Mini Quiches

Mini Quiches

These quiches make great finger food and I made them for a get together we were having at out place on Saturday night. The can be prepared and cooked well in advance and they can be eaten hot or cold, so they are a great option for casual nibbles with a wine or beer!

Ingredients:
3 large eggs
4 1/2 tablespoons cream
3 teaspoons grated onion
Pinch of ground nutmeg
Salt and pepper to taste
2 sheets frozen puff pastry, thawed
Ingredients to your liking all finely chopped (I did 3 combinations: ham/chive, capsicum/cheddar, spinach/fetta)

Preheat oven to 210 degrees Celsius (190 degrees Celsius fan-forced).

Spray oil onto muffin pan to grease.

Using a fork or small whisk, beat eggs, cream, grated onion, nutmeg, salt and pepper in a small bowl until well combined.

Using a round cutter roughly the same size as your muffin pan holes, cut circles from each sheet of pastry.

Line each muffin hole with a pastry round.

Divide your selected toppings evenly amongst your pastry cases.

Spoon egg mixture on top off your chosen toppings to cover each topping in each pastry case.

Bake for about 20-30 minutes, or until quiches are golden and puffed. (If pastry is still not cooked on the bottom, cover the top of each tray with Aluminium foil and place back into the oven at a lower temperature for a further 10 minutes).

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Modern Prawn Cocktail

Modern Prawn Cocktail

The legendary, if somewhat outdated, prawn cocktail generally consisted of shredded iceberg lettuce, cocktail sauce and avocado on the side and could typically be found at any cockatil party in the 1970's. Since it's humble beginnings the Prawn Cocktail is still a favourite and the recipe below is a fresh and tasty spin on a tried and true winner. Perfect for an entree as we did at our dinner party on Saturday night, or as a easy summer lunch!

Ingredients

(serves 4)
16 cooked Prawns de-veined & shelled, with tails on.
2 Avocados, cubed
5 Cherry tomatoes halved
1 tablespoon Lemon Juice
1 teaspoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil
2 teaspoons chopped Coriander
½ cup diced Spanish Onion
Salt
Pepper

Basil oil
Handful of Basil leaves
Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Chilli oil
½ Red Capsicum
Tabasco Sauce (to your desired heat tolerance!)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Basil oil
Hand chop a handful of basil leaves until fine. Place in a bowl and mix with olive oil until completely covered. Alternatively, place in blender with enough oil until it turns to a sauce consistency. Place in fridge to infuse.

Chilli oil
Hand chop the capsicum until diced very small. Place capsicum in a bowl and mix in a teaspoon of Tabasco Sauce, then add olive oil until completely covered. Place in fridge to infuse. (this could also be done in a blender if desired).

Prawn/Avocado Stack
Place the halved tomatoes into the oven for 15mins on 200C. Take out and let cool.

Dice the cooked tomatoes roughly, then loosely mix the avocado, tomato, lemon juice, coriander, olive oil and onion in a bowl being careful not to mash the avocado.

Once well combined, place 3 tablspoons (more of less depending on how much avocado you want) into a biscuit cutter on the centre of a plate.

Press it down gently into the mold with the back of a fork to provide a snug fit. Pull the mold away revealing a self-standing avocado stack.

Arrange 4 prawns on top of the avocado stack.

Place the basil and chilli oils around the avocado on the plate.

Garnish with a sprig of coriander.

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Potato Gnocchi

Ever since he saw it being done on Masterchef, Craig has been at me to make this recipe. I hunted down a Potato ricer on my travels in my lunch break the other day and so we set about making some homemade gnocchi from scratch. I have to admit that I am not the biggest fan of Gnocchi. I find it quite filling and gluggy and can never seem to get through a whole bowl full. Admittedly, I have only used the supermarket packet ones and maybe that is where I was going wrong, because this recipe produced very light little gnocchi's, a pure delight to eat! (Though I would still recommend small serves :)

Potato Gnocchi

Ingredients
750g desiree potatoes, unpeeled (very important to use this variety of potato)
1 1/3 cups (200g) plain flour, plus a little extra

Salt to taste

(serves 4)

Place the potatoes in a saucepan and cover with cold water then bring to the boil over high heat. Cook for 20-25 minutes or until just tender when tested with a skewer (don't test too much as potatoes will become waterlogged).

Drain the potatoes well and set aside until just cool enough to handle. While still hot, peel by hand and discard skins. The potato skins should have started to crack which will make this easier. (I used a vegetable peeler to remove stubborn bits of skin as it is very important to remove ALL skin so it doesn't end up in the silky gnocchi bites).

Using a potato ricer (think of a large garlic crusher) or mouli, press each potato into a bowl. The outcome should resemble grated cheese. Season to taste with salt. Cool slightly, but not completely.

Add flour to the warm potatoes then use your hands to knead briefly until a soft dough forms.

Note: If mixture is still sticky, add a little more flour (the amount of flour added is very important!)

Too much flour = heavy, tough gnocchi

Too little flour = dough falling apart during cooking

Place gnocchi dough on to a lightly floured surface.

Cut dough into 4 equal-sized pieces. Using your hands, gently roll each piece out to form a log about 2cm wide. Using a lightly floured knife, cut each log into 1.5cm-long pieces.

Roll each ball of gnocchi over the prongs of a lightly-floured fork, pressing gently with your index finger or thumb underneath as you go, to form a dent in the back of each one and fork marks on the other side (this creates a textured surface, helping sauces to cling to cooked gnocchi).

Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil. Add 1/4 of the gnocchi. As they cook, gnocchi will rise to the surface of the water. Continue cooking gnocchi at the surface for about 10 seconds then remove with a large slotted spoon and drain well. Repeat with remaining gnocchi.

Toss gnocchi through your favourite sauce and serve immediately.

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Mushroom Pasta Filling

Mushroom Raviolli Filling

Ingredients

1 tablespoon Olive Oil

2 tablespoons butter

1 garlic clove, minced

8 portabella mushrooms, chopped finely

4 large flat mushrooms, chopped finely

8 Swiss brown mushrooms, chopped finely

Splash of white or red wine (white for lighter taste / red for heavier)3 Basil leaves chopped finely

Salt and pepper to taste

3 tablespoons Ricotta

Heat Olive oil then add to it the butter.

Once melted add the garlic and sauté, being careful not to burn the garlic pieces.

Add in the chopped mushrooms and sauté with garlic and butter until all mushrooms have adsorbed the liquid and reduced to nearly half the quantity in size.

Add a splash of red of white wine, reduce it down then add salt and pepper to taste.

Add in chopped basil leaves and stir for a further 2-3 minutes then remove the mixture from heat and allow to cool to room temperature.

Once mushroom mixture is cool, stir in the Ricotta to bind the filling together.

Your filling is now ready for your pasta!

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Fresh Pasta Dough

A few weekends ago Craig and I were inspired to buy a pasta machine after watching several cooking shows. There is something so homely and satisfying about making your own pasta. After a few attempts and several variations on recipes later, we finally nailed one that works everytime! By the way - we did try that whole "flour well on the bench, manual thing" and it was insanely difficult!

Pasta Dough

Ingredients

250grams "OO" Plain Flour

Pinch of Salt

1 Tablespoon Extra Virgin Olive Oil

2 Whole Eggs (60gram Eggs)

3 Egg Yolks Place all ingredients into a food processor.

Once all the ingredients have combined and resemble a crumble texture, remove from food processor and knead on a floured board until the dough is firm, smooth and combined. (Approx. 1 minute)

Place dough in cling wrap and rest in fridge for 2 – 3 hours.

Once dough has been allowed to rest – knead again for approximately 2 mins then cut the dough into 4 pieces.

Using a rolling pin, roll out the first piece of dough quite flat to allow it to pass through the pasta machine easily. Repeat this for each piece of dough.

Using the widest setting on the pasta machine – run your first piece of dough through.

After the dough has been passed through once, reduce the opening setting by one each time until the dough is about 2mm thick (thinner than a puff pastry sheet).

Repeat this for the remaining pieces of dough.

Place rolled out sheets of dough onto lightly floured workbench or chopping board ready to make ravioli or your desired pasta shape.

You will find in the following blog a recipe for a delicious pasta filling and an easy sauce to serve with your homemade pasta, sure to impress all your friends! ;)

Tips:

Make sure eggs and flour are fresh!

Add a little more olive oil if mixture is too dry.

Add flour if dough is too sticky, it should not feel tacky to touch.

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