Apple and Rhubarb Crumble Slab

Apple pie, crumble, slice, turnover…. basically pastry and stewed apple in all its glorious forms is my kryptonite. Left alone with any of them? They don’t stand a chance. Suffice to say, this slab of stewed apple with pops of tart rhubarb sitting on a base as thick as fence posts won’t see out the day. It’s properly old school. Comforting and dependable. The sort of slice you might feed slightly fancy grandmothers or friends from out of town when they come to stay. It’s frills-free baking that harks back to the basics and leaves you wondering why you ever left them. You’ll eat the whole batch alone without the tiniest bit of remorse; as dessert piping hot with ice cream melting at its sides, cold standing at the fridge while you work out what you might want to eat, or just warmed with a cup of tea as we succumb to the impending change in season.

Makes about 25 bars

Ingredients

Base

225g butter

¾ cup caster sugar

3 cups plain flour

Pinch of salt

Filling

6 tbsp butter

½ cup brown sugar

1 bunch rhubarb, washed, trimmed, chopped

6-8 Granny smith apples, peeled, cored, thinly sliced

1 tbsp cinnamon

Freshly grated nutmeg to taste

Water as necessary

Topping

1 cup nuts (walnuts, pecans, hazelnuts, almonds) toasted, coarsely chopped

1 ½ cups quick cooking oats

1 cup plain flour

¾ cup brown sugar

pinch cinnamon

pinch baking soda

pinch salt

100g butter, cubed

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C. Line a large high-sided baking tray (at least 30cm x 40cm) with baking paper and set aside. Make the crust by beating the butter and sugar in a mixer fitted with the paddle hook until light and fluffy. Usually about 2 minutes. Turn the speed to low and gradually beat in the flour and salt until a soft dough forms. Press the dough over the bottom of the baking tray and a few cm’s up the side. You want it to be nice and thick and solid, something dependable that won’t buckle under the weight of the filling. Bake in the centre of the oven for 20 minutes, until it looks golden.

To make the filling, add the butter, sugar and sliced apple to a large saucepan or frying pan and cook over a low heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, adding water if necessary to prevent burning. The liquid needs to be completely evaporated and make sure you scrape up any of the caramelized bits stuck to the bottom of the pan.  Stir through the spices and set aside to cool.

Add the rhubarb to another pan and cook over low heat with a tablespoon or two of water. If your rhubarb is particularly tart, add a tablespoon of sugar, but go slowly, you want this to be quite punchy in comparison to the apple mixture. Once stewed, set aside to cool.

Make the crumble topping by combining all ingredients in a large bowl and use your hands to combine until it looks lumpy and the butter is just incorporated, you want it to have clumps.

Spread the apple filling over the cooked crust. Top with blobs of stewed rhubarb. Scatter over the crumble topping, in clumps. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes up to an hour until the topping is golden. Let cool before you slice into nice big slabs of goodness.

If you have a will stronger than mine you can store these in an airtight container at toom temperature for three days or they can be frozen for a month.

Hawaiian Inspired Recipes - James Halliday Wine Mag

Hello, hello. Thought I'd share some recipes I developed for a Hawaiian inspired recipe feature for the James Halliday Wine Magazine after my trip to Hawaii late last year. I cannot wait to go back - what a truly amazing place. The flavours are an amazing combination of Japanese, Portugese, Americano - a real melting pot and some great food as a result. I think I could easily live off acai berry bowls, poke salad and fish tacos. With the odd hula pie chaser of course! I hope you enjoy these recipes and again the drink suggestions the wine experts make to go with the recipes are spot on.

xx

Togarashi watermelon and sashimi salad

Sashimi and Togarashi Watermelon Salad

The perfect summer lunch, for me at least, will involve a table outdoors, with dappled, elements of shade, people I enjoy eating and drinking with and light lovely flavours that capture the essence of the season. This is generally why Ilean towards seafood and the vast, crimson-flesh of watermelon – these say summer at first bite. This salad works best when the elements are thrown together when you are ready to eat. I’ve used kingfish and wild salmon here, but any fresh sashimi-grade fish will work for this dish.

Serves 4

Ingredients

300g mixed sashimi grade fish, thinly sliced (I used kingfish and salmon)

½ bunch mint, leaves pulled

½ bunch coriander, leaves pulled

½ small watermelon, skinned, flesh cut into cubes

1 tsp togarashi pepper or to taste*

Dressing

2 tbsp fish sauce

Juice of 1 lime

1 ½ tbsp. caster sugar

Method

Toss fish, herbs, shallot and spring onion in a bowl to combine. In a separate bowl add the watermelon cubes and togarashi pepper, tossing gently to coat. Peppers vary in strength depending on the brand so I suggest a slowly slowly approach, testing as you go until you get a light smoky and slightly fiery taste to contrast with the sweetness of the watermelon. Once coated add to the bowl with the fish and berbs.

Combine the dressing ingredients in a small bowl and whisk until sugar has dissolved. Drizzle dressing over, toss to coat and serve.

To make a heartier meal, this salad also works really well with some steamed rice.

* Togarashi pepper is available from Asian grocers

Choc Drizzled Nutella Meringues

Meringue and what you can do with it is consistently underrated. Plain, vanilla, chocolate, fruit laden – the list is long, large and in my mind exciting. Meringues are the food that most of us would like to eat. No scratch that. Meringues are a food that most of us would love to eat. And I’m guessing daily if they were put in front of us. Better than that they are super easy, are a great way to use up left over eggwhites and they keep pretty well in an airtight container for whenever the “cup of tea and something” urge comes calling. They are a morning, afternoon, late evening superfood and this version with nutella, well its perfection in chocolate loving form.

Makes 10

Ingredients

6 large eggwhites, room temperature

1 tsp lemon juice

280g caster sugar

2-3 tbsp Nutella, softened in the microwave

150g good quality couveture dark chocolate, melted for drizzling

Method

For meringues, preheat oven to 120C. Whisk eggwhite and a pinch of salt in an electric mixer until soft peaks form, then, whisking continuously, gradually add caster sugar and whisk until glossy. Add lemon juice and whisk again until sugar has dissolved.

Use a piping bag or spoon and place dollops of the beaten eggwhites onto a prepared baking tray. Gently swirl nutella through the top of each meringue.

Place in the oven and bake for 1 hour or until set. Turn off the oven and leave the meringues inside to dry for another hour.

Before serving, drizzle with melted chocolate.

Cardomom breakfast scrolls with rosewater glaze

Cardamom breakfast scrolls with rosewater glaze

These breakfast scrolls are a bit of a hybrid, the texture lying between a brioche and a sweet bun, making them both rich and featherlight. They are a tender mid-morning pick-me-up and make the perfect brunch fodder.  Unlike other breads, it is hard to go wrong with these, it doesn’t require 10 years experience working in a bakery before making a decent sour dough – these are pretty foolproof – the key being in the resting time, the rest is clockwork. The cardamom and rosewater add exotic sweetness and hint of spice, and best of all you can start these the day before, letting them rise slowly overnight in the fridge. You can even make them and freeze them for later consumption, although I do tend to fall into the camp that nothing tastes quite as good as warm and fresh from the oven.

Ingredients

Sticky bun dough

¾ cup warm milk

½ cup melted butter

1/3 cup brown sugar

7g sachet of active dried yeast

pinch of salt

3 tsp freshly ground cardamom

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 ½ cups plain flour

Filling

2 tbsp butter, softened

½ cup Panela sugar*

Pinch ground cardamom, or more to taste

Pinch mixed spice, or more to taste

Rosewater glaze

2 tbsp rosewater

Icing sugar

Method

Combine the milk, butter, sugar and yeast in a bowl, stir to combine and set aside for 5-10 minutes or until it foams and bubbles on the surface. Add the salt, cardamom, vanilla and beaten egg. Gradually add the flour, adding as much as needed. The amount can vary depending on weather and the yeast you use. What you want to achieve as you are mixing is a dough that feels sticky to touch but doesn’t completely stick to your fingers. Knead for about 5 minutes in a mixer or if kneading by hand, about 10-12 minutes until it takes on a smooth appearance.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside somewhere warm to rise until doubled in size, about 2 hours.

After the dough has risen, take it out of the bowl and on a lightly floured surface roll it into a large rectangle about 1/4-inch thick. Spread the dough rectangle with the soft butter, then sprinkle it evenly with the sugar and spices.

Roll the rectangle up lengthwise into a long jellyroll. Slice it with a sharp knife, about 5cm thick slices, and arrange them in a 30cm baking dish or baking pan. Make sure there is some space around the buns as the dough will rise and grow. Cover and set aside in a warm place to rise, until doubled in size, about an hour. If you want these bright and early in the morning you can do this the night before, cover and place in the fridge to rise slowly overnight. If you do this make sure you let them come to room temperature before baking.

Preheat the oven to 180C. Bake the rolls until golden, between 20 – 30 minutes. While the rolls are baking, make the glaze by adding the rosewater to a bowl. Add the icing sugar slowly, whisking with a fork, until a glaze consistency is achieved.  Allow the rolls to cool slightly before drizzling over the rosewater glaze. Serve warm.

• Panela sugar is an organic cane sugar available from specialist grocers or health food stores. If unavailable substitute with brown sugar.

Zuchinni Flowers, just the way Stefano Manfredi likes it....

I am a little bit in love with Stefano's new book Italian Food - it is a bible of his recipes and one dish that I had to cook immediately was this - deep fried cheesy filled zuchinni flowers. Piping hot and crisp, they really are the best way to eat zuchinni. If you haven’t eaten his food, you’ve heard of him. Stefano Manfredi is a chef whose reputation is often whispered about with an air of mystical awe. A stalwart on the Australian cooking scene and formidable culinary force in educating palates on all (edible) things Italian. His latest cookbook Italian Food is a worthy investment for your kitchen real estate. Stefano includes more than 500 recipes from across Italy’s 20 regions. While its difficult to decide what to cook, I couldn’t go past the cheese stuffed zuchinni flowers. If you ever wondered the difference in zuchinni flowers – the female flowers are the sturdier version – they come with the baby zuchinni attached while the male flowers have just a delicate stem. Either are great with this recipe although that zuchinni stem does make a nifty handle if you were serving as more of a finger food. I served these as part of a spread with some slow cooked lamb shoulder and fresh bity salads. They were heavenly, and what’s not to love about cheese wrapped in flowers like an edible present.

Serves 8-10

Ingredients

1 1/3 cups plain flour

2/3 cup ice cold waer

150g ricotta cheese

200g provola cheese, grated

150g mozzarella cheese, cubed

100g Grana Padano, grated

2 tbsp anchovy fillets, finely chopped

24 zuchinni flowers, stamen removed

1 cup extra virgin olive oil

Method

To make the batter, use a fork to mix the flour and water to form a rough, lumpy, fairly runny mixture. Rest this while you are preparing the rest of the dish. Make the filing by combining the cheeses and the anchovies. Season. If you are using femaile flowers with baby zuchinni attached, trim the ends of the zuchinni. If you are using male flowers, trim the stems. Carefully open the flowers and spoon in a little of the filling. Gently close the flowers by lightly pressing the petals together. Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan until it is about to smoke, then dip the filled zuchinni flowers in the batter and allow any excess to run off. Fry the flowers in the oil until golden. Remove from the pan and dry on paper towels, then season and serve.

By the by, it certainly helps that you can eat his food somewhere as beautiful as his restaurant and garden at Bells Killcare. One day, one day I am going to stay there for a week, eat, sunbake, walk on the beach and then attend one of Stefano's cooking classes - sounds like a dream doesn't it?

Grilled Chicken & Bresaola Salad

I was sent some chicken. Lilydale chicken to be exact. Somehow they knew exactly how bare my cupboard, fridge and kitchen in general was, and perhaps just how hungry I felt. The few edible things I had in my fridge included a few olives, some bresaola, butter lettuce and a sad half of avocado. So I thankfully accepted the chicken, grilled it and practically inhaled this salad. Yes Lilydale sent me chicken but NO this is not a sponsored post or one of those things. I'm posting because of a delicious salad and also because I believe quite strongly in their approach to doing as much as they can to ensure a "happy chicken"and how they are prepared to put their entire product and brand behind it - that means they believe it, and most importantly that they practice what they preach.  You may have read recently that egg producers have been under fire for claiming organic and free range, charging us more for it and basically not telling the truth to consumers for their financial gain - really horrid, underhand behaviour that has an impact on of course on the welfare of chickens and the quality of life provided for them, and us as consumers placing trust in what we purchase from supermarket shelves. Anyway back to this salad. It took five minutes to put together, and the chicken and bresaola with tangy feta and bright cherry toms really was delightful. I added a few additions to the recipe suggestion that came with the chicken - basically the use of bresaola, butter lettuce, avocado, some finely sliced red onion and a quick vibrant squeeze of lemon juice.

Ingredients
2 chicken breasts
2 tbsp olive oil
20g butter
400g cherry tomatoes or mixed small tomatoes
Marinated feta crumbled
Half an avocado, sliced
Small butter lettuce, rinsed, leaves coarsely torn
Quarter red onion, finely sliced
Salt and pepper to season

Dressing
Squeeze of fresh lemon juice

2 tsp brown sugar

2 tsp balsamic vinegar

Method
Brush the chicken breasts with a little of the oil, season with salt and pepper. Heat the remaining oil in a large frying pan over medium heat and add the butter; cook the chicken breasts for 4-5 minutes each side or until cooked through. Set aside.

Add the remaining ingredients to a large bowl and toss to combine. Slice the chicken and scatter pieces over the top of the salad. Just before serving, combine the dressing ingredients then pour over the salad.