Amuse-bouche: black and white bowties with haloumi, serrano ham & baby tomatoes

This charming amuse-bouche was a bit of a last minute inspiration, and went down a treat with the little dinner party I put together the other night.

My inspirations were multiple: a funky pasta I have in my cupboard just itching to be used, a visit to "goodies" (a local meditteranean shop) where I found haloumi, discovering a source of relatively inexpensive serrano ham, and the dinner party itself. The result was this simple, colourful and delectable medly, which I encourage you to try - I promise it is easy and scrummy.

Cooking time: I think it took me less than half an hour from start to finish.

Black and white bowties with haloumi, serrano ham and baby tomatoes

50 g Haloumi

2 slices Serrano Ham

17g of baby bow tie pasta or 3 pieces per person giant bow tie pasta (+3 pieces spare)

120g mixed baby tomatoes (red and yellow)

Finely cut the haloumi into 1/2cm cubes, and cut the baby tomatoes in quarters. Tear the serrano ham into pieces about 3 cm by 2cm (no need to be too careful, tear, not slice).

Brown the haloumi in a frypan with a tiny splash of olive oil - if you have a herbed oil so much the better. At the same time, bring a pot of water to the boil and cook the pasta until done (I won't give an exact time as it will depend on the style of pasta you choose) and then drain.

Once the haloumi has started to get a golden colour, put your chopped tomatoes into the pan. You don't want to cook them so much as warm them up. Add your cooked pasta and gently stir to combine in the pan.

Serve in small dishes garnished with the serrano ham.

The photos somehow don't really capture just how attractive this dish is... I need my friend Ed's photography skills!

Brie and Asparagus Quiche

Surprisingly, because it isn't the season for them, there were bunches of asparagus in the shops this week, and at a pretty reasonable price. No I didn't do terribly immoral things by buying asparagus from the other side of the world... no, these had a pretty ok carbon footprint having come from Spain. So... what to make for a winter dinner with friends, using this delicious vegetable? I know... 

Brie and Asparagus Quiche

1 cup cream or sour cream

1 bunch of asparagas (500g)

200g brie

salt & pepper 3 eggs 300g shortcrust pastry

• Roll out the pastry and line a ceramic or glass quiche dish.
• Lay out the asparagus and tuck slices of brie between.
• Mix eggs & cream till nicely blended. Season with salt and pepper
• Pour egg mix into the quiche dish
• Bake in an oven at 200 degrees C for 25-30 minutes until nicely browned.
• Serve warm or cold as you like... delicious!

Quick and pretty canape

I was hired to cater a small reception for 40 people. A nice simple function of 5 different dishes.

Dish number one: Cherry tomato, basil and baby mozzarella skewers.

It doesn't get much simpler than this for a canape! I marinated the mozzarella in pesto and then skewered them. The hardest part was figuring out how to present them!

Challenge: Pineapple & Blue Cheese

I am getting addicted to these food challenges. This one really quirked my interest... "TRGWT: They Really Go Well Together". These challenges are based on molecular gastronomy food pairings, and this month the challenge was to pair pineapple and blue cheese (being hosted by David at "Eat Foo(d)")

Now I had already eaten blue cheese and pineapple on one of my home made pizzas, and so knew that the potential for all sorts of deliciousness was there... the problem lay in the timing. I found out about the challenge on Monday morning (31 March) at about 1am when trawling the internet in a bout of insomnia. On Monday nights I have my singing lesson followed by choir and don't get home till after 11pm. The challenge closes on the 1st of April. That gave me one day to think of something and 1 evening in which to perfect it. Phew!

So... my contribution? Something very simple indeed:

Pineapple and blue cheese soup (original recipe by Kiriel)

2 small onions
30g butter
60 blue cheese
480g pineapple (I was in a pinch so used drained pineapple in natural syrup)
2 cups chicken stock

Dice the onions finely and sweat in the butter until they go clear. Chop the pineapple into pieces (if using fresh pineapple make sure you remove the hard core) and add to the butter. Sweat until the pineapple has absorbed the butter and softened.

Blend the pineapple in a food processor or blender. Add the chicken stock and return to the pan. Simmer for about half an hour to give the pineapple more time to soften. Crumble in the blue cheese and remove from the heat. Stir to blend the cheese in but don't over stir - you want to discover lovely little nuggets of cheese as you eat.

I tried two different versions of this recipe. The first used St Agur which is a mild creamy blue cheese, quite solid in texture and with a nutty taste. The second used a cave-ripened roquefort, strong, sharp and acid.

Both had their merits and in the end I simply couldn't decide which was better, although I think I lean just a teeny bit towards the milder St Agur. I also couldn't define for you why the soup ended up tasting so good... it just does! Go on... be brave and give it a try.

Parmesan and herb shortbreads

Parmesan and oregano shortbreads
(makes 40)
120g plain flour
salt
2 tsp oregano
90g cold butter diced
120g parmesan cheese, grated

Place ingredients in a food processor and pulse to form a smooth dough. Roll out to .5cm thickness, and stamp out 3cm rounds. Bake in a moderate oven for 10 minutes until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. Keep in a an airtight container for up to two weeks, or can be frozen for up to a month (defrost and crisp up in the oven).

Parmesan Lollipops

Parmesan Lollipops

1 cup of good quality parmesan, grated
1 dessertspoon of plain flour.
20 wooden skewers

Preheat an oven to 220c. Line a baking tray with silicone paper.

Toss the grated cheese and flour together in a bowl. Place five or six skewers on the tray, spread out to allow room for the cheese to spread. Put a dessert spoon of grated cheese on alternating ends of the skewers. Bake for about 4 minutes until light golden. Remove and allow to cool. Serve like lollipops standing in a jar.

Student life re-lived

So what does an impoverished Australian in the French Riviera live on, on a day to day basis? Surely it isn't possible to afford to buy lunch or dinner every day?

Indeed it isn't possible. While I have found a few asian 'restaurants' that have dishes for around 5 euro, I can't quite manage to stretch my finances that far on a daily basis. So my plat du jour is home made ham and pineapple pizzas!

So here is the breakdown

• 2 packets of mini pita breads (that will make 12 meals): 2 euro 80
• 1 tin of pineapple chunks 1 euro 10
• 1 brie 98centimes
• 1 small packet of grated cheese 1 euro 30
• 1 packet lardons fume (bacon bits by any other name) 2 euro 30
• 1 tiny tin of tomato paste 30 centimes

et voila, two weeks worth of simple hot lunches for 73 centimes a day.

In case you are a complete cooking newbie and really need to know how to make them, here are instructions for construction:

• Open the tin of tomato paste, and put into a small dish with about twice as much warm water (eg. for 20g paste, add 40 ml water) to make a thinnish paste. If you have some dried herbs, perhaps oregano, soak them in the warm water before mixing the tomato paste in.
  
• Spread on to pita bread
• Open the tin of pineapple chunks, drain off the liquid (mix it into whatever fruit juice you have in the fridge to add a bit of sparkle to it) and scatter on over the pita (slice them in half if you are feeling poor, or use whole chunks if you are feeling a bit more lavish).
  
• Thinly slice some brie and place on top
  
• Scatter a little of the grated cheese to fill in any corners not covered by the brie. You can just use brie, or just use the grated cheese if you like, but I rather like the different flavours from the different cheeses
• Scatter lardons on top
• Cook in an oven prewarmed to 200 degrees for about 10 minutes, until the cheese goes a lovely golden colour.
  
• Rest for 4 minutes to allow the cheese to set a little before slicing in half
• EAT! Of course you can add whatever other ingredients you prefer; sliced mushrooms for example.
  

Before cooking

Hot and golden fresh from the oven

Apricot cheesecake pikelets

This experiment really worked!

I was going to a party and wanted to whip up a sweet dish to take. It needed to be something that was cocktail sized. But what to make? I didn't have any cash, so it was a matter of finding stuff in the fridge and cupboard and getting creative. I saw that I had some cream cheese, and decided that it would be cool to make miniature cheesecakes. But cheesecake bases are pretty much anti finger food aren't they? So then I thought of pikelets - very easy to make and perfectly sized for the occasion.

Enough of my strange thought processes and on to the recipe!


Pikelets
6 tablespoons self raising flour
1 egg and enough milk to make nearly a cupful with the beaten egg

Method:
Sift flour into a bowl, make a well in the middle. Lightly beat egg and milk together, and pour into flour, and using a gentle whisking motion, combine. Allow to sit for a short while so that the lumps smooth out. The batter should be quite thick. Using butter in a frying pan, pour small quantities (about a dessertspoon full) into the pan. Once bubbles rise to the surface and have popped, flip and cook till golden.

Apricot cheesecake topping

1 packet cream cheese
3 tablespoons Apricot jam (in fact I used middle eastern apricot paste, which I dissolved in hot water)
icing sugar
1 drop of vanilla

Heat the jam until warm and runny but not hot. Add to cream cheese and use a fork to combine until you have a smooth paste. Don't worry if it is a little runny, as it will stiffen up when cool. Add a drop of vanilla essence, and icing sugar to sweeten if needed. Taste to make sure you are happy with the amount of apricot, and add more if needed. Allow to cool and then spread over pikelets and serve.

For garnish I used tiny icing hearts, but what I really wanted to do was decorate with finely sliced tiny strips of dried apricot.

Spinach and feta parcels

I can't really provide a recipe for these yummy little parcels, as I just kinda threw them together. They are made from frozen spinach, thawed in the microwave, and feta. Finished off with salt, pepper and a little nutmeg, the mix is made into little parcels with puff pastry and baked. You can make them small, as pre-dinner snacks, or big for a handy pasty-style lunch. I pop them in the freezer and just pull them out as wanted.

What shall I make with these?

I bought some cherry tomatoes today. Then as I sat on the bus, it occurred to me that I had no idea what I was going to do with them. Hmmm... what to do with them? I have a basil plant, so that is an obvious match. I have some cheese in the fridge that has moved into the melted stage so really should be used.

The solution became very clear; risotto!

Firstly I quartered the cherry tomatoes and popped them in the oven to bake, having drizzled them with olive oil and sprinkled with Murray River salt flakes.


Then it was time to rummage out my rice, dried mushrooms, some white wine and a clove of garlic.

I fried the diced garlic in olive oil, added the rice and stirred it for a bit. Poured boiling water over the dried mushrooms to re-hydrate them, and added some to the rice. Allowed the rice to sizzle, and, stirring regularly, added water bit by bit as the water absorbed and rice cooked. A decent splash of wine and the re-hydrated mushrooms, as well as a spoonful of stockpowder and dinner was almost ready.


I broke up the cheese with my hands and stirred it into the pot, allowing it to melt. After stirring in the oven-baked tomatoes and fresh basil it was time to eat! Not bad at all.

Goat's cheese omelette

3 egg whites (left over from making ice-cream)
2 whole eggs
splash of cream (also left over from making ice-cream)
large pinch of mixed herbs
50g feta
salt & pepper

Combine eggs, herbs & seasonings. Whisk until the mixture is light, adding a splash of cream just before the end. Pour into lightly oiled warm frypan. Allow to cook until the edges are set, then chop up the feta and sprinkle over the omelette. Once the egg is lightly set, fold in half and serve.

Mediterranean stuffed loaf

This is a perfect picnic dish: portable, attractive and delicious!

Ingredients:

1 loaf of bread (choose one that is qiute deep)
Marinated grilled aubergine
Marinated grilled courgette
Artichoke hearts
Sundried tomatoes
Mozzarella cheese (feta is also good)
mushrooms
Olives

Slice the top of the loaf of bread and set aside. Dig out the centre of the loaf. Starting with the cheese, cover the bottom of the inside of the loaf. Layer each of the ingredients into the loaf, with layers of mozzarella between every few layers of other ingredients. (drain the liquid off the ingredients before using!)

Lay the top of the loaf back on. Wrap firmly in plastic wrap. Lay a wooden board on top and then place a few full tins of food on top as a weight to press down the loaf. Allow to sit for a few hours

The different layers will all press together and the flavours will merge into a delicious whole. You can take the loaf as is to your picnic, slice and enjoy the impressed looks on your friends faces!

Baked Ricotta

500g ricotta cheese
2 small eggs
1 tsp high quality vanilla paste (or 1 vanilla bean)
120g caster (fine-crystal) sugar
1/2 cup of pistachio kernels (unsalted) *

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. Beat ricotta and eggs in a large bowl until smooth. Add vanilla paste (or split vanilla pod and scrape seeds), sugar and nuts and combine together well.

Very lightly grease a cupcake tin. Fill with ricotta mixture (I advise trying to make sure that the first spoonful has fewer nuts; just helps later when removing from pan), cover in foil and then place in a shallow oven dish. Fill half way up the sides of the cupcake tin with water, making a sort of bain-marie. Bake for 50 minutes until firm. Cool thoroughly before attempting to remove.

Serve as individual 'cheeses' with a fruit based coulis. The first time I did this I used my mango and pineapple confiture. The second a ginger syrup, which I think would have benefited from a dash of lemon juice.

*I used half pistachios and half slivered almonds as pistachio kernals were brutally expensive