TWD - Blue Cheese and Fig Bites

 This week’s Tuesday with Dorie recipe is Blue Cheese and Fig Bites, baked in mini muffin tins. 

I subbed blue cheese for cheddar, fresh figs for fresh pear, and baked them in a standard size muffin tin. It’s a pretty forgiving recipe - I think you can sub the cheese and fruit varieties for whatever you have.

They were rather good - they’d be quite nice served on a cheeseboard.

To see what everyone else made this week and their thoughts, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.

Phillippa's Sausage Rolls

Who doesn't love an Aussie sausage roll?  Spicy mince, flaky pastry and tomato sauce (of course!) merge to make one delicious, popular treat.

I recently made the sausage rolls from Phillippa's Home Baking, which use rough puff pastry and a mixture of beef and pork mince.  For those not from Melbourne, Phillippa's is a bakery institution established by Phillippa Grogan, famed for its breads and other baked goods. 

These sausage rolls did not disappoint - they had flaky pastry, and were just on the right side of spicy and juicy:

Have I tempted you to make some sausage rolls for yourself?  If so, you will need:

Rough puff:

225g plain flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
170g cold butter, cubed
125ml chilled water
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Put the flour and salt into a bowl.  Add the butter, water and lemon juice.  Use your hands to mix the ingredients together into a rough dough, then wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for half an hour.

Take the dough from the fridge and roll into a rectangle about 20cm x 30cm, with the edges being as straight as possible.  Fold one short end of the dough into the middle of the rectangle, then fold the doubled over part of the dough over the top of the remaining third of the dough so that you have a folded piece of pastry measuring 20cm x 10cm.  Wrap in plastic film and chill in the fridge for half an hour.

Repeat the rolling and folding process with the pastry three more times.  You now have ready to use rough puff pastry!

Sausage rolls: 

80g fresh breadcrumbs
1 brown onion, chopped
100ml tomato sauce (ketchup)
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
3/4 teaspoon salt 
3/4 teaspoon black pepper
350g beef mince
350g pork mince
2 tablespoons chopped flat leaf parsley
1 tablespoon chopped thyme or sage
1 x rough puff pastry
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk

Process the breadcrumbs in a food processor to make medium sized breadcrumbs, and place into a large bowl.

Put the onion, tomato sauce, mustard, salt and pepper into the food processor and blitz to a puree, then spoon into the bowl with the breadcrumbs.  Add the mince, parsley and herbs to the bowl and mix with your hands until well combined.  Place into a covered bowl and chill.

Preheat your oven to 220 degrees Celsius.  Line two baking trays with baking paper or silicon mats.

Lightly flour your work bench, then roll out the rough puff pastry into a rectangle measuring 48cm x 30cm.  Cut the pastry into three pieces measuring 30cm x 16cm each.

Take the sausage meat mixture and divide into three even pieces.  Roll each piece into a ball, then roll  each ball into a sausage measuring the length of the long end of the pastry.  Place one sausage on the edge of one long end of a pastry strip, brush the opposite long end of the pastry strip with water, then roll the pastry, starting with the sausage edge, to enclose the sausage in the pastry. Press the edges of the pastry join lightly with a fork to seal.

Repeat for each of the other two pastry strips and the remaining sausage mixture.  Cut each long sausage roll into the desired size using a sharp knife (I cut each into quarters for party sized sausage rolls).

In a small bowl, beat the egg and milk together with a fork, then using a pastry brush, brush this egg wash mixture over the top of the sausage rolls.  

Place the sausage rolls on the lined trays and bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes or until cooked through and golden on top. 

Serve the sausage rolls hot with lashings of tomato sauce.

Wattleseed Blinis - Red Tractor September

This month's recipe from my Red Tractor calendar is Wattleseed Blinis.   As the name suggests, these blinis are flavoured with wattleseed, from the native wattle tree.  Wattleseed gives a mild coffee flavour. 

Here is the calendar quote for this month, appropriately referencing the wattle:

These blinis were easy to make, but don't taste as good as my favourite blini recipe.  The wattleseed is a novel flavour that you could add to any blini recipe.

To make these blinis, you will need:

1 tablespoon wattleseeds 
1 cup plain flour
1 tablespoon sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 pinch salt
2/3 cup milk
1 egg 
50g melted butter
mashed avocado and smoked salmon to top the blinis

Toast the wattleseed in a frypan and grind in a mortar and pestle.

Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and wattleseed in a large bowl.  Combine the egg and milk in a jug, then whisk into the dry ingredients, then half the melted butter.

Rest the mixture for 30 minutes to soften the wattleseed.

Heat a large frying pan, then brush the pan with some of the remaining melted butter.  Drop two teaspoons of batter into the frypan for each blini (don't overcrowd the pan), and cook until bubbles appear on the surface.  Gently flip each blini and cook the blinis on the other side, and repeat with the rest of the batter.

Top the blinis with mashed avocado, smoked salmon and ground pepper to serve.

FFwD - Cabbage and Foie Gras Bundles

This week's French Fridays with Dorie recipe has nothing to do with fish or sealife of any kind.  Hurrah!  However, it is rather a curiosity - you be the judge whether it is good curious or bad curious.

The recipe is Cabbage and Foie Gras Bundles. This recipe involves boiling cabbage leaves until soft, then wrapping pieces of foie gras (in my case, duck liver pate) in the boiled cabbage leaves to form parcels, then steaming them.

In the end, I didn't love it, but I didn't hate it either.  It was perfectly edible, but I only made two bundles just for me.  The leftover ingredients will be utilised in a far less exotic fashion.

To see what the other Doristas thought of this week's recipe, visit the LYL section of the FFWD website.

FFWD - Arman’s Caviar in Aspic

We did try to eat [the Poulet en Gelee a l'Estragon].  It wasn't that bad, though when Eric saw it, his face went a shade or two grayer.  It just tasted like cold chicken with jelly on top of it.  We all chewed glumly for a bit, but it was no use.

 

Julie Powell, p143 Julie and Julia

Ahem.  Well, this is one French Fridays with Dorie recipe that I can put down to experience.  As Mardi said, this one was all about the technique.  That's just as well, because it certainly wasn't about the taste.

All started well on the road to making Arman’s Caviar in Aspic.  I had caviar.  I even found fish stock (in lieu of the fish bullion cube).  I made my jelly.  The jelly set.  Tick, tick, tick.

Then the fun began.  My jelly partly iced over in the fridge, destroying part of it.  Then I found when I cut it into cubes that it was quite delicate - not the kind of thing I could hand around at a party.  I think it needed more gelatine.  And then, after carefully spooning some caviar into my fishy jelly squares, I tasted one.  I nearly gagged.  Yuk!  It tasted what I imagine an old smelly shoe innersole with caviar on top might taste like.  Thank goodness for the garbage bin.  This is one French dish that I will not be embracing.

On the plus side, salmon in a jar now sounds positively appetising. 

To see what the other Doristas thought of this recipe, visit the LYL section of the FFWD website.

Maple Cinnamon Spiced Nuts

A fast and tasty treat for Christmas party nibbles is this recipe from Table for Two for Maple Cinnamon Spiced Nuts.

I Googled relentlessly to find a recipe for spiced nuts that was spicy but not too hot, as last year, comments were passed on the heat in my spiced nuts, which took some by surprise.

As it happened, these fit the bill, and the recipients of my gift parcels declared these nuts good.

This is a recipe I'd definitely use again.

Caramelised onion galettes with goats cheese

 

If you like mini food and want ideas for your next tea party, may I recommend caramelised onion galettes with goat's cheese, a simple but brilliant idea from p120 of Treat Petite by Fiona Pearce.

When I first read the recipe, I was unconvinced.  Supposedly you could make little puff pastry cups by cutting out 3cm circles from the pre-rolled puff pastry sheet, then scoring smaller (2.5cm) circles just inside, and it would cook up into a cup.  No way, I said, and I was thinking of making little tart shells instead.  However, time got the better of me, and I gave it a go - and I am so glad that I did: 

 

The pastry puffs up in the oven, but when you press on the scored centre with a spoon while it is still hot, the middle part crumbles inwards, giving you a neat, shallow little cup to load up with goodies.

 

The recipe suggests caramelising your own onions to fill the tarts, but I just filled them with a teaspoon or so of bottled caramelised onions - another time saver for the time poor, like me.  You then just pop a small piece of goats cheese on top of each tart, and a sprig of thyme, then bake at 180 degrees for a further 10 minutes and lo - you have gorgeous, perfectly formed galettes that look super and taste devine.

 

 

Salmon blini

For my recent monumental ladies afternoon tea, salmon blini were also on the menu.  I thought this one was a bit risky because of how things go with pancakes (you know, the first one is a dud, the last ones always brown too much), but the Gods were smiling on me and the blini went just fine.

I topped half of my blini with salmon, crème fraiche and dill, and the other half with crème fraiche and truffled caviar.  The salmon ones were the most popular, but in my books, both tasted good.

The blini recipe came from p118 of Treat Petite by Fiona Pearce.  To make them, you will need:

150g plain flour
1 tablespoon sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
pinch of salt
175ml milk
1 egg
50g melted butter

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together into a bowl.  Whisk in the milk and the egg, then half of the melted butter.  Place the mixture in the fridge for 30 minutes to chill.  

Heat a frying pan and brush it with half of the remaining melted butter.  Dollop tablespoonfuls of mixture into the pan, and cook until bubbles form on the top side and the blini are  lightly browned underneath.  Flip the blini and cook on the other side until browned, then flip out onto a plate.

To serve, top with a dollop of crème fraiche, a strip of smoked salmon and a sprig of dill; or a dollop of crème fraiche and some truffled caviar.

FFWD - Goats Cheese Filled Pansies - An Alternative to Shrimp-filled Zucchini Blossoms

It is the middle of winter here in Melbourne - it is grey and blustery and cold.  All zucchini plants are very sensibly hibernating for the winter, and will not be presenting any precious blossoms for many months yet.  Accordingly, this week's French Friday with Dorie recipe, Shrimp-filled Zucchini Blossoms, posed a unique challenge for me. 

A Google search suggested that I could use small peppers instead of zucchini blossoms for the recipe.  However, peppers would not have the same delicate quality as the zucchini blossoms, and I wanted to capture that somehow.  Accordingly, my mind turned to other edible flowers.  My local DJs sells edible flowers of various varieties.  They are not cheap, but then, nor are zucchini blossoms, so in the spirit of scientific endeavour, I bought some "vivid velvet" purple pansies to use for this week's recipe.

Instead of stuffing my flowers with shrimp, I used Dorie's goats cheese bonne idee, because I already had goats cheese, and it would glue the pansy petals together better than shrimp.  Unfortunately, the olive tapenade that I thought I could use was looking decidedly past its prime, so I left (threw!) that out, and I used parsley instead of basil (because I grow it for free).

When making the batter for my fried, stuffed pansies, I used sparkling mineral water instead of club soda, because I had it on hand.  It seemed to work perfectly.

I think my pansy fritters turned out quite well, as evidenced by the photo at the top of this post.  The goats cheese filling was very tasty, and the flowers were a mere vehicle for the filling, so it didn't matter that they were purple pansies instead of yellow zucchini blossoms.  I dipped my fritters in Mrs Ball's Chutney - seriously delish!  I ate this dish of fritters for lunch, with a few leftovers to reheat for another time.

To see what the other Doristas did with this recipe, visit the LYL section of the website.

WWDH - Sausage Rolls

This week's Wednesday with Donna Hay recipe is sausage rolls, selected by me.  The recipe is in Modern Classics I, or online here.

For Aussies, the sausage roll is a classic.  It features at parties, in lunchboxes or on long drives when you stop at the bakery for a quick lunch.  In short, it is a national treasure.

I noticed that online, Donna classifies this as a recipe for kids.  This may be why she was very light on the spice.  Me, I would have loved more spice, more kick.  However, these were OK - I can get my kick from the sauce, because as you know, a sausage roll has to be dipped in sauce before eating, preferably tomato.

I halved the recipe and still managed to comfortably get 12 chubby sausage rolls.

To see what Kayte, Margaret, Chaya and Sarah thought of the sausage roll, visit their websites. 

Spiced Nuts

Continuing on the great Christmas cookoff, today's treat is spiced nuts, made using this recipe from Taste. 

Of course, you don't really need a recipe for spiced nuts, but I always worry that I will be too heavy handed with the spices if I don't follow one.

These nuts are just devine - I didn't have paprika so I used half a tablespoon of cayenne instead, and it was just perfect to me.

The spiced nuts are super easy to make and a great treat for parties or to put in Christmas treat boxes, which is what I did.  If you like your nuts with a bit of kick but not too much, these are for you.  Enjoy!

FFwD - Chicken liver gateau with pickled onions

French Fridays with Dorie this week ventures into the slightly scary - Chicken Liver Gateau with Pickled Onions.

This did not appeal to me at all, and the chicken livers were not that easy to find, making this a double challenge.

Despite my misgivings, I went ahead and made it (though there was no way I was going to make the tomato sauce to go with this - gross me out!).  One thing - it was quick and easy to make - just blitz everything together in a food processor and bake.  Here is an inside look:  

I ate it warm because Dorie made it sound appealing - like a custard.  On cooling, it is  more like pate.

I liked the onions, and the mouthfuls of gateau I ate with the onions were fine. Sans the onions, I found the gateau rather bland - kind of like a strange sausage sans spices, and definitely nothing like a custard.

I liked it much better cold, when it was indeed like a pate.  However, I am not a fan and won't be making it again.

To se what the other Dorie cooks thought, visit the LYL section of the website.

WWDH - Artichoke and feta tarts with tomato salad

This week's Wednesday with Donna Hay is hosted by Kayte, who chose Donna's artichoke and feta tarts with tomato salad.  You can find the recipe online here.

These tarts are very simple to make - if you can cut a sheet of frozen puff pastry into four squares, you can make these.  The tarts are topped with halved marinated artichoke hearts and feta, then baked and topped with a tomato and pea salad.

Unfortunately, the salad on top didn't appeal to me, so just to be different, I put the peas and tomatoes on top of the tarts before baking, and drizzled the lot with red balsamic  vinegar before baking.

These litte tarts were delicious - a very nice starter to any meal, or a light meal in itself if you are not hungry.

To see what Kayte, Maragaret and Chaya thought of these tarts, go visit their blogs.

Spiced Nuts

With Christmas having come and gone, we are now looking forward to New Year.  If you are hosting a New Year's party, drinks and nibbles are often the order of the day.  For a moorish snack for party goers, I always think that spiced nuts go down a treat.  How spicy you make your nuts depends on your guests' tastes. 

If hot and spicy is your thing, I don't think you can go wrong with this recipe for spiced nuts. The honey adds a hint of sweetness and helps the spicy chilli powder and paprika to adhere to the nuts. Even better, these nuts are quick and simple to make.

I used a mixture of brazil nuts and almonds, but I think almost any type of nut that takes your fancy would be good coated with this spice mixture.  I packaged up my nuts for Christmas boxes, but do confess to sneaking a few myself along the way - they are pretty good.

What are you doing for the New Year?

FFwD - Chicken Tagine with Sweet Potatoes & Prunes; Eggplant “tartine” with tomatoes, olives, and cucumbers

Hooray, it's Friday again!  I am having some pretty turgid weeks lately, so it always brings a smile to my dial when I make it to yet another Friday and know that I can settle in with a drink after work with friends and forget all about it.

This French Friday with Dorie recipe was Chicken Tagine with Sweet Potatoes and Prunes.  I was pretty excited about this one, as this is my kind of food.  I adore meat and fruit dishes (which I know others hate with a passion), so this one was a no brainer for me to make.

I used "lovely legs" for my chicken pieces, being chicken thighs with the bone in and skin off.    When I worked in a deli as a teenager, we used to titter about the "lovely legs".  I  made the recipe as written, except that I added half a preserved lemon to the mix - hey, I have a big jar of them, so I might as well use them.

I loved this tagine every bit as much as I thought I would - the sauce was so devine that I even mopped it up with a slice of bread so as not to waste a drop.  Superb recipe and a keeper!

I then did a rewind to the first Friday in September to make  the Eggplant Tartine with Olives, Tomatoes and Cucumbers:    

This dish was not such a hit with me, although it looks pretty.  I did like the rounds of baked eggplant, but found the salsa on top a little too bitey for my tastes.

To see what the other Dorie participants thought of this week's tagine, visit the LYL section of the FFwD website.

Have a fabulous weekend!

FFwD - Hummus

This week's French Friday with Dorie recipe is hummus.  This dip was blessedly quick and easy to make by blending together chickpeas, tahini, garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper.  The hardest (and most expensive) part was finding the tahini - which I eventually did in the Jewish food section at the supermarket.

This hummus tasted good, but it would have been a whole lot cheaper just to buy it ready made.  Next time, I'd leave out the garlic - I feel that it made the hummus a little too sharp.  Also, I am left with a jar of tahini - any thoughts on what to do with it?

To see what the other Dorie cooks thought, visit the LYL section of the website.

On a totally different note, I went to the launch of the book Fashion and Flemington at Leona Edmiston's GPO Boutique last night.  There were adorable little red velvet cupcakes:

and cocktails:

and for a lucky couple of people, there were prizes:

As for me, along with my copy of the Fashion and Flemington book (which was included in the entrance price), I got to buy a stylish Leona dress at 20% off and chatted to Amber Petty without knowing who she was until later on.  And if you want to know, she was absolutely charming.

All in all, it was a girl's dream evening.

FFwD - Tomato-Cheese Tartlets

This week's French Fridays with Dorie recipe is tomato-cheese tartlets.  These really couldn't be simpler - rounds of puff pastry, slathered with olive tapenade, topped with rounds of tomato and mozzarella, seasoned with salt and pepper, and drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  You can also decorate these with fresh basil leaves, but at $3 a bunch, my tartlets can stay undecorated.

Verdict: tasty, but not exciting.
To see what the other Dorie participants thought of these tartlets, visit the LYL section of the website.

FFwD - Buckwheat Blinis with Smoked Salmon and Creme Fraiche

I love a bit of smoked salmon every now and again, and this week, Dorie aided and abetted my hankering with our French Fridays with Dorie recipe - Buckwheat Blinis with Smoked Salmon and Creme Fraiche.

Dorie's blinis, which are like little pancakes, are made with buckwheat, because Dorie says it gives them a nutty flavour.  However, buckwheat is rather hard to find here - it is a specialty shop item which costs a pretty penny.  Now that I am possessed of buckwheat flour, I will have to find other ways to use it, as it is right up there in price with chestnut flour.

Interestingly, Dorie's blinis are quite large - when you go to a drinks function here, the blinis served are teeny tiny teaspoon sized objects, whereas Dorie's are around the same size as your average pikelet.

The blinis are relatively easy to make, and I thought they tasted good without any topping at all.

However, the recipe was for blinis with  smoked salmon and creme fraiche, so I continued on: 
 

I rarely buy creme fraiche, it being a relatively exotic item that I first learned about through Jamie Oliver in his jubbly wubbly days (way back in 2001, I was besotted with his lifestyle as portrayed through his TV shows, and was so excited when I got a job in London the next year).


Although I adore smoked salmon, I knew I couldn't eat all of the blinis alone, and I wasn't going to splurge on lots of smoked salmon for my work colleagues, so I made up the remainder of the blinis with halved cherry tomatoes and creme fraiche:

These were pretty good too, although not as decadent as the smoked salmon version.

I enjoyed this week's FFwD - I have never made blinis before, and they are really quite delicious.

To check out what everyone else thought of the buckwheat blinis, visit the LYL section of the FFwD website.

FFwD - Mustard Batons

This week's French Fridays with Dorie recipe (which happens to be Good Friday) is Mustard Batons. Just as it says on the tin, these are puff pastry sticks enclosing a thin spread of mustard and brushed with egg wash to brown them.



Warm, these tasted good. They's make a great alternative to nuts or chips on the snacks table at a party.


If you'd like to see lots of mustard batons, visit the LYL section of the FFwD website.

Austrian Apricot Dumplings (Marillenknodel)

I am attracted by the unusual - something a little different from the norm that strikes my fancy.  Recently in my pilates class, one of the girls was talking about her in-laws making dumplings with fresh apricots, sugar cubes, potato dough and breadcrumbs.  I immediately knew I wanted to make these dumplings, so off I went to Google to do a search, and found this recipe for Austrian apricot dumplings. I only made a half batch for the purposes of this experiment.

Making these dumplings is a really cool process, and I have never seen anything like it before.  First, you slice open an apricot 2/3 of the way round and remove the stone, then replace it with a sugar cube:  

 

In the meantime, you boil up some potatoes, mash them well, and make a dough with the mashed potato.  (I had to use a lot more flour than suggested to get a dough that I could work with.) You then wrap the dough around the apricots to form balls:

I only managed three dumplings out of my half batch of dough.  Oh well.

You then boil these rather large balls for 10 minutes in salted water, then let them drain on paper towels before sprinkling them with fried breadcrumbs and sugar.

During the boiling process, the sugar cube in the centre of the apricots melts, so that the dumpling is savoury on the outside and sweet in the middle.
These were definitely different.  I enjoyed them for a change (though I can only manage one at a time - they are huge), but now that I have satisfied  my curiosity, I probably wouldn't make them again other than as part of an Austrian themed dinner.
Have a great week.