My Food

Irish Cream Parfait

2010-12-19T04:25:00.000-08:00

Take from Menu pages.. Pics to follow

http://www.menupages.ie/recipes/jacobs_ladder/recipedetail.aspx?recipeId=17

For the stock syrup:
300ml water
400g granulated sugar

For the parfait:
500ml stock syrup
2 egg yolks
27ml water
60g granulated sugar
90ml Baileys (or any cream liqueur)
150ml double cream, whipped

For the stock syrup: Bring all the ingredients to the boil and simmer until the sugar has dissolved. Allow to cool and store in the fridge until needed.
For the parfait: Put the egg yolks and 20ml of the stock syrup into a mixing bowl and use an electric whisk at high speed to combine them. Meanwhile, boil the water and sugar together to make a light brown caramel. Immediately add the caramel to the egg mixture and whisk at high speed until it has doubled in size stop whisking and allow the mixture to cool. Add the Baileys and fold in the whipped cream. Pour the mixture into four 75mm steel ring moulds, or a bread tin lined with cling film, and freeze overnight

Chocolate brownies and Baileys parfait

2010-12-19T04:15:00.000-08:00

Heres a little recipe for dessert that I tried for a friends (Vini and Sue) dinner party recently .

The rich chocolate and nut brownie needs something light to counter it, and the Baileys parfait works well (though maybe itself a bit rich too)

Anyway the details.

Chocolate and nut Sundae

Inspired by Jame Oliver's recipe

I halved the measurements since I have a morbid fear of making too much rich desserts.... Make a dish that seres 14.. then eating it all myself.. Not good... so I try to reduce the measurements instead.

100g butter (I used normal salted.. I think a bit of salt enchances the flavour desserts)
• 125g dark chocolate (70% ), broken up
• 80g chopped nuts (cashew and hazelnut)
• 30g cocoa powder, sifted
• 70g plain flour, sifted
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 180g caster sugar
• 2 large eggs
100 ml cream (for extra moistness)

Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Grease a 9 inch by 6 inch baking dish with butterg. In a large bowl over some simmering water, melt the butter and the chocolate and mix until smooth. Add the nuts, and stir together. In a separate bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, flour, baking powder and sugar, then add this to the chocolate, and nut mixture. Stir together well. Beat the eggs and cream and mix in until you have a silky consistency.

Pour your brownie mix into the baking tray, and place in the oven for around 25 minutes. You don’t want to overcook them so, unlike cakes, you don’t want a skewer to come out all clean. The brownies should be slightly springy on the outside but still gooey in the middle. Allow to cool in the tray, then carefully transfer to a large chopping board and cut into chunky squares.

Christian Etienne, Avignon Restaurant Review

2010-11-14T11:33:00.000-08:00

All the guidebooks recommend Christian Etienne as the "Top Table" in Avignon. We hadn't planned on going here, as been Michelin starred it is more expensive than your average reataurant. As it happened La Fourchette was fully booked. In hindsight it was a good thing.

Certainly all other reviews of Christian Etienne were universally excellent. Also fortunately for us, it wasn't fully booked, and we were able to secure a booking (on the night in question).

The website contains all the menus. We went for the Pork tasting menu.

Unfortunately a combination of over-excitment at the food, and slight embaressment at taking photos of the food, I missed a couple of courses.

We started with an Amuse bouche of Veloute.. Creamy tasty

Pig's trotter croquette, porcini mousse .

Provençal pork sausage with Savoy cabbage, salad of Chinese cabbage,

roasted almonds.

Truely excellent

Fricassee of calamari with saffron Swiss chard, quinoa and sweet chorizo sticks,

sauce of chopped wild onions

Exquisite. calamari was ultra fresh and cooked to perfection, and matched fantgastically with the chorizo, and onions. No photo

Butternut squash velouté, mousse with local pork, waffle with Provençal snails

Filet mignon of Iberico pork, braised leeks, olive croutons

I'd had Iberico Pork, roasted before, and found it dissapointing. Then it was a roast loin, here it was diced, and fried off. Absolutely delicious.

Beaufort sliced with quince jelly, blood sausage, mesclun salad with walnut oil

Jellied beets, green pepper coulis, lemon-galanga sorbet, a touch of garlic

Malva Pudding

2010-01-13T07:51:00.000-08:00

South African Apricot pudding is a simple enough desert thats sweet moist and delish. I had it while on holidays there and had to make it again once I got back.

From wikipedia.

Malva Pudding is a sweet pudding of Dutch origin, usually served hot with custard and/or ice-cream. It is made with apricot jam and has a spongy caramelized texture. It is often found on the dessert menu of South African restaurants. It is supposdly named after a woman called Mlva who invented it.

My recipe was an amalgamation of a few I found online I found this recipe online.

What was interesting to me was the addition of vinegar. I assume it is simply to provide an acid to re-act with the soda and cause the pudding to rise. Certainly there was no discernible vinegar taste from it that I could identify.

Other recipes refer to a sauce. This confused me, so I've renamed it "cooking liquor", as it is a licquid that poured in and the pudding cooks in it. You will still need some custard/ cream/ ice-cream etc. to counter the rich sweetness of the pudding.

No photos unfortunately. The pudding didn't last long enough. Maybe next time

Recipe

30g butter
1/2 cup Sugar ( I used brown)
2 medium eggs
30 ml (2 tablespoon) apricot jam
5ml (1 teaspoon) bicarbonate of soda
1cup cake flour
Pinch of salt
125ml (½ cup) milk
20ml (4 teaspoons) vinegar

Sauce:
375 ml (1½ cups) cream
125 g. butter
Pinch salt
200ml Sugar ( I used brown)
15ml (1 tablespoon) apricot jam

Method

Pre heat oven to 200C
Cream the butter and sugar together, beat in the egg until light and fluffy.
Add jam and beat.
Dissolve the bicarb in the milk.
Sift the flour and salt together and add to the mixture alternately with the milk.
Make the Cooking liquor(See below)
Lastly add the vinegar.
Pour the mixture into a buttered deep ovenproof dish ( approx 2 litres)
Pour over half the Cooking liquor, cover and bake for 30 minutes.
Pour over the balance of the Cooking liquorand bake uncovered for 20 minutes until the centre of the pudding is done, but the sauce must still bubble around the sides.

Cooking liquor:

Mix all the ingredients together, bring to the boil and simmer, stirring all the time for 2 minutes.

Thorthons

2009-04-27T14:22:00.000-07:00

Another early bird specia

49 for 3 course meal

Highly recomended. Some of the best, most exquisitly executed food I've tasted.

Shanahans

2009-04-13T13:56:00.000-07:00

€55 early bird.

At last thanks to the recession I could try this much lauded establishment. For many years its been far too expensive to consider.

While €55 isn't cheap, compared to the staggering a la carte prices (€48 for a steak main course) makes it an absolute bargain.

So for €55 you get 4 courses from a slightly reduced menu.

Starters include: mussels, ham and pea soup, smoked salmon, caesar salad.
Mains include: new york striploin steak, filet steak, pork shank, and roast cod.
Sides of onion rings, mashed potato, and vegtables are provided.
Deserts: chocolate fondant, omelate souffle, bread and butter pudding.

First opinions. The room and service is all very good as you would expect. For me Menu isn't very exciting. Most dishes are old favourites, nothing really exciting. As you would expect for an American style steakhouse portions are generous.

So generous in fact that I asked for a doggie bag for my pork. First time ever in Ireland. They even threw in one of their mini Bread loaves.. a nice touch... That doggie bag served as dinner for 2 the following night.

Filet steak was good. Sirloin steak not as good. bit dry. In fairness I've cooked as good myself.

Overall it was crowd pleasing stuff. Even with the discounted rate it was expensive though. I'd go again but not in a hurry

Pasteis de Belem

2009-03-28T18:18:00.000-07:00

The Belem egg custard tarts are world famous. Coach loads of visors pile into the cafe in Belem to sample the tarts, and they have spread world wide. The first time I tried these tarts was actually in Hong Kong. Lisbon is one of my favourite cities, and is much closer these days, so I always make some time to try the original Pasteis de Belem (Portugese custard tarts).

Here's a recipe I tried a couple of times for a low fat version, from NotQuiteNigella, (itself based on an original recipe by celebrity Aussie chef Bill Granger). While not as creamy as the the original they are still very good. Also the pastry is never quite as flaky as the original. I used real vanilla pod instead of the vanilla extract mentioned. This was halved and the seeds scaped out and added to the milk. The milk was boiled before adding it to the eggs, flour and sugar mixture, before it was heated on a bainmarie to thicken.

This article suggests that the flakiness of the originals is due to furnace like ovens they use. I must try higher temperatures to see if that helps.

Queijadas de Sintra

2009-03-28T18:15:00.000-07:00

While not as visually striking as their conterparts from Belem, I prefered the taste of Queijadas de Sintra cakes. Immediately I assumed they were made with some almond based batter. However I was wrong. THey are infact based on a fresh cheese.

This cheese is a locally produced and so the recipe below uses Ricotta instead. The first time I made these cakes I used only Ricotta cheese, and didn't first pass it through a sieve. THe result tasted authentic but the texture wasn't right. Too much of the ricotta texture. Not as smooth as the original. The next time I used 1/2 Ricotta; 1/2 fresh buffalo mozzarella. Also I passed both cheese through a sieve first to smooth out their texture. This was far more successful.

Queijadas de Sintra
Recipe based on this blog entry
Ingredients below
Dough:

* 120g plain flour
* 60ml water
* large pinch salt

Filling:

* 120g ricotta
* 100 g frsh buffalo Mozzarella
* 2 eggs yolks (medium eggs)
* 160g sugar
* 20g plain flour
* pinch salt
* 1 tsp ground cinnamon

* You
need one or more standard muffin trays or individual muffin/tartlet
pans. Each pan is about 7cm in diameter at the top and about 2.5cm
high. The recipe also works well with pans slightly larger or smaller
in diameter.
* Prepare the dough first. It can be made up to
24 hours ahead. Mix the flour, water and salt, and knead to a smooth,
firm dough. Leave it to rest.
* Finely mash the ricotta or
push it through a sieve. Do not use a food processor. Add the egg
yolks, sugar, flour, salt and cinnamon. Mix until fairly smooth.
* Preheat the oven to 250C.
* Grease
the pans. To make the pastry cases, roll out the dough thinly on a
smooth surface or use a pasta machine. Keep the surface and your
rolling pin lightly floured at all times. You need sheets of dough no
more than 1.5mm thick. The pans in a standard muffin tray have bases
about 5.5cm in diameter, and you will need to cut circles of dough of
8.5cm diameter, to make walls about 1.5cm high. If the bases of your
pans are larger or smaller, adjust the size of the circles. If the
dough is soft, leave it to dry a little before cutting the circles, as
this will make it easier to handle.
* For each circle of dough, use a sharp knife to make five 1cm incisions from the edge inwards, equally spaced around the circle.
* When
you finish each circle, place it over a pan, push the centre down to
form the base of the tartlet. Overlap the edges of the incisions and
press them lightly against the walls of the pan. The walls of the
pastry case do not have to reach the top of the pan. Try to avoid gaps
at the bottom of each incision, as the filling could leak.
* Spoon filling into each pastry case up to about 3mm below the rim.
* Bake
for 10-15 minutes, until the filling begins to turn dark-brown in
places. Remove. Allow to cool briefly, remove the tartlets from their
pans and transfer to a wire rack.
* Eat at room temperature. The tartlets keep for a few days stored in an airtight container.

Winter Vegetarian Pasta

2008-12-23T03:38:00.000-08:00

Saw this recipe on a newspaper. Pity I didn't take it down, as it sounded quite good. So good in fact that I tried to recreate it from memory, so what follows is my recollection of the recipe.

The ingredients are a real autumn/ winter set... butternut squash, mushrooms, chestnuts (I think the original recipe was pine nuts). Plus I've been wanting to use mascarpone in a recipe for a long time...

The amounts are all very approximate. I tend to just throw in what I think looks like the right amount

Ingredients (this made enough for 3 -4)
150g mascarpone
1 clove minced garlic
2 small onions
decent sized handful of chopped mushrooms
decent sized handful of chopped butternut squash
1 tbl dijon mustard (I used maille)
1 tbl oil/ butter for frying
small handful of shelled chestnuts
Pasta.. I used
Fresh parsley to serve.

some water to loosen the mixture.

Technique
Crush up chestnuts and place in a try under the grill to toast. Careful they down burn.
Gently fry off the minced garlic and onion in oil for about 2 minutes
Start pasta boiling in salty water. (should take approx. 12 mins)
Add butternut squash and fry for another 6 minutes.
Add mushrooms and continue to fry for another 6 mins.
Add mascarpone, dijon mustard, and some water until it is the desired consistency.
Drain pasta and throw into pan with other ingredients, and coat in sauce.
Season with salt and black pepper, add some fresh herbs to serve.

Delicious with a crisp Sauvignon Blanc

Christmas Pudding in practise

2008-12-15T06:22:00.000-08:00

I stuck mainly to the recipe. the main divergence was I noticed there was no suet in the recipe, and I had deliberately gone out and bought a pack of dried vegtable suet for the sole purpose of making the pudding. So I put suet in. I substituated it for 1/2 the margarine.

Of course this meant that my liquid to dry ingredients was now wrong, so I had to add a bit more liquid. This was made up of extra stout, and whiskey until the pudding looked as moist as I expected it to. (which of course could be completely wrong).

My mother had leant me a pudding bowl, but the mixture wouldn't fit in so I created 1 large, and 2 small puddings. [I only realise now as I type this in that I have the sizes all wrong. I have 1 extra large pudding, and 2 small puddings].

At this stage the pudding tasted really good. The lemon and orange have given it a great tang. Hopefully that stays with the final version.

Boiling of the puddings now was more difficult. In these globally warmed times, I considered it far too wasteful to have 2/3 pots of water boiling simulataneously, so I came up with the genius idea of using my frying pan which was wide enough... just.. to house all 3 bowls. Of course the pan is only about 1 1/2 inches high, so I could only get that much water in, but the recipe didn't really say how high water in the pot should be. I figured the stream created as the lower part of the pudding heats would rise and cook the rest of the pudding.

So my 3 puddings are now done. Probably still a bit moist. I'll leave them that way to mature for a bit. Considering I made these on Dec 14 they won't be maturing the minimum 6 weeks though. The plan is to try one of the smaller ones this week, and I'll see if the large one is fuly cooked.

Irish Chrismas Pudding

2008-12-15T06:06:00.001-08:00

Heres a recipe for plum pudding given to me by my mother.

Sounds good. Whats not so impressive is that she got it from a newspaper recipe. I was given the clipping to prove it.

Makes 2 1.5lb puddings or 3 1lb puddings

Ingredients

7oz plain flour

8oz currants

12oz raisins

6oz sultanas

2oz candied peel

2oz glazed cherries

1oz blanched almonds (optional)

6oz breadcrumbs (brown or white)

8oz margarine

8oz demerara sugar

rind and juice of 1/2 lemon

rind and juice of 1/2 orange

1 large peeled apple

1tsp nutmeg

1tsp cinnamon

1tsp mixed spice

2 large eggs

4tbl milk or stout (? strange choice.. I of course went for the stout)

2tbl Whiskey (note the e.. Irish whiskey)

Technique

(This is easy)

Chop almonds, apple and cherries

beat eggs

Mix dry ingredients thoroughly in large bowl

Add wet ingredients... margarine, juice and rind, apple, eggs, milk or stout.

Mix well

Leave overnight

Turn into prepared (buttered to stop sticking) bowls.

Cover (to keep out moisture)

Boil... 4 hours for small pudding, 6 hours for large

Once cooked (not sure how you know this for sure, or what consistency they should be)

Pudding should be stored for at least 6 weeks to allow the flavours to fully mature

Baklava the aftermath

2008-12-14T12:33:00.000-08:00

Since I don't follow recipes well I deviated from the original recipe.

For a start I didn't have a square baking tin, so I used an oval roasting dish. Not a huge problem, just make sure to trim the filo to fit.

Grinding up the nuts initially proved more of a challenge than I thought it would. I don't have a big food processor, so I had earmarked my coffee/ spice grinder for the task. Unfortunately it wasn't up to it so I was forced to go back to basics. A sandwich bag and a rolling pin came to the rescue, for a chunky nut layer.

I also added some hazelnuts since i had them.

For whatever reason, the maverick in me took over for the syrup.. I didn't bother measuring anything.

a glassful of water

a few teaspoons of brown and castor suger.

As I didn't have orange bossom water (who does).. I put in some lemon juice and orange juice

Stick of cinamon, and nutmeg,

honey and maple syrup.

Mine worked quite well.. I quite liked the lemony flavour, but I didn't make nearly enough.. My one pice of advice for this dish is be generous with the syrup.. You can't have too much. The whole backlava should be dripping in the delicious syrup.

We had Greek (style) yogurt with ours

Looking on the web there are a couple of other recipes

http://southernfood.about.com/od/browniesbars/r/bl30206n.htm

Might try adding some suger and honey with the nuts and grinding some of them finer next time. might make for a better combination.

Baklava

2008-12-14T06:42:00.000-08:00

I love Baklava, but have never tried to cook it before.

Heres a recipe for Baklava adopted from Rachel Allen, from her TV series and book Bake. I've written it down here, for my memory, before her recipe and video dissappear forever, (or until you buy her book).

(The video is avalable here until Dec 31, episode 9)

I'll post my results later (once I've cooked it)

Ingredients

Baklava

Shop bought Filo (phyllo) Pastry

200 g butter melted

300g unsalted nuts e.g. almonds, pistachios.

1.5 tsp ground cinnamon

Syrup/ Sauce
200 ml water
300g sugar
rind of orange
Orange blossom water (optional).
5 -6 cloves
cinnamon stick
100 ml honey

Technique

Baklava

Whizz nuts and cinnamon up in processor until they form gritty texture. (Can use only one type of nut, but 2 types provides more variety and flavour)
Prepare layers of filo
Brush layer of melted butter into square baking oven (I don't have one, so I'll be using an oval roasting dish)
Layer a sheet of filo, and brush it again with melted butter.
Lay approx 4 - 6 layers of buttered filo,
Spread a layer of the crushed nuts over the pastry
LAyer another 4 - 6 sheets of buttered filo.
Spread nuts
Continue until you have approx 3 layers of nuts
Cut the pastry into diamonds (or desired shape). Do it now, it will be too hard once it comes out of the oven.
Place in oven at 180 C for 40 - 45 mins. Turn down slightly after 20 mins
To make syrup
Mix ingredents in pot, and boil until reduced and syruppy.. approx 15min
Once baklava comes out of over pour syrup over every bit and leave to soak, and cool down

Welcome

2008-12-14T06:41:00.001-08:00

This is where I'll try to list my cooking experiences. Since I make a lot of mistakes it may help others if I talk about what problems I had. Also I tend to diverge from recipes, I suffer from delusions partway through recipes that makes me think that i know things better than the expert who write the recipe. Perhaps by writing these down, I'll start to learn to stop doing it.