Classic Baked Cheesecake

Ingredients

Base
1/3 cup ground almonds (almond meal)
¾ cup plain flour
¼ cup caster sugar
90g chilled butter, chopped

Filling
330g cream cheese, softened
500g fresh ricotta
4 eggs
1 1/3 cups caster sugar
1 tablespoon grated lemon rind
¼ cup lemon juice
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1½ tablespoons cornflour
1½ tablespoons water

Strawberries and raspberries, to decorate

Method 

1. Preheat oven to 150°C.

2. To make the base, place the ground almonds, flour, sugar and butter into a bowl. Rub mixture with your fingertips until it forms coarse crumbs.

3. Line the base of a 20cm spring form tin with non-stick baking paper. Place the base mixture in the tin and press gently with fingers until even and then smooth out with the back of a spoon. Bake for 15 minutes or until light golden, set aside.

4. To make the filling, place the cream cheese, ricotta, eggs, sugar, lemon rind, juice and vanilla in a food processor. Combine the cornflour and water until smooth and add to the cheese mixture. Process the mixture until smooth.

5. Grease the sides of the cake tin with a little butter and then pour the filling over the base. Tap lightly to remove any air bubbles. Bake for 1 hour. Turn the oven off and stand the cake in the oven for 1 hour, leaving the door closed. Refrigerate until cold and serve with fresh berries.

Olive Oil And Sauternes Cake With Roast Pear

Ingredients 

For the roast pears
4 beurre bosc pears, halved or quartered lengthways, core removed, stem intact
80ml (2½ fl oz/cup) sauternes dessert wine
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons caster (super-fine) sugar

For the cake
115g (4oz/½ cup) caster (super-fine) sugar
2 eggs
185ml (6fl oz/¾ cup) olive oil
125ml (4fl oz/½ cup) sauternes dessert wine
80ml (2½ fl oz/ cup) milk
finely grated zest of 2 lemons
185g (6½ oz/1½ cups) plain (all-purpose) flour
2½ teaspoons baking powder

For the sauternes syrup
115g (4oz/½ cup) caster (super-fine) sugar
125ml (4fl oz/½ cup) sauternes dessert wine
thick (double/heavy) cream

Method

Serves 8. 

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F/Gas 4). Place the pears in a roasting tin, drizzle with the wine and oil and sprinkle with the sugar. Roast for 45 minutes, turning occasionally, until tender and starting to caramelise. Allow to cool to room temperature.

2. To make the cake, lightly grease an 11cm x 22cm (4¼ x 8½ inch) loaf (bar) tin, and line the base and sides with baking paper. Beat the sugar and eggs together in a large bowl with an electric mixer until pale and creamy. Add the oil, wine, milk and lemon zest and beat until well combined. Add the combined sifted flour and baking powder and slowly beat until just combined. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin. Bake alongside the pears for 40 minutes or until cooked when tested with a skewer. Allow to stand for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

3. To make the sauternes syrup, place the sugar and 2 tablespoons of water in a small pan and stir constantly over very low heat, without letting it boil, until the sugar has completely dissolved. Increase the heat and allow the syrup to simmer, brushing the side of the pan with a wet pastry brush if necessary, until the syrup turns a golden colour. Keep an eye on the syrup at all times, as once it starts to colour, it will continue to darken very quickly. Turn off the heat, add the wine and stir to combine. Some of the syrup may solidify. If this is the case, return it to a very low heat until it dissolves again. Set aside to cool. Serve the cake with the pears, drizzle with the syrup and add a dollop of cream.

Raspberry and White Chocolate Pudding with Kahlua Ice-cream

Ingredients

Raspberry sauce
½ cup water
½ cup castor sugar
1 punnet raspberries
2 teaspoons lemon juice

Pudding
125g unsalted butter, softened
60g castor sugar
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs, separated
100g white chocolate, finely grated
75g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon milk

Kahlua ice cream
½ cup cream
½ cup milk
2 egg yolks
100g castor sugar
30ml kahlua

White chocolate shards
50g white chocolate, melted

Method

Preparation and cooking time: 60 minutes
Serves: 6

1. For raspberry sauce, combine water and sugar in a saucepan placed over a low heat. Stir mixture continuously until sugar dissolves. Increase heat and bring to the boil, cook for one minute. Remove saucepan from heat and add 1/3 punnet raspberries. Allow syrup to infuse until cooled completely, press through a fine sieve, reserve syrup and discard raspberries.

2. Transfer syrup to a food processor with ½ the remaining raspberries and process until smooth. Add lemon juice and taste for balance.

3. For pudding, grease 6 x ½ cup pudding basins with butter. 

4. Cream butter, sugar and vanilla in a small bowl of an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add egg yolks one at a time, beating well between each addition. Stir through grated chocolate.

5. Sieve flour and baking powder onto a sheet of baking paper 2-3 times. Add to chocolate mixture with milk and gently fold to combine.

6. Beat egg whites until firm peaks form. Fold a kitchen spoonful of egg white into batter to loosen mixture and gently fold in remaining until incorporated.

7. Fill each pudding basin with 1 tablespoon raspberry sauce. Carefully place a large spoonful of batter over sauce, arrange 2-3 raspberries on batter and top with a second spoonful of batter. Smooth top, cover with foil and tightly tie with kitchen string.

8. Fill a large saucepan 1/3 full with water and bring to the boil. Place a trivet in the saucepan and gently arrange puddings on top ensuring water comes ½ way up the sides of the pudding basins. Replace lid, reduce heat to medium low and cook for 15-20 minutes or until puddings are cooked through. Remove and rest until required.

9. For kahlua ice cream, pour cream and milk into a saucepan and over a medium high heat almost bring to the boil.

10. Whisk egg yolks and sugar in a bowl of an electric mixer until pale and fluffy. Pour hot cream mixture into yolks in a slow stream, whisking continuously until incorporated. Strain mixture into a clean saucepan and return to heat. Cook, stirring, until mixture coats the back of a spoon. Transfer to a bowl and chill completely. Pour into a pre chilled ice cream machine and churn as per manufacturer’s instructions. When thick, add kahlua and churn until combined.

11. For chocolate shards, thinly spread white chocolate over a baking paper-lined flat oven tray and refrigerate until set. Break into shards and store in a cool place until required.

12. To serve, turn puddings out on to serving plates. Place a scoop of ice cream into a small dish and set to one side, garnish with remaining raspberries, a drizzle of remaining sauce and a white chocolate shard.

Skordalia Soup

Ingredients

1 garlic head
1 sprig of thyme
50g unsalted butter
3 golden shallots sliced
1 litre Campbell's chicken stock
125ml cream

Method

Serves 4

1. Slice the top off the head of garlic. Put it on some foil and put a sprig of thyme on the top and drizzle some olive oil over it.

2. Wrap garlic head in foil and bake in a moderate oven, 180°C until soft for between 45 minutes to an hour. Let cool at room temperature.

3. Add butter to a large pot over medium heat. Add the sliced shallots and sweat until translucent. Add a little sea salt.

4. Pour in the chicken stock and reduce by half to approx two cups.

5. Squeeze the garlic from the cloves into the soup.

6. Bring to the boil then add the cream and bring back up to a gentle simmer.

7. Remove from the heat and blend in a food processor until smooth.

8. Pour into bowl and top with drizzle of olive oil.

Porterhouse Steak with Béarnaise Sauce and Duck Fat Potatoes

Ingredients

Duck fat potatoes
10 small desiree potatoes, sliced
1 tub duck fat

Béarnaise sauce
100g butter
2 eschallots, peeled and diced
½ small bunch tarragon, chopped
50ml white balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon black peppercorns, lightly crushed
3 free range eggs

Porterhouse
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 black angus porterhouse steaks
200g green beans, blanched, to serve

Method

Preparation and cooking time: 70 minutes
Serves: 2

1. For duck fat potatoes, place potatoes in a saucepan half filled with cold water and bring to the boil over a high heat, reduce heat to medium and cook for 5 minutes or until par boiled. Remove and place on a paper towel-lined plate to drain well.

2. For béarnaise sauce, melt butter in a saucepan over a low heat for 10-15 minutes. Allow milk solids to fall to the bottom of the pan, pour clarified butter into a bowl and retain solids in saucepan.

3. Add eschallots, tarragon, vinegar and crushed peppercorns to saucepan and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 5 minutes or until reduced by half. Strain and reserve liquid.

4. Heat duck fat in a saucepan to 180⁰C, add potatoes and fry until potatoes are golden and cooked through.

5. Place yolks into a bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water and whisk until pale and creamy. Pour 100ml of clarified butter into yolks in a thin stream, whisking continuously. Whisk in eschallots liquid and remaining white balsamic vinegar and season with salt and pepper.

6. For porterhouse, brush oil over steaks and season with salt and pepper. Heat a large frying pan over a high heat and add steaks. Pan fry for 3 minutes on each side, remove, place on a plate or board, cover and allow to rest for 10 minutes.

Baklava

Ingredients

375g packet filo pastry

Sugar Syrup
2 cups water
1 ½ cups castor sugar
10 whole cloves

Filling
250g unsalted butter, melted
2 cups finely ground cashews
¼ cup coarsely ground pistachio nuts

Method

1 Preheat oven to 220⁰C.

2 Cut the filo pastry sheets to the size of your baking tin; a good size is 25cm x 35cm.

3 Brush the baking tin liberally with melted butter. Layer half the filo pastry sheets in the tin, brushing every second sheet with butter.

4 Spread cashews and pistachios evenly over the pastry. Cover with the remaining filo, brushing every second sheet with butter. Do not butter the top.

5 With a sharp knife, make parallel cuts on the diagonal about 3.5cm apart through to the base of the tin and cut on the diagonal the opposite way to create diamond shapes. Brush the remaining butter on top.

6 Bake for 10 minutes, reduce the temperature to 180⁰C and bake for another 35 minutes or until golden. Remove from the oven.

7 For syrup, place water sugar and cloves in a saucepan and over a high heat bring to the boil, do not stir, gently agitate, swirling the liquid occasionally until sugar has dissolved and liquid is boiling. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes or until thick and syrupy.

8 Pour hot syrup over the hot pastry, sprinkle with pistachio nuts and leave to cool.

9 To serve, cut slices of baklava and plate.

Apple Pie and Vanilla Custard

Pastry
150g plain flour
120g butter, cubed
2 tablespoons crème fraiche

Apple filling
3 granny smith apples, peeled and diced
½ cup castor sugar
¾ cup water
½ vanilla pod, seeds scraped
2 tablespoons almonds, toasted and chopped
1 egg, beaten lightly
1 teaspoon Demerara sugar

Vanilla custard
3 egg yolks
50g castor sugar
¾ cup milk
¾ cup cream
1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped
300ml thickened cream, whipped to soft peaks

Method

Cooking and preparation: 60 minutes
Serves: 2

1. Preheat oven to 190'C.

2. For pastry, combine flour and butter in a food processor and process until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add enough crème fraiche to bring it together. Tip onto a bench and press mixture together until it just forms a  dough. Shape into a disc and wrap in cling film. Refrigerate 10-20 minutes.

3. For apple filling, place apples and sugar in a medium saucepan with enough water to just about cover them. Add vanilla pod and scraped seeds, bring to the boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered until apples are tender but still hold their shape. Remove from heat and cool to room temperature.

4. To form pie, roll pastry between two sheets of baking paper to 3mm thick. Slice pastry into four even pieces and lay one piece into a 10cm pie tin, pressing gently to fit and trimming edges. Repeat with second pie tin. Blind bake for 10 minutes or until just cooked. Sprinkle a spoonful of almonds over each base and cover with apple filling. Cover each pie with another piece of pastry to make the lid, press down firmly on the edges to seal and trim neatly. Brush lids with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 20-30 minutes until golden and pastry is cooked.

5. For vanilla custard, whisk egg yolks and sugar together. Heat milk and cream in a small saucepan with vanilla seeds and scraped pod until just below boiling. Pour slowly into egg yolk mixture, stirring continuously. Strain mixture into a clean saucepan and cook gently, stirring, until custard coats the back of a spoon.

6. Serve pie warm or cold with custard on the side and cream if desired.