Rather remiss

Yet again, it appears to be over a month since i've posted anything... where does the time go!? New Years resolution... post more regularly... Anyway, thought it time to live up to my promise and post another one of mum's biscuit recipes.

Easter biscuits were a firm favourite when i was a kid, and given the presence of creme eggs everywhere already, I figured it was almost seasonal already! This is, again, a very simple recipe. The only amendment i've made is that the margarine must be baking marg... i made the schoolboy error of using clover for my last batch and had to dump in a load of extra flour as the dough was stupidly wet when i tried to work it. Anyway, aside from that...:

Recipe (again in imperial...) 
3oz baking margarine
4oz caster sugar
6oz self-raising flour
1 egg yolk
2.5oz dried fruit - raisins and sultanas, but also cranberries work well
1 tbsp milk
1 tsp mixed spices


Method
Cream the marge and sugar together until smooth, then beat in the egg yolk. Add the flour, and mix, then the dried fruit, and spice.

Lastly add the milk - not too much, just enough to make a pliable dough. Ideally, the dryer the better as the biscuits will keep for longer too.

 Roll the dough out to about 1/4" and cut into 2" rounds. Bake for about 20 mins at 160 degrees. Again, leave plenty of room on the tray between each biscuit, and don't move them off the tray for five mins after they've come out of the oven, as they'll break up.

Try not to eat too many...

Biscuit overload

Spent a very productive Saturday afternoon in the kitchen this weekend, trying out some of my mum’s biscuit recipes – the ones she used to make when we were kids for Christmas and Easter, lightly spicy and warming.  She’s a great baker and they really stuck in my mind, so i thought, given that I’m now branching into baking, I’d give ‘em a bash.

The first one I’m going to share (will do them one at a time… good things and all that…) is a great recipe for Grantham biscuits – crunchy, ginger biscuits.  Other recipes will include Larkhay biscuits, Cornish fairings and Easter biscuits (with a Christmas twist).

Mum’s original recipe (from a Woman’s Weekly apparently…) used just powdered ginger, but I’ve pepped it up a little bit with some stem – so you get a lovely chewy piece occasionally.  Be warned, these are very moorish!  I’m trying to avoid scoffing the lot before Wednesday when some of the drama gang come round for a meeting…

Recipe

(makes about 16 biscuits – and in keeping with the traditional roots of the recipe, quantities are in imperial!)

2oz Butter

4oz Caster Sugar

4oz self-raising flour

1 tsp ground ginger

20g (ok most of the quantities… i can’t think in imperial…) stem or crystalised ginger, chopped up very small

up to 2 tbsp water

Method

Cream the butter and caster sugar together – this is easiest using a mixer, but works equally well rubbing the butter into the sugar in the same you would flour for a pastry.  You’re aiming for a light fluffy ‘dough’.  Sift the flour and powdered ginger, and add the stem ginger, then the water, and work into a usable dough, but don’t knead too much.

Divide the mix into 16 equal portions (half, half, half, etc…) and shape each bit into a ball, then flatten slightly on to a tray lined with baking parchment.  The spread quite a lot – almost trebling in size – so make sure you leave plenty of room round each, and don’t put them too close to the edge of the tray, or it’ll drop off onto your oven…

Bake on about 150 degrees C (GM2) for about 20 mins until lightly golden.  When done, take them out, but do not try and take them off the tray straight away.  They will be very delicate and soft until they’ve cooled and hardened.  Leave them for about 10 minutes until you can pick the tray up with your hands (though be sensible!! – if your daft enough to pick it up early, not my fault!) and transfer them to a wire cooling rack.

You don’t really need to serve these with anything – they should be slightly soft and gingery, not too hard.

Cooking for the thesps

Had a long but fantastic week last week – playing Bob Cratchit in a very successful am dram production of Christmas Carol with St Paul’s Players in Bristol.  I also offered to do the food for the cast and crew for between the two Saturday shows and was blown away by the response –  homemade sausage rolls, pastillas, rabbit pie, veggie and meat tartlets and cheese and onion plats – and the lot was demolished in the space of half an hour, along with four quiches donated to the effort by another member!

One thing i was really chuffed with was the gluten-free shortcrust tartlets i made.  Gluten-free flour is, according to everyone i’ve spoken to, a major pain to work with – and for the first hour i concurred.  I used my standard recipe, adding just a touch of olive oil to mix, and chilled the pastry overnight.  Getting it out of the fridge the following day i started to work it normally, but it just crumbled… might be my fridge was too cold, but it was turning to chalk – much like the flour itself looked though to be honest!

Anyway, perseverance and working it in small chunks, and letting it up to room temperature really came together.  The recipes (requested by a member of the group) are…

Pastry (makes about 20 tartlets) – very slightly adapted from Richard Bertinet’s shortcrust recipe
250ml gluten-free flour
125ml butter
5g salt
35ml water
1 medium egg
5-10ml olive oil

Combine the dry ingredients and then rub in the butter.  Add the water, egg and olive oil and mix well, working it until combined, but not too much.  Once combined, chill in the fridge for at least an hour.

To roll, divide the dough into at least quarters, and leave out of the fridge until at room temperature.  Roll each section slowly and patiently, adding only enough flour to keep it from sticking – too much and your dough will be too heavy.  Roll it to about 4mm thick and use a 8cm pastry cutter to cut into circles.

Veggie filling
1 onion
20g butter
1 parsnip
1 carrot
30ml cider vinegar
water to cover
all spice
50g sugar
Fry the onion until translucent, then add the root veg until it gets a little colour.  Add the vinegar and all spice, then enough water to cover it and cook until the veg is tender, then uncover, add the sugar and reduce it until the water is absorbed or evaporated.

Meat filling
6 good quality gluten-free sausages, de-skinned
2-3 rashers of streaky bacon, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 onion, finely chopped
2 apples, finely chopped – golden delicious works well
splash of balsamic vinegar
splash of cider vinegar
teaspoon each of thyme and sage
seasoning to taste – and it will take a fair bit

Fry the onion and garlic until tender, then add the apples and cider vinegar – also a splash of water to stop it sticking.  Once the apples have soften, mash slightly and leave to cool.

Combine the other ingredients well and add the apples when cool.  Get your hands in the mixing bowl and squidge together thoroughly, making sure the sausages are completely broken down.

Each pastry circle should take about a tablespoon of either filling. There’s no need to bake the cases blind first, as they’re small enough to cook quickly anyway.  Bake for twenty minutes, then brush the top with whisked egg, and bake for another 10 or until golden.

From our American cousins - Pulled Pork

It’s been a while! just realised it’s two months since I last posted anything! Been a few changes at Chez Newton, and been very busy with my other pre-occupation, preparing with my Am Dram group for our production of Christmas Carol later this month.

Monday was another example of what happens when you let Fox run amok and brainwash millions of people… however… I have some great friends in DC and in deference to them and as a show of support (!), this is a fantastic recipe which I've adapted from one my friends, Chris and Eeva Moore, fed me last year during my escape to DC for a week.  This should definitively not be served at a tea party…

Pulled pork is a dish from the Southern States – Jamie Oliver did a version of it on his US tour a couple of years ago, over a barbecue over about 18 hours… very slow cooked.  This one is a much quicker recipe – the meat is gently poached over about 6 hrs instead.

It’s very simple to do, with a few US-style sides.

Recipe

One good sized shoulder or leg of pork

One large onion

150 ml white wine or cider vinegar

enough water to cover the joint.

Sauce

70ml Soy Sauce

Good pinch of five spice

75g brown sugar

1 can of tomatoes (chopped)

2 tsp smoked paprika

1 tsp chilli powder

2 cloves of garlic (crushed)

Method

Dead easy – take of any skin off the joint and reserve – you will use this for crackling at the end.  Don’t do anything else to the joint at this stage (i.e. tie it, season it, butterfly it or anything).

Place the joint in a pan which is big enough to take it and the liquid – and so it doesn’t touch the sides – add the onion, water and vinegar, then put on a low simmer, covered, for about 6 hrs, until very tender – in fact pretty much falling apart – you shouldn’t need to cut it at all once it’s done..

Combine all the ingredients for the sauce and stir until smooth – you can also throw in a little thyme if you’d like.  It should be sweet and hot – a barbecue sauce, basically.

Splash a little white wine vinegar on the skin you removed earlier, then slice and season with salt – roast it for half an hour until crackling.

Serve in a roll with coleslaw and the crackling on top (my friend Chris made a fantastic red cabbage version – very simple, half a red cabbage, mayo and white wine vinegar – worth the effort, believe me!), with fries on the side.