Sunday night pasta

The final of the Australian Open is on tonight and my Djoko is up to grab the title, fingers crossed and I'm not prepared to miss one little bit of it. So am I being lazy or what? Yes, probably but with good reason. Here's what you need to do for a stress free night when you can put your feet up and enjoy this quick pasta dish - tennis and all. 

Cut a whole heap of washed baby tomatoes in half and place them in a microwave proof dish.

Chop up two garlic gloves in tiny pieces and scatter over the tomatoes.

Then scatter on some dried chilli flakes.

Add some washed and dried salted capers.

Sprinkle on a teaspoon of sugar (I use raw).

then add 3-4 chopped anchovies (optional).

Finish with a good grinding of black peppercorns but go easy on the salt if using anchovies.

Tear up a small handful of fresh basil leaves and give the dish a generous slug of extra virgin olive oil.

Microwave on high for 20 mins. Set aside to cool.

Add to cooked pasta of your choice - fettuccini or spaghettini work well -  turn the tomatoes gently through the pasta to incorporate.

Serve with freshly grated Parmesan, a little more torn basil and add extra anchovies if desired.

Eat well and enjoy with a nice glass of red. Here's to Djoko. Cheers!

Oeufs en Meurette (eggs poached in red wine)

This is my interpretation of a famous French classic and I've voted it my starter of the year. Fitting I think too for The Food Vine's 6th birthday on 1st November just gone.

You might want to try this recipe several times before serving it for a special meal - it's not easy to do and it takes patience and care but if you take into account the following tips your chances of getting it wrong up are fairly slim.

This is a beautiful and elegant dish and a perfect starter for a French styled meal.

Ingredients for 4 servings:

4 very fresh large eggs
500g fresh mushrooms: portobello, swiss brown etc..
1 eschallot, finely chopped
1 small knob of butter
1 tablespoon parsley, finely chopped
1 tablespoon double cream
4 slices of white bread, toasted then cut into a disc about 2 inches in diameter
1 bottle of good red wine
1 x 28g beef or veal stock pot portion and 2 tablespoons water
2 slices of prosciutto

Method:

Cook the eschallots and mushrooms in the butter over a low heat until the mixture is cooked through and all the moisture has evaporated. Add the cream and finely add the parsley. Turn into a small bowl, cover and place in the refrigerator.

Prepare a bowl of ice and water and leave it standing next to the cooker. Pour enough red wine into a very small frying pan (reserve what's left in the bottle). Bring the wine to boiling point then turn it down to the lowest heat setting. Crack one egg into a small cup then slide the egg into the wine. Set the timer for 3 minutes. Baste the egg yolk continually. After 3 minutes remove the egg with a slotted spoon and carefully place the cooked egg into the ice water. Repeat this with the other three eggs. Place the cooked eggs in the ice bath into the refrigerator.

Pour the wine from the frying pan into a medium size saucepan. Add the rest of the wine to the saucepan from the bottle. Bring the wine to the boil, turn down the heat and simmer until reduced by three quarters of its original volume. Add the stock and 2 tablespoons of water. Reduce by half. The sauce should be thick enough to coat. If it isn't whisk in a pinch of xanthan powder until you achieve the desired consistency. Cover and place in the refrigerator.

To plate up:

Toast the bread. Cut out a two inch disc from each slice. Spread a thick quantity of the mushroom mixer over the top of each disc and place the discs in the centre of four serving dishes.

Cook the 2 slices of prosciutto in a little oil until crisp. Drain. Cut each slice into two. Set aside.

Take the eggs from the refrigerator. Very carefully drain off the ice water. Boil the kettle. Carefully fill the bowl with boiling water and leave to stand for 2-3 minutes. Take a slotted spoon and carefully remove each egg, one by one and place on top of the four discs. Heat the sauce in the microwave for 1-2 minutes. Coat each egg with a little sauce. Place a piece of prosciutto across or alongside each egg and garnish with a little parsley or fresh bay leaf. Serve immediately.

Note:  'Continental' produce highly concentrated stock portions called: Stock Pot - they come four to a pack weighing about 28g each. Ideal for this sauce. If these aren't available to you use any other stock but then you will probably most definitely need to thicken the finished sauce with xanthan powder or similar.

Bon Appetit!

Spicy Prunes

These spicy prunes don't photograph very well but believe me they are delicious. This recipe was given to me by Judy Newell who owns Rangimarie Beachstay on the east coast of NZ's north island.  If you don't want to go to the trouble of making spice vinegar any strong vinegar will do instead.

Ingredients:

450g pitted prunes
1 cup spiced vinegar
1 cup soft brown sugar
1 cup water
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Method:

Place all the ingredients in a small pan and bring to the boil. Simmer for ten minutes. Cool and bottle.

Spiced Vinegar:

Ingredients:

2 teaspoons allspice
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
2 bay leaves
1 blade of mace
1 teaspoon cloves
1 stick cinnamon
6 peppercorns
1 small thumb ginger, chopped
1 litre vinegar (malt)

Method:

Tie the spices in a muslin bag, place in a covered pan with the vinegar and heat slowly to boiling point. Leave to stand for two hours then remove the muslin bag and discard it except the cinnamon stick. Pour the spiced vinegar and place the cinnamon stick into a suitable bottle for storage. This vinegar keeps indefinitely.

Spain - under my skin

Spain has a way of getting under my skin, it's a country I can't get out of my head once back home. We've just returned from a dream two weeks. Rediscovering Barcelona and Port Andratx on Mallorca and getting to know Valencia and doing the tapas trail in Logrono. As always - not enough time but enough to feel enthusiastic to recreate and evoke the tastes and flavours in my own kitchen here in France. Some of the most remarkable food was the simplest. Isn't it always? My favourite from this trip: sepia (cuttlefish) on the plancha. I'm hooked. In Valencia black paella was new for me as was suckling lamb done in a wood fired oven in Logrono. Absolutely no complaints.

Trouble is getting the ingredients. Here in south west France the local (fantastic) produce is very regional so finding 'proper' Spanish ingredients comes as a challenge. However, I've made a start with a well known dish from where in Spain it comes I'm not sure but it's a safe bet for me. Black pudding is easy to find here and very delicious it is from the town of Vic-en-Bigorre at our local Saturday market.  Black pudding is not everyone's cup of tea but if you have the chance to taste a really good one you'll soon be converted.  The best black pudding I have ever had comes from Burgos in Spain and includes rice and for my money nothing else touches it.

This is not really a recipe as such it's just a case of putting all these splendid ingredients together. I doubt scallops are traditional in Spain but I've married them here with the morcilla (black pudding) as a flavour experiment. The texture of the scallops and the creaminess of the black pudding feel right in the mouth heightened by the succulent beans and the fresh, tangy mint.  It feels good. Essential ingredient next is the sea salt.

I first made this dish about thirty years ago. Spurred on by the loveable English cook, Keith Floyd, whose love of Spain matched my own and whose love of slapping up great simple ingredients with a glass of wine in his hand and a great amount of gusto enthused us all. He made us feel happy, not just about his cooking but about life and living and sharing. I can't quite remember off the top of my head how he made his broad bean dish but ever since then I've been putting together one version or another. The following is how I made it last night. Next time might be different. I might add some jamon Serrano and a splash of white wine or not as the case may be.

Serves: 2 as a main course

1 x 500g small black pudding, sliced into even 2cm slices
500g frozen broad beans
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 medium sweet white onion, finely sliced
6 scallops with or without coral
Sea salt and ground black pepper
Handful of fresh mint leaves

Method:

Transfer the frozen broad beans to a bowl and pour over enough boiling water to cover. Leave for a few minutes to cool then pod each bean of its tough outer shell. Discard the shells and set the podded beans aside.

In a medium sized frying pan heat the oil and sear the scallops for two to three minutes on each side until they are cooked through and lightly browned. Remove and keep warm.

Add the onion to the pan and gently cook until soft and translucent. Remove and keep warm.

Add the black pudding to the pan and cook until it is cooked through - about two to three minutes on each side.

Return the onion to the pan with the black pudding and add the beans. Cook a further few minutes, gently turning the ingredients around to mix together but without breaking up the delicate slices of meat.

Place the scallops on top, scatter over the mint and liberally sprinkle with sea salt and ground black pepper. An extra splash of extra virgin olive oil will help loosen the ingredients and given an extra sheen. Serve immediately.

brioche

I love the shape, the shine, the texture, the taste, the flavour and the 'Frenchness' of brioche..

Brioche making is a two to three day affair because very little yeast is used and the dough is usually given three risings, one of which is in a cold place, and this process takes a long time. 

I decided to by- pass all this and kept my dough in the fridge for two hours and gave it no 'warm room' rising at all. I didn't knock it back after the first hour either. It is far too sticky to even contemplate touching. The net result was my brioche was excellent so this way of making it is really worth trying.

Serve brioche thickly sliced and toasted: plain or with any jam or marmalade or a mixture of cinnamon and sugar sprinkled over the top.

Brioche also makes excellent French toast: take 4 thick slices and dip them, one at a time, into a mixture of 4 eggs, 100ml cream and 100ml milk. Make sure each slice is well saturated. Melt a knob of butter in a frying pan and cook each slice about 2 minutes on each side until they are golden brown. Combine 50g castor sugar with 1teaspoon cinnamon powder and sprinkle over the cooked bread. Serve the French toast with a compote of berries and some yoghurt or ice cream.

Ingredients for Brioche:

190g plain organic white flour

2 teaspoons dried yeast

2 teaspoons castor sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon salt

125g unsalted butter cut into small cubes, at room temperature

1 egg and 1tablespoon milk for glazing

Method.

Mix all the ingredients together except the butter cubes and the glaze. Stir well. Using electric beaters mix on a low speed for 4 minutes then high speed for 4 minutes. Lower speed to medium and add butter cubes, a few at a time, until the butter is incorporated into the mixture and it's smooth and soft and very sticky.

Transfer the dough to a clean, lightly greased bowl and cover. Place in the refrigerator and leave there  for two hours.

Grease a fluted brioche tin, line with non-stick baking paper. Spoon the dough into the tin and brush lightly with the glaze.

Bake at 180C for 40 minutes. The brioche is cooked when a skewer inserted into it comes out clean. Leave to cool for a few minutes then turn out onto a wire cake rack and let cool completely.

walnut and sultana bread

200ml milk (at body temperature)

1 egg yolk

3 eggs

30g soft brown sugar

3 teaspoons dried yeast

300g organic plain four (sifted)

190g walnut halves

2 teaspoons salt

Glaze: 1 egg white, 1 tablespoon milk)

2 handfuls sultanas soaked in warm water for 30 minutes

Set oven to 200C

Line a 25cm (10 inch) loaf tin, I used a collapsable one, with non-stick baking paper and set the tin on a (round) baking sheet for ease in and out of the oven.

In a large bowl, mix:

milk, eggs, sugar and yeast. Leave in a warm place for ten minutes or until the mixture looks like it is fermenting on the top (bubbling up).

Sieve the flour into the mixture. Mix well. Add the nuts and fruit if you are using it, then the salt. Mix well.

Pour the mixture into the loaf tin and stand in a warm place to prove for 30-45 minutes or until the mixture has risen to within 1cm or ½ inch of the top of the tin. My mixture took nearly 50 minutes to rise. Brush with the glaze, gently and place in the oven.

Bake the bread for 5 minutes then turn the heat down to 170C and bake another 25 minutes and check it. I cooked mine a further ten minutes. All ovens vary so it's important to keep checking.

It is also important to check the bread is not burning on top. Place a piece of foil on it if necessary.

The bread is cooked when a knife is inserted into it and it comes out clean or when it makes a hollow sound when tapped.

Allow to cool in the tin then turn out onto a wire rack. Remove the paper. Leave to cool completely.

Notes: I cooked my bread in a small convection oven which has a round turntable in it which is why I had to use a round baking sheet. It was a very hot day and I didn't want the house getting all hot from the big oven. I let the bread dough prove outside, covered, on a table in the shade as the inside temperature of the house was a bit too cold for the dough to rise. The heat of outside air proved a perfect proving place.

The above recipe is my adaptation of a Peter Gordon recipe.

PG used 1 egg and 3 yolks while I used 3 eggs and 1 yolk. He used ½ teaspoon salt while I used 2 teaspoons salt. He used 2 tablespoons milk for the glaze while I used 1 tablespoon. He used 250gm walnut halves while I used 190gm. I think the walnuts should be roughly chopped so I will do this next time. He didn't use sultanas. I did but I should have put another handful in the mixture. He baked his loaf for 30 minutes while I baked my mine for 40 minutes.

I have to say my loaf was absolutely perfect as my bread expert husband will vouch for but I think if the walnuts were roughly chopped it would result in a better distribution of them throughout the loaf. Next time I'll use more walnuts, either 250gm as PG suggested or even more than that. After all this is walnut bread.

The bread is heaven with cheese, especially goat's cheese and when it's a bit stale it's almost better. Sublime toasted, too.

date-a-date

We always have fresh dates for Christmas. Great mounds of them piled high in fancy bowls alongside fresh cherries and all the nut varieties: hazels, walnuts, brazil and monkeys. A colourful display of Christmas fare and one that always seems a little decadent yet irresistible to me.

Fresh dates stuffed with an almond or walnut make an excellent hors d'oeuvre (little savoury appetisers) served with drinks. Substituting perfumed almond paste takes them to another level and straight into the petit four department. Excellent with a strong coffee after dinner or lunch.

Ingredients:

20 fresh dates, pitted

225gm almond powder

110gm caster sugar

½ teaspoon orange blossom water

1//8 teaspoon cinnamon powder

2 tablespoons of butter - Lescure is a great French butter worthy of its cost for this recipe

Cream the butter and sugar with an electric hand whisk until it is pale and the sugar is incorporated well into the butter with no grainy bits felt on the tongue at taste. A wooden spoon works just as well but requires plenty of elbow grease.

Add the other ingredients and combine well together.

Stuff each date with a little paste. And place in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

HAPPY CHRISTMAS!

Christmas tapa

On the lookout for something fishy and tasty to serve with drinks this Christmas I remembered a tapa we had in San Sebastian this summer. The above tapa is just about perfect considering there's nothing more fitting than prawns for Christmas in Australia. 

Place, in any order, on a short wooden skewer: a stuffed olive or two, half a tinned artichoke heart, two cooked prawns and a small piece of smoked salmon. Glisten the made up tapas with a little olive oil and a sprinkling of sea salt.

Cheers!

mocking up

Here we go, even the humble pollock fish is now doing some impersonating. It's become the great stand in for baby eels, sometimes called elvers and called angulas in Spain. It's been going on for years and thank goodness as the real eels are very overpriced and just about impossible to find. A sad reflection on changing ocean habitat and over fishing.

Young fresh eels of about 2-3 years and about three inches long are the thickness of a spaghetti strand and if you could find them in the fish markets they would fetch well over 1,000 Euros per kilo. But, having said that, authentic angulas can still be found in cans but are of course very expensive and not anything like their fresh counterpart.

Come in the 'gulas' made of pollock fish. Pollock is fished in both European and Alaskan waters

and turned into mock angulas then renamed, gulas. This product is readily available all over Spain and some parts of France. In both countries they are sold in cans, jars and vacuum packs. Auchan, the big supermarket chain in France, sells gulas but that is the only place I could find them. 

I've eaten mock gulas on countless tapas without knowing there was anything mock about them. So if they do taste anything like the real thing, as I have read they do, then that's okay by me. They are delicious.

Gulas are served on diagonal sliced bread and topped with a little mayonnaise and charred red pepper slices. This is a common tapa/pintxos in Spain and especially in the Basque country. See my recipe for this under TAPAS.

Wanting a change and wanting to bring out the true flavour of my mock friends I tried the following:

Makes 8 tapas:

1 clove garlic finely sliced

1 small fresh red chilli finely sliced

1 tablespoon grape-seed oil

8 heaped tablespoons gulas

Method:

Heat a small frying pan, add the oil, heat it and cook the garlic and chilli for a few minutes until softened then add the gulas. Toss all the ingredients together until everything has warmed though.

Twist the eels onto the prongs of a fork and carefully prise them off onto an “Asian” serving spoon. Continue until they are all used up. Sit the spoons in shallow bowls for support as they are inclined to slip off. The gulas tapa presented like this look striking served on coloured spoons.

The warming process, with the addition of garlic and chilli, brings out the flavour and leaves a more  succulent taste and texture in the mouth. 

Good luck finding gulas in your country but don't despair if you don't live in Spain. I have seen them in tins way over here in Australia, namely in the department store David Jones and in some Spanish outlet stores. I've seen 'real' angulas in tins here too. If buying the tins check whether they are gulas or angulas. The price difference is enormous.

tomato, quail egg & goat's curd tapa

A tapa with a difference!

This is a simple yet delicious little dish that can be put together quickly. Allow at least 45 minutes from start to end for draining and cooking. They can be served at room temperature if you need to make them in advance otherwise serve them straight from the oven.

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

6 small tomatoes but not cherry tomatoes - they are too small

1 x 200gm goat's curd

6 quail eggs

50gm unsalted butter

Sea salt and cracked black pepper

Any little green leaf for garnish

Method:

Cut a tiny slice off the top of each tomato so they are able to sit up without rolling over. Cut another slice off the base end of each one and remove the seeds and membrane with a small spoon.

Leave the tomatoes to drain thoroughly, upside down, on kitchen paper for at least 30 minutes.

Fill each tomato with a spoonful of soft goat's curd, to about the three quarter mark.

Crack a quail egg into the top of each tomato.

Grease a small overproof pan and place the six tomatoes inside.

Bake at 180C until the quail egg is set. Roughly this takes about 6-7 minutes but watch them closely. You don't want to overcook the eggs.

Meanwhile, melt the butter in a small pan and cook until just on browning point. Don't let it burn. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Place the tomatoes on little dishes. Drizzle with hot butter, sprinkle with sea salt and a few grindings of black pepper, add the garnish and serve immediately.

I like to provide small (children's) cutlery with hot tapas even though and in this case, the whole tomato can be placed in the mouth.

NB. If goat's curd is unavailable substitute with a small piece of goat's cheese.

pimientos del piquilla tapas

The very mention of the name Pimientos del Piquilla has one watering at the mouth. These tiny peppers, about 8 centimetres in length, grow along the Ribera river flats in the Navarra region of northern Spain. An area well known to pilgrims on the camino, the way of St James. It's the first valley on their long trail to Santiago after they leave the Roncesvalles pass in the mighty Pyrénées.

The peppers are wood fired, skinned, seeded and marketed as a preserve. But, the intensive manual labour doesn't come cheap in the processing plant - woman are employed to scrape away every last piece of charred skin.

The raw peppers impart a bitter taste but once charred coal black their flesh acquires an exquisite flavour and their true characteristic becomes apparent. Transformed they become sweet, succulent and aromatic.The smokey tang from the wood fire and the spicy hot nature of these small, dark, heart shaped, red peppers compliment many ingredients. They have become an essential component in the world of the tapa.

The wonderful thing about making up tapas is you don't need to stick to specifics. Do your own thing, mix and match. Here I've opted for a pretty traditional and typical tapa found all over Spain. But not in a position to have Jamon Serrano or Jamon Iberico at my fingertips here in Australia I've substituted prosciutto and really, they are just as delicious. Well, almost...well maybe not quite.

Ingredients:

French bread stick cut on the diagonal

Prosciutto

Pimientos del Pequilla or substitute charred, skinned and seeded red capsicum

white anchovy

brown anchovy

quail egg - optional

Note: Pimientos del Piquilla are very low on the Scovill scale count (the chilli richter scale). In other words, they are not hot.

(photographs taken in our kitchen in the Hunter Valley)

tapa celebration

The food vine cannot congratulate itself for many posts since April I'm afraid, the evidence being as plain as day. And there I was thinking five months in France would allow me the leisure time I was so looking forward to: to cook, read and write. Oh how I wish.

But the flip side in lacking time to express my culinary leanings meant spending many precious days with old and new friends, returning to San Sebastian, twice, our favourite city and getting to know a little bit about Corsica, a new love in our lives.

Now back in Australia, France seems a whole world away. It's back to busy days at our property in the Hunter Valley, back with fresh thoughts on food blogging and back with the early beginnings of

a new book in my head. No, not SECOND or LAST, this one's about the Basque country.

I gave San Sebastian a reasonable mention in my cookbook FIRST so while it's still in my mind I thought I'd start the next phase on the food vine with tapas. I'd love to say a tapa a day but that might be pushing it.

The world of miniature food is not just synonymous with Spain. It's spread across all cultures – Greece, the Middle East, north Africa, Asia, Japan and as far away as Scandinavia - and so on. It seems they all have their own version of small dishes in a different guise to that of the tapa but they amount to the same thing. But, standing in bars may not be one of them. No matter the culture miniature food can be anything from simple appetisers to an elaborate range of preparations forming an entire meal. The parallel is we all love eating this way.

But we give credit to the Spanish who have put miniature food on the world map with their tapas, or pintxos/pinchos as they are called in the Basque county. Locals and tourists alike make personal pilgrimages to their favourite bars and not to just one. Bar crawling is part of the ritual.

The informality of a loud and buzzy bar is very appealing. No standing on ceremony, no dress rules, eating as much or as little as one likes. Personally selecting mouthfuls of delicious food from a sea of tiny, savoury morsels punctuated only with glasses of cool, delicious Spanish wine is as good as it gets.

Tapas need not be traditional. There's a whole host of bars now competing for first prize in the modern tapa movement. The reinvention of the traditional tapa with innovation and style at affordable prices is where San Sebastian comes into its own. Bars such as Borda Berri, Zeruko, A Fuego Negro and La Cuchara de San Telmo are to name a few. Here are their addresses in the old city, the Parte Vieja, just in case you get there before me:

Borda Berri: 12 Fermin Calbeton

Zeruko: 10 Calle Pescaderia

La Cuchara de San Telmo: 28 Corredor San Telmo off Calle Agosto

A Fuego Negro: 31 Calle de Agosto

My love of Spain, its culture, food and wine is a fine way to celebrate the food vine's fourth birthday posting. I've gone for a modern bent, not a traditional one.

Ingredients:

one big, fat scallop without coral per head

1 slice of prosciutto per head

Dash of grape-seed oil for the pan

1 x quarter cauliflower broken into florets

salt and white pepper

2 tablespoons thick cream

A little garnish of your choice

Extra virgin olive oil to garnish
Sea salt to garnish

Method:

Steam the cauliflower for 10-15 minutes until soft, remove from heat.

Place the cauliflower in a food blender with the cream, salt and pepper and whizz to achieve a smooth purée.

Wrap a slice of prosciutto around the middle of each scallop and secure with a toothpick. You may need to cut the prosciutto to size so it completely covers the sides of the scallop. Remove any straggly ends.

Heat a frying pan then add the oil. Sear the scallops on each side until they are cooked, two the three minutes. You might need to turn them on their sides using a circular motion to ensure the prosciutto is cooked all the way round.

Smear a little cauliflower purée onto a gleaming white plate, place the scallop on top.

Garnish with a herb flower, salt salt and drizzle a tiny amount of extra virgin olive oil over the top.

(photograph taken in our kitchen in south west France)

Wellington's beef

Beef Wellington is a simple dish to make but there are cooks out there who just won't attempt it. I suppose it's the thought of ruining a whole fillet of beef in just one go. The expense of it AND not just the beef but the dinner too – there's the chance the whole evening could go down the gurgler.

But, for those who dare, the following method is pretty much a foolproof way to successfully cook and present one of the world's classiest and classic dishes.

Take your whole fillet and trim it of any excess fat and any white sinewy pieces. If there's a skinny piece at one end cut it off and save it for another day. The beef fillet should be of even thickness throughout.

Heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil in a pan and sear the beef all over. This means all sides and both ends. Do this quickly then remove the beef onto a plate. Paint the top and sides with mustard of your choice and place in the refrigerator to cool.

Now comes the decision of what you would like to include in the pastry along with the meat. You could use a smooth paté and some sliced mushrooms or one or the other. Some spinach would be good for colour, too. If you choose to include mushrooms whizz about 500gm of them up in a food processor then sweat them in a pan with no oil until the water evaporates.

Lay a large piece of cling film on the bench and gather the chosen ingredients around you .

Lay as many slices of prosciutto on top of the cling film, short ends facing you, so they will cover the entire length of the fillet.

Spread, alternating layers of paté/or/and mushrooms and fresh spinach leaves all over the prosciutto.

Lay the whole fillet on top and roll up with the aid of the cling film.

Twist the ends of the cling film, torchon style, as tight as you can and put it in the fridge for 1 hour or over night.

Remove the fillet from the fridge.

Lay a piece of cling film on the bench. Lay a sheet of puff pastry on top of the cling film large enough to enclose the whole fillet or if necessary join two/four sheets of pastry together so it is big enough. Lay the unravelled fillet on top of the pastry. Roll the fillet up in the pastry as tightly as possible, torchon style, using the cling film as an aid and place in the refrigerator for at least one hour.

Place a piece of greased baking paper on a flat oven tray. Unravel the fillet from the cling film, lay it on the papered tray and make some attractive decorations on the top with a sharp knife (optional).

Brush the fillet with egg wash and sprinkle a little sea salt on top.

Cook on 190C for 35 mins or until the pastry is brown

Rest the cooked fillet for 10 – 15 mins. Slice and serve.

heirloom tomatoes with lemon and caper dressing

What has the world come to when the only good tomato with any taste at all is one we've grown ourselves or bought from a farmer's market. The past couple of decades has seen emerge new and exciting foods, rare and unusual products, extraordinary cooking techniques, a bombardment of exotic recipes. The food revolution with its celebrity chefs hasn't exactly passed us by yet we still can't find a good tomato.

My heirloom tomato recipe below with lemon and caper dressing is a taste sensation but please only make this if you have access to sweet, perfect tomatoes. There is nothing like them. Supermarket ones will not do this justice.

Ingredients:

2-3 handfuls heirloom tomatoes,

2 lemons, peeled to the bare fruit (all pith removed), filleted with the membranes squeezed and juice reserved

Dressing ingredients:

2 tablespoons spring onions, chopped

2 tablespoons salted baby capers, washed and drained

1 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

100ml extra virgin olive oil

Method:

Mix together the dressing ingredients and lastly add the lemon segments taking care not to break them up. Carefully mix the dressing through the cut tomatoes. Sprinkle with a little sea salt and serve immediately.

berry roulade

This is pretty much a fool proof way to make a roulade but watch your oven temperature does not exceed 17OC. You don't want the meringue to brown too quickly. Overcooking the meringue gives a brittle result causing cracks to appear once rolled.

Serves: 6-8

Ingredients for roulade:

6 egg whites

1.25 cups caster sugar

1 tablespoon cornflour

1 teaspoon lemon juice

2 tablespoons icing sugar

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

Ingredients for filling:

1 cup double cream

2 punnets of berries: blueberries, raspberries

2 tablespoons grated dark chocolate

Method for roulade:

Preheat the over to 170C. Line a Swiss-roll pan with buttered baking paper.

Beat the egg whites with an electric mixer on high speed until soft peaks form. Gradually add half the caster sugar then beat in the remaining caster sugar until stiff, glossy peaks form. Fold in the cornflour and lemon juice.

Spread the meringue evenly in the prepared pan. Bake for 20 minutes or until pale golden, allow to cool for 1 hour. Place another sheet of baking paper the same size on the work surface and dust with icing sugar and cocoa powder. Turn the meringue onto the baking paper. Carefully remove the top sheet of paper.

For the filling:

Beat the cream until soft peaks form. Spread the cream over the meringue. Evenly place the fruit on the cream and grate the chocolate over the top.

Use the paper to help roll up the meringue from the short end. Once rolled, dust with a little extra icing sugar. Ease the roulade, seam side down, onto a serving dish and refrigerate for one hour or until ready to serve in thick slices.

ricotta cakes

Use your imagination to restyle a traditional serving of a classic dish.

A thick slice of baked ricotta loaf makes an ideal presentation for lunch but for a change use a fluted pastry cutter. The loaf, scaled down, becomes an appealing starter instead.

Ingredients: (serves 6 sliced or 10 little cakes)

3 eggs

750g full fat ricotta

400g grated parmesan, freshly grated

6 springs lemon thyme, leaves picked

Extra virgin olive oil

Roast tomatoes halves or whole TINY cherry tomatoes

Basil oil

Black olives, pitted (tiny ones for cakes)

Method:

Preheat oven to 180C. Lightly whisk eggs in a large bowl and stir in ricotta. Mix in the parmesan, thyme and season well. Grease a loaf tin with olive oil and spoon in the mixture. Place the loaf tin in a large baking tray and pour in the water so it comes half way up the sides of the loaf tin. Bake approximately 45-50 mins, test with a skewer or until ricotta is firm and golden brown – a piece of foil may be required on top if it browns too quickly.

Remove from the water bath VERY CAREFULLY and allow to cool to room temperature. Invert onto a serving plate and refrigerate until cold.

To serve: cut thick slices from the loaf. Cut circles from the slices, using a fluted pastry cutter. Place the cakes onto individual plates, top with tiny confit tomatoes and tiny olives, a sprig of basil and a few drops of basil oil on the side.

Tomatoes & Olives:

Preheat the oven to 150C . Place a handful of tiny/or normal sized cherry tomatoes and a handful of olives onto an oven tray lined with baking paper. Sprinkle with sea salt, a teaspoon sugar and fine slices of garlic from one clove. Bake for 30 minutes. Remove and cool.

Basil Oil:

A quick way to flavour herb oil is to blanch a handful of fresh basil or other herbs, leaves only, then whizz them in an electric food chopper with a little oil. Strain the liquid into a jug and use as directed. Discard any remaining oil after use.

Note: Do not attempt to serve these little cakes hot. The loaf needs to be cold or very cool for sharp, clean cutting. A zap in the microwave might be a good idea if you prefer a little warmth.

curse of the canapé

I love eating tasty little mouthfuls of delicious food then I get to try everything, well almost everything, at someone else's cocktail party. But my patience wears thin when we have a party of our own and I have to make them myself. All that work and they're devoured in a flash.

Stuck for an idea today and a promise to bring a plate I suddenly remembered a simple recipe for pesto balls. I say simple and they are if you have a food processor and what I call a blitz machine. A small electric food chopper. If you don't happen to have either buy minced chicken and very finely chop everything else by hand.

Ingredients: 35 x 3cm diameter balls

700gm chicken (I used breast) minced in a food processor

1 small to medium onion, blitzed

3 cloves of garlic , blitzed

100gm pine nuts, blitzed

4 slices white bread, crumbed (processed)

3 tablespoons parmesan cheese, grated

2 tablespoons fresh basil, finely chopped

Half teaspoon white pepper, ground

Half teaspoon black pepper , ground

Plain flour to dust

Oil for frying – grape seed, canola or sunflower

Method:

Blitz and process each ingredient separately and combine together in a large bowl, expect the flour and oil.

With wet hands roll the ingredients into 3cm sized balls. Dust in flour, shaking off the excess and cook for 5 minutes in enough hot oil to cover the pan. Shake the pan frequently, rolling the balls for even browning. When cooked through drain on kitchen paper.

Pile the pesto balls hot or cold on a plater with a small bowl of chilli sauce for dipping, on the side.

berry timbale with passionfruit coulis

This is lovely fresh dessert, easy to make with an impressive result. The following recipe makes 6 x 125ml (half cup) capacity dariole moulds. I use Queen's (chocolate) Writing Fudge to seal in the coulis. You could, if you are proficient at making a paper piping bag, with a very fine nozzle, melt down a small chocolate bar instead. Cold plates are essential for serving.

Ingredients:

125g fresh raspberries

250g fresh blueberries

Orange Jelly ingredients:

300ml orange juice (strained) - zest reserved to candy

100ml clear apple juice

6 gelatin leaves or 1 tablespoon edible gelatin powder slacked in 100ml water (sets 400ml liquid, including the 100ml used to slacken)

20ml Grand Marnier liquor

50g sugar

Method:

Soften the gelatin leaves in cold water and squeeze out excess or slacken powder in water as above.

Place everything in a small saucepan except the Grand Marnier, boil for 1 minute.

Remove from heat, add Grand Marnier and set aside to cool.

Fill the Dariole moulds to the top with layers of berries and pour over the jelly. Place in fridge until set, cover with cling film, setting time is several hours or overnight if preferred.

Passionfruit Coulis:

4 medium size passionfruit

1 orange, juiced (zest reserved to candy)

40g icing sugar

25ml water (extra may be needed later for thinning purposes)

Method:

Boil for 2-3 minutes and strain. Add a drop more water if the coulis is too thick. Set aside in a squeezy bottle or small jug

Candid Orange Zest:

Blanch zested peel in boiling water from cold water starts and refresh in cold water. Repeat three times. This takes away the bitterness while softening the zest at the same time.

Method &Ingredients:

Place zest in a small saucepan with 1 tablespoon sugar, 30ml water, 1 tablespoon liquid glucose. Cook for 3 minutes until transparent. Strain and set aside.

Note: the zested peel of a lime could be added for colour

To Serve:

Draw a nice design of your choice with the writing fudge, fill in the centre with the coulis. Upturn the dariole moulds (briefly run the bottom of each one under a very hot tap to release). Place the candid peel on top of the moulds and dust a little sieved icing sugar.

Note: the peel is not visible in the photograph, sorry!

figs with goat's cheese & prosciutto

'As fresh as a sailor home from the sea' was an advertising slogan for fresh eggs at a local garage where we grew up. Even as a youngster I wondered just how fresh a sailor might be having been at sea for any length of time!

Despite my suspicions of freshness those words still ring in my head and they certainly did and do conjure up a salty sea breeze, wind in my hair, sand between my toes and the wild, rugged, beautiful, remote coastline that we call home. So, the slogan worked!

Today's post is nothing to do with eggs instead it's all about figs especially if consumed straight from the tree; when they certainly are 'as fresh as a sailor home from the sea'.

Figs are divine, delectable and delicious and a lovely way to serve them is to simply make two incisions across the top, squeeze them just a little to plump up the flesh, place a spoonful of fresh goats cheese into each cavity, wrap a slice of prosciutto around the bottom of each one, drizzle a little honey and lime juice over the top, and finally a grinding or two of cracked black pepper finishes the dish. Serve immediately.

Some ingredients are just meant to be together and the above is no exception. First, we eat with our eyes, then there's the moment of taste when the brain tells us this is a marriage made in heaven!

words on wine!

Anyone living in Australia will soon tell you that we are experiencing the wettest summer in living memory and anyone who grows grapes in Australia (like we do) will soon tell you what this wet summer has meant to their harvest. For us, personally, we lost them all.

Grape farming like any other farming has its challenges but despite the frustration of this year's non harvest we have had many great years and produced many great wines. No matter the weather we all still love to grow, harvest, produce and drink great wine and for the cooks amongst us it plays an integral and important role in the craft we all love so much.

So, on a positive note I thought you might like to read a few words on the topic of wine from the cookery writer, Anne Willan - published in 1989.

The photographs were taken at our own harvest last year at Broke Road Vineyard.

“Wine can mellow to a remarkable richness when it is simmered in sauces, braises and stews. To avoid a raw taste, it must always be thoroughly reduced during cooking, red wine by half and white wine by even more. First, the alcohol evaporates, then the wine concentrates so the finished dish is rich and mellow. This evaporation may be an integral part of the cooking process, as in the long cooking of a casserole or the simmering of a brown sauce. At other times the wine is reduced on its own, as when red wine is used to deglaze pan juices for a steak.

The quality of the wine used will be reflected in the result. It would not, however, make sense to sacrifice rare or expensive wine in the cooking pan. One quality which will not survive cooking is the sparkle of champagne or similar wines, although a little of the sparkle may survive in uncooked dishes such as champagne sorbet.

The role of fortified wines is different to the above. They are typically added at the end of a cooking process, and the alcohol in them, which will not have been boiled off, remains potent. In fact their use may be a case of 'wine in cooked dishes' rather than 'wine in cookery'. A spoonful of sherry added to a soup just before it is served is not subjected to cooking, although it certainly has its effect on the soup. The Italian fortified wine Marsala is sometimes the best choice for deglazing pan juices.

Wines are also added as an ingredient to marinades. The effect of the wine is then produced before cooking but the effect of the cooking on this use of wine together with the other marinade elements is not significant to the finished dish”.

My own most used use of wine in cookery is for deglazing the pan, usually with a fortified wine or verjuice, green grapes harvested just before veraison (the stage at which the colour turns, generally two months before harvest) - this wine is especially good for chicken or fish. I also love to make herb and wine infusions for lamb, chicken, veal, rabbit, beef and pork – they provide multiple uses as poaching liquids, stocks, marinades and sauces.  The list of recipes and methods for the use of wine in cookery is endless as is the subject. Meanwhile, ENJOY!