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Tag Archives: prosciutto

Breakfast Baskets

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Yum, yum, yum – what a great, neat and tidy breakfast.  No bacon fat to clear up, no greasy frying pan to wash, and they are delicious to boot.  I wish I had thought of this recipe!

I had some prosciutto in the fridge that was begging to be used, so I decided to make these yesterday morning.  They are soooo simple to make and look quite impressive, I’d recommend serving them in their ramekins and people can tip them out if they want to – I ate mine from the ramekin and it was fine. The one I tipped out looked quite messy. I served them with toast, but next time I do them I’ll slow roast some roma tomatoes and sprinkle them with oregano and basil.  I think they’d go together beautifully. I thought about making Hollandaise Sauce as well, but my jeans are already getting tight!

I sent a certain someone down to the supermarket last night to get the pure cream, and they returned empty handed…well, not quite as they picked up creme fraiche and the Philadelphia cooking cream as apparently pure cream was nowhere to be seen. Funnily enough, there it was this morning in the supermarket…lots of it!! Anyway, I used the Philadephia cooking cream as it had less fat. It was ok and certainly tasted good, but there was a bit of water in the bottom of the ramekins and this might have been caused by the cooking cream.  I’d squeezed out the spinach pretty well, so I don’t think that was the culprit.

Dani has done the recipe for 10 breakfast baskets at once, but I just did the three, and scaled down the quantities.  I put them on the bottom tray of the varoma and propped them up with egg rings again.  Dani didn’t mention propping them up in her recipe, so I’m not sure if I did the right thing… I cooked them for the length of time for soft and they were definitely on the hard side.  So if you’re doing them, keep an eye on them if you want them to be soft and runny in the middle.

You might also want to not be so generous with the salt when you add it, as the prosciutto makes this a pretty salty dish without adding any extra.  I’m a salt fiend and it was fine for me, but other people might find it a little overpowering.

These would be great to cook if you were expecting large numbers of people for a breakfast or a brunch.  They could be prepared earlier and then stuck in the varoma for cooking just before serving.  Just make sure all your ramekins will fit in the varoma at once, and make sure the steam can get through.

 
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Posted by on June 18, 2012 in Recipes

 

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Blue Cheese Eclairs

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What a weekend for thermomixing – I made three things this weekend for a little gathering we had yesterday afternoon.  I had made the quince paste on Saturday to use in the first recipe I had wanted to make – the Blue Cheese Eclairs. I actually ended up making two batches, as I didn’t like the size of the first lot I made, made a second lot, and then decided that I liked the larger ones I made.

Dani is right – this is a great recipe to improve your piping skills.  I didn’t even use a proper piping bag – I used the cheats way and put the mixture in a zip lock bag and snipped off the corner.  Works every time, and there’s no mess oozing out of the top. My eclairs were on the large side – I got about 15 out of the recipe, so in theory they were twice the size of the ones in the recipe.  I do need some more piping practice though, so I might hunt down some disposable piping bags and see if they make a difference.

I made the first batch on Saturday for a party on Sunday.  I like my eclairs to be a little crunchy, so to make sure they didn’t go soggy, I cut them in half and put them in the oven at about 150 c for about 10 minutes about an hour before I wanted to start constructing them.  I was able to assemble them an hour or so before our guests arrived and they were perfect – and so easy to prepare – some prosciutto, a bit of rocket, and some cubed quince paste.

I have made choux pastry countless times and have always been lucky with making eclairs.  Doing the choux pastry in the thermomix was a first for me – and it worked really well. This was also the first time I have used baking paper to line the tray, and I don’t think the eclairs were as puffy as the ones I have made before – but I always used to grease the tray well, and then put some water on the tray – the theory goes that the steam helps the eclairs rise. They were still pretty good though!

I’m not overly fond of blue cheese, but the flavour isn’t overpowering, and the prosciutto and quince cut through nicely.  In my first batch I used some King Island Roaring 40’s and for my second lot I used a gorgonzola.  For mine, the gorgonzola was a much nicer flavour.

These eclairs would be great for finger food for a party, which is what we used them as yesterday.

 
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Posted by on May 6, 2012 in Bites and snacks

 

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