Pear, Ricotta and Chamomile Muffins.

admin — Tue, 04 Jul 2017 06:04:24 +0000

Pear, Ricotta & Chamomile Muffins
Makes 12

1 cup milk
3 Tbsp chamomile flowers or three chamomile tea bags
2 1/4 cups of self-raising flour
zest of 1 lemon
2 eggs
2/3 cup caster sugar
70 ml Extra-Virgin Olive Oil
4 tablespoons of full cream ricotta
2 Bosc pears, diced
Demerara sugar, for sprinkling on top
Dried pears to garnish (optional)

Combine the milk and chamomile in a saucepan over medium high heat. When it starts to simmer, lower the temperature and stir continuously for about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Strain through a sieve into a glass bowl or jug. Set aside.

Preheat oven to 170°C.
Grease and Line a muffin tray with baking paper.
In a large bowl, mix the self raising flour and lemon zest.
In another separate bowl, beat the eggs and sugar with a whisk until light in colour and creamy.
Add the ricotta, oil, 2/3 cup of the camomile infused milk and mix. Add wet ingredients to the flour and mix till fully incorporated. Add diced pears and mix through.
Spoon the batter evenly into the 12 muffin cases.
Sprinkle with demerara sugar and top with dried pears (if using).
Bake for 25-35 minutes or until the muffins are browning slightly and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

If using dried pears on top, check at 20 minutes to make sure they aren’t burning and cover with tinfoil if they get too dark in colour before the muffins are completely cooked.

xxBlighStBistro

Winter Rose Salad

admin — Tue, 27 Jun 2017 01:03:55 +0000

I always find I am drawn to bright colours much more in winter, since I’m craving the bright, sunny attire of a warm summer’s day. I also find that salad is something I’m usually ready to pack away till the heat comes out and I find myself looking forward to soups and oven baked deliciousness in winter. I recently realised that my lack of love for salad in winter probably arises from my misconception that salads should be cold and crunchy. This really happened by accident when I was drawn to the incredible colour of these turnips at the market the other day. They shined happily out at me in the middle of their winter vege counterparts. A winter radicchio flecked with a vibrant fuchsia caught my eye next. I normally find radicchio too bitter for my tastebuds but learning that this one was only slightly bitter, I was game to give it a go. I brought these beautiful colourful treasures home to Signor Pot and asked him to create a dish with them. He made the most brilliant winter salad that has me completely converted to eating salad on a cold night. It’s crunchy, it’s warm, it’s bright and vibrant and it has a heartiness that is perfect for winter while maintaining a healthy salad status.

Radicchio de Castelfranco is also known as “Winter Rose”.

Winter Rose Salad
Serves 6

3 medium potatoes, (King Edward)
1 Tbsp olive oil (plus extra for frying turnips)
1 Tbsp clarified butter / butter
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1.5 Tbsp anchovies
Juice of 1 lemon
¾ cup verjuice
½ cup flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
Sea salt
3 medium turnips (Scarlet Queens), shaved on a mandolin as thin as possible into discs
1 Radicchio de Castelfranco / Winter Rose Radicchio
½ cup pepita seeds, toasted

Place potatoes in a pot of salted water and cook until a knife passes through without resistance. Strain and allow to cool for handling. Cut into cubes. Roughly 10-12 pieces per potato.
Place olive oil and butter in a wide stainless steel pan on the stove, over medium heat. When frothing, add potatoes and fry until coloured and crispy on the edges. Add garlic and 1 Tbsp anchovies. Keep frying until anchovies have melted and garlic has cooked. Be careful not to burn it. Add a pinch of salt and lemon juice. When the lemon juice evaporates, remove the potatoes from the pan and place in a bowl. Allow to cool and then mix in the chopped parsley.

For the dressing, deglaze the pan by adding another 1 Tbsp olive oil, verjuice, and remaining ½ Tbsp anchovies. Reduce until thickened slightly and anchovies have melted. Set aside.

To prepare the turnips, remove stems from the turnip. Remove the leaves from the stems.
Cut the stems into 3-5mm slices. Set aside.

Place ½ tbsp olive oil in a wide based nonstick frying pan on low heat. Add sliced turnip discs and sprinkle a pinch of salt over. Fry until lightly coloured on each side and the ends turn up slightly to resemble dried rose petals. Place on a paper towel to drain excess oil. Repeat process until all the turnips are cooked.

To prepare the Radicchio, cut in half lengthways, then cut horizontally into 2-3 cm strips. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, add radicchio, turnip stems, potatoes, pepitas and the dressing, reserving some potatoes and pepitas for the top. Mix through and place on a plate. Top with turnip petals, reserved potato, pepitas and parsley.

I hope this brightens up your dining table this winter.

xxBlighStBistro

Warm Winter Apple Crumble & A Little Trip to Mudgee and Orange

admin — Tue, 20 Jun 2017 06:58:21 +0000

We recently took a trip up to Mudgee and Orange to explore a little more of what’s on our doorstep in NSW. It was a great three day adventure. We discovered many wonderful wines, we ate our body weight in delicious cheeses and we enjoyed the most amazing morning at the Orange farmers market.

Our first stop (and an incredible place to rest our heads) after a long drive up to Mudgee was the beautiful Evanslea Estate. We settled in pretty quickly with a walk round the pretty gardens and a welcome wine by the outdoor fire, which felt pretty grown up. We rectified the situation by toasting marshmallows.

Country air + wine + fire + goey/toasty marshmallows = holiday happiness.

Day two was spent in the not-so-beautiful-sounding, incredibly-beautiful-looking Dunns Swamp. We stopped in the little country town of Rylstone on the way and visited the most fantastic wool shop. Kade was very patient while I did some damage. The rest of the day was spent wandering through gorgeous bushland and stumbling upon wild Kangaroos, a little bush pig and some cave paintings.

That night we stayed in a beautifully designed studio called The Speckled Nest in Millthorpe, just 20 minutes from Orange.

We woke early on Saturday morning to visit the Orange Farmers Markets. I’m so glad we did this because it was a wonderful market where we met the most incredible producers and bought some delicious fruit, veges and preserves.

One of the sellers had an extensive selection of apples and I bought a few special French ones to take home and bake with. I love that these apples look a little gnarly, they remind me of a good fairytale, a little bit Snow White. There’s been a lot of media coverage lately on wasting perfectly good farm produce because fruits and vegetable don’t fit into a very strict visual criteria enforced by supermarkets. I think it’s appalling that produce like this would be turned down at the supermarket when the flavour in these apples is better than any I’ve ever tasted at a supermarket. I no longer buy fruit and vegetables from supermarkets because I got so sick of tasteless, old, produce. It’s nice to know that when you buy at the farmers markets, the farmer is sharing his best produce with you, in all it’s imperfect-skinned glory.

Warm Winter Apple Crumble
Serves 6

For the Filling –
7 apples for cooking
Juice from 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup caster sugar
2 pinches of cinnamon
1 pinch ground ginger

For the Topping –
1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 cup slivered almonds
1/2 cup rolled oats
100g unsalted butter, cut into small cubes and softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 drops vanilla extract

Mix all filling ingredients together in a pie dish.
In a separate bowl combine flour, almonds, oats and butter and mix the ingredients together working the butter into the flour mixture with your fingertips. This will soften the butter and disperse it through the flour to create a nice crumb.
Add the brown sugar and a couple of drops of vanilla extract to the crumb and mix together.
Spread the crumb mix over the apple filling in the pie dish and press lightly.
Cook in a preheated oven at 180°C for 40 minutes or till the top is golden brown and the apples beneath are bubbling slightly.

Et voilà, market apple crumble which was basically inhaled at our place.
Served with vanilla ice cream of course.

I hope you enjoyed our little adventure as much as we did and hope you get a chance to whip up a tasty apple crumble with some market apples this week.

xxBlighStBistro