Gnocchi know-how

For many years I have always wondered why my Gnocchi and Perogi mash is quite heavy. Well I finally found out the secret is to roast the potatoes on a bed of rock salt which draws out excess moisture resulting in a lighter, fluffier gnocchi.

 

Potato Gnocchi

Serves 4 as a side, or 2 healthy eaters.

1 cup rock salt

4 large (800g total) Desiree potatoes

1 teaspoon sea salt

2 egg yolks

1/2 cup plain flour

Potatoes roasting on a bed of rock salt

Preheat oven to 200°C/180°C fan-forced. Place rock salt in centre of large baking tray. Place potatoes on top. Bake for 1 hour and 30 minutes or until tender. Set aside for 10 minutes to cool. 

Push all the potato through the sieve

 

Cut potatoes in half and rub the potato through a fine sieve until only the skin remains. Alternately, remove and discard skin from potatoes. Using a potato ricer, process potato flesh into a large bowl. Set aside to cool for 10 minutes. 

Add sea salt, yolks and half of the flour to potato. Using a wooden spoon, stir to combine. Turn dough onto a well-floured (the other half cup of flour) surface. Knead gently until smooth. Divide into 4 portions. Roll 1 portion into a 30cmlong log. Using a lightly floured knife, cut into 2cm pieces. Using a lightly floured fork, press each piece to make an indentation. Place on a tray lined with baking paper. Cover with a clean tea towel. Repeat with remaining portions. 

By adding only half the flour at a time it prevents you from adding too much flour to the mix and drying it out by the time you roll the dough.

Roll into logs and cut

Pillows of heaven

 

 

 

 

Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil over high heat. Add one-third of the gnocchi. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes or until gnocchi rises to surface. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to a large bowl. Cover to keep warm. Repeat with remaining gnocchi. If re-frying gnocchi sprinkle with a little olive oil to stop from sticking together.

Ready when gnocchi are floating on the surface

 Gently stir in desired sauce or pan fry with other ingredients. Serve topped with parmesan.

Kapusta Rolls

One of the main traditional dishes that my mum always cooks are "Kapusta" or cabbage rolls.

Golabki (pronounced ga-WUMP-kee) means "little pigeons" in Polish and is a reference to their size and shape. These stuffed cabbage rolls simmered in a tomato sauce are popular throughout Eastern Europe. In Russia they are known as golubtsy and in Ukraine as Holubtsi (or as my Nana called them). Legend has it that a king of Poland fed his army with golabki before a key battle in 1465 and the subsequent victory was credited to this hearty meal beforehand. 

 

My old original recipe

1 large Cabbage 

500g minced beef

500g minced pork

1 large onion, chopped

2 cups cooked rice 

(the grains should still be firm to the touch)

1 egg

Salt and Pepper

Paprika

Chopped Parsley

Tomato Soup 

Water

Fresh chopped parsley

Fill a very large stockpot three-quarters full with water and bring to a rapid boil. While bringing the water to a boil, use a thin, sharp knife to make deep cuts around the core of the large cabbage (cut into the cabbage in a circle about 1/4 inch out from the core). 

Lift out the core, making a hole about 2 inches wide and 2 1/2 inches deep. Stick a long cooking fork into the core hole of the large cabbage, and carefully plunge it into the pot of rapidly boiling water. The outer leaves will begin to fall off. Leave them in the boiling water for a few minutes until they're limp and flexible enough for stuffing; then take them out one at a time, and drain. Try not to tear the leaves. When all the usable leaves are removed, wash the leaves carefully in cold water. Find your largest leaves, and set them out on a plate.

As you remove leaves, some will tear and otherwise not be suitable for using as a wrapper. Do not discard these, as they can be used to line the pot. Trim thick centre vein from bottom of each leaf.

Mix onions, minced meat, rice, paprika, salt and pepper. Spoon 2-3 tablespoons of meat mixture onto wider end of flattened out leaf. Roll leaf up and over meat, tuck in sides of leaf, and continue to roll to use all leaves and meat mixture. Fold in sides and roll from wide end to narrower end.

 

 Place all cabbage rolls into casserole dish and lined with flat cabbage leaves, cover after half filling with water.

Pour a can of tomato soup over the entire top, top with parsley and cover with tight fitting lid. I sometimes fry onion, garlic and diced ham and add to the sauce for extra flavour before cooking.

Cook at a med low heat for 1.5 hours until thoroughly cooked and cabbage is tender. I like to put mine in the slow cooker on low for 8 hours or high for 4 hours.

  

So, as the Polish say,

"Jedzcie, pijcie i popuszczajcie pasa"... "Eat, drink and loosen your belt".

Sunday Morning Crumpet

It has been a while since I have uploaded any blogs. That's not to say I haven't written any lately. I had quite a few waiting for me to insert photos but it looks like the Blogger layout has changed and I am not sure if they were deleted. Until I find them, here is a new one to get your taste-buds going.  Hope you enjoy the crumpets as much as Heath and I did.

Love Barbie xxx

Home-made Crumpets

 

2 tsp. (7g/1 sachet) dried yeast
2 tsp. caster sugar
1/2 cup (125ml) warm milk
1/2 cup (125ml) warm water
1 1/2 cups (225g) plain flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup (125ml) water, extra
1/2 tsp. bicarbonate of soda
100g butter, softened

  

Combine the yeast, sugar, milk and water in a medium bowl.  

Set aside in a warm, draught-free place for 10 minutes, or until foaming.  (I turned the oven on low and put the bowl on a tea-towel on the open oven door since the house was cold) 

Combine the flour and salt in a large bowl.  

Make a well in the centre and add the milk mixture.  

Stir until well combined.  

Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 1 hour or until mixture doubles in size. 

(I put back onto the open oven door) 

Combine the extra water and bicarbonate of soda in a jug.  

Use a balloon whisk to whisk the flour mixture until it deflates to the original size.  

Gradually add the water mixture, whisking well between each addition, until well combined and smooth.  

Cover with plastic wrap and set aside for 30 minutes to rest. 

  

Brush a large non-stick frying pan with oil to grease.

 (I only had a stainless steel frypan so used baking paper in the pan). 

Brush 5 egg rings with oil to lightly grease.

 Place frying pan over medium-low heat. Pour 2 tbs of mixture into the egg rings in pan and cook for 5 minutes or until bubbles rise to the surface and base is golden and top is set.  

Turn and cook for 1 minute or until lightly golden.  

Transfer to a wire rack.  

Continue in 2 more batches with remaining batter.

Yummy hot and fresh or toasted with butter and honey. If you are anything like us we found the yeast in them filled us up so I have put some in the fridge and freezer for another day.

Vintage High Tea 2

My second high tea at Cafe de Rabey went splendidly. A fabulous day of great company food and champagne. Thanks to all my beautiful friends for joining me. I will post recipes separately.

Today's menu

Me ready to serve our high tea

Strawberries and Creme Cupcakes

Banoffee Pies

Vintage High Tea 1

On Sunday 29th May, 2011 I held my first Vintage high tea at Cafe de Rabey. I love cooking for others and I had the most fabulous day with some wonderful friends. I am already looking forward to my next one.

Cafe de Rabey High Tea Menu

Royal Albert Tea Service

Creme Brûlée

Baci Cupcakes

High tea service for two

 

Bali lunch Fri 27th May

A couple of my girlfriends were coming over for a Friday lunch so the night before I made creme brûlée. I really need to get myself a blow torch. The grill just doesn't cut it for doing toffee. My custard re-cooked a little, but it is still oh so tasty. Now with dessert made what shall I make for the girls for lunch tomorrow. Thinking Holubtsi if I get my act together in the morning. Looks like it will be a surprise lunch for them & me both.....

Well roll on Friday morning and I knew I would change my mind on what to cook for lunch with the girls. It's not even 8am and am thinking of Nasi Goreng and Satay chicken. Maybe it is the cool morning that makes me think of wonderful Bali heat. Bring back my summer I have had enough of the cold already.

Nasi Goreng

Satay Chicken

Anyone hungry?

High tea and afternoon tea

With my birthday looming I decided next Sunday would be a good time to get together with the girls for a high tea. It started off with a booking at Cafe at the Hyatt with a couple of my work friends but after much thought I decided to pull out my china and cook myself. Today being a cold lazy Sunday I spent it looking through copious amounts of cookbooks to put together the perfect tea party. I decided to call it my Vintage High Tea since it will be a combination of using my Old Country Roses china at the high table full of afternoon tea yummies. 

A modified example of my invite

Just in case you were confused as I was, high tea and afternoon tea is not the same thing.  Here are some interesting titbits about tea time, the high and the low:

Teatime originated with the Duchess of Bedford (1788-1861) who needed a little pick-me-up around 4 in the afternoon to fill that long stretch between the morning and evening meals.  At first, she snuck her tea snacks, but then she wised up and invited her friends, and made it the fashion.  My guess is somebody caught her sneaking cookies and she had to quick! pretend that it was the elegant thing to do all along. 

I also read somewhere that fashionable ladies didn't eat much at regular meals, due to their clothing, corsets and whatnot, and ladylike behaviour restrictions that kept them to a nibble.  So even if they could wait for dinner, they wouldn't ever have a fully satisfied appetite, and a little something in the afternoon would be just the thing.

High tea was eaten at a regular high table, hence the term "high" tea.  Afternoon tea was generally laid on small, lower tables, but obviously the term "low" tea didn't catch on.  Too many class connotations, probably.  Interesting that "high" tea was actually the dinner meal for the common people.  Taken later in the evening (around 6-ish), you would usually get more substantial food at high tea than the dainty little crust-removed sandwiches and sweet cakes most people usually associate with the afternoon tea ritual.

Most places that serve "high tea" are actually serving a variation on the traditional English afternoon "low" tea, and you'll usually get small finger foods and sweets with your tea.  

I have only got china for 8, 7 guests plus myself, so the first round of invites are out. Menu is in the planning. Wednesday I will drop into Harbour town to see if they have any matching serviettes, plus down to FAL to buy up chocolate in bulk. Let the fun begin.

Easter cooking

In Italy there is a saying- Natale con i tuoi, Pasqua con chi vuoi. Christmas with your family and Easter with whoever you like. Well that sums up what it is like with our family. We always spend Christmas together but when it comes to Easter we tend to share it around. Well this Easter was a bit like that. It was a foodie weekend for sure shared with some of our good friends. 

I try to be a good catholic girl who always has pancakes on Shrove Tuesday and never any meat on Ash Wednesday or Good Friday. So what was I going to cook this year that will make the taste buds sing. Heath and I have been toying with making chilli mussels for ages so that is what got us started so we invited Craig and Jess plus our neighbours Craig and Bec over for a seafood fiesta. Let the menu planning begin.

 On Good Friday we started with Pizza Pane. After dragging my bread maker out and making some dough we topped it with garlic and rosemary and baked it in the BBQ on our pizza stones. This was followed up with chilli mussels and basil coconut prawns and finished off with macadamia crusted barramundi and salad by Bec. Jess made us pumpkin tarts for dessert and we washed it down with port by the fire.

Easter Saturday night was spent at Marcus and Jasmine's with the Collier family. We ordered yummy takeaway Chinese followed up with a chocolate buffet all prepared by Jas. Oh my goodness there was truffles galore and how can one say no...I didn't bother to try.

Easter Bunny arrived on Sunday and Mr Lindor came out to play. Doggie chocs and Bundy don't seem to go hand in hand. He was a little hyper all day.

Easter Monday was also Anzac Day. At 430am we wrapt ourselves up in our warm gear and made our way to King's Park for Dawn Service. LEST WE FORGET. After service we headed back to the park closest to our car and cooked a BBQ breakfast of bacon and eggs and toast the diggers with a warming coffee laced with rum. After a small nap we got cracking again and had the Steven's family and Cosima and Tristan over for home-made pizza's for dinner.

As a child, I we always had holidays with my mother's family who were Polish (Granddad) and Ukraine (Nana). There were always Pierogi (which are Polish dumplings) or as mum calls them Pyrohy in Ukraine, pronounced a little like pillow-hee. Mum has made some Pierogi and has them in the freezer for me so I hope my sisters don't steal them. Over the next few months I will post you some pics when I get around to making some myself. I also want to get on and make some Golumpki (cabbage rolls). Even mum thinks mine are better than hers.

Good thing these holiday food orgies only come a few times a year!

Apple Coconut Muffins

Sue, Julie and Jo were coming over to visit this morning. I was wondering what to cook for morning tea when I found a can of pie apples in the back of the pantry. Here is the Muffins I managed to whip up for the girls. 

Apple Coconut Muffins

Apple Coconut Muffins

2 ¼ cups self-raising flour

¾ cup desiccated coconut

1 ¼ cup brown sugar, firmly packed

¾ cup canned pie apple

2 eggs, lightly beaten

¾ cup coconut milk

¾ cup oil

Demerara sugar, for sprinkling

Grease or line 12 hole muffin pan

Sift flour into a large bowl, stir in coconut, sugar, apples, eggs, milk and oil until just combined.

Spoon mixture into prepared pans and sprinkle with demerara sugar.

Cook in a moderately hot oven (190oC) for about 20 minutes, or until cooked when tested.

Stand for 2 minutes before turning out on wire rack to cool.