Vanilla and Salted Caramel Cannoli

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ahhh Cannoli. What is there not to love about Cannoli. A crisp marsala scented shell filled with creamy custard. I’ve been thinking about making salted caramel cannoli for some time now, but come to think of it I would put salted caramel on most things at the moment. As i made this dessert midweek there was no way that I was going to attempt making and frying the Cannoli dough myself. I think if I’m going to take the effort to make a midweek dessert I need to be practical about it, so I bought the Cannoli shells from my local fruit market, I could tell they were good quality ’cause as soon as i opened the packet the smell of of Marsala and pastry wafted up to my nose and made me just want to eat the pastry plain.

I started out by making a vanilla custard, and I know its not the traditional filling of Cannoli but it is really the filling I prefer best. I then made a salted caramel and folded it through half of the vanilla custard and filled the cannoli. Simple, easy quick and delicious! If you have a box of these Cannoli shells in your pantry for emergencies, you can wow surprise guests with minimal effort. Enjoy and happy cooking xx

 

Ingredients

1 box Cannoli shells (mine had 12 (about 4 inch) shells in it)
2 cups milk
3 egg yolks
100 g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
30 g unsalted butter, chopped

For the salted caramel
150g caster sugar
15 g butter
200 g cream
1.5 teaspoons salt

Method

To make the vanilla custard:
1. Bring milk almost to boil in a saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat.

2. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks, sugar and vanilla in a bowl until pale and creamy.

3. Stir the cornflour into vanilla mixture.

4. Whisk in milk very slowly, adding only a little bit of milk at a time. Transfer milk mixture to a clean saucepan.

5. Whisk over medium-low heat for 5 minutes or until mixture boils. Reduce heat to low. Whisk until custard thickens and coats the back of a spoon. Stir in butter. Transfer to a large heatproof bowl. Cool slightly. Cover the surface with plastic wrap to prevent a skin forming. Place in the fridge for 30 minutes to chill.

TO make the salted caramel

1. Place 50  grams of sugar in a pot over medium heat, and stir constantly while it melts.

2. As its starts to melt add some more sugar and keep adding gradually until it is all melted. Do not allow to burn.

3. Once the sugar is completely melted add the butter, stir until incorporated.

4. Meanwhile warm the cream in the microwave until it is slightly warm, and add to the caramel mixture gradually while stirring until it’s a smooth homogenous mixture. Dont be alarmed if a sugar ball forms, just keep stirring continuously over low heat and it will dissolve into the rest of the caramel mixture

5. Add salt to taste

Clockwise: Cannoli crust, vanilla custard, salted caramel

Clockwise: Cannoli crust, vanilla custard, salted caramel

To Assemble
Fold the salted caramel into half the vanilla custard.
Pipe the vanilla custard and salted caramel custard into the Cannoli
Sprinkle with icing sugar and serve within a few hours before the Cannoli goes soggy.

Enjoy and happy cooking xx

Vanilla and salted caramel Cannoli

Pork roast with lemon, garlic and sage

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I’ve never made a pork roast before, in fact we dont really eat that much pork in our house outside cold cuts like ham and mortadella, I think it must be the fact that I grew up in countries where pork was not that readily available, and maybe its a cultural thing as well. Anyhoo I’m always looking for new and interesting things to make for the Website, to challenge everyday routine dishes and I’ve been toying with the idea of Pork. After a recent doctor’s appointment for my baby boys I was enjoying the unseasonal Sydney sunshine and I happened upon a butcher (shhhhh don’t tell my usual butcher).

If I haven’t mentioned it before, allow me to extol the virtues of a good butcher. What I mean by a good butcher is the following: firstly, they must be friendly, you want to be able to ask them questions and not feel like they are taking time out of their busy schedules to do so, secondly they must be well stocked, well labelled and be able to answer questions such as “is the beef grass fed or grain fed”, obviously hygiene goes without saying, they also must be willing to cut the meat to your liking. There is absolutely no need, in my opinion, for you to spend your time finely slicing beef or quartering chickens when they have much sharper knives and quicker wrists and can do it for you in a jiffy.  I like to avoid  “non value added activity”  at all costs and cutting meat sits squarely in that category (Unfortunately I also believe folding laundry is a non value added activity, and my husband greatly disagrees with me but that’s a story for another day) I digress, I walked into this Butcher and asked him about roasting pork, and he had heaps of advice to give.

Gourmet butchers are dying out in Australia, so i strongly urge you to get to know your local butcher and support them. Find one that is well priced because we wouldn’t want to eat into the Sparkly things budget, but you wil be rewarded for your efforts in so many ways.

Onto my pork, my butcher recommended Rack of Pork and I have always loved the combination of lemon and sage, hence was born my Pork with Lemon and Sage. YOu could equally use a Pork Loin or Porchetta for this…ask your butcher what is good and fresh 😉

Roast Pork with sage, lemon and garlic

Roast Pork with Lemon, Sage and Garlic

1 x 1.5 rack of pork or pork loin

1 large onion

1 head of garlic

1 lemon

3 teaspoons minced garlic

1 pinch chilli flakes

1 bunch sage

1/2 cup chicken stock

water

Get your butcher to score the pork for you. Pouring boiling water over the fat (which helps the crackling come up in roasting)
pat dry and begin to marinade. Rub Oil, salt, chili flakes and garlic into the scored fat. Massage deeply and well shiatsu style.

Chop the sage finely and massage into the top as well, crust the rack with the sage.

Cut the onion and the lemon into wedges, and separate the head of garlic into cloves (don’t bother peeling)  put this in the bottom of the roasting pan and set the pork on top of this

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Add ¾ cup water and ½ cup chicken stock, cover well with foil.

Put it into a 180 oven for 1 horu and 20 minutes, then remove the foil and turn up the heat to 200 for another 10 minutes

Gravy:

While you are resting the meat, put the roasting pan directly on the heat and add ½ cup more of chicken stock to the pan. Stir the pan juices and squeeze the garlic, lemon, onions to bring out the flavor into the pan. Add 1.5 tablespoons of flour and season with salt and pepper. Sieve this mixture and serve with the pork.

Serve with potatoes roasted in duck fat.

Pork plated up with roast potatoes

Osso Bucco the Italian way

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On a cold day, there is absolutely nothing like coming home to a house full of the aroma of a casserole. It warms me straight to the cockles. They are also very easy to prepare, a few minutes of chopping and sautéing then you leave it alone and attend to other household chores then voila! a beautiful meal to show how much you love your family.

Because of their long cooking time, I dont have enough time to allow it to simmer on a day when I have worked, so I prepare them the day before, which has the added benefit of intensifying the flavours overnight.

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Osso bucco is the name given to the Shank, here I have used beef. In this recipe the shanks are slowly braised in a rich tomato sauce, its richness coming from the use of a beef consomme rather than a regular beef stock. The lemon rind and the bayleaf infuse the sauce with freshness, and when the Gremolada is added, it gives the whole dish another level.

I hope your family enjoys this as much as mine did. Happy cooking xx

Osso Bucco

Ingredients

6 medium sized beef osso bucco around 2 inches wide

90 g butter

3 carrots diced finely

2 large onions diced finely

3 sticks celery diced finely

3 cloves minced garlic

flour

salt and pepper to taste

800 g passatta or cans diced tomato

½ cup red wine

2 cups beef consommé

2 bayleaf

1 strip lemon rind

for the gremolada

rind of a whole lemon, diced very finely

2 tsp minced garlic

3 tablespoons parsley

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius
  2. Dust the Osso Bucco with flour and salt and pepper
  3. Heat 40 g of butter and a splash of oil in a heavy cast iron casserole dish and brown the osso bucco on both sides and set aside
  4. Add another 20 g of butter to the casserole dish and add the carrots, celery, onions and sauté until softened
  5. Add the garlic and sauté until fragrant
  6. Add the tomatoes, wine beef consommé, bayleaf and a strip of lemon rind
  7. Bring the sauce to the boil and season with salt and pepper
  8. Return the Osso Bucco to the sauce and bring to the boil again, then cover the dish and place in the oven for 1.5 hours or until the meat is very tender.
  9. Make the gremolada by combining all the ingredients in a small bowl.

10. Serve with plain rice or Risotto Milanese, or Mashed potatoes.

Have the gremolada sitting on the table for each person to sprinkle on their plate.
Serves 6