Parmesan Biscuits

Canapes / hors d’oeurves to serve with drinks…. Delicious, bite sized morsels that go well with drinks and don’t turn you into a kitchen slave – translation, they take 15 minutes to make!

Perfect for a summer‘s evening, sitting on a terrace, sipping cocktails with friends while the sun sets, I do paint a pretty picture now don’t I.

These Parmesan Biscuits are perfect as they are a little salty and have a kick of black pepper which nicely offsets the sweetness of a drink.

This is a slight adaptation of The Cook’s Companion recipe, I have reduced the salt by 1/4 and the cooking time by 3 minutes.

ERIKA ALLISTON – Food Blog: PARMESAN BISCUITS

Makes about 24

• 110 g (1 cup) grated Parmgiano-Reggiano cheese
• 55 g (2 oz or 1/2 stick) butter, softened
• 85 g (2/3 cup) all-purpose flour
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper (1/2 for dough, 1/2 for decoration)
• 3/4 teaspoon sea salt or kosher salt

Directions:

1. Combine Parmesan and butter in a  food processor.
2. Add flour, egg yolk, 1/2 teaspoon black pepper. Mix well.
3. Roll into a 15cm long log, wrap in plastic, refrigerate for 1hr
4. Pre-heat oven to 180°C/(350°F)
5. Cut log into 1/2cm thick rounds, place 2cm apart on a baking sheet
6. Sprinkle each with salt & remaining black pepper
7. Bake for 11 minutes, or until golden

Gougères - French Cheese Puffs

Gougères – French Cheese Puffs

Gougères are classic French cheese puffs made with choux pastry and grated cheese (Gruyère / Comté). French they may be but it was in Russia that I really took a liking to them.

I blame it on the French bakery Volkonsky‘s, which was in dangerous proximity to Katya’s Moscow appt. A small bakery / café selling delicious pastries, sandwiches, breads and coffee not to mention gougères.

It was a lesson in how something so innocent can be so addictive … I could have eaten them by the handful.

In memory of  Volkonsky’s gougères, here is  my recipe (see link Gougères below):

Gougères – French Cheese Puffs Recipe : ERIKA ALLISTON – Sweet Pea Blog

• 250 mL cold water
• 75 gr unsalted butter (in small cubes)
• 3 pinches salt
• 150 gr white flour (sifted)
• 4 eggs
• 80 gr Gruyère cheese (finely grated)
• grated nutmeg to taste

Chou Pastry – Method:

1. Place water, butter & salt in a sauce pan. Heat till just boiling.
2. Remove from heat.
3. Add flour all at once. Using a wooden spoon, stir vigorously untill a smooth dough forms (see photo)
4. Let cool for 5 minutes.
5. Add 1 egg, mix well. Don’t panic, it will take a few minutes of vigorous stirring for the egg to fully mix in. At the beginning the dough will separate and look lumpy, just keep stirring!
6. Repeat step 5 for remaining three eggs, adding them one by one.
7. Now fold in the grated cheese & nutmeg.

Baking – Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 200°C (normal not convection heat)
2. Using a teaspoon, place generous dollops of dough on a lined baking sheet (see photo), leaving 2cm  / 1 inch between them. *
3. Bake for 18-20 minutes.
4. Let cook and serve immediately. You can keep and reheat the gougères but they will lose their perfect consistency

NOTE : other recipes suggest chilling the dough before baking ie. 30-60 minutes in the fridge. I tired this and felt that it didn’t make a large difference, except that when cooked my gougères were slightly paler in colour  and softer in texture.

{BLINIS AU CAVIAR DE POIVRON ROUGE ET NOIX} With my recent engagement, and hence the beginning stages of wedding planning (wonderful but ever time consuming!) I have been MIA from Sweet Pea for the past 2 weeks. I thought what better for a welcome back than a recipe inspired from the night Olivier proposed to me. 

It was a warm mid August evening - we were in Monaco, at Alain Ducasse’s restaurant the ‘Bar & Boeuf’, at a table over looking the sea…. the dinner was exquisite, every detail perfect, including the lovely apératif they served us with a delicious red pepper coulis. As first impressions go – this coulis made a great one, and so when I passed the pile of plump garden peppers in the market this past weekend – there was only one thing that came to mind!

As I was having guests over that night and am always on the look out for a sumptuous while simple to prepare amuse bouche (meaning amuse your mouth, aka canapé or hors d’oeuvre), I decide to create a recipe inspired by the red pepper coulis I had in Monaco with a thicker consistency and the addition of the blinis. Topped with a drop of ricotta cream and sprinkled with sumac, these bit sized canapés were a welcomed treat.

RECIPE - SWEET PEA Blog

IMPORTANT :you can make the red pepper caviar & the blinis ahead of time, but only put the final canapé (hors d’oeuvres) together just before severing, so that the blinis do not become moist (see NOTES below)

Red Pepper Caviar preparation:

• 3 large red bell peppers (capsicum)
• 1 spring onion (white part only)
• 4 teaspoons ground almonds
• 4 teaspoons ground hazelnuts
• 1/2 a small garlic clove
• salt & black pepper to taste

For the garnish (topping): 

• 3 tablespoons ricotta cheese
• 1 teaspoon cream
• sumac

1. Preheat the oven to 230°C (446°F)
2. Wash the whole peppers and place them in a baking dish. Cook for 30 minutes, turning the peppers occasionally so that they cook evenly. The skins can burn a little but not too much or they will affect the taste of the pepper.
3. Remove from the oven and immediately place in a heat proof bowl and tightly cover with plastic wrap. Leave to sit for at least 20 minutes. I use this time to prepare the blini batter.
4. Once the 20 minutes is up, remove the plastic wrap, and prepare the peppers, by removing all the skin, tops and seeds. Gently dry the peppers with a paper towel to remove excess water and place in the blender.
5. Now chop the white part of the spring onion and add to the blender along with the ground almonds, hazelnuts, garlic, salt and black pepper. Blend well, until you obtain a very smooth consistency.
6. Set in the fridge to chill for at least 1 hour.

Blini preparation:

• 100g white flour
• 50g buckwheat flour (farine de sarrasin)
• 1 egg
• 25cl (1 cup) milk
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil (ie sunflower)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

1. In a large mixing bowl combine the white + buckwheat (sarrasin) flour and salt. In a separate bowl, beat the egg, and combine with the milk and vegetable oil. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix well until you have a smooth uniform batter.
2. Place a non-stick frying pan (skillet) on medium heat. Once the pan is hot, add small tablespoons of batter, using the reverse side of the spoon to spread the batter into a circle. I usually make the blinis about 4 cm (2 inches) wide and quite thin.
3. Let the blinis cook until the center of the side facing up is just a little bit wet with dry edges, and then flip them. Set on a cooling rack when done.

Final stage:

Finally, once the blinis are cooled, place a teaspoon of the red pepper caviar onto the center of each blini and finish with a drop of ricotta cream and a sprinkle of sumac

NOTES: drying the red peppers to remove excess water and then chilling the caviar is important to obtain the right consistency. If you want the caviar to be a little thicker add more ground almonds and hazelnuts. For more information on buckwheat(sarrasin)

{CAVIAR OF AUBERGINE} The aubergine aka EGGPLANT I must confess is a fruit (actually a berry – yes I know I too grew-up thinking it was a vegetable) that I have never warmed to cooking (no pun intended!!) Until one day it occurred to me - if the texture of the aubergine wants to go soft when cooked, then don’t fight it – make a caviar. And the rest is history.

When I was making this recipe last night I realised that I was short of olive oil and so substituted 1 tablespoon of olive oil for a tablespoon of sesame oil, which was delicious.

You can make this recipe with many different types and sizes of aubergines, but I found that the small dark variety yield the least amount of water and make a thicker caviar, while sicilian aubergines which are generally a lighter purple, larger and round in shape, give a smoother texture and more subtle taste. 

RECIPE – SWEET PEA BLOG

• 2 small purple aubergines (eggplants) – weighing approx 560g together
• 3 tablespoons olive oil (ALTERNATIVE :  2 tablespoons olive oil and 1 tablespoon sesame oil)
• 3 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 pressed garlic clove
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• pepper to taste

Oven: convection heat 210°C (410°F)

1. Place whole aubergines in a metal pan, and cook for 35 minutes (turning them once so both sides cook evenly). If you do not have a convection oven than I suggest a cooking time of 40 minutes.
2. Remove from oven and let cool for at least 5 minutes so you don’t burn your fingers tips off like I did the first time!
3. Next peal the skin off each aubergine and remove the green tops
4. Place the flesh of the aubergines in a sieve and with a fork press out as much water as you can
5. In a mixingbowl combine aubergines, olive oil, lemon juice, pressed garlic clove, salt and pepper. Blend together with a hand-mix until smooth.

NOTES: Also take a look at Michelle (of Bleeding Espresso blog ) Italian perspective on aubergines!!