Gourmet Traveller brings you une petite collection of special French desserts

We've gone beyond crêpes and clafoutis to bring you une petite collection of special French desserts, each with a little froufrou. Polish the silver and chill the Sauternes. Plus, our recipe for lobster a l'Americaine; Stephanie Alexander's spring garden tips; a recipe for hedonism in a glass; our favourite French villa of the moment; and your chance to win $15,000 worth of Siemens home appliances thanks to Margaret River Gourmet Escape! Happy eating, Anthea Loucas and the team at Gourmet Traveller

Noted cookbook author dies

Cookbook author Marcella Hazan, 89, died at home in Florida on Sunday. As the NYT observes, "Even people who have never heard of Marcella Hazan cook and shop differently because of her, and the six cookbooks she wrote, starting in 1973 with The Classic Italian Cook Book: The Art of Italian Cooking and the Italian Art of Eating."

via Publishers Lunch

and from Shelf Awareness:

Marcella Hazan, "a chain-smoking, determined former biology scholar who reluctantly moved to America and went on to teach a nation to cook Italian food," as the New York Times put it, died yesterday. She was 89.

"The impact Mrs. Hazan had on the way America cooks Italian food is impossible to overstate," the Times wrote. "Even people who have never heard of Marcella Hazan cook and shop differently because of her, and the six cookbooks she wrote, starting in 1973 with The Classic Italian Cook Book: The Art of Italian Cooking and the Italian Art of Eating." The books were translated by her husband, Victor Hazan, who survives her. Hazan also wrote a memoir, Amarcord: Marcella Remembers.

When Hazan arrived in New York from Italy in 1955, "Italian food was still exotic, served in restaurants with straw-covered Chianti bottles and red-checked tablecloths," the Times continued. "She was a newlywed who did not speak English, transplanted to a country whose knowledge of her native cuisine was not much more than spaghetti covered with what, to her, tasted like overly spiced ketchup.
"The culture shock nearly crushed her. She was appalled by canned peas, hamburgers and coffee she once described as tasting no better than the water she used to wash out her own coffeepot at home. 
At her first Thanksgiving meal, she nearly gagged on the cranberry sauce."
She didn't know how to cook, but quickly learned and began teaching cooking classes. In 1970, she "caught the attention" of Times food editor Craig Claiborne, which served as an entrée into a cookbook career.

Blackberry Crumb Muffins and Two Books

Posted: 29 Sept 2013 - bookcooker

Hello old friends!  After a bit of a hiatus (a little bit of a writing rut, reading rut, cooking rut and enjoying life outside the blog) I am returning to bookcooker.  I hope you will bear with me as slowly get back on the horse!  I made these pretty little muffins a while ago, when the recipe appeared in the New York Times.  It was perfect timing, because I had recently read two (very different) books that this recipe was perfect for -  Where'd You Go Bernadette and Bringing Up the Bodies.  Where'd You Go, by Maria Semple is a unique novel where much of the story is told through letters, emails and various other documents, like memos.  It is the very funny story of a daughter's search for her brilliant but more than slightly off mother (Bernadette) set in the milieu of affluent and politically correct Seattle.  A disastrous chain of events is set off when Bernadette gets into a dispute with her obnoxious neighbor concerning some unruly blackberry bushes on her property (inspiration for the blackberry part of the muffin.)  Bringing Up the Bodies is Hilary Mantel's riveting second book in her series of books about Henry VIII's right hand man - Thomas Cromwell. 

This book follows the downfall of Anne Boleyn - and while this tale has been told many times before, unsurprisingly Mantel brings new wit and intelligence to the story.  While Anne is certainly a compelling distraction, the story is really about Thomas Cromwell - his relationship to the mercurial king and how he manages to survive yet another upheaval in the house of Tudor.  Those around Cromwell give him the nickname "Crumb", hence the crumb part of the muffin.   A two for one recipe was the perfect impetus to get me off my bum and back to blogging.  Here we go.

Maria Semple's Where'd You Go, Bernadette is a hilarious send up of a certain part of our society  - the liberal, highly educated upper middle class world - in particular, in Seattle.  Bee Branch is a middle schooler at the private, alternative Galen Street school in Seattle.  Her father is a big deal at Microsoft  - his local celebrity stemming from a particularly inspiring TED talk.  Bee's mother, Bernadette, appears to be a bit of a recluse - she used to be a star architect, when the family lived in Los Angeles, but since moving to Seattle she spends all of her time inside the family's massive house  - which used to be a girls school.  Bernadette does not get along with the other Galen Street parents - she calls the other mothers gnats - and in particular gets into an ongoing altercation with her neighbor and fellow Galen Street mother Audrey, over the blackberry bushes growing wild on her property.   

Bernadette seems truly afraid to interact with people, so much so she has hired a virtual personal assistant from India to help with her every day tasks and help her get ready for the family's big trip to Antarctica.  For Bee's middle school graduation she asked her parents to take her there, and the family is planning to head on a cruise there when Bernadette's feud with Audrey blows up and suddenly Bernadette goes missing.   Bee then embarks on a search to find her mother.  All of this is told in an nontraditional format - through emails, FBI documents, school flyers and other random bits.  Semple has really achieved something here - despite this surprising way to tell the story, it flows smoothly and is a pleasure to read.  Perhaps it is because this is how we process information now - rather than long prose, we live our lives in emails and text messages.  While the book is a real laugh, it also has heart and makes Bernadette a real person who has lost herself while living this very privileged life.   A great, fun read.

Bringing up the Bodies is an entirely different animal than Where'd You Go?  While Semple's book had the frenzied pace of television, Mantel's book is something you settle into for a long afternoon with a nice cup of tea.  Mantel transports you completely to Tudor England and into the brilliant mind of Thomas Cromwell, the man who came from nothing to be the King of England's most trusted adviser.  But the brutality of Cromwell's past shapes the role he plays in Henry's court - he is also a henchman - merciless in his take downs of those the King has decided he does not love anymore.  Despite this unlikable role, Thomas Cromwell, as Mantel creates him, is entirely likable and worthy of our sympathy.  He is an intelligent and perhaps even kind man with a ruthless and feckless master who could turn on him at any moment.  Anne Boleyn, who is always so fascinating in today's literature, is a bore compared to Cromwell and his expert maneuverings.  

Of course, in the end, Cromwell is just Henry's stooge - once Henry tires of Anne, Cromwell sets out on a ruthless campaign to bring her down.  We all know how it ends, but Mantel still manages to create real suspense and we, the readers, despite our affection for Cromwell, must feel tremendous sympathy for his prey - the Boleyns - as their heads are chopped off.  I liked Bringing Up the Bodies a little better than Wolf Hall - the novel seemed to flow easier.   What I love about Mantel is that she creates historical fiction that is fascinating, full of accurate period detail, that feels realistic and relevant today. 


Blackberry Crumb Muffins,  from The New York Times
(printable recipe)

These little muffins were a blogging gift - perfect to represent Bernadette's wild blackberry bushes that caused so much damage and for Mantel's "Crumb."  While blackberry season is over, perhaps there are a few stragglers at your market that you can quickly grab to throw into these delectable little treats.  If not, frozen would work too.

Ingredients (the recipe in NYTimes said this made 24 muffins, for me this amount made 12) - bookcooker

Not

Nic’s Lunchbox

Scholastic New Zealand has once again teamed up with inspirational child chef Nicholas 

Brockelbank to produce a second cookbook, Nic’s Lunchbox, this time with a range of quick, 

easy and delicious lunch ideas.

Nic lives with muscular dystrophy and in 2012 and 2013 was the ambassador for the Muscular 

Dystrophy Association (MDA) Bow Tie Appeal with Judy Bailey (the Patron for the Muscular 

Dystrophy Association). Nic featured in the television campaign and on posters and billboards throughout New Zealand.  Nic and Scholastic NZ are again donating half of the royalties from 

sales of the book to the MDA.

Since the publication of his first book, Nic’s Cookbook, in October 2012, Nic has held a sell-out

 book launch, made guest appearances on TVNZ’s Saturday Breakfast, What Now and Attitude 

TV, and performed in-store cooking demonstrations assisted by celebrity chefs Simon Gault 

and Brett McGregor.

Nic’s Cookbook has been a regular feature in the top 10 NZ children’s bestseller list, and it 

won the 2012 Best Fundraising, Charity and Community Cookbook category of the strongly 

contested Gourmand World Cookbook Awards for the Pacific region. Previous New Zealand 

recipients of these awards include Annabel Langbein, Brett McGregor and Jo Seagar.

Nic was encouraged by a schoolteacher to use cooking to improve his reading, spelling and 

maths. He enjoyed it so much that he put together his first ‘cookbook’ when he was eight years 

old, as a Christmas gift for family and friends. This photocopied booklet of recipes was so 

popular he set up a website (www.nicocool.com) to sell recipe books and artwork to raise money for various charities. The website also describes aspects of Nic’s life with muscular dystrophy 

from his personal experiences.

Nic’s Lunchbox will be celebrated at a launch event at the Red Cherry Café in Cambridge,

 at 2.30pm on Saturday 5 October 2013. Samples of some of the recipes will be provided

 for guests to try. Both books will be on sale and Nic will be signing copies. All are welcome to

attend.

Full colour paperback - $10.00

from Gather & Hunt

Portside Organic Another newcomer to Wynyard Quarter, this family-owned organic bar and eatery is something pretty special.Click on pic. Well & Good: Superfoods II Chantal lets us in on a few secretes about that mysterious leafy green vegetable, kale. There's a couple of recipes in there too!Click on pic.

Leaning Out à la Francaise

by Abby Haglage Sept 27, 2013 The Book Beast 

When French Elle editor Sophie Fontanel recently argued, by way of her sensual but anti-carnal book The Art of Sleeping Alone, that the French make better celibates, it seemed as if we may have skimmed the outer reaches of the French ideal. For decades, books about how to master the French way of living, or, quite simply, being—living implying an ungainly dose of effort—have boasted that the French cook better, eat better, dress better, and love better than you and I do. More recently, the genre has managed to outdo itself by also claiming to raise children better and, as Fontanel showed us, abstain better.

But lest one think the depths of French superiority have been fully plumbed, the latest addition to the incessant genre, Ann Mah’s Mastering the Art of French Eating, shows us it’s bottomless. When her diplomat husband is called away to Iraq at the start of their three-year post in Paris, Mah, a journalist, decides to dedicate herself to French cuisine. Gleaning inspiration from another diplomatic wife, American chef and author Julia Child, she goes on a culinary field trip across France, sharing stories and recipes she finds along the way. Brewing beneath Mah’s mouthwatering descriptions of boeuf bourguignon and soupe au pistou is the same insinuation propping up this entire genre: that the French not only live well but better: “And yet, there was something else, a European exoticism that captivated me—a cheese course before dessert, shops shuttered in the afternoon heat, a game of boules playing in the dust of the village square,” she writes of a weekend trip to Provence.

Gueorgui Pinkhassov/Magnum

The answer to why we idolize French women lies in the pages of the books themselves, which are chic and refined and which titillate and seduce—an antidote to our harried American obsession to “having it all.”

Rather than shrink from these implications of inferiority, American women, more than anyone else, it seems, have bought into it. It’s a belief that has spawned an endless genre of literature—and mini-economy, as evidenced by the dominance of these books on The New York Times bestseller lists. There’s the classic French Women Don’t Get Fat, which has sold more than 3 million copies worldwide; French Women Don’t Get Facelifts; Ooh La La!: French Women’s Secrets to Feeling Beautiful Every Day; Entre Nous: A Woman’s Guide to Finding Her Inner French Girl; French Women Don’t Sleep Alone; What French Women Know: About Love, Sex, and Other Matters of the Heart and Mind; Bringing Up Bébé; and Lessons From Madame Chic—just to name a fraction.
More

TGIF (aka DMCV)...

Posted: 27 Sep 2013 - David Lebovitz

Although it doesn’t quite translate, Dieu merci, c’est vendredi – or as I’m going to say in English, Thank God It’s Friday (TGIF), because it’s been quite a week. (On a related note, I was recently informed by a French friend that a 4-day weekend is not a vacation – it’s just a few days off, or a pont (bridge.) But even though I took an actual vacation, it’s been tough getting back up to speed.

Since we all live in a 24/7 society, as you likely can attest to, just because you go away doesn’t mean you can “get away from it all.” There is always something to deal with; urgent recipe questions (It’s funny when people say something food-related is “urgent” – unless there is a famine or a natural catastrophe…or another disaster of similar proportion, I’m not sure it quite qualifies as “urgent”), paperwork, sorting through pictures, and dealing with travel arrangements, including the all-important act of making sure you have a decent seat on the plane home.)

Then there is a pile up when you get back; stuff that needs to be dealt with right-away; a backlog of mail, correcting typos and grammatical errors in blog entries, accepting invitations, declining invitations, writing back to the response you’ve gotten after you’ve declined, reading and responding to the response asking if you’re available another time, figuring out why teenagers would congregate in the alcove down the street that smells like pipi, realizing that there is a near-urgent need for you to restock your butter supply, and testing some recipes that have been on your mind for your blog.

The fun of having a blog is that you get to try to share recipes that you find interesting. I try to put a mix of original recipes, recipes from recent cookbooks, a few oldies but goodies from cookbooks in my collections, and occasionally one from a cooking magazine that catches my eye. Along the way – especially this week – there have been a couple of goofs. The King Arthur Flour company always presents a hilarious round-up of their test kitchen goofs each year on April Fool’s Day. But since I can’t wait that long, I decided to share a few.

I was recently inundated with a few barquettes of fresh figs that I bought at a local flea market, where all of the vendors seemed to be from the countryside (who, as this map points out, Parisians consider paysannes, or peasants.) Call me a paysan, but I happen to like them regardless of what other’s say or think, and as I picked up a number of vintage jam jars, I also was able to trade valuable jam-making tips with some of the friendly men and women selling their wares.

One guy had three barquettes of figs and because he’s not Parisian and in a constant hurry, he had to count out each fig, one-by-one, speaking aloud about what kind of price to come up with, and how he needed to charge me per-fig. (We have a lot of fees and stuff in France, so at some point, I guess we shouldn’t be surprised when there is a per-fig surcharge.) Um, okay. He slo-o-o-wly told me about the history of each fig as I stood there hyperventilating because of the all the bargains that were being snapped up around me, and my shoulder ready to fall off with my bag-full of heavy glass jam jars and the Saint James marinière (striped sweater) that was almost new and was a mere 50 cents, which I got so I can look a little more French. Although I’d have to stop shaving for three days if I really wanted to complete the look. (I also saw a hipster wearing a half-length cape the other day, and I’m not ready to go there, either.)

Continue Reading TGIF (aka DMCV)...

Chocolate Oat Crisps with Bourbon Chocolate Ganache

• Dish Magazine

  
  

  1.      Claire's created decadent chocolate ganache filled treats for this week's Friday Baking – delicious!
  
  Chocolate Oat Crisps with Bourbon Chocolate Ganache
  What could be better than one chocolate biscuit? How about two wafer thin chocolate bi...scuits sandwiched with chocolate ganache!
  
  1 cup rolled oats
  100 grams butter at room temperature
  ½ cup packed brown sugar
  ½ cup caster sugar
  1 egg
  1 tablespoon milk
  2 teaspoons vanilla extract with star anise
  1 cup plain flour
  ½ teaspoon baking powder
  ½ teaspoon baking soda
  ½ teaspoon sea salt
  ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  ¼ teaspoon ground Chinese 5 spice
  150 grams dark chocolate, chopped
  
  Preheat the oven to 170˚C.
  
  Put the oats in a food processor and grind finely then tip into a bowl.
  Beat the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, milk and vanilla extract.
  Combine all the remaining ingredients with the oats then add to the butter mixture. Beat gently until everything is well combined.
  Place tablespoons of the mixture on a lined baking tray and using a fork, flatten to about 8 cm circles, leaving 3-4 cm between each biscuit. I cook 9 biscuits per tray. Bake for 9-10 minutes until a good golden colour, turning the trays for even browning if necessary. Cool on the trays for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. Repeat with the remaining dough to make 22 biscuits.
  Spread half of the biscuits with ganache and sandwich with the remaining biscuits. Makes about 11 doubles
  
  Bourbon and Chocolate Ganache
  ¾ cup cream
  150 grams dark chocolate, finely chopped
  1 tablespoon butter
  1 tablespoon Bourbon
  Put the cream in a small saucepan and bring to just below boiling point. Take off the heat and add all the remaining ingredients. Leave for 2 minutes then whisk until smooth. Cool then refrigerate until a spreadable consistency.See More

  

Need some new entertaining recipes?

• Lauraine Jacobs

  Need some new entertaining recipes?
  Lots of fun, hints, tips and ideas in this great class I am teaching on Tuesday 8 October at the NZSchool of Food and Wine in the Viaduct, Auckland...

  
  http://foodandwine.co.nz/Lauraine.html

Happy Endings

On the spur of the moment last evening we decided to go out for dinner so walked along Ponsonby Road to one of our most favourite restaurants, Mekong Baby,  where we were lucky enough to score two seats.
The usual wonderful meal followed but for me the best of all the dishes was from the Happy Endings section of the menu - Coconut sago, vanilla ice cream and puffed wild rice. Sensational.
Check out the menu here.

Mekong Baby Eating House & Bar
262Ponsonby Rd.
 09-360 1113

America’s Test Kitchen Turns Up the Heat on Retail

 PW Daily

Last year America’s Test Kitchen had two New York Times bestsellers, The Science of Good Cooking and Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook. Together with Slow Cooker Revolution, the titles helped the Brookline, Mass.-based cookbook and magazine publisher sell more books at retail than it has in many years. 

This fall ATK anticipates another boost in retail stores with the release of its first photo-driven cookbook, The America’s Test Kitchen Cooking School Cookbook, with 2,500 color photos. 

more »

Cookbook roundup

Eat your Books

New cookbooks are coming fast and furious. This month's Cookbook roundup has 38 new books that have just been published in the U.S., the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand. 

And the hot trends for the month? 5 ingredients or less, easy bread/ machine books, beer of every description, and lots of series. 

Check out all the new arrivals.

EAT IN

Eat In (Murdoch Books - NZ$49.99) is probably best described as a collection of accessible and inspiring recipes with organisational tips to balance the busy lives of modern families.

Note publication is 1 October.

As a host on Australian Junior MasterChef and host of Great Australian Bake-Off, Anna Gare knows a thing or two about balancing busy days with eating well. In her new book, Eat In, she brings together her favourite collection of recipes. Anna gives plenty of hints and tips for shopping, meal planning and store cupboard standbys-her mantra is you deserve to eat well and, with just a little thought and preparation, you can. Anna's down-to-earth advice on preparing healthy and tasty food will be welcomed by busy and hungry people everywhere.

Anna Gare is one of Australia's brightest new TV cookery stars; as a hugely popular host of Channel Ten's Junior Masterchef and also hosting along side Shane Jacobson on Channel Nine's brand new series The Great Australian Bake Off. Anna also developed her own highly successful cooking shows, The Best in Australia and Quickies in my Kitchen for the Lifestyle Food Channel.

Before deciding to devote her life to good food Anna spent her late teens singing in an all girl band called (rather presciently) The Jam Tarts. The band toured both Australia and the UK developing a devoted following but even then Anna's passion for food was never far from her thoughts. She poached asparagus in hotel kettles, ironed salmon (until medium rare) on dressing room ironing tables and wilted spinach with her hair drier before gigs, very rock n' roll!

After leaving the band Anna set up her own catering business the highly innovative Deluxe catering which became one of West Australia's most successful and sought after catering businesses. It wasn't long, however, before Anna's passion for food and her love of performing combined, leading her to her new and busy career in TV.

Anna says her greatest joy is to create new recipes and food ideas. Hence Eat In, which has been" a lifetime in the oven".

The publishers have kindly agreed to letting me publish a recipe from the book which I made with great success last Saturday night. I warmly recommend this recipe, and the book.

Chicken lovely legs puttanesca on risoni

Serves 4-6

There was nothing I loved more than watching my young babies' faces as I introduced them to new tastes and textures. Scoffed down or spat out, the response was pretty clear! Encourage your kids to experiment with food from a young age and you may just expand their taste buds. This family favourite gently introduces them to robust ingredients and flavours with gusto.

Ingredients

125 ml (½ cup) olive oil

1 brown onion

1 leek, white part only

5 garlic cloves, finely chopped

5 sage leaves

1 tablespoon chopped rosemary

1 tablespoon chopped oregano

50 g (¼ cup) tiny capers

95 g (½ cup) kalamata olives

1 small red chilli (optional)

4 x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes

125 ml (½ cup) of water

8 anchovy fillets, thinly sliced

2 fresh bay leaves

12 plump chicken drumsticks (free-range or organic, if you can), ends removed

75 g (½ cup) plain (all-purpose) flour

250ml (1 cup) dry white wine

1 cup flat-leaf (Italian) parsley leaves

Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

500 g risoni (orzo)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Heat half of the olive oil in a large flameproof casserole dish over low-medium heat.

Finely dice the onion, thinly slice the leek and add to the pan with the garlic, sage leaves, rosemary and oregano and cook for 5-6 minutes, or until the onion and leek have softened.

Rinse the capers, pit and halve the olives and finely chop the chilli (if using). Add those ingredients to the pan with the tomatoes, water, anchovies and bay leaves then simmer over low heat for about 10 minutes, or until slightly thickened.

Meanwhile, generously coat the chicken drumsticks in flour and heat the remaining olive oil in a large frying pan over medium heat.

Add the chicken and cook until golden all over, then transfer to the sauce.

Deglaze the frying pan with the wine, then tip the pan juices into the casserole dish and cover.

Bake for 40 minutes, or until the chicken is tender.

Stir through the parsley and season with salt and pepper before serving.

Cook the risoni according to packet directions.

Serve the chicken with the risoni.

Copyright - Eat in by Anna Gare - Murdoch Books, 2013.

Fresh Ginger Syrup

Posted: 25 Sep 2013 - David Lebovitz

Many moons ago, I worked with Bruce Cost at the now-shuttered Monsoon restaurant in San Francisco. Bruce is an amazing Asian cook and I’ve rarely had better Chinese food than what came out of his wok. Early on, he prompted me to make a sharp, gingery syrup that we could serve at the bar, as an elixir, mixed with fresh lime juice and sparkling water. And although the customers loved it, the reason I later found out why I was going through so much ginger syrup every week was that the staff liked it even more.

In Australia, I remember seeing big bins of fresh ginger in the supermarket (I always try to go to a supermarket in a foreign country – it’s one of my favorite things to do.) And when I was telling some Australians how intriguing it was how they’ve adopted Asian ingredients, like fresh ginger, into their cuisine, a few looked at me kind of funny,and said that they considered fresh ginger just be to an ingredient they happened to use frequently – not necessarily Asian.

Continue Reading Fresh Ginger Syrup...

Jams & Preserves - another beautiful title in the Ladies a Plate series

Ladies, a Plate: Jams and Preserves

Alexa Johnston - Penguin Books NZ - $47.00

Publication 27 September.

'Books that focus on one subject are always worth having, especially when the author is Alexa Johnston . . . Her studious approach to everything in the kitchen guarantees this will be a useful guide to preserving, with some lovely old recipes and plenty of handy tips.' --Lauraine Jacobs, NZ Listener
If you have ever been disheartened by a batch of jam that just won't set, or intimidated by the thought of bottling fruit – this is the book for you.
In the latest of her Ladies, a Plate series of best-selling cookbooks, Alexa Johnston removes all fear and trepidation from the processes of making jams, jellies, pickles, chutneys and sauces – and even fruit cordials and liqueurs – and bottling fruit.

With over 100 traditional and contemporary preserves Ladies, a Plate: Jams & Preserves celebrates the pleasures and rewards of a time-honoured branch of cookery. It is a must for every cook and every kitchen. And includes a set of self-adhesive labels to use with your home preserving.

The fourth in what is proving to be an essential and truly beautiful series. A must for every NZ kitchen.

About the author:

Alexa Johnston is a writer and independent art curator. After working for nineteen years as a curator at Auckland Art Gallery, in 2002 she was curator of the exhibition Sir Edmund Hillary: Everest and Beyond for Auckland Museum. Her first book, Sir Edmund Hillary: An Extraordinary Life – a definitive biography of the legendary New Zealand mountaineer – was a finalist in the Montana Book Awards.

An enthusiastic and accomplished baker from a young age, Alexa has published three cookbooks celebrating New Zealand's culinary history. The first Ladies, a Plate (2008) won a Montana Book Award, the Publishers' Association of New Zealand  Award for Best Illustrated Book and was Recipe Book of the Year in the New Zealand Guild of Food Writers Culinary Quill Awards. This was followed by A Second Helping (2009) and What's For Pudding? (2011) and in 2012 a hardback collectors' edition of her baking recipes, Ladies, a Plate: The Collection (2012). For her latest book, Ladies, a Plate: Jams and Preserves, Alexa turns her attention to a once-essential branch of domestic cookery and makes a convincing case for bringing it back to the centre of our kitchen activities.

Alexa Johnston makes and tests all the recipes for her cook books – and takes all the photographs – in her home kitchen in Auckland.

denizen WEEKLY - GASTRONOMY

25 September 2013

SUNDAYS AT THE BLUE BREEZE INN

As proud advocates of the long Sunday lunch, we're looking forward to the latest offerings at this modern Chinese eatery... READ MORE

AMY'S SECRET KITCHEN

This brand new Auckland cakery is the answer to you and your dog's sweet treat cravings... READ MORE

Gourmet Traveller French issue

We’ve packed the baguettes, the pâté, the seafood, the bistro classics, and much, much more. Bienvenue to the French issue with our recipe preview. Plus, an irresistible recipe for chocolate mousse; a travel guide to French Basque country; our review of Sydney's Café Paci; our latest reader dinner; and your chance to win $15,000 worth of Siemens home appliances thanks to Margaret River Gourmet Escape! Happy eating, Anthea Loucas and the team at Gourmet Traveller

Stuffed Jacket Potatoes with Bacon & Cheese

Food magazine

Per person:
1 large floury potato, scrubbed
oil for rubbing
1 rasher of bacon, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped onion
knob of butter
cup grated cheese, plus extra for topping
chopped parsley, chives or spring onion (optional)
salt and freshly ground black pepper

• Preheat the grill. Cut a deep cross in the top of the potato. Place a dab of oil on your palm and rub the oil over the potato skin. Place the potato in the microwave and cook on high power for 7 minutes.
• Meanwhile, gently cook the bacon and onion in a small frypan, adding a drop of oil if you need to.
• Place the potato under the grill in the middle of the oven and grill it until the skin has crisped a little, using tongs to turn the potato over so it crisps on both sides.
• Remove the potato from the oven and place your fingers below the cross. Squeeze the potato firmly so the flesh bursts up through the cross, then use a spoon to carefully scoop
•  the flesh into a bowl. Try not to tear the skin too much.
• Mash the flesh with a fork, add the knob of butter and mix it in well. Stir in the cooked bacon and onion and the cheese. Add the parsley, chives or spring onion, if using.
• Season the mixture with the salt and pepper and spoon it back into the potato skin. 
• Top the potato with a little extra grated cheese and place it on a heatproof tray. Flash-cook the potato under the preheated grill until the cheese is melted and serve hot.

TIP - You will need to increase the cooking time for additional potatoes. If you are doing a 

lot at one time, you might find it easier to bake the potatoes in the oven for 50 minutes instead 

of microwaving them.