hollandaise sauce and a book review
Posted: April 26, 2011 Filed under: books, sauces | Tags: book review, credo cafe, easy, eggs, surrender, urban seed, yolks Leave a comment »The Supper of the Lamb by Robert Farrar Capon. I’ve been reading it for the past week (it should be read slow, to be savoured) and it’s really an amazing book. It was first released in the 1950s and it’s just the most eccentric journey into the mind of a cook/chef I’ve read. I love cookbooks, I love reading recipes and finding little personal touches and tips and tricks, things to watch out for, to mind, to not mind. Food blogs are great for that, I’ll be posting a blogroll soon, I think.
This isn’t just a cookbook. It’s a manifesto. It’s a celebration of life, food, the earth, God’s creation. To love things for what they are, not for what they mean, which, by the way, works for people too. Intrinsic value, not exchange value, is what is important. You have value for who you are, not for what you mean to me or to anyone else. And that apple you’re eating, has value for simply being an apple, not just because it’s good for you.
The first thing I made from this book was actually bread; beautiful crusty bread rolls, yeasty and delicious, but they’re not here because I made them at Surrender with some of the people from Credo Cafe over at Urban Seed (if you’re in Melbourne, in the city around noon, head over to Credo for food and good company. I guarantee you it will blast your expectations out of the water.) Their Strangers are Fiction campaign is has been launched, so if you want to jump in with that, by all means do so. We’re not strangers, we’re just family that hasn’t met yet.
The first thing I made from this book when I owned it (after I heard about it at Surrender I had to find it) was this hollandaise sauce and it is seriously one of the easiest things in the world to do. After I made those macarons for Easter, I had all these egg yolks left over so of course, I had to make hollandaise sauce.
For each egg yolk, add a tablespoon of cream to a saucepan (that your egg yolks are already in, I hope) some salt, pepper, cayenne pepper and lemon juice to taste. Whisk well and then place over medium heat, still whisking. When the custard thickens sufficiently, back away from the heat (carrying your saucepan and still whisking) over to a pot-stand where you have ready two tablespoons of butter for each egg yolk. Whisk these in and when they are incorporated, you have homemade hollandaise sauce that will rock your socks off.
easter bunny macarons
Posted: April 25, 2011 Filed under: chocolate, cookies, macarons | Tags: almond, baking, cookies, cute, easter, festive, god, hazelnut, macarons, meringue, photos 1 Comment »
Well. It is Easter.
I have a bit of a fetish with macarons. I tend to have these loves; in 2008/9/part of 10 it was cupcakes, cupcakes galore; any kind of miniature cake that could be decorated and cute, I fell for. Now it’s macarons. I’ll get one if they’re available with my coffee, I drool over the rows and rows in Larent Boulangerie Patisserie and the Lindt Chocolat Cafés. I read about the best methods to make them, I dream about them. I dreamt about these ones, actually; piping the little ears on weird, bright pink carnival colours. Strange dreams, I have sometimes.
I got the idea for these from raspberri cupcakes, who makes the most amazing macarons, really, but I decided to take the recipe from Secrets of Macarons by Jose Marechal, for no reason whatsoever except that I had it on hand and I couldn’t be bothered printing out the recipe.
I’m still a macaron baking newbie; a lot (and by a lot I mean probably most of them) of my bunnies have cracked faces or bums. But they taste delicious. And they are cuter than a button.
Easter Bunny Macarons
Adapted from Secrets of Macarons by Jose Marechal
100g almond meal
100g hazelnut meal
200g icing sugar
75ml water
200g caster sugar
2x80g egg whites (that’s 160g egg whites in total, about six eggs’ worth)
Food colouring, if desired
For the decoration; I used blue and white muisjes balls for the eyes and noses, which are Dutch aniseed sprinkles. You can just as easily use silver cachous or white sugar balls for the noses, and edible marker pen lines for cute smiling eyelids or eyes. Chocolate sprinkle whiskers and white chocolate chip tails.
For the ganache:
200g dark (70% cocoa solids) chocolate, chopped
200ml cream
50g butter
Sift the ground nuts and the icing sugar together and set aside.
Bring the caster sugar and water to boil and keep boiling until the mixture reaches soft ball stage, 105-115ºC, if you have a sugar thermometer, which I don’t. When the sugar is almost ready, start beating 80g of the egg whites in a stand mixer. When it makes soft peaks, add the hot sugar and water in a thin stream while still beating.
Continue beating after all the mix has been added for about ten minutes, to cool it down. (This is the Italian meringue. If you want to add colours, like I did, add them now. I added about half a capful of pink food colouring.)
While this is beating, combine the rest of the egg whites with the ground nuts and icing sugar. Incorporate about a third of the Italian meringue in, to loosen the batter, then fold the rest in gently. Whatever you do, don’t over mix the macaron batter. When it’s ready, it should be kinda like thick pancake batter; a spoonful dropped back on the surface should disappear in about thirty seconds.
Preheat oven to 150º. Line two baking trays with non-stick paper and pipe 3cm rounds of batter. Make sure you leave enough room to pipe bunny ears on half of them.
Rap the trays on the benchtop and let them set for about half an hour, in which time you can decorate them (i.e., put faces and bunny tails on them. If you don’t have white chocolate chips, you can wait until after you’ve incorporated the Italian meringue into the rest of the batter to colour the mix, and before you put pink colouring in, take out about a half cup of mixture to pipe onto the bums.)
Bake about 14 minutes, and gently place the baking paper on a damp benchtop to make it easier to remove the shells.
For the ganache: bring the cream to boil, then pour it over the chocolate and whisk until smooth. Cool down a little, then whisk in the butter. Keep at room temperature and pipe onto the bunny bums; sandwich with the heads and show off to all your friends.
onion soup
Posted: April 25, 2011 Filed under: soup | Tags: antidote, onions, photos, snuggling, soup, winter Leave a comment »
I love winter. I love the rain, I love snuggling up in my pyjamas and a doona, watching movies and drinking hot chocolate. Or coffee. Or tea. I love watching the rain fall. I love skirts and tights, leggings, boots, socks and legwarmers. I love hoodies and scarves and coats and jumping in puddles.
And I love soup.
Pumpkin Soup.
Minestrone.
Potato and Leek, possibly my favourite type of soup, despite its simplicity.
And I’ve been hanging out to try a whole list of soups, and waiting for winter, and proper soup weather, to arrive for me to do so. On my list, no longer onion soup but 44 clove garlic soup, baked potato soup, homemade tomato soup (maybe with the homegrown heritage tomatoes we have here at the family home) and some sort of dumpling soup. A vegetarian kind of dumpling soup, which by all accounts will be hard to come by. We’ll get there.
There isn’t much to say about this soup, except that it is weepingly delicious, started out life in Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, and was the perfect antidote to my flu-like symptoms. They haven’t disappeared, but they are definitely on the back burner of my mind right now. All due to this soup.
Onion Soup
Adapted from Mastering the Art of French Cooking via Smitten Kitchen
780g thinly sliced brown onions
3tbsp butter
1 tbsp/slosh of vegetable oil (I have no doubt that the original olive oil requested would elevate this soup even further than it is, however, there was none in the house. We make do.)
Salt to taste
1/2 tsp sugar
3tbsp plain flour
approx 2 litres brown stock (we used mushroom; you can use beef if you’re not vegetarian; but please, for the love of all that is good in this world, make your own. We had 50g of dehydrated shiitake mushrooms and boiled them for about an hour or two. THAT’S ALL IT TAKES PEOPLE. Just remember to keep topping up the water if it reduces too much.)
3/4 cup dry white wine
1 tbsp brandy or cognac (optional but recommended. You can definitely add more to taste; the original recipe called for three tablespoons but we didn’t actually have that much.)
For the gratinée (also optional but recommended.):
About 350-400g sharp cheddar cheese, grated
Crusty bread to cover six bowls, toasted until hard
Butter
Melt butter and olive oil in the bottom of your soup pot or Dutch oven (about 4 litres) and add the onion; stir to coat and turn the heat down low for about 15 minutes, until the onion is translucent ish. You don’t need to baby them; just cover them and let them go.
After the 15 minutes or so, sprinkle the salt and sugar over the onions and stir to coat; turn the heat up to medium and caramelize for 30-40 minutes (or longer if the spirit so moves you) stirring often. Don’t skimp on the caramelization. It’s worth it.
Sprinkle the flour over the caramelized onions and cook, stirring constantly, for about 3 minutes. Add all the wine and a little bit of stock at a time, stirring well in between additions. Lower heat to a simmer and cover, partially, to simmer for about 30 minutes or so; skim off the scum if you need to (we needed to).
Correct seasonings and stir in the cognac or brandy. Set aside until needed, or serve immediately, if not gratinéeing the tops.
For the gratinée:
Preheat oven to 170ºC. Line a tray with foil and place six soup bowls on it (we had to use two trays); Fill them with soup. Sprinkle a little cheese into each bowl. Butter the crusty croutons and float them, butter side down, on the soup, covering as much surface area as you can. Cover the croutons with cheese and place in the oven for about 20 minutes; grill them for a few minutes at the end to brown the cheese. Serve immediately and carefully – the bowls will be hot. Cures all manner of ailments.
a word on words
Posted: April 21, 2011 Filed under: cake, chocolate, poetry, prose | Tags: baking, birthday, cupcakes, friends, links, poetry Leave a comment »So I hate to be blasting you with links to click on and no return on my part so at the end of this post is indeed a recipe for you to make and share, especially, if you can, with poets; they like their sweets. Or maybe that’s just me.
Anyway.
Before we get to the double chocolate mud cupcakes (easy to share; easy to transport; don’t need icing; easy ish to make; perfect birthday cupcakes) we’re talking about poetry.
Poetry, rather like tea, soothes the soul and calms the spirits. Poetry is the words when there are no words to describe what goes on in the heart and in the soul. Poetry writes the words that won’t come, poetry tells us that we are not alone. Poetry is the lyrics to the song of life. Poetry is the imagination of the world written out upon the pages of our collective journal, the words spoken into the darkness when no one will hear, the cry of one in the wilderness, the emphasis of the swear words when they aren’t strong enough.
Poetry lifts you up when you’re high enough to be lifted and sits with you in the deep dark places when you aren’t. It sings your delights and wails your sorrows.
Poetry touches us. Poetry holds our hearts with gentle hands, lets us rest in its soft loving arms.
Poetry challenges us. Poetry reaches in and touches our hearts and says, you can feel this. Don’t pretend you can’t. Do something about it instead.
Poetry is hope. And ‘Hope is the thing with feathers/That perches in the soul,/And sings the tune–without the words, /And never stops at all’ *
Poetry can be written, and it is beautiful when written – the Norton Anthology of Poetry is a good place to start. (page 1340).
Poetry can be read but poetry can also be spoken. Spoken Word poetry is one of the most spine tingling experiences you can be a part of.
The Centre for Poetics and Justice is ‘dedicated to the integration of poetics and social transformation.’ There are many different poetry events around Melbourne; try Overload Poetry, the Wheeler Centre, Footscray Community Arts Centre, Poetiq, or tune in to Channel 31 on Wednesdays at 11pm for Red Lobster.
And now for the cupcakes.
Everything I said earlier was true.
These are beautifully dense and chocolaty, while managing not to be overly heavy. They don’t need icing, they travel well, they are great to share – if they get past your own kitchen.
They are fantastic for birthday cupcakes, as well, as we demonstrated tonight.
Double Chocolate Mud Cupcakes
Adapted from Cupcakes from the Australian Women’s Weekly kitchen
I couldn’t find the actual book on Amazon that I got the recipe from, but this one seems quite close.
60g dark eating chocolate, chopped
160ml water
90g softened butter
1 cup firmly brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup self raising flour
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
1/3 cup almond or hazelnut meal
Preheat oven to 170ºC. Line a 12 hole cupcake pan with paper cases.
Melt chocolate with the water in a small saucepan and stir until smooth. Set aside to cool.
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy; add eggs one at a time. Sift in flour and nut meal; fold in gently and add chocolate. Stir until just incorporated.
Fill cases until about they are about 3/4 of the way full. You should be able to divide the mixture evenly among the 12.
Bake about 25 minutes. They should be lightly springy to the touch; don’t let them overbake otherwise they’ll be dry and crackly on the top. Let them rest five minutes before turning them out to cool on a wire rack.
*Hope, by Emily Dickinson
shameless plug
Posted: April 17, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: blog, links, plug, soul survivor, surrender 3 Comments »Recently, I’ve been involved in a few things that are awesome, and that you should check out.
Also known as: shameless plug time! yay!
For the last three months, I’ve been interning with Surrender. We at Surrender like to describe it as an idea, a concept, a movement. It’s not restricted by space and time and people. That being said, it’s also a conference and a network and a really exciting thing to be a part of. Surrender in Australia partners with some amazing organisations doing amazing things in response to the call to surrender; the call to live life as Jesus asked us to, the call to those on the margins and those who are downtrodden and oppressed. Us interns have been hanging out with neighbourhood missionaries at UNOH; barbequeing it up with the team at concern; playing trouble at 614 with JustSalvos; talking about overseas grassroots mission with the guys at TEAR; meeting our neighbours at Urban Seed; and just generally finding out how lots of different people interpret life as called by Jesus. The conference itself was amazing and deserves a post of its own, so I’ll be writing more on that later.
At the Friday night of Surrender, we had the Soul Survivor team come in, as part of our Youth Night. In the words of the Soul Survivor team, “Soul Survivor Melbourne is a volunteer run organisation dedicated to encouraging and equipping young people to know Jesus Christ, and live radically as his disciples.” It’s pretty amazing; the Soul Survivor in Melbourne just finished today, but it’s also run in NSW, New Zealand and the UK, where it all began.
If you’re not already sick of clicking on links, I have one more for you today. A bunch of my friends just recently started writing a blog together. It’s got some amazing thoughts and stories on it, and I really encourage you to check out KOG in the machine. Do it. Right now.
Happy Palm Sunday, the day we remember that our king didn’t ride to our rescue on a warhorse with fanfares blazing, to a welcome of a throne and bowing servants; he rode in the back way on a donkey, to a crucifix and a cold grave.
luke
Posted: April 15, 2011 Filed under: poetry, Uncategorized 1 Comment »So I feel like it’s time to talk about what happened last week.
This is a sensitive issue. Please don’t think I’m making light of it at all; I’m still vulnerable and so are a lot of people. But this news was in the news, it is on Facebook, it’s common knowledge, or at least it should be. And it’s all I’ve really been thinking about, because at the moment, everything comes back to this one life-altering event.
On Tuesday 5th April, 2011 at approximately 8am, my housemate, a 25-year-old trainee aircraft engineer was killed in a motorbike accident on his way to college.
He was an amazing guy and we’re still all reeling from the shock. I can’t believe it was more than a week ago, to be honest. Yesterday was the funeral in Sydney; on Wednesday night I spilled my heart on the matter in a public forum via the medium of spoken word poetry.
This is that poem.
suckerpunch
so
here i am
sitting in not enough memories
insomniac thoughts flittering through
thundering clouds whisper rainbows into dreams of sunlight and dancing
on knives
underneath this gathering storm which threatens violence on my somewhat ordered life
darkness is all i can see but
sunlight is all there is here
such a beautiful day
sometimes, life punches you in the guts. SUCKER! it yells and runs off, leaving you gasping and disoriented
wandering around in familiarity but not recognising a single thing
bent double
breathless
and aching
this ache in my heart used to be hope, for hope is what kept it beating
hope keeps us all breathing
shock
stopped
dead
for a while
frozen lungs
unable to picture anything
alone with these thoughts marching in, keeping me wondering
no words
or is it too many?
shaking hands
uncomfortable in my own skin
pounding heart
no rest for the living
anxious and frantic
my soul fraying at the edges with
nowhere to go and
no one to help
my heart so heavy now
filled with rocks called
disbelief
and confusion
for this does not happen to one that we know
one of our own
sadness
frustration and
indignation for
the show got cancelled, with no warning and no reason why
leaving me with a too-small boxed set
wondering what could have been and
unsure of what to feel for
there is no formula for grief
a confession
Posted: April 11, 2011 Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: socks Leave a comment »of the lighthearted kind.
I love… promise you won’t laugh…socks. And legwarmers. And armwarmers. Hats and shoes also – I’m an accessories b*tch, what can I say. And I confess this to you now because I just got an order from Sock Dreams delivered today! Yay!
I got the Harajuku Super Loose socks in Milk Tea (cos I love my tea milky and sweet… Actually, I’ve been eyeing these off for a while. And then the earthquake happened in Japan and these were made in Japan, so it’s kind of a way to support. Just a little. On that also, I figured everyone was blogging about Japan, so why add another clanging bell? I have nothing new to say, it’s just unbelievably tragic. Ah, I digress again.) and the Super Ms in Dark Red because they didn’t have Olive.
I wanted to wear them immediately but I only have work today so I’m going to save them for tomorrow. I am so excited, not least because it’s almost winter, my favourite season, but also because, well, you gotta be excited about something. And there hasn’t been much to be excited about this past week.
