FFWD - Two Tartines from Le Croix Rouge

For this week's French Friday with Dorie, I think it is more descriptive to borrow Trevor's description and tell you that it is "stuff on toast".  There - much easier to conceptualise than "two tartines from Le Croix Rouge", although I don't think Dorie's publishers would have allowed her to call it that.

At the top of this post, we have tartine number one, being the Norwegian one - whole wheat bread sliced thickly, toasted on one side, buttered (I used cream cheese) then topped with smoked salmon slices, capers, lemon, salt and pepper.

I loved this - something to definitely make again.

Tartine number two is the St Germain version - whole wheat bread sliced thickly, toasted on one side,  slathered with mayo, sprinkled with chopped gherkins and topped with thin slices of roast beef, and seasoned with salt and pepper:

Again, this was a winner.  I have negative thoughts about gherkins until I eat them, then I have no idea why I ever thought badly of them.  They are sweet and luscious, and add a nice textural element to this tartine.

There you have it -  stuff on toast two ways. To see what the other Doristas thought, visit the LYL section of the FFWD website.

Holgate Brewhouse, Woodend, Victoria

 

A couple of weekends ago, Tim and I spent the weekend in Woodend, a country town in the Macedon Ranges region of Victoria.  On our first night, we drove into town looking for a likely place for dinner.  We couldn't go past the prominent Holgate Brewhouse looming large on the main street.

 

The Holgate Brewhouse does gourmet pub grub, and has its own range of craft beers.

 

There is a great range of snacks and sharing plates at the Holgate Brewhouse.  Tim and I decided to start with one of those in the form of grilled chorizo, topped with parmesan ($10):

 

 
What's not to like about spicy grilled sausage?

Mains were a difficult choice, because I could have eaten everything on the menu.  In the end, Tim chose the generously portioned and exotic-sounding venison, duck and bacon burger with tomato, wild rocket, kasundi (no, I don't know what it is either), onion marmalade, cranberry mayo and chips ($20):  

 
This looked amazing, and Tim rather enjoyed it.  However, given its size, I was glad that I opted for the slightly less generous pork sausages with caramelised onion gravy and celeriac mash ($20):

 
See how rich that gravy looks?  If you can imagine how good that tastes, that's what it was like - superb.

We had a great night in the convivial farmhouse-themed atmosphere, with fast and efficient service from the bar staff.  If you happen to pass through Woodend, the Holgate Brewhouse is a great place for a meal and to have a relaxing time.

Holgate Brewhouse
79 High Street
Woodend, Victoria
Ph: +61 3 5427 2510

WWDH - Carrot and Parsnip Fritters with Goats Cheese

This week's Wednesday with Donna Hay dish was chosen by Chaya.  She selected Carrot and Parsnip Fritters with Marinated Goats Cheese.  The recipe for these fritters is available online here.

I made big fritters instead of the small ones in the recipe because I couldn't be bothered fussing around with heaps of small ones.  I also skipped the rocket.

I thought these fritters were a little bland - I think I should have maybe fried them a little longer, and added a little more seasoning. 

To see what Chaya, Sarah and Margaret thought of these fritters, visit their websites.

Chocolate and Stout Cake for Peter

Friday was my colleague Peter's last day.  To send him off on a high, I made a Chocolate and Stout Cake using this recipe from the BBC.

Here is the cake fresh out of the oven (you can see that it stuck a little on one edge):

I found that the cake slightly rose above my 9" inch pan, so I recommend using a deep pan or a 10" pan.

The icing was a bit of a nightmare to work with and required much hot water knifing to whip into shape:

I decorated the cake with chocolate rocks and writing icing rather than nuts.

The resulting cake is deep, dark and delicious: 

If you enjoy a rich chocolatey cake that is not overly sweet, this one is for you.

Ham and Egg Pie

I always find that "dishes that mother made" are comforting.  They remind me of a simpler time when Mum made all the meals.  One of the things that she made and still makes is a delicious ham and egg pie.  The recipe, originally for a bacon and egg pie, came from my kindergarten's cookbook, and it morphed into Mum's recipe through her changes.

I had a piece of ham that I wanted to use up, so I asked Mum to send me the recipe for her ham and egg pie.  I made my own change by replacing the shortcrust pastry with filo to lighten it up, and leaving out the tomato in the original recipe.

This pie is easy and quick to make with ingredients you are likely to have around the house, and makes a hearty meal.

 

 

To make this pie (as adapted by me), you will need:

 

4 sheets of filo pastry

25 g butter

200g piece of leg ham (or use 4 bacon rashers)

1 onion, finely chopped

3 beaten eggs

1 1/2 cups milk

salt, and pepper to taste

1 tablespoon mustard

1 cup grated cheddar cheese

 

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

 

Spray a 9" deep pie dish with cooking oil spray.  Place one sheet of filo into the base of the dish, then brush it with butter, place the next sheet of filo on top, and continue with the remaining two sheets in the same way.  Trim the pastry as necessary.

 

Chop the ham into small (~1") cubes.  Beat the eggs and milk together in a medium bowl, then stir through the ham, onion, salt, pepper and mustard.  (Also add chopped tomato if you like.)  Pour this mixture into the pastry-lined pie dish, then sprinkle the top with the grated cheese.

 

 Place the pie in the oven, and bake for 30-40 minutes or until set. Remove from the oven and allow to cool for around 10 minutes before slicing and serving.

 

You can eat this versatile pie warm or cold.  Serve it with a salad for an easy light meal.



FFWD - Garbure from the Supermarket

This week's French Friday with Dorie recipe is Garbure from the Supermarket.  Huh? 

Apparently the name of this rustic, chunky soup comes from the fact that you eat it with a fork. There are no set ingredients in France, as it is meant to use up whatever you have.  This impresses me because I bought but forgot to add the beans, I couldn't buy turnip, I didn't add sausage or duck confit, and I used cayenne pepper instead of the fancy spice you were supposed to use.   As you can see from the photo, I also didn't end up with much liquid in my soup after the three hours (yes, you read that right!) of cooking time.

Despite all of that, this dish was really, really good.   It had heat, it had texture, and it had both meat and veg, making it a complete meal.  I used a ham bone to make my garbure, and the meat just fell off the bone, creating deeply satisfying, gelatinous goodness.

Because of the long cooking time, I probably won't make this again, but boy it was good to try once.  It was so delicious and satisfying - my kind of soup.

I also made Dorie's lemon curd:

This curd is great because it uses the whole egg (so there are no whites left over), and it is easy to make in a few minutes.  I made it to fill some cupcakes, but I have a pleasing amount left over to eat from the jar:

To see what the other Doristas thought of Garbure from the Supermarket, visit the LYL section of the website.  Next week, we have two toasties on the menu - oops, tartines.  Harry and Christo, eat your heart out.

Lemon Daisy Cupcakes for Val's Birthday

Today is Val's birthday, and I was in the mood for cupcakes.  In particular, I had been planning for weeks to make cupcakes with daisies on top, as I finally bit the bullet and bought the moulds to make the daisy centres.

When I think of daisies, I think of bright and sunny, which in turn leads me to the colour yellow.  Yellow translated into flavour means lemon - so I made Val lemon cupcakes filled with lemon curd, topped with lemon buttercream frosting, and crowned with a fondant daisy.

The base cupcakes are lemon cream cheese cupcakes from the Sweet Violet Cakes recipe on p91 of the Australian Womens Weekly Cupcakes book. 

To make the cakes, you will need:

90g cream cheese
90g butter
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup (50g) self raising flour
1/2 cup (75g) plain flour

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius, and line a 12 hole muffin tin with cupcake papers.

Beat the butter, cream cheese, zest, sugar and eggs together in a stand mixer until light and creamy.  Add the flours to the mixture and beat on low speed until just combined.

Using an icecream scoop, place the batter into the cupcake papers, and bake the cupcakes in the oven for 25 minutes or until cooked through.  Remove the cakes from the oven and immediately unmould them from the tin onto a wire rack to cool.

 
Once the cupcakes were cool, I used a paring knife to cut a small cone shape out of the centre of the cupcakes, then filled the hole with a small blob of lemon curd.  I cut the tips off the cones and replaced them back on top of the cakes to cover the curd:

 

The recipe that I used to make the lemon curd was from Dorie Greenspan's Around My French Table.  The recipe is posted online here.  I only made a half recipe and still have stacks left over.  I liked this recipe because it uses whole eggs, so there is no umming and arring about what to do with the whites.

 
I piped lemon flavoured buttercream icing on top of the cakes, using the Primrose Bakery Vanilla Buttercream recipe, and substituting lemon juice for vanilla essence.

 
The day before making the cakes, I made daisies using ready rolled fondant in white and a small amount tinted in yellow, a daisy plunger cutter and  a daisy centre mould.  The centre is stuck to the flower with a little water.  I also painted the daisies with pearl glaze, which really doesn't seem to have made much difference.  I tried to make the daisies dry with curved petals by drying them in a patty cake pan, but only three dried sufficiently to be curved, and they tended to stick to the patty cake pan, despite the pan being dusted liberally with cornflour.  Sweetopia has a great tutorial on how to make these daisies here.

After all that, I had a field of daisies for Val:

 

I think they are really pretty.  Who wouldn't love a bouquet of edible daisies for their birthday?