Fig Jam and Lime Cordial

When I first saw Chef Pamela’s bread rolls, I was hit with a wave of nostalgia.

These were popular when I was growing up – they were available in supermarkets, fast food outlets, and often graced the bread plates of small cafés and restaurants.  These days they’ve been replaced with sourdough and crusty rolls. I thought it might be fun to bake a batch for old time’s sake!

I didn’t use Pamela’s recipe (but did follow her shaping instructions) and opted instead to make our tried and tested Pain Viennois dough. The finished rolls were slightly sweet and a little briochey, and perfect with Pete’s latest batch of apricot jam.

I made a double quantity of the dough, and allowed it to prove until well risen and puffy. I then shaped 24 x 50g (1.7oz) balls, which were allowed to prove in a lined baking tray. After the second rise (photo below), the rolls were brushed with a beaten egg and baked in a preheated 200C fan-forced oven for about 18 minutes…

They baked to a rich dark brown…

…with a soft golden crumb…

. . . . .

I shaped the remaining dough into 30g (1oz) balls and allowed them to prove on a parchment lined tray, covered with greased clingfilm.  These were then deepfried in oil.  Most of the finished doughnuts were simply dipped in caster (superfine) sugar…

…but a few were filled with Pete’s plum jam…

The bread rolls were delicious, but as always, the doughnuts, which were an afterthought, stole the show.  I try not to make these too often, as Pete and the boys usually make themselves sick eating them.  If you’d like to try making doughnuts at home, I’ve written a detailed tutorial here which might be of use.

Pamela, thanks for the inspiring a fun afternoon!

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For the first time ever, we’re growing oodles of zucchini and squash in the garden. Not quite to glut proportions (yet), but enough for us to be eating a couple every night. At the same time, our finger eggplants have taken off, and we’ve been turning our bounty into curries, ratatouilles and stir fries.

A couple of weeks ago, Pete created this fabulous lasagne with grilled vegetables, and it was so good that we made it again last night. Our first attempt was vegetarian, but this time we’ve added some leftover roasted duck to the tomato sauce.

The dish doesn’t include a béchamel sauce, but rather a combination of melting cheeses.  We’ve decided we prefer it that way!

As with all of Pete’s recipes, this one changes each time we make it. I think it’s flexible enough to adapt to whatever ingredients you have on hand, so please treat these instructions as a loose guideline…

We began with:

• 1 packet (500g) fresh lasagne sheets (we always buy Peppe’s Pasta if we’re not making our own)
• zucchini and eggplant (we used about 2kg (4½lb) in total)
• oven roasted tomatoes, enough for one layer (homemade)
• 100ml extra virgin olive oil
• 2 x 700ml bottles of tomato passata
• leftover roast duck (entirely optional and substitutable)
• Fontina cheese, grated (we used about 300g)
• fresh Mozzarella cheese (bocconcini), shredded (we used two small balls)
• grated Parmesan cheese
• 2 large onions, very finely chopped
• basil leaves (about 10)
• salt and pepper for seasoning

* We used about 450g (1lb) of cheese in total – any combination should work. If you can’t find bocconcini, mozzarella will work just as well.

1. Thinly slice the vegetables.  On a griddle pan over a high heat, cook the slices over a high heat until marked and slightly charred (alternatively, you could roast the slices in the oven).  Allow to cool…

2. Prepare the sauce: in a large frying pan or wok, heat the olive oil and saute the two large, finely chopped onions until translucent. Add the leftover duck (if using) and stir until heated through. Then pour in two bottles of a good passata (we like the Mutti brand) and the shredded basil leaves, and simmer until well cooked and thickened (about 20 minutes).  Taste and adjust seasoning as required…

3. Prepare the lasagne according to the instructions on the packet – we placed our sheets in boiling salted water for two minutes, then refreshed them in cold water before use.

Preheat the oven to 180C (360F) with fan, and lay out the ingredients, ready for assembly…

4. Spread a little sauce over the base of a large baking tray, then top with lasagne sheets, a generous ladle of sauce, one of the grilled vegetables and a portion of the grated Fontina cheese.  Repeat with the remaining ingredients. Gently (!) squish down on each layer as you go to flatten and even out the sauce and filling (best to do this after the pasta sheets are laid down and before adding the sauce and grilled vegetables)…

5. Continue layering until all the ingredients have been used up.  Our layers consisted of zucchini, eggplant, zucchini and finally, semi-dried tomatoes.  Top with a final layer of pasta, more sauce and scatter over the shredded Mozzarella and grated Parmesan cheeses.  Make sure to spread the sauce evenly over the pasta, to ensure it doesn’t dry out as it bakes. Season with pepper and drizzle with a little olive oil…

6. Bake until golden brown (from memory, it took about half an hour in the oven), then rest for about 15 minutes before serving…

This is a perfect dinner party dish, particularly for entertaining vegetarian friends. It’s so rich and filling that no-one really misses the meat!

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On New Year’s Day, I learnt how to fraisage a dough.

Fraisage is a French pastry making technique used to create flakiness in a finished pie crust. I watched Joanne Chang working her dough on Simply Ming, and raced straight into the kitchen to try it out.  I’d always wanted to make flaky pastry, but hadn’t known how to go about it before.

My first attempt was a little dodgy, so I rang our friend Craig the baker for some advice.  Craig generously gave me both his recipe and some tips on handling the dough. The results were sooo exciting – Pete came into the kitchen when he heard me squealing with delight!

Fraisage is the technique of smearing cold butter inside a loose dough to form it into sheets.  The butter melts on baking, creating layers within the finished pastry.  In order to do this successfully, the butter needs to be very cold (but not frozen rock solid), and handled reasonably briefly.

Craig uses a 3 – 2 – 1 pastry formula as follows:

• 300g (2 cups) plain (AP) flour
• 200g (7oz) unsalted butter
• 100g (3½oz) cold water
• ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1 Tablespoon sugar (optional – for sweet doughs only)

1. Cut the cold butter into rough 2½cm (1″) cubes and measure out the water. Craig’s tip is to pop both the butter and the water into the freezer to chill while you prepare the board and measure out the dry ingredients (give it about 10 minutes or so).

2. In a stand mixer, combine the flour, salt and sugar (if using) and add the butter, beating on a medium speed just until the butter is reduced to pea-size pieces (some bits will be a bit larger). Quickly add the cold water and mix just until the water is incorporated. The dough will be very shaggy.

Turn the dough out onto a well floured work surface…

3.  Using the palm of your hand, push sections of the dough outwards. The aim is to flatten the dough and smear the butter into long streaks…

4. Continue working the dough a section at a time, pressing down and flattening it onto the work surface. It helps to have cool hands…

5. When you’ve flattened all the dough, gather it together with a spatula or pastry tool…

6. Form the dough into a ball, wrap it in cling film, and let it chill in the fridge for at least an hour and up to three days. The dough can also be frozen for latter use.

I turned half of my dough into a sweet pie filled with boysenberries and raspberries from the freezer.  The crust was egg washed and sprinkled with demerara sugar before baking…

And the end result was…flaky!

I think learning a brand new technique on New Year’s Day is a very auspicious way to start 2013.  I need a lot more practice of course, but I’m so chuffed with how my second attempt turned out that I’m off to buy more unsalted butter!

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As promised, a round-up of all our Christmas chocolates for 2012…

We’ve made two versions of the Twelve Days of Christmas, in both Callebaut dark and milk feuilletine. The first batch used moulds from Candyland Crafts…

…and the second were made using a Christmas tin that I’d originally bought for shortbread. It never seemed to work for cookies, but the designs were crisp and sharp in chocolate…

I made a large batch of chocolate truffles at the last minute – it was tricky to get the ganache to set in our Sydney heat…

For the kids, we have milk feuilletine golden tickets, commonly known as “Kit Kat chocolate” in our house…

Here are our platters, ready to be delivered to the neighbours…

♥ Wishing you all a joyous, blessed Merry Christmas!  We’ll see you in 2013! ♥

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Here’s an expensive and indulgent last minute gift to make for Christmas.

It’s a twist on our Spiced Nuts recipe, and it’s proven very popular this festive season. It’s made with Australian macadamias, which are not cheap – a 2kg bag from Southern Cross Supplies costs $50…

If you’re fortunate enough to be growing your own like Linda, then this is a perfect way to use them.  Or, if cost is an issue, this recipe works brilliantly with mixed nuts, or unblanched almonds (which were just $10 a kilo at Southern Cross Supplies).

I used Billington’s Molasses Sugar, a discovery from earlier in the year. It’s quite different to the Muscovado sugars offered by the same company, and imparts a deep, rich flavour to the maccies…

• 500g whole macadamia nuts, or any other assortment of mixed nuts
• 1 egg white
• 25g (about 2 US tablespoons) Billington’s Molasses Sugar (or dark brown sugar)
• 2 teaspoons Maldon salt flakes
• ½ teaspoon ground cumin
• ½ teaspoon smoked paprika
• ½ teaspoon Kashmiri chilli powder

Note: This isn’t an overly precise recipe and you could use whatever you have on hand, although I have found the above combination of spices particularly appealing.

1. Preheat oven to 160C/325F with fan. Line a large baking tray with a sheet of parchment paper.

2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk the egg white until foamy, then whisk in all the other ingredients except the nuts.  Add the nuts, and stir well to coat completely in the spice mix. I use clean hands to do this, breaking up the lumps of sticky sugar as I go.

3. Tip the nuts onto the lined tray and spread them out into a single layer.  Bake for 15 minutes, then remove the tray from the oven and stir the nuts to unstick them from the paper and break up any clumps.  Don’t burn yourself!

4. Return the tray to the oven for another 5 – 7 minutes, until golden brown.  Allow the nuts to cool on the tray, during which time they’ll harden up and go crunchy.  If you like, you could sprinkle over extra salt at this point.  Once the nuts are completely cool, store in an airtight container for up to three weeks.

I’ve packaged the nuts in small sealed bags and added them to our Christmas mini-hampers.  Easy, expensive and very special!

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