Croquembouche

Custard-filled and white chocolate coated profiteroles on a chocolate iced sponge base

This was my first attempt at making profiteroles, which made the croquembouche idea even more ambitious. I'm so psyched that it all worked because every step was a labour of love for my boyfriend's birthday. I made the profiteroles using Raymond Blanc's recipes for choux pastry and creme patissiere here.

1. Make a cake base of your choice.

2. Make the pastries, dip them in melted white chocolate, fill with creme patissiere and stick them on the cake base with toffee.

3. Decorate with toffee strands (using a spoon, cool toffee down enough for it to make long, thin strands, then drizzle around the croquembouche).

Red Wine Braised Veal & Honey Glazed Carrots

Twice cooked osso bucco, honey glazed baby carrots, parsley jelly and Pinot Noir jus, served with sweet carrot and ginger tea

1. Sear osso bucco (marrow removed) and caramelise diced carrot, celery and leek. Braise with beef stock, Pinot Noir (perfect for braising because of its deep and rich flavour), thyme and bay leaves for 3 hours on a medium simmer. The liquid should reduce by half. 

2. Pull veal off the bone, flake with a fork and combine with the raw marrow. Roll into a log with cling wrap and set in the fridge for a few hours (I was impatient so the log didn't hold too well, but it was still delicious). Fry the log in a pan with butter and olive oil until brown. Rest, slice and serve. Reduce braising liquid by half and add butter to make the jus.

3. Blanch a bunch of parsley leaves in salted water. Puree with a blender or whiz stick the parsley with about a quarter cup of the water. Push through a fine sieve and dissolve gelatine in the green liquid. Set in a shallow dish (I used a mini flan dish) lined with cling wrap. Cut into cubes.

4. Blanch baby carrots in water, sugar, star anise and cloves. Add ginger to the water and serve as a tea. Glaze carrots with a mixture of water, butter, honey and sugar. 

Saw a similar recipe on the food channel and loved that it used cheap and humble ingredients, treated with lots of love. I'm so glad it's getting cool enough to enjoy hearty, slow-braised meals. Not only does it warm up the house, it gives me an outlet for my OCD for hours at a time (is there anything more enjoyable than arranging small objects to make them pretty?). We enjoyed this with a great friend, a few glasses of wine (and when we ran out of red, we moved onto white) and a night of trashy movies.

Spicy Lamb Leg with Pumpkin & Couscous Salad

Lamb leg has everything I want in a piece of meat. It's tender, juicy, easy to cook, inexpensive and has an appropriate amount of fat. When you roast it, every part of it is delightful to eat. It's not fidgety like other cuts where you have to cook it in several pots and pans and you end up spending more time cleaning than eating. The fat renders off beautifully in the oven and it all melts in your mouth.

I love a roast with an intense spice rub. There's a lot of meat on that bone so you need a lot of flavour. This rub is so delicious and a great example of using spices for their flavour rather than heat. When it mixes in with the lamb juices, it's a marriage made in heaven.

A couscous salad is the perfect way to soak up those beautiful juices, not to mention it's dead simple to make. I also put in some roast pumpkin (tossed in those lovely spices) for colour and sweetness.

Spicy lamb leg

You'll need:

Lamb leg (mine was 1.5kg)
1 tablespoon turmeric
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon ground cumin
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon grated ginger
Birdseye chilis (to taste)
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon salt

Combine turmeric, paprika, cumin, garlic, ginger, chili, olive oil and lemon juice in a mixing bowl.

Wash and pat dry lamb leg with paper towels.

Rub the spice mixture onto the lamb.

Marinade in fridge for at least an hour. The lemon juice tenderises the meat so the longer the better.

Preheat oven to 170°C.

Roast lamb on a wire rack for 1 hour 20 minutes for every 1.5kg. (I know my oven is pretty slow so I left it in for an extra 10 minutes.)

Rest for at least half an hour.

It should be beautifully pink medium-rare, so juicy and tender it will hardly hold onto your fork.

Pumpkin & couscous salad

You'll need:

500g pumpkin, diced
1 cup couscous
1 cup boiling water
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
Pinch of salt
Juice of one lemon
½ cup red onion, finely diced
½ cup raisins
Handful of mint leaves, roughly chopped

Toss the pumpkin in any left over marinade and roast with lamb for 1 hour on a baking tray in a single layer.

Combine couscous, olive oil, salt and water in a large bowl. Cover with plastic wrap for 10 minutes.

Separate couscous with a fork and mix in pumpkin, lemon juice, onion, raisins and mint.

Enjoy!

Homemade Banana Ice Cream in Peanut Butter Jelly Sandwiches

I never understood the appeal of a frozen banana until I tried it myself. I knew that vodka and gin stayed nice and unfrozen in the freezer - but putting a piece of fruit in there? Surely it'd come out rock hard (don't mind the innuendo). Somehow, it doesn't. It's creamy and chewable, kind of like... ice cream! Mix it with a bit of cream and voila - creamy, smooth, scoopable ice cream!

The best thing about this is it's much healthier than store-bought ice creams. There's no preservatives, you can control how much sugar you put in (or even substitute sugar with honey, maple syrup or agave nectar) and most of it's fruit. Plus, you're not spending hard earned money on packaging.

What better way to have it than to serve it with peanut butter and jelly - an unbeatable combination. You've got the salty P, the creamy B and the sweet J (there's the innuendo again). Squish it between two layers of crunchy cookie and you've got yourself one hell of an ice creamy sandwich.

Banana ice cream

You'll need:

2 bananas
200ml thickened cream
½-1 cup castor sugar, depending on how sweet the bananas are

Peel and puree the bananas. You can use a food processor. If you don't have a food processor, like me, you can use a potato ricer.

Combine cream and sugar and whip until soft peaks form.

Gently fold the two together and place in an air-tight container.

Chill in freezer overnight. (It takes longer to set than other ice creams.)

Sandwich with cookies, peanut butter and strawberry or raspberry jam. Easy.

Enjoy!

Char Siu Pork and Roasted Fennel

I remember the good old days when I'd walk to Hurstville shopping centre late in the afternoon in pyjamas and pick up a box of end-of-the-day char siu pork for $2. I like to think I've evolved and matured since I was 17 but that char siu pork is still something I'd happily eat every afternoon.

This recipe is super, super easy. It does cost a little more than $2 but you can definitely wear your pyjamas while preparing it. I used to have this with cabbage, but since I was using the oven, I decided to roast some fennel with it. When roasted, fennel loses its anise flavour and becomes really sweet.

You'll need:

500g pork (I used pork belly rashers but if you don't like fat, you can get a loin fillet)
3 tablespoons char siu sauce (it's a deep red jammy sauce)
1 teaspoon sesame oil
½ fennel bulb
Vegetable oil

Combine char siu sauce, sesame oil and pork and marinade for at least 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Slice the fennel and lightly toss with vegetable oil and a bit of leftover marinade. Bake for about 30 minutes.

I grilled the pork on a griddle pan (on the highest heat) for a minute on each side to get those delicious char marks but you can also put the pork straight in the oven.

Bake pork on a wire rack. How long will depend on how thick your pork is. Check it every 10 minutes and if it's not ready, baste it with the leftover marinade and pop it back in.

When done, rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Slice and serve with rice, spring onion, chili and cucumber.

Enjoy!