Spread My Butter » baked

Stracchino Pizza – first attempt

Amanda — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 17:28:53 +0000

My first attempt, using this recipe for a pizza base. It was mediocre, since I used regular plain flour. I think I will attempt this again with Italian Tipo ‘00’ flour next time as I wasn’t happy with the amount of “stretched” gluten even with the right amount of kneading.

Stracchino has got to be one of my favorite vices. I love it best left at room temperature, when it’s melted into a soft gooey cream and served with antipasto. While I was buying Stracchino off the friendly man at Pasanella, he recommended that it was a great cheese to use on pizza. It is normally used in a Piadini or a Calzone but a great melting cheese. The texture became similar to a buffalo mozzarella after it’s been baked, but so very indulgent. I was a little light on the cheese on the first one, but we more than made up for it on the second pizza. No photos on the second pizza, as we ate it in darkness during Earth Hour.

Tags: art, baked, dough, flour, italian, LA, pizza, recipe, stracchino

Hyams beach cafe

Amanda — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 19:57:00 +0000

Hyams beach – famous for it’s pure white sand on the South coast

Salad of free range chicken, spiced peach, keflatori, rocket and pancetta

Chilli soft shell crab, asian salad, papaya salad and red chilli nahm jim

Oven baked flathead fillets, fries and tartare sauce

There is also a small shop in the cafe which sells gourmet produce and modern beach house interior decorations and gifts.

78 Cyrus St
Hyams Beach 2540 NSW
Phone: (02) 4443 3874

And the best thing – an after lunch dip in the ocean!

Tags: art, Asia, baked, crab, hyams beach, LA, NSW, produce, salad

The perfect baked potato

Amanda — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 10:09:00 +0000

I’ve finally worked out the secret for the fluffiest, softest baked potato. I only used regular washed potatoes as well!

The temperature/time combination is: 190°C for 1.5 hours.

Using a fork, prick potatoes (deeply) with holes around 1 inch apart.

The inside should be creamy and fluffy, like mash, while the outside is crispy.
Would be amazing with truffle butter!

I’m really sick of soft foods.
Tags: baked, potato

I feel like… Chicken tonight?

Amanda — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 12:31:00 +0000

I was online shopping for groceries last week for soup ingredients and I decided to order a whole chicken – a part of it for a chicken soup and roast the legs on a separate night. There are plenty of informative (albeit lame) videos on youtube, and I learnt how to butterfly a chicken by watching this.

I got the liberty to work from my own home since I would rather not show my puffy face post widom teeth extraction, so I can have the stove happening while I tap away on my computer. Here are my two recipes for the one chicken to prepare on two different days:

Baked Chicken Legs

I detached the legs (thigh and drumstick) and left it in a marinade for 6+ hours. Be creative! I added:
Honey
Lo Sui sauce
Sesame Oil
Pinch of Chinese 5 spice powder
Pinch of Japanese 7 spice (spicy powder)
Dried rosemary
Salt and pepper

Cover with cling wrap and refrigerate for half a day… or overnight.

Place the chicken legs in a baking tray. I like to fold a shallow “bowl” with baking paper so that all the juices are caught and the surface is non-stick (unlike foil). Plus it makes washing up minimal! Scatter sliced onions around the chicken legs, pour a small amount of chicken broth on top along with a dash of white wine, and add remaining marinade leftover in the bowl into the baking tray. Sprinkle some dried oregano on top and bake for 45 mins on 190°C or until chicken is golden brown and its juices run clear.

There shouldn’t be a need for basting, as there are enough juices in your baking “tray” to keep it moist. The onions should be nicely caramelized. I like to brush the chicken skin with a layer of honey when it’s finished, and put it back under the grill for an extra five minutes, just to get the extra gloss.

It’s perfect, and it’s so simple.

Chicken Soup

With the rest of the chicken, add to a soup pot, and chop up any vegetables you like. I used:
2 carrots
1 zucchinni
1 brown onion
half a can of diced tomatos
3 sticks of celery
1 clove garlic, crushed
2 bay leaves
1 tiny clove, pushed inside chicken flesh

Cover all ingredients with half chicken broth, half water

Bring to a slow gentle boil, and simmer on low heat for 4-5 hours. It’s very hard to get this wrong. The reason why I cut my vegetables into such big pieces was so that it would be easily to remove after cooking, if you are looking to make a clear chicken & vegetable broth. Take chicken out of soup when done, and shred chicken meat into the strained broth.

If you chicken is slow cooked with cold water to begin with, the meat should be moist and smooth, not dry and stringy.

Enjoy the cooler seasons

Tags: baked, recipes

Potato and Leek Soup with prosciutto

Amanda — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 14:58:00 +0000

What a better way to post hearty soup recipes, when most of you are approaching winter, and I’m stuck at home with four of my wisdom teeth extracted yesterday. The nurse at the day surgery gave me a guideline for a “soft diet” which I have to maintain for at least 7 days. It includes baked beans, canned spaghetti, bread, jello and stewed fruit. Ew. No thanks! I’ll make my own…

Here is a simple, filling soup you can prepare in under 45 minutes. Hey, if I can cook this while I’m tripping out on extremely strong painkillers (and doubled the dosage for added excitement) you can do this with your eyes closed! This is for you, Deb

All you need is:
2 leeks (only use the light green and white parts, discard the green leaves)
5 washed potatos
1 brown onion
2 slices of prosciutto / parma ham, bacon or pancetta, diced
1 litre of chicken broth
half a cup of cooking cream

Using a mandolin, slice leeks and potatos thinly, and finely dice the brown onion.

In the soup pot, add two tablespoons of butter and cook the onions and leeks until it’s softened and lightly browned. Add diced prosciutto or bacon – you may add more olive oil as well. The prosciutto really gives it extra flavour and smokiness, but if you are vegetarian you can easily leave this out.

Add the sliced potato in the pot and stir for another three minutes

Add chicken broth, just enough to cover the potatos. If the soup becomes too thick you can always add more broth later.

Simmer on medium heat for 15 – 20 minutes. The thinner you sliced your potatoes, the quicker it takes for them to cook. When the potatos become soft, you can start squishing them into smaller pieces with your wooden spoon.

Using a hand blender, blend soup on low heat until smooth. I would normally prefer it slightly lumpy to give it more texture, but I can’t chew!

You can see that the soup has become a lot thicker than before. You can stir in extra broth if you wish, and simmer for another ten minutes on low heat, stirring occasionally.

Add half a cup of cooking cream and slowly stir in before serving

and voila, a quick and easy soup – not to mention all the ingredients cost under ten dollars. Hello financial crisis!

Tags: baked, potato, prosciutto, recipes, soup

L’Etoile Restaurant

Amanda — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 17:12:00 +0000

L’EToile Restaurant & Bar Paddington

Good service should be rewarded – I must admit, I was acting like a spoilt princess when I found out that the ‘outdoor table for 9′ that I booked ended up set by the entrance to the restaurant. The server saw the disappointment in my face and with his own initiative, ended up re-setting the outdoor area for us. I am a true believer that the service before the meal is crucial to the customer experience and it really depends on that first impression. You could have mind-blowing food, but if someone isn’t happy to begin with, they most probably will not enjoy the rest of the meal. This was probably something that was recognised right away and corrected. I wish more mid-ranged restaurants in Sydney would do this!

The food was beautiful, and we were amongst heaters on a crisp, cool Saturday afternoon in the courtyard of a Victorian terrace house with sandstone walls. Both the chef and the waiter were attentive to our needs (even though it was a quiet day, there were only two other tables in the restaurant that day), the food was delicate and the flavours were rich – just the way the French like it. I had no qualms with my 33% tip, well deserved – albeit a little painful for the wallet. I guess I felt bad for being difficult.

The wine list had my new favorite white for the moment - Vouvray (Chenin Blanc) from the Loire Valley alongside other French wines. Divine.

Escargots a la Bourguignonne $14
Snails with garlic butter and puff pastry

Souffle d’ecrevisses au gruyere $22
Twice baked Moreton bay bug & gruyere souffle

Salade au chevre chaud $15
Spinach salad with pears and warm goat’s cheese

Duck Rilette (special of the day)

Soupe du jour $14
Celeriac and Salsify soup with parsley toast

Saint-Jacques et crevettes a l’ail $35
Grilled scallops wrapped in prosciutto & garlic prawns (I thought of PetiteTokyo when I ordered this!)

Faux Fillet $29
Angus sirloin with bearnaise sauce & fries

Supreme de canard et son choux farci au porto $35
Pan-fried duck breast & stuffed cabbage with a port sauce

Plat Du Jour
Veal shank and lamb pie

Puree de pommes de terre $8

Creme brulee $14
Vanilla creme brulee

Profiteroles au chocolat $15
Chocolate profiteroles with vanilla ice cream

Tarte tatin $15
Apple tatin with ice cream

Delicioux!

Tags: baked, cabbage, French, prosciutto, salad, soup

Twice cooked veal, fennel salad

Amanda — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 11:19:00 +0000

Nothing better on a cold winter’s night on Sunday to be enjoying such a comforting dish such as baked veal. Fennel are in season at the moment, and the flesh is crisp, sweet and tiny hint of aniseed. Inside a warm salad with breadcrumbs. melted anchovies and Parmesan, it is the perfect complement to the richness of the baked veal and bone marrow. The texture of the breadcrumbs and grated Parmesan acted a melodic overture to the main dish (where I had replaced the Parmesan with Romano instead).

Wines matched for the evening:
Duval-Leroy Brut Vintage 1996 – a beautiful champagne
Domaine Lucien et Andre Brunel 2003 Shiraz – with the veal

Fennel with capers and anchovies

2large fennel bulbs, green tops intact
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 anchovies
Handful of breadcrumbs, not too fine
Freshly cracked pepper
1/2 tbsp capers, rinsed well and patted dry
30g pecorino or parmesan cheese, shaved
1/4 cup young flat-leaf parsley
Salt and pepper

Trimfennel bulbs by discarding tough, external layers. Keep tender fronds fromheads and soak in cold water. Wash bulbs well and cut into thin slices top tobottom. Bring a saucepan of salted water to the boil and plunge in fennelslices. Blanch for 2 minutes until tender. Drain and set aside to cool.Meanwhile, heat olive oil gently in a saucepan and add anchovies, stirringuntil dissolved. Add breadcrumbs and a pinch of pepper. Stir for a minute, adddrained fennel slices and mix well. Take from heat and add capers, fennel tops,cheese and parsley. Season with salt and pepper, mix well and transfer to aserving plate. Serves 4

NB: I added microherbs into the mix – and also a handful of unblanched (and thinly diced – on the younger parts of the bulb) fennel for more texture.

Twice-cooked veal shanks withmushrooms and sage

2large veal shanks, trimmed of external fat
1 onion, peeled and quartered
1 carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
1 stick celery, roughly chopped
200g button mushrooms
2 onions, peeled and finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled and cut into chunks
50g butter
150ml cream
1/2 cup breadcrumbs
100g grated parmesan
Big handful fresh sage leaves
Salt and pepper

Placethe veal shanks in a stockpot with the onion, carrot and celery. Cover withwater and bring to the boil. Turn down to a simmer and keep simmering for 90-120 minutes until the meat is tender. Remove from the heat and cool theshanks in the liquid. Once cooled, drain liquid into a saucepan, removing anyfat on the surface, and discard vegetables. Turn the heat to high and reducethe liquid to about 400ml. Remove meat from shanks and cut into bite-sizedpieces (pic1). Fry mushrooms, onion, garlic in the butter until they have softened.Add the reduced stock and cream and simmer for 2 minutes (pic2). Pour the mushroommixture into an oven dish (pic3), with the meat scattered evenly throughout. Sprinkle the breadcrumbs, parmesan and sage on top (pic4) and bake at 170C for an hour (pic 5)
Serves 6.

The process:

Oh yes – that’s crumbed BONE MARROW! Dedicated to Derpderp and Bellisa. Oh it was sooo good.

I have to say, this is probably one of the best recipes ever! The prep time + cook time will take up half your Sunday (but I enjoy it!)

Tags: baked, Champagne, cloves garlic, extra virgin olive oil, recipes, salad, thin slice

Palm Cove

Amanda — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:50:00 +0000

I headed to tropical North Queenland for Queen’s birthday long weekend and stayed two nights in Palm Cove to catch up on some R&R at the Angsana Resort

The one bedroom suites were more than accomodating in size with fully equipped kitchen (decked out with Miele appliances) and large bedroom upstairs. The sitting room can comfortably fit a party of 15 – 20 people, and the upstairs bedroom has two individual bathrooms on either side of the room, for all of those (like me) who hate to share. Sheer bliss.

Buttermilk pancakes with banana, maple and honey ice cream

Japanese breakfast with seared tuna, Japanese pickles, Tofu and wakame miso soup and rice

Dinner at Nu nu Restaurant on Williams Esplanade

Freshly baked sourdough with lemon and olive oil

Freshly shucked Coffin Bay oysters – unwashed, the way I like them!

Soft shell crab and avocado roll with cured yellow fin tuna in Ponzu sauce

Twice cooked quail, Sichuan eggplant salad, home made XO

North Queenland mudcrab in soy, ginger and shallot dressing, sticky rice in lotus leaf with lapcheong, Kailan and broth

Mandarin Souffle, mandarin cream, mandarin sorbet

Hibiscus Marshallow – which was fragrant, subtly sweet, delightful and reminiscent of Jean Georges in New York… if not better!

Nothing too much to rave about the restaurant scene in Palm Cove, but the ingredients were fresh and the service was good. Just a nice, relaxed environment to getaway from the hustle and bustle of the city, and not to mention, the horrid, rainy and cold Sydney weather!

Other recommended restuarants in the area:
The Reef House (Sebel)
Vivo Bar & Grill

Tags: Appliances, baked, dinner, pancakes, recipes, salad, soup

Central Baking Depot

Amanda — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 13:42:00 +0000

Near the corner of Kent and Erskine St, next to Laksa King. Opened by the people at Bourke Street Bakery

They bake twice a day, so if you buy bread home after work, it would be fresh out of the oven. Opens til 6pm!

Hearty beef pie (with soft chunks of braised meat) in a flakey pie pastry ($4); Lamb, harissa and almond sausage roll – sensational mix of flavours ($4). Chocolate meringue with a soft gooey centre that my entire office went ga-ga for ($2.20); Chocolate poppyseed stick – two long strips of croissant pastry sandwiched with chocolate sauce, and baked in a crispy poppyseed shell ($3).

Talk about a carb overload for lunch in the office! I think I’m in heaven…

Tags: baked, bakery, baking, bread, central baking depot, lamb, Restaurants, sydney

Fettuccine al tartufovo

Amanda — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 10:34:00 +0000

Went to Buon Ricordo for Dad’s belated birthday dinner last night for their renowned Truffled egg fettuccine. Many people speak highly of Armando’s work but every time I visit, there seems to be nothing to rave about except for this fettuccine dish. Nevertheless I decided to give it its fourth chance (the previous three were slightly disappointing).

I’m not sure whether they had started using Australian truffles to save money; or perhaps the eggs weren’t infused for long enough, but this time around, the pasta was a lot less aromatic compared to before. Also, the waiter had verbaled the night’s specials to us, an enticing scallop entree – which I had selected for my main. It wasn’t until 30 minutes after my first course, did he realize that they had sold out of the scallops! Then he proceeded to recommend me, instead of the scallops, the Zuppa di Pesce (Scampi, mussels, clams, calamari, octopus, cuttlefish and rock cod cooked with tomato) as my main course. We didn’t find out until afterwards that it was more than double the price of the scallops at $47.50. Through the glass kitchen we could see that he was being verbally abused by Armando and the rest of the chefs… and probably because of the stress that they caused him, he spilt the finger bowl in front of me as well.

When things like this happen I would normally at least offer a free drink, or a free dessert… well the dessert of Sfogliatella (Baked Neapolitan pastry filled with ricotta and candied fruit) was disappointing, however I did enjoy the side of coffee gelato.

Sadly, it doesn’t matter how good his reviews are… I don’t think I will be going back again. Although the Fettuccine al tartufovo is STILL worth mentioning. If they had used Italian truffles it would still be a most amazing dish.

Fettuccine al tartufovo

Fettuccine with cream and parmesan, topped with a fried truffle egg.Tossed at the table.

mmm… coronary…

Tags: baked, Buon Ricordo, dessert, dinner, fish, italian, pasta, tomato, truffle