My Top Four Ingredients of 2011

When I think back on the last year of cooking and eating, I think in terms of the ingredients I have most enjoyed using and tasting.  These ingredients have also - as you'd expect - been reflected in the posts of 2011.  In many respects, finding new foods and flavours is how I expand my repertoire of recipes and discover new dishes.  So, here they are, my top four ingredients of 2011.

1.  Coconut

Shredded.  Shaved.  Coconut milk.  Coconut cream.  Coconut frosting, powdered, toasted and desiccated.

 I have used coconut in vegetarian green curries, Thai pomelo salads and (of course) in cupcakes.  In many respects 2011 was my Year of the Coconut.  The only form of coconut I haven't be able to find since I left South East Asia is fresh, young coconut - I love these with the tops sliced off, sipping the clear juice with a straw and then scooping out the sweet, gelatinous flesh.  It doesn't get a whole lot better.

If you'd like to taste a little bit of my favourite new ingredient of 2011, check out Penny's Lemon & Coconut Tart or my Coconut Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting.  Perhaps some Coconut Bread for your Sunday brunch?  Or add some coconut cream to your pumpkin soup when the weather turns cold - I highly recommend it!

2.  Saffron

In addition to tinting a dish a lovely orange colour, the fragrance of this spice is for me the scent equivalent of mead - golden, sweet and delicious.  While not dominating a recipe, it adds terrific layers of flavour that are really very subtle.  When I did a wine tasting course last year I realised just how often the whites I love have often have the scent of saffron to them.

The best example in my repertoire of a saffron-flavoured dish is the lamb tagine with dates from Claudia Roden's Arabesque cookbook.  The dish is served piping hot over a plate of fluffy couscous, redolent with the scent of saffron wafting up as you eat.  What's not to like?

I am also about to upload a brand new lamb tagine recipe which uses saffron water - the result of pouring hot water over a pinch of saffron strands - and grated pumpkin.  It looks amazing, so I'll let you all know how it goes.

3.  Cinnamon

What is not to love about cinnamon?  Truthfully, this spice features on my list of Top Four Things of All Time.  It's up there with fresh sheets and rainy days on the couch reading a good book.

Cinnamon has always featured pretty heavily in all my cooking - from tagines (yep, right up there with saffron) to ice cream and, of course, muffins.  Check out the post on Buttermilk Choc-Chip Muffins - without the ground cinnamon these beauties would only taste (and smell) half as good.  The Tarte Tatin would also be a lesser dish without the addition of this versatile spice.  The Sugar 'N Spice Loaf is pretty damn terrific too, piping hot and straight from the oven.  Just saying.

4.  Lemon Zest

There's a bit of a theme to my top four ingredients - they are all the types of ingredients which help amp up the flavour of a dish, but not the showponies jockeying for dominance in the mix.  Always the bridesmaid, but rarely the bride.  I guess that's why I love them so much.  Is your plain cake a bit, well, plain?  Add some lemon zest.  Ditto for your icing - leave out the vanilla, add in a teaspoon of lemon juice and a teaspoon of zest.  You won't be sorry.

One of the dishes in which lemon zest really stepped out and hogged the limelight a little this year was my Gluten-Free Lemon Curd Cheesecake.  I can hand on heart say that this is one gluten-free dish which is better than the gluten-full version - the base was outstanding, nutty and held together without being either too crumbly or too hard to sink your fork through.

I have so many plans and schemes for Four Figs in 2012.  Of course, lemon zest, cinnamon, saffron and coconut will stay on high rotation, but I am also keen to extend my Asian cuisine repertoire, embrace unusual flavour combinations in my baking and bring you more of my favourite savoury dishes.  I can't wait for the cold weather to arrive so I can spend the weekend whipping up an authentic cassoulet just like we sampled in Kate Hill's kitchen in October.  So much to look forward to.

Buttermilk Choc-Chip Muffins

There are some things you just have to have and, when the craving strikes, you may need to make do with the contents of your pantry or fridge to get them from the oven to the plate as quickly as possible.  As fate would have it, when the hunger for a muffin fresh out the oven and oozing with melted chocolate chips struck, I was the proud owner of a quarter of a carton of buttermilk and a half-finished packet of dark chocolate chips.  Oh, and the small remnants of a packet of shredded coconut.

This is a great way to use up your leftover buttermilk which, if you're anything like me, ends up getting chucked out when I discover that it's out of date in the next fridge purge.  And you can substitute all the "flavouring" ingredients (coconut/cinnamon/choc-chips) with anything you happen to have handy - provided it all weighs 200 grams total.  So be creative and add in some mashed banana, crushed peanuts or grated apple instead.  Don't leave out the buttermilk though - it's the secret ingredient!

These muffins - which turned out so light and moist - are the result of the odds and ends in my pantry (and fridge) and nothing else.  Desperation is the mother of invention after all.  I recommend wolfing them down fresh out of the oven, preferably while still steaming, and they're even better if you have a cup of coffee on hand too.  Leftover muffins should be blitzed for 10 seconds in the microwave before you eat them - you want the chocolate chips melty and delicious when you dive in.

Buttermilk Choc-Chip Muffins

Ingredients
-  220 grams self-raising flour (sifted)
-  3/4 caster sugar (I love raw caster sugar)
-  1/2 cup sunflower oil
-  1 cup buttermilk
-  1 teaspoon vanilla essence
-  1 egg, beaten
-  150 grams chocolate chips
-  50 grams shredded coconut
-  1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Firstly, preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celcius and line your baking tins with muffin liners (I have a large supply of various colours and styles but kept to a simple black liner for this very basic, unpretentious recipe).

Next, in a small bowl or jug combine all the wet ingredients (buttermilk, sunflower oil, beaten egg and vanilla essence) and combine thoroughly.


In a larger bowl, add the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, shredded coconut, cinnamon and chocolate chips).  Make a well in the centre and add your wet ingredients.  Combine quickly by folding and stop as soon as it's properly mixed.  You don't want to over-mix as this will make your muffins chewy and pretty average, to tell you the truth.

Spoon the batter into your lined muffin tins, about two-thirds full.  Don't dollop it any higher than the edge of your liner, as these rise quite a bit.

Sprinkle some reserved shredded coconut and a few choc-chips on top of each muffin, then pop the tins in the oven for 15-20 minutes.  My oven is hotter at the back, so I switched the tins around half way through.

I didn't bother letting all of the muffins cool down on the racks - I love them fresh out of the oven while the choc-chips are still melty.

Sugar 'N Spice Loaf Cake (...with a Sidetrip to France)

To those of you who have spent any time with me in the last month, you would be aware that I am heading off for a wonderful holiday in France with the Cooking Fairy Godmother (aka my mum).  We're going on the mother of all girly holidays and, given our foodie tendencies, it will be no surprise to any of you that the second part of the trip will be spent at Kate Hill's lovely cooking school in Gascony.    The first week will be spent in Paris following in the footsteps of Julia Child, finding the perfect macaron and taking as many opportunities to sample champagne as possible!

I will be checking in as often as possible with photos and updates on our foodie adventures.  In the meantime, I leave you with a delicious loaf cake with spicy flavours from one of my retro-favourite cookbooks, The Southern Living Cookbook.

The cinnamon and nutmeg (it originally called for ground cloves, but this appears to be the one spice I don't have in my pantry) undertones in the cake are all you need to make this loaf cake a little bit special - no frosting required.  Although, I'm sure a little light glaze would not have hurt at all.

I was making this to package up for my Grandma to have in the afternoon with a cup of coffee while Mum and I are away.  It's a quick and basic recipe that's perfect if you're looking for something to take along to the office morning tea.  I also think this would go nicely with a cup of mulled wine by the fire, but maybe that's just me!

Sugar 'N Spice Loaf Cake

Ingredients

-  3/4 cup butter (softened)
-  1 cup white sugar
-  3/4 cup dark brown sugar
-  3 eggs
-  2 1/4 cup plain flour
-  1 teaspoon baking powder
-  3/4 teaspoon baking soda
-  1/2 teaspoon salt
-  3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
-  1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
-  1 cup buttermilk
-  1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celcius and butter/line a loaf tin.

Cream the butter and add the two sugars until fluffy and a lovely caramel colour.  Add the eggs, one at a time, while the beater is on a medium speed.  Make sure it's combined well and scrape the sides down.

In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, rising agents, salt and spices together - this sure beats the hell out of sifting it!   Now add the flour, one third at a time, alternating with the buttermilk.  Add the vanilla extract.  Don't over beat it, just use the mixer on a medium speed and stop as soon as it's combined and smooth.  If you mix it too much, it will toughen up the result.

Dollop into the prepared cake tin and pop in the oven for approximately 40 minutes, or until the cake tester comes out clean.  Allow to cool in its tin before removing or it will split!

Tarte Tatin

Every now and again I come home from work to find the Good Cookbook Fairy (my Mum) has visited, leaving behind a shiny, new cookbook for me to devour whole.  Last week I had a visitation and am now the proud owner of the Chez Panisse Desserts Cookbook - it's an easy read, nothing but text with no illustrations, but my what a book!  A combination of classic, clear and well explained dessert recipes and quirky, homegrown spins on those classics.

The tarte tatin recipe immediately jumped out at me.  I am now the owner of a lovely red cast iron skillet, which was begging to have such a dish cooked in its non-stick walls.  Now, the tarte tatin was altered quite a bit by me to cope with the fact that I ran out of white sugar, and didn't have the time to make puff pastry, but oh what a recipe!  It's the type of classic that lends itself to adaptation because it's so straightforward it's magic.  But, the wonderful thing is, once you've mastered the Chez Panisse basic recipe, you can then move onto Lindsey Remolif Shere's other tarte tatin recipes (this is what I mean by her spins on classic desserts) - try Pear Tarte Tatin or Quince and Apple Tarte Tatin, maybe with a scoop of Clove Icecream or Cognac Caramel Sauce.  It's definitely going to become one of my high rotation cookbooks!

But I digress.  The key difference in my version of this recipe was the substitution of Maggie Beer's sour cream pastry for the fiddly puff pastry.  Good god, what a triumph of convenience and delicious flakiness this recipe is - thank you Maggie Beer for your genius!  Simply set up your food processor, add flour and butter.  Pulse.  Add sour cream.  Pulse.  It quickly forms a ball.  Wrap in cling film.  Refridgerate.  Roll out.  Bake.  And, oh my goodness, what a glorious pastry this is.  It has all the resilience of a short crust, with the flakiness of a rough puff (see the picture above, which shows the layers in my left over pastry scraps) and a wallop of flavour from the sour cream you just don't get in a lot of other pastries.  It is the perfect combination for a tart tatin, and I highly recommend you give this recipe a go!

Tarte Tatin

Ingredients

-  one portion of sour cream pastry, rolled flat (recipe below - make this first, before starting the tarte)
-  2 tablespoons unsalted butter
-  approximately 6 good-sized Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into four pieces
-  1 teaspoon cinnamon
-  6 tablespoons sugar (I used raw caster sugar with two tablespoons white sugar)

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celcius.

Peel, core and chop your apples.  You should get two large domed "halves" and two smaller pieces out of each apple.  The smaller pieces are good to fit between the larger half-circles.  Toss these in a bowl with the cinnamon.

Heat a cast iron skillet (or suitably heavy-based, oven safe frypan) on the stove on a medium-high heat, then melt the butter.  When melted, add the sugar and stir over heat until it is golden caramel and liquid.  Take it off the heat before it burns because it will continue to cook in the latent heat in the frypan.

Now, place your apples, round side down in the pan.  I put one large, circular piece in the centre, did a ring of the other remaining circular pieces around the outside of the pan, and then filled in between with the smaller pieces.

Cover the pan with the rolled-out pastry.  Allow to soften, and then roughly tuck the excess pastry in around and between the apples.

Pop the pan in the oven 35-40 minutes (you'll know when the pastry is golden brown, it's time to come out).  You can bake this in advance and reheat it when you are ready to serve, but just make sure the caramel is gooey and liquid when you are ready to serve.

Now comes the fun part.  Cover the frypan with a large plate and (hopefully with assistance from a good friend) flip the pan, so the tarte plops out onto the plate.  Now, slice and devour with ice cream or cream.

 

Maggie Beer's Sour Cream Pastry


Ingredients


- 200 grams unsalted butter, chilled and diced
- 250 grams plain flour
- 125 ml sour cream (full cream)


Set up your food processor.  Add flour and then butter.  Pulse until it looks like fine breadcrumbs.  Add sour cream, pulse until it forms a ball.  Turn out onto cling film, cover and refridgerate for at least 20 minutes.  

Before starting the tarte tatin recipe above, turn the ball of pastry out on a floured surface (I use a sheet of baking paper for ease of clean up), rub your rolling pin with flour, then roll out the pastry to a 3 millimetre thickness.  Cut to fit your frypan, with some excess over the sides to tuck around the apples.

Coconut Bread for a Sunday Brunch

What better way to catch up with friends on a windy autumn day than with a Sunday brunch?  In preparation for their arrival, I had turned up the heater, the coffee was brewing on the counter-top (freshly ground at the Lonsdale Street Roasters the day before) and the coconut bread was sliced and slathered with melting butter.

In addition to a fabulous fruit salad hand-sliced by the Divine Ms N, I also put together little tumblers of continental yoghurt, drizzled with honey and sprinkled with my crunchy homemade granola.  I might also have got a little carried away and whipped up an "open omelette" with sliced leeks, zucchini and crumbled fetta, finished in the oven and served warm, scooped straight out of the cast-iron skillet.  All in all, it was a lovely way to spend a Sunday morning as it slowly lazed into afternoon.

I just love this coconut bread recipe, which I adapted from "Bills Sydney Food", something I've wanted to try for a while.  The cinnamon smells amazing as soon as you mix it into the batter, let alone when you pop it in the oven - suddenly the whole house is filled with the wafting scents of baking bread (ok, it's really cake) and sweet spices.  Ever since Kingston Grind took its coconut bread off the menu (sob), I've been looking for a replacement and now I need look no further.  This is one recipe I will definitely be using again.

Coconut Bread

Ingredients
-  2 1/2 cups plain flour
-  2 teaspoons baking powder
-  150 grams shredded coconut
-  2 eggs
-  300 ml full cream milk
-  2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
-  1 cup raw caster sugar (which gives a caramel flavour to the batter)
-  1 teaspoon vanilla extract
-  75 grams melted butter

Step number one - preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celcius and butter your loaf tin.  I also like to cut out a small rectangle of baking paper to put in the bottom of the pan, as it makes it easier to get the loaf out of the tin in the end.

In a small bowl, whisk the milk, eggs and vanilla extract.  Next, in a large bowl, sift your plain flour, baking powder and cinnamon.  Using a large spoon, mix in the caster sugar and coconut, then slowly mix in the milk-egg-vanilla mix into the dry ingredients, bit by bit.  Pour in your melted butter and fold in - try not to mix too much, you don't want the loaf to chewy.

Pour the batter into your prepared loaf tin, and pop into your preheated oven for approximately 1 hour - just make sure a skewer or cake tester comes out clean so you know it's cooked through.

Leave the loaf to cool inside the tin for about 5 minutes then pop it on a wire rack.  Personally, I think this is the perfect time to slice and butter the loaf.  Bills recommends you cool, then slice, then grill or toast the bread, sprinkling it with icing sugar and serving with butter.  If you manage not to devour it entirely straight out of the oven, I wish you luck!