Category Archives: entertaining

Lemon curd and blueberry sanga – a take on the Victoria Sponge

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Once upon a time, I feared sponge cakes.  I had a few bad experiences with sponges of a temperamental nature.  They were teases really.  You know the kind.  The kind which get all worked up after you’ve fluffed their egg whites, aerated their flour and handled them with delicate fingers, before they deflate into a sunken frown.  Somehow, by looking at the recipe, I just knew that Victoria was going to be different.  Victoria was going to be no fuss. Victoria was going to be sweet and gentle, but confident in herself.  Victoria wasn’t going to collapse in fear of her début… she was going to shine.  And shine, she did.

Recipe from the trusty Australian Women’s Weekly’s Bake cookbook.  This recipe works best when all ingredients are at room temperature.

Ingredients
250g softened butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup (220g) caster sugar
4 eggs
1/3 cup (80ml) milk
2 cups (300g) self-raising flour (sifted)
1 punnet blueberries
lemon curd

Preheat the oven to 180°C (or 160° fan-forced).  Grease and line two deep 20cm round cake pans with baking paper.

Beat butter, vanilla and sugar in an electric mixer until light and fluffy.  Beat in eggs, one at a time before beating in milk.  My mixture curdled at this point because my milk was straight from the fridge.  But, once I started adding flour it was all fine again.

Stir sifted flour into mixture in two batches.  Don’t overwork the batter at this point.  But, thankfully, you also don’t need to be as gentle as some sponges require here either.

Divide the mixture evenly between the two pans.  I weigh what goes in each pan to make sure it turns out even, because I use to always think they were about the same and then end up with one skinny cake and one fatter cake, which took a different duration to cook.

Gently smooth out the cake batter.  I usually lightly oil the back of a spoon and use that to edge the batter about evenly until the batter is flat, or slightly raised around the edges (to accommodate the fact that the middle of the cake will rise).  This stops the batter sticking to the spoon and makes it easier to work with.

Bake for 30 minutes.

Turn sponges out, top side up, onto a baking paper lined cake rack.  Lining the rack helps to stop the sponge sticking, or getting cake rack lines on the cake.

Once completely cool, sandwich the cake bottoms together with curd and berries and dust the top with icing sugar.

If I had my time over, I would have spooned curd on both layers, so that they stuck better together.  My top cake sat on top of the blueberries and wasn’t firmly stuck to the bottom layer, making it difficult to cut and serve.  I think a bit more curd would had done the trick.

I’d recommend using a large serrated knife to cut this cake in a light sawing manner, as it helps to keep the layers together.  I cut the whole cake in half to begin with, as that made it easier to then cut neat and even slices.

 

Lemon Curd

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Spring is a time for foraging farmers’ markets, whipping up wonderful treats and prancing along to picnics in the sun.  But, with summer and swimwear on the horizon, it’s also the time to unshackle the kitchen from nasty ingredients such as… and I hate to say it… butter.

So, when the gals and I got together to forage the farmers’ market and whip up wonderful treats, ahead of prancing along to our picnic in the sun – we found a recipe for lemon curd that was butter-free!  A much lighter alternative than the usual recipe… but it tasted good! I assure you!  Trust me, don’t be alarmist, it has all the good stuff – lemon and sugar and eggs!

In truth, this butter-free recipe was the sacrificial lamb, to allow us to gorge on other nasty treats like heavenly, gooey and stinky cheese, fig and nut bread and Jamón Serrano.  I like to think of this lemon curd as the carbon offset you can buy nowadays when booking flights.  Just a little something to make yourself feel better about the unintended consequences of your indulgence.

We found this treat-of-a-recipe on Food.com and we send our thanks to the contributor, Mandy, for sharing this gem.

Ingredients
1 cup fresh lemon juice (the recipe suggests you could make it on lime juice, and we added some fresh orange juice with the lemon and it was delicious)
grated zest of the lemons, oranges, or limes you use (avoid the white part, which is bitter)
1 scant cup of sugar
3 farm fresh eggs at room temperature (the bright orange colour of our curd came from the vibrant egg yolks we used)
seeds from 2 vanilla pods, or equivalent in extract or paste
sterilised jars for storage

In a small saucepan, over a medium heat, dissolve sugar into juice and add zest.
Lightly beat the eggs in a bowl. Whisking constantly, slowly pour the slightly cooled lemon/sugar syrup into the egg. Beat for 2 minutes then slowly transfer back into the slightly cooled saucepan.

Heat slowly over a low heat, stirring constantly, until it just starts to bubble at the edges and begins to thicken.  Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.

Transfer to a container and store in the fridge.  Alternatively, if you’re looking to prolong the curd’s life, pour warm curd into warm sterilised jars and screw down the lid immediately, allowing it to cool sealed.

To sterilise jars, place clean jars and lids into an oven set between 90-120°C until hot.  Carefully remove from the oven and fill and seal whilst hot (or the same temperature as the curd).  I prefer jars with metal lids, that are plastic coated on the inside and have a visible dent on the top which, when sealed hot, sucks inwards and when opened pops out, as this popping is a surefire way to know the contents is fresh.

I’ve since used the remaining curd to fill a sponge cake with blueberries.  I’ll have to share that recipe with you soon because it was delicious, albeit, not summer swim-suit friendly (but, I guess you can’t have everything in life).

Check out these other interesting ways to use lemon curd:

Authentic Chicken Satay

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This is a recipe I learned while in Singapore.  I attended a fabulous cooking class at the Cookery Magic school.  If you find yourself in Singapore and love cooking, I highly recommend booking in and taking a cab out to Ruqxana’s for a class.  It’s about 15-20 minutes out of the city.  The cab ride only cost about the equivalent of ten Australian dollars each way.  Ruqxana was able to fit me in with little notice and I’m glad, because it was a great experience.

I’ve remade this Chicken Satay – just to make sure I could perfect it at home.  And I’m happy to say I can!  So, now you can too.

Don’t be put off by the long (and unusual) ingredient list.  Authentic Asian cooking does mean a trip to an Asian grocer, if, like me, you don’t cook Asian often at home.  But, that is part of the fun of it.

Ingredients
500 grams chicken thigh, thinly sliced
bamboo or metal skewers
2 tablespoons oil
a pinch of caster sugar (optional)
salad and rice to serve

For the marinade:
2 stalks lemongrass, white part only
1 small onion
4 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 teaspoons coriander powder
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon palm sugar (gula melaka), grated

For peanut sauce:
10-20 dried chillis, soaked in hot water for 20 minutes to soften
1 inch long, thin slice of galangal
4  shallots
2 tablespoons oil
1 tablespoon coriander powder
1 tablespoon tamarind, soaked in 3/4 a cup of water to extract tamarind juice
1/2-1 tablespoon palm sugar (gula melaka), grated
salt, to taste
1/2 cup roasted crushed peanuts

Start by making the marinade for the chicken.  You are essentially making a paste with the lemongrass, onion and garlic, and a basic curry powder with the remaining marinade ingredients.  Chop the lemongrass as fine as as possible, and then blitz the paste ingredients in a blender or food processor.  Then put this mix into a mortar and use a pestle to pound all the flavour out of the ingredients.  Ruqxana was insistent that pounding made all the difference in releasing the flavours.  And I agree – something different does happen when you pound the ingredients – something which can’t be achieved with electricity alone.

Add the remaining curry powder ingredients: chilli powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder, cumin powder, salt and palm sugar to the mortar and pound and mix some more.

Rub the marinade into the chicken and leave for at least 3-4 hours in the fridge (overnight is best).  When the chicken is ready, thread the chicken pieces onto the skewers in a way which maximizes the surface area to the grill (i.e. thread the slices on, folding them back over each other, rather than pushing on big chunks of chicken, as this will help it cook more evenly).

Once the chicken skewers are ready, use a mix of oil (such as rice bran oil), with a little bit of additional caster sugar to brush over the skewers.  You can just spray them with oil, but brushing over the sugar oil will help them caramelize nicely on the barbeque.

Heat the barbeque on a medium to high heat and grill the chicken, turning frequently, until cooked through.  This will take about 8-10 minutes depending how thick your chicken is.

Meanwhile, prepare your peanut sauce.

Begin by soaking your dried chillis to soften, and preparing your tamarind water.  Tamarind water is an odd ingredient in cooking.  You buy a block of tamarind, which is dark and sticky and incredibly sour, take a tablespoon of it and soak this in 3/4 of a cup of water.  Squish the tamarind around in the water a bit, until the water goes muddy.  You use the water, or tamarind juice, but not the solid tamarind in cooking.

Make a paste from the galangal (which is like ginger, but more potent), shallots (the french ones, not the mis-named Australian ones), and dried chillis, by blitzing it up in a food processor or blender first and then pounding it in a mortar with a pestle until all the flavour has been released.

Bring all of your prepared ingredients around your stove top.  Crush your roasted peanuts, if you’re doing that yourself, grate your palm sugar and have your chilli paste, tamarind juice, coriander powder, salt and oil at hand.

Season your pan or wok (unfortunately, I live in the electric world, so my pan has better surface heat area than my wok) with a large pinch of salt as it heats to a medium temperature.  Add your oil, and wait till that reaches temperature.  If you stand a wooden spoon in the oil, it’s reached temperature when it bubbles around the spoon.

Fry the chilli paste in the oil until it is fragrant, and quite frankly, you can’t stand there any longer for your coughing up a storm.  Cooking this recipe is great for the sinuses.  This will take between 10 and 20 minutes.

Then add the coriander powder and fry for another minute.  Add the strained tamarind juice  (as much or as little as you like it sour), palm sugar (as much or as little as you like it sweet), and salt to taste.  Then, finally, add the peanuts and stir for 2 minutes.

Taste and adjust the flavours so it hits the right balance of hot, sour, sweet and salty for you.  If it’s too hot, add sugar.  If it feel just like it’s missing something, it’s missing salt.

Serve the sauce at room temperature, over the hot chicken.

The sauce is quite hot (though not as hot as I expected it to be with all that chilli), so it’s very refreshing served with a little cut salad and rice to soak up all the yummy sauce.

 

Cooking Asian food from first principles at home does take a bit more effort for me, because it doesn’t come naturally with all of the unusual ingredients… but it tasted good!  and it was fun to explore the Asian grocers for exciting ingredients.  So I encourage you to give first principles Asian cooking a go.

Middle Eastern Dinner Party – Part 3 – Almond Honey Spiced Syrup Cake with Fig, Date and Apricot Compote

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middle eastern cake

This recipe is a real treat to finish off our Middle Eastern Dinner Party trilogy.  This cake is moist and moreish, and sweet and spicy.

I can’t tell you how much I love syrup cakes.  I would pick a syrup cake over an iced cake any day of the week.  I have previously shared with you my Seedy Citrus Cake and I am becoming known among friends as a syrup cake guru addict.

Recipe adapted from The Australian Women’s Weekly Bake cookbook.

Ingredients
125g softened butter
1/3 cup (75g) caster sugar
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground allspice
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups (180g) almond meal
1/2 cup (80g) semolina
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 cup (60ml) milk

For the spiced syrup:
1 cup (220g) caster sugar
1 cup (250ml) water
8 cardamom pods, bruised
2 cinnamon sticks
2 star anise
shaved orange rind, from 1 orange

For the honey orange cream:
3/4 cup (180ml) thickened cream
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons finely grated orange rind

For the Fig, Date and Apricot Compote:
handful each of dried figs, dried apricots and dates, halved
1 cup orange juice
1 cinnamon sticks
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Preheat oven to 180°C (or 160°C fan-forced).  Grease and line a deep 20cm round cake pan (a non-stick one is best and I wouldn’t recommend using a spring form tin for syrup cakes as it can get a bit messy).

Beat butter, sugar, honey and spices together in a mixer until light and fluffly.  Beat in eggs, one at a time.  Fold in almond meal, semolina, sifted baking powder and milk.  Spread into the pan. Bake cake for 40 minutes.  Stand cake on a rack for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, while cake is baking, make the spiced syrup by stirring all the ingredients in a small saucepan without boiling, until the sugar dissolves.  Then bring to the boil and boil, uncovered, without stirring for about 5 minutes or until it becomes thickened slightly.

Pour the strained hot syrup over the hot cake in its pan and let it cool until it’s room temperature (reserve the bits from the syrup for garnish).

Turn the cake out onto the serving plate and refrigerate for 3 hours (or overnight) so that all the flavours infuse.  Decorate the top of the cake with the spice and orange rind garnish.  I found this cake tasted best at room temperature, so pull it out of the oven at the beginning of the dinner party.

When it’s time to serve, put all your ingredients for the compote in a microwave safe bowl and microwave for 2-3 minutes until softened and steamy.

Beat the ingredients for the honey orange cream together until soft peaks form.

Serve and enjoy!

Middle Eastern Dinner Party – Part 2 – Chicken, Olive and Preserved Lemon Tagine

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Moroccan Chicken

This is another recipe I’ve gleaned from Jamie Does, Marrakesh.

It starts by infusing flavour into the chicken with a spice rub, so it’s best to start this recipe a day in advance, or early in the morning.  But once it gets going, it’s happy to blip away without much interference.  This makes it a perfect dinner party dish, because it feeds a crowd and leaves you free to set the table and make a cracking dessert.

Tagines are, obviously, meant to be made in tagines.  Whilst it might be difficult for my friends and husband to believe, there are some pieces of kitchen equipment I don’t have, and a tagine is one of them.  I used a big cast iron pot and the results could not have been any more tender or delicious.  I would love to hear if people  think tagines are really worth the investment though.  I do think they look amazing, but I’m not convinced I really need one.  And, I’m normally fairly easily convinced that I need something for the kitchen!

I was a bit concerned that the fennel bulbs would be too strong in the dish.  But they mellowed out to leave a wonderfully warm and subtle aniseed flavour.

The recipe calls for a whole chicken, of about 1.5kg, broken down.  Instead, I used a 2kg mix of marylands and supremes so that it could stretch to feed 8 with some left overs.  Marylands are a butcher’s cut comprising of the whole thigh and drumstick.  Supremes are a butcher’s cut comprising of the whole breast with the wing bone attached.  I did this because I find these cuts have much easier to navigate bones – an important consideration for a dinner party (plus I use to have a bit of a chicken bone phobia, which I’m now over, but I still prefer not to pick through my chicken in the company of others).  Having said that, don’t use boneless cuts.  You get such an amazing flavour boost from cooking meat on the bone.

Ingredients
1 whole chicken broken down into four, or equivalent in other cuts (I used a bit more to stretch to feed 8+)
olive oil
1-2 large fennel bulbs, chopped into 8 wedges each
2 onions, roughly chopped
1 bunch of coriander, stalks chopped finely, leaves reserved for garnish
4 cloves of garlic, sliced
2-3 small preserved lemons, deseeded and chopped
80g stoned black and green olives
good pinch of saffron
500ml hot chicken stock (or more if you like it really saucy, like me)
cooked couscous to serve (mixed with fresh mint, sultanas and toasted pine-nuts is great!)
yogurt and harissa to serve (optional)

For the spice rub:
1 heaped teaspoon coriander seeds, freshly ground
1 level teaspoon ground cumin
1 heaped teaspoon ground ginger
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper 

Massage your chicken pieces in the spice rub and leave covered in a bowl in the fridge for a few hours (overnight is preferable).

Over a medium-high heat, fry your chicken pieces in some olive oil (skin side down first) for about 5 minutes a side until golden brown.  Remove chicken from the pot temporarily.

Fry off your onions, fennel wedges, coriander stalks and garlic for a couple of minutes.  Then mix in the preserved lemons, olives and saffron.  Add the chicken back to the pot and evenly distribute the ingredients before adding your hot stock.

Cover the pot (or tagine) and simmer on a low heat for 1.5 hours, or until the meat starts to fall away from the bone.  Mine ticked away happily for about 2 hours (without the lid for last 1/2 hour to thicken the sauce up).

Give the mix a bit of a gentle stir half way through and add more liquid if it looks dry.  Taste, and season with salt and pepper if required.

Serve on a bed of couscous, topped with reserved coriander leaves and be ready to soak up the complements from your guests.  This fancy stew (well, really, that’s what it is), elicited ohhs and ahhhs as I presented it to the table, but (most importantly) it tasted good! 

You’ll see in the photo above that I served this with a super quick and easy side salad of grated carrot, ginger, mint, parsley and coriander with a pistachio oil and orange juice dressing.  A great, refreshing accompaniment.