Cheese biscuits

I have always loved the idea of little cheesy home-made biscuits which are great to have a bowlful on the table when you are having a glass of wine. I am sure I have had a recipe tucked away although I do not recall ever making them but when I went hunting for this recipe a few weeks ago I could not find whatever it was anywhere.  So to Google I went and after trolling through all the American cheese biscuit recipes, which to an Australian are really scones, I found something that looked like it might be what I was after and so decided to give it a go.  The resulting biscuits were exactly what I wanted.  I have now made them several times and they are easy, fun and tasty and have the seal of approval from my daughter and son-in-law.


This is my version of these tasty little morsels:

125 grams unsalted real butter
150 grams plain flour
1/2 cup grated tasty cheese
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
pinch of salt

pile all these ingredients into a food processor
process until a dough ball forms
take out of bowl, break into two pieces
roll each piece into a sausage shape using plastic wrap
roll up in the plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes
take out of fridge and unwrap
slice dough into thin circles
place on baking paper on oven tray
sprinkle a little chilli powder or paprika and sea salt on the top of each biscuit
bake for 10 - 12 minutes in 180 deg oven
best to cool a little at least before serving otherwise people will burn their mouths

these wrapped dough rolls can be frozen - in which case make at least a double quantity of the dough
take dough roll out of the freezer, turn on oven and by the time the oven is hot you can slice the dough, place on trays, sprinkle and bake

All the usual things apply such as you can use margarine, olive oil spread, low cholesterol such as Pulse instead of real butter (my preference is Lurpak unsalted butter); with the flour it can be stoneground, wholemeal, spelt, whatever you wish; the cheese does not have to be parmesan - I used fetta once.
These biscuits are easy to make and fun to eat. 


Be prepared for the fact that there will not be leftovers.

Harissa recipe

I love having a jar of harissa in the fridge.  When I am feeling lazy I can put 1/4 teaspoon of harissa into whatever it is I am cooking for myself and it livens everything up very well, particularly leftovers!  If I am cooking for more people, yes, I would put more.  

There are many recipes out there for harissa.  This one I have used for many years now and it always works and tastes good, which is the the important part.  I do tend to make a larger quantity which will make a couple of jars as I enjoy giving the extra jars to friends and relish the momentary adoration I receive.

HARISSA 

½ cup	dried red chillies – stalks removed
4 cloves	garlic
2 tablespoons	lemon juice
1 teaspoon	ground coriander
	oil
	salt
	retained cooking water

start by bringing chillies to boil in a pan, using just enough water to cover them        

remove from heat and set aside to sit in water for one hour

drain chillies and place in blender

add the coriander, lemon juice and salt

whizz, adding enough oil and retained cooking water to produce a purée

store in tightly covered jar       

chocolate self-saucing pudding

I have just been asked for this recipe by my ex-husband.  Yes, the Italian chef!!  My mother used to make this recipe for special occasions and it was always good - it was one of the few dishes that mum could cook very well and Bill used to ask for it if we were eating with her.  


You can change this recipe to have less sugar (it is sweet), use really good Dutch cocoa or even put choc chips through it for that double choc taste and wow factor.  The main thing is to enjoy.


Here it is below as written up in my collection of recipes.

MUM’S SELF-SAUCING CHOCOLATE PUDDING

My memory does not stretch to whether this recipe came from my grandmother, possibly does.  My mother made it throughout our lives and I was happy to have the recipe and make it for my family.  My mother was not an exceptional cook and being really honest, was not even a particularly good cook and never really enjoyed cooking.  My ex-husband was (and still is) an exceptional chef.  Surprisingly, he loved it when my mother made this dessert when we had family meals.

This is very easy to put together and can be prepared up to the hot water on the topping stage before dinner.  Just before you serve the main course, pour over the hot water, pop it in the oven and it will be cooked when you are clearing the main course plates.  Letting it rest for a moment, it is still hot when you are ready to serve it as the dessert – with double cream it is wonderful.

1 ½ cups	plain flour
¾ teaspoon	baking powder
1 cup	sugar
¾ cup	milk
3 tablespoons	butter – melted
½ teaspoon	salt
2 tablespoons	cocoa
1 ½ teaspoons	vanilla essence
2	egg
TOPPING
1 cup	sugar
1 ½ tablespoons	cocoa
2 cups	hot water

sift flour, baking powder, cocoa and salt

add sugar and egg

stir in milk, vanilla and melted butter

place in a greased baking dish    

for topping

mix together sugar and cocoa

sprinkle over pudding mixture

carefully pour over hot water

bake in a moderate oven (180 C) for 35 – 40 minutes

sour cream pastry

Having the young ones over for dinner last week I decided it was time to look into my cookbooks and cook something that I had not attempted.  About time really.  I settled on my version of a timbale in a sour cream pastry.  Okay.  It wasn't a timbale but a chicken and mushroom pie in sour cream pastry.  Things change from the original thought to the final placing on a plate and that is what I love about food and cooking, the way ingredients take on a life of their own and develop into what they think they should be served as.


The main thing here is the pastry that I am so excited about.  I think this pastry recipe is the one that Rosemary Nott gave my then husband back in the early 1980s.  It always worked and Rosie said it was exceptionally easy.  I remember eating terrines, baked ham and other wonderful things wrapped and cooked in this pastry.  Using the recipe that I have WAS very easy and the end result was very good to eat.  Thank you, Rosie, if this is your recipe and if it isn't, what the hell, it is good anyway, though I do like to think that it is yours as there are wonderful memories around eating something made with this.

SOUR CREAM PASTRY

200 grams	butter
370 grams	plain flour
300 mils	sour cream
1 teaspoon	vinegar
pinch	salt

melt butter and set aside to cool

put flour into mixing bowl

add sour cream, mixing slowly

while mixing, add vinegar, salt and melted butter

cover with plastic wrap

place in fridge until very cold

if needed quickly, dough can be placed in freezer to cool

dough must be very cold to work with       

this dough should be rolled out fairly thick

very good around terrines, ham and like things

                

Dinner Saturday March 27 2010

red capsicum soup

saltimbocca

polenta

grilled mushrooms, asparagus and zucchini

beetroot, pine nuts, goat's fetta and rocket salad

chocolate cream pudding on meringue nests

Last week a friend asked me to cook dinner for his birthday as he wanted to eat at home instead of dining out at a restaurant.  Lovely idea.  I asked the questions of how many people - 5.  Good start, as is this was the first time I was really cooking for them a small number is not so daunting, particularly as the house we were going to be dining at did not have the kitchen finished just yet - no stove or oven.  No dramas.  
Back to the questions I needed to ask.  Do you have anything you are allergic to or don't like to eat - not fond of olives, not so much chilli and that's all.  Good, going well here.  Is there something you would particularly like for dinner - fish.  Great, I will cook veal for you.
Here I was going to write that I love the planning stage of a dinner party.  Yes, I do but I also love the shopping, the preparation, the putting together, the actual eating of the dinner and the relaxation after.  And, naturally, I love the comments of friends that they enjoyed the food!


Back to last night's dinner.
The red capsicum soup came from Giuliano Bugialli's 'Foods of Tuscany' cookbook.  I have cooked things from this book before and they always work.  I had confidence in cooking something new and the soup was delicious.  
One question I would like to find out the answer for - the capsicum was cut into small dice and soaked in water for half an hour.  Can anyone help with the answer?
The secret to the soup was following the instructions to pass the cooked ingredients through the mouli, not to use a blender.  This is an easy answer to the why - the mouli does not allow any skins to pass through and therefore you have purely the flesh of the vegetables in the soup.  (A mouli is also good for mashed potatoes, even slightly better than a potato ricer)
The soup was enjoyed by all - comments being to add a little chilli and/or anchovies.  My particular way of cooking is to cook it first as the recipe and get the feel of the dish before I experiment with adding flavours.  As I am a chilli and anchovy lover, these will definitely be tried in the next cooking of this dish.


In the main course, the saltimbocca ws overshadowed by the polenta and vegetables.  I do despair of purchasing good veal in this town for the escalopes.  This was seriously the last time I will attempt to do this.  The prosciutto that is available from our major delicatessen is excellent and there was fresh sage at the supermarket/  The dish was not a failure but not as good as I have made it before and certainly nowhere as good as I have eaten.


The polenta was fantastic.  Even the fast cooking polenta that we now buy still needs time spent at the stove cooking and stirring continuously for that creamy fluffy texture.  Not such an easy task to do in the heat and humidity of a Darwin afternoon but well worth the steamed up glasses, the sweat running down your back.  Once cooked, with the addition of real butter and grated Reggiano parmesan, I poured it into a stainless steel tray to cool and set.  This was cut into pieces and panfried in olive oil before serving.  CCrunchy crust and creamy inside, delicious.


Several years ago I purchased a large oval cast iron grill pan that I could use on top of the very ordinary electric stove I have to cook on where I live.  This fits over two elements and is what I used to cook the vegetables.  Because of the limitations of the kitchen at the house I was going to, I cooked the vegetables at home at 3 pm.  As the vegetables were cooked I placed them immediately in the serving dish, wrapped the dish tightly in cling wrap when the last pieces were cooked.  Just before serving I sprinkled some white balsamic over the top.  The vegetables had retained the lovely chargrilled flavour and looked pretty as a picture with the stripes from ridged grill pan.  


The chocolate pudding part of the dessert came from a newly purchased book that I wasn't sure that I could trust the recipes.  After making making the chocolate pudding I am still not sure that I can trust these recipes, use them as a guide yes, but trust my intuition as well.  The pudding did work as I folded whipped cream through it and replaced the recommended marsala with Amaretto liqueur. The recipe used 4 egg yolks as a starter, so I made a meringue with the egg whites.  If they worked, all is good; if they didn't work it was only my time that was lost.  The first cooking of them wasn't so successful, crisp on the outside and not cooked inside.  I turned the oven off and put them back in.  This didn't do much and after an hour I turned the oven back on to 120 degrees.  I forgot about them until I was packing everything up to load the car. Taking them out of the oven they now looked over cooked!  Something made me throw a clean teatowel over the top of the tray and take them anyway.  They were delicious - crisp but fall apart in your mouth, a perfect vehicle for the rich chocolate cream draped over the top.


All round a successful dinner party with the guests eating dishes that they may not have chosen in a restaurant and enjoyed them, dishes that brought about discussion on techniques of cooking, dishes that evoked memories of comfort food.