Tarty goodness

I do love a bit of tart.  Here are some I made the other day.

@ home, with love / by Julie Le Clerc (2004)

Auckland: Penguin Books

Pg117

Burnt Sugar Tarts (Creme Brûlée Tarts)

Sweet Pastry

1/2 cup caster sugar

200g butter, softened

1 egg

2 cups plain flour

Pinch salt

1. Place sugar, butter and egg in a bowl and beat to just combined. Stir in flour, salt to form dough. Turn out onto a floured board and knead lightly to bring together. (Note: I cut the butter through the flour in the food processor and then add the remaining ingredients and pulse the processor until the dough starts to form together, then I finish it off by hand).

2. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 30 mins before using as recipe following directs.

Vanilla Custard

1 vanilla bean ( I used a good teaspoon of vanilla paste)

1 cup cream

1/2 cup milk

2 tablespoons caster sugar

3 egg yolks

Demerara sugar to brûlée 

1. Roll out pastry to 3mm thick and use to line 6 10cm individual tart tins. Prick base with a fork and chill for 30mins.

2. Preheat oven to 190 degrees C. Line pastry with baking paper and fill with baking beans/weights - bake blind for 10 mins. Remove paper and weights and return cases to oven for 5 mins to dry out.  Decrease oven temperature to 140 degrees C.

3. If using the vanilla bean, cut in half lengthways and scrape out seeds. Combine with cream and milk in a saucepan. Bring to boil then remove from heat for 10 mins for vanilla to infuse. (if you use paste like me, just add it to the milk and cream and bring to the boil.)

4. In a bowl beat caster sugar and yolks together until pale. Strain cream mixture and pour onto yolks, then whisk to combine.

5. Return mixture to a clean saucepan. Cook over a gentle heat, stirring constantly until mixture thickens and coats the back of the spoon. Don't let it boil or it will curdle. Pour mixture into pastry cases. Bake 15 mins or until custard is just set. Remove to cool.

6. Just before serving, dust top of custard with Demerara sugar. Caramelise with a brûlée torch of quickly under a grill. (Personally I think caster sugar is a better option).

Salted caramel tarts

(I used the same pastry and method as above to make these).

The salted caramel recipe I got from one of the cooking blogs I read and I neglected to write down in my cookbook which one. So I do apologize - if this looks familiar to someone, I am more than happy to link directly to your blog if you let me know! It must have been a US one because it uses the term "stick" of butter.

250g sugar

80ml water

115g salted butter 

150ml heavy cream

In a heavy saucepan, over low heat, combine sugar and water. Cook until sugar is dissolved. Add butter. Let it come to a boil and cook until it reaches a golden caramel color. Remove from heat. Add cream - be careful because it will spit - whisk to combine and put back on stove. Let it come to the boil again and cook 25-35 mins until you reach a creamy consistency. (Note: I wanted a sauce consistency and took it off the heat sooner than 25 mins. Even so, it was really too far gone along the road to hardening off for sauce. Great for soft caramels though).

For the tarts I spooned in the caramel to the tart cases and then cooked them briefly (about 5-10 mins) until it seemed like a good time to take them out - I used mini tart cases to it didn't take long. I then broke a piece of chocolate into the hot caramel and sprinkled a few salt grains on it.

You will have plenty of left over caramel. I don't see this as a problem...

Camping

Over Labour Day weekend we went up to camp at Tawharanui.  It was a bit of a rush to get away and in the process I forgot to pack a few things, namely chocolate biscuits and Earl Grey tea.  Disaster!  Fortunately a quick trip to Matakana rectified the matter.  That and a few questions I've had lately about what to bring when camping spurred me to blog about what we do.

[Anchor Bay, Tawharanui]

We camp in a tent.  It's a three room + vestibule dome tent.  When we considered which tent to buy we preferred to get a lighter tent rather than the larger, heavier framed tents.  It means we compromise a bit in terms of size, but that can be advantageous too.  We have had no problems so far with it standing up to rain and wind.

[Our tent at Tawharanui a few years ago]

We mostly stay in camp grounds with minimal facilities (water and toilets) so we take a gas camping stove and have recently added a Cobb portable BBQ/oven to the mix.

How much stuff we take varies depending on the length of time we'll be away and what we're intending to do while there.  We take the family car, a trailer and sometimes add in a roof mounted travel container.  I do use a list, but we were in a hurry this time and I didn't, consequently... no chocolate biscuits.  My plan for next time is to create some storage containers with dedicated camping items in them that can be grabbed and put into the trailer easily.  We've done this with the kitchen gear and tent gubbings and it has worked really well.

[Sleepy girl on her stretcher]

Everytime we go camping we seem to think up ways to refine our experience.  Our next challenge is to work out some way to have a fridge. DH has plans for solar panels, batteries etc to achieve this.  We haven't quite reached the glamping stage though! :-)

[Making a dam]

Feeding the whanau is something that features strongly in my role and it can be a bit of a challenge. While my children aren't fussy eaters, they do fail to realise that while camping the menu changes from what they are used to.  I do not have access to an unlimited pantry!  So what do I cook?

This is a list of things I'll often have on the menu.

Breakfast

• Cereal
• Toast
• Eggs/bacon
• Olive filled pita

Lunch

• Sandwiches
• Canned stuff like spaghetti, tuna
• Fruit

Dinners
I normally try and bring fresh fruit and vegetables where possible, but the dried vegetables are often convenient and aren't too bad in terms of taste.  Canned peaches are a favourite dessert.  I will sometimes pre-make things like pancake mix or a spice mix for curry.  Keeping meat fresh is a challenge if camping for any length of time so either I have to make a visit to a store, or go vegetarian.  The latter isn't always greeted with joy by my carnivorous family. 

• Bacon, eggs and pancakes
• Pasta of various kinds with various sauces
• Steak, potatoes, onions, salad
• Devilled sausages with vegetables
• Curry and rice
• Burritos or nachos
• Nasi Goreng
• Pad thai
• Canned soup 
• Whole chicken on the Cobb with roasted potatoes done in the base part of the oven
• Anything BBQ on the Cobb e.g. hamburgers, sausages, steak....

Now we have the Cobb, I am keen to try other things.  We've experimented at home and so far have tried pizza, a tagine, and Medfouna with varying degrees of success.

Anchor Bay, Tawharanui

Snacks

I will try and take a variety of snacks.  It always seems like the family is extra hungry when we camp.  We can go through a loaf of bread in a day.

• Trail mix 
• Nuts
• Chips
• Fresh fruit
• Dried fruit
• I will sometimes bake a cake or cookies to take

What do you eat while camping?

[Making sand walls]

Pie Odyssey #6 Steak & Ale Pie & #7 Mince & Potato Pie

Onwards with the Pie odyssey!! Next on the list was the Steak & Ale one. I had to go and look up the difference between beer and ale, but in the end I got a light beer to use since it was being sold by the bottle. Not being beer drinkers it seemed overkill to get the 12 pack of ale..

You make the filling first.  Lots of mushrooms in this one which DH isn't so keen on.  Still I kept them chunky so he could give them all to MEEEEEEE.

Putting it in the pastry (bought puff pastry).  I do like the butter puff best, but this was bog standard sheet puff pastry.

mmmmmm pie

Next up... Mince & Potato Pie. This one is kind of like Shepherds Pie in a pastry case. I was a mildly concerned that the potatoes might be overkill with the pastry but it wasn't.

I liked having all the vegetables in there.  Yep, looks like the picture ;-P

The pastry called for lard which I didn't have so I used a combination of butter and shreddo.  I think next time I'll use all butter.  The pastry was hard to work with and quite crumbly.

At the suggestion in the book I made a gravy to go with the pie.  It was so easy to make and delicious too, I'll be doing it again.  You saute some onions, add some flour, some wine and stock, bubble it up until it thickens and then sieve it.

All pies were greeted with much appreciation from all!

Pie Odyssey #4 Mince & Dumpling pie

I really like dumplings.  There is something magical about blobbing sticky balls of dough into a stew and seeing them puff up and become a crispy topping.  So my choice of the next in the Pie Adventure series was the Beef Mince and Dumplings pie (pg 85 of Perfect Pies).

First up you make the filling.  A nice mix of onions, garlic, celery, and carrot.

Fling in the mince and brown it.  Then add a bay leaf, a can of chopped tomatoes, tomato puree and some beef stock (and a slosh of wine if you like).

 

 After simmering that for a bit you put in the dumplings you have prepared.  The recipe calls for suet - something I haven't ventured into.  I normally just use butter for dumplings.  However, in the interests of scientific endeavours I purchased some Shreddo and launched into my first suet experience.  As it turns out, it was super easy to use.  I'm not sure what I envisioned from it - the name sort of implies strange noodle shreds of fat or something.

I was a bit distressed to learn I needed parsley given my garden is a scene of desolation and despair owing to DH's war on oxalis.  I went out there to ponder it and I noticed some little parsley plants surging forth so was most gratified to harvest them!

 

The whanau were pretty pleased with the pie.  I thought the suet made the dumplings more porous and lighter but in fact we all thought the ones I make with butter were preferable. I think it's because we're used to a 'more-firm-to-the-bite' mouth feel.  It will be interesting to try the suet in some of the other pies in the book later.

Lemon sago

Sago is a weird thing.I mean, whoever looked at a sago palm and thought, "Hey, let's open that up and use the pith for eating chaps!"

Anyway,  I like making lemon sago with it.

1/3 cup sago
2 1/2 cups boiling water
juice and rind of one lemon
3 Tablespoons golden syrup
1 Tablespoon sugar

First you boil the sago in the water until it's clear, stirring regularly.

 Take off the heat.

Then you add the other ingredients and stir well to disperse the flavour.  Put in a bowl and chill until jelly like.

Serve with cream.

My kids love this stuff.

Sufferin' Samosas! Pie Odyssey #3

The pie saga continues with Samosas - a delicious snack that I enjoy eating.  I haven't made them from scratch very often because the authentic ones involve deep frying which is a skill I'm not too good with.  I don't have a deep fryer, or a thermometer to monitor heat so I have to do it in a smallish pot and try and watch it carefully.

To start I made a curry for the filling.  I made my own vegetarian curry with paneer and potatos, courgettes and spices.



It looked pretty tasty.

 

The pastry was easy.  I used the food processor with the pastry cutter again.  I should have made more since I had a large amount of filling left over.

I divided the dough into 5 pieces like I do when making roti and rolled it with my roti rolling pin which is quite good for making round-ish pieces.

Even though I cut the filling bits up quite small I always manage to over fill these things!  The pastry was pretty forgiving.

Into the pot to be fried.  I discovered a bit late that my oil situation was a bit low so I had to make do, hence the slightly burnt bottoms.

Still - they tasted pretty good with a cucumber and mint raita. I made them for lunch and there were complaints about not enough being made despite the fact I served the excess filling too.  Also, there were some complaints from some quarters about the vegetarian nature of them!  Can't please everybody it seems.

Pie Odyssey #2

I was so tempted to use the word "horny" in the title for this post but refrained in the interests of good taste.  However, you'll know that I thought it anyway so perhaps I should just admit to my gutter brain right here and now.

The pie adventure continues with my choice of the Desperate Bikers Pie.  Kylie, or at least Michael made theirs already.

I was attracted to this pie because of the cow horn decorations which seemed to me like Viking horns. Did Vikings eat pie?

I admit that this recipe was more involved than the last.  First you make the filling which is a casserole of meat, veges, tomatoes and some herbs. So you start with onions and garlic and proceed in a casserole direction.  It's almost a complete meal.  You just need to add some green vegetable to round out the dinner.

It was about now I realised that I wasn't going to finish the pie for that evening's dinner, so had to quickly make a decision about an alternative.  I had read the recipe through and started earlier than normal, but I didn't factor in cooling time for the filling.

It makes a huge amount and I don't have a 2L pie pan (watch this space) so I made 2 pies - one to freeze.  (Hooray for no cooking night down the track)!  I even "knocked up" (it's not what you're thinking) the pastry as per the instructions.

Then for the ..uh.. horns   You wrap pastry around tin foil.  The children found this bit most intriguing.  They get inserted at the end.

Bon appetit!

And here is a hungry Viking ready to eat it.  Mr8 suggested an Obelix costume might be appropriate too!

The verdict - yum!  All participants liked the pie - Mr8 and DH had two pieces. 

They're horns okay?  No really.. they are.

A is for apple pie

Kylie and I are having a little fun with the Hairy Biker's pie book Perfect Pies.  We're going to work our way through the book and jointly try the pies we choose to make.

The first one Kylie chose was the Perfect Apple Pie.  I made it today. Obviously it contains apples.  The recipe calls for Bramley apples but I used Grannys because I had them.  I think I've seem Bramley's for sale up at the orchards but it's not apple season yet.

The pastry recipe was a straight forward sweet short crust. I made it in my food processor with the dough cutter blade - it does a good job of cutting in the butter.  Then I turned it out into a bowl to briefly knead together before chilling while I got the apples ready.

The recipe differs from the way I'd normally do the filling in that it mixes sugar, cornflour and cinnamon together, and then tosses the apples in it.  I'd usually just bung in the apples and sprinkle cinnamon and sugar on top of it.  No matter.

Here's the pies with their pastry all rolled and ready to go.

And voila! The finished product.

Mr8 gave it 10 stars, DH gave it 8-9/10. Miss5 was too full from dinner to try it, she wants it for breakfast. I thought it was pretty good.  It's possible the Bramley apples would have softened more than the Grannys which would have been an improvement.  The pastry was crunchy and light.

We served it slightly warm with cream and vanilla ice cream.

Creating... in a chef sort of way

No scrapbooking this weekend - but I did make these.

Spinach & Ricotta Ravioli

First make your pasta, but don't put it through the fettucine/spaghetti cutter, just leave the flat bit to dry a bit.  I cheated and kneaded the pasta in the Kitchen Aid because I was in a bit of a hurry.

You will notice that I have the same helper with the pasta machine as I did in my post back in October 2006!

Finely chop half a shallot.

Grate a little fresh nutmeg into the bowl with the onion. (Or use child labour).

Wash a few leaves of spinach and then wilt with some boiling water.

Squeeze out the spinach and finely chop.  Add to the bowl with the nutmeg and onion.  Grab your ricotta and add that.  (I used just under half of this 250g pot).

Mix it all up and season with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

Take your flattened pasta and make the ravioli.  I don't have one of those special tins to make them so I use my smallest cookie cutter to cut out some shapes.  But you could just cut the pasta with a knife and make squares or triangles. 

Wet the edges of the shapes and stick the topper pieces on them pressing firmly to make them stick.  Mine end up looking like flying saucers :-)


Boil up a big pan of water, salting to taste.  Place the ravioli into the boiling water and cook until al dente.  You may have to do it in batches.

While that is happening you could make this Blue Cheese sauce or this Walnut and Garlic one.  We had it with blue cheese.  I was going to take a photo of the finished product but I was too slow!  They were gobbled down too quick.

being doing a lot of

turning this

into this