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Monthly Archives: July, 2008

Vanilla Poached peaches

Posted in Cooking and Recipes, Sweet things

I love giving food gifts. It might have something to do with the fact that I love receiving them. And homemade but nicely packaged always seems to do it for me. I love the tender blush of white peaches and if they’re slightly on the not sweet enough side, this method of poaching with vanilla sends them into the truly rapturous category.

I used 4 Onyx and 4 Ivoire peaches, the Onyx being paler with more creamy colour whilst the Ivoire exemplified “blushing peach”. Once stripped they looked and tasted similar, which is akin to what Michael Jackson kept signing about in “Black & White”-underneath we’re all the same. Except he is most definitely an Onyx white peach!

Vanilla Poached peaches

8 firm, perfect white peaches
vanilla extract, bean or paste
1 cup sugar
1 cup water

1. Blanch whole peaches in boiling water for 1 minute until skin starts to shrink away from flesh. Remove with slotted spoon carefully

2. When cool enough to handle, peel skin off and cut in half. If you have “cling” peaches where the seed sticks to the flesh, do not remove the seed until later as it will come out easier.

3. Over medium heat, dissolve sugar in water and boil for 5 minutes until syrupy with 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or paste. Once syrupy, add peaches in and cook for 5 minutes. Cool in syrup to infuse vanilla. Remove seed.

4. Place in clean, sterilised* jar. Serve over thick yogurt or with a good quality vanilla ice cream.

* I sterilise jars the easy way, by sticking them in a hot oven for 5-10 minutes.

9 comments | July 26, 2008 - 8:00 am | Not Quite Nigella

Délicabar “Snack Chic” at Le Bon Marché, Paris

Posted in Eating, Outside of Sydney

You can’t really go to Paris without doing some shopping and despite the fact that the Euro is giving the Australian dollar a sound drubbing making it less splendid a past-time, an afternoon browsing the department stores is still compulsory. One thing that can make it even more pleasurable is the idea of having something unusual to eat and unusually good at that, in the department store itself. Délicabar is the baby of Sebastian Gaudard who delights in mixing savoury ideas with sweet eg chocolate and raspberry soup, Foie Gras and Chocolate and Salmon Mille Feuille. It’s like mixing metaphors but with more success (and judiciousness).

The Department Store Le Bon Marché was designed by Gustav Eiffel. At the moment, it has a lot of scaffolding to the side so it looks less than ideal. I also like to combine my shopping with a bit of the macabre (and I don’t mean Goth or Halloween outfits this time) so earlier that day we went to the Catacombs of Paris where 6 million bodies were buried in the late 18th century.

I’m not a ghostly apparition-honestly!

It certainly works up the appetite walking the 1.7kms and climbing the 82 stairs and descending the 130 stairs. After a quick browse at Le Bon Marché, we head up to the 1st floor and find the Délicabar, the concept of snack chic (i.e. the opposite of McDonalds-if the brightly coloured resin Alessi creatures were made into a restaurant, it would be this). It features bright pink and orange and plenty of whiter than white in the inside area and green and white on the balmy outside terrace. The menu is in French but we manage to decipher a few words and the fact that dishes in black text are savouries while the dishes in brown text are sweets. A waiter also thoughtfully comes by to explain some of the items in English for us.

Bread

A waiter also explains some of the recommendations, some of the items are no longer available but we order the Foie gras and chocolate on thinly sliced toast and the Salmon Mille Feuille and the chocolate and raspberry soup to finish.

Smoked Salmon Mille Feuille €13

The salmon Mille Feuille is a leaf shaped pastry top and bottom with an accent of poppyseeds and a filling of smoked salmon and cream cheese. A side salad of lightly dressed fennel accompanies this. It’s inventive but I can’t help feeling that it needs a bit more moisture from the filling although the pastry is incredibly crisp.

Pain Foie Gras Chocolat €18

The Foie Gras and chocolate on the other hand is fantastic and has you wondering why this is the first time we’ve seen this. The chocolate is thin enough so as not to overpower and oversweeten the foie gras and when spread on the thin toast with the dressed leaves, it’s superb. A word of warning though, and that is to share this plate with someone. I found that only having one piece of the Foie gras and chocolate was a little more than enough as it’s incredibly rich.

Chocolate and Raspberry soup €7

The chocolate soup with raspberries arrives and whilst it looks like hot chocolate it is slightly different. For starters it comes in a very large cup and eating it with a spoon gives it a different flavour. The raspberries are perhaps a bit too bitter with the bittersweet dark chocolate but if you like your chocolate bitter this dessert is for you. There is also a scattering of finely chopped nuts inside.

Fauchon’s Madeleine store

I also leave you with some of the food purchases I made that afternoon from Fauchon, the “Lips” chocolate boxes, white chocolate tablettes and an ice cream from Hediard across the road. And of course the Mothership, the Chanel Rue Cambon store. Bag Lust!

Fauchon “Lips” chocolate tablettes €22 and white chocolate blocks €4.50

Hediard ice cream stand outside the Madeleine store

Hediard ice cream, mango at the bottom, passionfruit at the top

Chanel’s Rue Cambon store

Délicabar

Le Bon Marché
24 rue de Sevres
6th Arrondissement, Paris 75006
Tel: 33 1 42 22 10 12

14 comments | July 25, 2008 - 8:00 am | Not Quite Nigella

Normandy Guinea Fowl with Nigella’s Perfect Roast potatoes

Posted in Cooking and Recipes, Dinner recipes

I came to London armed. Armed with Nigella recipes of things to cook with ingredients that I couldn’t get in Australia. I had recipes such a perfect roasted potatoes made with Goose fat and Roasted Goose. What I didn’t count on was Goose being out of season until December. So distressed at having a dinner party the next night I flung myself on Waitrose’s meat counter (not literally) and picked up two Free range Guinea Fowls, raised for Waitrose in France’s Loire Valley.

Looking at them, they looked like a chicken, with black legs. I used one of Waitrose’s recipes based on the fact that it was simple and it required not too many ingredients. Lower in fat than chicken, they’re tender with slightly drier meat with a gamey taste.

I am always very apprehensive trying to cook new types of food. Especially for dinner parties for people that I haven’t cooked for before. There was a time when we were preparing this when I asked my husband to quarter the Guinea Fowls and when he asked “How?” to which I frantically replied “I don’t know! Just quarter them!”. He did a pretty good job in the end and the recipe is quite ideal for a dinner party as most of the work is in the browning of the pieces and the peeling, coring and slicing the apples. The rest is a cinch and I suggest that you make more of the sauce than specified. It’s downright delicious with any sort of meat. And please know that I’m not suggesting that you try and track down a Free range Guinea Fowl, a good chicken will do.

As for the perfect roast potatoes, I’ve tried these using a butter and oil mix which works but but now that I’ve tried using Goose fat I have to confess that yes indeed, using Goose Fat does produce superior results. And interestingly, I have read that Goose Fat is, despite what one would assume, the most balanced of all animal fats because it has far less saturated fats than butter and lard and has far more ‘heart healthy’ monounsaturated (55g compared to 19.8g in butter) and polyunsaturated fats (10.8g compared to 2.6g in butter), which are essential for good health. In comparison to other animal fats, it is possibly one of the reasons that cardio-vascular disease is not as prevalent in the goose rearing and consuming regions of the South West of France as in some other regions of Europe. So Goose Fat it up!

I didn’t use anything close to the amount of goose fat that Nigella used though, in fact I used less than a can and even then I thought it was too much. I don’t know how I’d go about finding Goose Fat in Australia. It’s readily available here, and in fact, apparently around Christmas, it’s impossible to get a tin due to Nigella and Delia’s raves. Is it crazy to pack tins of it in my luggage?

21 comments | July 24, 2008 - 8:00 am | Not Quite Nigella

Laduree on the Champs Elysées 2008

Posted in Eating, Outside of Sydney

On my last trip to Paris, Laduree was one of my fondest memories. The Salon de Thé was an elegant, Belle Epoque place to stop by when shopping at the huge LV store on the Champs Élysées gets too much and all you want to do is rest your weary legs and feet. Unlike last time, which was on a Saturday, there isn’t a line although there is a sign in French that I think means that for the comfort of other patrons, cameras aren’t allowed. So as any good food blogger does, I bought an array of cakes to take away with me, to be savoured in the hotel room where eating these delicate morsels and licking cream off your hands and moaning and groaning with pleasure won’t be frowned upon.

I can’t choose so I just keep choosing and before I know it I’ve amassed a €76.46 bill of cakes, macarons, pastries and petit fours. I will admit that two of the purchases were cooler bags, one for me and one for my sister so don’t think I’m mad ordering that many cakes and pastries.

Le Haul

Taking these goodies back to the hotel we eagerly take these out of the boxes (and please tell me I’m not the only bag lady that saves these lovely boxes-clean ones only obviously!).

St Honore Pistachio and Strawberry €5.20

The St Honore is a devoted poem to whipped cream and strawberries. The cream is a little excessive but the strawberry choux underneath is perfectly dry, not soggy in the slightest and filled with strawberry gelee and dipped in a deep strawberry icing.

Religieuse de la Violette €4.30

My favourite last time was the Religieuse de la Rose but as I am also a Violet fan, I choose this one. Out of the two, I admit I favour the Rose purely for the flavour but the Violet is sweet and lovely and the choux remains dry whilst still filled with the violet flavoured custard (unlike the variations of this I’ve found in Australia which are a soggy mess).

Ispahan €5.90

The Ispahan, a creation I believe was masterminded by Pierre Herme, is a raspberry macaron sandwich, filled with lychee and raspberries and a lychee/rose custard and topped with a perfect rose petal and raspberries. It’s squidgy, divine perfection.

Boxed Macaron selection (€14.10 for 8 )

The challenge for me was remembering which macarons I had bought in my selection. Luckily, the flavours are strong and I have ordered strawberry licorice, coconut, blackcurrant, citrus, lime, raspberry, licorice with just one macaron unnamed (pale cream with pale jade filling). Of course being macarons I love them and eat each one with small bites to prolong the taste.

Petit fours €7.40 for 100grams (€10.36 total 6 Petit Fours)

The mango topped domed tart is delicious and moist and filled with sweetened, dessicated coconut as is the pineapple mint tart. The second from left, the biscuit sandwich is less successful with the biscuit soggy against the raspberries and smear of buttercream. The coffee walnut dome is strongly flavoured with walnut and coffee although this has suffered in transport and the icing has stuck to the paper.

Petit fours €7.40 for 100grams (€10.36 total 6 Petit Fours)

The issue with icing and transportation has also occured with the chocolate chestnut dome with the chocolate icing sticking it to the pistachio and wild strawberry macaron sandwich. The macaron sandwich is delicately sweet and delicious.

Kougin Amman €1.70

Not the most glamorous sounding, the girl behind the counter asks whether I really want this and I do most certainly. She says it’s just sugar flavoured but having had this before, I need to have another. The only two flavours are sugar and butter but the texture is crisply gorgeous and layered. I find this way too easy to eat in one go despite my best intentions to share this with my husband.

Mini croissant Nut €1.10

The mini nut croissant is glazed with sugar and features a small smattering of chopped nuts. It’s a bit more exciting than your regular croissant although I don’t think I’d buy one again, instead favouring the other divine pastries.

Cannele €1.80

The chewy spongey Cannele is well liked my husband. I find the outer a littel too caramelised for my taste but apparently these are a national obsession.

Abricot Pistachio snail €2.00

This delicate layered pastry with strong with sweet apricots with a touch of pistachio. Absolutely delicious and a lovely alternative to a cinnamon snail.

And don’t worry, I didn’t eat these all in one day and I did share these with my husband. After all there is clothes shopping to be done tomorrow!

Laduree

75, avenue des Champs Elysées - 75008 Paris
Tel : 01.40.75.08.75 - Fax : 01.40.75.06.75
The Restaurant is open daily from 7.30am to 12.30am - The shop is open daily from 7.30am to 11pm except on Saturday 8.30am to midnight and on Sunday 8.30am to 10.00pm

22 comments | July 23, 2008 - 8:00 am | Not Quite Nigella

Nigella Lawson - Strawberry meringue layer cake from Forever Summer

Posted in Cooking and Recipes, Sweet things

Someone stop me. Stop me from using these heart cake pans again. I am addicted to using these tins and even though the recipe below specifies to use round springforms, I took them out, then took out my heart pans and well you can see which ones I chose to use. I did warn you that I was obsessed with hearts so I feel that did pre-warn you of my sickness

They were shallower than regular springforms so I had to make sure to put some high barrier baking paper on he sides and of course, removing them was not as easy requiring a delicate touch, which I almost certainly don’t have. Strawberries and cream is a wonderful combination, I could easily every day for dessert (or lunch or afternoon tea). I confess though, that I liked the meringue, strawberries and cream best and the sponge, whilst nice and vanilla-ey, was more an easy and decorous way of transporting this combination to my hungry mouth.

Strawberry meringue layer cake

Ingredients

125g plain flour
25g cornflour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
100g very soft unsalted butter
300g caster sugar
4 eggs
2 tsps pure vanilla extract
2 tblspns milk
50g flaked almonds
375ml double cream (I added 2 tablespoons of sugar as sometimes strawberries aren’t as sweet as you want them to be)
250g strawberries

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200C. Line, butter and flour two 22cm springform tins.|

2. Weigh out the flour, cornflour and baking powder into a bowl.

3. Cream the butter and 100g of the caster sugar in another bowl until light and fluffy.
Separate the eggs and beat the yolks into the butter and sugar, saving the whites to whisk later. Gently fold in the weighed-out dry ingredients, add the vanilla, then sir in the milk to thin the batter. Divide the mixture between the two prepared springform tins.

4. Whisk the egg whites until soft peaks form, then gradually add the remaining 200g caster sugar. Spread a layer of meringue on top of the sponge batter in each tin and sprinkle the almonds evenly over.

5. Bake for 30-35 mins, by which time the top of the almond-scattered meringues will be a dark gold. (I turned down the temperate to 180C as my oven is fan forced and the top was a little too cooked so perhaps turning it down even further would be better)

6. Let the cakes cool in their tins, then spring them open at the last minute when you are ready to assemble the cake.

7. Whip the double cream, and hull and slice the strawberries; that’s to say, the bigger ones can be sliced lengthways and the smaller ones halved.

8. Invert one of the cakes on to a plate or cakestand so that the sponge is uppermost. Pile on the cream and stud with the strawberries, letting some of the berries subside into the whipped whiteness. (I should have added more strawberries as I had a lot leftover). Place the second cake on top, meringue upwards, and press down gently, just to secure it.

9. If you’ve got any more strawberries in the house, hull and halve them and serve them in a dish to eat alongside; it gives the cake a more after-lunch, less afternoon-tea kind of a feel, but it’s hardly obligatory.

Serves 8.

By Nigella Lawson from Forever Summer