Saturday, July 31, 2010

Blueberry Muffins and Mt Climie

Today's project was a quick batch of blueberry muffins; we had a bit of a walk planned with some friends (and new friends) and what could be better after an excursion into the hills than some freshly made muffins?


I always liked my mum's blueberry muffins, and she usually bases her muffins from Alison Holst recipes, though often adds yoghurt and other things as desired - generally if there's some in the fridge which needs using up it'll mean pikelets or muffins are on the way, and it's a pretty good addition! As it happened, we were almost out of milk, and didn't have enough for the double batch I wanted to make - but there was some natural yoghurt languishing in the fridge, so I didn't quite follow the recipe either.



Muffins vs Cupcakes
So, lest there be confusion on the intertubes, I thought I would make something clear: muffins and cupcakes are not the same. The most significant difference is that cupcakes are generally made the same way as cake; by creaming butter and sugar, and the mixture must be beaten until smooth. For muffins, you normally make a mixture of dry ingredients and one of wet, and the wet ingredients (butter is melted or often replaced with oil) are then mixed into the dry. The resulting 'cake' has a coarser texture than cupcakes. Muffins are also often larger than cupcakes, and cupcakes are usually (though not always) iced, whereas muffins are usually (but not always) uniced.

Thus consider yourself educated (but feel free to point out inaccuracies in my lecture, should you spot some!)


I chose to use cupcake papers for my muffins (I guess that's another difference - muffins are usually just baked in a greased tin) since I was in a bit of a rush, and knew I would need to take them out of the muffin trays pretty much straight after they came out of the oven - much easier if they're baked in cupcake papers. It didn't take too long, though - perhaps 45 minutes from start to finish, including the 15 minute cooking time.

Apparently I magicked the muffin batter into the awaiting tins... Let there be muffin!
Of course, the most important part of a blueberry muffin is the oh-so-delicious and essential topping of cinnamon sugar - crunchy and sweet and spiced, it maketh the muffin. Though it also maketh the muffin tins very messy, particularly when you are in a hurry to apply the topping to your muffins:


However, they tasted great, and after our three hour walk up Mt Climie, they were much enjoyed. Through some magic they were still slightly warm when we arrived back at the car (being trapped snugly inside an airtight container was the trick - also made them slightly soggy but the warmth triumphed over that) and they seemed to be happily gobbled down by our intrepid group.


And was the walk worth it? Definitely! Steep, but an easy track (a gravel road, in fact), and despite the fierce winds on the ridge we had some sun and stunning views.


Blueberry Muffins (from Alison Holst, makes 12)
Ingredients
2 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup sugar
100g butter
1 cup milk
1 egg
1-1.5 cups frozen blueberries
For the topping
1 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon 

Preheat oven to 200 C and grease a muffin tray. Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Melt the butter and let cool a little, then mix with the milk and egg in a second large bowl. Gently fold the dry ingredients and the blueberries into the wet ingredients, then divide mixture into the muffin tray. Mix the extra sugar and cinnamon together and sprinkle over the muffins. Bake for 12-15 minutes.

Friday, July 30, 2010

The Green Man, Wellington

Since I have moved offices and now work only a couple of short blocks from Mr Cake we thought we should do lunch once in a while, and I needed a bit of a pick-me-up so we flicked through the Entertainment Book to find a nice spot for Friday lunch. The Green Man seems to be a bit iconic and is pretty close to where we work so we decided to give it a whirl.


It calls itself a pub and definitely has a pub feel, albeit a very eclectic one - green was definitely a feature, but there were all kinds of textures and patterns - it was crazy and disjointed but pretty cool. Our waiter/server was very friendly but didn't muck around - which was really good, since we were squeezing a quick lunch into the middle of our working day. He told us the specials and gave us a few minutes to decide.


The menu was a bit crazy but in a funky way. We were a little confused about the boxes encircling the items in the middle of the lists - we decided it was a somewhat random effect (though perhaps engaged to encourage people to choose those dishes?).


The food was good, though very much pub food. The servings were very generous but in some cases less is more if you know what I mean. ;-)

Mr Cake had the Philly Cheese Steak Sandwich - a baguette with beef, onions, mushrooms and cheese, served with fries. It was tasty though perhaps a bit over the top with the cheese. The bread was nice and fresh and the fillings all melded together nicely apart from the dairy overload.


I chose the fish and chips; the fish of the day was bream. The fish was delicious - fresh and perfectly cooked, and the batter was lovely and crispy, if a tad on the oily side (but perhaps that is what I get for ordering a deep fried meal...). It came with tartare sauce, which I'm not a huge fan of though I'll have a little with my fish. It was fine (for tartare sauce!) but I wanted something else to go with my fries, so I asked for some aioli, which was brought to me very quickly - but it was pink and we think perhaps had salmon in it, which was not really what I was going for. They didn't charge for the aioli though, which I had expected they would.

All in all it was a nice Friday lunch - the service was excellent and speedy and our food was delivered pretty promptly, despite the fact that the pub was pretty full of diners. The food was a bit on the greasy side but we asked for that when we ordered what we did - and I can't say anything else against the food (except maybe the weird aioli). And the Entertainment Book voucher made it very good value, with one of our meals being free. Definitely a good spot for a quick and dirty Friday lunch!




The Green Man is located on the corner of Victoria and Willeston Streets, Wellington, ph 04 499 5440, www.thegreenmanpub.co.nz

Thursday, July 29, 2010

The Ultimate Custard Square Hunt - Edmonds Cookbook

This week is Maori Language Week - Te Mahi Kai (the language of food) and one of my workmates proposed a 'state of origin' lunch, where everyone brings a plate that identifies with their ethnicity or heritage.

I have been meaning to make custard squares for a while, and as a New Zealander (I think 4th-5th generation - Mum will correct me in the comments if I'm wrong!) - and as someone who always prefers to make sweet things - I eventually settled on custard squares.

Now, I know they're derived from mille-feuille, which is French, and I know you can get 'vanilla slice' and other similar things in England and Australia, but it seems to me the custard square is a pretty iconic Kiwi treat - think back to the tearooms that were everywhere before the cafe culture hit - in your mind there's a custard square in there, next to the scones and the cream buns, right? ;-)


Once again, I resorted to the trusty Edmonds cookbook for my recipe (I would love other custard square recipes, though - feel free to email me at mrscake.nz@gmail.com if you have one you think I should try!).

Because Edmonds make custard powder pretty much every custard-related recipe in the cookbook uses custard uses their custard powder. I generally prefer to make my custard from scratch but this way is a bit easier so worth a try.


The first step is to bake some pastry. I really can't be bothered with making my own flaky pastry - waaaaaaaaaaay too much effort for average results - and really like the Edmonds butter puff pastry you can get frozen at the supermarket (this whole post is basically turning into a big promo for Edmonds, huh?).

Because the pastry is supposed to be flat you have to stab it many times with a fork, as evidenced above, so the air can escape and it cooks to crispy, but flat, perfection. Keep a clean teatowel on hand and gently press any air which does get in out as soon as the pastry comes out of the oven.


The custard lifecycle

The custard was pretty straightforward - though do remember to stir it continually - the biggest problem I had was the rather oblique instruction to "Cook until mixture is very thick." Well, sure, but what is very thick? Certainly well past the normal custard measure of 'coats the back of a spoon'. We'll go with 'gloopy and a bit wobbly', shall we?

I baked the pastry and made the custard late last night, then left the custard to chill overnight and assembled it all this morning before work. I used the mixer to smooth out the set custard (the second-to-last photo above shows you the roughed up custard before I did this) and then (my little addition) whipped some cream and beat it through the custard. This gave me a nice, smooth (but still suitably viscous) custard with a little extra decadence-factor.


Assembling the thing was easier than I expected; the trick is having thick enough custard. I baked four sheets of pastry but only needed three for the amount of custard I had (a double recipe). I lined up tops and bottoms and made sure the join lined up, then spread the custard over the bottom pieces and put the others on top. Easy peasy. Then I made a simple butter/icing sugar icing with a bit of lemon juice, and sprinkled coconut over the top. To transport it to work I cut it into slabs and put it into two large containers, then let it chill in the fridge there until lunchtime, when I cut it up for my colleagues to enjoy. My best custard square cutting trick; tip the bit you are trying to cut on its side and cut through that way - stops the filling squishing out the sides!



Custard Squares (adapted from Edmonds cookbook)
Ingredients
2 sheets ready rolled puff pastry (you will likely only need 1.5 but the geometry is easier if you trim 2!)
4 Tbsp custard powder
3 Tbsp icing sugar
2 cups milk
50g butter
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla paste

Preheat oven to 220 C. Prick the pastry all over with a fork and bake for 8-10 minutes, until golden.

In a saucepan, mix custard powder, icing sugar, and 1/4 cup milk to a smooth paste. Mix in the remaining ingredients and cook over a medium heat until very thick and viscous (a bit wobbly!). Stir in vanilla paste. Press plastic wrap onto the surface of the custard and cool.

Spread custard over one of the pastry squares. Once you have spread it to the desired thickness you can trim if required - trim a matching piece off the pastry top, too. Place the second piece of pastry on top of the custard.

Icing
50g butter
1 cup icing sugar (approx)
water
lemon juice (or other flavouring of your choice)
coconut

Melt butter in a small bowl, then mix in icing sugar. Add water gradually until you get a thick pouring/spreading consistency. Spread over the top layer of pastry then sprinkle with coconut. Chill.

Cut into pieces to serve - best eaten within 24 hours.


**Edit**
So how was it? I was pretty pleased with the assembly - I have memories of custard oozing everywhere and it being more a custard sandwich than a slice, so I was pretty happy to produce something with height. I am not, as I mentioned earlier, a big fan of custard powder, and I felt the custard wasn't fantastic - next time I'll try a from scratch custard - and I would have liked to have had lemon zest for the icing. I gave them 6/10 (Mr Cake thinks 6.5/10), so not too shabby - but room for improvement. ;-)

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Amazing Donna Hay Cauliflower Soup

We're nowhere near as creative as we probably should be when it comes to making dinner - we have a few meals that we make over and over again. I am always on the lookout for new ideas and recipes but often bookmark them and never touch them again. However, when Millie from Gusty Gourmet tweeted about an amazing cauliflower soup she had just made I had a cauliflower head in the fridge already, so I asked her for the recipe and it was the next dinner we made.


It was so good (and hearty!) that we made it again tonight - it's easy enough (and healthy enough) that it works for weekday dinner - sure, it needs to simmer for a while but if you throw it all in the pot when you walk in the door that works out okay. And tomorrow night it'll take a few minutes to warm up and dinner will be ready!




The first time we made it we made the cauliflower 'crumb' topping, though it was more a crust than a crumb. It was delicious if a bit clumpy (which I blame on my impatience rather than anything else). Tonight we decided to fry up some bacon instead, which was also a fantastic addition.


Cauliflower Soup (modified from Donna Hay Magazine)
Ingredients
25g butter
1 onion
2 cloves garlic
3 sprigs thyme
1 bay leaf
1 head cauliflower
400g potatoes
3 cups chicken stock
2 cups milk
1/2 cup cream (optional)

Melt the butter in a large saucepan over low heat. Add the diced onion, crushed garlic, thyme and bay leaf and cook until the onion has softened. Peel and chop the potatoes and chop the cauliflower, and add both with stock and milk to the saucepan. Increase heat to medium and cook for 25-30 minutes or until cauliflower and potato are tender. Remove from heat and blend until smooth. Stir through cream, if using, and season with salt and pepper.



Parmesan Cauliflower Crumbs
1 cup chopped cauliflower
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup finely grated parmesan
While the soup is cooking, place the cauliflower, oil and parmesan in a bowl and toss to combine. Heat a non-stick frying pan over high heat. Cook the cauliflower, stirring, for 2 minutes or until golden and crisp. Top soup with cauliflower crumbs to serve.  Serves 4.


Monday, July 26, 2010

Chocolate Eclairs

One of the items on our high tea menu was chocolate éclairs, and making them for 70 people (oddly) made me want to make them again. I thought I'd treat my workmates so made them to take in to the office on Monday - what better way to start the working week?

























I use the Edmonds recipe for choux pastry - I had a Pierre Herme recipe but obviously my pastry skills don't quite match his and my most recent attempt at that failed, and in desperation I fell back on that backbone of NZ cooking; it is Sure to Rise, after all! I went with Pierre Herme's chocolate glaze, though, which is pretty good, although doesn't set hard so if you're wanting a less messy treat you may want a different recipe! ;-)



I find the choux pastry pretty straightforward - just read the recipe through first and get everything ready so it all flows smoothly and you'll be fine! The trickiest part is figuring out when the pastry is cooked - it shouldn't look wet at all, so if it still shows visible moisture when the cooking time is up turn the oven down a bit and let it dry out properly. Remember that it is served with both filling and icing, so will soften up a bit with those anyway.


I'm not a big fan of cream as an éclair filling - crème pâtissière (i.e. pastry cream/custard) is really the only option as far as I'm concerned. However, I noticed on serving these (both at the high teas and at work) that many people were surprised to discover the filling wasn't whipped cream (I don't think anyone was disappointed, they just didn't expect it). Do you like a cream-filled éclair or does it have to be a custard filling to please your palate?


The custard is straightforward - you do need to temper the eggs, by carefully and slowly adding the warm mixture to the yolk mix, then transferring it back onto the heat to cook. It pays to be cautious if you aren't familiar with the stages of custard, but I found this takes longer to thicken that I am used to, and that I could get away with a higher temperature without splitting it. Please do take it slowly if you're not sure, though - I have split many custards and it's so annoying, I'd hate to encourage anyone to ruin theirs through impatience as I am wont to do!


I like to avoid cutting the éclairs open, rather filling them by piping the filling in through a hole. I make a small hole with a sharp knife in one end and use a piping bag with a plain, mid-sized tip, and careful but firm pressure to fill the pastry. You shouldn't fill it more than a couple of hours ahead of serving, as the pastry will get progressively soggier, and be sure to chill after filling them.


The glaze is a bit fiddly, as you first need to make a chocolate sauce, then use some of that (what is with these recipes which require you to make a sub-component and then don't use it all?) to make the final glaze. Both the chocolate sauce and the glaze work well with ice-cream - which is fortunate because try as I might I couldn't use it all! This was a double batch of eclairs (to make sure it made it round the office) but I only made a single batch of the chocolate sauce, which was fine, and had some glaze left over, which I mixed with the small amount of leftover chocolate sauce and is now in a jar in my fridge for next time I want a rich, decadent ice-cream topping.


Chocolate Éclairs with Crème Pâtissière (makes about 12, depending on size)
Ingredients
1 cup water
75g butter
150g flour
2 tsp caster sugar
4 eggs

Preheat oven to 190 degrees C. Position racks to divide the oven into thirds. Line two baking trays with baking paper.

Bring butter and water to the boil, add flour at once and beat until the mixture leaves the sides of the pot. Remove from the heat, add sugar and vanilla, then beat in eggs one at a time.

Immediately scoop dough into a piping bag (or plastic storage bag with a corner snipped off) and pipe thick fingers about 11cm long onto the baking trays. Leave about 5cm between each strip. Bake for 15-20 minutes, but check regularly. Halfway through cooking rotate the trays to ensure even cooking. They are done when they are golden brown, look dry and feel crisp (not soft).

Crème Pâtissière
235ml milk
2 egg yolks
55g caster sugar
1 drop vanilla extract
2 tbsp cornflour
½ tsp butter

Whisk together egg yolks, 60ml milk, sugar and vanilla. Mix in cornflour. Bring the remaining milk to a scald (just below boiling point) in a saucepan. Pour the hot milk in small stream into the egg mixture, whisking constantly with a balloon whisk as you pour (very important). Once incorporated, pour everything back into the saucepan.

Whisk the mixture over medium heat until it thickens and firms up. Remove from heat and whisk in butter. Pour the hot custard into a bowl and plunge the bottom of the bowl into another larger bowl of iced-water to cool, give it a whisk occasionally. Once it reaches room temperature, scoop the crème pâtissière into a piping bag. Chill until ready to use.

Chocolate Sauce
75g bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
½ cup water
¼ cup (65g) cream
35g sugar

Place all the ingredients into a small saucepan and bring to a boil, making sure to stir constantly.  Reduce the heat to low and continue stirring with a wooden spoon until the sauce thickens. This should take 10-15 minutes.

Chocolate Glaze
80g heavy cream
100g bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
20g butter, at room temperature
110g Chocolate Sauce (recipe above), warm

In a small saucepan, bring the heavy cream to a boil. Remove from the heat and slowly add the chocolate, stirring with a wooden spoon or spatula. Stirring gently, stir in the butter, piece by piece followed by the chocolate sauce. Allow to cool to just feel warm to the touch, then use.

Assembly 
Option 1: Slice the éclairs horizontally, using a serrated knife and a gently sawing motion and place the tops on a rack over a piece of parchment paper. Spread the glaze over the tops of the éclairs using a metal icing spatula. Allow the tops to set and in the meantime fill the bottoms with the pastry cream. Pipe or spoon the crème pâtissière into the bottoms of the éclairs. Make sure you fill the bottoms with enough cream to mound above the pastry. Place the glazed tops on top of the éclairs.

Option 2: Make a small hole in the end of each éclair with a sharp knife. Fit a mid-sized plain piping tip to the end of a piping bag and fill with crème pâtissière. Insert tip into the hole and hold the éclair while firmly piping the filling in. Continue until completely full - so you can see the filling comes to the hole. Dip each éclair into the warm glaze.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Lunch at Zibibbo



Friday was my last day of my job (I have been moved to a different programme within the same company, so moving offices but not roles) and though we normally go to the pub for Friday lunch I had spied that Zibibbo have a very reasonably priced set lunch menu, and being just across the road from the office it seemed like the ideal spot for a slightly more exciting bite to eat.


The set lunch menu is $22.50 for two courses or $30 for three, so very reasonable for nice restaurant fare.


 We were brought bread to start - this was great as for some reason on Friday it's much harder than on any other day of the week to hold out until lunchtime and I was starving.


 The three starter options were; Angus beef carpaccio with parmesan and wild rocket salad; chorizo and portobello mushroom shepherds pie; and smoked bacon and vegetable soup with gruyere cheese gratin.

I had the carpaccio and it was delicious - lovely, full flavours, the meat was great and the balsamic perfectly tangy. The shepherds pie seemed to be happily devoured and I was a bit jealous of those who had chosen this as it looked so warming and rich. The soup was a little less loved, but I didn't hear any complaints, either, other than that the description of vegetable soup probably could have been more precise since it wasn't the medley people were expecting.


The mains were; wood roasted chicken with tomato and thyme cassoulet; portobello mushrooms with herb gnocchi and parmesan cream; and grilled scotch fillet with polenta croutes and  red wine jus.

My main was the chicken, and the chicken was beatifully tender and rich, but I didn't enjoy the cassoulet so much - I think the thyme was a little too strong for my taste. The gnocchi looked superb and got rave reviews - I think there may have only been one person at the table who had this dish. By far the most popular (and, perhaps foolishly, this is why I didn't choose it for my main - it seemed most of the table would be eating the same thing. I realise this rationale doesn't work so well when I don't actually get to share the food...) was the scotch fillet. This looked pretty good, topped with lucious looking polenta croutes and swimming in rich jus. Everyone seemed pretty happy with this (though one colleague did have to send hers back as it hadn't been cooked to medium as she had requested), though quite a few left the croutes on their plates. I tried a little of one of these and thought it nice, but plain - but I can imagine it would go well with the meat and jus.

We also had some sides; spinach; mashed potato; and fries. All of these were nice but unremarkable - I do love the Zibibbo aioli but sadly the sides portion of fries wasn't accompanied by this; next time I will ask for it! 



For dessert, there was a choice of apple crumble with vanilla ice-cream and pannacotta with red wine poached pears. The apple crumble was mighty tempting and seemed to be enjoyed all around - and the biscotti, which I also got to try, was delicious, nutty and crisp - but I was very happy with my pannacotta and pears. The pannacotta was unremarkable on its own but perfectly complemented the rich red wine syrup - and the pears were magnificent. Though it wasn't a hot dessert the flavour was so rich it still seemed a fitting finale to a winter lunch.

By the time we wandered back to the office - two hours later, oops - everyone was thoroughly stuffed and feeling very satisfied, and my only complaint would have to be the amount of flak I copped from my colleagues for taking photos of everything. ;-) Perhaps they'll forgive me if they see this post and remember how lovely the food was!



Zibibbo is located at 25-29 Taranaki Street, Wellington, ph 04 385 6650, www.zibibbo.co.nz
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