Lunch for My Parents – Dessert: Apple & Blackberry Tarte Tatin

For this dessert I used the recipe from Everyday Gourmet with Justine Shofield http://www.everydaygourmet.tv/recipes/258, just used blueberries instead of blackberries.

Ingredients

1 sheet of puff pastry, thawed

100g caster sugar

80 ml brandy

3-4 apples, peeled and cored, cut into half horizontally

50g butter

1 tsp. cinnamon

½ tsp. ground clove

1 cup frozen blackberries

Recipe by: Justine

Time: 30 minutes

Serves: 4-6

Method

·         Pre heat the oven to 190C.

·         Heat sugar in a 26cm no stick frying pan to form a caramel.

·         Once the sugar starts to change colour, add the brandy and allow to bubble away for a few minutes until it is a deep caramel colour.

·         Now add the apples, butter, cinnamon and clove and stir gently to coat all the apples in the sticky caramel.

·         Cook for about 5 minutes before adding the frozen blackberries.

·         Lay the pastry over the apple and blackberries and then tuck in all sides, as if it were a blanket.

·         Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.

·         Once cooked, bring it out of the oven and gently twist the pastry to ensure nothing is stuck to the pan.

·         With certainty, in one big gesture, flip the tart tatin upside down onto a plate.

·         Serve with cold crème Anglaise or vanilla bean ice cream.

Lunch for My Parents – Side: Potato Gratin

This recipe is from Everyday Gourmet With Justine Schofield. I do have better Gratin recipes. I found this one to be a tad on the dry side.

Ingredients

5 royal blues potatoes or Desiree
¼ cup cream
¼ cup milk

15g butter

1/2 cup freshly grated gruyere or parmesan
1tsp. grated nutmeg

3 sprigs thyme
Salt and pepper

Time: 40 minutes
Serves: 6-8

Method

·         Pre heat the oven to 180C

·         Peel and mandolin or very finely slice the potatoes.

·         Grease a baking tray and line with grease proof paper.

·         Layer the thin slices of potatoes.

·         Every third layer add a little of the milk, cream, a few knobs of butter, a sprinkle of nutmeg, a few thyme leaves and salt and pepper. Make sure that you press down on each layer.

·         Finish with a little parmesan.

·         Place another sheet of grease proof paper on top of potatoes and another tray.

·         Bake for 30-40 minutes in the oven.

·         Now remove the top tray and top layer of grease proof paper and finish under the grill until golden brown

Lunch for My Parents – Entrée: Prawn Cocktail

The recipe  “Neil Perry: Prawn cocktail” on http://www.gourmettraveller.com.au/prawn_cocktail.htm was mostly followed for this starter.

Here’s the recipe and what I did due to horseradish being out of season and confusion over the type of tomato sauce that was to be used:

Serves 4

Cooking Time Prep time 15 mins

·         150 gm (about ¼)  iceberg lettuce, outer leaves and core removed, finely shredded

·         2 lemon wedges, plus extra to serve

·         2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

·         16 large cooked king prawns, peeled, tails intact and intestinal tracts removed (I had smaller ones so used 30)

·         N.B I also added ¾ of a large avocado

Cocktail sauce

·         140 ml thick good-quality mayonnaise

·         1 tbsp tomato sauce (I used 1.5 tbsps tomato chutney as I want clear on whether ‘tomato sauce’ meant ketchup)

·         1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

·         1 tsp finely grated fresh horseradish (as this isn’t in season I bought some good quality horseradish cream and subbed 1.5 teaspoons of horseradish cream)

·         Pinch of cayenne pepper

·         Dash of Tabasco sauce

 Method

1.       For sauce, combine ingredients and season to taste with sea salt and ground black pepper.

2.       Divide lettuce among 4 plates, squeeze 2 lemon wedges over and drizzle with oil. Season to taste, top with prawns, avocado and serve with cocktail sauce and lemon wedges.

N.B you’ll see I presented mine a little differently and it was an absolute hit!!! And the cocktail sauce was awesome.

Review - Raffi's Cafe - Chatswood

If you're looking for a casual cafe lunch in the area with easy parking, quick service, great menu variety, quality food and no tidal wave of kids running around - head for Raffi's. We needed a quick lunch so popped in on a Saturday and ordered the chicken schnitzel sandwich and the corn fritters and drinks. We were in and out in under half an hour and the bill was just over $30. Perfect for the purpose!

Recipe - Beef in red wine pot pie

AWESOME recipe!!! I used the recipe off http://www.everydaygourmet.tv/recipes/21 and swapped the beef for Turkey. It was a little tedious as I sued shanks then took the meat off myself but so worth it. I served this for my husband’s birthday dinner just with a salad a chips and they were a hit. They are very filling too – the bread rolls didn’t even get touched!

NB if you go to the link – oddly they don’t mention what to do with the carrot and celery however I have outlined this below.

Ingredients

1 kg chuck steak (I replaced with Turkey)

Flour, for dusting

1 carrot, grated

1 celery stick finely diced

500g speck, fried (I replaced with pancetta)

200ml beef stock (I replaced with chicken stock)

600ml red wine

300ml port

1 x brown onion diced, finely

500g mushrooms, fried

1 clove

1 clove of garlic

2 sprigs thyme

1 bay leaf

2 sheets of puff pastry

1 egg

1 tbs water

Time: 1.5 hrs

Serves: 4

Method

1.       Cut the beef into large cubes. Roll cubes in flour. Add oil to a non-stick frypan or pot and seal meat on a high heat until nicely browned. Remove from pan and place in a plate.

2.       In the same pot, fry diced onion and garlic until soft and golden.

3.       Add carrots and celery and fry for 2 minutes

4.       Now, add the meat and its juices back to the onion. Add fried mushrooms and speck, cloves and thyme, bay leaf and the red wine and port. Bring to the boil and then turn the heat down to simmer 10 minutes.

5.       Now add the stock and let simmer for 1 hour. The sauce should be thick and rich in consistency. If it is not, combine a little cornflour and water in a bowl and stir into the stew until the right thickness. Let the stew cool slightly.

6.       Place the bourguignon in bowls and cover with the defrosted puff pastry. Cut a slit in the centre of the pastry and firmly seal around the edges. Brush with egg wash.

7.       Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the pastry is golden brown.

8.       (NOTE: you can use mash potato instead of puff pastry)

Recipe - Chicken Tajine With Apricots

Great tasty weeknight healthy meal although (naughty naughty) I did use stock instead of water for flavour.

http://paleodietlifestyle.com/chicken-tajine-with-apricots/

Serves 4

Ingredients

·         8 chicken thighs;

·         2 onions;

·         1 fennel bulb;

·         8 dried apricots;

·         A large handful of raisins;

·         2 cloves garlic minced;

·         1 tsp cumin;

·         1tsp coriander;

·         1 tsp turmeric;

·         1 tsp dried ginger;

·         1 tsp paprika;

·         Fresh coriander to taste;

·         3 cups water;

·         4 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil;

·         Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste;

Preparation

1.       Take all 8 chicken thighs and remove the skin.

2.       Cut a straight line in each of the (pieces) chicken tight.

3.       Put all the chicken in a bowl and add 2 tbsp of olive oil.

4.       Add all the spices and the minced garlic to the chicken except the fresh coriander and mix it all until the pieces are all covered.

5.       Place the mixture in the refrigerator for about two hours. This step is optional, but recommended to achieve a more flavorful chicken.

6.       While the chicken is in the refrigerator, cut the onions and fennel into small chunks.

7.       Once the chicken is ready, on a stove-top at a medium heat add 2 tbsp of olive oil to a skillet and cook it for about three minutes on each side, until all the sides are golden brown. Here the chicken doesn’t need to be cooked through.

8.       Add the onions and the fennel and sauté for about 2 or 3 minutes.

9.       Add all the remaining ingredients.

10.   Cover up and cook for about 1 to 1.5 hours.

11.   Verify the chicken once in a wile and add water if necessary to keep it moist.

Recipe - Wild Rice, Fennel and Almond Salad

Ingredients

• 50g butter
• Bunch of shallots chopped
• 2 bulbs fennel finely chopped
• 2 cups rice (all wild or a combination of wild and brown)
• Chicken stock (proportionate to the amount of rice)
• ½ bunch parsley, finely chopped
• 200g dryroasted almonds, coarsely chopped

Method

1. Melt butter in a saucepan
2. Add shallots
3. Add fennel
4. Add rice and Chicken stock
5. When rice is cooked cool down.
6. Stir through the parsley and dry roasted almonds
7. Season to taste and serve.
8. N.b sometimes I cheat and put the rice and stock in a rice cooker, then cook the shallots and fennel in a saucepan then transfer it in to the rice cooker when they’re cooked.

Recipe - Sauce for Brocolli (or other Greens)

1/2 Spanish onion grated

2 cloves garlic grated

Juice of 1 small lemon

2 tomatoes grated (throw skin)

Salt and pepper

Method

- Combine all the above ingredients

- Cook vegetables your preferred way

- Pour the sauce over the vegetables while still hot, and either cook for another 2 mins or simply stir through and let sit.

- Enjoy!

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Review - El Phoenician, The Rocks

6 of us went for lunch on a Sunday and decided to have the banquet. For the location and quality of food it was very well priced at $56pp for the banquet we selected and *warning warning warning* don't love the dips and starters as much as I did as you won't be able to move come the mains!

The starters included feta, marinated pickles, Homous, Baba Ganouje, Labne, Tabouli and Salad.

Next came Falafel, Lamb Pastry, Cauliflower, Skewered chicken, Skewered lamb and Potato coriander. It was fantastic as when we explained the ratio of chicken only eaters vs lamb/ chicken eaters vs vegetarian everything was adjusted accordingly and happily by the staff.

Pic doesn't show much as I only took a breath and a pause in eating towards the end and remembered to take a pic then therefor the pic is of a demolished table sorry.

Highly recommend!

http://el-phoenician.com.au/the-rocks/home/

Recipe - Ratatouille

Ingredients

• 1 eggplant, diced
• 2.5 tbs olive oil
• 1 medium red onion, chopped
• 1 red capsicum, diced
• 1 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 sticks celery finely chopped
• 3 teaspoons baby capers, rinsed
• 200g punnet cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
• Pinch Sugar
• Basil leaves (4-6)

Method

1. Salt eggplant and leave to drain in a colander for 30 minutes. Rinse and pat dry
2. Add 2 tablespoons oil to a large plan and cook eggplant over high heat until browned. Remove to plate.
3. Add remaining oil and cook onion, capsicum, celery and garlic for 3 – 4 minutes or until softened. Add capers, then eggplant, tomatoes, vinegar and sugar and simmer gently for 3-4 minutes. Season. Tear over basil leaves.

Note - if you can do the capsicum & eggplant on the bbq

Recipe - Barbecue Sauce

For meat

1 onion, finely chopped

2 tablespoons oil

Salt and pepper to taste

1 cup tomato sauce

2 tablespoons tomato chutney

1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce

1 tablespoon vinegar (eg brown malt)

Cook the chopped onion in the oil until soft. Add all other ingredients and bring the mixture to the boil stirring constantly. Lower the heat and simmer 15-20 minutes. Use this sauce hot or cold.

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