Holidays - Retro Food For Modern Times

Category: Holidays

01
Apr
2024

Mushrooms & Quail Egg Choux Buns

Happy Easter everyone! I hope the bunny brought you all the chocolate eggs you wanted. I am also bringing the Easter classics of buns and eggs but in savoury form with some choux buns with truffled mushrooms and quail eggs. I wanted to use up the leftover quail eggs from the Nevilled Eggs. A quick search of my recipe spreadsheet led me to a beautiful book called Food Fashion Friends Fleur Wood. She is a designer, entrepreneur and philanthropist. Coming from a former fashion designer the book is very glamorous so I had high hopes for this recipe!

(And yes, I have a recipe spreadsheet. And yes, I know that makes me the very opposite of the glamorous chic in the book!)

It turned out that I had a few more quail eggs than required for the choux buns so I also made one of Jamie Oliver’s dipping salts for quail eggs. He has three recipes, all of which sound delicious but I chose one with smoked paprika and cayenne.

Fleur Wood’s recipe has black caviar as an additional garnish for her eggs. I did not have any of this so I omitted it but I’m sure the buns would have been delicious with it. A little sprinkle of some parsley or chives might have been nice too.

The one thing that for me, did not work in this recipe were the quail’s eggs. They didn’t bring anything to the dish which was a bit disappointing as I was looking for something in which they would shine. The mushroom filling was so delicious that I would have been happy with just them or maybe a bit of goat’s or cream cheese added. Even in the photo from the book, the eggs look a little…out of place. Maybe Fleur was also trying to use up some quail eggs?

AAA Choux Buns — Picture via Food Fashion Friends

The choux buns worked like a dream which I was pleased about! So, whilst I was a bit disappointed that the eggs didn’t shine, the mushroom filling and the buns definitely put this in the “make again” territory. The Jamie Oliver dipping eggs were also a nice little bonus!

The Recipe – Mushrooms & Quail Egg Choux Buns

Incidentally, I had never cooked quail’s eggs before the Nevilled eggs. So, I had never realised quite how beautiful I would find their speckly outsides:

Or that they would have a gorgeous blue inside!

I am off to eat more eggs, of the chocolate variety! Have a great week!

13
Dec
2023

St Niklas Granola

categories: Breakfast, Christmas

Hello friends! Today we a celebrating the festive season with another lovely homemade gift. Unlike the Sparkling Lavender Mustard or my Christmas Pudding, each of which need to rest for about a month before being ready to gift, the St Niklas Granola can be whipped up in an hour or so and gifted as soon as it cools!

Annabel Crabb & David Sedaris

The recipe for the St Niklas Granola comes from the Book Special Guest by Australian Journalist, Annabel Crabb. I adore Annabel Crabb, she is smart and funny and she writes a good recipe! The St Niklas Granola is inspired by those spicy Dutch Christmas cookies called Peppernoten. In the introduction, to the granola, she also speaks of the rather suspect story surrounding them. I believe this is the same story as told by David Sedaris in his story “Six To Eight Black Men”. I linked to his reading of this way back in 2015 and can heartily recommend it. It is so funny! (And the Fig, Fennel and Pistachio Roulade that was the featured recipe would also make a wonderful Christmas gift for the Foodie in your life!

Listening to Six to Eight Black Men has become one of my Christmas traditions. Making the St Niklas granola may well become one too.

Speaking of Christmas traditions, Fairytale of New York is one of my favourite (Christmas) songs and features on any Christmas playlist I compile. I was upset to hear of the recent passing of Shane McGowan. His duet with Sinead O’Connor, Haunted is also one of my favourite songs. How beautiful is her voice here? It gives me shivers to hear it. It is so sad to think that we have lost two such talented musicians this year.

But back to the granola…

St Niklas Granola Recipe

I am not much of a breakfast person, so I usually eat my Granola as an after-dinner treat instead of dessert. Sometimes, I also just grab a handful for a little snack on the go. Some yoghurt and fresh fruit make it as good in the morning as it is in the evening. The hit of spice and, especially the little hits of ginger when you get them are soooo good! I love Annabelle’s suggestion of serving it with ice cream as a dessert too!

And of course, when I suggest you give this as a gift, what I really mean is make an entire batch and keep half for yourself!

Have a wonderful week!

23
Dec
2022

Christmas Cocktail Party – 2002

categories: 20 Years Ago Today, Canapes, Christmas, Cocktail, Drinks, Events, Holidays, Martini

.Hello Friends and welcome to Twenty Years Ago Today! Today I am planning a Christmas Cocktail Party based on recipes from the December 2002 Edition of Australian Table. The Christmas Martini featured in the magazine felt like a perfect way to kick off the festivities!

The Christmas Martini

I had to check my dates to see if the Christmas Martini was created at the height of Sex And The City and thus was leaning into the Cosmo craze that show generated. It was a little late for that so now think that the use of cranberry juice in a martini was more due to its festive colour than a call back to the show.

I admit to being a bit worried about this – I thought it might be too sweet. I used a no-added-sugar cranberry juice to try to counter this and to my mind, this recipe really worked. The Christmas Martini is definitely sweeter than a regular martini but the tannins in the cranberry helped to keep it from being sickly. I also liked the combination of the slightly sweet drink and the salty olives. So this was a winner for me!

Christmas Martini Recipe

The Other Recipes (and My Variations)

Parmesan Chilli Biscuits with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

If I were making these, I might be tempted to swap out the baby spinach leaves for basil leaves and pipe a little splodge of goat’s cheese onto each biscuit not only to add some more flavour but also to anchor the tomato to the biscuit a bit better! No one wants a stray balsamic-covered cherry tomato rolling off their biscuit and staining their cocktail dress!

Here’s The Recipe:

Cured Salmon with Fresh Herbs

I made this and the salmon was amazing! So good and so easy! To fit in with my cocktail party theme, instead of serving it in long strips with potato salad, per the recipe, I cut the salmon into chunks and served it on crackers with some cream cheese, thinly sliced shallots and the capers and herbs suggested by the recipe. These would work perfectly with the Chrirtmas Martini too!

Here’s The Recipe:

Fillet of Beef with Salsa Verde

For cocktail party serving, I would make cut the beef into nice bite-size chunks, place it on a grilled bit of crusty bread and drizzle with the salsa verde.

Mixed Berry Tarts

A great alternative, if, like me, you are not a fan of the traditional mince pie! These would be a lovely ending to your Christmas cocktail party!

My Nigella Moment

For first-time readers, this refers to the moment at the end of Nigella Lawson’s cooking shows when she sneaks back to the fridge to have another bite of something delicious. In the context of these Twenty Years Ago posts, it is something contained in the magazine that does not fit with the overall menu theme but I’m sneaking in because it was really good! This month’s item of irresistibility was a Peach, Watercress and Blue Cheese Salad. This was sensational! (If it looks a little bit familiar, we ate this as a side dish to last week’s Stilton and Leek Souffle.

Here’s the recipe:

I hope this has given you some inspo for your own Christmas Cocktail Party. Have a wonderful, safe and festive holiday period!

14
Feb
2022

Chocolate Mousse Hearts

categories: 1980's recipes, Desserts, Magazines, Meringue, Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine’s Day friends! Love is in the air are we are celebrating with some Chocolate Mousse Hearts largely inspired by a recipe in the Autumn 1986 issue of the Vogue Entertaining Guide. Before we continue though, I need to be totally honest with you. The recipe requires several instances of piping using an icing bag and this is not one of my strong suits. Hopefully, you will find my less than perfect hearts endearingly wonky rather than downright comical. And as we all know…love means never having to say you’re sorry so let’s get to it!

Okay, deep breath, here we go…

Now, these babies might not look perfect but, I gave one to The Fussiest Eater in the World earlier.

He took his first bite. “Wow”.

Second bite “Oh my God!”

The overall vote was “Delicious”.

So, they might not be the prettiest things in the world. But they are definitely a sweet treat!

Just a little shout out before I continue though, that beautiful plate my heart is on comes from Yael Gronner Ceramics on Etsy.I bought some of her wares late last year and have been dying to feature them!

Chocolate Mousse Hearts – The Breakdown

We start off with a meringue base – the first lot of piping. And it really sets the tone for the rest of the dish. If you can do this bit perfectly, the rest of the dish will be a doddle. When you are doing the piping try to build up the outside of the hearts as much as possible.

Then those little depressions in the middle of the hearts are filled with jam. The recipe said berry jam but I used cherry. I LOVE the combination of cherry and chocolate plus I don’t like how the seeds in strawberry and raspberry jam can get stuck in your teeth.

Those little hearts? I had some of the meringue mixture left over and I thought they might be cute as garnishes or as taste testers.

So, right about now, you might be thinking where’s that chocolate mousse I was promised? Well, it’s coming right up. Along with our second bit of piping:

I topped my mousse with some crumbled up Flake and a little gold lustre powder.

And a cherry on the top!

Chocolate Mousse Hearts – The Recipe

So, I was halfway through making this when I came to the sentence that said the chocolate mousse needed to set overnight. I needed to get them made and take my pictures on Sunday 13th to have any hope of being able to ost this today. Normally I am a bit more organised but life has got in the way this month!

It’s also the reason I garnished with a flake and not chocolate leaves and curls.

So, I found this mousse recipe online that did not have to chill overnight and used that instead. I chilled it for 2 hours then piped it onto my hearts.

Whether you celebrate Valentine’s Day, Galentine’s Day or nothing at all, these decadent chocolate hearts are a good addition to your dessert repertoire. They are very sweet though so for future making I would make them a little smaller (The widest part of my hearts was probably about 10cm across). Or keep them big and share with someone you love!

Have a great week!

03
Feb
2022

It’s the Year of the Tiger

categories: Baking, Cake, Chicken, Lunar New Year

Hello and welcome to the second instalment of my Year of The Tiger special. Today we having a Tiger Skin Chicken from Adam Liaw and some little French almond cakes called Les Tigres (the tigers) from Dorie Greenspan. But first let’s have a little look-see at what may lie ahead for us in the Year of the Tiger!

Predictions for the year of the Tiger suggest that this could be a year of political and social upheaval. It is also a year of extremes, some people will boom and some will bust. Fortune will tend to favour the brave. The water element in this year of the Water Tigre will bring emotions to the forefront.

Strap in folks, this could be a wild ride!

Tiger Skin Chicken

Let me first show you Adam Liaw’s beautifully striped Tiger Skin Chicken.

Mine was not nearly as precise.

BUT, this was so delicious! I basted the chicken every 15 minutes in those buttery juices and it stayed delightfully moist. It had a slight spicy curry flavour which I thought was lovely eaten warm and also cold in sandwiches the following day.

I just need to get my squeeze bottle technique so the lines are a little thinner and maybe control the heat during the grilling of the skin a little better. I also think I should have heated my honey before mixing it in with the yoghurt as it didn’t mix in well which is why I think some of my stripes were white, they were primarily yoghurt.

Here is the recipe from Adam’s Big Pot:

Les Tigres

To end our Year of the Tiger special we are having some little French cakes called Les Tigres. I am assuming this is because they are dipped in a ganache which gives them a dark stripe against the dark gold of the almond cake. They could also be called the leopards because the inside is dotted with choc chips!

Les Tigres Recipe

The Tigres were a lovely way to finish this celebratory meal!

Best of luck to you all in the coming 12 months – let’s hope you don’t catch too many tigers by the tail but that you wake every morning with a tiger in your tank!