Danish for Breakfast at Tiffany's - Dinner and a Movie

Nothing very bad could happen to you [at Tiffany's]
Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's

This month's Dinner and a Movie is hosted by Susan of Sticky Gooey Creamy Chewy, and she has chosen one of my favourite movies of all time - Breakfast at Tiffany's!

I adore this movie, despite its darker subtext - it is quirky and funny and sad all at the same time. Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly is just gorgeous in it, and her wardrobe is devine (after all, it was designed by Hubert de Givenchy). George Peppard is also remarkably young and clean cut and handsome in this movie - although he is a "kept man", his character, Paul Varjak, is just the sort of guy you could happily bring home to mother.

One of my favourite scenes has to be the mad party in Holly's apartment, to which the police are eventually called. There are so many memorable moments in that one scene, you cannot look away.

Breakfast at Tiffany's opens with Holly arriving at Tiffany's in New York in a taxi at 5am, where she proceeds to window shop while sipping a coffee and nibbling on a danish. Apparently, Audrey wanted to lick an icecream cone instead, because she hated pastries, but the director, Blake Edwards, insisted on the danish - and the rest is history.

Inspired by that memorable opening scene, I have made Apricot Danish in the form of the apricot twists from Great Coffee Cakes, Sticky Buns, Muffins & More by Carole Walter.

These delicate pastries tasted absolutely devine, and smelled heavenly fresh out of the oven. There is a little fussing around involved in making the danish pastry, but once you have that up and running, the rest is not too taxing.

I made a half measure of Carole's danish pastry recipe, and only half of that again is required to make the apricot twists (I froze the rest for another day). The half recipe for the danish pastry (on page 258 of the book) is as follows:

Butter

290g butter
1/8 cup plain flour

Pastry

1/6 cup warm water
1/6 cup + 1/2 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon instant yeast
2 1/2 cups plain flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon butter, softened
2 eggs, cold and lightly beaten
1/2 cup ice water

Butter

Line an 8 inch square metal baking pan with 2 long strips of glad wrap, laid at right angles to each other.

Put the butter and flour in an electric mixer bowl, and beat for 10-15 seconds or until the butter is just smooth. Spoon the butter into the prepared baking pan, spooning it into each corner before covering the rest. Spread the butter in an even layer over the base of the pan, and refrigerate while you make the pastry.

Pastry

Warm a small bowl by running it under hot water. Pour the warm water into the warmed bowl, and stir in 1/2 teaspoon of sugar. Sprinkle the yeast over the top of the water, and allow the mixture to stand in the covered bowl, without stirring, for 5 minutes. Remove the cover, stir the mixture with a fork, then allow it to stand for a further 3 minutes.

Put the flour, remaining sugar and salt into the bowl of an electric mixer and mix briefly on low speed to combine. Add the butter to the flour mixture and mix for 30 seconds.

Combine the eggs with the ice water in a small bowl, then add to the flour mixture and mix on medium speed for around 1 minute or until a rough dough is formed.

Line a cookie sheet with baking paper.

Take the butter out of the fridge; it should be firm but pliable.

Turn the dough out onto a floured work bench, and roll it into a 10" x 18" rectangle, with the short side running parallel to the bench top.

Centre the block of butter on top of the rolled dough. Pick up the lower edge of the dough and fold it into the middle of the butter, then do the same with the top edge of the butter, so that you have folded the dough into 3, like you fold a letter to place it into an envelope. Pinch the edges of the dough together to seal them.

Flour the bench top, and turn the dough 1/4 turn to the right. Press the top of the dough to flatten it. Roll the dough into a 12" x 22" rectangle, flipping it once or twice as you roll and continuing to reflour the bench as necessary to avoid sticking. (If the dough sticks, use a metal or plastic pastry scraper to lift it off the bench without undoing your hard work.) Remove any excess flour with a pastry brush, then fold the dough into 3, like a letter, by folding the lower and upper edges into the middle. Press the dough to seal the layers. Place the folded dough onto the paper-lined cookie sheet, cover it with another piece of baking paper, and refrigerate it for 15-20 minutes.

Remove the dough from the fridge, flour your benchtop, and place the dough onto the floured bench with the open seam to the right. Roll the dough into a rectangle measuring 12" x 22", flipping and flouring as before. Once again, remove any excess flour with a pastry brush before folding the dough into 3, then pressing it with your hands to flatten it, place it back on the paper-lined cookie sheet, cover with another piece of baking paper, and return it to the refrigerator for another 15-20 minutes.

For the last time, remove the dough from the fridge, and repeat the rolling and folding process described above before placing the folded dough back onto the cookie sheet, covering it with another layer of paper, and returning it to the fridge to rest overnight.

Apricot filling

110g dried apricots
1/3 cup water
2 tablespoons apricot jam
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon almond essence

Chop the apricots roughly. (The recipe does not say this, but the apricots did not disintegrate after cooking, and the whole apricots are too bulky to use for filling.) Put the apricots, water and jam into a small saucepan, and bring to the boil before reducing the heat, covering the pan and allowing the mixture to simmer for 18-20 minutes or until the apricots are very soft.

Remove the pan from the heat, and stir through the brown sugar and almond essence. Mix with a fork until smooth. (This didn't work for me - I ended up whizzing it in the food processor for a short burst.) Set the filling aside to cool.

Apricot twists

1/2 of the danish pastry recipe given above
1 quantity apricot filling

1 beaten egg (for egg wash)
2 tablespoons sparkling sugar
1 quantity sugar syrup (recipe below)

Line two cookie sheets with baking paper.

On a floured bench, divide the dough into two. Roll one half of the dough into a rectangle measuring 18" x 7" (again, use a pastry scraper to lift the dough from the bench if it sticks). Prick the rolled dough with a fork at 1" intervals.

Spread half of the apricot filling lengthwise over half of the dough, leaving a margin of 1/2" from each edge. Brush the far edge of the dough with egg wash, then fold it over the half of the dough spread with the filling, and press the edges to seal. Trim any excess dough as necessary.

Cut the filled dough into strips which are 2" wide. In the centre of each strip, make a 2" slash, like a buttonhole, and thread the top edge of each strip through that slash to form the twist. Place each twist on the lined baking trays, and push each end of the twist towards the centre so that it is slightly curved, like a bow tie.

Repeat the above with the second half of the dough.

Cover the twists with a teatowel and place in a warm place to rise for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 220 degrees Celsius. Uncover the twists and brush them with egg wash and sprinkle with sparkling sugar. Bake the twists in the oven for 5 minutes, then reduce the heat to 190 degrees Celsius and continue to bake them for another 10 minutes or until golden brown, rotating the trays top to bottom and front to back halfway through baking.

While the twists are baking, make the sugar syrup:

Sugar syrup

Put 1/2 cup of water and 1/4 cup of sugar into a small saucepan. Bring to the boil on the stovetop, then reduce the heat and simmer for 2-3 minutes. Use the syrup while it is hot.

Once the twists have finished baking, remove them from the oven and immediately brush them with the hot sugar syrup.

The twists can be served warm or cold, and keep stored in foil for 2-3 days.

To see the roundup of recipes inspired by Breakfast at Tiffany's, check Susan's blog on 25 July.

Southern Indian Prawn Curry - Dinner and a Movie - Monsoon Wedding

Colour, flavour and texture - don't we all love this in our food? This month's Dinner and a Movie film, Monsoon Wedding, offers plenty of colour, texture and flavour with its Indian backdrop and interwoven storylines involving some very complex relationships between the members and staff of a Punjabi family preparing for a wedding.

Marc of No Recipes is our Dinner and a Movie host this month, and I loved his choice of movie. I had never seen Monsoon Wedding before, and I have to admit that I found it a little slow in the beginning, but once it began to hot up as the wedding came closer, I became engrossed in all the twists and turns of the various story threads woven into the film.

My favourite storyline was one of the peripheral ones, involving a blossoming romance between the family's housekeeper, Alice, and PK Dubey, the wedding planner. Initially, I found Dubey to be a repulsive character, who was not attractive in either personality or looks. However, once he took a shine to Alice, the finer side of Dubey came to the fore, and I found myself egging him on and hoping that Alice would notice and accept his advances.

To correspond with both the Indian ethnicity, the kaleidoscope of colours and complexity of flavours in this film, I chose to make a South Indian Prawn Curry from The Hairy Bikers Ride Again by Dave Myers and Si King.

To make this curry, you will need:

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 finely chopped onion
a finely chopped, thumb-sized knob of ginger
2 green chillies, seeded and finely chopped
4 chopped fresh tomatoes
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon tamarind paste
1 teaspoon honey
2 tablespoons dessicated coconut
500g peeled raw prawns
chopped fresh coriander

Cook the chopped onion in the heated oil in a frying pan until translucent.

Place the ginger, garlic and chilli into the frypan with the onion and cook for around 1 minute, then add the tomatoes, tamarind paste, turmeric and honey and stir until combined. Cook the curry slowly for 10 minutes, then stir through the coconut.

Add the prawns to the pan and cook for 4-5 minutes, and season with salt and pepper.

Sprinkle the cooked curry with chopped coriander, and serve with rice.



You can check out the Dinner and a Movie roundup on Marc's blog here.

Lime Sorbet for Dinner and a Movie - Shirley Valentine

I've fallen in love with the idea of living.

Shirley Valentine (Pauline Collins) in Shirley Valentine

It's May Dinner and a Movie time (created by Marc of No Recipes and Susan of Stickey Gooey Creamy Chewy), and our host this month is Susan. She has selected Shirley Valentine as the movie from which to seek inspiration this month. I had never previously seen this movie, which was released when I was still in high school. Although it is a relative oldie, this movie is a goodie, and demonstrates some universal truths that are never likely to change.

In brief, the main protagonist in Shirley Valentine is the story of a 42 year old housewife and mother of two grown children called, you guessed it, Shirley Valentine. Shirley is rather bored with her life as it has become, and she wonders wistfully what happened to the daring, rebellious girl of her youth. Shirley's fairy godmother arrives in the guise of her friend Jane, who invites Shirley along on a trip for two to Greece that she won in a radio competition. Although she is initially reluctant to go because she feels that she can't get away/her husband wouldn't approve etc, Shirley's mind is made up when her husband, Joe, behaves disgracefully one evening when she makes chips and egg for tea on a Thursday instead instead of the steak he was expecting.

On the island of Mykonos, Shirley rediscovers herself outside of her role of wife and mother, much to the disapproval of Jane and the other British tourists staying there. A brief holiday fling with a handsome Greek man is part of this journey, but is certainly not the beginning or the end of Shirley's transformation. Shirley rediscovers her joie de vivre, and the closing scenes lead me to hope that she will be able to transfer some of her new outlook on life to her husband.

Despite having a very different life to Shirley, I can certainly relate to her dilemmas; however, having recently read Thirty Something and Over It by Kasey Edwards, I know that neither Shirley nor I are alone in our quest to rediscover the spark in our lives.

As Shirley's adventures centre on her experiences in the Greek Islands, I am naturally inspired to make a Greek-style recipe for this event. During the film, Shirley Valentine rediscovers her zest for life. Together, these elements led me to make a Lime and Yoghurt Sorbet from The Press Club - Modern Greek Cookery by George Calombaris, an executive director of and head chef at The Press Club restaurant in Melbourne. Why? It's a Greek-style recipe and its zesty, uplifting flavour mirrors Shirley's new-found zest for life.

Sorbets have traditionally been palate cleansers, and this one is no exception. The lime juice gives a mouth-puckering edge to the sorbet which is wonderfully refreshing. I think this quality would make this sorbet the perfect palate cleanser or dessert with a rich Greek dish such as moussaka, as it would cut through that richness and leave your mouth feeling Colgate-clean.

To make The Press Club's Lime and Yoghurt Sorbet, you will need:

2/3 cup skimmed milk
40g white sugar
Juice of 2 limes
Zest of 1 lime
25g liquid glucose
250g Greek yoghurt

Heat the milk, sugar, glucose syrup and lime zest in a saucepan over medium heat until it reaches a gentle simmer, then remove from the heat and cover the top of the pan with clingwrap. Leave the mixture to cool to room temperature.

Once the syrup mixture has cooled, whisk in the yoghurt and lime juice, then pour the mixture into an icecream maker and churn in accordance with the manufacturer's instructions. Place the mixture in a container to freeze.

Remove the sorbet from the freezer before serving and allow it to thaw for around 15 minutes on the bench so that it becomes soft enough to scoop.

If you are keen to escape to a sunny Greek Island, even if just for a few minutes, do go and check out the roundup of terrific Shirley Valentine inspired recipes at Sticky Gooey Creamy Chewy.

Inspired by Chocolat: Chili Con Carne Y Chocolate

Tonight you are invited by Marc of No Recipes and Susan of Sticky Gooey Creamy Chewy to Dinner and a Movie:

This is a new monthly event, whereby we are invited to make and post about a dish inspired by the movie selected by the host for that month.

This month's movie is Chocolat, and Marc is our host.

Today was the last day of summer in Melbourne, and it was a lovely, sunny day, with a moderate wind of the kind that might have blown Vianne and Anouk into town. Just in case they did arrive on my doorstep, for tonight's dinner, I made Chili Con Carne Y Chocolate.

My inspiration for this dish was the scenes in Chocolat of Armande's birthday party, where Vianne and Roux serve meats accompanied by chocolate sauce. I didn't really fancy pouring chocolate sauce on my meat, but I was curious about the meat and chocolate combination, which I have heard about before. A quick Google search later, and I found a recipe for Chili Con Carne Y Chocolate, which you can find

here.

To give you an idea of the different flavours in this dish, here are some of the ingredients chopped and ready to go, including the chocolate:

In the finished dish, you do not taste the chocolate per se; rather, the chocolate adds richness to the flavour of the dish, and blends in rather than shouting out to be recognised as an individual. This is good, in my opinion, as I believe that the other alternative would be more like the chocolate sauce served over meat, where you could not avoid the chocolate flavour potentially clashing with the meat.

Thanks to Marc for hosting Dinner and a Movie this month. This event has definitely taken me outside my comfort zone to try something new, and it is great to be inspired by such a wonderful movie.