50 Great Appetizers

I’ve been away now for just over 1 month since my wife gave birth to our beautiful baby daughter, Mia (more photos of her soon, I promise), and I’ve been missing you all.

To make up for it and as a thank you to all those readers who’ve sent good wishes to us (and also to anyone else who happens across this post; greetings!), I’m giving away another great FREE COOKBOOK.

This time around the book is “50 great appetizers” by the great Pamela Sheldon Johns.  I’ve read it and can say that it’s a great little reference book that you’re going to be keeping in the kitchen for a long time to come.

All you have to do to win this free cookbook is leave a comment on this post (or send me an email) telling me why you should receive it.  I’ll pick a winner by around the second week in July…

Mia's First Bath

In these photographs (and, indeed, as I type) she is just 5 days old but already beautiful. And just look at all that dark hair!

Baby Mia

If the website is a little quiet over the coming weeks then I apologise in advance; I’m sure you’ll agree that my excuse is well worth it.

Easy Chocolate Soufflé

Now by the time I realised this urge the shops were already closed. I made a desperate attempt using a bar of Cadbury Dairy Milk and it turned out just awful – far too sweet and not nearly chocolatey enough. It just goes to show that you can’t turn poor quality ingredients into good dishes, I guess.

I searched for a few soufflé recipes on the internet and in the end decided they were all just about the same.  Sure, some were quite fancy featuring various types of alcohol and the like, but I wanted pure unadulterated chocolate.  Why would I want to mask that with anything else?

Easy Chocolate Soufflé Recipe – Ingredients

Serves 4

• 100g good quality dark chocolate (I used Lindt Excellence 50% Cocoa solids)
• 50g Golden Caster Sugar
• 4 Egg Whites
• 2 Egg Yolks
• Butter
• Single Cream, optional

Easy Chocolate Soufflé Recipe – Method

1. Pre-heat your oven to 150 degrees c, and rub the inside of 4 ramekins with butter.  Set to one side.
2. Place your chocolate in a heat proof bowl over a pot of heating water.  This will allow your chocolate to melt without burning; stir it to help the process along.
3. Whisk the egg whites in a bowl.  If you’re using an electric whisk (as I did) then start off slowly, speeding up once the eggs start to thicken – at this stage you should also start to slowly pour in the sugar while whisking.  Stop once the eggs form a glossy, thick mix which forms fairly stiff peaks (they do not wilt when you stop whisking).
4. By this time your chocolate should be melted; take it off the heat and mix in your egg yolks, then stir in one spoon of your egg white mix.
5. Take your chocolate mix and add it to your egg whites.  Fold until combined but do not stir fast or over-stir – this will beat the air out of the mix.
6. Spoon into your ramekins and smooth the edges with your thumb (this helps them rise evenly).
7. Put the ramekins straight onto your shelf for 25 minutes.  Don’t open while they’re cooking or they’ll collapse.

That’s it.  I copied a Gordon Ramsey tip and cut a hole in the top with my spoon and poured in single cream to serve; I recommend you do the same.

Delicious!

An outbreak of Swine Flu in Mexico has killed more than 80 and is now spreading through the US, creating woldwide panic.

I’ve had my eye on the stinging nettles near where I take the dog for a walk for a while now; nettles are one of natures great freebies and I really needed to grab some before it was too late (fresh young leaves are the best, so March / April are the best times).  I’ve tried Nettle Soup before, which is fantastic, but never ventured further than that; now I can happily report that Nettle Pesto is delicious too.

Nettle Pesto

Luckily the weather this weekend has been superb. We ventured off the beaten track a little bit to try and grab nettles that were less likely to have been marinated in dog pee; Gosia (who is now 8 months pregnant) typically took over the majority of the picking duties.

“I used to pick nettles for my Auntie to feed to the ducks”, she said, before giving me a lesson in how to pick them without getting stung.  Grabbing them by the stem instead of the leaf seems to be the key – it apparently worked for Gosia but no such luck for me as I stung my hand on the first attempt and then again on the second.  In the end I gave up and resorted to the tried and tested rubber glove tactic.

Try the pesto mixed with your favourite pasta, or spooned over a freshly cooked lamb steak.  I’m sure you’ll like it!

Once you’ve checked out this recipe perhaps you’d like to check out a couple of articles elsewhere which gave me the inspiration to try it; River Cottage’s “What’s Good Now” for March, Egg But No Bacon’s Nettle Pesto and delicious:day’s Radish Leaf Pesto Recipe.

Nettle Pesto Recipe – Ingredients

• 1/3 of a Carrier Bag full of Nettle tips.
• 6 Garden Mint leaves
• 1 Clove garlic
• 75g Pine Nuts
• 100g Parmesan
• 75ml Extra Virgin Rape Seed Oil (This works really well with the nettles.  More about this in a future post!)
• Salt and Pepper, to taste

Nettle Pesto Recipe – Ingredients

1. First start out by picking your nettle leaves from the stems – it’s best to use rubber gloves to do this.  You’ll then need to rinse the nettles in a colander to remove any dirt, insects etc.
2. Bring a pan of water to the boil and place your nettles inside for one minute – this will remove the sting.  Drain well and squeeze out any excess moisture.
3. Place all dry ingredients in a food processor and pulse until chopped up.  Slowly add the oil whilst blending until the desired consistency is reached (mine needed about 75ml).
4. Taste and season as required.  It can be used straight away or stored in sterilised jars for around a month in the fridge.

One last note.  I poured away the water which I used to cook the nettles but this bright green liquid would make a fantastic tea or base for a soup.

Rhubarb Fool

I love this time of year. Sure, there are still the cold days (just this morning the front lawn was covered in frost) but there are also little hints of summer shining through; the odd day which appears unexpectedly with temperatures high enough walk around in just a t-shirt. In fact, I’m sure I could smell some of the neighbours cooking their first barbecue of the year this weekend.

A “fool” is a great and traditional way of showcasing in season fruit. You can try and be fancy (I’ve tried many different recipes before) but I’ve yet to find anything which beats the simplicity of stewed fruit folded into whipped cream. Confusingly, rhubarb is actually a vegetable, but that doesn’t stop it being right at the top of my list of seasonal foods, and my favourite for deserts such as this.  Give it a go with gooseberries or raspberries too – it works just as well.

Rhubarb Fool Recipe – Ingredients

• 4 Large Sticks of Rhubarb
• 50g Caster Sugar
• 200ml Double Cream
• Couple of drop of Vanilla Essence

Rhubarb Fool Recipe – Ingredients

1. Chop up the rhubarb and place in a saucepan with 1tbsp water and the sugar.
2. Turn on the heat and stir around a bit; it’ll start out quite dry (keep stirring it for now to prevent the sugar catching on the pan) but will moisten up as the juice is released from the rhubarb.
3. Boil until the rhubarb is soft.  This will take 10 minutes or so.
4. Whip the double cream with the vanilla until it forms soft peaks.  When this stage is reached pour in the rhubarb and fold in until loosely combined.  Don’t worry about getting it fully mixed in, it looks much better when it’s not.
5. Empty into wine glasses and allow to chill for an hour or so before serving.

In short, the kit allows you to make your own chocolate from home and contains all the essentials: cacao powder and  butter, natural sweetener, you get the idea.

I’ve not tried it and couldn’t possibly tell you if it’s any good, but hey, it’s CHOCOLATE and it’s FREE, so what could possibly go wrong?

To win, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post (or send me an email) before the 22nd of April 2009 with your idea for flavours / fillings for the chocolate…

Polish Lemon Cake

Babka (or “Baba”) is also popular in Russia and other Eastern European countries, and (unlike this recipe) usually includes yeast as an ingredient. It is also popular with Jews, who’s families presumably originated in these countries, where it has developed into something quite different; a kind of pleated sweet bread usually topped or filled with chocolate and cinnamon.

This recipe is also submitted to the Easter Cake Bake 2009 event.

Babka Cytrynowa Recipe – Ingredients

• 3 Large Eggs
• 1/2 Cup / 100g Cup Plain Flour, sifted
• 1/2 Cup / 100g Potato Flour, sifted
• 1/2 Cup / 100g White Sugar
• Juice of 1/2 Lemon
• Zest of whole lemon
• 9 tbsp Mild Olive Oil
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• 1/2 Handful Raisins

Babka Cytrynowa Recipe – Method

1. Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees c.
2. Mix flour(s) with baking powder into a bowl.
3. Separate your egg yolks and whites.  Beat egg whites in a bowl till they form soft peaks, then add the sugar.  Mix until combined, then add egg yolks and beat gently until combined.
4. Next to add the flour mixture to the egg mixture.  Add 4 tbsp of flour and 3 tbsp oil; mix well, then repeat until all oil / flour mixture is used up.
5. Sprinkle the raisins with a little flour (this should stop them sinking in the cake) and then distribute into the cake mix along with the lemon juice and zest.
6. Pour the cake mix out into your tin and put into the oven for approximately 35 minutes; check with a cake tester (a wooden kebab stick did the job for us) to make sure the centre is dry before removing.

You could decorate your cake as we have with a drizzing of white chocolate sauce (melted white chocolate mixed with a little butter and double cream), or you could just sprinkle with icing sugar.  Either way, it’ll be delicious!

Go check it out.  Details of the April edition shortly.

This pie recipe fits nicely with the theme of this months seasonal food blogging challenge “In The Bag“, where the ingredients are eggs, leeks, and cheese – all of which make an appearance here.  I’ve opted for plain haddock in the recipe instead of smoked (which I’d have preffered) due to my wife’s pregnancy; apparently smoked food is a no-no, which is unfortunate for a lady from a country where smoked sausage is pretty much a staple food.  Feel free to use some smoked fish if you prefer, though.

I’ll apologise in advance for my non-precise measurements below.  I didn’t measure as I cooked and to be honest neither should you; just go with what looks right (this isn’t baking; you can’t really mess it up).  I don’t know the size of the dish you’re going to use so can’t really tell you how much potatoes you’ll need to cover it.

Fish Pie Recipe – Ingredients

• 4 Haddock Fillets (smoked if preferred, or a mixture of the two)
• 3 Carrots, finely diced
• 3 Hard Boiled Eggs, quartered.
• 1 Stick Celery, finely sliced
• 1 Leek, finely sliced
• Floury Potatoes such as Maris Piper, peeled and chopped.
• 25g Butter
• 25g Plain Flour
• Milk
• Mature Cheddar Cheese
• Salt & pepper, to taste
• Nutmeg, to taste

Here goes one of the easiest recipes you’ve ever done.  Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees c to start off.

1. First off put the fish fillets, diced carrot, celery and leek into a frying pan.  Pour over enough milk to cover, bring to a simmer and leave it for 10 minutes.  At the same time boil your peeled potatoes until soft.
2. Sieve the cooked stuff which will leave you with a) a jug of fishy milk and b) some fish and vegetables.  Put the fish and veg into your baking dish and leave the milk in a jug for now.
3. Mash your potato.  There’s nothing complicated about this; add salt and pepper, a nob of butter and a slosh of the fishy milk.  You’re looking for a mash that isn’t over-worked; it doesn’t want to sink into the fish while cooking or you’ll just end up with a mess.
4. Fish now hopefully cooled, pick apart into flakes with your fingers, removing any bones you come across at the same time.  Remove the skin, too.
5. Now for the sauce.  Butter and flour into a small pot over a medium heat, stir until melted and combined (a thick and gloopy mixture).  Now pour in your milk about 100ml at a time, always stirring and allowing to thicken before adding more.  Stop when the required thickness (like syrup) is reached; this will be about 500ml of milk.  Season well with salt, pepper and grated nutmeg.
6. Pour your sauce into your fish mixture and stir well; at this stage add your quartered eggs randomly through the mix (I add them now to stop them breaking up with any stirring or such-like).  Slowly heap the mashed potato on to the top, making sure not to leave any gaps especially near the edges; smoothing the surface with the back of a spoon seems to help prevent any leakages.  Cover liberally with grated cheddar cheese.
7. Into the oven for about 30 minutes until golden on top, then serve and enjoy!