French cuisine

Banana Napoleon with Coconut Snow and Banana Caramel

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FullSizeRenderThis week’s recipe is a challenge for all of you who are scared of fancy looking desserts with multiple components! With Pat’s background in making pastry, this is easy for him but Ian was a little daunted by this recipe. A Napoleon or Mille-feuille is a layered French dessert consisting of alternating layers of puff pastry and pastry cream. We have adapted a recipe by Antonio Bachour, from his book Bachour. His version substitutes filo pastry (so store bought is fine!) brushed with caramel, topped with coconut snow. What’s not to love? Be brave and give it a try, you’ll be surprised how easy it is and you’ll impress everyone with how pretty it looks.

The coconut snow uses tapioca maltodextrin as a binding agent, which can be hard to find. We found some at a specialty store in Sydney, but you could also buy it online if you have trouble finding it.

This recipe yields 12 serves.

Banana Pastry Cream

  • 7g gelatin sheet
  • 2 cups full-cream milk
  • ½ cup caster sugar
  • 55g corn flour
  • 100g egg yolks
  • 2 medium ripe bananas, mashed
  • 55g unsalted butter

Soak gelatin in cold water until softened (this process is called blooming), then squeeze out excess water and set aside.

In a heavy bottomed saucepan, combine milk and sugar and bring to the boil. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and corn flour. Slowly pour the hot liquid into the egg mixture, a little at first then in a steady stream, whisking continuously. Have an ice bath prepared to set the bowl over if the mixture looks like it’s beginning to split. Once the egg and milk mixtures are combined, return to the saucepan and set over a medium-high heat until thickened enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Pour the mixture through a strainer into a bowl set over the ice bath. Add the gelatin and stir to dissolve. Add the butter and banana and stir until the butter has melted. Cover the mixture with plastic wrap and refrigerate for a least an hour, or until set.

Caramel Sauce

  • 114g thickened cream
  • 90g caster sugar

Bring the cream just to the boil in a saucepan, then remove from the heat. Add the sugar to another saucepan with a splash of water, mixing so the sugar is moist. Cook the sugar slowly over a medium heat until it becomes a light amber colour, shaking or stirring the pan every now and then. Once the caramel has reached the colour you like, slowly add the cream in small batches. Be careful as it will splatter and could burn you. Once all the cream is incorporated, cook for another minute, stirring. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Filo Pastry Sheets

  • 8 sheets of filo pastry dough
  • ½ cup unsalted butter, melted
  • ½ cup Caramel sauce

Preheat oven to 175°C.

Line a baking tray with baking paper. Place a sheet of filo on the tray, brush with butter and drizzle with caramel sauce. Repeat this process with six more sheets of filo pastry, then add a final sheet of filo and brush with the butter. Trim the edges of the filo with a paring knife if necessary, and cut into 2 by 4 inch rectangles. Cover with baking paper and top with another baking tray, then bake for around 12 minutes, or until the pastry is golden brown. Set aside and once the pastry is cool, remove from the tray and store in an airtight container.

Coconut Snow

  • 40g tapioca maltodextrin
  • 60g coconut oil
  • 15g icing sugar

Add all ingredients to a food processor and combine, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula occasionally. Set aside.

Banana Caramel Sauce

  • ½ cup thickened cream
  • 95g caster sugar
  • 1 ripe banana, sliced

Make the caramel in the same way you made the Caramel Sauce earlier. Once you have combined the sugar and cream, stir in the banana. Using a stick blender, blend until smooth. Alternatively you could transfer the mixture to a food processor or blender and blend until smooth.

Assembly

Brush some of the banana caramel sauce across a plate and top with one rectangle of the prepared filo pastry. Put the Banana Pastry Cream in a piping bag and cut a 1.5cm opening. Pipe the cream onto the filo pastry in two rows of small dollops, and top with a layer of filo pastry. Repeat the process to form a second layer, and top with a final piece of filo pastry. Dust the top layer with Coconut Snow and garnish with edible flowers or micro herbs to serve.

Saffron, orange and honey madeleines

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Continuing with our French theme, we decided to make madeleines for the first time. We were given a copy of Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh’s Sweet for Christmas, and decided to try their untraditional version. Madeleines are a very light and fluffy little French cake, baked in a scallop mould. In the traditional version, they are best eaten while still warm as they will become stale quickly. Ottolenghi and Goh’s version uses a food processor rather than hand beating so will last for a few hours after baking (if you can resist from eating them all at once!)

Adapted from a recipe by Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh.

Ingredients:

  • 90g unsalted butter, plus 20g extra butter, melted, for brushing
  • 2 tsp honey, plus an extra 3 Tbsp, for glazing
  • ¼ tsp saffron threads
  • 2 large eggs
  • 75g caster sugar
  • ½ tsp vanilla bean extract with seeds
  • finely grated zest of 1 small orange
  • 90g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • pinch of salt
  • 20g pistachio kernels, finely blitzed

Method:

  1. Place the butter, honey and saffron threads in a saucepan over low heat. Once the butter has melted, remove from the heat and set aside until the mixture has reached room temperature.
  2. Place the eggs, sugar, vanilla and orange zest in a food processor and mix until combined. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl, then add to the egg mixture. Pulse a few times to mix, then add the cooled butter mixture. Process once more to combine, then pour the mixture into a bowl. Cover with cling film and rest in the fridge for an hour.
  3. Preheat the oven to 200° Grease the moulds with melted butter and sprinkle with flour (you can skip this step if using a silicone or non-stick tray). Tap to coat all the moulds and then shake off any excess flour.20180110_134015
  4. Spoon a heaped tablespoon of batter into each mould, so the mixture rises halfway up each mould. If you only have one tray, place the remaining batter in the fridge while you bake the first batch. You will need to wash, dry and re-grease the tray before baking your second batch.
  5. Bake for approximately 10 minutes, until the madeleines are browning around the edges and spring back when lightly pressed on the top. Remove the tray from the oven and allow to cool for a minute before releasing the cakes from their moulds. You may need to use a knife or spatula around the edges of the cakes if not using a silicone or non-stick tray. Transfer the madeleines to a wire rack to cool.
  6. Melt the 3 tablespoons of honey in a saucepan or microwave. One madeleine at a time, brush the honey onto the shell-shaped side of the cake, then roll the base of the madeleine in the blitzed pistachios so that you have a 1cm strip of pistachio at the base of each cake. Serve on a platter with some scattered pistachios and saffron (optional).

Boeuf Bourguignon

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20180110_190602To start our journey, we wanted to cook some classic French cuisine, and decided to begin with possibly the most famous dish of all, Boeuf Bourguignon. We have adapted this recipe from the classic book Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Louisetta Bertholle and Simone Beck.

In keeping with our goal of using local produce, we have used wine sourced from our favourite winery, Tamburlaine. Their organic wine is produced in the Orange region, not far from Sydney. The recipe in Child/Bertholle/Beck suggests using a full-bodied, young red wine, and we thought that the full-bodied flavor of Tamburlaine’s 2016 Reserve Malbec would work well in this dish.

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Ingredients:

  • 180g speck (or bacon)
  • 35ml olive oil
  • 1.5kg stewing beef, cut into 5cm cubes (we used Rump Cap)
  • 1 medium carrot, sliced
  • 1 medium brown onion, sliced
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • ¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
  • 1.5 Tbsp plain flour
  • 650ml Red Wine (see note above)
  • 2 to 3 cups Beef Stock
  • 15g tomato paste
  • 2 cloves garlic, mashed
  • ½ tsp thyme
  • 1 bay leaf

For the onions:

  • 20 small white onions (pickling onions), peeled and trimmed
  • 1 Tbsp butter
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 100ml Red Wine
  • Bouquet garni (4 sprigs parsley, 1 bay leaf, 1 sprig of thyme tied in cheesecloth)

For the mushrooms:

  • 500g button mushrooms, quartered.
  • 1.5 Tbsp butter
  • 3 tsp olive oil

To serve (optional):

  • Roasted dutch carrots, trimmed to retain 1cm of stalk.
  • Roasted baby potatoes, served with butter and parsley.
  • green beans, blanched.

 

Method:

  1. Remove the rind from the bacon and cut into lardons roughly 3.5cm x 0.5cm x 0.5cm20180110_130015
  2. Simmer the rind and the bacon for 10 minutes in 1.8 liters of water, then drain and dry.
  3. Dry the beef with paper towel (this will help it brown properly)
  4. Preheat oven to 230°C
  5. Using a cast-iron casserole (ours is 22cm x 28cm, 10cm deep), heat the oil over moderate heat and sauté the bacon until lightly brown. Remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and set aside.
  6. Heat the casserole until the fat is almost smoking, then sauté the beef in batches so as not to crowd the pan, until all the beef is browned on all sides. Remove the beef as each batch is browned and set aside with the bacon.
  7. In the same pan and fat, sauté the vegetables.
  8. Drain the fat and return the bacon and beef to the casserole. Season with salt and pepper and sprinkle the flour over the ingredients, and toss to combine.
  9. Set the uncovered casserole in the preheated oven for 4 minutes, then remove and stir. Return to the oven and cook for another 4 minutes. This cooks the flour and gives the beef a crusty coat.
  10. Remove the casserole and reduce heat to 160°C
  11. Add 650ml of red wine and enough beef stock to just cover the beef, then add tomato paste ,garlic, herbs and the bacon rind. Bring to a simmer on the stovetop, then cover and set in the oven. Cook for 2.5 to 3 hours, making sure the liquid simmers very slowly. The meat is done when it can be pierced easily with a fork.
  12. While the beef is cooking, prepare the onions and mushrooms. For the onions, bring the butter and oil to a bubble in a small pan, then sauté the onions over a medium heat, stirring so that the onions will brown evenly. Be careful to keep the onions intact.20180110_160326
  13. Add 100ml of red wine, the bouquet garni and season to taste. Cover and simmer over low heat for 40 to 50 minutes, until the liquid has evaporated and the onions are tender with an intact shape. Remove the bouquet garni and set aside.
  14. For the mushrooms, add the butter and oil to a pan over high heat. After the butter has foamed and begun to subside, add the mushrooms and stir for 5 minutes. Once the mushrooms have browned lightly, remove from the heat and set aside.
  15. When the beef is tender, pour the contents of the casserole into a sieve set over a saucepan. Wash the casserole and return the beef and bacon to it. Add the cooked onions and mushrooms to the casserole.
  16. Skim fat off the sauce, and simmer lightly. You should have a sauce thick enough to coat a spoon lightly. If too thick, add some extra stock, and if too thin, continue to reduce the sauce. Taste and adjust the seasoning if required.
  17. Pour the sauce over the meat and vegetables and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes, carefully stirring occasionally to cover the meat and vegetables with the sauce.

To serve:

  1. Slice the onions in half, and take apart the layers of onion.
  2. Place three pieces of beef on each plate, top with several mushrooms and a good ladle full of sauce.
  3. Scatter over a few slices of onion and roasted dutch carrots (optional).
  4. Serve with roasted baby potatoes and blanched green beans on the side (optional).