Sweet
Indulgent Chocolate Cake with Agrarian Kitchen Dulce du Leche
This Easter we celebrated our friend Rose’s 30th birthday at her lodge in the central Tasmanian highlands. It was a very relaxed weekend, a bit of drinking, puzzle-doing, Easter egg eating, and a lot of chats around the fire. Sam caught a 2 pound brown trout and Rose’s husband Bill cooked us a fantastic Hāngi. Oh yeah and we had snow!
To celebrate the birthday I made my standard chocolate cake (see the recipe here), but this time around made it that little bit more indulgent….well it was Easter, by adding in a layer of the Agrarian Kitchen’s dulce du leche purchased from their stall at the Mona Market. This stuff is liquid gold and is made from their own goats milk. It’s beautifully rich. I’m hooked! Unfortunately I don’t think they sell it very often and as their run at the MONA market is done it might be quite a while before I get my hands on more….however I have read instructions for making my own. One day perhaps.
Guest Posts on Anthology Magazine
Hi all, sorry for the current luck of posts, but we have been busy creating a series of breakfast themed recipes for Anthology Magazine.
The first one was Blueberry Cinnamon Buns with Orange Cream Cheese Glaze.
And week two was a recipe using some of the nectarines from our garden. It can be found here.
Apricot and Raspberry Tart
It’s that time of year where my favourite fruit is in season, the apricot. To be honest I am perfectly happy eating the treat of my childhood: a rather non-gourmet combination of warm stewed apricot, a handful of crunched up special k and a scoop of vanilla ice cream (try it, trust me!)…however I don’t think that would quite cut it for Island Menu.
So this weekend I went to the little apricot tree that lives near my clothesline (hopefully the landlord doesn’t mind!), raided a few for this dish and decided to try out a variation on the tarte tatin, using apricots and a few raspberries. The dish is very straight forward and while it looks a little bit like an undignified big red mush of fruit, the flavor was good, especially with the nice crispy puff pastry and some vanilla cinnamon cream.
Ingredients
For the Tart:
100g sugar
1/3 cup of brandy (I didn’t have quite enough so used a little water as well)
1 vanilla bean
6-8 apricots stone removed and cut in half (enough to cover the bottom of your fry pan)
Handful of fresh raspberries
1 sheet of puff pastry (I used the Careme one as it is rather good)
Cream:
1 tub of cream (I used Mersey Valley)
2 teaspoons (or more if you prefer it sweeter) icing sugar
½ teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
Remove the puff pastry from the freezer and preheat the oven to 190 Celcius. In an oven proof frying pan on a medium heat put the sugar, brandy, scrapped vanilla bean and seeds. Allow this to cook for a while until the sugar has dissolved and the colour is a nice caramel one. Add the halved apricots and cook for 2-3 minutes in the caramel. Then drop a few raspberries in and around the apricots, place the puff pastry over the top and tuck it in around the sides. Place the frypan in the preheated oven and cook for around 25-30minutes or until the pastry looks golden and flaky. Once done remove from the oven and carefully place a plate over the top of the fry pan and turn the pie out, make sure you do this over a bench top as some of the juices may run a little.
Serve warm with the cream.
To make the cream gently whip up some cream and add the icing sugar, cinnamon and vanilla paste.
Christmas Party
On Saturday afternoon we held a little Christmas gathering at Sam and Lotties with our friends and thought it would be nice to share it here with you on Island Menu. It is such a great time of year in Tasmania the food and produce available is unbeatable and while the weather can still be a little dubious we were fortunate enough to have a warm sunny day.
After a discussion over drinks at the pub earlier in the week we decided that the menu would be simple with lots of little dishes and seasonal bits and pieces for people to try out. I think this worked beautifully and at the end of the night everything had gone so I think it was a success!
For the day we served as a starter some cheeses, smoked salmon, biscuits and bread, then we all sat at the table for the meal. I think there is nothing better than sitting down for a big dinner with all your friends, especially at Christmas.
On the table we had to eat:
Gravlax with dill and horseradish sauce
Home-made bread
Mini abalone and chicken burgers
Bloody mary mussels
Seared beef
Smoked lamb
Crumbed calamari with home-made tartare
Smoked striped trumpeter with egg sauce
Whiskey sauce
Fresh rocket salad and sliced cucumbers
Crayfish
Smashed pink eye potatoes
To drink we had a selection of Tasmanian drinks including some:
Ninth Island Sparkling, Captain Bligh’s apple cider, the boys drank Cascade Blue (they don’t like to stray away from their favourite) followed by some Nant whiskey later in the evening and a lot later Captain Morgan’s Spicy with Cascade Sparkling Apple juice – sounds dirty I know – but is damn fine.
Then later for sweets:
Vanilla shortbread
Cherries
Some great homemade chocolates – thanks Phil
And a raspberry and logan berry cream pie
To make the pie is so simple, use our sweet short crust pastry recipe (the one from lemon meringue and strawberry pie) bake and allow to cool. Then in a bowl mix a tub of Mersey Valley crème fraiche and a tub of Mersey valley double cream, a teaspoon of vanilla bean paste, a small lug of Cointreau, a few handfuls of fresh raspberries and logan berries and some icing sugar to taste. Put the mix into the pastry shell, and refrigerate (we actually used the freezer) for an hour or so. Remove it before you want to eat, decorate with more berries and a dusting of icing sugar.
Steamed Cherry Pudding
For our Christmas cards we came up with a slightly different take on the traditional Christmas pudding – a steamed fresh cherry pudding. It’s simple and light and would work perfectly with some home-made brandy custard.
Ingredients
170g plain flour
2 level tablespoons baking powder
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
6 tablespoons milk
85g butter
1 egg
85g caster sugar
Approximately 250 grams black cherries
Extra sugar to add with the cherries if they are tart
Method
Grease a pudding basin and line the bottom with a layer of cherries, then add another layer of cherries this time a little mushed up to fill any gaps.
Sift the flour, salt and baking powder. In another bowl cream the butter and sugar, break in the egg and beat well. Add the milk, vanilla paste and flour then mix to combine. Put the mixture into the prepared basin with greased kitchen paper on top under the lid.
Put the basin in a pot with boiling water (enough to cover the sides but not over the lid). Cook steadily for two hours.
Serve with cream.
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