Colette’s French Apricot Tart

Posted on 14 September 2022 by Linda Peek

My friend Colette brought this delicious fruit tart to one of our monthly Potluck lunches where we all speak French for two hours. It’s called Tarte Bourdaloue, but I call it Colette’s Tart, because she gave me the recipe.

If you’ve ever looked at the pastries in the window of a French patisserie you will notice that they tend to almost overcook them, resulting in a few charred edges. This is what gives French pastries their authentic flavour, so when you make this tart, don’t undercook it. The original Tarte Bourdaloue used pears, but apricots, plums, apples or pears, either canned, fresh or frozen, all work well. You can even throw in a few berries.

Pastry:

250g butter, chilled

250g cream cheese, room temperature

¾ cup brown sugar, firmly packed

2½ cups plain flour

Filling:

2 eggs

180g almond meal

150g sugar

3 Tbs rum (optional)

Topping:

2 x 400g can apricots, pears or plums, drained (or use fresh or frozen fruit)

2 Tbs apricot jam, heated and sieved

Flaked almonds, lightly toasted

Process butter, sugar and flour until fine crumbs form, then add the cream cheese, cut into chunks and process just until pastry forms a ball. This is enough to make three tarts approximately 25-30cm in diameter. Tip out and cut the pastry into three, use one ball to make this tart and freeze the other two, wrapped in plastic wrap, to use another time.

Chill the pastry ball you’re going to use for half an hour or so. Roll it out using some extra flour and use it to line the tart tin. Mine is 30cm in diameter and has a removable bottom. If you don’t have a metal tin a ceramic one will do. If you find it hard to lift the pastry once it has been rolled out into a big circle, cut it into four and move it in sections. You can easily rejoin the seams by pressing them together with your fingers. Trim off the top edges with a knife. Chill the tart shell while the oven heats up.

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Bake the pastry shell blind (without filling) for 8-10 minutes, or until light golden. Mix filling and spread over the pastry base. Place the fruit on top, pushing it in a bit. From two tins of apricot halves I had a few left over. I probably could have used them all if I had arranged them closer together. If using pears slice them, then put them back together in the shape of halved pears, which looks nice – have a look at photos on Google.

Bake 30-35 mins at 200°C. Brush the heated apricot jam all over the tart, then sprinkle with almonds.

Serves 8 (with pastry left to make 2 more tarts)

Chicken Chow Mein

Posted on 7 September 2022 by Linda Peek

Back in the 1980s I bought a copy of the Women’s Weekly’s Chinese Cooking Class Cookbook and worked my way through it. I was a young mother of three kids at the time and my only experience with Chinese food prior to that was buying takeaway.

I still have that book, dog eared and spattered from many years of use, with comments and amendments jotted here and there. The recipe for Chicken Chow Mein is served on a bed of crispy fried noodles and includes pork. I’ve adapted it to use the precooked Asian noodles sold in most supermarkets these days – preferably Chow Mein, but Hokkien or Singapore noodles will do – as they are healthier than anything deep fried. I also leave out the pork and just use chicken and prawns.

450g lean chicken meat, cut into thin strips
2 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp Chinese cooking wine or dry sherry
1 tsp cornflour
450g ready to serve egg noodles (Chow Mein, Hokkien or Singapore)
4 Tbs vegetable oil
1 Tbs ginger, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
350g peeled uncooked prawns, deveined
2 medium onions, peeled and roughly chopped
1 red capsicum (pepper), cut into thin slices
1 large carrot, cut into julienne strips
2 sticks celery, thinly sliced diagonally
¼ white cabbage, shredded
8 spring onions, sliced diagonally
Sauce:
1 clove garlic, crushed
½ cup water
2 Tbs soy sauce
2 chicken stock cubes (about 2 tsp stock powder)
1 Tbs Chinese cooking wine or dry sherry
1 Tbs sesame oil
2 tsp sugar

Mix chicken with soy sauce, dry sherry and cornflour. Stand for one hour while you prepare the vegetables. Pour boiling water over the noodles, stand for a few minutes, then drain.

In a wok or very large frying pan heat the oil and cook the ginger and garlic for one minute. Increase the heat and add the chicken and stir-fry for five minutes. Add the prawns, toss for a couple of minutes, then add all the vegetables (save a few spring onions for garnish) and stir-fry for 2-3 minutes. Add the combined sauce ingredients and lastly the drained noodles. Toss for a couple of minutes, then serve garnished with the reserved spring onions. Serve with extra soy sauce or sweet soy sauce (kecap manis) drizzled on top, if liked. And if you’re wondering what you can see sprinkled on the front of the dish, it’s a good pinch of crushed chillies.

Serves 4

Gluten Free Dairy Free Apple Crumble

Posted on 31 August 2022 by Linda Peek

It’s a challenge when my gluten-free, dairy-free friend comes for dinner, but I always manage to rustle up something tasty.

Everyone loves apple crumble, so if you can’t eat gluten or dairy, this one’s for you.

1 kg apples, peeled and sliced (I used cooking apples)
2 Tbs fruity olive oil
2-3 Tbs maple syrup (or honey, or sugar to taste)
Topping:
1 cup almonds, blanched or with skin on, whatever you have
1 cup desiccated coconut
¼ to ½ cup sugar, maple syrup or honey, to taste
1/3 cup fruity olive oil
To serve:
Coconut yoghurt, cream or ice cream

Preheat oven to 180°C. Arrange apple slices in a large shallow baking dish. Mix in the olive oil and maple syrup.

Place topping ingredients in food processor and process until you have coarse crumbs. Sprinkle evenly over the apples. Bake for 30-40 minutes or until apples are tender and crumbs are golden.

Serve with coconut yoghurt (photo shows cream which the rest of us had!)

Serves 8

Tortang Talong

Posted on 24 August 2022 by Linda Peek

This Filipino eggplant omelette is delicious. In the Philippines they use long thin Asian-style eggplants which are not easy to find here. I used one medium to large globe eggplant to replace two long Asian ones and served one each.

With steamed rice and a salsa this makes a satisfying vegetarian main meal.

4 medium to large globe eggplants
olive oil
5 eggs
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 small onion, very finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
Vegetable oil to fry the omelettes
Salsa:
1 avocado, diced
1 small cucumber, diced
1 small red onion, diced
1 cup diced tomatoes (quartered if small, diced if large)
Small handful fresh coriander, chopped (optional)
1 small red chilli, deseeded and very finely chopped (optional)
1 Tbs olive oil
1 Tbs white balsamic or white wine vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
To serve:
Steamed rice
Sweet soy sauce (kecap manis), ordinary soy sauce or fish sauce
Fresh coriander and thinly sliced green part of a spring onion

Brush or spray eggplants with a tiny bit of oil, then grill or barbecue until blackened and collapsed. Place in a dish and cover with a plastic bag. Leave until cool, then carefully peel off the skins and discard. Leave the stalks on as they are useful for picking up the eggplants to dip them into the egg mix. If necessary flatten the eggplants a bit with a fork – mine were already fairly flattened and I didn’t want to risk them falling apart.

Make salsa by mixing all ingredients together.

Beat eggs with a fork and add onion, garlic and season to taste. Using two non-stick frying pans, heat a little vegetable oil in each and cook two omelettes in each pan. Dip each eggplant in the egg mix, then place in the pan and cook over moderate heat. When all four are in the pans, spoon remaining egg and onion mix on top of each omelette. When crispy on one side, turn over and cook the other side.

Serve the omelettes with the salsa, steamed rice and kecap manis, soy sauce or fish sauce.

Serves 4

Crisp-skinned Fish with Warm Potato Salad & Salsa Verde

Posted on 17 August 2022 by Linda Peek

This recipe was inspired by a photo of a dish served at The Retreat on the Row restaurant, located in Worksop, Nottinghamshire, UK. It’s very quick to whip up for a midweek family dinner, but smart enough to serve to friends. The herb mix is very versatile. You can even use a few rocket leaves if that’s all you have.

Choose a waxy potato which will hold its shape in a salad and any firm-fleshed fish fillets which haven’t been skinned.

Two portions of firm-fleshed fish, skin on (I used barramundi)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 Tbs olive oil
250g small waxy potatoes
Basic Salad Dressing
Snipped chives
A quarter to half a red onion, very thinly sliced
Something green to garnish – I used a pea shoot from the garden
Salsa Verde:
2 big handfuls fresh herbs – mint, coriander, basil, parsley, whatever you can find in the garden
Juice of half a lemon
2 tsp capers
Small clove garlic, crushed
2 small gherkins
½ tsp Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil

Scrub the potatoes and cut them into quarters. Cook in boiling salted water for 15 minutes, or until tender. Drain, then mix with some basic salad dressing, a few snipped chives and the red onion.

Salsa verde: place all ingredients in food processor except the oil and process for a minute or until chunky. Drizzle olive oil through the feed chute with the motor running, until you have a thick chunky green sauce.

Season fish then place skin side down in a cold non-stick frying pan smeared with the tablespoon of olive oil. Turn on the heat and cook over medium heat until skin is golden and crispy. Turn fish over and cook for another couple of minutes, or until cooked through.

Spoon some Salsa Verde on two serving plates. Top with the potato salad, then the fish and garnish with a pea shoot.

Serves 2

Apple Cake

Posted on 10 August 2022 by Linda Peek

The last few posts have all been savoury, so I thought it was time for a cake.

Everyone loves apples and this recipe, which appears in various formats on Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest, is delicious, quick and easy. It’s raining cats and dogs as I write this – what could be better on a cold and miserable day than a warm slice of cake with my morning coffee?

This cake is also nice served warm as a dessert, with cream or ice cream.

3 eggs
¾ cup sugar (150g)
4 Tbs vegetable oil
Grated rind and juice of 1 small lemon or ½ large lemon
½ cup plain yoghurt or sour cream (125g)
1½ cups self raising flour (230g)
2 apples, cored, halved and sliced
1 tsp icing sugar and ½ tsp cinnamon
50g butter
Extra icing sugar

Preheat oven to 170°C. Place eggs and sugar in a bowl and whisk with electric beaters until thick and pale. Whisk in the oil, lemon rind and juice and yoghurt or sour cream and lastly fold in the sifted flour. Scrape into a greased and bottom lined loaf pan.

Push the apple slices (leave the peel on) into the top alternating from side to side. You may think you’re going to have too many, but they just fit in nicely. Mix cinnamon and icing sugar, then sprinkle over the top, using a small sieve. Dot with small pieces of butter. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until evenly puffed and golden and a tooth pick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Cool, then sprinkle with a little more icing sugar using a sieve. Serve cold as a cake or warm as a dessert, with cream or ice cream.

Makes 1 loaf

Pasta with Chorizo, Crispy Chickpeas & Roasted Brussels Sprouts

Posted on 3 August 2022 by Linda Peek

I’ve always loved Brussels sprouts, even back in the days when my mother used to boil the Bejeezers out of them to go with the Sunday roast. Nowadays I prefer them roasted or stir-fried, until they’re cooked enough to be slightly charred, but still a bit crunchy.

If you’re a fan of Brussels sprouts I think you will like this recipe. If you’re not, give it a try. Some die-hard haters have been swayed when they have tasted their first roasted sprout. Vegetarians can just leave out the chorizo or use prawns instead, if you eat fish. Feel free to play with the quantities of pasta, sprouts and chorizo. I halved the pasta but left everything else the same. The crunchy chick peas are a real winner and make a tasty addition to almost any dish.

500g Brussels sprouts, trimmed & sliced vertically into 3
2 Tbs olive oil
400g can chickpeas, drained and patted dry with paper towels
1 tsp garlic powder
500g dry pasta of your choice
250g chorizo, sliced
2 Tbs currants
An extra 2 tsp olive oil
A handful of fresh sage leaves
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1/3 cup roughly chopped hazelnuts, walnuts, or pine nuts (left whole)
To garnish:
Balsamic glaze
Extra virgin olive oil, walnut or hazelnut oil

Preheat oven to 200°C. Mix sprouts with 1 Tbs oil and season to taste. Spread out on a baking tray lined with baking paper and roast for 10-20 minutes or until starting to brown around the edges. They should be cooked, but still have a bit of bite to them. Alternatively you can cook the sprouts in an Air Fryer. Cook the pasta in a large pan of boiling salted water.

Meanwhile in a non-stick frying pan heat the other tablespoonful of oil. Mix the chickpeas with the garlic powder and a good pinch of salt, then stir fry them for 10-15 minutes until golden and crunchy, stirring frequently. Remove from the pan and set aside. Add sliced chorizo to the pan and cook, stirring often, until browned on both sides. Cover the currants with hot water for 5-10 mins, then drain.

Drain pasta, keeping one cup of the liquid, then put the pasta back into the pan with the reserved liquid and the sprouts. Cook for a minute or two, stirring, until liquid has almost disappeared.

Add the currants, chorizo and chickpeas. Mix well and season to taste. In a small frying pan heat the two teaspoons olive oil and cook the sage leaves for 20-30 seconds, add the nuts then turn off the heat.

Serve pasta garnished with the sage and nuts, a drizzle of oil (olive, hazelnut or walnut) and a drizzle of balsamic glaze around the edge.

Serves 4

Variation: use peeled green prawns instead of chorizo.

Prawn and Pesto Pizza

Posted on 27 July 2022 by Linda Peek

I don’t eat pizza very often, but when I do I’m fussy about what goes on top.

This is my favourite combination, using home-made pesto instead of the usual tomato base and a gourmet topping of prawns, bocconcini balls, grated mozzarella and pine nuts. This combination elevates the humble pizza to a whole new level.

To speed things up you could use a bought pizza base and bought pesto, but the home made options are, as always, best. The dough recipe makes one very large pizza (or two smaller ones) and is easy to double for a crowd. Many teenagers have hollow legs and are capable of demolishing a whole pizza each! If you do make double the dough recipe, do it in two batches, otherwise your food processor might struggle. If you make two smaller pizzas you could do one with prawns for the adults and one with whatever the kids prefer.

When we fire up our pizza oven for a crowd, I make 3 double batches of this dough and end up with about eight medium-sized pizzas. For one pizza it’s not worth using the pizza oven, so I use the oven.

Dough:
250g plain flour (preferably “00”)
½ tsp salt
Half a packet of dried yeast (about one level teaspoon)
2 tsp sugar
2 Tbs olive oil
160 ml (about ¾ cup) lukewarm water
Topping:
About 6 Tbs pesto
16-20 raw, peeled prawns, depending on size
100-150g bocconcini balls
2 cups grated mozzarella cheese
2-3 Tbs pine nuts

Place all ingredients for the dough in a food processor and process until it forms a ball. If the mixture is a too sticky to form a ball, stop the motor and add another tablespoonful of flour and mix again. Tip out into a lightly oiled bowl, cover with a tea towel or plastic wrap and leave for an hour or two, or until it has doubled in size.

Meanwhile make the pesto and assemble the topping ingredients. Preheat oven to 220°C or whatever is the hottest temperature your oven can reach. Knock down the dough and knead it for a minute or so, then press it out into a circle about 30-35 cm in diameter on a lightly oiled baking sheet or pizza stone. Spread with pesto, then arrange the prawns and bocconcini balls over the pizza. Top with grated mozzarella and pine nuts.

Bake for 10-15 minutes or until browned and bubbly. In a pizza oven it will take slightly less, probably 8-12 minutes.

Serve with a salad.

Makes one very large pizza

Savoury Cheese and Onion Bread Pudding

Posted on 20 July 2022 by Linda Peek

This savoury version of bread and butter pudding makes a tasty breakfast or brunch and is a good way to use up stale bread and odds and ends of cheese. You can also serve it with a salad for lunch. I made half the recipe for two.

2 Tbs olive oil
1 packet French Onion Soup mix
Freshly ground black pepper
6 eggs
2 cups milk
4 cups day old bread, cubed (crusts removed)
1/3 cup grated gruyere cheese (cheddar or other hard cheese)
To garnish:
Snipped chives
Extra virgin olive oil

Grease a 6 cup capacity baking dish. Place oil, onion soup mix, pepper, eggs and milk in a bowl and whisk to combine. Arrange the bread cubes in the dish to more or less fill it – add a few more if not enough. Pour the egg mixture over the bread, then press down all over with a spoon to make sure all the bread is coated. Cover with the grated cheese.

Stand for an hour or two before baking, or refrigerate, covered overnight. Preheat oven to 180°C, then bake the bread pudding for about half an hour, or until golden and crispy on top.

Serve garnished with the chives and drizzled with a little olive oil.

Serves 4

Variatons: add some sliced, sautéed mushrooms and/or some diced bacon or ham.

Quick Bang Bang Chicken Salad

Posted on 13 July 2022 by Linda Peek

The name Bang Bang is derived from the way the chicken is tenderised before cooking this recipe. Not something you have to worry about in this version. No doubt the original recipe also had you chasing the chook around the backyard and catching it, before you got to the bang bang bit.

After catching and tenderising your chicken, a traditional Sichuan recipe for Bang Bang Chicken Salad starts with cooking it whole. This is the quick version where instead you head to the supermarket. Perfect for those days when you have limited time to organise something tasty for dinner.

Buy a cooked chicken at the supermarket – actually I bought a half – then grab some beansprouts, cucumber, baby spinach, coriander and a lime. Hopefully you have all the ingredients for the dressing in your pantry.

½ a roast chicken (more or less)
2-3 cups beansprouts
2 spring onions, finely sliced (optional)
Dressing:
2 Tbs sesame seeds, lightly toasted
2 Tbs Tahini paste
1 Tbs sugar
2 Tbs soy sauce
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 Tbs vinegar (Chinese black if available, if not any will do)
4 Tbs vegetable oil
Pinch chilli flakes
To garnish:
3-4 handfuls baby spinach leaves
A handful of fresh coriander, coarsely chopped
1 small cucumber, thinly sliced
2 Tbs roasted peanuts or cashews, coarsely chopped
Good pinch chilli flakes or some fresh finely diced chilli

Shred the chicken and place in a bowl with the beansprouts and spring onions (if using). Whiz all the ingredients for the dressing in a food processor or blender. Add the dressing to the chicken – you may not need to use it all.

Line a serving dish with spinach leaves. Pile the chicken salad on top, then garnish with the coriander, cucumber, nuts, chilli and a piece of fresh lime. As you can see in the photo, I forgot the lime!

Serves 3 (more as part of a buffet)