Tag: dessert

21
Feb
2016

REPOST – Strawberries in Grand Marnier with Mint Sugar

categories: 1970's recipes, A-Zof Cooking, Mint, Strawberries

The good news, is that with this post, we are done with the letter F in the A-Z of Cooking. The chapter heading promises that we will be “Finishing with Flair”. The bad news is that without seeming like Mary, Mary Quite Contrary right from the get go, another F word springs to mind when I consider the contents. Except for these Strawberries in Grand Marnier. They were good! Although how could a combination of fresh sweet strawberries combined with luscious orange liqueur with mint as it’s cheerleader not be delicious?

We’ll get to them later. However, back to Finishing with Flair – we have already mentioned this so called Mango Mousse. The picture of which contains bananas, oranges, passionfruit, eggs and nuts. The recipe below has none of these. The Mango mousse recipe actually sounds really nice. Maybe I am just being a brat for not making it. Then again, if they can’t be arsed putting the right picture with the recipe, what are the chances that recipe will turn out?

That fear of 1977 desserts not being all they were cracked up to be was born out when I made the Continental Chocolate Squares featured on p28. The picture from the A-Z of Cooking is on the left, with the Squares looking rather decadent. Mine are on the right looking a lot more Raggedy Anne. I think I tried to cut them when the chocolate topping was still too hard from being in the fridge and I could not get a nice clean line. Maybe I should have glammed them up by adding some candlelight!

What both of these pictures fail to convey is the overbearing sickly sweetness of the filling. It contained 4 cups of icing sugar which was far too much! I love sweet food but this was way too much for me and prompted the fussiest eater in the world to ask if I was trying to put him into a diabetic coma. It is a shame that the middle layer was awful because the base which was chocolate and walnuts and biscuits was quite nice. It is probably worth someone spending some time on trying to get that filling right because this could have been amazing. I just don’t think that person will be me! Although, now I kind of want to. So maybe it will rear its head in another incarnation down the track.

There was a lovely sounding recipe in this section for French Cherry Fritters. This is the one I would have loved to make but you had to deep fry the fritters and I do not have a deep-fryer. This however is one I am going to:

a) Play around with until I can perfect a baked version

b) borrow a deep-fryer. i think my mum has one.

Until then, it’s Strawberries with Grand Marnier. Adding the mint sugar was an idea I borrowed from Sabrina Ghayour in Persiana. She makes a number of herb sugars to sprinkle over fruit and now it is something I do all the time!

I served this with some white chocolate dipped almond bread which was every bit as delicious as it sounds!

Initially I thought this might be a bit too simple to blog about – soak some strawberries in booze. And done.

And it is very simple. But sometimes that is all you need to finish a meal with flair!

Strawberries in Grand Marnier with Mint Sugar

Print Recipe

A simple way to finish your meal with flair!

Author: Taryn Fryer

Ingredients

Scale

1 punnet of strawberries
2 tbsp Grand Marnier
Handful of mint leaves
3 tbsp caster sugar
White Chocolate Dipped Almond Bread to serve (optional)

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Instructions

Halve the strawberries and place in individual serving dishes.
Sprinkle each dish with 1/2 tbsp of Grand Marnier.
Leave to stand at room temperature for at least an hour.
Meantime, make your herb sugar.
Place your mint and your sugar in the bowl a mortar and grind with your pestle until them mint is finely ground and well combined with the sugar, which will be a lovely green.
Alternatively, place both in your food processor and whiz until you achieve the same effect

Notes

You could use basil instead of mint. Or a mix of basil and black pepper.
Any Orange flavoured liqueur could be used instead of Grand Marnier.
Any left over herb sugar can be used to rim a cocktail glass, or used in place of regular sugar in anything else you are making – I’m thinking lemonade would be amazing.

Nutrition

Serving Size: 4

Ok so that’s F done.

Coming up we have G is for Good Health. I have actually already made the Cheese & Date Bread from this section so we may skip it altogether as there is not much else to get excited about. So, possibly our next venture into the A-Z will be The Gourmet’s Touch. Ooh la la. Exciting times ahead! Possibly.

Have a wonderful week lovely people and this week, what ever you do, I hope you finish it with flair!

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14
Feb
2016

REPOST – Speedy Soufflé for Valentines Day

categories: Desserts, Eggs, Fruit, Passionfruit, Valentine's Day

Hello friends, I am in the middle of cooking something new for you for Valentine’s Day, however, it is 4:00 pm and I just read the part of the recipe that says part of the recipe needs to set overnight. As tomorrow is a working day, I am not sure if I will be able to finish cooking and write up a post in time, so like all good tv cooks, here is one I prepared earlier. This post for Passionfruit Soufflé was originally published in 2014! However, it somehow made its way back into my drafts folder.

Ready to take a trip back to 2014?

Lets do it!

I made my very first soufflé. For you, for Valentine’s Day.

And it’s filled with passion – fruit.

I’m not sure why it has taken me so long to make a soufflé. I have some vague childhood memories of eating cheese soufflés and them not being very nice. Then again, I ate nothing for two years except vegemite sandwiches so my judgement was possibly awry. But those memories and the soufflé’s reputation for being notoriously temperamental might be the reasons I have stayed away. After all, the soufflé come with more rules and regulations than the driving handbook:

Don’t beat the eggs too little
Don’t beat the eggs too much
Don’t fold the egg whites too roughly
Don’t open the door of the oven
Don’t make loud noises or sudden movements
Don’t look it directly in the eyes

Etc, etc.

What they don’t tell you is this. You can have a decent soufflé cooked from scratch and on the table in less than 20 minutes. So let’s get started.

Butter and sugar coat your soufflé dish. When you butter your dish, brush the butter from the middle of the dish to the rim and then up the sides of the dish. This creates tiny channels that helps the soufflé to rise. Seriously this works.

When you are ready to start mix your egg yolk, half the sugar and the passionfruit juice in a bowl until light and creamy.

Then mix your egg white and sugar to soft peaks.

Then fold the yolk into the white. Gently does it here. A little streaky is fine. Then pour into your prepared soufflé dish.

Now, into a preheated oven for 12 minutes. So we’re not tempted to open that door and ruin our “ahem” hard work, let’s talk about romance. After all it is Valentine’s Day.

True Romance

The last few Valentine’s Days I have given you some horror stories. Not so this year. This year we are talking about two very special romantic moments in my life.

Let’s start with my first ever boyfriend. We started going out when I was 15 and he was 16. There was a local park we used to frequent to get away from prying parental eyes and ears. So, one Sunday afternoon we rode our bikes down to said park and headed towards our favourite bench to have a kiss and a cuddle. We had not been there long when, from down the hill we heard some children screaming “Help, help, Angus has fallen in the lake”.

Well, he took off down that hill, and jumped in, fully clothed to save what we assumed was a drowning child. Turned out Angus was a labrador puppy who had been quite happy paddling around the shallows and had not even noticed the distress of his young owners. Semi disaster averted and there was a little swoony dripping wet with tight tshirt moment. Made only more adorable by the squirming puppy in his arms!

Young love. My hero. And a puppy. Life did not get much better!

So move forward…..a few ~~decades~~ years to the fussiest eater in the world. A few weeks ago we were walking the dogs by the lake and noticed that one of the ducks had become entangled in some fishing wire and was only able to move in a tiny circle. And cue the second Mr Darcy moment of my life.

Not only did he jump into the lake (it was only calf-deep so no wet shirt here) but he unwound the fishing line from the duck’s leg then we noticed there was also some line knotted around its beak and neck. It was really knotted and tight he ended up having to bite through it! It was both amazing and kind of gross. That lake water is pretty dirty and I was expecting him to get sick from swallowing even a little bit of it. (He didn’t).

These moments may not have involved hearts and roses but for me were two of the most generous-spirited and selfless acts I have seen. And that is true romance!

(2022 note, the beagle in this picture is Lulu, not Holly.)

Back to the Soufflé

OK, our 12 minutes is up and the soufflé is out of the oven. Quickly dust with icing sugar, add a dollop of passionfruit pulp over the top and serve immediately. Your souffé will start to deflate from the time it comes out of the oven so speed is of the essence here.

And then tell me when the love heart lollies of our childhood took a step into the digital age? Not only are they now using Twitter….

But also Tinder!

Swipe left on that! But swipe right on my Passionfruit Soufflé!

The Recipe – Passionfruit Soufflé

Passionfruit Soufflé

Print Recipe

A delicious passionfruit souffle that can be on the table in about 15 minutes!

Author: Taryn Fryer
Prep Time: 4
Cook Time: 12
Total Time: 16 minutes
Yield: 1 1x

Ingredients

Scale

1 egg, separated
21/2 tbsp caster sugar
1 can passionfruit in syrup, you will need 1 tbsp of syrup
icing sugar to dust
melted butter to grease the souffle dish
1 8cm souffle dish

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Instructions

Preheat your oven to 180C.
Butter the souffle dish, spreading the butter from the middle of the dish up the sides. Scatter a tablespoon of sugar into the dish tipping it all around the insides until it is entirely covered.
Strain the passionfruit syrup into a dish, you will need a tablesppon of liquid. Reserve the seeds for later.
Place the syrup with the egg yolk and half a tablespoon of sugar into a bowl and beat with an electric beater until light and creamy.
In a separate bowl beat the egg white to soft peaks, then add the remaining sugar, a little at a time until the mixture is glossy and holding it’s shape.
Using a metal spoon, fold the whites into the yolks. A light touch is needed here, you want to keep as much air in the mixture as possible. It is better to have the mixture a bit streaky than to have it over mixed!
Spoon the mixture into the prepared dish to just below the rim then run your thumb around the rim to totally clear it of any sugar, souffle mix etc that will prevent rising.
Pop the dish onto a baking tray and bake for 12 minutes.
Do not open the oven during this time.
Remove from oven. They are done when a finger touched lightly on the top comes away clean but there is still a slight wobble in the middle.
Quickly dust with icing sugar and add a dollop of the reserved passionfruit seeds and some additional syrup.
Serve immediately.

Nutrition

Serving Size: 2

Have a wonderful Valentine’s day! And don’t forget to spare a moment to moment to say thank you to the everyday heroes in your life, the people saving dogs and ducks and generally making the world a better place. If you have a spare 15 minutes why not make them a soufflé?

05
Feb
2016

Dishiest Dish – Apricot and Rhubarb Frangipane Tarts

categories: Apricots, Books, Dish of The Week, Dishiest Dish, Pastry, Rhubarb, Tarts, TV

It’s been a while since we have had a dishiest dish – I thought it was timely that we had look at some I had cooked successfully! I made these Apricot and Rhubarb Frangipane Tarts over the break. They were pretty easy to make and tasted delicious!

And who says you can’t play with your food? These are perfect for a little game of tic-tac-toe!

Or you can give them to people you like as little kisses and hugs. Valentine’s day’s a-coming. Why give someone flowers when you can give them some delicious almondy fruity deliciousness?

Who doesn’t love

Crisp buttery pastry – no soggy bottoms here!
A lovely sweet almond filling
The apricots and rhubarb, both of which have a natural tanginess help to make the tarts not too cloying or heavy.
An amaretto and apricot glaze

Never mind saying it with flowers. Proclaim your love with pastry!

My Six Week Challenges

This year, instead of setting a series of resolutions, I was inspired by my friend Ali to try a series of smaller challenges over the course of the year. I started mid-January with 6 weeks of no alcohol. The start of February sees me trying to build a meditation practice! I am aiming for 42 days straight of meditation. I haven’t figured out what I will pick up in mid-Feb but that’s half the fun – deciding what to do next! Hopefully some things I will stick with and some things I may do another six weeks later in the year!

Reading

I have been on a reading binge – I have had a real spurt of books I have enjoyed.

Disclaimer by Renée Knight

Imagine if you started reading a book that had mysteriously appeared in your house only to find out the book was about you. Specifically about you and an incident from your past which you have kept hidden from everyone – and the only other person who knew about it is a long time dead….

I would give this one a 7/10. The plot required a hefty suspension of belief on a couple of major points but all up, a fast paced enjoyable read.

All These Perfect Strangers – Aiofe Clifford

I loved this. But I am a big fan of the mystery set in academia. The Secret History is one of my favorite books and there are some similar themes here. This is not released until March – I was given a free copy for review but it is certainly one I can heartily recommend.

Funnily enough, the book in Disclaimer was called The Perfect Stranger. It was a really weird but totally cool coincidence!

9/10

The Grown Up – Gillian Flynn

This short story (it’s just over 6O pages on my Kindle) has more twists and turns than a spiral staircase. I loved it. And you can read it from start to finish in about an hour!

9/10

Luckiest Girl Alive – Jessica Knoll

Another outsider goes to posh school – mayhem ensues book. I did tell you I had a thing for them. Do not read this if you are one of those (annoying) people who has to like the main character in a book. Tifani/Ani in Luckiest Girl Alive is awful! She’s shallow and self obsessed, snarky and mean. I am about three quarters of the way through this and I am thoroughly enjoying it. I hope the end is not a let down.

I just noticed three out of the four of them mention Gone Girl. And have black, white and yellow covers. I’m sensing a zeitgeist.

Watching

Come Dine With Me

I started watching old episodes of the British Come Dine with Me on the telly over the break and am now utterly obsessed with it. I soon exhausted all the episodes available and am now mainlining episodes on You Tube.

The best part is the narrator. He is hilarious.

Oh and there was a series of episodes with my girl-crush Sabrina Ghayour of Persiana fame.

Pointless

Another British show. This is like a reverse Family Feud where people try to guess the least popular answers to a question, the goal being trying to get an answer that whilst correct, no one in the studio audience chose. It would be a fairly run of the mill quiz show if not for the hosts – host and co host who are just delightful. Charming, witty. Smart. I could watch the two of them banter all day!

The XFiles

So excited about this. We were a week behind the States so are only two episodes in. And it’s been great. Even though I have been watching the classic episodes, when I heard that theme music and saw that they had kept the old intro I got almost a little teary….

Other Stuff

Nigella

And speaking of getting a little teary, I went to see Nigella Lawson in conversation. She was brilliant. There a not many people for whom I would stand in line for and hour and a half just to get a book signed by she was worth every minute.

Now, how about a recipe for these babies?

This week I am looking forward to cooking:

Chicken, Feta and Zucchini Meatballs from my latest Tasty Reads Choice, Life in Balance by Donna Hay. We have our meeting in a few weeks and I feel I have not done this book justice. Time to get cracking!
A Biscotten Torte from the A-Z of Cooking
Tomato, Peach, Proscuitto and Mozzarella Salad. I am the only person in my family who likes fruit mixed in with salads that are not fruit salads. Does that make me weird? Or them?

Time to share. What are you enjoying reading / watching / doing?

What was the best thing you cooked this week?

Whats top of your list to cook next?

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24
Nov
2015

Sussex Pond Pudding

categories: Desserts, England, Lemon, Pudding

In a weird coincidence, the last three cookbooks I have read have all contained recipes for Sussex Pond Pudding. I had never heard of such a thing before and suddenly, it was stalking me! The universe was absolutely, positively telling me something. And I took that message to be that I should make one. Because that’s what the universe does right? Offers a gentle guiding hand to point you in the direction of where you need to be going.

But first, somewhat of a digression. The cognitive bias that had me seeing Sussex Pond Pudding everywhere has a name – The Bader-Meinhof Phenomenom. It occurs when a word, name or thing comes into your attention and shortly afterwards it reappears with what seems like greater than normal frequency. I’d love to know if, after reading this any of you randomly hear the words Bader-Meinhof or Sussex Pond Pudding over the next few weeks. Let me know if you do.

Sussex Pond Pudding – The Inspiration

My most recent sighting of a Sussex Pond Pudding (kinda makes it sound like the Loch Ness Monster) came from Big Table, Busy Kitchen by Allegra McEvedy.

I find Allegra McEvedy immensely likeable and all of her recipes that I have tried have been successful. She describes the Sussex Pond Pudding as follows:

“This classic English Steamed Pudding is definitely of a superior nature to most of it’s steamy brethren…it’s the only steamed pudding I ever make and I need to make it at least once a winter”

High praise!

The next reference came from The National Trust’s Complete Traditional Recipe Book by Sarah Edington.

She offers some the following explanation of the name.

“Sussex and Kent extend their rivalry to puddings – the most famous being Sussex Pond Pudding and Kentish Well Pudding. The former consists of a suet crust enclosing butter, brown sugar and a whole lemon, and in the latter currants are added. Either way, when the pudding is cut open, a rich sweet syrup, the well or pond – oozes out.”

The final book (which was actually the first book I read containing those three words was Laurie Colwin’s Home Cooking. Which you can read more about here.

You may have noticed that thus far, you have not seen any of my photos of the Sussex Pond Pudding. I thought I would intersperse my pictures with Laurie’s commentary.

A Digression on Suet

By the way, Laurie Colwin calls it Suffolk Pond Pudding. For the sake of consistency, I will refer to it as Sussex Pond Pudding throughout.

But first. Can we talk about suet? OMFG – was a more disgusting substance ever invented? This has to figure right up there with the civet pooping coffee and that bird embryo they keep getting people to eat on Survivor and The Amazing Race. I had to look it up because I was actually not too sure what it was. I wish I hadn’t

Suet – raw beef or mutton fat, especially the hard fat found around the loins and kidneys.

I am really sorry British people who eat this stuff all the time but that is just disgusting. Raw sheep kidney fat. Exactly what I want in my sweet pudding.

Turns out you can buy (fake?) suet in the supermarket and it looks kind of like breadcrumbs of butter. So not as bad as you might think. Just try not to think where those buttery breadcrumbs come from.

And that pastry? Was a bastard of a thing to make. And I was not at all happy with the finished product. It was very both heavy//thick and fragile. Getting it to line the pudding bowl was a nightmare.

Sussex Pond Pudding – The Commentary

And now, over to Laurie Colwin.

“Sussex Pond Pudding although something of a curiousity sounded perfectly it splendid….it never occurred to me that nobody might want to eat it”

No one wanted to eat mine either. The fussiest eater in the world took one look at it.

“What is that?”

It’s a Sussex Pond Pudding”

“It looks disgusting”

He comes from Kent. Maybe I should have added currants.

Back to Laurie:

“My suet crust was masterful. When unwrapped from it’s cloth, the crust was a beautiful deep honey colour”

Mine too, at least at the bottom, which became the top where all the butter and sugar had soaked into the pastry.

“My hostess look confused. “It looks like a baked hat”, she said.

“It looks like the Alien,” my future husband said.

“Never mind, ” I said. “It will be the most delicious thing you ever tasted”.

“I cut the pudding. As Jane Grigson had promised, out ran a lemon-scented buttery toffee. I sliced up the lemon which was soft and buttery too. Each person was to get some crust, a slice of lemon and some sauce. What a hit! I thought. Exactly the sort of thing I adored. I looked around me happily and my happiness turned to ash”

The buttery lemony sauce was by far the best thing about this . It was actually quite delicious. And the soaked buttery pastry was not awful either.

My host said: “This tastes like lemon-flavoured bacon fat”

“I’m sure it’s wonderful, ” said my hostess. “I mean, in England”.

The woman guest said “This is awful.”

My future husband remained silent.

Mine did not taste like bacon fat, maybe because I used the fake supermarket suet. If you got the right ration of sauce (lots) to pastry (not much) it was actually not too bad. It was not the “weird inedible sludge from outer space” Laurie Colwin describes however it is also not something I will feel compelled to make at least once a year like Allegra. Or ever again.

Although I am going to have to find something to do with the rest of that suet!

I guess that sometimes, instead of being that gentle guiding hand, the universe is a smartarse little jokester who is six steps ahead of you laying down banana peels for you to pratfall on.

And then, just as you are shaking your fist at it, it gives you a little wink and a grin and holds out its hands in a let’s be friends gesture. In my instance, remember a couple of weeks ago I said this:

I have a real hankering to go back and watch some early XFiles. I have yet to scratch that particular itch but it’s there….

And lo and behold, I was flicking channels on Saturday night during an ad break in, ok, I admit it, The Hunger Games and look what was on my telly:Just a couple of minutes before this scene Mulder was examining Scully’s butt for alien probes. It was AWESOME! I can’t wait for next Saturday!

Have a great week!

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14
Jan
2015

The Ice Iced Vovo with Ancho Sorbet

categories: Ancho, Desserts, Icecream, Raspberry, Spice Peddler

All right, Stop. Collaborate and listen, I am back with a brand new invention….

Thanks to my lovely friends at the Spice Peddlers we are mixing up the flavours of Mexico with an Australian icon to create a dessert that has more contradictions than a Katy Perry song.

This baby is hot and it’s cold, it’s sweet and it’s sour,it’s crunchy and gooey, it’s pretty in pink but it packs a wicked punch and it’s fruity and boozy…ok, technically, those two aren’t opposites but this is awesome and fucks with your head in the best possible way. Et voila, the Ice Iced Vovo.

But first, for those of you not familiar with the Iced Vovo, it is probably the most legendary biscuit in Australia.

Well….right behind the Tim Tam. And the Anzac.

We are a nation of biscuit lovers.

Anyhoo..it’s right up there.

According to the Arnott’s Biscuits website:

An Iced VoVo is a lovely biscuit topped with two strips of pink fondant and a strip of strawberry jam, all sprinkled with coconut – a symphony in pink!

A much smaller symphony in pink than what I remembered from my childhood but a symphony in pink nonetheless. Anyway, forget about them for a while. Think of this as a play. Australia has exited stage left.

Because we need to talk about sorbet. More specifically this sorbet which I made from some ancho chillies (sent to me by my friends at the Spice Peddlers), some raspberries, tequila and lime. Enter Mexico stage right….

So I whipped up the sorbet. And it was delicious Mind you, with those ingredients how could it not be?

It is really good just on it’s own.

But anyone can have ice cream in a cone. It tasted great, but I was feeling a bit blah about the presentation. I actually made this ages ago but because I didn’t love it, I found it really hard to write about. When I feel that way about most things, I just don’t write about them. But this one haunted me, I had to write about it but the cone just seemed so boring.

So, after pondering about it for a few weeks, I thought maybe an ice cream sandwich would be a bit more interesting. So I hightailed it down to the supermarket to buy some biscuits. I had in my head something like a shortbread or those cats tongues? And then I saw the Iced Vovo’s.

So I had my components. My first idea was a very simple ice cream sandwich:

This looked great and was pretty much what I wanted. However, the main problem with it was that when you bit into it all the sorbet oozed out over your hands.

But it was good, it had the flavours and a normal person would have probably left it there. Luckily for you, I ‘m not normal. I liked the sandwich better but was still not absolutely inspired. Then, this morning I was writing my journal and it came to me….

The strip of jam down the middle of the vovo was the same colour as the sorbet….so what if…..you took a biscuit, any biscuit and you put a little line of sorbet down the middle? Then instead of fondant what if you took some of those little baking marshmallows….hmm…how would you stop them rolling off? What if you toasted them?

If there was a problem, yo, I’ll solve it. Check out the hook while my djay revolves it.

Ice, Iced Vovo

These are best eaten straight away, when the marshmallow is still gooey and before the sorbet melts…so good…and once you’ve made the sorbet it takes about 3 minutes to make. Super easy, super good. Seriously the hardest part is making sure the marshmallows don’t fall off the biscuits as you put the tray in the oven!

I ‘m going to be thinking up some more kooky recipes for the rest of the month of crazy. Have a great one whatever you do. Meanwhile, enjoy the duclet tones of Mr Robert Van Winkle AKA Vanilla Ice.

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