O ... what a night.

Having been slapped over the wrists for not posting sooner, my apologies. "O" was a very tasty letter as there were some very good options to choose from. My menu was a 3 course meal, soup for entree, salad for mains and a delicious cake for dessert.

French Onion Soup
This soup was made with a little bit of help from Heston Blumenthal and a little bit of help from Matt Preston. Heston wanted 7 hours of my time and Matt only wanted 1 hour. I compromised and went with 3 hours and shared recipes.

Grapeseed oil
1kg brown onions, peeled and sliced
2 star anise
30g unsalted butter
150g dry white wine
1 litre of beef stock
500g shallots
a slurp of red wine

Croutons
a few slices of sourdough bread
unsalted butter for frying
Dijon mustard
100g gruyere cheese grated
1tbs chopped chives

1. Preheat oven to 90C. 
2. To start, layer a thin layer of oil on the base of a casserole dish over a medium heat. and sweat the onions with the star anise until lightly caramelised (approx 15 min), stirring regularly. 
3. Add the butter and 25g of cold water, stir and put the dish covered in the oven for 3 hours (Heston says 7 hours and Matt says 1 hour. I put it in the oven for 3 hours)
4. After the oven time, remove the star anise and discard. Place the dish over a high heat and deglaze the onions with the wine. Allow to reduce until almost dry.
5. Add the stock and simmer for 20 minutes. Add some red wine if you want at this point and simmer for a further 20 minutes.
6. When ready to serve, fry the slices of sourdough bread in a little melted butter over a medium heat until golden and crisp. Spread each slice with Dijon mustard, then cover them with cheese and sprinkle with chopped chives.
7. Ladle soup into bowls and place slices of cheese topped croutons on top. Place under the grill until the cheese turns golden brown.

For the main course I returned to an old favourite, Orange and Poppy-seed salad with Spanish Pork. You can find the recipe at the following link. http://oitcfood.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/anyone-for-some-orange.html

Olive Oil Chocolate Cake

150 ml regular olive oil (plus more for greasing)
50 grams cocoa
125 ml boiling water
2 teaspoons best vanilla extract
150 g ground almonds (or 125g plain flour / 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour)
½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1 pinch of salt
200 grams caster sugar
3 large eggs

1. Preheat your oven to 170°C. Grease a 22 or 23 cm/ 9inch springform tin with a little oil and line the base with baking parchment.
2. Sift the cocoa into a bowl or jug and whisk in the boiling water until you have a smooth, chocolatey, still runny (but only just) paste. Whisk in the vanilla extract, then set aside to cool a little.
3. In another smallish bowl, combine the ground almonds (or flour) with the bicarbonate of soda and pinch of salt.
4. Put the sugar, olive oil and eggs into the bowl of a mixer and beat together vigorously for about 3 minutes until you have a pale-primrose, aerated and thickened cream.
5. Turn the speed down a little and pour in the cocoa mixture, beating as you go, and when all is scraped in you can slowly tip in the ground almond (or flour) mixture.
6. Scrape down, and stir a little with a spatula, then pour into the prepared tin. 
7. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until the sides are set and the very centre, on top, still looks slightly damp. A cake tester should come up mainly clean.
8. Let it cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack, still in its tin, and then ease the sides of the cake with a small metal spatula and spring it out of the tin. Leave to cool completely or eat while still warm with some ice cream, as a pudding.

Na na na na na na na na, naan bread!

It's finally getting cooler here in south east Queensland and that makes me think of one thing - curry!  My letter to cook with this week was 'N' and I could have been boring and cooked nachos, with all the usual accompaniments, but nooooooo!  Instead, I started the day before and cooked up a Northern Indian Curry and home made Naan Bread.  Whilst some of my friends (Elaine!) think 'Northern' Indian Curry is a cop out as an 'N' dish, I can assure you that I don't really care, because it was so delicious and for me, it was more about trying something new and making my own naan.  The naan was easy to make, easy to cook (on the pizza stone or I've heard some people use their wok), and it was most definitely easy to eat.  Of course, being 'N' there had to be nuts to nibble on, as well as Nutella, in the form of a baked cheesecake. 

Northern Indian Curry (adapted from Jamie Oliver)

Vegetable oil
1 large brown onion, roughly chopped
2 - 3cm piece of ginger, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed or finely chopped
2 green chillies, seeds removed, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 - 1 teaspoon chilli powder (or half cayenne pepper and half chilli powder - to your liking)
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
2 cloves
2 cardamom pods
750g Lamb neck, cut into 4 - 5 cm chunks
2 x 400g tinned diced tomatoes
1 cinnamon quill
2 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon garam masala
coriander, to serve

1. Heat some vegetable oil in a large casserole dish over a medium heat (on the stove). Add onion and ginger and fry for 10 minutes until golden.
2. Add garlic and green chillies, and fry for a further 2 minutes.
3. Stir in turmeric, chilli powder, cumin, coriander, cloves and cardamom. Cook for about 5 minutes.
4. Add lamb and toss to coat in all the spices. Fry until meat is sealed and starting to colour (about 10 minutes).
5. Stir in tomatoes, cinnamon and bay leaves. Bring to a simmer.
6. Cover with lid, reduce heat to low and cook for 1 1/2 - 2 hours or until meat is starting to fall apart. Stir periodically. You can also transfer the covered casserole dish to a 180C preheated oven at this point, and cook for the same length of time.
7. Remove lid and stir. If it's too watery, turn stove heat to medium, remove lid and allow to reduce for 5 - 10 minutes.
8. Sprinkle with garam masala and coriander leaves. Serve with rice pilaf. mint yoghurt and naan.

Notes

1. Buy about 1.25kg of lamb neck from the supermarket or butcher. As when you cut it off the bone there is quite a bit of waste.
2. You can start this curry the day before and stop at the end of Step 5, then cover and refrigerate overnight. The next day, remove casserole dish from refrigerator, stir and allow to sit on the bench for 10 - 15 minutes, before putting it on a cold element on the stove. Turn the element to low and slowly bring the pot up to temperature (so it doesn't crack!). Then let it cook away till the meat is falling off the bone, as above.

Naan Bread (makes 4)
250g pizza/bread flour
7g sachet (2 teaspoons) dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
100g natural or Greek yoghurt
90ml (3/4 cup) luke warm water
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
20g butter, melted
1 tablespoon sesame seeds

1. Mix flour, yeast, salt and sugar. Add water, oil and yoghurt and mix well.
2. Knead for 4 - 5  minutes, until dough is smooth. It will be a bit stickier than pizza/bread dough.
3. Place dough ball in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and leave in a warm place for about an hour, until it's doubled in size.
4. Preheat oven and pizza stone to 250C. (Do this now so your pizza stone is piping hot when naan dough goes on.)
5. Divide dough into 4 portions and flatten out (by hand) into desired shape.  Sprinkle both sides with flour.
6. Place dough pieces onto preheated pizza stone and cook 4 - 5 minutes each side, until puffed and light golden. If you don't have a pizza stone you can use a preheated (15 mins) oven tray.
7. Combine melted butter and sesame seeds. Brush this over one side of naan once removed from oven.

Nutella Cheesecake
125g plain chocolate biscuits (I used Arnott's Choc Ripple)
60g unsalted butter, melted
250g philadelphia cream cheese
50g (1/4 cup) caster sugar
1 tablespoon plain flour
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
150mL thickened cream
100g Nutella
50g hazelnuts, roasted, skins removed and lightly crushed

1. Grease base and sides of four small loose-bottomed (individual) tart tins.  Line the base with baking paper.
2. Crush chocolate biscuits to a fine crumb and add to melted butter.  Mix well to combine.
3. Press into the base of the prepared tins. Refrigerate for at 30 minutes or until firm.
4. Preheat oven to 140C.
5. Using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese, sugar and flour for 3 - 4 minutes until smooth.  
6. Add eggs, vanilla and cream and beat 1 - 2 minutes until combined.
7. Add Nutella and beat 2 - 3 minutes until combined. 
8. Pour the cream cheese mixture over the chocolate base and smooth the tops.  Place individual tins onto a baking tray and bake for 50 - 60 minutes, until almost set in the middle.
9. Turn off the oven and leave the cheesecakes in the oven, with door ajar for 1 - 2 hours or until completely cooled. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until set.
10. To serve: top with roasted hazelnuts, flaked chocolate and cream.

To make one large cheesecake, double the ingredients above and use a 23 - 24cm springform or loose-based tart tin.

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Moroccan Magic

I just love the flavour of Moroccan food. What an easy choice for the letter 'M'. The spices are just to die for, and the really good thing with this dish is that it doesn't have a long cooking time because the sauce is cooked first and then the meatballs are poached in it. Dessert was quite an easy choice as well, as Macadamias are my favourite nut. So dinner tonight was Spicy Kefta Tagine with Lemon and Macadamia Nut Mess.


Spicy Kefta Tagine with Lemon

The Kefta
450g finely minced beef or lamb (I chose beef as there was no lamb)
1 onion finely chopped
leaves from a small bunch of flat leaf parsley
1-2 tsp of ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp of ground coriander
1 tsp cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste

To make the kefta, pound the mince meat with your knuckles in a bowl. Using your hands lift up the lump of mince and start throwing it into the bowl, this is so therapeutic after a hard day at school. Add the remaining ingredients and mix and knead together. You can also pound the mince as before by lifting up and throwing it into the bowl. Take pieces of the mixture and shape them into walnut sized balls. You should end up with about 16 kefta.

The Sauce
1 tbsp of olive oil and butter
1 onion roughly chopped
2-3 garlic cloves crushed
thumb size piece of ginger, peeled, finely chopped
1 red chilli, thinly sliced
2 tsp ground turmeric
leaves of a small bunch of fresh coriander chopped
leaves of a small bunch of fresh mint chopped
freshly squeezed juice of a lemon
1 lemon cut into wedges pips removed

Heat the oil and the butter in a tagine or heavy based casserole. Stir in the onion, garlic, ginger, and chilli and saute until they begin to brown. Add the turmeric, half the coriander and the mint, and pour in 300ml of water. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat and simmer, covered for 10 minutes. Carefully place the kefta in the liquid, cover and poach for about 15 minutes, rolling them in the liquid from time to time so they are cooked well on all sides. Pour over the lemon juice, season the liquid with salt and tuck the lemon wedges around. Poach for a further 10 minutes.

Sprinkle with remaining coriander and mint and serve with cous cous. I used pearl cous cous and flavoured it with shaved almonds toasted, coriander, chilli and garlic. I also used vegetable stock to cook the cous cous.

Macadamia Nut Mess

Meringue
4 egg whites at room temp
a pinch of salt
220g caster sugar

Caramel sauce
1 cup of brown sugar
small tub of cream

Vanilla Ice cream
Macadamia Nuts, chopped and whole

Preheat oven to 120C. Using a beater on high speed, whisk the egg whites and the salt to soft peaks. Reduce the speed to medium and slowly add the sugar in a fine stream to ensure it gets properly incorporated into the meringue. When you've added all the sugar, keep beating for a couple of minutes until the meringue looks thick and glossy. Lightly grease a baking tray. Line with baking paper. Dollop the meringue onto the trays in generous tablespoonfuls, leaving space between to allow for spreading. Pop in the oven for 20 minutes or until they have turned golden and crisp on the outside. Then turn oven off and leave in the oven to dry out.

Toast the macadamias under the griller or bylightly dry frying them in a frypan.

To make the caramel sauce put the brown sugar in a saucepan on a medium heat and add some cream. Add the cream in bits till you think that it is thick enough for your tastes - basically I just experimented with it, lol. Good luck.

To make the mess, I layered all the ingredients and drizzled the caramel sauce. Yummo and then add some more macadamias.

Enjoy.