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Archive for December, 2009

Choc Shots

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , on December 30, 2009| 9 Comments »

This is so simple that I’m a bit embarrassed to be blogging about it!

After watching Willie’s Wonky Chocolate Factory – a television series about Willie Harcourt-Cooze and his attempt to establish his line of chocolate in the UK – I was inspired to try my own version of his chocolate shot recipe.

The beverage he prepared appeared to be nothing more than 100% cacao chocolate dissolved in boiling water.  As we can’t get 100% here in Australia, I tried using my Callebaut 70% callets.  What I ended up with is a deliciously dark hot chocolate – reminiscent in some ways of an espresso coffee.  It’s won Pete the non-coffee drinker over, and is certainly a nice way to get your daily chocolate antioxidants!

It’s dead simple to prepare, simply dissolve 40g of dark chocolate in two-thirds of a cup of boiling water (this makes enough for two espresso sized cups).  You’ll need a little whizzer to mix it all together – the Callebaut callets melt away easily. If you don’t have one, try using a small whisk, or dissolving the chocolate and water together in a saucepan over a low heat.  Simply stirring with a spoon doesn’t seem to work, as you end up with sludge at the bottom of the cup.

I’ve also tried this with 85% Lindt, but found it too sour for my liking.  It’s an interesting way to compare pure chocolate flavours!

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Christmas Bounty

Posted in Food & Friends, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on December 28, 2009| 4 Comments »

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas!

Ours was the perfect combination of faith, family, friends and food. Nearly all the gifts we received were edible and many of them homemade, which made them all the more special.

Andrea’s mum, Iris, made us a loaf of her Pan de Pascua.  Even though it translates literally to “Easter bread”, it’s traditionally eaten at Christmas in their native Chile. It’s richly flavoured with walnuts, dried fruits and subtle spices – sort of a cross between fruit cake, raisin toast and tea cake.  Iris’ recipe is an old family secret, so even if I can beg it from her, I won’t be allowed to share with you. So far all she’s confirmed is that it doesn’t have ginger in it…

Carol very kindly baked me some of her almond bread for Christmas, since she knows how much I love it!

Diana and I are both big fans of The River Cottage series, so when she saw medlar jelly at her local country markets, she bought us a jar to try.  It’s a deep amber colour and very softly set.

The Little General EVOO is one of our favourite gourmet oils – lovely neighbours Pete and El have kept us in stock for yet another year..

Dottie gave us a jar of her delicious yellow bean soy dressing – it was the perfect accompaniment to our leftover Christmas chicken!

My wonderful cousins gave us a set of hand-painted espresso cups and a jar of homemade cookies, which included these beautiful stained glass treats.

These are my aunt’s special achar pickles – sweet, hot and delicious.  They only last about two days in our house!

Gourmet treats from Cliff and Kathy included jars of organic fig relish, black olive pate, and New Zealand Beechwood Honeydew honey. The  honey is unique in that it’s not created from the nectar of flowers, but rather from the excretion of tiny insects that feed on the bark of the beech tree.

The chocolate teddies are from Aunt Anna, and I just managed to keep them from the boys long enough for a photo.

Maude made me jars of her lime pickle (which I love, but am always too lazy to make) and also gave us a bottle of porcini oil, which will be perfect in Pete’s wild mushroom risotto.

Joyce and Marty brought us a packet of single origin chocolate from their recent trip to the Margaret River in Western Australia.  These 75% cocoa buttons are from Tanzania.

Cousin Andrew grows Corregiola and Manzanillo olives in the Cudgegong Valley river flats in Mudgee, NSW and cold presses them into this very special extra virgin olive oil.  It’s fruity and full-bodied, with a delicious pepperiness.

Finally, a couple of very special bottles – the 2003 vintage rosé Moët  & Chandon is a gift from the gorgeous Terri, and the citrus (lemon) vodka was given to us by our old friends and neighbours, PeteV and Nic.  Does anyone have suggestions of what I can use the vodka for?  I don’t need any help with the Moët…

Did you give or receive any exciting food gifts this Christmas?  We’d love to hear about them!

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Merry Christmas

Posted in Food & Friends on December 25, 2009| 10 Comments »

Wishing you all a joyous,

contented,

loving, peaceful,

blessed, delicious

Merry Christmas!

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Speculaas and Spiced Nuts

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , on December 23, 2009| 3 Comments »

Two last minute items that we’re making – both of which will be included in our mini Christmas hampers!

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Spiced Nuts were a perfect way to use up the leftovers from our Fruit and Nut cakes (thanks for sending me the recipe, Joanna!). The instructions are here, and the only changes I made were to omit the five spice powder, which I didn’t have on hand, and to replace the muscovado sugar with regular brown sugar (I’m not going anywhere near the shops today!).

. . . . .

These are my attempt at Speculaas, a Dutch spice cookies similar to gingerbread. I know it’s tragically corny, but we’ve been referring to them as “Spectacular Speculaas”.

My friend Maureen emailed me her recipe a week ago, and I’ve made two batches – the first batch rolled thinly with flaked almonds scattered over the surface, and the second with the almonds worked into the dough.  The latter are thicker, with a small hole in each, allowing the cookie to be hung on the Christmas tree.

  • 500g plain flour
  • 250g cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
  • 250g brown sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 3 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 2 teaspoons nutmeg
  • 1 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1 teaspoon ground anise seed
  • 150 g flaked almonds
  • 2 large (59g) eggs, lightly beaten
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla essence (we used homemade)

1.  In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, sugar, salt and spices.  Add the butter and rub it in until the mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.

2. Add the eggs and vanilla and work the mixture together to form a dough.  You can gently add in the almonds at this point if you wish, although it does make the dough more crumbly and therefore harder to roll out.  Wrap well and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

3. Remove the dough from the fridge and allow it to soften slightly.  Preheat the oven to 180C (or 160C with fan).

4. On a large sheet of parchment paper, roll out half the dough using a floured rolling pin. Roll to a thickness of approximately 3mm, or slightly thicker if you’re planning to use the cookies as ornaments.  If you haven’t already worked the almonds into the mix, scatter half of them over the surface of the dough now, then cut with cookie cutters into Christmassy shapes.  Use a drinking straw to add a stringing hole if desired.  Repeat with the  remaining dough.

5. Place the cookies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake for 12 – 15 minutes.  Allow to cool on a wire rack.

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Garlic

Posted in Food & Friends, tagged , , , on December 22, 2009| 7 Comments »

As I’ve mentioned previously, our friends Ian and Diana  Ditchfield grow their own garlic, and we stock up every year when they harvest their crop.

The three kilos Di dropped off today are absolutely gorgeous – aromatic and almost luminescent in their freshness. And whilst the garlic isn’t certified organic (certification is an expensive process), Di and Ian started their crops with organic stock, and have fastidiously kept them chemical-free.

If you’re in NSW and would like to order some, you can contact Diana via email – djditchfield(at)hotmail.com.  They’re charging $30/kg this year, or $20/500g, which I think is a bargain for such tenderly nurtured produce.

In terms of storage – we freeze most of our garlic, broken into unpeeled cloves.  It loses its crunch in the process, but we haven’t noticed a difference in taste or cooking quality – the added advantage being that freezing makes the cloves much easier to peel and mince.

If you don’t want to freeze it, the garlic will keep for quite a while in a cool, airy spot.  This batch was so fresh that I’ve braided some of the bulbs together to hang in the kitchen (great instructions online here)!

Next step…Dan Lepard’s roasted garlic bread recipe!

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