Chocolate Roulade - a challenge

As promised here is an update on my post about Sponge (Swiss) Rolls. I don't recall ever attempting to make a sponge roll before, so failure last month (at the first attempt) was no real surprise to me.
However, I am extremely keen to master the perfect sponge roll. My goal is to make a Chocolate Roulade just like the one that appears on the front cover of the Cuisine November 2013 edition.  And..... and I want to win a case of Daniel Le Brun bubbles for the best entry in their Christmas recipe competition.
One month on I am still trying to get a Chocolate Roulade to roll without cracking and/or splitting. My husband thinks I am getting a little obsessive about it and he is over testing Chocolate Roulades! I followed the recipe carefully. So why is it so hard and why doesn't it look like the one on Cuisine cover? Hummmphh!
I went to my foodie friends and family bakers asking for their tips on 'how to get a sponge to actually roll' without splitting into three pieces.
This is the advice I garnered
Use a bigger/longer tin
Don't use a fan bake oven
Don't cook any longer than 10 mins at 180 degrees C
It should be cooked when you press your finger in the middle and it 'bounces back'
Let the roll cool slightly (what is slightly?), turn onto a damp tea towel, roll up
Turn it out onto a damp tea towel as soon as it is out of the oven, roll up asap
Cool slightly! Turn out onto a dry tea towel dusted with icing sugar - it will roll perfectly
Hubby's suggestion -Roll it long ways, the other way is across the grain - ummm I don't think it has a grain!
My idea - get a new shiny red Kitchen Aid - that will help - it didn't! But I am loving my new cake mixer just the same.
There is more to the perfect sponge roll than I realised!
I have taken all their expert advice on board - to no avail! My latest roll still cracked/split big time when I tried to roll it up. But I am not giving up! Further research on the web suggests to me I need to buy a different tin ( I was not aware tin size depended on how many eggs you used) and to use cornflour instead of flour (thinking about it, that's what my mother used for her sponges). Both tips are worth pursuing and I am going to have another crack at it (excuse the pun). Chocolate Roulade number four is coming up!
The good news is the end result still looks amazing, tastes wonderful and when the rolls are covered in chocolate you don't really notice the splits or,  that it is layers of slabs wrapped in cream.
I will nail the challenge as I love this recipe for its chocolaty richness and hazelnut flavours.
And it will have pride of place on my Christmas 2013 table.

Chocolate Roulade with Hazelnut Cream and Croquant - attempt # 3

Chocolate Roulade attempt # 2 - more like a slab!

Left over Chocolate Roulade for morning tea!

I love my new cake mixer

Farro and Pearl Barley continued...

If you are like me you will have childhood memories of the ubiquitous pearl barley. It was always the standard addition to our mothers homemade vegetable soup, often boiled so long it turned to mush. But (luckily for us) it is now appearing in so many different other ways. I really love the texture of this nutritious grain (note my risotto post using pearl barley). I looks like I'm in a bit of a grain phase at the moment! 

Last week I found myself with the remaining pieces of a 2kg pumpkin. I also had an ongoing problem with a large hoard of things in my pantry, space was limited, so the thinking cap went on. What to produce that would deal with the pumpkin and hopefully use up some of the items that keep tumbling out of my pantry. Low and behold this recipe appeared in our Sunday paper. It is totally delicious and should be very appealing to any lover of vegetables and if you make some adjustments prefect for my gluten free and vegan friends and of course leaving out the meat, to vegetarians!
The recipe is in the similar vein to the Farro recipe I posted last month. However, this one uses pearl barley which has the advantage of being easier to find and is a little less expensive than Farro. The whole meal would work out to be less than $10. The addition of smoked paprika sits nicely with the chorizo and gives the dish a different sort of flavour. Sorry I do not have a photo of the final dish but the recipe is detailed below.
Yesterday I cooked another dish along a similar vein - created by Ginny Grant in Cuisine -  but you add 2tbsp of pomegranate molasses and 1tbsp of olive oil to the cooked warm grain (for this I used a mixture of farro and pearl barley) and the pumpkin was roasted with 1tbsp of pomegranate molasses. Two roast onions are added and a little feta crumbled on top of the salad. I served it as a vegetarian main but for meat lovers it would be great as a side with BBQ lamb.
I finished the dish with a garnish of fresh pomegranate seeds, it looked lovely and tasted delicious. In fact the bowl was almost licked clean!
http://cuisine.co.nz/cuisine.nsf/recipes/farro-roasted-pumpkin-red-onion-salad?Opendocument&HighLight=2,farro,roasted,pumpkin
So give these grains a try, they add a wonderful chewy texture to your salads and definitely make a change from rice and couscous salads for the summer BBQ's.
Warm pearl barley, roasted pumpkin and chorizo salad

Fiona Smith – SST November 2013

Ingredients

1/2 - 3/4 cup pearl barley

1 kg pumpkin, peeled and cubed 2cm (drizzle with honey for a sweeter flavour if desired)

1 tsp dried oregano or 1tbsp fresh oregano, chopped

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp smoked paprika

Juice and finely grated zest from a lemon

2 tsp red or white wine vinegar

4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

½ c pumpkin seeds (or sunflower seeds)

200g chorizo, slice 1cm (leave out if vegetarian dish preferred)

½ cup fresh coriander chopped

Method

Preheat oven to 190°C.

Rinse pearl barley under cold water and drain. Cook in boiling salted water until tender. Drain.

Toss the pumpkin with the oregano and oil and season with salt.

Spread out on a baking tray lined with baking paper and cook in oven for

20-25 minutes, turning once, until tender.

In a large serving bowl, whisk together paprika, lemon juice and zest,

vinegar and extra virgin olive oil then stir in warm barley and mix well.

Heat a fry pan over a medium heat. Add the pumpkin seeds and cook for a minute shaking

the pan, until they pop. Set aside.

Heat the pan or grill till hot, cook the chorizo for 2-3 minutes on each side until brown.

Add the pumpkin, chorizo and coriander to the pearl barley mix and toss all together.

Sprinkle with pumpkins seeds and serve.

Serves 4-6

Note – Gluten free option - substitute gluten free chorizo and quinoa for barley

Farro, pearl barley, roast pumpkin and onion salad with pomegranate

Asparagus, Pea and Lemon Risotto

Here is a simple little gem I made last week. On a night when I had no energy (and no real longing) to cook, I went searching for an inspiration in the fridge -  all I found  was a bunch of asparagus!
'I feel like something made with brown rice, said the man of the house'.
Ok, so that part was easy. One cup of rice and three cups of water into the rice cooker - switched on, done. Thinking what goes with asparagus I came up with peas and a freshly picked lemon. What transpired was a gorgeous, buttery, lemony, risotto that rocked our socks off.
It's often said, the simple meals can the ones we treasure the most and the ones we want to eat again.
Asparagus, Pea and Lemon Risotto
1 bunch of asparagus - steamed until just tender - smothered in butter - chopped in half
1 cup of frozen peas (cook in salted water steaming the asparagus)
1 large lemon - zest and juice
1 cup of brown rice cooked and kept warm in the rice cooker. 
Gently stir in the vegetables and lemon zest and juice.
Taste for seasoning then serve immediately.
Serves 2 greedy, hungry people!

Sponge or Swiss roll - a bit of an experiment

Idling thumbing through an old magazine and spying a chocolate sponge roulade I got the inspiration to make an old fashioned Sponge or Swiss Roll. Do you remember those? A lovely yellow sponge with homemade raspberry jam and whipped cream? I think housewives used to make them because they looked rather grand, especially when you wanted to make an impression.
My mother was great at making sponges, and we were particularly good at scoffing large portions of said sponges when we had half the chance.  More often than not we got the left overs from afternoon teas, consequently not much to share between four greedy children!!!
I really cannot remember ever making a Sponge or Swiss Roll.
I needed cheering up, over the last week or so the weather in Welly has been disgusting, think gale force winds, persistent torrential rain, a wrecked broccoli patch and you get the picture. Even our dog refused to go for a walk!!
We are also looking after our neighbour's chickens (again) - for two weeks - which is wonderful. We feed them twice a day (along with a few left over scraps now and then) and we I have a daily supply of beautiful organic eggs just begging to be used!
Last weekend I felt  it was time to make a Sponge Roll.
Out came my battered 1973 Edmonds Cookbook. In spite of religiously following instructions the result was a bit of a flop - for a couple of reasons. My equally battered 40 year old Amco sponge roll tin had a slight bend in it, not a problem when you are baking slices but clearly a problem for sponges as the bowed bit made the sponge run down one end - result - one thin end of the roll that looked like a burnt tongue. The other end looked good! But not quite good enough to post a photo!
Suffice to say the Amco tin has been sent to the tip.
On turning out the sponge onto a tea towel dusted with icing sugar and carefully rolling the sponge it cracked, right down the middle - apparently a common occurrence if you don't cool the roll to the exact temperature before rolling! Mmmmm.... The good news was, once  smothered with whipped cream and freshly sliced strawberries you would never have known about the disaster that lay beneath! The sponge itself was just the right taste and texture.
However, back to the drawing board for a perfect Sponge Roll.....
I received my Cuisine magazine this week, and I couldn't believe it - on the front page was a Chocolate Roulade. 'It's a sign I said to my hubby!' I am going to give this recipe a go - maybe the chocolate will help make it perfect. And I am especially keen as they are running a competition for subscribers to bake something from this edition and write to them about the results. The prize is a dozen Daniel le Brun bubbles. Very timely for Christmas celebrations.
Definitely worth another go at that Sponge Roll.
I have bought a new Sponge Roll tin, the lovely fresh eggs are ready and I just have to perfect the rolling bit.... watch this space

A salad using Farro

Always on the lookout for something a little different, I spotted this recipe for Cypriot Salad in the latest Cuisine magazine. It's a great wholesome recipe for a vegetarian main or for meat lovers, a lovely accompaniment for chicken or lamb.
I thought it would be the perfect dish for a recent celebration lunch and (if there were leftovers) a great dish to take to a couple of vegetarians in the family who have recently had a new baby. We all know what those first few weeks are like! And yes, they were most grateful for the leftovers, this dish in particular as it contained no dairy (apart from the garnish of a dollop of yoghurt), perfect for their Vegan guest staying over to help with said baby.
It contains Farro, a grain I had not used before. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farro. It comes from the wheat family, a nice change from bulgar wheat, easy to cook, very filling and tasty.
I had a bit of a challenge sourcing Farro but finally found a 500g bag at Moore Wilson's http://www.moorewilson.co.nz/, a great shop in Wellington where almost anything can be found. I would recommend a visit, think a 'toy shop' for cooks and food lovers!
I love experimenting with new ingredients, sometimes they end up languishing in my pantry but more often than not they end up as a favourite. In this case one to be used for special occasions as Farro is imported and not cheap! To find it, you might have to shop around. A good organic shop or health store will have it but I find once something has caught on - more people bring it in and the price tends to come down a bit.
I always smile to myself and think of my mother when I cook new dishes, she was not a fancy cook and once considered Couscous (instead of spuds) a 'bit posh'. I suppose in her day feeding a hungry family of five, (without all the fancy gadgets and the variety of food we have now) it was always a mission to get a meal on the table, on time, within a weekly budget. The only thing considered exotic or fancy back in those days would have been a stir fry!
Cypriot salad can be prepared the night before, by cooking the Farro and lentils and roasting the pumpkin. You can then assemble everything and add the dressing closer to serving. I really like all the nuts and seeds in this salad too, they make a lovely crunchy addition to the Farro's chewy texture. And if you love Moroccan flavours, you will love this. I have included the link to the recipe. I hope you enjoy it!
http://cuisine.co.nz/cuisine.nsf/recipes/cypriot-salad-with-roast-pumpkin-currants?Opendocument&HighLight=2,cypriot,salad

Apricot and almond slice

This is one of those decadent slices that can be a little addictive. All the ingredients (on their own) are quite yummy as snacks but combined into a slice it is heaven in a slice tin!
The recipe comes from the Brown Sugar Café in Taihape and was requested by a Dominion Post reader in October 2012. (I can't remember the last time I passed through Taihape but clearly this cafe knows their stuff when it comes to baking).

I filed it away for future reference and looking for inspiration (and something to use a part opened tin of condensed milk) on a wet Saturday afternoon I decided it was time to try it. It's great. I like that it is simple to make. It's a lovely mix of sweet, chewy and crunchy and of course all those fruit and nuts must be good for you. Just forget about the butter and sugar!! 

The crushed malt biscuits gives the slice a nice flavour too. I remember as children (in Winter) we lined up in the kitchen, mouths opened wide, for our weekly dessertspoon of sweet sticky malt extract. My mother kept the tin high up in a kitchen cupboard, I wonder why?
I certainly did not give it to my children when they were little. But according to 'The Telegraph" in 2011, it was having a bit of resurgence. (Interestingly it is still made here in New Zealand under the brand name Maltexo). It comes from a by-product of the brewing process, contains a large amount of sugar and a bit of Vitamin A and riboflavin and is described as 'a tonic to boost general well being'. At one time it was very popular for parents to give to their post-war children. Being a baby boomer we just caught the edge of the wave for such treatments!

Anyway the hint of malt brought back some lovely childhood memories for me. It also reminds me of those sticky MacIntosh sweets - the dangerous ones that can remove your fillings/teeth in a flash - I no longer indulge in those either!
This slice will now be a regular in my 'baking for a special treat repertoire '.

Apricot and Almond Slice – Brown Sugar Café in Taihape  (as in Dominion Post October 2012)

Melt together

125g butter

¾ cup brown sugar

Mix in

½ packet crushed malt biscuits

½ packet crushed vanilla biscuits

Press into a lined slice tin

Base ready for pressing into tin

Place on base, in order:

½ cup chocolate chips

½ cup chopped apricots

½ cup coconut thread

½ cup sliced almonds (I used unsalted roasted)

Drizzle over 1 tin condensed milk

Bake at 30 minutes at 150°C

Final layering

Condensed milk drizzled on top

Cooked ready to cut

Kedgeree - the quick one!

This is how you can use up some of those left overs in the fridge, and a recipe especially good if you are short on time!
I just happened to have some cooked brown rice, cooked left-over fish, lots of organic eggs, some fresh coriander and some tasty curry paste in the fridge. It all screamed a Kedgeree. It has been quite a few years since I last made one but I had a vague idea what ingredients to use and just went from there. I have to say it was extremely tasty and so easy to make, a child could do it.
I have since checked my books and while mine isn't exactly the same, it was pretty close. I used coriander instead of parsley and pan fried fish instead of smoked fish.
This is my 'thrown together' recipe, perfect for a quick lunch or light dinner.
Fish Kedgeree - depending on your appetite, this quantity will feed about 2-4 people
Ingredients
1 large onion - finely diced
1 large carrot  - finely diced
Some fish - preferably smoked but I used non-smoked - in any amount, to your taste
2 hard boiled eggs - chopped
1-2 cups cooked rice (I like brown but it will work well with white rice too)
Fresh coriander or parsley - about 1/4 cup finely chopped,
Curry Paste (I used about a heaped teaspoon of mild, but add to your taste) 
Method
Heat a little oil or ghee in a pan,
fry an onion until soft, add a finely chopped carrot and cook until just done ( you want to leave a bit of firmness in the carrot).
Add curry paste and cook for a few minutes - stirring all the time.
Add rice and stir lightly until warmed through. Add the roughly chopped egg, gently stir through.
Stir in chopped coriander or parsley with a little garnish on top and serve.