Is this Really a Tarte Tatin? : Mini Lychee Tarte Tatin

On Tuesday, I attended a Master Class at Waitrose Cookery School. The evening was organised by Malaysia Kitchen, led by Tim Anderson, "The guy in the picture" and the 2011 Master-Chef winner.

It took place on the night after Halloween and would I be so inclined as to believe in wizardry, I would have thought no more of the evening. I probably would have said to myself, "This was a little odd but what the heck." However being quite rational, I started to wonder .....

Now don't get me wrong, there is everything weird with Tim Anderson's approach to cooking but that is what makes him stand out. Plus "his weird" is weird in a good way. 

And I am sure there is nothing bizarre about Malaysia Kitchen but I am not certain that, what was on offer really promoted Malaysian food. Though all of it was delicious and every single dish included typical Malay ingredients.

Take,  the dessert: Lychee Tarte Tatin, completly original idea, looked fantastic, but how can Tatin be representative of Malaysia. Pancakes, fruit salads, fritters, cakes, sweet rice, cookies, fine. But Tatin, nope!.

So sorry to be picky but the terminology is wrong. This was not a Tatin, a basket maybe.

However the combination of flavours was excellent, this is "a Tatin" to impress. I will bake it again.

We also cooked the classic fish custard "Otak Otak" served with Gunard and Scallops. The main was Nasi Goreng with Smoked Mackerel.

Reasons to Like Baking Mad

Sometime ago, in the course of a conversation,  I was asked to take a look at

BakingMad.com is a website to like and here are some of the reasons why:

• Its experts' baking tips: from scones to chocolate cupcakes, 
• not only experts advise, there is also a forum and opportunities to ask direct questions
• It is full of ideas and inspiration under one roof, classified by occasions and by categories
• Recipes are easy to follow.

 Part two of the assignment was to choose a recipe and to cook it. I wanted to go for one of my own classics. To me, it seemed much more challenging to reproduce something familiar then an unknown. I went for Quiche Lorraine which strangely enough I have never posted, though I tend to create it regularly.

 Quiche Lorraine

according to the BakingMad recipe

Preparation
Time 30 minutes
Baking Time 40 minutes
Serves 4-6

Ingredients:
For the pastry

200 grams plain white flour

100 grams butter

1 pinch salt
For the filling

150 grams bacon, snipped
3 eggs
150 ml milk
4 tbsp double cream
75 grams grated Cheddar

Method:

You will need a 20 cm round, loose bottom flan tin

1. To make the pastry, place the flour and a pinch of salt in a large bowl. Rub in the butter until you have a soft breadcrumb texture. Add enough cold water to make the crumb mixture come together to form a firm dough, and then rest it in the fridge for 30 minutes.
2. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured work surface to the thickness of about a £1 coin. Lift the pastry over the rolling pin, then drape the pastry over the tin and press into the base and up the sides. Trim the edges. Place in the fridge to chill for 15 minutes.
3. Heat the oven to 220c, 200c fan, Gas 7. Line the pastry case with a circle of baking parchment and fill with baking beans. Bake the pastry case for 10 minutes until pale golden. Remove the baking parchment and beans and return the pastry case to the oven for a further 5 minutes until golden and crisp. lower the oven temperature to 190c, 170c, fan. Gas 5.
4. In a dry frying pan, fry the bacon for 2-3 minutes until just tender and golden. Place in the pastry case.
5. Beat the eggs, milk and cream together with a little black pepper and pour over the bacon. Sprinkle with cheese. Bake for about 25 mins, or until golden and softly set (the centre should not feel too firm)        

My verdict 

• Very easy recipe to follow.
• The quiche was moist and tasty.
• Completely different taste from my own: this is much lighter, I missed the taste of nutmeg but the addition of cheddar is a good idea
• Don't be tempted to skip any step, especially the blind baking. There is a lot of butter in the pastry and without baking blind it would get soggy.

NB: BakingMad also has special offers discounts, competitions and its very own famous Chef Eric Lanlard. Eric has a programme on channel 4 about baking and a dedicated page on BakingMad http://www.bakingmad.com/baking-with-eric

"Whoo", "Whoo", "Whoo", Whoopie Pies

OK, this is a bit of an easy title for Halloween. Last year or so Whoopie pies were almost unheard of in the UK, now they are the new cake phenomenon or they seem to be.

But what is a Whoopie pie? Amish in origin; I bet you will have no difficulty to guess the reasons behind the name.

That doesn't answer, "What are they?" The reply will look like a cop-out: they are a cross between pie, cake and cookie. They look like two gooey cookies with fluffy icing in the middle.

There is no way of telling what the authentic whoopie pies did taste like. The story is that they were baked for Amish workers and put in their lunch-boxes . But if the Amish men were going "whoopie" just at the sight of them there might have been a reason and that reason is simply that whoopie pies are incredibly delicious.

To feed the little devils, wizards and witches of Greenwich on Halloween night, I used a short-cut and got my whoopies out of a Betty Crocker Whoopie Pie mix. Three simple steps, takes 15 minutes to bake and 15 minutes to mix. It worked a treat, next time you are shopping, you could do worse than grab a packet at £2.15 for 10 whoopie pies- though I managed only 9- comes in two flavours Chocolate and Vanilla or Double chocolate. Impressed.

Give Away : Two Dairy Diary Sets

Halloween pumpkin heads, once again creep behind our curtains to sit on our windowsills grinning manically at neighbours and strangers passing by, while their good friends get roasted in the Kitchen.  
      

 So do I. I mean I am currently getting roasted, baking gloriously under the Albanian sunshine. While I am doing so, I was offered a lovely give-away for two Pebble Soup's readers. Not one but two Dairy Diary Sets normally £8.99 including :

• Dairy Diary with events stickers
• Page markers in five colours
• Sticky notes
• Notepad
• Designer pen
• Pocket Dairy Diary

if Halloween gives you the creepies think idea for Christmas stocking filler!

There are two ways of winning a Dairy Diary set.

method one : leave a comment telling us what you intend to cook for Halloween

method two: Tweet this give-away and leave a comment to let me know that you have done so.

This competition is open to UK and Irish residents only, it will close on the 3rd of November at midnight. 

The lucky winners were picked by the randomiser they are
Janesgrapevine and susiemcd1

In the meantime and before going back to my holidays, I leave you with a recipe from the Dairy Diary set

Pumpkin Gratin 

Serves 4 / Time 50 mins / Calories 334 per portion / fat 24g of which 9.5g is saturated

 Ingredients

Pumpkin 1.8kg (4lb), peeled and de-seeded

Parmesan Cheese 50g (2oz), grated

Fresh breadcrumbs 50g (2oz)

Pecan nuts 50g (2oz), roughly chopped

Chopped Thyme leaves 2 tbsp
Butter 50g (2oz), melted

Method

1 Preheat oven to 200°C /400°F/Gas 6. Cut pumpkin into 2.5cm (1in) thick wedges. Place in a lightly buttered oven-proof dish. Season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper. 
2 Mix together Parmesan cheese, breadcrumbs, pecans, thyme and seasoning in a bowl.

3 Sprinkle evenly over pumpkin. Then drizzle over melted butter.

4 Bake in oven for 30-40 minutes, until pumpkin is tender and topping is golden. Serve immediately. 
TIP Rather than Parmesan cheese crumble over some strong blue cheese – if you prefer.

If you like the sound of these recipes and want to see more enter the give-away, good luck.

 

Lyons Seafood : Dish of the Day

Lyons Seafood Co, -"never heard of them", never saw their products even though they have been on the market for 30 years. Prawns and speciality seafood suppliers and leading retailer and I have never heard of them. Where have I been for the last 30 years? Twenty Thousand leagues under the sea.

This was going to change this week with the delivery of Lyons brand new range: ready to cook seafood dinners or meal in a carton. And I tell you straight away, this is not something I normally do. 6 minutes to cook a meal for two that does not sound right.

The packaging is very seductive with its 3 little windows which let you peek inside: here is the sauce, in the middle is the main offering and on the side the veggies. Accompagny this with bread, noodles or rice and bang, bang you have a meal.

The instructions are simple, even have little picture to make sure you get it right, not that it is difficult mind you, open, tear, cut, fry, mix, it is that simple. Lyons PR explains that they aim at demystifying cooking with fish as people perceived fish as being too challenging. And with their 6 minutes trick they certainly do that.

The range incorporate a medley of well-known dishes: Malaysian King Prawn Laska, Kerala Seafood Curry, Sweet Thai Chili Prans, Catalan Fish Stew and New England Seafood Chowder.

So is this healthy fast food for two? Yes, you get a whole meal with only 20 grammes of fat and that is if like me you scoff the lot rather than share. I have an excuse he dislikes sea food.

But is it good? again yes....mostly. Malaysian King Prawn Laska was excellent, the sauce was fragrant and creamy, fatty, tasty King prawns, nice baby sweetcorn, ripe cherry tomatoes with crunchy green beans Catalan Fish Stew less so: wine sauce was too thin and there was not enough fish, lots of squids and mussels so I ended up with two meals in my plate yet again.

Would I recommend- strangely enough yes, I am impressed with the quality of the sea-food and it is indeed very simple.

For more information click here. Seafood dinners are retailed at the price of £5.99 with a current offer at £3.99.

Chicken Satay

This month "Flavours of.." is hosted by Hrishi and devoted to Indonesia, a land and peoples which stole a little bit of my heart 20 years ago. Since Indonesia is made of  6 000 populated islands, the cuisine is as varied as varied can be. But it might be fair to say that Satay is the Fish and Chips, the Indonesian Steak - Frites in short the national dish.

Satay can be street-food or sophisticated food. Satay is a snack or a dish. It is grilled/BBQ cubes of chicken, beef, mutton, fish, prawn, crocodile, snack, tofu to name but a few but not all at once, served on a skewer with a sauce.

The sauce is  referred to as Satay. It could be any sauce however with time, Satay has been served mostly with peanut sauce and the word self is used for that very sauce. A perfect peanut sauce has this lovely rich yellow due to the main spice: turmeric. Then it should be not too runny, nor too thick and spicy enough.

Before I leave you with the recipe, I want to add that I took this picture at Malaysia Kitchen Festival and that the blogger event "Flavours of" is the brainchild of Nayna Kanabar of Simply Food.

Now for the up-market recipe as prepared by Awana if you fancy a quick version try that of Auntie beeb

Chicken Satay
Printable recipe click here

makes 12 sticks

needs to marinate min 2hours

Ingredients

1.5kg Chicken (deboned)

1tsp ground cumin

4 cloves of garlic

4 shallots

1tsp coriander

3 tbsp turmeric powder

400g sugar

4 lemongrass stalk

Salt to taste

For the sauce

4 tbsp of groundnut oil

2 shallots

2 cloves of garlic

2 lemongrass stalks

500g roasted peanuts (roughly pounded)

10g dry chillies

900ml water

100g sugar

2 tsp salt

400ml of coconut milk

200 ml of tamarind concentrate

Method

Thinly slice the chicken meat into 1-inch slices and set aside

Blend the shallots, coriander, cumin, garlic and lemongrass. Mix in the sugar, turmeric powder and salt to taste

Marinate the chicken in the mixture for at least tow hours or overnight in the fridge

Soak the skewers

Place the meat on the grill or barbeque, cook thoroughly

for the sauce, blend the shallots garlic, lemongrass and chillies. Heat a little oil and fry the mixture. When it smells nice add sugar, salt, water and the peanuts. Simmer for 30 minutes or until the sauce is thick enough for dipping.

Week-End Pictures: Fresh & Fantastic Aldeburgh Food Festival

At the week-end, I attended the sixth Aldeburgh Food and Drink Festival. I was very impressed by the extraordinary abundance of local products. Compared to the last Hampton Court (London) Food Festival which offered little with long queues and manyer grumpy faces (probably due to the high prices), this festival had a party atmosphere.

It was packed but cheerful and dynamic, it appeared extremely well organised. Local producers were so enthusiastic that I could have bought everything. The celebration run over two weeks with the week-end events in Snape Maltings.

I came back with a week supply of fresh vegetables and flour, to try, from an independent local miller which I need to check out the state of play with millers and flour. My friend at the Wye bakery will be able to help me out with this research, so watch this space. 

I have got  one last plea: Please, do ask me again next year.

Do Not Try This at Home

Durian Ice Cream, a Tim Anderson's creation. Tim Anderson was Masterchef winner 2011 - The youngest to be awarded the title and the guy that loads of us wished on to win for his maverick way of combining and looking at food.

He won. And went on to cook and display more weird and wonderful dish such as this cold extravaganza. For Malaysia Night, hosted in Trafalgar square and organised by Malaysia Kitchen to showcase the cuisine and culture of Malaysia, Tim combined cream, honey, durian fruit to create this incredible Durian Ice Cream.

Durian is a fruit found in South East Asia mostly Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia. It is used in sweet and savoury dishes. Known as the King of Fruits, its particularity is its smells. It can't be put any-other way: this fruit stinks. In some places, it is banned from public transport, one needs gloves or a tea-towel to extract the seeds before boiling, frying or roasting them. Tim went the cool way with his delicious Durian Ice-Cream.