Gozleme

Posted on January 31, 2013 by DemeterG

I first had gozleme from a street vendor at a Melbourne, Southbank craft market I stumbled across. It has been a favourite of mine ever since. I have made it a few times and I think I have got the formula right now. The pastry needs to be very thin and cooking them in the “George Foreman” grill works a treat.

This recipe has been adapted from Pete Evans’ book; My Grill.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

200g greek yoghurt
pinch salt
250g self-raising flour
1 tablespoon olive oil
500g lamb mince
1 clove garlic
1 carrot, grated
pinch ground cumin
pinch chilli flakes
4 tablespoons tomato puree
50g baby spinach leaves
100g feta cheese, crumbled
60g cheddar cheese, grated
40g butter, melted
1 lemon, quartered

Method:

Mix the yoghurt and salt in a bowl until combined and creamy. Gradually stir in the flour until it becomes a stiff dough. Transfer to a floured bench and knead until smooth and slightly sticky. Transfer to a clean bowl and rest, covered for 30 minutes.

Heat a frypan to medium-high and cook the mince until for 2 minutes until browned all over. Add the garlic, carrot, spices and tomato and cook until dry.

Season with salt and pepper to taste and take off the heat and add the spinach to wilt.

Divide the dough into four and roll out to a thin square.

Divide the mince mixture and each of the cheeses into four portions.

Spread one portion of mince out onto half of one of the pastry squares. Sprinkle over half the cheddar and then half the crumbled feta.

Fold the dough over and press the edges to seal. Brush with melted butter and grill in the “George Forman” until toasted.

Serve with lemon wedges.

 

 

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Twice Cooked Duck Breast with Citrus Sauce

Posted on January 20, 2013 by DemeterG

This recipe is from Kylie Kwong’s cookbook, “It Tastes Better”. You can also find it on the MasterChef website here. I originally cooked this as a whole duck and I remember saying to the DB; “this is a lot of work, I don’t think I’ll bother doing this again”. Then when we ate it we both said; “we are SO cooking this again”. It was so delicious!

It has been awhile since that first time and I had a craving for duck. I gave it a go with duck breast only, instead of the whole duck, and it worked a treat. The recipe below has been adapted for duck breast only, if you are doing a whole duck, see the link above.

This recipe needs to be started the day before.

Ingredients:

Duck:
2 duck breast
½ tablespoon of Sichuan pepper
1½ tablespoon salt flakes
sunflower oil for deep frying

Citrus Sauce:
½ cup water
½ cup brown sugar
40ml fish sauce
3 star anise
1 cinnamon quill
½ orange, peeled and sliced crossways
juice of 2 small limes

Method:

Duck:
Dry roast the peppercorns and salt flakes in a heavy based pan. When the peppercorns begin to “pop” and become aromatic, remove from the heat. Allow to cool and then grind to a powder.

Rinse the duck breast and pat dry. Rub the duck all over with the salt and pepper mix. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Place the duck breast in a steamer basket over a saucepan of boiling water. Steam, covered  for approximately 40 minutes or until a knife inserted into the breast runs with clear juices.

Remove the duck breast and place on a tray with the skin side up, to drain. Allow to cool slightly and then transfer to the refrigerator to fully cool.

Citrus Sauce:
Combine the water and the sugar in a small pan and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, for about 7 minutes, or until slightly reduced. Add the fish sauce and spices and simmer for a further minute. Stir through he lime juice and orange and remove from the stove.

Lightly toss the cooled duck breast in flour to coat and shake off any excess.

Heat the oil in a deep fryer or wok until the surface starts to shimmer slightly. Deep-fry the duck breast for about 6 minutes until well browned and crispy. Remove from the oil and drain well on paper towel, then leave to rest in a warm place for 5 minutes.

Gently re-heat the citrus sauce.

Slice the duck breast and arrange on a service plate, spoon over the hot sauce and serve immediately.

Posted in Asian, Duck, Favourite Recipe, Recipes | Leave a comment

Raspberry Trifle

Posted on January 4, 2013 by DemeterG

When I saw the Tipsy Trifle recipe in The Australian Gourmet Traveller magazine, I just couldn’t resist making it for Christmas lunch. My little twist (there is always a twist….), is substituting Chambord instead of brandy. I also omitted the dark fruit mixture and just had the plain cake and raspberries.

The other good thing about this recipe is that it was not a last minute dessert. I need to make it ahead and thus saves the stress of having to make one more thing on Christmas day.

 

Ingredients:

Jelly:
500 gm  frozen raspberries
400 gm  caster sugar
Juice  of 1 orange and 1 lemon
5  titanium-strength gelatine leaves, softened in cold water for 5 minutes

Cream:
750 gm  crème fraîche
300 ml  thickened cream
80 gm  pure icing sugar, sieved
50 ml  Chambord, plus extra for drizzling
Scraped  seeds of 2 vanilla beans
500 gm fresh raspberries

Madeira cake:
200 gm  softened butter
165 gm (¾ cup)  caster sugar
3  eggs
150 gm (1 cup)  plain flour
30 gm  almond meal
¾ tsp  baking powder
50 ml  buttermilk
30 ml  Chambord

Method:

Jelly:
Bring frozen raspberries, sugar, citrus juices and 600ml cold water to the boil in a large saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring until sugar dissolves. Cook until fruit is pulpy (10-15 minutes), then strain through a muslin-lined sieve into a bowl (do not press on solids). Transfer 250ml raspberry liquid to a clean pan over low heat, squeeze gelatine to remove excess water, add to pan and stir until gelatine dissolves (1-2 minutes). Return gelatine mixture to remaining raspberry mixture, stir to combine then transfer to a 1.5-litre container and refrigerate until set (overnight).

Madeira cake:
Preheat oven to 160ºC. Beat butter and sugar in an electric mixer until pale and creamy (4-5 minutes), scrape down sides of bowl and add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine flour, almond meal, baking powder and ½ tsp salt in a separate bowl, add to butter mixture with buttermilk and beat to just combine. Add Chambord, beat to combine, then spoon into a 25cm x 11cm loaf tin, buttered and lined with baking paper. Smooth top, bake until golden and an inserted skewer withdraws clean (50 minutes-1 hour), cool in tin for 10 minutes, then cool completely on a wire rack.

Cream:
Whisk creme fraîche, cream, icing sugar, Chambord and vanilla seeds in an electric mixer until soft peaks form (2-3 minutes). Refrigerate until required.

Assemble:
Scatter one-third of the fresh raspberries in a large serving bowl, then spoon half the jelly over. Thickly slice cake, crumble half over the jelly and drizzle with Chambord. Spoon half the crème fraîche mixture over, then repeat layering. Cover and refrigerate for flavours to develop (overnight). Serve topped with extra raspberries.

 

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Black Forest Cheesecake

Posted on December 31, 2012 by DemeterG

This cheesecake was adapted from the Women’s Weekly Black Forest cheesecake recipe. The inspiration was to do something yummy with the cherries that were left over from Christmas.

Another recipe I looked at, had chopped up Cherry ripe bars, which I used. I have omitted the Cherry Ripe from the recipe below as it really doesn’t need them. The real cherries, chocolate and cherry jelly are quite enough.

Ingredients:

Base:
250g packet chocolate biscuits (I used Arnotts Chocolate Ripple)
125g unsalted butter, melted

Cheesecake:
500g fresh cherries, pitted
1 ¼ cup caster sugar
3 teaspoons gelatine
½ cup water
250g cream cheese
1 tablespoon lemon juice
300ml thickened cream
200g dark chocolate

Jelly Topping:
1 tablespoon gelatine
400ml juice reserved from cherries

Method:

Base:
Grease a 20cm spring form pan. Blitz the biscuits in the food processor until crumbed. Mix in the melted butter.  Press into the base and sides of the spring form pan. Chill in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Cheesecake:
Put the cherries, ½ cup caster sugar and 2 tablespoons water into a saucepan on medium heat. Stir until the sugar is melted. Set to a low simmer and leave for 30 minutes, stirring regularly.

Sprinkle gelatine over the water in a small heatproof jug. Stand the jug in small saucepan of simmering water. Stir until gelatine dissolves and then cool for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, beat the cream cheese, remaining ¾ cup sugar and lemon juice with an electric mixer until smooth; transfer to a large bowl.

Whip cream until soft peaks form, fold into cheese mixture in two batches.

Using a bowl over a simmering saucepan, melt the chocolate and then fold into the cream cheese mixture until nearly combined. Fold in gelatine mixture gently until all combined.

Drain the cherries well and reserve 400ml of the cherry juice, for the jelly.

Spoon 1/3 of cream cheese mixture onto the crumb crust, top with half of the cherries. Repeat layering, finishing with a cream cheese mixture. Refrigerate until just firm, about 1 hour.

Jelly Topping:
In a small saucepan, mix the gelatin and ½ cup of the cherry juice. Heat gently, stirring, until the gelatin has dissolved.

Add the remaining juice and stir well. Pour the jelly gently over the cheesecake and refrigerate for 4 hours. If you want a nice smooth jelly topping, pop the bubbles with a toothpick before setting.

Posted in Cakes, Desserts, Recipes | Leave a comment

Chocolate Chambord Bavarian Cake

Posted on December 27, 2012 by DemeterG

This cake was made for the DB’s birthday. His request was a chocolate cake with raspberry jam and cream in the middle, just like he used to have as a kid.

Well, I couldn’t just stop at a normal chocolate cake with jam and cream, could I? So, using the power of Google, I adapted the following from Sprinkle Bakes and Diana’s Desserts to create a grown up version of his childhood birthday cakes.

This cake takes awhile to make, so make sure you have a fair portion of a day available to cook, build and set it. It is a bit of effort, but well worth it.

Ingredients:

Chocolate Genoise Cake:
3 large eggs plus 3 large egg yolks, at room temperature
¾ cup caster sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
¹/³ cup cake flour
¹/³ cup cornflour
¼ cup cocoa powder

Raspberry syrup:
¼ cup sugar
¹/³ cup water
¼ cup raspberry liqueur (I used Chambord black raspberry liqueur)

Raspberry Bavarian:
680g frozen raspberries
¾ cup caster sugar
¹/³ cup raspberry liqueur
14g  gelatin powder
2 cups thickened cream

Chocolate filling:
135ml thickened cream
150g dark chocolate
50 g milk chocolate
1 pinch salt
2 egg yolks

Extras for Assembly/Garnish:
1 cup whipped cream
Chocolate curls or shavings
60  fresh raspberries

Method:

Chocolate Genoise Cake:

Preheat oven to 180°C. Grease a 15cm round baking tin.  Line the bottom of the pan with a round of baking paper.

In a heat-proof bowl (preferably stainless) beat together whole eggs, egg yolks, sugar and salt, using an electric mixer at high speed.  Place bowl over pan of simmering water and continue beating with the electric mixer until the mixture is warm. Remove bowl from water. Continue to beat until mixture is cooled and increased in volume This will take 5-7 minutes, and the batter should be thick and leave a trail when the beaters are lifted from the bowl.

Sift together cake flour, cornstarch and cocoa.  Sift dry ingredients over the beaten egg mixture, gently folding with a spatula.  Pour batter in prepared pan.

Bake for 30 minutes or until cake springs back when touched with finger. Cool in pan on wire rack for 10 minutes. Loosen edge with knife and invert cake onto a rack. Carefully remove paper. Place another rack on cake and invert again. Cool completely.

Raspberry Syrup:
Combine sugar and water in saucepan over medium heat. Heat to a boil. Remove from heat and let cool. Stir in liqueur. (if you happen to have any of this syrup leftover, it tastes great topped up with soda water;))

Raspberry Bavarian:
Let raspberries thaw in a saucepan. Add sugar to the thawed raspberries and juice. Heat to a boil and simmer 10 minutes. Strain mixture through a fine-mesh sieve into bowl. Cool to room temperature.

Combine liqueur and gelatin in heatproof cup and let stand 5 minutes.  Heat in microwave for 10 seconds or until gelatin turns to liquid.  You can also melt it in a saucepan on the stove top if you don’t have a microwave.

Whisk into the raspberry purée.

Beat cream until stiff peaks form, using electric mixer at high speed. Fold raspberry mixture into whipped cream.

Chocolate filling:
IMPORTANT: Make this immediately before assembly or it will set and you will not be able to pour it into the cake and get a nice smooth, glossy finish.

Heat the cream over a medium heat until just starting to simmer, but do not boil. Add the chocolate and a pinch of salt and stir until melted and combined. Check the taste and add further salt until the bitterness of the dark chocolate is reduced, but not until it tastes salty.

Remove from the heat and add the egg yolks. Stir until combined. The heat of the chocolate mix will gently cook the eggs and make it like a custard.

Assembly:

Level the top of the cake with a serrated knife then cut horizontally into two equal layers. Place one layer, centred  in the bottom of the 20cm spring form pan, cut side up. Brush with raspberry syrup until coated and started to soak in nicely but not wet.  carefully pour over ½ of the chocolate filling, trying to keep it on the top of the cake and not letting it drizzle down. Don’t stress too much if it does start to ooze over the sides.

Pour half of the raspberry bavarian cream over and around the sides of the cake. Lightly drop the pan on the counter top one or two times to ensure the cream settles into the empty ring around the cake.

Place the other cake layer in the centre. Brush with raspberry syrup as above. Carefully pour over the remaining chocolate mixture, again trying to keep it on top of the cake. Fill in the outside ring with the remaining raspberry bavarian cream, so that you have a ring of raspberry and the centre circle is chocolate.  Gently drop on counter top as before.  Cover and refrigerate until set, at least 2 hours.

Run a small knife between the dessert and the spring form pan. Gently remove the spring form collar. Pipe whipped cream to cover the outside and just onto the top outside rim, using a small star decorator tip (if desired). Arrange the fresh raspberries in two concentric circle around the top edge of the cake.  Make a small pile of chocolate curls or shavings in the centre of the cake.

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