The Sarojin in Khao Lak Thailand

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For a luxurious, romantic holiday in Thailand, the Sarojin in Khao Lak is hard to beat.  Located an hour and a half’s drive north of Phuket airport, it only has 56 rooms and a no children under 10 policy, making it a popular destination for honeymooners and couples who want to feel thoroughly relaxed and spoilt for a few days.

Highly recommended by numerous posts on Trip Advisor and similar sites, the Sarojin, with its 2:1 staff-guest ratio, more than lived up to our expectations during the six nights we spent there. We were there in the low season, when it rains a bit most days and when, consequently, prices are more moderate.  The rain really didn’t bother us as most of it fell at night.  We stayed in one of the garden room bungalows which each has a private pool.  The spacious accommodation includes a bedroom, office/bar area and bathroom which has a huge overhead shower and an equally large oval bathtub which was full of floating frangipane when we arrived.

The main swimming pool is surrounded by wooden sun beds with umbrellas so you can be in the shade if you prefer.  As guests arrive one of the smiling Sarojin staff brings a towel and a glass of water and shortly afterwards a complimentary fruit punch arrives.  The pool is just the right temperature and after a swim it’s a perfect spot for reading, dozing, contemplating the peaceful tropical garden and listening to the birds.

A la carte breakfast with sparkling wine is included in the room rate and can be enjoyed as late as you like – even as a very late brunch, which was our preference.  Rooms are furnished with very comfortable king size beds, a choice of top quality pillows, cable TV and the quietest air conditioning I have ever experienced.  Fresh fruit and bottled water are provided daily and there’s a well-stocked mini bar, free wifi, a gym and everything else you would expect to find in a good hotel or resort. Indeed, you know a place is seriously good when the only criticism we could think of was that the map of Khao Lak they gave us at the front desk was somewhat out of date!

The town of Khao Lak is a 15 minute drive away and the resort supplies a fairly regular shuttle bus, for a small fee. It’s small and relatively quiet – the way Phuket used to be 20 or 30 years ago.  There’s no need to leave the resort at all if you don’t want to. Meals served in the Sarojin’s two restaurants are five star and they have an award winning spa.  Theme nights such as the seafood BBQ on the beach most Saturdays are very special.  However, Khao Lak offers numerous dining and massage options for those on a tighter budget or wanting a change of scenery.  We particularly liked Smile restaurant, run by a very friendly Frenchman called Frank, which we also found on Trip Advisor.

Day trips to nearby islands, elephant and monkey parks can be arranged by the Sarojin or by Frank, a Jack of all Trades. When we told him we had just spent 6 weeks in Europe and were now travelling with two suitcases full of dirty washing he offered to arrange for it to be laundered by one of his many local contacts!  We politely declined, especially as a swimsuit, a pair of shorts and some thongs are all you need in the tropics.

South African born Dawid is the General Manager and if you should have any problems he’s never far away.  We didn’t, but he checked in with us regularly during our stay, to make sure everything was hunky dory.

This resort ticks all the boxes and we will definitely be back.  In fact we did contemplate emailing our son to say “Please look after the dog for another six months.  Back in time for Christmas.”

French Bed and Breakfasts

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When we holiday in France we use Alistair Sawday’s French Bed and Breakfasts as our bible.  We have a hard copy, but you can find it online.   Over the years we have stayed in more than 50 of the listings and while almost all have been more than adequate, some stand out as exceptional.  Places to return to.

Two of the best we have tried are the Moulin du Goth and Les Vieux Guays.  As the name suggests, the Moulin du Goth is a converted 13th century mill. It’s run by a charming Australian/British couple and within five minutes we felt as if we were old friends.  The mill pond and English-style garden are beautifully maintained by Coral, who is a very good cook and serves a delicious dinner if you book ahead.  There’s plenty to do in the area, including the underground caves at Padirac (the best I have ever seen, quite amazing), a walnut oil mill at Martel and several stunning Medieval villages, located on the nearby Dordogne river.  We spent two nights there and fell asleep to the sound of water running gently over the weir.

We only had one night at Les Vieux Guays but will definitely go back.  They also do dinner but only on Fridays and Saturdays and again it’s wise to book ahead.   It’s run by a French/Chilean couple and sits in 200 acres of woods with plenty of land for chiildren and dogs (who are welcome) to run around.  In winter it’s run as a hunting lodge.

Beef Carpaccio

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We recently hosted a birthday dinner for our son-in-law, Sacha.  We started off with smoked salmon served on Baba Ganoush – a Middle Eastern eggplant dip recipe – garnished with home-made pesto and dried pink peppercorns. These can be bought from The Essential Ingredient and are not the same as the ones in brine.  They’re slightly sweet and fragrant, rather than peppery and go really well with any salmon dish.  They also look pretty as you can see from the photo.

For the second course I served Winter Beef Carpaccio from Michael Moore’s cook book Moore to Food – thinly sliced beef fillet, garnished with roasted onions and mushrooms, goat’s cheese and micro-herbs and drizzled with roasted black pepper oil. Sacha is a fan of carpaccio and ceviche, which both use raw fish or meat as the main ingredient, so I knew this dish would appeal to him.  Passionfruit Cheesecake made a refreshing end to the meal.

Apple Strudel

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Peek celebrations are all about the food and those in the know rarely turn down an invitation to one of our gatherings.  A Dutch friend once told me that when Dutch people have guests coming they clean the windows.  My mother arranges flowers everywhere, while others spend hours cleaning and dusting.  I cook and so do our three offspring.  If it’s a choice between doing a quick gallop round with the vacuum cleaner before people arrive, or whipping up some mayonnaise to go with the prawns, the mayo will win every time.

Last Saturday our son James organised an afternoon tea party to celebrate his wife Karen’s 40th and their second son Luke’s 3rd birthday.  There were about 20 adults and umpteen kids coming, so I offered to make a couple of apple strudels and some egg, mayonnaise and chive sandwiches which always go down well with kids of all ages. Home-made mayonnaise is the secret.  James made some delicious morsels, including sausage rolls and mini yorkshire puddings with smoked trout pate.

When I was growing up in England my mother only had two cookbooks.  One was published by the makers of Stork margarine and contained basic recipes for the cakes and pies a British housewife needed in her repertoire.  It was my Mum’s bible in the early days of her marriage and she gave me an updated version when I got married and moved to Australia.  I still have it somewhere amongst my many cookbooks.

The other was called International Cooking and it had a chapter from several European countries. When I was about twelve I made the Austrian Apple Strudel.  It was a huge success and I’ve been making it ever since.  You can use fillo pastry instead of making your own dough, but it’s not really hard to make. If you use fillo you will need about 10 sheets.

Dough: 

250g plain flour

2 egg yolks

pinch salt

2 Tbs oil

About 150ml tepid water

Filling:

750g peeled, cored and sliced apples (I like Granny Smiths)

50g currants

50g raisins

80g fresh breadcrumbs (just whizz some bread in processor)

1 tsp cinnamon

100g unsalted butter, melted

125g sugar

60g melted butter, extra, for frying crumbs

50g melted butter, extra, for brushing

Dough: Place all ingredients except water in food processor and mix, then add enough tepid water slowly through the top with the motor running, until it forms a ball. It should be soft but not sticky. Stop the motor when it has started to form a ball.  Gather all the bits together and knead for a few seconds with floury hands to make a smooth ball, then wrap in plastic wrap and put aside while you make the filling.

Filling: fry bread crumbs until golden brown in 60g butter, turning, till they look like toasted muesli. Mix with remaining ingredients. Sprinkle a little extra flour over a clean tea towel and roll dough out as large as possible without tearing using a rolling pin. Then continue to stretch gently with your hands until you have an oblong about the size of the tea towel and the length of your baking tray.  Spread with apple filling, leaving about 2.5 cm all round. If you like you can cut the slightly thicker edges off, but I like to fold them in onto the apples.  It makes the ends of the strudel a bit thick and doughy, but it ends up crunchy and for some people that’s their favourite bit!

Roll up using the tea towel to assist, with the long end underneath. Tuck the short ends under and pinch to seal. Place on a buttered baking sheet and brush with some of the extra butter. Bake 15-20 minutes at 200°C, then 20-30 minutes or so at 180°C, brushing from time to time with melted butter. When golden brown remove and cool for 10 mins, then carefully remove with spatulas to a cake rack. You will need two people with a spatula in each hand.  Serve warm or at room temperature, dusted with sifted icing sugar and accompanied by whipped cream.

Note: It’s nicer and more authentic using home made pastry. If using fillo pastry, stack 10 sheets, brushing each one liberally with melted, unsalted butter. Place filling along one long edge rather than spreading it all over. Roll up and proceed as above.

Finnish Salmon Pie with Cucumber Salad

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I learned how to make this Finnish Salmon Pie at a cooking demonstration given by a Finnish diplomat’s wife over 30 years ago.  Back then fresh salmon was not so readily available and everyone used tins.  In fact I don’t think I tasted fresh salmon until I was in my twenties!

The original recipe used two large tins of salmon.  I now make it using a combination of fresh and tinned.  If preferred use just salmon. The butter and dill sauce is an optional addition.  Not on the agenda if you’re watching cholesterol levels, but quite delicious.  The cucumber salad is a perfect accompaniment.

If you’re not sure what a Swiss roll tin looks like have a look at these images on Google.  Mine is about 25x30cm.  If your tin is bigger just roll out the pastry to about this size.

Finnish Salmon Pie

Ricotta Cheese Pastry:

150g self-raising flour
125g butter
125g soft ricotta cheese
1-2 Tbs cold water
Filling:
500g fresh salmon
1 x 415g can pink salmon, drained
2 Tbs chopped fresh dill
2 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
50g long grain rice, almost cooked
3 Tbs cream
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1 egg, beaten

Sauce:
100g butter, melted
2-3 Tbs chopped dill

Pastry: Place flour and butter in food processor and process until it forms crumbs.  Add cottage cheese and process.  As soon as the pastry starts to stick together add just enough water so that it forms into a ball – you may not even need any water, depending how wet your ricotta is. Stop motor immediately, tip out, wrap in plastic wrap and chill while you prepare the filling.

Filling: Cook rice and eggs together in boiling water to cover for 10 minutes. Tip into a sieve and allow the rice to drain.  Put the eggs back in the pan, cover with cold water and leave until cool enough to handle, then peel.  Remove skin and any bones from fresh salmon, then cut into 1-2cm dice.  Place in a bowl with the canned salmon (discard skin and bones), the rice, dill and hard-boiled eggs, roughly chopped.  Mix well and season to taste.

Place a piece of baking paper on a Swiss roll tin – not essential but makes washing up easier.  On a floured surface roll out pastry to the size of the Swiss roll tin, then place on the baking paper, folding it to make it easier to move.  It doesn’t matter if the edges are ragged, you won’t see them once the pie is finished. Place salmon filling down centre in the shape of a log or loaf and covering about a third of the pastry surface.  Cut diagonal slits in pastry every 2cm down each side, from the edge of the pastry as far as the filling. Fold in the two ends, then bring up strips from alternate sides, overlapping them slightly, to form a pseudo-plait. Use your hands to push everything firmly into place.  Can be refrigerated at this stage if you like.   Paint with beaten egg and bake for 30-40 minutes at 200°C. Serve warm, cut into slices and drizzled with the sauce.

Sauce: Melt butter and mix with chopped dill.

Variations: use white fish and canned tuna instead of the salmon.

Cucumber Salad with Dill

4-5 Lebanese cucumbers (about 15cm long) or 2 longer telegraph cucumbers
1 medium brown onion
1/3 cup vinegar (cider or white wine)P1060250 - Copy
¼ cup water
1-2 tsp salt, to taste
¼ cup sugar
½ cup thick sour cream
½ tsp hot English-style mustard
freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup chopped fresh dill, firmly packed

Peel onion, cut in half and slice thinly. Slice unpeeled cucumbers thinly and mix with onions. The quickest way to do this is with the slicing blade of a food processor.

Mix vinegar, water, salt and sugar. Pour over onions and cucumbers, mix well and leave for 1-2 hours at room temperature, mixing from time to time. Drain cucumbers and onion in a colander or large sieve. Discard the juices. Put the colander in a bowl, so it continues to drain, then put it in the fridge, covered and leave it there draining till serving time. In a small bowl, mix sour cream, mustard, fresh dill and pepper to taste and refrigerate till serving time.

To serve, mix well-drained cucumbers and onions with the sour cream dressing. Garnish with sprigs of dill.

This salad goes well with most fish dishes, especially salmon. It’s also a good addition to a buffet or BBQ.

Rachel’s Lime Marmalade

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The Kangaroo Valley is a little oasis in New South Wales, a couple of hours drive from where we live in Canberra.  Very picturesque, it has a micro-climate which favours all kinds of produce.  A friend has a house there and every year at about this time she takes orders for some fabulous organic limes grown by a friend of hers.

As he eats most of the marmalade in our house (I’m a confirmed muesli muncher) my husband Matthew always volunteers to do the cutting up, which is rather a tedious job, especially cutting the peel into thin shred.  And to be honest I don’t have a good track record when it comes to fingers and very sharp knives.  Using a food processor to speed things up just doesn’t work with this recipe – believe me, I’ve tried!

This recipe came from my sister in law Rachel and it’s fabulous.  I use only two thirds of the sugar because we like our lime marmalade to be very tangy.  I can’t tell you exactly how much the recipe makes, but it’s a lot.  I filled 12 jars of varying sizes, as you can see from the photo.  It will keep in a cupboard for at least a year.  In fact we have just one jar left from the batch I made a year ago.

Rachel’s Lime Marmalade

1.5kg limes
2-3kg sugar*
3.6 litres water

Choose very ripe limes which are just starting to turn yellow as they have more juice.

Wash fruit, remove peel with a vegetable peeler and cut into fine strips. Remove pith from the fruit using a small serrated knife and place in a large saucepan with the pips (if there are any) and about half the water. Chop up the fruit and place in another large pan with the peel and the rest of the water. Simmer both pans gently for an hour or until the peel and pith have softened. Strain the pith and pips. Keep the liquid and throw the pith and pips away.

Place clean jam jars without their lids in the oven and turn to 100°C. In a large wide topped saucepan or a preserving pan place the liquid from the pith, the sugar and fruit. Heat, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Bring to the boil, boil for 2 minutes then pour into the hot jars using a small jug and seal with the lids while hot. As limes contain so much pectin the marmalade starts to gel even before it comes to a boil, so there’s none of that boiling and testing you have to do with other jams, to see if setting point has been reached.

Makes 10-12 jars depending on size.

* Adjust sugar according to your taste.The original recipe uses 3kg of sugar.  The first time I made it I used 2.5kg and it worked perfectly. I now make it with only 2kg of sugar and that’s how we like it.

Sesame Cheese Biscuits

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These delicious biscuits are family favourites to serve with drinks.  They’re a traditional Aussie recipe and were made by all the ladies of a certain age – my mother in law, her sister and my dear friend Joan Tyrrel who passed away last year. While the recipe says to use cheddar, you can use any hard cheeses, including a mixture of leftover bits and pieces! At their best when fresh, they will keep in a tin with a lid for up to a week, if they last that long.

Sesame Cheese Biscuits
200g plain flour
200g butter
200g cheddar cheese, grated
1-2 tsp dry English mustard or cayenne pepper (optional)
Sesame seeds to coat

Preheat oven to 180C.  Place flour and butter in food processor and process until fine crumbs.  If liked add some English mustard powder or cayenne pepper at this stage.  Add grated cheddar and continue to process until mixture forms a ball.  Tip out then pinch off pieces the size of a large walnut and roll into balls.  Roll balls in sesame seeds to coat them all over, then arrange on baking trays lined with baking paper.  Press each biscuit lightly with a fork and leave a space between each one as they will spread while cooking.  On a hot day it’s a good idea to refrigerate the biscuits for about half an hour before cooking.  Bake for about 15 minutes or until golden.  Cool on cake racks.

Makes about 45 biscuits

Note: you can make this recipe with less or more ingredients, just keep the weights of flour, butter and cheese equal

Crème Caramel with Amber Jelly

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I love reading recipe books and often borrow them from the public library.  If I get to the end and feel the need to photograph lots of recipes, then I go online and buy the book!

This delicious recipe is loosely based on one by Peter Gilmore who owns Quay restaurant in Sydney and which appears in his book Quay: Food Inspired by Nature.

I made it as my contribution to a gastronomic family dinner when we all had to make something from that book.  We weren’t supposed to adapt, change or cheat, but unfortunately I can’t help myself.  Whenever I’m making a recipe for the first time I’m always thinking “how can I do this more quickly?”  To be honest I did stick quite closely to the original recipe the first time I made it and even made the pear ice cream which went on top.  Since then I’ve managed to cut down considerably on the preparation time and used bought vanilla ice cream instead of home made pear ice cream. The result looks impressive and everyone agrees it tastes fantastic. Start making this the day before.

Amber Jelly
5 Tbs sugar
1½ Tbs water
1 cup white wine
1½ cups water
¼ cup sugar
1 vanilla pod, split and scraped or 1 tsp vanilla essence
4 tsp powdered gelatine + 2 Tbs water
Crème Caramel
Go to this link to make this component.
To serve:
150ml cream, whipped
Home-made or top quality bought vanilla ice cream

Crème Caramel: Make this in a shallow square or oblong lasagne-type dish. Chill overnight, covered.

Amber Jelly: place the 5 Tbs sugar and the 1½ Tbs water in a non-stick saucepan and cook, swirling the pan, until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture has turned a dark caramel colour. Add the wine, water, sugar, vanilla pod and the scraped seeds or vanilla essence and heat to dissolve the sugar and the caramel.

Place gelatine in a small bowl with 2 tablespoons cold water, then zap in microwave to dissolve. Add to pan and mix well then pour through a sieve (to remove the vanilla pod and seeds) into a shallow lasagne-type dish. Jelly should be one to two centimetres thick. Refrigerate overnight, covered.

To serve: this recipe is best served in martini glasses. Dice amber jelly in the dish by making parallel cuts about a centimetre apart in both directions. Place a heaped tablespoonful of jelly cubes in the bottom of 8 serving glasses. Place a heaped tablespoonful of whipped cream in each glass on top of the jelly. Then a large scoop or square of the Crème Caramel. Drizzle with some of the caramel from the bottom of the dish. Top with an egg-shaped scoop of vanilla ice cream and serve immediately.

Serves 8-10

 

Baked Quinces

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Yesterday I gave a cooking demonstration to ten members of a women’s group I belong to.  We take it in turns to host our monthly meeting which takes the form of a cooking demonstration, followed by lunch.  Conversation is all in Spanish.  In case you are wondering what on earth we were drinking it was cranberry juice with soda water!

As you can see from the photo, we started off with a Tomato, Mozarella and Pesto Tian, which was the first recipe to appear on this blog.  This was followed by Maggie Beer’s Baked Quinces served with Labneh – a delicious alternative to whipped cream to serve with desserts.  If preferred you can leave the skins on the quinces – just rub off the “fur” – but the texture will be slightly different.

Baked Quinces with Honey and Labneh

4-6 quinces, peeled, quartered and cored
4-6 Tbs honey
1/2 cup fruit juice (e.g. apple, orange)
1 cinnamon stick, broken in two
50g unsalted butter
To serve
Extra honey or golden syrup
Labneh
1 kg plain Greek-style yoghurt

Pre-heat oven to 150C.  Place quinces in a heavy iron casserole with a lid, such as Le Creuset.  Add remaining ingredients, then bake in the oven for 2-3 hours or until the quinces are tender, but still hold their shape and are the colour of burnished pumpkins.  Stir and turn the fruit once or twice during cooking time.  Serve warm (two quarters per person) with a dollop of labneh.  If liked drizzle with a little extra honey or golden syrup.

Labneh
Line a large sieve with a piece of muslin or a man’s handkerchief and place over a bowl, allowing space under the sieve for liquid to accumulate.  Tip the whole container of yoghurt into the sieve, then cover – I find a shower cap is ideal for this job.  Leave in the fridge overnight or longer.  Discard the liquid (although I have to say that our Golden Retriever loves it) and store the labneh in a covered container in the fridge.  Serve as an alternative to whipped or thick cream.  If liked you can sweeten the labneh with a little icing sugar and add some vanilla paste, but I like it plain.  Keeps in the fridge for a week or two.

Serves 8-12

Margarita Ice Cream

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The reason I’ve been a silent blogger for the past couple of weeks is the following. My family brought my dear friend Elaine in from Chile as a surprise for my birthday. As I was greeting the guests at the party she rang on my daughter’s mobile. And as I was speaking to her and saying how I wished she could have been there, in she walked. What a great birthday gift! Anyway I’ve spent the past fortnight doing touristy stuff in Canberra and Sydney with Elaine and having an absolute ball.

Elaine has now returned to Santiago and over the four day Easter break I will be doing some cooking. Am having fun using my new iPad to take photos of the dishes. This recipe for Margarita Ice Cream is another from Nigella Lawson and it’s delicious. As you can see it looks great served in Martini glasses with the rims dipped in a mixture of caster sugar and salt.  We had a full house for lunch today and the ice cream had started to melt by the time we got organised with a camera, so it’s not the best photo!

Margarita Ice Cream

500ml thick/double cream
1/2 cup fresh lime juice (125ml)
3 Tbs Cointreau or Grand Marnier
2 Tbs Tequila
150g icing sugar
To serve:
Lime zest
A Tbs each of salt and caster sugar, mixed

With electric beaters, whip cream until thick but not stiff, then gradually whip in the remaining ingredients. Pour into a plastic container and freeze for several hours or overnight. Due to the alcohol content it will not set rock hard, so there’s no need to remove it from the freezer 10 minutes before serving time, as you usually do with home-made ice cream.  Use an ice cream scoop dipped in hot water to make balls and serve in Martini glasses, the edges dampened with a little water, then dipped in a mixture of salt and caster sugar. That sounds like a lot of salt to go with ice cream, but you won’t use it all. Garnish with lime zest. Serve on its own or accompanied by fresh fruit.