DP History

Attack of the Vegans!

2013-10-20T07:50:00.002-07:00

The Vegans come from a tiny island off the coast of the Hollow Volcano. It is traditional to offer them suitable food and libation as a welcome when then visit. However, what to cook? I had planned on Lasagne for a weekend meal, so I just took out the meat and replaced it with Aubergine - or, as the Large People from the nearby continent like to refer to it, "Eggplant"......

3 aubergines
3 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
a few sprigs fresh thyme, leaves picked
1 dried red chilli, crumbled
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2x400 g organic tinned plum tomatoes
1 splash balsamic vinegar
1 bunch fresh basil, leaves picked and stalks chopped
150 g Cheddar cheese, grated
2 handfuls Parmesan cheese, grated
6-8 fresh lasagne sheets

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400ºF/gas 6. Steam the whole aubergines over a pan of simmering water for 30 minutes, then scoop out the flesh and cut it up roughly. Slowly fry the aubergine, garlic, thyme and chilli in the olive oil for around 10 minutes.

Add the tins of tomatoes, chopping them up roughly with a wooden spoon, then add the balsamic vinegar and most of the basil leaves. Bring to the boil and simmer for around 10 minutes until the sauce has reduced and thickened. Throw in a little wine for flavour.

Prepare a bechamel sauce, with plenty of nutmeg and then, starting with a layer of pasta, build alternate layers of sauce, bechamel and cheese, topping off with pasta, bechamel and cheese.

Place in the oven for 25 to 30 minutes until bubbling and golden.

Seafood Paella!

2013-03-10T07:52:00.000-07:00

Here in the Hollow Volcano, the Quartermaster sometimes has useful items. I recently raided his store (Motto over the door: "Look at what the LORD has done") and, under cover of darkness - avoiding the henchmen - I secured a Paella pan. Very handy. For Paella.

You would think that in the Tropics seafood would be abundant, but it isn't ( or rather it is, but it is expensive and imported from around the other side of the planet - what price Global Warming?) , so as a treat, my Paella is an infrequent guest at the table. It IS , however, extremely popular and usually involves a cheeky Sauvignon Blanc or a Pinot "to wash it down" (sluice, more like).

You will note that the following recipe has few measurements - that because it's almost all "hand and eye" ( a bit like the construction method used in the Hollow Volcano) , so if you make too much, anything left over can be heated up and used the next day - but watch out for those shrimp: don't reheat more than once and chill any leftovers quickly.

Arborio Rice (handful per person)

Saffron & Paprika

Chorizo

Pimientos

Peas

Chicken (thighs – bone in and skin on give most flavour)

Seafood (at least uncooked shrimp, but clams, mussels and white fish can be added as well)

Onion

Garlic

Parsley

Stock (about 500ml, more if needed)

White wine

Seasoning

Chop the Chorizo and fry in olive oil, leaching the red oil from the sausage. Add the chicken to the pan and brown on all sides. Remove, leaving the oil in the pan

Add chopped onion and sweat on a low heat until transparent, add garlic for a few minutes; be careful not to burn the garlic. Remove and add to meat.

Heat the stock in a separate pan and add saffron and paprika, stirring well

In the pan you used for the chorizo, using a little more oil, add the rice and – on a low heat – stir until it becomes translucent. Once the rice has changed colour (about three minutes), begin to add the stock. This takes a while but eventually the rice will thicken and absorb the stock. Throw in a glass of white wine. Stir until absorbed.

Add pimientos (chopped) and stir in with the meat and the onion. Keep stirring. Add white fish if using. Keep stirring or the mix will stick to the pan.

Add the peas and the shrimp. Keep stirring until the shrimp colour pink. Sprinkle with parsley, enjoy…

Roast Beef and Chocolate

2012-08-13T16:53:00.000-07:00

So, it seems that my blueberry cheesecake pots are getting a little passe. Time to move on, methinks....

How does a full-on Roast Beef Dinner sound, if I offered you Gordon Ramsay's 4-minute chocolate mousse, with a coffee "caviar" twist for dessert?

Thought you'd be interested!

Those little spheres are pure dark-roast coffee. Looks and tastes great!. The whole thing took about 20 minutes to make, but (especially with the "caviar") looked like I had spent the whole of the previous day in preparation.

Making the spheres is easier than you might think. First, prepare an ice bath, and, using oil (not olive oil) that you have chilled in the fridge overnight, create a bath of oil (using a metal pan or bowl helps keep it cold). Ice on the outside, oil on the inside.
Next, mix your warm, VERY strong coffee with some powered gelatine, until the gelatine has dissolved:

Then, let it cool a little, but not set. Because THEN comes the cool bit! Take a dropper/pipette (I actually used a marinade injector) and drop two or three drops at a time into the oil:

The cold oil (hence the ice bath) causes the gelatine to solidify. The liquid itself (because of this law of physics) forms a sphere as it sinks to the bottom. These are your coffee "caviar" or "pearls of coffeeness" :

The kitchen paper soaks up the cold oil, leaving little balls of coffee wonderfulness. Once chilled in the fridge for a short while, just before serving, squirt some whipped cream on the top of your mousse and place a handful of the "caviar" on the top. Each mouthful is a combination of the richness of the chocolate mousse, combined with tiny explosions of strong coffee as you bite into the little spheres ... Who needs molecular gastronomy...?

Oh , I nearly forgot... the Roast Beef was courtesy of St Jamie of Oliver. This meant cleaning out the fridge of celery, carrots, fresh thyme, onions, and just about anything else I could find to make an alter onto which the beef was reverently lain. Two hours (and a bit) in the oven and the flavours were immense ... again, there's no secret - its easy!

What it's all about ....

2012-06-10T08:49:00.001-07:00

Hidden away in the Hollow Volcano, my entertainment options can be somewhat limited - there's only so many sun-kissed, idyllic, beaches you can sit on, after all. As you know, I love cooking for friends, but, well, ingredients (and motivation) have been in short supply up until recently, mainly because I didn't even have a matching set of cutlery (quelle horreur! I would never live down the social shame!).

My Island Muse appeared in the form of SugarAppleBlog , whose lobster salad (using fresh lobsters bought from a Rasta man at the side of the road ) inspired me to get back into it. So, here it is: "what it's all about"- my first "proper" meal for friends since being imprisoned here. (note: I had to swim out to the wreck and salvage some plates, napkins and a salt and pepper set, just so Friday could make the beach hut look civilised).

L & S get fed. These two have been lovely since they got washed up on the beach here. They fed me when Friday was away, and they took care of my pet monkey so Friday and I could meet with the Henchmen on the other side of the Hollow Volcano. The least I could do was feed them back. My nationality DEMANDS that I serve a snifter of G&T at the start of any formal meal, but I gave it an island twist with some Boozy Watermelon Stars.

These are simplicity itself but, I'm sure you'll agree, they look impressive; just a star-shaped cookie cutter into about 5mm slices of fresh water melon. The stick is held in by a 'lock' of a blueberry pushed into the centre (I used an AA battery to make the hole) and then liberally drizzled in Finlandia Mango Fusion Vodka . Frozen for an hour, they start the old tastebuds going, and they're really refreshing; L liked them so much, she had three (but don't tell anyone!).

I ran the old "crostini starter" trick: there's plenty of goats on the hollow volcano, so a nice goats cheese on a slice of baguette banged in the oven until the bread crisps and the cheese melts, accompanied by a Rocket and Pomegranate Salad and drizzled with some Balsamic Vinegar:

...mmm great finger food, if you're short of cutlery! The pomegranate arils (the red bits) are just sweet enough to offset the sharpness of the cheese - for some reason they all go really well together. If I had grill, I'd actually get them a bit browner on the top, but the campfire doesn't stretch to grilling...

As a main course, I had marinaded some very fine fillet steak (many thanks to Neils The Butcher at the Quartermaster's Cave lower down the beach) . For the (4-hours-in-the-fridge) marinade, finely chopped fresh island chilli (hot hot HOT), garlic, fresh ginger, lime zest, lime juice and about half a bottle of Soy Sauce. As St Jamie would say, "boshed" onto the hot griddle to sear and served on a bed of pak choy (bok choy here) with some Thai Fragrant white rice jazzed up with some lemon zest. Clean plates all round.... For S, who eschews meat, I did the same thing with fresh tuna, BUT, don't marinade the Tuna in the same way, because the citrus will 'cook' the fish like a Ceviche and make it tougher than you want ... I merely cooked the tuna IN the marinade in a separate pan.

Finally, dessert: the Blueberry Cheesecake pots I get so much feedback on - in fact, recently, one of the Hollow Volcano Henchmen was adamant that I had bought the last lot in, which simply isn't the case (and which I took as a compliment). I served them in some Martini glasses that had washed up from the wreck, so they looked terribly sophisticated...

Afterwards, we sat out watching the stars, with some fairy lights illuminating our considerable stash of vinho plonko ..... not bad for a palm-roofed beach hut inside a Hollow Volcano on the edges of the known world ....

A quick burger recipe

2012-01-29T13:32:00.000-08:00

Here in the hollow volcano, resources are scarce. It can be hard to get some items that you might regard as 'normal' for a chef (such as a good range of fresh herbs for example!). On the other hand, sometimes all you want to do is rustle up something simple with what you've got.

'Simple' needn't mean 'boring'...

I had some ground beef , some onions and a few storecupboard staples. What to make for Saturday night? BURGERS. I'm on a low carb hit at the moment, recovering from Christmas, so no bread rolls, baps, fries, rice or nachos , just honest to goodness fresh meat on the griddle, backed up with some spicy sweetness. :

500g ground beef
large white onion
teaspoon (respectively) cumin, coriander, ground black pepper and mixed herbs
Worcestershire Sauce to taste

and then...

about 25% of a jar of pickled jalapenos chopped REALLY finely.
(Jalapenos, in a jar, waiting to be chopped finely)

mix it all up, roll it into little patties and slap it on the hot griddle/skillet and thats it...really, who says they can't cook? How hard can it be?

I topped mine with a fried egg and, do you know what? They were fabulous (ahem, if I say so myself). I think the sweetness and slight spice of the chillies really makes a depth to the taste. Next time, I'm going to make them a day in advance and see if the flavour deepens - I bet it will!

Lost in paradise ...

2011-12-26T08:55:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been a bit quiet since March, hasn't it? Thats because I've been kidnapped by rastafarian Ninjas and hidden in the bowels of a Hollow Volcano somewhere in the most remote reaches of the Caribbean!

Because I'm here, and all my cool kitchen stuff is 5000 miles away, indulging my passion for culinary experimentation has been severely curtailed, but, thanks to the inspring @sugarappleblog , I have got myself back into the saddle (for as long as my jailers in the Hollow Volcano allow).

....and being Christmas, what better way to begin than with a duet of delectable decadent desserts developed during December?

Despite being sans cool kitchen stuff (like spatulas, cake tins, or even ingredients in some cases!) , having been invited to the lovely Squidgey's house for Christmas dinner, I volunteered to 'do' dessert.

I LOVED it... it was like meeting an old friend all over again, just to go back to planning, sourcing and cooking ... aside from the added complication of just about anything here beng imported and therefore necessarily limited in quality, quantity and availability.

So, to business... how about Dan Lepards Pecan Crust Bourbon Chocolate Tart?

That'll do. But no, lets go mad and complement it with a White Chocolate and Ricotta Cheesecake (the festive red bits are Pomegranate Arils...fab, huh?) ...

... First problem ...finding ground pecans, here in the land of packet cake mix and artificial colouring ("no added nature")...

@sugarappleblog - the guru of culinary advice - couldn't help... so I grabbed two rocks off the beach (they let me out occasionally, to collect driftwood and download music files) and pounded my own pecans (insert inappropriate humour here)...

Everything else is available and, save the second problem of having to use tinfoil cake tins, instead of "proper" cake tins, both dishes were a success (watch that cooking time for the pecan crust, though... I got lucky: accidentally just a little longer cooking than required gave a nice coffee backtaste to the VERY rich filling, but a nanosecond longer would have been like licking a melted Mars Bars off a stick of charcoal -like I say, watch the cooking time like a hawk).

Squidgey did us proud...we watched the sun go down over the Land of The Free (just South of the Hidden Volcano) and chowed down on Roast Lamb and Roast Goose, preceded by Butternet Squash soup drizzled with a home made chopped pepper pesto... Mrs. Fod had already presented her Chicken Liver Pate as an aperitif (yes, the sheer quantity of fine Brandy therein qualifies it as an aperitif!), so we were well ready to dine....

My contributions were, of course, somewhat less wonderful than the stellar Christmas trifle that Squidgey had prepared, but I was pleased with the outcome...All in all, a lovely evening... nice to meet the "Lady Who's a Dutchman" and her very interesting partner, who seems just the kind of guy you'd want to be marooned with ... Thanks, Squidgey and Mac.

On reflection I learned two useful lessons ...

one, there's no excuse for not cooking good food, even when imprisoned in a Hollow Volcano - you can improvise and overcome most problems, provided the Henchmen leave you alone;

two, never fight a war on two fronts... one dessert at a time, otherwise your efforts at whisking egg-whites into peaks (don't bother, it's too humid here) distract you from the important timings on baking pastry... like I say, I got lucky ...

Glad to be back! Happy Christmas!

Sunday Roast

2011-03-27T15:04:00.000-07:00

It's not quite a Dinner Party, but Sunday Roast with me and mine can sometimes be a culinary adventure. This time, I managed to get my Roast Pork Shoulder with crackling just right, so I thought I'd share it... I have seen the future and it is SLOW ROASTING! Six hours slow at 110c, in fact ...

I heated the oven to 230c, then, whilst it was getting nice and hot, I dried the shoulder of pork with paper towels. Cut the skin with a sharp knife, parallel lines about 1cm apart, just through the skin, but not into the meat.

A quick glug of oil, rubbed into the skin and then a liberal dosing of sea salt. Into the oven for 30 minutes to crisp and sear the skin, and then the "patience" bit; drop the temperature to 110c and leave it there.... go for a walk, wash the car, empty the bins ... (I did all this) ...SIX HOURS later ...you will find the most melting piece of tender juicy meat you're ever likely to enjoy (leave it longer, if you like, some people report going 12 - 14 hours...).

Now I'd seen a TV chef cheat on the crisp crackling and, as I was a little disappointed with the crackling on my joint, I pinched his idea... the point is for the juices in the skin to permeate the meat whilst cooking, so I took the skin off whilst the meat was resting, put the temperature back up to 230c (for the roast potatoes) and put the skin on a tray to crisp even further - salty crunchy tasty!...

If I say so myself, it was a nice piece of meat and well worth the three quid I paid for it (yes, I know, it was on offer) ;-)

Christmas Pea and Ham soup... (or, another way with leftovers)

2011-01-19T12:15:00.000-08:00

So, I have two litres of stock left over from boiling the Christmas Ham in the last December post. What I didn't mention is that the stock isn't water... its apple juice (the 100% kind) and ... CIDER! (oo-arrr!) . Sweet applyness isn't in it! ... ;-) .
250g of red lentils (split peas) into the pot, bring to the boil and let simmer for maybe 50 minutes ... throw in the chopped up bits of ham left over (and frozen) from New Years Day , whizz with the whizzer and thats it.SOUP to warm the most frozen soul . It's that simple. Who needs Heinz? I have had it two days running for lunch at work and its lovely... yum...

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T07:01:00.000-08:00

1/1/11 (!) Got a bit adventurous this time around: didn't QUITE work, but was ok. Had a great New Years Eve mashing up Jamie's Butternut Squash soup from 2002 with the old trick of crumbling some black pudding into it along with some parsley.It really works.
Main course was James Martin's Honey Fried Duck Breast with Winter Vegetables; bit too heavy on the old butter, so I halved the amount and it worked well without as much. On Mrs Fod's request, I added Jamie's 30 minute Dauphinoise, but I didn't really rate it and that was the first disappointment for me, it has all the right stuff, but doesn't quite have the body or creaminess of a "proper" Dauphinoise.
For dessert, we moved onto pomegranate surprise Panna Cotta with a pomegranate glaze (the surprise is that the pomegranate seeds ("arils") were hidden inside the pannacotta). The glaze called for 600g of sugar! But I was a little disappointed again, because I had wanted it to set like brittle boiled sweets, so I could do a "stained glass" effect, and it came out like a syrup...more research needed I think... That said, it was sweet and sharp and really offset the creamy pannacotta (which is easy to make and lovely when sprinkled with a little lemon zest whilst cooking) . Don't put the pannacotta in the freezer like I did, though; it's meant to be soft and creamy, not like hard ice-cream!
Meal over, port and cheese to finish, fireworks in the garden to welcome in 2011 and then I slipped on some moss and tore my ligament ...ho hum ... managed to cook a "hangover cure" breakfast this morning, though :-)

2010-12-28T06:41:00.000-08:00

Christmas! Ham! Christmas Ham !

2010-12-28T06:37:00.000-08:00

No big meals cooked in my kitchen this Christmas. Dinner on the 25th was at Mums, as usual. However, we DID have guests on the 27th , so it was into the kitchen for some buffet food. Aside from the usual nibbles, I was particularly proud of my Baked Christmas Ham With Sugar and Mustard Crust. It tastes amazing and I strongly recommend you try it ...
I soaked the ham for two days in regularly changed water, to leach the salt out (didn't do that one year and it was well, salty) . Boiling the ham next in a stock base of celery, onions, carrots and bay leaves. In the meantime, I prepared the glaze by mixing together two teaspoons of dijon and english mustard, with 25g of butter and 300g of dark muscovado sugar, ground cloves, ground ginger and ground cinnamon (note: next time I'm doubling up the mustard). The recipe calls for 20-odd cloves, but I find that the taste becomes too medicinal, so lay off the cloves unless you're really fond of them.
Pre-heated oven, 200 degrees, smear the paste over the ham and throw it in, making sure to baste at least twice. The glaze is REALLY sticky and goes like a treacle, but its SO worth it.
After about 20 minutes, one last baste and then back in for ten. Finally remove the ham and slowly baste as it cools, it gets very very sticky but hardens to an impressive glaze. (make sure you wash the pan/bowl right there and then otherwise you'll come back to something like concrete in the morning, trust me...)
The casing of sugar and mustard is crisp and tasty, it seeps into the meat and leave a delicious aftertaste...just right for Christmas ... it's so good that one of my fans stated that the chutney it was served with actually detracted from the taste - so there you go...!

Jamie roools!

2010-12-11T12:20:00.000-08:00

So, watching Jamie's Christmas last night and off he goes making his 2002 squash and chestnut soup. "Mmmm" thinks I, even though I'd just polished off one of Pizza Italia's 16" Thin and Crispy ham, mushroom, double pepperoni and pineapple pizzas...
Mrs. Fod has been in a classroom all day, so I guessing she'd like something when she gets in that isn't "naughty". So off I go ... crush two tablespooons of coriander seeds with two hot dried chillies, rub them all over two massive halved butternut squashes and cover with olive oil before bunging in the oven at 200 degrees. Meanwhile, fry pre-cooked chestnuts, a large onion, pancetta and sage leaves in oil, then bung all that into a big pan, scoop out the squash (should be soft after about 25 minutes) , add that to the pan, cover with chicken stock and bring to the boil. He did a half and half , to get a "rustic" thickness to the soup, I couldn't be bothered, just whizzed it with the whizzer until it was all smooth and served... (as St. Jamie would say: "..luverly jubbly...") .. It was really nice and didn't need any seasoning either...

Rice n Bitz!

2010-11-21T00:00:00.000-08:00

Many moons ago, B & J (best friends and Best Man) used to be skint, like I was. This was 'cos our mortgages were crippling us (thanks, Reagan and Thatcher) . We'd usually be stuck at home on our few weeekends off. I'd ring him or he'd ring me and we'd discuss the content of our fridges. Then it would be over to each others house, carrying whatever we had, plus some home brew or a loose can of Skol or Carling (!) and we'd have a "Rice and Bitz" night. Chuck everything in a pan, bang on a VHS tape (usually Arnie) and drink 'till you fall over.....
WELL, we're all a bit more sophisticated these days, B&J live in France and are non-meat eaters, and I like cooking for them when they return to the "Old Country" ;-) .
How to reconcile the two? Easy! Rice and Bitz! In fact, a seafood risotto in the style of a Paella (but without Chorizo or Chicken, you see?). I had a MASSIVE piece of CostCo monkfish (note to self, get fishmonger to fillet it in future) and some prawns, cod and mussels. Chopped onions and celery into a paella pan with olive oil and a little garlic. Soften, add risotto rice for a few minutes until coated in oil, then pour in stock (I added a little saffron as well; expensive, but it adds something, I find) . I used Knorr stock pot vegetable stock and a fish stock, along with 250ml of a cheeky little white wine lurking around the kitchen (unusual, wine doesn't live very long in the DP kitchen!).
Once all the liquid was absorbed, in went the fish, some peas, some bell peppers, hot piquante peppers and pickled roasted red peppers (from a jar) (nomnomnom). Whilst all that was cooking, I put the rest of the wine in a saucepan, threw in the cleaned and trimmed mussels, banged on a lid and steamed them until they opened. Mussels drained and placed on top of the rice/fish combo, (VERY "rustic"), to the table still in the paella pan, three big spoons and off we went. Another DP success, and we only realised we'd "just" had "rice and bitz" about halfway through! Sometimes, its the simple stuff that makes it all worthwhile.....

The Pumpkin King!

2010-10-27T14:50:00.000-07:00

So, three massive pumpkin lanterns later, I'm left with a good two and a half pounds of flesh ... what to do? I know, use that chicken stock I made from Sunday's roast and make Lantern Soup http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/lanternsouppumpkinan_8073 . Sage from the garden, a left over sweet potato and around 2/3rds of the pumpkin flesh , banged in a BIG pan and simmered for about half an hour until all squishy. A quick whiz with the handheld whizzer and a golden dark yellow soup that is (on account of the sage) warming and tasty. Had some for lunch today, the tastes have begun to mix nicely and it was fantastic!

..a little snack...

2010-09-11T08:24:00.000-07:00

I'm bored of the basics and always trying to jazz stuff up. Take my lunch today, mackerel in tomato sauce on toast...so far so boring... but I slapped some English mustard on the toast, then some of the Spanish chillies from the previous meal, a grind of black pepper, and, < hola! > something a little spicy but really tasty ... it really doesn't take much ... :-)

D & C come for dinner

2010-09-05T09:18:00.000-07:00

Well I invited D & C over for a meal last night and this is what we had:

Starter (washed down with a nice Prosecco. A medley of Spanish ham, Fuet sausage and cheese from Lunya, complemeted by pickled chillies, orange jelly and pickled red onion. The cheese was really nice with the orange jelly and individually, the meats and the pickles were really tasty, but I think it was a bit much for a starter, next time I'll drop the smellier cheese and perhaps make the portions a little smaller.

Main course (ably lubricated with Wolf Blass Yellow Label Cabernet Sauvignon): Parma Ham wrapped Chicken Breasts stuffed with roasted red pepper and pickled hot green chillies on a saffron, spinach and basil Risotto . This was fantastic. The tastes really came out. I adapted the recipe from a mixture of Jamie Oliver and BBC Good Food , throwing in the chillies to give a bit of bite. JO says that a risotto should be like a "...hug from your mum..." , well, chucking in a knob of butter just before serving gave it a velvety softness that felt like a hug to me ;-) !

Dessert : I had had a go at making Gordon Ramsay's Blackberry Pannacotta with Madeleines , but the Madeleines were a disaster! Top Tip? DON'T buy silicone moulds... It was good job that I practised the day before, so I dropped them from the recipe and just used the pannacotta and the blackberries, but I threw in a blackberry coulis, made from boiling about 250g of blackberries with 50g of caster sugar, then dropping in a little vanilla extract and chilling before serving. You know what? No-one noticed the madeleines were missing - it was just enough.

After that lot, the evening degenerated into its usual puddled drunkeness; a great night in... ;-)

What a great idea!

2010-09-05T08:57:00.000-07:00

... I've been cooking for friends for years and often find myself stumped to remember a nice dish or combination that worked well. Then today, someone suggested that keep a blog...and here it is!