A Sunday Lunch for Four

Shiraz-braised beef short rib, Petits pois à la Française, Scalloped potatoes 

We had some friends over for lunch today, and as I sit down to write this post, I realise that I haven't entertained for ages. (I certainly haven't blogged any dinner/lunch parties since March's Miranda Party post, and before that, February's Lobster Party post!) Although I love cooking, and more importantly, feeding people, my current flat isn't particularly suited for entertaining - the lounge room is carpeted, which always makes me a bit nervous if we're drinking red wine, and our dining room is kinda set apart from the kitchen, so preparing and serving many courses can be a bit awkward. When we have had people over recently, I've preferred to do simple weeknight dinners with small groups of people, like a bowl of Taiwanese Meat Sauce on Rice, eaten off our laps in the lounge room, as opposed to my usual Cecil B. DeMille productions. Or perhaps those are just excuses and I've been really enjoying hibernating this winter!

Anyway, for this particular lunch, I wanted to make something special, but still reassuringly "Sunday lunch-y". I thought that beef in a red wine sauce, scalloped potatoes and peas would do the trick.

A Sunday Lunch for 4

Shiraz-braised beef short rib

Scalloped potatoes with leeks

Petits pois à la française

Chocolate fudge cake

I've written up the recipes or the short rib and peas at the bottom of this post. You can find the recipe for the scalloped potatoes on Martha Stewart's website (click here), and the chocolate fudge cake is from the The Ottolenghi Cookbook.

The whole menu was reasonably easy to put together - I started cooking at ten in the morning, didn't feel particularly rushed, and we sat around the table to eat at one thirty.

I started by making the chocolate cake. Ottolenghi's chocolate fudge cake is a super dense, rich, chocolatey monster of a cake - just chocolate, sugar, butter, and eggs. I love how glossy the mixture looks!

Chocolate fudge cake mixture

The cake's schtick (if cake can be said to have a schtick), as I've mentioned previously, is that you bake two thirds of the mixture first, before adding the rest of the mixture and baking it fully, to give you a two-textured cake.

Cake after the first baking

Topped with the remaining mixture

The cake was still quite liquid after the allotted baking time, so I baked it for an extra ten minutes, then let it cool, and stashed it in the fridge to firm up while cooking and eating lunch.

Now, onto the beef ribs. I enjoyed braised short ribs at Stillwater restaurant last year, and had been looking for an excuse to cook them at home. My local supermarket occasionally sells short ribs, but they come pre-marinated in a spooky looking sauce, and I prefer to have control over the flavourings! I made a special trip to Prahran Market to get these beautiful short ribs.

Beef Short Ribs

I didn't follow a recipe to cook the ribs - having made a zillion stews during my How to Eat project, I now make them on easy autopilot. (I did take notes however of what I did, and have written the full recipe below for your, and my, reference!) So, I dusted the ribs in seasoned flour...

Floured beef ribs

...browned them over a high heat, and set them aside.

Browned beef ribs

In the same pan, I then cooked a mixture of aromatic vegetables - celery, carrots, shallots...

Mirepoix

... as well as some garlic.

Garlic

I added some tomato paste, a whole bottle of Shiraz, some beef stock and herbs. Then the whole lot went in the pressure cooker for forty-five minutes, until the meat was tender and falling off the bone. To finish, I set the beef aside and viciously boiled down the sauce until it was thick and glossy, adding porcini powder, salt and sugar to correct the flavour.

Shiraz-braised beef ribs

I loved the glossy, rich sauce and the tender, melting meat. I know it looks like a really wintry dish, and we're well into Spring, but Melbourne's variable weather means you never know when you'll feel like hunkering down with a nice bowl of stew. I'm a bit low on iron, and I recently heard that cooking beef bones (e.g. in a stew like I did, or in soup or stock) increases the iron content of the dish - bonus!

Let's have a look at the accompaniments! Here are the scalloped potatoes. (Martha's recipe is my favourite recipe for scalloped potatoes).

Scalloped Potatoes with Leek

I love cooking peas French style - I've included my recipe below, which is a simplified, pared down version of Nigella's petits pois à la Française from Feast.

Petits pois à la Française

Cake time! I served the cake with cinnamon whipped cream. (1 cup cream, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and 1 teaspoon caster sugar, whipped until fluffy).

Chocolate fudge cake with cinnamon cream

Ok, so I know the last time I made this cake it was super melty and I said: "Next time I'll be more patient and let it firm up completely before digging in. Maybe."

Clearly I was not good to my word. Dammit, it was even meltier than last time! Check out this river of molten chocolate!

Chocolate fudge cake

Next time, I promise I'll make it the night before and let it firm up properly in the fridge overnight before slicing it. Maybe.

Luckily no-one was complaining, haha.

Chocolate fudge cake

Melty, melty goodness

Two-textured cake

Shiraz-braised Beef Short Rib
An original recipe by Sarah Cooks

Ingredients
1.5 kg beef short rib
1/2 cup plain flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 shallots, finely sliced
2 sticks of celery, chopped into small squares
2 carrots, peeled and chopped into small squares
2 cloves of garlic, finely sliced
2 tablespoons tomato paste
250 millilitres beef stock
750 millilitres Shiraz wine
2 stalks thyme
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon porcini powder

Method
Dust the beef ribs in the flour. Season with salt and pepper.
Heat half the olive oil in a large saucepan (or in a pressure cooker). In batches, brown the beef ribs on all sides, allowing them to get nice and brown. Set aside.
Add the remaining oil to the saucepan, followed by the shallots, celery and carrots. Cook for 5-10 minutes, until the shallots are softened. Add the garlic and cook for a further 2 minutes. Add the tomato paste and stir to combine.
Place the vegetable mixture in the base of a pressure cooker. Arrange the browned beef ribs on top. Pour over the stock and Shiraz. Add the thyme and bay leaves. Cook on high pressure for 45 minutes.
Remove the beef ribs with a slotted spoon to a serving dish and keep warm under a tent of foil. Cook the sauce over a high heat, boiling until reduced by half. Add the brown sugar, porcini powder and salt to taste, stirring and cooking until dissolved.
Pour the hot sauce over the beef ribs to serve.
Serves 6

Petits pois à la Française 
Adapted from Nigella Lawson's Feast

Ingredients
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 shallot
500 grams frozen baby peas
1/2 cup chicken stock

Method
Heat the oil in a saucepan over a medium heat. Finely slice the shallots and add to the pan, stirring occasionally, until softened. Tip in the peas and stir to coat in the oil and shallots. Add the chicken stock. Bring to the boil, then turn down to a simmer. Cook for 5-10 minutes, until the peas are cooked through and are piping hot.
Serves 6 as an accompaniment

Shiraz-braised beef short rib, Petits pois à la Française, Scalloped potatoes 

We had some friends over for lunch today, and as I sit down to write this post, I realise that I haven't entertained for ages. (I certainly haven't blogged any dinner/lunch parties since March's Miranda Party post, and before that, February's Lobster Party post!) Although I love cooking, and more importantly, feeding people, my current flat isn't particularly suited for entertaining - the lounge room is carpeted, which always makes me a bit nervous if we're drinking red wine, and our dining room is kinda set apart from the kitchen, so preparing and serving many courses can be a bit awkward. When we have had people over recently, I've preferred to do simple weeknight dinners with small groups of people, like a bowl of Taiwanese Meat Sauce on Rice, eaten off our laps in the lounge room, as opposed to my usual Cecil B. DeMille productions. Or perhaps those are just excuses and I've been really enjoying hibernating this winter!

Anyway, for this particular lunch, I wanted to make something special, but still reassuringly "Sunday lunch-y". I thought that beef in a red wine sauce, scalloped potatoes and peas would do the trick.

A Sunday Lunch for 4

Shiraz-braised beef short rib

Scalloped potatoes with leeks

Petits pois à la française

Chocolate fudge cake

I've written up the recipes or the short rib and peas at the bottom of this post. You can find the recipe for the scalloped potatoes on Martha Stewart's website (click here), and the chocolate fudge cake is from the The Ottolenghi Cookbook.

The whole menu was reasonably easy to put together - I started cooking at ten in the morning, didn't feel particularly rushed, and we sat around the table to eat at one thirty.

I started by making the chocolate cake. Ottolenghi's chocolate fudge cake is a super dense, rich, chocolatey monster of a cake - just chocolate, sugar, butter, and eggs. I love how glossy the mixture looks!

Chocolate fudge cake mixture

The cake's schtick (if cake can be said to have a schtick), as I've mentioned previously, is that you bake two thirds of the mixture first, before adding the rest of the mixture and baking it fully, to give you a two-textured cake.

Cake after the first baking

Topped with the remaining mixture

The cake was still quite liquid after the allotted baking time, so I baked it for an extra ten minutes, then let it cool, and stashed it in the fridge to firm up while cooking and eating lunch.

Now, onto the beef ribs. I enjoyed braised short ribs at Stillwater restaurant last year, and had been looking for an excuse to cook them at home. My local supermarket occasionally sells short ribs, but they come pre-marinated in a spooky looking sauce, and I prefer to have control over the flavourings! I made a special trip to Prahran Market to get these beautiful short ribs.

Beef Short Ribs

I didn't follow a recipe to cook the ribs - having made a zillion stews during my How to Eat project, I now make them on easy autopilot. (I did take notes however of what I did, and have written the full recipe below for your, and my, reference!) So, I dusted the ribs in seasoned flour...

Floured beef ribs

...browned them over a high heat, and set them aside.

Browned beef ribs

In the same pan, I then cooked a mixture of aromatic vegetables - celery, carrots, shallots...

Mirepoix

... as well as some garlic.

Garlic

I added some tomato paste, a whole bottle of Shiraz, some beef stock and herbs. Then the whole lot went in the pressure cooker for forty-five minutes, until the meat was tender and falling off the bone. To finish, I set the beef aside and viciously boiled down the sauce until it was thick and glossy, adding porcini powder, salt and sugar to correct the flavour.

Shiraz-braised beef ribs

I loved the glossy, rich sauce and the tender, melting meat. I know it looks like a really wintry dish, and we're well into Spring, but Melbourne's variable weather means you never know when you'll feel like hunkering down with a nice bowl of stew. I'm a bit low on iron, and I recently heard that cooking beef bones (e.g. in a stew like I did, or in soup or stock) increases the iron content of the dish - bonus!

Let's have a look at the accompaniments! Here are the scalloped potatoes. (Martha's recipe is my favourite recipe for scalloped potatoes).

Scalloped Potatoes with Leek

I love cooking peas French style - I've included my recipe below, which is a simplified, pared down version of Nigella's petits pois à la Française from Feast.

Petits pois à la Française

Cake time! I served the cake with cinnamon whipped cream. (1 cup cream, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and 1 teaspoon caster sugar, whipped until fluffy).

Chocolate fudge cake with cinnamon cream

Ok, so I know the last time I made this cake it was super melty and I said: "Next time I'll be more patient and let it firm up completely before digging in. Maybe."

Clearly I was not good to my word. Dammit, it was even meltier than last time! Check out this river of molten chocolate!

Chocolate fudge cake

Next time, I promise I'll make it the night before and let it firm up properly in the fridge overnight before slicing it. Maybe.

Luckily no-one was complaining, haha.

Chocolate fudge cake

Melty, melty goodness

Two-textured cake

Shiraz-braised Beef Short Rib
An original recipe by Sarah Cooks

Ingredients
1.5 kg beef short rib
1/2 cup plain flour
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 shallots, finely sliced
2 sticks of celery, chopped into small squares
2 carrots, peeled and chopped into small squares
2 cloves of garlic, finely sliced
2 tablespoons tomato paste
250 millilitres beef stock
750 millilitres Shiraz wine
2 stalks thyme
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon porcini powder

Method
Dust the beef ribs in the flour. Season with salt and pepper.
Heat half the olive oil in a large saucepan (or in a pressure cooker). In batches, brown the beef ribs on all sides, allowing them to get nice and brown. Set aside.
Add the remaining oil to the saucepan, followed by the shallots, celery and carrots. Cook for 5-10 minutes, until the shallots are softened. Add the garlic and cook for a further 2 minutes. Add the tomato paste and stir to combine.
Place the vegetable mixture in the base of a pressure cooker. Arrange the browned beef ribs on top. Pour over the stock and Shiraz. Add the thyme and bay leaves. Cook on high pressure for 45 minutes.
Remove the beef ribs with a slotted spoon to a serving dish and keep warm under a tent of foil. Cook the sauce over a high heat, boiling until reduced by half. Add the brown sugar, porcini powder and salt to taste, stirring and cooking until dissolved.
Pour the hot sauce over the beef ribs to serve.
Serves 6

Petits pois à la Française 
Adapted from Nigella Lawson's Feast

Ingredients
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 shallot
500 grams frozen baby peas
1/2 cup chicken stock

Method
Heat the oil in a saucepan over a medium heat. Finely slice the shallots and add to the pan, stirring occasionally, until softened. Tip in the peas and stir to coat in the oil and shallots. Add the chicken stock. Bring to the boil, then turn down to a simmer. Cook for 5-10 minutes, until the peas are cooked through and are piping hot.
Serves 6 as an accompaniment

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Maple-Walnut Cupcakes with Maple Buttercream

Maple-Walnut Cupcakes with Maple Buttercream

Cupcakes! As I sit down to write this post, I realise it's been over a year since I baked cupcakes. (Remember my Black Forest Cupcakes?). I guess I don't really go in for cupcake baking these days, but a Canadian co-worker gifted me a packet of maple flakes (flocons d'érable in French), and I thought that cupcakes would be the perfect way to use them.

Maple Flakes - Flocons d'érable

Maple flakes are awesome - pure maple sugar in crunchy little flakes. When you open them, the pure maple smell that hits you is incredible! According to the product website, apparently you can use them on salmon for a kinda crunchy maple-glazed salmon, or simply sprinkle them over vanilla ice-cream or yogurt. I have about half the packet left, and want to try them in waffle batter. Can you imagine? Self-mapling waffles!!! (Don't y'all be stealing my idea!)

But, back to cupcakes. I googled a recipe for maple walnut cupcakes, and stumbled across these beauties by Martha Stewart. I subbed half the sugar in the recipe for maple flakes, reduced the overall sugar content and used salted butter to cut through the sweetness. (American recipes tend to be too sweet for me).

Cupcake batter

Another reason I was so cautious with the sugar in the cake batter is that I knew the icing would be really sweet! Martha's maple buttercream is like an Italian buttercream (i.e. heat sugar to a certain temperature, slowly whisk it into egg yolks, then add cubes of cold butter, one at a time, until fluffy and smooth), but with maple syrup instead of sugar. You have to use exact ratios of egg yolks, maple syrup and butter, and can't reduce the sweetness in the buttercream without affecting the texture. (I used unsalted butter in the buttercream, but did add a good pinch of sea salt at the end, to try and balance it out a little without going too salty.)

You do need a sugar thermometer to make this, and we got ours pretty cheaply online. It really should go without saying, but boiling sugar is HOT! Be careful, wear shoes and long sleeves, and don't get distracted while you make it!

Boiling maple syrup

Making the buttercream

Mmm... butter.

Butter

It is a bit of a pain whisking in the butter - it takes ages, and you have to just stand there, listening to the noisy whirring of the mixer, adding one piece of butter at a time, waiting for each piece to be incorporated fully before adding the next. It's totally worth it though: check out the result!

Maple buttercream

Love it! This type of buttercream is so smooth and creamy, with none of that unpleasant graininess that you get from a standard buttercream (i.e. icing sugar and butter). It's so, so mapley! I think it would be gorgeous with some espresso added and used as the icing for a traditional English coffee and walnut cake.

And here are the cupcakes! I had initially thought to sprinkle them with extra maple flakes, but the icing was really sweet, and I didn't want to push it over the edge. A plain walnut was all the decoration I needed.

Maple-Walnut Cupcakes with Maple Buttercream

Slice o' cupcake

I shared these with my coworkers and friends, and they seemed to go down really well. Actual quote from one of my coworkers: "That cupcake had the perfect texture". Yay! Despite my concerns about the sweetness, they were well balanced: the base felt more muffiny than cupcakey (yes, those are both words, I've decided), and provided a nice, relatively plain, base for the sweet mapley buttercream.

I know that maple flakes aren't easy to get here, but the maple flavour in the icing is really strong, so I think these are still worth making even if you can't find maple flakes. (If you happen to have maple sugar or maple extract, expensively bought on a whim at a US foodstore and collecting dust in your pantry, now is the time to use them!)

And... NOM!

Maple-Walnut Cupcakes with Maple Buttercream
Recipe from Martha Stewart, with very slight adaptations

Ingredients
For the Cupcakes
2 3/4 cups plain flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
225 grams salted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup maple flakes (substitute maple sugar or normal caster sugar)
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups walnuts, plus 24 extra, for decorating
For the Buttercream
3 egg yolks
1 cup maple syrup
225 grams cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
Generous pinch of salt

Method
For the Cupcakes
Preheat the oven to 175C. Line two 12-cup muffin pans with muffin papers.
Chop the walnuts into medium pieces. Toast in a dry frying pan until they smell lovely and aromatic. Tip into a bowl and set aside to cool.
Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon into a large mixing bowl. Set aside.
Beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until creamy and pale. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating in between each one. Add the vanilla extract and beat to combine.
Now switch to a wooden spoon. Add the dry ingredients in two batches, alternating with the milk. Stir in the walnuts.
Divide the batter into between the muffin cups, filling to about three quarters full. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until lightly golden brown and cooked through when tested with a skewer. Allow to cool completely before icing. Decorate each cupcake with a generous swirl of buttercream and a walnut.
For the buttercream
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg yolks until pale and fluffy, about five minutes.
Heat the maple syrup in a small saucepan over a medium high heat. Allow to boil and continue cooking until it reaches 115C. Take off the heat.
With the mixer running, gently pour the syrup down the side of the bowl in a slow, steady stream until it is completely incorporated. Continue whisking until the mixture cools down to room temperature. Add the butter, one piece at a time, only adding the next piece when the previous one has been fully incorporated. After about 5-7 minutes you will have a bowl of the fluffiest, smoothest, most delicious maple-y icing ever! (If it starts to look curdled, just keep whisking!) Whisk in the salt.
Makes 24

Maple-Walnut Cupcakes with Maple Buttercream

Cupcakes! As I sit down to write this post, I realise it's been over a year since I baked cupcakes. (Remember my Black Forest Cupcakes?). I guess I don't really go in for cupcake baking these days, but a Canadian co-worker gifted me a packet of maple flakes (flocons d'érable in French), and I thought that cupcakes would be the perfect way to use them.

Maple Flakes - Flocons d'érable

Maple flakes are awesome - pure maple sugar in crunchy little flakes. When you open them, the pure maple smell that hits you is incredible! According to the product website, apparently you can use them on salmon for a kinda crunchy maple-glazed salmon, or simply sprinkle them over vanilla ice-cream or yogurt. I have about half the packet left, and want to try them in waffle batter. Can you imagine? Self-mapling waffles!!! (Don't y'all be stealing my idea!)

But, back to cupcakes. I googled a recipe for maple walnut cupcakes, and stumbled across these beauties by Martha Stewart. I subbed half the sugar in the recipe for maple flakes, reduced the overall sugar content and used salted butter to cut through the sweetness. (American recipes tend to be too sweet for me).

Cupcake batter

Another reason I was so cautious with the sugar in the cake batter is that I knew the icing would be really sweet! Martha's maple buttercream is like an Italian buttercream (i.e. heat sugar to a certain temperature, slowly whisk it into egg yolks, then add cubes of cold butter, one at a time, until fluffy and smooth), but with maple syrup instead of sugar. You have to use exact ratios of egg yolks, maple syrup and butter, and can't reduce the sweetness in the buttercream without affecting the texture. (I used unsalted butter in the buttercream, but did add a good pinch of sea salt at the end, to try and balance it out a little without going too salty.)

You do need a sugar thermometer to make this, and we got ours pretty cheaply online. It really should go without saying, but boiling sugar is HOT! Be careful, wear shoes and long sleeves, and don't get distracted while you make it!

Boiling maple syrup

Making the buttercream

Mmm... butter.

Butter

It is a bit of a pain whisking in the butter - it takes ages, and you have to just stand there, listening to the noisy whirring of the mixer, adding one piece of butter at a time, waiting for each piece to be incorporated fully before adding the next. It's totally worth it though: check out the result!

Maple buttercream

Love it! This type of buttercream is so smooth and creamy, with none of that unpleasant graininess that you get from a standard buttercream (i.e. icing sugar and butter). It's so, so mapley! I think it would be gorgeous with some espresso added and used as the icing for a traditional English coffee and walnut cake.

And here are the cupcakes! I had initially thought to sprinkle them with extra maple flakes, but the icing was really sweet, and I didn't want to push it over the edge. A plain walnut was all the decoration I needed.

Maple-Walnut Cupcakes with Maple Buttercream

Slice o' cupcake

I shared these with my coworkers and friends, and they seemed to go down really well. Actual quote from one of my coworkers: "That cupcake had the perfect texture". Yay! Despite my concerns about the sweetness, they were well balanced: the base felt more muffiny than cupcakey (yes, those are both words, I've decided), and provided a nice, relatively plain, base for the sweet mapley buttercream.

I know that maple flakes aren't easy to get here, but the maple flavour in the icing is really strong, so I think these are still worth making even if you can't find maple flakes. (If you happen to have maple sugar or maple extract, expensively bought on a whim at a US foodstore and collecting dust in your pantry, now is the time to use them!)

And... NOM!

Maple-Walnut Cupcakes with Maple Buttercream
Recipe from Martha Stewart, with very slight adaptations

Ingredients
For the Cupcakes
2 3/4 cups plain flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
225 grams salted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup caster sugar
1/2 cup maple flakes (substitute maple sugar or normal caster sugar)
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups walnuts, plus 24 extra, for decorating
For the Buttercream
3 egg yolks
1 cup maple syrup
225 grams cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
Generous pinch of salt

Method
For the Cupcakes
Preheat the oven to 175C. Line two 12-cup muffin pans with muffin papers.
Chop the walnuts into medium pieces. Toast in a dry frying pan until they smell lovely and aromatic. Tip into a bowl and set aside to cool.
Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon into a large mixing bowl. Set aside.
Beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until creamy and pale. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating in between each one. Add the vanilla extract and beat to combine.
Now switch to a wooden spoon. Add the dry ingredients in two batches, alternating with the milk. Stir in the walnuts.
Divide the batter into between the muffin cups, filling to about three quarters full. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until lightly golden brown and cooked through when tested with a skewer. Allow to cool completely before icing. Decorate each cupcake with a generous swirl of buttercream and a walnut.
For the buttercream
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg yolks until pale and fluffy, about five minutes.
Heat the maple syrup in a small saucepan over a medium high heat. Allow to boil and continue cooking until it reaches 115C. Take off the heat.
With the mixer running, gently pour the syrup down the side of the bowl in a slow, steady stream until it is completely incorporated. Continue whisking until the mixture cools down to room temperature. Add the butter, one piece at a time, only adding the next piece when the previous one has been fully incorporated. After about 5-7 minutes you will have a bowl of the fluffiest, smoothest, most delicious maple-y icing ever! (If it starts to look curdled, just keep whisking!) Whisk in the salt.
Makes 24

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

Mexican Feast, Numero Dos

Ever since our last Mexican feast, my cousin Catherine (AKA "Cuz") and I have been trying to organise another one.  That one was two and a half years ago, and even a less-than-inspiring dinner at the terribly overrated Mamasita in between hadn't kicked us into gear.  Oops!  But finally, last month, everything fell into place, and we managed to arrange lunch for one afternoon.  Well, almost everything.

Sarah: Are we all free this Sunday? Can we finally do our Mexican feast?
Cuz: I think so! But wait a minute, (my Mexican boyfriend) Oscar won't be able to come.
Sarah: Wait, can we really have a Mexican feast without any Mexicans?
Cuz: Why not? The rest of Melbourne is doing it!

Woah, feel the burn, Melbourne dining scene!  Hehehe!

With quite a bit to cook, we split up the shopping and cooking duties between our five attendees.  I make no particular claims to authenticity here, we just chose a variety of dishes that we liked the sound of and that we thought would work well together.  Most of our recipes were googled or improvised, and the two recipes that I did follow came from two non-Mexican authors: David Lebovitz and Martha Stewart.

The night before I baked a tres leches cake (Martha recipe, available here) - a simple sponge cake soaked in a mixture of condensed, evaporated and regular milks.  I also prepared slow-cooked pork carnitas, using David Lebovitz' recipe. I learned the hard way these should not be spelled "carnitos" unless you want to refer to a part of the male anatomy!  The pieces of pork shoulder need to be fried, then cooked in the oven with a little water and a lot of spices.  Frying the pieces of pork resulted in a bit of a splattery, oily mess, but this was easily forgotten once the tray was stashed safely in the oven.

Carnitas, before going in the oven.  I love the ochre colours of the spices!

I had managed to find whole ancho chillies at Leo's Supermarket, which I used as a substitute for the dried ancho chilli powder David includes in his recipe - I'd never tried them before, but I love their sweet aroma and their intense black colour!

Dried ancho chillies

Cuz arrived around midday the next day, and we started preparing the remaining dishes.  Firstly, some chipotle chicken. 

Chipotle peppers in Adobo sauce; the completed marinadee

I cut some chicken thighs into strips, and slathered them Cuz' improvised marinade: chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, Worcestershire sauce, barbecue sauce, an onion and honey.  We placed the soupy, moist mixture in the oven, where they took about an hour at 180C to cook through.  (The carnitas were reheated on the shelf below the chicken).

Meanwhile, I made some tortillas using some masa flour that Cuz had brought, and a hastily googled recipe.  Without a tortilla press, or any previous tortilla-making experience, we really just winged it.  I made the dough (kneaded by machine), whilst Sandra had the tedious job of rolling out the dough and frying them.  (Phew, it takes ages!)

Tortilla dough

My friend Kristine made some classic Tex-Mex nachos for us all to nibble on while lunch was being prepared: corn chips, cheese, hot salsa, sour cream, and fresh guacamole that Cuz had prepared seconds earlier.

Nachos! Tex Mex heaven!

My friend Alae was in charge of cocktails.  Mojitos, whilst not Mexican themselves, were an acceptable south-of-the-border substitute for margaritas when we realised no-one had any triple sec.

Mojitos! (Before soda water was added).

Cuz also brought these fab Mexican drinks, which, in the hustle and bustle of the day, we didn't get around to drinking.  Oh well, next time!

Orgeat / Orchata and Jamaica Flower drink concentrates

There were just a couple more side dishes to prepare, and then we could eat! Yay!

Lunch!

Tortillas

Our tortillas were rather irregularly shaped, and some were more like large crackers than soft flatbreads, but I still thought they were pretty good for a first go!  (The recipe had said "add water until the dough looks right", I clearly had no idea what "looks right" meant exactly).  Whilst not perfect, they had that wonderful corny aroma from the masa flour.  Cuz gave us a couple of kilos of the flour to keep, so I'll have lots of opportunity to practise making tortillas!

Carnitas

The spicy carnitas tasted fabulous, although I found some of the pieces to be a bit hard - I think I may have overcooked them a little, so next time I'll use more liquid and shorten the cooking time.

Chipotle Chicken

Much easier to make than the carnitas, and dare I say it, even tastier, was Cuz' chipotle chicken, with its flavourful, soupy gravy and tender meat.  It was slightly sweet from the barbecue and Worcestershire sauces, with a background of heat from the chipotle chillies.  I'm definitely making this one again!  Hot tip: stir through some cream or sour cream at the end for a smoother taste.

Frijoles Negros

Cuz had prepared the frijoles negros in advance, and we just reheated them in the microwave before we ate.  A very loose recipe: soak black beans in water overnight, then simmer for a few hours in a mixture of tomato paste, onion, coriander (seed, leaf and root), cumin, a bay leaf, cinnamon, oregano, orange rind, orange juice, stock and any roast chicken fat or carcass that you might have on hand.  It's so nutritious and filling, and I can definitely understand why versions of frijoles negros are a staple across Latin America.

Pico de Gallo

A bowl of pico de gallo provided a welcome sharp contrast to all the heavy proteins.  It's a mixture of tomatoes, red onions and coriander, all finely chopped, and dressed generously with lime juice, salt, pepper and some olive oil.  I adore this flavour combination!

Guacamole

For me, a Mexican feast isn't complete without guacamole - no tomatoes please, just ripe avocados, finely chopped onions, coriander, salt, pepper and a big squeeze of lime juice.

Cabbage Salad

I also whipped up a vaguely Mexican-inspired cabbage salad - a quarter of a red cabbage and half a red onion, finely shredded in the processor, with fresh coriander, a finely chopped jalapeño, a drizzle of olive oil and the juice of a whole lime tossed through.  Very refreshing, and I thought it was so cool that the cabbage and onion pieces immediately softened and turned a blushing pink upon contact with the lime juice.

Party on a plate!

Although there was a lot of food, and we stuffed ourselves silly, somehow by late afternoon (perhaps aided by a few mojitos!), we were ready for dessert: the tres leches cake, served with Mexican coffee.  And by "Mexican Coffee", I simply mean plain coffee topped with a little whipped cream and a dusting of cinnamon powder.

Tres Leches cake, Mexican coffee, super-cute baby milk jug (thanks Sandra!!), and Rapadura sugar

I'd never made tres leches cake before, and I was worried that a plain sponge cake, enriched with condensed milk, would either be too sweet or too soggy, but this wasn't the case.  It was absolutely gorgeous, very moist and light, with an almost puddingy texture.  My friend Kristine described it as being like suji cake (Nyonya semolina cake), which should be more than enough incentive to get baking!  As far as I'm aware, whipped cream is not a traditional topping, but it made the whole cake look very pretty, and the bland fattiness of the cream was a welcome foil to the cake.

The next day I made some fab tostadas with the leftovers - tortillas with chipotle chicken or beans, topped with cheese and grilled until bubbling and crisp, and finished with sour cream, guacamole and pico de gallo.  So delicious!

And now, a few questions for my lovely readers!  Does anyone have any tips for making tortillas?  Any ideas on what to do with a whole lotta masa flour?  (We're planning sopes for our next get together, which are apparently much easier to make and require no specialist equipment!)  What are your favourite home-cooked Mexican dishes?

Ever since our last Mexican feast, my cousin Catherine (AKA "Cuz") and I have been trying to organise another one.  That one was two and a half years ago, and even a less-than-inspiring dinner at the terribly overrated Mamasita in between hadn't kicked us into gear.  Oops!  But finally, last month, everything fell into place, and we managed to arrange lunch for one afternoon.  Well, almost everything.

Sarah: Are we all free this Sunday? Can we finally do our Mexican feast?
Cuz: I think so! But wait a minute, (my Mexican boyfriend) Oscar won't be able to come.
Sarah: Wait, can we really have a Mexican feast without any Mexicans?
Cuz: Why not? The rest of Melbourne is doing it!

Woah, feel the burn, Melbourne dining scene!  Hehehe!

With quite a bit to cook, we split up the shopping and cooking duties between our five attendees.  I make no particular claims to authenticity here, we just chose a variety of dishes that we liked the sound of and that we thought would work well together.  Most of our recipes were googled or improvised, and the two recipes that I did follow came from two non-Mexican authors: David Lebovitz and Martha Stewart.

The night before I baked a tres leches cake (Martha recipe, available here) - a simple sponge cake soaked in a mixture of condensed, evaporated and regular milks.  I also prepared slow-cooked pork carnitas, using David Lebovitz' recipe. I learned the hard way these should not be spelled "carnitos" unless you want to refer to a part of the male anatomy!  The pieces of pork shoulder need to be fried, then cooked in the oven with a little water and a lot of spices.  Frying the pieces of pork resulted in a bit of a splattery, oily mess, but this was easily forgotten once the tray was stashed safely in the oven.

Carnitas, before going in the oven.  I love the ochre colours of the spices!

I had managed to find whole ancho chillies at Leo's Supermarket, which I used as a substitute for the dried ancho chilli powder David includes in his recipe - I'd never tried them before, but I love their sweet aroma and their intense black colour!

Dried ancho chillies

Cuz arrived around midday the next day, and we started preparing the remaining dishes.  Firstly, some chipotle chicken. 

Chipotle peppers in Adobo sauce; the completed marinadee

I cut some chicken thighs into strips, and slathered them Cuz' improvised marinade: chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, Worcestershire sauce, barbecue sauce, an onion and honey.  We placed the soupy, moist mixture in the oven, where they took about an hour at 180C to cook through.  (The carnitas were reheated on the shelf below the chicken).

Meanwhile, I made some tortillas using some masa flour that Cuz had brought, and a hastily googled recipe.  Without a tortilla press, or any previous tortilla-making experience, we really just winged it.  I made the dough (kneaded by machine), whilst Sandra had the tedious job of rolling out the dough and frying them.  (Phew, it takes ages!)

Tortilla dough

My friend Kristine made some classic Tex-Mex nachos for us all to nibble on while lunch was being prepared: corn chips, cheese, hot salsa, sour cream, and fresh guacamole that Cuz had prepared seconds earlier.

Nachos! Tex Mex heaven!

My friend Alae was in charge of cocktails.  Mojitos, whilst not Mexican themselves, were an acceptable south-of-the-border substitute for margaritas when we realised no-one had any triple sec.

Mojitos! (Before soda water was added).

Cuz also brought these fab Mexican drinks, which, in the hustle and bustle of the day, we didn't get around to drinking.  Oh well, next time!

Orgeat / Orchata and Jamaica Flower drink concentrates

There were just a couple more side dishes to prepare, and then we could eat! Yay!

Lunch!

Tortillas

Our tortillas were rather irregularly shaped, and some were more like large crackers than soft flatbreads, but I still thought they were pretty good for a first go!  (The recipe had said "add water until the dough looks right", I clearly had no idea what "looks right" meant exactly).  Whilst not perfect, they had that wonderful corny aroma from the masa flour.  Cuz gave us a couple of kilos of the flour to keep, so I'll have lots of opportunity to practise making tortillas!

Carnitas

The spicy carnitas tasted fabulous, although I found some of the pieces to be a bit hard - I think I may have overcooked them a little, so next time I'll use more liquid and shorten the cooking time.

Chipotle Chicken

Much easier to make than the carnitas, and dare I say it, even tastier, was Cuz' chipotle chicken, with its flavourful, soupy gravy and tender meat.  It was slightly sweet from the barbecue and Worcestershire sauces, with a background of heat from the chipotle chillies.  I'm definitely making this one again!  Hot tip: stir through some cream or sour cream at the end for a smoother taste.

Frijoles Negros

Cuz had prepared the frijoles negros in advance, and we just reheated them in the microwave before we ate.  A very loose recipe: soak black beans in water overnight, then simmer for a few hours in a mixture of tomato paste, onion, coriander (seed, leaf and root), cumin, a bay leaf, cinnamon, oregano, orange rind, orange juice, stock and any roast chicken fat or carcass that you might have on hand.  It's so nutritious and filling, and I can definitely understand why versions of frijoles negros are a staple across Latin America.

Pico de Gallo

A bowl of pico de gallo provided a welcome sharp contrast to all the heavy proteins.  It's a mixture of tomatoes, red onions and coriander, all finely chopped, and dressed generously with lime juice, salt, pepper and some olive oil.  I adore this flavour combination!

Guacamole

For me, a Mexican feast isn't complete without guacamole - no tomatoes please, just ripe avocados, finely chopped onions, coriander, salt, pepper and a big squeeze of lime juice.

Cabbage Salad

I also whipped up a vaguely Mexican-inspired cabbage salad - a quarter of a red cabbage and half a red onion, finely shredded in the processor, with fresh coriander, a finely chopped jalapeño, a drizzle of olive oil and the juice of a whole lime tossed through.  Very refreshing, and I thought it was so cool that the cabbage and onion pieces immediately softened and turned a blushing pink upon contact with the lime juice.

Party on a plate!

Although there was a lot of food, and we stuffed ourselves silly, somehow by late afternoon (perhaps aided by a few mojitos!), we were ready for dessert: the tres leches cake, served with Mexican coffee.  And by "Mexican Coffee", I simply mean plain coffee topped with a little whipped cream and a dusting of cinnamon powder.

Tres Leches cake, Mexican coffee, super-cute baby milk jug (thanks Sandra!!), and Rapadura sugar

I'd never made tres leches cake before, and I was worried that a plain sponge cake, enriched with condensed milk, would either be too sweet or too soggy, but this wasn't the case.  It was absolutely gorgeous, very moist and light, with an almost puddingy texture.  My friend Kristine described it as being like suji cake (Nyonya semolina cake), which should be more than enough incentive to get baking!  As far as I'm aware, whipped cream is not a traditional topping, but it made the whole cake look very pretty, and the bland fattiness of the cream was a welcome foil to the cake.

The next day I made some fab tostadas with the leftovers - tortillas with chipotle chicken or beans, topped with cheese and grilled until bubbling and crisp, and finished with sour cream, guacamole and pico de gallo.  So delicious!

And now, a few questions for my lovely readers!  Does anyone have any tips for making tortillas?  Any ideas on what to do with a whole lotta masa flour?  (We're planning sopes for our next get together, which are apparently much easier to make and require no specialist equipment!)  What are your favourite home-cooked Mexican dishes?

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Christmas 2011: A Luxurious Pre-Christmas Dinner

A Luxe Pre-Christmas Dinner for 5

Lobster Rolls on Homemade Brioche

Gingerbread Spice Glazed Ham with Cherry Relish

Petits Pois à La Française

Scalloped Potatoes with Leeks

Poires Belle Hélène

Merry pre-Christmas everybody! Is everyone ready for the big day tomorrow?  I still have a couple of gifts to wrap, but other than that everything is sorted and ready for Turkey Day!  I'm taking Christmas a little easier than usual - I've only made Christmas puddings and one batch of Vanillekipferl this year; no Christmas cake or mince pies - but we did have a super-duper deluxe blowout meal at my parents' house two nights ago.

You may remember I previously said I wanted to make my own version of the uninspiring New England Lobster Rolls I tried at Golden Fields earlier this year, and the menu was built up from that idea. (Granted, I've only tried a canapé version of their famous rolls, not their standard version which has so caught the interest of Melbourne's dining public).  I based my lobster rolls on this recipe from Gourmet Traveller, and baked my own brioche buns for it.  I'll be making them again next week for another dinner for friends, and will devote a whole blogpost to them soon!  Lest you think I've got money to burn on lobster, let me tell you about a sweet deal I've made with lots of my friends: if they agree to supply fresh lobster, I'll make us lobster rolls. Pretty cool, huh!

The rest of the menu continued the "luxury" theme with a beautiful leg ham from Andrew's Choice Butcher in Yarraville, which I glazed in gingerbread spices and served with a cherry relish (a recipe from Snowflakes and Schnapps).  The accompaniments were my favourite peas (a Nigella recipe), and Martha Stewart's scalloped potatoes with leeks, which we thought would make a good change from my usual ham-accompaniment of mac & cheese.

For dessert, I wanted to try my hand at making a dessert I tried at Il Fornaio last year: Phillipa Sibley's Poires Belle Hélène, from her new book PS Desserts.  I actually received a review copy of PS Desserts from the publishers, and I intended to post the recipe for Poires Belle Hélène here on my blog.  However, I encountered a few little kinks with the recipe, and don't think it's the most user friendly recipe to try at home. Once I've worked my way through the book a little more I'll find a better recipe to share with y'all!

Phew! I'm getting tired again just writing about the menu!  It was a lot of work - a two-person job spread over two days (thank-you Sandra for all the help!) - but worth it for such delicious results.

Let's start with the dessert, as this was the first thing we had to prepare - most of it was done the day before.  It was definitely the most difficult thing on the menu - there were pears to poach, vanilla ice-cream to churn, chocolate sauce to pipe and chocolate sponge to make!  If you've tried this dessert before, you'll know that the ice-cream is piped into the poached pears, and the chocolate sauce is frozen in logs, then baked inside the chocolate sponge, for two sweet surprises at the table.

Peeled and cored pears, ready for poaching

Vanilla scented custard, the base for the ice-cream

Scooping the chocolate sauce into a piping bag

Piping lines of chocolate sauce - don't laugh, I know what it looks like!

Various mixtures that go into the chocolate sponge. I whisked the egg whites by hand!

As I mentioned above, I had some issues with the recipe - the most important of which was that it made way too much chocolate sauce. With the quantities given, I got about 15 logs of chocolate sauce - and I only ended up needing two of them!  There's no mention anywhere in the recipe that it makes more sauce than you'll need, and looking at the quantities, they could easily be scaled down.

It did taste delicious though (especially straight out of the freezer!), so I'm keeping them for future snacking or for melting over ice-cream.

The other issue I had (which was my fault) was that the recipe asks you to bake the sponges 4.5cm in diameter, and I only had 8cm moulds, so I was only able to get four flat sponges out of the mixture rather than the six tall ones that the recipe says it will make.  (And there were five of us eating that night - d'oh!)  I know that baking is an exact science and that the recipe would have worked better if I'd used moulds in the correct dimensions. However, I must admit I found it a little frustrating that the chocolate sponge recipe was so precise, when the chocolate sauce recipe made so much more than required.  The puddings are quite rich though, so we were happy to share.

Half-filled sponges with chocolate sauce inside

So, the sponges went in the freezer, and the custard and pears went in the fridge, ready to be finished off just before eating.

The other thing I did in advance was to bake the brioche rolls, using this incredibly easy recipe. 

Brioche rolls

Everything else we prepared in the afternoon before the dinner!

raw ham

And then finally... everything was done and we could crack open the champagne and eat!  Cheers!

Champagne supplied by my dad

Lobster roll with champagne

Mmm... so much lobster.

One tail made more than enough filling for us, which I suppose makes it an economical way to enjoy lobster??  Hehe.

And now the main course...

Ham, cherry relish, petits pois

The ham was gorgeous - and I'd expect nothing less from Andrew's Choice!  We've got quite a bit of ham left... yay leftovers!  I daresay I like the spicy, sticky cherry relish even better than Nigella's spiced peaches, which used to be my usual accompaniment for ham.

Scalloped potatoes with leeks - potatoes sliced by hand (thank-you Sandra!)

The scalloped potatoes were amazing! Somehow they tasted light, with no feeling of stodginess or heaviness. A great recipe from Martha Stewart!  I must confess that scalloped potatoes are one of my favourite foods ever.  When I was a kid, whenever we'd go to buffets, I'd always make a beeline for the scalloped potatoes, while everyone else was getting stuck into the more expensive oysters and prawns.  I even liked them made with the MSG and salt-laden flavour packets you can get at the supermarket!

Haha, check out my potato-to-ham ratio:

As I mentioned above, there was still a little work to do for the dessert: about 20 minutes before we wanted to eat (and after all that food, we definitely needed a little break in between courses!), we churned the ice-cream, popped the puddings in the oven, then piped the ice-cream into the pears.

Ta-dah!

My puddings didn't look quite like Philippa's perfect towering version, but I was proud of them nonetheless!  It was so nice to hear my mum exclaim: "Oh wow, there's something inside the pear!"  I totally understand it when Philippa writes "I love surprising people".

Mmm... melty ice-cream...

You'll see that I created a much bigger cavity in my pears than in the ones at Il Fornaio - more room for ice-cream!

Mmm... melty chocolate sauce...

Oozy chocolate pudding

Yum yum yum! My favourite part of this dessert was the pear - perhaps for an easier version in future I'll make the ice-cream-stuffed pears and just drizzle them with the chocolate sauce.

Merry Christmas everybody!!

A Luxe Pre-Christmas Dinner for 5

Lobster Rolls on Homemade Brioche

Gingerbread Spice Glazed Ham with Cherry Relish

Petits Pois à La Française

Scalloped Potatoes with Leeks

Poires Belle Hélène

Merry pre-Christmas everybody! Is everyone ready for the big day tomorrow?  I still have a couple of gifts to wrap, but other than that everything is sorted and ready for Turkey Day!  I'm taking Christmas a little easier than usual - I've only made Christmas puddings and one batch of Vanillekipferl this year; no Christmas cake or mince pies - but we did have a super-duper deluxe blowout meal at my parents' house two nights ago.

You may remember I previously said I wanted to make my own version of the uninspiring New England Lobster Rolls I tried at Golden Fields earlier this year, and the menu was built up from that idea. (Granted, I've only tried a canapé version of their famous rolls, not their standard version which has so caught the interest of Melbourne's dining public).  I based my lobster rolls on this recipe from Gourmet Traveller, and baked my own brioche buns for it.  I'll be making them again next week for another dinner for friends, and will devote a whole blogpost to them soon!  Lest you think I've got money to burn on lobster, let me tell you about a sweet deal I've made with lots of my friends: if they agree to supply fresh lobster, I'll make us lobster rolls. Pretty cool, huh!

The rest of the menu continued the "luxury" theme with a beautiful leg ham from Andrew's Choice Butcher in Yarraville, which I glazed in gingerbread spices and served with a cherry relish (a recipe from Snowflakes and Schnapps).  The accompaniments were my favourite peas (a Nigella recipe), and Martha Stewart's scalloped potatoes with leeks, which we thought would make a good change from my usual ham-accompaniment of mac & cheese.

For dessert, I wanted to try my hand at making a dessert I tried at Il Fornaio last year: Phillipa Sibley's Poires Belle Hélène, from her new book PS Desserts.  I actually received a review copy of PS Desserts from the publishers, and I intended to post the recipe for Poires Belle Hélène here on my blog.  However, I encountered a few little kinks with the recipe, and don't think it's the most user friendly recipe to try at home. Once I've worked my way through the book a little more I'll find a better recipe to share with y'all!

Phew! I'm getting tired again just writing about the menu!  It was a lot of work - a two-person job spread over two days (thank-you Sandra for all the help!) - but worth it for such delicious results.

Let's start with the dessert, as this was the first thing we had to prepare - most of it was done the day before.  It was definitely the most difficult thing on the menu - there were pears to poach, vanilla ice-cream to churn, chocolate sauce to pipe and chocolate sponge to make!  If you've tried this dessert before, you'll know that the ice-cream is piped into the poached pears, and the chocolate sauce is frozen in logs, then baked inside the chocolate sponge, for two sweet surprises at the table.

Peeled and cored pears, ready for poaching

Vanilla scented custard, the base for the ice-cream

Scooping the chocolate sauce into a piping bag

Piping lines of chocolate sauce - don't laugh, I know what it looks like!

Various mixtures that go into the chocolate sponge. I whisked the egg whites by hand!

As I mentioned above, I had some issues with the recipe - the most important of which was that it made way too much chocolate sauce. With the quantities given, I got about 15 logs of chocolate sauce - and I only ended up needing two of them!  There's no mention anywhere in the recipe that it makes more sauce than you'll need, and looking at the quantities, they could easily be scaled down.

It did taste delicious though (especially straight out of the freezer!), so I'm keeping them for future snacking or for melting over ice-cream.

The other issue I had (which was my fault) was that the recipe asks you to bake the sponges 4.5cm in diameter, and I only had 8cm moulds, so I was only able to get four flat sponges out of the mixture rather than the six tall ones that the recipe says it will make.  (And there were five of us eating that night - d'oh!)  I know that baking is an exact science and that the recipe would have worked better if I'd used moulds in the correct dimensions. However, I must admit I found it a little frustrating that the chocolate sponge recipe was so precise, when the chocolate sauce recipe made so much more than required.  The puddings are quite rich though, so we were happy to share.

Half-filled sponges with chocolate sauce inside

So, the sponges went in the freezer, and the custard and pears went in the fridge, ready to be finished off just before eating.

The other thing I did in advance was to bake the brioche rolls, using this incredibly easy recipe. 

Brioche rolls

Everything else we prepared in the afternoon before the dinner!

raw ham

And then finally... everything was done and we could crack open the champagne and eat!  Cheers!

Champagne supplied by my dad

Lobster roll with champagne

Mmm... so much lobster.

One tail made more than enough filling for us, which I suppose makes it an economical way to enjoy lobster??  Hehe.

And now the main course...

Ham, cherry relish, petits pois

The ham was gorgeous - and I'd expect nothing less from Andrew's Choice!  We've got quite a bit of ham left... yay leftovers!  I daresay I like the spicy, sticky cherry relish even better than Nigella's spiced peaches, which used to be my usual accompaniment for ham.

Scalloped potatoes with leeks - potatoes sliced by hand (thank-you Sandra!)

The scalloped potatoes were amazing! Somehow they tasted light, with no feeling of stodginess or heaviness. A great recipe from Martha Stewart!  I must confess that scalloped potatoes are one of my favourite foods ever.  When I was a kid, whenever we'd go to buffets, I'd always make a beeline for the scalloped potatoes, while everyone else was getting stuck into the more expensive oysters and prawns.  I even liked them made with the MSG and salt-laden flavour packets you can get at the supermarket!

Haha, check out my potato-to-ham ratio:

As I mentioned above, there was still a little work to do for the dessert: about 20 minutes before we wanted to eat (and after all that food, we definitely needed a little break in between courses!), we churned the ice-cream, popped the puddings in the oven, then piped the ice-cream into the pears.

Ta-dah!

My puddings didn't look quite like Philippa's perfect towering version, but I was proud of them nonetheless!  It was so nice to hear my mum exclaim: "Oh wow, there's something inside the pear!"  I totally understand it when Philippa writes "I love surprising people".

Mmm... melty ice-cream...

You'll see that I created a much bigger cavity in my pears than in the ones at Il Fornaio - more room for ice-cream!

Mmm... melty chocolate sauce...

Oozy chocolate pudding

Yum yum yum! My favourite part of this dessert was the pear - perhaps for an easier version in future I'll make the ice-cream-stuffed pears and just drizzle them with the chocolate sauce.

Merry Christmas everybody!!

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