Kitchen Kit Road Test & Giveaway

If you are anything like me you find yourself with a thousand and one baking pans or none. There is no happy medium. Ever. Its sort of like underwear. You have all these matching sets and then one day wonder if you can leave the house because there is nothing. Zip. Zero. Zilch. Not even a pair of bonds and a singlet to make yourself respectable.

So I was pretty happy when I was sent a 20 x 26cm Profiline Push Pan as part of the launch of the pans with the tv show The Great Australian Bake Off. I have been using my grandmothers loose-bottom tin - I love it but I also get concerned about the over use - its one of her possessions that I hold most dearly to my heart so a new loose bottom tin was in order. And it meant I could organise a giveaway set for you lovely peeps so of course I obliged!

These tins are a little different - which is why I thought them worthy of the Kitchen Kit Roadtest. There is a silicone seal on the lose base which is very handy if you are a bit slap dash with your batter like me. None of the mixture can make its way out into the world of your oven and you can also use them to cook in a water bath without the angst of a watered down cheesecake/pudding etc etc.

What's there to say, a round cake pan is a round cake pan but this shot from Profiline does show the silicone seal so you can see how it works.
They are slate/chrome in colour - quite similar to the Chicago metal colour and have the weighty feel of a quality baking pan.

Made of heavy gauge steel with some uber fancy Swiss non-stick coating. I can't speak to it because I've never trusted a non-stick. Ever. I've worked too hard on my cake to throw caution to the wind and have half of it stuck to the sides so I'm passing the info on here rather than claiming its non-sticking wonder. Someone let me know?

Oh and the prices range from $18.95 - $35.95 so they are pretty wallet friendly. Sizes range from 12cm - 26cm. More deets at www.pushpan.com.au

They've got all the important stuff. You can throw them into the dishwasher. They'll bake at fisson inducing temperatures - up to 260C.

I've found after a few uses and goes through the dishwasher that the silicone seal tends to roll a little bit. Its an easy fix - you just have to make sure its back in place after you've washed the tin and I've found it is easiest to do this once it is just out of the dishwasher and the seal is still a bit warm and stretchy.

I used the 20 x 26cm tin to bake this earl grey crumble tea cake for my weekly Daily Life Column. The cooking time was standard and it achieved a consistent brown colouring in the tin despite the upper left hot spot in my oven. 

Earl Grey Tea Crumble Butter Cake

I am the first to ooh and ahh over the petite perfection of professionally produced patisserie, but there is something more gratifying about making, baking and tasting the more robust home baked tea cake. Tea cake, preferably with a cup of tea, fills the house with amazing smells and can make you feel everything is ok with the world in a way that very few other forms of cooking can. I’ll take cake over quinoa every other day of the week and often find myself daydreaming of a world where “everything stops at 3.30 for tea and just a slice”.

I’ve incorporated tea (surprise, surprise) directly into your standard butter cake here with a caramelized tea crumble topping – the result is light, lovely and fitting for many an occasion, from those requiring starched white napkins and funny little forks to those enjoyed over the kitchen sink with a mug of builders tea when no one is watching.

Ingredients

Topping

2 tbsp looseleaf  earl grey tea

1 cup brown sugar

¼ cup plain flour

75g cold butter, chopped

Cake

2 cups plain (all purpose flour)

2 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

125g butter, at room temperature

1 cup caster sugar

3 eggs, lightly beaten

¾ cup Greek yoghurt

¼ cup earl grey tea, cooled

Method

Preheat oven to 180C.

To make the topping place the brown sugar and flour in a bowl, add ingredients to a bowl and rub butter in with your fingers until mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. To make the cake, sift the flour, baking powder and salt in a mixing bowl. Place butter and sugar in a bowl and cream together. Add the eggs and tea and mix to combine. Add the dry ingredients, alternating with the yoghurt, mixing well after each addition. Pour the cake batter into a greased 23cm (9 inch) spring-form cake tin. Sprinkle with topping mixture and bake the cake for 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack, topping side up to cool. Serve with your finest brew of tea.

WIN -WIN- WIN
Just leave a comment on this post and a winner will be selected at random on 30th August. The lucky winner will receive:
4 x 12cm PushPans
2 x 20cm PushPans
1 x 26cm PushPans (this is the one I used)

OMFG....Oh My Fried Goodness. It's Parmesan Pesto Fries

Parmesan Pesto Fries

I often fall into the camp that deliberates the sides as much as the main meal. In fact a “side” done well can serve perfectly as the main event and has done so for me on many an occasion. Take the humble spud – roasted, mashed, boiled, baked, fried and steamed – a meal is not a meal without a touch of tatie on the side. It translates into patatas bravas, fritters, samosas, hashes, caldo verde, colcannon, bubble n squeak and the ever-humble hot chip. I’ve taken the typical soak up the beer, feed the seagulls special here and spun it with parmesan, sea salt and pesto so if you squint at them, you could almost imagine you were eating your greens. I’ve left the quantities for the pesto fairly large, if you are anything like me you’ll tend to cover your fry like a sock with the stuff.

The key to the perfect chip is in the soak. By soaking the fries in water, you draw out the starch, so when you cook them you make them crunchy on the outside and light and potatoey on the inside. Also make sure you serve them up hot and fast – these are definitely the sort of pomme fritte that you blow on, eat and still burn the roof of your mouth for fear of missing out.

Ingredients

900g baking potatoes, peeled, cut into ¼ inch thick sticks or cut into shoestring using a julienne peeler

vegetable oil for frying

Pesto

1 bunch basil leaves

1 bunch coriander leaves

1 large clove garlic, peeled, chopped

50g pine nuts, toasted

¼ cup finely grated parmesan

zest of 1 lemon, plus a little squeeze of juice

1/3 cup olive oil or grapeseed oil

To serve

Rock salt

Shredded Parmesan

Method

Add the potato to a large bowl. Cover with water and refrigerate for 8 hours, even better if you do it overnight.

On the day of serving make the pesto by combining the basil and coriander leaves, garlic and a pinch of sea salt in a mortar and, using a pestle, coarsely crush. Add pine nuts, parmesan and lemon zest and pound to a rough paste, stir through oil and season to taste with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Set aside until ready to serve. Alternatively you can blitz these in a food processor – just don’t over work it, you want a rough pesto.

In a large saucepan, heat 2 inches of oil to 160C. Line a baking tray with paper towels. Rinse the potatoes and pat thoroughly dry. Working in batches, fry the potatoes until they are almost tender and look slightly translucent (usually about 3 minutes). Transfer to paper towels to drain.

Increase the oil temperature to 190C and fry the potatoes for another 3 minutes or until golden and crisp. Transfer to the paper towels to drain and season generously with salt. Sprinkle the fries with the shredded Parmesan and dollops of pesto and serve immediately.

A Cherry Ripe Redux

Cherry Ripe Chocolate Tarts

I had a very dear friend visiting from London recently and one of the first things she went for in the food department was a cherry ripe. Funny how you skip straight past the old school favourites when right in front of you, but they are one of the first things you seem to crave on a return trip home to the golden shores. For international readers who may not be aware, the cherry ripe is an Australian confectionary aisle staple, the kind that friendships are formed and lost over. In fact, I'd say they are close to the Tim Tam as part of our national eating psyche. If you can get your hands on one, try one - they are definitely worth it.

In my world, there is only one thing wrong with cherries, and that is they are too expensive. But this dessert just wouldn’t be right if you used anything other than the variety that come in a jar. And hopefully these tarts will stem the craving until the cherry season is properly upon us (not long now).  They are super simple to make, and I’ve added a “touch of schmaancy” so you could serve these as dessert at a more well heeled dinner party should you feel the need to move it beyond morning tea. Its best to use a good quality dark chocolate – it offsets the sweetness of the cherries and coconut beautifully. It’s a dessert that is maximum impact with minimum effort.

In other words, the very best kind.

Ingredients

1 x 300g sheet of chocolate shortcrust pastry (I used Careme)

150g red maraschino cherries + 3 tbsp juice + 6 tsp juice

75g dried cherries

75g dark chocolate

75g coconut

3 tbsp condensed milk

Method

Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and line 6 pastry tart moulds. Line with pastry and trim to fit. Blind bake for 10 minutes, remove the pastry weights, and bake for an additional 5 minutes. While the pastry shells are baking, add the maraschino cherries with 3 tbsp juice, dried cherries, chocolate, desiccated coconut and condensed milk to a blender and blitz until a rough paste consistency is achieved. Scoop the mixture into the six pastry cases, pressing down gently. Return to the oven and bake for 15 minutes. Remove and allow to cool slightly before drizzling over the melted chocolate and 1 tsp of cherry juice per tart.  Best served warm.

Introducing the Kitchen Kit Road test

Working in food and constantly testing and developing recipes means that you end up using or being given the opportunity to use lots of different cooking equipment. I thought, rather than keep my opinions to myself I'd start a section on the blog - a kitchen kit roadtest if you will - to help you decide whether or not to try or buy a new "bit of kit" for your kitchen. The equipment will be a mixture of items I purchased to try (the potato foam from my new epsum gun which is still on my roof will be saved for another day), some that I have used on cookbook shoots or have been loaned as trial for feedback, and some that I have received in exchange for product recipe development such as my first kick off post today. The Breville Sous Vide Supreme.

The Breville Sous Vide Supreme is a temperature controlled cooking device where food is cooked at fixed temperatures in a water bath. Normally this "sous vide" style of cooking is reserved for restaurants but this is one of the best units to come onto the domestic market for home cooks to have beautifully tender food.

I'd be lying if I said the unit was small. This does take up some kitchen real estate. In fact mine lives permanently on the bench because it can't fit in my cupboards. But to be fair that may have more to do with what's already bursting from them, not the actual unit. And I'm ok with it's kitchen bench locale because it looks pretty sleek. It is mostly polished chrome with black trims and a small digital screen in the bottom centre. Thankfully it doesn't glare out at you into the night - the digital elements are small and unobtrusive with lighting etc.

Super super easy to use. You press about 2 buttons and walk away while it does the rest. Its easily the laziest form of cooking while being one of the most consistent. Go figure. 

I like that it is completely silent, particularly as some recipes ask you to cook tough cuts of meet, say lamb ribs, for up to 22 hours. I want to turn it on and go to bed, not hear it bubbling like a spa bath.

It is odourless. It took me a while to move this to the pros column - normally I like to smell my dinner but for more confined living arrangements such as apartments and old terrace kitchens, it really does mean you don't have to worry about "stinking out the house" with your cooking. 

The flavour intensity you get is amazing. I find chicken breast a really hard meat to cook - other than the obvious quality of the bird, it is frustrating to cook the centre while the outer becomes tough and tasteless. I think the biggest breakthrough for me has been shoving in some chicken with herbs and a dash of wine and the end result is just sublime. 

For me it was not the sous vide machine but the Fresh keeper. You see the food has to be put into these vacuum pouches which you seal, so the pouch can then sit in the water, keeping the food air and water tight while it cooks. I had some trouble with sealing the bags and despite going through the instructions and trying to find a youtube clip - anything with some tips, I couldn't find any. The issue was simply where I put my hands on the unit to apply some pressure so it seals. Seems easy and silly but I do think I wouldn't be the only person trying to use the unit and getting frustrated. Breville - time for some additional troubleshooting elements on your website so first time users can navigate the little tips and tricks.

Check in at Breville for the tech specs here

From what research I have done the unit varies in price by retailers but expect to pay in the realm of $600 - $800
And get it shipped - the box would be a nightmare to carry through a shopping centre

 A few weeks back I developed this recipe for Daily Life using lamb cooked sous vide and wrote about the experience. Enjoy!

 Spiced quince lamb with eggplant, kale & bulghur salad

The glory of lamb is that it can take an awful lot of messing around with and still taste amazing – its probably one of the most versatile meats around. You can badger it with anything from apricots to anchovy to chilli and smoky cumin, or hickory and hoi sin and it’s still a delight to eat. Low temperature and hyper-slow cooking suit the tougher cuts of meat like lamb shoulder but the sous vide gadgets coming out make the job safer and easier, even for the leaner less forgiving cuts. I had been a little adverse to this method of cooking, something about not being able to smell, prod or turn my dinner, but then I acquired a SousVide Supreme, a serious bit of kitchen kit that promises the ultimate home cooked meal at the simple push of a button. I can see the appeal. It’s a superbly healthy way to cook, and for pregnant women suffering the throes of morning sickness this is completely odour free cooking. Ditto for those of us living in old terraces with after thought kitchens or the confines of an apartment – not having your entire living quarters smell like grilled salmon for a week is amazing. But best of all, you can forget all about it, stick your food in, disappear for a few hours, and come back to a bath of succulent whatever. Obviously, a sous vide machine is an investment of both money and kitchen real estate so I’ve tweaked the recipe here for cooking normally and for those who have entered the world of uber kitchen gadgetry. I dare say its worth it.

Serves 4 - 6

Ingredients

Marinade

2 garlic cloves, crushed

2 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp chilli flakes

1 tsp sweet paprika

2 tbsp orange juice

2 tbsp quince paste

1 tbsp olive oil

2 (200g each) lamb backstrap

Salad

150g fine bulghur (cracked wheat)

2 baby eggplants, chargrilled, chopped into bite-sized pieces

1 tbsp olive oil

½ red onion, finely sliced

¼ cup pistachio kernels, roughly chopped

¼ cup raisins, roughly chopped

1 cup kale, finely sliced

½ cup coriander leaves, chopped

½ cup mint leaves, chopped

Zest of ½ lemon

Dressing

4 tbsp Greek yoghurt

Juice of ½ a lemon

Salt and pepper to season

Method

Combine the marinade ingredients in a bowl and stir until the quince paste has broken down and the marinade is a smooth consistency. Add lamb, turning to coat, cover and refrigerate for 4 hours or overnight. (If using sous vide, add the lamb and marinade to a food safe vac bag and seal).

Pre-heat chargrill on high heat. For the sous viders, preheat the Sous Vide water bath to 55C, add the lamb pouch and cook for 90 minutes.  Cook lamb for 5 minutes on each side for medium rare, or until cooked to your liking. Cover and rest for 5 minutes.

While the lamb is cooking, prepare the salad by soaking cracked wheat in hot water until tender (8-10 minutes), drain well and fluff with a fork. Add the wheat to a large bowl with the remaining salad ingredients and toss to combine. Season generously with salt and pepper and a drizzle of olive oil.  Add the dressing ingredients in a small bowl and stir to combine. Thickly slice the lamb. Add the salad to a large serving bowl, top with the lamb and drizzle over the yoghurt dressing. Serve warm.