Wednesday, August 20, 2008

winosandfoodies.com

I HAVE MOVED TO
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All my posts can be found there.

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Hay Hay Its Donna Day Clafouti

Hay Hay A Brilliant Clafouti Or Is That Clafoutis
DSC_0021
That's how good my Clafouti was. It didn't look so pretty though 'cos I added too many plums. A 'tad too brown on top, but so good I ate three slices before dinner, one after dinner and one more at breakfast this morning. I've decided clafouti makes a brilliant breakfast. Next time we have guests for breakfast I plan on serving clafouti.
Claf3
I don't like to mess with my clafouti too much. I'm sorry Donna I would never ever put chocolate in my clafouti. Cherries - mostly , plums - yes, even blueberries - once , but chocolate never.

For the perfect clafouti (or clafoutis, an "s" is acceptable), I use Julia's recipe. She does pit her cherries though and pitted cherries in clafoutis is an ongoing arguement amongst traditionalists. Cherries are way out of sesson here so today Bron I used yellow plums.

The Recipe

As many yellow plums as you want

Mixture
1 1/4 cups milk
1/3 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup sifted all purpose flour

METHOD
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In an electric blender place all the above mixture ingredients in order as written. Cover and blend 1 minute at top speed.
Pour a 1/4 inch layer of batter into 7 - 8 cup lightly buttered fireproof baking dish or Pyrex pie plate 1 1/2 inches deep (I used my tarte tartin dish ).

Set over moderate heat (use an asbestos mat if dish is not fire proof) for a couple of minutes until the film of batter has set in the bottam of the dish. Remove from the heat. Spread the plums over the batter. Pour on the rest of the batter.

Place in the middle of the oven and bake for about an hour. It is done when it has puffed and browned, and a needle or knife plunged in the centre comes out clean.

Sprinkle top with powdered sugar just before bringing it to the table. It need not be served hot but it should still be warm. It will sink slightly as it cools.

Claf1
Thanks Bron for hosting this round of Hay Hay Its Donna Day. Deadline for posts to Bron is Monday April 21st.
April 09, 2008

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Saturday, March 10, 2007

New Blog

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Monday, February 05, 2007

Blogger 2

I've moved this to Blogger 2 in the hope it will allow me to sign into my Google account and leave messages on other blogs.

Thursday, January 20, 2005

I've moved my blog

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Monday, January 17, 2005

Quick food for a weekend lunch

Julian Barnes would hate my style of weekend cooking. I have just read his book "The Pedant in the Kitchen" in which he stresses how important a well written recipe is for him. I'm more the sort "a pinch of this" or a "handful of that". He did get me thinking though as he quotes a Nigel Slater recipe from Real Cooking ( I book I happen to have on my shelf). The pictures of the recipe for "Pork Chop and Chicory" show two chops in the pan and to this you are required to add 4 chicory halves.......in the same pan. I checked the book and Julian has a point. Looking at the photo there is no way you could get four chicory halves in the same pan. So did Nigel use two pans, although the recipe states you add the chicory to the pan with the pork chops?

This weekend I felt sufficiently well enough to spend a little time in the kitchen. On the way home from our morning walk on Takapuna Beach we stopped at IE Produce and bought some wondeferul summer fruits....peaches, nectarines, apricots and blueberries. I noticed some leeks that were not too large and grabbed those and a couple of potatoes.

Into a baking dish I placed the sliced up fruit, scattered the blueberries over, sprinkled it liberally with sugar and a splash of vanilla essense and baked it in a 200C oven for about 30 minutes. It is delicious served with Greek style yoghurt.

I made a soup by sauteeing the two sliced leeks, two diced potatoes, and one chopped onion. When it was all softened I covered it with water added a teaspoon of vegetable stock and let it simmer until tender. Then I blended it, adjusted the seasoning and served it in white bowls with a sprinkle of chopped chives.

In the fridge were two sheets of ready rolled flaky pastry, a few slices of ham and the remnants of some Gouda cheese.

I cut each sheet of pastry into four equal pieces, placed a slice of ham and some slivers of cheese onto each of the four pieces, dampened the edges and placed the remaining four pieces over and sealed the edges. I then brushed the tops with oil and scattered a little Maldon salt over, popped them into the 200C oven for about 20 minutes. The crisp pastry, the melting cheese, and the slighty salty tops were a tasty combination. You could vary the filling, maybe try fetta cheese and some cooked spinach or for a sweet taste some stewed fruit.

Not too difficult and very enjoyable. I am working on "how to add photos my blog".Then you will get to see photos of my food.