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Ah almost there now on the great biscuit adventure... this is the penultimate - I need to experiment slightly with the last one, so will have to wait til the weekend. Anyway, these are Larkhay Biscuits (aka custard biscuits, for reasons which will become apparent...).  It's very simple and takes about 30mins from start to finish.

If i remember rightly, this recipe was one that came from mum's time cooking school dinners, but don't let that put you off!  It is a classic, and the resulting biscuits are light, with a lovely creamy flavour. An optional extra is to dip or drizzle them in milk chocolate once they've cooled... but they are quite rich anyway.


Recipe
3oz icing sugar
6oz baking margarine
5oz plain flour
2oz (or one Bird's sachet, which is slightly more but not by much) custard powder

Method
Cream together the marg and sugar  - if you're doing it in a mixer, use the cover or drape a tea towel over it, cos the icing sugar will get very dusty and you'll like you're playing with dry ice!!  Add in the other ingredients and mix well, then turn out onto a floured surface, knead lightly into a firm dough and then form into a long sausage about 1.5" girth...

Slice the sausage into equal portions about 1.5cm thick, and spread out onto a couple of baking trays, leaving plenty of space around them - they will double in size. With a lightly floured fork, gently press the back of the fork twice on one side of each biscuit, then on the opposite (so the tines appear interlock like fingers), giving a nice pattern on the top.  Bake at 160 degrees for about 15 mins until golden, then remove and leave for about 10 mins before transferring on to a cool rack.

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...

Ah… breakfast…

Sadly didn’t think about taking a photo of this before I ate it, but will share the recipe anyway and stick a photo up next time i do it! So for now, here’s some nice mushrooms which are a key flavour in this dish…

Did this kind of by accident, but it’s a great breakfast recipe – bacon, mushrooms, hint of garlic and pancakes!

Recipe (makes two pancakes – depends how greedy you are how many that serves…)

100g plain white flour

1 medium egg

about 150ml milk (i tend to add it by eye to get the batter consistency right…)

pinch of salt, pepper and optional all spice

 

3-4 rashers of decent streaky bacon (you want plenty of flavour, none of your watery stuff…), chopped into lardons

40g butter

5-6 chestnut mushrooms chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

Pinch of parsley

Good sprinkling of black pepper

splash of white wine

dusting of plain flour

splash of milk

 

Method

Dead easy.  Combine the batter ingredients and whisk until smooth.  Leave to one side for a couple of mins while you prep the filling.

Fry the bacon for a couple of minutes until starting to crisp, then add the butter, mushrooms and garlic, and fry until the mushrooms brown. Add the wine and cook off, then add the black pepper, parsley, then little bit of of flour, cooking it into the pan – you want it to combine with the fat, as if making a béchamel, so keep it moving, then add the milk, combine and then turn off the heat – you want some sauce, no lumps and no burnt bits.

In the midst of the above, i’d have a pre-heated frying pan, or tava (the indian flat pan, ideal for pancakes, used for dosas and chapattis), and start doing the pancakes – just a dash of oil, then enough of the pancakes mix to cover the whole surface of the pan.  Cook on one-side until the visible surface is set, then flip it over and cook for another couple of mins – check it’s done by flipping it again.

Serve each one with some of the filling, then rolled. Great start to a Saturday, all in about 15 minutes!

My fave salad – duck, crisps and parmesan

This is a dish from a couple of weeks ago that is one of the only salads I like to do! – very simple, light, summery, lets the ingredients speak for themselves …


Ingredients (serves 2)
2 good sized duck breasts
2 –3 medium potatoes
Parmesan
Good bunch of mixed leaf salad (rocket, basil leave, spinach, etc.)
Salt and pepper to taste
Splash of balsamic
good slosh of sherry or brandy (whichever – rice wine works really well too)


Method
Season and then pan fry the duck breast, start by browning the flesh side to seal it, then flip it over on to the skin side, pour the balsamic vinegar over the flesh side and cook it slowly until all the fat renders off (this can be reserved and makes great roasties!) and the duck is pink in the middle but just cooked.

Finely slice the potatoes as thin as you can, or using a mandolin if you’ve got one (to get the ‘man crisp’ crinkle cut look!).  Fry until golden, then drain and shake off, then re-fry – you want them crispy.  Once they come out, season them with salt and pepper.

Once the duck is cooked, take it out, turn up the heat and cook off the sherry.  Slice the duck quite thin and serve on the bed of salad with the reduced sherry dressing over the top.  Surround it with the crisps/chips and shave some parmesan over the top.