winosandfoodies

Today...Cherries

Guess what I made today.

Here's a clue

The Recipe

2 cups cherries

Mixture
1 1/4 cups milk
1/3 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
2/3  cup sifted all purpose flour

METHOD
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
While oven is heating put on an apron and  rubber gloves.
Remove the pits of 2 cups cherries. It is very messy and you'll be glad you're wearing an apron and gloves.
In an electric blender place all the above ingredients in order as written. Cover and blend 1 minute at top speed.
Pour a 1/4 inch layer of batter into 7 - 8 cup lightly buttered fireproof baking dish or Pyrex pie plate 1 1/2 inches deep  (I used a oven proof  china flan dish ).

Set over moderate heat (use an asbestos mat if dish is not fire proof) for a couple of minutes until the film of batter has set in the bottam of the dish. Remove from the heat. Spread the cherries over the batter. Pour on the rest of the batter.

Place in the middle of the oven and bake for about an hour. It is done when it has puffed and browned, and a needle or knife plunged in the centre comes out clean.

Sprinkle top with powdered sugar just before bringing it to the table. It need not be served hot but it should still be warm. It  will sink slightly as it cools.

Does it sound familiar?

It's Cherry Clafouti and it was delicious.

 

Blueberry Clafouti

Remember the Julie/Julia  project. I think of it when ever I pull out my Mastering The Art of French Cooking . I'm unlikely to ever cook the entire book  as Julie did but I do enjoy using it for the occasional recipe. The recipes are so detailed they are fool proof. This Blue berry Clafouti is from the book.

BLUEBERRY CLAFOUTI
1 1/4 cups milk
1/3 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups sifted all purpose flour

METHOD
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In an electric blender place all the above ingredients in order as written. Cover and blend 1 minute at top speed.
Pour a 1/4 inch layer of batter into 7 - 8 cup lightly buttered fireproof baking dish or Pyrex pie plate 1 1/2 inches deep  (I used a oven proof  china flan dish ).

Set over moderate heat (use an asbestos mat if dish is not fire proof) for a couple of minutes until the film of batter has set in the bottam of the dish. Remove from the heat. Spread the blueberries over the batter and sprinkle on an extra 1/3 cup granulated sugar. I omitted the extra sugar. Pour on the rest of the batter.

Place in the middle of the oven and bake for about an hour. The clafouti is done when it has puffed and browned, and a needle or knife plunged in the centre comes out clean. Mine was ready in about 35 minutes.

Sprinkle top with powdered sugar just before bringing it to the table. The clafouti need not be served hot but it should still be warm. It  will sink slightly as it cools.

Bad Bad Coffee

Over the years  I've spent a few lazy summer afternoons at O'Hagans Irish Pub  on the Auckland Waterfront.  When you fancy a beer and you're in the  Viaduct Basin   and not wearing your designer jeans, which is important in this part of town , O'Hagans is the place to go.  The clientele is a nice mix of locals and tourists with not a  poseur  in sight...unless you count those walking past to the trendy bars further along.

Great beer, bad coffee.   A  Flat White  should have only a smidgen of froth on the top. This was 2/3 coffee, 1/3 foam....and it was luke warm. 

The day didn't get much better when we decided to Yum Cha  it for lunch.  Despite the queue at Grand Harbour  we were given a table fairly quickly.   The clientele is mostly Asian but quite a few Europeans eat here also. So I don't understand why we were ignored for a good part of the time. Tables either side of us were offered dishes, we had to signal the waiters to come to our table.  Next time we'll take Asian friends along with us. Perhaps we'll get better service.  In the end we gave up and came home.

January 29th is Auckland Anniversary Day  and Auckland being the City of Sails  has a big regatta every year on this day. This year the celebration was combined with a farewell to the New Zealand  America's Cup  team.  With the competition being held in Valencia  there was quite a Spanish theme happening.  Here's a few photos taken today.Click on any to enlarge.

A little Puff - Gougere

When I was about nine years old and my mum was out I decided to make what we called Cream Puffs . You may know them as their more sophisticated name Profiteroles  .  Back then I did something wrong as the choux pastry was far to runny to stand up in a little peak on the oven tray. Thinking quickly I spooned the mixture into patty pan tins and they came out a little puffed but nothing as grand as they should have been. Filled with cream and dusted with icing sugar they were at least edible.

Some years later I read about a savoury version  called  Gougere . I knew someday I would make them, especially after I saw them here and  here . That day finally came this week when I decided they would be perfect for trying out my Christmas  present.

Everything was going along smoothly, I started adding the eggs and whoops I added a little too much egg and yes my choux pastry again collapsed in a heap on the oven tray.  Grabbing some tiny paper baking cases I quickly started tea spooning and baking.....and they turned out perfect little crispy, cheesy puffs.   Being dressed in their  little paper dresses they freeze well and can just be quickly reheated in the oven  for a minute or two to have with your pre dinner drink.

The recipe I used can be found here.  My tip is to add the egg slowly and do not be tempted to mix it all in. Stop adding egg when you feel the choux is the right consistency to stay up.

Then I couldn't get the new lens to do what I wanted it too so resorted back to my old one. I'm still working on producing a picture with the macro I'm happy to share.

HHDD#9 Soufflé

Here's my entry for Hay Hay Its Donna Day .  A little overcooked because I resisted the urge to peek and then left it too long.  I also didn't fill the dish high enough because I was worried it would fall over the sides and dirty the floor of my beautiful CLEAN new oven.

Thank you to Tami for hosting the first of the 2007 challenges of  Hay Hay Its Donna Day. If you haven't entered yet pop over and get the recipe and rules from Tami at Running With Tweezers . You have until 27th January to post your entries. Tami will post the round up on 3rd February and voting will begin with a winner to be announced on 10th February. Good luck.

Lunch With Arfi

Arfi lives on a small farm  about one and a half hours, depending on how fast your drive, from my house in Takapuna .   The view is green and the air is clean. I love to visit and breath some of that wonderful air. An added bonus is Arfi is a very good cook.   Check out the wonderful lunch  Arfi made for us on Saturday.   The lemon pineapple drink was so refreshing  I can see I'll have to buy a big glass jug and serve it at home. 

Her orchard is full of wonderful plums, apples, pears, peaches all ready to eat and waiting in the wings grapes, kiwifruit and  passion fruit .

 

Aren't the colours gorgeous? After I arrived home  I ate this peach over the kitchen sink as the juice dribbled down my chin.

A Day On Waiheke

Every 8 weeks or so I meet with a group of 5 other women. Usually we go to a city café and chat over a long lunch.  Our ages range from thirty - sixty and our countries of birth cover Fiji, Japan, New Zealand, Scotland and Australia.  We are from diverse backgrounds but we all have one think in common. We've all had cancer - one colon cancer, one lymphoma, one brain tumor and three breast cancers.   
This month being school holidays   we decided to meet at the home of one of the women who lives on Waiheke Island .  Several of the women have school age children and they would be able to come along for the day.  Waiheke is a nice relaxing 40 minute ferry ride from Auckland, the air is clean and the atmosphere relaxed.  We all took along something to share for lunch and with so many nationalities we had an interesting mix of food.  I took along a Greek Salad which is almost Australian!

Menu For Hope Winner

My donation for the Menu For Hope  has been won by Cindy at Where's The Beef . Cindy lives in Melbourne and writes about vegetarian food. Drop by and say hi to her.

Cindy - the book is in the mail. I hope you enjoy it.

Thank you to all my readers who bought tickets in the raffle. There is a list of all the prize winners over at Chez Pim.  Between us and with your help we raised US$60,0000.   Fantastic.

Sam's CarrOT PluOT Soup

This looked rather interesting over at Sam's  so I thought I'd give it a try using fresh apricots and plums.  It turned out a little sour (which is not a bad thing for a soup) and due possibly to the New Zealand way of putting stone fruit into the shops before it is fully ripe.  Bugs me greatly because whilst the fruit looks great,  you need to leave it sitting on the bench and wait for it to ripen. After a few days you try one and nope still not ripe, give it another day and it starts to go mouldy and you end up throwing half out and stewing the rest. And all you wanted was to sink your teeth into a juicy white peach and bring back memories of that little village you drove through in the south of France.

Because of its tartness I thought it might benefit from a  sour cream topping as I only keep non sweetened yogurt in the fridge.  Check out Sam's place for the recipe.

Hay Hay It's Donna Day 2007

Tami  our host for  HHDD#9, has announced  the  recipe   she has chosen for the event. Congratulations to Tami on being a second time winner of Hay Hay It's Donna Day. Thank you to   Cenzina for hosting the last event featuring Risotto.

Here's your chance to bake something large and fluffy. Visit Tami at  Running With Tweezers for the details.  We are looking forward to lots of lovely soufflés.

Sour Cream Mini Cornmeal Cakes

These little cakes started out life with Tanna  as Lemon Cornmeal Cake .   Tanna's cake is spectacularly  baked in a rose  Bundt pan.   With only three of us in the house we would be very fat if we ate cakes like this every day.  It is much easier to freeze muffin shaped cakes than a slice of Bundt pan shaped cake.....and they would cook in 20 minutes and we could eat them so much sooner.  With the  ingredients  I had in the cupboard I played around with the original recipe Tanna had used by Trish Boyle from the Cake Book.  This size is perfect to enjoy with a cup of tea mid morning or maybe mid afternoon or maybe after dinner.

Sour Cream  Cornmeal Mini Cakes
150 g  all purpose flour
150 g  stone ground yellow cornmeal
200g granulated sugar
2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt
3 lg eggs
360 g plain unsweetened yogurt
170 g  unsalted butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla paste
1 tablespoon Grand Marnier

Preheat oven to 180C or 350F.
Grease and flour 2 x 12 muffin pans.
Mix together flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder & salt.
Whisk eggs.
Add sour cream, whisk until combined.
Add melted butter and blend.
Add vanilla and Grand Marnier and mix until combined.
Fold wet ingredients into dry until just blended.
Spoon into muffin tins.
Bake 20 minutes or until tops ares lightly golden and toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Cool on wire rack and serve dusted with icing sugar.

Home Cooking and Other Things

When my sister in law Carol (of South African heritage) said she had made a special South African dessert called "cook sister" that was how I imagined it was spelt.  You would wouldn't you because of Jeanne and her blog .

The spelling is actually  "koeksuster" . They are made of  pastry which is plaited , deep fried then immediately immersed in chilled syrup.  Delicious and let's not even think about the calories. It was Christmas after all.

Does a healthy breakfast compensate all that sugar? I think so.  At the end of our stay we spent a few days in Perth with my cousin Jan Marie  and her husband David.   This was the breakfast Jan Marie served. I love Bircher Muesli  and often order it when we breakfast out.  You have to be organised to have it at home.  Like make it before you go to bed.  So back home I got organised and we now have it every morning.  It makes a nice change from our usual porridge and is perfect for summer.

Our home away from home while in Perth was the  Brew-ha  in Subiaco, just a short stroll from David and Jan Marie's  lovely home.  It was way too hot to sit at a pavement table so we sat out in  the back space  where the beans are roasted.   With cooling overhead fans, potted palms and cane furniture it felt more like Singapore than Perth.

It was at the Brew-ha we organised to meet up with the legendary Man That Cooks , sometimes known as Spiceman, but also called Anthony.  We swapped foodie gifts. For me copies of the last two issues of Spice , the magazine Anthony edits, and for Anthony some of my homemade Rhubarb Jelly .

The last couple of photos I'd like to share were taken on the Busselton jetty.  As a child Busselton is where I spent my holidays. My Grandparents had a home on the beach not far from the jetty.  The sand dunes I once played in have become a road along the beach front and the land prices have increased significantly.

Busselton Jetty  is around 1.8 K in length.  It is worth the walk out to the very end  to visit  the Underwater Observatory . The conducted tour will take you down several levels under the ocean where you will learn the history of the jetty and a little about the sea life you will see. If  I lived in Busselton I'd want to do this every day (there is a cost of $20 per person) as it is one of the most calming experiences I've had.

I almost forgot. Last but not least - Aileen's Vanilla Crescents

 

Takuu - The Sinking Island

This picture,taken in the 1970's,  is Takuu ,  a small atoll off the east coast of Bourgainville in Papua New Guinea.  Zane, the son of my dear friend Jenny , is on the island filming a documentary on the people of Takuu and the sinking of their island caused by the shifting of two tectonic plates.

Check out their blog on how they find life on the atoll. It is fascinating.

Takuu Film

Restaurant Dining Western Australia

Here's a few of our eating experiences in Western Australia.

Australia does seafood so well.   Especially  calamari.  This is the one at at the Boatshed  Restaurant in Mandurah. 

We discovered  868 Gourmet  in Victoria Park  where the coffee is good, the cakes delicious and the staff  friendly.

My evening food photos have not turned out as well as I would have hoped.  The cheese plate at Bouchon Bistro   Cambridge Street, Wembley is the best photo of our meal there.  Again Seafood was our choice and we all ordered the scampi .

Saffron fettuccine with salmon and basil at Etro  49 King Street, Perth.

The back of the menu where we spent our last night, a little Nepalese restaurant  Annapurna   in Subiaco.  The restaurant was dark and noisy but the food was delicious . It is BYO and I like being able to take my wine of choice rather than rely on the restaurant selection.

Other places we would recommend but I don't have photos were.

Veritas  in Highgate. The Beaufort Street Merchant in Highgate.  The Goose at Busselton.

I'll be posting more food stories  later so come by in a few days to see Jan Marie's muesli and Carol's koeksuster.

 

I'm Back

Here's a few photos from our time in Western Australia. 

 

Corn Bread Muffins

CORN BREAD MUFFINS (adapted from the back of he Heatheries box)
1 cup fine cornmeal
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 eggs
1/4 cup oil
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup  corn kernels
1/4 cup diced red capsicum
2 cups grated cheese

Preheat oven to 190C
Place all the dry ingredients in a bowl.
In a separate bowl mix  eggs, oil and sour cream and beat until smooth.
Add to dry ingredients with the corn, capsicum and 1 1/2 cups of cheese.
Fold gently until mixed.
Spoon into muffin tins and sprinkle with the remaining cheese.
Bake about 15 minutes or until a cooked.

Happy New Year

HAPPY NEW YEAR