A Passionfruit parfait by any other name

Passionfruit Parfait. Or should that be Passion-a-misu?

Actually, this dessert is simplified from a recipe by MasterChef Australia contestant Marion Grasby, and she calls it 'Passionfruit and Macadamia Cups'.  A rather innocuous name for a dessert with higher leanings? It certainly looks impressive, with layers of vanilla yoghurt, sponge fingers, macadamias and passionfruit.

Marion's version has yoghurt pastry cream and honey-roasted macadamias, but I couldn't find any honey-roasted nuts, and I didn't have SIX eggyolks to make the pastry cream. So I improvised. Somewhat successfully, I hope.

Now, back to the names.  How about

Tropical Nut Cup

or Yes, sir, we have no Bananas

or Passio-Yogo

or Passion-nut about You?

I'll stop now!

Passionfruit Parfait
serves 2

Ingredients
6 sponge finger biscuits (Savoiardi)
50g unsalted macadamia nuts
100ml vanilla-flavoured yoghurt
3 tblsp passionfruit pulp

Ginger syrup:
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup water
1/2 tblsp finely grated ginger

Method
1. For the ginger syrup: Place the sugar, water and ginger into a small pan over low heat.  Stir for 5 minutes or until the sugar dissolves.  Transfer to a heatproof bowl and cool.
2.  To assemble the parfait:  Break each sponge finger in half and dip into the ginger syrup and divide among 2 cups or glasses.  Put a teaspoon of passionfruit pulp on next, followed by some macadamias, then a tablespoon of vanilla yoghurt.  Repeat with the remaining sponge fingers, ginger syrup, passionfruit, macadamias and yoghurt.  Reserve some passionfruit pulp to drizzle on top.

recipe adapted from MasterChef magazine (November 2010)

Ingredients, including prepared ginger syrup, macadamias, savoiardi biscuits, vanilla yoghurt and passionfruit pulp that I bought ages ago for a recipe I forgot to make (passionfruit tart?).

Everything is just layered into a glass. 

Another pretty dessert that looks a lot more effort than it takes.

Poh's Kitchen Steamed egg custard

 You say 'chawanmushi', I say 'egg custard', let's call the whole thing off...

Wait a cotton-pickin' minute! Before we call it off, let me tell you about these egg custards. There are Chinese and Japanese versions of this dish ('chawanmushi' means 'teacup steamed' in Japanese), and it's one of those things that you'd think are a bit of a wishy-washy, not-quite-a-dinner type dish until you try it on a cold night and it warms you right up.

I had a beautifully smooth chawanmushi at Shoya restaurant in Melbourne, but have never thought to make it myself.  Then I spied the Poh's Kitchen version and was converted.  This recipe is from MasterChef runner-up Poh's new cookbook (the same recipe and photos are also in November delicious magazine).  Poh also writes that century or salted duck eggs can be added to the custard, and guess what? I had a duck egg on hand (what are the chances?!) so in it went.  It gave a real boost to the dish, so if you can find a suitable duck egg, please bung it in.

Steamed egg custard with prawns and shiitake
serves 4

Ingredients
160g prawn meat, chopped
2 tsp shaohsing (Chinese rice wine)
1/2 tsp caster sugar
pinch of white pepper
1 tsp soy sauce
4 large free-range eggs
1 1/4 cups (310ml) chicken stock
4 large or 12 small dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in hot water for 20 mins, drained, squeezed, stems removed, sliced
1 century duck egg, chopped (optional)
1 spring onion, finely sliced
2 tsp light soy sauce

Method
1.  Half-fill a wok or saucepan with water. Top with a bamboo or metal steamer that will hold 4 small bowls or 1-cup ramekins. Bring the water to the boil then reduce to a simmer.
2.  Meanwhile, combine prawns, shaohsing, sugar. pepper and soy sauce and set aside to marinate for 10 minutes.
3.  In a bowl, briefly mix the eggs, chicken stock and a pinch each of salt and pepper. Hint: Use a pair of chopsticks to do slow figures of eight to mix; don't whisk heavily or bubbles will form.
4.  Divide prawns and marinade, shiitake, century duck egg (if using) and egg/stock mixture into the bowls and steam with the lid on for 7-10 minutes.  When done, the custards should be opaque and creamy in colour and still a bit wobbly.
5.  Remove bowls from the steamer and sprinkle with spring onion and some light soy sauce.  Serve while hot.

Recipe adapted from delicious (November 2010)

Ingredients, including eggs, prawns, shiitake mushrooms, spring onion, chicken stock, soy sauce and shaohsing wine. 

 I also added a century duck egg that I picked up on our tour of Cabramatta.  Look at the coffee-brown egg albumen. The yolk was a granite grey colour that would be scary if you didn't know what to expect!
The regular hen eggs are lightly whisked with chicken stock.

The egg custards can be prepared using ramekins or teacups.  It's a more substantial dish if you use 1-cup capacity bowls or ramekins, though.

Closeup view of the silky egg custard.

And can you see the star-shaped markings on the century duck egg? Like snowflakes...
The marinating of the prawns beforehand imparts a beautiful flavour to the meat and also the egg custard.

Partly vego - Miso Eggplant

Another day, another cookbook.  Yes, I bought another one, and I swear it will be the last (for this week, at least!).

My latest purchase is by Gary Mehigan and George Calombaris, hosts of MasterChef Australia.  The book is titled 'Your Place Or Mine' and contains 86 recipes featuring 43 ingredients, with George and Gary each providing a recipe for each ingredient. But what really drew me to the book was the styling and photography - the food is set up by Caroline Velik, one of my favourite food stylists (and she cooks, too) and it looks amazing. The photos (by Mark Chew and Simon Griffiths) are bright, big and clear and just make you want to pick up a knife and pan start cooking.

The recipes themselves run the gamut of traditional (twice-baked Gruyere souffles) through to more contemporary (carrot cake with black olive caramel - this one looks really good, must try it soon). 
The dish I tried here is by Gary, from the Eggplant chapter of the book, and it's miso plopped on eggplant, served in a dashi/miso broth.  I've changed the recipe as it originally uses brown-rice miso and I only had white miso. I also adjusted the measurements because I found the original too salty, and the way he describes cutting the eggplant didn't make sense and didn't match the photo.  Despite the changes (or maybe because of them), the final result is a gorgeous, mouth-watering vegetable delight.

Postscript: I was just reading a thought-provoking post by Stella from The Witchy Kitchen on the reasons (and benefits) of becoming vegetarian.  Most interesting and quite motivating. 
Stella, this (vegetarian) eggplant's for you!


Miso with Eggplant
serves 2

Ingredients
1 heaped tablespoon white miso paste
1 tblsp caster sugar
75ml mirin
100ml boiling water
7g dashi powder or for vegetarian, use kombu (dried kelp) dashi; recipe here
1 tsp sesame oil
1 cup fresh or frozen edamame (soy beans), removed from pods
1 large or 2 small-medium eggplant (aubergine)
200ml vegetable oil or rice bran oil
bonito flakes or fried shallots, to garnish

Method
1.  For the miso sauce: Mix the miso and sugar in a small saucepan. Add the mirin a little at a time. Stir over low heat for 10 minutes or until the mixture thickens and forms a paste.  Remove from the heat and set aside.
2.  For the dashi broth: Transfer 1 tablespoon of the miso mixture to a bowl.  Mix the boiling water with the dashi powder then add to the bowl together with the sesame oil.  Mix and set aside.
3.  For the edamame: Bring a saucepan of water to the boil.  Add a pinch of salt and the edamame beans and boil for 2 minutes, then drain.  Season with salt flakes and set aside.
4.  For the eggplant: Cut the eggplants into 2cm (1 inch) slices, then score in a crisscross patten on the diagonal about 1cm into the eggplant.  Heat the oil in a large, heavy-based saucepan to 180C, then lower the eggplant carefully into the pan and cook for 5 minutes.  Reduce heat to low-medium and turn the eggplants over.  Cook for a further 5 minutes or until tender.  Drain really well on paper towels.
5.  To serve: Spread the cooked eggplant slices with miso sauce, then place in a bowl.  Scatter with the edamame, pour a little of the dashi broth around it, sprinkle with bonito flakes or fried shallot, and serve.

Recipe adapted from Your Place or Mine (Penguin Books).

Ingredients, including eggplant, frozen edamame, dashi powder, mirin and white miso.

And the boys' cookbook.

The edamame are boiled from frozen; the miso sauce is a rich, salty mixture of miso, sugar and mirin.

Serve the eggplant in a bowl with the broth poured around.

Sprinkle with bonito flakes (or fried shallots, as shown here).

Cakes! Black Star-Cupcake Factory-Zumbo

While waiting for the new Zumbo cake range to hit the shelves, I did something traitorous different and visited some alternative cakeshops...

Firstly, Black Star Pastry in Newtown:

Black Star Pastry (277 Australia St, Newtown, NSW. Open Tue-Sun 7am-5pm) is a tiny patisserie/cafe with some seating outside on the footpath and a nice selection of cakes, pastries and pies inside the shop. 

The ginger ninja is the famed gingerbread guy that comes with or without a chocolate ninja suit - the countergirl said that the chocolate ninja was better, which is why I got two - neither lasted the trip home, with some damage to the ninja's nether regions being done while waiting at Newtown Station...

The gingerbread ninjas (about $4 each) were sublime, with a soft, almost creamy texture, and a 'just right' hit of ginger.

Also purchased and consumed were two canelles and a little Persian fig cake with quince and pistachios (approx $4).  The canelles (approx $3 each) were only alright, as they were a bit too cooked for my liking.  The Persian cake, on the other hand, tasted as sweetly inviting as it looked. 

Not much later, I ventured into the Cupcake Factory:

This Cupcake Factory outlet is just inside Balmain Mall (298 Darling St, Balmain, NSW), and right next door to the Adriano Zumbo Cafe Chocolat.  I'd imagine it is ideally located to get some of the overflow from the Zumbo cafe though on the times I've walked past, it's been mainly empty.

But how are the cupcakes?  Are we over cupcakes yet?? Not if they're as good as these!

The store is filled with mini cupcakes ($1 each) and normal cupcakes ($3.50 each), on cupcake holders and in a cabinet.  I like the thoughtful tissue-lined carrybox, too.

I bought the strawberry cupcake because its head of strawberry chocolate curls reminded me of Mrs Thurston Howell III's bathing cap.  The caramel cupcake was topped with lovely caramel-flavoured buttercream and a jersey caramel. Both cakes, incidentally, are moist and vanilla-flavoured, which counteracts the sweetness of the icing.

There are lots of other flavours to try, and it's an ideal place to grab a well-priced snack if you couldn't be bothered with the queues at Zumbo's.

Speaking of which, I haven't been backward in sampling the latest Adriano Zumbo (Winter 2010) range.  And here is something to whet your appetite:

This is Mandarin and Rose. 

Others that I've had (and enjoyed very much) are:

Wheelie Woman

Lola

I'll get back to you, Barry

Blackcurrant

Shabalicious

Ginger

Grains

Black Pearl 

Hommus

What a great pear of... (aka Pear Perfection from Junior MasterChef finale)

I will be updating my tumblr site with more Zumbo cakes as I try them. 

Please try and keep up!

MasterChef Australia Cookbook: First recipe and it's a winner

Today, I was thrilled and excited to receive a copy of the MasterChef Australia Cookbook (Volume 1).  Thanks to Mel (representing Adriano Zumbo) and Random House (publishers), it arrived in time for me to rush home and whip up a recipe from one of the MasterChef contestants.

So what is the book like?  It covers the basics, such as how to julienne a carrot and make stock, through to the recipe for Adriano Zumbo's croqembouche and Matt Moran's chocolate tart.  And everything in between.  The dishes made by the contestants are also featured, and it's fun to relive those episodes from the television series (I'd forgotten that Aaron made a lychee and raspberry Ispahan) - and the text in the book contains quotes from the contestants, as well.

The photos in the book are wonderful, with the closeup detail of the celebrity chefs' dishes being particularly good.  Of course, there are also lots of pictures of the MasterChef contestants, though they don't overwhelm what is essentially a cookbook.  Sprinkled throughout are useful tips from the chefs and judges, such as how to weigh eggwhites, and not to cover your pig's head when it's resting (it will cause leathery skin if you do: 'Steam is the enemy of crackle' - Matt Preston).

Living out my fantasy of being on MasterChef Australia

Premiering tonight is Sam's chicken and rosti dish.  This was mainly because it looked good, and I needed something quick for dinner.  Sam says in the book that the dish was part of the invention test for which they had 45 minutes.  Mine took about an hour, all because I had to stop and take photos (that's my excuse, at least).  I also changed the recipe slightly to use chicken pieces  (2 thighs and 2 drumsticks) instead of a whole chicken. 

The final dish was fantastic - the chicken was moist, the tomatoes were sweet and caramelly, and the rosti were cooked to perfection.  In the words of judge George Calombaris, 'I could eat a whole plate of this'.  Well, it is dinner after all...

Sam's pan-roasted chicken with potato and zucchini rosti
serves 2

Ingredients
2 chicken thighs on the bone, and 2 drumsticks, skin on
2 tbs olive oil
8 cherry truss tomatoes, stem attached
1/4 tsp rosemary
4 tbs butter
1/4 cup flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
2 medium scrubbed potatoes, eg. coliban, desiree, grated
2 medium zucchini, grated
1/4 tsp crushed garlic
oil, to shallow fry

Method
1.  Preheat oven to 180 deg C.  Drizzle chicken with oil and season with salt and pepper.  Heat a large ovenproof  frying pan over high heat, add chicken and brown on both sides.
2.  Place pan in the oven and cook for 10 minutes.  Add cherry tomatoes and rosemary to the pan and cook for a further 10-15 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through.
3.  Meanwhile, mix the butter with the parsley until combined.  Put the mixture into some cling wrap, roll into a log shape and seal.  Chill in refrigerator.
4.  Squeeze as much liquid as possible from the grated potato and zucchini.  Place in a bowl with the garlic and season with salt and pepper.
5.  Heat about 3mm of oil in a large frying pan over medium heat.  Divide potato mixture into 4 portions and roll into a ball.  Flatten them out and place  in the pan and cook for 5-6 minutes on each side, or until golden.
6.  To 'plate up', place a fritter on the plate, and top with chicken pieces.  Top with parsley butter and serve with tomatoes.

Recipe adapted from MasterChef Australia The Cookbook (Vol 1)

Pan frying the chicken before baking in the with the tomatoes.  You will notice that I am using the STOVEN part of my Microstoven pan for this.  The zucchini and potato rosti are then pan-fried.

The cherry truss tomatoes were fantastic - being baked in chicken juices definitely helped.

Good one, Sam!  This is a great simple dish, and a worth winner of the first invention test.

Other recipes I'm keen to try are Justine's lamb roulade and Matt Moran and Andrew Honeysett's warm pear tart.  Poh's Buddha's delight with its fried gluten and vegetables is another one that leaps out.  I'm feeling rather inspired now, and I suppose that's the sign of a good cookbook.

Pressure Test pasta

As I’ve mentioned previously, I always seem to miss watching a complete episode of MasterChef Australia. Well, there was no way I was going to miss it today, because Adriano Zumbo was in the episode, presenting a spectacular croquembouche that took him 1½ hours to make.

It was fun seeing Zumbo instructing the contestants on how to make the choux pastry and how to mix the crème patissier, and how to relieve their sugar-burnt fingers (keep a bowl of ice water nearby). It was just like his Cooking Class that we went to last year…

However, I did almost miss the episode because I was making dinner and I was running late, late, late! It was like experiencing my own personal Pressure Test

The cause of the drama was this Tuna Meatball Pasta. Not that difficult, but I used flavoured tuna, which is quite liquid-y and does not form the required ‘meatballs’ that well. But the flavour was amazing. And do NOT omit the lemon rind – it gives a wonderful zingy, fresh taste to the dish that has to be tasted to be believed. This pasta dish is a keeper.


Tuna Meatball and Pesto Pasta
Serves 4

Ingredients
400g spaghetti or linguine
2 x 185g cans tuna, drained (I used tomato and onion flavoured + tuna in brine – yum!)
1 cup (70g) fresh breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon chopped dill
¼ cup (40g) pine nuts
1 tblsp finely grated lemon rind
1 egg
1 tblsp olive oil
¾ cup (185ml) cream
¼ cup store-bought pesto (I used Wattle Valley Rocket Dip with Cashews – nice!)
Finely grated parmesan, to serve


Method
1. Cook pasta in salted boiling water until al dente (10-12 mins). Drain and keep warm.
2. Place tuna, breadcrumbs, dill, pine nuts, lemon rind and egg in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until just combined. Or mix in large bowl with a wooden spoon.
3. Roll tablespoons of the tuna mixture into balls.
4. Heat olive oil in a large non-stick frypan over high heat. Add the tuna balls and cook, turning, for 2-3 minutes or until golden.
5. Add the pesto, cream and pasta to the pan and toss to combine.
Sprinkle with parmesan before serving.

Recipe adapted from Donna Hay magazine (issue 45 June/July 2009)

Ingredients

Mix the tuna, breadcrumbs, lemon rind, egg, dill and pine nuts