Jam Tarts

I'm still experimenting with photo sizes using Flickr. What I've learnt so far is that it takes a bit more time and effort to load on to Flickr and then link the pictures. However, the results certainly ARE much nicer as you get larger pictures with much better clarity. I haven't decided if I'll stick to the Flickr option yet though...

Back to food! These tarts were made by The Lovely Wife for Christmas. The base is a lovely shortcrust kind of tart and the top/filling is Pineapple Jam. These kind of tarts are very addictive and I'm sorry if that sentence caused you to smile and think of the 'two-legged variety of tarts'. It certainly made me smile. I'm sorry. I'm just a bad boy.

Sorry too that there isn't a recipe for this. Sometimes it's difficult to get certain information from the Lovely Wife...

Stir Fried Satay with flashes of brilliance and strokes of genius...!

I've just realised that I have a whole heap of stuff that I never got round to posting. In fact, the only reason I remembered this one was because of a comment I received from my good friend Naomi saying something to the effect that she 'needs' some good chicken stir fry recipes!

This post actually harks back to November 2008 when I posted about the homemade Satay for Sarah's BBQ. Okay, so November really isn't such a long time ago. I did find a whole other heap of stuff that needs to be posted though but we'll get to that eventually.

So.. Stir Fried Satay huh? Is that even possible??




See, when we made the Satay the last time, there was quite a bit of marinated meat left over. Neither the Lovely Wife nor I fancied skewering the meat onto sticks again and neither did we want to set up the BBQ again.

So, in a flash of brilliance, that unfortunately doesn't quite come as often as I think it does, I decided to just stir fry the meat and see how it would turn out. I have to say that it wasn't really a flash of brilliance but more like a Stroke of Genius! It was bloody amazing!

I served it with some cut chillies that gave the meat an added piquancy (or zing if you like!). The bed of lettuce not only made it look pretty, but wrapping the meat up in the lettuce, like a spring roll, was another Stroke of Genius. Or maybe it was a Flash of Brilliance. Whatever.

It was S.U.P.E.R.B!!!

The recipe for the meat marinade is on the Satay Post



I'm also taking this opportunity to play around with uploading photos on Flickr and then linking to them as you get larger photo sizes. Just playing a little...

A cake for my Mother - A cake with 3 Cs!

It was my mother's birthday yesterday and we all congregated at my parent's house for dinner. I had decided to make her a cake and originally planned on making Chocolate Brownies. However, I realised that I still had an opened jumbo pack of Sponge Fingers. I also had a lot of cream leftover that needed to be used quickly. So... I decided I would whip up a dessert instead and pass if off as a cake!




I thought long and hard (not that long really and neither that hard!) and I came up with a plan. I would make a layer of Coffee whipped Cream and another layer of whipped Chocolate Ganache. I'd then layer these creams over sponge fingers which would be soaked in some sort of alcohol - Cointreau maybe? Sounded like a plan indeed. I would also need to be able to unmould the whole thing.

This is what I did for this Original, First-Time, Chocolate-Coffee-Cointreau Cake or the 3Cs Cake.

Ingredients
for the sponge layers
2 packets sponge fingers
1/2 cup Cointreau
1/2 cup water

for the coffee cream
1 tbsp instantcoffee
350 ml cream
2 tbsp liquid glucose
1 tbsp Icing Sugar

for the whipped chocolate ganache
200g good quality dark chocolate
300ml Cream
1 tbsp liquid glucose

Method
Line a square pyrex or other dish with plastic wrap all the way to the top.
Make the coffee cream by dissolving the coffee in a little heated cream. Add this back to the rest of the cream and whip with the liquid glucose and icing sugar till stiff. Set aside in fridge

Make the Whipped Chocolate Ganace by heating the cream to boiling and then pouring over the chocolate. Mix well till smooth and then add in the liquid glucose. Allow to cool before whipping up till stiff. Set aside.

Make a Cointreau syrup by mixing the cointreau with water. Set aside

Assemble the cake by spreading a little Coffee Cream on the bottom of the pyrex dish(which is lined with plastic wrap). Arrange one layer of sponge fingers on top of the cream and using half the Cointreau Syrup, soak the fingers. Cover with the rest of the Coffee Cream. Place another layer of sponge fingers over the coffee cream and soak with the remaining syrup. Cover with the Whipped Chocolate Ganache. Chill overnight or for at least 4 hours.

When ready to unmould, lift the plastic wrap to loosen the dessert and then place a large plate over the pyrex bowl and then overturn it. Remove the plastic wrap carefully. Garnish with strawberries or almonds or whatever you like!




I must admit I was particularly pleased with how this turned out. The best part was that the dessert went down really well with everybody and my Mom in particular enjoyed it immensely.

Mom cutting her cake. Since there are only two candles on the cake, it shows she's still a young 20!!


Happy Birthday Amma!

Spicy Pasta with Meatballs - More Christmas Meals

As I mentioned in my Vol-au-Vent post, my parents and parents-in-law came over for Christmas Eve dinner at our home. The menu for that night was simple yet tasty. In addition to the Vol-au-vents, I made this pasta dish and instead of the obligatory salad, we had buttered steamed vegetables. The pasta was more as a backup plan because I wasn't sure how the Vol-au-vents would turn or how they would be received. I also wanted to make something that I was sure the kids would enjoy. Pasta is always a favourite with them and they so love my meatballs too!



To make it slightly different, I used a combination of mutton mince and beef mince rather than my usual beef meatballs recipe. I also made them smaller so that they would 'mingle' nicely with the pasta. The spicy pasta was my normal Spicy Aglio Olio - the one with lots of Chilli Flakes. I like how two favourite dishes can combine to make yet another favourite!



And then there was dessert... I wont post about the dessert as it wasn't anything extraordinary. I had made stacks and stacks of Chocolate Cake to take to my parents house on Christmas Day for our 'Open House' and I saved a little for dessert that night.

Quite a lovely spread if you ask me!

Sorry you have to troll to my other posts to find the recipes that make up this dish but rather than offering excuses...well, I was in a bit of a rush to get this post out and I'm just kinda lazy!

I've also entered this to Presto Pasta Nights which is being hosted this time by my lovely friend Ivy at Kopiaste

A Nob or Knob of butter?

Usually for Christmas Eve Dinner, no matter what we have, there is the obligatory salad. The Lovely Wife is normally tasked with making a salad as her salads are oh so wonderfully good. This year however, I chose to do something different. Something simple yet tasty and satisfying. As the old Kellogs Corn Flakes advert in Australia goes - The simple things in life are often the best.


Before I proceed on to the dish I made, I want to relate a small 'argument' that ensued between The Lovely Wife and me. We were playing a game of Boggle with the kids and The Lovely Wife wrote down nob. I disputed the word and she raised her haughty eyebrows and condescendingly asked me whether I had ever heard of a "Nob of Butter." I snorted at her and said that it was a "Knob of butter and not a Nob." To which she insisted that she was correct. I was quite adamant that I was correct as I pride myself in speaking and spelling according to British English - which as far as I'm concerned it the only English there is...Nonetheless, I let it go for the sake of family unity!

For the record though, it IS knob of butter which is a very British term describing a lump of butter about the size of a walnut maybe or a teaspoon. Quite an arbitary measurement really much like a splash of olive oil or a dash of oregano or a swig of rum. You get the idea.

There is a reason for my ranting as you will soon see.




What I decided to make was simply some steamed vegetables tossed in butter.

All I did was to steam some broccoli, carrots, cauliflower and throw in a can of sweet corn kernels. Then I threw in a couple of KNOBS of butter, a little salt and black pepper and tossed the whole lot together coating it evenly.

So now you know why it was important to hear the story about a Nob versus a Knob of butter.



This dish was very well received and few believed it was nothing more than steamed veges tossed in butter. Simple, yes? Delicious too! It's true that the simple things in life are often the best!

Vol au Vents - A Christmas Meal

One of the culinary experiences that I thoroughly enjoyed as a Student in Melbourne was Vol-au-Vents. I used to love sinking my teeth into the puff pastry shells filled with all sorts of creamy, delightful fillings. There was this delicatessen just down the road from where I lived, on Dandenong Road, that used to serve these delightful seafood Vol-au-Vents. Such lovely memories! Those memories are exactly what prompted me to make and serve these delicious Vol-au-Vents for Christmas dinner.

I made some small vol-au-vents and also bigger versions simply because I was getting lazy cutting out the smaller ones and also because I wanted to see how larger Vol-au-vents would turn out. Suffice to say that size does not matter as far as Vol-au-vents are concerned!!



Vol-au-Vents are a French word which literally translated means 'flight in the wind' and apparently refers to the lightness of the pastry. The vol-au-vent is said to have been created by the famous French chef Carême, whoever he might have been and the vol-au vent is supposedly pronounced 'vawl-oh-VAHN' although I have always known it pronounced as 'vawl-or-VAWN'. Then again, I learnt that in Australia and they are by no means experts in French - and neither am I!



Although I left Melbourne in 1990, I used to visit rather often in what was known as my Annual Pilgrimage. Most of the time, I'd indulge in some vol-au-vents while I was there. It's been 11 years since I last visited Melbourne though, and thus 11 years since I've had a Vol-au-Vent. I'd always wanted to make my own but never had the gumption to try - until now!


I researched how to make vol-au-vents on the web and basically found two methods. One is where for each vol-au-vent, you cut out two circles of puff pastry and then cut a smaller circle into one of the circles to form a ring. Place the ring over the first circle and press firmly. Use some egg wash if you like. With the circles that are cut out, you then then roll them out again to maximise the use of the pastry sheets. Bake in 200C oven till nicely puffed up and then let them dry out a while in the cooling oven.



The second method involves some wastage but is far easier especially if using ready made puff pastry sheets. Place two sheets one on top of the other and then press down firmly. Using round cookie cutters, press out circles (double layered) and then using a smaller diameter cutter, press down in the center to form a concentric circle BUT not too deep as to cut into the second layer. Bake in 200C oven till nicely puffed up and then cut out the inner circle. You can use this 'top' to cover the finished vol-au-vent but I prefer leaving them open. Put the open pastry shells back in the oven to dry out a little.


Once you've made your vol-au-vents, prepare the filling. I used my Chicken Pie filling for these vol-au-vents. Once the shells are filled, bake them in the oven again just to heat it up, dry it a little more and make it oh so flaky.

The results were delicious and my parents, my parents-in-law and most importantly the Lovely Wife and the Kids absolutely loved these.


In hindsight, the placing of a ring of pastry over a circle produced nicer, puffier vol-au-vents. I'm just so happy that I finally know how to make this delicious pastry shells and they no longer need to be just a wonderful memory!