plum crazy

As much as I adore being on holiday, returning to work does bring some kind of routine and structure back into life.  Conversely, with less time, more seems to get done.  I will, of course, be eating these words in a few weeks when it all gets too much for me and when I will be longing for another holiday.

Last year around this time, my first blog post ever featured plum jam.  Once again, the two plum trees are laden with plump fruit and the annual plum and vanilla jam has been made and I have stewed plums, freezing them in servable sizes for later use.

Looking for other ideas for plums, I spied Toast’s blog post on plum and lemon cake (here). Hardly waiting for breath, I made it as soon as I jumped off the blog.  Something I hardly ever do.  It was oh so quick and easy and such a gorgeous result.

Then I had a disastrous attempt at a recipe for Plum Clafoutis where the batter separated and although it was edible, it didn’t look good, and I couldn’t face it, so it got binned.

But my overall favourite would have to be this plum and chocolate slice that I adapted from a cherry, cream cheese and chocolate slice by Genevieve McGough –  from Cuisine magazine November 2005.

Food pleasure for me is often in direct relation to the amount of fat and sugar contained therein, so I was not surprised at my choice.  However, I did baulk more than a little when I read:

300g dark chocolate

300g butter

365g sugar

250g cream cheese

Okay, I baulked a lot.  Post-Christmas, I am trying to return to eating as usual which, much as I’d like it, doesn’t involve desserts, continuous chocolate treats and give us our wine, our daily wine, so the mere scanning of my eyes over these three ingredients set off an alarm. 

So what’s a girl to do?  I compromised and halved the recipe. Me and halving recipes is a bad combination.  It goes something like this. 

Mistake No. 1 – Not thinking

I’ve already measured the plums working on a whole recipe

Mistake No. 2 – I don’t write it down

I start off efficiently calculating half of 300g, 250g, etc.  then…

Mistake No. 3 – I forget

So when I get to, in this case, the water, I’m gaily sploshing in the full amount, and just as the chocolate, butter and water overdose are melting, I remember and start spooning out what I fathom is half the water, which by now has butter merging into it.  Oh dear…

All I am saying is don’t be like me.  Use the full recipe, which I’ve given here, or know what you’re doing.  Fortunately it all turned out exceedingly well in the end.

The original recipe was for cherries, so use them if you prefer (250g cherries, stalks removed, stoned and halved).  As plums have larger stones than cherries, I reckoned on 400g plums (which, as I mentioned above was my calculation for the whole recipe).  If you’ve any plum syrup left over, use as an addition to a breakfast of muesli and yogurt, or porridge or add to baking such as muffins, etc. I can vouch for it being yum!

So, what was the slice like?  Well worth making. I expect my version was a bit fruitier than the original (remembering I had the full portion of fruit and half the batter!) and that may have affected the texture, which was lighter than I expected. I absolutely loved it though and so did everyone else.  It had a rich, chocolatey-mousse taste, with the moistness of sweetened, but still somewhat tart, jammy plums and velvety cream cheese - reminiscent of a raspberry brownie. 

Honestly, the photograph does not do it justice and I intend to make it again soon!  I might even try a version omitting the cream cheese just to taste what that’s like. (That will be the low-fat version then?)

Sadly, once I’ve exhausted all the plum recipes (and myself), the neighbouring plum tree ripens and is left sad, lonely and neglected.  Well not really, I will try to pass them around but you would not believe how many times bags of plums, ready to donate to friends, family and work colleagues have been left behind on the kitchen table!

Plum tree with most of the plums picked or eaten by birds

plum and chocolate slice

400g plums

1¾ cup (365g) caster sugar

185ml water

300g dark chocolate (I used Whittaker’s Dark Ghana 72% cocoa)

300g butter

5 eggs

1 ½ cups (210g) plain flour

250g cream cheese

Preheat oven to 150°C.

Grease a 32cm x 22 x 5 baking tin and line with baking paper.

Halve and quarter plums, removing stalk and stones.

Place 50g of the sugar and 85ml of the water in a saucepan and bring to a simmer.  Add the plums and simmer for 10 minutes.  Leave to cool.

Melt chocolate, butter and remaining water in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water.  Stir to combine and leave to cool.

Whisk the eggs and remaining sugar on high speed in an electric mixer for about 10 minutes until all the sugar has dissolved.

Turn mixer to a slow speed and slowly pour in the chocolate mixture until is incorporated.  Switch off mixer, sift in flour and mix briefly with a wooden spoon until flour lumps are gone.

Pour batter into the prepared tin, dot with small blobs of cream cheese and the plums, then drizzle with a little of the plum syrup.

Bake 40-45 minutes or until mixture is cooked through and springs back when pressed lightly with your fingertips or until a skewer comes out with some of the mixture like wet crumbs rather than wet batter.

Leave to cool in the tin. 

Dust with icing sugar if you wish. Cut into squares.  Serve with yogurt or cream for dessert or with a cup of coffee or tea.

Adapted from a recipe by Genevieve McGough

Published in Cuisine magazine, November 2005

vanilla panna cotta with Piopio blueberries … and a year older

♫ Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me … ♫

That’s the blog singing, not me.  My birthday was lost somewhere between Christmas shopping, Christmas organization and travel plans. Either way, we’re both a year older.

Yes, last Tuesday 10 January was the first anniversary of eat, etc…

And, as if Food Gawker somehow knew 10 January was a special anniversary, my first attempt at a photographic submission, succeeded. Oh, happy days.  Click on the Food Gawker badge in the right hand column if you have no idea what I am talking about. There’s only one photo as yet but first birthdays are kind of special, don’t you think?

Thank you to each and every one of you who has taken the time to stop by.  Sometimes I feel like such a fraud being a food blogger, especially when others have so much more talent.  So I remind myself that I’m not pretending to be anything other than what I am – someone who likes to cook and bake and wants to write about it.  There. Now you know.

Okay, on to the main idea, a creamy little dessert. 

After the Christmas rush (refer paragraph two above and/or my last post if you really want to relive the details. I don’t.), New Year’s Day lunch was a combined celebration – my birthday, Christmas AND New Year - with my sister and her partner, and most of all it was going to be simple.

Panna cotta is one of those easy yet impressive desserts that you make in advance.  It is velvety smooth on the palate and creamy to taste. The cream should be flavoured softly to give just a delicate hint of what’s inside.  Then use what’s in season to accompany it or to decorate. 

We had purchased a 1-litre box of big fat blueberries from the Piopio Orchard on our trip back from Taranaki (and on our way down!). The blueberries are juicy, sweet and better than any blueberries I’ve ever tasted.  No bruised or shriveled ones here and they last really well.  They also sell strawberries, fruit ice creams and coffees.  No wonder they’re so popular. I texted a friend to say the only traffic jam we’d encountered on our way south was the one in the car park at the orchard! 

Back home on New Year’s Day, I didn’t bother to use moulds for the panna cottas (stressless lunch, remember?) but you are welcome to try.  They look just as appealing served in little glasses or ramekins.  Plus, you don’t have the “will they, won’t they slip out whole” factor. I served them with fat blueberries and star shaped sweet shortbread.

Another fine start to a New Year.

vanilla panna cotta with blueberries

3 tsp gelatine

2 tbsp warm water

375ml (1 ½ cups) cream

375ml (1 ½ cups) milk

75g (1/3 cup) caster sugar

1 vanilla pod (or substitute with 1 tsp vanilla essence)

1 small punnet blueberries (or use seasonal fruit of your choice)

Optional: sweet shortbread or similar dessert-type biscuit to serve

Soak the gelatine in the 2 tbsp warm water.  Stir briskly with a fork until the gelatine is completely dissolved.

Using a sharp knife split the vanilla pod lengthways to open but don’t cut right through. 

Place the cream, milk, sugar and vanilla pod in a saucepan and bring slowly to the boil. When it comes to the boil, take the pan off the heat.   Remove the vanilla pod (you can rinse this in water, dry and re-use) and whisk in the soaked gelatine until it is well combined.

Lightly butter or oil* six ramekin dishes or moulds, then pour in the mixture.  Leave to cool, and then chill in the fridge for at least two to three hours until set.

Arrange the blueberries on top of each dish or alongside and serve with a suitable dessert biscuit such as sweet shortbread.

*Use a light, flavourless oil. 

apple butter with sultana scones

It’s amazing how relaxed I am feeling after the assault of Christmas.  It shouldn’t be like that but it was and it is.  I swear I will do it differently each year but it always ends up the same – stress, stress, and more stress.  Enough.

In the oh so wonderful aftermath of rising late, pottering around and having the time to indulge, I am finally finding the peace again. 

Midweek, I made the decision to make sultana scones for breakfast instead of eating breakfast AND then baking AND eating scones for morning tea.  Yes, this is what I call post-Christmas lean eating!  There was a reason.  I have wanted to make apple butter for a long time and I have wanted to participate in Cookbook Sundays, since Sue at Couscous and Consciousness began hosting it a few months ago.  Two very good reasons.

I don’t know much about fruit butters. The first thing I learned was that apple butter does not contain butter.  The second was that I had imagined it would turn out to be a pale, apple sauce-type spread but it was much darker in colour and had the texture of a smooth chutney.  (It was supposed to be the consistency of room temperature butter but my effort was not quite as thick as that). 

Whether or not my first attempt was any good, I liked it.  I imagine it would go well with a good sharp cheddar cheese or a Brie, or served with cold meats especially ham and pork.  It kind of reminded me of a softer, runnier, more intense version of fruit paste. On the sweet side, it could accompany waffles or pancakes or, as I found, scones.  Versatile then.  I am sure some of you reading this will have lots of ideas on pairing apple butter and other fruit butters and I would love to hear some other ideas.

When I was trying to think of how I would eat it, I thought of the taste of stuffed, baked apples and came up with the idea of pairing the butter with sultana scones and I think it works.  Well, you know, it worked for me.

The recipe comes from a book The New Vegetarian Epicure by Anna Thomas, which I bought in Taranaki (New Zealand) many years ago and I am almost sure I have not cooked anything from it.  The bookshop called Simply Read was in a lovely little red building down by the surf coast – a wonderful place to visit.  I am not vegetarian but I do enjoy trying different recipes using vegetables.

This is why Cookbook Sundays appealed to me.  Not just finding a cookbook that I have used seldom (or not at all) and testing a recipe, but finding new things to try and interacting with a wider audience to learn more.

I made a smaller amount of the apple butter recipe given and found that the liquid evaporated so I topped it up.  I have posted the full recipe below (maybe you need to use the full amount so it won’t evaporate!?). 

For the scones, I just used a basic recipe and added some sultanas so they’re really just a pairing up for the apple butter and did not appear in the same book.

The photographer was back at work so it was just me and the point and shoot camera. I had the time and that is part of the enjoyment.  To have the time to shoot the photos inside and if that doesn’t work, try outside.  To take the time to create the mood and style the photo.   To have no rush, except to eat the scones still warm from the oven with a dollop of spicy apple butter on top. Bliss.

Apple butter (makes just over 2 pints or 1.4 litre)

3 ½ lb/1.6kg tart green apples

16 fl oz/450ml apple juice

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

½ tsp ground allspice

½ tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp ground cloves

1/8 tsp salt

2 tbsp molasses

Peel, quarter and core the apples but don’t discard the peels or cores.  Squeeze a little lemon juice on the quartered apples to keep them from browning. 

Place just the peel and cores in a saucepan with the apple juice and simmer gently for about 30 minutes.  Strain the juice and discard the solids.

Add the quartered apples and the remaining ingredients to the juice and simmer, stirring often, until the apples are very soft.  Press the mixture through a fine sieve or puree in a blender.

Continue cooking the apple butter over a low heat, stirring often, until it is very thick and smooth.  Spoon into hot, sterile jars leaving about 1/3 in/8mm of a gap between the mixture and the top of the jar, and seal.

Sultana scones

Makes about 8-10 scones

2 cups self-raising flour

2 tsp sugar

pinch salt

1¾ oz/50g butter, cold, diced finely or grated

½ cup sultanas

1 cup milk, approximately

Pre-heat oven to 230°C

Grease a baking tin or line a tray with baking paper.

 Sift the flour, sugar and salt into a bowl.

Rub in the butter with your fingertips until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs.  Add sultanas and mix gently to combine.

Make a well in the centre of the mix and pour in most of the milk.  Using a wide knife (I use a palette knife), mix together to a soft, sticky dough.  Add more milk from your measure if the mixture is not sticky enough.

On a lightly floured board or surface, gently knead the dough and press out to ¾ inch/2cm thickness.

Using a flour dusted cookie cutter or knife, cut the dough into desired shapes and place the scones close together (almost touching) on the tray or tin.  Brush the tops with a little extra milk.

Bake for 10-15 minutes until the tops are golden and cooked through – the scones should sound hollow when tapped with your fingertips.

Serve with some real butter and a dollop of apple butter.

Scones are best served warm and on the day they are made.  However they can be frozen. 

Cranachan – and a Happy New Year

As a nod to my Scottish heritage and because it is Hogmanay (Scottish for New Year’s Eve) I’m giving you Cranachan as my last dish for 2011.  Whilst it’s known as a traditional Scottish dessert, it is not something our family ever ate.  I suppose the addition of alcohol prevented it from being served as family pudding, although that didn’t stop the huge glug of sherry soaking up the sponge in grannie’s trifle.  I have noticed the recipe more as an adult – perhaps it has just increased in popularity? 

As I don’t like whisky (shameful for a Scot to admit, I must say!), I have given the recipe a bit of a twist and used Limoncello.  The one pictured was made with frozen raspberries but I have also made it with fresh raspberries.  If you were feeling in the mood to indulge or celebrate New Year, you could also eat it as a celebratory special breakfast. Yes, well…..

2011 has been the first year of my food blog (anniversary coming up in January) and I can honestly say it has been the best thing for me, giving me a creative outlet I never knew I needed.  I have encountered so many like-minded people through their inspiring, innovative and sometimes humbling blogs and websites and at the first New Zealand Food Bloggers' Conference.  To all of you, bloggers and followers, I thank you.  You have each truly given me something to take forward into 2012.

I am including this post in Sweet New Zealand created originally by Alessandra here and hosted this month by Bron Marshall here.  Go there now for the kind of creativity I am talking about.

Happy Hogmanay and every best wish for 2012.

Lesley

Cranachan

Makes about 4 serves

This is the recipe I used after looking at many variations so feel free to adapt.

60g of medium oatmeal

2 tbsp brown sugar
150g of raspberries (if using frozen raspberries, add enough sugar to sweeten)
250mls cream

2 tablespoons of malt whisky (I used Limoncello instead of whisky)
2 tablespoons of runny honey

Heat a heavy based fry pan until hot. Add the oats and brown sugar stirring constantly until the oats have a light, nutty smell and are beginning to change colour. Keep an eye on the pan as the oats can burn quickly. Remove from pan and leave to cool. 

If you’re using frozen raspberries, heat them gently with enough sugar to sweeten to your taste (I used vanilla sugar) in a saucepan or in the microwave. Leave to cool. For fresh or frozen raspberries: Keep half the raspberries aside. With the other half, either blitz them briefly in a blender or mash them with a potato masher, not too finely. 

In a bowl whisk the cream to form firm peaks. Stir in 1 tbsp whisky (or, in my case, Limoncello) and 1 tbsp honey. 

Gently layer the components in individual serving glasses starting with the cream, followed by raspberries, then the crunchy oatmeal. Repeat with remainder and finish with a layer of thick cream and a sprinkling of oatmeal. 

Cover with plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for an hour or two. 

To serve, drizzle over a little extra honey and whisky or Limoncello, if desired. Serve with little shortbread biscuits.

Variations to try:

• Make a light version with Greek yogurt instead of cream.
• Use double cream (my preference but not available in New Zealand) instead of whipped cream.
• Add chopped nuts to the oats.
• Substitute blueberries, strawberries or mixed berries for raspberries.
• Use fine crumbs of crushed biscotti instead of oats.

etcetera...#4

Time to reflect.  I love going for walks in the bush (forest) and leaving work behind at the end of the day. While it may not have the incline of the road walk, it is therapeutic, full of peace and quiet except for the birds and the movement of wind and trees (and the odd tractor noise from adjoining fields, but that’s fine). 

Good food craving.  I’ve been enjoying the moments in between Christmas lunches, dinners and treats, when I return to more wholesome food.  Porridge for breakfast. I am not perfect so it is sprinkled with brown sugar, but less than normal.  And no craving at mid-morning coffee break for anything other than two chocolate covered coffee beans. I told you I wasn’t perfect.

At last, a movie. One wet Sunday after meeting my sister at Teed St Larder in Newmarket, Auckland (and bumping into the lovely Mairi from Toast), a stroll along the shops wasn’t on the cards.  Sister had to go to Smith & Caughey (department store) to purchase both a Christmas and a birthday present for me.  I used this as the perfect opportunity to escape Christmas shopping and indulge myself – so I headed off to the Rialto for Midnight in Paris. 

Not from the film, but our own night shot of Paris

Normally I avoid films with Owen Wilson but a Paris location and Woody Allen directing were the drawcards.  I’d not long finished reading The Paris Wife by Paula McLain, a fictional account of Ernest Hemingway’s relationship with his first wife, set in Paris.  The book and film shared some of the same characters – Hemingway (although his “Paris wife” was absent in the film), Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald, Gertrude Stein and Alice B Toklas, to name a few.  It was a nice segue from one form of media to another and a really pleasant way to spend a wet Sunday afternoon, although it did make me laugh that it was raining in onscreen Paris too.

December’s book club featured The Hare with Amber Eyes by Edmund de Waal. I have not yet read this but I really want to after listening to everyone’s comments.  Julie said she wished every book she read made her feel the way she did when she closed the pages.  How lovely is that?

Book club treats this time around – mini Christmas puddings; the yummiest, softest rocky road I’ve ever had (I have failed to understand rocky road but now I do!); white dusted, crescent-shaped Christmas biscuits and muscatels draped alongside blue brie served on caraway seed bread (the sole savoury bite).  

Vistas - I’m looking at a white horse in a field in the distance, reminiscent of the White Horse whisky advert.  No cars, no people just the horse and the wind unsettling everything as it passes through.  I like having little vistas – whether it’s looking out the window and framing a scene in your mind or creating little areas in your home.  Taking pleasure in beauty.  Do you have little areas of your home or garden that you like to linger on?

Wishing you a peaceful and happy Christmas.


I have given up with Blogger - it keeps adding spaces where there are none, hmmm.

semifreddo with strawberries and Italian Nougat

Looking for inspiration for dishes for a family Christmas in Taranaki, I came across this recipe by Ray McVinnie from a 2003 issue of Cuisine magazine.  I think it would make an easy but memorable special occasion dessert for summer.

If you, like me, have a family member who is allergic to nuts, simply prepare the mix and fold in the strawberries then set a portion aside without the nougat.  The remainder lucky people will now have more nougat in their dishes!

Semifreddo with strawberries and Italian Nougat

3 eggs

100g caster sugar

200g Italian soft nougat*

300g strawberries

350mls cream, whipped

extra strawberries to serve

* I used Torrone Siciliano Classico, (pictured below) which contains almonds, green pistachio and Sicilian honey.

Chop the nougat into small pieces.  If you can get past this stage without eating all the lovely nougat, well done!  If not, well strawberry semifreddo is the name of the dish now.  De-hull, chop and then mash the strawberries.  Don’t overmash as they get too juicy.

Using a hand beater or cake mixer with a beater attachment, beat the eggs and sugar until very pale.  The mixture should be tripled in size.

Carefully fold in the nougat and strawberries until well combined.

Pour the semifreddo mix into a plastic-wrap lined small loaf tin or silicone mould (if you want a nice shape) or into a container (I used an ice cream container) and chill for several hours.  Slice with a knife into slabs or use an ice cream scoop to serve (depending on what container you've used).

And that’s it!  Simply serve with fresh strawberries. I like mine with a little extra whipped cream!

If you make it a few hours before serving, it will be at its best.  Best made in small amounts and eaten within a couple of days.  Remove from freezer and allow it to soften before serving. 

Serves 6

raspberry, pear and chocolate loaf

Raspberries seldom last long in our house or, to rephrase, my daughter eats punnets of raspberries in one sitting so I don’t often get the chance to eat them, let alone bake with them.  So when I saw the small punnet in the greengrocer’s, as expensive as they were, I knew I had to have the first, fresh raspberries of the season all to myself.  Not the whole loaf, just the chance to do something with the entire punnet.  But they were tempting to eat all by themselves – pretty, sweet raspberries with no juice leakage or mouldy specimens tucked in the bottom of the pack. I do admit to popping one or two into my mouth.  Just a taste test you see?

The flavour combination of this loaf works well - cool pieces of pear, warm dark chocolate and buds of sweet raspberries.  I had my first taste not long after the cake was removed from the oven.  The chocolate was warm and delivered far more flavour as it melted around my taste buds. So it’s best served warm, but it still tastes good when cool.

Bill thought there was an overbalance of chocolate.  I have to say this had not crossed my mind but I am a chocolate lover so why would it?

Although I’ve called it a “loaf”, I actually poured the mix into small round tins that were once inhabited by 450g smoked fish.  I’m sorry to bring up the subject of smoked fish whilst we’re talking about sweet things but let me assure you the tins were washed well.  I greased and lined them with baking paper for ease of exit.  I find the tins good to use as individual cake gifts but this time, mine never left the house.

I’ve given the recipe and instructions for a loaf.  If you want to use smaller tins, or make muffins adjust the baking time accordingly.  

I’m submitting this for Sweet New Zealand hosted this month by Mairi at Toast. Sweet New Zealand was started by Alessandra Zecchini and you can read more about it here.

raspberry, pear and chocolate loaf

200g butter, softened

1 cup caster sugar

4 large eggs

1¾ cup standard (plain) flour

1½ tsp baking powder

200g dark chocolate, chopped into small chunks

3 pears, peeled, cored and diced

1 small punnet raspberries, de-hulled.

Preheat oven to 180°C.  Lightly grease a 19x9x7cm loaf pan and line with baking paper.

Cream the butter and sugar.  Beat in the eggs one at a time.  Sift the flour and baking powder into the mix and stir until well combined.

Stir in the chocolate, and gently fold in the pears and raspberries.

Pour into the loaf pan and bake for about an hour or until golden brown on top and cooked through.  Leave for 10 minutes in the loaf pan, and then place on a wire rack to cool.

Tip: Don’t peel and core pears too far in advance as they’ll go brown.