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Archive for August, 2009

Römertopf Lasagne

Posted in Food & Friends, Recipes, tagged , , , , , , , on August 13, 2009| 11 Comments »

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My husband Pete is a genius.

That’s not news to anyone who actually knows him, but even after twenty-five years together, his cleverness still continues to astound me.  He can take a basic concept, turn it over in his head, and create something that no-one has ever considered before.

Take this lasagne for example.  After his initial resistance, Pete has fallen in love with our Römertopf baker.  He and Dredgey have formed a little club, in which they experiment with new dishes in the clay baker, then ring each other up and race next door to critique the finished dish as it’s pulled out of the oven.  Being males, they’ve come up with a set of guidelines on how the terracotta pot should be used.

Rule #1: all the ingredients  have to be cold and uncooked.  I did point out that some of the recipes that came with the pot involved precooking, but the guys have decided that doing so defeats the purpose of using the clay baker. Both of them were discomfited when I browned some chicken prior to adding it in, as that, apparently, is not “in the spirit” of the Römertopf baker.

Rule #2: the pot needs to be washed in the dishwasher. No soaking allowed.  Part of the reason for using the clay baker, I’m told, is its ease of clean up.  Don’t you love men and their rules?

Ok, onto last night’s dinner.  One would think that these parameters don’t really lend themselves to lasagne – a dish where each component is traditionally cooked before assembly, and which usually leaves the cooking vessel covered in baked-on cheese.  Lesser mortals might have been dissuaded, but not my husband.  After all, he’s an engineer. What you see above is his finished lasagne, baked from cold, and made up of almost all uncooked ingredients – fresh pasta, raw mince, ricotta, raw egg and cheese.  The only cooked ingredient was our homemade tomato passata, but this would probably work equally well with a store bought version.

The end result was a joy to eat.  It was absolutely delicious and we didn’t have a white sauce pot, a red sauce pot and a pasta pot to wash up.

I asked Pete to write up the recipe for me, and this is what I got.  Don’t worry, I’ll translate for you.  Big Boy and I laughed at how typically Pete-like the instructions were, so we thought we’d share it with you. I also thought James might find it amusing – he and Pete both have methodical minds…

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White Sauce

  • 400g fresh ricotta
  • 1 egg
  • pinch grated nutmeg
  • pepper
  • ½ tsp salt

Mince Sauce

Fresh Pasta Sheets – about ½ kg (you won’t need them all)

Cheese

  • Mozzarella – 300g – sliced or grated – this is the one we use.
  • Grated Parmesan Cheese – 1 cup

ingredients

Step 1: Soak the Römertopf baker in a sink of cold water for at least 15 – 30 minutes.

Step 2: In a large bowl, mix all the White Sauce ingredients together until well combined.

Step 3: In another large bowl, mix all the Mince Sauce ingredients together, stirring well to break up any lumps in the mince.

Step 4: In the presoaked pot, spoon a third of the Mince Sauce over the base, then cover with a single layer of pasta sheets.  Follow this with half the White Sauce, then a handful of cheese, then another sheet of pasta.  Repeat, ending with a scattering of cheese on the top. Note that you use a third of the mince sauce each time, and a half of the white sauce.

For the persnickety, here is Pete’s layering chart :

  • Cheese (top layer)
  • Mince
  • Pasta
  • Cheese
  • White Sauce
  • Pasta
  • Mince
  • Pasta
  • Cheese
  • White Sauce
  • Pasta
  • Mince (bottom layer)

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Step 5: Put the soaked lid on the pot, then place in a cold oven and raise the temperature to 200C.  Bake for 1½ hours.  Allow to rest for 15 – 30 minutes before serving, to allow the liquids to absorb into the dish. 

Note: check on the lasagne after the first hour of baking.   If it’s really wet (it will be moist, but shouldn’t be swimming), you might want to let it cook for a bit with the lid off to reduce the excess liquid.  We didn’t need to do this with our dish (ie. we cooked ours for the entire time with the lid on), but it can vary depending on the moisture content of the mince and passata.

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Oh, and in case you’re wondering – see that dirty pot in the top picture, complete with burnt edges where the dish overflowed slightly?  It went in the dishwasher without any presoaking whatsoever.  This is how it came out.  Not completely clean, but oh so close that I really can’t complain…

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Bistro Ortolan

Posted in Food & Friends, tagged , on August 12, 2009| 4 Comments »

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We had dinner with friends last Friday at Bistro Ortolan, a two hat French restaurant in Leichhardt.  The food and service were both excellent, and it was easy to see how they had impressed the critics.  I managed to have two courses with foie gras, so I was feeling very opulent that night (as opposed to Saturday morning, when I was feeling very corpulent).

My entree : Rillette of Macleay Valley White rabbit with duck liver and Armagnac parfait, foie gras and freshly toasted brioche.

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Pete’s entree : Rare loin of Yellowfin tuna with almond and sherry velouté and blue swimmer crab rémoulade

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My main : Pot-eu-feu of organic Burrawong chicken with foie gras, Jerusalem artichokes, Dutch carrots and Black winter truffle.

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Dessert (which seven of the eight of us chose) : Raspberry and white chocolate ‘Bombe Alaska’ with fresh raspberries.  This tasted magnificent, although I was a little disappointed by the plating.  I don’t think the raspberries needed the silver leaf hats, which actually looked like bits of foil.

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Christina’s dessert : Earl Grey and chocolate brownie crème brulée with Pedro Ximenez ice-cream and warm chocolate fondant.

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Petit fours : I don’t know what these were, because I was so full by this point that I couldn’t eat anymore.  The little Lumix coped well with the low light (it was about 11pm by this stage), especially given that I refused to turn on the flash!

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All in all, a wonderful night out – we had fantastic food, great service and made some new friends.  Is there a better way to spend a Friday evening?

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Almond Rochers

Posted in Gluten Free, Recipes, tagged , , , on August 11, 2009| 4 Comments »

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I made these almond rochers with the leftover tempered chocolate from the truffles.  They’re a little too easy, both to make AND eat!

  • 150g almond slivers
  • 1 Tbsp Kirsch
  • 1/3 cup pure icing sugar

1. Preheat the oven to 175C.  In a small bowl, combine the almonds, Kirsch and sifted icing sugar.

2. Line a small baking tray with a sheet of parchment paper, and pour the nuts onto the tray.  Bake the nuts for 10 minutes, or until golden, stirring often (watch them carefully, as they burn easily).

3. Tip the nuts into a small bowl of tempered chocolate, and stir well.  Using two teaspoons, scoop out small blobs onto a sheet of parchment paper and allow to set.  Try not to eat them all at once!

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Römertopf Chicken and Mushroom Rice

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , on August 9, 2009| 2 Comments »

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I’m still experimenting with my Römertopf, and tonight’s dish was a hit with the boys.  We’re finding lots of the meals we cook in this terracotta pot are rice based – it seems to really suit the slow cooking process.  This dish was created on the fly tonight and the next time I make it, I’m going to use thighs and drumsticks.  Cutting up the whole chicken into pieces meant that the bone-in pieces cooked to perfection, whereas the breast meat dried out a little too much.

To start with, some basic principles we’ve learnt so far about cooking in the Römertopf:

1. Always soak the pot and lid in cold water in the sink for about half an hour.  Put it in the sink after you’ve washed all your ingredients, and let it soak while you prep.

2. Always put cold ingredients in the wet pot, and pop it into a cold oven, then turn it up to heat.  When you pull it out of the oven, put the hot dish onto some folded tea towels – plonking it on the cold bench might cause it to crack.

3. We always set the oven at 200C fan-forced (electric).  No real reason why, it just seems to have worked for the recipes we’ve cooked so far.  We also seem to cook everything for two hours.

4. Clean the Römertopf by putting it in the dishwasher.  Those are the instructions that come with our glazed pot, and I have to say it’s been cleaning up brilliantly in the machine.

5. Don’t get too stuck on exact quantities or ingredients.  This really is peasant food, so make use of anything you can find in the fridge.  The only rule we have about quantities is this: to make the Arborio rice in the way we like it (sticky and expanded), we need to add twice as much liquid as rice in volume terms.  So for one cup of Arborio rice, we add two cups of water.  In the recipe below, I substituted ½ cup red lentils for some of the rice, which gave the dish an extra sticky consistency.  Surprisingly the lentils disappeared completely on cooking, although they were easy to taste in the flavour and texture of the finished dish.  Feel free to use 1½ cups rice instead if you’d prefer.

Note: when we use Basmati rice, we only add 1½ cups of liquid per 1 cup of rice, as we prefer the texture less creamy in that case.

  • 1 cup arborio rice, rinsed
  • ½ cup red lentils, rinsed and picked over
  • King Brown and Swiss Brown mushrooms
  • 1 carrot, peeled
  • ½ leek (white part)
  • 1 large free-range chicken, or chicken pieces
  • small piece of salami or pancetta
  • 3 cups chicken stock
  • Herbie’s Tagine Spice Mix (I think smoked paprika might a nice alternative, but you could use anything you have at home)
  • salt and pepper

Step 1: Fill the sink with cold water, then soak the Römertopf Baker for 15 – 30 mins.  In the meantime, prepare the ingredients.

Step 2: Cut the chicken into pieces and remove the skin off everything except the wings.  Rub 1 – 2 tsp of the spice mix onto the chicken pieces.

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Step 3: Chop up all the other ingredients.

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Step 4: Remove the soaked base from the sink.  Add the rice and lentils, then all the chopped vegetables and salami.  Give them a mix to combine.  Nestle the chicken pieces into the rice.  If I was doing this again with a whole chicken, I’d be inclined to bury the breast pieces, to keep them moist.

Step 5: Pour the chicken stock over the ingredients, ensuring all the rice and lentils are covered.  Season to taste with a little salt and pepper (this might not be necessary if you’ve used a lot of salami, or if you’re using a salty chicken stock or spice mix). Take the lid out of the sink and pop it onto the base.  Put the whole pot into a cold oven and turn the thermostat up to 200C.  Note: you might need to do this more gradually if you have a gas oven – please refer to your Römertopf instructions.

Step 6: Come back two hours later and pull the finished dish out of the oven.  Depending on your oven, you might want to check on the dish after the first hour or so to see how it’s traveling.  We usually let our dishes rest a little while before serving, to allow the rice to absorb any excess liquid.  Enjoy!

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Flemington Markets

Posted in Food & Friends, tagged , , , , , , , on August 8, 2009| 6 Comments »

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One of the great joys of my life is being able to go to Flemington Markets with Pete.  The produce is amazingly fresh, the atmosphere is great and best of all, it’s a clear marker to the start of the weekend.  Now that I have a pocket camera, I wanted to share some of the sights that greet us at the markets whenever we visit.  There are lots of photos – I just couldn’t choose which ones to leave out!

Everything at the markets is ridiculously cheap –  for example, these 59g free range eggs were $6.50 for 30.  I indulged and bought a carton of fresh duck eggs as well – perfect for pastries and cakes.

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This is Jimmy the Tomato Man.  He doesn’t have a computer at home, but told me he’d get one if I put his photo on my blog.  How could I refuse?  We bought a $10 box of tomatoes from him, but passed on the eggplants this week, even though they were a bargain.

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Since we started going to the markets, mushrooms have become a part of our weekly diet. I bought half a kilo of these today, although I really don’t know what they are.  I think they called them “brown caps”, but I’d love someone to enlighten me. Thanks..

Edit: I’ve just been told these are King Brown mushrooms, an Australian cultivar of the trumpet mushroom (thanks Barb!).  More info here.

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I also bought a half kilo of fresh Shitake and some Swiss Browns – it’s going to be a big mushroom week here.

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The mushroom ladies share a stand with a lovely elderly gentleman who sells sugar snap and snow peas.  He was so pleased when a customer asked him if he was in his sixties that he gave him his goods and his money back!  I tried telling him he looked even younger, but he wasn’t buying it..

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An impulse buy from Morris and Jody’s stall – a box of super sweet black grapes – 10kg for $16.  Pete was murmuring something about “grape jelly” under his breath…

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Our rule at the markets is to buy from the specialists whenever possible.  These photos were taken at our favourite potato and onion stand, run by a cheerful cluster of larrikin lads.   They have a huge range of potatoes – from the cheaper, more common types, to a dozen or so unusual varieties – Nicola, Kipfler, Charlotte, Pink Eye, Dutch Cream, Royal Blue and one that has bright purple flesh.  We’ll often buy a kilo or so of something unusual to play with in the kitchen.

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They also sell Australian and imported garlic, as well as boxes of ginger at various ages (young, medium, old, very old).

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We stopped at Maurice’s dried fruit and nut stall to buy a kilo of  Australian blue lentils for Maude.  I didn’t even notice the  new sundried cherries and blueberries until I uploaded this photo – must make sure to pick some up next time I’m there.

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Highlight purchase of the day?   Two kilos of gorgeous Californian cherries for Small Man, who is a complete cherry addict.  He was overjoyed to see them!

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