Wine-Braised Baby Fennel in Crisped Prosciutto

My trusty camera was stolen two weeks ago when thieves broke into our house and helped themselves to our valuables, so I've had to use my Samsung cellphone (which has an astonishingly good camera) to take this photograph. Apologies if it's not an image of the highest order - but it's not bad for a cell phone, is it?

I'm excited about this - it's a splendid dish, ideal for serving on its own as a warm starter, or as an accompaniment to grilled fish or roast chicken, or even as  finger food for a party.

Baby fennel bulbs are in high season in South Africa right now, and I eagerly add them to my basket whenever I see them. Not a great shopping strategy, to be honest, because my family have always been doubtful about fennel: "It tastes like liquorice, Mom", they complain. "Eeeu."

I'm happy to report that they changed their minds when I put this dish on the table yesterday. The bacon addicts that they are, they loved the crisp wrapping of prosciutto, the silken/stringy, delicate taste and texture of the little fennel bulbs, and a dressing as intense as the finest soy sauce.

Rosemary, with its strong resinous taste,  may seem like a strange choice of herb to go with fennel, but it works beautifully as a subtle background note.

This is not worth making unless you can find really small and tender fennel bulbs, and some proper Italian prosciutto.  Although, having said that, I wouldn't mind wrapping these up in some streaky bacon rashers and throwing them on the braai.

I suppose you could sprinkle micro-herbs all over the top of these to make them look cheffy. Or not.

Wine-Braised Baby Fennel in Crisped Prosciutto

12 small fennel bulbs
2 Tbsp (30 ml) olive oil
¾ cup (180 ml) dry white wine
4 Tbsp (60 ml) water
2 whole garlic cloves, peeled
a small sprig of fresh rosemary
6 wide slices of good Italian proscuitto, or 12 if they are narrow slices
extra olive oil, for frying
a squeeze of lemon juice
milled black pepper

Trim the fennel bulbs, top and bottom, and peel off any tough outer leaves. Put them in a single layer in a large pan and add the olive oil, wine, water, garlic cloves and rosemary. Press a circle of greaseproof baking paper onto the surface of the bulbs and place a tilted lid on top of the pan.  Cook, over a medium heat, at an energetic bubble, for 10-15 minutes, or until the fennel feels very tender when you poke it with the tip of a sharp knife. Take off the baking paper and lid, turn the heat up and cook the bulbs until the liquid in the pan has reduced to about two tablespoons.

Remove the fennel bulbs from the pan using a slotted spoon, and place on a plate. Set the pan containing the liquid aside. Cut the prosciutto slices in half and use these pieces to wrap each each fennel bulb in a 'miniskirt', as shown above.  Heat a little olive oil in a new pan or on a griddle, and when it is very hot, fry the wrapped bulbs for about 2 minutes on each side, or until the ham is crisp and golden, and the fennel bulbs are beginning to 'catch'.  Arrange the the bulbs on a warm platter.

Put the frying pan containing the cooking liquid back onto the heat, warm it through for a minute or two  and then add a generous squeeze of lemon juice, plus a good grinding of black pepper. You shouldn't need to add salt, as the ham is salty enough on its own.  Turn off the heat and drizzle the dressing over the fennel bulbs. Serve immediately, piping hot or just warm.

Serves 4. 

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Recreating a chargrilled taste at home: Peppered Burgers with Smoky Cheese & Puffy Onion Rings

When I order a burger meal in a restaurant, I expect the Full Monty: rustling chips, brittle golden onion rings, a juicy patty that tastes of fire and smoke, and lots of piquant relishy bits. It’s not easy, admittedly, to replicate the bells-and-whistles steakhouse experience in a domestic kitchen using ready-made burger patties, but there are some sneaky strategies you can use to create what comes close to that essential char-grilled taste on a stove top, and to produce super-crisp chips and onion rings that are at least as good – if not better – than those from your local steakhouse.

Peppered Burgers with Smoky Cheese & Puffy Onion Rings

Here's a recipe I've created for Woolworths South Africa's Blogger Burger Off*. This is a vote-based challenge (and something I'm not very keen on, because the very thought of having to beg for online votes makes my ears bleed).

[Postscript (15 September 2012): I won the burger challenge with this recipe.] 

Instead of begging, may I take this opportunity to introduce you to my burger 'opponent', South African blogger Alida Ryder of Simply Delicious. Alida is a gifted young cook, photographer, mother of twins and food blogger whose first cookbook Simple & Delicious – Recipes from the Heart is about to be published by Penguin books. Here's a short video that sums up Alida's easy, light and bright approach to home cooking. I think she's a TV star in the making! 

But back to the smoky burgers. This will takes some time and effort – as all good food does – so if you’re in a hurry to whip up a quick Friday feast, feel no shame in slapping these burgers together and serving them with oven chips and a squirt of tomato sauce: they’ll still taste great.  Or, thinking ahead, you can start the night before: make the tomato relish, parboil and refrigerate the chips, slice the onions and mix together the dry ingredients for the onion batter, all ready for the big event.  

Everyone has their own favourites when it comes to burger toppings (I’m partial to earthy mushroom sauces, blue cheese, bacon and rocket, although not necessarily all on one burger) I think the time-tested components of a classic burger take an awful lot of beating: very crisp, frilly lettuce, melty, mild cheese, a good toasted bun and of course lashings of good tomato sauce.  

To recreate the smoky taste of a chargrilled burger, I’ve used Woolies’ BBQ marinade and some nutty, smoked provolone, and a scorching-hot ridged griddle pan. If you don’t have a ridged pan, use a big frying pan, but make sure it’s very, very hot.  If your kitchen isn’t wreathed in smoke while you’re cooking the patties, the pan’s not hot enough.   Leave out the cracked peppercorns if you’re feeding small kids. The spices in the relish recreate the classic flavourings of tomato ketchup, but you can leave some of them out if you don’t have them to hand.

 * I was paid by Woolies to develop this recipe.  We were restricted to using pre-prepared Woolworths burger patties and rolls. 

Peppered Burgers with Smoky Cheese, Tomato Relish, Puffy Onion Rings and Fat Chips

For the burgers:

8 (800 g) thick burger patties

1 cup (250 ml) Woolies Smoky BBQ Marinade, or similar

juice of a half a lemon

flaky sea salt

2 Tbsp (30 ml) black peppercorns, coarsely cracked

100 g sliced smoked provolone

4 nice crusty ciabatta rolls, or fresh burger rolls

2 baby gem lettuces

For the onion rings:
2 large white onions, peeled
1 cup (250 ml) self-raising flour
3 Tbsp (45 ml) cornflour
1 tsp (5 ml) salt, to taste
1 x 200 ml tin ice-cold soda water
sunflower oil for frying

For the chips:
4 very large potatoes
a squeeze of lemon juice
flaky sea salt

For the tomato relish:
1 x 400 g punnet ripe, sweet cherry tomatoes

1 Tbsp (15 ml) olive oil
1 Tbsp (15 ml) balsamic vinegar
1 tsp (5 ml) sugar
a pinch (1.25 ml) each of ground cloves, nutmeg, allspice, cinnamon and paprika
salt and milled pepper, to taste

If you’re making chips, start them the day before, or at least six hours ahead. Bring a pot of salted water to the boil and add a squeeze of lemon juice. Peel the potatoes, trim them into rectangles and then cut them into neat batons as thick as your thumb. Immediately parboil the batons in the salted water for 6 minutes, or until they are just tender when pierced with the tip of a sharp knife, but still holding their shape. Drain in a colander for 30 minutes, spread on a tray and place them, uncovered, in the fridge to dry out for six hours or overnight.

To make the sauce, heat the oil in a pan until it is very hot, just to the point of smoking. Cut a slit in the side of each tomato. Stand well back, throw in the tomatoes and cook over a high heat, tossing often, for 2 minutes, or until the tomatoes are blistered and beginning to catch in places. Add the vinegar, sugar and spices, turn the heat right down and cook at a brisk bubble for 8-10 minutes, or until the mixture is thick, glossy and reduced. Stir the sauce often, and use a potato masher lightly to squash the tomatoes to release their juices. Season to taste with salt and pepper. If you like a smooth tomato sauce, blitz the mixture in a liquidizer. Or leave it chunky. Set aside to cool.

When you’re ready to start the burgers, heat up your oven grill, ready for toasting the rolls.

Heat a large ridged griddle pan for 4-5 minutes, or until it is blazing hot. Lightly brush the griddle with sunflower oil. Mix the Smoky BBQ Marinade with the lemon juice. Place the patties, in two batches if necessary, on the hot griddle and cook for 1 ½ minutes. Flip them over and cook for another minute and a half. Generously brush the tops and sides of the patties, using a pastry brush, with the BBQ marinade/lemon juice mixture, then flip them over again and cook for 45-60 seconds (watch them carefully, as the molasses in the marinade burns fast). Coat the uppermost side with marinade, sprinkle generously with cracked black peppercorns, flip over once more and cook for 45-60 seconds (total cooking time is about 5 minutes; each patty is flipped three times).

 In the meantime, cut the ciabatta rolls in half lengthways and toast them lightly under the oven grill until golden brown and heated through (or you can toast them on the wiped-clean griddle pan when you’ve done cooking the patties).

To assemble the burgers, place a few lettuce leaves on the toasted lower half of each ciabatta roll. Place two hot patties, peppered side up, over the lettuce, and top with a few slices of smoked provolone and a dollop of tomato relish. Place the upper half of the roll on top and serve immediately with chips and onion rings.

For the onion rings: Heat a litre of sunflower oil in a deep saucepan to about 170 ºC. If you don’t have a thermometer, put a small chunk of raw potato in the oil before you heat it. When the potato rises to the surface, fizzles vigorously and turns a rich golden colour, the oil is hot enough. To make the onions, cut them into thick slices and separate the rings.  Combine all the ingredients for the batter in a bowl and whisk well.  The batter should be the consistency of thick cream: if it seems too thick, add a little more iced water. Using a pair of tongs, dip the onion rings in the oil and fry for 3 minutes, or until puffed, golden, crisp and cooked right through. Drain on kitchen paper and keep hot in the oven.

For the chips: Turn the heat up under the oil so the temperature reaches about 180 ºC. Cook the chips, in batches, for  3-5 minutes, or until golden brown and crunchy. Drain on a paper towel, season with salt and serve immediately.

Serves 4.

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White Gazpacho with Tomato Granita

I've had a busy month following the launch of my cookbook Scrumptious: Food for Family and Friends, and in all my excitement I clean forgot about sharing one of book's recipes on this blog. I know this is a dish designed for the hottest days of the year, but as my jasmine creeper has just burst sweetly into flower, I think it's time to start thinking about summer.  Also, this is one of my favourite recipes in the book: it tastes gorgeously cool and creamy, and is a real show-stopper presented in ice bowls, because the bottom of the soup partially freezes, creating a surprise layer of zingy ice cream.

Photograph by Michael Le Grange, and plate by David Walters. Click on the image
 to see a full-size version. Image © Random House Struik 2012. 

This isn’t an authentic gazpacho because it contains yoghurt, but with its topping of feathery flakes of iced fresh tomato juice, it certainly tastes like one. Even better, I think.

The flavour of this soup improves after a few hours of chilling, but it should be served on the day it is made. The granita can be made a day or two in advance.

Here's how: make the ice bowls in batches, starting up to 3 days ahead. Arrange four 1-cm-thick slices of cherry tomato in the bottom of a plastic or ceramic soup bowl. Balance another, smaller bowl on top (there should be a gap of at least 1 cm between the bowls). Wedge a few more tomato slices into the gap so it’s even all round, and tuck in some fresh coriander sprigs and small red chillies. Fill the gap with cold water and freeze for 4 hours, or until solid. To unmould, dip the bottom bowl into hot water, and run some more hot water into the top bowl. Wrap each bowl in clingfilm and keep in the freezer until needed. To serve, place each bowl on a small plate and tuck a napkin or thick paper serviette under each one to stop it from sliding around. 

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White Gazpacho with Tomato Granita

2 extra-large free-range egg yolks

1 clove garlic, peeled and sliced

2 thin slices fresh white bread, crusts cut off

2 Tbsp (30 ml) white wine vinegar

5 Tbsp (75 ml) extra-virgin olive oil

2 English cucumbers, peeled and cubed

6 slim spring onions, white and pale green parts only, sliced

1 small green pepper, chopped

4 large sprigs pale celery leaves, taken from the heart of the bunch

4 Tbsp (60 ml) chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

2 cups (500 ml) thick natural yoghurt

2 cups (500 ml) iced water

salt and milled black pepper

For the tomato granita:

400 g ripe cherry tomatoes

1 tsp (5 ml) lemon juice

2 tsp (10 ml) Tabasco sauce

salt and milled black pepper

First make the granita. Place a shallow metal dish (a cake pan is ideal) in the freezer for 1 hour. Purée the cherry tomatoes in a blender and tip the mixture into a sieve set over a bowl. Press down on the puréed tomatoes with the back of a soup ladle to extract all the juice. Discard the pulp, stir in the lemon juice and Tabasco and season with salt and pepper. Pour into the cold dish and freeze for 30-45 minutes, or until the mixture is set at the edges. Using a fork, scrape and scratch the frozen edges to create crystalline flakes. Freeze for another 20-30minutes (set a timer to remind yourself), scrape again, and continue freezing and scraping, working inwards to the middle of the dish, until you have a fluffy pile of coral-pink ice flakes. Keep covered in the freezer until the last minute.

Put the yolks, garlic, bread, vinegar and 2 Tbsp (30 ml) of the oil into a blender and whizz to a paste. Add the remaining olive oil in a steady stream and blend to a thick emulsion. Add the remaining soup ingredients -  in batches, if necessary -  and process until smooth and creamy. Pour the soup into a large non-metallic bowl, cover and chill for at least 3 hours. Ladle the cold soup into chilled bowls, add a few ice cubes and a pyramid of granita, and take immediately to the table. If you’re serving this in homemade ice bowls, there’s no need to add the ice cubes.

Serves 8.

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Cinnamon-Stencilled Cheesecake

There are few desserts to rival a cold, creamy cheesecake, but everyone has their own idea of what constitutes a Proper Cheesecake.  I like unbaked cheesecakes to be light and rather airy, but in a cooked cheesecake I want an unctuous, fairly dense filling, not too sweet, and a generous crumb base made of plain-tasting biscuits.  This is the ninth and final recipe in a series  for Woolworths South Africa, pantry sponsors of MasterChef South Africa.

My rich and luscious cheesecake, with its whimsical cinnamon stencilling, is unusual in that it has a baked filling and a thin sour-cream topping lightly set with gelatine.  You can, of course, make it without the sour cream topping, but this second layer adds an extra dimension of velvety deliciousness, and it’s essential to create a smooth white surface on which to apply the stencils.

A generous dusting of cinnamon applied over a laser-cut stencil gives
 this creamy cheesecake a whimsical touch.

I used laser-cut henna stencils to apply the cinnamon, which you can find in Asian markets, or order online. If you can’t find them, use an old-fashioned doily, or simply dust the cinnamon lightly over the top of the cake.

This is not a complicated recipe but – like all good food – it takes time and patience to make.  It’s very important to allow baked cheesecakes to chill very thoroughly, for at least 6 hours, so that the filling has a chance to settle and firm to just the right texture. Use a very thick, good-quality plain cream cheese – low fat is fine.

If you'd like to try stencilling other dishes, have a look at my Henna-Patterned Spiced Cream Cheese.

My other MasterChef SA recipes for Woolworths #wooliespantry:

• Panko-Crumbed Calamari with Black Salt and Lime Mayonnaise
• Pork Steaks with Wine, Tarragon and Mustard
• Moroccan-Spiced Lamb Chops with Citrus Couscous Salad
• Spicy Chicken, Tomato and Sweetcorn Soup
• Warm Lamb and Potato Salad with a Mint Dressing
• Curried Lamb Ribbetjies with Mint Yoghurt
• Champ with Chives and Garlic
• Gin-Cured Gravadlax with Crisped Capers

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Cinnamon-Stencilled Cheesecake

2 x 200 g packets shortbread biscuits
180 g unsalted butter, melted
3 x 250 g tubs cream cheese, at room temperature
1½ cups (375 ml) caster sugar
3 extra-large free-range eggs
2 tsp (10 ml) vanilla extract or essence
1 tsp (5 ml) cinnamon
1 Tbsp (15 ml) cornflour

For the topping:
1 Tbsp (15 ml) water
1 tsp (5 ml) gelatine
1 carton (250 ml) sour cream
½ cup (125 ml) caster sugar
½ tsp (2.5 ml) vanilla extract
cinnamon, for stencilling

Heat the oven to 170 ºC, or 160 ºC if you have a fan-assisted oven. Break up the biscuits and whizz them to fine crumbs in a food processor.  Stir in the melted butter. Press half the crumbs evenly over the base of a non-stick 24-cm springform cake tin.

Press the remaining crumbs over the inner sides of the tin, gently easing them upwards. Use the side of a small glass gently to flatten the biscuit base, rolling it around in a circle, then stand the glass upright and roll it around the edges of the tin to form a smooth, even wall. Press a fingertip into the right angle formed where the sides meet the base to thin out this corner.  Refrigerate the crust while you make the filling.

Put the cream cheese and caster sugar into a large bowl and, using a rotary beater, whisk until just smooth and combined. Beat in the eggs one by one, then whisk in the vanilla, cinnamon and sifted cornflour. Take care not to over-beat the mixture. If you're a confident maker of cheesecake, you can add all these ingredients to the bowl in one go, (see picture below) and gradually incorporate them into the mixture.

Pour the filling into the crumb crust. Bake, preferably in a bain-marie (see Cook’s Notes) for an hour to an hour and a quarter (this will depend on the efficiency of your oven. It is done when it is slightly risen, pulling away at the edges, lightly freckled with gold, and wobbles reluctantly when you give it a shake). Turn off the oven, open the door, and let the cheesecake cool completely in the oven.  Refrigerate for at least two hours.

To make the topping, put the water in a little heat-proof bowl and sprinkle the gelatine over it. Set aside for a minute to sponge. Place the bowl in a pot of simmering water (the water should come half-way up the sides) and stir occasionally as the gelatine melts. When the liquid is clear, remove the bowl from the water and set aside to cool slightly. Whisk the sour cream, caster sugar and vanilla together and stir in the melted gelatine. Pour the mixture over the top of the chilled cheesecake and smooth the top.  Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

To decorate, place your stencils in a pattern of your choice over the top of the cake. If they are self-adhesive stencils, place them on the surface of the cake sticky-side up.  Put the cinnamon in a tea-strainer and dust it evenly all over the top of the cake. Gently blow away any excess cinnamon. Slowly peel off the stencils, using a pair of tweezers to lift each one.  Cut into slices using a very sharp knife dipped in hot water.

Makes one 23-cm cheesecake; serves 8.

Cook’s Notes

• Cooking the cheesecake in a bath of hot water helps ensure a good smooth texture. However, as springform pans have a tendency to leak, make sure to wrap the outside of the tin in several large sheets of tin foil before you place it in a roasting tin half-filled with hot water. Alternatively, bake the cheesecake in a deep glass or ceramic flan dish.
• This basic cheesecake recipe can easily be adapted.  For a lemony cheesecake, add the finely grated zest of a lemon to the filling.
• Make sure the cream cheese is at room temperature when you make the filling. Cold cream cheese is difficult to whisk until quite smooth, and you may end up over-beating the batter.
• If you’d like a crust on only the base of the cheesecake, use 200 g of biscuits, and 90 g melted butter, and line the inner edge of the cake tin with a strip of oiled baking paper.

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