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.

Berry & Cherry Tiramisu

So there was a little bit of pre-Christmas debate about what I would make for dessert on Christmas Day.  It came down to two options; the panettone bread and butter pudding  (which I featured last week) or my berry & cherry tiramisu.  In the end I went with both!  These two desserts can be made in advance - always a bonus - and with both available there was something for the folks who wanted a hot dessert and something for the folks who wanted something creamier and colder on Christmas Day.

I love the berry variation on the traditional coffee-flavoured tiramisu.  It seems so festive when you slice into it and all the red splashes of raspberries and cherries are revealed amidst the mascarpone cream and soaked sponge biscuits.  But the inspiration for this recipe is actually the home-made cherry brandy that the sponge biscuits are doused in.

I make my own every year.  Now by "make", I don't mean I am distilling bootleg brandy in my garage.  Instead, I buy a fairly cheap brandy and mix it with 1 kilogram of cherries and a 1 cup of white sugar in a jar, then I leave it to its own devices for a couple of months in the back of my pantry.  I stir it up once in a while, sloshing the mason jar from side-to-side, but it's otherwise a pretty simple process.   My first batch of cherry brandy was an attempt to recreate some given to me by a friend who'd bought it from a elderly man on the side of the road somewhere in Greece.  Obviously, I couldn't buy it again, so I attempted to make my own.

After making your own cherry brandy the inevitable question is - what on earth am I going to do with it?So, when I was looking into recipes, I came across a tiramisu recipe of Donna Hay's that I adapted freely to my own cause and the rest, as they say, is history.  I have made this dessert for two orphan's Christmases in Jakarta, always to great acclaim.  I hope you enjoy it as much.

Berry & Cherry Tiramisu

Ingredients
- 300 grams cherries
- 250 grams raspberries (I prefer fresh, but frozen is A-OK)
- 500 grams mascarpone
- 1 3/4 cup whipping cream
- 1 cup cherry brandy (or replace with muscat or dessert wine)
- 1 packet Italian sponge finger biscuits
- cocoa powder to dust before serving

If you are using fresh cherries, now is the time to pit them.  I now use a German cherry pitter I bought at Essential Ingredient, which makes the job easier (if not less messy).  Alternatively, just slice the cherries in half and remove the pit.  If you are using frozen berries and cherries, now is the time to pop them in a bowl and defrost them.

Whip the cream until it forms peaks and then fold through the mascarpone.  Set aside.

Pour your cherry brandy in a shallow dish - I sometimes use a pyrex pie dish.  Next, one-by-one, dip both sides of your sponge finger biscuits in the cherry brandy so it soaks up the liquid.  Lay them next to each other in the base of your (approximately 7 inch x 7 inch) serving dish.

When you have a layer of biscuits along the base of the serving dish, layer your berries across the biscuits, then cover with a layer of cream.  Repeat another biscuit layer, then a final layer of cream.  Smooth the cream on the top layer, but don't be too fussy - you're going to sprinkle this with cocoa powder anyway.

The tiramisu must now be covered with cling film and refrigerated overnight.  This is why this is such a great dessert to make ahead.  The flavours intensify and the dish firms for easy cutting while it sits in your fridge as you sleep.

When you are ready to serve, use a sieve or small mesh tea strainer to sprinkle cocoa powder over the top.   Then cut and use a cake server or spatula to serve up the slices.  This recipe should give you nine small serve or six huge serves.  I prefer to reserve some of the berries to serve on the side of the dish.  And, of course, a small port or sherry glass of cherry brandy or sweet dessert wine complements it perfectly.

Prawn Cocktails

Okay, I admit it.  I love prawn cocktails.  That's right, daggy, old fashioned seafood-sauce-drenched prawns served in a martini glass.  For a while I have assumed this is something I should be ashamed about. But, this year my friend Ryan gave me a copy of the "Heston Blumenthal at home"cookbook for Christmas and I discovered I am actually incredibly cool.  That's because Heston apparently loves prawn cocktails too!  Page 125, people.  It's official; prawn cocktails are cool again.  So it seemed natural that Heston's prawn cocktails made an appearance at Christmas lunch this year.

In the Australian tradition, seafood plays a prominent role at Christmas lunch.  This is usually because it's stinking hot this time of year.  But I have no such excuses as the weather was a blissful sunny 25 degrees - unseasonably cool!  However, as this was my very first time hosting Christmas at my apartment, I stuck to the time honoured tradition - seafood for entree, roast meats for mains.  Mum brought two platters of buttery Sydney rock oysters and I concocted five martini glasses full of shredded lettuce, cubed avocado, sweet Crystal Bay prawns all doused in seafood sauce.  But not just any sauce - Heston's sauce.

What I love about Heston's recipe is that there's no dry ice, centrifuges or smoked-anything required.  How unexpected for him! He keeps it simple, forgives you for using store-bought mayonnaise (while gently directing you to his home-made mayonnaise recipe) and provides you with a few different options for jazzing up the sauce.  Vanilla beans scraped into your mayo, anyone?

I decided to take his suggestion to stir some finely sliced French tarragon into the mayo, as I have some growing in a pot in my courtyard.  It was delicious, providing just the right touch of aniseed to the sauce.  The real key to this recipe is buying the freshest, sweetest prawns money can buy and slicing/dicing all the ingredients as finely as possible.  When a recipe is as time-honoured as a prawn cocktail, dressing it up is all about the presentation.

Heston's Prawn Cocktail

Ingredients

- 1 kilogram cooked prawns (this is the pre-shelling weight - it will give you approx 500 grams when shelled)
- 1/2 iceberg lettuce, finely sliced
- 1 teaspoon fresh French tarragon, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon fresh chives, finely chopped
- 1 avocado
- 1 lemon (juice and zest)
- 100 grams mayonnaise
- 150 grams tomato sauce (ketchup)
- 12 drops Worcestershire sauce
-  salt and pepper to taste

First things first - shell and clean your prawns.  This is an icky job, but you will thank yourself for all this effort when you are able to scoff down your prawns at record speed later on.  Remove the legs of the prawns, then the shell, then pull off the head and, after slicing down the back of the prawn, pull out the brownish coloured vein which runs down the back of the prawn.  When this is done, I suggest you run the prawn under a little water to wash off any mess or grit which might have clung on inside the prawn.  Now, cover the prawns in a bowl with some cling wrap and pop the prawns in the fridge for later.

Next, finely slice your iceberg lettuce.  The finer the better!  Layer a little at the bottom of your glasses.  I only needed about half a small iceberg lettuce for this, but how much you need really depends on the size of the glasses you'll be using.

Now, dice your avocado into small squares, as small as you can manage.  Halve your lemon and squeeze  one half over your avocado squares and then fold the juice through to stop discolouration.  Grate the lemon zest from the whole lemon over the avocado and fold gently through.  Spoon the avocado on top of the lettuce in your martini glasses.

It's time to get saucy, people!  In a medium-sized bowl add your mayonnaise and tomato sauce and mix together.  I used a whisk for this, which helped get rid of the mayo lumps and make the sauce a nice, smooth consistency.  Now, add the 12 drops of Worcestershire sauce, the juice of the remaining half of the lemon and the French tarragon.  I added a pinch of salt and a grind of black pepper.  Be sure to taste it and add salt and pepper to your taste.  Heston calls for a pinch of cayenne pepper, but I left this out as I don't particularly like a kick in my prawn cocktail.

Pour the sauce over your prawns and fold until all the prawns are coated in sauce.  Spoon the prawns over the lettuce and avocado in your martini glasses.  Sprinkle the finely diced chives over the top as a garnish and devour!

Panettone Bread and Butter Pudding

Tis the Christmas season and there are parties and barbeques-a-plenty, everyone catching up before they disappear for the holidays and celebrating with friends.  It's also the time of the year that those hosting Christmas dos are looking for that perfect dish - you know, the one you can prepare ahead and heat up, that's no trouble at all, so you can kick back and actually enjoy the party, rather than slaving in a hot kitchen while your friends and family drink the champagne!

This dish is just such a "prepare ahead" dessert.  Make it the morning or evening before, let it return to room temperature and then, just before you want to serve it, pop it in the oven to heat up, slice and serve steaming hot with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.  You can also serve an awful lot of people by simply doubling the recipe - one panettone will usually make two puddings.  It's delicious and always receives rave reviews, and for some reason a bowl of bread and butter pudding, pipping hot and scented with brandy, just feels like Christmas.

The other great thing about this recipe is that I now finally have a way to use the beautiful panettone bread I have often received as a hostess gift over the silly season.  I am not much of a "fruit toast" lover, so this recipe is perfect.  It has a richness that suits the flavours of a bread and butter pudding (just shy of the butteriness of brioche) and soaks up the custard mix with relish.

Panettone is a genius Italian cross between a cake and a bread, studded with dried fruits and wrapped in a paper base that I just love peeling off.   The traditional Italian panettone was first made in Milan during the Christmas season, and is often served as-is with hot cocoa or liqueur.  It's fabulous and I can't believe it took me so long to realise it - all those wasted panettone loaves tossed out in my past!  Such a waste!! So even if you aren't lucky enough to receive one of these wonderful loaves as a gift, run out and pick one up at your local deli, and get cooking.

Panettone Bread and Butter Pudding

Ingredients

-  1 Italian panettone loaf
-  2 whole eggs and 4 egg yolks (use the left over whites for meringue!)
-  250ml milk (full cream)
-  170ml thickened cream (whipping cream)
-  50gms caster sugar
-  2 measures of brandy (I used the armagnac I brought back from France... extra YUM)
-  pinch of salt
-  1 teaspoon vanilla extract
-  2 tablespoons caster sugar for sprinkling

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celcius and butter an oven-safe baking dish of approximately 8 x 5 inches.  I used a square dish of approximately 7 x 7 inches - you don't have to be super precise.

Cut your panettone into 1 cm (approximately) thick slices.  You will really only need about half the panettone loaf for the recipe, so feel free and toast the leftovers to nibble on later while the dish is baking.

Line the baking dish with overlapping slices of panettone.  This dish will always look a little rustic - it's part of its charm - so don't fuss too much about getting this "perfect".

In a large bowl, beat your eggs and yolks, mix with the butter, cream, sugar and vanilla essence.  Now stir in your pinch of salt and brandy (or armagnac!).  Pour this over the bread slices so they all get a good dousing.

The key to this dish is to let the bread and butter pudding rest at this point for about 15 minutes which allows the bread to soak up the custard mix.  This avoids the pudding from getting too soggy at the bottom when you take it out of the oven.  Go make yourself a cup of tea and try some of the leftover slices of panettone while you wait.

Now, the pudding is well rested, so sprinkle it with sugar and then into the oven it goes for approximately 30-40 minutes.  Keep an eye on it, you want to take it out when it is a lovely golden brown and crispy on top.

 If you are serving now, slice and pop in some bowls, serving with with a scoop of ice-cream and/or a dollop of cream.  If you are serving up later that evening, allow to cool to room temperature, then cover with a clean tea towel until you are ready to reheat it in the oven.

And a Merry Christmas to all!

What's Happening at the Farmers' Market!

Tis the season for cherries at the Farmers' Market this morning - some were served up in pre-weighed bowls, some in massive piles of ruby red orbs and, disturbingly, some handed out by a man dressed in a large cherry suit (I kid you not) and scaring small children with his high-pitched squeals.  Truly frightening.

In other good news, the stonefruit vendor is back with his trays of nectarines and peaches - just follow the crowds to find him, and expect to line up for your tray.

Apart from that, oranges in their net bags are back, there are black buckets of green beans (snow beans and flat beans - this photo has not been retouched, they are just this shade of green!) and piles of lettuce.  Plaited garlic strands are back too, just in time for Christmas.

Sadly, my favourite potato man has opened up a store in Orange and is no longer coming down to the market, or so Anne the Egg Lady tells me.  And he promised me Tasmanian pink eyes this season too!  Unfortunately, I think Orange might be a little too far for me to go for a bag of potatoes.  Sob sob.

So with cherries and stonefruit everywhere I look, it's time to put up the Christmas tree!