OMG! Puddle Woman!

Julie is in the grand final of Masterchef Australia! She's my personal favourite because of her cooking love philosophy, but towards the end I was running for Justine. She's amazingly talented I thought, I teared up when she got booted out of the top 4. But Julie, man! who would have thought that she'd made it to the grand final. I am so loving this show, sad that it's ending on Sunday! By the way it's my colleague M who labeled her Puddle Woman after her passionfruit (puddle) pie disaster.

I've been so lazy this days. Haven't been exactly the most productive, I'd have to pull a valiant effort (either George or Matt who used that word valiant effort after everybody managed to pull that last toothache inducing cake of a pressure cooker test, good word I like it) to conquer (I think that's another word used by Matt) my 2009 resolution

ps. I skipped DB challenge last month, and I'm not inspired to do this month's. I need to make sure I attempt next month's lest I get kicked out *frown*.

Edible Alphabet Series

I have a thing for lists. Be it the list of winners of the Man Booker prize, or 1000 places to see before you die, someone's grocery list, to worst dressed celebrities. Naturally I love food related lists the most, and these days I visit the Observer Food Monthly and the lifestyle section of the Times regularly for their food related lists... from 5 ways with rice to 10 of London best secret supper clubs. One I particularly like is the 50 best recipes EVER compiled by OFM, by which Jill Dupleix had been tickled to make a similar list for SMH.

Another one I like I came across recently in the Guardian (republished in Mighty Foods) by Nigel Slater: Eating through the alphabet. A simple concept but I like it, so I am obviously going to steal it and declare a resolution to bake through the alphabet. That'd be (26 recipes to make up the 50 I need to successfully complete my goal this year, HA!

By the way I'm stooping low, because it's mid July and I don't think I'm close to trying 25 new recipes. So whatever you might think, for my galette des rois, I'm giving my self 3 points, 1 for the pâte feuilletée, 1 for the crème frangipane and 1 for the galette des rois itself plus the 1 point for this recipe of rhubarb compote, and another for the tarte fine aux pommes. That makes 5. Cool cool.



Rhubarb Compote
(taken from Soho cooking by Alistair Little, p.239)
500 gr rhubarb
1 vanilla pod, split
200 gr caster sugar

Top and tail the rhubarb and cut into 2-3 cm lengths. Place in a large ovenproof dish; add the vanilla and scatter with the sugar. Leave to macerate for a minimum of 3 hours, but preferably overnight.

Preheat your oven to 180°C, and loosely cover the rhubarb with greaseproof paper. Bake for 10 minutes then turn the oven down to 150°C, and continue cooking for a further 30 minutes. Different types of rhubarb will require different cooking times: the 30 minutes at 150°C suggested here is probably a bare minimum. Check the fruit after this time has elapsed and continue if necessary. In addition, some types of rhubarb stay intact as they cook whilst others collapse; so don't worry too much if you end up with a 'fool-like' result, rather than beautifully intact pieces.

Now to the next recipe,



Tarte fine aux pommes.
(taken from Exceptional Cakes by Dan Lepard & Richard Whittington, p.120)
Makes 4 individual tarts
400 gr butter puff pastry
4 tbsp pastry cream
4 Granny Smith apples
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp apricot jam
flour for dusting
Glaze:
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp milk
To finish:
icing sugar for dusting



Preheat the oven to 200°C. Line a baking tray with a non-stick baking parchment or a silicone mat. Divide the pastry into four and roll out each portion on a lightly floured surface into a thin round, about 15cm diameter. Place on the baking tray. Scrape the pastry cream over the pastry with a palette knife to coat thinly.

Cut the apples into quarters and remove the cores, but leave the skins on. Slice the quarters into paper-thin slices and fan these out on the pastry discs, with each new slice slightly overlapping the last. Leave a 1cm rim of pastry uncovered. For the glaze, lightly beat the egg yolk with the milk, then brush over the pastry rim.
Sprinkle the apples with the sugar.



Bake for 15 minutes, then lower the oven setting to 150°C, and bake for a further 5 minutes. The apples will have taken on a golden glaze while the pastry will have puffed up around the rim.

Warm the jam in a small pan until melted. Press it through a sieve to remove any large pieces of fruit, then brush over the warm tarts.
Dust with icing sugar to serve.

Note:
1. I still owe you the recipe for la crème patissiere... (thought I might type it up for you when I blog some petits choux or something)
2. Until I can come up with a better one, R is for Rhubarb Compote.

Since last week

I'm another year older *sigh*
though I did receive cool presents *grin*
one of which is a bread baking bible courtesy of A *wheeee*
It's true that I do love baking bread more than most things (started when I was young(er) you see...)

Anyways, I didn't make the list. What list you ask? Ummmm, the London Times 50 of the world's best food blog, I didn't make it... but do check out the list, it's quite cool. Cream Puffs in Venice of the daring kitchen made it, that's cool... otherwise a few favourites of mine such as Chocolate and Zucchini made it of course! and the Chubby Hubby...

Weather is beautiful, I'm going to the market just behind my place and walk to Balmain and catch a ferry to the city... ta ta!

ps. be back soon.