Changes

It's time for a change around here. What do you think of the new header?

Please bear with me over the coming weeks as I tweak the blog. I have zero skills in web design and am flying blind here. Help and comments greatly appreciated!

Tuesdays with Dorie: Sweet Potato Biscuits

Erin of (one of my favourite blogs) Prudence Pennywise chose Dorie's Sweet Potato Biscuits this week and they definitely had me intrigued. Basically they are an American version of our Aussie classic, the pumpkin scone. Unfortunately I've never made a scone I've been totally happy with, and over the years I've tried dozens of different recipes!

My other concern was using fresh sweet potato when recipe specified canned. I know Dorie said just use 1 cup of fresh mash, but that didn't seem to equate to 2 x 15 ounce cans. And I was right, because these were dry.

The taste test ...

Golden, flaky and great flavour but like I said, DRY. I knew at the time the mix was too crumbly. It did cross my mind to add some extra moisture but I second guessed myself and we ended up with hockey pucks. Boo. No time for a redo this week but I would love to have another go sometime.

After last month I feel like I've conquered my fear of pastry, maybe now I will work on perfecting the scone!

And now for something totally off topic but my sweet Oscar is 6 months old today!

Happy half birthday baby!

Daring Cooks October - Vietnamese Pho

Daring Cooks time again!

The October 2009 Daring Cooks’ challenge was brought to us by Jaden of the blog Steamy Kitchen. The recipes are from her new cookbook, The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook.

I was really excited about this month's pick, not only because it was chosen by Jaden but also because I love Vietnamese food! It is definitely my favourite Asian cuisine - fresh, fragrant and flavoursome. That being said, I've never actually had pho before.

We were given the option of doing either a long or short version of the dish. I originally chose the short version (which uses a premade stock) because I intended to make it again later in the month. Unfortunately I ran out of time but no matter, we will definitely be having this again!

I only made minor changes to the recipe, using chicken thighs because I feel they have more chickeny flavour, and using vermicelli noodles instead of the wider rice stick ones.

The taste test ...

Well, I didn't pick the best day to make soup for dinner. It was a hot and sticky 35 degrees in Brisbane that day, definitely not soup weather but it didn't matter. This was AMAZING! For really very little effort and a short list of ingredients we had a phenomenal meal. Light, fragrant and absolutely packed with flavour. I was also impressed with how clear the broth remained even after simmering the chicken. All I can think is if it tastes this good using purchased stock, it must be unbelievably good with homemade. I can't wait to try!

Vietnamese Chicken Pho

For the Chicken Pho Broth:
2 tbsp. whole coriander seeds
4 whole cloves
2 whole star anise
2 litres store-bought or homemade chicken stock
1 whole chicken breast (bone in or boneless)
½ onion
7.5 cm chunk of ginger, sliced and smashed with side of knife
1 to 2 tbsps. sugar
1 to 2 tbsps. fish sauce
500 grams dried rice noodles (about ¼ inch/6 mm wide)

Accompaniments:
2 cups bean sprouts, washed and tails pinched off
Fresh cilantro (coriander) tops (leaves and tender stems)
½ cup shaved red onions
½ lime, cut into 4 wedges
Sriracha chili sauce
Hoisin sauce
Sliced fresh chili peppers of your choice

Directions:

To make the Chicken Pho Broth: heat a frying pan over medium heat. Add the coriander seeds, cloves and star anise and toast until fragrant, about 3-4 minutes. Immediately spoon out the spices to avoid burning.

In a large pot, add all the ingredients (including the toasted spices) and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and let simmer for 20 minutes, skimming the surface frequently. Use tongs to remove the chicken breasts and shred the meat with your fingers, discarding the bone if you have used bone-in breasts.

Taste the broth and add more fish sauce or sugar, if needed.

Strain the broth and discard the solids.

Prepare the noodles as per directions on the package.

Ladle the broth into bowls. Then divide the shredded chicken breast and the soft noodles evenly into each bowl.

Have the accompaniments spread out on the table. Each person can customize their own bowl with these ingredients.

A big thank you to Jaden for introducing us to pho!

You can find the long version of the recipe here.

Tuesdays with Dorie: Allspice Crumb Muffins

Last week's pudding was a nice change but for this week I was happy to get back into baking. Kayte of Grandma's Kitchen Table chose Allspice Crumb Muffins, yet another recipe I really liked the look of. (Wondering what will be left for my pick in oh, 50 weeks time!)

I much prefer muffins to cupcakes because you can whip them up in a matter of minutes and they don't need any accompaniments, other than maybe a smear of butter when they are still warm from the oven.

These muffins with their crunchy streusel topping didn't need anything else at all. Dorie said they taste better the next day but I loved them fresh. The next day they had dried out a little bit.

I made half the recipe and got 16 mini muffins.


The taste test ...

Allspice is so underrated. Every time I use I wonder why I don't use it more often! Same with star anise. These tasted like Christmas to me, warm, buttery and lightly spiced. I'm sure I'll be making these again.

Thanks for a great pick Kayte! You can find the recipe on her blog.

Caramel Swirl Cheesecake

Maybe I should rename this blog cheesecake.baby instead, as I seem to make a lot of them! I realised I wanted cheesecake quite on the spur of the moment, having begun devouring a packet of butternut snap biscuits and thinking how perfect they would be for a crumb base.

I started with Dorie's Tall and Creamy Cheesecake recipe and then tweaked it a little. Can I just say again how much I adore this recipe? Seriously, the BEST one ever. That and the fact it calls for my little cheesecake to 'luxuriate in a waterbath'. Gets me every time!

Caramel Swirl Cheesecake - Cheats Version

Base

250g buttersnap biscuits (or your favourite plain sweet biscuit)
125g unsalted butter, melted

Caramel

1 tin of caramel top and fill (basically a premade condensed milk caramel - you can definitely make this yourself but with cats and a baby I don't want to worry about exploding tins!)

Cheesecake

500g cream cheese (2 packs) at room temp
2/3 cup sour cream at room temp
2 eggs at room temp
1/2 cup sugar
2 ts vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 160 degrees C. Grease an 8" springform pan and wrap the outside in 2 layers of alfoil. Set aside. For the base, blitz your biscuits in the food processor then pour in the melted butter and combine well. Press over the base of the pan and up the sides as much as you can (I got about 2cm).

Wipe out the food processor bowl to remove any crumbs.

Blitz the cream cheese and sugar together until smooth (about 4 minutes). Add the eggs, one at a time, beating for about a minute after each addition. Add the vanilla and sour cream and process for a few minutes. The mixture will become smooth and velvety.

Pour about half the cheesecake mixture into the prepared base. Spoon teaspoonfuls of caramel randomly over the top. Pour over the remaining cheesecake mix and dot with more caramel (it will sink during the baking). Drag a butterknife through the mixture to create swirls of caramel, being careful not to touch the biscuit base. (I totally forgot to do this step and ended up with blobs of caramel. Still delicious).

Place your springform pan inside a baking dish. Pour boiling water into the baking pan, until the water reaches about halfway up the side the springform pan. Carefully place in the oven.

Bake at 160 degrees C for about an hour. Turn the oven off and leave your cheesecake to 'luxuriate in its waterbath' for another hour. Remove the pan from the water, allow to cool then refrigerate for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Serve with an extra drizzle of caramel (not that it needs it). Delicious!!!