There Are Great Places To Eat

Pumpkin Meringue Tarts

After a couple of not so good restaurants I thought I should tell you about one that was good, in fact I have a few up my sleeve that are great, but I realised another great place to eat is my place.
American Thanksgiving has just passed and lot of the American blogs have been featuring pumpkin based desserts, and more specifically the traditional Pumpkin Pie. Being a Pumpkin Pie fan, I found this recipe from Tartelette, and had to have a go.

Pastry lined tart tins

Filled with baking beans

Straight out of the oven

With meringue icing - not quite as good as Tartelette's meringue

But they tasted great - and that's what counts.

Here is the recipe I used. This has been copied directly from the Tartelette website which is American.

Pumpkin Meringue Tartelettes:

Makes 8 small tartelettes (3 inches diameter) or one 9 inch round pie

Sable Dough:

1 stick (115 gr) butter, at room temperature

3/4 cup (93 gr) powdered sugar

1 large egg

1 1 /2 cups (188gr) flour

2 tablespoons (20 gr) cornstarch (makes for a lighter crumb)

pinch of salt

In a mixer, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the egg and mix until combined. Add the flour, cornstarch and salt and mix briefly to incorporate. Dump the whole mixture onto a lightly floured board and gather the dough into a smooth ball. Do not work the dough while in the mixer or it will toughen up. Flatten the dough into a disk, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour. When the dough is nice and cold, roll it out on a lightly floured board or in between the sheets of plastic. You will have extra dough that you can save for another use in the fridge for up to 5 days or frozen, well wrapped for up to 3 months.

Cut out 8 rounds two inches larger than your pastry rings. Fit the dough inside the rings with your fingertips and trim the edges with a sharp knife. Line the rings with small squares of parchment paper and fill with pie weights or dry beans.

Place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake at 350F for 10-12 minutes. Let cool.

For the Pumpkin Filling:

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg

1 cup canned pumpkin (not the whole can but 8 oz) (I used 1 cup pumpkin puree)

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

pinch of salt

2/3 cup whole milk

In a large bowl, beat the egg and sugar until pale. Add the pumpkin, spices and salt and mix until just incorporated. Add the milk and slowly and mix well.

Divide the batter among the cooled tart rings and bake for 20-30 minutes at 350F until the batter looks like it is just set, don't overcook or it will crack on you.

Remove from the oven and let cool completely before proceeding with the meringue topping.

For the Italian Meringue:

2 egg whites (60 grams)

1/2 cup (100gr) sugar

2 tablespoons water

In a heavy bottom saucepan, bring the sugar and water to a boil and cook the mixture until it reaches 245-248F on a candy thermometer.

In the meantime, start beating the egg whites firm peaks but not stiff or dry.

When the sugar syrup has reached the proper temperature, slowly add it to the egg whites with the mixer on low-medium speed. Once all the sugar has been poured in, turn the speed to high and beat until the meringue has cooled.

Place it in a piping bag fitted with a large star tip and pipe rosettes of meringue on top of the tartelettes.

Use a blowtorch to slightly caramelize the tops or place them under the broiler in your oven but make sure to keep a close eye on them.

Hadley's Hotel

My Husband's work Christmas Party was held at Hadley's Hotel. They have an award winning restaurant, 1834, and when I check the menu online - as you do, I was looking forward to the evening. A wonderful Tasmanian menu with lots of lovely choices. Now seating 150 people in a restaurant like that is not usually the way it's done, and why I thought we would eat in the restaurant I have no idea, and so we were in a function room and dinner was a buffet. And typical buffet food it was.

We sat at tables of 10 with Christmas crackers, bread and Christmas coloured serviettes.

On each table was a buffet menu. The Entree Buffet listed 11 items, the Main Course Buffet listed 5 item and the Dessert Buffet listed 5 items. We were then told that there was only one buffet and then desserts would be served later. So we queued with our plates.

The turkey and pork (my favourite) were being hand carved as we waited, and we waited! As I stood and watched over my husband's shoulder, I decided the slow and laborious process to cut some dry looking meat wasn't worth the wait so I passed on to the chicken legs. These may have been nice warm, but over cooked chicken legs, served cold are just a bit too hard to handle.

Now I know this is starting to sound fussy, but in situations like this I usually bypass all the cold meat. There was ham, salami, silverside and pastrami. This is supermarket produce that I use to make the boys' lunches and I don't waste good eating space with these items.

This is a little bit of almost everything from the buffet.

Next in line was crumbed fish. That is it front right in the above photo. It was salmon! Who crumbs and deep fries salmon! What a waste of beautiful fish. It was over cooked and dry.

Then it was a line up of the usual suspect; potato salad, green salad, roast potatoes, roast pumpkin, cauliflower cheese, and garden vegetables. The price paid for this dinner included wine, beer and soft drink. Not much use to me as I don't drink, so I certainly don't feel I got value for my money.

I did however listen to the band. While they played 80's hits that I recognised and watching three grown men sing ABBA's Mama Mia, it would have been nice, given the circumstances, if the band members had given the appearance of showering and getting changed before taking the stage. They looked like they had spent a casual day at home catching up on those odd jobs before heading off to the gig. But ask anyone who knows me; I do like people to make a bit of an effort for the appropriate situation.

Plum Pudding, Kahlua Cheesecake, Duo of Chocolate Mousse Gateau.

Having been on the other side of a restaurant I have a pretty good idea what has come out of a tin and a packet. I gave the pavlova a miss, it is not one of my favourite desserts. The plum pudding was fine. You can't really go wrong serving up slices of tinned pudding. The other two, I'm sure were mix and set. The Kahlua Cheesecake was a cold set, gelatine base dessert - and I liked it because for some reason it was a bit salty and appealed to me on a plate of desserts.

So there is was, a lot of money, and I mean a lot, to eat basic buffet food and cheap wine.

But I still want to try their restaurant.

Sultana Caramel Slice

A few entries ago I showed you one of these pictures, having no plans to make it a feature on the blog. Since then I have shared this recipe with quite a few people who have enjoyed this very yummy slice.

It originally came from a local Sunday paper and was part of a Donna Hay article. I have renamed the slice to include the word caramel because it is a caramely, fudgey, squishy kind of slice. If you cook it a little longer and allow it to cool totally before cutting, it is a much firmer and neater slice. However, cut and eaten warm I think it is close to perfect. Cut it into big slices and serve warm with cream or allow it to cool and eat it anyway you like.







Sultana Caramel Slice

150g unsalted butter, melted (I used regular butter)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup dessicated coconut

Topping
2 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup plain flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder, sifted
1 1/2 cups sultanas

Preheat oven to 180C
Place the butter, sugar, flour and coconut in a bowl and mix to combine
Press the mixture into a 20x30cm slice tin lined with non stick baking paper.
Bake for 15 mins or until golden.

While the base is cooking make topping.
Place the eggs and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until pale and thick. (I've done this in a bowl with a wooden spoon)
Fold in the flour and baking powder and stir in the sultanas.
Spread the topping over the cooked base and bake for 25 minutes or until golden.
Allow to cool in tin (if you can wait that long) and cut into squares.