Pear and Almond Galette

I have a confession. 
Until now, I have never made pastry from scratch. I have however watched people make it, my last lesson via my friend "The Pie Belle" only a few weeks ago. 
She was a good teacher and made it look very easy, but I went away from the lesson unconvinced that I would be able to achieve the right level of flakiness in my pastry as she did. 
And besides (I told myself), what difference would it make to the overall taste of the pie or tart if I were to buy it? I have also been bestowed with unusually warm hands which (I have been told) are not conducive to pastry making. Yes, these small hot water bottles that I call my hands would melt a lump of butter hovering just 1cm above it - not really, but you get the idea.

Let's rewind a few days earlier when I had decided to make free-form tart/galette. I had been thinking about it all week and asking people what they thought of various combinations. This was going to be a pear, lavender and honey galette until a couple of people politely steered me away from the lavender citing that it would overpower the pear. Pear and almond it was...with a little bit of brandy.
So, with the filling idea taken care of and my good quality, store bought pastry sitting very proudly in the fridge, I was laughing. I could knock this tart over within the hour leaving plenty of time for photos and even share it with some people while it was still warm. 

Lost & Found: Star Anise Chicken with Pickled Ginger Red Cabbage

This dish is probably one of my top ten favourite dishes, yet this is the first time I have 
made it. It's something that my Mum has made since she found it in a Delicious Magazine way back in 2008. Being the fantastic cook that she is, she now makes it from memory and I always ask, nay, plead for her to make it when I am visiting her in Orange. Sometimes she does, sometimes she doesn't. When she doesn't, I then go through the process of pulling out the 50 billion Delicious Magazines that she has carefully stacked in the bookshelf in chronological order to try to find it so I can make it. Before you say anything; no, I can't find it online and yes, I forget which one it is in, every time. 

When I eventually do find it, I then go through the process of scanning, printing it out and emailing myself a copy so that I can then give it a burl when I get back to Sydney. 

Then, by sad twist of fate (or the culinary gods playing a cruel trick on me) I would lose both forms of recipe. I like to think that I just wasn't ready to make it and it was best just to wait until Mum served it up to me when I visited...hopefully.

'Til one day I was scratching around in my cookbook collection and a photocopy of the recipe fell out! It was time. If I didn't make this now, who knew when I would be able to make it again! This recipe is a slippery little sucker.

The cabbage is best to make a day or two before you plan on eating it - I made it a day ahead and it is honestly best when combined with the richly braised chicken. When you hear a chef on TV say that the flavour of something "cuts through" the flavour of something else - this is a perfect example of that. The chicken on its own is beautiful, but  rich, especially when you reduce a little of the braising liquid* to use as a glaze. Here is where the cabbage comes in to play; slicing through the air like a samurai sword to cut elegantly through the richness. In a blatant contradiction to what I have just said however, the cabbage is sensational on its own (it is actually a little addictive).

So when I found this recipe I knew it was my fate to cut the apron strings and make this myself. I might even make it for Mum when I am next visiting. 

Star Anise Chicken with Pickled Ginger Red Cabbage
Via Belinda Jeffrey's recipe in Delicious Magazine, February 2008
For the chicken
1 cup kecap manis
1 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 star anise
2 tbs Chinese rice wine
2 garlic cloves - crushed with back of knife
2-3cm piece of ginger-thickly sliced
8 chicken thigh cutlets-skin on
Water-cress or any fresh greens to serve
Preheat the oven to 180C. Put kecap manis, soy, sugar, star anise, ginger, garlic, rice wine into a heavy bottomed pot with a cup of water. 
Bring to a boil over a high heat and stir to dissolve the sugar. Add the chicken, skin-side down and then bring the pot back to the boil. 
Once boiling, put a lid on the pot and put in the oven for 1/2 hour or until the chicken is cooked through.
Remove from oven and set aside to cool for about 20 minutes, then transfer chicken to a plate. 
Put about a cup of the braising liquid into a small saucepan and reduce over a high heat until you have a syrupy glaze. Brush this over the skin of the chicken before serving.


For the pickled ginger red cabbage 
- start this a couple of days before if possible
3 tsp salt
1/2 red cabbage- finely shredded
1 cup rice vinegar
1 cup sugar
2 tsp grated ginger
1 small red chilli or 1/2 tsp chilli powder
In a large colander over a large bowl, put the cabbage and toss through the salt. Weigh the cabbage down with a plate and a couple of cans sitting on top. Leave for 3 hours.
Whisk up the vinegar, sugar, ginger and chilli until the sugar has dissolved. Add the drained cabbage and toss to combine.
Store in the fridge for at least 8 hours, turning occasionally. Put the cabbage into an airtight container (preferably glass) and press down so that the cabbage sits below the liquid. Place plastic wrap on to the liquid and seal tightly with the lid. Keeps in fridge for weeks.
Serve the chicken with the cabbage and cress. Enjoy.


* Note for braising liquid.
Strain the liquid through a sieve into an airtight container and stored in the fridge. As long as you boil it up every few weeks to kill any bacteria and top it up using the above ingredients, you will have a super duper braising liquid to use for all manner of things.

Tomato, Butternut Pumpkin and Ginger Salad with Tamarind and Sesame Dressing

Have you ever had something in a restaurant and the memory of that dish has lingered in your mind for months after you tasted it? 
This post is about such a dish - Tomato, pumpkin and ginger salad with a tamarind and sesame dressing.
The love affair with said dish started at Longrain - a restaurant that serves very easy-to-fall-in-love-with modern Thai/Asian cuisine, full of flavour and full of colour and always inspiring. But I am not here to do a review, you should go and try it for yourself (if you are in Sydney or Melbourne), you won't be disappointed. 

What I am going to do is explain that I just had to make this salad for myself at home. It also pays to tell you that I ate this at Longrain over two months ago and even though the colour and the flavour of this salad has stayed with me, I did take a little creative licence when it came to assembling my own version. 

And now just a quick word on those curious leaves in the pretty blue vase above: this is my Vietnamese Mint that I have been cultivating in a pot in my backyard (and not a small bunch of gum leaves). Most Vietnamese Mint has beautiful purple stems and a blaze of purple in the centre of each leaf. I am not sure why the purple up and left my plant, but I can only assume that the copious amount of rain that we have experienced has something to do with it. Whatever. The flavour is still there and, really, this is nothing compared to what our rural friends in the Riverina area have experienced recently. It puts things into perspective really; I for one won't be complaining about my garden here in Sydney copping too much rain when some those farmers have had their livelihoods washed away in the deluge. 


When you read the list of ingredients below it is easy to tell that this is not a shy salad. The dressing alone is enough to send your taste-buds into overdrive. Drape it over some barely roasted butternut pumpkin/squash, tomatoes (in various colours and shapes) as well as all manner of other insanely feel-good ingredients. What more can I say - just make it and you will see why I have carried this in my mind for over two months. I hope I have convinced you to make this - your taste-buds will thank you! 

Tomato, Butternut Pumpkin and Ginger Salad with Tamarind and Sesame Dressing
Inspired and re-created by a salad of the same name from Longrain, Surry Hills
For the salad
400g of mixed small tomatoes - I used a Medley Mix, halve some, and leave some whole
1/2 butternut pumpkin/squash, cut into small cubes
2 thumb size pieces of fresh ginger, peeled and julienned
3 spring onions/scallions, ends only, sliced finely on the diagonal
1 tbs black sesame seeds - or white sesame seeds if you can't get black
Approx 2 tbs Vietnamese mint - roughly chopped
Approx 1 handful of coriander leaves, roughly chopped.
Olive oil 
Sea salt 
Preheat the oven to 180C and line a tray with baking paper. Toss the pumpkin in the oil and sea salt to coat and spread evenly on the tray. Roast for about 40 minutes or until your pumpkin is just starting to brown. Once done, set aside to cool.
Assemble the rest of your ingredients in a bowl and start on the dressing.


For the dressing
Adapted from this recipe
1 1/2 tbs of tamarind paste
Approx 1 tbs of fresh coriander roots and stems, finely chopped
1 tbs fresh lime juice
1 tbs brown sugar
1 tbs fish sauce
1 tbs sesame oil
Whisk all ingredients in a small bowl until combined. 


Lightly toss the dressing through the salad ingredients and serve.

Carrot and Maple Caramel Cupcakes

I am not much of a cupcake person. 

That is not to say that I don't enjoy eating them, or even appreciate the way they look (some cupcakes can be complete works of art) - it's just that I have never really been one to bake them on a regular basis. I am merely a dabbler when it comes to the graceful art of cupcakery.

In fact, this recipe was not going to be about a cupcake. It was going to be all about the sauce you see oozing from said cupcake in the lead photo. 

Let me tell you about this sauce: to anyone who is reading this, it looks like a normal (albeit tasty) caramel sauce & it is safe to assume that it is salted (as most forms of caramel these days tend to be). What you probably can't tell, however, is that this is caramel sauce was made with maple syrup as a prime ingredient.

If you have never made caramel sauce with maple syrup before then I implore you to give this recipe a go. Caramel sauce has been a small goal of mine (I am working my way up to these) and prior to this recipe, the ones I have made (due to my lack of skill) have all been duds. This was a perfect beginner's caramel (that didn't require a candy thermometer) and the maple just gives it a beautiful earthiness*. Because of this I felt the sauce would be perfect with some carrot cake that contained a generous amount of walnuts. I am a big carrot cake fan and the sauce was perfect with it. I really wanted the cake to ooze the caramel and cupcakes seemed to make sense to me in order to achieve this. 

Something I have come to appreciate about cupcakes are while they are generally made for a crowd, when you get down to it, you end up with one in your hand (until your second) that is for you and you alone, personally gift wrapped in a patty case. If you make these you will also get your own, personal ooze of maple caramel sauce. 

Maybe I am a cupcake person after all.

*The sauce is also fantastic with warm poached pears.

Carrot and Maple Caramel Cupcakes 

Maple Caramel Sauce was adapted via Oprah.com

Carrot cupcakes were adapted from the book Cupcake Heaven by Susannah Blake

Cream Cheese Icing was adapted from Baking with Passion by Dan Lepard and Richard Whittington

For the Maple Caramel Sauce

Makes 2 , 290ml jars with a little leftover

250g salted butter

2 cups of light or dark brown sugar

1/2 tsp salt (or more to taste)

1 cup of 100% pure maple syrup - do not use maple flavoured syrup here. 

Melt the butter in a medium heavy based saucepan over a medium to high heat.

Add the sugar and salt and stir until the sugar has dissolved.

Turn the heat down to medium and boil for a further 2 minutes

Add the maple syrup and then stirring constantly, boil until the sauce is thick and coats the back of a spoon.

Take the sauce off the heat to cool a little before pouring into sterilised jars. Will keep refrigerated for up to 2 months.

For the Carrot Cupcakes

100g g soft brown sugar

160ml of vegetable oil

2 eggs

1 tsp of ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp of ground nutmeg

200g of self rising flour

Approx 150g grated carrot

about 60g of roughly chopped walnuts

Pre-heat the oven to 180C and line a cupcake tray with patty cases.

Put the sugar in a mixing bowl and beat in the 2 eggs and oil.

Stir in the cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg.

Sift the SR flour over the bowl, add the carrot and walnuts and then fold to combine.

Spoon the mix into the patty cases and bake for about 20 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted. When done, cool the cakes for 10 minutes before turning them out onto a rack to cool completely. 

For the Cream Cheese Icing

65g of unsalted butter, softened

150g of cream cheese, softened

80g icing sugar, sifted

Using an electric beater, combine all ingredients well, until fluffy. Set aside in a cool place.

For the toffee walnuts - optional

12 whole walnuts

2 tbs sugar

In a pan over a medium to high heat, melt the sugar until it is golden in colour. Immediately add the walnuts and toss to coat with a spoon. Immediately transfer them carefully to a heat proof tray to cool and harden.

Once the cupcakes have cooled, carefully slice a hole into the cake about the 2cm in diameter and about 2cm deep. Remove the "hole" and cut about half of the bottom of this off,set aside. Spoon about 1 tsp of the caramel into the hole and then replace the top of the "hole" on the cupcake. Repeat with all 12.

Next, using a flat knife, spread the icing evenly over the cupcake and top with a toffee walnut. Repeat with all 12.