Bastille Day

My flower arrangement in honour of the french flag

Tomorrow is the French National holiday Bastille Day. Last year I celebrated the occasion by hosting my own french party and cooking up a french feast. It was heaps of fun, and I really enjoyed making all the different french dishes. So this year I've decided to host the party again!

As a bit of a laugh I asked all my guests to come along dressed in the french spirit. The person voted with the best outfit would win a prize, a box of french truffles! (The chocolate variety). There were a variety of get ups. Daz came as a french mime, right down to the facial makeup. He even gave us an impromptu mime, I'm pretty sure the photo is of him trying to pull a rope, but it looks very similar to holding a gun or even pretending to be a magician. Hey...I didn't say he was a "good" mime.

I came as the mimes wife. I had pale face makeup, a perfectly position beauty spot and some tiny little bright red lips. It looked good at the start of the night, but slowly wore off over time.

There was an appearance of some french designer shoes. They looked awesome (despite a glitch at the start of the night...hence the gladwrap). They even have an added bonus, after you've finished wearing them they could double as dinner! I'm sure I saw these on all the catwalks last year. And the trend started at my very own little party!

The winner on the night was the french chef. She won with a massive majority. Because she couldn't vote for herself, she was the only person that cast a vote for anyone else....and it was me for the record. She looked awesome (see photo below). She had a pharmacists jacket as her shirt, a tea towel as her apron, a massive red bow, a chefs hat and a meat cleaver. She made everything herself, except the hat. That's right, she made the cleaver herself! No wonder she won, and she looked pretty awesome so I totally agree!

I don't have many photos of the food I prepared, this was way before I had my very own food blog. But I did have pictures of the desserts. We had pistachio and white chocolate cream cigars, you can find the recipe here.

I also had a live demonstration cooking event. Yep, Good food and wine show eat your heart out. I prepared crepe Suzette with cointreau. Considering the french chef was already fully prepared for the job, we gave her the honour of preparing the dessert, with my guidance.

I had already cooked one batch and I told her to take it easy on the cointreau. Since we were in a Little room and the very flammable curtain was right beside her, I didn't want her to singe her hat and burn my house down in the mean time. Some how, and I think everyone in the room was egging her on, she poured a little too much alcohol into the pan.

When she lit the match to get the alcohol burning, she took the safe option and turned around. A massive, but impressive fireball ensued (note: I have a tendency to over dramatise things). I have to admit though, her batch of crepes tasted alot better than mine did!

So onto this year, at this very moment I'm baking my 4th batch of macarons. Not because I have loads of people coming, but because I've managed to stuff three batches already! I thought I would post what I have on offer for Bastille Day. There is a french version and then an English version. Excuse me terrible french, I know at least 2 of those dishes named incorrectly, so please go easy on me. I'll post some pretty pictures in the next couple of days. So until then....Viva la France!

AMUSE BOUCHE

Purèe de Champignon

Gougères avec les Anchois et le Thym

LE ENTRÈE

Poularde au Champagne

PLAT PRINCIPAUX

Saumon à la Meunière

Salade Pommes

Epinads Mére Louisette

LE DESSERT

Tarte de Poire et D'amande

PETIT FOURS ET CAFÈ OU THÈ

Macarons

Truffes au Chocolat et Contrieu

-----------------------------------------

APPETIZER

Mushroom Puree

A mushroom puree topped with sautéed mushrooms and a drizzle of truffle oil

Choux Pastry with Anchovies and Thyme

Warm Choux pastry, made with gruyere and parmesan cheese, topped with anchovies and thyme

ENTRÉE

Chicken in Champagne

Bread crumb and herb stuffed chicken legs, slow roasted and served with a Champagne sauce and crispy sage

MAINS

Salmon in Burnt Butter

Crispy skin Salmon in a burnt butter sauce

Potato Salad

Potato salad, with a homemade herb mayonnaise

Spinach Louisette style

Sauteed spinach with miniature garlic crutons

DESSERT

Almond Frangipane Tart with Toffee Pear

An almondnfrangipane tart, encased in a sweet pastry chell, topped with vanilla bean whipped cream and dehydrated toffe pear slice

Petit Fours, Coffe or Tea

Macarons

Almond macarons filled with white chocolate and raspberry ganache

Chocolate and Cointreau Truffles

No explaination needed!

The Cupcake Challenge: White Chocolate Mud with Blackberry Buttercream Frosting

Since visiting the Crabapple cupcake bakery in South Yarra I've wanted to bake my own White chocolate mud cupcakes. I knew that Jennifer Graham had written a cupcake cookbook with all of Crabapple's famous recipes, but true to my style, I couldn't be bothered going out and purchasing the book. I know, I'm terrible, But I'm sure this book will join my collection sooner or later. I happened to come across Katie's Kitchen Blog and found that like me she loves to bake cupcakes. A little digging found the Crabapple cupcake recipe.

The cup cakes are actually called Lady Tarryn’s wedding cakes, what a quaint little name. To be honest when I first tried these from the bakery I wasn't so impressed. They seemed a little dry and tasted a little old. But I've heard that Crabapple doesn't have the best reputation going around. I still enjoyed them enough to seek out the recipe.

So here's the recipe, courtesy of Katie's Kitchen Blog

Lady Tarryn’s wedding cakes

4 cups plain flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

500 g/1.1 lbs butter, chopped

2 cups milk

4 cups Castor sugar

300 g/10 oz white chocolate, chopped

4 eggs, whisked

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 155 c/310 F. Lightly grease 20 dariole moulds.

Sift flour and baking powder together into a large bowl. Make a well in the centre. Set aside.

Put butter, milk, Castor sugar and white chocolate into a metal bowl and place over a large saucepan of simmering water. Stir continuously using a flat-bottomed wooden spoon until chocolate has melted and sugar has dissolved. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.

Use a rubber spatula to fold the eggs and vanilla extract into the cooled chocolate mixture. Pour this mixture into the well in the flour and fold together until well combined.

Divide the mixture evenly between the dariole moulds. Bake for 30 minutes or until a fine skewer inserted comes out clean. Place moulds on a wire rack to cool for 10 minutes before turning out. Allow to cool for a further 30 minutes before frosting.

To frost them I thought blackberries would go perfectly with the white chocolate. So I made a blackberry puree and made a buttercream frosting from there. Here's the recipe.

Blackberry Buttercream Frosting

1 punnet (150gram) Blackberries

25 gram Castor sugar

200mL water

250gram butter (cut into cubes and at room temperature)

3-4cups of icing sugar, sifted

2 tablespoons of milk

1. In a small saucepan, add the water, Castor sugar and blackberries. Over a low heat cook blackberries until they are soft and the most of the water has evaporated, about 45minutes. Cool completely

2. Strain mixture through a fine sieve. making sure the extract as much liquid as possible. The more puree you can push through the sieve the better. I like to add the skins and pips to the puree as well, but if you want a perfectly smooth frosting then discard them. If you have added the skins and pips to the puree, you will no be able to pipe the frosting onto your cupcake.

3. Beat butter with and electric mixer on high until it is very pale and fluffy. Add blackberry puree and beat until combined.

4. Add icing sugar, one cup at a time, beating for at least 1 minute between cups, until you reach the consistency and sweetness you desire. I like mine not too sweet so usually 3 cups are enough. Beat until very fluffy, usually 5-6 minutes

5. At the very end add 2 tablespoons of very hot milk to the frosting, while beating on high. Beat mixture for 2-3 minutes. Frost your cupcakes!

I've actually made this recipe twice, the first time I made a half batch and true to my style again, I cut down on the sugar and butter. About 1 cup less sugar for the full recipe and about 100grams less butter. They turned out perfect, not too sweet and not too buttery. But the second time, I thought I would be brave and use the whole lot. It was WAAAYYYY too much butter. When I took my cupcakes out of the muffin tin, the bottoms were swimming in butter. The next day, Daz said he couldnt taste the white chocolate anymore and could only taste butter! So I would suggest cutting down on the butter. I will definately make these again, but with the slight changes.

I've been meaning to have a little play with rolled sugar paste for a while, and never really had an excuse to use it before. The first time I made these I decorated them with cute but simple fondant flowers. I thought this would be a perfect topper again, and they are really dead simple to make. So here is a simple step by step on how to make them.

You'll need a couple of things before starting:

Fondant, you can by this in the supermarket, Orchard makes some

Toothpicks

cornflour

Petal cutters, these are miniature cookie cutters or you can buy special fondant cutters

rolling pin

sugar glue, I make this by boiling together equal part sugar and water in the microwave. About 40ml will be more than enough

Step 1. Take a small ball of fondant, about the size of a squash ball and knead it until it is smooth and soft. Dust your worksurface or a piece of baking paper with cornflour, you can use icing sugar but cornflour is best. Roll your fondant out until it is fairly thin, about 2-3 mm thick.

Step 2. Take your petal cutter, and making sure that it is dusted well with cornflour cut petals from your fondant

Once you have cut enough petals to make the flowers, cover them with a bowl or some gladwrap, that way they don't dry out

Step 3. To make the centers of the flowers, take a small pinch of the fondant and roll it into a small ball between your fingers. While rolling, pinch the end so that it forms a tear drop

Try to make all your centers roughly the same size. Difficult....I know! Make enough centers to make all your flowers, then leave them out in the open. I find them easier to work with if they are a little dry.

Step 4. Take 3 petals and a center and begin the assemble. Using a toothpick, place a tiny drop of sugar glue on the end of the petal. Then stick the center to the petal. Wait at least 30 seconds to move onto the next step. I try to set a whole heap up so I have a mini production line

Step 5. Place a small drop of glue on your second petal and stick the center/petal combo onto this. Repeat for the last petal

And viola! Flower is made, simple huh? leave them to dry upside down for about 2 hours. That way they are nice and firm and easy to stick into your frosting.

The Cupcakes were a huge hit. It was the first time I had given them to Daz to transport in the cupcake courier, so there were a full 36 of them! They were gobbled up quickly and thats exactly how I like it!

Crayfish Pappardelle Pasta with Garlic and Burnt Butter Cream Sauce

On Saturday, during our weekly market ritual, we happened to get crayfish at a slash price. It was late in the day so the fish mongers were trying to get rid of as much stuff as they could. We managed to pick up a live crayfish for $20!! When I got home I weighed it, I was suspicious and wanted to make sure that I actually got a bargain.....there's the tightarse in me again. The little beast weighed in at just over 800grams, awesome score!

So what to do with crayfish? I didn't want to fancy it up too much, I really couldn't be bothered looking up any recipes, and simple is always best. I had some thick pasta in my pantry, cream in the fridge, what better way to have it than with some pasta with a cream sauce. And the beauty of this recipe, it only has 5 ingredients! Crayfish can be substituted for prawns, Moreton bay bugs, mussels, anything really.

Crayfish Pappardelle Pasta with Garlic and Burnt Butter Sauce

This will make enough to feed 2 people

1 crayfish, of whatever size, the bigger the better I say!

Half a packet (375gram) of Pappardelle pasta

300ml cream

80 grams butter plus 2 tablespoons

3 -4 cloves of garlic sliced very thinly

1. Cook crayfish in boiling water under it turns bright red.

Before

After

Off with his head!

2. Remove meat from tail and cut into thick slices. The crayfish should still be fully raw in the middle with a slightly cooked edge.

"Oh that shell was so tight on me!..."

Why do they call it a vein when no blood goes through it?

Masterchef here I come with my awesome slicing abilities!

3. While pasta is cooking in lots of salted water, melt butter in a large frying pan. Continue to cook over medium heat until butter begins to turn brown and starts to smell like nuts roasting. Remove from heat and add garlic.

4. Let the garlic soften while the butter is off the heat, this will take 1 minute or so. Add cream and return to the heat. Reduce the cream by half until it is thick and yellow/brown in colour, season with salt and pepper to taste

Garlic cooking in the butter

Cream added to garlic/butter mixture

Hmmmm, thick creamy garlic butter goodness

5. Once the pasta has cooked coat in the sauce and arrange on a plate.

6. Melt the remaining butter in a frying pan on high heat and quickly sear crayfish pieces, paying particular attention not to overcook it. Arrange crayfish pieces onto pasta. Eat quickly before your partner notices you put more crayfish on your plate than his.

My pasta turned out pretty creamy, I think I was a little heavy handed with the cream, so I would suggest keeping it to the bare minimum. After dinner was done I was left with the crayfish head. Now what do I do with the head? I thought about digging out what little meat was left and then licking my fingers, but then I looked to my side and noticed Romeo staring at me with his lustful eyes. Oh everyone deserves a treat from time to time, and its not fair that Daz and I were the only ones to get a crayfish dinner.......what to do?

"Mister crayfish head, its kitty time for you...."

Rich Chocolate Cake

Lately I've been having this incredible craving for anything chocolate, and before you all think that I'm up the duff....I'm not, its only a food belly! I was munching on my third block of dark chocolate when I suddenly remembered the chocolate cake recipe I had seen in an old issue of Gourmet Traveller. A work mate was having a birthday so I thought it was a perfect way to kill two stones with one bird (and yes that is the right way to say that saying).

A recipe with an added extra bonus, I get to try my awesome new offset spatula! Oh I know EXACTLY how to make myself happy. My first effort didn't exactly turn out as I had hoped. My perfectly leveled and smooth finish wasn't exactly that. It was a little wonky and my cake didn't quite turn out perfectly circular. But this cake is so good I will definitely make it again, and perfect the art of making things smooth.

It was so fudgy and rich, it delivered on everything it promised, and it quelled my chocolate cravings for a while. Its affect has well and truly worn off now, so I''m back to eating chocolate straight from the packet.

I managed to sneak a piece home for Daz to try out. I had hoped I could get it home and take a proper picture of it before he sunk his teeth into it. But Daz had other thoughts, so I made him take a snap of it on his lap on the car ride home with my mobile phone, before he devoured it. It took about 10 seconds flat to make the last of it disappear.

I recommend trying it. The recipe is stupid easy and a real crowd pleaser. Just make sure you have someone to share the cake with, I don't recommend being alone with this cake. It has a canny ability to be eaten quickly!!