Author: Alex

Chocolate and Hazelnut Pithivier

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Chocolate pithivier

This is definitely a dish for the health conscious. Or perhaps not, becaused this is really like eating a giant pile of chocolate spread with a giant pile of puff pastry. And this means it’s absolutely delicious – but small servings are required!

As a dessert, this chocolate and hazelnut pithivier, from the April issue of UK Delicious is a bit of a winner. It’s quick to make, it doesn’t need to be served hot so you can make it in advance and (better yet) you can freeze it and have it as a standby dessert. And it’s so rich it will go a long way and you don’t need any special accompaniments (although good fresh cream won’t go astray).

If you’re keen – make your own puff pastry. Otherwise, have to hand 2 sheets of ready made. You’ll need to cut 24 and 26 cm diameter circles from these respectively. Put the smaller circle of pastry on a non stick baking sheet and preheat your oven to 180°C fan.

Making the filling does rather require a food processor – or a lot of patience. The original recipe specifies 150g of blanched hazelnuts. I don’t know if blanched hazelnuts are more readily accessible in the UK than Australia, but when I make this again I’ll be using 150g of ground hazelnuts. Otherwise you’re left with the task of roasting and then peeling the hazelnuts and peeling hazelnuts is a task best left to someone else, as far as I’m concerned!

So – take your 150g of hazelnuts and, if they’re not already ground, whizzy them up with 150g of good quality dark chocolate, 125g of golden caster sugar and 20g of cocoa powder until you get a fine crumbly mix. To this add 25g of unsalted butter, 2 egg yolks and 2 tbsp of dark rum (there’s no reason why a liqueur such as Frangelico wouldn’t work well here). The alcohol is, of course, optional and it’s best not to go mad with it – stick to the 2 tbsp!

Whizzy this up again and you will end up with a firm (and extremely tasty) paste.

Put this paste in the centre of your pastry base, spreading it out evenly and leaving about 1cm around the edge. Take one of your left over egg whites, lightly whisk it and brush this margin with it, before topping the pithivier with the second disk of pastry. Press down carefully at the edge, ensuring there is no air left in the middle (you want to push the pastry down around the filling).

If you can chill the pithivier at this point – that’s a good thing. Leave it in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

When you’re ready to cook, score the top of the pithivier with a swirled spoke pattern and then brush with egg white. Bake for 40 minutes. Keep an eye on it while it’s cooking – if the pastry starts to brown too quickly, lower the temperature a little.

Best served at room temperature – if you can wait that long!

Lemon Chilli Chicken with Couscous Salad

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lemon chilli chicken with couscous salad

Well, the lemon chilli chicken part of this is really pretty straightforward. What is interesting is the couscous salad. At the risk of sounding like a broken record – I’m quite into salads and during summer we eat quite a lot of couscous. But mixing through the same lot of vegetables can get a little uninspiring.

This recipe comes from Gordon Ramsay’s Makes It Easy. It’s actually the first thing I’ve cooked from this book. Some of the recipes seem somewhat uninspired (roast pork sandwich? really?) but this recipe proves that there’s at least one gem.

The lemon and chilli chicken part is facile. The recipe is for chicken wings on the BBQ. I opted for chicken thighs, pan fried (and boy, did that end up with chicken and fat spitting all over the kitchen …). Simply take your favourite cut of chicken and marinate in olive oil, lemon juice and finely sliced chilli for a couple of hours. Cook in your favourite way.

For enough couscous for two, with a little left over, you need to start by roasting a red and a green capsicum and a few cloves of garlic. Heat the oven to 200°C fan and toss the capsicums and unpeeled garlic cloves with a little olive oil. Place the vegetables on baking tray and cook, turning the capsicums every now and then, for about 20 minutes. The skin will start to blister and you want it blistered all over the capsicums so you can peel them easily.

While the capsicums are cooking, measure out 100g of couscous into your serving bowl and add 100mL of boiling water. Stir the water through with a fork and then cover the couscous for about 15 minutes, fluffing up the couscous every now and then.

When the capsicums are done, allow them to cool then peel, remove the seeds and chop coarsely. Add to the couscous. Squeeze the roasted garlic in too: cut the blunt end off the cloves and just squeeze out the centre. Mix through ½ tsp of ground cumin and a good squeeze of lemon juice and a generous glug or two of extra virgin olive oil (use the cheaper light olive oil for the marinade, but don’t skimp here!). Finish with a roughly chopped a tomato (or use cherry tomatoes, for a prettier look) and a big handful of chopped coriander.

Absolutely delicious!

Robin Hood Hotel

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date of visit: Thursday 6 October 2011

As soon as I knew I was off to the Sapporo launch I started thinking about where we were going to eat our dinner. We would need something quick and light and close to the Robin Hood. After a little head scratching, it was decided that by far the easiest thing to do was to eat at the pub itself. Why I even had to think about that, I don’t know.

I met Andy in the bar but we headed to the dining room (sorry, bistro) to eat. The dining room is at the back of the pub and away from the bars, but looks into the beer garden through floor to ceiling windows so you get the pub atmosphere (and some natural light!) without the noise. We had a table at the window and set about reading the menu and making drinks decisions.

The original plan (“quick and light”) meant that initially we were focussed on things like the tapas and bar plates or on just ordering an entrée, but Andy had spotted sausages and mash on the specials board and I was torn between the entrée of lambs brain with mash, a crispy pepper rabbit salad and a main course of salt and pepper baby squid with lime aioli. As sausages and mash is definitely not light, I ended up opting for the squid.

This is correct: I was in a pub and I didn’t order a schnitzel. Which is not to say that the Robin Hood doesn’t offer them. A chicken or beef parmi will set you back $18.50. If the rest of the food is anything to go by then this is likely to represent pretty good value for money.

Andy’s sole criticism of his sausages and mash is that there wasn’t enough gravy. It looked like there was ample gravy to me so it may be that only gravy aficionados feel a little short changed. My plate of food was generous. The squid was tender and it was only once I headed towards the end of the plate that things started to feel a little greasy: the squid had obviously been cooked in hot, clean oil. I did think that both the ‘salt and pepper’ part of the squid and the aioli could have done with a slightly more intense flavour. Salt and pepper squid (or anything) I think is always better when done with szechuan pepper – it makes it more spicy and aromatic. The aioli definitely needed a hefty shot of lime in it. Overall it was a competent dish but could have been a more exciting and it was really let down by pretty average chips that were positively drowining in chicken salt. Next time I’m at the Robin Hood I’ll be ordering something else.

That all probably sounds more negative than it should. This was a better than average pub meal but it was a shame that just a few simple tweaks could have made it better than average full stop.

The Robin Hood is to be commended on a generous wine list with a very wide range of wines offered by the glass (although, with such a big by the glass list I hope they are taking care to store the opened wines properly). Service was also very good. It was prompt and friendly and the waiting staff obviously work with a degree of flexibility. I noticed our waiter dealing with a very large group adjacent to us and, at the start of their meal, they worked out exactly how the billing would work. It was good to see a practical approach to this rather than a blind adherence to venue policy.

Overall, the Robin Hood gets a big tick – definitely an above average pub dining experience.

Robin Hood Hotel on Urbanspoon

Robin Hood Hotel
315 Portrush Rd
Norwood SA 5067
+61 8 8333 0088