Cindy's Snowflakes: Coramba

Showing posts with label Coramba. Show all posts

Monday, 28 February 2011

Recipe–Grape Pate de Fruit

Last year we planted a vine to run along our front verandah. The idea was that it would shade the kitchen windows in summer with its foliage, and let the winter sun through to warm us up when the leaves dropped. As we like to have multi tasking plants where possible, we decided to put in an edible grape. We opted for a green one so that we wouldn’t have to worry about the wooden decking getting stained from falling fruit.

This summer we have enjoyed our first crop. The vine has grown like crazy and does a fantastic job of keeping the direct sun out of the front of the house, not to mention that the greenery right outside the large windows looks lovely from inside the house, and softens the look of the building from the street too. The vine was so heavy with fruit that we had to cut off many of the immature bunches which the chooks were more than happy to gobble up! Unfortunately, although they tasted beautiful, the texture was a bit spongey. Having never grown grapes before, we weren’t sure if it was something we had done wrong or not, but put it down to the crazy weather we have had this summer. Our days have been fluctuating back and forth between 42^oC with 80% humidity, to 20^oC only 2 days later! It’s put some of the chickens off the lay and is definately taking its toll on the kids’ tempers too!

As a result, we had a couple of kilos of fruit that tasted great but weren’t any good to eat, so what to do? Once again, Google to the rescue! I found a few references to Canelle et Vanille, one of my favourite food blogs. I figured they would definately know what they were doing, so I converted their recipe for Strawberry Pate de Fruit to Grape Pate de Fruit.

It was a weekend, so I had my two trusty helpers home to lend a hand, so we pureed the fruit, boiled it up with the sugar and pectin then let it sit. Luckily it didn’t take any where near as long to set as I thought it would (but much longer than Madeleine wanted!). It turned out of the silicon pan beautifully and we coated it with just normal white sugar. Next time though I think I’ll use caster sugar as it is just that little bit finer. They tasted beautiful, you could really taste the grape in them and the texture was lovely, not at all rubbery. You can find a printer friendly version of the recipe here. The girls and I can’t wait to make them again and were thinking raspberries will definately be worth trying. Have you made these before? What flavours do you think would work well?

Monday, 14 February 2011

Raspberry Mousse

This Raspberry Mousse is absolutely divine! It is sweet, yet tart and the most gorgeous colour! The Raspberries can be replaced with juice or puree of any fruit you like. I have also made it with both lemons and limes, both of which were just luscious! Anyway, without further ado, here is this week’s recipe.

Ingredients:

Part 1: Italian Meringue

¼ Cup Sugar

½ teaspoon Glucose

20ml water

1 Egg White

Part 2: Raspberry Mousse

550g Raspberries (fresh or frozen)

1 ½ teaspoons Gelatine

10ml Raspberry Liqueur

200ml Cream

Procedure:

Part 1: Italian Meringue

Combine sugar, glucose and water in a small pan.
Heat gently, stirring until sugar dissolves.
Bring to the boil and stop stirring.
Continue to boil until liquid reaches 16oC.
Remove from heat and allow bubbles to subside.
Meanwhile, beat the egg white to stiff peak.
Slowly add hot sugar syrup to egg white while beating on low.
Continue beating until the bowl has reached room temperature (approx 5 minutes)

Part 2: Raspberry Mousse

Bloom gelatine in 1 teaspoon of water.
Heat raspberries until they liquefy.
Pass raspberries through a sieve to remove the seeds.
Return raspberries to pan with liqueur and heat to just below boiling.
Add gelatine and mix thoroughly.
Cool.

Fold raspberry mixture into Italian Meringue.
In a separate bowl, beat cream to soft peaks.
Fold raspberry mixture into cream.
Chill.

Monday, 31 January 2011

Cool Gadgets–Measuring Spoons

Okay, I know what you are thinking, what’s so cool about measuring spoons? They’re just spoons right? Not any more! Measuring spoons have entered a whole new dimension! They’re not just the white Tupperware spoons thrown to the back of the draw any more, they have become a fashion statement in their own right!

Now like shoes and handbags, a girl can never have too many sets of measuring spoons. I only have 2, but I need more. You need 2 because how often are you measuring out one ingredient and it sticks to the inside of the spoon (yeast and turmeric ALWAYS do it), so it has to be washed before you can measure out the next ingredient. Only problem is, you can’t dip the now clean but wet spoon into the next food, so you dry it with a tea towel which brings in static, making the next ingredient cling too! And so on, and so forth! I have a metal set and a plastic set. I find that things tend to stick less to the metal spoons, but I don’t like using metal for acidic ingredients. Plus my plastic ones are a really pretty pink.

The fact that I like my pretty pink measuring spoons, brings me to the next subject – how cool have measuring spoons become? Uber cool I tell you! So cool, they are even being made out of sterling silver to hang around your neck!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/62713152/sale-the-original-baker-charm-necklace?ref=sr_list_10&ga_search_query=kitchen%2Bjewelry&ga_search_type=handmade