EwE - Blueberry Clafoutis - Divine Desserts

This week's Eating with Ellie theme of Divine Desserts was chosen by me.  Ellie does have some healthier style desserts in her books.  I am not going to say that any of them are as nice as the less healthy versions, but if you are trying to eat right, Ellie's desserts are worth a visit.

This Blueberry Clafoutis started life as Raspberry Clafoutis in So Easy.  However, I did not have frozen raspberries, so I substituted frozen blueberries.  I still used the Chambord (raspberry liqueur) in the recipe though.

 

This version of clafoutis is made with wholemeal flour and milk rather than with white flour and cream, so it is not as decadent as the clafoutis that you may have tried before.  However, it makes a very good alternative, and I would happily eat this on a regular basis.

 

To see what Divine Desserts the other gals made, visit the LYL section of the Eating with Ellie website.

TWD - Tarte Tropezienne

For this week's Tuesday with Dorie, I have made Tarte Tropezienne.  This is like a French version of the German Bienenstich, but with nubbly pearl sugar on top.  I adore pastry cream and am partial to a Bienenstich, so it was a no brainer for me to make this one.  I even splashed out on the pearl sugar at a specialty cake decorating shop to ensure that my Tarte Tropezienne looked elegant and authentic.  The Tarte supposedly received its name when Brigitte Bardot tasted it while filming in Saint-Tropez and suggested that the baker give it a special name.

The Tarte Tropezienne tasted as good as I had hoped - crispy light bread layers sandwiched together with light, creamy pastry cream, and nubbly sugar on top to give it a bit of crunch.

The downside to making this is that it is almost a whole day's effort.  I made my dough at 7.30am and only got to taste it at 2.30pm, and even then I cheated a bit with timeframes because I didn't want to wait another 2 hours after filling the tarte to try a piece. There is a 2-3 hour initial rise, then 30 minutes in the freezer, then 2 hours in the fridge, the pastry cream needs 2-3 hours to chill, baking time is only half an hour, but even after cooling and filling the tarte, you were supposed to wait another 2 hours while it chilled in the fridge.

Nah - couldn't wait, and I cut straight into it.  It was good!  I absolutely adored this, but in the future, I will most likely buy my Bienenstich/Tarte Tropezienne and appreciate how much work went into making it.

To see what everyone else made this week and what they thought of it, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.

Adam Liaw's Yoghurt Pikelets

Recently, I was watching a "bites" section on the Food Network, where they had a five minute snippet from Destination Flavour Australia.  Adam Liaw made kiwifruit jam, which didn't particularly grab me, but then he made some yoghurt pikelets to serve with the jam.   Now the pikelets had my attention!  You can find the recipe online here.

For the uninitiated, a pikelet is kind of like a pancake, but is generally smaller.  These yoghurt pikelets are liight and fluffy and just delicious served warm with whatever you fancy.

I topped mine with lemon juice, sugar and icecream one morning:

 

then refrigerated the leftover batter and made them with yoghurt, raspberries and maple syrup the next morning:

Both versions were so good.  They made the perfect weekend breakfast.

Bruce Bogtrotter's Chocolate Cake from Matilda

When I grow up

I will eat sweets every day

On the way to work and I

Will go to bed late every night

Tim Minchin, When I Grow Up, Matilda The Musical

Back in March, I went with two friends to see Matilda The Musical, and we had a blast.  Everything about this musical was witty and clever and funny, and I didn't need to be a child or to have read Roald Dahl's book to enjoy it.  The above lyrics are from my favourite song in the musical, When I Grow Up.  It is just so joyful and hopeful that everything will be OK when the children who sing it grow up.

One of the more memorable scenes in Matilda The Musical is where horrible Miss Trunchbull makes one of the students at Crunchem Hall, Bruce Bogtrotter, eat an entire enormous chocolate cake after Bruce steals a slice of it from Miss Trunchbull's tea tray.  Somehow, Bruce manages to make his way through the entire cake.

There is a recipe book called Roald Dahl's Revolting Recipes which features a recipe for Bruce Bogtrotter's Chocolate Cake.  I don't have the book, but I found the recipe online here.

This cake involves a lot of eggs and a lot of chocolate, so it makes the risk factor high if something goes wrong.  I found it easy enough to make, although I will confess to leaving it in the oven for almost double the recommended time - there is wobbly in the centre and then there is plain undercooked, and at the 35 minute mark, my cake was still liquid in the centre.

The resulting cake is a deep, dark chocolate indulgence - the kind of cake where it is really hard to stop at just one slice as you sink your teeth into its moist, chocolatey heart.  I would make this cake again - if I dare!

Raw Carrot Cake for The Melbourne Cake Club - Non-Baked Cakes

Last night, the Melbourne Cake Club had its monthly meeting, with the theme of Non-Baked Cakes.  The meeting was held at The Ugly Duckling in Richmond:

The Ugly Duckling is tucked unobtrusively near the corner of Swan and Church Streets in Richmond, and has an extensive  range of cocktails.  I chose the Orchard Pixie (apple and elderflower liqueur) ($19), which was quite refreshing:

After we ordered our cocktails, we turned to the highlight of the evening - the cakes!

Abi made a gingerbread cheesecake:

Our newest member, Nicole K, made a chocolate biscuit cake with macadamias:

Sue made a Lemon, Lime and Ginger Cheesecake:

Nicole N made a Strawberry and White Chocolate Cheesecake:

Dalya made Tiramisu:

and I made a Raw Carrot Cake:

It seems that I am drawn to the same recipes over and over, because I made exactly the same raw carrot cake some time ago. I used Teresa Cutter's recipe, which is online here.  However, to frost the cake, I veered off on my own path and made a yoghurt frosting made by draining the yoghurt overnight before mixing with icing sugar and vanilla.  It was based on this recipe, but I halved the icing sugar.  I also made candied walnuts to decorate, using this  recipe.

What is surprising about the raw carrot cake is that, after the requisite period of chilling, all of the ingredients meld into each other.  The resulting cake is quite tangy, albeit soft and not amenable to being out of the fridge for very long.  It is also surprisingly sweet.

And here are my leftovers from the evening:

This was a terrific theme, and a good night was had by all.  Next month's theme is cakes to share, and we are bringing guests.  If you are in the Melbourne area and would like to join us, you can find The Melbourne Cake Club out on Meetup.com and register.

The Ugly Duckling

238 Swan Street

Richmond VIC 3121

Phone: (03) 9429 1498 

EwE - Chicken Enchiladas with Avocado Sauce - Cinco de Mayo

Eating with Ellie has revamped, which I am happy about.  I love Ellie Kreiger's recipes.  They make it easier for me to choose what to make each week to avoid falling into the stir fry rut.  For May, Kayte chose the theme of Cinco de Mayo - Let's Cook Mexican.

For our last EwE them, What's on the Side?, I made a zucchini, spinach and corn sauté that Ellie suggested pairing with her Chicken Enchiladas with Avocado Sauce - so that is what I did.

These are so simple to make, so tasty, and only 390 calories per serve.  You take a corn tortilla, and fill it with shredded barbecue chicken mixed with red onion, tomato salsa and coriander:

You then make a delicious sauce of avocado, coriander, lime, salt, pepper and buttermilk to spoon over the top of the enchilada.  It is just so tasty.  This was one of my favourite Ellie dishes so far, and a definite keeper.

To see what the other Ellie cooks made, visit the LYL section of the EwE website. 

Pomegranate Sesame Chicken

I recently found myself with some tricky leftover ingredients to use up - half a pomegranate and half a bottle of pomegranate juice.  Yup - not necessarily everyday items in my kitchen.  To make sure I did not waste these reasonably pricey ingredients, I went searching for things I could make with them - and I landed on this Pomegranate Chicken recipe.  

How delicious does the original look? It looks much better than mine because it appears ever so much stickier, with the chicken liberally coated with an ooey, gooey pomegranate and soy sauce.  My dish did not end up with anywhere near as much sauce; that said, I still enjoyed this recipe, which is a little off the beaten track, and which achieved my aim of using up a good percentage of my leftover pomegranate ingredients.

The sauce is a savoury-sweet combination; the pomegranate seeds add tartness and crunch; the sesame seeds add flavour and texture; and the broccoli adds the much-needed vegetables. I didn't have mushrooms, so I left them out, and I added some yellow capsicum.  I also didn't bother with the ginger rice pilaf and just used boiled brown rice instead.  However, this was still a tasty dish, and I would try it again if I ever ended up with the same unusual combination of ingredients.