France/Crêpes

Bonjour!

My apologies for neglecting the blog for almost two months. But, the good news is I am now back from France and ready to get back into posting!

Firstly, I will fill you in a little about my wonderful holiday.

This was my second time in France, although my first time to the southern region of Provence. Home in France was at my partner’s aunt’s house (with his mum and dad) in a little town outside Marseille called Le Pennes Mirabeau.

Whilst in France I visited the antique countryside towns of Arles and Avignon, with their amazing markets filled with anything from Laguiole knives, flowers, pyramids of spices to fromage and saucisson. The views of the Mediterranean Ocean and Calanque’s from the cliff tops surrounding the seaside towns of Cassis and La Ciotat were just incredible and the scent of the Lavender as we drove to from Gourd to Sault made me feel as though I was living a fairytale. I even caught a glimpse of the Flamingo’s of the Camarge region and saw the running of the bulls in Saint Rémy.

The food of Provence was just to die for, but also very different from its Northern counterparts. Home style cooking here is very fresh and seasonal with minimal fuss. The fruit and vegetables were amazing - tomato’s were flavoursome, cherries were sweet and the donut peaches so juicy!

I ate everything from baguettes (with salted butter of course) to snails, taureau, pheasant, macarons and my favourite, crêpes with Nutella (according to my MIL, whenever we got to a new town, i would disappear for 5 minutes to scout around and find the nearest crêperie).
I was even lucky enough to have my partners aunt, who had just come back from Corsica, prepare a special Corsican style lunch which consisted of several different saucisson, tomato’s stuffed with soft Corsican cheese and to finish up, a selection of pungent hard-style Corsican cheeses.

It all went so quickly, but my time in Provence was filled with many wonderful memories of beautiful food, sunshine, the ocean, markets, quaint villages and time spent my partner’s family and friends. It felt like home and I cannot wait to return (hopefully with my partner next time).

So, in honour of my time in France, here is a recipe for Crêpes. I managed to eat these on a near daily basis – preferably with a nice thick slather of Nutella (or in my MIL’s case, Crème de Marron)


Crêpes
1 cup plain flour
2 eggs
280-300ml milk
20g butter
Pinch salt

Sift flour into a bowl. Make a well in the centre and add eggs, whisk starting in the centre and drawing in the flour. Add the milk a little at a time whisking until batter is the consistency of thick cream.

Melt the butter until foamy and a little nutty then pour into the batter with a pinch of salt.

Heat crêpe or regular frying pan over medium heat, add a butter to coat the base then ladle in crêpe mixture, turning to coat the base completely. Cook 1-2 minutes until light golden and lacy. Turn over and cook for 10-15 seconds. Remove to plate and keep warm. Repeat using the remaining crêpe batter.

Et voila! Serve with your favorite condiment.

Rhubarb & Blackberry Crumble Soufflé

I think this just may be the first Masterchef masterclass recipe i have tried.

When i saw Gary making this little gem, i had to restrain myself from licking the screen.

I had been wanting to play around with rhubarb for a while now, but as i have a love/hate relationship with it, i wasn't really sure what to make with it.

My mum used to make stewed rhubarb when i were younger and would serve it with creamed rice. I liked this, because the sweet creamyness of the rice would cut through the sourness of the rhubarb. The thing i didn't like about rhubarb was the stringiness of the fibres.

So i finally had a weekend where i could try this recipe for myself. I liked the textures of it. The cloud-like soufflé, the crunch of the crumble, then the cold creamy ice cream.

The lemon pairs beautifully with the berries and rhubarb and really brings out the best in their flavour. The only amendment i made to the recipe was replacing the hazelnuts in the crumble, with pistachios.


Rhubarb & Blackberry Crumble Soufflé
4-6 sticks (500g) rhubarb, cut into 1-2 cm pieces
150g caster sugar, plus extra for sprinkling
150g fresh or thawed frozen blackberries
½ lemon, zest finely grated
1 tbs cornflour mixed with 1 tsp water
4 egg whites
Vanilla ice cream, to serve
Double thick cream, to serve

Crumble topping
75g plain flour
100g softened butter
50g brown or white sugar
50g rolled oats
1/3 cup roasted hazelnuts, finely chopped

Preheat oven to 180°C.

Place rhubarb in a saucepan with 75g of the caster sugar and ¼ cup water. Cover and place over medium heat and cook for 5-10 minutes until softened. Add blackberries and lemon zest and cook, uncovered, for 5 minutes until softened. Add ½ of the cornflour mixture and stir for 3-4 minutes until thickened, then cook for a further minute to cook out the cornflour. Set aside in a bowl to cool to room temperature for at least 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, to make the crumble topping, combine flour, 50g of the butter, sugar and a pinch of salt in a bowl, mixing with your fingers until combined and the butter is in pea-sized lumps. Add the oats and hazelnuts and toss gently to combine.

Place the crumble mixture on a lined baking tray and bake for 5 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the oven and set aside. Increase oven temperature to 200°C.

Grease 125ml soufflé moulds with remaining butter that has been slightly softened. Butter base and sides with a pastry brush, then brush up the sides – you want an even coating of butter. Refrigerate for 5 minutes to set the butter, then repeat the process - for the second buttering, be a bit more generous with the butter. Sprinkle sugar into each mould and roll ramekin around so the sugar coats the butter, tipping out any excess. This forms a lubricated crust so the soufflé can rise easily.

Place egg whites in a large, clean, dry bowl with 1 tablespoon of the remaining sugar and beat with a hand beater on high until soft peaks. Gradually sprinkle in the remaining sugar and beat for about 30 seconds - 1 minute until you have shiny, soft peaks.

Mix an equal amount of beaten egg white with cooled fruit puree until combined, then add the same amount of egg white again and fold through gently, turning the bowl, then lifting and folding the mixture to keep as much air in the mixture as possible. Spoon into buttered, sugared moulds, taking care to avoid getting any mixture on the side of the ramekins until the moulds are full. Scrape the mixture off the top with a palette knife so you have a really smooth surface, then run your thumb around the very inside of the rim so you have a clean rim.

Bake for 6-7 minutes until risen about 1 cm above the rim. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of the crumble topping over the top and return to the oven for another 3 minutes until they have risen another centimetre.

Serve with vanilla ice cream and a dollop of thick cream.

Makes 6-8 soufflés

Baked Pears with Spiced Mascarpone

I needed a simple dessert to make for a Sunday feast with friends.

After uming and ahring my way through my piles of recipe's, I decided on these. I have made these baked pears before, after seeing them on this fellow bloggers site, and they were beautiful. The texture of the pear against the silky mascarpone is just divine.

This recipe is definitely a keeper.


Baked Pears with Spiced Mascarpone
8 large buerre bosc pears
1 vanilla bean, halved lengthways
80g butter
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 1/2 cups apple juice

Spiced mascarpone
250g mascarpone cheese
1 1/2 tablespoons icing sugar mixture
1 teaspoon finely grated orange rind
1/2 teaspoon mixed spice

Preheat oven to 200°C/180°C fan-forced. Peel the pears and Place them in a medium baking dish.

Scrape seeds from vanilla bean. Reserve bean. Place seeds, butter and sugar in a saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring, for 2 minutes or until sugar has dissolved. Add reserved bean to baking dish.

Brush pears with butter mixture. Add juice and remaining butter mixture to dish. Bake for 1 hour or until pears are tender. Stand 15 minutes. Discard bean.

Meanwhile, make Spiced mascarpone: Place mascarpone, sugar, orange rind and mixed spice in a bowl. Stir to combine. Place pears on plates. Drizzle with pan juices. Serve with spiced mascarpone.

Lemon Meringue Pie

It has been a while since I have cooked a dinner for friends, so I decided this was the weekend to do it. I eagerly started planning a menu on Sunday morning, which had Italian/medit flavours. My favourite course to make is without a doubt, dessert, and this weekend it was to be Lemon Meringue Pie (ok, not so mediterranean, but the lemon complimented the flavours well).

I have tried a couple of different Lemon Meringue Pie recipes, but none have yet been to my taste.

I like a creamy filling, with a subtle lemon taste. Not over powering, or too sour.

So far, this has been my favourite Lemon Meringue Pie recipe, although I will continue my search for the perfect pie.

Sweet Pastry
380g plain flour
160g caster sugar
Pinch salt
160g cold butter, diced
2 eggs

Preheat oven to 180°C. Place the flour, sugar, salt and butter in the bowl of a food processor and process until it resembles fine breadcrumbs. Add the eggs and process until dough just starts to come together.

Turn on to a lightly floured surface and gently knead until just smooth. Shape into a disc and cover with plastic wrap, then place in the fridge for 10 minutes to rest.

Roll out the pastry to a 15 x 40cm rectangle, about 3mm thick. Line a shallow rectangle 10 x 34cm (base measurement) fluted tart tin with a removable base with the pastry and trim any excess. Place in the fridge for 15 minutes to rest. Use a round tart tin if you prefer.

Line pastry with baking paper and fill with baking weights. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove paper and rice and bake for a further 5-10 minutes or until firm to touch. Cool pastry in tin.

Filling
395g Sweetened Condensed Milk
3 eggs, separated
2 tsp grated lemon rind
½ cup fresh lemon juice
½ cup caster sugar

Preheat oven to 180°C. Beat together Condensed Milk, egg yolks, lemon rind and lemon juice. Pour into prepared pastry base.

Beat egg whites until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in sugar until sugar has dissolved. Spoon or pipe meringue over filling.

Bake 15-20 minutes until golden. Serve warm or cold.



Notes
Again, if the pastry is a little dry, add a touch of water after adding the eggs.
The pastry recipe makes double what you need. Cut the dough in half, and freeze to use for another time.