In My Kitchen - April 2021

 Welcome to In My Kitchen for April, 2021. It's still school holidays here, not that this affects me much, as we're not travelling and don't have children or grandchildren in town, however shopping centres and roads are a lot busier at this time of year, and thankfully the weather is cooling down. 

CELERY GRATIN

In this recipe, humble celery takes centre stage. Normally it is used as a vegetable to flavour lots of other dishes such as soups, casseroles and stews, after all celery, onions, and carrots are the vegetable triumvirate or  Mirepoix in French cooking, used as the flavour base for so many dishes. This dish has quite subtle French style flavours,  and I used some stale sourdough to make my breadcrumbs in the food processor which made the crumb and parmesan topping so tasty and crunchy around the edges. However any breadcrumbs will do.

The idea for this recipe began when I was making chicken soup, on a cool rainy day (love those days here), and I realised I had a lot of celery in the refrigerator. So the celery took over, and I also started waging war on all the other vegetables lurking in my crisper. As a result, a pot of vegetable stock appeared using up all of the veges which were looking a little tired but still usable, and so I simmered the vegetable stock alongside the chicken soup for a couple of hours.  It's good time management to do it this way, as the same kind of veges went into the soup and the stock, and then at the end of the cooking time, I transferred some of the vegetable stock into the chicken soup to top it up. Delicious.

Meanwhile I was left with some nice crisp fresh celery, which I made into this delicious gratin. Who doesn't love a vegetable gratin? Celery is such an economical vegetable to buy, it only costs $2.00 for a whole head of it here, which is probably why I end up with so much of it, but it is very versatile and can be added to so many dishes.  I found this recipe in River Cottage Veg Everyday, another great recipe thanks Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

Let's cook:

Ingredients:

 1 head of celery

1 bay leaf

2 sprigs of thyme

25 g butter

100 ml thickened cream

75 g breadcrumbs

30 g very tasty cheese, such as Parmesan, Gruyere, or a hard goat's cheese, finely grated

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method:

Preheat the oven to 160 deg. C/Gas Mark 3.

Break the celery into stalks. Set aside the outer stalks if they look a bit coarse or hollow which they probably are. They will be great to use in stock or soups. The secret to this recipe is to choose fresh crisp stalks, and to remove any noticeable strings from the the stalks you have chosen.

Remove all of the leaves from your chosen stalks and set them aside to use in stocks as well. 

Cut all the stalks into 10 cm lengths.

Put the celery into a shallow ovenproof dish and add the bay leaf and the thyme, tucking in around the stems.

Pour over 3 tablespoons of water, dot the butter over the stalks, and sprinkle with some salt and freshly ground pepper.

Cover the dish with alfoil and bake for about 40 minutes until the celery is tender.

Remove the dish from the oven and turn the oven temperature up to 200 deg. C/Gas Mark 6.

Discard the thyme and bay leaf, and carefully pour off the liquid from the celery dish into a jug.

To the celery liquid add enough cream to make up to 150 ml and whisk together.  Have a taste and add more salt and pepper if needed, then pour back over the celery into the dish.

Mix the grated cheese and the breadcrumbs together, sprinkle over the celery and return to the oven for 15-20 minutes, until the crumb topping is crispy. 

Finish off by grinding over some black pepper and serve.

Yum, my mouth is watering as I type this up.

Sometimes I  also freeze celery and the leaves. It needs to be cut into usable sized pieces, then blanched, then quickly chilled in ice water, dried and frozen in zip lock bags.Great to use in stocks and soups.

Celery gratin is perfect to eat on meat free Monday with a lentil dish or even a frittata, if you follow that path,  however we enjoyed it as a side during the week with a simple chicken casserole.

Warm wishes,

Pauline

Homemade Chocolate Ganache Cake

Over the Easter break the only kind of cake that I want to make is a chocolate cake, and with lots of icing. It was our lovely friend's birthday yesterday, which was also Easter Sunday, so for her birthday I made this rich, moist cake with luscious frosting which we all enjoyed  at home after lunch accompanied by Mr. HRK's special espresso coffee. This was my first attempt at making chocolate ganache. Normally I make traditional chocolate icing, but this was a birthday celebration and Easter Sunday as well, so I thought ganache would be quite  special. It's also nice to decorate chocolate cake with raspberries don't you think, however it's not essential. I also placed some chocolate coated ginger around the edge of the cake because the birthday girl loves ginger.

When I saw this recipe in Silvia Colloca's recipe book, Love Laugh Bake!, I was captivated and had to try it. I'm on a mission to find the best chocolate cake to add to my baking repertoire, and my friends it's tough going. This one just might be it, and would be fine served just with whipped cream, traditional icing or the ganache frosting from this recipe. It's a cinch to make, and whilst not every chocolate cake needs to have dark chocolate in it's list of ingredients, yes sometimes just good quality cocoa powder will do, I think that for an elegant touch, and one that warrants becoming an impressive birthday centrepiece, this rich, moist chocolate cake is a winner. 

Let's Bake:

Serves 8-10

Ingredients:

 180 g  dark chocolate chips

200 g unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing the tin

250 g brown sugar

4 eggs

350 g (2 1/2 cups) self-raising flour, sifted (or plain flour + 5 teaspoons very fresh baking powder)

3 tablespoons Cocoa powder, sifted

200 ml buttermilk

125 g (1 cup) raspberries

Ganache Frosting

300 ml thickened cream

300 g milk chocolate chips

100 g dark chocolate chips

Method:

Preheat your oven to 160 deg. C. and grease and line a 22-23 cm round cake

Melting the chocolate and butter:

Select a medium sized pyrex bowl that fits over a saucepan ensuring there is no space between the bowl and the rim of the saucepan. Place the chocolate and butter in the pyrex bowl, set approx. 3 cm of water in the saucepan to simmer, and then place the bowl over the simmering water. The bowl mustn't come in contact with the water, and steam mustn't enter the bowl or the chocolate may separate. (Sorry to sound bossy about this but it has happened to me.) Set aside to cool.

Mix the eggs and sugar until pale and fluffy using your electric mixer. 

Remove the bowl from the mixer. 

Sift the flour and cocoa together and add to the beaten egg mixture. Then add the buttermilk, and the cooled melted chocolate and fold this mixture to combine.

Pour the mixture into the lined baking tin and bake for 35-40 minutes. Just to be sure, test with a skewer inserted into the middle of the cake and if it comes out clean, the cake is cooked.

Cool the cake in the tin for 10 minutes, and then ease onto a wire cooling rake to cool completely. Cut the cake in half horizontally using a serrated knife, so that it can be filled in the centre with ganache a bit later, but this isn't essential.

Making the Ganache:

Pour the cream into a small saucepan and bring to simmering point on a low heat, small bubbles will start appearing and light steam will rise from the cream. Remove from the heat, then add the chocolate to the saucepan and wait for it to melt into the warm cream. 

Whisk the mixture lightly until smooth. Transfer the mixture to a mixing bowl, cover very tightly with cling wrap and place in the refrigerator for 60 minutes to set to a spreadable consistency. If you leave the melted chocolate in the saucepan it will take longer to set. I left the ganache in the frig for a whole morning, and it was perfect to spread on the cake in the early afternoon. Mine took longer to set than 60 minutes. We are still experiencing humidity here so the ganache started to soften quickly after being removed from the frig. and was great to work with. 

If you have cut your cake into two halves, place the bottom layer on a cake stand cut side up. Spread one-third of the frosting onto it, and scatter with half of the raspberries. Place the top layer of the cake over the raspberries, and spread the frosting over the top and around the sides. Scatter the remaining raspberries over the top of the cake.

We don't buy each other Easter eggs or chocolates anymore at Easter time, especially when we have chocolate cake to look forward to. However we managed to have some chocolate eggs delivered to our grandchildren in the Falkland Islands as part of a special grocery hamper for our sons 40th birthday just before Easter.  They all loved it. More about that story later.

Mr. HRK and I  hope you have enjoyed a peaceful and relaxing Easter with family or friends or both, wherever you are. 

Warm wishes,

Pauline

 

Hot Smoked Salmon Kedgeree

 

On Sunday we ate this dish of hot smoked fish fillets and spiced rice for lunch, however it is also perfect eaten for breakfast with the addition of softish boiled eggs. Or you can take it up a notch for an easy Sunday night dinner by adding some thawed frozen peas, some more spice or curry powder if you like, and serve it with mango chutney or a relish. Easy peasy! It's a riff on my Friday Night Special, which is a family favourite, still very fishy, and is made on canned tuna or salmon. 

Slow Cooker Vietnamese Pulled Pork with Char Sui Sauce and a Wombok Salad

 

Vietnamese cuisine is one of our favourite styles of cooking, and whilst we enjoy eating out occasionally at a very good Vietnamese restaurant here in Mackay, it is also very easy in this tropical weather we are still experiencing to place all of the ingredients for the Char Sui Pulled Pork into the slow cooker, set it for 8 hours, make a delicious Wombok salad to accompany it, cook some rice, and eat in the comfort of our own home. 

Edith's Perfect Plum Dessert Cake

 "IT'S ALWAYS ABOUT THE FOOD"

(Monday Morning Cooking Club, 2017) 

 

Perfect for morning tea and for dessert as well, I adore baking and eating this plum cake. The cake batter after beating, has a light and fluffy creaminess to it, and then when taken out of the oven, the tart yet sweet cooked plums taste heavenly in this nostalgic style of cake. Surprisingly, it is also delicious eaten cold out of the refrigerator, in fact that is how Mr. HRK prefers it, with thickened cream on the side of course. For dessert we prefer it with ice cream.

Ingredients:

Serves 14-16 (18 at a stretch)

180 g (6 1/2 oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature

345 g (1 1/2 cups/12 1/4 oz) caster (superfine) sugar

4 eggs at room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

finely grated zest of 1 lemon

300 g (2 cups/10 1/2 oz) self-raising White Wings Flour (A good quality flour must be used)

12 medium plums, or 25 sugar plums, halved and pitted

Icing sugar (confectioner's sugar), for dusting

double cream or ice-cream, to serve

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180 deg. C (350 deg. C/Gas 4) 

Line a 33 x 23 cm (13 x 9 inches) rectangular baking tin.  Leave an overhang of baking paper up the sides of the tin to make lifting the cake out easier. (I bought a new baking tin from Woolworths supermarket just this morning ($11.00), to cook this cake in as my other one this size is very old and has other uses now in Mr. HRK's man shed!)

Cream the butter and sugar in your electric mixer on quite a high speed, around 6 on my Kitchen Aid, until light and fluffy.

Add the eggs to the mixture, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla extract and lemon zest.

By hand, use a large spoon to fold in the flour gently until just combined.

Now spoon the cake batter into the lined baking tin and spread it evenly with the spoon. Lay the halved plums cut side up in rows on top of the batter, trying not to press them into the batter.

Bake for 1 hour, and test after 45 minutes by inserting a skewer lightly into the centre of the cake. It should come out clean when the cake is cooked. It took exactly 1 hour in my oven. Even though it was browning nicely on the surface, it still wasn't cooked through at 45 minutes.

Cool the cake completely in the tin, and lift out using the baking paper. It is much easier to cut into slices when cool.

This recipe was tried, tested and loved by the Monday Morning Cooking Club sisterhood before being published in their third cookbook, "It's always about the food." Sliced apples or berries could be used instead of plums, but stone fruits work so well in dessert cakes don't they?

I made this for afternoon tea yesterday when my group of friends came to play our weekly game of Mahjong. I dusted slices with icing sugar and we ate it with some thickened cream. For dessert, I  would serve this warm or cold with ice-cream, and with more fruit on the side if you like. 

This cake should keep well in a tin for up to 4 days in a cooler climate, however in the North Queensland tropical heat that we have been experiencing when I baked this, I store leftovers in a covered container in  the refrigerator. Reheat gently if you wish in Winter, but as I said above, it is also delicious cold. Needless to say, the leftovers didn't last long this time.

Black and Red Plums are in season and plentiful in the fruit shops so it's the perfect time to make this cake right now. I used the black plums for this recipe at $3.50 a kilo, which is a pretty good price for here.

So who was Edith? This was her family cake recipe, and I love a good cake story and to share the importance of continuing it's legacy. Edith wasn't a relation of mine, but was Garry Enston's mother, and Garry contributed her recipe, to be judged along with 9 other plum cakes for inclusion in this book. This particular one was chosen and I know why, it's simply marvellous. Edith and her husband emigrated to Perth, Australia from Prague, in 1939 during the German occupation and she loved good food and loved to entertain although Garry says she wasn't a passionate cook herself. She had several wonderful cake recipes from her Mother and her uncle who was a pastry chef at the Palace Hotel in Prague, and reading between the lines, this is one of those recipes, laced with Czechoslavakian nostalgia.

Hope, my Mother, was also a very good cook, particularly sweets, which I really appreciate now,  and she loved to serve good food within the confines of our budget, so my love of cooking and eating good food is definitely genetic. If you are reading my blog and this story, I think you must love quality food with traces of nostalgia as well. Is your love of food genetic or acquired and is there a nostalgic element to some of your cooking?

Happy baking,

Pauline

Plum Jam Crumble Biscuits

 

When an Anzac biscuit meets a Jam Drop, it's like boy meets girl in the biscuit tin and these delicious Jammy Crumbly biscuits are created. When you have some home made jam and some rolled oats in the pantry, and I always do, in addition to the normal baking staples, these biscuits can be made within the hour. I had plum jam, but any jam will do. I recommend these biscuits to you and hope you make them. This is an easy and delicious mid-week recipe.  

I saw it in the Woolworths supermarket catalogue and was smitten with them straight away. For fun you can even use a few different jams for a variety of jammy colours, and to use up the last spoonful of jam left in those jars in the refrigerator. I am definitely doing that next time I make these, and that's not far away. These are delicious with a cuppa anytime at all.  This batch disappeared in two days.

Ingredients:

2 cups Rolled Oats

1 cup Plain Flour

1 cup desiccated coconut

1/2 cup brown sugar

125 g butter, chopped

1/3 cup Golden Syrup

1/4 cup water

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

2 1/2 tablespoons plum jam or other type of jam

Method:

Preheat your oven to 180 deg C./160 deg. C. Fan forced.

Grease and line 2-3 baking trays with baking paper, depending on their size. This recipe makes 20-24 biscuits. Mine fitted on 2 large trays, 12 to a tray.

Pour the dry ingredients i.e. oats, flour, coconut and sugar into a large mixing bowl.

Choose a medium sized saucepan, and add the butter, syrup and 1/4 cup water to the saucepan and stir over a medium heat until the butter is melted. Take the pan off the heat and add the bicarb of soda. The mixture will foam up which is great. (If it doesn't foam up, the bicarb of soda is probably old and past it's use by date. It needs to be replaced.)

Add this foaming mixture to the dry ingredients and stir well to combine and integrate all of the dry ingredients. This will result in a wet, quite sticky mixture.

Wetting your hands and shaking off the excess moisture might help with the next step. Roll tablespoons of the mixture into balls and place, 5 cm apart on trays. 

Press each ball down slightly with a spoon to form 5 cm rounds. Then create an indent in the middle of each biscuit by using the end of a wooden spoon or your thumb.

Fill each indent with 1/2 tsp of jam and bake for 15 minutes or until golden. I might have just added close to a teaspoon of jam in some of mine, oops, but that's ok. They tasted very good.

Place the biscuit trays on  cooling racks and leave for 10 minutes before carefully removing the biscuits with a large knife onto the cooling racks to finish cooling and firming up. 

I like to bake biscuits during the week so that I always have something sweet and delicious on hand, do you? These biscuits were  perfect to eat on the same day I baked them, however by the following day in the tropical weather they had slightly softened even though I stored them in a covered container. I put them in the frig and they firmed and crisped up again. So I would suggest that during Summer, when they have cooled, place them in a lidded container and store them straight away in the frig. 

It's hard to believe, but next month it is actually Anzac Day on the 25th April. The way time is flying it will be here before we know it. Here is my Anzac Biscuit recipe if you want to start practising in advance, however in the meantime, these Jammy Crumbly biscuits  are definitely a riff on the traditional Anzac and will suffice.

Best wishes,

Pauline