Individual Bounty Bombe Alaska

This coconut, ice cream and meringue concoction from the culinary wonderland of the 50s is like eating a holiday. For those of us feeling more than a little glum about our return to work and the indoors, this is a culinary antidote; perhaps the edible equivalent of afternoon naps, walks on the beach and drinks at dusk. And it’s a dessert, which automatically makes anyone feel better. I’ve kept to the convenience ethos here, skipping the oven cooking of the meringue component of a traditional Alaska and just used a blow-torch to crisp the meringue. You could take this one step further and sidestep the making of the sponge and just use a good store bought version. If you haven’t set your eyes on a bottle of Malibu since your 18^th birthday use a light white rum or skip this altogether for an alcohol free version.

Serves 8

Ingredients

Sponge

2 eggs

1/3 cup (75g) sugar


1/4 cup (60ml) milk


30g unsalted butter


2/3 cup (100g) self-raising flour


1 1/2 tbsp cornflour


1/2 tsp cream of tartar

750g vanilla ice cream, softened

1 tsp coconut essence

1 cup shredded coconut

750g good quality chocolate ice cream

60ml Malibu

Meringue

5 eggwhites

350g caster sugar

1/2 tbsp liquid glucose

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C and grease and line a 20cm x 30cm lamington pan with baking paper. Beat the eggs with electric beaters for 5 minutes or until thick and pale. Gradually add the sugar, beating constantly, until dissolved. Set aside. Combine the milk and butter in a saucepan over low heat, stirring until the butter has melted. Remove from heat and set aside to cool slightly. Sift the flours and cream of tartar into a bowl. Fold half the flour mixture into the egg mixture, then fold in the milk mixture. Fold in the remaining flour mixture, then pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 10-12 minutes until lightly golden and firm to the touch. Cool the sponge cake in the pan for 5 minutes, then invert on a wire rack and allow to cool completely. Slice the cake in half lengthways.

Grease and line 8 x 1 ½ cup capacity moulds with cling film. I just used small 12cm diameter kitchen bowls for this. Cut circles of sponge to fit the base of each mould and press down gently. Do not discard the rest of the sponge.

Combine the vanilla ice cream, coconut essence and shredded coconut in a bowl and stir to combine. Divide the ice cream between the moulds, filling them about half way then place the moulds in the freezer for at least 20 minutes to harden. Combine the chocolate ice cream and Malibu in a bowl and stir to combine. Pull the moulds from the freezer and scoop the chocolate ice cream mixture over the coconut mixture. Return the moulds to the freezer. Place the remaining sponge pieces over the top of the chocolate ice cream mixture.

To make the meringue, add the caster sugar and liquid glucose to a saucepan with 2 tablespoons of water. Bring to a boil over high heat and cook, stirring occasionally for at least 15 minutes (or if you have a sugar thermometer it reaches 120C). Whisk the eggwhites until soft peak. Drizzle in the sugar syrup whisking continuously. Continue whisking until the meringue reaches room temperature.

Before serving remove the moulds from the freezer and carefully invert them onto serving plates. Spoon the meringue over the top of the mixture. Use a blow-torch to lightly brown the meringue and serve.

So you want to be a food writer....

I receive a lot of emails from people telling me about their passion for food and that their lifelong dream is to be a food writer. The emails then usually ask for some advice as to how to go about being a writer, what they need to do and how could I help them do it. I try to reply to these individually but sometimes I can't so I thought I would do a generic post on the state of food writing and my advice for what it is worth. I think I took possibly one of the most convoluted avenues for getting into the industry so I may not be the best person to ask for advice so I have incorporated both my own experience and some tips from a few other food writers I know.

1. Get some experience. Editors don't care much for blogs. You have one but guess what, so does everyone else. You need to demonstrate experience beyond self-generated media. Go to culinary school, email editors and ask for work experience or submit story ideas, every other day if you have to. Knock on the door of your favourite restaurant and ask for some time in the kitchen, go to a supplier and work on their farm. The moral of the story here - expand your reportoire. A good food writer has broad experience. They know the difference between a bechamel and a veloute, the mouth feel of reductions, the food of the seasons. They eat widely and they eat broadly. They eat often.

2. Prepare to be poor. The lifestyle at the outset seems glamourous. Go on media junkets, eat out all the time in the name of work etc etc. Yes you have to do these things but times have changed. The average pay these days is 50c per word. Freelancers used to get paid $2 per word.  If someone is fortunate enough to have one of the few full time magazine jobs these days, they do not earn nearly what they deserve and the growth of blogging has seen a further thinning of advertising dollars across traditional and non-traditional media which contributes to a decline in pay. There are no more expense accounts, and travel research is more than likely on your own dime. 

3. Luck has nothing to do with it.  If you keep working at it, you'll make it. I, hand on heart, believe that. People often say you're so lucky. Bullsh*t. I've worked my ass off to get where I am. It has taken years of study, years of working for nothing, years of writing, trying to write better, getting rejected by editors and then getting rejected again. It takes time for people to get to know you, to develop enough knowledge, and to find your writing voice. Accept this and keep working hard, there are but a handful of overnight success stories in the world of food - everyone else has been slogging it out for years before tasting any form of success.

4. The industry is there to help. Treat your writing with the highest priority - that means finding financial means to support it. Try to find funding - there are great scholarships and support systems out there. I would be nowhere today if I hadn't applied for writing grants and scholarships. Start researching. Start applying. Yes the applications can be time consuming but some money in the account before you even start a project is worth every hour spent submitting applications. These grants also help build your reputation.

5. Don't write for free. You are worth more than that. You might write for free now - you want to build your portfolio, show some published works to editors and book publishers but guess what. Every time you do, you make it more acceptable for publications to find people willing to write for free and that becomes the accepted norm for generating content. You might do it now but you are doing it so you can eventually be paid. When you have the experience and the expectation to be paid for your skills, you won't be able to because there is someone else out there trying to get published doing it for free. If you still think it is worth it I suggest you set some boundaries. For example - (1) determine what exposure it will generate for you, (2) set a timeframe - ie two articles or one month of online content before asking for payment, if they still don't pay, walk away (3) at the outset ask for the opportunity to be considered for paid work once you have demonstrated you are willing to do it for free. Be ballsy, if you don't ask, you don't receive. (4) Try to submit to media outlets that can provide you with measurable results. How many times was your article read, how many magazines were printed. All these things help you promote the popularity of your work.

6. It is more exciting now than ever. With more and more non-traditional avenues for writing, there are great opportunities for aspiring writers. The change in how media content is being delivered means how you approach the way you work can change all the time. Think broadly - if the writing doesn't sustain you - what else can you do? How else can you write about food or immerse yourself in the food industry. There are crowd funding projects, online magazines, ghost writing opportunities...more and more opportunities every day Don't take a one-dimensional approach to your writing.

7. Ask for feedback. You'll never be a better writer without it. If an editor rejects your pitch, don't be afraid to ask why. You need to know where the writing is falling down before you can change it - you'll also begin to understand what it is they are looking for and better yet, you are keeping the dialogue with the editor going. 

8. Collaborate. Developing a concept to write about, involve food imagery etc etc is time consuming and expensive. Find people with the same aesthetic or who you admire and ask them to collaborate on a project with you. You'll forge great industry relationships as well as see how other people work creatively. This can have a huge impact on how you operate.

9. Broaden your skills. Make it as easy as possible for your work to be accepted. An editor once said to me I got the job because I met the triple threat criteria - I could photograph the dish, write the recipe and prepare the copy. I made their job easier. I think this is particularly important for emerging writers - be proficient across a broad number of related skill sets. Make it hard for them to say no to you.

10. Write, write, write, write, write, write, write, write, write and then write some more. Then do it again.

A little bit about french bistronomy.....

I had the amazing opportunity of writing about the bistronomy movement in Paris for the launch issue of the Honest Cooking magazine. I'm not sure if you've seen the blog (it's brilliant), well this magazine is a natural progression from the blog and it is just a foodie, design, other worldly distraction kind of delight . I feel so fortunate to have had the experience of being in France thanks to the Julia Child scholarship I received last year and then being able to write about what I had discovered. Even better the magazine is free for everyone to enjoy. Here are a few screen grabs to give you a taste of the design. If you have an ipad you can download the magazine here

I'm just in the process of getting some more spreads from the mag for those who are sans ipad and will update the blog later this week. 

Enjoy

xoxo 

Beer Steamed Prawns with Sweet Soy, Wasabi & Tomato Relish

I’m not sure there is much else in the culinary world that could encapsulate an Aussie summer more than beer and prawns.  So here the two come together brilliantly – the beer giving a subtle sourness to the sweetness of the prawn meat. If you are entertaining its great to make vats of this relish and keep it on hand – it goes as well over a steak as it does with these prawns and it goes down a treat with left over ham on a sandwich with a nice tart cheddar.

Serves 6

Ingredients

750ml beer

1 litre water

1 x 5cm knob ginger, sliced

300g scampi

600g prawns

Relish (about 1 ½ cups)

15 roma tomatoes, blanched, peeled, deseeded, finely chopped

2 onions, peeled, finely chopped

2 tsp wasabi paste (or more to taste)

½ cup sweet soy sauce

¼ cup rice vinegar

To serve

Aioli

Coriander, roughly chopped

Method

To make the relish combine all ingredients + 2tbsp water in a large non reactive saucepan, bring to the boil over high heat, then reduce heat and cook, stirring regularly until soft and a thick consistency is achieved. Add the wasabi to your heat preference and if your tomatoes are not particularly sweet, add a pinch of brown sugar to taste at the end of cooking.

To make the prawns, bring the beer and water to the boil in a large saucepan. Place the ginger, scampi in a steamer basket, place over the saucepan, cover and steam until cooked, about 4 minutes). During the last few minutes of cooking, add the prawns until cooked through.

Brandy Cream Tart with Cranberry & Quince Jam

Baking a tart is pure therapy. Nothing is more tempting than a buttery crust that tries to resist then succumbs and crumbles under your fork. The filling in that constant precarious state of limbo between liquid and wobble.  The remainder down your top despite being as careful as you can be lifting it from plate to mouth, there is always that rebel smear or crumb making its departure down your front and hopefully  is something you can rescue later.

There is nothing complicated about this tart, it is just the process takes a little longer. Nothing showy or stressful just a delightful holiday plodding at the stove.

I’ve suggested a pre-bought pastry in the interests of time here but please do make your own if you are willing. And the smell of it cooking brings the sort of reward we only dream about.

Sticky Brandy cream tart with spiced cranberry and quince jam

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Serves 8 – 10

Ingredients

1 x 375g packet sweet shortcrust pastry (use Careme’s)

1 ¼ cups cream cheese, softened

2 tablespoons crème fraiche

½ cup caster sugar

2 eggs

2 egg yolks

3 tablespoons brandy

1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped

2 cups good quality cranberry jam

½ cup quince paste

3 tsp mixed spice

Method

Grease and line a 25cm pie tin or rectangular tart tin with a loose bottom. Roll out the pastry then gently line the base of the pie tin and trim any overhang. Pop the lined shell in the fridge and let rest for 15 minutes.

Blind bake the base for 10 minutes or until slightly golden. Allow to cool.

While the tart shell is blind baking add the cream cheese, crème fraiche and sugar to a bowl and whisk until creamy.  Add the eggs, yolks, brandy, vanilla and spice and process until smooth.

Melt the jam and quince paste in a small heavy saucepan with 1 tbsp water over moderately low heat, stirring until smooth. Spread half the jam over the base of the cooled pastry shell.  Set aside until the jam layer sets then gently pour over cream cheese mixture.

Cover with foil and bake until the filling is set but still slightly trembly in the middle. About 40 minutes. Be careful at this stage as it will continue to set as it cools. Remove from the heat and allow to cool completely. Reheat the remaining jam and stir until smooth. Pour the remainder of the jam over the top of the cheese filling and spread evenly. Chill the tart in the fridge until cold. Just before serving, remove the tart from the pan. When slicing it works best to use a hot wet knife.