Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake with Salted Peanut Brittle

Posted on 14 October 2013 by Linda Peek

This recipe will appeal to fans of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, those American sweets which combine chocolate with peanut butter. However, I do know a few other people who will say “yuck” when they see this post!

Half cream cheese and half ricotta results in a somewhat lighter texture, but you can use all cream cheese if you prefer. The addition of salted peanuts and salty biscuit crumbs in the crust make a nice contrast to the sweetness of the filling.

This dessert is very rich, so serve in small slices.

Base:
1½ cups salty biscuit crumbs, such as Jatz, Ritz or pretzels
1/3 cup melted butter
Filling:
1 kg cream cheese (or use half cream cheese and half ricotta)
1 cup sugar
½ tsp salt
1 cup peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)
3 large eggs
Topping:
1 cup cream
100g dark chocolate
Salted Peanut Brittle:
100g sugar
100g salted peanuts
To serve:
Thick pouring cream or whipped cream

Have cream cheese at room temperature. Preheat oven to 170ºC. Crush biscuits or pretzels in food processor till they are like breadcrumbs, tip into a bowl with the melted butter and mix well. Line base of a 22-24 cm (8-9″) spring-form pan with baking paper and grease the sides. Tip biscuit crumbs in and press evenly over the base with your hand or the base of a glass. Place in the fridge while you make the filling.

Place cream cheese (or cream cheese and ricotta) in food processor with sugar and mix well. Add remaining ingredients and mix, stopping to scrape down the sides. Scrape filling into the pan and smooth the top. Bake for between 45 mins and an hour or until just set. As soon as it feels set in the middle when you touch with your fingers it’s ready. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.

For topping, heat cream in microwave or a saucepan till almost boiling. Add chocolate broken into squares and stir till melted. Leave until starting to thicken, then spread evenly over the cheesecake. When cheesecake is cold refrigerate overnight.

To make brittle, heat sugar in a small heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat until dark caramel colour. Don’t stir, but you can lift and swirl the pan from time to time, to ensure sugar melts evenly. Add peanuts, swirl to combine, then tip onto a baking pan lined with baking paper or foil.

Remove cheesecake from fridge 15 mins before serving. Run a knife dipped in boiling water around the sides of the cheesecake to loosen, then remove the sides of the pan. Dip knife into boiling water to cut cheesecake into slices. Wipe and dip each time. Break or cut peanut brittle into shards and use to decorate cheesecake. Some whipped or pouring cream goes well.

Serves 16-20 (small slices)

Note: in South America queso fresco can be substituted for the ricotta. You can use sour cream instead of cream and milk chocolate instead of dark in the topping.

How to Cook Flank Steak

Posted on 7 October 2013 by Linda Peek

I recently attended the Fine Food Fair at the Sydney Convention Centre. As I was wandering round I saw a cooking demonstration about to start, grabbed a chair and sat down. The subject of the demo was how to cook cheap cuts of meat quickly, rather than by one of the slow methods we usually use with less tender cuts.

The chef was a Pom like me, so he called the cut of beef he was using skirt. Here in Australia it’s known as flank. He said there were five rules for the successful quick-cooking of flank steak:

use a piece of lean flank steak about 2.5cm thick
marinate for about 30 minutes in a mixture which includes lemon or lime juice
cook over high heat for 3-4 minutes each side, turning once, to achieve medium-rare
rest meat loosely-covered for the same amount of time as you cooked it
slice thinly downwards, across the grain

Samples were passed around and the results were impressive. The meat was tasty and surprisingly tender so I decided try it at home. At the demo they served it in bread rolls which they called Vietnamese Steak Sandwiches. We had ours on top of the salad.

You can use any combination of crunchy vegetables for the salad. I used one carrot instead of two and added one coarsely grated raw beetroot and some finely shredded red cabbage.

The marinade can also be varied with any herbs, spices or sauces that take your fancy.

1 piece of flank steak weighing 600-750g and about 2.5cm thick
Marinade:
Juice of ½ lemon or 1 lime
2 Tbs soy sauce or Worcestershire Sauce
2 Tbs fresh grated ginger or 2 cloves garlic, crushed, or both
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Salad:
2 spring onions, finely sliced on the diagonal
½ cup fresh coriander leaves
1 cucumber, thinly sliced
2 carrots, coarsely grated
Salad Dressing:
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tsp sugar
Pinch chilli powder (optional)
1 Tbs rice wine vinegar
1 Tbs water
Salt and pepper to taste

Combine marinade ingredients except salt and pepper, add meat, turn to cover and leave for 30 minutes, turning occasionally. At the demo they marinated it in a sealed plastic bag, but I just used a dish. Mix salad ingredients in a bowl and dressing ingredients in a jar with a lid and shake.

Preheat BBQ or griddle to very hot. Drain steak and pat dry with paper towels. Season with salt and pepper on both sides. Cook steak for 3-4 minutes each side, turning once, until medium-rare. Remove from heat, cover loosely with a piece of foil or a saucepan lid and leave to rest for 6-8 minutes. Slice thinly downwards, across the grain. If serving in rolls, split and lightly toast them. Mix salad with dressing.

Serve beef and salad in rolls or arrange on individual plates.

Serves 4

Note: if preferred just use your regular salad dressing instead.

Pear & Avocado Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing & Caramelised Walnuts

Posted on 26 September 2013 by Linda Peek

A perfectly ripe pear and an avocado sitting next to each other in the fruit bowl provided the inspiration for this healthy week-end lunch. I’ve always liked the sweetness fresh fruit adds to an otherwise savoury salad. You can use any type of blue cheese and pecans instead of walnuts.

2 baby cos lettuce hearts
1 large ripe pear
1 ripe avocado
2 tsp oil
About 20 walnut halves
2 tsp honey
Dressing:
½ cup vegetable oil of your choice
Juice of ½ lemon or lime
¼ cup cream or sour cream
2-3 Tbs blue cheese
Freshly ground black pepper
To serve:
Finely chopped parsley or chervil

Arrange lettuce on two plates. Peel and halve pear and remove core with a melon baller, arrange on plate. Peel avocado, remove stone, cut each half into slices but not quite to the narrow end, then fan out on the plate. Heat oil and cook walnuts for a minute or two, stirring. Add honey and continue to cook and stir until sticky and glazed then turn off the heat – be careful, they burn easily. Place all ingredients for dressing in food processor and process until smooth. Start with 2 Tbs cheese, then taste and see if it needs more. Drizzle some of the dressing over the salads, sprinkle with walnut halves and herbs.

Serves 2

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

Salmon with Pumpkin and Almond Pesto

Posted on 8 August 2013 by Linda Peek

We had this recipe from Delicious magazine last night and it was just as yummy as it looks in the photo. I made half the salmon and pumpkin – enough to serve two people – but all the almond pesto. The left-over pesto will be nice served with pasta, grilled chicken or steak, or drizzled over home-made wintery soups.

1kg pumpkin, peeled, seeds removed
1 Tbs rosemary leaves, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
½ cup olive oil, plus 2 Tbs
1 bunch parsley, leaves picked off
1 clove garlic, crushed
½ cup blanched almonds (whole, flaked or slivered)
4 x 200g skinless salmon fillets, pin-boned
Steamed green vegetable to serve

Preheat oven to 200°C and line a large roasting pan with baking paper. Cut pumpkin into 2-3cm cubes and place on the paper with the rosemary and 1 Tbs oil. Season and toss to combine. Roast for 15 mins or until almost tender. To make pesto place parsley, almonds and garlic in food processor and whiz to combine. Add the ½ cup olive oil, scrape into a small bowl and season to taste. I also added the juice of half a lime, to give it a bit more zing.

Brush salmon with remaining 1 Tbs oil, season and add to the roasting pan with the pumpkin. Bake for a further 10 mins or until just cooked. Divide salmon and pumpkin among 4 plates and serve with the pesto and a steamed green vegetable such as beans, snow peas, brussels sprouts or broccoli.

Serves 4

Greek-Style Lamb with Rocket Salad

Posted on 1 August 2013 by Linda Peek

This Greek-style roast lamb is very similar to a recipe I posted a couple of weeks ago. This one is accompanied by a rocket salad rather than roasted vegetables, making it a more summery dish. On one large platter it makes a good addition to a casual buffet.

1 shoulder of lamb, bone removed
2-3 tsp salt (to taste)
6 cloves garlic
1 Tbs peppercorns
6 sprigs of rosemary
2 Tbs dry oregano
2 Tbs olive oil
100 ml white wine vinegar or lemon juice
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup red wine or sherry
To serve:
Rocket
Feta or goat’s cheese
Toasted pine nuts
Lemon and olive oil dressing
Pitta or Turkish bread

Preheat oven to 170°C. Trim excess fat from lamb. In food processor or using a mortar and pestle, make a paste with the salt, garlic, peppercorns, rosemary, oregano and olive oil. Place lamb in a roasting pan and spread it on both sides with the herby paste, massaging it in. Add vinegar or lemon juice, water and wine or sherry to the bottom of the pan and cover with foil. Bake for an hour, then turn the meat over and baste with pan juices. Cover again with the foil and return to the oven for another hour or until the meat is very tender and almost falling apart. Remove foil, turn the meat over again and turn the oven up to 200°C. Cook for a further 20 minutes, or until browned on top.

Prepare a large serving dish or individual plates with a simple rocket salad, dressed with lemon juice and olive oil. When the lamb is ready break it into pieces using two forks or cut it into pieces and arrange over the salad. Sprinkle with feta or goat’s cheese and toasted pine nuts. If liked, drizzle with some of the juices from the roasting pan. Serve with warm pitta or Turkish bread.

Serves 8

Moroccan Cauliflower Salad with Yoghurt Dressing

Posted on 25 July 2013 by Linda Peek

We’re very fond of Moroccan flavours so this recipe caught my eye when it appeared in the latest Delicious magazine. It comes from Mojo, Luke Mangan’s new wine bar in Danks Street in Sydney, which serves “sharing plates” to go with the wine.

Serve it on its own or with grilled lamb cutlets or my Moroccan lamb. As we’re in the middle of winter I served it slightly warm and it was fantastic – definitely a keeper.

1 whole cauliflower
400g can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1/3 cup olive oil plus extra to serve
2 Tbs Ras el Hanout Spice Mix (bought or make your own, see below)
½ bunch coriander, leaves picked off
½ bunch Continental parsley, leaves picked off
1/3 cup port
1/3 cup currants
2 Tbs white wine
2 pinches saffron strands
2/3 cup thick Greek-style yoghurt
Juice ½ lemon, or to taste
½ tsp Dijon mustard
1/3 cup pine nuts, lightly toasted

Preheat oven to 200ºC. Trim cauliflower removing green leaves and stem. Slice cauliflower into 1cm slices from top to bottom – some will fall off as florets. Place in a roasting pan with chickpeas, oil and spices. Toss with your fingers to coat everything thoroughly. Bake 20-25 mins or until tender and golden. Cool a bit then mix with the herbs.

Meanwhile heat port in a pan or microwave. Add currants and leave to soak for 10 mins or until plump, then drain. The recipe says to discard the port, but why not drink it? Heat wine in a pan or microwave, add saffron and stand 15 mins, then strain into a bowl, discarding saffron. Add yogurt, mustard and lemon juice to taste and mix well.

Divide yoghurt dressing between 4-6 serving plates in a puddle in the middle. Top with cauliflower mixture, garnish with currants and pine nuts and drizzle with extra oil. Alternatively serve in one large serving bowl, drizzled with the dressing.

Serves 4-6

Ras el Hanout Spice Mix
3 Tbs black peppercorns
2 tsp powdered ginger
2 tsp cumin seeds or powder
2 tsp coriander seeds or powder
2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp cardamom
2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp chilli flakes or powder
¼ tsp cloves
2 tsp coarse salt

Grind the whole spices and salt to a powder in a spice mill or mortar and pestle. Add the powdered spices and mix well. Keep in a jar with a lid. Best used within a couple of months.

Roasted Vegies with Hummus

Posted on 19 July 2013 by Linda Peek

My daughter Catherine invented this delicious vegetarian recipe when she only had some beetroot, a leek and an avocado as inspiration. It’s at times like this when some of the best dishes are created. Remember the TV programme Ready, Steady Cook where participating cooks were handed a bag of ingredients and had to whip up a meal with no recipe, or even time to plan?

This recipe is flexible because you can use any vegetables you have on hand. I didn’t have any leeks so used a big onion and instead of potatoes I added carrots. I also used a creamy Danish feta rather than goat’s cheese and pecan nuts instead of walnuts.

Hummus – homemade or bought
1 avocado
3 small beetroot
2 carrots
1 red capsicum (pepper)
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 onion or 1 leek, or both
Olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 Tbs coriander leaves
50 goat’s cheese or feta
2-3 Tbs walnut or pecan halves, toasted
Balsamic glaze or a fruity finishing vinegar (I used apricot, Catherine used cherry)

Preheat oven to 200ºC. Cut vegetables into even-sized chunks or sticks, mix with a good slug of olive oil, salt and pepper and spread out in a single layer on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Bake for 30 mins or until tender and starting to brown at the edges, turning them about halfway through. Remove from the oven and let them cool a bit. Spread about 3 Tbs hummus on two large serving plates. Arrange half an avocado, sliced, on each plate on the edge of the humus, as shown in photo. Pile the roasted vegetables on top, then garnish with the coriander, the crumbled cheese and the toasted walnuts or pecans. Drizzle with the vinegar.

Serves 2

Salted Caramel & Macadamia Cheesecake

Posted on 17 July 2013 by Linda Peek

Salted caramel desserts are very “in” at the moment. I first tasted this combination of flavours in Brittany, where you can buy a salted caramel spread in jars to eat on toast like Nutella. The Bretons also use it as one of the many fillings you can choose for crepes sold by street vendors in the region. I know it’s not good to eat too much, but Matthew and our two boys are very keen on anything salty and this includes salted caramel desserts.

Israeli-born chef Yotam Ottolenghi created this delicious caramel and macadamia cheesecake. All I have done is to add salt to the caramel sauce, cut down a bit on the biscuits in the crust and the sugar in the cheesecake filling.

Base:
About 130g plain sweet biscuits (I used 9 Digestives)
40g unsalted butter
Filling:
500g ricotta cheese, at room temperature
250g cream cheese, at room temperature
100g caster sugar
4 eggs
½ cup sour cream
Seeds scraped from 1 vanilla pod or 2 tsp essence
Topping:
150g macadamia nuts
90g caster sugar
Sauce:
65g unsalted butter
160g caster sugar
100ml cream
½ to 1 tsp salt, to taste

Base: Preheat oven to 140ºC. Lightly grease a 20cm spring-form cake tin and line the base and sides with baking paper. Whiz biscuits to crumbs in food processor. Melt butter in microwave, add biscuit crumbs and mix. Tip into the cake tin and flatten with the bottom of a glass to create a level base.

Filling: In a bowl with electric beaters or in a food processor, mix all ingredients for filling until smooth. Scrape into cake tin and bake for 50 mins or until set in the middle. Cool then refrigerate for a couple of hours or overnight, covered.

Topping: Preheat oven to 140ºC. Spread macadamias over a baking sheet and roast for about 15 mins or until light golden brown. Watch them carefully – mine got a bit too brown as you can see in the photo. Remove and set aside. Place sugar in a heavy-based saucepan and heat gently until it turns golden-brown. Do not stir, but you can lift and swirl from time to time. Add nuts and mix gently with a wooden spoon. Pour onto a tray lined with foil or non-stick baking paper and leave to set. Chop roughly with a large knife, leaving some of the nuts halved or whole.

Sauce: Melt butter in a heavy-based saucepan, add sugar and stir constantly over medium heat with a wooden spoon until you have a smooth, dark caramel. It may split, but that doesn’t matter. Add cream carefully – it will splutter – and stir to combine. Sieve to remove any gritty bits then cool.

To serve: Remove sides and base of cake tin and place cheesecake on a serving plate or board. If you want to present it whole, spoon the sauce in the middle, allowing it to spill over the sides a bit and scatter the nuts over the top. Alternatively arrange slices on individual plates, then decorate with the nuts and spoon over some of the sauce. Keeps for 3 days in the fridge.

Serves 10

Salmon with Bois Boudran Sauce

Posted on 4 July 2013 by Linda Peek

We eat salmon fillets about once a week. It’s quick and easy and we love it. Sometimes I spread the fish with a mixture of grated fresh ginger and Thai sweet chilli sauce and bake it in a very hot oven on lightly oiled aluminium foil for about 8 minutes. Other times I pan fry or bake the seasoned salmon and serve it with this sauce, adapted from a recipe by French chef Michel Roux. It’s really just a thick herby, tomatoey vinaigrette.

In 1967 Roux opened Le Gavroche in London with his brother Albert. The restaurant became the first in England to win three Michelin stars. In 1972 they opened The Waterside Inn, which went on to become the first restaurant outside France to hold three Michelin stars for over 25 years and is now run by Michel’s son Alain.

This sauce is great to have in the fridge because it goes with all sorts of things and keeps for at least a week. In fact I think it improves after a day or so. It goes well with roast chicken or steak and is absolutely delicious served in half an avocado. The original version uses tarragon which definitely gives the sauce a distinctive flavour. But fresh tarragon is not always available, so vary the recipe with different herbs and see what you like best.

1 cup mixed fresh herbs, loosely packed (see note)
3-4 French shallots, peeled (or substitute one small onion)
¾ cup vegetable oil e.g. canola
2 Tbs white wine vinegar or lemon juice
½ cup tomato ketchup
A few drops of Tabasco
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Place chopped onion or shallots in a pan with water, bring to the boil, then drain thoroughly. Place herbs and onion in food processor and chop finely. Scrape into a jar with a lid, add remaining ingredients and shake well to combine. Serve at room temperature on grilled or pan-fried salmon, roast chicken or steak. Keeps in the fridge for up to a week.

Makes about 1.5 cups

Note: the original recipe used chervil, chives and tarragon. In the photo I used dill, parsley and coriander. Use whatever you have available.

Café Cat

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