Maybe it’s because it’s Halloween week but here I am with another thing, actually two things that scare me. Batter and deep-frying. Because I made Sliders. And not just any sliders, Oyster Sliders. And not just any Oyster Sliders but Old Bay Oyster Sliders!
Ooooooohhhhhyeeeeeaaaahhhh!!!
Can I just say that these were as good as they look?
Start off with some mini brioche…..hmmm..now where would you find some of them? And toast them up.
Whip up some aioli ( I had this saffron and roasted garlic aioli from something else I had made), but any aioli or even mayo would be fine. But the saffron makes it look so pretty!
Choose your vegetables. I used lettuce, carrot, red cabbage and red onion.
Don’t forget the pickle! I used a pickled jalapeno but a dill pickle would also be fine.
Next up a tempura style batter loaded with Old Bay! Heat some oil, drench your oysters in the batter and drop into the hot oil. These only need a minute or so to cook. Drain on crumpled paper:
And assemble.
Now, you have to promise not to laugh or judge me too harshly…(oh wow does that make a third thing that frightens me, in this post alone?) but I made my first ever gif.
Ok, deep breath, here ’tis…
Eeek….if anyone’s left after that, here’s the recipe!
Summer, and peach season, is pretty much drawing to a close here. So, if like me, you love the stone fruit, how can you prolong the taste of summer through autumn, winter and spring? By making this gorgeous sorbet which combines lovely sweet peaches with (ahem)…homegrown lavender and rosemary. Yes, I have garden produce!!!
This is so simple, just these three ingredients, some sugar and water.
Peach Sorbet Ingredients2
And you get one of the loveliest ice creams ever. This is really refreshing without being too sweet – the lavender and rosemary are not overpowering but add a little depth to the fruit and sugar.
AUTUMN – The Sorbet Ma’am, Just The Sorbet
Autumn in Melbourne is lovely. You get cold crisp mornings, warm days and cool evenings. To prolong the taste of summer as it starts to get darker and cooler, this peach sorbet is perfect just on it’s own in a cone. All alone. Like a rolling stone.
Yes. I think it’s enough now too. Because I heard you moan and groan.
Really stopping…NOW.
Because just look at this peachy goodness!
Peach Sorbet
WINTER – Baked Peaches With Amaretti and Amaretto and Peach Sorbet
Mmmm…hot baked peach, cold peach sorbet , herby, nutty, sweet and boozy….that’s about all my favourite adjectives right there. And I totally forgot to take a picture of it before eating half of it. So I had to borrow a peach off my friend’s plate to take this picture. Thanks for the peach Monica!!!
Peaches Baked with Amaretti and Amaretto2
You may be wondering where you are supposed to find peaches in winter? Well my mum used to make this for us waaaaay back and we only ever used to have it with tinned peaches. And believe me, this is one of the few things where you will ever hear me say that this works as well (maybe even a little better) with tinned as fresh.
SPRING Into A Peach Sorbet Bellini
Spring in Melbourne means the Spring Racing Carnival which means lots of champagne. You can really welcome the warmer days by adding a dollop of the peach sorbet into the bottom of your champagne glass for a fabulous take on a Bellini.
2 springs of rosemary, about as long as your thumb
1 kg of peaches
200g water
To Serve
Ice cream cones
For The Baked Peaches with Amaretto and Amaretti
4 large peaches, or you can used tinned, in which case you will need 10 halves
20 crumbled amaretti biscuits
4 tbsp Amaretto Liqueur
2 tbsp brown sugar
Butter for greasing the pan
4 scoops of sorbet
For The Bellini
Sparkling Wine
Rosemary sprigs and lavender sprigs and peach wedges to garnish (optional)
Instructions
For the Sorbet
Place the sugar, water, lavender and rosemary into a small saucepan. Bring to the boil, stirring occasionally. Then simmer for 5 minutes.
With a paring knife, make a small cross into the bottom of each peach. Place in a bowl and pour boiling water over the peaches. Let them sit for a few minutes then tip into a bowl of iced water. The skin should now be quite easy to peel off. Cut the peaches into wedges and place them in the sugar syrup.
Once this mixture is cool, remove the peaches and place them in your blender, strain the syrup to remove the lavender buds and rosemary and add the liquid to the blender. Blend until the mixture is smooth.
Churn in an ice cream maker according to manufacturer’s instructions. Transfer to a container and chill in freezer for 2 to 3 hours, or until firm.
Serve with ice cream cones or as described below.
For The Baked Peaches with Amaretto and Amaretti
Preheat the oven to 200ºC.
Lightly butter a baking tray
If using fresh peaches, cut in half, remove the stones and, using a melon baller or a teaspoon, scoop out a little bit more of the peach flesh and place in a small bowl. If using canned peaches, finely dice 2 peach halves and place in a small bowl.
Place the crushed biscuits, the amaretto and 1 tbsp of sugar in the bowl along with the peach flesh. Stir to combine.
Fill the peach halves with this mixture.
Place the peaches onto a baking tray. Sprinkle with the remaining sugar.
If using fresh peaches, bake for around 20 minutes until cooked through then place under a hot grill for the last 5 minutes to really caramelise the topping. If using tinned peaches, bake for 5 minutes, really just to warm the peaches through then place under the grill for the last 5 minutes.
Serve immediately, 2 to a plate with a dollop of sorbet.
For The Bellini
Add a dollop of sorbet to your champagne glass.
Top with sparkling wine.
Garnish as desired.
Enjoy!!!
Notes
I like to leave my biscuit crumbs fairly rustic so they vary in size from crumbs to larger chunks.
In his introduction to the Crespéou in Plenty More, Yotam Ottolenghi says
If I was going to sum up my cooking style in five words, 70’s-style-retro-picnic-bling would not be them”
Huh…Weirdly enough that’s exactly the style of cooking I aspire to.
Still, with an introduction like that, there was no way I was not making a Crespéou! I was already thinking about having a month of food I have no idea how to pronounce (Kouign Amman anyone?). Google tells me this is Cresp-ay-oo. And also that it’s from Provence and so-called because the layers look like crepes. Never say I don’t do the research hard yards for you…
So what is this unpronounceable piece of 70’s style crepe like Retro Picnic Bling?
Well, it’s layers of three differently flavoured omelettes stacked on each other and baked. One red, one yellow, one green. Which just goes to show the difference between those classy people of Provence and around here. We’d be calling it something dumb arse like “Traffic Light” Special.
Crespéou – Red Layer
Yotam suggests red peppers for this layer. I used sun-dried-tomatoes because red peppers and I have a love-hate relationship. Without the love.
Hmm, I have realised in looking at this picture of the red layer that I may have put in fresh coriander rather than ground. Oops.
Crespeou Red Layer
Still, I think that is one of the benefits of a dish like this. You can mix up the flavours. I have seen other recipes where people have used, zucchinis, mushrooms, olives, all sorts of things. It could really become a “clean-out-your-fridge” type dish.
Crespéou -Yellow Layer
The yellow layer was intriguing. I have never used turmeric in an omelette before. It reallyworks!!! If I was going to mix this layer up a bit thin crispy discs of pan sautéed potato would be great!
The trick with this dish is to leave the top of your omelettes much more runny than you would any other omelette. The idea of this is that when you stack them and bake them the egg will solidify and the layers will stick together.
Crespeou Yellow Layer2
Crespéou – Green Layer
Another genius combination – green onions, green chilli, basil, tarragon and cumin!!! Wow!!! This layer was really perky and fresh!!!
Once you have cooked all your omelettes, stack them up as neatly as possible. And into the oven they go to cook up that last bit of runny egg.
Once cooked through, you can eat your Crespéou as is or trim the edges with a sharp knife to be able to see the layers. I used a small square pan so I cut mine into four cubes…
Crespeou
These were superb. I had it for lunch I think 3 days running and looked forward to it on day three as much as I did on day one.
And I know what you’re all thinking. Which layer tasted best? I did separate one of my cubes and ate each later alone. And they were all really good. But the combination was a-may-zing!!!!
Yotam Ottolenghi also says of the Crespéou that:
“If there is one recipe that might make me cringe in years to come, it will, for sure be this one”
I say “I love you. Can you not be so happily gay and be my boyfriend? You could cook me Crespéou and we could go on a picnic in a field in Provence and I could dance around listening to “Total Eclipse of the Heart” on a vintage Walkman. Or…hold your head up high and embrace the Crespéou for the lunchbox saviour that it is. And I’m sure even better on picnics. Especially picnics in Provence. With heaps of rosé wine and 1970’s disco music on your vintage Walkman.
Which is fairly redundant – I can’t think of ANYTHING that wouldn’t be better on a picnic in Provence with heaps of rosé wine and 1970’s music on your Walkman. Can you?
Speaking of which…before she was Totally Eclipsed in the Heart Bonnie Tyler was Lost in France which would actually be the perfect musical accompaniment to the Crespéou…
The full recipe can be found in Plenty More or online here
Bonnie Tyler being Lost in France is here:
Make. Listen. Drink lots of rosé and imagine yourself lost in France.
This week, I’m cooking up some more 70’s Style Retro Picnic Bling courtesy of Jane Grigson! Have a tres fantastique week what ever you get up to.
And turn around bright eyes.
And P.S. – I’m totally contemplating the name of this blog to Retro Picnic Bling. Loving it madly!!!
January may be over but I had to post one last quirky but delicious recipe. And this is a beauty. You wouldn’t think to look at it that this duck curry is one of my Spice Peddler “Oh no, let’s go crazy” recipes. But it is. So please join me on a Hop, Step and a Jump around the world as we take a look at this yummy duck curry.
Congratulations!
Today is your day.
You’re off to Great Places!
You’re off and away!
The Hop – Reunion Island
So guess what makes this duck curry so kooky?
Well, it’s got duck….duh!!! And sweet potatoes. So nothing odd there. It’s got some sun-dried tomatoes which I have never used in a curry before but a tomato is a tomato right? But you know what else it’s got? Wait for it…..vanilla beans!
Who puts vanilla beans in a curry?
Well apparently the people of the island of Reunion do.
And you know what?
It works!!!!
The Step – Tahiti
So from the Indian Ocean, we’re going to fasten our seatbelts and stow our tray tables because we’re now off to another tiny island but this time in the French Polynesian part of the Pacific Ocean.
Simon, Tahiti….
I guess the original recipe would use Madagascan vanilla beans but the Tahitian Vanilla beans which I got from the team at the Spice Peddlers has a rich fruity, floral, slightly aniseedy flavour which I think combined really well with the vegetables and the ginger in the curry.
Vanilla Duck Curry – Vegetables
The vanilla flavour here is not overpowering, it is an undertone. Unless you were told there was vanilla in it you would know there was something there but probably not automatically guess it was vanilla. . As the people of Reunion and Tahiti may say, it just adds that certain “je ne sais quoi” to what would otherwise be a pretty standard curry.
Duck and Vanilla Curry2
The Jump – Iran
I served this with one of the recipes from Persiana by Sabrina Ghayour – the Chelo or Persian Basmati Rice. I was a bit disappointed by this as one of my favourite things from Vietnamese cooking is when you have claypot rice and you get those lovely chewy almost burnt bits of rice. I really wanted my chelo to turn out like that. Sadly that was not to be.
1/2 vanilla bean, halved lengthwise, seeds scraped out and reserved, bean cut into pieces about 1 cm long
2 teaspoons mild curry powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 duck breasts
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 medium onion, chopped (4 cups)
2 medium tomatoes, chopped (1 cup)
1 sweet potato peeled and cut into 1 cm cubes
2 to 3 sun-dried tomatoes, finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
1 tbsp ginger, grated
1 whole clove
To garnish (optional)
Chopped peanuts
Chopped coriander
Instructions
Combine the vanilla seeds, curry powder and salt in a small bowl.
Score the duck breasts on the skin side (ie run the knife over the duck skin to create a cross hatch pattern. Do not go through the skin to the actual meat.
Rub the spice mixture on the duck breasts both skin and meat side.
Lay the duck breasts, skin side down, in a dry heavy-based large frying pan and gradually turn up the heat. Fry for five to 10 minutes, until most of the fat has rendered and the skin is golden brown.
Turn the duck breasts over and lightly brown the other side for a couple of minutes, or until they feel slightly springy when pressed.
Remove the duck from the pan.
Add the butter and allow it to melt.
Add the onion; cook for 5 minutes, until it has softened, then add the garlic and ginger. Add the tomato, sweet potato, sun-dried tomatoes and the clove; cook uncovered until sweet potato is just tender then add the duck back to the pan and allow to warm through.
Discard the clove and the pieces of vanilla bean before serving.
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:
Nutty Nutella Cake
Looking at that photo, I know what you are thinking. And you know what?
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?
Nutty Nutella Cake2
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.
Nutella Cake3
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…
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 Cake Ingredients
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….
Nutella Cake 4
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!!!
Nutella Cake and Ancho Sorbet 1
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….
Filled Nutella Cakes
Then whip up a meringue….
Meringue top
And bung ’em in the oven for a bit….
And then…..
Meringue Topped Nutella Cake
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.
Nutella Meringue Cake2
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.
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
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.
Ooooooohhhhhyeeeeeaaaahhhh!!!
Whip up some aioli ( I had this saffron and roasted garlic aioli from something else I had made), but any aioli or even mayo would be fine. But the saffron makes it look so pretty!
Choose your vegetables. I used lettuce, carrot, red cabbage and red onion.
Don’t forget the pickle! I used a pickled jalapeno but a dill pickle would also be fine.
And assemble.
Eeek….if anyone’s left after that, here’s the recipe!
