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Archive for the ‘Recipes’ Category

Mushrooms on Toast

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , , , on February 21, 2010| 9 Comments »

Over the last few weeks, mushrooms on toast has become the standard Saturday lunch for Big Boy and I.  It’s an indulgent treat, because mushrooms are so expensive here – locally grown gourmet varieties retail at the Orange Grove markets for $50/kg.  They’re grown in a disused railway tunnel in Mittagong – how cool is that?

Fortunately, there are cheaper varieties available at Flemington Markets,  and I’ll usually buy Swiss Brown or large white Button mushrooms to pad out the more expensive exotics.   Last week the Swiss Browns were only $5/kg, making them very affordable indeed!  If dollars are a consideration, this recipe will work just as well with regular mushrooms – the fancier ones just add extra zing.

Here is Pete’s own recipe for truly fantabulous mushrooms on toast:

1. Start by heating up a generous knob of  unsalted butter and a little extra virgin olive oil in a heavy based frying pan.  We use our large non-stick Woll pan, which can take a high heat.

2. Once the butter is melted, add a couple of cloves of chopped garlic and stir briefly.  Don’t brown the garlic at this stage, or it will burn by the time the mushrooms are cooked.

3. Add the cleaned and chopped mushrooms.  In this batch, we used Swiss Browns, Chestnuts, Oyster and Golden Enoki mushrooms.  I didn’t weigh them, but I’d guess there were about 200g of Swiss Browns, and 200g of the the other varieties combined.

3. Fry the mushrooms over a medium high heat.  They will give out a little liquid to start with, and then appear to re-absorb it back in.  Cook the mushrooms until they start to brown and caramelise.  Season generously with salt and pepper.  We also added a little oregano, which was growing in our garden.

4. Here’s the secret.  Once the mushrooms are well-browned and greatly reduced – you’ll be astonished how little you end up with – turn the heat down and pour in a splash of sweet fortified wine.  Pete discovered this by chance the last time we had a bottle of port open, and since then we’ve been using this delicious bottle of Seppelt’s Tokay that I found under the house.

5. Continue to fry the mushrooms for a few minutes more, until they’re rich and glazed from the wine.  Check for seasoning.  Serve over slices of toasted sourdough bread for the perfect Saturday lunch!

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Dark Chocolate Rocky Road

Posted in Recipes, tagged on February 19, 2010| 14 Comments »

Here’s an easy recipe…

Temper some dark chocolate, then stir in pieces of marshmallow, chopped nuts (I used brazil nuts), crystallised ginger pieces and cacao nibs.  Scrape the whole lot into a small lined loaf tin and set briefly in the fridge.  You will need to work quickly!

It was surprising simple and delicious – sweet, but not overly so, and not a pink marshmallow in sight!

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Fried Bread

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , on February 16, 2010| 4 Comments »

I adore bread making and will have a batch of sourdough rising at least twice a week.  Occasionally, though, my timing is off, and I need bread in a hurry, usually for lunch, and the dough has only just had its first rise.

Here’s a neat trick I discovered recently – you can break off a ball of  once-risen dough, flatten it out like a pizza base, and fry it in a hot pan.   I use an ungreased non-stick pan which can take a high heat.

Keep flipping the  dough until it’s cooked, and smack the air out of it when it starts to puff up. This can then be eaten hot, smothered in butter.  It’s a useful way of keeping the wolves at bay until the other loaves are ready!

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World Peace Cookies

Posted in Recipes, tagged , on February 11, 2010| 7 Comments »

Dorie Greenspan wrote recently about her new cookie venture with “the Kid” (her son Joshua).  Their menu sounds divine, and if you’re in New York this week, you might want to wander over and have a look.

Of course, we’re on the other side of the world, but I decided to make a batch of her World Peace Cookies anyway.  They’re so named because a neighbour of Dorie’s once declared that a daily dose of these cookies could bring lasting “planetary peace and harmony”.  They’re dark, delicious and euphoria-inducing.  A couple of these, and all seems right with the world again.

This is the perfect cookie to go over the top with – source the best ingredients you can find and enjoy the extravagance of it all.  I used  the 75% Tanzanie Origin Chocolate that Joyce and Marty gave us for Christmas, and combined it with Callebaut Dutch Cocoa.

World Peace Cookies
adapted from Dorie Greenspan’s Baking From My Home to Yours

  • 175g plain flour
  • 30g cocoa powder (we used Callebaut Dutch cocoa)
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • 150g unsalted butter
  • 120g light brown sugar
  • 50g white sugar
  • ½ teaspoon Maldon salt flakes
  • 1 teaspoon homemade vanilla extract
  • 150g dark chocolate callets (we used Tanzanie Origin 75%)

1. Sift the flour, cocoa and baking soda together.

2. With an electric mixer (preferably a stand one, but hand held will work), beat the butter on medium until soft and creamy.  Add both sugars, salt and vanilla and beat for a couple of minutes more.

3. Add the flour mixture all at once and mix together at low speed until just combined, mixing the dough for as little time as possible.  Add the chocolate callets and mix just to incorporate.

4.  Shape the dough into two logs about 4cm in diameter.  Wrap well in either cling film or parchment paper and refrigerate for at least three hours.  The dough can kept in the fridge for three days, or frozen for up to two months.

5. Preheat the oven to 160C (I used 150C with fan, but my oven runs quite hot).   With a thin sharp knife, cut the dough into slightly thicker than 1cm slices. The discs will split and crack, particularly if you’re using large chocolate chips like I did – just squeeze them back together again.  Note that Dorie uses mini-choc chips, which would make the dough easier to slice. Arrange the rounds on parchment lined trays, leaving room for them to spread.

6. Bake the cookies for 12 minutes, or 13 minutes if baking from frozen.  They won’t look firm or set, but leave them on the trays until cool, and they should carry over cooking to crumbly perfection.  These cookies are quite fragile, so you’ll want to package them carefully.  They keep for a few days in an airtight container, or for a couple of months frozen, providing they’re well sealed.


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Blanquette de Lapin

Posted in Recipes, tagged , , , on February 10, 2010| 6 Comments »

When Small Man went on camp recently, I promised Big Boy that I’d cook something fancy for dinner.  Of course, for me, fancy still means peasant food, but in this case with an unusual cut of meat.

We never eat rabbit at home, and I’d pretty much forgotten why.  But when I arrived home with my bunny, Pete took one look…and announced that he wasn’t hungry.  No amount of persuasion could convince him to taste it, so he ended up having sausages and mash for dinner instead.

On the upside, Big Boy and I loved this dish – a classic French casserole of slow cooked rabbit, finished with small onions, Swiss brown mushrooms and cream.  We served it on truffle oil mashed potatoes, just to be completely over the top.

The recipe is from Jacques Pépin Celebrates and, like all his recipes, worked exactly as it was supposed to.  Here is our take on it…

  • 1 rabbit (ours was about 1¼ kg/2¾ lb)
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 30g/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
  • 2 medium onions, chopped
  • 2 tablespoons plain flour
  • 4 cloves garlic, peeled, crushed and chopped
  • 6 sprigs fresh thyme, or 1 teaspoon dried thyme
  • 1 sprig fresh oregano, or ¼ teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1½ cups water
  • 1 cup white wine

To finish the dish:

  • 225g/8oz small onions, peeled weight (Pépin uses tiny white pearl onions, but we didn’t have any, so we substituted small brown ones)
  • 225g/8oz mushrooms (Pépin recommends oyster mushrooms or chantarelles; we used Swiss browns)
  • ½ cup heavy cream

1. Cut the rabbit into serving sized pieces.  My advice is to get the butcher to do this for you before you leave the store.  I didn’t, and my rabbit ended up looking like it had been dismembered by an axe murderer.

2. Sprinkle the pieces on both sides with half of the salt and pepper.

3. In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, melt the butter and arrange the rabbit pieces in one layer.  Brown over medium heat for about 10 minutes, turning the pieces frequently so that they’re nicely coloured all over.  Add the chopped onions and cook for a few minutes more, then sprinkle over the flour and stir to mix well.

4. Add the garlic, thyme, oregano, water, wine and remaining salt and pepper and stir to mix well.  Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally to prevent the mixture from sticking.  Then reduce the heat, partially cover the pot and cook over a low heat for 1 to 1½ hours at a very gentle simmer.

5. Once cooked, remove the rabbit from the pan with a slotted spoon and transfer to a large clean saucepan.  Pour the reduced cooking liquid through a sieve held over the top of the rabbit pieces.  The dish can be made ahead to this point and stored in the fridge, well covered (which makes it a great party dish).

6. To finish, add the mushrooms and small onions (I cut them in half, to ensure they cooked through – this wouldn’t be necessary with pearl onions) .  Bring to a light boil over medium heat, then reduce the heat to low and simmer gently, covered, for 15 minutes.  Stir occasionally to ensure the mixture doesn’t catch on the bottom.

7. Finally, add the cream and bring to a boil briefly, then serve immediately to six hungry people.  Or in our case, two hungry people and two hungry neighbours with leftovers for an indulgent lunch the following day.

Pépin recommends serving this dish with corn fritters, but it was perfect with mashed potatoes to soak up all the delicious sauce!

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