Lemon curd puddings

This lemon curd pudding is one of our favourite. It is quick to make and really easy. I either make it as individual portions as here on the photos or family version in a larger souffle dish.  The pudding consists in a lemon curd (don’t be afraid, read on, you can’t get it wrong) and a cake batter.

ramequin lemon curd pudding

Ingredients:

This makes 8 serves.

For the lemon curd
  • 120 g of butter
  • 170 g of white sugar
  • 4 eggs
  • 175 g of lemon juice (about 2 good lemons)

Tip: the bright yellow colour  is linked to the egg yolks, the brighter your eggs, the more vibrant the lemon curd.

For the biscuit

160 g of butter
160 g of castor sugar
3 eggs
160 g of flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp grated lemon zest

Method
Lemon curd:
  1. Melt the butter in a saucepan with the lemon juice and sugar.
  2. In a medium bowl, break the eggs and beat them well with a whisk (to homogeneise them). Bring the warm liquid to boiling point.
  3. As soon as bubbles appear on the sides, pur it over the eggs while whisking.  It is very important you whisk all the time to disperse the heat and avoid omelette pieces in your curd.  It is possible the curd will be thickening on its own at this stage, if that is the case, no need to transfer back in the pan and cook further, keep whisking at low pace until the curd cools down a bit more (30 second to 1 minute).  If the curd has not thickened yet, then pour it back to the saucepan, always whisking and place it on medium heat. Keep mixing until the curd thickens then transfer to a clean bowl.

Tip: Want to know when your curd is at the right thickness? If the curd coats the back of a clean spoon (it doesn’t all run away), then it is ready.

Tip: Your lemon curd will further thicken when cooling down.

The pudding

Tip: If you are choosing the turn over steamed version , you will need to line bottoms with greaseproof paper circles. This would not be necessary if you are using silicone moulds. You will also need to cover the ramequins in foil and cook in a large roasting dish with water coming to 1/2 height. 

  1. Heat up the oven to 170ºC
  2. Grease eight small 150 mL ramequins or pudding bowls.
  3. Cream butter and sugar.
  4. Add the eggs on at a time, mix.
  5. Add the flour, baking powder and lemon zest. Mix well.
  6. Spoon two generous tablespoons of lemon curd into each ramequin.
  7. Spoon the biscuit dough over the lemon curd trying to cover it fully.
  8. Bake for about 20 minutes until well golden.  (for the steam version allow 30 min).
  9. Serve warm. Careful it is very hot when just out off the oven.   If unmoulding the steamed pudding, run a gentle knive around the outside of each pudding before turning out.
Other versions
The turn-over lemon curd pudding
The family  version lemon curd pudding
family lemon curd pudding
Yellow lava coming through the top! Yum!

 

Pork belly roast in apple cider

This pork belly roast in apple cider is almost a whole dish in one go.  As any god pork roast, it cooks slowly for quite some time.  My trick, is that I cook it slowly for 2-3 hours covered, switch off the oven if dinner is still a while away and put it back for 1/h to an hour uncovered to finish it off and get the cracking! It works! (on my photo it appear a little dark, I went to pick the children up from school while in the oven which took longer than expected).

You can do the other way around (first the cracking uncovered, then cover up and cook slowly).

Ingredient
  • pork belly
  • apple cider
  • Garlic heads one or two depending on the size of your roast
  • 1 or two apples, cored, cut in thick slices horizontally
  • salt, pepper
  • herbs
Method
  • Score the top part of the pork belly, rub with salt
  • Cut the garlic heads halfway and place in roasting plan along with the apple slices. Put the pork belly on top. Add herbs, a dash of olive oil.
  • Poor the cider around the roast until it touches the meat (it’s of to have a bit of the meat “wet”).
  • Cover with foil.
  • Place in oven at 150°C for three hours or until very soft (the top will not look very appetizing at this stage).
  • If you are close to dinner time, uncover, increase the oven temperature to 180-200 and cook further until the tops blisters and crackles.
  • If you are not so close to dinner, switch off the over (leave the roast in there), and put back on up to an hour before dinner as instructed above.
  • Remove from the oven and rest before cutting and serving.
  • Serve with seized greens and roasted potatoes. See examples below for grilled potatoes and greens.

Pommes de terre grillees      Legumes verts

 

 

Autumn cooking

Has autumn finally arrived in Sydney? At our place, the deciduous trees are dropping their leaves and the evenings and early morning are rather fresh.   I already hinted at it last week with my post on chestnuts.  Today is about autumn cooking, illustrated by a few dishes made at home in the last week or so.

On another matter, the subscription link is back running, check the side of the blog on a laptop or the bottom of the page on a mobile phone.

Let’s start by a breakfast treat…

I decided to give another do to the croissants dough recipe and make viennoiseries a bit different to croissants and pains au chocolat.  Because the batches are quite big, I freeze the pieces directly after shaping them on a tray (then pack away).  The night before I want them, I put them out of the freezer on a baking sheet and let them unfreeze and rise.  My problem was that I had very inconsistent risings and end results, but this time I think I worked it out!  The best is that the kids and I made that together, or rather they laid the custard, sultanas, rolled the dough in a log, wrapped it, I only did the cutting of the log.

viennoiserie
Pains aux raisins

And you know what? Today is not all about sweet dishes!

The below was a quick cook, 60 minutes to dinner, a bit like a Masterchef challenge.  I am quite ahppy with the end result!

I prepared a mushroom and fresh salmon tart (pastry included) served with a roasted pumpkin, beans and baby spinach salad.  And dessert with that? This is where a 7 y.o. child comes handy, this was a rapid apple cake, a recipe known in my family as a (hold on!) “Rombidi Rondidi Radada) but more generally in the wider northern part of France countryside as a 5,4,3,2,1 . For the salmon tart and salad, I had my 4 y.o. as kitchen hand (cutting ends of the beans), mixing, placing the mushrooms and salmon in the tart.

tarte au saumon frais
Fresh Salmon Tart
salade citrouille, haricot et epinards
Mixed green and roasted pumpkin salad

Another night, another dish, a soup!

Soupe aux marrons
Chestnut Soup

Doing a chestnut soup had been in my mind for a while, but I did not want to add cream and make it too heavy.  I quickly browsed recipes, again I did not feel like adding pumpkin or many vegetables.  I was after something where chestnut was the hero with a little something to ensure balance in flavours.

Now, chestnuts are nutritious, regardless what you do with them.  A bowl of that soup can make your dinner!  In south-eastern France and in Corsica, where they grow plentiful on rocky slopes,  they helped the populations go through hard times.

This chestnut soup recipe contains one small onion, one parsnip, one potato (probably not that necessary), two pears and plenty chestnuts! And the peeling of the chestnuts did not take so much time and was easy (place the incised chestnuts in cold water and brink to the boil!).

Quails season is also now, or at least the natural hunting season

When I was a child, my grandfather would install nets in trees and bushes to catch quails in autumn.  I have never been with him, I remember the stories and numerous return home empty handed! This week, I got a tray of quails from Vic Meats at the Sydney Fish Market (I went there to get some mussels), it was a little treat.  Since I was again cooking at the last minute, I did not spend too much time in books or websites looking at recipes.  I do not cook quails very often.  For those I mixed together some turmeric, paprika, a little sumac, some ground vanilla beans, made a paste by adding olive oil and rubbed the mix around the birds,  Inside I placed some fresh garden herbs and crushed garlic.  The rest is easy: brown the quails on both sides, then add one cut of dry white wine, salt, about one cup of red-currents, 2 large shallots sliced, salt and pepper.  I had to balance the acidity by adding one teaspoon of sugar.  Just before serving I rounded the sauce with a piece of butter.  I served them with grilled potatoes and parboiled broccoli.

Cailles aux groseilles
Quails in red-current sauce

Was it a good dish, yes definitely, but it is probably difficult to have a disaster with quails.  My younger one refused to eat a little bird, she asked to check the image online, no way she was going to eat it (she tried on her own will) !

A few autumn colour desserts…

A chocolate mousse is a crowd pleaser, always! It takes ten minutes to prepare, it needs to be done a few hours ahead of the meal (4 minimum, 6 or more is best). It contains only eggs and cooking chocolate: no sugar, no cream.  As my children would say :”got it?”….the recipe is HERE.

Mousse au chocolat degustation
Chocolate mousse

This other dessert is for all seasons really but the colours work so well with autumn!  This lemon and lime tart is a recipe from Julie Goodwin, an early contestant and winner of the Australian Masterchef.  The recipe is available on Julie’s website or on my blog HERE.  The edges of my crust got a bit hot (but not burnt). I would advise the blind cooking by picking holes with a fork instead of using blind baking stones may be the solution to avoid the issue.

tarte citron et citron vert
Lemon and Lime Tart

Any questions? Just ask!

Chestnut soup

This chestnut soup comes directly from my kitchen bench!  The hero of the dish is the chestnut.  I am giving the recipe as I made it.  You may choose to omit the potato, I don’t think it is necessary.

Ingredients:

  • 1 kg fresh chestnuts whole
  • 1 parsnip
  • 1 medium potato
  • 2 pears
  • 1 cube good quality chicken stock
  • 1 small onion
  • Salt

Method:

  1. To peel the chestnuts, incise the chestnuts on one side, place in a saucepan in cold water. Brig to the boil. Remove from the fire and peel both skins which should remove quite easily.
  2. Cut onion finely, in a large pot, melt about one teaspoon of butter and slowly melt the onion in it (it takes 5-10 minutes).  Toss regularly.
  3. In the meanwhile, peel the vegetables and peel and core the pears.
  4. Add to the pot, the vegetables, pears, chestnuts, stock cube, salt and add water to cover well.
  5. Cook until the vegetables are done.
  6. Remove a few whole chestnuts or large pieces to use for plating (it add a little crunch).
  7. Blend the rest.  You may have to add some water if your chestnut soup is too thick.