Pistachio praline cake

Oh-my-goodness. This cake was absolutely divine. I adapted it quite significantly from a hazelnut praline cake recipe in one of my cookbooks -- "Crave: A passion for chocolate" -- to be semi-Christmas themed for our Christmas in July at work.

Green is Christmassy, right?

Ingredients

Cake
6 large eggs, separated
115 gr caster sugar plus 1 tbsp extra
185 gr chopped dark chocolate, melted and cooled to tepid
90 gr almond meal
95 gr pistachio meal (blitz 90 gr of pistachio kernels in a food processor)

Pistachio praline
125 gr pistachio kernels
250 gr caster sugar
55 ml water

Chocolate ganache
80 ml cream
100 gr dark chocolate

Pistachio white chocolate cream
235 ml cream
150 gr white chocolate
30 gr butter
1/2 quantity pistachio praline

4 drops of green food colouring

Milk chocolate cream
235 ml cream
150 gr milk chocolate
30 gr butter

Step 1: Make the cake
Preheat the oven to 180 C (160 C fan forced). Butter two 23 cm round spring form tins and line with baking paper.

Using an electric mixer, beat the egg yolks and the 115 gr of caster sugar on medium-high until pale and thickened.

Using clean beaters, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form. Add the 1 tbsp of caster sugar and beat until the mixture is glossy.

Mix the tepid chocolate with 3 tbsp of hot water and stir to incorporate. Add to the egg yolk mixture and stir to combine. Fold in the pistachio and almond meal. Gently fold in the meringue in two batches, until combine.

Pour 2/3 of the mixture into one tin and 1/3 into the other. Bake for 25-35 minutes or until the top is firm. Allow to cool completely in the tins before removing the cakes.

Step 2: Make the chocolate creams
Bring the cream to boil in a saucepan. Remove from the heat. Add the milk chocolate, allow to stand for 1 minute, then stir until smooth. Allow to cool slightly then stir in the butter. Cover and chill for at least one hours (you can speed this process up by putting the mixture in the freezer for 30 minutes).

Repeat the same process for the white chocolate cream.

Step 3: Make the pistachio praline
Preheat oven to 180 C (160 C if you are using a fan forced oven). Spread pistachios on a baking tray and roast for 5 – 10 minutes.

To skin the pralines, place half of the roasted nuts in a clean tea towel and rub the nuts between the tea towel until the skins come away. Repeat this with the remaining nuts. Put all the nuts on a sheet of non-stick baking paper on a tray.

Place sugar and water in a saucepan over low heat and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until the sugar dissolves. Increase heat to high and bring to the boil. Boil, without stirring, swirling or brushing down the side of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in water, for 8 minutes or until golden. Set aside until the bubbles subside.

Pour the caramel mixture over the nuts and leave to set.

When the praline is set, put it in a food processor or crush it until finely ground. Set aside.

Step 4: Make the chocolate ganache
Combine cream and milk in a small saucepan scald over a medium heat (do not let it boil). Add the dark chocolate, remove from heat, and stir until smooth. Let the mixture cool for 10 – 15 minutes, stirring every few minutes so it does not set.

Step 5: Prepare the creams
Remove the creams from the fridge and, using electric beaters beat the milk chocolate cream until firm peaks form.

Repeat the for the white chocolate cream and add half of the praline mixture and green food colouring, stirring to combine.

Step 6: Assemble the cake
Remove the cakes from their tins. Slice the larger of the two cakes in half, horizontally.

Place one of the cake layers on plate, flat-side down. Spread it with half of the white chocolate praline mixture.

Using a pastry brush, spread half of the ganache over one side of each of the remaining two cake layers. Place one of the cake layers on top of the layer covered with the white chocolate pistachio cream, ganache side down. Spread the remaining white chocolate pistachio cream over this second layer and place the last cake layer, ganache side down on top of the pistachio cream.

Cover the top and sides of the cake with the milk chocolate cream and press the remaining pistachio praline onto the sides of the cake.

Daring Cooks' Challenge - Nut butters

The July 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Margie of More Please and Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make their own nut butter from scratch, and use the nut butter in a recipe. Their sources include Better with Nut Butter by Cooking Light Magazine, Asian Noodles by Nina Simonds, and Food Network online.

This was my first Daring Cooks challenge and I'm quite happy with it. I would have liked to experiment more with different nut butters but illness has consumed many a weekend over the last month for me!

Feeling under the weather had me craving spicy food. With this in mind, I set out to make peanut butter and a spicy satay sauce.

Satay sauce

Peanut butter

200 gr unsalted peanuts

Satay sauce

5 shallots, roughly chopped

3 birds eye chillies, roughly chopped 

4 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

1 stalk lemongrass (dry outer layers removed, use pale part only)

3 tsp tamarind paste

5 tbsp plus 2 tsp brown sugar

1 tsp salt

100 ml vegetable oil

500 ml water

1 tbsp walter

200 gr peanut butter

50 gr roasted unsalted peanuts, crushed

Step 1: Make the peanut butter

Pour the nuts into the bowl of a food processor. Grind the nuts in the processor until they form a paste or butter. 

The nuts first turn into powdery or grainy bits, then start to clump and pull away from the side of the bowl, and finally form a paste or butter. The total time required depends on the fat and moisture content of the nuts; grinding time will vary from roughly 1 to 4 minutes. Set aside until needed.

Step 2: Make the spice paste

Roughly chop the lemongrass, chillies and garlic. Place in a mortar and pestle and pound for a few minutes to break down the fibres in the lemongrass.

Place the shallots and the lemongrass mixture into a food processor and blitz to form a fine paste.

Note: If the paste doesn't seem to be moving add half a tablespoon water but no more as this will water the sauce down too much and spit excessively when poured into the oil to cook. You do need a decent mini food processor for this (not a blender as this requires additional liquid to make the mixture move) job as a large one.

Step 3: Cook the spice paste

Heat oil in a heavy based saucepan or wok till medium heat and pour paste in. Stir fry, continuing to make sure bottom isn't catching till there is very little steam rising from the sauce and you can definitely see it
caramelising and smell it getting fragrant.

Step 4: Making the satay
Add peanut butter, crushed peanuts, tamarind, lime, sugar, only one teaspoon of salt (add to taste after adding saltedpeanuts). Stir to combine.

Add the water and bring to boil. Remove from heat and set aside till required. 

You can make this a couple days ahead of time and keep in a glass jar in the fridge and then reheat to serve.

Serving suggetions

This recipe is delicious but, be warned, it makes an absolute truckload of sauce! We have used it for chicken skewers and a satay and rice noodle stir fry.

For the skewers

Step 1: Marinate the meat
Marinate 500 gr of diced chicken thigh meat in some of the satay sauce overnight or for at least an hour. Unfortunately, I didn't measure how much I used. A good rule of thumb is add as much as it takes to coat all of the meat in the sauce.

Step 2: Thread and cook the skewers
If you are using bamboo skewers, soak them in water for at least half an hour. This will prevent them from burning. Thread the meat onto the skewers and cook on a low to medium heated BBQ for about 20 minutes, turning once.

Note: we have a Webber. When cooking the chicken skewers, we heat it to 150 degrees and cooked them with the lid closed.

Step 3: Serving
Reheat some of the extra satay sauce to serve over the skewers. When you skewers are cooked through, smother with satay sauce and enjoy!

For the rice noodle stirfry

Serves 6

Once again I didnt measure how much sauce I used! At a guess it would have been about 375 gr of sauce and about 100gr coconut cream.

Ingredients
1 packet of your favourite rice noodles (I used Bamboo Pot), softened according to packet directions
300 gr chicken, sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely diced
1.5 cm ginger, grated
600 gr vegetables (I used brocolli, capsicum, carrot, zucchini, water chestnuts and bamboo shoots)
Satay sauce
Coconut cream

Place the noodles in a large heatproof bowl. Cover with boiling water. Set aside for 5 minutes or until tender. Drain.

Heat a small amount of oil in a wok over medium-high heat. Add the chicken, garlic and ginger and stir-fry for 2 minutes or until brown. Transfer to a bowl.

Heat another small amount of oil in the wok over medium-high heat. Add the vegetables and stir-fry for 4 minutes or until the vegetables are cooked to your liking. Add the satay sauce and coconut cream. Cook for a further minute. Transfer to a bowl.

Add the softened noodles to the wok. Cook for two minutes tossing to ensure they do not burn. Return the meat and vegetables to the wok. Toss until well combined and heated through. If your dish is a little dry or the flavour is not strong enough add more satay sauce or coconut milk.

Flourless crunchy date and hazelnut chocolate cake

Baking is a passion I think is best shared with others. Often when I bake things for work morning or afternoon teas, they are things I've never made before -- risky, I know. But the fine people I work with are more than happy to indulge my love of baking by being guinea pigs in my cooking experiments. Win-win!

This cake is really rich. To cut through the richness, serve with double cream or vanilla icecream.

Flourless crunchy date and hazelnut chocolate cake

(Recipe adapted from Lindt)

Serves 16

200 gr Lindt crunchy caramel chocolate

50 gr Lindt 75% cocoa

200 gr fresh dates, halved and deseeded

150 ml water

45 ml Frangelico (I didn't have any so I used brandy)

1/2 vanilla pod

180 gr unsatted butter

3 eggs

3 egg yolks

pinch salt

120 gr brown sugar

200 gr hazelnut meal

100 gr dry roasted hazelnuts, skinned and chopped

Ganache

125 gr Lindt 75% cocoa

125 ml cream

20 gr sugar

20 gr glucose syrup

40 gr unsalted butter

1. Preheat oven to 170ºC (150ºC for fan forced oven) and grease a 26cm springform tin.

2. Place dates in a saucepan along with water, Frangelico and split vanilla bean. Simmer over a low heat until dates are soft. Remove from heat and push dates through a coarse sieve, creating a smooth purée. Set aside to cool.

3. Using an electric mixer, whisk eggs, egg yolks, salt and brown sugar until mixture is light and fluffy.

4. Place butter in a saucepan and melt over a medium heat. Break up chocolate and place in saucepan with the butter. Remove from heat and stir until chocolate is melted and the mixture is smooth.

5. Mix the chocolate and butter into the whipped egg. Fold in date purée and hazelnut meal, ensuring there are no lumps. Mix until well incorporated and fold in hazelnuts. Pour cake batter into greased tin and smooth top with the back of a spoon.

6. Bake for approximately 50 minutes or until cooked. Allow cake to cool in the tin. When cool, remove and top the cake with ½ recipe of plain ganache.

Make the ganache

1. Place the cream, vanilla, sugar and glucose in a saucepan and bring to the boil.

2. Once boiling, pour over the chocolate.

3. Mix with a whisk (or barmix) until the chocolate is molten und the mixture is smooth and glossy.

4. Add the butter and mix until molten.

Chicken pistachio korma

This picture really doesn't do this curry justice. Not only is this easy to make, it tastes great too.

The thought of making a curry from scratch has always been fairly daunting for me. I always thought they'd be really complicated and taste nothing like the curries I've come to love from some of the local digs in Canberra. For those of you in Canberra I highly recommend Blu Ginger (in Civic) and Taj Agra (in Dickson).

So one day during my lunch break I ventured out into the cold to buy a mortar and pestle. What better way to christen it than to make a curry... from scratch!?

Chicken pistachio korma

(Adapted from Poh's Kitchen)

Serves 5

4 onions, roughly chopped
¾ cup pistachio kernels
3 green chillies, roughly chopped
30ml oil
3 tsp ginger paste
3 tsp garlic paste
1 tbs coriander powder
1 tsp white pepper powder
700 gr diced chicken thigh fillets (skin and fat removed)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
3/4 cup yogurt
1/2 cup cream
3/4 tsp garam masala powder (made from ground equal quantities (2 gr of each) of roasted cumin seeds, cinnamon sticks, cloves, green cardamom and black peppercorn)

Step 1: Prepare the sauce
Boil onions in a pot of water for 10 minutes, drain, cool and puree in a food processor.

Meanwhile put the cumin seeds in a fry pan and roast for a few minutes, be careful not to burn them. Using a mortar and pessel, grind all of the spices so that you have a fine powder. Set aside.

Puree pistachios and green chilli.

Step 2: Cook the sauce
Heat the oil and add the onions and saute for four minutes, do not brown. Add ginger and garlic pastes. Fry for one minute and stir in coriander and pepper powders. Add pistachio and green chilli paste and cook for about a minute.

Step 3: Cook the curry
Put in the chicken with the salt and sugar and mix well. Add a little water (1/4 cup) and simmer over a medium heat until the chicken is cooked. Stir in the yogurt and cook for a further two minutes.

Add cream and garam masala and stir through.

Serve with boiled basmati rice and green beans.

Bloomin' brilliant chocolate brownies

I've had a lot of brownies in my time. My favourite type of brownie is chocolatey, dense and fudge-like in texture. I'm not after something light. For me, brownies are serious devil food :D!

I had some friends over last Sunday which was the prefect excuse to whip up these babies. But really, who needs an excuse?! This recipe come from Jamie Oliver.

While posting this I'm wishing we still had some brownies left in the fridge!

Bloomin' brilliant chocolate brownies (Recipe by Jamie Oliver)

Serves 20

50 g unsalted butter
200 g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), broken up
150 g chopped nuts (I use macadamia nuts. Please note that the recipe only calls for 50 g but I love nuts!)
80 g cocoa powder, sifted
65 g plain flour, sifted (I use White Wing plain gluten free flour)
1 teaspoon baking powder
360 g caster sugar
4 large free-range or organic eggs

Preheat your oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4. Line a 25cm square baking tin with greaseproof paper. In a large bowl over some simmering water, melt the butter and the chocolate and mix until smooth.

Add the nuts, if you’re using them, and stir together. In a separate bowl, mix together the cocoa powder, flour, baking powder and sugar, then add this to the chocolate, cherry and nut mixture. Stir together well. Beat the eggs and mix in until you have a silky consistency.
Pour your brownie mix into the baking tray, and place in the oven for around 25 minutes.

You don’t want to overcook them so, unlike cakes, you don’t want a skewer to come out all clean. The brownies should be slightly springy on the outside but still gooey in the middle.

Allow to cool in the tray, then carefully transfer to a large chopping board and cut into chunky squares. These make a fantastic dessert served with a dollop of crème fraîche mixed with some orange zest.

Strawberry hazelnut gateau

My mum has been making this cake for me for years. I've had it on many occasions - on birthdays, christmases and just because!

A few years ago I started cooking it myself. Mum traditionally uses 'pavlova magic' instead of egg whites. However, I prefer to use fresh ingredients where ever I can so I adapted this recipe to use egg whites instead.

Because strawberries are not always in season or are, at times, ridiculously over priced, I've also made this cake substituting strawberries for tinned black or sour cherries. Frozen raspberries would probably also work quite well. Something I think would be nice, but have yet to try, is to substitute the hazelnut meal with a mixture of macadamia and almond meal and to use tinned sliced mango instead of strawberries.

This cake always makes me think of home :).

Strawberry hazelnut gateau (Recipe adapted from my mum's recipe)

Serves 12

Ingredients

4 egg whites
275 gr caster sugar
1 cup (100g) hazelnut meal
1 tsp white vinegar
½ tsp vanilla extract
185 gr dark chocolate, melted
20 gr butter, melted
600 ml thickened cream, whipped
250 gr strawberries, sliced with a few reserved for garnishing

Step 1: Heating the oven and preparing the tins

Preheat oven 180 C (160C if you are using a fan forced oven). Grease 2 x 20 cm springform tins. Line the base and sides of the tins with baking paper. Grease the paper, sprinkle with cornflour and shake away the excess flour.

Step 2: Prepare the meringue

Beat egg whites in small bowl with electric mixer until soft peaks form. Gradually add the caster sugar, beating after each addition until the sugar is dissolved. Fold in hazelnut meal, vinegar and vanilla extract.
Divide the meringue evenly between the two tins and bake for about 35 minutes or until the meringue is crisp. Release sides of tins and cool meringues on base of tins.

Step 3: Preparing the chocolate ganache

Place the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pot of simmering water. Stir the chocolate with a metal spoon until it begins to melt. Add the butter to the bowl and continue to stir until all the ingredients are melted and combined. Remove from the bowl from the heat and set aside.

Step 4: Assembling the cake

Remove meringue layers from the bases of the spring form pans and peel off the baking paper. Place one of the meringue layers on plate, flat-side down. Spread it with half of the chocolate mixture and top with 1/2 of the cream and strawberries.

Spread flat side of second meringue layer with remaining chocolate mixture. Place the second meringue disk on top of strawberry layer, chocolate side down. Cover top and sides of cake with the remaining cream.

Step 5: Dress the cake

Decorate the top of the cake and refrigerate for 3 hours.

Triple chocolate praline tart

This tart is truly a sweet-tooth's dream. Not only does it contain three chocolate elements -- chocolate pastry, chocolate cream filling and dark chocolate ganache topping -- it is also loaded with delectably caramely praline. Adding the praline to the chocolate cream filling results in the caramel from the praline going nice and oozy in places. Sublime!

I first made this little number for a competition at work -- which I very proudly won. It was devoured in about five minutes flat. It's debut was on Mothers' day. My little tart travelled with me from Canberra to Brisbane, making it all the way through airport security without a problem. It was a treat I just had to share with my family. When your mum asks you for the recipe, you know you've done a good job!

Triple chocolate praline tart

Adapted from Gourmet Traveller 

Serves 12
Chocolate pastry
200 gr gluten free plain flour (I use White Wings)
60 gr pure icing sugar
30 gr dutch press cocoa
100 gr cold butter
2 eggs (I use free range eggs with a minimum weight of 55gm)

Milk chocolate praline filling
Praline
150 gr hazelnuts, roasted and skinned
175 gr caster sugar
100 ml water

Chocolate cream filling
300 ml cream
400 gr milk chocolate

Ganache
80ml cream
20ml milk
100gm dark chocolate

Step 1: Prepare pastry
Process flour, icing mixture and cocoa in a food processor until combined. Add butter and eggs. Process until the mixture resembles fine breadcrumbs. Turn onto a lightly floured work surface (or silicon mat) and knead pastry until comes together.

Note: if your pastry is not coming together because it is too dry add water, a table spoon at a time, and combine after each addition until it does.

Wrap the pastry in cling wrap and refrigerate for 30 mins to rest.

Step 2: Prepare praline
Preheat oven to 180 C (160 C if you are using a fan forced oven). Spread hazelnuts on a baking tray and roast for 5 – 10 minutes, or until golden.

To skin the hazelnuts, place half of the roasted nuts in a clean tea towel and rub the nuts between the tea towel until the skins come away. Repeat this with the remaining nuts. Put all the nuts on a sheet of non-stick baking paper on a tray.

Place sugar and water in a saucepan over low heat and cook, stirring, for 5 minutes or until the sugar dissolves. Increase heat to high and bring to the boil. Boil, without stirring, swirling or brushing down the side of the pan with a pastry brush dipped in water, for 8 minutes or until golden. Set aside until the bubbles subside.

Pour the caramel mixture over the nuts and leave to set.

When the praline is set, put it in a food processor or crush it until finely ground. Set aside.

Step 3: Tart case
Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface so that it is about 3mm thick. Grease a 28cm diameter loose-bottomed tart tin and fit the pastry into the tin, pushing it into all of the fluted edges. Refrigerate for 20 minutes to prevent the case from shrinking during baking.

Put a sheet of baking paper inside the tart case and fill with rice, dried beans or ceramic weights. Blind bake the case for 10 minutes at 180 C (or 160 C if you are using a fan forced oven). Remove the rice and paper or weights and bake for another 10 minutes, or until crisp.

While the tart case is baking, make the chocolate filling.

Step 4: Preparing the chocolate and hazelnut praline filling
Scald the cream in a small saucepan over a medium heat (do not let the cream come to the boil). Remove the cream from the heat. Add the chocolate and stir until smooth. Stir in ¾ of the praline mixture (reserve remaining to serve/ decorate). Spoon the filling into the tart, smooth over and refrigerate until set (2-3 hours or overnight).

Step 5: Chocolate ganache 
Combine cream and milk in a small saucepan scald over a medium heat (do not let it boil). Add the dark chocolate, remove from heat, and stir until smooth. Let the mixture cool for 10 – 15 minutes, stirring every few minutes so it does not set.

When the ganache has cooled, spread it over the tart, smoothing the top. Refrigerate the tart until the ganache is set (45 minutes – 1 hour).

Step 6: Decorating
Sprinkle the remaining praline around the outside edge of the tart to decorate.