Gâteau de Crêpes Florentine

Posted on 23 September 2013 by Linda Peek

Most recipes on this blog are fairly quick and easy. Gâteau de Crêpes Florentine is a bit more time-consuming, so allow an hour to an hour and a half for preparation, plus cooking time. It can however be prepared ahead if you’re serving it to guests.

I used to make this in one large pancake stack and serve it cut into wedges. I decided to modernise it by making individual ones to serve for brunch. Making individual ones is a bit more fiddly than one big one, but using frozen spinach instead of fresh speeds things up.

If you make individual gateaux you will be left with a lot of crepe off-cuts, which can be used to make a quick dessert. Use scissors to snip them into more uniform pieces then mix them with some apple slices, pile into a baking dish, sprinkle with sugar, dot with butter and bake in a hot oven for about 25 minutes.

Crêpes:
2 cups cold water
1 cup cold milk
3 eggs
½ tsp salt
2 cups sifted plain flour
5 Tbs oil
Filling:
100g plain flour
70g butter
2 cups milk
salt, pepper and nutmeg
2 bunches spinach (or 2 x 250g packets frozen)
250g grated Parmesan cheese
To serve:
1 carton sour cream
½ cup chopped parsley
Salt to taste

Blend crepe ingredients in blender or food processor until smooth. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight. Add 1-2 tablespoons of extra water, to ensure the batter is nice and thin, then make 24-28 thin crêpes in a non-stick omelette or crepe pan. No need to grease the pan. Use 1½-2 Tbs batter for each crepe, swirling the pan to cover the whole area. Stack them one on top of the other on a plate. If you’re making individual ones, use a larger non-stick pan so the crêpes are big enough to cut three circles using a stacking ring.

For the filling, wash, cook, drain and chop spinach or use two well-drained packets of frozen spinach. Make a white sauce with butter, flour and milk. Add seasonings and spinach. Sauce should be thick.

For one large gateau, place one crepe on lightly buttered ovenproof plate. Spread with thin layer of spinach sauce and sprinkle generously with grated Parmesan. Continue, ending with a crepe. Cover with foil and leave in the fridge. To serve, heat for about 45 mins at 180°C, remove foil and cut into wedges, like a cake. Serve with the parsley sauce.

For individual gateaux, grease individual stacking rings and arrange on baking paper, on a baking tray. Doing three crepes at a time, cut circles using one stacking ring. So from 3 crepes you will get 9 circles. Place one in each ring, then spread some spinach sauce over, sprinkle with grated parmesan and continue until you reach the top, ending with a plain circle of crepe. You will need 5-6 circles per serving. You can either use up all the crepes and filling or just make six or so and keep the rest for another use.

Sauce: Mix and chill. Add salt just before serving.

Serves 10-12 as a starter or light lunch.

Salmon in Pastry with Currants and Ginger

Posted on 19 September 2013 by Linda Peek

Once it’s been passed on a few times, the origins of a recipe are often lost. I haven’t made this recipe for quite some time, but I remember it was given to me by my dear friend Maggie about 15 years ago. We started primary school together, so we go back a long way!

My friend Karen recently gave me two cook books by British cook book writer and critic Simon Hopkinson, called Roast Chicken and Other Stories and Second Helpings of Roast Chicken. As I was reading the first volume, voilà, there was Maggie’s salmon. Hopkinson says it’s his version of “a most famous creation by George Perry-Smith, one of the great pioneers who changed the eating habits of an apathetic British public.” Perry-Smith was greatly influenced by Elizabeth David and made his name at The Hole in the Wall in Bath, which opened in the late 1950s.

You can either make this in individual parcels or one large one and cut it into slices, which is what I decided to do this time. Hopkinson likes to serve it with a hollandaise sauce, lightened with whipped cream, but concedes that the dish is very rich and just as nice served with a wedge of lemon. The combination of crisp pastry, salmon, ginger and currants is unusual, but delicious. A simple watercress salad and some buttered new potatoes are all that you need to complete the meal. The potatoes took longer to cook than I thought they would, which meant that the salmon got a bit over-cooked as you can see in the photo. Next time I will put the potatoes on earlier!

I served the reheated leftovers with my Cucumber Salad which went extremely well.

2 Tbs currants
2 Tbs stem ginger in syrup, drained, or glace ginger
110g butter, at room temperature
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
A pinch of ground mace or nutmeg
375g puff pastry, bought or home-made
8-900g salmon fillet, skinned and boned
1 egg yolk, beaten

Pour boiling water over the currants and leave to swell for 5-10 minutes, then drain and pat dry on paper towels. Mix currants and finely chopped ginger into butter, then add mace or nutmeg and season to taste. Roll out pastry to a size which is slightly longer and wider than the salmon fillet. Lay the pastry on a lightly oiled baking tray. Spread the butter over the salmon fillet, then fold it over on itself lengthwise. Place on pastry, to one side. Fold over the pastry and seal all the way around. Press with the tines of a fork then trim off any excess to give a neat edge. Salmon can be prepared ahead to this stage and kept, loosely covered, in the fridge for up to several hours.

Pre-heat oven to 200°C. Brush salmon with egg yolk then bake for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown – you don’t want to overcook the salmon. Slice and serve with a wedge of lemon, lightly dressed watercress salad and boiled new potatoes, dressed with a knob of butter and some finely chopped parsley.

Serves 6

Campari and Orange Jelly with Labneh and Oranges

Posted on 16 September 2013 by Linda Peek

Looking for inspiration for a family brunch I remembered my friend Karen telling me about a Campari and orange jelly she made recently from New Food, by Jill Dupleix, published in 1994. I’m not very good at culling cook books as I often find something in an old one which I can adapt or revamp. Amongst my collection I also had a copy of that book.

I made one and a half times the original recipe and, instead of using individual moulds, poured it into a rectangular dish, then cut it into cubes when set. I didn’t have quite enough orange juice so I added the juice of a lime. Served in Martini glasses, layered with labneh and orange segments the jelly cubes looked quite snazzy. A delicious and very refreshing brunch starter, which could also be served as dessert.

3 cups freshly squeezed orange juice
½ cup Campari
¾ cup water
6 tsp powdered gelatine
2 Tbs caster sugar, to taste
To serve:
Labneh
Icing sugar, to taste
Orange flower water, to taste (optional)
2 oranges, cut into segments
Mint sprigs (optional)

You will need to make the labneh the day before.

Mix orange juice with Campari. Place water in a small bowl and mix in gelatine and sugar. Zap in the microwave for 30 seconds or to dissolve the gelatine, then add to the orange juice. Tip into a small rectangular dish and leave in the fridge to set for several hours or overnight.

Mix labneh with icing sugar and a few drops of orange flower water to taste. With a sharp knife, cut jelly into cubes and layer in Martini glasses with the labneh and orange segments. If liked, garnish with a sprig of mint.

Serves 6

Smoked Salmon and Scrambled Egg Tartlets

Posted on 12 September 2013 by Linda Peek

I’m always looking for new ideas for weekend lunches. Something light and tasty to go with a glass of wine. This delicious combination of scrambled eggs, smoked salmon and crisp pastry comes from Gordon Ramsey.

Once cooked the pastry shells will keep for several days in a sealed container in the fridge and just need to be reheated in a hot oven for 2-3 minutes. For the garnish I prefer salmon roe which is a dark pink colour, but had to make do with the fake black “caviar” shown in the photo, because it’s easier to find at the weekend in a suburban supermarket. The rocket leaves look huge, I know, but that’s how they grow in our garden.

Puff pastry, bought or home-made
3-4 eggs
2-3 Tbs milk
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
25g butter
4 slices smoked salmon
Salmon roe or Lumpfish roe (fake caviar)
Rocket salad, lightly dressed

Preheat oven to 200ºC. Line two individual quiche tins with pastry, rolled out thinly. Line with foil then add dry beans or corn to hold the foil flat. Bake blind for 10 mins then remove foil, prick pastry with a fork to make sure it stays flat and put back in the oven for another 5 mins or until golden and crisp. These can be made ahead and kept in a container with a lid for up to a week.

If tarts have been made ahead and are cold, reheat them in a hot oven for 2-3 minutes. Beat eggs with milk and add salt and pepper to taste. Melt butter in a non-stick pan and scramble the eggs. Place two slices smoked salmon in each tart shell, with the darker edges towards the middle. Top with the eggs, garnish with the salmon roe or lumpfish caviar and serve with a rocket salad.

Serves 2

Velouté of Jerusalem Artichokes with Mussels

Posted on 9 September 2013 by Linda Peek

Jerusalem artichokes are fondly known in our house as Fartichokes, for reasons that will be obvious. Once you have them growing in your garden, as we do, you have them forever. They are very hard to eradicate.

When the French explorer Samuel de Champlain discovered this vegetable in South America he sent samples back to France, saying that the flavour reminded him of globe artichokes. The Jerusalem part of the name is a corruption of the Spanish word girasol which means sunflower.

Jerusalem artichokes grow to a height of about two metres and produce a large yellow sunflower. In winter, after they’ve died down, you dig up the tubers which have formed under the plants, like potatoes. They look like very knobbly ginger which makes them a pain to peel, so we don’t bother. Just trim and scrub with a nail brush or similar. Matthew has some Darwinian theory that if he saves and replants only the more uniform tubers, then next year’s crop will be less knobbly. This theory has yet to be proven, but he’s working on it.

This recipe is loosely-based on one by Gordon Ramsey.

Soup:
25g butter
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 kg Jerusalem artichokes, trimmed and scrubbed
1 litre chicken or vegetable stock, preferably home-made
1 cup cream
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Mussels:
1 kg mussels in shell, scrubbed and beards removed
25g butter
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 cup white wine
1 sprig fresh thyme
To serve:
Extra cream
2 Tbs finely chopped parsley

Soup: melt butter in a large heavy-based pan and cook the onion, gently, until soft and translucent. Add artichokes and stock and simmer for 20-30 minutes, or until tender. Cool a bit then blend in a blender with the cream, until smooth. Put back into a clean saucepan. Can be prepared ahead to this stage.

Mussels: heat butter in a large heavy-based pan and cook onion, gently, until soft and translucent. Add mussels, wine and thyme, cover and cook for 5-10 minutes until mussels have opened and are cooked. Tip into a colander and reserve the liquid. When cool enough to handle, remove mussels from shells.

To serve, add the reserved liquid from the mussels to the soup and check for seasoning. Reheat and ladle into soup bowls. Arrange mussels on top (reheat 30 secs in microwave if they have got cold) and garnish with extra cream, chopped parsley and coarsely ground black pepper.

Serves 4-6

Roast Chicken with Spaetzle & Burnt Sage Butter

Posted on 5 September 2013 by Linda Peek

Made from flour and eggs and cooked in boiling water, spaetzle is the German equivalent of pasta. A bit like gnocchi without the mashed potato. If you like making spaetzle it’s worth investing in a spaetzle-making gizmo. They’re not expensive – I bought mine for about $20 including postage from Fishpond.

I first ate spaetzle in Austria as a delicious dessert called Apfel Spaetzle. The little morsels of cooked dough had been stir fried in butter with sliced apples and spices, then doused with icing sugar. It might even have been stuck under a griller as there were some crispy crunchy bits.

It’s looking a bit wilted and sad, but my sage bush seems to be surviving the winter frosts. Although the recipe says burnt butter, it should actually be nut brown rather than burnt.

1 whole chicken
25-30g butter
2 Tbs chopped fresh sage
Spaetzle:
2 eggs
1 cup flour
1 tsp salt
3-4 Tbs milk

Preheat oven to 180ºC. Roast the chicken for an hour to an hour and a half, depending on size, seasoned with salt and pepper and a knob of butter.

Meanwhile, make the spaetzle. Mix eggs with flour, salt and enough milk to make a sticky mixture. Half fill a large pan with water and some salt and bring to the boil. Push the mixture through an oiled spaetzle maker into the water in batches. Alternatively you can drop small pieces of dough, about half a teaspoon at a time, into the water or push the dough through the holes of a metal collander. When the little dough balls rise to the top they are done. Remove with a slotted spoon to a collander.

When chicken is almost ready, heat butter in a frying pan. Allow it to brown, but be careful it doesn’t burn. Add the sage and cook for a minute or so, then add the spaetzle and cook for another minute, stirring, until they have absorbed the butter.

Divide spaetzle between 4 plates. Carve chicken and arrange on top of each serving. If liked drizzle some of the chicken pan juices over the top. Serve with a steamed green vegetable such as broccoli.

Serves 4

Gong Bao Chicken

Posted on 2 September 2013 by Linda Peek

Sometimes translated from the Chinese as Kung Pao rather than Gong Bao, this stir fry from the province of Szechuan in central west China is simple but delicious. The recipe I used called for 4 dried chillies, but one or two would have been enough for us. I’m not a wuss (good Aussie term for a wimp for those who don’t know) when it comes to chillies, but dried ones seem to pack more of a punch than fresh ones. As it says on Wikipedia “the use of hot and numbing flavours is a typical element of Szechuan cooking”. Clears the sinuses.

500g boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 Tbs cornflour
4 Tbs soy sauce
1/3 cup unsalted peanuts or cashews
2 Tbs oil
2 tsp Szechuan peppercorns
1-4 dried red chillies, to taste, roughly chopped
3 cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
4 spring onions, trimmed & finely sliced on the diagonal
Steamed rice to serve

Slice chicken and mix with the cornflour and 2 Tbs of the soy sauce. Leave to marinate for about 15 mins. Heat a dry pan and toast the nuts for a few minutes, stirring, until golden. Remove and set aside. Heat oil in wok or large frying pan. Add dried chillies and peppercorns and cook, stirring for 2-3 mins. Turn up heat and add chicken. Cook, stirring, until chicken is cooked on both sides. Add ginger, garlic, spring onions and nuts and continue to cook, stirring for 2-3 mins. Add remaining 2 Tbs soy sauce and serve with steamed rice.

Serves 3-4

Note: if you like a touch of sweetness, add 1-2 tsp brown sugar at the end with the soy sauce, or use kecap manis, which is a sweetish soy sauce.

Deconstructed Ice Cream Sundae with Popcorn & Salted Caramel Sauce

Posted on 29 August 2013 by Linda Peek

The idea for serving an ice cream sundae with a crunchy cone stuck on top, like a hat, came from the fairly new and very popular Canberra bistro called Eightysix. The idea for making a 2 litre container of bought vanilla ice cream more exciting, by adding halva and other ingredients came from Maggie Beer. I put these two ideas together for a quick and delicious dessert. Matthew said he wasn’t very hungry and would “share” mine. But after a few mouthfuls I knew I wouldn’t be able to leave half, so I told him to get his own.

If you can’t find halva – a Middle Eastern sweet made from nuts and sugar which tastes a bit like nougat – you could chop up a couple of Crunchie bars. The fresh mint really makes a difference, helping to cut through all that sweetness. If preferred you can leave the salt out of the caramel sauce. For an even quicker version of this dessert, just use plain vanilla ice cream.

Ice Cream:
2 litres bought vanilla ice cream
125g halva, chopped
2-3 Tbs finely chopped fresh mint
½ cup lightly toasted nuts (pistachios, slivered almonds or pecans)
Salted Caramel Sauce:
½ cup sugar
½ cup cream
60g butter
½ tsp salt
To serve:
1 pkt waffle ice cream cones
1 pkt caramel popcorn

Remove ice cream from the freezer and after 15 minutes scrape it into a large bowl. Add remaining ingredients and mix through. The ice cream needs to thaw just enough to allow you to mix them in but don’t let it soften too much. Put back into container and into the freezer. For the sauce, melt the sugar in a small heavy-based pan until melted and dark caramel colour. Add cream and butter and mix until smooth. Put aside and warm slightly to serve.

To serve, fill ice cream cones generously with ice cream then place upside down in serving dishes. Sprinkle a few popcorn around and drizzle with the warm caramel sauce.

Serves 6 or more

Pork Chops with Orange Sauce

Posted on 22 August 2013 by Linda Peek

When we married, Matthew had been surviving as a bachelor for several years. The core of his culinary repertoire was contained in a small notebook with a green cover. It consisted of about 20 recipes, written out by his stepmother and sisters before he headed off to Geneva on his first posting, to make sure he didn’t starve.

Pork Chops with Orange Sauce was one of the recipes in that book and it went on to become a firm family favourite as our kids were growing up. The original version just coated the chops in flour – I added the egg and crumb layer. Fiddling with recipes is, I have to admit, something of an affliction. I don’t make this dish very often these days, but when I do I am reminded that back in the days before Master Chef and the infinite number of recipes available on the internet, we didn’t eat too badly at all. This “retro” dish is simple, straightforward and delicious.

4 pork chops or pork Scotch fillet steaks
seasoned flour
1 beaten egg
Dry breadcrumbs
1 Tbs butter
1 Tbs oil
Juice and grated rind 2 large oranges (use 3 if smaller)
2 Tbs brown sugar
2 Tbs grated fresh ginger (optional)

Preheat oven to 180°C. Remove bones and excess fat from chops, then hammer them out a little bit with meat mallet. Coat in seasoned flour, shaking off the excess. Then coat in beaten egg, then breadcrumbs, pressing them on well.

Heat butter and oil in a large frying pan and fry chops on both sides until golden. Place in an oven-proof dish in a single layer. Mix orange juice, rind, sugar and ginger and pour over. Can be prepared ahead to this stage and kept in the fridge, covered for several hours. Bake 45-60 mins uncovered at 180°C or until tender and browned. There should still be some sauce left, so if you check halfway and find it has mostly dried up, add few Tbs of water. As you can see in the photo my sauce had virtually disappeared!

Serve with baked potatoes topped with a dollop of sour cream mixed with snipped chives or spring onion tops and a green vegetable. Scrub the potatoes and put them in the oven on the shelf below the pork. Large potatoes will take 15-20 minutes longer than the pork, so stick them in early.

Serves 4

Steamed Monkfish with Ginger & Spring Onions

Posted on 19 August 2013 by Linda Peek

You don’t see monkfish much in the shops and when you do it’s usually quite expensive, but I recently bought some at Costco. It’s a firm, “meaty” fish with a texture similar to scallops. I think the best way to serve it is steamed with Chinese flavourings.

350-400g monkfish fillets
2-3 tsp grated or finely chopped ginger
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
2 tsp sesame oil
1 Tbs soy sauce
2 spring onions, finely sliced on the diagonal
To serve:
Steamed rice

Cut fish into big chunks. Mix with the ginger and garlic and season to taste. Place on a dinner plate in one layer. Half fill a large saucepan with water and bring to the boil. Place the plate with the fish on top and cover with the saucepan lid. Steam for 7-8 minutes or until opaque and cooked through but not quite flaking. Timing will depend on how close the plate is to the boiling water – be careful not to overcook.

Meanwhile heat sesame oil and soy sauce in a saucepan or in the microwave. Arrange fish on 2 serving plates. Drizzle with the soy sauce mixture and sprinkle with the spring onions. Serve with steamed rice.

Serves 2

Variation: use another firm fish such as barramundi