Summer Food

Summer Food

Summer is Australia's favourite season, and this collection of fresh, no-fuss recipes by The Bathers' Pavilion's Serge Dansereau will make your summer cooking a breeze.

Beautifully photographed and designed, Summer Food contains a range of contemporary recipes that celebrate Australian summer produce at its peak. These simple recipes are packed full of the chef know-how that turns a good dish into a great one, and are guaranteed to make your meals highly enjoyable and effortless, and your summer parties and entertaining stylish.

From prawn and prosciutto skewers for the barbie to strawberry and ricotta panettone for breakfast, rainbow trout salad for lunch to blackberry fool for dessert, Summer Food evokes the relaxed romance of an Australian summer in its colours and flavours.

And because Christmas falls in our summer season, Serge has devised some wonderful holiday menus and included all the Christmas baking classics - from fruit mince tarts to chilled eggnog, Christmas puddings to a delightful gingerbread house - to ensure your seasonal entertaining is stress-free and successful.







Passionfruit, White Chocolate and Hazelnut Meringue Slice
Serves 8
I made this recipe for Dame Joan Sutherland to celebrate her last performance at the Opera House in October 1990. The original recipe was an elaborate chocolate and passionfruit dessert, and I've used two of the elements here to create an easy summer version.

Ingredients
300 g white chocolate
3 gelatine leaves
2/3 cup / 160 ml passionfruit juice
4 free-range egg whites
1 tablespoon caster sugar
300 ml pouring cream, whipped

Hazelnut Meringue
Canola oil spray
1 tablespoon plain flour
5 free-range egg whites

1/2 cup / 100 g caster sugar
100 g ground hazelnuts
1/2 cup / 60 g cornflour
2 tablespoons icing sugar, plus extra, for dusting
Passionfruit pulp, to serve

Method
Line a 5 cm and 20 cm square baking dish with plastic wrap and set aside.
Melt the white chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, then set aside to cool.
Soak the gelatine in cold water to soften, squeeze out the excess water, then place it in a small saucepan with the passionfruit juice.
Heat over low heat until just dissolved. Beat the egg whites with the sugar to form stiff peaks. Fold the cream into the white chocolate, then pour in the passionfruit juice. Fold through the beaten egg whites.
Pour into the baking dish and refrigerate overnight.

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Lay a sheet of baking paper on a flat surface and, with a pencil, mark a 20 cm square. Repeat. Place both pieces of paper on a baking tray and spray with a touch of canola oil. Dust lightly with the flour.
To make the hazelnut meringue, in a bowl, beat the egg whites and caster sugar until soft peaks form. Combine the ground hazelnuts, cornflour and icing sugar and fold into the egg white. Place the hazelnut meringue in a piping bag and pipe it out to cover both squares of baking paper.
Bake the meringue for 20 minutes, or until a pale golden colour. Allow to cool.
To serve, gently pull the chilled mousse out of the baking dish and place it on one meringue square, then top with the other meringue square. Dust with icing sugar, garnish with passionfruit, and serve whole or cut into portions.

Serge Dansereau is the executive chef of The Bathers' Pavilion Cafe and Restaurant at Balmoral Beach in Mosman, NSW. He is a multi-award winning chef, renowned for his commitment to excellence and seasonal produce.

Summer Food
Harper Collins Australia
Author: Serge Dansereau
ISBN: 9780733330612
Price: $39.99