Try Some Feel-good Food

Illawarra Mercury

Wednesday September 20, 2006

KILMENY ADIE

KILMENY ADIE runs through the latest cookbook offering from Marie Claire and picks out some great-tasting comfort food that's also easy to make.

Comfort food is not just about hot, hearty meals that banish the winter chill and sit heavily in your stomach.

The dishes can also be something that reminds you of your childhood, a meal that makes you feel good or a feast that always sets the mood to celebrate.

Marie Claire has released a new comfort food cookbook that encompasses all these ideas and more.

The cookbook includes dishes that are old favourites and others that have the potential to become new much-loved dishes.

The book is subtitled "Real, simple food" and the idea behind it was to create "simple-to-cook, great-tasting food that will bring wholesome, real ingredients to life and make your mouth water in anticipation".

The following are recipes extracted from Marie Claire Comfort by Michele Cranston.

Marie Claire Comfort by Michele Cranston. Published by Murdoch Books. RRP $39.95

Rustic apple and blueberry pie

Ingredients:

3 green apples (500g in total)

220g (1 cup) white sugar

grated zest and juice of 1 lemon

250g (2 cups) plain (all-purpose) flour

125g unsalted butter, cut into cubes and chilled

3 tblspns white sugar, extra

2-3 tblspns chilled water

150g (1 cup) blueberries

whipped cream or custard, to serve

Method:

Peel, core and quarter the apples. Place them into a saucepan with the sugar, 750ml (3 cups) of water and 1 tblspn of lemon juice.

Bring to the boil then simmer over low heat for 15-20 minutes, or until tender. Remove the apples with a slotted spoon, making sure to drain away as much of the liquid as possible. Cool completely. Continue to simmer the syrup until it has reduced to a third of its original volume.

While the apples cool, make the dough. Place the flour in a food processor with the butter and 1 tblspn of the extra sugar. Process until the dough begins to resemble breadcrumbs, then add the chilled water. Remove the dough, cover with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 10 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 200?C. Roll the dough out between two large pieces of baking paper into a large circle about 30 cm in diameter. When the dough is uniformly about 5mm thick, lift the lower sheet of baking paper and pastry onto a baking tray.

Pile the apples into the centre of the pastry then add the blueberries. Pull the dough up around the sides, scrunching it in over the fruit. Sprinkle with sugar.

Bake in the oven for 40 minutes, or until the pastry is golden brown. Remove and allow to cool.

Brush some of the apple syrup over the pie before serving with cream or custard. Serves 6.

Passionfruit jelly with lychees

Ingredients:

400g tin lychees

1 tspn lime juice

3 tblspns caster (superfine) sugar

6 gelatine leaves

Juice of 2 oranges

8 tblspns passionfruit juice

Fresh lychees, to serve

Method:

Drain the lychees, reserving the juice. Place the lychees into a bowl, cover with water and add the lime juice. Chill in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

Pour reserved lychee juice into a saucepan with sugar and place over low heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Soak the gelatine leaves in a large bowl of cold water for 5-10 minutes or until very soft. Squeeze any excess liquid from the gelatine, then stir it into the warm syrup.

Pour the warm syrup into the measuring container, add the passionfruit juice and enough orange juice to make 600ml of liquid. Stir to ensure that all the liquids are well combined then pour the lychee mixture into four 200ml glasses and refrigerate for three hours or overnight, until set.

Serve with chilled fresh lychees.

Linguine and prawns with roast chilli oil

Ingredients:

Chilli oil:

4 large red chillies

150ml olive oil

Linguine:

400g linguine

1 tblspn olive oil

2 garlic cloves, crushed and finely chopped

16 raw king prawns, peeled and deveined

70g (2 cups) wild rocket leaves

25g (1 bunch) chives, finely snipped

juice of 1 lemon

Method:

Preheat the oven to 150?C. Slice the chillies in half lengthways and remove some of the seeds if you like - the more seeds you leave intact the hotter the chilli oil will be.

Place the chillies on a baking tray and bake in the oven for 10 minutes, or until the edges are beginning to curl up and darken.

Remove and roughly chop the roasted chillies, then put them in a blender with the oil and blend several times until the chilli has completely broken down.

Line a sieve with muslin (cheesecloth) and place it over a bowl. Pour the chilli oil into the sieve and allow the pure oil to drain into the bowl. The result is a rich red oil with a bit of a chilli bite.

Bring a large pot of salted water to the boil and cook the pasta until al dente.

Meanwhile heat the olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add the garlic, stir it into the oil then add the prawns. Fry the prawns for 2-3 minutes until they are pink on both sides and have begun to curl up. Remove from the heat. Drain the linguine and return it to the pot.

Add 4 tablespoons of the chilli oil, the prawns, rocket, chives and lemon juice. Toss together and season with a little sea salt. Pile into four bowls and drizzle with a little more of the chilli oil. Serves 4

© 2006 Illawarra Mercury

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