Instant Entertaining

Donna Hays Instant Entertaining is must have cook book for an easy yet stunning entertaining menu.

Ingredients
1 cup parmesan cheese, grated
2 red apples, thinly sliced
80g rocket leaves, washed
1 1/2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
sea salt
cracked black pepper
150 g goat's cheese

Directions
Preheat oven to 180degC and arrange 8 x 1 1/2 tablespoons of parmesan in circles on a baking tray lined with non stick baking paper and bake for 10 minutes or until crispy. Set aside to cool.

Toss the apple and rocket in the combined vinegar, oil, salt and pepper. Arrange on serving plates with the goat's cheese and parmesan wafers.

Recipe and image from Donna Hay Instant Entertaining

Pumpkin Scones

Serves 12 Cooking Time Prep time 15 mins, cook 40 mins

250 gm peeled jarrahdale or Queensland blue pumpkin, cut into 3cm pieces
300 gm (2 cups) self-raising flour
½ tsp ground nutmeg
75 gm (1/3 cup) pure icing sugar, sifted
40 gm butter, softened
1 egg yolk
For brushing: milk
To serve: butter

Preheat oven to 200C. Place pumpkin in a steamer over a saucepan of boiling water, cover and steam until tender (about 15 minutes), then transfer to an oven tray and bake for 10 minutes to dry out. Cool, then pass through a coarse sieve.

Sift flour, nutmeg and 1 tsp salt into a bowl. Using an electric mixer, beat icing sugar and butter until pale and fluffy, add egg yolk and beat to combine. Using a wooden spoon, stir in pumpkin, then half the flour mixture. Add remaining flour mixture and, using your hands, bring together to make a dough, then turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently until smooth (dough should be a little sticky).

Roll out to 2cm thick and, using a 5.5cm-diameter cutter dipped in flour, cut rounds (without twisting cutter) from dough and transfer to a lightly greased oven tray. Re-roll scraps and repeat. Brush tops with milk and bake until golden and sound hollow when tapped (10-15 minutes). Serve hot or at room temperature with butter.

Note Different types of pumpkins have varying moisture levels. Keep this in mind when bringing the dough together, as you may need to add a little more flour for ease of handling.

WORDS Belinda So RECIPE Adelaide Lucas PHOTOGRAPHY Teny Aghamalian STYLING Vanessa Austin Published by Gourmet Traveller

Pumpkin Soup

1 brown onion, peeled, wedged
600g pumpkin, peeled, cut into chunks
400g potatoes, peeled, cut into chunks
1 litre vegetable stock
2 fresh bay leaves, or dried if fresh unavailable.
4 whole peppercorns
Cream to serve

Place onion, pumpkin, potatoes, stock, bay leaves and peppercorns in a large saucepan and bring to a gentle boil.

Simmer uncovered, until potatoes are soft, you may need to top up with water if too much liquid evaporates.

Remove bay leaves and puree with stick blender until smooth.

For extra smooth soup you can pass it through a fine sieve.

Serve with cream and freshly ground black pepper and sea salt

Jerusalem Artichoke & Potato Soup

1 brown onion, diced finely

2 garlic cloves, sliced finely

500g jerusalem artichokes

500g potatoes, peeled and diced into 1cm cubes
1 cup vegetable stock
water
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat olive oil and butter in a saucepan over a low heat, when melted add the onion and garlic and sauté slowly for a few minutes, without browning. Gently scrub the Jerusalem Artichokes until well cleaned and remove any dark skin with a paring knife.

Cut them into chunks and add them with the diced potatoes to saucepan. Stir until well coated in oil and butter and sweat for 5 minutes before adding stock and then water to cover them. Simmer uncovered until they are soft.

Use a stick blender and blend until smooth. Push through a fine sieve to remove skin. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

The cheese wafers are from Donna Hay, Instant Entertaining. Preheat oven to 180. Arrange grated parmesan or pecorino in 2" circles on a baking paper lined tray and bake until melted and browned around the edges. set aside to cool.

Pecan and Butterscotch Self Saucing Pudding

I love this pudding, especially in the winter, it is very easy to make and it a wonderful alternative to chocolate self saucing pudding, the nuts give it a unique flavor and texture, not too rich but still sweet enough for the discerning sweet tooth. This recipe was sourced from a Australian Womans Weekly publication.

Ingredients
Melted butter, for greasing
65g (1/3 cup, firmly packed) brown sugar
185g (1 1/4 cups) self-raising flour
125mls (1/2 cup) milk
1 egg
80g butter, melted, cooled
2 tbs golden syrup
75g pecan nuts, chopped
Icing sugar, to serve
Thickened cream or vanilla ice-cream, to serve
sauce
100g (1/2 cup, firmly packed) brown sugar
1 tbs cornflour
60mls (1/4 cup) golden syrup
310mls (1 1/4 cups) boiling water

Method
Preheat oven to 170°C. Brush a 1-litre (4 cup) ovenproof dish with the melted butter to grease. Place the dish on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Place the brown sugar in a medium mixing bowl. Sift the flour over the brown sugar and stir to combine.

Whisk together the milk, egg, butter and golden syrup in a bowl or jug until combined. Add to the dry ingredients and use a wooden spoon to beat until a smooth batter forms. Stir in the pecan nuts. Pour the pecan butter into the greased dish and use the back of a spoon to smooth the surface.

To make the sauce: combine the brown sugar and cornflour in a bowl and then sprinkle the mixture evenly over the pecan batter in the dish. Stir the golden syrup into the boiling water and then pour this evenly over the brown sugar and cornflour mixture.

Bake the pudding in preheated oven for 50-55 minutes or until a cake-like topping forms over a rich butterscotch sauce and a skewer inserted into the centre of the pudding comes out clean.
Remove from the oven and stand for 5 minutes. Sprinkle with icing sugar and serve with cream or ice-cream.

Superb Marinated Pork Fillet

Roasted on Rhubarb

This is one of favorite no time to cook recipes you can prepare earlier in the day and when your ready to eat put in the oven for ½ an hour. If you can find rhubarb wedged apple works well too. I have also used chicken fillets as well, cut in half length ways, but you may need to vary cooking time.

1 large handful of fresh sage
2 cloves garlic, peeled
olive oil
2 pork fillets, trimmed
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
10 slices of prosciutto
12 long sticks of baby rhubarb, washed

First bash up half your sage with a pestle and mortar or use a metal bowl with a rolling pin. Add your garlic and smash. Add 5 tablespoons of olive oil, then rub the mixture all over your pork fillets and allow to marinate for an hour if possible.

Preheat the oven to 220c. Lightly season the pork and drape 5 slices of prosciutto over each fillet - any excess marinade can be rubbed onto this as well.

Cut your rhubarb into finger-sized pieces and place in an appropriately sized roasting tray (preferably not aluminium as it will taint the rhubarb) i have also used wedges of apple when rhubarb unavailable. Place the pork on top of the rhubarb, almost tucking it into bed. Sprinkle over the rest of your sage leaves and drizzle with olive oil.

Get yourself a piece of greaseproof paper, wet it and scrunch it up. Then lay it over the meat and tuck it in round the sides. Cook in the preheated oven 15 minutes, then remove the paper and cook for an extra 15 minutes.

Remove from the oven and allow to rest for about 5 minutes. Pour any juice that comes out of the meat back into the roasting tray. Serve the meat with the rhubarb, the lovely juices from the tray and roast potatoes.

Recipe Jamie Oliver

Baked goat's curd and lemon tartlets

with blackberry and honey ice-cream
Serves 8

Tartlets
180 gm goat’s curd
100 ml pouring cream
2 eggs
55 gm (¼ cup) caster sugar
1 lemon, finely grated rind and juice only
For dusting: icing sugar

Blackberry and honey ice-cream
80 ml (1/3 cup) milk
4 egg yolks
35 gm caster sugar
30 gm honey
250 ml (1 cup) pouring cream
50 gm blackberries

Shortcrust pastry
75 gm caster sugar
300 gm plain flour
150 gm unsalted butter, coarsely chopped
125 ml (½ cup) pouring cream
1 egg yolk, whisked


For blackberry and honey ice-cream, heat milk in a saucepan and bring almost to the boil. Combine egg yolks and sugar in a bowl and whisk until thick and pale, then gradually whisk in hot milk. Return mixture to pan and stir over low heat for 2 minutes or until mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Do not boil. Remove from heat, add honey, then strain through a fine sieve into a bowl and cool. Add cream and blackberries. Pour into an ice-cream machine and churn according to manufacturer’s instructions. Freeze ice-cream until required. Makes about 800ml.

For pastry, combine sugar and flour in a bowl and, using fingertips, rub in butter until mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs. Add cream and mix until combined. Turn out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead until smooth. Form into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 180C. Lightly grease eight 9cm-diameter loose bottomed tart tins. Cut pastry into eight pieces and, working with a piece at a time, keeping remaining pieces in the refrigerator, roll out pastry onto a lightly floured work surface to 5mm-thick. Line a prepared tart tin with pastry, prick base with a fork and return to fridge. Repeat with remaining pastry. Place pastry-lined tart tins on an oven tray, line with baking paper, weight with pastry weights or rice and bake blind for 15 minutes or until lightly golden. Remove paper and bake for another 10 minutes or until pastry is golden and dry. Brush with egg yolk and cook for another minute.

Reduce oven temperature to 160C. Combine goat’s curd, cream, eggs, sugar and lemon rind and juice in a jug, then pour into prepared tartlet shells. Bake for 18 minutes or until set. Serve tarts at room temperature, dusted with icing sugar and blackberry and honey ice-cream to the side.

Gourmet Traveller Fare Exchange
RECIPE Jonathan Kemble, Star of Greece restaurant
PHOTOGRAPHY Brett Stevens STYLING Yael Grinham