Pumpkin Tart with Parmesan Crust

It has been far too long since my last post; as always my thanks to Lush for holding down the fort in my absence.

Since I last wrote, I have returned to Melbourne and my indulgent / non-gymming / expensive (!!) ways. This recipe epitomises that sentiment using more butter than anything else I've made this year. Having said that, this is probably my most successful batch of pastry ever (pastry is a nemesis of mine). Partly because I actually followed the recipe, but mostly because I used this fantastic rolling pin. This isn't a plug, but a big thank you for this great gift that makes sure my pastry is an even thickness and the right size for the first time ever!

I have taken this recipe from the Australian Gourmet Traveller with a few little tweaks. It does have a long prep time as there are multiple restings of the pastry required, but the crumbly texture is worth it. My suggestion is to pick a rainy day, buy a nice bottle of red (3/4 for you, 1/4 for caramelising the onions) and potter away.

Pumpkin & Goat's Cheese Tart with Parmesan Crust

Serves 8

Ingredients

Tart Filling

• 750g pumpkin cut into bite size pieces
• 50ml olive oil
• 6 thyme sprigs, plus extra to serve
• 150g goat's cheese (e.g. chevre), coarsely crumbled
• 40g butter, coarsely chopped
• 3 onions thinly sliced
• 150ml red wine (you can use white but I preferred the colour contrast)
• 1 egg lightly beaten

Parmesan rough puff pastry

• 225g plain flour
• 40g finely grated parmesan
• 1 tbsp thyme leaves
• 2 tsp fennel seeds crushed
• 225g cold butter coarsely chopped

Method

Parmesan Puff Pastry

Sift flour and a pinch of salt into a food processor. 

Add parmesan, thyme and fennel seeds and pulse to combine. 

Add butter pulsing until mixture resembles very coarse crumbs. 

Tip onto a bench, make a well in the centre and add 100ml iced water. Mix together until dough just comes together. 

Form into a disc, wrap in glad wrap and refrigerate to rest for 20 minutes.

Roll out on a lightly floured surface into a 1.5cm thick rectangle. 

Then fold the shortest ends together to meet in the centre and fold in half again to form a book fold. 

Wrap in plastic wrap, refrigerate to rest for another 20 minutes You will need to repeat this twice more. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until required.

Preheat oven to 180C. 

Scatter pumpkin in a single layer on trays lined with baking paper, drizzle with oil, scatter with thyme, season to taste and roast until just tender (approx. 30-35 minutes). Set aside to cool.
Heat butter in a large frying pan over medium heat, add onion stirring occasionally until tender.

Add wine, stir occasionally until evaporated and set aside to cool.
Roll pastry out onto a lightly floured surface to a 5mm thickness.

Cut out a 25cm-diameter circle, place on a lined baking tray and refrigerate to rest for 30 minutes

Score a border, 1cm from the edge, to halfway through pastry. 

Prick inside border with a fork, spread with onion, scatter pumpkin goat's cheese

Roll edge slightly to contain the filling. 

Brush edge with beaten egg and bake until golden and cooked through (approx. 25-30 minutes). 

Sprinkle remaining thyme over the top and serve either hot or cold.

Enjoy!

Glutton

Healthy Jacket Potato

It's been a while since I harped on about healthy eating, but after recently being called a gym-junkie (an exaggeration, I promise!) I realised that maybe my diet should start matching my exercise regime.

My gym spruiks the paleo diet which I think is a little too extreme, but I do think that it is worth avoiding high fat, high carb meals. Unfortunately that is what I was craving - a big jacket potato, topped with sour cream, bacon and spring onion. Delicious! Now (as you may have guessed from the picture below) I decided to get a little creative to give myself that creamy, salty potato topping but without the guilt.

Green Vegetable Pasta

I recently had a craving for green vegetables. Now I know this doesn't sound momentus, but I'm not really a fan of the standard meat and 3 veg so I am always trying to come up with new ways to enjoy vegetables. This meal was inspired by what I had in the fridge (again not sounding all that exciting), but it was such a success that I have decided to share it with all of you on the interwebs.

I used asparagus, green beans and broccoli, but you could easily play around with any green vegetable that is in season; spinach in winter, fresh peas in summer. Potentially non-green vegetables would work, but the lemony sauce really seems to work with that chlorophyll flavour.

Chicken and Peach Summer Salad

Summer is the time of stone fruit and delicious berries. Growing up, stone fruit was not only expensive, but invariably had been flown from the US or Australia unripe and ended up tasting like squidgy, floury mush by the time we bought it in Singapore. When I first moved back to Australia I was amazed at the range and flavour of all the different summer fruits; who knew that peaches could be white or yellow, or that plums came in at least 3 different colours ! Biting into a ripe peach, with juice running down your chin and over your hand has to be one of my favourite summer moments. So when scanning through my collection of magazines and cookbooks for inspiration for a refreshing summer salad, peach sounded like the perfect accompaniment.

Mushroom Risotto

Risotto is a great meal to make when friends are stopping by as its easy to leave it bubbling on the stove, with the occasional stir, while socialising around the kitchen bench. 

Having recently watched most of Jamie Oliver's 15 and 30 minute meals, I have become a convert to his ways of reducing my preparation time. This recipe features a great trick of using the food processor for any fine chopping, it also includes the flavouring (porcini mushrooms) in the sofrito rather than soaking them to make a stock. My extra little cheat is to use al Funghi Porcini stock instead of the standard chicken. Not only is it vegetarian, like all stocks cubes it is instant and adds an extra robustness to the flavour of the rice. I'm not sure where it is available, but I get it in my local Melbourne supermarket.

3 Bean Salad

I don't know about the rest of the world, but Australia is currently experiencing some pretty dramatic weather. After having a few easy years, the long hot days seem to be back with a vengeance and there is little you feel like doing expect sitting underneath an air-con vent. It's at times like these where I really love summer salads; you don't have to cook them so the kitchen stays cool and if you refrigerate them before eating, you get this fantastically cold, but filling, meal.

Now, I will say in advance that this is not a glamorous recipe; in fact, it is probably one of the laziest meals I make. Ignoring that, this is a quick (10 minutes) meal that will keep for days and travels very well.

Creamy Pumpkin Soup

Although it is the end of winter here in Melbourne, having just returned from a trip to Kuala Lumpur I am struggling to view 18 degrees as warm and so have been feasting on all types of winter warmers.

The hardest thing I found whilst being away was that as it was a work trip I had to stay in a hotel. Oh yes, I know what a struggle! In my defence, it meant that I couldn't cook which was a struggle. I am so used to being able to control what goes into my meals (and how big they are!) that I found it quite difficult. With another trip (but this time a holiday) coming up soon, I am glad I have booked in an apartment for a few days so that I can at least make myself the occasional light meal.

Now that I am well and truly back at home, I realised I have missed out on weeks of new restaurant openings and of course catch ups with friends so am still eating out quite a bit, but alternating with the occasional light winter warmer at home. This recipe is the classic example of a quick meal that is filling, nourishing and warming; perfect for a night on the couch catching up on The Farmer Wants a Wife!

Ingredients

• 1.5 litres chicken or vegetable stock (cubes will do in a hurry)
• 1 tbs fish sauce
• 4 kaffir lime leaves (the extras freeze very well in a ziplock)
• 1.5kg pumpkin, cubed (I prefer butternut for its easy chopping qualities)
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1/2 bunch coriander
• 1 birds eye chilli (you can substitute a dried chilli or even chilli flakes)
• 1/2 lime, juiced

Method

1. Into a large pot, add the stock, fish sauce, pumpkin and 3 lime leaves (bruised).
2. If using dried chilli add it to the pot now.
3. Bring liquid to the boil and simmer for 10 mins for until pumpkin is soft.
4. Remove from the heat and remove lime leaves.
5. Using either a blender or bamix/stick blender, purée liquid and pumpkin until smooth.
6. Add coconut milk. Although I have said 1 cup above, it really depends on how creamy you want your soup so make sure to taste as you add and mix.
7. On a low heat, warm the soup without boiling (boiling will cause your coconut milk to split)
8. Finely slice your birds eye chilli and remaining lime leaf (you can roll it up into a long tube to make slicing easier).
9. Once your soup is hot, pour into bowls and top with some chilli and kaffir lime slices, coriander leaves and a drizzle of coconut milk and lime juice.
10. This recipe makes at least 6 servings and freezes very well for those times you need an instant meal.

Glutton

Fried Chicken & Coleslaw

I have so many horrid memories of coleslaw; mainly due to my childhood dislike of mayonnaise (oh, how times have changed!). From the overly dressed, flaccid lump of cabbage and carrot in Singapore's faux-American restaurants (looking at you Denny's) to making bucket loads with my mum for a BBQ we were having. In her defense, there were over a hundred people expected, but I hope to never again serve anything from a yellow, plastic bucket.

In spite of the scars from my younger years, I have been caught up by the current Melbourne obsession with Mexican and American food. And although Lush did actually grow up living (and eating) the American
dream I have decided to be the first to bring Team-USA to our blog.

This is a great weeknight meal when you're having friends over. Messy food and eating with your hands is always great way to ensure the night stays casual and relaxed. The chicken wasn't as KFC tasting as I
would have liked so I have upped the spices in the recipe below. If you would like some further inspiration, I am a big fan of Homesick Texan.

Ingredients:

For the Chicken
150g plain flour
4tsp paprika
125ml buttermilk
1kg chicken pieces (your choice of which cut)
Vegetable oil for deep frying

For the Coleslaw
200g sour cream
150g mayonnaise
2tsp apple cider
2tsp white sugar
1tsp dijon mustard
1/4 white cabbage, shredded
1/4 red cabbage, shredded
1 carrot, grated
1/2 red onion, finely sliced
1 apple, grated (if you like a bit of sweetness)

Method:

• Whisk together sour cream, mayonnaise, vinegar, sugar & mustard (I use a jar to shake & combine)
• Toss all coleslaw ingredients together and season.
• Combine flour & spices on a plate and pour buttermilk into a bowl. Coat flour in buttermilk followed by flour and shake off excess.
• Heat oil for deep frying (170 or when bread dropped in turns golden after 15 seconds).
• Working in batches, drop chicken into oil (don't let it splash!) and fry on each side for 10mins or until golden. Drain before serving.

Glutton

Cheesy Crab & Zucchini Risotto

A cold winter night in Victoria, what better way to warm up than with a cheesy risotto.

Inspired by Glutton’s Thermomix Crumpets, and with another offer of the holiday house on the Mornington Peninsula that came with it's own Thermomix (TM) I began to investigate. And can you believe – you can still make a creamy perfect risotto without stirring (simply because the TM does it for you). I used two recipes as my inspiration, one from the Community website, another from a Thermomix Blog.

As with Glutton’s Crumpets, a TM isn't necessary for this recipe other than to save you all that stirring - so I've put the instructions for both below.

Ingredients

• 2 zucchini meduim quartered and sliced
• 1 cup crab meat
• 200 g mozzarella cubed
• 1 red onion peeled and quartered
• 2 stalk Celery
• 30 g Butter
• 300 g Aborio Rice
• 800 ml stock
• 200 g white wine
• 50 g parmesan cheese,
• salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Grate mozzarella and parmesan 4 secs speed 8 set aside 
• (NO TM = grate by hand)
2. Chop onion and celery 4 seconds speed 5,  
• (NO TM = chop very fine by hand)
3. Add butter and sauté 3 minutes, 100 deg , speed 1 
• (NO TM = use a saucepan and sauté for 5 min on medium heat)
4. Add rice and cook 2 minutes at 100deg on REVERSE +speed 1 
• (NO TM =heat on medium for 3 min – until rice is coated)
5. Add wine, stock, crab and zucchini cook for 18 mins at 100degs on REVERSE + speed 1.5
•  (NO TM = add zucchini & crab, and heat wine and stock in a separate saucepan)
• Then add 1 cup warm liquid to begin and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until nearly absorbed. 
• Continue adding 1/2 cup warm liquid at a time, stirring constantly, until it is nearly absorbed between additions).
6. Remove risotto from the TM into a large bowl.
7. Stir all cheeses though until melted and creamy.
8. Leave to absorb for a few minutes, season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve.

Notes

I don’t think it was necessary to add so much mozzarella – so I might half the amount next time I cook this recipe.

Delicious and winter warming – perfect with a glass of wine (but then, what doesn't work with wine!).

Lush

Jerusalem Artichoke Soup

As the colder months of winter approach – it’s the perfect time to start making those delicious soups. One of my favorite is Jerusalem Artichoke Soup – well worth the effort of peeling them.



To start – you will need to carefully select your Jerusalem Artichokes (they should be firm and fresh – not mushy)

Ingredients:

• 5 Tbsp butter
• 1 chopped onion
• 2 large garlic cloves (peeled but whole)
• 20-30 medium Jerusalem artichokes, peeled and cut into dice sized chunks 
• Note: The most difficult part by far is peeling the Jerusalem artichokes – be sure to leave about 45min for this.
• 4 peeled, and diced potatoes
• 3 Bay leafs
• 1 litre chicken stock 
• (use vegetable stock for vegetarian option, and gluten-free stock if cooking gluten-free)
• Nutmeg (to taste – about 0.5 tsp)
• Salt and black pepper to taste
• Cream to dress

Method:

1. Melt the butter in a deep saucepan over medium-high heat (I used a large cast iron one)
2. Microwave on high the diced potatoes for 4-5 min (until 80% cooked)
3. Sweat the onions, garlic, Jerusalem artichokes and microwaved potatoes for 5 minutes. (Be Careful not to brown them)
4. Add the chicken stock (homemade stock is always best), and bay leafs and simmer till the Jerusalem artichokes are cooked (tested by inserting a skewer into them – should push in easily) – approx 15-25 min. 
5. In a blender - purée the soup in batches (when using an upright blender only fill the blender a third of the way)
6. Once all blended returned to the saucepan and add nutmeg, pepper and salt to taste.

Serve with drizzle of cream on top and fresh bread.

 Lush

Slow Roast Lamb Shoulder

It’s currently 28 degrees in Melbourne, not quite slow-roast weather, but oh well! Having grown up in a tropical climate I got used to eating all kinds of meals whilst ignoring the suffocating heat and humidity.

This is a meal I like to make on a Sunday as you can simply put it in the oven, hours before guests come over, and then spend the afternoon relaxing.

Have a read, cook it yourself and let me know what you think. I’m unable to cook a recipe the same way twice, so would love to know what changes you make – even if it fails! 

 Slow Roast Lamb Shoulder

1.5kg deboned lamb shoulder cut into 3cm chunks (you can get your butcher to do this for you)
1 head of garlic
1 red onion
4 vine-ripened tomatoes
Dry white wine
500g bread torn into small chunks (I used ciabatta, but you can use anything is dense enough to hold its shape)
100g grated parmesan
Few sprigs of thyme or rosemary or any herb you enjoy with lamb

Heat your oven to 170°C - 180°C (mine is a gas oven so I tend to have it a bit hotter), add some oil to a roasting pan and heat it in the oven while you do your chopping.

Roughly chop the tomatoes and onion into quarters and separate the cloves of garlic (you can leave these unpeeled for now).

Mix and coat the bread with the parmesan.

Into the hot roasting pan put your lamb shoulder chunks fat side down and scattering the onion, garlic and bread on top.

Pour over a solid glug of white wine and toss all the ingredients together.

Put the tray back into the oven for 2-3 hours. Check it every now and again, add more wine if the top looks like it drying out, turn the lamb a few times to help crisp the outside.

Service with couscous or with a nice creamy mash and some green beans with flaked almonds.

Delicious with a nice Riesling (ours was Bay of Fires) or a Pinot Noir.

Glutton