The Baking Agent

Gingerbread Stuffing

2012-01-20T06:16:00.000-08:00

It was my turn to host and cook up a storm over Christmas. A carefully planned menu was created to appeal to all our taste-buds. Will a spell in Bahrain my Mum was introduced to candied yams and so our traditional Christmas table is interspersed with side dishes that would perhaps be too sweet for the uninitiated.
Our Christmas table heaved with the following: Crayfish and avocado cocktails with smoked cods roe on the side and brown buttered bread. I prefer crayfish in a cocktail rather than the traditional prawns. More flavour, soft and fluffy, they suck up the marie rose sauce. We cooked a goose, I pulled out all the fat in the cavity, rendering it down for goose fat roast potatoes and served with brussels in Marsala with chestnuts and bacon, spicy cabbage, a buttery swede puree and candied yams. The star side for me was the stuffing. A tinkered with Nigella recipe. I put about a 1/3rd of the amount of bacon she suggests and it was perfectly moist and I suspect the 750g of bacon Nigella suggests in her Feast book must be a typo. That's about 5-6 packs of streaky bacon. My arteries are hardening just at the thought.
This stuffing is spicy, sweet and soft and savoury. Perfect with the gamey goose. Again, like the candied yams it might be a bit too much for those of a sensitive pallet and one not used to so much sweet with their savoury course. I'd urge you to give it a try though. It will remain a regular at our table any time of the year.

500g onions peeled
2 sweet apples, cored, peeled
45g butter
1 tablespoon oil
250g streaky panchetta or bacon (unsmoked)
zest of 1 orange
450g good quality shop bought gingerbread, crumbled. I got a lovely one from Waitrose.
2 medium eggs beaten
1/2 a teaspoon pepper

Blitz onions in a food processor or chop very finely. Heat the butter and oil in big frying pan and fry the onions and chopped apple until soft for around 10mins or so. Blitz the pancetta in the processor until very fine and add to the onions and apples. Keep stirring and cook off the bacon for another 5mins and then sprinkle in your orange zest. Let the mix cool a little before mixing in the gingerbread crumbs. Once completely cooled stir in the eggs and pepper. Give it a final mix. You can either stuff the bird or I placed the stuffing on a sheet of foil and rolled it up into a tight log and put it in the fridge for a few hours. When ready bake in a hot oven for around 45mins. Give it a few mins to rest and if you've wrapped it in foil when it comes out you can slice the stuffing into neat rounds which makes for better presentation than dollops. Either way will taste fantastic!

Lemon Fluffy Clouds

2012-01-04T06:19:00.000-08:00

Well, 2012 arrived and we're already motoring on through a wet and windy January. New Years Eve came and went in our house where we quietly welcomed the year in with a hearty 3 course meal.
Salt Cod Brandade with roasted red peppers and Crostini for starters. Halibut with Brown Shrimp and Butter for the mains. The finale of which was a real bobby dazzler! A fine Lemon Meringue Pie.
One that would turn heads and raise eye-brows at any decadent dinner party.
If it was going to be the end of the world as so many had predicted and the Rapture really was upon us this was the very last thing I wanted to devour in the world. Plus I had a dozen lemons left over from the Christmas festivities which I didn't want to waste.
I had such a large slice the high sugar content induced coma-zombie like trance for most of the evening but boy she was worth it. My final swan song before heading into the usual January detox. This pie is the three act performance with a blind baked crunchy short pie crust, two inches of sharp lemon and teeth achingly sweet barely set centre and a mountain of cloud like Italian meringue, majestic toasted peaks piled high on top.
In truth its mostly a Hummingbird Bakery recipe with a few tweaks of my own mainly in the pastry as I prefer a finer sweeter pastry than they suggest. Although I'm sure their version is more than perfect and I wouldn't dare suggest my version is better.

Preheat Oven to 170
For the pastry you will need:
200g (7oz) plain flour, sifted1 rounded tablespoon of icing sugar100g (31/2oz) chilled butter, cubed1/2–1 medium egg, beaten

Combine the chilled butter icing sugar and sifted flour in your processor until fine breadcrumbs appear. Then dribble in the egg little by little until the dough comes together. Chill for around half an hour. This relaxes the glutin and will stop that dreaded shrinkage. Or blast in a freezer for 20mins if you are short on time. Roll out on a dusted clean surface until about 4mls thick. You should have prepped a 23cm pie dish with a little butter smeared all over the tin. Slide the pastry sheet over and gently push in to cover the tin. Don't trim the excess yet. Blind bake it in the usual manor for 15-20 mins, until golden brown and partially cooked. Set aside to cool.

Lemon Filling

This really couldn't be simpler, combine 8 free range egg yolks (reserve the whites for the meringue!), 2 x 397g tins of condensed milk and the juice of 8 freshly squeezed unwaxed lemons and their zest. The easiest method is whisk on a medium to high speed in your processor and the mixture will thicken naturally after 1-2 minutes.
Pour this into your prepared baked pastry case and bake at 150C for around 25 minutes. It should be firm to the touch, not wobbly. Leave to cool. Cover and pop in the fridge for at least an hour or over night is fine.

Italian Meringue

Don't fret, yes an Italian meringue involves boiling sugar but with a bit of care and attention this is just as simple as any other meringue..well almost. The finished effect is worth the effort. So, pop the oven on again at 150C.

Put 400g of caster sugar in a saucepan and barely cover with cold water. Bring to the boil over a medium heat. While the sugar is bubbling away put the egg whites in a mixer and whisk until the whites are light and frothy. After about 4-5 minutes of the sugar bubbling the water will have begun to evaporate and the texture will change to a more syrupy conistency. Technically speaking your looking for 'Soft Ball' stage. To check you've reached the right stage dip a spoon into the syrup and then drop into a glass of cold water. You should then be able to form a soft ball out of the sugar mixture. Don't what ever you do touch the hot syrup before its been in the water. You will burn yourself and badly. This is the tricky stage partly because you're dealing with molten hot sugar and partly because Soft Ball can very quickly become Hard Ball which means you've taken it to far and will need to start again. Next, turn the mixer up to a high speed and very slowly drizzle in the hot syrup whilst your whisk. This cooks the meringue and you want to keep whisking for around 10 mins until its tripled in size and cooled down. It should then look a bit like this:

Spoon the meringue on top of the cold pie, covering it completely, piling it up high and create some swirls and peaks with a spoon. Bake for about 20mins to brown and crisp up. Leave to cool again before serving.

Torta Alla Gianduia

2011-12-22T09:26:00.000-08:00

Torta Alla Gianduia, sounds impressive doesn't it? It looks impressive and tastes divine but surprisingly easy to make, you just need a little bit of organisation and it all comes together very quickly. Its a recipe borrowed from her cakey Highness Nigella but I've added my own twist of several generous glugs of Captain Morgans Spiced Rum which I've always thought smells just like alcoholic maple syrup. It goes very well with the nuts and chocolate. Boozy but not to overpowering.

I made this for Steve, for his birthday. He loves a chocolate cake and this makes a very adult, grown up birthday cake for big kids. It would also make an impressive cake to produce at the end of a dinner party. Serve with creme fraiche or soured cream to cut through the unctuous fudgy boozy hazelnut cake. I toasted and skinned and ground the hazelnuts myself. You can buy them ready skinned and even ground but there was some meditative satisfaction to be gained doing it myself and the toasty nut smell filled the house.

Skinning hazelnuts:

Its so simple. It just takes a bit of time and patience. Heat 200g of them in an oven, whole on a baking tray at about 200c for no longer than 5 minutes. When they come out they will be rustling and crisp sounding. Move them round a metal sieve with your hands and the skins will fall off and give a rub with your fingers to the stubborn ones. Keep 100g whole. Blitz 100g in your processor until finely ground.

For the cake you will need:

23cm springform tin, greased and lined. The springform is necessary here because you will want
to leave the cake on the base. Its too soft and moist to move.

6 large eggs, separated
pinch of salt
125g soft unsalted butter
400g Nutella (1 large jar)
A big glug of Morgans Spiced Rum or other booze you think would go well.
100g ground hazelnuts
100g dark chocolate, melted

Icing:
100g whole hazelnuts (peeled weight)
150 extra thick double cream
Another big glug of your chosen tipple
125g dark chocolate

Lets bake...

In a sparkly clean metal large bowl, whisk the egg and salt until stiff but don't over do it.
In another bowl or I did it in the processor beat the butter and the Nutella together and then add your glug of rum or whiskey or even Frangelico if you happen to have some, egg yolks and your ground hazelnuts. Fold in the cooled, melted chocolate. I used 70% Lindt, for me 90% is just a little too bitter but each to their own! Using a big splodge of the stiff egg whites loosen the mixture and then fold in the rest of the egg whites and gently combine it all until no white is left. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for 40 minutes until its just beginning to come away from the sides and then set aside to cool and firm up. To make the icing heat the cream, booze and chopped up chocolate in a saucepan gently. Once melted take the pan off the heat and whisk until the cream has thickened. Once the cake is stone cold slather on the icing thickly and then scatter the whole hazelnuts over the top.

Pistachio Macaroons

2011-10-24T08:54:00.000-07:00

Been invited to a dinner party? Want to take along a sweet treat or a feather light desert then I urge you to consider these unctuous classy little morsels.

The recipe is from 'How To Be a Domestic Goddess' by Queen of Puds Nigella and I must say its one of my most used, grubby, food smudged cherished cookbooks. It caused a storm when it was released and helped put Nigella on the culinary map. I think its worth buying for this recipe alone but there are some fantastic ideas in there. Nigella calls them the worlds most elegant macaroons and although I cant vouch for that wild claim I can say they were delicious, easy-ish to make and everyone loved scoffing a few down with a strong coffee. It was a perfect end to the meal. They're not as lurid as some of the macaroons you get but I liked that about them. They baked to a light golden shade on the outside and when you bite into them the soft centre & buttercream is a pale jade green. Perfection!

For the macaroons:

75g shelled pistachios
125g icing sugar
2 large egg whites
15g caster sugar

Preheat the oven to 180/gas mark 4

Grind the pistachios in a food processor along with the icing sugar until as fine as dust. Whisk the egg whites until fairly stiff, but not dry, sprinkle the caster sugar over and whisk until very stiff. Takes around 5 minutes with an electric whisk. Fold the whites into the pistachio-sugar dust, and combine gently. You need to keep as much air in the mix as possible. Pipe small rounds onto a lined baking sheet (tip: use dabs of the mixture underneath the baking sheet to help stick it in place). They do expand a little in the oven so give them space to grow and I made 40 rounds which makes 20 whole macaroons. Let them sit for about 10mins until they've formed a skin and look a little glossy. Then pop them in the oven for 10-12 minutes: they should set, but you don't want them completely dry. A little chewiness adds to the pleasure of eating them.

For the buttercream

55g pistachios
250g icing sugar
125g unsalted, softened

While the macaroons chill out you can crack on with the scrummy buttercream. Grind the nuts and the icing sugar again and then cream together with the softened butter and continue whisking until its soft, fluffy and completely combined.

Make sure your macaroons are 100% cool and then use the buttercream to sandwhich the macaroons together.

Simple soups

2011-10-21T08:36:00.000-07:00

After pouring a full carton of 'fresh' soup, by a very well known brand of soup (ahem..Cvt Gdn) down the sink due to the abhorrent taste and texture recently I've vowed to make my own from now on. I've come up with a couple of souper speedy (sorry) soups to make for lunches or quick dinners and I've added a extra few flourishes to make the soups feel like a full meal. Here's a few ideas to help you avoid reaching for those dreadful cartons!

Leek and Potato with Rosemary and Cheese Scones

Home Made Chicken Stock (or from cube or fresh). About a pint is enough.
1 large onion sliced

6-7 large-ish potatoes. I used Maris Pipers. I cubed them all neatly for presentation but just chop em up if you like in a similar fashion so they cook evenly.

2 large leeks

A clove of garlic cloves and a sprig rosemary.

Fry the onion, leeks, garlic, rosemary in a little rapeseed oil for a few mins. Add the stock and simmer gently for 20mins or until everything is cooked.

Blend most of it and leave a few chunks of potato and leek whole then seasoned.

Add aprox 250mls milk. I think you're supposed to use cream but milk seemed much more healthy and just add enough to get to the consistency you want. I like a slightly thicker soup myself.Finish with a few rosemary needles, cracked pepper and a glug of rapeseed oil.

For the scones I used a very simple basic scone recipe and added the flavours of rosemary and cheddar.

225g/8oz self raising flour

pinch of salt

55g/2oz butter ( I always use Lurpak)

25g/1oz mature cheddar cheese, grated (I used Cornish Tickler)

A tablespoon of chopped fresh rosemary or half a teaspoon of dried is ok.

150ml/5fl oz whole milk or buttermilk if you have it

Heat the oven to 220C/425F/Gas 7. Lightly grease a baking sheet.

Mix together the flour and salt and rub in the butter.

Stir in the cheese and then the milk to get a soft dough.

Turn on to a floured work surface and knead very lightly.

Pat out to a round 2cm/¾in thick. Use a 5cm/2in cutter to stamp out rounds and place on the baking sheet. Lightly knead together the rest of the dough and stamp out more scones to use it all up.

Brush the tops of the scones with a little milk. Bake for 12-15 minutes until well risen and golden.

Cool for a minute or two, split and butter, serve warm with the soup.

Spicy Sweet Potato and Ginger soup

5 sweet potatoes (peeled)

1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger (or a teaspoon powdered ginger)

1 clove garlic

1 spring onion

1 medium heat red chilli de-seed for a milder hit of spiciness or leave them in. What ever you prefer!

500mls chicken or veg stock (cube is good, organic cube better, homemade stock amazing!)

1 can low fat coconut milk

Cube potatoes and simmer in stock with all the other ingredients until soft and cooked through.

Blend. Add coconut milk to make it up to your desired consistency. Heat through and serve and enjoy!

Sweet Pea and Pesto

750g (ish) frozen peas.

1 Spring Onion

1 Garlic Clove

500mls chicken stock from a cube

Simmer for 3-4 mins and then blend. Dont cook for too long otherwise you'll lose the lovely vibrant green colour. Add a couple of teaspoons of green pesto as much as you want to taste and dont forget to season.

Bon Slurping!

Coconut & Raspberry Sponge Crumble

2011-10-09T07:14:00.000-07:00

I'm writing this up as my poorly boyfriend Steve snoozes on the sofa after a Sunday lunch designed to heal and sooth. I made chicken and rice broth, see recipe on the blog from a previous entry. Its a hearty, healthy warming bowl of goodness. An elixir of life and whats better to follow up a bowl of soup that a crunchy, chewy, gooey bowl of coconut & raspberry sponge crumble. As its name eludes to it bakes part soft sponge part cookie crumble topping that becomes sticky and chewy as the raspberry jam caramelizes. Its heavenly served hot & steaming from the oven with good very cold vanilla custard poured liberally over it. Steve's cold will be gone in a jiffy, driven out by the healing power of home cooked food that has that secret all powerful ingredient in it - Love!

You will need:

The oven set at 180 degrees.
A large pie dish

This will around 6 hungry people generously.

4 tablespoons good quality raspberry jam (I like to use Tiptree Seedless but its up to you what jam you like best).
250g plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
350g Caster Sugar
100g desiccated coconut
3 medium free range eggs
150g melted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract

It could not be easier! Spread the jam all over the bottom of your pie dish. Sift your flower and baking powder together and then add all your other ingredients into the bowl and bring together by hand or use a electric whisk. You don't need to work it too much. Just mix enough to incorporate all of the ingredients together. It makes quite a thick heavy mix and you just pour than on top of the jam and pop in in the oven for 50-60mins. It bubbles, oozes and forms a chewy cookie crust with a soft almost gooey jam soaked sponge underneath. Its never going to win any beauty competitions but it sure does taste delicious. A warming hug in a bowl. You could make it prettier and make little individual portions. Either way pour over a good glug of cold custard and eat straight away.

Review - Le Grand Colbert

2011-10-01T02:41:00.000-07:00

We have wanted to visit this restaurant for years because of THAT film. We didn't care about the mixed reviews for the food and just wanted to see it for ourselves because of the sentimental feelings we have attached to the film. My expectations were pretty low, I thought that perhaps the food wouldn't be up to much but dining out can often offer more than a beautiful plate of food. 'Something's Gotta Give' has become cult viewing in our homes. A post Christmas dinner tradition at my Mums. We lie on the sofa stuffed with Chrimble goodies and watch the film saying "we must go one day" and "one day we'll have dinner at 'Le Grand Colbert'. Too be honest they could have served le beans on toast and we would have still been thrilled to be there. However it turns out we had a perfect evening. Seldom does such a long awaited, much hyped evening surpass all expectations. Our food was truly delicious. I asked for my sole meuniere off the bone - no problem. I wanted different style of potatoes - no problem. Perfect lamb, perfect foie gras, perfect calves liver, huge floating islands for dessert. The restaurant is actually far prettier than portrayed in the film, bathed in warm golden light and it has a simply stunning traditional, buzzy room to dine in. Its not Michelin fine dining but it is top notch solid French brasserie style fayre. If you want 3* Michelin then please go somewhere else, try Pierre Gagnaire for instance. Le Grand Colbert was for us a great place to spend a few hours and if you love the film 'Somethings Gotta Give' you simply have to go.

Sticky Orange Pork Chops...

2011-04-06T11:41:00.000-07:00

I have to be honest the humble pork chop doesn’t normally get my juices flowing. I remember the days of being subjected to slabs of grey pork grilled for hours until the texture of a michelin tire, laid bare sorry and naked on cold plate without a hint of sauce, seasoning or flavour. Often paired with barely boiled potatoes and bullet like peas. A sorry state of affairs!

I have however found the saucy saviour of pork chops. Rosemary and orange are a marvellous pairing. Make a quick marinade of rosemary sprigs and orange zest, season the chops and rub with oil and season. When your read pan fry for a few minutes on each side, remove from the pan to rest, soften half a medium red onion in the porky pan juices for a few minutes, add the juice of an orange, a sprinkle more of zest, rosemary and aprox 250mls good chicken stock. Bubble to thicken, add the chops back and glaze with the sticky reduced sauce.

I serve it with soft fluffy carrot & potato mash, lashings of butter and black pepper. Some plain basmati rice and a green leaf salad would be lighter and equally as delicious, Strain the glaze through a fine sieve and pile up into a bowl, drizzle the glaze all over. Aromatic, sticky and sweet with meltingly tender pork chops and a fresh zing of orange. A super fast, zingy supper for any night of the week.

Split Pea and Ham Soup

2010-11-03T06:57:00.000-07:00

We decided to take our regular pilgrimage to Borough Market last week. We got there early enough to wander freely between the magical looking stalls of artisan foods. We darted from stall to stall oohing and ahhing and pointing and mounds of yummy goodness. If the atmosphere wasn't so buzzy you would have heard my lonely tortured whimperings as I made myself resist slabs of Spanish Picos Cheese, giant chocolate fudge brownies and baklava. I did allow myself to buy some beautiful Sea bass fillets, a bit of luxury and balanced that with our bargain buy of the day, a large ham hock which cost me a whole £3.
Once home I set to work on making a vat of split pea and ham soup. I didn't set out to make 4 litres of soup but that's what happened. It was like the magic cooking pot and now I have a freezer filled with thick, stick to your ribs, hearty winter warming soup. I'm sure it will see us through the winter. Perfect for a quick cosy supper by the fire when the icy winds are beating down our door. It couldn't be simpler and you just need a bit of patience to make sure you skim off the impurities which bubble up which you're simmering the hock in your stock. Its well worth it and a thousand times more flavoursome than those wallpaper paste pappy carton 'fresh' soups you get from the supermarket.

What I did:

1 ham hock with bone. I think it was about 2kg in weight. Rinsed and washed several times.
500g Spit Yellow peas, washed and rinsed. No need to soak overnight.
2 onions chopped
4 sticks of celery
4 carrots
5 big fresh sage leaves
3 bay leaves
a scattering of whole black peppercorns
Kallo Organic stock cubes. I used one veg and one chicken stock cube
About 3-4litres of water to cover the ham and veg

A little sea salt but go easy as plenty of saltiness from the ham.

Place everything inc the peas into a big pot, cover with water, bring to the boil, skimming off the scum as much as you can. Once at boiling point, cover and reduce heat to a light simmer with just a bubble or two breaking the surface. Cook for 2 - 2.5 hours. Remove the ham, discard the fat and skin and shred the meat. It will be falling apart by this time. Keep some ham for future ham and mustard sarnies if you like. Blend the soup with a liquidizer or hand blender until thick and well soupy. Add the shredded ham back to the soup. It makes a lot of soup but its great for freezing and keeping on standby for when you need a bowl of hearty goodness.

Tomato sauce from seed to oven to plate...

2010-09-03T06:32:00.000-07:00

Growing tomatoes is harder work than you might think. You plant these tiny seeds and a few weeks later they grow into giant green wilting thirsty beasts that demand constant water. We had such a dry summer I felt I spent most of his hosing them down. Twice a day on a some occasions and just as the green orbs were starting to ripen we've had torrential rain and no sun. I feared the worst but bit by bit they've turned red and at last I have enough to slow roast with thyme and garlic. I lined a roasted tray with the halved toms, sprinkled with sea salt, thyme and split a clove of elephant garlic in half. Generous dousing in peppery olive oil and roasted in the over for 2 hours. I've just pulsed the gooey garlicky mush in the food processor and boy it tastes good. So its simple slippery pasta noodles tonight coated in my home grown slow roasted tomato and garlic sauce. A few shavings or paramesan and fresh thyme to finish should do the trick. You can't argue with home grown perfection.

Hummingbird Birthday Cake

2010-09-03T05:31:00.000-07:00

A humdinger of a cake!

It was Louise's birthday last week and I wanted to make her something lovely to share with her family. I have also wanted to try baking a cake from my cherished Hummingbird Bakery cookbook for ages but not got round to it. The recipes bake massively gorgeous looking cakes, too much for an everyday occasion.
It occurred to me baking a cake and gifting it to someone is a lovely thing to do but almost bitter sweet as you can't have a slice yourself. Probably bad form to present a cake as a gift with slice or two missing! This led me to forming a cunning plan in my bakers brain. The recipe in the book was for a giant 3 layer cake held together with lashings of frosted cream cheese icing and so I made Lou a two layer cake, keeping one layer to myself with I halved and folded together with a bit of icing. Lou gets a lovely whole cake for her birthday and I get to reward myself with a big wedge and cup of coffee for my hard work. It took three hours hard labour but I was ultimately very pleased. The recipe worked beautifully and I baked a wonderfully, nutty, fruity and moist sponge married with tooth achingly sweet icing. Heaven on a plate!

The Cake - makes 3 layers

300g Caster Sugar
3 medium eggs
300ml sunflower oil
270g peeled banana, mashed
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
300g plain flour
1 teaspoon bicarb of soda
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of vanilla paste
100g crushed tinned pineapple chunks
100g shelled and chopped pecans plus extra for decorating

The Cream Cheese Frosting

600g icing sugar sifted
100g unsalted butter at room temp
250g cold cream cheese

Preheat over to 170C

You need 3 x 20cm cake tins. Line base with grease proof paper. Grease sides and flour.

Put sugar, eggs, oil, banana and cinnamon in a mixer, use a paddle attachment to blend together for a few minutes. Slowly add the flour, bicarb, salt and vanilla, beat for a minute or two more. Stir in the crushed pineapple and nuts by hand. Lick the spoon (optional!).

Pour mixture into the prepared tines and smooth over. Bake for 25 mins until golden brown and springy to the touch. Leave cakes to cook for 10mins before turning them out on a cooling wrack. Once completely cold, spread 1/4 of the icing over the base layer, add the second layer and repeat and if you want the third layer. Cover the entire cake with the frosting and decorate with nuts and a sprinkle of cinnamon.

Summer Squash Cheese Crumble and Walnuts

2010-08-24T11:43:00.000-07:00

I am pretty much the worlds worst gardener, my garden is littered with pots sparse with dead brown sticks. How I long for a multi coloured garden in bloom but tend to fail more often than not. Proudly though my efforts have struck gold. Through shear fluke and some decent sunshine this year I've managed to grow some big yellow squashes. They are a cross between a courgette and a pumpkin, knobbly bursts of sunshine. I keep picking them and they keep growing back! Imagine that and they are supplying me with wonderfully frugal suppers all summer long.

I roasted chunks of the first one which was very dull and so sliced and fried the next few in garlic and thyme and a little olive oil. They were are stunningly good eating, so in honour of these plucky veggies I've nabbed a Nigel Slater recipe and adapted it a little to bring the best out of them.

Caramelize a large roughly chopped onion is a thick slice of melted butter. Add a tablespoon of finely chopped fresh rosemary. Dice 2 or 3 potatoes, scrub them clean but keep the skin on. Add to the onions and stir and let the potatoes cook for 10 mins or so. Dice and add the squash or courgettes, use roughly equal quantities squash and potato. Season with salt and pepper. Add about 150 mils veg stock. Let it bubble through for a few mins. Crumble 50g Lancashire cheese over the veg. Make a crumble by blitzing fresh white bread in a food processor, add another tablespoon of rosemary, a couple of handfuls of walnuts and 50g Lancashire cheese. Sprinkle the crumble over the veg and pop in the oven at 180 degrees for about 40mins, The veg are soft, sweet and sticky with melted lemony cheese and the crunchy crumble is savory, flecked with nuts and rosemary. A delight!

Chicken, saffron & almond picada...

2010-08-22T05:01:00.000-07:00

One taste of this dish and you would probably describe it as a kind of Spanish farmhouse satay, another mouthful and the saffron starts to envelope your mouth and the sherry starts to sing. Its a symphony of flavours, layered up through hours of cooking, braising, reducing. Its delicious. My kind of food and my new favourite weekend dish. I could cook it a hundred times and it will be different each time. I'm not sure I'll ever perfect it but experimenting with variations of the dish will be a great journey.

Picada is a Spanish sauce thickener. You can make it out of bread but for this recipe its made out of whole roasted almonds, about 100g and ground to fine crumbs and then adding 6 hard boiled egg yolks, salt and a pinch of toasted saffron with a dribble of water to bring it together. Its the Picada that adds real depth of flavour to the finished sauce. So its worth taking the time to make this well from good fresh free range eggs and lovely almonds still warm from roasting in the oven for 10 mins or so.

Whole Free Range Chicken, boned and jointed into 6-8 pieces
Seasoned Flour
Olive Oil
2-3 Strong Onions
4 bay leaves
3 pinches of Saffron
700mls Fino Sherry
250 Dry White Wine
Chicken Stock
6 Juniper Berries
5 Cloves of Garlic
Almond Picada

I dusted chicken pieces in seasoned flour and fried them off for oil for 4 mins each side. Set aside, fried off 4 small onions, bay leaves and 5 cloves of garlic until soft and golden. Add a couple of pinches of saffron, fry again for a minute. Add 2/3rds of a bottle of Fino sherry and a glass of dry white wine. Bring to the boil, simmer and reduce by about half. Add the chicken back to the braising liquid, 6 juniper berries, pour in some chicken stock, just enough to cover the chicken. Cover and simmer for about 1 hour until the chicken meat is coming away from the bone.

After to hour add the Picada to the liquid and stir through, cook it out for at least one minute until the sauce starts to thicken. At this stage I'd say judge for yourself how far you want to reduce the sauce by. I didn't take it to far this time, leaving the sauce quite liquid and it was delicious especially mopping it up with hunks of crusty bread. Next time, by giving it an extra 10 or 15mins on the stove and reducing the sauce right down to a thick unctuous peanuty blanket that covers and clings to the chicken will intensify the flavours and it will be better for it.

Amazing braised Lamb...

2010-08-15T02:05:00.000-07:00

Autumn leaves are appearing, my Elderflower trees are heavy with purple berries signaling the end of summer is near, perhaps a little premature as its been a dry and dusty summer. Until this last week and all of a sudden the autumn showers have started to fall daily. Quenching the thirst of my parched garden and bringing a faint chill with them. I don't mind, I'm looking forward to cosy nights by the fire and pulling my winter knits out from the back of the wardrobe.

So in honor of the changing seasons I rustled up a warming braised lamb dish. For a special treat I added a few extra stages and turned a homely lamb dish into a gourmet memorable meal. Worth the effort to see the delight on my boys face.

600g lamb shoulder or leg, boneless
250g good white wine
1 litre chicken stock
1 litre beef stock
1 tablespoon tomato puree
2 garlic cloves, chopped roughly
1 onion, chopped roughly
2 carrots, chopped roughly
1 leek, chopped roughly
2 sprigs rosemary
3 sprigs thyme

Trim the lamb of sinew and fat. Sear & brown the lamb in a glugg of good oil. 2 mins on each side. I'm using Oil of Wight, a deliciously nutty cold pressed rapeseed oil that is divine but olive oil would work just as well. Remove lamb and set aside on a plate.
Add all your chopped veg and sweat down for 2 mins. Add the herbs and tomato paste and cook for a further 2 mins. De-glaze the pan scraping up all those meaty caramelized bits by adding the white wine. Reduce down by more than half. Add the stocks and bring to the boil. Add the lamb, make sure its covered, turn down the heat to low, pop a lid on and let it braise for 2 hours.

At this stage the lamb is delicious and ready for scoffing but the next few steps elevates the dish. It takes patience but its worth it.

Let the lamb cool in the braising liquid. Once cool, remove the lamb, shred with your fingers making sure you remove any fat or sinew, gristle, all the bits. Go through it with a fine tooth comb. Lay 3 layers of cling film on the counter and spoon the shredded lamb to one end. Wrap up tightly into a log shape and chill in the fridge for 1 hour.
While that's chilling make a puree. I roasted a butternut squash and pureed with a small amount of double cream. Set aside and keep warm. Celeriac puree would be gorgeous or even a Jerusalem artichoke puree.

Strain the braising liquid. Using about 1/4 of the juices reduce down to a sauce consistency. Set aside and keep warm. Keep the rest of the liquid and freeze to use in another dish.

When the lamb is perfectly chilled slice into 4 equal portions through the cling film. Remove the clingfilm and gently fry the lamb. Creating a crispy coating and then baste in the sauce reduction.

Keep things light and serve with a salad of broad beans and peas, lambs lettuce or pea shoots. A spoonful of the puree and one portion of the lamb but if you're hungry and lets face it no doubt you will be after waiting 6 hours for your dish to be ready 2 portions should be the minimum reward for all your efforts.

Spoon over the sauce and tuck in.

Cherry Crumble Cake

2010-07-14T04:19:00.000-07:00

I could apologize for yet another cherry recipe but quite frankly I'm not going to. Mainly because its freaking scrumptious and cherries are in bang in season. I had some in my fridge left over and really fancied and wedge of cake as a post supper treat.
Simple to whip up and that classic combination of cherries and cinnamon melded together on a light moist sponge with a smattering of buttery crumble is sensational. Its a Rachel Allan recipe from her book 'Bake' which touch wood has always been full of fool proof and packed full of great home bakes.

So, stick the oven on at 180C and butter the sides of a 20cm cake tin. A loose bottom one is good and pop a bit of greaseproof paper. I did all this and still nearly came a cropper when turning it out. I essentially caught it mid flip as it sprang out but the cake held together and still looked pretty as a picture.

350g juicy ripe fresh cherries
(weight after stones have been removed)
150 g self raising flour.
Generous pinch of cinnamon. I think cinnamon makes everything taste better so don't be shy with it.
50g Caster Sugar
1 egg
30ml milk
100g Lurpak or another butter but Lurpaks best really.

Crumble topping

25g plain flour
Pinch cinnamon
25g caster sugar
25g butter, cold and cubed.

Remove stalks and stones from the cherries or cheat and buy good pre-stoned frozen cherries and don't use nasty tinned cherries. Fresh is best though. Set them aside while you mix up the cake batter. Sift the flour and cinnamon into a large bowl, add the sugar, mix and make a well in the centre. Whisk the egg, milk and melted butter together in another bowl, then pour into the dry ingredients and combine with a wooden spoon. Beat well to make a firm, smooth mixture.

Spoon into the tin, smooth it out, scatter the cherries on the top and smoosh them down gently into the batter. Make your crumble topping by rubbing the butter and flour together until all crumb-like. Scatter that over the top and pop into the over for around 30mins.

Once its baked you have to leave it in the tin for 10 painfully slow mins. What you want to do is cut a piping hot wedge off and munch away but its worth waiting.

The cherries burst and go slightly jammy and the dense sponge soaks up their lovely juices. Its a fab cake to have with a cuppa in the afternoon.

Black Cherry Pie with Amarguinha...

2010-06-20T06:52:00.000-07:00

There is something so wholesome about baking pies, a whiff of nostalgia for retro America wafts round your home. Apparently, new young wives were judged on their ability to bake a cherry pie. Lets hope I do those gals proud! I can't get enough of diner culture and 1950's "Happy Days" Americana. Pies, for me conjure mental images of woman 1950's dresses, pinny nipped in at the waist and satin kitten heels while tossing their cherries in booze and sugar. Alas, I'm only in my fluffy slippers, washed out jeans and have managed to cover myself and the kitchen in flour. Not quite so glamorous but my pie recipe sparkles with verve, style and couture fashion even if I fall short.

Filling:

Black cherries, fresh or frozen but not tinned! Stoned of course. About 500g.
Caster Sugar (about a tablespoon but to your own taste) I like a tart pie myself.
About a teaspoon of lemon zest and the juice of half a lemon.
Optional but for extra zing I've macerated my cherries in a tablespoon of Amarguinha. A Portuguese sweet almond liqueur. You could use kirsch or good quality almond essence or just leave it plain. Up to you.
25g cornflour

Sweet short crust pastry.

400g of good fine plain flour. 00 is great if you have it.
200g of Lurpak or something like Stork for pastry or Trex.
1 spoonful of icing sugar
1 beaten medium egg.

In a processor whiz up the flour and butter & icing sugar until it reaches the breadcrumb stage. Dribble in the egg until it comes together in a ball.

Squidge together, flatten and cover in cling film, leave to rest in the fridge for 30mins.

Split into two lumps. Roll one lump out until 5mm thick and line a greased pie dish.
Leave excess over the sides, rest in fridge again for 20min and then cover with a sheet or two of foil or cling film and I used (clean!) coins as baking beans over the top of the foil. Baked for 15mins at 180, removed the coins and foil and baked for another 5-10mins until the pastry was lightly cooked and dry.

Once cool, remove the excess pastry and any cracks or holes patch up with some raw pastry.

In a bowl toss the cherries around with the sugar, cornflour and booze & lemon.

You can either roll out the 2nd lump of pastry to the same thickness. Add your cherries to the cold blind baked pastry case. Pile them up. Cover with the sheet of pastry. Make a couple of slashes in the top. Wash with egg or milk and sprinkle sugar over the top. Bake for 20-25mins until the cherry juices are bubbling up through the top, the pastry is cooked and light golden brown.

Or if you are like me trying desperately to eat what you want but ease back on the calories and or your pastry is a tad crumbly like mine was tonight turn your 2nd lot of pastry into strips and make a pretty lattice pattern. The juices bubble up and caramelize over the lattice make this sticky and chewy. Scrumptious!!

Let it cool slightly, cut a big wedge out and dribble with cream (I'm using Elmlea 50% lighter cream) or a cold scoop of vanilla ice cream melting into the hot pie is heavenly and remember to salute the gals of 1950's America. They sure new how to bake!

Review - The Oyster Box (Jersey)

2010-06-09T04:14:00.000-07:00

Jersey cows, Jersey butter, Jersey potatoes, Jersey Gold Top Milk all scrumptious produce but for some reason Jersey seafood doesn't seem to get the same adoration or PR.

We zipped over to Jersey for a long weekend a few weeks back. Glorious weather, long sandy beaches that were empty. The equivalent in Spain and you would be fighting for a stamp worth of space but we could walk for miles uninterrupted. I'm almost loathed to tell everyone, its like we found a secret seafood haven and I'd hate for it to become crowded and like most other UK seaside resorts. So, shhhh don't tell anyone! This is between just you and me.

I was astounded at the quality and abundance of lovely restaurants in such a tiny place. We ate Oysters, Skate Wing, Whole Lemon Sole, Dover Sole, Scallops. We feasted on Jersey fruits de mer and skipped along the beaches to our next meal.

The highlight for me was dinner at The Oyster Box. A stunning restaurant situated in St Brelade's Bay overlooking the bay. The food was simply executed but with produce this perfect to much fussing would spoil the flavours.

He started with 6 grilled local oysters with chorizo. Heaven in 6 little shells swimming in their own aromatic puddles of garlic and paprika flavoured oil. I had tempura king prawns with a coconut and chili dipping sauce. Huge sweet prawns surrounded in feather light crunchy pillows. A triumph. My lobster thermidor, creamy, hint of brandy, unctuous cheese and the smell of the grilled shell enveloped us. When you combine a wonderful sea view and the freshest produce handled with skill and love like this it lifts the whole experience to one you will never forget. You can't ask for more, well I will be, right after I book my next flight back to Jersey.

My summer pudding...

2010-06-05T07:03:00.001-07:00

Its shameful I know but I spend most of my time trying to avoid fruit. I don't fully understand why. Some days I take a fancy to a juicy ripe mango and enjoy it dribbling down my chin. Some days I can manage a chunk or two of pineapple and I do admit to loving a slice or two of ripe cold banana in a hot sweet curry. While devouring them on those rare fruit days I think to myself why don't I eat more of this its lovely but most days I would rather eat something else. Alien behaviour to fruit fanatics I realise and concede my anti fruit feelings are not healthy.

Today though is a fruit day. Its summer and the sun is high in the sky beaming over London. So, a perfectly simple summer pudding is the order of the day.

Take a 1 litre pudding bowl and line with soldiers of good white bread. The best quality you can find and cover the bottom with a circle of bread. I used a large scone cutter for mine I you could use a glass or a cup and cut round neatly. I've made the bread soldiers lie snugly together. None of my fruit will be escaping from the bread tomb easily.

I think traditionally the ratio of fruit was one part red currants to 4 parts rasps but I think this a little bland. I mean if your going to get intimately involved in a summer pudding lets get it bursting with as much juicy flavour as possible. I have a mix or raspberries, strawberries, red and black currents and morello cherry's. If I had some I would have tumbled in a handful of blueberries as well. Part of the beauty of this recipe for me is you could spend a lifetime improving, tweaking until you find the perfect combination and I fully intend too.

Simmer the fruit in a pan for 2-3 mins just to burst the skins and release the juices along with a handful or two of sugar. I used organic caster sugar but I think granulated would be ok. Stir and taste, if your feeling all grown up a slug of vodka or cherry brandy might be a nice addition but for my needs today I'm keeping it simple and plain.

Pour the juice and fruit to the rim of the bread lined bowl. Cover the top with more bread so no fruit shows. Place a plate on top. Clear some space in the fridge and weight down with cans or something fairly heavy to squash all the fruits down, compact the bread as it soaks up the magenta syrup.

Then wait....overnight. For an added flourish, I simmered a handful more of my mixed fruit and poured it over the pudding before serving with a dribble of cream.

Definitely one of your five a day and with no fats or pastry in sight makes this a worthy pudding. Surely food sent from the culinary Gods. Now, why is it I don't eat more fruit again? I must be mad.

Review - The Ivy, London

2010-05-02T08:35:00.000-07:00

Friday night at The Ivy. I was curious to see if the old stalwart had kept its sparkle since the departure of Mark Hix. The smell, look and feel of the place was exactly the same. A lively buzz from chattering diners and bustle from endless staff softly dancing round the room. I love the smell of the Ivy, only a few places have it. Harry's Bar in Venice, J Sheekey's spring to mind. A heady combination of fine wood polish and the stocks and wines. Its delicious and comforting and almost sets the tone to the meal. They've obviously decided to stick to their winning formula. We enjoyed some cocktails in the bar and all were deftly shaken, stirred and knocked back. Perhaps the aroma of Harry's bar set me in mind of Venice and I enjoyed a lovely prosseco and campari Spritz.

We skipped on starters and dived straight into the mains. Well balanced plates of crab and chili linguine, crispy generous portion of bream fillet with artichokes and pink velvety calves liver with crisp bacon and marjoram. All three of us forced into silence as we tucked in. No complaints from anyone. For dessert we decided to split a pudding between the three of us. The Ivy do a baked Alaska for two, flambeed at the table. The theatre of the pudding, the boozy tiny soft cherries, the cold ice-cream and hot toasted meringue was divine and really ended our meal on a high note. A round of coffee's and it was time for the bill. I cant think of a more reasonable priced meal or a better way to spend £55. That includes a moreish bottle of chilled Rose and the attentive service. The only think left to do is plan a return visit.

Chicken & Asparagus

2010-04-28T12:05:00.000-07:00

I didn't know what to make for dinner tonight. Luckily a quick trip to the indoor market in Edmonton and I scored some lovely fresh asparagus. Plus, somewhere in the back of my mind lurked a craving for mash. Something satisfying and filling without being stodgy.

My healthy kick has meandered on this week and I was beginning to get that hollow empty feeling signalling a starchy carb hit was needed. Its been summery though so I needed to satisfy my carb craving but keep things light & wholesome with bags of flavor.

So, I poached chicken breasts, asparagus spears, broad beans & two cloves of garlic very gently in chicken stock, with hardly a bubble breaking the surface. Mean while I boiled some lovely fluffy potatoes until soft and set aside steaming dry ready to be whipped into my silky mash.

Once the chicken was poached after about 8mins, I removed, set aside. Drained the veg and set aside (you can plop them in iced water if you want to be really chefy) and kept the stock.

A little splash of rapeseed oil in a frying pan, browned off 2 strips of lightly smoked back bacon (fat trimmed off & chopped into cm bite sized bits). I mashed the 2 cloves of poached garlic, added to the bacon with a few thyme sprigs.

Tossed them around in the oil taking care not to burn, in with the poached chicken breasts and fried off to brown and colour them up and take on some of that salty bacon flavour. Just before anything caught to much a spritz of half a lemon and about 250 mls of the chicken/veg stock, scraping up all the caramelized bits from the bottom of the pan. Put the veg back in and reduced down for 5 mins while I mashed the potatoes.

Potatoes - easy peasy. 100 mls hot milk with a small dodd of butter, good amount of sea salt and mashed and whipped up into carb heaven.

Pile potato into a large bowl, sit chicken on the top, scatter the veg around and pour over some of the reduced stock and bacon bits.

Comforting, light, summery and healthy - Mission Accomplished!

Review - Hibiscus

2010-04-27T05:28:00.000-07:00

With the news that Claude & Claire Bosi's 'Hibiscus' has made in to the top 50 restaurants in the world today (Hip Hip Hooray!!) here is a review I wrote back in 2008. Hibiscus had not been open long and so we scuttled along as fast as our legs to carry us to sample some of the best food in London.

We arrived and the air con was heavenly. London was muggy 30 plus degrees. Not nice. Inside was a small peaceful room with comfy grey seats. An oasis just a stone throw away from the bustle of Oxford Street. A quick glimpse of Claude Bosi before he hurried back to his kitchen sanctuary.

We were given hot fresh bread with warmed salty butter and a shot of ice-cold cucumber gelee topped with a pineapple and black pepper fizzy foam. You swigged the liquid and the foam fizzed and almost sucked at your tongue and tiny, what felt like bubbles of soft pineapple burst in your mouth. It really boggled my brain as there were so many sensations going on. Felt very Heston-esque. Lovely.

We both had Ravioli of Duck Confit on a bed of peas. It came with a pink grapefruit foam emulsion. Honestly I didn’t like the sound of the pink grapefruit but it was just a slight hint of fresh citrus, which cut through the buttery sweet duck. Outstanding!

Then we both had pork belly with black pudding puree, potato and confit tomato’s, summer veg swimming in that salty butter. Again simply divine, perfection with every mouthful. The black pudding puree had the look and mouth feel of melted chocolate but the taste of iron and earth.

Washed down with a reasonable priced Rioja 98 reserva at £30.

Steve had apple trifle and he said it was one of the best puddings he has ever eaten and I had yogurt and vanilla cheesecake with melon salad and elderflower sorbet.

Coffee and petit fours of smoked sugar fudge and elderflower marshmallows.

We will be going back and doing some serious damage at night.

Highly highly recommended. Claude trained under Alain Ducasse and the from what I experienced today Ducasse has passed on a generous helping of his culinary genius to his student.

Two ways to slow roast pork...

2010-04-25T05:32:00.000-07:00

Roast pork is stunning. Slow roast pork with the best crackling is sublime. You don't carve it but spoon it onto your plate. Its my "I've lost half a stone" treat to myself and I can't wait. The smells wafting round the house are delicious already if not a tad torturous and I have another 5 hours to wait.

My Simple Slow Roast Pork

2kg pork shoulder, fat scored. If you can get it on the bone even better!
sea salt
black pepper

Its so simple. I flake and grind sprinkles of sea salt and pepper into a large roasting tray and roll the flesh side of the pork in the seasoning. Rub sea salt into the scores and massage it all over the skin. Bung it in the oven on high around 220c for 30mins. Take it out, wrap snugly in two layers of foil and pop back in the oven at a cooler temp of 160c. Leave it in there slowly roasting for 4 and a half hours.

Once the time is up take it out of the oven, lift the pork out of the roasting tray and add small bunch of fresh sage, 2 onions, a bulb of garlic, halved in skin, 2 carrots and 2 celery sticks. Place the pork on top of the veg and roast again for one hour.

If you were being naughty you could roast your potatoes off in the pork fat but I'm doing a lighter version with par boiled fluffy potatoes in bit of hot rapeseed oil with shredded sage leaves and a few cloves of garlic still in their skins.

Once your pork is ready, take it out and rest, skim off the fat and scrape up all the caramelised burnt yummy bits from the roasting tin. Pour through a sieve and squish down to get all the veggie flavours in. You could reduce down with a glugg of cider or good white wine if you wanted.

Serve with either homemade or good shop bought apple sauce or plum sauce, red braised cabbage. Tonight I just cored and quartered some big red eating apples, seasoned them and popped them in with the potatoes. They were lovely, sweet, sharp and cut through the fat so no need for sugary apple sauce.

If you have a whole a day to spare you could try this wonderful recipe from Hugh Fearnley Whittingstal's 'Meat' book. He rubs a crust of mixed spices, ginger etc and the end result is the ultimate dish you could ever hope for. I can't wait that long today!!

Hugh Fearnley Whittingstal's 24hr slow roast pork 'Donnie Brasco' style...

This dish gets its name because you can “fugeddaboutit” while it cooks ever so slowly overnight in a low oven. Actually, versions of this dish have already been enthusiastically championed by both the River Café and Nigella Lawson. I include it here, shameless to be third in the queue, because not only is it a wonderful dish but it is also an incredibly elegant solution to the problem of feeding twenty or more people with minimum effort.

All I can do to claim a stake in it is offer a personalised version of the sweet spice paste (a combination of chilli, garlic, ginger and the classic Chinese five-spice mix) that is rubbed into the rind – and to give it a new, slightly silly, name. But I do urge you to try it.

1 whole shoulder of pork on the bone — it will weigh about 5-8kg

5 large garlic cloves, peeled

5cm piece of fresh ginger root, peeled

2 tsp dried chilli flakes

2 tsp ground ginger

1 tbsp brown sugar

4 tbsp flaky salt

1 tbsp sunflower or groundnut oil

1 tbsp soy sauce

For the five-spice mix:

2 star anise
2 tsp fennel seeds
4 cinnamon stick
4 cloves
1 tsp black peppercorns

Score the rind of the pork shoulder with a Stanley knife in parallel lines about 1cm apart, to a depth of 4-1cm (or ask your butcher to do this).

Grate the garlic and fresh ginger into a small bowl and mix to a paste with the chilli flakes, ground ginger, brown sugar, salt, oil and soy sauce. Pound the five spices in a pestle and mortar (or grind in a coffee grinder) and mix 1 tablespoonful into the paste (any left over will keep in an airtight jar; you could make larger quantities, if you like, and store).

Place the pork shoulder, skin-side up, on a rack above a large roasting tin. With your fingertips, rub just over half the spice paste into the scored rind of the pork. Place the joint in the centre of a very hot oven (230C/gas mark 8) for 30 minutes (for what I call the “half-hour sizzle”).

Then remove from the oven and, using oven gloves or a thick, dry cloth, carefully turn the joint over to expose the underside. Using a knife or wooden spoon this time (the meat will be very hot), smear the remainder of the spice paste over the underside of the meat (now facing uppermost).

Pour a glass of water into the roasting tin, turn the oven down to 110C/gas mark 2 and replace the joint. Leave for anything from 16-24 hours, turning it skin-side up again, and basting with the fat and juices in the tin, about half way through. About 45 minutes before you want to eat, whack up the heat to 230C/gas mark 8 again to crisp up the crackling. Keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t burn.

To serve the pork, remove the crackled skin in a single piece and break it up to hand around your guests. Don’t so much carve as scoop the tender, melting, aromatic meat on to warmed plates. Serve with a simple starch, such as noodles, plain buttered macaroni, boiled rice or even mashed potatoes. I prefer to serve a salad after, rather than greens with, the pork.

Carrot Nut Rice....

2010-04-19T06:49:00.000-07:00

Leftovers are lurking in my fridge and I'd love to wrap them up in a sandwich of puff pastry but in a valiant effort to lighten up my cooking and do something tasty and creative with leftovers I've put together this dish.

Delighted to report I've lost 2 whole pounds last week which isn't a lot I know but its not bad considering the amount of cocktails and a extremely naughty portion of Fish and Chips I wolfed down in the pub on Sunday. Oh I could write an ode to the wonders of well cooked Fish n Chips. Crisp beer batter envelope encasing big silky white flakes of fish. A dollop of home made mouth tingling tartar sauce and some fluffy crispy chunky chips to dip in the mushy peas and a spritz of lemon. A plate of heaven. Err, where was I, I've meandered off the foodie path. Oh so...my on going battle with the cross trainer seems to have shifted some of the lard at least and kept the chips off my hips so spurred on and keeping up the good work this super light supper will do the trick.

The star of the show tonight is definitely my spicy aromatic Carrot and Cashew Rice and I've just shredded some left over roast chicken breast and roast butternut squash to add to it. A lightening fast one pot dinner for mid-week dining.

What to do:

Dice a small onion and fry in a little rapeseed oil for a few minutes until soft. Add a teaspoon each of coriander, cumin, ground coriander, turmeric and a tablespoon mustard seeds. Cook for 1 minute. Add 250g of grated carrot, stir well. Tip in 250g of basmati rice and 500mls water. Bring to the boil. Cover with foil and a lid and steam very gently for 15mins. Leave off the heat, add shredded roast skinless chicken breast and little chunks of soft caramelized roasted butternut squash. Put a cover back on and steam for 10mins more. Fluff up the rice and scatter with roasted cashew nuts and a few parsley leaves and serve with wedges of lemon for spritzing the rice to add some lemony zing.

A slice of Sweet Potato Pie cures all hangovers...

2010-04-11T07:37:00.000-07:00

The aftermath of Saturday night boozing, mixing of cocktails and various shots (who knew Midori and Baileys worked so well together?) has left me fuzzy headed and craving for some complex buttery carbs. There's only one thing for it! A Sweet Potato Pie, a wonderful heady combination of sweet and savory with nostalgic vanilla notes and a crumbly shortcrust pastry.

For the pastry I've made a simple basic savory recipe. You could add buttermilk or a spoon of sugar but I think my filling will be sweet and rich enough and I quite like the idea of balancing the sweet filling with salty buttery crust.

200g plain flour
100g butter. Ice cold and cubed. I am a Lurpak fan.
pinch of salt
1 good free range egg fresh from a happy chicken. Lightly beaten.

Rub the butter into sifted flour and salt until breadcrumb stage. Dribble the egg in until it comes together. You don't want it wet, just moist enough to hold together in your hand. Wrap in clingfilm and leave in fridge for at least 30mins.

For the filling:

250g sweet potato
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
50g sugar
25g melted butter
generous pinch or two of cinnamon
50 - 100mls milk depending on consistency.

Roast the sweet potatoes in there skin for 40mins. Peel and mash and add the sugar. Beat eggs and milk together and add to the potato mixture. Add vanilla and butter & cinnamon and mix together. Aim for a cake batter consistency.

Line a greased pie dish with the rolled out chilled pastry. Add the filling mix and smooth over.

Bake for around 50mins. Let it cool slightly before slicing.

I served up a warm slice of this with Southern Style Fried Chicken fillets, breadcrumbs made with paprika and cayenne pepper and steamed buttered kale with lots of black pepper. The mix of sweet and salty and spicy was heaven on a plate and a brilliant hangover cure!

You can of course serve it as a pudding and there are loads of variations for this pie. Try adding some sweetened condensed milk, bourbon or marshmallows or even top with meringue and back. A dollop of bourbon vanilla ice cream. Works hot & cold. Waffley Versatile!

Stick to your ribs Mac & Cheese....

2010-04-09T08:06:00.000-07:00

I'd happily move to America just so I could sit down once a year to there Thanksgiving dinner. Its packed full of all the food I love. Mac & Cheese is just one of the dishes they serve as a side. Its heavy, dense and stick to your ribs comfort food. Its not posh, its not fancy, its not skilled cooking and its certainly not healthy. I suggest only the fool hardy would eat this regularly and as a main sized portion. You might has well just syringe the fat directly into your neck and wait for the stroke which is just round the corner. As a naughty side dish for an occasional supper I say tuck in guilt free.

Its another recipe is from my cherished The Texas Holiday Cookbook and so the measurements might seem a bit alien. Stick with it, work it out and its not exact cooking. Its bung it in and adjust to suit your taste buds. Also, optional extras work well like crispy bite sized strips of smokey bacon on pancetta, tiny homemade meatballs or even caramelized onions and a few sprigs of thyme. I do like a scatter of natural breadcrumbs over the top though. Use the recipe below as your base and let creativity wash over you like a cheesy blanket as you make your very own best Mac and Cheese dish in the world!

1/2 pound macaroni dry pasta
1 tablespoon butter (good unsalted butter like Lurpak is best)
1 teaspoon American Yellow Mustard
1 Egg Lightly Beaten
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 tablespoon plain flour
3 cups of good mature cheddar or try mix and matching any other yellow cheese grated.
1 and 1/4 cups whole milk

Preheat the oven to 200C
Grease a 2 litre casserole dish
Cook your pasta according to packet instructions until just cooked or al dente but don't over cook!
Drain and allow to cool slight and return to saucepan.
Toss the grated cheese in a bowl through the salt and flour.
Stir in butter, mustard, egg and salt. Add 2 and 1/2 cups of the cheese/flour mix.
Turn mixture into your casserole dish and use the back of a spoon to press down and level the top. Pour milk over. Bake in oven for 30mins. Take out sprinkle the last of the cheese and give it a final blast for 10mins or until the custard has set and the cheese is bubbling away and you have a golden, chewy crusty top.

This is enough for 8 generous Texas sized servings. They serve with turnip greens but I suggest some lightly steamed, shredded buttered kale and sweet potatoes.