pavlova, an australian favourite

Happy Australia Day!

Today is our national holiday, a time where most Australians throw a BBQ or catch up with friends and family in the summer warmth.

Since it’s Australia Day, the dessert that ends the festivities should be a pavlova, something named after a Russian ballerina but yet typically Australian.

Or is it?

While it’s true that Australia has very successfully exported pavlova around the world (and taken all the glory), what many of us don’t know is that culinary historians have proven the pavlova was actually invented in New Zealand!

The proof seems to be out there in the form of published recipes and articles, of which New Zealand has many earlier cases than Australia (NZ 1926 v AU 1929).

Knowing this I feel a little cheated, a slight loss of cultural identity, but imagine how the poor Kiwis feel about the fact that Aussies stole their tasty dessert and are unashamedly passing it off as our own!

It's not the first time we've done that, and no doubt it won't be the last.

Regardless of whoever invented it, these days both countries use it as a symbol of cultural identity and since it’s a pavlova there’s plenty to share with everyone.

On the topic of sharing, while I say this recipe serves 10 people (and it does), I have to confess me and three friends managed to polish off the entire thing in 30 minutes.

Prepare yourself for gluttony at its finest.

Pavlova

Anna’s very own recipe. Serves 10.

Ingredients:
5 eggwhites, at room temperature
330g (1½ cups) caster sugar
1 tablespoon cornflour
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
1 vanilla bean, scraped seeds only (or 1 tsp vanilla extract)
300ml thickened cream, whipped
2 passionfruit, pulped
2 bananas, sliced and doused in lemon juice to prevent discolouring
1 punnet strawberries, halved
½ punnet blueberries

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 150’C.

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat the egg whites on a high speed until fluffy, about a minute.

3. Reduce speed to slow then gradually add caster sugar until the mixture is thick and glossy with a hard peak.

4. Next beat in the cornflour, vinegar and vanilla.

5. Line a baking tray with baking paper and pour the meringue on. Stack high to get a marshmallow interior and thin for a crusty pavlova. Create a concave/nest in the centre to catch all the cream and fruit.

6. Bake the pavlova for 50 minutes until quite firm, then turn the oven off but leave the pavlova in it to cool completely.

7. Spread the cream over the meringue then decorate with fruit. Serve excess fruit on side platter to be passed separately for those who want extra.

Note: The mixing bowl should be clean with no grease in it, the egg whites at room temperature and there should be absolutely no yolk in the white.

jamie oliver’s “new” mince pies

Merry Christmas!!!

Today Jonas was up early cooking a variety of Swedish delicacies for our Julbord (Christmas table):

• vörtbröd (wort or beer bread)
• smoked sausages
• smoked mackerel
• sillsallad (pickled herring with mayo, egg, herbs & potato)
• meatballs with lingon jam
• beetroot salad
• bourbon-maple-mustard glazed ham
• Janssons frestelse (potato & anchovy gratin)

My only contribution was these mince pies.

I know have slowed down my blogging lately, but I promise I have a really good excuse.

I’m not quite ready to share the reason just yet but suffice to say, if all goes according to plan, I will let you in on the secret in March. Until then, please be patient and I promise I won’t disappear completely.

I saw Jamie make these pies on a Christmas TV special and thought they looked a lot simpler and easier to make than traditional mince pies. I fancied mine up quite a bit with dried sour cherries, blueberries and dates, but you could use any dried fruits you have on hand.

They are quite sweet and intensely flavoured, so I recommend serving with sweetened crème fraîche, ice cream, custard or cream to balance it out a little.

Jamie Oliver’s “New” Mince Pies

My adaptation of Jamie Oliver's recipe. Makes 12.

Ingredients:
¼ cup dried cranberries
¼ cup dried sour cherries
¼ cup dried dates, chopped
2 tablespoons dried blueberries
½ cup brandy
400g jar high quality fruit mince
30g glace orange rind, finely chopped
100g peeled, roasted chestnuts
2 sheets puff pastry
6 sheets of filo pastry
50g butter, melted
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 egg, beaten
¼ cup flaked almonds
Icing sugar, to dust

Method:

1. The day before, combine the dried cranberries, sour cherries, dates, blueberries and brandy in a plastic container. Mix and seal overnight.

2. Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas 6. Butter a muffin tray (for 12 muffins).

3. Spread the mincemeat over the two puff pastry sheets. Sprinkle over dried fruit mixture, glace rind and then crumble over chestnuts.

4. Tightly roll up the pastry, lengthways, like a Swiss roll, place it on a floured tray, and pop in the fridge to firm up.

5. Combine the melted butter and cinnamon.

6. On a flat surface, butter one layer of filo pastry. Top with another sheet and butter. Fold them in half to create a long thin strip then place over four holes of the muffin tray. Repeat two more times, covering all the muffin holes. Brush all with butter.

7. Take the puff pastry rolls out of the fridge and, with a sharp knife, cut each into 6 slices. Place each slice into a filo-lined hole, flat-side down so the spiral of fruit is displayed.

8. Brush with the egg and sprinkle a few flaked almonds on top of each little pie, then pop both trays in the oven for about 25 minutes, until cooked and golden brown.

9. Leave to cool, then crack the individual pies out of the trays. Dust with a little icing sugar before serving.

Note: You can freeze the cooked, cooled mince pies in their trays (just wrap the lot in cling film). Just reheat them in a hot oven straight from the freezer.

fennel, radish & apple salad

Yesterday was one huge Thanksgiving dinner, cooked by moi.

My sister Shamu and her man, Tombolina, came over and I spent the entire day preparing for the feast.

It was one of those cooking days where everything just fell into place. I cooked recipes simultaneously based on time and need, and managed to balance pie pastry with turkey brining, yam basting with dressing prep, cocktail making with vegetable slicing.

I even managed to completely clean the kitchen before Jonas got home and my guests arrived (Jonas was particularly pleased he dodged that bullet).

To be honest, it was the first time in my life when I managed to be so zen and organised when cooking a huge meal. I was very, very proud of myself.

Gold star please!

A “Spiced Scrumpy” cocktail kicked the evening off, then the menu combined Americana favourites, modern twists and some Thanksgiving classics:

Pear & Scallop Squash Soup
Texan BBQ Turkey Shanks
Sausage & Sage Dressing
Fennel, Apple & Radish Salad
Maple, Bourbon & Sesame Candied Yams
Greens Simmered in Chicken Stock w Onions & Garlic
Chocolate Pecan Pie & Vanilla Ice Cream

Every recipe was new – untried, untested – and every single one was a great success. I was so pleased with the way the food turned out.

Today I’m going to share with you one of the recipes: this autumnal salad of pretty pinkish hues and fresh, tangy flavours.

The original recipe used Jerusalem artichokes (aka sunchokes), but I was unable to source them in the Sydney spring weather. Nonetheless, the salad added a perfect refreshing balance to some of the other heavier dishes.

Fennel, Radish & Apple Salad

Based on a recipe from The Flexitarian Table by Peter Berley. Serves 4-6 as part of a buffet.

Ingredients:
4 radishes, trimmed
2 gala apples, peeled and cored
2 small fennel bulbs, trimmed
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon white wine vinegar
1 tablespoon chopped fresh chives
1 teaspoon chopped fennel fronds
Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1. In a bowl, whisk together oil, vinegar and lemon juice to make a smooth vinaigrette. Season vinaigrette with salt and pepper to taste.

2. With a super sharp peeler or mandolin, shave radishes, apples and fennel into wafer thin slices.

3. Toss vegetables in vinaigrette then cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or up to 1 day, to allow the flavours to come together.

4. Just before serving, add in chives and fennel fronds. Taste, then season with salt and pepper as required.

chocolate “easter egg” friands

HAPPY EASTER!

Easter is a time to eat lots of chocolate. For non-religious folk like me, it’s a holiday for relaxing around the house and catching up with friends.

Our Grandpa Hipster pal, Fabio, recently moved into an apartment with his girlfriend. One might say it was love at first sight as their eyes met across the party, and within minutes of introduction they were already in a passionate embrace.

So now that they’re living together, I invited Jonas and myself over for Easter Sunday lunch. Fabio relented to my bossy imposition, but he neglected to tell me that their apartment doesn’t have a kitchen.

IT DOESN’T HAVE A KITCHEN. How is that even possible?

After going into convulsive shock, I pulled myself together and set about baking these little chocolate friands to share with the happy couple.

Part housewarming gift, part Easter gift, part pity-the-fools-that-don’t-have-a-kitchen gift.

Apart from being made with intense dark chocolate (70% cocoa), I hid a little Easter egg in the centre before baking. In this case I used two types of “cream filled” eggs, mint and strawberry, which worked as decent substitutes to the caramel eggs I would have preferred but failed to find.

Chocolate “Easter Egg” Friands

Based on a recipe by Jeremy and Jane Strode. Makes 12 friands.

Ingredients:
175g butter
200g dark chocolate, chopped
6 egg whites
125g almond meal
250g icing sugar, sifted
30g cocoa, sifted
80g wholemeal flour
12 filled mini Easter eggs

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 190C. Grease 12 friand moulds.

2. Melt butter and chocolate.

3. Lightly whisk egg whites.

4. Add melted chocolate and butter and stir.

5. Add almond meal and icing sugar and combine.

6. Add flour and cocoa and mix well.

7. Spoon half the mixture into moulds, add an chocolate Easter egg then top with remaining mixture.

8. Bake for 25 minutes or until cooked through.

9. Rest for five minutes before turning onto a cooling rack.

christmas trifle

Merry Christmas!

When waif-model Kate Moss said “nothing tastes as good as skinny feels”, she clearly hadn’t eaten Bloodwood’s trifle.

Moist, dense pound cake soaked in eggnog custard, topped with cinnamon poached cherries and luscious port wine jelly. It doesn’t get better than that.

Jonas hates jelly. All Swedes seem to.

Once I made some for his little sister, who was 6 at the time, and she wrinkled up her nose in disgust and looked at me as if I was trying to poison her.

How can an entire people hate such a wonderful thing?

I digress, but my point is that this trifle is so good that, after one mouthful, Jonas declared that this ought to be the dessert our family ate at Christmas this year

Thus, my quest to master the components began.

After some kindly tweets between me and the Bloodwood crew, I was merrily on my way to Christmas Trifle heaven.

Clove Pound Cake, Port Wine Jelly

Cinnamon Poached Cherries, Eggnog Custard

So here’s my festive recipe for you. I’ll be enjoying the trifle this afternoon, and I hope your Christmas is filled with equally delicious food too!

Christmas Trifle

Anna’s homage to the Bloodwood Trifle. Serves 12-16.

Ingredients:
1 clove pound cake (see recipe below)
1 batch of port wine jelly (see recipe below)
1 batch of eggnog custard (see recipe below)
1 batch of cinnamon poached cherries (see recipe below)

Method:

1. Prepare all ingredients the day before. Wrap the cake but refrigerate everything else.

2. When ready to assemble, cut cake into cubes.

3. Layer bottom of a large bowl or individual serving glasses with half the pound cake.

4. Scatter with half the cherries, two thirds of the custard then top with half the jelly broken up into pieces.

5.  Top with remaining pound cake, custard, jelly and cherries then refrigerate until ready to serve.

Cinnamon Poached Cherries

Anna’s very own recipe.

Ingredients:
1kg cherries
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
2 cinnamon quills

Method:

1. Pit cherries over a large saucepan, catching juices and keeping both flesh and stones.

2. In a saucepan, combine water, cinnamon quills, cherries and their pits then bring to the boil.

3. Simmer for 2 minutes.

4. Add sugar, stir to dissolve. Bring to the boil then reduce to a simmer for 5 minutes.

5. Cool and strain. Keep cherry flesh, discard stones. Use syrup for drinks or other desserts.

Clove Pound Cake

Based on an Australian Gourmet Traveller Recipe.

Ingredients:
250g softened butter
250g caster sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
250g eggs (approx 4-5 eggs), at room temperature
250g plain flour, sieved
½ teaspoon ground cloves
2 teaspoons baking powder

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 170C.

2. Beat butter, sugar and vanilla in an electric mixer until pale and fluffy (5-6 minutes).

3. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, then stir in cloves, flour and baking powder.

4. Spoon into loaf tin buttered and lined with baking paper, smooth top.

5. Bake until golden and cooked through (45 minutes-1 hour), cool in tin for 5 minutes then turn onto a wire rack.

Eggnog Custard

Based on an Australian Gourmet Traveller Recipe.

Ingredients:
¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
600ml pouring cream
300ml milk
6 egg yolks
150g caster sugar
125ml brandy

Method:

1. Combine vanilla, nutmeg, cream and milk in a saucepan and over medium heat bring almost to boiling point.

2. Beat/whisk egg yolks and sugar in a large bowl until pale and thick.

3. With the beaters or whisk continuously moving, pour in a cup of the hot cream and beat vigorously to combine hot liquid and avoid eggs scrambling. Gradually pour in remaining milk/cream mixture until completely combined.

4. Pour hot cream mixture over egg mixture, whisking continuously to combine, then transfer to a clean pan.

5. Cook, stirring continuously, over low-medium heat until mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon.

6. Stir in brandy then strain into a bowl. Cool completely and refrigerate until ready to use.

Port Wine Jelly

Based on an Australian Gourmet Traveller Recipe.

Ingredients:
750ml good-quality port
295g caster sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla bean paste
7 titanium-strength gelatine leaves, softened in cold water for 5 minutes

Method:

1. Bring port, sugar, vanilla and 400ml water to the boil in a saucepan over medium heat, stirring to dissolve sugar.

2. Squeeze excess liquid from gelatine, add to pan and stir to dissolve, then transfer to a 20cm x 30cm deep tray.

3. Refrigerate until set (4 hours-overnight).

clove & orange custard tart

This is a perfect Christmas season recipe. The cloves and orange flavours are typical aromas around this time of year and work well with the rich foods served.

The tart base is made from dark chocolate and I’ve saved loads of time by buying Carême pre-made gourmet shortcrust pastry, a brand that I swear by.

Inventing a custard tart was one of my 2010 Food Challenges and the clove flavour is just great. I’ve since made clove custard and that’s delicious too.

Hope you enjoy this recipe.

Clove & Orange Custard Tart

Anna’s very own recipe. Serves 8.

Ingredients:
4 egg yolks
1½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup (250ml) milk
2 cups (500ml) pouring cream
½ cup caster sugar
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
1½ teaspoons finely minced orange zest
300g Carême dark chocolate shortcrust pastry, defrosted

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 160’C.

2. Prepare and blind bake the tart base as per the instructions.

3. Beat egg yolks in a large mixing bowl.

4. Warm milk, cream, sugar, vanilla, orange zest and cloves, stirring to dissolve sugar.

5. Bring almost to the bowl then pour into the egg yolks in a thin stream, whisking continuously to prevent the eggs from scrambling.

6. Return to stove and gently heat, stirring continuously, until the custard thickens slightly but is still runny.

7. Strain into prepared tart base, sprinkle with a pinch of cloves, and bake in oven for 40-60 minutes or until custard is just set.

Note: Eat warm, or cool then refrigerate until ready to serve. Best served within 24hrs of baking.

try this! sparkling ruby cabernet

With Christmas around the corner some of my pregnant friends are anxious about surviving the in-laws without copious amounts of alcohol.

Unfortunately, this product won’t dull out the sound of your nearest and dearest, but it will curb those cravings for an adult flavoured drink.

Maggie Beer is an Aussie icon and the woman is obsessed with verjuice. There’s no getting around it, she loves the stuff.

I have Maggie to thank when she suggested adding verjuice to soda water for a refreshing drink and thus I discovered my summer drink of choice for three years running.

In honour of her favourite wine by-product, Maggie has released this amazing sparkling cabernet, which is only fermented enough to create a perfect wine-like flavour without the alcohol.

It has a heady, sweet smell like red grape juice but the flavour is fairly light and the bead gentle.

It’s the end notes that really hit you in this drink. Quite sour and moreish in contrast to its delicate, sweet scent.

I adore it and highly recommend it to anyone unable (or unwilling) to drink alcohol throughout the silly season.

I’ve found it for sale in David Jones food halls, but good old Maggie sells it online for significantly less.

swedish christmas fare

Jonas and I recently came home from a lovely Christmas and New Years in Sweden.

It was my first winter Christmas, and luckily it was very, very white! In fact it snowed beautiful, large flat snowflakes for days. Combined with bright blue skies and no wind at all, the -15’C (5'F) didn’t seem that cold at all.

We spent Christmas in Lindvallen (Sälen) at the ski fields with Jonas’ mother and stepdad, older brother (+ his wife and two sons), his older sister (+ her fiancée and daughter) and his younger sister (+ her boyfriend). We stayed in three lovely little stugar (cabins) that even had two bastur (saunas). It couldn’t have been more lovely and picturesque.

But the fun didn’t stop in Sälen, because after we relocated to Stockholm, we stayed with Jonas’s father, stepmother and little brother and sister and spent New Years Eve setting off fireworks on the frozen edges of Lake Mälaren. We went for long walks on the thick ice and it was my first time walking on a frozen lake, feeling it shift and groan and shudder (scary).

In fact, this was the first time I had properly been in snow.

As a two year old my grandparents took me to the Snowy Mountains but I sat on the car bonnet and watched everyone else playing in the man-made ice. Then, when I was 10, on the way home from a school excursion our bus past a snowy field and they let us out to play for an hour. Then finally, when I was a 19yr old nanny, I watched my charges go up and down an artificial-snow slope in northern Italy. I stood on earth, they skied on snow.

That was the extent of my exposure to snow.

So this holiday was amazing. I was in snow, touching snow, being snowed on. I even got waist-deep in the stuff. There was so much of it, most of it lovely and powdery.

But I know you just want to know what I ate, so here’s the foodporn (and some travel porn too).

These are the cabins we stayed in.


How can you go to Sweden without eating a plate of Swedish meatballs? This was really husmansmat (traditional food): a generous portion of beef meatballs with rich gravy and served with preserved lingonberries (like cranberry sauce), pressgurka (slices of fresh cucumber dressed in a light vinegar) and boiled mandelpotatis (or almond potatoes, a speciality of northern Sweden). We ate this particularly fine dish of food in Saluhall.


Many visitors to Sweden are too narrow-minded to eat sill (pickled herring), and they’re really missing out. Most sill dishes have a sweetness from the dressing (senap – mustard; inglad – onion or matjes – spices) and a soft saltiness from the fish. I just adore pickled herring with boiled potatoes. It’s hard to beat.


Skis lined up at Lindvallen's popular slope, Gustavbacken.


Jonas’ sister, Helena, made this cake of almond paste and dark chocolate. It was simply delicious.


The smoked reindeer meat was very strong and I’m not sure I liked it. I think I prefer fresh reindeer or dried reindeer jerky over this type of smoked meat.


This is Jonas's little sister Maria, walking across a frozen Lake Mälaren.


Roast moose is just great. It has a strong gamey flavour like venison, but it’s really moreish and juicy if cooked right. A new favourite meat!


Everyone should know this tasty, famous delicacy: gravlax. Lax means salmon and gravad means buried. The dish is made from curing raw salmon in covering of salt, sugar and dill.


An afternoon stroll across fields outside Stockholm.


This game sausage is great. It’s strong-flavoured, soft-textured and has a fatty mouth-feel that you know is bad for you, but you just don’t care.


Glögg (mulled wine) is an extremely important part of a Swedish Christmas. It’s always served warm with almonds and raisins added, and pepparkakor (ginger biscuits) on the side. We drank our glögg at 3pm while watching Kalle Anka och hans vänner önskar God Jul, and ate cookies, fudge, chocolates and julskum too.


Snow falling on New Year's day.


Lingonberries are popular at winter time, and a nice hot bowl of porridge sweetened with preserved lingon is wonderful.


Ostkaka is a type of Swedish cheesecake, flavoured with bitter almonds and, in this case, served with cloudberry jam and whipped cream.


The rustic charm of Dalarna's unique fences.


Jonas’ dad and stepmother made a great mushroom dish by taking dried chantrelle mushrooms and frying them in butter. The mushrooms soak up some of the butter and soften a little, but they retain the concentrated intensity from the drying process.

This shot was a delicious discovery, introduced by my two sisters in law, Helena and Tove. They said Hot Shots were very popular drinks at ski resorts in the 1990s and, after tasting them, I can understand why. Yellow galliano, hot coffee and thick cream are layered in a glass and I admit it was very difficult for me to get the whole thing down in one go. But it tasted delicious!