This month's Paper Chef #16 crept up at "warp speed", with little time for the Australian camp to recover after taking out 4 categories out of 5 at the medal ceremony. As last month's grand champion Haalo gets to judge this month.
The challenge calls for basil, prawn, verjuice, and a fourth ingredient inspired by the movies in honour of the Oscars. There's also the chance of bonus point for making something:
- round or ring shaped in honor of the Olympics or the World Cup or March Madness, or
- to eat while watching the Oscars.
If there's inspiration to gain from a particular movie, then it has to be "Chariots of Fire", a British film released in 1981, and, based on the true story of British athletes in the 1924 Summer Olympics. Not only did the movie win the Academy Award for best picture, but, also the original musical score, by Vangelis who went on to compose the anthem of Football World Cup 2002.
Further inspiration comes from the recent Sydney holiday. Shown here is the ring-shaped 2000 Olympic Cauldron, now a water fountain feature. The cauldron was lit up by Australia's 400 m Olympic champion, Cathy Freeman. It is somewhat coincidental, that the major race in "Chariots of Fire" also centres around the 400 m sprint.
The possible ingredients from "Chariots of Fire", ended up as a toss up between tea, a British staple, and fire...
... so with the long preamble, Noodle Cook heads behind the scene ...
...and the fourth ingredient choosen is fire in the forms of Frangelico (hazelnut liqueur), brandy and ....
... Candlenut, as a garnish!
The proposed dish, which gives Noodle Cook a chance to burn the dinner again, is:
Flambe prawns in a burnt butter glaze, served over a doughnut-shaped Camembert tart (made with a black glutinous rice shortbread crust), with Frangelico cream, and a frisee lettuce salad dressed with basil seeds in a burnt grape caramel sauce. The dish is garnished with a lit candlenut, which represents the Olympic flame. The intention is to flame a warmed mixture of burnt grape caramel sauce, Frangelico, brandy and butter in a serving spoon using the candlenut flame, and then to pour the flaming liquid in a circular fashion around the tart just like how Cathy Freeman lit up the Sydney 2000 Olympics Cauldron.
Burnt Grape Caramel Sauce
1 cup seedless green grapes
4 tablespoons raw sugar
1 teaspoon baby food thickener, optional
Juice the grapes by pressing them in a sieve with a wooden spoon to yield about 1/2 cup of juice. In a heavy bottom saucepan, carefully melt and caramelize the raw sugar. Slowly add the grape juice to dissolve the caramel. Remove from heat. In another heavy bottom saucepan, caramelize the grape pulp. Add the caramel syrup to deglaze. Reduce to a thick consistency and adjust with lemon juice if required. Remove from the heat and add the thickener.
To use the sauce in the dish, soak 1 teaspoon of basil seeds in 2 tablespoon water and add 1-2 tablespoon of the sauce. Drizzle the basil seeds with remaining sauce over the salad and serving plate.
Flambe Prawns in Burnt Butter Glaze
12 green prawns, peeled (Size 41/50)
1/4 cup freshly squeeze green grape juice, plus pulp of the squashed grapes
2 French shallots, sliced
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons brandy
Marinade the prawns in grape juice for 15 minutes. Drain and save the juice. Pat the prawns dry with paper towels. Melt the 1 tablespoon of butter and gently caramelize the shallots. Remove the shallots. Add the remaining butter. When bubbling hot and starting to brown, quickly throw in the prawns and cook just enough to brown slightly. Add the brandy and flambe. Remove the prawns when the flames go off. Add the grape pulp and cook till soft. Deglaze with the grape juice and reduce. Strain the glaze and add to the prawns.
Frangelico Cream
2 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon plain flour
2 teaspoon ground roasted wattleseed (or substitute hazelnut)
2 tablespoon Frangelico (hazelnut liqueur)
1 cup cream
1 egg yolk, beatened
Heat the butter and add the plain flour. Cook for 1 minute. Add the wattleseed, Frangelico and cream and gently cook till smooth and thickened. Pour half the hot cream sauce over the egg yolk while stiring, then pour the egg yolk mixture back into the remaining sauce to finish cooking.
Black Glutinous Rice Shortbread
1 1/4 cup black glutinous rice flour
3/4 cup plain flour (or gluten free equivalent)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 egg yolk
1/2 cup butter
2 tablespoons walnut oil
Mix everything together and chill. Roll out and press into moulds. Prick with a fork. Bake at 180 degrees celsius for 20 minutes until cooked through.
There is enough pastry to make 2 x 15 cm, or 4 x 10 cm tarts. Black glutinous rice flour is readily available from oriental stores. The flour has a sweet aroma, perhaps resembling something like Turkish Delight and pandanus leaf. The shortbread is very crumbly and melts smoothly in the mouth like chocolate. The rice flour gives an attractive purple-black colour suitable for homemade pasta which calls for squid ink.
Camembert Tart
black glutinous rice shortbread pastry
125 g Camembert cheese
2 tablespoon ricotta cheese
1 cup cream
3 eggs, lightly beaten
4 tablespoon burnt grape juice (reduction from deglazing caramelized squashed grapes)
Blind bake the shortbread pastry in your choice of mould at 180 degrees celsius. Chop the camembert and combine with ricotta. Mix in remaining ingredients. Pour into the cooked tart shells. Bake at 140 degrees celsius for 25-30 minutes until just set or when the custard no longer wobbles.
After some kitchen drama...
Noodle Cook's Olympic dream went up in flames when the tart suffered the dreaded "fusion" curse by refusing to budge from the mould after chilling in the fridge to stablize the fragile shortbread. It became obvious, the tart could not be successfully unmoulded. A mould with removable base works best, but too late for Noodle Cook...
The challenge almost went from a 400 m sprint into a marathon: It was a case of make another tart, improvise with the leftovers intended as miniature dessert cheesecakes or try a different presentation to salvage the mess. Here is the final result:
with a candlenut over a flambed prawn and caramelized shallots,
... lots of Frangelico cream to hide the camembert tart, and a deconstructed salad (lettuce and grape) with basil seeds in burnt grape caramel sauce.
Maybe Noodle's ambition was a bit too high, but nevertheless, the result tasted fantastic! The shortbread with its beautiful aroma works for cheesecakes as well. The freshly squeezed grape juice (and caramelized version) makes an economic substitution for verjuice.
Incidentally, the Sydney 2000 Olympic Cauldron was also stuck on opening night, and here is an account by Trevor Connell:
"The only hiccup in the whole show was when the cauldron ring became stuck at the bottom of the incline. At first I thought this was a tribute to Atlanta where the flame seemed to take forever to climb the wire after being lit by the boxer formally known as Cassius Clay.
There are two stories doing the rounds as to what happened. First – a computer and/or mechanical hiccup. The other is that in order to keep the trick a secret it was never tested in full mode. The ring was hauled up by a counterbalance system, which was only tested in a “dry run”. On the night the ring was loaded with fuel, which threw the balance out. Once enough fuel had burnt off the system balanced and then started its journey up the incline."
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