FFwD - Gorgonzola-Apple Quiche

This week's French Friday with Dorie recipe is Gorgonzola-Apple Quiche.  I was making this to share with friends and almost opted out in favour of the Quiche Lorraine alternative (being more of a crowd pleaser).  However, I loved the idea of the flavours in this version, so stuck with it at the risk of it being unpopular (after all, it contains stinky blue cheese).

I am glad that I decided to make this - it was different to anything else I have tried before, and the salty gorgonzola contrasted nicely with the sweetness of the apple and the silkiness of the filling:

My variations were to use light cream and light grated cheese (instead of full fat cheddar and parmesan) in the filling, and to make low fat pastry using ricotta cheese instead of Dorie's tart dough.

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

Happy Birthday Rosario!

Today is Rosario's birthday.  Rosario is a work colleague of mine, and I found out it was her birthday through Sandra.

A birthday is not a birthday without cake (IMHO), so I made Rosario a birthday cake from the Crabapple Bakery Vanilla Daisy Cupcakes recipe, and iced it with the Crabapple Bakery's vanilla buttercream icing dyed pink and flavoured with musk.

Unfortunately, supermarket writing icing does not come in the most attractive colours, and at 10.30pm I was not making my own, so the piping colours are a little on the drab side.  But it's the thought that counts, right?  I tried to jazz it up a little with gold edible disco glitter.

Rosario was so lovely and thanked me for the cake, and saved me a slice:

Happy birthday Rosario!

Donna Hay's White Chocolate and Raspberry Bread and Butter Pudding

Way back in October last year, Sandra gave me a recipe by Donna Hay out of Sunday Life magazine for White Chocolate and Raspberry Bread and Butter Pudding.  I duly acknowledged it and tucked the recipe away in my kitchen drawer, where it snoozed quite happily - until now. The inspiration to find out this recipe was the fact that I had to buy a challah loaf for a couple of other recipes (which you will see in due course), but had over half a loaf left over.  As challah is not cheap, I didn't want to waste it, and I thought of Donna's bread and butter pudding as being the perfect vehicle for using up the challah.

The recipe uses heavy cream - I only had light cream, and only half a cup of that, so I used 1 cup milk and 1/2cup light cream instead of the 1 1/2 cups cream in the recipe.  In the recipe, the suggested bread is sour dough - challah did quite nicely.

I took this into work and invited Sandra to share it with whomever she chose  - and me of course!  I got very good reviews on this pudding, and best of all, it was ridiculously quick and easy to make.  The raspberries added a contrasting sharpness to the sweetness of the remainder of the pudding.  Sandra suggested this might also be nice with peaches or nectarines - and I tend to agree.

The recipe in full, should you wish to try it, is as follows:

200g chopped white chocolate (I used white melts)
1 1/2 cups (375ml) heavy cream (I used 1 cup milk + 1/2 cup light cream)
3 eggs
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 x sourdough loaf, cut into 16 slices (I used 1/2 a challah)
60g softened butter
250g fresh raspberries (I used frozen)
1tablespoon raw sugar (I used more white sugar)
icing sugar for dusting (I left this out)

Preheat your oven to 160 Celsius. Heat the chocolate and cream in a heavy-based saucepan over low heat and cook, stirring, until the chocolate is melted and smooth.

Place the chocolate mixture, eggs, sugar and vanilla in a bowl and whisk to combine.

Spread the bread with butter and place in a 6-cup capacity (1.5 litre) ovenproof dish (I used Pyrex) that has been lightly greased, and dot the bread with the raspberries.

Pour the chocolate mixture over the bread and sprinkle with the raw sugar. Allow the pudding to stand for 10 minutes.

Place the pudding in its dish into a larger baking dish and pour in enough boiling water to come halfway up the sides of the pudding dish. Place the pudding in the water-filled baking dish into the pre-heated oven and bake for 50-60 minutes or until golden and just set.

Dust with icing sugar and serve warm. Serves 4-6.

Wednesdays with Donna Hay - Puffed Cheese Omelette

This week, for Wednesdays with Donna Hay, Kayte of Grandmas's Kitchen Table and I made the Puffed Cheese Omelette.  This is a delicious omelette made with fluffy whipped egg whites folded into the yolks which have been beaten with cream (I used light cream).  The omelette is cooked on one side in a pan coated with sizzling butter (in my case, margarine)before being filled with a mixture of marscapone (I used light ricotta) and chopped chives.

I made it for breakfast - and it was delish:

I would definitely make this again - easy and tasty.

Go see what Kayte thought of this omelette in 16 hours time. 
Next week: Potato and parmesan soup with parsley pesto

Heaven Gastro Lounge, Melbourne

Today in Melbourne is one of those desert-like, dry, hot summer days where to step outside is to become a melting puddle of a person, desperate to seek the cool shelter of a shopping centre or movie theatre.  Yesterday was the same.  The streets in my suburb are eerily quiet as everyone bunkers down inside to escape the heat.  I think the only way to keep cool would be to sit in a nice cool bath and change the water regularly - and unfortunately, I do not have a bath.

Last night, when it was slightly cooler due to the presence of a gentle breeze, my friend Tim and I went to dinner at Heaven Gastro Lounge on St Kilda Road.  It is an unlikely place for a restaurant open on weekends, nestled as it is in the basement of an office building, but it was a fantastic find, courtesy of a discount voucher that I purchased online.  

The top of this post shows the interior of Heaven - dark and moody, but with fairy lights on a latticework partition and Campari posters on the walls, with television screens silently showing MTV.  On its website, Heaven describes itself as "modern English Gastro Pub food with French, Italian & Asian influence".  I pretty much think that says it is unique and makes its own path.  The chef, Sanjeev Johri, has over ten years experience, and has worked for, among others, Jacques Reymond.

Our deal entitled us to an entree (described in American style as an "appetiser" on the menu), a main and a dessert, with a cocktail.  Our Cosmopolitan cocktails came out first (curiously, sans cranberry juice), and in the heat did not touch the sides.  Accordingly, I followed it up by purchasing a glass  of Fleur de Lys sparkling wine.

For entree, Tim chose the cured New Zealand king salmon served with salmon caviar:

while I chose the five spices calamari with lotus root, Spanish chorizo and spicy tomato sauce:

Both dishes tasted good, and with mine, I enjoyed the contrast of the cool vegetables against the zingy five spice coated calamari.

For main, I could not go past the pork hock with chilli caramel sauce, apple puree, Vietnamese salad, pickled melon and pan seared scallop:

The meat apparently slow cooks for 5 hours, and comes out crunchy on the outside and soft in the middle.  The chilli caramel sauce makes the dish - it is the perfect balance of zinginess and sweetness, and complemented the dish nicely.

Tim selected the crispy skin duck in traditional Yorkshire sauce served with potato mash, pumpkin and daikon salad:

The duck was pleasingly soft and moist under the juicy skin, and Tim liked the citrusy tang to the sauce - not immediately what I'd associate with Yorkshire, but that is being nitpicky.

For dessert, Tim chose a very fine tiramisu made with chocolate cake:

while I chose the trio of icecreams (chocolate, vanilla and a raspberry sorbet) with chocolate stick and brandy snaps: 

The brandy snaps were absent, but I didn't mind - I deliberately chose the icecream as a light option for dessert after my rich pork hock main.

Mains at Heaven are around the $30 mark, entrees are around the $20 mark while desserts are around $15.

The staff were very attentive and friendly, and it was suitably cool and dark inside the restaurant to provide relief from the heat outside.  All in all, it was a good experience, and I'd definitely go back.

Heaven Gastro Lounge
580 Lower Ground Floor,
St Kilda Road,
Melbourne VIC 3004
Ph: (03) 9041 2129

Daring Bakers - Back to Basics: Scones

There was a table set out under a tree in front of the house, and the March Hare and the Hatter were having tea at it: a Dormouse was sitting between them, fast asleep, and the other two were using it as a cushion, resting their elbows on it, and talking over its head. `Very uncomfortable for the Dormouse,' thought Alice; `only, as it's asleep, I suppose it doesn't mind.'

From Chapter VII, A Mad Tea Party, Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

I have now been a Daring Baker for 4 years - since January 2008.  My first Daring Bakers recipe was lemon meringue pie.  Every now and again, especially when I am time poor, I think about giving it up, but then a recipe surprises me and I keep on going. I look forward to the possibilities that this year will bring with the Daring Bakers, a group of thousands of bakers from all over the world who bake the same recipe once a month.

Audax Artifex was our January 2012 Daring Bakers’ host. Aud worked tirelessly to master light and fluffy scones (a/k/a biscuits) to help us create delicious and perfect batches in our own kitchens!

Scones are a tea time favourite in Australia, inherited from the British migrants to this country.  Traditionally, scones are served with jam and cream to make a Devonshire tea or a Cornish tea, depending on whether you put the jam or the cream on first (or so I have been told).  On my first trip to England in 2001,  I made sure that I had tea (in a pot, of course) with scones with jam and clotted cream in a small tea room in Kensington, London, somewhere close to Harrods.  It was fabulous, of course, and is a treasured memory of my trip.

Audax's recipe for scones was neither hard nor expensive, but I certainly learned a lot about scone making, despite having made scones since as far back as home economics in year eight at high school. I was pleasantly surprised by how high and fluffy the scones I made this month were:

I am scraping this in the day before it is due on the Australia Day holiday, so I haven't made any variations.  I just made Audax's basic recipe.  I froze the grated butter, I cut the butter into the flour with a pastry cutter, I  rested the dough for twenty minutes before cutting it, I used a cold cutter, I didn't twist the cutter when cutting out the scones, and I brushed the tops with milk before baking, and baked them in the hot oven recommended.  I am not sure which element it was, or whether it was all of them, but these were the highest, fluffiest scones that I have ever made.  I was very pleased!  The only downer was that I only got three scones out of the recipe - perhaps my cutter was too big?

In the Australian/English tradition, I served my scones with jam (blueberry on this case) and whipped cream, all gussied up in little soy sauce pots from a sushi set:

Nom!

Thanks to Audax for proving that even when you think you know something, there is always more that can be learned about it.  Audax will publish the recipe on his site, if you would like to try it.  And check out the other Daring Bakers efforts at The Daring Kitchen.

FFwD - Broth-braised potatoes

Ahhh, it's Fabulous Friday - in a few hours time, I can kick back and relax for a couple of days. Yah!

This week's French Fridays with Dorie dish is broth-braised potatoes.  This involves boiling potatoes in chicken stock and various herbs for flavour.  My initial thoughts were that it wasn't worth the effort, but I was pretty happy with the end result.  The potatoes were mighty tasty, and made a change from potatoes boiled in salted water.

I served my potatoes with M. Jacques roasted chicken from FFwD a couple of weeks ago.

To see what all the other Doristas thought of this simple but tasty dish, visit the FFwD website.