Chilli - Retro Food For Modern Times

29
Jan
2015

Nutty Nutella Cake… with a Meringue Topping

categories: Ancho, Cake, Chocolate, Icecream, Meringue, Sorbet, Spice Peddler

Just as we finish a good meal with something sweet, so shall we round out the month of madness with one of the kookiest recipes I’ve seen lately. And here it is:

Looking at that photo, I know what you are thinking. And you know what?

Some of you are mean!!!!

Have you been taking lessons from my family?

So these are not the best looking cakes in the world. There is a definite dip in middle of all of them. The texture is kind of rough….then again….that rough texture is also kind of crispy and there is a delicious fudgy layer in the middle. And who doesn’t love a fudgy layer?

But remember the Twinkie Defence? I’m about to launch the Picnic Defence. The Picnic is one of the best chocolate bars ever. Chocolate, caramel, wafer, peanuts. So good. The only problem? It looks like a big old turd.

But so good to eat.

And the Nutty Nutella Cake is the Picnic bar‘s next door neighbour in “Dammit we taste so much better than we look” Street.

You know what else makes this cake so special? I’ll tell you in a moment but first, let’s take a walk down Pronunciation Avenue and talk about Nutella. In Australia ( and I believe England), we call this super delicious chocolate hazelnut spread Nut-ella. Because it’s made of nuts. And….ella. Ella being an Italian euphemism for a shit ton of sugar.

However, definitely on The Splendid Table Podcast and I’m sure a few others I listen to, I have heard Americans call this stuff Noo-tella.

WTF? I can get over that whole tomato / tomayto thing. But Noo-tella is a step too far.
It’s NUT-ella. End of.

I first found this recipe on the Masterchef site. However, it has since been taken down. Only a picture remains. And yep, phew…Matt Preston’s cake is as ugly as mine…

http://tenplay.com.au/channel-ten/masterchef/recipes

Possibly even uglier.

But I was able to find a copy in Matt Preston’s latest book and in the same spirit of adventure in which I made muffins from ice cream and flour a few years back I decided to give it a whirl. And you know what else….there’s obviously some weird psychic connection between Matty P, and me because in the same book, he has a recipe for “bread” made from you guessed it, ice cream and flour!

So, you wanna know what’s in these ugly but delicious sweet treats?

Nutella…or if you’re cheap like me, supermarket brand hazelnut spread.
Eggs
Vanillla

That’s all folks. C’est tout. Three ingredients. To get this….

And you know what? That little dip….don’tcha just want to fill it up with all sorts of deliciousness?

I went for a contrast – still warm cake with some of my ancho berry sorbet and a couple of leaves of chocolate mint – direct from the garden!!!

But you could have any flavour of ice cream, or some salted caramel sauce..or even some normal frosting…

Or what if you added a big dollop of nutella into the dip and then made a meringue over it? OMG. I am so making that….stay right here. I”ll be back…..

Just got to fill these cakes….

Then whip up a meringue….

And bung ’em in the oven for a bit….

And then…..

I am giggling like a little girl and dancing round my kitchen. My, face, my hands, my camera are all smeared with chocolate and meringue and am feeling both a little nauseous and like I have died and gone to heaven….

We only had three of the cakes left and I have just eaten two of them….they were that good!!!!

Scuse the fingers….but you’re lucky there are any photo’s I was so busy ~~shoving these into my gob~~ taste-testing to ensure the highest possible quality standards.

And look at that…the light as air toasty on top meringue, the oozy melty nutella and the cakey base….

What a way to end the month!!!!

I am racing to get this out because I am heading up to the sunshiney Gold Coast very early tomorrow morning for a couple of days – sadly mostly work and not much play – but by the time I can post again it will be February….which is as scary as hell. Where did January go????

Have a great week where ever you are and what ever you get up to.

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Nutella Meringue Cake

Print Recipe

A delicious chocolate cake with a base of three ingredients. Good by itself or topped with your favourite flavours for a super delicious treat!

Author: Taryn Fryer
Yield: 10 1x

Ingredients

Scale

For the Cake

4 large eggs
240g Nutella or chocolate hazelnut spread of your choice
1 tsp vanilla

For the topping

Additional Nutella – 1 tsp per cake
3 eggs
1 1/2cup of sugar

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Instructions

For the cake

Preheat the oven to 175C.
Lightly grease your cupcake liners and place in a tray.
In a large bowl, whisk the eggs on top speed until they have tripled in size (approx 6 minutes but this will depend on the power of your mixer).
Place the Nutella in a metal bowl with the vanilla extract and stir over a pan of boiling water until the Nutella softens. (You can also do this in a microwave – use a microwave safe bowl and heat for 1 minute, stirring every 15 seconds).
Turn the mixer down to low and drop spoonfuls of Nutella into the egg mixture. Repeat until all the nutella has been added and the Nutella is completely mixed in.
Scrape down the sides and bottom of the mixing bowl with a spatula to ensure there is no Nutella sticking to them and stir a few times by hand.
Pour the Nutella mixture into the prepared cases, filling them about 3/4 full.
Bake for approx 15-20 minutes until a skewer inserted into a cake comes out clean.
The cakes will look lovely and round when they come out of the oven but they will collapse as they cool.
Once cool, add a spoonful of Nutella into each dip.

For the Meringue

Separate the eggs and place the whites in a clean, dry bowl.
Beat until the mixture forms stiff peaks.
Gradually add the sugar and beat until the mixture is thick and glossy.
Spoon or pipe this mixture onto the cakes.
Place under preheated grill for 1-2 minutes or until lightly toasted. Alternatively, use a culinary blow torch to lightly grill the meringue

Notes

This cake is also great topped with a scoop of your favourite icecream, would be awesome with a salted caramel, berries and cream etc.
I used a coconut oil spray to grease the cupcake liners which added the slightest hint of coconut to my cakes.
The meringue quantities above will cover an entire batch of cupcakes.

14
Jan
2015

The Ice Iced Vovo with Ancho Sorbet

categories: Ancho, Desserts, Icecream, Raspberry, Spice Peddler

All right, Stop. Collaborate and listen, I am back with a brand new invention….

Thanks to my lovely friends at the Spice Peddlers we are mixing up the flavours of Mexico with an Australian icon to create a dessert that has more contradictions than a Katy Perry song.

This baby is hot and it’s cold, it’s sweet and it’s sour,it’s crunchy and gooey, it’s pretty in pink but it packs a wicked punch and it’s fruity and boozy…ok, technically, those two aren’t opposites but this is awesome and fucks with your head in the best possible way. Et voila, the Ice Iced Vovo.

But first, for those of you not familiar with the Iced Vovo, it is probably the most legendary biscuit in Australia.

Well….right behind the Tim Tam. And the Anzac.

We are a nation of biscuit lovers.

Anyhoo..it’s right up there.

According to the Arnott’s Biscuits website:

An Iced VoVo is a lovely biscuit topped with two strips of pink fondant and a strip of strawberry jam, all sprinkled with coconut – a symphony in pink!

A much smaller symphony in pink than what I remembered from my childhood but a symphony in pink nonetheless. Anyway, forget about them for a while. Think of this as a play. Australia has exited stage left.

Because we need to talk about sorbet. More specifically this sorbet which I made from some ancho chillies (sent to me by my friends at the Spice Peddlers), some raspberries, tequila and lime. Enter Mexico stage right….

So I whipped up the sorbet. And it was delicious Mind you, with those ingredients how could it not be?

It is really good just on it’s own.

But anyone can have ice cream in a cone. It tasted great, but I was feeling a bit blah about the presentation. I actually made this ages ago but because I didn’t love it, I found it really hard to write about. When I feel that way about most things, I just don’t write about them. But this one haunted me, I had to write about it but the cone just seemed so boring.

So, after pondering about it for a few weeks, I thought maybe an ice cream sandwich would be a bit more interesting. So I hightailed it down to the supermarket to buy some biscuits. I had in my head something like a shortbread or those cats tongues? And then I saw the Iced Vovo’s.

So I had my components. My first idea was a very simple ice cream sandwich:

This looked great and was pretty much what I wanted. However, the main problem with it was that when you bit into it all the sorbet oozed out over your hands.

But it was good, it had the flavours and a normal person would have probably left it there. Luckily for you, I ‘m not normal. I liked the sandwich better but was still not absolutely inspired. Then, this morning I was writing my journal and it came to me….

The strip of jam down the middle of the vovo was the same colour as the sorbet….so what if…..you took a biscuit, any biscuit and you put a little line of sorbet down the middle? Then instead of fondant what if you took some of those little baking marshmallows….hmm…how would you stop them rolling off? What if you toasted them?

If there was a problem, yo, I’ll solve it. Check out the hook while my djay revolves it.

Ice, Iced Vovo

These are best eaten straight away, when the marshmallow is still gooey and before the sorbet melts…so good…and once you’ve made the sorbet it takes about 3 minutes to make. Super easy, super good. Seriously the hardest part is making sure the marshmallows don’t fall off the biscuits as you put the tray in the oven!

I ‘m going to be thinking up some more kooky recipes for the rest of the month of crazy. Have a great one whatever you do. Meanwhile, enjoy the duclet tones of Mr Robert Van Winkle AKA Vanilla Ice.

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17
Nov
2014

Century Scallop Ceviche with Ancho Chillies (Spice Peddler)

categories: Ancho, Mexico, Scallops, Spice Peddler, Starters

About a billion years ago, the wonderful team at the Spice Peddlers sent me some fabulous Ancho Chillies to have my evil way with. I had never cooked with Ancho chillies before so this was a totally new and delicious experience for me.

I also have a new manifesto for my Spice Peddler treats – I’m going to try to cook one thing in the spirit of which it was intended and then I’m going to go kind of out there with the next one. So, to familiarise myself with the anchos and also to push my own boundaries I decided to make a ceviche. I have always been terrified to make sashimi or any “raw” fish at home in case it killed me. And before you start shouting, I am aware that ceviche is technically cooked but it’s not like it’s been crumbed, fried and coated with cheese is it?

Ancho Scallop Ceviche3 — Ancho Scallop Ceviche

But I did it and hey, still alive!!!

And it was super delish!!!!

So why the century ceviche I hear you ask? First I am fond of alliteration but second…the last post I wrote was the hundredth for this blog!!!

So let’s all raise a glass of something (Jenny, I hope it’s another of those Joan Crawford Cocktails) and join in as I do a little celebratory dance….

It seems fitting to celebrate this milestone by showing off some of the ingredients from the amazing team at the Spice Peddlers. They have been such big supporters of this blog and I, in turn adore them and their products!!! The ancho chilles were a very dark blackish red colour, and quite fleshy. They were not not very hot at all but were quite fruity and had a touch of sweetness ( this actually went really well with the scallops which are also slightly sweet.

The perceptive of you may have noticed from the photos that my ceviche is loaded onto a very un-Mexican pappadam. I guess traditionally this should be a tortilla chip. However, we had gobbled all of them with Joan Crawford Danti-Chips and I couldn’t be bothered going back to the shops so pappadams it was. And in some weird Indo-Mexican affinity they actually worked quite well with the ceviche.

The last 100 posts have been super fun to do and I am really looking forward to the next 100. In fact, I have so many ideas for posts at the moment, I feel like I have the next 100 already planned.

I was going to end this with one of my favourite ever Blur songs “End of A Century” then I realised the key lyric is “End of a century, it’s nothing special” which is completely wrong because whilst I love doing this you guys are what makes it special. Thanks to you all for reading and your comments, it is always lovely to hear from you.

You’re the best.

Around.

So, as you wax on, wax off this week, make it fabulous!

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27
Oct
2014

Cha Ca La Vong

categories: Chilli, Dill, Fish, Pickles, Tomatoes, Tumeric, Vietnam

Let’s step back in time to a few years ago and a completely imaginary pub quiz. Let’s suppose I am poised on the brink of winning the meat tray. Believe it or not, a meat tray is a valid prize in Australian pubs. I won one once. It was awesome.

it was a whole tray of steaks and chops and sausages and, if I recall correctly, some very nice bacon. You may scoff, but it’s actually a pretty good prize. As long as you’re not a vegetarian.

And here comes the question.

And for the tray of meat “What is a Cha Ca La Vong?”

“Oh……:A Latin American Dance?”

“No, wait a moment…isn’t it the name of the slutty girl from Grease? The one stole the dance competition from Sandy?”

Ba-Bow.

No, Cha Ca La Vong is not the name of the best dancer from St Bernadette’s (with the worst reputation) or the type of dancing she may engage in.

It is a super delicious Vietnamese dish of fried fish with turmeric, dill and tomatoes.

I first came across this dish last year when I did the awesome Hanoi Street Food Tour with Mark Lowerson from Stickyrice. You can read about that here.

When I had Cha Ca with Mark it was a soupy style. And it was super, very fragrant and possibly my favourite dish (apart from the a-may-zing coffee with yogurt) of the whole tour.

This year however, I discovered a new way to have Cha Ca. We read about a restaurant called The Gourmet Corner. And being cautious, we dropped in one afternoon for a cocktail. I like to call it scoping out a restaurant before commiting myself. You can call it afternoon boozing if you wish.

Well, one meal later this became our favourite place to eat in Hanoi. I think we pretty much ate there every night after that. Fabulous food, great cocktails, and 360 degree views of the city. And all as cheap as chips!!!!

Cha Ca La Vong - Gourmet Corner Hanoi — Cha Ca La Vong – Gourmet Corner Hanoi

Their Cha Ca? O. M. G. One of the best things I have ever eaten. In. My Life.

First up, the combination of fish and dill and onion took me right back to my first ever time in Hanoi, my first ever full day in Hanoi and the tour with Mark. Kind of like Proust’s madeleines. But fishy. And second -So, so tasty. Perfectly cooked fish, perfectly spiced, the most amazing flavour of the dill and the tomato and the turmeric….I ate this EVERY night for pretty much a week. And I had such a craving for it the other night, I decided to make my own!

Two disclaimers. One. My version, whilst being pretty damn good, is not a patch on either version I had in Hanoi. There really is something about eating in situ that can make any meal super special. But, that being said…it doesn’t totally suck either. It’s actually pretty tasty. And so fun to eat! Particularly if you have a group of people. Set it all out and people can wrap and roll what they want. It would be best served outside on a tiny chair and table as at a Bia Hoi Bar and washed down with some icy cold beer but failing that, your own home or garden would also be fine. But do have that ice cold beer!

Which leads me to my second disclaimer. It’s an absolute bastard to cook. Not difficult but there are a lot of moving parts. Don’t even try to do what I did and make it all in the same day. Do the pickles at least one day ahead. I would also try to do the tomato and dill mixture the day before too and just heat it up when you need it.

I couldn’t find the right sort of rice paper rolls and the ones I had turned into a hot mess so I I wrapped my Cha Ca in lettuce leaves. They added a nice crunch. You could also use tortillas to make it into a kind of Vietnamese Fish Taco.

Alternatively, ditch these all together and make a noodle bowl – I had one of these with the leftovers the following day and it was super.

I’ve added a few photo’s from Hanoi. I’m really starting to love that city! And I think even possibly more that Saigon is a great food city. Food is everywhere and in such fresh abundance. I hope you get a feel of the city from these…looking at them and eating the Cha Ca really took me back to our holiday. And got me thinking about the next….

Hanoi Street Food – Suckling Pig and Duck

Hanoi - Freshly Made Tofu — Hanoi – Freshly Made Tofu

Hanoi - Street Market — Hanoi – Street Market…and a fabulous rose dress

Hanoi - Banana Shop — Hanoi – Banana Shop

Hanoi Chickens dressed with roses for a festival day

Hanoi - Street Scene — Hanoi – Street Scene from a Bia Hoi bar.

To make your week fabulous why not cook something from a place you love? And don’t forget to tell me all about it!

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09
Oct
2014

Rebel With A Cause – Smoked Trout Empanadas

categories: Chipotle, Cream Cheese, Finger Food, Fish, Mexico, Puff Pastry, Smoked Trout, Snacks, Starters

Have you ever read a recipe where the ingredients seem right….but the execution just seems horribly wrong?

The other day I was looking for something in…you know THAT room? Otherwise known as the room where we dumped all the crap we didn’t have a specific home for when we first moved in. Nearly a year later? It’s all still there. Thank the Lord for whoever invented doors. It makes it so much easier to metaphorically close the door and walk away from the room when you can literally close the door and walk away from the room.

I didn’t find what I was looking for in the room, because most things that go in there don’t come out. What I did find was a manilla folder full of old recipe clippings which included one for something called for Trout and Mascarpone Triangles.

Before we get to the point does anyone else have problems spelling mascarpone? For some reason in my mind it’s marscapone. I also can’t say the word “Preliminary” – that one just ends up a hot mess of r’s and l’s where they shouldn’t be.

But anyway, immediately in my head, (yeah the same one that can’t spell ma-scar-pone or pronounce pre-lim-in-ary) I had a vision of what these would be. They would look like exactly like these:

Hmm…except….maybe a little more triangular.

So, I was bitterly disappointed when I actually read the recipe and found it was nothing like that.

In fact, that whole recipe annoyed the hell out of me. In most cooking circles when you call something an X & Y triangle it’s pretty much a given that the X and Y are IN the triangle. Take these delicious looking cheese and spinach triangles from taste.com.au. Spinach and Cheese both EXACTLY where they should be i.e. inside the pastry triangle.

That is what I wanted from my trout and mascarpone triangles! Golden puff pastry filled with chunks of gorgeous pink smoked trout, creamy mascarpone, fresh herbs, a touch of chilli….that was what my mind told me a Trout and Mascarpone Triangle could, and should, be.

At best the original recipe is for trout and mascarpone ON triangles. And who the hell wants that? No one that’s who. I’m calling shenanigans on that recipe.

In some circles they say, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em. In my circle I say if you think their recipe is a crock, make it like you think it should have been. And while we’re in the spirit of rebellion – the fancy pants Italian cheese I can’t be bothered writing the name of (because I would only have to re-write it to spell it correctly) can go fuck itself too. I’m using good old Philadelphia Cream Cheese. Which I forgot to take a photo of. The rest of the stuff is here:

I used a smoked trout, you could sub in smoked salmon if you prefer or cook a fillet of fish as per the original recipe. Or even used canned salmon or tuna to make these. Up to you. And I had an empanada maker thing but you could make triangles as per the original recipe. Or embrace the spririt of doing it your way and make them any shape you want!

If you are going to use an empanada maker, here’s how you do it from an expert,Connie Veneracion. Shame I didn’t read this until after I had made mine and hence some of mine were a little…shall we call them rustic? 😉

How To Use An Empanada Maker

And here is the revised, and in my not so humble opinion, vastly improved recipe!

Enjoy!

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Smoked Trout Empanadas

Print Recipe

Ingredients

Scale

400 smoked trout or cooked fish of choice
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 red onion, finely chopped
100g cream cheese, chopped into a small cubes
1 canned chipotle chilli and approx 1 tbsp of the adobo sauce it came in
1 tbsp dill
1 tbsp parsley
2 sheets ready rolled puff pastry
1 egg, beaten
poppy seeds and chilli flakes to garnish (optional)

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Instructions

If using a smoked trout, remove the skin and flake the flesh from the bones. Place this in a bowl with the cream cheese, red onion, lemon juice, chilli, dill and parsley. Mix lightly to combine.
Preheat your oven to 200C and line a baking tray with baking paper.
Cut four circles out of each of your pastry sheets, using your empanada maker or tracing around a small plate or cup.
Place 1 tbsp of the trout mixture in the middle of each circle then fold the pastry over to seal in the filling.
Crimp the edges to seal.
Place on the baking tray and brush with the beaten egg.
Sprinkle with the poppy seeds and chilli flakes if using.
Cook for 15 minutes or until puffed up and golden.

Lesson of the week – if you don’t like it, change it.

Have a fabulous week and fight the power!

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Category: Chilli

Nutella Meringue Cake

Ingredients

For the Cake

For the topping

Instructions

For the cake

For the Meringue

Notes

Smoked Trout Empanadas

Ingredients

Instructions