Manning Farmer's Market

C and I finally made it to the Manning Farmer's Markets last weekend. We have been talking about going for a while and never quite worked up the motivation. The wedding planning was not all that stressful, but it is nice not to have to make any more decisions for our day. Hopueflly we will find the time to expand our horizons a little bit more.

The market is on Saturday mornings at Clontarf Campus on Manning Road, open from 7.30am to 12.30pm.

The market was full of producers selling their wares! We did an initial lap to scope out the stalls and see what was on offer. The range did not disappoint, and we could choose from various fruit and vegetables, eggs, preserves, bread, tea, flowers, plants and many other delights. You could also plan your day around breakfast or morning tea at the market, as there were many food stalls eager to feed you.

We bought from a few different producers, and soon filled up our shopping bag. We left with two types of plum, nectarines, organic figs, onions, beans, carrot, broccoli, cherry tomatoes and tea.

We are hoping to make it our Saturday morning habit. We have become used to being able to buy reasonably decent fruit and vegetables seven days a week and as a result my meal planning has suffered. To the point where I do not plan anything!

For more information check out their website.

French Lessons

French Lessons by Justin North is one of the cookbooks that we received for a wedding gift. I picked it out when I was first started our registry as it looked interesting, and along a different line to the foods that we would normally cook.

I was very excited when we received it, as a late gift from bridesmaid M and her family.

The book is not just a collection of recipes. It is divided into many sections for different styles and techniques and is set up to help you to learn and think about your cooking, not just follow it blindly.

I am looking forward to trying even more of the recipes, having played with the choux pastry and creme patisserie for my sister's profiteroles!

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Profiterole

My sister's 30th birthday party was a great excuse for me to attempt to make profiteroles. I have made them before but it has been a few years!

I thought that I would try a new recipe, fresh from the French Lessons cookbook by Justin North that Chad and I received as a wedding gift.

I quite like the format of the book. Rather than being just a collection of recipes, it is a collection of techniques as well and gives you the basics for all sorts of different things.

Choux pastry
65g butter
160mL water
100g plain flour, sifted
pinch salt
pinch sugar
four eggs, lightly beaten

Creme patissiere
300mL milk
40mL thickened cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 egg yolks
100g caster sugar
15g cornflour
10g plain flour

Choux pastry

Combine the water, salt, sugar and butter in a lage heavy-based saucepan and heat gently over a moderate heat until the butter melts. Bring to the boil. Add the flour all at once and beat vigorously with a wooden spoon until the dough is smooth.

Lower the heat and continue to beat the dough for another couple of minutes. It wil begin to thicken and dry until eventually it will come away from the side of the pan in a ball. Tip the dough into the bowl of your electric mixer and allow to cool for 5 minutes.

With the mixer on low speed, gradulaly add the eggs, a quarter at a time. Beat well after each addition so that it is thoroughly incorporated before you add the next. Continue beating until you have a smooth paste, the texture of a stiff cake mix. Use straight away.


Creme patissiere
Put the milk, cream and vanilla into a heavy-based sacuepan and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat and leave to infuse for 5-10 minutes.

Put the egg yolks and sugar in an electric mixer and whisk to the riboon stage. Foold in the sifted flour and cornflour.

Pour a third of the hot liquid onto the egg mixture and whisk gently to combine. Pour back into the saucepan with the rest of the hot milk and cook gently over a moderate heat for about 5 minutes, whisking ll the time. The custard will thicken to a stiff and glosy smooth paste.

Remove from the heat and stand the pan in a sink of iced water. Whisk vigorously to beat out any lumps.



Notes

• Previous recipes that I have used have talked about "dropping consistency" for the pastry. I think the pastry I made was too sloppy and it did not pipe very well. Next time I will be a bit more observant as to the texture


• The recipe book did not include cooking instructions for the pastry. I had to scout around to look for some inspiration. I think I cooked for about half an hour at 220C. Once they were cooked I removed them from the oven and cooled them on a wire rack. I used a skewer to push a hole into the side of each puff to let steam escape, supposedly this stops them from getting soggy.


• The pastry cream filled about two thirds of the cases, so I would need to make more if I wish to fill them all! Thankfully E made pavlova and I ended up with her left over egg yolks


• I forgot to add the flour to the egg yolks and instead added it to the mixed custard. There were small lumps in the custard when I had finished. If I was being fussy then I would have sieved it however I figured that they would not be too noticeable hidden in the texture of the pastry


• The cookbook discusses cream and explains that when cream is mentioned in the recipes, the default that they are intending is minimum 35% fat. When I buy thickened cream I check the ingredients and make sure to buy the cream that is not thickened naturally and not using gelatine


• I filled my profiteroles using a plastic icing syringe. Once they were filled I dipped them in some melted dark chocolate and let it set.
  

Australia Day Snacks!

C was dead keen for us to have one of these Tupperware serving centres... however it seems that the only time it sees the light of day for us is Australia Day! Here it is, ready and waiting to be taken on board the boat and consumed.

The tomatoes are from our garden, the other goodies were purchased from the shop however I did cut them up myself. Promise.

The poor old lid for the container though is not boat proof, we had one mad turn when we were out on the water and the contents of the container went flying! We picked everything up and dusted it off. The doctor and nurse on the boat both decided that they were still safe to eat. I am not sure that either of them realised that the boat is used for fishing and would regularly have slimy fishy bits dragged around on the carpet in the boat but I decided not to push the issue.

Crays too!

Did I mention that it is currently crayfish season as well? Yum!

Crabs, yay!

One of the reasons why my boy and I get along so well is that he loves to catch seafood, and I love to eat it! A match made in heaven.

It is just about time for crabs to be in season again, and I am loving it. The boys went out last Friday in search of the creatures. Pickings were slim - they only found six crabs that were sized - and for some reason we ended up with all of them. I think that C talks up my ability to demolish seafood until all that is left is the shell.

The crab meat was lovely and sweet. He boiled them up to cook and then I ate mine straight from the shell, with a dip of fresh cut garlic and white vinegar.

I try to pick as much out fromt he crab as I can - no wastage. My sister E gave me a handy set of tools, they never saw any use until I met C. Now I have found many uses for them!!

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Fruit mince pies!

Christmas is fast approaching and it is a good excuse for me to make some more fruit mince pies. Yum!

I was unadventurous this year and used the Donna Hay recipe that I used last year. I was hoping that this would make it easier. I still managed to come up with some notes the second time around. See here for the notes from last year.

• I abandoned the thin plastic cookie cutters that I have in favour of my tupperware scone cutter. Okay, it is still plastic but much more durable. I would really like to buy a 7cm metal cutter though for future use with my patty pan tray


• The best way to get the pies out of the tray - if they become stuck - is using a plastic knife. For starters it will not scratch the non-stick coating and secondly the plastic knife that I used bent and was better for getting out the curved bottom pies


• I used my new Kitchenaid food processor to make the pastry. Yay! It was so quick to make the pastry and the motor did not struggle at all


• A second tray would be very handy, as the recipe makes two batches. The tray was hot straight out of the oven and I needed to wash the syrup off the tray before I could use it again! I will keep my eye out for one that is non-stick - E and I saw that Willow has them and so I will try to find a couple after the craziness of Christmas


• I noticed in the current Donna Hay Magazine that she had a recipe for spiced fruit mince pies, with a spiced shortcrust pastry recipe. I had already made my pastry though so too late to experiment this time around


• I could see the benefit of having guides for rolling out your pastry to make sure that the pastry height is even. I always manage to have it thicker in the middle and the edges are thin. The pastry that was rolled first showed the least distortion during cooking so the aim is to cut them all from the same roll