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Recipe – Herb Scroll

14 Aug

Blogger and restaurateur Madalene Bonvini-Hamel (britishlarder.co.uk) came up with this tasty, filling and attractive bread rolled with a zucchini and herb pesto.  Put the scroll in the middle of a buffet table or picnic spread and watch it disappear, or let the kids rip it apart for their lunchboxes.  The pesto also makes a fresh, light dip, pasta sauce and pizza topping.

Time:  2.5 hours

Serves – 6

Bread Dough

400 grams Baker’s Flour

1 teaspoon chopped rosemary

20 grams fresh yeast, or 1 sachet dried yeast

40 grams olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

200 grams lukewarm water

Weigh the flour, rosemary and yeast in the TM bowl.  Blend for 10 seconds/speed 8.  

Add the oil, salt and water.  Blend for 30 seconds/speed 8, then knead for 1 and a half minutes/interval speed.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured bench or silicon mat.  Neatly and gently fold the dough into a ball to create a smooth top and wrap it in the silicon mat, or place it in a lightly greased bowl and cover.  Let the dough prove for 40 minutes to 1 hour, or until doubled in size.  Make the pesto while it is rising.

Zucchini and Herb Pesto

30 grams parmesan

30 grams pine nuts

20 grams linseeds

1 clove garlic, peeled

1 small onion, peeled and halved

30 grams baby spinach

40 grams mixed herbs, such as mint, lemon thyme, parsley, basil or oregano

30 grams olive oil

200 grams zucchini, cut into large pieces

juice of 1 lemon

salt and pepper, to taste

100 grams soft goat’s cheese

Place the parmesan in the TM bowl and grate it for 8 seconds/speed 10.  Set aside and wipe the bowl out with kitchen paper.

Place the pine nuts and linseeds in the TM bowl and toast for 4 minutes/100 degrees/Reverse/Speed Soft.  Set aside with the parmesan.

Place the garlic, onion, spinach and herbs in the TM bowl.  Chop for 3 seconds/speed 6.  Add the oil and sauté for 2 minutes/100 degrees/Reverse/Speed 2.  Add the zucchini and chop for 5 seconds/speed 5.

Add the parmesan, toasted pine nuts and linseed, the lemon juice, and salt and pepper to taste.  The mixture must not be too oily or it will make the bread claggy.

Assembly and baking

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees/gas mark 4.  Grease and dust a springform tin about 18-20cm diameter with flour.  Turn the dough onto a lightly floured bench or mat and press or lightly roll it onto a rectangle about 1.5cm thick.

Spread the pesto in a thin layer over the surface. (You’ll use about 2/3 of the pesto, but the remainder will keep for a week in the fridge).  Sprinkle the goat’s cheese over the pesto and roll the dough into a spiral.  Cit it into 6.  Arrange the spirals in the prepared tin.

Bake in the oven for 55 minutes (cover the top with foil if the exposed pesto threatens to burn).  Let the bread cool for 10 minutes before removing it from the tin.

 
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Posted by on August 14, 2013 in Recipes

 

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Herb Scroll

14 Aug
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Someone’s little hands couldn’t keep away..until he discovered the green factor!!

Why didn’t I make these sooner?  I love these!  The pesto is to die for, and I’ll definitely make it by itself.  Someone ate all the leftover stuff that didn’t go into the scroll within about 15 minutes – it went beautifully with the Woolworths Select Rosemary Crackers.  I wonder who that was?

The recipe for these scrolls comes from Madalene Bonvini-Hamel from the British Larder in Suffolk – coincidentally, not too far from where I used to live.  Luckily she wasn’t in operation then or I would have come back from my England experience even heftier than I did!!!  She’s also responsible for the moorish Risotto Balls I made about this time last year.

There are two components to the recipe – the dough and the pesto.  The dough is the work of a few minutes – the lengthy part of this recipe – if you could even call it lengthy – is waiting for the dough to prove. The rosemary makes a lovely addition to the dough. If you’re stuck for a nice warm spot for your dough to rise, try rinsing our your thermoserver with very hot water.  Dry it well, and then put your dough in there, with the lid on – it creates a lovely warm spot for your dough to rise.  The pesto – as i mentioned before – is great by itself.  It’s also one of those things you could add extra bits and pieces too – a variety of herbs, some different nuts or seeds, maybe a different cheese.

I used to hate zucchini.  As a child it was served up with regular occurrence and it was so overcooked.  Mind you, I recently found the Presbyterian Women’s Missionary Union Cookbook that had been my grandmothers, and when I looked at the cooking time and suggestions for vegetables – I was horrified!  Check these out!!

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Aside from anything, these scrolls are the easiest thing in the world to make.  We all know how easy the dough making is, and the pesto is literally over in seconds.  Make sure you use the baking flour, as I have found that the bread lasts a bit better when you use it.

Master 4 – even though his favourite colour is green – doesn’t like green vegetables.  I thought this might fool him, but he’s too smart for that. Still, the rest of us were very happy with the result!

These would be great for lunch boxes or for a picnic.  I’ll definitely be making these again!

Want the recipe?  Check the recipe tab!

Rolled up and ready to be baked

It looks a little skew-wif but it tasted delicious!

It looks a little skew-wif but it tasted delicious!

 
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Posted by on August 14, 2013 in Bakes, Recipes

 

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Mushroom Risotto Balls

06 Sep

Oooooh! A party!  What a great excuse to make these lovely little morsels.

My sister celebrated her birthday with some friends, and I decided to make the Blue Cheese Eclairs again – delicious – as well as the Mushroom Risotto Balls.

I must admit, I was a little bit over mushroom risotto.  Not that it’s not a great meal, and so easy in the Thermomix, but I fear I may have overdone it – I think it’s been on the menu at least once every three weeks since the day I got my Thermomix.  Anyway, I relented and thought this would be a good nibble for the party, mostly because I knew there was a lot of non-Thermomix owners in the group that was invited, and my guess was that they wouldn’t be suffering Mushroom Risotto Fatigue.

This recipe is from Madalene Bonvini-Hamel, who runs The British Larder near Woodbridge,Suffolk. And to think I lived not that far from there many, many years ago.  Luckily I didn’t know of her if she was there at that stage, I would have come home even fatter if these Risotto Balls are any indication of the food she loves to eat.  Check out her website at britishlarder.co.uk

Oh, I’m so glad I tried this…  This is a great mushroom risotto, with a really intense flavour – no doubt helped along by not only fresh mushrooms, but also a goodly portion of dried mushrooms.  I bought a big container of them recently at Costco, and christened it for this recipe.  The container I bought features Porcini, Shitake, Yellow Boletes and Oyster mushrooms.  They tasted terrific.  I can’t remember how much I paid for the container – quite a big one – 300 grams, but I’m sure it wasn’t over $20, which is pretty good value considering the price you pay for the small bags of dried porcini mushrooms.

The risotto that results from this recipe is quite sticky and verges on gluggy – but you need it like this and not soupy, or the balls won’t stay together.  You make little balls and put a little square of mozzarella cheese in the middle, then roll them in panko breadcrumbs.  I actually made the balls the day before the party, rolled them in the breadcrumbs, and then put them in the fridge in containers until the next day and they were fine.  Make sure your mozzarella cubes are in the middle of the rice mixure, otherwise you’ll have some that ooze a little cheese – like that’s the worst thing in the world!!!

I oven baked the balls in the oven, but they didn’t go the lovely golden colour I would have liked.  They did verge on a pale brown, but I cooked them in an unfamiliar oven so I didn’t want to risk burning them.  Next time I’ll try pan frying or deep frying them and see if they look nicer.  I liked the idea of being able to put them in the oven while people were there and serving them hot, rather than having to have hot oil around people who had been drinking lots – so there was method to my madness.

Apologies for the terrible photography – as you can probably tell, I was a few champagnes in by the time I started to heat them up, and very nearly forgot to take a photo at all!

So, yes, easy to make, and a great party nibble!

 
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Posted by on September 6, 2012 in Bites and snacks

 

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