Pistachio and Orange Blossom Macarons

For me, orange blossom water and pistachios evoke the exotic colours, scents and flavours of Middle Eastern cuisine. But what is orange blossom water? It is the distilled water that contains the essential oils of the orange blossom. It is used in savoury and sweet dishes alike, and a little goes a long way. You can pick orange blossom water at middle eastern grocery stores, as well as gourmet food stores. I picked mine up at a health food store here in Sydney.

Here is a simple, beautiful recipe to make these macarons with a slight middle eastern twist :) I have adapted this recipe from The AWW: Macaroons & Biscuits book.

Ingredients
1/3 c unsalted roasted pistachios
3 aged eggwhites (I left mine out in a bowl covered with clingfilm overnight)
1/4 c (55g) caster sugar
green food colouring
1 1/4 (200g) icing sugar
3/4 c (90g) ground almonds
1 tbsp icing sugar, extra
1/4 c pouring (pure) cream
150g white chocolate, finely chopped
1 tsp orange blossom water*

* The original recipe calls for 4 tsp, however I used 2 tsp and felt the flavour was still slightly too floral. Next time I will half it to 1 tsp for a more subtle flavour. You could always add a little more if you wanted the orange blossom flavour to be stronger.

Method
1. Lightly grease heavy oven trays and line with baking paper. Combine the ground almonds and icing sugar in a food processor and pulse briefly, then sieve twice and set aside in a bowl.
2. Process pistachios until finely ground. Sift and discard any remaining course bits, then set aside.
3. Beat eggwhites with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Add caster sugar a teaspoon at a time along with a few drops of the colouring. Beat until the sugar dissolves and the eggwhites are thick and glossy.
4. Fold in 1/4 c of the ground pistachios and then the icing sugar and ground almonds in 2 batches. The mixture should 'flow like magma', which means it should slide slowly down the side of the bowl when you tip it.
5. Spoon mixture into a piping bag fitted with a 1 cm plain nozzle. Pipe 4cm rounds about 2cm apart onto trays. Tap trays on bench so macarons spread lightly.
6. Dust macarons with extra sifted icing sugar and sprinkle with a little of the remaining grounds pistachios (as much or as little as you like). Stand 30 minutes, or until you can touch them lightly without any batter sticking to your finger. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 150 degrees celsius.

7. Bake around 12-15 minutes. Keep an eye on the macarons and remove them before they start developing any golden colour on the edges. Cool on trays.
8. To make the filling heat the cream in a small saucepan, removing it from the heat just before it reaches boiling point. Pour the cream over the white chocolate in a small, heatproof bowl. Sit for about a minute and then stir until smooth. Sit until the ganache thickens to spreadble butter-like consistency then stir in the orange blossom water.
9. Sandwich the macarons with the filling, and enjoy!

So there you have it - a little bit of luxury mid-week! :)


Ladybird x

Red Velvet Cupcakes

The red velvet cake was said to be a signature dish at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York during the 1920s. According to urban legend, a woman once visitng the hotel asked for the recipe in the 1960s and upon request for bill realised she had been charged a hefty fee for the recipe! Her revenge? Spreading the recipe across the country in a chain letter. Nice.

Who knows whether or not the story is true, but it remains clear that it is a very popular cake flavour in the US. It is characterised by its red-brown colour. Where does the colour come from? Well, the key ingredients in a red velvet cake are: buttermilk, cocoa and (some say) traditionally, beetroot. Nowadays, however, red food colouring is usually used to enhance the colour.
 
Red velvet cake is not a common flavour in Australia, and so I wanted to try its *supposed* original form with the beetroot. The result was a light and moist cake, much like carrot cake but the beetroot was hardly distinguishable. If you wanted to intensify the red colour you could add a couple of drops of red food colouring to the batter.
 

 
Red Velvet Cupcakes (from '200 Cupcakes' by Hamlyn)
Makes 12 small cupcakes
 
150g self raising flour
2 tbsp cocoa powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
100ml buttermilk
1 tsp vingear
50g lightly salted butter, softened
100g caster sugar
1 egg
50g raw betroot, peeled and finely grated
 
Icing
200g cream cheese (Philadelphia)
2 tsp vanilla extract
300g icing sugar
12 fresh cherries (to decorate)
 
1. Prehet the oven to 180 degrees celsuis. Line a muffin tray with paper cases. Sift the flour, cocoa powder and bicarbonate soda in a bowl and set aside. Mix together the buttermilk and vinegar in a jug.
2. Beat together the butter and caster sugar in a separate bowl until pale and creamy, then beat in the egg and the beetroot.
 

3. Add half the flour mixture and mix gently with a large metal spoon. Stir in half the buttermilk mixture. Combine the remaining flour mixture, then the remaining liquid.

4. Divide the mixture between the paper cases and bake for around 20 minutes or until risen and firm to the touch. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
5. To make the icing, beat the cream cheese, vanilla extract and sifted icing sugar until smooth and creamy.
6. Swirl the icing over the cooled cupcakes and top with a cherry on each.
 

Ladybird x

Homemade Yoghurt & 'Shrikhand'

I was never a big fan of yoghurt until I first tried homemade yoghurt in India at Mr Ladybird's grandparents' home. Since that fateful day, I haven't looked back. Homemade yoghurt is referred to as curd or 'dahi' in India, and most households make their own. It is wonderfully creamy like greek yoghurt and is not as sour as the supermarket-bought varieties. There is also a special satisfaction in making something like this at home... you know exactly what's going into it, it's better for your, and it is so economical!

After much research, tips from in-laws, trial and error, and let's not forget the tears and frustration... at last I can make my own yoghurt! I must also give a shout-out to a certain blogger's post on homemade yoghurt that helped me along the way :) Thanks, Christine!

The first part of this post is about how to make your own yoghurt, and the second is using is to create a beautiful Indian dessert called 'Shrikhand'. This is a sweetened yoghurt infused with spices. In this case, I've used saffron and cardamom for a traditional version of the sweet.

Part 1 - Making the yoghurt
Making your own yoghurt is a bit like riding a bike.. It might take you alittle while to get the hand of it, but once you do, you'll be set for life! Hopefully the recipe and instructions I have set out below will see you on your way to making your own yoghurt and you'll never need to buy it again!

Ingredients
1L full cream, UHT milk*
2 tbsp natural yoghurt **
* You can use fresh milk - I just seem to have more success with UHT milk.
** Once you have made your first batch of yoghurt, you'll be able to reserve some of it to use as a starter for your next batch.

1. In a heavy based medium size saucepan, heat the milk until it's just about to boil. Then switch off the heat, and allow the milk to cool down to luke warm temperature. Once you can dip your pinky finger in the middle of the saucepan comfortably for 10 seconds, you're ready to go. This is the most important part - if it's too hot, the heat will kill the bacteria (don't worry, it's good bacteria!) that forms the yoghurt.
2. Scoop out about half a cup of the luke warm milk into a mug, and mix in the 2 tablespoons of yoghurt with a fork. Then return the milk and yoghurt mixture back to the saucepan and stir gently to combine.
3. Transfer the liquid to a clean dry, 1 litre capacity jar or container with a snug-fitting lid. I used a large coffee jar as suggested and used by Christine in her post.
4. Now for the incubation... The yoghurt needs to be cosy, warm and undisturbed so that it can ferment. I wrapped my jar in a beanie and a hand towel, and placed it next to my heater overnight for 8 hours. You can leave it for longer, but as a general rule - the longer you leave it, the tangier it will become.
5. After the yoghurt has incubated it should be set.  Transfer to the fridge to cease the incubation process and to chill.

Part 2 - Making the 'Shrikhand'
Shrikhand is a popular dessert in Gujarat, which is a state in west India. A common misconception about Indian food in western countries such as Australia is that indian food is pretty much what you find in Indian restaurants. Typically, the food one comes across in indian restaurants is quite Punjabi in style (North Indian). However, in reality, there is huge variety in Indian cuisine. North and south indian cuisine are vastly different, let alone the differences in food from state to state.

1. The first step to this dessert (after making the yoghurt of course) is to 'hang the curd' as is often said in India. Essentially, this means straining the yoghurt to drain off excess fluid so that you're left with thick, creamy yoghurt. This is traditionally done by pouring the yoghurt into muslin cloth, tying it up and suspending it. However, I didn't have any muslin cloth on hand so I improvised with a sieve over a bowl, and I lined the bowl with two squares of kitchen paper towel. Then I carefully poured in the yoghurt.

Then I covered the bowl and left it in the fridge overnight (about 10 hours) to drain.

The drained fluid can be discarded and you're left with lovely, thickened yoghurt. How much? About 500 ml.

Now it's time for the fun part - flavouring the yoghurt! Here's how...

Ingredients
a scant 1/2 tsp saffron threads
1/4 tsp cardamom seeds, powdered with a mortar and pestle
a dash of full cream milk
approx. 4-5 tbsp pure icing sugar, sifted
chopped nuts (I used pistachios) to decorate

1. Heat the milk in a small saucepan/pan or in the microwave, then transfer 2 teaspoons of the milk into a small bowl. Crumble in the saffron and, using the back of a teaspoon, crush the saffron into the milk a little. Set aside for about 10 minutes to infuse.
2. Add the saffron and milk mixture and cardamom to the strained yoghurt, then add the icing sugar and mix through. Add more sugar to taste if you want it sweeter.
3. At this point the shrikhand is ready but I like to refrigerate it overnight if I have time to allow the flavours and colour to develop. Serve in small bowls sprinkled with nuts.

*** No saffron was harmed during this photo shoot. Trust me - every last strand was carefully returned to its box and placed back in the frige! ***

Ladybird x