Stephen Fry - All about I (What I wish I knew when I was 18)

When you have a spare 1/2 hour, do yourself a favour and settle down on the couch with a nice cuppa and this video. What's it about? So much! Stephen Fry just sharing some of his perceptive thoughts on life - human nature, the internet, kindness, authority...all sorts! He's got so much to share so all these gems just seem to roll off his tongue - but far from coming across as being un-thought-out, they offer us much to reflect on. So do watch when you can pay proper attention, not while emailing someone at the same time. For me it was 30 minutes spent in fine company.

Leek Tart (Tarte aux Poireaux)

Unlike in New Zealand where 'real men don't eat quiche', French men are only too happy to enjoy quiches and tarts and Tarte au Poireaux is one of Luc's favourite meals. His mum whips up great tarts in no time using store bought pastry and a custardy base made of eggs and creme fraiche. Unfortunately for countries like NZ and esp Australia, the store-bought pastries there are usually rubbish so it's well worth making your own - which is fairly quick if you multitask and get another step done while pastry is chilling. Creme fraiche is also not widely available and very expensive in any case, so while living in Australia, we started making this version, with recipes for a savoury custard and a shortcrust pastry (I made wholemeal) from Perth wholefood chef Jude Blereau. They both come from her book 'Wholefood: heal, nourish, delight' which is a great resource book for getting back to basics and tips on preparing different ingredients. 

This recipe is for leek tart (tarte aux poireaux) which is simple but delicious. You can use the basic recipe to make other tarts with winter or summer roast vegetables, things like pumpkin and blue cheese, spinach and pine nuts etc. 'Wholefood' cookbook also has a version I'd like to try with sweet potato, caremelized onion and artichoke. So use the idea and have fun!

Please forgive this lacklustre photo - I didn't think to take one when it came out of the oven so this is of a leftover piece reheated (and thus pastry overcooked) which we had the next day with wholemeal garlic bread and orange & grilled fennel salad.

Leek Tart

Ingredients:

1 quantity (450g / 1 lb)shortcrust pastry - see recipe below
1 quantity of basic savoury custard - see recipe below
3 medium leeks, (hard green tops removed), well cleaned and chopped
1 T olive oil
optional:
2-4 t dijon mustard
⅓ c grated melting cheese like 'tasty', cheddar, gruyere or compte

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 200˚C (350˚F / Gas mark 4).
2. Line a 24cm (Diameter) x 3.5cm (Deep) / (9½ x 1¼ inch) tart dish with the pastry and trim the edges. (Tin or enamel tart dishes are best to transfer heat quickly to set gluten in pastry before butter all melts, while ceramic dishes diffuse heat which can result in soggier pastry). Put in the fridge for at least 20 minutes, or until well chilled (otherwise the pastry can slump down away from the sides while cooking and won't be nice and flakey).
3. While the pastry-shell is chilling, prepare the leeks. Make sure they are well-cleaned of any grit and dirt by slicing in half lengthways - so you can separate the leaves - and rinsing well in cold water. Sauté the leeks in the olive oil, stirring so they don't brown. When they are tender remove from heat.
4. Blind-bake the pastry-shell: Line the well chilled pastry shell with baking paper and fill with baking beans or raw rice. Put into the hot oven on the hot baking tray and bake blind for 15 minutes. Remove baking paper (being careful not to spill the beans / rice. These, once cool, can be stored and reused for future blind baking). Bake pastry-shell for a further 5 minutes or until the base of the pastry is dry.
5. While the pastry is blind baking you could prepare the savoury custard (see recipe below).
6. Next, we spread our ingredients (here, leek) over the base of the pastry-shell and pour over the custard, using only enough to bring the level to just below the top of the pastry. If using cheese and/or mustard, first use the back of a spoon to spread the mustard over the base of the tart then sprinkle over cheese before adding the leek. 
7. Carefully place the filled tart in the oven and bake for 15 minutes (at 200˚C / 400˚F / Gas 6) before turning down to 180˚C (350˚F / Gas 4) and check after a further 50 minutes (or earlier, if you think your oven is too hot or you're using a fanbake setting. The tart should be set and becoming golden on top. If you would like to top it with cheese, sprinkle over a good melting cheese approximately 20 minutes before it is ready (I don't feel the need to do that when I'm using tasty organic leeks).

Shortcrust Pastry (Wholemeal or plain)

125-180g (4 ½ - 6 oz) unsalted butter
250 g (9 oz / 2 cups) flour (wholemeal, atta or plain wheat or spelt)*
90-170 ml (3-5½ fl oz) ice-cold water

*Wholemeal flours require a wetter dough (as they absorb more liquid). You can choose to mix wholemeal and plain flour or wholemeal and atta flour if you like. I tend to use just one or the other, depending on what I'm making. With many savoury tarts I prefer the nutty flavour of wholemeal.

Method:

1. Using a pastry cutter / butter knife / your fingertips, cut the butter into the flour in the bowl until it is incorporated but still chunky (small chunks). If using a food processor, pulse one or two times, or until ready to turn out into a bowl.
2. Begin to mix the water gradually into the flour and butter (using a butter knife to cut the wet into the dry). Use only as much water as you need - the higher the percentage of wholemeal/whole wheat flour you use, the more water needed. Once the mixture looks evenly moist, bring it together into a ball (but don't knead or work it too much).
3. Flatten the ball of dough and chill for about 20 minutes, long enough to take the softness off the butter. The dough is now ready to roll out and use.

Basic Savoury Custard

Enough for a simple tart with few ingredients. The more ingredients you add, the less custard you will need.

For a 24cm (Diameter) x 3.5cm (Deep) / (9½ x 1¼ inch) Tart Dish

500ml (17 fl oz / 2 cups) milk (dairy or soy)

small sprig of fresh thyme or fresh oregano or green garlic (to infuse soy milk)

1 fresh bay leaf

1 garlic clove, quartered

sea salt, to taste

freshly ground black pepper, to taste

2 eggs

1 egg yolk

Put the milk in a saucepan (along with your choice of seasonings if using soy milk), the bay leaf and the garlic and place over a very low heat. Don't allow it to boil, but heat it until it just begins to steam. Remove from the heat, cover, then put in the fridge.

When cool, remove the skin (if there is one) and herb sprig (but not the leaves) and mash the garlic into the custard. Season to taste with salt and pepper, then whisk in the eggs.

Orange and Grilled Fennel Salad

Good idea: Eating salads every day. 

Bad idea: The salad only being lettuce.

Here in France I'm impressed that they get their greens every day but a bit disappointed 'salad' refers to just lettuce, or in the cold months, yummier nutty, buttery 'mache'*

To me, salad implies a mixture of things. A chopped apple isn't a fruit salad by itself, is it? I guess in New Zealand we're used to eating lots of different salads, often as side dish, sometimes as a meal on their own. The French have a salad (lettuce) course, which I commend but intend to enhance!

So here's my first offering, that yummy mache (or your substitute like baby spinach, beet greens etc) paired with salad-in-its-own-right combo of fennel and orange. I like the last two ingredients fresh as a salad/desert in summer but as its winter (and I have a little extra time on my hands) I've been grilling the fennel (you could do this on the BBQ in summer). It's incredible how the flavour changes - it mellows and becomes ever more sweet, much like garlic does when you roast it. Of course, it has its own flavour which I love and, best of all, grilling them takes almost no oil and is quick.

*According to veggiegardeningtips.com, "Mache, also known as corn salad, rapunzel, field salad, or lamb’s lettuce is a little known salad green with a mild lettuce like flavor." It's common in this part of France where it grows well along the sandy banks of the Loire and handles the cold admirably. It's supposed to be a great source of vitamen C and iron. And who could go past a name like Rapunzel? This is the veggie Rapunzel's mother was craving when she was preggers!

Orange and Grilled Fennel Salad

Ingredients:

1 large orange
1/2 bulb of fennel
2 handfuls of mache  or baby spinach / other salad greens
3 sprigs of fresh mint
2 t balsamic vinegar
2 T extra virgin olive oil
pinch sea salt
black pepper to taste

Method:

1. Wash mache / greens (in sink or bowl of cold water to remove sandy grit). Remove to colander or salad spinner to drain. Rinse and slice mint and add to the mache/greens. 
2. Remove tough outer leaves of fennel bulb and discard. Chop fennel into slices. Grill on a very lightly oiled grill (or put on a tray and use oven grill with door ajar). They don't need to be heaps grilled, just to get a little colour / a couple of grill lines.
3. While fennel is grilling, peel orange (slice off peel to avoid bitter pith), and chop into disks and then segments and put in a salad bowl. Squeeze in any extra juice from peel.
4. Add to the salad bowl the vinegar, olive oil, salt and a good few grinds of pepper. Mix.
5. Add the fennel and when ready to serve, the mache/greens. Mix leaves through the orange vinaigrette very gently. Mache and similar salad greens bruise easily and go soggy and look terrible if you leave them sitting in dressing for long.

I served this with a leek tart with homemade wholemeal pastry, very nice!

Asian Noodle Style Spaghetti Squash

Having only just cooked my first ever spaghetti squash (see how-to below), it seems a bit cheeky to be handing out advice. But the thing I discovered was just how easy and awesome this vegetable is to cook with, so wanted to share the news for others like me who are new to it. I'm all excited about it so just indulge me, and perhaps, share your tips too!

One spaghetti squash produced enough for 4 adult dinner servings. As I was cooking for 2 adults, we had it with roasted garlic, steamed broccoli and capsicum pesto for dinner last night and for lunch today I used the leftover squash to invent a sort of cheats pad-thai (using ingredients from my not very authentically Asian pantry). Both were great and I'm sharing my stir-fry recipe here:

Pad-Thai inspired Spaghetti Squash Stir-Fry
Serves 2. Vegetarian (or vegan if you skip the omelette)

Ingredients:
1 cup green veges you have (I used steamed broccoli, peas. You might have some yummy Asian greens or sugarsnap peas)
1 or 2 organic freerange eggs
2 medium shallots / 1/2 med onion, sliced thinly
1 1/2 cups roasted, prepared spaghetti squash (technique follows)

Other things you can add:
70 grams fried tofu puffs / 1/3 cup fresh firm tofu
170 grams fresh beansprouts

Garnishes you may want to use:
2 T fresh coriander or other fresh herbs like mint, thai basil, parsley
1/4 cup dry-roasted peanuts, chopped (I had none so for 'crunch' added crushed oven-baked seaweed potato chips....hmm...)
garlic chives or spring onions, chopped
lime wedges

Stir-Fry Sauce
Combine in a blender:
1/4 c coconut milk
1/2 T Sriracha chilli sauce (or 1/2 t chilli flakes)
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 small piece of ginger, peeled and chopped (or 1/4 t powdered ginger)
1 T tomato paste or tomato sauce
2 T fresh lime or lemon juice
1 T soy sauce (or tamari)
dash of water

Method:
Take a wok / large frying pan and heat with a small amount of water to blanch your green veggies. Remove these once just tender (still nice and green and firm) and rinse them in cold water to stop them overcooking. Set aside veggies. (Pour water out of wok and put back on stove).
Now use the egg(s) to cook a thin omelette in the wok. Remove this and cut into strips. Set aside.
Next, heat 1t veg oil in wok and cook shallots till golden brown. Set these aside.
Pour sauce into wok on lowish temperature and cook till bubbling and slightly reduced. Add a dash more water if needed if it's too thick.
Add the cooked spaghetti squash and stir through sauce with tongs/chopsticks. Add the prepared veggies, omelette and tofu, if using. Stir-fry till well heated through. Add beansprouts last as they don't need much cooking.
Serve topped with the fried shallots, chopped fresh herbs and other garnishes you like.

How to Prepare Spaghetti Squash

1. Preheat oven to 180 C / 360 F. Take a spaghetti squash, chop it in half (it can be quite hard so invest in a good chopping knife and be careful!). Scoop out and discard seeds (although some people like to roast and eat them:)
2. Rub oil over cut halves of the squash, including in the hollow. Place on baking tray cut-side up. Arrange sliced garlic in hollows. 
3. Put baking tray in the upper-middle rack of the oven. Bake at 180 degrees celsius (360 degrees F) for about 30-40 minutes. (You will know it is ready when the squash separates from the skin easily).
4. When it's cool enough to handle, (or carefully hold with oven gloves), hold skin-side of squash and use a fork to scrape out the strands of the flesh. This bit is really easy and fun. You get HEAPS of 'spaghetti' strands from one squash, just keep scraping with fork until the skin is just a shell.

Now you can use this spaghetti-like flesh as you would al-dente pasta, pretty much. Don't leave it sitting in lots of sauce, if you can avoid it, as that can make it a bit mushy, apparently. Instead, serve with sauce on top or just heated and stirred through right before serving. The taste is different than pasta but the texture is great. Luc-who-loves-pasta asked if I would make pasta for dinner last night and I made this instead and he loved it. His approval is great as he's a huge carb (wheat) fan so this makes a lighter, more nutritious alternative for us to enjoy sometimes.

Pulp Kitchen

These teacakes/densish muffins were just the thing to use up some of our sweet juice pulp. With vegetable juice pulp I've been making soups, fritters etc. I made a chocolate cake the other day with some carrot, silverbeet, celery and parsley pulp which was great too - Still very chocolatey but moist and with, you know, depth of flavour - from the parsley esp I think. I just reduced the amount of flour I used a bit and added the pulp at the end (as in this recipe).

These muffins I adapted from a recipe from Breville Juicers. I thought mine looked better! It calls for pulp made from apple, carrot and ginger but Luc's not a big fan of ginger so I left it out even though it would have been nice. I added freshly ground cardamom which I think goes really well with carrot. I just forgot Luc also isn't a fan of carrots in baking so the whole thing was wasted on him! I loved them though (still haven't finished actually as it's hard to eat a whole batch of filling muffins by oneself! - need to make friends here to invite for tea-parties!).

They are moist but not too wet (may depend on fruit and type of juicer - how moist the pulp is). They are dense but in a good way, not heavy little rock cakes or anything. I used wholemeal flour which I think is more flavourful. I topped one with frommage frais for dessert and had another with natural yoghurt for breakfast but they are great on their own, too.

Carrot, Apple and Ginger Spiced Tea Cakes
Makes 12 tea cakes. Vegan and health-conscious substitutions given

Ingredients

2 cups carrot, apple (and ginger) pulp (juice recipe follows)
1½ cups flour (all purpose or whole wheat, or a combination)
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon cardamom (or ground seeds from 5 cardamom pods)
½ cup sugar (or ¼ cup of: maple syrup/honey/agave syrup*)
¼ teaspoon salt
1¼ cups milk (or rice/soy milk)
125 grams unsalted butter, melted (or ¼ cup canola oil)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method
Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F) and set the rack in the middle of the oven. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin (or line with paper baking cups).

Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, cardamom and sugar in a large bowl and stir with a whisk or a fork.

In a smaller bowl, combine oil/melted butter, milk and vanilla. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and gently combine, being careful not to over mix. Fold in the pulp.

Scoop into muffin tins and bake for 18-22 minutes. Cool in pan for 10 minutes, before removing tea cakes to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Enjoy warm or at room temperature. Nice served with natural yoghurt or frommage frais.
*If using honey, agave or maple syrup, slightly decrease the amount of milk you use to keep moisture content consistent. Also, you may add more sugar if you wish but remember the apples and carrots will add some sweetness too.

Carrot, Apple and Ginger Juice
Makes 2-3 servings.

6 medium carrots, peeled and trimmed**
5 crisp apples (such as Granny Smith), peeled, cored, and quartered**
1 small knob of ginger, peeled
Juice all ingredients and pour into glasses for serving.

** I buy organic fruit and veg (whenever I can) and so just washed mine and removed the stems from the apples. Our (Breville) juicer advertises it juices whole apples, so that's just what we do, unless they're enormous and need chopping in half.

Dreamy Weather

Two of us Sunday Driving....