Golden Tarte Tatin

February 27, 2017 by TSJC

This is one of those rainy day recipes, relatively easy to make, and a great way of using tart crisp Granny Smith apples so readily available in every super market. The golden caramel adds loads of character to the apples, and store bought pastry keeps things simple. I always think a tarte tatin is best eaten fresh, an hour after its come out of the oven, but stolen leftovers at room temperature late at night are almost as delicious (don’t plan on leftovers). We cooked this recipe as part of our French evening in February at The Cookery and everyone agreed it was a winner if you want more details on our classes take a look HERE.

Tarte Tatin
8-10 slices

Ingredients
1 sheet puff pastry, large enough to fit chosen pan
plain flour, for dusting
6-8 Granny Smith apples, size dependent
100gms caster sugar
70gms unsalted butter
25gms melted unsalted butter, for brushing

Good quality, store bought, vanilla ice cream, to serve

Directions
Step 1:
Start by rolling your pastry lightly, depending on the thickness until it is about 3mm thick, be careful you should only roll the pastry a little, don’t be tempted to try and fill a 30cm pan with a 15cm piece of pastry. Now cut a circle the same size as your chosen pan or dish, using a plate as a guide. Prick the pastry all over with a fork, wrap in baking paper or cling wrap and place on a baking sheet in the freezer while preparing the apples.

Step 2:
Heat oven to 170C fan or 180C conventional. Peel, quarter and core the apples.

Step 3:
Put the sugar in a 20cm ovenproof heavy-based frying pan and place on a stove at medium-high heat. Allow the sugar to melt and cook slowly for 5-7 mins until it is a dark amber caramel syrup that’s starting to smoke, then turn off the heat and stir in the 70g cold butter, that has been diced into small cubes.

Step 4:
To assemble the Tarte, arrange the apple quarters around the edge of the dish, rounded-side down or side on, just keep them nice and tight- then fill in the middle in a similar fashion. Gently press with your hands to ensure there are no gaps, be careful the caramel is hot! Now give the apples a generous brush with the melted butter

Step 5:
Bake in the centre of the oven for 25-30 mins, then remove and place the frozen pastry over the apples, it will soften in place quickly, take a little time to tuck the edges in around the edge of the dish. The cut a few small steam vents before placing the tarte back into the oven.

Step 6:
Bake for 40-45 mins until the pastry is golden brown and crisp.

Step 7:
Allow the tarte to stand at room tempt for at least 45-minutes before carefully running a knife around the edge, and inverting it onto a plate, serve warm or room temperature with the icecream

Delicious and easy to make, sweet caramel apples balanced off by the apples natural sharpness – delicious.

Cannoli Siciliani – Classically Italian!

September 22, 2014 by TSJC Leave a Comment

This is one of my all time favourite Italian dessert pastries, crisp and delicate shells filled with a light and perfumed cream studded with tiny golden citrussy bites and dark bitter shavings of good chocolate. I added some Frangelico to the cream mixture to add a light hazelnut scent and also some of Leafy Greens delicious Organic Vanilla powder. I usually whip some mascarpone cheese into the ricotta mixture to add a little richness, but if you have a really great creamy ricotta cheese you can leave this out.

The hardest part about making cannoli is rolling the pastry to the required thickness, or rather thinness. You can do this very carefully by hand, but this is a really special skill.

I use a pasta machine, it does the job quickly and you get all the cannoli perfectly even which means they all fry at the same speed. If you are planning on filling the cannoli before hand you need to line the fried tubes with some melted chocolate to try and prevent them from getting soggy, but cannoli are best filled and eaten. To make cannoli you are going to need to get your hands on some cannoli tubes, these varying size stainless steel tubest are used to shape your pastry around, so that they hold the shape when you deep fry them.

Cannoli Siciliani
Makes 12-24 Tubes

Ingredients
Cannoli Tubes
– 400gms stone ground unbleached flour, plus extra for rolling
– 140ml white wine, plus extra 60ml
– 1 jumbo free range egg yolk
– 40gms castor sugar
– 40gms butter, cold cut into small pieces
– pinch of fine salt
– sunflower or other vegetable oil for frying

Cream Filling
– 400gms good fresh ricotta cheese
– 100gms mascarpone cheese
– 2tbsp runny honey
– 40gms finely chopped candied mixed citrus peel
– 60gms drained maraschino cherries, finely chopped
– 3 tbsp Frangelico/Marsala/Cointreau/Amaretto/Orange Juice
– 60gms good dark chocolate, finely chopped

To make the pastry start by sieving the flour and salt into a large bowl. Now rub the butter into the flour, working quickly and lightly to keep the butter as cold as possible. Once the butter is rubbed in stir in the castor sugar and then add the egg yolk. Mix the egg yolk into the flour before adding the wine. Add about 100ml of the wine, and keep adding the wine extra wine tablespoon at time making sure you mix well between each addition. Once the dough has come together add knead it for a few minutes until it is smooth and silky, it should be elastic, not so moist that it sticks to the counter when you kneed the dough, or so dry that it crumbles when you try and knead it. Once you have finished with the dough wrap it in cling wrap and place it in the fridge to rest for at least 30-minutes or for as few hours.

When you are ready to roll the dough, cut it into 4 pieces. Keeping the extra dough wrapped while you work with each piece. Run it through the pasta maker on its thickest setting, dusting with flour as needed. Repeat this process until you have reduced to around a 6 or 7, depending on the thickness you like and your specific machine. I usually make mine around a 7, since I like the pastry really delicate and crunchy.

Now using a martini glass or circle the right size for your steel tubes, start cutting out disks of pastry. When you wrap them start by placing the tube in the centre of the circle, then fold one side round. wet the edge of the side still on the counter and just roll the tube over it, pressing gently as you do. This will seal the tubes, and also by wrapping from the centre you will keep the opening of the tubes clear of fried pastry. I roll, cut, wrap, fry in one long line, so that the pastry goes into the oil as soon as its cooked. The tubes need to be deep fried in hot clean oil, test the oil by dropping a small piece into it, it should pop to the surface a bubble. Fry one or two tubes at a time, be warned they brown very quickly so if you stick too many in you might find yourself battling to stop them from burning. Turn the tubes as they float in the oil so that they brown evenly, I find a set of chopsticks is the easiest way to handle them. Remove the tubes and lay them against the sides of a colander lined with absorbent paper towel. This will allow any trapped oil to drain away, as soon as you can, lift the pastry tube carefully into a clean dry dish cloth. Using one side of the dish cloth, carefully push the steel tube whilst gripping the pastry tube with the other hand gently. Once some of the tube is exposed, and using the cloth pinch the steel tube and pull it all the way out. You will master your technique fairly quickly it only takes a few finger burns to learn how to hold the tube, Plus if you grip too hard the pastry tube will break.

To prepare the cream place all the ingredients into a bowl and whisk till well combined. Add the filling to a pastry bag and set it aside. At the last minute pipe the mixture into the tubes, remember the tubes will only stay crisp for about 30-minutes. If you want to try and fill the tubes earlier, melt some chocolate and brush the inside of the tubes with it. Once this has gone cold it will form a protective layer between the tube and the cream, but the tubes will still get soggy after a few hours. To fill the tubes, pipe in from one side till the cream starts to come out then flip the tube and pipe in until it starts to come out that end. To serve lay the cannoli on a platter and dust well with icing sugar.

Gourmet Greek Tiramisu

August 21, 2014 by TSJC Leave a Comment

I love tiramisu and frankly their is absolutely nothing wrong with the original recipe made using mascarpone, it is rich, luscious and always a winner. However, I am so in love with the Gourmet Greeks Greek Yoghurt that I had to give it a try using yoghurt instead of mascarpone. What a treat, it is still as delicious, but a little less rich which means you can eat more! Now that’s what I call a successful recipe update.

Please note I tried this with 3 other supermarket Full Fat Greek Yoghurts it did not work, I noticed that only a truly drained yoghurt works, even the premium supermarket products may contain vegetable starch to thicken this prevents the tiramisu from setting.

Tiramisu
Serves 6-8

Ingredients
– 3 free range eggs, separated whites and yolks
– 1/3 cup castor sugar
– 250gms Gourmet Greek Yoghurt
– 250mls heavy cream, whipped till thick
– 250gm pack of Savoiardi Biscuits
– 2 cups strong coffee
– ½ cup marsala
– cocoa powder for dusting

Method
STEP 1: Beat the egg yolks and sugar until thick, pale and creamy
STEP 2: Now gently fold the whipped cream and Greek yoghurt into the egg yolk mixture
STEP 3: Whisk the egg whites until stiff, then fold these into the yoghurt & egg yolk mixture, being careful to not knock out too much air
STEP 4: Using a flat glass dish mix your coffee and marsala
STEP 5: Quickly dunk the biscuits into the coffee mixture, then place on the base of your serving tray, dunk the biscuits quickly or they will become too soft.
STEP 6: Pour out a third of your yoghurt cream mixture onto the biscotti, now give a good sprinkle of fine unsweetened cocoa powder
STEP 7: Top this with another layer of soaked biscuits and some more cocoa powder. Repeat until ending on a layer of cream and cocoa powder

STEPS TO REMEMBER
CREAM – VOLUME – DUNK – LAYER – DUST

Beer & Coconut Crusted Prawns

August 1, 2014 by TSJC Leave a Comment

This is one of those cocktail snacks that is loaded with flavour, quick and easy to make and will impress any guests. You want to use coarse not fine shredded coconut to give the prawns lots of crusty finish. Prawns only take a few minutes to cook, you want to make sure the crust is crispy and the prawns inside cooked, but tender and plump. I had a bottle of lemon scented beer from my visit to the SAB World of Beer on Monday so it seemed like the perfect beer to use.

Beer & Coconut Crusted Prawns
Makes 12-18

Ingredients
– 125gms cake flour
– 60mls beer
– salt & pepper
– 1/2 tsp baking powder
– 1 jumbo egg
– 12-18 prawns, deveined and heads and shell removed, leave tail intact
– 2 cloves crushed garlic
– 1 crushed red chili
– 2 tbsp lemon juice
– 2 cups coarse shredded coconut
– oil for deep frying

Start by thoroughly cleaning the prawns, remove the vein, shell and head. Leave the tail intact as it is the perfect way to eat the prawns. Now in a bowl add the garlic, lemon juice, chilli and the prawns, allow to marinade for 20-minutes.

In another bowl combine the flour, egg, baking powder and the beer (start with 40mls beer). It should make a runny batter, if it is too runny add a little more flour, if it is too thick add a little more beer. In a pot heat enough oil to shallow fry the prawns in batches, begin to heat the oil. Once the oil is hot, a drop of batter will sizzle, dust the prawns in some seasoned flour, then quickly dip the prawns into the batter, allow most of it to drain off, then add the prawns to the coconut. Turn the prawns to coat thoroughly in the coconut then fry them till they are crisp and golden. Serve immediately with a chilli and lemon mayo and some extra lemon wedges.

Pepate di Cozze

May 27, 2014 by TSJC Leave a Comment

I have been lucky enough to eat mussels all over the world and all I can say is you can’t beat our Saldanha bay mussels for their delicious minerally ozone flavour. Whilst mussels are loaded with nutrients it is their levels of Vitamin B-12, and Manganese that far outshine other food sources. Selenium is an important mineral in thyroid and immune system function.

If you get to know your fishmonger you will know when their fresh mussels come in to stock. They are usually brought up to Johannesburg on a Tuesday and Friday. Fresh black mussels are also relatively inexpensive, your fishmonger may clean them for you, but if you can avoid buying pre-steamed mussels they have lost a lot of their flavour by this stage.

To clean mussels yourself I find the easiest system is to fill two side by side sinks with cold water, I usually add some ice to the water. In the second sink of water add a large pinch of sea salt. Add all the mussels to the first sink then using a sharp knife, trim and beards and clean up the shells. It might seem like a lot of work, but the mussels naturally open a little when placed into ice cold water making it easier to remove the beards, they open because yes they are alive!

I find with mussels that very heavy cream based sauces are often used to cover up a lack of freshness, if you are using a fresh Saldanha mussel you actually want to do as little as possible and keep the fat levels down so that you allow your palette to taste every subtle bit of ocean flavour.

Pepate di Cozze
Serves 6

Ingredients
– 96 large black mussels
– 2 cups white wine
– 1/2 cup finely chopped flat leaf parsely
– 50mls cream/milk
– 1 clove garlic
– salt
– 1,5 tsp freshly crushed black pepper
– 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Once all your mussels are cleaned and you are basically ready to eat start to prepare your mussels. Do not make them, allow them to cool and reheat, they will lose their lovely delicate texture. Heat the olive oil and clove of garlic in a pan, once the garlic starts to colour add the wine. Bring to the boil. Add the mussels and cover, leave to cook for about 3-minutes covered. Open the pan and add the salt, parsley and freshly ground black pepper. Give the mussels a shake and recover. Cover for a further 1 minute, then add the cream, check seasoning and cook covered for another 2 minutes.

Dinner is all wrapped up!

May 8, 2014 by TSJC Leave a Comment

Chicken breasts seem to be extremely popular and yet at the same time they are my least favourite part of the chicken. The meat generally lacks any great flavour and has a tendency of drying out. This is one of those recipes that requires a little preparation but then its takes care of itself in the oven. The wrap of parma ham or bacon keeps the breast nice and moist as does the juicy filling in the centre.

Chicken Breasts Wrapped in Parma Ham
Serves 4

Ingredients
– 4 large free range chicken breasts
– 120g ricotta cheese
– 60gms sun dried tomatoes roughly chopped
– 100g mixed wild mushrooms
– 1 dry birds eye chili
– 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
– 1 single sprig thyme
– 2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive oil
– 1 tsp finely chopped parsley
– 1 tbsp butter
– 3 tbsp mascarpone/cream
– salt & pepper
– 25mls brandy
– 8 slices parma ham

Preheat your oven to 180°C. Now prepare the mushroom stuffing. Heat your pan. Now add the olive oil, butter, pinch finely thyme with the finely chopped garlic. Allow it to soften but not to brown. Now add the mushrooms, cut into rough chunks, the chunkier the better as it will add to the meatiness of the sandwich. Add the crumbled chili and stir once to coat, now leave the mushrooms to start browning and colouring, do not keep stirring them or they will lose their water and boil. Also make sure when you add your mushrooms that you do not over crowd the pan as this will also cause them to boil. Once the mushrooms have begun to get good colour, add the brandy, BE CAREFUL, the alcohol may burn off, don’t get a fright. Once the brandy has all but disappeared add the mascarpone, fresh parsley and salt and pepper, before dropping the heat and allowing the mascarpone to melt into the mushrooms. Stir to loosen all the yummy sticky bits. Set the mushrooms aside.

To prepare the chicken breasts cut a slit into one side of the breast, try and get as close to the other side as you can but be careful to not pierce the breast all the way through. Now add the ricotta and sun dried tomatoes to your mushroom mixture. Place two pieces of parma ham on a sheet of grease proof paper now place a chicken breast on top of those. Opening the pocket you have created try and squeeze in as much mushroom mixture as you can, but at most a 1/4 of the mix. Gently wrap the parma ham around the breast and using a piece of cooking string close the parcel up. Don’t squeeze it or you will force the mixture out. Once all 4 breasts are prepared, drizzle a little olive oil and place in a baking tray on the middle shelf of the oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until the juices run clear from the thickest part of the breast.
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Impromtu Ice Bucket

April 27, 2014 by TSJC Leave a Comment

Chilling out and hanging around!

My quick fix solution for a Sunday lunch in the garden where there is barely enough space at the table for the food and guests, let alone the drinks. I use a semi opaque plastic bucket filled with ice hanging from a nearby tree – works perfectly for casual lunches.

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