{"id":1878,"date":"2010-10-25T13:58:57","date_gmt":"2010-10-25T05:58:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/?p=1878"},"modified":"2011-01-05T21:51:49","modified_gmt":"2011-01-05T13:51:49","slug":"mastic-parfait-with-pistachio-strawberry-and-rose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/mastic-parfait-with-pistachio-strawberry-and-rose\/","title":{"rendered":"Mastic parfait with pistachio, strawberry and rose"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Desserts have always been one of\u00a0my favourite things to cook and it is only in the more recent years that I have really enjoyed cooking other dishes.\u00a0 I also like\u00a0being able to create slightly different desserts.\u00a0\u00a0Whether it be the shape of certain components or simply the interesting combination of ingredients, I love it when friends and guests “oh” and\u00a0“ah”\u00a0as I\u00a0place one of my creations in front of them.<\/p>\n

So when a friend offered me a large punnet of seasonal strawberries freshly picked from\u00a0a farm just outside of Perth I gratefully accepted.\u00a0 My most recent dessert using these delectable morsels was\u00a0meringue nests with berries and cream<\/a> so I knew I wanted to do something a little more elaborate this time.\u00a0 My latest issue of Gourmet Traveller had appeared\u00a0in my post box earlier in the week and was a wonderful source of inspiration for a creative dessert.\u00a0 I had flicked through the glossy pages when the magazine arrived and immediately noticed the section highlighting chef Matt Stone and one of the newest and most talked about restaurants in Perth, Greenhouse.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

The recipe read like a normal parfait with a few extra trimmings.\u00a0 It also had the addition of mastic which is an ingredient that I knew about and had seen before but never actually used.\u00a0 Mastic<\/a> is the resinous sap that is collected from trees on the Greek island of Chios, and these translucent droplets are charmingly referred to as \u2018tears\u2019.\u00a0\u00a0It is used for the consistency it gives to ice cream and sweets and\u00a0it\u00a0was the original chewing gum and mouth freshener.<\/p>\n

All of these things made me quite excited about having the opportunity to attempt this dish.<\/p>\n

mastic parfait with pistachio, strawberry and rose (recipe from\u00a0September 2010 issue of\u00a0<\/span>Gourmet Traveller<\/span><\/em><\/a>\u00a0magazine)
\nYou\u2019ll need to begin this recipe a day ahead.\u00a0 <\/em>Serves 8-10<\/span><\/p>\n

Ingredients<\/span>
\n270ml (1 cup plus 1 tablespoon) milk\u00a0
\n8g (0.28 ozs) mastic, finely crushed\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n12 egg yolks\u00a0\u00a0
\n270g (9.5 ozs) caster sugar\u00a0
\n660g (1.5 lbs) mascarpone, gently whisked to soften\u00a0\u00a0
\n270ml (1 cup plus 1 tablespoon) pouring cream, whipped to soft peaks\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n325g (\u00be lb) strawberries, trimmed and quartered\u00a0
\nto serve,<\/em>\u00a0pistachio kernels, coarsely chopped\u00a0\u00a0
\n\u00a0
\nrose syrup<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\n250g (\u00bd lb) strawberries, trimmed and quartered
\n150g (5.3 ozs) caster sugar
\n3 tsp rosewater<\/p>\n

Preparation
\n<\/span>Combine milk and mastic in a small saucepan over medium heat, bring to just below boil, remove from heat and set aside to infuse (10 minutes).<\/p>\n

Whisk egg yolks and sugar in a large heatproof bowl until thick and pale (3-4 minutes).\u00a0 Strain milk mixture over egg mixture then whisk over a saucepan of simmering water until thick and holds a ribbon (8-10 minutes).\u00a0 Remove from heat, transfer to an electric mixer and whisk to room temperature (4-5 minutes).\u00a0 Gently fold through one-third of mascarpone, then remaining mascarpone.\u00a0 Fold though cream, spoon into a 7cm x 20cm loaf tin lined with plastic wrap, smooth top and freeze until firm (6 hours-overnight).<\/p>\n

For rose syrup<\/em>, combine strawberries, sugar and 225ml (almost 1 cup) water in a saucepan over medium heat and stir occasionally until a light syrup forms (10-12 minutes).\u00a0 Remove from heat, stir through rosewater, strain through a fine sieve (discard solids) and set aside.<\/p>\n

Dip tin in hot water to loosen parfait, turn out onto a board, remove plastic wrap and thickly slice with a hot knife.\u00a0 Serve immediately with strawberries, pistachios and rose water.<\/p>\n

My tips\/alterations:<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0*I have never had much luck with cooking custard in a bowl over simmering water.\u00a0 I did try it this time but after 5 minutes of whisking decided to opt for my\u00a0usual method\u00a0of making custard which is to cook it in a large heavy based pot over medium heat, whisking until it begins to thicken then using a spatula or wooden spoon stirring until the desired consistency is reached.\u00a0 *I used a 21 x 11 cm (8 1\/2 x 4 1\/2 inch) loaf tin\u00a0 *The syrup is easy and delicious.\u00a0 I have made this since just to have with fruit and ice-cream.\u00a0\u00a0*The timing of some of the elements took a little longer than the recipe suggested but not too much more.\u00a0\u00a0*The mastic was easy to use and seemed to thicken the mixture a little, which is what it is supposed to do.<\/p>\n

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ease: 7\/10.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0This is basically making custard and syrup with a few other elements added in.\u00a0
\nprep time:<\/strong>\u00a030mins.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>
\ncooking time: 30mins <\/strong>+ infusing, freezing and cooling
\ntotal: 1 hour 10mins <\/strong>+ freezing.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

taste: 9\/10.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0This parfait was delicious.\u00a0 The mascarpone gave this a completely different flavour to a normal vanilla custard based ice-cream.\u00a0 The rose syrup was amazing on its own and was only\u00a0enhanced by\u00a0the addition of fresh strawberries and pistachios.\u00a0 G felt the parfait\u00a0was a little icy and compared to an ice-cream that has been\u00a0whipped I guess it was but I didn’t find it annoying.\u00a0 Our guests loved it (or were being very polite :))<\/p>\n

would I make it again:\u00a0\u00a0Yes!<\/strong>\u00a0 In fact, I have already made the syrup since and kept the leftover parfait in the freezer for some sneaky snacks.<\/p>\n

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Desserts have always been one of my favourite things to cook and it is only in the more recent years that I have really enjoyed cooking other dishes. I also like being able to create slightly different desserts. Whether it be the shape of certain components or simply the interesting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2068,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[81,58,31,93,26,48,61,27],"tags":[4,128,104,19,99,119,131,100],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1878"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1878"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1904,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1878\/revisions\/1904"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}