pear, date and ginger cobbler

TWD this week = Cherry and rhubarb cobbler, chosen by Amanda from Like sprinkles on a cupcake. Owning neither cherries nor rhubarb at this point in time I substituted pears with a handful of dates for good measure, seeing as they go so perfectly with ginger. Not being a cobbler lover I was surprised to quite enjoy this.

After the last cobbler attempt was so bland I decided to add a topping of brown sugar, cinnamon and ginger to the top of the cobbler so it had a nice crunchy sugary crust, and upped the ginger in the dough. This called for a generous pour of yoghurt, hence the pool of it in the pic below...

classic culinary literature

My lucky find in a charity book sale today, an Alison Holst treasure circa 1967 for the bargain price of $2. Love it.

My vintage cookbook collection is growing slowly but surely...

a teacup of heaven

The TWD recipe this week is Chocolate Pudding, and was chosen by Melissa from Its Melissas Kitchen and I suggest you visit her blog immediately to obtain the recipe!!

This pudding is divine. The plain jane name comes nowhere near doing this pudding justice, and lacking a picture in the book this is one recipe I would never have been inspired to try without the prodding of TWD. It is like a dense chocolate mousse (I am not into 'fluffy' chocolate mousse) and has the perfect balance of chocolate/cream/sugar so that it is not cloying or overly rich. It has a superb smooth velvety texture and tastes like it should be a lot naughtier than it actually is.

I halved the recipe and still used a whole egg plus the extra yolk. No full fat milk so I figured a splash of cream and some skinny milk would suffice. Dark chocolate with 72% cocoa. I made two generous teacups of pudding, the first of which was devoured spoonful at a time while it was trying to set in the fridge. This is addictive! The second one had been left alone to chill for a couple of days and was even more delicious, the texture was much denser. I ate this one with a spoonful of sour cream which worked beautifully.

Love it and this one shall be reappearing on the menu again soon, just need to figure out a more enhancing name!

spud scones

To have with our soup this evening - the most divine cheese and potato scones! Adapted from the recipe at Jafa Cafe in Auckland, these are a must try.

The scone dough is quite thin and more of a pastry/crust around the oozing filling, these scones would actually be equally good made calzone style and served in wedges. The filling could easily be adapted to suit what is lurking in the fridge needing to be used up.

I think the texture of the potato makes a difference - a rough mash rather than a smooth puree gives the filling its light texture. My filling was quite wet so oozed out a bit from the scone which made them even more delicious, providing a soft and gooey contrast with the crisp crust...

cheese and potato scones

filling

300g potato, boiled, roughly mashed and cooled
1 spring onion, finely diced
1 handful rocket or baby spinach or chopped fresh herbs
1 handful grated Parmesan
1 handful chopped ham
1/2 c cheese, grated
s&p to taste
2 tbsp milk

Combine all ingredients. Add a little more milk if the spuds are dryish, you want the mixture to be a little wet (not sloppy though) so the filling has lovely creamy texture

1/2 c cheese (extra)

scone dough

200g flour
75g butter
1/2 tsp baking powder (correct, they are not meant to rise much!)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp caster sugar
100ml milk

Rub butter into flour, add milk and gently combine to form a soft dough. Roll out into a large rectangle on a floured bench and cut in half. Beat 1 egg and add a little milk to make egg wash, brush one piece of the scone dough with this. Sprinkle 1/2 of the extra cheese over the same half of the dough. Spread over the filling mixture, then sprinkle with the last 1/2 of the cheese. Place the other piece of dough over the filling.

Brush the top with egg wash and sprinkle with freshly ground pepper, can add extra cheese on top too if you like. Cut into 6 large squares and bake at 200c for 15 minutes, eat while warm!

a warm winter salad

I pulled out a recipe a few weeks ago from the Sunday paper for a nice looking chicken salad...chicken that has been marinated and roasted in apple syrup and wholegrain mustard tossed with sliced crisp red apple, toasted walnuts, crumbled aged cheddar and rocket leaves with an apple vinaigrette. This salad was a very easy and tasty dinner. It made a nice change from the heavier wintery comfort food-style dinners that are so appealing when the weather first starts to cool but the novelty of which tends to wear thin after a while!

Warm chicken salad with apple, walnuts and cheddar (for 2)

4 chicken thighs

2 tbsp apple syrup

2 tbsp grainy mustard

Marinade chicken in syrup and mustard overnight. Roast chicken at 180c for 20 minutes or until cooked.

While still warm gently tear into pieces and toss with handfuls of rocket, a sliced apple (make sure it is nice and crisp!) toasted walnuts and pumpkin seeds, and scatter with some crumbly aged cheddar. Make a vinaigrette with 1 tbsp each of apple syrup, cider vinegar and rice bran oil and gently toss through the salad ingredients.

blueberry pie raincheck

You may have noticed that Dorie hasn't featured yet this week with TWD....the recipe being for a lovely looking Blueberry Pie. Last week I seemed to have on hand all of the components (ie. an excess of ripe bananas, toffee sauce) for banoffee pie ...and with a banoffee pie fiend in the house it seemed appropriate. I will definitely try the blueberry pie next time I have some berries to hand. You can check out how the blueberry pies turned out here, it looks like a goodie. In the meantime here was our banoffee substitute. The topping is half cream, half sour cream and the bottom is a cookie crumb meringue cake with dark chocolate and toasted almonds.

Meringue cake with dark chocolate and almonds

4 egg whites

225g caster sugar

250g sliced almonds, toasted and roughly crushed/processed

250g plain sweet cookie crumbs, crushed

100g dark chocolate, melted

Beat egg whites until stiff, gradually incorporate sugar as you would making meringue. Beat until the mixture is glossy. Gently fold in the crushed cookie crumbs and almonds. Pour in the melted chocolate and gently swirl into the mixture. Pour into a cake tin lined with baking paper. Bake at 170c for 30 minutes or so. This is also lovely topped with softly whipped cream and seasonal fruit and served in wedges like a pavlova.

tea for two

A while ago I discovered the Truly Scrumptious Knitted Food website, where they sell patterns for knitted food of all kinds, including tea cosies. Well worth a look just to see the extensive range of knitted food on offer! I chose the hot pink cupcake tea cosy pattern, which was duly emailed through to me and soon after dispatched with materials to a local granny knitting extraordinaire to undertake the task of creating. Last week amidst the wild weather Anna and I sat down to a cup of tea and a selection of pastries from the local bakery...special treats made only once a week.

cheese, apple, quince

I love trying out new scone recipes, so this weeks TWD recipe for Cheddar and Apple scones, chosen by Karina from The Floured Apron by was right up my alley.

These are very, very good! Admittedly I struggled to taste the (chopped, dried) apple in them, and using vintage cheddar probably helped elevate these scones to further greatness. Texture wise these scones are extremely light and flaky with quite a 'short' crumb. The small amount of polenta in the dough added a subtle but distictive crispness to the crust.

Next time I would perhaps try this recipe without the apple to see if it does in fact add a subtle something to the flavour. I think it was worth using a strong cheddar, it meant the scones had a good strong cheese flavour but without that slightly greasy texture that a larger quantity of cheese can contribute.

They are definitely best devoured minutes after coming out of the oven, the leftover scone I reheated in the sandwich press the next day came nowhere near the freshly baked experience. I made a full batch and froze half, so will try baking from frozen next time I feel a cheese scone craving comes on...

A spoonful of Moutere Gold Quince Jelly took these to scone perfection.

hot crumpets

A craving for something hot and comforting last weekend resulted in a batch of crumpets being whipped up. I have always wanted to try making crumpets, and reading the latest issue of Homegrown from the NZ Gardener magazine ('Live off your land for less') they featured a recipe from Bees Online. I don't have egg rings so used a couple of small tins with the ends removed using a can opener, which worked pefectly well, although they do need to be well greased to stop them batter from sticking. I ran a sharp knife around the edge before I turned them over to ease them out of the mould. These are delicious and perfect for afternoon tea when it is cold outside. These homemade crumpets are not as tunneled on top as 'bought ones' but they have a beautiful spongy texture.

crumpets

1 1/2c hot water

1 c milk

1 tbsp dried yeast

1 tsp sugar

2 1/2 c flour

1 tsp salt

1 egg

Mix hot water and milk in a bowl. Add yeast and sugar and stir to dissolve, leaving in warm place for about ten minutes. Combine the flour and salt and microwave on high in ten second bursts until warm (about 30 secs) Whisk four and egg into the yest mix to form a smooth batter. Cover bowl with a teatowel and leave until doubled in size, about 3 minutes. Heat a fry pan, greasing generously, add greased egg rings (or tuna cans with the top and bottom taken off) and spoon batter into the moulds. Cook gently until bubbles form on the surface. After 3 minutes or so turn over to brown the other side. Serve hot with butter and honey.

cobbler vs crumble

TWD for this week was nice and easy (as much as I love the excuse to try the more elaborate recipes...quick and healthy-ish is good too!) as Beth of Our sweet life chose Mixed Berry Cobbler.

I have yet to fall in love with the cobbler. I love the idea of them - scones, jam and cream work so well and a cobbler is a bit like a pudding version of this. I guess I would just rather have my fruit topped with a crunchy crumble of oats and nuts, and cobblers can be a wee bit much on the doughy side for my liking.

I have never made a cobbler by rolling out the dough the way Dorie suggests, this makes a nice finish a little more like a pie crust, which was interesting to try for a change. The 'cobbled' rustic look is probably more up my alley though. Mine didn't rise particularly well, I did chill the cobbler dough while I made dinner so it went into the oven cold, which Dorie says is okay but I think must inhibit a bit of rising action?!

I added a teaspoon of cinnamon to Dorie's recipe and used granny smith apples and frozen boysenberries. It was a little tart, as the dough wasn't too sweet either. I probably should have added a little more sugar to my fruit, and cream or ice cream would have been a better friend to it than natural yoghurt which was what we had in the fridge last night.

However for all my complaints the leftover cobbler after being warmed ever so slightly and tossed about with a slosh of yoghurt and a squirt of apple syrup proved to be an serviceable after work pre gym pep up!

Postscript- I just read everyone elses pre-posting comments here and am glad I don't seem to be the only one disappointed with the results here - maybe I do like cobbler but just haven't found the perfect recipe yet!!

pumpkin and friends

Scones were on the agenda this afternoon to accompany general lazing on the couch and reading of the paper with the fire going in the background. This recipe for Pumpkin and date scones is adapted from Belinda Jeffrey's Mix and Bake book, I added orange and cinnamon to spice things up a bit. Nice and sticky and moist these are.

Pumpkin, date and orange scones with cinnamon sugar

1 1/2 c flour

1/2 tbp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbsp sugar

60g butter

1/2 c dates

juice of 2 oranges

1/2 c pumpkin

1/2 c milk

extra milk for brushing on top

2 tsp raw sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

Squeeze orange juice over dates and heat until absorbed - I microwave for a minute. Combine dry ingredients and rub in butter (or blitz in food processor...) Add dates and coat with flour. Combine milk and pumpkin and add to the dry mixture. Mix gently and roll out thickly, cut into rounds. Brush tops of scones with a little milk, and sprinkle with the combined sugar and cinnamon mixture. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 200c.

slow dinner fast dinner

A month or so ago I went to a Judith Cullen cooking class down in Dunedin. The main dish made that night was this slow cooked lamb, served with a barley, lentil and chickpea pilaf, red cabbage and apple salad and a smoky mayonnaise. This is a lovely wintery dinner but not in that overly heavy wintery kind of way. There is a great combination of flavours and textures - the tender lamb, crunchy cabbage and the slightly chewy barley.

The lamb (boneless shoulder) is marinated overnight with olive oil, white wine, garlic, fresh thyme, chopped onion and carrot. I cooked it the next day in the slow cooker, but it can be done in the oven for a few hours instead. The lamb is shredded up while still warm, and served with the pilaf below, a salad of shredded red cabbage, julienned green apple and celery, chopped Italian parsley with toasted walnuts and a whisked dressing made using 1/4 cider vinegar, 1/4 c apple juice, 1/2 c oil, 2 tbsp lemon juice.

A smoky mayonnaise made with 2 egg yolks, 1 tsp dijon mustard, 1 tsp lemon juice, 1 clove crushed garlic and 1/2 tsp smoked paprika (with 150ml of rice bran oil drizzled in) pulls all the different flavours together and is essential to make this meal work so well. This sauce is served separately but drizzled over everything at the table. Very good!!

Barley, chickpea and lentil pilaf

1/4 c rice bran oil
2 red onions, chopped finely
300g pearl barley
1 litre vege or chicken stock
150g brown lentils, cooked
150g chickpeas, cooked
2 c diced butternut pumpkin, roasted
1/2 c parsley, chopped
1/4 c lemon juice

In a pan that can be used for baking heat the oil and saute the onion and garlic. Add the barley and coat with the oil. Pour in the hot stock, cover with foil and bake for 30-40 minutes at 180c until the barley is tender. Remove from oven and sir through remaining ingredients, seasoning to taste.


A favourite super quick dinner at the moment is san choy bau, or a bastardised version of. Heat a little sesame oil in a heavy pan and add about 300g pork mince, a diced red or yellow capsicum, crushed ginger, a tablespoon each of soy sauce, fish sauce and sweet chilli sauce.

Continue to cook until the liquid evaporates and the pork is well cooked. Add a couple of tablespoons of oyster sauce, and any combination of the following that you like the sound of - mung bean sprouts, chopped water chestnuts, shredded red cabbage, roughly chopped coriander, crispy fried shallots, dry roasted chopped peanuts, toasted sesame seeds, diced fresh pineapple......for more bulk toss through some vermicelli noodles.

Serve at the table with a plate of crisp iceberg lettuce leaves for rolling the pork up in. Very fresh.

jerusalem artichoke time!

I was lucky enough to find a jerusalem artichoke benefactor at work, the result of which being I have a decent stash of the things. First on the list was soup - made by sauteing an onion, adding half a kilo of peeled sliced artichokes, then a little of chicken stock and simmering until they are soft. I added a handful of chopped Italian parsley and toasted walnuts to serve. Lovely.

To go with the soup were good old Southland cheese rolls - soup is the best excuse to eat these! I made a load up few weeks ago and for them for a rainy day...recipe thanks Rach/Mrs Lynn...you will need 1 litre milk, 50 grams cornflour, 1 pkt onion soup mix, 400g tasty cheese (grated). Heat milk and onion soup, add cornflour which has been mixed to a smooth paste with a little milk. Stir constantly until thickens, add cheese and stir well. Leave until the next day before making rolls to allow it to set. Brush with melted butter and bake in a hot oven for 10 minutes or so, turning a few times until they are golden and the cheesy insides are bubbling...yum!

eclairs for afternon tea

The naked eclairs fresh from the oven....

...and all dressed up ready for afternoon tea.

The TWD recipe this week - Peppermint cream puff ring - was selected by Caroline of A Consuming Passion. I love choux pastry in absolutely any form, sweet or savoury, and profiteroles with ice cream, chocolate sauce and toasted almonds are one of my favourite desserts - the perfect blend of crisp, soft, hot and cold - love it. I halved the recipe and made eclairs for ease of serving...although I have to say the ring is far more grand looking. We took them over to some friends for afternoon tea - the ulterior motive of which was to have a play on their Rocket espresso machine, in the hope that we will one day (soon?!) own one ourselves.

I found the pastry part of this one was straight forward. Normally I don't add sugar or milk to my choux, so I was interested in how fast these would brown up - they cooked beautifully.I instead had a bit of an issue with the peppermint part of this recipe...I infused the cream as Dorie says but our mint is not the healthiest looking plant at the moment, so the leaves were less than lush. In the end the cream didn't taste particularly minty, and in a moment of haste (we were due out the door as I was titivating the eclairs...) I added a splash of the Mrs Thomas's mint syrup I had in the fridge to intensify the 'mintiness'. Bad idea. This has a white vinegar base and while it is sweet and is fantastic over fruit and other desserts it did not work well with the cream. At all.

Luckily there was just enough cream was left in the bottom of the bottle that could be swiftly whipped and flung ino the elairs. Thus traditional chocolate elairs it was - simple but so good. I love the idea of the minted cream - and will try it again once that mint supply is back up and running...

cheese and poppy seeds

At home we always have a jar of crackery type things to nibble on. Mostly I buy these from the local bakery, where they bake cracker bread out of the extra bread dough and top it with interesting bits and pieces, but I spotted a recipe in Alison Holst's Cake and Biscuit book for these crackers. She made them with Parmesan and sesame, but I only had a block of good stuff so used grated colby instead. These are very tasty. Next time I am going to try them with half polenta and half flour for a corn chip style cracker - like the Bluebird Tapas corn chips!

cheese and poppy seed crackers

1 c flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 c grated cheese

3 tbsp poppy seeds

1/4 c warm water

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp hot water, extra

Heat oven to 160 c. Measure the first flour ingredients into the food processor and combine well so the cheese blends into the flour. Add the sugar and salt to the first measure of water and mix to dissolve. Add the oil to this too. Add this liquid in a slow stream to the dry mix, processing it in short bursts, until a soft dough forms. On a floured surface roll the dough out very, very thinly (it is easiest to divide the dough into three balls and roll out each piece separately). Prick all over with a fork and cut into triangles. Place on a metal cake rack to bake, I used a roasting rack that I sat over a roasting dish. They can overlap a bit, and poke down betwen the wires of the rack to fit more in, this gives them their crumpled shape. Bake for 10-15 minutes until dry, crisp and pale golden - watch closely at the end as they go from golden to dark brown in a flash!

noodles from Tibet

There is a cafe in Greymouth called Franks, that opens for dinner twice a week. The food at Franks is unpretentious, fresh and simple with quite a homemade feel to it. Their chef is from Tibet which puts an interesting spin on the menu. We went on Friday and I ate the handmade Tibetan noodles with chicken. This was really delicious, the noodles were short and fat and a little bit doughy, but in a good way. The bread here is good too, they bake it themselves.

tartless

No TWD for me this week...the recipe chosen by Marie from A Year at Oak Tree Cottage was La Palette's Strawberry Tart, a sweet pastry crust filled with strawberry jam and fresh strawberries. I am bowing out of this round by token of the 'but strawberries out of season in the Southern Hemisphere' excuse. Dorie suggested that other fruit could be used but a pear or apple tart just didn't feel quite right, so I am looking forward to trying this one next summer once berryfruit are back. Check out everyone else's strawberry tarts here.

Pudding tonight was made for nostalgic reasons rather than culinary merit...chocolate self saucing pudding, pictured above in all its glory (is there a less photogenic pudding?!) Tarted up with some vanilla bean ice cream, homemade even.

dinner from the garden

My garden continues to grow, albeit very slowly since winter has started. Silverbeet and spinach seem to be in constant and generous supply however, so it is an ongoing challenge to come up with new ways to build it into dinner.

Last week = spaghetti with spinach and roasted red pepper - an adulterated version (I add chicken and lots of toasted pumpkin seeds) of the recipe available here at the Sanitarium website. This is a really nice recipe, it is quite a runny sauce though so sometimes I process another handful of toasted seeds with the spinach to add more texture to the sauce and it makes a consistency more like pesto.

Tonight = silverbeet and potato torte, a Stephanie Alexander recipe featured in her kitchen garden cook book, the recipe is here. (It is intended for use by children so the instructions are fairly long winded...) This torte uses an olive oil and cold water pastry, so is very healthy as far as pastry goes. It is a very short dough and crisps up well in the oven. Instead of mozzarella I used crumbled feta. We ate it with some tomato kasundi. It really needs a little something on the side.

I planted some garlic and shallots today, apparently they are supposed to go in on the shortest day of the year, which is not far away thank goodness. Some mesclun seeds were also scattered into a pot, which has been covered with a sheet of glass so it will hopefully warm up enough for them to sprout to life. Great excitement in the broccoli patch, a tiny flower has finally appeared on two of the plants.

cafe @ home

There is not much of a cafe scene in Hokitika...although the word on the street is that a deli is opening sometime soon. I really miss going out for cafe breakfasts (to places that offer more creative choices than the cliched bacon, banana and maple syrup etc!) but for now weekend breakfasts are best enjoyed at home. Just need that espresso machine to complete the beverage side of things...

Today for a treat a batch of crepes was whipped up, and enjoyed with a selection of accompaniments - the rest of the Moutere Gold passionfruit curd, the old faithful of lemon juice and sugar, maple syrup with cinnamon sugar, and my favourite - dark chocolate custard cream and sliced banana.

Delicious, and so much lighter than the thicker american style pancakes that can leave a lump in your stomach. Having said that our crepe feast managed to suffice for both breakfast and lunch.

de/reconstructed brownie

Well as you can see things did not go to plan with TWD this week, and I ended up with a bit of a brownie disaster on my hands. I had a catering event on in the weekend and decided to make this weeks TWD pick of French Brownie for this - and took the liberty of making a double batch - having such faith in Dorie by this stage I thought I would be brave...

When making the mixture I was surprised at how pale it looked. I added a bit more chocolate than specified as I don't like the look (or taste) of pale brownies or chocolate cakes, they just seem a little sad and half hearted if you know what I mean.

Oh, and I left out the raisins. I like raisins and they have their place but raisins in brownie is just plain wrong!

I baked it for around the specified time but ended up with a brownie in two entirely separate pieces - the top crust which lifted off in one piece, and the dense, solid bottom bit. This was really strange, I know brownie should have a crust but this is usually papery rather than dry and thick and crunchy...and it tasted dry and thick and crunchy too.

There was nothing for it but to build it into something that looked a bit more presentable (read saleable) so the whole mixture - crumbly top, dense bottom and all went into the food processor. I added some crushed toasted almonds to bind the mix, as it was very moist. Then topped with some dark chocolate ganache, a handful of chopped dark chocolate, some toasted flaked almonds and a drizzle of more dark chocolate to finish!!!

And thus 'Chocolate and Almond Truffle Slice found itself on the menu instead. This was actually really delicious. It was a very good seller too, faring well against the competition (see below). I think the texture of this recipe lends itself more to a fudgy style slice rather than a brownie, as it was very dense. I am sorry to say this recipe will not be entering the brownie hall of fame, I look forward to trying some of the other brownie recipes though!