Tart Off

My obsession with portuguese custard tarts has been explored on this blog before.  Since that date, I have been working on perfecting my product.  I've experimented with different combinations of cream, milk and buttermilk in the custard (a bit of buttermilk gives the custard a bit of lift, makes it a little sharper.  Although do you really want custard to be sharp?).  I've used cold custard to fill the shells and hot custard (we felt the hot custard had a creamier result, and you are more likely to get brown spots on the top when baking).  There has been blowtorching of cinnamon and sugar on the top.  And obviously, there has been a lot of custard made for birthday parties, morning tea, afternoon tea etc.  In sharing them with some friends, I have also passed the obsession on to others and my friend Huw has also become a custard tart baker (I'm so proud of him, he started with packet custard for his first attempt, but now he makes his own).

However the question of who makes the best still hadn't been resolved.  The Parliament House custard tarts had become a bit of a distant memory, I couldn't recall what I was trying to perfect.  But feedback from consumers told me that mine were pretty damn good.  Fortunately, we had another event at Parliament House coming up.  It seemed an opportunity too good to miss.  We put custard tarts on the menu for morning tea, primed up the other competitors (me and Huw, because not only is he a friend, he is also one of the AV suppliers I use for events) and the Tart Off was on.  Custard tarts were prepared the night before and brought into Parliament House (the security guard who scanned my bag thought I was bringing in scones).  The event over, guests departed, leaving the tasting panel and the tarts.  Sadly, no representative from the House could spare the time to participate, but we tried to be as objective as possible.

The first tart we tried was Huw's.  Excellent browning on the top, without scorching the pastry.  His custard was very smooth, but quite pale in colour.  He did admit to using crap supermarket eggs, having run out of good ones.  Pastry was quite thick, and not much crunch.  Admittedly it is hard to retain crunch on a tart that has been cooked the night before.  Huw's is the calorie friendly (!) tart because he makes his custard from milk only.  A lovely soft, smooth custard with a nice flavour, enjoyed by everyone.

The second tart came from the House.  It had a nice dusting of sugar and the custard had a lemony flavour and a good yellow colour.  The pastry was nicely flaky on the sides, but a bit thick and chewy on the bottom.  Compared to Huw's, the custard was slightly grainy.

Tart three, obviously was mine.  I had packed a cold brick in the bag with them, and they had therefore stayed quite cold, which did make it difficult to appreciate the full flavour of the tart.  However, we didn't have time to wait for them to come to room temperature, so we carried on.  The pastry had some crunch and was a good colour on the sides and the bottom.  The blowtorched cinnamon and sugar on the top rated well - we thought mine looked the best of the three and the cinnamon on the top enhanced the flavour.  The custard wasn't as smooth as Huw's but was smoother than tart two and was a lovely yellow colour (thanks to Bronwen's beautiful eggs).

All participants felt that they hadn't produced their best work for the Tart Off - perhaps the pressure was a bit much.  We're not sure if the Parliament House chef knew he was participating in a tart off, but we agreed he hadn't done his best work either.  We didn't award prizes or places - it was just a good comparison.  Obviously, custard was the winner on the day.

You would think that now I could let it go.  I could move on to something else to perfect, like profiteroles or danish pastry or churros (acutally, I must try making churros one day).  But no.  What did I do today?

I just can't help myself.  But now I can play with flavours a bit more - these ones were infused with orange zest as well as lemon and it was delicious.  I also reduced the temperature of the oven a bit and.... I guess I'll just keep going, experimenting and freezing a lot of egg whites.  If you need to make meringues, let me know.

It's the little things...

I've had a very busy couple of weeks.  Very busy.  Shall I say that again?  Some of it was stressful, some of it was frustrating and all of it was tiring.  And there is more to come, but that's the way it goes in this world.  So it is the little things that can make a big difference, and sometimes you don't realise how much of a difference they made until afterwards.

I have posted before about my Saturday morning habit of a coffee and a macaron at the Farmers Markets.  It's a pleasure that I start looking forward to from sometime on Thursday afternoon. So when I heard that Dream Cuisine (the makers of said macaron) were going to make a truffle macaron, I was intrigued.  Bronwen has been buying truffles this year, and it has been great season, so we have tried them in a few things, including icecream, creme brulee, roast lamb, cheese, butter, pasta... But in a macaron?

I thought it was delicious.  Made from truffle infused hazelnuts with a white chocolate truffle ganache, with a little gold leaf on the top.  Little mouthfuls of luxury through and through.  Then the weekend turned to chaos again and I went on with feeling stressed and tired and frustrated.

However, on Monday morning I was talking with a colleague about some work stuff and feeling and sounding stressed, tired... etc, until he said "So, how was the truffle macaron?" (Yes, I talk about macarons with my colleagues.  And there's more where that came from, but that's a post for another day..) 'Fabulous' I said, and launched into a description, talked about taste, texture... I'm sure you can imagine.

"Wow" he said.  "It must have been good, you sound about 400% more cheerful now than you did a minute ago."  And I was.  And that energy and cheefulness burst lasted me through the rest of the day.  I hadn't realised just how much of a bright spot the truffle macaron was, until I shared it with someone else.

And the best news is, I can have another one this Saturday, if I want.

Like I said, it's the little things...

UK - The Last Post

The last lot of snaps from our UK adventure.

Some nice buildings on the River Thames. They don't make offices like they used to.

We went to a nice Abbey. Westminster, I think.

And saw a big clock.

And rode on the London Eye.

At the Maritime Museum in Greenwich - a volume on van Diemen's Land by Captain Matthew Flinders.

Self portrait I.

Flinders' Sword.

John Harrison's "H4" Sea Watch or Marine Chronometer, with winding handle. Captain Cook had one of these. This device here had a very large part in Cook's voyages, whereby he increased the size of the known world by one third (apologies to the Polynesians - I say "known"in the European sense).

St. Paul's is, ahem, BIG.

Self Portrait II

Yes, it did taste good.

Goodbye, Isambard.

See you soon, I hope!

The walled garden of Berry Head Hotel, the former residence of H.F. Lyte. It was in these grounds that he wrote the hymn "Abide With Me".

The Berry Head hotel. Originally built as a repatriation hospital for veterans of the Napoleonic wars, it was acquired by H.F. Lyte when his wife came into a substantial inheritance.

Me and my favourite Auntie. Hope to see you soon as well!

More Berry Head Hotel. It was a very grey day, I'm afraid. We had lunch here.

H.F. Lyte's church in Brixham. H.F. Lyte was big on engaging with the fishing community, and started a tradition of decorating the church with fishing tackle each year.

Melbourne (3)

Sunday morning in Melbourne is about markets.  The Arts Centre markets, home to some of my favourite stalls, like great bags, fabulous curry spice mixes, felted hats, personalised pencil cases and the best stall for a slightly chilly Melbourne morning, the man with the curved heat packs for the neck who warmed them up before selling them to us!

Then it was onto a tram down to St Kilda for lunch with some old friends of Bronwen's and a stroll along the pier, via the St Kilda markets of course and a few stops at some of the cake shops

No fairy penguins to be seen, but some pretty impressive balancing acts.

Back to Melbourne, we met up with some more old friends for a dumpling dinner and then Melbourne was pretty much over apart from the appearance of the 'Bathroom Cafe'.

The bathrooms at the Crown Metropol are separated from the sleeping area by sliding screens across the vanity unit (it's cooler than it sounds).  The girls decided it looked like a cafe and once we came back from St Kilda armed with various cakes, this was the result.

  

Monday morning, there was time for one more swim and then it was back to the airport for our return to real life.  It was a great escape that was full of fun.  Thanks to everyone who helped make it possible.

Melbourne (2b) - in which Melbourne gets serious points for being very cool.

You thought I'd forgotten, didn't you?  Don't worry, I won't leave our intrepid explorers stranded in faux Egyptian poses outside the museum...

For those of you who have been to the Melbourne Museum, you may know that behind it there is a very cool playground.  If there is one thing my children can't resist, it's a playground.

Never mind that it is 5.30pm on a winter evening when you have already been up the tower, to the zoo and into King Tut's tomb - you can't go past a playground.  So in the gathering dusk and increasing chill, they played.

To add to the magic of the moment, a young man stood playing his trombone under a tree.  I must admit, it was a pretty cool playground.

We dragged them away and headed back to Lygon St to find some dinner.  (Saw a cool Vespa parked on the street - this one is for you Edward.)

You have to run the gamut of spruikers outside the restaurants now.  We soon developed a criteria - anyone with a 'kids menu' (nuggets and chips?) we walked past.  There needed to be calamari and good looking pizza.

Eventually, we came across a restaurant that seemed to meet the criteria.  One of the waitresses vouched for the calamari - she'd had it for lunch - so in we went.  She was right, the calamari was grilled and beautifully tender.  The pizza chef gave the kids a ball of dough each which they manipulated while waiting for their spaghetti.

We had a pizza I will replicate at home one day - artichoke hearts, olives and fresh prosciutto, very yummy indeed.  We made the ultimate tribute to our day - a pizza dough Tutankhamun head.

Walking down the street we passed one of the best shop windows I have seen. Deli, plus bicycle.  Great looking French cheese and wine...

And then, the jackpot.  Not something you would ever find in Canberra and indeed, something that is getting progressively harder to find these days.  A bookshop.  A bookshop open on a Saturday night.  Who could resist?

In we went, and then found the ultimate prize.  A bookshop, open on a Saturday night, with a table of trains in the kids section.  It was an hour before we could peel them away.

   Thanks for a great day Melbourne.