Category: Family at the table

Home rules for happy meals

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!

 

Beans and sausages bake

This dish recently made it on our menu in our household, often for a sunday night.  It is a great dish for many reasons:

  • It is a real no stress dinner, super mega easy to do;
  • Everyone likes it;
  • It makes use of pantry items (all these cans of bans my husband likes to buy when he does a grocery top up), in other words, all you need from the fridge is sausages!

Depending on the numbers to feed, I serve it with or without soft polenta.

Ingredients:
  • 2 cans of beans of your choice: red kidney, mixed beans, chick peas, white beans, ….although no breakfast ready baked beans please
  • 1 can of crushed tomatoes (or whole, you can cut them roughly)
  • If the beans are in brine, i.e. not in brine (our were mexican salsa recently), one jar of past sauce of your choice
  • 1 to 2 sausages per person (I also like to use lamb forequarter chops)
  • one onion
  • 2 small zucchini if available
  • rosemary or thyme from the garden

beans bake

Method:
  • Open the tins of beans, rinse under water except if in tomato sauce.beans bake
  • Place in a large roasting dish, the beans, the sliced onion, the can of tomatoes, the sliced zucchini and the jar of pasta sauce (if using).
  • Place the meat thoughout.
  • Season with salt and pepper
  • Bake on oven 200°C for 30 to 45 minutes (until the meat is cooked)
For the soft polenta

Boil one cup of milk with three cups of water and 1 tsp of salt. When it is boiling, add in rain, one cup of polenta  (corn semolina).  Stir with a whisk or wooden spoon, reduce the heat to half and cook for fie minutes.  If the mix dries out too much, add a little water. Set aside. Add 1/2 cup of grated cheese. Stir. Serve.

 

Flan Patissier

If you have been to France, you would have seen the Flan Patissier in bakeries or maybe had a serve in a bistro.  The flan patissier is a classic french dessert, it is alike a baked custard.  Some versions of the flan patissier include a shortcrust pastry.  My version does not have it. I grew up with that version, I prefer it as such.  The pastry makes unmoulding easier, otherwise I do not find it adds much to the dessert as a whole.

To make it quite thick – I find it looks amazing like that! – you will need either a narrow baking dish (17 cm diameter) or you need to double the recipe like I did for the photo session!

flan

 

Serves 5

Ingredients:
  •  2 eggs
  • 1/2 vanilla bean (you can also use some of the vanilla powder you find in gourmet spice shops)
  • 80 g white sugar
  • 700 mL of milk
  • 75 g of corn flour
  • 300 mL of cream
Method:
  1. Heat up the oven on 180°C, butter and flour the tin (use a spring form one if you have one).

    Note: if you are making the single proportions above, you can use a ceramic tart dish to bake it it and serve it directly as such (my Mum always did that!). 

  2. Scrap the vamilla beans and place in th milk. Heat up the sugar, milk and cream.
  3. In the meanwhile, whisk together the eggs and corn flour.  Once the milk is hot, pour the equivalent of a laddle in the egg mi and mix well, add the rest. Mix well before returning to the saucepan and, using a whisk, keep stiring. The custard will thicken. Once it becomes thicker remove from the heat an transfer to the prepared tin.  Flatten the top with a spatula.
  4. Bake for 45 minutes or until browned to dark on the top. It may look a little burnt, don’t worry this is normal.
  5. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before unmoulding.
  6. Serve warm or completely cooled down at room temperature. If unmoulding, first use a sharp knive to make sure the flan does not stick to the edges of the tin.

Tip: you can add soaked sultanas, a couple spoons of rhum or chocolate chips to make it a little different.

flan

Crumpets

After trialing a few recipes to make sure my 16 years old niece who has become a fan of this little hot cakes could reproduce crumpets in France, I am putting here my pick of the recipes trialed.

If you want to read about the comparative testing, go to the post dedicated to it HERE.

Otherwise, get some flour, sugar, yeast, milk, salt, bicarbonate of soda and a little butter and get cooking!

Makes 6 medium crumpets.

Ingredients:
  • 200 mL of milk
  • 125 g of flour
  • 1 tbsp of butter chopped (10 g)
  • 7 g of dry yeast
  • ½ tsp of salt
  • ½ tsp of sodium bicarbonate
  • 1 tsp of white sugar
Method:
  1. Warm up half of the milk with butter and sugar. Add the remaining milk.  Why do it in two go, you may ask? This will ensure the temperature of the mix is initially hot enough to melt the butter and sugar but with the total volume of milk just warm. The yeast would not like it otherwise!
  2.  Add the yeast. Set aside for 10 minutes.
  3. Add together the flour, sodium bicarbonate and salt.
  4. Mix well (use a whisk) until completely smooth.
  5. Set aside for 45 minutes.
  6. Use non-stick crumpets rings.
  7. Oil the bottom of a crepe frypan or non stick fry pan slightly. Heat up the frypan then reduce to ¾ heat.
  8. Add 2 tablespoons of batter in each ring. When bubbles come up and have popped up regularly over the surface of the crumpet (2 to 3 minutes), remove the ring (it should come undone pretty easily by just pulling it up. If the crumpet is not fully cooked on the top, flip back and lightly cook for 10-15 seconds.

crumpet

3 quick last minute desserts

3 quick and last minute desserts to help fix that lunch or diner when you are either pressed for time or not willing to spend much time behind the stove!

Then keep scrolling down for a few photos of the week trials! Some are part of upcoming posts!

1 The Summer Fruit Log

summer log

 

This is really simple and requires a very low level of effort! You need one good quality puff pastry,  some cream for whipping and some berries.  The photo says it all or pretty much!

Such an australian dessert in its style!

summer log

2. The Chocolate Friands (for tea or coffee after lunch) for that little extra craving…

This is one of these recipes where you place all the ingredients together, mix, place in the oven and bake and this is it!

The plus +++ of that recipe is that they are gluten free, loaded with chocolate and of course quick and easy to make. And by the way, GF!

YUM. Recipe HERE.

friand choco hazelnut

3. Back to basics with this yoghurt and berry ramequin

This may not impress the crowds but will definitely please the whole family.   Whiz some strawberries with a little icing sugar.  Roughly mix it to the yogurt. Add blueberries and sliced almonds on top.

When I do this at home, it goes in a flash!

yahourt and fruits ramequins

The week in image

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Free range eggs now formally defined in Australia

Free range eggs have now a formal definition in Australia.  The controversy was not new, and a definition has been a long time coming. A number of brands claim to be “free range”, alas, for the poor customer, there was (until now) no way to know the veracity of the claim, especially when you pay a premium for “free range eggs”, for some brands, that premium can mean over $10 a dozen.

One of the not so free range eggs brands apparentlyOne of the not so free range eggs brands apparently

Of course, the hens are free range,…not the eggs!

The new definition of what free range eggs imply is well received by some, not so well by others. I am not going to go into the controversy of what should be done when breeding hens and which brands are better than others, it is a personal issue on what is acceptable to you.  I find that this definition is a starting point, for those who think it is not good enough, well, marketing and imagination can be used wisely.

How are free range eggs defined elsewhere?

Lets get into the new  definition of free range eggs and look over the oceans at what is done elsewhere.

In Australia, free range eggs must come from hens that have meaningful and regular access to an outdoor range, with a stocking density of up to 10,000 birds per hectare.  One hectare being 100 m x 100 m, this means 1 square metre per hen outside.  Interestingly, it seems the density indoors is unknown.

And in Europe? Europe has a European standard which defines the different categories of eggs.  A free range eggs requires:

  • compulsory continuous daytime access to open air runs, AND
  • the outdoor area is solely to be used for the hens, with limitations on dual use of the land, AND
  • a maximum density of 2,500 birds per hectare, in other words 4 square metres per hen (at all time, i.e. indoor and outdoor).

You got it,  free range eggs in Europe are definitely more free range than in Australia!

And in the US? In the US, there is no regulatory standard for eggs.  “Free range” is used when the hens are free to roam inside and have access to an outdoor area.

Using eggs everyday

These recipes are quite timely, I did not prepare them on purpose for this post, they are life example from this week in my family.

Blue cheese and asparagus quiche

I like a quiche from time to time, it is light to digest and comes under many sorts.  When I was a child I only liked the cheese quiche, I did not like at all the quiche Lorraine!  Now, things are different.  Quiche can incorporate vegetables, either in the main mix, for example grated zucchinis (finely grated) or grated carrots either on top where it can also serve as decoration.  Make it look like a landscape!  Try asian mushrooms on top, I really like the enoki mushrooms. Use a combination of them, it will be great, guaranteed!   This week, Ambrine was helping me make the quiche, I had green asparagus and the remaining of a large basket of cherry tomatoes from my mother in law’s garden in the NSW Southern Highlands. The recipe is here.

Before Baking:

quiche in the making

Just BAKED

cheese and asparagus quiche

 

To make the quiche process a bit more rapid ahead of the meal, you can make the quiche in stages and prepare the pastry earlier the same day or the day before. You can even blind bake it earlier.

I serve the with a green salad.  And dessert was a fruit salad.

Dinner on the table
Dinner on the table

Eggs for breakfast, today, using a microwave coddler

This is another child friendly recipe.  This is all about the fun of  little vessel called “coddlers” used to cook eggs.  Coddlers are, traditionally, English porcelain egg cups with a metal lead.  Very British! Egg coddlers have been used in England since the 1800s. The original name for an egg coddler was pipkin. My sister sent me a microwave version of them for a recent Christmas, what a great find! The advantage of the microwave version is the cooking time, it cooks in 30 seconds whereas the ceramics ones are cooked in a bain marie, this takes for ages!

Microwave Coddler
Microwave Coddler

All you need to do is:

  1. Crack open the egg and gently put in the coddler
  2. Add salt, a teaspoon of cream, pepper if you want.  You can add many more things like cheese, spices, …
  3. Close the lid
  4. Place in the microwave for 30 seconds (this will depend on your microwave and requires a bit of trial and error)
  5. That is it! Bip! Ready!
Cooking an egg in a coddler
Cooking an egg in a coddler
Egg cooked in a coddler
Egg cooked in a coddler