Blanca’s Chilled Avocado Soup

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This recipe comes from my dear friend Blanca Bulnes who lives in Santiago but spent 4 years in Canberra when her husband was the Chilean Ambassador to Australia.  It’s quick and easy to make and perfect for a warm summer’s day.

1 litre chicken or vegetable stock
4 large avocados
1 cup thick Greek yoghurt
½ cup cream
1 Tbs grated onion
2 tsp lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste
1-2 tsp ground cumin (not in original recipe but if you like cumin it makes a nice addition)
To serve:
chopped parsley, or toasted slivered almonds or red pepper puree (see below)

Home made chicken stock is best for this recipe.  Leave it in the fridge to chill, then remove any fat from the surface.  Otherwise make up a litre of stock using a cube. Vegetarians can use vegetable stock.

In a food processor mix avocado flesh with yoghurt, cream and some of the stock.  Scrape into a bowl and add remaining ingredients.   Chill for several hours or overnight. Serve garnished with chopped parsley or toasted slivered almonds or a drizzle of red capsicum/pepper puree.

Red Pepper Puree: place 2 capsicums on an oven tray and spray with oil.  Place under a very hot grill until slightly blackened and blistered, then turn and grill the other side.  Cover loosely with foil and leave until cool enough to handle.  Remove skin, seeds and membranes then blitz in a food processor with enough olive oil to make a smooth red paste.  Store covered in the fridge.

Lemon Meringue Pie

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At 3pm on the first Tuesday of November Australia comes to a virtual standstill.  The Melbourne Cup, Australia’s major thoroughbred horse race, has been run since 1861.  Even people who never bet on horses place a bet in this race.  Lunches with sweepstakes are organised all over the country by those who can’t make it to the Flemington racecourse in Melbourne.  Ladies come dressed to kill, wearing their best hat, in order to create the right atmosphere.

Asked to bring a plate to a Melbourne Cup buffet lunch I decided to make an old English favourite, Lemon Meringue Pie.  As you can see, the lemon tree outside our kitchen window is laden with fruit.  Last year we picked all the lemons and put them in a second fridge we keep in the garage for drinks.   After a few weeks they started to go off, so this year we’ve decided to leave them on the tree and pick them as we need them.  Not sure if this will affect next season’s crop, but we’ll find out.

My ceramic quiche dish holds about a litre of filling, so this makes quite a large pie.  If you find you have too much filling,  put the excess into little glasses  to eat with a dollop of cream.

 

1 large fully-baked sweet shortcrust pastry shell
¾ cup caster sugar
¾ cup lemon juice
1 Tbs grated lemon rind
2 cups water
½ cup cornflour
3 eggs, separated
75g unsalted butter
½ cup caster sugar, extra

Keep the egg white from making the pastry and use it in the meringue.

Mix cornflour with some of the water to a smooth paste in a small bowl.  Heat lemon juice, sugar, remaining water and grated rind in a saucepan.  When boiling add cornflour mixture and stir until thickened with a wooden spatula.  Remove from heat and mix in egg yolks and lastly butter.  Cool a bit then push through a sieve to remove any bits of cooked egg white and spoon evenly into the pastry case.

With electric beaters whip the four egg whites (one left from making the pastry) with a pinch of salt until they hold soft peaks, then gradually add the extra sugar and continue whipping until you have a glossy meringue.  Pile onto the lemon filling, covering completely so there are no gaps.  Bake at 170°C for 10-15 minutes or until lightly browned.  Remove from the oven and cool.  Serve chilled.

Serves 10-12

Mango Semi-freddo with Macadamia Praline

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Catherine drove from Newcastle to Canberra, to stay with us for a few days.  On the way she bought a tray of mangoes from a vendor by the side of the road.  James and Karen hosted a family BBQ on Sunday evening and I volunteered to bring dessert.  Catherine suggested we make a mango semi-freddo with praline, so we had a look at a couple of recipes online and a few more in my large collection of cookbooks and devised this between us.  A triangular tin bought in Paris about 10 years ago in a kitchen shop called E. Dehillerin made a perfect mold.  I could spend hours in that shop.  The mold is also a good shape for pâté and terrines.

Mango Semi-freddo with Macadamia Praline

2 large mangoes, flesh pureed in a food processor
4 eggs, separated
400ml cream
⅓ to ½ cup plus 2 Tbs caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
½ cup caster sugar
Praline:
80-100g macadamia nuts, roughly chopped
⅓ cup caster sugar 

Make praline:  Place nuts in a small frying pan and stir for a minute or two over medium heat until lightly toasted. Tip out.  Add sugar to pan.  Heat and swirl until you have a nice caramel, then add nuts, mix through and tip out onto a piece of foil.  Leave to cool then break into pieces and blitz very briefly in food processor.  It should remain quite chunky.

Line a plastic or metal mold which holds 1.5 to 2L with plastic wrap, leaving excess hanging over.  Take out three large bowls.  Place egg yolks and sugar (⅓ to ½ cup according to taste) in one, cream in another and egg whites and a pinch of salt in the third.  With electric beaters, whip egg whites until soft peaks, then add remaining 2 Tbs sugar and whip till thick.  With the same beaters (no need to wash) whip egg yolks and sugar till pale and frothy and lastly the cream till thick.  Scrape cream and meringue into egg yolk mixture, add vanilla essence, then whip the whole lot together until well mixed.   Taste and if liked add a little more caster sugar.

Tip praline into mold to cover the bottom. Tip in about half the semi-freddo mixture, then drizzle with half the mango puree.  Use a knife to swirl the mango evenly through, then pour in remaining semi-freddo, drizzle with the rest of the mango puree and repeat the swirling.  If you have too much filling pour into small glasses and freeze individual ones.

Freeze for several hours or overnight.  Remove from freezer about 20 mins before serving.  Tip out onto a serving plate and cut into thick slices with a knife dipped in hot water.  You may need to hold a cloth rung out in hot water on the outside of the mold for a few seconds to loosen this dessert.

Serves 10-12

Note: this recipe contains raw eggs

Pasta with Broad Beans and Pesto

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Last weekend our friends Venessa and Tony gave us a packet of orecchiette pasta all the way from Italy, although they had bought it at the local deli.  It’s shaped like baby pig’s ears, hence the name, and they said it was 50% nicer than any normal pasta.  Last Sunday David Herbert’s food column in The Weekend Australian Magazine featured a recipe for Pappardelle with Broad Beans, so I thought I would make it using the orecchiette instead of pappardelle.  The recipe also uses pesto, one of my favourite ways to enjoy pasta.

You can usually whip up a tasty pasta meal without having to go to the shops.  To this end a bag of pesto cubes in the freezer is a great resource for the busy cook. Towards the end of summer, when we  have an abundance of basil in the garden, I start making pesto cubes in ice cube trays,  tip them into a plastic bag and by the time I have finished I  have a couple of kilos – enough to last till next summer.  You’re right, I do have plenty of freezer space!

The third main ingredient in this recipe is broad beans which I always have in the freezer.  Fresh broad beans are delicious, but the season is very short and frozen ones are really very good.  David Herbert used some green chillies in his pesto, but I prefer mine without.  You could always add some to this recipe at the end, to spice it up a bit.  A bottle of wine, a crusty loaf and maybe a rocket salad and dinner’s ready.

Pasta with Broad Beans and Pesto

2 cups broad beans, fresh or frozen
350g pappardelle or pasta of your choice
Pesto:
2 Tbs pine nuts, toasted
1 clove garlic, crushed
3 Tbs grated Parmesan
1 cup basil leaves
4-5 Tbs olive oil
Extra grated parmesan to serve

Put two pans of salted water on to boil, one for the pasta and one for the broad beans.  Cook pasta according to packet instructions and broad beans for about 3 minutes, then refresh under cold water and when cool enough slip off the outer skins and discard.  While pasta is cooking make pesto by mixing all the ingredients together in a food processor until chunky-smooth.

When pasta is al dente drain and return to the pan with the broad beans and the pesto.  Mix well then transfer to four serving bowls.  Sprinkle with extra grated cheese and serve.

Serves 4

Little Crumblies

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When we were living in Paris fruit crumbles, which originated in England, appeared on almost every bistro menu.  Selling British grub to the French is no mean feat, so I always regard it as one of the UK’s biggest culinary successes.

When we were living in Chile in the 1990s we had a Mapuche Indian chef called Jacinto who could make just about anything into what he called a Crumbly.  But he hadn’t quite grasped the need for a Crumbly to be sweet, not savoury.  He once proudly served an apple crumbly which looked fantastic but which the kids refused to eat.  I was abstaining as I sometimes do at dessert time – otherwise I’d be roly-poly – so James said “Mum, you try it, it’s disgusting.”  Turns out Jacinto had put the usual layer of apples underneath, but had made the crumbly topping from some savoury sage and onion stuffing, left over from the Christmas turkey.  It was interesting, but it really didn’t go with vanilla ice cream.

If I have any left over stewed fruit, or a few apples which are looking a bit tired and need using, I make individual crumblies in small souffle dishes.  To make the stewed apples go further you can mix in a few frozen raspberries or blackberries.   I buy both by the kilo and always have them in the freezer. The crumblies in the photo are made from rhubarb from the garden, cooked briefly with a dash of water and sugar to taste.  Once cooked crumblies will keep in the fridge for several days, ready to be whipped out, zapped for a minute in the microwave and eaten with a dollop of cream, or just as they are.  They just hit the spot and are not large enough to be overly filling. People with larger appetites might prefer to use larger dishes.  If you haven’t got a kilo of fruit, just use what you have and adjust the topping accordingly – it’s basically 2 parts flour to 1 part each of butter and sugar.  Any leftover crumble topping can be stored in a jar with a lid in the fridge and used another time.

Fruit Crumbles
800g -1 kg sweetened stewed fruit
250g plain flour
185g butter
3-4 Tbs brown or white sugar, to taste
2 Tbs porridge oats or macadamia nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 180°C.  Cook peeled and sliced apples (rhubarb, peaches or whatever you are using) with a little water and sugar to taste until half cooked, but looking like a compote.  They will continue to cook in the oven.  Don’t use too much water. It should be a thick compote. If using raspberries or blackberries add them now and don’t cook them.  Grease 10-12 small dishes and fill them about two thirds full with the fruit filling.

Place flour, butter (cut into chunks) and sugar in food processor.  Process with the pulse button until it forms crumbs. There should still be small bits of butter visible.  If using oats or nuts add them now and process very briefly.  Cover fruit with crumble, place dishes on a baking tray and bake for about 25 minutes or until browned and bubbling.  Serve now or cool and refrigerate, covered, then reheat in microwave for about a minute each.  Serve with cream or vanilla ice cream.  If preferred make crumble in one large dish.

Serves 10-12 if made in small dishes

Quick Raspberry Ice Cream with Raspberry Compote

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Everyone is short of time.  So while I love to cook, I’m always looking for ways to produce delicious food in record time.  This ice cream recipe, which can be adapted and varied with different berries, is a real winner.  Whip it up a couple of hours before dinner and by the time you reach dessert time it will have firmed up enough to scoop.  You can use fresh raspberries instead of frozen, but the advantage of frozen berries is that it turns the rest of the ingredients into instant ice cream.  I have put 500-600g of raspberries so you know that if your supermarket sells them in half kilo bags you don’t need to buy two!

Quick Raspberry Ice Cream with Raspberry Compote

Ice Cream:
500-600g frozen raspberries
600ml thick Greek-style yoghurt
300ml cream
1 cup icing sugar, or to taste
Raspberry Compote: 
2-3 cups frozen raspberries
¼ cup sugar, or to taste

Place all ingredients for ice cream in food processor and process until mixed. Leave it a bit chunky with some bits of raspberries still visible. Place in freezer for an hour or two or until firm enough to scoop into balls with an ice cream scoop dipped into hot water.  If left in the freezer for longer you will need to remove it about 10 mins before serving so it’s not rock hard.  For the compote, mix raspberries with sugar and leave to thaw, stirring from time to time.  Serve chunky or if preferred, push through a sieve and serve as coulis.

Makes about 1.5 litres of ice cream

Beetroot & Goat’s Cheese Salad

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Beetroot is an excellent source of antioxidants and nutrients such as magnesium, potassium, sodium and Vitamin C.  The Olympic athletes in London this year drank concentrated beetroot energy drinks in little shot bottles and as you can imagine the company which makes them is going from strength to strength.

I don’t much like canned beetroot, but I’ve always been a fan of fresh beetroot.  Until a few years ago I only knew how to boil it and serve it in salads, doused with a little vinegar. Now I prefer to roast it with some olive oil.

This is another recipe from the November issue of Delicious which I halved to serve two and adapted a bit to speed things up.

Beetroot and Goat’s Cheese Salad

2-3 small beetroots
1 Tbs olive oil
1 head of endive (witlof) trimmed and leaves separated)
1 stalk rhubarb
1 Tbs lemon juice
1 Tbs sugar
1 Tbs water
1 cup home-made croutons (use sourdough or French baguette)
120g soft goat’s cheese (I used small log-shaped packet) sliced
Some pea shoots or cress to garnish
Extra virgin olive oil to serve

Wine dressing:
½ cup red wine
2 Tbs red wine vinegar
2 Tbs sugar
4 pickling onions or shallots, peeled and halved lengthwise
freshly ground black pepper

Turn oven to 180°C.  Peel beetroots, cut in halves, then cut each half into four, so you have 8 wedges from each beetroot.  Place in a baking dish, drizzle with oil, mix then bake for about 30 mins or until just tender.  Halfway through cooking time remove from the oven and stir. When cooked remove from oven and cool.

Meanwhile trim rhubarb, cut into 6cm lengths, then slice thinly lengthwise.  Heat water, sugar and lemon juice and when boiling and sugar has dissolved add rhubarb.  Let it come to the boil again then turn off heat – the sticks should maintain their shape so don’t overcook.  Drain rhubarb and keep the liquid in the pan.  To this liquid add all the ingredients for the wine sauce. Bring to the boil then simmer for 10-12 mins or until syrupy. Remove onions and separate them into petals.  Discard star anise.

To serve, drizzle some of the wine sauce on two serving plates, then mix the rest with the beetroot.  Arrange about five endive (witlof) leaves on each plate, then the beetroot wedges, croutons, goats cheese, rhubarb, shallots and pea shoots.  Drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil.

Serves 2

Duck Breast with Soba Noodles & Mango

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I’m always on the look out for quick week day dinners which can be on the table in less than half an hour. Delicious magazine, which I receive every month as a gift, always supplies a few winners.

This recipe for duck breasts from the November issue is easy to halve for two people – as I did – and features the winning combination of duck and mango, both favourites of mine.

Duck Breast with Soba Noodles and Mango

4 x 180g duck breast fillets, skin on salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 Tbs hoisin sauce
270g pkt soba noodles
⅓ cup soy sauce
1 Tbs each sesame oil and brown sugar
juice of 1 lime
1 mango, sliced
2 cups watercress sprigs or rocket leaves
1 Tbs sesame seeds, lightly toasted

Turn oven to 180°C. Score skin on duck breasts in a diagonal pattern then season both sides with salt and pepper. Place skin-side down in a non-stick frying pan and cook over low heat for about 6 mins or until most of the fat has gone and skin is crisp. Brush both sides with the hoisin sauce then transfer to the oven (on a baking tin lined with foil to save washing up) and bake skin side up for 6-10 mins or until cooked but still pink in the middle. Rest, loosely covered with foil, for 5 mins.

Meanwhile cook noodles according to packet instructions and drain. Mix soy sauce, sesame oil, brown sugar and lime juice together. Mix half with the noodles. Thinly slice duck breasts and arrange in four bowls with the mango, noodles and watercress or rocket leaves. Drizzle with remaining dressing and sprinkle with the sesame seeds.

Serves 4

Chilean Empanadas

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We lived in Santiago from 1992 to 1995 and our daughter has since married a Chilean doctor, so Chile is like a second home for us. Lots of fantastic amigos live there, as well as our “consuegros” – our daughter’s in-laws. Spanish has a name for that relationship which is lacking in English. We love the people and the country. The pisco sours and the empanadas. The wines and the seafood. And so much more…

They mostly eat two kinds of empanadas in Chile – cheese ones which are deep fried and meat ones which are baked. The baked ones are called empanadas de pino and are quite big – like a Cornish pasty or an Aussie meat pie. Most Chileans buy their empanadas because they sell them everywhere. Despite the fact that around 35,000 Chileans now live in Australia I’ve never seen them for sale here, so I make my own.

I like to make the pastry and the filling the day before. Assembling the empanadas takes a good hour and the filling is much easier to work with when it’s cold.

Traditional Chilean empanada pastry contains lard and hot water and you have to knead it like bread dough. It can be quite tough and I prefer something lighter. You can speed things up by using bought pastry – either shortcrust or puff pastry will do – and make them any size you like. I prefer what I would call large “finger food” size. The filling is like a spaghetti bolognese sauce without the tomatoes and with the addition of raisins, olives and hard boiled eggs – the three ingredients which give Chilean empanadas their distinctive flavour.

Pastry:
500g Plain flour
250g butter, cut into small pieces
1/3 cup sour cream
4-5 Tbs cold water
1 tsp salt
Filling:
2 large or 3 medium onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 Tbs olive oil
500g good quality minced beef
2 Tbs tomato paste
4 tsp oregano leaves
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp chilli powder – or more, to taste
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt, or to taste and freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup sherry or red wine
½ cup seedless raisins
1 cup water
About 36 black olives, stoned
5 hard boiled eggs, cut into 8
1 egg, beaten with 1 Tbs water

Filling: heat oil in a large pan and cook the onions and garlic gently until soft. Add meat and cook, stirring, until browned all over. All remaining ingredients except for the olives and eggs and simmer for about 15-20 mins or until thick. Cool throughly, preferably overnight.

Pastry: if your food processor is not very big you may need to make this in two batches. Place flour, salt and butter in food processor and process until fine crumbs. Add sour cream and with the motor running add water through the feed chute. As soon as mixture forms into a ball stop the motor and tip it out. Pat into a neat ball, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or for at least an hour.

Preheat oven to 170°C. On a floured surface roll out half the pastry quite thinly, as you would for a quiche. Cut as many circles 10 cm (4″) in diameter as you can, then repeat with the other half of the pastry. Gather the trimmings into a ball, roll out and cut more circles. You should get 35-40 if you have rolled the pastry thinly enough. If filling seems very thick add a tablespoon or so of water. Place about a tablespoon of filling on each pastry circle, plus one olive and an eighth of a hard boiled egg. If you make larger empanadas, use a quarter of an egg for each and maybe 2 olives. You may have some meat filling leftover. It’s nice for lunch on toast.

Dampen pastry edges very slightly on one side with the beaten egg mixture, fold over, seal with fingers then crimp with a fork. Make sure you seal them well so they don’t burst open in the oven. Place on baking trays lined with baking paper, brush with beaten egg mixture and bake for about 30 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm. Can be made ahead and kept in the fridge or freezer then briefly reheated to serve. If doing that then don’t brown them too much in the first cooking.

Makes 35-40

Passionfruit Tart

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Passionfruit vines grow well in Canberra, especially on a protected sunny wall.  Last year we had a bumper crop of over 100, so I froze the pulp in ice cube trays.  It freezes beautifully and when thawed is hard to distinguish from fresh pulp.  Unfortunately our passionfruit vine has since died – apparently they only last a few years – so we have just planted another one.

Planning a dinner party I suddenly remembered the huge sack of passionfruit cubes I have in the freezer and decided to make Neil Perry’s passionfruit Tart.  Here is the recipe with a few slight adjustments of my own.

Sweet shortcrust pastry:
200g plain flour
80g icing sugar
125g unsalted butter, cut into pieces
3 egg yolks
Filling:
9 eggs
350g caster sugar
350ml strained passionfruit juice
300ml cream
To serve:
icing sugar
pouring cream (optional)
some of the passionfruit pulp

For pastry place flour, icing sugar and butter in food processor.  Process until fine crumbs, then add egg yolks and continue to process until mixture starts to form a ball.  Tip out, form into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or at least an hour.

For the filling, beat eggs with a hand whisk or fork – just to break them up thoroughly, not to gain any volume – then mix in remaining ingredients and refrigerate overnight. When you have strained the passionfruit pulp, if you find you don’t have quite enough juice you can add some lemon or lime juice to make up to 350ml.  Keep the pulp to decorate plates when serving.

Next day turn oven to 170°C.  Spray a 25cm metal flan tin with fluted edges and a removable base with vegetable oil.  A ceramic dish won’t achieve the same crispness in the pastry.  Make sure you thoroughly spray the fluted sides which will make it easier to remove.  Roll out pastry thinly and use to line the tin, making sure you don’t stretch it, otherwise it will shrink in the oven and leave you with lower sides than you wanted.  Refrigerate for half an hour then line with a piece of foil, pressing it gently to fit snugly into the pastry case.  Pour in something to weigh it down – you can buy special metal “beans” for this purpose, but I use a packet of popping corn which I keep in a jar to use over and over again.  Bake for about 15 minutes until the edges of the pastry are turning golden and the pastry has set, then remove foil and beans and bake for a further 10 minutes or so until golden all over.

Turn oven down to 160°C.  Carefully pour in the passionfruit filling.  This is easier to do with the tart in the oven, so it doesn’t spill when you put it back in.  Tart can be very full to just below the pastry edge.  Any excess filling can be poured into a couple of small ramekins and baked with the tart – they won’t take long.  Bake for 40 mins or until filling has set in the middle but is still very slightly wobbly when you move it. Remove from the oven and when cool refrigerate until serving time.

To serve, carefully remove the sides from the tin – you may need to use a thin knife to loosen the edges of the pastry first.  Using a sieve, shake icing sugar evenly over tart, then cut into portions and place on serving plates.  Decorate each plate with a drizzle of passionfruit pulp and pass the cream separately.

Serves 8-10

Variations: Lemon Tart or Lemon and Lime Tart – use 350ml strained lemon or lime juice or a mixture of the two instead of the passionfruit juice.