Purple cauliflower cheese and pork knuckle

Posted by Gary

Purple cauliflower cheese and pork knuckle

Purple Cauliflower
Purple Cauliflower
Pre-cooked pork knuckle. Slowly cooked and packaged for reheating.
Pre-cooked pork knuckle. Slowly cooked and packaged for reheating.

During the week, I started thinking about what I might cook myself for Christmas day lunch.

A conversation with some workmates prompted me to think about what movies to watch on Christmas day too. I’ll probably write about that on the Christmas day blog post.

When I was growing up in Brisbane, I remember my maternal grandmother roasting more than a dozen chickens because she would cook for a large group of people. My grandmother used to spoil me rotten. She knew that I loved eating the cloaca of roast chickens. I remember one Christmas; I had fifteen roast chicken cloacæ. It was epic.

After my grandmother’s death, we’d often have Christmas lunch with my uncle and his family. We’d have ham, turkey, chicken, and pork. The meals were huge.

In recent years, if I’ve eaten Christmas lunch with friends, there may be duck or chicken for the lunchtime meal.

This year, I’m cooking for myself. I’m not going to cook a whole chicken or a large joint of meat. I want something relatively simple and comforting, especially if I’m going to sit down in front of the TV watching a Christmas movie.

Pork knuckle

As I was browsing the aisles in the meat section of Coles today, I spied the pre-cooked pork knuckle and noted the extended expiration dates on the packaging. These pork knuckles have been pre-cooked, and vacuum-sealed which should aid safe preservation.

I’ve eaten one of these pork knuckles before and enjoyed it. I knew then; I’d do it again.

Pork knuckle with the rind dried.
Pork knuckle with the rind dried.

Cauliflower cheese

During the week I was watching Jamie Oliver on TV, and he made a cauliflower cheese. I haven’t made cauliflower cheese for ages and thought it might go well with the pork knuckle.

White sauce

I’ve become a fan of the French Cooking Academy on YouTube. While I’ve been competent at making white sauce for many years, I wasn’t necessarily aware of the two approaches to creating a white sauce.

Saucier pan

You might be wondering, what is a saucier pan? Is it just a fancy way of saying saucepan? I’m guessing that the derivation of the words is similar.
A saucier pan differs from a standard saucepan by having a more rounded bottom. A nicely curved bottom is an excellent thing in a pan because it means bits of your roux won’t get stuck in the angle between the hard bottom and sides of a saucepan.

A rounded bottom means easier whisking and less residue.

I recently bought a saucier pan on-line. I’m embarrassed to write that it was an expensive purchase and I had to wait months for it to ship from the United States. I guess that achieving the lovely curve of a rounded bottom takes more effort to make.

So apparently, if you’re serious about making special sauces, a rounded bottom is an excellent thing.

Purple cauliflower

I think most people would assume my favourite colour is maroon (pronounced ma-RONE) because of the association with the Queensland rugby league team (the mighty Queensland XXXX Maroons). However, maroon isn’t my favourite colour, purple is. I won’t go into the reason why here, but people who know me well, understand why this is.

While in the fresh produce section of Coles I spotted a beautifully formed purple cauliflower and thought it would be great for cauliflower cheese.

Purple Cauliflower Florets
Purple Cauliflower Florets

Ingredients

Pork knuckle

  • Coles pre-cooked pork knuckle
  • Iodised salt
  • Queensland nut oil

Cauliflower cheese

  • Purple cauliflower
  • Iodised salt
  • White pepper
  • Lurpak butter
  • Plain flour
  • Milk
  • White onion
  • Cloves
  • Nutmeg
  • Bay leaf
  • Porcini mushrooms
  • Porcini mushroom distillate
  • Cheddar cheese (Coon™)

Instructions

Pork knuckle

  1. Follow the instructions on the box.
  2. Dry off the rind and rub on some Queensland nut oil and iodised salt. I think the best thing to dry your meat off is a tea towel because you can wash it and reuse it. If you don’t want to do that, then absorbent kitchen paper is okay to use. Massage the oil and salt into all the nooks and crannies with your fingers.
  3. Cook in a hot (220 °C, fan-forced) oven for 50 minutes.
  4. Allow the pork knuckle to rest and peel off the crackling before pulling the meat from the bone.
  5. Keep aside some of the pork muscle meat for another meal.
  6. Eat all the crackling in one hit because it’s better hot than cold. I also defy anyone to not eat all the delicious crackling.
Cooked pork knuckle with crispy crackling
Cooked pork knuckle with crispy crackling
Cooked pork knuckle with crispy crackling
Cooked pork knuckle with crispy crackling

Cauliflower cheese

  1. Dissect the florets off the cauliflower head using a sharp paring knife.
  2. Cook the florets in boiling salted water until you can penetrate and withdraw from the stems with a sharp paring knife cleanly.
  3. Drain the florets in a colander.
  4. Melt the butter in a saucier pan (see my description in the earlier paragraphs on what a saucier pan is) over low heat.
  5. Add in the plain flour and whisk to form a roux.
  6. Cook for three minutes to remove the taste of the flour because it’s a disgusting taste and you want to taste the buttery goodness of the Lurpak butter.
  7. Set aside the saucier pan with the roux and allow it to cool to room temperature. Make sure you place the saucier pan on a heat resistant surface. It will destroy the joy of the whole meal if you melt something and damage your saucier pan.
  8. In a saucepan add some milk, half a white onion which has cloves inserted, a bay leaf, the juice from rehydrated dried porcini mushrooms, white pepper, salt, and nutmeg.
  9. Bring the milk to a simmer and simmer for 10 minutes.
  10. Replace the saucepan on the hob with the saucier pan with the cooled roux.
  11. Pour the hot flavoured milk through a sieve directly into the saucier pan and begin to whisk to develop the white sauce. If it starts to get a little too thick and gooey, add some cold milk to bring the sauce to a more runny consistency if that is your heart’s desire. Me, I like my white sauce thick and gooey for the mouthfeel.
  12. Add some raw diced white onion to the white sauce to add some crunch and texture for even better mouthfeel.
  13. With a bit of kitchen-paper wipe the bottom of a baking tray with some Queensland nut oil in what is probably a vain attempt to stop the white sauce and cauliflower from forming adhesions to the bottom of the baking tray. While I don’t believe for a second that these adhesions are as painful and troublesome as intraperitoneal adhesions, it’s pretty frustrating to spend an excessive amount of time scrubbing the bottom of the baking tray. I’ve got a friend at work who has had problems with adhesions and she’s been through a terrible time.
  14. With a ladle, spoon some of the white sauce into the baking tray. The aim is to coat the bottom of the oily base.
  15. With your fingers, because fingers are delicate organs — fearfully and wonderfully created — to know just how much pressure to apply to objects to pick them up and transfer them. In this case, the cooked florets may be friable (sort of like caseation), so the aim is the transfer them into the baking dish without causing the florets to fall apart. I hope you can appreciate why I think fingers are best for this task.
  16. If you burn the tips of your fingers, that’s the price you pay for trying to pick them up without allowing the florets to cool to a sufficiently low temperature.
  17. Ladle the remaining white sauce over the cauliflower florets, making sure to fill in the holes and fissures with your thick gooey special sauce.
  18. Grate some cheddar cheese, I used Coon™ and please understand this is the name of the cheese, and the name is going to change soon because the company which manufacturers the cheese has listened to its customers and will make a change. I don’t know what the new name will be. I hope it’s Eddie after Edward Coon who was the original maker of this delicious cheese.
  19. Add the cheese on top of the white sauce covered cauliflower. Use as much cheese as you like. I like cheese, a lot of cheese, so I used a couple of cups of grated cheese.
  20. I also grated some nutmeg over the cheese and sprinkled some cayenne pepper and smoked paprika on the cheese. Yes, I did the wanky thing and used a whole nutmeg with a microplane to grate it rather than shaking a bottle of ground nutmeg. If that’s all you have, then that is fine. Don’t let anyone ever look down on you for using nutmeg out of a bottle.
  21. The baking tray should go into an oven heated to 180 °C for about 20 minutes. This should result in lovely golden and dark caramel tones to the white sauce with a little blue of the purple cauliflower peeking through. I say blue because the purple colouration changes when the cauliflower is cooking in boiling water.
  22. Remove the baking tray and allow the cauliflower cheese to set. Setting the cauliflower cheese may take about 10 minutes. You want the cheese to stiffen a little, so the cheese and white sauce adhere to the cauliflower florets.
Half a white onion with diced white onion plus a bay leaf and nutmeg
Half a white onion with diced white onion plus a bay leaf and nutmeg
Half a white onion spiked with cloves with diced white onion plus a bay leaf and nutmeg
Half a white onion spiked with cloves with diced white onion plus a bay leaf and nutmeg
Half a white onion spiked with cloves with diced white onion plus a bay leaf and nutmeg
Half a white onion spiked with cloves with diced white onion plus a bay leaf and nutmeg
Dried porcini mushrooms hydrating in warm water
Dried porcini mushrooms hydrating in warm water
Milk with white onion, cloves, bay leaf, nutmeg, white pepper, salt, porcini mushrooms and mushroom water.
Milk with white onion, cloves, bay leaf, nutmeg, white pepper, salt, porcini mushrooms and mushroom water.
Purple cauliflower on white sauce
Purple cauliflower on white sauce
Purple cauliflower covered with white sauce
Purple cauliflower covered with white sauce
Purple cauliflower covered with white sauce and cheese plus nutmeg, cayenne pepper and smoked paprika.
Purple cauliflower covered with white sauce and cheese plus nutmeg, cayenne pepper and smoked paprika.
Purple Cauliflower Cheese
Purple Cauliflower Cheese
Purple Cauliflower Cheese
Purple Cauliflower Cheese

Plating up

  1. Put the pork knuckle meat and the pork crackling on the dinner plate.
  2. With a large serving spoon, ‘cut’ through the set cauliflower cheese and aim to take a floret with each spoonful. Place the cauliflower cheese next to the meat and crackling.
Pork knuckle and purple cauliflower cheese
Pork knuckle and purple cauliflower cheese
Pork knuckle and purple cauliflower cheese
Pork knuckle and purple cauliflower cheese

How did it taste?

The pork knuckle meat was tender, not too salty and delicious. The crackling was crisp and had a clean flavour.

The cauliflower cheese was fantastic. The white sauce and cheese were the right consistency, and the cauliflower was soft and not too firm.

I think I’ll be doing this for Christmas lunch.

Star Trek T-shirt

Roast pumpkin, spiced pecans and duck breast

Posted by Gary

Introduction

During the week, I was reading Karen’s Back Road Journal, and she had a post about a harvest salad with roasted butternut squash and red onion.

Part of the recipe included spiced pecans. This post piqued my interest because I like the idea of spiced pecans with pumpkin.

Last week I made a roast pumpkin and caramelised onion dish courtesy of Not Quite Nigella (Lorraine Elliott). That recipe used toasted pecans. I thought spiced pecans might add a bit of extra oomph to the recipe.

Back Road Journal

I think Karen was one of the first bloggers I followed when I started blogging a little over ten years ago.

Karen and her husband live in the USA and travel extensively, especially throughout Europe with an emphasis on Italy judging by the number of posts about that beautiful country.

If you like to travel and eat good food, I recommend following Karen and the adventures she and her husband enjoy.

Roast pumpkin, spiced pecans and duck breast

Recipe

Ingredients

Spiced pecans

  • 50 g butter
  • 25 g dark brown sugar
  • 5 mL of water
  • 5 g five-spice powder
  • 1 g cumin
  • 1 g white pepper
  • 1 g cayenne pepper
  • ½ cup pecan halves
  • salt to taste
Butter, pecan nuts, brown sugar, and spices

Roast pumpkin and caramelised onion

  • Butternut pumpkin diced
  • Brown onion sliced
  • Brown sugar
  • Olive oil
  • Five-spice powder
  • Baby rocket

Duck breast

  • Duck breast
  • Iodised salt
  • Black pepper
  • Queensland nut oil

Instructions

Spiced pecans

  1. Heat the oven to 200 °C.
  2. Melt the butter in a small pan.
  3. Add the brown sugar and water and mix in with the melted butter.
  4. Add in the spices and mix through as the butter and sugar bubble.
  5. Thoroughly coat the pecans in the sweet, spicy, sticky, gooey and hot buttery goodness.
  6. Make sure each piece is covered.
  7. Spread the coated pecan pieces onto a lined baking tray.
  8. Toast for five minutes.
  9. Allow the spiced pecans to cool.
Spiced pecans before the oven
Spiced pecans ready for the oven
Spiced pecans out of the oven

Roast pumpkin and caramelised onion

  1. Heat the oven to 200 °C.
  2. Dice the pumpkin and slice the onion.
  3. Put the pumpkin and onion in a mixing bowl and rub with the brown sugar and olive oil.
  4. Layout the pumpkin and onion onto a lined baking tray and sprinkle over some five-spice powder.
  5. Cook the pumpkin and onion for at least 35 minutes or until the onion and pumpkin have taken on good caramelisation. Some people may suggest the black bits represent burnt food. I beg to differ unless it tastes acrid, it’s all good.
  6. Remove the cooked pumpkin and onion from the oven and place the baking tray on a bench so the pumpkin and onion can cool.
  7. When the pumpkin and onion are tepid, put them into a mixing bowl and toss in some rocket leaves and toss the salad.
  8. Just before serving the meal, add in the spiced pecans and toss the salad.

Duck breast

  1. Season the duck breast with iodised salt and black pepper.
  2. Seal the breast in a vacuum bag.
  3. Cook for 1 hour at 55 °C in a water bath.
  4. After the hour, remove the bag and place it on a plate and refrigerate for about 15 minutes. This step ensures the temperature of the breast meat dips below 55 °C so you can sear the skin in a hot skillet until it is golden brown.
  5. Remove the duck breast from the refrigerator and open the bag.
  6. Pat the breast dry with kitchen paper and with a sharp knife, score the skin.
  7. Heat a cast-iron skillet until it is smoking hot.
  8. Rub some Queensland nut oil on the surface of the duck breast and sear the skin hard like there’s no tomorrow!
  9. Allow the breast to relax and rest for a few minutes before slicing.
Roast pumpkin, spiced pecans and duck breast

Plating options

You could add the sliced breast to the pumpkin and onion salad and make a big bowl of goodness which only needs a fork for eating.

The alternative is to serve the duck next to the pumpkin and onion salad.

Roast pumpkin, spiced pecans and duck breast

How did the spiced pecans taste in the meal?

I was pretty impressed. Pecans added a nice kick of flavour. I think next time I’d use more cayenne pepper and maybe more five-spice. I was surprised the pecans weren’t too sweet and not too sticky.

What else has been happening?

Blogging

I haven’t been feeling the need to blog as much lately. I haven’t written in my diary blog for months, and I think I might retire it. I’ll probably focus blogging here at Yummy Lummy.

I still read a few blogs every day, and I pretty much always photograph my meals and share the images.

We’ll see how I go for now.

Life is pretty good at the moment. My days are busy, and I’ve been spending time contemplating some changes.

It’s been a harrowing year for so many people, yet for me, I’ve enjoyed working. Praise God; I’ve been blessed this year in so many ways. I’ve made new friends, got to know myself better, and I’ve worked with brilliant people. I think we all see on TV the big named people, but I’m thinking of the quiet achievers behind the scenes. The public servants whose thoughtful and intelligent advice has ensured we have the policy settings to respond with vigorously and with agility. These are the people who have assured Australia is in a good place right now.

Bodyweight maintenance

I’m pretty keen to avoid getting too heavy again. I don’t want to deprive myself of good food, but I’m conscious that to reach a so-called normal BMI, I need to get down below 72 kilograms. But, that’s the upper limit of normal. It means I need to aim for about 70 kilograms. I don’t know if I can do that.

You’ll see in this year’s weight chart; I recently had a sudden dip. I had a few days of feeling out of sorts and didn’t have much appetite. Since then, I’ve reduced my portion sizes a little without feeling deprived.

2020-11-21 Weight chart

We’ll see how this goes. With Christmas coming up, it’ll be a little more challenging to keep losing weight so mentally I’m not going to get too focussed on numbers.

What’s next?

See you when I see you next.

Roast pumpkin and caramelised onion

Posted by Gary

I got this recipe from Lorraine Elliott, also known as, Not Quite Nigella (NQN).

Roast pumpkin Caramelised onion
Roast pumpkin and caramelised onion with pork sausage and green beans

Where has Yummy Lummy been lately?

Sorry dear readers for not posting much lately, life has been busy. Last week I had a personal project I wanted to focus on and complete.

Pumpkin

I’m very fond of roast pumpkin. It is sweet, and it readily takes on salt for the sweet and salty combination which goes so well together.

Good roast pumpkin gives me happy memories of Mum’s roast dinners with lovely caramelised pieces of roast pumpkin covered in the juices from the joint of meat or chicken she had been roasting. Mum managed to get that sweet and salty combination as well as some great mouthfeel with the black bits, which are the caramelised sugars from the pumpkin.

Lorraine suggests if cooking for a family a whole pumpkin makes sense and she provides some good tips on pumpkin preparation.

In my opinion, if you’re cooking for one, then maybe one of those convenient pre-cut packets of diced pumpkin from the supermarket will do.

I had to make a compromise because I like having a knife in my hand. It reminds me of when I was clerking in patients in the emergency department while a medical student. If the patient required surgery, we’d always say. “The touch and feel of cold hardened surgical steel.”

Green beans

I’m also cooking beans. I’m generally not too fond of beans because they feel squeaky on my teeth. I like the flavour, but like halloumi cheese, if I could avoid the squeaky feeling, I’d be happier.

My BFF (GC) mentioned that some olive oil and salt might make the beans more palatable. I gave it a go and GC is right. Tonight’s beans weren’t squeaky at all.

Ingredients

Roast pumpkin and caramelised onion

Pecan nuts, white onion, garlic, olive oil, and brown sugar
  • Pumpkin pieces
  • White onion
  • Garlic
  • Olive oil
  • Brown sugar
  • Pecan nuts
  • Iodised salt
Diced pumpkin and sliced white onion

Pork sausage

  • Pork sausage

Green peas

  • Green beans
  • Salt
  • Iodised rock salt
  • Olive oil
  • Black pepper

Instructions

Roast pumpkin and caramelised onion

Kent pumpkin (quarter)
  1. Unwrap the pumpkin and place it on a plate.
  2. Put the pumpkin and plate in the microwave oven and cook with microwave radiation on high power for between 2 and 3 minutes.
  3. Remove the pumpkin and with a dessert (or tablespoon) spoon, scoop out the seeds and the stringy bits.
  4. With a sharp knife, slice the pumpkin in 2 cm thick slices and then carefully cut off the pumpkin skin being careful not to cut your fingers.
  5. With the skin removed, dice the pumpkin into bite-sized chunks (see the photograph).
  6. With a sharp knife slice half a white onion and separate the layers.
  7. Thinly slice a clove of garlic with a sharp knife or a mandolin.
  8. Put a teaspoon of brown sugar into a dish and then cover with a few tablespoons of olive oil. Mix the brown sugar and olive oil with a fork.
  9. In a large mixing bowl, add the pumpkin, onion, garlic, sugar and oil and with your hands gently massage the sugar and oil all over the pumpkin and onion pieces. Make sure you massage the sweet oil to cover everything.
  10. Spread the sweet and oily pumpkin, onion and garlic on a baking sheet and season with some iodised salt and then put the tray into a hot oven. Initially cook for about 10 minutes and turn over the pumpkin on the tray. Then take a look every minute or so until the pumpkin and onion have taken on some colour. I like some black bits. It won’t be burnt, but it will be a bit crunchy.
  11. On another lined baking sheet spread out some pecan nuts and toast them in a moderate oven for anywhere between 5 and 7 minutes. Carefully monitor the pecan nuts because they will burn quickly. You don’t want to burn your nuts, they will taste bitter and yucky.
  12. When the nuts have toasted remove them from the oven and allow them to cool and then split them in half lengthways.
  13. When the pumpkin and onion have caramelised, remove them from the oven and put them into a large mixing bowl and just before serving toss through the pecan nuts.
  14. At this stage, you could also add some chopped parsley for colour.

Pork sausage

Pork sausage (uncooked)
  1. Remove a pork sausage from it’s packaging and when you’re putting the pumpkin and onion in the oven, add the sausage to the baking tray and cook it along with the pumpkin and onion.

Green beans

Green beans (uncooked)
  1. Add some cooking salt to some water in a saucepan and bring the water to a rolling boil.
  2. Remove the green beans from the bag and add them to the boiling water.
  3. Cook the beans for 6 minutes.
  4. Drain the beans once cooked and then put them into a mixing bowl.
  5. Splash in some olive oil and iodised rock salt and mix everything together.

Plating up

  1. On a warmed dinner plate spoon the pumpkin and onion to the plate.
  2. Place the sausage next to the pumpkin and onion.
  3. Place the oily beans onto some absorbent kitchen paper to remove some of the oil and then transfer the beans to the dinner plate.
Roast pumpkin and caramelised onion with pork sausage and green beans
Roast pumpkin and caramelised onion with pork sausage and green beans

How was it?

I really enjoyed this meal. It was easy to make and it was tasty. While the pumpkin and onion where the main feature, I was very pleasantly surprised to enjoy the green beans and not experience any chalky squeaky feels on my teeth. Thanks, GC, you’re a genius.

Dessert

For dessert I had some natural (no added sugar) yoghurt with two of my favourite fruits, viz., Kensington pride mango and red pawpaw.

Unsweetened natural yoghurt with Kensington price mango and red pawpaw

What else is happening in life?

Last week I was a little out of sorts but praise God, life is going well at the moment. Work is going well. My health is fine.

Apple pecan custard tart from Le Bon Mélange Café, Pâtisserie

Posted by Gary

Apple pecan custard tart from Le Bon Mélange Café, Pâtisserie.

G09/48 Gungahlin Place and Bruning Street, Gungahlin ACT 2912

Background

During the week, I was sharing with my BFF, GC, a couple of photos of Mum’s trifle which she made to accompany the steak dinner I cooked on Wednesday evening.

Mum made the custard from scratch and she happily ‘cheated’ with a packet vanilla sponge cake. Along with some raspberry jelly, whipped cream (flavoured with vanilla and brown sugar), Streets Raspberry Ripple ice cream, tinned lychees, fresh Kensington Pride mango, and some crushed Queensland nuts, it was a dessert of dreams. Rather than a boring bowl, Mum went all fancy and served the trifle in glasses, and we used parfait spoons.

  • Custard soaked sponge cake, vanilla whipped cream, fresh mango, tinned lychees, raspberry jelly, raspberry ripple ice cream, and crushed Queensland nuts.
  • Custard soaked sponge cake, vanilla whipped cream, fresh mango, tinned lychees, raspberry jelly, raspberry ripple ice cream, and crushed Queensland nuts.
Mum’s trifle

Introducing Le Bon Mélange

Knowing how much I like custard, the following morning, GC sent me a screenshot from the Le Bon Mélange Facebook page. LBM had created a new product, an apple, pecan, and custard tart. GC knows me well. 😊

The idea of this apple pecan custard creation floated around in my head all weekend. I crave custard. A sweet nut crumb on a pastry is the best. I also like a tart apple in a dessert creation.

So, this morning, I ventured to Gungahlin to buy an LBM apple pecan custard tart.

Gungahlin

As a Belco Bloke, I rarely get into Gungahlin, it was delightful to drive into the heart of the Gungahlin town centre. Everything was so green and lush.

James Kirk Street

As I was driving, I had two pleasant surprises. I came across James Kirk Street.

On one of the signs, someone had conveniently added a “T.” between the James and the Kirk. If you have no idea why this would interest me, it’s because I’m a fan of Star Trek, and James T. Kirk was the captain of USS Enterprise 1701 from The Original Series.

USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Notaras Lane

The next pleasant surprise was passing Notaras Lane. I had no idea there was a Notaras Lane in Canberra.

The reason for this surprise may be a little cryptic. Professor Len Notaras, AM is one of my dearest friends. Len is the Executive Director of the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre in Darwin. He was the former Medical Superintendent of the Royal Darwin Hospital and Secretary for the NT Government Department of Health.

The Notaras family is prominent in Canberra and while Len hails from Newcastle, it’s still his family here.

Le Bon Mélange

As I approached Le Bon Mélange, I could see all the cars parked on the street. I figured this place must be popular. Evidence of LBM’s popularity goes beyond the vehicles and queue of people. The LBM Instagram account has more than fifty thousand followers, and nearly five thousand accounts follow the LBM Facebook page.

After finding a park and a short walk, I entered LBM and noted the light and spacious feeling. The display cases for the pastries contain all these delicious looking treats. I’m going to have to come back and try more cakes 😊

The apple pecan custard tarts stood out from everything else.

When I paid for them, the sales assistant mentioned they were her favourite and asked me if I had tried them before. I explained no, this would be my first time.

I brought the tart home and made a coffee. What could be better than coffee and a tart for morning tea?

  • Apple Pecan Custard Tart from Le Bon Mélange with caffettiera-made coffee
  • Apple Pecan Custard Tart from Le Bon Mélange with caffettiera-made coffee
  • Apple Pecan Custard Tart from Le Bon Mélange with caffettiera-made coffee
    Tart and coffee
  • Sliced tart
Click on an image and scroll through

Apple Pecan Custard Tart

The first thing I noticed was the faint smell of cinnamon. On cutting through the tart to get an idea of the cross-section, the pastry was firm yet thin. I like pie crust which isn’t too friable. The dome of diced apple split without falling apart and the custard was silky smooth with enough body to not flow. The sugar and cinnamon pecan nut crumb were delicate.

Biting through the edge of the tart revealed the crust wasn’t overly sweet and the custard was perfect. It was silky smooth and just sweet enough.

The apples were a little tart, and the pieces were still firm.

This apple pecan custard tart is excellent, and I’d go back again for more.

  • Sliced tart
  • Focus on the custard
  • Focus on the pecan crumb
Click on an image and scroll through

Lentils à la Dijonnaise (mustard and speck lentils)

Posted by Gary
The Yummy Lummy Cooking for one podcast
The Yummy Lummy Cooking for one podcast
Lentils à la Dijonnaise (mustard and speck lentils)
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Lentils à la Dijonnaise (mustard and speck lentils)

I have a feeling this is the first time I’ve cooked lentils.

My friend GC regularly shares with me her photos of salmon, broccolini and lentils meals and I’m always a bit jelly because in my mind lentils require a lot of effort and I’m a somewhat lazy cook. GC’s lentils always look very attractive on her plate with her salmon and broccolini.

Lentils à la Dijonnaise

Anyway, GC has a friend who shares healthy eating tips, and lentils are a feature of her healthful eating plan. So I figured, why not give lentils a try.

I searched YouTube, and one of the channels I subscribe to has a lentils recipe which I thought would taste good, mainly because it has bacon (speck) in it. 😉

This bloke’s name is Stephane, and he’s French, but he lives in Australia, and he runs an on-line French Cooking Academy.

The recipe for this dish on YouTube.

Eating a healthy diet is essential. I was reading a paper today from the Journal of the American Medical Association. The focus was relatively lean Chinese people and their body mass index and how it correlated with liver and bile system disease. Pang Y, Kartsonaki C, Lv J, et al. Observational and Genetic Associations of Body Mass Index and Hepatobiliary Diseases in a Relatively Lean Chinese Population. JAMA Netw Open. 2020;3(10):e2018721.

I really need to keep an eye on my BMI.

Ingredients

  • 300 grams of green lentils
  • 900 mL of tap water
  • One carrot (sliced)
  • One onion (halved)
  • Two cloves (to penetrate the onion)
  • One sprig of thyme
  • Two bay leaves (or two leaves of Bay if you’re fancy pants)
  • One clove of garlic (or more if you have no feelings for people around you)
  • 150 grams of smoked speck (I didn’t weight how much speck I used, I just went with the vibe)
  • Two tablespoons Dijon mustard
  • Salt and pepper to season (please use iodised salt)
  • One nudge of butter
Green lentils, Dijon mustard, Onion, Cloves, Thyme, Garlic, Speck, Bay leaves, and Carrot
Water, lentils, carrot, onion with a clove stuck in, bay leaves, thyme, and crushed garlic

Instructions

  • Rinse the lentils in cold water and then put the lentils into the saucepan.
  • Then add the water (three times the volume of lentils, e.g. 900 mL of water to 300 grams of lentils).
  • Bring the water and lentils to the boil.
  • Remove the scum floating on the water with a spoon. I have no idea what difference this does, but apparently, French cooks do this. Not that I care about what French cooks do or think. 
  • Slice the carrot with a sharp knife or a mandolin and be careful not to slice your fingers open.
  • Half the onion with a sharp knife and again be careful. Blood in the lentils may add a little saltiness but is not usually required.
  • Insert a clove into the top of the dome of half of the onion.
  • Add the carrot, onion with the clove in situ, garlic, bay leaves, and thyme.
  • Add the speck,
  • Mix everything so that the water covers everything.
  • Do not salt early, salt after 20 minutes because the lentils will not cook properly (or so they say).
  • Cook for 30 minutes with the lid on with low heat. 
  • After 30 minutes, remove the aromatic vegetables but not the carrot.
  • Remove the speck and pan fry it for the finished dish.
  • Take some of the hot fluid and mix with the dijon mustard to dilute the dijon mustard.
  • Then pour the creamy thin dijon mustard back into the saucepan and gently mix everything. 
  • Serve the lentils in a bowl.
  • Add a nudge of butter. What is a nudge of butter? I have no idea. I used 50 grams of butter because that seemed like a good amount.
  • Add the speck to the bowl. 
  • Garnish with something green to make it pretty because all TV and YouTube cooks will tell you, “we eat with our eyes”. Now, what a stupid thing to say. I mean, sure you can pour small quantities of a liquid over your eyes to permit the collection of nutrients in your conjunctivæ. The nutrients will travel via capillary action down through the nasolacrimal ducts into your nasal passages where if you swallow hard, you can ‘consume’ the liquid. This approach is hardly an efficient way to eat a bowl of lentils.
  • Suppose you want to do as Stephane does add some wholegrain mustard for a contrasting taste and mouthfeel. I didn’t do this.
  • Add some pepper.
Cooked lentils and speck with a nudge of butter and discarded vegetables

Questions

What is speck?

In my simplistic way of thinking, speck is fancy bacon. It’s smoked pork belly.

There is also Italian speck (Speck Alto Adige PGI).

The nice thing about buying a prism of speck is you can cut slices as thickly as you like.

As you can see, I like to slice my speck to about 1 cm thick.

Speck
Lentils à la Dijonnaise

What are lentils?

Lentils are a legume. Legumes are essential in agriculture for the nitrogen-fixing bacteria which live symbiotically with the plant.

Lentils are an annual plant with a lens-shaped seed.

I didn’t know that Canada and India are where most of the world’s lentils are grown.

Lentils à la Dijonnaise

Are you worried about liver and bile system disease?

I’m prone to metabolic syndrome. I have a strong family history of diabetes mellitus and having been grossly obese in the past, I’m conscious that I need to keep an eye on not getting too much belly fat. My waist circumference and body mass index are features to monitor.

Chinese people have a long history of Hepatitis B virus infection associated-chronic liver disease. Fortunately, I don’t have HBV infection. However, I am unable to demonstrate immunity to HBV despite being immunised many times.

Final thoughts

  • Do you like lentils?
  • What’s your favourite lentils recipe?
  • Do lentils give you a lot of flatus? Should I avoid lighting any matches tonight? 💥
  • If you live in New South Wales, Canberra, Victoria, Tasmania, and South Australia, set your clocks forward tonight for daylight saving time which starts tomorrow.