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.

Banana and Cardamom Loaf - Now We Are Six

Now We Are Six

       

When I was one,
I had just begun.
When I was two,
I was nearly new.
When I was three,
I was hardly me.
When I was four,
I was not much more.
When I was five,
I was just alive.
But now I am six,
I'm as clever as clever.
So I think I'll be six
now and forever.

     

                      A.A. Milne

My blog turns six today.  I had intended to celebrate with a fancy cake, but life took over, and instead, I am celebrating with a humble Banana and Cardamom Loaf that I made earlier in the week.

On Friday, my blog received an unofficial pressie from Jacqui and Elena at work, who gave me these adorable heart-shaped measuring cups and cupcake toppers, because they said that my baking makes them happy:

Aren't these adorable!  These gifts made me happy.

My Banana and Cardamom Loaf is by Mike Wallis, from p88 The Clandestine Cake Club Cookbook:

It's not the prettiest cake (in the book they only have photos of a few pieces of it), but it's very tasty, with a lovely crunch on the outside and a soft moist centre:

 

 

To make this cake, you will need:

 

120g butter

225g sugar

2 eggs

300g plain flour

4 ripe mashed bananas

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cardamom

1/2 teaspoon salt

75ml yoghurt

2 teaspoons lemon juice

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

 

Preheat your oven to 190 degrees Celsius and grease and line a large loaf tin.

 

Beat the butter and sugar together in a stand mixer until light and creamy.  Beat in the eggs, one at a  time, adding one tablespoon of flour with the eggs.

 

Add the cardamom, bananas  and salt and mix well.  Mix in the yoghurt and lemon juice, then fold in the remaining flour and bicarbonate of soda.  Spread the batter into the prepared loaf tin (my batter was very thick), then bake in the preheated oven for 1 hour or until cooked through.

 

Cool the cake in the tin for a few minutes before unmoulding onto a wire rack to cool completely before cutting.

 

Enjoy!

 

PS  Is anyone in Melbourne running a Clandestine Cake Club, or would anyone like to start one with me?  I think it sounds like fun.

FFwD - Asparagus Soup

... asparagus, tinged with ultramarine and rosy pink which ran from their heads, finely stippled in mauve and azure, through a series of imperceptible changes to their white feet, still stained a little by the soil of their garden-bed: a rainbow-loveliness that was not of this world.

Marcel Proust

It has been an asparagus-tinged week for me - first asparagus in the Savoury Brioche Pockets, then Rigatoni with Peas, Asparagus and Ricotta, and now, Asparagus Soup for French Fridays with Dorie.  Phew!  Luckily I like asparagus. 

I found the steps involved in making this soup a little fiddly - peel the stalks; place the trimmings in cheesecloth and boil with the asparagus etc etc.  The recipe calls for 2 1/2 pounds of asparagus, so peeling all of those spears would have sent me potty.  However, due to the price of asparagus here (end of season) and the fact that I didn't want six serves of soup, I only had to peel six spears, and bulked up the asparagus content with some leftover tinned asparagus that I had in the fridge.   

As expected, this soup tasted predominantly of - well, asparagus.  There's a hint - if you aren't a fan of asparagus, don't make this soup.  It was OK, but didn't light any fires for me.

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

Vale Hazel Hawke, who passed away yesterday aged 84.  Hazel was the wife of one of our prime ministers, Bob Hawke.  She reminds me of being a child in upper primary school, when Bob was elected PM, as one of our teachers told the class that if you didn't know the answer in the social studies test, write "Bob Hawke".   I think our teacher was encouraging people to "have a crack" (to use a great Australian colloquialism) rather than to leave the answer blank; however, some students took him literally and wrote "Bob Hawke" as the answer to questions they didn't know, much to the amusement of our class.  Good times!

WWDH - Rigatoni with Peas, Asparagus and Ricotta

This week's Wednesday with Donna Hay pick came from Chaya, who selected Rigatoni with Peas, Asparagus and Ricotta from p130 of Modern Classics I.

This is such a simple, light, fresh dish - it comprises pasta with asparagus, peas (whole and mashed) cooked in chicken stock, ricotta, parmesan, salt, pepper and a little olive oil.  It is quick to make and very easy to eat.  I loved it.

To see what Chaya, Margaret and Kayte thought of this dish, visit their websites.