Sfogliatelle

Well, while these were in the oven I got  bit carried away with my book, so they're a bit browner than I'd have liked. But they're pretty yummy anyway.

I had sfogliatelle for the first time in Adelaide a couple of weeks ago. They are truly delicious; not too sweet. I told myself I'd try making them ASAP, looked up recipes on the net, and decided to use this one.

Firstly the pastry. It's a bit of a cross between filo and flaky pastry. You need flour, sugar, butter, lard and water.

You rub the butter into the flour and sugar until it's like breadcrumbs, or use the food processor:

Then you mix it to a "soft dough" with water …

… knead it into a ball …

… then wrap it up and put it in the fridge for a couple of hours.

During that time you make the filling.

Start with milk …

… and semolina, …

… cooked as if making a semolina pudding …

… until very thick:

You then mix in some ricotta,…

…  which loosens the mixture considerably; …

 … some  candied orange peel, …

… finely chopped; …

… an egg; some sugar; and some cinnamon …

… and mix it thoroughly:

After the pastry has been in the fridge for a couple of hours, you take it out, cut it in half, and working with one half at a time …

… start rolling …

… and rolling, until it is almost as thin as filo:

This is where the lard comes in. Melt it (I used the microwave) and paint it on the pastry. The recipe said to do it in thirds, but I think it'd be fine to paint it all at once.

Then you start rolling. You need to roll quite tightly …

… painting on more lard as required …

… until the whole thing is one tight roll.

Then repeat with the other half of the dough. I think here the rolls should be rested in the fridge for another hour or so. The recipe didn't say to do so, so I didn't and it was a bit tacky to work with. However, I only made six sfogliatelle, the remainder of the pastry and filling are in the freezer whence I shall extract them on Wednesday in preparation for baking the rest of them on Thursday night.

So, you cut the rolls into slices …

… so. These could have been rolled more tightly.

Then, as if expanding a collapsible cup, you press your thumb into the middle of the spirals of pastry and form them into little pastry cones. The layers of pastry want to end up like scales on the side of the cones.

You put a couple of spoonfuls of filling into each, the recipe says tablespoons, but that has to be wrong - teaspoons was just right, …

… seal the open ends, shape them into seashell-like things and put them on an oven tray:

I also cooked the offcuts from the ends of the rolls:

So here they are, as I said, a little browner than I'd have liked, …

… but pretty good anyway:

When I make the big batch on Thursday I'll set my alarm so as to not get so carried away in my book.

I won't put the recipe in here, I made it pretty much exactly as instructed here.

Not-green papaya salad

A couple of weeks ago when I was in Sydney I tried green papaya salad for the first time. It was delicious, and I was determined to have a go at making it at home.

I bought the greenest and hardest papaya I could find …

… but when I cut it open it was perfectly ripe. Still, although it's not crunchy, I thought to myself, and won't have the right texture, I may as well have a go anyway, because it's sure to taste nice.

So I did. I shredded half of the papaya on my mandoline …

… and made a dressing of garlic, a chilli from the freezer, some brown sugar (not too much, because the ripe papaya is sweet enough), some fish sauce , some lime juice, and a chopped tomato.

I bashed the chili and garlic pretty well, but left the tomato bits reasonably whole:

Then mixed it with the papaya …

… and ate it with some pork meatloaf sort of stuff:

Obviously the texture wasn't right, and there was much more papaya flavour than there should have been, but in spite of that it was good.

I really don't think we get green papayas here, I've never seen the salad on a menu in New Zealand. A pity.

I'm writing this while I'm letting some pastry rest - I'm making another thing I tried for the first time in Australia the other week - sfogliatelle. Fingers crossed I'll be back tomorrow with some photos of them.

Dunedin Farmers' Market

On my way home from the airport last weekend I thought I'd stop in at the Farmers' Market for a change. I live a good 20 minutes from town and can't really justify the petrol use (or, to be honest, drag myself out of bed) to go in on a Saturday morning unless I have a specific purchase I need to make.

Our Farmers' Market is held at the railway station, we no longer have any passenger services apart from tourist excursion trains. I parked on the other side of the tracks and walked over the overbridge, then down the platform …

… past the old booking office, which is very beautiful …

… to the far end of the station. Here are a few photos:

Even one of the local boutique breweries has a stall:

And this African band was entertaining the shoppers:

This is what the Railway Station looks like from the other side:

A few years ago the city council decided to install formal gardens in front of it, I love watching them change with the seasons.

This knot garden stays the same, of course:

But the flower beds are constantly changing:

At the moment this one is mostly parsley, of all things.

I bought some pork tongues and smoked ham hocks from the guy from Havoc Pork, and arranged with him to order a leg for this year's prosciutto.

I turned the pork hocks into this terrine:

It's the same as this one, but I went a bit easier on the butter and mustard, and lined the pan with some of my prosciutto.

And with the tongues I made this pressed tongue thingy:

It was only $3 for four tongues, which is pretty good value.