any I had made before. You make it very much like a bread & in the end it has the texture of bread yet beautiful & sweet but not overly so, the bits of dark chocolate & muscatels just make it perfect. I also found it really needed the pears & syrup drizzled over the top or else it was a bit dry on it’s own. Note my cake is not very high as I had trouble getting it to rise, not to worry though as the flavour was still up there.

Kugelhopf with Honeyed Muscat pears

1 egg
100ml warm milk
50g dried muscatels or raisins
60ml (1/4 cup) kirsch
250g plain flour
55g white sugar
1 teaspoon dried yeast
75g unsalted butter, softened
50g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
14 whole blanched almonds

Honeyed Muscat Pears

440g (2 cups) caster sugar
2 tablespoons honey
6 corella pears, halved lengthways
2 cinnamon quills
140ml Alsatian Muscat or similar floral, sweet wine

Lightly whisk egg & milk together in a bowl and set aside. In a separate bowl, combine muscatels and kirsch to soak & set aside. Combine flour, sugar, yeast & 1 teaspoon salt in a food processor & process until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add butter & process for 2 minutes, then add egg mixture & process until well combined. Transfer dough to a lightly floured surface & knead for 5 minutes, adding more flour to stop dough from sticking, if necessary. Transfer to a large bowl & stand in a warm place for 1 ½ hours or until doubled in size. Knead dough again on a lightly floured surface, adding chocolate, muscatels & kirsch, kneading until combined.

Preheat oven to 180c. Lightly butter & flour a 5 cup capacity, 16cm diameter kugelhopf mould, shaking excess flour from mould, & press almonds into grooves of mould. Roll dough out into a log shape, long enough to fir mould, then join ends to form a circle. Carefully place log into mould & press down. Cover with a tea towel & stand for about 1 hour or until dough has risen to rim of mould. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown, then turn onto a wire rack to cool.

To make pears, combine sugar, honey & 2 cups of water in a saucepan & cook over medium heat for 5-7 minutes or until mixture begins to simmer. Reduce heat to low, add pears, cinnamon & 60ml Muscat & simmer for 15-20 minutes or until pears are tender & caramelized. Remove form heat & stir in remaining Muscat.

Serve Kugelhopf with pears & drizzled with syrup.

Baked Pears & Dates

Here is another beautiful recipe for baked pears, the spices leave a heavenly aroma wafting through the house & the sour cream is really good with the brandy & sugar mixed in. I even forgot the almonds so I suspect they would be even better with these sprinkled on top.

Baked Pears & Dates

¼ cup (55g) firmly packed brown sugar, plus 1 tablespoon extra
grated rind & juice of 1 orange
1 teaspoon ground mixed spice
2 firm beurre bosc pears, cut into quarters & cored
8 dates, seeded
300g sour cream
1 tablespoon brandy or rum
½ cup (35g) slivered almonds, toasted

Preheat oven to 200c. Combine sugar, orange juice, rind & mixed spice in a large bowl. Add pears to bowl & coat well. Place pears, cut side up, with juice and dates in a heatproof dish. Bake for 20 minutes. Turn pears, baste with liquid & bake for another 20 minutes, until pears are coloured & tender.

Meanwhile, combine sour cream, extra brown sugar & brandy in a bowl. Serve with warm pears & a little syrup, sprinkled with almonds. Serves 4

Pears baked in red wine and vanilla

After my wonderfully light & healthy tuna salad for dinner the other night I was left wanting more, can you blame me? So to not entirely spoil my good intentions I steered away from cakes or anything stodgy & instead tried out a new recipe for baked pears. These were sensational, the best I have ever made & maybe even eaten! The red wine sauce goes all sticky, sweet & syrupy which is perfect with the soft juicy pears & tiny dollop of cream on the side. The recipe also comes from Ben O’Donoghue and Curtis Stones’s Surfing the Menu.

Pears baked in red wine and vanilla

4 ripe pears
55g unsalted butter
100g caster sugar
2 vanilla pods, split in half lengthways
grated zest of ¼ orange
500ml red wine (Cabernet)
4 tablespoons crème fraiche, cream or ice cream to serve

Preheat oven to 150c.

Wash & dry the pears, then cut a small slice from the bottom so each can stand upright. Smear the butter all over them & sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of the sugar.

Mix the remaining sugar with enough eater (1-1/2 tablespoons) to make a paste. Place in a heavy based flameproof pot large enough to hold the pears upright. Heat until the sugar paste turns a light golden color. Add the vanilla pods, zest & half the red wine. Place the pears upright in the pot & transfer to the oven.

Bake, spooning the red wine sauce over the pears at frequent intervals until the pear is soft and the syrup is reduced, about 45 minutes. Add more wine if the liquid reduces too much.

The pear is cooked when the flesh is soft & the outside slightly wrinkled. Remove from the oven & cool in the pot to room temperature. Serve drizzled with syrup & a dollop of crème fraiche, cream or ice cream.

Barbecued Hot & Sour Tuna Escalopes

Here is s simple marinade for tuna or any firm fish or even prawns, great for the bbq or grill. It’s healthy & the flavours are fresh & clean, serve it with a salad & do your insides some good. The recipe comes from Ben O’Donoghue and Curtis Stones’s Surfing the Menu.

Barbecued Hot & Sour Tuna Escalopes

Marinade
2 tablespoons chopped shallots (escahlots)
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
2 tablespoons chopped ginger
2 tablespoons chopped chilli
2 tablespoons crushed lemongrass
zest & juice of 1 lime
2 tablespoons chopped mint
2 tablespoons chopped basil
2 tablespoons chopped coriander

4 tuna escalopes, weighing about 150g each
1 tablespoon olive oil
mixed salad leaves, to serve

To make the marinade, place all ingr4edients in a large bowl & mix well. Add the tuna & rub in the marinade. Cover & chill for 30 minutes.

Heat the barbecue or grill. Add the olive oil to the bowl & toss to coat. Cook on a hot barbecue or flat grill until cooked through. Serve on a bed of fresh salad leaves.

Gingerboy, Melbourne

Saturday night I finally made it to Gingerboy with my very nice $150.00 voucher kindly arranged by Ed at Tomato that I managed to win in this years Menu for hope. With less then 2 weeks until D Day this was probably my last opportunity for a nice meal out for quite some time. Firstly the décor is fantastic, black bamboo lines the walls & ceilings with little fairly lights scattered through them so its all very magical, dark polished tables & very different clear plastic chairs for those sitting opposite the ‘couch wall’. The background music was funky & not too loud to be a nuisance & the place was packed & had a great vibe about it.

With all that money to spend Michael & I decided that we better try a bit of everything. The menu is divided between snacks & street food, and main courses, all designed to share. From the snack section we had the Steamed half shell scallops with green chilli sambal, these were delicious & definitely my favourite starter, the sambal serving quite a kick yet the flavour was still subtle enough to go perfectly with the scallop. Next we had the Son in Law eggs with Chilli Jam & Asian herbs that I have heard so many good things about. They certainly looked impressive yet as I am not allowed runny egg yolk at the moment & had to have them more on the well done side I don’t think I quite got the right flavour hit this way, oh well next time I will try them properly. Next up was Pork nam prik ong with shredded lettuce and herbs, this was minced pork in a sauce which was a bit on the sweet side for me though still good. Salt & Pepper Chicken spare ribs with a green chilli & soy dipping sauce came next, really very good, the rib is such a tender & meaty part of the chicken that most people don’t know about, Michael was especially pleased with this dish as for him it was a fancy & of course much superior version of the dreaded KFC. Lastly was the Prawn dumplings with chilli sauce, sticky soy & lime, these were delicate little parcels full of goodness, another one of the favourites for us.

Now my only complaint about this first part is that they all came out on top of each other & despite our waiters assurances that they were all quite small & would not be too much we were getting quite full at this stage & we still had a main to follow! Luckily they gave us a bit of a break before bringing out the Mussaman Duck leg curry with kipfler potatoes & shallots, we also had a serve of corn cakes which the waiter insisted on. Let me tell you this dish was fantastic & the corn cakes although sounding strange were great & you have to try some if you ever make it here.

And of course lastly we had to have some dessert, I did have high hopes for the sharing platter but of course there was no way this could even be considered so we shared the Steamed pandan dumplings with spiced pears & pure cream, loved these as well & they were the perfect end to a great meal.

All in all despite some mixed reviews of this place we had a great night, the staff were very friendly, attentive & helpful, food was very good, our glasses were always full & all in all service was very efficient, (even a bit too much to start with). Would be keen to go again & try out some more of the menu & some of the wicked sounding cocktails that sadly were off my list last night!

Gingerboy
27-29 Crossley Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
Ph: +613 9662 4200
Fax: +613 9662 4250
Email: eat@gingerboy.com.au
www.gingerboy.com.au

Fifteen Melbourne - Finally a look in!

A couple of weeks ago when I heard that Fifteen was opening for reservations I suggested to Michael that it would be great if he could get us a booking there, you know a nice surprise seeing as how I'm normally the one doing all of the organising for the 2 of us. I thought the booking line might be a bit busy but had no idea that within a matter of days they would be booked solid until the end of January next year, amazing what a tv show can do for you. Anyway Michael being the fantastic hubbie that he is, got on the line & waited for 1.5 hours (on speaker phone while he was working so it was bearable!) & got us a booking for a Saturday night no less, very impressive.

There have been a lot mof mixed feelings out there about Fifteen so I was quite curious to see exactly what it would be like. I love the idea of what Fifteen stands for, helping those in need but at the same time providing us with a (hopefully) great experience in oder to achieve that goal. At the same time I think that for $90.00 a head for the 6 course tasting menu which is your only option for dinner, the food has to be bloody good & stand up to other great Melbourne restaurants.

I had very high expectactions for the food, a few months ago I did a Queen Vic Market cooking night with Tobi Puttock & the food was to die for so I was hoping for more of the same.

Ok so now down to last night. On the decor, I loved it & it was totally different to the 'artist impressions' as seen on tv. The colorful bar area which Jamie knocked looked great & the colors were much more toned down, oranges, reds, very warm & filled with wine very subtle too. The place is split into 3 areas, the private dining room which I spied a corner of, looked very dark & gothic from what I could see, would be nice having a private party there with some friends, I believe it seats 10. Then onto the main area, on entering you walk down some stairs where you can see straight into the kitchen, then around the corner the bar area with more casual looking dining area in front, light wooden seats & tables, etc. this is split down the middle where you go into the second dining area which is where we were seated. I loved this area, all dark wood furniture, dark wood floors, black walls & ceilings, a purplish couch forming the back seat for the tables on the side & back walls & long mirrors along the walls too & some very funky globe light fittings hanging here & there. Ask Michael, I love black & the trend seems to be now to have everything all nice & light so this darkess worked well for me.

Now onto the food, as mentioned it is a six course set menu, soup, seafood, pasta, main, dessert & cheese platter with a choice of 2 dishes offered for the pasta & main course.


First course was Borlotti bean & pasta soup with fresh grated parmesan & Fifteen olive oil.

This was really nice, though needed a bit of salt, luckily there was a dish of Pink Murray River salt flakes on each table - nice touch - which did the job. As you can see it was a very thick, hearty, warm & homey soup which I would love to replicate at home.


Next was fried whitebait, sage salt, lemon & aioli.

As you can see a very small serve but dont be put off, by the end of the night we were well satisified & if the courses were any biggger we would have struggled to fit them in. The fish was cooked perfectly, nice & light & the salt/aioli combo went very well with it.

For the Pasta course I opted for the Fifteen ravioli with biodynamic riccotta, free-range egg yolk, served with white asparagus & butter broth.

Yummo, nothing beats home made pasta & the runy egg filling was quite unusual, quite a big ravioli too as you can see. Michael went for the Risotto of calamari, squid ink, celery, chilli & fifteen olive oil which he reallay enjoyed too.


For the main we both had the Slow roast Bachus Marsh grass fed beef, Nicola potato & fennel al forno, braised greens & salsa verde. The other choice was Tasmanian Salmon. The beef dish smelled divine which I think was mainly due to the whole clove of roast garlic hidden amongst the greens which I happily devoured. The beef was very tasty though mine was a bit on the cold side which is obviously a bit dissapointing. Mine pictured was cooked a little extra as I'm not supposed to be eating any raw or underdone meat at the moment, Michaels was as per the menu & pretty bloody which is a good thing, nothing worse than an overdone piece of cow.

Dessert was Vialono Nano Tiramasu, little twist on the traditional with crostoli.

The twist was rice instead of sponge/biscuits in the tiramasu, I have to say that this & the crostoli were fantastic & by far by favourite course of the night.


Lastly, the cheese course. pear, quince paste, muscatels, grissinei, some fruit bread & of course the cheeses, sorry have forgotten what they were except tto say that one was lovely & oozy & the other was as bitey spanish crumbly one, both fantastic, in fact the whole cheese course was really great.

Overall the whole experince was enjoyable, the staff were very friendly & helpful, extensive wine list to choose from, fast servce though not too fast that you had no time between courses & the food was good, presentation & tatse. For 2 weeks of opening & a bunch of kids that a couple of months ago had no idea it is pretty amazing to see how far they have come though I would like to see them improve some more & lift the food from being just pretty good to being fabulous!

Fifteen Melbourne
115-117 Collins Street
Melbourne
1300 799 415 www.fifteenmelbourne.com.au

Weekend Herb Blogging - Fennel, Chilli & Rosemary roast pork

I thought I would cook up a Sunday roast using some fresh rosemary from my herb shelf & finally participate in weekend herb blogging # 38 which Virginie from Absolutely Green is recapping this week. I absolutely love rosemary, it is one of my favourite herbs & it's so easy to grow that I have it handy all year round. I love it with roasts - lamb, pork & it gives the roast veggies an extra lift in flavour too, in pasta sauces, with fish, all in all a very versatile & flavoursome herb.

This recipe comes from a recent food magazine, I can’t remember which one as I rip them out for later use, sorry. I also served this with some roast potato, pumpkin & parsnip. Well the pork was scrumptious, I love fennel & the flavour of the fennel salt was really strong but not overpowering, so good that I would make the salt again & even just use as a rub on pork chops, really good.

Fennel, Chilli & Rosemary Roast Pork

1kg pork rack (8 cutlets)
Olive oil for rubbing
Sea salt for rubbing
3 teaspoons fennel seeds
3 dried chillies
3 teaspoons sea salt, extra
2 tablespoons rosemary leaves
3 brown pears, halved

Preheat the oven to 220c. Pat the pork rack dry with absorbent towels. Use the point of a small, sharp knife to score the skin into thin strips & rub with oil & salt. Place the fennel, chillies, salt & rosemary in a small frying pan over medium heat. Cook for 1 - 2 minutes or until aromatic. Place in the bowl of a small food processor & process until combined. Rub the fennel salt over the pork rack & cut into four double cutlets. Place the cutlets on a wire rack in a metal baking dish & roast for 25 minutes. Reduce the heat to 200c. Add the pears to the bottom of the baking dish & cook for a further 10-12 minutes or until the pork skin is crispy and cooked to your liking and the pears are tender. Serves 4.

Small Block, East Brunswick - Brekky

Sunday morning breakfast at Small Block in Brunswick. Once again we felt like a morning walk & what better way to do it than with a brekky stop in the middle. I’ve been here many times before & never disappointed. The place is always packed & usually a wait on the stairs is the way to go before scoring a table. Today we were lucky & there was a table available outside & the sun was shining so it was actually nice, even for a winters day. The only problem today was that a few customers were letting their dogs run riot off their leashes & they all seemed to want to jump on me or slap me with their tails, not the cafes fault but really wish dog owners would keep their pets under control especially if they are bugging the other customers.

Today I had the baked eggs with tomato, chorizo & saffron ragout, this was served with some toast & was delicious, have never tried this dish before, the eggs on top were delicious & even though baked still nice & gooey. Underneath was a lovely mix of tomatoes, chorizo, onions, saffron & olives, great combination. Michael had the scrambled eggs with pesto & fetta, I’ve had this before & it’s a great full of flavour egg scramble. To drink as well as coffees I had a Phoenix Organic apple & pear juice from New Zealand, these are great juices so try one if you ever come across them. Anyway all in all I love Small block & have never had a bad feed here, I think its all excellent quality & the choices are a bit different from the usual which gets another thumbs up for the place too. Friendly staff & quick service complete the picture.

Small Block
130 Lygon Street
Brunswick East
9381 2244

Pear & Spice Slice

Tonight for Good Friday we are going over to Michael’s parents for dinner with the family so of course I offered to make a cake to take along. Seeing as how this was all arranged at the last minute & all the shops are closed today I had to make to with what was in the house. I has some pears sitting around that needed using so scoured all of my cookbooks & magazine cuttings & came up with the recipe from the Aug 2004 Table Mag. Luckily the only missing ingredient was sour cream which Michael was kind enough to do a 7/11 run for me to pick up. The cake mixture was very sticky & hard to spread out in the tin so I was a bit worried. No need though as the finished slice was delicious, Michael has already had 3 pieces & hopefully he will stop at that so there is enough for the family tonight, 9 of us in all!

Pear & Spice Slice

125g butter, at room temperature, chopped
¾ cup (150g) firmly packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 cups (300g) self raising flour
1 teaspoon mixed spice
¾ cup (185g) sour cream
2 tablespoons milk
2 pears, peeled, cored & sliced
1 tablespoon caster sugar
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
icing sugar, to serve

Preheat oven to 180c. Lightly grease a cake pan (18cm x 28cm) & line base with non stick baking paper.

Using an electric mixer, beat butter & sugar together until creamy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition & scraping down side of bowl. Beat in vanilla.

Sift flour & spice together. Lightly fold into creamed mixture alternating with combined sour cream & milk, beginning & ending with flour.

Spoon mixture into prepared pan & smooth top. Arrange pears over top of cake & sprinkle with combined caster sugar & cinnamon.

Bake for 45-50 minutes, until cooked when tested. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then turn onto a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with icing sugar and cut into squares to serve.