Ricotta Hot Cakes with Honeycomb Butter

Posted on 7 February 2013 by Linda Peek

Bill Granger owns three busy cafes in Sydney where he has made his name serving fantastic breakfasts and brunches. We went to the one in Surrey Hills on Sunday a couple of weeks back. You can’t book and by the time we arrived it was nearly 10.30 so there was quite a queue. We were told the wait would be 20-30 minutes, which unfortunately ended up being fifty.

Fortunately the meal was worth waiting for. I chose the Gravlax which was good, but not as good as the Ricotta Hot Cakes with Honeycomb Butter, ordered by one of our party, who generously gave me a taste. I’m sure you know the feeling when you realise you should have ordered what someone else is having!

Bill’s recipe was easy to find online. It says it serves 6 to 8, but it’s not something I would make if I had to serve that many people for breakfast. Let them eat toast! I halved the recipe which made a filling breakfast for two. By making the hot cakes a bit smaller, or serving two per person instead of three, we could have served a third person.

The Honeycomb Butter is delicious, but if you want to serve the hot cakes for breakfast you need to make it the day before as it needs to chill for a couple of hours. If you don’t have time for that just spoon it into a small bowl and serve it in dollops. Or forget about the Honeycomb Butter and just drizzle them with honey. At Bill’s they serve maple syrup on the side, for those who want to add more sweetness, but I don’t think you need it.

To serve the hot cakes as a dessert, make them half the size so you end up with 12 little cakes which will serve 4. They would also be delicious with stewed rhubarb or indeed any fruit – cooked or fresh – that you have available.

¾ cup ricotta cheese
1/3 cup milk
2 eggs, separated
½ cup plain flour
½ tsp baking powder
pinch salt
butter for frying
fresh strawberries, halved or sliced banana
icing sugar for dusting
Honeycomb Butter:
125g unsalted butter at room temperature
50g Honeycomb or a Crunchie Bar
1 Tbs honey

Remove chocolate from Crunchie bar with a sharp knife and discard (or eat!). Place all ingredients in food processor and blend until smooth. Shape into a log on plastic wrap, roll up, seal and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.

Mix ricotta, milk and egg yolks in bowl. Add sifted flour, baking powder and salt. Whip egg whites in another bowl until stiff peaks. With a metal spoon, fold thoroughly into batter in two batches. Lightly grease a large non-stick frying pan with butter. Make three hotcakes using about 2 heaped tablespoons of batter for each. Cook over medium-high heat for 2 minutes or until golden on the underside. Turn and cook on the other side. Transfer to a warm plate while you make three more, adding a little more butter to the pan.

Serve hotcakes with halved strawberries or thickly sliced banana and a slice of honeycomb butter. If you don’t have time to make the Honeycomb butter just serve drizzled with honey instead. Dust with icing sugar.

Makes 6 large hot cakes which serves 2-3

Note: if you can’t find ricotta you could use cottage cheese, whizzed in the food processor to remove lumps. South American readers could use queso fresco.

Chinese Chicken Salad

Posted on 5 February 2013 by Linda Peek

While living in Chile in the 90s we had a couple of holidays in the United States. When lunching in one of those huge shopping malls with umpteen different takeaway foods to choose from, I invariably head for the salad bar.

At one of these I found a selection of salads created by Wolfgang Puck, a well-known restaurateur and cookbook writer, originally from Austria but now well-established in the USA. His Chinese Chicken Salad was delicious, so I dissected it and wrote down the ingredients. I’m a bit of a pain when travelling, always whipping out a notebook to write down food ideas! I had to guess what was in the dressing, adjusting the quantities each time I made it, until I got it right.

The internet didn’t exist back then so before writing this post I read through some of the many versions of this salad which appear online – including one on Mr Puck’s very own site. There are lots of variations!

I’ve been making my version for over 20 years and it’s delicious, so what was in the original recipe has become somewhat irrelevant. A great salad for a summer evening and if you’re in a hurry buy a cooked chicken and you’re halfway there. Go easy on the dressing for small kids as it packs quite a punch. Mr Puck uses crispy fried wonton wrappers to crumble over the salad, but corn chips or crunchy noodles – a ready-to-eat Asian snack available in Australian supermarkets – work well and are easier.

Meat from 1 whole roast chicken, cut into strips
4-5 cups finely shredded white cabbage
2 cups finely shredded red cabbage
3 carrots, cut into fine julienne
4 spring onions, finely sliced
1 cup celery, very finely sliced
A handful toasted cashew nuts, sliced (optional)
Honey Mustard Dressing (see below)
2 cups corn chips, crumbled by hand
Or ready to eat crunchy Asian noodles
chopped coriander, parsley or chives

Keep a few nice pieces of chicken breast to garnish, then mix the rest with remaining salad ingredients (except corn chips) and enough dressing to moisten. Place in one large or individual serving dishes, top with reserved chicken pieces, drizzle with a little more dressing and sprinkle corn chips or crunchy noodles over the top. A few chopped herbs, just to add a bit of green colour and it’s ready. You will have dressing left over.

Serves 4-6

Variations and Additions: add some thinly sliced snow peas (mangetout), red capsicum or beansprouts

Honey Mustard Dressing

4 Tbs Dijon Mustard
1Tbs hot English mustard
2 Tbs sweet chilli sauce
2 Tbs honey
1 cup oil
¼ cup cider vinegar
1-2 Tbs lemon or lime juice, to taste
1 Tbs soy sauce
1 Tbs grated fresh ginger

Place all the ingredients in a jar and shake vigorously to emulsify.

Rio Palace Waffles

Posted on 2 February 2013 by Linda Peek

Many moons ago when we were holidaying in Brazil our kids decided that the Rio Palace Hotel in Rio de Janeiro made the best waffles. I asked the chef for the recipe and somehow managed to write it down. Communication was hampered by the fact that he only spoke Portuguese and while I do speak Spanish, it’s similar but not quite the same!

His recipe started off with a dozen eggs and would have made enough waffles to feed an army, so I divided it by six. It wasn’t long before the kids had weekend waffle making down to a fine art, doubling the recipe if they had friends staying … and sometimes even when they didn’t. I was always amazed at how many they could demolish.

They’re great for breakfast with honey or maple syrup. For dessert try them with quartered strawberries sweetened with a little sugar and a dash of white balsamic vinegar, caramel sauce and whipped cream, as shown in the photo. The kids never bothered, but if you have time separate the eggs and fold in the lightly whipped whites at the end, by hand, which makes the waffles even lighter. You can use milk instead of cream and water, but the results are crunchier with cream.

2 tablespoons melted butter
2 eggs
200g or 1¾ cups plain flour, sifted
½ cup cream
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar or honey
½ to ¾ cup water

Using electric beaters or a food processor mix all the ingredients for the waffles, adding enough water to make a thick batter. Preheat an electric waffle iron, butter it and cook the waffles according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Serves 8 for dessert (3 pieces each) or 2 hungry kids for breakfast

Sago Plum Pudding

Posted on 29 January 2013 by Linda Peek

Sago Plum Pudding, an old-fashioned dessert made from simple ingredients, is one of my all-time favourites. I think its origins must be Antipodean as I never came across it when I was growing up in England. Some in our family see it as an excuse to eat Brandy Butter when it’s not Christmas. I’ve never been a big fan of Brandy Butter and prefer it with thick, unsweetened cream.

I like to make individual half cup puddings rather than one large one. They keep in the fridge for several days and are quicker to cook than steaming one large pudding. I love being able to whip one out of the fridge, zap it in the microwave and demolish it whenever the mood takes me, which is quite often when I know they are there! This recipe came from my mother-in-law.

¾ cup sago
2 cups milk
180g butter
½ cup sugar
2 cups sultanas or mixed dried fruit
2 cups breadcrumbs (made in food processor from day old bread)
2 eggs, beaten
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Pinch of salt
2 tsp mixed spice
To serve:
Brandy Butter, thick cream or custard

Soak sago in milk overnight. Place butter in a mixing bowl and zap in the microwave to melt. Mix in remaining ingredients then scrape into a one litre pudding bowl, lightly buttered. Cover with a piece of buttered foil, buttered side down and place in a large saucepan on something to lift the bowl slightly. A metal trivet, old saucer or a small brick will do. Add boiling water to come halfway up bowl. Cover with the saucepan lid, bring to the boil and steam steadily for 3-3½ hours, adding more water as necessary. The top of the pudding will have an even dark brown colour when ready – lift foil from time to time to check. Stand for 5 minutes then turn out, cut into slices and serve with thick cream, Brandy Butter or custard.

Serves 8-10

Note: make individual puddings in 8-10 half cup ramekins, dariole moulds or Chinese teacups, lightly buttered, as shown in the second photo. Fill almost to the top as they don’t rise much. Place in a shallow ovenproof dish and add boiling water to come halfway up the cups. Cover the whole dish with a sheet of foil, buttered side down. Bake at 160°C for an hour to an hour and a half, or until evenly rich brown on top. Tip out and serve immediately or store covered in the fridge and reheat for about a minute in the microwave, covered in plastic wrap, then tip out.

Tri-Colour Coleslaw

Posted on 27 January 2013 by Linda Peek

At our rural property we had a good crop of cabbages until the earwigs found them. Matthew went up there for a couple of days earlier this week to water the new trees and brought a cabbage back with him. As I started to remove some of the outer chewed leaves out jumped a million earwigs! They were everywhere and it was easy to see what they had been eating. I had to throw away about about half the cabbage before I got down to virgin territory.

I’ve been reading up on the internet about tried and tested earwig traps and saving empty containers with lids. Vegetable oil with the addition of something attractive to earwigs, such as a dollop of peanut butter or the oil/juice from a can of tuna, is said to do the trick – it lures them in and they drown. We’re going to the property the weekend after next and those b***** earwigs had better watch out!

Coleslaw when I was growing up was pretty standard – cabbage, carrot and bought mayonnaise – or Heinz salad cream – sometimes with a tin of crushed pineapple thrown in for good measure. This is a more modern version.

About 4 cups shredded white cabbage
About 4 cups shredded red cabbage
About 1 cup thinly sliced celery
About 1 cup coarsely grated or julienned carrot
About ½ cup thinly sliced green (spring) onions
1 cup dried cranberries (or other dried fruit)
Dressing:
1 cup mayonnaise, preferably home-made
½ cup thick Greek yoghurt or sour cream
½ cup French dressing (see below)

Prepare salad ingredients and place in a large bowl. Place dressing ingredients in a jar with a lid and shake vigorously to emulsify. Add enough dressing to the salad to moisten to your liking – you may not want to use it all. Taste and add more salt if you think it needs it.

Serves 6-8

French Dressing
1 cup oil (sunflower, canola)
¼ cup cider or white wine vinegar
1 Tbs Dijon mustard
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 Tbs honey (optional)
1-2 cloves garlic peeled and halved

Place all ingredients in a jam jar with a lid and shake vigorously to emulsify. Keeps in the fridge for up to a month. I usually make double or triple in a very large jar so it’s always on hand when I need it. If you like a sweet dressing add the honey. Otherwise just add about half a tsp of sugar.

Quick Fish Curry

Posted on 25 January 2013 by Linda Peek

I love a good curry, even in the middle of summer. You can’t eat salads all the time, even in a heatwave. Anyway they were invented in a hot climate, the theory being that by making you perspire you cool off.

We eat a lot of ginger in our house so I buy at least half a kilo at a time. I try to choose fat evenly shaped tubers because they’re easier to peel, although I have to confess that if I can find someone ensconced in front of the TV watching cricket or rugby, I get him to do the peeling. My wonderful unpaid sous chef! Once peeled, process the ginger in a food processor until very finely chopped, then freeze in ice cube trays. They hold about a tablespoon and that’s how much I use in most recipes – stir fries, curries etc – even if the recipe says to use less! If you don’t like so much ginger, fill them only half full. Once frozen tip into a plastic container and keep in the freezer to use as needed. Zap very briefly (20-30 secs) in the microwave to thaw, or throw them straight into a stir fry as they are.

Buying ginger as you need it usually means throwing away what’s left over – when you eventually find it at the bottom of the fridge or all dried up in the vegetable basket! So I find it very convenient to always have it on hand – peeled, chopped and ready to go. I also have a jam jar of small whole red chillies in the freezer and another containing chopped lemongrass. We grow it and it’s all ready at the same time, so I have to freeze it, but you could buy some and freeze it. Using frozen ginger, chillies and lemongrass is probably not quite the same as using fresh, but once cooked you’d be hard pressed to tell the difference. In case you’re worried, jam jars won’t break in the freezer.

If you want to try growing your own ginger here are some tips.

Ginger is very good for you and I always thought you couldn’t eat too much. However, according to Wikipedia “an acute overdose of ginger is usually in excess of about 2 grams of ginger per kilogram of body mass, dependent on level of ginger tolerance, and can result in a state of central nervous system over-stimulation called ginger intoxication or colloquially the ginger jitters”. Maybe that’s my problem.

3 cloves garlic
1 small onion, peeled
1 Tbs grated or very finely chopped ginger
2 stalks lemon grass
½ tsp turmeric
1 tsp paprika
1 Tbs palm sugar or brown sugar
2 Tbs fish sauce
1 small red chilli, seeds removed (or less if you don’t want it too hot)
1 400g can coconut milk
4 kaffir lime leaves (see note below)
About 500g firm white fish cut into 2-3 cm chunks
Juice ½ lemon or 1 lime
Chopped fresh coriander and steamed rice to serve

Place garlic, onion, ginger, lemon grass, turmeric, paprika, sugar, fish sauce, chilli and coconut milk in food processor. Process till smooth then tip into a heavy based frying pan. Add kaffir lime leaves, crushed with your hand. Bring to the boil then simmer for about 10 minutes or until thickened. Add fish and cook gently for 4-5 minutes or until cooked. Add lemon juice and check for salt – you probably won’t need any as the fish sauce is salty. Tip into serving bowl and top with coriander. Serve with steamed rice and an Indian pickle or chutney.

Serves 3-4

Note: in Australia kaffir lime leaves are sold in most supermarkets, but if you can’t find them just leave them out. If you can buy them you usually have to buy quite a few, so freeze the surplus. If you can’t find lemongrass add some lemon rind removed with a vegetable peeler and very finely chopped. Not the same, but quite a nice addition.

Lemon Curd

Posted on 22 January 2013 by Linda Peek

When I moved from the UK to Australia I was amazed to see lemon trees growing in most Canberra gardens. While night time temperatures in winter can be several degrees below freezing, the days warm up sufficiently to allow citrus trees to flourish in a sunny, sheltered spot. So the soil isn’t frozen solid for several months, as it can be in northern Europe.

We have a large lemon tree in the courtyard just outside our kitchen and it’s always laden with fruit. At about this time of year it’s important to pick the remaining lemons, otherwise we won’t get a new crop next season. They will keep for a while in the fridge, but it’s always a good time to make some Lemon Curd or Lemon Butter, as it’s sometimes called.

In the UK where I grew up it was much too cold in winter to grow lemons, so my mother bought them. We could hardly wait for her to finish making this deliciously tangy spread which we devoured on fresh buttered bread or in small pastry tartlets. Try a dollop on some thick Greek yoghurt for a delicious snack. Or swirl it decoratively through the yoghurt in a tumbler then top with a few fresh raspberries when you need to come up with a last minute dessert. Or make this delicious and quick Blueberry Parfait.

Adding a little salt really makes a difference and brings out the flavours. A Queenslander once told me you should eat fresh pineapple with a light sprinkling of salt, for the same reason.

4 large juicy lemons
4 eggs, beaten
450g (2½ cups) sugar
125g unsalted butter
1/2 tsp salt

Finely grate the rind of the lemons and remove the juice. Place all ingredients in the top half of a double boiler or in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Stir constantly with a wooden spoon until butter melts, sugar dissolves and mixture thickens to the point where it coats the back of the spoon.

Heat clean jars (remove lids first) in microwave on High for 2 minutes. Pour the hot lemon curd into the hot sterilized jars and seal with lids. When cold store in the fridge.

Makes about 2 jars

Mangoes in Ginger Wine

Posted on 17 January 2013 by Linda Peek

If you want to be sure to get every bit of flesh off the stone the best place to eat a mango is in the bath.

My mother in law once attended an official lunch at Government House in Hong Kong. For dessert the waiter passed round a platter of whole fruit. She was tempted by the mangoes, but knew that this would not be a good idea. Eating a whole mango delicately with a knife and fork is not easy and you wouldn’t want it to shoot across the table and land on another guest’s lap. Experienced guests like my mother in law played it safe and took a banana or an apple. One lady, through lack of experience or perhaps without thinking, chose a mango. Everyone finished their fruit quite quickly then sat back to watch this poor woman struggle with her mango. It took forever, but to give her credit she persisted and finished the task. Perhaps a round of applause would have been a nice gesture.

Here in Australia the mango season is in full swing. I’m always tempted to buy a case of 12, but there are just the two of us and after a few days the mangoes have ripened to the point where the remaining few need to be used immediately. Mangoes in ginger wine is a delicious solution and will keep in the fridge for a day or two. I think this recipe will appeal to my friends at the Sarojin Resort in Thailand and I’m sure they could cut up the fruit more decoratively than I have. Perhaps the chef can give me a lesson next time I’m there.

4 large fresh mangoes
¾ cup Stone’s ginger wine
2 Tbs chopped glace ginger or ginger preserved in syrup

Peel and slice mangoes and place in a serving bowl. Heat ginger wine with ginger and pour over. Chill and serve very cold.

Serves 4-6

Julie Bishop’s Prawn Risotto

Posted on 15 January 2013 by Linda Peek

The other evening I switched onto the ABC and watched Kitchen Cabinet. In this series political journalist and commentator Annabel Crabb visits a politician in their home for a chat about politics and life in general. The conversation takes place over a meal – Annabel takes the dessert and the politician cooks one of their favourite recipes for the main course.

In this episode Deputy Leader of the Opposition Julie Bishop produced what looked like a delicious prawn risotto. Having made a mental note of the main ingredients (prawns, rice, celery, coriander, Cinzano, pine nuts and Parmesan) I decided to recreate it this evening.

For dessert Annabel brought Eton mess, which is basically whipped cream with pieces of meringue and berries folded through. A sort of deconstructed Pavlova!

2 Tbs oil or 25g butter
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 stalks celery, finely sliced
350-400g peeled raw prawns
1/3 cup Cinzano or other white vermouth
2 cups Arborio rice
4-5 cups chicken or vegetable stock
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
To serve:
Lightly toasted pine nuts
Chopped fresh coriander
Grated Parmesan cheese
Steamed and buttered asparagus

Heat oil or butter in a large heavy-based pan and cook onion and celery until soft but not brown, stirring. Add rice and cook stirring until translucent. Add prawns and cook stirring for 1-2 minutes. Add Cinzano and cook, stirring to evaporate some of the alcohol. Slowly add stock, about a cup at a time, simmering until absorbed and continue cooking and adding more stock until the rice is tender. Risotto should be wet and slightly soupy, not dry like paella or pilaf. Season to taste with salt and pepper and if liked add a final drop of Cinzano.

Serve risotto garnished with the pine nuts, coriander and Parmesan and the asparagus on the side.

Serves 4

Garlic butter

Posted on 3 January 2013 by Linda Peek

As I made a batch of garlic butter to have in the fridge over the holiday season I thought to myself that it’s one of those recipes which has become “retro”. Popular in the seventies and eighties, we used it in garlic bread, on steaks and grilled fish and in Chicken Kiev. But then it went out of favour, along with prawn cocktail, beef bourgignon, steak Diane and all the other dishes we enjoyed before gastronomy took off. Suddenly these recipes weren’t posh enough.

Whenever I serve garlic bread to a crowd – fresh from the oven and oozing home-made garlic butter – it always disappears. And a dollop of garlic butter on a freshly barbecued steak, piece of fish or succulent prawn is delicious. So here’s the recipe. Oh and it’s probably a good idea to label the container so the kids don’t ask why the butter’s gone green!

3 heaped Tbs fresh parsley leaves, stalks removed
3 Tbs snipped chives or the green ends of spring onions
1-2 large cloves garlic, crushed
1 250g tub spreadable butter
pinch salt

Place herbs in food processor and process till finely chopped, stopping to scrape down the sides halfway through. Add garlic, butter and salt and process till mixed. Return to the plastic butter container and refrigerate. Keeps for 2-3 weeks in the fridge, but much longer in the freezer. Just thaw long enough to use what you need then put back.

Garlic Bread: make diagonal cuts in a French baguette, not quite through to the bottom. Spread each slice with garlic butter. Wrap the loaf in foil and refrigerate or freeze till needed. Thaw if frozen then bake in a hot oven for about 15 minutes. Serve hot.

Café Cat

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