September 5, 2009: Cassata

Nothing gets me onto a calendar recipe quicker than the promise of icecream! This cassata is a triple-layered dessert made primarily of vanilla icecream, and I decided to churn my own rather than softening a tub of pre-bought stuff. Since just Michael and I would be doing most of the eating on our own, I halved the recipe and still had enough to enjoy over about 10 days.

Cassata typically features glace fruits, though Michael and I agreed that we'd prefer ordinary mixed dried fruit. Either way the fruit is soaked in brandy, making for a colourful and sweet first layer. I've had limited success using choc chips in icecream (they usually become hard and flavourless) so I was curious to try the recommended method - chocolate is melted with a little butter, allowed to cool, and then some of the vanilla icecream is stirred in, making for some quick-set chocolatey chunks. Though the icecream froze a bit hard, the flavour was there and this was Michael's and my favourite part of the dessert. (Next time I'll try stirring the chocolate through a larger proportion of ice-cream for a thicker, milder chocolate layer.)

After a sizable layer of plain vanilla icecream, there's a topping of slivered almonds and crushed biscuits (I used a couple of the ginger drop biscuits I'd baked earlier). The recipe suggests decorating the top with extra whipped cream but you probably know by now that that's not really my style. Besides, this cassata's pretty enough once you've cut a slice through those icecream layers.


Cassata

1 litre vanilla icecream (I used the vanilla component of this recipe)
1/4 cup chopped mixed glace or dried fruit
1 tablespoon brandy
150mL cream
1 teaspoon castor sugar
60g dark chocolate
2 teaspoons butter
1 teaspoon cocoa
30g slivered almonds
30g dry biscuits

If you're making the vanilla icecream from scratch, put the canister in the freezer and prepare the custard a day ahead.

Either churn you prepared vanilla custard or take your pre-bought vanilla icecream out of the freezer to soften. In a small bowl, stir together the fruit and brandy and let them stand for 10 minutes. Line a cake tin with foil or baking paper. Whip the cream and sugar together, then fold in the brandied fruit. Pour it into the cake tin and smooth it over a little. Put the cake tin in the freezer to firm up that first layer.

In a medium-sized saucepan, gently melt the chocolate and butter together, then allow the mixture to cool. When the icecream's ready stir some of it, along with the sifted cocoa, into the chocolate - the chocolate should harden up and create a choc-chip effect. (The original recipe suggests using a half-cup of the icecream for this step, but I'd use half of the vanilla icecream next time, I think.) Retreive the cake tin from the freezer, spread this chocolate layer over the first one, and return the cake tin to the freezer for about 15 minutes. When the second layer of icecream has begun to firm up, spread over the remaining vanilla icecream and return the cake tin to the freezer.

Toast the almond slivers gently in a dry pan. Crumble in the biscuits and lightly toast them. Press the almonds and crumbs into the top layer of the cassata and freeze it until firm.

To serve, gently but firmly slice the cassata using a wet knife.

September 5, 2009: Corn chowder

After a delay brought on by our northern jaunt and then a work trip each, we're finally getting back to cooking all of the entries in our 800th post giveaway. And we'd better hurry, if Saturday's 29 degrees is any sign of what's to come.

Ashley offered up a couple of soups, and we decided to make the corn chowder, just to try something a bit different. It was relatively simple, although the creamed corn looks so unappetising as to almost put me off the whole thing. I got through it though, and even managed to perform passably with my stick blender (last time I sprayed half the kitchen with broccoli soup), resulting in a creamy, corny soup, that had enough spicy flavours to be enjoyable for a few meals in a row. The garam masala in particular added a pleasant depth to the soup's flavours. We veganised the recipe, using soy milk for creaminess and sprinkling with our vegan parmesan to finish things off.

Corn chowder a la Ashley
- 1 onion, chopped finely
- 2 medium potatoes, cubed
- 1 small can creamed corn
- 1.5 cups fresh/frozen corn
- 1-2 cups vegie stock
- salt, pepper, paprika and garam masala to taste
- 1/2 cup soy milk

Cook the onions and cubed potatoes in a big pot until they start to soften. Add in the creamed corn and the fresh corn, stir things through and then add the stock and spices. Simmer for 10 minutes or so and blend everything up with a stick blender (or in a food processor), add the milk and serve (preferably with some Dench bread on the side).

September 4, 2009: Green pea puffs

Our second Green Line delivery was not quite so large as the first, and I was disappointed not to see any more of those incredible pears. What I did get a little excited about, though, was a paper bag of fresh peas! Buoyed by my recent dumpling success and with some leftover ricotta in the fridge, I converted them into Monica Bhide's Chile Pea Puffs, as seen and drooled over at 101 Cookbooks.

These are a cinch to pull together, and the little parcels develop a nice browned crunch with just a light spray of oil and 10 minutes in the oven - they'd make a delightful appetiser with some mango chutney to dip into. Chutney-less and in need of a full meal, I drizzled mine with ketjap manis and ate a half-dozen of them with a lemon and sesame-dressed side salad.


Green pea puffs
(from 101 Cookbooks, though it's published in Modern Spice by Monica Bhide)

1 cup green peas
1/4 cup ricotta or crumbled paneer
2 green chillis, finely chopped
salt, to taste
red chilli flakes, to taste
1 clove garlic
14 wonton wrappers
spray oil

Preheat the oven to 200°C.

Briefly steam the peas until tender and lightly mash them. Stir in the cheese, green chillis, salt, chilli flakes and garlic.

Place sparing spoonfuls of the mixture on the wonton wrappers and wrap them up, sealing the edges with a little water. Use whatever wrapping style you like - half moons, triangles or little spring roll-style rectangles as I copied from Heidi.

Line a baking tray with paper, give it a light spray of oil, and arrange the puffs on it. Give them another light spray on top, then bake them for about 10 minutes, turning once, until they've started going golden.

September 3-4, 2009: Lemon pepper cashews

It's not often that I post recipes more than once, but this one is so good I consider it a public service announcement. I initially made Fiber's lemon pepper cashews for a Moonlight Cinema picnic where they were enjoyed by all; since then I've prepared them for any number of housewarmings, picnics and study sessions. Vegan and gluten-free, they're almost universally suitable and are proving to be universally addictive.

This week I made them for one of our lab's regular seminars (along with more grubs), where I had a whole new audience of eaters hooked. Managing to get a better photo of their golden brownness and noting that I didn't actually transcribe the recipe in my original post, I thought it was high time I reminded you of this buzzin' mix of sugar, salt, pepper and lemon zest. While it's a doddle to stir together, danger does lie in wait - melted sugar is very, very hot and however much you may want to test-taste these, it is a bad bad idea until they've spent some time cooling on a tray.



Lemon pepper cashews
(from this recipe, by Fiber of 28 Cooks)

1 cup raw cashews
1/4 cup sugar
salt and pepper, to taste
zest of 1 lemon

Stir the cashews and sugar together in a large saucepan over medium-high heat. When the sugar starts to melt, lower the heat and keep cooking and stirring the cashews until the sugar is completely melted and evenly coating the nuts. The nuts should start toasting to a golden brown during this process - be careful not to let them burn! Stir through a generous seasoning of salt and pepper; take the nuts off the heat and stir through the lemon zest. Line a baking tray or cake rack with baking paper and spread out the cashews over it to cool. Do not try to eat them until they've cooled! Break apart the individual cashews and munch away, storing any leftovers (ha!) in an airtight container.

September 2, 2009: Zenzero Blu

Edit 11/03/2012: Zenzero Blu has now been replaced by Pinotta.

Every time I've ridden along St Georges Road in recent months, my eye has been caught by a sign promising, "Eight court vegetarian degustation, $25!" Typically, my first thought was, "That can't be much good," which, if nothing else, illustrated that behavioural economics applies to food. For a restaurant in the heart of the trendy inner-north, Zenzero Blu has attracted very little online buzz, with just Haalo's photo review giving us an idea of what to expect. Still, for $25, what could really go wrong?

The vegie degustation has been introduced by the Zenzero Blu folks over winter basically to get people into the restaurant during otherwise slow months. And it's working - by about 7:30 things were pretty jammed, and it seemed as though most people were diving into the unbeatable $3.12 per course feast. The menu is intriguing - it's hard to really pick a theme: things range from a lightly curried pumpkin soup, through arancini, nasi goreng and potato wedges. It's an odd mix. But a delicious one nonetheless.

First up were a couple of snack plates: marinated olives on one and roti and dips on the other.

Roti with dips turns out to be a fantastic idea - I'm surprised it's never occurred to me before. And these simple dips (a pesto and a tahini-heavy hummus) worked nicely with the crispy little breads. They even managed to serve things up so that the amounts of bread and dips were reasonably balanced!

The olives were a mixed bag: some delicious big green ones, and a pile of tiny little kalamata-y ones that were a bit annoying to eat (too much pip for too little olive).

Next up it was soup time: a curried pumpkin soup served with stylish stripes of date molasses and a dollop of labne. The pumpkin soup itself was fine, but the real star was the date molasses - it's intriguing sweetness taking a fairly standard dish somewhere a bit more interesting.

Things jumped in an Italian direction next, with porcini and pumpkin arancini served in tomato sugo.

The arancini balls were a little disappointing - a bit mushy and not particularly flavoursome. The sauce was a treat though, oily and rich.

Next up was a bowl of sweet potato wedges, with a dipping sauce of beetroot and creme fraiche. There's something about the texture of sweet potatoes that means I'm always a little disappointed by them in wedge or chip form - the taste is a nice shift from regular spuds, but they just fail to crisp up and provide the necessary texture. The dipping sauce was a nice idea, but didn't really knock our socks off.

Things then took a turn for the Asian, with nasi goreng topped with some thin egg strips. This could have used a bit more zing - there were no crispy vegies bursting out of it and a bit of chilli would have combined with the lemon juice nicely. It was fine, but not particularly memorable.

Next up was a refreshing salad of rocket, pumpkin and walnut served with an Asian sesame dressing.

The salad was a nice lead in to our last savoury course: warm breaded goast cheese with honey.

This was indulgent as it sounds - it's hard to go far wrong with fried cheese. Although I'm glad it was only one slab of cheese each, I could feel my arteries starting to harden by the time I'd finished mine.

Finally, our dessert: a mini lemon-scented cheesecake with raspberry coulis.

This was the most successful dish of the night - a kind of deconstructed cheesecake that had a nice citrussy flavour and a berrylicious sauce. I think Cindy would have enjoyed a few courses of mini desserts, but for me this was just the touch of sweet I needed to wrap up an eight course extravaganza.

For $25, Zenzero Blu are churning out an amazing meal - it's hard to imagine that they're making any money at all on the food. It's varied (maybe a little scattershot), tasty and well portioned, the service is friendly and helpful and I would highly recommend a visit here to anyone looking for an affordable but slightly special night out. The only downside: Cindy and I felt like there wasn't much served up that we couldn't have produced at home (more slowly and expensively no doubt).

A note for vegans: while the menu stresses that there are no alterations, friends of ours had a private function there and enjoyed a similar 8 course vegan feast, so if you call ahead they could probably work something out for you.

Address: 32 Best Street, North Fitzroy
Ph: 9481 3393
Licensed
Price: $25 for eight(!) courses
Website: http://www.zenzeroblu.com/