apple cake w rhubarb & cream cheese glaze

This is the most wonderful apple cake recipe I have ever eaten.

The outside is crunchy, like a fine crust, while the inside is crumbly and moist with chunks of apples and the heady fragrance of cinnamon.

I defy anyone not to like this cake.

The inspiration for this cake came after a visit to the local markets at Eveleigh, where an eccentrically dressed farmer (think Mongolian fur hat and worn leather vest) forced us to taste his Pink Lady apples. He was pushing them on us like a dealer to a junkie, so we begrudgingly accepted a slice and quickly skulked away.

When the sweet-tart fruit hit our lips, we truly became addicted.

Our eyes widened and we looked at each other in shock, as if we’d never truly eaten an apple before. That farmer knew what he was doing, and in a flash Jonas and I had bought ourselves a heavy bag full of luscious Pink Lady apples.

Now we just had to figure out what to do with them all.

There was Roasted Apple Sauce and Chorizo w Apples and we ate the rest just as nature made them.

But the crowning glory was this cake.

Initially I bought rhubarb to make an apple and rhubarb pie but, when I remembered Steph’s Earl Grey Cake with Rhubarb Cream Cheese Glaze, I decided I wanted to nick her frosting idea and smother it all over an apple cake.

A quick search on Google Images to find a cake with the right fluffy interior, and I stumbled across this recipe. Done.

Baking this cake was dead easy and the results were superb. I took the leftovers to work and it was certainly a crowd pleaser at morning tea.

Better still, it was exactly the kind of cake that Jonas loves, and it’s always nice to make him happy.

Apple & Cinnamon Cake

Recipe by Selma Horan via Taryn Cox, The Wife. Serves 12.

Ingredients:
2 eggs
2 cups of sugar
1 cup of canola oil
2 teaspoons of vanilla
2 teaspoons of cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
3 cups flour
3 cups chopped apples

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180’c.

2. Beat eggs in mixing bowl.

3. Add sugar, oil and vanilla.

4. In a separate bowl combine cinnamon, baking soda, salt and flour.

5. Slowly add the flour mixture into the wet ingredients until dough has formed.

6. Add chopped apples to dough (if you dont have a kitchen-aid mixture with a dough hook, then it is best to mix in apples by hand as dough becomes very thick.)

7. Pour into a lightly greased bundt cake pan and cook for 45 – 60 minutes.

Rhubarb & Cream Cheese Glaze

Recipe by Steph from Raspberri Cupcakes. Makes plenty.

Ingredients:
150g rhubarb, diced
Zest of 1 lemon
2 tablespoons caster sugar
1 tablespoon water
125g cream cheese, softened
1 cup (150g) icing sugar, sifted

Method:

1. Place rhubarb in a small saucepan on low heat with lemon zest, sugar and water.

2. Stirring occasionally, simmer rhubarb until soft and cooked through, about 10 minutes.

3. Remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

4. Puree mixture in a food processor or blender.

5. Place cream cheese in a large mixing bowl and beat until smooth.


6. Add sifted icing sugar and rhubarb puree and beat until smooth.

7. Pour over the top of cooled cake and serve immediately.

blue swimmer crab bisque

I have always wanted to make a bisque, a seafood soup heavily flavoured by the shells of crustaceans.

The word bisque sounds so uplifting and fresh, a perfect image for any seafood dish. It seems the etymology of bisque seems to come from the Bay of Biscay, that rather large bite of land missing between Spain and France. Makes sense, no?

Keen to give bisque a whirl, I was pretty excited when I was allocated the Spider Crab Bisque as part of the Murdoch Book's 365 Challenge to cook every recipe from Stéphane Reynaud's 365 Good Reasons to Sit Down to Eat.

The original recipe uses spider crabs, only there weren’t any at my poissonnerie, so I opted for gorgeous blue swimmer crabs. Their azure shells are so photogenic.

The recipe is extremely easy to make and produces a perfect bisque. The extreme shellfish flavour really comes through, with chunks of crab meat adding texture to the velvety soup.

Only problem . . . it seems I don’t actually like bisque.

The moment the soup hit my lips I remembered, with utter disappointment, having eaten this soup in many fine French restaurants, and even at my mother’s table, and never having liked it!

After all the preparation and investment, I couldn’t believe I had forgotten this simple fact.

But don’t let my forgetfulness put you off: this recipe is perfect, so if you like bisque you’ll just love it!

Crab Bisque

Recipe from 365 Good Reasons to Sit Down to Eat by Stéphane Reynaud. Serves 6.

Ingredients:
6 fresh spider or blue swimmer crabs
2 potatoes
2 carrots
2 french shallots (eschalots)
3 tablespoons olive oil
250ml (1 cup) white wine
2 very ripe tomatoes, diced
1 tablespoon tomato paste (concentrated puree)
200ml pouring (whipping) cream
Salt and pepper

Method:

1. Poach the spider crabs in a large volume of water for 15 minutes.

2. Remove the meat from the shells (this will take a little time) and using a lobster pick, empty out each of the spider crab claws. Also get the roe found in the body cavity.

3. Rinse out the body shells of the crabs in water. They will be used, to our great delight, as tureens for the bisque. Ah, Brittany, the joys you bestow upon us.

4. Peel the potatoes and carrots, cut them into cubes.

5. Peel and slice the shallots.

6. Sauté three-quarters of the shallots with the carrots and potatoes in the olive oil, moisten with the white wine.

7. Add three-quarters of the crabmeat, the tomato and tomato paste, cook for 20 minutes.

8. Add the cream, then puree and season. Serve the bisque in the crab shells, (oh, it's so beautiful).

9. Add the rest of the crabmeat and a few shallot rings.

crispy brussels sprouts w bacon & garlic

This was the recipe I used to convince Jonas that brussels sprouts are delicious, eaten with pan-fried duck.

Apart from being ridiculously cheap and oh-so-pretty (have you seen the way they grow!), brussels sprouts are very healthy too. If you like to eat them, you’re one of the luckiest people in the world.

Photo source:
www.secretseedsociety.com

Until recently, Jonas and I were not those people.

We wanted to like brussels sprouts, but every time we tasted them we’d screw up our noses and look at each other in disappointment.

Back in late 2010, Jonas and I ate a tremendously earthly lentil and crispy brussels sprouts dish at Porteño and suddenly I knew there was hope for us.

Jonas was yet to be convinced. It’s one thing to eat brussels sprouts prepared by a professional chef, it’s another to try and develop the taste for them at home.

But then we made this.

The brussels sprouts are given a go-around in a frying pan to ensure they’re crispy and flavoursome, while garlic and bacon add an extra, convincing oomph.

And, as Jonas has started to say almost weekly, “everything tastes better with bacon”.

Crispy Brussels Sprouts w Bacon & Garlic

Anna’s very own recipe. Serves 2.

Ingredients:
10 small brussels sprouts
2 bacon rashers, minced
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
¼ cup (60ml) olive oil
2 tablespoons rock salt, sea salt or "Kosher" salt
Salt and pepper

Method:

1. Peel off any bad leaves from the brussels sprouts

2. Bring a pot of water to the boil. Add rock salt.

3. Blanch brussels sprouts for 4 minutes then drain and refresh in cold running water.

4. Cut sprouts in half lengthwise.

5. Heat olive oil on high. Add bacon and cook 1 minute.

6. Add Brussels sprouts and fry until they start to brown around the edges and the bacon crisps.

7. Add garlic slices and fry 1 minute until softened.

8. Drain brussels sprouts to remove excess oil. Serve hot.

marzipan & grand marnier truffles

Soft almond paste flavoured with orange zest and a burst of orange liqueur, smothered in dark chocolates. Yummy.

And just what I need, because I’ve had a rough week.

Jonas and I came home from a wonderful weekend in hinterland of the Sunshine Coast, where we celebrated Ms Correct and B-Rad’s tres chic wedding (if you are ever in that part of the world, I highly recommend spending some time in the cute mountain village of Montville: it’s just lovely).

When we came home our houseguest / adopted son, Fabio, had left us a note saying he’d run away with the circus.

So the house was all ours again.

I was keen to do some cooking, write some posts and begin the painful, tedious job of reloading all my old images to the blog after I’d accidentally deleted THEM ALL a few weeks ago. Don’t ask.

But then I caught the flu. Not some common floozy cold but nasty Madame Influenza herself.
That progressed into a chest infection and here I am, six days later, only just crawling out of bed and still decked out in head to toe fleece.

Jonas has turned out to be a regular little Florence Nightingale, bolstering my health with delicious dinners and a regular supply of chocolate and mandarins, a craving of my current state.

He loves marzipan, and so this little truffle recipe is a shout-out to my lovely hubby who nursed me back to health.

Another 2011 Food Challenge, to make more candies, ticked off.

Marzipan & Grand Marnier Truffles

Anna's very own recipe. Makes 6-10 truffles.

Ingredients:
100g marzipan
1 teaspoon orange zest
1 tablespoon Grand Marnier
100g dark chocolate

Method:
1. Knead marzipan, orange zest and Grand Marnier together.
2. Roll into balls then refrigerate for an hour or so to harden up.
3. Melt the chocolate then allow it to cool for 5-10 minutes (depends how warm your kitchen is).
4. Roll the balls in the chocolate then allow them to cool further for 20 minutes before refrigerating them.
5. Remove from fridge just before eating.

fisherman's rouille

There’s something romantic about any dish that’s described as a fisherman’s meal, and this is what drew me towards this cuttlefish and potato salad, which I cooked as part of Murdoch Book's 365 Challenge to cook every recipe from Stéphane Reynaud's 365 Good Reasons to Sit Down to Eat.

Rouille is from the Carmargue area, in the south of France, and gets its name from its colour: rouille = rust.

The seafood was perfectly tender and the honey-sweet saffron was so flavoursome in the garlic-laden mayonnaise. Overall, a wonderful little side dish for a lunch on a warm afternoon.

Fisherman’s Rouille

Recipe from 365 Good Reasons to Sit Down to Eat by Stéphane Reynaud. Serves 6.

Ingredients:
1kg cuttlefish hoods or octopus, cleaned
3 onions
200ml olive oil
700ml white wine
800g potatoes
3 garlic cloves
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon mustard
150ml sunflower oil
Salt and pepper
1 pinch saffron threads

Method:
1. Cut the cuttlefish into wide strips.
2. Peel and slice the onions.
3. Sauté the onions with a little olive oil in a flameproof casserole dish
4. Add the cuttlefish and moisten with white wine.
5. Cook, covered, over a low heat for 1 hour then uncover to allow the wine to completely evaporate
6. Peel the potatoes, cut them in large cubes cook them for 15 minutes in boiling water.
7. Peel and chop the garlic, combine it with the egg yolk and mustard, add the sunflower oil to make a mayonnaise
8. Season then add the saffron threads.
9. Combine the potatoes and cuttlefish. Dress with the garlic mayonnaise in the dish.
10. No more vampires!


Here's a cute little extract from the book:

Garlic is a great friend of cooking but a great enemy of the mouth. It permeates the body like a colony of ants in a packet of sugar – you breathe it, you sweat it and it clings to your skin.


What can I do, I hear you say, so that the pleasure of the palate doesn’t turn you into a walking garlic clove?


1) Find a special friend who, like you, adores garlic, good conversation, maybe even more . . . it could become a true tale of Marseille, putainnn con!
2) Stop eating it. Unbearable.
3) Remove the digestible sprout inside, eat a coffe bean ro cardamom pod to offset some of the odours.
4) Stop talking for six hours, what’s more, that’ll give us a break!

caramelised fig baked custards

At a PR event for the Game Farm at Bitton Gourmet, I was discussing with Helen from Grab Your Fork as to why Asians (both Aussies and the original gangsters) love a good old crème brûlée. I’m not a big fan myself, but Helen theorised it’s the eggs and the creaminess that attracts the Asian palate.

Good theory. Makes sense.

Let’s go with it.

On cue, some petit four size crème brûlées appeared, and so we both tucked in.
In the words of Rachel Zoe, I die.

This tiny cup of creamy goodness undid the last 10 minutes of my blathering and protestations about how dull and pointless crème brûlée is.

This crème brûlée was magnifique!

With David Bitton’s cookbook in my goodie bag (merci!) I was determined to recreate this baked custard treasure at home, only I wanted to do something with dried figs.

For some people, the joy of the crème brûlée is the silky custard texture so adding figs would ruin the entire experience. If you are that person, do not read on.

If you are not sure, you might consider straining the custard after you purée the figs through, but I think that would be a waste of delicious fig.

Fig seeds have such a nutty, crispy texture to them and this baked custard can handle that. It’s strong and gutsy. It’s brave.

I used the Bitton cookbook as a guide on technique but used my own measurements and ingredients to create this sweet baked custard.

I’m pretty proud of the results, and rate this as one of my best inventions ever.

I’ll let you judge for yourselves.

Caramelised Fig Baked Custards

Anna’s very own recipe. Serves 4.

Ingredients:

Figs:
50g brown sugar
60ml dark rum
2 cinnamon quills
8 dried figs, stalk removed & quartered
60ml water

Custard:
3 egg yolks
50g brown sugar
200ml cream
100ml milk

Method:
1. First prepare the figs by melting the sugar in a small saucepan over a low heat. Be careful not to let it burn.

2. Next add the cinnamon quills and rum, allowing the alcohol to sizzle off. The sugar will seize and harden, but don’t worry about it.

3. Next add the water and figs and cover the saucepan. Bring to boil then reduce to simmer for 4 minutes.

4. Ensure the figs have softened and all the toffee pieces have dissolved, creating a thick syrup. Remove from heat and set aside.

5. Preheat oven to 180’C.

6. In a large bowl, beat egg yolks and brown sugar until pale and creamy.

7. In a large saucepan, put cinnamon quills from the fig mixture (don’t worry if they bring some fig over with them), milk and cream.

8. Heat mixture almost to boiling point then strain into egg mixture, whisking rapidly the whole time to prevent eggs from scrambling. Discard quills.

9. Return to saucepan and heat on medium, stirring continuously until mixture thickens into custard.

10. In a blender, purée half the fig pieces (reserving syrup) and all the custard.

11. Pour into four 200ml ramekins. Place ramekins in a baking dish, lined with a tea towel (to prevent bases from overcooking) then pour boiling water halfway up the sides of the ramekins.

12. Bake in oven for 40 minutes. You may wish to start checking a little earlier, depending on your oven, but the custards will be ready when set and an insert knife or skewer comes out pretty clean.

13. Either chill for 2 hours or serve warm. Top with remaining fig pieces and rum syrup.

polish pickle soup

 
Almost two years ago, Jonas and I found a great little Polish restaurant and enjoyed a tangy soup made from pickles: Zupa Ogórkowa.

I’d never heard of such a wonderment, but it combined two of my favourite things: pickles and soup.

In fact, zupa ogórkowa doesn't event feature on the SoupSong site - one of my all time favourite resources for unique and interesting soups.

Despite loving it at the restaurant, I'd put off making it myself for so long, imagining it wouldn’t be as good at home.

Turns out to be so easy and incredibly tasty, and frankly I think our homemade version was better.

The broth is clear, but there are so many vegetables and herbs floating through it that the soup still feels hearty and filling.

It’s a perfect winter flavour and reminds me of my family in Slovakia, but it could easily be served cold in summer, perhaps with a little more cream stirred through it and topped with smoked salmon.

This is another tick off the 2011 Food Challenge list!

Zupa Ogórkowa (Polish Pickle Soup)

Anna’s very own recipe. Serves 2 as a main or 4 as an entrée.

Ingredients:

1 white onion, finely chopped
½ carrot, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, finely grated
1 large potato, peeled and cubed
1 litre rich chicken broth (or vegetable)
4 pickled cucumbers (polskie ogórki) , coarsely grated
1 tablespoon fresh dill, finely chopped
2 tablespoons (40ml) pouring cream
¼ fresh parsley, chopped finely
Salt and pepper, to taste
Butter, for frying
Olive oil, for frying
Sour cream, for serving

Method:

1. Heat butter (and a little olive oil to prevent butter browning) in a saucepan.

2. Sauté onions and carrots until translucent, around 2-3 minutes.

3. Add grated garlic and potatoes and fry for another 2 minutes.

4. Add chicken stock and bring to the boil. Cook for around 7 minutes until potatoes begin to soften.

5. Add grated cucumbers and dill, and continue boiling for another 7 minutes. Test to make sure potatoes are completely cooked but be careful not to overcook.

6. Add pouring cream, adjust seasoning and then add parsley. Mix through.

7. Serve hot with dollops of sour cream.

I'd like to enter this into Weekend Herb Blogging with dill being my ingredient. After all, the dill pickles are what made this soup and the dill is what made the pickles.

Our WHB host this week is Astrid from Paulchen's Foodblog. Check back at the end of the weekend to see her round up of all the recipes.

choripán

Happy Fourth of July!

Many years ago, an ancestor of mine, a German immigrant to Pennsylvania, helped fight a war that led to the creation of the United States of America.

I think that’s something to be proud of.

So let’s celebrate with a hot dog of sorts, Argentina’s choripán.

The word is a portmanteau of chorizo and pan: spicy sausage and bread.

What could be better than a bread roll stuffed with grilled chorizo sausage and chimichurri sauce?

I’ll tell you what’s better: a bread roll stuffed with grilled chorizo sausage and chimichurri sauce PLUS piquillo peppers, cheese, sour cream and fried onions.

Oh yeeeeeeeeeeeah!

Choripán

Anna’s take on Argentina’s hot dog.

Ingredients:

Grilled or fried chorizo sausages
Thinly sliced piquillo peppers
Finely grated parmesan (or queso freso)
Chimichurri sauce
Sour cream
Hot dog rolls or mini baguettes
Fried onions

Method:

Build your sandwich from the above ingredients and enjoy!


And how about a tropical fruit shake on the side, Cubano style?

Now that’s what I’m talking about!

pan-fried duck breast

A while ago I attended an event hosted by Bitton Café for Game Farm, a company producing predominantly chicken (corn-fed and spatchcock/poussin), quail and duck.

Since their farm is in Galston, an rural-like area on the northern outskirts of Sydney (and also where I spent the first seven years of my life) I was keen to try their products.

It was interesting they felt the need to promote their products to Australian consumers in this way, primarily because they were concerned people saw ducks and quail as something exotic and difficult to cook with. They wanted people to understand how easy and tasty they are (and cook/buy more).

I think duck is pretty easy to cook. It's certainly no harder than chicken.

For dinner, I knew I had some pretty delicious sides dishes (potatoes roasted in duck fat, crispy brussels sprouts with bacon, sautéed apples and sage) so I just wanted a simple duck breast recipe.

No-nonsense, pan-fried duck breast. As every chef and their dog says these days “I wanted the ingredients to speak for themselves”.

To test the mettle of Game Farm, I decided to use the recipe on the inside of their duck breast packaging.

It was fantastic, and just as easy as cooking a steak.

A quick rendering in the pan, to give it colour, and then gently finished off in the oven for a few minutes.

This could be a dinner party favourite, for when you want to put on a bit of a show, but better still it’s easily a meal Jonas and I would enjoy during the weekday, even after a hard day at work.

You could serve it sliced into a salad, or as a slab with awesome sides. Too easy.

I served mine with a little cabernet wine jelly I bought on our Easter road trip to Mudgee.

Pan-fried Duck Breast

Game Farm packet instructions! Serves 2.

Ingredients:
2 duck breasts
Salt
Pepper

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200’C.

2. Score or prick the skin of the duck with a sharp knife - this will allow the natural juices under the skin to render during cooking.

3. Season with salt & pepper, or your favourite spice mix. Heat a non-stick frying pan to a low heat. Do not grease the pan.

4. Place the fillet skin-side down and cook for 3-4 minutes to crisp the skin, turning and cooking for a further 1 minute.

5. Place into a hot oven, skin side up, and cook for a further 7-10 minutes or until cooked through.

Note: Appliance temperatures can vary. You may need to adjust cooking times accordingly.

If you're interested in more duck, quail and chicken recipes, Game Farm has a pretty extensive online library.

I've also made:

Armenian Yoghurt Soup w Dumplings
Avgolemono
Buffalo Wings & Blue Cheese Dip
Coq Au Vin
Creole-Spiced Chicken
Duck w Cherries
Hungarian Chicken Paprikas
Kentish Pigeons w Plums
Moroccan Chicken Tagine
Palestinian Chicken w Sumac, Za’atar & Lemon
Portuguese Chicken
Senegal Chicken
Walnut & Pomegranate Spatchcock

plum & vanilla jam

Ever since I made this luscious Cherry & Vanilla Jam, I realised vanilla is the most wonderful thing you can add to jam.

When I was presented with a basket of sticky, overripe Santa Rosa plums I decided the best thing to do with them was turn them into jam.

Blood plums would have made a much more dramatically coloured jam, however the tart red skin of the Santa Rosa added a pinkish hue to the flavoursome yellow flesh. And in the end I’d prefer it to taste delicious than look dramatic.

Spread thickly on toasted sour dough.

Plum & Vanilla Jam

Anna’s very own recipe. Makes around 5 x 300ml jars.

Ingredients:

1kg plums

1 vanilla pod

60ml (¼ cup) water

1kg sugar

50g (1 packet) jamsetta

Method:

1. Preheat oven to a moderately slow 150’C (300’F). Put a saucer in the freezer.

2. Wash plums. Cut into chunks and discard stones. Combine with water in a large saucepan.

3. Slice vanilla pod in half and scrape out seeds. Add seeds and pod to plums. Cook until fruit softens.

4. Meanwhile, warm sugar on a tray in the oven for around 5 minutes, being sure not to burn or dissolve it.

5. Add warm sugar and jamsetta to fruit purée, then heat and stir until sugar fully dissolves.

6. Bring to the boil for 5 to 10 minutes, stirring every now and then to prevent burning.

7. To test the set of the jam, remove the saucer from the freezer and teaspoon on a little jam. Wait 30 seconds then run your finger through. If it crinkles and leaves a path, then the jam is ready. Otherwise continue cooking.

8. Remove from heat and pour hot jam into sterilised jars. Seal immediately.

coeur à la crème

Coeur à la Crème reminds me of my mother, not because she made it often but because she never, ever made it.

It must have been the 80s, or even the 70s, when she bought the six little heart ramekins with drainage holes in the base. I remember being quite small when I asked her what these intriguing dishes were for.

“They’re for making coeur à la crème”, she answered matter-of-factly and pulled a French cookbook from the shelf, flicking to the photo.

Pretty white hearts of cream floated in a puddle of bright red fruit sauce and looked wonderful. I couldn’t wait to taste them.

But she never made them.

Years went by and, despite moving houses many times, she never made the dessert nor threw away or sold the ramekins. They sat at the back of cupboard, a quiet reminder of all the things you never get around to doing.

When my mother passed away, I inherited the ramekins. They have sat in my cupboard for ten years and I haven’t made coeur à la crème either. Jonas has begged me to get rid of them, but for some reason these little dishes hold a special place in my heart and I put them on my 2011 Food Challenge list.

So today, on the tenth anniversary of her death, I decided to finally cook and eat coeur à la crème.

Today is also my birthday, which makes it even sadder when I realise that I’ve lived one third of my life without her now. She never knew me as an adult, which I know was something she was so sad she would miss out on.

The raw pain of losing her is as intense now as it was ten years ago.

A friend of mine, Nicki, who lost her own mother before me, told me “It never stops hurting, you just get better at coping with the sadness.”

That’s the truth.

I thought today would be spent sobbing, but then something spooky and quite wonderful happened this morning to take away some of the loneliness.

Before my mother died she swore that if there was life after death, and if she was able to get word out, she’d try to make contact with me. We giggled about it, two atheists making plans like POWs escaping from a prison camp.

This morning Jonas and I woke to find a cold, grey winter day and no electricity for our heater, oven or fridge. There was a power outage.

I told Jonas that at 9:20am, the time I was born, the power would come back on, as a little 'happy birthday' from my mother. I turned on the powerless bedside lamp, and at 9:20am I thought of my mother and said aloud with sheer confidence, “Ok, it’s my birthday now. Turn on the lights Mummy.”

And with that, they flickered on.

As an atheist, I’m sure it’s coincidental but, as a daughter, I’d like to think it was my mother telling me she loved me.

~ ~ ~

This French dessert is usually made from fromage frais (fresh cheese) which is a creamy, soft curd cheese. I couldn’t find any fromage frais, or even quark, so I decided to use a combination of cream cheese and mascarpone.

It worked.

It was a wonderful way to celebrate my birthday, and my mother’s memory.

Coeur à la Crème

Based on a recipe by Australian Gourmet Traveller. Serves 6

Ingredients:
250g cream cheese
250g mascarpone
110g (½ cup) pure icing sugar
1 vanilla bean, split and seeds scraped
200ml double cream
300g (2 punnets) raspberries
75g (⅓ cup) pure icing sugar
60ml (¼ cup) Cointreau

Method:

1. Start the day before by combining cream cheese, mascarpone, icing sugar and vanilla bean seeds in a food processor until smooth, scraping down sides.

2. Add cream and pulse until just combined. Cut six 20cm squares of muslin, rinse well and wring out.

3. Either line specialised coeur à la crème ramekins with muslin, wrap over the top and place on a plate so whey can drip through drainage holes. Refrigerate overnight.
or
Make free form by placing muslin on a work surface and divide cream mixture (about ½ cup each) between muslin squares. Bring corners of muslin together, twist tightly and tie securely with kitchen twine. Tie to hang on a rack and place a tray underneath to catch whey. Refrigerate overnight.

4. For raspberry coulis, process raspberries, icing sugar and Cointreau in a food processor until smooth, then push through a fine sieve, discarding seeds. Makes about 300ml.

5. Remove coeurs à la crème from muslin, invert onto coulis, carefully peel away muslin and serve.

Note: instead of mascarpone use fromage frais, quark, ricotta or cottage cheese.

apple, sage & garlic sauté

This sauté is the perfect side dishes to mains like pan-fried duck breast or pork chops.

It combines all the fresh flavours of apple and sage with the warmth needed for winter meals.

Tangy, tart and savoury, and takes around 5 minutes to cook.

Apple, Sage & Garlic Sauté

Anna’s very own recipe. Serves 2.

Ingredients:
1 green apple, peeled & cored
2 tablespoons baby sage leaves
2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
Salt and pepper
Olive oil, for cooking

Method:

1. Slice apples into small wedges.

2. Heat olive oil in a frying pan, add sage and garlic slices and fry gently until fragrant.

3. Add apple pieces, tossing carefully to ensure sage and garlic do not burn.

4. Cook until apple is heated through but still crunchy and fresh.

5. Season with milled salt and pepper, serve warm.

smoky pulled pork

Pulled pork is just magical.

The juicy meat slow cooked for hours until it falls from the bone and then smothered in spicy, smoky sauce and piled high onto soft burger buns.

To. Die. For.

When Kitchenware Direct contacted me and offering to give me a slow cooker of my choice to review on this blog, their email couldn’t have come at a better time.

Jonas and I had been discussing the idea of getting a slow cooker just so we could make pulled pork sliders. We’d eaten them recently at Porteño and had not recovered from their marvellous flavour. We wanted to replicate the magic at home.

So here I was being offered a slow cooker and all I had to do was use it and tell you what I thought about it.

I love my life.

I selected the NewWave 5 in 1 MultiCooker because it’s not just a slow cooker but also a pressure cooker, rice cooker, steamer and soup maker. It’s Kitchenware Direct’s most popular model and after trawling through some online review sights it ranks right up there among the best of its type.

It arrived promptly in a well packaged box, safely cushioned in plastic air bags and styrofoam. When we took it out we cooed and sighed, stroking our shiny baby with all the love of proud new parents.

Once we were ready to use it, we got a bit scared that it might be broken, because the vacuum seal on the lid was wobbly freakishly and didn’t seem too stable, but then we realised we were complete idiots and that once you use the pressure cooking function the valve sucks into place perfectly.

Crisis averted.

We plonked the meat and sauce inside, hit the slow cooker and walked away for a few hours. At the end, we vamped up the intensity with a few minutes of pressure cooking and we were left will a sweet sauce and meat so tender it just peeled away from the bone.

The results were so good that even the highly critical Fabio let out an involuntary exclaim of satisfied praise.

This cooker is definitely easy to use (one couple cooking together, zero arguments) and even easier to clean (good work Jonas).

All the residual fear I had from my high school friend’s horrific pressure cooker accident was dispelled by the quick vacuum seal and the easy steam release valve. No explosions, good times.

My rule when accepting free gifts or meals is simple: if I don’t like it, I won’t write about it.

Well, I love my NewWave 5 in 1 MultiCooker and I’m not afraid to tell the world! Without the crew at Kitchenware Direct we might never have been introduced, and that would have been a tragedy.

Spicy Pulled Pork

Based on a recipe by Feast on the Cheap. Makes 10 buns.

Ingredients:
2kg pork shoulder, bone in
1 medium brown onion, diced
1 cup carrot, grated
4 garlic cloves, sliced
2 chipotle chillies in adobo sauce*
800g can crushed tomatoes
250ml (1 cup) passata (tomato sauce)
250ml (1 cup) ketchup
250ml (1 cup) BBQ sauce
125ml (½ cup) red wine
3 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon adobo sauce (from chipotle chillies)
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons kosher salt
¾ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 bay leaves
Olive oil, for frying

To serve:
Hamburger buns
Aioli
Fresh coriander, chopped
Coleslaw

Method:

1. Trim the pork shoulder of skin and excess fat to prevent congealing in the slow cooker.

2. Over medium heat, sauté the onion, carrot, garlic and chipotle chillies in olive oil until the onion is translucent.

3. In a bowl, combine the sautéed vegetables, BBQ sauce, ketchup, crushed tomatoes, passata, adobo sauce, red wine, cider vinegar, dried oregano, bay leaves, salt and pepper. Stir well.

4. Back in the frying pan, sear the pork shoulder and brown on all sides.

5. In the slow cooker, pour a cup or so of sauce into the base to completely cover the bottom.

6. Put the pork shoulder inside the slow cooker and cover completely in sauce. Cover and cook at 100’C for 5 hours.

7. Switch to your pressure cooker setting and cook for another 20 minutes.

8. Remove the pork from the sauce, cool then shred with a fork. Set aside in a bowl, covered with plastic wrap to keep moist.

9. Pour the sauce into a pan and check seasoning. Adjust balance of sweet and sour according to your tastes, then reduce the sauce by simmering for 10 minutes over medium-low heat. Blend into a purée.

10. In a bowl, add enough sauce to pork to allow for a sticky but not soupy mix.

11. Serve on soft hamburger buns topped with aioli, coriander and sides of coleslaw and dill pickles.

Note: If you don’t have a slow and pressure cooker in one, buy one from Kitchenware Direct! Or you can cook it in a slow cooker for 6-7 hours or a large oven pot at 175’C for 4-7 hours, depending on your oven.

* In Australia, chipotle chillies in adobo sauce are sold in cans in Latin American sections of specialist supermarkets like Fiji Markets in Newtown, Sydney. You can buy them online at Fireworks Foods too. Otherwise substitute with Chipotle Tabasco.

This post has been featured on the wonderful slow cooking blog: