Adriano Zumbo Summer 2008 collection: Please sir can I have some more!

Posted in Eating, Sydney - West

Reserved! And an audible sigh of relief…Do you like my bag on the right? ;)

For those of us, and there are many, who look forward every 6 months for Adriano Zumbo’s new “Please sir can I Have Some More!” cake collection, today is the culmination of many ruminations, conversations and pontifications on what he may come up with next. Today, to add a bit of chaos to the whole collection, Reem and I thought we should do a food blogger’s meet. Reem organised it all and so we thought 7 of us would be seated in the Cafe, having bought our cakes and delicate morsels from the shop nearby. For those of you who haven’t heard of Adriano Zumbo, the man is the Australia’s answer to Pierre Hermè.

Craigie bam: chocolate dacquoise, chocolate sabayon with salted caramel debris, chocolate caramel cremeaux, caramel mousse $7.50

On the Lounge with Zumbo: Mango financier, rapsberry and liquorice jelly, fresh mango slices, liquorice mousse, mango caramel glacage $7.50

Miss Marple Cheesecale: Orange Cheesecake with orange strawberry compote, cream chese crème legere with crepe and maple glaze $7.50

And then 20 or so of us showed up. Thankfully Adriano had reserved the alcove area for us which I am thankful for as walking towards the cafe, we see that every table is full. We make our way to the shop and make our selection, I pick up 3 cakes, Reem 5 (some to take home, I should add) and we ponder the new collection. Even at 11am, many of the cakes have sold out or only have 1 or 2 left in the display so calling ahead to reserve is definitely recommended.

Charles, after whom the Charles du Jour is named

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32 comments | December 2, 2008 - 7:00 am | Not Quite Nigella

Apple and Maple Tartlets

Posted in Cooking and Recipes, Sweet things

You’ll have to forgive the way these look. I tried to do something cutesy to it using an Apple shaped pastry cutter for the top but I think something got lost in the translation and they didn’t quite look as Apple-y as I would have liked. Were you here in my kitchen I could’ve stifled any snickering with one of these pies and that would have silenced any criticism. This recipe below uses the Cindy Crawford Saveur magazine pie crust adapted a little and the filling was a mix of thing that I thought would go well with apple, nothing earth shattering there with the usual suspects: nutmeg, cinnamon and maple syrup.

I made these to take on a picnic, and they were a resounding hit. Even my husband who eschews pastry was smitten with these. The apple filling has a nice, thick consistency (unlike the runny Strawberry pie) and the pie crust is divinely crumbly and delicious with an almost shortbready crumble to it. Of course you could make one large pie using the same amount of crust but you may want to use more apples and you don’t need to cut them as small. They do shrink down to about 1/2 the uncooked volume so keep that in mind. And don’t forget the vent the top. If you prefer your pie filling runnier, you could reduce the amount of cornflour, as it was my husband described the texture as like the apple in a McDonald’s Apple Pie at which I was first horrified to hear but upon reflection agreed, and Apple Pies are one of the things that I will eat there.

You could serve these as they are for a picnic or with some whipped maple cream (combine 1/2 cup of whipped cream with 2 tablespoons of maple syrup) for afternoon tea. Whatever you do, try one shortly after it’s been out of the oven, once it has cooled a little. It’s absolutely delicious then and that’s when the pastry is at its best.

I’ve added some changes in brackets to a couple of the ingredients in order to make it vegan friendly as this is my entry for Libby’s The Allergic Kid Thanks for “Nothing” Thanksgiving Roundup! :)

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17 comments | November 7, 2008 - 7:00 am | Not Quite Nigella

Fine Tarte Aux Pommes avec Cannelle Glacée

Posted in Cooking and Recipes, Sweet things

Don’t you think that if you give anything a French title, it sounds much more appetising? This gorgeous tart is hardier than the title suggests. Cinnamon is one of those scents that you can never get enough of in baking and apples and cinnamon go together like Sonny and Cher…I mean Britney and KFed…hmmm how about Naomi Campbell and lawsuits? And because it’s so incredibly quick to put together I’ve even made this to order with guests waiting.

The recipe for this comes from Stephanie Alexander’s Cooking and Travelling through South-West France. A lovely book but one where I’ve only really made some of the desserts due to the difficulty in obtaining some of the ingredients. The stories and pictures however are lovely. The key to the pastry is the heating of the baking tray. I found that when I didn’t do this, the tart didn’t become as crispily gorgeous. So if you’re intending to bake any pastry, I can wholeheartedly recommend sliding the baking tray in the oven while it preheats.

For the cinammon ice cream, you could make that from scratch using the recipe below or just stir some ground cinnamon through some store bought vanilla icecream. The recipe below uses the creme anglaise method which I prefer. It’s not exactly low in fat but that is all part of the fun. And if you’re cutting a round from a frozen square sheet of puff pastry, you can roll up the excess and re roll the pastry and get yourself 2 or 3 mini tarts using the extra half apple for a truly lovely cook’s treat!

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14 comments | October 3, 2008 - 8:00 am | Not Quite Nigella

Kiwifruit and Apple Jam

Posted in Cooking and Recipes, Sweet things

I happen to have a glut of kiwifruit at the moment, snagging 20 of these furry babies for a mere $3. I had one thing in mind when buying these and this was of course Kiwifruit Jam. I’m not a huge fan of kiwifruit by themselves. It’s not bad but there are about a dozen other fruit I’d choose ahead of one. But made into a jam and it’s suddenly delicious.

This as you can see is not your regular method for making jam as it is done in the microwave. I was interested to see how it would work so I didn’t bother translating it into a more traditional method. Although it may sound odd saving the skin and core, that is where the natural pectin of fruit is stored (the agent that allows jam to set). I also cannot discount how fun it is making a mini hobo sack. Of course like all jams, do not use overripe fruit, use fruit that has just become ripe for the best results. Apple pectin is supposed to very good for the digestion and is available at health food and body building stores. I will say that with some certainty that this is a much more pleasurable way of eating apple pectin than a capsule or tablet although it may be hard to convince people that eating this jam is an attempt at healthiness.

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4 comments | September 27, 2008 - 8:00 am | Not Quite Nigella

Rosemary Roasted Pork with Maple Apple Sauce

Posted in Cooking and Recipes, Dinner recipes

I believe in fate or kismet or whatever you may want to call it. Recipes or things often present themselves at a time when I need them. Case in point was this recipe. I was cleaning up and saw this magazine, open on this recipe. I meant to clean up and throw it out but I hesitated as the photo of the pork was so eye catching. We were having the in laws over that weekend and that meant feeding mostly vegetarians. I had planned on making a simple Gado Gado but then I realised that my non vegetarian brother in law despises peanuts. My mind immediately went to this pork recipe that I had seen only hours earlier and so it was decided that I would make this too.

Bound as only an experienced sailor could do

The only thing that confounded me was tying the string. The local butcher could do this but my husband wanted to give this a go and I have to applaud him, his experience as a sailor meant that he had tying the string down pat. While I peeled the apples for the apple sauce, his hands whizzed over the loin and tied it perfectly before I had the second apple peeled.

Delicious leftovers

This is a Donna Hay recipe and like all of her recipes it’s styled beautifully and is beautifully simple not requiring a wedding guest list sized amount of ingredients. In truth this could serve 4-6 people depending on how hungry they were but I would suggest making this for 2-3 people because of the delicious leftovers. In this case, the pork actually somehow becomes more tender the day after and when sliced paper thinly, it is absolutely mouth watering on buttered fresh bread with a generous dollop of the apple sauce.  Or you can pop it on top of a bowl of ramen or noodle soup. Your tastebuds will indeed be thankful the next day for this foresight.

Mmm crispy crackling…

The proudest part of this is of course the crackling, heady and flavoursome with freshly ground rosemary salt. Crackling is one of those things that I know is so damn bad for me but I just cannot tear myself away from it. Crackling is my Crack. Some people can eat a whole tub of ice cream, for me it’s 1/3 of a scoop and I’m done. But with crackling I need to put safety guards up and tell those around me to take it away from me should I bliss out crunching on the fatty, crispy goodness. You can tell when I’ve entered this state as my eyes are closed and I’m not listening to a word you or anyone else is saying. The earth shatteringly crispy crackling sound is ringing in my ears and you see, I’m listening to the pork crackling.

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16 comments | September 17, 2008 - 8:00 am | Not Quite Nigella