Hooray For Spring!

Spring has well and truly sprung and before the official commencement of summer it's best that we take full advantage of all the glories that the season has to offer us right now. Buckets of rain and loads of sunshine mean that domestic herds have finally stopped chewing on old winter hay and moved onto the new lush Spring growth that's creeping up the hillsides. With a sharper flavour and lower fat content than bovine milk, goat's milk carries strong aromas of grass and flora. I don't need much more convincing and as the saying goes, 'There's no better time than the present!'

­

This is quite a simple recipe but a good one all the same. Tangy berries and biscuity base are matched with all things dairy for a sumptuous Spring treat. Fresh goat's curd is mellowed with rich cream, offset by the sharpness of fruit and ice cream with just a hint of honey.

­

Raspberry Ice Cream

210 g milk
35 g honey
3 g salt
5 egg yolks
40 g castor sugar
210 g cream
70 g raspberries

Scald milk, honey and salt in a medium saucepan.

Whisk eggs and sugar in a large bowl until creamed.

Temper eggs with milk by pouring milk in slowly and whisking continuously.

Cook in a large bowl over a baine-marie until it reaches the nappe stage (84ºC), stirring continuously with a large spatula.

Strain, add cream and raspberries.

Refrigerate until cold then churn in an ice cream machine.

­

Tart Pastry

280 g flour
70 g castor sugar
4 g salt
140 g unsalted butter, chopped
115 g cream
1 egg white

In a large bowl rub together the flour, sugar, salt and butter.

Stir through the cream and knead until it comes together.

Shape into a flattened circle, wrap and refrigerate until cold.

Roll out the dough to 2.5 - 3mm thickness.
Trim to fit a 20cm diameter fluted tart pan.
Pierce base with a small sharp knife and freeze until completely set.
Blind bake at 180ºC for 10 - 15 mins.
Remove weights, rotate pan and continue baking until golden.
Lightly beat egg white and brush to coat the inside of the tart pastry.
Return to the oven for 1 minute until dry then remove to a rack to cool.

Goat's Curd Filling

200 g goat's curd
100 g cream
2 eggs
55 g castor sugar
2 g salt
1 lemon, finely zested
30 g lemon juice

Whisk all ingredients together and pour into the cool tart pastry.
Bake at 150ºC for 25 minutes or until just set.
Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack before slicing.
Serve with a scoop of ice cream and a generous scattering of fresh berries.

1, 2, 3

I've been working on this sorbet for a little while now. It's always a tedious task to perfect recipes for frozen items. It really doesn't help either when your fucking idiotic boss hands you a packet of instant chestnut that he picked up from the Chinese corner store in Blacktown when he was visiting his mum and tells you to make up a sorbet on the day of the menu change without so much as a recipe in sight.

What a fucking wanker.

Anyway, enough of my ranting. This was supposed to be a submission for Nik Snacks Ice Cream event afterall. For those unfortunate enough to have access to fresh and recently harvested chestnuts instead of foil packaged instant chestnut, you'll just have to make do and substitute the chestnut with real chestnut. You can roast or steam them, whichever is more fitting for your palate. There aren't any rules to remember here except for the basic ratio - 1, 2, 3.

Chestnut Sorbet

150 g instant chestnut
300 g liquid glucose
450 g milk
a pinch of salt

Heat milk and glucose in a stainless steel pot.

Bring to the boil and add chestnuts and salt.

Remove from heat and leave aside to cool.

Strain and reserve milk.

Puree chestnuts in a food processor and slowly add milk.

Refrigerate until cold then churn.

­

For the Love of Steve!

I had the incredible opportunity yesterday of spending four deliciously exciting hours with a dedicated professional food stylist and photographer. He shook my hand with a firm and honest grip, introducing himself as Steve. With the last lunch patrons filtering out the door, we plated up dish after dish of perfection and beauty for this mysterious man. Creeping up behind him with the last dessert in hand, I peered over his shoulder at his laptop and wow was I in awe! Food is supposed to be one of the more difficult subjects to photograph (or so I read) and this guy! Everything looked so incredible on screen. I bet he could make a blowfish wearing a rubber ring look sexy!

And for the record, when my beloved Steve told me how awesome my parfait looked and my face happened to be a little red, I was NOT gushing! It just happened to be a fairly hot winter's day.

Moving on, for the lucky readers of Mike's Table this is the recipe for the coffee & turrón parfait. The dish which I can proudly say that I refined from a daggy pile of shit (no offence chef) to the beauty which you now behold. If you're wondering, as pictured, it's plated with an almond praline tuile, Pedro Ximènez caramel and iced chestnut sorbet (a recipe which I'm still perfecting). Also the turrón we use comes straight from Spain and it's called '1880 Turrón de Alicante'.

Coffee & Turrón Parfait

180 g castor sugar
50 ml water
150 g egg whites
260 g cream
50 ml espresso, room temp
300 g almond turrón, finely chopped

Combine sugar and water in a small saucepan and simmer.
Beat egg whites to stiff peaks in an electric mixer.
Bring sugar syrup to 120ºC and slowly pour into egg whites with mixer still working.
Keep beating meringue until it cools (about 10 minutes).
Whisk cream in a large bowl until it forms medium peaks.
Combine cream with espresso and half meringue and whisk until incorporated.
Add turrón and remaining meringue and fold through with a large spatula.
Pour into a sprayed and lined tin and set in freezer overnight.

­ ­ ­­

Alinea Weighs In - Zesty!

Professional chefs who write recipes in cups and tablespoons deserve to have chicken stock ladled down the back of their pants. No, not just chicken stock. The greasy, floating scum from the impurities rendered out of the bones in the chicken stock. How dare they fold to the ignorant yearning of the masses at the expense of perfection! It's so frustrating to see absolutely stunning, beautifully photographed cuisine that can be labelled as nothing other than low grade food porn because the erroneous recipes have been dumbed down and gone unchecked.

After my most beloved knives and diamond steel, a set of scales are the next thing I would not want to live without. Every single time I'm handed a recipe I convert all the volumes to weights and every single time I make an experimental change or adjustment I weigh, weigh, weigh. I weigh eggs, I weigh water, I weigh a pinch of salt because ultimately a chef's career depends on his or her ability to punch out tasty and consistent food.

Some industry professionals who I have met (especially the line cooks it seems) have this unlearned impression that pastry chefs can't cook and scales are just for sissies. For some reason you're not really a great cook unless you can guesstimate weights and volumes and do everything by sight. Well I really only have one thing to say to those suckers -"Try working on the other side of the kitchen". We'll see who looks like the bigger sissy when chef turns around to throw discordant food in your face!

Ever since I came across the awesome NY blog Ideas In Food, I've been slowly progressing my way through the archives. Just this morning I stumbled over last year's post on the opportunity to pre-order the soon to be released Alinea cookbook. Apparently it doesn't come out until October this year which isn't soon enough. When you register for a book (extremely cheap for a book of it's calibre) you also get access to the Alinea Mosaic which is a collection of unpublished recipes, pdf page previews and short videos. I've already signed up, it didn't take much convincing to fork out the $50 I must say. The recipes are all in metric weights and boy I can't wait for October to come around!

To keep the rest of you satiated until then, for Sugar High Friday #43: Citrus held by Tartlette this month I present to you my recipe for sheep's milk yoghurt sorbet. You could substitute this recipe with any kind of yoghurt you fancy or even a mixture of strained fruit purees but I personally find that the combination of lemon juice with the sheep's milk yoghurt really lends a hand in bringing out the wonderfully fresh and tangy flavours. I've accompanied it this time with crushed raspberry ice to accentuate the citrus zing, polvorones (Spanish shortbread) for a textural contrast, white pepper ice cream for a different kind of sweet smoothness and manzanilla olive cheeks for a little savoury saltiness. Anyway enough talk, more plate.

Sheep's Milk Yoghurt Sorbet

100 g water
150 g liquid glucose
50 g castor sugar
25 g lemon juice
500 g sheep's milk yoghurt

Combine water, glucose and sugar in a small pot.
Bring to the boil, stir to dissolve then refrigerate until cold.
Empty yoghurt into a medium bowl and add the lemon juice and syrup.
Whisk until smooth and churn immediately.

Crushed Raspberry Ice

175 g water
65 g castor sugar
star anise
2 cardamom pods
300 g raspberries
10 g lemon juice

Combine water and sugar in a small pot.
Crush the aromatics with the heel of a large knife and throw them in.
Bring it to the boil, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.
Remove from heat and allow aromatics to infuse until cool.
Strain the syrup and discard the spices.
Combine syrup with raspberries and lemon juice in a shallow tray.
Place in the freezer and fork once every hour until set.

White Pepper Ice Cream

250 g milk
250 g cream
125 g egg yolks
85 g castor sugar
20 g white peppercorns

Bring milk and cream to a simmer.
Cream the yolks and sugar in a large bowl.
Temper the yolks by slowly pouring in the hot half and half while whisking continuously.
Place bowl over a bain-marie and stir continuously with a spatula in the figure eight.
Remove from heat immediately once it reaches 83ºC, strain through a fine chinois into an ice bath.
Refrigerate until cold then churn.
Grind the white peppercorns (but not too finely) with a spice grinder or mortar & pestle.
Throw them into the churning ice cream just before it's ready.

With One Stone

I've been meaning to write up this recipe for a little while now, although with a fair amount of sleep deprivation I haven't quite been able to think of anything near witty enough to warrant posting.

Well, as I'm sure most of you are aware, we are now in the month of May which happens to be National Osteoporosis Awareness Month. Susan of Food Blogga has graciously decided to hold her very own blogging event to contribute to raised awareness of this disease. As with many other common diseases, most people are aware of the name and not much else. Do yourself, your friends and family a favour by taking a few minutes to find out the risk factors and likelihood of having osteoporosis.

This month's food event coined 'Beautiful Bones', encourages participants to create recipes centred around the use of calcium-rich foods including dairy, fruit, nuts, legumes, seafood, vegies and so forth. I've combined both dairy and nuts to make a pistachio cream tart with PX ice cream.

The tart was inspired by a recipe found in Casa Moro which I found fairly disappointing to be completely honest (the description that comes to mind is compact nut slurry). My version is more similar to a frangipane however and I find that the best method involves the food processor as it doesn't aerate the mix as much as an electric mixer and simply yields a better result overall. You could of course substitute pistachios for virtually any other kind of peeled nut. I think chestnuts would be at the top of my list to try if I were to make this tart again.

­

Pedro Ximenez Ice Cream

150 g Pedro Ximenez (cheapish brand, eg. Nectar)
375 g milk
250 g egg yolks
175 g castor sugar
500 g cream

Bring PX to the boil and carefully flambe to remove alcohol (excess alcohol prevents freezing).

Combine PX with milk then bring to a simmer.

Cream the yolks and sugar in a large bowl.

Temper the egg mix by slowly pouring in a little hot milk at a time and whisking continuously.

Place the bowl over a bain-marie and (whilst scraping the bottom continuously with a spatula in a figure 8) very slowly bring it to 83ºC.

Remove from heat, pour in the cream (lowers temp to prevent any further cooking without the need for an ice bath) and strain through a fine chinois.

Refrigerate until cold then churn.

­

Tart Pastry

125 g unsalted butter, chopped
250 g flour
160 g castor sugar
1 orange, zest
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 eggwhite

In a large bowl, combine everything except eggs and rub together with your fingertips.

Cut in the eggs and rest in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Roll and line a tart base then freeze until hard.

Blind bake at 180ºC.

­

Pistachio Cream

130 g almonds
250 g pistachios
50 g castor sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 orange, zest
50 g butter

Combine all ingredients in a food processor and blitz until it becomes a smooth paste.

Set aside.

­

Tart Filling

180 g unsalted butter, chopped
90 g castor sugar
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1 egg
2 egg yolks
40 g flour

Combine butter, sugar and cardamom in a food processor and work until it becomes smooth.

Add the eggs and pistachio paste and blitz until well combined.

Transfer to a large bowl and fold in the flour.

Fill the tart base with pistachio cream and bake at 180ºC for approximately 25 minutes or until set.

Serve immediately with a side of PX ice cream.

Easter Madness

Well, it's that time of the year again when I find myself unexpectedly all alone. My sister has gone away and it appears that I will be spending the Easter weekend cooped up at home with the cat and half a dead chicken. Usually the weekend off isn't too bad, generally comprising of a mere 24 hours which is just enough time for me to lament over how little time I have to really do anything. But now.. With this horribly bleak weather and the long holiday weekend for which I was generously allowed 4 whole days.. Well, let's just say that for my own sanity (and barely entering into day 2) I think it's about time that I started putting a little more effort into blogging events like the up-and-coming 'Tried, Tested and True'. If only I could find little things to do around the house that I do at work.

Every couple of days when I've raced ahead with all my prep jobs I find myself sort of wafting through the kitchen like a bad smell that for some reason just won't go away, so I set myself the initiative of experimenting with little left over bits and pieces that we have sitting in the cool room downstairs.

Last week the boss ordered in two bunches of rhubarb that nobody wanted to touch and as a result it ended up lying draped over the box of red capsicums, very sad and limp looking. With the weather like it is now what could be better than the comforting taste that we all know to be the traditional apple and rhubarb crumble? A-HA! But what if the apple was not cooked to that traditional soft lumpy mess? What if it were cool and crispy? What if the crumble was less crumble and more crunch? By the way, I've tried pairing the following with a number of different flavours, but I've found that if it is simply thrown together with a good scoop of homemade ginger ice cream it never fails to please.

Green Apple Sorbet

200 g castor sugar
400 ml water
100 g liquid glucose
4 Granny Smith apples
1 lemon, juiced

Bring the sugars and water to the boil for 1 minute.

Refrigerate until cold.

Core and chop apples (leaving the skin on) and process with lemon juice and sugar syrup until it becomes a pulp.

Strain through a fine chinoise and churn immediately.

Apple Chips

100 g castor sugar
100 ml water
1 lemon, juiced
1 Granny Smith apple

Bring the sugar and water to the boil then cool, adding the lemon juice.

Slice the apple as thinly as possible whilst leaving it whole.

Dip the apple slices into the lemon syrup and then place them onto a tray lined with baking paper or a non-stick silpat mat.

Dry them in the oven at 130ºC for 1½ hours or until they become crisp when cooled.

Almond Crunch

300 g almonds
1 long, plain bread stick
80 g unsalted butter
30 ml olive oil

Preheat the oven to 180ºC.

Toast the almonds until golden then leave to cool.

Remove all the bread crusts and cut remaining bread into small cubes.

Throw the bread into a tray, dotted with butter and sprinkled with olive oil and toast until crunchy and golden, giving it a shake every now and then.

Process the almonds until they become a fine textured meal.

Keep almond meal aside in a large bowl.

When croutons have cooled, process until fine and combine with the almonds.

Banana Ice Cream

6 ripe sugar bananas
50 g pure icing sugar
1 lemon,
juiced
80 g liquid glucose
320 g double cream
100 g milk

Combine bananas, sugar, lemon juice and glucose with a food processor.
Stir in the milk and strain through a fine chinoise to remove the bitter seeds.

Stir through the double cream and churn immediately.

Cava Granita

750 ml Cava Mediterraneo
660 ml water
260 g castor sugar

Bring 1/3 water and sugar to the boil to make a clear sugar syrup.
Combine with the remaining 2/3 water to cool down the syrup.
Add syrup to the Cava and give a quick whisk to combine.
Freeze until set.

Watermelon Sorbet

730 g watermelon puree (strained)
270 g castor sugar
370 ml water

Make a clear sugar syrup by bringing sugar and water to a simmer.
Cool to room temperature then combine with puree.
Freeze in containers or churn in an ice cream machine.

Ice Cream Base

500 egg yolks
350 castor sugar
1000 milk
1000 cream

Whisk together eggs and sugar until white.
Bring milk and cream to the boil and make an anglaise with egg mix.
Cook in a large bowl over a baine marie until it reaches the nappe stage (84ºC), stirring continuously with a large spatula.
Strain, cool over ice and churn in an ice cream machine.

suggestions:
Lavender ice cream - infuse base with fresh lavender flowers while cooking.

Almond and sea salt ice cream - whisk in 1 tsp vanilla extract, 100 extra virgin olive oil and sea salt to taste while warm and roughly chopped and toasted almonds while churning.

Apple Sorbet

2.5 L apple juice
5 g vitamin C
560 ml water
400 g castor sugar
250 g glucose

Bring water and castor sugar and glucose to the boil and stir until completely dissolved.
Allow to cool.
Stir vitamin C through freshly squeezed apple juice to keep vibrant green.
Strain juice through muslin cloth.
Combine with syrup and churn in ice cream machine.