Baked oatmeal, buttery pumpkin & maple-soaked raisins

During my last stint as a chef, I spent a good many months stressing out and wondering when I'd have 'the moment of realisation'. When I looked around me I was constantly surrounded by people who knew exactly what they wanted to do and where they wanted to be in 10 years time. I had no fricking clue, I still don't know what I want for the future.

I do have one dream though. I want to do something to change the world (as I'm sure many other idealistic kids my age want to do) but let's be honest, I don't know how exactly so I don't think that we can categorise that dream as being feasible just yet. I suppose that's why it's called a dream. Another thing to pile up on the back burner to check on every now and then. 

This recipe adapted from Erica Lea isn't going to change the world; but this spirited medley of baked oatmeal, buttery homegrown pumpkin, pecans and the occasional burst of maple-soaked raisins sure does make it a nicer place to be in.


Baked Oatmeal, Buttery Pumpkin & Maple-soaked Raisins

285 g pumpkin, (about 2 ribs of medium size) peeled
60 g unsalted butter, diced
80 g maple syrup
50 g golden raisins
200 g rolled oats
60 g pecans
6 g flaked sea salt
250 g milk
6 g vanilla bean paste
1 x 58 g egg

Preheat oven to 180ºC.
Slice pumpkin into 1cm thick pieces.
Place it into a 8 x 8" tin with 40 g butter and bake for 20 minutes.
While the pumpkin is cooking, gently heat raisins in a small pot with maple syrup and remaining butter until plump.
In a large bowl toss together the rolled oats, pecans and salt.
Whisk together the milk, vanilla and egg.
Pour maple-soaked raisins and milk into the bowl containing the oats and give everything a good stir.
When the pumpkin's 20 minute head start is up, spoon the mixture on top and bake for 30 minutes. 
Best eaten straight from the oven with a big spoonful of sheep's milk yoghurt and extra maple syrup drizzled over.

Blueberry Masterclass

 
The first series of MasterChef Australia has come to an end and I'm left with a sad little hole in my heart. Friday night masterclasses were a highlight at my house and the little tips and tricks demonstrated by both George and Gary have already proved invaluable. Apparently a Celebrity MasterChef is in the works and if it's set to be anything like Top Chef well.. Ho! Ho! I can't wait! It may not get quite as many ratings as the original with its slightly more professional approach but it's about time we aired more established cooking techniques on free to air television (how many apprentices can afford Foxtel anyway?). Now if only they'd bring back The L Word..

Buttermilk Pancakes with Blueberry Maple Butter

inspired by Gary's buttermilk hot cakes

125 g flour
22 g castor sugar
1 g sea salt
4 g vanilla paste
260 g buttermilk
1 egg, separated

Whisk together flour, sugar and salt in a bowl.

Make a well and pour in vanilla, buttermilk and egg yolk.

Slowly incorporate with flour to prevent lumps.

Whisk egg white to medium peaks.

Fold whites into batter.

Pour circles of batter into a lightly greased skillet and cook over medium heat.

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For the blueberry maple butter I didn't really weigh anything. Grab a handful of frozen blueberries, throw them in a small saucepan with a slosh of maple syrup and let it simmer for about 5 minutes. You just want to defrost the blueberries and reduce the juices that cook out a little. Remove the pan from the stove, drop in a few squares of butter and swirl it all around for a bit (or "monte") until it thickens. Pile the buttermilk pancakes onto your plate and drizzle the blueberry maple butter on top. Yum.

A Midnight Snack

I'm sporting a couple of new burns after Mother's Day. Roasted Blue Eye Cod ran on the specials list last night which involved a lot of sweating, swearing and severe depletion of Chinese cabbage mid-way through service. Dagnabbit.

Although Mother's Day this year wasn't quite what we had all anticipated after hearing horror stories of the years gone by it still left me feeling tired, drained and in need of a warm treat for dinner by the time I got home after midnight.

I suppose normal people would probably consider oatmeal breakfast food but whatever. Do what you please. Meals need not be confined to societal norms and such and I for one take great pleasure in doing all the things I know I shouldn't.

This recipe makes just enough for one person. The addition of ricotta gives this dish a definitive lightness and I stir it in, but just enough so that it is still quite lumpy. When I close my eyes I imagine that I'm tasting the clouds.

Spiced Banana Oatmeal

40 g oats (I used Uncle Toby's)
250 g milk
5 g honey
a pinch of salt
a pinch of ground cinnamon
a pinch of ground nutmeg
1 banana, sliced
50 g ricotta
5 toasted almonds, roughly sliced
15 g honey, extra for drizzling

Combine oats, milk, honey, salt and spices in a small pot.
Bring to the boil then reduce heat to low and cook for about 2 minutes.
Remove from heat, stir through half sliced banana and ricotta.
Spoon into a serving bowl then top with remaining banana slices, slivered almonds and honey.

They're Going Like Hotcakes!

noun 1. hotcake - pancakes, flapjacks and griddlecakes; a type of flatbread prepared from a sweet batter that is cooked on a hot griddle or in a frying pan. They exist in several variations in many different local cuisines. Most pancakes are quick breads, although some are also made using a yeast-raised or fermented batter.

I walk past Bill Granger's self-titled cafe in Surry Hills every day. It's always bustling with hip young locals dressed to the nines, hoping to satisfy their mid-morning caffeine cravings, to fill up on luscious cream-laden scrambled eggs or perhaps snack on a slice of cake of the day. The coffee can be a downright disappointment sometimes depending on who serves you but there is one thing that shines like a beacon of light, which may very well have brought this gaily dressed self-taught cook into the spotlight along with a plateful of scrambled eggs. For 'The Bread Mania' event, Bill Granger's ricotta hotcakes done instead with a smoother substitute - cottage cheese, and drizzled with rosemary red currant jam.
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Rosemary Red Currant Jam

100 g red currants
65 g castor sugar
8 rosemary leaves
20 g water

Combine everything in a small pot and simmer over low heat until thickened.

Cottage Cheese Hotcakes

160 g cottage cheese
2 g sea salt
95 g milk
2 eggs, separated
65 g flour
2 g baking powder
30 g unsalted butter, soft

Whisk cottage cheese, salt, milk and egg yolks in a bowl.
Sift flour and baking powder into the cottage cheese.
Fold until just combined.
Whisk egg whites until stiff and fold into batter.
Brush a little butter into a heated pan and drop 2 Tbsp batter into the centre.
Cook over low-medium heat for a minute or two until golden then flip and repeat.
Keep hotcakes warm in the oven or under some foil until you finish.
Serve with rosemary red currant jam, a dollop of cottage cheese and a scant dusting of icing sugar.

Blackberry Season

In just another week or two and until the end of January, blackberry season will be in full swing. It is a common misconception however that blackberries are actually berries. They are, in fact, an aggregate fruit - a bunch of tiny fruits fused together at the base, unlike real berries including surprisingly, citrus, cucumber and papaya. Well, that's about as far as my knowledge spans on blackberries unfortunately. After washing they deteriorate rather quickly so it is preferable to give them a rinse just before you use them. Fresh berries will last about 2-3 days in the refrigerator but can be frozen for a good period of time for later use in baked goods, creams and preserves. Using frozen blackberries instead of fresh in baked goods will prevent much streaking and result in a lighter, fresher flavour. Yesterday morning I thawed out some blackberries and made an apple & blackberry jam which will be my contribution to this months 'Eating with the Seasons' and a homemade Christmas gift to a lucky someone later on. I like to use hermetic jars.

Apple & Blackberry Jam

220 g Granny Smith apple (approx. 2)
200 g water
185 g blackberries
320 g castor sugar
8 g lemon juice
4 whole cloves

Peel, core and chop apples, discarding peel only.
Combine apples, blackberries and lemon juice.
Chop up the cores and in a small saucepan, boil with water and cloves for 20 minutes.
Strain out the cores and add liquid to apples.
Bring to boil and simmer for 20 minutes.
Wizz in a blender until smooth then return to heat with sugar, scraping the bottom with a spatula.
Continue cooking until it reaches 105ºC.

Buttermilk Mornings

What better way to start off a lazy weekend with a fridge full of buttermilk than by making Bill Granger's super-light buttermilk pancakes? I couldn't think of anything better after getting home at 5:30 in the morning to mark the end of another long night on the town.

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I did finally get around to ordering myself a kitchenaid online however. It should be arriving any day now, fingers crossed. Okaaaay, maybe not. It appears that they're waiting on their stock shipment which is not expected to arrive until the 7th of November. Poop. I had better keep my buttermilk cultures alive for the next month then I suppose. Well, for now, here's my recipe for buttermilk pancakes, adapted from Bill Granger: Sydney Food. The lemon could of course be substituted with virtually any fruit puree and the sugar content adjusted accordingly.

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Lemon Buttermilk Pancakes

56 g flour
4 g baking powder
20 g castor sugar
2 g salt
95 g buttermilk
1 egg, separated
15 g lemon juice
4 g lemon zest, fine
2 g vanilla extract
15 g unsalted butter, melted

Sift flour, baking powder, sugar and salt into a bowl. Set aside.

Whisk buttermilk, egg yolk, lemon juice, zest, vanilla and butter in a bowl.

Combine flour and buttermilk mix without over-mixing.

Beat egg white to soft peaks and gently fold into batter.

Coat pan with thin spray of vegetable oil and cook batter over medium heat.

Flip when bubbles break the surface blah blah..

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The Devil's Marmalade

Kylie's mother - Pauline Kwong, often comes into the restaurant bearing gifts. She dined with us 3 times last week. 3 weeks ago she brought us some delicious homemade fairy cakes filled with whipped cream and on Monday we were presented with a huge 3kg bag chocked full of homegrown kumquats (organic of course). Chef asked us if we wanted to take any so i dutifully obliged, packing a few handfuls into a plastic takeaway container to bring home with me. I think he plans to pickle the remaining fruits although when he'll find the time I have no idea. I ruined my 80 dollar set of scales after dropping them one night so until I come across another set as ergonomically pleasing, recipes from henceforth will be recorded in volume measurements. Oh! How has the world come to this!

I decided to have a second attempt at citrus marmalade and made it this time using the cut-rind method. Kumquats are quite bitter, with their small size there is a larger ratio of skin to flesh so after chopping them all into tiny segments and removing the seeds, I placed them in a pot with enough water to cover them and brought it to the boil. I repeated this two more times to leach out the most volatile and bitter oils and whatnot from the skins.

The seeds are a great natural source of pectin so to release all that magic stuff, I boiled them up in water with a knob of ginger and cinnamon quills thrown in. While that was bubbling away, I strained the blanched segments and let it soak in a little fresh water. This apparently helps to release extra pectin present in the skins themselves.

After roughly 10 minutes (I was a little impatient) I strained the seeds, discarded them and added the liquid to the pot of segments. I picked out the aromatics and added them back to the pot with the castor sugar. I brought it all to the boil and let it cook out until it reached 105ºC. The temperature of sugar syrup funnily enough relies more on the percentage of water present as opposed to the amount of heat applied. So, if you're a little pressed for time, use as wide a pot as possible to increase the rate of evaporation, start off with just enough water to cover the fruit to ensure even cooking (or you may still be wondering why on earth it hasn't reached the correct temperature before your retirement party comes around) and for god sake don't leave the lid on! Oh and remember when adjusting marmalade recipes - the more sugar you add, the more liquid:fruit you'll end up with and you may need to think about adding extra pectin to gelify the additional mass.
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Kumquat Marmalade

3 C. kumquats
1 1/4 C. castor sugar
1 knob ginger
2 cinnamon quills

Slice kumquats and blanch in fresh water 3 times.
Drain and soak in fresh water with sugar thrown in.
Boil kumquat seeds in water with ginger and cinnamon for 10 minutes.
Strain and add pectin water, ginger and cinnamon to segments.
Bring to the boil (carefully now, it may want to bubble over), stirring occasionally until it reaches 105ºC.
Pour into a sterilised jar and seal.
Keep refrigerated.
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Spring Break: Asparagus Gone Wild!

Late last week we received a special shipment of wild asparagus from our 'not-to-be-named' truffle supplier. He'd managed to source it from somewhere outside of Australia and turned it over to us for roughly $100/kg. For wonderfully fresh and herbaceous young shoots that are available for only one month of the year, the going rate isn't really too much to ask.

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Chonz decided that he wanted a dish centred on simplicity which would allow the quality of the produce to shine so for two days we ran with what we had in the bag - asparagus, eggs and cheese.

All up we used five components to create this dish. Wild asparagus, morcilla (locally made Spanish blood sausage), champagne beurre blanc, a poached duck egg and a little grated Manchego (imported from La Mancha, Spain) over the top. The simplicity of ingredients and the quality resonates from the very first taste until the last. You'll see.

The champagne buerre blanc is the most time consuming so we'll start with that. You'll need to melt a small knob of butter and sweat off 2 finely chopped eschallots with a pinch of salt, a bay leaf and a few cracks of white pepper (so as not to be left with dirty flecks in the final sauce). Pour in 50 ml of champagne vinegar, 250 ml of champagne and reduce at a simmer until you are left with about 25 ml of liquid. Remove from the heat, discard the bay leaf and add 200 g of chopped butter a little at a time, whisking continuously until emulsified. You can stabilise it at this point by adding a small splash of cream, totally optional. Adjust seasoning if necessary.

Have a small pot full of salted water ready to poach your egg in and another with enough seasoned chicken stock to blanch the asparagus in with a few knobs of butter thrown in. Working quickly now, slice the morcilla into thick rounds and pan fry them in a little oil over medium-high heat. With a little swirl, slip the duck egg into gently simmering water and immerse all the asparagus in the chicken stock until soft.

To assemble, pour a little champagne beurre blanc onto the plate. Pile the slices of morcilla onto one side and the drained asparagus onto the other. Carefully lift your poached egg into the centre and grate a generous amount of Manchego over the top.

When you first attack the egg, the semi-cooked yolk will ooze out and combine with the now melting Manchego to create a lusciously cheesy sauce. As if in an out-of-body experience, you will begin a quick attempt to drink up every inch of this gooey goodness with what little is left on your plate.

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Do you see now?

The Hangover Cure

This Saturday just passed found me in the Laundry basement at 2am dancing next to a washing machine with sleeves rolled up and electro-funk blaring from all corners, girls sloshing bottles of Heinekin all over each other and the designated driver grinding up and down my leg with another glass of gin & tonic in hand.
So for the first A.W.E.D event - 'Viva Mexico' I present (and rather befittingly I might add) my hangover cure: churros with chocolate.
Obviously it's not the most logical of methods to ail one's dehydrated body (I suppose what those of us who like to party hard should really be investing in are intravenous drips for non-commercial usage) although the combination of low-GI sugars, dairy and grease together seem to do wonders in taming stomach acidity.. And heck, who can ever say no to dessert for breakfast?

Churros con Chocolate

1 L water
240 g unsalted butter
800 g plain flour
20 g cooking salt
15 g castor sugar
4 whole eggs

In a large pot bring water, butter, sugar and salt to a rolling boil.
Remove from heat and throw in flour immediately, stirring vigorously to combine until it forms a ball.
Place dough in a large bowl and spread out the mix to let it cool down quickly.
When cool enough to touch, crack in the eggs and mix thoroughly with gloved hands.
Pipe out with a size 9 star nozzle into 185ºC oil (be wary not to over-fill the fryer as it will bubble up)and deep fry until crisp and golden.

250 ml milk
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp cooking salt
150 g dark chocolate

Scald the milk and spices in a medium pot.
Over a low heat, add the salt and chocolate.
Stir continuously with a spatula until completely melted and combined.