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.

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.

South Indian Mackerel

This dish is an ideal starter if you’re looking for a lighter way to start a curry – it’s got it’s roots in dishes we had when we visited Kerala a couple of years ago, and borrows from that area with the addition of a banana as a flavour – it’s sweet and a little spicy, but not so much that it overwhelms the fish. This recipe is a starter and uses mackerel, but would also work well with meatier fish like monkfish, or even scallops.

Ingredients 
(Serves 4) 
For the fish
4 small fish – mackerel or similar
A little plain flour for dusting, with a touch of turmeric and cumin added
Salt and pepper for seasoning
1/2 tsp cumin, yellow mustard seed, dried red chilli.

For the Sweet potatoes
1 medium sized sweet potato, cubed into 1.5cm cubes
1 Onion finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
2cm root ginger finely sliced
50ml water
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp yellow mustard seed
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 dried red chilli
Pinch of turmeric (for colour only)
200 ml coconut milk (you can sub this with coconut block and increasing the quantity of water)
2 tbsp coriander leaf (for garnish)

For the bananas
2 bananas (the less ripe the better)
1 tsp amchoor (dried mango) powder
1 tsp cumin powder
Pinch of turmeric

Fillet the mackerel, removing the backbone and head completely.  The easiest way to do this (apart from getting your fishmonger to do it…) is to cut behind the gill with a thin filleting knife, then reverse the knife in the cut and slicing back down toward the tail – keep as close as you can to the back bone. Do this on both sides and you should get to nice fillets.  You can either slice our or pick out the rib bones and the small bones that run through the middle of the fillet.

Once boned, lightly season the fish and sprinkle the spice on to the flesh side of the fish, then leave in the fridge for an hour or two.

Fry the onions, garlic and ginger in about half the oil until tender.  Add the spices and sweet potato, tossing it until the sweet potato has picked up a little colour. Add a little water and cook until most if absorbed and a paste has formed, then add the dried chilli and coconut milk and simmer gently until the potato is fully cooked and the sauce has thickened and coated the rest.

Peel the bananas and slice them into 5mm thick slices (looks best if you go slightly diagonally, as this gives a longer slice).  Sprinkle with the spices then fry in a pan or on an oven tray until crispy.

Retrieve the mackerel fillets and dust the skin side with the flour mixture. Place skin-side down in a pan (heated to medium heat) with a little ghee or oil.  Press down the middle of each fillet for a few seconds as you place them so it doesn’t curl.  They should take just a couple of minutes to cook through – don’t turn them over, they should cook through from the skin side.

To serve, use a slated spoon to place some of the potato onto the middle of the place, then place two fillets in an X over the potato.  Serve the bananas round the edge of the potato and garnish with the coriander. You can also serve this with chapati, or for real authenticity, on a banana leaf.

Welcome

Hi everyone, this is the blog’s unofficial launch day (official one to come when a few more people know about it i think!) – or rather, a cheeky way to bring it to all my Facebook friend’s attention, just in case they hid my posts for being an opinionated git during the election :-).

Not quite sure what I'm going to cook tonight – I've got some large King Prawns out of the freezer and some granary bread baton left over so i might do some sort of Mediterranean thing i think. Will tell you later…
Anyway, one thing i think it might be helpful to share was a word about rice. Quite a few people struggle to get rice consistently right, and it can be a faff – you have to check it over and over again, and there’s still the inevitable ‘oh crap’ moment when you realise it’s gone slightly over… Well there is a way to get it right consistently – works particularly well on Basmati.

Wash the rice and shake all the water out of it.  Then heat a small amount of oil in the pan you’re going to cook it in (just enough oil to lightly coat the rice, not loads) – you can add any spices at this stage too if you’re doing pilau or other flavoured rice.  Once the oil is hot, add the rice and stir it for a minute or two to coat it all.  Then add the water…

The water should be boiled prior to adding, and then comes the trick.  Add the same amount of water by volume as the amount of rice – you can do this by eye or by measuring if you want too.  Keep the pot on a medium-high heat until the water starts boiling, then put the lid on and take the pot off the heat.  The rice will keep cooking and will absorb all the water in the pan – but won’t overcook. 

Once done, you can either serve straight away, or leave it to cool.  If you cool it, spread it out on large plate or dish so it cools as fast as possible, then refrigerate it (only once cold).  Don’t serve lukewarm rice or leave rice out once it’s cooled – it’s one of easiest foods to get food poisoning from…
Anyway, lecture over, hope that’s helpful to some of you!

Big fat pork pie

Right, this is what I've baked for tonight's dinner.  Not for me your ginsters or pork farm pork pie, oh no.  This is my own special recipe for chunky pork pie, to be served hot or cold.  It uses sausages and pork fillet - you can also chuck in bacon, pancetta and other filling as you want to.  This'll be served with  new potatoes and whatever green stuff Trina buys and makes me eat...

Ingredients
Approx 150g short crust pasty - you can buy it, or this recipe looks pretty good (I'd reduce the water content a little)- i can't put the one i use on as i think it's copyright...

150g pork fillet, chopped into small chunks (no bigger than 2cm cubes)
3 good quality pork sausages
1 golden delicious apple, cubed in 2cm pieces
1 small shallot, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic chopped and crushed
Seasoning to taste (i like mine quite peppery)
1/2 tsp All spice
Pinch of grated nutmeg
1/2 tbsp white wine vinegar (or cider)
1 beaten egg (in addition to what's in the pastry - for brushing)

Combine the  ingredients except the egg (and pastry obviously...) - squeeze out or cut open the sausages. Mix thoroughly - you can check the seasoning by removing a small amount and frying until cooked, it will taste approximately the same.  Refrigerate this for an hour or two.

Roll out about 3/5ths of the pastry until it's about 2mm thick and line a small flan tray with it (no bigger than 20cms).  Line this with baking parchment, cutting it to size but leaving enough to overlap the sides of the tray (add the trimming to the rest of the pastry) and fill the cavity with baking beans or rice.  Bake this 'blind' for about 15 mins. Once the blind lightly baked, remove it and remove the beans and paper, and leave it to cool for about 20 mins or so. 

Roll out the last two fifths of pastry to make the lid of the pie - no more than 2-3mm thick, and large enough to cover the whole of the filling and meet the base of it.  Fill the cavity of the pie with the filling, leaving a small gap round the outside.  Brush the pastry edge with the beaten egg and place the lid over the top, pressing it down firmly slightly into the gap so it joins the base, and using a fork to press down around the edge.  Make a couple of air holes in the middle of the lid and brush the whole of the top with egg.  Bake on about 200 for 20 mins, then for a further 20min on about 120.  If you want to make it darker, brush it with a bit more egg before you turn the oven down.  Serve hot or cold.

A first recipe to keep you going

Right then, here goes nuthin...

Pan fried cod fillet

This one is a homage to Rick Stein, courtesy of his Seafood book, but with a few tweeks - mostly to the sauce and seasoning, which is much richer and sweeter than in the original. A similar dish to this got slated in the semis of Masterchef last year as a fusion too far, but I think it's a great combo - it's about the contrasting flavours, textures, richness and creaminess, really decadent, but simple to do.

(Serves 2)

Two decent sized fillets of cod - about 200g each - pin boned, but skin still on.

1 tbsp of sunflower oil

Flour for dusting

Sprinkling of five spice

4 floury potatoes for mashing

2-3 spring onions

2 tbsp soy sauce

Bunch of fresh coriander

2 tbsp of brown sugar or palm sugar (or about the same of honey)

600ml fish or veg stock

3-4 cherry tomatoes sliced into quarters

Butter and/or milk for the mashed potatoes

Salt and pepper to season

Combine the soy sauce and stock and bring to boil, then add the sugar. Reduce by about two thirds, until it's a thin syrup, then keep hot.

Fry the spring onion lightly in a little butter until just tender - don't brown them as it will taste bitter - then leave to one side.

Peel and boil the potatoes until ready to break apart, drain , then mash well, adding the butter and/or milk (I use butter in this recipe as you don't want the mash to be thin). Then combine the potatoes with the spring onion.

Preheat a heavy frying pan on a medium heat and Season the fish, then turn flesh side down and dust with the flour and tiny pinch of five spice. Place gently in the pan skin-side down and cook until done - you can turn them over if you want to, but be careful when you turn them back or serve them that they don't break up on you...

Add the coriander and tomatoes to the sauce and stir.

Serve with a nice bed of mash in the middle, place the fish on top of the bed and pour the sauce liberally over the lot. then eat.

First ever blog

Hi everybody (or probably nobody...)

this is my first foray in to the realm of blogging, and what better thing to blog about than something we all have to have everyday - food! So the plan is to do a regular (if not daily) blog talking about what i've cooked that day, or meals i've had out and about.

So... here goes... today i found out that i've got through to the heats for a cooking show - the dish i'm preparing is a bit of strange hybrid born out of having things in the cupboard/fridge, a quick trip the supermarket, and a couple of poussin... and potato gnocchi.

I've been making pasta for a year or so - i don't do it all the time but it's nice and relaxing on a sunday afternoon, and tastes great. But i'd never had a go at making gnocchi before - for uninitiated (which included me until a few weeks ago) it's made with potato and flour rather than eggs, flour and olive oil, and there's a definite knack to it - my first attempt came out grey (interestingly it often seems to have a little turmeric on to give it the same colour as egg pasta... check next time you're in the supermarket) and a bit stodgy, so attempt number two is tonight, and i have to have it cracked in three weeks. So the next few weeks may well be an update on progress towards perfick gnocchi (or moaning cos nothing seems to work...).

I don't think i can post the recipe i'm cooking for the show at this point - will need to check - but will do as soon as i can - it's simple and with one exception, you can get everything from your local supermarket. In the meantime, this is what it looks like.