My Last 7 Days In Food

So much has happened since my last post I don't know where to start at ALL!
In a week I have gone from the French countryside, to the alleys of Paris, to the maniacle sidewalks of Athens, and now have settled on the small Greek Island of Patmos for around a month... Exhale.I'm sure you also realise that with all of that travelling also come heaps of food experiences, regardless of the limited time I spent at each destination.


To start, we'll go to Paris.
Picture a classic Brasserie down a side street off the metro, packed into the old buildings and surrounded by what to me (lets be honest Australian cities are tiny) seems like millions of apartments, each with their own peeping window and life behind.
I am eating garlic-parsley snails for a starter, thyme-roasted rack of lamb for the main and of course a tart tatin for desert. Please God, don't hold the creme fraiche.... The others are having camembert wrapped in pastry and fried until each is its own golden/crunchy/gooey package, served with a savoury cranberry compote and a fresh balsamic salad.Eaten on a hot night with a cool breeze (and that un-identifiable something else in the Parisian air), my sister and I both in our party dresses and great friends of the family - there couldn't be a better night to remember what life there is all about.

Switch to my first night in Athens- the day of the strikes that were keeping my Father and I there in the first place- and there was really no sense of rebellion or trouble in the air- or maybe I was just too busy thinking 'food' or 'shopping'.Of course I had to have my first Greek Greek salad of the trip... and how it was good. There is no feta like that found in Greece (guess there isn't too much surprise factor there), I could eat this salad for ever onwards simply because of its absolute freshness. Pair that with zuchinni, dill and a mild cheese fritter and thats just about right I'd say.
NEXT on the menu-Buffet breakfasts Greek style. Need I say more? To me, nothing has the same allure as that of a buffet breakfast. Its an utterly enchanting idea that I can have what I fancy as many times as I like, and change my mind along the way, and not have to do a thing but miander over to the other legnth of the table and pop it on my plate. I mean come on, you must admit you love the luxury of that too.So imagine that concept but with cheese and spinach pastries, lusciously thick Greek yoghurts with the sweetest Greek honey, walnut cakes, anise spiced loaves of fresh baked bread... Need I go on? Don't forget the strong Lavazza esspresso which starts and follows this meal, that's surely a not a touch that could ever be left out.
And now, to my favourite food memory in Greece from my last trip-nay from and for forever. I don't know why I can't resist this sweet, but I buckle every time. It's not the wickedest honey-nut-pastry delight, nor the rich blocks of Halva that get me. It's.... nameless? A simple street-vendor-sold ring of light, shiny bread coated in golden seasame seeds and filled with custard. Oh take me back Dr. Who, to even write of it is torture. In fact, this type of thing is sold everywhere, with sweet and savoury combinations (for example bacon and cheese, spinach, or chocolate ect.) but its ready availability could not tarnish its specialness to me. My favourite moment of the day was roaming up and down the main shopping strips peering into the iconic Greek jewelers, ripping off chunks and popping them in my mouth like a slave would feed a goddess a grape.
To conclude Athens, I must include a sexy dish. Try saffron-poached pears filled with Pernot cream and topped with honey roasted nuts. I do believe that's a good end to an incredible city...

And so for now I bid you farewell, I'll let you dream of your own food memories, but I do hope you got something from mine.

Fig and Golden Coconut White Chocolate Fudge

I have been waiting for this day for a very long time. Today's the day I head off to Paris to catch my flight to Greece, where I'll be spending a month on the most picture perfect, idealistic island ever with my family who lives there. Got that?

TODAY.

And from this moment onwards, I'm switching my crown as Queen to be a GODDESS. Much more fitting, heritage-wise, and frankly I like the look of those toga dresses.

So what better breakfast for a Greek Goddess than something wickedly sweet like white chocolate, something exotic and holiday-ey like coconut, and something traditional but sexy like a fig?

Can't think of one thing.

So girls- channel the goddess, eat impossibly delicious (like seriously IMPOSSIBLY- its too good, just too amazing) morsels of this fudge like there is no tomorrow unless you say there is...

And guys...??? Well make this for the girl you love, I guess there is nothing stopping you from being her Zeus no matter what you look like when you're armed with this stuff.

Fig and Golden Coconut White Chocolate Fudge

Ingredients-

600g of good quality white chocolate (the one I use comes with shredded coconut already, so look for that if you can)

375g can of sweetened condensed milk

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

1 1/2 teaspoons of lemon juice

A pinch of salt

175g of dried figs, chopped into 6ths at minimum

*100g of lightly toasted shredded coconut- if you can't find a chocolate with it (Shame on you're supermarket if you can't because that by itself is pretty special in itself)

Method-

Grease and line a 20cm square baking tin, or any other shape depending on how brave you are at experimenting with the shape and width of your fudge.

Heat a medium saucepan over low heat, and add the white chocolate and condensed milk. Stir frequently and ensure that there isn't any chocolate sticking on the bottom and burning (white chocolate is an absolute trickster when it comes to that).

Cook until all is well-combined and melted evenly, should take around 5 or so minutes.

Remove from heat then add in the lemon juice, salt and vanilla extract.

Stir in the figs (and coconut if necessary).

Pour into your prepared tin and place in the fridge to set for a minimum of 3 hours.

Once set, cut and serve as you wish-in my case it was served from knife to mouth in the morning sunshine. Simply heavenly....

Whole Lemon Tart

The thing I love about summer holidays is that all of a sudden, out of nowhere, people seem to go mad for dinner parties. Even those who normally would be inclined to open a can of baked beans and nosh in with a spoon every night (ok, so bad example, that can be a very delish thing when you've got a craving) seem to think they are Gordon Ramesey, and invite people by the dozen to enjoy a bite together...

Fortunately all of the invites I've received so far are from people who have a bit more flair than that, BUT nevertheless they came in what seemed like millions.

I feel like I've been making a dessert to bring along every day this week!

In hindsight, that could just be because I tried to make precious little meringues and epically failed, so I had to do something else... Hahaha, can't say that it bothered me one iota, I hate meringues-they are quite possibly the least satisfying desert EVER! They tease you with their crunch and afterwards you get nothing on your tongue but the boring taste of castor sugar. I would prefer eat just castor sugar. But enough of that rant, its quite likely you don't feel as passionately as I do for those teasing, spiteful, crispy cups of air.

So with not many ingredients in the house (I've had fudge on the brain but my sister keeps eating the chocolate for it- I have re-bought 3 times and told her not to eat it. But still she does. I keep a meticulously organised pantry and THAT drives me irrationally crazy, like seriously, think The Shining and your close) so I turned to lemons.

Lemons are God's gift to the 'last minute', 'simple' and 'not too many ingredients' deserts. Think of all of the options- lemon slice, lemon drizzle cake, lemon delicious pudding, yo-yo's, lemon and poppy seed loaf, and finally (well not really because I could go on) lemon tart.

We all know lemon tarts are amazing. Nobody can deny that the are one of the all-time tops. You've got your cheesecake, you've got your flour-less chocolate, you've got your sticky date pudding- all of the classics. But the list just wouldn't be complete without a lemon tart.

This recipe was my first go at cooking one, and I think she's definitely a keeper, being super simple to make, requiring just ONE lemon (very good for my household as my sister would probably eat whole lemons if she knew I wanted to make something with them!) and, of course it tastes superb.

Whole Lemon Tart

Ingredients-

Filling-

1 lemon (preferably Meyer, and around 130 grams of lemon to be precise), rinsed and dried

1 1/2 cups of castor sugar

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

1 1/2 tablespoons of cornflour

115 grams of unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Tart Pastry (Dorie Greenspan's Un-shrinkable)-

1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

1/2 cup of icing sugar

1/4 teaspoon of salt

130g of unsalted butter, chilled and cut into small pieces

1 large egg

Method-

Pastry-

In the bowl of a food processor (yes this IS why I love this recipe) add the dry ingredients and pulse to combine. Add the butter and pulse until it looks like small flakes or crumbs.

In a small bowl or glass, lightly whisk the egg, then add slowly, little by little, pulsing each time.

Set the mixer on a medium level until the colour and texture is uniform, if still s-crumby.

Knead quickly (don't over-knead) to get the dough to come together, then wrap the dough in plastic and chill for 2 hours (I didn't have time for this so I rolled it straight after kneading, and it worked fine, but I do recommend chilling).

Roll the dough with a rolling pin, into a 30cm circle, then place in a buttered or baking papered 20cm tin (less hassle and risk if you have a spring-form tin or one with a detachable base).

Press the dough into the edges and fold the extra dough that's hanging over to make sides that are doubly thick.

Make small cuts in the bottom of the tart to let the air our when baking.

Place in the freezer for a minimum of 30 minutes before baking.

Preheat the oven to 180°C and bake the tart until lightly golden.

Filling-

Cut the lemon into small slices, removing any seeds.

Place the lemon bits, and the sugar in the bowl of an food processor and mix on high until there are no chunks of lemon (well small one are rather nice so you don't have to be too pedantic), scraping down the sides every now and then.

Pour the lemon/sugar mix into a medium sized bowl, then add the egg, followed by the egg yolk, using a whisk to combine.

Sift in the cornflour, and then add the butter.

If you so please you can do the whole thing in the food processor, and the result is just as good, if not better. Come to think of it I'm a bit of a nin for sticking with the traditional method.

Pour the filling into your pre-baked tart shell and bake at 160°C for around 20 minutes, or until it is set.

Be careful with the temperature of your oven because the butter can separate from the mix and sit on top of the filling if the oven is too hot, so keep an eye out.

And to finish, ENJOY one of the all-time desert greats, taking a minute to appreciate how good you've got it :)

Peach, Raspberry and Almond Yoghurt Cake (with white chocolate because I can't resist)

Stage 3 of my last-minute dinner (check out the last 2 posts for the full story and recipes-*http://when-a-drama-queen-cooks.blogspot.com/2010/07/celeriac-orange-and-date-salad.html

*http://when-a-drama-queen-cooks.blogspot.com/2010/07/shallot-and-rosemary-onion-jam-tarte.html), has been a favourite of mine pretty much since I started my cooking obsession.

It basically combines everything I've ever loved on to eat on its own (raspberries = no-brainer favourite thing EVER, peaches, white chocolate, almonds, and yoghurt) and turns them into a delicious cake that everybody likes. I pull out this cake every time as the back-up, the crowd (and me)-pleaser, and even the 'look at me, I didn't make ANOTHER chocolate cake to go along with your 100' at bring-a-plate style events..

Not only that, but it stopped me and the people I work with from getting majorly yelled at one day, when our boss (nicknamed the Hurricane because of his erratically planned notions and, well... nature) was suffering from a lack of sugar and too many boxes of shoes that needed to be shifted. Just one slice of this delight, and he was back to the smiley, if still a little kooky ways. Trouble sorted.

To spell it out for you, this cake is magic.

It will do wonders no matter what the situation.

That is if you give it a chance..

Peach, Raspberry and Almond Yoghurt Cake (with white chocolate because I can't resist)

Ingredients-

150g of unsalted butter, softened and cut into cubes

100g of castor sugar

100g of brown sugar

2 teaspoons of vanilla extract

2 eggs

200g of plain yoghurt

100g of self-raising flour

150g of almond meal

3 small yellow peaches

150g of raspberries

200g of white chocolate drops (optional but oh so worth it)

50g of flaked almonds

Method-

Preheat oven to 180°C, and line or butter a 20cm cake tin (spring form tins work well for this recipe because yoghurt cakes are often fragile).

In a large bowl, beat together the butter, vanilla extract, and 2 sugars until light and creamy.

Add the eggs, one at a time, ensuring that each is well combined before adding the other.

With a scraper, or a metal spoon, add in the yoghurt, then the flour and almond meal folding gently until the mixture is uniform.

Add in 150g of the chocolate chips and fruit.

Pour the batter into the tin and sprinkle with the flaked almonds and remaining chocolate chips.

Bake for around 50 minutes (depending on oven) or until a skewer comes out clean when poked into the middle. You will probably need to cover the cake with foil during baking to stop the top from burning before the inside is cooked.

When the cake is done, leave to cool for at least 10 minutes before transferring, because, as I said, this cake is a delicate little flower :)

Dust with icing sugar, and top with fresh raspberries or slices of peach if you still have any hanging around.

Enjoy and watch the wizard-cake work its magic.

Celeriac, Orange and Date Salad

OK, so this is basically part two of the previous post... Or perhaps a backwards part one...

So, the story goes, that I had to make a dinner for my host mum's colleuge.

An impressive dinner for an important colleuge.

A dinner that I forgot about until the night before, when I'd already been shopping and hadn't bought anything that grand or useful for the above motives.

In short- BUGGER!

A nice little starter salad was necessary to accompany the Shallot and Rosemary-Onion Jam Tarte Tatin, that I'd decided on (check the last post for the recipe, because it was a defininate winner). Something refreshing and summer-y to go with the full-on flavour of the tarte and to cool us down in this hot weather we've been having in France.

I made this little number up out of the top of my head, because, like always, I couldn't find what I wanted in the supermarket (I admit, I did manage a small trip to the small local one this morning just for the bare necessities) and I've been having a real obsessoin with celeriac at the moment ever since my discovery of celeraic remoulade, ie. YUM.

So here it goes, my jazzy little sald number for a summers night.

Celeriac, Orange and Date Salad

Ingredients-

2 large oranges

1/4 cup of pine nuts

1 small, or 1/2 of a large celeriac (otherwise called celery root)

1 tablespoon of lemon juice

100g of pitted dates

1/8 cup of olive oil

1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar

pepper and salt to season

Method-

In a small bowl mix together the lemon juice, olive oil, and white wine vinegar. Season with pepper and salt.

Roast the pine nuts in the oven at 180°C for 5 or so minutes util they are lightly golden in colour.

Grab the celeriac and cut off the skin, then cut into halves or quarters, and thinly slice strips.

Peel the oranges then cut into thin wedges, and remove any membrane with a paring knife.

Tear the dates into halves or small chunks with your fingers.

Place everything in a salad bowl except the pine nuts, and give it a good toss. Note that this is a salad you can make in advance because the flavours only get better when left.

Serve sprinkled with pine nuts (and my tarte if your feeling extra copycat-tish)

Shallot and Rosemary-Onion Jam Tarte Tatin

ARRGGHH!

What do you cook when you've already done the (minimal) shopping because you leave for Greece in a few days (its cool, I know your jealous, you'll have to deal with it yourself), and then you remember that you've promised to make dinner for your host mum's very important colleague... Tomorrow night?

Its got to impress. Its got to be suitably low-key chic. It can't be complicated, because you've already got the whole day booked with other things to do and can't go shopping again.

Its got to be a tart tatin....

Now, I guess the first thing that comes to mind when I think of a tarte tatin is apples. And horrible demanding pastry methods, and exact caramalisation time limits. Boo to that complicated racket and hurrah for its easy savoury counterpart.

This takes almost no-time and effort to make, looks great, and may I say, tastes pretty fucking delish. Seriously. I never knew shallots were complex in taste, but trust me brothers and sisters, those bad boys are full of surprises.

What isn't surprising is that seconds are non-negotiable.

Shallot and Onion Jam Tarte Tatin

Ingredients-

Tarte + Filling-

1 sheet of puff pastry

30ml olive oil

28 (approximately!) small shallots (I used less because mine were monster-sized)

1 tablespoon of brown sugar

2 tablespoons of butter

25ml of red wine vinegar

Onion Jam-

a glug of olive oil

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

2 tablespoon of unsalted butter, coarsely chopped

2 Spanish onions, very thinly sliced

a large sprig of rosemary, leaves detached and finely chopped

1 tablespoon of brown sugar

1/8 cup of balsamic vinegar

Method-

Onion Jam-

Heat olive oil medium sized saucepan over medium heat, then add the onions and garlic, cooking for 5 or so minutes until they begin to caramelise.

Add the butter and rosemary and continue to leave to caramelise for another 10 minutes.

Mix together the vinegar and sugar in a small bowl, then pour over the onions, stirring regularly for 3 minutes.

Set to low heat and leave to simmer for around 35 minutes or until the consistency is thick...and jammy.

Tarte + Filling-

Preheat your oven to 190°C and butter a 20cm cake tin.

Peel the shallots, cutting those too big into halves or thirds lengthwise.

Heat the oil in a deep, wide pan (is it just me or does that sound way too dirty?) over medium-high heat then add the shallots, cooking for around 8 minutes until golden on the outsides.

Add the sugar and cook for 5 minutes, then add the butter.

Cook for 5 minutes or until they are a deep caramel colour, stirring occasionally.

Reduce the heat to low, then add the vinegar and leave to soften for 20 minutes.

Pour the shallots into the bottom of the cake tin, arranging them so that they are a little bit heaped in the middle, but also so that there are no real gaps until the sides of the tin. Add the onion jam on top.

Gently place the pastry to lie over the top, then tuck the pastry around the sides of the base, to hold the mixture. Leave any remaining pastry that is hanging upwards after the tuck, because it caramelises and becomes deliciously handsome.

Bake for 15 minutes or until nice and golden on top and sturdy. Run a knife around the edges after leaving to cool for 5 minutes, then flip onto a serving plate and look with pride at your gorgeous tarte tatin!

Saffron Chicken Satay Curry

When the summer comes, and the weather gets hot, something within me always desires a good curry. Call me crazy if you wish- I know it might sound a kind of heavy mix, but there is truly nothing better on a day where you can't escape the heat, to eat it.

So the last couple of days when I've been home alone, alternating between the combinations of: 'bikini and balcony' then 'shade and Internet' there is no surprise that the recipes that have been attracting me (and yes I know I sound kinda like a moth and a flame here) have all been Curry's or versions of. I can hardly stop myself from drooling when I think of a curry salad loaded with fresh bunches of coriander, marinated chicken pieces, roasted almond slivers, chick peas and to top it all off, juicy ripe mango. Unfortunately that's not at all what I made.. Just let myself get carried away with that delicious thought!

Perhaps (or at least, I like to think) that it is some throwback to having a Greek/Egyptian heritage, or maybe its just that I find Middle Eastern and Indian foods IRRESISTIBLE pretty much all the time (in hindsight the latter seems a lot more likely). Either way today I got my curry on for a lunch in the sun...

Saffron Chicken Satay Curry

Ingredients-

4 breasts of chicken, chopped into cubes or strips

1/2 teaspoon of cayenne pepper poder

1 teaspoon of sweet paprika powder

2 tablespoons of oil

3 onions, chopped into cubes or strips

2 garlic cloves, minced

100ml of apple juice

200ml of unsweetened coconut milk

2 tablespoons of peanut butter

2 large capsicums, chopped into cubes or strips

2 tablespoons of brown sugar

3-4 teaspoons of Thai red curry paste (depending on how hot you like it)

2 tablespoons of lime juice

200g of bean sprouts

100ml of soy sauce

5 dried bay leaves

2 good handfuls of fresh coriander (optional for serving)

Method-

In a medium sized bowl, marinate the chicken in the soy sauce and curry paste (you can either make in advance and leave to rest and develop or use straight away if you don't have time).

Heat oil a deep pan or saucepan and add the chicken, saffron and cayenne pepper, leaving any of the chickens' marinade left over to add later.

Cook until golden then add the onion, capsicum, sprouts and garlic and leave until the onion is also golden and softened.

Add the apple juice, coconut milk, peanut butter and any remaining marinade and mix well until the sauce is smooth. Add the bay leaves.

Cover and allow to simmer for at least 30 minutes.

Serve on rice, preferably with lots of fresh coriander and a sweaty brow :)