Vanilla and Cardamom Rice Pudding
Rice puddings infused with vanilla, cardamom and topped with mango
Its time again for the Royal Foodie Joust. I've been participating in these for the last few months and I thoroughly enjoy them. You can read all about the joust here. The winner of last month's Joust, Michelle chose her three ingredients for the challenge. She opted for cardamom, brown sugar and mangoes. A very "exotic" combination! As usual, I stewed about what I was going to cook and only decided once the activities for Greek Easter had quietened down.
In the end I opted for individual rice puddings. Rice puddings are pretty much a staple in a lot of cultures. The Greek version, a.k.a. "rizogalo" uses cinnamon as the topping and is highly addictive. The Spanish have their version, known as arroz con leche, enriched with condensed milk. I love rice pudding and I wanted to somehow combine the Joust ingredients in one. After a bit of "research" I found a recipe that had featured over 7 years ago in a local newspaper and it utilised all of the Joust items. A bit of tweaking by moi and my version of the rice pudding was born.
Leave it infuse for at least two hours...
The original recipe called for regular full fat milk. I changed that and used a combination of coconut milk and water. Instead of using cardamom powder I crushed a few pods for a milder flavour. Overall, it was delicious but a little too rich for my liking. Its quite easy overall and once you mix all your ingredients you just "set it and forget it". For a couple of hours anyway. The final touch is to top it with freshly sliced mangoes and a brown sugar caramel! Its not for the diet conscious!
RECIPE FOR VANILLA AND CARDAMOM RICE PUDDING
* 1 cup of arborio rice
2 cups of coconut milk
2 cups of water
* 1 vanilla bean, split in half
* 1/3 cup brown rice syrup or sugar
* pinch of sea salt
* 3-4 cardamom pods, crushed
sliced mangoes
banana leaf for decoration
For the brown sugar caramel blend 2 tbsps of brown sugar with a knob of butter over a medium heat. Allow it all to melt and serve immediately.
Mix all the ingredients (except the mangoes and banana leaf) in a non reactive pot. Allow the mixture to come to a boil and then leave it on the lowest possible heat for about 2 hours. Stir it occasionally. We're looking at a gentle infusion of flavours. Most of the liquid should be absorbed and the mixture should resemble a very cooked risotto. Allow it to cool slightly and place in individual moulds. Turn out onto a plate that has been decorated with cut banana leaves. Top with sliced mango and drizzle with brown sugar caramel.
Honey and Oat Cranberry Bites
Some of the ingredients for the recipe
Ben over at Whats Cooking is holding another food for plastic challenge this month. This is a fun event that also offers great prizes. You can't beat that can you? This month's challenge focuses on cooking something that you loved from your childhood or something that kids love. And because April is kids month, Tupperware (who are supplying the gift) are donating $1 of every sale to the boys and girls clubs of America (the bgca). A great cause!
I thought about cooking something that I loved from my childhood but there were so many choices! Instead, I opted to make something sweet that I have served for my friends' kids and make it often with great success. Honey and oat cranberry bites. The beauty of this sweet treat is that adults can enjoy it too. It has oats, honey, dried cranberries and the final touch is drizzled white chocolate! A nice little decadent touch.
Before it goes in the oven
RECIPE FOR HONEY AND OAT CRANBERRY BITES
- 250 g of unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
- 2/3 cup of honey
- 1/2 cup of brown sugar, tightly packed
- 3 cups of rolled oats
- 3/4 cup of triple sifted plain flour
- 1 cup of dried cranberries
- 100 g of white couverture chocolate , roughly chopped
- Grease a 9 inch square baking pan and line with baking paper. Preheat the oven to 170 deg C.
- Place the butter, honey and brown sugar in a small pan and melt gently till it all starts to foam.
- In a separate bowl, stir together the oats, flour and cranberries. Add the melted butter mixture and combine thoroughly.
- Press the mixture into the lined baking pan, like in the second photo above.
- Bake in the oven for 30 mins.
- Let it cool and cut into small squares.
Serve with a glass of milk for a great snack
When melting the chocolate for drizzling, you may choose to use the "double boiler" method (place chocolate in a heatproof bowl on top of simmering pot of water) or use the microwave. I prefer the microwave. Just be sure to melt it in 30 second intervals on the HIGH setting. Once melted drizzle the white chocolate over the squares, using a piece of baking paper as the base to catch the leftover melted chocolate bits.
These will store in an airtight container for about 5 days.
Strawberry and Mascarpone Tart
Strawberries and Mascarpone...a great marriage
I'm continuing with my romantic desserts again. But even if you don't feel the "love" you can still cook them and enjoy them anyway. I hope you enjoyed the panacotta I dished up yesterday. Today's sexy dessert marries two of those ingredients that again were destined to be together. Strawberries and mascarpone. I mean who doesn't love strawberries? They taste fantastic and you can do lots of things with them as most people know. And how about mascarpone? Its often described as a cheese but its more of a thick cream. Actually I think its a soft cream cheese! Whatever it is, it has the most softest and silkiest texture. It can work both as a savoury and sweet ingredient. Fantastic! We love a versatile ingredient.
I saw this recipe on the local food channel during a commercial break from "Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares". (How funny. A food network with recipes as ad breaks.). I immediately loved the whole concept. And of course I cheated and bought ready made puff pastry. Unlike Ben who makes his own puff pastry and Peter who rolls his own phyllo, I prefer to have someone else do it for me. I have a huge phobia about certain pastries and them not turning out. Maybe we'll tackle that in another post. Anyway, back to our tart. Its really easy and it can easily serve up to 6 people. As we approach the end of summer, the strawberries are still ripe enough to enjoy so its a perfect recipe to use them up.
STRAWBERRY AND MASCARPONE TART
250 grams of mascarpone cheese
250 grams of lightly whipped cream
2 punnets of fresh strawberries hulled
grated zest of one lemon
a good dash of vanilla extract
100 grams of caster sugar
1-2 sheets of puff pastry
milk for brushing
icing sugar to dust
N.B. Depending on the shape you make yours in its important to make a "casing" to put the mascarpone and strawberries in. For e.g. I made an oblong tart so I scored the inner edges with a knife and with the second sheet I cut out strips and created a border that I placed on the scored edges. That way the pastry puffs up and creates this wonderful container for us. I used the milk as glue and to brush the rest of the pastry with. Don't forget to prick the base of the pastry so it doesn't explode!
- Preheat your oven to 180 deg C
- Make the tart shell as explained above. Once it has achieved a goldenish colour take it out of the oven and let it cool. Mine took about 20 mins.
- While the tart shell is cooling whip you cream with the sugar, zest and vanilla extract. Once its whipped add the mascarpone and fold through until you have a silky, thick rich mixture.
- Fill the tart shell with the cream mixture.
- Add your strawberries on top.
- Dust with icing sugar and serve it up.
Serve with extra strawberries and mascarpone on the side if you wish.
Sponge Cake
The ingredients...the batter...the finished sponge
Just before I start this post let me say a big thank you to all the readers who have joined me here recently. I appreciate all your comments and I sincerely thank you all. I was having trouble leaving replies due to an issue with the commenting system. All is fine now and I will try to respond if I can in future posts. Again a big thank you and I hope you keep on enjoying my pictures.
I promised I would use the passionfruit curd I made recently in another dish. After racking my brains out I decided to challenge myself by making a sponge cake. And a challenge it certainly was. Making this was almost like following a carefully guarded experiment. All the elements need to work together harmoniously otherwise it can be quite disastrous. Everyone has a "secret" or "hint" that makes a sponge cake so light and airy. Mine turned out fine, however it did crack slightly. It adds to to the "home madeness" I suppose. Once the cake had been cooked and it had cooled I cut it in half and filled it with freshly whipped cream and that delightful passionfruit curd. It was light and every bite had cream and curd in it. The final touch was to dust it with some icing sugar.
TIPS AND TRICKS FOR THE PERFECT SPONGE
- Make sure you eggs are at room temperature
- The flours need to be sifted at least three times! Well I cheated on this step and bought triple sifted flour
- Folding the flours into the batter requires the use of a large metal spoon.
- No overbeating
- Patience...especially about opening the oven door to "check". This was hard for me!
SPONGE CAKE RECIPE
This comes with a pre warning. Just remember that every bit of this recipe was followed and tested however bear in mind that every oven has its own personality!
- 1/3 cup (50g) cornflour
- 1/3 cup (50g) plain flour
- 1/3 cup (50g) self-raising flour
- 4 x 60g eggs, at room temperature
- 2/3 cup (150g) caster sugar
- Grease a 20cm cake tin with real butter. Line the bottom of it with some baking paper.
- Preheat your oven to 180 deg C
- Beat the eggs and caster sugar using a mixer. Beat them until they triple in volume. We are after thick and pale looking mixture at this point.
- Take a large metal spoon and gradually mix in the pre sifted flours.
- Mix the flours until just combined.
- Place batter in cake tin and place it in the oven.
- Leave for 20-30 mins depending on your ovens personality.
- The cake will be ready when it has shrunk away from the sides, a skewer inserted comes out clean and it springs back when touched on top.
- Leave the cake to cool in the tin for about 5 mins and then turn it out on a wire rack to cool.
- Once cake has cooled slice it in half and fill with whipped cream and the delightful passionfruit curd.
- Dust with icing sugar.
Passionfruit Curd
Passionfruit
Whilst I was at the markets recently I picked up a whole box of passionfruit. The colours and aromas were so intense I had to just get it. So after spooning it on my breakfast cereal every morning, I still had half a box left. "What will I do with the rest?" I thought. So a good deal of "research" later i.e. scanning cook books and magazines, I saw this great recipe for passionfruit curd. Mmmmm...my mind went into overdrive. I'm not aware of how familiar people are with sweet curds. They're basically similar to jams or jellies (as the Americans call them) and they are used on cakes or as a spread on bread. Lemon curd is a very popular spread in the UK often finding its way in traditional high teas. The passionfruit curd I made is similar to the lemon one. I'll follow it up over the next few days about how I used it. Its sweet, silky and very sexy. Trust me, you'll be happy you made this.
Juicy Passionfruit
PASSIONFRUIT CURD
This recipe has been adapted from Australia's own Bill Granger.
6 ripe passionfruit...scooping out the whole inner flesh...seeds and all
2 organic eggs
80 g of caster sugar
60 g of butter
Place the passionfruit pulp, eggs and sugar in a heatproof bowl and place that bowl over a saucepan with simmering water (aka the double boiler method). Whisk continuously until the mixture begins to thicken. This whisking will probably take up to about ten minutes at the most. Just be patient. Once the mixture has thickened take it off the heat and whisk in the cold butter. Let the curd cool and store it in a sterilised jar. It will keep up to about one week in the fridge.
Feel Like a Friand?
Lemon Friand
These little beauties will excite and delight you. They may not help pay off your mortgage any faster, but you can certainly dream about it as you enjoy one with your tea or coffee. Well, try stopping at just one. Go on I dare ya! They are so moreish and delicious you'll find yourself saying "I'll start that diet tomorrow". For anyone who has never ordered these in a cafe or tried them before, they are basically a cake. A rich, moist miniature cake packed with calorific goodness. I read somewhere that they were of French origin but I personally cannot remember seeing them when I was in Paris. The recipe I used came from this month's Delicious magazine. It was in the kids section. Why should they have all the fun?
More lemon Friands...
LEMON FRIAND RECIPE
190g Unsalted butter
60g plain flour
200g of icing sugar
125g of almond meal
5 egg whites
grated zest of 1 lemon
1. Melt the butter.
2. Sift the flour, icing sugar and almond meal in a bowl. Grate the lemon zest and add it to the dry ingredients.
3. In a separate bowl beat the egg whites until frothy.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and beat until just combined.
5. Pour into a pre greased friand tin or muffin pan. Fill about 2/3.
6. Place into a 180 C pre heated oven.
Make a batch and enjoy...