Profiteroles For Very Special Occasions

categories: 1970's food, 1970's recipes, A-Zof Cooking, Desserts, France, Pastry

You might think that five and a bit years into this that I would cease to be surprised. Both when things go awry and when by some stroke of mad luck things work out just as they should. Such was the case with the Profiteroles I made on the weekend from the Very Special Occasions Chapter of The A- Z of Cooking (1977). When the profiteroles came out of the oven looking like, well, profiteroles, there were whoops of joy, squeals of excitement and a bit of spontaneous kitchen dancing!

Yep, in this house, this:

Equals This:

But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves just yet. First. Hello V. And whilst we’re on the subject let’s’ all note the name of the chapter. Not just Special Occasions. Very Special Occasions. Requiring very special dancing apparently. And also requiring several goes at making something that was worthy of posting. After all, it’s a very special occasion.

First up there was a go at Carpetbag Steak. Now, if you lookup Carpetbag Steak anywhere on the interwebs, you will more than likely read that it is a famous Australian recipe. I’ve lived here virtually all my life and I have never head of it. However, I really liked the idea of steak and oysters. I made the recipe and it looked and tasted meh.

Then I made a Beef Stroganoff. Tasted good. Looked terrible in all the photos. I think it’s that thing that Jenny from Silver Screen Suppers told me about where brown food just doesn’t photo well. This was about the best…

So then I made Carpetbag Steak v2. A modern recipe this time. Still looked and tasted meh.

I was left with a choice. Champagne and Orange Juice. Or Profiteroles. And believe me . You came so close to having Champagne and Orange juice as your very special occasion meal. Because this is what happens inside my head whenever pastry is mentioned:

The profiteroles only happened because the very special occasion was a long weekend due to the Football Grand Final being the next day. I know right. Who has a holiday BEFORE the big day?

“It’s the dumbest reason for a holiday ever” I said.

“Come to work then” said my boss.

“It’s the best holiday ever. Better even than Jesus being born. Or dying.”

So anyway, on the holiday for best/ worst reason ever I got a little bored in the evening and thought that I would have a flick through The A-Z of Cooking, to plan V-Z. The profiterole recipe caught my eye and I realised that I had every ingredient. And a whole heap of bravado due to being about 3/4 of a bottle of a wine in.

Don’t judge. That produced these. Light as air, melt in the mouth, boozy cream filled and shiny chocolately pastry balls of deliciousness,

The basis for profiteroles, and the reason for my hissy fit is pastry. Choux pastry to be exact. I have made choux pastry exactly once before. For a recipe called Cherry Fritters from The A-Z of Cooking. Don’t bother searching the archives for them. They were a total disaster and I didn’t post them.

But choux starts with a roux…actually no. According to The A-Z of Cooking choux pastry starts with 63g of flour. Yep. 63. Not 60. Not 65. 63. And seeing as this was a very special occasion, 63g of flour it was.

This became this:

Which became these. I couldn’t find a piping bag and my piping skills are non-existent so I just blobbed spoonfuls of the pastry onto the tray. Also, I wasn’t really expecting this to work. And need I remind you about that bottle of wine that was now 5/6’s gone?

Well, slap my arse and call me Charlie if those funny looking blobs didn’t turn into these. They’re shall we say “rustic” but on a scale of one to ten of being recognizable as profiteroles, they have to be at least an eight.

So then fill and ice and sprinkle and you get these: (even more profiteroley).

Here’s the recipe direct from The A-Z of Cooking:

I tweaked the recipe by swapping out the rum for Amaretto and adding some sprinkles.

Make, eat, enjoy, do a little dance of sheer pleasure.

And have a great week!

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22
Sep
2017

The Sherry Cobbler – A Crazy Gold Rush Cocktail

categories: Cocktail

The Sherry Cobbler is an American cocktail probably first made in the 1830’s. It was hugely popular in its native land but was, also incredibly popular in Melbourne during the Gold rush years, between 1851 and through to the end of the 1860’s . Gold brought both a vast increase in the population and in the wealth of the population. And where there are miners and money? There will be booze.

Nowadays, sherry is seen as an old lady’s drink. However, this was not always the case. Back in the 1960’s all the cool kids were drinking it.

And 100 years before them it was the turn of these boys.

Dry Sack sounds more like a painful affliction than something I would want to drink so I used a Fino Sherry for my Cobbler but you can use but you can use whatever you have. The Sherry Cobbler consists of Sherry, sugar, fruit and a little sprinkle of nutmeg.

Now, I can quite easily imagine our 1960’s poolside pleasure seekers enjoying a Sherry Cobbler or two. But the miners? Surely not. Least of all because you would think all the fruit would get stuck in their beards. But apparently back in the 1850’s it was the most popular mixed drink in the world.

However, those miners were pretty wily. Is it a pure coincidence that the Sherry Cobbler, according to this article, was the drink that popularised the use of the straw. Or was it just a solution to fruit in beard syndrome?

But right from the start I promised you crazy and miners sipping sherry through straws is not crazy. It’s adorable but not crazy.

So let’s get crazy. The Sherry Cobbler is poured over crushed ice. Except back in the day there was no ice in Melbourne. We are a temperate climate and Melbourne’s first iceplant didn’t open until 1860. But dammit if those miners didn’t want their Sherry Cobblers served as the Good Lord intended them. So, ice was imported from America. Specifically, huge ice cubes were cut from the frozen lakes in Massachusetts, packed in sawdust and shipped to Melbourne to satisfy the Sherry Cobbler yearnings of the miners.

Not crazy enough? In a land where there was no ice, how common do you think those new fangled devices called straws were? Pretty damn non-existent apparently. So how did those quick witted miners get around that little dilemma?

They used pieces of macaroni as straws.

Yep. For real.

For serious.

Macaroni.

Can you imagine anything more delightful than the five gentlemen above out on a night on the tiles sipping their Sherry Cobblers through macaroni straws?

The Sherry Cobbler is a lovely tipple too. It would be a great day drink as it’s not too boozy. And certainly not a drink just for your maiden aunt

Ditch the macaroni straw though. It was useless.

Sherry Party (2)

[yumprint-recipe id=’101′]Unless otherwise indicated, all the facts in the above about Melbourne, ice, straws and macaroni come from a wonderful book called Flavours of Melbourne by Charmaine O’Brien (Wakefield Press, 2008). This book is awesome. There will be more recipes from it for sure.

Any errors or omissions and all the hyperbole are mine alone.

The weekend’s coming – what are you up to?

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05
Sep
2017

Tiny Waldorf Salads

categories: Apples, Celery, Grapes, Salad, United States of America, Walnuts

Is there a salad both more famous (and more mangled) than the Waldorf Salad? I doubt it. And because, pretty much since it’s inception, people have been mucking around with it, I thought I would put my stamp on it. As I have a predilection for little food, I shrank my Waldorf Salad into individual serving sizes.

Waldorf Salad – History

The Waldorf Salad was first made at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in 1896 and was, a huge success. The original recipe only contained apples, celery and mayonnaise The grapes and walnuts came later but are now considered integral ingredients.

The Waldorf precedes the other classic “American” salad, the Caesar, by 28 years.

The Waldorf Salad was also immortalised in an episode of Fawlty Towers. I wonder if this is the only salad to ever have a sit com episode named after it. If you have not seen this you must. It is hilarious. But here’s a taste!

So, celery, apples, walnuts grapes…in a mayonnaise sauce. Which is pretty much what mine consisted of.

So how did they manage to get it so wrong in the ’60’s?

Well, the top three reasons of what went wrong in the 60’s in general are:

Charlie Manson
Massive amounts of drug taking
Gelatine

Now,Manson may be all kinds of crazy but I don’t think we can blame him for this:

Retro Waldorf via Bon Appetit Or this (even though this is kind of pretty)

Or, Good Lord, even this:

Nope, the blame for that lies squarely with 3). Possibly with a large dose of 2) thrown in

After those horrors i totally understand why the poor old Waldorf Salad is not nearly as popular today as the Caesar salad. The graphs below show internet interest in the words as search terms.

Kind of makes me wonder why I am bothering to post on Waldorf when it’s so unpopular. Next week – Caesar Salad! And hit city!

The thing is, Caesar salad is often awful and the Waldorf salad tasted good. It’s crunchy and crisp and sweet and nutty. Nothing wrong there. The buttermilk dressing I used adds a little tang without being too cloying. It’s delicious. And easy to make. And healthy. And it’s fun to wrap up the main ingredients in a lettuce leaf like a salady sang choy bau.

What more do you need?

Go and make one now. You already know how….it’s celery, apples, walnuts grapes…in a mayonnaise sauce.

Pop it all into a lettuce leaf, wrap it up and enjoy!

[yumprint-recipe id=’98’] Have a wonderful week!

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30
Aug
2017

Cheery Cherry Sangria

categories: Cherry, Drinks, Sangria, Sparkling, Wine

This post’s name came from the fact that I totally read the name of this recipe incorrectly. More than once. I swear, the first four times looked at it I thought it was called Cheery Sangria. I even wrote it that way on my “meal” planner. Cheery Sangria. It was only when I was writing the ingredients on my shopping list that I paused. “Oh. It has cherries in it. That’s cute, they made a pun.” Well, it turns out, they didn’t. But I did. And we all know how much I love that! So, technically what we’re drinking today is CHERRY sangria. But you know what? It brought a touch of the sun and warmth of Portugal into a totally cold, wet and grey Melbourne winter day so I think Cheery Sangria works just as well!!

Yes, I’m back from holiday. And determined to make Sangria my drink of choice for this summer. It’s just so good!!! Wine and fruit and a little bit o the hard stuff….it really doesn’t get much better. Mind you, summer has to come first. And at the moment, it seems a long time away.

The best Sangria I had overseas was in Portugal – a teeny cafe in Faro. Here I am drinking one….

Sangria The Portuguese,they are a people after my own heart. They have a cherry liqueur called Ginja which is commonly drunk for breakfast. Speaking of which…when the breakfast buffet contains both Portuguese egg tarts and sparkling wine, I know I have found my people!

Cheery times! And cheersy times!!! But now onto some cherry times.

The cherry sangria I made is pretty hearty. It has loads of strong, spicy flavours which made it suitable for a cold winter’s day. I also totally forgot to add the cinnamon stick but that would have only made it even better! The gorgeous deep red colour is also so pretty and warming. I also used cherries and sparkling wine to remind me of the Portuguese breakfast drinks of Ginja and cava!

But let’s start with some fruit. Limes, blood oranges and, of course cherries make for a tasty and colourful combination!

Then add some tequila for a kick, grenadine for sweetness and a teeny taste of Tabasco for spice and muddle the fruit to get some juicy, fruity flavours. (Pre-muddle is also when the cinnamon should have been added).

Top with orange juice and some sparkling red wine…and voila…cherry sangria!

Salud!

[yumprint-recipe id=’97’]

Have a great week!

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21
Jul
2017

Cattle Country Salad for Cowboy Day

categories: 1970's food, Cook A Long, Cowboy Day, Meat, Salad, Salads For All Season

Go west they said. I took their advice and not only went west but a whole heap north as well to end up in the UK for this year’s Cowboy Day. I will be spending the actual day in the most haunted town in Britain! Maybe a ghost cowboy just like this one will appear on the day….

Spooky huh?

Something that is not at all spooky is the Cattle Country Beef Salad Salad l made to celebrate Cowboy day. But first, this is the first time I am writing, editing, and posting entirely via phone so let’s put any weirdness in this post, beyond the regular weirdness down to that and I will re-edit, format as required once I get home!

We don’t have cowboys in Australia. We have cattlemen. Who live in cattle country which is where this salad comes from. Actually, it comes from Rosemary Mayne-Wilson’s Salads for All Seasons but you know what I mean.

So what all goes into a Cattle Country Beef Salad?

Beef of course. I suspect originally this would have been leftovers from the Sunday roast but I just bought from slices of roast beef from the supermarket.
Then there’s apples. Because we all know one a day keeps the doctor away and you don’t want to get sick while you’re out riding the range.
There’s celery because…I dunno. What use is celery? I like the taste of it but….oh that’s right. Celery keeps the cattlemen skinny. Because no one likes a tubby cowboy. Specially the horses they ride around on all day.
Spring onions. To put a spring in their step.

That was about it for the original ingredients. I also added some mixed leaves because I had to use them before I left for the UK the following morning. I also added some chunks of a lovely vintage cheddar. Which also had to be used but cheese also makes anything taste better and this was no exception.

RMW suggests using a French dressing for this. Make it really punchy by being HEAVY on the mustard. The flavours in here are strong enough to deal with it.

This was yummy!!!! Quick simple delicious. That’s an all round winner for me!

Here’s the original recipe:

Okay, I’m trying to keep this short and sweet because posting off the phone is doing my head in.

Many thanks to Greg from Recipes for Rebels for inviting me to participate in the cookalong again this year. It is always a so much fun to be a part of something like this. Plus, he”s one of the most awesome people on the internet so should just be thanked in general

I dont have my regular sign off this week but just look what can happen when bloggers get together. For an explanation of why Battenberg Belle, Jenny Hammerton and I are wearing cowboy hats and clutching a meat cleaver, a melon baller and a hammer respectively, you’ll need to head over to Silver Screen Suppers but in the meantime, have a great Cowboy Day everyone!