Main:Broccoli, ricotta & smoked salmon pie.
Pg: 48 Northern Beaches Cooks
Salad: Beetroot, pear & walnut salad.
Pg: 60 Northern Beaches Cooks
Dessert: Beach road chocolate malt soufflé.
Pg: 157 Northern Beaches Cooks
The Pie:
Well, of course you can imagine the MAV’s face when he could smell the cooking broccoli permeating our home and asked “what are we having for dinner?” and I told him. Always wish I have a camera handy……. BUT, what a surprise this meal was. Even I had doubts because let’s face it cooking broccoli like cauliflower is not inspiring. It.was.delicious!!
Now a couple of things to take note of. You need to get your hands involved. The filling becomes very gluggy (you need a strong food processor) and as you are working with filo which is delicate, it is so easy to tear. When you lay down the filling between the layers, dampen your hands and gently ease the filling to the corners.
This takes a little time but it is worth it. BTW I added a good grind of pepper which is not in the recipe. Some people don’t like the strong taste of smoked salmon and a little goes a long way, however, I feel this recipe doesn’t overdo it so the flavours blend beautifully. With regard to the filo, because of the shape of the pan they suggest you will have off-cuts; this means it is not really necessary to get two packets of filo pastry to end up with 32 sheets. Just use the off cuts and a little bit of jigsaw magic – no-one will know. 8/10 for this one.
The Salad:
Not a lot to say here other than the combination of flavours on a summer’s night, accompanying this delicious pie certainly made for a moreish main course.
Dessert:
A bit more difficult. I am not an expert soufflé maker but they did rise quite a bit.
I do really need to practice more. The down side of this recipe is that it called for malt and you know what, I found it so hard to find – when I did it was $10 for a rather large tin so instead I used maple syrup, just not as much as the recipe suggests because of the sweetness of the syrup. It took a lot of egg whites so I thought I would try a carton of egg whites – will not be doing that again as they definitely do not whip up into nice peaks. When it comes to mixing the choc mixture in with the egg whites, it is very difficult (well, I found it so) because the choc mix is thick and sticky so it took ages to do. I really couldn’t tell you if I had done something wrong, however, I got there in the end.
Everyone (including me) other than MAV gave them a 4/10. However, MAV gave them 9/10 because he doesn’t half love sweets. He even went around and finished the dregs of everyone else’s.
So all in all, this was a reasonably successful meal and we enjoyed the pescatarian element.
Until next week.
From my table to yours with love.
