WWDH - Bacon and Egg Pies

This week's Wednesday with Donna Hay is my pick.  I went for quick and simple, and chose Bacon and Egg Pies from p158 of Off the Shelf.

These little pies are so easy - just line a mini pie pan with puff pastry, brown some bacon in the oven, put a cheese and mustard mixture in the puff pastry base, put the browned bacon on top, and crack an egg over all of it, and bake for around 20 minutes in the oven.  (Donna uses two eggs and two pieces of bacon per pie, but I wanted something a little less hefty.)

These pies taste delicious, and are achieved with minimal effort.

To see what Kayte, Margaret and Chaya thought of these pies, visit their blogs tomorrow when it will be Wednesday their time.

BWJ - Savarin

Two months ago, I had no idea what a Savarin was.  Fast forward to now, and I have made two of them.  My first effort was for Daring Bakers in April.  Now I have made a Savarin again, this time for Baking with Julia.

The Baking with Julia version of Savarin was much less of a production than the Daring Bakers version.  Instead of six hours of rising time, there was just under an hour of rising time all up.   The finished product was smaller, but was therefore easier to work with.  Instead of soaking the cake in cooled syrup while the Savarin was hot, in this recipe, the hot syrup is spooned onto the cold cake until it can't hold any more fluid.  I found that the Savarin was moister and spongier than the Daring Bakers version because it was smaller and therefore it took less syrup to saturate it.  For the syrup, I added a tablespoon of Chambord to give it a slight raspberry flavour.

Although the recipe called for whipped cream to fill the middle, I used the same crème patisserie as we used for the Daring Bakers version.  This time, I used blueberries and cherries to top the Savarin.

Here is the end result:

While this Savarin is not on such a grand scale as the Daring Bakers version, I liked it better because it was much easier to make, and the Savarin itself was softer and moister because of its smaller  volume versus the amount of syrup.  I had dreaded making another Savarin so soon because I knew the amount of effort that went into the last one, but I needn't have feared it this time - I could have easily made the entire cake, filling and all, in an afternoon.

To see what the other BWJ bakers thought, visit the LYL section of the website.

Donna Hay's Raspberry and Yoghurt Loaf

I adore raspberries - any recipe that pops up in a magazine that contains raspberries has my attention. Accordingly, when I spied Donna Hay's recipe for raspberry yoghurt loaf, it was love at first sight.

I found the recipe in Sunday Style (12 May 2013), but you can find it online here in blueberry form. 

What is not to love about this cake - it contains tangy yoghurt and gorgeous raspberries (the frozen variety so that you don't have to remortgage your house to make it). I think this would work well with cherries as well as other berries.

The cake itself is soft, moist and tangy - it is really easy to eat.

If you love raspberries, do try this cake - it is a treat.  

FFwD - Ann Le Blanc's Pistachio Avocado - err, Macadamia Avocado

This week's French Fridays with Dorie recipe is - well, not really a recipe.  Half an avocado squirted with lemon juice and the cavity filled with oil and sprinkled with salt - in Dorie's case, pistachio oil, in my case, macadamia oil.

Spread on an English muffin, it's nice - but so is plain avocado with salt on a muffin.  I splashed out on the oil for this recipe, but I don't really think it was necessary.  I am sorry to say that I was not inspired by this dish.

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

Sir Paul McCartney's Super Vegetable Salad

I have never been a huge lover of salad, and as a kid, I hated most vegetables. However, I have become quite partial to certain types of salad as I have travelled down life's highway, especially anything containing pumpkin.

The salad featured at the top of this post is surprising because it is way more green than many salads that I would normally eat, yet I enjoyed it immensely.  This warm salad is Sir Paul McCartney's Super Vegetable Salad.  I obtained the recipe from Share: The Cookbook That Celebrates Our Common Humanity, but the recipe is also online here.

The differenced between the version in Share and the Meatless Monday version are that the cherry tomatoes are not roasted in the Share version (although I wish that they had been!), and the tofu is an optional extra.  Otherwise, the recipe is the same.  I used the maple syrup in the dressing, because I am a sweet tooth after all.

This is a very hearty salad which serves as a meal on its own (especially if you add the tofu), or which makes a wonderful side dish (which is how I served it).

If you sometimes get a bit lost as to what to do with veges to make a tasty salad, like I sometimes do, you  can't go wrong with this fabulous super salad.  It tastes good warm (as the recipe is written) or cold (for all of those leftovers).

Weekend eats in Sydney

The weekend before last, Tim and I spent a leisurely three day weekend in sunny Sydney.  The weather was blissfully warm during the day, with cold, crisp nights.  Having come from rainy, grey Melbourne, we really appreciated the contrast.

While in Sydney, we went to see the Swans play Fremantle in the AFL (it was a draw),  visited the Art Gallery of NSW to see the Archibald Prize exhibition, went on a free tour of Government House in the NSW Botanic Gardens, and went on the ferry to Manly.

We also ate lots of very good food.  At the top of this post is the Tiger from Harrys Café de Wheels at Woolloomooloo.  A Tiger is a pie topped with mashed potato, mashed peas and gravy.  The trick to eating it is to dig down through the gravy and mash into the top of the pie and let the gravy soak in before attempting to eat the pie.  This avoids gravy ending up everywhere.

Our next stop was to Laduree on Level 3 of Westfield in the CBD:

I had a skinny flat white coffee:

and Tim and I shared this plate of maracons - clockwise from top left - salted caramel, licorice, lime and basil and raspberry:

For me, the surprise hit was the tangy lime and basil.

My friend Karen introduced me to the gorgeous Coco Chocolate in Kirribilli:

The chocolate is not cheap, but it is exquisite.  I bought two blocks of chocolate ($9 each for 70g):

rose and ginger, and caramel, pine nut and sea salt:

Both were good, but I liked the caramel the best.

On a trip to Newtown to visit the Dr Who pop-up shop:

we stopped off for lunch at Thai Pothong:

For starters, we had the Thai fish cakes ($12.90 for 4 cakes):

These were scrumptious - sweet and sour sauce, peanuts, green beans, kaffir lime.

For main, Tim had his favourite - green curry with beef ($17.90):

And I had Pad Se Ew (flat rice noodles) with chicken and prawns ($17.90):

The serves were generous and the food was excellent.  The service was prompt, and the ambience was perfect in the large, open sunlit restaurant.

On our last day, we went for takeaway Mexican at Guzman y Gomez at Manly:

I ordered the Chicken Guerrero burrito (mild):

It was good, but I like Mad Mex better, where you can choose your own fillings instead of selecting from a set combination.

All in all, it was a great weekend.

Harrys Café de Wheels
Corner Cowper Wharf Roadway
& Brougham Road
Woolloomooloo NSW 2011

 

Laduree

Level 3, Westfield, 450 George St

Sydney NSW 2000

 

Coco Chocolate

Shop 12
3a-9b Broughton St
Kirribilli  NSW 2061

Thai Pothong

294 King Street

Newtown NSW 2042

 

Guman y Gomez

Shop 14, Manly Wharf,
East Esplanade
Manly NSW 2095

 

Daring Bakers - Prinsesstarta

I joined Daring Bakers oh so long ago now so that I could make pretty cakes.  The strawberry mirror cake inspired me to join, and while we make all kinds of things, pretty cakes are still my favourite things to make.  This month, I got to fulfil a long held ambition to make a particular type of pretty cake that I first saw on Anne's Food. 

Korena of Korena in the Kitchen was our May Daring Bakers’ host and she delighted us with this beautiful Swedish Prinsesstårta!

Prinsesstårta is a traditional Swedish cake, comprising layers of fluffy sponge sandwiched together with red jam, crème patisserie and cream, then covered with (usually) bright green marzipan and topped off with a pink marzipan rose:

I think it took me so long to get around to making this cake because it all sounds rather daunting.  However, since I first discovered Prinsesstårta, I have made the individual components many times for other recipes, so this one didn't phase me.

I used store bought marzipan tinted with green gel colouring, and for the jam, I chose strawberry (as I have a huge pot of it).  For some reason, this custard recipe did not like me and it split - I wonder if this is because it contains cream rather than milk, which is what I am used to using to make crème patisserie.  The custard never quite came back together and it chilled with a nasty hard fat layer on top, which I removed.  Starting again isn't an option when several egg yolks are involved. I also rolled my marzipan a little too thin because I was 30g short of the recipe requirement (as marzipan is sold here in 250g boxes), so it tore a little in a few places.  I disguised my sins with little marzipan leaves cut from the offcuts placed discreetly over the tears.

In the end,  none of this mattered - I received high praise from the recipients of this cake:

They didn't know about my trials and tribulations, and I didn't tell them.  I have to say that Prinsesstårta tastes delicious - a heavenly cake fit for royalty. 

Thanks to Korena for setting this challenge.  She will have the recipe.  To check out what the other Daring Bakers made of this month's challenge, you can visit the slide show on the Daring Kitchen website in due course.