12 décembre 2006
One thing leading to another
Buttermilk is not an ingredient I am familiar with. I actually never used it in my cooking before. Some people say there is nothing like it to keep chicken moist but when I found myself with some leftover after making quark I didn't feel too adventurous and used very conventionally to make pancakes.
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
10g brown sugar
1 pinch of salt
Combine all ingredients. I used cookies cutters to make sure they would have a round shape and served with raspberry coulis. Delicious!
I love your whey
Homemade quark
About two weeks ago I bought a tub of quark from Nosh, nice farmstyle curd. It was good but so compact it was impossible to eat it by itself. As a kid in France, I grew up on "petits Suisses", very small portions of quark wrapped in paper. Here in New Zealand I didn't manage to find quite the right consistency, it's either too firm or too runny. I therefore decided to make my own!
Making quark is not difficult it just takes a little bit of take because the mixture has to stand to allow curd and whey to separate.
I used a recipe from a French recipe book I have at home using both milk and buttermilk. Some recipes call for buttermilk only and I will try them too, to find out if there is a difference in texture.
-1 litre whole milk
-1 litre cultured buttermilk
Combine both in an oven proof dish and let stand 48 hours at room temperature.
It looks quite revolting in its early stage
Place into a cool oven - 50 degrees max - for 90 minutes. You will see the green whey separate from the curd.
Sterilise a cheese cloth in hot water and use it to line a sieve. Pour the curd, tie the cheesecloth and leave to hang for a good hour, the more it drains, the firmer the quark will be.
I got completely off tracked on Saturday afternoon and forgot about my quark. It drained for far too long so it was super compact when I came back. The good thing about it is that you can stir in a little whey to make it smoother again.
05 décembre 2006
NZ Blogging by mail
On a bright and warm Saturday afternoon, there it was, my NZ Blogging by mail parcel. The mystery sender was Nigel, the lamb tail eater, new blogger from Hawkes Bay. THANK YOU SO MUCH NIGEL!
Opening the parcel was like opening a Christmas present. I had time to take a few photos before devouring the contents - especially the chocolates. In his wisdom, he also included goodies I can keep and cook with.
This delicious parcel, which is nothing short of a Christmas hamper contains:
-1 bottle of absolutely mind blowing olive oil from Hawkes Bay
-1 box of hand made chocolates
-1 bottle of verjuice, a versatile unfermented green grape juice. It can be used for vinaigrettes or poaching and Nigel also added it can be use in Martinis!
-1 bottle of lime and lemongrass drizzle, which I used to marinate chicken breasts before bbq them.
-1 bottle of olive sauce with horopito, delish'
-1 bottle of Sauvignon Blanc from Hawkes Bay
1 punnet of gorgeous cherries and strawberries, both locally grown in Hawkes Bay
Thank you again Santa!!! And of course thank you Emma for organising!
30 novembre 2006
Drinking up summer
I told you about NZ blogging by mail and my attempt at making brownies for the occassin. My fear of failing again was overwhelming!
I got a recipe from an all chocolate cookbook and followed meticulously, I really gave it my best shot. All that to end up with a compact layer of fudgy chocolate flan. Nothing like a brownie at all, I don't know where I went wrong. So I apologise in advance to the person who will get the parcel, not many homemades goodies.
Let's face it, I just don't have THE gift. I have decided to give up baking totally and FOREVER... which is quite a big call since my biggest dream was to be able to make a "Cerise sur le Gateau" just like Pierre Hermé.
Anyway I surrendered, made myself a cheerful cocktail and raised my glass to my lost dreams of being a wonderful pastry chef.
Ingredients:
-Pomagranate
-250g fresh, sun ripened strawberries
-Raspberry vodka to taste
-20g brown sugar
-Slice the strawberries and toss in sugar. Leave for a few minutes until it combines and forms a nice syrup.
-Halve the pomagranate and remove the seeds but turning the fruit face down on to a bowl and beat the top with a wooden spoon.
Blend Strawberries, pomagranate seeds and vodka in a blender with a cube of ice. Push through a sieve and serve chilled
Isn't it wonderful?
29 novembre 2006
Hibernation is over!!!
Looks like I am back AGAIN!!!! Back for a GOOD time and a long time.
After spending all winter fiesting on -unblogable -triple cream/cheese/bacon & pasta bakes as well as bagfuls of lollies, I increasingly started thinking about this dear food blog that I so shamefully dropped out too many months ago. Flicking through my favourite food blogs and going out to dinner parties, I felt it would be so nice to start cooking properly again and more importantly resume blogging.
So here I am.
A lot happened during that period of time and Auckland food scene is as radiant as ever, shinning with all the glorious products summer brings. These past fews months have also seen the rise - and fall - of what citymix calls "Super Delis". While Newmarket Fresh is sadly closing down, Nosh seems to be here to stay, although they advertise but still do not sell macarons.
Another event that brought me back here is the 1st ever NZ blogging by mail, thank you Emma for the great initiative. I'll send the parcel tomorrow but it will not contain the lovely pecan and choc chip cookies I thought I'd include. Not because they were so delicious I had to eat them all but because, much to my dismay, I am a VERY mediocre baker. Although edible, the so-called cookies tasted more like madeleines - compact and burnt madeleines that is to say.
I will give brownies a try tonight and if they turn up burnt, flat and oily, I promise to give up baking FOREVER!!
13 juin 2006
One Pot Cooking
Veal Marengo
Veal Marengo
Much to my disappointment, I found out this dish does not include olives while researching a proper recipe. Nevermind I ditched the recipes and used my home cured olives.
Cooking like my grand mother has something to do with witchcraft: Add a pinch of this and drizzle a bit of that as you go. No need for scales and measuring jugs.
All in all, it is impossible to go wrong with Marengo. The
result always comes in form of a rich, bright red gravy and glistening with
olive oil. It tastes typically Mediterranean and the meat is really tender and bursting with flavours.
Here is a guideline, more than a proper formal recipe. Chicken or pork can also be used.
500 grams veal (stew meat)
150 grams button mushrooms
1 can tomatoes in juice
1 onion
2 shallots
A little bottle of dry white wine. (35cl, I think)
1 cup of beef stock
A handful of green olives.
Parsley
Bay leaf
Thyme
Salt and pepper to taste
Heat a little olive oil, add thyme, chopped onion and shallot. Saute in olive oil until soft, add veal and brown. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of flour, stir and quickly add white wine. Let boil for a few minutes and add bayleaf and beef stock.
Simmer for 1 ½ hours and add tomatoes, olives and mushrooms. Simmer for a further 30 minutes.
09 juin 2006
Winter Treats
Heart shaped self saucing puddings
Winter has finally kicked
in. Temperatures are nosediving. I was trying to drink a glass of Bordeaux yesterday but my
lounge was freezing. The wine was far too cold for the aromas to develop. Far too cold to be fully appreciated.
I miss warmth and I miss
summer food. Times like that call for emergency comfort. To rise spirits up,
nothing beats the warmth and cuddliness of chocolate cakes – especially when
we’re talking heart-shaped gooey chocolate cakes.
I tried Bill
Granger’s recipe instead. This is the first time I tried
one of his recipes and I was not disappointed, I had the result I was hoping
for; except for the white chocolate one. It was not self saucing at all but
still delicious and terribly soft and chocolaty.
I baked my cakes for a
little shorter than indicated in the recipe because my moulds are not tall.
They are not very heart-shaped either...
02 juin 2006
Give Silken curd a chance!
Tofu in ginger flavoured tempura batter
Who said tofu was dull and boring? I was first
introduced to tofu when I was 7 and I was not impressed, not impressed at all. It
looked like a burger pattie but tasted like.. uh? Pre-chewed rubber?
Later much later I gave tofu another go. We used to
try a different restaurant every month with my friend Lulu, who is vegetarian. One
night, we decided to go to Hare Krishna. We had tofu massala. It was sumptuously
delicious. The tofu had absorbed all the flavours, it was soft and simply divine..
Tofu does not have much taste by itself but it
works like a canvas to present other flavours. Curry is one example. Deep fried
tofu is also exceptionally delicious. I first had it in a Japanese restaurant.
It was coated in a ginger flavoured tempura batter. The crust was light and
crispy while the tofu inside was soft - custard-like and ginger flavoured.
Tofu is available in different textures from silken
to firm, depending on the moisture content. I love the texture of silken tofu
but it doesn’t cook very well, so I used a firmer tofu for my tempura.
For tempura, the tofu has to be sliced thin or
diced in bit-size cubes.
Tofu nibbles
Tempura Batter
1 egg beaten
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup super cold water. Using very cold water is important. It keeps prevent
the batter from becoming sticky.
1 teaspoon freshly grated ginger.
Combine all
ingredients but do not overmix otherwise the batter will absorb more oil.
Coat the tofu in
this batter and fry in batches until crispy.
Miscellaneous
dipping sauce:
Combine a tablespoon of thick soy sauce, a teaspoon
of mirin and a pinch of five-spice mix. Pour on tofu.
30 mai 2006
Today's pick
Sunshine in a jar - Hand picked olives in olive oil
These are the delightful olives I picked on Barbara’s olive trees. I
cannot thank her enough. Being able to cure my own olives is such an exciting
journey. I divided the olives in 2 batches: I used Barbara’s method to cure the
1st batch and I crushed the second batch with a brick. What a good
way to get rid of your stress! Take a handful of olives and bang! Hit them hard
with a brick wrapped in cloth.
Crushing olives, breaks down the flesh and helps getting of bitter
juices faster. The above olives have been crushed 3 weeks ago and are now
bathing in olive oil and rosemary as per Barbara’s method. I have another lot
in a brine made of vinegar, water and salt. I bought Maille red wine vinegar
for the occasion. It is a French vinegar that has been aged in oak barrels.
It is too early to tell if they are any good yet.
What to do, what to do?
24 mai 2006
Mind blowing
New Zealand
My camera
has been malfunctioning for a few weeks and I was waiting to have the problem
fixed to start posting again. But today I really need to tell about my yesterday's mind blowing
experience.
My boss gave
me a lamb rack yesterday. - Some companies reward their employees with stock
options and sport cars…. I got a whole rack of lamb - . I was both delighted
and puzzled. Lamb racks are quite in fashion here in New Zealandbut I never had a
chance to cook one myself. So, how to cook it?
From what I
read, crusts seem to be the way to go: blend nuts and herbs, coat the meat and
oven bake it. It sounds easy enough, however, crusts do not flavour the meat. They
just sit on top and add texture.
I came up
with an experimental plan: create a marinade that would be thick enough to coat
the meat and stick to it in the over.
Back in my
kitchen, I blended fresh rosemary (thank you so much Barbara), fresh mint, a
pinch of salt, olive oil, a few cloves of garlic and toasted pine nuts to
texturise. The paste was thick and delightfully fragrant. I knew I was on the
right track.
The meat was
slightly pink and tender. The marinade tasted just as heavenly as I smelt. It
was delightful. Every single mouthful was a fireworks of flavour, the meat was
soft and melting. I even woke up in the middle of the night thinking about lamb
racks. A new food obsession is born.